RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘review’

The Last of Us

18 Nov

The-Last-of-Us-2

Last week I’ve finished “The Last of Us”… and (shocking surprise) it’s amazing!

First impact: the graphics… gorgeous rendering, very nice effects all around, the interplay of light and surfaces is amazing, a great work by Naughty Dog!

Secondly, the story is great… gone are the usual clichés, every single time you thought the story was going cliché, it subtly made a smooth turn that made complete sense (instead of the jarring plot twist that makes no sense whatsoever) and navigated to less-mainstream themes…

The characters are amazing, and Ellie is actually a character that instills a sense of protection, without being the normal overbearing entitled child present in too many games, TV shows and movies…

Joel is a more “common” character, but it’s well written and very believable.

When I started playing, I thought “ok, this is pretty and is well made, but why is everyone so in to it?!”… well, after 3 or 4 hours (the game is surprisingly big for a AAA game nowadays: I clocked in at 17 hours, just for the main campaign), I noticed that I actually cared about the characters… and I’m not a very "”lovey-dovey” guy, I don’t usually don’t get hooked on characters that much…

The only thing that detracts from the game (and it’s not really its fault, maybe it’s the medium’s fault) is the gameplay doesn’t shine as much as everything else… While it plays well, it’s secondary to the amazing story, and besides some key points (very good key points, I admit), it was just getting in the way of me getting my next “story fix”… The gameplay wasn’t simply as interesting as the story, which means that either the story was so good I wanted to focus on that (entirely possible), or the gameplay wasn’t that interesting, which might also be true – the stealth component seemed too random (sometimes the enemies would spot us through crates and walls, sometimes we’d be just next to them and they wouldn’t see us) which made the whole stealth experience a bit trial and error… The shooting was a bit hard and ammo was scarce (which is a good thing, it gives the game that feeling of post-apocalyptical shortage everywhere, and really poked the player to search around for stuff)…

So, sorry Mike Bithell, but “Thomas Was Alone” was just supplanted as my game of the year… it’s still amazing (and the gameplay is probably better), but this one is so nihilist that it speaks into my very soul! Smile

Good job, Naughty Dog, forget about Uncharted and go for this kind of titles all the way… Or do both, I don’t care! Smile

 
No Comments

Posted in Games

 

Devil May Cry

11 Nov

2D Boxshot Wizard v1.1

Devil May Cry is a household name in games… It’s known for its over-the-top style, explosions, extensive combo system, and horror-based storyline. And the newest installment (DMC) does not break a winning formula!

The good part of this new game is that the basic formula is untouched: action oriented shooting, fast passed combat, very deep combo system… Just general fun to be had in the gameplay part.

The problem starts when the game starts: action in the beginning is scarce, being interrupted with exposure cutscenes that do little to add to the game (to the contrary, they detract from it, for reasons that I’ll explore later). And even when the cutscenes stop, the game drops into a “weak-enemy, weak-enemy, weak-enemy, strong-enemy” pattern that after a bit gets old.

The closest match on this approach would be God of War, but even that one made up for it with huge boss fights and more interesting deaths/enemy patterns.

Anyway, that’s not my main gripe with DMC… The characters are.

Dante was never a good character, very flat, almost unlikeable, and surrounded by a world so over-the-top that identification with the character was almost impossible… On this installment, the problem got a bit worse: the character is REALLY annoying… He seems like a stereotypical representation of a brooding, angsty teenager written by someone who did all his research from sitcoms on TV… The character is not believable from the start, and its growth happens in a way that makes you believe it even less!

Add this to the fact that the game doesn’t break cannon that much (even if it is a reboot), so there’s no surprises about Dante’s past that me as a player want to explore.!

All that’s left is four characters that are as archetypes as they can be, with terrible writing that seems straight out of a nerd kid’s diary, a power-fantasy in which he rebels against his bullies (personified by the demons in the game)…

Don’t get me wrong, the game is fun, and it has excellent moments (some plays with camera field of view, and environmental morphs are really good!), but the writing is so terrible at times, it makes me want to cringe in pain!

 
No Comments

Posted in Games

 

Mars War Logs

30 Sep

mars-war-logs

Just finished “Mars: War Logs”, and I wanted to share some impressions about the game…

At first glance, this is a gorgeous RPG, a bit in the vein of “Mass Effect” (more action/combat oriented)… The story takes place in a post-colonization Mars, where war is raging between guilds for control of the water.

There’s also “Technomancers” to give the extra “magic-feel” to this sci-fi RPG…

The atmosphere is very good, everything being gritty (instead of the usual clean look of space operas), and some of the visuals are very pretty… It might get old after a bit (budgets stretch only that far), but it never became a deal breaker…

The dialogues are relatively well written, and the voice acting is pretty good…

Combat is action-oriented, and it has some interesting ideas (dodging, for example)… but here the game starts showing its issues. I think the balancing is really off, because the usual solution to any fight to make it harder is to add enemies to it (instead of smarter/more powerful ones). This wouldn’t be a problem by itself, if it wasn’t the fact they did a very questionable design decision: every time you get hit, the ability you had underway gets cancelled… this means that you spent most of the end fights “stun-locked”, which is quite annoying (you’re not playing, you’re just waiting for a small opening so you can do something)… Making the ability take longer when under attack would have been preferable, in my opinion…

The other questionable part is the story and characters… The characters are exceptionally cliché (which is kind of annoying considering the work in making the rest of the world feel less cliché)… This by itself wouldn’t be that bad, if it wasn’t the fact that they decided to follow the “Mass Effect” route of “romantically entanglements”, but since the characters are so “bland”, it doesn’t look probable and it kind of spoils my suspension of disbelief.

Considering that this game doesn’t have the budget of a “Mass Effect”, it is an extraordinary achievement and it might lead itself to a good series, hopefully fixing what’s wrong with it in the first place…

On another note, the game led me to think about sexism in games… the industry is abuzz with it, so when I was playing this game I was caught thinking about it… The female characters in this game are all extremely weak (we’ve got two prostitutes, one “freedom-fighter” with a heart of gold, and a weirdo sexy technomancer that thrives on open-sexuality), but it had the potential to be much better… the writing skills are there (most of the game writing seem quite natural, which is good), but the cliché annoyed me a bit (even if I don’t normally think about that very much, call me privileged)…

Anyway, I’d recommend this game if you like solid RPG that aren’t mainstream opus that take forever to finish!

 
No Comments

Posted in Games

 

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom

14 May

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom Xbox 360

Finished playing “Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom” this weekend, I got to admit it is a pretty nifty title…

When it came out, I was probably busy with a whole lot of games and I ignored it (although the art always fascinated me)… I picked it up some months ago in a bargain bin, and I managed to play it this last week…

My first reaction is that the game is like Enslaved: a good title lost because of too many games out there and not that much media attention…

“Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom” is a family-friendly third person adventure, in which the player controls one character (the human) and can give some limited commands to the Majin, resulting in a somewhat cooperative gameplay experience.

Thankfully, there’s none of those usual issues in this kind of co-op gameplay (dodgy AIs doing more harm then good, etc)… You actually have to use Majin and his abilities to overcome puzzles and obstacles, which the game has his fair share. Combat is almost secondary, but it requires it to use the Majin… You can do the fights on your own, but they’re extremely hard that way…

The art of the game is gorgeous, giving you the fairy-tale feel that suits the game… Sound and music is good, but some of the dialogues are pretty flaky (thankfully only on the secondary characters, the main characters have decent writing and voicing).

The game follows the structure of a Metroidvania game, in which you acquire powers that allow you to access parts of the game that were previously unreachable.

My only real complaint about the game is the power-up and upgrade system. The upgrades feel “tacked-on”, with no real relevance (they have, I guess, but you don’t feel it). The power up is noticeable when you get back to the starting areas (lots of backtracking on this one), but the game’s difficulty scales up so uniformly with the power-ups that you really don’t feel it as well. The finishing move combos (that you keep getting upgrades) also feels empty and non-important.

All in all, “Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom” is a pretty fun experience, if third-person adventures are your cup of tea… It’s not as “epic” as an Uncharted game, but the story finishes being more emotional and with real fairy-tale moments that I enjoy immensely. 8/10

 
No Comments

Posted in Games

 

Batman: Arkham City

02 Nov

batman-arkham-city-post-2

Spent two days finishing this awesome game…

Like its predecessor, “Batman: Arkham City” is a 3rd person action adventure game, with some (easy) puzzles. The game follows in the wake of the events of “Batman: Arkham Asylum”, but does everything that one did right, and some more stuff…

The game has a nice story (although I think it becomes a bit contrived closer to the end), good boss fights, amazing visuals and animation (specially the animation) and small touches that bring a smile to my face.

The most important difference between this one and the last is the fact that the player is no longer confined to small areas… In Arkham City, you can navigate a city-sized area at will, finding side quests and collectables in large quantities. You can play at your own pace, spreading your attention between the side quests and the main storyline, although at the end you can continue playing after the main story has finished, to get those extra collectibles, get some more tidbits of Gotham history or just finishing the side-quests.

Side-quests are very interesting, giving some depth to some lesser known villains in the Batman lore, like Zsasz or Deadshot. It’s nice investigating things and looking around, although I think the game could have used some more of these (and less of the Riddler things).

Animation is the definite highlight of the game, in my opinion, with the flow-form combat system (already present in the previous title) just polished up and with more options… Combat feels very visceral and never feels “too easy”… You can just have defeated Bane or some other big boss, and get your ass kicked by 4 or 5 roaming guys in the streets, if you don’t pay attention and drop your guard, which makes everything feel more Batman-y… After all, he doesn’t have any super-powers, he just has his iron will, right?

All the expected gadgets are present, along with some new (and mainly pointless ones)… The RPG-kind of system where you upgrade your skills and gear is silly (in my opinion, of course), with no real options opening up… Most of the combos are hard enough to do without needing to “level up” to get them… seems silly and out of place in an action based game like this one, and I wish developers stopped using this gimmick to give the player a sense of progress…

The environment feel very Batman, with the dark and scummy side of Gotham taking the lead in the visual presentation… The city feels alive and large, but not boring.

Special mention to the fact that, as the night progresses, Batman’s suit becomes more damaged… it’s like the beatings he’s taking, etc, are really taking its toll, which is awesome… “Arkham Asylum” already had this features, and it really helps sell the concept…

“Batman: Arkham City” is must have in any game collection, in my opinion… it’s probably the best super-hero game ever done, and it has enough to keep most players busy for some days. Rocksteady have really excelled, taking the good parts of “Batman: Arkham Asylum” and just polishing them up until they’re even better, without adding excessive fluff! 10/10

 
No Comments

Posted in Games