So I finally finished Trine 2 with my friend Owen. I have to say that it was a lot of fun playing a coop game with a friend that was extremely like-minded in terms of collecting every orb while simultaneously trying to break the game's physics.
Let me start by saying the graphics are amazing. A great improvement from the first, and absolutely stunning overall. The animations are a bit rigid, and the physics can be a bit off, but it didn't really detract from anything.
We didn't pick up the DLC "The Complete Story", and yet it wrapped itself up nicely at the end. It's only $5 more, and we might do this later on, but for now, we'll consider this game beaten.
The controls are great, with mouse and keyboard working seamlessly well together. The keyboard is for movement, and the mouse controls your abilities and targeting.
The game play was greatly improved from the first by adding multiplayer, and by removing your magic meter entirely from the game. No longer do you need to keep going back to checkpoints or killing enemies for mana, rejoice! This made the game so much more enjoyable, and avoided many of the slowdowns that occurred in the first. Sadly, they also removed the equipment, which would give you nice effects in the first. The secret chests now contain concept artwork, or poems, so that's... nice?
The AI was also more varied than the first, and enemies had a much larger diversity. I would say that some of the boss fights were a little silly, because they would kill you in a single hit. So it became an evade-the-hit-or-die kind of thing, which doesn't feel like a good boss fight mechanic to me.
The voice acting is on par for the first one. The narrator is good, and the characters are alright.
The puzzles also got a huge improvement from the first, with a large leaning toward cooperative play. I would have to say that it's probably a better two player game than a three player game, because with two people, you get to switch to the off character, which means that the person playing Amadeus can switch to Pontius or Zoya. For reference, I played Amadeus almost entirely, and Pontius in fights, and Owen played Zoya almost exclusively. This worked out extremely well.
I highly recommend picking it up if you're in the mood for an amazing puzzle/coop game. It's fantastic.
To put a value on it, which I try to avoid doing, I would have paid $15-20 for this game in perfect hindsight. Great coop game with easily 8 hours of gameplay.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Antichamber
I picked up Antichamber after hearing very good things about it, and it going on sale with the Steam Summer Sale. The game is amazing.
This is the first time I've seen a menu this immersive. The only thing I've seen that comes close is Fallout 3/New Vegas. There are no menus, pressing Escape takes you to a room with a wall painted with the menu.
The controls are standard FPS, plain and simple (the only part of the game that is).
The graphics minimalistic, with mostly black and white coloring, with touches of color when it matters.
The story is as vague as it can be, with a portal-like picture system for describing interactions, and picture quotes on the walls to give you hints. Some much more useful than others, but almost all useful.
The main focus of this game is puzzles. Some logical, some oddly logical. Sherlock Holmes put it best - "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." I don't want to get into too much details, but within the first 10 minutes of the game you'll get a feel for how the game plays out. They break every rule of level design, and it's mind-blowing.
The game took me around 7-8 hours to complete. There were only a few areas where I looked up what to do, only to realize I was very close to the solution, and just didn't realize it.
If you haven't tried it out yet, go get it! My only issue with it is that prolonged playing can make you a bit nauseous. About the same as I felt with Portal 1 and 2, or Prey.
Two spoilers below as far as game mechanics, so don't read on if you want to figure it out yourself.
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MINOR MECHANIC SPOILERS BELOW
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Alright then, here's a few tips to get you started and avoiding wasting time.
1) The map on the wall works like this:
* small boxes are solved rooms
* large boxes are unsolved rooms
* short stubs on a room means there's an exit you haven't taken yet
* arrows means it warps you to somewhere else
2) if you come up to blocks of a color that you haven't picked up the gun for, you'll need to come back. Don't waste time trying to solve something you're not equipped for.
3) YouTube will help you solve puzzles, but be warned that it's hard to find a single solution without seeing them play through 3-4 other puzzles on the way there
This is the first time I've seen a menu this immersive. The only thing I've seen that comes close is Fallout 3/New Vegas. There are no menus, pressing Escape takes you to a room with a wall painted with the menu.
The controls are standard FPS, plain and simple (the only part of the game that is).
The graphics minimalistic, with mostly black and white coloring, with touches of color when it matters.
The story is as vague as it can be, with a portal-like picture system for describing interactions, and picture quotes on the walls to give you hints. Some much more useful than others, but almost all useful.
The main focus of this game is puzzles. Some logical, some oddly logical. Sherlock Holmes put it best - "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." I don't want to get into too much details, but within the first 10 minutes of the game you'll get a feel for how the game plays out. They break every rule of level design, and it's mind-blowing.
The game took me around 7-8 hours to complete. There were only a few areas where I looked up what to do, only to realize I was very close to the solution, and just didn't realize it.
If you haven't tried it out yet, go get it! My only issue with it is that prolonged playing can make you a bit nauseous. About the same as I felt with Portal 1 and 2, or Prey.
Two spoilers below as far as game mechanics, so don't read on if you want to figure it out yourself.
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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
MINOR MECHANIC SPOILERS BELOW
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Alright then, here's a few tips to get you started and avoiding wasting time.
1) The map on the wall works like this:
* small boxes are solved rooms
* large boxes are unsolved rooms
* short stubs on a room means there's an exit you haven't taken yet
* arrows means it warps you to somewhere else
2) if you come up to blocks of a color that you haven't picked up the gun for, you'll need to come back. Don't waste time trying to solve something you're not equipped for.
3) YouTube will help you solve puzzles, but be warned that it's hard to find a single solution without seeing them play through 3-4 other puzzles on the way there
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Bionic Commando Rearmed
So I picked up this game from the Summer Steam sale. Figured a bit of nostalgia would be fun, and it was... mostly.
The controls are standard, the graphics look like XBLA quality, the writing is silly, and the story is close to the original (for all I remember). The sound tracks are revamped versions of the original, so that was really cool.
The nice things they did:
* Allowed switching weapons on the fly
* Added weapon upgrades
* No longer required you to pick the correct com unit per level
* More hits before you're dead
The last level was brutally hard, and you'll use up quite a few lives just getting tot he boss. So I recommend revisiting each of the camps and stocking up on 1ups. This is really my only real gripe about the game.
After beating the game on normal, they unlocked the super hard mode. Yeah... I'm good.
The controls are standard, the graphics look like XBLA quality, the writing is silly, and the story is close to the original (for all I remember). The sound tracks are revamped versions of the original, so that was really cool.
The nice things they did:
* Allowed switching weapons on the fly
* Added weapon upgrades
* No longer required you to pick the correct com unit per level
* More hits before you're dead
The last level was brutally hard, and you'll use up quite a few lives just getting tot he boss. So I recommend revisiting each of the camps and stocking up on 1ups. This is really my only real gripe about the game.
After beating the game on normal, they unlocked the super hard mode. Yeah... I'm good.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Gunpoint
So I picked up Gunpoint a few days ago on the Steam Summer sales. All it took were the patch notes and the trailer video and I knew I had to play it.
The graphics are about on par with Terreria.
The controls are simple, WASD to move, mouse to leap, and hold Alt to modify circuitry. The toggling to modify circuitry is a bit wonky, but you get used to it.
The sound effects are simple, and quite enjoyable. The sound of defenestration, quick smacking sounds, click/switches, leaping, etc. all work great.
The story was a written very well. It was a bit tough to follow, since it's doing a spy story with secrets and double crosses, etc. so I just went with whatever dialog options seemed enjoyable.
I beat the game in about 2 hours and paid $6 for it. Absolutely worth 2 hours of your time. Go get it.
Pro tip, you can incapacitate the body armor guards by knocking them out windows. Defenestration FTW!
The graphics are about on par with Terreria.
The controls are simple, WASD to move, mouse to leap, and hold Alt to modify circuitry. The toggling to modify circuitry is a bit wonky, but you get used to it.
The sound effects are simple, and quite enjoyable. The sound of defenestration, quick smacking sounds, click/switches, leaping, etc. all work great.
The story was a written very well. It was a bit tough to follow, since it's doing a spy story with secrets and double crosses, etc. so I just went with whatever dialog options seemed enjoyable.
I beat the game in about 2 hours and paid $6 for it. Absolutely worth 2 hours of your time. Go get it.
Pro tip, you can incapacitate the body armor guards by knocking them out windows. Defenestration FTW!
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Lugaru HD
So I finally finished Lugaru HD on the easiest difficulty. Holy crap was it brutal!
You can fudge your way through quite a few levels, but then you will hit a brick wall referred to as "3 wolves". There are enough forum posts about this specific fight to confirm I was not the only person to get massacred at this fight.
The controls are simple, and combinations of them are the key to performing different moves at different times.
The fighting animations and technical finesse are quite amazing, and the physics was enjoyable. Quite often something would happen that would trigger an explosion of force, so the enemy or you would ragdoll about 50 feet in the air. Hilarious (unless it's you, for the 20th time, again the 3 wolves...)
The graphics are outdated, but enough to get the point across. The moves are well understood when they're happening, the animations blend extremely well on the models.
I really liked that there's more depth in the game than is immediately visible. Wolves tracking by scent, they can smell blood, etc. If you want to ignore the details you can also just pretend they have a sixth sense and try to kill them anyways.
Would I recommend playing this game? Yes, because it's extremely unique and enjoyable once you understand the fighting.
When starting out, go here and watch the bottom video. It will explain how fighting work. It makes a lot of sense, but is quite gaming intuitive, since more games don't get into the nitty gritty of how melee fighting works.
You can fudge your way through quite a few levels, but then you will hit a brick wall referred to as "3 wolves". There are enough forum posts about this specific fight to confirm I was not the only person to get massacred at this fight.
The controls are simple, and combinations of them are the key to performing different moves at different times.
The fighting animations and technical finesse are quite amazing, and the physics was enjoyable. Quite often something would happen that would trigger an explosion of force, so the enemy or you would ragdoll about 50 feet in the air. Hilarious (unless it's you, for the 20th time, again the 3 wolves...)
The graphics are outdated, but enough to get the point across. The moves are well understood when they're happening, the animations blend extremely well on the models.
I really liked that there's more depth in the game than is immediately visible. Wolves tracking by scent, they can smell blood, etc. If you want to ignore the details you can also just pretend they have a sixth sense and try to kill them anyways.
Would I recommend playing this game? Yes, because it's extremely unique and enjoyable once you understand the fighting.
Am I ashamed for not playing this earlier, since I've had this since the first Humble Bundle went live. Yes, yes I am.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Batman: Arkham City
Once again, Rocksteady does an amazing job at making Batman awesome. In this one, you even get to play as Catwoman to change things up a bit. The entire game, including DLC took me about 21 hours to complete.
So instead of my normal review structure, I'm just going to say that it was every bit as good as Arkham Asylum, and then some. I'll now go into the and them some.
What I liked:
Unique gadgets? Yep, they added quite a few, including my all new favorite type of grenade that let's me incapacitate a single enemy in a fight, and take them down last. There are also tons of new enemies. Enemies with body armor you have to focus beat down, or they just keep coming back at you. Enemies with car doors, and you have to knock it out of their hands with a cool move. They also kept all the same ones as before (guns, knives, stun rods, snipers, etc.)
The boss fights step it up to a much better level than the first. There are actually tactics relevant to the boss, and it's not as repetitive. They also look awesome.
What I didn't like:
Zsasz kept calling on a nearby phone whenever I got close to my next objective. Then he'd make me fly across the entire city to answer another phone, just pushing back my progress! Inconsiderate jerk! Well, that's what he's supposed to do, and at least I got my grappling hook speed boost from the VR training. Yes, you should get that as soon as possible, and yes, the VR training are ridiculously hard. Especially VR training #1. If you miss a single target, you fail, they tell you you failed, and you have to run/fly/climb your way back to the start to retry.
The other thing that was a bit annoying was that it wasn't as straight-forward for me to figure out where to go, even with an icon standing over the map. This is probably because the game went from an asylum, with narrow passages, limited pathing to an open city. I'm also really bad at figuring out what a game wants me to do, so there's that. =\
And there were a few fights where it was tight quarters against very tough opponents. Dying a few times, listening to Joker/Strange/etc. tell me I'm dead, and trying again. Still better than just repeatedly fighting 2-3 pseudo-Banes like in the first. =)
The equipment upgrades are good, but after a I got about 1/2 way in, I was just filling out the rest because I had the points.
In summary, if you liked the first one, get on this now. It's amazing and well worth whatever price it's currently listed for.
DLC: Harley's Revenge
2-3 hours of solid story, fights, and trying out a new character. Also much fewer distractions than the main game. Get it.
So instead of my normal review structure, I'm just going to say that it was every bit as good as Arkham Asylum, and then some. I'll now go into the and them some.
What I liked:
Unique gadgets? Yep, they added quite a few, including my all new favorite type of grenade that let's me incapacitate a single enemy in a fight, and take them down last. There are also tons of new enemies. Enemies with body armor you have to focus beat down, or they just keep coming back at you. Enemies with car doors, and you have to knock it out of their hands with a cool move. They also kept all the same ones as before (guns, knives, stun rods, snipers, etc.)
The boss fights step it up to a much better level than the first. There are actually tactics relevant to the boss, and it's not as repetitive. They also look awesome.
What I didn't like:
Zsasz kept calling on a nearby phone whenever I got close to my next objective. Then he'd make me fly across the entire city to answer another phone, just pushing back my progress! Inconsiderate jerk! Well, that's what he's supposed to do, and at least I got my grappling hook speed boost from the VR training. Yes, you should get that as soon as possible, and yes, the VR training are ridiculously hard. Especially VR training #1. If you miss a single target, you fail, they tell you you failed, and you have to run/fly/climb your way back to the start to retry.
The other thing that was a bit annoying was that it wasn't as straight-forward for me to figure out where to go, even with an icon standing over the map. This is probably because the game went from an asylum, with narrow passages, limited pathing to an open city. I'm also really bad at figuring out what a game wants me to do, so there's that. =\
And there were a few fights where it was tight quarters against very tough opponents. Dying a few times, listening to Joker/Strange/etc. tell me I'm dead, and trying again. Still better than just repeatedly fighting 2-3 pseudo-Banes like in the first. =)
The equipment upgrades are good, but after a I got about 1/2 way in, I was just filling out the rest because I had the points.
In summary, if you liked the first one, get on this now. It's amazing and well worth whatever price it's currently listed for.
DLC: Harley's Revenge
2-3 hours of solid story, fights, and trying out a new character. Also much fewer distractions than the main game. Get it.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Journey
I had many people tell me that I should play Journey. I didn't realize what type of game it was until I went to the session on designing Journey by Jenova Chen at GDC13. After I got back home, I bought it and beat it in the same day.
The controls are extremely simple. The left thumbstick moves your character. Tilting the controller or using the right thumbstick turns the camera. Pressing O will put out a small ping with a symbol indicating your name. Holding down O will put out a stronger ping. Pinging is mainly for activating world objects. When powered up you can fly briefly by pressing X. You can get powered up by touching the ribbons in the world, being pinged by another player, or colliding with another player.
The graphics were very good and stylized. There were large deserts with ruins scattered throughout, dark caves, temples, and frozen wastelands. The air physics on the ribbons in the world look really good, also the strong winds that push you back in the cold.
The music and sound affects are very good. The music beautifully sets the tone and the sound affects resonates the mood.
I played with them to the completion of the game. When monsters were attacking one of us, the other instinctively ran to the other for support. When one of us was being blocked by harsh winds, the other would wait so we could carry on as a team. When we were trudging through the thick snow, forced to walk slower, and slower, the other was right there. There was nothing keeping us tied together except for the desire for us to travel together, and not brave it alone. At the end of the game, it tells you who the other symbols are, this person was SweetCupcake16. If you're out there, thanks.
Normally I would find something to complain about in a game, but I don't really have anything here. The game wasn't too short or too long. I got through it in roughly the time it takes to watch a long movie. On top, I always felt like I was progressing and seeing new things. The controls were concise, the graphics amazing, the sound brilliant.
I highly recommend playing this game. It was a great experience and well worth it. If you have a PS3 and haven't played this game yet, you need to get it right now.
The controls are extremely simple. The left thumbstick moves your character. Tilting the controller or using the right thumbstick turns the camera. Pressing O will put out a small ping with a symbol indicating your name. Holding down O will put out a stronger ping. Pinging is mainly for activating world objects. When powered up you can fly briefly by pressing X. You can get powered up by touching the ribbons in the world, being pinged by another player, or colliding with another player.
The graphics were very good and stylized. There were large deserts with ruins scattered throughout, dark caves, temples, and frozen wastelands. The air physics on the ribbons in the world look really good, also the strong winds that push you back in the cold.
The music and sound affects are very good. The music beautifully sets the tone and the sound affects resonates the mood.
The game also has seamless coop. The way it works is it finds people in your area of the game, and seamlessly joins them into your game so you can see other people on their journey. I ran into a few different people near the start, but then I ran into someone about 10-15 minutes in that seemed to share my way of exploring the world and solving puzzles. Their name was a symbol that looked like two lowercase n's on top, and two vertical lines on the bottom, so that was my only indication that it was the same person.
I played with them to the completion of the game. When monsters were attacking one of us, the other instinctively ran to the other for support. When one of us was being blocked by harsh winds, the other would wait so we could carry on as a team. When we were trudging through the thick snow, forced to walk slower, and slower, the other was right there. There was nothing keeping us tied together except for the desire for us to travel together, and not brave it alone. At the end of the game, it tells you who the other symbols are, this person was SweetCupcake16. If you're out there, thanks.
Normally I would find something to complain about in a game, but I don't really have anything here. The game wasn't too short or too long. I got through it in roughly the time it takes to watch a long movie. On top, I always felt like I was progressing and seeing new things. The controls were concise, the graphics amazing, the sound brilliant.
I highly recommend playing this game. It was a great experience and well worth it. If you have a PS3 and haven't played this game yet, you need to get it right now.
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