I like games… sometimes.
Archive for May, 2010
3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
May 12th
The very first moment I stuck 3D Dot Game Heroes into my PlayStation 3, I got a huge smile on my face. Here I was looking at a title screen that was so obviously cribbed from the 8-bit era, complete with period specific chip-tune style music, and couldn’t have been happier. The flood of memories coming from my childhood was certainly impressive as Silicon had nailed that aspect of their quirky throwback title. Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: You play as the descendant of a legendary hero who has been tasked by the king to save your land (Dotnia) from impending doom.
To start off the game after an optional hard drive install, you’re given a choice to create your own hero or pick a pre-made one. The character creator isn’t just a “name, rank, serial number” creation tool, but you’re able to go pixel-by-pixel and draw out however you want your hero to look. You’ll be able to tweak a set of poses and the tools provided work quite well. If your creative juices aren’t flowing, there’s a plethora of heroes already made for you including a ninja, who is just a breathing tube sticking out of the ground, and my personal favorite, a dog. Yes, my great grandfather was still a human hero, and people still talked to me like I was a normal person, but I was a dog. Every time you load the game, you’ll get to pick a new hero if you’d like to switch it up. Not only that, but you can head on over to the official website and download creations of other players to use them in Dotnia. The only attributes that really effect how your character plays in-game are the sex and class of your character. Men get bonuses to strength while the ladies get a reduction in magic consumption. This is a combat heavy game, so you may want to grab a warrior dude.
When you finally set foot in Dotnia, you’ll be exploring the vast landscape in search of six orbs hidden away in as many temples, then make your final assault on the Tower of Darkness. All of your favorite elemental based temples make an appearance, as well as the final tower which in typical old school fashion has you completing bits and pieces of the previous temples, as well as re-fighting all of the bosses. This particular location is an exercise in frustration due to the fact that if you die you get sent back to the beginning of the tower and there are limited warp points to get you back to where you need to go. In fact, all of the dungeons have this old mechanic in place, and while doing certain things will help you return to where you died quicker, repetition is never all that fun. While mostly charming, the art style is such that many times enemies and items are obscured by the now 3D architecture and the overlaid HUD, often making you lose some precious health or completely miss something you’ll need to utilize. If you actually like that old school frustration, it’s here in spades.
The world is open enough that you can get around, but there’s a certain order in which you’ll need to progress through the temples as you will need specific gear to get places. You’ll eventually pick up most of the staples like a boomerang, bow and arrow, sprint shoes and hookshot, most of which are mapped to the circle button which you can cycle through quickly with R2 and L2. If you’ve got full health, your primary sword will be roughly half the screen and extra wide, allowing you to really screw up foes. On top of that, you can pay a blacksmith to increase your length and girth as well as give you the power to properly penetrate. The problem here is that once you take any damage, your sword shrinks and you feel severely underpowered, losing all its abilities. Throughout the game, you’ll be able to collect additional swords and shields, each which have different power and attributes. Most of these are optional so if you don’t think you need to get them then don’t bother, though they’ll certainly help you out.
Aside from the main quest, there’s plenty else to do which will usually result in some new item, sword, or extra cash. One particularly entertaining aspect is the inclusion of several mini-games. You’ll come across a time trial sprinting game, an breakout clone, and even a tower defense game complete with multiple upgradable towers. All of these are an entertaining way to pass the time, but would have been nice to access directly from a menu if you just want to kill some time. At least they’ve included a fast travel system which will let you warp to the main cities you’ve visited with an expendable item. There are also plenty of references to other games if you’re paying attention, clearly there with a wink and a nod to some of the more difficult titles of days past including From Software’s own Demon’s Souls (From Software published in Japan).
There’s certainly quite a bit to do if you want to explore the land of Dotnia (including a new game plus mode), but I found that after a half dozen hours the charm had passed and the dated adventuring mechanics had turned the title into a rather short-loved trip down memory lane. If you’re really into the old school then you may want to grab 3D Dot Game Heroes, but if you’ve never touched anything from days past, you should certainly steer clear. Its main draw is nostalgia, and even that fades quickly.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
The Good
Serious nostalgia charm.
Cute retro inspired graphics.
Fairly lengthy single player with plenty of side quests and extras
The Bad
Sure, the 8-bit games this was cribbed from were somewhat broken, but this is more broken than those.
The smile you’ll have from its charm will fade quickly.
The Ugly
The Tower of Darkness.
Writer’s Notes
Playtime: 16h14m
Hero: Poochi
Charmed Until: Hour 7
Originally posted on Evil Avatar.
Alan Wake (360)
May 5th
I think there may be a bit of a misconception as to exactly what kind of game Alan Wake is. The developers originally stated that it was an open-world title and even at the time of this writing, Amazon.com maintains that description. Let’s get this out of the way first: Alan Wake is a story driven, linear action game. You’ll spend most of the time launching an assault against a dark presence while uncovering the truth about what happened to Alan’s wife. Remember that other game Remedy is famous for? This game is kind of like that but now there’s no bullet-time.
Throughout the game you play as Alan Wake, a novelist who’s going through a bit of writer’s block. He hasn’t written a book in over two years and his wife, Alice, plans a trip to Washington state, hopefully to get the creative juices flowing. They land in the small town of Bright Falls, rent a cabin, and then the story really gets going. Talking much about that aspect of the game would really do it a bit of disservice as much of the enjoyment will come from uncovering what’s really going on in the quaint village, so I won’t do that here. What I will tell you though, is that while being somewhat cliched, it’s worth going through. Told through poorly lip-synced cutscenes, in-game dialog, and a series of mysterious manuscript pages, it does do quite a bit of creative storytelling and creates an interesting experience. Additionally, you’ll get to learn more about the town by listening to radios scattered throughout as well as be able to check out short replays of the television show “Night Springs.” Remedy has created a realistic, believable corner of the United States.
The story is broken up into a total of six television-like episodes and each begin with a “last time on Alan Wake” re-cap of important events that took place. While this helps remind you of key points, it feels a little odd that they’d end an episode with a static “End of Episode X” message while closing music plays, then just jump right into the next “show.” Breaking it up like this does make sense as the developers have already said that this is just the first season of Alan Wake and they’ll be releasing some more episodes at a later date. In case you want it wrapped up with a tidy bow, this first season ends with a fairly significant cliffhanger which may turn off some people. Each episode can take around two hours to play as long as you’re not powering through. Just a suggestion, but if you’re proficient with action games, you should play on Hard instead of Normal.
Much like Remedy’s previous work, the gameplay of Alan Wake relies on a single hook but this time it’s more pervasive. Alan’s primary enemy is the darkness which embodies all of his enemies. Generally, if it’s daytime, you’re safe as safe can be. At night however, the ghouls come out. In order to properly combat these foes, you’ll need to first melt away that darkness through various means, then blast away at them with your standard firearms. The primary tool to do this is a flashlight that you’re rarely without, but you’ll also get to use spotlights, shop lights, and street lights as a method to deter your enemies. Flashbangs, flares, and flare guns are also present and provide some nice crowd control for those sticky situations. While it doesn’t really evolve much, the combination of darkness melting and gunplay is entertaining enough that it holds up fairly well throughout the game. This is particularly important because you’re going to be doing a TON of it. One mild irritation that arose dealt with enemies spawning from behind and getting a cheap shot off. Yep, effectively there are some Doom 3 monster closets. Once or twice wouldn’t bother me all that much, but it basically came to the point that I’d always swing around to look behind, instead of focusing on what was in front of me.
Considering this isn’t an open world game, the design decisions surrounding the interface are curious. Knowing the history of the title’s development makes me think that they stated “Welp, we already did this work, may as well leave it in there.” Just a look at the GTA-esque health bar and waypoint “circle” makes me believe that it was at one point a mini-map, and the fact that there are collectibles at all when the levels themselves are so linear is an odd choice. Sure you can vary a bit from the main path, but the vast majority of the game is a single corridor, complete with gates that prevent you from backtracking. Remedy also included driving segments which work fine, but again, they’re just down a single path. To try and ensure multiple playthroughs, you won’t be able to collect all of the manuscript pages the first time through as some aren’t even in the world until you play on Nightmare difficulty, which is only unlocked after you complete the game.
In terms of presentation, the team at Remedy has certainly nailed the atmosphere. Light beams through treetops casting wonderful shadows everywhere during the day, while billowing fog and stormy weather help increase the tension at night. Just about every aspect is well polished, right down to the selection of songs used for the closing music on each episode. While not on par with Uncharted 2, the varied vocal cast performs a great job with all the characters and pull of mostly convincing performances through the interesting story.
While the open ended ending left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, I’m still interested to see where Remedy takes this game with the upcoming episodes. The town, atmosphere, and characters made me want to keep playing till the end, despite the somewhat repetitive combat. Let’s just hope that 1) the game is sucessful enough to warrent a proper conclusion later down the road, and 2) Remedy doesn’t take their “episode” queues from Valve. We’ve already waited long enough for Season 1.
Score: 4 out of 5
The Good
Atmospheric and beautiful. Remedy sure knows how to create a remote mountain town and its surrounding locale.
Interesting story and characters successfully drive the action.
Manuscript page mechanic turned out to be one of the more interesting aspects of the game.
The Bad
Cutscenes aren’t particularly great looking, and they could have spent more time working on lip sync.
Despite being interesting, the combat really doesn’t evolve much and becomes rote after a while.
The Ugly
No, it really is not an open world game.
Writer’s Notes
Playtime: 13 to 14 hours (no in-game timer)
Favorite Weapon: Flare Gun
Thoughts on ending: [REDACTED]
Originally posted on Evil Avatar.