Jim Hunter
I like games… sometimes.
Mass Effect 2 (360)
Jan 26th
Since the title credits rolled on Mass Effect 1, you’d be hard pressed to find a gamer who didn’t immediately want to find out what happens next for Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy. Personally, I enjoyed the first game so much that as soon as the aforementioned credits stopped, I started a new game and went through it all again. I don’t usually do that, specially for a game that took 25 hours to run through the first time.
The story of Mass Effect 2 picks up just over two years after the events of the first game. You are Commander Shepard and once again are up against impossible odds and tasked with a suicide mission which will hopefully save all mankind. Technically you don’t have to complete the first game to play this one, but I’d recommend not starting here. Playing ME1 will give you plenty of backstory and motivations, and the interactions that take place between characters will certainly have more impact if you’re already emotionally invested. The primary antagonist race is a group of aliens called the Collectors who are going around the Milky Way abducting humans en masse. Instead of working for the Alliance, Shepard has been recruited by a shadow organization called Cerberus. Lead by a stupidly-named figurehead, the Illusive Man, you need to figure out just what the Collectors are up to.
At the start, you’ll get to choose whether to import a saved game from the first, or just start a fresh game. While giving you an overview of some of the more important decisions you made previously, importing a game will also include some minute details that you may or may not pick up on depending on your memory. There are characters that will recount past events if you run into them, and you’ll get updated on what has transpired in their lives since. While not important to the story, it’s this type of attention to detail that helps raise the bar and gets you sucked in. If for some reason you don’t choose to import a game, those decisions will be made for you.
In an attempt to answer many of the complaints people had about the first game, BioWare has retooled a bunch of stuff here. There’s barely any more pop-in textures, no more load-time elevators, combat has improved greatly, and the framerate is steady most of the time. The Galaxy Map will point out which nebula you should go to based on what open quests you have in your journal. Most importantly, you won’t spend a minute inside the Mako driving over some desolate, repetitive looking planet trying to find minerals that didn’t do anything or some establishments that all looked alike. Instead, you can scan planets from above for minerals and if a planet has a settlement of some sort (all of which feel separate and significant), you’ll know right away. Oh yeah, they’ve removed the inventory too.
Wait what? Yep, there’s really no more inventory system. While the menus in the first Mass Effect weren’t great to begin with, you’d often spend time outfitting your squad members with specific armor or weapons and that just isn’t here this time around. You’ll still pick up weapons around the universe, but once you do it’ll be added to your armory and you can just give any number of that weapon to whoever can use it at the start of a ground mission. If you decide you’d like a different shotgun or sniper rifle, you’ll have to look for a specially designated terminal or return to the Normandy. Upgrades are handled by a research station utilizing the minerals you’ll find through scanning and exploring, and go across all party members. This significantly streamlines things and greatly reduces the amount of time you’ll be staring at a menu. This, as well as the addition of “ammunition” style pickups in the form of heatsinks, is very indicative of BioWare’s shift away from Mass Effect being a traditional RPG and more towards a story heavy action game.
All those RPG elements aren’t completely gone though, you’ll still get to pause the action and issue squad commands as well as improve skills after leveling up your character. You’ll still get to purchase some armor customization too in the form of gaining percentage bonuses to your skills, but equipping those is all handled through your ‘closet’ on the Normandy and a couple of sliders. They have added the notion of loyalty into the mix as well, and while in theory it sounds great, it’s just a toggle flicked when you do a crew member specific mission. Loyal crew members get to wear a spiffy new “I’m Shepard’s Lackey” outfit and gain an additional ability. It’s a decent incentive, but it feels like it could have been utilized a bit better.
Combat is very much like Gears of War or any number of cover based shooters on the market. You’ll spend most of your time stuck to a wall or barrier, peeking your head out to take your shots. While in cover, you can order your squad members to perform certain actions through a radial menu, which when activated, pauses the action. You can also assign three actions to buttons on the controller to use them in real time. Unlike its predecessor though, Mass Effect 2 actually feels really good in combat. Considering the amount of time you’ll be gunning down bad guys, this is a great thing.
In general, all of the changes made help keep things moving and prevent the downtime that can present in traditional RPGs. Instead of spending a ton of time walking (or driving) around rather mindlessly from point to point, you’ll actually be interacting with the world in meaningful ways. You’ll spend plenty of time fighting mercenaries or mechs, scanning planets to improve your gear and ship, or just straight up talking to people.
The conversation system from the first game is back and hasn’t changed much at all, but there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ll still get up to six dialog options on a radial wheel that can be chosen before the last line of dialog is spoken, creating a very fluid and awesome interactions between yourself and NPCs. It works as well as it did in the last game, and is still as impressive. The single bit they did add is a new interrupt system. At specific (and somewhat rare) times, you’ll be able to hit the left or right trigger to alter the conversation, shifting the flow towards your good or evil side. Yes, you can consider this a quicktime event, but it’s optional, give you ample time to hit the button, and it’s just another way to interact during the conversation.
One thing the conversation system shows off is just how great this game looks. Faces are well defined and have some serious depth to them, particularly with some of the alien races. My personal favorite was newcomer Thane and his double eyelids. Also, when you spend a crapton of time staring at people, they better animate well, and luckily they do. Lips are synced well with the exceptional and somewhat Hollywood infused voicework, and the consistent cinematic camera angle cuts keep things fresh. Environments and worlds are all unique, unlike those palette swapped worlds from the first game. Some are tropically lush, some are sparse and dirty, and others are complete wrecks. There’s plenty of beautiful variety throughout the universe.
Mass Effect 2 is quite honestly everything you would hope it would be. An epic story full of interesting characters within a huge universe with all the problems from the first game fixed. Whether you’d rather go prospectin’ for some minerals on planets or just stick to the game’s story, there’s plenty of content to keep you busy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a second character to import while anxiously awaiting ME3.
Score: 5 out of 5
The Good
A complete, beautiful cinematic experience.
Huge universe with plenty to do; side quests feel tangential instead of completely unrelated.
All the issues of the first have been addressed in thoughtful ways.
The Bad
A bit too action focused.
The character, Subject Zero.
The Ugly
I can already hear the nerd-rage about BioWare ‘ruining’ Mass Effect.
Writer’s Notes
First Playthrough Length: 24h25m
Favorite Squad: Shepard, Thane, Samara
Squad Loyalty: 10 out of 10
Alignment: Primarily Paragon (with some Renegade thrown in for fun)
Sex: Oooh yeah.
Originally posted on Evil Avatar.
Dragon Age: Origins (360)
Dec 8th
Dragon Age is not Mass Effect. It’s not Knights of the Old Republic or Jade Empire either. While these most recent BioWare titles are great in their own right, it almost seemed as though as a studio they opted for a simplified approach, moving away somewhat from what made their games popular to begin with. So when the first information started coming out about Dragon Age: Origins, referring to it as the successor to Baldur’s Gate 2, a lot of people including myself were very skeptical. It’s time to douse that fear fire because Dragon Age: Origins is here to bring back the truly epic and heavy handed RPG, doing so with great gusto, no apologies, and complete awesome.
You start off Dragon Age: Origins just like most other RPGs by picking your gender, race, and class then customizing your appearance. You can either select from a set of preset looks, or get down into it by adjusting things like the space between your eyes or the slope of your nose. The most interesting thing here is that based upon your race and class, you’ll be put into a specific background. For example, I chose to be a male human soldier as a main character and was given the background of a Human Noble. There are six total backgrounds and each of them is tied to a specific origin story. Each story is completely unique, lasts about an hour, and will tell the story about how your character joins the ranks of the Grey Wardens. Once that happens, the world map opens up to explore.
Travel is handled by simply looking at a map of locations and picking whichever you’d like, in whatever order you want. The world map will become more populated as you obtain quests from characters throughout, and some of the larger locations even have their own sub-map of locations that need to be filled in. While traveling point to point, sometimes you’ll experience some random encounters that can be caravans, bandits, or even a lonely couple that found a boy who sounds strangely like Superman. One of the minor issues with this game pops up while visiting your party camp or with some of these random encounters. While everything is designed specifically to really get lost in the land of Ferelden, you’ll encounter certain people that will literally ask you to buy downloadable content. It certainly could have been handled a little better and completely shatters the illusion.
Without getting too specific, a very large portion of the story revolves around your quest to unite different factions around the kingdom of Ferelden. As a Grey Warden, you are sworn to do what others before you have done: defend the world against the blight of the Darkspawn. Unification is paramount in repelling this evil force that has been dormant for over 400 years… and that time span is certainly part of a larger problem. While many around the kingdom understand what a Grey Warden is and what their job revolves around, they’re not about to drop everything just to help you out. Each need their own brand of convincing, and it’s all up to you about how you take care of things. In fact, with every different force, you’ll have a big decision to make as to how you handle it, and these decisions will typically make someone really happy, and piss off some others. There’s plenty of wheel greasing, naughtiness, and intrigue going on in about a billion quests.
Many games with “a lot to do” can fall into the rutt of just throwing a different coat of paint on a wall… You’d end up doing the same things over and over, but for different people or in a different place. Not Dragon Age though; I don’t recall a single side quest that repeated. Each feels unique while providing more depth to an extremely well realized world as well as some cool weapons and armor. There’s a veritible ton of gear available as well… some are just plain ole items, some with unique abilities, and others that you can add runes to in order to customize them to your liking. Over the course of the game though, you’ll find a lot of junk so it’s nice to be able to throw all of that into a specified junk inventory window and sell it off at the next merchant with the press of a button. Along with normal gear for your party, you’ll be able to buy or create traps and potions. The depth to the inventory system is impressively staggering.
The fiction in DA:O is mostly derivative, being based upon archetypes you’ve seen a million times before. If you know Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons, you pretty much know what to expect here. You’ll see Dwarves acting like dwarves, living underground; Humans act like you’d expect them to and seem always to be out for themselves. You’ve even got the major antagonist race in the game based upon the Uruk-hai in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. About the only thing that’s not within the norm is that elves aren’t the majestic creatures they have been in the past and often are treated like scum and in some cases, forced to live separately from humans in major cities. Utilizing these known types helps breed a sense of familiarity and helps lay the groundwork for one heckuva fleshed out universe.
Your Grey Warden’s narrative and story are superb as is the execution. If Dragon Age were a book, it would best be described as a page turner. Throughout my entire time with the game, not once would I shut off the console without saying “I wonder what’ll happen next.” To help stick you into the world, all of the non-player characters are fully voiced and the quality of dialog is top notch. At first during conversations, you may be put off mildly by the fact your character doesn’t actually speak, but by utilizing the dialog trees you’ll simply read what your character will say instead of hearing it. Considering the amount of talking that you’ll be doing, this is certainly for the best. You had best watch what you say as well, there are certain things you can’t take back that may cause someone to just whip out their sword to dispatch your sas mouth. In the very first city, I had tried to help a man who was being held prisoner within a hanging cage, however my incorrect word choices with his captor caused that intent to be skewered. I’m pretty sure he’s dead now.
Not only will your words and actions effect NPCs, but it will also change the way party members view you. They’ve got their own notions about how the world should work and what they want ‘their’ Grey Warden to do and will often try to sway your decision as you’re making it. If you go against those wishes too many times, theres a good chance they’ll just up and leave you. But, if you just do what they want, you’ll get the opportunity to open additional side quests specific to those characters or even get in their pants. Too bad the sexual relations in DA:O feel quite strange (Mass Effect handled them much better).
In terms of general gameplay, you’ll take control of up to four characters in your party and walk through the world in third person. At any time you can swap between each party member and issue specific commands. Those are given by either a set of customizable hotkeys unique to each character, or a radial menu that will pause the action until a command is given. I would have liked to have the “pause ’till I’m ready” button that the PC has, but this system works well enough within combat. Additionally, there is a fairly deep customizable tactics screen that allows you to basically issue commands based upon certain situations. Always want your party to attack the most heavily armored foe? Done. Chug a health potion at 25% health? No problem. You can easily lose hours tweaking the tactics for your entire party as well as individual characters to make sure they’re always doing what they should be without constantly needing to control them directly.
One particular area I am always concerned about when playing through lengthy games is the possibility of general game fatigue. I could either grow tired of the story, get lost on side missions, or start to hate the general mechanics and ultimately just shut off the game with a “I’ll come back to this later” thought, never to return. Thankfully, that just wasn’t the case here at all. With plenty of different endings, six origin stories each changing the world’s perception of you, and having a plethora of important decisions to make throughout, you’ll certainly get your money’s worth. As long as you’ve got the gumption and staying power, you won’t find a better true RPG on the market for this generation.
Score: 5 out of 5
The Good
Simply the best RPG so far this generation.
Fantastic voice work and orchestral score.
Tons and tons of content.
The Bad
The Deep Roads felt a little bit too long.
Some of the texture work looks a bit muddy.
The Ugly
“Hey, can you help me out bud? All you have to do is (DOWNLOAD CONTENT).”
Writer’s Notes
First Playthrough: 33h26m
Character: Maker, Male Human Noble Warrior, Level: 21
Normal Party: Maker, Morrigan, Shale, Zevran
Achievements Obtained: 37 of 54
Number of Dragons Killed: 3
DLC Completed: Warden’s Keep, The Stone Prisoner
Originally posted on Evil Avatar.
Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
Nov 25th
When you talk about Left 4 Dead, some people start saying stuff about ‘BRAINSSS’ or the walking dead, and at the core these people just don’t know what they’re talking about. While yes, the ‘zombie apocalypse’ has occurred, the enemies in Left 4 Dead are not after your brain and certainly aren’t undead; they’re normal people infected with a virus similar to the one from 28 Days Later. Left 4 Dead 2 takes place soon after the events of the first but in a new location, starting off in Georgia and ending on a bridge in New Orleans.
Mirroring the original Left 4 Dead, L4D2 allows four new hapless survivors the chance to make their way through hordes of infected folk, just searching for the light at the end of the tunnel. In the primary game mode, Campaign, you’ll take a Gambler/Con Man (Nick), Mechanic (Ellis), Football Coach (Coach), and a uh… Girl (Rochelle), through 5 completely separate yet intertwined, new campaigns all with a bit of Cajun flair. Fans of the first, fear not! The southern fried survivors are just as, if not more lovable than their Northeastern counterparts. With the exception of Rochelle, each of the characters are well thought out and quirky enough to make you forget about ‘Lois’ and Francis. There’s a much greater sense of interdependence between each campaign as well. For example, after completing Dead Center, the game’s first campaign, you’ll take a fueled stock car on the road and when it runs out of gas, that’s when Dark Carnival picks up. The story here isn’t a huge driving point, but it’s nice to see them add more continuity.
The Campaign mode may be played with bots or with up to three other friends and has multiple difficulty levels. Generally each of the campaigns have removed much of the claustrophobic feeling that existed in the first and opt for much more open areas to fight in. Each campaign also has a new ‘uncommon’ infected character that helps keep things a bit different. While none are a huge challenge, the variety is a welcome addition. There’s also a new Realism mode that’ll allow for each difficulty level to get just a bit harder. Realism removes the outlines around all weapons, pickups, and characters, unless you’re literally standing right on top of them, as well as forces the use of defibrillators and makes head shots the quickest way to take down common infected. Additionally, Witches will be more prevalent and will now be one hit kills.
In case you have no clue what a Witch is, she’s a very sad girl in tattered clothes that will either wander around the level with her hands over her face crying, or just kneels down being all verklempt. She is one of several special infected types that are out to make the survivors’ day very bad and if you get too close or shoot her, she comes after you with a vengeance. Back also from the previous game are the Hunter, Boomer, Smoker, and Tank but this time they’ve brought friends. The virus has mutated further and formed three new types of bad guys to deal with. First up is the Jockey, a maniacal hunchback that would love to hop up on the shoulders of a survivor and steer him off a cliff or through some flames. Next is the Charger, who’s comically tiny left arm is offset by his oversized right. As his name states, he charges straight ahead then bashes the survivors into the ground with his ‘good’ arm. Finally, the Spitter. Gone are the camping tactics that survivors used to use, as the Spitter has a line of sight projectile that will make standing still for too long a very, very bad thing, coating the ground with a pool of acidic goo.
There are plenty of other additions to the game as a whole as well. The inclusion of melee weapons seems almost like a no brainer, but you don’t quite understand how satisfying they are until you grab the nearest crowbar, katana, or baseball bat and start swinging for the fences. Yes, there is a chainsaw too, and while it does run on gas and will eventually stop working, it is completely awesome. While opting for a melee weapon forces you to drop your pistol (or dual pistols), they’re certainly a suitable replacement. There’s also a plethora of new usable items as well scattered throughout the maps. You’ll find things like the aforementioned defibrillator, ammo upgrade boxes that provide explosive or incendiary rounds, adrenaline shots, boomer bile, or even laser sight upgrades for your weapons. Tons of new stuff to play with, some taking up a specific slot in your inventory which will get you to ask questions like “Do I bring the health kit, or defib?” More often than not, all the pickups will be scattered throughout the maps more randomly instead of just coming upon a table with a bunch of weapons on it, so you may just find an AK-47 lying around and no accompanying shotgun or rifle next to it. All of these additions cause the strategy of the survivor to change, and possibly take pause when you really should keep moving.
The hallmark Versus mode is back and better than ever. Out of the box, all five campaigns are setup for Versus play and with the exception of the Witch, all of the special infected are playable. This mode allows for eight players (four on a side) and is setup similarly to Campaign where the Survivors slug through the levels of a particular campaign trying to reach a safe room, and the Infected try to stop them. Once the survivors either die, or escape, the teams switch sides and you’ll play the same board again from the other viewpoint. There’s no character selector on the Infected side, instead each time you spawn you are randomly assigned a new role to play. Having six special infected helps add to the chaos as the Survivors can never be quite sure what’ll be coming at them. Some other minor, but lovely additions also come in the form of progress markers. As the survivors progress, they’ll be informed at quarterly checkpoints how much longer they have to go with a ding and a message, or you can pop open the scoreboard at any time to see a progress indicator. If the survivors get wiped, you’ll also get a quick look as to how far each of them got before dying. A simple but elegant and useful touch. They’ve also lessened the point reward for having survivors escape a level, which would often cause one team to just stop caring if the gap got too wide.
A common issue with Versus however is the length required to play. To go through an entire campaign it would often take an hour and a half to two hours. While the first game introduced Survival mode (cooperative only) and Crash Course late in the lifecycle to try and appease people who wanted a quick experience, it still didn’t really lend itself to quick games. That is remedied now with Scavenge mode. This is a very short mode and can be played in either Co-op, or Versus. Survivors are to run around a map looking for gas cans to help fill up a generator. Each gas can poured in adds 20 seconds onto an ever decreasing timer which starts at 90 seconds. The goal here is to keep the generator going for as long as possible while fighting off infected. Not only does it remedy the time requirement issue, but it’s extremely entertaining.
Along with all the other new stuff, the visuals have improved and things have gotten a whole lot messier and grittier. Playing the normal version, I can see now why certain countries required Valve to produce a censored version due to the amped up violence. Not only do players get covered in blood while smacking infected in the head with a crowbar complete with meaty sound effects, but there are a lot more gibs everywhere. Previously, when throwing a pipe bomb to attract the horde the group of infected would blow up in a fine mist of blood. Now, you get chunks of people flying. The watermelon busting sound of a baseball bat upside someone’s head, the death gurgles, screams and more… this is not for the children.
The few issues presented in the first game have been thoughtfully repaired and improved upon in just about every way possible. Not only is the formula created by Valve and Turtle Rock still relevant and entertaining, but they have basically perfected the zombie apocalypse. From the new cast of engaging characters to the polished campaigns and new modes, Left 4 Dead 2 is an incredible multiplayer experience from top to bottom with everything a true sequel calls for.
Oh, and if you call it an expansion, you get a smack.
Score: 5 out of 5
The Good
Tons of new content and plenty of refinements to what made the original Left 4 Dead’s formula so great.
Just about all of the melee weapons are very gratifying and the chainsaw is the bee’s knees.
Nearly endless replayability.
The Bad
Aside from being pretty decent shots, bots are still pretty worthless.
There’s really no point in playing alone.
The Ugly
Pub griefers.
Writer’s Notes
Favorite Campaign: Dark Carnival
New Favorite Survivor: Coach
Favorite Melee Weapon That Isn’t the Chainsaw: Machete
Originally posted on Evil Avatar.
DJ Hero (360)
Nov 3rd
I think we can all agree that while the music genre is fun in its own right, there has been very little in terms of innovation for a few years now. The last big shift was when Rock Band came onto the scene and threw drums and vocals at us. DJ Hero represents a fundamental shift in how you play music games, as well as what kind of music is available for the masses. Throwing out all those “normal” instruments and opting for a turntable with a crossfader, DJ Hero certainly breathes a whole new sense of life into the genre… but does it go far enough?
It has been a while since people really didn’t know how the main mechanics of a music game work, so allow me to break it down for you. Much like its related brethren, DJ Hero utilizes a highway for your notes. Instead of being a fret board, it’s literally the extended curvature of a vinyl record. Actions will flow from the top of the highway downwards toward a hit line at the bottom, which is the time you are required to take action. There are three lines that flow downwards: green, red, and blue, each corresponding to a button on your turntable. With those lines come three gameplay mechanics to perform. First, you get the simple “press the button at the proper time” mechanic (ala Guitar Hero / Rock Band). Next are the scratch sections, which require you to hold down either the blue or green button and scratch the record. Lastly are the crossfading sections. The crossfader has positions of left, middle, and right and when pushed to either extreme, activates that specific musical track. Throwing it in the middle causes both tracks to play. You’ll need to pay attention to when the colored lines jut out to the side to know where the crossfader should be.
Two additional controls have been added to the turntable as well, both of which are optional elements to the game but add on to your score. There is an effects dial which controls which freestyle sample you are using, or the pitch of the music, both of which can only be utilized in designated areas. Lastly is the euphoria button that activates DJ Hero’s equivalent of Star Power doubling your multiplier for a specific amount of time. One final additional mechanic that’ll increase your score is the rewind. After hitting 40 notes in a row, you can spin the record backwards, sending the song into reverse and giving you the opportunity to play a section of notes for a second time. During these few seconds, you’ll also double your multiplier but it can be a challenge to properly pick up the song again and you may miss the proper crossfader position or a scratch.
Build quality of the table itself is fairly high. The record feels like it may be on some precision ball bearings as it rotates with ease, and all the buttons feel solid. The only two parts that feel iffy are the crossfader, which can cause you to miss the middle position, and the somewhat loose feeling “locking” mechanism that separates the table for a lefty flip. Unless you’re playing on your lap though, that looseness will not be noticeable. A strange choice of placement is the standard Xbox 360 controller buttons, which are hidden below a door and, considering you need to use those buttons to navigate the clunky menus at all, it seems weird hiding them from view. Lastly, the blue button feels like it was placed just a tad too close to the center of the record, making any scratching with it feel unnatural… increasing the radius by about an inch would have helped.
Mechanics and specifics out of the way, lets get into the music provided in the game. Just about every single track you’ll play is a mash up of two artists and genre ranges from classic motown to electronica… nothing is off limits. Generally, all the the mash ups sound great with only a few poor sounding pieces throw in there, but with over 90 songs to play I guess it was bound to happen. If you like mash ups, it’ll be really hard to not want this soundtrack available outside of the game. Excellent all around and with popular DJs like DJ Shadow, DJ AM, The Scratch Perverts, and of course, Daft Punk, there’s a lot of star power mixing quite a few tracks for the game.
The biggest problem with DJ Hero is the fact that it’s just completely bare bones, almost like Activision knew this was going to be an iterative franchise for them. Aside from the massive library, there’s very little here to do once you get tired of playing the core game and there certainly isn’t anything surprising. Each difficulty level clearly makes the game a lot trickier, with “Hard” adding things like directional scratching and crossfader spikes, and sure you can jump into some competitive multiplayer or even a small number of co-op tracks, but you’ll just play along to music ’till you get tired of it. Even the menus feel just utilitarian and clunky. Can you please explain to me why I need to go into the options menu to look at leaderboards? There’s also really no way to “freestyle” which seems like a missed opportunity… but hey there’s always DJ Hero 2.
At the end of the day, DJ Hero is a great start into a new line of music titles. It may not have all the bells and whistles, and it may be a little expensive for the normal everyday person, but it is certainly a refreshing take on a tried and true game genre with a crapload of awesome music. If you dig this type of music and have the scratch to spend (see what I did there?), it’s hard to not recommend it.
Score: 4 out of 5
The Good
A fresh and entertaining new entry into the music genre.
Wide variety of music stylings, thrown together with late night bravado.
The Bad
Clearly a “first version” game… being pretty barebones in terms of features
With so much music, why do I keep hearing the same bands?
The Ugly
Twix, Sprite, and Bing advertisements at underground raves… I guess they’re sponsored now?
Writer’s Notes
Modeps is Also Known As: DJ Fire (due to his daughter’s plastic fireman’s hat)
In-game DJ Model: DJ Shadow
Stuck in head: Masta Ace – Born to Roll vs Jean Knight – Mr. Big Stuff
Recommended starting difficulty for music vets: Medium
Unexpected Distraction: Thinking you see a nude lady’s bottom out the corner of your eye and missing a crossfade.
Originally posted on Evil Avatar.
Brütal Legend (360)
Oct 13th
Let’s get this out of the way right up front. Brutal Legend is an open world game with heavy real time strategy elements… I know, some of you may not get that feeling thanks to the very linear demo presented but this is much more Giants: Citizen Kabuto than a straightforward hack n’ slasher. You’re placed into the skin of roadie Eddie Riggs, who works for a faux-metal band and feels that he should have been born in a different time. Eddie is crushed by a collapsing stage during a botched concert stunt. When a bit of his blood drips into his totally wicked belt buckle, it summons Ormagoden, a giant beast made of chrome and awesome who transports and revives Eddie into a land of Metal.
You’ll start off the game without anything on your person, but quickly locate a large axe and your guitar. The axe is your primary method of attacking and your guitar is used to basically cast magical spells. Eddie can combine the two forms of attack into different types of combos to deal out the death. Soon, you’ll build Deuce, your totally sweet ride that Eddie quickly dubbs “The Druid Plow” due to its ability to run over evil druids lead by the game’s main antagonist, Lord Doviculus (voiced by Tim Curry who seems like he’s doing a reprisal of his role in Legend). All of your implements are upgradable through the Motor Forge where you meet The Guardian of Metal (Ozzy). You can buy new combos, upgrades for Deuce and a bunch more stuff with the wold’s currency, Fire Tributes, which can be earned by hitting jumps, completing missions, and visiting a multitude of interest points throughout the world.
During your journey, you’ll encounter some well crafted characters who are also extremely well voiced. Along with Tim Curry and Ozzy Osbourne, you have Eddie Rigs who is voiced by the divisive Jack Black. You’ll also run into Rob Halford, Lemmy Kilmister, Brian Posehn, and Lita Ford as well as plenty of other interesting people as you try and stop Lord Doviculus’ evil plans. The exceptional voice work is complimented by one hell of a metal soundtrack, featuring over a hundred different songs that blend perfectly with the world. Much like other open world titles, you’ll be able to cruise along in your car and switch between what song is playing and even customize which songs are in the playlist.
Not only is the audio top notch, but the visuals are as well. The world certainly feels like some sort of heavy metal universe. You’ve got metallic spider lairs, ridiculous rock formations in the shape of guitars, a raging volcano, and a wall made up of nothing but amplifiers and speakers. Each specific location has a viewpoint you can find to get a better look at the splendor around you and it’s fairly clear that a lot of love was put into making this world what it is. Character models are well defined, detailed, animated beautifully with wonderful facial expressions, and they even managed to avoid the “dead eye” look many games have trouble with.
Considering the open world nature of Brutal Legend, one of the strange omissions is any sort of mini-map. Instead, you’re supposed to bounce to a full world map by hitting the select button to get a overview of the land and see where points of interest are around. This is most likely done to free up the screen from any sort of constant HUD while driving, but when you’re just having fun tooling around and fly off a cliff into the water because you didn’t see it coming, it’s frustrating. Instead, your primary objective is highlighted in the distance by spotlights giving you at least some indication about which direction you should be headed. If you’d like, you can drop into the full map and place a marker to highlight one of the side missions to get you aimed at that one… but marker placement is limited to specific points. You can’t just select a random spot on the map and throw down a marker to go check out what’s over there. Once your side missions are gone in a specific area, there are no guiding lights available.
In regards to the side missions, Brutal Legend falls into trappings presented by many other open world style games. You only have a handful of mission types to choose from and whenever you try a particular type, your task is the same as the last one in that grouping. You’ll engage in checkpoint races with Deuce, fight mini battles on foot or in a turret, or go on kill missions to destroy X amount of a certain animal, very standard and uninspired stuff. Not only that, but even the interaction to kick off the mission will reuse audio bits too frequently forcing you hear some Headbangers say “BAD GUYS, wanna help?” multiple times. Funny at first, hearing the same audio over and over isn’t ever fun. While there are a few deviations, in general the side missions feel largely like an after thought intended to pad the fairly short single player and really don’t add anything to the game.
Large scale battles are played out like huge rock concerts dubbed Stage Battles where you command troops to take on opposing forces, as well as get down into the thick of things to bust some heads. Brutal Legend was conceptualized as a multiplayer title, and it is clear that a lot of work has gone into this part of the game. For the most part, it works. Not only will you encounter these battles in single player, but it is the driving force behind the online component. Having no mini-map to indicate where bad guys are attacking is a bit strange at first, but then you get used to on-screen indicators that point them out. For example, the Drowning Doom faction all have rain clouds floating high above the ground so a quick spin of the camera and you’ll know where they’re coming from. Additionally, if any of your “Merch Booths” (resource gatherers) or troops are under attack, an icon will pop up in the lower right corner of the screen to let you know the general direction as to where the trouble is. Even further, you’ll eventually get the ability to zoom up into the sky and fly around the battlefield with speed.
The more resources you have, the more units you can call forth to wage war (until you hit the cap). Holding down the right bumper will bring up a radial menu allowing selection of units as well as viewing available resources. Holding down the right trigger will bring up yet another radial menu that throws you into guitar solo mode. Pick a solo and play the song much like how the Ocarina of Time worked, but using proper time instead of just hitting the proper buttons. This will build Merch Booths on top of “Fan Geysers” (which is the only construction you’ll deal with), unleash attacks, buff your troops, or even set rally points. Issuing commands is fairly simple as well. Its broken down to four directions on the D-pad which are just attack a direction, attack a point, defend, or regroup. You can also select a few units, to split off from the heard, but I felt this particular control wasn’t very accurate.
While the RTS aspects of the game are simplified from what you would find on a PC, it will certainly be a “take it or leave it” kind of thing. The single player really ramps it up slowly allowing you to get a feel for each aspect on the battlefield, but I can certainly see people being turned off by it… and considering towards the end of the game all you’re doing is engaging in these epic battles against the Tainted Coil or Drowning Doom, your enjoyment could potentially fall off after several hours of play.
It has been a long, hard road for veteran game designer Tim Schafer. Most of his games while critically applauded, never sell very well, so it’s a nice change of pace to see Electronic Arts putting a bit of marketing muscle behind this one. Much like other Schafer titles, the strongest aspects of Brutal Legend are the writing, humor, and story despite having a large emphasis on multiplayer. As long as you’re willing to overlook some annoyances and typical trappings of the open world genre, you should have a lot of fun throwing up your horns while Jack Black drives Deuce into the sunset.
Score: 4 out of 5
The Good
Exceptionally polished from top to bottom.
The story is great, as is the humor, voice acting, writing, and of course, the soundtrack.
The RTS elements have been simplified and work well on a console.
The Bad
RTS elements will really be hit or miss with people, and therefore BL may not have staying power.
Side missions are very repetitive and often not very fun.
The Ugly
Where’s my mini-map?
Writer’s Notes
Writer’s Notes
Single Player Playthrough: 7h32m
Completion at Credits: 69%
Favorite Supporting Character: The Kill Master
Worst Side Mission: Death Rack
Favorite Song while Driving the Deuce: Manowar – Die for Metal
Originally posted on Evil Avatar.
Dead Space: Extraction (Wii)
Oct 5th
With the first Dead Space, Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) had finally found something they were good at. These developers of The Simpsons Game and The Godfather: The Game had luke warm reception of their first games, but nailed it with a horror themed, isolationist third person title set inside the massive USG Ishimura. While Dead Space: Extraction remains in the horror genre, it takes a decidedly different approach and sets you along what the publisher defines as a “guided experience,” and I’m happy to report that they’ve got another hit with the Dead Space name.
This title will be easily dismissed by naysayers as “just another light gun game,” and while technically correct, it is unlike anything we’ve seen out of this type of game. While gameplay does revolves at taking down enemies by pointing your Wiimote at the screen, there are many additions here that turn it from “just another” to “the best one around.”
For starters, you get an actual inventory system, allowing you to pick up and switch between different types of guns on the fly. Your primary weapon, the Rivet Gun, has unlimited ammo but is slow to fire and reload so grabbing a plethora of other weapons is very important. You are able to carry up to four at a time, and there will be points where you’ll need to determine which weapons to keep and which to throw away. Additionally, each weapon has an upgrade mechanic which is managed by picking up items throughout the world, and an alt-fire mode which is executed by turning the Wiimote to the side and firing gangsta’ style.
Reloading will be done automatically if your weapon is empty, or you can chose to reload at any time by pressing Z. To increase tension, each weapon has a different reload time that you’ll have to deal with, but taking a page out of Gears of War, Visceral has incorporated an active reload system which, with a properly timed Z press, will give you the ability to shoot again much faster. There’s no damage boost, but trust me, being able to reload faster is all you’ll want.
Oh yeah… you even get a melee attack by waving the nunchuck a bit. This will knock the bad guys back if they get to close, as well as clear debris out of the way.
Primary abilities from the first Dead Space, Stasis and Telekinesis, are also included. Telekinesis allows you to grab items from a distance and move (as well as throw) objects in the environment, while Statis gives you a leg up on baddies by freezing them in their tracks, or stopping a fast spinning fan blade so you can move through safely.
Back also is the ever-so-popular “Strategic Dismemberment.” While most light gun games just have you shooting as fast as you can to proceed, Extraction wants you to aim for limbs and heads. Just aiming for the center mass will waste more ammo than taking off the arms and legs of your enemies. Effectively, this mechanic forces every enemy to have a weak spots that will not only help conserve ammo, but take down the Necromorphs faster. Be careful though, popping off heads may just make the enemies even angrier.
Instead of just throwing you into a meaningless firefight with a weak story, Extraction’s main focus, and what helps set it even further apart from other games in the genre, is a well thought out and executed prequel story to the events of the first Dead Space. Told from the point of view of multiple characters (all who actually talk and are well voice acted), you get to see, and take part in, what happened leading up to Issac Clarke’s rescue mission. There’s plenty of good first person storytelling going on, although to get the most out of this aspect, you’ll probably want to have played the original Dead Space. You’ll visit many of the same locations, starting out on the Aegis VII mining facility and traveling to the USG Ishimura, seeing what initially started the whole Necromorph mess in the first place. It’s totally a hard M for Mature. Foul language, blood, guts, dismemberment, and what appeared to be a quick bit of pixelated nudity. Don’t let the kids near this game.
Not all is great though, there are a few things that are irritating. For one, your on screen reticule is far too opaque and bright. When aiming at enemies that are far away, you’ll often need to shoot, move your reticle aside to see what happened, then re-aim and shoot again. While the game is supposed to be dark, I had a few issues spotting enemies in corridors because it was just TOO dark (even with the brightness turned all the way up). There can also be a bit of minor slowdown when you’re being attacked by a ton of ‘morphs.
Additional features include a drop-in/out co-op mode which gives you a second gun on the screen, score based challenge modes that are unlocked once you finish the level they are based on, four difficulty levels (two of which are unavailable from the start) and even a motion comic book story that’s worth a look. There are some interesting changes with the co-op mode, particularly with any sort of “hacking” that needs to be done. You’ll need to alternate who is doing the hacking, and who is doing the shooting, which turns a minor encounter into an exhilarating experience. Your mileage will certainly vary depending on what kind of gamer you are, some people may not even touch the challenges or the co-op, or bother replaying to see what happens down the alternate paths, but at about six and a half hours for one play through, it really is the perfect length and doesn’t outstay its welcome.
At the end of the day, this game is certainly Dead Space. Despite not being as crisp in the graphics department, or as frightening as the first, fans of the original should definitely check it out for a different bit of gameplay in the same, awesome universe. In case this is your first venture against the Necromorphs, it is still a worthy, entertaining, and well made title that will make you say “Hey, why aren’t all light gun games this awesome?”
Score: 4.5 out of 5
The Good
Great storytelling from multiple viewpoints really adds to the experience.
Fans of the original Dead Space will certainly get some loose ends tied up and get to see what happened prior to Issac Clarke’s adventure.
Excellent atmosphere, graphics, audio, and general use of the Wii’s motion capabilities.
The Bad
If you haven’t played the original Dead Space, you may not get as much out of the story.
Even with the gamma turned up or your glow worms active, it can be a bit too dark.
The Ugly
That reticule really needed to be a bit more transparent…
Need for Speed: SHIFT (360)
Oct 1st
want to start this off by saying I’m no gear head. I don’t go around looking at cars, asking about gearing ratios or turbos, “what kind of shoes does your car have on” or even “what kind of engine you got in there?” Instead, I enjoy racing games because the let me pretend to drive cars I would never get a chance to own, really fast and occasionally say “vroom vroom” to myself. So, going into Need for Speed: SHIFT, I knew I was going to generally be out of my element. The most fun I’ve had with a sim-like game in the past has been playing Bizarre Creations’ Project Gotham Racing series… which bordered on the sim line, but still kept just a bit of an arcade feel to things. You’d have to race really cleanly to get the best times but it never became ultra frustrating to do so.
Luckily with Need for Speed: SHIFT, they help you out quite a bit and it can be made to feel like PGR. You first start of the game by driving a fast car as kind of a qualifier race. What you’re really doing is having the game determine what difficulty setting you’ll be racing at and which automatic assists you’ll have enabled. There are three levels of AI to race against, and four car assist categories. Having everything turned to the easiest settings engages things like automatic braking… Yes, your car will actually hit its own brakes when it thinks you’re going to fast. Taking all the assists off, and you’re closer to the type of sim racing you’d expect out of Forza and Gran Turismo. They also provide the ever-so-popular adaptive racing line which will be green when you should accelerate, yellow when you should take your foot off the gas, and red when you should be braking. All of this stuff is customizable, so you can tune the experience however you see fit. Finally figure out that you need to brake while going into turns? Maybe kick it up to medium handling.
Throughout the game, you are constantly reminded by a disembodied British or Australian sounding man that the final goal for your driving career is to take part in, and win the Need for Speed World Championship… and that’s about all the personality you’ll get from this drab game. He talks to you before the race starts and tries to amp you up, often repeating what he says from race to race. The loading screens, which you’ll see plenty of because it has terrible load times, are flat black backgrounds with white text giving you tips about things that happen in the game. Want to find out about the Drift events? You should read the loading screens. Aggression and Precision style driving actions? Load screens. It was basically as if Slightly Mad Studios knew they were going to have to do a lot of loading and figured it would be the best time to teach you stuff, instead of letting you learn on the road or test tracks. Hey, at least every car seems to have flames shoot out of the tail pipe at some point. Fire is cool.
Visually, you’ve got nice looking places to race and real cars that are well detailed. One of the hallmark features of the game, the car interiors, was not very useful to someone like myself, simply because using the cockpit camera resulted in too much of the road being obscured. The whine of the engines sounded fine and the crunches and scrapes from trading paint and bumpers came across well. They also do some cool motion blurring at high speeds, as well as a very effective black-and-white + Gaussian-style blur effect when you crash into other cars, simulating the fact that your brain just smacked against the sides of your skull.
To progress through the game’s career mode, you have to go through four tiers of racing each requiring you to earn a certain number of stars to get to the next level. Completing races will earn you cash which you can then spend on cars and upgrades for your cars. Each of the tiers has different types of events to take place in. Some require cars that are created in a certain part of the world (ie: European Series), some have you face off against one other driver and swap cars after each round to see which car is “better” (Head to Head), and some even have you drifting along the track as much as possible. The drifting mechanic was one that I never quite grasped
In addition to all these race types, you’re eventually supposed to start looking like a “precision” or “aggression” driver due to your style. Things like ramming your opponents to get them out of the way will earn aggression points, while passing cleanly will reward you with precision points. For whatever reason, drafting is considering an aggressive move. The problem with this system is that once you bash your way to the front of the pack, there’s no one left to be aggressive to, and then you just earn precision points… which offset the aggression points. I tried quite hard to become labeled as an aggressive driver and actually couldn’t do it.
I found myself purchasing a BMW at the very beginning and upgrading it as much as possible, as opposed to selling it and buying new cars, until I broke into the third tier when that car wasn’t going to stand up to the big boys. The EA Sports sensibility shows itself wonderfully when going to buy a car and be given the option to purchase one with earned game money, or Microsoft Points. Even giving that option has rubbed me the wrong way from the time it was included in The Godfather: The Game, to now.
Along with purchasing upgrades for your car, you can add vinyls in preset patterns or custom ways, give yourself new rims, and even enter some performance tuning settings. Basically, all the features you’d expect out of your racing sim game are here, including online racing and rankings, plenty of cars, plenty of tracks.
My biggest problem with Need for Speed: SHIFT isn’t that it’s a bad game… it’s just an average one. There’s really nothing here to make it stand out. With other racing titles in a similar vein right around the corner, EA seems to have really played it safe and didn’t want to shake the trees. They’ve done what they tried to do, create a competent, but not particularly outstanding or interesting, racing game.
Score: 3 out of 5
The Good
Well detailed cars, inside and out.
Lovely looking vistas, tracks, and effects.
All the features you’d expect out of a sim-style racing title.
The Bad
A bit glitchy and weird in multiple places, with cars being able to drive under one another.
30+ second load times, even when installed to the Xbox 360 hard drive.
Nothing makes it stand out as anything more than a generic car racing game.
The Ugly
Seriously, where’s the personality? What a boring presentation.
The Beatles: Rock Band (360)
Sep 9th
When The Beatles: Rock Band introduction video was first shown at E3 2009, you could tell that Harmonix was really putting the time in to get everything right with this game… and I’m sure there’s probably a ton riding on that.
In case you’re new to the genre, gameplay is handled by multicolored musical “notes” descending an on-screen track. It’s your job to time your button presses or drum hits as they cross a horizontal bar at the bottom of the track. Alternatively, The Beatles: Rock Band allows for up to three players to take part in three part harmonies, made famous by The Beatles, singing along karaoke style. In total, up to six players can play at the same time (three vocalists, three instrumentalists).
Gone is Rock Band’s typical World Tour mode. Instead we’ve got a very methodical progression through defining moments of The Beatles career, not unlike the original Guitar Hero venue based setlist. You’ll go from the humble beginnings in The Cavern Club, perform at Shea Stadium, and ultimately finish at the Apple Corps Headquarters Rooftop (please note, this is not Apple, Inc.). Each venue is a great digital representation of these historic locations, but where the visuals really shine is when the Fab Four records at Abbey Road Studios.
You’ll spend almost half of the game inside the studio and this is where, I’d wager, most of the development time was put in. Harmonix appears to have crafted a full music video for each song presented here, most starting with the Beatles playing in a recording booth then melding into some fantastical, other worldly representation of the song’s lyrics… complete with kaleidoscopes, sunshines, and of course, men dressed like walruses. It’s beautiful and disconcerting at the same time.
Before Rock Band 2 came out, Harmonix briefly talked about including a jukebox mode, which would allow you to just turn on the game and let it play through the catalog of songs with a digital band playing out the songs. The Beatles: Rock Band unfortunately still does not include that mode, instead relying on the “Performance Mode” which just removes the note chart from your screen while you play. Considering the work put into the visual aspect of this game, it’s a bit disappointing.
While including support for three vocalists, some of the old trappings of the series are still in place. You’ll be able to start up the game with three microphones connected, but considering that the Beatles as a band consists of three guitarists and a drummer, it would have been nice to see support for three guitars as well. Additionally, if you want to have any vocals at all, you STILL need to sign in as a separate player with a standard 360 controller.
Ultimately like any other music game, the soundtrack is what truly defines it. While there are only 45 total songs here, every single one of them is a classic track from one of the best bands ever formed. If you compare it to the likes of Guitar Hero: Metallica, well… This is a huge win over that partial Metallica soundtrack (49 total songs, only 28 from Metallica). Sure, there are omissions (Where’s Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da?) but generally all the songs you would hope for are here.
Before playing Beatles, I had severe concerns that the audio quality itself wouldn’t be of wonderful quality considering when these were recorded. The originals were mostly two or four track masters and now they have to be multi-track to deal with the separate instruments in-game. I’m very happy to report though that at this point in time, that not only do they successfully split the tracks, but this is probably the best sounding Beatles material ever released.
If you’re a Beatles fan, or a music game fan… or both, you should buy this game. The music is superb, the visuals are phenomenal, and there’s a ton of fan service for Beatle-heads including unlockable photos and loading screen “never before heard” audio clips from their recording sessions. With multiple difficulty modes, tons of game specific achievements, and promises of at least three more full album downloads, there’s plenty of Beatles here that’ll keep you and your parents busy for a long, long time.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
The Good
The best audio catalog to hit any music game.
Lovingly crafted presentation and visuals from start to finish.
Watching The Beatles travel through their heyday is eye opening and impressive for those of us that weren’t alive at the time.
The Bad
Other than support for three microphones, there’s not much else new to report.
Too many people in the crowd are doppelgangers.
The Ugly
Why are there so many American teenagers in Japan’s Budokan?
Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
Sep 8th
really want to know why developers continuously rely on the ole “amnesia” trait for characters in their games. Not only is it old hat at this point, but it just feels like a lazy way to do an RPG. Luckily, that particular complaint really doesn’t mean all that much because the story of Muramasa: The Demon Blade really doesn’t mean all that much. In fact, it’s really a footnote in a very action based RPG.
Muramasa is brought to us by Japanese developer Vanillaware, who’s only standout title to this point is a PS2 ARPG called Odin Sphere. It’s a two dimensional side scrolling title exclusive to the Wii, although there’s nothing in the game that indicates that. There’s no funny waggle mechanics that don’t make sense; there’s no pointing at the screen to navigate menus. In fact, probably the only reason why this game is even on the Wii in the first place is because it is a 2D side scroller and not using super awesome 3D photorealistic visuals.
No, instead The Demon Blade opts for a more simplistic, hand drawn visual style that’s both unique and beautiful. This is a perfect example on how to make a wonderfully vibrant and gorgeous Wii game instead of forcing the expectations of the current generation onto the Wii’s userbase. At no point did I say to myself “Man, if only this was in HD it would look so much better…” because it just doesn’t need it. The audio is top notch as well using spoken Japanese for the primary dialog with English subtitles, and an overall delightful soundtrack.
To start things off, you’ll get to choose between one of two playstyles, and one of two main characters. Choosing the “simple” mode will let your character auto parry attacks, generally making the game much less entertaining and more button mashy. Opting for “advanced” controls on the other hand makes you actively block all the incoming attacks, and causes battles to be more challenging and rewarding. The two protagonists are Momohime, a young girl that gets possessed by swordsman’s spirit, and Kisuke, a ninja on the run for a crime he just doesn’t remember (amnesia!). The characters start out on opposite sides of a rather large world map and can wield three swords from their arsenal as well as one piece of equipment but other than story and model differences, they’re effectively the same removing some of the drive to play through as each.
Gameplay is handled by running from story point to story point, often taking time out to slice and dice some bad guys. When you have to fight, a large exclamation point will appear on the screen and your play area will be somewhat gated off, as if you were entering into a fighting arena. Dispatch your foes with easy-to-use controls, and you can keep moving on. Die, and there’s no real penalty so you’ll get to try it again or even bypass it.
At first, the controls can feel a bit weak and out of your control. I spent a large portion of time just hammering on the A button and pressing towards my enemies until I learned some of the nuances which started making my hundred-hit combos feel like I was actually earning them. Due to the lack of death penalty, the game doesn’t really force you to get any better, you’ll have to figure that out on your own (or by reading this review). Additionally, while the combat system does get better the more you use it, eventually you’ll plateau and it will lose it’s luster potentially landing you into overly repetitive zone.
Taking out bad guys earns you experience, spirits, and items which go to improve your character. You do gain character levels, although you don’t really have control over that. It’ll just up your stats and hit points for you on a fixed basis, but that’s not really a problem thanks to the forge system.
Each time you take out bosses and challenge enemies, you’ll get a brand new blade. Swords are broken up into two types, either long or regular. Longer swords have more range and deal more damage, but are much slower making your misses that much more painful while regular swords are quick, but have less range and deal less damage. Each sword you obtain from an enemy will fit into what equates to a tech tree found in your pause menu. You’ll be able to utilize your obtained swords to create new swords by spending souls and spirit which you obtain by dispatching enemies and eating mass quantities of food. Obtaining new swords and forging new ones is a highly addicting system. Not only do you get more powerful, but each sword has a unique feel to it as well as a special ability (magic). While you’re never sure what you’re gonna get till you get it, it’s a ton of fun to try out your new blades. Additionally, the two playable characters share portions of this sword tree forcing each to obtain a specific blade in each before you can forge the next in line. It’s not a requirement to do this, but you certainly get incentivized to do so.
The biggest drawbacks to Muramasa are its repetitive nature and the amount of pointless backtracking you’ll need to do. Sometimes after taking down a boss, you’ll have to work your way back many unpopulated screens you just fought through to go to a different map branch. It’s completely unnecessary except to get the point across that, hey, you’re going back where you came from to go somewhere else. If you can overlook these few low points, you’ll find a game that’s beautiful, entertaining, and quite addictive. You can easily spend 8+ hours with each character, and plenty more trying to get all the blades. Now, lets see about getting those last few for Momohime…
Score: 4 out of 5
The Good
Hallmark example of how to make a great looking Wii game.
Addicting collection and forging system for your blades.
Simple yet deep and engaging fighting system.
The Bad
Even with the mirrors, there’s too much pointless backtracking.
For an ARPG, the story is unfulfilling
The Ugly
Yo! Where’s my map-based fast travel?
Shadow Complex (360)
Aug 25th
Jason Flemming: he is no one, and he his everyone. He is also your main character in Shadow Complex, the last title in the Summer of Arcade line of games for 2009. Created by Chair Entertainment (part of Epic Games and of Undertow fame), Shadow Complex actually takes place within the Empire universe made famous by Orson Scott Card… although there’s little here that makes that apparent.
After a brief “Look at all the stuff you’ll be able to do later!” segment, the real game kicks off while you are on a hike with a pretty young lady. She goes on ahead then disappears while you follow her trail. Jason is presented as your normal, everyday fellow… thrown into an extraordinary situation and takes it upon himself to stop a rogue group of terrorists, called the Progressive Restoration, from starting the second Civil War (somehow). The story here is not spoon fed to you, and you’re always left without that omniscient feeling. You only see and hear what Jason sees and hears and are better off for it.
Jason is so ill-equipped for the task that he doesn’t even start off the game with a gun… but why would you if you’re on a hike? Instead, you get a flashlight and some climbing gear while you head into the enemy base tucked away in a underground cavern. The only superhuman thing about Jason is that he doesn’t take damage from long falls. Instead, as you progress and explore Shadow Complex’s rather large map, you’ll find new gadgets to make yourself a little better here and there. You’ll find numerous gun upgrades, secondary fire modes, a mini booster jetpack and more. Most of these upgrades will allow you to access previously unavailable areas of the map. Additionally, exploring and taking down enemies earns you XP in-game, and at each level increase you’ll improve even more with accuracy and health upgrades among others.
The combination of gear pickups and experience based leveling is really one of the strong points here. It never feels like a grind to get to the next level, instead you are always improving yourself in a more gradual progression instead of a stepped one. Furthermore, you can earn achievements for performing a specific number of enemy takedowns which are all tracked on the game’s leaderboard system. Once you hit the “achievement” level, sure you’ll unlock the achievement, but you’re still competing with your friends to see who can melee the most baddies, or get the most headshots. It’s a great little meta system.
Using the Unreal Engine, Shadow Complex is really quite a great looking Xbox Live Arcade game, and arguably the best looking out of them all. The mountainside are lush, animations are smooth, and there are no load times once the game gets going. Additionally, while at it’s core is a 2D platformer, every bit of the game has some depth to it, some of which force you to attack enemies that are in the background.
While it looks good, SC lacks much of the character found in the games it borrows from… you’re just running and gunning like some generic dude. There are also several glitches which really detract from the immersion, like running up to an enemy to melee him, and clipping through the wall, or not having a specific animation kick in when you’re trying to wall jump. I even had one point where I had to restart the game thanks to an audio loop getting stuck. There are other points as well where the 3D elements don’t seem to make sense… Why do I have to jump off a landing when there are stairs right there?
Shadow Complex borrows just about everything it has from the 15 year old Super Metroid, the exploration and map, to the carbon copy weapon and ability upgrades. It does little to innovate on the formula, but that doesn’t make it bad at all. Shadow Complex is a solid, great looking “Metroid-vania” game that could have spent some more time in the cooker to iron out some weird glitches that take place. Most importantly, it is a fun game. If you’ve ever played post-Symphony of the Night Castlevania titles, or Super Metroid, you know what you should expect here and can decide if you want to do it again or not. Those of you who haven’t, give it try and see why exploration games of this ilk has become beloved by many over the years.
Score: 4 out of 5
The Good
Visually, one of the best Xbox Live Arcade titles available
Entertaining, tried and true, exploration and upgrade gameplay
If you’re a completionist, this game will keep you busy for a long, long time
The Bad
Quirky bugs detract from the overall experience
Lacks some charm found in similar games of it’s kind
The Ugly
Did Chair just copy and paste portions out of Super Metroid? Let’s try to change things up a bit more next time.