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Game Reviews, News and Updates
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
Mar 11th
A much-loved investigative series centering around defence lawyers and prosecutors, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series has won new fans since its first inception. It was a relatively new idea at the time, and rarely is there a game that focuses exclusively on the people who duke it out in courts using clever hypotheses and brain-wrecking judgements. But these aren’t the only aspects that make the Phoenix Wright series a success, despite its relatively low budget and graphics that merely use a fraction of the Nintendo DS’ processing capabilities: the various characters with their own eccentricities and the ensuing solid character development ultimately turn the series into the brilliant, enjoyable games that they are.
And with Phoenix Wright’s story, star defence lawyer, drawing to a close, Capcom managed to revive the series with Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, which revolves around the famed prosecutor title character, Miles Edgeworth, a former rival in the courtroom to Phoenix Wright.
Fans of the series may ask, with Phoenix Wright out of the picture, what new changes are brought to this game? Several, in fact. For one, Miles Edgeworth does not participate in any courtroom exchanges at all, unlike the previous Phoenix Wright games and despite being a prosecutor. New gameplay features are introduced to accommodate this fact, and I personally thought they were a refreshing change.
This time around, Miles Edgeworth is thrown into the middle of the investigating action as he became forcibly involved in various situations that are a part of some wrongdoings of a bigger organised syndicate. As before, the game demands that you investigate the crime scene for clues and interrogate suspects and other characters for more hints to piece together the puzzle before you. But this time around, a Logic feature comes into play (similar to the variations of this feature in the previous games) – puzzling questions or situations may sometimes be asked by Edgeworth himself, and as more of these contradictory statements come up under the Logic tab, you may be able to resolve some questions by matching two different statements to come up with a logical deduction. Unfortunately, sometimes the Logic feature backfires as the two “correct” matching statements may be anything but logical, and it requires random matching before you stumble onto the “correct” solution.
Otherwise, the basic gameplay and style is rather similar to the past few games in the series, in that you often have to summon the Sherlock Holmes within you and deduce plausible explanations for the situations unravelling before you, quite often a murder of some sort. While in the past games, you can move between various areas of a case freely, in this game, you are restricted to only a single area, where you must finish your investigation and your hunt for clues in that area before you’re allowed to proceed to the next place. While this may be seen as constricting (and it is), it actually made the game slightly easy now as you don’t have to waste time trawling through different areas just to find a well-hidden clue that you have missed out.
Although the simple 2D graphics and drawn character artwork employed barely scratch the surface of the amount of processing power used in the DS (compared to the likes of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days), it is something the series has used over the years. I’d have liked to see improvements in this regard though, instead of utilising the same animations and character artwork repeatedly. In fact, barely any new changes are introduced to the character sprites: Miles Edgeworth and Detective Dick Gumshoe, along with other side characters that have appeared in the past, look exactly the same. New to this game however, you now have a tiny character model on the top screen which you can control to move around and inspect the surroundings, either using the stylus on the bottom screen or the D-pad, whilst doing your investigation. As always, you can shout “Hold it!” into the DS’ mic in order to “press” someone’s testimony, among other voice commands, although I rarely did this as it’s slightly more troublesome and is really just a gimmick.
There’s nothing much to describe about the music though, as some of the tracks are simply reused from the previous games and they’re put on an endless loop. The same goes to the sound effects, where they’re often used along with the text to indicate various emotions, such as feelings of surprise, shock, and the like. While these similar tunes do bring about a sense of familiarity, to those who have played the games, a little innovation and creativity wouldn’t hurt.
If you have not played a single Ace Attorney game, then you must understand that the core of this game lies in the text it uses to drive its dialogue and story. There are no voice acting throughout the entire game (if you discount the singular shouts like “Objection!” and “Not so fast!”), but surprisingly, with the speed of the text that appears (which you have no control of most of the time) coupled together with the sound effects, the emotions that the game wishes to convey managed to be expressed quite well. Humour also used to be a strong playing card of the game, but unfortunately, this game sees less of the clever, subtle humour and trademark puns which would have made this game more enjoyable.
Perhaps I’m expecting too much, or perhaps Capcom is merely milking the series as much as it can before the series couldn’t sustain itself anymore under the weight of its increasingly looser style of storytelling. Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice has been absolutely stellar in terms of its plot (as it concludes the story of Phoenix Wright) and the various emotions it managed to invoke from within me, but sadly, the same can’t be said of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. A crime syndicate that seemingly doesn’t have any relevance to our prosecutor seems to only serve to detach ourselves from feeling anything for Mr. Edgeworth, even though he’s placed in some fairly dangerous situations himself.
By all means that doesn’t mean that this game isn’t enjoyable though. For fans of the series, it is worth a play through, while I’d recommend those who are new to the series to actually start playing from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. As you’re able to save at almost any point in the game, it’s the perfect companion when you’re out riding in a bus or a train to kill time.
Rating: 7.5/10
Heavy Rain (PS3)
Mar 3rd
The word “revolutionary” gets thrown around a lot, particularly when it comes to video games and the rapid evolution of the technology it utilizes – a revolutionary graphics engine or revolutionary gameplay. After all of this hype, the end result is usually, at best, a fantastic game, but rarely something that could be considered revolutionary. In the end we’re still controlling a character, shooting bad guys, flying spaceships, or using magic in the name of saving the world, the girl, or whatever. Not exactly “revolutionary”.
But then, what does it even mean to be revolutionary? Sure, features like cover systems and character customization are great ideas that add whole new levels of depth to video games, but we’re talking about something that has never been done before and will change the way we perceive and play video games forever.
Enter Heavy Rain, a “revolutionary” game from Quantum Dream, creators of the standout title Indigo Prophecy. Announced in 2006 at E3, Heavy Rain initially peaked interests with its teaser featuring a disturbing soliloquy that showed off the game’s incredibly lifelike visuals. As development intensified, the public was told about how this wasn’t a game but an interactive film. When Sony made trophies mandatory for its games, Quantum Dream loudly voiced its discord, claiming their appearance whenever the player accomplished something would ruin the atmosphere. Over three years in the making, Heavy Rain has created some lofty expectations for itself, but from the moment the game begins it’s quite clear that the developers were up to the challenge.
Before really getting into the details of the game, however, it’s important to make sure that players know what they’re getting into. If all you want out of a game is the ability to run around and shoot bad guys, don’t bother with Heavy Rain. It’s not a game for everyone, for sure, and players accustomed to more conventional games will quickly grow tired of the slower pace and emphasis on dialogue and character development.
But enough with the introductions and formalities, just what is Heavy Rain all about? The game takes place in an unnamed city in the year 2011 where a serial killer, dubbed the Origami Killer, has been kidnapping and drowning young boys. The player takes control of four different characters at various points of the game, all solely connected by their ties to the Origami Killer case. Ethan Mars is a divorced father whose son is the latest kidnapping victim. He receives a letter instructing him to perform several challenges that, if completed, will lead to information regarding his son’s location. The other three are Madison Paige, a local journalist who encounters Ethan and attempts to help him, Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler sent to aid in the apprehension of the Origami Killer, and Scott Shelby, a private investigator hired by families of the other victims to track down their children’s killer.
The story is gift wrapped in an environment that’s absolutely stunning. Heavy Rain takes full advantage of everything the PS3’s hardware has to offer, and the graphics are some of the best you’ll see in a game. It’s a dark, gloomy world that’s meticulously detailed and beautifully emphasizes the mood created by the actions of the characters inhabiting it. The soundtrack accomplishes this as well, as you’ll find the minimalistic approach taken works to highlight a scene’s emotion rather than overwhelming it with unnecessary sound.
Labeling itself as an interactive drama rather than any conventional game genre, Heavy Rain abandons nearly every traditional practice found in video games and instead expends all of its energy building a story and developing its characters. The end result is actually unbelievably successful – in every other game, no matter what kind of bond it creates between character and player, there’s still some distance between the two that’s created as you perform the mindless objective completing that games always end up having. It still boils down to the fact that we’re controlling a fictional character that’s sole purpose is to entertain us for a while.
Heavy Rain is different. From the moment we take control of the character it feels like we understand and care about them, and there are a bunch of different reasons this is so. The script and performance of the voice actors is undeniably the primary reason – the two take ordinary people and place them in extraordinary situations, and the result is that the player can genuinely relate to the character’s feelings and emotions which are beautifully expressed in their own subtle ways, whether it’s body language, a facial expression, or the inflection of their voice. As a player, it was surprising to take a step back and realize that I honestly felt for the characters – I was happy for them when they accomplished something positive, sad when they failed, and afraid when they were put in harm’s way. Video games normally don’t evoke that sort of response, but Heavy Rain does.
The gameplay isn’t just for show, either, it’s another tool of connecting the player with its characters. About ninety percent of the gameplay is a quick time event – entering correct button sequences when prompted within an allotted amount of time. Success rewards the character, while failure frequently leads to pain and suffering. What this does is keep you on the edge of your seat at all times, desperately trying absorb all of the action going on and still catch every button command to protect your character. Heavy Rain also utilizes the Playstation’s sixaxis feature, meaning that besides simply pressing a button you’ll be jerking the controller around to simulate whatever action your character is performing on screen. At times this really adds to totally immersing yourself in the moment, and even if it doesn’t sound terribly impressive in writing, anyone forced to make some of the more grisly decisions will immediately understand the impact of having to imitate the action yourself. In essence, the game has the character development of a film without it being as passive. It’s the equivalent of watching a horror movie and pleading with the character on screen not to explore the killer’s hideout, except in Heavy Rain’s case you actually have the power to control their actions.
It’s also important to note that your four characters in Heavy Rain don’t have any extra lives. If you fail to lead them to safety in a given scene you risk permanently killing them off. If this should happen, the scene will end accordingly and the rest of the game will take a new direction to account for your actions, even in the case of all four playable characters kicking the bucket. Now, of course if you’re really set on getting the best ending you can always reload the chapter, but playing the way the game wants you to adds an additional layer of excitement in knowing that you may only have one chance to save your character. Of course, missing a single button in a sequence won’t immediately kill your character, instead shifting the direction of the scene away from their favor but still giving you plenty of opportunities to keep them alive. It’s still incredibly compelling, however, and as the action increases in the latter third of the game, you’ll be hard-pressed to think of more intense scenes than the ones you’ll encounter in Heavy Rain.
But enough gushing, despite the tone of the review up until this point, Heavy Rain is far from perfect. For one, the game is incredibly short. In a time when we’ve come to expect to invest fifteen to twenty hours in a game on a first play, Heavy Rain only manages about half of that. I personally finished the game in two days, in maybe seven to ten hours in four sittings total. Depending on how you played, who survives, and what they did you’ll receive several different variations of the epilogue, and in total there are about twenty different scenes that will be pasted together to form the ending for a given play-through. While this certainly offers quite a bit of replay value, not every scene will drastically affect the ending so players looking to experience everything Heavy Rain has to provide will have to put up with some redundancy in the process.
The controls are also not entirely flawless. For one, you have to hold R2 to walk, otherwise the analog stick simply moves the character’s head to check out their surroundings. This isn’t a huge cause for concern since you’ll never find yourself walking long distances, but it would seem more practical to implement the opposite system since you’ll definitely be walking more than looking around.
More actively annoying is the game’s ability to recognize some of the wireless controller’s sixaxis actions. Simply put, sometimes it just won’t do it. As already mentioned, there is a good deal of leeway given during the QTE’s, but sometimes it can still cheat you out of completing a sequence. Perhaps the most extreme example occurred while I was playing through the final chapter. In two separate sequences the game required tilting the controller left or right and jerking it up or down. I did so, but for reasons still unknown to me the action was never registered, and missing two of a dozen in each event resulted in two of my characters dying and ending up with a significantly worse ending than the one I “deserved”. Granted, you can adjust the difficulty, which will simplify or remove the game’s use of the PS3’s sixaxis, but there’s something unsettling about having to dumb down the game for no fault of your own.
Lastly, the plot, as intriguing and engaging as it is, is also not flawless. Even on a first play-through you will undoubtedly notice several major plot holes and others that just seem a little vague. Some of them are forgivable, some seem like cheap ways to throw you off the trail of the killer’s true identity, some might get under your skin if you really think about them, and some are just silly. You’ll find theories on the Internet explaining some of these points away, but the fact is that the game never provides the player with an explanation, and there’s a fine line between subtlety and sloppy writing that Heavy Rain quite clearly stumbles over at times.
Additionally, while the pacing is, for the most part, masterfully managed, the earlier scenes can be quite slow at times and it may drive away some players. In an attempt to present the characters as ordinary individuals Heavy Rain introduces them by putting you in their shoes while they go about performing very mundane tasks, including making coffee, taking a shower, changing a diaper, and so on. While this does accomplish its purpose, it can be difficult at times to get past the idea that the game is simply wasting your time.
Despite its flaws, nothing quite like Heavy Rain has ever been released, and the game deserves a world of credit for taking such a huge risk. Nearly everything it tries to do works the way it’s designed to, and the result is a story that’s absolutely compelling. Other games have tried to break the barrier between games and films, but Heavy Rain far surpasses them and comes as close to the definition of interactive drama as possible. Twenty years from now we probably won’t be looking at Heavy Rain as the game that changed video games forever, but it’s still an incredibly captivating adventure that PS3 owners willing to participate in an unconventional take on what a video game is should experience. And that’s not so bad either.
Bioshock 2
Feb 23rd
You can have your Grand Theft Auto III’s and Halo’s, I’ll take Bioshock for my Game of the Decade. Sure, in terms of gameplay it wasn’t necessarily anything revolutionary, but Bioshock was more than just a game. It was an experience that asked you to consider ideas about choice, control, and the limits humans are willing to overcome, all wrapped up in the mysterious, awe-inspiring, creepy underwater world of Rapture. Carrying with it lofty expectations, Bioshock 2 invites the player to return to Rapture, and conveniently released in a new decade, is it possible for 2K’s marvelous series to make a run at back-to-back Game of the Decade awards?
Set ten years after the events of the original, Bioshock 2 puts the player in control of the original prototype Big Daddy, Delta. Forced to commit suicide and his Little Sister kidnapped by someone claiming to be her mother over a decade earlier, Delta is mysteriously revived and thrown into the chaotic dystopia that Rapture has become. The first group of Little Sisters who were assigned to harvest ADAM from the corpses of deceased Splicers have since grown up and become their own jaded form of protectors called Big Sisters, and along with loosely maintaining some semblance of order are tasked with returning to the surface to kidnap children for a new generation of Little Sisters. The new figurehead controlling these monsters is Sophia Lamb, a psychiatrist originally hired by Rapture’s founder, Andrew Ryan, to help citizens cope with their new life underwater. Her views stand in stark contrast to Ryan’s however, and she uses her influence to brainwash the citizens of Rapture to believe in her ideals of community strength that contradict Ryan’s principles of individualism.
As Delta explores the city, he not only uncovers audio logs that relate the tale of Rapture’s downfall, but also begins receiving telepathic messages from Eleanor, his Little Sister, pleading for his help. If that weren’t reason enough to reunite, unless Delta is able to get back to Eleanor a failsafe measure will trigger, killing him.
As with the previous game, there’s so much more to Bioshock 2 than the goals that drive the plot from Point A to Point B. Whereas the original mainly gave us the cause and effect of the civil war that led to Rapture’s destruction, Bioshock 2 benefits from the assumption that the player already has a relatively strong grasp of the Rapture universe, and can therefore spend more time getting into the gritty details that give the player more insight into the process of the city’s upheaval in addition to events that have taken place in the decade since Jack’s experience from the first game. As before, one of the central themes is choice – what choices do we have, and are we even aware when we do or do not have a choice in our actions? Whereas this was mainly expressed in the original during the game’s major plot twist, Bioshock 2 is more subtle, putting you in the shoes of a Big Daddy, a creature designed not to have a will of its own. Bioshock’s Big Daddies were bound to protect their Little Sisters or die trying, and as a Big Daddy ourselves we find ourselves in the same situation, once again rushing to the aid of our threatened Little Sister. As the game and its characters ask if Delta really has a choice in all of this, it presents the player with the option of rescuing or harvesting the Little Sisters among other key decisions to be made that affect how the ending plays out.
Despite the new story, Bioshock 2 will feel extremely familiar to fans of its predecessor. The world of Rapture is the same site of desolation and despair that was so engrossing and beautiful the first time around. The scenery can jump from disturbing to horrifying to stunningly majestic as needed and is once again beautifully recreated. With a soundtrack that complements the environment in never being too intrusive or absent, it’s one of the few games that truly allows the player to let go and become immersed in the fascinating world presented to them.
This familiarity extends to the gameplay as well. Bioshock 2 implements the same control scheme as the original, and anyone with experience from the original can jump right into the sequel with ease. Although the weapons are basically variations of ones from the previous game, you’ll find a few new toys to catch your interest, most notably the Big Daddy drill as your main melee weapon. Along with the standard bash attack, Delta can drill into enemies to inflict a substantial amount of damage. Plasmids and gene tonics, genetic modifications that give Delta superhuman abilities, have also returned, including most if not all of the ones found in the original. Plasmids and gene tonics can be purchased with ADAM acquired throughout the game, and gives the player the ability to customize their character to suit their playing style. There’s a tremendous amount of variety, ranging from plasmids that allow you to freeze enemies solid or hypnotize them to fight for you and gene tonics that power up certain weapons or turn your character invisible.
Curiously enough, the similarity between the two games is actually kind of a drawback. The Big Daddy drill and rivet gun mirror Jack’s wrench and pistol from the original, and the first few plasmids you pick up are the same Electro Bolt, Telekinesis, and Incinerate you started out with as well. Granted, this is done because these specific plasmids are required to complete puzzles, but they’re nearly identical puzzles from the previous game. For Bioshock fans, you may find yourself a bit bored trudging through the opening stages and might actually discourage you from continuing.
But wait a minute, don’t go running off to sell your copy just yet, there is a bit more to Bioshock 2. The biggest addition is that as a Big Daddy you have the power to adopt the new Little Sisters rather than simply harvesting or rescuing them. After defeating their Big Daddy, you can let the Little Sister guide you to an ADAM-rich corpse and let her harvest it for you, attracting the attention of any nearby enemies in the meantime. Each Little Sister can perform at most two gathers for you before you must decide to rescue or harvest them, and any ADAM you gathered will be added to the reward for dealing with that Little Sister. After dealing with all of the Little Sisters in an area you’ll be hunted down by a Big Sister. Just like Big Daddies, these ladies are pretty menacing foes that use a combination of agility, tough armor, and overwhelming power to beat you into submission. Big Sisters aren’t the only new enemy featured in Bioshock 2, however. Besides the usual armed and unarmed Splicers, you’ll find some new faces such as the Brute, bulky Splicers that charge and throw objects at you, and Alpha Big Daddies, another variation of the iconic enemy.
Fortunately, though the enemies may be fairly tough, the game throws money, weapons, and health items at you like they’re going out of style. Even on the higher difficulties, don’t be surprised if you have so much cash that you can buy the maximum amount of health items and ammunition you can carry and still have more money than you know what to do with. The only other source to waste money on is the ability to buy out hackable objects such as vending machines or safes. This is actually one of a few alterations to the hacking aspect of the game, as the pipe mini-game has been eradicated entirely. Instead, a needle ticks across a multi-colored meter, with some colors allowing the player to successfully hack the object and others inducing an electric shock or sending the area into a security alert. A new weapon, the hack tool, allows the player to shoot darts into hackable objects to hack from a distance, a neat feature that makes it easier to hack security cameras or turrets, since this new hacking mini-game is performed in real time, leaving the player vulnerable to any incoming attacks.
As a result of having so much cash, though, most players won’t find Bioshock 2 terribly difficult since you’re able to safely retreat to a vending machine to avoid repeatedly dying and having to fight a group of enemies unarmed and unable to heal yourself. It also doesn’t help that the game is fairly short – a good eleven to fifteen hours on your first play – so don’t be surprised if you breeze through the game fairly quickly.
Fortunately, in addition to the single player mode, Bioshock 2 also features online multiplayer. The games include individual and team modes, including the standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch as well as Turf War, a king of the hill mode, Capture the Sister, a capture the flag mode, and ADAM Grab, where individual players or teams fight to see who can maintain control a Little Sister longer. These modes are actually quite a bit of fun, as the plasmids, gene tonics, and weapons you can unlock allow for quite a bit of variation. Additionally, occasionally Big Daddy suits will spawn at random locations, allowing a single player to temporarily become a Big Daddy and wreck havoc on anyone who’s unlucky enough to cross their path. The Playstation’s multiplayer occasionally suffers from being a bit laggy or not being able to find enough players to begin a match, but for the most part these are momentary issues that can easily be resolved by switching to a new lobby.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the multiplayer is how it ties into the main storyline. The multiplayer matches officially take place in 1959, just before the events of Bioshock. The player is “sponsored” by a plasmid company, and as you earn more experience and gain higher ranks you’ll unlock propaganda audio clips that also relate the story of the civil war as it unfolds. By no means is it absolutely necessary to hear to appreciate the story, but it serves as yet another perspective to the vast, intricate Bioshock universe.
In a vacuum by itself, Bioshock 2 is a wonderful game that comes as close to rivaling its predecessor as any other game has since its 2007 release. Unfortunately, sequels have to maintain some balance between being similar enough to the previous games to draw the player in but different enough to develop a personality of its own, and Bioshock 2 just doesn’t quite have it down. The problem is that we’ve already seen all of this before in the original, and a little bit of the magic that captivated us is lost simply because the Rapture experience isn’t as fresh as it was the first time around. Now add in the fact that the first third of the game borrows too heavily from the original’s gameplay to the point where it’s distracting and boring enough to disrupt the mood the game tries to envelope you in. Fortunately, the story and atmosphere is still strong enough to coax you into continue playing, and if you do you’re rewarded with a game that’s absolutely stunning. While perhaps not Game of the Decade material, Bioshock 2 is an extraordinary experience that no one should pass up.
8.5/10
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
Feb 19th
After more than 20 years since the inception of the Metal Gear series, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots draws the curtains on the story arc revolving Solid Snake, the much beloved legendary hero that has risen since the character was first introduced in the original Metal Gear game in 1987. As such, it’s understandable that hopes run high over how this game would perform and stand to the test of the millions of players’ expectations across the glove—can MGS4 deliver?
GRAPHICS
There is no doubt that MGS4 takes advantage of PlayStation 3’s processing power to display utterly sharp, crisp, and lifelike visuals—indeed one of the most top-notch graphics one has ever seen to date with the PS3. Character models are full of realistic facial expressions—with my only complaint is the less-than-convincing kissing scenes where the lips barely touch—with strands of hair and every possible wrinkle recreated to reflect the characteristics of real people. Perhaps it’s not a far stretch to say that the animations and various special effects employed are almost perfect.
Even the environments—the battlefields and various locations you are placed in—are nothing short of phenomenal, from the dusty, war-torn buildings of the Middle East and the jungles and small villages of South America to quaint, quiet locales of Eastern Europe, where occasionally when I was too engrossed with the game that I’d feel as if I was in those vastly dissimilar places. Even the cut-scenes are improved further on the previous MGS games, where most of the time there is an almost seamless transition from cut-scene back to the game itself, where it throws you straight in the heat of a battle. As with MGS3, cut-scenes are decidedly interactive where you could press L1 when prompted to see the scene from Old Snake’s or someone else’s point of view, and new to MGS4, pressing the Circle button repeatedly when subtly prompted at the top-right corner of the screen would display flashbacks from the past few MGS games. These incredibly long cut-scenes would make you feel as if you’re spectating the latest Hollywood fanfare, with splattered blood or raindrops occasionally fogging up the imaginary “camera” from which you’re viewing from. Kojima also finally answered some of our prayers by introducing a Pause feature during the cut-scenes, a much-needed feature which should’ve been implemented ages ago.
Now imagine watching all of these from your full HD-ready TV or monitor in 1080p. In fact, the game runs smoothly at around 30fps most of the time, with hardly any noticeable slowdowns even when too many things happen in the screen at once.
AUDIO
The graphics will be nothing but simply a pretty sight without the effective soundtrack led by Harry Gregson-Williams and Nobuko Toda. A few scenes in the game are made even more high-strung and emotional with the game’s music score, and then there are the various sound effects peppered throughout MGS4 through Dolby Digital 5.1 that made the entire gaming experience simply phenomenal: explosions, gunshots, the rustling of the wind, a helicopter’s rotating blades, footsteps, and the list goes on. Plus how can we forget the entire cast of high caliber voice actors, where most of the recurring characters from previous MGS games are voiced by the same voice actors? David Hayter reprises his role once more as our rapidly aging but still heroic character, Old Snake (and this is visibly noticeable in Hayter’s deepened and more mature voice), Christopher Randolph as Otacon, and without giving away too much, that’s as far as I’d say about our usual suspects.
GAMEPLAY
The entire game is divided neatly into 5 Acts, with each Act taking place in a different place (or continent, for most of the Acts) with an almost different take in the gameplay style or strategy that you have to utilise. During the first Act, it’s often reminiscent of a Call of Duty game as you have to wade through the rebels and PMCs (Private Military Companies) battling it out with each other. The game also gives you a choice: either help the rebels out by destroying PMC soldiers and let them return the favour to you, or take the term “stealth” to its fullest by avoiding both parties while attempting to reach your destination. In essence, the journey may be different, but your destination remains the same.
Taking a leaf from some complaints made about previous MGS games, Kojima takes heed and utilises the new 3D camera system introduced in the enhanced MGS3: Subsistence. Rather than having the game dictate and fix your camera and thus your point of view, the new camera from behind Snake allows you to see a wider range of things in a sweeping 360 degree angle, which you could easily control with the right analog stick (R3). Each area is even larger than the previous games, and there are several routes and options which you can use at your disposal to arrive at your goal. Improving upon the camouflage system utilised in MGS3, instead of having to switch your face paint and camouflage to match your environment each time you encounter a different area, Snake now wears a handy body suit called the OctoCamo, where you need only lay flat against the ground or a wall in order to mimic the texture and qualities of your environment to completely fool your enemies. As with MGS3, a camo index lies attached to the top-right corner of your screen to indicate how stealthy and hidden you are in a percentage count out of 100, where 100 indicates total invisibility.
Furthermore, there are a few other nifty and useful gadgets which you can use from early on in the game, such as the Metal Gear Mk. II, a pint-sized robot capable of scouting an area while in stealth mode, acquire items for Snake on the go, and even use its elongated wires to shock and stun an enemy. You no longer need to acquire night vision goggles or thermal goggles as in the previous games, as both of these items are now condensed into a multi-functional eye piece, the Solid Eye, which is also capable of displaying ally and enemy data, a radar, show items that can be acquired nearby, and it can even double up as a binoculars.
But ah, weapons. There is an immense variety of submachine guns, rifles, and shotguns, among others, which you can unlock and use as you progress through the game (or through multiple games), even more than MGS3 itself. However, weapons acquired from PMCs are ID-locked to that specific soldier no thanks to the advancement of nanomachines and the development of this system (as the story would explain), but Drebin, a side character which you’d encounter early in the game, could easily circumnavigate this annoying detail for you at a price, in the form of Drebin Points. Any excess weapons you obtain would automatically be sold to Drebin in exchange for Drebin Points, but collecting weapons and items to be sold isn’t the only way to obtain more Points—watching flashbacks, not using special items, not going into an Alert phase, not killing any enemies, etc, all allow you to garner more Drebin Points at the end of an Act. Perhaps one of the best attributes of this game, gameplay-wise, is the customisations that you can perform on your weapons, allowing you to attach laser sights, suppressors, and other item parts to most weapons, effectively enabling you to create a weapon in a manner that best suit you.
And of course, there’s CQC (Close Quarters Combat), first introduced in MGS3 and continued in MGS: Portable Ops, a technique which Old Snake has somehow acquired to grab enemies and silence them in a variety of ways, from slitting their throats to knocking them out. This time around, weapons that you can use in conjunction with CQC are now clearly labelled as such. Also introduced in MGS4 is the Threat Ring, where lying flat on the ground would produce a grey/whitish ring surrounding Snake—any enemies detected to be near Snake would produce a bump, and the greater this threat is (for instance, in an Alert phase), the taller and wider the mountain of the Threat Ring is.
The controls have been changed around too in MGS4, with the CQC and Weapon button designated as R1 instead of its use of the previous Circle button. Even flattening yourself against the wall or the ground works slightly different in MGS4, which I personally think is an improvement compared to its predecessors. Holding the Triangle button while lying on the ground allows Snake to play dead, but unfortunately this doesn’t fool the PMCs at all. Hitting the Triangle button quickly while lying flat would see Snake to flip himself over to face upwards, something that could not be in done previously, though its usage is fairly negligent.
The Stamina gauge in MGS3? That’s been done away and replaced with the Psyche gauge which functions similarly. From time to time Snake would stress out (and this would be displayed in a percentage), and the higher Snake’s stress level, the poorer he would perform: his aiming accuracy would deteriorate, his Psyche gauge would be reduced quicker, etc. Fortunately you no longer need to do the tedious task of hunting animals for food to regain your Psyche gauge—you need only lie down in a non-Alert and non-Caution phase and watch as your Psyche gauge gradually refills itself.
Fighting bosses in the MGS series is mostly a fun experience as it’s not altogether a linear shoot-and-kill action, and MGS4 is no different. Often, you have to figure out the most effective way to defeat a boss through a Codec call or from what someone else has mentioned earlier in the game, and this entire non-linearity is what makes boss fighting utterly unique and stand out compared to other action/adventure games. Revealing further details would be spoilers however, so these information should suffice.
This may be a source of begrudge for some players, as unfortunately, you’re forced to wait and install some data into the PS3’s hard drive before the commencement of any Act. While this is usually a good excuse to rest my eyes as I often play through the game in several hours in a single sitting, other players may not like the fact that you are made to wait simply to begin the next Act. Nonetheless, it’s still a minor inconvenience to me.
PLOT
Perhaps an important question that may be on the minds of those who have yet to play any game in the Metal Gear series is, will you understand what the hell is going on? Perhaps you’d get the rough gist that Liquid Ocelot is on the loose and is heading towards an insurrection against the Patriots, but then you’d have to ask other questions: Who are the Patriots? Who is Liquid Ocelot, and why is he trying to defeat the Patriots? If you find yourself asking these questions, then to be honest, no, you will be completely clueless as to what exactly is going on, as the story and the nuances of the characters from previous games that span more than 100 hours of gameplay could not be easily condensed in a Wikipedia plot summary of the past Metal Gear games. If you seek to understand the story fully, then a play through at least MGS1 to MGS3 is in order, but otherwise if you’re here just to enjoy the ride that the game has to offer, then as a “tactical espionage action”-based game, MGS4 has a ton of things up its sleeve. Fortunately, Konami has offered a free MGS4 Database available for download as every character and term that has ever turned up in the series is explained, with a relationship map even provided as well, which would prove handy to those new to the series or has forgotten certain things from past games. Even thoughtful of them is the fact that access to certain terms in MGS4 are restricted (so as to prevent accidental leaking of spoilers) until you have gotten past that particular area of the game.
MGS4 takes place six years after the Big Shell incident in MGS2, and every country has resorted to partake in the new war economy, with PMCs in the business blooming and growing like mushrooms. Despite Snake’s rapidly aging body, Colonel Campbell asked Snake for a final favour to terminate Liquid Ocelot in order to prevent the villain’s insurrection from taking place, who, if succeeded, would manage to seize control of every aspect governing the countries around the world. Things aren’t that simple, unfortunately, as plot twist after plot twist would be thrown your way and you’d have a hard time not to trip up over them.
For fans of the Metal Gear series, as mentioned previously, MGS4 marks the conclusion of Solid Snake’s story, with loose ends opened in previous games promised to be answered. And there are a lot of loose ends. Unfortunately, sometimes these loose ends get tangled up inexplicably with other characters and the explanations accorded feel a little far-fetched and stretched its believability, but ultimately, it’s up to the players who have invested an immense number of gameplay hours into the series to believe what they will as this is a subject worthy of a heated debate. Additionally, Kojima brings back characters from the previous three games and this often assaulted me with a dose of healthy nostalgia, especially as their voice actors remain largely the same.
Plot holes, no matter how minor, are also resolved to my surprise; perhaps the most prominent plot hole belonging to the “minor” category would be Snake’s magical acquisition of CQC, and even this didn’t escape Kojima’s attention as this question is answered in an easter egg Codec call. And on the subject of Codec calls, perhaps what would be a small disappointment to me would be the existence of only two people you could call on the Codec, unlike the fairly large amount of characters which you can call to consult previously.
REPLAY VALUE
Also, its inclusion of Metal Gear Online which allows you to compete against other players in several pre-determined maps while retaining use of the gameplay inherent within MGS4 (weapons and CQC, for example) might see you using your MGS4 disc for a long time to come. Although Konami’s insistence of using your Konami ID instead of your PSN ID to login is rather questionable as it doesn’t streamline with other online games, the entire mechanism of the online play is actually rather robust. You’d be able to level up various skills to be used, or purchase new items or weapons using the Reward Points you can get by winning matches, or use real life money to purchase various expansions or add-ons to MGO.
Despite having no trophies in MGS4 at the time of writing, if you’re the type who likes to unlock things and absolutely must have every single emblem, iPod music (which you can find throughout the game), weaponry, FaceCamo or other camouflage-related items, or love to challenge yourself by re-playing the game at a tougher difficulty or with a different style of playing (battling enemies instead of avoiding the, for instance), then MGS4 would very much be worth the every cent you’ve paid for it.
CONCLUSION
But in the end, after all the minor flaws and problems this game has with respect to a player’s subjective view, has MGS4 delivered? Most certainly. It is a masterpiece befitting the end of Solid Snake’s time, and it’s a journey worth experiencing.
RATING: 9.5/10
Dante’s Inferno (PS3)
Feb 17th
Firstly, I’d like to set things clear. Dante’s Inferno is NOT a cheap God Of War clone like some of you may think it is. There are a lot of gameplay elements that greatly resembles God of War, like the platforming sections for example, and maybe some of combos, but the similarities end there. By itself, Dante’s Inferno is a brutal, fast paced and actioned filled adventure that deserves any hardcore gamer’s attention.
Dante’s Inferno is published by Electronic Arts and developed by Visceral Games. The game is very loosely based on Inferno, the first book of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy. In the game, you control the protagonist, Dante. A medieval veteran of the Third Crusade in his quest to free his beloved Beatrice’s soul from the clutches of Lucifer, and at the same time to face his own sins, his war crimes and his family’s twisted past. In order to do this, Dante, armed with the very cool looking Death’s Scythe, must conquer the 9 circles of Hell, (as depicted in the poem) and face a vast overwhelming number of murderous hell spawns, hellish beasts, creepy unbaptised babies with scythes for arms, lustful temptresses, fiery minions of hell and gigantic epic boss fights. Welcome to hell.
Death had a hard time trying to convince Dante that he didn't need a haircut
As you make your way through all the nice circles starting with Limbo, then Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and finally the icy cold circle of Treachery, you’ll immediately notice how similar the game is to God of War. You’ll be flipping switches, pulling levers, pushing crates and platforming over ledges just like Kratos did. This isn’t a bad thing however, because all of this works very well in the game. Dante moves very fluidly and executes lightning fast combos with ease. The action is very fast paced and extremely brutal and violent. When I was playing it, I could feel the overwhelming sense of power as I tear through my enemies flesh and hurl them across the screen. It was immensely satisfying. The Death’s Scythe is a very unique weapon and is able to dish out lots of incredible moves and combos. Another unique weaponry in the game is the Holy Cross that fires a volley of energy as a projectile attack. What makes Dante’s Inferno somewhat different is the it’s Punish or Absolve system. As you smite your enemies to pulp, you can grab and choose to finish them either by Punishing them with the Death’s Scythe or to Absolve them with the Holy Cross. If you choose to punish your enemies, Dante will receive Unholy experience points, if you choose to absolve, he gains Holy experience. Dante will then be able to use these experience to purchase additional skills and attack combinations from the Unholy and Holy skill tree. Unholy will increase the scythe’s power, adding more combos and attack moves, while unholy increases the Holy Cross’ power, as well as adding additional moves. There are tons of available combinations to play around with, and with every added attack move, you can find many ways to exert pain unto your enemies.
Dante's Holy Cross attack will grow immensely powerful as you progress through the game
As you journey into the depths of Hell, you’ll likely to encounter a few lost souls mourning in despair on the sins they have committed. These dammed souls will offer additional experience points if you choose to either Punish or Absolve them. This is one of the few mechanic’s in the game that I find very interesting and unique. If you choose to punish, Dante will do so in a very satisfying and extremely violent manner. Absolving them will start a mini game where the dammed soul’s “sins” will start to move towards the center of the screen, and you’ll have to press the required action symbols once the sin in place. It’s something like the gameplay in Guitar Hero, without the music. Upon deciding their fates, you’ll be rewarded will more experience points. Another form of combat available to the character is the ability to take control of a large scale demons capable of dealing devastating attacks after its rider has been killed, a tactic often times required to overcome a hazard or obstacle.
Boss battles in Dante’s Inferno are a sight to behold. You’ll encounter huge hulking bosses as you progress and most of them will require a few tries before you can beat them. The developers really wanted to show players what it feels like to go up against gigantic monsters in their grotesque forms, and have that sense of satisfaction once you’ve beaten them. I’m saying this because these bosses really do fill up your entire TV screen. Dante looks like an insignificant speck if compared. But our hero isn’t at all intimidated by their sizes, as you’ll find out. Dante will be able to utilize the environment when battling these bosses. Borrowed from the God of War series, Dante will be able to cling onto walls using his scythe when an unblockable attack is unleashed in one of the boss fights.
The fight against Nimos, The Judge of Hell, is delivered in epic proportions
If there’s anything that Dante’s Inferno excels at, is in it’s visuals and art direction. These are from the same people who brought us the magnificent Dead Space, so expect textures from the gods. The title’s gameplay is super-fast, action-fueled, and extremely satisfying, but it’s the atmosphere and envelope-pushing art design that really separate it from the God of War clones. As soon as you reach Limbo, the first circle of Hell, one glance at the sheer size and unique art design of Charon’s vessel is enough to make you feel jittery on what the game will offer in the rest of the 8 circles. As I’ve mentioned before in my previous reviews, I love to soak in the mood on the environments when playing any games. With it’s very detailed depiction of Hell, Dante’s Inferno was definitely a mouthful. The level designs in the game are some of the best I’ve seen. Towering demonic statues, seas of boiling blood, eerily impaled women screaming in pain and charred bodies falling from the sky, you’d really think you’re in Hell.
One question that kept bugging me as I played on was “How the heck did this game manage to get an ‘M’ (Mature) rating by ESRB in the U.S.? It should’ve been given an ‘AO’ (Adult Only)!!”. The amount of scenes that gloriously featured the divine (or should I say hellish?) shapes and assets of the female form are staggering. In the circle of Lust, the amount of sexuality shown is enough to make me turn the TV off before my wife starts to ask me questions that I’d rather not discuss here. The first enemies you’ll encounter, called Temptresses, are bare breasted females who shoots flailing tentacles from their lower torsos. With backs arched and their grotesque appendages tethered to Dante, these lovely ladies can then reel him toward their sadistic swimsuit area. VERY creepy. At the end of this level, you’ll be greeted by a naked, screen-devouring Cleopatra. I could only ogle her assets for only a few seconds, before she starts shooting out killer babies out of her nipples. Yuck.
Don't try to admire Cleopatra for too long, or you'll end up as baby food
All in all, Dante’s Inferno is a great action game. Although being a heavy copy-cat of the God of War series, it still manages to keep me hooked till the end. But from what I’ve experienced, whatever that was copied, it was delivered extremely well, and sometime even better. A copycat, yes, but when it’s this thrilling, brutal, and frankly, awesome, I don’t really care. The game could be difficult at times, pitting the player against an overwhelming amount of foes without the aid of any health power ups. Some of the fights in the game can get very long and very hard, but there’s always that sense of satisfaction (there’s that word again) when you finally land that awesome finisher on that last annoying hell spawn. Amidst all the fast paced action, the gruesome setting and the creepiness of it all, there’s actually a decent story line behind it. As you finish the game, you’ll find out that there’s more to Dante’s tale even after defeating Lucifer. On the other hand, there’s lots of stuff to unlock in the Bonus section, such as ‘Making Of’ movies, a sneak peak into the animated series, and an introduction on the upcoming multiplayer co-op add-on coming out in April.
Ans so, if you’re a fan of this type of genre, craving for beautiful graphics, bloody and brutal combat, deep story telling and some free shots of breast, and if you can’t wait for God of War III. Dante’s Inferno is the perfect answer.
Rating: 8.5/10
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
Feb 16th
For just a minute, step back and imagine yourself as Hideo Kojima. You’re the creator of one of the most engrossing, revolutionary video game franchises of all time, a series that proudly stood on its soapbox and declared that yes, a plot can be crazy yet insightful at the same time. You’ve promised your fans that the latest installment of your series will end the saga of one of its most beloved unwilling heroes and still tie up every loose end created up until this point. Not an easy task, to say the least. Oh, and did I mention that the game will also be billed as the savior of an entire console which is desperately in need of a smash hit to compete with its rivals? Are you kidding me?
That’s exactly the mountain of a challenge Mr. Kojima faced with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and in some ways it almost seems unfair to ask so much and still expect the same level of perfection we’ve grown accustomed to. As it turns out it was. Try as it may, though there are plenty of great things to praise in MGS4, Snake’s last adventure just isn’t able to live up to the standards players and the series itself have set for it.
Interestingly enough, although the Metal Gear series is most widely known for its emphasis on the story, Guns of the Patriots’s most easily recognizable improvement came in the gameplay department. The game adopts a more conventional third-person action shooter feel to it with a 360-degree revolving camera and the aiming and shooting buttons being moved to the R and L buttons. While at first glance the game won’t necessarily feel like a Metal Gear, it’s difficult not to fall in love with the more comfortable, flexible controls.
Additionally, rather than trying to introduce entirely new gameplay innovations like in Snake Eater, Guns of the Patriots examines its predecessors, picks out the best aspects, trims them down to be more manageable, and implements them in the game. While camouflage and stamina were an interesting addition to the series, it became more of a chore having to constantly switch face paints as you snuck through areas that weren’t static backgrounds or sort through what food hadn’t spoiled and what tasted the best. Guns of the Patriots simplifies all of this. The new camouflage system is the OctoCamo, a watered down version of the stealth camo that automatically changes Snake’s outfit to blend in with the environment in the same way a chameleon does. Rather than fumbling around in menus, the OctoCamo updates whenever Snake remains motionless for a few seconds against any surface. For stamina, food is limited to pre-packaged items that don’t spoil and can be quickly used to replenish both health and stamina.
The game itself is divided into five acts, and unlike previous games each one has its own unique setting and gameplay style. The first two acts are, in my opinion, the most engrossing and entertaining, as they drop Snake in the middle of a warzone. This breathes a refreshing sense of life into the environment, as enemies are no longer simply trudging around in circles, existing for the sole purpose of looking for you. Instead, they’re taking cover behind rubble and calling for backup, completely unaware of Snake’s existence. This presents the player with the opportunity to either sneak past everyone in traditional Metal Gear fashion or to fight with the rebels against the common enemy and win their trust.
Particularly considering using this style of gameplay as the introduction to the game, it seems at first that Guns of the Patriots wants to shy away from the stealth mentality. After all, not only is Snake given machine guns and other tools of mass destruction right from the beginning, but MGS4 is also the first game in the series to allow the player to pick up any weapon dropped by an NPC and use it. Previous games explained that each soldier’s weapon was tied to their unique nanomachines, but for a small price an arms dealer named Drebin is capable of disabling that.
Though it’s tempting, Guns of the Patriots is still a stealth game at heart, and although bursting into each area and gunning down anything that moves in the first few acts is certainly much more feasible, the game still reverts back to its more traditional roots. With it come the static, predictable enemy movements that fans of the series will find familiar, of course, but this comes across more as settling itself back into what made the franchise what it is rather than devolving back into weak, simplistic gameplay. Curiously enough, one particular act later in the game heavily implements small patrol bots as if to poke fun at the robotic patrol patterns of the previous games.
Unfortunately, the gameplay is not without its flaws. Curiously, perhaps the most overtly annoying one was the decision to install each act individually each time the game is loaded. While this was obviously done to save space, this means that every single time you replay the game you’re forced to stare at a loading screen for five minutes between acts. Although I certainly appreciate Kojima Productions looking out for my PS3’s hard drive, considering just how large they are, this ends up being totally unnecessary and simply a waste of time.
In terms of actual gameplay, it’s difficult to look at all of Act 3 as anything other than a painful gimmick that wears thin beyond its first play-through. The act involves tailing someone through the streets of an Eastern European city under martial law, and as to be expected the person you’re tailing takes an extremely complicated, winding path on top of going from one corner of the map to the next. Anyone interested in replaying the game will naturally want to simply head straight for the end point, but they’ll be extremely disappointed to discover that the game won’t allow the player to advance without both parties at the end, leaving you to trudge all the way back to wherever you abandoned your tail and start over.
Additionally, the boss fights are noticeably uninspiring due to the fact that they’re little more than reused, dumbed-down gimmicks from bosses of the previous titles. The game doesn’t even bother trying to hide this, as each boss’s name is borrowed from one of the original members of FOXHOUND from Metal Gear Solid 1. However, unlike the characters from those games, the Beauty and the Beast team has unconvincing, caricatured identities that match their actual gameplay techniques in terms of shallowness.
Which brings me to the story… my poor, poor story.
Guns of the Patriots takes place six years after the Big Shell incident from Sons of Liberty. Snake is all but retired due to a side effect of being a clone that results in advanced aging and is preparing to die in the near future. War has become such a constant factor in the struggle between global powers that individual nations no longer actually fight it themselves, instead hiring private mercenary corporations, or PMC’s, to fight for them. The head of the PMC’s is none other than Liquid Ocelot, the body of Revolver Ocelot who has since been completely possessed by the remnants of Liquid Snake. Snake is convinced by Roy Campbell to return for one final mission – to assassinate Liquid Ocelot.
Of course, a few hundred words could hardly ever properly serve as a plot summary for a Metal Gear game. In a review such as this, to avoid spoiling the surprise it’s better to simply give a brief taste of what’s in store and add that it’s fantastically compelling and be done with it. That isn’t possible for MGS4.
It was mentioned in the beginning of this review, the challenge of ending the Metal Gear saga in a single game following the cliffhanger’s left from the previous three is impossible. There just isn’t any sense of balance to keep the game from becoming ridiculous. From the explanation of dominant and recessive genes from MGS1 that would make a geneticist cry to the embarrassingly awkward dialogue between Rose and Raiden in Sons of Liberty, I’ve learned to enter the Metal Gear universe expecting a healthy dose of BS. It’s expected, and in some ways it almost adds to the series’ charm. Guns of the Patriots, however, takes the concept to entirely new extremes. Despite the over-the-top cinematics, the social, philosophical, and political rambling, and plot twists that rival Scooby Doo in terms of craziness, Metal Gear’s plot always had some semblance of stability and control. That feeling is nowhere to be found in Guns of the Patriots, the story is just all over the place and doesn’t really know what it wants to be. Sure, all of the answers we were promised are found in the game, but the sacrifice is all of the artistic flair that captivated us in the first place.
In his attempt to resolve absolutely every single conflict created from the beginning of the series, Hideo Kojima resorts to taking all of the character webs, tying them together in a big knot, and throwing them into a bucket of sewage. Every living character from the series makes an appearance, and in some cases even death isn’t enough to stop a character from showing up long enough to grin at the camera for a few scenes. Rather than risk explaining something and creating a new, even minor, plot hole, Kojima fleshes out every infinitesimal detail in gut-wrenching fashion, frequently sacrificing the mystery of his characters that made them intriguing in the first place as a result and killing off any shred of plausibility the player is able to muster. It’s the same trap that George Lucas befell in creating the Star Wars prequels – forcing characters into places where they don’t belong to remind the audience that each game is connected to one another. And when there aren’t any suitable characters to induce that same strained feeling, Kojima falls back on the next best solution – nanomachines. The Metal Gear series has always relied an acceptance of the supernatural in its characters, and over the course of a decade we’ve come to embrace it only for Guns of the Patriots to giggle in our faces and tell us it was nanomachines the whole time.
All of this is jumbled together in a story that doesn’t know what it wants it’s driving force to be. Powerful, emotional scenes are bookended between toilet humor, monkeys smoking cigarettes, and outrageous action sequences that make a Michael Bay movie look like it’s crawling forward at a snail’s pace. Rather than return to its roots in the subtle, serious tone of the original Metal Gear Solid, Guns of the Patriots leaps around in the wild, flamboyant nature we’ve seen from modern Japanese media. Perhaps it was wrong to expect a Metal Gear game to be more than that, but the end result leaves the player confused and uncomfortable, never really sure if a scene is designed to be serious or end in a “that’s what she said” joke.
I could easily double the length of this review discussing specific ideas and revelations that I don’t agree with, but despite the tone of this review Guns of the Patriots is by no means a bad game. However, the series has always been proud of being nothing less than exceptional, but because of its own overambitious goals, the final chapter in the saga is simply just good. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a game that is torn apart by its inconsistencies – when it’s good it’s exceptional, when it’s poor it’s exceptionally so.
7/10
Batman Arkham Asylum (PS3)
Feb 11th
‘Welcome to the MADHOUSE!!‘ is what I would yell to anyone if they’d ever dare bothered me while I was playing Batman Arkham Asylum. A game with this much depth in detail and story telling deserved any gamer’s full attention. Yes folks, it’s really that good. Rocksteady studios, under publisher Eidos manages to capture everything that made the caped crusader one of the greatest superheroes in comic book history, and delivered it in a the form of a triple-A game title set in one of comic’s most infamous and notorious places, Arkham Asylum.
Rocksteady’s endevour to soar beyond all movie or game iterations and deliver a reboot into the franchise has been met with critical acclaim. Even if your’re NOT a fan of Batman, this action packed game STILL deserves your attention.
Batman eat thugs like these for breakfast
The game is set in an elaborate Arkham island hub, with six giant set-pieces all cleverly connected together. The game pits Batman against his arch-enemy, the Joker in a demented game of cat and mouse around the many halls, caves, sewers and mountains of Arkham Island. After capturing Joker in what seemed to be an attempt to kill the mayor of Gotham City, we see our hero transporting the criminally insane clown back to Arkahm Asylum via Batmobile, only to find out that it was all part of a clever diabolical scheme by the Joker which includes turning all of Arkham;s resident homocidal maniacs into a mutant Army. As the caped crusader ‘gloriously‘ falls into the trap, he’ll soon have to deal with more villains than he can ever bragain for. All lined up to get ‘Bats’ are Bane, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn and The Scarecrow to name a few.
The combat gameplay elements itself is refreshing and manages to keep the action tight and most important of all, fun. Designed to be a continuous freeflow fighting system, it requires the player to time their attacks to counter incoming enemy strikes and to perform continuous insane combos. Using 3 primary buttons to attack, counter and stun, unleashing Batman’s many attack moves is a very satisfying experience. It only took me a few tries to get a hang of it, and soon I was deliberately picking fights with the many ‘clown’ thugs scattered in the game just to watch how fluid the combat is. Besides punching goons around, the game is a mixed of exploration, stealth, platforming, and clever puzzle/detective solving, all molded into one beautiful package. One of the unique features I found in the game is the Detective Mode vision, easily activated which just one button press. As the adventure unfolds, the Joker will attempt to stay one step ahead of Batman, leaving bodies and some clues in their wake for our hero to investigate. Switching to Detective Mode will bathed the environment with forensic light that allows Batman to analyze these clues, such as traces of alcohol or tobacco, and identify hidden passageways or any breakable walls or floors that’s accessible by means of an Explosive Gel, one of Batman’s many, many wonderful toys. All upgradable from the game menu as the game progresses.
Detective vision mode
As all comic fans should know, Batman uses the cover of darkness to instil fear on his foes and strike with deadly silence on any hapless unsuspecting thugs. This element has been incorporated into the game with brilliant results. For the first time in any Batman game, the player can BE the caped crusader himself. Stealth gameplay plays a vital part in dispatching heavily armed henchmen and creating distraction to reach a certain area undetected. Batman can sneak quietly behind enemies, climb into ventilations, crawl in ducts and even hug walls and obstacles Metal Gear Solid style. And when an enemy comes close enough where our hero is hiding, Batman can take them down in one single satisfying move, initiated by the player via a simple on-screen instruction. Batman can also utilize the many gargoyle statues in the asylum to swing around almost undetected and perform some very unique take down moves. One of my favourite is the ‘inverted take down’ move in which Batman hangs inverted from his gargoyle perch and snatch his prey below. All of the Batman’s stealth moves seem to perfectly fit in with the claustrophobic and gothic setting of Arkham island.
When I was a bit younger, I really enjoyed watching the animated Batman series on TV. I was thrilled to find out that the original voice cast was brought into Batman Arkahm Asylum to breath life to the unique characters. Batman is played with the chilling calm-under-pressure attitude of Kevin Conroy who brings in his own unique touch and sometimes better version of the caped crusader. In the game, Batman comes across as he should be, unyielding to a disturbing degree, so resolute in his pursuit of justice that the pain and agony being thrust upon him only serves to empower him in his goal. On the other side of the law, the maniacal Joker is played by the brilliant Mark Hamill, who has done a remarkable job in making the Joker the evil incarnate with his own original style. Other notable performances are Harley Quinn, who is working with the Joker to make Batman’s time in Arkham a living hell, Poison Ivy, the sexy but deadly queen of plants that pits our hero in one of the game’s most difficult boss fights and of course Killer Croc, who’ll stop at nothing to get his revenge on Batman and ‘eat his bones‘.
Harley Quinn giving Batman a hard time
Visually, Batman Arkham Asylum is simply a marvel to behold. One will immediately notice the amount of time and effort spent by the developers to create not just a great looking game, but one of the BEST looking. Utilizing the power of the Unreal Engine 3, textures and characters come to life and are beautifully rendered with superb lighting effects. One look at the Poison Ivy character model and we can conclude that Rocksteady Studios paid a lot of attention to those extremely fine details. From clothing to hair, to Batman’s many gadgets and to almost everything you can find. One could argue that this is probably the best looking Unreal 3 engine game (outside of Unreal 3 and Gears of War) to date. Besides pretty graphics, the sound in the game is equally remarkable. Excellent musical scores of the dark and gothic theme mixed with some familiar Batman tunes makes it worth buying a new set of one of those expensive speakers! If you have the hardware, the game looks beautiful on a FULL HD TV and sounds rock solid on a top notch sound system.
As a whole, Batman Arkham Asylum is one solid action title. As you progress in the game, you’ll unlock tons of bonuses by collecting hidden Riddler stashes and solving complex but satisfying puzzles. Bonuses comes in the form of a character model viewer where you can view high definition 3D models of all the In-Game characters. Other bonuses include character bios of almost all of Batman’s allies and enemies, interview reels for some of the crazy inmates in Arkham (Joker included), and a whole bunch of bonus challenge maps. The game has a decent replay value that comes in the form of the unlockable challenge maps I mentioned earlier. Challenges include scoring the highest score for taking out Joker’s henchmen using the freeflow combat system and stealth take down missions that requires Batman to preform certain take down techniques on those silly thugs. As an added bonus, the Playstation 3 version will include a FREE downloadable content from the PSN where you can play as the demented Prince of Crime himself! But the he’ll only be playable in his own challenge maps.
Batman is in for one very long night
What I don’t like about the game? Well, at certain times, it can be a little too slow. I found myself spending a lot of time backtracking to previous parts of Arkham Island to unlock passageways which were previously blocked. Certain boss fights could’ve been better, I’m not saying they’re boring but I was hoping to see more of Killer Croc and those really big teeth of his. All in all, Batman Arkham Asylum stands as one of my favourite action games to date. Visually stunning, incredible and fun gameplay, outstanding cast of characters, a solid storyline and the remarkably perfect shape of the Poison Ivy model. Any action game fan out there ought to give this game a try. It’s everything and so much more. And if you still haven’t played it, well, the joke’s on you.
Rating: 9.0/10
flOw (PS3)
Feb 11th
…life could be simple, or so that is what the XMB screen of flOw proposes. If you have played Flower first, despite this being the first game thatgamecompany has released on the PS3—as I have done—then you’d almost know what to expect. As its tagline suggests, flOw brings gameplay back to the basics, stripped of complex menus and confusing key controls common in many games as of late, generating a game that is at once reassuring and relaxing. Its birth, released at first as a Flash game, was the product of a thesis research on dynamic game difficulty balancing, enabling automatic readjustment of the game’s difficulty level depending on the player’s skills.
And the result is a critically acclaimed and a multiple-award winning indie game.
What makes flOw truly stand out is its stunning visuals—especially when viewed in a 1080p-compatible screen—and you may be fooled to think that this is an actual retail game, when it’s really a PSN game of only about 125MB in size (this does not include the expansion pack which is a further 80MB). Its simplicity is, in fact, its forte—the screen constantly displays a fascinating aquatic environment, with fine details like bubbles or flecks of food combined cohesively to form a unique biosphere. With the concept of layers prevalent in this game, you could see other organisms or food items beneath your creature in another layer, appearing as a bunch of blurred, vague things. As you progress through the “level” (inverted commas as it really doesn’t deserve to be called that), your surroundings will gradually take on a different hue or colour, keeping the game visually fresh and appealing.
Even as you let the XMB screen of flOw linger, you will be greeted by a music score I can only describe as ethereal, and you’d hear a similar brand of music and fitting sound effects throughout the entire game. Should the background music be any different than it is now, it may very well churn out a different (and possibly worse) experience than its current design. Both the graphics and the sounds complement each other perfectly, and its hauntingly beautiful music often was stuck in my head after an hour or two of playing flOw.
As with Flower, there are no solid instructions to guide you when you begin the game, so half of the fun is figuring out what does what. But the gist of it is this: you control a nameless microorganism and pilot it through layers and layers of water-like environment, while consuming various food items to grow and evolve. To enter a deeper layer, you’ll have to eat a red food item, and to return to the previous layer, blue would be the food that you need. Along the way you may briefly battle and eat through other creatures that come your way, but the choice is yours, as your goal is to submerge deeper through the abyss to reach the final layer.
The controls may take a while to get used to—as it did for me—but it’s one of the only few PS3 games that truly utilise the Sixaxis motion sensing capabilities of the Dualshock 3. To move upwards, you’ll have to tilt the controller forward, and to move downwards, you should tilt the controller towards you. Despite these mind-boggling and counter-intuitive instructions, it won’t take long before you familiarise yourself with these controls—perhaps this is the very reason why flOw lacks a set of clear-cut directions.
You will first begin with only a single organism, but as you complete its levels, you will begin to unlock other organisms to play with, but only to a maximum of 5 (not including the extra organism accorded by the expansion). Each organism has its own unique abilities, which can be activated by a push of any button on the controller. Often you may take a while to discover a way to fully utilise the creature’s special ability, (or anything else in this game, really), but that’s the basic premise of thatgamecompany’s games—explore.
Indeed, as you begin to eat and consume other lesser creatures (or more accurately, the evolution-causing food items produced by a dead organism), your creature will grow and sport longer bodies with more circles, which double up as your creature’s health bar, as well as transforming it into a highly imposing and menacing-looking being. Fortunately (or not) in this game, you can never truly die—when your creature’s health has been reduced to zero, it will simply be transported back to the previous layer together with a health-restoring food item.
Interestingly enough, pressing the Start button to pause the game simply brings your creature to another plane with two floating red and blue items, while it glides around the screen serenely on its own. This may not be in your best interest however, as there’s a good chance your creature may accidentally chow down on one of the two items and either un-pause or send you back to the main screen.
Also, flOw supports offline multiplayer up to 4 players, although I have yet to personally test this due to a drought of Dualshock 3 controllers in my home. It is reported however, that purchasing the expansion pack would enable other players to choose their own organisms, and this is not possible without the add-on. Other players could simply lift the controller and, as flOw likes to remind, dive straight into its world.
As with Flower, it doesn’t take more than a few hours to complete the entire game, and it would take a few additional (somewhat challenging) hours to obtain all trophies. Its relatively low replay value isn’t unexpected for a PSN game, although its expansion pack (at the time of writing) merely adds at least an additional hour or two to your playing time, but don’t let this detract you from experiencing flOw. As with any unique games that are often difficult to categorise, opinions from gamers may vary—you would either love it or find it a bore. But at only USD$7.99, it’s a price worth paying to experience the art that it is.
Rating: 8.5/10
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (PS3)
Feb 8th
Uncharted Drake's Fortune
It’s taken Naughty Dog roughly a year to come up with their follow up title after finishing their last masterpiece on the Playstation 2, which was Jak 3. And in late 2007, they released Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for the Playstation 3.
To be honest, when I first heard of Uncharted, I was like “hey, here’s another Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones wanabe game trying to cash in big in the adventure-puzzle solving-action genre”, but when I realized it was a Playstation 3 exclusive title by one of my favourite developers, I knew this was going to be something BIG. And it was.
Uncharted is a perfect amalgamation of pure adventure and non-stop action. It magically combines intense gun action battles with unbelievable detailed visuals, coupled with amazing platforming adventure and a suspenseful plot, all delivered to the player like a triple A Hollywood movie. To some people, the idea of mixing movies and games is a sure recipe for gaming crapness, unless it’s done properly, That’s totally not the case here. Uncharted is like a living interactive movie experience and you’ll begin to realise this even only after playing it for the first few minutes.
The melee combat in uncharted are loads of fun
As for the story, you’ll be in the shoes of Nathan Drake, or Nate for short. A contemporary adventure hero in the classic mold. He’s a modern day treasure hunter, looks 30ish and of course has the looks every gaming geek wants. Nathan Drake is supposedly the descendant of the the famous treasure hunter Sir Francis Drake some 400 years ago. When he finds a mysterious clue is his ancestor’s coffin, it sets our hero on an expedition for the fabled treasure of El Dorado, leading to the discovery of a forgotten island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Nate wont be alone though as he is joined his partner and sometimes mentor Victor Sullivan. Victor is a seasoned adventurer and treasure hunter, but most of all, he’s a seasoned con-man. At some point of the adventure, you’ll be asking yourself whether you can really trust this man. What’s a movie without a leading female character? Nate will also be joined by Elena Fisher, a journalist in the making who helps our hero out of some really sticky situations. The search turns deadly when Nate and his team are stranded on the island surrounded by modern day pirates. Outnumbered and outgunned, Nate must fight to survive as he begins to unravel the terrible secrets hidden on the island and the treasure of El Dorado itself.
Nate and Elena share a moment on screen
On the graphical department, Uncharted looks like a million bucks. The engineers at Naughty Dog has built an entirely new game engine from the ground up that maximizes the potential of the Cell powered PS3. Facial animations are as photo-realistic and lifelike as ever. Environments are alive and are a sight to behold. The number of character animations go though the roof. The water effects in the game are more fluid and realistic than any other game I’ve seen. The technology that drives Uncharted is absolutely remarkable. Anyone who says graphics doesn’t make a game obviously haven’t experience Uncharted. I don’t want to sound like a graphical whore, but I can’t shake the feeling that all games should look like this. I say this because technology drives gameplay. When I play a game, I want to soak in the experience, I want to be the hero in the game, live his adventures. I want to see and feel the panoramas, the tension and suspense. Uncharted has delivered it all.
The graphics in Uncharted are truly beautiful
To any seasoned gamer, the gameplay in Uncharted is fairly familiar but is still very tough to master and can sometimes be very frustrating. But this adds to the challenge of achieving that perfect headshot on one of those nasty pirates. Gameplay in Uncharted is a combination of 3D platforming and third person shooter gameplay elements. Naughty Dog has brought their expertise in platforming from their previous games like Crash Bandicoot and the Jak and Daxter series and overhauled it to make Uncharted a platforming heaven. The characters in Uncharted reacts within the world with utter perfection. As I moved Nate closer to a ledge, his stance will change to react to the environment rather than the normal floating in the air stance. The shooting sequences in the game are the most challenging of all. Almost 90% of the time, you’ll be shooting at tons of bad guys, dodging hails of bullets and doing cover fire Gears of War style. It’s like being a real action hero! It can be very difficult at times, and you’ll end up dead quite often, trust me. The only way to succeed is to master the game’s dodging, shooting and melee combat mechanics to take out every bad guy who seems to never run out of bullets.
One of the more challenging levels of the game
Gameplay sections like the jeep chase below are just too damn cool. Everything around you moves so fast, but are still very detailed. The lush jungle setting is amazingly believable as every blade of grass and dirt on the forest flow is render beautiful 3D. You can almost feel those branches hitting on your face in those chase scenes!
Of course, Uncharted does have a few drawbacks, but are minor and easily forgiven. The game might be a little too short to some gamers, but for me, it was certainly more than enough. The key is to really experience the whole game, take it as an interactive movie and engulf yourself with the grandeur it can offer. However, I did find it difficult at certain points during gameplay, but that’s because there were too many things that I could do! Aside from these, there’s very little to complain about.
All in all, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a stellar title and an absolute must play for any gamers out there. Just like Heavenly Sword which redefined hack and slash, Uncharted redefines adventure. It is one of the most spectacular gaming experience you’ll ever encounter. Extremely detailed graphics, fluid character animations, spectacular voice acting on all the characters, solid gameplay and a very suspenseful and mysterious plot, Uncharted is a gift from heaven to all gamers.
I f you haven’t got a copy already, get it yesterday!!
9.5/10