I am very thrilled to announce to you all the freshly created:
www.k986terminal.com
It's been a long time in the thought line, and I've taken the time to team up with a fellow reviewer and friend to help diversify some of the content readily available to you all! At it's current state, you'll be able to find more of the same views you've grown to expect of me here, as well as the addition of written reviews for television and movies, and some audio-casts for movies! These are particularly something we are trying to nail down, posting both a "watch along" for those who want to listen to us as we watch the movie, and eventually (when the time for editing and recording arises) a more concise video review.
In the future, I hope to add even more exciting things that interest (at the very least me), so that it can become a sort of one-stop home for all the fun reviews you could want on various things. I hope you will all enjoy, and please feel free to leave comments to let me know what you think!
Mar 8, 2013
Nov 28, 2012
Mass Effect Trilogy
The Mass Effect games are ones that I got into at a late stage, as in I actually played the second ME game before I played the first, because they had both hit the twenty dollar mark, and 2 was at hand where I was.
The good news is, the second made me want to play the first, but I really hadn't realized just how different the two games would be from one another. Most games in a series can have a few noticeable differences, but in the case of these two it almost felt like a completely different game, with some of the same characters! Now, there is a lot of stuff to cover here, which admittedly is only part of the reason this has taken me so long to do, but that means a few change-ups to how I do these opinion-ations. To break up travel between sections, I'm going to do my best to add in-document hyperlinks, so you can jump straight to the section you want. The video (if/when added in) will also have a layer or two of editing to it, to help concisely convey some of the differences between the two games.
Story
Audio
Gameplay
Story
Every game that want's to get a good following really ends up needing a story. Now, to many it's a given that having a group like Bioware behind a game automatically means story. For some of us though, the "proof is in the pudding" so to speak.
For Mass Effect one, you pick from a few pre-generated background stories and pre-enlistment stories that essentially is the "who I was" part of the game. These come into effect later on in minor ways (how some people interact with you and a few side-quests mainly), but all in all don't really seem to do much outside of make your Shepard (man or woman) feel more personal. The rest is set up in a large portion of non-essential side quests that give a few things (mainly XP and loot) and may or may not have some effect later on in the series (like getting an email in game 2, or having an actual talk with the character in game. Bioware also shelled out a lot of believable science into the game (even if it is still mostly fictional), that stops it from seeming as far out there as star wars, but still more fantastic then star trek.
Aliens are abound in the universe, and humans are (at this stage) pretty much the "new kids on the block." A large portion of the main storyline involves this, and the play between the humans and the "council", a gathering of (better) aliens that works as the interstellar democracy, if you will. It's more like a three-headed monarchy with how similar the three think. So you, Shepard, start off simply tasked as trying to become a SPECTRE (intergalactic spec ops above the law, kind of a BIG deal) to cement Humanity's place in the council as a important species, and from there things spiral to chasing traitors, to saving the citadel (the main space-hub of civilization where the council is at), to pretty much saving every organic species in the entire existence. Yes sir, things ramp up pretty fast for poor Shepard.
In-process, you get a crew of aliens, some stay with you, others die (depending on your choices), and learn all about how legends get started with facts that turn to rumors. You can even romance members of your crew in both games (something I could honestly really, really care less about) if your into that kind of thing. The first game rewards you with much more 'risque' video clips than the second, but that may be because the first caught quite a bit of flack for it.
There is quite the scale in the first game, which plays mostly like a RPG with guns in it. This makes sense, as it lays out the entire backdrop of what's to come - the main villains, the main characters, the drama! Although some of the side quests have no real bearing on the overall story, they can help flesh out your character more (mostly due to your own choices anyways), and serve as a way to better get to know some of your fellow teammates (which you can do also by simply talking to them on your spaceship). You learn about planets, races, and all sorts of other things. Up until the very end of the game, you feel as though the scale of everything is massive, and when you finally beat it it gives you a nice treat of an ending that (at least for me) makes you walk away with a smile, and come back to play it again later.
Now, the second game is a much more narrow feeling scope to it. Yes, you still go across the universe, picking up crew (some of which return from the first game), but at the same time it also feels as though the game went from a galactic focus to a human-centric one, thanks to the fact that (with no choice) you end up working for a terrorist group named Cerberus, who you may have grown to hate if you played the first game. The game opens with you (and a lot of the original Normandy's - your spaceship- crew) dying off in a dramatic display, thus allowing for the segue into Cerberus "rebuilding" you, allowing you to change the looks or class of your ME1 Shepard, or play a brand new ME2 Shepard with some pre-set "previous events". Although importing is fun to see a few of the characters from the first, it really has no direct bearing on the events in the second what-so-ever as far as I have noticed - such that if a character died in the first that was supposed to have lines in the second, that character is simply replaced with a different one who has very, very similar lines. Now, you can interact with your crew still, picking up their back stories and quirks, much like in the first, and it directly effects the ending (the tag line totes "leading a suicide mission to save the universe"), which is much more impact than the not-needed socializing in the first, but that feels to the extent of the exploration that you are going to do. It's understandable, to an extent, as this is now the middle game, mostly everything needed has been introduced in the first game, and nothing can really be closed with the third coming behind it. Doesn't make you feel any better about it though.
Now, the third game (Shepard's "Final Episode" in the Mass Effect universe) was met very widely by a bunch of negativity. This isn't so much for the fact that the story itself is entirely bad - the journey to the end was still rather fun. You run into familiar faces (some for no more than a passing moment in a cinematic section, others in a brief-mention during an in-game "email"), and the story feels as a continuation from the others. This isn't entirely bullet proof yet, as some things seem, for lack of better words, "out of character." Here we have Shepard, who according to Downloadable Content for game 2 (and this is cannon, as the start of game three directly references it) you sacrifice an entire planet of Batarians (who are generally jerks anyways) and is familiar with loosing people, and yet a lot of the story elements this time around revolve around how watching one little kid he/she doesn't even know get laser-ed by Reapers haunts him/her the entire game. Now, you can get around it, even if it feels like an out of character tackiness to try and add more depth to a character that could quite possibly have been played as a ruthless murder-machine (at which point it would make even less since, what with being all evil-renegade kill all). The character interactions with/between on-ship teammates is the best it's been in the entire series. There is more of a feel to "this universe is huge," but at the same time it feels more claustrophobic than the first game in that you don't really associate with as many of the different races (primarily, the "sub races" such as Hanar and Volus are little givers of side-quests cash ins, if even), leaving it to feel again a bit human-centric ("Earth is attacked, you guys need to help us and forget about your own planets and problems").
The part that most people have an issue with story wise, is that from the first two parts to the third, there is a distinct lack of feeling that any of the choices you made had any for of significant impact. This may be due to the "war assets" numerical value associated with everything in the third game, but some of it also may be due to the limited interaction you have with anyone that you would previously have attached too (with a few exceptions). For side-story characters and others like them, this would be understandable, but even some of the characters that where party members from the other two simply show up as dialogue based "cinematics" making you wish that they would be fighting with you instead of X other guy. Beyond that, anyone who woul be reading about ME should by no know of the huge "Your ending is terrible, I want it changed because I spent 60 dollars on this and that means I own the entire property so you have to do what I say" debacle that formed from this.
If you don't, welcome to the internet and how it's changed our lives. The ending to the series (without spoilers), was what many would call "subpar." Personally, for me, I was a little mad about it (I've watched a lot of shows in my day where people beat impossible odds by using all sorts of courageous hot-blooded dedication to not giving up), but it did play out much like I had assumed it would. The problem isn't necessarily with the ending, but how it's presented that has the majority (I think) in the uproar. You play the games, enjoying yourselves and the universe, and you get to the end, and whereas the other games had all these subtle little plot changes based on choices, this one flat-out gives you specific choices, and that is pretty near the only thing that effects the ending. In theory, its exactly what the game's been championed for hasn't it? A game of choices ending with a choice? Even the presentation of the choices, however, left a bitter taste in many people's mouths, feeling almost out of place with everything that has gone on in the other games.
As a side note, however, it did lead to some very interesting and well thought out fan-theories about the endings (which in my humble opinion, where far better than anything that Bioware could have done to change/update/redact the ending they had). If you have fans that care so much as to come up with conspiratorial theories about how your game ACTUALLY ended, then that's a sign of love in my books.
Audio
Probably the shortest of the entries for this particular segment, audio is just as important at making you feel as any visual component. The first game does a spectacular job with sound effects, and when it comes to making you feel like your in space as well through music. Pretty much every song is rather atmospheric, which in turn can make the action seem a little less intense on the musics end (even though the weapons and moves all sound quite well). The voice acting is done well around the house, although I gotta admit, I find myself wanting to play the FemShep (as female Shepard has been come to be known) due more to the better VA (voice actor). Actually, the only song that really sounds like a song you would hear on the radio is the ending song, which is catchy and does have that feel-good "I just did that, survived, and looked good doing it" vibe.
For the second game, the soundtrack is much more diverse, and its no better shown than the difference between the "club" music played throughout the different bars/clubs in the games three major ports. You actually feel as though you are in such a place should you close your eyes, with the loud musics and each has its own distinct feel. Song quality changes during battles as too, where the music picks up to remind you that there is a fight going on, and noticeably so. The downside is that some of the games sound effects feel like they lost some gusto from ME1 to ME2. The best showcase of this is the actual Mass Effect Relay. In the first, it was like a crack of thunder with a silent rumble that shook the walls around your surround sound unit. In the second game, however, its like normal "psshaaa" of a sound effect. Its essentially still the same sound, but it feels like its lacking the same heart as the first one. They do, however, make some sounds more noticeable, such as the recharge of a Kinetic Barrier, which I believe is more to do with gameplay changes then simple sound effects.Again, everything is still done talk-wise with VA's and they all do a wonderful job, and again the FemShep's VA seems to be more on-the-ball with being believable then the male counterpart. Still fun to play both of them though, don't get me wrong. Here, however, the Krogan "Grunt" steals the show for me, as the way he 'croaks' out "Shepard" whenever you talk to him can single-handedly amuse me for half an hour or more. There is a lack, however, of an ending song that actually makes me feel accomplished and sit through the entire credits. I guess it's awesomeness was divided up to all the other songs.
The final piece of the trilogy is actually a pretty decent mix. The ambiance of the first meats with some of the finer points of the second, allowing you to not only get a feel from the scene through music alone, but really grasp that you aren't just running around planets exploring, but actually trying to save the very known universe from its demise. Also more prevalent than ever is the reapers, sounding like all the creepy mutated freak-shows that you would expect them to sound like. The strangest part is, and I don't know anymore if I failed to realize it in the other games, or it's just so pronounced in this final chapter that it's impossible to miss, that the Reapers make a sound very similar to the horn from the movie Inception every time the show up. It's does a great job at doing what it does, but I do wonder why exactly the Reapers are flying around honking at me. The ending theme, again, fails short of making me feel as achieved as I did in the first game though, but the music over the course of the game more than makes up for it.
Now, 3 also introduces a multiplayer component, which adds another tier of VA for the many, many races they (continually) add to that aspect. Nearly every race has a spin on the phrase "For (home planet)" with the exception of the Human characters. Some guns have slightly different audio, but all of them have that satisfying Mass Effect sound, particularly with the heavier weapons (I could listen to the Revenant or the Typhoon all day long). These little extra pieces are something that could easily have been ignored, and it helps the team aspect live up to the same audio par-grade as the single player side.
Gameplay
The biggest section of the game right here, as is it the biggest review change. Both games controls where rather polished, and the major difference comes from changes between the two. The biggest control letdown for the first game, however, was the awkward way of attaching oneself to cover, which didn't always guarantee you would actually attach to cover like you had meant to. There's a slight shift in squad commands as well, switching from four different squad commands in the first to three versions of one command (move here for each and both) and one regroup command in the second. The third streamlines the second's controls even more, giving you more options through integration with the connect as opposed to quick-buttons of the old game. When it comes to glitches, the first game also has a lot more than the second. Beyond the normal texture-jump that can happen in a lot of xbox games, I have also been stuck in walls, and had a few talks not trigger. In the second game, the only glitch I have seen outside of a quest not properly updating is an instance of an entire chat segment being skipped. The third seemingly has less glitches than the others, but I must confess that I haven't played it nearly as much as the others, so it would be easier for me to not see them either.
For the rest, I'll repeat the same pattern as the top of the list, so you can quick-link to what you want:
Equipment
Skills
Combat
Mini games
Equipment
The first game, much like any other RPG, has a ridiculous amount of gear to find/buy/get. Multiple suits of armor, guns, and accessories where abound. Although the armor many times was a simple change of colors, there where enough there to make it feel as though there was unique armor in it, with the "bulk up" as an armor goes from light to heavy especially satisfactory. Weapons, similarly, had only a few different skins but many color changes. The accessories had no real appearance, but offered various different boosts/buffs. All the gear at this point had a large amount of Levels attached to it (in the form of Roman Numerals). Grenades (or Mines, if I remember correctly) where also an item of sorts.
In the change to Mass Effect 2, however, the series made a jump to a more streamlined, pick-up and play shooter format that effect gear in a heavy way. Armor was now in pieces, allowing for a more customizable character, but always either found in a box or bought from a store, and the distinguishable nature between light and heavy was gone with the weight designations, as armor had no effect on anything but some small specific stat boosts (Extra ammo, cooldown speed increase). Weapons became more unique, getting their own names for each look, and each with its own stats. The downside to this was that there was now drastically less weapons coupled with the game's mechanic of allowing specific classes to use specific weapons only. Also gone where the accessories. In addition, Heavy Weapons where added, which had very limited ammo, but nothing was quite as satisfactory as causing a radiation-less nuclear explosion on a particularly rough enemy. Grenades where replaced by these very weapons.
The third keeps the second's systems in place, but diversifies by adding even more armor and weapons to the mix. It also (thankfully) did away with the second's class limitation mechanic on weapons, replacing it with a "weight" system that would reduce skill cooldown instead. Secondary characters, however, retain the weapon restriction of the second, being only allowed to use two specific weapon types. Heavy weapons where dropped, only appearing briefly as something you pick up in the story mode. The single player mode aspects carry over to the multiplayer mode as well. Grenades where incorporated as a skill move at this point, but work on independent ammo system.
Skills
"I am a biotic god!" This phrase really shows how you feel in the first game, if you ever could figure out its chaotic cluster of point-spending skill system. This cluttered system gave you small benefits for every point spent, but unlocked moves or other point chains as you got to certain intervals amongst chains. Some rewards (like hacking) where used for interactive purposes (such as opening treasure boxes or doors), while other where moves you could use for combat purposes (like stasis). As far as combat went, each move you could unlock had an independent cooldown. This made characters that where biotics feel impossibly strong in comparison to something like a soldier, for the fact that while you had Stasis cooling down, you could still push or overload to your hearts content. The soldier made up for this by taking less damage thanks to the heavier-armor they could wear by skill paths, and that weapon skill paths would make you more effective (deal better damage, weapon spreads less accuracy wise) with more guns.
The second game underwent a MASSIVE overhaul in this area. From a large cluster of point-driven skills that was nearly daunting in size (although limited in use), everything was dumbed down into a mere six paths, one of which was a passive upgrade, while for Secondary characters they where limited down to four paths, of these one of which was passive and another required the character to be 'loyal'. On the main character's paths, some paths would only become unlocked after another path reached a certain point (such as rank two). All paths ended at rank four, with the only viable "choice" in the path being that final step (which usually resulted in greater effect or larger radius). After the first game's more RPG-like structuring, this felt greatly restrictive, and coupled with the now universal cooldown across skills, made biotic characters feel quite a bit down-played as opposed to the original. The game was still fun, but for the soldier class, it become possible to actually run out of ammo for your guns, leaving you without any way of defending yourself (outside of commanding teammates to use their attack skills), as the class only had one move (concussive shot) that against bosses was much like throwing feathers.
For the third game, Bioware listened to the complaints of it's fans, realizing that the second game had become to constrictive with powers and that people wanted more. Skill paths now had six ranks to obtain, with a two-option choice at both stage five and six, leading to more diversity amongst moves. Shepard now has six power paths, with an additional two passive trait lines. Secondary character's are much the same as in the second game, having four power paths and one passive path. The universal cooldown is retained from the second game, although most powers returning receive some form of adjustment statistically. In multiplayer, selectable characters have three power paths with two passives, and will only ever earn enough points to fully max out four of the five paths.
Combat
Combat has minor changes throughout the series (such as cover mechanics), but the most intense changes happen between Mass Effect 1 and 2, as the game shifts from a role playing feel to that of an over-the-shoulder shooting game. From this, we will talk largely about that difference, as outside of Kinect integration, 2 and 3 are similar enough as to not largely necessitate discussion.
In the 1st ME game, we have a large set of skills that independently cool down (as opposed to the later games which had a universal cooldown), and more than anything else we have a completely different weapon system. Although much like in the 3rd game characters can equip any weapon they want, the first game makes you less effective with a weapon unless you have spent points in that weapons training path. Beyond this, weapons required no "ammo" in the first game (which was a great system that many are saddened to see be lost in the later installments), instead working on a system of overheating. Every time a weapon was fired, a certain amount of heat would be produced, which would then immediately start to dissipate (as shown on the HUD's heat graphic), and if too much was produced in quick succession (or single shot), the gun would "overheat," causing it to not be able to fire until it had fully cooled down. The later games moved to a more normalized "X number of bullets per magazine" familiar to the average shooting game, in turn loosing some of the charm and unique tactical nature of combat in the first game. It is said this was done due to many complaints, but personally I have never heard such complaints and find it silly - to each their own however.
This original also had a certain point in the skill progression where you would hack into an enemies weapon, causing it to overheat and be unable to fire, which was quite useful sometimes (especially at harder difficulties). Given how the mechanics changed, I guess the fact that this "overheating" of weapons vanished by the final entry into the trilogy isn't too surprising, instead having moves that would just "stagger" the enemy.
Across all three games, cover mechanics exist with very minor changes (3 adds the ability to move from cover to cover, 2 had the ability to duck while in cover), and squad controls likewise exist to varying degrees (some allowed you to place specific characters in designated spots, and with the Kinect implementation in 3 you could tell them to by voice to do nearly anything). Controls are responsive, and when a player died it never felt as though the controls themselves where at fault. The first two games of the series also had Vehicular use (in specific missions of 2, and every planet you explore in 1), where again the controls where responsive for combat purposes. Each type of weapon felt different enough from each other that you could tell what you where using, even if some made more sense than others (why use a pistol when you have an automatic rifle?) and is probably why the restrictive weapon load outs of other games where added in. Shields and Barriers became more noticeable in the latter games, announcing their status with loud audibles and more noteworthy visual effects as the trilogy continued. The 2nd added environmental hazards (one planet had light that could and would actually burn through your character's shields and health), which where added in to some of extent the multiplayer of the 3rd.
Mini games
This is very hit-or-miss, as some people love them and some don't. Thankfully, this is my opinion's, so I needn't account for anyone but myself. The 1st game has a bypass based mini game that is essentially Simon Says, but was nice enough to allow you to use Omni-gel (a resource removed from the later games) to simply skip it with automatic success, assuming a squad member had the adequate level of decryption/electronics. By ME2, however, the Decryption and Electronics skill paths where removed, instead just automatically letting you attempt to bypass and hack. Rather than Simon Says, bypassing objects now became a game of Memory, where the goal was to match all of the symbols to each other before the time expired (as though one was re-soldering nodes to bypass circuits). For Hacking, we instead are treated to a matching game where a specific image of text is shown (with specific colors), and the player navigates the scrolling three columns of text images (avoiding big red "X" boxes) to select this "target" text. That process repeats three times, or until the player fails. When we finally get to ME3, hacking/bypassing is simply "push A" and wait.
There is also the exploration factor that I consider to be a mini game of its own right. In ME1, this was simply done by making you hop out in your tank (which although fun at first grows old after the thirtieth planet of bouncing around like a hyperactive squirrel in a box) on a planet, and driving around to find things (collectables such as minerals and diaries). This would then be repeated on every single planet the player came across, for fear of missing something (side quests also took place on these planets and finished in a similar hap-hazard way). For ME2, it became apparent that maybe this was overkill, and instead the game was switched over to the "Probe" mini game. This consisted of spinning a planet around with the controller as you held the "scan" button, waiting for a little graphics equalizer looking graph on the screen to start popping up to indicate "X material" is in high supply there. On certain planets, side quests could also be found, being indicated by an on-screen arrow pointing to where the probe needed to land to start the mission. To be honest, I would have preferred the original system (had they made the planets a bit more diverse in looks). The final entry in the trilogy (ME3) found a great balance of these systems. You still fly through space on your ship, scanning planets, however the "probe" is more of a radar ping that comes from your ship and emanates outwards, indicating where something is (and requiring no more than a simple "push A"). To make it more difficult, they added a "reaper warning", that if you scan too much all of a sudden the Reapers show up (with their Inception horn), and if they touch your ship, "Game over man, game over!" The dredging grind of acquiring X of Y material so that you can research Z upgrade of 2 is gone here, but unfortunately so is the exploration of worlds that was present in 1, as most of this was for nothing more than side quests (which would in turn raise your 'war assets').
Wrap up
Overall, I would say the Trilogy is well worth picking up - but I strongly would suggest that you start at Mass Effect 1 if you plan to do so. For me, at least, the game is so much more about your connection to the characters than it is the overall story or mechanics, and the best way I can phrase it is like this:
If you hop into Lord of the Rings at the scenes in Moria, having no knowledge of what happens prior or later, do you fully care as to why everyone is so sad after the "You shall not pass!" scene?
Don't deny yourself the connection to the characters. Play it from the start, enjoy the journey (even if the super-end is a little lackluster), and then enjoy playing the multiplayer (which for the most part thus far has been free content updates). It's a fun universe to get into, and you rarely get to see this kind of fine tuning and change across a series of games.
The good news is, the second made me want to play the first, but I really hadn't realized just how different the two games would be from one another. Most games in a series can have a few noticeable differences, but in the case of these two it almost felt like a completely different game, with some of the same characters! Now, there is a lot of stuff to cover here, which admittedly is only part of the reason this has taken me so long to do, but that means a few change-ups to how I do these opinion-ations. To break up travel between sections, I'm going to do my best to add in-document hyperlinks, so you can jump straight to the section you want. The video (if/when added in) will also have a layer or two of editing to it, to help concisely convey some of the differences between the two games.
Story
Audio
Gameplay
Story
Every game that want's to get a good following really ends up needing a story. Now, to many it's a given that having a group like Bioware behind a game automatically means story. For some of us though, the "proof is in the pudding" so to speak.
For Mass Effect one, you pick from a few pre-generated background stories and pre-enlistment stories that essentially is the "who I was" part of the game. These come into effect later on in minor ways (how some people interact with you and a few side-quests mainly), but all in all don't really seem to do much outside of make your Shepard (man or woman) feel more personal. The rest is set up in a large portion of non-essential side quests that give a few things (mainly XP and loot) and may or may not have some effect later on in the series (like getting an email in game 2, or having an actual talk with the character in game. Bioware also shelled out a lot of believable science into the game (even if it is still mostly fictional), that stops it from seeming as far out there as star wars, but still more fantastic then star trek.
Aliens are abound in the universe, and humans are (at this stage) pretty much the "new kids on the block." A large portion of the main storyline involves this, and the play between the humans and the "council", a gathering of (better) aliens that works as the interstellar democracy, if you will. It's more like a three-headed monarchy with how similar the three think. So you, Shepard, start off simply tasked as trying to become a SPECTRE (intergalactic spec ops above the law, kind of a BIG deal) to cement Humanity's place in the council as a important species, and from there things spiral to chasing traitors, to saving the citadel (the main space-hub of civilization where the council is at), to pretty much saving every organic species in the entire existence. Yes sir, things ramp up pretty fast for poor Shepard.
In-process, you get a crew of aliens, some stay with you, others die (depending on your choices), and learn all about how legends get started with facts that turn to rumors. You can even romance members of your crew in both games (something I could honestly really, really care less about) if your into that kind of thing. The first game rewards you with much more 'risque' video clips than the second, but that may be because the first caught quite a bit of flack for it.
There is quite the scale in the first game, which plays mostly like a RPG with guns in it. This makes sense, as it lays out the entire backdrop of what's to come - the main villains, the main characters, the drama! Although some of the side quests have no real bearing on the overall story, they can help flesh out your character more (mostly due to your own choices anyways), and serve as a way to better get to know some of your fellow teammates (which you can do also by simply talking to them on your spaceship). You learn about planets, races, and all sorts of other things. Up until the very end of the game, you feel as though the scale of everything is massive, and when you finally beat it it gives you a nice treat of an ending that (at least for me) makes you walk away with a smile, and come back to play it again later.
Now, the second game is a much more narrow feeling scope to it. Yes, you still go across the universe, picking up crew (some of which return from the first game), but at the same time it also feels as though the game went from a galactic focus to a human-centric one, thanks to the fact that (with no choice) you end up working for a terrorist group named Cerberus, who you may have grown to hate if you played the first game. The game opens with you (and a lot of the original Normandy's - your spaceship- crew) dying off in a dramatic display, thus allowing for the segue into Cerberus "rebuilding" you, allowing you to change the looks or class of your ME1 Shepard, or play a brand new ME2 Shepard with some pre-set "previous events". Although importing is fun to see a few of the characters from the first, it really has no direct bearing on the events in the second what-so-ever as far as I have noticed - such that if a character died in the first that was supposed to have lines in the second, that character is simply replaced with a different one who has very, very similar lines. Now, you can interact with your crew still, picking up their back stories and quirks, much like in the first, and it directly effects the ending (the tag line totes "leading a suicide mission to save the universe"), which is much more impact than the not-needed socializing in the first, but that feels to the extent of the exploration that you are going to do. It's understandable, to an extent, as this is now the middle game, mostly everything needed has been introduced in the first game, and nothing can really be closed with the third coming behind it. Doesn't make you feel any better about it though.
Now, the third game (Shepard's "Final Episode" in the Mass Effect universe) was met very widely by a bunch of negativity. This isn't so much for the fact that the story itself is entirely bad - the journey to the end was still rather fun. You run into familiar faces (some for no more than a passing moment in a cinematic section, others in a brief-mention during an in-game "email"), and the story feels as a continuation from the others. This isn't entirely bullet proof yet, as some things seem, for lack of better words, "out of character." Here we have Shepard, who according to Downloadable Content for game 2 (and this is cannon, as the start of game three directly references it) you sacrifice an entire planet of Batarians (who are generally jerks anyways) and is familiar with loosing people, and yet a lot of the story elements this time around revolve around how watching one little kid he/she doesn't even know get laser-ed by Reapers haunts him/her the entire game. Now, you can get around it, even if it feels like an out of character tackiness to try and add more depth to a character that could quite possibly have been played as a ruthless murder-machine (at which point it would make even less since, what with being all evil-renegade kill all). The character interactions with/between on-ship teammates is the best it's been in the entire series. There is more of a feel to "this universe is huge," but at the same time it feels more claustrophobic than the first game in that you don't really associate with as many of the different races (primarily, the "sub races" such as Hanar and Volus are little givers of side-quests cash ins, if even), leaving it to feel again a bit human-centric ("Earth is attacked, you guys need to help us and forget about your own planets and problems").
The part that most people have an issue with story wise, is that from the first two parts to the third, there is a distinct lack of feeling that any of the choices you made had any for of significant impact. This may be due to the "war assets" numerical value associated with everything in the third game, but some of it also may be due to the limited interaction you have with anyone that you would previously have attached too (with a few exceptions). For side-story characters and others like them, this would be understandable, but even some of the characters that where party members from the other two simply show up as dialogue based "cinematics" making you wish that they would be fighting with you instead of X other guy. Beyond that, anyone who woul be reading about ME should by no know of the huge "Your ending is terrible, I want it changed because I spent 60 dollars on this and that means I own the entire property so you have to do what I say" debacle that formed from this.
If you don't, welcome to the internet and how it's changed our lives. The ending to the series (without spoilers), was what many would call "subpar." Personally, for me, I was a little mad about it (I've watched a lot of shows in my day where people beat impossible odds by using all sorts of courageous hot-blooded dedication to not giving up), but it did play out much like I had assumed it would. The problem isn't necessarily with the ending, but how it's presented that has the majority (I think) in the uproar. You play the games, enjoying yourselves and the universe, and you get to the end, and whereas the other games had all these subtle little plot changes based on choices, this one flat-out gives you specific choices, and that is pretty near the only thing that effects the ending. In theory, its exactly what the game's been championed for hasn't it? A game of choices ending with a choice? Even the presentation of the choices, however, left a bitter taste in many people's mouths, feeling almost out of place with everything that has gone on in the other games.
As a side note, however, it did lead to some very interesting and well thought out fan-theories about the endings (which in my humble opinion, where far better than anything that Bioware could have done to change/update/redact the ending they had). If you have fans that care so much as to come up with conspiratorial theories about how your game ACTUALLY ended, then that's a sign of love in my books.
Audio
Probably the shortest of the entries for this particular segment, audio is just as important at making you feel as any visual component. The first game does a spectacular job with sound effects, and when it comes to making you feel like your in space as well through music. Pretty much every song is rather atmospheric, which in turn can make the action seem a little less intense on the musics end (even though the weapons and moves all sound quite well). The voice acting is done well around the house, although I gotta admit, I find myself wanting to play the FemShep (as female Shepard has been come to be known) due more to the better VA (voice actor). Actually, the only song that really sounds like a song you would hear on the radio is the ending song, which is catchy and does have that feel-good "I just did that, survived, and looked good doing it" vibe.
For the second game, the soundtrack is much more diverse, and its no better shown than the difference between the "club" music played throughout the different bars/clubs in the games three major ports. You actually feel as though you are in such a place should you close your eyes, with the loud musics and each has its own distinct feel. Song quality changes during battles as too, where the music picks up to remind you that there is a fight going on, and noticeably so. The downside is that some of the games sound effects feel like they lost some gusto from ME1 to ME2. The best showcase of this is the actual Mass Effect Relay. In the first, it was like a crack of thunder with a silent rumble that shook the walls around your surround sound unit. In the second game, however, its like normal "psshaaa" of a sound effect. Its essentially still the same sound, but it feels like its lacking the same heart as the first one. They do, however, make some sounds more noticeable, such as the recharge of a Kinetic Barrier, which I believe is more to do with gameplay changes then simple sound effects.Again, everything is still done talk-wise with VA's and they all do a wonderful job, and again the FemShep's VA seems to be more on-the-ball with being believable then the male counterpart. Still fun to play both of them though, don't get me wrong. Here, however, the Krogan "Grunt" steals the show for me, as the way he 'croaks' out "Shepard" whenever you talk to him can single-handedly amuse me for half an hour or more. There is a lack, however, of an ending song that actually makes me feel accomplished and sit through the entire credits. I guess it's awesomeness was divided up to all the other songs.
The final piece of the trilogy is actually a pretty decent mix. The ambiance of the first meats with some of the finer points of the second, allowing you to not only get a feel from the scene through music alone, but really grasp that you aren't just running around planets exploring, but actually trying to save the very known universe from its demise. Also more prevalent than ever is the reapers, sounding like all the creepy mutated freak-shows that you would expect them to sound like. The strangest part is, and I don't know anymore if I failed to realize it in the other games, or it's just so pronounced in this final chapter that it's impossible to miss, that the Reapers make a sound very similar to the horn from the movie Inception every time the show up. It's does a great job at doing what it does, but I do wonder why exactly the Reapers are flying around honking at me. The ending theme, again, fails short of making me feel as achieved as I did in the first game though, but the music over the course of the game more than makes up for it.
Now, 3 also introduces a multiplayer component, which adds another tier of VA for the many, many races they (continually) add to that aspect. Nearly every race has a spin on the phrase "For (home planet)" with the exception of the Human characters. Some guns have slightly different audio, but all of them have that satisfying Mass Effect sound, particularly with the heavier weapons (I could listen to the Revenant or the Typhoon all day long). These little extra pieces are something that could easily have been ignored, and it helps the team aspect live up to the same audio par-grade as the single player side.
Gameplay
The biggest section of the game right here, as is it the biggest review change. Both games controls where rather polished, and the major difference comes from changes between the two. The biggest control letdown for the first game, however, was the awkward way of attaching oneself to cover, which didn't always guarantee you would actually attach to cover like you had meant to. There's a slight shift in squad commands as well, switching from four different squad commands in the first to three versions of one command (move here for each and both) and one regroup command in the second. The third streamlines the second's controls even more, giving you more options through integration with the connect as opposed to quick-buttons of the old game. When it comes to glitches, the first game also has a lot more than the second. Beyond the normal texture-jump that can happen in a lot of xbox games, I have also been stuck in walls, and had a few talks not trigger. In the second game, the only glitch I have seen outside of a quest not properly updating is an instance of an entire chat segment being skipped. The third seemingly has less glitches than the others, but I must confess that I haven't played it nearly as much as the others, so it would be easier for me to not see them either.
For the rest, I'll repeat the same pattern as the top of the list, so you can quick-link to what you want:
Equipment
Skills
Combat
Mini games
Equipment
The first game, much like any other RPG, has a ridiculous amount of gear to find/buy/get. Multiple suits of armor, guns, and accessories where abound. Although the armor many times was a simple change of colors, there where enough there to make it feel as though there was unique armor in it, with the "bulk up" as an armor goes from light to heavy especially satisfactory. Weapons, similarly, had only a few different skins but many color changes. The accessories had no real appearance, but offered various different boosts/buffs. All the gear at this point had a large amount of Levels attached to it (in the form of Roman Numerals). Grenades (or Mines, if I remember correctly) where also an item of sorts.
In the change to Mass Effect 2, however, the series made a jump to a more streamlined, pick-up and play shooter format that effect gear in a heavy way. Armor was now in pieces, allowing for a more customizable character, but always either found in a box or bought from a store, and the distinguishable nature between light and heavy was gone with the weight designations, as armor had no effect on anything but some small specific stat boosts (Extra ammo, cooldown speed increase). Weapons became more unique, getting their own names for each look, and each with its own stats. The downside to this was that there was now drastically less weapons coupled with the game's mechanic of allowing specific classes to use specific weapons only. Also gone where the accessories. In addition, Heavy Weapons where added, which had very limited ammo, but nothing was quite as satisfactory as causing a radiation-less nuclear explosion on a particularly rough enemy. Grenades where replaced by these very weapons.
The third keeps the second's systems in place, but diversifies by adding even more armor and weapons to the mix. It also (thankfully) did away with the second's class limitation mechanic on weapons, replacing it with a "weight" system that would reduce skill cooldown instead. Secondary characters, however, retain the weapon restriction of the second, being only allowed to use two specific weapon types. Heavy weapons where dropped, only appearing briefly as something you pick up in the story mode. The single player mode aspects carry over to the multiplayer mode as well. Grenades where incorporated as a skill move at this point, but work on independent ammo system.
Skills
"I am a biotic god!" This phrase really shows how you feel in the first game, if you ever could figure out its chaotic cluster of point-spending skill system. This cluttered system gave you small benefits for every point spent, but unlocked moves or other point chains as you got to certain intervals amongst chains. Some rewards (like hacking) where used for interactive purposes (such as opening treasure boxes or doors), while other where moves you could use for combat purposes (like stasis). As far as combat went, each move you could unlock had an independent cooldown. This made characters that where biotics feel impossibly strong in comparison to something like a soldier, for the fact that while you had Stasis cooling down, you could still push or overload to your hearts content. The soldier made up for this by taking less damage thanks to the heavier-armor they could wear by skill paths, and that weapon skill paths would make you more effective (deal better damage, weapon spreads less accuracy wise) with more guns.
The second game underwent a MASSIVE overhaul in this area. From a large cluster of point-driven skills that was nearly daunting in size (although limited in use), everything was dumbed down into a mere six paths, one of which was a passive upgrade, while for Secondary characters they where limited down to four paths, of these one of which was passive and another required the character to be 'loyal'. On the main character's paths, some paths would only become unlocked after another path reached a certain point (such as rank two). All paths ended at rank four, with the only viable "choice" in the path being that final step (which usually resulted in greater effect or larger radius). After the first game's more RPG-like structuring, this felt greatly restrictive, and coupled with the now universal cooldown across skills, made biotic characters feel quite a bit down-played as opposed to the original. The game was still fun, but for the soldier class, it become possible to actually run out of ammo for your guns, leaving you without any way of defending yourself (outside of commanding teammates to use their attack skills), as the class only had one move (concussive shot) that against bosses was much like throwing feathers.
For the third game, Bioware listened to the complaints of it's fans, realizing that the second game had become to constrictive with powers and that people wanted more. Skill paths now had six ranks to obtain, with a two-option choice at both stage five and six, leading to more diversity amongst moves. Shepard now has six power paths, with an additional two passive trait lines. Secondary character's are much the same as in the second game, having four power paths and one passive path. The universal cooldown is retained from the second game, although most powers returning receive some form of adjustment statistically. In multiplayer, selectable characters have three power paths with two passives, and will only ever earn enough points to fully max out four of the five paths.
Combat
Combat has minor changes throughout the series (such as cover mechanics), but the most intense changes happen between Mass Effect 1 and 2, as the game shifts from a role playing feel to that of an over-the-shoulder shooting game. From this, we will talk largely about that difference, as outside of Kinect integration, 2 and 3 are similar enough as to not largely necessitate discussion.
In the 1st ME game, we have a large set of skills that independently cool down (as opposed to the later games which had a universal cooldown), and more than anything else we have a completely different weapon system. Although much like in the 3rd game characters can equip any weapon they want, the first game makes you less effective with a weapon unless you have spent points in that weapons training path. Beyond this, weapons required no "ammo" in the first game (which was a great system that many are saddened to see be lost in the later installments), instead working on a system of overheating. Every time a weapon was fired, a certain amount of heat would be produced, which would then immediately start to dissipate (as shown on the HUD's heat graphic), and if too much was produced in quick succession (or single shot), the gun would "overheat," causing it to not be able to fire until it had fully cooled down. The later games moved to a more normalized "X number of bullets per magazine" familiar to the average shooting game, in turn loosing some of the charm and unique tactical nature of combat in the first game. It is said this was done due to many complaints, but personally I have never heard such complaints and find it silly - to each their own however.
This original also had a certain point in the skill progression where you would hack into an enemies weapon, causing it to overheat and be unable to fire, which was quite useful sometimes (especially at harder difficulties). Given how the mechanics changed, I guess the fact that this "overheating" of weapons vanished by the final entry into the trilogy isn't too surprising, instead having moves that would just "stagger" the enemy.
Across all three games, cover mechanics exist with very minor changes (3 adds the ability to move from cover to cover, 2 had the ability to duck while in cover), and squad controls likewise exist to varying degrees (some allowed you to place specific characters in designated spots, and with the Kinect implementation in 3 you could tell them to by voice to do nearly anything). Controls are responsive, and when a player died it never felt as though the controls themselves where at fault. The first two games of the series also had Vehicular use (in specific missions of 2, and every planet you explore in 1), where again the controls where responsive for combat purposes. Each type of weapon felt different enough from each other that you could tell what you where using, even if some made more sense than others (why use a pistol when you have an automatic rifle?) and is probably why the restrictive weapon load outs of other games where added in. Shields and Barriers became more noticeable in the latter games, announcing their status with loud audibles and more noteworthy visual effects as the trilogy continued. The 2nd added environmental hazards (one planet had light that could and would actually burn through your character's shields and health), which where added in to some of extent the multiplayer of the 3rd.
Mini games
This is very hit-or-miss, as some people love them and some don't. Thankfully, this is my opinion's, so I needn't account for anyone but myself. The 1st game has a bypass based mini game that is essentially Simon Says, but was nice enough to allow you to use Omni-gel (a resource removed from the later games) to simply skip it with automatic success, assuming a squad member had the adequate level of decryption/electronics. By ME2, however, the Decryption and Electronics skill paths where removed, instead just automatically letting you attempt to bypass and hack. Rather than Simon Says, bypassing objects now became a game of Memory, where the goal was to match all of the symbols to each other before the time expired (as though one was re-soldering nodes to bypass circuits). For Hacking, we instead are treated to a matching game where a specific image of text is shown (with specific colors), and the player navigates the scrolling three columns of text images (avoiding big red "X" boxes) to select this "target" text. That process repeats three times, or until the player fails. When we finally get to ME3, hacking/bypassing is simply "push A" and wait.
There is also the exploration factor that I consider to be a mini game of its own right. In ME1, this was simply done by making you hop out in your tank (which although fun at first grows old after the thirtieth planet of bouncing around like a hyperactive squirrel in a box) on a planet, and driving around to find things (collectables such as minerals and diaries). This would then be repeated on every single planet the player came across, for fear of missing something (side quests also took place on these planets and finished in a similar hap-hazard way). For ME2, it became apparent that maybe this was overkill, and instead the game was switched over to the "Probe" mini game. This consisted of spinning a planet around with the controller as you held the "scan" button, waiting for a little graphics equalizer looking graph on the screen to start popping up to indicate "X material" is in high supply there. On certain planets, side quests could also be found, being indicated by an on-screen arrow pointing to where the probe needed to land to start the mission. To be honest, I would have preferred the original system (had they made the planets a bit more diverse in looks). The final entry in the trilogy (ME3) found a great balance of these systems. You still fly through space on your ship, scanning planets, however the "probe" is more of a radar ping that comes from your ship and emanates outwards, indicating where something is (and requiring no more than a simple "push A"). To make it more difficult, they added a "reaper warning", that if you scan too much all of a sudden the Reapers show up (with their Inception horn), and if they touch your ship, "Game over man, game over!" The dredging grind of acquiring X of Y material so that you can research Z upgrade of 2 is gone here, but unfortunately so is the exploration of worlds that was present in 1, as most of this was for nothing more than side quests (which would in turn raise your 'war assets').
Wrap up
Overall, I would say the Trilogy is well worth picking up - but I strongly would suggest that you start at Mass Effect 1 if you plan to do so. For me, at least, the game is so much more about your connection to the characters than it is the overall story or mechanics, and the best way I can phrase it is like this:
If you hop into Lord of the Rings at the scenes in Moria, having no knowledge of what happens prior or later, do you fully care as to why everyone is so sad after the "You shall not pass!" scene?
Don't deny yourself the connection to the characters. Play it from the start, enjoy the journey (even if the super-end is a little lackluster), and then enjoy playing the multiplayer (which for the most part thus far has been free content updates). It's a fun universe to get into, and you rarely get to see this kind of fine tuning and change across a series of games.
May 11, 2011
Razer Naga Opinions
The Razer Naga MMO gaming mouse is a bit of a crazy dream of computer hardware. Well tackle this thing in the same manner as the others, with a bullet list!
Pros
- Offers 17 buttons (12 side, left and right normal, center "click", and browser forward/back)
- Scroll wheel
- Comfortable ergonomics, despite intimidating looks
- Corded (don't need to worry about batteries!)
- DPI toggle switch (for the dedicated gamers)
- Back-lit scroll wheel and side buttons
- "Pulsing" logo
- Software offers a diverse set for macro assignment/creation, back-light on/off toggle, and dpi settings, as well as automatic profile changing (sets mouse to specific user created profile when a .exe file designated is run)
- Comes with "training bumpers" to place over oft-used keys to make it easier to grow used to button locations
Cons
- Corded (Can cause clutter, limited reach [shouldn't be too much of an issue, I've seen console controllers with less reach])
- Browser Forward/Back keys are located oddly, making them slightly awkward to use
- Some of the side buttons are also slightly awkward to use
- May take a little while to get used to
- Profiles don't automatically exit (profile does not set back to default after a game/program is closed)
Apr 20, 2011
Hellgate London
Ah yes, the doomed titanic that with all its glitz and romance still fell to icy waters in a failure never to be forgot. A lifetime sub, who only got a mere fraction of the time it would take to balance the cost of a lifetime sub, I'm fully jaded against Failship studios, but this game is still one of my personal favorites.
The premise is simple: Lets make an action RPG that lets you play like a shooter too. Thus we have born the three main factions: The Templar (heavy metal and melee), The Hunters (sci fi military guns and robots), and The Cabalists (mages that wish to tame the demons and use their powers).
The three offer a diverse play field, each weapon feeling different from the others, and each LOOKING much different from the others. You certainly don't mistake the three factions for one of the others when you run into them. Of course, with that much faction going on, you would expect PvP, but NO! You can duel, sure, but who cares about beating up on each other with such a lovely bunch of demons around?
Anyways, lets get to the nitty gritty:
Graphics: This sucker can haul. There are a lot of people out there that complained about how bad it looked - they obviously haven't seen most other MMO's on the market at it's time. On the lowest settings, yes, it wasn't the most pretty of games, but it was one of the first MMO's you saw out there adopt the DX10, and (a couple patches later) the darn thing looks AMAZING. It's fully accented by all the lighting and tech-assets in game as well, so not only does it look pretty, but it does it in a tron-kinda way, if tron had knights, guns, and fireballs too.
Set-piece wise, yeah, it got bland. Although the tile-sets for all but the primary event locations would be randomly generated every time you went in (ie. Layout of the tunnels/ruins/whatnot are random) the actual pieces (buildings, cars, wreckage) was the same, so the path could very well be totally different, but they looked so similar in visuals that they all tended to blend together. Later patches added stonehenge, which gave a nice refreshing taste of the wilds (forest-y areas? Sweet).
Play: It was an action RPG. Instead of click-and-forget, you run around madly clicking (or holding down) the attack mouse button to kill stuff, in combination with skills from the usual hot-keyed toolbar of skills and items available. The layout of this, however, is nice and streamlined, so the majority of the screen is still clear for all that beautiful carnage.
Even with all the hacking and slashing, most melee weapons ended up feeling the same. The guns each had a feel of their own, big one shot spreads, little fully auto pingers, crazy big damage snipers, but most of those are limited to just Hunters. The magic skills where all pretty unique to an extent as well, as where the demonic-theme weapons the Cabalists used (one shot bugs, IIRC). Of course, the equipment is only as good as the randomly generated loot you find (or buy, as shops are also randomly generated). The old loot-enthusiast game play mechanic has worked for many a game, and really makes it feel awesome when you finally nab a super-rare item that puts all your current equipment to shame.
The inventory system had you playing "tetris" with items, squeezing different sized items into different spots to maximize the amount of stuff you could fit in your inventory before you had to go back to town to sell things. It was annoying, but later alleviated to an extent with the addition of cubes (little mini storage boxes that you could carry in your inventory).
Skills are straight forward, although what you equip is dependent on them as well in this game. For instance, want a real nice enchanted armor? Well, chances are it is going to use X stamina, Y strength, and Z willpower to equip it. All the items equipped must not have the "feed" (total reqs of the items) exceed the total available (your stat) or else you cant equip it. This really makes the +stat items feel valuable, but at the same time causes some grief when you put your stats one way to find out you needed it another for the newest thing you picked up.
Story: Uhm...it's by far not the best story in existence, although it itself is in existence, which is more than can be said for some games. It essentially is this weak string of events that makes sense for you to do, and holds everything together, but if also feels like someone from a SyFy original could have penned it as opposed to some great author of our times.
Audio: Its as good as one can ask for. Thunks and splats from swords, thuds and booms from guns, and the sizzle of magic are as they should be, critical hits reward the player with a splash of light and a nice identifiable sound effect, and the background audio really adds atmosphere (screams sometime send a chill right down the spine). The music is upbeat, normally doing nothing more than making your adrenaline flow a bit more and getting you back in the mood to slaughter evil creatures, and certainly it's not going to win any awards, but its there and its not bad at all.
Voice acting is, to an extent, awesome. The lines are believably British, but more importantly is some of the crude humor that can be picked up. One shop keeper delivers a line as you enter her shop along the lines of "Is that a heavy weapon in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?", while another comments that he "doesn't sell burlap sacks no more" after asking you if your looking for something for your ugly face. Mostly though, the voice acting is delivered as everyone's favorite RPG staple: the text box. We are use to it by now, so it's not to bad, although mostly all characters have at least a one-liner they spit off when you start to talk to them.
So yes, the game had problems when it came out, but in the hands of people that seemed to care more about their product, I have no doubt it would have been one of the greatest out there. Word is that the korean company that won the rights to it from FSS after they went under (Hanbitsoft, IIRC) has plans to release it over here (with new content and expansions) as a free-to-play called Hellgate: Resurrection. Apt name, and I know I would sign on without a doubt.
Jan 23, 2011
Monster Hunter Tri
To start, the video really didn't go into as much detail as I wanted, principally because it's rather hard for me to talk about a game that isn't incredibly fast paced and fit it all in while concentrating. So then, I guess it's good you came here to read it!
Monster Hunter Tri is the 3rd "core" installment of the franchise, and I haven't played it since back on the playstation days. Keeping this in mind, I had some prior knowledge as to how the game works, so it was rather easy for me to pick up.
Gameplay:
For beginners, Monster Hunter has always had a bit of a learning curve, but anyone who takes the time to read the manual and play around with it enough can easily get the hang of how to deal with most of the game. Mechanic wise, the game gives a large selection of weapons (7 to be exact), and each feels pretty unique as for attacks. These attacks are performed in a manner of ways depending on what controller you are using, as Tri is set up for both Wiimote and Classic Controller play, even allowing two configurations with the Classic.
The general way things go involves starting in the village (or city, if online), taking a quest (or just wandering to the solo woods if free hunting) that leads to killing monsters (some peaceful little deer types, some gigantic monstrous dragons that want to eat you and your friends), carving them up for parts (random "drop" achieved from carving), gathering other goods (through mining ores, picking plants, catching bugs, and searching bone piles), and (if on quest) achieving the goal of your quest. Anything gathered is then either sold or, more often then not, stored for later use as a weapon or armor component.
Weapons and armor can both be Forged and Upgraded. In the case of weapons, upgrading is the way to go, costing less and enhancing the weapon to new forms with better qualities. In the case of armor, Forging new pieces is the greater help, as upgrading simply increases the defensive stat a little each time. In both cases, different components are needed (such as 2 unknown skulls, 3 scales, an 15 bones) with a bit of money to complete. The rewarding part, however, is seeing how all these parts put in makes it look different (you can tell someone killed the big red dragon to make the armor, since it looks very similar to the big red dragon).
Camera controls are done with the D-pad, allowing a pretty good range of not having blind-issues. In underwater segments (new to Tri), the up/down camera is also used to control depth while in motion (looking down while swimming forward makes you go down). While underwater, there is also a breath gauge, which can be restored by surfacing, items, or swimming into bubbles - it isn't something that drains so fast it makes you feel in a hurry though, which is good considering the kill-carve- repeat philosophy of the game.
As said before, the controller setup dictates the controls of the game, and with the wiimote it can be a little hairy at times - having the controller tilted left while hitting "A" for instance will do a side slash, while holding it perpendicular to the floor an holding "A" will do a chargeable overhead slash with the Great Sword. Sometimes though, you aren't holding the controller just right and you get a swing opposite what you wanted. More troubling then executing the attacks (which are easy when you get the hang of it and practice with a weapon) is lining up attacks. Monsters are constantly moving, an even though the camera offers you great control, getting that forward cut to hit when you are off by just a little can sometimes cause much grief.
Some mini-game like material exists, with the combining of items (as simple as picking combine, selecting an item, and looking for the material that is highlighted informing you it can be combined) and cooking of food (raw meat carved from monsters can be cooked using a BBQ pit, resulting in a game of watching your spinning fillet turn progressively browner, and stopping it hopefully before the charcoal black BURNT status).
All gauges are easily visible and laid out across the screen nicely, from time left on a mission, air, health, weapon durability (sharpness), and stamina (regained by eating food, used by running/dodging/blocking).
The largest problem with the game doesn't really come from gameplay, but rather the feel of grinding - there are no levels, but the amount of material needed to upgrade your gear can lead to spending two hours simply killing the deer-type Kelbi to try and gather some horns, for example. Part of this may have been able to be remedied if there was a bit more focus on a plot, but then it wouldn't feel like monster hunter if you took the emphasis away from hunting monsters.
Multiplayer is set up similar to a quest-only version of single player, with I believe 4 people per hunting party, but numerous people per "city" (I have yet to really tool around with the multiplayer, thanks to not having anyone I know own the game).
There is also an in-house split screen mode called Arena, that I haven't tried, that alludes to being you and a friend versus whichever 'boss" character you choose to fight.
Plot:
There really isn't one. Your a hunter, hired by a village, to eventually kill a giant water monster that showed up. Ideally, you take jobs as a hunter, become a better more renowned hunter, and just keep killing more monsters that get harder as you go. With a game that has such a blunt, straight to the point title as Monster Hunter, I guess it should be expected that the game is all about hunting, and not a huge story of love and revenge and saving the world. Right?
Graphics:
Graphically, it's the best Monster Hunter yet. The animations are all fluid, although the walking animation will often carry you past what you wanted when you wish to move just ever so slightly. It might not be up to the standards of games on the other current gen systems, but the wii handles it near flawlessly, so far exhibiting no frame rate drops or odd glitches, although the game itself's gear can cause clipping issues (when sheeted, the sword and shield combo weapon's sword goes THROUGH the shield, which makes it look like a strange off-centered spike on the shield).
Audio:
The sounds are pretty top notch. Animals all sound different, the cooking pit noise is incredibly catchy, and most of the weapons sound like they hurt when they hit. Music is good, when you heart it, but most of the time if it is there you barely notice thanks to all the ambiance.
Overall, I love the game, even if it is essentially grinding for items to make the next better gear. It reminds me a lot of Phantasy Star Online, except with gear that visibly changes every time you equip it, and no real noteworthy in-house multiplayer. Rent it first to see if you could enjoy it, and buy it if you are already a fan.
Tron Wiimote
Being another piece of hardware, we'll use the same setup as last time.
PROS:
- Lights up with LED technology
- Textured grip on top of the sides allows better grip and comfort
- Same sensitivity/functionality as the normal wiimote - not loosing functionality for looks
- Same size as other wiimotes, allowing it to fit in all the peripheral gadgets (zappers, fake swords, tennis rackets, what have you)
- Comes with pretty blue-striped lanyard, in the old lanyard style (not the new super-lock style)
CONS:
- Eats batteries faster than standard controller
- Motion+ is not built in (as I hear some newer wiimotes will have it)
- "A" button feels a tad 'squishy' compared to standard wiimotes.
Dec 12, 2010
Splatterhouse
When a game has an M rating, normally its for something stupid like foul language. When Splatterhouse has an M rating, its because if it doesn't bleed, swear, or look like something that should be inside of the body as opposed to where it is, then chances are its a naked photograph.
Game play wise, it's a pretty dang solid game. Classic block/dodge, light attack, heavy attack, "special" mask move, "berserk mode", and grab move buttons all exist. Most sections involve simply beating the crap out of everything in the area, then moving to the next, with some mild interactions of "pick the blood sigil that is correct or fight more bad guys" and "throw bad guys onto these spikes to unlock the way" thrown in. In a classy, nostalgia-ridden move, they have also set some stages where the view point suddenly changes to that of a side-scroller, which adds a little bit of something different that is still mostly the same to the play. Moves/skills are unlocked via earning blood/necro, which is earned by (what else) killing the faces off of anything you come across. And I mean literally killing faces...
The game incorporates 'Splatterkills', which are nothing but a gruesome and cool way of finishing off a guy who has been pummeled to the point of a red outline. These kills, outside of looking like they would hurt extremely, net you the most blood for your punch, and also sometimes net you an appendage to beat someone else with. Yeah, you can pick up severed arms and heads, then use them to beat their friends with. In some instances (these particularly annoying blue-veined ghouls), enemies will even cause you to loose an arm. This effects numerous things and is quite inconvenient (you move slower, can't grapple, can't run, can't do combo attacks, can't use weapons), although using the games healing move will automatically regrow it if you don't feel patient enough to wait for it to come back by itself. Each enemy has one or two splatter kills associated with it (from what I can gather), but the face button's required to push will randomly change (by face button, I mean your A B X Y buttons). Also, a one-liner will normally be spouted from the Mask (the Terror Mask), such as "Hey, it's a twist top!"
Graphically the game is no push-over. Violence sticks around for a while, both blood-splattered floors and walls, and on Rick (you), making him look downright frightening at times. Damage to Rick is also displayed on him, leading to visible ribs, bones sticking out from severed arms, and all the pleasantries of such carnage. The in-game collectibles (Jen's Photos) are another part of the M rating (as if the Mask's constant swearing, sexual innuendos, and violence weren't enough already), as at least half of said photographs are generally topless (and there hasn't even been a big deal about it in the news or papers yet?). Honestly, this doesn't bother me, and if anything it's more incentive to get than some little dog-tag or laptop that does nothing anyways.
On the audio front, I have to give the game my vote for "best soundtrack of the year." Why? Its practically all Metal, and I like metal. Even if you don't like metal, it belongs in a game such as this, where the heavy pounding beats and violent guitar riffs only fuel the carnage you are about to unleash on the little digital world. The sound effects themselves are good, letting you really know just how much it hurt to get hit by that lead pipe a second ago. The voice over jobs are actually rather surprising. I've played more serious games that weren't as convincing as this, even when it starts to break that 4th dimension with comments like "This is what got us an M rating kid."
The largest downside to the game is the ending battles. I mean, there is one point at the start that involves some platforming that was rather difficult, but at that point its the only platforming you've done in the game, so you are totally not ready for it. The end of the game though...it quickly turns into a series of mini-boss type enemy fights. And not just one after the other, but at one point you have 4 of one type of mini-boss and 2 of another type all at once, and your expected to deal with them. To do this normally is just plain a nuisance, so I ended up resorting to using "berserk mode" to clear majority out as quick as possible (this can be seen to an extent in the video review).
Also of note, by beating story mode you unlock all three original Splatterhouse games to play, and there is also an Arena mode, which consists of beating the crap out of 20 waves of enemies to get a "rank", based on time, performance, and how many of the "hidden bonus objectives" you completed.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)