Brink was developed by Splash Damage and released in 2011. It's a first person shooter, that's effectively an online game.
The game takes place in a fictional city called The Ark. Two factions Security and the Resistance are at war. The Ark is a floating city built above a flooded Earth, rations and supplies are low with extra given to Security. This causes the Resistance to fight for their poor treatment. Lame plot right?
They try to force a story into a game that has none. Every time you load into a level a cutscene will play, it includes a bunch of no named characters randomly talking, like we should know them, but we don't. They're always angry and talk like they're developed characters, but they're not. It always seems that one of the random characters has a relative fighting for the other side too, for some reason they try to make you care about non existent character.
You're immediately lied to when playing this, you're fooled into thinking there's a story, but there's not. The solo and online is the exact same thing, just that you'll either be alone or with other players. It's effectively an objective based multiplayer game you can play alone. Playing alone will be your biggest mistake. The AI is the worst, they're fucking broken. If playing solo, you'll do all the work. If you're not trying your hardest, you've already lost. Your team of AI will practically NEVER help you with objectives, but the enemy team, oh the enemy team will fuck you up. This is by far the most unbalanced game in history. It's an online game, how they ever sold it with a story is false advertising and everyone involved should be jailed for stealing our money.
I'm not going to go into too much detail about Brink. It'll just turn into a massive rant, and I am done raging over Brink. It's unfair and doesn't deserve to be played. There was meant to be free running but it boils down to just vaulting. There's a decent amount of abilities like napalm grenades, turrets and plenty more, but none of them work because enemies take a shit tonne of punishment, but they'll drop you in less than a second, and you try and wait for an AI medic to save you, you'll see how awful the AI really is. You can pick difficulty level when playing solo, but there's only one level, and it's bullshit difficulty.
You can pick a side, Security or Resistance, it's very likely you won't care about either. Once you've completed one side, you can play the other where you'll do the exact same missions you've already done, just on the other side. The team announcer who talks to you while you're playing is annoying as fuck. They're always calling you brother and always panicking about losing command posts, which offer nothing to winning the mission. Your AI team mates will never help with the main objectives, but they'll never stop doing the pointless side objectives and love those command posts too. There's different classes that can do different thing, like give ammo, health, repair or plant hacks, you need to be the correct class to complete the objectives, and seeing as your team won't help, you'll have to switch a lot.
Some praise Brink really does deserve, is its design. The graphics on the characters are some of my favourite and the customisation is good too. It's just in an awful game. That style of graphics alone made me want a sequel. If they add a really story, better AI and a chance to win a gun fight, they could've got that sequel. It could be fun at times, a really enjoyable game surprisingly, but once you get put in a mission where it seems impossible to win, it usually is and it's just ridiculous to even try.
I fucking hate Brink, one of my most hated games I've played, but I like it too. I never really played online against people, I really wish I did because that's how it's meant to be played, but it wasn't sold to me that way. I was expecting a story, with free running and great customisation, but we only got one of those. This really should've been a rant, but I'm deflated when I think of Brink. Good riddance.
5.9/10
Thursday 29 March 2018
Thursday 22 March 2018
Ryse Son of Rome (Xbox One)
Ryse was a launch title for the Xbox One in 2013, it was developed by Crytek.
Marius Titus, a Roman Centurion, leads Rome in a battle against Celtic Barbarians. Marius gets Roman Emperor, Nero in a safe private room, where he begins to tell the emperor his story. A tale of how Marius lost his family, rose high in the Roman Legion and his revenge.
Ryse to this day is the best looking game I've seen. I was in awe just looking at Marius in his armour when I first started the game. The shine on his armour is beautiful, incredibly well designed. Sadly, that's practically all this game has. Once you start fighting you're quickly deflated. Think of the combat as a imitation on the Batman Arkham series, it's not a bad imitation, just a bland one. You'll soon be bored of just fighting back the same four looking barbarians. What's makes it even worse is the executions. They're just quicktime events, the enemies light up blue, yellow and red for you to press the corresponding button. It makes a wonderful looking game just look tacky.
You fight with a sword and shield, the shield works best for partying and can interrupt attacks. Taller, stronger enemies take longer to kill and will require you to dodge their attacks by rolling. You'll know you have to dodge when the enemy lights up bright red like a Christmas tree. You can also collect spears and use them to throw at enemies, especially archers I don't really know what else to say about it, that's the gist of the fighting and that's literally the whole game. There's a couple boss fights but they work the same way. You can use ballistas, but they work the same as spears just faster.
The story is decent, cliché and obvious what's going to happen at times. The cutscenes look amazing and the acting of Marius and Nero is great. There aren't too many characters, there's Vitallion leader of Marius' legion he's one of the best characters. Boudica is the daughter of the leader of the barbarians, and there's also the emperor's spoilt and annoying sons, Basilius and Commodus.
There's a multiplayer that shouldn't exist. There's a survival mode where you just fight for as long as you can. There's arena where you're given the same basic task and fight off a lot of enemies, in an arena where it moves mechanically and just seems completely out of place in a game set in ANCIENT Rome. All that and it's only two players, there's even a choice to play that solo, why when it's boring with another player? A max two player multiplayer and you can't even have one on one battles with your friends, huge error.
That's about it. There's not much to talk about when the gameplay is just fighting and heavily involved quick time events, or a cliché story and terrible multiplayer that shouldn't exist. At the same time, it's worth playing through once, even just for how amazing this game looks.
6.9/10
Marius Titus, a Roman Centurion, leads Rome in a battle against Celtic Barbarians. Marius gets Roman Emperor, Nero in a safe private room, where he begins to tell the emperor his story. A tale of how Marius lost his family, rose high in the Roman Legion and his revenge.
Ryse to this day is the best looking game I've seen. I was in awe just looking at Marius in his armour when I first started the game. The shine on his armour is beautiful, incredibly well designed. Sadly, that's practically all this game has. Once you start fighting you're quickly deflated. Think of the combat as a imitation on the Batman Arkham series, it's not a bad imitation, just a bland one. You'll soon be bored of just fighting back the same four looking barbarians. What's makes it even worse is the executions. They're just quicktime events, the enemies light up blue, yellow and red for you to press the corresponding button. It makes a wonderful looking game just look tacky.
You fight with a sword and shield, the shield works best for partying and can interrupt attacks. Taller, stronger enemies take longer to kill and will require you to dodge their attacks by rolling. You'll know you have to dodge when the enemy lights up bright red like a Christmas tree. You can also collect spears and use them to throw at enemies, especially archers I don't really know what else to say about it, that's the gist of the fighting and that's literally the whole game. There's a couple boss fights but they work the same way. You can use ballistas, but they work the same as spears just faster.
The story is decent, cliché and obvious what's going to happen at times. The cutscenes look amazing and the acting of Marius and Nero is great. There aren't too many characters, there's Vitallion leader of Marius' legion he's one of the best characters. Boudica is the daughter of the leader of the barbarians, and there's also the emperor's spoilt and annoying sons, Basilius and Commodus.
There's a multiplayer that shouldn't exist. There's a survival mode where you just fight for as long as you can. There's arena where you're given the same basic task and fight off a lot of enemies, in an arena where it moves mechanically and just seems completely out of place in a game set in ANCIENT Rome. All that and it's only two players, there's even a choice to play that solo, why when it's boring with another player? A max two player multiplayer and you can't even have one on one battles with your friends, huge error.
That's about it. There's not much to talk about when the gameplay is just fighting and heavily involved quick time events, or a cliché story and terrible multiplayer that shouldn't exist. At the same time, it's worth playing through once, even just for how amazing this game looks.
6.9/10
Monday 19 March 2018
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus HD (PS3)
The first in the Sly Cooper franchise, released back in 2002 and developed by Sucker Punch Productions. A game I missed in the PS2 era, but thanks to a HD remake on the PS3, I finally got to it.
Sly is a raccoon and master thief, born from a family of many master thieves. Sly was to inherit the Thievius Raccoonus, a book full of skills and abilities from the Cooper family. The fiendish five, a gang of the world's most wanted criminals steal the book and kill Sly's father in the process. With the help of his friends, Bentley a brilliant hacker who's a turtle, and Murray, the driver and Hippopotamus, will fight off the fiendish five and return the family book back to Sly. Described as a master thief because he only steals from other criminals.
Each of the fiendish five is a boss fight, and their own level variation. There are a bunch of levels to each bosses area, where you'll have to complete the levels to unlock keys to progress to the eventual boss fight. You can also collect messages in a bottle that'll allow you to open a safe and learn some new skills. Sir Ranleigh is the first of the fiendish five, an aristocratic frog. Next up Muggshot, a game gangster dog, followed by Mz Ruby, a voodoo priestess crocodile. Martial arts expert, Panda king is the final boss before the leader of the five, Clockwerk, an immortal metal owl. Inspector Carmelita Fox follows you around the world as you take out the fiendish five, hoping to finally put Sly behind bars for his thievery.
The level designs are really well do and made far better with the cartoon noir style. Most of the levels are really fun, I wasn't into some of Murray's, they were usually races or guiding him through a long winded section were you'd be forced to restart as Murray could be killed from one hit. The boss fights are enjoyable, albeit easy. A couple could be beaten with just a few hits. Ms Ruby's boss fight is literally a long quicktime event.
The gameplay is pretty good, swinging and sliding along vines were fun ways to platform through the levels. The one hit kill was infuriating at times, but the game was pretty easy, horses shoes would also give you an extra hit before dying. You were also forced to start from the very beginning if you had run out of lives. You could unlike lots of moves, but most you wouldn't really use, like the explosive hat. Slo-mo was a cool and very useful power, made sections even easier. You unlocked all these cool moves only if you were getting all the collectables as you play. Once you complete the game and find all collectables to unlock all the moves, there's no point in replaying the game to test them out. You also collected coins throughout every level and they seemed to serve absolutely no purpose.
The art style and enemy design was by far the best thing about it. Sly, Bentley and Murray all are designed and portrayed well, as well as Carmelita. The fiendish five all look great too, the standouts are the first two bosses, Ranleigh the frog and Muggshot the dog. The levels are brilliant, they're fun to play and each suits the world they're set in. Sly travels through American casinos, boggy swamps, snowy Japan, and all the levels are well suited.
It's just too easy, mainly with boss fights and too short. I'm looking forward to playing through the rest of the Sly games. It didn't wow me as much as I'd hoped, but I'm definitely contiuning the franchise.
7.4/10
Sly is a raccoon and master thief, born from a family of many master thieves. Sly was to inherit the Thievius Raccoonus, a book full of skills and abilities from the Cooper family. The fiendish five, a gang of the world's most wanted criminals steal the book and kill Sly's father in the process. With the help of his friends, Bentley a brilliant hacker who's a turtle, and Murray, the driver and Hippopotamus, will fight off the fiendish five and return the family book back to Sly. Described as a master thief because he only steals from other criminals.
Each of the fiendish five is a boss fight, and their own level variation. There are a bunch of levels to each bosses area, where you'll have to complete the levels to unlock keys to progress to the eventual boss fight. You can also collect messages in a bottle that'll allow you to open a safe and learn some new skills. Sir Ranleigh is the first of the fiendish five, an aristocratic frog. Next up Muggshot, a game gangster dog, followed by Mz Ruby, a voodoo priestess crocodile. Martial arts expert, Panda king is the final boss before the leader of the five, Clockwerk, an immortal metal owl. Inspector Carmelita Fox follows you around the world as you take out the fiendish five, hoping to finally put Sly behind bars for his thievery.
The level designs are really well do and made far better with the cartoon noir style. Most of the levels are really fun, I wasn't into some of Murray's, they were usually races or guiding him through a long winded section were you'd be forced to restart as Murray could be killed from one hit. The boss fights are enjoyable, albeit easy. A couple could be beaten with just a few hits. Ms Ruby's boss fight is literally a long quicktime event.
The gameplay is pretty good, swinging and sliding along vines were fun ways to platform through the levels. The one hit kill was infuriating at times, but the game was pretty easy, horses shoes would also give you an extra hit before dying. You were also forced to start from the very beginning if you had run out of lives. You could unlike lots of moves, but most you wouldn't really use, like the explosive hat. Slo-mo was a cool and very useful power, made sections even easier. You unlocked all these cool moves only if you were getting all the collectables as you play. Once you complete the game and find all collectables to unlock all the moves, there's no point in replaying the game to test them out. You also collected coins throughout every level and they seemed to serve absolutely no purpose.
The art style and enemy design was by far the best thing about it. Sly, Bentley and Murray all are designed and portrayed well, as well as Carmelita. The fiendish five all look great too, the standouts are the first two bosses, Ranleigh the frog and Muggshot the dog. The levels are brilliant, they're fun to play and each suits the world they're set in. Sly travels through American casinos, boggy swamps, snowy Japan, and all the levels are well suited.
It's just too easy, mainly with boss fights and too short. I'm looking forward to playing through the rest of the Sly games. It didn't wow me as much as I'd hoped, but I'm definitely contiuning the franchise.
7.4/10
Thursday 15 March 2018
Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City (Xbox 360)
This game is terrible. See you in the next review!
...Ugh, ok then.
Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City released in 2012, and developed by Capcom and Slant Six Games. SSG shut down a year later, and this game most likely helped that.
So that's what companies are doing now? Using the name of popular franchises to sell games? NO! THIS DOES NOT DESERVE THE RESIDENT EVIL NAME. This doesn't even need to exist, seriously, why does it? The only purpose this serves is to damage the Resident Evil name. "But... but we put popular Resident Evil character Leon in the game", cheap ploys using popular characters and titles to STEAL money from gamers.
The Umbrella Security Service send out a team to Raccoon City, a team of four class-based characters to stop Dr William Birkin handing the US military his T-virus and retrieve the G-virus. Birkin has hired a group of mercenaries to make sure the deal goes through and will attack your team on site. The T-virus causes a zombie outbreak in Raccoon City, and the USS have to clear any evidence of Umbrella ever being there. There is a choice ending too, whether you complete or abandon your mission, completing the mission ends in you killing Leon Kennedy, like that's the way he'd go out.
The characters suck, they're hideously acted, everything they say is cringey and over the top acting. They look so plain, they're all in black outfits and have black masks. Each character is a class, and you'll have three AI with you if you play solo. I beg you to play with others if you're gonna play it at all. The AI is God awful, they won't kill, they'll just get in your way. The best they do is distract some of the infected.
The graphics are piss-poor, this came out in 2012 yet it looks like it's from 2007. The zombies are embarrassing to look at, the huge infected at the start looks like a baby tried to draw a Tank from Left 4 Dead, the red skinned zombies look like they came from a cartoon. The controls are clunky and hardy ever respond. Picking up weapons and ammo is a chore, you'll run away thinking you grabbed a new gun, but it's still on the floor laughing at you. You can execute mercenaries or do a gut shot if you hold the grab, which is cool, but you'll be instantly frustrated with the amount of times it doesn't work.
The gun play is surprisingly ok, but here's how they fucked that you; you get about two clips of ammo, so you're constantly dry looking for more. The combat is one of the worst, zombies will take 10+ hits using it, if you hold the attack button you can execute, but I wasn't told that and figured it out at the end of the game! Being heavily damaged will cause you to bleed, meaning the zombies will come gunning for you. You can also become a zombie if you're infected and don't have any anti virus spray. Your team can also become infected, and you'll have to put them down before they turn. You can revive all downed allies quickly. There's a decent selection of guns and grenade types.
It's quite short, but the levels seem to drag, you'll bore yourself with the dull acting, eye-gouginly bad graphics and tiresome tropes. Don't even get me started on being grabbed non stop by the Lickers, seriously, what's more frustrating then being grabbed over and over on games? You can buy guns and abilities but I barely used any. There's a tacked on multiplayer that I'll be aurprsurp any even played. There's five modes I played them all with a friend and it was one of the worst multiplayer experiences I've had, I'm not even gonna go into more detail about multiplayer. This game is so bad.
It's non-canon, so what's the fucking point in it?
4.6/10
...Ugh, ok then.
Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City released in 2012, and developed by Capcom and Slant Six Games. SSG shut down a year later, and this game most likely helped that.
So that's what companies are doing now? Using the name of popular franchises to sell games? NO! THIS DOES NOT DESERVE THE RESIDENT EVIL NAME. This doesn't even need to exist, seriously, why does it? The only purpose this serves is to damage the Resident Evil name. "But... but we put popular Resident Evil character Leon in the game", cheap ploys using popular characters and titles to STEAL money from gamers.
The Umbrella Security Service send out a team to Raccoon City, a team of four class-based characters to stop Dr William Birkin handing the US military his T-virus and retrieve the G-virus. Birkin has hired a group of mercenaries to make sure the deal goes through and will attack your team on site. The T-virus causes a zombie outbreak in Raccoon City, and the USS have to clear any evidence of Umbrella ever being there. There is a choice ending too, whether you complete or abandon your mission, completing the mission ends in you killing Leon Kennedy, like that's the way he'd go out.
The characters suck, they're hideously acted, everything they say is cringey and over the top acting. They look so plain, they're all in black outfits and have black masks. Each character is a class, and you'll have three AI with you if you play solo. I beg you to play with others if you're gonna play it at all. The AI is God awful, they won't kill, they'll just get in your way. The best they do is distract some of the infected.
The graphics are piss-poor, this came out in 2012 yet it looks like it's from 2007. The zombies are embarrassing to look at, the huge infected at the start looks like a baby tried to draw a Tank from Left 4 Dead, the red skinned zombies look like they came from a cartoon. The controls are clunky and hardy ever respond. Picking up weapons and ammo is a chore, you'll run away thinking you grabbed a new gun, but it's still on the floor laughing at you. You can execute mercenaries or do a gut shot if you hold the grab, which is cool, but you'll be instantly frustrated with the amount of times it doesn't work.
The gun play is surprisingly ok, but here's how they fucked that you; you get about two clips of ammo, so you're constantly dry looking for more. The combat is one of the worst, zombies will take 10+ hits using it, if you hold the attack button you can execute, but I wasn't told that and figured it out at the end of the game! Being heavily damaged will cause you to bleed, meaning the zombies will come gunning for you. You can also become a zombie if you're infected and don't have any anti virus spray. Your team can also become infected, and you'll have to put them down before they turn. You can revive all downed allies quickly. There's a decent selection of guns and grenade types.
It's quite short, but the levels seem to drag, you'll bore yourself with the dull acting, eye-gouginly bad graphics and tiresome tropes. Don't even get me started on being grabbed non stop by the Lickers, seriously, what's more frustrating then being grabbed over and over on games? You can buy guns and abilities but I barely used any. There's a tacked on multiplayer that I'll be aurprsurp any even played. There's five modes I played them all with a friend and it was one of the worst multiplayer experiences I've had, I'm not even gonna go into more detail about multiplayer. This game is so bad.
It's non-canon, so what's the fucking point in it?
4.6/10
Monday 12 March 2018
State of Decay (Xbox 360)
State of Decay was released in 2013 and developed by Undead Labs.
First off, this is the my perfect kind of zombie guy. Tough, scavenging, building up your safe zone, cars, melee, guns and other friendly survivors. It's missing some stuff sure, but it's the perfect start.
There's a story, it's quite short and nothing amazing, but it's appreciated. You return home to Trumbull, along with your friend. You quickly find out the world is changing as there's a zombie apocalypse afoot. They soon make friends with other survivors and make their new home at a populated church. They meet a bunch of different groups of survivors, all with different goals. You and your new found friends plan to escape the town, which is the main objective.
This game has perma-death, meaning if you die, you're dead. You can play as all different characters, or you can stick to one if you can survive long enough. There's plenty of different characters to play as, you'll meet plenty along your way, and you can even recruit many back to your home base. You can build up your home base, build medical bays, sleeping quarters, watchtowers and more. Each character can build up their stats like stamina, shooting, wits for looting and plenty more.
There's lots to explore, the map is really big, way bigger than you'd think. There's loads of houses and shops for you to loot items, you'll find the right supplies in the right places, bullets in gun stores, medical supplies at the vets. You can travel around the huge map with a mass amount of different vehicles. You can loot rucksacks of supplies which will cost more stamina while sprinting, but you can rack 'em up in the boot of your vehicle. You have to hold the button to loot which is a slower process, but can be sped up holding down another button, at the risk of making more noise and alerting zombies.
Stamina and health are two of your biggest worries, especially in a game where there's perma-death. You can find plenty of health supplies and snacks to restore stamina, you want to always have them in your limited inventory. There's all kinds of melee weapons and types, heavy, blunt, edged. There's a huge arsenal of guns and types of ammo. You can even create silencers and other weapon mods, as well as health supplies if you have a medical bay and munitions shop at your home base. You can even relocate your home base to many different locations, and bring along all your recruited survivors.
Hordes will roam the streets and will come charging at you once you're spotted. A great way of destroying hordes quickly, is to open your car door as you drive past them and smash through them. Ploughing through zombies with your car is a quick way to destroy the vehicle. Zombies will jump on your vehicle and rip your door off if you don't dispatch them. Infestations will often occupy a deserted home, forcing you to clear them out if you want to loot it. There are different zombies types called freaks, swat zombies are armoured up and won't die by guns, ferals are tough and quick, they can tear you apart easily if you're unprepared. Bloaters cause a gas-like explosion and will take your stamina and health down if caught. Screamers will do just that and alert all nearby zombies and juggernauts and tall fat zombies, very difficult to kill and can kill you all too quickly.
As well as the main story, there's plenty of missions types, side missions, freak up, help nearby survivors, ally missions, recruitment, help out injured or lost allies, there's plenty to do. Problem is most of it is just repetitive and you'll get bored quick. Although the voice acting is really good, most characters are voiced by the same person and have the exact same voice. It's even worse when .you're doing the repetitive missions, you'll be quoting the game as you play. I tend to have stuck with a small group of characters and just switched between the group and learnt they're names and built up their skills, rather than play as every character and risk losing survivors who were low levelled.
There's survey areas that allow you to climb up a tall building and scout the land for vehicle's, hordes and possible loot areas. Your weapons can break over time, but you're able to get them repaired at base. You can store all items you've found at base, in return you'll be awarded influence which is sort of currency. You can spend influence to build up your home base and even use it to recruit a survivor to help you complete tasks. You can set up outposts at cleared buildings that help take care of hordes, execute zombies that are knocked down, and use your radio tower to find survivors and supplies. You can also send out runners to pick up supplies you had no room to carry yourself.
There's plenty of flaws, but so many more good things. It can get repetitive if you do anything but the story. It can get boring doing the same thing, especially when the characters sound and say the same things. Zombies would get stuck underground and was a huge pain if you were in a situation where you had to kill every zombie. The biggest issue for me was the lack of coop. This would've been a huge plus, it definitely would've made the repetitive missions more capable.
It's a great game, like I said it's my kinda zombie game. Fix a few issues like less repetitive missions, more voice actors, stronger graphics and coop, you're onto a winner. State of Decay 2 is coming very soon and they've done just that, it's coop! I'm very excited as this could be a stellar game, I'll find out soon.
8.1/10
First off, this is the my perfect kind of zombie guy. Tough, scavenging, building up your safe zone, cars, melee, guns and other friendly survivors. It's missing some stuff sure, but it's the perfect start.
There's a story, it's quite short and nothing amazing, but it's appreciated. You return home to Trumbull, along with your friend. You quickly find out the world is changing as there's a zombie apocalypse afoot. They soon make friends with other survivors and make their new home at a populated church. They meet a bunch of different groups of survivors, all with different goals. You and your new found friends plan to escape the town, which is the main objective.
This game has perma-death, meaning if you die, you're dead. You can play as all different characters, or you can stick to one if you can survive long enough. There's plenty of different characters to play as, you'll meet plenty along your way, and you can even recruit many back to your home base. You can build up your home base, build medical bays, sleeping quarters, watchtowers and more. Each character can build up their stats like stamina, shooting, wits for looting and plenty more.
There's lots to explore, the map is really big, way bigger than you'd think. There's loads of houses and shops for you to loot items, you'll find the right supplies in the right places, bullets in gun stores, medical supplies at the vets. You can travel around the huge map with a mass amount of different vehicles. You can loot rucksacks of supplies which will cost more stamina while sprinting, but you can rack 'em up in the boot of your vehicle. You have to hold the button to loot which is a slower process, but can be sped up holding down another button, at the risk of making more noise and alerting zombies.
Stamina and health are two of your biggest worries, especially in a game where there's perma-death. You can find plenty of health supplies and snacks to restore stamina, you want to always have them in your limited inventory. There's all kinds of melee weapons and types, heavy, blunt, edged. There's a huge arsenal of guns and types of ammo. You can even create silencers and other weapon mods, as well as health supplies if you have a medical bay and munitions shop at your home base. You can even relocate your home base to many different locations, and bring along all your recruited survivors.
Hordes will roam the streets and will come charging at you once you're spotted. A great way of destroying hordes quickly, is to open your car door as you drive past them and smash through them. Ploughing through zombies with your car is a quick way to destroy the vehicle. Zombies will jump on your vehicle and rip your door off if you don't dispatch them. Infestations will often occupy a deserted home, forcing you to clear them out if you want to loot it. There are different zombies types called freaks, swat zombies are armoured up and won't die by guns, ferals are tough and quick, they can tear you apart easily if you're unprepared. Bloaters cause a gas-like explosion and will take your stamina and health down if caught. Screamers will do just that and alert all nearby zombies and juggernauts and tall fat zombies, very difficult to kill and can kill you all too quickly.
As well as the main story, there's plenty of missions types, side missions, freak up, help nearby survivors, ally missions, recruitment, help out injured or lost allies, there's plenty to do. Problem is most of it is just repetitive and you'll get bored quick. Although the voice acting is really good, most characters are voiced by the same person and have the exact same voice. It's even worse when .you're doing the repetitive missions, you'll be quoting the game as you play. I tend to have stuck with a small group of characters and just switched between the group and learnt they're names and built up their skills, rather than play as every character and risk losing survivors who were low levelled.
There's survey areas that allow you to climb up a tall building and scout the land for vehicle's, hordes and possible loot areas. Your weapons can break over time, but you're able to get them repaired at base. You can store all items you've found at base, in return you'll be awarded influence which is sort of currency. You can spend influence to build up your home base and even use it to recruit a survivor to help you complete tasks. You can set up outposts at cleared buildings that help take care of hordes, execute zombies that are knocked down, and use your radio tower to find survivors and supplies. You can also send out runners to pick up supplies you had no room to carry yourself.
There's plenty of flaws, but so many more good things. It can get repetitive if you do anything but the story. It can get boring doing the same thing, especially when the characters sound and say the same things. Zombies would get stuck underground and was a huge pain if you were in a situation where you had to kill every zombie. The biggest issue for me was the lack of coop. This would've been a huge plus, it definitely would've made the repetitive missions more capable.
It's a great game, like I said it's my kinda zombie game. Fix a few issues like less repetitive missions, more voice actors, stronger graphics and coop, you're onto a winner. State of Decay 2 is coming very soon and they've done just that, it's coop! I'm very excited as this could be a stellar game, I'll find out soon.
8.1/10
Friday 9 March 2018
Jak and Daxter the Precursor Legacy HD (PS3)
Jak and Daxter originally released back in 2001, and was developed by Naughty Dog. A HD port of the Jak and Daxter trilogy was released in 2012.
Jak and Daxter is one of my favourite games ever. I loved it way back when I first played it, and was ecstatic when a HD version was coming to PS3. Daxter is one of my favourite video game characters of all time, and he's been my gamer picture on PS ever since I made my account. I never actually finished it back on PS2, but have made amends (more than a few times) on the PS3 version.
Set in a fictional world, were the human-like creatures have elongated ears. A bright and colourful world, full of unique and interesting areas. Jak, a mute, and his buddy Daxter, the loudmouth, embark on a dangerous journey to Misty Island. A creepy part of the world, filled with the dangerous dark eco. They see the two villains of the game, Gol Acheron and his sister, Maia. The two are ordering Lurkers to gather dark eco, the duo now spooked about the dangerous are caught by a lurker. Jak attacks it with an explosive barrel, shooting Jak back into Daxter, and knocking Daxter into a pool of dark eco. Daxter is shot back up and completely transformed into an otter-like creature. The two escape back home to Sandover Village, to inform Samos, the Sage of green eco, of the evil plans of the brother and sister. He is furious with the duo and informs them only the brother and sister can reverse Daxter's transformation.
The main objective is to collect power cells. There are 101 in the game and they will keep you progressing through the story. There are lots of ways to earn them; trade them for precursor orbs, defeating bosses, doing tasks for the locals, all sorts. As well as power cells, there are scout flies to collect. There are seven in each location, and collecting them all grants a power cell. I found the collecting addicting, it's the overall objective of the game, but it's not tiresome as you do so many different things to earn power cells.
The locations are wonderful and you can't wait to see where you're taken next. From sandy beaches to creepy jungles, snowy mountains to dark caves, and even a return to Misty Island. The creatures are unique too, they change during each location. The combat is simple, you have a sliding punch and a spin attack. You can also spin attack in the air, and do a double fist downward punch from the air. There's platforming too, and you and even crouch and do spinning rolls to reach farther. You can swim, but don't swim to far out or you'll be eaten by the terrifying lurker shark!
There are vehicle parts too, most are just reaching the end of the path, some hazards like driving over lava and getting to the end before you overheat. There's an area where you have free reign to drive around, you can also do a time trial race and collecting rings before time runs out. There's many puzzles too, but you'll usually be awarded with a power cell. Watching the animation of Jak and Daxter being awarded their power cell is satisfying and always a joy to watch. There's different eco types too which are sort of power ups. Dark eco is hazardous to you, green eco gives life, blue eco gives you a speed boost, red eco gives more strength and yellow eco gives you a projectile to shoot.
The music, graphics, characters and voice acting are amazing. The menu music is some of favourite. The music changes and fits every area you go to, they all have their own music. Stunning visuals made even better in HD. You just want to explore every new area and appreciate the well designed levels. The characters were fun and quirky, everyone was interesting, just a shame most of the side characters hardly featured. The voice acting was great Daxter is by far the strongest, as is his personality. All the side characters were well acted too, no character stood out as week.
Almost since the beginning of my gaming days, Jak and Daxter has been one of my favourite games ever. It still is 17 years after its release. The strange thing is I've hardly played Jak 2 and 3, even after how much I love the first. I've always been saving them because of my love for the series, I like knowing I've got two whole games to play. Maybe it's time... Naughty Dog, nobody does it better than you guys.
9.3/10
Jak and Daxter is one of my favourite games ever. I loved it way back when I first played it, and was ecstatic when a HD version was coming to PS3. Daxter is one of my favourite video game characters of all time, and he's been my gamer picture on PS ever since I made my account. I never actually finished it back on PS2, but have made amends (more than a few times) on the PS3 version.
Set in a fictional world, were the human-like creatures have elongated ears. A bright and colourful world, full of unique and interesting areas. Jak, a mute, and his buddy Daxter, the loudmouth, embark on a dangerous journey to Misty Island. A creepy part of the world, filled with the dangerous dark eco. They see the two villains of the game, Gol Acheron and his sister, Maia. The two are ordering Lurkers to gather dark eco, the duo now spooked about the dangerous are caught by a lurker. Jak attacks it with an explosive barrel, shooting Jak back into Daxter, and knocking Daxter into a pool of dark eco. Daxter is shot back up and completely transformed into an otter-like creature. The two escape back home to Sandover Village, to inform Samos, the Sage of green eco, of the evil plans of the brother and sister. He is furious with the duo and informs them only the brother and sister can reverse Daxter's transformation.
The main objective is to collect power cells. There are 101 in the game and they will keep you progressing through the story. There are lots of ways to earn them; trade them for precursor orbs, defeating bosses, doing tasks for the locals, all sorts. As well as power cells, there are scout flies to collect. There are seven in each location, and collecting them all grants a power cell. I found the collecting addicting, it's the overall objective of the game, but it's not tiresome as you do so many different things to earn power cells.
The locations are wonderful and you can't wait to see where you're taken next. From sandy beaches to creepy jungles, snowy mountains to dark caves, and even a return to Misty Island. The creatures are unique too, they change during each location. The combat is simple, you have a sliding punch and a spin attack. You can also spin attack in the air, and do a double fist downward punch from the air. There's platforming too, and you and even crouch and do spinning rolls to reach farther. You can swim, but don't swim to far out or you'll be eaten by the terrifying lurker shark!
There are vehicle parts too, most are just reaching the end of the path, some hazards like driving over lava and getting to the end before you overheat. There's an area where you have free reign to drive around, you can also do a time trial race and collecting rings before time runs out. There's many puzzles too, but you'll usually be awarded with a power cell. Watching the animation of Jak and Daxter being awarded their power cell is satisfying and always a joy to watch. There's different eco types too which are sort of power ups. Dark eco is hazardous to you, green eco gives life, blue eco gives you a speed boost, red eco gives more strength and yellow eco gives you a projectile to shoot.
The music, graphics, characters and voice acting are amazing. The menu music is some of favourite. The music changes and fits every area you go to, they all have their own music. Stunning visuals made even better in HD. You just want to explore every new area and appreciate the well designed levels. The characters were fun and quirky, everyone was interesting, just a shame most of the side characters hardly featured. The voice acting was great Daxter is by far the strongest, as is his personality. All the side characters were well acted too, no character stood out as week.
Almost since the beginning of my gaming days, Jak and Daxter has been one of my favourite games ever. It still is 17 years after its release. The strange thing is I've hardly played Jak 2 and 3, even after how much I love the first. I've always been saving them because of my love for the series, I like knowing I've got two whole games to play. Maybe it's time... Naughty Dog, nobody does it better than you guys.
9.3/10
Tuesday 6 March 2018
Dishonored 2 (Xbox One)
Dishonored 2 is the sequel to the first person stealth action game. It released in 2016 and was developed by Arkane Studios.
Emily Kaldwin has now grown up and is now the Empress of the Isles. Corvo returns and is the Royal Protector to his daughter Emily. They held a ceremony of remembrance to Emily's mother and former Empress, Jessamine. It's soon interrupted by Duke Luca Abele and Deliah Copperspoon, who claims to be Jessamine's half sister and true heir to the throne. The Duke's men start attacking, leaving you to then choose your character, Emily or the previous protagonist, Corvo. Whoever you don't choose is turned into stone, leaving you to save them and reclaim your throne, and dispose of all who helped in your removal.
Previously, we could only play as Corvo, now we can play as Emily too. Each character has their own powers and share a couple too, so it's worth playing as each character. I picked Corvo first as I played as him originally, I went through with a no kill, no alerts and no powers low chaos playthrough. I then done the opposite with Emily and got to try out a few new powers. It may not sound fun, a new killing/stealth/powerless run, but I loved it. I discovered everything myself, lots of trial and error trying to find a stealthy way around. As I wasn't killing, I also had to find the non lethal way to take out the targets. They were cool and unique ways to dispose of targets, rather than just sticking them with a blade.
Now killing in this game is really fun too, going on sprees against the guards with swords, guns, explosives, crossbow blots and more is great. For a stealth game, they allow you to for a more action approach too, though you won't last long at all if you're not careful. There were a couple new powers, far reach was an Emily exclusive, that acted very similar to Blink and allowed you to teleport short distances. Mesmerize stops enemies in their tracks as they are put in a daze leaving them vulnerable. Domino was my favourite of the new ones, you can link up enemies together, and whatever happens to one happens to another, if you shoot one in the head, the other dies giving you a two for one. Doppelganger has Emily reveal a clone of herself and Shadow Walk allows Emily to be a smaller target and difficult to spot by the enemies.
I love the art style to this game and there's a slight improvement on the graphics, there wasn't much room for improvement honestly. There's a lot of replayability, two different characters, two play styles, powers or no powers, low or high chaos. There's loads of paths and secret areas, good combat, fantastic stealth and great voice acting. Corvo now has a voice actor who does a fantastic job. The cast is great too, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sam Rockwell and Pedro Pascal. There were great characters, Deliah is a fearful witch and a worthy main villain, Paolo was a standout too, he couldn't be killed unless he was killed twice in the same day. A special mention to the huge Clockwork soldiers, huge robotic enemies with four blades, very difficult in a fight and intense as fuck. They are terrifying when inactive as you have to stealth around them, being very careful not to wake them into a fight.
Some of the cool new features make the game more fun, if you're going for a no kill run but are spotted, you can now choke out enemies during combat to keep your non lethal playthrough. You can chain your possession power allowing you to switch from a hound, to a rat, to a person, to a fish all in one run. There are black market shops for you to purchase items or even Rob them, there's also plenty of notes and audiographs for more info on the world of Dishonored. The levels are huge with plenty to explore, lots of well designed levels and beautiful scenery, some of the best in video games. Two missions in particular stood out, the Clockwork Mansion, a mansion were the walls and floors can move, and take you to new areas of the mansion. There's another mission that takes place in the past and present at the same time. You're given a device that allows you to switch timeless and also has a mirror that shows what's in the other timeline as you play.
There really isn't much wrong with this game. I guess you could say it's short, especially if you play a non stealth approach, but you should play that way. It's not short playing stealthy and figuring everything out yourself. You could argue there aren't many new powers because Corvo gets none, they're all awarded to Emily which makes sense. The worst thing I could say, is I don't think it's better than the first game. The first was exceptional, one of the best I've played, Dishonored 2 is fantastic that being said. All that's next is to make it a trilogy, not much would stop me from preordering Dishonored 3.
8.8/10
Emily Kaldwin has now grown up and is now the Empress of the Isles. Corvo returns and is the Royal Protector to his daughter Emily. They held a ceremony of remembrance to Emily's mother and former Empress, Jessamine. It's soon interrupted by Duke Luca Abele and Deliah Copperspoon, who claims to be Jessamine's half sister and true heir to the throne. The Duke's men start attacking, leaving you to then choose your character, Emily or the previous protagonist, Corvo. Whoever you don't choose is turned into stone, leaving you to save them and reclaim your throne, and dispose of all who helped in your removal.
Previously, we could only play as Corvo, now we can play as Emily too. Each character has their own powers and share a couple too, so it's worth playing as each character. I picked Corvo first as I played as him originally, I went through with a no kill, no alerts and no powers low chaos playthrough. I then done the opposite with Emily and got to try out a few new powers. It may not sound fun, a new killing/stealth/powerless run, but I loved it. I discovered everything myself, lots of trial and error trying to find a stealthy way around. As I wasn't killing, I also had to find the non lethal way to take out the targets. They were cool and unique ways to dispose of targets, rather than just sticking them with a blade.
Now killing in this game is really fun too, going on sprees against the guards with swords, guns, explosives, crossbow blots and more is great. For a stealth game, they allow you to for a more action approach too, though you won't last long at all if you're not careful. There were a couple new powers, far reach was an Emily exclusive, that acted very similar to Blink and allowed you to teleport short distances. Mesmerize stops enemies in their tracks as they are put in a daze leaving them vulnerable. Domino was my favourite of the new ones, you can link up enemies together, and whatever happens to one happens to another, if you shoot one in the head, the other dies giving you a two for one. Doppelganger has Emily reveal a clone of herself and Shadow Walk allows Emily to be a smaller target and difficult to spot by the enemies.
I love the art style to this game and there's a slight improvement on the graphics, there wasn't much room for improvement honestly. There's a lot of replayability, two different characters, two play styles, powers or no powers, low or high chaos. There's loads of paths and secret areas, good combat, fantastic stealth and great voice acting. Corvo now has a voice actor who does a fantastic job. The cast is great too, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sam Rockwell and Pedro Pascal. There were great characters, Deliah is a fearful witch and a worthy main villain, Paolo was a standout too, he couldn't be killed unless he was killed twice in the same day. A special mention to the huge Clockwork soldiers, huge robotic enemies with four blades, very difficult in a fight and intense as fuck. They are terrifying when inactive as you have to stealth around them, being very careful not to wake them into a fight.
Some of the cool new features make the game more fun, if you're going for a no kill run but are spotted, you can now choke out enemies during combat to keep your non lethal playthrough. You can chain your possession power allowing you to switch from a hound, to a rat, to a person, to a fish all in one run. There are black market shops for you to purchase items or even Rob them, there's also plenty of notes and audiographs for more info on the world of Dishonored. The levels are huge with plenty to explore, lots of well designed levels and beautiful scenery, some of the best in video games. Two missions in particular stood out, the Clockwork Mansion, a mansion were the walls and floors can move, and take you to new areas of the mansion. There's another mission that takes place in the past and present at the same time. You're given a device that allows you to switch timeless and also has a mirror that shows what's in the other timeline as you play.
There really isn't much wrong with this game. I guess you could say it's short, especially if you play a non stealth approach, but you should play that way. It's not short playing stealthy and figuring everything out yourself. You could argue there aren't many new powers because Corvo gets none, they're all awarded to Emily which makes sense. The worst thing I could say, is I don't think it's better than the first game. The first was exceptional, one of the best I've played, Dishonored 2 is fantastic that being said. All that's next is to make it a trilogy, not much would stop me from preordering Dishonored 3.
8.8/10
Saturday 3 March 2018
Star Wars Battlefront 2: Resurrection DLC (Xbox One)
Resurrection released about a month after Battlefront 2. It's free DLC, so at least EA kept that promise of no paid DLC. (There's still time to fuck us there though) as it's free content, I won't be giving it a score at the end.
First off, it adds two new heroes, (Two that should've been in from the start) Finn and Captain Phasma. Finn is awesome, he's my favourite hero, along with Darth Maul in the game. Phasma is good, but she doesn't have as great abilities to make you ponder over picking her or someone with a lightsaber. I've had my best run as a hero playing as Finn, far better than Yoda online.
The Resurrection story takes place in the current film franchise, with Finn and Rey. Iden is now old, like Luke and Leia. You start off as Kylo Ren, (I mean, why not? The original story horribly forced in heroes) you find Del, who is married to Iden at this point. Along with Hask from the original story, he then goes on to kill Del. Iden is on the hunt for Hask, and finally bring him down. As Del and Iden have been married for so long, why not force a child of there's into the story? A young rebel who wants to follow in her mother's footsteps, that's not too cliché is it?
Iden and Del's daughter, Zay, wants to fight alongside her mother and help bring down Hask. Unlike her mother, she started with the Rebels and didn't blow up inhabited planets for a living. There are only three missions, space combat, ground combat, boring. Nothing new is added, nothing interesting, just bland. The acting was awful, Iden immediately gets over the death of her husband of thirty years, Zay also doesn't seem to care. The pair barely react to the news of someone incredibly close to them being killed. The two are joined on there journey by my standout character from the original, Shriv. The content is short, lazy and pointless. Shriv adds comedy and good acting, and Hask stands out again with his brilliant acting too. I didn't like Zay, still struggled to care about Iden, and cheaply adding in Kylo was poor. Thank God Rey and Finn weren't forced in.
If this is the end of the single player DLC for Battlefront 2, then I'm embarrassed. This is all they could do? The original campaign was really weak, and this short story was pointless and just bad. The only good thing was that Shriv came back. Hopefully they bring more single player content, and it's back when Iden was with the Empire, but God forbid you play as a villian. EA you fucking pussies.
First off, it adds two new heroes, (Two that should've been in from the start) Finn and Captain Phasma. Finn is awesome, he's my favourite hero, along with Darth Maul in the game. Phasma is good, but she doesn't have as great abilities to make you ponder over picking her or someone with a lightsaber. I've had my best run as a hero playing as Finn, far better than Yoda online.
The Resurrection story takes place in the current film franchise, with Finn and Rey. Iden is now old, like Luke and Leia. You start off as Kylo Ren, (I mean, why not? The original story horribly forced in heroes) you find Del, who is married to Iden at this point. Along with Hask from the original story, he then goes on to kill Del. Iden is on the hunt for Hask, and finally bring him down. As Del and Iden have been married for so long, why not force a child of there's into the story? A young rebel who wants to follow in her mother's footsteps, that's not too cliché is it?
Iden and Del's daughter, Zay, wants to fight alongside her mother and help bring down Hask. Unlike her mother, she started with the Rebels and didn't blow up inhabited planets for a living. There are only three missions, space combat, ground combat, boring. Nothing new is added, nothing interesting, just bland. The acting was awful, Iden immediately gets over the death of her husband of thirty years, Zay also doesn't seem to care. The pair barely react to the news of someone incredibly close to them being killed. The two are joined on there journey by my standout character from the original, Shriv. The content is short, lazy and pointless. Shriv adds comedy and good acting, and Hask stands out again with his brilliant acting too. I didn't like Zay, still struggled to care about Iden, and cheaply adding in Kylo was poor. Thank God Rey and Finn weren't forced in.
If this is the end of the single player DLC for Battlefront 2, then I'm embarrassed. This is all they could do? The original campaign was really weak, and this short story was pointless and just bad. The only good thing was that Shriv came back. Hopefully they bring more single player content, and it's back when Iden was with the Empire, but God forbid you play as a villian. EA you fucking pussies.
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