Ok so this week I decided to branch out a bit and go with a game that I've never played before. Also it was game of a kind that I am not good at and have never really been keen on them. This mystery game? Dishonored.
Characters- Well hmm. The characters within the game were largely caricatures instead of ones that felt like you'd find on the street. This didn't get any help with the player character being a silent protagonist. Things may change farther into the game but I seriously doubt it.
Gameplay- The make or break portion for any game. Dishonored's is largely based around stealth and if you screw up bad enough, which is easy to do, combat with sword and gun. Now the inherent problem with this game is that its a stealth game but its done from the first person. The game doesn't show the player just how visible they are so you have to guess just how fat your person is. Also since its a first person if you are hiding behind a wall you get to admire that wall's texture and hope you wander out after the guards have left. Should you get into combat, it might just be me, but I found it to be sticky and slow to engage. My biggest gripe with the gameplay is that on more than a few occasions I was found out because the context sensitive button press didn't work. This left me standing around like an idiot as the guard turned around and tried to fillet me.
Story- Well they weren't trying to reinvent anything here. Its reminiscent of about a hundred different stories that we've all seen before with no real new ideas of its own.
Graphics- This might be me but the unreal engine is old and is really showing its age. The character models were stunted and statue looking. Now again might just be me but I don't really recall any color outside of a few patches of red. With the aesthetic I didn't really see anyone trying to do anything unique. Just smashing different ideas together in the hopes that people will ignore it. Now I'm not exactly an expert on it but it just didn't seem like anyone really cared.
Odds and Sods- Now here's where I have to admit I didn't finish the game. I spent around three hours on the first assassination mission only to be told once I finished that I'd killed someone I had made sure not to and I was done. Now that might invalidate my opinion but I don't think it does. I served my time. Now the powers you gain felt more like an addition to hide flaws with the system instead of really adding anything. They really didn't do anything along the lines of Bioshock's powers which they really feel like.
Well that's it for me.
Good Gaming everyone
Hambone Out.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Xcom Enemy Unknown
So this week we're going to move onto one of my favorite games. The game I think is also deserving of the Game of the Year award but will probably end up snubbed in favor of standing franchises like Halo, Mass Effect or Call of Duty. Xcom Enemy Unknown.
Character- Ehh ok there are three in the base game but frankly that's not really a strength here. I wouldn't call it a weakness but I always feel a need to put this piece in here.
Story- The story is decent but it is fairly pulled back from what you as the player are doing. It is deep enough to be serviceable but not so deep as to be hard to discern. Its a simple story, in a lot of ways the best kind. I understood the story here better than the train wreck that was the Black Ops 2 story. Alien invasion of the planet now you must fight back.
Gameplay- Its good. Not for everyone though. Its based on a random hit chance based on a trooper's aim skill. Cover is extremely important to keeping your guys alive. They divided it into two parts. The missions where a selection of your available troops are sent in to kill all aliens and the base segment where you build and research new gear to use on the aliens. In some ways it is based on the concept of trial and error because it'll take some tries to get through a game. There are four classes available for your people and each one feels distinct and has its own strengths and weaknesses. My only real problem with the classes is that you cannot pick a units class. You have to hope an individual is assigned the class you want. You'll also often end up with a large amount of one given class or a dearth of another. The game is unforgiving in its difficulty, a dead trooper is dead and they won't come back. This combined with the aliens constantly running in new and harder units makes it hard to simply pick one unit and run with them. Speaking of the difficulty increase. I prefer that. So it doesn't matter if you got the laser rifles they will still be dropping more and more difficult units on top of you. Again on that same note you don't find out what an alien can do before it actually does it. While this can be a painful experience it does give many oooo moments.
Graphics- Passable. Its a top down interface so there isn't much to really show. I think its on the now fairly old unreal engine. But each alien is easy to identify and know exactly what they are at the outset.
Odds and Sods- The ability to customize your squad is a big thing to me. Being able to go into battle with a squad made up of my friends is a fun thing. A problem with the game I think is that it can be buggy. Every now and then a soldier on overwatch can see through walls and some times enemies will seem to spawn behind your forces. These can be fun and annoying but its always balanced out by that moment a pair of snipers in the right place take down an enemy walker in two shots.
Good Gaming everyone
Hambone out
Character- Ehh ok there are three in the base game but frankly that's not really a strength here. I wouldn't call it a weakness but I always feel a need to put this piece in here.
Story- The story is decent but it is fairly pulled back from what you as the player are doing. It is deep enough to be serviceable but not so deep as to be hard to discern. Its a simple story, in a lot of ways the best kind. I understood the story here better than the train wreck that was the Black Ops 2 story. Alien invasion of the planet now you must fight back.
Gameplay- Its good. Not for everyone though. Its based on a random hit chance based on a trooper's aim skill. Cover is extremely important to keeping your guys alive. They divided it into two parts. The missions where a selection of your available troops are sent in to kill all aliens and the base segment where you build and research new gear to use on the aliens. In some ways it is based on the concept of trial and error because it'll take some tries to get through a game. There are four classes available for your people and each one feels distinct and has its own strengths and weaknesses. My only real problem with the classes is that you cannot pick a units class. You have to hope an individual is assigned the class you want. You'll also often end up with a large amount of one given class or a dearth of another. The game is unforgiving in its difficulty, a dead trooper is dead and they won't come back. This combined with the aliens constantly running in new and harder units makes it hard to simply pick one unit and run with them. Speaking of the difficulty increase. I prefer that. So it doesn't matter if you got the laser rifles they will still be dropping more and more difficult units on top of you. Again on that same note you don't find out what an alien can do before it actually does it. While this can be a painful experience it does give many oooo moments.
Graphics- Passable. Its a top down interface so there isn't much to really show. I think its on the now fairly old unreal engine. But each alien is easy to identify and know exactly what they are at the outset.
Odds and Sods- The ability to customize your squad is a big thing to me. Being able to go into battle with a squad made up of my friends is a fun thing. A problem with the game I think is that it can be buggy. Every now and then a soldier on overwatch can see through walls and some times enemies will seem to spawn behind your forces. These can be fun and annoying but its always balanced out by that moment a pair of snipers in the right place take down an enemy walker in two shots.
Good Gaming everyone
Hambone out
Monday, December 17, 2012
Knights of the Old Republic 2 The Sith Lords
For this one we head back a few years. Knights of the Old Republic was one of the best RPGs on the original Xbox but the sequel had some troubles out of the gate. Nothing major but it never really garnered the same amount of praise that the first one did.
Character- Rather obviously the main character, the exile, has no personality beyond what the player ascribes to them. Dictating their actions and power ups as they see fit. While a couple of characters return all of the new ones have some manner of good personality inherent to them and it works well. My personal favorite of the new batch of characters is probably Mira. They are all distinct and different, even though most people will probably find their preferred team and run with that for most of the game.
Story- Now here is what makes or breaks RPGs. In this case Sith lords is good. A good overarching goal while you explore planets. I'm not so keen on returning to two of the ones we went to in the first game but that doesn't hurt the game. In addition I thank Obsidian for not making us go to Tatooine again. The place where the game is let down is that the big reveal of the game isn't as well done as the first game. It also is pretty easy to see coming. You obviously can choose your path on how exactly to go about completing it but you will go to each one eventually.
Gameplay- Ok this was a problem in both games. Since it uses the D20 system all combat is turn based. I don't have a problem with it but I have talked to a friend of mine who has been unable to actually play the game because the combat is so terrible. Most of the game though will be walking around and entering loading screens. The game is littered with the things. And unfortunately many of the quests take place in areas that the player must go back and forth between loading screens making the 20+ hour playtimes a misnomer as much of that is loading the next area. The game can also be obtuse at times Nar Shadaa is a good example of this. You have to do something very specific to get the appropriate event to trigger properly and allow you to continue the story. I really enjoyed the ability to make any of your character party (excluding the droids) into Jedi. Though doing so almost requires a guide and creates a dearth of lightsabers. The force powers availible consists of many varied choices from healing to force lightning. My personal beef with this is that in Kotor one using an ability that was contrary to the characters alignment cost double. In two they changed it to making the majority of your force powers be discounted. This creates a weird situation where the character can be a light jedi and be throwing around life drains and force lightning.
Graphics- Well its old what do you want. They aren't the best but for the time the game was good looking. I really don't have anything to say on that. The voice acting was good and other sounds were authentic.
Odds and Sods- Well the game is buggy at times. The disc that I have includes the republic commando demo and when I began the game I couldn't use any of the workbenches. Completion of the demo unlocked the benches and allowed me to continue. Also a problem with how they did things is that the first of the sith you kill, the biggest guy on the box and the one played up to kill planets is the first one you kill and he goes down like a chump.
Good Gaming.
Hambone out
Character- Rather obviously the main character, the exile, has no personality beyond what the player ascribes to them. Dictating their actions and power ups as they see fit. While a couple of characters return all of the new ones have some manner of good personality inherent to them and it works well. My personal favorite of the new batch of characters is probably Mira. They are all distinct and different, even though most people will probably find their preferred team and run with that for most of the game.
Story- Now here is what makes or breaks RPGs. In this case Sith lords is good. A good overarching goal while you explore planets. I'm not so keen on returning to two of the ones we went to in the first game but that doesn't hurt the game. In addition I thank Obsidian for not making us go to Tatooine again. The place where the game is let down is that the big reveal of the game isn't as well done as the first game. It also is pretty easy to see coming. You obviously can choose your path on how exactly to go about completing it but you will go to each one eventually.
Gameplay- Ok this was a problem in both games. Since it uses the D20 system all combat is turn based. I don't have a problem with it but I have talked to a friend of mine who has been unable to actually play the game because the combat is so terrible. Most of the game though will be walking around and entering loading screens. The game is littered with the things. And unfortunately many of the quests take place in areas that the player must go back and forth between loading screens making the 20+ hour playtimes a misnomer as much of that is loading the next area. The game can also be obtuse at times Nar Shadaa is a good example of this. You have to do something very specific to get the appropriate event to trigger properly and allow you to continue the story. I really enjoyed the ability to make any of your character party (excluding the droids) into Jedi. Though doing so almost requires a guide and creates a dearth of lightsabers. The force powers availible consists of many varied choices from healing to force lightning. My personal beef with this is that in Kotor one using an ability that was contrary to the characters alignment cost double. In two they changed it to making the majority of your force powers be discounted. This creates a weird situation where the character can be a light jedi and be throwing around life drains and force lightning.
Graphics- Well its old what do you want. They aren't the best but for the time the game was good looking. I really don't have anything to say on that. The voice acting was good and other sounds were authentic.
Odds and Sods- Well the game is buggy at times. The disc that I have includes the republic commando demo and when I began the game I couldn't use any of the workbenches. Completion of the demo unlocked the benches and allowed me to continue. Also a problem with how they did things is that the first of the sith you kill, the biggest guy on the box and the one played up to kill planets is the first one you kill and he goes down like a chump.
Good Gaming.
Hambone out
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