The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Review

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Review

A Binding Review

Just a disclaimer but this will not be a comparison between rebirth and the original Isaac. Although there will be a few examples of improvement.

            So the end of the year has come, and I've had a great one so far. First I want to thank everyone who’s been reading my reviews consistently it helps out so much more than you think. Second, I’ve reviewed some really bad games like Murdered: Soul Suspect, and some really good ones like Shadow of Mordor. It got me thinking, what was the best game I played this year? I didn’t review enough games that came out this year to actually create a list, so instead I’m writing a review for what I believe to be the best game released this year. After 160+ hours in the game, I feel I have the authority to say this is my favourite game so far. Before I start I want you all to know this is my personal opinion and not an objective fact. I know how you people get with your games.

            The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a remaking of the rogue-lite game The Binding of Isaac created by Super Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen. The game has spawned a hugely committed community. It has even created a career for YouTube personality NorthernLion who arguably makes a living by playing the game and uploading his antics to YouTube.

            The game does its best to tell you as little as possible. This is a plus in my book, because although it lack’s detail it forces the player into learning what is going on without the game holding their hand. Although the downside to this is it is not very welcoming to new players as it can be a little overwhelming at first. The main draw of the game is its randomness. Every time you die, you have to start over from the first level. No two runs you have will be exactly alike. On each floor (for the early game) you are guaranteed two items. There are over 300 items and each one has a unique benefit. Some of the items are objectively good, while others are just bad.

All of the items have synergies with each other, and this is what gives the game its high replay ability. Some of the synergies will guarantee the player a win while others will guarantee a loss. Others force the player to adapt. Adopting new strategies to maximize their success. The game allows you to become extremely over powered to the point where you can’t lose unless you actively try to. These overpowered runs are what makes Rebirth unique, and addictive. There are so many ways for the player to win. A huge downfall of the original game was that each time you played you had one strategy. This resulted in a lot of the wins being extremely similar. Fixing this keeps the game feeling fresh and exciting. Even after 160 hours of playing I still find myself getting synergies with items that make me feel like a child on Christmas Day.

There are strategies that can be adopted by new players, and strategies that should be adopted by high level players. One such strategy is the deal with the devil. From the second floor and onwards the game incentivizes not taking damage. If you can do this then you are rewarded with a deal with the devil after defeating the boss. In the deal with the devil you can trade health for damage. With these deals you can become extremely powerful. Not being able to obtain a deal with the devil can sometimes ruin a run. Every character has a different play style, and I’m not going to talk about all of them, but I will talk about one of my favourites. Eve, who is arguably the weakest character starts with an item called Whore of Babylon which gives a massive stat boost when Eve only has one heart. This incentivizes taking damage early for the boost. Not getting an early deal with the devil can really ruin a run with Eve as it gets hard to manage her health.

The story, which is almost exclusively told through gameplay, is surprisingly deep. Each character, item and enemy lends itself as an aspect to Isaac’s story. Even gameplay mechanics tie into the story extremely well. For example, Lazarus who died and was revived by Jesus four days later, starts with an item that revives the player after death. The surprising amount of detail in the games’ story is astounding. It must have taken weeks to get up to the standard that The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth holds. I’m not going to try and explain the entire story as it is long and subjective. Basically, Isaacs’ mom is abusive, emotionally or physically is unknown. Isaac, being just a young child, is trying to figure out why this is, and he turns to religion. Convincing himself that he has sinned and trying to purge himself of that. If you want to know more, go to the link at the bottom of the review where user Jayborino of Reddit does a much better explanation of the story.

Its controls are tight and easy to pick up but take some time to master.  A cute 16-bit art style lends to its extreme adult themes. Some of the enemy hitbox’s need to be fixed, like the wall spiders. Some of the items have been nerfed/buffed to fix some balancing issues. The developers over at Nicalis have been doing a really good job at updating the game with these fixes.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a testament to good game design. It is proof that a game doesn’t need to hold our hand for us to understand what is going on. The lack of information goes in the face of how games have been treating players, and it not only proved that players aren’t stupid but actually yearn to learn more on their own terms. It showed that a small indie game can spawn a community that is not only large but friendly and extremely welcoming to new players. It’s a game that will always have a place not only in my heart, but thousands of others as a charming and addictive game.

9.8/10

Happy Holidays to everybody! Have a Happy New Year as well. Um, don’t drink and drive. Blablabla. I’m going to do my best at posting reviews back on schedule! Thanks for a great year I hope to see more of you guys next year!

http://www.reddit.com/r/bindingofisaac/comments/2m33ys/i_am_the_author_of_the_isaac_endings_explained/

The Evil Within Review

The Evil Within Review
The Review Within

The Evil Within starts off with detective Sebastian Castellanos arriving at a mass murder in Beacon Mental Hospital. While investigating, Sebastian is looking at the security footage and sees the person who is responsible. We later learn that this individual is Ruvik and he is the game’s main antagonist. Ruvik looks up at the security camera and then teleports behind Sebastian and this is where the game starts.

            The game doesn’t hold any punches, and within the first ten minutes I am upside down hanging from the roof while a guy literally cuts someone in half. This quick transition to horror translates to the games difficulty curve as well. The game is extremely difficult (I played on the normal difficulty) and it actually feels unfair in the early game. The enemies are extremely durable and hit hard, so if you think you’re going to try and save ammo early game then you have another thing coming.  That being said, the enemies strength actually caused a real stress. This is both a good and bad thing, because early in the game I was genuinely scared of fighting enemies and I wanted the calm moments to last forever. However, by the end of the game I just felt exhausted.

            This brings up another point; while the gameplay is strong and can hold its own, the game is entirely too long. By the end of it I found myself fighting through waves of enemies just so I could get more exposition on what was going on in the story. The most stressful parts of the game were when Sebastian was forced to fight waves of enemies, because they could last over twenty minutes with no checkpoints.

            The development team was led by Shinji Mikama, who worked on the first four Resident Evil’s. The team claimed to want to bring back the original survival horror aspects of those early Resident Evil games. I will be the first to say that this holds true in some sense. The game really feels like the old Resident Evil games especially the fourth installment. Unfortunately, it seems that the strategic elements of those early games have been traded in for more difficult enemies. There is no inventory management which I felt was a strong strategic point in the Resident Evil games because it forced the player to plan their moves in the future, including when to heal and which weapons to use and save.

            On the bright side, this game is actually really creepy. There are a plethora of different environments, some of which are actually terrifying. A big props to the environment artists because I felt that was the strongest point of the game. Also the enemy design was fantastic and every boss felt new and more terrifying. All of this helps keep the game fresh even in the late game. The biggest problem was that I fought way too many bosses. Every other chapter there is another boss, which just ends up being a scary looking bullet sponge.

            The story was the strong point of the game for me. It started off strong and kept me interested throughout. Constantly Sebastian is in a different area and the player has a hard time figuring out what is real and what isn’t. Although it’s not a new story it was fun and exciting to unravel. Also, Ruvik is an extremely well designed antagonist, with a strong backstory that explains exactly why he is doing what he is doing. It also subtly leaves the question open to the player if they agree with him or not.

The strongest moments of The Evil Within were the chapters dedicated to exposition. This is because so many things would happen during these chapters, and I wasn’t stressed out from an influx of enemies. There is one moment that stands out to me, when Sebastian first meets Ruvik, he is led through a door, however when Sebastian gets to the door he is teleported back to the end of the hallway, and when he starts walking toward the door and tidal wave of blood washes him away, and he wakes up in a new area. Then, without missing a beat he says “Something fishy is going on here,” (I am a huge fan of cheesy lines in a horror game/movie). Moments like this are what make the sections of endless enemies worth it. The reaction of the player when something like that scene happens is the real payoff in The Evil Within. These moments can be seriously scary but don’t happen very often.

The game unfortunately does suffer from some pop-in during cut scenes and it only played in 30fps which is a minor problem, but in this day and age it should be better than that. They claim they wanted it to feel more lifelike but I feel they were just busy working on more important things than the frame rate and were scared of backlash from the PC community. Also there was one cut scene where one of the character models didn’t have any opacity maps, so I could see all the textures in his hair.

It is a shame the game fell flat in some sections because with portions of the game being so strong, especially the early game (ignoring the difficulty). The Evil Within could have been something amazing, and has potential to be Game of the Year. Hopefully in the inevitable DLC planned for the future, the problems with the game are fixed and the strengths are improved. I had a lot of fun playing The Evil Within and was actually scared during some portions of the game, but I feel the game adds a false difficulty by throwing waves of enemies that get bigger and bigger as the player gets stronger. I wish I could give this game a higher score because I feel like it deserves it for what it did right, but I cannot overlook the problems that this game has.

7.3/10

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Review

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Review

Fellowship of the Review

            Shadow of Mordor follows Tallion, a ranger posted on the outskirts of Mordor with his family. We start the game very tragically with him and his family being executed. Through some strange blood oath he is linked to a wraith that keeps bringing Tallion back to life forcing him to complete one task before returning to his family; stop the Black-Hand.

            The first thing I noticed while playing this game was how beautiful it was. The graphics were amazing, and the environments were lively, despite being set in Mordor. There was long green grass, and bright flowers that littered the landscape which added to the setting. The next thing I noticed was how similar this is to the Assassin’s Creed series. As I played more of the game though, I realized that it wasn’t just an Assassin’s Creed clone but that it had improved the formula and had substantial substance.

            The story itself is well written and respects The Lord of the Rings as much as it possibly can. Although it makes some bold moves that I’m sure will upset some of the die-hard fans of the series. I don’t believe that the game is considered canon and I felt as that without those bold moves the game wouldn’t be quite what it turned out to be. It is a very sad story, albeit a little predictable, and has some extremely interesting characters within it. Most of them are new to The Lord of the Rings and the developers rarely relied on any existing characters to help progress its story.

            The gameplay is the main draw of the game and the reason for that is simple, it’s fun. Though extremely similar to the Assassin’s Creed or Arkham series, it does something that both of them do not. It adds an extra layer of depth to the enemy AI. This is one of the strongest AI’s I’ve ever experienced in a game. There is a ‘Nemesis System’ implemented into the game, which allows the player to look at the Captain’s and War Chief’s within the army of Sauron.

Each captain and war chief has his own set of weaknesses, strength’s and fears which can all be used against them. Not only this, but each grunt within the army has his own life, and they can be promoted through the ranks to the point of being an actual threat to the player. The Uruk’s actually remember encounters with the player. For example if they flee battle they will remember this and will grow a fear of the player and continue to flee from battles with Tallion.

If a grunt kills you then they will get promoted to captain. If a captain defeats you or survives a battle without fleeing they will power up, with each level they gain there is a chance that they lose their weaknesses and gain strengths. This can make the difficulty substantially harder. I actually had a captain kill me over twenty times and the only reason I got rid of him was because of a Caragor killing him. The game literally got so hard that I was only able to defeat him because of dumb luck.

Some of the captains can even learn. I had almost defeated one captain by repeatedly jumping over him and hitting him in the back, unfortunately he survived and the next time I saw him I tried to implement the same strategy. When I tried to jump over him this time, he caught me and threw me to the ground. The Uruk captains almost never look the same, each time a grunt is promoted he adds a type of armour and a special weapon each which is unique to them. Their names are also unique to each captain. I believe all of these to be randomized, but I am still impressed with the sheer amount of selections given to the random number generator.

The Uruk’s also have their own lives aside from the player. If the player just lets time pass then the Uruk’s will fight each other and train which will have them automatically level themselves up. This is a nice touch as it gives the enemies a life that the player isn’t a part of.

Despite all this the game is not unfair, in fact it is quite the opposite. I am the reason that the captain had gotten so difficult because I stubbornly kept trying to beat him without any strategy. This brings up another point; strategy. This game is not a button masher (trust me) and actually requires that the player understand the combat, because although a few enemies are easy to take care, their numbers can rise exponentially. At one point I had almost a hundred enemies on screen at once, all of which were trying to kill me (sadly, I didn’t make it).

*This is a PRE-ALPHA image*

Racking up combos is super satisfying as it is quite difficult when you have fourty or fifty enemies trying to kill you. The game is also very gruesome, as any Lord of the Rings game should be, but be warned there are decapitations left and right. 

Unfortunately, sometimes when trying to run away from enemies Tallion will cling to walls and try to climb up them, resulting in my eventual death. This is a recurring problem. The music is well done and is similar to the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Tallion, although visually plain and uninteresting, is actually a well thought out and interesting character to follow. The strong story and fun gameplay come together to make one of the strongest games to come out this year. Once I beat the game I was no longer able to look at the Nemesis screen which really seems like an oversight and will hopefully be fixed in an upcoming update. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor truly is the game that The Lord of the Rings has always deserved. Hopefully there are more to come.

8.9/10

Year Walk Review

Year Walk Review

Year Talk

            Originally published for the iOS by Simogo, Year Walk got a release for PC in March.  The game is heavily influenced by the old Swedish tradition Årsgång which means year walk.  This “tradition” has not been in open practice for a couple of generations at least.  It consisted of starvation of the body and mind of natural senses for a full day during certain events.  When the clock struck midnight, the person would leave and go to the church encountering many obstacles on the way.  Once completed, the person would supposedly see their future.

               The first thing I noticed when I opened the game was the art style.  It had a very charming yet creepy aesthetic to it.  It is very simple, but very telling.  It looks almost like everything was cut out of coloured paper and placed onto the scene, and it was very pleasing to the eye.  It added to the atmosphere which was itself very unsettling and well thought out.

               At its core, Year Walk is a puzzle game and quite a difficult one too.  The puzzles themselves are extremely well done.  Everything is given to you right from the get-go.  You are then left to piece everything together.  The puzzles seem quite difficult but are actually quite simple once you figure out what needs to be done, although some can be quite difficult to complete.  For example, one puzzle uses sounds but it can be quite difficult to figure out what is being asked through simple notes.  There is a hint system, but I never used it and so I cannot comment on its usefulness.  It requires you to remember, so I would suggest having a pen and paper on hand to write things down rather than trying to remember them.

               The story elements are surprisingly the strongest part of this game because each puzzle tells its own story.  Everything in this game is symbolic and it shows that the developers put a lot of time into this game, despite it being originally made for iOS.  It gives the game a new layer that not many games have and it makes it feel very special.  Some of the places the story goes are extremely dark and quite upsetting.  Yet it touches these topics with so much maturity that it really feels genuine.  It does have some horror elements in it and made me feel very uncomfortable at times.  The characters are so fleshed out and rounded, despite rarely ever seeing any of them.  I felt actual guilt while playing this game, genuine guilt.

It left an empty feeling in my gut when it ended and I wanted more, but after some time I feel that the game would have been ruined if it were any longer.  It is still quite short.  There is a lot of walking to extend the length of the game, which is a dirty trick but it is forgivable because the environments are so engaging.  There is also a lot of reading, but it is so worth it to read everything.  I did not regret reading a single word in this game.

The simplicity of this game makes it easy to suggest anyone buy this.  Even non-gamers will find this something they could get into, especially if you like to read.  For $5.99 it makes it even easier to call it a must-have in anybody’s library.  If it had not been released on iOS a full year before its PC release, I would not be surprised to see it in the Indie Game of the Year category.

9.1/10

P.T Review

P.T Review

*Warning: I will be discussing some spoilers about the game*

      During the Sony conference at Gamescom in Germany, they announced that a new studio had added a demo for a new horror game on the PlayStation store and that it would be available to the public following the conference. The game, called P.T, developed by 7780 Studio’s, had garnered a lot of attention from the public because it had followed Metal Gear Solid during the conference.

   
      When the game starts you wake up in a room, with a very detailed cockroach crawling around. The only choice given to the player is to walk forward through the door and thus into the game. This mechanic is masterfully done and is used quite frequently throughout the game. It forces the player to continue progression and continue to learn more about what is going on. So I walk through the door and find myself in a very narrow, almost claustrophobic hallway. I continue down the corridor trying to open any doors, but none of them open except for one at the very end of the hallway. After walking through, it loops me back to the beginning  of the hallway. This is when I realized I should not be playing this game.

   
      P.T is more or less just a puzzle game, where the player triggers certain events and those events allow for progression. Sometimes the puzzle is as simple as the player just needs to walk forward, but most of them are extremely cryptic. It makes the game very good, but sometimes the puzzles go a little too far. For example, I had to watch a walkthrough for the last few puzzles, with the exception of the very last one, I was just too scared to try and figure out for myself. The last puzzle however, is just ridiculous and really hurts the game overall. For those wondering, you have to wait until the clock strikes midnight then take ten steps and stop. With a mic plugged in, you wait for the ghost to stop making sounds then whisper "Jarith" into the microphone and stand still again until your controller stops vibrating. If done correctly, a phone will ring.  If you answer it, then you can walk out of the front door.


      Now this is not cryptic, it is simply unfair. I understand that Kojima wanted players around the world to work together to complete it, but it seems far too cryptic. I could be wrong considering players eventually did figure it out. After watching others playthrough it, I noticed some people were able to beat some of the earlier puzzles completely differently than I had.


      Do not think I disliked this game, because it is quite literally the scariest game I have ever played. I actually had to have a friend sit with me and watch me play through it. Everything about this game screams terror. So little exposition is given to the player and the player is left to decipher what happened. I love that it lets the player answer their own questions simply by playing the game. Every single sound in this game is perfectly executed and the atmosphere was spot on. From the moment I started the game, I felt extremely uncomfortable and was scared before anything had even happened. I actually had to stop playing and take a break because I almost soiled myself.

       When I found out that Kojima had scaled down the graphics of the game to make it look more like an indie game. This is extremely exciting because it is one of the best looking games I have ever played and it iss on the PS4.
   

      I am not going to give this game a score simply because it is not a full game and is a demonstration of what is to come. That being said. I am extremely excited to see what comes of this as I was thoroughly impressed. For players who are smart or lucky enough to complete the final puzzle, they were treated to a surprise. If you do not want to know what the surprise is you can stop reading, but by now I assume everybody already knows as this game has garnered a huge amount of attention. Regardless of the surprise, I believe that you should pick this game up and try it out because it is extremely well done.
   

      First of all, 7780 is not actually a new development studio, in fact it is not an old one either. We now know that the demo was created by Kojami Productions and published by Konami. So this demo was actually created by some AAA developers. At first I was not really interested in playing it, but later I had found out that it was actually a teaser for a new Silent Hill game called Silent Hills. The game is being directed by the legendary game designer Hideo Kojima and the horror guru Guillermo Del Toro, and stars Norman Reedus. The game is slated for release in 2016 and I hope that it is still cryptic, but not as much as the demo as I feel it will stop a good game from being a great game.
   
   

Bad Rats Review

Bad Rats

Sewer Review

            Bad Rats is a puzzle game that released on steam; it has no story, and is not a game I would usually review.  In this case though, I was gifted the game and asked to review it.  I couldn't just say no - so here it is.

            This game is about a bunch of rats trying to kill a cat as the player helps guide the rats through the puzzle.  It seems as though the rats have a mind of their own, as they will often not do what the game told me they would do.  For example, one of the rats' job is to just move forward, although this is usually a problem as the smallest speck of dust will literally obliterate the rat.

            The first thing that I noticed about this game is that it is unpolished.  Bad Rats is not very well optimized and runs very poorly.  This is usually a problem for large scale games as they have a lot to load.  In Bad Rats, however, the screen is stationary and there are only five to ten objects on screen at any given time.  The writing must have gone unedited because throughout the game I noticed grammatical and spelling errors.  These oversights did not have a huge effect on the game, but these things build up.

            The tutorial was god-awful.  First of all, the voice over was horribly done and I could barely hear what he was saying (although I was able to read it).  I was walked through the first level and then left on my own to figure things out for myself.  Sometimes this can work - but in this case - I had no idea what was going on, even while playing the tutorial!

            In a game there are rules.  No matter what happens in a game these rules are what the player can always rely on.  Take for example the Dark Souls series, in which the player learns every single rule in the game during the tutorial, and then is left to fend for themselves. Throughout the entire game the rules are never broken.  In Bad Rats this is not the case.  The tutorial tries to lay out the rules, but they don’t always work.  For example, I set up a puzzle and just kept restarting the exact same setup until eventually the physics decided to work in my favor.  The player is given several objects to use to complete the level but most of those objects are ultimately useless because of the possibility of the game's physics breaking.

            Bad Rats is clearly unfinished as it doesn’t even have a roof to keep things from getting out of the puzzle.  In one case I lost the ball that is mandatory for killing the cat because it launched straight up and never came back down.  Not only this, but the graphics are insulting.  Graphics do not make a game, but as technology advances there become expectations.  A game that is released in 2014 should not look like a game that was released in 2010.  Bad Rats’ graphics just showcase how little time was put into this game.

            At times I feel like Bad Rats is trying to be funny, like the entire game is a joke.  It does have elements that could be funny if executed properly, but they aren’t.  A lot of the time they just become downright offensive to the player. There is such a thing as dark humour, and if executed properly is actually something I really enjoy.  Bad Rats, however, has absolutely no execution and actually just made me feel tired.

I’m ashamed to admit that this is the first game that I had to give up on.  With the physics being so unreliable, I could not justify sitting and playing it for any longer.  It would be more understandable if Bad Rats had been released for free.  Bad Rats wasn’t free though, and for that reason I feel like the developer was just trying to make a quick buck by pumping out a game as quick as possible.

1/10

Hey guys, sorry for the late review, and that there is no picture this time. School is fast approaching and with that my time is limited. I'm still going to try and keep to schedule, and keep drawing images, but i can't promise anything.

They may get shorter, although with a bunch of new releases coming up, i hope to get them all!
Yes, i will be reviewing Destiny. It should come out a week or two prior to the release!

Remember to follow me on twitter @NickDoesReviews !!
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Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

A Valiant Review

Disclaimer: I played this game on PC and other playthroughs may yield different results.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War follows four soldiers and a dog as they battle their way through the First World War. The stories of the four characters are intertwined and very frequently they find fate keeps bringing them back together. It starts with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and touches subjects like soldiers being drafted, and the invention of the tank, as well as the turning points of the war with battles such as Vimy Ridge.

The amount of respect that Ubisoft Montpellier shows for the people that actually fought in the war is honourable. There are so many historical facts in the game, not only through gameplay but also from a historical tab page in the menu. In this menu are short paragraphs about the battles you play, as well as other things such as soldiers moral during the battle and so on.

The art style of this game was very well chosen. It has a charming comic book aesthetic which is bleak yet comforting. The colour palette is very dull, with drained blues, greens, and browns yet very vibrant bright reds.

This game has a story that is very compelling. The characters are constantly being dealt a bad hand, yet keep managing to come out on top. The main theme of the story is finding hope where there is no hope to find. This comes through very well. Some moments can be dark, some happy and others gruesome but there is always that glimmer of hope, that spot of red in an otherwise dull and bleak background. A lot of this story is driven with very fitting music, whether it is a depressing song in a serious moment or an uplifting song during a fun moment. It all helps drive the emotions that the developers want from the player.

Although the story is very well written, and well executed I find that they pull a lot of punches. The story is about finding hope where there is none to find, but I felt that some of these moments could have felt a little more hopeless, or a little more realistic. For this game being set in one of the most horrific wars in humanity there weren’t many sections where I felt that the permanent death of my character was a serious possibility.

This is a puzzle game that feels like an action-adventure game. The fact that the developers managed to succeed in doing such a feat is amazing to say the least. Not only that, but they don’t get stuck in the trope of holding the players hand. The game demands that the players know their surroundings and doesn’t assume that the player is an idiot. Although they did add a hint feature so if you couldn’t understand a puzzle then you could get some help. Sometimes this is mandatory as some of the puzzles can be very cryptic (although I could just be an idiot). Though the difficulty is high on the puzzles, completing them without a hint feels extremely rewarding in its own right.

            Not everything is a puzzle though, and some moments are very streamline. These moments can be some of the best because the music is recognizable and uplifting while the gameplay is quite humorous as well. These parts, although a rarity, always managed to put a smile on my face and even make me laugh. Even some of the more depressing sections could be fun, like playing the battle of Vimy Ridge. For me as a Canadian that made me extremely happy to be a part of.

            At times the game can be extremely tense, and make me feel like I need to be faster because something is at risk. These moments, however, are usually ruined by taking the wrong turn and finding a dead end, or even from an overly difficult puzzle. This becomes increasingly apparent as the game begins to climax. There were also visual and technical glitches, although the technical ones are very rare, and the visual glitches never really ruined any moments for me.

            War affects so many people, both on the front line, and back at the homestead. This game really makes you appreciate what soldiers went through during not only the First World War, but every war before and after. Soldiers live a very different life from the average person. They all put their lives on the line for something bigger than them, bigger than everyone. They fight to give others a chance, to give us the freedom and liberty to make our own choices. It shows the struggle that these human beings endure to give us a better life. These people may be forsaken, but they will never be forgotten and games like Valiant Hearts: The Great War give them the respect they deserve while also sending a meaningful message to those that play it. That message is that there will always be hope, no matter how hopeless a situation is, there is always hope that things will get better.

8.3/10

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Sleeping Dogs Review

Sleeping Dogs

Kung Fu Review


Warning: There will be minor spoilers ahead.
Disclaimer: I played this game on the Xbox 360 and other playthroughs may yield different results.

            Sleeping Dogs follows Wei Shen – an undercover cop trying to take down the Triads.  Growing up in Hong Kong, Wei met a lot of people that would eventually grow up to become Triads.  Wei’s mother had moved the family to San Francisco where Wei would eventually become a cop.  After returning to Hong Kong, Wei is placed undercover in the Triads to try and take them down, but it becomes difficult after he meets some childhood friends.

            Sleeping Dogs does a good job at portraying east Asian gangs from both the perspective of the law and the perspective of the members of that gang.  To the police the Triads are just a gang of murderers willing to go to any lengths to make money: drugs, murder, and even human trafficking.  To a point this is true, some of the people Wei meets on his journey are horrendous individuals that have earned the reputation that the police give them.  Others though, are good people caught up in a bad situation.

            The game briefly goes over some very touchy topics of crime in Hong Kong.  Little things such as theft, assault, illegal gambling, and illegal immigration.  As well as some pretty heinous crimes such as kidnapping, murder, gang wars, and even human trafficking.  Sleeping Dogs goes into some pretty dark corners of society, but manages to break the tension with a witty joke or a well-placed fight.  This is quite the achievement considering there is a mission where you discover a human trafficking ring; the mission shows immigrants that have been locked up in a cage, some of which were there for over a week. The game really paints Hong Kong as a beautiful city with a seriously dark underbelly.

            The gang Wei joins is all about family and looking out for each other.  Although violent – the gang members are not liars, and consider each other to be family.  There are people like Jackie, who grew up dreaming of becoming a triad but soon learns that he doesn’t want to live that life and finds himself stuck. The gangs that are being portrayed in this game are reminiscent of the mafia from the 1920’s-60’s.  I feel as if in twenty years the gangs of today will be portrayed as the mobs of yesteryear; filled with honour, loyalty, and violence.

            On the technical side - this game works.  It is a cross between a beat ‘em up and an open world RPG.  A cross-genre that’s not really seen on today’s market, but it works pretty well.  The story is great and a lot of fun to participate in and the fighting sections were fantastic.  However the driving was clunky and the fire-fights worked but felt unoriginal.

The fighting is the main draw of this game and it works really well.  Wei is a fantastic fighter and can take on over fifteen people at once.  The fighting style is very kung fu/karate-esque, and it makes it a lot of fun to fight with all the flashy moves that accompany those fighting styles.  Personally, I feel that Sleeping Dogs suffers from the same thing that Assassins Creed or Arkham City suffers from, and that’s that the fighting can be too easy.  Wei can tackle hundreds of guys and all the player would have to do is counter the moves, eventually taking them out.  This problem was most noticeable during the boss fights as an entire encounter could be essentially completed with one button.

            The parkour in this game was fantastically fun.  It was so awesome to watch Wei run on the rooftops of Hong Kong.  Wei moves like a real person would and he has a weight to him that can be felt in the gameplay.  The fire fights were very generic and I feel they didn’t add anything significant to the game with the exception of natural story progression.

            I found the driving was the weakest section of the game as some of the cars had horrible handling that made just staying on the roads a challenge.  The camera was awful during these sections as it would either ride so low that I couldn’t see in front of the vehicle or it would glitch out altogether and get stuck in a building.

            Speaking of glitches, Sleeping Dogs riddled with them.  Even for an open world game I found that there was an overabundance of non-trivial glitches that affected my playthrough.  A lot of them had to do with the camera just straight up doing whatever it wanted to do.  Others included Wei getting stuck on a sidewalk and not being able to jump on something I needed to jump on to progress in the mission. One time my game even crashed.

            Creatively, I think that Sleeping Dogs has a lot going for it.  The story is fantastically interesting and made me want more from it.  The city of Hong Kong was beautiful with all the neon lights.  The world the developers made was populated and felt like it was a real place and the NPC’s each had a personality which made me feel bad when I stole a car from one of them.

            As far as the story goes, it felt really strong but lacking in places.  There were a few times where I wanted to know more about what was going on but was denied the information I desired.  There were also a few moments where I thought to myself “Really?”.  These moments are not very abundant though and have a very minor effect on the overall game.

             The musical score in the game was forgettable.  While driving around the radio would be drowned out by the engine of the car.  During cut scenes I didn’t even notice any music.  You may be thinking to yourself that I should be invested in the story and not be paying as much attention to the music anyway.  I respectfully disagree - I believe that the musical score should be used to enhance the story.  Take Red Dead Redemption for example, during a cut scene there would be music to enhance the situation that the player finds themselves in.  If the dialogue is pushing for action, then the music should build up that action and make it feel epic rather than just action.

            Overall, I felt that Sleeping Dogs was a solid game with several high moments, but felt that it lacked some personality.  At points it would remind me of old Kung Fu movies, but most of the time it did not.  I felt that this game should have had more of that, because those moments were the most memorable for me.  I understand that Sleeping Dogs wants to be its own thing and not be remembered for all of its references, but it's not a bad thing to show your influences.  The developers could have had thousands of references to people like Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Jet Lee but ultimately chose not to - this does not make Sleeping Dogs a bad game, it just holds it back from being something better.

            Sleeping Dogs really is good though, and it does stand apart from others within the same genre.  It is full of high octane action, and has a compelling story as well.  If you like games with solid gameplay and a beautiful and alive world then I suggest that you give Sleeping Dogs a try.

7.8/10

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Read Dead Redemption Review

Red Dead Redemption


Fastest Review in the West

Warning: There will be spoilers ahead.

Disclaimer: I played this game on Xbox 360; other playthroughs may yield different results.

            Red Dead Redemption follows John Marston – an ex-outlaw trying to save his family from the government.  John was left to die by his old gang of fellow outlaws and decided that he needed out; so he got married, had a kid and settled down on a ranch.  He did so successfully too, until the government kidnapped his family and threatened to kill them unless he hunts down and kills his ex-gang members.

            Red Dead Redemption excels in both technical and creative terms and it's clear that Rockstar has beautifully portrayed the death of the western frontier.  The game takes place in 1911 in the Wild West and manages to take a snapshot of that time period and preserve what was happening culturally at the time.  The USA is trying to get rid of the Wild West just as John Marston is trying to get rid of his past as an outlaw.  This time period works with the narrative by showcasing not only the literal but also the figurative death of the traditional cowboy.

            “You know, I dreamt of documenting the last days of the old West.  The romance, the honor, the nobility!  But it turns out its just people killing each other.” – Harold MacDougal

            The beginning of the game feels like a spaghetti western the likes of a John Wayne film where there is a clear line between good and evil.  John is working with the sheriff and killing outlaws that are threatening the society they sit on.  Then John is forced to go to Mexico, which pushes the game not only into more epic terms but also starts to blur the line between good and evil.  John must work with both the Mexican government and the rebels that are trying to overthrow that government.  Often turning a blind eye to the evils he witnesses, John just wants to finish his mission and go home to his family.

            When John finally comes back to America, he is forced up east for one last job.  It is here where we see the civilization of the east taking hold of the savage west.  Paved roads, automobiles, and advanced weaponry become commonplace within the final third of Red Dead Redemption.  It truly is the end of the west, and you can feel it in every aspect from the game's visuals to its gameplay.

Red Dead Redemption not only has, but excels at seemingly everything that a game needs to be great: well-thought writing, atmospheric music, and stunning visuals.  Rockstar immerses the player in what the death of the west really was like (with a little exaggeration).  The story is not just told through dialogue like it would be in a book, or a movie.  It is told through gameplay, music, and visuals.  As you progress through the game, the weapons become more advanced.  The music starts out with strong western influences which slowly die down until eventually the song is literally singing about death.

            John's overall goal is to save his family by killing the gang he used to ride with, but to do this he needs the help of many of the folks he encounters on his journey; these people will not work for free though and ask for favors in return.  Even though the game's mechanics effectively make John a one man army, he is still required to step back and put other people's problems before his own in order to get what he needs.

            Red Dead Redemption has atmosphere - a lot of it.  I could spend twenty minutes sitting on a train looking out the window and watching the sun set.  It is a beautiful game, and for a game that came out in 2010 it still looks better than a lot of games coming out today.  Red Dead Redemption easily has the most immersive atmosphere of any game I’ve played, and that’s saying a lot.

            The music score of Red Dead Redemption has a lot of weight behind it.  Depending on the circumstance it can evoke some pretty powerful feelings from the player.  For example, when John completes his mission by killing the last remaining member of his ex-gang the FBI informs him that his family has been returned home.  The music that swells makes the player want to ride home and reunite John with his family.  At the time of this song playing the player is not worried about fast traveling to the next mission or about the free roam the game offers. The song makes the player want to be there with John as he rides to his wife and son. Similarly, when John dies the lack of music lets the final scene really sink in and have the player reflect on everything that’s happened.

            The execution of the story holds up to some of the best writings today. Using gameplay, atmosphere, and music to help drive its narrative helps Red Dead Redemption excel where other games fall flat. Past and present cultural references are shown through character personalities like that of West Dickens who is a self-aware crooked salesman; in his own words is “the kind of man that can prosper in America.”  Even the advance of technology through weaponry available to the player shows the passing of time.

            Red Dead Redemption also perfectly nails a book-end theme of passing of the torch.  When the game begins John is with Bonnie, who walks the player through the game's tutorial missions.  From ranching to shooting, Bonnie’s missions teach the player just about every aspect of the game.  When John is reunited with his family the gameplay that follows mirror that of Bonnie's missions but with John in Bonnie’s place as he mentors his son, Jack.  This is the perfect foreshadowing for informing the player that once John dies, the player will play as Jack.

            I wish I could talk about all of Red Dead Redemption's characters in depth, but there are far too many.  What I will do is talk briefly about the game's two main protagonists: John Marston and his son, Jack Marston.  John has not been a good man in the past, but he is trying to change and is full of honour and respect. Though, John is not without flaws: he fails to see impeding danger and refuses to accept that he in many ways has not changed from his days as an outlaw. 
            Jack is just a boy when his character is first introduced. Not a lot of people I’ve talked to like him very much but I think he is one of the strongest characters in this game.  Jack is a boy whose father is a cold-hearted killer and mother is an ex-prostitute, and Jack is not blind to this.  Jack can read and write, which puts him at an advantage compared to most of the people who lived in that time.  He loves to read stories about wild adventures, and even says that he will write a book about his father.  First though, what Jack intends to get his revenge on the man that orchestrated his father's death.  This mission alone could have been enough to fuel a sequel but Rockstar instead wrapped this story arc up in a side mission and once it is completed the player is sent back to whatever he or she was doing before.  This could be seen as a lazy ending, but I found the mission to be extremely effective in saying that revenge will provide you with no lasting benefits.

            The game is not without its flaws though. Being an open-world Rockstar game Red Dead Redemption is accompanied by the usual and sometimes hilarious glitches that come with any GTA game. These glitches are few and far between compared to previous Rockstar games but they cannot be overlooked simply because I find the game enjoyable.

            To put it simply, Red Dead Redemption is a masterpiece.  A strong argument could be made that this game deserves game of the year, decade, generation, or even of all time.  It is easily the best game I have ever had the chance to play.  This is a game that is going to be talked about for a long time to come, especially when talking about games as an art form.

            What sets Red Dead Redemption apart from the crowd is that Rockstar remembered that it was a game and used that to their advantage of telling a story. Telling a story in a game cannot be done in the same way that stories are presented through a movie or a book. They weave the plot points in to the gameplay, and use the player to help create a tediously crafted story that hits all the right chords.

            Everything about Red Dead Redemption feels like a spaghetti western: dialogue, music, visuals, aesthetics, even the sky looks like a matte painting.  This game brought me back to when I was a kid visiting my grandparents who would happen to be watching a Clint Eastwood movie. It makes you feel like you’ve experienced an entire era; the Wild West, a culture having its last breath.

There is just so much love put into this game, and it shows, from the texture of the grass, to the notes in the score. This game just feels like it was tediously crafted by the hands of a team that respected the genre and wanted to give it everything they had. I am glad that I was able to experience Red Dead Redemption and regret waiting for so long to try the game.

If you are still unsure if you want to play it, I implore you to. It truly is an experience that you can’t get by watching a playthrough or reading about it. Reading mine or anyone else’s review does not do this game justice. You simply just need to play the game.

“People don’t forget, nothing gets forgiven.”  –  John Marston

9.9/10

Hey guys! Thanks for reading, I took a different approach to this review thanks to some feedback from a reader. I feel this layout makes for a more interesting read, but it was hard for me to get a grasp, hence why it is almost a week late! Worry not though! The schedule should be back to normal with regular bi-weekly releases!

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Tomb Raider Reboot Review

Tomb Raider (2013)

Reboot Review

Disclaimer: I played this game on the Xbox 360 - other playthroughs may yield different results.

                Tomb Raider is a long running series that started back in the year 1996; it has since been a staple in the gaming industry, being one of the first games to have a female protagonist. While the games themselves have not been so great, the main character, Lara Croft, has arguably propelled strong female characters. After sprouting movies, comics, and spin-offs, Crystal Dynamics decided that it was time to start the series over. After getting their hands on the rights, that’s exactly what they did - but did they make a game that can stand-up to the original?

                In the reboot, Lara Croft is the protégée to the famous archaeologist Dr. James Whitman. They lead an expedition to find the long lost Yamatai kingdom. Lara believes that the kingdom is on an island within the Dragons Triangle, a triangle that makes Bermuda look tame. With little funding and less time, they decide to follow Lara’s gut. The boat splits in half due to horrible weather conditions and the crew finds themselves stranded on the island.

                In this game we follow Lara Croft, as she grows into the “Tomb Raider”. Lara starts off as an innocent woman, just doing what she loves: archaeology. She finds herself stranded on an island with thousands of psychotic killers and no way off of the island. Doing what any sane person would do, she tries to avoid the dangers but finds herself getting dragged back into it constantly, eventually being forced to kill.

                The story in this game is well written and extremely well executed. It shows Lara go from a university archaeologist to the cold-blooded killing machine called “Tomb Raider”. Lara feels guilty for getting her friends stranded so she takes responsibility for getting them off of the island. Although this proves to be quite the challenge, as every time they get close to being saved something else happens that puts Lara back to square one. Lara literally never catches a break. She is constantly plagued with bad luck; Lara Croft takes Murphy’s Law to a whole new world. Although the game never overuses this trope and it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

                The gameplay in Tomb Raider is not anything we haven’t seen before, but the developers add a few minor mechanics that add to it and make it feel new. Not only is the game fun, but if you are playing on the hard difficulty, then it is quite challenging as well. Worry not though - this challenge is not rage inducing and adds quite a bit of entertainment to the game.

There are four different gameplay sections in this game (all of which are fun - some more so than others): puzzle, shoot-em-up, parkour, and escape. All of these add their own flavor to the game that makes it what it is.

                Puzzle sections have been a staple in the series since the very first one was released in 1996. Although in previous Tomb Raider installments the puzzles were extremely difficult, this game tones it down for new-comers to the series. Although they get increasingly difficult, these puzzles are overall pretty easy. If you do happen to get stuck though you can use Lara’s survival instinct, this will highlight important objects in the environment as well as give you an objective marker. These sections usually involve some parkour to move around the room and are mostly intended to give you some practice with the new mechanics introduced in the reboot (ex. Rope Arrows).

                The shoot-em-up sections are the most abundant in the game and are ever evolving. By adding new enemy types or new weapons/weapon mechanics slowly as the game progresses, Crystal Dynamics manages to make these sections feel fresh and fun every time they happen. The AI isn’t terrible either, having dynamite and Molotov’s that they could throw at you forced you to keep moving. There are enemies that rush while others sit back and wait for you to come out of cover. This makes for some really tense moments and some make-shift strategies to survive the encounter. These really tense moments do not happen terribly often, but when they do they help drive home the fact that Lara is fighting for her life.

                Lara’s movements change depending on what’s happening in game. If she hears an enemy nearby then she will crouch down and move slowly to make less noise. If close to a wall or box she will take cover behind it, making a flawless cover system. When using a gun, enemies will hear you and attack on sight, but if using a bow you can make silent kills. Stealth works well overall, although there are points where you are forced into combat anyways. Each weapon has its own upside and downside. The bow is silent and easy to aim, but slow to shoot, while the rifle is loud and can fire several times in succession but is extremely hard to aim. The shotgun has high damage but a low range, while the pistol has low damage but a high range. This forces the player to plan ahead their strategies when entering a fight.

                These sections aren’t perfect though. Sometimes the lighting feels weird and makes it hard to see enemies, or if you find yourself in danger of dying you can just keep rolling around and bullet dodging until your health regenerates. Although this didn’t always work, it worked often enough to remove some of the danger of certain enemies. There was also one point in my play through where the game glitched and an enemy became invisible (although this glitch could be a problem with the console being used, or the specific disc, as it only happened one time).

                The parkour sections are another staple in Tomb Raider history; in this game it is mostly used to get from one place to another. Lara would find something or learn a new skill that would allow her to climb to new heights. These constant updates kept parkouring relatively fresh and fun. It would also seem that Crystal Dynamics took a few tips from NaughtyDog’s Uncharted series (this is a good thing). The camera angles in these sections make climbing easy, while having certain sections fall as you climb past them gives the player a sense of urgency. This makes the player move faster, so as to not have Lara fall to her death.

                The escape sections are where Lara is running away from something (like a crashing airplane or a building on fire). These sections are the fastest paced one and are arguably most tense. They create a realistic sense of urgency in the player. This urgency happens throughout the whole game, but these sections bring it out better than the others. This is largely because of the death scenes that accompany a failed attempt. These scenes are extremely gruesome and are hard to watch, because they not only show the death, but they show Lara, struggling up until her last breath. All of this happens in a few seconds and you just stare at your screen mouth agape wondering what just happened and why you watched it. Although gruesome, these death scenes are crucial in bringing Lara’s urgency to the player. These sections sometimes happen back to back, to push the story forward, but can be a bit too much at times.

                While playing through the game Lara will gain experience - gain enough experience and she gets a skill point that she can spend on survival skills. There are three trees; Hunter, Survivalist and Brawler. All of these give Lara some minor skills that will help her excel over her enemies on the island.

                The story is very dark, compared to previous installments, and has a myriad of gruesome images (such as the death scenes) that accompany it. Although there is one point where the story fails and that is Lara’s first kill/murder. Lara is petrified with fear, and almost pukes with disgust, yet seconds later has a kill/death ratio of 100/0. This is a problem that many games tend to have, and it seems that the writers at Crystal Dynamics did not find a way to overcome it. Although this nearly unavoidable problem is disappointing, it doesn't really hurt the game much as a whole.

                Tomb Raider's multiplayer is very generic. It is probably the weak-point of the game, as it doesn't do anything unique. Don’t take that in the wrong way either, the multiplayer is fine. It works and is fun, but it just feels like it was thrown in for the sake of having multiplayer. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, as the game's multiplayer does add hours onto overall playtime.

                Crystal Dynamic’s Tomb Raider has a lot of good things going for it: interesting characters, a beautiful world (both graphically and design wise), great cut-scene quality and cinematography, and above all else; fun. Tomb Raider is an extremely fun game, from scavenging for supplies to fighting for your life. While this game has many of games tropes, such as an endless influx of bad guys, and a main character that is seemingly invincible, in the end none of that matters. Crystal Dynamics has managed to make a game that is fun from beginning to end, and because of this, all of the things that would normally bug people are overlooked. Will this game stand the test of time, or will it fall into the shadows of newer, better looking games? There’s only one way to find out.

8.9/10

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