Video game reviews
Titles Covered: LittleBigPlanet, Ni No Kuni, Gears of War, Kameo, Halo 3, God of War 3, Tales from the Borderlands, and The Evil Within.
LittleBigPlanet (***)
In 2008, the PS3 came out with one of its more hyped-up original franchises: LittleBigPlanet. Intended as both a platformer and a community developer toolkit, the game promised a next-gen iteration of run-and-jump platforming. For the most part, it works pretty well.
The single-player campaign is a solid action platformer. It's simple and fun, and the levels are well-balanced and creative. “Sackboy” doesn't have a lot of powers, but the levels do a good job of mixing things up so that the game never gets boring. An interesting aspect of the game is the immense number of collectibles, as you can scour the levels for hundreds of special pre-made objects and decorations to use in the game's “create” mode. A less successful aspect of the game is the Z-axis movement. Basically, the game has 3 levels of depth, and moving manually between them doesn't work very well.
The graphical style of LBP is cute. Everything has very detailed textures, with the idea that you can see how the different objects are assembled. In a sense, it makes the game feel like one of those “dark rides” at Disneyland. However, the downside of this intentionally-artificial style is that it doesn't create investment into the game's world. There's no sense that what you're doing has consequence, as the game seems to be making up the story as it goes along. Yes, this is actually a step down from “Our princess is in another castle” or “The President has been kidnapped by ninjas.”
As for the “create” aspects of LBP, I'm still not sold on the central premise of combining a console game and a level-creation toolkit. A game creation toolkit makes more sense on PC, so that creators can more easily make use of other media files, online resources, and an interface built to do work. Does that translate to consoles? I tried out the level editer and managed to build a cute, short level themed around Settlers of Catan. I originally meant to make it bigger and more sophisticated, but eventually I just couldn't deal with the level editor anymore. It's really hard to do more than plop down basic platforms and decorations. Besides the expected cumbersome nature of designing on a console interface, your creations have to work within the game's physics engine. It won't just let you float platforms in air, or suspend point bubbles where you want. Everything has to hold together structurally, and moving creations need to be powered by a defined set of mechanical motors and winches. Oh, and if you forget to nail something down, the whole thing might fall apart in the level editor mode, scattering pieces and enemies everywhere. Frankly, a better development toolkit would let you set animation guides, anchor the platforms without having to build up walls, and not force you build levels under the conditions of the “play” mode.
To be fair, I've played some very sophisticated and interesting community levels, so you can do some pretty amazing stuff if you have a lot of patience. The creation tools are very good for carving out different shapes, though I couldn't figure out a good way to paint them without changing the material (I guess you need the Playstation Eye? I dunno.).
LittleBigPlanet is cute, but ultimately it's a single player game that needs more content and a developer kit that's on the wrong platform. In short: fun, but over-rated.
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (*** and a half)
Also known as “The Studio Ghibli RPG,” Ni No Kuni is an interesting collaboration that combines the artistry and storytelling of the company that gave us “Spirited Away” with traditional japanese RPG gameplay. Unsurprisingly, the level of enjoyment you get from it will probably depend on how much you like each of those brands. It will also depend on how much paitience you have.
You see, Ni No Kuni doesn't hit the ground running. It starts off with a lot of cutscenes, a lot of simplistic gameplay, and a lot of tutorials. If you can stay entranced by the pretty artwork and music, the payoff is a rewarding quest that really feels like jumping into a fantastical anime. However, if you get bored by the uninteresting gameplay during the first few chapters of the game... well, I guess I can't blame you.
But if you have a lot of free time and a love of these sorts of games, Ni No Kuni will reward your paitience. It will give you a fantastically charming universe to explore, wonderful music, and an emotional story. I was actually surprised by how well the English-dub version was done, as the dialogue and narrative flowed very well. A particularly impressive segment involves a quest to inspire a comedian duo... who actually prove to be legitimately funny.
Gameplay-wise, Ni No Kuni has a lot of stuff to futz around with, including a Pokemon-inspired monster collecting mechanic that invites you to collect a large set of creatures, arm them, and level them up with special deserts and such. The dungeon designs are also very pretty and give you the chance to avoid or ambush the on-map enemies before enterting combat.
The combat system combines real-time and turn-based battle systems, with very mixed results. At its best, it truly gives you the tactical options of turn-based while also letting you maneuver around the battlefield for optimal results. However, the 2 systems clash a lot, resulting in features that feel downright unfair. For starters, the real-time focus means that you only control one character, while the computer manages the other 2/3rds of the party. This is common in a lot of action RPGs, but the partner AI is mindblowingly awful. The game also employs a lot of cinematic animations for certain moves (think Final Fantasy summons) that would be fine for a turn-based game, but completely disrupt the flow of combat in a real-time system.
Overall, the gameplay of Ni No Kuni isn't great, but it's rich enough to make the game worth a playthrough, especially with such great artwork and music.
Gears of War (**)
Wow, this doesn't hold up...
As an early HD cover-based shooter, Gears of War entered the gaming world with rather insane hype. It was one of those games at E3 2006 that you needed a special appointment to see, so most of us only heard whispers of this mysterious “gears” game that was to shake things up. I guess it did, since its 3rd-person cover mechanics inspired games like Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Spec Ops, and The Last of Us. I probably should have played Gears of War before all those other games.
I guess the game is playable and has acceptable core gameplay. It took me a bit to get used to the aiming and high difficulty, but once I got the hang of it the game played alright. The problem is that the game doesn't offer much beyond competent shooting gameplay. The story isn't really explained in-game, and the characters just grunt at each other. The gameplay doesn't have much variety, and the enemy designs alternate between tough slow guys with guns and weak fast guys without guns. There is the occasional puzzle-battle against a boss monster, so that's something.
I respect that Gears of War was a trend-setter, but it seems rather dull compared to all the better games that took its gameplay and created more exciting scenarios.
Kameo: Elements of Power (***)
I recall being rather upset during my senior year of college when the company “Rareware” was acquired by Microsoft, ending their long-running collaboration with Nintendo. And indeed, it seems that Microsoft-Rare never really regained the strong reputation that Nintendo-Rare earned with titles like Donkey Kong Country, Perfect Dark, or Banjo Kazooie. Black Nerd Comedy explains the whole story pretty well.
To be fair, Kameo does contain some of the old Rareware magic. The style if bright and colorful and the gameplay includes a lot of hero powers. If Banjo Kazooie was essentially Rare's take on Mario 64, Kameo is their version of Majora's Mask, as the fairy/elf heroine acquires an increasing repertoire of skills via the ability to transform into different creatures. The creatures are generally cool-looking, and have some interesting powers both in combat and in platforming. There's also a lot of creature transformations you can do, and they can all be upgraded with even more powers via special fruit that you find by exploring the world or solving puzzles.
The downside of Kameo is that many of the powers aren't given enough time to really sink in. The levels are fairly small and don't need revisiting, so the game feels like a truncated version of itself. In short, it has the ideas needed to be the next Legend of Zelda, but not the content or world creation. It doesn't help that the characters are pretty “meh” and the long dialogue sequences aren't any fun.
Overall, though, I did enjoy my playthrough of Kameo and feel that it probably deserved more attention than it got. It's bright and fun, and has an interesting take on the the action-platformer genre.
Halo 3 (*** and a half)
So... I'm one of those people who never really liked Halo: Combat Evolved. The music and story were impressive, but I hated the repetitive level design, and didn't really care for a lot of the enemies or weapons either. Seriously, that worthless assault rifle feels like using the “Klobb” from Goldeneye. I never got around to playing Halo 2, but decided to check out the 3rd installment on my wife's Xbox 360.
Fortunately, Halo 3 is actually a lot of fun. It fixes most of the problems I had with the first game. For starters, there's a very large variety of weapons, so you can play around with them a lot and find some that you like. I immediately chucked the stupid assault rifle, and used the far superior battle rifle instead. The controls are good, and the “normal” difficulty is a satisfying stroll with a few challenging parts. The enemies have decent variety to them, and the level design is open enough to allow for some improvisation. Of particular note are the vehicle battles; I liked that the game just kind of strews enemy and allied vehicles around the battlefield and lets you pick and choose how you wanted to approach them. You could stick with one vehicle, or just run from one to the next, hijacking and sabotaging craft along the way. Jumping onto a passing enemy speederbike and then kicking the alien pilot out is really satisfying. The jeep controls like a toy car, flipping over at the slightest breeze, but otherwise the controls are pretty good.
So yes, Halo 3 is fun. A lot of fun, in fact, with only one level that made me groan (the one with endless Flood monsters). It also ties up the series reasonably well. I understand that the series didn't end here (not when there's more money to be made!), but Halo 3 provided a place where it could have ended and I would be happy with the story.
Halo 3 still doesn't achieve the levels of the best 7th-generation shooter games (offhand, this would include Bioshock, Call of Duty Black Ops, Resistance 3, Metroid Corruption, and Crysis 2). Still, it's a solid FPS that everyone besides me probably beat 10 years ago.
God of War 3 (****)
Back in the mid-2000's, I developed kind of a love-hate relationship with the God of War series. On one hand, I loved the gameplay, graphics, and epic scale. On the other hand, I hated the cruel protagonist and meanspirited tone, and was disturbed by the praise that game journalists specifically gave these aspects. God of War III emphasizes both the best and the worst of the series.
On the positive side, the gameplay is as good as ever, with visceral combat, challenging enemies, clever puzzles, and epic environments. If you've ever been inside an old cathedral, there's always this awe-inspiring over-sized design to them, as if they were literally built to house God. The videogame God of War effectively channels that aesthetic, but with a weird dystopian vibe that feels simulataneously awesome and unsettling. The fantastically-detailed graphics really help sell the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the combat is as fast and frantic as ever. It hasn't drastically changed since the first game, but there are a few cute tricks with the various tools and weapons that help the experience (the lion gauntlets are especially satisfying). As an action game, this is nearly as good as it gets. And there's an MC-Escher-inspired puzzle labyrinth!
On the negative side... can we talk about how awful the story is? It's actually insulting to sit through the cinematics and think that a team of designers thought that this would resonate with gamers. The plot has no pacing, Kratos' motivations make even less sense than before, and the series' take on mythology is pretty stupid and inconsistent (So the gods and titans are flesh and blood, but also literal forces of nature, and the dead go to Hades, except that you can just fly in and out of Hades, and also die in Hades, but for some reason all the enemies you kill are just permanently dead and don't go to Hades, and Pandora's box was locked away before but not really sealed until some time after you got it in the first game, and now it's supposed to have something that it obviously didn't have in the first game and... Oh gods, the stupid! Just make it stop!). The game constantly revels in Kratos' cruelty, but then turns around and tries to make him a tragic “lost soul” protagonist, which doesn't work because Kratos himself never shows any dimension and there's nothing to connect the player to the character. After all that, the ending tries to be cathartic by saying that Kratos gave “hope” to mankind, with literally no meaning or illustration beyond the mere word “hope.” On top of it all, the dialogue is terrible and Kratos' lines are so predictable and one-note that they're pretty much all redundant. GAH!
So... yeah, it's pretty much what I expected. The graphics and gameplay are fantastic, and the story sucks more than ever. Take that for what it's worth.
Tales from the Borderlands (*** and a half)
I played the original Borderlands a few years ago and apparently liked it enough to give it a solid 3 stars. But for some odd reason, I don't remember it being good. I think back on the game and recall endless deserts populated with the same hockey-mask villains.
But leaveit to the geniuses at TellTale to make the world of Borderlands interesting and exciting! Suddenly, the dull and forgettable desert planet is the set of a goofy sci-fi Western dripping with personality, action, humor, and a surprising amount of drama. Seriously, the world-building and unique atmosphere are absolutely killer! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since TellTale even made me care about a mediocre late-to-the-party zombie franchise (excuse me while I dodge tomatoes thrown by Walking Dead fans).
As for gameplay, it's more or less standard the current standard TellTale formula. Choose dialogue options, make choices, agonize over whether you did the right thing, complete quick-time events, and one way or another you're pretty much guaranteed to win. Although TellTale games are somewhat notorious for false choices, I will give them credit for making the choices a bit more consequential this time. Still, I'd really like to see these games bring back the puzzle-solving element of older TellTale games. Ya know, so they feel more like games.
If you enjoy games with heavy story and light gameplay, Tales from the Borderlands is pretty great.
The Evil Within (****)
The game that really put Mikami on the map was 1996's Resident Evil, a “survival horror” game that combined zombie scares, puzzles, and resource management in a haunted house setting. The highlight of the series was Resident Evil 4, an absurdly well-designed game filled to the brim with big ideas. While Resident Evil 5 and 6 were decent, they never seemed to capture what made part 4 so great. I'd argue a much more worthy successor can be found in The Evil Within, which is supposed to be the last game Mikami will direct.
Veering slightly away from the goofy haunted-house flavor of Resident Evil, The Evil Within has an aesthetic more similar to Silent Hill: sadistic, dirty, and very serious. The colors are somewhat grainy and washed out, and the environments are trippy, weird, and constantly changing. The horror elements are unfocused, but then again, the jump scares and atmosphere building are very good. The game also feels a bit like the movie Inception, since it takes place in a sort of dreamworld that can change and bend at a moment's notice. The look and feel of the game is compelling, although the story and setting can be extremely disorienting. I think this is a problem with the story: it has interesting ideas, but hides them behind so many confusing or illusionary setpieces that you can never really get into the narrative. I'd often completely forget what had happened in previous chapters.
I think what really sells this game is the combat and level design. The game is linear, but many of the levels give you plenty of room to explore and run around, such that you can get the jump on your foes by outmaneuvering them or leading them into traps. The early parts of the game have a heavy stealth focus, and the open level design gives you lots of ways to sneak around the zombies and take them down without a single bullet. The enemies are all weak to fire, so there's an interesting game mechanic that involves trying to burn everything, either using the environment (set a haystack on fire and kick it towards zombies) or by knocking down enemies so that you can drop lit matches on them.
I liked this game enough to get the DLC expansions. The main expansions (“The Assignment” and “The Consequence”) have you play as the double-agent character, and are very stealth focused, much like the first level of the main game. The stealth gameplay is also improved, so the expansion has a notably different feel than the main game, and features some new enemies. The most memorable new foe is a recurring unstoppable monster that reminded me a lot of the alien in Alien: Isolation. A lot of the story is cleared up, at least in the sense that the DLC confirms things that were vaguely implied in the main game. However, it's also confusing because the double-agent story is pretty inconsistent with the main story. They try to hand-wave it by showing that you're in an altered reality, and what the main characters saw before was an illusion or whatever, but it still doesn't work. Overall, it's a good expansion, but should have been sold as a single expansion rather than split into 2 DLC packs that are incomplete on their own.
Anyway, The Evil Within is great and you should play it. I was a bit skeptical of this game, since it seemed to come with too much pre-loaded hype, but it's actually really well designed.
Short Reviews for games that I don't have much to say about:
Alan Wake (***)
Weird 3rd-person shooter based heavily on the works of Stephen King. The mechanics and environments are interesting, though the enemy design is very limited, making the game somewhat repetitive.
Shadows of the Damned (***)
Decent-ish collaboration between Suda51 and Shinji Mikami, featuring Resident Evil 4 gameplay and Suda51's awkward sexual humor. Reasonably fun and fairly humorous in parts, but not much of the enemy or level design stood out to me.
Bulletstorm (*** and a half)
Fun, fast-paced shooter that encourages you to get creative with your kills. FPS games can seem all the same, but the super-powers, sci-fi gadgets, and scoring system make this one better than most. Not the most memorable game, but a real easy experience to slide into for some arcade-like fun.
Vanquish (*** and a half)
Another arcade-like shooter, with lots of action and big explosions. It's basically the 3rd-person shooter version of those old-school “bullet hell” space games. I can't remember what the plot was about, but the graphics are great, the shooting is non-stop, and the “rocket slide” mechanic is put to great use.
Fallout Tactics (** and a half)
Take Fallout, remove all the roleplaying, make the combat a bit more sophisticated, and you get Fallout Tactics. The guns and enemies are well designed, even if the difficulty balance is horrendous. Overall OK, but missing the roleplaying and story that made Fallout so great.