The best sound design consists of effects, music, voice acting, variety, and overall immersion accomplished through sounds. Ambiance has a huge factor as well. A lot of games these days sound really good, but the best will give you total immersion with background noises and little effects that don’t have to be there, but they are because the developers care that much.
The sound design in AC3 is just fantastic. The various accents, different languages used, the sound effects used in the Frontier such as the wind during snowstorms, the sounds of wildlife, then the bustling city sounds in the cities. The naval battles just pack a punch in your ears. The cannon fire, the various ship crew yelling things at each other, the sounds of the ocean. There is so much variety there and it is so crisp and clear. This is the best sounding game this year.
The atmosphere in a game is the overall immersion you get. You have to believe you are in the game and that the whole world is real, but also feel a part of it. There were a lot of games that pulled off some great atmosphere this year, so this category was tough. Most of the atmosphere this year was focused on realistic or futuristic settings. These were the best of them all.
Assassin’s Creed III really showed off the American Revolution and colonial times. The game really made you feel like you were there. The Frontier, Boston, and New York were both well designed as well as the costumes, accents, objects, and even the hunting! You just felt like you took a trip to the past. This was a tough choice over The Walking Dead, hell, all the games in this category were hard to choose from. This won due to the attention to detail and mainly because it is a setting and time period rarely explored in games.
The Best Music award goes to a game that delivers emotion, atmosphere, and tension through the game’s soundtrack. Whether it be orchestral, licensed, or anything else it must feel just right. There weren’t many games with great soundtracks this year, but there were a few. These were the best, but only one comes out on top.
Journey comes out on top because of how rich and powerful the score is. It reminds me a lot of Skyrim, and hey, it was up for a Grammy! Journey is not only a very unique game, but the soundtrack pulls you in and provides feelings and emotions on top of the visual experience. Mass Effect 3 was very close, but the epic space battle music doesn’t compare to this masterpiece.
Ninja Gaiden for Xbox was considered one of the hardest games in recent gaming history, at least one of the hardest of the 6th generation. I had Ninja Gaiden Black and couldn’t get past the third level; it was so hard. Ninja Gaiden 3 dumbs down the difficulty and concentrates on cinematic combat like God of War, but doesn’t pull it off as well. There is no reward for combat, the levels are highly linear, and the same patterns repeat often. This is a fun weekend rental, but nothing more.
Usually, in a Ninja Gaiden game, you die several times in the first level. The game starts out pretty cinematic, with Ryu jumping from heights and gliding down. The combat consists of light and heavy attacks and dodges. The problem here is that the same moves and animations repeat constantly and just get tiresome less than halfway through. There are no upgrades, no new weapons, no new Ninpos—nothing. Just hack away until everything dies. The game is still really tough, with dozens of enemies being thrown at you at once, but you restore full health after every battle this time, and there are no health potions; in fact, you can’t even shop at Muramasa’s anymore. Why they took such core elements away is beyond me. The only new gameplay element is using Ryu’s infected and cursed arm to instantly kill enemies. When you kill enough, you can hold down Y and do this, and his dragon-fire Ninpo will clear the entire screen. It seems like cheating when it comes to Ninja Gaiden and is hard to get used to.
A lot of people claimed NG3 wasn’t a true sequel and dumbed it down for today’s audience, which is used to being handheld through games. This may be true, but I think the QTEs are what got people so mad. You use them for everything, like combat and even climbing walls and wires. This is fun at first but grows tiresome quickly because they repeat so often. The same helicopter fight, spider bot, and other enemies repeat quite often, and it gets boring and uninteresting. The only thing breaking up the monotony is the unique boss fights, which are a lot of fun and challenging. I wish there was more to this game, but that is about it. The locales are familiar, at least with jungles, city landscapes, military bases, and various others. They change quickly, so at least that doesn’t get boring.
The story is actually quite interesting, despite how much people complained about it. Ryu gets a curse on his arm, and it is rotting his arm away. The Lords of Alchemy are working on some plot to take over the world, and eventually you will find out how towards the end. The characters are at least likable in that quick-satisfaction way. You won’t remember them long after you finish the game, but they are entertaining enough to keep you in the story, and at least the voice acting is decent.
The graphics are really good for the Xbox 360, but you will notice the gore factor is severely toned down. No longer do enemies slice in half and heads fly off. It was a bit disappointing, but there are still buckets of blood. Overall, NG3 is a disappointment in a long-term way. You won’t be trying to master speed runs in this game, but there’s enough challenge here for a bargain bin purchase or weekend rental. The combat is so dumbed down that it becomes repetitive and nearly boring, but at least the fear of death is always near, and there are frequent checkpoints to counter this. There are no upgrades or anything like that, but at least Team Ninja saw that most people never finished previous games and tried to make it easier; this isn’t the way.
I can’t tell you how long I have been waiting for this game—well, I can, since the first one. I didn’t know what AC3 would be, but I knew down the road it would come, and here it is. Somehow, Ubisoft can manage to make each entry feel fresh without having to do drastic reboots. AC3 is set in the American Revolution and is the final chapter in Desmond’s story, or so they say. You play as Connor or the unpronounceable Ratonhnhaké:ton. He is a Mohawk Indian, or half British, half Kanien’kehá:ka. He is actually a likable character, and after Ubisoft created such loved characters as Altair and Ezio, it becomes a huge challenge to create a third. There are so many changes to the game that it feels like a true sequel, but a few flaws that have persisted throughout the series remain.
The first thing you will notice is the change in the HUD design. It is much more streamlined and user-friendly. The second thing you will notice is that the puppeteer system is gone. You do everything with RT only and jump around with A. This is supposed to help streamline climbing (which it does), so you have to press fewer buttons. Connor automatically pushes people out of the way while running, so you no longer stumble and fall down. One major thing I took away was how much you can blend. Being able to run away from guards is much easier now, but you can still hide in stacks. There are different crowd types of blending in, like people leaning against walls, starting riots, etc., but when you are notorious, you can fight or lose them more easily. The whole environment just feels more natural, so you can climb on cliffs in the frontier and use different handholds. Trees can now be climbed because a new V-shaped object has been introduced.
The same flaw persists in parkouring throughout every game. Connor will jump around on handholds that you don’t want him to. He will even sometimes get stopped by invisible barriers if an object is too low. This led to cheap deaths and frustrating restarts. I guess some things can’t ever be ironed out. Thankfully, the combat is much improved, with Ubisoft realizing Assassin’s Creed is a counter-fest and actually building on this. AC3 is my third favorite fight system in an action adventure right under God of War and the new Batmans. Each attack is built around a counter, so you press B when a red triangle appears above an enemy’s head, then press X to instant kill, B again to throw, or A to disarm. The combat system is fast and fluid and leads to fewer deaths, but it is still challenging because you need to be quick. Each assassin you recruit is unique, and there are only six. Each one has a special ability, like escort, marksman, riot, and others. These unique abilities give you much more options when infiltrating restricted areas to either bring you to the heart or distract guards. You can even send them off on missions through the map menu instead of localized areas.
There are many weapons and items you can use in combat. The punch dagger has been reduced to just one, but you have a flintlock pistol (yes, it requires a lengthy reload every time, but you can carry two later on), and you also have a bow and arrow. Other items include mines, poison darts, rope darts, and many others. You also have to watch out because enemies have weapons and will form firing lines. When they do this, press A near an enemy and use them as a human shield. Good stuff.
On another note, combat leads to hunting, which is a great mechanic added to this game. Exploring the large Frontier area and homestead allows you to hunt animals and skin them for items to use for crafting. You can stalk animals (stalking is a whole new feature that allows you to hide in tall brush), assassinate them from the air, and lay snares to trap smaller animals. Laying out bait will make an animal come to the exact area you want, but watch out. Using more aggressive methods of killing will damage the animals’ pelts, such as using a pistol or mine. Hunting also leads to many club challenges, which are extremely difficult to complete. You can even be attacked by animals, which leads to quick-time events.
Now that we have the three major things about the game out of the way, let’s talk about the minor stuff. The menu and HUD design are much more streamlined, such as your health, ammo count, and even the assassins you can call upon. Everything is minimal, and I really like that. Of course, when you pass by new areas, you get briefed on a bit of history about them, which is 25% of the fun in AC3. After you finish the story mode, you can go around finding hundreds of collectibles such as feathers, chests, trinkets, and other items. The club challenges are really tough, though, and require you to meet certain criteria to move onto the next list. It can be fun, but some are nearly impossible to complete.
One of my favorite things in the game is the Peg Leg Trinket missions, which are cinematic and a placeholder for the Templar Tombs that were in previous games. The final piece of loot for these missions is awesome, and each mission is memorable and so much fun. There is a new investigation mechanic added that has you finding clues on the map, which is used for hunting, side missions, and story missions. What’s more, the naval battles are absolutely epic and really fun. Thanks to the new Anvil-Next graphics engine, Ubisoft created some pretty realistic water effects that make you feel like you’re really in the ocean. Steering the ship around and blasting off cannons at enemy ships is so much fun, and each mission has various objectives. Probably the best use of a controllable ship in any game ever!
You are probably wondering about the story. Sure, Connor’s story is touching and has him following every major event in the Revolution along with key people. The characters are entertaining to watch and hear, and Desmond’s story is, like all the other games in the series, very brief, but the ending isn’t as bad as everyone says it is. It isn’t confusing, but just abrupt. Desmond and the gang are trying to stop the solar flare from destroying the world on 12/21/12, and it gets a bit complicated. Connor’s story has a satisfying ending, but you just can’t help but feel giddy when a historic figure like Ben Franklin or George Washington appears on the screen.
Once you finish the epic story mode, there is multiplayer, which is just so addictive. Ubisoft has fine-tuned it and nailed it with the cat-and-mouse gameplay that you can’t get enough of. Each player gets an avatar of another player they have to kill. However, at each level, there are dozens of duplicates walking around, but you can’t just start killing everyone. Killing innocents exposes you and makes you vulnerable. Find your target by watching for suspicious behavior like blending, hiding, or running. You also have people hunting you, but you can’t kill them; just knock them out. If you confront them directly, you just get an honorable death, which reduces their kill score. Stay incognito and knock them out from behind. There are many modes, such as Assassinate, that don’t give you any contracts. You just have to watch your compass and kill everyone you can find. There are deep customization options that allow you to change the appearance, attack moves, stances, taunts, and weapons of each character. You can unlock new items by ranking up and earning credits.
Overall, AC3 is huge and fantastic. Exploring the Frontier, Boston, and New York is amazing, not to mention the fantastic graphics for such dated hardware. Multiplayer is extremely addictive, and other small tidbits just add to that. Weather changes, hunting, crafting, side missions—the list goes on and on. The only way to truly experience this amazing game is to play it. This is definitely a game of the year-worthy game and well worth a purchase.
Limited Edition: For $60 extra, you can get a highly detailed figurine of Connor, a life-size Assassin’s version of the American flag, a beautiful art book, and a belt buckle. This is all well worth the extra money because of how detailed everything is. The flag has metal eyes, so it can be flown on a pole. The statue has so much detail; it looks fantastic. The art book is designed like a 17th-century journal and looks beautiful. It was well worth the purchase.
Klei Entertainment has had a pretty bad reputation with the not-so-great Shank series. It is a huge surprise that Mark of the Ninja turned out so well; in fact, it is probably one of the best indie games to come out this year. Mark of the Ninja succeeds in making you feel like a true ninja with great stealth mechanics, puzzles, and skill moves. However, Klei still needs to hire a new story writer because it isn’t very interesting. You are a ninja who is going after someone, and you have tattoos that give you powers, and that’s pretty much it. You should play this for the action because that’s all you will care about anyway.
The game uses light and dark very well. The game is in 2D, so everything around you is dark. You have to avoid enemies by climbing up walls and ceilings, hiding in ducts, and even in objects. The game has a great kill mechanic where you press the kill button, but time slows so you can press a combo of a direction and the kill button that pops up on the screen. This feels very satisfying and should be incorporated into more games like this. You have some weapons in your arsenal, such as darts, that can be used to distract guards by taking out lights, luring them into traps, and many other things. You get smoke bombs, mines, and even the ability to see everything around you and teleport. That is what a ninja is really like, and I haven’t played a game yet that makes me feel like one (sorry, Ninja Gaiden).
The controls are silky smooth, if a little sticky when clinging to walls and objects. As you progress, you can level up by completing optional objectives and finding hidden scrolls throughout the levels. You can acquire new moves like killing from above, snagging enemies while hiding, etc. You can even unlock more ninja weapons and gadgets for your arsenal. The whole system works really well, and the gameplay is just so addictive. There are multiple ways to approach objectives, but you can never fight head-on. That is what I like about this game. If you are caught, you need to flee and hide until the enemies settle back down. Just a couple of shots will kill you. Thankfully, checkpoints are very fair, unlike the Shank games, and don’t set you back too far.
Puzzles are pretty fun in this game because they require reflexes more than anything. Hitting tripwires may send arrows flying at you, but there’s a crank that pulls a box up along a wall to block them. Cranking it up as you climb the wall is the way to go, but some get really tricky but are fun to solve. This game is just pure fun, and I felt like a ninja the whole way through. No guns, no super-fast martial arts, just stealth, sneaking, and being a part of the shadows.
The graphics are beautiful and are actually part of the gameplay. Everything seems dark and shadowed, but when things are in the light, they are fully revealed. The only thing visible to you in the shadows are your glowing red tattoos, which are really neat. My only complaints are the story and the fact that there really isn’t enough variety in enemies. I wanted to see more, and the overall game just gets repetitive towards the end, but if the story were better, you wouldn’t feel that way.
With great ninja gameplay, smooth controls, fun stealth mechanics, and interesting puzzles, Mark of the Ninja proves to be one of the best indie/arcade games this year. For the low price, you have nothing to lose except a few hours of having a lot of fun.
The band rhythm genre was one of the shortest-lived I have ever seen. Starting with Guitar Hero and quickly being killed off with games like Rock Band 3, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, and DJ Hero 2. There were a ton of them, but because of the constant yearly releases, the public got sick of them quickly, and now the genre is pretty much dead. Harmonix decided to go back to its roots and release another controller-based rhythm game like Amplitude for PS2. Before you insult the game, read on.
Blitz is just as addictive as the other games in the series, but in a different way. You play all the instruments at the same time, but this is a very important thing that you need to remember: This game is about scores and not hitting every note. You only use two buttons on the controller to hit each note on the left and right sides of the track. You play like you normally would in a Rock Band game, but just with two notes. Don’t sit there thinking this is easy. The game can get downright hard, mainly because you have to constantly keep your score multiplier up. As you play along, you will pass gates that will turn the multiplier wheel. It will stop at the lowest-set number. Make sure you switch between tracks and get those multipliers for each one! If you play close to perfect, you can raise each track by four with plenty of room left before the gate.
This sounds hard and stupid, but the game is so much fun! It also helps that you can use power-ups that you unlock by raising your cred. Using the power-ups costs coins that are earned based on your score. There are a lot of fun power-ups, such as a rocket that will shoot ahead and destroy some notes. Certain instruments can have double points, bombs, flames that spread around and increase your score, a 2x multiplier, and the list goes on. You will find yourself trying out different power-ups and using your favorites. I also love how you can use your entire Rock Band library. You can also download any Rock Band song from the store, and it will work with this game! This, of course, increases replayability quite a bit.
Blitz incorporates Facebook integration for co-op play and most multiplayer stuff. This is both good and bad. It’s good for people who use Facebook, but bad for people who don’t or who are paranoid about their internet security. I didn’t have a problem with this, but I know some people will. One issue I did find annoying is that there is only one stage the game plays through. Sure, it changes a bit as you go along, but I would have liked to have seen more. Other than that, there really isn’t much wrong with this game.
In the end, this game is about taste. Some people may think just hitting two buttons is stupid, but if you sit down and play for a while, you will realize how ridiculously addictive this game can be. The game keeps your adrenaline up by constantly having to switch between tracks and keeping your multiplier up. If you are a huge Rock Band fan, then give this a whirl, but due to the small list of songs the game comes with, newcomers will find the game less appealing. You should really only play this if you have a large Rock Band library.
I was so excited about this game because I could see the potential it could bring. Lots of gore in a 3D setting with the awesome monster design from the classic arcade and Sega Genesis games. Man, was I wrong? This game is full of so many flaws and good ideas that have gone wrong that just a little playtesting and polish could have made this game great. It tries to be a modern action/adventure with a bit of softcore porn and a lot of ultra-violence thrown in. The story is somewhat interesting with H.P. Lovecraft-inspired mythos and art styles, but you won’t care because most won’t even finish the game.
Splatterhouse is all about combat, so let’s start there. The combat is just seriously flawed. I can’t explain enough how unbalanced and frustrating the combat is. If the developers only tweaked it some, it would be just right, but there are so many little nuances that drive you crazy. Firstly, you never feel powerful enough. You can acquire new moves, but you never increase in strength. These moves just add to your arsenal of weaknesses. Even the smallest enemy needs a lot of pummeling before they die. This gets really frustrating when the game throws a lot of enemies at you. You are just so overwhelmed, and you rely on your mask powers, which use the poorly balanced blood meter. This meter can be increased with upgrades, but it takes three slots to activate mask mode. In mask mode, you can slaughter enemies easily, but it doesn’t last long. Poor use of this meter is when you do temporary mask attacks like Splatter or Smash. They each use a blood slot. Why?! That is so frustrating because you need to use it because regular attacks aren’t powerful enough. If you use these special attacks, you will never be able to enter mask mode when you really need it. Highly unbalanced and frustrating.
If that isn’t enough, let’s talk about the weapons and 2D platforming sections. They tried to be cute and go back to Splatterhouse roots, but they just ruin your precious memories of that game. Whenever you just touch an obstacle, you get hurt. The jumping is terrible, with no momentum at play. The run button is flawed because you can’t interrupt it, so you have to remember how far you run because Rick just stops, and it takes forever for the animation to end. This leads to cheap deaths, which lead to horrendously long load times that can take up to a minute. You will die a lot in this game, so expect to endure long load times after each death. If that isn’t enough, the weapons break just after a few hits, and instead of creating more interesting enemies, the last four levels of the game are just ridiculously difficult because tons of sub-bosses are thrown at you to compensate for the lazy enemy design. There are only about six different enemies in the whole game, and they are not fun to even kill. The Splatter Kills are fun during the first level, but there are only about 4 different animations! This game just wants you to hate it.
So if that isn’t enough to keep you away, I don’t know what will. A few of the bosses are pretty fun, but towards the end, that kind of stops. There are some interesting combat puzzles that are flawed due to poor hit detection. Even if you beat the game, why would you want to come back for combat arenas? The combat system is just slow, unresponsive, full of uninterruptible animations, and not fun at all. If you really want to play, you can pick up the nude Jenny photos along the way, but it isn’t even worth it for that. Splatterhouse has a lot of potential but ultimately fails due to lazy game design and unbalanced everything. The story and art are nice, with a lot of gore, but even the graphics are lacking due to using the outdated Unreal Engine 3. I honestly can’t even recommend a rental. Stick with the three Sega Genesis games and forget this even exists. Maybe next time? We will have to see.
I usually regret playing Atlus games because they are frustrating and difficult experiences. The games are usually excellent, but the difficulty always leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I have only been able to complete a couple of Atlus games due to this. Catherine is no different, but she shouldn’t be taken lightly. RPG fans should stay away. If you just want to experience the story, go on YouTube. This is for hard-core puzzle fans only. I mean the hardest of core puzzle gamers. This game will leave you infuriated, angry, full of rage, and probably with a few smashed controllers. The game is plagued with issues, but for some reason, there’s a story that makes you want to see the end. Thankfully, the game isn’t very long. Just prepare the video walkthroughs because you will need them.
This experience is coming from someone who hates these kinds of puzzles. This game is complete to taste. I hate block-pushing puzzles, but here we are with a very deep game that includes these. The first three stages aren’t that bad. Starting at stage 4, things get frustrating, and forget about progressive difficulty. First off, the story is very engaging, and it’s a love story. A man named Vincent Brooks is in love with a girl named Katherine, and she wants him to marry her. Suddenly, a sultry seductress named Catherine comes along, and somehow Vincent wakes up with her naked next to him. The rest of the game is him trying to hide each Katherine from the other.
The story gets tense in spots, like any well-written drama. When you are in the Stray Sheep bar, you will receive text messages on your phone that you can reply to. Be careful because this will affect your morality meter, which will impact the way Vincent handles inner conflict. I had a lot of fun replying to these texts because it’s almost like you are actually doing it and in this relationship yourself. Atlus did a great job bringing you into this problem. Of course, every night when Vincent dreams, you are brought to an area where you climb an endless tower of blocks with other sheep, and that’s where you start to hate or love the game.
I can’t really explain the methods of all the block-pushing because there are over a dozen that you learn throughout the game. You can push blocks horizontally, but it’s not so simple. There are other types of blocks, like heavy ones, ice, traps, randomly changing blocks, and others, that will make your life hell. It was nigh impossible to figure most of these out without a video walkthrough, because otherwise, you will be restarting dozens of times due to trial and error. To make things harder, the stage is crumbling underneath you. To make things even tougher, you are awarded medals at the end. The only way to get gold is to keep your step multiplier up throughout the whole level and never mess up. Sure, there are checkpoints every so often, but I had such a tough time that even the video walkthroughs didn’t help sometimes.
There are items you can pick up that help create one extra block, allow you to jump two blocks, kill enemies, and turn all blocks to normal. You can pick up coins along the way to increase your score as well. At the end of each stage, there is a boss that you must run from and who tries to kill you. These changed the pace, but they just made things even more frustrating. You just can’t catch a break during these puzzle levels. Even the controls are terrible, with reversed control when crawling around behind the blocks, delays, and strange quirks that will make you die just because of control problems.
I really felt like this was a puzzle game with a love story wrapped around it. The game is tough, and I highly suggest renting it first because most people won’t even finish it. Don’t think this is something like Pushmo with a reset button. Some levels take over ten minutes to complete. There is a co-op mode you can unlock, but all you will do is lose friendships. The best parts are the story in between and the questions that you answer that even make you question the way you view romanticism and maybe even your own relationship. I even liked how you could see how other people answered. Besides these puzzles and answering text messages, there is no other gameplay apart from talking to people.
Overall, Catherine is a love-hate thing. Puzzle fans will fall in love with this, but RPG and other genre fans will hate it. I only hated the puzzle stages, but I loved the story. With the puzzle levels being 90% of the game, I can’t really give this a higher score, even if I wanted to. It is gripping, exciting, steamy, and can go any way. The anime cutscenes are beautifully done, and even the English voice acting is tolerable, but I would have preferred the Japanese voices with English subtitles. If you insist on wanting to know the story and characters, rent this and keep a video walkthrough handy, and maybe a spare controller or three.
During the first 10 minutes of the game, the first thing you will think is, “WTF?” There’s nothing else to describe this game full of childish, mature humor and sickly, twisted ideas. That’s not to say that it’s bad. Most of the humor in the game is actually so childish and gross that you can’t help but laugh. Some stuff is downright hilarious, such as Johnson’s Boner Gun. Before I get into any detail, I have to say the story is pretty entertaining if it is straightforward and simple. You play Garcia Hotspur, who is a Mexican demon hunter and has a demon accompanying him in the form of a floating skull named Johnson. I didn’t really care much for Garcia because he is a typical potty-mouthed action hero, but I found Johnson to be the steal of the show. He’s a posh British demon that uses clean cuss words and is a stark contrast to Garcia, which makes him more likable and hilarious to listen to. Garcia is trying to get his stolen girlfriend, Paula, back from the demon lord Fleming, and of course, you follow him into the depths of Hell.
That’s about it, as far as the story goes. There’s a small twist at the very end after the credits, but after you see it, you won’t be surprised it happened. The main attraction is the banter between Garcia and Johnson and the stories you read throughout the game. Some of these made me bust up because they were so funny. Other than the story, I have to say that I really love the guns in this game. The creators force you to use all three, but they are upgraded so much that they feel like whole new guns throughout the game. Boner is your pistol, Teether is your machine gun, and the Skullblaster is your shotgun. These can be upgraded by finding blue gems from bosses. Boner turns into Hot Boner, which can set explosive mines; Teether can get a homing upgrade; and Skullblaster will eventually get an upgrade to create giant bombs. You can find red gems throughout to upgrade your weapons and health. Garcia guzzles down alcohol to heal himself because, apparently, alcohol keeps you alive in Hell.
The game works around a light vs. dark gameplay idea, and it works well. When you are surrounded by darkness, your health depletes, and you need to shoot a goat candelabra to return the light. Yeah, it’s weird, and that’s only the beginning. Gate keys consist of shoving strawberries, eyes, and brains into creepy baby faces that are guarding the gate. One level even has you walking over a giant, naked Paula. The game never stops delivering weirdness, and that’s exactly what makes this game so fun, because hey, it’s a Suda 51 game; what do you expect?
There are a few puzzles thrown in that can be fun because they are straightforward. I didn’t even need a walkthrough to get through this game. Even the boss fights use light and darkness to be beaten. In the darkness, you can only see the weak spots of enemies, so you have to quickly shoot them because you will die. This sounds frustrating, but it’s not. You get a darkness shield that depletes before your health starts going down. The enemy design is pretty crazy but repetitive. I got tired of shooting the same demons all the time. The whole game overall is repetitive in nature because it uses the same few elements mixed around a lot. My least favorite idea was the 2D shooting levels. These were frustrating and felt like pointless filler. There’s a fun boss fight at the end of the third level, but I could have gone without these.
After you beat the 8-hour game, there’s no reason to go back. There are no multiplayer or extra modes, which is a shame. I guess if you want to collect all the red gems, you can, but why bother? This is a fun weekend rental or cheap bargain bin purchase, and nothing more. If it weren’t for the repetition set throughout and those pointless 2D levels, I would have liked this a lot more. Garcia is a hard character to like, and the story is simple and straightforward. Overall, though, this is a solid game and highly entertaining. Just be warned that mature content isn’t for everyone.
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ORC is probably the worst game in the entire series. It's objectively awful. Being bad isn't different. Different is Outbreak…