Epic Franchise Time!

This time, I play the latest entries in three epic franchises that have been around almost as long as I have! One is no surprise, one is a great surprise, and the other, well, it's a surprise too, I guess. So turn on your grand, sweeping orchestral music and enjoy!

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

• Wii
• Release Date: 11/19/06 (4 years behind!)
• 1 Playthrough @ 50 hours
• Waggle Factor: Medium/High

Caveat: I lost all my notes on this game, so this may be shorter than it should be.

I beam with a bit of gamer self-satisfaction when I say that I've not only played every major Legend of Zelda game, but I remember when each of them came out. I even ate the LoZ breakfast cereal (and threw it up one morning on my way to school!) Of course, it's not long before I realize that this doesn't make me awesome, it just makes me old.

The games themselves, however, are indeed awesome, and Twilight Princess continues this and many of the franchise's other traditions. Twilight Princess has all the ingredients that we know and love from the series. All the characters are there, there's the Master Sword, bow and arrrow, bombs, a massive overworld, and huge sprawling dungeons. After 25 years, how do they keep the formula fresh? By altering and tweaking the role that each element plays. Twilight Princess is perhaps the most mature entry in the series. (At least the ESRB thought so, it got a T rating) Link is an adult, or close to one, and the story is arguable darker than the rest of the series. However, it's executed nearly perfectly. The world is beautiful (or was in 2006) and huge, and it's very easy to lose yourself in.

That is, once you've passed one of the series' more onerous staples, the far-too-long village intro sequence. It drove me nuts in Ocarina, it drove me nuts in Wind Waker, and it drove me nuts here. No, I don't want to find your cat or round up your stupid goats!

Another serious frustration has to do with the platform I played it on. At launch, Twilight Princess was released for both the GameCube and the brand new Wii. I imagine the controls for the GameCube version were alright having played Wind Waker, but the overly gimmicky and far too imprecise Wii controls cheapen a lot of the experience at best, and hinder the gameplay at their west. Emnara quit playing the game after dying three times in a row due to this issue.

I didn't however, and for the most part I'm glad I stuck with it. The game is fantastic, and certainly worthy of all the praise it's received over the years. Hopefully, the forthcoming Skyward Sword (due in November) will show improvement due to having been developed of the Wii instead of ported from a last gen system, and maybe Emnara will finish it, and I won't be yelling "******* Wii ****!" every half hour while playing it.


Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

• PS3
• Release Date: 10/5/2010  (4 months behind!)
• Playthroughs: 3@15 hours each
• Trophies: 100% (before DLC)

One of the big trends in gaming right now is franchise reinvention. Just one of the plethora of factors contributing to this: franchises in the gaming world tend to stick around a lot longer than a lot of their  film counterparts, so reinvention becomes absolutely necessary every other generation or so. Many recent examples of this went back to the franchises roots to rediscover what was fun about the game in its early days. Others make a radical departure, leaving nothing intact but it's surface elements. This latter approach is a big risk, and can wind up costing a series its fans forever.

Fortunately this is not the case with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Developer Mercury Steam, with the collaboration of Konami and the legendary Hideo Kojima, have changed Castlevania's fundamental formula from the accumulated legacy traits over the last 25 years to a God of War meets Lord of the Rings style epic. To be honest, I never expected to care about the series again. After the fantastic Symphony of the Night, still considered by many to be the pinnacle of the series, we were dealt a number of experiments in 3D on the Nintendo 64 and PS2, which ranged from the mediocre to downright horrific. Lords of Shadow is arguably the first 3D entry in the series to get it right, and it has done this by calling in all the favors the God of War series owes to it. This formula is very well traveled, but this skill of its implementation makes it noteworthy. Aesthetically, Lords of Shadow owes a debt to Lord of the Rings. The first third of the game finds protagonist Gabriel Belmont traveling a lush countryside through murky swamps dotted with crumbling, unbelievably ancient ruins. The level of detail is absolutely amazing and certainly worthy of comparison to the epic films. The soundtrack brings the epic feel even more in the art direction however. It feels more like a film score, and it does not like to sit unobtrusively in the background. While it is a bit heavy handed in the beginning, and even managed to epic me out at first, it grew on me, so much so I would go so far as to say it's my favorite game soundtrack of 2010, and that's not just my opinion. It won a BAFTA last year.

Several more elements one would not expect to find in castlevania games of yesteryear that Lords of Shadow has in spades are story and character. While the story seems like your basic video game plot at first, some truly inspired twists and turns begin to take their toll on Gabriel. Some excellent voice acting (including none other than the legendary Patrick Stewart!) fleshes out a story that truly redefines the Castlevania universe, and makes this a landmark for not just the series (which would not be that impressive), but gaming as well.

Lords of shadow could be called a God of War clone gameplay wise, but it doesn't clone it perfectly. Blocking and parrying is nowhere near as precise is it should be, especially given how many bonuses are tied to the action. With combat as unforgiving as Lords of Shadows', my recommendation for the first playthrough is dodge, dodge, dodge. However, as you buy more upgrades on subsequent playthroughs, you'll become so powerful as to negate the need to block. Mostly.

Lords of Shadow is easily the best Castlevania since Symphony of the Night. That title made the series relevant again by adopting many of the concepts that made Super Metroid a success. Lords of Shadow does the same thing. Story wise, if you're a fan of Castlevania, or non-sparkly vampires in general, (you can tell the devs are gamer geeks: I found references not only to Portal, but my old Vampire: The Dark Ages pen and paper RPG!) you owe it to yourself to give Lords of Shadow a shot.

Final Fantasy XIII

• PS3
• Release Date: 3/9/2010 (1 year behind!)
• Playthroughs: 1 @ 45 hours
• Trophies: 52%

When I was a little kid, I loved hot dogs. Like, eating them cold out of the fridge loved them. One year, I discovered pizza. I still like hot dogs, just not nearly as much as I used to. The same can be said of Final Fantasy, of course, I'm sure hot dogs haven't changed as much as Final Fantasy has in the last 20 years.

The latest entry in the most oxymoronically named series ever bears practically no resemblance to the Final Fantasy I grew up with, and just passing resemblances to the last several entries. While Final Fantasy games have always had that one character you couldn't stand, it seems like they comprise most of the cast in FF XIII. Some truly atrocious dialogue such as "Heroes don't need plans," and "heroes don't run from fight," greet you in the very first scene, which aside from the inane dialogue is just confusing and disorienting as hell, and really gives you no clue what's going on until hours into the game. This approach isn't always bad, unless the game assumes you already know what's going on.

It's not like the story gets better as it goes though. There is practically no complexity or depth to the characters, and a lot of the game's story plays out like some weird fan fic translated into Japanese then re-translated back into English, with heavy liberties taken on both sides.

One of the game's most glaring flaws is its tyrannical linearity. One of the best things about the series has always been its side quests and freedom to explore, and FFXIII gives NO chance for either until the penultimate chapter, and by then, you're so close to the end of the game you'll just want to power through and finish the final level.

On the plus side, combat isn't too bad. I'm still not a fan of real time battles and not being able to directly your party members, but the Paradigm system (a predefined set of AI behaviors/rules that you level with experience) is far more fluid and user friendly than XII's. (while that game had a lot more customization options, I felt like a programmer more than once) This makes combat very fast paced, sometimes too much so.

I've been asking myself, if I had played Final Fantasy VII for the first time at 30, would I be as critical of it as I am of XIII? Conversely, if I played XIII at 17, the age I was when I first played VII, would I feel the same way about it as I did about that game? No and no, for these reasons. 1. VII, I think , is not remembered as much for the game it is than the promise it showed of what games were becoming. 2. XIII lacks most of the things I loved about VII, which were exploration, complex characters (some of them, anyway) and a clear conflict and goal in the story. VII isn't the best Final Fantasy, but it's whole is far more than the sum of its parts. XIII is a clear victory of style over substance, and sadly, an indication of the direction the franchise is going. I won't be going with it, if that's the case, and with Final Fantasy XIII-2 just announced, yeah really, there's no reason for me to go there either.

By the way, Mass Effect is the pizza to the Final Fantasy hot dog. I'll bet no one else has ever put those words together before.

Nightmare Fuel, In Space!

This particularly late edition of A Step Behind (about 9 months late) is devoted entirely to my new favorite survival horror franchise, the excellent Dead Space series, by Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores). Not only are the games themselves great, influenced by some of my own favorite movies, but, as you'll find later on, I actually have a personal connection to it! Read on, and don't get eaten. Or blown out the airlock. That really sucks.

Dead Space

Aliens + Event Horizon + RE4 = My new favorite survival horror franchise!
 

• PS3/360
• Release Date: 10/13/08 (2 weeks behind)
• 3 Playthroughs each system @ 8 hours each.
• Achievements/Trophies: 100%/100% Completed #1 / Platinum #13

As a general rule, I don't replay games on another system once I've finished them. In the 3 years I've had these systems, there's only been one game upon which I've bestowed the dubious honor of playing on both the 360 and PS3, and that's Dead Space. I ripped through it in during a two week rental after it first came out in 08, making it the first 360 game I got 100% on, and I loved it so much that I vowed I would buy it someday, and I did, for the PS3, several years later in my anticipation for Dead Space 2.

Having been a fan of sci-fi horror since first seeing Aliens as a kid, I was nothing short of thrilled when I first heard that EA Redwood Shores (now known as Visceral) was developing a new IP heavily inspired by the Alien franchise and another of my favorites, Event Horizon. After playing it right after release, and then again two years later, I can honestly say that neither time was I disappointed.

Dead Space features one of the greatest openings to any survival horror game (rivaled only by it's sequel in this regard), somehow managing to pull me right in despite my distaste for being defenseless. It manages to keep the tension ratcheted up through most of the game, and is full of enough "Holy Shit!" moments to keep you from putting the controller down, no matter how bad you might need to.

Dead Space's gameplay formula is more or less identical to that of the legendary Resident Evil 4, (who can blame it, really, it's a great formula!) of 3rd person, over the shoulder, precision aiming, and character and weapon upgrades. One major difference though, is the ability to MOVE AND AIM! (Several months after DS released, Capcom put out Resident Evil 5 without this ability, claiming that being able to move and aim would undermine the tension. I called bullshit.)

In Dead Space, you play as Isaac Clarke (named after two sci-fi heavyweights I need not name), an engineer dispatched to the USG Ishimura, a huge planet cracker starship (which mines planets by literally pulling them apart) along with army dude Hammond and hacker chick Kendra (yes, they are stereotypes), to figure out why the Ishimura dropped out of contact. As soon as they land on the ship (a rough landing, which prevents them from being able to turn around in leave, in true horror movie fashion), they find out. The security team is slaughtered by horrifying deformed and reanimated dead bodies, later called necromorphs. Isaac runs for his life, until finding a weapon (the franchise's now iconic plasma cutter) and reestablishing contact with Hammond and Kendra. Together, they must find a way to escape the Ishimura, and stop the outbreak from spreading.

The Ishimura, much like the Nostromo in Alien and the Event Horizon in, well, Event Horizon, is a charcter in it's own right. Its dark and claustrophobic corridors, while occasionally somewhat repetitive, are the perfect environment for the tense and occasionally frantic gameplay. The necromorphs are truly terrifying enemies. They're vicious, fast, deadly, and very hard to kill. A headshot won't do it here, you must dismember them in order to kill them, requiring speed, focus and skill. All based around deformed human morphology, the enemies are truly disturbing to look at, and range from tiny and fast to utterly massive.

The larger story of Dead Space has been well fleshed out in other media, from the comic series and anime film to book tie ins. There's a lot of lore to be found in the game as well, from the ubiquitous text files and audio logs that we all know and love.

Dead Space isn't perfect, to be sure. The environment is occasionally repetitive, and there is a bit of Resident Evil style backtracking (though not to the extent RE did). The breakout sequences can get frustrating, and there's a few instances of instadeath that you have to learn the hard way to avoid. Ammo is scarce, especially on the harder difficulty levels, but whether or not that's a bad thing is really an issue for the individual gamer to decide.

If you are a fan of the survival horror genre and you haven't played Dead Space, let's not mince words. You are SCREWING yourself over with deprivation. If you don't do scary, keep your distance. This game gave ME nightmares. It was pretty much the scariest game I'd played until.....

Dead Space 2

• PS3
• Release Date: 1/25/11 (Not behind! Release date shipping FTW!)
• 3 Playthroughs @ 24 hours
• Trophies: 91%

I'm catching my breath. I can't afford to stop, but I can't run anymore. I'm hurt badly, limping down a barely lit corridor praying I'll find some more ammo or a medpack before the next wave of these things finds me. My nerves are shot, I can't take any more of this, but I can't stop. I hear a crash far behind me. I have two shots left in my plasma cutter. There's a window looking out on the Spawl and Saturn  just ahead. If I can get them close enough, I can shoot out that window and decompress the room. The question is, will I be fast enough to shoot the emergency shutter before I get sucked out myself?

....until Dead Space 2, which bests its predecessor in almost every way. It starts with an utterly horrifying (and unfair) escape sequence and does not let up, even at the end.

A quick note of disclosure, I'm proud to be able to say that I have a small personal connection to Dead Space 2. Protagonist Isaac Clarke, a classic video game mute in DS1, is now full fledged character, voiced and mocapped by my friend and co-worker Gunner Wright! Aside from being one of the nicest guys I know, Gunner more than rises to the challenge of building a personality for a character that literally had none in the first game. Clarke is unstable, dangerous, and more than a little insane at this point. The events of Dead Space have left him scarred and mentally broken, and Wright illustrates this with gut-wrenching intensity. Gameplay-wise, little details like Clarke screaming "Motherfucker!" occasionally when stomping on a dead necromorph are an example of the far more immersive experience that Dead Space 2 provides.

Dead Space 2, like its predecessor, takes the survival horror experience we know and at times get bored of, and pushes it into the territory of real horror. For instance, the first time you're ambushed by the pack (an unsettling mob of undead prepubescents) and force yourself not to think about the children these monsters obviously once were as you shoot off their limbs to keep them from tearing you apart. The Sprawl, a massive space station orbiting Saturn, is a very different place than the tight corridors of the Ishimura. You can tell this is a very different game when you come across your first blood-stained family apartment.

Zero gravity is a far more fluid experience now, and is a vast improvement over the turn/aim/jump mechanic of the original. Overall, DS2 is one of the most, if not THE most intense survival horror game I've ever played. On the base game, I secured every trophy with the exception of one: Hardcore mode is exceedingly brutal. With being allowed to save 3 times over the course of the entire game, very limited ammo and respawning enemies, Visceral has created a challenge as brutal as it is time consuming.

A note on the DLC: Severed  is another hour or two of intense Dead Space action but the writing is awful. You've been warned.

Survival horror fans MUST play this game. That is all.

If you're a Gunner Wright fan, like me, you can see one of the videos we've worked on for Verizon Wireless Here. (Fun facts, I'm the voice on the phone at 0:05 and the long-haired roadie at 1:38!) Also, look for him soon in LOVE (trailer below) and Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar!  A very special thanks to Gunner for putting up with my geeking out. :)




A quick note on Dead Space: Extraction, which comes with the PS3 version of DS: I was going to review it along with DS1 and 2, however, I've decided to include it in my upcoming Broken Arm Rail Shooter Extravaganza, coming in September. Oh, it won't be that far off. We all know I date these for when I played the game, not when I wrote them. :P

The Royal Wii

Thanks to TigerWife, we now have another system to write on! Adding the Wii to the mix necessitates a new dimension to these reviews, and that's the exciting, old frontier of motion control. I'll be relating this with a highly subjective (and occasionally sarcastic) system called the Waggle Factor. With my snarky little comments, I hope to convey the extent to which the game relies on (or ignores) the technology, how well integrated into the experience it is, and just how tired your arm will get. (Quiet, you.)

Wii Sports

Shake that thang! And....pretend like you're playing outside.

 

• Wii
• Release Date:11/19/06 (4 years behind!)
• 6 games @ 2 hours total
• Waggle Factor:Exxxxxx--treeeeeeme!

My time with Wii Sports was short, and so is my review.

Tennis = Lame

Boxing = Lame

Baseball = Super Lame

Bowling = Awesome

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

 

 

• PS3
• Release Date: 11/16/10 (1 1/2 months behind!)
• Playthroughs: 1 @ 50+ hours
• Trophies: 87% 

I've always felt a little guilty for not writing a longer blog on Assassin's Creed 2. A page-long entry wouldn't have begun to do that excellent game justice, to say nothing of the measly little paragraph I gave it in my rush to get “caught up” last year. What a joke.

I intend to make amends this year by recounting the excellent time I had with Brotherhood, which continues the story of Ezio Auditore da Firenze (and Desmond Miles, of the far more boring name) who has been forced to Rome to hunt down Rodrigo Borgia, now Pope Alexander VI, whose life he spared at the end of AC2. Ezio, now a full fledged Assassin, realizes that he cannot take on the Borgia establishment on his own, and begins recruiting new initiates into the order.

While I have to admit that I wasn't very excited for AC:B at first (A multiplayer AC? An unnumbered entry? Can you say, Cash in?) I'm more than happy to accept being wrong. The campaign was just as engrossing and intriguing as 2, if not more so, easily coming in at 60 hours to find everything. It could be said that Brotherhood is Assassin's Creed II-2 (but that type of name would never fly, oh wait), and I'm more than ok with that. 2 and Brotherhood both have such sprawling stories and settings, I can't help but feel a great deal of gratitude that Ubisoft didn't try to cram it all into one game.

The gameplay has improved by leaps and bounds, and engagements that used to take 5 minutes or more are reduced to seconds. With timing and skill, Ezio can now chain kills together. After finishing one enemy, all it takes it a button press to kill the next, and the next, and as long as you don't get hit, a whole mob of enemies can be leveled in this fashion. If that wasn't enough, Ezio can now call Assassin recruits to fight by his side (as well as assassinating targets and wreaking havoc for distractions).

In fact, the Assassin Recruit missions were as strangely addictive to me as the Merc management in MGS: Peace Walker. I guess I just like throwing underlings into harms way. These missions level up your band of merry men and women, and net you a good deal of money in the meantime. It's too bad that once you begin the mission, you only get a succeeded/failed message when they return. A little animation or something like would have been nice.

While playing this series, I've never once thought to myself, hmmm, this would be a fun multiplayer game, so when the mode was announced for Brotherhood, I was quite skeptical. After a few hours of trying it out, it's a lot more fun than I expected, but still not enough to “convert” me. The main mode consists of hunting an assigned target while evading the player hunting you, and this simple formula is pretty engaging. However, my problem with Brotherhood's multiplayer is the same problem I have with most online multiplayer, and that's I get bored of doing the same thing fairly easily.

In short, if you've played and enjoyed the first two, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a natural fit for you. Also, if you're looking for an alternative to the run and gun online multiplayer formula, you might find Brotherhood a worthwhile diversion. Brotherhood delivers on all fronts, and hopefully, AC3 won't be too far off.

Next time! Dismembering for fun and profit! Or just to escape with your skin.