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ladala99 · 6 years ago

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Spyro Reignited Countdown - The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (Console)

If you expected me to review the handheld versions from the title, sorry. I didn’t get those back when the games first came out. I’m considering getting them in the future and I’ll review them if that happens.

But onto The Eternal Night! The first Spyro game that caused me to consider quitting the series after playing! (Spoiler alert: I didn’t)

Gameplay

Basic controls are exactly the same as its direct predecessor, but with some new twists. Melee now lets you chain five air hits rather than three, and now we have the new ability: Dragon Time.

Dragon Time lets you slow down the environment around you. It’s used in some platforming, and it’s extremely useful in combat. It’s also just plain cool. Too bad I didn’t know how to use it properly when I first played!

If A New Beginning is too easy, The Eternal Night takes the opposite approach. Enemy AI has been improved, new types of enemies are sometimes very cheap, enemies respawn after you die and regain all of their health, cheap shots, and to top it all off, cheat codes for infinite health and mana don’t exist in this game when they were advertised to exist. So not only is it harder, but you’re forced to play it at that difficulty.

Okay, with one exception: the Dark Spyro cheat. It makes the game trivially easy, since Dark Spyro’s breath ability is really overpowered and hardly uses any mana. I honestly haven’t beaten the game without using this ability at least to defeat enemies I already beat. The game as designed just isn’t fun for me.

Additional Game Modes/Characters

There’s the Dragon Challenges that unlock after you beat the game. They’re some combat challenges with special rules. So it’s not really a new game mode, just more combat. I actually found them fun when I actually got around to them, though. (Which I think was the third time I played through the game - did them in a completed file alongside my playthrough on a different file)

Collectables

They actually return in this game! It’s not nearly as extensive as the Classic games, but it’s something.

The most common item is the Scriber’s Quill. These unlock concept art. Generally, these are relatively easy to find and get to, but some of them are hidden.

Then there’s Dragon Relics, which give bonuses to your maximum health and mana. These are hidden very well, to the point that I only found one my first playthrough. Some are extremely difficult to navigate to, as well, such as the Ancient Grove one, where you have to platform across small roots that are difficult to stay on.

They’re pretty fun to get, but they have a major problem: there’s no way to access levels you’ve already beaten without looping through a playthrough (beating the game and starting again on the same file). I always use a guide, simply because I haven’t played the game enough to memorize it. And you really shouldn’t have to do that.

But they exist, which is a step up from A New Beginning.

Breath Abilities

We get the same ones as last time, with some changes. Because plot, Spyro has to relearn his abilities again through the game, and they act a little differently this time. It’s mostly just that instead of a ranged attack, now we have a melee elemental attack.

Fire is fire. But no longer do we have fireballs, but instead the Comet Dash! It’s great for dealing a ton of damage or moving quickly. Honestly I don’t use it much, but it became pretty iconic later. So the fact that it originates here is noteworthy!

Ice is next this time around. The main attack is now a burst attack rather than a stream, and can be used to create platforms in water. Whoa, actual puzzles and platforming! There’s also the tail-based melee attack that slows down your enemies’ movement and, depending on the size of the enemy and your own upgrades, sends them flying. That attack alone made Ice my most-used element.

Earth is third. You get this big flail as your primary attack that you can whip around you quickly, attacking all enemies that surround you. The melee is a pulse attack as Spyro jumps and sends energy out in a sphere underneath him. I really didn’t use it much.

Finally, you get access to Lightning Breath. It was overpowered in the first game, so how does it hold up here? It’s usable, I guess. Primary attack is a large electric orb that you can knock away into distant enemies before blowing up. Pretty neat. Melee is a lightning whirlwind, that’s basically Comet Dash but much more controllable. Very powerful, but uses up mana pretty quickly.

Notice we don’t get any overpowered attacks this time around. Still, second attack wins. They’re all useful, though, as some enemies have hidden weaknesses, and they’re all different enough to be used in different situations.

Bosses

There’s a lot of them, but many are very similar to one another. Not even sure whether to call a lot of these boss fights or alternate game modes since they’re played a lot differently than the rest of the game.

The Assassin and all the Skurvywings fights are all pretty much the same. You’re on a 2D plane where you can move back and forth, and jump, while sending fire (and only fire) out to your opponent, who is flying around. The main difference between these fights is the distance between you and your opponent, and thus when you can hit them. The hardest part is dodging, but using Dragon Time makes it manageable. I find these fights pretty fun, since they have a different playstyle than usual.

Arborick uses the same controls as above, but with a twist: you need to attack all of the different parts of the body to proceed. I think in a specific order, too, but I don’t quite recall. There’s also a second round where you just attack as quickly as you can and dodge his attacks. Pretty creative and fun boss.

Fellmuth Arena is pretty much “lets take some bosses and minibosses from A New Beginning and have you fight them here in a small arena!”

We’ve got the Blunder Tails, which are some optional enemies in A New Beginning. This time, they’re both aggressive at the same time, and their AI’s a bit better. You have to use melee carefully to beat them. It’s a little tough with both of them after you, but they’re only mini-bosses, so it’s doable.

Hey, remember Steam? I bet you do! The Ravage Rider is identical to him! Except he only has two health bars instead of three, so he’s a little easier!

And finally, the Executioner. The guide I use says he’s identical to the Ice and Electric Kings from A New Beginning, but there is a fairly major difference here: you can’t spam ranged attacks if you don’t have any! Just that fact alone makes the fight a lot harder - you need to fight him like you were supposed to in the first place! *gasp*

Next up is Skabb, who is a boss that acts like a boss should. Dodge his attacks, wait until he rests, and beat on him when he does. You’ve seen this kind of boss as far back as A Hero’s Tail. (before that, you generally were using the environment or powerups to fight rather than your normal attacks)

The Elemental Spirits are more copies of the Ice and Electric King, but this time you’re limited to just one element when you fight them. Hope you upgraded more than just Ice! (I think you can also use Dark Spyro here if you’re cheap, though)

Remember Cynder’s fight from the first game? What if she was crazy aggressive and you could only use one element at a time on her? What if you simply can’t cheese her because Dark Spyro doesn’t work? Honestly, it’s a very fun fight. Although I think I mostly love it because the first time I completed the game, I spammed Dark Spyro everywhere I could, and here I was forced not to. And I had fun.

Finally, Gaul. you lose your breath abilities against him, meaning you’re forced to fight him with melee. It makes a very fun and intense fight. Second round you get access to Dark Spyro, but you aren’t completely out of the water as he still has some fight left in him. Dark Spyro’s still really overpowered, though. Still, you’ll need it. I had a blast the first time I actually got to him. Again, being forced not to use Dark Spyro (and then being in a fight where you have to use Dark Spyro) made it a lot of fun.

So in general, very varied, and there’s a ton of bosses here. Some are copy-pasted from A New Beginning, but with the increased difficulty, they feel new enough to work, and some limit what you can use against them.

Levels

Much more varied compared to the first game. Maybe not necessarily in style, but definitely in gameplay. There’s so much more platforming and cleverer puzzles scattered around. You need to make full use of Dragon Time and Spyro’s Elemental abilities not only to fight, but simply to get through each level.

The levels themselves are also well-themed and not nearly as cliche as in the first game. Okay, crystal-based caves are pretty cliche, as well as evil volcanoes. But Skabb’s Fleet, come on! Flying pirate ships manned by dogs!

I can say I definitely had a lot more fun maneuvering in this game than in tits predecessor.

Story

Honestly, a whole lotta nothing happens in this game. It’s basically the filler episode of the series. The storytelling is still incredibly well-done, but really, it all boils down to rescuing the princess dragoness.

So Cynder feels all guilty about the first game and tries to leave the Dragon Temple. Spyro tries to go after her, but unfortunately the Dragon Temple ends up under attack and Spyro has to go help.

After defending the Temple, Spyro gets a vision from this Chronicler guy and is instructed to find a special tree in a forest. Ignitus encourages him to follow his advice, and Spyro goes on to look for that tree.

Tree turns out to be Arborick. Who some pirates were in the middle of capturing for their arena tournament. They capture Spyro, too, for good measure, because he happened to pass out to learn a new breath ability at a bad time.

Spyro is forced to participate in the arena challenges. Turns out they captured Cynder, too, though. But Cynder is captured again by Gaul the Ape King’s forces. And Spyro has to break himself out of this situation to go after them. Oh, and Hunter of Avalar has a note delivered. He never really appears in this game.

He does, and promptly passes out in the middle of the ocean for another lesson. Luckily this turtle-guy you’ll never see again was there to rescue him. And take him to the Celestial Caves, where Spyro has to make it through the Chronicler’s security system before finally meeting the king of bad timing himself.

Spyro learns that Cynder has been captured by Gaul to be used to summon the Dark Master or something. Spyro wants to go after her. The Chronicler tells him to “ride out the storm. Live to fight another day,” basically telling him to stay there and stay safe.

Spyro say no way and escapes, traveling to the Mountain of Malefor and the Well of Souls to rescue Cynder. He faces Gaul, but not before the Celestial Moons do their thing and Spyro gets caught up in the corruption. He turns into Dark Spyro and brutally kills Gaul. It takes Cynder knocking him out of the beam to snap him out of it.

The cave crumbles around them, and there’s no escape. Spyro remembers the Chronicler’s words, and uses his time powers to freeze them in crystal. There they would be stuck, until Hunter finds them. Cue credits.

So yeah. But again, the storytelling is amazing despite what it is and I had a blast watching and experiencing it. The atmosphere’s great, and I really loved the sketchbook style some of the cutscenes had.

Once I saw the ending (because I think I looked it up on YouTube; I didn’t beat the game until many years later), I couldn’t wait for the next game. Mostly to watch it, because I had decided that if it was going to be this hard, I wouldn’t get it again. Sadly, this series never got a real conclusion in the same style.

Unique in the Series?

In many ways, yes. Dragon Time never shows up again, and thus a lot of the gameplay is completely unique because a lot of the game relies on it.

In other ways, it’s very similar to A New Beginning.

Conclusion

I gave up on this game because I didn’t like Action games at that age. Once I got older, and actually appreciated Action games a bit more, I learned to love this game.

Sure, it’s not perfect. Sure, I do need to cheat to fully enjoy it (because it’s not fun fighting cheap enemies you’ve already beaten. I just blast them until I get back to where I was before). But it’s a really solid game and a ton of fun.

On it’s own right, I think it’s just as good as the classic trilogy. It’s just a completely different genre. It’s a shame in hindsight that it didn’t do well enough for Krome to finish the series.

#spyro #the legend of spyro #the eternal night #video game review #spyro reignited

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naveedahmed123 · 4 years ago

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Deep Rock Galactic Honest Review | Rock, Stone And Boom!

For some, this situation is similar to a scene from a horror movie, but for the employees of the space company Deep Rock Galactic, this is just another working day.

A substantial screeching fly drags the machine gunner into the darkness, and the engineer accidentally touches an explosive bush and is now lying on the ground with a singed beard. Squeezed into a corner, the driller made his way back in the rock until he found a giant abyss under his feet. Left without ammunition and teammates, the scout hangs from the ceiling on a hook-cat, but nothing will help him: the cave is rapidly filling with hordes of hungry beetles.

For some, this situation is similar to a scene from a horror movie, but for the employees of the space company Deep Rock Galactic, this is just another working day.

Gimli vs Arachnids

The dwarves in Deep Rock Galactic have mastered interstellar travel and discovered Hawkes 4, a planet rich in valuable resources. But besides gold and rare hops, it also has enough dangerous flora and fauna – countless hordes of monsters desperately defend their home.

But the miners were not embarrassed by such difficulties, and now mostly. Even the most innocent mission inevitably turns into a slaughterhouse with the use of chemical weapons, industrial explosives and large-caliber barrels. There is no plot or lore in the game anymore: you choose a character, a task to your liking and go to the landing capsule – the minerals will not dig themselves out.

With rare exceptions, Deep Rock Galactic’s gameplay is not about combat at all. As a rule, a detachment of miners parachutes into procedurally generated caves in order to extract certain resources, return equipment to a dead expedition, or, say, build an “oil pipeline” from a nearby tower. Alien dungeons are reluctant to part with their treasures: they often have to work in extreme conditions.

Gold deposits may well be waiting under the very ceiling, and a network of pipes may have to be laid right through the magma lake. Therefore, most of the time, you will not have to shoot, but do speleology: overcome abysses, build bridges, drill tunnels.

And it is played much more interesting than it sounds. Although the locations are randomly generated, the artificial level designer does almost better than the real one – the caves here turned out to be beautiful and full of dangers. Sandstorms, lava eruptions, stalactites falling, fields of explosive plants: because of the random generation of levels, you never know what to face on your next dive.

Besides, peacefully working with picks will not work in any case – the caves are teeming with aggressive beetles. When you first see how a torch illuminates the roof of a massive cave for several seconds. Along which dozens of beetles are crawling, the movie Starship Troopers immediately comes to mind. I want to push the trigger all the way until everything that does not have a beard stops moving.

And fortunately, Deep Rock Galactic gameplay is very enjoyable to shoot. Although the feel of the weapon itself is not particularly special. The situation is saved by the destructibility of the environment and the damage mode. Your shots break the chitinous shells of monsters, exposing vulnerable spots. This not only looks and feels great, but also affects the gameplay beetles deprived of armor receive noticeably more damage, and for this, you still need to aim.

Related: How To Make A Lot of Money in Cyberpunk 2077

Enemies, as is customary in such cooperative shooters, are not particularly smart, but they take on the number and variety. With the latter, Deep Rock Galactic is doing especially well: there are almost three dozen unique critters on Hawkes 4. Beetles, spiders, flies, leeches and even aggressive plants, all behave in their own way. And different combinations of opponents are capable of breaking through any defense.

Also, you never know what conditions you will have to fight in the next time. Fight with the boss at the bottom of the narrow “well” where the whole team went down like a turtle for the last five minutes? Or an endless swarm of little spiders in the middle of a viscous swamp?

Deep Rock Galactic’s main success lies precisely in the combination of combat mechanics and exploration. At high difficulty levels, you won’t be able to fight off opponents once or twice. You need to quickly improvise, prepare a defence, use the landscape.

A room dug in a narrow tunnel can save your life, but if you do not make a “back door” in advance. It will also become a grave for the whole team. Platforms can close up chasms and block passages. If you accidentally leave a hole in a makeshift crossing, then one of your comrades will surely fall into it.

In the end, each of the four dwarfs not only exterminates beetles in their own way but also explores in their own way. For example, an engineer knows how to build bridges, and a heavily armed shooter stretches cable cars. A driller can dig an entire bunker in a couple of seconds, and a mobile scout can illuminate even the largest cave for a long time. The squad has to not only fight as a whole but also conquer caves, helping each other at every step. In this regard, teamwork feels unexpectedly fresh.

It’s especially cool when Deep Rock Galactic picks up steam and changes its humorous (overall) tone to a serious epic. For example, in the framework of some tasks for the evacuation, the squad needs to break through to the landing capsule through endless hordes of monsters. The capsule falls wherever it pleases.

There are no guarantees that there is a direct path to it at all. And it also flies back on the timer. The music picks up the pace, and tunnels are fill with monsters, gnomes swear at each other on what the world is. The only hope is small, flickering beacons that show the way. After such adrenaline episodes, the whole team pulls into a bar.

Bottomless Depths

But all this does not mean that the game has no problems at all. They just do not become noticeable immediately. One of the biggest disappointments is progression. In Deep Rock Galactic, not only is there no narrative, but the ultimate goal in principle.

Although the basic gameplay itself is capable of captivating for long hours, sooner or later the question arises. Why all this? Why tirelessly pump your character, reset the level and start over?

Of course, pumping opens up new difficulty and access to special events. But if the player has already started to get tired by that time, this is unlikely to pique the interest.

The pumping system itself is also not too happy. A significant part of the unlocked abilities and modules for equipment are either poorly balanced or give absolutely insignificant bonuses, like microscopic plus signs to damage. In addition, the arsenal of weapons here is very modest.

All characters have a main and an additional barrel, and as the level increases, you can open only one alternative for each category.

Related Post: Twin Mirror Review | A Random Episode of An Unfamiliar Series

In fairness, all the guns are unique and really different from each other, but they won’t last long. Especially if you enjoy playing the same dwarf. The situation aggravates by prices for almost everything in the game. Even for the most difficult tasks, we receive very small rewards. But the prices for any (even cosmetic) improvements are bite no less than beetles.

There are no micro transactions in the game, and grind is in bulk. Want that cool steel mohawk? Get ready to save four or five tasks for him. Also, not everything is smooth with the balance of complexity. It seems like Deep Rock Galactic puts too much emphasis on the constant lack of ammo. But unlike other similar games, the characters do not have serious tools for close combat.

Yes, no self-respecting dwarf goes out without a pickaxe. But fighting her against a swarm of beetles is pure suicide on almost any difficulty. Because of this, situations periodically arise where you do not need to fight. But run from opponents in circles in a desperate attempt to find some resources to call ammunition.

If you delay, then the game may well set another swarm of beetles on you in order to completely finish off the team’s morale. Needless to say, these moments feel ridiculously difficult and dishonest?

But all this, of course, does not make the game bad. Deep Rock Galactic could have simply copied the mechanics of Left 4 Dead. Instead, the authors successfully refreshed the formula with their own ideas. It turned out dark and tense, but still cozy – with gunpowder, beer and hordes of bloodthirsty creatures. What else does a strong company of dwarves need?

Final Words For Deep Rock Galactic

Deep Rock Galactic can get bored on the very first evening, or it can drag on for tens, if not hundreds of hours. Apart from basic gameplay, This has almost nothing to offer. But it does task so well that it is more than enough.

#https://www.smartstrategygames.com/deep-rock-galactic-review/?fbclid=IwAR1APFu14tPUr1hwfAmqmhKoGo-zg4vW5sPXqvqTGbG2FcpQnZUB9xG5Yok

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Cyberpunk 2077 Review

https://ift.tt/3mI17m9

A preface: Cyberpunk 2077 has had one hell of a rocky release, and it’s almost impossible to play the game while also ignoring the controversy surrounding its disastrous console launch, among other points of contention. That being said, in my time with the game—which I reviewed on PC—I remained focused on assessing the game that was in front of me, period.

Cyberpunk 2077 is without a doubt a mixed bag, though its strengths ultimately outweigh its weaknesses. The game blew my hair back with its immersiveness, art and sound design, staggering scope, and production value (at least on PC). But its shortcomings are just as notable, although never catastrophic or deal-breaking. Gameplay has blemishes all over, the writing is tonally inconsistent, and bugs do mar the experience to a certain extent. This is far from a perfect game in its current state. But in spite of all this, part of me fell in love with the game for its ambition, boldness, and eye-popping presentation.

The story is set in the year 2077 in Night City, a Central California metropolis run by megacorporations, populated by millions of cybernetically-enhanced denizens, and poisoned to the core by deep-seeded corruption and crime. You play as V, a small-time crook who by seedy happenstance befriends another gun-waving lughead named Jackie. Together they take on a big-time heist that goes tragically wrong and results, impossibly, with the personality construct of a decades-deceased rockstar/terrorist named Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves) implanted in V’s brain, chopping his remaining life expectancy down to a sliver. V and Johnny must work together to split their respective consciousnesses and take down the Arasaka corporation, whose borderline-demonic tech brought forth their doomed coexistence.

From this point on, you’re free to explore the city and get into all kinds of trouble. There are a multitude of slimy sleazeballs to meet, complete jobs for, and get into shootouts with, as well as all of the other side tasks you’d expect from an urban open world. You can buy/steal cars and motorbikes and use them to compete in street races, stumble upon police shootouts and join in on the action, or steal copious amounts of money and paraphernalia from warring street gangs. There’s A LOT to see and do in this game—the question is, is any of it fun?

The answer is complicated. In short, my answer is “mostly.” I find Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay to be problematic at worst and, at best, reasonably fun. If the game didn’t look and sound so good, I don’t think I would have enjoyed the gameplay almost at all. I have yet to tire of playing Cyberpunk 2077, but I think that’s a testament to how much I love the audio-visual presentation and the characters, not the gameplay itself.

Before diving into the gnarled, twisted matter of gameplay, let’s get this out of the way: this game world is one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. Several studios have delivered amazing looking game worlds this year, but Night City is a serious design achievement that the folks at CDPR should be very, very proud of.

Looking up at the looming, almost monumental buildings that shape Night City’s skyline is breathtaking, but it’s what you see when your eyes come back down to street level that impressed me most. Trash bags piled up two stories high, plugging up alleyways with graffiti of cybernetic freaks scrawled across deteriorating walls. The environments are insanely detailed, but they tell a story, too: look up and you see big money, squeaky clean windows, and technological ambition; look down and you see a sea of sufferers, psychologically and physically wounded citizens bled dry in the name of corporate conquest. From a purely cosmetic perspective, the game looks phenomenal, but it’s the artistic intention behind the designs that really makes the visuals sing.

As far as technical prowess is concerned, the game is spectacular provided you have the right machine to run it. Texture quality is insanely high, the environments are absurdly detailed, and the game’s lighting, especially with ray tracing enabled, is incredibly realistic. The atmosphere in this game is as thick as I’ve ever seen, and combined with the game’s pulsating, evocative, synth-based score, it creates a mood that few other titles can rival. Simply taking a walk around Night City and soaking in the sights was my favorite thing to do.

The character models are another high point–from the detail of the models themselves, to the way they move, to the top-notch facial animation, every weirdo you meet in Night City is unique and expressive. An interesting thing I noticed was that during some cutscenes that I found to be banal from a narrative point of view were still captivating to a certain extent simply because the character animation and voice acting were so well done. Some of the writing is a little odd, particularly when characters who are meant to be thugs and grifters speak in an unusually formal tone, but overall, the voice actors and animators do enough to make the dialogue-driven moments engaging.

What I fear won’t be discussed enough about this game is its sound design, which is just as excellent as the graphics. Cyberpunk 2077 embeds you in its world better than any game I’ve played this year, and that sense of immersion can be largely attributed to the finely-tuned symphony of sounds that is constantly being streamed into your ears. From the squeaking of leather couches when you sit in them, to the muffled thuds you hear when you drive over speed bumps, to the way crowds sound in enclosed spaces versus outdoor spaces, the level of detail and care that went into immersing the player is incredible. The three-dimensional sound design actually makes the visuals appear more vivid and tactile than they actually are.

As for the gameplay, I found Cyberpunk 2077’s combat in particular to be clunky and a tad slow. It isn’t broken or imbalanced, but it isn’t snappy enough and there isn’t that x-factor that you find in most great shooters that keeps you obsessively coming back for more. To put it another way, The Witcher 3’s combat was so compelling and entertaining that I happily played that game for over 400 hours largely because of the combat. Cyberpunk 2077’s combat is absolutely not what pulled me through the game for the 60+ hours I played it, and there are many reasons why.

Release Date: Dec. 10, 2020 Platforms: PC (reviewed), PS5, XSX/S, PS4, XBO, Stadia Developer CD Projekt Red Publisher: CD Projekt Genre: Action RPG

Combat is of the typical first-person shooter variety, with both shooting and melee combat supported. There are a slew of weapons to acquire and upgrade via the game’s crafting system, and the weapons all look and sound pretty sweet but are somewhat forgettable, which is a shame for a game boasting such a breadth of artillery. The “iconic” weapons, which you earn at different points throughout the campaign, stand out the most and come with useful perks. But none feel exciting to wield are pack the punch of Doom’s BFG or Half Life’s gravity gun. I did however enjoy the smart targeting feature you can access through a combination of smart weapons and a handy body mod, which allows your bullets to find their target no matter what direction you aim and can save your ass if you’re cornered and hurting behind cover.

Then there are the other two pillars of combat: hacking and stealth. Hacking allows you to wreak havoc on enemy tech to sabotage or distract them long enough to give you an opening to pounce guns-a-blazing. You can frazzle a baddie’s optics while you sneak up behind them, take control of all security cameras on a given network, or turn on a flood light to manipulate enemy movements. The possibilities are innumerable, and it all sounds great on paper.

But in practice the hacking system just isn’t all that fun to use. I was amused for a time, as I got increasingly more creative with how I used my scanner to tag enemies and objects and sabotage them from afar. But after a while this system became tedious because it slows down the action to an absolute crawl, and the tactical aspects of combat just aren’t polished or engaging enough to make up for the pause. In the later hours of my playthrough, I found myself almost always resorting to in-your-face combat because, well, it solved problems more quickly.

Stealth feels even shoddier than hacking, unfortunately. In most missions, there’s a big emphasis on taking your targets out quietly, but for me sneaking around almost always led to bouts of frustrated groans and eye-rolls. For one, enemies’ lines of sight are really difficult to gauge—some will spot you from seemingly a football field away, while others won’t notice you cross a walkway mere feet in front of them. On top of this, the window of opportunity you have to grapple enemies from behind is finicky—I’d be standing right behind a guy ready to grab him when suddenly the “grab” prompt would disappear inexplicably, when neither of us had moved an inch. I’d move in closer to try again and he’d turn around and…you know the rest.

I believe that if the stealth and hacking were more polished and refined, or even de-emphasized to a certain degree, it would free up the shooting to feel a lot more kinetic and exciting. As is, the combat grows old over time, which is a real shame when you think of The Witcher 3’s combat system, which is incredible and only gets sweeter as you play.

Games

Cyberpunk 2077: Every Romance Option in the Game

By Matthew Byrd

Games

Cyberpunk 2077: The Best Cyberware Upgrades

By Matthew Byrd

There is a whole litany of gripes I have with Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay. The driving—be it on four wheels or two—feels slippery and unwieldy. The menus are an eyesore. Melee combat is atrocious. The “braindances”–investigative crime-reconstruction mini-games–are headache-inducing…I could go on. But there were other aspects of gameplay that I did enjoy, like the streamlined stash mechanic, the flexible crafting system, the number and variety of missions available at any given time, and most of all, the well thought out RPG elements.

The character progression system didn’t immediately strike me as anything special, but the more I played the game and explored the five skill trees (Reflexes, Technical Ability, Body, Cool, Intelligence), I found that the omission of a traditional class system actually makes character progression more fluid and encourages experimentation as opposed to nudging (or shoving) you down a particular path of mastery. Although I didn’t always enjoy enemy encounters, I did feel like the different perks I acquired helped me succeed in combat in ways that were easily measurable. For example, the “Vanishing Point” perk, which increases your evasion stat for seven seconds after you dodge if you’re dual wielding a pistol and revolver, totally changed the way I approached enemies. I quit stealthing for quite a while because darting around with my pistols blaring turned out to be super effective for me.

Generally, I did enjoy Cyberpunk 2077’s story and the fact that it’s more character-based than plot-based. The relationships between the characters take precedence over the machinations of the narrative, and I appreciate that. As in most RPGs, you meet characters and complete various tasks and quests for them, but with Cyberpunk 2077, I felt that the characterizations were so strong that I was actually more compelled to find out how the relationships between V and his supporting characters progressed than I was to collect precious loot at the end of missions.

I found all of the game’s characters to be memorable, which comes as no surprise considering the character work CDPR has done in the past. Rogue nomad Panam can be both compassionate and vicious; the dutiful Goro Takemura is almost comically stoic and serious; Jackie’s tight relationship with his family and friends permeates the game in a poetic way. And Reeves does a fine job as Johnny Silverhand, though his style of voice acting took a bit of getting used to for me, particularly when compared to the rest of the cast.

The nice thing about V’s relationships is that the more you explore the city and the more characters you meet, the more possibilities open up to you in the campaign’s final act. There are a multitude of endings that you can reach, but these outcomes are largely dictated by the people you’ve met and how close you are to them.

What irks me about the game’s last act is how it plays out leading up to the ending. After playing for hours and hours in the beautiful game world that is Night City, I was expecting to be treated to even more imaginative environments and enemy encounters at the game’s conclusion. Without spoiling anything, the final enemy encounters and environments are almost laughably unimaginative and generic, and that was a big letdown.

I indeed experienced bugs during my time with Cyberpunk 2077, but far less than I’ve seen for other platforms online. A couple of crashes and a slew of visual glitches definitely cropped up for me, but they didn’t color my experience nearly as much as the game’s positive traits did, particularly in the visual department. The bugs that bothered me most were the ones that affected the narrative, like when dialogue options would be missing or when characters’ voices would drop out inexplicably. But overall I had a relatively smooth experience that was no more buggy than your typical open world game.

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My relationship to Cyberpunk 2077 is a fraught one. I have so many issues with this game that I couldn’t possibly fit them all into this review. And I have just as many positive things to say. The grandeur of the project is both what I love and hate about it. I do wish CDPR had tightened its focus and worked out some of the game’s more glaring issues before rushing Cyberpunk 2077 out for a holiday release. But at the same time, I deeply respect the scope of the studio’s vision. This is a game with a strong sense of identity, and that’s something that you can’t say about a lot of AAA open-world games these days.

Cyberpunk 2077 is problematic, but ultimately I’m a fan of it in spite of its flaws. And I think in time its flaws will be ironed out and my fandom will only grow.

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The best PS1 games of all time: From Symphony of the Night to Final Fantasy 7 http://bit.ly/2WiC9N8

Sony tentatively entered the video game market by partnering with Nintendo to develop a new, disc-based console in the mid-90s. After that partnership fell apart, Sony went on to release a console of its own.

The first PlayStation launched in Japan in late 1994, and in the following year, to the rest of the world. Although the PS1 wasn’t the first console to use CD-ROMs or provide true 3D graphics, it created the breakout moment for both of those technologies in gaming.

Ranging from novel-length, narrative-driven RPGs to fast and furious races to mind-bending puzzles, games for the original PlayStation offered a wildly diverse lineup over its 11-year production run.

Take a stroll down memory lane with us as we count down the 50 best PlayStation 1 games ever made. Do they hold a candle to the best PS4 games? You decide.

Action

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

The Castlevania series was over a decade old by the time Symphony of the Night arrived, but it was absolutely the franchise’s defining moment. It radically expanded the series’ platforming with RPG loot and progression and non-linear exploration, lending its suffix to the subsequent “Metroidvania” genre as a result.

Unlike previous Castlevanias, where you controlled members of the vampire-hunting Belmont family, SotN revolves around Alucard, the lazily-named son of Dracula, who fights the horrible monsters of the castle to protect humanity from his father. Symphony of the Night stood out immediately for bold choices like hiding more than half of the game behind a false ending, or using the CD format to make a massive game filled with rich, 2D sprites instead of the crude, early 3D the rest of the industry was pursuing at the time.

One of the most influential action-RPGs of all time, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is still just as satisfying to play now as it was 20 years ago.

Metal Gear Solid

Between Thief: The Dark Project on PC and Metal Gear Solid on PlayStation, 1998 was the year that modern stealth video games were born. A sequel to two lesser-known games from creator Hideo Kojima, you play as special ops soldier Solid Snake, infiltrating the hideout of a rogue unit threatening the United States with a nuclear strike.

Snake has a variety of tools for evading and taking out guards, making it one of the most taut and tactical gaming experiences available at the time. The series has since spawned four more critically-acclaimed main entries and various spinoffs, radically expanding upon both its deep gameplay and Kojima’s baroque, nuclear mythology. But the first Metal Gear Solid remains an unassailable classic.

Twisted Metal 2

Prior to leading the team behind God of War, designer David Jaffe rose to prominence for his work on the PS1 vehicular combat series, Twisted Metal. In the demolition derby taken to a post-apocalyptic extreme, players take the wheel of various over-the-top armed and armored vehicles. Projectile weapons and power-ups are scattered throughout the arenas, set in the ruins of major cities around the world. The cars and drivers — like the series’ iconic ice cream truck, Sweet Tooth, and Axel, a muscle-bound man straddling two truck tires — ooze personality even in the early polygonal days of 3D.

The first game included only a single-player campaign and co-op mode, but the sequel expanded everything about it, including more vehicles, more arenas, and more custom and multiplayer modes for just dropping in and enjoying the mayhem à la carte. A contractual dispute between Sony and developer SingleTrac led to subsequent sequels being developed by other, less capable studios, making TM2 the peak of Twisted Metal for most fans.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

An action-focused spinoff of the top-down RPG series Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver was a third-person action game from Crystal Dynamics, which would go on to earn acclaim with its reboot of Tomb Raider. You play as the ghostly vampire Raziel in the grimdark fantasy world of Nosgoth.

Players loved its dark, compelling narrative, voice acting, and varied mechanics. One of its main conceits was the ability to swap between the physical and spectral realm at any time. Crystal Dynamics was unable to simply layer two different versions of the world on top of one another because of the console’s limitations; achieving the effect was no small technical feat.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is also notable as one of the first major games written by Uncharted series scribe Amy Hennig, now considered among the best game narrative creators in the business.

Tenchu: The Stealth Assassins

With their long-held mystique both within and beyond Japan, ninjas have featured prominently in video games since very early on. In franchises like Ninja Gaiden, however, they had largely been translated into nimble, hack-and-slash fighters. Tenchu: The Stealth Assassins is one of the first games to truly embrace the ninja as a stealthy infiltrator who must rely on his tools and wits to survive, rather than just weapons and reflexes. Developed by Japanese studio Acquire, Tenchu was the feudal Japanese parallel to Metal Gear Solid’s nuclear melodrama. Failing a mission would cause you to lose whatever tools they were carrying at the time, forcing you to be careful and deliberate when planning your approach to each mission. Fantastical elements from Japanese mythology provided fun flavor, but Tenchu was most fun because of how human and vulnerable you felt, making success all the sweeter.

Syphon Filter

Although somewhat overshadowed by Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter was another exceptional 3D, third-person action-stealth game for the platform that was praised at the time even if its legacy has not endured as strongly. Newbie developer Eidetic took equal inspiration from Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64, hoping to create a “super-spy” hybrid genre with stealth, action, and puzzles.

It tells a gritty, contemporary story about special operatives facing off against biological terrorists in a world-spanning story that encompasses governments, multinational pharmaceutical companies, and conspiracies that run all the way up to the top. It was a pulpy and immersive plot, enhanced greatly by gameplay that was a compelling balance of stealth and straight-up action. Critics cued into its stellar AI, a key requirement for good stealth games, which was among the most impressive in any game to date.

Einhänder

Although best known at the time for its roleplaying games, Japanese developer Square was no one-trick pony. Case in point: It also gave us Einhänder, an absolutely fantastic side-scrolling shoot-’em-up in the tradition of Gradius (though not quite as extreme as the “bullet hell” subgenre that came after it).

Set in the future during a war between Earth and the Moon, you pilot a spacecraft through horizontal, 2.5D levels, destroying enemies and collecting power-ups. The name, a German word for a one-handed sword, alludes to the core mechanic of your ship’s sole grappling arm, used to pick up weapons scavenged from destroyed enemies. Weapons mostly have finite ammo, forcing the player to keep finding new ones and adapting their play style to what’s available.

Apart from the generally slick presentation, players loved the tactical variety enabled by the system of picking up new weapons, as well as the way that bosses had discrete parts that could be targeted and disabled. Although well outside of Square’s wheelhouse, many consider Einhänder to be one of the genre’s best, and Square’s finest non-RPG work to date.

Ace Combat 2

The original Ace Combat (released as Air Combat) was one of the first games released on the original PlayStation, and it showed. This sequel was an improvement by developer Namco in basically every way. Gameplay is divided into relatively linear, objective-based missions, with resources becoming available to upgrade your jets depending on how successful you were at destroying all targets.

It’s an arcade-style combat flight simulator, “arcade style” here referring to its gameplay-over-simulation design, with only semi-realistic physics and the ability to carry far more missiles than an actual jet could — though difficulty settings allowed more hardcore players to fly with greater realism if they so desired.

Mega Man Legends 2

Although the PlayStation hosted some of the best conventional 2D Mega Man games as well, it was also the exclusive home to some weird entries like Mega Man Legends, as well. With only the main character in common (and a cheeky reference to how he’s named after a character’s favorite video game), Legends is set in an archipelago where he travels around with the Caskett family of treasure hunters, scouring ruins for ancient machinery in search of the legendary Mother Lode.

In addition to refining the run and gun mechanics (replete with a fairly deep crafting and customization system), the second game also presented a much richer and more character-driven narrative than the structure typical to the core series of “hunt the bosses to get their powers.” The voice-acted cutscenes were particularly entertaining, feeling very much like watching an anime. It featured memorable characters like your nemesis, the pirate Tron Bonne, who had her own spin-off game between two Legends entries. A third game was canceled in development.

Tomb Raider 2

The original Tomb Raider essentially founded the genre of the 3D action/adventure game, but it’s the sequel that really made it sing. A radical departure from the cutesey, cartoon mascots of the previous console generation, international treasure hunter Lara Croft was immediately embraced as one of gaming’s most iconic characters, heralding the medium’s maturation.

The first game’s mix of exploration, platforming, combat, and puzzle-solving was expanded substantially for the sequel, with refined controls, bigger environments, and more exciting set-pieces. The third game felt a bit more like a rushed cash-in, leaving Tomb Raider 2 as the series’ peak for a lot of players until the universally-praised 2013 reboot.

Fighting

Bushido Blade

Feudal Japanese weapon-focused 3D fighting game Bushido Blade is the most well-known game from Japanese studio Light Weight, and it’s still somewhat anomalous within the genre. Eschewing the convention of health bars entirely, blows would either cripple particular body parts or kill you outright. This gave the game a rare degree of realism, and a much more tactical and punctuated tempo.

There were eight realistically simulated weapons and six characters with different stats, abilities, and proficiencies with each weapon, and a stance-based fighting system, giving players a lot of options. Also unlike the discrete levels of conventional fighters, its arenas were all inter-connected, and players could run and climb between them, using the environment to their advantage.

Bushido Blade had one direct sequel and another similar title on PS2, but those smoothed out some of its quirks too much for our taste. Other fighting games like the Soulcalibur series and more recently For Honor have explored weapons-focused “dueling,” but nothing has quite replicated what made the original Bushido Blade special.

Tekken 3

Street Fighter set the bar for 2D fighting games in the early 90s, but brawling in the third dimension was all about Tekken. This arcade-native franchise set the high bar for 3D fighters, perfecting the formula with the third entry. Where previous entries made relatively little use of the third dimension, depending on the character, Tekken 3 toned down the hyperbolic jumping and made it so every character could easily sidestep into the third dimension, opening up one of the most tactically complex and polished fighting systems in video games to date. A large and diverse roster of characters and truly impressive graphics for a home console port of an arcade game made Tekken 3 an instant classic, and it still holds the honor of being the second-best selling fighting game on any platform of all time, after only Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

While Tekken and Bushido Blade blazed new paths for fighting games in the third dimension, Capcom stuck to its roots with Street Fighter, the fighting franchise that started it all. It featured a massive roster of 34 combatants drawn from the series’ whole history. It also introduced three different “isms” playstyles, changing the mechanics of how combos work and special moves charged up. While some felt that the 2D, sprite-based graphics dated the game, in retrospect it looks great, and holds up magnificently well as one of the most comprehensive and refined entries in the Street Fighter franchise.

Darkstalkers 3

Capcom was on such a roll producing top-notch fighting games during the ’90s that it sometimes overshadowed its own excellent titles. The Darkstalkers series of 2D fighters was always a cult and critical darling but had middling commercial success. Relatively standard (but solid) mechanically, it was mostly recognized for its anime-meets-gothic-horror aesthetic, with characters like vampires, mummies, demons, and a yeti. The look was magnificently refined by the time it hit the third game, with detailed and fluidly animated sprites that are among the best of the decade. First released in arcades, the game had undergone several character additions and balance changes by the time it was ported to PlayStation — all of which made it one of the fastest, fun, and charming fighters to play at home.

Platformers

Crash Bandicoot

Recently remastered in full, Naughty Dog’s original Crash Bandicoot trilogy (recently remade for PS4) endures as one of the most iconic 3D platforming series from the genre’s heyday. As the eponymous Crash, you are a mutant bandicoot (an Australian marsupial) on a quest to stop Dr. Neo Cortex from taking over the world with an army of other mutant animals.

The gameplay is standard for the genre — patrolling enemies, jumping challenges, power-ups, and collectibles, though levels were generally linear: It’s more Mario than Banjo-Kazooie. It was most highly praised at the time for its visuals, which felt more like a playable cartoon than any game to date. The vibrant character in Crash’s various death animations were particularly memorable in that regard.

Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus

The original PlayStation was a fascinating, transitional period in game design, with a big uptick in processing power and storage opening up a whole new field of possible aesthetics to explore. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee was a cinematic platformer in the tradition of Prince of Persia or Another World. You play as Abe, an enslaved member of the Mudokon race, leading a rebellion against their corporate overlords before they are turned into a cheap food source.

It’s grim satire for sure, but full of warmth, humor, and loving attention to detail. As Abe explores, solves puzzles, and avoids enemies, he has to rely on his wits more than anything else, because he’s liable to die without much effort. The sequel, Abe’s Exoddus, picked up right after the first game and enhanced it with both quality of life improvements such as quick saving, and more elaborate puzzles based around communicating with NPCs. A recent, well-received remake of the original shows that there’s still a lot to be enjoyed in this classic series.

Rayman

Before designer Michel Ancel gave us Beyond Good & Evil (will the sequel ever appear?), he created one of the most enduring characters in platforming, Rayman. Released early in the PlayStation’s life cycle, Rayman was a stunningly colorful and charming 2D platformer, using the console’s 32-bit processor to present one of the most vibrant and detailed games to date. The story was light, fantastical nonsense, as the eponymous Rayman fought and jumped his way through various themed worlds to defeat bosses and save the day.

Rayman subsequently took a detour into 3D platforming as well, but his real legacy was secured in 2011’s Rayman Origins, which returned to the bright, animated aesthetic of the original. It didn’t rock any boats in terms of gameplay, but Rayman is still beloved as one of its generation’s most solid iterations on the platforming genre, which is still alive and well today.

Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage

In the immediate wake of the Sonic vs. Mario console wars of the early-to-mid 90s, marketers still held onto the idea that a console needed a family-friendly platforming mascot to succeed. Next to Crash Bandicoot, the cutely-proportioned Spyro the Dragon competed for that spot on the original PlayStation.

En route to vacation, Spyro is pulled through a magical portal into a fantastical world under assault by a warlock who gleefully discovered there were no dragons to bother him. Spyro collects a series of MacGuffins to progress through nonlinear levels and unlock new traversal and combat abilities.

The whole first trilogy, developed by Insomniac Games, is well remembered for its colorful characters and solid platforming, but for our money, the second one hits the sweet spot of refined mechanics and freshness.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile

The transition from 2D to 3D gaming produced a lot of interesting artifacts, but oddly enough, most developers didn’t think to try the intermediary style that’s grown more popular in recent years: so-called “2.5D” (action rendered in 3D but largely constrained to a 2D plane). This Namco-developed platformer is set in Phantomile, a fantastical realm manifested from the dreams that people forget soon upon waking.

You play as Klonoa, an anthropomorphic resident of Phantomile with a power-granting wind spirit that inhabits a ring. Gameplay is standard for the genre, with enemies, puzzles, and bosses spread out across themed levels. Praised by critics at its release, Klonoa can be hard to find now, particularly outside of Japan, but is fondly remembered as a solid and enjoyable platformer.

Jumping Flash!

Released in 1995, one year before Super Mario 64, Jumping Flash! holds the honor (according to Guinness) of being the first truly 3D platforming video game. Presented in first-person, you play Robbit, a robotic rabbit, exploring open levels to collect four MacGuffins (“jump packs,” in this case) to progress through its six themed worlds, each with a culminating boss battle after three levels.

Robbit’s ability to triple-jump mid-air is the game’s mechanical focus, supplemented by various power-ups with classic effects like temporary invincibility, extending the level time limit, or increasing Robbit’s health. Although it was soon overshadowed by the flourishing of 3D platforming’s imminent golden age, Jumping Flash! is still an innovative and under-appreciated trailblazer.

Ape Escape

In this third-person platformer you play a boy, Spike, tasked with travelling through time and using a variety of gadgets to capture hyper-intelligent apes that are meddling with history. It was the first game to require the PlayStation’s DualShock controller before the now-standard vibrating two-stick model came stock with the console. Rather than using the right stick to control the camera, it was used to manipulate the gadgets. Acclaimed at the time and fondly remembered since, it’s a seminal moment in platforming video games for both its cutting edge presentation and mechanics.

Puzzle

I.Q.: Intelligent Qube

The PlayStation’s most memorable games tended to be immersive fantasies, yet there were a few exceptions more purely focused on gameplay. I.Q.: Intelligent Qube was a 3D puzzle game in which a player ran around on a gridded platform, clearing cubes before they push him off into the void. It was a challenging brain-tickler, given more replayability with the ability to create new levels, a feature that unlocks after completing the game once. Although released in the West, it was most successful in its native Japan, garnering several sequels.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

This port of a hit Japanese arcade puzzle game for one or two players isn’t actually a sequel to anything, but is cheekily named after Super Street Fighter II Turbo because it bolts the aesthetic and interface elements of Capcom 2D fighters onto a falling block puzzle. In it, Chibi versions of Street Fighter and Darksiders characters performed a silly battle that reflected what was happening in the puzzles.

Capcom developed the game for Japanese arcades in response to the popularity of Sega’s Puyo Puyo 2. It employed similar competitive mechanics to Puyo of successful chains dumping garbage blocks onto the opponent’s field, which could be countered with a quick combo in response. The charming 2D graphics and solid competitive puzzling mechanics have aged beautifully, maintaining this game’s reputation as a delightful cross-genre curio.

Racing

Gran Turismo 2

Hyper-realistic driving sims are flourishing, but Gran Turismo was the cream of the crop for virtual gearheads in the PS1 era. The smooth forms and inorganic materials of cars have always been an excellent test case for the cutting edge of realistic graphics, and as such Gran Turismo 2 was one of the first games where you might glance at the screen and think you’re watching live television.

The gameplay, graphics, and physics were largely unchanged from the first game, with the most notable expansion being in Gran Turismo 2’s enormous roster of real-world cars (over 600, the largest in any game to date), a robust customization system, and more flexibility to take part in races à la carte, rather than necessarily structured as tournaments. It was a bestseller among both car fans and regular gamers, establishing Gran Turismo as a key racing franchise that has endured through the present.

Wipeout XL

Like F-Zero on the SNES, the Wipeout series let players experience fantastical levels of speed in futuristic racing. Players piloted extremely fast, anti-gravity ships through dramatic, high-tech courses. Gameplay revolved around extremely high speeds, power-ups, and utilizing air brakes for drifting turns around tight corners.

Expanding and improving upon the first game in nearly every way, Wipeout XL was praised for its intense gameplay and slick presentation, including a techno music soundtrack and detailed background worldbuilding that made it feel like the immersive, futuristic entertainment video games had promised to become since the 80s.

Crash Team Racing

Mario Kart clones flourished on all consoles in the years following the success of Mario Kart 64, and Crash Team Racing was handily the best available on the PlayStation. Developed by Naughty Dog, it featured characters from the Crash Bandicoot trilogy kart racing for up to four players. Like its obvious inspiration, it featured aggressive and speed-boosting power-ups, drift turning, and whimsical, elaborate courses.

Unlike Mario Kart games, in addition to standard, time trial, and battle modes, it also included a story that progressively unlocked additional characters and modes as players completed it. For the most part, it didn’t shake up the formula in any substantial ways, but it was a solidly designed, good looking, and fun game that filled a definite niche for PlayStation owners. Not every great game needs to reinvent the wheel, after all.

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

Between the simulation-focused realism of Gran Turismo and the wacky hijinks of Kart racers, you have Ridge Racer. R4, the Namco-developed series’ final entry on PlayStation, looks like the former, but plays closer to the latter. That made it perfect for racing fans who wanted the fantasy of realistic-looking cars but were turned off by realistic handling. 321 vehicles to unlock and a variety of tracks and modes make this a great package for anyone who wanted a rich, arcade-style racing experience. Many still consider it the peak of the Ridge Racer series.

Driver: You are the Wheelman

While most driving games framed the action around races, Driver instead sought to recreate the feeling of 60s and 70s car chase movies like Bullitt or 1978’s Driver. Set in open-world urban environments inspired by real cities, Driver looked forward to the sort of hijinks that would come to define Grand Theft Auto games, like escaping from cops or smashing up other cars. It also included an interesting Film Director mode that allowed players to capture replays with particular camera angles.

Rhythm

PaRappa the Rapper

Before Harmonix made the genre blow up with Guitar Hero on the PlayStation 2, PaRappa the Rapper was the name in rhythm games. Sidestepping the crude stabs at realism that contemporary developers were making with the console’s nascent 3D tech, PaRappa features colorful, 2D characters in 3D environments. This highlighted design over horsepower, decades ahead of current trends to integrate 2D and 3D artwork into more visually interesting aesthetics than the brown-grey realism that dominated the early part of the millennium.

PaRappa’s bright and cheery look was a 90s hip-hop Day-Glo fantasia, and the music, while lyrically inane, holds up shockingly well over 20 years later. PaRappa the Rapper has been technically surpassed by subsequent rhythm games in nearly every regard, but it’s still rightly beloved as a groundbreaking curio from a time in gaming before genres became quite so crystallized and anything felt possible.

Vib-Ribbon

Although Vib-Ribbon is one of the most visually primitive games ever released for the original PlayStation, ironically it could now most easily be mistaken for a contemporary indie title. In this minimalist rhythm platformer, you play Vibri, a rabbit who must traverse courses generated procedurally from the music, all rendered in simple, white, line vector graphics on a black background.

The game’s lightweight visuals meant that it could be loaded entirely into the console’s RAM, and thus players could generate levels based on any music CDs they put in. Using CDs to generate material for games had been explored on PlayStation already in Monster Rancher, but Vib-Ribbon was the first to integrate the content itself into the game. Well ahead of the curve for both rhythm games and minimalist, procedural platformers, Vib-Ribbon feels nearly timeless now.

Role-playing

Final Fantasy IX

Breaking off from the trajectory of Final Fantasy VII and VIII toward gritty sci-fi, FF9’s return to the stylized, chibi aesthetic and light-hearted fantasy of the series’ original entries left many fans turned off. In retrospect, it stands out as a fantastic synthesis of the franchise’s recent ideas with its classic mechanical and worldbuilding tropes. It follows the rogueish Zidane, the rebellious princess Garnett, and their assembled friends taking on the sinister Queen Brahne and her world domination plans. It’s classic Final Fantasy through and through, and is easily the most charming and fun entry from the era.

Final Fantasy VII

Perhaps the most famous entry of the premier Japanese RPG franchise, FF7 was a massive, breakout event for the series, breaking into the third dimension and reaching far wider audiences than ever before. It tells the tale of mercenary Cloud Strife and his ragtag friends taking on the sinister Shinra Corporation, which is literally draining the planet’s life force. The chunky, polygonal visuals haven’t aged well, but characters like Sephiroth and moments like the death of Aeris loom large for gamers (as evidenced by the hugely hyped remake in the works), making this still one of the most influential and well regarded RPGs of all time.

Chrono Cross

Squaresoft RPG Chrono Trigger is still widely considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Its PlayStation sequel never achieved the same reputation, but it’s nevertheless a fun and interesting game that holds up quite well. Like the first game’s different time periods, Chrono Cross’ primary narrative conceit was jumping back and forth between two parallel timelines, in one of which the protagonist had died as a child.

The game features over 50 recruitable characters, each with their own personal quest to follow, making it literally impossible to see everything in a single playthrough. The connections to the first game are non-obvious at first, but ultimately it ties them all together in an interesting and resonant tale that frequently meditates on loss and regret. It’s also colorful, fun, and features unique approaches to both combat and progression.

Xenogears

Another fiercely loved Squaresoft RPG, Xenogears started as a pitch for Final Fantasy VII, but eventually spun off to start its own science fiction franchise. Long and ambitious, it amazed some and perplexed others with the plot’s complicated political and religious themes, along with a healthy dollop of Jungian psychoanalysis.

You play as the amnesiac young man Fei Fong Wong in a quest to save the world from Deus, an ancient, planet-killing weapon that has gained sentience. Gameplay featured both conventional, Final Fantasy style active time battles, as well as fights in the eponymous Gears (giant mecha suits) that involved managing action points and developing combos. The first Squaresoft RPG to feature voice acting and anime cutscenes, Xenogears was a leap forward in the medium’s potential for mature and cinematic storytelling.

Vagrant Story

Yasumi Matsuno’s action RPG stood out from its peers at Square because of its razor focus. Rather than assembling a ragtag crew of wacky misfits to save the world, you play a single character, Ashley Riot, a knight sent after a cult leader who kidnapped a noble family and absconded to a ruined medieval city, Leá Monde.

Like Parasite Eve, it featured pausable, real-time combat and the ability to target and be targeted on particular body parts, crippling particular capabilities. Combined with an elaborate weapon crafting and armor system, it provided a rich and focused tactical playground that players enjoyed experimenting with for years. It was essentially retconned into Ivalice, the world of Final Fantasy Tactics and XII, but even without that it would stand alone as a beloved classic for its mature story and mechanical depth.

Final Fantasy VIII

Following the explosive, global success of FFVII was a tall order, but Square managed to keep aggressively evolving the series for its immediate sequel. Final Fantasy VIII was the first in the series to feature realistically proportioned characters and continued the move from 7 towards the fantasy-infused sci-fi aesthetics that defined later entries.

The story revolved around Squall Leonhart and a party of other freshly-trained SeeD mercenaries in a quest that quickly turns from political to world-ending stakes. Fans also latched onto the romance between Squall and fellow party member Rinoa, which featured an original vocal track (a series first), “Eyes on Me” by Chinese singer Faye Wong.

The game was a radical departure mechanically, getting rid of magic points in favor of the elaborate “Junction” system of drawing finite quantities of spells from enemies that you could either cast or hold onto in order to buff up particular stats. It was an odd system that didn’t make it into subsequent entries, but demonstrated the franchise’s ongoing willingness to reinvent itself in core ways.

Suidoken II

While widely beloved by fans and critics, Suidoken II’s limited print run and distribution prevented it from reaching the universal acclaim that Final Fantasy games found on the PlayStation, at least in the West. Loosely based on the plot of a classical Chinese novel, it was most praised for its story: a complex and mature political saga of warring nations and city-states struggling for independence.

The scope of that narrative was reflected in the scope of the party you could recruit, with over 100 characters able to join you through personal side quests (though not all in combat roles). It featured both standard turn-based party battles in the vein of Final Fantasy as well as large-scale, strategic engagements on a grid more reminiscent of Fire Emblem. Suidoken II was about as epic as you could get on the PlayStation.

Legend of Mana

The Secret of Mana series grew up alongside Final Fantasy in the 8- and 16-bit eras (the first game was actually sold in the United States as Final Fantasy Adventure), generally taking a slightly lighter tone and substituting the turn-based battles with more open, action RPG gameplay. Legend of Mana is the fourth entry (following the fantastic Seiken Densestsu 3 for SNES, which has still not been officially localized in the west).

A recurring theme on this list, the storage and processing power of the PlayStation was leveraged not to make crude stabs at 3D graphics but to fill it to the brim with lush, beautiful 2D graphics, universally praised at the time as looking like an animated film, and aging exceptionally well.

Set after a cataclysmic war, the player is tasked with restoring the land of Fa’Diel (and eventually the Tree of Mana itself) by literally placing parts of the land on the map that have been sealed in artifacts, with their relative placement affecting things like the strength of elemental magic types in each region. It was criticized at the time for making the story feel too diffuse, but in retrospect, its nonlinear, system-rich approach feels ahead of its time.

Wild Arms

One of the first RPGs released for the PlayStation, Wild Arms stands apart also for its highly-unconventional setting that blends traditional JRPG fantasy tropes with visual elements from the American old west. Set in the world of Filgaia, you play a scrappy band of wandering adventurers called Dream Chasers, including a boy, Rudy, who can excavate and use ARMS (Ancient Relic Machines — basically guns from a lost era of greater technology).

Using both 2D sprites for exploration, and 3D rendered battle sequences, Wild Arms was an interesting transitional game between the 16- and 32-bit eras. Mostly it stands out for its compelling setting, however, fusing science and magic in a way reminiscent of — but also completely distinct from — Final Fantasy VI.

The Legend of Dragoon

Sony may have set unreasonable expectations for The Legend of Dragoon by marketing it initially as a “Final Fantasy Killer,” but this SCE-developed RPG has endured as a cult classic of the era. You play as Dart, an orphaned survivor of a destroyed city rescuing his childhood friend, kidnapped by a rebel army.

In typical genre fashion, he assembles a motley crew for a quest that spirals up to defeating a world-ending god of destruction. It fleshed out the typical turn-based combat with a system of combos and counter-attacks that added an interesting dimension of timing and risk/reward. While it never panned out into a franchise, it’s just as well-written and designed as many of its more widely beloved peers.

Legend of Legaia

While much of the flourishing RPG genre was simply following in Final Fantasy’s footsteps, Legend of Legaia had the hipster appeal of trying to do something different. The story was standard genre fare: A martial artist from a village at the edge of the world, you set out on a quest to beat back the Mist that has consumed the surface and spawned countless monsters, pushing humanity to the brink.

Legaia stood out for its combat system, which was turn-based but also heavily derived from fighting games. Rather than having a generic “fight” option in battles, players targeted different strikes as left, right, high, or low, chaining them together into increasingly elaborate combos as the game proceeded. It added a tactical richness to combat that few of its peers could match, and is a franchise worth re-examining.

Parasite Eve

Adapted from a popular, contemporary Japanese novel of the same name, Parasite Eve was a bit of a genre hybrid from developer Square. Equal parts action RPG and survival horror, it follows a New York City cop trying to stop an entity named Eve from destroying humanity through spontaneous combustion.

Like Square’s Vandal Hearts, it featured pausable real-time battles and the ability to target particular body parts, with abilities tied to the “Active Time Bar” (ATB) system pioneered in the studio’s Final Fantasy games. Critics praised its interesting and immersive design at the time, although its legacy was somewhat overshadowed by the more “pure” RPGs and survival horror games of the time, respectively. In retrospect, however, its infusion of RPG progression systems into a survival horror framework can be seen reflected in more modern games such as The Evil Within, although its pausable real-time combat has been less explored subsequently.

Shooters

Medal of Honor

Several years before the original Call of Duty kicked off the oversaturation of WW2 first-person shooters in earnest, Medal of Honor set the bar. Steven Spielberg developed the story, working with the same historical military consultants he collaborated with on Saving Private Ryan.

Where previous shooters had been relatively light-hearted affairs about blasting hordes of demons, Medal of Honor was one of the first serious, cinematic shooters that presaged future classics like Spec Ops: The Line by exploring the medium’s serious narrative potential. Critics and fans also praised its gameplay, however, as one of the most generally refined shooters released to date.

Sports

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

The original Tony Hawk Pro Skater was an enormous success when it launched in 1999, but it was the follow-up from the next year that truly cemented it as one of the most beloved sports franchises of all time. The action centered around arcade-style gameplay, with the player flipping and grinding over open levels to rack up as many points as possible from tricks and combos within two minutes.

Collectibles and level-specific objectives keep it spicy, and the addition of level- and skater-creation tools gave it a ton of replayability. The series continued through the ill-received Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 in 2015, but for many, the second remains the definitive entry and still one of the most highly rated sports games of all time.

Madden NFL 98

1997 saw the Madden football franchise’s first stab at 3D with Madden Football 64, but for our money, the best sports game of the year was the less ambitious and far more refined Madden NFL 98. While other franchises made the leap to polygons, development efforts at Madden instead were focused between 97 and 98 on punching up the game’s artificial intelligence, which made this the most strategically sophisticated football game ever released at the time. As is often the case from this era of consoles, Madden NFL 98’s late 2D sprite graphics hold up better than the early efforts at 3D that followed it.

Strategy

Final Fantasy Tactics

FFT wasn’t the first tactical RPG to come out of Japan — the Shining Force and Ogre Battle series already broke that ground for western console audiences. It’s far and away the most beloved and influential one, however.

The series’ traditional linear battles of three to four party members lined up facing a few enemies. In turn, Final Fantasy Tactics opened up into a much richer, isometric, grid-based combat reminiscent of X-COM, with an elaborate job system allowing for deep, strategic party customization.

Set in the world of Ivalice (which was featured in later entries like FF12), it tells a mature tale of competing noble families, warring nations, and the intersection of church and state. Spin-off sequels for the Game Boy Advance were solid, but none ever quite captured the magic of the original.

Survival horror

Resident Evil 2

While the first Resident Evil is beloved for creating “Survival Horror,” Resident Evil 2 perfected the formula. It picks up two months after the events of the original, as the Umbrella Corporation’s zombie plague spreads from the company’s labs to nearby Raccoon City. Like the first game, it features two protagonists, puzzles, exploration, and limited resources for ammo and saving the game, forcing careful and strategic play.

It added the “Zapping System,” in which players could revisit scenarios multiple times as different characters, with unique challenges designed for each of them. Its presentation was also praised as improving upon the first game in virtually every way. Though the series has continued for decades — we’re up to Resident Evil 7 as of 2017 — many still consider the second the high watermark. Resident Evil 2 also received a stellar remake in 2019.

Silent Hill

The PlayStation’s 3D capabilities opened up a whole field of possibility for cinematic horror, which is why the survival horror genre was born on it. Where the early Resident Evil games relied more on jump scares and zombie movie tropes, Silent Hill took a decidedly more psychological and surreal approach.

You play as Harry Mason, searching for his daughter who goes missing in the creepy town of Silent Hill while passing through on vacation. The whole town was blanketed in a thick fog, cleverly utilized to cover for the system’s draw distance limitations, which gave the game a memorably menacing atmosphere, particularly when played alone and late at night.

Drawing from an interesting range of influences like Lewis Carroll and David Lynch, Silent Hill is seminal in establishing the subtler and more artistically interesting strain of psychological horror in video games.

Resident Evil

Released first in Japan as Biohazard, Resident Evil is Shinji Mikami’s genre-defining survival horror opus. Although not the first horror game, it exerted such a gravitational pull that, like shooters in the wake of Doom, any other entries in the genre were called an imitation for a while — and it’s still basically impossible to talk about survival horror without Resident Evil featuring prominently in the discussion.

You play as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, special forces units sent to investigate their missing teammates in a zombie-infested mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City. It established the now-standard genre gameplay of careful exploration, puzzle solving, and resource management. Players remember it most fondly for its creepy atmosphere and unsettling presentation, however, making clever and efficient use of the hardware with 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds to achieve unprecedented immersion.

Dino Crisis

If you liked the survival horror stylings of Resident Evil auteur Shinji Mikami, but weren’t into zombies, Capcom still had you covered. Much of the same team including Mikami himself also developed Dino Crisis, a survival horror game set on a secret island research facility wherein genetically-revived dinosaurs run rampant, Jurassic Park-style. Capcom contrasted it with Resident Evil by marketing it as “Panic Horror” rather than survival, because of the emphasis on dinosaurs as a quicker and more aggressive/intelligent threat than zombies.

Unlike the pre-rendered backgrounds of its predecessors, Dino Crisis featured real-time 3D environments, adding to the sense of immersion. Although not quite as viscerally scary or enduring a franchise as Resident Evil, many felt that it improved upon those games in nearly every way, offering a tense, fun, and more consistently paced experience.

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illusivegore · 6 years ago

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Gore Reviews Tomb Raider

Release Date: March 5, 2013 Platforms: Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 (reviewed), Xbox One

Note: This review only includes thoughts on the single player experience.

Tomb Raider is a franchise that I’ve never been particularly fond of. I’ve played a few games in the series and they weren’t bad, but the tongue-in-cheek nature of those games and the way Lara Croft was portrayed was something that always put me off. This lack of interest quickly changed when the reboot of Tomb Raider was announced though. To take this not-so-serious franchise and turn it into a brutal and gritty story of survival was an ambitious idea, but was the follow through on this idea a stellar feat or something best left to rot deep inside a cold, dark forest?

Tomb Raider at its core has always been about Lara Croft and this version is no different. This time around, Lara is on an expedition in search of the lost kingdom of Yamatai and sets out on the ship, Endurance. She is joined by a variety of crew members, most of which are working toward documenting whatever is found during the trip for some sort of television program. Things quickly take a turn for the worse as the group enters the dangerous waters of the Dragon’s Triangle and end up shipwrecked. Soon after washing up on shore, many within Lara’s group are abducted by members of a violent cult known as the Solarii Brotherhood. This leaves Lara in a fight to not only survive and escape these psychopaths, but also to find her friends and a way off of the island.

The story of Tomb Raider is decent enough, but isn’t going to blow your socks off. I didn’t find it all that compelling, yet it did a nice job of moving the game along from point to point and was paced very nicely. While the overall narrative was nothing too spectacular, the development of Lara Croft as a character was a highlight of the game. Seeing her go from confused, timid and just doing whatever she could to survive to a complete badass is something I won’t soon forget. She witnesses and experiences some incredibly disturbing things throughout, so getting to see her persevere and come out stronger was an amazing journey. In the beginning she lacked confidence and had to reassure herself of everything she did, but by the end of the game she was screaming things like “You better run, because I’m coming for you all!“ and “Die you son of a bitch!” and I was right there cheering on those sentiments. Not often does a game come along that produces a character that I truly care about and the fact that it happened in a Tomb Raider game (after the joke that Lara Croft had become thanks to previous titles) is something that should be applauded.

Story and character development aside, Tomb Raider solely as a gameplay experience is incredible. Like games in the franchise before it, most of your time will be spent exploring the mysterious island you’ve washed up on. During this exploration you’ll be tasked with doing a lot of platforming in order to maneuver around the environment and not only is it intuitive and seamless, but it remains enjoyable throughout the game. In Tomb Raider, the platforming stays fresh throughout thanks to a variety of new tools and abilities you acquire. For instance, you’ll use your axe to climbs certain craggy walls and you’ll use a bow and arrows to create rope lines that allow you to reach new areas. In some ways this progression feels a bit like a Metroid or Castlevania game (in the vaguest sense) and when you begin to string together all of these skills you’ve learned, the platforming is an absolutely joyful experience.

With exploration comes collecting and there are a ton of items to find in Tomb Raider. Relics, documents and GPS caches serve as your main collectibles, each of which add to the game’s lore (relics and documents a little more so than the GPS caches). Some you’ll find just playing through the game and others will take a little more work to locate. Luckily, there are treasure maps that can also be found that will help point you in the right direction, if you so desire to collect them all. There are also numerous challenges to complete (each unique to a specific location), but most just boil down to finding certain items in the environment and collecting or destroying them. These can add to your play time, but I found I wasn’t as keen on completing these as I was collecting the other items.

Also sort of lumped into the collection aspect of Tomb Raider are various optional tombs you can find during the course of the game. Each one has a unique feel and design and all were nice distractions well worth their rewards, but these tombs did leave a little to be desired. Each tomb is rather easy to find (thanks to blatant signs within the game) and perhaps just as easy to complete. Once in an optional tomb you’ll face a small puzzle and then you get your reward (more on these later). A little more challenge would have been nice since these are optional, but completing each tomb is still a fun experience and well worth your time.

Much like the tombs, a majority of Tomb Raider’s puzzles fall into the simplistic category, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The puzzles, much like the platforming, are presented in such a way that solving them is not only intuitive, but they also keep the game moving along at a steady pace. That’s not to say there weren’t a couple that had me scratching my head, even if just momentarily. Thankfully, should you happen to find yourself stumped at any point (which shouldn’t happen very often), the game offers up “Survival Instincts” mode, which helps you identity objects that can be interacted with in the environment. This is completely optional, but is a nice tool if you happen to find yourself in a bit of a pickle.

While exploration and puzzle solving is where you’ll see most of your time invested, a good chunk of gameplay is devoted to combat. The combat in Tomb Raider is a lot of fun and works well when it is used sparingly, but when it starts to become the focus and you have enemies attacking you from multiple directions, it begins to suffer a bit. In most cases you can take a stealth approach and systematically take down your foes, but there are some sections where that simply isn’t an option and these can make for a frustrating experience. Although these situations only popped up on a couple of occasions and shouldn’t be something that has you questioning whether or not to play Tomb Raider, they can momentarily take you out of the experience and might take a few (frustrating) attempts to overcome.

The combat of Tomb Raider revolves mostly around four weapons: bow, pistol, rifle and shotgun. While most of your encounters will probably be handled using your bow, each of these weapons eventually becomes useful and can be upgraded with salvage that you loot from slain enemies or animals and scattered throughout the environment. You’ll also need to find parts for each weapon in order to perform some of the upgrades, but these are a little harder to find and seemingly drop at random times (or upon completing an optional tomb). Unlike some other games, weapons in Tomb Raider actually look and feel significantly different and more powerful as they are upgraded. Upgrades offer everything from increased damage to new ammo types, which isn’t too shabby considering you’re basically fixing them with random garbage you find.

Whenever you defeat an enemy, take down and loot an animal, complete an objective, or finish an optional tomb you’ll also earn experience points and as you acquire more and more XP you’ll be able to unlock special skills in three different categories: Survivor, Hunter and Brawler. Survivor abilities will help you gain more salvage and find tombs and collectibles more easily. With the Hunter skill set you’ll be able to focus on mastering your weapons and, finally, the Brawler abilities put emphasis on hand-to-hand combat skills. Some of these skills are more useful than others, but to get that instant feeling of gratification for each and every thing you do in the game is indeed satisfying.

Once you finish up the game there isn’t a traditional new game plus mode, but you will be able to go back and visit areas of the island in order to wrap up any loose ends you might have. This is done by using various campsites found throughout the game. These campsites not only let you fast travel to other areas, but they are also where you’ll assign your skill points and upgrade your weapons. While having the option to go back and upgrade your weapons completely, unlock all skills, finish each challenge and find every collectible and optional tomb is a welcome feature, some of these aspects can become a bit of a grind towards the end. Once you start going back to previous areas, enemies will spawn infrequently, making it somewhat tough to acquire all of the salvage you’ll need for weapon upgrades (I had to resort to killing deer and rabbits to get my last few hundred salvage). Luckily, XP is a little easier to amass by simply completing sets of relics or documents and finishing challenges. One thing I can say is that even though it got a little tedious near the end, I still felt compelled to go back and find every little thing I could, which I can rarely say about a game.

Tomb Raider not only reinvents Lara Croft as a character and makes her someone people can relate to and care about, but it’s also a damn fantastic game. The combat stumbles in certain spots, but only slightly and never in a way that has a lasting effect on your experience. Outside of that one small issue, Tomb Raider offers up an absolutely amazing experience. If I had to describe it in just one word, it’d be “fun”, and honestly, that’s all I really ask for from the games I play. If you’re even the slightest bit curious about reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise, I highly recommend you give it a shot because it is one of the best games I’ve played in years.

Score: 5 out of 5

#games #video games #review #reviews #tomb raider

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alvis-the-theorist · 8 years ago

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Wibbily Wobbly Timey Wimey: A Review of Quantum Break

In the truest tradition of mankind’s desire to conquer time and do impossible things comes Quantum Break, a third-person sci-fi shooter from Remedy about self-consistency, choice, apocalypse, desperation, and time manipulation.

Beware spoilers for the first hour of story.

Before we launch in, it’s important to address the elephant in the room: the game’s release. The game was released on Xbox One and Windows 10 at once, but it was painfully clear how little time was given to the PC port. Small details were wrong—for instance, there was no quit option on the main menu—and the game as a whole wasn’t always functional out-of-box. To their credit, Remedy worked hard to solve the problems and released a series of patches to clean up the issues. Unfortunately, even this didn’t fix everything, and in a news update, Remedy said the largest problems—such as frequent crashing on some machines—were largely to blame on the way Windows 10 allocated memory. This would require an OS update to fix and would be left to Microsoft. I don’t know how truthful this is nor how many of the problems were Remedy’s or Microsoft’s fault in the first place and so won’t comment on it. Although it’s important to note that Remedy has apparently popped open the game’s hood to tinker with the core of the engine; it came to Steam in mid-September 2016 on DirectX 11 instead of 12 like its original form and continued to be patched as they continued working with it. This aside, it’s easy to understand why the release left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth; a hyped game meant to be the flagship of Microsoft’s cross-platform implementation couldn’t even run consistently after initial download on PC.

Let’s put this aside and look at the game for only itself and see what it manages to do and what it doesn’t. Let’s jam!

Story and Characters

Jack Joyce comes home to Riverport at the request of his oldest and best friend Paul Serene. Paul has been leading a difficult and ambitious project of some kind at the university (Project Promenade), and their backers are pulling out. Paul is convinced if he can demonstrate that the science is sound and the project works he can save the project, but he has 48 hours and needs someone he can trust. So Jack flies into town to help out.

Turns out Paul and his team have been working on building a time machine based on science and technology invented by Jack’s older brother William Joyce. They have the machine built, and Paul’s proof-of-concept is to use it to travel through time. Jack agrees to help after almost no convincing, and they go through the machine’s start-up procedures. Paul sets it for two minutes into the past, and the ‘duplicate’ of himself exiting the machine is proof enough of machine functionality. He decides to test the other direction, steps inside, and Will runs in demanding they stop the experiment. There is a massive energy surge, bathing Paul and Jack in temporal energy, and suddenly paramilitary troops from corporation Monarch Solutions are there to take the time machine core. Paul can’t get out of the machine and decides to use it to travel to the future even though the surge means he could end up anywhere, and Jack and Will are forced to escape from Monarch. Will explains the experiment caused a Fracture in time that will lead to the End of Time, but he built something to stop it because he knew it was coming. A woman named Beth Wilder told him about the Fracture years ago, and if they can get off the campus in one piece, they can save time itself.

The Monarch troops chase them with nearly-impossible knowledge, and when forced to defend himself, Jack discovers he is suddenly developing time powers. That isn’t enough, and Will is captured. Jack goes to save him, and he is confronted by a version of Paul nearly two decades older than the one he watched run into the future. Paul is the leader of Monarch, and he has an agenda he will let no obstacle stop. Will is such an obstacle, and Paul collapses the building on him. Jack is taken into Monarch custody, escapes with Beth Wilder’s help, and decides to exact revenge on Paul for what happened at the university and prevent the End with whatever countermeasure Will built.

It is a journey that will force Jack to come to terms with the implications of self-consistency, the secrets Will kept from him for seventeen years, and how hopelessness can break a person.

A lot of the story is about choice and fate disguised as resistance against self-consistency. Much of the plot relies critically on the circularity of self-consistent time-travel from Beth’s involvement with the Joyce brothers to Monarch’s confidence in themselves. Naturally, this brings up the possibility that free will means nothing if the present and future are written in the past. This is not an uncommon conflict in time travel scenarios, and it is distinctly human. So the complexity and emotional power of the story have to be carried by the characters and their individual stories. The game knows it and spends nearly all of its story space to flesh out the characters. The four main characters Jack, Will, Beth, and Paul end up very well developed.

My one complaint with character development is with Jack; he seems to be become romantically interested in Beth, but it feels a bit out of left field and forced. This could have been fixed by the addition of a few more interactions between him and Beth to lead a bit more into it. But other than that, I feel like I know these characters on a personal level.

Gameplay

Like I said before, this is a third-person shooter. Combat focuses on using your series of time powers and strategic cover-shooting to take down squads of armed enemies. The cover-shooting is fine; it generally feels smooth, easy, and clearly designed for use in conjunction with your powers. The powers themselves are clearly designed for aiding combat, and once you learn when to use them and how to effectively chain them together, combat becomes a lot faster and easier as is obviously intended. It would have been nice to have a basic melee attack, but it’s not needed.

My biggest gripe with combat is mostly in the enemy AI. The AI itself is pretty good; it can be unpredictable and will make each firefight different from the last, even when you’re replaying a fight. The specialized enemy troops feel unique and will force adaptation when you meet them the first time. But I found on Normal and Easy difficulties, the AI is not the most adaptable. Each combat arena is designed to accommodate multiple combat styles from the player, but the AI does not adapt well to the player’s possible strategies. I did not encounter this problem on Hard difficulty though.

There is upgrade system for your powers, and it is about what you would expect. Upgrade points are earned by finding them in the environment, clearly to incentivize sticking around in a level and looking around. Sticking around is rather important because most of the characters’ individual stories are told through documents found scattered about the game world and audio diaries unlocked by either story progression or finding certain things in the environment. Less important information and flavor can also be found through documents. There is a lot to find if you look around. In a game so much about the characters and world, this is pretty important, and the story itself rewards you for loitering in a level and looking at everything. I really enjoyed that and found it helped deepen the experience.

In moving about the world there is simple platforming and ability puzzles. Not too difficult if you’ve played any 3D platformer in the last ten years, and that’s a bit of a shame. It clearly serves as a way to provide a more complicated path to hide collectables, but a path is all it really is. It never felt like I was ever in a situation where I absolutely had to have my powers to navigate, since a lot of it could be handled with simply a higher jump. There were some interesting ability triggers, but I wanted more of an excuse to see my powers in action outside of battle.

Let’s talk about the junctions. The ends of the first four acts are each marked by a junction, a critical story point that creates two branching paths. The player controls Paul Serene and makes a binary decision that will affect the entire cast and world. Both options have different effects on when, how, and what you learn about Monarch and the world. You are shown these effects in the broadest strokes before allowed to make the decision. The individual junctions are nearly completely independent of each other, and I wish that wasn’t the case. The junction decisions as they are are interesting but it would be really cool if the junctions were interdependent. Perhaps the options you’re given at a later junction are different if you choose Option A instead of B or vise versa at the first junction. It would also be cool if the decisions had a larger impact on the game’s set pieces. For the set pieces, a lot of the differences between options are in the details and contexts. This is interesting in and of itself and works, but something more severe would really add to the mechanic. Perhaps you have to fend off different enemy troops or you encounter different set pieces entirely. The junction mechanic could have been mind-blowing and have a tremendous effect on the world, but that’s a missed opportunity.

Speaking of set pieces; there are some very clever and unique set pieces and sequences. The game makes full use of the idea that time is broken, that it can stop or start at any time and move in either direction. It feels epic and cinematic, and not just for its own sake. The sequences largely grow organically from the story and mechanics of the world.

We also have to talk about the TV show. Quantum Break is unique in that it tries to hybridize two very different media. ‘Tries’ is the key word. It doesn’t quite work. The show tells the stories of three Monarch employees, and those stories are interesting. They’re about desperation and self-preservation in the face of probable apocalypse, and the three react uniquely to the situation. Their stories add a lot to the world and help humanize the majority of Monarch. The problem with the show is its presentation. Each episode is a bit over 20 minutes, given as a single brick after each junction, and traditional live action. The game’s storytelling is influenced by hallmarks of TV the way Alan Wake is, but the show isn’t influenced back. Making the show more interactive would have gone a long way to make the hybridization work. Imagine if the show was in engine, with controllable camera, and broken up so you get a bit of it at the end of each part of the act. It would become more of a series of long cutscenes with different characters, a pause in the action and flow instead of a grinding halt. I think it would make the media fuse together the way they’re meant to.

Graphics and Audio

The game is a beautiful one with fluid animations, good graphic design, and a high degree of realism. The pre-rendered sequences are breathtaking, and the actively-rendered sections are lovely. Graphically it feels like a follow-up to Alan Wake, an incredibly rendered game. Stand-out moments include a facial close up on Jack in the opening monologue and the Project Promenade lab when you explore it. The world is bright and colorful and dark and dirty, and the game uses cinematic tools to change the feel of each scene.

The soundtrack was composed by Petri Alanko, the same composer behind Alan Wake’s music. Unfortunately, he does not do an equal job here. The ambient music is subtle and easy to miss, but it does a very good job adding to the environment. The music in cut-scenes is more obvious and contributes to the feel of the scene. Unfortunately, there aren’t any stand-out or particularly notable original tracks. This soundtrack does not boast an equal to ‘Tom the Diver’ or ‘Departure,’ but I do have to say it is still emotional and sci-fi and does a good job complimenting the story and energy of the game.

The performances from the cast are very good, both in terms of live-action and voice acting. Shawn Ashmore proves more than capable of giving life to Jack; Dominic Monaghan gives an excellent performance as Will; and Courtney Hope shines as Beth. The most notable performance is from Aidan Gillen as Paul; he perfectly portrays a cold and dedicated man losing the fight for his sanity. The notable supporting cast members fill their roles wonderfully and help bring the world into nice relief. And very importantly, it doesn’t feel any of them missed a step switching between media.

In Summary, Overall, and Takeaway

Quantum Break is an extremely ambitious game between its mechanics, story, and presentation. And it manages to accomplish a lot, making it an incredibly unique experience.

The concept of self-consistent time travel is not dulled down and is used to create a complicated looping story with several beginnings. It starts in 1999 when Will performs the first time travel experiment, and in 2016 when Jack goes back to Riverport, and in 2010 when Project Promenade begins. It creates a mind-bending situation where things have yet to happen but already have, and knowledge creates itself from nothing. It is something few video games—if any—have worked with. On top of it is the junction system, making the time mechanics truly self-consistent multi-worlds, a time travel interpretation that doesn’t show up much in fiction, no matter the medium.

The other time mechanics are all derived from two simple assumptions: time is effectively a force, and it can be manipulated by hand by some individuals. So time has messenger particles to communicate how time flows and in what direction, and the manipulation of those particles give god-like abilities. Remedy has said that they worked with a quantum physicist in developing the mechanics, and I applaud it. It gives a consistent and coherent framework for all of the shenanigans that happen.

The show tells otherwise unlearnable stories, but it struggles with its own presentation in being too traditional. Hybridizing TV and video games is incredibly ambitious and can work; it just needs more time to develop. As a side note, Remedy has announced they’re going to continue working with the hybridization concept, and it will be interesting to see what happens with it. If handled right, they can probably get it to work, and I hope they do. It could open the door to an entirely new way of story-telling and thinking about stories.

This game had a very profound impact on me. The intertwined stories of the characters are surprisingly tragic and heart-wrenching, filled with complex emotion that isn’t watered down. There is pain, trauma, hope, and joy here all at once in ways that are immediate, understandable, and intense. It provides the grounding for the whole story and does most of the legwork in adding the realism and humanity this kind of story needs.

I personally have not seen a game that handles its story the way Quantum Break does, and it is extremely successful and compelling. I spent several late nights trying to find every last document so I could completely understand these characters and their motivations because those motivations dictate everything that happens.

The storytelling’s not perfect, but it’s very close, and the show’s issues are the only thing holding it back.

The gameplay is smooth, polished, well-balanced, and unlike most of what’s on the market today. The enemy AI needs some tweaking to make combat fall more in line with the adaptable cover-shooter it’s clearly supposed to be, and the platforming could be fine-tuned to be more interesting and complex.

It’s a shame the game had such a painful release. It doesn’t deserve it because on the whole, this is a wonderful game with a lot of passion and energy behind it. It’s extremely clear how much all of Remedy love this game and how much time they must have devoted to not only build but also polish the game. It falls short of fulfilling all of its ambitions, but it manages to accomplish a lot and in unique ways.

So after jury-rigging a time machine together, losing the only relationships that matter to me, agreeing to help a project I knew would lead to the End of Time, watching my brother accidentally cause the Fracture, and realizing I didn’t even get time powers out of the deal, I award this game an 8.5 out of 10 and a recommendation of Must Play.

#review #quantum break #remedy

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r3pl4ycom · 4 years ago

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This is not a review

There are games I play from now and then, usually together with my sons, but do not play enough to warrant a review. Here I will list those games, and say a few words about them, without putting a score on them.

Spelunky 1 & 2

Roguelike, procedural generated platform game. These two games are awesome and they keep up after so many hours of gameplay. However I am terrible at it and usually me and my son die before even reaching level 1-3. But we’re having fun and that’s all that counts.

I play it sometimes when my sons ask me to, but for the most time we just keep killing each others. I would not pick this up on my own.

Horizon Chase Turbo

If you’re as old as I am you played racing games in the 90’s and back then the car was a static sprite and the level was moving around the car creating the illusion of driving. Most famous game is probably Outrun but I liked Lotus Turbo Espirit 1 & 2 more. The music in those games are ace.

Horizon Chase Turbo recreates the feeling of those games and it nails pretty much everything. The graphics are shiny, the music is awesome and the gameplay is really fun. I especially enjoy racing with my son in split screen, hunting trophies.

This is a game that I play occasionally both on my own and with my sons. Wish I had it on my Nintendo Switch. Then I would most likely play it even more.

Fall Guys

This game came from nowhere and suddenly everyone was playing it. It is an obstacle course were you need to complete it before everyone else. I’ve played this with my sons passing the controller back and forth. It is fun for a while and you can easily pick it up, play a few rounds and then do something else. It is a game that doesn’t require much and it will neither leave a lasting impression.

We play it from time to time, but do not invest that much time into it.

Super Mario Bros. 35

How about that first Mario game? How about that first Mario game in battle mode with 34 other people. This is really fun. As you play along and people getting knocked out, the difficulty ramps up. Time is ticking faster and more enemies spawn at your level.

We’ve had lots of fun with this passing the controller around. This is also a game that the whole family likes playing and those are quite rare. My best placing so far is 4th place. Sadly they will remove this game come March 2021.

Golf on Mars

This is silly. Why have I spent so much time in this silly little game? It is a 2D procedural generated golf game. You hit the ball from one hole to another and try to do it in as few hits as possible.

It’s a simple idea really. Since it is procedural generated there are about 25 billion holes. I don’t know why I keep playing it but I have a hard time stopping myself.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

This could be a real review because I’ve played all the tracks of Mario Kart multiple times. I’m not a huge fan of this game but it is fun to play with the kids.

I do wish there was more variety though as you get bored playing the same tracks pretty quickly. We still play this game from time to time. What I enjoy most is that I can play it with both my sons at the same time.

Will keep playing it to kill time with my kids.

Super Smash Bros

I got this for my son because he loves brawlers, but I don’t really favor this one. I think the controls are wierd, I don’t understand the rules and it is lame that you must play so much to unlock new fighters.

What I want to say is that I enjoy Street Fighter 2 much more. I play it when my son wants to, but I would never pick it up on my own.

Mechstermination Force

This is a cool little 2D action game where you fight big puzzle bosses. It is a kind of Shadow of the Colossus but as a 2D action shooter.

I really like the concept, but the controls are way too advanced. I have huge problem remembering the control layout and a hard time to get my character to do what I expect it to. The game is also hard and expects you to have a certain progression, and when you don’t level up your arsenal in the correct pace you will quickly find yourself out gunned.

I will most likely never finish this game.

Helldivers

This is an isometric shooter where you complete short missions, level up your character and fight monsters. It is fun to play together but not so fun to play alone. I’ve played a bit with my son, which is chaotic to say the least. The game has friendly fire and the missions mostly end with us shooting each other or calling down reinforcements on each others’ heads.

It is fun, but I think it could be even more fun if you were a group of friends playing it together. Will still pick it up when we just want to shoot something.

Hyper Light Drifter

I do not understand the hype around this game. I gave it 2 hours and then I uninstalled it. The environments are not interesting, the combat is not interesting, the story is not interesting. There is nothing here to drive me forward in the game, so when I get stuck on some ordinary mobs I just quit.

This was not for me. Deleted and will not return to it.

Worms Battlegrounds

I find it hilarious that Team 17 keep giving out the same old game in a new packaging and are still able to sell it. Worms Battlegrounds is the same Worms I played 20 years ago. There has not been much development. The levels are still generated, the arsenal is pretty much the same and the AI is stupid as hell.

It’s a game that we play once and awhile.

Wipeout Omega Collection

My first Wipeout was on PlayStation 3. The cool thing about it was that you could play in 1080p. That was one of the few games that would run on 1080p on PlayStation 3 and I had a full HD TV.

Wipeout is wipeout. I enjoy the fast paced racing. It is quite different from racing with cars as it should be. Playing it in VR is amazing and much easier. Games based on reaction times are much easier in VR.

A fun game to pick up now and then.

Prey

I don’t understand this game. Monsters on a spaceship - fine, but they are not scary. Instead they are really hard to kill and you don’t have the weapons to do a proper job. Instead you have a foam gun (wtf?).

The story is so generic that I get bored and have to force myself through the levels. I got to a place where the resistance of continuing just got too great and I just quit. I guess this is a game for people that like BioShock.

I will not play this again. It was a bad experience.

Kerbal Space Program

It looks so fun sending small green men to the moon, but boy this is a really bad adaptation of the PC game to console. The usability in this game is so horrible and it doesn’t really help you with what you should do or how to do it.

Nah, this was a horrible experience. Me and my son gave it a few hours but we never got anywhere.

Not going to pick it up again.

A Way Out

I love the idea of a game that is designed to be coop and you can only play it in coop. Instead of collaboration being an option it will instead be the base of the puzzle solving.

Sadly the game is quite repetitive and the story is predictable and boring. Me and my friend never got to the end because we got tired of it, but we played through maybe 2/3 of it.

Not planning on picking it up and finishing it.

Minecraft Dungeons

The latest in Diablo clones. There is nothing revolutionary about this game, but it is a fun game to play with your kids. It is not gory like Diablo 3, but it gives that satisfaction of collecting randomised loot.

The story is stupid and the graphics is Minecraft, but at least it is some hack and slash. I also like that it wi possible to play together even though you are way different levels, and it works. One person doesn’t get unlimited powers while the other dies all the time. It balances out somehow.

Will keep on playing with the kids.

#video games #review

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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Marvel’s Avengers Beta Doesn’t Deliver Superhero Spectacle, But There’s Hope

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There was a moment while playing the Marvel’s Avengers early access beta on the PlayStation 4 when I had to ask myself whether this slice of the game was the best way to showcase what was supposed to be a major spectacle for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Following two of the biggest movies of all time, Marvel’s Avengers should feel like a victory lap for Square Enix and a grand return to video games for the superhero team. Instead, the beta showcases a low-key affair that never quite feels all that fresh or unique.

While the combat, traversal, and all of the game’s other mechanics generally work just fine, the title’s dependence on long-established trends and design concepts, as well as a very dull group of baddies, render Marvel’s Avengers sort of ordinary. The game’s arcade-y co-op gameplay feels like an over-the-shoulder upgrade of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series, which is undoubtedly a major inspiration here, while the loot shooter elements don’t really add anything new to that particular genre, either.

It’s important to note that these are my impressions after only playing the game’s beta build, a small portion of a much larger whole. This is in no way a final verdict on Marvel’s Avengers.

Before we jump in, you can check out some gameplay footage from the beta below:

I spent three days with the beta, playing through the “A-Day” intro mission that Square Enix has previewed plenty of times before as well as several main story missions (called Hero Missions in the game), a handful of short Drop Zone and War Zone missions, an Iconic mission focusing on the Hulk, and three HARM Room Challenges best described as the game’s take on a horde mode. While the beta was a varied sampling of the activities that Marvel’s Avengers has to offer, it was also a brief one that I wouldn’t consider a full view of the final product, and I definitely left the beta with the sense that there was way more to see.

The beta opens with the heavily-directed A-Day tutorial mission that familiarizes you with the different heroes at your disposal. You wreck terrorists on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge with Thor and his mighty hammer while zipping through the skies to lend air support as Iron Man. The Hulk joins the fight on the bridge, too, smashing and stomping his way through gun-toting enemies and tanks. The tutorial gives players only the briefest of moments with Captain America and his trusty shield before switching to Black Widow for a QTE-heavy boss fight with Taskmaster.

The A-Day sequence is fast-paced and exciting, full of Marvel’s signature funny quips and heroic moments to be sure. But while this opening story mission shows how Earth’s Mightiest Heroes can work perfectly in tandem during an emergency, it isn’t really indicative of the rest of the missions in the beta, which feature combat more akin to a brawler or beat em up than the choreographed, more linear fights of the intro.

A time jump after the intro sequence sees the Avengers disband after failing to save San Francisco from the terrorist attack. We reunite with Bruce Banner and Kamala sometime later on a mission to reassemble the superhero team. The beta keeps things largely out of spoiler territory, so I didn’t get to see how the duo first met or what set them on their new mission. But from what I did see, it’s clear that the young Kamala, who is destined to become the superhero Ms. Marvel, is the heart of this story.

It’s her desire to learn more about her powers as well as the heroes she grew up admiring that drive the main plot forward. She brings an energy to the team that’s a very nice contrast to the much more defeated Banner, who is living in exile on the Chimera years after A-Day. We get hints that he’s not really interested in being the Hulk or an Avenger anymore, but Kamala convinces him that reuniting the team is the only way to save the world from the game’s main enemy faction, Advanced Idea Mechanics (aka AIM).

The Hero Missions that follow hit familiar story beats, as Bruce and Kamala first go on a mission to recover an old piece of Stark tech vital to finding Iron Man and then make contact with what remains of SHIELD, now led by Maria Hill. The beta stops short of actually reassembling the team, but along the way, we watch as Kamala interacts with pieces of Avengers history, from finding Cap’s original shield in a silo to walking around the team’s old HQ on the Chimera. It’s nice to be able to experience this story from the point-of-view of a fan who feels as much wonder for these characters as we did when we read our first Avengers comic book or watched the first movie, even if the beta’s somewhat unsurprising and safe missions don’t quite inspire wonder themselves.

The big issue with the Hero Missions and War Zone/Drop Zone side quests is that AIM’s massive army of jet pack-wearing soldiers, evil scientists, and robots aren’t all that much fun to fight or learn about. While some of the robots boast cool, bug-like designs (one class even looks like a smaller version of an X-Men Sentinel), they’re basically just punching bags and bullet sponges that don’t require much strategy to take down.

Running from room to room taking out AIM agents and machines starts to feel repetitive really quickly, and it doesn’t help that the environments sometimes feel really drab — big steel buildings with plenty of glass and high-tech lab equipment to destroy. There were even times when I felt like War Zone missions were recycling the same environment, simply remixing the order of rooms and hallways you traverse. Fortunately, these environments are almost fully destructible, which is a nice touch, especially when you’re playing as someone as chaotic as the raging Hulk. But overall, the level design showcased in the beta felt a little uninspired.

Once you unlock the War Table, you’re pretty much free to embark on missions in any order you choose and with whichever character you want, except when it comes to Iconic missions, which require you to play as a specific hero. The beta featured a Hulk-centric Iconic mission that saw the Jade Giant smash into an AIM facility to destroy the group’s gamma ray research. There’s a bit more storytelling involved with Iconic missions as well as opposed to other War Zone and short Drop Zone activities, which feel a bit less remarkable.

While there are a variety of different War Zone and Drop Zone missions to choose from, the ones in the beta mostly come down to fast sprints from point A to B that require you to destroy AIM research, defeat a robotic mini-boss, gather intel, or hold down a specific position. They rarely feel like unique experiences that could only belong in a Marvel game and are generally unexciting. And although some War Zone missions tend to offer up multiple stages and objectives, usually broken up by an elevator ride into an AIM facility or underground bunker, Drop Zone missions are bewilderingly short. You can finish them within 10 minutes, which makes them feel like filler content most of the time, although it should be noted that the shorter length of these missions is by design.

The nice thing about Marvel’s Avengers is that it won’t force multiplayer on you. All of the missions mentioned above can be played solo with three AI characters at your side or with up to three other players. While I only spent a very limited time playing with others, matchmaking worked well, but the real test will come when Crystal Dynamics opens up the beta to a much bigger group of players throughout August. But if you want to play the game solo, you can do so no problem. I even found the companion AI to be nice substitutes for real players during big fights with AIM. It’s evident that the studio has put in a lot of time into making all of these heroes feel genuine regardless of whether they’re being controlled by a player or AI.

A high point of the beta was the HARM Room, a holographic training area where the Avengers can square off against hordes of AIM enemies. In this mode, which is set on the Chimera itself, the team must survive 10 waves of increasingly difficult baddies. Only three difficulty levels were available in the beta, but it was a nice taste of what the mode has to offer. Whereas fighting AIM grunts in War Zones and Drop Zones starts to feel a little redundant, taking them on in bigger numbers in an enclosed area can get pretty exhilarating, especially when you’re against a wall in later rounds with fewer chances to heal.

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As far as the combat itself goes, there’s a nice flow to the action, which feels pretty polished at this point, as you chain a mix of attacks with Black Widow, Kamala Khan, Iron Man, and Hulk. I particularly enjoyed playing as Black Widow, who uses a mix of batons, gravity-defying flips, kicks, and dual pistols to take down the game’s robotic enemies. She also has a cool grapple that she uses to swing to hard-to-reach platforms or hurl herself at enemies. Switching between her melee moves and third-person shooter gunplay is pretty smooth, too. Black Widow ultimately feels like the hero who benefits the most from Crystal Dynamics’ own experience with the action-adventure genre. At times, I even wished the studio had embarked on a Black Widow solo adventure instead of such a big superhero endeavor.

Unsurprisingly, learning how to play as each hero is the best part of the beta. While Captain America and Thor are notably absent beyond the tutorial, you get plenty of time with the other Avengers. For the most part, each character feels distinct. Black Widow performs as a close- to mid-range hero while Ms. Marvel is all about melee. Hulk not only brings devastating tank-like power to the battlefield and destruction to the game’s environments but also does quite a bit of platforming along the way (a strange choice to give Hulk so much of the platformer gameplay but it mostly works). With Iron Man, you unlock the ability to fly around and wreak havoc from above, although his melee attacks also feel satisfying and weighty.

Special abilities that work on a cooldown timer add a nice superheroic layer to each character. Iron Man can summon his Hulkbuster suit for when he needs to take on bigger enemies and Hulk can clap his hands together to create a soundwave that does incredible damage and staggers targets. Black Widow can activate a camo that effectively turns the entire team invisible for a short time while Ms. Marvel can embiggen. Each hero has three unique abilities that really complement them and their move set. It was a blast learning how to best implement each ability.

A skill tree and a gear upgrade system allow you to unlock new attacks for each hero as well as upgrade gear stats to make your character stronger. As you level up in the game, you get skill points to redeem in the skill tree while the game’s myriad resources can be used to upgrade different pieces of gear. There are quite a few resources to keep track of, mostly found inside giant crates during missions, but I found that you could mostly ignore which resources upgraded each piece of gear. Compared to loot shooters, collecting resources never feels as grind-y or frustrating as it does in, say, the Destiny games.

You can also find different pieces of gear on the field, such as better gauntlets for Black Widow or better armor for Ms. Marvel, that offer perks (buffs) such as a damage boost, health boost, or elemental effects. Some pieces of gear even have two perks that you can unlock by upgrading them. As far as I could tell from the beta, gear serves to boost your character’s stats further but doesn’t offer any cool cosmetic effects, making loot feel a little less satisfying as a whole than in other loot-based games. Instead, cosmetic changes to your character will come from unlocking skins through gameplay or buying them with real money.

While microtransactions weren’t turned on during the beta, Crystal Dynamics did provide in-game currency so that I could shop for some skins, emotes, and themed nameplates for when you want to rep your favorite hero while in the matchmaking lobby. Skins include a Joe Fixit costume for Hulk, a casual winter-themed outfit for Kamala, a very cool black and red suit for Black Widow, and MCU-inspired suits for each hero. There were only a few skins to try for each character but trailers and gameplay videos have already promised way more costumes to choose from.

Some Marvel fans might perk up at the thought of being able to play Marvel’s Avengers as Joe Fixit and I guarantee there’s plenty more deep-cut comic book goodness where that came from. Credit must be given to Crystal Dynamics for just how much Marvel history it managed to pack into just this short beta. From breaking news from Marvel’s number one reporter, Phil Sheldon, to references to Dum Dum Dugan, easter eggs to be found on the Golden Gate Bridge, and classic real-life comics that make up the game’s collectibles, it’s clear Crystal Dynamics has done its research and has a real love for this universe. There are Avengers memorabilia scattered pretty much everywhere in the Hero Missions and there are even one or two villainous cameos I won’t spoil here.

While AIM facilities feel a bit dull as you run around their familiar hallways, the world as a whole feels lived in. The level design in the beta might falter but the world-building in Marvel’s Avengers is on point. It’s just a shame that the gameplay itself never comes together like the world and lore Crystal Dynamics is building around it.

I return back to my earlier question about whether the content specifically chosen for this beta was the best way to showcase a game as big as Marvel’s Avengers. Did Crystal Dynamics play it too safe for the sake of preserving story elements and other surprises? Will War Zone missions have more to offer than the repetitive gameplay shown here? Crystal Dynamics has stressed that these missions could last anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours. It would’ve been nice to see a mission that’s somewhere in the middle, just to get a better look at the scope of the game. For now, missions and levels feel too minuscule for a team as big as the Avengers.

Will AIM be the only bad guys in the full game? Hopefully not. There are hints in the beta that other supervillains may be on the move and there’s even a brief boss fight with a villain that’s appeared in an MCU movie. With all of Marvel history at the team’s disposal, it’s hard to believe AIM was the best choice here over the countless other evil organizations, factions, and races created by the House of Ideas. Hopefully, the full game will offer a bit more variety on the bad guy front.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that this is only a beta and what does work in Marvel’s Avengers works well. There’s hope in the game’s world-building, character design, and the combat system. And don’t forget that Marvel’s Avengers is a live service title designed to change and improve over time. It’s positioned as a platform that will receive content updates for years to come. Like many online games before it, it’s possible Marvel’s Avengers will face a rocky launch this fall, but if the history of this particular game format is any indication, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix will have plenty of time to right the Chimera.

Marvel’s Avengers is out on Sept. 4 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia. It’s coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X later this year.

If you’re interested in participating in the beta, here is the schedule of when you can do so:

August 7-9 – PS4 pre-order customers can join the closed beta

August 14-16 – All PS4 owners can join the open beta, and PC and Xbox One pre-order customers can play the closed beta

August 21-23 – Open beta across all platforms

The post Marvel’s Avengers Beta Doesn’t Deliver Superhero Spectacle, But There’s Hope appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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operationrainfall · 5 years ago

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Title Panzer Dragoon: Remake Developer Megapixel Studio Publisher Forever Entertainment S. A. Release Date March 26th, 2020 Genre Rail Shooter, Arcade Platform PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One Age Rating T for Teen – Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence Official Website

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I’m gonna start this review with a simple truth – I’ve never played the original Panzer Dragoon that Remake is based on. So when I agreed to review it, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. That said, I had always been intrigued by the series, and mostly hadn’t gotten around to it since the game started out on the Sega Saturn. As a lifelong Nintendo boy, that wasn’t a game I thought I’d ever get the opportunity to playing. So I was excited to tackle the remade game, developed by Megapixel Studio, despite not being familiar with their body of work. The question then is this. Was this lifelong Nintendo fanboy made a true believer of a Sega Saturn classic thanks to Panzer Dragoon: Remake?

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One thing I’m happy to report is that Remake is extremely faithful to the original. It’s pretty much a perfect recreation, which I can say after watching a playthrough online. What they essentially did is give the original game a beautiful new coat of paint, so fans should be right at home here. Special note goes to the breathtaking environments, which are all full of detail and packed with menacing monsters. And though I initially wasn’t that impressed by the cutscenes, which reminded me of a PS2 game at first, I have to admit they’re much prettier than the original ones. Perhaps the most impressive improvement in this regard is how seamless the levels are. Sure, there’s annoying load times before and after stages, but during them the action moves at a brisk clip and I experienced zero slowdown.

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As far as gameplay goes, it’s also remarkably faithful. You can weave back and forth, lock onto foes to blast with homing shots and fire standard shots. It’s fun to fly around wreaking havoc, especially since it’s pretty easy to move the camera around to hit foes on your flank and sides. All you need to do is press the shoulder buttons, and the camera will turn in that direction. That said, I’d be lying if I said the game was easy. Even on Normal, I got killed plenty of times, and foes like to hit you from blind angles. Even with radar showing enemy locations as blips, the action moves very quickly, so it’s easy to get surprised by bullets. Thankfully, once you start to learn the enemy patterns, levels begin to go smoother. Which is good, since inexplicably Panzer Dragoon: Remake features no tutorial. I literally had to figure out the combat on the fly (pun intended). Stranger yet, you can only access the control guide from the start screen. That may not sound like a problem, but keep in mind that if you are a few levels into the game and want to go back and check, you’ll have to forfeit your current run. I really think it would have been a better idea to make the guide able to be viewed from the pause screen as well. It’s not the end of the world, mind you, but it made the experience run less smoothly.

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The highlight of the game are definitely the boss battles. They are all massive (mostly) flying threats, and many of them have multiple phases. The big bad is the Prototype Dragon, a bulky little bastard responsible for murdering your blue dragon’s original pilot. He’s a recurring threat, and even shows up to hound you in stages that he’s not the actual boss. Perhaps my favorite boss is a segmented machine that splits into two different bosses. It starts as a dangerous windmill and transforms into a rampaging, missile spewing monstrosity. But all the bosses are fun, and they really make you earn your victory. I will say though, I do wish that losing to a boss didn’t mean replaying their entire level over again from the start. I gather the original Panzer Dragoon worked that way, but having a modern convenience like starting from where you died would have saved me a lot of time. Especially since I died right before the final stage my first run, and had to play through the entire game all over again to actually beat it. Then again, considering you can beat Remake in an hour or less, it’s not a big problem. Just a minor annoyance.

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Honestly my biggest issue with Panzer Dragoon: Remake was how it eschewed modern conventions. Sure, I get it’s a 1 to 1 port, but it also wouldn’t have hurt my experience any to smooth over some rough patches. For example, it can be difficult to avoid obstacles and projectiles. A big reason is that despite different buttons being mapped to move and aim, they essentially do the same thing. Your dragon aims with his entire body, so it’s very easy to get winged by giant cannonballs and the like. Especially in levels with narrow corridors. Suffice to say, your foes will get in several cheap shots, even hitting you as soon as gates open. As I played, I grew to wish that there was some sort of temporary dash move to provide invincibility, even for a few seconds. Cause you won’t find any med kits or the like to increase your health, meaning you have to beat each stage in one try. Oh and did I mention you only earn continues by beating stages? When you add the fact that sometimes I would start a new stage without my life bar full for some reason, you can start to see my dilemma. I’m still not sure if that last part was intentional design or a glitch. All I know is that problems like that made me yearn for a few more modern niceties.

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Though I already touched on the visuals, I’ll go into more detail. The artwork in Panzer Dragoon: Remake is why I’ve always been drawn to the series. Everything has great personality, especially the monstrous creatures of this world. That all goes a long way to make me not care that the plot of Remake is absent at best. Sure there’s some small details, but not a coherent narrative. But when you’re flying through the air, dodging giant fly traps, blasting ships out of the sky and chasing your nemesis, it’s easy to forgive the story’s faults. Musically the game is really enjoyable. While not every track is full of energy, they all do a good job of building on the momentum of each stage and driving the action forward.

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All in all, I had a good time with Panzer Dragoon: Remake. Sure, I would have preferred some quality of life tweaks to the original game, but it’s still a worthy adventure. And even though I only spent 2 hours with it, I feel that $24.99 is a fair price for this level of quality. That said, I hope you’ve expanded your system memory before you pick this up, since it’s a whopping 7 GB download. I don’t usually mention the size of games I review, but holy hell is that huge, and I realize not every Switch owner has supplemented their base memory yet. And while the original game’s cheat codes don’t work yet, I understand they’ll be added in a later update. Otherwise this is a perfect remake of a classic game. If you’re looking to relive your past or just experience a nostalgic jaunt to the days of the Sega Saturn, Panzer Dragoon: Remake is an excellent choice.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

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REVIEW: Panzer Dragoon: Remake Title Panzer Dragoon: Remake

#Forever Entertainment #MEGAPIXEL STUDIO #oprainfall #Panzer Dragoon Remake #Sega

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nazih-fares · 6 years ago

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When it comes to Ubisoft, I have a sort of admiration for a key franchise of theirs: Assassin’s Creed. After seeing the game evolve from a simple adventure game to dabbling around with multiple new game mechanics and settings, last year’s Assassin’s Creed Origin marked one hell of a change for the series. Ditching the focus on stealth for a broader and modern RPG appeal, Assassin’s Creed Origin set the standard for the franchise in the future, and this year’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey does not intend to revolutionize the formula, but rather evolve it with a focus on the notion of storyline choices and role-playing mechanics.

Before we start this review, here’s a very important note to make, which might or not push away fans of the series. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is like Origins a prequel to the history of the creed itself. While it was thought that last year’s game told the origins of the Creed, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is set 400 years before that, right in the heart of the Peloponnesian war which saw the Athen-led Delian League fight against the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League. For those that played Assassin’s Creed Origins and the rest of the franchise, this might make the whole timeline a bit confusing, considering Bayek (from Assassins’ Creed Origins) was the creator of the Assassin’s Creed with the Hidden Ones, which later on was shaped into the more modern version of it thanks to Altair in the first Assassin’s Creed released 11 years ago. So how can a story set 400 years before Assassin’s Creed Origins actually tell another… Well, an origin story?

Well, without revealing too much of the story, I can tell you Assassin’s Creed fans that all pieces will fall in together into one perfect “Aha moment”. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey offers you for the first time the opportunity to choose to play as either a man, Alexios, or a woman, Kassandra, throughout the entire adventure. While this is not technically a first as Assassins Creed Syndicate also had both a male and female protagonist in Evie and Jacob, the difference here is that Alexios and Kassandra’s stories will play differently, and while there’s a common narrative, there’s a lot of story branches that depend largely on your pick of the character and eventually decisions you make in the game.

Like with Assassin’s Creed Origins, the same modern time character – Layla Hassan – is at the base of the storyline, who wants to learn more about the origin of the Assassins and henceforth their relations to the Isu or the First Civilization, a humanoid species that is believed to be the creators of humanity and the Pieces of Eden. This will then take us to Ancient Greece, where we learn that Alexios and Kassandra are direct descendants of Leonidas (that same one from the movie 300), who became outcast and mercenaries after a tragic event in their early youth. No matter what your choice of character is, you will wield a weapon inherited from the first civilization on top of rest of your Greek mercenary gear and armour.

While Assassin’s Creed Origins was mostly around a mass of land in the Egyptian Nile Delta, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is quite an interesting game map since it’s set in Greece, split into regions stretching from northeastern of Attica to the far reaches of the Aegean Sea, each under the control of a Spartan or Athenian leader. The leaders unlock contracts you can accept since you’re a mercenary, knowing that other will scour the land and have a contract on your head which goes higher based on your decisions in the game. For example, if you assassinate too many guards of another faction or loot in plain sight will turn you into an outlaw, making your missions harder with more higher level enemies, unless you decide to clear the bounty by paying some drachma (Greek currencies). These same bounty hunters as well can be quite challenging to defeat, and the longer your bounty, the higher the loot level is when defeating these mercenaries. In short, a definite upgrade to the Phylakitai mechanics in Assassin’s Creed Origins.

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But the greatest change that a travel back in time to Ancient Greece did is the region’s typography, and its effect on the gameplay mechanics, now bringing a key feature from the Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag days: the naval combat. Although present in a basic way in Assassin’s Creed Origins, naval combat in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a more complex update from the Black Flag and Rogue chapters. While it brings many known elements like customization on numerous parts of your ship such as stern, sails, and more, as well as combat mechanics like ranged volleys, boarding and ramming, there’s added RPG elements to that part of the game as well. The most drastic change is building your ship’s crew (the Adestria), where you can recruit and assign up to four lieutenants that will enable different combat bonuses and will also help you during the ship boarding. Lieutenants, like it is the case with gear, have a different level of rarities, and while some are easy to obtain by just simply knocking them out during mission then offer them to join your ranks, others have dedicated missions to finish and usually are the rarest. On top of all, this change brings back as well the shift to naval exploration, with a bigger option to find loot in an underwater shipwreck, but also discovering uncharted islands full of mystery, like it was the case with Black Flag.

As mentioned before, the series is moving its focus towards traditional RPG, and this time Assassin’s Creed Odyssey bring systemic choices that can alter narration on the sidelines of scripted quests. Your decisions in conversation will affect missions, very much it did in previous games that tackled on that idea such as the Mass Effect series, even on the front of romance with NPCs. But most decisions are devoid of any sort of right and wrong, but dialogue choices will change Alexios or Kassandra’s character into a more brutal or compassionate one, as well as the way NPCs speak to you on the long run.

But the RPG part is most noticeable in the upgrade to the equipment system, where statistics are more important than ever before when defining the play style of your character. It is not only possible to modify the numerous armour pieces ranging from legs to helmet, but also to add various additional bonuses, known as engraving, which can, for example, add a certain amount of extra damage with melee attacks, boost stealth or buff long-range attacks.

What finally makes your experience unique is in the way your skills sets are applied, whether you want to focus on stealth, melee combat or long-range fighter. Because the skill tree is different in comparison to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, with no branches intertwined between each of the three trees (Hunter, Warrior, Assassin), your ability points will mould either Alexios or Kassandra into the deadly mercenary you want it to be. Your character’s level up also affects your stats, and now it’s much more useful to shop at merchants to upgrade your gear – either by crafting or direct purchase – than it was the case with Assassin’s Creed Origins, where the progression was more toward finding loot. Finally, the game on top of baseline abilities that are known like whistling or using eagle eye with Ikaros, there’s also Ranged and Melee abilities you’ll unlock and can assign to shortcut keys including Spread Shots, Venomous Attack or the Bull Rush, expanding your arsenal.

Graphically speaking, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a step above its predecessor. Even if the engine is the same, Origins’ land offered huge expanses of sand, and on the opposite Odyssey has environments that are far more varied and colourful. Whether on land or at sea, the game is a treat for the eye, with a dynamic weather system, day and night cycle, and will look even more gorgeous if you own an Xbox One X making use of the HDR (and I assume the same experience on the PlayStation 4 Pro). Although I did notice a great upgrade on the front of animations, whether movements in general or collisions (especially at sea with naval combat), there are still some small hiccups. Facial expressions show immense depth on skin features, emotions and not just on humans but animals as well, but some conversation show some weird lip sync issues and stutter with the body movement. Nevertheless, the game is amazing to look at, and you’ll probably waste so much time in the photo mode which makes a comeback from the previous episode, especially if you’re using the game’s new exploration mode which removes all screen “clutter” like HUD elements.

Ubisoft has certainly decided to give the PC gamers a proper edition of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, and as such that platform version is not, in fact, a port. That’s the most important thing to note in this segment, as it should give you an idea of how well the game runs on PC. If you checked out the minimum requirements you’ll know the game is actually designed to run on a variety of hardware, and higher settings won’t need something extravagant. As always, make sure your drivers are updated and you have the latest patches before diving in.

Speaking of diving in, let’s take a look at that performance! Since we prioritize smooth framerate a ton, we started off on Ultra but brought it down to High, and we’re happy to say that Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey stayed at a steady 60 at that preset for most of the time we spent with it. We saw some hitches and drops every so often, but it was a consistent framerate for the most part. We didn’t try for 4K because why would we, so it’s important to note that my experience is reflective of the 1080/Full HD. As for visuals, the game is just brilliant, and we were able to enjoy the whole shebang on our test PC without turning down any settings. If you really want it to shine visually and you don’t have a top-shelf card, you’re gonna have to settle for something closer to 30.

Assassin’s Creed Origins was reviewed using an Xbox One and PC downloadable copy of the game provided by Ubisoft. The review was tested on an Xbox One X and a PC running Windows 10, with an 8GB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070 fitted on a 4th Generation Intel i7 4790 3.6Ghz CPU and topped with 16GB of RAM. The game is also available on PlayStation 4 in both retail and online store releases. We don’t discuss review scores with publishers or developers prior to the review being published (click here for more information about our review policy).

With a new world to discover, Assassin's Creed Odyssey continues on the path set by Origins, giving more choice to the players, with a bigger focus on RPG and the comeback of naval warfare. A definitive evolution of the series, and shouldn't be missed. When it comes to Ubisoft, I have a sort of admiration for a key franchise of theirs: Assassin's Creed.

#Action Adventure #Assassin&039;s Creed #Platformer #Remastered #Singleplayer #Stealth #Ubisoft #Ubisoft Quebec

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takenews-blog1 · 7 years ago

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The 50 most anticipated video games of 2018

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The 50 most anticipated video games of 2018

In relation to video games, this previous yr goes to be a tough act to observe. However 2018 is skipping onto the stage with a flourish of promising titles.

Huge sequels like The Final of Us Half 2 and Pink Useless Redemption 2 are prone to seem. Extremely artistic oddities like The place the Water Tastes Like Wine and Wattam are shifting up for launch. Multiplayer video games like Anthem, Crackdown three and Sea of Thieves need to change the way in which we play collectively.

This listing was put collectively by the entire Polygon workforce and is, after all, subjective. Tell us, in feedback, which video games you’re most trying ahead to in 2018.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Set in a lush, alien world, BioWare’s open-world monster shooter embraces loot drops, as gamers search to improve exosuits and weapons. With the sport focused for launch within the fall, there’ll be a heavy emphasis on in-game occasions and shared-world, squad-based challenges.

Nintendo Swap, PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Koei Tecmo’s fight sport is predicated on the second season of the anime sequence, wherein human-eating giants assault fortified cities. Based on the sport’s builders, this sequel to the 2016 authentic will function extra story and extra choices for gamers who like their enemies to be tremendous robust. It’s set to reach in March.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Created by Hazelight Studios, led by the person behind the excellent Brothers: A Story of Two Sons, this two-player co-op sport is about two males attempting to interrupt out of jail. It’s set within the early 1970s and makes use of a wide range of gameplay set-ups, reminiscent of capturing, driving, crawling and fixing different bodily issues. It’s out on March 23.

The unique BattleTech’s creator, Jordan Weisman, is heading up the workforce behind this newest tackle mech fight. It’s a turn-based technique sport, which attracted greater than $2.7 million on Kickstarter. Gamers assemble a workforce of mechs, and prepare up sufficient pilots to create a cohesive combating power.

PlayStation four

Introduced at Paris Video games Week, this beautiful sport comes from the makers of Entwined. It’s a few teenage artist who explores his gloomy hometown, utilizing a magic quill to create residing artwork in an effort to defeat a gang of bullies.

Home windows PC, Xbox One

Initially scheduled for launch in 2016, this oft-delayed open world sport is all about mayhem and destruction in metropolis environments. If you happen to like to interrupt skyscrapers, that is in all probability for you, particularly in multiplayer environments the place destruction is extra free-flowing than within the marketing campaign.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

A sequel to Ubisoft’s open-world auto-racer from 2014, this isn’t nearly racing vehicles. Just about something with an engine is on supply, together with airplanes, grime bikes, boats and excessive efficiency sports activities vehicles on closed tracks. The open-world avenue racing of the unique can also be included.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

On this third-person platform hack-n-slash, gamers tackle the function of Fury, an “unpredictable and enigmatic” member of the 4 Horsemen. Fury wields a magical bladed whip, whereas she explores colourful, post-apocalyptic environments, fixing development puzzles alongside the way in which.

PlayStation four

This choose-you-own-narrative sport is a stacked matrix of potential outcomes, based mostly on a world wherein androids serve humanity. Created by David Cage (developer of Heavy Rain and Past: Two Souls), it is a story that tries to place the participant within the function of storyteller.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Arriving on Jan. 26, Dragon Ball FighterZ is a 2.5D fighter from Arc System Works. It duties gamers with forming a workforce of fighters, based mostly on characters from the Dragon Ball anime sequence, and controlling one in every of them in flip. Combo sequences yield particular upgrades, reminiscent of well being regeneration.

PlayStation four

From the makers of LittleBigPlanet, this beautiful world stars somewhat imp who travels by impressionist landscapes, fixing puzzles through merchandise assortment, bodily skills and possession of different characters. The sport’s marketing campaign is designed to encourage sharing of player-created sport worlds, whereas the actual meat appears to lie in these creation instruments.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Developer Iron Galaxy is greatest recognized for combating video games like Killer Intuition and Divekick. However Extinction is all about battling 150-foot ogres as they stomp and destroy numerous places, together with cities and forests. The participant should additionally save quaking people from the incoming menace, so there’s loads of exploration and route-finding. It’s out on March 31.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

The most recent set up in Ubisoft’s open world fight sequence takes place in rural Montana, the place a demagogue is controlling the native inhabitants. Gamers device up with weapons, devices and automobiles to take down enemy outposts utilizing stealth, smarts and brute violence. It’s out on March 27.

Nintendo Swap, PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Developed by Swedish outfit Zoink, Fe is a symbolic private fantasy that brings to thoughts highly effective video games like Journey and Shadow of the Colossus. It stars a fox-like creature who seeks to guard the forest by enlisting animal allies by audible calls.

PC, PlayStation four

Two mates discover surreal islands, manipulating time to unravel puzzles. Every island is plagued by giant-sized variations of on a regular basis objects: online game consoles, walkie-talkies, recycling bins, soda bottles, Jenga blocks and extra. It’s being developed by The Voxel Brokers.

PlayStation four

On this rebirth of a much-favored PlayStation franchise, huge brawler Kratos has developed right into a doting dad. This doesn’t imply he goes all gentle on the giants and monsters he fights. It simply means his child comes alongside for the trip. Developed with sturdy action-RPG overtones by Sony’s Santa Monica studio, it’s scheduled to reach within the subsequent few months.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Frontier Developments’ dinosaur park administration sim lets gamers run their very own Jurassic Park, bio-engineering new dinosaur breeds whereas constructing points of interest, containment amenities and analysis labs. It’ll seemingly launch in the summertime, across the time the film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, hits theaters.

PlayStation four, Xbox One

Celebrating its umpteenth look in ‘video games to look at this yr’ tales, Tetsuya Nomura’s journey options characters from Disney and Pixar in a grand and colourful journey involving leaping, capturing, casting magic and combating towards enemies, huge and small.

Nintendo Swap

On this first new Kirby sport for Swap, our rotund hero is joined by as much as three teammates in a sideways-view platform sport. In trailers launched by Nintendo, Kirby is seen combining skills to create assaults with all the occasion, whereas utilizing teamwork to unravel puzzles.

Home windows PC, PlayStation four

The primary launch from new outfit Foam Sword Video games carries excessive expectations. It’s being created by workforce members with a historical past at Media Molecule, and the sport’s vivid artwork model reveals these roots. It’s a puzzle journey set in a childhood world harking back to The Goonies.

PlayStation four

Set 5 years after the unique, this post-apocalyptic fight journey is performed by Ellie, a personality who was initially a sidekick. With anticipation for this title so excessive, developer Naughty Canine hasn’t revealed a lot concerning the sport, however we are able to anticipate it to be handsome and intensely violent.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC

Former Steel Gear character designer Yoji Shinkawa is concerned on this Sq. Enix shooter. Judging from the restricted gameplay we’ve seen in trailers, Konami’s sequence is a particular affect. With the sport set within the Entrance Mission universe, there’s a touch of stealth motion as gamers attempt to take down big mechs.

Home windows PC

This single-player and cooperative multiplayer card sport is a digital launch based mostly on the profitable Lord of the Rings: The Card Sport. It’s going for the market dominated by the likes of Hearthstone, though card-packs aren’t random, as a substitute being based mostly on recognized mixtures.

Home windows PC

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, introduced at MechCon a yr in the past, would be the first MechWarrior sport with a single-player marketing campaign in additional than 15 years. It’s being developed by Piranha Video games, greatest recognized for MechWarrior On-line. Gamers take management of big mechs in first-person capturing matches, with four-player co-op supported.

Nintendo Swap, PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Capcom’s newest addition to the long-running sequence is a side-scrolling motion platformer within the vein of the earlier Mega Man video games, however with 3D visuals. Engaged on the title are producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya and director Koji Oda, each veterans of Capcom and the Mega Man sequence.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

This survival spinoff of Steel Gear Stable 5: Floor Zeroes is the primary Steel Gear sport to be launched for the reason that fraught divorce between Konami and Hideo Kojima. It takes place in an alternate actuality, the place members of Large Boss’ Militaires Sans Frontières have been transported off-world through wormhole. The planet on which the troopers now discover themselves is infested with crystalline zombie-like creatures.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Beginning in a grim wasteland model of Moscow, inhabited by mutants, this sharp-looking shooter picks up the place Metro: Final Gentle ended. Gamers will ultimately depart Moscow and discover new areas providing unfamiliar settings. Pleasant faces from earlier entries within the sequence additionally reappear.

An indie sport from Meowza Video games, this Animal Crossing-like journey is bursting with cuteness. Gamers inhabit a land of cats, as they go about managing a market stall: exploring, crafting and gathering assets.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

We had a hands-on session with Capcom’s sport earlier this yr, in addition to an extended play session, and got here away deeply impressed. Monster Hunter: World follows the sequence’ tracking-and-hunting system, however with helpful additions to weapons and crafting in addition to seamless maps. It’s out on consoles on Jan. 26, with the PC model coming later.

PlayStation four

An up to date and expanded fight system may make this story-based RPG interesting to gamers who discovered the unique heavy going. However the core worth of Studio Ghibli-like animation and tone continues to be there. Developed by Stage-5, this sport is the story of a boy king who groups up with allies to reclaim his throne.

PlayStation four, Xbox One

Rockstar’s Western-themed motion sport will seemingly be one of many yr’s highest grossing hits. It’s a prequel to the 2010 launch. Gamers tackle the function of an outlaw as he ranges round an open world, elevating hell on horseback.

Created by Lucas Pope, maker of Papers, Please, this startlingly monochrome thriller sport is ready aboard an deserted 19th century ship. The participant takes on the function of an insurance coverage adjuster who explores the vessel to seek out out the destiny of its crew.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

This technique world-building sport spans the historical past of steam locomotives in america, starting across the 1830s and lasting for one more 100 years, till the approaching of diesel engines. It’s out on Jan. 26.

Home windows PC, Xbox One

Uncommon’s squad-based journey takes place on the excessive seas, the place gamers cooperate as pirates: steering, capturing, pillaging and looting. It’s an formidable undertaking, to make certain, however we’ve had enjoyable taking part in the sport at any time when it’s been on present. It’s out on March 20.

Unconfirmed title

The title of this sport has but to be confirmed, although teasers and leaks make a convincing case that Lara Croft’s subsequent journey makes use of the phrase “shadow” in its title. Introduced late within the yr, this sport is promised to be launched comparatively quickly. Sq. Enix says it needs a shorter ready interval between first introduction and arrival. The final Tomb Raider sport was launched two years after it was first introduced. A brand new Tomb Raider film can also be popping out in 2018.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

After years of teasing, writer Bandai Namco introduced the long-awaited sequel in its weapons-based combating sport sequence just a few weeks in the past. It’ll be launched in time for the sequence’ 20th anniversary. The primary Soulcalibur got here to arcades in 1998, so it’s becoming that this sport can pay homage to the unique, when it comes to fight design and characters.

PlayStation four

Insomniac’s first foray right into a licensed sport is an open-world fight, stealth and parkour title, making use of Spider-Man’s particular skills. Comparisons have been made with Batman’s much-loved Arkham sequence, which makes liberal use of assorted set-piece occasions. The sport is being constructed on a modified model of Sundown Overdrive’s engine.

Home windows PC, Xbox One

4-player co-op was the primary thrust of Microsoft’s E3 presentation for State of Decay 2 this yr, as gamers labored collectively to outlive a zombie apocalypse. The primary State of Decay, additionally from Undead Labs, launched again in 2013 and was well-received.

PC, PlayStation four, Xbox One

Nightdive’s remake of the 1994 first-person sci-fi basic opens up some areas within the authentic in addition to tidying up dialog and filling plot holes. Constructed on Unreal Engine, the sport raised greater than $1.three million on Kickstarter.

PlayStation four

Tennis World Tour is being developed as a non secular successor to 2K Video games’ Prime Spin franchise by individuals who labored on that sequence at 2K Czech. It options licensed professionals like France’s Gaël Monfils and Switzerland’s Roger Federer.

Nintendo Swap

No Extra Heroes is returning as a Swap unique. Grasshopper Manufacture’s fight sport will as soon as once more star Travis Landing, the star of the earlier No Extra Heroes video games. The primary one launched again in 2007 on Nintendo Wii, whereas a sequel adopted in 2010.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

The most recent entry in Kalypso’s political administration simulation goes to be harder than its 2014 predecessor. As a dictator, it’s the participant’s job to maintain warring factions completely happy, lest they gang-up and throw a coup. Political speech-making additionally makes a return, providing alternatives for the type of fatuous, dishonest self-aggrandizement liked by tinpot authoritarians.

Home windows PC

Earlier this yr, Whole Struggle developer The Artistic Meeting introduced plans to create a derivative sequence of its historic technique video games, targeted on pivotal moments in historical past relatively than entire historic eras. This primary entry is all concerning the Viking assaults on Britain.

PlayStation four, Xbox One

Distinctive watercolor visuals are coming again with a brand new story on this Japanese RPG sequence. It takes place in a struggle, vaguely harking back to early 20th century conflicts, on the continent of Europa. It includes a new class of soldier, the grenadier. The sport is sticking to its roots of a turn-based, strategy-style battle system.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Dontnod’s Vampyr is a third-person motion role-playing sport set in 1918 London. Gamers tackle the function of a doctor known as Jonathan Reid who can also be a vampire. Reid goes in the hunt for victims, scoping out targets. However he has a conscience, so gamers can select fastidiously who they want to kill, and might even play the sport with out killing anybody.

Nintendo Swap, PC

A side-scroller with a fight system pushed by music, Wandersong stars a bard who defeats enemies and clear up puzzles utilizing his singing voice alone. We took a take a look at the sport earlier this yr, and got here away impressed with its Night time within the Woods vibe.

Home windows PC

Sam Barlow, the creator of Polygon’s 2015 sport of the yr, Her Story, is engaged on a re-imagining of 1983 Chilly Struggle thriller WarGames. Set within the fashionable world, the narrative selections sport stars a hacker known as Kelly who has the talents to ask tough questions on how protected we’re in a world dominated by pc networks.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Wattam, the following sport from Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi together with studio Funomena, is all about friendship. Gamers tackle the function of a city mayor who solves puzzles and befriends flowers, rocks, greens and bizarre stuff, creating an exploratory world of colour and motion.

Home windows PC

Created by former The Fullbright Firm developer Johnnemann Nordhagen, this sport attracts affect from novels reminiscent of Grapes of Wrath and On the Street, in addition to folks songs. It’s about exploring a dream-like different America, assembly characters alongside the way in which

Nintendo Swap

The final Yoshi sport launched by Nintendo was Yoshi’s Woolly World in Oct. 2015 for the Wii U. Introduced throughout E3, this new title provides a well-recognized world the place our previous, lovely pal runs by a sequence of ranges, interacting with gadgets alongside the way in which. Nevertheless, the participant’s view could be flipped, to see something hiding behind objects. Nintendo has but to announce a ultimate title for the sport.

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oflife21-blog · 8 years ago

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The sole Gamification Source You'll At any time Require

one. Achievement Definition: A digital or bodily representation of an accomplishment. They may be representative of progress and are a means to brag indirectly. These are often viewed as benefits in and of themselves. Match Software: Ribbons would be the achievements in Farmville which can be unveiled when different jobs are concluded. Gamification of Life The ribbons could be yellow, white, crimson and blue depending on the stage reached. The achievements could be posted on the player's timeline for all pals to find out. Non-Game Context Software: When somebody completes a system, a diploma is given to the person. This is perceived being an achievement and a reward. The diploma winner feels acknowledged and critical, that's key to increase brand name loyalty.

2. Appointment Definition: Sport mechanic which compels players to just take motion, nevertheless they can only do this right after or for the duration of a selected interval of your time. The participant usually will get rewarded for having the action, or is provided the opportunity to achieve the benefits. Recreation Software: Several quests in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion might be undertaken only in the course of a particular time while in the sport world. Non-Game Context Software: �Happy Hour� in pubs. Customers receive a free drink when required action (acquiring a consume) is taken for the duration of a selected time. As being a outcome, a sale has already been produced and there is substantial chance that the customer will come back once more.

three. Avoidance Definition: Game mechanic which triggers the participant for being punished or drop a bonus if a particular set of guidelines isn't obeyed. It might be used to induce time based mostly motion. It might also be utilized to immediate the development while in the sport. Game Application: Initiating offensive motion in Neverwinter Evenings 2 will trigger an invisible participant to get rid of the benefit of invisibility. This will lead to the participant to avoid getting into overcome scenarios whilst in invisibility manner. Non-Game Context Application: Points over a driver's licence. Drivers have to adhere to the rules and push securely to stop shedding their factors. This qualified prospects to some much more mindful driving type.

4. Behavioral Contrast Definition: Changing player response to 1 circumstance dependent on a transformed conditions inside a different scenario. Recreation Software: In Diablo two, the player can split barrels and overturn stones to acquire possibly from the three outcomes - constructive (gold or objects), adverse (explosion or spawned enemy), neutral (practically nothing occurs). The end result is determined randomly. But, let us say the initial 10 barrels broken end result in more damaging and neutral outcomes in comparison with overturning the primary ten stones. The participant will understand the stones as getting more advantageous compared to barrels, and will also keep away from barrels not to get destroyed. This transpires though both benefits ended up made a decision randomly. Non-Game Context Application: A kid is rewarded by using a modest candy when he hugs somebody. The kid is pleased and proceeds to hug (and get candies). About the fourth hug the reward is modified to chocolate cake. The kid is delighted. But, next time the reward changes back to your candy. Now, the kid is unsatisfied too as indignant since he didn't have the chocolate cake. He throws absent the candy and he refuses to hug any more. This game mechanic teaches us that in case the objective is always to push behaviour in one direction the subject's steps must be incentivised by a constant reward and permit subject�s expectations to do the task.

five. Behavioral Momentum Definition: Leveraging the inclination of players to keep performing the things they have already been undertaking by satisfying repetitive and constant action. Sport Software: In Elder Scrolls:Oblivion, large stage while in the speechcraft talent leads to steering clear of combat and receiving details quickly. A player who's not a combat type character will keep escalating this skill mainly because it rewards his actions. Non-Game Context Application: Check out out this video clip to discover how you can optimize the potential of behavioral momentum mechanic.

6. Blissful Productivity Definition: Engaging players to help keep actively playing by creating them think that their actions are resulting in huge results, the principal among them getting happiness. Hence, it can make the player really feel as though taking part in the game includes a good affect. For this match mechanic to operate, gamers must be presented a clear, significant objective, actionable measures, and evidence of completion prior to they can be subjected to a brand new, a lot more tough purpose. Sport Software: In Wow it will require more than 300 hrs for the player to achieve the highest stage which is when most gamers feel that the real enjoyable commences. Each of the tough function pales in comparison to the pleasure that arrives from reaching the duties. Non-Game Context Software: Blissful efficiency is actually a match mechanic which can be largely employed in the context of labor. Challenging perform is necessary to accomplish a aim. But, as soon as accomplished, the sense of accomplishment along with the pride of supporting the business do well, can make the employee content and generates a feeling of wanting to operate harder to realize another purpose. For this mechanic to be efficient, it is important to create obvious objectives and explain the best way to achieve them. It truly is recommended to have a recognition mechanism in place to boost inspiration for pursuing the following objective.

7. Cascading Details Idea Definition: It states that details need to be introduced in small increments to aid level-appropriate comprehension at each and every point for the duration of a recreation narrative. It retains the gamers actively playing the game in the event the primary narrative is sweet sufficient to carry their fascination. Sport Software: In Darksiders, the key premise from the tale unfolds gradually with every accomplished main mission, as does the weapon electrical power ups and new battle moves. Non-Game Context Application: Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code (and all other great secret textbooks) makes use of this recreation mechanic to make suspense and maintain the curiosity in the reader. Releasing details in little increments keeps the reader hooked for the story, and keeps him returning for additional.

eight. Chain Schedules Definition: Satisfying gamers for conquering a collection of contingencies. Usually, one of these contingencies is time primarily based. Unlocking individual contingencies one particular by 1 is normally viewed from the gamers as being a reward in by itself. Game Software: In Dead Place, 1 on the ranges has the player coming into a zero gravity environment which lacks oxygen. The player has constrained time (until finally the oxygen provide operates out) to enter and total an objective in this particular environment. Non-Game Context Application: This sport mechanic is used in colleges to advertise children to the up coming grade. They have to move in all the subjects to move on for the following increased quality. But, they have the fulfillment of passing every single subject ahead of even receiving the ultimate reward, i.e., acquiring promoted for the up coming quality.

nine. Communal Discovery Definition: Engaging the complete neighborhood (or possibly a group) to perform the game collectively to attain the target or overcome the contingency. Immensely viral and very enjoyable. Match Application: Online RPGs like Wow are constructed on this game mechanic. The target is always to investigate new locations and get over enemies as a team. Non-Game Context Application: NanoDoc is an on-line system that enables bioengineers also to collaboratively design new nanoparticle methods aimed toward the remedy of most cancers. Members produce a health rivalry among on their own, as well as being a strong motivation on the widespread result in. Also, it presents the contributors hope of achieving their objective, which they would have been not able to accomplish on their own very own.

10. Companion Gaming Definition: Integrating the weather of gameplay across multiple gaming platforms. This qualified prospects to gamers taking part in video games through the same franchise concurrently on two or more platforms. Game Software: Sweet Crush Saga (and related video games) may be performed on computer systems too as on smartphones and tablets, usually with specific adaptations. Non-Game Context Application: An excellent illustration of this game mechanic is Google Drive, the cloud sharing services from Google. It makes it possible for users to store their paperwork, spreadsheets, as well as other documents on the cloud server.

eleven. Countdown Definition: Providing gamers restricted the perfect time to comprehensive a challenge. This generates sharply escalating action ranges until time operates out, which is a compelled extinction. Sport Application: In Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, one from the missions is usually to eradicate a person on horseback whilst suspended from a hang glider. There is certainly a closing date just before the man escapes and the mission is taken into account a failure. Non-Game Context Software: Restricted interval price cut provides demand purchasers to create their buys within a 7 days (or perhaps a specified time period) as a way to find the discounted costs. Scarcity is really a wonderful way to generate conduct and make men and women get motion at or during a certain time. In a world with so many choices to select from, it's very easy to fail to remember about one particular distinct item if this game mechanic just isn't used.

twelve. Disincentives Definition: Making use of penalty or lack of reward to induce the participant to take action that the player would not have completed below normal circumstances. Sport Software: In Crysis, acquiring hit by enemy bullets brings about the player to shed the nanosuit armor ability, resulting in speedy lack of health for that player. This results in the participant not speeding into battle situations without scouting for locations to just take include. Non-Game Context Application: The Catholic Church includes a program of Confession like a approach to absolved of sins and become forgiven. The devotees feel that they won't attain heaven when they do not confess.

13. Endless Video games Definition: Video games that do not have an express conclude. Typically applicable to everyday game titles that could refresh their content material or video games. Game Application: Indignant Birds retains on adding stages and diverse variants (Rio, Star Wars) in the sport to help keep gamers playing precisely the same sport. Non-Game Context Software: Recertification for emissions for outdated cars. Regardless how outdated the vehicles get, they will not be permitted to operate around the street unless of course they acquire this recertification each and every yr. This carries on till the operator decides to promote or scrap the car.

14. Envy Definition: Utilizing voyeurism to generate a need while in the player to have the identical benefits or results as yet another player. Match Software: Randomly generated objects inside the sport Diablo 2, hold the player playing precisely the same sport in the hopes of receiving a unusual item that another participant mentioned while in the message boards. Non-Game Context Software: A great way to drive behaviour utilizing envy will be to ask buyers to take a certain motion (typically, purchase some thing) to be able to take part within a fortunate attract. The picture in the winner (together with the reward) is then promoted on Facebook, web site, and many others. Other consumers will begin to see the reward which they could have gained should they experienced participated. This triggers them to participate within the up coming advertising, top to boost in income.

15. Epic Indicating Definition: Used to motivate players by creating a perception that they're working to attain one thing great, something awe-inspiring, one thing bigger than them selves. This mechanic is extremely successful in creating the gamers faithful towards the game. Match Application: The sport Spore is predicated about the premise of handing electricity and responsibility on the player of evolving from a single cell organism right into a sentient species competing with other individuals for universal domination. Non-Game Context Application: Scientology makes very good use of this recreation mechanic. The Church�s greatest purpose is religious enlightenment and liberty for everyone. In order to realize this, members must make their way to turn into a Thethan. Usually, users inspire friends and family to do the identical since they have confidence in the epic indicating of creating a greater globe.

sixteen. Extinction Definition: Guiding the player to prevent getting certain actions after a point in the sport, by removing the prior mechanic of fulfilling the same set of steps. It truly is utilized to teach gamers to talent up and abandon low price steps, increasing their involvement while in the sport. Game Software: Encounter achieve method, as utilized in Diablo two, offers fastened knowledge factors for killing reduced degree enemies. It really is beneficial in the event the participant is commencing a new match because the relative expertise achieve is considerable. But, as the player gains more encounter, the small increment in the experience obtain brings about the participant to prevent looking down lower level enemies. Non-Game Context Software: This mechanic can be used to train higher executing personnel to get a managerial function. Before, the employee accustomed to get praise and bonuses for completing the work or project assigned to him. Now, he have to not be awarded for the same list of steps (extinction). The new technique must guidebook him to delegate function and assign occupation roles to his subordinates, by satisfying him for carrying out the brand new objectives.

seventeen. Totally free Lunch Definition: Producing the participant really feel like they have got received one thing totally free. The perception on the participant need to be the operate has been completed by someone else they usually reach enjoy the advantages. Recreation Application: Finding up products for that player's character, in Diablo 2, following a group of enemies has been killed by other players and so they have left powering some loot. Non-Game Context Software: Ramen dining establishments use this mechanic with excellent accomplishment. Each time you buy a ramen soup, you make a stamp on the card. Right after acquiring the card stamped ten instances, you will get a totally free ramen to market client loyalty.

eighteen. Enjoyable When, Entertaining Often Definition: Creating a simple action satisfying to repeat. The one drawback would be the limit within the complete satisfaction derived from it in excess of a period of time. Game Application: In FIFA sequence of game titles, it is easy to the player to execute a phase more than shift using the soccer. But, it doesn't consider away in the fun aspect whether or not the move is repeated over and over. Non-Game Context Software: This recreation mechanic is relevant to hobbies and their recognition. For instance, I like scuba diving and i get it done as it is entertaining. It keeps me engaged and that i obtain the identical quantity of delight no matter how numerous instances I dive.

19. Interval Reward Schedules Definition: Satisfying players after a specified amount of time has handed. It could be of 2 types: Fixed Interval Reward Plan Delivering a reward only after a mounted sum of time. This has a tendency to create minimal engagement soon after completing the set of necessary actions, and then progressively increasing exercise right up until the reward is provided, adopted by yet another interval of lower engagement. Recreation Application: In Farmville, the player has to wait for thirty minutes right after planting the crops before they seem around the player's farm. Non-Game Context Software: Organizations give workers bonuses after or 2 times a yr (at nearly the same time), no matter the functionality of staff.

Variable Interval Reward Plan The participant is rewarded soon after an unsure interval of your time. This leads to a virtually constant stage of action as opposed to the sharp peaks and dips in the mounted interval reward schedule. Recreation Application: In Elder Scrolls:Oblivion, specific missions can only be undertaken every time a non playable character methods the player at a certain location. These conferences take place at a random time (while in the recreation world), which keeps the player playing the game inside the hope of initiating this kind of missions. Non-Game Context Application: A boss dropping by his employee's desk a few occasions each day, to examine his progress, is undoubtedly an case in point of a variable-interval plan. Check-ins arise at unpredictable occasions, therefore the staff never is aware after they may well take place. This retains the worker working each day.

20. Lottery Definition: Rising participant participation within the game by virtue of randomly fulfilling participants. It produces a high amount of engagement for your all the players concerned, especially when combined with other engagement mechanics. Sport Application: The battle method of Neverwinter Nights relies on random roll of a digital dice. The player's actions cause injury on the enemy based with a random output from the dice roll, amplified by a few multipliers. The player keeps on executing combat actions, never ever being aware of which distinct action will end result in effectively killing the enemy. Non-Game Context Application: Fortunate draws are based on lottery sport mechanic and have been proved to boost consumer database and revenue, especially if they're intended to grow viral. As an example, to take part in the fortunate draw providing a totally free excursion towards the Maldives, one particular must buy a countrywide flight inside of the week, and such as the Fb webpage. For virtually any buddies invited by means of Fb he gets a single much more entry within the blessed attract.

21. Loyalty Definition: Generating a sense of constructive sustained connection on the game, major to increased amounts of engagement and gratification acquired through the accomplishment. Usually bolstered by using a visual representation. Recreation Software: In Elder Scrolls:Oblivion, the participant could become section of specific guilds by finishing issues, which is rewarded by granting a rank inside the guild as well as being a guild specific product, weapon, or armor. Non-Game Context Software: TripAdvisor offers a ranking to resorts, based mostly on positive testimonials. This encourages the accommodations people to maintain improving their support to have much more positive evaluations from customers. It really works both methods - lodges get far more clients by means of TripAdvisor and TripAdvisor gets much more loyalty from lodges, that are prepared to pay out a commission to TripAdvisor, mainly because it is a useful resource of customers and publicity.

22. Meta Sport Definition: A match which exists inside the primary game. They've to be identified with the participant through recurring exploration, which makes it desirable to only fans from the game. They're immensely enjoyable to players who find them because they achieve huge rewards. Game Application: Unlocking all 9 hidden lifestyle upgrades in Prince Of Persia:Warrior In, presents the player use of the H2o Sword, essentially the most potent weapon while in the game. Non-Game Context Software: Google doodles. People who know about the doodle really feel important by possessing details that merely a number of have. This offers engagement inside a boring process like seeking, and increases loyalty amid Google users.

23. Modifiers Definition: Amplifying or subduing the instant outcome of the player's steps primarily based on outlined or random sport components. Decreasing modifiers enhance the challenge level from the match and escalating modifiers act as a benefits for player actions. Sport Software: In Batman:Arkham City, the injury dealt out by Batman's attacks are doubled soon after stringing collectively a collection of defined assaults. Non-Game Context Software: In betting, the concept of handicap bets are utilized to balance the benefit of a really strong competitor enjoying against a weak competitor. This guarantees that protected bets (favouring the sturdy facet) have considerably less opportunity to make large benefits. Although the dangerous bet has very tiny chance of winning, it'll also pay off large benefits.

24. Ownership Definition: Producing the participant really feel like getting in control of anything, and providing him the incentive to get duty for it. Sport Software: In Assassin's Creed:Revelations, the participant is pushed to guide the Assassins by assigning him the part of Mentor inside of the game and sending other match characters towards the player, for looking for suggestions. Non-Game Context Application: Successful venture administrators use this mechanic to interrupt up a large project. They assign accountability for profitable completion of each portion to diverse subordinates. By doing this, workers will truly feel critical and valued and they're going to consider entire responsibility which will result in the most effective benefits achievable.

twenty five. Pleasure Definition: Developing the player's experience of attachment for the recreation by escalating ownership stage and acknowledging accomplishments. This qualified prospects to an general rise in the player's satisfaction although taking part in the sport. Match Software: Diablo two allows players title their figures at the same time as customizing the names of specially crafted objects. The level up rewards supplied by time spent as well as repeated actions are extremely appealing. All this has cause a raving enthusiast base for your recreation. Non-Game Context Software: Continued from #27 earlier mentioned. Possession of a section of a venture can make individuals get pride in their operate. They understand that they're a elementary element in the productive completion of the project and will make the extra energy to accomplish the best outcomes possible.

26. Privacy Definition: Trying to keep chosen information away from the public domain. Depending on the participant it could possibly be a motivator or demotivator for having action. Sport Software: Social games on Facebook publish progress within the player's timeline. A number of people might want this info to be seen to the community, escalating the visibility of the sport, prompting a lot more action. Other individuals might not want the sport to publish to their timeline. Otherwise provided a decision they might select not to play the game. Non-Game Context Software: Mobile telephones give folks the option of hiding their amount after they phone a person. It's valuable in circumstances when they don't desire the person they referred to as to get in touch with back.

27. Progression Dynamic Definition: Measuring and exhibiting the development of a participant by monitoring completion of challenges according to the game variety. Recreation Application: Development bar in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which can be filled up as being the participant gains knowledge by way of combat, dialogue, exploration and so forth., foremost to levelling up after a defined knowledge rating. Development can be exhibited as proportion of game completed, like inside the game Batman: Arkham Town. Non-Game Context Application: Development bars are extremely typical today. It aid the person to understand how much time is going to consider to finish a process or what proportion of completion continues to be accomplished. Excellent illustrations are profile completion bar in LinkedIn and Fb. It's a powerful device as an incomplete bar motivates the consumer to go ahead and take necessary actions to finish it.

28. Ratio Reward Schedules Definition: Satisfying the participant right after he normally takes a defined variety of steps in the recreation. This could be of 2 kinds: Mounted Ratio Reward Schedules Gratifying the player only after a mounted number of steps have been taken or problems are already conquer. This leads to a high amount of action since the reward gets closer, and after that drops until finally the next reward arrives together. Match Software: Each hundred coins the player collects in Mario grants one particular extra daily life. This leads to the player to collect cash with enhanced frequency as he will get closer for the a hundred mark. Non-Game Context Software: A bonus is given to manufacturing unit workers when they make one hundred units of the merchandise. They are going to operate more difficult when they get closer to a hundred units, to be able to obtain the reward quickly. This could result in low quality operate. After the money is inside their pockets, they'll work with much less pace right up until they get closer to 100 units once again.

Variable Ratio Reward Timetable Satisfying gamers following they have got taken an approximate quantity of actions. This amount could be about estimated by the player, but is rarely recognized properly. This triggers a average and consistent stage of activity. Unlike the fixed ratio rewards routine, the sharp rises in action stage are absent, so is the drop soon after getting the reward. Game Software: In Diablo two, the participant receives degree ups soon after gaining knowledge by killing enemies. But, the participant isn't going to know exactly what number of hits will get rid of an enemy or the amount of enemies to destroy to obtain a level up. Non-Game Context Software: Appraisal method for workplaces. Employees maintain operating at higher ranges throughout the year, in the hopes of receiving a great appraisal consequence. Though, in many situations, they don't seem to be sure of what precise set of steps can help in acquiring a superb end result.

29. Real-time vs Delayed Mechanics Definition: Displaying data in actual time, i.e., stay vs displaying details soon after player actions have been finished. Actual time display may be used to prompt the player to consider immediate action. Delayed information can be employed to prompt the participant to repeat a list of steps or to reinforce a sense of achievement. The two are effective in increasing engagement amounts. Recreation Application: In Require For Pace:Shift, actual time rankings within a dash kind race can preserve the participant engaged in attempting to maneuver up the rankings. But, in time trial manner the focus shifts to perfecting the racing design, hence the outcome displayed following the race is completed turns into the main target. Non-Game Context Software: In soccer matches, coaches are on the side traces offering instructions in true time. This motivates gamers to take motion and perform much better to contribute for the team's win. Right after the match, gamers acquire opinions from your mentor which may be accustomed to boost overall performance in the subsequent match.

30. Reward Schedules Definition: A time or motion dependent shipping and delivery program which benefits a participant for taking part in the game. 3 main parts exist inside a reward timetable: Contingency The primary obstacle or obstacle which the participant must overcome at various details within the recreation. Contingencies are one on the essential components in each and every recreation. Response Player motion to beat the contingency posed with the game. Reinforcer Gratifying the participant in the event the motion taken brings about efficiently overcoming the contingency and satisfies the game's circumstances. Recreation Software: In Phone Of Obligation 2, tanks pose a serious impediment in finishing missions (contingency). The player is expected to utilize sticky explosives to disable the tanks (response). This enables the participant to continue more inside the sport, which is acknowledged with the other squad users inside the kind of in-game dialogue at the same time as enabling development in the recreation (reinforcement). Non-Game Context Software: An MBA scholar should get his diploma by passing all the modules (contingency). He reports and completes the necessary presentations and test for your first module (response), and he gets good marks (reinforcer). This motivates him to operate tough for your 2nd module, and subsequently the next modules, until finally he reaches his aim.

31. Shell Recreation Definition: Prompting the player to take action based mostly on policies which the player believes to be real. But, the truth is, the player is deceived into using motion which in the long run brings about a acquire for the match operator. Sport Application: While in the 1st Assassin's Creed sport the player performs execution for your guild chief on the assassins believing that it's going to deliver an finish to injustice and war triggered with the corrupt templars. In the direction of the top in the recreation, the player finds out that each one actions had been directed through the guild chief to forward his own selfish pursuits. Non-Game Context Application: Shell game mechanic identify refers back to the dishonest betting game played around the streets of big metropolitan areas. The game needs a few shells, along with a modest, round ball. The person perpetrating the swindle commences the sport by placing the ball below one particular of the shells, then quickly shuffles the shells around. As soon as completed shuffling, the operator normally takes bets from the viewers on the place of the pea. The viewers is advised that if a participant bets and guesses accurately, the participant will get back double their wager; in any other case the players shed their cash. However, within the hands of a skilled operator, it truly is impossible for the match to be received, until the operator wants the participant to acquire.

32. Social Material of Video games Definition: Enjoying games with each other, as being a staff or device in the cooperative gameplay state of affairs promotes believe in and bonding inside the group of gamers. This boosts the social ties inside of the team and encourages far more cooperative gameplay. Game Application: Cooperative gameplay and recreation based mostly community components are the basis for the popularity of the MMORPGs like Wow, that has seven.7 million subscribers. Non-Game Context Application: Alcoholics Nameless is structured about this recreation mechanic. The chance to consider action (keep away from consuming) boosts once the subject is an element of a big group. The trick to achievement is to produce a neighborhood round the supposed product, service, or actions.

33. Status Definition: Rank or degree on the participant with regard for the other players in the match. The objective of increasing status in the game local community is effective motivator to keep actively playing the sport. Game Application: Battlefield 3 leaderboards for top rating, optimum playtime, and most amount of kills. This sales opportunities to faithful gamers striving to have into the best rankings, which can trigger a rise inside their standing within the sport playing local community. Non-Game Context Application: Visa Classic, Visa Gold, Visa Platinum. Every single Visa card is associated with a particular credit rating restrict, and for that reason, social standing. Visa Platinum grants the operator a better position and specific privileges with regard other Visa customers. As a result, Platinum clients will grow to be more faithful to Visa.

34. Urgent Optimism Definition: Creating a scenario for your player where the hope of an epic get or getting on the wanted end result is always attainable, which provides enthusiasm for that participant to just take action to achieve this consequence. It's far more of the philosophy driving gaming relatively than the usual tangible match mechanic. Sport Application: In the sport Crysis, the participant discovers that the world is underneath menace by aliens and that the player is inside the unique situation to avoid wasting the world. This exclusive predicament as well since the resources in the player's arsenal makes the gameplay completely irresistible and completely enjoyable. Non-Game Context Software: This match mechanic is widely employed in politics. Gamification of Life The act of casting a vote is tied in together with the modifications and reforms the successful get together will result in. This transforms the easy act of casting the vote into what what advantages the voter can get by voting for the distinct social gathering. This was utilized with excellent good results in the course of Obama's Of course, We could marketing campaign.

35. Viral Recreation Mechanics Definition: Producing engagement and action inside the match by participation of numerous players. More variety of gamers implies more enjoyable and engagement.

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game-refraction · 8 years ago

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Game Review: The Legend of Zelda - Breath Of The Wild (Switch)

“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” was the only instructions given to Link when we were first introduced to the character, and series, back on the original NES. That all too brief bit of advice actually told us quite a bit. The world was in peril from some sort of evil, and that Link would need to be well prepared for it. It is that same underlying message of being prepared that is introduced to us all over again in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and it couldn’t be truer. Breath of the Wild is not only the most wildly ambitious and incredibly polished entry in the Legend of Zelda series, it’s quite possibly the greatest Legend of Zelda game to date.

I consider myself a fairly big Legend of Zelda fan, despite not fully completing a few entries in the series. My favorite, up until Breath of the Wild, was Wind Waker as not only was it as near perfect to an adventure game as you can get, it just had a level of polish that most developers can only dream of having in their games.

Right from the beginning of Breath of the Wild, you are told very little. You are given a few hints on the plot and then set on your path. You know that Princess Zelda is out there somewhere and that Ganon, or as he is called here; Calamity Ganon, has taken over the kingdom. You’ll come across a few gameplay hints via the loading screens or from various NPC’s that litter the world, but a lot of it, and I mean a lot of the what’s and how’s, are left up to you to figure out, and the creative fun that comes with doing so.

I’ve heard a few stories about how some players tackled certain objectives, despite how complex or simple the more traditional methods would be. One such example left me rather impressed. During one of the Dungeons, a player couldn’t find a second power node to open a door. They noticed that both platforms required electricity to run and they, in an act of desperation, came up with a rather impressive trick. When Link is out in a rain storm you have to be worried about wearing metal when you hear thunder about as you can get struck by lightning. Using this logic, they placed metal weapons from one node platform to the next. Upon placing the node on the platform, it transferred enough power to the adjoining platform and powered the door. During my playthrough, I had no problem finding that second node, but it’s nice to know that no matter the player, you can find your own way. I lost track of how many times I had an idea and it paid off, with the game at no point telling me I could play that way or forcing me down one direct path of reasoning.

It is in this creative ingenuity that makes the open world of Breath of the Wild so fresh and original. Sure, the world abides by a few open world gameplay designs like collectibles strung everywhere and points of interest allowing for fast travel and map revealing, but it is the way in which you interact with this world that is unlike anything I have ever seen. Want to bake apples? Hold a torch under an apple tree. Want to cook some fish or sear a steak? Throw it on the ground while visiting Death Mountain. You can freeze meat with an ice arrow or throw a metal weapon at an enemy in a storm to have lightning finish the job. There are so many different ways that the environment will affect either Link or the materials of his weapons or items that I could just go on and on, but I’ll leave the rest for you to discover on your own.

As you explore the massive open world around you, you’ll often rely on your paraglider, an item you’ll earn within an hour of starting the game, should you stick to the main path. The paraglider allows you to glide on the wind currents to essentially fly around the map. Should you need to reach a higher location you can simply just scale the surface. These feats of exploration are held in check via a upgradeable stamina system that also limits how far you can run without becoming winded or swim without drowning. The wall climbing is also limited to outdoor areas as climbing up walls in dungeons or shrines are just not possible, it’s also worth noting that rain will prevent you from scaling surfaces as well, but oh, we shall talk more about the “rain” later on, don’t you worry. The game also has a 24 minute day and night cycle that changes the locations of various NPC’s, merchants and even what types of items and enemies you can find nearby. Even certain side quests and various shrines are only accessible at key hours in the day.

Before I get too involved talking about the story, weapons and various other systems the game has to offer, I want to take a moment and talk about how gorgeous this game is. While I am playing on the Nintendo Switch, the game still looks rather impressive on the WiiU. As I mentioned above, Wind Waker was my favorite pre-Breath of the Wild Zelda game and a lot of that had to do with the art direction. Breath of the Wild grabs ahold of the look that Wind Waker contained and finds a nice middle ground between that and the previous Skyward Sword. The game has an almost anime inspired look to it, with characters looking fully animated and having remarkable detail even among how simple their designs can be.

Regardless of traversing cliffsides above lakes of lava or racing through the forests of Hyrule on the back of Epona, the widespread environments of Breath of the Wild are stunning in their beauty as well as the secrets that hide around almost every corner. The lighting and shadows that come with the day and night cycles can drastically change the look and feel of your surroundings and standing on a mountaintop to see the fog creep over the mountains is something else.

The Switch runs the game at a modest 900p, while both the WiiU and the handheld nature of the Switch run it at 720p. The WiiU version does have a bit of slow down even at 720p and the Switch, while docked on the tv at 900p has comparable slow down as well, mostly in areas that have lots of shadows in play. I never noticed any slow down while playing via the handheld mode of the Switch, but this could be due to the game running on Switch hardware at 720p. I also noted that playing Breath of the Wild via the WiiU gamepad’s screen is mostly blurry and I would recommend sticking to the TV mode for that console if at all possible.

The Legend of Zelda has always had tremendous sound design and Breath of the Wild ranks up there with the best of them. Each selection of music or sound effect is absolutely perfect and they even throw in a few classic sounds in some really interesting places. I love the musical melody that plays when your Sheikah Slate is scanning the map, or the ping your arrow makes when you get that critical headshot. Several characters of the game also feature some terrific voice acting that I wish happened more often throughout your journey.

As the characters you’ll interact with all have remarkable animation and detail, so do the various enemies you’ll encounter during your 60+ hours with the game. While there isn’t a staggering variety in types of enemies, the small details that encompass them will make you enjoy each encounter despite how repetitive it can get. Should you disarm your foe and then pick up their weapon, they will lash out with surprise and anger, pointing at you and shocked at what just occurred. I had an enemy retreat to set his wooden club on fire to attempt a better tactic against me, except I threw an explosive barrel at his face and he flew off the cliff. The personality given to many of the game’s foes is fascinating and can lead to some rather fun ways of dealing with them. One of my favorite moments was when I took a Cucco from a nearby village and caused a Lizalfos to indirectly hit the Cucco four times causing a massive army of Cuccos to unleash chicken hell on it, he didn’t last long.

After you break away from the basic Bokoblin’s and Moblin’s, you’ll start to encounter the Guardians, giant pillar looking enemies that can be stationary or mobile, should they still retain their spider-like legs. At first, they can be incredibly intimidating, but once you figure out a neat trick you can do with your shield, I started to go on a killing spree collecting all the rare items they would drop upon their destruction. Also, upon upgrading my stasis rune to freeze enemies, I found that I could halt them in their tracks for a few precious seconds and start chopping off their legs, crippling them in sheer delight.

There has been some talk about the weapons in Breath of the Wild as for the first time in the franchise, we have weapons that can break during combat. Each weapon has a variable limit to how many fights it can withstand and this can make or break your experience. Early on you will find weapons that will break after an enemy or two and later on you can find weapons that can outlive dozens of foes with even the Master Sword needing a small recharge after a certain amount of abuse. Eventually, you’ll find weapons that can be repaired, but I didn’t find them to be that much better than the disposable ones littering each and every battle. I often would revisit shrines to grab a few more Guardian weapons; glowing blue spears, axes, swords, and shields, as they can last fairly long and deal out some nice damage, plus it helps that they look really cool. Breath of the Wild has a vast amount of weapons for Link to wield, which is a huge change of pace from prior entries. I never found myself bored with combat as there was just a tremendous amount of variety in how to dish out damage to an unsuspecting foe and attempting to master the dodge and parry systems can be rewarding as well.

With the world being much bigger than anything else Nintendo has ever made, closing the gap between you and a nasty little Bokoblin can be made much easier with a solid arrow to the face. Link’s bow is far more essential this time around than ever before in a Legend of Zelda game. Arrows come in regular, fire, ice, shock, bomb and the ancient Guardian arrows that can one-shot almost anything. Jumping in the air and unleashing your bow will freeze time as long as your stamina holds out. I approached a small Moblin camp that had 2 of them sleeping while another kept guard. I paraglided in from a nearby mountain and dropped from the sky with my bow at the ready. The added time the slow down mechanic gave me allowed me to headshot the guard and fire off two arrows at explosive barrels that were just a few feet from the sleeping duo. Needless to say, the camp exploded in a flash of yellow and orange.

Working alongside your arsenal of swords, axes and bows, are Runes. These are special abilities that Link has access to via the Sheikah Slate, an ancient tablet that can learn new skills and be upgraded later on. These Runes are all available within the first few hours of the game so that you can freely tackle any of the Dungeons or Shrines in whatever order you see fit. The Runes that Link will have access to are Bombs, Magnesis, Cryonis, and Stasis. Bombs are pretty self-explanatory, but it’s the other three that really shake up the Puzzle dynamics here. Magnesis lets you lift and move metal objects around, Stasis lets you stop time to objects and enemies, and Cryonis creates ice platforms out of bodies of water. Several areas of the game force you to use these powers in tandem to one another and can lead to some very creative methods to solving puzzles. Later on, you will use the Sheikah Slate to take pictures or utilize the Amiibo compatibility.

Breath of the Wild’s large open world has a lot to explore and you’re going to be picking up a ridiculous amount of items and resources everywhere you go. The room you have for weapons is fairly small early on but can be upgraded to allow more space, which is great considering how fast some of your weapons can break. The resources you gather like fruit and meat can be used to cook meals that grant more health, temporary hearts and other buffs like extra stealth or boosted stamina. You can use monster parts like tentacles and bat eyes to create Elixers that do roughly the same things but without the health recovery. The cooking is incredibly addictive and the music and charm of the food bouncing around in the pot makes this a system that you’ll want to use, rather than need to. You will also outfit Link in a variety of outfits that have some sort of stat like extra defense, better stealth, or surviving harsh climates. Several outfits and weapons are also locked behind the use of Amiibo’s, which also work as a method of collecting resources as well.

Breath of the Wild changes up the themed Dungeons of Zelda’s past by making them giant mobile animal shaped mechs from a long passed civilization. These animal shaped fortresses are called Divine Beasts and there are four of them. As you progress from the start of the game, you’ll find that Link shares a history with the custodians of these Beasts, a group of warriors that attempted to help Link and Zelda stop Calamity Ganon 100 years ago. Considering the world is currently ruled by said evil gives us a clue as to how well this attack went.

While the Dungeons are very creative and well designed, they sadly don’t last too long and can be cleared in well under an hour. Once you discover the map in each Dungeon, you can alter sections of the Beast to allow access to sections of the Dungeon that are normally blocked. The Divine Beast Vah Medoh, the Bird, as an example, can tilt left, right, or just remain straight flat. Despite the disappointing length to these locations, they are still very engaging experiences that I still rather enjoyed. I would say that my biggest complaint regarding them is their lack of variety inside each of the Divine Beasts as they look nearly identical from one to the next.

While the Divine Beasts were once used to destroy Ganon, here they are actually tools to be used by Ganon himself and conclude with a boss battle with one of his minions. Each Boss has an elemental effect that is paired with the type of Divine Beast they inhabit. While these encounters are fun and engaging, I had harder battles with some of the Lizard enemies found in various areas of the map. Each boss has a few phases that are rather easy to figure out and I honestly can’t remember if I died once during these encounters, or had much of a challenge provided to me. I still think they are rather entertaining, I just wish the fights were a little more challenging.

Despite the short length to the Dungeons and somewhat disappointing Boss battles, the real stars of the show in Breath of the Wild have got to be the Shrines. These 120 locations offer up combat challenges, puzzle rooms or just a simple room containing a chest. The combat challenges range in difficulty while the puzzle rooms are where the Shrines truly shine. These elaborate puzzles make great use of the motion controls that Nintendo has perfected here. I’ve had to tilt my controller almost entirely around to solve a few rolling ball puzzles or swung it like a golf club to send an orb flying. I’ve been stumped by a few puzzles like one where I had to transport an Ice Block from the start of the Shrine to the end, carrying it in my arms until I had to drop it to use Magnesis to block a wall of fire. I sat there wondering how I could move the Ice Block with my hands full using Magnesis until I figured out that I had to fail certain aspects of the objective to succeed.

I wish I could say that the underwhelming Dungeons and Bosses were the only issues I had with this near perfect masterpiece, but sadly, no, there are a few more problems with the game I need to mention. I’ll start with the biggest problem I had with the game; the rain. While I really loved the elemental effects that the game can offer with regards to creative game design, the rain can become more bothersome than anything else in the game. See, you can’t climb during the rain and often upon nearing the top of a mountain or needing to climb to find a Shrine or some other motivation for the tough climb, I’ve had rain storms show up suddenly and cause Link to just slip and fall off the mountain. While I didn’t find this to be game-breaking, it did lead to much frustration and often I would just give up on that area and move on to something else. Had some type of climbing claws or a climb-during-rain perk for the upgraded Climbing gear been made available later on in the game, I could have dealt with it, but as it stands now, rain can put a damper on how fun this game can be.

As for Link himself, he can be quite the problem as well. I’ve had to run away from various enemies and have had him auto-climb a tree or a rock or if you got too close to the camera and initiated the auto-climb, it can be a split second mistake that can cost you your life. While the auto-climb is great when you’re falling to your death and glide into a wall, it can be disastrous during a combat encounter, especially against enemies that can one-shot you. I also had an issue with the recovery speed of Link when he gets knocked down. Many times I would be knocked down by a Guardian or one of the Lion flavored Minotaurs, and before I could get up I’d be blasted or hit all over again. I don’t mind challenging combat, but at least let me get back up and get injured due to my own mistakes and not poor game design.

I’ve spent the better part of three days writing this review and wondered if I would award a perfect score to this game or not. While it has its flaws, it still is a game that I constantly think about and count the minutes in my work day till I can get home to play it again. I converse with friends and co-workers endlessly about this moment or the next, eager to see how someone tackled a particular foe or puzzle. Yes, the rain can be bothersome and yes Link can cling to a tree or rock during a crucial battle, but in the end, Breath of the Wild is a fantastic experience and worthy of the highest score I can possibly give. A game like this, one that raises the bar in so many areas, needs to be awarded praise and recognition. This is a game very untypical of Nintendo and it can be rare to see this type of genre redefined. Even after beating the game and tackling every Shrine the game has to offer, I am only just getting started, and until then, you’ll catch me east of Hebra Tower playing Snowball bowling for another 300 Rupees.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was reviewed on a retail copy of the game, and comments regarding the WiiU version were from observations of seeing it in action. All screen captures were taken from the Nintendo Switch via its upload to Twitter function.

Game Review: The Legend of Zelda – Breath Of The Wild (Switch) was originally published on Game-Refraction

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