Sequels tend to do one of two things: one, act as a method by which a developer can lean on past works and positive critical acclaim to drive quick, easy sales for fast cash, or two, allow developers a chance to soften up the rough edges of a title and see their initial vision through to a better, more polished end the second time around.
The former, much like in Hollywood, is abused far too often and really gives sequels as a whole a bad wrap, to the point that even talking about anticipation of an upcoming sequel draws snappy comments and glaring looks from those smug, thumb-your-nose types who like to ramble on about how sequels are cop-outs that ruin creative thinking and are instead developer cash-ins on an old idea gone stale because they couldn't do something new and exciting. Yeah, we both know the types. But in a world where developers like EA can crank out an entirely "new" sports game every 9 months, or a market that will actually accept (and gladly support) eleven different Mario Party games - not even copy cats, mind you - since 1999, can you blame them?
The answer is no, especially since for every Mario Party or Madden (well, maybe every 2-3) there is instead a fresh, new, interesting concept that just needs a few adjustments to really shine or perhaps has a new tale to tell outside of its original one. Can you imagine what gaming would be like if we didn't have sequels? We'd never have Half-Life 2. You would never know of the wonders of Hyrule in 3-D (or reimagined 2-D for that matter). There would be no Final Fantasy 7 to spark the JRPG craze, no Grand Theft Auto 3 to practically define 'sandbox' gaming as we know it. And of course, more recently, we wouldn't have an Assassin's Creed 2. And that would be a real shame.
Granted, I'm not one of those people that really had that big of a problem with the first game. Yes I could see some small flaws but as a whole - and especially for a new IP trying to broaden or even change the definition of an entire genre - it was a near masterpiece of technical execution and a driving force in defining this generation of console's interactive entertainment. Sure there were some glitches, yeah not everything was totally polished and if you really forced yourself to be a completionist but didn't like it you would easily get frustrated, but as far as first passes go it was really a tour de force. But at that point I'm really reaching for reasons to fault the game aside from just admiting that even the best things aren't perfect.
That is, of course, until now. Assassin's Creed 2 is so much more vast, detailed, immersive and open-ended that it makes the first game look like a tech demo by comparison. I will not lie when I say that this was easily my most anticipated game of the year and I went in expecting great things, only to be blown away by how much more improved and built up everything was. Does it still have flaws? Definitely. Is it better in every way than the original? Absolutely. Is it "Game of the Year"? Well I don't remember exactly everything that came out this year (I should probably do a retrospective and comment on that) but it is easily up there with the rest of them, and likely leading. If you liked the first one even a little bit - if some small bit got you pulled in but you got frustrated, or maybe you liked it but thought it was a bit bland, or were aggrivated with the glitchy PS3 version, or just never really got all that into it, just close this window right now and go get a copy because I can almost guarantee this game will convince you that Ubisoft knows what it is doing, and doing it well.
Story wise the premise is the same - you go back in time (kinda) to become an Assassin and learn more about his life and the ultimate part you (the 'present day' character) play in this story. Except that the sequel picks up almost immediately where the first one left off and does not lazily walk you through the tutorial. From the first second you power on the game you are thrown into a hostile situation and you must learn (or relearn) many of the basic moves by means of actively using, not passively learning and copying. It is, in my opinion, a much more captivating way to familiarize the player to the controls that keeps them interested and doesn't make them feel like they have to have their hands held the entire time. The way they explain the concept of the control method, "puppeteering" (where the 4 buttons each represent a part of the body at all times) is especially neat and I think conveys the system's intent much better than the first game.
The first thing you will notice, though, as things cool down is that this time the story is not so much about the 'Assassin' of the past as it is the person. You spend a fair amount of time living out Ezio Auditore's (our new Assassin) early adult life, meeting his family and setting the stage for his eventual transition into the role of the Assassin and how he gets involved in all this. In the first game, Altair was not exactly a mute but he often was merely a tool used by Ubisoft to tell the story or give it more of a central point. You never really learn much about him, he's not even really all that likeable (he gets demoted for basically being a self centered know-it-all) and he really never is that relatable for a few breif moments near the end of the game. It is clear that Ubisoft spent more of it's time developing and crafting a world around Ezio (who you play as 95% of the time anyway) instead of throwing the part away as a gameplay device and trying to focus as much on the present time, and it shows. It helps make the game feel like it can stand on it's own more because you at least complete Ezio's part in the game (save the soon-to-be-released DLC), making the now famous cliffhanger endings that much more bearable. With more time spent on characters in that world as well, it gives many more unique and powerful supporting roles that really helps bring Italy alive as you play and explore. The world feels bigger, yet less vacant. There are more people but they aren't just more empty faces in a crowd. And there's more story of the character you actually play and get invested in, not of the one you rarely see. Overall, the presentation is improved in nearly every way and it really shows.
Gameplay wise, again, nearly the same, but with noted improvements to fix what was seen as 'bad' with the first one or just to make things a bit more intriguing or fun. Your arsenal grows substantially, and while you still have your staples in the hidden blade, short sword and sword, you can now pick custom weapons that have different strengths and weaknesses (ability to deflect, damage dealt, etc) as well as a slew of new (and wicked deadly) methods to choose from. Try the poison, which you can use on an unsuspecting guard to send them flailing around in a beserk rage at those around him before he expires. Or the smoke bombs, to quickly get out of sticky situations without having to be constantly chased down and knocked over by guards. There are many more incredibly useful new toys to play with, but I'll do my best to save you the surprises for yourself in case you ever pick up the game. Suffice it to say that if you ever found yourself thinking that the fighting in the first game was too boring and repetitive, there are so many new weapons and gadgets to choose from that you'll be hard pressed to go even 10 minutes killing every guard the same way.
And, ironically enough, you hardly even have to fight if you don't want to. New gameplay options like blending and hiring helpers can get you much farther much faster than just brute force slayings ever could. Need some guards distracted? Hire some courtesans to flirt with them while you sneak past. How about need some guards moved so you can go for the kill on the guy they are guarding? Call over some theives and have them steal from one of the guards and they will give chase. Maybe you just want to get through a crowded, guarded area without being seen. Blend in with crowds and even walk with them undetected (and not just select people like the first game - pretty much any group of peope). Of course, if you prefer the brute force method, round up a few mercenary friends to fight by your side as you take down a large group of enemies. There are many ways to help keep the pressure off you so you don't have to fight 40 guards between you and your next true victim.
Speaking of victims, the story plays out much more like a story now and much less like a list of chores you need to accomplish before you are given your allowance. No more choosing from a list of side missions that are available and being forced to complete some number of them before you are allowed to proceed. Everything you do plays its part in the story and helps to set up the next kill in a very linear, easy to follow fashion. Side missions are still there - races make a still-aggrivating comeback, as well as do small-fry assassinations and new events like "beat ups" - but they are entirely optional and usually only give money and completion. Many of the hired, non-story assassinations end up being quite challening and fun, and there are so many that if you do every side mission between 'real' ones that you could easily go 3-5 hours between story bits just exploring and completing things that have recently opened up to you. Even more OCD things - like feather collecting - make an appearance, but even they are more well organized and better executed than the first.
The main storyline offers enough different gameplay to really show off the new system and keep you interested while not becoming too monotonous (with one notable exception being the 'fetch' quest at the end, but even then that's probably not too bad unless you just ignored every side item available to you ever), all the while improved and expanded on with a better story and characters to really help it along. At this point if you honestly think the game is still "repetitive" you either need to be doing something different every 5 seconds, in which case you need professional help for some supercharged ADHD, or you just have a vendetta against the game and like to use popular buzzwords to slap it down. Between your new toys, the new missions and the much better story and characters, there is really no reason for you to go around doing the same thing every time except your own laziness.
Graphically the game is a marvel of the raw power of this generation of devices (just like the last), but is even more pleasing because instead of harsh, bland desert to see for miles around you get things like green mountainsides, vast oceans or bustling cities. Somehow the facial animations and lip-synching seem to have taken a bizzare step in the backwards direction, often being difficult or awkward to look in close ups but otherwise fine at long distance, but otherwise animation is generally smooth and impressive. The new kills and counter kills are incredibly brutal (and an absolute joy to watch) although the occasional hiccup/glitch can sometimes leave you stealing money from out of the air or breaking the 'knee' of a wall but considering all the incredible things it tries to accomplish I can almost say that I'm amazed it doesn't happen more. All together it's significantly more polished than the first ever was, but it leaves me wondering if perhaps they are capping out the raw throughput of current-gen tech and are just having to find weird or different ways to hide it in the world as it grows and evolves.
When all is said and done, Assassin's Creed 2 is everything done right in a sequel: Improvements across the board in almost every possible way while really expanding the scope of the game and helping cement it's style in place. It is extremely difficult to think of a reason NOT to recommend this game as I believe even people who strongly disliked the first have a good reason to give this one a try, and people who loved the first have no excuse for not already owning it. A few minor flaws aside, Assassin's Creed 2 helps Ubisoft prove it has a winner in it's newest franchise that only left me wanting more, which I will get in the form of DLC in January and Feburary. After that, well, it's probably another 2 years of wondering exactly where the next game will take place and patiently waiting for even the smallest hints of news about it. After seeing how much they improved between #1 and #2, I can't wait to see what they can do with the third iteration.
Friday, December 25, 2009
A Killer Sequel
Sunday, December 20, 2009
It'll leave you wishing for an apocalypse...
A friend of mine recently reminded me (read: chided me) for not reviewing recently, and after looking here and realizing I haven't written anything since early September, I have to completely agree with him. I've been lazy and should really fix that. So, here we go, the completion of something I started in September (although I don't feel bad because the game is over a year old at this point) and promise of attempting to be more diligent in the future (we're heard that one before though, right?).
I actually had someone request two reviews of me: one was for World of Goo, which I was more than happy to do, and Fallout 3. While it looks like I'm merely doing these because I was requested to (more requests are certainly appreciated, hint hint), the fact that I just very recently finished it is equally as good of an excuse to write a review for it. So, while the game is not exactly new, my experience of definitely it is.
I will honestly say that, besides being aware of the Fallout franchise, I was otherwise completely oblivious to anything about it. I haven't played the first two games, nor any of the spinoffs associated with it, so I was completely oblivious of its history and roots. The first time I actually even saw a Fallout game was at PAX08, watching the Bethesda team show off their demos on the expo floor and going to the Fallout 3 panel to watch them more fully explain/show off what the game could do. The game looked impressive visually, but I had one small problem with it that I couldn't overcome that prevented me from getting hyped about it. Ironically, that problem is freedom.
You see, I am one of those people that still has nightmares about Morrowind. I can not even begin to tell you how many times I have started Morrowind, only to get so engrossed and so involved in the game that I completely forgot where I was, what I was doing or where I was attempting to go. The freedom offered by those games actually paralyzes me to the point that I no longer find interest in the game because I cannot keep focused on anything and get overwhelmed at what I've gotten myself into. Case in point: on one play though, I was playing through Morrowind and had gotten about as far as I'd ever gotten. I'd done my best to try and stay focused on ONLY the main story and to give it my best shot at "beating" the game, if it's even possible to call it that. I played off and on for several weeks, not devoting my full attention to it but simply attempting to continue to move through the game. I got to a quest in the game that required me to retrieve a special book of some kind, I don't exactly remember what, but I had (apparently) already gone and picked up this book... and promptly lost it. I looked around the town to see if I had sold it somewhere, or perhaps placed it down in one of my impromptu "houses" but it was completely lost. My freedom to steal, sell, and place absolutely anything anywhere had found a way to block my progress yet again, and to this day I've never gotten farther than that.
So when people talked about Fallout being "like Oblivion" (which I had never picked up for much the same reasons), and it was being created by pretty much the exact same team, I was instantly turned off. Another open world game that I'm going to get completely lost in? Yeah, no thanks. So I managed to survive the hype, watching as Bethesda released the game to huge critical and commercial success, pushed out a truckload of extra DLC goodies, and maintain a constant stream of coverage in gaming news and commentary articles everywhere. But eventually, as I tend to do, I caved. Too many people just said too many good things about this game for me to ignore it anymore. I just had to play the final copy for myself to see if it was actually something I can get into.
100 hours later, I think I can safely say that was a good decision (if not a really, really long one).
The game has a very interesting way of starting you off in a sort of glorified tutorial, letting you see your own birth, determining what you would look like in the future, using your baby years to determine your stats, and your teenage years to determine your skills or style of play. It does a pretty good job of catering to both newcomers and replayers alike, allowing you to skip the test parts to determine your own stats directly without requiring you to know the specific answers you need to choose. It is always nice when a developer takes the boring (yet often necessary) tutorial and spends time working it into their world. Certainly much more friendly, intuitive and fun to do than sitting through screen after screen of character creation options like I did in Morrowind.It really helps add to that sense of being involved in the story and a part of the world.
After your story really begins, well, you step out into one of the most expansive and marvelous spans of desolation and destruction I've seen in a while. Yes, it suffers from your standard "realistic graphics" problems - lots of greys and browns with nothing really stylized or colorful to speak of - and the post apocalyptic setting does absolutely nothing to help this. Most of what you'll see in the world is little more than an eerily empty wasteland, occasionally inhabited by wild creatures or bandits. But that doesn't mean the entire world suffers for it. It may be hard to have the drab, boring landscapes take you in, but that style really does capture the state of the world quite well and help make the few inhabited areas of the world feel a little bit more lively. Despite not being much to look at aesthetically, some areas really will catch your attention. Maybe it's the skyscraper that stands tall over the otherwise ruined buildings, the luscious trees clumped together in the middle of the barren world, or just the shock of seeing the more iconic monuments of Washington D.C. partially destroyed and overrun with mutants. It may be somewhat bland and dark, but the game presents itself quite well and uses what it has to full effect.
Unfortunately, that means both the good with the bad. People still look and 'feel' more like robots than they do humans, shuffling stiffly from area to area and never really looking 'normal' doing so. Dialogue and facial animations are even worse, never quite selling you on what is being said and the emotion being portrayed, which is sad because the voice acting in the game is rather top-notch. The radio personality "Three Dog" (or is it "dawg"?) has a very powerful and interesting personality over the radio, made even stronger by the fact he is often your last connection to humanity as you traverse the empty wastes in your quest, but in person the mystique and personality is just ruined by clunky animations and awful facial expressions. Maybe Valve has really spoiled us with the amazing work they did on Half Life 2, but it has been very hard of late to find games that can truly overcome the stiff, robotic feel of physical movement and speech.
Fortunately for you, very little of that matters because you will be so busy lapping up the detailed world and all of the things you can do in it that you'll hardly notice (or care) all that much about those things. While Fallout 3 is probably as expansive (if not more so) than Morrowind, it solves many of the problems I had with it through better gameplay decisions and UI choices. While there are many missions you may choose to go on at any time, they are all noted, collected and organized directly with your map in a way that leaves absolutely no question as to where you need to go or what you need to do. Even notes or speech that triggered the objective are kept around in case you would like to listen again or might need a specific piece of information to guide you in the right direction. This is especially true of the main story, where it is most needed, and really helps because often times you will spend 8-10 hours doing side tasks and completely forget what you were doing and where you needed to go.
There are still some small quests that have no formal means of tracking, but these are usually side quests that have no real bearing on the story (or your character) and are more for the rewards, back story, or just to add general flavor to the world. While it is easy to get lost or forget what you were doing on those, I'm personally OK with that because it did not hinder me from 'beating' the game and allows those who are interested in doing so they chance to really explore the world on their own. Despite being so adamant about wanting to make sure I always have a firm grasp of where I'm supposed to go and what I'm supposed to do next in a game, I still believe that there should be some reward and sense of accomplishment for just exploring, as that is something that many people still like to do.
Fast travel is an amazing addition, letting you quickly travel to any place you've been to before, from anywhere in the world, so long as you aren't near enemies or in an area where you shouldn't be able to do so. Some may argue that it ruins the size of the world by being able to do that, but very rarely do I want to spend 20-30 minutes trekking back to a town just to buy or sell something. I get a good enough idea of the size and scope of the world as I am uncovering new places and going new areas. I don't want to be reminded of how big it is when the game tells me I need to go halfway across the map for my next quest, I just want to get back to the action!
Like any good Bethesda RPG, you can customize your character in any number of ways - from hair to shape to stats and abilities - and can play the game multiple different ways and still succeed. I chose to play as a sneaky, small arms type but you could just as easily be a tough, big arms type or a quick, melee weapon fighter (or even a more dialogue and bartering type, although there are parts where combat is difficult if not impossible to avoid). How you interact with the populace and complete missions can effect your karma score, making you and angel or a devil in the eyes of the world and changing how they interact and deal with you in other ways. Maybe as an evil character, good NPCs might be more wary of you or unwilling to co-operate, or as a good player you are showered with gifts and adoration from the ones that you have saved from the harsh realities of the wasteland.
There is nothing terribly fancy that occurs based on your alignment (with a few notable exceptions), and typically it is just another "stat" that you can customize that affects what your character has access to, but the system is well implemented throughout and would make a second playthrough as the opposite type feel and play very different. Unfortunately it is extremely easy to become evil and very difficult and time consuming to go back to good, and occasionally you will perform actions that have consequences you did not expect or intend, but overall it does help make you feel like you are having a real impact on the world around you and the lives you are affecting (for good or ill).
The combat is generally fun and entertaining - especially as you crit and blow off limbs or the like - and the VATS system helps break it up a little bit by letting you aim for weak spots and take down enemies faster. Of course, there is so much to do in the world and so many different places to explore that eventually it can start to feel very repetitive and boring regardless of how fun or interesting it was, especially on enemies to whom you are not well equipped (or built) to handle. For instance, my small arms character had a very difficult time with many of the robotic enemies because few (if any) of my weapons did significant damage to them and they tend to have very large health pools to go with their very high damage resistance. The combat is just no longer very interesting when you have to dump 5-6 entire clips worth of ammunition into something and continuously heal hoping that you can kill it before it kills you. I suppose that, when playing as a character that focused on bigger, more powerful weapons, those types of mobs might not be very tedious, but then you couldn't sneak past many fights like I could, so it seems like every playstyle might have a few aggravating moments to it. Not that 'a few moments' are enough to ruin a 100 hour experience, but they are still worth noting.
Occasionally, combat bugs out and will shoot areas you did not intend or otherwise not perform as expected, but this is a rare (and unfortunate) occurrence that is just one part of a much larger problem the game suffers from: bugs. And I don't mean the radscorpions that hunt you down in game. I mean the "whoops my game froze and I haven't saved in a while", "I'm being attacked but can't see my enemy", " I'm looking for an NPC who hasn't spawned or is walking the wasteland for no apparent reason" kind. You would be hard pressed to play 2-3 hours of the game without running into some kind of bug, although most of them are small and not huge deal breakers. There are enough big ones to really give you a headache, and in fact I stopped playing after nearly 100 hours due to a bug that prevented me from collecting all of the bobble heads, so the game is far from perfect on that. I feel bad even mentioning it, considering what a monumental task it must be to expect someone to actually be able to test, find, and fix every single bug in a game as massive as Fallout 3, but just because I understand the amount of time it would take to find and fix it does not assuage me when I fall victim to one myself. If I had one *real* complaint about the game it would be the number of bugs that still exist, even after all of the patches.
Despite this, the game maintains a very nice level of overall polish that really helps it stand out. The individual portions of the game might not be incredible on their own - the story is good but not exceptional, the voices are well done but the characters are poorly animated, etc - but the way that Bethesda has weaved them all together and just the sheer amount of love and detail that has gone into creating this world is more than enough reason to give this game a shot. Not only does the disc itself have enough content to last you 60+ hours, but there are 5 downloadable expansions that can easily extend the game into the 100 hour range (note: I only downloaded and played Broken Steel, which I thought was very good), and if that's not enough you could always play through again as a different combat style or alignment for an almost completely new experience. If you are the kind of person that hates buying games for a 6 hour campaign only to then shelf it for life, you do not need worry here. This game will be with you a long, long time.
So what are you waiting for? Post Apocalyptic America is calling your name.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Bioshock actually shocks me
I'm going to be honest here; when the game first came out, I ignored it. To me it was just another FPS in an already crowded, bloated and generally boring market of games aimed at kids with twitch fingers and appetites for violence and mindless action. I've gone on record stating many times that just about the only FPS I play anymore is the Half Life series, to due it's excellent pacing, puzzles, story, characters and overall polish. When Halo 3 came out - one of the biggest FPS releases since, well, Halo 2 - I only played the last 2 levels because I happened to be at a friends' house when they were finishing it on 4 player. I didn't even play through the whole thing until after a friend in Austin purchased the game and wanted someone to play co-op split screen with. That's right, I don't even own it. And while I do own Team Fortress 2 - a game I actually rather enjoy - I'm just not good enough or interested enough to keep playing an FPS for more than a few days.
Of course, then Bioshock exploded. It was given all sorts of awards and lauded as an incredible, "not to be missed" game. I chalked this up to those who like to talk up games on their favorite system which are not on other, rival systems (even though it is now). I'd heard more hype about Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 and was not rivited by either, what could this no-name offshoot offer me that these two behemoths did not?
When I received Bioshock for my birthday, then, I was somewhat surprised. I hadn't really mentioned it to anyone, but I suppose when you have a teenager in the family making suggestions on what he'd like to buy someone who plays games, he knows which ones are the big names. After a few months of sitting on the shelves, I took it down to give it a whirl (as a diversion for all the JRPGs I had just finished playing), and I must once again admit that I was terribly, horribly wrong. I seem to be doing this alot lately.
My 'problem' with most FPS's is that they are more well suited for quick-fingered, aggressive thrill seekers than strategic, tactical min/maxers like myself. There's no real numbers, reason, logic or strategy, just run here, shoot stuff, run there, shoot more stuff. Most games that I play (and most enjoy) are turn based and involves lots of numbers, elements, variables, options and calculating. I know that in many FPS's enemies have 'weaknesses' or whatever and that you can master weapons and enemies just as well with brain as with brawn, but overall the genre is composed more of brute force combined with trial and error than not. And while this may, in many respects, be true of the basic core of Bioshock, it is hidden and masked so well that it really did not bother or frustrate me as much as normal.
That may be, of course, because Bioshock is not 'just' and FPS. It is an experience, a world and narrative so rich and engrossing that you perhaps forget yourself in it. It starts off with an intriguing enough beginning, which is a breath of fresh air compared to most "lone man saving the world from destruction" story so typical to the genre (even my beloved Half Life series!). Your plane crash lands and you find yourself in an underwater city, surrounded by sociopaths and lunatics. At this point you are not trying to save anything but yourself, and not only is it a nice change of pace from the norm but also sets itself up well to feed into the rest of the story.
I'll do you a favor and not talk about the story in great detail from here on out, because to do so would ruin pretty much everything that makes the game what it is. Suffice it to say that while you may find the plot predictable you still will not expect it, while you may see characters as shallow you will discover them to be quite deep, and while the place may seem droll and lifeless you'll find plenty of times that you wish it were. The environments suffer from the usual 'too realistic ' nonsense found in most games these days, dark with slightly varying shades of brown and grey, but there is some variety and it all fits surprisingly well together with the theme and atmosphere of the game. Most of the time you will be too busy lost in the incredibly rich atmosphere or frantically running away from that pissed off big daddy to notice (or care) about nit picky things like that anyway. It looks nice and does the game service, in this case that's more than enough.
The number of different 'plasmids' (body altering chemicals) you can make and weapons you can weild keeps most of the combat interesting and gives you strategy and choice when moving forward in the world. Do you take the upgraded shotgun to help with the big daddies or upgrade your pistol to help against splicers? Do you take the hacker plasmids that help against turrets and cameras or do you need the extra health to survive all the enemies? It helps to customize the game in ways not normally seen in shooters and gives an otherwise linear experience a bit more freedom and choice. It also means that you can make the game more stealthy (camo and quiet footsteps combined with a few good wrench-based beatings) or more twitchy (big guns with huge clips and giant explosives) so it caters to your playstyle if you play your cards right. It won't be as tactiacl as Metal Gear nor as run and gun as Halo but it finds a happy medium and gives you the power to play it as you like.
Now a days, most shooters are very short single player experiences and rely on online play to keep you interested (and to keep you from turning around and selling it back to Gamestop). To compare, Halo 3 took me a paltry 6 hours to beat, Call of Duty 4 clocked in at a slightly more impressive 8. Multiplayer? Barely touched either, didn't care. Bioshock has NO multiplayer and doesn't even have co-op (on the 360 anyway) but the 'main' game took me nearly 20 hours to play through. This is not some halfway done attempt at single player to put a bullet point on the box of a mostly multiplayer focused game. It will take you a few days to beat (or, if you go at my pace, about a month) and won't leave you feeling like you were shortchanged. Aside from a *few* uses of the feindishly evil backtracking parts (i.e. make the game longer on the cheap), it's new and interesting at every turn and, assuming you can keep going without being creeped out by the characters and story, keeps you coming back for me. For those who have mastered the game I'm sure you can plow through it faster, but harder difficulty settings and special 'survivor' modes on the PS3 add even more to its length and replayability.
It's not all roses, of course, but it's hard to think of many things that are actually "bad" about this game. Hacking is cool at first but when every room has 2 cameras, 3 turrets, 4 vendors and a safe it gets old REALLY fast. On some of the easier difficulty levels you will probably end up just buying autohacks, buying them out, destroying them, or just plain ignoring them. It's not that the minigame itself is poorly designed (it's actually quite fun when it becomes semi-challenging), it's the fact that you are spending 30 minutes clearing a room of hackable things only to have to do it all over again 5 minutes later that it starts to get annoying. If you do enough research you can auto hack some of them by that point it's too little too late and a drop in the bucket compared to what you've done so far.... and what you have left that still has to be done. I can only imagine how much more annoying it must be on the harder difficulties, where you don't have the cash to burn or the ammo to waste on these foolish things.
Speaking of bots and cameras, some of them are in the weirdest or most annoying places - often to disasterous (or frustrating) consequences. I found myself the unwanted recepient of a bot swarm a few too many times playing through the game, usually because I stepped around some corner and directly into the line of sight of a camera that I had no idea was there, only to be completely out of luck. Add the fact that you must then run to some 'security bot deactivate' switch - which could be so far away from your current position that you might as well just fight them off and wait it out - equals to a minute of annoying, flying mechanical demons that like to come from nowhere and aren't very happy with you. Usually it's not a problem - cameras give off light that's pretty easy to see as it moves along the otherwise dark and uninteresting metallic grey interior - but when you think you are being careful or cautious and STILL get caught it's no longer a gameplay mechanic, it's now a frustration mechanic. Considering the list of good things about this title, though, these are really just some unfair nit-pickings and are no reason whatsoever to not give this game a fair shake.
Overall, the one thing you can say about the game is that it delivers. It took the single player aspect of the first person shooter, gave it a unique twist, threw in and incredible story and a very well designed locale and just lets you go to town. It even gives you a fair amount of freedom for a game that is otherwise a purely linear experience. It may not play or even handle any different than your normal FPS, but honestly that is not the genre's problem. It doesn't need a new gimmick, it needs people with decent ideas and the ability to deliver them. Bioshock may only be good because it is a refreshing change in an otherwise stale and overharvested genre, but sometimes that's all it takes to make a masterpiece. And believe me when I say.... they have.
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With Christmas comes new games, and that means more things to review. I have 10+ games practically unopened and several more in various states of completion, so I expect this list to grow MUCH faster than I can possibly keep up with it. Well, than I choose to keep up with it, anyway. At least the first half of this year will cool off a bit, I'm not even really looking foward to anything (that I know of) until Resident Evil 5 hits in march, which gives me a good bit of time to work through my back catalogue.
Currently playing:
WoW:WotLK (PC)
Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice (DS)
Professor Layton and the Curious Villiage (DS)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii)
Lost Odyssey (360)
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360)
Fable II (360)
What should be next (no particular order):
The World Ends With You (DS)
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
Spore (PC)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2 (DS)
Rock Band 2 (360)
Banjo Kazooie (XBLA)
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
(If only it were) Eternal Sonata
I really question the way blogger does dates. Unless I write the post in a single day (I almost never do, being as long and thought out as they are) it makes it seems like I post something the day I STARTED it, not the day I actually posted it. Guess I should manually change this, but really, that just seems silly...
This time I'm going to skip forward a few games (sorry TWEWY, your time will come) because I just finished a game (Eternal Sonata, in case you didn't see it in the not-so-catchy title) that I believe is really deserving of some high praise. And, since it has been released VERY recently on the PS3, I believe it is prudent to tell those who might be interested in it just what they are getting themselves into.
First and foremost, the game is absolutely stunning. This is by far and away the best game I have ever watched on my HD TV. This is, of course, because the art style and design are so incredible that it is absolutely mind-blowing. The cartoonish, almost anime look to the game, combined with the very elaborate and artisitc character and level designs, make for one of the most vibrant and memorable RPG experiences to date. It has a simliar look to Blue Dragon, but goes above and beyond because the world they create is so vibrant and full of life. Just the first few scenes alone assualt your eyes with deep, rich colors and a strikingly crisp, detailed world and characters so beautifully drawn that, at times, you may think you are watching a cartoon. Of course it has some funny problems (try for a second to convince yourself that anyone would hold their arms the way that they do) and some of the later enemies and bosses suffer from the dreaded pallete swap (where they use the exact same model but simply swap colors) but your mouth will simply be on the floor so often in awe of what your HDTV is able to produce that these flaws are easily overlooked.
It is not often that graphics stun me, especially to the point that I believe it is something that people need to know about in a game. There are games with less-than-hd quality graphics that are still amazing games (Smash Brothers, Mario Kart), and even games that look 'good' in HD but really don't stand out too much due to poor art direction or bland environments (Enchanted Arms has the resolution but very little inspiring art, Gears of War has the detail but I think they limited themselves to the colors black, brown and grey). Graphics are almost always the last thing to mention or bring up because as long as the gameplay is solid or the story is engrossing the graphics, to me, really don't matter. However, there are some games that just go above and beyond with their art direction - more important than pixels or detail - and make something really stand out or really unique. World of Warcraft continues to impress me with what they can do with so little horsepower (as Blizzard has always done time and time again), The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker showed us just what games could do with cell shading and facial expressions, and the new Prince of Persia really stands out as a unique and interesting art direction that I think shakes things up enough to be worth mentioning. The same can be said of Eternal Sonata, so while I would not suggest you buy the game solely on looks alone (it's a game for crying out loud, why buy something to look at it?) it is worth noting that a new benchmark has been set for art and style of cell shaded, anime-like games. If this is where HD gaming will take us, I welcome it with open arms.
But, I think I was trying to talk about Eternal Soanta...
Eternal Sonata is unique in that the battle system for the game grows and evolves as you play. When you start out the game, you begin with a very simple system that gives you plenty of time to learn your characters, plot out your moves and master the controls. As you progress, though, the system begins to become more complicated and fast paced while giving you bonuses to compensate for this increased challenge. You begin with fairly simple, 'turn based lite' type game where you may take however much time you wish to plot out your moves and each action you take has a certian 'cost' associated with it. The basics of the system do not get any more complex - you may move, attack, use an item or use a special attack (called a 'Harmony'). However, as you gain 'party levels' the battle system changes and becomes more real-time while it also expands in complexity and power. This is where the real fun begins.
It turns out that the 'cost' associated with each action is actually the time it takes to perform each move. Harmonies have much longer times associated with them while normal attacks are much shorter, encouragaing you to chain multiple attacks together before finishing with a large Harmony attack. Eventually even movement takes 'time' and the battle system shifts to real time as you are slowly weened off of your 'tactical time', which gave you precious seconds to plan your move. By the end of the game, the battle is constantly flowing without interruption and it is up to you to make sure you keep track of whose turn it is next and plan out your attacks accordingly. This all happens gradually, though, over the course of the nearly 40 hour story, so you are given ample opportunity to get used to the system and moving at faster and faster paces. Perhaps the most difficult addition is the optional party level 6 ('optional' in that you could beat the game without it, required if you wish to do the bonus dungeon before you finish the game). This party level really throws a wrench into the system, changing around the buttons associated with different actions (harmony, defend, and attack) each time you perform a harmony. Of course, if mastered properly, this is not without it's own rewards...
As the party system becomes more complex and demanding, the rewards for keeping up with the system increase as well. You can start to save up 'echos', essentially a counter for the number of attacks you chain together in a turn, that makes your Harmonies more powerful the more echos you have. Eventually you can 'chain' Harmonies together and, at party level 6, can perform SIX harmony attacks by continuously chaining them together (remembering, of course, that the Harmony button can change each time a Harmony is used). You also gain more total echoes as your party level increases (making your Harmony attacks stronger) and, at party level 6, your Harmony chains can 'carry over' echoes and your correctly performed Harmony chains become devastatingly powerful. It also allows you to carry more items into battle (vital for classes that have no healing harmonies or equipment). The main benefit, of course, is the potential to do greater damage, something that is necessary as the bosses get tougher.
Unfortunately, as you gain a better control over your party's movements and begin to plan attacks, the game becomes almost a cakewalk. This is especially true after getting party level 6, where you can now kill enemies in a single turn and, if played right, can set up 6-chain harmonies every turn. This kind of constant damage output, coupled with a character that has a healing harmony (Viola, Chopin or Polka, for instance), and a even only occasionally properly defending against enemy attacks begins to make battles almost trivial. It still requires you to pay attention and is better than the usual "just spam A to win" style battle systems, but it may take Encore mode - where enemies have huge health and damage increases - to really begin to challenge you. Of course, the other side of the coin is that once you get good at something and learn to plan your attacks well things SHOULD get easy, so perhaps my complaint is somewhat misplaced. It did not make the battle system any less fun or involved, but it did take away the feeling of anxiety in knowing that you could be in danger of dying at any time. Overall the system is very etertaining and a marked improvement over the very slow, 'gimmie' battle systems of old and is one of the reasons that Eternal Sonata stands out in my mind as one of the best rpg's I've ever played.
Gameplay being covered, on to the story. For those who don't know, the story is loosely tied to Frederic Chopin's (composer and pianist) life, or more specifically, his death. The world acts as a kind of 'dream', something Chopin's mind takes him down as his physical body nears death. Chopin also acts as a character himself in the game, and you can watch as he battles in his mind to tell whether or not the world he currently is experience is real or a dream. You even see several historical slideshows which generally tells a kind of 'making of' each song, which, as a lover of music, is something that I actually enjoyed. This can be skipped if you so choose, which is good, because it's certianly not for everyone.
This story, however, really takes a backseat for most of the game and more sets up the 'theme' than it does the actual plot. Sure, everything is based off of music; just look at the names of locations and places, and even the shape of their weapons (which look like different kinds of musical instruments), but the real story lies in this dream world. That story is more your standard rpg fare. Boy meets girl, awkwardly falls for girl but can't admit it, fights against an ufair or oppressive government and does his best to save the world. I wills say that the story actually seems to 'jump' from character to character and you honestly have no 'main character'. There are several subplots that are followed and even times where you will not see the (arguably) 'main character', Alegretto, for several hours. This also means you may use whichever characters you want in your party, and are not forced to use one guy all the time. This is unusual for the genre, which tends to force entire plot to revolve or be somehow attached to the main character, but is a nice change of pace if you don't think you are being robbed of some 'main' plot. Everything that happens moves the story along, even if it's not connected in any way to a single character.
Character development is strong but occasionally flawed. Some characters certainly come across as more believable than others - Chopin being a prime example - but others are left in a sort of out on their own because it is hard for them to carve a niche into the group. The fact that they attempt to give Jazz not only a love triangle but a love SQUARE (3 girls fawning after 1 man) means that it's going to be difficult for each of them to distinguish from one another. Most of the character pairs work flawlessly - Beat and Salsa make a great pair and provide a significant amount of the humor throughout the game. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for March, who joins the party late and has no real interactions beyond with her twin sister (who already has someone you mentally pair her with). The Allegretto/Polka love story is believable enough (good enough for a video game anyway) and provides a good way for Allegretto's character to grow and the story to progress. As strong and promising of a character as Viola first presents, she quickly gets swept into Jazz's "love square" at which point she loses alot of her focus and meaning in the group aside from being yet another person swooning over Jazz. Which is sad beacuse the Jazz/Falsetto/Claves love triangle actually stands well on it's own and, given the events of the story, is one of the bigger story arcs that you can see visibly affect the characters and their decisions. The PS3 version includes 2 new characters, and while they are strong NPC characters and could add more dynamics to the group mix, given when they are introduced into the story I feel it may be a bit too late to try and add them in effectively.
On the whole, there are enough twists to keep you guessing and the delivery of the story is strong, backed by characters that you can relate to very well and remain both entertaining and interesting throughout the game. There are occasional hiccups or oddities - some of the love stories feel awkward or forced and the ending is both satisfying and incredibly bizarre - so while the game does not set a new standard in storytelling or epic plots by any means, it does more than 'get the job done' and is enough to keep your interest piqued as you progress. It certainly does not detract from the experience in any way (minus, perhaps, the ending).
Overall, Eternal Soanta represents everything that keeps me coming back to RPGs time and time again. Massive worlds, believeable characters, epic plots, interesting battle systems and incredibly rewarding gameplay experiences. This game executes above and beyond expectations in almost every category and will one day be considered a 'classic' in my eyes. If you're even a modest fan of JRPGs, this game is not to be missed. I would recommend it over any other RPG that I have played this generation and over just about every one I've played my whole life (with the exception of revolutionary classics like FF7, Xenogears or Legend of Dragoon). It takes some getting used to - especially if you are not a fan of the cartoony look - but in the end, this game will not disappoint.
As for what's next, I'd love to sing the praises of The World Ends With You but perhaps I will take a break from my usual JRPG/SRPG lovefest and review Castlevania or Spore.
Currently playing:
WoW:WotLK (PC)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2 (DS)
Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice (DS)
Professor Layton and the Curious Villiage (DS)
Rock Band 2 (360)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii)
What should be next:
The World Ends With You (DS)
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
Spore (PC)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2 (DS)
How on earth did I miss reviewing Bioshock (360)?
