It's kind of shocking how much better Obsidian's Fallout 3 is than Bethesda's. Which is additionally shocking because Bethesda's F3 was one of the best games I've ever played. There's a line in there about Obsidian having an extra 2 years and all the successes / mistakes of F3 to build upon, but its not just the raw execution, its the actual design. New Vegas is not just Fallout 3 redux, its Fallout 3 revised. With all the Fallout 3 faults turned into something you can excuse or outright enjoy.
The catch, of course, is that Fallout: New Vegas is riddled with bugs, glitches, and other dumb nuances that serve no purpose but to remind you it's never safe to go more than 5 - 10 minutes without saving. Regardless, the pure character driven RPG genre is pretty starved these days, unless you're looking for something overly pretentious, overly complicated, or overly simplistic. F:NV's narrative and gameplay seem to land that sweet spot where despite the obvious room for improvement, you're perfectly happy with what you got.
I am, anyway.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
You maniacs, you blew it up! (Crackdown 2)
If nothing else, Crackdown 2 speaks to the strength of the original Crackdown formula. Collecting orbs, Hulk-jumping rooftops, firing absurd ordinance, and generally acting like a wreckless super freak has never been funner. The problem is, every new decision Ruffian Games has made is shortsighted, ineffectual and in many cases outright dumb. You could probably say this is our fault for putting Crackdown 1's pedigree on such a shameless pedestal, but that'd be like blaming the weather man for predicting lightning would strike twice.
The open world formula has never been facilitative to a scripted narrative, and the original Crackdown took a beating for having almost none whatsoever. CD2 takes that failure to the next level by not only sidestepping narrative, but concealing what little back-story it has into 40 or so audio logs randomly strewn about the map. The only story you'll be spoon fed is the incessant orders from The Agency about murdering everything in sight and not asking questions. Near the end some rogue transmissions make it seem like maybe there's some sort of good / bad ending choice coming up, but it never pans out and the game always ends the same way. They did have the decency to tack on an ending cinematic, but its just a needless and unsatisfactory lead in to an unlikely sequel. And we all know, seeding your next effort is the best way to reward people for supporting your current effort.
Unfortunately, progressing through said non-existent narrative is an equally uninspired affair. Your virtually directionless objective is to eradicate the mindless zombie menace that plagues the city, and stop the terrorists who are getting in your way. It seems the only way Ruffian could come up with to present this act is with two of the industries worst gameplay mechanics; mob hunts and escort missions. Every one of the games "missions" involves running, climbing or falling into a static area of the city and then hunting down every enemy in the immediate area, protecting a target from every enemy in the immediate area, or worse, both. No real targets, no story, no planning, no stealth, no strategy. You do have a variety of guns, explosives and even melee options at your disposal, but you're not going to need any of it. Even at game start you're leagues ahead of your opposition in capability and long after you've come up with every way to abuse your enemies, the game will continue to throw them at you over and over again. As though that somehow justifies the general lack of content.
As an additional middle finger to people who bought the first game, the games map is virtually the same as before. Some buildings have been slightly changed in the ten years since the last game, none of it makes a huge amount of difference in play. No effort has been made to make the tedious process of window scaling skyscrapers any easier, and you will still frequently find yourself surrounded by concealed targets with crack shot rocket launcher aim. You may occasionally get a kick out of seeing a classic location slightly changed (the old car sales place is particularly amusing), but whether you've if you've already taken the super human tour in CD1 or not, there's really nothing interesting going on in Pacific City.
Now the tricky part here is that the entire experience, limited and shortsighted though it may be is not entirely unfun. Frequently, its exceedingly fun. Using your super cop powers to establish dominance is awesome, even moreso when accompanied by 2 or 3 other super cops via co-op. But its an awesome every Crackdown 1 player has already experienced, and this time there's no point or payoff to any of it. Without a story, bosses, or even creative locations to explore, there's no motivation to actually participate in the boring activities that make up the games "core" except to perform the extras along the way. Sure, you'll be powering up your agent the entire time, but not because you need them to beat the game, only because it will make life easier when you decide to hunt down all of the games extras.
Extras are of course are the main replay value in any sandbox game, but with Ruffian's poor understanding of what is actually fun it feels like this sandbox has no real toys in it just more chores. Remember those 800 orbs you had to collect in the last game? Now there's even more (the number of collectibles is up over 1000 all said and done), including some that run away from you when you get close to them, and some that are only available within close proximity to other online players. And that's on top of the timed races, the stunt markers, the car collecting, and everything else we already did in Crackdown 1 or Grand Theft Auto or Spider-Man or every other sandbox game. Its not that any of these activities are inherently bad, but there's just way too many of them and way too little motivation unless you have absolutely got to have that 1K on your gamercard.
Sadly, the whole game stinks of some "if it ain't broke don't fix it" logic, but its not like Crackdown 1 was perfect to begin with. Instead of fixing the first games issues and expanding on the gameplay, Ruffian has chosen to simply flip the record over and play it again, twice. Now I like B-sides just as much as the next guy, but mixing comfortable awesome with questionable decisions does very little but tarnish the integrity of the original especially when its so needlessly padded out to fill an entire game. There's no reason the content presented here couldn't have been done as an expansion pack or at least some sort of re-release that includes the original content. Crackdown 2 isn't so much bad as it is unneccessary and kind of insulting to the people whose wallets made it possible by supporting the first. In contrast to the original, CD2 is worthy of a rental at best.
-F.
The open world formula has never been facilitative to a scripted narrative, and the original Crackdown took a beating for having almost none whatsoever. CD2 takes that failure to the next level by not only sidestepping narrative, but concealing what little back-story it has into 40 or so audio logs randomly strewn about the map. The only story you'll be spoon fed is the incessant orders from The Agency about murdering everything in sight and not asking questions. Near the end some rogue transmissions make it seem like maybe there's some sort of good / bad ending choice coming up, but it never pans out and the game always ends the same way. They did have the decency to tack on an ending cinematic, but its just a needless and unsatisfactory lead in to an unlikely sequel. And we all know, seeding your next effort is the best way to reward people for supporting your current effort.
Unfortunately, progressing through said non-existent narrative is an equally uninspired affair. Your virtually directionless objective is to eradicate the mindless zombie menace that plagues the city, and stop the terrorists who are getting in your way. It seems the only way Ruffian could come up with to present this act is with two of the industries worst gameplay mechanics; mob hunts and escort missions. Every one of the games "missions" involves running, climbing or falling into a static area of the city and then hunting down every enemy in the immediate area, protecting a target from every enemy in the immediate area, or worse, both. No real targets, no story, no planning, no stealth, no strategy. You do have a variety of guns, explosives and even melee options at your disposal, but you're not going to need any of it. Even at game start you're leagues ahead of your opposition in capability and long after you've come up with every way to abuse your enemies, the game will continue to throw them at you over and over again. As though that somehow justifies the general lack of content.
As an additional middle finger to people who bought the first game, the games map is virtually the same as before. Some buildings have been slightly changed in the ten years since the last game, none of it makes a huge amount of difference in play. No effort has been made to make the tedious process of window scaling skyscrapers any easier, and you will still frequently find yourself surrounded by concealed targets with crack shot rocket launcher aim. You may occasionally get a kick out of seeing a classic location slightly changed (the old car sales place is particularly amusing), but whether you've if you've already taken the super human tour in CD1 or not, there's really nothing interesting going on in Pacific City.
Now the tricky part here is that the entire experience, limited and shortsighted though it may be is not entirely unfun. Frequently, its exceedingly fun. Using your super cop powers to establish dominance is awesome, even moreso when accompanied by 2 or 3 other super cops via co-op. But its an awesome every Crackdown 1 player has already experienced, and this time there's no point or payoff to any of it. Without a story, bosses, or even creative locations to explore, there's no motivation to actually participate in the boring activities that make up the games "core" except to perform the extras along the way. Sure, you'll be powering up your agent the entire time, but not because you need them to beat the game, only because it will make life easier when you decide to hunt down all of the games extras.
Extras are of course are the main replay value in any sandbox game, but with Ruffian's poor understanding of what is actually fun it feels like this sandbox has no real toys in it just more chores. Remember those 800 orbs you had to collect in the last game? Now there's even more (the number of collectibles is up over 1000 all said and done), including some that run away from you when you get close to them, and some that are only available within close proximity to other online players. And that's on top of the timed races, the stunt markers, the car collecting, and everything else we already did in Crackdown 1 or Grand Theft Auto or Spider-Man or every other sandbox game. Its not that any of these activities are inherently bad, but there's just way too many of them and way too little motivation unless you have absolutely got to have that 1K on your gamercard.
Sadly, the whole game stinks of some "if it ain't broke don't fix it" logic, but its not like Crackdown 1 was perfect to begin with. Instead of fixing the first games issues and expanding on the gameplay, Ruffian has chosen to simply flip the record over and play it again, twice. Now I like B-sides just as much as the next guy, but mixing comfortable awesome with questionable decisions does very little but tarnish the integrity of the original especially when its so needlessly padded out to fill an entire game. There's no reason the content presented here couldn't have been done as an expansion pack or at least some sort of re-release that includes the original content. Crackdown 2 isn't so much bad as it is unneccessary and kind of insulting to the people whose wallets made it possible by supporting the first. In contrast to the original, CD2 is worthy of a rental at best.
-F.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Return of the Space Cowboy (The Force Unleashed II)
It pleases me immensely to know that The Secret Apprentice / Starkiller / Galen Marek will be (SPOILERS) returning to life (/OH NOES) for another go at Star Wars infamy. The bad news is he'll be doing it using a clone, but then cloning has been the defacto plot device for everything Star Wars for the better part of 10 years. Even before then, fan boys were masturbating over Palpatine, Thrawn and even Vader cloning theories to keep proper villainy in the series canon, but despite less than 10 minutes of film time to its credit, Kamino has practically become the single most important location in the film scope of that entire galaxy far far away.
Which is disappointing because according to all the people who get to make canon Star Wars decisions The Force Unleashed writers are up to snuff. The last time, they let Starkiller's little sojourn stand as its own episode within the otherwise movie only canon, and it worked perfectly. I would think the guys who functionally re-wrote the origins of the Rebellion could come up with something better than "Darth Vader made a clone and the clone went rogue". There's no reason he couldn't have simply barely survived the explosion with The Emperor, and it could've just taken an inordinate amount of time for him to recover or be recovered.
In a better world, they would come up with a story in-between the later movies, involving The Apprentice in some Shadows of the Empire style hijinx during the era of Star Wars history not horribly poisoned by the clone wars. Maybe they could explain how Boba Fett escaped the Sarlacc, or properly explain why Yoda chose to hide in a damned swamp instead of doing anything ever. In a perfect (or at least more awesome) world, they could have him be brought back after the rebellion succeeds, maybe enter into some conflict with Luke and the reborn republic. I know Lucas lacks the balls to actually write his own story, but DLC has already pit The Apprentice against the likes of Ben Kenobi and even Luke Skywalker in simulators and side stories, so why not?
I see in my head a fantastic story where Luke comes across this half-dead relic of the force being kept alive in some secret stasis chamber. Why did Vader keep him? What has he since done to him? Did Palpatine even know? Starkiller's upbringing by Vader is almost like the father-son bond Luke himself never had, while his betrayal and quest for vengeance mirror Luke's own internal struggle with the Dark Lord. Does he rescue and revive The Apprentice, who from a certain point of view, could be called Luke's half brother? And maybe The Apprentice doesn't want to live in a world where Juno Eclipse is long dead, and Luke Skywalker is the leader, if not symbol of a rebellion he started. A rebellion that bears his own family crest.
Both characters are so similar, and they could play so well off one another in a well tempered drama. With Leia doing the family thing with Han, Luke is alone with the weight of being the sole Jedi in the galaxy. Would he reach out to Galen? Would Galen's brutality and "unleashed" mastery over the force turn him off? And who could dare oppose them? What would Leia think of the sudden resurrection of this mysterious figure from her past?
I see a game where you play both of them, enemies at first and then allies, until it finally comes to a head and you have to decide which of them will guide the direction of the Republic and the new Jedi Order. Clearly The Apprentice loses, but does he die? Does he sacrifice himself? Does Luke kill him? There's just so much gold to be mined in this potential property. Its a shame I'm just spit balling here.
Instead, TFUII will be a fairly good game full of dual lightsaber battles and over the top force powers, but unfortunately we already know the story. TFU1 had a nice neat ending for a midquel. Sure, The Apprentice had to die to keep from disrupting canon, but he does so for a meaningful reason. His role in the past is done. Now we have a clone waking up and doing everything he did again. Rebelling, growing more powerful, and then vanishing into obscurity to maintain the canon. Maybe they craft a decent love story throughout, but at this point Juno's 10 years older than him, and he's been "dead" all that time. Is she just going to be that happy to see him? Is he going to kick the shit out of Vader and Palpatine again? Is he just going to "die" again in the end? /sigh. What a waste.
Still, I don't want that rant to come across at tarnishing my horrible excitement for the game, just a general disappointment in its plot. Maybe they'll impress me. I am currently experiencing similar regret over the Mortal Kombat franchises latest iteration, it too being a retread of material already covered, but that doesn't mean I'm not fired up to play it. A good story "helps" a game, but it doesn't "make" a game, and if the guys at LucasArts fix the few problems the first had, I don't care if they want to turn Galen into an Gungan and have the entire game take place in generic deserts fighting sand people so long as I get to lightsaber, lightning, and light . . uh, shove my enemies into oblivion. And the rumor mill says they're gonna get dismemberment going? Count me in.
-F.
I'm on a horse.
It's not Grand Theft Auto on a horse, I'm so tired of hearing that as the description for Red Dead Redemption. Now I can freely admit that this game is in no way a sequel to Red Dead Revolver other then in name and the fact its in the "wild west"; Red is no where to be found. This game is a very plot driven narrative and is as much story as it is game play. It's sooooo much more then a wild west GTA.
The characters in this title are multi-dimensional and very interesting. As you complete mission branches for them, their back story and reasons for doing what they do gets fleshed out. Even the sub-character side stories (not random "stop the horse thief" type ones) actually make you want to go out of your way to see what happens. I'm about 11 hours in, crossed the border to Mexico and the story just gets better and better...... It probably wont take you 12 hours to get this far, but I get distracted hunting animals and selling their meat and hides for profit.
We all know the story is useless if the game play makes you quit trying. Thankfully the controls are tight, the aiming is spot on, and bullet time errrr..... dead eye mode makes getting out of a jam that much easier. Riding a horse has never been this easy, but unfortunately you cant ride them backwards. My only minor gripe is sometimes the horses and the clifs dont get along well. I've gotten stuck and I have had my horse walk over an edge and land in the bottom of a canyon. I survived then skinned the dead horse for his hide and meat before pressing up on the D-pad to get a new one.
Lastly Achievements. I am a former Gamer Score whore, I used to totally flex my E-Peen but it just doesnt mean that much to me anymore. Yeah having a high score was neat, but playing hundred of hours of lame beach volleyball and gift buying in DOAXBV2 wasnt worth the 1k. Much to my relief, the achievements and rewards in RDR are spot on. Theres a mix of single player story , gun usage (X amount of kills per gun), mini games (toss a ringer in horseshoes), multiplayers ones, and a viral one just for good measure. Theres 5 avatar clothing unlocks to boot (2 men, 2 women, and 1 unisex item)
Apparently theres some multiplayer DLC coming soon, in the mean time I've gotta go hogtie a woman and put her on the train tracks for 5 gamer points.
~Malenko
The characters in this title are multi-dimensional and very interesting. As you complete mission branches for them, their back story and reasons for doing what they do gets fleshed out. Even the sub-character side stories (not random "stop the horse thief" type ones) actually make you want to go out of your way to see what happens. I'm about 11 hours in, crossed the border to Mexico and the story just gets better and better...... It probably wont take you 12 hours to get this far, but I get distracted hunting animals and selling their meat and hides for profit.
We all know the story is useless if the game play makes you quit trying. Thankfully the controls are tight, the aiming is spot on, and bullet time errrr..... dead eye mode makes getting out of a jam that much easier. Riding a horse has never been this easy, but unfortunately you cant ride them backwards. My only minor gripe is sometimes the horses and the clifs dont get along well. I've gotten stuck and I have had my horse walk over an edge and land in the bottom of a canyon. I survived then skinned the dead horse for his hide and meat before pressing up on the D-pad to get a new one.
Lastly Achievements. I am a former Gamer Score whore, I used to totally flex my E-Peen but it just doesnt mean that much to me anymore. Yeah having a high score was neat, but playing hundred of hours of lame beach volleyball and gift buying in DOAXBV2 wasnt worth the 1k. Much to my relief, the achievements and rewards in RDR are spot on. Theres a mix of single player story , gun usage (X amount of kills per gun), mini games (toss a ringer in horseshoes), multiplayers ones, and a viral one just for good measure. Theres 5 avatar clothing unlocks to boot (2 men, 2 women, and 1 unisex item)
Apparently theres some multiplayer DLC coming soon, in the mean time I've gotta go hogtie a woman and put her on the train tracks for 5 gamer points.
~Malenko
Friday, May 21, 2010
On the subject of bad first impressions (Final Fantasy XIII)
I had originally done away with my intent to give this game an introductory flogging, if only because I'd finally reached the point where it starts to get good and had no desire to relive the horror of Final Fantasy XIII's clumsy opening. Then I played a game that actually has an interesting and fun (gasp) first impression and realized it had to be done. You'll be shocked when you find out just what game that happened to be, but that will be covered in another post, probably.
It should be known that I had no intention of playing XIII, the same way I didn't play XII, the same way I gave up on XI and the same way I suffered through X (I like to pretend X-2 didn't happen). That was before it was given so many accolades by trusted friends. "Simply amazing" they said, "awesome game-play" they said, "best final fantasy in years", they said. "Well alright then, let me play it on your dime." I replied, and resolved to put it to the test.
Unfortunately the game they were talking about kicks in after 7 hours of one of the worst excuses for a "game" I've ever been involved in. All RPGs need a good opening, because they are generally pretty pedestrian gameplay-wise at the start. Win me over with your opening, and you've bought at least a few hours of my time. You've got time to step up the rest of your game. Final Fantasy XIII doesn't do that. Instead of writing a story that actually begins with something interesting, Square went with a story that starts very boring, then just fast forwarded the opening of the game to some point later when something interesting finally happens. Hours later they get around to explaining the set up for what you're watching and doing during this segment, but for now you'll have to be placated with explosions and dialogue. This way, by the time they get around to explaining them, you're already totally disconnected and uninterested in the characters (or rather, the (R)oles you're supposed to (P)lay in the (G)ame) and their motivations.
Questions like; "why are we fighting these people?" "are they bad?" "are we?" are just ignored. They are faceless soldiers, we have fluorescent hair and one liners. We keep tossing around plot words like, rebellion, and purge, and government, but never explain them or any one's connection to them. FFXIII additionally commits the Mass Effect sin of hiding copious amounts of lore in a journal like datalog that you're just supposed to peruse when you have no interest in playing the game, but Mass Effect has the decency to make sure that its all optional. XIII's intro makes no effort to explain the buzz words they throw around outside the datalog. What is a Fal'cie? A l'cie? Pulse? Eden? PSICOM? Focus? What planet are we on? Who are these people? You'll get none of this from the actual game narrative, only; "be these people, kill those people, and enjoy the bright colors."
Which would be fine if every character we're introduced to wasn't a completely blank slate or just devoid of redeeming qualities. The tough girl is supposed to be the leader, but she hates everyone and everything. Even after people start saving her life and asking for her help, she calls them weak and tries to leave them behind. Later on someone will remark that is her way of "crying out for help", as if that somehow excuses her being a bitch all the time. Then there's the black guy with the Chocobo living in his afro. For the record, at this point in the game there are no other a) black people, b) chocobos, c) afros, d) people with pets at all, in the game. During battle, the black guy is the only party member with guns, which he fires (sideways) while dancing. He is supposed to be the comic relief, but he is mostly just the guy who annoys the female lead the most. With other characters sporting names like Lightning, Hope, Snow, and Vanilla, I would not be surprised to learn his development name was Watermelon or even Fried Chicken, but I digress. The male hero, who heroically gets his entire rebellion killed, then abandons the survivors entirely for his own selfish ambition. The remaining two characters are children, or so they act, I'm not even sure anymore. One is always mopey because his mom got killed but he's too whiny to do anything about it, the other is always happy, and has no involvement in the plot whatsoever, save to keep the other one company. Naturally, you spend way more time with the high voiced obnoxious children characters and their boomerangs than with the semi interesting grown characters with swords and knuckles and guns.
Game-play wise, much has been said about the length of XIII's "training" period and the fact it requires the better part of 10 hours to fully dispense with tutorial pop ups and demonstrations before allowing you to fully use and develop your characters as you see fit. The worst part of this is that until they teach you how, you can't actually do any of it, so you begin with next to nothing to do in battle.
You see, in XIII you only control the "leader" of the party actively. The others just back you up according to role-assigned abilities and the AIs best judgement. The problem is, you start the game with neither abilities, or roles, or the means to develop them. So regardless of who you're in control of, your only options is select attack again and again and again. And that's ignoring the fact that even after you get some game to play with, your time in between battles is spent walking linear paths through grandiose non-interactive environments from cinema sequence to cinema sequence, many of which are no more than just the characters reflecting on what they just did or are about to do in casual conversation.
Now its obvious these many pitfalls are the result of trying to scale back their grand design to fit within the confines of an "opening" segment. Before I committed to even playing I demanded my friend show me some of what the "end" of the game look like to seal the deal. But they have scaled the games operations so far back in the beginning, they might as well have made it unplayable. Seriously. Years ago, I trashed Xenosaga for being little more than a silent hallway walking sim in-between cinema scenes, and 10 years later, they've learned very little.
The good news is eventually (8 hours, by my game clock) the game gets good. A couple of times they tricked me into thinking it was getting good, but it wasn't. Now I'm fairly sure it is. I still can't pick my party members or my leader, but there are abilities to unlock, items to craft, equipment to buy, and summon monsters to use. Why they couldn't have made any of this accessible early, I will never know. Game-play privileges are doled out seemingly at random with no bearing on plot or party members, so its just like they actively decided to keep you bored for the first 1/6th (or so I've heard) of the game.
In any event, I'll be sure (maybe) to check back in as I traverse the remaining discs in pursuit of what (most of) Final Fantasy XIII actually has to offer.
-F.
It should be known that I had no intention of playing XIII, the same way I didn't play XII, the same way I gave up on XI and the same way I suffered through X (I like to pretend X-2 didn't happen). That was before it was given so many accolades by trusted friends. "Simply amazing" they said, "awesome game-play" they said, "best final fantasy in years", they said. "Well alright then, let me play it on your dime." I replied, and resolved to put it to the test.
Unfortunately the game they were talking about kicks in after 7 hours of one of the worst excuses for a "game" I've ever been involved in. All RPGs need a good opening, because they are generally pretty pedestrian gameplay-wise at the start. Win me over with your opening, and you've bought at least a few hours of my time. You've got time to step up the rest of your game. Final Fantasy XIII doesn't do that. Instead of writing a story that actually begins with something interesting, Square went with a story that starts very boring, then just fast forwarded the opening of the game to some point later when something interesting finally happens. Hours later they get around to explaining the set up for what you're watching and doing during this segment, but for now you'll have to be placated with explosions and dialogue. This way, by the time they get around to explaining them, you're already totally disconnected and uninterested in the characters (or rather, the (R)oles you're supposed to (P)lay in the (G)ame) and their motivations.
Questions like; "why are we fighting these people?" "are they bad?" "are we?" are just ignored. They are faceless soldiers, we have fluorescent hair and one liners. We keep tossing around plot words like, rebellion, and purge, and government, but never explain them or any one's connection to them. FFXIII additionally commits the Mass Effect sin of hiding copious amounts of lore in a journal like datalog that you're just supposed to peruse when you have no interest in playing the game, but Mass Effect has the decency to make sure that its all optional. XIII's intro makes no effort to explain the buzz words they throw around outside the datalog. What is a Fal'cie? A l'cie? Pulse? Eden? PSICOM? Focus? What planet are we on? Who are these people? You'll get none of this from the actual game narrative, only; "be these people, kill those people, and enjoy the bright colors."
Which would be fine if every character we're introduced to wasn't a completely blank slate or just devoid of redeeming qualities. The tough girl is supposed to be the leader, but she hates everyone and everything. Even after people start saving her life and asking for her help, she calls them weak and tries to leave them behind. Later on someone will remark that is her way of "crying out for help", as if that somehow excuses her being a bitch all the time. Then there's the black guy with the Chocobo living in his afro. For the record, at this point in the game there are no other a) black people, b) chocobos, c) afros, d) people with pets at all, in the game. During battle, the black guy is the only party member with guns, which he fires (sideways) while dancing. He is supposed to be the comic relief, but he is mostly just the guy who annoys the female lead the most. With other characters sporting names like Lightning, Hope, Snow, and Vanilla, I would not be surprised to learn his development name was Watermelon or even Fried Chicken, but I digress. The male hero, who heroically gets his entire rebellion killed, then abandons the survivors entirely for his own selfish ambition. The remaining two characters are children, or so they act, I'm not even sure anymore. One is always mopey because his mom got killed but he's too whiny to do anything about it, the other is always happy, and has no involvement in the plot whatsoever, save to keep the other one company. Naturally, you spend way more time with the high voiced obnoxious children characters and their boomerangs than with the semi interesting grown characters with swords and knuckles and guns.
Game-play wise, much has been said about the length of XIII's "training" period and the fact it requires the better part of 10 hours to fully dispense with tutorial pop ups and demonstrations before allowing you to fully use and develop your characters as you see fit. The worst part of this is that until they teach you how, you can't actually do any of it, so you begin with next to nothing to do in battle.
You see, in XIII you only control the "leader" of the party actively. The others just back you up according to role-assigned abilities and the AIs best judgement. The problem is, you start the game with neither abilities, or roles, or the means to develop them. So regardless of who you're in control of, your only options is select attack again and again and again. And that's ignoring the fact that even after you get some game to play with, your time in between battles is spent walking linear paths through grandiose non-interactive environments from cinema sequence to cinema sequence, many of which are no more than just the characters reflecting on what they just did or are about to do in casual conversation.
Now its obvious these many pitfalls are the result of trying to scale back their grand design to fit within the confines of an "opening" segment. Before I committed to even playing I demanded my friend show me some of what the "end" of the game look like to seal the deal. But they have scaled the games operations so far back in the beginning, they might as well have made it unplayable. Seriously. Years ago, I trashed Xenosaga for being little more than a silent hallway walking sim in-between cinema scenes, and 10 years later, they've learned very little.
The good news is eventually (8 hours, by my game clock) the game gets good. A couple of times they tricked me into thinking it was getting good, but it wasn't. Now I'm fairly sure it is. I still can't pick my party members or my leader, but there are abilities to unlock, items to craft, equipment to buy, and summon monsters to use. Why they couldn't have made any of this accessible early, I will never know. Game-play privileges are doled out seemingly at random with no bearing on plot or party members, so its just like they actively decided to keep you bored for the first 1/6th (or so I've heard) of the game.
In any event, I'll be sure (maybe) to check back in as I traverse the remaining discs in pursuit of what (most of) Final Fantasy XIII actually has to offer.
-F.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Legend of God Reaver May Cry if The Cake is a Lie (Darksiders)
It will be my eternal regret that I nearly passed on Darksiders. First it was the THQ logo. Then it was the lack of advertising. Then it was the reviewers. Now that I've played it, though, Darksiders is easily the best games I've played since Batman. Like I did with Dante, I will do it the courtesy of omitting any comparisons to that other game reviewers can't seem to get enough of comparing it to, pretentious as that sounds, if only because at this point that's a like kicking Vigil games when they're down. Do you really think they didn't know that other guy has a hood and hookshot, guys?
So what you need to know is this, Darksiders is a hack and slash action adventure (and you can actually call it adventure, thank god) full of violence and Gothic imagery. The premise was cooked up by Joe Madureira, and even though it has nothing to do with Battle Chasers, the same style permeates the game. Everything is big and exaggerated and jagged and dark, there's no sense of haste or "stylish" to it at all. Just a big guy with a big sword and a big chip on his shoulder. The entire setting is very deliberate and obvious, but compared to all the wishy washy mood swingy nonsense that has cluttered up the industry as of late, its nice to have a world of people you can legitimately get behind or hate.
The story is about War (and only War), one of The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse. At some point, The Apocalypse happens but only War shows up. Despite his efforts (exactly what he was supposed to do is never really clarified) Hell beats Heaven and humanity gets wiped out. Now The Horsemen are charged with maintaining the balance, so the fact that War was on scene and the balance went kablooey looks real bad for him, specially considering his co-riders aren't answering their phones. So, a hundred years of healing later, War gets a chance to go back to an earth ravaged by hot demon on angel action and figure out just what went wrong, with extreme prejudice. He's got a babysitter holding his leash, and he'll need to run a few favors for the angels and demons along the way, but sooner or later he'll get there. The good news is you get to drive.
Now War is supposed to be one of the biggest bad asses in documented lore, so the fact that you start with nothing but a basic combo and an area effect spell is an early stumbling block. You do get some nifty (QTE-less, thank god) finishing moves to play with but despite a launcher and some aerial options, combat is a pretty bland affair in the beginning. There IS a wealth of stuff to buy even from the first opportunity to do so, but you'll be broke and bored for a while before and after, a factor only frustrated if you don't buy your secondary weapon right off the bat. Thankfully, once the game opens up and you're making currency souls pretty steadily the pace picks up. There's still a lot of room to make poor choices and hate your "build", but the prices and gains are measured such that you're never too far from heading back to ole' Vulgrim for more.
The meat of the game is housed in the five or six dungeons full of enemies and puzzles you'll need to familiarize yourself with as War climbs, kills, and collects his way to justice. Each one is decked out with a shiny new toy, a mini boss or two, and then a big boss encounter that requires more use of said new toy than raw brawn. In-between the dungeons you'll be traipsing about an Overworld-like arrangement of smaller connecting zones that present you with plenty of combat practice and places to use your acquired toys in the hunt for additional power ups. You'll occasionally bump into a surprise boss fight or some other action event in the open areas too, but mostly its just a lot of satisfactory slash and traveling. Best of all, you're never locked out of any of it, even up to the last boss fight, save the limitations of the items in your inventory. You can always go anywhere and do anything you already did, in case you missed something or forgot something. The only thing its really missing in that regard is a Shadow of the Colossus style "Reminiscence" for old boss battles.
What does suck? Well, there's the obligatory end of game busy work treasure hunt. Tiny carrots dangled in front of you throughout the entire game. You can see them, even touch some of them, but you can't have them. Not until the end of the game when they make you go back and get them. Then there's the horse, Ruin. War is constantly referred to as The Horseman and Rider of the Red Horse. But where is his horse for the first 60% of the game? He's not there in the opening before War gets stripped of his powers, and when you do find Ruin, somebody else is riding him. Not somebody important, just a nobody that you promptly dispatch and then forget about. Even once you "have" Ruin, the places you're allowed to ride are limited, so did they just think "moving quickly" would hinder the first half of game? Also, the game is too easy. Figuring out some of the bosses and puzzles will take you a minute, but you are going to sleepwalk 90% of the combat without a second thought. Committing to anything other than basic sword combos often makes life more difficult, so all your toys and bought abilities are pretty superfluous. There is an Apocalyptic difficulty that tunes the numbers to a place where the world is almost dangerous, but even then you just block and dodge more, no real strategy change.
Finally, I had a big problem with War's final power up; the Mask of Shadows. When active, the mask makes the screen looks a little weird and you can see "hidden objects" like treasure chests and grapple points, but you can't open ordinary treasure chests anymore. You can still see them, you just can't open them. Despite the fact that you can still slay monsters, platform, and otherwise interact with the environment (wield cars, smash statues,etc) as necessary. What reason does this serve except to annoy the player? Maybe they thought just making a bunch of stuff appear on the maps at the end was too stupid (and it is), maybe they thought players wouldn't want a permanent yellow haze on their screen (they don't), maybe they just thought Arkham Asylum's "Detective Vision" was a good idea (it wasn't). Maybe if there were enemies more or less vulnerable in Mask of Shadows mode, puzzles that require you to switch back and forth, or at least different moves available, it would be on, but all it really accomplishes is enabling the aforementioned obnoxious treasure hunt.
Still, those are all very niggling complaints in a very solid game whose sins are just as borrowed as its features. Sure, you can legitimately knock it for originality, what with the boomerang and portal gun, but they have done a far better job of borrowing to create a new experience than just ape-ing other formulas and calling it original. Of course, it is entirely possible that I am just being a huge apologist because it reminds me of the Next Gen Legacy of Kain game we are all still desperately waiting to happen, but that's not its only charm. Needless cliffhanger aside, It manages to traverse its entire narrative without tripping over confused plot twisted feet (Bad guys actually get killed when you kill them! Imagine that, Metal Gear!), its not an exercise in boredom or futility achievement-wise and it certainly doesn't hurt to have another functional 3d member of the action-ADVENTURE game family.
Kudos, Vigil.
-F.
So what you need to know is this, Darksiders is a hack and slash action adventure (and you can actually call it adventure, thank god) full of violence and Gothic imagery. The premise was cooked up by Joe Madureira, and even though it has nothing to do with Battle Chasers, the same style permeates the game. Everything is big and exaggerated and jagged and dark, there's no sense of haste or "stylish" to it at all. Just a big guy with a big sword and a big chip on his shoulder. The entire setting is very deliberate and obvious, but compared to all the wishy washy mood swingy nonsense that has cluttered up the industry as of late, its nice to have a world of people you can legitimately get behind or hate.
The story is about War (and only War), one of The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse. At some point, The Apocalypse happens but only War shows up. Despite his efforts (exactly what he was supposed to do is never really clarified) Hell beats Heaven and humanity gets wiped out. Now The Horsemen are charged with maintaining the balance, so the fact that War was on scene and the balance went kablooey looks real bad for him, specially considering his co-riders aren't answering their phones. So, a hundred years of healing later, War gets a chance to go back to an earth ravaged by hot demon on angel action and figure out just what went wrong, with extreme prejudice. He's got a babysitter holding his leash, and he'll need to run a few favors for the angels and demons along the way, but sooner or later he'll get there. The good news is you get to drive.
Now War is supposed to be one of the biggest bad asses in documented lore, so the fact that you start with nothing but a basic combo and an area effect spell is an early stumbling block. You do get some nifty (QTE-less, thank god) finishing moves to play with but despite a launcher and some aerial options, combat is a pretty bland affair in the beginning. There IS a wealth of stuff to buy even from the first opportunity to do so, but you'll be broke and bored for a while before and after, a factor only frustrated if you don't buy your secondary weapon right off the bat. Thankfully, once the game opens up and you're making currency souls pretty steadily the pace picks up. There's still a lot of room to make poor choices and hate your "build", but the prices and gains are measured such that you're never too far from heading back to ole' Vulgrim for more.
The meat of the game is housed in the five or six dungeons full of enemies and puzzles you'll need to familiarize yourself with as War climbs, kills, and collects his way to justice. Each one is decked out with a shiny new toy, a mini boss or two, and then a big boss encounter that requires more use of said new toy than raw brawn. In-between the dungeons you'll be traipsing about an Overworld-like arrangement of smaller connecting zones that present you with plenty of combat practice and places to use your acquired toys in the hunt for additional power ups. You'll occasionally bump into a surprise boss fight or some other action event in the open areas too, but mostly its just a lot of satisfactory slash and traveling. Best of all, you're never locked out of any of it, even up to the last boss fight, save the limitations of the items in your inventory. You can always go anywhere and do anything you already did, in case you missed something or forgot something. The only thing its really missing in that regard is a Shadow of the Colossus style "Reminiscence" for old boss battles.
What does suck? Well, there's the obligatory end of game busy work treasure hunt. Tiny carrots dangled in front of you throughout the entire game. You can see them, even touch some of them, but you can't have them. Not until the end of the game when they make you go back and get them. Then there's the horse, Ruin. War is constantly referred to as The Horseman and Rider of the Red Horse. But where is his horse for the first 60% of the game? He's not there in the opening before War gets stripped of his powers, and when you do find Ruin, somebody else is riding him. Not somebody important, just a nobody that you promptly dispatch and then forget about. Even once you "have" Ruin, the places you're allowed to ride are limited, so did they just think "moving quickly" would hinder the first half of game? Also, the game is too easy. Figuring out some of the bosses and puzzles will take you a minute, but you are going to sleepwalk 90% of the combat without a second thought. Committing to anything other than basic sword combos often makes life more difficult, so all your toys and bought abilities are pretty superfluous. There is an Apocalyptic difficulty that tunes the numbers to a place where the world is almost dangerous, but even then you just block and dodge more, no real strategy change.
Finally, I had a big problem with War's final power up; the Mask of Shadows. When active, the mask makes the screen looks a little weird and you can see "hidden objects" like treasure chests and grapple points, but you can't open ordinary treasure chests anymore. You can still see them, you just can't open them. Despite the fact that you can still slay monsters, platform, and otherwise interact with the environment (wield cars, smash statues,etc) as necessary. What reason does this serve except to annoy the player? Maybe they thought just making a bunch of stuff appear on the maps at the end was too stupid (and it is), maybe they thought players wouldn't want a permanent yellow haze on their screen (they don't), maybe they just thought Arkham Asylum's "Detective Vision" was a good idea (it wasn't). Maybe if there were enemies more or less vulnerable in Mask of Shadows mode, puzzles that require you to switch back and forth, or at least different moves available, it would be on, but all it really accomplishes is enabling the aforementioned obnoxious treasure hunt.
Still, those are all very niggling complaints in a very solid game whose sins are just as borrowed as its features. Sure, you can legitimately knock it for originality, what with the boomerang and portal gun, but they have done a far better job of borrowing to create a new experience than just ape-ing other formulas and calling it original. Of course, it is entirely possible that I am just being a huge apologist because it reminds me of the Next Gen Legacy of Kain game we are all still desperately waiting to happen, but that's not its only charm. Needless cliffhanger aside, It manages to traverse its entire narrative without tripping over confused plot twisted feet (Bad guys actually get killed when you kill them! Imagine that, Metal Gear!), its not an exercise in boredom or futility achievement-wise and it certainly doesn't hurt to have another functional 3d member of the action-ADVENTURE game family.
Kudos, Vigil.
-F.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sam the Fisher...Man.
Ahhhhhh the original stealth shooter franchise is back.After the odd story arc of Splinter Cell:Double Agent; everyone's favorite shadow bound marksman is back. Now I could write a VERY long diatribe about what I love and hate about this game, but I'll keep it fairly succinct for both our sakes. I'll address the game play first, story second.
Firstly the game does NOT punish you as bad for being detected and seems to actually let you try to kill/sneak/distract your way back into the shadows and this makes the game MUCH more accessible to the more casual gamer and first time Splinter Cell players. Now please don't misread that last sentence, if you think you are god's gift to video games, jack the difficulty up and you'll be just as frustrated as ever. Its a hell of a lot better then "the guard heard you fart, game over"
There is a pretty good selection of weapons even if you didn't pre-order the game (dont get me started) and you earn what can only be described as "skill points" which you use to upgrade the weapons. Extended magazines, scopes, different stocks, match grade ammo,etc but only 3 upgrades per gun and the upgrade options are pre-determined, ie no scopes on pistols. In addition to the guns you get a small selection of gadgets, from a personal EMP to frag grenades which also can be upgraded; usually its the effective radius that is upgraded.
Earning said skills points is hit or miss, some challenges are far too easy while others are far too difficult. For the most part you can earn enough to upgrade the guns you use most, the rest is just needed for some achievements. Once you get the FiveSe7en pistol its doubtful you'll use any other pistol, so other then the aforementioned achievement, there really is no need to upgrade any other pistol.
My only MAJOR gripe with the game play is as the levels progress the game it self seems to devolve from a stealth oriented game to more of a run of the mill 3rd person shooter. Sam Fisher deserves better then that. There are certain parts of the game where there is no option to sneak by, you must expose yourself (killing an enemy or otherwise) just to get by. When you get to the big red gas truck you'll understand.
Lastly, the story. I will keep this really brief as to avoid any spoilers. The beginning of the story really grabs you and pulls you in, but as you keep going it gets more and more confusing. I'm not a huge fan of "Tarantino-ing" storylines so maybe when all the flashbacks align I'll be on board, but since I haven't finished the game yet I'm still a little lost.
As of this moment, none of my friends have the game, so I cant comment on multi-player. And no, I have no faith in playing with strangers on this type of game.
The game is a solid 9.1 out of 10
Quick tip for you US gamers with cell phones , text the word weapon to 44144 and you'll get a free bonus weapon. No I wont spoil the surprise, and you are welcome.
~Malenko
Firstly the game does NOT punish you as bad for being detected and seems to actually let you try to kill/sneak/distract your way back into the shadows and this makes the game MUCH more accessible to the more casual gamer and first time Splinter Cell players. Now please don't misread that last sentence, if you think you are god's gift to video games, jack the difficulty up and you'll be just as frustrated as ever. Its a hell of a lot better then "the guard heard you fart, game over"
There is a pretty good selection of weapons even if you didn't pre-order the game (dont get me started) and you earn what can only be described as "skill points" which you use to upgrade the weapons. Extended magazines, scopes, different stocks, match grade ammo,etc but only 3 upgrades per gun and the upgrade options are pre-determined, ie no scopes on pistols. In addition to the guns you get a small selection of gadgets, from a personal EMP to frag grenades which also can be upgraded; usually its the effective radius that is upgraded.
Earning said skills points is hit or miss, some challenges are far too easy while others are far too difficult. For the most part you can earn enough to upgrade the guns you use most, the rest is just needed for some achievements. Once you get the FiveSe7en pistol its doubtful you'll use any other pistol, so other then the aforementioned achievement, there really is no need to upgrade any other pistol.
My only MAJOR gripe with the game play is as the levels progress the game it self seems to devolve from a stealth oriented game to more of a run of the mill 3rd person shooter. Sam Fisher deserves better then that. There are certain parts of the game where there is no option to sneak by, you must expose yourself (killing an enemy or otherwise) just to get by. When you get to the big red gas truck you'll understand.
Lastly, the story. I will keep this really brief as to avoid any spoilers. The beginning of the story really grabs you and pulls you in, but as you keep going it gets more and more confusing. I'm not a huge fan of "Tarantino-ing" storylines so maybe when all the flashbacks align I'll be on board, but since I haven't finished the game yet I'm still a little lost.
As of this moment, none of my friends have the game, so I cant comment on multi-player. And no, I have no faith in playing with strangers on this type of game.
The game is a solid 9.1 out of 10
Quick tip for you US gamers with cell phones , text the word weapon to 44144 and you'll get a free bonus weapon. No I wont spoil the surprise, and you are welcome.
~Malenko
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