Jellybean15

Bloodborne is a fantastic example of how to take Dark Souls core mechanics and change them up enough to create something great and unique at the same time. Bloodborne may wear its inspirations on its sleeve, but it has taken those inspirations and turned them into a great game capable of standing on its own. When it comes to gameplay, Bloodborne is largely still dark souls at its core. You use the shoulder buttons to attack, you must carefully dodge enemy attacks, you lose any experience gained if you die, and you respawn at fixed locations in the game. However, Bloodborne takes these mechanics from Dark Souls and modifies them, giving Bloodborne is own unique feel. First, the speed in of Bloodborne’s combat has been turned up considerably from Dark Souls. You and the enemies both move much more quickly, which in turn supports fast and reactionary gameplay. The slow, deliberate dodge rolls of Dark Souls have been replaced with consecutive quick dodges that take up far less stamina, and any health lost can be regained for a few seconds by attacking your enemies. The act of learning how to be aggressive and cautious simultaneously is a little hard to wrap your head around, especially for gamers who are used to the purely cautious gameplay of Dark Souls. However, once Bloodborne’s combat clicks for you, it’s incredibly fun. Next are the weapons. While there are fewer total weapons in Bloodborne, each weapon comes with the ability to transform into something different with the press of a button. The Hunter Axe for example, is a simple one handed axe, which specializes in quick attacks with a narrow range, but can be transformed into a two handed axe capable of dealing slower and more powerful sweep attacks to help deal with crowds of enemies. Every weapon has the ability to change into something different, and in turn gives all weapons a variety of attacks and strategies. Bloodborne has also changed the way it handles critical attacks. Now labeled visceral attacks, the player is able to stun and follow up with a critical hit on nearly any enemy. This can be done by hitting enemies with charge attacks from behind, parrying enemy attacks with your pistol, or – in the case of bosses – doing a high amount of damage within a short amount of time. While I miss the backstabs of Dark Souls, this gameplay helps Bloodborne feel unique, while also paying homage to its inspirations. One of my favorite things about Bloodborne is the idea of the Hunter’s Dream, a hub world where you can level up, buy/sell items, upgrade weapons, and access your storage chest which contains any excess items you couldn’t fit in your inventory while out in the field. This storage also replenishes any items you lose upon death, meaning no items picked up in the field go to waste. Also, the act of summoning an ally into the world is no longer dependent on maintaining humanity. Instead, you use insight, a limited resource used to summon allies into the world. While I like this (especially considering I had more insight than I could get rid of), it would’ve been nice if Dark Souls did a better job properly explaining how this mechanic works. Of course, like every Souls game, Bloodborne is not without its slip ups. Bloodborne prides itself on being hard, but it isn’t always done well. One particular level midway through Bloodborne sticks out due to its cheap and unfair design. Enemies are purposely spawned behind you with no warning, leading to many cheap attacks/deaths and many moments of rage. Luckily, there is only one level in the whole game like this, and it doesn’t manage to take away from the experience. However, what does take away from the experience are the issues plaguing Bloodborne in its entirety. The camera has always been a weak point in the souls games, but in Bloodborne, the increase in speed has only made the problem worse. With Bloodborne’s focus on fast speed, the camera often moves erratically, which can confuse you or even cause you to dodge in the wrong direction when the camera suddenly turns. The camera also manages to get caught behind objects on a semi regular basis, often obscuring your view. However, this wasn’t a problem I found to be a common cause of death. If anything, it just made the tension higher. Overall, Bloodborne is a fun, rewarding experience for anyone looking for a good challenge. However, its change in speed is something Souls players might have trouble wrapping their heads around, while simultaneously making it appeal to players who aren’t particularly fond of the Souls series’ slow movements. Overall, Bloodborne manages to succeed in copying mechanics while changing them up enough to make the experience feel different and fun in its own right.

Remasters are the thing this generation, and Dark Souls is yet another franchise looking to bank off that cash cow before the market dries up. However, unlike other remasters, Scholar of the First Sin more than justifies its existent by being more than just a graphical upgrade, going so far as to include the three DLC expansions released, as well as redesigning the enemy placements to deliver a much more challenging experience than the original Dark Souls II, probably in order to shut up the critics saying Dark Souls II was easier. In essence, it's accomplishes this feat, but not in all of the right places. In terms of gameplay, the combat and exploration is absolutely no different from any other Dark Souls game. Challenging, slow combat with great distances between checkpoints and enemies that respawn upon death. Very par for the course. If you enjoyed the other Dark Souls games, there’s no reason you won’t like this one. However, Dark Souls II had its own variations from the first Dark Souls, and they’re still present in Scholar of the First Sin. Enemies eventually do go away after killing them enough times. Fast travel is now an essential mechanic because the world is no longer this intertwining web, but is instead a lot of linear levels going in different directions. The main thing Scholar of the First Sin claimed was to be a more challenging experience than Dark Souls II, and in this chase, it does accomplish just that. However, I can’t help but disagree with the way From Software went about this change. In some cases, the enemy layout has been changed and harder enemies have been put in places they weren’t before. However, there are also cases where the difficulty is artificially lengthened simply because the game simply throws more enemies at you, rather than increasing the difficulty smartly. The game is harder because of the increased enemy count, but I can’t help but feel it could’ve been done a little more creatively. As for the DLCs, I have nothing but praise for the Ivory King DLC. Awesome level design, fantastic bosses from beginning to end, an awesome conclusion and ending level, the Ivory King DLC does nothing but deliver. The same cannot be said for the other two. The Iron King is still a very enjoyable experience, but it also has some very frustrating level designs, mainly pertaining of lining up enemies on unreachable levels who fire pot shots at you the whole time you fight enemies below. While the two ending bosses Sir Alone and the Fume Knight are highlights, the Smelter Demon is little more than just a rehash of a boss previously used in Dark Souls II with higher defense and attack. It’s the Sunken King DLC that really falls flat. Uncreative bosses, tedious level designs, drab environments, frustrating enemies, and only one real boss as a highlight make the Sunken King DLC more of a chore to get through. I probably could’ve done without this one being thrown in to the package. Overall, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin accomplishes what it sets out to do, which is upgrade the graphical fidelity, include the DLC, and deliver a more challenging experience. While the game is harder, it’s not always because of smart ideas or even fairness, since cheap ranged enemies are a constant threat throughout the entire game. All too often, ranged shots from enemies I didn’t even know were in the area caused my death. Plus, while Ivory King and Iron King are fun additions, the Sunken King only brings the package down. It’s great for fans who love Dark Souls. If you haven’t played Dark Souls II, but liked Dark Souls, you should definitely play this game. For those who’ve played Dark Souls II but haven’t purchased the DLC, this remaster is enough of an excuse to replay it. If you’ve never been a Dark Souls fan, this game won’t change your mind, but it’s still a great package as far as remasters go.

It's fairly surprising to see Ubisoft take its number one shooter franchise and turn it completely on its head, ditching the guns and vehicles and replacing them with clubs, spears, and prehistoric animals. It’s a new spin for the franchise, and while it doesn’t quite achieve the level of greatness it needed to justify the series’ change up, Primal still ends up being a solid game on its own merits. Primal takes place during the times of the caveman, where violence, hunting and general hostility are just par for the course in your daily life. You play as Takkar, a young caveman whose tribe is being threatened by a pair or rival tribes and their leaders. As the up and coming warrior and leader, it’s your responsibility to make sure neither of these tribes succeed in their takeover by taking out their leaders. Due to its new caveman setting, Primal embraces every aspect of the time. Hunting and gathering resources are all key to crafting new items and weapons, as well as building and improving your home tribe and adding new features. Basically, the standard crafting and hunting from the Far Cry franchise has been expanded and improved upon in order to better fit the new setting. With the new setting and the lack of features the modern Far Cry games provided, Primal instead adds new features to try and make up for their absence. The most prominent addition is the ability to tame animals, allowing you to use them as allies in battle or ride them across the land (if they’re big enough to ride). As for combat against enemies, stealth is still just as fun as it has always been. Sneaking up on enemies from behind to deliver the killing blow and nailing headshots with your bow is just as satisfying as it has always been. Plus, the addition of the owl (the replacement for your binoculars) allows you to get a great view of the layout and the placement of enemies beforehand. You can also bring your tamed allies into stealth sections with you, but this only served to get me caught more often than naught. However, it is a disappointment that Primal hasn’t built upon the melee combat in any significant way. Your only options in combat are to take your melee weapon, swing it, swing it harder, or throw it. While it feels and looks satisfying, the lack of variety in your attacks, as well as the lack of dashing or dodging makes melee combat feel too simple. Plus, once you unlock the strongest club, melee combat is little more than a waste of time since losing is impossible. However, this is something you’ll find across the board with Primal. Despite taking away features in order to create a game set in caveman times, Primal hasn’t done much to replace what’s been taken away. This is true in melee combat, stealth, and even the upgrade system. When it comes to upgrades, there aren’t many new additions. In fact, a lot of abilities you had by default in previous games have been locked behind an upgrade in an effort to cover up for the lack of new abilities, which is disappointing. In fact, it seems to affect Primal’s campaign and side content as well. Like every Ubisoft game, the world is filled to the brim with small side missions to do, and just like every Ubisoft game, very few of these missions are actually worth doing. Most side missions end up being little more than busywork, while certain missions like liberating outposts and hunting legendary creatures end up being the highlights. As for the game’s campaign, while the world of Primal has its fair share of interesting characters and story lines, the campaign missions themselves don’t feel very special. Most mission objectives feel very par for the course, while other missions feel completely unnecessary since they don’t actually drive the plot forward. It doesn’t help that Primal’s ending doesn’t exactly feel satisfying, and the two boss fights given to you at the end aren’t very fun. That’s the main problem with Far Cry Primal. In its prehistoric setting, Primal has stripped so many features and mechanics the modern Far Cry games have available but fails to make up for their absence. While the owl and animal taming are steps in the right direction, the lackluster side content, underwhelming campaign missions, simplified melee combat, and even a lack of new upgrades, Primal feels like it didn’t do enough to actually justify the travel back in time. The core of Far Cry Primal is still good, and still enjoyable for the most part, but it’s hard not to look at the lack of features present in Far Cry 3 and 4 and feel Primal comes up a little short. It’s still fun, but it doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy it just because you’re a fan of Far Cry.

After playing the Resident Evil remaster when it came out and getting my first real taste of the old school Resident Evil games, I was really looking forward to another HD release of one of the franchises older games. So, Resident Evil 0 is out and despite how much I enjoyed it, I can’t help but be somewhat disappointed. If you’ve played the Resident Evil Remaster, you know exactly what to expect with this release of Zero. Updated controls to better suit players who aren’t used to the original control scheme, as well as updated graphics to better your HD television are both present in RE0. The main difference between this and the Remaster released in 2015 is the ability to control two characters. You play as Rebecca Chambers, a rookie officer of the police group STARS, and Billy Cohen, an AWOL soldier sentenced to death with a checkered past. You take control of both of them in an attempt to survive the zombie outbreak they’ve both stumbled into. Gameplay wise, getting used to controlling both Billy and Rebecca, as well as using the menus to swap items and issue commands is very cumbersome and unintuitive at first, but once you get used to it, you’ll find the controls are very efficient and work well. The game also does a great job of utilizing the mechanic of character swapping. Both Billy and Rebecca have their own unique attributes and skills, making both of them useful in different circumstances like puzzle solving, or in other cases where another character needs rescued. In essence, Resident Evil 0 does a great job of utilizing the dual character swapping mechanic to its fullest. It’s not without its flaws though. One annoyance is the constant navigation of the menus to issue any commands outside of “Follow me” and “Stay there.” This is only made more annoying by the fact that there are two dedicated buttons for commanding your partner, only to discover they both do the exact same thing. Telling your partner to “Hold fire” and “Fire at will” are commands you’ll be using just as often as telling your partner whether or not to follow you. Not dedicating a button to these specific two commands - especially when there’s already one readily available – feels sloppily done. Of course, if you enjoyed Resident Evil’s core gameplay, you’ll definitely find some fun here. You explore a mansion infested with zombies and other monsters, backtrack a lot, solve puzzles and fight interesting bosses. Only in this game you do it as a team (woo!). However, the game’s main annoyance and easily the one thing that can really make or break RE0 for you is its inventory system. Like previous Resident Evil games, inventory management and the conservation of resources is a primary concern. The ability to swap items between Rebecca and Billy should make this more manageable - and it does to a certain extent - but the inventory chests used in other Resident Evil games have been completely removed. Remember those chests you could use to safeguard your items? The one’s that were placed throughout all the levels and made your entire stored inventory accessible from any chest? Those are gone now, and instead have been replaced with the abilities to both swap and drop items in your inventory. While both of these mechanics are useful, they don’t do a good job of making up for the removal of the inventory chest. The problems start with the limited inventory space given to both characters. Both Billy and Rebecca only have inventory slots of six, making carrying space limited. However, two handed weapons like the shotgun only make things worse by taking up more space than previous games. The ability to swap does help, but it does mean you’ll be spending more time in menus than you should have to. Plus, the ability to drop and leave items means you’ll be spending a lot more time backtracking to retrieve a key item. Overall, the added abilities of swapping and dropping are improvements, but the lack of an inventory chest is much more of a detriment. It’s very much a “1 step forward and two steps back” kind of deal. Resident Evil 0 would’ve been much better with all of these mechanics in place, rather than only the two we do have. Overall, if you enjoy the core of Resident Evil, you’ll likely enjoy RE0, but it’s not guaranteed. While the simultaneous control of two characters adds a unique spin, the tedious inventory management and backtracking to retrieve items makes RE0 a much more annoying experience than its predecessors. After last year’s release of Resident Evil, I was so excited to buy this game. Now, I’m glad I rented it first. One playthrough was enough for me. So for anyone interested, I would definitely recommending trying before you buy, since the inventory management can make or break this game for some people.

Wolfenstein: The New Order accomplishes what many retro games fail to do, which is successfully take a retro game franchise and bring it into the modern age while simultaneously including what made the original game so iconic. While it keeps certain elements like dual wielding nearly every gun in the game, limited health, armor, and even killing dogs with knives, it also adds the classic Call of Duty style of gunplay, successfully making the game modern with retro elements thrown in where they’re needed to help make the game feel special. Surely, if you’re a fan of old school shooters, Wolfenstein, or if you’re just looking for something slightly different in the FPS space, the New Order won’t let you down. The story starts with your character William "B.J." Blazkowicz, a soldier in World War II participating in a raid against **** forces who have been successful in their experiments and have created new technologies that put them leagues ahead of the rest of the world, with giant robots and power armor to show for it. Blazkowicz is injured in an explosion, putting him into a vegetative state for nearly 14 years and wakes up to learn that **** Germany has conquered the world. Not content to lay down his arms, Blazkowicz is determined to find the resistance movement and help them take back the world from the **** Reign. While the story manages to stay strong from beginning to end, it’s not without its weak points. The biggest flaw in the story – the first problem you’ll notice with the New Order – is in the main character. Blazkowicz lacks any real type of personality, with his only characteristics being his whispery, gruff voice and his seemingly indestructible nature. Now, in a game filled to the brim with **** robots and robot dogs, Wolfenstein's story is bound to have its fair share of ridiculous moments, but the crap Blazkowicz actually manages to survive ends up pushing those boundaries pretty far. Adding onto how he manages to come out of a coma without aging a day, keeping all of his muscle mass and regaining complete control of his body within a few seconds, Blazkowicz manages to survive multiple stabbings, direct explosions, and various other events that really make him hard to take seriously. If the intention was for Blazkowicz’s supposed invincibility to come off as a way to parody modern shooters, it feels out of place in a story with such a serious tone. Aside from Blazkowicz himself and a few other weak points, Wolfenstein’s story line and characters manage to come out really well realized, and the story is strong enough to keep you invested until its end. As for the gameplay, the New Order does a great job of incorporating old school elements with modern shooting mechanics. Along with a health and armor bar that cap off at 100, a weapon wheel allowing you to carry every weapon in the game, as well as the ability to dual wield nearly every gun, the game also has the superb shooting mechanics of Call of Duty, along with both a cover system and a peek ability, allowing for shooting that feels more fleshed out than the franchises it borrows from. The game even has some stealth sections, which are fun, even though they can feel tacked on at certain instances. Overall, the gameplay is superb. Gunplay feels satisfying, and the unique throwback elements piled into its gameplay manage to make Wolfenstein: The New Order pull ahead of its competition. Plus, with some really well designed boss fights, open ended levels filled with collectibles and upgrades, and the brutality expected from a Wolfenstein game, Machine games has truly revitalized the Wolfenstein franchise. In conclusion, I’m looking forward to what is next up for this franchise. If you're a fan of shooters, or old school games, you owe it to yourself to try this game.

Dark Souls is truly a unique experience. Releasing amongst a demographic of gamers who are used to playing games with little difficulty and little consequence for your failure, Dark Souls goes against the grain by not just making the player face tough obstacles and challenging gameplay, but also by punishing them every time they die or make a mistake. It takes you on a journey of pain but also great empowerment whenever you overcome its obstacles, and it’s certainly an experience I’ll never forget. Dark Souls gameplay is hack and slash in its nature, but it doesn’t bode well to play it like one. In a game where getting hit three times by a standard enemy can kill you, Dark Souls is less about fast paced reactionary gameplay and more methodical planned out strategy. Scanning your enemy for an opening, striking when the time is right, learning how many hits he’ll take, how he reacts and finding out how to react to his counter is all key. So many factors go into effecting your strategy as well. How resistant is your shield to physical and magical damage? Is it effective enough, or should you roll out of the way? Is the armor you're wearing light enough to allow me to dodge quickly but also strong enough to protect me? In Dark Souls unforgiving world, sometimes the only way of knowing if you’re strategy works or if you’re progressing is to go out into the world and see if you survive. In fact, in an area of three different branching paths, the only real way to find out which way is the correct way is to see which one doesn’t kill you within the first 60 seconds. But, when you do die, Dark Souls is not afraid to let you know that you messed up. Killing enemies grants you souls which acts as both your experience points and your currency for buying items and weapons. Die, and you’ll have to travel back to your dead body to retrieve the souls you lost. Die before that happens, and they’re gone forever. What makes Dark Souls so different is the game’s very own checkpoint system. Checkpoints are linked directly to fireplaces, which are your safe havens from your enemies. What I’m glad to see is that unlike Demon’s Souls checkpoint system of opening up shortcuts, Dark Souls’ fireplace system is so much more consistent. I never found an area where there was not a fireplace within two minutes running distance of another one, and often times, levels are smartly designed to incorporate shortcuts or opening paths previously locked off to you to make some fireplaces more accessible from multiple areas, and that’s the beauty of Dark Souls level design. Most of Dark Souls feels like one big cohesive level of multiple paths and areas, and by the end of it, you’ll easily have the whole map laid out in your head. However, Dark Souls is not without its caveats. Even things that seem purely beneficial usually have some draw back. Even fireplaces, which do keep you safe from enemies and refill your healing flask, also revive all of the common enemies. It’s not a game that will hold your hand. For example, you can go around and try to find weapons, but you’ll soon discover the only real way to make a truly descent weapon is to find one that fits your play style and find a blacksmith to improve it using found or bought materials. Most of the time, the only way to proceed in Dark Souls is to truly pay attention to its environment, what it tells you, and you must adapt. Overall, Dark Souls has it all. Challenge, unique gameplay, awesome boss fights, and smart enemy and level design which compels you to push forward despite your frustrations. So is the game perfect? No, it isn’t. Dark Souls does have its flaws that its fan base is all too quick to ignore. For example, one of the biggest annoyances is the lack of a pause feature. I understand Dark Souls intentions of removing this feature, but there were a few times during play, I had to get up immediately and walk out. A couple of those times I was in the middle of a battle and died as a result. From Software needs to realize that real life does get in the way of gaming sometimes, so a pause button is a must. The other real complaint I have is the game’s promise of being challenging but fair, and I do applaud From Software for accomplishing that feature most of the game. I’d say 95 percent of the deaths were my fault, but there was the occasional cheap hit or badly designed level piece that got me killed unfairly. The lock on for example, causes a lot of camera issues when up against walls or low ceilings, and makes seeing your enemies difficult. They’re rare occasions, but they do happen. However, any complaints I have don't dampen the experience and I did really enjoy Dark Souls. However I do conclude that it is not a game for everyone. It has its audience, and if you’re not into this kind of game and its particular style, that’s perfectly fine, but I – and a lot of other people – will remember Dark Souls for quite a long time as a really special game.

Child of Light is one of the few gems of 2014 that will unfortunately slip under a lot of peoples’ radars, which is really sad, because while this title is not as mainstream as the other Ubisoft games released the same year, it’s easily one of the very best released by the publisher. On the surface, Child of Light appears as another one of those artistic games that looks to impress you more with it’s pretty art style, beautiful music, and a tone purposely set to appeal to all ages, another game that’s way more style over substance. However, Child of Light impresses with not just its great presentation, but also a solid combat system underneath its surface. The game stars Aurora, a princess who has awoken from a deep slumber and is determined to get back to her father, the King. She is accompanied by a firefly, a teardrop shaped creature who serves as her guide and companion in battle. Despite her gentle and kind nature, Aurora is not incapable of defending herself, and she uses both a sword and magic to help her fight creatures in this game’s time based combat system. What I love about Child of Light’s Combat mechanics is how simple yet deep it all is. In battle, Aurora, her allies and enemies alike are all placed on a timeline across the screen. An icon is displayed to represent who is currently ahead in the timeline and will get to go first. When one of your character’s icons gets about 3 quarters of the way through the line to a red section, time will stop to allow you to choose your next action. Depending on how powerful the action is, the more time it could take to cast, and that’s where the red section comes into play. If a character or enemy is attacked while in the middle of casting a move, their icon will be pushed further down the line, not only preventing them from casting their move, but cancelling it out entirely. What stops this from being such a simple combat system is the firefly. While allies and enemies in battle must wait for their turn to move, you control the firefly independently and use his magic to either heal Aurora and her allies or blind their enemies, slowing their progress on the timeline. This simple feature gives so much more strategy to an otherwise simple system because interrupting an enemy’s move becomes a big part of winning the battle. You have to decide whether or not slowing an enemy down or letting him move at a normal pace on the timeline is more beneficial for your strategy. It not only requires careful planning, but quick thinking, making the combat system very satisfying. Like I’ve mentioned, Aurora is not by herself. She has allies that you can swap in and out of the party. They all have different sets of attacks and come in varying degrees of strength. The only problem with the party system is the limit of only two characters fighting in your party at a time while you’ll be fighting groups of three. It’s a minor annoyance but feels like an artificial way to increase the difficulty by nerfing your party, rather than make enemies stronger. Since some are clearly more powerful than others, it is hard to initially justify using some party members over others. That’s where the Oculi system comes in. Oculi are gems that contain magical properties that you can assign to one of three slots belonging to any party member. Different colors represent different properties and how they affect you depends not only on their color but on what column you put them in. A red oculi - depending on the column - can give your attacks fire damage, fire resistance, or more health. Oculi also have different sizes, which can be found or crafted by combining oculi together. The same color will result in a more powerful version, but different colors combined will create a new color altogether, encouraging both experimentation and careful thinking. Plus, since many enemies are weaker against some elements and strong against others, assigning different elements to party members gives them purpose, especially since you can swap party members mid battle. As for the game’s presentation, the game is absolutely beautiful, both visually and audibly. With cel-shaded characters on paint brush environments and an amazing soundtrack, Child of Light’s presentation is absolutely stunning. Plus, with characters from talking animals, dwarfs and other mythological creatures, the game’s world, plot, and story are something straight out of an old school Disney movie, but manages not to become too childish, save for the dialogue that feels the need to compulsively rhyme. Overall, Child of Light is a very satisfying 12-15 experience, with great combat and an interesting story. Plus, on the Vita, it’s the perfect handheld experience for gaming on the go.

Dark Souls has taken off in popularity, mainly due to it's intention to go against the mainstream and deliver a challenge that's actually difficult, but what a lot of the fans don't know is that this game is where the series and core formula for the future iterations started. I'm sure many played this game after the main series got so popular, but it's actually my first venture into the souls series, so I went in with only a slight bit of fear, only to find out I wasn't nearly as scared as I should be. For fans of the souls series, you already know how the core gameplay works. Using melee weapons, shields and any other item is tied to the shoulder buttons, with the front buttons being linked to a standard attack or block and the triggers being linked to a stronger attack or special ability. Most enemies typically do massive damage but have clear motion's indicating what attack they'll use next, leaving it up to you to learn what an enemy's move set is and how you should react to it. Despite the hack-and-slash description, hacking and slashing only serves to get you killed faster. Demon's Souls is all about being smart, patient, methodical and knowing when to strike. Needless to say, dying is required to learn so get used to it. Dying is easily the most interesting thing in Demon's Souls as well. Upon dying, you enter your soul form, which essentially means half of your health is shaved off until you regain your humanity, done by either using an item or killing a boss, and any souls you've collected - which act as your form of experience and currency - are lost to you and can only be recovered by going to the spot you died. Die again before you accomplish that goal and your souls are lost to you forever. The simple solution is don't die but it's way easier said then done. Overall, the notion of being hard but fair is mostly true. 9 times out of ten, if I ended up falling dead or just falling to my death, I couldn't get angry at anyone but myself as it was undoubtedly my own fault. Sure, there may be the occasional attack from off screen or enemy jumping from the dark that you didn't have much of chance to react to, but for the most part, there's no one to blame but yourself. There's also the scenario of coming to a level that's so unbelievably hard that you'll feel like you've hit a wall, but often the solution is to just simply leave and take on another level, then come back after you've gotten stronger. If you are wondering why I said the game being fair is mostly true, it is because despite the hardcore audience trying to tell you otherwise, there are legitimate problems with some of the enemy and level designs. The occasional cheap enemy or area where getting through is mostly based on luck is a rare but very annoying problem. The main reason they're such a nuisance is that dying sets you back to the very beginning of the level. If you manage to get past a that one enemy or part of the game that's unfair, dying and going back ensures you'll be taking on this part over and over again. This isn't such a problem because most levels are designed with shortcuts and secret entrances that you can unlock to shave off the time it takes to get back to your original location. However, it's still a problem because some levels in the game are designed without one. Area 4-2 is easily the worst level in the game because all of these issues come together in one area. Enemies you can't kill throwing cheap shots at you while you're in the middle of a fight isn't challenging, just annoying. Not getting hit mainly comes down to just getting lucky, and with no shortcuts you're guaranteed to pass this part over and over again. Even if all the enemies and levels were designed perfectly, it is still somewhat tedious to have to go all the way back. There's also design choices I just don't understand. I get that Demon's Souls wants to be challenging but that doesn't explain the inconvenience of not being able to pause your game. If you want to go to the bathroom or if life outside of the game get's in the way, usually the only solution is to hole up somewhere safe or die at the hands of your enemy. Aside from that, the game's just not very polished. Six years after release and there's still frame rate issues, random sound distortions, crashing, infinite loading screens and in one instance, when booting the game up after turning it off, I was spawned over a bottomless pit and killed off immediately. Despite the game's **** issues, the positives more than make up for it. The solid gameplay and smart game design still shines through. Each area and it's respective boss feels well thought out and varied, making each level memorable and their respective bosses unique. There's more positive than negative in this game, so it's still worth trying for those who like a challenge or the masochists who love to feel the pain of failure. I quit and put down the controller more often that I'd admit, but I still had fun.

It's light on action and heavy on mystery so it may not exactly be a game that appeals to the mass gaming community, but for those who love mystery games or the Sherlock Holmes games in general, this should be a fantastic edition to the franchise that the cult following will love. As a first timer into the Sherlock Holmes franchise, I can't comment on how this game specifically stacks up against the rest of the games, but I can confirm that Crimes and Punishment is a solid experience in itself. In a style largely similar to the mystery game L.A. Noire, Holmes is called to investigate a crime or mystery that has occurred and it's up to him to discover who committed the crime and how they did it. Sherlock Holmes is then able to examine the crime scene as well as many other areas to gather clues and collect evidence, often using a concentration mode to find hidden clues in the environment and use those hints to reconstruct scenarios of what happened, a mechanic similar to the flashbacks in CSI. Along with this you're also given the ability to examine a suspect during questioning. Anything that stands out - like grass stains on someone's hands for example - allows Holmes to deduce more facts and information about the person currently in question. All evidence collected through the crime scene and interrogations can be used against a suspect if they attempt to lie or mislead you. You'll also have access to Holmes' base of operations, which gives you access to his archives of newspapers and documents as well as his experiment tables. The experiments you conduct are all well thought out and fun for the most part, and of course add more evidence to the pile. All the evidence is compiled into a mechanic called "Brain Pathways" where in Holmes' brain, evidence create synapses with their own individual conclusion. Eventually more synapses will appear with more evidence and if the evidence all lines up correctly, a breakthrough will be realized in which Sherlock Holmes determines what happened in the crime and who's responsible. The challenge in this mechanic appears whenever a synapse leads to two conclusions that are equally possible and it's up to you to decide which is the correct one. An example is the first murder weapon in the game which could only be used correctly by someone specially trained and physically able to do so. It's up to you to decide if the person using it knew how to - which leans toward one suspect - or if they simply got lucky and used it correctly on a whim - which leads toward another. Because of this, there's no straight answer. In every case, there are multiple conclusions you can draw and it's up to you to critically think about the crime and who had the motivation and the ability to commit it. Because of this, if you draw the wrong conclusion, the wrong person could end up in jail for a crime they didn't commit. It's the game's main challenge and actually forces you to think hard about your decision, making it the most engrossing part of the game. All of these mystery and puzzle mechanics not only provide engaging gameplay but also let you truly delve into the mind of Sherlock Holmes and his thought process. This, the great writing, and voice acting all combine together to make an experience to where you could only know the character and his personality better if you actually read the books. It's the best interpretation of him in any video game or movie I've seen so far. Aside from the mystery and puzzle aspects of the game, there's also a few action segments sprinkled in which mainly consists of moving a reticle to it's destination on the screen within a certain amount of time. Although uncommon, these action sequences are often pivotal and can prevent or cause the deaths of key suspects in the cases. Overall, the game's a solid adventure from beginning to end but there are a few misfires. For one, while each case does a great job of fleshing out characters and creating their own self contained story, the over arching story thread is thin and does little to connect the cases, making the ending feel lazily written and hollow. Also, when it comes to all the mini games, while most are fun, some are annoyingly difficult, mainly due to the poor explanations and tutorials on how to do them, causing rare but memorable moments of aggravation. Aside from a couple of hiccups though, there's not much to complain about. Crimes and Punishment is a great experience and is easily a must try for all fans of the character, as well as any who like a good mystery based video game.

Dead Space 2 is great and is another successful installment in the Dead Space franchise. Copying the formula already established in the original, Dead Space 2 improves on everything Dead Space already established, and while that's all I hoped for, I can't help but feel it falls a little behind due to all the new features and tweaks added. Dead Space 2 picks up 3 years after the original. After his successful escape from the Ishimura and the Necromorphs that haunted it, Isaac Clarke has been kidnapped and forced into experimentation in an attempt to study the after effects of coming into contact with the marker. Unfortunately, Isaac still suffers from the Marker's effects and has to deal with the hallucinations of his dead girlfriend. To strengthen the story, Isaac has been given a voice and Isaac works well as a main character with a personality, and his struggle with madness makes up the better parts of Dead Space 2's journey. The other aspects of the story hold up well, with interesting side characters and an interesting setting, with the only real weakness centering around the weak antagonist, Teidman. Overall, the story is excellent. As for the gameplay, it largely remains the same. Necromporphs are fast creatures with blades for arms and the main form of killing them is to severe their limbs. The gameplay requires a cool head and percison, making every kill satisfying and rewarding. Many new improvements have been added to make gameplay smoother as well. The laser sights have been centered to make aiming at long distance easier, but the original aiming is still available. The stasis bar now has visible segments and regenerates to a certain amount, since kenisis is now needed more. You can now use kenisis to impale enemies with weapons and the necromorph blades, and all enemies now drop items and ammo. Power Nodes are more plentiful to make upgrading easier, and the new game plus can now be used to take on higher difficulties with full upgrades in tow. Overall, the game is still fun, with one important caviot. The previous Dead Space game was a blend of horror and action. This sequel opts for trade offs between action and horror and as a result, combat has gotten more hectic, with more enemy varieties, numbers, and an increase in enemy projectile based attacks. This more action focused gameplay could've worked if the core gameplay was adjusted to meet the new standards, but it wasn't. With the increase in enemies and enemy types, the hectic combat has made it very easy for the necromorphs to sneak up on you from behind. It may be more realistic, but without a counter measure or new mechanic to deal with these rear attacks, combat ultimately becomes cheap. This is something that never happened in the previous Dead Space, so combat was rarely frustrating, but here, it's a normal occurrence. Plus, the influx of enemies create a few scenarios where the fighting lasts too long, and combat can become overwhelming. There's also more enemies equipped with projectile based attacks, but no dodge mechanic to compensate. Lastly, it does't help that some of the little problems in the first game haven't been fixed successfully. Your kenisis based attacks and stasis move will randomly miss, go through enemies or do no damage upon contact. It's not common, but whenever it happens, it can be infuriating, esecially in the heat of battle. With the new focus on action gameplay, Dead Space 2's gameplay just wasn't tweaked well enough to meet the new challenge. While still fun, combat is also a very frustrating and unfair endeavor, especially in the last few chapters. Strangely enough, this game has also added a multiplayer mode. The premise is a team of humans going up against a team of necromorphs. The humans have to complete an objective within a limited amount of time while the necromorphs have to do their best to stop them. For the humans, controls largely remain the same, and ranking up unlocks more suits, upgrades and weapons to use in battle. The necromorphs are controlled not just by AI, but by players as well. The controls are simple and easy to get the hang of, but I do wish there was a tutorial teaching you to use them. Getting thrown in the deep end from the beginning wasn't easy. Even though the multiplayer can be fun, it's not very deep. With only one mode (complete the objective) and a small amount of maps, multiplayer is fun but doesn't have enough meat on it's bones to encourage you to buy Dead Space 2 specifically for it. The campaign is still the strongest aspect of the Dead Space series while the multiplayer is just a fun distraction, but it's not anything that will be missed if ditched completely. Ultimately, Dead Space 2 is a worthy successor and sequel to the groundbreaking original. While not quite as good as the first due to all it's new flaws and lackluster multiplayer, Dead Space 2 is still a well made game that fans of the original have to play.

AC Unity should’ve been a fantastic. It was the first game to reinvent the franchise since AC3, and with so many good ideas under its belt, Unity was on the road to becoming the first truly next gen game that AC fans wanted. Instead, we get a title that falls flat on its face and easily ends up being the worst AC game in the franchise. You play as Arno Dorian (essentially just a rehash of Ezio) who ends up joining the Assassin’s to redeem himself for the deaths of those he feels guilty for. Arno does this by using an unexplained ability to read the thoughts of his targets upon their death, revealing his other targets until he finally finds the one in charge of it all. The story has its entertaining moments and easily one of the most emotionally impactful endings in the franchise thus far, but falls short due to the lack of focus on the French Revolution itself and the lazily done present day storyline. The story may be average, but it pales in comparison to the game’s many misfires. The parkour system was remade with good ideas and is the best system for controlling your lateral movement, but with no control over your speed, movement becomes very janky in tight environments which severely weakens the stealth gameplay. While being able to crouch is awesome, Arno’s lacks of fluid movement or responsiveness makes stealth frustrating. Worse is the poorly programmed and inconsistent enemy AI, leading to multiple instances of you getting caught unfairly. Plus, since most enemy layouts are overly packed with guards and snipers, stealth becomes nearly impossible and frustrating. Sadly, the only real motivation to use stealth is to avoid the even worse combat. Largely similar to the Batman Arkham games, your only defense in combat is to counter or avoid enemy attacks. Plus, every enemy carries a firearm, so you’ll have to watch out for the symbol to dodge their shots, since the human shield skill from AC3 is now removed for whatever reason. However, the claustrophobic camera largely prevents you from actually being able to see enemy attacks (especially while in interiors), while the crosshair that alerts you to incoming fire fails to appear half the time. Both of these problems almost ruin combat because they make it cheap and unfair rather challenging. The sad truth is, every new mechanic is plagued by problems. The upgrade system that allows you to unlock new skills sounds cool until you realize most of them are just standard skills you've had by default in previous games. Arno brings no new skills to the table, and the higher skills he does have take too long to unlock. It’s also frustrating that only story and co-op missions give you the points to unlock them instead of all mission types. Character customization is also a cool new addition with a variety of outfits and weapons, but most of the higher level pieces are locked behind annoying prerequisites. These would've been great if they were alternatives to just buying them, but forcing them on you is too restrictive. The weapons and outfits are supposed to add replay value, but that is immediately ruined when you find the game only has one save file with no in-game menu that lets you start the story over. Another problem is the unnecessary change or removal of abilities that were moving the series forward. You can’t attract enemies to you by whistling, you won’t stay in a hide spot if an enemy sees you enter it, and the double assassination is harder to pull off. Annoyingly, Unity retains the mindset of “quantity over quality” in terms of the side content. There’s a ton of stuff to do but it all feels the same. Murder mysteries are a step in the right direction but are only fun to play once. Plus, the checkpoints for most of these missions are awful, since they can cause you to start at the beginning or spawn you way across the map, and sometimes directly in the enemy’s line of sight. Co-op is also a letdown because it doesn't make for stealth games to begin with, but the bad stealth mechanics just ensure you’ll get caught regardless of how coordinated your team is. Taking them on solo only makes them ridiculously hard, while the rewards tied to them require multiple playthroughs, making co-op a grind to get through. Overall, everything in AC Unity has so many problems, that the few good things like the amazing graphics and presentation are bogged down by them. When Unity performs flawlessly, it becomes the experience I was expecting, but becomes nearly unplayable due to the unnecessary removal of useful mechanics and with every new feature having its own slew of issues. Ultimately, I love Unity for the direction it was taking the franchise, but I hate it because of how poorly executed it all was. It's easily the biggest gaming letdown I've had in a while.

Duck Dynasty had no reason to be good when it released and it looks like the developers took that to heart when making this game. With a complete lack of a solid concept or any real material to work with, making a truly good game based on the Robertson family wasn't going to be easy, and it was going to take some truly honest work to make this game good, something that fans of the show could be excited about. Instead we got this. The one thing that seems to be somewhat correct here is the portrayal of the Robertsons. Their personalities and antics seem to be somewhat similar to the original show, but the terrible voice acting and lack of any voice for your main character, John Luke doesn't help to sell it on the same level. As for the gameplay, Duck Dynasty is essentially a small open world game where you partake in various activities to prove yourself as a Robertson. There are a plethora of activities to partake in, but what **** the fun is that they're all done so poorly. True to its name, duck hunting is a mechanic in this game, but it's overly simplified in every aspect. Never mind the fact that using the duck call to lure ducks is purely done through pointing a reticle at a herd of ducks who somehow haven't heard the gunshots killing all of their kin and using overly simple quick time events to call them out. What's unforgivable is the game's automatic hard lock aim eradicates any need for skill from the player. Losing while hunting ducks is almost impossible. In fact the only time I ever lost is when I had to hunt a specific species of duck and the game failed to generate them for a minute in a half straight. The one time the hard lock mechanic broke is the one time hunting was somewhat fun. There are other variations in the shooting like shooting golf balls, bottles, beaver hunting or having to hunt a specific species of ducks, but they're all overly simplified variations that drag on way too long. Aside from the shooting, the second form of hunting animals is fishing. Just like shooting, fishing isn't so much difficult as it is tedious, especially since your skill in this mini game doesn't help to pull in the fish faster. Shockingly enough, Duck Dynasty also includes a handful of stealth missions. While they may be out of place and just as simple as the rest of the game, they're the only missions that provide some sort of entertainment, in both gameplay and character interaction. Plus, they're the only missions that try to throw in clever mechanics. While simple, stealth is the highlight in all the crap showcased here, but also the least common. Despite how much I complained, the shooting and fishing at the very least function, which can't be said for the air boat races. The main problem lies in the air boat's broken controls, which stem from their tendency to start drifting instead of turning, adding more difficulty and frustration to the races than necessary. To add insult to injury, it's quite obvious that your opponents don't suffer from the same problem, and their stable boat physics only makes it easier for them to ram you out of the way. Overall, air boat races are easily the worst part of this game. What **** about all of these missions is that the simplicity of their design makes them all feel like side activities that you have to complete to move the game forward, despite their being no consistent story thread keeping them all together. Speaking of side content, there is a serious lack of extra stuff to do, especially considering that this is an open world game. There are collectibles like treasures, signs and frogs, but they're all easy to find because the game literally throws big bold letters into the screen when they're nearby. By the end of the game, I had found all fifty frogs without even trying, but I must say that the constant rewards you get from finding these treasures is a nice touch. I did like the cosmetic skins I unlocked for my vehicles. There are different fishing rods and guns but they all feel the same, with the only real difference between the guns is their clip sizes. Finally, the game itself just looks awful. With the absolutely awful textures and character models, this game actually manages to fall behind the set standard of the last generation. The sound design is also terrible, with bad voice acting and random audio cuts. This presentation is wrecked even further by the dull cutscenes and random clips from the show thrown in. Overall, the simplistic design, constant hand holding and lack of effort in Duck Dynasty clearly shows that this game was little more than a cash grab for the developers. No gamer should play it expecting anything good, and even the hardcore fans of the Duck Dynasty show should steer clear. It's a shameful exploitation of the fan base, and a very bad one at that.

As a person who never played any of the Resident Evil games before 4, I was curious to see if Resident Evil was as good as its reputation preceded it. I can personally confirm that after all these years, the gameplay and style of the original RE still holds up and only furthers my love for the series. If you've played Resident Evil on the GameCube or the original on the PlayStation, you know how the game works. The "tank" controls basically mean pushing up on the left stick will move the character in the direction they're facing rather than from your perspective. Also, there are no camera controls due to every camera angle having a fixed perspective. Combat itself is not really hectic as you rarely face more than one zombie at a time. The average zombie may be slow, but the tight corridors, stiff controls and the fact that your firing stance roots you to the spot all help to make killing zombies challenging. However, in Resident Evil, saving your resources and managing your inventory carefully is what's most important, so often running away from zombies or taking them out with little resources used as possible is the better choice and the greater challenge. This gameplay offers a nice change of pace in a gaming market currently saturated with high adrenaline shooters. I also loved the differences between Chris and Jill in terms of gameplay. Each character has different traits that makes both of their playthroughs feel different, even if the puzzles for the mansion's layout are still exactly the same. With different inventory sizes, hit points, weapons, and abilities, Chris and Jill both feel different without taking away any important core abilities. Because of this, there is no definitively weaker character, but instead two different characters. As for which plays better, that's simply a matter of preference, which I love. As for the mansion, despite the major amount of backtracking, the different variety and layouts of enemies kept things interesting, and the feeling of the mansion being one giant puzzle kept me going, and it was satisfying to figure the puzzles out for myself. Despite the relatively slow pace, I had a blast going through the Spencer Mansion. Plus, even after you finish the story, there's tons of replay value, including two different characters with both having a multitude of endings, different modes, weapons and costumes. There's a ton to unlock that'll keep you playing for a while, but even if those aren't your thing, one playthrough is enough to satisfy the purchase. With this remaster, Capcom took the progressive root and decided to give you the option of choosing between the old controls of the previous game or using the new alternative controls, where movement is based on the camera's perspective rather than the camera. Although good for new players, I personally have never had a problem with tank controls, so I just stuck with the game's original control scheme. As for the graphics, the game looks great during gameplay. While upgrading the character models and backgrounds, the remaster still retains the graphical style of the originals, with a video game character walking across what looks like a photo as a backdrop. Gameplay visuals look great, but I can't say the same for the cinematic cutscenes. Though some detail has been added, most of the cutscenes still look blurry, and there are a few that obviously haven't been touched. Unfortunately, that's not the only thing that seemed to be left unattended. While not as bad the original Resident Evil, the voice acting in this game still isn't very good. While some are passable, others (especially Jill) are particularly bad and make the game feel less immersive. It makes me wish they'd gotten the current voice actors of the characters to voice the lines, considering the current actors of Jill, Chris, Wesker, and Barry all put in good performances. It also doesn't help the game's sub-par story. All of the twists and turns are painfully obvious, and the bad voice acting with the pretty laughable dialogue accompanying it don't make it any more believable or engaging. There's also some small improvements I wish they would've made, like the ability to discard or swap items out of your inventory like in future Resident Evil games, but it hasn't been added. Plus, I was hoping for more diversity in the story or puzzles when playing as Chris and Jill, but instead their playthroughs remain largely the same. Ultimately though, none of the flaws here are big enough to take away from the game's fantastic re-release. The new improvements are welcome and the game looks fantastic. I'm also happy that the gameplay still holds up to this day, nearly twenty years after it's original release. For fans who miss the old Resident Evil style, this game may just have enough to incetivise you to come back. As for newcomers, the remaster is accessible enough for new fans of the franchise to play this game as well.

The Bureau made a lot of people mad when it was announced. Taking XCOM, a series known for its turn-based strategy gameplay and turning it into a third person shooter wasn't a smart decision when it came to appealing to its hardcore fan base. Despite games like Fallout 3 succeeding in this regard, the Bureau is just not one of those titles that ends up being what everybody was afraid of. The game's plot is simple enough. You are William Carter and you have been recruited into an organization called XCOM as a senior agent, meant to lead your men into battle alongside you to repel the alien threat attacking Earth. The gameplay is like a mixture between XCOM: Enemy Unknown and the Mass Effect series. You're able to command both of your men on the battlefield, using a command wheel with a layout very similar to Mass Effect's. This slows down time and you are able to issue commands to your squad, placing them on the battlefield and commanding them from that point. Basic abilities like move and focus work well, but what truly makes each class of ally stand out is the unique abilities. By leveling up your allies in the field, they'll unlock abilities like shields, critical shots, and even turrets, which can all really turn the tide in a heated battle. This is great when written on paper, and could've worked if it weren't for one critical element the developers got wrong. The AI in this game is atrocious. While your allies may follow most of your orders competently, leaving them to themselves often causes your whole team to fall apart. Your teammates' overall lack of aggression means they can't take care of themselves when left to their own devices, and it creates so much babysitting and micromanaging for you as a player. This wouldn’t be so bad if your allies’ health and wellness wasn't such a concern, but the gameplay centers around coordinating your team tactically. Without your teammates, it is ridiculously easy to be overrun or killed by the enemy, more so because of the enemies unfair charge tactics rather than just pure punishment. But if that wasn't enough to annoy you, any ally that goes down in the field permanently dies if you don’t revive him in time. Annoying as they are, seasoned soldiers are more formidable than new recruits, so the only real motivation to save them is so that you don't have to deal with someone even weaker. In reality, I could see flashes of how this gameplay would've worked, but the terrible AI completely ruins the formula. The game’s only saving grace is the solid shooting/cover mechanics implemented here. Despite the AI’s drawbacks, the core gameplay is ultimately what keeps this game from being boring. The solid shooting makes this an equally fun and frustrating experience, with the AI being the biggest drawback. Along with this, there is also the hub world that you explore in between missions which is just a small little base for XCOM to set up shop, but it does feel good to come back there between missions. From it you can recruit new soldiers, send troops out on dispatch missions to increase their level and unlock new abilities. It’s also where you can access some minor operations which are just small side quests that are short and provide experience. Often, these minor operations will give you access to new weapons before the main campaign will, so there’s always little things to motivate you to complete them. Your protagonist also levels up since you have your own experience system as well, with some very useful abilities. There’s only one class of abilities to choose from, but they have some of the best powers in the game. I can even count the times these powers – like lift, drones, and heal – saved me and my allies throughout the game. The game’s second big weak point though is the story. While the lack of any character development in any of the main cast is already disappointing, the story’s biggest problem is actually in the main character. William Carter is the walking stereotype of that guy who was the best of the best but fell apart because of some tragedy that takes place before the game starts. Despite the attempts, there's a huge lack of sympathy for the guy, with his constantly negative attitude and badass tough exterior, all coated with the tough guy rasp in his voice. If you were willing to look past it all, the last level just ensures you'll hate the game to pieces. The game simply sticks you in one area and throws waves of enemies at you for ten minutes, and if you die once in this level, it's straight back to the beginning. It's an infuriating send off to what was already a frustrating game. Overall, the Bureau just isn't that good. It has great ideas in place, but they're not executed well, and the weak story only adds to this problem. Plus, with an already better additional title to the XCOM series out the previous year, there's just no real reason to pick this game up. Despite your love for shooters or XCOM, it's best to steer clear of this one.

After leaving past projects behind, Shinji Mikami creates his own team and strives to make another great installment in the survival horror genre, and what we get is a good but flawed experience that doesn't live up to the expectations many fans had. However, that doesn't mean that the Evil Within is not an enjoyable experience. The Evil Within stars Detective Sebastian Castellanos and his colleagues, Joseph and Kidman, who arrive on the scene of a massacre at Beacon Mental Hospital. Very quickly, everything goes to hell and Seb is forced to survive in a new twisted reality. Ultimately, the story is the weakest part of this whole game, by far. Seb’s bland reactions, lack of common sense and weak responses hardly do anything to make the story compelling, and while the voice acting is good across the board, dialogue is not. Seb is transported from area to area and he brushes it off without a second thought. Events happen where people try to kill each other, causing mistrust and drama, only for said events to be completely forgotten the next time these characters meet. There’s not even any semblance of plot until the game’s ninth chapter, but at that point, the story becomes so complicated just for the sake of being complicated, only for you to reach the end with so many questions unanswered. The subplot that builds up concerning Seb’s family ultimately builds up to nothing, and the story ultimately doesn't make much sense by the end. Overall, the story is a complete fail, so it’s up to the rest of the game to hold it up, and it succeeds in that regard. Inventory management in a world with limited resources is key to surviving, and it’s up to you to be smart and tactical to get through the journey, relying more on stealth and conserving ammo rather than go guns blazing. It’s a sure fire way to get killed. Aside from this, there’s also some light crafting and even an upgrade system, allowing you to upgrade your health, sprint, and even your firearms. The combat is a mixed bag. As fun as it is, it’s no secret that the aiming isn't very good. It zooms in too close and feels stiff, and the crosshair doesn't accurately represent a bullet’s trajectory. It can make scoring a headshot more difficult than it should be, especially with the pistol. Luckily, there’s a good variety of weapons; shotguns, sniper rifles, and my favorite, the crossbow, which has multiple types of bolts, letting you freeze enemies, set them on fire, and even electrocute them. The crossbow is that weapon you’ll rely on when you're cornered and need an out. Another new mechanic is using matches to burn bodies, instantly killing prone enemies and possibly burning adjacent enemies as well. It’s always satisfying to burn a body just as an enemy runs at you, but it’s also just as frustrating when it fails to work. Although fun, the inconsistency with the matches actually working makes it a fun, useful, but ultimately an unreliable mechanic at best. The game’s number one strength is the vast amount of different level designs. Along with the sections that are centered on horror, there are plenty of small puzzles, action sections, and even a few stealth sections. The vast and varied amount of levels are impressive, and I often marveled at the different obstacles and boss fights the game threw at me. There are a few cheap bosses here and there, but for the most part, they're fun. There are a few small complaints like the bad AI for your partner Joseph, but the game’s worst sin is easily when an enemy attacks you. Never have I found a game that actually immobilizes you just to watch an enemy hit you with their weapon. It’s completely asinine because it prevents you from defending yourself and opens you up to all enemy attacks around you. It’s easily the most frustrating mechanic of the game, by far. Nowhere are the game’s flaws more prominent than in Nightmare mode. Essentially hard mode, all the mechanics and flaws in the game’s design become even more noticeable, constantly hitting you with cheap, unfair shots. The epic boss fight against Laura becomes a frustrating bullet sponge that one shots you and the game spams bear traps during the action sequences which is the absolute worst decision because you can’t keep an eye on bear traps and your enemies at the same time. A true testament to the difficulty is the game’s death counter. On my first playthrough on Normal I died 17 times, but on my first run on Nightmare, I died a record 64, not including the deaths that caused me to quit out of frustration. Despite the game’s many frustrations, the Evil Within is a game I look back at fondly, with memories of the boss fights and many of the awesome level designs I loved to play through. If you’re expecting a terrifying scare fest, the lack of horror sections might turn you off, but the game is ultimately a good survival horror game. Just don’t play on Nightmare, or your experience might be ruined.

Dying Light is a very different type of zombie game, especially when compared to Techland's previous zombie franchise Dead Island. Ditching the campy over the top fun of those games, Dying Light goes for a more dark, dreary and serious take on the genre, while also taking many elements from other games. With Mirror's Edge inspired parkour, the climbing mechanics of Assassin's Creed, Dead Island like combat, exploration elements of Far Cry, and even some RPG elements from Fallout, Techland has created the most standout game in the zombie genre to date. However, that's not saying very much. When it comes to the combat, it's largely reminiscent of Dead Island and Dead Rising. Weapons have a limited amount of uses before they break, and you can use blueprints to craft new and improved weapons using supplies you scavenge in the world. In the beginning of the game, you'll feel incredibly underpowered, with zombies feeling like sponges and humans that feel unfair and cheap. It forces you to use your resources intelligently in the beginning, and as you naturally progress and get more powerful, the moves and damage you can do feels like something you've earned from your struggles. The gunplay doesn't fair as well as the melee unfortunately. Gunplay still isn't very refined, with a stiff iron sights mechanic and bullets that straight up miss what you're aiming at, gunplay falls short of the typical shooter. Luckily, the game usually doesn't require any real precision from you. The parkour mechanics are fun, and climbing works very well. It takes a little getting used to, but you will get the hang of it, although I'll never understand why Techland thought a sprint meter was a good idea. Aside from that, you can scale most of anything, though there are some occasional inconsistencies. The grappling hook is also a cool add-on, if it weren't for the fact that it's auto lock is unreliable about half of the time. Overall, the sprinting is good enough that it actually makes me grateful that there's no fast travel. There are a variety of zombies, including spitters, Titans, Virals (recently turned and still retain human semblances), giants with clubs, boomers and even screeching babies. None are exactly unique, but there's enough variety to stop it from getting stale. The scariest of them are definitely the volatiles, powerful zombies capable of parkour but incredibly weak to light, only appearing in dark places or at night. Speaking of which, night is truly where this game comes into its own. More powerful zombies appear and at times your only choice is to run, but Techland smartly encourages you into going outside by doubling you XP. Fighting, running, and accomplishing goals all attribute to three primary bars of experience, with each having their own respective trees of skills and upgrades. At night, the amount of experience you get for doing all these actually tempts you to leave your safe zones. The most impressive thing for me was this game's side content. Not only is there a massive amount of stuff to do outside of the main campaign, but all of it is well thought out and fun. There are multiple side quests which feel like their own self contained stories, consisting of multiple objectives and story arcs. There's quarantine zones which require you to enter 8 unique areas and pick up drops or clear out the zombies inside. There's even small things like air drops where you have to race to an crate full of supplies before any scavengers get to it. There's also safe zones where you have to seal off an area and clear the zombies inside, rewarding you with an area where you can sleep, store your items into a portable stash, and even respawn when you die. What's great is that all these quests have meaningful rewards which make you want to do them. Dying in this game works like multiplayer, causing you to respawn at a checkpoint or safe zone without resetting any safe zone. The caviot is that dying causes you to lose all experience points you've been gaining since you last used them. Overall, the story is pretty weak. Despite the amazing world and atmosphere, Dying Light fails to make you care about its people. Moments that are meant to have impact or meaning fall flat, the main villian is a cliched stereotype that only serves to annoy you, and the ending refuses to wrap up the story purely to sequel bait. The worst thing about this game by far is the challenges. About half of them require you to accomplish insane objectives that the game doesn't even provide you the skills to do so. It's in these challenges where the game's mechanics are revealed, and they become huge rage fests. Admittedly, they are clearly multiplayer focused. As much as I want to praise this game, I can't ignore the issues. Whenever the game is all about mindless fun, it's great, but whenever the game requires any skill, the mechanics in place do not provide that. Combine that with a weak narrative, and Dying Light is fun but not remarkable.

Binary Domain is truly the definition of a hidden gem. A fantastic game that never got the popularity or mainstream success it deserved. It's only real flaw is the lack of an ability to stand out in a genre saturated to the brim with shooters, but that doesn't stop it from being a very satisfying experience. First off, the shooting and cover mechanics are phenomenal, very reminiscent of games like Mass Effect 2. The shooting feels good, and the cover system and dodging works fantastic, making you feel like a badass as you pull off some crazy maneuvers. The main hook BD has is that all enemies you fight are robots with armor that can be chipped away to weaken them. Destroying armor is not only essential, allowing you to create weaknesses or exploits, but it also rewards you with credits to upgrade your weapons. Shockingly, upgrading your weapons is actually tangible and you can feel the difference and how much more powerful your gun becomes as you progress. Every form of gameplay can get somewhat boring though, so BD takes the initiative and always throws something different or new into the action to keep the game fresh. It ultimately stops the game from getting boring and repetitive, even if some of these small sections were a little annoying. What also impressed me were the very well done boss fights. Using the same hook as the standard enemies, the bosses have armor that can be chipped away to reveal weak spots, allowing you to fully destroy limbs and other integral parts to the machine. This either kills them or opens up another weak spot of theirs for you to pump all your ammo into. Each boss - big and small - has different tactics and styles of fighting, making each encounter different and fun. The only things wrong with the gameplay are the other two gimmicks it tries to implement. BD tries to add in using a microphone to give specific commands and responses to your comrades, but it barely functions. Just turn it off immediately. Also, the trust system - which centers around your comrades liking you - is another nice gimmick, in which you choose the correct responses to an ally's questions, save them in battle, or perform admirably in combat. Choose negative responses or accidentally shoot them and their trust will go down. It's a good attempt, but it only succeeds in annoying you. Shooting a comrade who gets directly in front of your gun on purpose while firing is always annoying, or at least it was until you realize what little consequence the trust system actually has. Even when at full trust, your allies performance doesn't feel any different. It might be because of the badly programmed AI, which is present in both the allies and enemies alike. However, this problem is remedied by giving you allies' huge damage thresholds, and it also makes enemies easier to deal with. Overall, the sound quality and voice acting are well done, but the most surprising part of the presentation is the graphics. Three years after its initial release and this game still looks great, with great character models, detailed textures and backgrounds, the graphics of this game still hold up. However, the biggest surprise about Binary Domain is the well done story mode. Centering on "Hollow Children" or androids, these robots look and act just like humans. They even think they're human by having false memories implanted in their heads, and it leads to some great twists in the story. They're able to eat, feel emotions, and even reproduce with regular humans, creating hybrids, which are humans with no mechanics, but are stronger, faster, and have better immune systems compared to the average human. The hybrids and hollow children give this game some great lore, but the story itself is good as well. Taking place as Dan "The Survivor," you head up a group of soldiers sent to hunt down these hollow children and their creator. The story is simple, straight forward, and a little cliche, but it's surprisingly engaging for a story in a military shooter. The rights of the hollow children and the hybrids touches on some very real current moral issues. The prejudice, ignorance and hypocrisy towards these robots and their offspring is infuriating, but it accurately represents a lot of human history. The events surrounding these morale issue stands out, and it honestly made me look at the protagonist and his allies in a negative light on occasion. Their hatred and willingness to put these people down disturbed me. As for Dan, his story is entertaining, with fleshed out characters and moments that truly hold impact or make you laugh. Binary Domain's story is truly the most memorable thing in this game. Lastly, the multiplayer community for this game is largely gone, and it's not even considered very good multiplayer either way, so it's best to avoid it altogether and play this game for its story. Overall, Binary Domain is a great game, with solid gameplay and an awesome story. It's a true hidden gem that deserves your attention.

Dead Space 3 is one of those games that's been getting a lot of flack recently from fans for taking a route similar to Resident Evil 5, essentially ditching the survival-horror gameplay for a more action-oriented experience. Contrary to popular opinion, I firmly claim that RE5 proved taking the series in a different direction could work successfully, and Dead Space 3 only helps to further cement my standing. If you played Dead Space games, you already know how it works. The necromorphs (space-zombies) charge at you with blades for hands and the quickest way for you to take them down is to dismember them, cutting off limb after limb instead of simply pumping them full of bullets. Along with this you have your stasis and kinesis modules, allowing you to slow down your enemies and impale them with sharp narrow projectiles. The core gameplay largely remains intact, but what keeps DS3 fresh is the biggest tweak; the crafting system. The currency used to buy weapons and armor in the previous titles has been largely removed and swapped out for scrap you use to upgrade your armor and craft your weapons. Crafting weapons is a process that's easy to understand but hard to explain, which is probably the reason Visceral didn't bother adding a meaningful tutorial to walk you through it. It's not hard to figure out so after a little experimentation I was able to craft some absolutely awesome weapons. The way it works is that each individual weapon has room for two guns, meaning you'll be able to use two firearms with one hand. The only flaws I could see with this is that the weapons don't act independent of each other. You can't fire both simultaneously and each weapon's rate of fire affects the other, so you can't fire your lower gun while your upper gun is still on a cool down which seems to take away one of the potential advantages of having this mechanic in the first place. Also, only having two weapon slots is disappointing. Overall, the gameplay still remains the same and manages to be just as enjoyable as it was, even in the new action oriented gameplay, and the crafting system while far from perfect adds a surprisingly layer of depth. Your ability to survive against the necromorphs isn't dependent on how much ammo you have and the weapons the game gives you, but instead is based on the weapons you create to combat your foes. The only flaw that hasn't been fixed from Dead Space 2 is the cheap attacks from behind, which is still annoying. Luckily, crafting weapons does help make this flaw much more manageable, but that doesn't excuse it for being there in the first place. As for the online component, the competitive multiplayer has been swapped for a new cooperative mode. Strictly online with no split-screen, player 2 takes control of Earth gov soldier John Carve, and at first glance, coop seems like a new mechanic that's largely tacked on. However, after playing both campaigns respectively, it's much more thought out than you'd think. For the most part, cutscenes in the game stay the same, regardless of which mode you're playing, so the game instead adds additional cutscenes and dialogue to enhance the coop experience. Carver himself may just be a simple palate swap, considering he plays and handles just like the main character Isaac, but what makes Carver stand out is his strikingly different personality. Whereas Isaac is more compassionate and sympathetic, Carver is callous and cruel. The mission is the most important thing, and he's willing to sacrifice anyone, including himself to complete it. It's this personality that leads to the more interesting dynamics between Isaac and Carver's partnership. Coop missions have been added in the game as well, allowing for a small subplot that's missing from the single player campaign that centers on Carver dealing with the hallucinations caused by the Aliens. Isaac has already defeated his demons, but Carver is facing all of the guilt he has for what he did to his wife and son, and it's up to Isaac to help him through it. These missions are definitely the best of what the story has to offer, especially considering the turn the story has taken. Up to this point, Dead Space's lore and story hasn't been hard to understand, but this installment is where the origins of the necromorphs and the markers becomes completely convoluted. After multiple playthroughs, I'm still not completely sure what it was Isaac and Carver were trying to stop by the end. There are also a few annoying parts where Carver and Isaac have an annoying lack of reaction to the events happening around them, leading to a few irritating plot holes. Despite the flaws in story, Dead Space 3's core still remains intact, and with the new tweaks like crafting and coop, DS3 lives up as a worthy game for the franchise. Despite it ditching the horror atmosphere, Dead Space 3 handles the action gameplay well, and it's why the game succeeds where it could've easily failed.

Resident Evil 4 has one hell of a legacy behind it. Often considered to be the best of the whole franchise and being credited as one of the third person shooters that revolutionized the whole genre, RE4 has some serious hype behind it, and after playing it for the first time ever nearly a decade after it came out, it's clear to me why this game is so famous. The game stars Resident Evil's most beloved protagonist Leon Kennedy, who has recently transferred from a cop to working directly under the order of the president, and his first order of business is to rescue Ashley Graham, a young girl that has been kidnapped by a cult known as the Los Illuminados. Kennedy heads to the third world village to find out that the residents of the town aren't exactly friendly, and Kennedy must do everything use everything in his skill set to rescue her. The gameplay isn't the traditional third person shooter where a crosshair is centered in the screen and the screen moves with it. Instead, RE4 employs a laser at the end of every gun to allow for exact precision when firing your shots, and after playing the game, you'll know exactly why this is important. Every standard grunt thrown at you has a weak spot, typically centering in the head or the legs, and hitting this weak spot with a gun stuns your enemy, leaving them open to a devastating melee attack. It's a good system and the melee attacks usually have a wide range of attack, allowing you to hit multiple enemies with one good strike, and since RE4's main idea of difficulty is throwing a whole crowd of enemies at you, this system helps to take them out quickly. It also helps to conserve ammo, which is a primary objective of any survival horror game worthy of the genre. The inventory management is more **** with items taking up a certain amount of space depending on their size and importance. Powerful weapons take up more room and it's up to you to manage your inventory effectively. If you run out of ammo or die due to a lack of healing items, it's your own fault. Even though the main enemies are just grunts, there's a large variety of enemy types. There's a giant ogre that requires you to be fast on your feet and requires more bullets thrown at it rather than hitting a weak spot. There's invisible bugs that are require less damage but are harder to hit, and there's also the legendary one-hit kill, chainsaw wielding maniac that RE4 is legendary for. There's also some boss fights, with some being really well-designed and the others being a bit boring, but the overall variety of enemy's helps keep gameplay fresh. Any gameplay can get repetitive so RE4 actually throwing different enemies requiring new tactics keeps things from getting stale. The only real flaw with gameplay are the enemies that throw things at you. Shooting their projectiles is easy enough but becomes impossible when the enemy throwing things is hidden by a dense crowd, and with the lack of a dodge ability and the stiff tank controls preventing any quick movement, these attacks start to feel cheap. The biggest problem this game has is easily Ashley herself. Her A.I. isn't badly programmed but is instead just badly designed. Commanding her to follow or stop is easy, but having her duck when you're aiming in her general direction becomes a hazard as you try to take out enemies going for her. Instead or running like she should, Ashley will stay planted, often getting herself killed. For a girl that's supposed to come off as feisty, independent and smart, this design only makes you shake your head as her stupid mistakes. Mistakes aside, the gameplay is still fun, and these gripes don't bog down the experience. The story itself feels simple and easy to follow, with the only complaint centering around Ada Wong and her side of the events. Ada has her own little campaign, and it's supposed to show that more was going on than originally intended, but by the time the game ends, these loose threads don't seem to amount to anything. Playing as Ada is still fun and feels like well made DLC before DLC was even an idea. Another big surprise is the amount of replay value present here. Along with new game plus and a new difficulty mode, Ada's campaigns, Mercenaries mode with multiple characters, hidden weapons and outfits that can change the gameplay, RE4 has a ton of content to keep you coming back to it, on top of the 15 hour campaign. Overall, RE4 is still a great third-person shooter that holds up as one of the best games of the sixth generation. Although I don't believe it's perfect like most fans and reviewers would claim, I couldn't help but stare in awe at how amazing this game is, and how great it must've been during it's prime. RE4 was an amazing game that was well worth the purchase price, and is still one of the greatest third person shooters ever made.

Ride to Hell: Retribution got absolutely panned when it came out. Not quite content to dub it as the worst game of 2013, many companies since then have declared it to be one of the worst games of all time. Five minutes into playing this game, I immediately saw why. Right off the bat, simply looking at the game will let you know how poorly made it is. The graphics are absolutely terrible, consisting of blurry backgrounds, terrible character models (of which there are only five for all females), and has constant texture pop-in every time a scene loads. Sometimes the textures fail to appear before a cutscene ends, which is confusing considering the lack of detail in every environment, character, and enemy should prevent this from happening. The sound design is horrendous. The voice acting is so terrible that it could easily give the original Resident Evil a run for it's money, and the motorcycles in the game sound closer to weed-whackers rather than something resembling a bike. If a sound effect doesn't sound terrible to you, it's probably because it's not actually in the game. Many sound effects are straight up missing, leaving you confused as to why a vehicle is actually running considering the engine doesn't seem to be turned on as you pass it. Despite the obvious lack of production value in the graphics and sound design, Retribution could've made all of it up if it had the gameplay done right, but unsurprisingly, the game got all of that wrong as well. The shooting feels lazily made, with aiming that is so claustrophobic and stiff that precision doesn't is non-existent. This only serves to screw you considering every enemy is a walking bullet sponge that will only go down realistically with a single headshot. With the terrible aiming in place, trying to accomplish this on every enemy becomes a challenge in its own. The cover system barely works as it only serves to leave your head completely exposed, meaning taking cover while you're low on health only helps to seal your fate. It also doesn't help that the cover and dodge move are linked to the same button, so trying to dodge a grenade will often cause you to stay in place of it's destination. Speaking of which, any explosion near your character causes him to exit cover like an idiot and leave himself exposed to enemy fire while he dazedly stumbles around. Each flaw is bad by itself, but it only gets worse when they all come to a head, creating punishingly difficult sections where your only hope is for the enemy A.I. to mess up and make your job easier (This is literally why I beat the final level of the game, since the one enemy who had been killing me decided to fire his rocket launcher at a pole instead). Melee combat is just a poor imitation of the Arkham games that barely works, causing you to shoot down any enemies attempting to fist fight you instead or dropping your guns and leaving yourself exposed to enemy fire. Plus, fighting is littered with quick time events that are so easy the lack of challenge is just insulting to your intelligence. This all being said, the game is rarely difficult, but the few times you die will only cause you to rage quit when you see just how far back the game sets you due to the terrible checkpoint system. The only gameplay off foot are the driving sequences, in which you'll have to drive overly long distances to reach your destination, and you'll do this by dealing with the oversensitive steering and lack of a reverse button. Try to back up or get pushed back an inch by crashing into an obstacle at break-neck speeds and the game will simply reset you on the track. Have this happen too much and the game will kill you off by throwing you into the side of the track and have your bike explode against your will. The one good thing this game probably has is the decent bike customization, with an extensive array of options, but when you're put on a linear track where seeing the side of your bike usually means you're dead, it's kind of hard to care about customizing your bike considering there's little pay off or reason to due so. The terrible graphics only make the decision easier. By the time you finish Retribution, the game's cliched story and characters leave you less than satisfied. Any important death or plot twist leaves you unfazed, and by the end you won't care about any of the characters involved. My own character could've died at the end and I probably wouldn't have even batted an eye, or I would've simply smiled out of happiness. Overall, after experiencing the game for myself, suffering through it's terrible graphics, sound design, story, and gameplay, I can honestly say that all of the hate going towards Ride to Hell is one hundred percent justified. Unlike other games that fail to function or have mechanics that don't work, Ride to Hell actually manages to work just as intended, which only makes it all the more sad that the game is actually functioning the way it was meant to.

Why does this game exist? Unlike most movie tie-in games that come out to cap on a movie's success, Rambo the Video game simply unearths the license well after it's last debut in the theaters. Sadly enough, that would make you think the company behind it was probably trying to create a game worthy of the license. Unfortunately, as soon as you saw the first screen shot of Rambo in 2013, we all knew it was just going to be a lazy, poorly made cash-in, and that's exactly what we got here. Initially, setting up Rambo as a rail shooter isn't exactly a bad premise, especially for a game that's supposed to be following the story line set by the first three movies. Plus, rail shooters have proven to be fun on consoles as well as the arcade, so it comes off as a smart move at first. Along with the standard rail shooting, you also have an ability called wrath, which puts you into a rage mode where ammo is unlimited and kills restore your health. It all sounds promising at first, but quickly becomes boring after the first hour without the presence of any real challenge. The cover system is abysmal and sometimes, it doesn't even work. Often your cover will be destroyed or will fail to take you out of the firing line of your enemies, and that's even if you have the ability to take cover. More than likely, Rambo will just stop and start shooting out in the open, forcing you to take damage against your will. The developers obviously didn't know how to make a game difficult without making it cheap, and nowhere is that more clear than when the game throws new enemy types at you. You'll fight enemies beside the standard grunts, but none of them are good ideas. Grenadiers **** because the window you have to kill them is so small. If you're in cover yourself, killing them is hopeless. Flamethrowers and armored grunts are sound like good ideas at first, with both of them having their own weak spots, but even then they still absorb a ridiculous amount of bullets before they die. Plus, if you have the auto-aim on, aiming for their head or flame pack is almost impossible. Nowhere are the game's flaws more prominent than in the final level. The last engagement in Rambo III is punishingly difficult, with the game throwing absolutely everything at you. Divided into three sections, Rambo manages to throw anything and everything it can at you, forcing you to duck in and out of cover while you fire a shot every few seconds. The auto aim is helpful in ensuring you'll hit your enemies when you pop out, but like I said earlier, the auto-aim only inhibits you when taking on armored enemies. The only relief of gameplay you have from the shooting are the quick time events, which are meant to substitute for any melee combat or stealth mechanics, but they're too easy and grow stale. Even the stealth sections with the bow are boring, and go on for way too long. In all honesty, I did like seeing the fights (which are supposed to be recreated from the movies) from a different camera perspective than the movie, but it was disappointing to see all the inaccuracies involved, which is the biggest insult to this franchise. The stealth montage of Rambo taking down the officers isn't accurately recreated to begin with, but the biggest problem with it is that the game has you slaughter almost every cop you face. It's one thing to take an alternate approach to a story, but changing it outright is unacceptable. As if that all wasn't bad enough, the game looks and sounds terrible. The graphics are pathetic, and character models fail to accurately recreate their movie counterparts, with Rambo probably being the worst example. With his freakishly big hair, dumb face, awkward muscle placement and his constant glow from way too much sweat, Rambo ends up looking like a deformed and sweaty Gene Simmons. As for the sound, almost all of the dialogue is ripped directly from the movie, but the developers were so incompetent they didn't even bother to enhance the sound to standard quality. Needless to say, all the dialogue and speech from movies made over 3 decades ago don't hold up, especially when compared to the rest of the game, making the sound design inconsistent. Plus, hearing the same dialogue and music repeat over and over is beyond annoying. Rambo the Video Game is just sad. With so many bad elements here, it's easy to ignore the few good things the game had going for it. The prologue, the perks system, and the upgrades are all bogged down by the rest of the crap you have to sift through. With only three hours of gameplay to offer, Rambo the video game is a lazy, incompetent, badly designed cash-in that takes away from the legacy the license already has. Nobody should play this game, not even if you're a hardcore Rambo fan. Stay away.

Vanquish is a game that doesn't focus on trying to tell a story. It doesn't focus on trying to create an immersive world. It doesn't even concentrate on making good characters. What Vanquish strives to accomplish is to create an absolutely high octane adrenaline fueled shooting fest using fast paced gameplay, awesome bosses, and constant gameplay change ups to keep the game fresh and fun. Ultimately, it accomplishes this goal, but when you look at Vanquish outside of the core game mechanics, it's revealed to be a very hollow experience. Vanquish, despite it's flaws, gets one thing right for the most part, and that's the gameplay, which centers around your character, Sam, who has been fitted with an Augmented Reaction suit, which enhances his abilities and gives him new ones. With the AR suit, Sam is more durable, can boost and slide at fast speeds, has more strength, and increased agility. He even has an ability called AR mode, which allows Sam to slow time around him, allowing you to line up shots while boosting, dodging, or save yourself when you're in danger. The controls for this game are perfect. Despite all the room for error with the control scheme, you're always in perfect control of Sam, what he's doing, and how he's doing it. It's really impressive that Vanquish lets you have so much control over such a fast character. More impressive is the amount of effort put in to make sure the game doesn't become stale. Throughout the game, there are multiple change-ups, including things like Anti-gravity segments, sniping sections, turret gameplay, and many more variations that keep the gameplay fresh. The bosses and mini bosses are epic and are designed to center around the AR mode gameplay, where you have to slow down time to line up the perfect shot on specific weak points. Even the quick time event finishers used on recycled bosses are different in an attempt to make every battle with one feel unique in it's own way. The gameplay is the one thing Vanquish got right, which is why it's all the more surprising to see just how much less effort is invested into the rest of the game. For starters, the story is a complete joke. Set in a futuristic Earth setting centering around Russia trying to dominate the world through technical warfare, Sam is sent in along with the military as a mercenary to help the American marines, which is a simple premise that works but falls apart when the story tries to be more complicated than it needs to. The whole conspiracy revealed near the end of the game feels shoe horned in, trying to create a more complicated narrative in a title that just has no real place for one. The subplot centering on Sam and his relationship with a high ranking Marine named Burns is somewhat interesting and tries to touch on some morality issues, but it ultimately doesn't amount to anything. Even the final interaction between Sam and Burns feels strange and out of place and feels like an attempt to make your care about a character that you really have no reason to. The story is just the start for a few problems. There are plenty of cheap attacks from enemies that one shot you or send you into a near death state, which become way more frequent as the game progresses. This also highlights a flaw in the AR mode, where every action centering around the suit - melee, boosting, and AR mode - uses fuel cells. They recharge fast but need to cool down if completely used. The main problem with this method is that there's no manual button to turn AR mode on or off, so when you take cover after going into a near death state, AR mode continues to deplete your fuel cells all the way to the end, causing a cool-down, and as the game becomes more cheap and difficult, it makes all the abilities provided by fuel cells less ideal in areas where you need them the most. You'll just end up shooting a few bullets at a time from cover instead of boosting everywhere like the game is meant to on the later levels. The last thing this game gets wrong is the sheer lack of any replay value. There are upgrades to be picked up in the field, but they only increase the max capacity of your currently selected weapon. There's no upgrade to increase your health, fuel cells, or the max amount of melee attacks you can do. The abilities you start the game with are the ones you'll end the game with, meaning there's no real new game plus. There are challenges and extras, but there's no real reason to play the game a second time after your first playthrough. Despite the solid gameplay mechanics, Vanquish's lack of anything else substantial is what sets it back. In all honesty, I recommend that you borrow this game from a friend, rent it, or buy it for cheap, and that's because you'll have an awesome playthrough on the first go, and have no reason to return to it afterword.

The Dead to Rights franchise is in trouble. As a series that started out with a strong opening title on the GameCube, Dead to Rights has been on a steady decline with each subsequent installment. In desperate need of something new, Dead to Rights: Retribution is released as the reboot that will revitalize the Dead to Rights license. However, without doing anything creative or memorable, Retribution fails to achieve its goal, and instead may just be a testimony to how far the Dead to Rights license has fallen. Retribution isn’t a bad game by any means. However, it isn’t exactly great either, and that problem mainly stems from the lack of any originality. The gunplay may be satisfying and is easily the best thing this game has going for it, but it doesn’t do anything to stand out from the standard third-person shooter. The cover mechanic works well but can also be inconsistent, and the bullet time ability), while fun is ripped straight from the Max Payne series, and even that franchise did more with its mechanic ten years earlier. The gunplay may be solid, but it doesn’t actually do anything to stand out in a market oversaturated with shooters. The melee combat is somewhat of a mixed bag. The standard light and heavy attacks can be chained together to create combos, and tapping the block button can be used to counter enemy attacks if timed correctly. This system is fine when fighting a lone enemy, but more often than not, you’re going to be swarmed by hostiles. When this happens, all strategy in the melee combat is replaced by erratic button mashing, and is only made worse by the suicidal AI brawlers that charge you in the middle of a firefight. Because melee combat completely exposes you, more often than not, you’ll just simply shoot the enemies down to get them out of the way. I will admit though, bosses and mini bosses are well-designed and creative, save for the final one. Some boss fights are simple, while others actually require tactics and strategy to defeat them. The only disappointing enemy is the final boss. Despite an epic battle setting, this boss centers around the shifty countering mechanic, making the final boss a frustrating mess instead of the epic showdown it should’ve been. The one thing Retribution has going for it is your companion Shadow. Despite being a dog, Shadow is deadly in combat, and you can issue commands to him using a simple button prompts. By doing so, Shadow can be commanded to take down specific enemies, open up their defense, retrieve weapons, or help you out when enemies gang up on you. For the most part, Shadow’s AI is competent, and he managed to save my life on a few occasions. There are even a few segments where you take control of Shadow, and infiltrate into areas through stealth gameplay, but like the rest of the game, the stealth mechanics seem to be copy and pasted from other games, and never changes as the game moves on. Despite the game trying to pass of the dog gameplay as unique, there’s no real difference from playing as a human, and it makes Shadow feel more like a gimmick, rather than something unique. The graphics in Retribution are not up to par. Not only has this game not aged well, but it didn’t even hold up compared to games released the concurrent and previous years. Overall, the game looks bad by any standard. The story, dialogue, and characters are full of cliches, and there’s nothing unique about the story, and despite the twists and “heartbreaking” moments, nothing really stands out. Your character, Jack Slate, is the stereotypical movie badass that you've seen countless times before. It’s in the games last few chapters when the game finally get better. In chapters 8 – 10, Retribution fires on all cylinders, with more drama and twists added to the story, better objectives, two unique and fun boss fights, better designed levels, and better objectives. It’s in these last few chapters where Retribution really comes into its own, and is easily the best part of the game. Overall, Retribution is not a bad game, but it fails to stand out as a great game. Retribution doesn’t have an original bone in its body, and instead relies on mechanics taken from other games, but fails to add anything to make them better or different. In some cases, they’re done better in the original titles they stem from. The saddest thing about Retribution is that it was supposed to be the reboot that would breathe new air into a dying franchise. Instead, Retribution might just be the final nail in its coffin.

Murdered: Soul Suspect starts out strong. Your character, Ronan, is murdered in the streets of Salem, Massachusetts, by an infamous murderer known as the Bell Killer. Ronan's gunned down and becomes a ghost, and is unable to pass on to the afterlife until his hangups on Earth are resolved. Ronan then makes it his personal mission to find the identity of the killer and stop him by using his new abilities as a ghost to track him down. The game starts off strong, but the intro becomes the game's highest point and quickly falls from there. The sole cause of this is Soul Suspect's lack of any compelling gameplay whatsoever. The gameplay first comes off as something new and exciting. As a ghost, you have abilities that no human has access to. Along with the standard abilities of walking through objects (that haven't been consecrated) and teleporting, you also have the skills of revealing ghostly essences and possessing people. Along with investigating the objects already apart there, you can use these abilities to draw out more clues unseen. By revealing the essence of ghostly objects, you unveil clues that are important to the investigation but are not currently there. Also, by possessing people, you are able to read their minds, or manipulate their thoughts to reveal what they know or make them carry out certain actions. All these abilities help you add more pieces to the puzzle, and it is your responsibility to then use all the evidence to draw a conclusion. The ghostly clues and the conclusion usually result in CSI-like flashbacks of what actually happened at the crime scene, which in turn moves the story forward. The gameplay is reminiscent of games like L.A. Noire, Heavy Rain, and even the Wolf Among Us. Unlike those games however, Soul Suspect's gameplay includes all the style of an investigation but none of the substance. When you're investigating an area, the gameplay comes down to simply examining all of the objects with button prompts. This can be difficult because not all of the objects that need to be examined have anything about them that stand out. However, the gameplay becomes lacking when you draw your conclusion. To do this, all of the clues you have are displayed in front of you and you need to pick the three most relevant clues that answer your question. You must choose the right ones to move forward, but the frustration comes when you realize that there's absolutely no consequence for picking the wrong clue. If you do this, the game tells you it's wrong and to pick another one. That's it. The same goes for when you use a clue to manipulate people. The story doesn't change or alter depending on your decisions or skills at putting together the pieces, meaning the story stays the same regardless of what you do. Sure, shows like Law and Order or CSI do the same thing, but that's not right for something that is supposed to be an interactive experience, especially when games like LA Noire have already done similar gameplay much better in the past. The same goes for the stealth gameplay against demons. Sneaking up behind demons to execute them can be somewhat fun, but it's too simple to be considered challenging. Also, since demons have little to do with the main plot, combat feels tacked on simply for the sake of adding combat. Even the limited interactions with the real environment feel cheap. Being able to mess with technology through poltergeists to cause distractions seems cool, but unless the piece of technology you're using is part of a scripted sequence, the humans in the area show zero reaction to it. In one part, I made a TV screen stop working and the man watching the TV did nothing. Overall, the gameplay's simplicity makes it a very hollow experience. That doesn't mean everything's bad. For example, the story is actually one of the best pieces, with truly shocking and gruesome moments that stand out. It even does a good job on playing off the already established history of the Salem Witch Trials. The story is interesting from beginning to end, which is ultimately kept my playing until the end. The environment of Salem is well done, with consecrated objects from the city's pass coming through in the real world. Along with the standard world objects, you'll see a lot of old ones as well. Salem itself is also littered with spirits, each with their own stories, and a few with questions that you can help solve through well done side quests. The city is also littered with many objects that you can use to learn the city's history, Ronan's own history, and the history of the relationship between him and his deceased wife, giving the story and character's context. Soul Suspect is confusing, not because of the mystery, but because of the obvious effort put into the story, characters and environment, but very little in the gameplay. In all honesty, instead of playing the game, you'll have just as much fun watching an entire Let's Play on YouTube. Don't waste your time with this title.

Shadow of Mordor is a game that didn't have a lot of hype leading up to it. Many wrote it off as another cash in of a famous license that ripped of gameplay from popular franchises while promising what many thought the game couldn't deliver. Despite this, Shadow of Mordor not only lives up to it's promise, but it also rises as one of the best game's of 2014. SOM's story centers around Talion, a Blackgate ranger who's brutally murdered along with his family in a ritualistic killing committed by the Black Hand of Sauron, in the hopes of summoning the spirit of Celebrimbor from beyond the grave and absorbing it's power. Celebrimbor instead merges with Talion, bringing him back from the dead in a quest for revenge against Sauron and his allies. It's an interesting start to a game, but what really makes SOM shine is the brand new Nemesis system, a mechanic that centers around the Uruk hierarchy. Through your actions, you'll see Uruks rise in power, die, and even fight each other. If an Uruk kills you, they'll rise in rank and power. If you kill the Uruk, another will take his spot, or he'll come back later with scars caused by your last encounter. What truly makes the Nemesis system stand out is that every Uruk remembers you and your actions. If you defeated them, fled, or even died at their hand, the Uruk will remember your actions when you meet again. Besides their unique names and titles, the Uruks also have their own set of strengths, weaknesses, and fears. Some Uruks have to be taken down using stealth, while others are impervious to it. The same goes for combat and your ranged attacks, with some being weaker to certain attacks and more immune to others. Also, if an Uruk has a fear, you can exploit that to put them in a weakened position, and all of these factors force you to plan accordingly, changing up the gameplay with each enemy you face. This mechanic truly hits its stride when you get the ability to brand, which gives you control of an Uruk's mind and free will, allowing you to turn him against his allies, which in turn spawn events that you can get involved with directly, or let them play out by themselves. The simple ability to brand makes the Nemesis system more fun than it already was because it allows you to bend the Uruk hierarchy to your will. Ultimately, the Nemesis system is an amazing, innovative mechanic that makes SOM the first truly next gen title. It's a system that promised way too much but ended up delivering so much more. Of course, none of this would matter if the gameplay wasn't good, and fortunately, it is. The combat is a blast to play with, mainly because it's simple to understand but has so much substance behind it, especially when you start upgrading and unlocking new moves. Admittedly, the combat and a lot of the extra mechanics are lifted straight from the Batman Arkham franchise with SOM taking it's own spin on it with sword based combat, with all of the blood and brutality that Batman would never resort to. The game does add its own spin by allowing you to instantly switch to your bow, causing time to slow down and allowing you to line up precision shots or blow up explosives. However, the counters, stuns, and vaulting are all reminiscent of Arkham, with the only real complaints being that the vaulting is a somewhat wonky mechanic and that some of the more unique enemies have overpowered cheap attacks, but these issues get easier to deal with as the game progresses. The stealth and climbing mechanics also highly resemble the Assassin's Creed franchise, which let you scale walls, navigate beams and ledges, and dive from high spots, just like AC. However, the stealth gameplay is what truly shines and actually manages to surpass the AC franchise, making stealth so much more accessible and fun than AC ever has. In all honesty, the stealth and parkour mechanics are actually a step up from the AC franchise. Finally, the last thing this game did an outstanding job on was the graphics. The game looks absolutely amazing, with beautiful colors, amazing detail, fantastic rain/hail effects, and a consistently smooth framerate from start to finish. This game is an absolutely technical marvel. The only place this game falls flat is with the story and characters involved. Although the story starts out strong, and immediately captures your attention, the game never really manages to reach that height of excitement again. Many of the characters are boring, Talion and Celebrimbor included, and the few interesting characters included aren't that important to the story. Plus, it doesn't help that relationship between Talion and Celebrimbor lacks any real chemistry or interesting dynamics. Finally, the ending is a weak sequel-bait conclusion with a disappointing boss fight to top it all off. Despite that, Shadow of Mordor is an amazing game, with gameplay that'll keep you hooked from start to finish. I don't care what kind of game you're into. You cannot pass this game by.

After being bought back from the brink of death multiple times, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance finally releases. Despite not following the typical Metal Gear formula, Rising manages to find a new formula of it's own, and surprisingly enough, it manages to succeed, despite some hiccups along the way. Revengeance takes place after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, and Raiden, still a cyborg ninja, now works for a paramilitary division to support his family. Unfortunately, while on an operation to defend a VIP, Raiden is ambushed by a rival Paramilitary group who disagrees with the VIPs moves for peace. They manage to successfully assassinate the VIP while simultaneously humiliating Raiden in a crushing defeat. He is then rebuilt with a new and improved Cyborg body to carry out revenge against the paramilitary lieutenants that killed the VIP. The first preface I must address is if you're expecting the gameplay shown in Kojima's original demos several years ago, you're gonna be disappointed. With the new developer, everything from the gameplay to the story has been tweaked or changed completely since that time. It's not the same game. With that out of the way, the gameplay essentially turns out to a standard hack and slash with a few tweaks. You use the square and triangle button to use using light and heavy attacks, and if you have an alternate weapon, that weapon takes the place of the heavy attack. It sounds standard, but Rising has two new mechanics that make it stand out from your typical hack and slash title. The first of which is parrying. What makes parrying stand out is how useful, unique, but frustrating it can be all at the same time. The blocking mechanic is activated by pressing the light attack button while also flicking the left stick in the direction of the attacker. Doing this puts Raiden into a blocking stance, allowing him to stop enemy attacks. It's takes some getting used to it, and you'll get stomped on by your enemies at the start because of it, but when you do master it, the mechanic becomes second hand for the most part. I say for the most part because of this mechanic's frustration, which is the warning flash you get from enemies. When an enemy executes an attack, a red flash will appear letting you know to parry, and if the attack can't be parried, the flash will instead be orange. The main problem with the flash is the lack of consistency. Some attacks, despite being unblockable, will flash red, fooling you into blocking and taking an attack head on as a result. It also doesn't help that sometimes one flash will count for 5 consecutive attacks, so you'll block for one not knowing that you need to actually block for more. This inconsistency leads some of your hits being cheap or unfair, and frustrating as a result. If you do block successfully though, you'll activate the Rising's second unique mechanic; blade mode. When the prompt appears, time will slow down, allowing you to control Raiden's sword directly and choose what and where to cut. Most enemies will have a weak spot that - if you cut correctly - will allow you to absorb the enemies core, restoring your health and energy completely. It's addicting and does help alleviate some of the frustrations with parrying, since any damage done to you is quickly rectified. Ultimately, the main highlight of Rising are the amazing boss fights, which are these adrenaline-fueled battles where blade mode is used creatively to take your foe down. Each fight is incredibly fun, well thought out, and unique. Sure, all the before mentioned problems are present in some of the fights (the last one especially), but it doesn't take away from how truly epic each encounter is, and they all give you a new weapon after they're done. The drive behind the story motivating Raiden to go forward though, is honestly a little convoluted. What starts as a simple revenge story of bad guys vs. good guys quickly changes to stopping the harvest of children's brains (I'm not kidding), to stopping a high ranking official from starting wars to create peace. The main gripe is that the story seems to be all over the place, but it's something Metal Gear fans should expect. The game itself looks okay, but none of the graphics are very impressive .With drab environments and boring level design, nothing in this game will catch your eye and make you stop to look at it. Surprisingly though, the game manages to run at a consistent 60 frames per second which is impressive for how fast paced it is. The biggest complaint is how short the game is. Even on hard, this game will take five hours max to finish. However, there is a lot of replay value, including upgrades and extra moves for your standard weapon as well as the weapons you unlock from boss fights. Plus, there are lots of unlockables, VR missions, and difficulties. Ultimately, this game is fun, and most Metal Gear fans will like it. As for hack and slash fans who want something fresh, look no further than here.

After the success of the Walking Dead, Telltale sweeps in with yet another title using the same story telling gameplay that made that series so successful. Despite its hiccups, the Wolf among US is an impressive and immersive gameplay experience that should be experienced by any gamer with a love for storytelling. The Wolf among Us is set before the events of Bill Willingham’s comic book series, Fables, a series that portrays characters of fairy tales living in the human realm after being pushed out of their own. They live in Fabletown, a small community that’s policed by Sheriff Bigby Wolf, your character. With the ability to appear human at will, Bigby not only does his best to keep Fabletown peaceful, but is also determined to show everyone that he’s put his days of being big and bad behind him. In a game centering on moral dilemma, Bigby is the perfect character to have as your protagonist, as he constantly tries to keep Fabletown peaceful while at the same time trying to resist the evil tendencies inside him, so if you go down the path of the law abiding Bigby, or down the road of the Big Bad Wolf, both choices come off as believable and appropriate. Everything goes to hell for Fabletown when a fable is murdered, and left on Bigby’s doorstep as a result. Bigby must team up with Snow White to find the murderer and bring him to justice, but in doing so, Bigby uncovers the deep corruption buried underneath the city’s surface, and also discovers that one murder goes miles deeper than Bigby ever would've expected it to. Despite Bigby’s new claims of turning over a new leaf, the Fables haven’t exactly forgotten his past sins, and most fables don’t like him as a result, let alone trust him. It’s what contributes to a lot of the conflict during Bigby’s investigation. After running into characters like the Woodsman, or Collin of the Three Little Pigs, it’s clear that everyone remembers his past. Hearing the Woodsman talk about how he cut Bigby up and threw him in a river or how Collin believes a drink will help him forget the pain of Bigby blowing down his house are great references to the original stories, while at the same time managing not to come off as too corny. As for the gameplay, if you've played Walking Dead, you know how it is. You walk around at fixed camera angles while controlling a crosshair that allows you to interact with the environment and talk to characters. Essentially it’s a point and click adventure for consoles, and a very well controlled one at that. Conversations between Wolf and other characters still works the same, giving you multiple conversation options to choose. Your decisions and choices affect the story, and ultimately determine its outcome, even more so than the Walking Dead did. You do have decisions that actually require thought, and will change how the story plays out, with each decision having dire consequences. Unfortunately, there are a few decisions that feel inconsequential, meaning that despite what decision you made, the result ultimately remains the same. This is especially true considering one fable at the end of the game. After playing the game twice, and making different decisions for this Fable both times, the outcome remained the same. However, talking to people doesn't always work, and when it comes to action, the Wolf among Us’ new quick time events for these moments work well. Along with pressing the corresponding button to dodge and fend off attacks, you also have a new mechanic which requires you to move the cursor over to a designated spot and press the corresponding button in time. Instead of just waiting for the prompt, you have to make sure you bring the analog stick to the right spot to make the prompt appear. It’s easy enough without being too forgiving, and it makes all the battles fun. Aside from gameplay, the Wolf among Us’ presentation is exceptional, with beautifully detailed cel-shaded graphics and a smooth picture of 60 frames per second, although the framerate does slow and stutter occasionally. As for the sound, the voiced acting is fantastically done, with returning voices from the Walking Dead, as well as new ones that all do a good job or presenting their characters faithfully. The only real complaint I do have for the Wolf among Us is that the episodes aren't all of equal quality like the Walking Dead, which was consistently good. Despite their strengths, episodes 2 and 4 fall kind of flat. It’s understandable that every game series will have its ups and downs, but this just isn't acceptable in an episodic series. It’s easier to deal with if you play all the episodes consecutively, instead of just one at a time like most fans had to. Finally, the conclusion is well done, with an ending that makes the game feel like a complete story while leaving enough open for a sequel. Ultimately, the Wolf among Us does a good job of copying Walking Dead while at the same time being a great game in it's own right.

Since this game’s conception, I Am Alive has had a very rocky development history. Originally started in 2003, nothing concrete came along until 2008, when a trailer at E3 was shown. Since then, it was cancelled, passed on to Ubisoft, re-engineered, and finally released in 2012. After such a horrible development cycle, you would expect I Am Alive to be a very poor title, which only makes it all the more surprising that I Am Alive manages to be the impressive title that it is. I Am Alive takes place one year after an unspecified disaster known as “the Event” has left the world in ruins. Dust fills the atmosphere and frequent earthquakes have destroyed all of the major cities. Your character, who was on the other side of the country when the event happened, has finally made it back to the town of Haventon, where he hopes to find his family. He arrives only to find that his family has left, and it’s his goal at that point to find them. Navigating the ruined city isn't easy. Haventon’s destroyed, the dust is thick, violent scavengers are everywhere and supplies are scarce, which make up all of the right elements for a survivor game. Finding supplies is key to your survival because you’ll need the food to replenish your lost health and stamina, which are tied to one of the main gameplay mechanics; climbing. Because Haventon is broken, climbing is the only real way to navigate it. Scaling ledges and poles is something many other games have done, but I Am Alive has its own unique take on it with the stamina bar. Any action you make that requires any effort costs stamina, climbing included. As you climb, your stamina will drain and if it drains all the way, your stamina bar will deplete next, which decreases the max stamina you have. This mechanic is simple, but it adds so much extra tension, not just because you have to hurry, but also because you don’t know how far it’ll be before you can replenish your stamina again. Be assured, you will lose both before this game’s over, so you must have supplies to replenish it. The stamina bar also come into play in areas with heavy dust, where your stamina will drain due to the lack of oxygen. The only real complaint is these areas are also large and open, which encourages you to scavenge for supplies, but also discourages you at the same time with your constantly draining stamina. Aside from supplies and climbing, the other main form of gameplay is dealing with humans. Some want your help. Others just want to be left alone. Most of them want your supplies, and they’re willing to take it from you. This is where the second gameplay mechanic comes in; hold ups. When attacked, you’ll have the opportunity to hold up many enemies using your gun. Since bullets are rare, you don’t want to shoot anyone, and the gun is really more of a threat. When someone confronts you, you’ll usually have the ability to kill at least one person before they realize, using a surprise kill. At that point, you must hold up the others and pick them off one by one. When holding up an enemy, you can order them to back up, usually with the intention of kicking them into a pit or fire. However, it’s not so simple. The A.I. is smart, and will try to charge you if you turn your back for too long. Take too long in general, and all the enemies will charge you. There are also some smaller elements to this that make it more fun. For example, some enemies are stronger and have less fear. Take them out first, and the other enemies are more likely to put down their weapons and surrender. Other enemies are armored, and you’ll have to kill them with by hitting weak points. Later, you’ll get a bow that allows you to reuse your arrow, but is also less capable of holding up enemies. Despite the gameplay being fairly solid, not everything holds up as well. Even though the sound design is done well enough, the graphics are surprisingly outdated and there are even some graphical glitches occasionally. However, the biggest misstep is a story. Despite your character trying to find his family, he immediately gets sidetracked when he finds a young girl, Mei, who has been separated from her family. At that point, the story focuses on helping her and her family. Even though they promise to help you find their family in return, your character is all too willing to help them out without question, or without pressing on his family’s possible whereabouts. Too make matters worse, the game ends on an unsatisfying cliff hanger, despite not being any closer to your original goal, and by the end, there's just too much left out in the open. Despite the story's faults and cosmetic hiccups, the solid and innovative gameplay is what ultimately carries this game forward. For fans of survival games, you have to give this game a try. It has it's problems, but they pale in comparison to the good elements that are actually here.

Ever since Spider-Man 2’s release in 2004, spidey fans have been hoping for a second game that can capture the magic that game left behind, and after seeing the swinging mechanic in the demos of the Amazing Spider-Man 2, fans left with hope. Hope that maybe this game might do what the original did 10 years ago. Unfortunately, all the fans got was another cheap cash in made by Beenox and Activison to cap on the tie-in movie’s release. The one thing to get down in a Spider-Man game is the gameplay that makes Spider-Man the superhero he is. His super strength, his wall crawling, and more importantly, his web swinging. The web swinging in this game, although not amazing, is honestly pretty fun. The game utilizes both of the triggers to make Spidey swing, tying the left and right hand to the respective triggers. Press the left trigger to swing, the web will shoot left, and Spider-Man will naturally start to turn left. It’s the same on the opposite swing. This unique mechanic works, it’s fun, and it looks cool, but it doesn't have the natural flow you’d want it to. Waiting for Spider-Man to finish an animation for him to shoot out a web well after you made him got annoying, and it ultimately gives you less control. Combine this with the awkward wall crawling and wall running that’s hard to control, and the essence of Spider-Man still remains to be captured. Next is the combat, which was actually one of the previous highlights of the first Amazing Spider-Man game. Wherein that game the combat was done well and really fun, the combat has actually taken a small hit in combat. Combat works like the Batman Arkham games, chaining attacks to increase your combo score, and using your spider-sense to counter attacks. Unlike the first game, where Spider-Man’s combat felt fast and responsive, this game’s combat feels slower and choppier. There were times where I would press the dodge button multiple times and Spider-Man just wouldn’t respond. Plus, the annoying auto lock fails to lock onto the enemies you want it to, and the combat can get on your nerves. Then there’s the boss fights, which aren't terrible by any means, but they feel so generic. For enemies like Shocker and Carnage, you’d think there’d be more variation in fighting them, but in all honesty, the boss fights don’t feel very different from fighting the generic thug on the streets. The biggest improvement from the last game is the stealth gameplay, which resulted you feeling over powered and made stealth too easy. Now, the stealth’s new restrictions actually improve it. All enemies have an area of vulnerability that you can enter for an instant takedown, which can be achieved from nearly any position. Plus, the spider sense allowing you to see through walls is a nice mechanic. Stealth is easily one of the best parts of this game. Lastly, there’s the open world of New York which easily contains the biggest problem in this game. Spider-Man’s duty as a hero is to, of course, save the city, which the game represents through side missions. However, this duty is something the game tries to force on you with the hero/menace mechanic. This mechanic sums up to how many side missions you do. Do more of them, and your hero level goes up. Ignore too many, and you could cross the line and become a menace to society, at which point the task force in the city will try to take you down. This mechanic is annoying because it forces side content - which is supposed to be optional - to be completed, or you’re punished for it. This is made worse by going farther in the game, which only creates more, and they become a grind to get through, with no worthwhile reward for completing them Now, moving away from the gameplay, the game fails to impress in any real way. The graphics are terrible, and are outdated, even on the last generation of consoles. The story is sub par, not following the movie in any real way, or even bothering to use any of the original voice actors from the film. Andrew Garfield is missing, and this Peter Parker is just a terrible looking imitation. The story does try to throw a lot of interesting characters into the mix, but they really feel shoe-horned in. Carnage, Shocker, Black Cat, and even the Green Goblin manage to suffer from this. The only really interesting character thrown in is Kraven, which is well voice acted by Steve Blume. Ultimately, Amazing Spider-Man 2 can be summed up like this. For every good thing the game does right, there's an equally bad deterrent or flaw holding it back. Either that, or the mechanics fail to introduce something compelling while at the same time not being horrible. Because of this, the game meets somewhere in the middle between good and bad. It's not the worst movie tie in game, and hardcore Spidey fans might want to try it, since it does have it's good points, but in the end, it's a really painfully average game.

After the huge disappointment that was Aliens: Colonial Marines, fans and critics were begging for an Alien game worthy of the license. SEGA and Creative Assembly responded with Alien: Isolation, a survival horror game meant to capture the magic of the original Alien film. Fortunately for the fans, Isolation succeeds where Colonial Marines failed. The game centers on Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley’s daughter, a Wayland-Yutani employee who is still currently searching for clues to her mother's whereabouts. She’s invited on an expedition to a space station, the Sevastopol, which has recently recovered information to Ellen Ripley’s whereabouts. Amanda and her colleagues arrive to find the station in ruins, all caused by a hostile Alien stalking the Sevastopol’s halls. The first thing you'll notice in Isolation is the amazing graphics and sound design. Everything in this game is perfectly detailed, from the character models, to the sharp textures, and some of the best lighting you'll ever seen in a video game. The voice acting is well done (even if the lip syncing ****), and the sound design is perfect. The creepy music and sound affects combined with the creepy dark environments make the intense atmosphere truly live up to the name Isolation. As mentioned earlier, this is a survival horror game, so it was important for the Alien to be done in a terrifying fashion, which is what Isolation gets right. The Alien looks and sounds great. Everything from the way he stomps which causes your controller to vibrate, crawls through the vents, hisses, and drools spit are all done right. The Alien’s presentation is absolutely perfect for a terrifying experience, but the best thing about the Alien is his unique AI. The Alien’s AI is unpredictable and has no set pattern. Whereas other enemies usually move like they're on a set track or route, the Alien goes wherever he feels. This prevents you from knowing what the Alien will do next, so your stealth skills must be sharp. Sure, you can distract him with items you have, but the Alien will learn and adapt to your moves. Use an item too much, and the Alien will catch on, and find you. Pull out a flamethrower, and the Alien will hesitate, until he finds an opening. To top it all off, the Alien can't be killed, but every one of his attacks are instant kills against you. All of these factors combined make Isolation a paranoia inducing experience on every playthrough. The only real complaint is the Alien’s annoying habit in staying near your area for too long. Even when he as a whole wide open area to explore, the Alien will stay near you, despite not knowing where you are, which means you’ll often wait minutes at a time in certain areas before you can make a move, which can be frustrating. Despite being the main antagonist, the Alien is not the only hostile thing on the station. Scared survivors litter the station, and will likely shoot you rather than hear you out. They’ll have guns, and you must outmaneuver them or take them down to survive. The final enemy type are the Working Joes, mannequin like Androids that have become hostile to humans. Unarmed and slow, but durable and strong, they more than make up for their weaknesses and become terrifying in their own right, but they also center on the story’s biggest weak point. At one point in the story, the Alien takes a backseat and the Working Joes become the primary antagonist in the story. It’s an interesting concept, but it feels more like a misfire, especially since it takes too long for the Alien to take the spotlight again. Also, the suited Working Joes feel incredibly cheap. In all honesty, I do believe that this game has small problems. Clunky UI, slightly buggy, a dull story with a sequel bait ending, and an okay but underwhelming character (you can see the parallels they were trying to draw with her mother), but I do believe that the game’s problems have been exaggerated greatly. The backtracking is not nearly as bad as reviewers make you think. You do revisit areas, but there’s always new nooks and crannies to explore with new items and different enemy arrangements to get around. There may not be any auto save feature, but the manual save works fine, and there are only a couple of stations that may be too far from each other. Lastly, the difficulty is way overstated. In a 15 plus hour campaign on hard mode, I only died ten times. This game is not nearly as difficult as everyone says it is. I'm even going as far to say that they're just bad at stealth games in general. Overall, the game is fantastic. It more than makes up for SEGA’s previous Alien game, and if you’re a hardcore Alien fan, this is the game you've been hoping for. If you're not a fan of horror, are impatient, or don't like stealth focused games, you should probably avoid this title, as you'll either grow impatient or turn bitter after dying so much. Still, this game is absolutely amazing, and an experience I don't regret.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was a great game and is often considered the first 3D Castlevania game to get it right, and it's not surprising to see why. With absolutely amazing combat, a fantastic story, a lengthy campaign, great graphics and a fantastic twist ending, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, LOS2 doesn't live up to the expectations, and is an overall disappointing experience. Combat was the first thing I had high expectations for, and the game actually does well. Instead of the combat cross, Dracula now uses his own blood as a hardened whip to fight enemies, so combat essentially works the same. One improvement LOS2 added was the ability to block and dodge in the air, which I'm thankful for because there are enemies which require you to jump to reach them. Along with that, all unblockable enemy attacks have clear visual and sound cues, making these attacks very obvious, and way easier to dodge than in the the previous game. Then there's the light and dark magic meters. Unlike LOS, where both magics were tied to your main weapon, they instead have their own weapon. Light magic is tied to a sword and heals you, while dark magic is tied to gauntlets that doubles damage and break shields. Unlike in LOS though, where the meters would deplete over time, the meters in LOS2 only deplete when attacking an enemy. This way you can actually approach combat calmly, instead of frantically attacking enemies knowing that your time with the magic was limited. This is a fantastic improvement, and the limited range of the sword and gauntlets help to balance this mehanic. Better yet, the combos for the blood whip, gauntlets and sword are all the same, allowing you to seamlessly switch between your magics and blood whip without disrupting the flow of combat, making switching just as smooth as the previous game. However, not everything about combat is an improvement. For example, the unblockable attacks are easy to detect, but they're not always easy to avoid, often having a range of attack that's too large. So, even if you manage to dodge when prompted, you'll still end up getting hit. These attacks should've been blockable instead. Also, throughout the game, most of these attacks happen two seconds after the cue, so it becomes instinct to dodge immediately. However, some attacks have a delay on them, meaning that you'll instinctively dodge too soon and get hit. This is unfair because the game teaches you to dodge immediately, only to fall victim due to inconsistency. Lastly, because this game takes place in the current time, guns have been added, and end up becoming ridiculously overpowered. Unblockable, long range, and often waves of bullets being fired at the same time, enemies with guns are not fun to fight. It's bad enough when demons start to use them, but the human controlled mechs are just as bad. These mechs often hide behind their shields, and your gauntlets don't actually break through fast enough before they back up and launch an unblockable attack, requiring you to attack right before they do. This would've been alright if you had to fight one at a time, but every time you're going to be swarmed with them. Luckily, the quick time events in the game heal you, which helps balance out the unfair advantages enemies have. It's still annoying though. Combat may have had improvements and flaws, but pretty much everything else is worse. The story isn't all that interesting. It's all about how you, as Dracula, are weakened and have to regain your power to ultimately defeat Satan upon his return. However, moving this game to a modern setting feels very unusual for a Castlevania title. The plot is interesting enough, but it's so boring and broken up that it makes the story hard to follow. Plus, the ending is very abrupt and cheap, making the ending feel rushed. The story's only saving grace is the sub plot in which Dracula is either hallucinating or traveling back in time (it's never made clear), and Dracula sees his family. These are the moments where Dracula seems more like Gabriel, and makes you realize that he's not entirely evil, but angry. These are the moments where the story shines. Unfortunately, the sub plot has no wrap up whatsoever. It just ends. As for the campaign, instead of being a linear chapter to chapter campaign, LOS2 goes more open world, but with Dracula constantly traveling between the past and present, the environments change drastically, and there is no sense of direction at all, making collecting items a grind. Finally, stealth segments feel out of place, and seem more like a replacement for the puzzle segments of LOS, which are missing from this game, but they're not fun. In one case, the stealth was brutally difficult because the level was so poorly designed. Ultimately, LOS 2 disappoints, but that doesn't mean it's terrible. If you liked the last game, you should at least try out this game. Who knows. You may end up liking it.

Even though Watch Dogs might have fallen short of everyone's expectations, that doesn't mean that Watch Dogs is a bad game. Quite the opposite. Watch Dogs manages to be an impressive new IP that manages to make a name for itself and stand on its own. The unique mechanic and selling point of Watch Dogs is hacking. All of Chicago is hooked up to a single network known as cTOS. Almost every piece of technology you find is linked together, including computers, phones, cars, and even all the cameras in the city. Your character Aiden is able to hack into all of this technology using his smart phone, and it's the one thing that gives Watch Dogs it's niche in the open world genre. Hacking is fun, and you can useful in multiple ways, including stealth. Stealth segments are superb, and are easily the most enjoyable aspect of the game. With well-done cover to cover mechanics helping you keep hidden, and fast take downs to minimize chances of detection. What makes stealth better is using your phone to hack the cameras in the area, allowing you to mark enemies so you can see them through walls, and letting you trigger all of the traps and hazards to kill your enemies. Blowing up power boxes to kill nearby enemies or cutting power and making you less visible to your enemies was always satisfying. Also, you can use the enemies own technology against them, activating enemy grenades, or distracting them with their phones. Aside from that, you can also hack during car chases. There are so many hazards in the city to hack, including traffic lights, underground steam pipes, and even road blockers. All of these are useful and are great for taking enemies out, whether you're chasing them or being chased yourself, and are great to use when outnumbered. They're also easy to use because the game uses a prompt to activate them, so you never have to actually look at the hazards to use them. I took out a ton of enemies without even knowing where they're coming from, and I loved it. One thing I like in Watch Dogs is an effective fast travel system. Chicago's a huge city, and an effective fast travel system was needed, which is something a lot of open world GTA type games lack. You unlock these by hacking puzzle based towers, similar to Assassin's Creed and Far Cry 3. However, Watch Dogs isn't perfect. Like Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise, Watch Dogs has a wealth of side content. Unfortunately, Ubisoft usually sacrifices quality for their side missions in favor of providing more of them. However, this means that the side content ends up being generic and nowhere is this more true than in Watch Dogs. Unlike Assassin's Creed, which had a few memorable missions, Watch Dogs has nothing. Even the investigation missions - which had a chance to be something worth while -amount to little more than the typical side mission. Speaking of which, Ubisoft's tendency to add so much side content usually means that a lot of other aspects of the game come up short, and this includes the story. The first flaw with the story you notice is in Aiden himself. Aiden is not particularly interesting, or likable for that matter. Plus, he has absolutely no background, which means why he's able to hack the city with ease or handle his arsenal of weapons effortlessly remains of mystery. There was nothing on this guy in the campaign or the side content. Luckily, the supporting cast easily help to make up for Aiden's shortcomings, but the problems don't stop there. The cTOS network is set up to be this evil corporation, but the game never does a good job of making that clear. Aiden seems more of a menace to the city than cTOS ever was. DedSec, the people fighting cTOS are hardly given any screen time. Lastly, the ending is the worst part of the campaign. The ending is sudden, ends abruptly, and sequel baits so cheaply. The Car on Demand app is cool, which summons a car to park nearby, but there's no garage mechanic, allowing you to save vehicles. Because of this, there's no customization or a way to personalize your cars. Driving controls are the floatiest of any game I've ever played. If you're used to any other form of driving, you will hate the feel of the cars, constantly peeling out and having an overall lack of control. Plus, here's no way to shoot while driving. Sure, you can hack in the city to disable vehicles, but there's nothing to hack on the highways, and you end up there often enough to where shooting becomes necessary. Combining shooting with the focus ability, which slows down time, would've been perfect for shooting out tires or taking out drivers. Lastly, the graphics are not what Ubisoft promised. The trailers and demos look way better than what's here, but that doesn't mean they're bad. Overall, while flawed, Watch Dogs high points far outweigh the bad, and ends up being a great game that could eventually end up being a great franchise. With the obvious sequel set up and great sales, we'll see more of Watch Dogs eventually.

So many modern day games try to be innovative or different to stand out and make a name for themselves. So much so, even the horror genre has fallen into that trend. Outlast is that type of game that proves it doesn't need to be innovative to make itself memorable. Instead, it accomplishes this by simply turning up the horror and gore to levels very few games strive for. Outlast starts off simple. You are Miles Upshur, an investigative reporter who received an anonymous tip from someone known as the Whistleblower, stating that the questionable practices at Mount Massive Asylum need to exposed. Miles takes it upon himself to infiltrate the asylum, armed only with a camera to record his findings. By the time Miles realizes what kind of danger he's gotten himself into, it's too late to turn back the way he came, and you must find a new way out of the Asylum, while the inhabitants of the madhouse hinder your progress and try to end your life. The overall horror factor in Outlast is superb. Mount Massive Asylum is the perfect environment for a horror game, and the atmosphere in this game is thick. Outlast's true strength in terms of horror is that it never gets predictable. Throughout the game, you'll run into many type of jumpscares, but what ultimately impresses me is that these scares are rarely repeated. Plenty of the jumpscares you experience only happen once. For example, one enemy who appears asleep will attack you when you get near him, and you'll jump. However, this scare is never repeated. This happens throughout the game, with most of the scares only occurring once. This overall lack of any repetition stops the game from becoming generic. What also helps with the horror is, of course, the patients in the Asylum. Many of the typical patients are docile, and will ignore you, or leave you alone once they know you're there. However, that doesn't mean there aren't a few who will attack you when you get near them. Leaving you without the knowledge of who is a threat keeps the feeling of uneasiness constant. You'll never truly feel safe in Mount Massive Asylum, considering you'll never know what's next. Mount Massive may contain random patients, but that doesn't mean there aren't a few select enemies gunning for your hide. Such enemies include the naked twins, an insane doctor, a paranormal like entity, and most importantly, a disfigured giant named Walker, who has a thing for beheading his victims with his bare hands. Outlast's gameplay is simple, but fun. Armed with only a camera, you can't fight back against any of your enemies in any effective way. Your only options are to run, hide, or die, which the game makes clear from the very beginning. This is what fills the game with suspense. In games like Dead Space, the horror was offset with the knowledge that you could kill your enemies when you found them. It's not the same case in Outlast, so you'll never feel comfortable when an enemy is trying to find you. The only "weapon" you have is your camera, which allows you to see in the dark using the night vision feature. This mechanic allows you to see what your enemies can't, meaning there will be many stealth segments where an enemy is trying to find you in the dark while you sneak around him. This is the part where the gameplay has it's problems. Sneaking around your enemies is fun, but running or walking creates noise, so obviously, crouching minimizes the noise you make. However, the pace at which you move while crouched is painfully slow. This arguably creates tension, but if that was the point, it was a cheap way to do so. The flaw with hiding is that it severely limits what you can see, so listening is key. However, Walker is the only enemy in the game with clear sound cues. His rattling chains and heavy breathing easily help you identify how far he is. The same can't be said for every other enemy that you encounter, so it's not uncommon to leave your hiding spot convinced that your foe is gone, only to find out he's still in the room. The overall gameplay is very simple and linear, with the only deviations from the linearity taking the form of finding documents and finding batteries that power your camera's night vision, but that doesn't mean it's bad. The graphics aren't the best on the PS4, considering this game was made when the last generation was considered top of the line. However, Outlast still looks great and is rich with detail and creepy environments. As for the sound, voice acting is well done in every case, sound design is great, and the music is perfect for the tone of the game. Outlast is one of those games that comes along and easily surpasses many that have come before it. The horror easily surpasses games like Resident Evil and Slender, and even rivals the horror of Dead Space and Amnesia. If you love survival horror, you owe it to yourself to play Outlast, because despite it's problems, it still remains a terrifying experience you'll remember for a while.

If you're like me, you probably got this game because you heard how great Silent Hill 2 is and wanted to give it a try, and if you're like me, you're probably walking away with a somewhat sour taste in your mouth. Even though this collection is decent, it doesn't make up for all of the drawbacks that both Silent Hill 2 and 3 come with. First is Silent Hill 2 which is often considered to be the high point of the franchise. Right off the bat, Silent Hill 2 hits all the right chords to be a truly good survival horror experience. The game is legitimately creepy, with a fantastic atmosphere, creepy sound effects and freaky monsters. If that isn't enough, the game also has a really well done story, with more than enough cutscenes and story elements to make it feel consistent. Couple the great story which has multiple endings and great horror elements, and Silent Hill 2 does make for a satisfying horror experience. The new voice actors were a controversial decision, given that all the voice actors were replaced. Luckily, the original voices are still in the game, and you have the option to choose between the old and new ones. However, the old voices dialogue isn't very well acted. The new voices are not only better acted, but they fit the characters better, even if they don't always match the lip movements. The gameplay itself is a little different. First off, there's no tutorial, and combat isn't easy to figure out. Luckily once you get the hang of it, it's simple, if not that great. Combat consists of you going into a combat stance to use your equipped weapon. This roots you to the spot, meaning that while fighting, you can't avoid attacks. Also, the tank controls make your character slow, and with enemy attacks usually being really quick or having a good range, there is no sure fire way to dodge them. You will take damage, no matter how good you are. What makes this worse is the camera, which is terrible. The camera is fixed and more dynamic, but does a terrible job of keeping enemies in view. This means you'll suffer a ridiculous amount of cheap hits from enemies you can't see. One good element is the map. The map is easy to understand and marks doors you can enter and can't. However, leaving the map or pause menu puts you into gameplay without the lighting up the screen quick enough. So, if you enter the pause menu while in combat, you won't be able to see your enemies for a second or two, which I actually died from. Speaking of dying, the checkpoint system is terrible. There is no auto save and the save points aren't consistent enough to make up for it. Dying could easily man losing thirty minutes of gameplay. The story and atmosphere of Silent Hill 2 are great, but the flawed gameplay ultimately makes Silent Hill 2 frustrating. Unfortunately, Silent Hill 3 doesn't fair much better. Silent Hill 3 does a couple of things right. The graphics are improved, there's more weapon variety, and combat is more fluid, but the game still has a slew of problems. Combat may be improved, allowing you to move while attacking, but the game in turn throws more enemies at you at a time, and there's still no way to fight multiple enemies effectively. The camera is still terrible, and most enemies still have attacks you can't effectively strategize around. The map itself has downgraded, failing to mark down all doors, which left me wondering where to go at certain points. The creepy atmosphere has been toned down too. The game still has it's moments, but it's not scary anymore. The story is also practically non existent in the first half of the game. After that, it does pick up, but the weird religious/paranormal based story is a strange turn in comparison to Silent Hill 2's more psychological jarring tone. The story is a direct sequel to Silent Hill 1, and without the game on here, you end up being lost through most of it. The checkpoint system is improved, with checkpoints being tied to cutscenes, but with the cutscenes being scarce in the first half of the game and the save points still remaining inconsistent, this system is hardly better. Luckily, their are checkpoints for every boss fight. With a weaker story and atmosphere, and hardly improved gameplay, Silent Hill 3 takes more steps back then forward. What's also disappointing is the lack of games. Silent Hill 4, **** Memories, and Origins are all PS2 titles missing from this collection. Even Silent Hill 1 is missing from here, which doesn't help, considering Silent Hill 3 is a direct sequel. I wasn't expecting all these games, but I still expected more than what's here. Ultimately, this game is hard to recommend. The gameplay stops this collection from appealing to the modern gamer, and even old fans say the collection is disappointing. Plus, unlike other collections which help you catch up to popular franchises, Silent Hill has largely been forgotten. I'd only recommend playing this if you're a hardcore survival horror. If not, steer clear.

I put off playing Dead Space for years, never truly knowing how good it would be, or how scary it would be. Now that I've finally played it, I can honestly say this is the best survival horror experience I have ever played. You start out as CEC Engineer Isaac Clarke who has been hired alongside colleagues Kendra Daniels and Zach Hammond to investigate the sudden shut down of the planet cracker class space station, the USG Ishimura. You arrive to find the ship has been taken over by space zombies, dubbed Necromorphs, and your objective at that point is to get off the ship while multiple obstacles hinder your progress. Immediately, the gameplay feels similar to Resident Evil. Using a gun with a laser point to hit weak spots of your enemies screams Resident Evil 4, but this game actually improves on the formula. You kill necromorphs by severing their limbs, which you do with the plasma cutter, a gun that shoots three plasma bullets in a horizontal or vertical direction and is displayed by a laser sight. Because you need to be precise, the shooting requires strategy over mindless shooting, which keeps the gameplay fun and refreshing. What I love most about Dead Space is the absolutely perfect atmosphere throughout the game. The whole ship is creepy, with dark hallways, random sounds, creepy enemies, and plenty of well executed jump scares. What adds to this is that the only flashlight you have is attached to your guns, so the only way to see in the dark is by aiming down your gun, which ultimately narrows your field of vision. All of these elements make for a truly scary gaming experience. One problem third person shooters always have in common is that they're not very good at aiming in close quarters, and because most of the necromorphs fight up close, the flaw needed to be remedied, and Dead Space does just that. Not only is Isaac able to move while aiming (which you can't do in Resident Evil 4 and 5), you also have the ability to punch and stomp with deadly affect, allowing you to give yourself some breathing room. Along with this, you have the stasis ability which allows you to slow your enemies for a short ****'s not perfect, and I do wish they would've added a combat roll, which there is room for, but it still works, unless you're swarmed with enemies. Then you're screwed. One of the most impressive features is the heads up display. There are no health meters or ammo counts on the sides of the screen like most games. In Dead Space, all the essential information you need is displayed on Isaac. Ammo count is displayed at the base of your gun and the meters for your health and stasis abilities are displayed on your back. Plus the map projects in front of you whenever you pull it up. The map interface may not be the best, but it gets the job done. All of these features and clever tweaks made to the Heads up display ultimately make the game more realistic, stopping you from looking at an icon in the corner prevents the game from breaking the immersion, and not being able to pause to look at the map keeps up the tension. Like most survival horror games, a key mechanic in Dead Space is item management. Breaking crates and killing enemies to find loot, ammo, and new items always satisfies, and what I love most is the storage system. In the game, there are shops to buy items and new outfits, but the main feature is the safe, in which you can store your items for later use, keeping your inventory open for new items. Along with the shop and safe, you also have the work bench, which allows you to use power nodes to upgrade your weapons, health, air, and your stasis and kenisis modules. The game impresses but it's also has it's problems. There are little things, like the bad map navigation, disorienting zero gravity environments, no combat roll, and the gameplay could get repetitive if you play for too long. However, the biggest flaw in the game is the turret sections. The turret sections are terrible, with loose aiming controls, guns that overheat way to quick, and crappy laser sights. These sections would've been miles better with a simple cross hair, but instead you got bad laser sights that all too often blended into the background, making aiming more than difficult. Luckily, there are only two of these sections, but I hate them both equally. Overall, the Dead Space may have it's hiccups, but it's not enough to take away from what is ultimately an amazing survival horror experience, and has turned me into a hardcore fan of the franchise and survival horror games in general. If you love horror games, you owe it to yourself to play this game, and even if you're not, you may still want to play it because it is simply that fun.

We're not getting the Phantom Pain for a while, so Konami shipped out Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes to fill in the gap and hold over the fans who've been waiting for a game. Unfortunately, because of that, fans of the Metal Gear series received an incredibly fun experience, but ultimately, a fraction of a full game. First, I want to state what's good about this game. The first thing is the gameplay, which is easily the best it's ever been for the franchise. I personally have never felt more in control of my character in any game before this one. All of the movements you're capable of doing is amazing. You can perform CQC moves around corners, over ledges, and even while sprinting, with the only thing missing being attacks from above. Instead of dragging enemies to areas to hide them, Snake puts an enemy on his shoulders, allowing you to run freely, crouch, sprint, and even aim your gun. If you want to drag an enemy while in a choke-hold, you no longer have to stand to do so. You can bring the enemy down low to hide yourself better. The movement in this game is incredibly freeing and flexible. Stealth has been improved too. Instead of just making sure the enemy doesn't see you, you can use the environment to obscure you. Moving in darker areas, staying low, and hiding in foliage are all new elements you can use to make Snake harder to spot. Also, even when enemies see you, you usually have time to hide yourself before the enemy can identify you. To compensate for the lack of any radar, the game added two new features, one of which is the reflex mode. When an enemy spots and identifies you as an threat, time slows down for a short time, allowing you to put an enemy down with your gun, or (if you're close enough), put the enemy in a choke hold. Plus, reflex usually only applies to one enemy, unless multiple enemies see you at the same time, which rarely happens. In some situations, I was able to activate reflex mode to take down one guy, and then reactivate it when a second enemy saw me, allowing me to take down him as well. Mastering this skill will allow you to easily take down a small group of enemies, giving you some satisfying take downs. Admittedly, this can make the game pretty easy, but if you don't like it, you can turn it off in options. Also, you have the ability to make enemies, allowing you to see them from any position, even through walls. Both the reflex and mark abilities are incredible mechanics. Graphics are incredibly detailed, with beautiful environments and incredibly well done character models and runs at a buttery smooth 60 frames per seconds, and the soundtrack is amazing, easily living up to the music that the Metal Gear series is known for. The gameplay and presentation of this game is amazing. Unfortunately, what makes this game disappointing is how little of it you actually get. Any fan knows that this game received a lot of flak for it's run time of two hours or less. The truth is, it's even shorter than that. On my first try, I completed the game in 82 minutes, without knowing where the objectives are and without knowing the layout of the map in my head. There are side missions, but these missions average at around 15 minutes a piece, meaning you have less than four hours of gameplay here. Now, it is true that you can one hundred percent the game, and most gamers will probably try to one hundred percent it. However, this concept is flawed. When I look at a game that was fun to one hundred percent, I think of the Batman Arkham series. I've done that for all three games, but I could not bring myself to do that on here because most of the side objectives are tedious, boring, or just plain stupid. I can understand the game wanting me to S rank all missions, or wanting me to kill all the enemies, use no weapons, or set off any alerts, because that's fun and challenging. However, asking me to mark all enemies, rescue all the prisoners, find all cassette tapes, as well as several other repetitive tasks isn't fun. One objective simply requires you to play the mission a second time. That's it. Plus, a lot of these objectives are unlocked by completing the others, so you can't do a lot of these objectives simultaneously. That means, to complete this game, you have to a S rank a mission on both difficulties, which usually doesn't happen on the first try, then complete all the extra objectives, which requires about five playthroughs, and even more if you screw up. So, you'll end up havign to play each mission about 6 or seven times. This makes every mission repetitive and takes away from the game's overall fun. In the end, Ground Zeroes has great gameplay and an amazing presentation, which shows that Phantom Pain could easily be one of the best games of the year when it comes out. However, Ground Zeroes' overall lack of content and cheap replay value leave me with a sour taste in my mouth toward it, which is ultimately very sad for what could've been a great game.

After ten years since the last installment, the Thief series finally gets another entry in it's lineup. Although an enjoyable experience, Thief isn't exactly memorable. Being that this is a Thief game, the main form of gameplay is a combination of sneaking and stealing. Stealth mainly consists of sneaking around your enemies by staying in the shadows, and stealing any valuable loot along the way. This was done incredibly well by adding the swoop ability and allowing you to put out light sources. Nothing was more satisfying than cracking a safe while your enemy was only five feet away. Aside from that, there were plenty of ways to get loot, including pick-pocketing, cutting out pictures, unscrewing plaques, or just looting drawers and wardrobes. Ultimately, the game's stealth and thieving mechanics do a satisfying job of making you feel like just that, a Thief, in every way. Although stealth is fun, it does have a habit of getting repetitive, which is something Thief does not suffer from. The game constantly throws change ups in gameplay, which keeps stealth fresh. An exciting chase sequence, a great boss fight, puzzle solving, and even one chapter with some interesting horror elements stopped this game from getting boring. Another great thing this game encourages in curiosity and exploration. During missions, the way to complete or reach an objective is never straight forward. There are usually several ways to infiltrate an area and grab an item. Outside of missions, the city has so many different nooks and crannies to explore, often leading to hidden areas and items. If you're not doing the story, you're likely doing the many side missions. Some are simple, requiring you to infiltrate a building and grab an item on the map, while others are more in depth, requiring you go to a separate area altogether. The variation keeps the side content fun, and the random loot placed randomly across the city stops you from getting bored. The combat is easy to grasp, and competent when fighting one on one, but it's useless against multiple enemies. Even though some may find that restrictive, I see it as encouragement to take a stealthy approach, which is what you're supposed to do. Unfortunately, not everything in this game is perfect. Case and point, the story. Although it does a good job of keeping you interested, the ending is so sudden and leaves the biggest plot point unresolved, making the ending feel empty. Luckily, the story has a nice mystery, and an interesting cast of characters. Although he has no background, Garret is an interesting, which can also be said about the supporting cast and the main villian. There are also a few missed opportunities. Wardrobes are good for hiding, but they would've been better for storing bodies, or useful for surprise attacks Assassin's Creed style. Focus mode is useful for identifying important items, but it's non regenerating meter encourages you to conserve it rather than use it freely. Because of this, most of the upgrades for it felt pointless. Thieving challenges are basically side objectives that give you extra money, but you can't view them during a mission's first playthrough, forcing you to do it a second time to get all of them. Some things are just plain bad. Caged animals which alert you to your enemies are annoying. The dogs aren't that bad and feel realistic, but birds have a bad habit of blending into the background, which means I alerted more than a few because I didn't know they were there. The city itself feels unnecessarily restrictive and hard to navigate around. Having to sneak around a certain guard post over and over got annoying quick. What's worse is that because of the story, the city watch does get replaced with the rebels, but they patrol the exact same way. There is no change in patrol, making it a simple palate swap. It also doesn't make sense that the replacements see you as an enemy, which doesn't make sense with the story, and the explanation for it is cheap. Graphics are nice, and fairly detailed, but they look more like they're topping the last generation of consoles instead of showing what the new consoles can do, especially when compared to games like Killzone and Ground Zeroes. Plus, during the higher resolution custcenes, the game suffered from frame rate drops. Lastly, this game's replay value is poor. There is no new game plus, even though this game screams for it. Upgrading your focus and buying items falls flat when you're unable to carry them over. You can replay missions, and I'm sure perfectionists will try to find all the loot and complete side objectives, but it feels like cheap way to add replay value. It would've been nice if unique loot carried over as well, but it doesn't. Overall, Thief is an enjoyable experience, but it has some problems, which can be overlooked easily, but the game isn't good enough to give the series the revival it deserves. In the end, Thief is fun, but forgettable.

Being one of the handful of gamers who actually owned a Vita and played Liberation on the handheld, I walked away with mixed feelings about it. Although it was the first handheld game to capture the Assassin's Creed experience, the lousy Vita enabled controls made the game very unpleasant to play. When I heard about the remake coming out for home consoles, I got excited, knowing fully well that the vita controls would be gone, and the game would be improved ten fold. After playing it, I once again walked away with mixed feelings. One thing that can't be disputed about the game is the graphic upgrade. Instead of just simply upping a texture here and there, Liberation got a complete graphic overhaul. All character models have been improved or changed and textures have been improved, but what really makes the game stand out is the overall improved color palate. The game is so much more colorful than the Vita version, and ultimately, the game looks good. However, the graphics don't hold up to anything coming out on the consoles now, so they're only going to be truly appreciated if you've played the Vita version. If you haven't, more than likely, you won't be impressed. One thing that has been improved is the gameplay. In the previous version, the gameplay was great and held up to the Assassin's Creed series in both free running and combat. However, the game suffered whenever it tried to implement Vita controls. Using the rear touch pad to pickpocket barely functioned, the camera barely detected light sources, and one puzzle which required the Vita's tilt controls were so poor that they infuriated you. I was glad to see that every one of the Vita enabled controls were gone, and the game is improved as a result. Another good thing the game did was improve the overall experience of the campaign. Missions have been modified in numerous ways, either by adding a cutscene using existing dialogue, changing or removing an objective to kill any tedium, or just changing the mission entirely. I enjoyed every tweak in the campaign, and it's better for it. However, the game did not do the same with it's side content. Side content has always been arguably repetitive and usually underdeveloped, especially when in comparison to games like Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto, or the Batman Arkham series. No where is that more apparent than in this game. Liberation's side content is easily the worst of any Assassin's Creed game so far. Unlike the other games that usually have a few stand out side missions that can be considered memorable, Liberation has nothing. Every mission is an arcade style type. Go do this, and your mission is complete. What's worse is that they added even more of them. There are 15 new side missions, with 5 tailored to each persona. The Assassin missions are the weakest, and can be completed in literally two minutes each. The lady and slave missions are better, given that there's more of a story behind them. However, they just feel like 5 split up parts of one huge mission, rather than 5 small ones. Aside from that, there's another thing Liberation did not improve, and that was the fast travel system. The only thing this game had to do to improve fast travel was to actually add it in the game. The areas in Liberation are not as big as the other worlds in the AC franchise, but it's still big enough to need fast travel. I actually expected Liberation to have it in the remake and was absolutely baffled when it wasn't at all. It would've been so easy to make the view points fast travel points like they did in Black Flag. Now, I know this game originally came out before AC4, but it's remake went under works after Black Flag had already established this concept, so the company deciding not to add this was just lazy, which only looks worse compared to all the small improvements the game did make. Another is the whole "buying the city" concept. In Brotherhood and Revelations, you could buy parts of the city to increase your overall revenue, and in Liberation, you can buy the shops, but it doesn't do anything significant enough to make you want to do so. There's so little pay off to buying these shops, that it's not worth your time. The only thing they add is convenience, in terms of getting to the shops and your business, but that could be fixed with the fast travel I mentioned. Lastly is the personas. The three personas is an interesting concept, being able to be an assassin, a slave, and the lady, but each persona has restrictions. The Assassin is notorious at all times, the slave has less health, less weapons, and no chain kill, and the lady has even less along with no climbing or running. The climbing for the lady is something I can understand, and each character has it's perks, but, overall, each persona feels like a you're only getting a piece of the full experience. In the end, the game is an improvement, but it doesn't get every improvement the game needs. That's the long and short of it.

Revelations was a game I had fairly good expectations for. After hearing that the game is considered a return to Resident Evil's horror roots, I was expecting another true installment, similar to the lines of Resident Evil 4. Even though this game is fairly good, I can't help but feel the game is not quite as great as I was hoping it would be, and ultimately leaves me with mixed feelings. One of the changes to this game is the gameplay. In RE4, 5, and even 6, the gameplay had a strategic tone to it. Shoot a weak spot on the enemy, usually the legs or head, and then perform a devastating melee attack. This strategy and gameplay always felt satisfying, and helped you conserve ammo, which makes me disappointed that it's almost completely gone in Revelations. The option to stun an enemy and perform an melee attack is here, but it's not the same as it was. Unlike past games, the new enemies don't really have any defined weakspot, meaning you'll be shooting your enemy randomly and hopefully get lucky enough to stun the enemy and then close in. However, because you can't adequately plan this out, it's not a strategy you can rely on, and the mindless shooting honestly makes the gameplay less fun. Some enemies - like the sub-bosses - do have that option to do enough damage and close in for a melee attack, but it's ultimately not enough, and feels tacked on in this game. The game also ditched the laser sight and went with a cross hair, and I don't mean the one in RE6 (considering that one was terrible). This cross hair is standard and works fine, but I do miss the laser sight being here, but with the strategy gone, I'm questioning whether or not it would make any difference to play the game that way. Another annoyance is your inventory. Unlike past games, the amount of ammo you can carry is limited. Instead of taking up more slots, the game straight up limits how much ammo and herbs you can carry. If the limit was fairly reasonable, it'd probably be a good mechanic, but the amount you can carry is limited so severely it's frustrating, especially when you run into those sequences where you find so much ammo, and you can't carry even a third of it. Couple this with the fact that you drain your ammo so quickly when fighting even standard enemies, and you'll think to yourself, "if I could've picked up that ammo earlier this wouldn't be such a big deal." There are items you can pick up later in the story to upgrade your capacity, but without a way to do it by yourself, it ultimately becomes one huge waiting game, and even with the upgrades, the amount you can hold is still relatively small. This game would've benefited so much from the storage system in RE5, which was a great mechanic that we haven't seen since for some odd reason. Another thing I have mixed feelings about is the story. The story primarily follows Jill Valentine, but you take control of several other protagonists as well, which would've been a fantastic way to give the story more depth. As we've seen in games like Dead Space: Extraction, multiple view points can really help a story and make it more interesting, but Revelations fails to capture this. Out of all 4 characters, Parker is the only interesting one, with a likable personality. Jill and Chris are only memorable because they're returning characters, and the fourth guy is so boring and insignificant I can't even tell you his name right now, because I don't remember it. This was made worse by the game switching you back to Jill just as you were getting used to the new protagonist. Also, a weak point of the story is how this game holds any relevance to the Resident Evil's overall story. The story in this game could've never happened, and it wouldn't have made any real difference to the series as a whole. All major plot points in the story are sealed by the game's end, and the story isn't big enough to make an impact on you, or hold any significance. The graphics are definitely one of the better things about this game. The game is a port from the 3DS, but the graphics do hold up as looking pretty nice. It doesn't compare to the PS3's current standards, but it does easily outshine what we saw in the first two years of this console's life cycle in terms of visuals. Animations aren't smooth. Trying to walk in this game will lead to your character constantly jerking, which takes you out of the immersion, especially in the game's more creepy parts, and yes, the game does return to the horror elements that hardcore fans have been begging for, even if it's still not that scary overall. The bottom line with this game is that it's an overall good title, but it has some major design decisions that I just don't understand. The lack of strategy in combat makes the overall game less engaging and fun, and the inventory space is frustrating. Hardcore fans should appreciate the return to a more horror based atmosphere, but in the end, it doesn't make up for the flaws this game has.

After playing through Resident Evil 6, I have some mixed feelings about it. Even though, it definitely isn't the high point in the series, and made some mistakes in design, I can't help but feel that some of the anger towards it is misplaced. However, that doesn't mean the game doesn't have it's problems. First thing to point out is the new aiming mechanic, which uses a cross hair. The cross hair is absolutely terrible, and is the worst way to aim in the game, considering the laser dot in the middle moves independently of your controls. Switch to the traditional aiming mechanic, or the laser sight. It is way better. Next is the fighting mechanics. This game changes the previous formula for melee by adding the ability to punch and kick without having to stun the enemy first. If you liked the old mechanic, you can still execute a nice melee attack on an enemy you've stunned. Although, the default amount of stamina you have feels too small at times. The biggest change to the game is all of the extra movement you now have. Unlike past games where you were rooted to the spot while aiming, you now have the ability to move and aim simultaneously. Along with this, you're not restricted to turning with the camera like you were in 5. Now, your character and the camera move independently from each other. Also added are the abilities to slide, take cover, and dodge, and even aim while lying down. Overall, the new mechanics function, but at times, they feel a little clunky, especially since most of these movements are mapped to the same buttons. I like the new direction the game is taking with this movement, but they need to be perfected. The story is definitely what I have the most mixed feelings about. The game is split into four campaigns, following the stories of Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, Jacob Muller and Sherry Birkin, and then Ada Wong. I actually liked this whole concept of playing four different campaigns, and they're not too short either, with each one taking 5-6 hours to complete, adding up to over twenty hours of gameplay. However, the campaigns end up being more action and less story than even Resident Evil 5, so the story does suffer in some ways. The first two chapters of each campaign usually do end up being the weakest in story, but the story truly hits it's strength in the later chapters, when the campaigns start to intertwine, and the characters meet. That's when the stories truly hit their stride. Aside from that, the campaigns are pretty weak, being overly simplistic in story. Luckily, the few story bits in the campaigns are pretty impressive for the most part, even if some plot points in the story feel weaker than others. Another weak spots for the campaigns are the levels. Some levels are absolutely amazing with awesome action and great sequences. Others are kind of blah, and others are absolutely infuriating, filled with bad sequences, fighting way too many enemies and filled with unnecessary grinding. This is one of those games where you'll have so much fun, and then absolutely hate it in five minutes. Another bad aspect is the tutorial. It does a good job of giving you the basic knowledge, but only gives you the good techniques through hint messages during loading screens. Some of these tips are essential to the game though, meaning you're not going to be proficient at this game for a good while. The graphics for the most part are good. Character models are well done, and I was always impressed whenever I saw the grime and sweat off of a character's face. However, some textures in the game look really rough up close, meaning some parts of the game look absolutely great while other parts are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Another problem is that the game is too dark. This is due mostly in part to the game intentionally blacking out parts of the game in an attempt to create shadows, which means that even on the brightest settings in the game and you're tv, the game still isn't illuminated well enough. Another thing I want to address is the hate this game gets. Resident Evil 6 is not a bad game, but it goes further from the tradition that the Resident Evil franchise has set, which is ultimately why it upsets fans. RE6 tried to make everyone happy, by giving horror based and action based campaigns, but ultimately it isn't enough. In itself, the game isn't bad, but it's hated for the lack of quality and tradition past Resident Evils have. I personally don't mind, but I know some do. Overall, the game is good with some huge flaws holding it back from living up to the standards set by RE4 all those years ago. If you hated five for the direction it took, don't play this game, considering the game goes down that same path. However, I can't recommend this game to newcomers, considering how unfriendly it is to newcomers. But, in itself, RE6 is an enjoyable and sometimes frustrating experience. So, if you're a hardcore fan, you may want to check it out.

I want to start this review off by saying that I know this is not the traditional Resident Evil game. Up until this point in the franchise, Resident Evil was considered to be a survival horror franchise where you fight zombies. However, RE5 changes the formula, shifting from a horror centered experience to a more action based one, to the disappointment of many hardcore fans. However, that doesn't make Resident Evil 5 a bad game. To the contrary, Resident Evil 5 is actually a very solid action shooter, with survival elements mixed in. The gameplay is similar to that of Resident Evil 4, in which case you stand still as you aim a laser to help you land critical shots on your enemies. Stun an enemy with a good shot, and you can close the distance to land a satisfying melee attack on him. This formula keeps up throughout the game, for the most part, and is very fun to play around with, but the lack of any change ups in the gameplay can really cause the game to drag in the last few chapters. The survival elements included in the game mainly pertain to item management. Limiting your inventory to 9 inventory slots is a good initial start, but I'm disappointed that there were no opportunities to expand it. What makes this particularly annoying is the melee vest and the bullet proof vest take up inventory slots, which doesn't make sense because they're actually just upgrades for your armor. One problem the game does have to a point is the lack of mobility. There's no way for you to move while aiming, and because of this, enemies can easily close the distance between you and them. However, to be fair, almost all of the zombies in the game are slow, and sprint only a few feet a time. This gives you a nice window to get away, and this is especially true with the tougher but slower enemies, so the game manages to find a balance between your lack of mobility and the zombies, even if it doesn't feel like it. Despite the gameplay being addictive as it is, it can get really frustrating at some points. Certain enemies you face in the story take an unnecessarily long amount of time to kill, which often drains your ammo to ridiculous levels, which is so frustrating when one of the key elements of the game is to conserve ammo. Often these enemies do not adaquetley replenish what you have lost, making boss fights, sub-boss fights, and horde encounters frustrating. The most frustrating point of this game is easily your AI controlled counterpart Sheva. Now the AI is competent when performing basic functions, but not in any advanced ones. Sheva rarely goes to melee a stunned enemy, and often she leaves you out to dry whenever you're grabbed by an enemy. Sheva constantly wastes ammo throughout the game, often attacking enemies even when they take no damage, and Sheva can actually die. In one particular sequence in the first few hours of the game, I had to start over four times because Sheva failed to out run the masked chainsaw wielding goon that was chasing us, even though I managed to put distance between me and him with no problem. If you have an online account, or better yet, a friend to play with you, I highly recommend you play that way instead of dealing with the AI, because it's just not dependable. The most disappointing of this game however is the story. The story is very minimal, with a limited amount of cutscenes compared to all the action. Sheva is very disappointing as a character. Without any personality development or any emotional moments between Sheva and Chris, the bond between them seems unusual, and Sheva comes off as a very boring character that you'll have no attachment to. To be fair, Chris would probably have been considered a boring character too, if it weren't for the fact that he's already a character from the franchise. However, the biggest blunder in the story is the way the zombies are portrayed. Throughout the game, I saw enemies wielding crossbows, dynamite, melee weapons, drive vehicles, and they even used guns and boy armor later in the game. You don't even get eaten when they kill you, you just get beaten to death. The game tries to justify by saying that these aren't zombies, but are instead another enemy all together, called the majini, but that's the problem right there. In a zombie franchise, why is it that I went through the whole game without killing a single zombie. I killed majini, giant monsters, a superhuman, and even a huge troll, but no zombies. Come on. Despite my complaints, the game is ultimately a very fun and addictive experience, but the negatives do bog it down. A boring new character, minimized story, flawed gameplay, annoying AI and a stupid concept hold this game back from achieving the true greatness that the Resident Evil franchise was known for. It doesn't even hold a candle to the greatness that was Resident Evil 4. All these problems ultimately make the game good but disappointing.

Since Spider-Man 2, many Spider-Man games have come out trying to meet the standards that game set all those years ago. Despite games like Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man 3, and Web of Shadows, most fans will tell you that many of the games after Spider-Man 2 haven't been able to capture what being Spider-Man is really all about like Spider-Man 2 managed to do. Unfortunately, it seems the Amazing Spider-Man is just another one of those games that will join the pile of letdowns. Despite what I just said, the Amazing Spider-Man is not a bad game. It's set after the movie, telling a story about what happened after Lizard's rampage on New York city. It starts with Peter's girlfriend Gwen Stacy sneaking him into Oscorp to show the secret experiments that are being created, known as cross species. The Cross Species are half-human, half-animal, like the Lizard and Peter. Unfortunately, the experiments react negatively to Peter, causing them to rampage and breakout, which leads to Gwen getting bit and infected with a virus. Your mission at that point is to find a cure for Gwen, contain the outbreak that spreads through the city, and survive Oscorp's hunter robots that are hunting all cross-species, including you. This plot adds a constant tension throughout the story, that isn't truly gone until the very end. Gameplay is varied, but the web-swinging is obviously the most important part. In Spider-Man 2, what made the web-swinging great was how many tricks you could pull off, all the abilities and powers you had, the rush you got from swinging, the perfect controls, and the ultimate authenticity it held to the movie. In the Amazing Spider-Man, the adrenaline rush that I was hoping for isn't here. Instead of having perfect control over swinging, you simply hold the swing button, and the game automatically decides when to let go and pull off the tricks for you, ultimately dumbing down the swinging gameplay. The close up camera also doesn't help, ultimately making your tricks less impressive, while the lack of control while wall crawling only makes thing worse. Don't get me wrong, swinging is fun, but the lack of variation and dumbed down controls ultimately make this game a fail in living up to Spider-Man 2's standards. The combat is another thing altogether. Clearly based on Arkham City's combat, this system was ultimately fun, countering enemies moves, building up combos, webbing up stunned enemies to defeat them, and using the environment to help you ultimately made the combat system fun, if not completely over the top, even for Spider-Man. The web rush mode is also welcome, allowing you to slow down time and pick a preset destination somewhere in the environment, automatically speeding you to the spot, while being both fast and stylish at the same time. This ability also helped in fighting enemies while in the air, allowing you to interact with destructible environments, homing in on enemies with guns, and collecting the collectible comic books in the air. This is something I actually thought would've been useful in Spider-Man 2. Stealth is questionable. The ease of sneaking up on an enemy, tying him to a wall, and then immediately being able to flee using web rush felt overpowered. The stealth was also based on Arkham City, but fails to capture the same art. What made Batman awesome was that despite how cool he was, he had his limits, which made stealth fun. Spider-Man's overpowered moves made stealth feel cheap. If they had added electrified walls and ceilings with only a few catwalks to escape too, the stealth would've been improved. The side missions are also a pain. Though varied fairly well, the missions repeat way too much, making them a nuisance to complete after playing them the first few times. There are a few really well made side missions, having to deal with side villains which ultimately made them more eventful and well though out. Unfortunately, those missions are too few and far in between. Muggings, photography, and obstacle courses are fun the first few times, but the charm wears off afterwords. Plus, some side missions are boring right off the bat. The sound is also disappointing. No soundtracks stand out, but worst of all, none of the actors from the movies lend their voices to this game. The substitutes do a decent job, although Steve Blum does sound weird as Kurt Connors. The graphics aren't bad in anyway, but they also don't stand out in any way, shape, or form. Plus, this game actually managed to make New York look incredibly boring. Only a couple of buildings stand out, while the rest of the city is plain and bland. Ultimately, the game isn't that bad. Plus, considering this is a movie tie in game, the game overall does a good job. If you're a fan of Spider-Man, or love action games, you might want to consider picking this game up. However, in comparison to Spider-Man 2, the game is a let down, and if you were expecting a game of that caliber, you'll be disappointed.

Three years after the release of the critically acclaimed Heavy Rain, David Cage has finally released his next project, Beyond: Two Souls. With the major amount of publicity its received, given that Ellen Page and Willem Defoe are the games main characters, the question surrounding this game is whether or not it can live up to the hype. One of the most impressive aspects of the game is the graphics. Although the game wouldn't be considered beautiful with popping colors, the graphics themselves are beyond impressive in terms of detail. The character designs are amazing, capturing everything from the character's pores, to their hair, and even to the details of their clothes. The amount of detail and color in this game make it an absolute beauty to look at, and make it one of the most graphically impressive games of the current console generation, if not the best. Another aspect of the game is the story. Unlike Cage's last game, Heavy Rain, the game features only one protagonist, Jodie Holmes, played by actress Ellen Page and the ghost tied to her, named Aiden. The game follows Jodie's story from age 9 all the way to 24. The game features multiple chapters which are more jumbled and mixed up than a Quinton Tarantino film. Luckily, the game has a time line as a loading screen, which shows you when each chapter happened, making the story surprisingly easy to follow. In the first couple of hours, the story wasn't as engrossing as I would have liked, and I wondered exactly how some of the chapters were significant. Luckily, as the chapters filled out, all the events became important in their own way, and it's actually better that the story is jumbled up because it helps make some events in the story later down the timeline more clear and easy to understand. If the story were to be viewed in order, it would have significantly weakened the experience. One disappointment I've heard from fans is that the story isn't like Heavy Rain's style. In Heavy Rain's story, the game had an enormous amount of endings, which were all affected by the choices you made throughout the story. The multiple endings and in game choices encouraged multiple playthroughs if you wanted to get all of them. What made the game more exiting was the ability to kill off your characters, as well as the shocking twist near the end. Then there's Beyond's story. The game does have multiple endings, but the choices in the game that affect what ending you get are made within the last thirty minutes of the game. There are certain actions you can make in the story that make some of the endings slightly different, but that's it. However, I personally loved the change up. The reason why is because Heavy Rain's story was a little short, given all the work that was put into the multiple story arcs, which I had no problem with. However, because the story in Beyond was a single story arc, the story had a lot more room for the drama and impact. In this case, Beyond delivers, ultimately making it emotional, intense, heartfelt, and humorous on a couple of occasions. Also, the story is longer than Heavy Rain, making more room for the drama. So, I personally don't mind the change, but I know others will, so whether or not the game's story is good depends on your preferences. Next is the gameplay. The gameplay is similar to Heavy Rain, using the Face buttons to control speech choices during conversations and decisions, while using quick time events for the action. The quick time events in Beyond are actually based on moving the right analog stick in the correct direction. There aren't any on screen prompts, so you have to judge which way to move the stick, based on Jodie's momentum whenever the action slows. I've heard complaints that the direction isn't always clear, but I never had a problem with it. Plus, the slow down prompt always gives you enough time to adequately judge where to go. One thing I was disappointed with was the balance of quick time events and cinematic gameplay. Heavy Rain had a nice balance, usually having a quick time event segment every hour or so, with cinematic gameplay filling out the in between sections. In Beyond, the game would sometimes go on for hours without any quick time events or action. Despite the great story, the gap sometimes left me impatient for more. In this game, you don't control just Jodie, but the Aiden too. His gameplay mainly consists of messing with objects in the environment, as well as the ability to posses or kill people. As Aiden, you float around the area, and look for the next object to mess with (usually presented with a white dot), or look for the next person to kill or possess (usually presented with a red or orange silhouette). Aiden's controls are floaty at first, but get easier to handle over time. Ultimately, the game was incredible. When I reached the end, I was impressed with both the story as well as the gameplay and in the end, I can say my expectations with this game were satisfied.

With Arkham Origins next to it, it was pretty cool to see a portable version available. However, the game was not worked on by Warner Bros. Studios, but by another company all together. With the success of Arkham Origins, both critically and commercially, Armature Studios had a lot to live up to. The game ultimately does well in establishing itself as an Arkham title, but holds itself back with painful amounts of backtracking and repetitive gameplay. Overall, the gameplay itself isn't bad. Combat isn't as fast and fluid as it was on the console titles, but it was good enough to carry you through the game without fault. There weren't any real flaws other than the cape stun having no reach across a wide gap. Stealth is competent enough to be considered fun. I was worried about how stealth would work out in a 2D style game, but Armature studios did a very good job of making it both accessible and fun. Unlike the other games, Detective vision isn't activated with a button press, but instead by touching the screen. Scanning is done the same way, and both mechanics are competent enough to keep the gameplay flowing. Also, gadgets are transferred successfully, and work out despite the Vita's lack of buttons. Another thing the game has going for it is the boss fights. Even though the first two are a little straight forward, the rest of the fights are really well done, filled with creative trial-and-error gameplay. The stealth based boss throws new gameplay features at you that don't appear through the rest of the game, nor are they explained or made obvious to the player, which makes it a little unfair. I died multiple times without knowing the exact cause of why, which caused frustration. Ultimately though, the boss fights are fun, puzzle-based, and cinematic, just like the rest of the Arkham series. The story itself is interesting, taking place 3 months after Arkham Origins, and centers around a prison riot at Blackgate penitentiary, in which Black Mask, Joker, and the Penguin have taken control. Somehow, Catwoman finds her way in the mix, and her and Batman form an unlikely partnership to take down the head honchos of the prison. Aside from the relationship with Catwoman, and its origins, the story doesn't have much going for it. In the end, nothing really changes, and there's no real climax or surprising plot twist in the story. The graphics themselves are visually satisfying, and even though they don't compare to Origins, that's to be expected. The voice acting is nice as well, with all the actors from origins and city reprising their roles. Even though the game has a few positives, there's a boatload of negatives in this game as well. The first is backtracking. The amount of backtracking is absolutely ridiculous. Even if you choose to ignore the limited amount of side content, the game is still almost 50% backtracking. This is mainly caused by Blackgate being divided into four areas. The lack **** in one area will cause you to leave that area completely, (there's no fast travel system, you actually have to leave the area you're in), only to travel back later. Sure, there is side content, such as upgrades and detective cases, but these only add more backtracking to a game already jam-packed with it. I got so frustrated, that I actually decided to ignore the upgrades and detective case items. Ultimately the side content isn't worth it, and the game would've prospered more if it were a linear story, with upgrades being unlocked as a result of story progression. Even though I'm not particularly a fan of re-spawning enemies, there needed to be something to break the constant on-foot navigation, which is something Rocksteady managed to do in Arkham Asylum. Another annoyance is the lack of direction. Sure, there is a waypoint on the map, but it doesn't always help you figure out exactly which is the right path to use to get there. The game would've been a lot of better if it had something along the lines of a breadcrumb trail or a mini-map, which would've made the game easier to navigate. The map having no floor by floor navigation didn't help either. Another flaw is the lack of explosive walls that stick out, which is sometimes the only way to progress. This ultimately leaves you saying "What I do?" at multiple times. That's bad conveyance. What makes this game more disappointing is that it's another Triple A title that bombs on the Vita. Tons of titles including Call of Duty, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, Resistance, and Killzone have had stand alone titles on the Vita. Even though some are considered good, they just don't stand up to the console titles. Ultimately, the game isn't horrible, and has both competent gameplay mechanics and boss fights that live up to the console titles. However, the ungodly amount of backtracking, crappy side content, and bad navigation make this game a frustrating experience. At it's best, the game is fun to play, but at it's worst, the game is one long, boring chore.

It's been a long time since LEGO Star Wars came out, and the latest entry, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, shows exactly how far the series has come. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is without a doubt the best LEGO Game so far, not because of the gameplay so much as the heart that went into the latest entry. LEGO Super Heroes plays like previous LEGO games, being simplified, fun, and light-hearted. However, one thing the LEGO series has always tried to do is put a lot of effort into the franchises their games are based on. This absolutely shines in LEGO Marvel. Almost every character you play as has a unique air about them. Even though character's share similar abilities, the game usually does a good job of making them seem different. For example, Spider-Man and Wolverine have the same ability, but as Spider-Man, it's called a Spider sense. Whereas when you're Wolverine, it's a Feral Sense. It may seem like the same thing, but the different color schemes and ways they're used are what give the abilities a unique feel. Also, every character has similar powers, but you won't find two heroes with the exact same powers. Spider-Man and Wolverine can both crawl on walls, and both have a sense, but Wolverine can't swing from webs, and Spider-Man can't use his claws to dig in the ground. What I also loved about the heroes is that they're based on both the comic book versions of themselves, as well as the movie versions. If you've read the comic books and seen the movies, you'll see hints at both in the game. The gameplay is very simple, like it is in most LEGO games. However, combat in the game is also where the hero's uniqueness shines through. During combat, pressing the square button can initiate attack animation on enemies, and every character has at least two that are specific to the character. Iron Man will fly to an enemy and throw them, Spider-Man will swing enemies in a circle above his head, and Hulk will slam enemies around like he did Loki in the Avengers. Also, every character has some form of ranged attack. Holding the square button will bring up a targeting reticle, almost every character has, save for big guys like Hulk or Abomination. Iron Man will shoot rockets, Black Widow will fire guns, and Captain America will throw his shield. Even characters who don't have a ranged weapon, will still have a ranged attack, like lunging for Wolverine, although these attack are more limited. The missions have a classic LEGO style of gameplay, which means fighting enemies and solving the small puzzles to help you progress. Outside of levels, there's a whole open world New York to explore, with plenty of side activities and collectibles to keep you busy for a long time. The soundtrack is for the most part drab. However, there are a couple of heroic soundtracks which sound very well. The voice acting was well donel, with almost every voice fitting the character they're playing. I was very happy to see Nolan North and Steve Blum return as the voices of Deadpool and Wolverine, and to see some other big names, like Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker in the line-up as well. The only voice over who stuck out as lacking was Iron Man's. The guy they got to play Iron Man was not a good, as his voice was ill-fitting, and sounded more like an adult version of Spider-Man. Despite my praise of the game so far, LEGO Marvel has its share of negatives. The gameplay gets old very fast. Using the same repetitive combat and small puzzle solving over and over again eventually got to me. Despite the side activities in New York, the games repetitiveness caused me to step away from the game every couple of hours because I got bored. That's why I enjoyed LEGO Lord of the Rings more. In Lord of the Rings, there were multiple game change ups throughout the story, despite that the game was on a fixed story line. I was hoping to see the same here in LEGO Marvel, but I was disappointed to see hardly anything game changing. The Boss Fights suffer because of the lack of change. Even though some bosses were awesome, a few (like Red Skull), were lack luster. Also, a key mechanic in Lord of the Rings was the character selection wheel, which helped greatly to navigate all the characters. Even though the character count never got above five, it still did get on my nerves some of the time. This mechanic was sacrificed mainly to allow Hulk to turn back into Bruce Banner, and back again, but the sacrifice ultimately wasn't worth it, especially considering that ability was used once in the story. What I also don't get is that the selection wheel could've been linked to a shoulder button, but wasn't. What's LEGO's problem with those buttons?! Overall, despite my complaints, LEGO Marvel is an exceptional game, and worthy of your money and time if you're a LEGO fan. If you're not a big LEGO fan, LEGO Marvel probably isn't the game for you, especially if the LEGO series couldn't entertain you before hand.

When I had heard of Metro Last Light, I wasn't sure what to expect and made up my own theories on what kind of game it would be. Even though Last Light wasn't exactly the game I was expecting, I can't say I'm disappointed for playing it. In fact, the opposite couldn't be truer. Last Light is the sequel to Metro 2033 and is based on the novel of the same name. After a nuclear war in 2013, the city of Moscow the target of a nuclear attack became so consumed by radiation that humans could no longer live on the surface and had to take shelter in the underground Metro Tunnels. On the surface, animals and humans mutated, creating a new race of creatures known as the Dark Ones, which humans fear. Your protagonist is Artyom, a newly instated Ranger, who was given credit for discovering D6 and destroying the home of the Dark Ones. Your adventures starts when Artyom is informed that there is one last living Dark One. Artyom is then given the mission to find it and destroy it. Even though the game appears to be a shooter, the main form of gameplay is actually stealth, which was done surprisingly well. Stealth is done mainly in the Metro Tunnels, and uses a Splinter Cell type of gameplay where you stick to the shadows to surprise your enemies. You do this by unscrewing light bulbs and blowing out lanterns to create darkness, allowing you to sneak up and take out your enemies with ease. Along with stealth, you also have straight up shooting. The shooting is fairly standard and commonly found in most shooting games. However, this form of gameplay is highly discouraged, given the scarcity of ammo. Throughout the game, ammo is hard to come by, and is a precious commodity in the Metro. Because of this, ammo must constantly be scrounged, and is never in a plentiful amount to support constant **** higher the difficulty you choose, the less ammo you'll have overall, so stealth is an absolute must. Because of this, you'll mainly be using your guns to fight the mutants on the surface, where stealth is not a possibility. The game mainly takes place in the Metro Tunnels, but Artyom will be on the surface as well. The surface is absolutely flooded with radiation, so you'll need to use a gas mask and a plentiful supply of air filters to make sure Artyom lasts. Like ammo, gas masks need to be scavenged, otherwise Artyom will suffocate within a minute. Luckily, scavenging for filters was never a problem, and by the end of the game, I had more filters than I knew what to do with. Although, this does create a lack of tension while on the surface, which has the ability to disappoint fans. The game does have a superior soundtrack, and well done voice acting, save for the main character Anna, and her pathetically fake accent. The graphics themselves are a mixed bag. Even though the surface is absolutely beautiful and well designed, the Metro Tunnels are dull, and the facial animations are wooden. So much so that I couldn't see characters talk from a distance of fifteen feet. Overall, the game's solid stealth and shooting mechanics create a very well structured game which can easily keep you entertained throughout. However, the game does have it's draw backs. For instance, the game's stealth and shooting were fun, but the game lacked any real change ups, save for the very end of the game. Because of this, the game does seem to drag the last two hours, which leads to both boredom and frustration. Also, Artyom is another character who refuses to speak, despite having a voice actor. It's clear that Artyom speaks to other people in between chapters, given that characters who Artyom has never met before suddenly know his name. Plenty of games have mute characters, but Artyom was one that didn't really make sense. Lastly, the game has two different endings, similar to the last game. One ending is more positive and the other is more negative, and the ending you get depends on the choices you made throughout the game. Throughout the stealth missions, you have the option to kill or knock out your enemies and there are many instances in the games where you have the option to kill an enemy or let them live. These enemies are often the antagonists, or unarmed soldiers who have surrendered. Depending on whether you're a more merciful or more homicidal determines what ending you'll get. However, the restriction to getting the positive ending is too strong. Throughout the game I choose to kill a total of 11 men throughout the stealth sequences. Despite being a more merciful version of Artyom, I still got the negative ending, which shows the requirements for the good ending are too restrictive, and should've been more flexible. Despite the hiccups, Metro Last Light is still fun to play, and a very note worthy experience. Even though the linearity and lack of change ups in gameplay could turn some people off, Last Light is definitely a game worth experiencing.

Remember Me was one of those games I was interested in playing from the beginning. Since I first saw it in an entry in Game Informer, I wanted to play it. Unfortunately, upon receiving the game, I actually felt disappointment, and the reason why is because Remember Me is one of those games that comes so close to being great, but just barely misses the mark. The story is by far one of the more interesting and complex things to grasp in this game. Somehow, in the future, memory has been made manipulable. In the future, painful memories can be deleted, relived, but most importantly remixed. Unfortunately, the head company, Sensen, has used memories to dictate the world. Sensen can use memories to control you or destroy you to turn you into the dreaded creatures known as Leapers. The only ones standing up to Sensen are the Memory Hunters. That is who you are. You're Nilin, a memory hunter who was captured and had all of her memories, literally **** out of her, save for her name. After finding out who you are, you're immediately thrown back into the action, and are tasked with taking down the corporation. The story is one of the aspects of the story I'm on the fence on. The story keeps you interested throughout, but fails to deliver any shocking twists. Also, getting Nilin's memories **** out of her seems like a pivotal point of the story, but is immediately thrown out the window when she's told who she is and what she does for a living five minutes later. There was one awe aspiring moment that stuck with me, but other than that I wasn't impressed. The best aspect of this game is the graphics. They're topnotch, with well detailed characters and careful use of color to make something as simple as a doctor's lab coat pop. Everything from the broken down slums to the **** is beautifully done. The best part of gameplay is when you get to remix memories. Remixing memories is going into a specific memory of an individual to manipulate the events of the memories in slight ways which lead to a different memory altogether. These were well done, and made remixing the memories more of a puzzle, instead of a follow the directions kind of event. Luckily, the game doesn't stop you if you choose the wrong item. Instead, it allows you to see what exactly you're chosen manipulations lead to. Remixing the memory shows a great change in attitude, as well as grief over a memory that technically never happened. This shows a great amount of care thrown into these remixes, which only makes it all the more depressing that they only showed up four times in the story. Now, is the saddest part of Remember Me; the combat. It's loosely based on the Batman Arkham series, allowing you to fly from enemy to enemy, see incoming attacks, and vault over enemies to avoid them. However, this is where the concept is flawed. The combat is based on a combo type system, with the strongest part of the combo usually at the end. However, the combo can only be continued on one enemy, so if another enemy comes to hit you, your only option is to vault over the enemy you're attacking, and then continue the combo. This is hindered by three flaws. First is that Nilin is surprisingly slow in combat, so her evade isn't responsive, leaving you to take a hit because Nilin didn't react fast enough. Second, if you do manage to make Nilin evade, the combo will only continue if Nilin vaults over her enemy. Half of the time, Nilin will simply perform a dodge roll, even if you moved your analog stick directly toward your enemy. Lastly, after you perform a vault, you have to continue hitting the same enemy you were before, but, Nilin rarely hits the same enemy, even if you're moving pointing your joystick directly at him. This is only added by the consistent attacks from enemies, causing you to only get one hit before you have to evade again, which isn't very easy because of the before mentioned flaws. This ultimately leaves you with a lot of unfinished combos, making combat a chore. Next is the enemies. Leapers are extremely annoying because they leap on walls then jump down to attack you. However, the prompt for their attack doesn't stick out, causing you take an unexpected hit multiple times. You can shoot them down, but this just leaves you open for attack for ground enemies and takes way too long. Also, the electric armored enemies are a burden. The only way to take these guys down effectively is with two specials. After use they have a recharge time of over a minute. Attacking with bare fists causes damage, but sometimes that is the only way to take down two enemies, ultimately leaving you with low health. In a nutshell, Remember Me is a flawed experience with a few good ideas and moments in the otherwise lackluster story, has great graphics, but an almost broken form of combat. Because of it, Remember Me ends up being a game with great ideas, but overall a consistently frustrating and aggravating experience.

When I first received this game in the mail, I expected to play a game where I was relentlessly shooting zombies, using both skill and big guns to succeed and ensure my survival. To my surprise and eternal delight, I was completely wrong. Instead of a shooter, I got one of the most nerve-wracking, intense, and heart wrenching experiences I have ever played in a video game. Telltale Games' The Walking Dead is definitely the most unexpected and best experience I have played all year. First off is the concept. You play as a character named Lee who comes into contact with a little girl, Clementine, who has been separated from her family due to a zombie outbreak. As the first one to find her, Lee takes on the responsibility to protect Clementine and reunite her with her family. This creates a very heart-felt story centering around the relationship and fate of two people. You meet other survivors along the way, and develop relationships with them, whether they be positive or negative, and this ultimately shapes the story in ways you don't expect. The gameplay isn't a shoot-em up but is instead something else entirely. The main form of gameplay is using a cross-hair that scrolls across the screen using the right analog stick, which in turn allows you to interact with the world using the action buttons and on screen prompts. Since the cross-hair is controlled by the right analog stick, naturally, you don't have control of the camera. Luckily, the game did a fine job in capturing the right angles for your play through and rarely did I get annoyed with the lack of control. The cross-hair itself is a little slow in movement, but it helps to keep up the intensity in suspenseful situations. The game also uses conversation choices using the action buttons to change the story as well as your relationship with other characters in the game. Your choices in conversation also come with a time limit which is used only in situations that are supposed to keep you on edge. In other words, this time limit is used exceptionally well and at the right times, but you will end up choosing conversation pieces you didn't want to. You'll soon learn that your choices in both conversation and action can greatly affect what happens in the story. Characters will remember the tiniest things you said or did which affects how the story unravels. However, you won't see the full effect of your choices until the very end of chapter 4 and throughout chapter 5. Until then, your choices won't seem to mean anything. Lastly, there are some shooting sequences which work very well, although, they aren't commonly used. The soundtrack unfortunately isn't very special. Throughout the game, no soundtracks made much of an impression, save for the country song used in the end credits. The voice acting is decent enough, but like the music doesn't make an impression. Also, there were some frame by frame problems. There were a couple of times where the game would lag and would freeze for a second or two and then continue. This happened more than a few times. Luckily, these problems went away after several minutes. I'm not sure how to feel about the graphics. They resemble Borderlands graphics by using cartoon outlines. However, the cartoon outlines are the only thing that give any detail. So, if there isn't much drawn out detail in objects (like buildings), the graphics can look undetailed and plain. Expect this a lot in backgrounds. Lastly, is the best part of the game; the story. The story is by far one of the best I've ever seen and even rivals the well-written story of the Metal Gear saga. Every character you meet for an extended amount of time has a well-developed personality, whether they be bad or good. Not a single character appears bland and boring or under developed. Also, every chapter is very well written, and will either create intense or heart breaking moments. Relationships with characters really vary, and it's surprising how yesterday's friend will easily come to resent you in a few hours. This story is also one of the saddest I've ever played before. I have never once cried while playing a video game, but this is the very first game that I ever came close. This game has its faults, but these aren't even remotely big enough to dissuade you from playing. This game has one of the most compelling stories and a unique gameplay mechanic to keep you interested from beginning to end. I don't care about what genre you're into. The Walking Dead is a game that cannot be missed by anyone.