Archive for the 'Review' Category

Reflecting On ‘Star Wars Galaxies’

Published
on January 30, 2009
in Review
. 12 Comments

As much as some would like to forget, BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic is not the first massively multiplayer online game to tread the waters of the galaxy far far away. Sony Online Entertainment’s Star Wars Galaxies was the first MMO I ever played, and the oddball experience has colored my approach to every MMO after.

My love for the franchise compelled me to start playing SWG in the final stages of the beta, where everything was still broken as hell. Characters who sat in a certain chair in a campground would teleport to the exact middle of the world, where a set of women’s underwear hung in the air and graphic glitches played off the plains like thunder. It was charming as hell.

The game encompassed ten planets, all rendered as wide-open 15 km by 15 km squares of terrain. You could go anywhere, walk up any surface, swim across any body of water. Each planet featured a few movie landmarks — Jabba the Hutt’s palace and the droid’s escape pod on Tatooine, the lakes of Naboo, the Massassi temples on Yavin IV, and the Ewok village on Endor, to name a few.

They were fun to explore, but more like theme parks than anything else. The game had a few World of Warcraft style quests, but most players turned to the mission assignments for money and experience. Computer terminals randomly assigned a mob lair to destroy, which could be Womp Rats on Tatooine, smugglers on Corellia, or Rancors on Dathomir.

I loved the beta and all its flaws so much that I picked up SWG when it was released on June 26, 2003, and started playing the next day (the log-in servers were tellingly broken on the first day). I joined the Damorian Corporation, which constructed the first guild hall on the Chilastra server and later spawned Nova Enterprises.

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‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ Game of the Year

Published
on December 22, 2008
in Review
. 0 Comments

Grand Theft Auto IV nabbed the 2008 Game of the Year slot in Time magazine, the New York Times, the Spike TV Video Game Awards, and in other critical lists, and for good reason.

Rockstar’s newest crime simulator definitely attempted something different than its predecessors. It cast off the minigames and bicycles of San Andreas in favor of realism and immersion. Instead of playing off the strengths of the series, it tried something new and risky.

A lot of what Rockstar attempted with GTA IV failed — the relationship building aspect was distracting and the open world did not fit with the linear storytelling, to name the largest flaws — but it failed in a fantastic way.

Even though your interactions with the world are fairly straightforward, they involve and engross the player. Driving and shooting through the beautiful, vibrant, living playground of Liberty City feels fun and strangely realistic.

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REVIEW: ‘Far Cry 2′ Falls in the Uncanny Valley

Published
on November 26, 2008
in Review
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Far Cry 2 features a number of inventions and improvements on first person shooters and attempts to bring more realism to the genre. By doing so, it slides down into the uncanny valley where any artificiality stands out as fantastic.

The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the same studio behind Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six: Vegas, and Far Cry: Instincts, but shares nothing with its predecessors. No Jack Carver, mutagens or feral powers.

Gameplay in Far Cry 2 is more like Assassin’s Creed than anything. Chose from nine different mercenaries and make your way through an wide open African nation fired up in civil war, doing story missions for different factions or finding side quests and blood diamonds.

The world feels natural and realistic, especially from the player’s perspective. You never leave the first person view, even during cinematics or when driving a vehicle, and you always have a visual representations of your actions.

The mercenary’s hands pick up uncovered diamonds and knock on doors. Lose to much health and you have to pry bullets out of your leg or snap bones back into place. There’s no on-screen radar, just a map and GPS that function as part of the mercenary’s inventory.

This style of gameplay eschews a detailed HUD in favor of immersive elements. Its very detail oriented but it works and brings a high degree of realism to the African world of Far Cry 2.

But however realistic, Far Cry 2 is a flawed picture of reality and enters a sort of uncanny valley where every deviation from expected realism is a glaring error. When the normally inventive enemy AI stops and stands there looking dumb it breaks the illusion even more than in an average video game.

Even devices that make gameplay more convenient — like universal ammo for all assault rifles, fixing a shot up jeep with a few twists of a socket wrench, or the helpful moving icons on the your map — seem out of place.

The writing for Far Cry 2 isn’t bad, but the voice acting is horrible. Most characters sound like robots and their sentences are clipped together. It sounds unnatural and kills the otherwise realistic mood.

This expectation of perfect realism is a problem for games that strive for immersive verisimilitude, and something that future titles which attempt to put fit gameplay elements into the game world will have to overcome. Still Far Cry 2 is a big step in a good direction for FPS games and a worthwhile experience.

REVIEW: ‘Fable II’ Needs More Than A Hero’s Sandbox

Published
on November 14, 2008
in Review
. 2 Comments

Michael the Farmer has a bag of gold for you. Do you a) slice him in half, b) shoot him in the groin, c) light him on fire, or d) fart and do hand puppets until he gives it to you.

Fable II is made up of choices like this, all of them part of a long process of defining your blank slate hero, and the game is a major improvement over Molyneux’s first fairy tale simulator.

Combat is fun and occasionally strategic, with combat, ranged, and magic attacks. Quests offer diverse, story-driven objectives, from “clear the mine” to “break the girl’s heart.” Minigames, town interactions, and a robust bartering and land-buying economy fill the gaps and make Fable II’s world of Albion feel complete and realistic.

This world is a sandbox for your hero, who starts out an orphan and is raised by gypsies. Through actions and behavior — what you eat, what you wear, how you deal with an angry ghost or a group of slavers — you define what that hero is like and how the world views him.

Your actions swing you between good and evil, pure and corrupt, with many possible variations, and your appearance changes along with it. You also become funny or frightening depending on how you deal with people, and attractive or ugly depending on your clothes, tattoos, scars, and purity.

It’s a complicated system, but so’s life. In the end you’re left with a character who feels entirely unique and who was slowly simmered over 20 hours of gameplay and choices rather than 10 minutes in the character generation microwave.

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REVIEW: Don’t Forget ‘Dark Messiah’

Published
on October 28, 2008
in Review
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Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was released last October to mediocre reviews and slow sales, not surprising for a game based on an outdated strategy series with a small cult following. I picked up the year-old FPS/RPG hybrid while waiting for this season’s storm of new games and had a lot of fun with it.

Dark Messiah is an enjoyable ride reminiscent of Thief and Half-Life with rousing visuals and exhilerating gameplay.

The protagonist is an orphan named Sareth, raised and trained by an ominous-voiced wizard who sends him out to find magical artifacts. Eventually he learns more about his past and makes that eternal choice between good and evil.

The story is told through dialog, cinematics and old books you find lying around. Like Half-Life, the cut scenes are viewed through the main character’s eyes, but unlike Gordon Freeman, Sareth speaks, both to other characters and the succubus that lives in his head.

The voice acting is kind of bad for all the main characters, and the writing is not much better. Where Dark Messiah really shines is the fast, intuitive gameplay, which combines spells and sword-swinging combos.

Combat is a blast, and plays more like a Deus Ex shooter than a Morrowind RPG. Weapon combat is quick and satisfying, with fun animations and brutal fatalities and criticals. Stats matter — you can put points into combat, magic or stealth abilities depending on how you want to play.

Sareth can use the environment to his advantage by kicking unwary soldiers, orcs and necromancers off cliffs or into fires or spikes. Shovels, chairs and jars of oil offer makeshift weapons that can be picked up and thrown, or just cut ropes and drop chandeliers or debris on enemies.

These scripted traps are the only way to defeat larger monsters. They’re fun to find but can seem contrived, especially when every goblin camp has a platform covered in barrels with one shaky support.

Nevertheless the environments in Dark Messiah are nice to look at thanks to brilliant art design and a lot of fun to mess with. Each cluster of enemies can be approached in many different ways, depending Sareth’s abilities and what items are around.

The areas between combat play like Half-Life and force you to work your way through the level using keys and shooting ropes tied to arrows Batman style. They can get a little repetitive and confusing but are generally very fun.

Dark Messiah showcases some entertaining gameplay ideas, albeit with a cliched plot and characters, and makes me wish that Bethesda had used such innovative combat with Oblivion. The game is well worth a quick playthrough, especially when it currently costs $10 on Steam.

MOD HIGHLIGHT: ‘Europa Barbarorum’ Puts You In Ancient World

Published
on September 9, 2008
in Review
. 0 Comments

A supremely accurate expansionary mod for Rome: Total War may seem like a strange thing to highlight on a blog about game narratives, but Europa Barbarorum builds on the historical premise of the game it modifies and develops it into a more immersive experience.

The mod extends the campaign map into Saharan Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and the steppes of central Asia, hosting kingdoms like the Mali, Saka, and Bactria absent from the vanilla Rome Total War campaign. All factions have been bolstered with historically accurate towns, buildings, governmental systems, family members, and military units, with names and voices in the appropriate language.

It’s a stunningly complete package that turns Rome: Total War into a history lesson. A massive volunteer team of modders, artists and historians organized even before the game’s 2004 release and have worked steadily ever since to make their mod as accurate as possible, from place names to lengthy building and unit descriptions and “this year in history” reports.

But the point of Europa Barbarorum is not education. All these complex changes to gameplay make the empire-building campaign much more immersive. They allow players to invest themselves in the historical persona of a third century BC superpower, to adopt their culture, utilize their heroes, and fight their enemies.

Conquer a new city and chose whether to make it an ally, a subjugated state, or a fully incorporated province of full citizens. Each choice has economic and military consequences, accurately reflecting the true complexity of state building. Invest yourself in the role of an evil overlord or benevolent republic and all the while feel like you’re playing a part in a very real historical narrative.

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REVIEW: ‘Crysis’ Pushes Graphics, Lacks Depth

Published
on August 13, 2008
in Review
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Crysis made its name as a graphical powerhouse, with visuals beyond what current generation consoles and most supercomputers can generate. But there’s almost no depth behind this unarguably impressive presentation.

Story in Crysis is little more than an excuse for the big-budget action. The main character is a faceless soldier named Nomad, an elite commando with a futuristic nano-suit that allows superhuman abilities.

Nomad is part of a US special forces team investigating a tropical island where North Koreans have taken over an archaeological investigation of ancient ruins that turn out to be a buried alien spaceship. It follows a strict formula of War of the Worlds, Half-Life, and Halo, but lacks the depth and creativity of those three.

Scripted events and minimalistic dialog shoves the story forward, viewed in the first person Half-Life-style. The characters are all extreme testosterone to the max, the situations all cliche. It’s ridiculously generic and takes itself too seriously to be fun.

I almost lost it when the gruff general refused to listen to the pleas of the scientists pretty daughter not to nuke everything. “But we don’t know what will happen! It could make the aliens stronger!” “I’ve got my orders!”

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REVIEW: ‘Age of Conan’ a Strong Alternative to Current MMOs

Published
on July 9, 2008
in Review
. 0 Comments

Two months after its release, Funcom’s massively multiplayer online RPG Age of Conan is overcoming its launch problems and providing players with a world where roleplaying is actually viable.

Based in the sword and sorcery fiction of Robert E. Howard, whose 1920s and ’30s pulp fantasy invented the genre, the world of Age of Conan is just as intense and lively as the prose of its creator.

The game pits players against evil armies, dangerous beasts, wicked cultists and their summoned creatures. It’s bloody combat, which uses a demanding system of combo attacks, often ends with decapitations and fatalities.

Conan’s “low fantasy” setting is much grittier than that of World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings. There are few real heroes, and every character presented in the opening act has bad qualities.

Age of Conan’s first act tells a story in the manner of traditional RPGs, with both single- and multiplayer content. It sets the game apart from other MMOs, and feels more like Oblivion or Baldur’s Gate.

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REVIEW: ‘GTA4′ Initial Impressions

Published
on May 11, 2008
in Review
. 0 Comments

I picked up Grand Theft Auto 4 last week and was immediately struck by how fantastic its storytelling is.

To tell it’s gangster-themed plot of Serbian immigrant Niko Bellic’s arrival in Liberty City, GTA4 uses excellent cut scenes with great characters and writing. Niko and friends often continue the conversations while driving to mission objectives, adding more to the story and cutting down on boring grind time.

Gameplay contributes to the narrative development in GTA4, adding to the player’s immersion in Niko’s world by keeping him there. Trains, taxis and helpful paths to show you where to go on the radar make getting around the massive Liberty City easy, without the need to frequently pause the game and check the map or have a convoluted interface.

Niko’s cell phone is cleverly used to manage plots, chose which missions to do, ask Niko’s friends to hang out or help out, and to talk to characters while on a mission. It also plays other roles in the game, such as sending and receiving pictures. It’s a very good device for managing a complicated game without breaking the immersion with convoluted and show-stopping menus.

The plot for GTA4 is fairly linear, and the missions are as well. Some missions are unique, but most have Niko either hunting down a target in a scripted chase scene or fighting through a building full of enemies, and there’s really only one way to do either of those.

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REVIEW: ‘Call of Duty 4′ and the Zenith of Scripted Events

Published
on April 8, 2008
in Review
. 0 Comments

Ten years ago, “Half-Life” changed the way video games told stories.

Rather than introducing the player to Gordon Freeman and Black Mesa with an opening cinematic or text, the game let you play through a heavily scripted opening sequence on an unforgettable tram ride past toxic waste and robots, the intercom buzzing very revealing announcements in the background.

Scripted events worked wonderfully for “Half-Life,” turning the game into a cinematic, immersive experience, but games today have found new methods to do that. Scripted sequences still exist, but they are amorphous and hidden or written spontaneously and influenced by player action.

Infinity Ward, makers of “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” didn’t get the memo. What they created is a game which tells its story through incredibly complex scripted sequences that pan out with a movie-like choreography. (For this review, I’d like to look at the game’s narrative merits, rather than its very impressive graphical or multiplayer ones.)

Each level includes uncountable preprogrammed events. Helicopters and jet fighters fly overhead on cue. Tanks roll past your position. An enemy will crash into the tower you occupy. They’re very cinematic, but they repeat each and every time you play through “Call of Duty 4″ with a monotonous, robot-like precision that actually detracts from the game’s life.

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