First Impressions: Need for Speed

I simply can’t find a racing game as good as Need for Speed Most Wanted (the first one). Hundreds of hours were put into customizing rides and taking down the baddest racers in the city. I had so many cars in my garage that I had filled it up, and I had to create another save file, because I just couldn’t part with my creations. I spent many Sunday mornings racing around in my fully-upgraded Lotus Elise for the fun of it. I’ve been searching for a racing game to match the glory days of Most Wanted ever since I moved on to my PS3. The latest excursion in my search is 2015’s Need for Speed ‘reboot.’ I snagged it on the PSN during the month long holiday sale, and I waited until I got the platinum for Ratchet and Clank A Crack in Time and Oxenfree before I jumped in, because I thought I wouldn’t be able to pull myself away once I started. I couldn’t have been more wrong. After only playing a couple hours, I’m relieved I only paid five bucks for this one. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to finish it, and I’m already setting my sights on what looks like an easy platinum. However, I’m not looking forward to all the frustration and further disappointment that awaits.

I must confess, I don’t usually get my hopes up for racing games, and I don’t buy many at all. I typically assume that most will just be disappointing. Need for Speed’s low price tag was the major factor in my interest in it. Reviews made the game out to seem pretty fun or average, but the complaints they made weren’t things that really mattered to me. The nighttime driving looked reminiscent of the old Need for Speed Underground games that sparked my love for customizing cars and leaving the competition in the dust. While the graphics of those older games may be laughable now, they did one thing that I completely took for granted: it kept the cars clean. 2015’s Need for Speed is a great looking game that commits to a certain degree of realism. Part of that realism is the mud that gets on your car from driving in the almost constant rainfall. It ruins the effect of having a car that had a lot of time put into its design. I don’t want mud covering up the decals I spent ten minutes aligning just perfectly. On top of the mud is the damage that happens to your car when you inevitably ram into something or someone. The only time I’ve seen my car in nice condition is while I’m customizing it or right after I pull it out of the garage. Otherwise, it’s covering in scrapes, dings, and mud. It makes me wonder why I should bother putting the time into the customization feature at all. I was really hyped for going into some deep customization mechanics, so I’m deeply disappointed that I’m feeling this way.

I’m also frustrated. I lost the first four or so races I attempted, which seemed really bizarre to me. Every arcade racing game I’ve played practically gives you the first few to help you get used to the mechanics. This game has me resisting the urge to punch my screen because I can’t win the races that are labeled as “easy” on the map. Trust me, at first I thought I was just bad at the game at first, but a Google search showed me that there are a lot of complaints revolving around this issue in the gaming community. From my perspective, the game seems to have an unbalanced AI. I will easily fly by my opponents one minute and have them cruise by me like they suddenly received an upgrade the next. This often happens near the end of races when I have no hope of catching up–regardless of if I’m going top speed or not. Then there’s the issue of the “Drift Train” races–an admittedly interesting concept where racers need to stick as a group through a race in order to score big on their drifts. Whoever receives the most points by the end wins. I think this is a cool idea. What’s more satisfying than seeing six cars drifting around corners in perfect unison? Well if you think that’s satisfying then you’re going to be sorely disappointed by these races. If you’re even able to stick with the group you’ll be rammed by racers around you–effectively ruining your drift and preventing you from scoring on that turn. I don’t mean, “oops, I accidentally got in that other guy’s way.” I mean, “that guy just abandoned the concept of getting a high score in order to ram me out of my chances of winning.” I’m not talking human players trolling me. I’m talking about the AI here.

I know this article sounds like a big rant, but I can’t help but be a little passionate about this one. I love Need for Speed! The last thing I want is for the series to be rebooted with what’s already turning out to be a weak game. The FMV scenes are a nice touch though. It’s nostalgic to experience them again, as Most Wanted was the last Need for Speed I played that had them. They’re corny and the acting is hilarious, but I can’t help but enjoy them to some degree. Unfortunately, that’s all I can positively say about the cast, because they endlessly bombard you with calls regardless of whether you’re in a race or not. It’s very irritating! On top of that, my first couple of hours have been peppered with tutorial messages that completely cover the screen, and they don’t pause the game when they appear either. Twice now I’ve been in a race or just driving somewhere and a random message pops up blocking my view. This whole situation just kind of sucks. I don’t even like to drive to events anymore, because they force you to be facing the right way to initiate an event, and I somehow always manage to show up from the wrong way. So many issues are taking the fun out of this title for me. I hope I’m wrong and I’m making preemptive assumptions here. Maybe I’ll hop back on this weekend and realize that Need for Speed is actually a really fun game that I can’t get enough of. I sincerely wish for that to happen. If it actually will is up in the air until I can find time between work, class, homework, and writing.

What do you think? Do you dig my initial thoughts, or have you played Need for Speed and think I’m being too hasty with my judgement? Let me know in the comments below.

In Retrospect: Batman Arkham Asylum

It’s easy to just finish a game and move on to the next one. It bothers me sometimes. I mean, sure, I spend several hours getting the trophies or achievements for a game, and I typically really enjoy that time I spend. I think it’s also helpful to look back on a game after a while and consider what did or didn’t work for it. That’s the point of this writing: to look back on games I may have beaten a couple days or a couple years ago and think about what I liked or hated about them. I decided to start with Batman Arkham Asylum since I was fresh off the heels of writing an article about completing the series. I didn’t go back and play the game. I feel it’s better to think back on the game with what memories I have rather than replacing them with more recent ones.

The thing about Arkham Asylum is that it felt so ahead of its time to me. At the time, I don’t think I had ever played a game that just nailed the atmosphere so appropriately. Everything from the island itself to the characters running around it built this pressure cooker of insanity that inevitably erupts at the end. The Scarecrow segments in particular made the game feel so hopeless. Sometimes the only hope I had of getting through the madness was that I was the Batman–a trump card in any scenario. As the game went on, I built up confidence in my ability to take on the seemingly more powerful enemies. I learned how to tell when Scarecrow was trying to pull a fast one. I mastered fighting the seemingly endless thugs that populated the facilities. It was the perfect initial Batman experience. My first playthrough took me a bit longer than most, I would bet. I took a while navigating some segments. Something frustrating then that is hilarious now was when I was trying to track down Jim Gordon by following a trail of what he puts in his pipe. I lost the trail at one point and must have spent fifteen irritating minutes trying to pick it back up. Oh, silly young Jonathan. How far you’ve come.

If I returned to play Arkham Asylum, I would undoubtedly find it to be lacking in variety after playing its sequels. However, at the time it had incredible depth. Being stealthy and taking out a room full of armed thugs was exhilarating to pull off and pounding through a dozen with my bare fists was even better. I do recall having some moments with combat where it let me down, but I can’t exactly remember what happened. I suppose it simply wasn’t bad enough to be memorable. Hanging upside down from gargoyles as thugs patrolled beneath was one of my favorite tricks. I also deeply enjoyed stringing one up by hit ankle and cutting him down with a batarang as another thug ran over to investigate the terrified screams of his comrade. Combat as well was so much fun that I could just play the endless challenge mission over and over again for hours into the night before forcing myself to get some sleep. Even the consequence of dying was intriguing, as several different taunts were issued by the corresponding villain that finally beat the bat. It was kind of fun to see all the different villains stepping out of the darkness to get in a last cheeky blow before the continue screen. At least, it was fun until Bane got me, and I was treated to a short clip of him slamming Batman’s limp corpse over his knee. Yikes.

That was a scene that really stuck with me. It made me want to never ever see a game over screen in Arkham Asylum ever again. Sure, I’d seen it in the comics, but it was so brutal to see it play out like it does in the game. It reminded me of what was at stake. Since games are generally about entertainment, sometimes it’s easy for me to forget any sense of weight to the narrative. Even one of Joker’s, where he thanks Gotham and says he’ll be seeing them very soon, is incredibly disheartening. It reminded me that I’m not just fighting for the sake of fighting. I’m fighting because I’m the Batman, and I have the responsibility to protect the innocent from lunatic criminals such as the Joker or Scarecrow. While gliding around and effortlessly taking out thugs were great, it was this weight of the world on my shoulders that truly made me feel like the Batman.

The cast of characters and their excellent portrayal was so cool to see at the time. Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn were frightening but made strangely attractive, Bane’s veins coursed green with his Venom injections, and the Joker had his classic purple getup. I just think it’s so perfect how these characters’ designs strike a balance between realism and their cartoonish roots. I thought the models were amazing until Arkham Knight came along and any returning characters received a serious makeover. At that point I could see how some characters looked a bit… exaggerated I think is the right word? Regardless, they stuck with me, and when I think of Batman or his dark rogues gallery, I tend to think of the Arkham interpretations of them. The design of Arkham Island itself was also well done. One would think that the entire island would just be more of the same after a while, but Rocksteady somehow managed to bring variety to each location. They took advantage of the facilities by putting most of the objectives in different buildings around the island. However, the island itself looked solid with its lush greenery that you wouldn’t typically imagine when thinking about an island housing the criminally insane. Inside all the buildings were winding hallways and multiple grates and vents to sneak around in. Many different avenues of approaching situations were provided to give the player a little breathing room. Anything heavily scripted tended to be more of a lesson on how to use a new gadget or something.

In the end, little can be found to dislike about Arkham Asylum. Many of its mechanics and designs were improved upon in the sequel, but I have no doubt that I could easily go back and play this fantastic foundation to what became an astoundingly good series of games. I’m sure it feels a little constricting after playing in the expansive playgrounds of Arkham City and Knight, but Asylum still offers a confined, anxiety-inducing look at Batman’s notorious villains and the place they might as well call home. What do you think of Arkham Asylum? Did you also think it was amazing when you first played it, or were you unable to really get into the series until a later title? Maybe you haven’t played any of them! Please share your thoughts below in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Oxenfree Review

Sometimes, you just don’t need unique gameplay mechanics and amazing graphics to have a solid video game. Oxenfree is a prime example of what can be accomplished through strong dialogue and character building. These games typically stick with me long after an epic AAA title has lost its impact. I’ve only been done with my first playthrough of Oxenfree for a few hours now, and I can already tell that this is definitely a game with impact–impact that lasts long after the initial completion of the story.

You play as Alex, a teenage girl with a new stepbrother named Jonas. The game takes place on an abandoned island where Alex, Jonas, and a group of friends meet to have a party. As can be expected, nothing goes quite as expected and an event occurring near the beginning of the game results in a situation that quickly spirals out of control for this group of adolescents who are clearly out of their depth. The premise of Oxenfree is admittedly generic on paper, which was something I feared from reading and watching reviews before springing for it. I assure you that this is a story that has much more depth than just a creepy tale of a bunch of teenagers being scared on an island for a night. When given a chance, Oxenfree has a lot to offer if the player is willing to put skepticism aside. Gameplay consists of controlling Alex as she walks around the island and talking with her group. Many dialogue choices appear throughout the game, and I’m still unsure of just how many actually have a profound effect on the narrative. Alex also has a radio, which is a vital piece of equipment in this story. Dialing it to different frequencies is an important mechanic that reveals secrets and is often necessary for progress. No unique mechanics are at play on the surface of Oxenfree, but it does like to flip things on their head from time to time.

Part of that aforementioned skepticism may lie in the art direction of the title, which still images simply don’t do justice. The island almost looks like its painted right on the screen as you walk around it, and it brought back memories of Final Fantasy VII’s design, but Oxenfree really pulls it off much better. The character models look decent enough, but they’re purposefully kept rather distant from the camera so any blemishes in their design are hard to notice anyway. Oxenfree is really a beautiful game that has some cool effects. It uses clever design to make use of what little it has to work with. On that note, the soundtrack is incredible. The music is a really chill, electronic mix that is sometimes complimented by more dramatic tones to fit the mood. I think I downloaded it to my phone before I even started the game. The voice acting is equally impressive. Oxenfree took the dialogue aspect of the game seriously, as the game revolves directly around the conversations had between characters whether they’re one the screen or not. It just feels really natural and some characters are even appropriately annoying–not because the acting is bad but because acting sells them as annoying for a purposeful reason.

Oxenfree runs for about 5 hours in a single playthrough, and honestly, I don’t know if it would be worth the full price for that. However, there’s much more to be found after you beat the game the first time. Many secrets can be found that can directly affect the story, and multiple endings are waiting to be discovered. The game is so short that the additional playthroughs are more of a delight than a bummer. Plus the story ties in logical reasoning for these extra runs through the game. It wasn’t until I started over that I realized that Oxenfree really accomplishes something special that I hadn’t seen in a game for quite a while. Normally I play through a game again for collectibles and trophies, but I’m dedicated to learning all I can about this creepy tale, even if that means spending ten more hours playing through it two more times. I really can’t recommend this one enough unless you’re more of an action game person. That won’t be found here. What will be found is a sobering tale about a girl and her friends spending the night on an abandoned island. Over and over again.

My Completion of the Arkham Trilogy

How wonderful is the Batman Arkham trilogy? Seriously? Who knew that the surprise hit Arkham Asylum would become such a classic and snowball into two more fantastic games. I know I’ve deeply enjoyed my time with the series on the narrative, gameplay, and design levels. The series has also been quite challenging. Not in the sense of the campaign, but rather in the sense that I made it my business to get the platinum trophy for each entry across my Playstation consoles. That business brought me some great and terrible times, and now that I’ve finally completed Arkham Knight, I wanted to reflect on what a great series Rocksteady made and remember the frustration and satisfaction that came from getting that sweet platinum trophy for each.

I still remember the incredible trailer for Arkham Asylum like it was yesterday. The game was released on the heels of The Dark Knight film, if I remember correctly, and my Batman hype was through the roof. I don’t think I had my PS3 yet, but I still kept up with all the latest gaming news through Game Informer magazines I read at the library. It would be a couple years before I was able to play Arkham Asylum, and it was far too long a wait. The game looked incredible. The combat was the smoothest and most satisfying of any game I had ever played. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill voiced the Batman and the Joker, which was like reliving my childhood all over again as they voiced the characters in the classic animated series. Arkham Asylum had check marks across the board from me as I played it. I had thought Batman Begins was the greatest Batman game, but Arkham Asylum blew it out of the water.

A game’s appeal can waver for me as I start working towards the platinum trophy. Depending on the title (and trophies) it can really turn into a grind or playing through a game multiple times (…Nier…), which really puts a game’s strengths to the test. Sure, a game is fun for the twenty or so hours you spend beating the story, but is it still fun when you’ve spent sixty working for the platinum? For Arkham Asylum the answer was yes. I think I remember Asylum the most fondly as far as the platinum is concerned because the challenge was relatively simple. A playthrough of the game will net a significant chunk of the trophy list that are story based, while many others can be obtained through natural play. There are more troublesome trophies that involve running around the asylum grabbing collectibles, but I don’t remember tiring of the game because of it. What I do remember getting tired of were the predator challenge maps. For those of you who don’t know, every Arkham game comes with challenges that test the player’s skill in combat and stealth. Each of these challenges has stars that can be obtained from doing well, and all these stars are needed in order to obtain a trophy in Arkham Asylum. The combat challenges simply require a certain high score in order to nab the three stars–nothing a little practice won’t solve. The stealth maps are another story. They require the player to take out thugs in very particular ways in order to get the stars, and all these particular takedowns need to happen in one attempt. These challenges start out relatively simple, but the later ones are a bear to get through. One challenge I distinctly remember required me to takedown three different thugs by blowing up three different weak walls at the same time. This meant that I had to spray each wall with an explosive gel and try to get three thugs to line up perfectly. A couple attempts meant waiting for nearly thirty minutes for the magic moment to happen. Besides this particular trophy, Arkham Asylum was a blast to play through.

For everything that Arkham Asylum did right (which was a lot), its sequel Arkham City surpassed it. Not often does a sequel successfully improve on everything that came before it. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sequel quite as successful as Arkham City, and this is from the guy who logged at least 400 hours into Kingdom Hearts 2. The combat and stealth gameplay were smoother than ever before. Batman was put in a much larger and more open environment and was given an incredibly unique and fun way to glide around the city. The music was perfect with its dark, brooding tones and sounded like something straight out of a movie. The story was outstanding and had me hooked from start to finish, and last but not least the sidequests offered to lengthen the playtime of the game significantly as they challenged the player to hunt down villains from Batman’s rogue gallery. I easily spent a couple hundred hours in Arkham City and writing about it right now makes me want to pop it in for a victory lap. I suppose that would be a second victory lap though.

In my opinion, Arkham City is the height of the trilogy because it had the most perfect balancing and consistent gameplay mechanics. This also goes for the trophies. Just like Asylum, playing through the story grants several trophies. There aren’t nearly as many that can be earned through natural play, but that means there were more than plenty to be earned through collectibles, sidequests, and challenges. I possibly spent more time in the challenge maps than I did the actual campaign. Not because of trophies, but because I frequently returned to some of the combat maps just for the fun of it. Some of the stealth challenges were pretty difficult–even more so than in Asylum, as playable characters such as Robin and Catwoman had their own challenges to be beaten, and they didn’t have the same abilities as Batman, which made them more difficult. However the most time-consuming trophy to be found in Arkham City has to be finding the Riddler who has once again riddled the environment with riddles and puzzles. The majority of these items are relatively simple, though I did have to look up the solutions to a couple from time to time. The problem is that it takes so freaking long to get them all. Part of this issue is that you have to find and interrogate the Riddler’s informants throughout Arkham City to reveal the locations of the riddles. Sometimes this meant gliding around for several minutes trying to find that one thug on the street who’s glowing green and interrogating him after beating up anyone else hanging around him without accidentally knocking out the informant himself. Granted, the actual interrogations were a ton of fun, so I didn’t mind too much. But it was a pretty taxing grind to get all these trophies. Solving the riddles themselves were pretty fun in the end, and I don’t regret the two times I spent getting all of them. Yep. After beating the game on New Game Plus for a trophy, I couldn’t resist but finish things off by getting the rest of the riddles done. That’s the mark of a good game. I miss it.

I, like many others, try to pretend that Batman Arkham Origins doesn’t exist. The “third” entry is a disappointing one in an otherwise amazing series. Origins wasn’t developed by Rocksteady, so I’m not counting it for the topic of this writing. I haven’t actually gotten all the trophies for it, because I played a friend’s copy and didn’t care to buy my own afterward. So lastly, is Arkham Knight. I have such a love-hate relationship with Arkham Knight. On the one hand, it is one of the most visually impressive games I’ve played on my PS4, it has what I believe to be a great story, and it really makes you feel like the Batman when you’re screaming through the streets of Gotham. On the other hand, Arkham Knight loses that balance and consistency I felt City maintained so well. I disagree with the many who say Knight has the best combat in the series. I will agree it has the most variety and it hands down looks the coolest, but I couldn’t trust it to play by the rules that the game set. This idea is hard to explain, and I don’t want to get into it here. Lets just say that Arkham Knight didn’t quite match Arkham City, but it is still a fantastic game that any fan of the series should enjoy. I had the biggest dumb grin on my face as I tore up the streets in the Batmobile for the first time. Such a great experience, even if it doesn’t live up to my possibly outrageous expectations.

I’m ashamed that I have yet to completely finish the trophies for Arkham Knight. I’ve gotten the platinum for the base game, and I’ve gotten all the trophies for the DLC except one pack. One accursed, wretched pack of trophies that I will possibly never obtain, because it’s so ridiculously frustrating. The Community Challenge Pack. These trophies were purposefully created to challenge the community, and they do exactly that. Not in the ultimately fun, “this is crazy difficult, but I know I can get it” way. No. It’s in the, “this stupid game isn’t meant for this stupid trophy with its stupid difficulty and stupid subpar mechanics” way. Not all of them are that bad, and I could get them with some honest effort. But I’ve been demoralized by the combat trophies requiring the player to complete certain challenges without losing their combo with FOUR DIFFERENT CHARACTERS. Now, in Arkham City, this wouldn’t have been much of a problem. Sure, it would have been tough, and I would have messed up a lot trying to get it, but it would have felt fair when I failed. I would have been able to see exactly how I messed up. Arkham Knight doesn’t feel fair at all. It has enemies that will randomly strike you faster than you can react the second that you happen to land beside them. I was two enemies away from finishing the Nightwing challenge of the trophy when one of the thugs just instantly bashed me with his riot shield and took away my combo. Needless to say, I gave up on this pack for my own sanity. Maybe someday I’ll return to it. Other than that, Arkham Knight just takes a lot of patience to complete. The Riddler leaves well over 200 riddles around Gotham for you to find and some of them take a couple minutes to complete. Then you have to work through the story again to get a trophy. Other than that, the game doesn’t offer that much of a different experience than the previous games as far as getting the platinum trophy is concerned. Just be prepared to face the Community Challenge Pack. I certainly wasn’t.

So that was my reflection on the series and completing it. I think I may go back through and discuss each game individually, as it would be so interesting to dig in to what works so well in them. If you have comments for me please leave them below as I love to hear from any readers. Let me know if you dig what you read or if you think I’m a complete phony and should let go of that stupid challenge pack. Thanks for reading. As a parting gift, here’s a video of someone getting the Challenge pack trophy, cementing my shame.

Limbo Review

I feel sorry for anyone adverse to indie games. It’s when someone has limited resources, time and money that they create some of their best work. Limbo is such a game where someone took advantage of what they had and created a wonderful piece. However, it doesn’t just stop there. Limbo also sets a new standard for puzzle platformers with its ingenious design and topnotch dedication to its presentation.

Dark.

Limbo is presented in black and white, and it’s an ingenious design choice. You play as a young boy cast into a place that lies between the land of the living and the dead, thus everything is dull. Nothing in Limbo is actually alive but nothing can really die either. It’s this reasoning that allows the player to respawn after they fail one of the many challenging puzzles. Dying is part of the experience. Decapitations, dismemberment and drowning (a classic) are only a few of the many gruesome ways to perish. Many deaths are shocking and sudden, and the fact these things are happening to a young boy give them much more of an impact.

However, Limbo is classy with how it portrays these ‘deaths.’ They’re meant to be gruesome, per say, so much as to give the player a sense of desperation in not wanting to ever see it happen again. The atmosphere of Limbo is dark as can be, and it doesn’t let up in the slightest. When there isn’t a tricky platforming section there’s a puzzle and sometimes a mixture of the two. These puzzles become increasingly challenging as Limbo progresses, but they never get too challenging. There were a few that I myself grew frustrated with, but once I realized the solution it was clear that I was at fault. Limbo makes its own rules and slowly bends them through its 3 to 4 hour run time. Learning to bend the rules yourself is necessary to overcoming Limbo’s greatest challenges, and you’ll feel like a genius doing it.

 

Arachnophobes beware.

To play Limbo right is to play it with a pair of headphones. The sound effects and soundtrack compliment the gloomy visuals perfectly. Audio cues will also be beneficial to some sections if you can hear them clearly. Despite the stellar presentation and design, one has to wonder: what’s the point? The story of the boy journeying through the hazards of Limbo is vague to say the least, and there’s no dialogue to be heard. This is a tale that must be strung together by the player as they make progress. Sharp eyes and an open mind can make for an amazing finale to the game. Otherwise, be prepared for a foray into some threads and forums in search of answers.

There are several platforms you can access Limbo on now. If there’s some chance that you missed this gem as I did, I insist you try it. If you’re sensitive to violence or an overly-dark atmosphere then I would warn you away. However, if you can get past the darkness in Limbo, I promise there’s an abundance of light to be found within its deepest recesses if you’re willing to seek it out.

 

Alien Isolation Has Changed Me

Alien Isolation has changed me. Quite a few months ago I wrote a small piece about my first impressions of the game. I stopped playing shortly after that. I swear the game is a new fear of mine. It takes me a couple hours to crawl my way through half an hour of actual progress. At the same time, it’s one of the most thrilling experiences I’ve had. My heart soars as I slip my keycard into a save point and it beeps acknowledgement of my prowess. My stomach aches as I hear the Xenomorph stomping around the hallways of the derelict station.

You would think the Xenomorph would be my biggest problem in an Alien game, but if only that were so. It’s the Worker Joes that make the chills run down my spine. I think it’s the way they talk to you as they slowly pursue you through the corridors. The fact that I can fight back against them makes it worse. The thought of them strangling me with their creepy synthetic faces filling my screen is far worse than the Xenomorph giving me a quick death.

The sparse checkpoints make things even more intense. The desperation that grows from the yearning of a saving station is almost unbearable at times. The persistent beeping they make is music to the ears. However, Alien Isolation can’t even give you that solace, as you can still be murdered while saving your progress – something that, thankfully, has yet to happen to me.

This is a common theme that creates the tension – no security. You may think you’re safe in the lockers, but eventually your Xenomorph pal will get wise to your favorite hiding spot. The save points are only a saving grace if you approach wisely. Vents may seem like a great alternate route or hideaway until the one time you’re dragged out. It’s the unforgiving nature of Alien Isolation that makes it so intense, though I’m slowly  getting used to it. Even fellow survivors give a false sense of security the first time you come across them while roaming the halls of Sevastopol. I once had a close encounter with the Xenomorph but barely made it out. Just as I thought I was safe a survivor rounded the corner ahead of me with gun drawn. I had no cover or hiding spots – just the hope that he would warn me to back off. Instead he shot me in the head, and I lost an hour of progress.

That’s probably the only issue I truly have with Alien Isolation that can’t be blamed on my own incompetence. It’s frustrating to make so much progress and then have it all for nothing. Granted, in the situation given above, I should have been using my motion tracker more efficiently. I appreciate the added tension that the limited save points give, but I think the game would still be terrifying enough even with an auto-save of some kind.

So for now I’m turning the difficulty down to easy. After browsing some forums and threads it seems that’s the way to go if I want to enjoy the story and atmosphere without the challenge of evading the Xenomorph. I thought it would take away some of the intensity, but that’s certainly not the case for me at least. The Xenomorph still comes down from the vents, and it’s still just as deadly as ever. It’s slowly becoming an old adversary rather than a terrifying new enemy – a game of chess that’s lasted hours with no sign of resolution.

I look forward to crawling my way through the rest of Alien Isolation and hoping that it helps open the door for more scary games in the future. There are so many fantastic horror games out there that I haven’t experienced because I let my fear get in the way, but that’s the whole point of a spooky game. It’s to be scared but act anyway. To face the fear and come out on top and relish in the victory. Someday I will outsmart this Xenomorph and beat Alien Isolation, and it will be one of the most satisfying victories of my gaming as a hobby.

Furi Review

Any game that can take the simplest concept and flesh it out into something remarkable has my respect. Most arcade games from yesteryear pulled it off all the time with their focus on fighting bosses. It’s in this respect that Furi takes gaming back to its roots. It’s bright, it’s fun and it’s difficult as hell.

Flashy, no?

Playing Furi is like staring at a bunch of neon lights – and I mean that in the best possible way. The vibrant color palette makes the world appealing, though the story shoots down that notion straight away. We take control of a nameless, imprisoned warrior set free from a multi-leveled prison in the sky by a mysterious character. With sword and gun in hand we fight our way through several bosses to make our escape back to Earth. This basic premise only works because of the mystery surrounding it. After the first couple of battles I began to wonder who I was and what had I done that warranted such extreme restraints. The paper thin story isn’t really built upon until the finale. Instead, the foes blocking our way are detailed through dialogue from the stranger aiding us.

That dialogue is delivered during extensive walking portions between each fight. These interludes may be a bore to some, but it’s also a way to reflect on your recent victory and embrace the satisfaction. They also provide some great views of the stellar artwork Furi possesses. If you’re restless to get to the next fight, a simple press of the “X” button will put the game on autopilot until the next challenge. While a few bosses are duds as far as difficulty, most are not to be trifled with. Combat is as simple as the premise, relying on attacking, firing your gun, dashing and parrying to overcome the odds. These few tools are all you really need, because your true weapon is adaptability. Your success in Furi hinges on your ability to observe your enemy and find their openings. This can make the game really difficult if you can’t get the hang of things. The bosses are impressively varied, though that focus on variety causes a couple disappointing fights. Some will require weaving through a bullet hell while others are more akin to a classic duel. The slow walks to the next arena build up anticipation to what the next foe will have up his or her sleeve. The stranger’s dialogue during the intermissions also help to build up expectations and backstory to these characters.

Pull off a perfectly-timed parry, and you’ll be treated to a complimentary combo for some extra damage. You’ll look good doing it too.

An interesting twist on Furi’s combat is the multiple health bars each boss possesses while you, yourself have three. For the player, these health bars are your lives. If you lose them all it’s game over, and you’ll have to start the fight from the beginning. For the boss, each health bar denotes a different phase – switching up tactics with every bar depleted. Sometimes you have to take down the same health bar twice – once in an open fight where you’re shooting and dodging, and another in an up-close melee duel. It’s a rush to play these fights that can last up to 15 minutes on your first playthrough. It can also be infuriating when you’ve spent that time fighting for your life and you get a game over screen on the boss’ last bar and you have to start from the beginning. A couple bosses took a couple days to beat, because I had to take breathers before I broke something.

The stranger’s only one of the mysteries shrouding Furi’s narrative.

Even if you’re not big on the difficulty of Furi, you can’t deny its stylish presentation. The aforementioned color palette is a feast for the eyes, and the designs on each boss is intriguing. The package is tied up in a nice little bow by the excellent soundtrack. It consists of various artists who put together an electronic soundtrack that hits all the right notes at all the right times. The story Furi so subtly tells blooms in its finale, but it’s also marred by a lackluster fight that is more frustrating than satisfying.

It’s hard to recommend Furi. It’s beautiful, challenging and fun, but the walking portions, difficulty and subtle narrative may be a turn off for some. It’s free for the month of July for Playstation + subscribers, so I highly recommend snatching it up and giving it a try. For me, it will be hard to forget the satisfying combat and beautiful design, and I’ll be jamming to Furi’s soundtrack on Spotify for weeks to come.

Tales from the Borderlands: Season 1 Review

I don’t know how Telltale keeps doing it. They just keep knocking it out of the park with their various series. I’ll admit Game of Thrones was a bit of a low point, but it was still a solid game. Tales from the Borderlands eradicates any shred of doubt I had about the developer’s ability to keep delivering great stories using the same formula and engine from the first season of The Walking Dead. They certainly can, and they certainly have.

Past games from Telltale focused on the idea of making difficult choices that will have an inevitable impact on the story. This is a dramatic concept, and as such the studio has been drawn toward serious source material to reflect that. Borderlands is as goofy and aware of itself as it is graphic. Humor is the staple of the series, and Telltale has followed suit with their own brand of humor which is largely more appealing than Gearbox’s series is known for. I’m not bashing the series, but the sense of humor (Claptrap. I’m not big on Claptrap) was a turn off for me. Telltale took a character-centered approach which could have easily fallen flat on its face if it weren’t for the (mostly) stellar writing. All of the characters (both old and new) do an exemplary job of being quirky individuals. Even the more reserved, serious characters have moments to shine and keep things light.

Meet you heroes. Two of which are you.

Tales from the Borderlands is the most self-aware game to exist. Straight from the beginning it’s made clear that this game is not taking itself too seriously and neither should you. Even the small act of skipping the credits at the end of an episode prompts text saying, “Telltale will remember that.” It’s seriously just hilarious stuff. The two characters you’ll control throughout the season (Rhys and Fiona) supply plenty of humor as a duo from Rhys’ overall incompetence and Fiona’s snarky attitude. However, Tales from the Borderlands manages to break out of that humorous mold by the tail end of the season with some seriously deep moments. The characters slowly but surely bond as the walls built from living in such a harsh world slowly crumble. It’s hard to see how decisions are affecting the game until this point, but they drive the end of the game. This creates some genuinely touching moments of which are unexpected in such a comic title.

From beginning to end, the game has no problem telling you how it is.

Segue. Telltale is still using the same engine as all their other previous titles. It’s getting a little dated, but it still gets the job done. I still wish Telltale would start using motion capture for their character models. That would make a world of difference, but it may be a budgetary issue. There are a lot of action sequences in this title in comparison to others (I haven’t played The Wold Among Us), and they’re a bit awkward to look at, but I was too busy watching for QTE’s and listening to hilarious dialogue to care. The overall presentation of the game is simply wonderful. Every episode has an opening credit scene set to some great music. A couple of them had me laughing out loud from the beginning, setting the tone for the rest of the episode. With that being said, I have to acknowledge that episode two was a bit of a dud. It wasn’t all that funny, and it was overall pretty unmemorable.

Tales from the Borderlands is graphic, memorable, hilarious, thoughtful and smart. I have to recommend this title more than any of the others that Telltale has made, and that’s saying something as I’m a huge fan of the ongoing Walking Dead series. I urge you to pick this one up if you’re a fan of Telltales’ work. It also acts as the perfect stepping on point for newcomers.

 

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Review

I didn’t get into the Uncharted series until way  after Drake’s Deception had released. If you haven’t played any of the previous games, I implore you to do so before playing Uncharted 4. Developer Naughty Dog has taken us on a journey through this series, and Uncharted 4 wraps it up in a wonderful package that simply wouldn’t be the same without the previous entries under your belt.

I honestly have no clear place to start when reviewing this masterpiece. Uncharted 4 does for action/adventure games what The Last of Us did for post apocalyptic dramas. I’m not being biased here just because The Last of Us is one of my favorites. Uncharted 4 simply soars in its presentation and execution and looks great while doing it. This is, for all intents and purposes, Nathan Drake’s last and greatest outing in the series. I won’t spoil for you exactly what that means as far as the plot, but Naughty Dog revealed that bit of information while the game was still deep in development. That naturally heightened my standards. I’m particular about endings. They make or break a story and it sucks for everyone when a great plot is fumbled by a weak finale. With that being said, I was nothing but satisfied with how Naughty Dog decided to end Nathan Drake’s story. That’s all I’ll say to avoid spoilers, but the studio has clearly learned much from their time on The Last of Us.

Epicness awaits.

That experience is evident in the gameplay as well. Stealth is a much greater factor in Uncharted 4 than it has been in any of its predecessors. You now have the ability to take out an entire group of foes without being seen, but it’s rather shallow as it depends on you hiding in tall grass and behind cover while waiting for your moment to strike. There’s no way to distract guards or silently take them out from a distance which would have been a nice touch. However, I understand why Naughty Dog chose not to flesh out the stealth aspect of the game as this is Uncharted, not The Last of Us. The latter focused heavily on using stealth to take out all your opponents and using brute force when that failed. Uncharted revolves around intense action sequences where you dive in and out of cover while firing bullets and lobbing grenades. Focusing on stealth would take some of the thrill of the fight away, so it’s cut back to compliment combat instead. Personally, I liked sneaking in and taking out a few guards to reach a vantage point before I started a fight. If things get hairy it’s easy to lose your opponents and start picking them off to level the playing field.

Combat is as tight and smooth as ever. It’s easy to slip in and out of cover (which in my experience always crumbles) while popping off shots. There’s also a handy roll that allows you to avoid gunfire when things get sketchy. I rolled a lot. I actually died more in Uncharted 4 than I did in the rest of the series combined. This is by far the most difficult entry (for me, at least) and I do wish I had played on “light” difficulty rather than “moderate” because it was frustrating when a death ripped me out of the experience. Note that I don’t think the game is too hard. I just wasn’t the best at it, and I thought it was worth mentioning. The introduction of some new mechanics, such as the grappling hook, brings some much appreciated flavor to the fight. It’s hard to describe the satisfaction of swinging through a hail of gunfire to punch a thug in the face and catch his gun as it pops up in the air. You’ll have to experience it yourself. Melee combat is also a blast because it depends on the player’s observation as much as his or her reflexes. Rather than QTE’s (or blocking) you throw punches until your opponent counters you, then you press triangle for a cool counter… counter? You know what I mean. It makes for a great moment when you’re focusing on getting out of a grapple when a guy with a grenade launcher is lumbering his way toward you.

The story of Uncharted 4 is a heartfelt one, that uses the series’  history for a huge payoff.

All of the aforementioned praises for Uncharted 4 are only amplified by the drop-dead gorgeous graphics. There have been some great looking games coming out (Witcher 3 comes to mind), but Uncharted 4 has them beat. I hadn’t installed the Photo Mode yet, but I was still capturing beautiful backdrops and moments with the Playstation capture gallery. There were many times where I wasn’t paying attention to dialogue because I was too busy admiring the scenery. Naughty Dog took advantage of the pretty graphics and took Nathan to some of the most gorgeous and varied locales seen in the series. This game looks so good it’s like playing a movie.

Just play the game. If you haven’t played any of the others, play them first. If you didn’t like those, then at least rent the fourth. It’s a heck of a game that should be experienced.

Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series Season 1 Review

Telltale games has yet to disappoint me. The first two seasons of their ongoing Walking Dead series were excellent stories of loss and survival that I just couldn’t put down. The bar was set high for Telltale’s work, and when I saw the first season of their Game of Thrones series on sale I couldn’t resist. What followed were two days of anxiety, depression and fury.

The fury wasn’t due to a flaw in the game, rather it was because of what it did right. My righteous fury was wholly focused on the incredibly unfortunate circumstances House Forrester, whose members you play as throughout the game, finds itself in. Season 1 puts you in a terrible position as you struggle to keep control of House Forrester without compromising your own integrity. You spend every episode in a corner being beaten down and humiliated if you want to avoid conflict. It’s a difficult balance to keep, and you will constantly be reprimanded by a cast of villainous characters who want nothing more than to make you take a wrong step so they can kill you off. Yes, the staple of the hit show is also prevalent here. You’ll see allies fall and sometimes even characters you’re playing as will meet an unexpected and shocking end. With each subsequent episode comes an anxiety of wondering if you’re past decisions are going to come back to haunt you.

These two are part of what makes Game of Thrones so frustrating.

Just as in The Walking Dead you’ll spend most of your time in conversation and enjoy the occasional action sequence sprinkled throughout. These action sequences are fun but easy. It also takes you out of the experience when you die and get a restart screen when just last episode your other character died and you didn’t receive such a luxury. A huge difference I never acclimated to in Game of Thrones is that nothing can be taken at face value. In The Walking Dead, if you’re notified someone will remember something you said or did, you know that means they’ve simply gained or lost a little respect or trust towards you. In Game of Thrones on the other hand, you never want anyone to remember ANYTHING. This is especially true in the portions that take place in King’s Landing, where words are almost never genuine. I feel I fumbled the grace of tongue needed for these portions, and I certainly paid a hefty price for it.

I found Game of Thrones to be a fairly ugly game–at least from a distance. It took an oil painting approach rather than a comic book aesthetic which I understand, but some of the textures are cringe-worthy. Some of the motions of the character models are incredibly awkward and distracting as well. It’s clear that Telltale didn’t use motion capture for the actors. After a while I grew accustomed to it, but it may bother others.

The game does, admittedly, look better up close.

In the end, I didn’t feel fulfilled at all by the first season of Game of Thrones. It may be because I don’t watch the show, but I found how my season ended to be incredibly depressing. Yes, I was able to gleefully murder some of that abusive cast of villains, but I had to pay a terrible price for it that I don’t think was worth it. I still look forward to season 2 which will hopefully bring forward a more hopeful story for my surviving characters and the wreckage of season one they now crawl out of. For now, I’m going to give the series’ start a 7/10 with the hopes that I’ll appreciate the seasons to come.