So I tried to pick this back up recently and had the same issues I had before. It's painfully unforgiving. I used JoyToKey, configured for my Xbox360 controller, so it wasn't the controls that made it hard. I even gave this another stab, but felt the same jab of unforgiving gameplay.
It's similar to FTL in it's "you get one chance, and you died, so start from the beginning" mentality, which is horribly frustrating. If I didn't save scum my way through FTL, I would have never seen more than the first phase of the last boss.
Things I liked:
* the power ups were unique and interesting
* keys/bombs/money/health are limited, so you have to spend carefully on possibly good items
* you can jump into the game really quick and just go
Things I didn't like:
* not knowing what the heck an item did. I spent at least as much time on the wiki as I did playing the game
* the graphics of the game are honestly a bit gross
* you can very quickly go from doing amazing to completely dead
After dying repeatedly, even with awesome upgrades, it was time to just mark the game as "will not finish".
An example of one playthrough
* level 1 - got double tears shooting,some bombs, beat boss
* level 2- added tears power, got more money, and bombs, beat boss
* level 3 - got very powerful tears, tons of money, even more bombs, beat boss
* level 4 - got dead cat (you are reduced to 1 heart, but get 9 lives), got stuck behind required room with 6 enemies that do a full heart for damage at range -- lost all 9 lives and died
* flips table
One of my last playthroughs:
* level 1 - split tears, beat boss
* level 2 - faster tears, more powerful, beat boss
* level 3 - beat boss, fought demon, even more powerful tears
* level 4 - slaughtered every room, accidentally found envy boss, died as he humped me into a wall because I wasn't fast enough
Would I recommend this game? I'm not sure. I'm glad I played it, I might talk about it with friends if they bring it up, but overall it was honestly extremely frustrating.
Will I try it again later on? Maybe, but probably not. It really sucks to end on a losing note, but when I have such a crazy long backlog of games, it's really not worth wasting my time on something this frustrating. I think I'll stop while my table is still right-side up.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Of the many Ratchet & Clank games I've played, this is the second I've beaten.
The controls are like any other third person shooter. Move with left thumbstick, move the camera with the right. Shoot with R1, and hold L2 to strafe. Very intuitive, very easy.
The story gives you some more background into why the Lombax are missing. Not that the story is too deep.
The gameplay is like any other R&C game. Shoot stuff to get bolts, power up your weapons through use, and buy ammo/weapons with bolts. This is the first time I saw the new system of upgrading your weapons with crystals, which was a nice touch. I'm sure this came about in an earlier game, but this is the first I experienced it. Using crystals, you can power up your weapon in a variety of ways - more bolts from kills, more crystals from kills, more ammo, more damage, or something specific to the gun (faster shooting, acid explosions, etc.)
The graphics are good. The keep it a cartoony, so it has the R&C feel to it.
The voice acting is good, and the sound effects are quite nice. I just finished getting myself up to a 3.1 sound system, so I enjoyed the explosions a lot.
Things I need to gripe about:
They use the six-axis in a few unique ways, most of which were not enjoyable to me.
1) In a hacking mini-game, you use it to move a ball around a grid to connect circuits. I'd rather just use the left thumbstick
2) To control a specific weapon's destruction path, which makes controlling your character, your view, and it's path extremely difficult. It's unique, but not really enjoyable. This was the only weapon not at max level by the end of the game.
3) In very short mini-games where you are controlling Ratchet as he skydives down to a planet. Typically I just end up spinning it in a circle, as that avoids most enemies/missiles headed my way.
4) It also plays a small part in a pirate dancing game. This was the only tolerable one.
The checkpoints are abysmal. There were numerous times where a 10-20 minute stretch of the game was extended by 40-50 minutes because I kept falling off a ledge and having to repeat an entire sequence of rail-riding mini-games, or platform jumping nausea.
Falling off ledges and getting thrown back to the last checkpoint is very anti-climactic. I would rather die from getting shot or swarmed by mobs than falling off a ledge. And yes, there are lots of places to easily fall to your death.
Things that were fun:
Leveling up weapons, and blowing up enemies with more and more powerful weapons. That's tons of fun.
Keeping your weapons levels and your bolts on death is also great. This was the only good part of the checkpoint system. I found a great spot early in the game where I could kill a huge group of enemies, then jump off a cliff - keeping my earned bolts, crystals, and weapon levels. I used this exploit to power level 2-3 weapons very early on in the game. Pew pew pew, jump off cliff, repeat.
To borrow from Austin's blog:
What I expected: a simple third person shooter with neat weapons that I could finish in a few days.
What I got: a simple third person shooter with neat weapons, made longer by a horrible checkpoint spacing.
Would I recommend the game? Yes, because despite it's flaws, it was a really fun game.
How could it have been better? Make the six-axis controls optional and fix the spacing of the checkpoints.
The controls are like any other third person shooter. Move with left thumbstick, move the camera with the right. Shoot with R1, and hold L2 to strafe. Very intuitive, very easy.
The story gives you some more background into why the Lombax are missing. Not that the story is too deep.
The gameplay is like any other R&C game. Shoot stuff to get bolts, power up your weapons through use, and buy ammo/weapons with bolts. This is the first time I saw the new system of upgrading your weapons with crystals, which was a nice touch. I'm sure this came about in an earlier game, but this is the first I experienced it. Using crystals, you can power up your weapon in a variety of ways - more bolts from kills, more crystals from kills, more ammo, more damage, or something specific to the gun (faster shooting, acid explosions, etc.)
The graphics are good. The keep it a cartoony, so it has the R&C feel to it.
The voice acting is good, and the sound effects are quite nice. I just finished getting myself up to a 3.1 sound system, so I enjoyed the explosions a lot.
Things I need to gripe about:
They use the six-axis in a few unique ways, most of which were not enjoyable to me.
1) In a hacking mini-game, you use it to move a ball around a grid to connect circuits. I'd rather just use the left thumbstick
2) To control a specific weapon's destruction path, which makes controlling your character, your view, and it's path extremely difficult. It's unique, but not really enjoyable. This was the only weapon not at max level by the end of the game.
3) In very short mini-games where you are controlling Ratchet as he skydives down to a planet. Typically I just end up spinning it in a circle, as that avoids most enemies/missiles headed my way.
4) It also plays a small part in a pirate dancing game. This was the only tolerable one.
The checkpoints are abysmal. There were numerous times where a 10-20 minute stretch of the game was extended by 40-50 minutes because I kept falling off a ledge and having to repeat an entire sequence of rail-riding mini-games, or platform jumping nausea.
Falling off ledges and getting thrown back to the last checkpoint is very anti-climactic. I would rather die from getting shot or swarmed by mobs than falling off a ledge. And yes, there are lots of places to easily fall to your death.
Things that were fun:
Leveling up weapons, and blowing up enemies with more and more powerful weapons. That's tons of fun.
Keeping your weapons levels and your bolts on death is also great. This was the only good part of the checkpoint system. I found a great spot early in the game where I could kill a huge group of enemies, then jump off a cliff - keeping my earned bolts, crystals, and weapon levels. I used this exploit to power level 2-3 weapons very early on in the game. Pew pew pew, jump off cliff, repeat.
To borrow from Austin's blog:
What I expected: a simple third person shooter with neat weapons that I could finish in a few days.
What I got: a simple third person shooter with neat weapons, made longer by a horrible checkpoint spacing.
Would I recommend the game? Yes, because despite it's flaws, it was a really fun game.
How could it have been better? Make the six-axis controls optional and fix the spacing of the checkpoints.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Deus Ex: Human Revolution: The Missing Link DLC
Making this a quick and easy to read addition to the Deus Ex review, the DLC was good.
They start the story by taking away all of your Praxis points, but then give you back a bunch soon after. I felt a little cheated by this because I had a ridiculous amount of Praxis points by the time the DLC happens in the main story. AKA: We've replaced your level 20 character with a new level 8 character. =(
They did a good job with the layouts, stealth, and hacking. For some reason, I didn't realize you could drag a guards body over to a laser grid to disable it, just like it does for them as they walk by. This makes sneaking into some places much easier!
I was greatly confused with where the DLC was. It turns out it's a separate game on Steam you have to download. That was confusing.
Also, after playing through more of the same, I will say that the voice acting was still good, but the character animations during dialogs can feel a bit animatronic. Maybe there was a limit on the number of animation gestures they had?
Overall I greatly enjoyed the DLC. I beat it in around 7 hours, and basically in one sitting. I couldn't put it down.
Oh, and I got 9/10 achievements! Because one of the achievements is just insane... I was actually aiming for that achievement when I started until I realized it also requires not spending any Praxis points. Yeah, screw that!
They start the story by taking away all of your Praxis points, but then give you back a bunch soon after. I felt a little cheated by this because I had a ridiculous amount of Praxis points by the time the DLC happens in the main story. AKA: We've replaced your level 20 character with a new level 8 character. =(
They did a good job with the layouts, stealth, and hacking. For some reason, I didn't realize you could drag a guards body over to a laser grid to disable it, just like it does for them as they walk by. This makes sneaking into some places much easier!
I was greatly confused with where the DLC was. It turns out it's a separate game on Steam you have to download. That was confusing.
Also, after playing through more of the same, I will say that the voice acting was still good, but the character animations during dialogs can feel a bit animatronic. Maybe there was a limit on the number of animation gestures they had?
Overall I greatly enjoyed the DLC. I beat it in around 7 hours, and basically in one sitting. I couldn't put it down.
Oh, and I got 9/10 achievements! Because one of the achievements is just insane... I was actually aiming for that achievement when I started until I realized it also requires not spending any Praxis points. Yeah, screw that!
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
So I just finished this game, clocking in around 40 hours of playtime. Wow, that's a work week... Overall it was really good game, and I would recommend picking it up.
The controls are like any FPS, and handle quite well. It can get a bit tricky if you're trying to do something odd, like jump on top of something in a nook high up, but that's par for all FPS' controls.
The graphics are really good. They do pull you out of gameplay and into a beautifully rendered cutscenes, but it's not that often.
The gameplay is good. Most of the time they let you respond as you can in-game for quests and interactions, which is really awesome. Think Bethesda AI, but no one cares if you steal. The dialog system they use is also really neat, because you have to maneuver your way through conversations, which have multiple outcomes. Most of those outcomes are not good, so that's awesome too. You can also get an enhancement that helps persuade people, but you don't always need this to get what you want.
The hacking mini games can get tedious until you have enough upgrades. Once I got enough, it was tolerable to get through the complex hacking layouts. Hacking stealth and hacking skill are the two enhancements you need. Stealth will prevent the AI from activating, so you have a good chance of getting through undetected, and hacking level will allow you to hack higher level systems. You will still have to reload occasionally, because sometimes a 15% chance of being detected, results in being detected. =\ By the end of the game I had 77 Nuke Virus Softwares and 61 Stop! Worm Softwares collecting dust in my inventory, so they're pretty liberal with those. When the going gets tough, use them!
A noted minor annoyance of the hacking system - whenever successfully hacking a terminal you get experience. The experience notification is on the right side of the screen, preventing you from reading the email text immediately...
The sound effects and voice acting were spot-on. So I really enjoyed hearing the characters talk, and the bones cracking as I silently took down guards. On that note, the stealth enhancement is really useful for maneuvering around guards, or sneaking into a blind spot then shooting 3 guards with the stun gun. The multiple take down enhancement was also useful.
Oh, and there are boss fights. But they're not really fights, as much as lessons in humiliation for not getting the typhoon enhancement. Seriously.
The story was really good, and I liked how the side-quests inter weaved with the main plot. You don't feel like you were off doing something that didn't even matter. So huge props to Eidos for that.
Oh, and I did a stealth play through, if that wasn't apparent. So I maybe killed 10 people throughout the entire game. I did end up lugging around tons of weapons because I often went out of my way to a vendor and sold it all for cash. Then I used the cash to purchase Praxis points at the LIMB clinic as often as stock allowed. They do have automatic inventory management, so it will pack it in there nice and tight, so you don't have to play Tetris to fit in the new gun you found.
If you haven't figured it out by now, the game is great with a few minor gripes. Pick it up already!
The controls are like any FPS, and handle quite well. It can get a bit tricky if you're trying to do something odd, like jump on top of something in a nook high up, but that's par for all FPS' controls.
The graphics are really good. They do pull you out of gameplay and into a beautifully rendered cutscenes, but it's not that often.
The gameplay is good. Most of the time they let you respond as you can in-game for quests and interactions, which is really awesome. Think Bethesda AI, but no one cares if you steal. The dialog system they use is also really neat, because you have to maneuver your way through conversations, which have multiple outcomes. Most of those outcomes are not good, so that's awesome too. You can also get an enhancement that helps persuade people, but you don't always need this to get what you want.
The hacking mini games can get tedious until you have enough upgrades. Once I got enough, it was tolerable to get through the complex hacking layouts. Hacking stealth and hacking skill are the two enhancements you need. Stealth will prevent the AI from activating, so you have a good chance of getting through undetected, and hacking level will allow you to hack higher level systems. You will still have to reload occasionally, because sometimes a 15% chance of being detected, results in being detected. =\ By the end of the game I had 77 Nuke Virus Softwares and 61 Stop! Worm Softwares collecting dust in my inventory, so they're pretty liberal with those. When the going gets tough, use them!
A noted minor annoyance of the hacking system - whenever successfully hacking a terminal you get experience. The experience notification is on the right side of the screen, preventing you from reading the email text immediately...
The sound effects and voice acting were spot-on. So I really enjoyed hearing the characters talk, and the bones cracking as I silently took down guards. On that note, the stealth enhancement is really useful for maneuvering around guards, or sneaking into a blind spot then shooting 3 guards with the stun gun. The multiple take down enhancement was also useful.
Oh, and there are boss fights. But they're not really fights, as much as lessons in humiliation for not getting the typhoon enhancement. Seriously.
- Attempt boss fight with guns, fail
- Attempt boss fight with guns and grenades, fail
- Attempt boss fight again, changing tactics, fail
- Attempt boss fight, yet again, using different weapons, and running away a lot, fail
- Run up and use typhoon weapon a few times... win - W.T.F.
The story was really good, and I liked how the side-quests inter weaved with the main plot. You don't feel like you were off doing something that didn't even matter. So huge props to Eidos for that.
Oh, and I did a stealth play through, if that wasn't apparent. So I maybe killed 10 people throughout the entire game. I did end up lugging around tons of weapons because I often went out of my way to a vendor and sold it all for cash. Then I used the cash to purchase Praxis points at the LIMB clinic as often as stock allowed. They do have automatic inventory management, so it will pack it in there nice and tight, so you don't have to play Tetris to fit in the new gun you found.
If you haven't figured it out by now, the game is great with a few minor gripes. Pick it up already!
Monday, December 24, 2012
Orcs Must Die! 2
I got to a point where I had a few levels left on the game, but got
stuck. Then I gave up and looked at YouTube, then took a break from the
game. Today, I came back and finished it up.
The controls are like a typical FPS as far as shooting, and setting up traps is as easy as point and click. Rapid fire would have been kinda nice though. I can only play so much Orcs Must Die before I get defeated by carpal tunnel. Same as when I played Aquaria...
The graphics are basically the same as the first one. Very polished, very stylized, and perfect for the game.
The game play is the same as before, except they seem to like forcing you to defend two rifts. Perhaps as a prod toward co-op... hmm?
The sound effects are the same as well, good feedback when shooting stuff, very good voice overs for the characters. Overall just great.
The one minor annoyance I have is that you have to choose to be the Sorceress or War Mage at the start. As you progress through the game, they have a few traps that are specific to that character, and you hear more of their side of the story (I assume). FYI, the War Mage gets the floor tar trap... that is the best trap ever... and I beat the game without it. *sad face* After I completed the game with the Sorceress, I wondered if I could play with the War Mage and just burn through the game real quick. Nope, you get no skulls from your other character, no trap unlocks, no levels unlocked, nothing.
The one awesome thing they added is the ability to reset what you spent your skulls on, so you can try out enhancing other traps/weapons/trinkets/etc. Or, in most cases, optimize which should be enhanced for the level at hand.
To help prevent you getting stuck I will recommend a few things:
1) sometimes the best traps are no traps (I seriously breezed through a level using only templars and archers)2) you will always have to be involved in the fight, so make sure you're fighting where your defenses are weakest
3) barricades - you will always need these (see exception in rule #4)
4) the decoy trap is almost required for stopping Trolls, and this goes a lot smoother if you have a weapon that does a lot of damage (enhanced crossbow + head shots)
I would definitely recommend picking it up, especially if you enjoyed the first one.
The controls are like a typical FPS as far as shooting, and setting up traps is as easy as point and click. Rapid fire would have been kinda nice though. I can only play so much Orcs Must Die before I get defeated by carpal tunnel. Same as when I played Aquaria...
The graphics are basically the same as the first one. Very polished, very stylized, and perfect for the game.
The game play is the same as before, except they seem to like forcing you to defend two rifts. Perhaps as a prod toward co-op... hmm?
The sound effects are the same as well, good feedback when shooting stuff, very good voice overs for the characters. Overall just great.
The one minor annoyance I have is that you have to choose to be the Sorceress or War Mage at the start. As you progress through the game, they have a few traps that are specific to that character, and you hear more of their side of the story (I assume). FYI, the War Mage gets the floor tar trap... that is the best trap ever... and I beat the game without it. *sad face* After I completed the game with the Sorceress, I wondered if I could play with the War Mage and just burn through the game real quick. Nope, you get no skulls from your other character, no trap unlocks, no levels unlocked, nothing.
The one awesome thing they added is the ability to reset what you spent your skulls on, so you can try out enhancing other traps/weapons/trinkets/etc. Or, in most cases, optimize which should be enhanced for the level at hand.
To help prevent you getting stuck I will recommend a few things:
1) sometimes the best traps are no traps (I seriously breezed through a level using only templars and archers)2) you will always have to be involved in the fight, so make sure you're fighting where your defenses are weakest
3) barricades - you will always need these (see exception in rule #4)
4) the decoy trap is almost required for stopping Trolls, and this goes a lot smoother if you have a weapon that does a lot of damage (enhanced crossbow + head shots)
I would definitely recommend picking it up, especially if you enjoyed the first one.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
So, regardless of my previous post, I did go back and finish this game. Yes, it's that good.
The story is that Arkham Asylum goes to hell and Batman has to save the day. Quick to pull you in, and let you loose and get a feel for how you're Batman.
The controls are solid, with everything keeping you immersed and actually believing you are Batman. Even the mini games work out well, which was completely unexpected. It's unexpected in that there actually was a mini-game, and that they didn't pull me into a separate non-Batman experience to eat up time (Eg: BioShock, Alice: Madness Returns, etc.)
The graphics are amazing, and they used the Unreal engine really well for this game. Cookie cutter enemies you say? Yep, those are henchmen, and you kill many, many of them. The fact that they only look different based on what type they are is extremely helpful when you're fighting 20 of them, and need to pay special attention to particular types. Like the ones with pointy objects, or the other ones that shoot other smaller objects at high velocities.
The sound effects are spot-on, allowing you to hear the thuds of the punches and even the cracks of the ribs/skulls as you deliver the finishing blow. The voice acting was absolutely amazing. I don't think I would have enjoyed it enough to give it another shot if it wasn't for Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Then again, I can't imaging any Batman show/game without those two. They're just that good at delivering their characters.
The few things I didn't like about the game were the redundancy of the fights, as far as when you fight a bunch of mobs with a few stronger mobs. You end up doing it quite a few times before the game is over. I understand that you need filler, but the other unique fights, or encounters that are in the game were extremely entertaining. Even the sneak-around-and-take-people-out-silently "fights" were still more entertaining -- even if I did have to die ten times to get past one... Yep, I was doing it wrong.
If you haven't picked this up yet, then you are as bad as I am about playing games when they come out. Go pick it up and play it! Controller required.
I've heard the sequel is even more amazing, and I can't wait to start on it.
The story is that Arkham Asylum goes to hell and Batman has to save the day. Quick to pull you in, and let you loose and get a feel for how you're Batman.
The controls are solid, with everything keeping you immersed and actually believing you are Batman. Even the mini games work out well, which was completely unexpected. It's unexpected in that there actually was a mini-game, and that they didn't pull me into a separate non-Batman experience to eat up time (Eg: BioShock, Alice: Madness Returns, etc.)
The graphics are amazing, and they used the Unreal engine really well for this game. Cookie cutter enemies you say? Yep, those are henchmen, and you kill many, many of them. The fact that they only look different based on what type they are is extremely helpful when you're fighting 20 of them, and need to pay special attention to particular types. Like the ones with pointy objects, or the other ones that shoot other smaller objects at high velocities.
The sound effects are spot-on, allowing you to hear the thuds of the punches and even the cracks of the ribs/skulls as you deliver the finishing blow. The voice acting was absolutely amazing. I don't think I would have enjoyed it enough to give it another shot if it wasn't for Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Then again, I can't imaging any Batman show/game without those two. They're just that good at delivering their characters.
The few things I didn't like about the game were the redundancy of the fights, as far as when you fight a bunch of mobs with a few stronger mobs. You end up doing it quite a few times before the game is over. I understand that you need filler, but the other unique fights, or encounters that are in the game were extremely entertaining. Even the sneak-around-and-take-people-out-silently "fights" were still more entertaining -- even if I did have to die ten times to get past one... Yep, I was doing it wrong.
If you haven't picked this up yet, then you are as bad as I am about playing games when they come out. Go pick it up and play it! Controller required.
I've heard the sequel is even more amazing, and I can't wait to start on it.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
FTL
FTL is a single player game rogue-like space game.
You control a space ship, and have to escape star systems before the federation can catch you. You want to explore as much of the system as possible though, so you can collect more awesome things for your ship. The awesome things include additional crew members, scrap (currency), weapons, drones, ship augmentations, and new ship systems and system upgrades.
The controls are just point and click, with a few hotkeys from the keyboard thrown in. Space bar is pause, which you will be using often.
The graphics are basic, but get the job done. Think 16-bit.
The real hook of the game is that when you die, that's it. Here's your high score and you can now start again from the beginning. They allow you to save a continue file, so you can resume later on, but that's deleted when you load it. It's basically for allowing you to take a break and come back later.
You can also unlock in-game achievements that allow you to unlock more ships. I highly recommend pursuing these, because dying and having to restart with the same ship gets boring fast.
Now I played the game legitly for about 10 deaths, then I gave up and started backing up my continue file, and reloading from it whenever I died. I didn't save it every time I visited a new location in a system, but I generally saved it after making it through a system. With this I was finally able to finish the game.
I would highly recommend picking up the game, as it was a ton of fun. I would honestly try to play it the normal way a few times before you give up and backup your save files.
You control a space ship, and have to escape star systems before the federation can catch you. You want to explore as much of the system as possible though, so you can collect more awesome things for your ship. The awesome things include additional crew members, scrap (currency), weapons, drones, ship augmentations, and new ship systems and system upgrades.
The controls are just point and click, with a few hotkeys from the keyboard thrown in. Space bar is pause, which you will be using often.
The graphics are basic, but get the job done. Think 16-bit.
The real hook of the game is that when you die, that's it. Here's your high score and you can now start again from the beginning. They allow you to save a continue file, so you can resume later on, but that's deleted when you load it. It's basically for allowing you to take a break and come back later.
You can also unlock in-game achievements that allow you to unlock more ships. I highly recommend pursuing these, because dying and having to restart with the same ship gets boring fast.
Now I played the game legitly for about 10 deaths, then I gave up and started backing up my continue file, and reloading from it whenever I died. I didn't save it every time I visited a new location in a system, but I generally saved it after making it through a system. With this I was finally able to finish the game.
I would highly recommend picking up the game, as it was a ton of fun. I would honestly try to play it the normal way a few times before you give up and backup your save files.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)