Tomb Raider
Rating: M
For Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
So I went and picked this one up because I passed a redbox and it was in there. Basic premise of the game is that Lara Croft is trapped on an island with a cult that is trying to kill her and despite their massive amounts of disposable guys and their machine guns they can't seem to beat one girl in a tank top. First off I have to say I did like the game but it does have several things that bothered me. A game like this where the main theme is survival needs a health bar. That way when things go south, and they always do, instead of Lara merely soaking up the damage it could create a tense moment as you scramble around looking for a health pack to fix her up. Overall combat works well and I was especially fond of the game's belief that the player is smart enough to get behind a wall when there are enemies nearby. That Lara automatically takes cover behind that wall was even more gratifying. I did want a command crouch but that was just a moment of wanting something completely inane since Lara crouches whenever you are being sneaky. That said, when you are sneaky the only weapon you can really use is the bow and arrow, which is fine, but the game wheels out armored guys that can't be killed in one shot which then alerts them and anyone around them that there is a prowling college co-ed. Once they've been alerted you enter the game's combat system which I'll admit I was expecting to be awful and clunky but it's actually well implemented. Of course it's basically a bog standard third person cover based shooter, it's hard to really screw that up, so the enemies will go down like peanut butter M&M's. During combat in some sections you do hear them shouting at each other and some of those lines are actually pretty good. The absolute worst part of this game though was the quick time events and the moments where you are sliding down a river. Both of these are moments where one screw up kill the character and the game just loves to let you know you messed up. I don't mind the events that are contextual in combat since those were unlocked abilities. I mean the ones in cut scenes, and the one that I missed because it was hiding in the bottom corner of the screen and I didn't even see it till just before I failed it. Obviously with Lara being the main character she cannot be hurt for long in the actual combat but I was constantly aware of how badly she was being beaten up through the game. The very first thing that happens on the island is she falls on a spike and is running around just fine with a hole through her side. I freely acknowledge that adrenaline can do some amazing things but once that's over with? I think the dumbest part of that is when you meet up with other survivors who see that there is a big bloodstain on her side and nobody talks about it. I couldn't help but wonder if the developers just hated their main character given how many times she gets the crap kicked out of her.
Linking all of this together is an element of platforming, or if not that moving around the environment in other ways than in a straight line. Which basically translates into climbing up obvious walls with her trusty ax or the longest bundle of rope in history. Most of her gear upgrades but the main thing that you need to move about is the bow and the ax. Having never played one of these before I'd heard about the puzzles in the game and there aren't that many and most of them I figured the solution out almost immediately upon entering. I only had trouble with one puzzle that I can recall and it was a timing thing.
I think the biggest letdown is that a bunch of the game is based on finding the things that have been scattered across the island, but all they do is unlock things like character sketches. Now this might just be me but that is not worth my time of finding all of them. Given a choice I'd have liked them to make some unlockable costumes or something else. You know show that they put some thought and effort into this. Letting the player see those kind of things isn't really work, they had to make them anyways. I don't mind them being in the game but its odd to consider it a true reward for your effort.
Final verdict: I liked the game and had fun playing it. I just don't think it has any staying power whatsoever. Now I didn't play the multiplayer but the single is iffy as multiple playthroughs don't appeal and if you find everything there's nothing else to do. I'd buy it at a max cost of thirty bucks.
Good Gaming everyone!
Hambone Out.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
The Emblem of Fire
So I'm back after another hiatus stemming from real life concerns like school.
The game this week is Fire Emblem Awakening for the 3DS
Rating T
Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
Now I have to admit I love the Fire Emblem series which often makes me laugh given my somewhat strained relationship with Nintendo's main franchises of Metroid, Zelda, and Mario.
Well the game itself is a top down tactical game. You have your units and the usual goal is to eliminate your enemy's units. This is done by picking out the right unit to take them on. Since there are several different weapons in the game they decided to make each one have a strength and a weakness. All the Fire Emblem series do this as well. This system is referred to as the triangle system and that makes sense. Basically it's a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors with swords beating axes and axes beating lances and back around to the front. Obviously magic and bows are exempted from the system which I find I didn't really like. In previous games magic had its own triangle with the one on the GBA having dark, light, and nature. Bows have always been their own thing and that's fine since they can't attack anything that is in the square right next to them they have enough problems. Another thing about magic that I took issue with is that there are some spells that are classified as Dark and can only be used by very specific units but fall under the same overall heading as other magical tomes. Which brings me to my next little point, weapons have a limited number of uses, excluding your two "lord" character's main weapons. On the heels of this is the limit on more powerful weapons the more powerful it is the fewer uses it has. So a silver sword is an awesome weapon but will break far faster than a bronze one. Alongside the weapon power is the weapon skill ratings. A character must be trained in each weapon that their class is allowed to use. So a first level myrmidon might be a sword wielding powerhouse but he still starts with an E rating and has to train it up to be able to access the more powerful weapons. Because of this it makes slide changes, as I call them, a questionable venture as to what exactly you want to do because no matter how good that class is you have quite a few levels where they'll be stuck with a sword that has challenges with butter or a log.
This brings us to the next point of classes. There are a bunch, I am lazy and will not count them, each one has it's own skills associated with it and it's own specialty in the grand scheme of things. You have ranged specialists like Archers which use bows to attack at a safe distance to melee powerhouses such as the axe wielding berserker. Backing up your combat classes you have support classes like healing troubadors and a dancer who lets your units make another move. In this one she gets a sword so she's not quite as useless as the one on the GBA. You would think that letting a unit move twice could be a mighty skill for the ages but the problem lies with her being about as squishy as a unit can possibly be without deflating so she'll die and be lost forever into the veil and take any story elements attached to her, there aren't many, with her.
Now I'm to characters. The Fire Emblem games have always done a really creepy good job with creating good characters I say creepy here because outside of some support conversations done outside of battle the only characters you really see in the story are the main ones while the rest usually just end up following them around like a faithful puppy. I love the fact that they did this because it gives your units some kind of tangible existence instead of just a thing you move around on a grid. It makes losing a unit doubly painful if it was one that you really liked. The game also tends to load you down with more characters than you can ever feasibly need provided you have engaged in the support conversations and had a few of them hook up. How would that relate to character numbers you might ask. Well it's because the game's story is based on time travel and once a female character in your army gets married a new side mission appears containing their child as a recruitable unit. While I enjoy a good story I'm always leery of time travel stories because the rules never seem to be clear fortunately this one seems to be well done even if the characters accept it as fact rather quickly with all of them accepting their future offspring immediately upon their discovery. Despite that it's easy to overlook that and quickly go back to demolishing enemy ranks with a well placed Hero.
From me Fire Emblem gets a very high score and a serious recommendation if you want to play something other than the garbage of ground so tread that we've created trenches there.
Good Gaming everyone
Hambone out.
The game this week is Fire Emblem Awakening for the 3DS
Rating T
Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
Now I have to admit I love the Fire Emblem series which often makes me laugh given my somewhat strained relationship with Nintendo's main franchises of Metroid, Zelda, and Mario.
Well the game itself is a top down tactical game. You have your units and the usual goal is to eliminate your enemy's units. This is done by picking out the right unit to take them on. Since there are several different weapons in the game they decided to make each one have a strength and a weakness. All the Fire Emblem series do this as well. This system is referred to as the triangle system and that makes sense. Basically it's a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors with swords beating axes and axes beating lances and back around to the front. Obviously magic and bows are exempted from the system which I find I didn't really like. In previous games magic had its own triangle with the one on the GBA having dark, light, and nature. Bows have always been their own thing and that's fine since they can't attack anything that is in the square right next to them they have enough problems. Another thing about magic that I took issue with is that there are some spells that are classified as Dark and can only be used by very specific units but fall under the same overall heading as other magical tomes. Which brings me to my next little point, weapons have a limited number of uses, excluding your two "lord" character's main weapons. On the heels of this is the limit on more powerful weapons the more powerful it is the fewer uses it has. So a silver sword is an awesome weapon but will break far faster than a bronze one. Alongside the weapon power is the weapon skill ratings. A character must be trained in each weapon that their class is allowed to use. So a first level myrmidon might be a sword wielding powerhouse but he still starts with an E rating and has to train it up to be able to access the more powerful weapons. Because of this it makes slide changes, as I call them, a questionable venture as to what exactly you want to do because no matter how good that class is you have quite a few levels where they'll be stuck with a sword that has challenges with butter or a log.
This brings us to the next point of classes. There are a bunch, I am lazy and will not count them, each one has it's own skills associated with it and it's own specialty in the grand scheme of things. You have ranged specialists like Archers which use bows to attack at a safe distance to melee powerhouses such as the axe wielding berserker. Backing up your combat classes you have support classes like healing troubadors and a dancer who lets your units make another move. In this one she gets a sword so she's not quite as useless as the one on the GBA. You would think that letting a unit move twice could be a mighty skill for the ages but the problem lies with her being about as squishy as a unit can possibly be without deflating so she'll die and be lost forever into the veil and take any story elements attached to her, there aren't many, with her.
Now I'm to characters. The Fire Emblem games have always done a really creepy good job with creating good characters I say creepy here because outside of some support conversations done outside of battle the only characters you really see in the story are the main ones while the rest usually just end up following them around like a faithful puppy. I love the fact that they did this because it gives your units some kind of tangible existence instead of just a thing you move around on a grid. It makes losing a unit doubly painful if it was one that you really liked. The game also tends to load you down with more characters than you can ever feasibly need provided you have engaged in the support conversations and had a few of them hook up. How would that relate to character numbers you might ask. Well it's because the game's story is based on time travel and once a female character in your army gets married a new side mission appears containing their child as a recruitable unit. While I enjoy a good story I'm always leery of time travel stories because the rules never seem to be clear fortunately this one seems to be well done even if the characters accept it as fact rather quickly with all of them accepting their future offspring immediately upon their discovery. Despite that it's easy to overlook that and quickly go back to demolishing enemy ranks with a well placed Hero.
From me Fire Emblem gets a very high score and a serious recommendation if you want to play something other than the garbage of ground so tread that we've created trenches there.
Good Gaming everyone
Hambone out.
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