Dungeon Siege III

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/25/2012
Posted in: Microsoft, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Retro Consoles, Sony, Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Release Date: 6/21/2011


Available On

Dungeon Siege is one of the fathers of the dungeon crawling genre on the PC. There’s just something addictive about running around, smacking everything, and trying to find the best loot. Don’t forget about challenging boss fights, though, for the best loot. Dungeon Siege III continues this tradition with an engaging story, interesting characters, and beautiful graphics. The game, however, falls flat on a few notes.

You get to pick a character among the four with their own unique background story. I chose the Lescanzi female who uses guns for combat. I got a long-range carbine as well as a pistol and shotgun combo backup for close range. As you run around killing enemies, you can use a variety of powers that use focus, and you gain this by killing enemies and hitting them. Think of this as mana. Then you have power orbs you can use for special attacks, but these only regenerate when enemies die. These powers vary by character, but they are essential for winning battles. I found combat to be fun and addictive here, but I never really felt I had the upper hand. I ended the game at level 35, did 99% of side quests, and still struggled through some tough fights. I had the best armor and weapons, but I was always struggling. Using my offensive, defensive, and passive powers really helped for healing, staggering enemies, knocking them back, and slowing them down. If you play single player, you get a partner (Anjali the Fire Archon), but there are some problems here.

The game is best played in multiplayer, but the single-player AI for your partner is touch and go. When you fall, you don’t die until your partner dies, but they can revive you. I had issues where I was in tough fights, and she just kept fighting and never came to heal me. Then she became overwhelmed and died. This was frustrating because you revert to the last save point, and long boss fights towards the end can make you tear your hair out in frustration. However, the game would be impossible to play without the revive feature, so I am grateful for that.

Exploring is very linear with a few branching paths, but at least you won’t get lost thanks to the questline you can pull up and follow around. Besides, going off the beaten path isn’t worth your time because there’s no “major” loot. Every chest seems to have a few different items and some gold. The armor looks great and shows off your character visually, but most of it was junk. Unless you access a new area, the shops will have poor armor, but rarely did I get one that boosted every attribute. Usually, I had to sacrifice attack power for more armor, agility for will, elemental damage for will, and so on. Where is all the good, high-level armor? It doesn’t really exist, and enemies drop armor and weapons that are worse than what is in stores. Dungeon crawlers are all about the awesome loot, and Dungeon Siege III is lacking it.

At least the story is interesting, with your character trying to recruit legionnaires to stop Jeyne Kessynder’s army. There is dialog choice that affects how the game turns out, and these actually meant something. A choice early on can make a boss’s fight later easier. My only problem here is that the conversations are dull because you just stare at the characters and usually skip most dialog. The voice acting is good, but that’s no excuse for dull dialog. Between each chapter are hand-drawn art slides, but they are ugly, and I would have liked to see some nice pre-rendered ones.

The graphics are gorgeous, with great lighting effects and high-resolution textures. The locations vary immensely, and you always look forward to seeing what area you will be in next. The music is great as well, with beautiful orchestral scores following in your footsteps. Dungeon Siege III is worth the bargain bin price these days, and dungeon crawler fans will have a blast here with challenging boss fights and varied locales to explore. Don’t expect great loot or even varied enemies because the enemy setup tends to be predictable. Dungeon Siege III is a fun dungeon crawler, but it could have been better.

Note: The game is compatible with AlienFX for those lucky enough to own an Alienware computer. When your health bar is green, all your lights are as well; the same is true when it is yellow, and then red. This is really neat, but the problem is that there was a delay for some reason, and it was never patched. Your health will be red, but your lights are still green. This only happens sometimes, but nonetheless, it is a cool feature.

Reviewed On

Xbox 360 Controller for Windows

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/24/2012
Posted in: Mac, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Retro Consoles, Sony, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: DrinkBox Studios

Developer: DrinkBox Studios

Release Date: 2/15/2012


Also Available On

The Vita is currently short on good games, especially on the PlayStation Store. This little gem is a physics platformer that is addictive, unique, and very fun to play. You play as a blob that escaped a college laboratory and is on the rampage to take over the world. As you move along, you solve puzzles and use gelatinous physics to climb your way around.

The game has a bit of Katamari Damacy built-in since you absorb things along the way to get bigger and bigger. Each level is different, and not one puzzle is the same. There are so many different gameplay elements that you will never feel bored here. Just to mention a few, you can use the touchscreen to pull green platforms that can shoot you across areas using kinetics and momentum, avoiding lasers, using magnets to push and pull your way around, and even some extra stages that use the tilt sensor. Mutant Blobs is so varied that you will always be looking forward to the next level.

The blob’s physics work perfectly and change a bit as you get bigger. The controls are simple, but change when you float around using gas, where you switch to the analog stick. The game has a great sense of humor as you run over people and hear them scream, all while the blob’s sticky suckers make noises and make a gurgling sound when absorbing enemies. There are little hints at other games like Portal, Angry Birds, and Pac-Man that will make you chuckle. The whole package is so charming and fun that you will have a hard time putting the Vita down. This game is one of the first to really let you know how unique the Vita is because this game couldn’t really be done on a console or even a smartphone.

The game does get a bit too hard in spots where you will restart dozens of times, but these were far and few between, thankfully. Each level varies in length, but you are scored at the end depending on whether you found your two hidden friends and how many blue dots and items you absorbed. These are uploaded to leaderboards, which you can go back and beat later. I should also mention that I felt the game didn’t have enough levels, but hopefully more will come in the form of DLC. There’s enough here to last you about 4-5 hours, but most will blow through these in a few long sittings. This game is just so fun and different that you can’t get enough of it.

Overall, Mutant Blobs has perfectly balanced mechanics, varied level design, clever puzzles, and a charming art style. You will have a blast with this game, and it is the best $8 I have spent in a long time. If your Vita is currently not being used or has played all the launch games, pick it up and you won’t put it down.

Reviewed On

The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalpyse

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/24/2012
Posted in: Book Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Author: Steven C. Scholzman, MD

Release Date: 3/25/2011

Pages: 208

MSRP: $19.99 (Hardback), $14.99 (Paperback), $9.99 (Digital)

Zombies are a huge part of American pop culture and science fiction. They have invaded every single form of media known to man, but Schlozman takes a different approach to the genre, one that has never been explored before. He creates a small fictional story, but inside is a journal written by a scientist who does autopsies on zombies on a remote island base. He explains everything in real-world scientific form, and it’s hard not to believe that isn’t real.

This is probably the first time I have been almost convinced that zombies could really exist. This book is written like a government briefing, and inside contains the journal of Dr. Blum, who sacrifices himself to go to an island with two other world-renown doctors to help find a cure for ANSD, or “Zombiism.” The book follows a two-week period of the doctor’s life and what he discovers, which is fascinating. Everything is explained in exorbitant amounts of detail, but in between are the happenings of what’s going on on the island. The book is gory, scary, and surreal all at the same time, which is almost revolutionary for the zombie genre.

The actual journal part is written on gray pages and in a handwritten font. This makes the book feel more real. The illustrations are crude, anatomically correct sketches of what the doctor is seeing. I only wish the journal part was longer than 150 pages. The last 50 are appendices that explain the meaning of the journal. The first few are pretty dry and written in formal official document form, but the final ones are emails, letters, and short journals of what’s going on in the post-nuclear world, where only one-third of humanity remains. The book is brief and leaves you craving more, only because of how well-written and believable this novel is.

I can’t wait for more from this author, but zombie fans are rejoicing in a breath of fresh air in the genre. This is a creatively written book and one that deserves some earned accolades. Pick this up if you are a fan of science, anatomy, or zombies, but beware of the graphic content within.

Shank

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/23/2012
Posted in: Microsoft, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Retro Consoles, Sony, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: EA

Developer: Klei Entertainment

Release Date: 10/25/2010


Available On

Shank is an artistically stunning game about a man named Shank (voiced by the same man who voiced Kratos in God of War) who is trying to get revenge on the death of his girlfriend. It doesn’t quite go according to plan, but he heads for the people responsible anyway. The game has gory melee combat with a tad bit of platforming. The game can be beaten in less than 4 hours, but by the end, you will have wished it had ended long before that.

The combat consists of light attacks (your shank), heavy attacks (weapons that are picked up like the chainsaw, katana, chains, and machetes), as well as three different guns for distance combat. You can toss grenades to clear crowds, but that’s pretty much all there is to the combat. There really aren’t any combos to learn or gain, which is a shame because by the end of the first couple of levels, you will get bored with the combat. There are problems, despite the hacking being fast-paced. Sometimes the controls will feel a bit sluggish when trying to counter people behind you, and when you get knocked back, you can get bounced around by multiple enemies with no way to get back up until it stops. This really frustrated me throughout the game. I always felt like I wasn’t 100% in control of Shank. Even some of the weapons had problems, like the shotgun only firing a couple of rounds, but then he puts the gun away, and during this animation, you are vulnerable. The problem is that you’re not even done shooting it, so he has to take it back out. Things like this crop up while you are playing, and by the end, you just have had enough. There is some minor platforming, but it’s not very challenging and feels like just some lame filler content.

One major issue was that the health pickup button was the light attack button. Who’s bright idea was this? During boss fights, this poses a real problem when you are trying to conserve health and then you accidentally use a light attack near the pickup and drink it. Other than this, other problems consist of repetitive boss fights, but the few that are different are the only things that break up the monotony. The visuals change between levels, but other than that, you just get bored. I wish there was a level-up system or some way to earn combos. Hacking and slashing enemies in a gory fashion is fun for so long until you want more. Hell, even some more varied level design would have been nice, but no such thing exists here.

Overall, Shank provides a mediocre story that barely keeps your interest. The game has a beautiful art style but is lacking in design change, and the combat is very shallow and monotonous. This game had a lot of potential, but if what is here is enough for a quick playthrough, then you will forget about it. Even playing again in different costumes isn’t enough to drudge through this repetitive side-scroller.

Reviewed On

Xbox 360 Controller for Windows

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/21/2012
Posted in: PlayStation Vita, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Sony Bend

Release Date: 2/15/2012


Available Exclusively On

  • psvita

Golden Abyss is the prequel to Drake’s Fortune for PS3. This one is coming from Syphon Filter (for PSP) at Bend Studios instead of Naughty Dog. We follow the hero Nathan Drake as he uncovers a 400-year-old massacre and travels through various dangerous locales to get there. Of course, this isn’t an Uncharted without some bad guy trying to get the fortune all for himself, but this time there are two, so this makes it a race. A new heroine is introduced as Marisa Chase, but fans will not like her as much as previous females in the series due to her lack of charm and charisma. The overall experience is the same as the PS3 versions, but with some added features exclusive to Vita.

The story itself doesn’t tread any new ground besides carving a new adventure. It isn’t as deep as the last two Uncharted games (Among Thieves and Drake’s Deception) because it doesn’t explore anything about Drake’s past or push his character in any way. The game felt a lot like the first one, and that’s fine, but the Vita version could have been a lot more. The combat and platforming haven’t changed at all, but what’s here works well. If you are already familiar with Uncharted’s gameplay, you won’t need to learn anything new except the Vita features. You can climb around handholds as normal, but you can “paint” your path with the touchscreen, which is helpful during long shimmies. You can use the touchscreen to climb ropes (as well as the rear touchpad), as well as access menus.

Thanks to the second analog stick, you won’t have camera trouble, and this also includes combat. Gunfights feel just like the PS3 versions, but hand-to-hand use the touchscreen. You can press the first icon on the enemy or just use the square. The final blow is delivered by a swipe direction on the touchscreen. In fact, all quick-time events are done with the touchscreen. This doesn’t really add anything significant, but it is a nice touch and makes use of the technology. The tilt sensor is used to balance yourself on beams, and the gyroscope is used to fine-tune your aim. These features are just subtle touches, but they don’t really make the game any easier.

Golden Abyss has 34 chapters, but the game can be beaten in about 4-5 hours if you aren’t looking for collectibles. There are tons of them, and without a walkthrough, you won’t find them all. This includes taking photos and doing charcoal rubs with the touchscreen. This is probably the best use of the touchscreen because it fits so well into the Uncharted gameplay and setting. The story is delivered with excellent voice acting, and the dialog is top-notch with Drake’s sarcastic and snarky comments. There are some interesting puzzles that use the touchscreen, but they are easy and not as challenging as the console versions.

The visuals are a real treat and are probably the best-looking handheld game to date on any platform ever. The lighting effects and highly detailed textures are unrivaled on any other portable device. It doesn’t look as good as the PS3 versions, but it looks very close to the first Uncharted graphics-wise. There are various locations to gawk at, such as night caves, lush jungles, and dense villages.

After you beat the main game, there really won’t be any reason to come back except to find the collectibles and unlock trophies. The story is entertaining but not nearly as memorable as the console versions, but Uncharted is lacking one huge thing that brings it down so much: epic set pieces. Uncharted is famous for this, and there isn’t a single one in the entire game. No exciting train chases or anything like that. It feels too familiar with the basic gameplay and doesn’t stray far from that path. Golden Abyss is a great Vita game, but not the best Uncharted game.

Dear Esther

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/20/2012
Posted in: iOS, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Mobile Reviews, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Xbox One. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: thechineseroom

Developer: thechineseroom

Release Date: 2/14/2012


Available On

Dear Esther is a game from indie developer The Chinese Room that is a visually stunning adventure game, but it is lacking everything else. If you like slow-paced games or just want to relax and not worry about anything but moving your character, then this is probably exactly what you’re looking for. Everyone else, stay away.

You start out on the beach with no objectives, so you just start wondering. This is all you do in the game while a narrator spews poems at you. There isn’t really a story here except that a man is searching for a man named Donelly, and you are writing letters to a man named Esther. As you wander around the level, you will see various things like abandoned huts, shacks, and strange writings on walls. I felt the game had an atmosphere that was a mix of Penumbra with a bit of Half-Life 2 thrown in. If you walk into a dark area, your flashlight will turn on, but there’s really no need to wander off the main path. If you do, you may get a little extra narrative, but it isn’t worth it because you have to walk all the way back to where you were.

You literally do nothing but walk. There aren’t any other buttons except zoom and take screenshots. This wouldn’t be so bad if the pace wasn’t so slow and grueling. You literally walk at a crawl, and I get that it’s so you can take in the scenery, but it doesn’t really change much until you get into the caves. There’s only so much ocean and swaying grass one can see before you get bored. The only thing you look forward to is the next piece of narration.

The game is stunning to look at, but you won’t see the true beauty of the engine until you get into the caves, where you get to witness gorgeous water and lighting effects. This is short-lived because this area is only about 10–15 minutes long, as are the other four areas. This leads us right into the game’s worst problem: It is less than an hour long. Even when you get to the end, you still don’t know why you played this game or what its purpose is. The story is very vague, and you never quite know what’s going on. This is hardly a game and is more of a technical showcase. If you can stomach this sort of thing, then go ahead, but you aren’t missing anything if you skip out.

Dear Esther does try something that most games don’t, but with zero gameplay and only being barely an hour long, it’s hard to justify that $10 price tag. There aren’t even any downloadable chapters, which is a real shame. Will I be keeping an eye on The Chinese Room’s next game? You bet because there is a lot of potential here, but I just felt it was clearly wasted.

Reviewed On

Keyboard & Mouse

Dragon Age: Asunder

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/19/2012
Posted in: Book Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Tor Books

Author: David Gaider

Release Date: 12/20/2011

Pages: 416

Recommended Audience: Young Adult

The past two Dragon Age novels were exceptional tales in the universe. The third novel is all about the mages in the White Spire in Val Royeaux. In particular, you follow a mage named Rhys who can see a boy named Cole. No one else can, but is he a demon? Rhys believes he’s just a spirit who can’t find his way to the Fade. Everyone else knows him as the Ghost of the Spire, who is killing people kept in the dungeons. The tale is about Rhys and his friends, who go on a mission to find evidence that the Rite of Tranquility can be reversed. Why he is on this mission, I can’t say, but if you read this book, you will find out.

The book is full of action and suspense, but most of all is the character development that unfolds. David makes you question who you want to side with, and that is very hard to do. You will like a character, and then action will make you question that within yourself. Each major character in the book feels like it could be ripped from the game. They have strong personalities, and the constant ebb and flow of this makes you keep turning the pages.

If you are a huge fan of the game, then you will be pleased that Asunder explores areas that are in the game, such as the Fade, and even areas that are just mentioned or hinted at in the game. David uses the books as opportunities to tell stories that couldn’t go into the game. The book is evenly paced, and everything just flows so well together. The climax is very satisfying, with some plot twists and a great ending that leaves you satisfied when you close that back cover. I can’t really think of anything bad about the book except that it can be a bit slow in spots, but other than that, this is a great novel to add to the other equally wonderful books.

Sanitarium – 13 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/15/2012
Posted in: Android, iOS, Mobile Reviews, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: ASC Games

Developer: DreamForge Intertainment

Release Date: 4/30/1998


Available On

Adventure, strategy, and RPGs were the pinnacle of PC games back in the mid- to late-90s, and Sanitarium is one of those games. You play Max, who suffers a car accident and is stuck in his own insane delusions, or is he? You explore 12 sick and twisted chapters with excellent voice acting and very interesting characters, but don’t forget those adventure puzzles.

The game isn’t much different from the standard adventure game, where you wander around and click on items to proceed to the next area. Your icon is a magnifying glass, and you hold down the right mouse button to move your character around. This was my first annoyance with the game, being that the characters walk so slowly and there’s no run button. Despite this, clicking on things is actually interesting because most of it doesn’t even pertain to the real world. Your first area is an asylum where guys are bashing their heads against walls, and the people you talk to are completely out of their minds. This gets even worse as the game progresses, but that’s a good thing.

As you collect items, you find ways to use them in interesting ways, and it actually makes sense. However, most of the time, the way to use them is so obvious that you will miss it. This game isn’t exactly easy and just gets harder as the game progresses. You get thrown a couple of puzzles at the beginning, but towards the end, the game gets very puzzle-heavy, and they are not fun or easy. Sure, they are unique to individual worlds, but they aren’t easy. I had to use a walkthrough through most of the game because I just couldn’t figure out what to do most of the time.

My favorite part of the game was wandering around and talking to people and hearing their strange voices or weird stories. The worlds themselves are characters because each one has a big problem to solve, but thankfully each level is small and it’s not easy to get lost. The game is paced well with some CGI cutscenes (of course they look horrible being from 1998), but it’s nice that this game feels high-budget for its time. I always looked forward to the next zany world and the weird characters I would run into. I never got bored and always wanted more. The game is nicely paced at around 5–6 hours, and it had a satisfying ending. The one surprise I had, however, was a couple of boss fights. Most adventure games don’t have these, but these were strange.

Overall, Sanitarium is an excellent adventure game that shows how great the 90s were on the PC. You can pick the game up on GoG.com for only $6, but I did run into one huge problem. The game crashes a lot on the newer operating systems, and GoG never addressed the issue. If you can, get the CD and use it on an older operating system (like Windows 98), but otherwise, you will have to trudge through the constant crashes.

Reviewed On

Keyboard & Mouse

BioShock – 5 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/13/2012
Posted in: iOS, Mac, Microsoft, Mobile Reviews, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Retro Consoles, Sony, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Irrational Games

Release Date: 8/21/2007


Available On

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.

Reviewed On

Keyboard & Mouse

Rayman Origins

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/12/2012
Posted in: 3DS, Mac, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Retro Consoles, Sony, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Wii, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: UBIart Montpellier

Release Date: 2/15/2012


Available On

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.

Reviewed On