Star Wars Battlefront 2 was developed by EA, and unfortunately isn't the classic Battlefront 2 developed by Pandemic. It released in 2017, with the huge controversy regarding micro transactions. With such backlash, Disney stepped in and EA decided to temporarily remove them, only to plan on bringing them back.
This time we are treated to a story, it's set during The Return of the Jedi. The story stars Iden Versio, a commander in the Empire and daughter of an Imperial Admiral. She is leader of Inferno Squad, the other members; Gideon Hask and Del Meeko her right hand men. I won't go into too much detail of the story, but I will spoil the general plot. As you're an Imperial, you're a villian, which is a great and unique story for a Star Wars game. After only a few missions, you end up against the Imperials, here's why; while on a mission to extract an asset to the Empire, the planet is attacked. Iden and Del are trying to help civilians escape, Hask freaks out and calls you and Del traitors to the Empire. So, basically, you tried to evacuate civilians while on a mission to extract someone, and that's treason.... right.
After fleeing from the Empire, Iden and Del eventually find themselves working with the Rebel Alliance. Despite being very high up in the Empire, Iden and Del were clearly ruthless to be so high up. The rebels take them in and quickly rise up the ranks in the rebel force. Leia and Iden are even laughing and joking with each other early on. Hey Leia, she worked for the people that blew your fucking home planet up... It's dumb. Leia, Han, Lando and Luke are all badly forced into the story, they're even playable in some missions. Each mission with a hero felt like it was a demo for the online, it was terrible. Although the story wasn't great, if they swapped the hero missions for more with Iden, it would've been stronger. Of course they didn't have the balls to keep us as the enemy.
A little more on the story, after all, this is what sold me on getting the game so soon. There aren't really any new characters, but one in particular is probably the best in the game, Shriv. Shriv, a big player in the Rebels adds a lot of humour, and a lot of his jokes land. I was always happy when he was accompanying me on my mission. Iden was an ok character, her story was set up well, but the poor character development and flat personality made it difficult to really care about her. Del is much stronger, incredibly likeable and good company, it was pretty hard to believe he was so high up in the Empire, he seemed too nice. Hask, the villain of the story was quite strong too. Very well acted, intense, just how he turned on you was ridiculous.
There are plenty of space battles during the campaign, I'd go as far to say there's more missions in space than on the ground. If you told me that before I played it, I wouldn't have been happy, but the space battles were far stronger and more fun. There was some stealth included, it worked well but there wasn't many chances to use it. You can pick your loadouts during missions, and edit your abilities. You could also use cards during the story but I never did, I hate the card system and can't believe that survived from the first game. It's really short too, there's just no time for anything to develop. Iden felt cast aside which was a shame, they forced the heroes into the story and quickly made them best friends with the rebels, it was tacky. The story wasn't really interesting and was done carelessly.
Onto the multiplayer. There's a lot less modes, a bunch had been removed from the game. There was a couple of additions, Strike and Starfighter Assault. Strike has you in a battle to complete objectives in two teams, Starfighter Assault has teams of pilots engage in an objective based match that's across multiple stages. You can use crafting parts to upgrade cards, but who cares? That's pointless shit, crystals are the in game currency, both are a crock of shit, they're just a cheap ploy to get you to spend real money. No full price game should ever have micro transactions, but hey, at least they made their season pass free right? Oh, that's just because they ripped everyone off who bought the first and had to win them back somehow.
Battlefront now spans across all film eras, but they cheaply removed everything to do with Rogue One. Now the original trilogy, prequel trilogy and current film series are featured. The same heroes are back excluding some of the DLC characters like Greedo amongst others. So, now they've added two new film eras, how many new heroes do we get? FIVE. FUCKING FIVE. what the fuck, are you serious? Fucking five? The original Battlefront 2 added seven-fucking-teen. They didn't have heroes in the first game, but they added seventeen, and that was only across two eras! You're telling me, three whole eras, tonnes of heroes and you can only add five? Iden's one but no one gives a shit about playing as someone you control throughout the story, and Poe is only a vehicle hero, so they dont really count. From the prequels we get Darth Maul and Yoda.... Two. Where's Obi Wan? Anakin? Mace Windu? Grevious? From the new films? Rey and Kylo. Two again? Sure they gave us Finn and Captain Phasma as free DLC, but the game didn't even release with them? How can a game released in 2005 be so superior to one released in 2017?
There's practically a whole new roster of guns, I loved a lot on the first, but most don't reappear. I struggle to even find a gun I like using. I realised, as much as they added in, they took even more out. There's no battle scenarios now, they were shit but that's more gone. No more survival either. Hey they added arcade! Oh, cool, can you play online with a friend? NO OF COURSE YOU CANT, WHY WOULD SOMETHING SO USEFUL BE IN AN EA GAME? you can only play arcade in splitscreen, but not online. What the fuck is wrong with EA and Dice? How can they keep getting the Star Wars Battlefront series so fucking wrong? How? All they had to do was just make Battlefront 2 (2005) with better graphics and throw in the new film series, the hard work was already done for them.
God damnit EA. You fucked it up, AGAIN. What's worse is they'll get another chance, Battlefront 3 will happen. LucasArts didn't even make it to a three, and they perfected it. FUCK YOU EA, you've tarnished the Battlefront name. NO, you murdered it, buried it, only to dig it up again and shit all over it. I don't think I've ever been so angry at a video game's fuck up, granted EA are no stranger to my gaming rants. I grew up on Battlefront, the first was fantastic I loved it. The sequel was near perfect, addictive as Hell, a major improvement with a shit of additions and amazing cast of heroes, they were missing only Qui-Gon. A game twelve years old was clearly so ahead of its time, EA have only reached a fifth of the original. The original was made when companies cared, they actually wanted to make good games. Now? Now it's all about money, creating so little, for so much more money. It's companies like EA that have really screwed over gamers and passionate developers.
When Battlefront was announced it was being rebooted, I couldn't have been happier. The original Battlefront 2 is one of the best games I've played, very likely in my top five games ever. After what I've seen them do in two games, I wish they just left it in the past. The best thing EA could do now, is fuck off Battlefront 3, it doesn't deserve to exist, or at least be EA's game. Fuck that off and just remaster the original, it's what we gamers deserve. The only games that come out now seem to be remasters, why not remake games that actually deserve one. This shares the name of one of the greatest video games in existence, but it's just a cheap imitation.
6.9/10
Wednesday 28 February 2018
Sunday 25 February 2018
Firewatch (Xbox One)
This is the start of the 2018 games, the following reviews could feature in the end of year review.
Firewatch released in 2016 and on Xbox One later on that year. It was developed by Campo Santo, and it was their first project. It's a mystery adventure game, but ultimately a walking simulator.
It starts out with a small text story, allowing you to make some small changes. It tells the story of your character and how he met his wife. As the story goes on, we learn his wife has Alzheimer's, and how she has moved out to live with her parents. It's an emotional story and at this point we know neither of these characters.
After Henry's wife moves back in with her parents, he decides to take up a job in the wilderness as a fire lookout. It's set in 1988, and the beautiful cartoon graphics are some of the best I've seen. Henry is completely alone, there are other fire watchers out there, but you never come across them, just some notes they leave each other in the lock boxes. You do have regular contact with one other lookout, Delilah. She basically shows you the ropes and guides you through your daily tasks.
A huge part of the game is the conversations with Delilah. You talk to each other using walkie talkies, she speaks to you from her tower, while you're out doing your tasks she gives you. We have never seen Delilah or know her previous, these are two people who are talking for the first time. We watch the relationship build, and it's the best part of the game. The voice acting from both Rich Sommer and Cissy Jones, potentially the best voice acting I've witnessed. The chemistry between the two lookouts is fantastic. You the option whether to respond to most conversations and what you want to say, proving this isn't just a walking simulator. The game does a fantastic job of balancing emotion, humour and eeriness, the way Henry just shuts down when Delilah asks about his wife right after they were taking funny little digs at each other. The sarcastic jokes, interesting conversations and fearful consequences of their choices make every conversation worth listening to.
You're armed only with a map and a compass, the map marks your location, so you always know where you are, but you always have to get your map out to see where you are. You also have rope, allowing you to climb up and down high surfaces. You have free reign to explore and you want to because the forest is so beautiful. At the same time you don't, as you want to do your tasks and see what happening next.
You never see other people, the only time you do, they're pretty far away and you're unable to see their faces. You come across two drunk girls, littering and skinny-dipping, breaking the rules and causing fire hazards by setting off fireworks. Will you break their stereo? Trash their campsite? It's up to you. Your actions will have consequences. Things take a turn for the worse as you find strange equipment, and that your conversations with Delilah have been recorded. That's why you get choice dialogue, it may come back to haunt. It starts to get creepy, your conversations are being listened to, personal information about you and Delilah is found on notepads, a strange fenced off area, tracking devices, it becomes quite the mystery.
Walking simulators aren't the most exciting genre, but they're story based, so a strong story helps make a good game. This is how I'd describe Firewatch; it's the king of walking sims. If you've never played it, you really need to. The worst thing about it is its length, but prolonging the story would most likely weaken. Campo Santo's first project couldn't have gone any better, they made themselves noticed, and any game the develop now I'll be keeping an eye on.
8.6/10
Firewatch released in 2016 and on Xbox One later on that year. It was developed by Campo Santo, and it was their first project. It's a mystery adventure game, but ultimately a walking simulator.
It starts out with a small text story, allowing you to make some small changes. It tells the story of your character and how he met his wife. As the story goes on, we learn his wife has Alzheimer's, and how she has moved out to live with her parents. It's an emotional story and at this point we know neither of these characters.
After Henry's wife moves back in with her parents, he decides to take up a job in the wilderness as a fire lookout. It's set in 1988, and the beautiful cartoon graphics are some of the best I've seen. Henry is completely alone, there are other fire watchers out there, but you never come across them, just some notes they leave each other in the lock boxes. You do have regular contact with one other lookout, Delilah. She basically shows you the ropes and guides you through your daily tasks.
A huge part of the game is the conversations with Delilah. You talk to each other using walkie talkies, she speaks to you from her tower, while you're out doing your tasks she gives you. We have never seen Delilah or know her previous, these are two people who are talking for the first time. We watch the relationship build, and it's the best part of the game. The voice acting from both Rich Sommer and Cissy Jones, potentially the best voice acting I've witnessed. The chemistry between the two lookouts is fantastic. You the option whether to respond to most conversations and what you want to say, proving this isn't just a walking simulator. The game does a fantastic job of balancing emotion, humour and eeriness, the way Henry just shuts down when Delilah asks about his wife right after they were taking funny little digs at each other. The sarcastic jokes, interesting conversations and fearful consequences of their choices make every conversation worth listening to.
You're armed only with a map and a compass, the map marks your location, so you always know where you are, but you always have to get your map out to see where you are. You also have rope, allowing you to climb up and down high surfaces. You have free reign to explore and you want to because the forest is so beautiful. At the same time you don't, as you want to do your tasks and see what happening next.
You never see other people, the only time you do, they're pretty far away and you're unable to see their faces. You come across two drunk girls, littering and skinny-dipping, breaking the rules and causing fire hazards by setting off fireworks. Will you break their stereo? Trash their campsite? It's up to you. Your actions will have consequences. Things take a turn for the worse as you find strange equipment, and that your conversations with Delilah have been recorded. That's why you get choice dialogue, it may come back to haunt. It starts to get creepy, your conversations are being listened to, personal information about you and Delilah is found on notepads, a strange fenced off area, tracking devices, it becomes quite the mystery.
Walking simulators aren't the most exciting genre, but they're story based, so a strong story helps make a good game. This is how I'd describe Firewatch; it's the king of walking sims. If you've never played it, you really need to. The worst thing about it is its length, but prolonging the story would most likely weaken. Campo Santo's first project couldn't have gone any better, they made themselves noticed, and any game the develop now I'll be keeping an eye on.
8.6/10
Thursday 22 February 2018
The Simpsons Game (Xbox 360)
The Simpsons Game was developed by Visceral Games. It released in 2007, the same year as The Simpsons Movie, but not a tie in with the game.
The Simpsons family discover they are characters in a video game and are in possession of super powers. The playable characters are Homer, Marge with Maggie, Bart and Lisa. Homer has the ability to turn into a ball and roll into enemies as well as turn into a gooey homer and fire projectiles. Marge can use a megaphone to recruit Springfield citizens in to do her bidding. Bart becomes BartMan and uses his powerful slingshot and flying ability. Lisa can use her saxophone to stun enemies and her Buddhist hand to attack and freeze enemies.
The game is one big parody of video games. You will notice hundreds of small nods to some of the biggest games in history. Some levels transport you right into a parody of an in game world. Grand Theft Auto, Medal of Honor and Pokémon are three games that are directly given a level based on their worlds. The enemy's aesthetics change every level to keep in theme, most enemies will look like they're taken right out of other games, Madden and Street Fighter are two games in particular. The character set ups change every level, two Simpson family members are paired up together and it's also co-op.
It's an action platformer, with a lot of puzzles. It can be frustrating to play alone, constantly switching between characters to complete puzzles. Split screen co-op is the perfect way to play. A lot of the action gameplay is just beat-em-up and completing puzzles to get to the next section. Each level is completely different and you can't wait to see what's next, what games will be parodied. You can also see a bunch of video game posters spread out clearly parodying other games like Need For Speed and Mortal Kombat.
Across their journey through video games, The Simpsons music free their 8-bit selves as they're cast away and left to die, stop Will Wright, (The creator of The Sims) defeat Matt Groening, (The creator of The Simpsons) stop an alien invasion and win a dance of with God. Some levels are featured right from the show itself, Homer returns to the Land of Chocolate, killer dolphins rise up once again and Lard Lad returns to life attacking Springfield.
Outside of the main story, you're given the opportunity to explore Springfield in free roam. All the notable sites are there, as well as hundreds of the characters to see. Each character has their own collectable item, that'll help improve their powers and health bar. Comic Book Guy pops up to tell you you're doing generic things in video games, like double jumping and combos, they're in the form of game cliché collectables. Each level also has a time challenge, they are relevant timed missions to each story level you already completed.
It wasn't quite Hit and Run 2, (something we all still want to see) but it was worthy of its own stature in the series of Simpsons games we've seen. It was a really fun co-op game, with great levels and hilarious game spoofs. It's unfortunate that the sequel was cancelled, there's been a lack of Simpsons games the past decade, I'm starting to think we may not see another one.
7.6/10
The Simpsons family discover they are characters in a video game and are in possession of super powers. The playable characters are Homer, Marge with Maggie, Bart and Lisa. Homer has the ability to turn into a ball and roll into enemies as well as turn into a gooey homer and fire projectiles. Marge can use a megaphone to recruit Springfield citizens in to do her bidding. Bart becomes BartMan and uses his powerful slingshot and flying ability. Lisa can use her saxophone to stun enemies and her Buddhist hand to attack and freeze enemies.
The game is one big parody of video games. You will notice hundreds of small nods to some of the biggest games in history. Some levels transport you right into a parody of an in game world. Grand Theft Auto, Medal of Honor and Pokémon are three games that are directly given a level based on their worlds. The enemy's aesthetics change every level to keep in theme, most enemies will look like they're taken right out of other games, Madden and Street Fighter are two games in particular. The character set ups change every level, two Simpson family members are paired up together and it's also co-op.
It's an action platformer, with a lot of puzzles. It can be frustrating to play alone, constantly switching between characters to complete puzzles. Split screen co-op is the perfect way to play. A lot of the action gameplay is just beat-em-up and completing puzzles to get to the next section. Each level is completely different and you can't wait to see what's next, what games will be parodied. You can also see a bunch of video game posters spread out clearly parodying other games like Need For Speed and Mortal Kombat.
Across their journey through video games, The Simpsons music free their 8-bit selves as they're cast away and left to die, stop Will Wright, (The creator of The Sims) defeat Matt Groening, (The creator of The Simpsons) stop an alien invasion and win a dance of with God. Some levels are featured right from the show itself, Homer returns to the Land of Chocolate, killer dolphins rise up once again and Lard Lad returns to life attacking Springfield.
Outside of the main story, you're given the opportunity to explore Springfield in free roam. All the notable sites are there, as well as hundreds of the characters to see. Each character has their own collectable item, that'll help improve their powers and health bar. Comic Book Guy pops up to tell you you're doing generic things in video games, like double jumping and combos, they're in the form of game cliché collectables. Each level also has a time challenge, they are relevant timed missions to each story level you already completed.
It wasn't quite Hit and Run 2, (something we all still want to see) but it was worthy of its own stature in the series of Simpsons games we've seen. It was a really fun co-op game, with great levels and hilarious game spoofs. It's unfortunate that the sequel was cancelled, there's been a lack of Simpsons games the past decade, I'm starting to think we may not see another one.
7.6/10
Monday 19 February 2018
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Advanced Warfare is one of many, many games to be released annually in the CoD series, this time developed by Sledgehammer Games, their first in the series.
Advanced Warfare is its own series, and set in 2054 and expands to 2061. It stars Kevin Spacey as Jonathan Irons, head of Atlas, a private military contractor. You play as Jack Mitchell, a private. Mitchell and his best friend, Will Irons, the son of Jonathan Irons, our on a mission in Korea with their squad. The mission goes south, and Will is killed. While attending Will's funeral, Jonathan Irons recruits Mitchell into Atlas.
Atlas is filled to the brim with new weapon technology, most notably, the EXO suit. The EXO suit gives the soldier who wears it all sorts of abilities; scaling walls, double jumps, air dash and a bunch more. Not every suit can do each ability, some can do a few and others do something different. Gideon and Ilona accompany you on most of your missions, both characters are some of Atlas' best soldiers. You're also reunited with your old sergeant, Cormack, who is now a member of the Sentinel Task Force, who has their own technology, allowing them to go invisible. One of Cormack's best men, Knox, accompanies you on most missions after meeting.
The EXO suits are great to use, they give off so much variety because they can do so much, and they change up most missions. There's different grenade types too, smart, threat. One highlights enemies in red and the other will lock on to a target, and blow up what's in its path. Another cool thing is mute mines. You don't get to use them yourself, but they're so cool, the blast is silent and no one can here it, the game even goes quiet too. Some guns highlight enemies in red when you aim your reticle at them, whatever gun had this, I was using, they were incredibly useful. Later on you can wear a tank-like suit, you can just rush at the enemies and go guns blazing.
One thing CoD games have always got right is gameplay, that's no different here. The shooting mechanics are second to none, the running, jumping and dashing all flows together well, grenade throwing, vehicle driving it's all good. Veteran difficulty is far too easy though, it wasn't even a challenge throughout. The AI are useless and are just there to block your path, all the characters are good, well acted and you care about the ones you're supposed to, Gideon and Cormack being the strongest. Here's the strangest thing about this game; you're voiced and modelled by Troy Baker (the famous voice actor in video games) and yet he practically never says a word, occasionally in the cutscenes, but nothing in gameplay. Why on Earth would you cast one of the best voice actors as a lead character to not speak? The checkpoints were a little glitchy at times too, I died and was put back a lot further than expected, I carried on playing and counted the checkpoints until my death, six! I was put back six checkpoints when it should only be one.
I felt like I outgrew the CoD series. My last in the series I got when it was brand new was Modern Warfare 3. I have most of them and just not gotten round to them. I wasn't expecting much and had already written of Advanced Warfare. I was definitely surprised, and enjoyed the story. I was always against the future plotlines, but after playing through one, I have to give them credit for doing something different, as most are set in the past or present. I'm not sure whether there'll be more Advanced Warfare, there's definitely room for more and they did end with sequel in mind. I guess in my eyes, CoD is sort of back.
7.5/10
Advanced Warfare is its own series, and set in 2054 and expands to 2061. It stars Kevin Spacey as Jonathan Irons, head of Atlas, a private military contractor. You play as Jack Mitchell, a private. Mitchell and his best friend, Will Irons, the son of Jonathan Irons, our on a mission in Korea with their squad. The mission goes south, and Will is killed. While attending Will's funeral, Jonathan Irons recruits Mitchell into Atlas.
Atlas is filled to the brim with new weapon technology, most notably, the EXO suit. The EXO suit gives the soldier who wears it all sorts of abilities; scaling walls, double jumps, air dash and a bunch more. Not every suit can do each ability, some can do a few and others do something different. Gideon and Ilona accompany you on most of your missions, both characters are some of Atlas' best soldiers. You're also reunited with your old sergeant, Cormack, who is now a member of the Sentinel Task Force, who has their own technology, allowing them to go invisible. One of Cormack's best men, Knox, accompanies you on most missions after meeting.
The EXO suits are great to use, they give off so much variety because they can do so much, and they change up most missions. There's different grenade types too, smart, threat. One highlights enemies in red and the other will lock on to a target, and blow up what's in its path. Another cool thing is mute mines. You don't get to use them yourself, but they're so cool, the blast is silent and no one can here it, the game even goes quiet too. Some guns highlight enemies in red when you aim your reticle at them, whatever gun had this, I was using, they were incredibly useful. Later on you can wear a tank-like suit, you can just rush at the enemies and go guns blazing.
One thing CoD games have always got right is gameplay, that's no different here. The shooting mechanics are second to none, the running, jumping and dashing all flows together well, grenade throwing, vehicle driving it's all good. Veteran difficulty is far too easy though, it wasn't even a challenge throughout. The AI are useless and are just there to block your path, all the characters are good, well acted and you care about the ones you're supposed to, Gideon and Cormack being the strongest. Here's the strangest thing about this game; you're voiced and modelled by Troy Baker (the famous voice actor in video games) and yet he practically never says a word, occasionally in the cutscenes, but nothing in gameplay. Why on Earth would you cast one of the best voice actors as a lead character to not speak? The checkpoints were a little glitchy at times too, I died and was put back a lot further than expected, I carried on playing and counted the checkpoints until my death, six! I was put back six checkpoints when it should only be one.
I felt like I outgrew the CoD series. My last in the series I got when it was brand new was Modern Warfare 3. I have most of them and just not gotten round to them. I wasn't expecting much and had already written of Advanced Warfare. I was definitely surprised, and enjoyed the story. I was always against the future plotlines, but after playing through one, I have to give them credit for doing something different, as most are set in the past or present. I'm not sure whether there'll be more Advanced Warfare, there's definitely room for more and they did end with sequel in mind. I guess in my eyes, CoD is sort of back.
7.5/10
Friday 16 February 2018
Oddworld: Munch's Odyssey (PS3)
Munch's Odyssey is another story in the Oddworld series. We play as both Munch and Abe from the earlier games.
The game starts with Munch, a frog-like sea creature whose species is fished to make a delicacy in the supermarket. After being fished to near enough extinction, Munch is captured and tested on. Abe is tasked with helping Munch escape and the two must work together. It's single player but you can switch between the two. Each has their own abilities and you can only use each character to do certain tasks.
It's a puzzle game where you must find the exit, while also saving trapped Mudokons and Fuzzles. The more of each you save, the better your karma is at the end, which has a huge impact on how your story plays out. You can collect SpooceShrubs, which are used to upgrade your fellow Mudokons to better fighters. These are so useful for taking out large patrols. You can also meditate to to regrow SpooceShrubs over and over.
Some levels give you a lot of space to roam around, but most levels are quite linear and easy to know where you're going. Only Munch can swim, I like the swimming mechanics too, as Munch can swim fast and jump high over obstacles. Each character can die while you play, you will only fail of both characters are dead. You can revive a fallen friend by locating the respawned egg.
Munch is a very slow mover, but once you find a wheelchair, he can navigate far quicker. He can also operate cranes which are often used to pick Abe up, and lift him over high walls. Munch's powers allow him to jump even higher in water, faster walking speed and firing a zap to attack enemies. Abe can carry Munch and throw him, to lift him over obstacles. He can also posses enemies and have them attack each other, which is a great way to dispose of your foes. Abe can also command fellow Mudokons to attack enemies and wait to stay safe. There are a number of different enemy types, each have their own ways attack, but most can be possessed and made to attack each other
The humour is easily one of Oddworld's strongest points. Some of the puzzles can be quite challenging and it's often frustrating. I don't think it done a good job at indicating you to save Mudokons and Fuzzles, I often forgot that was an objective. The worst part was that I had been forgetting to save friendlies, which lead to poor karma, they didn't even let me do the last mission, I just got game over practically. I was furious, you could only complete the game if you had good karma, I felt like I wasted time after not being able to finish the last level.
I love the Oddworld series, but this falls short of Abe's Odyssey, but it's still worth playing (once).
6.7/10
The game starts with Munch, a frog-like sea creature whose species is fished to make a delicacy in the supermarket. After being fished to near enough extinction, Munch is captured and tested on. Abe is tasked with helping Munch escape and the two must work together. It's single player but you can switch between the two. Each has their own abilities and you can only use each character to do certain tasks.
It's a puzzle game where you must find the exit, while also saving trapped Mudokons and Fuzzles. The more of each you save, the better your karma is at the end, which has a huge impact on how your story plays out. You can collect SpooceShrubs, which are used to upgrade your fellow Mudokons to better fighters. These are so useful for taking out large patrols. You can also meditate to to regrow SpooceShrubs over and over.
Some levels give you a lot of space to roam around, but most levels are quite linear and easy to know where you're going. Only Munch can swim, I like the swimming mechanics too, as Munch can swim fast and jump high over obstacles. Each character can die while you play, you will only fail of both characters are dead. You can revive a fallen friend by locating the respawned egg.
Munch is a very slow mover, but once you find a wheelchair, he can navigate far quicker. He can also operate cranes which are often used to pick Abe up, and lift him over high walls. Munch's powers allow him to jump even higher in water, faster walking speed and firing a zap to attack enemies. Abe can carry Munch and throw him, to lift him over obstacles. He can also posses enemies and have them attack each other, which is a great way to dispose of your foes. Abe can also command fellow Mudokons to attack enemies and wait to stay safe. There are a number of different enemy types, each have their own ways attack, but most can be possessed and made to attack each other
The humour is easily one of Oddworld's strongest points. Some of the puzzles can be quite challenging and it's often frustrating. I don't think it done a good job at indicating you to save Mudokons and Fuzzles, I often forgot that was an objective. The worst part was that I had been forgetting to save friendlies, which lead to poor karma, they didn't even let me do the last mission, I just got game over practically. I was furious, you could only complete the game if you had good karma, I felt like I wasted time after not being able to finish the last level.
I love the Oddworld series, but this falls short of Abe's Odyssey, but it's still worth playing (once).
6.7/10
Tuesday 13 February 2018
Dear Esther (Xbox One)
Dear Esther released in 2016, four years after its initial release on PC.
It's a walking simulator, and honestly, that's all you do. You walk around an island that's completely isolated. While walking, there's a narration going on. A man is reading letters to his deceased wife, her death is revealed throughout the story.
There's no direction and it's not always obvious if you're going the right way. You only really know you're headed the right way when the narrator starts to talk. It's a very short game that's full of just walking, sound like your thing?
The acting is really good, the actor done a great job at making the dialogue interesting and worth listening to. The map is well designed, the grassy fields, the dark caves and beach side areas look fantastic. The design is easily the game's strongest point.
The walking speed was ridiculously slow, there's no way to speed it up, and it's very frustrating. The game is way too short, and by the end of it, it doesn't feel like it was really worth playing. The walking speed is probably so slow so the game lasted longer. I also found the ending really strange, not sure if others found that, but it left me baffled.
Very short and only moderately interesting. If you can get it for a very cheap, then it's worth thinking about getting.
5.3/10
It's a walking simulator, and honestly, that's all you do. You walk around an island that's completely isolated. While walking, there's a narration going on. A man is reading letters to his deceased wife, her death is revealed throughout the story.
There's no direction and it's not always obvious if you're going the right way. You only really know you're headed the right way when the narrator starts to talk. It's a very short game that's full of just walking, sound like your thing?
The acting is really good, the actor done a great job at making the dialogue interesting and worth listening to. The map is well designed, the grassy fields, the dark caves and beach side areas look fantastic. The design is easily the game's strongest point.
The walking speed was ridiculously slow, there's no way to speed it up, and it's very frustrating. The game is way too short, and by the end of it, it doesn't feel like it was really worth playing. The walking speed is probably so slow so the game lasted longer. I also found the ending really strange, not sure if others found that, but it left me baffled.
Very short and only moderately interesting. If you can get it for a very cheap, then it's worth thinking about getting.
5.3/10
Saturday 10 February 2018
Assassin's Creed Syndicate (Xbox One)
Syndicate released in 2015 and is the ninth (Christ almighty) installment in the series.
First off, Syndicate is set in Victorian England which is the perfect setting. I loved the setting and it's the best by far. Walking around London in the 1800s, scaling Big Ben, it's fantastic. For the first time you play as two assassin's, Evie and Jacob Frye, brother and sister. I really liked both of them, Evie is one of my all time favourite assassins.
Jacob is a brawler and is open to fighting, Evie is more stealthy and is better for a quieter approach. You can pick and swap anytime you choose. A lot of missions are specific to a certain character and will automatically change if you're the wrong one. It seems like it should be coop being able to play as two characters, but it's not. Your sibling isn't even AI controlled which is disappointing too, you're always alone and your sibling is nowhere to be seen once the cutscene ends.
London is in Templar control, lead by Crawford Starrick, one of the stronger AC villains. You'll see some significant historical figures throughout including Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens, even Winston Churchill in the WWI segment. Jacob and Evie must take back London, they can takeover each area by completing side missions in each area and then defeating the gang leader of that controlled zone.
The design of London is perfect, the tight roads, riding horse carriages, the people and children roaming the streets. There's plenty of activities like fight club, carriage racing, child liberation missions where you free children from hard labour. You can upgrade each character and unlock new skills relevant to each. A lot of the side characters are pretty weak, some aren't given any time to develop and some of the more important ones like Henry Green, an avid ally, just fall flat. I couldn't tell you what was going on in the present day plotline, frankly I stopped caring about that long ago and just disregard it lately. God knows what the WWI segment was about and why it was even included, it just felt so irrelevant.
The combat was very weak, it was just smashing the fight button and then occasionally countering when needed. I almost always tried to avoid open combat and stay stealthy because the combat got boring almost instantly. The hallucination darts were a huge help, as they turned enemies against each other. Being able to recruit your friendly gang mates and order them to fight enemies, leaving you to skip past them and continue your objective. The grappling hook was an amazing tool, it allowed you to scale tall buildings instantly and let's you cross building from across the street, finally a useful tool and the ability to climb faster.
The horse carriage riding was good, but the small roads made it impossible to drive through, especially when a carriage going the opposite way was coming. Fighting on rooftops of horse carriages and trains were incredible. Kicking an enemy off a moving train was so satisfying. The free running was fucked here, having the press A to scale building and B to climb down messed with you, even when you just wanted to vault over a wall you'd have to press one and it was always the wrong one, I can't even remember which let you vault over the wall, they had a system that worked for years and tweaked it in Unity, but they failed miserably here. Multi-finishers were a great idea, but they never ever worked.
This should've been my favourite AC game, by far, but it wasn't. It was almost a chore to play at times. It's a decent game, but it should've been far better. An improvement on Unity, but far from the levels of Black Flag. Please stop making Assassin's Creed games every year, actually give yourselves time to craft a great game, you're only hurting your own reputation releasing games of quality that are so inconsistent. I hope they revisit this era and the Frye twins again one day, but they wont. They always bin off their setting and characters after one game, unless you're called Ezio.
7.5/10
First off, Syndicate is set in Victorian England which is the perfect setting. I loved the setting and it's the best by far. Walking around London in the 1800s, scaling Big Ben, it's fantastic. For the first time you play as two assassin's, Evie and Jacob Frye, brother and sister. I really liked both of them, Evie is one of my all time favourite assassins.
Jacob is a brawler and is open to fighting, Evie is more stealthy and is better for a quieter approach. You can pick and swap anytime you choose. A lot of missions are specific to a certain character and will automatically change if you're the wrong one. It seems like it should be coop being able to play as two characters, but it's not. Your sibling isn't even AI controlled which is disappointing too, you're always alone and your sibling is nowhere to be seen once the cutscene ends.
London is in Templar control, lead by Crawford Starrick, one of the stronger AC villains. You'll see some significant historical figures throughout including Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens, even Winston Churchill in the WWI segment. Jacob and Evie must take back London, they can takeover each area by completing side missions in each area and then defeating the gang leader of that controlled zone.
The design of London is perfect, the tight roads, riding horse carriages, the people and children roaming the streets. There's plenty of activities like fight club, carriage racing, child liberation missions where you free children from hard labour. You can upgrade each character and unlock new skills relevant to each. A lot of the side characters are pretty weak, some aren't given any time to develop and some of the more important ones like Henry Green, an avid ally, just fall flat. I couldn't tell you what was going on in the present day plotline, frankly I stopped caring about that long ago and just disregard it lately. God knows what the WWI segment was about and why it was even included, it just felt so irrelevant.
The combat was very weak, it was just smashing the fight button and then occasionally countering when needed. I almost always tried to avoid open combat and stay stealthy because the combat got boring almost instantly. The hallucination darts were a huge help, as they turned enemies against each other. Being able to recruit your friendly gang mates and order them to fight enemies, leaving you to skip past them and continue your objective. The grappling hook was an amazing tool, it allowed you to scale tall buildings instantly and let's you cross building from across the street, finally a useful tool and the ability to climb faster.
The horse carriage riding was good, but the small roads made it impossible to drive through, especially when a carriage going the opposite way was coming. Fighting on rooftops of horse carriages and trains were incredible. Kicking an enemy off a moving train was so satisfying. The free running was fucked here, having the press A to scale building and B to climb down messed with you, even when you just wanted to vault over a wall you'd have to press one and it was always the wrong one, I can't even remember which let you vault over the wall, they had a system that worked for years and tweaked it in Unity, but they failed miserably here. Multi-finishers were a great idea, but they never ever worked.
This should've been my favourite AC game, by far, but it wasn't. It was almost a chore to play at times. It's a decent game, but it should've been far better. An improvement on Unity, but far from the levels of Black Flag. Please stop making Assassin's Creed games every year, actually give yourselves time to craft a great game, you're only hurting your own reputation releasing games of quality that are so inconsistent. I hope they revisit this era and the Frye twins again one day, but they wont. They always bin off their setting and characters after one game, unless you're called Ezio.
7.5/10
Wednesday 7 February 2018
Skyrim: Dawnguard DLC (PS3)
Dawnguard was the first DLC for Skyrim and it released mid 2012.
The Dawnguard are a group of vampire hunters who have enquired about you joining them. You're actually given a choice whether to side with Dawnguard or vampires. Choosing Dawnguard will give you an awesome crossbow, or joining the vampires will turn you into a vampire lord and grant you some cool powers.
Being a vampire lord allows you to transform into a gargoyle like beast. You can hover over the ground and drain life from your foes. It's pretty cool.
There's plenty of main quests and side quests. It's a good story were you're given the choice of who to side with. You're also granted a new follower, who is by far my favourite, Serana. Serana is a vampire and daughter of vampire master, Lord Harkon.
Each side has their own perks and abilities. The main quests have you often running around dungeons and being attacked by gargoyles. The Dawnguard base and Vampire base are pretty cool to explore and there's lots of characters to engage with. If you choose to be a vampire there are special perks you can unlock by feeding on corpses.
This is the strongest DLC in Skyrim for me. The fact you're given a choose of who to side with. It's a little overpriced but worth playing. Personally, I chose to side with Dawnguard, you get to keep Serana as a follower too!
3.7/5
The Dawnguard are a group of vampire hunters who have enquired about you joining them. You're actually given a choice whether to side with Dawnguard or vampires. Choosing Dawnguard will give you an awesome crossbow, or joining the vampires will turn you into a vampire lord and grant you some cool powers.
Being a vampire lord allows you to transform into a gargoyle like beast. You can hover over the ground and drain life from your foes. It's pretty cool.
There's plenty of main quests and side quests. It's a good story were you're given the choice of who to side with. You're also granted a new follower, who is by far my favourite, Serana. Serana is a vampire and daughter of vampire master, Lord Harkon.
Each side has their own perks and abilities. The main quests have you often running around dungeons and being attacked by gargoyles. The Dawnguard base and Vampire base are pretty cool to explore and there's lots of characters to engage with. If you choose to be a vampire there are special perks you can unlock by feeding on corpses.
This is the strongest DLC in Skyrim for me. The fact you're given a choose of who to side with. It's a little overpriced but worth playing. Personally, I chose to side with Dawnguard, you get to keep Serana as a follower too!
3.7/5
Sunday 4 February 2018
Skyrim: Dragonborn DLC (PS3)
Dragonborn is the final DLC for Skyrim, and it released at the very end of 2012. Taking you to a whole new island, Solstheim.
A dragon priest named Miraak, has similar powers to you and is a Dragonborn himself of sorts. You must track down five black books that will give you the knowledge to defeat Miraak.
Solstheim is a pretty big island, giving you plenty of new places to explore. There is plenty of new quests and side quests to complete. There's new characters and dragon shouts, and even a new home for you to inhabit. I think it's the best of all the possible homes, it's certainly the biggest. New enemies that are pretty creepy and challenge to fight too, as well as a new material called Stalhrim, you can craft armour and weapons from the rare material.
The main questline is great short, but it's prolonged by the black book side quests, they are repetitive though. Each black book quest teleports you to a similar looking area with the same enemies, it's sort of a maze too. You just keep finding the next book until you finally reach the end. By far the worst quests in the whole of Skyrim. The main questline is quite enjoyable and leads to an epic final battle with Miraak.
It's a pretty big add on filled with lots of new content. Most of its good, the only downfall is the black book side quests. It's a strong DLC overall and worth playing if you already love Skyrim.
3.6/5
A dragon priest named Miraak, has similar powers to you and is a Dragonborn himself of sorts. You must track down five black books that will give you the knowledge to defeat Miraak.
Solstheim is a pretty big island, giving you plenty of new places to explore. There is plenty of new quests and side quests to complete. There's new characters and dragon shouts, and even a new home for you to inhabit. I think it's the best of all the possible homes, it's certainly the biggest. New enemies that are pretty creepy and challenge to fight too, as well as a new material called Stalhrim, you can craft armour and weapons from the rare material.
The main questline is great short, but it's prolonged by the black book side quests, they are repetitive though. Each black book quest teleports you to a similar looking area with the same enemies, it's sort of a maze too. You just keep finding the next book until you finally reach the end. By far the worst quests in the whole of Skyrim. The main questline is quite enjoyable and leads to an epic final battle with Miraak.
It's a pretty big add on filled with lots of new content. Most of its good, the only downfall is the black book side quests. It's a strong DLC overall and worth playing if you already love Skyrim.
3.6/5
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