Tag Archives: Action-Adventure

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Assassin’s Creed III

Leave a comment

Returning to the Animus for the 5th time (not counting the spinoffs) Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed III forsakes the Old Continent of Altair and Ezio for the shiny new continent of America during its formative years. Once again we are thrust Forest Gump Like into the world of Templars and Assassins and Precursors, where every major personality and event is somehow influenced by these shadowy organisations and in particular, your main character.

Like all things American, this time it is bigger, brasher, and more in your face than ever before. But don’t go into thinking this is all “America, Fuck Yeah!” as it still stays true to the Assassin’s Creed philosophy, honestly and truthfully deals with the subject matter (well, as honestly and truthful a video game set in an alternative historical timeline can) and never lets you forget this is an Assassin’s Creed game.

We start the game with the ‘present day’Desmond Miles who is hiding out with his trusty sidekicks, the snarky Brit Shaun Hastings, ubergeek Rebecca Crane and his dad, William. Truth be told, I didn’t really understand why his dad was there as I never bothered with AC Revelations. Anyway, they find their way into a Precursor vault and send Desmond back into the Animus to find the key which unlocks the vault so they can save all of humanity. The story asks a lot of you, such as to remember plots, characters and devices from 5 games, and on top of that throws new characters, and a re-cap would have been nice, but it’s noticeably missing.

Travelling into the Animus in the Precursor vault, which is located in New York State near an old Native American Indian burial ground (or some such) you’d expect the story to start with the guy on the cover, Ratonhnhaké:ton, or Connor as he’s known to people who can’t say his name (which is nearly everyone not of Native American Indian descent), but surprisingly you don’t. However, telling you who you do start as kind of gives the story or at least part of it away. Let’s just say he’s an experienced assassin but someone you’ve not encountered before. This prologue helps you get back into the skin of the Assassin, helps you relearn the controls and the moves you’ve invariably forgotten, and also sets the scene for what will become the American Revolution.

Eventually after the prologue chapters you inhabit the memories of Connor as a child, then as a surly teen, then as a recalcitrant young man. Connor is not as fun as either Altair or Ezio personality wise. He’s much surlier and more of an outsider and rebel because of his mixed-race heritage. He’s rash, bold and unconsidered, much like Desmond. It doesn’t make him unlikable, but he feels more like a teen trying to find and forge his place in the world, unlike the Europeans of the previous game who were trying to make sense of it. The story does tackle some of the contradictions of the formation of American political system – the fight from tyranny and oppression of the British when they themselves owned slaves and terrorised the Native Indians, but does so fairly and is never unnecessary awkwardly in your face about it.

Where he improves on Altair and Enzo is in missions. Each mission given feels different, and you never feel bored playing him. The variety in length and use of abilities was very welcome, and although overall most missions were easy, I only came across on which was frustrating. Unfortunately this came at the end of the game, and really let down the last sequence which should be the best and most satisfying. I also felt slightly let down by the finale with Desmond. Like with Mass Effect, and players being invested in this character for so long, it feels like it could have been handled better.

During the early portions of the game with Connor is where it really opens up and gives you a great sense of the New World. There is a mindnumbing variety of things to do in the game – The usual collect the feathers/trinkets/treasure chests/courier/assassinate and synchronise points which existed in the previous games return. Rather than through cities across rooftops, here you find yourself ranging through the Frontier, leaping from shear rock cliffs onto trees and careening across stout tree limps and leaping with faith into bushes. Hunting and gathering tasks appear, with clues which lead you to find and trap certain animals to collect certain skins, reminiscent of Red Dead Redemption.

There are the Wilderness missions, much like the hunting missions involving looking for clues, where Daniel Boone (he of the Racoon Hat) will tell you tall stories about things such as Sasquatches. There are Forts in both Boston and New York along with the Frontier which you can take over either stealthily or with brute force, as well as convoys to raid. There is a homestead to upkeep, and people to recruit both into the assassin’s guild as well as to help out around the homestead. There’s also a creation/trading system, so not only can you simply sell all your gathered skins to shop keepers, you can create different things you’ve gathered as well as buy from your homesteaders, and send them on convoy trade missions to receive a higher return. The creation system is also tucked in here, so you can create a heap of things to help you thought the game. I found this system to be over complicated and fiddly, and could have been much more user friendly.

Then there’s the sailing, which is simply a blast. It feels reminiscent of the old Pirates game, just faster and more action packed. You avoid rocks when close to shore and huge waves whilst out to see, trying to blindside enemy ships with cannon fire, or ramming into them, or shooting them with mini-cannons. Some missions require you to disable the enemy ships with chain cannons, and then board. Here you swashbuckle your way across the boat, aiming to kill a certain enemy or group. There are also pegleg missions, which involve collecting trinkets then returning them to a swarthy ol’ sea dog to receive instructions to find a hideout, which are like the AC II catacomb sections of running and jumping.

There is a lot more besides, because it is really a huge game with many things to do and keep you interested. So many times I would plan to go to a mission, but get sidetracked on the way by this or that – say a random convoy, or chancing upon an animal I needed to hunt – and I’d spend 15-20 minutes faffing about, but I never saw it as wasted time. There was always some kind of reward for doing the side missions, whether it is in-game money and unlocks, or achievements.

When you’re done with all of this, there’s multiplayer too. The multiplayer aspect is like a game of deadly hide and seek. You and your opponents look like the NPCs throughout the map, and by watching the NPCs and noticing behaviour which is ‘abnormal’ as well as taking in the audio and visual cues you hunt your prey whilst being hunted yourself. You score points for your approach – if the enemy doesn’t see you you get reward more points and increase in level, unlocking more costumes and items, like most other multiplayer games. Whilst it’s nice to have something different from every other multiplayer game out there, and the game is fun if somewhat a little unfulfilling, I’ve always felt Assassin’s Creed multiplayer was unnecessary for the series because the single player experience is so well developed.

Like all massive open world games, Assassin’s Creed III isn’t without its faults and glitches. None are game breaking, but some are incredibly frustrating. It still has the issue where you’ll try and run in a certain direction but simply run up a wall, or do a dead stop. The NPC following skill leaves a lot to be desired, and some NPCs obviously fall through the world, appearing as icons on maps but not findable. Speaking of icons, there’s far too few indicators on the map when you need them. Guards appear as simple red dots, and you never know if it’s one guard or a group 8. Many side missions aren’t shown on the map at all, and it’s near impossible to discover them unless you stumble over them by accident. When on horseback the amount of collision with rocks and NPCs makes them feel useless in terms of speed in areas crowded with people or trees – so nearly all the time.

The game is probably the best looking one thus far, with excellent character animations, although Desmond’s backpack as a weird clipping issue which annoyed me no end. It has a great looking wilderness, and cities full of bustle and their own charm thanks to a new physics and AI system. The Caribbean when fighting sea battles looks amazing and the new weather effects are really cool – the way rain trickles down cart grooves and pools on dirt roads is a really nice touch. Voice acting throughout the game is superb, and whilst some of the lines are corny, there is some great characterisation of well known historical figures. As previously, the Animus’s history lessons are very well written and full of Shaun Hastings’ (who supposedly writes it) trademark snark, and if anything even more so because of the subject matter at hand… the British did lose the war and the colony, after all. If every history books were written in this style, I think a lot more people would be into history.

Conclusion:
Assassin’s Creed III is a pretty damn fine game. It loses none of what makes the series fun with the translation to another time and continent, and creates a whole new set of experiences which define the franchise. The biggest issue, if there is one, are the small technical issues, but these niggling technical issues only seem worse because everything else is such a great experience. And If I really was pushed I would also mention how the surly lead character isn’t as likable as maybe he could be, as he doesn’t have half the charm of Altair nor the wit of Enzo, but I think that speaks more to their solid characters than a deficiency of Connor, his characterisation, or the writing of this game.

Pros:
It’s still the great Assassin’s Creed action and fun.
Enormous game with lots to do and experience.
Much variety throughout the main missions.
Great looking and fun to play naval battles.
Fun multiplayer.

Cons:
Ending is a little weak.
Some small technical issues now and then.
Connor is not as engaging as Altair and Enzo.

90/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Dark Souls 2

Leave a comment

I dove head first and blind into Dark Souls 2. I thought this would be the best way to approach it. I haven’t played the other games in the series, and have read very little about it; a review here and an “arty critique” there, but nothing really to make me think I knew about the series.

What very little I did know about Demon Souls and Dark Souls was this: they were hard, and a lot of my gamer friends really enjoyed those games. And after diving headfirst into the game, I’ve come to know Dark Souls a little better, and come to two conclusions: Yes, it is hard. In fact, it’s very hard. The other conclusion is I have changed in my gaming preferences and habits.

One of the things people rave on and on about this series is lack of handholding. I agree, handholding can feel highly insulting and demeaning to players. In cinema, there is an adage – show, don’t tell. Movies where this is put into practice always top critics and filmmakers “best of” lists. This adage applies even more so in games. Let the player explore the mechanics themselves. I’ve nearly come to blows with a producer with a business background (opposed to a gaming background) who wanted to put a tutorial in our game because they couldn’t figure out how to play it. I screamed “you learn how to play it by playing it”! Developers spend months and months refining these mechanics, and to then put the player at the start of the game, halt the action and tell them exactly what to do is insulting to the people who designed the mechanics, the people who designed the levels, and the people who are playing the game.

So I was overjoyed when I was dumped into Dark Souls 2 and had no idea what to do. I ran around pressing every button and ran into everything just to see what would happen. And I was honestly surprised when I peeled back the first fog layer and found a stone telling me how to swing my sword in a traditional “this is a tutorial and this is how you play the game” fashion. Although I do admit it was very useful, and I got a few precious souls that would help me level up later. And I laughed when I had my first death and received the achievement “This is Dark Souls” after missing a jump, which was totally my fault for not reading the instructions properly. And I laughed again when I approached a huge hippo creature and whacked him with my sword, and he turned around, grabbed me and bit my head off. I thought “this is cool”.

That feeling quickly dissipated however, when I first got to Majula, the newbie main hub area. I was just exploring, took the wrong corner, and was attacked by three little rat things. I swung my sword and tried to block their attacks, and it didn’t work. I was just thrashing about madly and in return they hit me with such force that I died almost instantly. I thought to myself ok, maybe I need a different tactic, and tried to kill them again. My different tactic was to focus on the enemy by pressing the right joystick. This focused on them, but again, I couldn’t hit them and I died really quickly. So I just avoided them from that point on.

However, little did I realise that my health bar was now at 50%. So off I went, exploring the world of Drangleic, and when I got to the Forrest of the Fallen Giants, I got my ass handed to me. Time and time again. By the same “lowly” zombie creatures you first meet way back in the training level. After two hours of being killed right near the campfire, I gave up. It was just too hard and too annoying to get killed by the same mobs in the same places over and over again.

The next night, I rolled a cleric, thinking healing would help me. Nope. Same thing happened, I got stuck in the earliest part of the Forrest of Fallen Giants, again. This time, apart from not being able to hit anything, my spells would never cast. In desperation, I jumped online to learn how the fuck you are supposed to play this game.

Now, this brings me to my first issue with Dark Souls 2. As it is, I don’t have a lot of time to play games. Sad, but true. Everyone at XboxWorld donates their time to do these reviews, and get nothing but your love and the game in return. Moreover, I’m one of those people who plays 3 or 4 different games at one time, sometimes on the Xbox or PS3, sometimes on the PC, and yes, even on the iPhone. You could call me a gaming slut. So having to spend 40 minutes on watching a LEARN TO PLAY video, along with reading countless forum posts and walkthroughs isn’t what I call a positive use of my time.

It’s not that I want to be handheld, as I made clear above, but at the same time I don’t want to spend my time learning about the game outside of the game. I want to be shown in game how to defeat the game. I found this disconnect to be disconcerting. And I HATED it.

In this way though, Dark Souls is reminiscent of an MMO. Quite a few of the MMOs I’ve played have difficult parts where it’s not clear what to do or how to do it, so you jump online looking for hints, or ask in chat (and generally get a chorus of “google it!”). And like a MMO, DS2 is not a game where you can really give just one review, because your feelings towards the game changes over time, as does the game experience itself. The hints people leave in the world, the fact you can invite players or be invaded on any given play session, and the constant updates to the game when you load guarantee an evolving experience.

And of course there is the grinding, a staple of the less fun MMOs, where you have to kill the same things over and over and over and over again just to level up. The Dark Souls series is based around this mechanic. Which is fine, if you have the time to grind, which I don’t feel I do have, and why I’ve stopped playing most MMOs which feature it. I do like the fact that if you are killed you go back to where it was and collect your souls so the time is not totally wasted, but of course that means you’re covering the same ground over and over any way.

Yet as I played more and more, getting better and better, I started to enjoy the game more, and I learned how to play. I still feel the game is not supportive of my game style, which is exploration, as I found myself simply stuck at times, even with the aid of a walkthrough. Even now I’ve played the game much more and feel comfortable with the stamina mechanism and developing a rhythm to my attacks and dodges. I know when to consume the precious life giving pickups, know to restore your health with the rare effigies (but not at a campfire!), found areas where it’s relatively easy to farm souls, know how to get back to the campfires with the bones you find around the place, and definitely know not to hit any barrels, because you don’t know which ones will explode and which ones won’t.

Although I am playing better, I still feel the controls are wildly inaccurate. The lock on will switch focus mid battle, even if your foe is not dead. Swings which look like they are going to connect miss by miles. And in a game which is as unforgiving as DS2, this is unconscionable. There are times where I die and it’s definitely my fault, because I’m not managing my stamina, or I’ve run into an area with too many creatures, and I can handle that. What I can’t handle is fighting against the controls, struggling to do what I know I need to do an being unable to do it. It’s worse in the boss fights, or should I say fight, because I’ve only managed to do one successfully.

My final comment on the game is the graphics are terrible. They’re muddy, pixelated, clip through one another, don’t appear on the surface they’re meant to but float above it, and just not up to standard for a game released in 2014 on any platform. It’s really disappointing to see such an underwhelming looking game come out this late in the Xbox360’s lifecycle. Sure, some of the set pieces look great, for example when you emerge out of the early cave system and experience Majula for the first time, and admittedly it’s the last thing you’re thinking about when playing the game as you’re looking at your stamina and health bars and making sure you’re connecting with the enemy, but really there is no excuse for it.

Conclusion:
I hated Dark Souls 2 at first. HATED IT. I thought it was too hard, too unforgiving, and too involved to have anyone but the most hardcore to enjoy it. And in some sense I still think this, but now it’s with a sense of grudging respect. After reading about the game, learning how to play, and becoming involved in the Dark Souls community, I understand where it’s coming from and it’s place in the gaming strata. It’s not a strata I find myself in very often any more, which makes me somewhat sad to be honest, but at the same time everything changes, and although this game isn’t aimed at me any longer, I can’t begrudge those who it is aimed at.

Pros
Tough game which ultimately becomes rewarding
Plenty of replayability
Helps develop a community of people who are willing to help

Cons
looks very ugly
most of the replayability is forced on you.
Controls are not as precise as a game this demanding warrants.
is very, very demanding in difficulty and of your time

Score 80/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Thor: God Of Thunder

Leave a comment

It’s pretty sad you don’t even need to read any reviews to know this game is bad. It’s a movie tie in, made as a marketing vehicle for Marvel’s Thor movie, a movie not particularly highly rated at that. It’s everything you’d expect from a movie tie in. It’s glitch filled – I actually took the disc out thinking it was dirty when I first loaded the game and saw the stuttering frame rate. It’s derivative; It’s an action brawler, trying to be the next Arkham Asylum but failing miserably; and it’s not fun; the camera, the controls, the hit detection, the repetitiveness. If I really wanted to, I could totally rip into it, tear the developers a new one with funny comments on how bad it is, and so on.

But you know what? This time I’m not going to. Because, I’ve worked on worse games. I worked on Dukes of Hazard: Return of the General Lee, Hellboy: The Science of Evil, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. All franchise or movie tie in games, all made on incredibly short timeframes and incredibly small budgets.

Someone like me, over at Sega, busted their guts to make this game. There is someone out there who worked from 8 in the morning to 12 at night writing code to get the shadows and glare to work like it does in the movies. There is an animator who spent weekends weighting the character models so Thor’s arm wouldn’t clip through his face when he threw his hammer. There are environment artists who worked through their children’s birthdays to build levels which were cut at the last moment. There are testers who spent ungodly hours sitting around, waiting for builds, finding and reporting bugs which, due to time and budget constraints, couldn’t be fixed.

I know there are many people out there who think making games are easy, and the bad games are just the result of lazy developers and greedy publishers. This is, putting it mildly, utter bullshit. In 8 years of working in games, I’ve not met one person unwilling to put the same level of energy or effort into a game like Thor compared to a game like Halo. Simply put, if they were lazy, they’d be out of a job, but moreover, making a game, critically successful or not, is something to be damn proud of.

People hear about how much a game costs, and think it’s a fortune. And yes, to you, my reader, who statistics show is a 22 year old male who’s just finished college; $10 million is a lot of money to make a game based on a franchise, isn’t it? Should be easy – don’t have to think of costumes and locations and story and such, right?

But let’s break that down – firstly, that’s $10 Million over the 3 major consoles – Wii, Xbox and PS3. Now we’re down to $3 Million per platform, or ‘sku’ as it’s known. Secondly, you’ve got roughly 10 months to develop a movie tie-in, so that’s now a budget of $300,000 per month per sku. The average wage of a developer is $70,000, so on average you have 5 people per sku on the project from kick off to gold. Of course, this waxes and wanes throughout the production cycle, but this is how you work things out. Now that $10 million isn’t looking like very much, is it?

Often, this money comes out of the films marketing budget. This means the marketing people have a greater stake in how your came comes out. Marketing always has a say in how games are made, but the people at Microsoft Marketing have much more realistic grasp on how games are made compared to those at Fox Pictures, for example.

Many people think you automatically have the story and characters for use when making a movie tie-in, and essentially all a developer needs to do is make a fun game out of it. But Thor isn’t based on the plot of the movie; it’s a whole new story. Transformers didn’t even have a story until after principle filming had completed – by which time the game was nearly beta!

There are new locations and new enemies and new characters. All of this has to be designed, created, and approved by the rights holder – in Thor’s case, Marvel – as well as the movie rights holder, as well as the game publisher. So, not only are you making a whole game with a new story from scratch, you’ve also got many fingers in the pie, something non-movie based games don’t have. You can bet only people who had to approve Masterchief’s armour were the Bungie creative directors.

If a studio is really lucky, they might get access to the film’s assets. That is, the 3D assets for props or environments, access to the sound library, motion capture data, and so on. But even if they do have this, the resolution of film is so much higher than a video game console can handle. So, in addition to making props and characters and items for any level not in the movie, these assets must be optimised for the game. Artists will chop out verts, re-skin and re-texture to reduce the size of the original assets, which then need to go through the approval process.

Any changes to the movie affect the game, too. In Transformers, Bumblebee’s headlights changed in the movie, so we had to adjust them on the game model. Then they changed a second time. Sure, it’s only a days’ work, but that’s two days wasted when you need to be doing other things. And if it’s something major, like a major character is cut from the movie but is already in your game, you need to make justification for this. The most common solution is adding a cutscene, my “favourite” solution to hear from an external producer.

Adding a cutscene isn’t as easy as doing it for a movie. For a movie, you call your actors together, go on-site, and reshoot. For a game, it takes an environmental artist, a prop artist, an animator or two, and a programmer to put it together. Remember how before I said there is an average of 5 people per month on a project? Well, these people have tasks they need to do to get the game done, and now because of changes of the film which are completely out of their control, they have to find time to do this extra stuff as well as their usual tasks.

Another issue is sound. For the cutscene example above, you’ll need all the actors to come back in and re-record. Actors cost lots of money, and moreover they’re often unavailable. That’s why often in movie tie-ins it sounds “phoned in”. Often it is. Even if it’s in an actor’s contract they need to be available for VO work, they’re tired after doing 8 months of filming and a 2 months press junket. Then there are the on screen actors who look good but can’t act their way out of a paper bag, and that becomes embarrassingly obvious when you hear them do VO.

Then there are the executive producers. Some of these people are wonderfully fantastic and fully understand the issues and pressures you’re under. From personal experience, it’s the Western game studios – your Activision and Microsoft people, who are most accommodating. However, when they’re not reasonable, or worse, think they’re creative, that’s when real problems arise. They may know about making games in general if you’re lucky, but they don’t know about your studio and your game in particular.

If you’re unlucky, they’re straight out of business school and have no clue about production cycles. They look at spreadsheets, and calculate time based on hours in a day, not the way people actually work and live their lives. These are the people who come in and say “the movie has major stars that are not in the game… put them in the game” or “change the entire structure of that platforming minigame” a week before your beta date, even after every other person in both the studio and the publishing company has told them these are very bad ideas. They make calls based on creative whims or market demands with little concern of how to achieve them, but demand them to be done simply because they’re the boss.

Conclusion:
These are just some of the issues I’ve faced working on movie tie in games, and I know for a fact the guys behind Thor would have had similar experiences. I can tell as I play through the game. I nod sagely when I see an enemy glitch out. I sigh the sigh of one who’s been there, done that when Thor’s cape stretches off to infinity. I’ve butted heads against the same types of producers who think they’re creative and demand changes at the last minute as is obvious with Thor. I’ve waited until 2 am for a build which is broken because of an art change. I understand what they went through to get this game out and that’s why I can’t be harsh on the game.

Most importantly, I understand why they do it. Partly it’s because you have to. You have a job, and it needs to be done, and you do so to the best of your ability under the circumstances. Partly it’s the hope your next project will have a vision you can sink your teeth into, and a budget which supports your expansive or innovative ideas.

But mostly it’s because, no matter what the critics score it, no matter what disparaging remarks commentators on web forums say, there will always be people out there who will enjoy the game, no matter what, simply because it is a tie-in. And because it’s Thor, the chance for that fan to inhabit their favourite character in their favourite worlds, as flawed as it may be, has brought joy for just a little moment. Because as a game developer, there’s no greater justification for doing what you do than when you get an email or letter or forum post from someone on the other side of the world that reads “I love this game. Thank you.”

Pros:
It’s Thor! You’re a damn Norse God throwing around a big fuckoff hammer.
Great environment art.
Great character and enemy art.

Cons:
It’s a typical movie tie-in game.
Poor, glitchy combat controls.
Glitchy camera.
Repetitive gameplay.
Odd animation issues.

45/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2

Leave a comment

The Force Unleashed underwhelmed people across the galaxy last year. Although it’s ever so fun to grab and throw storm troopers off balconies, the incredibly repetitive game play and shockingly badly boss fights, designed to show off the DMM physics but which ended up showing the limits of both this new technology and the imagination of the game designers, saw the game get reamed in the press, and have rather low sales for a new Star Wars franchise. Force Unleashed 2 seeks to address some of those concerns, but does so only half heartedly.

The story involves the clone of Starkiller, bought back from the dead by Vader and trained as a dual lightsaber wielder simply because it looks cool. Breaking out of your prison and escaping the Kamino cloning facilities, you rush off to find your old mate General Kota in an effort to find the love of your life, Juno Eclipse. Your journey takes you from Kamino to the Trade Federation homeworld of Cato Nemoidia, Dagobah, and then back to Kamino via a Rebel Frigate ship.

The locations look amazing. From the rain falling in Kamino, to the wealthy majesty of the upside down bridge cities of Cato Nemoidia to the fog covered swamp of Dagobah, the game looks less like a game and more like a Star Wars movie. I have to make special mention of the Frigate ship, which although empty at first creates a legitimately spooky feel, at least until the first wave of new enemies arrives.

However, for a game which is meant to be a sequel, there are less locations than the original, and when Dagobah is essentially an interactive cut-scene with no action to speak of, you feel cheated. The game will take you a little over 5 hours to complete and although there is an unlockable “unleashed” hardcore mode and at least one alternative ending, the short and rather contrived story and limited locations make a second play through an option only for the serious fan (or seriously bored).

The action of the game is still the same – you simply button mash your way through room after room of enemies. This time though, you start with nearly all your force powers, and there is also dismemberment, which on top of the force push/grab mechanic, is damn fun to do. There is a little more Arkham Asylum finesse to your button mashing for flourishes and kill moves. It’s almost as if the designers had something special in mind for these moves, but then that got left out of the game.

There are variations to enemies this time around to make things more interesting, but they’re rather easy to dispatch once you’ve figured out some can only be hurt by lightsaber, and others can only be hurt by certain force effects. The fact these appear in groups together on the same levels gives you a little more pause for thought, but when you realise the guy you’re sabring isn’t getting hurt, you simply mash the force buttons instead.

Two new enemies appear in FU2 and need require special mention. The little scamping robots in the Frigate level, although they do little damage and are easy to dispatch, are almost annoying as Halo’s Flood. And while the Rancors are gone from the game, the new carbonite and fire droids are almost as annoying and repetitive to battle. You take their shield away with a button mash minigame, use lightning or saber throw, and then quicktime event to dispatch them when their health is low.

The infuriating boss fights are still present, and while it’s much easier to not fail now, they still seem designed to prolong gameplay instead of creating fun. The boss fight with the Gorog on Cato Nemoida is straight out of the God Of War handbook, and admittedly would have been fun if I hadn’t played it in every adventure game since God Of War. The Terror Droid on the Rebel Ship is annoying because not only do you have to contend with the Flood-bots, you’ve got to do a force puzzle to pull things out of their sockets, and then put things back into the sockets to complete the battle. It just seems so pointless.

There is an annoying jumping puzzle right near the final confrontation stage that will make you curse and throw your controller, and once you think it’s done, there’s an additional bit to extend the gameplay out even more. When I saw this bit, I turned my Xbox off in disgust. Seriously game designers, if you’re going to make jumping puzzles in 3D action games, you need to get your camera perfect. Otherwise they just upset and frustrate players. And if you’re going to make the player restart, make it at the point they fell, not where the level starts.

And if you insist on making a jumping puzzle like this, make it lead to something awesome. The final confrontation is so repetitive for the most part that you’re thankful for the simple button mashing quicktime events it feature, and positively ecstatic when presented with the only “light / dark choice” moment in the game.

Conclusion:
The fact this game is named “Force Unleashed 2” is a misnomer. There have been minor tweaks to the game play, little change to the animations of any but the main character, rampant re-use of assets and props, and at a little over 5 hours of game play, you know this project was rushed out to make the most of the fading light that is Lucas Arts Star Wars franchise. It really should have come as an add-on for the original game, and not as a full priced, stand alone product.

However, despite the story being rather lame, the game being too short, overwhelmingly repetitive and frustratingly annoying in most of the boss fights, I can’t say it’s a completely terrible game. I found myself happily mashing buttons for 5 hours straight. Because not matter what the rest of the game does, it’s still too much fun to pick up a flailing Stormtrooper and fling him off a ledge to his doom.

Pros:
Playing with physics is always fun
flinging stormtroopers to their doom is always cool
The environments look amazing

Cons:
Too short
Too repetitive
Too derivative

65/100

FULL DISCLOSURE:

At Krome Studios in 2007, I worked as a tester on the PSP, PS2 and Wii ports of Star Wars The Force Unleashed.

I did not work on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 at all in any capacity.

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Grand Theft Auto IV: Ballard of Gay Tony

Leave a comment

Grand Theft Auto IV was criticised in some circles for being too serious, losing its sense of fun and humour to opt for a darker, grittier tale. Whilst I can see where this criticism came from, I for one liked the new tone as it turned the game from a farcical look at modern Western life found in San Andres and Vice City, to a more satirical look at the condition of modern man. GTA IV’s Ballad of Gay Tony attempts to address this by adding more farce into the tale, but still manages to keep its satirical side.

The Ballad of Gay Tony sees you step into the shoes of Luis Lopez, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. Luis is part owner of a couple of clubs with his friend and mentor “Gay Tony” Prince. The recession has hit the clubs hard, and Luis and Tony are in a little bit of bother with money, and get into some bad deals with some bad Mafioso types, setting the scene for the entire game.

Luis is a really likable character. He’s much more likable than Johnny Klebitz of The Lost and the Damned, more relaxed than Niko. Like Niko, he’s a product of his upbringing. He makes mention of the fact he’s a contract killer, but doesn’t seem to have as many issues with it as Niko did. He admires and respects Gay Tony, and as Tony succumbs to drug addiction it is hard not to side with Luis, even though you soon realise he’s making as big a mess as Tony.

The game itself plays like GTA IV, obviously. The mission structure is the same – generally drive somewhere and then blow everything up. The game also takes you to many of the set piece locations of the original title. You’ll find yourself in the middle of a bank heist, deep in the diamond heist, searching for a kidnapped Gracie, and having a shootout in the Museum. However, these are often presented in a different way to previously seen. Instead of running through the museum, you see a cinematic, and then are placed into a helicopter and have to escape.

Many characters seen in the first game and first DLC crop up here and there. You’ll see Roman try and get into the club a few times. Gracie, the loud mouth hostage, is Tony’s best friend. The Irish mobsters Gerry and Packie will feature in more than a few scenes. Brucie Kubbutz returns, but is a side kick to his even more annoying older brother Mori, who suffers Brucie’s insecurities but magnified ten times because of his short man syndrome. And of course Niko and Johnny appear frequently.

The effect of these two things on the player is to make the world seem more coherent and whole. The stories are weaved brilliantly together, reconnecting GTA IV and making the conspiratorial nature of the game seem much deeper and more intense. You’ll never know who your real allies are, and moreover, you’ll begin to rethink the outcomes which occurred in the other two games.

To spice things up a little, Rockstar have introduced more outrageous weapons and vehicles to the game. My favourite is the explosive shell shotgun, although sticky bombs are rather fun as well. Yusif, the ridiculously rich Arab will have you flying in a gold coloured attack helicopter. They’ve also brought back the parachute. This brings a verticality to the city that was previously absent. No longer are helicopter rides just about getting somewhere specific – you can jump out and parachute to the top of a building or the ground safely. I’ve gone to the tallest building just to jump off. The parachuting base jump minigames are even more fun, testing you skill as you fly through hoops or ride a bike off a building and then try to land on a moving flatbed.

Another fun new introduction to TBOGT is night club management. You go from point to point in the club, watching people dance looking for trouble. Trouble comes in the form of drunks, who you throw out. You’ll often get a call from the other club where you’ve got to go help out a hapless star who is caught with their pants down, or drive an English prince to find some hookers. When you’re not working you can play some drinking minigames and even participate in a dance off, which sees the whole floor doing a bus stop routine and sounds lame on paper, but is a lot of fun to pull off.

The new music is gregarious disco and dance, and whilst it’s a little clichéd to have “Shake Your Groove Thing” by Peaches and Herb and the like associated with the Gay scene, it’s also just fun music in general which adds to the overall lighter tone of the game. Not much is made of Gay Tony’s gayness, either. When people do start throwing around the homophobic slurs, it’s often directed at Luis too despite his repeated protestations of the contrary, and you’ll find yourself wanting to hurt those guys just for being dicks. And in most cases, you get to.

Conclusion:
In TBOGT you’re still as ruthless a killer as Niko and Johnny, but there’s a larger sense of fun and play here. Whilst never as ridiculous as Vice City or Saint’s Row, it has a very similar feel. Whereas GTA IV was almost like a moral play, TBOGT plays much more like a comedic tragedy. It takes itself seriously, but presents a much more laid back sensibility to the player, giving them a chance to have a bit of fun in between the gritty reality of gangsters and money.

Pros:
Great story line
Great reuse of characters
The parachute opens up the vertical city
Fun new minigames

Cons:
Helicopters don’t have missile locks
No changes to the core game

85/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Dante’s Inferno

Leave a comment

Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia, of which Inferno is the first part, is considered amongst the world’s greatest pieces of literature. It codified the medieval concept of Heaven and Hell into human understanding and cast Satan as a victim of his betrayal of God, a very powerful theme picked up by Renaissance art. The phrase “abandon hope all ye who enter here” and a host of other well known phrases are taken from Dante’s poem, and he inspired and has been quoted and paraphrased by countless others from Chaucer to Pope Benedict XVI. The imagery and allegory of the poem lend itself to interpretation, so it is of no real surprise that eventually it would become the basis of a video game.

In the poem Dante simply takes a stroll through Hell with the Roman poet Vigil, fainting quite often and then coming face to face with Satan who is represented in his ugliest form steadfastly refusing to stop flapping his wings and hence frozen in ice unable to move because of his own pride (as the poem is about Contrapasso, or poetic justice).

Which when you think about it doesn’t really inspire a confident story for a videogame so developer Visceral Games have taken some liberties with the original text. Instead of a poet, Dante becomes a Crusader who decides to fight Death to rescue his beloved Beatrice, whom he betrayed. Beating Death and taking his scythe as his own, Dante descends into Hell in order to win the soul of his loved one back.

Dante’s descent into Hell starts off well. Kicking the crap out of the Grim Reaper, you gain his mystical scythe and learn one of the neat things about Dante’s Inferno – punishing or absolving the souls of those who reside there. When in combat, pressing the left trigger will grab enemies, and you’ll have the option of punishing or absolving smaller combatants. Bigger enemies, like the Minotaurs, required a bit of beating up before a prompt to squeeze the Right Trigger appears to punish or absolve. Punishing souls upgrades the Unholy path concerned with the scythe, whereas absolving upgrades Beatrice’s cross.

The rest of the gameplay of Dante’s Inferno is exactly like God Of War on the Playstation. You have a fixed camera for each scene. There’s a light and heavy attack with a main weapon on the X and Y buttons respectively, and a ranged weapon using the B button. You avoid attacks using the left stick. You gain health from containers, and can upgrade your attacks with items. There are environmental puzzles to overcome by pushing objects and during boss fights and in some cinematic moments you’ll be forced into quick time events – timed button presses.
Not being the hugest fan of God of War, I found the same frustrations with that game here. Sometimes you’d miss something attacking you because of the camera angles. The button presses in the QTEs were never intuitive, and if you weren’t on the ball you’d fail and have to repeat the sequence. You’d walk or puzzle through to an arena which would become locked off, and you’d have to fight a number of bad guys until it became unlocked. To me it’s just doing the same thing over and over.

It’s confounded in Dante’s Inferno because you are doing the same thing over and over. Although there are many enemies to fight at one time, there are only about 5 different types of enemies, and once you learn their attack sequence and upgrade your weapons to about 5th level, you just end up going through the motions to get through the game. I honestly finished the game simply by mashing B to fire off Dante’s Cross attack.

And this is really disappointing because the enemy design is fantastic. The unbaptised babies are awesome with their horrendous knife arms and big heads. The gluttons are disgusting with multiple faces in layers of fat. The lust demons are just the right combination of sexy and horrible. Some of the set piece design is highly reminiscent of HR Geiger, the mash of organic and material, the grotesque and erotic.

Adding to the clever creature design is fantastic sound design. The screams and howls of the damned constantly echo through Hell. Each level has its specific yells when you climb on the walls of souls (which you do every freaking level!) – Greed has people demanding you give them your cross, whilst in Anger you’ll hear all kinds of threats of violence. The rest of the voice acting is less impressive, with Dante himself being damn whiny, although Satan is suitably smarmy.

The environmental puzzles throughout the levels are never too challenging, involving locating switches and moving and jumping on boxes, with environmental exploration rather predictable – you see where you have to go, and simply go. Worst of all is the rope swinging and chasm jumping areas. So many times, due mostly to bad camera angles, you’d make a leap of faith from rope to rope or chasm to chasm, and more often than not that faith was misplaced.

Another problem with Dante’s Inferno is God Of War made you want to experience the world of Ancient Greece. Although we know about it through school and television, GoW has a unique and interesting twist on that understanding which made us want to explore their take on it, with Kratos himself being an intriguing character. Dante on the other hand has no redeeming features. He’s whiny and his motivation seems shallow and trite. Even though he mentions it every chance he gets, you never really feel he’s motivated by his love for Beatrice. And Beatrice doesn’t seem worth saving either – she just bitches at Dante the entire time for betraying her.

To make matters worse, Hell is so repetitive. This is Dante’s Inferno, an amazing poem describing the nine levels of Hell as they descend away from God! There’s a feeling of descent as you trapeze down rope and fall down holes, but then you simply go into corridor after corridor, room after room. You never feel as though it’s all a complete, intertwined universe. The game never really gives you any sense of the scale of the Inferno, except in the set pieces. And admittedly everything is meant to be drab and dreary in the underworld, but the colour scheme of next gen red, brown and black gets so tedious that you just begin to ignore it all after a while.

But I think the greatest injustice is there are levels called Greed, Lust, Anger, and they’re just backdrops to button mashing. Dante’s Inferno is a Contrapasso, a symbolic instance of poetic justice, wherein the punishment fits the crime. False prophets have their heads on backwards. Satan’s pride keeps him frozen. How cool would it be to have some kind of gameplay device that incorporated being tempted to give into anger and have you punished for it, or tempted you with shiny items in Greed that made the game extremely difficult if you pursued them? Instead we have the same button mashing enemies to kill. Sure, in Lust the backdrop is a giant Cleopatra with tongues as nipples, but apart from a short environmental puzzle to solve to get rid of her, it’s simply mashing buttons and killing tonnes of enemies like the rest of the game.

Conclusion:
Dante’s Inferno could have offered more. It’s heavily influenced by God Of War, but never seeks to do anything to differentiate itself from its influence beyond a superficial weapon development tree that has ultimately no impact on the game or the story. The enemy design, whilst interesting, was subsumed by the repetitiveness of the game and level design. La Divina Commedia is such a great source to stage a game from, but the writers clearly didn’t understand the material deeply enough to make the best use of it for gameplay purposes. In short, Dante’s Inferno could have been a fantastic new IP for EA, but when it comes down to it; it’s just a generic GoW clone.

Pros:
Excellent character and set piece design
Nice skill development
Excellent sound

Cons:
Bland level design
Very repetitive combat
Poor use of static cameras
Poor use of the source material

70/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Assassin’s Creed II

Leave a comment

Assassin’s Creed was one of those games that showed a lot of promise. It was a refreshing story set mostly in a time that’s never before been explored in games, and setting the game in the Animus, visiting the memories of relatives was not only a clever way of presenting the game to the player, but opens potential as a series instead of just a standalone title. The title’s hero, the acrobatic Altaïr, was well designed and had some great moves. However, it was let down by repetitive gameplay, sometimes awkward combat, and a frustrating lack of cohesiveness to the whole experience.

Assassin’s Creed II starts off with Desmond Miles escaping the Templar controlled Abstergo research facility / prison setting of the first game, and taken to a safe house with a new Animus, this time run by the much friendlier bunch of people aligned to the Assassin’s Guild. This time, the search for the ancient technology delves into the memories of the life of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a likeable rogue living in Renaissance Italy, whose merchant family become involved in the conflict between the Templars and Assassins.

Unlike Altaïr, Ezio is not trained as an assassin from the start of the game, so instead of having a bunch of skills and losing them like in the first game, as you progress through the game you gain your skills and weapons of the trade. This makes the game far more enjoyable, as the first hour or so you get to just run and jump and brawl at your own pace, exploring the city of Firenze (Florence) and getting to know the character of Enzio and his allies. Enzio is a lovable rogue like Han Solo or the Dread Pirate Roberts; quick of wit and good of heart. When it does come time to fight and assassinate another person, the progression seems natural to both the story and the character of Enzio, who’s motivated by revenge and not any other shady purpose.

As likeable as Ezio is the real star of the show is the world he inhabits. Renaissance Italy is alive in this game. The streets are crowded with people going about their business, and unlike the first game you can blend in with any group, instead of having to wait for priests. Admittedly most are just walking around in circles, but the paths they follow and clever placement of guards hides the fact these are predetermined cycles, and make you believe the people have a purpose beyond hiding you. You can now enlist the aid of courtesans to hide you and distract guards, and the thieves and thugs return and appear far more able than the previous game.

Like the first game, the free running aspect truly shines. Jumping up to the rooftops and sprinting across tiled roofs and making leaps of faith into straw bales is still a tonne of fun. Paths are made far more obvious, and you don’t seem to make as many mistakes. The tall spires of Italy’s Churches make for some excellent vantage points, and the absence of Templars just standing around doing nothing at the bottom of them make exploring the verticality of the city much less of a chore.

There are a bunch of side missions to do, such as assassin contracts, races, and beating up cheating husbands. These are pleasurable distractions from the main quests, and net you some coin. Adding to this is the Assassin Vaults, six locations spread throughout Italy where you have to use Ezio’s athletic skills to get to remote vaults to unlock Altaïr’s armour. These Prince of Persia style puzzles will have you jumping and running and swinging, trying to get to a certain point before the time runs out. Whilst a little frustrating especially when Ezio jumps the wrong way from a wall jump, these challenges break up the other action of the game well.

There is also an economy of sorts. Enzio is given refuge in his uncle Mario’s home. Just as an aside, when Ezio meets his uncle it’s one of the most humorous moments in the game. Mario’s home is run down, the city in disrepair, but by gaining money from side missions and robbing chests, you can improve the citadel by upgrading buildings and beautifying the building with Renaissance art from the likes of Bruges and Da Vinci. As you improve the citadel, you gain access to better weapons and armour.

What I haven’t mentioned is all of these things are optional. You can just simply follow the story line quests, and zip through the game. But these activities unlock better items and make the game easier that they’re all worth doing. Also, they’re just a hell of a lot of fun. And the main missions themselves are quite a bit different from before. There is a heap of variety this time; you don’t simply do the same bunch of tasks to find and then kill the bad dude like the last game. This time you can bash your way through guards, leap from a rooftop, sneak up to your mark and then shoot him, or climb up a big tower and dispatch him. There’s even a part where you fly over a fortified wall in Da Vinci’s flying apparatus!

The fighting has been refined too, made simpler but more engaging. Taking a leaf from Arkham Asylum, the fights flow more fluidly, relying on timing and grace. You won’t get all the guards piling on at once; rather they’ll wait for an opening before attacking. Countering is still the best way to dispatch an enemy, but you can disarm enemies and use their weapons against them. This is particularly useful against heavily armoured foes.

There are still some issues with movement in the game. Sometimes Ezio will leap the wrong way from a wall jump, or will miss a beam you’re aiming for, or won’t edge around a wall properly. There was one particular tower where I would try and jump up to a higher ledge, but he would jump backwards into a leap of faith. There are also some minor clipping issues when fighting, and I once got trapped in some unfinished mesh because I evaded into the chimney of a roof, but these are really minor bugs and didn’t deter my enjoyment of the game.

Otherwise the game looks great. Ezio’s movements are graceful and elegant. The recreation of Renaissance Italy is superb, and the costumes and characters feel authentic. The inclusion of real life persons adds to this greatly, but the authentic sounds make it greater still. From Ezio’s footsteps on the tiled roofs, to the shop assistants yelling, to the sounds of the forge, it all creates a sense of realness. The only problem is the Italian-English accents, as it’s a little hackneyed in some parts.

Conclusion
After Assassin’s Creed, I was a little worried that the series would simply fade away. So many other Ubisoft games have suffered because of sequelitis, but the premise was interesting enough that I would like to see its conclusion. Playing Assassin’s Creed II, one can’t help but think Ubisoft really did listen to the criticism of the last game. Everything has been expanded upon and improved. That which didn’t work well was removed, and that which did was left in and improved upon. And the work done to improving the game has made it into one of the better games to come out this year.

Pros:
Great continuation of the story
Excellent amount of variety both in main missions and side missions
Likable character living in an excellently created world that shines both visually and aurally
Superb game mechanics of the first game refined

Cons:
Some minor graphical issues
Accents can sound a bit hackneyed.

90/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Tenchu Z

Leave a comment

Ninjas are the ultimate in cool. Their history and purpose is surrounded in myth and mystique. Secret assassins of the Shogunate and Japanese nobility, they have enraptured the minds of the Western world in film, books, comics and video games. So it’s always a big let down when a game starring ninjas turns out poor. And poor is the perfect adjective for Tenchu Z.

The story of Tenchu Z begins in feudal Japan, and involves you, a ninja obviously, being hired to take out various marks for your Ninja master. There is some kind bad blood between various villages, and you have to kill people because they’ve done bad things to other people. It’s one of those annoying Japanese stories, kinda like Dynasty Warriors, where you’re not sure if everything in the story is connected or not, and if it is, it’s lost in translation anyway. For example, you get to create a fellow ninja who appears occasionally in the story, but doesn’t seem to do much except spout some weird Confucian crap now and then in cut scenes.

Many Japanese games have odd, hard to follow stories, but make up for that with cool action or great graphics. Unfortunately Tenchu Z has neither. You are given a mark to kill, and you’ll find them within a complex, usually a Japanese temple. They’re not always temples, sometimes it’s a restaurant, sometimes it’s a dock, and other times it’s a whole village. But the design from level to level is so similar that it doesn’t matter what it actually is, it looks like a Japanese temple. You’re never told exactly where that mark is located though. You see a cut scene that gives a basic idea of what the character looks like and the surrounding location in which they’re to be found, but that’s it. They’re not marked on a map nor are any other clues given. I suppose that, despite to all the evidence to the contrary, ninja organisations had really poor intelligence back in the 1600s.

Now, initially this doesn’t seem like it would pose a problem. You’re a ninja, right? You can sneak around and scout out the place yourself. And to aid you in that endeavour you have a meter that shows you how hidden you are, how aware the enemy is of your presence, and how far away to you are from each other. Whilst good in theory, in practice this fails due to the most frustrating game AI ever encountered in a game.

On the one hand the AI can spot you through walls and roofs. This makes sneaking about and avoiding being detected a little difficult. And if you open a door and there is an enemy in the room, you instantly alert them to you presence. The problem is compounded because the mark is nearly always in a room with a door that is closed. Open the door and the mark is alerted to your presence, and you’re rushed by guards. At first I thought this was just me, maybe I was doing something wrong, but time after time, door after door it happened.

Yet on the other hand the AI has the memory of a gold fish. Run behind another building, or jump over a wall, and the alarm is dropped. Worse still is that AI will automatically go back to its predictable patrol path, meaning you can attempt to sneak past or kill the enemy again and it will be rather blasé about the whole thing. What this does allow you to do is race through the whole level until you find your mark without much hassle. It doesn’t matter how many alarms and guards you alert, there is no punishment apart from the fact you get less gold at the end of the level.

Gold is used to buy new outfits, weapons and skills, including new stealth kills. Whilst these make playing the game slightly more interesting, this is no real incentive to play through the game stealthily. The AI is so poor that the pay off to do a stealth kill never seems worth it. And with all the stealth moves you’re meant to be doing, when it comes to the boss levels, such as the one on the docks that was in the demo, you’ll find that all gets chucked out the window and you’re forced into confrontation. Because you’re used to sneaking about, the direct confrontation is a jarring jump in terms of gameplay.

The control set up has to be one of the worse ever. You need to press a button to draw your sword, and another to strike it. When sneaking if you see a guard and pull out the sword, he hears and is alerted to your position. But if you don’t have your sword out, you can’t do half the stealth kill moves. Likewise, to throw a star or grapple you have to press a button to go into first person view, then press another button to throw the star / grapple. Again, this is frustrating as you will often get seen before you have a chance to position yourself well. On top of that, the camera is horrid. It’s free moving to allow you some sense of situation awareness, but it feels completely awkward as it never snaps back, so you can get thoroughly disorientated.

Graphically the game is the very ugly stepsister of Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden on Xbox. Although the locations are quite well realised, as mentioned they all pretty much look the same. Considering you’re on the rooftops most of the time, a bit of variety might have gone a long way. Although the character animation is smooth, the overall feel is of a PS2 game. The enemy characters all look the same, with textures and models reused over and over again, sometimes making it impossible to tell a mark from a guard from an “innocent”. In fact, I didn’t even realise there were “innocents” in the levels until I saw in my end of level screen that I had killed one. And even more incredibly, there is no facial animation for any character in any cut scene. They talk, but mouths and eyes don’t move. I was stunned by this – I thought we were in the next generation of console gaming!

Sound is probably the best aspect of the game. Drawing your sword has a satisfying ring as it emerges from the scabbard, and the footsteps of your enemy get louder as they approach, giving you a greater sense of your surroundings and situation. When you do battle the stereotypical ninja battle sounds can be heard – swords classing, yelling out “Kiiyyaa!” and so on. The music is also as you would expect from a ninja game set in the 1600s – lots of oriental flute and harp.

Conclusion:
Tenchu Z is pretty craptacular. Admittedly there is a bit of fun to be had here when you do stealth around maps, but as soon as the AI sees you through a wall, or you open a door and it alerts the guards, the fun is over. Moreover, the fact you can run through a level, alerting everyone to you presence, and still complete the level makes a mockery of the whole concept of a stealth game. Unfortunately for Tenchu Z there are games that do the stealth action genre a hell of a lot better, and with nothing else going for it other than ninjas, this one is best left alone.

Pros:
You play a ninja
Lots of customisable outfits
Nice sound

Cons:
Worst AI you’ll find in a game
Can complete levels without being stealthy
Really bad controls and confusing camera
Looks terrible

49/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade

Leave a comment

Knights of the Temple put you in the role of Paul, a noble Templar Knight who discovers his best friend dying in the woods. His friend has some kind of plague, and mentions some crazy talk about “holy man is… devil”. This leads Paul off on his own crusade to fight the wicked Bishop and rescue the beautiful Adelle, a woman who’s holy powers are going to be used against all humanity as the Bishop seeks to unite his monastery and hell.

The first thing that struck me is the graphics and artwork. They are very nicely designed. They may not be as ground breaking as Halo for example, but they’re very well executed, giving a strong sense of time and place. You get sucked into the world of the infernal crusade. Cut scenes are done in both an enhanced version of the game engine, as well as presented in an epic style fantasy painted stills. They reminded me of the illustrated Dragon Lance book I loved when I was younger.

Another thing to strike me was the camera. It’s not in third or first person as I suspected on first hearing about this game, but rather fixed in what is commonly called the “fourth wall”. This is an old performance device, and describes where the three walls of the set of a play on a stage are seen, and you are looking into the scene through the forth wall. This has best been done in the Resident Evil series of games, but not something I’ve seen too much of on the Xbox. It gives a very cinematic feel to the whole experience, and is a refreshing change from the usual third or first person view. It is a little disconcerting at first, as it can obscure your view, but I suspect that’s precisely what it’s meant to do, giving a claustrophobic feel to the insides of the monastery and other locations you battle through.

It can sometimes be a frustrating experience, getting in the way of the action, especially as Paul goes through doors, as unseen enemies can attack him. However, at the same time can also enhance the action. For example, I was fighting a guard, and kept getting pushed past the camera change location, and it felt like dramatic cuts in an action film, feeling as though I was immersed in an old Robin Hood film. Also, it forces you to be rather cautious when running through doors, and I found that walking slowly by holding the joystick gently, and then holding block whilst the camera changed, was often the wisest move.

The fighting system is quite easy to get a hang of – there is block (blue button), attack (green button) and heavy attack (red button), and these can be strung together into simple combos. As the game progresses you learn new combos such as the dual swing combo and windmill combo. These are performed by stringing together the attack and heavy attack buttons. Some of the moves look awesome; especially when you knock someone down and jam the sword through their skull, then use your foot to remove it.

Furthermore there are special attacks, which are granted to you throughout the course of the game, which are performed by holding the left trigger and pressing one of the 4 face buttons. These are very powerful attacks, and can break through enemy blocks and shields.
Paul also finds better weapons as he moves through the various levels of the game. He has a choice of 4 – the mace, the axe, the sword and the bow – and these are selected by the D pad.

Using the Bow moves into a first person perspective, but it really is only useful against enemy archers, as the levels rarely give you an opportunity to shoot at someone off in the distance due to their cramped nature. The other weapons are all useful against enemies, but not none more so than the other, which is a pity. There are also prayers that Paul learns from Adelle’s astral self, and holding the right trigger and pressing the face buttons can access these. There’s healing, attack boost, quake and fireball prayers, and the effects look pretty cool. However, you do have a limited amount of pray power available, and it’s best to use them wisely.

However the whole game fighting mechanics can be reduced to the enemy attacks while you block, then when its move has completed you use a special move and then combo, and then block again, until they’re dispatched. In fact, I found one combo / block arrangement that allowed me to beat nearly every enemy in the game at an early level, and made the fighting dynamic seem not so dynamic. However, having said that, the game is still lots of fun… mindless fun, but fun nonetheless. There’s also a few puzzle type things, mainly “get this, put that there”, and a few rotate the stones to match the pattern to unlock the door type things… pretty easy things to figure out.

Sound wise the game features the standard steel on steel sounds one would expect. The howling of the insane monks and the growls of the demons are all pretty standard fare, and Paul grunts and groans as he his hit, and says a few throw away lines when he finds keys and puzzles. The score is much better, being medieval in nature that changes per the location. For example, when you get to Jerusalem the score gets a decidedly more Middle Eastern bent to it, and enhances to the great sense of time and place captured by the graphics.

The Xbox Live! functionality of the game comes in the form of downloadable survival maps, and survival scoreboards. The survival game pits Paul against an endless stream of enemies, and this is timed. The longer you survive, and gain the greatest number of kills, the better your ranking on the scoreboard. It’s a fun little exercise, and a nice addition to the main game, but other than that there’s no multiplayer.

Conclusion:
Knights of the Temple is a fun game, but it does have limited appeal. If the idea of hacking and slashing your way through a variety of well designed locations from the Middle Ages takes your fancy, then the game is for you. However, hardcore gamers will feel a little let down by the simplistic battle system that does get rather repetitive rather quickly, and sometimes the frustrating camera detracts from the overall experience of the game. The Live! scoreboard will add a little extra to those with a competitive nature, but doesn’t enhance the game all that much.

Pros:
+ Immersive locations
+ Fun battle system that’s easy to master
+ Great soundtrack
+ Cool looking moves

Cons
– Camera can become very annoying
– Gameplay can seem rather repetitive, especially once you find the killer combo.
– the Bow is all but useless.

78/100