Let’s Look At: Dead Rising

What is it about zombies that fascinates people so much - the loss of control, the chance to cut loose in a world with no rules, or maybe the way they shamble? In any case, zombies infest everything from movies like George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, to Capcom’s Resident Evil. With Dead Rising (2006) Capcom, arguably the master of the zombie game, decided to take things in a campier direction.

...I may need a bigger shovel.

Let me start by saying that I have a nuanced relationship with the undead. If were on Facebook, it would definitely fall under the “it’s complicated” umbrella. On one hand, I kind of have a (mildly) crippling fear of zombie movies. Every single one follows people who have clearly never seen a zombie movie or even picked up Frankenstein for eighth grade English. So-called protagonists always lean over corpses, let the bitten person hang around, and in general have zero self-preservation skills. On the other hand, I love zombie games. Give me an axe, and I’m good to go. Park me in front of a screen without a controller, and we’ll have issues. Maybe it’s a control thing.

In Dead Rising you play as Frank West, a photojournalist who enters the small town of Willamette, Colorado, a, on a tip that “something big was going down.” Turns out several things are up, and shambling out of their graves and into the town. The national guard has closed the whole place off, and your helicopter is forced to leave you at the mall where you’ll be picked be picked up in 72 hours. You’re on your own until then, and before you know it, you’re unraveling the whole narrative like the amazing journalist you are.

Maybe "amazing journalist" isn't the phrase I'm looking for. Maybe it's more like "dude with zero self preservation diving into a screaming undead deathtrap." Yeah, that feels better.

Dead Rising takes its setting and theme from George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, where a bunch of people are trapped in a middle American mall amidst a zombie apocalypse. While the movie bitingly critiques the consumerism of the 70s, Dead Rising is really an exercise in how silly you can make a plot and still have it make sense. Since the infamous “Jill Sandwich” days of Resident Evil, Capcom has reigned unrivaled in its ability to produce stupid dialogue and that’s on full display here. The mall is filled with helpless survivors, psychopaths who can’t adapt to their non-American life, and lots of clothing options. You can chop through zombies with a chainsaw wearing only a giant horse head.

Or a lego type head. Who am I to judge?

If solving my undead problems with a potted plant is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Combat in Dead Rising is messy and fun. Some weapons are better than others, but you can use almost anything from giant battle axes to teddy bears. Some of the bosses have unique weapons, which respawn where they die, which is nice if you want an extra powerful option. Most weapons have their own unique movesets and fit a variety of situations, from crowd-control to one-on-one. Things can feel a bit wooden at times, but you’ll be too deep in zombie parts to really notice.

You level up as you kill zombies, rescue survivors, and complete missions, and with level one of your stats will increase. You gain can a skill, or attack, item storage, throw strength, speed, and life can all increase, at the rate of one point in one of your attributes per level. Some of the skills are more useful than others. I found little use for the “Zombie Ride” skill, which allows you to walk on top of a horde of undead, but I did use the “Jump Kick” skill nearly 500% of the time I was moving. By the time you get to the end of the game, you’ll be a one-man-karate-judo-and-wrestling master, flinging undead by their rotten ankles across the mall. Who wouldn’t want that on their resume?

By the end of this wild ride, you'll be able to crash through the zombie hordes like a magma tsunami through a marshmallow skyscraper.

One of the best parts of this game is also the most divisive; every mission occurs as specific times, so you have to get places by a certain point. In your first play through, it is very hard (if not impossible) to complete every side mission, main mission, and save every survivor. If you fail to recue a survivor in time a message will flash across your screen in red “GREG ROBERTS IS DEAD”, or somesuch. If you fail to complete a story mission, you can’t do any of the rest of them. You can still survive for 72 hours but, as the game says, “the truth will remain buried forever.” It’s so goddamn rare that a game has the guts to deny players something that I’m always pleased to see when a game says, “No, you do it my way or you don’t fucking do it.”

Missions will appear after a certain time, with Otis (one of the survivors) calling you on a two way radio to inform you. You can see around how much time is left for a particular mission. Sacrifices will likely have to be made your first run through.

Part of the combat’s strengths falls apart around the boss fights. Zombies usually die in a hit or two, but bosses are often extremely hard. They move faster, have better weapons, and usually have an environmental advantage. One of the earliest bosses, a clown with twin chainsaws, also can breathe fire, throw knives, and throw balloons filled with some kind of noxious gas. You can easily lose all your health in a minute, so you need to study the bosses before you engage them. You can only save at certain points of the game, so it’s very easy to lose hours of progress if you stumble on a boss fight by accident.

Good luck getting through Adam on your first try. He's surprisingly mobile for a clown carrying two chainsaws, an unlimited amount of throwing knives, and balloons filled with poison gas.

The final issue with Dead Rising is one I’ve written about before; ludonarrative dissonance. In Dead Rising you can beat bosses with sledge hammers, swords, and fill them with bullets, but the cutscenes will have them running off, looking fine. Or worse, the boss will get shot once in the leg and be down for the count. It pulls you out of the game each time happens, especially with the main antagonist. I understand it’s a hard problem to fix. If you have guns behave realistically, the game falls apart. If enemies take shotgun shells to the face, guns lose the story impact we expect them to have. Maybe the only solution would be to remove guns from the game entirely, but that really wouldn’t make sense for middle America. Either way, it’s a more minor niggle.

Worth Playing?

Yes

Dead Rising is a stupid, silly, nonsense romp through a sea of putrid zombie parts. It’s the most fun you’ll have with the undead until the government finally hears my proposal to start the Department of Reanimation. The bosses are a bit too hard the first time around and the cut scenes jar, but the rest of Dead Rising is so well put together that I can forgive the problems. Go forth and suplex some zombies, my friends.

Everybody who doesn’t read this article will turn into zombies. Save yourself! Save the world! Share it!

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Let’s Take a Loooong Look: Legend of Zelda Series, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Part 2, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, NES, 1987

See, I like things to be good and Zelda II wants everything to be terrible

Everybody has days that they just don’t agree with. Maybe you get up on the wrong side of the bed, maybe the café is out of croissants, or maybe the stars just aren’t right. Any way you slice it, sometimes things just don’t work out. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and I did not agree with each other.

 I’ll admit that The Legend of Zelda and I had some disagreements, but I learned to appreciate its bold sense of adventure and atmosphere. It was like a snarly dog that just wanted some pets. Zelda II is like a howler monkey that screams at you and throws things whenever you try to get closer, no matter what. Maybe there’s a reason that this game lies in the Oh-I-didn’t-know-that-existed pile.

Like somebody who owns a china shop and sees a fast approaching bull, let’s get the good stuff out of the way first. The combat in Zelda II is innovative for its time. You have two kinds of attack at the beginning of the game and later on you pick an up a third. You can strike high, low, or plunge your sword into an enemy from above. This adds a new dimension to combat and defense.

Suck it, spider and weird tiger spear thing! WHA-PAH.

You have to time your strikes when your enemy is rearing back to strike you, and make sure your shield is at the right height to stop their blow. You can also use the environment to get above an enemy and deliver a punishing blow. You have to study your enemies and learn their movesets to defeat them, which makes combat an actual part of gameplay and not just an afterthought. After you learn the systems, combat can feel very smooth and the whip-like way that Link swings his sword is very satisfying.

It's rare that a game offers you magic that makes you helpless. It's a nice subversion of expectations.

Magic in Zelda II acts like an extension of Link’s abilities rather than overshadowing them. You acquire a number of spells throughout the game as you find new towns Link’s main abilities revolve around sword swinging and world exploring so it’s nice to see a game that uses magic to extend these abilities rather than supersede them. For instance, one spell lets you shoot fireballs when you swing your sword which makes Link more deadly in close combat and gives him a ranged option and another lets you turn into a fairy (complete with flying abilities) to get over otherwise insurmountable obstacles. You’ll be using some of these spells very often and the game does a good job of keeping you stocked with mana, which is definitely a point in its favor.

Where were you, you piece of human garbage!? I had to wade through a goddamn monster infested Forrest because you couldn't live in the town you're evidently in charge of. What is wrong with you!?

Now that we’ve got the good stuff out of the way, let’s let the bull destroy the rest. Maybe we'lleven pitch in. Exploration in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a monumental pain the ass. From a fairly simple start, you’ll quickly become totally lost. Where are all these towns that people are speaking about? How do I get to them? Can you give me any direction at all? You need to speak to all the people in the town on the off chance that one of them has something mildly coherent to say to you, but most will just offer the same lines or incomprehensive non-directions. In one area, you have to get across a bridge, but the guard won’t lower it because he doesn’t know you. You talk to everyone in the town, but nothing seems to be progressing. If you’re crazy like me, you’ll talk to the everybody a bunch of times in hope of them saying anything useful and lo and behold, a bit (a kind of enemy) will tell you that his master, Bagu is in the woods. Where in the woods? Fuck off that’s where. You need to go in and out of every tile in the forest to find Bagu. When you finally do, the river guard will let you pass. Now you get to head through Death Mountain, which is a literal trial and error maze. Exploration is one of the most important parts of any Zelda game, maybe the most important part, so for it to be so poorly executed is sad and aggravating in the extreme.

The RPG leveling up mechanics in Zelda II are pointless and a waste of programming space that could have been used to give useful dialogue to any NPC for once. You gain experience by defeating enemies and finding experience bags that enemies drop. After a certain number of points, you level up and you can choose to upgrade your life, magic, or attack. The thing is, you can only upgrade a stat at a level up and each upgrade costs a certain amount of level points. The 2nd level of health costs 50 experience points, the 2nd level of magic costs 100 experience points, and the 2nd level of attack costs 200 experience points.

Look a this! Who thought that people that loved the adventure and sense of freedom from the first game would love grinding?

You can either level up a stat or decline and wait until you earn the next amount of experience to level up and chose another stat increase. So, if you make it to 50 experience points, but decided that you want to level up attack first, you’ll need to wait until the next time you level up (at 150 experience points). Upgrading your health, armor, and weapons is another crucial part of the LoZ experience, but this leveling up system forces you to grind for increased abilities rather than through exploration. Not to mention that there are some enemies that can literally steal experience from you and death results in all your experience points going back to 0. The whole system is designed to waste your time and extend the game.

This is more a minor niggle, but it’s especially frustrating given how good the combat is. Darknuts are literally the devil in this game. They have the same sword swinging abilities you do, coupled with an AI that always managed to put the shield right where you don’t need it and their sword between Link’s ribs. There’s one in the first temple that is a real and terrible barrier to progression until you either grind for more health/attack or keep trying until luck wins out. God help you if you come across a Blue one, they can throw knives and jump super high, so you have no way to escape them.

I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. I WILL ALWAYS BE THERE TO SUPPORT YOU WITH A KNIFE IN THE BACK, LIKE A TRUE FRIEND.

They will pursue you to the end of the earth, throwing knives in your back the entire time. Most of the bosses in the game aren’t as hard as the Darknuts are. Difficulty is all well and good, but give people a chance for pity's sake.

Zelda II: is like a model rocket that sputtered to a few feet off the ground, then fell into a drainage ditch and caught on fire. The combat is fun and innovative, the magic system compliments the gameplay in a really elegant way, but the exploration is like pulling teeth, leveling up is a wasteful mess, and Darknuts can go straight to hell. While I can say I have some fond memories of The Legend of Zelda, all I have for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is dislike that’s bordering on hate.

Tune in next time for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (the one everybody likes)

and here, and image that is not mine, but sums up my feeling about the game.

Let’s Look At: Hyper Light Drifter

One of my favorite music genres is synthwave (just imagine if the 80s never stopped). I like the little imperfections that synths bring, as well as the art style that accompanies the music. Bright magentas, teals and cyans seem to leap off of album covers and landscapes. Ever since 2011’s Drive, the style has been popping up in other places, much to my delight like Far Cry 3’s expansion Blood Dragon. One of the more unexpected places was Hyper Light Drifter, a The Legend of Zelda inspired explora-thon.

Welcome to pretty colors and total confusion.

Hyper Light Driver does have a story, but good luck figuring it out. Our main character basically appears out of nowhere, not terribly phased by the fact that they came through a dimensional portal into a new world. After a short rest and brief spout of coughing up blood, they’re off to explore their new world. There are several areas to explore, each of which with a theme to its monsters, like the wizard birds in the library-mountain, or the orc-samurai things in the ancient ruins.

As you might be able to tell, there's not a lot of dialogue in HLD, so I'm making up my own names as I go.

Throughout each area you collect little rhombuses that unlock more areas, as well as some kind of giant lock that the main hub town is built around. Each area also has a final boss with unlocks one of the bigger locks. So, you keep moving towards unlocking this giant thing, but why? Does your character know what it is, or what it does? Will it send them home? Will it cure your mysterious illness? Fuck if I know, but it’s a good mystery that keeps you invested.

My absolute favorite part of this game is its design; visual, audio, and story-wise. I’m a sucker for both good pixel art and neon, and this game uses both to fantastic effect. The overall look of the game mirrors 16 bit SNES and Genesis games, but with modern polishes designers of the 90s could only dream about. The colors in the game are bright and vibrant which makes the world seem alien and wild. Everywhere you go, there are signs of previous civilizations and battles, empty except for the enemies and one or two friendly NPCs.

It's always nice to see a friendly face, especially when near everything else in this world is dead.

The whole package has a very solemn and haunting effect. There’s no dialogue in the game, so you never have to stop focusing on the art, which is a concession that few games are willing to make. The soundtrack to this game deserves praise as well. It’s ambient and stirring without intruding on gameplay or overriding any other part of the game. I would bet that the designers of this game are big synthwave fans. Each area has its own unique tracks and ambient sound, which keep every location feeling fresh. Lastly, the story design deserves recognition for its restraint. Much like The Legend of Zelda did, HLD plays its cards close to the vest; if you want to know about the story behind this place, you’re going to have to do some detective work and a good bit of guessing.

There's even a co-op mode, so you can dash around with a friend.

The combat in this game is very satisfying. Your character starts out with a laser sword and acquires several other kinds of weapons as you go including ranged weapons and bombs. Your sword has a nice three-hit combo which you can time to great effectiveness against groups of enemies. You can also get upgrades your weapons that increase their ammo count (in the case of ranged weapons) or give you alternate moves (in the case of your sword). You quickly acquire the ability to dash, which makes you feel like an action hero, zipping between enemies and cutting them down. Enemies in this game come in a variety of types, ranged and melee, and each enemy requires their own strategy. The orcs, for example, are relatively easy one-on-one, but it can be hard to dodge their attacks in groups. The joy of combat really shines in boss fights. Each boss has their own patterns, which you must study in an almost Dark Souls like fashion to beat them. Each of the bosses is difficult in their own way, which makes progressing past them feel as good as defeating some evil titan should.

Despite how much I love the story design, there are some drawbacks to the style. Because everything is kind of mysterious, it can be very easy to lose track of where you’re supposed to be going. There were some rhombuses that took me absolutely forever to find because even though I could see around where they were on the map, I couldn’t find out how to get to that particular point.

The map isn't super detailed, but it is a good general-direction kind of thing.

The game also has a 30FPS cap, which presents its own set of problems. Because the game runs slightly slower than most PC games do, the controls can feel a little fiddly. The game will not react to a very fast combination of buttons which can leave you on the wrong side of a bosses’ weapon swing, or down a pit. This keeps the combat from feeling graceful in the way that you would imagine it should feel like.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

If you’re at all interested in indie action games, exploration, or a mysterious and beautiful world you should definitely invest some time in Hyper Light Drifter. The neon alone sold it for me, but y’all might be tougher customers. Anybody who enjoyed the original Legend of Zelda game will enjoy this one, so I also recommend it to any diehard NES and SNES fans.

If you don’t share this article with everybody you know, you might be whisked away to another dimension. Just saying.

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Let’s Start Looking At: Overwatch

As a general rule, I’m not big on online multiplayer games. I’ve enjoyed a few, like Tribes 2, and Unreal Tournament 2004, but the majority involve either grinding or are slightly altered versions of Call of Duty or Battlefield. Every once in a while something comes along that’s a bit different, but few online multiplayer games have managed to hold my attention like Overwatch has.

This is a Let's Start Looking At rather than a full Let's Look At. I haven't made it to Competitive Play yet and I'd rather not give you wonderful readers and incomplete piece, so just hang on for the full thing.

See, last article started with a white Overwatch logo. This one has a black Overwatch logo. PROGRESS IS BEING MADE.

Firstly, Overwatch has an actual story! None of it is presented in game, but there are a few comics, some very well made animations, and other background floating around the internet. On a fictionalized Earth, 30 years in the future, humanity invents artificially intelligent building robots called omnics to ensure global economic equality and build more omnics. Eventually the omnics rebel against humanity, creating combat models. The UN establishes Overwatch, a global collection of soldiers, scientists, and others to keep the peace across the globe. However, allegations and failed missions sour the public’s opinion and the UN disbands the group and makes any Overwatch activity illegal, but Overwatch reforms when a second omnic crisis threatens.

Ah yes, the classic "you saved all of our lives but there's collateral damage sometimes so we'll hate you forever" trope.

But, none of that matters. You fight on teams with your enemies and allies alike, and the missions are basically variations on “hold this point.”

The UI design here is nice and simple, so you can focus on the shooty-shooty-bang-bang-time-travel action. 

Multiplayer shooters can have all the bells and whistles that they want, but everything will fall apart without sturdy basic mechanics. In Overwatch, all of the different characters have unique weapons that all feel punchy and solid. Each character has their own speed and movement abilities, and you have the option to fight against training robots to test out each of the characters. The interface is simple to understand, and warnings let you know if your team lacks a healer or if you’ve got low overall damage. You will enter an objective-less skirmish mode while you search for an online game.

There are currently 22 heroes divided into four classes (six Offence, six Defense, five Tank, and five Support). Each hero has their own weapon and abilities that fit them into their class. Genji (Offence), the cyber ninja, climbs up walls, deflects incoming projectiles, and deals an extreme amount of close quarters damage. Widowmaker (defense), the kind-of-dead French assassin, sets up a poison gas trap, slingshots around the map, and reveals all enemy locations for a short time.

Figuring out which characters you groove with is definitely part of the fun here. Experiment all you want in Quickplay, but stick to what you're good at in competitive.

Mei is indeed a cruel and powerful god. Beware her smiley-wrath.

The sheer amount of variation in each class means every match can be played in totally unique way. Of course, that all depends on the players. While it’s easy to pick up any of the characters and play based on their class alone, they all have untapped depths in the hands of a talented player. For instance, I’ve seen some Mei’s use their ice wall ability to launch enemies in the air to make them easier sniping targets.

Maps are distinct, but uniform from a design standpoint. Each map corresponds to a game mode (some can host multiple kinds of game) and contains one main thoroughfare and several side paths, so you can ambush enemies, pick them off with sniper spots, or flank your teammates. For instance, Route 66 is an escort mission where one team must escort a slowly moving payload to the end of the map the other team must halt the payload until time runs out. There are several choke points for the defense team to use, as well as side paths for the offence team to get around behind the defense team.

I really like how games are swinging away from the Quake brown hues to lots of cartoon-y color. Despite all the colors, you rarely lose track of your enemies or you allies in these maps, so props to the visual design of the characters and stages.

Welcome to 90% of PotG. 

One of the most fun parts of Overwatch is one of the most problematic aspects of the game. After every match, one player is awarded Play of the Game, with a little intro screen (multiple unlockable varieties for each character) and a replay of said amazing play. On the surface it’s an awesome way for somebody to show off a little. 90% of the PotG you’ll see are going to be offence plays; Genjis unleashing their Dragonblade on 5 clustered enemies, Tracer using her exploding time bomb to take out all the enemy players defending the payload, etc. If you play a support character and you get a PotG, you know one of two things: either your team is terrible, or you’re really good. The game weights kills much higher than good support or tanking, so many players choose offence heroes, even when their team becomes crazy unbalanced. However, players can give kudos for the top performing players of offence, defense, support, tanking, and a few others and players will often give 5 out of 12 possible kudos to the best support character, but the game itself seems to focus on offence. The Overwatch devs have stated that they’re looking at this issue, so this issue might be resolved soon.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

If you like Arena Shooters, online multiplayer, colorful characters, or just like fun games, you should play Overwatch. It’s has a huge player base right now, new heroes are definitely coming, and it seems like it can only go up from here, barring a crazy patch change that makes Mei even more annoying.

By reading this you have been cursed by the PotG ghost! Share this article 500 times or you’ll never get Play of the Game again! Hurry!

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Let’s Look At: System Shock Pre-Alpha Demo

Disclosure: I have backed this game on Kickstarter to the tune of 30 dollars. I am not paid in any way to talk about this as-yet-unfulfilled-project. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, on to our regularly scheduled programming.

Horror and Sci-Fi go together like sleep deprivation and a new parent. Horror aims to inspire fear, which often springs from a lack of understanding. What’s less understood than an alien, or an emotionless artificial intelligence? Horror games add an extra dimension to this trope by giving you control over somebody in such a situation. System Shock (1994) took HAL 9000 and cranked the terror up to 11, later inspiring games like Bioshock and SOMA. Unfortunately, System Shock hasn’t aged well. The control scheme is maximalist beyond words, with no mouselook. The graphics, music, and enemy sound design maintain a certain spooky charm, but the voice acting sounds more bored than terrified. The folks over at Nightdive Studios decided that enough was enough and that they were going to remake the original cyberpunk horror experience. They recently released a pre-alpha demo, so let’s see where it’s going.

Awwww yissss. Shodan is back to kill humans and control robots, and she's all out of robots.

I’m not sure if they’re keeping the original story, but it bears repeating because it’s awesome. In 2072, you (a hacker wearing a funny shirt) hack into the TriOptimum Corporation database to learn about Citadel Station. You are brought before a TriOptimum executive who promises to clear all charges against you if you hack the Station A.I. SHODAN to give him control over it. He even promises to throw in a valuable (and illegal) military grade neural implant.

Executives these days. You hack a sentient A.I to remove all ethical constraints and next thing you know, everything goes to pot.

You hack SHODAN and hand control over to the executive and they implant some tech in your head, you take a 6 month healing nap. You wake up to find that SHODAN has taken control of the station, reprogrammed all the robots, and killed, mutated, and transformed the human occupants of the station. You quickly learn Citadel Station’s mining laser is charging and that SHODAN is planning to destroy all of Earth’s major cities. Time to go stop a super powerful artificial intelligence with total control of a space station. Off you get.

The demo starts out much like the original, with you waking up in an abandoned station. Right off the bat, the visual style of the remake is beautiful. Nightdive Studios have maintained the original layout of the Citadel Station, but they’ve also created a modern and sensible new look. Gas and bits of fog filter across your vision as neon lights of every shade emanate from the various screens and touchpads.

Colorful, bloody, and full of tech-nonsense. This is how I like my games.

The particle effects are impressive in their own right; lightning jumps out of power stations and jumps around your gloved hand, sparks fly from your weapon impact on a robot, and your electro-gun unleashes bolts of blue electricity that leave glowing orange scorch marks. All together it creates a very cohesive and mysterious cyberpunk feeling. While most things remain the same the remake has made the game a little darker, lighting wise. The original was very bright, even pastel colored at times, which didn’t mesh with the tone.

The movement of your character is appropriately slow, just like the original game, but with a lot more kinetic feeling. When picking up an important item or weapon, your character flips it around in their hands for a minute, looking at it before putting it away or wielding it. It’s a nice bit of real-world curiosity that gives a lot of character to your silent protagonist.

It's important to see if your weapons are free of structural damage. Plus, who doesn't like to get a feel for the heft of a lead pipe?

It makes sense that you’d be curious; you did hack into a super powerful corporation’s files just for shits’n’giggles. Swinging your weapon has the kind of weight that the swing of a real pipe might; impact feels satisfying and blows land with a good thunk. Climbing up and down ladders isn’t instant, like in Half-Life 2, but a process of getting on and off that reinforces the weight your character has. All in all, it feels like movement in a horror game should.

The original System Shock was very text based and the remake brings a little bit of that magic back with frequent on-screen messages. When your character opens a box a line of text will appear, as if somebody was typing it, that scrolls across the middle of your screen: “I wonder what’s inside?”. When you attempt to interact with a computer screen texture, you’ll get a message of “It’s all gibberish.” Intractable items will have an augmented-reality like circle around them, mimicking the look of the original game and modern augmented reality devices.

Modern AR devices do a very similar sort of thing with important objects, so I thought this was a really clever touch.

Given that this is a demo designed to get people to invest in a game that doesn’t exist yet, Nightdive studios is trying to put their best foot forward. With any such attempt, you’re bound to stumble a bit. Some of the issues I have with this demo can definitely be fixed, but we’ll see what happens. First of all, it’s hard to tell if an enemy is close enough to hit you. I think this is an issue related to your field of view and the difficult nature of melee combat in first person, but it’s a bit annoying. I always end up backing up and charging toward enemies like some kind of indecisive Roomba.

One of your weapons, which I’m calling the Electrogun (because I don’t know it’s name), has several power modes which you can switch between. Each level corresponds to a different amount of electricity you use per shot and damage you do. Each time you change the level, an animation plays where your character raises the gun in front of their/your face and turns the little knob on the side of the gun that changes the power.

As much as I love neon (and believe me I love neon) I really can't tell what I've just turned my gun to.

Thing is, it’s really hard to see which level you’ve just turned to and there’s no indication anywhere else on the screen. There’s little markings next to the different settings on the gun, but other parts of the gun and your hands obscure the markings when you’re turning the knob. If other weapons have this style of alteration, I hope Nightdive adds an indication somewhere else on the screen to let you know which power level you’re on.

System Shock had a wonderful and atmospheric soundtrack that added a lot to the eerie feelings that the game evoked. The demo doesn’t seem to have a soundtrack, aside from a short orchestral number as you look out a window. While I’m not sure if the original 90s cyberpunk soundtrack would fit with the darker visual choices Nightdive has made, I think a reimagining of the original soundtrack would be a good idea. From what I’ve seen, a full soundtrack is planned, but I hope they go with something with an outrun style bent. I think the Neo-80’s sound would work well with the more neon visual style.

Worth Playing/Worth Backing?

Yes/Maybe

This demo is definitely fun, visually well designed, and atmospheric. There are some issues around sound, enemy attacks, and unclear mechanics, but the whole package is a great throwback to a different era of game. However, if you were not a fan of the original game’s tone, atmosphere, or speed, you might not want to back this one. This game is not Bioshock, or even System Shock 2. It’s slower and not and RPG, though that could change with one of the kickstarter’s stretch goals. If you liked the original, then I would suggest backing this one.

Share this article with friends, enemies, relatives, and anybody else. They need this super ultra-important information about an almost completely funded videogame on Kickstarter.

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Let’s Look At: MDK

Playing the same games you played as a kid later on in life can bring up some odd questions from people. Questions like, “Why are you 24 years old and playing Pajama Sam 2: Thunder and Lightning Aren’t So Frightening?”, “why is that plumber stomping on those mushrooms?”, and “seriously, why are you playing Pajama Sam. It’s meant for five year olds.” Maybe I like Pajama Sam, okay? But, it can also bring up questions you ask yourself like, “What the hell is going on? Who am I? How did I get this robo-suit with a machine gun for an arm?” MDK is a 3rd person shooting game that made me ask a lot of questions, but that sure as hell beats a boring game.

No video-game-playing-chlid can look at this cover and not immediately want to know more about that suit. Also fun fact, there's no agreed upon meaning for the MDK acronym. It has been said to mean anything from "Murder Death Kill" to "Mother's Day Kisses".

One of the biggest surprises I got while playing MDK again as an adult is that it apparently has a story! I don’t remember if I ever got this game in a box, so maybe I didn’t read any manuals that would have told me the fittingly strange plot of this game.

You play as Kurt Hectic, a laboratory janitor tricked onto a space station by the brilliant (if deranged) Doctor Fluke Hawkins. There’s also a 6 legged dog named Bones, though he prefers Max. Dr. Hawkins, ashamed that he couldn’t prove one of his theorems, decided to stay on his space station until he accomplishes something. He is the first to detect the coming of the Steamriders (a group of aliens who use massive “minelayers” to strip planets of their resources). Dr. Hawkins attempts to warn Earth, but he is ignored. Earth’s military is destroyed and the only hope to defeat the aliens is Dr. Hawkins “Coil Suit”, but given his age and Max’s extra legs, Kurt is the only one who can use it. The funniest part is how literally none of this matters at all to the gameplay. I, as a kid, saw the machine gun arm and I was sold.

Each mission opens with a one sentence crawl about where the Minecrawler is headed. You drop out of the space-station to land on the Minecrawler, picking up items and dodging missles as you go.

To say that MDK looks interesting is like saying that Dali painted odd paintings; it’s true, but you’re understating things. The graphics from 1997 show their age, but the overall look is still stunning in terms of its imagination. Each Minecrawler is a whirl of color, shapes, and music. MDK didn’t ape Quake’s brown hues; instead it explored every color in the rainbow, and then made every surface reflective. The music compliments the visual style. Each song on the soundtrack is clamoring, odd, and cyberpunk-y.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

As for level design, MDK’s designers didn’t bother with labyrinths found in Doom or Quake, but featured a straightforward layout for each level. There are few, if any, branching paths throughout each level, though you can find hidden secrets. Most levels are made up of corridors and one or two wide open spaces. Wind-tunnel like segments add a verticality you wouldn’t expect from such 2d focused game. While the levels are all linear, each Minecrawler has a unique look that makes going through the level fun.

The combat in MDK is as strange as the rest of it with no vertical aiming, ala Doom, and only one weapon. Your machine gun arm has two modes: spray’n’pray and sniper. You can hold down the shoot button and you’ll hit anything in front of you within a certain range (with the closest enemy hit first), or you can activate the sniper mode to fire off three precise shots at a time. You have one ammo variety for the spray’n’pray, which does more damage, but several varieties of sniper fire including, mortars, smart bombs, and homing bullets. If you can headshot a non-boss enemy in sniper mode, you’ll take their head off in a shower of green blood. You can also pick up a variety of throwable weapons, including an inflatable dummy, grenades, and “The World’s Smallest Nuclear Explosion.” The grenades come in handy for the larger enemies you fight. You only use the World’s Smallest Nuclear Explosion to open doors, which is an odd twist on the old “I might need it later” weapon conservation strategy.

Enemies fall apart as you whittle down their health; it's entertaining but can be distracting when you're swarmed.

Some parts of a game age like fine wine and some age like milk. The graphics and visual style of MDK still hold up, but man, combat has come a long way since 1997. In the 1st level you have to fight an enemy who jumps between ledges in a vertical wind tunnel which is pretty fun, but most fights devolve into “hold down shoot button because you never run out of ammo, jump straight up to dodge any laser blasts, and rinse/repeat.” Things go faster if you’ve got the super chaingun ammo, but you never have enough to last the whole level.

A stronger combination of the platforming and shooting mechanics would result in more dynamic combat. The vertical segment in the 1st level is fun because you have to manage your aim, movement, height, as well as dodge your enemy’s attacks. Otherwise you’re just holding down the shoot button and waiting.

Trying to use sniper mode is impossible unless your enemies can't hit you. Every large hit you take knocks you down and brings you back to 3rd person mode.

The controls are very similar to Doom’s, arrow keys for movement, control for shooting, but they are awkward at best. Mario 64 came out in 1996 and practically wrote the book on running and jumping, but it looks like the makers of MDK weren’t overly fond of Mario 64. You can jump with the Alt key, use items with the enter key, and if you hold the “x” key you can sidestep by pressing left or right (which normally just turn Kurt).  Getting anything done quickly in MDK is challenging, and more so when the game throws dozens of enemies at you. I think default mouselook and a WASD scheme would have made movement a lot less annoying.

Worth Playing?

No.

MDK requires context to really enjoy. If you could go back in time and play this game when it came out the visuals would be stunning and the combat/movement would be par the course. If you play it now, the visuals are still interesting as hell, but the movement is annoying and the dull combat can’t hold your interest. The sniper mode the game would be a fun addition to lots of FPS, but it doesn’t make MDK worth playing now.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Let’s Look At. Share it with you friends, your enemies, and people you meet on the street. Everybody knows the best way to make friends with somebody new is to share video game writing with them.

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Let's Start Looking At: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

If you’ve read anything on this site, you know that I rag on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a lot. I’m certainly not the first person to say that it’s got the whole “wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle” issue and I’m sure I won’t be the last. Given Skyrim’s massive success you could be forgiven for thinking that all open world RPGs are going to feature the same lack of depth (Fallout 4 didn’t help), but creators are always going to strive for something more.The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the example of that supreme effort; a polished and deep titan of a game. I’ve put around 23 hours into the game and only completed about 8% of it, making this a first impressions rather than a final verdict.

This dude is a little too handsome. I am uncomfortable with his rugged charm. Somebody save me.

In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, you play as Geralt, a genetically modified monster hunter for hire known as a Witcher. Geralt, having regained his lost memory from the first two games, is attempting to track down Yennefer of Vengerberg. Yennefer, Geralt’s former lover and powerful sorceress, sent him a message about wanting to meet again after all these years. It turns out that she is working for the Emperor of Nilfgaard and attempting to locate his daughter, Cirilla, whom Geralt helped train as a Witcher.

Last time Geralt saw Ciri, she was a kid. Now she's being chased by a mystic and powerful league of war omens. *sniff*, they grow up so fast.

Ciri, as Geralt calls her, is being pursued by the Wild Hunt for some unknown reason. 23 hours in, and that’s all I know, but it’s an interesting enough mystery to keep you hanging on. Don’t worry if all of these words look like nonsense; The Witcher 3 does a great job catching you up on the story and lore. I played the first game almost to the end but not very much of the second game.

The Witcher 3 has a leveling up system similar to a lot of RPGs, with four branches of skills to upgrade: combat, signs, alchemy, and general skills. You can experience by defeating monsters and completing quests. With the recent Blood and Wine expansion, you can acquire over 100 points to invest, but the combat tree alone takes 91 to fully upgrade. Specialization becomes necessary very quickly, which increases the replay value and gives you a new experience each time.

You only have twelve skill slots, so you must build Geralt carefully. The other four slots can hold mutagens, which are collected from downed monsters. They can increase attack power, sign intensity, or health.

The Witcher series has always had engaging combat, and the third (and final) game is no exception. Geralt carries two swords, one steel and one sliver. The steel sword is used for all human enemies as well as non-magical beasts and the silver sword for magical monster opponents.  You have two kinds of melee attacks, heavy and light. You can block attacks or parry them with the right timing, dealing some extra damage. You have a dodge and a roll you can use to evade attacks as well as crossbow to knocking certain flying enemies out of the sky.

You can also perform various finishers on stunned opponents.

If you can hit an enemy’s back you can deal critical damage, but they can do the same to you. Your exact attack movements change depending on the distance you are from your intended target, which can take some getting used to. Geralt’s movements feel weighty and your swings have enough momentum that you can feel the consequences of making a particular attack choice. Combat feels very grounded, but never slow.

While this is pre-rendered footage, it's pretty representative of what combat feels like.

Besides your normal melee attacks, Geralt can also use five signs. The signs are sort of like magic shortcuts, taught to Witchers as a less powerful one-handed substitute for the more powerful magic that mages wield. Geralt can use Aard, Yrden, Igni, Quen, and Axii. Aard knocks enemies back with a telekinetic wave, Yrden creates a magical trap on the ground to slow or paralyze enemies, Igni sends out a wave of heat to set enemies aflame, Quen creates a temporary shield that lets Geralt absorb some damage without losing health, and Axii allows Geralt to stun an enemy temporarily and influence other characters in conversation.

Here we see Geralt slowing down a group of enemies with Yrden, then knocking them down with Aard.

Upgrading the signs increase their usefulness even more. Igni, for example, has a chance to reduce your enemies armor and Axii can be used more effectively in conversation. The varied uses of the signs make you feel like they’re an integral part of the combat and world, rather than just another way to dispose of enemies.  

The last third of the tripod that makes up The Witcher 3’s combat is potion and weapon/armor crafting. The crafting in Witcher 3 is expansive to say the least. There are a simply ridiculous number of materials, schematics, recipes, and diagrams to collect. Each potion you consume adds to your toxicity. Consume too many, and Geralt will lose health continuously until the toxicity depletes. There’s also a new kind of potion, called a Decoction, which you can only make after you have killed a certain kind of monster. The Decoctions last for around 20 minutes at a time and give Geralt a much more powerful effect, like increased damage resistance every time Geralt is hit in battle.

Each non decoction potion usually has about 3 uses per meditation period. You'll find a huge amount of crafting materials just from bouncing around the world, so don't sweat finding them. 

In a change from The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings and The Witcher, you only need to brew potions once. After you’ve brewed a potion it will be refilled automatically during mediation, provided you have the alcoholic base necessary. Given the massive quantity of alcoholic base around the game world, you shouldn’t ever really run out. For non-alchemical diagrams, you can visit a crafter who will build armor, weapons, ammunition, and more for Geralt, provided you have the materials and coin to spare.

The most impressive part of The Witcher 3 is its quests. The tight focus of the main quest keeps the whole thing grounded and sidesteps many of the usual fantasy tropes nicely. The main quest is nice, but the sidequests are what steals the show. There are few mainstream games that have as much polish in their main story as The Witcher 3 puts into its sidequests. The game throws a number of scavenger hunts your way; quests to find special weapons and armor scattered about the world. I think this an interesting way to keep gear from getting dull. As you level up, you’re constantly looking forward to being able to undertake higher level quests, scavenger hunts, and Witcher contracts.

Jenny O the Woods, one of the earlier Witcher contracts has it all. A spurned heart, death, lords abusing their power, and a healthy amount of detective work from our favorite Witcher.

Even the smallest, shortest sidequest has a story, choices, and even multiple objectives. My favorite sidequest so far involves running into some peasants in a ruined structure. They claim that their Allgod is displeased with their offerings and has cursed their village. You can offer to intervene on their behalf and speak to this “Allgod”. You quickly discover that their Allgod is in fact a satyr-like creature living under the ruined structure, hidden from the peasants. One hundred years ago, this sylvan “revealed” himself to the peasants by accident through an accident with a fireplace, and has been watching over their village in exchange for healthy food and drink offerings since.

You'll have to forgive his manners; he doesn't get out much.

You can kill the sylvan, try to reason with him to accept the village’s meagre offerings (as it’s all they can give during this time of war), or even persuade him to leave the villagers alone entirely. Each of these choices has a separate outcome and makes you feel more involved with the world. The choices can be difficult because there’s often no clear “right” or “moral” choice; Geralt lives in a world as morally complex as our own. The whole quest takes maybe five minutes to complete, but the amount of polish and detail shines through.

Exploration comes along with any open world game, and The Witcher 3 is no different. As you walk through the areas in the game you can find monster nests, guarded treasure, bandit camps, and more. I really like the Abandoned Sites, which are areas infested with monsters that fill up with villagers once you clear out the unwanted guests. It shows your impact on the world in a tangible way that also plays nicely into the story; normal people can’t deal with monsters, but a Witcher can.

So many places to go, so many monsters to kill.

The bandit camps can get a little tiring, as they usually don’t have anything that valuable and the bandit’s mediocre weapons and armor just weigh you down. The same can be said for guarded treasure, but that’s usually a bit more profitable. Thankfully there’s no pressure to complete any number of these things, so if you’d rather focus on questing there’s nothing stopping you.

Last but not least, I’ve got to talk about Gwent. Gwent is a card-based minigame in The Witcher 3 and the most addictive card game since Magic: The Gathering. There are four kinds of decks, each with several options for leader cards, a number of “regular” cards, and up to ten “special” cards. Your deck must have at least 22 regular cards to play. You draw ten cards and that’s all you get for that match, unless you play cards which allow you to draw more cards. Each regular card has a certain strength and the person with the higher strength at the end of a round wins. You play regular cards in the close, mid-range, and long range combat slots. Some of the special cards affect units in certain slots, while others are more like spell cards in Magic. A round ends when both players “pass”. By passing, you elect to stop putting down any more cards until your opponent passes. You and your opponent both start the match with two crystals, one of which breaks when you lose a round.

Most early matches don't look like this, but you can have a huge amount of strength in the later matches of the game.

There are about 200 Gwent cards in the base game and a series of major quests that revolve around Gwent tournaments. Gwent is crazy addicting. I’m super excited whenever I find a new village because it means there’s a bunch of people I can challenge to Gwent and win/buy cards from. It’s a great way to stop thinking about monsters for a few minutes, though it is a bit thematically confusing. Why are Geralt’s friends portrayed as cards in this game? How does every peasant shopkeeper have enough money to build a deck? Each card costs anywhere from 20 gold up, meaning a minimum of 440 gold to buy a full deck. Another odd thing is that you can only win ten gold pieces per round; why can’t I bet more? But these are all little things; you can't take away the fun from Gwent.

Where are you going!? We just met! I JUST WANTED TO BE FRIENDS.

With a game like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the only complaints you’re going to find are little things, but they can add up. A number of times during play, I’ve seen enemies clip through the ground, or go flying once I’ve killed them. I’ve seen enemies repeatedly open and close doors rather than come out to fight me which is hilarious, if a bit annoying sometimes.  The menu system is not as intuitive as it could be, though it’s been improved since version 1.0 of the game. There are times when it’s hard to figure out what you can dismantle for crafting parts, or when to stop dismantling, i.e. wolf pelt into cured leather, cured leather into leather scraps, leather scraps into leather straps, etc. You can “pin” a diagram or alchemy recipe, so the necessary items are highlighted in merchant’s inventories, but it would be nice if you could pin multiple recipes rather than just one. There are three kinds of currency in The Witcher 3, though you can only use one. When you find Orens or Florens you have to wait until you find the person who can exchange them for Crowns, which is annoying if logical lore-wise. Lastly, sometimes when fighting in the forest, the trees can get in front of the camera, which can cause you to get hit more than you’d like.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

At the end of the day The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is something really special. It will set that bar for all future open world RPGs, in terms of its depth and size. There are some nitpicks you can throw in there, but it’s a stunning package all together. The amount of polish and work put into the smallest detail will really impress you and maybe cause you to look at other games differently.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Let’s Look At. If not, that’s cool. I’m busy playing Gwent anyway. Speaking of which, wanna play Gwent?

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Let’s Look At: Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

At this point, it’s fairly clear the only thing I’m as obsessed with as I am video games is Star Wars. My current desktop background is a fan-created poster for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and the Despecialized Edition of the Original Trilogy is my favorite edition of the movies. However, you might be surprised at the number of Star Wars games I’ve missed. The first Star Wars game (brilliantly titled Star Wars) came out in 1983 and publishers been releasing games ever since, year after year. While I have missed a fair few of them, I did manage to hit some of the highlights of the series. Let’s Look At one of the best Star Wars games that lets you be a Jedi; Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.

Still the only game where I can play as Trandoshan with a lightsaber and cut off Luke Skywalker's arm, so that's cool.

Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast puts you in the boots of Kyle Katarn, an imperial officer turned rebel agent and later Jedi Knight. You head off to investigate the dregs of the Empire, scattered and weakened after Luke’s triumph against the Emperor and Darth Vader. After discovering how to infuse the Force into his followers, a Dark Jedi plans to revive the Empire. Kyle must take up his lightsaber again to defeat Desaan and his nefarious plans.

Why are the bad guys always reptile-y lookin'? Why couldn't he be a furry kitty or something? This is species-ist.

Jedi Outcast, built on the Quake 3 engine, drawing on its excellent shooting gameplay and movement mechanics. Kyle has real momentum as you run and jump around, which gives the combat a more realistic feel despite the lightsabers whirring about. All of your weapons feel responsive and punchy; each weapon has an alternate fire mode, adding versatility and expanding your options. With a large variety of guns, you can use different weapons for every type of situation. The Flachette gun, for instance, is really well suited for hallway combat, as its buckshot like fire fills a small space quickly. The E-11 Blaster Rifle’s secondary fire allows for extremely rapid fire, which makes it way easier to dispose of groups of clustered enemies.

Also worth noting is the excellent sound design in Jedi Outcast. Everything sounds just as it should.

Emulating the pure fictional awesomeness of Lightsaber usually feels like you’re wielding a wifflebat, but Jedi Outcast does a pretty good job. Your lightsaber is the most powerful weapon in your arsenal, by far. You can deflect blaster bolts, and cut through Stormtroopers like butter, nyooom-ing away the whole while. You feel like a real Jedi, powerful and deadly, but you’re never invincible using your lightsaber against the non-lightsaber equipped enemies. You can still get him from behind and any kind of explosive weapon will require some caution on your part. Like the Cantina scene in A New Hope, the game even lets you lop off an arm or two.

Or, with the help of a mod or two, even take off some noggins.

Along with a lightsaber, every Jedi worth their salt needs to have command of the force. You don’t get your force powers until a few missions into the game and you don’t start out with every power under the sun. But you get more powers as you play through the game, which communicates Kyle’s returning relationship with The Force with more grace than most games handle their narratives. Force powers feel about as awesome as they should. There’s something satisfying about using Force Choke to levitate and enemy then using Force Push to send them flying off the edge of Bespin’s famous cloud platforms.

Or failing Force Choke, you could always use Lightning. Kyle has spent some time with the Dark Side, so you have access to both kinds of powers.

Like the Star Wars movies, Jedi Outcast doesn’t skimp on exotic locales and new planets. The missions take you on an awesome tour of the galaxy, from the Outer Rim to Nar Shaada. Each level has its own unique design with different assets, architecture, and atmosphere. The swampy atmosphere and ancient stone of the Jedi Temple on Yavin 4 leaves you with a little history of the place, and the power of the Dark Side there. While they might look a bit dated, a lot of charm and clever work went into the environments of Jedi Outcast.

Think of Yavin as a slightly sunnier Dagobah, and you'll have the right idea. 

However, while mission locations might be varied, the mission objectives are sadly lacking. Most of the mission objectives are just “find key, open door, end level”, which is disappointing given the richness of the universe. There could have been more interesting mission objectives revolving around light and dark side choices, instead of relying on the usual shooter fare.

While the stellar lightsaber combat makes Jedi Knight II stand out, it also makes all of your other weapons superfluous. Why snipe at an enemy when you can deflect all of their shots with your lightsaber and then lop off a leg when you’re close enough? You get the lightsaber after two missions, so maybe they started you out with a cap gun so you could appreciate the real thing a little more, but I’m not sure it worked out entirely. If there were more enemies that resisted the lightsaber more, combat might have been a little more complex.

This fight is not going to end will for these stormtroopers. It already went badly for a few of them. 

The lightsaber v lightsaber combat has its own share of issues. You swing at each other, occasionally colliding and locking sabers. By mashing the left click button you can overpower your enemy and deal a large amount of damage to your opponent, often ending the battle. That part is pretty well designed, but the rest of the time they feel a little too easy to swing around. If your swings had more weight to them, then the lightsaber would feel less wooden. Of course, a solid melee combat system is one of the hardest things to design in games, as there are only a handful of good examples.

Most lightsaber fights devolve into frantic leaping around and mashing the attack button.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

It’s by no means a perfect picture, but Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is worth spending some time with. The melee system has issues, the guns can feel a bit superfluous, but this game does make you feel like a Jedi, which is hard to achieve.

If you want to be a Jedi, you should share this article. It’ll grant you force powers, for real.

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Let’s Look At: Tribes 2

My first gaming machine was an old PC of my parents’. As soon as I figured out how to work it, I was glued to that PC. I started out playing games like Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds and Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside. As I got older and my reflexes evolved beyond floundering incompetence, I played games that asked a little more of players. One game dominated my free time time, essentially until support for it ceased: Tribes 2. It’s the only game I was ever part of a Clan for and one of the few games I’ve ever been decent at. More than just another multiplayer game, Tribes 2’s mechanical innovations are worth remembering and maybe even imitating.

This box tells you literally everything you need to know about this game; there's jetpacks, CTR, and other sci-fi nonsense.

Tribes 2 is the sequel to Starsiege: Tribes and hits many of the same beats, but with more pizazz and intensity. You and up to 63 other players/bots could play through a variety of modes like Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Rabbit (basically like tag). There were a total of five tribes to choose from, each visually distinct but mechanically exactly the same. When you start a match you choose an armor class (that you can change at any equipment station), Light, Medium, or Heavy. Each class has its own equitable weapons/packs and useable vehicles. Each team has a base where you spawn and where you can change out your equipment, spawn vehicles, etc. Each base has generators which can be destroyed to temporary disable all of the above stations, making them a common target. Once all that’s ironed out, you’re off to capture the flag, or what have you.

I'm not sure what happened, but jetpacks fell out of vogue as of these last few years. Shame, really.

One of the most impressive aspects of Tribes 2 was its movement system. One of the shining examples of physics use in a game, Tribes 2’s movement is all about momentum. Each player has a jetpack which they can use to ascend vertically and the ability to “ski” using energy blades on the bottom of their shoes. Players in Tribes 2 didn’t walk anywhere; they flew and skied. Every map was designed with plenty of inclines and declines for building up the speed required to play at the higher skill levels. Skiing became even more important in more objective based modes like CTF because a skilled scout could ski at such high speeds that they could flash right through the middle of a base, picking up the flag as they went, and be gone before you had time to even fire off a shot.

This is not a game for those worried about making the wrong choice. You've just got to pick what looks good and get out there, soldier.

The weapons and armor in Tribes 2 allowed for a huge degree of strategic play. The Spinfusor, for instance, fired a fairly slow moving explosive disc. On the surface, it’s a good weapon because of its high damage and splash radius, but the more experienced player also recognized that it can be fired at one’s own feet in order to generate a quick boost of movement in a particular direction. A skilled player could use the spinfusor while skiing to catch up to a flag carrier, or to escape a dangerous situation. Each class of armor had things it could and couldn’t do, which added a huge amount of weight to your choices. Scouts were the fastest and could use the Laser Sniper Rifle, but could only carry up to three weapons. Heavies could use the mortar (an extremely powerful explosive weapon with lock-on capabilities), carry the most weapons, but they were also the slowest and couldn’t drive any vehicles. Each player also gets a pack of their choice (besides the ubiquitous jetpack), which adds unique benefits. The energy pack recharges your jetpack energy faster and allows the use of the Laser Sniper rifle, for instance. Each pack had serious gameplay implications and factored heavily in your choice of playstyle. 

The maps of Tribes 2 are varied and feature terrain going anywhere from lush rainy plains to snowy mountains. Each map had its own set of strategies and common routes, but the inventive player could figure out something new to surprise their opponents. As you played the game more and more, you got a better idea of the best places to ski to get into your opponents base or the best place to catch a flag carrier unawares. The different vehicles suited themselves to different maps as well. Using the Wildcat light cycle in a mountainous map was not the smartest choice, but it beats trying to use the Havoc Transport Gunship in a very open map. The amount of tactical choice available to players dwarfs most modern games, to say nothing of the high skill ceiling.

Clever teamwork and use of vehicles could change the course of any match.

The bases in Tribes 2 are a huge part of what makes the game so dynamic and interesting. As mentioned above, all of your resources are there (save if somebody uses the Jericho Mobile Base vehicle to establish a bulkhead somewhere) as well as your flag if you’re playing CTF. On every balanced team, you have somebody who has to defend the base and its generators and even in that role, there’s a huge amount of strategy. Do you lay down turrets, or an explosive satchel? Are you using heavy armor for the added firepower, or scout armor so you can move through the base more quickly? Tribes 2 asked a lot of players, but it rewarded your time and skill with amazing matches time after time.

Generator runs were not to be undertaken lightly. If you weren't in and out of there in 30 seconds, you'd have the whole opposing team up your butt before you can say, "I totally didn't destroy your generators."

Worth Playing?

Maybe.

The maybe above might surprise you given I’ve just spend a bit over 900 words tell you how this game is the best thing ever. Thing is, there aren’t a lot of people that play it anymore, and the ones that do are very good. Entering a match in Tribes 2 these days is like getting jumped into a gang; you’re going to have a bunch of people beating the crap out of you for a few minutes. It was a great game, but the extremely high skill of current players makes it very hard to get into. If you’re brave and don’t mind a few scuffs, give it a shot, but don’t expect to pick this one up and be the best.

Tribes 2 is now free for download. Just head to Google and you’ll find it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Let’s Look At. Please let me know if there are other games you’d like me to look at.

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Let’s Follow Up: Dark Souls III

Dark Souls III is a vending machine where you pay by punching yourself instead of coins. You keep going because each time you step up the machine you know you that you’re going to hurt yourself, but you’ll get something cool out of it. At the same time, I think I’m getting a little tired of forced masochism. I’ve now played DSIII for around 40 hours and have a much better idea of how the game is put together. Let’s finish looking at Dark Souls III, (hopefully) the last Souls game.

For a quick recap of my first impressions, click here.

Take a break from playing every ten deaths or so; your controllers and screens with thank you. I'm not one for throwing controllers, but I came close a few times with DSIII.

The combat in DSIII is my favorite in the whole series, by far. The variety of weapons is impressive in scale and the designers clearly had some fun giving some weapons pretty wacky movesets; things definitely get a little anime-looking with the Farron Greatsword or Onikiri and Ubadachi. Soul Transposition, the ability to use Boss Souls to create weapons/rings/spells, adds a new dimension to the game and more value to boss souls. You find a lot more upgrade materials in DSIII than the other games which is nice if you want to try out a variety of weapons throughout any one playthrough. The large variety of enemy movesets encourages you to try out different kinds of weapons/tactics as well.

Keep acting cocky, buddy. I'm taking that dagger and fancy greatsword when you're ash. 

The Bosses in DSIII are fun to fight, though ideas were clearly running a little short. DSII was criticized for most bosses falling into the “people in armor” category, but it seems like the designers of DSIII didn’t find that to be a problem. There are some really interesting bosses, both in their visual design and how to fight them, but you’ll be facing off against a lot of people in armor in this one. That being said, the non-human looking bosses are really cool. Most bosses have two stages, the second one usually being faster and more difficult, which is cool because it forces you to change around your strategy. Oceiros, The Consumed King, is a great example. He starts out as a mage, casting spells at you from afar and retreating whenever you get too close. In his second stage, he attacks in a way that matches his dragon-like appearance; up close and on all fours.

He's quite the chatterbox too. A charmer, really.

In the online sphere, things have definitely become smoother compared to DSI/II. There’s a total of eight covenants (one down from DSI/II) each of which falls into the summoner or invader type. There’s a tied-together nature to a bunch of the covenants, which is interesting. For example, followers of the Blue Sentinel Covenant will be automatically summoned whenever a follower of the Way of Blue is invaded. This definitely creates a new kind of dynamic to invasions, where you have to think if you’re ready to fight two or three people at once. The netcode has been improved massively, so PvP is much smoother in general and parrying is actually viable, unlike the horror that was DSI PvP.

From left to right and top to bottom: Rosaria's Fingers, Way of Blue, Blades of the Darkmoon, Blue Sentinals, Watchdogs of Farron, Mound-Makers, Aldrich Faithful, Warriors of Sunlight.

Despite what some people think, you can have too much of a good thing. Dark Souls is feeling a little tired by the end of Dark Souls III. Some of the issues I noticed in my first twelve hours became more glaring as time went on. The lack of a “working” poise stat seems like a huge oversight for the developers. In DSI and DSII poise affected how likely you were to be staggered by an enemy attack. DSIII has the stat, but it basically means nothing now. The only way to get poise to have the same effect as previous games is with certain Weapon Arts. I don’t think this is as much a problem for PvP, but in PvE it means that fast hitting enemies can rip through you. The Dogs or Thralls, for instance, pose an incredibly high threat if you can’t take them on one on one. Given how fond DSIII is of throwing multiple of these kinds of enemies at you (along with some kind of ranged enemy), things can get very frustrating very fast. DS combat is about one-on-one fights and DSIII habit of sic’ing multiple enemies on you at once makes the elegant, well-thought out, and generally enjoyable combat feel more frustrating than it should.

Here's somebody wearing the highest poise armor in the game, with a shield that also increases poise. They're still getting staggered by the first kind of enemy in the game.

The Souls games are supposed to be hard, for sure, but it seems like the developers of DSIII cranked things up to eleven when we were barely making it through at eight. Some of the mini-bosses are incredibly fast, strong, and presented in areas where you have almost no room to maneuver. Some levels towards the end of the game, like the Grand Archives, are very enemy and obstacle dense which makes progressing through them feel like more a slog than it should. There are some enemies which seem a little broken, frankly. The Jailers in Ihyll Dungeon, for instance, have the ability to lower your total possible health as long as you’re in their line of sight. They have a grab attack which will almost certainly kill you if they’ve lowered your health and their normal attack slows your movement speed to a crawl. I know this games are supposed to be punishing, but they were fun because you could overcome a great challenge, not because you beat your face into a wall.

You will hate these things by the end of your first trip to the Dungeon. They are the most annoying enemy I've ever fought in any game, period.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

Dark Souls III is a great game, but the cracks we started to see in Dark Souls II are definitely in the fore here. The formula is turning stale and the designers seem like they’re making things harder without giving the player more abilities to compensate. However, the combat is still better than 99% of games, the world is beautiful in that dead-tree-kind-of-way, and the amount of replayability is insane. I’ve put 40 hours into this game, but I feel like I’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. I hope this is the last Souls game, because it’s a good way to go out. Dark Souls III isn’t perfect, but it’s fun, special, and worth your time.

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Let's Look At: Sleeping Dogs

Despite great action movies coming out of Hong Kong, there aren’t a huge amount of games set in the city. The Deus Ex series occasionally travels Hong Kong side, but it’s an exception rather than a rule. The lack of exploration leaves a huge amount of untapped potential in the setting. Sleeping Dogs takes advantage of the history and culture of Hong Kong. It’s also one of the few GTA clones to focus more on hand-to-hand combat rather than guns. It’s suffered from its similarity seeming similarity to Grand Theft Auto, but I think that it’s worth another look.

Welcome to Hong Kong, Puk Gai. That's one of the many Cantonese swears you'll be learning. Get a notebook handy.

Sleeping Dogs uses Hong Kong as a beautiful, gritty, and enveloping backdrop. The world is so full of detail and charm; anybody who has traveled to Hong Kong might notice the resemblance to real places, or just the same general feel of the in-game world. From the humid night markets to the glamorous shopping districts to the lush greenery, Sleeping Dogs overflows with well-thought out touches that bring the city to life. People mill about and form crowds which are common in the city and rushing through them feels as chaotic as it should. Exploration is important for any open-world game, and Sleeping Dogs makes its map inviting. With visually distinct areas, you can navigate without the minimap easily. Shrines that increase your health and hidden caches of money or clothing are hidden give you a solid incentive to explore beyond the beaten path. 

Don't you wanna get out there and find a food stall? Something about all the rain and neon draws you in.

As mentioned in my 5/18/16 article, the martial arts in Sleeping Dogs are fantastic for the most part. Moves feel fast and powerful. You can chain together strikes, grapples, and throws to take down enemies. The heavy focus on hand-to-hand plays into one of the main sidequests of the game. One of your old Gong-Fu master's students has stolen his jade statue collection. By finding and bringing it back, Sifu teaches you knew moves. The quest merges gameplay, world, and setting nicely; a hard trifecta for most games to pull off. 

The Gong-Fu school you learn in is nicely designed. It's very spartan, which suits Sifu Kwok very well.

The use of “Face” is fun and an interesting way to “gamify” a part of culture, though I don't know enough about the culture to say whether it's a respectful handling of the idea. Missions and small favors to people increase your Face, which allows you buy more socially daring and sophisticated items, clothes, and cars. It does fit very well with the idea of somebody rising through the ranks of a major criminal syndicate. In a more immediate way, your Face meter builds up throughout combat and regenerates your health when full.

As you rise in Face, you get bonuses that affect how your Face meter works in combat. This really helps you feel like you're progressing throughout the game.

What goes up must come down; nothing good lasts forever, and Sleeping Dogs is no exception. Firstly, the combat is way too easy. You can counter too easily compared to normal fighting and use too many trump moves that turn combat into a joke halfway through the game. It’s a letdown considering how novel the focus of the game seemed at the beginning.

Sleeping Dogs could use some more sidequests. Generally, sidequets help show you more of the world and the people in it. The Hong Kong setting is so interesting it’s a shame that there’s not more quest based exploration of it. Some of the Face quests are interesting because you get a little insight into the lives of people in Hong Kong connected to, but not involved with, the gang. The police quests are interesting because you can forget that you’re part of the police as well as of the gang and the quests help remind you of that.

Most Face quests are just little favors that you do for people, but they're fun.

Lastly, the “dating” minigame is stupid and sexist as hell. There are three women you can “date”, most of which consists of cringe worthy dialogue and walking from point A to point B. Completing each woman's storyline leads to a perk in game, like the ability to see the health-increasing-shrines on your minimap, so each woman just becomes something to check off, rather than a good character.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

I called Sleeping Dogs a GTA clone, but I honestly think it's better. It explores a place that most games don't, it's hand-to-hand focus is more interesting than just shooting, and its story is more gripping. Any fan of open world games should play Sleeping Dogs, as well as anybody who wants to pick up some Cantonese swear words.

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Let's Look At: EV: Nova

Space is final frontier, at least according to James Tiberius Kirk. It has captured the imagination of humanity if the Space Race, Star Trek, and Star Wars are any indication. It only makes sense that video games would want to explore the great beyond as well. From humble beginnings like Elite (1984) to the unparalleled imagination of Star Citizen, space-faring games have come a long way and taken many forms. The genre is still progressing to this day, but it’s always interesting to look at some highlights along the way. Let’s have a look at a small game that’s largely forgotten by the community and see what it did right and what it did wrong.

Seems like every space game ever has to have an explosion of some kind on the cover. I really hope that space explosions aren't as a common as games make them seem. It does not bode well for our space expansion.

Escape Velocity: Nova, or EV: Nova, is the third game in the Escape Velocity series. Long ago, humanity left earth and developed the Hypergate technology, which allows them to travel faster than light. You start out as a wet-behind-the-ears captain right after you’ve scrounged up the funds to buy your first ship, a Sigma Shipyard Alpha-Class Shuttle. Right as you land on your first planet, an older Captain named Barry offers to show you the ropes. Barry functions as the games tutorial, teaching you about combat, the various marketplaces, the missions system, trading, and more.

Barry is the nicest guy you'll find in this universe and possibly the only one without some kind ulterior motive.

He’s very helpful for first time players, but you can figure out everything he says without ferrying him about, if you so choose. All of the dialogue, exposition, and story in the game takes place in second-person text boxes, which I personally love. There are six main story lines you can follow, some of which have sub-lines that can be unlocked by the correct set of circumstances. There are also a number of smaller mission strings you can complete, some side quests, as well as the infinitely spawning random quests that you can pick up for extra credits.

You find a good variety of your missions by random chance or by heading to bars you find on most planets.

You ship has a certain amount of mass, which can be spent on weapons or upgrades, and a certain amount of free space, which you can hold cargo in. As the game progresses, you can buy new ships and upgrades with different stats. The main story missions aren’t terribly long, but the six of them will take you a while to unlock and complete.

EV: Nova has an isometric, birds eye view of your ship as you move around the galaxy, land on planets, and take missions. The controls are fluid and fairly easy to grasp, but they are definitely a product of their time. You play the game almost entirely with the keyboard, only using the mouse to interact with menus on screen. You accelerate by holding the up arrow, and turn with the left and right arrow. The down will spin your ship 180°, useful for boarding an enemy ship or landing on a planet. It’s not the usual way to play a space trading and combat game, but I don’t find that it hurts the experience.

Some ships maintain a constant throttle, so you just turn them as they move forward. The Vell-Os ships are among this kind of craft.

What would controls be without something to use them with? Well, EV: Nova offers you a wide variety of ships, with each with their own variants. Several ships can only be purchased if you have the right licenses and some are only available if you pursue certain story lines. Most of the ships control similarly, but there are unique upgrades or weapons that only certain ships can use. I really like that EV: Nova isn’t afraid to lock you out of content, because it both encourages replayability and also leaves a lot of secrets for the player to discover.

The IDA Frigate and some other ships can only be purchased if you go through certain story-lines, like the Sigma Shipyards side quests.

With any space game come weapons, and EV: Nova is no exception. There are a huge variety of weapons, be it blasters, missiles, or even energy weapons. Each type of weapon operates uniquely and has several variants with different damage levels, ranges, and weight. There is also a large number of non-combat upgrades like radars, shields, and solar panels. These upgrades help you make your ship more than just a flying gun and allow you to see more of the galaxy. After all, how will you refuel without a solar panel if you’re 20 star systems away from the last inhabited planet?

Some weapons can only be found on certain planets, so you'll have to search far and wide to find the ones you want.

EV: Nova might not be the most technologically advanced game, but its galaxy map is certainly impressive. There are dozens of systems and planets to visit, and the designers did a great job of making the different areas of the galaxy seem unique. The central planets are policed heavily by the blue-and-white ships that the Federation favor, while the southern systems are patrolled by the wild and reckless Auroran Empire, and so on. You always know where you are just by who is (and isn’t) flying around. The visual design of all the ships is really strong, so you’ll always be able to figure out the general kind of combat or interaction you’ll be dealing with.

You can see Auroran systems in red, Federation in blue, Polaris in purple, and the Rebels in green. I don't think I've ever explored of this map.

A neat little inclusion is the ability to talk to other ships. You can ask for fuel if you’re out, beg for mercy if you find yourself in over your head, or just shoot the breeze without various pilots across the galaxy. In a surprising turn of events, EV: Nova had a big mod scene, with over 70 pages of modifications on the official site alone. You can find new storylines, ships, upgrades, and more so you can play EV: Nova different ways each time. It’s always nice when developers recognize the potential use of mods and give the tools out so freely.

Though there’s a lot that’s great about the game, there are definite areas where things either show their age, or feature poor design. The Wild Geese storyline is fun and well-written, but the majority of the major story lines aren’t going to be willing any Pulitzers. The Vell-Os storyline in particular really feels like bad fanfiction. A super powerful race of telepathic humans fought a war with the Federation because they were setting planets were they shouldn’t but the Vell-Os (undefeated up to that point) surrender because they don’t want any more bloodshed. The federation then enslaves them and forces them to do their evil bidding. All you need is a pointlessly long description of somebody’s clothing and you’re good.

You're telling me that a group of people who can literally create a spaceship out of their telekinetic energy decided to surrender? I doubt it.

Nearly all of the main story missions involve combat in some way, which is a bit of letdown. For such an open ended game, there’s no way to reach the end of anything without killing everything. Offering different playstyles is another way to increase replayability, but evidently the designers of EV: Nova thought that murder was the best way to deal with everything.  Without the internet, there’s a good chance you’ll miss most of the missions in EV: Nova. Many of them have very specific requirements about your legal record in the system, your combat record, your ship type, the location, the time, along with just plain old random chance. Thankfully, there are many well written EV: Nova walkthroughs, but game designers should plan for people playing their game blind, unless it’s an online game. The controls are mostly well designed, but cheesing enemies is really easy. You can outrun most ships in any medium class fighter, turn around and just fire infinite range rail cannons at them while their shots miss you entirely.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

EV: Nova is a rare kind of game; it’s small in focus, but has a huge amount of space. Most of its mechanics are well designed and fun to use, even if the writing will make you roll your eyes a few times. The game is still $30, which is absurd given that it came out fourteen years ago, but I will say that this game is worth it.

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Let’s Look at: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The original Deus Ex mixed and matched genres like few others. It had FPS, RPG, and stealth elements without becoming a confused mess. The story was filled with meaningful player choice and used a player driven mission structure; with any objective, you had a huge number of ways to complete it. Unfortunately, the sequel Deus Ex: Invisible War (released in 2003) simplified many of the impressive elements from the first game, so sales and reviews took a hit.

Eight long years later, Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out to take back the crown.

More like Deus Ex: Grizzled White Guy Revolution, right? Also, get used to that yellow-orange color.

DX: HR maintains the same amount of player freedom as the original. You play as Adam Jensen, the Head of Security for Sarif Industries, a leading company in human augmentation. One day, Sarif Industries is attacked by an unknown party. After you are severely injured to a point beyond normal recovery, you receive Sarif’s most advanced full body prosthetic augmentations.

Finally the flesh reflects the robotic personality within... On a serious note, I would totally chop off all my limbs for awesome robot parts.

Six months later, you return to work.  You’re called in to rescue hostages and secure technology from a Sarif Industries plant. Right away, you have a choice. You can choose a lethal assault rifle, a long range tranquilizer gun, or a short range stun-gun.  You can sneak past all the terrorists, take them out with stealth, firearms, or any combination of the above. You can hack all sorts of technology to get control of cameras, learn new information about the world, or open new paths for yourself.

How you upgrade Jensen determines the way you play the game, much like the original Deus Ex. After you complete quests or explore, you acquire experience points. After every level up, you get Praxis Kits, which are basically skill points.

Companies would totally nickle-and-dime you for the more advanced features of your equipment. "Oh no, sir. You bought the basic robotic legs package. If you'd like to be able to run, you can subscribe to our Athlete program."

With a large variety of possibilities, you can choose tech that can do anything from making hacking computers more efficient, to turning Jensen totally invisible, to seeing through walls. But there’s a limit. You don’t have enough points to upgrade Jensen completely. Refreshingly, DX: HR is not afraid to close off content to you if you don’t have the right kind of upgrades.

The game takes place in a number of hub levels, each of which is filled with areas to explore, shops, and quests. The levels are visually interesting, filled with neon and dark shadows. The levels can seem overwhelming at first before you find shortcuts between all the different parts.

Hengsha is the second hub you spend a lot of time in. It's seedy, dangerous, and basically Blade Runner: The Location. 

Exploration is heavily rewarded, and certain upgrades, like the ability to jump 15 feet straight up, are basically designed to make exploring the hard to reach spots possible. DX: HR gives you the feeling that you can get anywhere, if you can stack enough crates to get up there. You can find all sorts of side quests just by speaking to people in the cities if you get tired of the main quest.

There’s a huge emphasis on character interaction in DX: HR that wasn’t present in the original Deus EX. Side and main quests have sequences where you can change the outcome based on what you say to characters.

These scenes can be really tense and are very well done. Most games will have conversation options that all lead the same place, but DX: HR puts power in your words.

The first quest, for instance, ends in a standoff between you and the head of the terrorists. He’s holding a woman hostage, but you can talk him down. Or, if you don’t think about what you’re saying, he escapes with the hostage and they both die in a hail of police bullets. Jensen is pretty much a blank slate, so he can be anyone from your choices.

For all its successes, there are a few times when DX: HR shoots itself in the (augmented) foot. Despite all the customization, the game forces you into several boss fights where you have to kill the boss. This really screws with the player freedom the game wags in your face earlier. You can play through the whole game up to the first boss as a sneaky hacker who only uses tranquilizer darts and suddenly you have to kill a guy with machineguns for arms.

Somehow I don't think my ability to crawl through gates and hack people's computers is going to mean much to Mr. ShootyMcMyArmsAreMachineguns here.

Fortunately, there aren’t a lot of boss fights. Some of the upgrades are basically must haves for any gameplay style, so should be either removed or included automatically. One is the Emotional Intelligence Upgrade, which tells you exactly what the person you’re talking to is feeling and allows you to release pheromones to guide the conversion the way you’d like to go. Some might say, “Just don’t pick the upgrade then!” but if a game offers you a dominant strategy, there’s no sense ignoring it, at least for your first run through. And in the most minor of gripes, the sprint time you start with is incredibly short. You can sprint for less than 25 feet, at the same time you can literally jump 15 feet in the air.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a great game, full of player choice, well designed levels, and fun gameplay and the most minor of issues. I don’t do ratings on this site, but this game would definitely be up there if I did. If you can, pick up the Director’s Cut, which improved the graphics and removed some of the issues I spoke about with regards to the boss fights.

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Let’s Start Looking At: Dark Souls III

Ah, Dark Souls. You’re always there for me. Sometimes you get tired of beating games or winning at anything and Dark Souls III is here to slap you around a bit, just like you wanted. Dark Souls is the 5th game in the series, despite the III attached to the name. DSIII introduces a number of new mechanics and revisits some older ones. I’ve put around twelve hours into DSIII and I’ve got some thoughts, so let’s jump right in.

Woof. Could you get a little darker, Dark Souls III? I think I can still feel something like hope and love.

DSIII has a plot as barebones as the rest of the games in the series. We’re questing through “Lothric” this time around, trying to find and bring back the Lords of Cinder to sit on their thrones, for some reason. Do we even care at this point? It’s all suitably epic and morose and makes me realize how awesome of a word cinder is. The game starts with you literally crawling your way out of the earth, which I appreciate. How many games let you play as a zombie? You move through the introductory area and find yourself at the Firelink Shrine, which is appropriately sad, confusing, and useful.

The Shrine is well designed, which is good given the amount of time you need to spend here. You can see the five Thrones of the Lords of Cinder. Not quite sure what they did or why the thrones are here, but hey, let's find out.

The Fire Keeper who lives there is your only method of leveling up, ala Dark Souls II. Andre, the blacksmith from Dark Souls is in the shrine as well, available from the get go. This sets the tone for the rest of the game. Bits and pieces are taken from DS1 and DSII and changed around a bit to make something that’s starting to feel very similar. After some exploration, you’ll be off to the High Wall of Lothric to start your quest in earnest.

The combat is DSIII is definitely the fastest of the three Dark Souls games, which is a nice change. Faster combat allows for a more enjoyable aggressive playstyle and a more nuanced defensive playstyle; it’s hard to turtle up behind a shield when five enemies are hitting you at once. The parry and riposte mechanics are back to their Dark Souls 1 style, which I personally appreciate. The faster combat means it’s a little harder to riposte than it used to be, but still very much an option.

Bows are usually niche use weapons, but I think I'll try for a bow only run at some point.

There’s a wide variety of weapons to use, from daggers to whips to halberds, all of which are viable for the whole game. In a twist on Dark Souls II’s power stance, each weapon now has a “skill”, which usually involve a new way to move or attack. The rapier, for instance, let’s you jump back and then stab and enemy from afar, or deliver multiple piercing attacks in quick succession. I really like the weapon skills and, though I’ll miss power stance, this mode adds a new dimension to combat that keeps the formula fresh.

Your character will glow around the edges when Embered, which is a really cool effect.

Parallel to combat, the “hollowing” system has is similar to the one in Dark Souls II.  You can use “embers” to become human again, restore your health, and open yourself up to multiplayer content. Unlike DS1, you can use embers anywhere, which is a good mechanic that the designers kept from DSII.

DSIII came out fairly recently, so there’s still a lot of multiplayer activity. I put down my summon sign and got summoned within five minutes every time. I’ve only been invaded twice, but I tend not to ember up until I’m right about to fight the boss. The online play is way smoother than DS1; it’s actually possible to parry other people online.

You can summon more people this time around, which is pretty cool. You can also totally mess with invaders, as seen here.

I haven’t done a lot of exploration into the covenant system in DSIII, so I can’t speak to that, but I’ve definitely seen some new covenants that I haven’t heard of before. I’ve seen some kind of purple echoes that are attached to certain messages, which is very interesting.

The enemy design is interesting and enjoyable, but not as unique as previous games. All the enemies seem to fall into archetypes that are repeated in every level. Each level (so far) ties its general look to the look of its inhabitants. The High Wall of Lothric has dragons, knights, and soldiers. The Undead Settlement has workers, clerics, and slaves and so on. You know where you are just by looking at the enemies, which I appreciate. The bosses are similarly well designed. Dark Souls II came under criticism for the design of its bosses, most of whom were just people in armor. Dark Souls III appears to be taking a much more classic approach, where each boss is represented by its “level.”

Vordt, meet the player. Player, meet Vordt. He'll be mashing you into a fine paste with his gigantic mace.

The first boss is a special favorite of mine. He moves and attacks very quickly, despite his size. He reminds me a lot of the Taurus Demon in Dark Souls in his placement and usage. The Taurus demon is designed to teach new players that they can’t just turtle up behind a shield and hope to block all the enemies attacks; instead they have to think in a more circular fashion, use their environment, and perhaps even get a little too close for comfort.

While the combat is very enjoyable, the level design has declined in quality. The levels in DSIII are very linear, much like DSII. You have the ability to teleport from bonfires as soon as you start the game, so I think the developers felt freer to expand the size of the typical level. Running from one end to the other takes a lot longer than it did in DSI, which is a little annoying.

There also doesn’t appear to be as many connections between levels as you found in DS1, which seems like a step backwards to me. The world of DS1 was very interesting because of how close it all felt. You were doing grand things, fighting monsters fifteen times your size, but the scope of the world felt understandable and manageable. The levels of DSIII look lovely and are fun to explore, but getting through a whole level takes more time than it should.

Your Estus flask has changed for the worse as well. In DS1 you had up to 10 uses of your flask at any “kindled” bonfire (20 if you got the Rite of Kindling from a certain boss). In DSII you started with a much lower Estus usage, but you found items to upgrade that soon enough. In DSIII you start with a lower usage, and your Estus is split between the health restoring flask and the Focus Point restoring flask.

You can head to Andre the blacksmith to allot your estus, which is a little odd. Wouldn't the firekeeper have more influence over your Estus flask, seeing as it's restored by bonfires?

The weapon skills mentioned above take focus points, as does magic, pyromancy, and miracles. No longer do these magic skills have a set number of uses, which sounds great on paper, but since you have to split your Estus flask to restore your focus, it gets annoying quick. Any decent sorcerer, cleric, or pyromancer will have more than one spell equipped at any time and since they all draw from the same focus pool, you’ll run out of uses way too fast. I think things would have worked better if your focus slowly regenerated on its own, or if the designers just went with the old system of each spell having a certain number of uses.

While the weapon selected is varied and interesting, there are some serious balance issues in DSIII. Poise doesn’t do anything for some reason. In the older games, Poise was a stat that represented how unlikely you were to be staggered by an enemy attack. Because poise doesn’t do anything, there’s no point to wearing armor other than aesthetics. While armor does offer some defensive bonuses, it’s generally not worth the weight it adds to your character. Faster weapons are overpowered, at least as of the latest patch.

Even the longsword (seen here), previously a solid choice for PvP and PvE, is definitely second to the faster weapons

The rapier, estoc, and katanas just rip through enemies and bosses while the slower weapons, like great axes/swords etc., can’t match the damage output of the lighter weapons. In PvE this isn’t much of a problem, because using an optimal build isn’t really important, but I think the PvP scene will really suffer until some of the other weapon are powered up a bit. I think this will be balanced out in later patches, but for now, stick with the lighter fare.

Worth Playing

Yes.

If you like Dark Souls or Dark Souls II, you’ll like this game. The formula is definitely starting to go stale and issues are popping up, but this game is well designed and fun. Miyazaki-San, the designer of the Souls series has said that this game will be last one and I think that’s good. Far too few people know how to stop when faced with profits.

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Let’s Look at Bioshock Infinite

The Shock series of games are lauded like few others. Each game crafted a unique, memorable, and horrifying world to explore. System Shock and System Shock 2 focused on the terror of space, while Bioshock and Bioshock 2 dropped you 20,000 leagues under the sea. Then along came Bioshock Infinite. In many ways, it’s the odd one out. The game world is colorful and vibrant, there aren’t any grotesque or disturbing enemies, and there’s no impactful moral choices to make. Bioshock Infinite is a game that deserves a second look, so let’s get to it.

I'm a huge fan of the Shock games, so I was really excited for this one. I was surprised by how much they changed the formula.

And coming in first place for the "Most Generic Protagonist Ever" we have Booker DeWitt!

In Bioshock Infinite you play as Booker Dewitt, a former US cavalryman and Pinkerton strikebreaker. A mysterious client agrees to pay off your massive debts if you bring back a girl from the floating city of Columbia. You quickly figure out that finding Elizabeth and bringing her to New York will be harder than you imagined. Before you know it, you and Elizabeth are fighting your way through all of Columbia, warping reality, and clashing with the highest powers in the city.

The combat in Bioshock Infinite might be the best in the series. It certainly beats the combat in the two System Shock games, as well as Bioshock. Shooting feels punchy and smooth and the enemies are well designed. Your movement speed is quick enough that navigating the large spaces you find yourself in is easy and rewarding. The weapons in BI remind me of the weapons in Black for the PS2; you can use any of the weapons throughout the whole game, rather than upgrading, ala Mass Effect 2.  You have a variety of Vigors (Infinite’s version of Plasmids), which are powered by Salts that you can find throughout the game. 

i feel like shooting somebody clad in crazy metal armor and wielding fireballs might not be best gameplan, but hey, what do I know?

The environments in Infinite are beautifully designed. From the minute you land in Columbia, you see a vibrant, colorful, and beautiful city full of well-designed little details. People mill about on the grass have picnics, others run little shops here and there, and everybody looks like they walked right out of a 1910’s painting.

Ugh, Jesus, this game is too damn pretty. The art style, lighting, and atmosphere are top notch. The sound design is well done and it complements the atmosphere very well.. There's amazing covers of God Only Knows and Fortunate Son as well.

The cohesiveness in the art direction, sound design, and environments is really impressive for a modern game.  The “levels” of the game are designed to encourage exploration, with hidden items scattered about, as well as a sense of verticality that’s new to the series. Columbia is full of “skylines”, metal rail lines that you can hop on and off in the middle of combat or just to explore the world. This helps you think of the game world as a 3D space, rather than just a 2D shooting gallery.

Bioshock Infinite does a fantastic job painting the elegant outside of 1910’s America, but it doesn’t shy away from the rotten core. The racism and classism that you experience in Columbia is shocking and omnipresent, but not more so than it needed to be.

So much racist history to think about, so little time. Bioshock Infinite puts you in a beautiful and sobering world, especially given modern politics.

Some people have criticized the violence in the game, saying that it’s excessive and that it doesn’t mesh with the beautiful, colorful world of Columbia, but I disagree. American history is a history of warfare. As of 2015, out of the 239 years America has been a recognized nation, 222 of them have involved armed conflict of some kind. The beginning of America as a nation was the Revolutionary War and American expansion was marked by the slaughter of the indigenous peoples. Violence is what we do, and Bioshock Infinite doesn’t let you forget that.

As Penny Arcade pointed out, she's basically a Disney Princess. She certainly has more character than a few of them.

All of the above is impressive, but not unique. There’s one part of Infinite that stands above all other games, and that’s Elizabeth. Elizabeth feels real in the way that incredibly few characters do, let alone game characters. She is blessed (or perhaps cursed) with the ability to interact with “Tears”, holes in the fabric of reality that can be found all over Columbia. She can bring things in from other dimensions as well as pass into them. This power of hers is remarkable by itself, but the game designers also did a fantastic job giving her both thematic and gameplay impact. Her strange abilities are the reason why she was locked in Columbia her whole life. You can see her use this power several times to advance the plot, but you can also use them in the middle of combat. She’s one of the few escort quests that never feels annoying, partly because she can’t be damaged in combat and partly because she’s just enjoyable to be around. Creating characters that aren’t one dimensional and have a story impact is difficult in media, but the designers of Infinite struck gold with Elizabeth.

While the actual shooting mechanics are well designed, a lot of the mechanics surrounding combat are not so well thought out. Unlike previous Shock games, Infinite only allows you to carry two weapons at any time. You can upgrade weapons throughout the game, but you’ll find yourself running out of ammo for your upgraded weapons a lot, especially on harder difficulties. Interestingly enough, you have access to all of your Vigors at all times and most of them (six of eight possible Vigors) have only direct combat uses. Maybe the developers wanted you to use the Vigors more than guns, but there aren’t enough Salts to use them for every situation. I think you could have removed the Vigors from the game, and you wouldn’t lose much. The level of possible customization also decreased in this game compared to the previous games in the series. In the Bioshock games you could equip a variety of Gene Tonics, which offered passive bonuses like increased melee damage, or fire resistance, etc. In Infinite you can find a variety of Gear, clothes which offer some bonuses, but you can only equip four at any given time. Lastly, the increased difficulty settings for this game are the worst kind: the kind where all enemies become bullet sponges while you become paper-thin. Challenge is more than just weighing the scale against the player.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

Bioshock Infinite is an odd duck, especially when compared to the rest of the series. It stumbles a fair number of times, but in the end, its charm, fast paced combat, and Elizabeth make it worth playing for sure. I really can’t say how impressive Elizabeth is as an NPC in a game. She sets the bar and I’ve yet to find an NPC as engaging, useful, or so well tied to both and gameplay.

Let's Look At: Hotline Miami

Let’s Look At: Hotline Miami

Few games question the player in any meaningful way. Spec Ops: The Line made some efforts, but it felt a bit crude. “Do you feel like a hero now?” popped up at you on the loading screens on occasion. Hotline Miami handles things in a different way that ironically might be more subtle. There’s something less judgmental, and more probing, about the way a character asks you, “Do you like hurting other people?”

Hotline Miami is a top down 2D arena action game that takes place in the neon tinged world of 1989 Miami Florida. You play as an unnamed protagonist, dubbed Jacket by the fans. Somebody calls you and informs you that the “cookies have been delivered” to your home. All you find in the bag, however, is a rooster mask and instructions to carry out a hit on the Russian mafia. You are warned that “failure is not an option.”

You're never told what's going on,  just where to go. There's something compelling about all of it, though. You'll always be looking for clues.

Each mission starts with a seemingly unrelated phone call, involves a giant amount of carnage, and ends with a trip to a convenience store and restaurant, all run by the same bearded man. After every chapter you get points based on style and brutality, which unlock various items. You can find secrets on each mission which progress the story, but Jacket is an unreliable narrator at best.

This is always a little unsettling, and the pixel art doesn't help things look less grotesque.

He sometimes hears voices from the corpses of his victims and tells (or perhaps remembers) the story out of order. You can also play as a character dubbed Biker after you’ve completed the main missions to find out more about the plot of the game, which is nice for those who don’t like loose ends.

The combat in Hotline Miami is the focus, and for good reason. You can use a large selection of melee weapons and guns, all of which can be thrown to knock enemies down. You can open doors to knock down any enemies in your path, or shoot through windows to deal with threats in the other rooms. Knocked down enemies will get back up unless dealt with, usually none too gently.

Grotesque though it may be, but you only really notice it after you're done. Maybe that was intentional; to show you how people can do terrible things not even realize until it's quiet.

The large variety of weapons gives you a lot of options for playstyles and definitely increases the replay value. What’s especially gratifying is that both you and most enemies can take only each one hit before dying. Dying is quick and not aggravating, which makes it easy and fun to try all kinds of strategies without repercussion. Over time you unlock new masks to take with you at the start of every mission. The variety of bonuses that the masks give you can change up your combat style and increase replay value.

The sound design, art, and level design are also wonderful. Everything in this game is bright pastel or neon, with none of the so called “modern grit” that we see in most action games. The pixel art gives a surprising amount of character to the world, despite the lack of detail. Every song on the soundtrack is a neo-80’s treat, which goes extremely well with the fast paced combat. 

Prolific developer Jonatan Söderström and graphic artist Dennis Wedin have announced their newest game collaboration Hotline Miami will be released under their new joint label Dennaton Games and published by shady game cartel Devolver Digital. Step into the neon-soaked underground of 1980s Miami as bizarre messages on your answering machine seem to be urging you to commit terrible acts of violence -- but will you obey? Hotline Miami overflows with raw brutality and skull crushing close combat as you find yourself outgunned and using your wits to choreograph your way through impossible situations. An unmistakable visual style, a driving soundtrack, and a surreal plot that will have you question your own thirst for blood. Bash and blast through over 20 multiscreen levels with 35 unique weapons and collect 25 game-altering masks in one of the darkest and most unusual independent games on the scene. The hotline itself can be reached at +1 786 519 3708 or @HotlineMiami. Leave a message. http://www.HotlineMiami.com/ http://www.Dennaton.com/ http://www.DevolverDigital.com/

The convenience stores and restaurants you see after missions are grimy enough to be interesting, which help make the game feel like a real world. Every stage is designed so that you have multiple ways to carry out your mission, and a number of them have several levels to work your up or down. There aren’t any places where you feel the game designers were trying to give the opposing team the advantage.

The story is minimal without feeling barebones. You don’t know who the protagonists are, who the enemies are besides their mob status, or even what’s happening (until the very end of the Biker Campaign that is). You get a feeling for the overall narrative quickly though. Somebody is organizing what seems like a gang war, or maybe even a larger conflict, and you’re the blunt instrument. You, as a player, start to really question why things are happening the way they are. Why is every shop run by the same bearded guy?

Who are you? Are you with them? Are you even real? How do you know my pizza order?

Why does he keep giving me free stuff no matter what? He comments on the massive death toll in the city, but never seems to ask me about it, even for an opinion. Periodically, Jacket has visions where he is confronted by three mask wearing figures, who ask him questions about why he’s doing what he’s doing, and how he feels about it. You’re not sure if this is a real thing that’s happening, or if Jacket is just so messed up from what he’s doing that he has to argue with himself about it.

Personally, I think they represent his mind. One wears a rooster mask, Richard. He is cryptic and questioning. Another, the owl-headed Rasmus is angry and confronts you about your actions. The horse-headed Don Juan, is sympathetic. I think these three are Jacket’s brain trying to come to terms with the things he’s done or been forced to do.

There are times when Hotline Miami missteps, however. The points system only encourages a very high risk style of play, which is frustrating if you want to unlock all the masks/weapons. You could play through the game once as a berserker, then go through a second run more calmly, but I think the points system should be a little more flexible.

As you can see, not a lot of subtlety here.

Also, due to the fast nature of combat and how the physics of the game work, you can end up throwing a bunch of weapons on top of each other, and you’ll have to keep picking up and throwing them to get at the one you want. This is really difficult to do in the middle of combat and stands out as an annoyance in an otherwise well-designed game. Another nice addition would be the ability to block or parry other melee weapons with a well-timed swing. As it stands, you can’t approach anybody wielding a melee weapon if you don’t have a longer one, a weapon to throw, or a gun.

Worth Playing?

Yes.

Hotline Miami is fun, fast-paced, difficult, and more introspective than a game about a rooster mask wearing murder has any right to be. You’ll play the levels over and over again, trying for that perfect run, and at the end of it all, you’ll wonder if that owl guy was right when he asked, “You’re not a very nice person, are you?”

Let’s Look At: MechCommander 2

Confession time: I love mechs.

I’ve watched Godzilla Vs Megalon more times than I can count because Jet Jaguar is so awesome. Pacific Rim was the highlight of my 2013.

Giant robots are clearly the answer to all of society's ills.

I usually enjoy mech games, as well, with a few exceptions (lookin’ at you Armored Core: Nine Breaker). Most of them put you in the pilot’s seat of a mech, but a few, like MechCommander 2 put you in charge of a whole squad. MC2 is the last game in the MechCommander series and one of the last of its caliber.

MechCommander, released in 2001, is a Real Time Strategy/Tactics game. You’re the squad leader for a mercenary company of mech pilots, and you lead them through a variety of missions. In the distant future on a planet called Carver 5, you are hired by one of the great houses to defeat a bandit uprising on the planet. Allegiances change quickly as houses rise and fall, but you don’t have any control over who you’re following and whose missions do. Instead, I would have preferred a branching path storyline, with three possible campaigns depending on which of the three factions you want to join. As it is, the plot is largely forgettable, except for the use of unintentionally funny live action sequences.

At the beginning of each mission you must choose mechs and a pilot for each one. Keep a careful eye on your weight limit; you can’t bring everybody. Once formed, your squad of pilots are dropped into a map to fulfill a few generic objectives. Usually you have a few extra objectives that can be completed for bonus currency, as well as new ones that you uncover as you head through the mission.

You can select, modify, and buy/sell mechs before every mission. Each mission is replayable, so you can always try out a new squad or mech.

You don’t really want to bulldoze through all your enemies because after each mission, you can salvage any mechs that aren’t completely destroyed. While missions are similar, you encounter new kinds of enemies and opposing mechs in each one, so they don’t feel too stale. Finding new kinds of mechs is always exciting, and some of the later missions are decently challenging.

You spend most of your time in MC2 in combat, controlling a squad of mechs in real time. You can pause anytime to set up waypoints or issue commands, but you don’t control the mechs directly. Rather, you point them at a target and they choose what to do (hint: it’s shooting).

Look at all this shooting. Combining long and short range mechs covers you for most combat situations, but specializing one one or the other can be fun as well.

All of the parts of the mechs in MC2 can be damaged individually, although you can’t target them directly. You can blow off an enemy mech’s arm and they’ll lose the weapon attached to it, or one of your mechs can step on a mine will limp for the rest of the mission. This high detail to the different types and aspects of damage adds a level of realism and fun to combat. Each mission takes place on a variety of different terrain, which plays into combat as well. You have to put some thought into your firing positions, and taking the high ground improves your chances a lot. For example, by hitting the top of an enemy mech, you have a higher chance of hitting the pilot and disabling your enemy faster.

 By customizing the loadouts of your mechs, you can define their operating style, adding depth and complexity to team building for each mission. Your mechs can equip a variety of different weapons from long/short range missiles, lasers, pulse weapons, machine guns, and more.

Decisions, decisions. Every weapon generates heat, with higher damage weapons usually generating more heat. Every mech has a max heat rating, though you can improve it with heat sinks, but they take up weapon space.

Each weapon has a usage range that determines when the mech will try to use that weapon. For example, a mech equipped with a long range missile and a machine gun array will only try to use the machine gun if it’s within a short distance from an enemy, and will use missiles from farther away. You can also add armor and jump-jets to certain mechs, which allows them to perform more versatile roles.  

Each in-mission comes with a set amount of credits. You can pay to repair vehicles for you mech, minelaying vehicles, airstrikes, radar probes, or even a mech salvage team. A resource depot or two are usually located in the mission area, which extends your line of credit a bit.

From left to right, you can see the airstrike, fixed artillery, radar probe, repair truck, scout helicopter, minelayer, and mech salvage plane.

Therefore when you’re told to hold a base/defend an area because they create a wide variety of tactical choices, you can push ahead with your mechs, but you can also lay mines down and position a few mobile artillery units to shell the enemy before they get close enough for your mechs.

Each one of your mechs is piloted by a member of your team, and they gain experience by defeating enemies on missions. Once they advance a level, you can choose specific skills for them, like the ability to read sensor data more accurately, or pilot certain weight classes of mechs more efficiently.

Pilots go from green, to regular, to veteran, to elite. At each new level, you can choose a skill. With each mission and each instance of combat, your pilots shooting and piloting skills go up as well.

By the end of the game you’ll be quite attached to your squad. This was a clever move on the part of designers, because any of your pilots can die during a mission if their mech is destroyed. You’ll want to reload if anything bad happens, but resisting the urge makes for a much more intense experience.

One of the only downsides to the combat in the game is the difficulty. The game is fairly easy on all of the difficulty settings except for the highest one, borderlines unfair. On the hardest difficulty, your enemies gain increased health, damage resistance, and damage output, and you can’t dodge a majority of the weapons that they use, so you’ll end up losing pilots and mechs faster than you can replace them. I think a better route would have been to up the damage output for both sides and increase the number of enemies. Being a little overwhelmed leads to some of my best moments in MC2 were because I had to plan on the fly.

"“Crap, there’s 10 mechs behind us. Okay, I’ll send the scout ahead to that base on the radar, she can jump-jet over their walls and take control of their gate and torrent systems, then I’ll put my long range guy behind the walls and keep the enemy occupied out front with my heavy.”

Worth Playing?

Yes.

There really aren’t many MechCommander 2 it in terms of replayability and depth of combat. Most games with giant robots are basically just shooting games with a giant metal body, but MechCommander 2 shows you the power of that giant robot by giving you a sense of scale to the world. Installing this game on a modern system is a little bit of a headache, but it’s worth playing if you’ve got the time. 

Let’s Take a Loooong Look: Legend of Zelda Series, The Legend of Zelda

Part 1, Legend of Zelda, NES, 1986

We’re changing things up a little here.

This piece is the first in a long series, where I’ll be playing all the major games in the Legend of Zelda series because, to your great surprise I’m sure, I’ve never played any of them. I’ll be going in chronological order, playing only the ones that appeared on consoles up to the Wii U, without a walkthrough. This is going to be a series retrospective, looking at how the games hold up over time and better understand their place in the series, rather than talking about whether they’re “good” or not.

One of the most influential series in all of gaming, The Legend of Zelda has sold over 75 million games since 1986, beginning with Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The first game sold over 6.5 million units, and was a revolution in terms of open world games for the NES. Legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired to make The Legend of Zelda by his love of exploring cave and forests around his childhood home and this is really clear to see in how you progress through the game.  

The title screen that launched a million ships. Well, sold a million copies. 6 million, actually.

After playing it, I can see why people love Legend of Zelda so much. Still, I was spewing profanity at my screen for minutes on end at times. To start, I think I’m terrible at this game. I died 172 times, (the start screen keeps track of that for some sadistic reason), and I came close to throwing my controller against a wall more times than that. I beat the game without a walkthrough, but it definitely added several hours to my playtime (and several fits of yelling).

Whyyyyy. I don't need to know how bad I am at this game.

The Legend of Zelda has basically no story. You choose your name and then you’re spawned in the middle of a mountain range, with a door above you and your left. You go in and an Old Man (with a suspiciously large number of brothers/clones) appears and says, “IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE. TAKE THIS” and he gives you a sword. And then, bam, you’re off. Here, I hit one of my biggest issues with this game. You get almost zero direction. You are given a sword, and the screen shows space for items if you hit start, something to equip to the “B” button, but that’s about it. I vaguely knew that I was supposed to collect pieces of the “Triforce”, so I wandered around until I eventually encountered the first dungeon.

Who are you? Why are you giving me a sword? Are we related? How do you know I have any idea how to use this thing? WHAT IS ANYTHING.

A huge portion of this game is exploration, so withholding information adds to the adventure gameplay, but even a little hint of “go find pieces of the Triforce” would have been nice. The game has a clear end state, and the empty Triforce is right there in your inventory, so it’s clear you’re not just supposed to wander around aimlessly, but that’s not passed on to the player clearly enough. Older games were designed a certain way to keep players playing, usually with difficulty, so this may be designed purposely to keep the player in the dark, but I still don’t think it’s was the best choice. I can’t say it’s a bad decision, however, because while it’s frustrating, it also increases the sense of discovery that you feel as your journey around the world.

Speaking of the world, the map in this game is impressive to say the least. I wouldn’t have thought that the NES could handle such an expansive world map. I’m not sure exactly how many screens there are in the overworld, but you can find oceans, rivers, graveyards, mountains, forests, and deserts just by walking around. Given how often I died, I got a really good sense for where everything was and how to get from point A to B, and the designers deserve credit for creating an intuitive game world. There are some screens of the map that repeat a number of times before you “pass” them, which is annoying and confusing. On most screens, there is some kind of secret, whether it be a shop hidden in the mountain wall, a statue that can be pushed away for an a creature that will give you a few rupees, or maybe even an old man who will offer advice, or an improved sword. This makes the world map a lot deeper than it might appear in first glance and pushes you to explore every nook and cranny.

Considering how slow you walk, this is basically Skyrim before that was a thing.

Okay, so we’ve explored the world, found a million copies of the same old man, but what about the rest of the game. Combat is simple, but definitely not easy. You thrust your sword in front of you with “A” and use another item with “B”. There are a number of possible weapons, like arrows, a boomerang, a magic wand, and a candle. All of these have an upgrade that you can buy/find somewhere, which is always nice. Combat is difficult because if an enemy so much as touches you, you’ll lose some health, and your starting shield can’t deflect a lot of the projectile attacks you’ll face. Something that I found really aggravating is how short the invulnerability period is after getting hit. It’s usually enough to get away from a melee enemy, but a number of times you can get hit three or four times before you have time to get away.

You'll be seeing this screen a lot. Or maybe I'm just terrible at this game. Damn octoroks. Who taught you to shoot rocks anyway?

There are also a number of non-combat items that change how you can explore the world, or allow you to access certain hidden areas. Some items do both, like the bombs and the candle, which is a cool merging of combat and world. I love the items in this world because there’s such an amazing sense of discovery that you feel when you find a new one. You immediately try to think of what it might do, or the areas where you could use it. This game might not be great at explanation, but it is great at adventure, and making you feel like you’re on an epic journey.

All the stuff on top of the blue box is an upgrade to another item, or a world-use item. All of them are awesome.

While you’re on your adventure, you’ll encounter a number of different kinds of enemies. Some of them have ranged attacks that you can block with your shield, some have melee attacks that you have to avoid. You can find orange and blue varieties of almost all enemies, with blue being the more difficult variety. Most of the enemies are very well designed and force you to play in certain ways, like the Darknuts who are heavily armored and can only be damaged from the sides or back. Some of the enemies are a bit unfair though, like the Wizrobes. There are two kinds of Wizrobes: one kind doesn’t move except to teleport around you and fire off one shot, and one that walks around and teleports and will keep shooting their spells at you as long as you’re in front of them. The non-moving Wizrobes are easy to deal with, so my gripe is really just with the blue, roaming ones. I got wayyy to much satisfaction from stomping on them, after my million deaths. The variety of enemies is awesome and keeps the game from feeling stale, despite the fact that you’re doing basically the same thing in all the different dungeons. They’re cleverly designed in terms of how they look, and you quickly figure out what they can and can’t do. Brevity is the soul and wit, and Legend of Zelda definitely respects your time, at least with the enemies.

Man, they're cuter here. Wizrobes are the ones on in the from the right on the top row, past the snake. They are not to be trusted.

Dungeons are the most challenging areas of the game. There are 9 dungeons, each with a compass and a map in them. The compass tells you where the Triforce piece of the dungeon is and the map shows you all the rooms. For the beginning dungeons, the map is very useful because you generally move through the dungeon by going room to room via door or bombed out wall. In the later dungeons, it matters a bit less because you’ll do a lot of underground travel, which the map does not show. Dungeons also contain secret items, some of which you need to complete the game and some of which are just useful. Each dungeon also contains one or more bosses, with the later dungeons repeating some of the earlier bosses. Usually, there’s also an old man in the dungeon who will tell you a secret about the dungeon or the boss, which is nice, if garbled. “AIM AT THE EYES OF GOHMA” is a little confusing, but once you see that the boss is a giant spider-eye, it makes more sense.

You again! Where do you come from? How did you get here? Why are you always surrounded by fire? Do you even care that I blew a hole in your wall?!

The dungeons can be hard to find, which is aggravating and can make the game feel like a bit of a slog at times. When you die in a dungeon, you respawn in the beginning of the dungeon with three hearts, no matter what the maximum number of hearts you can have is. This is a little annoying because there aren’t any healing items in dungeons besides the rare hearts (or rarer fairies) that enemies drop. For the most part, I really like going through the dungeons, because each one offers a different experience and hope for new items. They offer a sense of progression, adventure, and difficulty that you don’t find in the overworld.

Welcome to Dungeon 1. This is one of the more straightforward dungeons, but if you're terrible like me, you'll probably die a few times.

The Legend of Zelda starts with a boy getting a wooden sword and ends with you defeating a giant, invisible, teleporting pig-man with silver arrows and the Triforce. You rescue Princess Zelda, and your quest is over; congrats, Link. You’re the hero of Hyrule. This game was an experience for me. I was really impressed by the scale, the sense of discovery and adventure, the world design, the map design, and the clever use of items. I was frustrated by the combat and the lack of direction, but that’s about it. For the most part, this game is incredibly imaginative and innovative. I think there’s a lot of great lessons that modern games could take from this game, especially around discovery and adventure.

Stay tuned for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the Legend of Zelda game everybody forgot. 

Let's Look At: Gone Home

Video games are like any other medium. Over time, people create new styles and everybody argues over whether it counts as a part of the medium. Hard as it might be to believe, there was a time when people would look at Picasso’s works and call them a waste of paint. Games have come under a similar sort of lens as of the last few years. Gaming has traditionally been about beating levels, conquering bosses, and with a few exceptions, violence. Designers are going to design new things, however. In the last couple years, designers have come about with a whole new genre dubbed “Walking Simulators”. These games don’t have combat, bosses, or challenge, some might say. Since their inception, people have been debating on whether these games are “games”. Gone Home is a game that has featured in these discussions more than any other, so let’s have a look at why.

How many houses that look like this aren't haunted? Zero, that's how many.

Gone Home tells the story of a small family living in Oregon in 1995. You play as Kaitlin, coming home after a trip through Europe. You quickly find a note from your 18 year old sister, Samantha on the front door. She tells you that she’s sorry she can’t be here to see you, not to go digging around trying to find where she is, and that she’ll see you one day.

The detail on the handwriting here is great. It looks like a teenager actually wrote it, and there's a lot of feeling in the writing.

You enter your house to find it complexly empty, dark, and silent. You play in first person, and there’s nothing you can do except walking, opening and closing doors/cabinets/etc., and picking up objects for a closer look. Games have been getting more advanced over time, so it seems odd that the mechanics are so simple, but there’s a genius behind it. Constraint breeds creativity, you see. When all you can do is walk around like in real life, you get into a real-life mindset.

This room is full of details that tell you about the family and uncovering them is engrossing.

As you progress through the game, you explore the house, learn about what your family has been up to while you’ve been gone. You learn everything from little newspaper clippings, letters, and hidden notes. It’s an amazing example of environmental storytelling, which is something that no medium can do as well as games. You unlock more parts of the house as you explore, finding keys and even the occasional secret passage. Before you know it, you’ve learned all about your family, solved the mystery, and the game is over.

Gone Home has atmosphere dripping out of its ears, and not just one kind. The dark house is at once inviting and terrifying. Remember being a kid and turning the lights off in the stairway then running up so the monsters in the dark couldn’t get you? Gone Home remembers, and it taps into these kind of childhood feelings about home.

You can bet your ass I sprinted through this basement until I found the light. Everyone dies in the basement in horror movies. I wasn't taking that chance.

There are other times when you’ll be laughing about finding your father’s porn magazines, or finding a sheet with Chun Li’s moves from Street Fighter. Other times you’ll just be filled with curiosity about what’s behind the next door, or what’s in your father’s safe. Like family and old memories, Gone Home helps you realize that things might not be how you thought they were.

Your sister has become a punk rock listening, zine-writing, staying-out-late rebel while you've been gallivanting around Europe.

Even though we’re not really Kaitlin, we feel how sometimes ignorance can be bliss, especially with family. I don’t want to spoil the plot for you because this is one of the few games where there’s not a lot there besides plot. The graphics are simple, but they’re clear they help the home feel like a home. Nothing in Gone Home takes you out of the game, like an inventory menu or pop up notification about controls. I’ve never played a game that’s as “unbroken” as Gone Home, and it’s something I think other games should strive to emulate.

So, the real question: Is Gone Home a game? Yes, it is, absolutely. It’s an interactive piece of entertainment, so I don’t think there’s anything else you could call it. Yes, there’s not really a lot in the way of challenge, but you could say the same about most of the Kirby Series. The lack of combat certainly didn’t stop games like Myst, so it shouldn’t bar Gone Home from “game” status. It’s not just a game, either; it’s a great game. I don’t know of another game that managed to create a mystery so compelling and enticing so fast, except maybe Amnesia: The Dark Decent. It has a powerful story, masterful use of tone and atmosphere, as well as intuitively designed mechanics. It’s not what we might have been used to, but neither was Picasso. As time goes on, it will be remembered as one of the best examples of a narrative in a game, as well as the epitome of environmental storytelling. I would be impressed to find anybody who doesn’t feel anything by the end of the Gone Home, even if they came into the experience planning to hate the game.

Worth Playing?

Yes. Gone Home is an emotional and heartfelt game with clever use of emotion and simple mechanics that pull you in. If you’re wondering what games as “art” look like, I would say that if Gone Home doesn’t qualify, its damn close, and more than worth your time.

Let's Follow Up: Fallout 4

Fallout 4 has been out for a number of months now. Since then, there have been somewhere around 3 patches, talks about the future DLC and season pass, and some more conversation about what was done right and wrong.  Last time we spoke about it, I had only put about 13 hours into the game. I’ve now been playing it for about 80 hours, so I definitely feel like I know the game a little better. I’m here to talk about the experience, now that I’m good and settled. Time to kick the fires and light the tires, people.

More like Fallout: 4get-this-game, right? Right? Hello? Is this thing on?

This is a huge amount of story missions to program. Maybe we should focus on the less-is-more approach.

Fallout 4 has a story, and clearly somebody put a lot of work into thinking about how the various factions would meld with the overall narrative. Thing is, I don’t think it worked out. Giving the player four different factions to side with just means that you’re spreading the butter really thinly instead of giving us a nice pat right in the middle of the toast.Because the designers decided to work with 4 factions, they had to create leaders, foot soldiers, bases, and quests for all of them, meaning we just up with various radiant quests that have zero story impact or memorable rewards. Story isn’t really a huge part of why I play games, but there comes a point where Fallout 4’s story doesn’t feel purposefully sparse, like in Dark Souls, but more half-ass, like in Daikatana. I mentioned this in another piece, but the ludo-narrative dissonance in Fallout 4 is utterly insane, at least with the main quests. The designers actually did a really good job with the settlement defense quests, which are timed, so you have to hurry to deal with them. But the main quest will keep harping on in your face about how it’s so urgent that you find your son right the hell now, but you can piss off and build a giant wooden robot-house with flamethrowers for eyes in your settlement and nothing changes. It seems like all they would have to do is make things a little less urgent sounding, and then the issue just drops out.

Fallout 4 is an “action role-playing game”, but I feel like you could take serious issue with the back half of that statement. While yes, you level up, and there are quests to do and gear to be found, a lot of elements have been stripped out. I mentioned the speech system in my first impressions, but it’s also evident in the lack of gear, meaningful customization, and quests. Yes, you can modify your weapons, but almost all the mods make very little in the way of change. Almost every weapon has the same general set of modifications. There’s an automatic, semi-automatic, and shotgun options, damage increasing internal components, different stocks, and maybe a bayonet option.

Despite the large number of options for modifications, there's only two actual options on this screen: semi-automatic and automatic.

Most of the more interesting weapons are the legendary weapons, which you get from defeating legendary enemies. Some of the weapons do more damage to enemies who haven’t seen you, or fire two shots instead of one, but with seriously increased recoil. Maybe the developers were thinking that exploration should be more rewarding than modifying your weapons, but it kind of falls flat. What about an option that would let you overcharge your laser weapons to deliver a much more powerful shot, but with a massive cooldown time, or maybe the ability add a grenade launcher to an assault rifle? Basically, make things more unique, instead of giving all weapons the same treatment.

This kind of weapon can really change how you play the game. In this case, you might try to focus more on sniping and stealth, rather than running-and-gunning.

The same holds true for armor. Most of the modifications there are just “armor gets better.” There are some more interesting ones that reduce melee damage when blocking, or increase aim stability, but they’re far and few between. There’s also a very strong hierarchy of armor, which makes it really annoying when you upgrade your early-game armor only to find better pieces down the road. Maybe the different kinds of armor should offer different benefits that make them more viable throughout the game, like leather armor increasing movement speed, or metal armor dealing damage to anybody to melee attacks you.

There is also little to point to focusing on any non-combat perks. Lockpicking and hacking do little besides open safes that have the same assortment of items, or perhaps open a door that you’ll find the open button for later in the level. Usually these skills would open up new paths, or change how you play the game, but not in this case. It’s not much of an RPG if there aren’t roles to play, you know? Also, while we’re on the subject, why are the Lockpicking and hacking minigames the same exact ones that we say in Fallout 3/Fallout: New Vegas. Why is this game the same game with a new coat of paint!? Even the engine is the same engine as Skyrim, which came out 5 years ago!

Skyrim Lockpicking

Fallout 3 Lockpicking

Fallout 4 Lockpicking

All of the above is annoying, for sure, but my biggest bone to pick with Fallout 4 is actually the settlements. Settlements, and the making thereof, are hugely emphasized in the game. One of the first quests you get is a tutorial teaching you process, and if you spend any time with the Minutemen, you’ll end up building a bunch of them. Here’s my issue: there’s no point to any of it. Settlements offer no advantage, whether the inhabitants are happy or miserable. You can build shops that operate in your settlement that give you some money, but since there’s nothing to buy that’s better than what you find by killing legendary enemies, what’s the point? It’s a huge subsystem in the game, but at the end of the day, it’s a waste of time, resources, and developer hours. I didn’t ignore settlements in my first playthrough, either. I had a fair number up and running, they were all linked, had the required foods/shelters/etc., and I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. It’s frustrating that it’s such an emphasized part of the game with very little to show from it. Honestly, it seems like it should have been downloadable content, rather than a bullet on the back of the box.

Cool? Yes. Any impact on gameplay? Nope. I really can't understand why so much time was spent on this, rather than fleshing out the rest of the game.

Worth Playing?

No.

Honestly, nothing got better the more I played the game. The combat, as mentioned in the first impressions, is definitely the best it’s been, but everything else here is a downgrade from the earlier games. The story is half-assed, the RPG elements are nonexistent, and the settlements are useless. Maybe the next game will be better, this one certainly sold enough to warrant a sequel, but I doubt it. Going with the current trend of Bethesda RPGs, the next game will just start you off with power armor and a Fat Man nuke launcher.