Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is the third major installment in the series and released in 2010, was this the start of the AC downfall? Following on from AC 2, we are once again in control of Ezio, and Desmond in the present.
The game carries on from the second game, as Ezio carries on his fight with the Borgia. Meanwhile, in the modern-day plot that no one cares about, Desmond is trying to prevent the 2012 apocalypse. Ezio is pit against Cesare Borgia who is attempting to build an army to takeover all of Rome, only Ezio stands in his way.
Straight off the bat, this game has three sequences less than the predecessor, but yet it's the same price. If you stick to only the story, you're gonna fly through this game. Don't worry though, there's a fair amount of content and a multiplayer that died faster than you read this sentence. The side missions are mostly boring and repetitive though, but don't fear as there's thirty side missions that are spread about between three different factions, but they're just the same thing over and over! Tomb challenges make another appearance with all new puzzles and are by far the best of the side missions. As well as viewpoints, there are now Borgia towers, similar to view points but surrounded by enemies and you have to take out a captain before you can claim them.
You can purchase shops that will in turn give you money back, you get 'X' amount of money every twenty in-game minutes. The more stores you invest in, the more revenue returns. You can only purchase stores once you've cleared a Borgia tower, this goes the same for buying aqueducts, historical locations and fast travel tunnels. Yes, you can fast travel, however you can only travel to other travel tunnels once they have been purchased. Most features from the previous installment are present, being able to recruit Assassins and send them on missions to level up is the best of the new features, the more Borgia towers you clear, the more assassins you get. They are extremely handy at taking out groups of enemies and even your target. The arrow storm is even better, having three full bars and not calling in an assassin results in a barrage of arrows taking out every enemy in sight.
The short story was enjoyable and you were never interrupted by dull Desmond moments, only at the start and end. The main villian, Cesare, was by far the best villain so far, and gave us a great final showdown. I even liked the side characters, there weren't too many and some we'd seen before, but I actually wanted to fight with them and help them when I was needed. Most of Ezio's targets were quickly introduced and immediately slain, I never really cared about killing them because they were shown so little, I felt more like a hitman rather than fighting for a cause. If you chose to skip a cutscene or decline a mission, you were treated to an overly long loading screen, you may as well have watched it or even played the mission.
The boring and repetitive assignment missions I chose to save for after the main story, often referenced things that needed to happen after I already done them, the developers seemed to expect we'd play the assignments along with the story, and that we wouldn't get bored after a small amount. Rebuilding Rome was addictive, all I ever wanted to do was spend my money buying all the shops and locations. Seeing my income increase the more I bought was so satisfying. The map was cluttered with icons, a bunch you'd not even think twice to bother with, thankfully you can edit which icons you want hidden though.
The fighting was great, being able to disarm and stun enemies by throwing sand was a great way to get an advantage in a big fight. Killstreaks were fantastic, hitting an enemy a few times lead to an instant kill and every strike on another enemy swiftly followed with one-hit kills. If you used any assassin recruits or the arrow storm you'd lose a red bar or all of it. Stupidly, if you died or reloaded a checkpoint, you'd still have to wait for it to refill. You can loot bodies to refill your equipment, you can buy and sell items at vendors, purchase new weapons and armor upgrades, plenty to spend your money on here. You can ride a horse to navigate quicker and even whistle your horse to come to you, there's even a fun on-the-rail section with a horse, and I usually dread them.
I had a few problems and glitches, one thing that really bugged me was when you'd be near something and you could press the back button to get more information, it always coincided with when I wanted to look at the map, but I'd be treated to walls of text instead. Subject 16 was back, I didn't really care, but at the end of the puzzle, it glitched me inside a staircase, I couldn't be bothered resetting it, so I watched the ending of it on YouTube. After getting at the end of a long mission, a cutscene played and prolonged by a never-ending cutscene leaving me to replay the whole part again. When forced to use the Apple of Eden and no other weapon, the game felt broke, I struggled to kill the last remaining enemy twice and there was nothing I could do because the weapon was so poor. If you don't target an enemy, Ezio would usually swing wildly at the air, despite being surrounded by guards. And probably my most frustrating, as it caused me to nearly die so often, Ezio took so long to switch weapons in conflict, sometimes he just flat out refused to do it. Nothing game breaking, just frustrating, can't forget to mention that the assassin you play as still refuses to jump to where you tell him to.
Yes, is the answer to my first question. Not a bad game, but certainly a poor follow up to a stellar game. It was more of a cash in, most people I've spoke about it with said that it felt more like an expansion and not a full release. Sold at full price, but much shorter, keep on screwing us Ubisoft, that's what you do best.
7.3/10
Thursday 30 March 2017
Monday 27 March 2017
Rise of the Tomb Raider: Baba Yaga - Temple of the Witch DLC (Xbox One)
Rise of the Tomb Raider was a great game, it took years to come out after the first release of the rebooted franchise. In the mean time, we have DLC to tie us over while we wait to hear about a third game.
In my opinion, this is the only real story DLC they brought out. I'm not saying the others are bad or anything, the others are just really short or not featured in the main game. You can start this straight from the main game by finding the area on the map. You start in an original area of the game and soon travel to a new area, adding more to the value. Lara encounters a woman named Nadia, hiding in a locker as you take out her attackers. She is looking for her grandfather, who went off looking for her grandmother, after he believes she was killed by a witch, known as Baba Yaga. Lara agrees to help find her relatives, thus starting the story.
We get new outfits and weapons, but the biggest addition is a new type of arrow. We get confusion arrows, they work like poison arrows, anyone caught in the blast will start to attack each other. I loved the supernatural feeling this gives you, a witch villain and the hallucinations caused to Lara are really creepy, let's just say there's a house that can walk, with chicken legs! The missions and puzzles were like normal, challenging, but the final boss fight against the witch was so well done. You started from the ground and would keep getting higher as you fought her. It's by far the best part of the DLC.
There were a tonne of glitches are bugs though, one of the challenges had you shoot these hanging skulls, two of them were constantly spinning out of control and were a real nightmare. An enemy went into the concept stance while fighting, that had never happened before, as well as the game randomly shutting down. At times there were no lip syncing, and when there was it was pretty bad. At one point, Lara came out of the water and was coughing, water came pouring out her mouth like a waterfall as she coughed, it looked terrible! DLC once again are often poorly made and overpriced.
That being said, it was enjoyable, it's just a shame it brought a host of new bugs that really let it down. If you picked up the season pass you get a shit load of content, it's not bad, even at full price. If it's ever on sale, I can't see why you'd turn down the pass or this DLC separately.
3.1/5
In my opinion, this is the only real story DLC they brought out. I'm not saying the others are bad or anything, the others are just really short or not featured in the main game. You can start this straight from the main game by finding the area on the map. You start in an original area of the game and soon travel to a new area, adding more to the value. Lara encounters a woman named Nadia, hiding in a locker as you take out her attackers. She is looking for her grandfather, who went off looking for her grandmother, after he believes she was killed by a witch, known as Baba Yaga. Lara agrees to help find her relatives, thus starting the story.
We get new outfits and weapons, but the biggest addition is a new type of arrow. We get confusion arrows, they work like poison arrows, anyone caught in the blast will start to attack each other. I loved the supernatural feeling this gives you, a witch villain and the hallucinations caused to Lara are really creepy, let's just say there's a house that can walk, with chicken legs! The missions and puzzles were like normal, challenging, but the final boss fight against the witch was so well done. You started from the ground and would keep getting higher as you fought her. It's by far the best part of the DLC.
There were a tonne of glitches are bugs though, one of the challenges had you shoot these hanging skulls, two of them were constantly spinning out of control and were a real nightmare. An enemy went into the concept stance while fighting, that had never happened before, as well as the game randomly shutting down. At times there were no lip syncing, and when there was it was pretty bad. At one point, Lara came out of the water and was coughing, water came pouring out her mouth like a waterfall as she coughed, it looked terrible! DLC once again are often poorly made and overpriced.
That being said, it was enjoyable, it's just a shame it brought a host of new bugs that really let it down. If you picked up the season pass you get a shit load of content, it's not bad, even at full price. If it's ever on sale, I can't see why you'd turn down the pass or this DLC separately.
3.1/5
Thursday 23 March 2017
Homefront The Revolution: Aftermath DLC (Xbox One)
More DLC that very few people even played, but this one gives good news. It's a continuation of the story, which means we're less likely to get a sequel!
Whats crazy, is that the two DLC's for Homefront: The Revolution have both been enjoyable, far more so than the actual game. Another huge improvement is that Brady talks in this one, making you question why they chose to have a silent protagonist throughout at all.
This starts out with the revolution wanting to kill Walker, even though "the whole revolution depends on him" in the original story. That's how finicky the revolution actually is. Walker is reading speeches the KPA are telling him to, about stopping the revolution. Your allies don't even think, "hang on, maybe they're forcing him to read this?", "No, are you stupid?! KILL HIM NOW!". They don't think, they act, even if it's stupid.
Again, we have a short story, only four missions and I could never tell when a new one started. They just sort of blended into one big mission, it meant the story actually flowed along nicely. The revolution immediately revoke their plans to kill Walker, once you tell them to use their tiny brains and say maybe there's a chance he's being forced into it and you're gonna try and rescue him.
After trying to rescue Walker throughout the original game, we practically never saw him again, whereas we're actually trying to rescue him here, instead of just saying we need to rescue him. We have stealth and gun battles, as well as a rescue mission, it's a really nice variation. The final fight seemed to be an endless wave of enemies, while you had to fight a Goliath at the same time. It was challenging, which was fine, but when the only way to kill a Goliath is with equipment and explore weapons and you're not given any, it's pretty much impossible to finish it. I ended having to restart the whole DLC and prepare myself for the Goliath in advance, just to get it done.
In conclusion, I admire that they actually continued and added to the story, rather than some piece of shit cash in. With one more DLC to play, I'm actually looking forward to it after the previous two, and I'm now left to believe we won't get a sequel, which leaves me with a huge smile! :)
3.2/5
Whats crazy, is that the two DLC's for Homefront: The Revolution have both been enjoyable, far more so than the actual game. Another huge improvement is that Brady talks in this one, making you question why they chose to have a silent protagonist throughout at all.
This starts out with the revolution wanting to kill Walker, even though "the whole revolution depends on him" in the original story. That's how finicky the revolution actually is. Walker is reading speeches the KPA are telling him to, about stopping the revolution. Your allies don't even think, "hang on, maybe they're forcing him to read this?", "No, are you stupid?! KILL HIM NOW!". They don't think, they act, even if it's stupid.
Again, we have a short story, only four missions and I could never tell when a new one started. They just sort of blended into one big mission, it meant the story actually flowed along nicely. The revolution immediately revoke their plans to kill Walker, once you tell them to use their tiny brains and say maybe there's a chance he's being forced into it and you're gonna try and rescue him.
After trying to rescue Walker throughout the original game, we practically never saw him again, whereas we're actually trying to rescue him here, instead of just saying we need to rescue him. We have stealth and gun battles, as well as a rescue mission, it's a really nice variation. The final fight seemed to be an endless wave of enemies, while you had to fight a Goliath at the same time. It was challenging, which was fine, but when the only way to kill a Goliath is with equipment and explore weapons and you're not given any, it's pretty much impossible to finish it. I ended having to restart the whole DLC and prepare myself for the Goliath in advance, just to get it done.
In conclusion, I admire that they actually continued and added to the story, rather than some piece of shit cash in. With one more DLC to play, I'm actually looking forward to it after the previous two, and I'm now left to believe we won't get a sequel, which leaves me with a huge smile! :)
3.2/5
Monday 20 March 2017
Homefront The Revolution: Voice of Freedom DLC (Xbox One)
Well, it seems just any game can get DLC's now. Honestly though, the Homefront DLC's aren't too bad, probably better than the main game. Instead of Brady, we play as the renowned Walker. The guy the revolution apparently could do fuck all without. He was talked about so much in the main game, but we saw so little. So, was this guy really that great?
There's a couple of new characters with Walker, I don't remember any of their names, but they were ok, seemed they could've been likeable with more screen time. For some reason, the hi voice actor of Walker puts next to no emotion in his voice acting, he was like a robot. He played him much better in the original game.
Walker attempts to sneak into Philadelphia with a small group, so he can link up with the revolution and attack the KPA. The game starts off with you stealthy manouvering around the KPA and heading into the metro tunnels. One problem was that it was dark throughout and you were never once given a flashlight. You meet a new group of enemies who occupy the tunnels, they aren't friends of the revolution or the KPA.
The DLC campaign is really short, it's only three missions long, but they're good missions. I found myself wanting more once I was done, I didn't get that feeling once in the original game. The end leads straight into the beginning of the main game where Brady was being interrogated. I absolutely loved that and even cooler was you got to see Brady's face after playing as a face and voiceless character, it was great to put a face to the name.
I enjoyed this DLC surprisingly, after the dismal campaign of the original, it was a good idea to show more about Walker, the face and leader of the revolution. It's worth playing and it's a fair price.
2.8/5
There's a couple of new characters with Walker, I don't remember any of their names, but they were ok, seemed they could've been likeable with more screen time. For some reason, the hi voice actor of Walker puts next to no emotion in his voice acting, he was like a robot. He played him much better in the original game.
Walker attempts to sneak into Philadelphia with a small group, so he can link up with the revolution and attack the KPA. The game starts off with you stealthy manouvering around the KPA and heading into the metro tunnels. One problem was that it was dark throughout and you were never once given a flashlight. You meet a new group of enemies who occupy the tunnels, they aren't friends of the revolution or the KPA.
The DLC campaign is really short, it's only three missions long, but they're good missions. I found myself wanting more once I was done, I didn't get that feeling once in the original game. The end leads straight into the beginning of the main game where Brady was being interrogated. I absolutely loved that and even cooler was you got to see Brady's face after playing as a face and voiceless character, it was great to put a face to the name.
I enjoyed this DLC surprisingly, after the dismal campaign of the original, it was a good idea to show more about Walker, the face and leader of the revolution. It's worth playing and it's a fair price.
2.8/5
Thursday 16 March 2017
Homefront The Revolution (Xbox One)
The sequel no one asked for, wanted or played. Thanks for this Deep Silver, and fuck you, Dam Buster.
Back in 2011, Homefront was one of the most over-hyped games released, it wasn't a success and a reboot was released in 2016 called Homefront: The Revolution, it had the opposite effect, in the sense that it was silently released, but kept the negative reviews. It's not a sequel, more of a reboot with new characters, if you read my Homefront review, you'll know I was much happy with this. A different approach giving us a more open world game. It wasn't like the old game where you went mission to mission. It's very much like a Far Cry game where you can do story missions when you choose and clear out strongholds.
Again, you're forced into the revolution against Korea's control over America. We play as Ethan Brady and for the second time running your character doesn't speak and blindly nods when told to do tasks. I thought we were past silent protagonists in games unless the game suits that approach. The graphics are so much better and the characters look great, unfortunately the characters aren't that likeable but they're not really unlikeable either. In fact they're well performed, just hard to really care about. The story was more or less the same, leaving me to question why they bothered and the objectives of the revolution on so miniscule. Their main objective is to rescue a man called Walker, who saved Brady at the start. According to some high ranking members, the whole revolution depends on this one man. How weak and stupid are these people without him that they need him that much. Rather than the goal to be liberating the people or destroying the KPA's control, it's free this one captured man because nothing can happen without. A weak minded revolution and weak minded story.
As well as the main story missions, we get strongholds. Each stronghold you clear removes the Korean soldiers, The KPA, and the more you clear, the civilians rise up and start to fight back. To be honest they didn't really do much at that point, they certainly never helped you in anyway. What's great about the strongholds is that they're not all the same, you get ones that are clear the buildings, find the stash and restore the power and some others too. There are job boards that give you small tasks and pay nicely, they got boring fast as it was usually kill this so many times or take so many photos of that. There were also random missions called Flashpoints, usually they were defend people or kill all enemies and get the stash. I often ignored them as so many times I was on my way to it, they failed, there was so little time to get there it wasn't worth trying.
They went with an open world, which I loved at first and was pleasantly surprised when I saw you could ride around open motorbikes. I did eventually get bored with it though, but I appreciate them trying something new. Your menu was a phone screen and you'd navigate the apps to take you to the map, objectives etc. It was cool at first but it was very slow, I was soon longing for just being able to press the 'back' button to instantly bring up the map. You could covert your weapons too which was cool,if you bought the upgrades, you could convert your pistol into an SMG or an assault rifle into a sniper. You could loot enemies for ammo, which would save you buying it. You could building throwables like molotovs if you found enough components. You could recruit resistance and I was happy to see you could recruit four at once, it was a pity they ended up being useless. You could shoot gas vents and take out a group of enemies but it was always the same, a idiotic group of soldiers stand by the gas waiting for you to blow them up. There was a great easter egg that let you play PS2 classic, Timesplitters 2.
There were so many faults, the long loading and I mean long. Around three full minutes just to load in the game and every time you did you'd see the NPC’s slowly load in and even in the concept stance were their arms are stretched out. You could buy attachments for your weapon but they didn't fit on every weapons and was option to see what went with which. After vaulting a wall first time it took numerous attempts to re-vault it, leaving me to think it was impossible to get back over. The number of jobs you could have at once was Inconsistent, sometimes four and then only three. Your recruits would often get lost and run into walls, if you recruited any in a safehouse they're automatically shooed away when you leave, leaving you to question why you can even recruit them in the safehouses. People would constantly disappear into the abyss, I even witnessed an enemy I just killed respawn in front of my eyes TWICE. After clearing a stronghold I didn't blow up a turret and the target stayed on my mini map.
Here's so more bad stuff! I was spotted by an enemy when I was safely hidden behind a wall. Enemies disappear at around sixty metres away, so you can never plan attacks far out. Whenever I tried to throw a brick to use as a distraction, they just vanished into thin air. In the story, a car driven by a friendly came past and the driver was floating sitting in front of the car, a side mission had me kill five snipers and once they killed me, they stayed crouched behind cover never resurfacing, leaving me to get crazy shots from all sorts of angles. While talking to you on the radio, a friend tells you to put on a dead guy's clothes, how can they see that? I don't talk so I didn't tell them. Once you start the reloading animation you can't interrupt it by I
shooting, like you can in every other game. Every door you push open, your hand goes right through it, in the story scenes you control the camera and the people talking move around so much they expect you to constantly move the camera on them, I got so bored of moving it I left it, so I often had nothing on screen and a voice chattering on. The choice kill was the dullest kill ever when it should've been satisfying and to top it all off, my Xbox randomly shut off, which had never happened before.
There were so many annoying things throughout the campaign, one guy is blaming you for all the death and chaos, despite the revolution existing before you joined. There was an obvious betrayal you could see way before it happened. On one mission they're talking about using you as bait as if you're not there, they practically sending you on a suicide mission and because your character doesn't speak, he doesn't chime in and say "Are you fucking serious?", he's more like "duh, ok boss". Again they try and create a sad moment with a character that you just don't really care for. You can't fast travel in missions and there are so many story missions you're forced into in what is meant to be an open world game. The cringey dialogue on the radio chatter when resistance members are checking in were incredibly annoying. The mission with the Goliath is a pain, the vehicle struggles to follow you and you use it to help you clear five objectives, I ended up clearing three without it because it just couldn't stay with me and it even blew me up.
The hard difficulty wasn't so bad, it was just sponging enemies and quick deaths. Enemies weren't so bad with upgraded weapons, but health upgrades were no help. What was hilariously bad about this difficultly, a headshots wasn't an instant kill, I tested it multiple times and it was a minimum two shots to the head, what a joke of a way to make difficulty. There was no penalty for deaths outside story missions where you'd only get a checkpoint restart, you didn't lose money or anything and just respawned to have another go.
The objectives were constantly changing and they always felt like small fry, when there were much higher stakes. After everything that happened, nothing was even won and they just set up a sequel. If this piece of shit gets a sequel, I will lose all faith in gaming, I'm standing on very thin ice as it is. At the start of the credits the developers are saying how much work they put into the game and that "this is just the beginning". Did they place this glitch-fest? The game barely worked and please God, let this be the end of Homefront, not the fucking beginning. Fuck you Dam Buster and get to fuck Homefront.
5.5/10
Back in 2011, Homefront was one of the most over-hyped games released, it wasn't a success and a reboot was released in 2016 called Homefront: The Revolution, it had the opposite effect, in the sense that it was silently released, but kept the negative reviews. It's not a sequel, more of a reboot with new characters, if you read my Homefront review, you'll know I was much happy with this. A different approach giving us a more open world game. It wasn't like the old game where you went mission to mission. It's very much like a Far Cry game where you can do story missions when you choose and clear out strongholds.
Again, you're forced into the revolution against Korea's control over America. We play as Ethan Brady and for the second time running your character doesn't speak and blindly nods when told to do tasks. I thought we were past silent protagonists in games unless the game suits that approach. The graphics are so much better and the characters look great, unfortunately the characters aren't that likeable but they're not really unlikeable either. In fact they're well performed, just hard to really care about. The story was more or less the same, leaving me to question why they bothered and the objectives of the revolution on so miniscule. Their main objective is to rescue a man called Walker, who saved Brady at the start. According to some high ranking members, the whole revolution depends on this one man. How weak and stupid are these people without him that they need him that much. Rather than the goal to be liberating the people or destroying the KPA's control, it's free this one captured man because nothing can happen without. A weak minded revolution and weak minded story.
As well as the main story missions, we get strongholds. Each stronghold you clear removes the Korean soldiers, The KPA, and the more you clear, the civilians rise up and start to fight back. To be honest they didn't really do much at that point, they certainly never helped you in anyway. What's great about the strongholds is that they're not all the same, you get ones that are clear the buildings, find the stash and restore the power and some others too. There are job boards that give you small tasks and pay nicely, they got boring fast as it was usually kill this so many times or take so many photos of that. There were also random missions called Flashpoints, usually they were defend people or kill all enemies and get the stash. I often ignored them as so many times I was on my way to it, they failed, there was so little time to get there it wasn't worth trying.
They went with an open world, which I loved at first and was pleasantly surprised when I saw you could ride around open motorbikes. I did eventually get bored with it though, but I appreciate them trying something new. Your menu was a phone screen and you'd navigate the apps to take you to the map, objectives etc. It was cool at first but it was very slow, I was soon longing for just being able to press the 'back' button to instantly bring up the map. You could covert your weapons too which was cool,if you bought the upgrades, you could convert your pistol into an SMG or an assault rifle into a sniper. You could loot enemies for ammo, which would save you buying it. You could building throwables like molotovs if you found enough components. You could recruit resistance and I was happy to see you could recruit four at once, it was a pity they ended up being useless. You could shoot gas vents and take out a group of enemies but it was always the same, a idiotic group of soldiers stand by the gas waiting for you to blow them up. There was a great easter egg that let you play PS2 classic, Timesplitters 2.
There were so many faults, the long loading and I mean long. Around three full minutes just to load in the game and every time you did you'd see the NPC’s slowly load in and even in the concept stance were their arms are stretched out. You could buy attachments for your weapon but they didn't fit on every weapons and was option to see what went with which. After vaulting a wall first time it took numerous attempts to re-vault it, leaving me to think it was impossible to get back over. The number of jobs you could have at once was Inconsistent, sometimes four and then only three. Your recruits would often get lost and run into walls, if you recruited any in a safehouse they're automatically shooed away when you leave, leaving you to question why you can even recruit them in the safehouses. People would constantly disappear into the abyss, I even witnessed an enemy I just killed respawn in front of my eyes TWICE. After clearing a stronghold I didn't blow up a turret and the target stayed on my mini map.
Here's so more bad stuff! I was spotted by an enemy when I was safely hidden behind a wall. Enemies disappear at around sixty metres away, so you can never plan attacks far out. Whenever I tried to throw a brick to use as a distraction, they just vanished into thin air. In the story, a car driven by a friendly came past and the driver was floating sitting in front of the car, a side mission had me kill five snipers and once they killed me, they stayed crouched behind cover never resurfacing, leaving me to get crazy shots from all sorts of angles. While talking to you on the radio, a friend tells you to put on a dead guy's clothes, how can they see that? I don't talk so I didn't tell them. Once you start the reloading animation you can't interrupt it by I
shooting, like you can in every other game. Every door you push open, your hand goes right through it, in the story scenes you control the camera and the people talking move around so much they expect you to constantly move the camera on them, I got so bored of moving it I left it, so I often had nothing on screen and a voice chattering on. The choice kill was the dullest kill ever when it should've been satisfying and to top it all off, my Xbox randomly shut off, which had never happened before.
There were so many annoying things throughout the campaign, one guy is blaming you for all the death and chaos, despite the revolution existing before you joined. There was an obvious betrayal you could see way before it happened. On one mission they're talking about using you as bait as if you're not there, they practically sending you on a suicide mission and because your character doesn't speak, he doesn't chime in and say "Are you fucking serious?", he's more like "duh, ok boss". Again they try and create a sad moment with a character that you just don't really care for. You can't fast travel in missions and there are so many story missions you're forced into in what is meant to be an open world game. The cringey dialogue on the radio chatter when resistance members are checking in were incredibly annoying. The mission with the Goliath is a pain, the vehicle struggles to follow you and you use it to help you clear five objectives, I ended up clearing three without it because it just couldn't stay with me and it even blew me up.
The hard difficulty wasn't so bad, it was just sponging enemies and quick deaths. Enemies weren't so bad with upgraded weapons, but health upgrades were no help. What was hilariously bad about this difficultly, a headshots wasn't an instant kill, I tested it multiple times and it was a minimum two shots to the head, what a joke of a way to make difficulty. There was no penalty for deaths outside story missions where you'd only get a checkpoint restart, you didn't lose money or anything and just respawned to have another go.
The objectives were constantly changing and they always felt like small fry, when there were much higher stakes. After everything that happened, nothing was even won and they just set up a sequel. If this piece of shit gets a sequel, I will lose all faith in gaming, I'm standing on very thin ice as it is. At the start of the credits the developers are saying how much work they put into the game and that "this is just the beginning". Did they place this glitch-fest? The game barely worked and please God, let this be the end of Homefront, not the fucking beginning. Fuck you Dam Buster and get to fuck Homefront.
5.5/10
Thursday 9 March 2017
Alien Isolation (Xbox One)
In space, no one can hear you scream.... but the Alien most definitely will. It always does. This is the Alien game we've all been waiting for, a survival horror, not an action game. Not only is it the right type of game, it's been done exceptionally well. If you you weren't terrified of the Alien in the movies, you certainly will be here.
Think Alien (1979) and then turn it into a video game. That's exactly what's happened, with some differences of course. Everything is done down to a T, all the little gizmos and mechanics all appear in the game and as you play you'll recognise them from the movie. Set 15 years after the first film, we play as Amanda Ripley, Sigourney Weaver's daughter, as she attempts to investigate what happened to her mother.
The retro feel it gives you is great, even the 20th Century Fox logo is an old one when the game starts. They didn't change anything, all the old looking, green-text computers that were meant to look futuristic. The atmosphere of space looks wonderful when you look our the windows, it's even better when you're outside of the ship and witness it first hand.
I spent the first few chapters wanting to see the alien, the eventual reveal certainly didn't disapoint. The Alien isn't the only thing ywo fear though, no siree Bob! Rogue androids and other humans aren't always happy to see you either, but they are no comparison to the genius alien. Easily on of the best AI's in a game, the alien will jump out if you're running or making too much noise, it can spot you from a fair distance if you're not hiding and once it does see you, you may as well put your controller die and what for your game to reload, you ain't getting out alive at that point. The alien is so intelligent that you will be hiding in cupboard and under desks for long periods of times, after all the hiding you could still get killed before a save point. If you play smart, you will make it to the end if you stick with it.
It's quite a long game, spread around 18 chapters. It's split up quite well too, at times it's just human enemies, then the alien, then androids and sometimes there's a mix. There's a few mini games to open doors and use computers, there's a nice variation that keep the game fresh. There's also a good arsenal of weapons you can find the more you progress in the story. You also can craft useful items like molotovs and pipe bombs, but the items to craft them are quite scarce. You can use items tactically too, if you've a got a pipe bomb, launch it at a group of hunan enemies and your best alien friend will drop down and clear them out. Two of the most useful are the molotov and flamethrower, these will get the alien off you back and cause it to retreat. You feel much safer armed with fire, but beware, the more you use them on the alien, the more it'll come back to hunt you. I think the motion tracker will be everyone's most useful asset, it'll track any movement and it's your only source of locating the alien without seeing it.
The alien looked great, as did the ship, atmosphere and all the tech. The only thing that didn't look as good was the humans, they were a bit cartoony looking, but they weren't bad. The side characters weren't that great either, not very memorable or interesting. There can be long distances between the save stations, which puts a lot of pressure on you and they're the only saving source. I found it hard to tell the difference between good and bad humans and androids, it often lead to me wasting time stealthing through a room I could've just walked straight through. A later part of the story has you surrounded by androids, they're a lot tougher in this chapter and having used practically all my gear to kill two of them, they just respawned when I progressed further. A couple of glitches happened like a floating flamethrower and get stuck on top of a crate which had me reload. Not many problems in a well made game.
If you're unhappy with how smart the alien AI is, you really need to watch the movies again and listen about how intelligent the Xenomorphs really are, the game did the creatures justice and didn't make them dumb and easy like Colonial Marines. If you're playing this expecting to be able to walk through this game having no problems and the alien never causing you any trouble, you're playing the wrong game. The pattern is always different and they will never walk the same path on a reload, the ceilings drip when the alien is above and is an instant kill if you stand below, the vents aren't always a safe way to traverse as the alien can use them too. You can move around when hiding to get better views when the alien is around, if the alien comes to the locket you're in, you can hold your breath to keep it away, if you keep breathing, you're dead.
A great touch was that lots of the original cast came back to voice their characters for audio logs like Dallas, Parker and Ellen Ripley. Facehuggers even make an appearance and they are deadly if you're not quick to spot them. I have to say the penultimate chapter was much better than the final one, but they managed to get one last scare in and gave us a very interesting ending. Whether we get a sequel I'm not sure, it's certainly possible, but not really necessary. This was the perfect Alien game and reminded us just how strong these creatures are, kudos Sega.
5.9/10
Wait! I mean 8.1/10
Think Alien (1979) and then turn it into a video game. That's exactly what's happened, with some differences of course. Everything is done down to a T, all the little gizmos and mechanics all appear in the game and as you play you'll recognise them from the movie. Set 15 years after the first film, we play as Amanda Ripley, Sigourney Weaver's daughter, as she attempts to investigate what happened to her mother.
The retro feel it gives you is great, even the 20th Century Fox logo is an old one when the game starts. They didn't change anything, all the old looking, green-text computers that were meant to look futuristic. The atmosphere of space looks wonderful when you look our the windows, it's even better when you're outside of the ship and witness it first hand.
I spent the first few chapters wanting to see the alien, the eventual reveal certainly didn't disapoint. The Alien isn't the only thing ywo fear though, no siree Bob! Rogue androids and other humans aren't always happy to see you either, but they are no comparison to the genius alien. Easily on of the best AI's in a game, the alien will jump out if you're running or making too much noise, it can spot you from a fair distance if you're not hiding and once it does see you, you may as well put your controller die and what for your game to reload, you ain't getting out alive at that point. The alien is so intelligent that you will be hiding in cupboard and under desks for long periods of times, after all the hiding you could still get killed before a save point. If you play smart, you will make it to the end if you stick with it.
It's quite a long game, spread around 18 chapters. It's split up quite well too, at times it's just human enemies, then the alien, then androids and sometimes there's a mix. There's a few mini games to open doors and use computers, there's a nice variation that keep the game fresh. There's also a good arsenal of weapons you can find the more you progress in the story. You also can craft useful items like molotovs and pipe bombs, but the items to craft them are quite scarce. You can use items tactically too, if you've a got a pipe bomb, launch it at a group of hunan enemies and your best alien friend will drop down and clear them out. Two of the most useful are the molotov and flamethrower, these will get the alien off you back and cause it to retreat. You feel much safer armed with fire, but beware, the more you use them on the alien, the more it'll come back to hunt you. I think the motion tracker will be everyone's most useful asset, it'll track any movement and it's your only source of locating the alien without seeing it.
The alien looked great, as did the ship, atmosphere and all the tech. The only thing that didn't look as good was the humans, they were a bit cartoony looking, but they weren't bad. The side characters weren't that great either, not very memorable or interesting. There can be long distances between the save stations, which puts a lot of pressure on you and they're the only saving source. I found it hard to tell the difference between good and bad humans and androids, it often lead to me wasting time stealthing through a room I could've just walked straight through. A later part of the story has you surrounded by androids, they're a lot tougher in this chapter and having used practically all my gear to kill two of them, they just respawned when I progressed further. A couple of glitches happened like a floating flamethrower and get stuck on top of a crate which had me reload. Not many problems in a well made game.
If you're unhappy with how smart the alien AI is, you really need to watch the movies again and listen about how intelligent the Xenomorphs really are, the game did the creatures justice and didn't make them dumb and easy like Colonial Marines. If you're playing this expecting to be able to walk through this game having no problems and the alien never causing you any trouble, you're playing the wrong game. The pattern is always different and they will never walk the same path on a reload, the ceilings drip when the alien is above and is an instant kill if you stand below, the vents aren't always a safe way to traverse as the alien can use them too. You can move around when hiding to get better views when the alien is around, if the alien comes to the locket you're in, you can hold your breath to keep it away, if you keep breathing, you're dead.
A great touch was that lots of the original cast came back to voice their characters for audio logs like Dallas, Parker and Ellen Ripley. Facehuggers even make an appearance and they are deadly if you're not quick to spot them. I have to say the penultimate chapter was much better than the final one, but they managed to get one last scare in and gave us a very interesting ending. Whether we get a sequel I'm not sure, it's certainly possible, but not really necessary. This was the perfect Alien game and reminded us just how strong these creatures are, kudos Sega.
5.9/10
Wait! I mean 8.1/10
Thursday 2 March 2017
Hydrophobia (Xbox 360)
Hydrophobia released in 2010. This was the first of what was meant to be three parts, the game did so poorly, they didn't release the last two parts. So, what we have here is an unfinished game. The game did so bad, the developers had to close down too.
You play as Kate, who attempts to fight off a terrorist plot aboard the Queen of the world's large ocean vessel. The plot was never really explained and we were never introduced properly to the world they created.
The graphics were ugly and every room looked the same. The characters were terrible and Scoot, who was your companion was meant to be the funny one, the guy you liked, I absolutely hated him and was one of the worse acted characters in a video game. The platforming was terrible and hard to watch, all the enemies looked the same and they looked ridiculous when you shot at them while they were down, they'd slide around the floor.
There were a couple of different weapons to use, but the water flowing looked brilliant, probably the only thing that looked good. You could shoot glass that would send water crashing through enemies, it was a great way to dispose of people. The game was so short, three acts that can be done in less than two hours and that's all. The "stealth" never worked, you would crouch and walk and I was getting shot at while doing it before I even knew an enemy was there. It took ages to walk through vents because Kate walked so fucking slow! An unfinished, poor excuse for a game.
You were thrown into a world where you were told next to nothing. All of a sudden at the end of the game, Kate recognises the main villain and talks about them like we know who they are, it's the first time we've seen or heard about them. After spending the entirety of the game in the same looking areas, we are thrown in to this great futuristic city, the game ends shortly after getting here. The worst part is the end, the awful cliffhanger. Whether we save Kate's friend Scoot, I fucking hated that guy and don't care what happens to him.
There's no replayability, there's documents to collect but why bother? There's medals you can try to unlock for doing things like kill five enemies without being seen, but not worth trying once you've finished and there's a challenge room you unlock after completing the game, it's like a bad horde mode.
Don't play this game as it's unfinished and the rest will never be released. Short and sweet, unlike the game, it's more short and shit. Wasted my time playing this.
3/10
You play as Kate, who attempts to fight off a terrorist plot aboard the Queen of the world's large ocean vessel. The plot was never really explained and we were never introduced properly to the world they created.
The graphics were ugly and every room looked the same. The characters were terrible and Scoot, who was your companion was meant to be the funny one, the guy you liked, I absolutely hated him and was one of the worse acted characters in a video game. The platforming was terrible and hard to watch, all the enemies looked the same and they looked ridiculous when you shot at them while they were down, they'd slide around the floor.
There were a couple of different weapons to use, but the water flowing looked brilliant, probably the only thing that looked good. You could shoot glass that would send water crashing through enemies, it was a great way to dispose of people. The game was so short, three acts that can be done in less than two hours and that's all. The "stealth" never worked, you would crouch and walk and I was getting shot at while doing it before I even knew an enemy was there. It took ages to walk through vents because Kate walked so fucking slow! An unfinished, poor excuse for a game.
You were thrown into a world where you were told next to nothing. All of a sudden at the end of the game, Kate recognises the main villain and talks about them like we know who they are, it's the first time we've seen or heard about them. After spending the entirety of the game in the same looking areas, we are thrown in to this great futuristic city, the game ends shortly after getting here. The worst part is the end, the awful cliffhanger. Whether we save Kate's friend Scoot, I fucking hated that guy and don't care what happens to him.
There's no replayability, there's documents to collect but why bother? There's medals you can try to unlock for doing things like kill five enemies without being seen, but not worth trying once you've finished and there's a challenge room you unlock after completing the game, it's like a bad horde mode.
Don't play this game as it's unfinished and the rest will never be released. Short and sweet, unlike the game, it's more short and shit. Wasted my time playing this.
3/10
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