Red Faction Armageddon: Game Thoughts

Red Faction Armageddon is the 4th Red Faction game and starts off with you failing to stop a terrorist attack which forces much of the population of Mars underground. The game continues some time later as a bunch of aliens are unleashed. Red Faction's stories have never really been better than a B-grade movie and this one is no better.

My thoughts
For me, this game is linear but more fun than guerilla. I don't know why people hate this game. Compared to Guerilla's barren sandbox, this is what I prefer. The smaller scale sets mean more time has been spent crafting interesting environments/set pieces, more destruction and the ability to rebuild the environment. This rebuilding means you always have stuff to destroy! The smaller scale also means you can approach things more tactically rather than the previous game which usually involved ramming things with vehicles or climbing into a mech and hoping for the best.

What I didn't like
Storyline- Once again, the story is pretty mediocre. At least it does an okay job of getting through the plot.

Magnet Gun- Personally I think the magnet gun should be part of your permenant arsenal rather than having to take up a weapon slot. The magnet gun is fun but is situational in many cases. I just ended using normal guns in the end ocassionally switching to the magnet gun only when there were lots of buildings and walls around.


Needs more semi-open areas- The best  parts of the game are when you were in semi open areas and you start tearing down enemy towers with your magnet gun and stuff. Why couldn't they have more of this? Clearly the engine could handle it. I'm not asking for the vast emptiness but a few more open areanas would have made the game so much more cool.

Jumping aliens- I think the aliens aren't really the right sort of creatures for this sort of game. It's kind of hard to stop them when they're jumping around all the time.

The Path of War DLC felt really pointless- Of the four levels you only control Mason in two of them. The rest were vehicle levels which were okay but not different to the vehicle levels in the first.

Conclusion
Unfortunately the game did not sell well so Volition are going to be focusing on Saints Row instead. I've always enjoyed the Red Faction series except for Guerilla but it's always been an average shooter game to me so I'm not sorry to see it go. Overall, it's a solid linear shooter with lots of potential to be tapped with this style of gameplay but never really goes anywhere with it.

Red Faction Guerilla: Game Design Review

Red Faction has always been an average series to me with solid graphics and environmental physics. Red Faction Guerilla is the third in the Red Faction series. Unlike the other games in the series, Red Faction: Guerilla is an open world sandbox like Saints Row 2. Initial impressions of the game are positive. The main feature of the game is the destructability of the buildings and the Geo Mod physics tech which allows you to slowly take out chunks of the building and watch it collapse.

However the games shortfalls soon become apparent:
Lack of side mission variety- There are only a handful of side missions which get stale after a while.


Barren landscape- The landscape is just really barren and boring. It's much hills and mountains of different colour with ocassional trucks and cars.

Missions difficulty all over the place- Some missions are fairly easy, others are way too difficult. Especially the stealth misions or ones where you don't have backup.

Lack of customisation options- Can't choose vehicles, can't change clothes, can't chose walkers.


No control of guerillas- There's no way to control the guerillas so if you accidentally hit something, your rebel friends might appear and start blowing things up.


Always having to run back to safehouse to shake off military- There's no way to lower this except to run back to your safe house. It quickly gets repetitive.

Interesting weapons and abilities like jetpacks are only available late in the game- These appear way too late in the game for any real fun to be had. At that point I'm ready to see the end of the game.

Conclusion
Having played Saints row 2 and 3, this game is step down from the awesome fun that was Saints Row 2. It is fun for the first few missions but then repetitiveness starts creeping in and unlocks are somewhat slow and lack customisation. It's really clear what the problem is. There are just too many compromises made for the Geo Mod engine set in a sandbox world. This means reducing everything to make the game playable. Some gamers swear this the best Red Faction out there but it's really hard to recommend when there are other game series out there like Bioshock, Crysis or Far Cry or Saints Row.

Mafia II: Game Design Review

Mafia II is an action game taking place in a city called Empire Bay. You played as a Vito Scaletta, a war veteran who turns to a life of crime. I got this free during the Golden Joystick promotion sometime back and tried playing it. Here are my thoughts on this game.

What I liked:
Graphics and art direction- The city is beautiful and it feels gorgeous. They really nailed the atmosphere.

Driving- The driving feels solid. Some people complain about the handling of these cars but these are not modern cars.

Vioice acting and Music- The voice actors are good and their are authentic songs from the period adding to the atmosphere.


What I disliked:
Way too much driving- After every mission, the game has you drive back to your apartment to end the mission. If this was film it would be like watching the main character carefully drive down the street and then carefully drive back home with nothing interesting happening.

The reason why it works in other games like Grand Theft Auto is because the driving servers to 1) Aadvance the story through character dialogue 2) shows the city to the player and 3) Highlights challenges and side quests available. In this case, after main missions when you are told to go home and sleep, there is literally none of that. There is no dialgoue because you are just driving home yoruself, there is nothing in the city to show because you've already driven through it and there are no side missions or challenges to discover. It is completely and utterly pointless. It's like someone copied thee missions in GTA and Saints Row 2 but forgot to include the mini games.

No mini games or diversions- As mentioned there are no mini-games, diversions or activities to do in the game making driving around the city pointless unless you enjoy touring virtual cities.

Boring pointless levels- The prison levels are probably the worst ones. You wake up, pick a fight and scrub toilets. That's it. It doesn't really do anything.

There's a missions where you have to destroy a bar using fire and bullets. I thought perhaps this meant we'd get some missions with destructible scenary. But that's the only time you actually do that.

I don't mind linear games. I like Half Life, Serious Sam, action platformers and Japanese RPG. All games which focus on linear or boxed environments and provide fun tactical shooters. The game fails because it tries to be like an interactive movie too much and has levels where you do nothing of significance.


Characters- The characters are just boring for the most part. The main character Vito feels like a brainless bully than a sympathetic game. He just follows whatever his pal Joe says and does jobs for everyone. He's the one being betrayed all the time and for entire game he's always a dispensible foot soldier rather than growing to become the head of a mob. That's boring.

Conclusion
Overall Mafia II has a very solid engine and graphics is well-voiced. However the badly edited story, boring levels and the lack of the any innovative ideas means all this is a waste .It fails to provide interaction in the environment, fails to provide a compelling story and pads itself outwith pointless levels. I got this for free and I would have rather spent 15 hours playing other games! Go play Saints Row or Sleeping Dogs and give Mafia II a miss.

Sonic 4: Episode 1 & 2: Game review

Sonic 4 Episode I and II are downloadable games released on numerous platforms including PC and iphone. Here are my thoughts.

Episode I
In my opinion Sonic 4 Episode I is more like Sonic Remix. It features a handfull of levels which can be described as remixes of previous levels in previous games. It even includes the same enemies and even the same bosses! Graphics are okay but opening Splash Hill backgrounds feel dull washed out. In Splash Hill for example, the background are paper cut outs! It's probably not noticeable on an iphone but for on a PC or console it looks horrible!


It feels like its struggling because it was developed for handhelds and the iphone which have less processing power rather than just consoles. Instead of using 3D models which don't look that great I personally wouldn't have minded if they had used pixels and sprites instead.


Episode II

Episode II feels more like its own game. Levels feel better and less recycled and better paced. The inclusion of Tails with co-op and the ability to use Sonic and Tails moves was a good move. Graphics have been improved greatly and now feel brighter, shinier and include more animations. Bossess are completely new and not copied from other Sonic games.

Metal Sonic levels are unlocked if you have Episode I but these are just levels from the first game which are a bit harder and aren't really that exciting.

Conclusion
As a package, overall, Episode 1 is skippable in my opinion. You're better off just playing Sonic 1,2 or 3 & Knuckles. Episode 2 on the other hand feels like a solid attempt at a Sonic game. The Metal Sonic levels don't really add much to the game so I would say save your money and just get Episode II if you must get Sonic 4.  You also only get 4 zones per episode which makes each Episode feel like half of a Sonic game. Don't buy these games, if you're playing on the PC and console, you're better off just getting Sonic Generations, the far superior game which has both classic Sonic and modern Sonic and which was designed to be a console/PC game.

Descent 3: Game design review

Descent 3 is the 3rd in the indoor FPS space shooting series where you control a space ship and fly around tunnels and shoot enemies. The third in the series was released back in 1999 and was recently re-released on GOG.com with the base game and the Mercenaries expansion pack. Here are my thoughts on it.

What I liked
Gameplay- The game play remains solid and fast paced.

Level design- The tunnel level designs are solid and feel interesting.

Guide Bot- The navigator does a great job of leading you around and adds personality to the game. It can also perform actions like putting out fires and even act as a virtual camera. More games need a guide bot like this!

Variety of weapons- Lots of weapons and missile variety

What I disliked:
Imbalanced weapons- Like most games of its time weapons are somewhat imbalanced. There are some weapons which are really good while others are at best situational like the mines or napalm.

Controls- Controls can be tricky with a standard mouse and keyboard. The mouse is simply too fast causing me to overshoot the target. I found using the keyboard alone made the game easier to play at some points because the turning and aiming speed was more manageable.

Guide Bot could be even more helpful- As guide bot, it can guide you around, put out fires and even damage the enemy if it picks up a powerup. I kind of wish the guide bot had the ability to attack regularly or assist in some more ways rather than rely on power ups. For example, maybe the Guide bot could merge with your ship to temporarily power it up, act as a prism for energy weapons so you can fire around the corridor or generate a cloaking field. I feel there's a lot of untapped potential here.

Outoor level designa and gameplay- The game is pretty fun while indoors in tunnels however once you get out doors, the speed of your ship feels way too slow. Obviously you can't go charging around in the tunnels so your craft is in actual fact slow but highly manueverable. Outdoors however, you have much more space to manuever and need to limit the craft is less of issue. Unfortunately there is no 'flight mode' so you'll find yourself seemingly crawling across the surface to try and get to the next tunnel entrance.  The aiming is also unchanged meaning that outdoor battles become very difficult as it's almost impossible to hit from a distance from your guns but somehow the enemy can.

Difficult levels- Last few levels are a bit to tricky and frustrating to navigate more so than the previous levels.

Conclusion
Desecent 3 in my opinion is still fun and despite its age and shortcomings. In fact I'm surprised no new games were produced like this until the recent Miner Wars 2081.

Sonic Adventure 2:Game Design review

Sonic Adventure 2 original came out on the Dreamcast and was updated for Gamecube several years later. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on Steam is the PC port of the Sonic Adventure 2 game and Battle DLC from the Gamecube version of the game. Note the DLC is still sold separately on Steam although I purchased this as a bundle.

What I liked:
Playing the game is definitely a retro throw back to the good old days. The music is so loud and full of energy its hard to criticise it. The Sonic and Shadow speed levels are still quite fun especially the later levels on the space station where gravity can change the entire perspective. The Hero and Dark story format are kind of cool and provide two perspectives of the story. From a gameplay perspective, the Hero story should be played first as the Dark story goes through the same levels but are generally harder. At the end of the game there is also a final chapter where everybody teams up.

What I disliked:

Boring reptitive boss battles- Most boss battles are rival battles. Regardless of which side you take however, these battles play out exactly the same. E.g. If you play the Hero side, you play as Sonic fighting against Shadow while if you play the Dark Side you play Shadow vs Sonic but both of them are almost exactly the same. The bosses that aren't rival battles are also nearly same but with a slight twist depending on the side you are on. Overall, kind of boring.


Levels- In the game you alternate between 3 types of game play: 1) Speed levels, where you play as Sonic or Shadow where you have to race through the levels. 2) Exploration levels where you play as Knuckles or Rouge and have to find gems and solve puzzles 3) Shooting levels where you play as Tails or Dr Eggman and go through the level as a third person shooter.

As mentioned above, the speed levels are still pretty fun. However it is worth noting the controls aren't precise even when playing with an Xbox 360 controller and awkward jumps to your death are frequent in certain places. One of the worst levels for this is the last few space station levels which are both some of the best levels in the game and worst levels in the game particularly the parts where you have to switch and grid between rails and where missing means instant death.

The exploration levels are either alright or aggrevating depending on what you look for in a game. There were times that I got frustrated at them greatly because of all that searching. It is unique from most other games and some of them were pretty cool such as the level taking place in space where each meteorite has its own gravity. I don't really like their inclusion but they were more pleasant than I expected.

The shooting levels are probably the worst not because there was anything mechanically wrong with them but because they were mediocre. If I wanted to play a third person shooter with platforming, there are tons of other games out there which do that better.

Conclusion
Overall,  2/3's of the game is simply average and not very fun making it difficult to recommend. Time has moved on. With the release of the original 2D Sonic games and the superior Sonic Generations on multiple platforms including the PC, I just can't recommend buying this game. Save your money and buy Sonic Generations instead.

Jade Empire: Game Design review

Set in asn asian fantasy setting, Jade Empire by Bioware is a story about you and the current trouble in the Empire. It's the usual "Save the world" gimmick but set in an Asian setting.


What I like
Unique setting- The Asian setting is very rarely used in games and this sets it apart from many other games. I especially liked the cool looking statues in the game and the outdoor environments.

Fun character- The characters are all very interesting and unique. Some might say cliche but I genuinely enjoyed my time with them.

Martial arts- Who doesn't love martial arts fighting? This is one of the few games where you can actually see Chinese style martial arts in an RPG.

What I disliked
Unfortunately there are significant problems with the game which really drag it down.


Combat system- When you play the game, the combat and targeting system is for one on one fighting and simply unsuited for a brawl. For example, if there are three people infront of you and you attack, you will only hit one person and very rarely hit the other two or three. There is also sweep attack which allows you to knock people away and basically isolate and finish them off individually, again with a focus on one on one.

The targeting system itself seems to rotate through the enemies rather than focusing on the enemies closest to you or in front of you again feeling extremely out of place.

There is a free targeting mode but again this feels clumsy, you will simply attack in whatever direction you're facing, regardless of whether there's an enemy there. This might sound okay for the melee attacks but your ranged magical attacks in particularly will simple fly in a straight line rather than where the enemy you're targeting is.

Finally there is the issue of transformations where everytime you swap to a body transformation you will find the entire screen glow, the game paused and your character replaced by a demon form. This happens every single time making swapping between demon and human annoying.

Overall, the entire combat system is average at best and frustrating. Considering you're stuck with this for the entire game, it can get very frustrating when you're fighting mobs.

I wonder why they didn't just have a side scrolling fighting system like Final Fight or Golden Axe. I think that would have made the game much more bearaeble.


Bioware Morality system- Choices are way too black and white. Unfortunately nearly all the moral choices in the game are way too extreme. Here's an example, one of your characters has a good spirit and an evil spirit living in her. Part way through the game you have to choose between one of them to gain permenant control. The good spirit will co-exist peacefully with her. The evil spirit will torture her for all eternity. This is the type of moral choice you face in the game. Doing the sane normal good approach or the insane psychotic approach.

The same thing happens for teh ending choices which again feel like an extreme choice between good or evil.

Story pacing feels uneven- The first few chapters move somewhat slowly because of the hub cities. 
The game has two hub cities, three if you count the opening village and a world map. Just like in Knights of the Old Republic you get a flyer to travel around the world map. But there are only two hub cities so its almost strange and pointless having such a large world map.
 Once you hit the latter half however, things move at a brisk pace because it becomes a linear succession of levels. I don't hate linear levels necessarily, it just feels strange that it suddenly became so linear.

Conclusion
I like Jade Empire despite its very obvious flaws. I have to admit the combat is below average at best but the game has a unique atmosphere, solid characteristation and good overall writing. I would say try it at the very least, you might just get sucked in assuming you can withstand the terrible combat.

Dead Space: Game Design Review

 I enjoyed the extremely tough (and unfair) System Shock 2 for its survival horror elements, I enjoyed Bioshock for its solid action and atmosphere and I also enjoyed The Thing with its action and creepy atmosphere. Dead Space is basically a cross between all three. It's more simplistic than System 2 or Bioshock as there are fewer types of upgrades and less RPG elements. In terms of atmosphere, its most similar to The Thing where you fight zombie like creatures that spawn out of body parts.

It's not bad but there are a few areas which I felt are worth pointing out:
Not really horror- It's more of an action game that is horror themed. Having the necromorphs jump out is almost predictable throughout the game that it quickly takes away from any potential scariness.

Melee Combat- Melee combat is very clumsy. For example, you could run up and swipe or stomp an enemy but more often than not you'll actually miss due to the way the collision detection work. Its also very difficult to attack smaller enemies.

Needs better autoaim- Isaac's inability to properly autoaim means the small enemies are even deadlier than the normal. You end up wasting ammo and dying from tiny enemies rather than the big ones.

Lack of environment interaction and damage- In games like Bioshock, fire spreads and water can be electrified. Compared to the Thing or Bioshock, fire and the flamethrower seem underpowered. In both previous games, fire had a truly deadly effect on enemies, causing them to panic and run away. Here the Necromorphs show no fear or reaction to fire and there isn't really anyway to spread fire. There is telekenesis in the game which is a good idea but difficult to use in my opinion.

Enemies feel overpowered at times- I found the enemy balance occasionally a bit off. Sometimes they were really hard, other times way too easy.

Story doesn't make sense- Unfortunately in most horror games, the plot doesn't make sense, unfortunately Dead Space's final chapter and plot twists make no sense whatsoever. *Spoiler alert here*. The Earth sends a military ship to seceretly deal with the Necromorph problem but they quickly get overrun but a single necromorph? They were sent there to deal with this problem, surely they would have been briefed on how to manage the situation. The Earth manufactured the beacon but somehow allowed the ship to mine in that sector anyway? Why not just send a normal excavation team rather than an entire mining ship? One of the characters was secretly an agent? Why not have this person in the military ship? Why steal the beacon if Earth knows  how to manufacture it? All of this makes little sense. It would probably have made more sense if there was more than one faction at work here rather than just the miners and the Earth government.

Conclusion
I find Dead Space an interesting idea somewhat shallow game in my opinion. Just different enough from other mainstream games but never really seizing the chance to really break away from its 3rd person action shooter roots to innovate like Bioshock or the Thing. Like a B action movie, this game plays second fiddle to the other shooters. Go play Bioshock, System Shock 2, The Thing or Resident Evil in my opinion.

Bioshock 2: Game Design Mini Review

Bioshock 2 is the a sequel to Bioshock 1 and is set in Rapture several years later where you play as a new main character in the game. So here are my thoguhts on it.

What I liked
More slots for plasmids and gene tonics- You can now equip up to 8 plasmids now for way more tactical flexibility. Compared to the 6 of gene tonic slots in Bioshock 1, you can now store up to 18 gene tonics making the game much more fun. The plasmids and gene tonics are mostly the same however although there are some new ones.

Plasmids now charge- You can now unleash more powerful effects with plasmids such a chain lightning with your plasmids when you charge up.

Glowing plants and water sequences- A lot of sea plants have invaded Rapture allowing the artists to go crazy with adding all sorts of crazy stuff. I also quite enjoyed the water sequences which allowed them to make it feel like you're underwater.


What I didn't like

Walking around in water is boring- Because you're a prototype Big Daddy you can walk around in the sea which I actually kind of like because of all the cool plants and sea life. Unfortunately you can't actually do anything except occasionally pick things up and getting from point A to B. I wonder if there was as better way to integrate the water and ocean travel in the game. Wouldn't it be cool to actually be able to use your ability to travel in water to ambush enemies or flood areas to kill people?

Too similar to the first- There are a few game play changes such as hacking being easier and harvesting ADAM is made more complicated since you can adopt Little Sisters to extract ADAM from special corpses. But otherwise, the behaves exactly the same as the first game with almost the same enemies and plasmids.


Morality system- This ugly feature once again rears its head. It just doesn't feel required in a game like this.

Lack of enemies- Once again the game fails to bring anything imaginative to the enemies beyond the typical humans.

Lack of controller for PC- For some reason you can't use the controller in the PC. I really missed the ability to have rumble. Recently they did update this in October 2013 but its still disappointing considering how old the game is.



Conclusion
Bioshock 2 is still a very fun game full of interesting ideas etc. It's biggest problem as other reviewers have noted is that Bioshock ended with no real need for a sequel. This game just feel unnecessary from a story perspective and in my opinion is more of an expansion pack than a proper sequel. I enjoyed the game and as long as you treat is as an expansion pack, so will you.

Homefront: Singleplayer Gameplay and Story Opinion

Homefront is game set in an alternate future where a unified Korea decides to invade America. The game takes place several months after the invasion where Korea has instituted martial law and is increasing committing acts of brutality.

I prefer old-school shooters and I haven't played any Battlefield or Call of Duty games so Homefront is a game which is difficult for me to review because I can't compared it with anything except games I've played such as Hard reset, Half Life 2, Gears of War, Fear 3, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Spec Ops: The Line.

My impressions are overall that yes, it works fine as a modern chest-high wall shooter. The combat and mechanics are generally good. Shooting people is okay. The game itself seems very shy in doing anything new or different with the gameplay. It's pretty much shoot this and that with guns. There are no special abilities to speak of. Explosives are also introduced in the beginning of the game but they aren't really used until the end of the game except for grenades. There are some stealth sections which I found a bit of an interesting change of pace but like many other action games, the stealth is pretty much scripted rather than organic.


The sole new outstanding  feature is the ability to remote control a six wheeled drone, basically a jeep with a machine gun and rocket launcher, which is very fun by the way. Considering this does take place in the near future, I felt that if they had increased the number of robot drones you could use the game and make you some sort of gifted robotic 'puppet master' rather than a former military pilot it might actually worked out much better to distinguish itself for the rest of the other shooters. Back when Homefront was released, there weren't many games where you get to fly and coordinate robotic drones so I think that would have really helped make a difference.

The storyline however is really too American for me, a New Zealand Chinese (formerly Singaporean Chinese). It's trying to go for a gritty realistic "America under siege" game but it's precisely because of this, that it fails to engage me. The problem is that its just so overbearingly pro-American something out of a Tom Clancy type novel that everything ends up being too cliche. Everything 'good' is American and apple pie. Everything 'bad' is North Korean.The Koreans are hilariously evil to the point of being cartoonish, committing brutal acts for the heck of it. Compared to Spec Ops: The Line, the disturbing scenes in the game feel stupid and pointless. There to deliberately elicit a knee-jerk reaction. Spec Ops really asks you to question what it means to be a hero. In Homefront, you are the standard action hero who is definitely the 'good guy' just like in a Hollywood blockbuster. The entire game is a celebration of "American values". It's like having a baseball bat wrapped in an American flag being smashed into your face while someone yells "America! Yeah!" This game isn't a thoughtful piece of social criticism but a piece of American paranoid right-wing propaganda. I won't go much more in-depth into this but it left a bad taste in my mouth.


Overall, if you're American, you might get some kicks out of Homefront but the hamfisted "Go America!" values it espouses makes it difficult for non-Americans to understand just what is so great about the game. It's an okay action game but you're better off playing Spec Ops for the social commentary or an old school shooter like Painkiller or Max Payne or you're looking for awesome action.

Matrix: Path of Neo: Game Design Review

Matrix: The Path of Neo was released back in 2005 with you playing as Neo through a number of key sequences in the film. Here's my thoughts on this action game.

What I liked:
Very fun. Its a solid game with plenty of action, wall running cool kung fu moves and definitely faithful to the movies atmosphere and style. Lots of interactive explosions and debris making the world feel alive.

Controls are solid for this sort of game and the brawling feels mostly natural and fluid.

What I disliked
Camera angles- Camera angles are normally okay, however this ends up problematic in closed rooms especially when wall running. All too often it ends up blocking your view of enemies in an enclosed room. Fortunately most levels occur in large rooms or arenas so this usually isn't a problem.

Cover based shooting is there but pointless- The game makes a big deal of this cover based mechanic in the beginning with a fairly lengthy tutorial sequence. The truth is its actually kind of useless. Neo has a fair amount bullet time, enemies tend to rush you and most of the game ends up in a hand to hand brawl anyway. You eventually even get the powers to jump across rooms! I've never really needed to use the cover based system although I have on occasion hid behind a corner.


Slow beginning- The game starts you off playing a number of tutorial missions and learning how to be stealthy etc. I kind of found it dragged on too long although the locations were certainly interesting.

Stealth is useless- The game devotes an early level in stealth but I never found any real use of stealth in the missions. The enemies after the stealth level seem to automatically turn around to attack so there's no sneaking at all the game. Why they made such a big deal of it is very curious.

More attacks- What's especially missing is probably a guard crush ability to stop enemies from blocking. The hardest enemies I found were not agents but in fact police carrying shields because the shields were impenetrable and they had a special knock back ability.

Multi-attacking is hard- There's an option to launch a multi-attack move where you attack two or even three people in one attack. For example this would make Neo would punch and kick two people at the same. Unfortunately there is no visual indicator on screen to indicate you're successfully activating this ability. Its a shame because this has some of the coolest moves and attacks.

Poor story presentation- If you go into this a fan of the Matrix like I am, you'll love this. It basically expands certain scenes while fleshing out other parts of the Matrx world Those who aren't fans or who haven't watched the Matrix trilogy will be confused by how the story is told. It's told by montages comprised of quotes from the movies which aren't even in chronological order.

Conclusion
Overall I enjoyed the core mechanics despite its rough edges and I do recommend it to those who enjoy brawlers and watching the Matrix.

Out There Somewhere: Mini Game Review

Out there Somewhere by Miniboss is best described as a simple action puzzle platformer with a teleporter gun. It received much praised from its reviews and its clear to see why. It's a fun well done platformer with a fairly unique element. There's a lot of cool things you can do with the portal gun and the walls and environment.

I have a couple of minor complaints about the game however:
Only two guns- The teleport gun and the normal shooting gun are the only two weapons. That's it.

One boss only- There is only boss in the entire game. Considering the studio is called Miniboss, I was hoping for a few more battles.

Very short length- Because of the game's length it reminded me of those old shareware games where you played Episode 1 and they promised more gameplay in Episode 2 and 3. I was in shock when the game ended. I thought, "no way, it's already over"?

Highly recommended just don't expect to be playing this game long. I'd say maybe between 2-3 hours.

Rage: Game design review

Created by ID responsible for Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Doom 3. Rage is suppose to be the next-generation shooter using the ID5 engine back in the 2010. I read the reviews about the game  and watched some gameplay with many reviews giving it 75-80%. I thought I would be getting a shooter with some questing and driving elements. Unfortunately what I got was a shooter with too much walking around, talking and driving.

First of all the shooting is rock solid. It's very fun and very exciting. Weapons all handle well and the physics are pretty good. However nearly all the non-shooting sections are just busy work or unnecessary, the section below highlights various features and explains what I felt padded out the game unnecessarily.


Game Issues:

Town areas: It's fun to walk around the town for a while but like in so many RPGs, there's nothing to do but accept quests, play games and stock up on supplies. I personally think a menu driven interface would have been fine rather than having to wander around town.

Driving: Driving is fine but feels very basic. Furthermore, driving and shooting are separated by clearly marked areas. You can't for example, drive into a base and take out a generator for example and then hop out of your car like in Farcry. No, you have to drive up to the roadblock demarcating the end of the driving area, hop out, walk to the entrance and proceed indoors. Also you have to spend money to buy ammo and repairs which means you have less to spend on your normal weapons.

Combining items is okay: As you walk around you'll be able to pick up stuff and combine them into various items. It's a simple effective system but I find it a little bit out of place when you get back to town and have to browse the shop to find parts you're missing to craft certain items. Again, it just seems to pad things out rather than allowing me to jump into the action.

Quest interface: Each main quest is compulsory so I don't understand why you need to click 'accept the quest'. It feels redundant. Also, each quest is accompanied by a long text displaying what the quest giver is saying, another redundant feature.

Enemies are mostly humans: Most of the enemies you fight are humans or mutants. Yes, they all dress quite differently but the humans mostly act the same and have very similar weapons. Each faction you fight does have one or two different unit types to mix things up but it still feels a bit too similar at time.

Lack of autosell: There are bits and pieces that you can pick up that serve no purpose except to be sold. But there is no autosell button so you have to manually sell your junk.

Lack of boss: There are several bosses in the game but nothing particularly memorable or worth noting. For example you have your typical 'giant mutant' and 'car with turret' bosses.There isn't even a final boss either, just you in a room full of respawning mutants.


Lack of levels: Most of the 'levels' are designed well but the game has actually very few levels and most of them are fairly small. What's worse is that there is a main quest level where you have to return back to a city and go through the same level again except in reverse! Furthermore the side quests/missions in the game take place in the exact same levels as the main quests so you're just repeating what you've already done in the already sparse levels.

Earning money feels like grinding: There are two ways to earn money. 1) Accept side missions and 2) Play minigames. The side missions as mentioned above are repetitive because they take place in the levels as the main mission. Some of the mini-games are actually quite fun but in mini-games you have to risk your hard earned cash and unfortunately the rewards aren't that worth it.

Mini-card game is expensive: I think the mini-card game is actually quite fun but the cards are very expensive or you have to find them in the various game areas! Furthermore, you need more cards in your deck to make a viable deck meaning you probably won't have a good deck until at least 75% of the game is done.

Unchanging world: I don't really mind an unchanging world too much if this was a linear corridor shooter but for a game that attempts to be a mix of sand box and action the world feels unchanging and static. None of your actions feel particularly eventful in the larger scheme of things. I guess I was hoping to see some buildings get destroyed or built as you made areas safer. As it stands, it's pretty much being attacked by the same bandits over and over again as you drive around.

Pointless RPG character class: There's an RPG-like class selection at the beginning of the game where you can specify what bonuses you might receive such as dealing more damage. However nothing really comes of this, you don't get to improve your skills or anything. Again another pointless feature.

Conclusion
Overall this is a mechanically sound shooter spaced out with way too many unnecessary mechanics. I love old-school shooters like Doom, Quake, Painkiller and Serious Sam. I started playing wanting a 6-9 hour linear shooter and that's all I was asking for really. Instead what I got was a shooter with driving, crafting and questing unnecessarily shoved into this padding out its core gameplay mechanics. This should be scoring 50-60% not 80% or 90%. I don't recommend buying this when you could have a more satisfying game by purchasing those old school shooters or games like Crysis.

Darkness II: Game Design Review

Based on the Darkness comics by Image Comics and sequel to the Darkness which was released on the consoles, this sequel continues Jackie's story and the mysterious brotherhood pursuing him. Spoilers will be mentioned in this game design review.

First off, Darkness II is a fun, violent and gory action game. It hits all the right notes with comic book feel using cel-shading voice acting and very solid combat mechanics. I used a Xbox 360 game pad so it might be a different experience with mouse and key board.

What I liked about the game:

Executions have a point- Executions in game are very cool and actually serve a point rather than just to finish off the enemy. You can choose to execute to get health, ammo or a shield which creates a nice tension and choice in the game and each has its own use depending on your situation.

Tentacles- You have tentacles hovering next to you at all times acting as extra arms allowing you to attack as well as grab and throw objects like guns, metal poles, shields and other important items. With the controller, the tentacles are mapped onto the shoulder button. It's quite intuitive and fun and you kind of wonder why other games don't have something similar.

Story combined with action- I think the game has a good balance between gameplay and story weaving both together well without either dragging on to long.

Problems

Linearity- This is a fairly short straight forward game. It's pretty much level after level. The levels themselves aren't particularly creative either just your standard urban environments. I found them okay but nothing I hadn't really seen in other games.

Lack of enemy variety and bosses- The game plays it a bit too safe with the enemies. You'll only be fighting humans and darkness powered humans. That's it. Aside from you, the people you fight are quite tame. Even in the last level where you find inhuman enemies spawned from Hell, they carry around guns that behave exactly like the ones all the humans have been carrying. I was hoping for some cooler enemies you know? The boss fights feel tame as well since the only enemies you'll fight are human bosses.


Disconnected Co-op multiplayer- Co-op is actually quite fun. In the game you choose one of four characters which have different powers and go around completing missions. It feels very strange and although supposedly running parallel to the main game, there is no mention of it in the main story. As a result it feels very disconnected and very shoehorned in.

Darkness explosions need to be bigger- Instead of grenades you can unlock a power early on where anything you pick up and throw explodes into Darkness. Great. Unfortunately the explosion is a bit small. It's sometimes a problem when the explosion hits a corner rather than the enemy you're targeting and nothing happens.

Dark Vortex too random- Dark Vortexes are like super grenades in the game, they are very powerful and pretty much kills anything. Unfortunately they are dropped randomly. I think they should make it more skill based rather than luck based. Maybe if you kill enough small enemies via combos you can summon it up instead.

X button is both grab weapon and heart- minor point but occasionally you end up picking up a worse gun in battle.


Lacks automatic healing- Unfortunately for some reason you can't heal automatically. This usually isn't a problem but sometimes I would end up at the end of a fight with very little health meaning the next fight became harder than it needed to be because there was no one left to consume health from. When I died and the checkpoint was reloaded I ended up in full health allowing me to pass the next area.

Too weak in light- Being a game where you're constantly needing to be in darkness is a great idea but being exposed to light in the game is extremely penalising. Not only do you lose your armour, you start to become blinded making it extremely hard to see. This becomes especially problematic when the enemies start carrying out powerful lights to attack you. It just makes your weakened state even more punishing than necessary.

No climbing- Hard to believe that a guy with the powers of Darkness no less can't even scale walls. I mean seriously? This guy can pick up dumpsters but can't super jump or clamber over walls? Despite all the innovations in attacking this made Jackie feel illogically stunted in the game and reminded me it was 'just a game' rather than an 'experience'.

Melee- Melee combat is okay but I kind of wished they would have done something a bit different. You basically press attack and flick the right joystick in the direction you want the attack to go. But there are two directions horizontal and up and down and the only reason you need to slash up is to activate a special power and stun enemies. I feel like they should have just had melee as an auto attack and use the joystick for something else. Maybe commanding the imp or activating some special dodge move?

Lack of special attacks- There are only two special attacks. A auto-targeting and a stun attack. That's it. I was hoping for something a bit more creative considering you have the powers of darkness. How about summoning up demons or something? In the comics, Jackie could craft all manner of dark beings and dark attacks. Well I understand a video game has balance surely some abilities like 'summon dark fire' would have been cool?

Terrible ending- Okay seriously what is up with the ending? Don't get me wrong, I quite liked the cliff-hanger ending but  also ends up with Jackie trapped in Hell; or the Hell as created by his Darkness powers. I bet you the Darkness III will feature Jackie having to fght his way out of Hell as the first level.

A more satisfying ending would have Jackie fighting his way out of Hell back into reality, partially defeat the Angelus who then escapes and then closing with some sort of: "I don't know what will happen now but its out there" speech which at least provides more closure. You know, a real final boss fight.

Conclusion
The Darkness II is a fun game don't get me wrong and its innovation of tentacles allowing you to quad-wield really increases the fun factor. Unfortunately, despite the premise, the game only adequately delivers its promises but never really forges ahead in the area of innovation. It's a missed opportunity in my opinion and something I hope the next game in the series will fix.

Farcry 2: Game Design Review

Farcry 2 is an action adventure game taking place in Africa in a fictitious wartorn region. It is a sequel to the original Farcry but its best to call it a thematic sequel than a direct sequel as the only thing that connects both is the theme of an open free roaming world. My original impression of Farcry 2 was good. The game starts by having you pick a character with an interesting history and has an opening showing off the very nice graphics. Most importantly, it didn't slow down on my fairly modest computer. That being said, about an hour in, it's pretty clear to me what the faults of Farcry 2 are. I did play it right to the end, so here's my list of what I liked and disliked after about 20 hours or so of gameplay.

What I liked:
Large well-designed 'organic' looking world- Farcry 2 has a wonderfully crafted sandbox map with each area and region feeling differently well design. This is a virtual explorers dream. It's clear a lot of effort was put into making the map topography and geographic interesting and unique.

Solid combat and stealth- Combat is very satisfying and very fun. There are lots of different guns in the game so there's plenty of choose from. If you prefer going in and shooting everything you'll want to carry mostly automatic weapons while those who prefer a long range approach will prefer a mix of sniper rifle and explosives. There are even flame-based weapons that you can wield to set fire to bushes and grass which can spread and kill enemies! Stealth is also definitely a viable albeit slow tactic especially with silenced weapons you can purchase. Just as importantly, you're always carrying a machete as a melee weapon compared to the first game where it took up an entire weapon slot.

Enemies AI and reactions- The enemies are quite smart in the game and will try to flank you, search for you and work together. They flinch if you shoot but miss them and try and seek cover in general. They'll even try and carry away a team mate who's injured!

Environment physics- The environmental physics such as a fires, winds, lighting and weather really help make this feel like a living breathing world.

Problems:
Static world and enemies- The issue with Farcry 2 is that the entire world like many sandbox games is static and unchanging. Guard posts and enemies continually respawn no manner how many times you destroy them. It doesn't matter how many main quests you complete either, the entire world remains a hostile unfriendly place. This creates a sense that none of your actions have any real weight or impact on the world.


Can't choose multiple quests and poor quest location- Although the game makes it seem that initially you have a choice of faction it turns out you don't have a choice of factions. You have to finish every single main quest for both factions to advance the game.


Lack of story pacing and impact- As a more story oriented gamer this is what disappointed me the most. Farcry 2's storyline is suppose to be about you entering into a war torn region to assassinate the Jackal, an arms dealers who's been arming the two factions. But things go seriously wrong when you enter, you contract malaria and then end up being saved by the Jackal and basically abandoned by the people who hired you. To survive and get out of the country, you start working for both sides of the conflict picking up missions and playing each of the sides against each other.

Now this could have been a great story about moral choice, wartime atrocities, the dark side of human nature. The audio tapes you pick up and philosophy of the Jackal and the ending are actually thought provoking in nature. But the whole story lacks emotional impact because your actions have no consequences in the game. The game world doesn't change, the missions don't change, the way the characters speak doesn't change and when certain game-changing situations occur nothing really happens. You survive and continue to do things in exactly the same way as before, no different from previously. Your choices lack impact undercutting the initial narrative. This is a real shame because for all the freedom the game gives you in the world, the story and narratives as presented is simply uncompelling.


Quests are repetitive- At one point, it just so happened that the main quests and subquests were all located in the same area which meant that I had to visit the same area three times just to do pretty much the same thing, clear it out full of bad guys. It got repetitive and nearly all quests basically involve you going somewhere and clearing everyone out, destroying something, killing someone or picking something up so it can get repetitive fast.

No variety in enemies- Aside from different weapons you'll see the same guys over and over again. Yes some do carry weapons but you're otherwise shooting the same people over and over again.

Enemy intelligence and driving- As mentioned enemies do flank and it's actually fairly realistic. Unfortunately they don't seem to get smarter when it comes to driving. Basically whenever you see a car, the enemy AI will automatically attempt to ram/attack you and then they'll get out and try and shoot you. They have no sense of fear and will quite happily get out of the car as you're shooting them rather than run or drive away. As a result this makes driving more annoying than fun especially when you're trying to travel across to a different part of the map only to constantly attacked every single time you run across a guard post.

Malaria- At the start of the game you contract malaria which serves as an explanation for why you start off so weak and get stronger throughout the game. I thought this was a good idea as opposed the standard amnesia ploy. Your malaria level is related to how many main missions you've done but will also strike at completely random moments throughout the game with no prior warning. And these strikes are serious interruptions when you're unable to move for a few seconds. Occasionally resulting in damage and sometimes death.

No stealth meter or radar- One thing I do miss from the first game is the stealth meter and radar. Unfortunately this makes the stealth portion of the game much harder than before. Some people complain about the lack of crawling compared to Farcry 1 but I didn't really find it too much of an issue as long as I hid in the bushes and foliage.

Buddies are pointless- There is a buddy system in the game where buddies will rescue you if you get knocked out or injured in a fairly lengthy sequence. What else buddies good for? Aside from giving additional missions they don't actually do anything. You can't ask them to accompany you in a fire fight, you can't hire them, you can't drive around with them. It's a real shame considering they gave each buddy a history and animation but they only act as generic NPC backup and only if you get hurt badly enough to pass out.

Conclusion
Overall, I can say I enjoyed Farcry 2 for the first few hours but not the rest. Mechanically very solid but it feels as if no one really took the time to look at the larger game and see how the various bits fit to create a cohesive game. The result is a repetitive game that looks and plays great but just can't offer enough content to justify keep going unless you are solely into shooting. According to reviews, Farcry 3 fixes all this and I think all gamers should skip this game and go straight to Facry 3 instead.

Dragonball Z: Super Sonic Warriors: Mini-Game Design Review

Dragonball Z: Super Sonic warriors for the Gameboy advance is an arena fighter game where you pick Dragonball Z characters such as Goku, Vegeta and Piccolo and going around blasting, kicking and smacking each other.

My initial impressions is that its a fun game and for the first few hours it was. Mechanically the game is solid. You control 1 fighter at a time and fly around on screen and are able to attack each other from any direction and have other fighters swap in if you're in a team game. There is a very solid rock-paper-scissors balance in the way attacks, blocking and dodging works to good effect. For example, it's easy to dodge and counter the very powerful slow super attacks but if you misjudge the enemy might just follow up with another super attack or several quick fireballs instead.

Each fighter has different special moves and abilities.For example, some of the fighters have homing missiles, others have direct blasts that travel in a straight line, android characters have infinite fireball energy but can only recharge super attack energy via sucking it from the enemy characters. Unfortunately the more I played it the more I realise the lack of special moves and abilities between fighters really hurts the game in the end.

 Because of this, there's not much to say about the game design, you can play this in about 15 minutes and you've pretty much explored most of what the game has. It is a bit difficult to perform certain attacks which require holding two or more buttons down at the same time but you do get used to it.


It's fun to play but I amongst 360 arena battlers I would recommend you go play the Psychic Force series instead for a true arena battler with enough variation and special moves.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Game Design Review

Deus Ex: Human Revolution won't need much introduction for most players. It's a prequel to the Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War taking place 20 years before the events of Deus Ex. From a game design perspective, it's worth breaking down a little of what the hallmarks of Deus Ex have been in the first two games from my view point and then comparing them to the third.

Gameplay pillars of Deus Ex
First Person Shotter- The first two Deus Ex's were built on FPS engines (Quake and Unreal) and builds upon the FPS genre. You have guns and  standard FPS controls. You shoot people and robots and they die or explode.

Exploration, multiple pathways and interactive elements- Levels tend to be sprawling and here are usually multiple ways to travel through the level. There are usually objects like explosive barrels, crates and terminals that can be hacked to assist the player again giving the player choice in completing the level.

Stealth option- Unlike most action shooters, stealth rather than shooting is usually a viable tactic and often beneficial in many respects as enemies can and do respond to sound and you will often find yourself surrounded if you go in guns blazing.

RPG Elements and upgrades- Your character is able to be upgraded like in a role playing game allowing you to increase various aspects of your character such as being able to run more silently or jump higher

Hubs instead of traditional levels- Generally each area is broken up into game hubs. Each hub is large interconnected area where you can visit bars or chat with the locals. The 'levels' in the game are either part of the game hub, such as different levels in a bar or areas that you travel to from the game hub. Your character will often return back to the game hub after you successful complete an 'off-site mission'. This gives the impression that your game is taking place in a city or organic space helps immerse the player in the environment.

Logs, stories and subquests- Very often there will minor plots and stories that can be gleaned from logs and computers located around environment. This helps give more substance to the world. Furthermore, certain facts of the world such as passwords or secret locations maybe located in these logs rewarding players for being thorough.

Does Deus Ex: Human Revolution match all of these requirements?

The answer is yes. Every single one of those things are in the game and in a fairly good way.

Game Issues:
However, there are a couple things I would like to mention that disappointed me about the game. Some of which has been part of the series since the first game. Let me say first of all however, this in no way diminishes Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's still very much a game I recommend playing.


Box simulator- The game has a heap of boxes and crates which serve various useful purposes mostly as a way to get up to high places and distracting enemies. At times it felt like I was playing a really expensive box simulator considering how much stacking and shifting of boxes I was doing.

Vent crawling simulator- Playing as a stealth character in the game means you spend a huge amount of time stuck in vents. I think I spent more than half my time in levels crawling through them or retreating through them. I'm not sure how else to make this less boring but maybe reduce the number of vents and increase the number of catwalks?

Yellow and Gold everywhere- Yes the gold filter is cool but after a while I did wish there were more colours than that. For example, maybe gold could be used for Detroit, green for Hengsha and blue for Singapore?

Melee combat could be better- Melee combat isn't bad but it does feel a bit inorganic since all you really do is head towards one enemy and watch a cutscene about it. If you have an upgrade you can watch Adam take down two enemies at once.

Also any melee combat regardless of whether you're sneaking behind someone or confronting them consumes 1 whole energy bar. This creates a rather strange situation where disabling three guards costs more energy than cloaking for a few seconds or lifting a large dumpster to chuck at them!

There are probably several ways I would improve this. 1) Having takedowns of various 'power levels' where you can slowly take an enemy down without energy or have a faster takedown where energy is drained. 2) Have a system where you can take down a group of close enemies similar to the Typhoon system but for melee. 3) The ability to drop down on enemies and knock them out.


Lethal and nonlethal methods- Being non-lethal is quieter and awards you more points if you knock guards out however at the same time but storywise, this doesn't really seem to affect much at all which is a bit of a shame.


More hubs and levels-There are only 2 major hubs. Detroit and China. Feels a bit of a shame considering how many different cities there are. The last few sections are linear levels and the revelations just come way too quickly compared to the drawn out nature of Detroit and Hengsha. A second or third hub would have really helped pace the game much more instead of the many linear levels that are suddenly thrown at us at the end.

Enhancement variety- I kind of miss the quirky nature of some of the other enhancements in the old games such as the exploding spy drones. I think more thought needs to be given to the enhancements in the game to make them more exciting and with greater variety. Maybe more drones or something.


More and better dialogue battles- These are definitely fun but compared to Alpha Protocol which had plenty of major characters and where each dialogue felt interesting, the dialogue battles here seem a little bland and it's sometimes hard to know whether what you're saying is working or not.

Linearity- Like all the previous games, the game is very linear except for choices at the end. Nothing you do is actually is going to affect the game missions in any real major way.

Nothing new- Throughout the game I got the feeling that I wasn't seeing anything really new in the series aside from the combat and dialogue battles. Everything else, the box stacking, the upgrades etc. the questing system are all gameplay mechanics we've seen before in past Deus Ex games. I'd like to see a more in-depth factional system in progress and different storylines with different missions. For me the linearity of Deus Ex in each game is a real sticking point for me. I understand the need for linearity but surely having multiple plot lines (even if they all converge on the same ending level) is something we can achieve more than 10 years after the original? I guess you could say Alpha Protocol has really raised the bar for other FPS/RPGs when it comes to choice.

Ending- We know the future of Deus Ex so it would be good to clarify what ending was actually canon. Why keep it a secret?

Conclusion
I enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution with its robust combat system and multiple pathways in levels. However, at times it seems like could it use a bit more innovation in the areas I mentioned above. I think making this the final game in the trilogy would be fitting and the next game should take place in a fresh universe with a fresh storyline.

Global Game Jam 2013: Eat Your Heart Out

Global Game Jam 2013 is over for us in New Zealand I'm proud to say that I designed a very fun co-op multiplayer game called Eat Your Heart Out that netted the 1st runner up in the Innovation category as voted by other teams at the Auckland venue.

It's a hide and seek co-op game where three players have to tag one player disguised as an NPC amongst lots of NPCs. If you take too long the disguised player will transform into a demon and hunt the searchers down instead! Try using Chrome or Internet Explorer to play the game. It supports 4 controllers as well.

All credit to my two other team members Erik and Michael who helped program the game and bring my idea to life with such polish.

My fellow team member Erik Hogan posted a detailed blog post here about the game and other games from the Auckland New Zealand competition that deserve your attention. Check out the game here on the Global Game Jam 2013 website.

My thoughts on the experience of the 48 hour Global Game Jam competition:
Think small but with a twist- You only have 48 hours to finish the game, don't try to make the next Minecraft, think instead on how to build upon existing ideas but create your own spin. In this case, Eat Your Heart Out is a mix of stealth gameplay and action. You've seen both parts before in various games and there probably are games just like this out there. Assassin's Creed multiplayer comes to mind.

Be precise- Have a clear idea about what you want. If you can't convince someone what the idea and game mechanic is shortly and succinctly, go back to the drawing board and if necessary reduce the scope. Some of the teams didn't have a game in the end.

Passion and courage- I arrived without a team at the Global Game Jam, however I had met a number of people at the Auckland Game Developers meeting. I stood up in front of everyone and pitched my idea to the 50 or 60 people there. Fortunately, Michael and Erik thought it was a great simple idea and joined up! If they hadn't responded I would have probably joined the other teams as a level designer or something else. If you don't have programming skills (my background is in copywriting and marketing), having the passion and courage to speak up and present your idea is especially important.

I learnt a lot at this Game Jam and hopefully my 'game designer street cred' has improved a little amongst the game developers in Auckland.

Update:
Violence in video games- It's clear that the heart beat theme of the Game Jam wasn't suppose to encourage violence but rather about connecting people and conveying emotion.  I didn't actual set out to make a game which is actually really violent in many respects. For example, whenever the demon appears, he literally appears in a red explosion (signifying blood) and goes around eating bystanders and searchers leaving a bloodstained screen. A little bit disappointed in myself for not being able to come up with a less violent but equally viable game but given the tight time constraints I decided to opt for something 'safer'. Hopefully next time I'll be able to come up with something better!

Cave Story Plus: Game Design Review

Cave Story was a freeware game released in 2004 that quickly gained a large fan base. We eventually saw several commercial releases in 2010 with a PC release called Cave Story Plus released 2011. It is a very fun Metroidvania game that's definitely worth playing. That being said there are a few things I didn't like about the game.

What I didn't like:
Jumping physics- Uses the Mario style of jumping where you never quite stop but slow down to a stop. I never liked this esepcially when I keep slipping off ledges.

Secret choices and closed off areas- Just like in old video games, there are secret choices and decisions that affect the ending and the weapons.  The game is semi-linear like Metroid so you can revisit areas using the teleport system or travelling there. However there are some areas where you can't revisit or quests you can't complete if you make a decision so if you miss it, that's it! Just something to be aware of it. I personally don't like it and I think developers should stop doing this.


Final level, ending zone is sealed off - Once you enter the final few areas, that's it, you can't turn back after that! I wished the game would have warned me because I would have liked to have gone back and finished up some subquests.

Short- Playing on easy, I finished the game in less than 6 hours even including all the deaths. It's a good time considering this game was originally a freeware game. I wished they could have included a couple of more extra levels or areas.


Conclusion
Overall, Cave Story is definitely a solid game experience. I didn't find it particularly revolutionary or as polished or large as Metroid or Castlevania games. That being said, its about 75% as good as these professionally created games from professional studios. In the end, I think that's part of its success, it's inspiring to think that a freeware by a guy and some help from his friends can be almost as polished as game put out by companies like Nintendo or Konami.

Darksiders: Game design review

Darksiders is an action adventure game that I recently purchased thanks to the THQ bundle. You play War who is tricked into accidentally appearing before he was suppose to. He is stripped of his powers and must seek revenge on those who have wronged him.

According to a developer interview, the game is designed to be similar to Legend of Zelda. You have an open world and travel between various areas and dungeons to collect items and unlock powers. The closest on the PC to this game is probably the Blood Omen and Soul Reaver series.

It is very solid well put together game and I quite enjoyed the combination of modern day buildings taken over by fantasy elements in a post-apocalyptic world. If you're an action gamer I would highly recommend playing it. I played this game with an Xbox 360 controller on the PC which I would highly recommend.

So here are my thoughts on some of the minor issues that annoy me about the game:

Camera doesn't work in small rooms- The usual problem of action games rears it ugly head. Fighting in a corner or near walls in small rooms  usually results in a camera focusing in the wrong place. The numerous enemies also make it very difficult to figure out where you are sometimes swamp you blocking your view of things.

Short Length and lacks replayability- According to my Steam account I've only been playing for about 15-18 hours. It actually felt a much longer epic game than that but some might find it lacking. There's isn't much replayability similar to other action games like this although for those who enjoy collecting there are various minor health and magic powerups you can collect.

More interesting bosses- I find the enemy bosses kind of ugly and boring. They all look very much like ugly insect-like demons and pretty much just scream and taunt you like any other comic book villain. I was hoping for some variation like in Soul Reaver where each bosses looks different based on their powers and some one like Kain with depth and a charisma.

Hard to empathise with characters and lack of characterisation- Most characters are really hard to empathise with in the game. War is pretty much angry and angst-driven all the time and most of the other characters fall into the archetypes of being 'too righteous' or 'too evil' declaring in loud tones their desire to defeat you. I appreciate this is a comic book style game but even a mediocrum of restraint would have been good.

I think the greatest misstep is probably the Watcher who accompanies you on the journey and who is plain out comically sadistic and evil always looking for opportunities to taunt War. He also acts as an in-game guide and I really didn't enjoy summoning him. I think that's a mistake. The helper character should be someone the player should want to converse with. Or if you have to make him/her a villain, make the character someone likeable, like a scoundrel.


In fact I would say that the character that I liked best was Samael, the former demon prince who assists you who has an agenda of his own. Right off the bat, The Watcher and everyone else expects Samael to betray War but surprisingly this doesn't happen in the game at all and Samael remains enigmatic on his true goals hinting about the bigger picture. Samael seems more developed than everyone else in the game including War and shows a level of restraint despite every thing. Unfortunately, he yells a lot and taunts War like all the other characters in loud brash tones which I think works against his favour.

Lack of horse-riding- You get a horse and can ride around the desert and even fight the boss with it but the horse section seems token unfortunately. I wish there was a bit more chances for horse riding to show off the vastness and landscape of the world.


Some items are just useless after a while- Like a lot of Zelda-like games, some of the early weapons and items become a bit useless. I've always found it puzzling frankly. I personally think a game should just upgrade existing weapons so they become more useful or simply replace them.

Portals- Late in the game you get a gun which fires orange and blue portals which allow you to teleport between them. That's out right copying of the portals from Portal! Its a minor detail but seriously, couldn't they colour them differently or something?

Conclusion
As mentioned above, I enjoyed Darksiders and its a very fun game despite its few quirks. It's somewhat derivative but we don't really have many games like this on the PC. I highly recommend it if you're an action adventure gamer. It's often on sale for just US$5so there's no excuse to enjoy this game.