Back in the old 64-bit era, famous actors were just starting to feature in video games, but many blew it off as child’s play. Bruce Willis is one of the first actors to have a game built with him as the main protagonist that is not based on a movie. The game features a very detailed Bruce for the time, with some solid pre-rendered FMVs thrown in the mix as well. The game features a noncoherent story that makes no sense, but when Bruce is involved, it’s all about the action, right?
The game has an over-the-top view, and you shoot all around you using the face buttons. You can jump, but as the camera goes, jumping can be a bitch and is probably the hardest part of the game. Not being able to move the camera in his environment is very frustrating and almost ruins the game. You can pick up different limited weapons such as homing missiles, plasma guns, electro bolts, etc.—nothing special. Each level, however, is very well laid out, and the enemies have nice designs. The game is hectic, fast-paced, and pretty immersive.
At the end of every level is a boss fight, and these can be easy or hard, and they vary throughout the game. A problem I ran into is that instead of using the second analog stick, using the face buttons makes shooting diagonally hard, which leads me to mention that the difficulty is very unbalanced. Some levels are easy, some are hard throughout the game, and that’s a bad thing.
Bruce Willis lends his voice, and there are maybe 20 or so lines. Yeah, that’s it. Cliche stuff such as “Ohhh, you want some too?!” “Kill ’em all, it’s time to jam!” and various groans and grunts. In my mind, that isn’t using Bruce Willis to his fullest potential. This game could have been cooler and more than just a name tie-in. I also feel a co-op mode would have been good here as well.
All in all, Apocalypse is a fun weekend shooter, but nothing more. Bruce Willis’ talent was wasted, but if you can get over the annoying camera, controls, and lack of an interesting story, then Apocalypse is just for you.
Grand Theft Auto has always been the pinnacle for sandbox games, angry politicians and moms, and great gameplay. With an already great game, this add-on gives us new characters, new stories, and added features. You play Luis Lopez, who is working for Tony, who pulled Luis off the streets and into his club business as a bodyguard. Both Luis and Tony get in over their heads, and their friendship spirals out of control to the brink of destruction. But can Luis save them on time?
You will meet many old characters from the original as well as finish a few unfinished side stories from Grand Theft Auto IV, such as the museum mission. If you want me to jump right to it, I will. There are a few great new features, and these include cars, people, dialog, parachuting, a rating system, and new weapons. The game also takes a more cinematic turn with epic helicopter rides, train rides, and even saving a person from certain death in the air via parachuting. There are triathlon missions, escort missions, killing missions, and missions that just turn for the worst.
The story is well planned out, and if you finish the story, you can finish drug wars on turf, but even if you finish those, you get about 10 hours of gameplay, so I just wish there was more for $20. The characters are very well thought out, and you can get very attached to them. All of this is accompanied by excellent voice acting as well. The rating system, however, is pretty useless since you don’t know what the requirements are, and perfecting each mission is tedious. Some require a certain amount of headshots or car damage. Sometimes this is impossible, but the die-hard crowd will strive to waste their time with this.
If you want variety in your missions, is it here, with no two being the same? Each mission is fun and memorable and may actually have you wanting to play through it twice. I love the mission variety in Grand Theft Auto, and Gay Tony provides this. With an epic climax that has you glued to your seat, you just don’t want to put the game down, and this is the first Grand Theft Auto that has done this for me, and that is what was worth the $20 for me. The great voice acting, dialog, story, characters, mission variety, and superb action.
If you are a fan of Grand Theft Auto IV and want more, here you go. The graphics are starting to look a tad aged; there isn’t enough new stuff, but the game is high in production values, and it really shines through.
The dynamic duo that debuted on the PS2 nine years ago is now back in next-generation action with new weapons, updated graphics, and the same awesome stories and dialog you would expect from the series. The future sees the duo fighting an ancient race known as the Cragmites that Ratchet’s lombax ancestors supposedly destroyed. Ratchet learns more about his ancestor’s dark past and must stop the evil Emperor Tachyon before he annihilates the last of the lombax race: Ratchet.
The game hasn’t changed in the past nine years, and this is both good and bad. The tried-and-true action platforming formula that revolutionized the platforming genre is still intact here, but with no upgrades. Ratchet can jump around, hover, glide, fly, roll, and shoot his way through hordes of enemies. The game is also a third-person shooter that allows strafing from side to side and a first-person mode. You have to go around the world finding certain gadgets and weapons to kill bigger, badder enemies and unlock areas. Gadgets range from the classic Slingshot and Gravity/Grind Boots to the new Geo-Laser (which uses the SixAxis to guide it), the Hover Wings (which also uses the SixAxis), and more. Weapons include the Combuster, Shard Repeater, Tornado Launcher (that uses SixAxis to guide the tornadoes), Death Springs, Predator Missile, and more. There are some defensive weapons, like the awesome Grovatron, which shoots out the disco ball and makes the enemies dance. The Morph gun turns enemies into penguins, while the Gelenator uses a green jello goop that lets you jump to higher areas at certain levels. All the weapons are original, creative, and really fun to use. Some enemies are weaker than other weapons, which makes weapons gained at the beginning useless towards the end, so there are balancing issues.
Weapons can be upgraded automatically after use, or you can do it yourself by collecting raritanium and upgrading at weapon stations. You can also buy new weapons, armor, and gadgets like Leech Bombs. Buying items in the game requires nuts and bolts that are collected from killing enemies or breaking open boxes. There are also some ammo boxes spread throughout the level, so keep an eye out for those. There are also life boxes that you can collect, but these tend to be rare thanks to the game’s high difficulty. Yeah, the game is really hard because not only are the bosses hard, but later on, in the game, a few hits will kill you even if your health is past the 200 range. I found this very frustrating, plus no matter how much you upgrade your weapons, you never feel like they’re powerful enough, which leads to ammo issues. This is a huge downfall in the game, and I hope the new game fixes this problem.
If you really love just killing enemies, you can go into the infamous gladiator stages and earn yourself some serious bolts by beating waves of enemies with certain instructions. These can range from only using your wrench, weapons switching automatically, to even boss fight tag teams. Some people are probably wondering about Clank. Well, he gets his own upgraded and improved levels using the mysterious Zoni as his helper instead of the little robot Clanks. You can levitate across gaps and order them to repair things, and the newest addition is slowing downtime. Clank’s sections haven’t been updated too much, but it’s enough to keep you from getting bored. You can also collect gold bolts and unlock skill points to buy some costumes in the extras menu, but they aren’t that great, so only hardcore fans should indulge.
Another side note that I have to mention is that the game uses the SixAxis really well, from diving from the sky to use the weapons to even shaking your booty in a pirate dancing mini-game—yeah, only in Ratchet & Clank. One of my favorite mini-games is the new “tilt-the-ball” type of hacking game, which has a spark running from circuits, and you have to tilt the controller to guide a metal ball to connect the gaps so the spark can reach its node. The game throws a lot of new stuff at you at a good rate, so this keeps you from getting bored. I just wish that the game wasn’t so hard so it could be more enjoyable. What makes the game even harder is that the checkpoints are far and few in between. You can finish half a level and then have to start over from the beginning.
If you think Future suffers from a lot of problems, it does. The huge difficulty problem, poor balancing, and not-so-next-gen graphics make you really consider this for purchase, but with a super funny story, loveable characters, and great weapons, it makes up for all those shortcomings. The Groovitron alone is worth the play-through.
Metal Gear Solid is one of the most memorable game series ever created, and MGS4 is a great topping on the cake. Not only does MGS4 offer an incredibly riveting story, but also some great multiplayer as well as hidden stuff for long-time MGS fans irking all the way back to the original game.
Starting out with MGS4 is kind of daunting due to the deep storyline that is hard to follow unless you have played the other three games, but you can manage if you are smart enough and stick with the story. The only problem I had with the story was the drawn-out cut scenes that can last over 30 minutes, thanks to Hideo Kojima’s love for cinematic storytelling. Most of the length comes at the end of every chapter, the mission briefing, and then the beginning of the next chapter. Each chapter took over 30 minutes to start, and sometimes the dialog can drag on and become sleep-inducing.
Metal Gear has always been known for its stealth gameplay, and MGS4 is the first Metal Gear game to give you complete control of the camera and even implement a first-person mode. The greatest improvement (for me) was the fact that sneaking through compounds, camps, and warfront lines didn’t feel like a puzzle anymore but like a stealth game. The amount of stuff in your HUD may be overwhelming at first, but you will adjust. You have a health meter, a psyche meter (that I never found any reason to keep track of), an item and weapon menu, a camouflage gauge, and a radar screen. You can also buy weapons and ammo from Drebin’s Shop using Drebin points that are accumulated by picking up weapons on the battlefield. You can also customize weapons now with silencers, grenade launchers, shotguns, flashlights, and more. There are dozens of weapons to buy, and each comes in handy for certain situations.
Using your camouflage is one of my favorite elements because whenever you lie still, your suit copies the texture on the ground and lets you blend in better. Throughout the game, you will acquire more types of camouflage, but the suit is great. You can even change the color of your vest and face. Another element that I love is the change of pace in the game. No longer have you been confined to stealth-only elements since there will be full-out firefights through some levels, vehicle sections, and even a section where you use a mech. That doesn’t sound like metal gear to you? Welcome to the evolution.
The game just feels fluid, smooth, transitions well, and has a perfect playtime of about 15-20 hours. You can also partly interact with the cinematic by zooming in and, at key points, pressing L1 for a first-person view and pressing X for flashbacks of previous games. I do have to say my biggest disappointment was the boss fights, since they aren’t as original as in previous games. Most just have you shooting enemies to death and using a key element to figure out how to actually kill them.
There are a multitude of CQC moves for you to use against enemies or just a good silenced shot to the headworks too. Hiding bodies isn’t such a big deal anymore since you are in a war, and crawling through dead bodies will be like tomorrow’s chores after a while. Using camouflage to blend is probably the key element to sneaking in this game since using shadows and lying are still key.
When it comes to multiplayer, you are in for a treat because Metal Gear Online is a fully integrated online system that is separate from the game. You have several different game types (all the ones you can expect), all while using Drebin points to use guns during matches and using your experience points to level up and buy stuff for your character through the Konami website. There are several expansions available, but Metal Gear just never felt like an online thing for me. It is fun, but trying to find a room with 16 people is kind of rare, especially at lower levels. The online element of Metal Gear is strangely deep for a game that doesn’t get much online traffic since Metal Gear feels strictly like a single-player-only experience, but it’s there for people who want it.
If Metal Gear turned you off before, you should give it another shot because it truly mixes stealth and action beautifully, and even someone who doesn’t care too much for Metal Gear (like me) can love this game. The game looks amazing, and all the characters look life-like and are rendered beautifully. The voice acting is top-notch, and nothing can type out the fight scenes. Patience is a virtue in this game, but you get a great feeling of satisfaction after sneaking through a whole enemy camp unseen. It is easier than previous games, but it still offers a challenge.
If you love the Metal Gear saga, then you should have this already, but even people who have never played a Metal Gear game get engrossed in this wonderfully crafted and touching story while being sucked into the single-player experience.
First-person shooters have always been one of my favorite genres because of the amazing stories that most tell, accompanied by the beautiful cinematic experiences that most provide these days. Modern Warfare 2 is among those, but the multiplayer is what will keep you coming back for more. Modern Warfare 2 starts after the first game, so I highly suggest picking up the Game of the Year Edition if you really want to get into Modern Warfare. You play as new recruits and follow the characters you played as in the original (Captain Price and Soap MacTavish). You are still trying to stop the Russian psychopath Makarov, who has now brought the war to the east coast of our own country.
The game is more cinematic than the original, but not as intuitive in terms of level design and length. There are things in Modern Warfare 2 that have never been done in an FPS before, like ice climbing, but you also have a snowmobile scene as well as using AC-130 attack planes. But the game just doesn’t compare to the original in terms of single-player. One of the most memorable moments is at the beginning, when you actually play as a terrorist on one level and massacre people in an airport. I am very surprised this passed the ESRB censorship without anyone complaining because they can’t control their kids’ actions. Anyways, there are a lot of things in the single-player experience for fans of the original, including flashbacks of the last game and even another sniper level with Captain Price, but nothing tops the level in Pripyat from the original. The biggest thing you will notice is the mass amount of weapons you can use. There were so many weapons that I couldn’t use them all in one play-through. One thing that just strikes me as amazing is seeing our own country, as if this happened tomorrow, as a war-torn battlefield. It’s very awe-inspiring and makes you stop and admire the scenery. While the single-player experience only has about 4-6 hours of gameplay, it’s enough to get you started and familiar with the game enough to jump right into multiplayer, and it comes out bats swinging and all.
Modern Warfare is renowned for its award-winning multiplayer, and it is probably the best FPS multiplayer I have ever played on any system. The game is about reaching rank 70 using the real-life military ranking system and earning experience points from kills. You start out using the default load-outs, but after reaching rank 4, you can make up to five custom classes. You can pick a primary and secondary weapon, equipment, special equipment, three perks, and a death streak. For each weapon, you can choose an attachment ranging from scopes, grips, silencers, and heartbeat monitors. Perks add advantages to your skills, such as steady aim, faster reloading, being invisible to UAVs, air support, etc., master melee speed, and you get the idea. There is even a new perk called Bling, which allows you to have two attachments to your primary weapon.
Once you have your classes created, you can start earning experience points with them. The multiplayer in Modern Warfare 2 is so deep that you earn points from completing challenges by using and doing everything you possibly can hundreds of times. Challenges range from getting so many kills for every weapon, attachment, perk, death streak, kill streak, etc. Just about everything you do earns you points to move on up, and this can get you hundreds of hours of online fun. If that isn’t enticing enough, 12 players may not seem like much, but on these maps, they are. My only real complaint is that there aren’t many maps, and most of them aren’t that good. A select few are well designed and very fun to play on, but some are just boring, but a map pack is due soon to fix this.
Some of the new features you have heard me talk about are new death streaks, which are a fourth perk that is enabled if you die three times, and these range from dropping a live grenade upon death to 10 seconds of extra health upon respawning. Killstreaks are now customizable and unlockable by earning ranks. There are over a dozen now, ranging from controllable AC-130 airstrikes, helicopter strikes, Hind attacks, and carpet bombing. Getting 25 kills in a row can even land you a tactical nuke that lets your team automatically win. My favorite is the care package drops (upon earning 4 kills in a row) that deliver random kill streaks or even the placeable turret.
You also now have a customizable call sign, which is a placard that displays an emblem, a mockery banner, your rank, and your gamertag. There are dozens of emblems and titles to unlock, and mixing and matching is fun while the titles can match your personality, such as ones that say “Bow Down,” “Omnipotent,” “Joint Ops,” or “Voyeur.” There is just an endless heap of options in this game, and it truly makes it the best FPS multiplayer game ever made because there isn’t one thing I would want to change about the game. I really want to give this game a 9.5, but the slightly disappointing single-player and covert ops bring it down a tad.
Covert Ops seems more like an experiment than anything else because no one plays it online. Think of these as special missions that have you killing a certain number of enemies or racing down a hill in a snowmobile to get a certain time. 90% of these are impossible to do without someone else, so you will most definitely need a buddy to beat them.
On one last note, the game looks amazing. With super high-res textures and looking close to real-life on an HDTV in all its 1080p 50” glory, you will be drooling all the time. Everything is highly detailed, and the sound is just amazing for that “in-the-war” experience. Modern Warfare 2 is just an amazing game and really shows how sequels should be: improvements upon the original in which the developer listens to its fellow community and makes changes accordingly.
Killzone 2 is such irony because everyone bashed the first game back in 2004, claiming it was a failed “Halo Killer” and trying to be Sony’s proprietary FPS since Microsoft had Halo and Nintendo had Metroid Prime. Now that 5 years have rolled around, Killzone 2 is considered one of the best FPS games ever made, is winning multiple games of the year awards as we speak, was made the best-looking game of all time (during its release), and looked 100 times better than Halo 3. Not only that, but back in 2005, everyone criticized the game for being pre-rendered because no one thought this kind of stuff could be done on a game console. Even in terms of multiplayer, Killzone 2 really impresses with a strong ranking system, squads, voice chat, clans, and the works.
The weakest part of Killzone 2 may be its story and characters. Instead of playing as Templar like in the first game, you play as Sev and fight alongside a squad of three: Garza, Natko, and Rico (the only ones from the original game). The war against the Helghast isn’t over, so the only option is to storm the Visari Palace and take Visari down once and for all while fighting against a cruel general hell bent on getting the ISA’s nuke codes.
Not only is the game lacking a solid story and characters, it is also very short. You can beat the game in about 6–8 hours, depending on your playstyle, so it will leave you wanting way more. One thing that impressed me a lot was the clever level design. The levels make you really think about your strategy on how to attack enemies, and this includes the weapons as well. Each one is unique and can only be used in certain situations, and there is a smorgasbord of them to boot. You have flamethrowers, rocket launchers, shotguns, and other sorts. Each weapon feels powerful and packs a good punch, especially when your shotgun takes off ahead at point-blank. You can mount turrets and even drive vehicles at a couple of points. Now, when it comes to Sixaxis Control, the game uses it very poorly in only three ways. You can turn valves, set charges, and move the loading screen hologram around. It was not very exciting, and I was expecting some pretty good use out of it with an epic game like Killzone 2.
If you have an HDTV, the game will blow your mind visually and audibly thanks to its impressive next-gen showcase. The graphics are amazing, with super-high-res textures that have never been seen before. This stuff looks like pre-rendered next-gen graphics, but in real-time. While the game doesn’t have much color, that is okay because there is a distinct art style. There is a lot of ambiance on top of all this that makes you feel like you are on a war-torn planet fighting for your race.
If there is one thing I absolutely love about this game, it is the Helghast design. They are such cool characters with creepy, glowing red eyes, raspy voices that are only heard through gas masks, and strange British accents. The gritty art style is great and really fits this type of game, despite everyone complaining about next-gen games not having enough color.
The multiplayer is the meat of the game, with up to 32 players on each map, and everything gets really insane really fast. It takes a while to get the hang of how everything is done and the fast pace. When I first went online, I died about 100 times before I even made my first kill, and no, I don’t suck. After you get the hang of everything, it becomes super addictive and fun. There are plenty of modes, from team deathmatch to search and destroy to even a king of the hill type game. For people who just got a PS3 for Christmas, Killzone 2 is something to really show off to your friends, and with great multiplayer, you can expect lots of hours playing this great next-gen gem.
The newest RPG hybrid is probably FPS hybrids, and since these are so new, Borderlands can be considered one of the first to perfect them. While Fallout 3 holds the crown, let’s just say Borderlands is the prince. If you have had a hard time grasping FPS/RPG hybrids, then let me put it simply for you. Like in traditional RPGs, you have elemental attacks. In Borderlands, you have these, and they consist of corrosion, explosives, fire, and lightning. Some guns can be fused with elemental powers, i.e., a lightning combat rifle will deplete enemies with shields faster than just a normal rifle. A shotgun with corrosive powers can kill creatures faster than a gun with lightning powers.
Another element that you should be familiar with is statistics. Just like TRPGs, Borderlands has damage and hit accuracy on weapons. You get shields that have certain aspects, such as when they deplete, they send a wave of corrosive acid, or they recharge faster or give you a health boost, etc. You also get grenade mods, which change the way your grenades act, just like guns. There are also specific class mods that can increase some of your stats even further. Additionally, each character has a specific ability they can use, and you can equip special spheres that add attributes to this ability. Sound like a TRPG so far? What about enemies? They too have levels and shields, and the damage you deal with them will bounce off of them in a series of numbers, along with the experience you get once they are killed.
There are a lot of little tidbits, such as the money system; you can purchase items or upgrades at vending machines; saving claptrap robots can give you more storage space; there are healing items; when you kill an enemy, you can loot them; and you can also loot the dungeons you enter or the open world. See, it still sounds like a TRPG. What makes it different? Just add guns, a vehicle you can drive and shoot from, and a fast travel system. The way to play in all this fun is to co-op. More players + harder enemies=better loot. There is good math in my book.
This sounds fine and dandy, like nothing can go wrong, but Borderlands has its issues. While the gameplay is actually pretty flawless, with lots of guns such as rocket launchers, combat rifles, SMGs, revolvers, etc. The content is very thin. There isn’t much to do but run around the barren wasteland, completing the 150+ side missions and 50+ story missions. There is hardly a story or any dialog. You’re just running around trying to find this vault with some special treasure. All the loot is the same, and even the storage bins you find them in get boring to see after a while. While the game has a pretty neat cartoony graphics style, everything is brown and boring, which puts the neat art style to waste.
The difficulty isn’t something to complain about since it increases as you level up. Each area has to load separately, and the load times are longer than they should be. Most of the side missions vary from scavenger hunts to killing people, looting, and more killing, but the core gameplay is really shallow, and the stuff it’s wrapped around is flawless. This game is really meant for people who just want a straightforward shooter with some more depth and a twist. While it does feel more arcadey than Fallout 3 and more pick-up-and play it just doesn’t have that charm and amazing feeling to it. Borderlands is executed well but just needs more filling to make it superb. However, the game is highly addictive, and even though you know you’re doing the same thing over and over again, you never get tired of it. The game has a level 50 cap and can be completed 100% in less than 20 hours, so Borderlands is a great purchase for any shooter fan.
Awww, good ‘ol GTA on the PSP once again. We had two great outings so far with Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, which were your standard traditional GTA games that were executed almost flawlessly. Chinatown Wars is a great treat because it is not a “mini” version of past console GTA games but the first top-down GTA game since GTA 2, but this time it doesn’t suck.
There are a lot of new elements in Wars, but we’ll get to that eventually. You play as a Chinese guy (instead of all those Italians and that one black guy…) named Huang, who is supposed to deliver a sword to his dead dad’s boss so his uncle can become the new leader of the triad. It turns out the sword gets stolen, and you are on a wild goose chase to find it. Like previous GTA games, this one’s story has great plot twists all the way to the very last mission, and it will keep you playing for hours. Since this is a port from the DS, there is no voice acting but drawn panels with written dialogue, which is just fine for this type of game.
If you’re thinking top-down GTA hinders gameplay, you’re dead wrong. The controls are so smooth and easy to use. Unfortunately, lock-on targeting is still an issue, but everything you love in a GTA game is here plus some. You can sprint, jump, shoot, and toss grenades all in you’re criminally intent glory. Controlling the cars in this game is sweet and smooth (unlike GTA 4), and they turn without a fuss. You can shoot from your car or pretty much anywhere.
The GPS system is similar to GTA4‘s, with lines telling you the best route to your destination, and using cabs can get you there faster. One thing that you can’t do, however, is use cabs during a mission, so you are forced to drive yourself, which is fine. Missions vary from escorting to shooting people up to blowing things up, and so on, just like in other GTA games. Wars have a great variety of missions, from using boats to homing in on wireless signals, so you never feel bored.
One disappointment is that you don’t get your huge income from completing missions. You get it from dealing drugs. Yeah, it’s a new element, and not one that’s warmly welcomed. You can deal with anything from weed to heroin to coke, but you have found these dealers through tip-offs you receive in your email. Sometimes you even get rewarded with drugs on missions instead of cash, and lots of times nothing at all. You’re going to need lots of green if you want weapons, especially through the express order from your phone feature. Having it delivered can be a bit tedious, but it works. You can also hijack certain vans for drugs and ammo if you’re low on cash as well.
One of the most noticeable additions are the minigames that were carried over from the DS. Anywhere from attaching a bomb to opening a panel in a car to rummaging through trash for guns to assembling a sniper rifle, there are some pretty fun and interesting mini-games. These don’t hinder gameplay but make you feel more involved in minute details, which have always been missing in previous GTA games. Another great addition is how you shake off cops. You get your wanted level, then underneath are icons of cop cars, and if you make them crash hard, they disappear, and it lowers your wanted level. Each level adds a car, so getting 15 cars to crash can take a long time.
The game also looks amazing and has a cell-shaded style in terms of graphics, but the game is still full of life. This is probably one of the best-looking PSP games out right now, and this includes no load times. Chinatown Wars is superior to the DS version and may also be a reason to buy a PSP if you haven’t already. The game is short for GTA standards, so if you just do the main missions, you can beat the game in less than 10 hours.
Dead Space is a surprising new gaming franchise from EA that is actually original, in-depth, and just really amazing. The whole story behind Dead Space is just so surreal, thanks to all the different forms of media, from movies to books to comic books. Dead Space is an alien artifact that somehow unleashed a deadly race of aliens onto a planet colony and found its way to the Ishimura, which is a planet-cracking ship.
Dead Space: Extraction sets itself between the comic books and the first Dead Space game. Think of this as what happened before Isaac Clarke entered the Ishimura. Extraction may initially throw you off guard since it’s an “on-rails” FPS kind of like old arcade games. This may turn Dead Space fans completely off since you don’t have control over exploration. While this does hamper the score a lot, there is so much fun and fright to be had in Extraction.
The main focus in Extraction is getting the hell off the Ishimura and finding a shuttle. You play several characters throughout the game, but your main guy is Nate. He is a P-SEC officer who is working with his sergeant to get as many people to safety as possible. You really only see your reticle; the main focus is to point and shoot. The controls are really great and laid out for both regular use and the Wii Zapper (or any other gun attachment you may have), so I will be reviewing this game off of the Zapper control scheme. You have a lot in your hands besides weapons, and this includes your stasis (which slows down objects) and your telekinesis, which will pull objects towards you. You also have a swipe attack for melee and cutting things throughout the game.
Most of your weapon arsenal is tools, and all the weapons from the original Dead Space are back with lots of additions. Some of these include the P-SEC pistol, welding gun, and nail gun. The nail gun is standard and has unlimited ammo, but each weapon has secondary fire. For example, the pulse rifle has a shotgun blast that must be charged, the P-SEC pistol has a spray shot, and the flamethrower can shoot fireballs. All of these weapons will be needed and strategically used for certain situations.
Most of the game plays through the creepy and eerie story, with the character moving on his or her own. While this is immersive and cinematic, it can be boring sometimes since several minutes can pass by just looking around at nothing. The game moves at a slower pace than you would want, but it fits the atmosphere. There will be times when creatures will grab you out of the dark, and you must shake your Wii remote to turn on your glow worm. You will hear strange voices and creepy visions that pop up out of nowhere. While you’re roaming these halls, you need to act fast and use your telekinesis to grab ammo, upgrades, health, audio/text logs, etc. All of these are tallied up at the end of each chapter, and you are scored.
When it comes to creatures, I can’t really recall any new forms. Every single form from the original Dead Space is here, and even some environments. The developers recycled a lot of content, and this felt like a big no-no to me. While there are some simple mini-games, such as a rewiring game where you can’t touch red circuits, a turret section, and some parts that have you nail stuff up to keep things out, The game is riveting and exciting, but by the time you get through all ten (long) chapters, you just want it to end. This is partly due to the difficulty factor and the unbalanced ammo versus creature problem. Scrounging ammo is very difficult in this game, even in the easiest setting, and it makes you wish the developers would just stop doing that.
I, however, highly enjoyed this game and found it to be worth the $50 purchase. A number of weapons, a decent length, and amazing graphics helped make this game easy to chew. There is just enough mixed around for you to stay on the edge of your seat, and that’s what keeps you playing.
50 Cent is one of those celebrities who thinks he can dominate any market or any industry, especially ones he knows nothing about, just by flexing his abs, flaunting his fake money, cars, and jewelry. That’s all Blood on the Sand in a nutshell, but if you look past the ’50s over-the-top thug persona, you have a pretty decent weekend rental. The game’s story is complete nonsense since 50 and his crew are fighting Middle Eastern terrorists for a priceless skull. What is 50 doing in the Middle East? Probably not singing for charity causes. What makes the story even more ridiculous is that it’s just lame. You never know why this (insert unpronounceable Middle Eastern name here) owes him this money, and the game just has a lot of loopholes story-wise. Thankfully, it’s easily forgettable, and you really just concentrate on the action.
Blood on the Sand has a lot of action, and it’s not too bad, really. You run around in a third-person POV, ducking behind cover and shooting to your heart’s content. Unfortunately, the game has a slightly broken cover mechanic since it’s too sticky. When you pull away from the cover, sometimes 50 won’t move away, and you usually have to use the roll button to get off. This makes it hard if someone is running up to you and you need to get away quickly.
There are a plethora of weapons in the game, and they can be bought via placed phone booths or picked up by downed enemies. The downside to this is that better weapons can’t be bought until the last level of the game because you can never earn enough money to buy them. Money is earned by killing enemies or smashing crates. Not only can you buy weapons, but you can also buy taunts and takedowns.
Takedowns are timed melee attacks that show 50 using martial arts he really doesn’t know in real life (everything in the game he can’t do in real life yet raps that he can). The problem with buying more takedowns is that you never see the animations. The same takedown is repeated over and over again until the engine decides to let you see one that you spent $50,000 on. The taunt thing is just ridiculous and really earns the game’s M rating. The M rating is mainly for all the swearing, which is in every other word. While this is fine, I just think it’s ridiculous and unnecessary and doesn’t make the game any better. Besides, taunting does nothing for gameplay and just seemed like something that was thrown in there so 50 can curse more.
My favorite parts of the game are the vehicle sections, which vary from turrets on helicopters to driving jeeps. These parts tend to be pretty easy, but I have to admit the game is unnecessarily hard. The game throws too many enemies at you at times, and it is completely retarded. I’ve never played a shooter with so many enemies in my life. It’s hard to really strategize what you’re going to do when there’s an enemy around every corner, and they can even hit you through your cover sometimes. If you really love 50, you can find posters and targets around the game that let you unlock all of his music videos. I am also disappointed that Eminem and the other Shady crew didn’t make an appearance in this game. Hell, even his G-Unit buddies take a back seat as poorly controlled AI opponents, but that’s what co-op is for.
The game has pretty decent graphics since it uses Unreal Engine 3, but it doesn’t use the engine like we’ve seen it before. The game is very dark since the whole thing takes place in a desert, which leaves little room for an artistic style. The audio is pretty good, with a voiceover from 50 Cent, but it tends to be overdone sometimes or spotty. If you really love 50 Cent, you must own this game, but if you just like your shooters, then give this a spin.
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Try multiplayer. A lot of fun !