Max Curse of the Brotherhood is a side scrolling puzzle game. It released in 2013 and is a sequel to Max and the Magic Marker.
Max finds his young brother, Felix, playing and breaking his toys. An annoyed Max searches for a way to make his brother disappear. He finds a spell and reads it out loud and Felix is soon taken through a portal by the evil Mustacho. Max realises the precautions of Felix being taken, he immediately jumps through the portal to save him.
I gotta say I love the look of this game, the animation is really well done and the graphics are beautiful, great zoomed out shots and gorgeous environments. The puzzles aren't very easy and they're not overly hard, you may be challenged in quite a few areas.
Armed with a literal magic marker, you're able to draw objects to complete puzzles. Unfortunately you can't draw whatever and wherever you want. It's clearly indicated where you're meant to draw. You're able to draw pillars, vines, branches, water flows and fire balls. All these will help you solve puzzles and get passed enemies. There aren't many enemies, but there are a few variations, they're very deadly to Max though. Only the fire ball can outright kill an enemy.
If you mess up your drawing, you can simply destroy it and try again. Another cool thing is you can pass fire balls between branches and also attach vines to branches. Water flows carry you in the direction they flow, vines let you swing, you can do some platforming on branches, pillars take you higher and fire balls destroy walls and enemies. There's cool slow motion jumps that indicate you're in a life threatening position, so you have to act quick.
There is only one actual boss fight near the end of the game against Mustacho himself. There are also running sections where you run and platform your way from a dangerous, gigantic mobster.
It's a fun game, amazing visuals and a decent challenge with the puzzles. It's been free and it's pretty cheap, so I'd say it's worth a go if you missed it.
6.3/10
Thursday, 17 August 2017
Thursday, 10 August 2017
Bastion (Xbox 360)
Bastion released in 2011, it's a role playing action game. We play as 'The Kid' and are guided through the story by the narrator. The narrator's voice is one to rival Morgan Freeman's.
Caelondia is a city that was fractured by a catastrophe. The kid meets the narrator, a man called Rucks. He instructs the kid to collect cores to rebuild the city. Each core you bring back powers the city and allows you to build new areas of the city, areas like upgrade stations, item pick ups you missed and a few more.
You have the option of which way to proceed with the story, it's not strict in the order you play. There's also optional proving grounds missions, which let you practice with each weapon. There's a huge amount of weapons, you're only equipped with two at a time, one melee and one ranged weapon. There are also health pick ups and potions that let you use your chosen power ups. My favourite weapon was the machete, you could swing it so fast no one had a chance to attack you. My favourite ability was spawning the squibs, a little floating creature, they drew enemies away from you and they attacked for you too.
The world is bright and colourful. Aesthetically beautiful, what makes it even more beautiful; the world falls down from the sky and builds as you walked forward. The world will stay empty besides the platform you're standing on. The world will only build if you move and it looks fantastic. It. Blends even better with the narrator talking.
A side objective to help the game stay more entertaining is the memorial. It gives tasks of all different kinds to implement as you play the game. You can also do these dream sequences where you fight waves of enemies and help practice your fighting skills. Annoying you can respawn off the map leaving you to be killed instantly, especially on levels where you map falls apart.
The story is really interesting, the gameplay is pretty good I just found it hard to play a lot. I played a couple missions a day, I didn't find it addictive enough to play through in one day, although you can. The world building and the narrator are enough for you to try this.
7/10
Caelondia is a city that was fractured by a catastrophe. The kid meets the narrator, a man called Rucks. He instructs the kid to collect cores to rebuild the city. Each core you bring back powers the city and allows you to build new areas of the city, areas like upgrade stations, item pick ups you missed and a few more.
You have the option of which way to proceed with the story, it's not strict in the order you play. There's also optional proving grounds missions, which let you practice with each weapon. There's a huge amount of weapons, you're only equipped with two at a time, one melee and one ranged weapon. There are also health pick ups and potions that let you use your chosen power ups. My favourite weapon was the machete, you could swing it so fast no one had a chance to attack you. My favourite ability was spawning the squibs, a little floating creature, they drew enemies away from you and they attacked for you too.
The world is bright and colourful. Aesthetically beautiful, what makes it even more beautiful; the world falls down from the sky and builds as you walked forward. The world will stay empty besides the platform you're standing on. The world will only build if you move and it looks fantastic. It. Blends even better with the narrator talking.
A side objective to help the game stay more entertaining is the memorial. It gives tasks of all different kinds to implement as you play the game. You can also do these dream sequences where you fight waves of enemies and help practice your fighting skills. Annoying you can respawn off the map leaving you to be killed instantly, especially on levels where you map falls apart.
The story is really interesting, the gameplay is pretty good I just found it hard to play a lot. I played a couple missions a day, I didn't find it addictive enough to play through in one day, although you can. The world building and the narrator are enough for you to try this.
7/10
Thursday, 3 August 2017
SpeedRunners (Xbox One)
SpeedRunners launched on Xbox One with the Games With Gold program a couple years after its release on Steam. I never looked twice at this originally, when it came out I looked at some clips and I thought this could be fun with friends.
And it was! I've never laughed so much and had fun playing a game like this in quite some time. The concept is so simple, but so fucking fun too. The objective of the game? Out run your opponents. There's a nice group of characters, more if you purchase the extras. They look cool and they're bright and colourful. There's a lot of maps to race on, they zig zag all over the place, they're so fun to race on. You can also collect power ups; you can drop boxes for your opponents to trip on, freeze your opponents and pull them all the way to the back with the golden claw, the claw's even better when you immediately pull someone back after they done it to you first.
There is also a single-player mode, it's four chapters long and each chapter has four parts. The final part is a one on one race with the boss, after you finish each chapter you unlock the runner you raced in the one on one. The single-player is fun, but I promise you'll have a lot more playing online races and with your friends, that's how the game is meant to be played.
It isn't all just running though, you have to jump over obstacles, slide under walls, swing over spikes (although it's absolutely hilarious watching a runner roll through the spikes), use boosts and a punch of pick ups. Golden claw is the best because you can literally pull someone back and make them go off screen and get an instant win. You can also block power ups when someone uses them on you, you're able to slide to dodge an attack or block them with a crate pick up, it takes a bit of practice.
You gain XP, unlock new maps, characters and skins. It's so fun and very addictive. For free, this was a bargain and one of my favourite games with gold over the past for years. If you missed it, buy it! It's worth it.
7.5/10
And it was! I've never laughed so much and had fun playing a game like this in quite some time. The concept is so simple, but so fucking fun too. The objective of the game? Out run your opponents. There's a nice group of characters, more if you purchase the extras. They look cool and they're bright and colourful. There's a lot of maps to race on, they zig zag all over the place, they're so fun to race on. You can also collect power ups; you can drop boxes for your opponents to trip on, freeze your opponents and pull them all the way to the back with the golden claw, the claw's even better when you immediately pull someone back after they done it to you first.
There is also a single-player mode, it's four chapters long and each chapter has four parts. The final part is a one on one race with the boss, after you finish each chapter you unlock the runner you raced in the one on one. The single-player is fun, but I promise you'll have a lot more playing online races and with your friends, that's how the game is meant to be played.
It isn't all just running though, you have to jump over obstacles, slide under walls, swing over spikes (although it's absolutely hilarious watching a runner roll through the spikes), use boosts and a punch of pick ups. Golden claw is the best because you can literally pull someone back and make them go off screen and get an instant win. You can also block power ups when someone uses them on you, you're able to slide to dodge an attack or block them with a crate pick up, it takes a bit of practice.
You gain XP, unlock new maps, characters and skins. It's so fun and very addictive. For free, this was a bargain and one of my favourite games with gold over the past for years. If you missed it, buy it! It's worth it.
7.5/10
Monday, 31 July 2017
Watch Dogs: Bad Blood DLC (Xbox One)
The single-player DLC for Watch Dogs brings back one of the very few interesting characters; T-Bone. He was so much better than Aiden Pierce right? It makes you think why didn't they just make T-Bone the playable character in the original game?
The story revolves around T-Bone's on going crusade with Blume and is set after the events of Watch Dogs. Frewer returns, that homeless merchant Aiden met, he's much more interesting here and is an interesting friend of T-Bone's.
The main story spans three acts, it's quite short, but it's a good length. There's a ton of side missions, some you're able to do in coop which makes it way more fun. Unfortunately you can't do them all with a buddy and they do start to repeat.
The story is enjoyable and the chemistry between T-Bone and Frewer is intriguing. There are a bunch of fun missions and the RC car is introduced, you're able to drive around a small car to scout out enemies and it can even stun them too. A cool way to dispatch of enemies was to lure them into a room and then lock the door, it was new and funny, but you could only do it in the first mission which was disappointing.
There was a small dose of Aiden, which is the best kind of Aiden! There is another new character I hated though; Sheila. She was just so random, she was a detective that was someone in contact with T-Bone giving him missions and talking to him like they were really close. It was so hard to believe giving how cautious TB was in the original game, he even tells her his first name. He was a hacker who accidentally killed people and went into hiding, and he's telling a cop his name... Every missions you start, even side missions they have a phone call, even though most times she just says something like "go capture that guy for me", it was so pointless and there was one EVERY TIME. She even gives him a nickname and calls him 'mystery man', I hate it!
The DLC is so much better than the original game though, I enjoyed playing as TB way more and I liked Frewer too. I was skeptical after the first game, but I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel, but I'm still wary.
3.1/5
The story revolves around T-Bone's on going crusade with Blume and is set after the events of Watch Dogs. Frewer returns, that homeless merchant Aiden met, he's much more interesting here and is an interesting friend of T-Bone's.
The main story spans three acts, it's quite short, but it's a good length. There's a ton of side missions, some you're able to do in coop which makes it way more fun. Unfortunately you can't do them all with a buddy and they do start to repeat.
The story is enjoyable and the chemistry between T-Bone and Frewer is intriguing. There are a bunch of fun missions and the RC car is introduced, you're able to drive around a small car to scout out enemies and it can even stun them too. A cool way to dispatch of enemies was to lure them into a room and then lock the door, it was new and funny, but you could only do it in the first mission which was disappointing.
There was a small dose of Aiden, which is the best kind of Aiden! There is another new character I hated though; Sheila. She was just so random, she was a detective that was someone in contact with T-Bone giving him missions and talking to him like they were really close. It was so hard to believe giving how cautious TB was in the original game, he even tells her his first name. He was a hacker who accidentally killed people and went into hiding, and he's telling a cop his name... Every missions you start, even side missions they have a phone call, even though most times she just says something like "go capture that guy for me", it was so pointless and there was one EVERY TIME. She even gives him a nickname and calls him 'mystery man', I hate it!
The DLC is so much better than the original game though, I enjoyed playing as TB way more and I liked Frewer too. I was skeptical after the first game, but I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel, but I'm still wary.
3.1/5
Thursday, 27 July 2017
The Walking Dead Survival Instinct (Xbox 360)
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct released in 2013. It's a prequel to the show starring the Dixons brothers and their journey to the start of season one. It was a clever ploy as it was released alongside the show when Daryl and Merle were two of the shows most popular characters.
The Dixon brothers, cooperative, story related. I was hyped. I was already planning on playing it with a buddy of mine.... NO COOP, SHITE STORY AND MERLE KEPT FUCKING OFF SOMEWHERE. Why? Why make this? There is no way anyone liked this game or enjoyed it. Burn all copies, bury it like that ET game and please stop making trashy cash ins like this. Honestly, the devs wasted their time making this, they could've put their time into something more valuable.
In 2013 these are the graphics we're paying for? Are you serious? Games that came out in 2006 have better graphics. Just look at Gear of War. Yes you can tell it's Daryl and Merle, but everything else? What the fuck?! The gameplay is awful, I hated the sprinting, the stealthing, the only thing I liked was the crossbow, that was great. You could easily pick up your bolts back too. The melee combat was an atrocity, swinging mindlessly at the heads of zombies until they fell down. They tried to flesh out the short story with optional objectives that were no fun at all. Simply get this and go here. Usually in zombie games, killing zombies is fun, but the combat was so bad I just wanted to quit the game.
You can meet vacant survivors who are so pointless, you can send them out to scavenge when you're out in missions. There's a risk meter that indicates how likely the survivor is to die. You can give them weapons, they can come back with very little or just die. But I didn't fucking care, I often dismissed them or purposely let them die to get rid of them. The zombies just walk in circles or into walls unto they spot you. If they get close to grab you, you're sucked into the animation were you have to aim a cursor at their head and stab them. They can literally line up one after another like this and constantly grabbing you, it's hilarious how terrible it is. You can stealth kill zombies be creeping up behind them to execute them.
There's a decent selection of weapons and you're able to scavenge for ammo and supplies. You can also store items at your car before missions, there is a limit to the car and how much you can carry, so you want to manage it well. Gas plays a big part here, you're best grabbing canisters whenever you see them. When you get to the car, you're taken to a map and given a choice of three paths to get to your destination. Each way gives you a possible chance of breaking down and forcing you to look for gas, and each way takes a considerable amount of gas. You can also make optional stops to scavenge, it's always good to, but very soon you'll notice these scavenge locations start to repeat. You always know when you're going to make a stop because it's silent when you're on the map, you also know when you're proceeding with the story because Daryl will start to talk with whoever is with him in the story.
It's just a shit game. The trees float, if you look close at them you can see they're not even mapped to the ground. You'll be sneaking around and there'll be no zombies around, but you'll often hear groans as if one is behind you, or a zombie will have spawned out of nowhere and attack you. The best thing to do is to just stay away from this garbage.
If you like The Walking Dead, watch the show or read the comics, play the Telltale game series because it's more better. Wait for Overkill's Walking Dead game if it ever does come out, just don't waste you're time with this.
5.2/10
The Dixon brothers, cooperative, story related. I was hyped. I was already planning on playing it with a buddy of mine.... NO COOP, SHITE STORY AND MERLE KEPT FUCKING OFF SOMEWHERE. Why? Why make this? There is no way anyone liked this game or enjoyed it. Burn all copies, bury it like that ET game and please stop making trashy cash ins like this. Honestly, the devs wasted their time making this, they could've put their time into something more valuable.
In 2013 these are the graphics we're paying for? Are you serious? Games that came out in 2006 have better graphics. Just look at Gear of War. Yes you can tell it's Daryl and Merle, but everything else? What the fuck?! The gameplay is awful, I hated the sprinting, the stealthing, the only thing I liked was the crossbow, that was great. You could easily pick up your bolts back too. The melee combat was an atrocity, swinging mindlessly at the heads of zombies until they fell down. They tried to flesh out the short story with optional objectives that were no fun at all. Simply get this and go here. Usually in zombie games, killing zombies is fun, but the combat was so bad I just wanted to quit the game.
You can meet vacant survivors who are so pointless, you can send them out to scavenge when you're out in missions. There's a risk meter that indicates how likely the survivor is to die. You can give them weapons, they can come back with very little or just die. But I didn't fucking care, I often dismissed them or purposely let them die to get rid of them. The zombies just walk in circles or into walls unto they spot you. If they get close to grab you, you're sucked into the animation were you have to aim a cursor at their head and stab them. They can literally line up one after another like this and constantly grabbing you, it's hilarious how terrible it is. You can stealth kill zombies be creeping up behind them to execute them.
There's a decent selection of weapons and you're able to scavenge for ammo and supplies. You can also store items at your car before missions, there is a limit to the car and how much you can carry, so you want to manage it well. Gas plays a big part here, you're best grabbing canisters whenever you see them. When you get to the car, you're taken to a map and given a choice of three paths to get to your destination. Each way gives you a possible chance of breaking down and forcing you to look for gas, and each way takes a considerable amount of gas. You can also make optional stops to scavenge, it's always good to, but very soon you'll notice these scavenge locations start to repeat. You always know when you're going to make a stop because it's silent when you're on the map, you also know when you're proceeding with the story because Daryl will start to talk with whoever is with him in the story.
It's just a shit game. The trees float, if you look close at them you can see they're not even mapped to the ground. You'll be sneaking around and there'll be no zombies around, but you'll often hear groans as if one is behind you, or a zombie will have spawned out of nowhere and attack you. The best thing to do is to just stay away from this garbage.
If you like The Walking Dead, watch the show or read the comics, play the Telltale game series because it's more better. Wait for Overkill's Walking Dead game if it ever does come out, just don't waste you're time with this.
5.2/10
Thursday, 20 July 2017
Saints Row IV Re-Elected (Xbox One)
Saints Row IV released in originally in 2013 and I loved it, I'm embraced the crazy after previously being skeptical. I thought The crazier the better, Saints Row became it's own game and distanced itself away from the 'GTA Clone' tag. Unfortunately the 2015 remake was an absolute mess.
Graphics and menus are identical to Saints Row the Third, literally no change, just additions. Re-Elected has practically no difference to IV except it's a thousand times more buggy. You're able to create your character with a tonne of features and clothes. The customization is great, only downside is that th hair and facial hair look painted on. You as the player are attempting to foil a terrorist attack, that ends up with you riding a missile headed for The White House as you disarm it. The end result? You land in the president's chair and become president yourself. As the new president you make some decisions and are soon attached by aliens. After the attackers get the better of you, you're thrown in to a simulated world and you must escape and free your allies from their simulations. Good thing I embraced the crazy right?
I'd advise anyone who plays this to experience it in coop. It's way more fun that way. While in the simulation, you're granted superpowers, you're able to jump ridiculously high, run like The Flash and glide through the air. Who'd have thought this used to be a modern day gangster game? The superpowers make it crazily fun, there's nothing better than sprinting through streets, jumping over building and gliding through the skies. You also unlock abilities throughout the story, freeze blast, telekinesis, air stomps and a few more less useful ones. However, when you leave the simulation you're powerless. It's such a downer not really having the powers. Cars are made obsolete, there's no need to ever enter one. Activities return and are implemented as side missions, it's a cheap way to flesh out a campaign I think. Insurance fraud is back, but it's far too easy due to the powers.
As well as the powers, the best thing about the game is the references to video games. Saints Row pays homage to many games and it's even better when you recognise one, there's so many you'll be constantly looking out for them. Some in particular include Space Invaders, Metal Gear Solid and the whole game plays as a spoof of Mass Effect 2 (one of the best video games I've played). When you're on the ship and out the simulation, it resembles Mass Effect a lot. You can explore the ship, all your crew mates have the own area and you can romance them too, (some romances are hilarious) you can't romance Keith David unfortunately, yes he's in the game as himself!
The characters are great, Terry Crews joins you crew as Benjamin King, who finally returns after the first game. Pierce and Shaundi are back, Shaundi isn't as cool as she was, but original Shaundi makes a return in a surreal mission that has you with both versions of her! Keith David features and Kinzie returns. For some bizarre reason, Matt Miller comes back, the former leader of a rival gang of yours, The Deckers and is now a homie. I never liked him and I still don't. As there are a couple new characters for you to meet. Now, if only Johnny Gat returned.... One of th standout characters was easily Zinyak, the leader of the aliens. He has am English accent, as most villains do, he's hilarious and also a worthy foe. The only downside was he could've been included more.
As I was saying earlier, the game pays homage to some historic video games, it even pays tribute to itself. Saints Row one and two are featured a lot, three not so much, seeing as it's very similar to it already. The default playable characters show up as enemies in a mission, it was a small but great touch. Lots of former characters appear in missions and can be later used as homes.
Despite looking identical to Saints Row the Third, there are new features, a far better story, superpowers, lots of new weapons and upgrades, clothing items and taunts, activities and characters. There's lots of content hear. One of the best weapons is the Dubstep gun, it's shoot music! It's even better with unlimited ammo. Some other great new weapons are the black hole gun and abduction gun. If your favourite taunt is the chicken one, you've definitely not watched Arrested Development. You can shop as soon as you enter stores saving time, the DLC is built straight into the game and ready to start. Unfortunately, some things I didn't like return, the gun combat just gets boring, mainly because the enemies spin and spin forever. You'll most likely use your superpowers instead.
Buggy. Glitches. Problems. There's so many, it ruined it for me. I loved Saints Row IV, but this "remaster" hasn't done the original any justice and only hindered my opinion on Saints Row as a whole. It seems they literally just ported it and thought "yep, it'll be fine, now sell it for money!". Achievements don't always unlock for the coop player, after a bunch of missions my character went bald, civilians driving invisible cars, tank randomly flying up in the air, cutscene glitches, problems inviting and joining friends. It was more of a chore to play than fun.
I loved Saints Row IV, embracing the change definitely helped, but this made me hate it. I wish I never bothered with the remaster, I forget how much I used to love this game. Every time I think of SR4 now, I think it sucks because of this. SR4 is a great game, and if you haven't played it before, play the original. They're exactly the same aesthetically and the original has a lot less bugs. If I reviewed the original SR4 back in 2013, I have no doubts it would have surpassed an 8, but this? Too much of a mess and an obvious cash grab.
6.5/10
Graphics and menus are identical to Saints Row the Third, literally no change, just additions. Re-Elected has practically no difference to IV except it's a thousand times more buggy. You're able to create your character with a tonne of features and clothes. The customization is great, only downside is that th hair and facial hair look painted on. You as the player are attempting to foil a terrorist attack, that ends up with you riding a missile headed for The White House as you disarm it. The end result? You land in the president's chair and become president yourself. As the new president you make some decisions and are soon attached by aliens. After the attackers get the better of you, you're thrown in to a simulated world and you must escape and free your allies from their simulations. Good thing I embraced the crazy right?
I'd advise anyone who plays this to experience it in coop. It's way more fun that way. While in the simulation, you're granted superpowers, you're able to jump ridiculously high, run like The Flash and glide through the air. Who'd have thought this used to be a modern day gangster game? The superpowers make it crazily fun, there's nothing better than sprinting through streets, jumping over building and gliding through the skies. You also unlock abilities throughout the story, freeze blast, telekinesis, air stomps and a few more less useful ones. However, when you leave the simulation you're powerless. It's such a downer not really having the powers. Cars are made obsolete, there's no need to ever enter one. Activities return and are implemented as side missions, it's a cheap way to flesh out a campaign I think. Insurance fraud is back, but it's far too easy due to the powers.
As well as the powers, the best thing about the game is the references to video games. Saints Row pays homage to many games and it's even better when you recognise one, there's so many you'll be constantly looking out for them. Some in particular include Space Invaders, Metal Gear Solid and the whole game plays as a spoof of Mass Effect 2 (one of the best video games I've played). When you're on the ship and out the simulation, it resembles Mass Effect a lot. You can explore the ship, all your crew mates have the own area and you can romance them too, (some romances are hilarious) you can't romance Keith David unfortunately, yes he's in the game as himself!
The characters are great, Terry Crews joins you crew as Benjamin King, who finally returns after the first game. Pierce and Shaundi are back, Shaundi isn't as cool as she was, but original Shaundi makes a return in a surreal mission that has you with both versions of her! Keith David features and Kinzie returns. For some bizarre reason, Matt Miller comes back, the former leader of a rival gang of yours, The Deckers and is now a homie. I never liked him and I still don't. As there are a couple new characters for you to meet. Now, if only Johnny Gat returned.... One of th standout characters was easily Zinyak, the leader of the aliens. He has am English accent, as most villains do, he's hilarious and also a worthy foe. The only downside was he could've been included more.
As I was saying earlier, the game pays homage to some historic video games, it even pays tribute to itself. Saints Row one and two are featured a lot, three not so much, seeing as it's very similar to it already. The default playable characters show up as enemies in a mission, it was a small but great touch. Lots of former characters appear in missions and can be later used as homes.
Despite looking identical to Saints Row the Third, there are new features, a far better story, superpowers, lots of new weapons and upgrades, clothing items and taunts, activities and characters. There's lots of content hear. One of the best weapons is the Dubstep gun, it's shoot music! It's even better with unlimited ammo. Some other great new weapons are the black hole gun and abduction gun. If your favourite taunt is the chicken one, you've definitely not watched Arrested Development. You can shop as soon as you enter stores saving time, the DLC is built straight into the game and ready to start. Unfortunately, some things I didn't like return, the gun combat just gets boring, mainly because the enemies spin and spin forever. You'll most likely use your superpowers instead.
Buggy. Glitches. Problems. There's so many, it ruined it for me. I loved Saints Row IV, but this "remaster" hasn't done the original any justice and only hindered my opinion on Saints Row as a whole. It seems they literally just ported it and thought "yep, it'll be fine, now sell it for money!". Achievements don't always unlock for the coop player, after a bunch of missions my character went bald, civilians driving invisible cars, tank randomly flying up in the air, cutscene glitches, problems inviting and joining friends. It was more of a chore to play than fun.
I loved Saints Row IV, embracing the change definitely helped, but this made me hate it. I wish I never bothered with the remaster, I forget how much I used to love this game. Every time I think of SR4 now, I think it sucks because of this. SR4 is a great game, and if you haven't played it before, play the original. They're exactly the same aesthetically and the original has a lot less bugs. If I reviewed the original SR4 back in 2013, I have no doubts it would have surpassed an 8, but this? Too much of a mess and an obvious cash grab.
6.5/10
Thursday, 13 July 2017
Darksiders (Xbox 360)
Released back in 2010, I borrowed this from a friend, but it never really got me invested. I returned the game still in the first act. Years later I finally came back and finished it. Was it a coincidence Darksiders 3 was announced while I was playing it? Or did I spawn the third installment?
The Seventh Seal is broken, summoning the Four Horsemen, or so we thought. Only War arrives and later finds out the seal was never broken. The Charred Council, the balance between the war of Heaven and Hell, accuse War himself of breaking the seal. War asks to be given the chance to prove his innocence and find the real culprit, leaving him bound to The Watcher, who has the ability to kill War should he stray from his objective.
Darksiders has a semi open world, your able to explore the areas you enter, but there's not much to do. It's primarily a hack and slash game, you have the ability to upgrade weapons and gain abilities. Each weapon has its own moveset, which you can buy new moves using souls you attained from your foes. Your weapons can also have modifiers, they can upgrade weapons quicker or give you more souls. The sword and scythe were great weapons and worth most of your time. I hated the gauntlet, I didn't find it a useful weapon at all, the pistol was also pretty poor, it was unlimited ammo, but it seemed like it just shot water.
I found the game to be far too serious. There were no jokes and every character seemed angry. The only exception was Ulthane, but he wasn't exactly hilarious. It had Mark Hamill, so how could there be no humour? The voice acting was ok, but there needed to be a more informal tone at times. Another thing I couldn't get over was how small War looked, I felt like he was a giant who'd been shrunken down, it just looked odd.
There was fast travel, but it wasn't really. You'd go to Vulgrim the merchant to fast travel, and it'd take you to floating stairs you'd have to go through to reach the other side, then you travelled to where you wanted to go. It certainly wasn't fast. You have the ability to use Chaos Form, this allows you to turn into a creature, similarly looking like The Balrog from The Lord of the Rings, you're pretty much unkillable and can make short work of most enemies. There's also some platforming, that's very clunky and late into the game, you're gifted a horse, but have limited areas where you can ride it.
There's a huge variation of enemies, most of your first encounters with certain enemies were like mini bosses. They were quite tough the first time. Following that, there are a bunch of actual boss fights. I played on Apocalyptic difficulty, which is the hardest difficulty, I found it pretty tough, but the boss fights weren't too bad. I never spent more than five attempts on a single boss, I think that's pretty good. Something really off putting during the boss fights, was the lack of health bars they had. It ended in a lot of deaths that felt cheap, you could do a crazy amount of damage, but if you're not doing the right thing, you may just waste time and die.
You're able to pick up a lot of items like cars and throw them at enemies, you can dash, but War hesitates after leaving him open to attacks. The executions are really cool, it has realistic graphics, but they're not that great. There was a pretty boring on rail section, where you ride a flying eagle. There characters were just far too serious, the only one I found likeable really was Ulthane. The story was pretty interesting and had some good twists, but I wouldn't recommend this for the story or gameplay. There is also a clear homage/rip off of Portal, you literally shoot orange and blue portals to walk through, you can decide what it is.
It's not the best game, but playing as Death in the sequel seems very interesting and I will definitely be playing, and keeping a close eye on the third. Hopefully a less serious and more humorous game follows.
7.3/10
The Seventh Seal is broken, summoning the Four Horsemen, or so we thought. Only War arrives and later finds out the seal was never broken. The Charred Council, the balance between the war of Heaven and Hell, accuse War himself of breaking the seal. War asks to be given the chance to prove his innocence and find the real culprit, leaving him bound to The Watcher, who has the ability to kill War should he stray from his objective.
Darksiders has a semi open world, your able to explore the areas you enter, but there's not much to do. It's primarily a hack and slash game, you have the ability to upgrade weapons and gain abilities. Each weapon has its own moveset, which you can buy new moves using souls you attained from your foes. Your weapons can also have modifiers, they can upgrade weapons quicker or give you more souls. The sword and scythe were great weapons and worth most of your time. I hated the gauntlet, I didn't find it a useful weapon at all, the pistol was also pretty poor, it was unlimited ammo, but it seemed like it just shot water.
I found the game to be far too serious. There were no jokes and every character seemed angry. The only exception was Ulthane, but he wasn't exactly hilarious. It had Mark Hamill, so how could there be no humour? The voice acting was ok, but there needed to be a more informal tone at times. Another thing I couldn't get over was how small War looked, I felt like he was a giant who'd been shrunken down, it just looked odd.
There was fast travel, but it wasn't really. You'd go to Vulgrim the merchant to fast travel, and it'd take you to floating stairs you'd have to go through to reach the other side, then you travelled to where you wanted to go. It certainly wasn't fast. You have the ability to use Chaos Form, this allows you to turn into a creature, similarly looking like The Balrog from The Lord of the Rings, you're pretty much unkillable and can make short work of most enemies. There's also some platforming, that's very clunky and late into the game, you're gifted a horse, but have limited areas where you can ride it.
There's a huge variation of enemies, most of your first encounters with certain enemies were like mini bosses. They were quite tough the first time. Following that, there are a bunch of actual boss fights. I played on Apocalyptic difficulty, which is the hardest difficulty, I found it pretty tough, but the boss fights weren't too bad. I never spent more than five attempts on a single boss, I think that's pretty good. Something really off putting during the boss fights, was the lack of health bars they had. It ended in a lot of deaths that felt cheap, you could do a crazy amount of damage, but if you're not doing the right thing, you may just waste time and die.
You're able to pick up a lot of items like cars and throw them at enemies, you can dash, but War hesitates after leaving him open to attacks. The executions are really cool, it has realistic graphics, but they're not that great. There was a pretty boring on rail section, where you ride a flying eagle. There characters were just far too serious, the only one I found likeable really was Ulthane. The story was pretty interesting and had some good twists, but I wouldn't recommend this for the story or gameplay. There is also a clear homage/rip off of Portal, you literally shoot orange and blue portals to walk through, you can decide what it is.
It's not the best game, but playing as Death in the sequel seems very interesting and I will definitely be playing, and keeping a close eye on the third. Hopefully a less serious and more humorous game follows.
7.3/10
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