BioShock is awesome! Buy it! That is probably all you need for a review, but that’s not really a review. Anyway, if you don’t know the plot of BioShock, then you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months. You play a nobody named Jack who crashes into a plane and discovers Rapture. A failed underwater city whose founder, Andrew Ryan, turns crazy, and all the people of Rapture have gone nuts. They go nuts due to the plasmids they use to gain power. Also, the ADAM that can make you turn into anything you want is very valuable and is the key to rapture. The Little Sisters gather the ADAM, and the Big Daddies protect them. The story is full of plot twists and secrets. It’s probably one of the most original stories in any game period. The gameplay is like that of an average shooter, if you want it to be, or it can be a genetically enhanced one. That’s the beauty of BioShock. It can be anything you want; it can be boring, fun, stupid, or lame; it’s all up to you.
The game’s narrative is one-of-a-kind and what most games copy these days. The story is told through radio transmissions with no cutscenes. That is extremely hard to do while keeping the player interested. Atlas guides you around, telling you how to get to Andrew Ryan, but the world around you also tells the story of Rapture through audio diaries, things written on walls, and what the psychotic enemies blurt out. This is a rare form of storytelling in games, which is why BioShock is such a classic.
The graphics stand up pretty well today with DirectX 10 enhancements, but they are so subtle you won’t even notice. There are supposed to be better water effects and physics, but I didn’t notice a difference except that your steps cause ripples in the water now. There are lots of graphical problems on the PC that were never addressed, but they don’t hinder the game much. The game is very surreal, and it just sucks you in. The big thing here is the gene splicing and all the plasmids. There are so many of them, and you can do whatever you want with them. You can shoot fire from your hands or freeze your enemy with an ice blast. There are others as well that let you gain more health or hack turrets and safes better and faster. There is just so much detail here, it’s nuts. You can use a camera and research your enemies to learn their weaknesses and gain new plasmids and tonics. The only disappointment was the lack of any multiplayer whatsoever. All you can do is play this game to experience the true beauty of it all. BioShock is one of the best games in years, and I assure you that you will have more fun with BioShock than with Halo 3 or Metroid.
Rayman has been a struggling series since the PS1 games came out. There have been spin-offs, ports, and terrible sequels since then, but Origins redeems the series. There isn’t really a story here except that you’re saving lums and princesses of different lands to earn powers. There aren’t any cut scenes or voiceovers because this goes back to its old-school roots, and yes, the game is hard.
The controls are silky smooth, and so are the animations. It helps that the controls are responsive, as well as that you can jump around the levels that require focus and skill to navigate. Obstacles lay in your paths, such as treacherous waters, enemies, and fire. Each new area has unique enemies, hazards, and an overall layout that is very nice to look at. Enemies can be jumped on or punched, and after that, they inflate. You can use the Vita screen to touch them so they pop to get the light inside, which actually makes this version more forgiving than the consoles. When you jump around to find lums, you will see them in hidden objects, and some will be trapped in bubbles. You can touch them to pop them up to add to your collection, which is much easier. While you’re bounding about the cleverly laid-out levels, you can find hidden areas with cages full of lums that you can find by hearing their cries for help.
The game is just so cleverly designed, with levels that are tricky but not so tough that you can’t forgive the game. You may restart a few times, but it actually requires skill instead of luck or exploiting the game’s faulty controls (if they were). Sliding around on the ice, dashing towards an enemy and punching them, grabbing onto a ledge, and then jumping up on top of an enemy can be tricky, but it can be done with a little practice and a quick reaction. The levels slowly get harder, but the whole point is to collect the lums and get medals at the end of each level. Save enough, and you can unlock special treasure missions where you have to chase one down through a series of tricky obstacles.
Origins is just so clever and charming that you can’t really hate it. There are plenty of characters to unlock, as well as extras. This game is perfect for people who love exploring levels and finding secrets. There are plenty of levels and things to find to keep you busy for many hours. I do wish there were some more features for the Vita besides just using the touchscreen. However, what is here works, and nothing got downgraded from the consoles. I can only really recommend this game to hardcore platformer fans because of the difficulty.
Here it finally is! I had so many great memories with Oblivion back in 2007. I could go on and on about that game, but the fifth game in the series is before us and has taken the world by storm. From creating internet memes to lots of weird videos on YouTube, Skyrim is a behemoth that even non-gamers couldn’t ignore. Skyrim takes place in Well, Skyrim, which is north of Cyrodiil. Cyrodiil was where Oblivion was set, but Skyrim is also set 200 years after those events. Of course, they are talked about in Skyrim, but time isn’t the only change in the game.
You are the Dragonborn, or Dovahkiin, who has the power of the Thu’um, which means you can shout like a dragon. This is actually a major gameplay element in the game, as well as fighting dragons. The map may seem smaller than Cyrodiil, but there is a lot more content in the game. I spent 108 hours on Skyrim, and that was 90% completion of side quests, areas discovered, and finishing the main story. I finished at level 45 and had almost 100,000 gold. In Oblivion, I was able to finish the game at about 95% in 50 hours. That lets you know how much more content there is, so you will be busy for months.
Let’s talk about combat first. The game still has third-person melee combat like the past two games, but it has been revised. The combat feels smoother, and it’s not so much like you’re playing whack-a-mole. There are more elements involved behind the engine, but the thing you will see the most is the perk system that is borrowed from the Fallout series. When you level up, you look to the sky and have a bevy of different areas to gain perks in: magick areas, combat, defense, and even blacksmithing (more on that later). Concentrate on one area and try to get as many perks as you can. This gets rid of the system from Oblivion where you can only level up to something if you use it, like jumping around like a bunny to increase endurance, etc. If you use light armor, you will gain levels (up to 100 in every category) in that area. Use two-handed weapons or destruction spells, and you will gain levels quickly. The perks allow you to gain and build on that area instead of solely relying on users to gain levels.
Of course, there are new enemies in the game, like Draugrs and dragons. Dragons should be avoided early on until at least level 10 because you will die in one hit. Once you kill these beasts, you gain their soul and can use it to unlock dragon shouts. Shouts consist of powers like unrelenting force, slow time, and fire breath. Each shout has three levels, but you need to find those words by exploring dungeons throughout the world. Dragons are just awesome creatures to fight because they are the biggest enemy ever put into a TES game. Of course, you need to watch out for wildlife like bears, crabs, leopards, etc. The world of Skyrim is dangerous and cold, so beware. Sneaking is still a huge problem because it seems no matter how good your sneaking skill is, you still get caught, especially when pickpocketing.
Factions are a huge part of TES, and Skyrim doesn’t leave you out. The thieves, dark brotherhood, mages, and fighter guild are all here, but bigger and better. The stories are more fleshed out and are a lot longer, plus your rewards are better. The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild stories were my favorites, and they show you just how deep into the lore and story you can get. Everything else from past TES games you remember is here, like choices during dialog, but thankfully the whole persuasion mini-game is gone from Oblivion. There are a lot more main characters, and the voice acting is more varied, but everyone has Nordic accents because Skyrim has a Viking/Nordic setting, which is a huge departure from Oblivion’s strictly medieval tone.
Looting is a huge part of TES, and Skyrim doesn’t disappoint here. There is so much to loot that even after 100 hours, you will still scour every nook and cranny for stuff to sell at shops. Lockpicking has been improved and is much quicker this time around. Menus have also been improved with a nice four-way system leading to items, magic, maps, and skills. This gets rid of Oblivion’s awful Excel sheet-type menus. Of course, my complaint here is that you can’t compare items anymore, which is a major pain. You have to remember statistics, which is a bigger pain when shopping.
Skyrim has a forging system where you can get ingots for various medals as well as leather. Use these to forge weapons and armor in different categories, like Daedric, Leather, Studded, Iron, Glass, Ebony, etc. You can upgrade these on benches for armor and grindstones for weapons. This makes the whole armor and weapon system feel more custom-made to your liking than just what is out there. The armor and weapons are over double what is in Oblivion. Those are all the major changes in Skyrim, but there is so much detail here that you have to play the game to truly see what I am talking about. You can even read every single book in the game. There is so much detail here. Fans of the series will love the deepened and richer lore of the races and parts of the TES series. There are tons of them here. You even get to explore ancient Dwemer (Dwarven) ruins.
Horseback riding is back, and even the third-person view has been greatly improved, as have the animations. There are so many major changes, as well as minor changes, that I can’t even remember them all. However, there is a huge issue with this game, and that is bugs. There were so many bugs upon release that stopped quests from continuing: quest items being lost, stuck in areas, graphics bugs, dragons flying backward, and everything else you can imagine. Even after a few patches, there are still some bugs, and probably a few that will never be fixed. This is unacceptable, even for a large game like this. Thankfully, there is a huge mod community that fixed a lot of this first, but the stock game has problems that console gamers can’t fix.
The models are still ugly, and the woman still looks like a man. PC gamers get high-resolution textures, which make the game look amazing, but the consoles are stuck with low-res graphics that look kind of dated. The lighting in Skyrim is great, but with so many issues cosmetically, you really should get the PC version. Mods out there transform women into beautiful heroines straight out of comic books, with amazing new armor, new lighting, graphical effects, etc. The stock game is really lacking technically, and that disappointed me quite a bit. If you can look past all this, Skyrim is one of my favorite RPGs of all time and sits right up there with Oblivion.
Collector’s Edition: Hardcore fans may want to drop the extra $90 for the monster collector’s edition. You get a giant statue of Alduin that is an in-game model, a giant coffee table-style art book, a making-of DVD, and a steel bookcase. The statue is worth the extra money itself, and it looks amazing. Of course, this is for hardcore fans only, but good luck finding one.
Ezio Auditore da Firenze. When most gamers hear this name, they think of one of the best video game characters ever made. Ezio went down in game history the way he did for a reason. Assassin’s Creed revolutionized the action/adventure genre with assassination skills, a whole new take on stealth gameplay, and awesome parkour gameplay. Revelations are the conclusion to Altair and Ezio’s story, but just another chapter for Desmond Miles. Desmond is stuck in the blackness of the Animus and is in a kind of coma. His brain can’t tell his personality apart from Ezio and Altair’s, so Subject 16 (yes, you finally meet him) helps you a little bit here. There isn’t much of Desmond here because this is the two assassins’s story; in fact, there are only three cut-aways for Desmond through the whole game.
Ezio’s story starts with him trying to find the five keys that Altair hid, but the Templars are also after them. Altair has some secretly hidden library under Masyaf, so it’s a race. This is the shortest AC game to date, but that doesn’t mean it’s worse. There is a new layer added to Ezio’s personality because he’s 50 through 62 in this game. Playing as an old man is pretty awesome, though. Ezio is now wiser, smarter, and a master assassin. You even play as Altair through his old age up to 92, and he still kicks ass! This should be more like Geriatrics’s Creed. Let’s go ahead and start with side missions. The same ones from Brotherhood are kept, but others from past games are cut. Templar Dens replace Borgia Towers; you can recruit assassins, buy stores, buy monuments, find viewpoints, and that’s about it. Side missions took a back seat here to some epic main story missions. Overall, the game can be beaten in less than 15 hours, even if you try to do the side missions that are here.
Collectibles this time around involve only Animus Fragments, which are used to unlock crappy Desmond side stories, which will be explained later. Two new combat abilities are brought to the table here: bomb-making and the hook blade. This adds a layer of depth to combat and climbing. Remember when you would jump off a building from too high and just couldn’t reach the one in front of you? Now you can, with a quick press of the action button, catch yourself. It can be used in combat as well as running away from guards. Remember when guards would block your path and you had no choice but to get knocked over? Now you can hook them and roll right over their backs. This also adds another item to climbing, which is zip lines. Zip along and assassinate enemies at high speed, which is a blast.
Bombs have three different levels: diversions, weapons, and defense. Boxes are scattered everywhere that contain parts of bombs that contain the container, gunpowder type, and item inside. You can use a lamb’s blood bomb to make enemies think they’re wounded and become stunned. A splinter bomb stuns enemies or uses a cherry bomb to drive guards away from areas. These really come in handy when you don’t want to get into a huge fight. The problem here is that it’s wasted on the short length of the story. I didn’t even get to use all the bomb types because there weren’t enough missions in the game that called for them.
There is also a strange strategy-type section at the beginning that is never used anywhere in the game, and I thought it was fun. You can use points to call down different types of assassins on roofs or use defenses on the ground. You can use your gun when the wave of guards comes. This was kind of like a tower defense thing and was really strange just to have it on one mission.
All the other items are here, like parachutes, poison darts, and all that stuff from past games. However, combat is finally perfect with combo chains after you kill an enemy. Keep the chain up, and you can kill each one near you with just one hit. The combat really flows this time, and the new kill moves are just gruesome. You can do everything else in past games, so nothing here has really changed. You do use your Eagle Sense more because you need to use it to find these clues to the keys. This leads to awesome and varied main missions that involve epic chases, picking your way around guards, and even giant climbing puzzles. I found these to be the most entertaining, but the gameplay really ends there. It is short and sweet, as well as entertaining.
The area is completely new because it is set in Constantinople and Istanbul. There is one sequence dedicated to a whole underground Templar city, but I felt all this was wasted on such a short little sequence. The area in Revelations is tiny compared to past games, but this is understandable for how short the game is. The new art style and the setting are a great welcome because Rome and Italy were getting tiring to see. The graphics are still superb, even with the slight updates to the engine. The voice acting is superb, and so is the storytelling.
Desmond’s Journey is a strange telling of Desmond’s past through a first-person platforming puzzle thing. I have no idea what this is, but it should go away. There are five short little areas that involve platforming and pushing buttons. Then you get to place floating blocks in front of you to make paths. Yeah, what the hell? It’s nice to know Desmond’s story, but collecting 100 fragments for this isn’t even worth it.
Multiplayer has been amped up and is just as fun. There are more modes, but instead of being really original, they are hidden under the AC theme. These are the models you see in first-person shooters that are disguised here. Capturing the flag is just taking a key from the enemy base and returning it to yours. There is a deathmatch mode and a few others, but more modes are good and they are fun. There are more maps, characters, and abilities that will keep you coming back for hours.
Overall, Revelations is just as amazing as past games in the series, but just on a smaller and shorter scale. It perfects the series to a T, and I don’t think anything else can be done with these two heroes. If you made it this far in the series, go ahead and finish it. Long-asked questions are answered, but there are also some new ones now. The game has a touching ending, and we even finally get to see what happened after the first AC. Revelations is an excellent game, with just enough new stuff to keep fans happy.
I have to come right out and say that The Darkness II is disappointing and takes away more good from the first than adds to it. The first game is one of my favorite games of all time because of the amazing atmosphere and linear open world that was delivered with trickling story elements that kept you wanting more. This allowed constant banter between Jackie and The Darkness, but it was that dark, eerie atmosphere that kept me wanting more. The side quests were nice, and there were some varied environments. The Darkness II takes all that away and makes this a more linear, in-your-face type of game. Sure, the storytelling is superb, and so is the voice acting, but that linear, open world allowed you to explore things on your own.
The Darkness II is about The Darkness finally waking itself back up inside Jackie, and he is on the hunt to find Jenny even though she’s dead. A cult group called The Brotherhood wants The Darkness and takes constant hits on Jackie’s mafia family. The story is great and even more deep than the first game, but once again, that awesome atmosphere is exchanged for some ho-hum backdrops you fight in, ranging from a warehouse to a graveyard to a carnival. What has changed here, mainly, is how you use The Darkness powers because it is the best part of the game.
You can upgrade your powers even more now by earning points by killing foes and finding relics. You can also use the environment around you to kill enemies, like using fan blades, poles, chairs, barrels, you name it. The awesome gory death animations make for a visual treat, but you can also tear enemies apart with new Darkness animations and abilities. Eating hearts isn’t the peak of your powers here anymore because you can now upgrade with Darkness armor, shields, ammo producing death kills, and even using your Darkling to sicken enemies.
Yes, that Darkling strategy thing that felt like Overlord is gone now. The one Darkling that follows you throughout helps you on his own, but his charming self is still there. He will still fart, pee, and curse his foes down, so don’t be disappointed there. I actually preferred this because it jives with the faster-paced action. Gunplay is still a huge part of the game, and so is dual-wielding. You can channel darkness through the guns for one-shot kills, but the guns handle very nicely and are a lot of fun to use. Some other powers range from faster reloading, bigger clips when in darkness, using Swarm to stun enemies, and various other upgrades.
The whole point is to stay in the dark, and this time you are given more than just light bulbs. The Brotherhood uses light weapons against you and will have traps and random light obstacles set up, so you must take them down quickly. Staying in the dark allows you to swipe your demon arms, but you are also thrown more than just humans now. Enemies will be infused with dark armor that you must punch through before killing them, and some of these guys are tough. Some can teleport around, so there is a new level of challenge here, but the big problem is that sheer numbers are thrown at you, which can be overwhelming later on.
All this doesn’t sound too bad, right? Ripping a car door off and watching it fly through the air and cut someone in half. Watching your demon arms rip a body in half or pull ahead after stunning them doesn’t seem worse. The fact is, the game is really repetitive in the sense that this is all you do. Just running around killing everything in your path with really no strategy. There’s no cover system, no Darklings to use, and nothing but your demon arms and guns. The story elements are delivered wonderfully, but you can’t help but know that it’s just more killing waiting on the other end of the cutscene. The boss fights break things up, but all you do is avoid attacks and blast them to death, and to be honest, late in the game, you use your guns more than demon arms because there are just too many enemies to kill at once.
On top of all this, the art style was changed to represent the comics more, which is nice, but the game isn’t technically impressive. It looks a couple of years old and doesn’t even come with enhanced visuals on the PC. There is an extra Vendetta mode that can be played online with up to four players, introduces four characters with separate Darkness abilities, and is actually quite fun. Once you finish these, however, you won’t be coming back.
Overall, The Darkness II detracts so much from the first game that it is almost not even the same. The slower-paced trickling action is replaced with repetitive in-your-face corridor shooting that is better or worse depending on the player. This should be played by fans of the first game just to see the story playthrough, but don’t expect the masterfully created atmosphere and open-world feeling of the first game.
Being the third sequel to one of the top five PC games of all time can be tough. The guys at Eidos Montreal nailed the game and pulled off one of the most anticipated games of all time. One of the best parts of Human Revolution is the engaging atmosphere and story that go along with it. You play the ex-SWAT turned security chief at Sarif Industries, Adam Jensen. Sarif Industries is one of the leading corporations in human augmentation. Of course, there are always rivals, so the facility gets broken into one day and the top scientist gets stolen (among others) and is used for some secret project. The great thing about the story is that you’re led on constantly, so you think the plot goes one way and then quickly moves another way. When you start the game, you will have no idea that the people involved are the main cause towards the end. The story is masterfully created and very entertaining.
Of course, what makes Deus Ex so famous are the multiple ways you can approach getting to a goal. Use stealth and not knock out anyone; use tranq darts, stun guns, or just up-close melee. If you don’t like that, you can use silenced weapons and take everyone out, or just run through with a machine gun and blast everyone away. Of course, it’s not just how you kill people, but how you navigate the level. If you see a room full of eight bad guys, you can upgrade your augs to allow you to become invisible for a few seconds and dash across the room to the door you need. Don’t you have that aug? You can find a vent somewhere and crawl through most of the area, but wait, there’s a camera right where you need to be. Find the computer that controls cameras, hack into it, and disable it. Or you can just blast your way through.
There are tons of options for every part of the game, but the augs are what will get you through. You can access an elevator that can bypass three whole floors of bad guys, but it’s blocked by heavy crates. If you have the ability to move heavy objects, you are golden. If not, find another way around as best as you can. The whole point is to choose a play style and augment yourself accordingly, so if you want stealth, use stealth add-ons, the ability to see through walls, invisibility, and keep a tranq gun or silenced pistol. I love how there are so many options to choose from, and each section just flows and doesn’t require too much trial-and-error like most stealth action games.
You will come across conversations where you need to persuade someone to give you information, and this is done through clever dialog choices, but you can use augmentation to see what personality type the person is and how to persuade them. If you are having a hard time, you get a chance to release pheromones as a last-ditch effort to persuade, but you must know the personality type, so watch that meter carefully. These choices can be simple or huge, such as how to disable turrets during a boss fight or even to make whole missions easier. However, choices during the game don’t affect the endings, so some people may feel this was all for nothing.
While those are the main parts of gameplay, you can upgrade weapons, buy and sell at black markets, and even buy Praxis kits for upgrading at limb clinics. Be warned, though, because the game is very hard if you choose to gun everyone down. You will lose your life quickly, and just a few shots will kill you. There are even a few boss fights, but I found these extremely difficult and required a lot of saving during the fight. The game also has a decent length of about 15–20 hours, so you will be busy for a while.
I do have to mention that when the game came out, there were horrible glitches, and it performed terribly. I actually had to restart the game 1/4 through because of a glitch that prevented me from moving on to the next level. This is unacceptable, but by now, 99% of the glitches have been fixed, and the game now performs smoothly. The overall atmosphere is a lot like Blade Runner, but I felt it was lacking with just people standing around in the linear levels. Sure, you can run around, but the game is made up of hallways rather than an open world. The graphics look decent in DirectX 11, but they look abysmal in DirectX 9, so don’t expect this game to look amazing. Characters have low-resolution textures as well as low-poly models, and the overall effects aren’t very impressive.
Overall, Human Revolution is one of the best stealth-action games to come out in a while, but most importantly, it re-creates the amazing choice-based gameplay that the first game did so many years ago. If you can look past the dated visuals, linear level design, and difficult boss fights, you will be pleased with lots of great game design as well as engrossing characters and an engaging story.
This is one of those reviews where there are more bad things than good things to say about a game, so I will start with the good. The story is interesting with you playing as both Gretchen (a witch) and Heinrich (an executioner) are stuck together under the worst circumstances. Heinrich executed Gretchen and several other witches for allegedly spreading the plague, even though they didn’t. An evil man named Faust wants the Anima Del Monde for himself to become immortal. Gretchen curses Heinrich as he cuts her head off, saying that he will be immortal. After suffering for a hundred years, Gretchen needs to stop Faust, and the witch’s hellbent on destroying humanity as payback. She seals Heinrich in a knight’s contract that he cannot leave her side or they both die, thus one of the game mechanics.
That’s about where it stops being good. Well, using Gretchen’s witch powers during combat is fun, but everything else is a total mess. To start with the combat, let’s talk about this pile of a mess. You can use Heinrich to do basic light and heavy attacks while holding down RT, and the face buttons let you control Gretchen’s powers. This is simple enough, except in execution, it fails. Heinrich never seems powerful because it takes dozens of hits just to kill one enemy, so you constantly resort to only using Gretchen. Animations are stiff and sluggish, so you can’t break them to attack a different enemy. When you fall, each character bounces a bit before slowly getting up, and in the meantime, you’re getting killed. Sure, Heinrich can’t die because he’s immortal, but you have to constantly babysit Gretchen because she is your health bar. You can carry her to heal, but she also can’t keep up with you, so you carry her almost 80% of the time. You can use a special power that will wipe the screen of enemies (and thus the nudity part on the back of the box) or make Heinrich super powerful. The worst part about combat is when Heinrich actually gets stunned and you have to tap A about 50 times before he gets up, and in the meantime, Gretchen is getting killed. Unless you can hit the A button like you are convulsing in morbid pain, you will throw the controller every ten minutes. Did I forget to mention the poorly designed quick-time events that give you a fraction of a second to react?
Heinrich has no aerial attacks, so you have to rely on the only two air attacks from Gretchen, but her powers have cool-down periods based on what level you’re using. Boss fights are interesting because they vary, but the mechanics are just absurd, with some knocking you outside invisible barriers or not leaving any window to attack after being stunned. They feel clunky and unpolished, but the terrible camera doesn’t help; it gets lost in corridors and has a mind of its own. If you think combat is difficult, wait until you hear about how bad navigating the terribly designed levels is.
The levels are bland, boring, and hard to navigate because there are no hints on where to go, the map is useless, and you wind up running around in circles trying to figure out where to go. Load times between each level don’t help, and they are pretty long. There are even loads sometimes when coming out of the pause menu, and that is just not acceptable in this day and age. The overall mechanics just feel dated and like something that you played in the early 2000s. The graphics are terrible and horrifically outdated, and the voice acting is cheesy and spotty at best. So the only thing going for it is the story and using Gretchen’s awesome powers.
With unfair mechanics aside, the overall experience is only for people who like a serious challenge or are just that desperate for an action adventure. There are a ton of things out there that are better, so you won’t be missing much if you skip out here. It’s sad that a game with such potential was poorly designed, and with an open ending, I’m scared to find out that we will get another plate of crap. I sure as hell won’t eat it, but will you?
The first game was an online-only shooter that barely passed as mediocre and was quickly lost and forgotten. Prejudice is almost the same game, but with a new campaign and some new additions. Fans of the first game should pick this up right away, but don’t expect to play online (more on that later). The story is dull and typical, with uninteresting characters. Something about a man-made race of humans that are the perfect soldiers’ rebel and try to kill us all, and you are tasked with killing their leader. The point of the campaign is just to get you warmed up to multiplayer with vehicles, weapons, and load-outs.
The shooting is good and solid and feels like a bit of Halo and Mass Effect thrown in. The sci-fi vibe with energy-type weapons sure feels like Halo, while the load-outs with various ammo types feel like Mass Effect. You get seven different types of weapons, ranging from shotguns to rocket launchers, but the ammo types vary from different armor and shield damage to structure and vehicle damage, and some ammo types even damage over time. You really need to pick the right weapons for the enemies you’re killing, so there is some strategy involved. Every so often, you get a freebie lock-on that I find pretty useless but that is useful in multiplayer.
The whole game is based more on shield damage than armor damage, so choosing the right weapons is important. You can use jetpacks, which make the game more interesting and add aerial combat. This prevents people from hiding behind something and staying there. You can go in for close knife kills known as fatalities (nice try, guys), but no matter what the game has, it feels “been there, done that” throughout. The vehicles and mechs are a nice addition, but they don’t pack the punch you expect and are cumbersome to control, especially tanks.
With all that said, you get mediocre graphics using Unreal Engine 3 and an online mode that is completely dead. Not a single person is playing this, so you have to result in LAN. It’s a pity that this game died so quickly and has been out for less than a year, but there are just bigger and better shooters out there, so you should only pick this up if you are craving a shooter and have nothing to play. What is here is a decent shooter with interesting weapons, jetpacks, and a nice sci-fi vibe. Nothing more, nothing less.
Sonic has seen so many rough years since its 3D outing in Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast. It has never had the same sense of smooth speed in 3D, and it seemed for years that Sonic Team and Sega just couldn’t get it. There were a few lights in the dark with some good GBA games, Sonic and the Secret Rings for Wii, as well as the last Sonic Colors being pretty decent, but all the rest were total crap. Sonic finally makes a 2D return with the ability to play as both the original and the new Sonic, but this also means each level has two different ways to play. The story is pretty thin, with a Time Eater and Doctor Eggman screwing time up and wiping the color away from the land. It isn’t much and can be easily ignored, as can the most awful voice acting.
Playing as the original Sonic brings back great memories when you step into Green Hill Zone and start flying around the level in 2D (with 3D graphics) like the grand days of old. The graphics are amazing, with great lighting, high-resolution textures, and great-looking models. This is the best-looking Sonic game to date, and Sega finally got the game up to speed with today’s graphics. Previous Sonic games had hideous visuals and tons of glitches, but you won’t find that here. You die and collect rings to stay alive, but you can use cards that give you both offensive and passive powers that help you along the way.
Playing as the new Sonic puts the camera back behind Sonic with the homing attack, but calm down! The game actually works now and flows great with some awesome cinematic moments, and the speed stays fast. You can use a boost that fills by collecting rings, and the homing attack can actually make you get through levels faster as well as fly through rings, but I found doing the flips in the air pretty useless. Overall, playing at each Sonic gives you a rewarding experience with memorable levels. Only two are from classic Sonics, and the rest range from terrible ones from Sonic Adventure, Shadow the Hedgehog, and even the failed Sonic the Hedgehog reboot from 2006. The levels are recreated in a fun way and are tons of fun to play.
There are a couple of boss fights, and I’m disappointed with how easy they are. There are three with Metal Sonic, Shadow, and Silver to get Chaos Emeralds, and three with Eggman. You have to find keys to unlock the boss stages and then move on to the next levels. In between, you can do side missions that range from a multitude of different goals to different ways to play. Each can be played as either Sonic, and they are a blast. However, the last two levels are poorly designed and just feel slow and difficult. Puzzle-solving? That shouldn’t be in a Sonic game. The last two levels will take you about ten minutes to complete, and that is way too long for a Sonic level. If you can ignore these last two, the rest is a blast. Repetition does set in from doing so many side missions because they start to feel the same after a while. Only hardcore fans will stick around and collect all the stars and get S ratings in each mission.
Sonic Generations does a good job of redeeming the failed series and pulling it out of the sewer. Fans of the old can return with a smile, and fans who have stuck with the series will finally get a game that isn’t a piece of crap. With an online mode, tons of extra activities, and amazing graphics, we can finally say Sonic is back!
I played this about 3 years ago, and even then, it wasn’t all impressive. This game has nothing to do with the underappreciated Area 51 that came out years ago, despite being made by the same studio. In fact, the game has nothing to really do with Area 51 at all except you fight through Rachel, NV, and there are aliens. The game is a day’s worth of mediocre entertainment at best. The story is paper-thin, with something about a government experiment where they are trying to create the perfect soldier using prisoners and homeless people. The experiment breaks out, and you are fighting off a weird paramilitary plus Xeno aliens. The characters aren’t interesting, and this is by far just a B-grade experience.
The worst part about the game is the lack of content. Only a few weapons (like less than six) and a handful of enemy types make for a typical shooter experience. There are a couple of large boss fights that were epic at the time, but now they feel too scripted and stale. The graphics are pretty bad since this uses Unreal Engine 3 from years ago, so there are badly scripted explosions, crappy AI, and a useless squad command and moral system. You can send your two buddies somewhere, but it makes no difference because they won’t shoot anything most of the time. If you get shot a lot, your morale will go down, but I actually didn’t notice this doing anything because the AI is so dumb anyway. There are a few vehicle sequences (which stink), and all the weapons feel the same except a couple of alien weapons.
The multiplayer is nonexistent because the servers have been long gone, but you can grab the game for less than $1 on Amazon. The game lacks the greatness of its predecessor, with a lack of interesting stories, characters, and scripted cinematic events. You can go around collecting dossiers, but other than that, this is bare-bones at best. The game had a lot of potential but was executed poorly with lazy design and shortcuts. Why should you bother playing it? Mainly for fans of the first game or who just want an FPS fix for a few hours.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Try multiplayer. A lot of fun !