Brothers is about two boys who travel across their land to find a magic sap from a very special tree. They need this sap to heal their father, who has come down with a life-threatening illness. That’s pretty much all there is to the story. However, that’s not the touching part. Brothers don’t really start hitting your feelings until the end. Brothers have a unique gameplay mechanic where you control each brother with an analog stick. It takes some getting used to, and you never completely get used to it, but using both brothers at the same time is a unique way to play a game.
The game consists of simple puzzles. They aren’t complicated and don’t take much thinking to figure out. Some puzzles only certain brothers can solve. There may be a gate that the smaller brother can squeeze through so he can lower a bridge for the bigger brother. Sometimes they have to work side by side, such as in the water. The smaller brother can’t swim, so he needs to hold onto the older brother. The only other buttons you use are the triggers. One was assigned to each brother for grabbing stuff.
There are some boss fights in the game that are a lot of fun. One early on consists of fighting a troll. The little brother needs to lure him into a cage while the older brother closes it with a lever nearby. There’s only one way in, so the little brother has to slip through bars to escape. It’s moments like this that make Brothers shine and make you smile. Later on, in the game, it gets darker and grimmer. Puzzles involve dismembering the dead corpses of giants. The gameplay ideas change throughout the game, like when they have a rope tied to each other and you use it to swing each other around cliffs. The game feels like a grand adventure, but it’s short-lived. You can beat it in 4 short hours, wanting so much more.
The game looks really good; while not technically impressive, the art style is great, and the game has many beautiful vistas. The story lacks any depth, but it’s the adventure that counts here. If you have a free evening of gaming, Brothers is one of the best indie games you can buy this year.
Shadow Warrior was an FPS underdog in the vein of Doom and Wolfenstein. It was full of potty humor, gore, and cursing. While it didn’t sell as well as Doom or Duke Nukem, it had a large enough following to get a sequel. Shadow Warrior is a highly entertaining shooter with a decent story, and the same funny dialog is intact.
You play Lo Wang, who is a mercenary working for a Chinese warlord. He hears of a magical ancient sword with a lot of power. Through his trek, he runs into demons and has a demon ally named Hoji, who helps him through his journey. The story mainly focuses on where these three sword pieces are and what the deal with Hoji is. It’s pretty interesting, but nothing fantastic. It’s actually pretty disjointed until towards the end. The game is all about action, and there’s plenty of it, but by the halfway mark, the game gets really dull.
The game gives you new weapons and things to do very slowly. There are 17 chapters in this game, and it feels a bit long-winded. You start out with your sword and a revolver, which is fine at first. The guns handle very well, and the guns are fun to shoot. Your sword is actually more powerful than you think, and you will use it often. Slicing enemies into bits is a lot of fun and feels satisfying. While you’re killing demons, you get scored based on how you killed them, and multipliers come into effect. Once you finish a wave, you are rated a total of 5 stars, but I could never get 5 stars no matter how hard I tried. I honestly don’t even know how the scoring system really works. When you’re not fighting demons, you can explore old-school style and search for secrets. However, Shadow Warrior has implemented an upgrade and power system. You can use KI crystals to upgrade your powers, such as a shield, shockwave, and push attack. Honestly, I felt these were useless, and I never used them. The only useful one was the healing power. Karma points are used to upgrade your skills such as stamina, healing, swordsmanship, and protection. Then you can use the money you find to upgrade weapons.
All this sounds great, but it takes forever to accumulate enough money to upgrade all your weapons. It was pretty annoying realizing that 10 hours later I couldn’t upgrade everything despite searching every nook and cranny for money and secrets. That’s not the only issue here. The game uses the same 6-7 demons over and over again until you start seeing them in your sleep. Some are hard, while others are super easy. They look cool, but after about 3–4 chapters, I got tired of seeing them. It doesn’t help that it takes so long to acquire all the weapons in the game. The final major issue is the repetitive and boring level design. You have to run around opening doors and flipping switches, which gets really boring. It doesn’t help that all the levels start looking the same. At least there are fun Easter eggs. Arcades are spread throughout the game with Hotline Miami, Serious Sam, and Hard Reset. The Serious Sam one has famous quotes from the game that are funny. There are secret areas with throwbacks to the old game, and Lo Wang will comment on this. There’s even a fun Easter egg in which you kill enough rabbits to get a black rabbit that attacks you with Serious Sam battle music playing.
However, the game is just a lot of fun, despite its repetitive nature. The game looks fantastic, though, with great DirectX 11 visuals and high-resolution textures. The effects look great, but I would have liked to see them in varied environments. As it stands, Shadow Warrior is an entertaining weekend playthrough, but nothing more. There’s some charm here that makes you want to keep playing. Mainly because the game is balanced just right and the shooting mechanics are solid. After your first playthrough, you won’t be visiting this one again.
Well, here it is folks. Probably one of the most anticipated games of all time. It’s breaking records everywhere. It has made over $1 billion already, it was the UK’s best-selling game of all time, and the list goes on. Why is such a “real” game-like GTA 5 so popular? Usually sequels and series are dead at their fifth iteration, so what makes GTA 5 so special? Love and care. Rockstar loves their franchise so much, they have put 5 years into GTA 5 to make it what it is, which is nearly perfect. There is so much freaking detail in this game that I could go on forever describing it all. So let’s start with the story.
You play as three characters this time around which is a first for GTA 5. Trevor, Michael, and Franklin are your average Joes trying to get rich quick. The game starts out differently than any other GTA. You aren’t starting out just outside of a car; this time Rockstar got a little cinematic on us. You’re in the middle of a bank heist in a small town. You end up fighting your way out, and the story fast-forwards 10 years. Right from the start, you get introduced to Michael, then Franklin, and Trevor later on. Each character is very well fleshed out, and you end up getting attached to all of them in the game. Of course, the other half of the great characters are people you get your missions from, and this doesn’t change here. While there aren’t as many characters as in past games, they are better designed and original. You end up going through the trials and tribulations of these three men as they get caught up in the mafia, street gangs, the government, and millionaires. Basically, Michael is trying to make amends with his family on the side while Trevor is trying to find out what he really wants—Franklin just wants to get out of the hood.
The largest problem with GTA has finally been addressed: the terrible shooting mechanics. GTA IV tried to fix this, but it felt too sticky and too clunky. GTA 5 is finally more refined and feels like a third-person shooter should. You can snap into cover, aim with precision, and do all that great shooter stuff. You can even change the reticle if you want; honestly, GTA 5 gives you more options on a console than any other game I can remember. While we’re in combat, you can finally customize your guns for the first time in a GTA. Add suppressors, scopes, extended mags, flashlights, new paint, etc. It’s not Call of Duty deep, but it’s a huge step up for GTA. However, the combat is still tough as nails. You will die in a few hits if you aren’t careful, and I restarted many missions a lot because of how hard the game is.
Secondly, the vehicles still control like you’re driving on syrup. You will spin out a lot and easily lose control. At least the cars look updated and are actually knock-offs of real cars. The Banshee looks like the Dodge Viper, and there’s a car in here that’s called the Coil. Figure out what that one’s based on. They look good, and you can customize them as well! Yes! It’s a lot deeper than you think. There are different levels of upgrades, and they make a huge difference in how they perform. Some missions even require upgraded cars. Car-wise, the game still shines and doesn’t disappoint.
While we’re talking about cars and combat, they all tie into missions, just like in previous games. Honestly, GTA 5 feels so polished and refined and is a perfect GTA game. The missions are a huge step up because you get to choose how they play out this time around. There are large heists that you need to perform, and you can pick your accomplices and choose two different routes to go. They are usually sneaking and going through the front, guns blazing. It’s a lot of fun, and you really feel like you earned your cash in the game. During some missions, you can switch between the three characters on the fly for an advantage. This adds a whole new layer to combat in GTA. The missions are much more varied than previous games and are just so much fun; honestly, I haven’t had this much fun in a sandbox game in a long time. You get rated after each mission, and there are side objectives to complete for gold stars.
Outside of those story missions are side missions called Strangers and Freaks. You meet weird people that you help out, and these characters are both funny and strange. On top of that, you have random encounters where you help people on the fly as you pass them. It really helps bring the world to life. While we’re on that subject, GTA 5 is one of the most surreal game worlds ever created. Los Santos is huge, and I mean just huge. There are whole mountain ranges, huge areas of the ocean, and San Andreas, as well as Los Santos itself, to explore. Even the ocean looks so real thanks to the great water physics and underwater effects. Scuba diving is a brand new option here, and yes, there are underwater missions. However, Rockstar took all this to a whole new level when it came to detail. You can hunt in the mountains, and the scenery gradually changes as you move around the world. It’s just so awesome that it’s hard to believe that this is all out of someone’s imagination.
Your cell phone, for example, is an expansion of the one in GTA IV. You can buy stocks and bonds online, buy vehicles to get delivered to your garage, and buy boats, planes, and various other things on the phone. You can now order a cab, and most messages are done through text and email. It helps bring GTA to the present and feels that way. The amount of detail in both the characters, world, graphics, and gameplay is just phenomenal. From the turbulence in aircraft to the way boats bounce off waves, GTA 5 has an unparalleled level of detail that is rarely seen in any entertainment medium.
At the end of your first day, you won’t want to put the controller down. With over 100 missions, GTA 5 is full of things to do and places to explore. Michael, Trevor, and Franklin are great characters, and everyone will have their favorites. Despite the ultra-violence, cursing, and nudity in the game, GTA 5 is gritty and raw, as it should be. Rockstar is one of the only companies that has the guts to show everyone their vision without being afraid of political backlash. I’m sure GTA 5 will have plenty of that (thankfully, Jack Thompson will be absent for this one). GTA 5 is one of the best games I have played in a long time, and I can’t find much wrong with it. Honestly, it’s just typical stuff like frame rate slowdown, some ugly textures, the online component being missing at launch, and a few bugs and glitches here and there, but other than that, the game is almost perfect.
The last great game I remember playing where you were a ghost was Geist for GameCube. Ghost Trick may not be an action-packed shooter, but it does have an interesting story with whacky characters and fun mechanics. You are trying to solve a murder mystery for yourself. You wake up as a ghost out of your body and need to find out who killed you and why. As you play through the 17 chapters, the story unfolds more and more and starts out as a gripping story until the very end, where it just falls apart and becomes hard to follow. Despite that, the game has great art and animation and is worth a playthrough.
The main mechanic is playing as a ghost and being able to rewind time, change people’s fates, and manipulate objects. When someone dies, you can talk to their core, where you find out a little about them. You can then rewind time to 4 minutes before their death. Once you see the clip, it plays out again, but you must manipulate objects to prevent their deaths. This is a really neat mechanic and very original. These are all puzzles, and they get harder as the game moves on. One person may end up dying from a trap that was set up, and you have to stop one part of that trap before the person is killed. When you are in the ghost world, time stops, and you can see all the objects you can hop to. However, you have a limited reach, so you need to manipulate other objects to get closer, such as knocking stuff down, opening things, and various situations like that. The puzzles end up becoming multiple screens, and you sometimes have to travel to whole new areas mid-puzzle. You can travel around via telephone lines, but you must be on the phone when someone calls at a critical time to trace the call. This is all really neat and fun, but after a while, it kind of gets stale.
I hate to say this because this is a one-of-a-kind game on the DS. It uses the touchscreen in a unique way, but all you do is solve these ghost puzzles. There’s more talking than gameplay, which will bore impatient people. Some cutscenes can go on for nearly 20 minutes. When you do start playing, you are constantly interrupted with overly drawn-out dialogue to tell you what to do. A lot of the time, the puzzles can be nearly impossible to figure out or require constant trial and error. The occasional puzzle is thrown out there that is different—some are timed and some aren’t. Towards the end, you get to play as two different ghosts; one has the ability to swap objects. This adds another layer of depth and difficulty to puzzles, but most can be figured out after a few tries.
I actually got really attached to the characters, which is surprising. For the long length of the game (nearly 20 hours), the characters were well developed, but the big flaw was revealing everything in the final 3 chapters and then adding another complete twist at the very end to overcomplicate the story. It all flows perfectly fine until the end, when it just falls apart. It gets so confusing with all the characters and details you have to remember; they should have spread it out more. Despite this major flaw, this remains one of the most story-rich games on the DS. There are many puzzles in the game, and it is well worth a purchase, but the impatient may not like it.
Overall, Ghost Trick is a unique game with original game mechanics that are repeated way too often. The story and characters are great and memorable, but the story falls apart towards the end and gets convoluted. There is also zero replay value because there’s no collecting and no extra endings. Once you beat the game, you are done for good. I also didn’t like the poor balancing of puzzle difficulty and the high level of trial and error. If you can look past all this, you are in for one of the best games the DS has to offer.
Saints Row has done a good job of being the best GTA clone ever made. Each game added more ridiculous gameplay and a completely humorous story. Despite that, Saints Row does a very good job of entertaining us with interesting ideas. Saints Row IV is the zaniest of them all, with superpowers, alien invasions, and computer simulations. The Saints are now in control of the United States, thanks to the main hero being the President. Various Saints characters fill other roles, like Kinsie being press secretary and Keith David being vice president. An alien ruler named Zenyak bursts in and starts destroying the White House and the planet. You get captured, are thrown into a computer simulation of Steelport, and need to escape. You start by rescuing your friends and devising a plan to stop Zenyak.
The main story brings you through some interesting gameplay choices, like in previous games. Av Tron-like level, a 2D brawler, mounted gun and RPG on-rails missions, and various others. It’s a lot of fun but really short. The game is full of too much filler, which is repetitive side quests after you rescue each homie. Instead of going around and doing the side missions on your own, they are dealt out in quests, so you actually end up doing them all. Each character needs you to do three sets of these monotonous side quests; after about the 15th time, I couldn’t take it anymore. Thankfully, the unique loyalty quests are interesting. At least you get cool unlocks for doing things like suits, weapons, powers, and vehicles. Besides main and side quests, there’s nothing else to do besides multiplayer.
The entire game is completely changed thanks to these superpowers. To make it believable, you are in a computer simulation, and the times when you are out, you don’t have them. You can run at lightning-fast speeds, jump 30 stories, use telekinesis, earthquake stomp, freeze blast, and various other superpowers. They are awesome and, surprisingly, work well in the game. You feel so powerful, and the need for driving around in cars becomes pointless because you can run 10x faster than driving. To unlock more powers, you need to collect special power-ups, which are scattered everywhere, but the same upgrades via money are the same. Honestly, not much has changed from The Third besides the powers and the story. The guns are nearly the same except the alien weapons are exact copies of regular weapons; the only difference is that they overheat. There are a few interesting weapons, like the Dubstep gun, which shoots deadly Wub Wubs at enemies. The Alien RPG is awesome, and there’s a tentacle bat. There is not much else in the weapons department, though. There are a few new alien vehicles, but nothing so new and amazing that you will forget the similarities from the last game.
The lack of changes even goes into customization and the graphics. The game uses the exact same engine as The Third, and there are hardly any new clothes or items to customize your characters with. This really feels like Saints Row 3.5 rather than 4. The game looks fairly dated, with some ugly textures and jerky animations seen in previous games. At least there are all-new mini-games, which kind of helps a bit. There are various mini-games ranging from on-foot races to giant tower climbing stretches, various other races, and a few games that revolve around your powers. After a few tries at each, you will be pretty bored with them, like in previous games. The fact that all the side quests push you through them makes it a borefest after so long.
There’s just an overall lack of uniquity and originality in Saints Row IV. It tries to use the same tricks as the past three games, and you soon realize they don’t work anymore. The dialog isn’t as catchy or funny, and the missions (even the main ones) can get really repetitive in between the occasional unique and exciting missions. There are many bugs and glitches in the game, as well as severe difficulty spikes, which can be very frustrating. There’s a lack of enemy variety, and the whole game at the end just feels very repetitive and redundant. Honestly, Saints Row needs another reboot, or the series may fall by the wayside.
That’s not to say the game isn’t worth playing. After some side quests, you will blow through the main missions and probably be done with the game. This one is more of a rental than a purchase. Newcomers may find a bit more replay value, but Saints veterans will put 20–30 hours into the game and call it quits. I love the superpowers and the whole alien invasion thing, but the lack of originality and new ideas kind of makes the series take a couple of steps back. Even the lack of new content hurts it more; this really just feels like a giant expansion of The Third rather than a true sequel.
It goes to show that a smaller focus can create a great story and atmosphere. You don’t need a multi-million-dollar budget to create something great. Gone Home starts out oddly because you are given no direction, but after about 15 minutes, you realize what you are supposed to do. You arrive home from a school trip, and no one is home. You find a note on the front door from your little sister, Sam, that says she’s gone and won’t come back. With the dark atmosphere of lightning and rain, you expect this to be a murder mystery. In fact, that feeling changes throughout the game.
Once you find the key and go inside, you just wander around, examining everything. There are letters to read and interesting objects to look at. After a while, you start finding key items that activate journals narrated by your sister. The home itself is a great recreation of a ’90s home. It actually brought back a lot of childhood memories with CRT TVs, cassettes, VHS tapes, and various items from the 90s. It gave me a warm feeling, and I felt at home in this house, but I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Was it haunted? Was there a murderer in the house? I went on to read more letters and items to see that the mom was a park ranger and the dad was a tried and failed author and magazine writer. I later discovered a few locked areas and three different cabinets that had lock combos on them.
Honestly, you don’t need a walkthrough for this game. It’s all pretty easy to figure out. I just went from room to room looking at everything and realizing that this lesbian relationship with Sam and her friend Lonnie is actually pretty heartbreaking. You see signs throughout the house that it’s a bit of a broken home, and Sam is a problem child. Little things like good report cards from you and then disciplinary notices from the school for Sam. It all brought back memories for me from my school days and my childhood. Anyone who grew up in the 90s will feel the same way. As I reached the end of the game, I was pretty emotionally stirred up. I couldn’t wait for the end.
Once I got to the final room and saw the ending, I was really disappointed. I felt the entire 1-hour journey was for nothing. Sure, the story was sad and will tug at your heartstrings, but the ending was predictable and lame. There are signs everywhere of Sam studying the occult and various things about the house being haunted, but nothing ever happened. I was never spooked; there was no murder; it was just a few journals narrated by a gay sister, and that’s it. 90% of gamers will find this game extremely boring, and even if you don’t, it’s not worth $20. You get about an hour of gameplay with a lame ending. I expected the sister to have committed suicide and you would find her body upstairs, something like that, but no, just a lame ending.
The game has decent graphics, but nothing too impressive. There’s a lot of attention to detail everywhere to create this great 90’s atmosphere, but you still need a pretty powerful rig to run it due to the complex lighting effects. As it is, Gone Home is a great narrative and a trip down memory lane, but the ending and lack of gameplay are disappointing.
2D platformers have had a huge comeback in the past 5 years, but none of them really offer a great challenge. Rogue Legacy offers a lot of replay value thanks to the randomly generated dungeons and characters. I love Rogue’s character selection system. You get to pick between three different people, and when you die, their attributes make an offspring that is similar. Some characters walk upside down, and some have extra strength, health, MP, HP, and various other passive effects. This is really neat, and sometimes you are forced to choose one particular character so the other bad genes are wiped out on your next death. You can upgrade your weapons at each rebirth, and you can give up 30% of all the gold you find to lock down the castle if you liked the previous layout. When you enter the castle, you must forfeit all your gold, so you start from scratch. This is a cool feature and doesn’t really get in the way.
When you actually play, you will be greeted with great controls and fast-paced and challenging combat that’s similar to Mega Man and Castlevania. Breaking open objects gives you gold or items, and enemies can be really tough and fast. You have to stay on your toes because you can die really easily. I died around 15–20 times before I even got to the first boss. You also get items that use MP, kind of like in Castlevania. Honestly, this game felt like Castlevania meets Infinity Blade, which isn’t a bad influence. I wasn’t frustrated because sometimes the rebirth was for the better. After a while, it gets kind of hard, so it’s only fun in short bursts. I found the game very addictive, and the variety of enemies kept me coming back for more.
The whole point is that you become more powerful every time you die, so it’s not like other games where all your progress resets. You are always progressing, no matter how good or bad you are at the game. After a while, you start learning the enemy patterns and eventually even a favorite layout. The graphics are actually pretty good with nice 8-bit sprites; this is actually one of my favorite platformers in a long time since ‘Splosion Man and Fez. There’s really not much wrong with the game other than the lack of level variety, and the game can be way too hard. This game relies solely on skill to advance, and the better you are, the longer you can survive.
Don’t let the simplicity and small scope of Rogue Legacy turn you away. If you love platformers and challenging games, this is for you. The game has a great chip-tune soundtrack, nice graphics, and solid controls. The constant dying and respawning can get tedious sometimes, and the progress you made before can feel like it’s all for nothing. Thankfully, there are many upgrades and items to buy to keep you coming back for more.
Forget about the last Shadowrun FPS. That game was a disaster. This HD remake of Shadowrun Returns with a great story, but the combat is lacking just a bit. You are basically a runner who watches a tape of your best friend before he dies. You suddenly become his insurance collector, and you need to find his killer. The story is pretty engaging, and I was sucked in from the beginning. You basically just follow mission after mission, unraveling this mystery.
Of course, you get to pick your class at the beginning. Go from ranged weapons to melee to magic. There’s also a fourth decking ability that makes you stronger during hacking battles. Once you complete some missions, you get to The Union, which is your underground hideout. You can buy weapons, cybernetic enhancements, magic, first aid, weapons, and various other things. Make sure you take plenty of health with you and stock up on the latest before the next mission. Usually, you have to hire out mercenaries to help you in a fight. I found the majority of the story fairly challenging, but later on, it got downright unfair. The biggest issue is the unfair savings system. The game is autosave only. The game will only save at the beginning of each level, so if you die, it’s game over. This is so infuriating towards the end when you have really long and tough fights.
The combat is fairly decent. You can select between ammo types (or magic types), special powers, and items. With this variety, you are sure to win battles. I was just so upset at how often I missed. I could be at point-blank range, and I would miss three times in a row. The accuracy and rate at which you hit enemies seem completely random, and I hated that. Decking battles are interesting but boring because they aren’t as deep as regular combat and there are only a few types of enemies. Once you complete the mission in the hacking area, you have to run all the way back to the opening. If no one’s out there defending you, the enemies shoot up your body, and you can die. That’s really frustrating, and it drove me nuts.
I also wish there was more exploration, but you’re stuck where the missions take you. Sure, there are a couple of side missions, but you can’t explore anywhere. This is a really interesting world with interesting characters, but you’re limited to where the story takes you. That will turn a lot of RPG fans away, but the entertaining combat and story should keep you for a while. I also wish there were more powerful weapons and armor in the game. Even when I was almost done, the same armor from 10 missions ago was still the best. The game is pretty unbalanced, but some may overlook it. The graphics are decent, but nothing special. They won’t make your system sweat.
In the end, Shadowrun is a fun RPG for fans of Fallout and earlier top-down RPGs. The story is great and is a fun murder mystery, but the combat feels too thin, and decking just isn’t fun. The real deal-breaker here is the unfair and punishing save system, and some may quite early on because of it. If you can stomach the unbalanced gameplay and save system, you will be in for a great story.
These superhero games and movies are just coming out left and right. Sure, the quality has gone way up over time, but Marvel’s side of the games department has been floating around average for the last decade. Deadpool is one of those weird comic characters that has a huge fan base, yet another large amount of people hate him. I’ve always liked Marvel’s more lax approach to adult-oriented comic content. Deadpool curses, makes penis jokes, motorboats breasts, and is just a seriously goofy character. You won’t find that in a DC comic. The game itself is just average; it starts out great but falls downhill pretty fast. This is expected of High Moon Studios, which became famous for their Transformers games. Those as well were just lacking more passion.
There’s really not much of a story here. Deadpool is bored, so he calls up a guy to make a video game about him; it’s the one you’re playing, and he breaks the 4th wall constantly. It’s great humor and a lot of fun, but the overlying plot is watered down and boring. Deadpool is trying to stop Sinister from creating an army of clones. On the way, you meet The Marauders (Arclight, Vertigo, and Blockbuster) as well as a few of the X-Men. Wolverine makes an appearance as well as Rogue, but they are pretty much useless. Cable fights alongside you for a while, but again, it’s not really worth having him in there.
The combat is where superhero games are supposed to shine, and Deadpool needs more polish. The controls work well; there are a lot of upgrades and a small arsenal of melee and ranged weapons, but it’s very repetitive and gets so boring towards the end. The problem lies in pacing. You will get a fun little scenario where you’re on a turret, floating in an amusement ride, shooting cardboard cutouts, or spinning prize wheels, but these are so short and so spread apart that you beg for something different. It’s just level after level of the same bad guys over and over again. No matter how many upgrades I bought, I never felt powerful enough. I maxed out my hammers at the end of the game, and it just did a bit more damage than the standard damage. What kind of crap is that? The guns are the same way. There are momentum moves you can do that do massive damage; it varies with each weapon, but it takes so long to build up the meters. The combat just feels average in the end, with buttons mashing the light and heavy attacks.
Every so often, you will be forced into a stealth section, but it’s broken or purposefully made that way. You can use your guns or your weapon. Sometimes the rest of the guys heard me, and sometimes they didn’t. The animations are funny, and they are well done, but who cares if they’re linked to monotonous combat? The other parts of the game, where you walk around mingling with hot chicks in bikinis, slapping Wolverine in the face, using a giant robot foot as a rocket, and spinning prize wheels, are the fun parts. I can count them all on one hand. There aren’t even that many cutscenes; it’s just 80% combat. Even the humor starts to wear off after a while. Deadpool even makes fun of his own game by saying he doesn’t have any new jokes. The slapstick humor and penis one-liners are funny during the first half of the game only.
Graphics-wise…it’s average. There’s no unique art style like the Batman Arkham games. The PC just has better textures and slightly better lighting. High Moon really needs to get it in gear and stop pushing out these half-baked games of theirs. It’s like there’s no passion, or it runs out halfway through development. Deadpool is a fun weekend rental, but in the end, it’s forgettable and somehow shouldn’t be.
Blood Dragon is a beast all on its own. Forget everything you know about Far Cry. Blood Dragon uses Far Cry 3 as a base—a building block to lay something seriously badass down. You play as a cyborg named Rex who is trying to stop a man named Sloan from taking over the world. It sounds cheesy, and it is, and that’s the best part.
Right, when you launch the game, you will notice the awesome 80s vibe. The loading screen looks like a VCR with a tracking bar down at the bottom. Funny little hints flash across the screen, like “Sniper Rifles…close-range weapons when you select the wrong gun.” Once I saw stuff like this, I knew I was in for a badass ride. The game is short on content; let me just get that out right now. You can beat the story in about 4 hours, but there are bases to take over, like in Far Cry 3. You can use cyber hearts you rip from dead bodies to lure Blood Dragons into these bases, shoot the bad guys up yourself, or go all stealthy. It’s completely up to you. The dragons can hear you once you run or shoot, so stay low and use your hearts to lure them away. Other than that, there are two side missions you can partake in: hostage rescues and hunting. Not exactly different from Far Cry 3, but enough to justify the small price tag.
There are only a few weapons in the whole game, but they are really awesome. The shotgun has a cool reload animation similar to The Terminator 2, and Rex rests the gun on his wrist. He pops the shells in by letting them fall into the chamber. You get a sniper rifle, a mini-gun, and an assault rifle, as well as a pistol. There are various throwables, but they are all neat, and you will use them all often. One thing I particularly liked was the attention to detail in the animations. When you heal, you fix his cyborg arm by welding it, fixing cables, pulling bullets out with his finger, and a few others. When you run, he looks like the T-1000, with his hand completely straight and pumping his arms really fast. I just love the whole aesthetic of this game. The Tron-looking art direction has neon reds and blues as well as the enemy design. It’s a fun trip back to the past, when my parents showed me all the cool 80s action movies. In the first scene, you are in a helicopter mowing down enemies to Little Richards’s “Long Tall Sally,” like in Predator. The awesomeness just never ends.
I also can’t help but love the music. It’s stuff straight from the 80s and fits so well that I actually listen to the soundtrack outside of the game. You can tell the team was pressed for time (they only got 6 months) because a lot of the Far Cry 3 stuff is just reskinned, like the hang glider, the jeeps (the only vehicles in the game), the jet skis, and even the helicopters. There’s not really much to do in the game, and once the story mode and all the bases are taken over, there’s no reason to stay. You will see everything the game has to offer in about an hour, but the ending is just badass. You get to ride a dragon that curses and talks while shooting lasers from his eyes and mowing down everyone with a cannon. The story mode is highly entertaining, but I was disappointed with the low-quality storyboard-style cut scenes. They didn’t do the game justice.
In the end, Blood Dragon is one of the best downloadable games this year and a completely pleasant surprise. Even if you don’t like Far Cry, the 80’s vibe should bring many hardcore gamers along. It’s light on content, the characters are average (except Rex), and the animations and art style are one-of-a-kind; there’s no other game out there like it. I really hope there’s a fully-fledged sequel, even outside of the Far Cry 3 engine.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Try multiplayer. A lot of fun !