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A Mortician’s Tale

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/26/2018

Posted in: iOS, Mac, Mobile Reviews, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification. Tagged: a mortician's tale, adventure, indie. Leave a comment

Publisher: Laundry Bear Games

Developer: Laundry Bear Games

Release Date: 10/18/2017

Available On

I understand everyone wants to praise indie games. I get it; I really do. It’s a middle finger to the corporate world, and developers can explore interesting new ideas without the weight of a watchful eye. A Mortician’s Tale kind of explores this exact idea, but with a funeral home.

The game starts out well and gives me an idea of how the game will progress. A mortician named Rose gets a new job right out of medical school at a family-owned funeral home. You slowly perform different ways to prepare bodies, from embalming to cremating. It’s a cool concept, and things started getting weird when the game walked me through every single body’s preparation. I thought I was in for a long game, as I thought it would take a while to see everything the game had, thus the extended tutorial times.

The story is told through emails on your computer between employees and Rose’s school friend. The sad, morbid music painted an atmosphere I was starting to get into, and the emails told me that something was going to happen. Of course, the tides turned when a corporation bought the funeral home, and I was thinking this was when things would start picking up, but they didn’t. Then the game ended. Yeah, just like that.

I really admire indie games and the unique little adventures and stories they tell. Some are the most memorable I have, such as Soma, Observer, and even Journey, but this isn’t how you do it. Don’t drag the player through tutorials; build an entire game system; create characters and an atmosphere; and end the game when most would start picking up. I hate this so much, and I refuse to give these developers any credit for what they did. They literally skipped to the end of the story, and everything leading up to it had no meaning. I also understand short games; I’ve played games this short and felt very satisfied with their ending. This tale is not worth a second of your time.

Reviewed On

Keyboard & Mouse

Battlefield 1

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/17/2018

Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox One. Tagged: battlefield 1, dice, ea games, first person shooter, fps, shooter. Leave a comment

Publisher: EA Games

Developer: DICE

Release Date: 10/21/2016

Available On

First-person military shooters have received more controversy than any other genre in gaming history. Going from WWII games every few months to modern military shooters and then to futuristic, gamers just can never be happy. DICE decided to change things up for the first time in a decade and release a historical military shooter that other franchises are now coat-tailing.

BF1 is also the first AAA World War I shooter to date, and it was a nice change of pace. There is a lot of history behind WWI that never gets talked about, and DICE could have easily just made another WWII shooter. The weapons, historical figures, battles, and politics behind WWI were brutal and fascinating at the same time. WWI was a kind of limbo between modern technology and the warfare of old; it was an interesting time for sure.

BF1 doesn’t follow the traditional sense of telling a tale of a fictional squad and one hero trying to get through the theaters of war. We get to see different mini-stories with quite interesting characters throughout the entire war. These mini-stories are anywhere from 5 to 3 levels long, and they allow us to get a taste of everything rather than bore us to death with a 6-hour campaign of the same thing over and over again. There are five mini-campaigns, to be specific, and they all play differently. One has you running a tank down French frontlines, while another has you gunning enemies down in a jungle, and then you’re in Italy as a heavily armored soldier mowing down opposing soldiers on a mountaintop. Then you get to follow Lawrence of Arabia and a small part of his story in Constantinople. It keeps things interesting, and I felt like I was able to experience all the weapons and various ways to play the game. BF1 actually incorporates a lot of stealth, which is unheard of in this type of game, and it’s completely optional.

Once you’re done with the campaign, BF1 truly shines in multiplayer. Battlefield 3 was already my favorite multiplayer game of the series, and BF1 picks up the baton and carries it with pride. The multiplayer mode has a personality all on its own. Thanks to the many modes, there’s so much fun to be had in multiplayer, and to prove this, it’s one of the few shooters I still play online months after release. You have a few typical modes like Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, but it’s the Campaign mode that really pushes BF1 to the top of the list. The campaigns are loosely based on the maps of the single-player mode, and these are vast maps that have several objectives that each team needs to complete. Depending on skills, the Allied team will push through and complete them, sweeping across the entire map of 100 players. The Axis players need to keep them back using planes, tanks, motorcycles, and any weapon they can pick up. The tug-of-war aspect is so addictive and allows for a lot of strategies and the feeling of being a small part of a big war.

Multiplayer is just so amazing, and with all the expansions, there’s nearly endless fun. However, the weapons themselves make up half the multiplayer. The WWI-era weapons are predecessors to WWII and feel almost ancient, but not really. From the giant scopes on weapons to various melee weapons and rough-shooting machine guns, BF1 nails weapons down perfectly. These feel so good to shoot and are so satisfying to just try out and mix up. The various classes you can pick incorporate a good balance of weapons and abilities. From medics being able to revive teammates and using single-shot rifles to heavy-mowing down enemies with highly inaccurate machine guns, it’s just a blast to experience. The only letdown is grinding to unlock new skins, and weapons take forever. You earn rare cash for unlocking items, and I highly suggest only spending these on weapons. There are loot boxes you can earn to unlock stuff for free, but it’s a grind, for sure.

Lastly, the visuals are absolutely stunning. Some of the best ever seen in a shooter, and the game actually takes on its own art style rather than looking like a bleak, dry historical shooter. There are lens flares, darkly contrasted visuals, and the various lighting effects are stunning. The audio experience is just as powerful as Battlefield has always excelled in that department time and time again.

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Overall, Battlefield 1 is a fantastic historical shooter and one of the best to come out in over a decade. The campaign is refreshing and fun, and the multiplayer will keep you busy for months after beating the campaign. I just wish the campaign was longer, as I wanted more unique stories to play through, and that feeling is always a good sign. Hopefully, Battlefield 2 (?) will expand upon all of this and maybe even jump-start wars.

Reviewed On

Keyboard & Mouse

Breathe – 11 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/16/2018

Posted in: Comics, Markosia Publishing. Tagged: breathe, comic. Leave a comment

Breathe is a story about a small girl trying to find the truth about the death of her family in a small village in China, set in the late 1800s. The story seems fine at first and actually accelerates quickly due to the four-issue restriction, but it has so many flaws.

For starters, the characters are lifeless, bereft of any personality, and mean nothing to me as the reader. Second, the story feels very generic, and the ending of issue 4 is rather predictable and tries to feel like a surprise, but sort of isn’t. The writing is very stiff and void of identity. I got little enjoyment out of this series, and it was surprisingly sitting in my library for a couple of years unread.

Lastly, the art is atrocious, and how was this approved? The characters look like they were drawn by 5-year-olds and colored by a blind person. I understand the art style was going for a minimalist, washed-out watercolor vibe, but it fails hard. I know that messy art is also a style, but this is just bad. The characters look deformed, and it just felt like a rushed mess. I would avoid this series at all costs.

Satan’s Hollow

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/15/2018

Posted in: Comics, Zenescope. Tagged: comic, horror, satan's hollow, scary. Leave a comment

I love horror comics, and the gorier and more mature, the better. But there also has to be a good story attached to it, and Satan’s Hollow, while only running for six issues, doesn’t push through the story fast enough to become much more than a shrug.

The story starts out in Blue Ash, Ohio, where a cult supposedly murdered people in an old underground tunnel system 20 years ago. A couple moves back to this town only to discover things get weird pretty quickly. The story accelerates fairly fast towards the end without establishing any memorable characters or plot twists. The story is fairly straightforward, B-grade-esque, and unfulfilling. The only redeeming value is the beautiful art, crazy monsters, and gore.

Is it really worth reading this comic series? Sure, as six issues won’t take you more than an hour or so and can be at least entertaining to look at. The one-sided characters don’t help, and sadly, the monsters from hell get little face time as they have absolutely zero depth to them, which is quite sad as I liked the designs quite a bit.

Mirror’s Edge – 9 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/15/2018

Posted in: Comics, Wildstorm. Tagged: comic, mirror's edge. Leave a comment

Mirror’s Edge is one of my favorite games of the last generation, despite mediocre reviews. The gameplay and visuals were amazing, and the premise had a lot of potential, but there wasn’t much of a story and the character was one-dimensional. The comic tries to alleviate that by delving deeper into Faith’s backstory.

The comic actually takes quite a while to pick up, as the first two issues are complete filler. I almost gave up after the first issue had nothing going for it. It’s not until the last three issues that the story picks up, but it becomes a little predictable and continues to remain slow-going.

We are learning about Faith’s personal childhood, how she grew up in the city, and what her role as a runner is all about. At the end of the series, it all makes sense and becomes clear, and I felt more connected to Faith, but it takes forever to get to the point. I also didn’t like the art style here, as it was blocky, void of detail, and barely captured the beauty of the game.

Overall, if you’re a huge Mirror’s Edge fan, then read the series. It’s short, and the only thing we’ll get to really give us more story in this game.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/10/2018

Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Xbox One. Tagged: bethesda, first person shooter, fps, id software, shooter, the new colossus, wolfenstein ii. Leave a comment

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: Machine Games

Release Date: 10/27/2017

Available On

Good campaigns are kind of rare in FPS games these days, but 2016 brought back a ton of great FPS campaigns, and it was glorious. Wolfenstein II is another game that focuses more on its story and characters than its multiplayer, which is always a welcome change.

You play BJ Blazcowicz as the story picks up right after The New Order. It’s 1961 in America, in which Hitler and his Nazi regime have dug their roots deeper into the world. BJ and his cohorts from the last game are trying to start a revolution and gather the last remaining scraps they can muster. It might sound like another typical FPS, but this game has heart, soul, and character. Every character is memorable, loveable, and downright awesome to experience. The entire cast just works so well together, including the villains. The Nazi villains are ruthless, deadly, and just despicable, and it takes good writing to feel that way about a character.

The story kept me going through the whole game, as there were plot twists and sudden shock moments that had my blood boiling. One moment, I thought everything was over, only to have the story take a turn for the worse or better. It’s so well written and something you will talk about for a while. Outside of the story, the awesome shooting action is back and slightly improved and streamlined. One important thing to mention is that the boss fights are gone, but this is kind of a blessing as they were mediocre in the last game.

There’s a weapon upgrade system, collectibles, and new contraptions (that you acquire halfway through the story) to change things up. Each weapon gets three different upgrades, and they are all extremely useful. From less recoil to suppressors, some even alter the ammo and dynamics of the weapon as a whole. The arsenal is broad and strong, from energy weapons to grenade launchers, three-round auto-shotguns, and assault rifles. Every type of weapon is covered, and they all feel great and unique. You will constantly switch up weapons for different enemies. Enemies are well thought out this time around and are evenly balanced with health. I felt like the difficulty didn’t jump around so much like the last game; the entire game was challenging, with a hard section towards the end of each level.

The gameplay also changes with each level as you enter different environments. On some levels, you’re underwater a lot; on others, you’re wearing environment suits; and on some, you’re weaponless. The entire campaign is mixed up and feels so smooth and well organized that I just couldn’t get enough. Each enemy takedown feels satisfying, and I wanted to go out guns blazing, but stealth is easier to do in this game, so taking down commanders without sounding alarms was so awesome. Using takedown moves, ax throws, and silenced pistol shots was the way to go when you were heavily outnumbered. These areas in the last game were a chore to navigate, and the enemy placement made it nearly impossible to get through a whole section without being detected.

My biggest complaint would be the level design. While the ideas were great, I got lost often and didn’t know where to go. Hallways all looked the same, and there weren’t many landmarks to figure out where to go. The environments are beautifully created, but the layout is a bit dull. There’s at least plenty to do with the optional objectives on the hub base, Das Hammer, and some endgame content to work through.

The visuals are stunning, especially on PC, with all settings cranked up to the max. Great lighting, textures, and highly detailed models made this game come to life. I honestly can’t recommend Wolfenstein II enough; it’s one of the greatest FPS games made in the last decade.

Reviewed On

Keyboard & Mouse

Titanfall 2

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/06/2018

Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox One. Tagged: dice, ea games, first person shooter, fps, shooter, titanfall 2. Leave a comment

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Publisher: EA

Developer: Respawn Entertainment

Release Date: 10/28/2016

Available On

Titanfall was a highly anticipated title for the Xbox One but disappointed everyone with an online-only component and no campaign. Titanfall 2 completely changed things around with a solid campaign, better gameplay, and improved multiplayer.

You play as Pilot Jack Cooper, who was part of a squad tasked with finding a super weapon called the Ark that a warring faction planned to use on a human-colonized planet called Typhon. You gain control of a Titan (you normally shouldn’t, as you’re just a rifleman) called BT, and you storm off to save the day. It sounds like a typical Call of Duty-style story, but it’s a bit more than that and actually has some heart and soul.

BT and Jack are a great pair as they banter back and forth with each other. Jack is sarcastic, and BT has a sterile robotic sense of humor. It kind of reminds me of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The best part of the campaign is the level of design. Each level is completely different and incorporates the pilot’s abilities, such as jetpacking and wall running. One level is comprised entirely of a fabrication factory, and with walls and pieces still moving around, it gives Jack the ability to wall run and maneuver his way around the facility, unlike most other shooters. My favorite level was when Jack got ahold of a time-altering device and had to reconnoiter a facility for information on the Ark. At the press of a button, I could jump back in time to create new ways to get through the level, but this included enemies in that time period as well. It was an awesome wall running and switching back in time to latch onto a wall that was present then. Very cool stuff.

The shooting in Titanfall 2 is satisfying, with awesome weapons and various grenade types. The shooting was punchy, with heads popping and limbs flying off. The action was intense, and going from ground to the Titan kept things fresh, and the entire campaign felt solid and entertaining. The boss fights were fun, as each one was weaker against certain Titan loadouts, which required strategy, usually not seen in shooters today.

The visuals are stunning, with fantastic lighting effects and highly detailed textures. A lot of time was put into this game and some love as well. I only thought some of the indoor environments were dull with too much sterile steel and blank walls, but the outdoor environments were awesome. The sound design was packed with explosions, crunches, and various action-oriented effects that made me feel like I was in a war.

Multiplayer is where you will end up after the 6-hour campaign. It’s fun, for sure, but it just didn’t keep me interested for more than a couple of weeks. Fighting other Titans is fun, as it works just like the campaign but doesn’t seem to register as well against other players. There’s nothing unique that stands out over other shooters outside of the Titans, and the player base is fairly small. I won’t get into too much detail, but your typical modes are here, such as capture the flag, team deathmatch, pilot-only mode, titan-only mode, and deathmatch. It’s fun for a while, but like I said, it just doesn’t seem as satisfying as the campaign does (which is quite replayable, by the way).

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At the end of the day, Titanfall 2 is a solid and well-made FPS that isn’t getting the attention it deserves. With amazing sound and visuals, a surprisingly interesting story and characters, and edge-of-your-seat gameplay, this is hard to pass up. I would like to see a Titanfall 3 with a longer campaign and more build-up of the unique level design.

Reviewed On

Keyboard & Mouse

This is always the hardest category for me to pick and I always spend weeks thinking about it. What makes a game better than all the others? Does it have to be revolutionary? One of a kind? Bigger than any other game? Not necessarily. GotY is usually for a game that exceeds expectations and feels solid, structured, fun, and memorable, and just stands out as a whole over any other game. This was a hard year to pick from as there were so many fantastic games that fell under these criteria.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I’m just as shocked as you are about this. I was on the bandwagon that BotW was overrated, hyped-up nonsense, but after getting a Switch during the holidays and really playing it I started to see just how wrong I was, and how blind all the naysayers are. Nintendo always gets a bad rap for their hardware and using the same franchises for 3 decades, and I get that. However, BotW is something different, something unique and revolutionary for Nintendo themselves. They stepped out of their comfort zone and looked at other popular games that helped influence BotW. BotW has so much going for it, gorgeous visuals, unique puzzle-solving, a vast open world, and so many secrets and things to discover and explore. 30 years of Zelda has all accumulated and is playable in one game. I can’t think of another game that was this ambitious and this well done this year.

Runner-Ups

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Call of Duty: WWII

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

Persona 5

Forza Motorsport 7

Nier: Automata

Super Mario Odyssey

2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Atmosphere

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/30/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: atmosphere, biohazard, call of duty, game of the year awards, goty, horizon, observer, resident evil vii, the new colossus, wolfenstein, wwii, zero dawn. Leave a comment

The atmosphere in a game can be just as memorable as the story or be a character itself. Fallout 3 proved this as the Capital Wasteland was a character all on its own. A great atmosphere is something that can draw you in and make you feel a part of the world.

Observer

Just like Soma, Observer delivered an unrelenting atmosphere that is chilling to the bone, disturbing, and outright immersive. Not a single game this year touched Observer in terms of atmosphere. It was a let down storywise towards the end, but the entire play area of Observer tells its own interesting story.

Runner-Ups

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Call of Duty: WWII

2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Story

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/29/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: andromeda, game of the year awards, goty, horizon, mass effect, story, tacoma, the new colossus, what remains of edith finch, wolfenstein ii, zero dawn. Leave a comment

The story is probably the second most important aspect of a game next to the gameplay. A good story can be memorable, impactful, controversial, enlightening, frightening, and any other emotion humans can feel. We didn’t have many games with memorable stories this year, but there were some out there that stood out.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Horizon told a story of humanity years after we destroyed ourselves and the aftermath we would suffer. The story was focused globally and internally with the main characters trying to discover who they are making something of themselves. Horizon’s story was memorable, kept you drawn in, and multi-leveled in many ways.