Rhythm games may not be all the rage anymore, but the unique ones really stick out. You can’t pick your own songs; there are no fancy instruments; it’s just you and the controller/keyboard jumping to make a good techno beat. The idea of the game is to get through each of the three worlds through 12 levels each while jumping, kicking, and sliding your way through each level. If you get hit just once, you reset back to the very beginning. While on the early levels, this is fine; the later ones take up to 4 minutes or more to complete, so getting reset is so frustrating.
Obstacles range from blocks you have to jump over to low-hanging objects to slide under, stairs that require quick taps, and even some stops to fool you, like a bouncing cube that you slide under and jump over. There are spring pads and other obstacles to block your path, but precise timing will be required to get all the gold blocks to get to the bonus stages, which are 8-bit variations of the 16-bit/3D levels. It’s very unique, charming, extremely addictive, and fun. I am currently stuck on 1-11 and have been for weeks, but I keep going at it because I just want to play every level.
The music is pretty good and full of life, despite it being the same track through each level. During parts of the level, you will pick up a giant plus sign that will add tracks to the beat and also add to the visuals. BIT.Trip is really a game for casual players and hardcore platformers who miss the days of the 16/8 bit era. The game has a brilliant level design that adds a lot of challenges while still being manageable. I haven’t really played a 2D platformer this addictive in years.
The visuals are stunning, with wonderful 16-bit to 3D translation, and the game has a wide color palette that sticks to the 16-bit and 8-bit eras. Everything is made of blocks, but it has built-in 3D and can really be a mind-trip sometimes, especially when you first start playing. Don’t let the hard levels keep you from playing, because being able to play the later levels is rewarding and challenging. I highly recommend this game to any 2D platformer or even for someone just looking for a fun arcade game.
Hydrophobia was a game that was announced a few years ago but quickly forgotten about. It seemed to have gone into the way of vaporware, but suddenly it came back as an XBLA game. The game boasted excellent water and physics to support it, as well as a mantra of “the water is your enemy” as a selling point. Upon release, the game seemed highly overrated, with dated visuals, poor combat, and lackluster level design. While most of this is true, there is still something to be had in hydrophobia.
The PC port boasts better graphics and refined gameplay mechanics, but there are still some issues. The water physics are really incredible, and I haven’t seen anything quite like it with water bursting in through a door and making Kate act as if you were actually in an ocean or being bombarded by waves. While it feels a bit stiff to maneuver through this, it makes you feel like you are trying desperately to escape this sinking city. While the physics are good, the story is a bit lacking, with little to go by due to the short length. You are trying to stop some crazy Russian woman named Mila from using a corporation’s nanobots as a biological weapon, and that’s about as far as it goes—literally. Why is the game called Hydrophobia? Does Kate have it? It seems that way because when you get close to drowning, you can hear her thoughts of maybe in her childhood she almost drowned? The game never explains this.
While you trudge on through the watery depths, you can clamber your way up to areas for platforming segments that are far and few between. The beginning of the game mainly consists of this, which slowly becomes very combat-heavy. Combat isn’t very fun in the game due to a poor cover mechanic (there really isn’t one except ducking), and the shooting feels a bit stiff. You have one pistol that you can swap ammo with, such as semi-auto rounds, explosive gel, and electrocution rounds, and your main ammo type is a charged kinetic shot that can knock enemies dead. Later on in the game, they throw so many enemies at you that it detracts from the watery atmosphere.
Another issue is level design because everything is very claustrophobic and is built of just tons of hallways. It’s another problem when your MAVI unit tells you to go in one direction, and sometimes it will be a pain to find out how to get there because of the lack of natural clues. Sometimes you have to go into a hacking minigame; sometimes you have to find a decipher code on a wall that you can only see with the MAVI; and finding these will drive you nuts sometimes.
The visuals are good for the level that they are at, but even with a high-end system, you will experience frame rate drops and stuttering. They have gotten better since their initial release, but it still exists. The visuals overall have some low-resolution textures, the characters have terrible lip-syncing, and the art style is pretty stale. What should you play the game for? It’s a decent 5–6 hour adventure with great water physics that hasn’t really been done before. That’s pretty much it, and for the low price point, it’s well worth it.
New Vegas has been struggling to have solid DLC that stands up to the Fallout 3 releases. Old World Blues is the best of the three so far, even for the excellent dialog, great characters, and huge new world. Old World Blues has you going to a drive-in that teleports you to Big MT. Once inside, you meet some strange doctors who lobotomized you, and you are on a quest to stop the evil Dr. Mobius and find your brain. Old World Blues takes a whole new approach to Fallout DLC by removing your spine and heart and giving you perks at the start. There are new weapons, enemies, and a whole new world to explore.
There are also a lot of great dungeons to explore, such as the X facilities, which have things such as new armor and testing facilities that run you through a series of courses, as well as other hidden items like new recipes. My favorite part of the whole DLC is the excellent new characters that are inside The Sink, which is your little safe hub inside the dome. All the appliances have hilarious personalities, such as the evil toaster, the crazy miniature robot, the perverted fertilizer, and the seductive light switches. Sound strange? That’s what makes this DLC brilliant. Even the doctors have great personalities, and the whole story has some twists at the end, so you really get a punchy, fulfilling story and ending.
The new weapons are some of the best yet, such as the K9000 Cyberdog Gun, which actually barks when you shoot it thanks to the dog brain attached. The Sonic Emitter pistol is probably the best, thanks to the upgrades you can find for it to enhance its power. Unfortunately, this DLC is really best for people who specialize in energy weapons and melee because guns are hard to come by. Old World Blues also raises the level cap, so you will have a chance to maybe dump some XP into energy if you are weak in that area.
The new environments are great, such as the canyons that have giant red crystals, which are a huge change from the brown wasteland. The new enemies are challenging, such as the robo-scorpions, lobotomites, and other weird creatures lurking around. I highly doubt you will be bored with this DLC due to so many things being different from the other ones. All I have to say is that the dialog and characters are probably better than the main game and are just top-notch.
There are a few problems, such as the fact that the initial dialog with the doctors will take you a good hour to get into its entirety. While the characters are very interesting, you’ll start getting antsy to start exploring. Most of the quests are fetch quests, and this really kept the score from getting a solid 9 because I wanted some pre-scripted stuff or just more unique quests. Most of the quests consist of getting technology for The Sink and Dr. Klein. This kind of gets old after a while, but the quests drag you through most of Big MT, so it’ll help you encourage exploration. The usual New Vegas glitches and bugs are still ever-present, but the dated Gamebryo engine can’t really be saved at this point. Old World Blues is a must-buy even if you skip the past two because the good 12 to 15-hour storyline is just brilliant.
Most action RPGs tend not to be too bad, but Hunted is probably one of the worst I have ever played. The game has an interesting story that falls flat due to poor storytelling and pacing. You play as a mercenary couple: the human Caddoc and the beautiful elf E’Lara. Caddoc is calm and reserved, while E’Lara is all about rushing in and killing everything. The swapped stereotypes are nice, but the overall story goes nowhere until the very end. You get caught up in a mission to stop an evil man named Annuvin, who is using a dangerous liquid called Sleg that can turn everything into evil. Along the way, the only other part of the story is trying to find a mayor’s daughter for a high reward. It is not very interesting since the game is linear to a fault and the gameplay is just yawn-worthy.
Throughout the game, there are points where you can swap between the two, and they each play differently. Caddoc is all about melee and brute force, while he has a crossbow that does minor damage. I felt the crossbow was completely useless since it does hardly any damage (even after you find a few upgrades), is very slow to shoot, and takes forever to reload. His melee attacks are the best, but you just mash the attack button ad nauseam. If you block attacks with your shield, you can charge a fury attack, but if you get hit once before it charges, it depletes. What kind of thing is that? Every so often you will get supercharged and do extra damage, but I could never figure out how this happens exactly since it seems to be random.
E’Lara is all about using her bow, and melee is just like Caddoc’s crossbow; useless. You can pick up different-level weapons at three levels, which are fast, medium, and slow, but she doesn’t have a fury meter. If either partner dies, you can throw each other regeneration vials, but if you run out, you’re dead for good. You can also use magic, but it’s clunky and doesn’t fit right because some magic uses your weapon, so you have to switch to just magic, which involves throwing stuff. The game is just very clunky and not very responsive, and it makes a lot of battles a huge pain to get through.
Upgrading magic works, but it’s nothing special since there are only three different types and then two upgrades on top of that. You get upgrade crystals by finding them in containers, or enemies will drop fragments. On top of this, you would think that being an RPG, there would be side quests. Not really. You can find paths that lead to “rare” weapons, but these tend to be just as useless as the rest of the game and not worth anything. Hell, you can’t even spend the gold you pick up through the game. It just increases your score on the leaderboard. You can also find death stones on fallen enemies to hear their stories, but what’s the point? You’ll be too busy screaming at the clunky combat and falling asleep at the derivative gameplay.
Does the game at least look good? Not really. This is another game that uses Unreal Engine 3 but doesn’t use it to its full potential. The game looks average and, for some reason, has a lot of bugs and constant slowdowns, even on high-end systems. The voice acting for the characters is good, but since the game is so boring, you won’t really care. Why should you play through this? The archery in the game is fun at first because at least that part is done well and is pretty quick and fun. Hell, just play to stare at how gorgeous E’Lara is if you want, or even Seraphin. Everyone else should just move on to better action RPGs.
Being a regular human in a shooter has been done hundreds of times, but being a true one-man army with technology built into your nano-suit is something that hasn’t really been done before. Meet Alcatraz. The poor dying soldier or nobody whom the Prophet chose to stick his suit on and kill himself. Now you are thrown into the war that you wanted nothing to do with and are the key to helping stop the invasion of Manhattan.
A lot that you remember from the first game is different now, thanks to the game being streamlined for consoles. You no longer have a power wheel, and two of them have been taken away and put into the other two. You get to switch between armor mode and stealth mode. You can use your superpower moves in armor modes, such as powerful kicks and punches, as well as absorbing long falls. Stealth mode allows you to cloak and sneak up on enemies or just go right in the past without being detected. Both of these are key to staying alive, and you will be switching constantly.
Another thing that changed was the lush jungle you got to roam around in freely. You are now stuck in a concrete world, and the game is more linear this time around. That’s not all bad because you still get to choose your approach to firefights, and some areas are massive. Using your tactical visor, the game will give you options on how to approach the battle, such as certain weapons, high perches for sniping, or complete paths to totally avoid all enemies. This still gives you the sense of battle control like in the first game without making it feel like a Halo/Call of Duty hallway clone.
You have two enemies in the game: Ceph aliens and the CELL army, trying to capture and use your technology for their own good. The story isn’t exactly the most cohesive thing we’ve seen; it wasn’t the first game either. The story is kind of confusing, and you never really know what’s going on between all the characters, and it doesn’t get really good until the last couple of missions. In the middle of the game, there is a lot of back and forth between Hargreaves and Gould, who are two scientists with completely different views. The CELL enemies are just like regular humans, but later on, the game throws countless Ceph at you, and they have different types of Ceph that come after you, from grunts to huge walking tanks. Of course, this makes the game feel very repetitious due to the low enemy type, and the game doesn’t really look different from area to area except for different levels of destruction.
There is a little more to it than just shooting everything in sight. You can upgrade your powers this time around by collecting nanocatalysts from dead Ceph, and the stronger the Ceph, the more you will get. Press the upgrade button, and Alcatraz’s hand will be displayed with five different areas of upgrades on his fingers. A few examples are bullet tracers, longer stealth mode, and the ability to see cloaked enemies. While it does change the gameplay a bit, it doesn’t do a lot to truly enhance the experience. Not to mention the fact that you have to watch your energy meter when using the power because it runs out in a matter of seconds. Using your night vision plus stealth while running will run it down in less than 10 seconds, so you never truly feel powerful or get the ability to upgrade your energy meter.
Of course, you can still customize your weapons with different sights, silencers, and other attachments, but I wish we could use every attachment for every gun instead of each gun getting its own special options. There are some new guns, however, and there are plenty, but they are fun to shoot, so don’t think that the weapon selection is weak at all. There are some other things thrown in, like a few turret sections, and some quick-time events are thrown into the cinematic parts of the game, which are thrilling and very fun, but they are too short and too far apart from each other. The linearity of the game allows this type of cinematic control, and it’s welcomed, but I would have liked to see more of it.
You’re probably wondering about the graphics. Since this is streamlined for consoles, do we get DirectX 11? Do we get higher-resolution textures and extra graphics options? When the game launched, it was no. We got exactly what the consoles got, but a few months later the DirectX 11 patch was released as well as a high-resolution texture pack. With this, the game looks phenomenal and is probably the best-looking shooter to date. Of course, you need a monster rig to run the game with these settings enabled. Even my rig dropped in the single digits during certain scenes, but man, is it gorgeous to look at? The game also supports 3D, so if you have the GPU, then enable it because it does enhance the experience a lot.
Overall, there are a few bugs that can sometimes hinder the game, and it is also very long for an FPS to run for about 10–12 hours. The multiplayer is also very addictive and fun for a while, with perks and upgrades, and there is a good variety of maps available. I had a lot of fun since using the suit powers kind of makes playing an FPS different online. However, it still doesn’t have the addictive quality of Call of Duty or Halo to keep you playing for months or years after release. So, with an underwhelming story and a low enemy variety, just stomach the repetition for a while, and you’ll be treated to one gorgeous and fun shooter.
It seems the New Vegas DLC just can’t balance itself, right? First Dead Money was full of cramped environments and brutal difficulty with game designs that worked against the game. Honest Hearts has a very open area to explore, but the characters are pretty underwhelming, as is the overall story. You meet some travelers who are part of a caravan trying to get across Zion National Park, and they hire you to protect them. Of course, there’s more than that, so when you enter, you see three rival tribes fighting against each other. You have the dead horses, white legs, and sorrows. The White Legs want to prove themselves so they can work for Caesar’s Legion, but the Sorrows want to stay, and the Dead Horses are a rogue “extra” tribe. Of course, in Fallout, there’s some sort of third-party hand in the pot, and that’s where Daniel and Joshua Graham come in.
Joshua wants to fight the white legs, and Daniel wants to run. Without getting into their backstory too much, you help each other out on various missions, but most of them are fetch missions and aren’t very inventive. I was really disappointed with this and kept expecting some more exciting missions. Even Dead Money had some exciting missions, despite its major flaws. The characters seem interesting at first, but after the initial dialog stuff, when you meet them, you never do much more with them. This is due to the DLC’s short length, running at about 10–12 hours. There are hardly any side missions, and it feels like the huge area gets wasted since you don’t really get to explore it much.
The area is full of huge canyons and cliffs that surround a lake and a couple of rivers. The area is a pain to navigate because it’s hard to find how to get to high-up areas due to all these layered cliffs. Some of the areas are great to see, and they really captured the national park feeling with abandoned camps and cars on the road right when the bombs fell. So there is a nice charm about the area, and seeing some trees and rivers is a nice change from the dried-up Mojave. Other than that, the environment is full of vicious animals instead of just people, so that’s also a bit different than the Mojave and Dead Money.
Other than that, the DLC is worth a purchase, but don’t expect 15+ hours and tons of new weapons or extra stuff. It’s the best New Vegas DLC so far, but it’s also not the best it could be. I hope the third and fourth DLCs are a lot better and are finally on par with the excellent Fallout 3 DLC add-ons.
Dragon Age: Origins was Bioware’s gift to gamers missing the old action RPGs of yonder, such as Diablo, Baldur’s Gate, and Icewind Dale. Dragon Age II has come along and is really a love it or hate it type of thing. It’s almost nothing like Origins, but there’s a lot of good in this as well. The game does have more flaws than the original, but I will get to those later.
DA2 tells the story of Hawke, who is the Champion of Kirkwall, in events that take place right after the last game. DA2 really concentrates on a more personal level with the companions and Hawke instead of an overall save-the-world-type story. The Darkspawn play a very small role in this story, and you only encounter them a few times. Don’t mistake DA2 for a poor linear story because the moral outcomes become the usual Bioware head-scratchers, and as the game goes on, your choices make bigger and bigger impacts. The story is broken up into three acts, which respectively have you rising to power, using that power, and finally completely unleashing your abilities as Champion of Kirkwall to either save the mages or help the Templars destroy them. The character in DA2 is absolutely amazing in both looks and personality, plus some cameos and appearances from the last game. You really get attached to each one and want to use them all during battle.
The story is probably the best thing going for DA2, but it does have a bit of a slow start. If you are used to Origin’s huge, overarching story, you might actually get bored for a while with this one. Little things help influence the story, like romances (yes, gay romances work here), but there are so many choices during the dialog that the story could turn in so many different directions, so you always feel like you have complete control. The dialog is more like Mass Effect with a wheel that has several options. You can choose from the usual good/bad dialog, but a new sarcastic one has been added in the middle, and I always chose these because they were just clever. Just like any Bioware game, relationships with characters can also impact dialog and give you advantages or disadvantages depending on that.
So, if you go into DA2 expecting an excellent story, you won’t be upset there. What you will probably hate are the more action-oriented combat and the more linear and repetitive environments. The combat has fast, fluid animations instead of the clumsy combat from Origins. Characters strike hard and fast, and there is a lot of gore, which I didn’t mind. Of course, you can have up to ten quick slots equipped for abilities, and the new tree is very intuitive. There are different ability classes, and then each ability can also be upgraded within that. Loot collecting and leveling up work just like in Origins, including junk, but you can’t equip armor on companions. Yeah, it’s one of those “What the hell?” type issues with the game. Sure, you can add runes to their armor and weapons, but just don’t expect to change their armor.
There are a lot of changes from Origins that really shouldn’t have been touched, including the linear and extremely repetitive environments. You move around a map and just follow the arrow on your map to each goal. Since you are just in Kirkwall, you are moving around the same hallway dungeons and the same main map cities. After Act 1, you have probably seen 75% of the game. I really missed the open areas from Origins and the feeling of being in an open world. Sure, the graphics got a huge upgrade, and it all looks nice, but there isn’t much variety. What disappointed me more than anything else in the game were the repetitive areas that kept you strictly in Kirkwall. There are some outdoor environments, but don’t expect a lot of them. There is also constant loading between areas, and this drove me nuts early on.
Of course, there’s a lot of good looting and resource collection, and you can use poisons and grenades like before, but what I hate still is the potion cooldown times that are set at 30 seconds. This can make hard boss fights very frustrating because later on you’ll have a ton of money and have over 100 potions, but you can only use one every 30 seconds, and this goes for stamina droughts as well. The only thing I like about the new combat system is its faster pace and speed. There are so many abilities that you won’t even unlock them all in one play-through.
Overall, DA2 feels like a Dragon Age game, but that nostalgic feeling from Origins is gone, and I really missed that. DA2 will keep you busy for a good 30+ hours, and there are even some great side quests. The visuals are great with DirectX 11 support and high-resolution textures on the PC, so if you have the rig, this is the way to go. However, the graphics seem more sterile than Origins due to linearity, so it loses its charm in that area a bit. I highly recommend DA2 to fans of the past game, but don’t expect this to be a true-to-life sequel.
The Dishwasher is a strange name, but the story of Yuki is actually pretty sad and engaging. Yuki dies in the hands of the dishwasher and is hallucinating. You play flashbacks of her in an asylum, trying to find her killer, but then again, she’s hallucinating and kills the wrong person. She crash-landed on the moon, trying to find the person making her hallucinate and find out why this is all happening to her. There’s a lot of detail in the story, so explaining too much will spoil spoilers. Just know that the story is excellent and very engaging.
The game is all about combat, which is superfluid, fast, and fun thanks to smooth and responsive controls. You will find different weapons like Cloud’s sword, a hypodermic needle, kamas, as well as a mini-gun arm attachment. You can use the right stick to use the blood dash to go through enemies and dodge them, but everything is just so fast and fun that you just forget the controller is in your hands. You can hit enemies with a light and heavy attack as well as a unique attack with B, such as a grab, needle jab, or chainsaw attack, depending on your weapon. After you damage an enemy enough, they will have buttons flash under them. Hit it and see a brutal execution move that just looks awesome. The game is very punchy, heavy-hitting, and powerful, thanks to the excellent combat system.
You can equip beads that add attributes to Yuki, and you can also use magic skulls that do massive damage to enemies. I just can’t really describe how excellent the combat is until you actually play it. It’s like trying to explain how good Devil May Cry’s combat is. There’s just no way, unless you actually play it. Boss fights are also fun and unique, but some can be brutally difficult to beat. Dodging and twitch reactions are key to staying alive in the game, so this is no walk in the park. The game will just take your breath away with how fast-paced it is, but I guarantee your fingers will ache after a couple of levels.
The art style is just awesome, with a very messy, dark, and smeary style. It looks like you can’t tell what’s going on, but it was done in such a way that you can make everything out just fine. I love how dark and brutal the art is, so it just helps portray how helpless Yuki is. I didn’t really find much wrong with the game except for the brutal difficulty. The enemy variety is pretty high, and there are plenty of boss fights. After you finish Yuki’s story, you can even go back and play the dishwasher’s side, so it’s like two games in one. This is probably one of the best XBLA games I have ever played, and it should not be passed up.
Action RPGs these days are really iffy due to the fact that they tend to feel too formulaic. They usually have good stories, but the graphics are horrible, the combat is clumsy, and the quest system is yawn-worthy. The Witcher 2 takes what was great from the first and makes it even better to form one of the greatest action RPGs of this generation.
You play, once again, as Geralt of Rivia, a witch who got framed for assassinating King Demavend and must prove his innocence. The story is heavy on politics but is also very deep and feels just like the novels. Triss Merrigold also returns with her beautiful red hair and all. You will also see other familiar faces, such as Zoltan Chivay and Dandelion. The new faces are strong, likable, and memorable characters that you will grow to love or hate, respectively, throughout the course of this 20- to 30-hhour game. Geralt himself is even stronger this time around, with more problems than you can shake a stick at. You learn to respect him more and see just how much this poor man can take. CD Projekt really shows you the roots of both good and evil in humanity in such a realistic fashion, and that’s what really drives the characters home.
The combat in The Witcher 2 is better than the first game because gone are the timed sword swings and stances. You now just have light and heavy attacks, but you can block and counter-attack (when you unlock the skill), and you still use the steel/silver sword combo. Steel is for people, and silver is for monsters. Combat was very hard to do when the game first launched, but patches as of late have fixed this for multiple blocking and faster responses. The combat isn’t great and is clumsy, especially early on when you aren’t very strong and towards the end of the game. Combat will make you smash your monitor in frustration in the beginning because you have to learn to just hit once or twice, dodge, run around, hit another couple of times, rinse, and repeat 50 times. Yeah, it’s one of those games in the beginning. After you level up enough, you can cut down enemies in just a couple of swings, and groups of 7–10 won’t really bother you.
Of course, you can equip better armor, weapons, and so forth, but The Witcher lets you do other things like equipping trophies that are found on bosses that increase stats, using sword enhancements such as oils, whetstones, runes, and armor enhancements (kind of like Monster Hunter?). This adds a lot of depth to the customization of your loadout, which has endless possibilities. I think the biggest improvement is resource gathering and alchemy because it’s so simple and easy now. Just gather resources as you go, and you can meditate and create potions that increase your vigor (for signs; more on that later), vitality (health), a potion that lets you see in the dark, damage-increasing potions, etc. The only problem is that you can’t drink them from the menu; you have to use them before a fight. This is my biggest beef with the game because if you are low on health in a fight, you’re screwed unless you took a swallow potion beforehand. The premeditated potion drinking is a big flaw in the game, I think, but some hardcore RPG players may like this.
The Witcher is also famous for its signs because witchers can’t use magic like sorcerers or mages can. There are six different signs, and they use chunks of vigor but recharge over time. These signs are vital to winning in combat, especially against bosses, so learn to use them in tandem with sword combos, and you can win even the toughest fights. One last thing you can use in combat is Places of Power, which you find with your wolf medallion. Activate it, and you may find, out in the woods or in wild places, signs of power that give you temporary stat boosts. These come in handy early in the game (especially in Flotsam) when you are at a low level.
The story also has moral decisions thrown in there that really change the outcome of the story. Of course, there are multiple playthroughs (but no new game, sadly), so you can see what each decision will bring. There are a lot of plot holes in the story that aren’t filled until the very end during dialog, which I found odd, so if you get confused, just hang in there until the final moments of the game. Overall, my biggest issue is the potion use, combat, and the huge difficulty spikes. The graphics are groundbreaking, with gorgeous lighting, highly detailed textures, amazing landscapes, and varied environments with nice weather effects. The character models look superb, and the voice acting is top-notch. This game just shows that indie developers can make games look great. You do need a monster rig to run the game on high settings (especially with Ubersampling enabling you to probably need dual GPUs and a high-end quad-core CPU). Other than that, The Witcher 2 is amazing in every way and should not be missed by anyone.
While the Oddworld series may have been dead for years now, the last creation from Lorne Lanning is a great opus. While the series hasn’t been perfect gameplay-wise, it instills great characters, humor, and a unique art style that can be recognized from the series. Stranger’s Wrath was a cult classic Xbox hit but saw poor sales (as did most of the Oddworld games) due to its quirky style. You play as a bounty hunter named Stranger, trying to collect enough Mulah (money) to get a mysterious surgery performed. The story doesn’t get interesting at all until the end, but there are two key plot twists that really throw you for a loop and make the story worthwhile.
The game is split up into two parts. The first half of the game has you finding 12 different wanted bad buys and wandering around the linear world to find them. The thing that made Stranger’s Wrath so unique was its shooting mechanic. Unlike most shooters, Wrath has you shooting critters as your ammo, and you even have to gather them in the wild. A few ranges from Zap Flies have unlimited ammo and can be charged. Boombats are explosive, Thud Slugs are like shotgun shells, and so on. Each critter will eventually be upgraded in the game, but this is a unique approach to shooters that has never been done since.
Most of the time, you can try to sneak your way around and bounty up bad guys, but the stealth mechanics are pretty broken. You can hide in tall grass and lure the bad guys to you, then wrap them up to get them alive (for more bounty), or just run and gun and kill them all, but you get less bounty. While the shooting may be unique, it doesn’t really know what it wants to do. There’s ammo for stealth, but it’s not good enough for run-and-gun action. Finding ammo in crates helps, but you will constantly try to decide which ammo type is best suited for the situation. You can equip any two at the same time for combos, but you can’t shoot them at the same time. I would have liked to see some sort of combo element implemented with that.
The second part of the game lets you have more powerful melee attacks and is all about running and shooting, really. You get the upgraded ammo types, so this is possible, but the game’s difficulty is ruthless, and you will die a lot. Thankfully, the game has a quick save feature, so this alleviates it a little bit. I just felt that this game should have stuck to either a platformer or a shooter because switching from first to third constantly can be a bit disjointing, and even jumping around and climbing is difficult because it feels like all the physics in the game are very floaty.
The second part of the game lets you have more powerful melee attacks and is all about running and shooting, really. You get the upgraded ammo types, so this is possible, but the game’s difficulty is ruthless, and you will die a lot. Thankfully, the game has a quick save feature, so this alleviates it a little bit. I just felt that this game should have stuck to either a platformer or a shooter because switching from first to third constantly can be a bit disjointing, and even jumping around and climbing is difficult because it feels like all the physics in the game are very floaty.
Overall, the shooting mechanic is very unique but works against itself, and the game doesn’t know if it’s a third-person platformer, stealth game, or run-and-gun first-person shooter. If it stuck to just one, the game would be better, but it is a cult classic and shouldn’t be missed if you never owned an Xbox.
thebinarymessiah.com 
ORC is probably the worst game in the entire series. It's objectively awful. Being bad isn't different. Different is Outbreak…