Metagamer

Mass Effect

Games are never the first choice of media as being able to tell a good story.  In fact I’d go so far as to say they’re the worst.  However, RPG’s are probably the only genre in gaming where the story takes precedence over any other aspect that makes up a game.  I believe it was Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games who said that gameplay was the most important aspect of a game, and whilst I disagreed at the time of hearing it, I have come to think that that is the main reason that I play games.  It doesn’t hurt for a game to have an epic storyline either - in fact I think my most favourite games have got both brilliant gameplay and inspiring storytelling. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Mass Effect has one of the best storylines in any video game ever made.  It’s not the most original - I can think of at least another two very mainstream games (let alone films and TV series) that follow the same old “old race wiped out leaving awesome technology for humans/future civilisations to uncover”* storyline, but that’s not to say that it’s a bad thing.  Some of the best stories are just old stories told in a new way, well.

I don’t like RPG games. Well, that’s a bit harsh - I don’t really like JRPG games.  I was told that this game was a in lines with an action based RPG, and now that I’ve completed it, it definitely felt more like one.  However, Mass Effect wasn’t without its faults.  I originally started playing this game a year ago and I got a few missions through the game and gave up after having lost interest.  What was different this time is that someone showed me roughly how to use the Equipment screen.  I understand that the majority of RPGs are based on items and upgrading them, and then having attributes that should be upgraded when you “level up”.  But the Equipment screen is like another non-favourite genre of game of mine - sports management games.  They basically revolve around slightly more interactive spreadsheets - in fact I have had more pleasant experiences with some spreadsheets than having to use the Equipment screen in Mass Effect.

- Why is there a restriction of 150 on the number of items you can carry? It seems rather arbitrary?

- Why then do you have to manually go through the additional items you’re holding and turn them to omni-gel?  It shouldn’t have to feel like work to play a game.

- Why isn’t auto-save implemented at more places and more conveniently.  I’m not in 1996 playing a game on the PC, this is 2011 (or 2007 when the game was released - the same year as the “can’t manually save” Assassin’s Creed).  The amount of times that I found myself dying and having to play another 15 minutes of game that I had just played was too many.  Remembering to save a game should not be part of it.

The dialogue of the game felt like it was written by a professional screen writer, and more increasingly in gaming it is becoming more obvious when the person writing the dialogue is also the person who makes the tea.  It would be wrong of me to compare the screen writing and voice acting to the very recent Portal 2, but you can see where games like Portal 2 have taken inspiration to do better.  So I’ve heard recently on a podcast, secondary effects in games like sound engineering and lighting can actually affect your overall experience more than anything else. Dead Space is a game that springs to mind where the overall quality of the game is brought up several notches just because of the sound engineering.  What I am trying to say is that the quality of the voice acting and the sheer volume of it in Mass Effect is second to none.  The characters were entirely believable, and the conversation tree used to control of everything Shepard says made him feel like one of the most personal and relatable characters ever crafted in a game. It’s the game that first handed all the controls to you for you to craft your own character, even right down to their physical appearance and it’s for this reason that Mass Effect is historical in the gaming world.

I cannot express either how good the sci-fi was in the the game in general.  The ideas and background given to other species and “incomprehensible” ideas such as the Reapers is phenomenal.  I was reminded of Battlestar Galactica and the phrase “All this has happened before. All this will happen again.” when the storyline was developed a bit further, and it’s such an interesting topic I find I don’t stop thinking about it for hours. And that’s how I’ll remember this game.

* In case you were wonder what I was referring to: Metroid Prime, Halo series

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood

Two nights ago I had the same feelings I had about a year ago when I finished Assassin’s Creed 2. I felt as though I had been ripped off.

Many a good word has been said about both AC2 and ACB (also affectionately known as Ass Creed Bros.) by various different reviewing engines, but rarely have I disagreed so much with the vast majority of the scores and the opinion of the storyline that appears in the franchise. I agree with the majority of people - Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is the best game in the series, and one of the better games of 2010. In fact I would go as far as to say this game felt like more of a step up than it was from Assassin’s Creed 1 to 2, simply because of the new way I felt I was playing the game, and because of the additional multiplayer which wasn’t just hacked on.

My opinion is based on a number of things - the way the synchronisation is now weighted between me being able to achieve my goal in a certain way, forcing me to play certain levels in a way I maybe wouldn’t have thought about doing it before; and the overall depth of the meta games, specifically the assassin’s guild and recruitment.

The game did a very good job of immersing you into the city which actually did feel oppressed by the game’s antagonist, and by building up your assassin’s from their lowly status of humble peasant through the ranks up to the level of assassin was not only satisfying, but hugely rewarding later on in the game when a simple whistle led to the annihilation of every enemy on screen from a storm of arrows. It’s just one of the coolest things I’ve ever felt in command of, and hasn’t stopped me smiling yet. This may make the combat of the game slightly easier, in the way that you don’t have to do much, but I never saw it as the only way to play - the timeout from using it was enough for me to respect it enough to use it as a last resort, or when I knew that it was appropriate. And the challenge, for me, lied in actually ranking the assassin’s up to that level, rather than the subsequent benefit I got from it.

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON:

I also thought the ending battle of the game (fighting Cesare on top of the ruined castle) was pretty epic, especially having mastered the chaining part of the combat by that point, and then the bit with Desmond et al in the Coliseum was a very pleasant parkour set.

Where I was left feeling ripped off then, was that overall, the final section of the game left me with more questions than it had answers for questions that had already been asked. This to me was like the entire TV show LOST, and whilst I absolutely loved LOST and fought its battles over the years, even though a lot of the time I agreed with what people were saying about it, LOST was never about the sci-fi - it was about the characters and what happened to them. Sadly, I think that video games have got a long way to go before they can convey the same character development as TV shows or films, and unfortunately for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood it didn’t have such a good cast that I cared about any of them. Except for maybe Ezio. What a dude.

I could, if I felt so inclined, go looking for influences the game had on other people and see what they thought about the ending, but why should I? More difficult concepts have been described in other media in clearer detail that the end of ACB, and I feel cheated about it not actually being made clear enough for me to understand what the hell was going on, so I would want a next game, rather than just paint a massive banner over my screen advertising the sequel where they probably won’t tell me any more details anyway.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, as annoyed as I am, I still went back and played another two hours of it this evening finishing off the side quests. The gameplay is some of the best of the generation.

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P.S. - I can’t actually believe gametrailers.com review said the graphics look dated. It is one of the best looking games I have ever seen on 360, the draw-distance is phenomenal and the frame rate is pretty consistent throughout; the textures are also incredibly high quality - and the sheer fluidity of the thousands of animations is enough to make me doubt the quality of gametrailers reviews.

Plants vs. Zombies

After having just completed Plants vs Zombies on my iPod touch, I have to take a step back and wonder just what has kept me playing this game to completion (and beyond) on three different platforms. And, with the recent announcement of the DS version to be released early next year, what is still exciting me about the prospect of getting a copy and playing my way through it all over again.

Plants vs Zombies is not like any other desktop tower defence game - or at least any that I have played. PvZ is by no means an easy game to play, but at the same time the traditional rules of desktop tower defence games don’t seem to apply. For starters, the zombies only ever attack from one direction, and only change which direction (or lane if you want) by using an item that you dictate.

The brilliance of PvZ comes in the form of constant reward - after every single level you are rewarded with another tool to which you can help the zombies make their demise… again. This is source of the addictiveness behind the game and the “just-one-more-go” scenario renders you wondering what you’ve done with yourself all evening.

PopCap add a certain polish to their games I can only liken with Nintendo. This is apparent in how well the game and its items are balanced. Every plant or item you get is a sensible addition to your arsenal which means that while you have to play strategically, there’s also an element of exploration involved. The learning curve is shallow, and the narrative (a one Crazy Dave, who surprisingly is crazy in a laugh-out-loud kinda way) is superb and fits the game very well.

I found the best version that I’ve played so far to be the XBLA version - and this is because the HD TV I have makes it look the best. Also there is additional multiplayer that isn’t in other versions, but PvZ really doesn’t need it.

Overall: I absolutely love PvZ and everything about it. I would get this game if you’ve ever played a PopCap game before (Peggle, Bejewelled) or if you need to satisfy your addictive personality with something completely and utterly satisfying.

Costume Quest

For most of my life (I don’t count the bits of it I can’t remember), I have taken pride in my entertainment media collection.  I see it as a trophy for my expression in taste and the amount of money that I’ve put into it.  This lasted through my teenage years, into university and out again.  Then I got a job and was able to afford the “collectors” editions and the like of all the games I wanted at a greater financial ease than I had before.  However, I think this is likely to be changing, and for the better.  I have now realised that whilst I still take pride in the amount of media I have and something to actually show for my money, I don’t have the amount of time to spend on those things as I might have a few years ago, and hence they are more disposable.

This is in conjunction with another change that has been happening in the last few years - downloadable/digitally distributed media has become a lot more accessible (note to distributors: this doesn’t mean it’s cheaper for the consumer - it should be!).  The quality of downloadable games, specifically in XBLA where there is room for indie developers to get their content out to mainstream relatively quickly, has also dramatically improved and risen the bar particularly high, making the market competitive and advantageous to the gamer.  With the likes of Braid, Shadow Complex and Limbo (to name just 3) XBLA is starting to turn into my favourite marketplace to get games.  Costume Quest I thought, for price point to quality of game is one of my new favourites and let me explain why:

It makes sense for a games company like Double Fine to change their direction to smaller, more focused games like they are doing under the “Amnesia Fortnights” project.  I loved their last major release: Brutal Legend, and when thinking back to why people might not have liked it, you can see the subsets getting smaller: the number of people who like metal, those who like metal who like games, those who like games and metal who like RTS games (specifically console ones)… you get the idea.  It took four years to make Brutal Legend and its core market was going to be smaller than your average game, that’s why it went through such difficulties securing investment by publishers.  But I don’t believe that it is any longer an issue that large games companies have to release full retail games that have to do well otherwise it will be the end of them, because the XBLA-esque markets are strong enough to support them.

As people who know me would tell you, I’m not the biggest fan of the genre that Costume Quest falls into - turn based RPG.  But Costume Quest is the prime example of what an XBLA game should be - it’s short enough to keep anyone who starts the game to carry on playing to completion and it’s long enough to give you a sense of accomplishment when you have. The combat is so quick that it doesn’t even really feel like it’s turn based, and the main quest is so concise that you get a good idea of what you’ve got to do and how long it will take you.

But that’s not entirely why I loved Costume Quest though - Tim Schafer has always been the best comedy writer for games.  But more-so than comedy, his studios push the boundaries of what the content and context of games can be about - meaning this isn’t another Gears of War/Call of Duty run and gun type game, or even a Final Fantasy.  It takes the core elements of an existing genre and surrounds it with an original story (I can’t remember any other game that is based around the actual holiday of Halloween) and fantastic presentation that I doubt anyone couldn’t find endearing and just plain cool.

I think the game works well in the genre (for someone who doesn’t traditionally like that kind of genre) because the scope of the quests are quite small.  Even being able to collect everything in game doesn’t seem like a chore like in other games because you can quite easily see what you have to get.  Put it this way: I got every single achievement in the game in one play through without looking at the list of what you had to do to get them.

Overall: You should get this game, because it’s easy to play, addictive but not too long, and you should support Double Fine!

Left 4 Dead 2

So there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding Left 4 Dead 2, and for once I can see the meaning behind some of the claims.  I also can think of a few of my own.

I would consider myself a console gamer - no interest in PC gaming as I don’t have the money or time to spend fixing up a high-end PC to play games on, and my XBOX more than satisfies my appetite. I’m saying this because I don’t really care for the lack of mod support in Left 4 Dead.

Where I feel cheated is not really with one thing in particular but a whole lump of things that add to each other, and this is not me being pretentious and reckoning that Valve owe me anything - they don’t.  As a computer scientist I can see how they’ve got to Left 4 Dead 2 within a year though - well maybe not as quick as a year, but the game has changed quite significantly.  There are three new super zombies, a shit load more guns, 5 new campaigns that can be played through on vs. mode too, other game modes (like the survival modes from the DLC of the first game), AI ‘Director’ who now alters the route you should take every time you play, etc.  All of those things probably warrant enough changes to a game engine to bring out an entirely new game.

Where I think I’ve been put out by Valve was that they didn’t quite meet the expectations of the systems they were being released on.  Take multiplayer on other games for example, Halo 3 - they’ve had four downloadable map packs available which span 11 new multiplayer levels - that is in my opinion a lot of downloadable content for a game which didn’t really need it all.  Left 4 Dead is an entirely multiplayer game with only 4 campaigns.  The way you are meant to play the game means you get about 4 hours of original entertainment and then all the rest is replay value.  £40 for 4 hours of original entertainment + replay value is a lot to ask for from a consumer.  However, I happily paid for the game with the expectation that Valve would support the instant community their game would make by releasing more campaigns as DLC like most other multiplayer games that are released on XBOX 360, PS3 and PC.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved playing those 4 campaigns on Left 4 Dead but after some time I wanted a bit more.

They didn’t completely leave their game in the dark without DLC though, a free survivor map and new game mode was released for free, and sufficed for a while.  They’ve also released a smaller campaign that links two of the other campaigns together, but you have to pay for it, and I’d lost interest in Left 4 Dead by the time that came out.

I understand again, that as a computer scientist their first engine/build of this game might not have been built entirely for expansion in the form of DLC - but that’s hard to digest when you see that they have released DLC - even so, my expectations of Left 4 Dead 2 now are that they have built this up to expand it a lot more with DLC.

As a consumer I feel a little bit cheated - cheated that the first game had so little content with the expectations of having a lot more added to it - and then finding out I’d have to shell out another £40 for the sequal being released only a year later with a just a few new additions; doesn’t seem justifiable to me. What I would have preferred would have been a lot more DLC on the original, and for Left 4 Dead 2 to be released next year - or cut down the price significantly of Left 4 Dead 2, because even after all the changes that have been made, it still looks and feels like an expansion pack.

Shadow Complex

How to do it right eh? Obviously that question only applies to the people who’ve played the game. This weekend I was completely addicted and revitalised to the whole Metroidverse (if it should even be called that). A place I haven’t been for quite some time, well not in the strictest definition of the word I haven’t.  For those of you who don’t know or can’t be bothered to find out, the name takes it’s origin from the original style of Metroid games - a 2D side scrolling platform adventure which requires you to progress by upgrading your abilities and backtracking to reach previously unreachable places with those upgrades.  Metroid games in the past have always been incredibly good at keeping the backtracking from being tedious, and there was a lot of expectation on my behalf for EPIC games to get it right with Shadow Complex.  And I’m glad to say they did.

Why I think you should get this game: Quite simply it is the best game yet to be released on the Xbox Live Arcade.  I spent over 9 hours playing it on my first playthrough (although I did get 100% of the items and the map discovered) - and that’s probably the most time I’ve spent playing all of my other XBLA games combined. The story is action based/arcade-y (note to other reviewers: AS IT SHOULD BE - IT’S ON XBOX LIVE *ARCADE*), has a lot of plot holes, but is generally good enough to warrant the only small thing on your mind when playing it - why is this base here?

The thing that should take up most of your brain processing power when you’re playing it is the gameplay, and for that it must include the graphics and the layout of the game as a whole, because the map and the objectives work with the combat and the action to deliver the entire experience.  It’s fun trying to work out which route you’re going to take, and remembering how different rooms look.  Towards the end of the game when it feels like you really can go anywhere you want, the controls really come into their own, and for me especially, makes you feel naturally awesome at playing the game - bust into a room and let all hell break loose, jumping to dodge bullets, shooting enemies in the distance and beating the crap out of the guy in front of you, only to notice that one of your stray bullets has hit an explosive can going off, throwing a dude right the way across the map.  Most reviews I’ve read of the game ‘only have one criticism’ and that is that the auto aiming control for enemies in the third dimension is a bit flaky.  I agree it is, but it’s not a criticism in the slightest, because it doesn’t happen at all that often, and when it does it’s easily resolved by just moving a bit (I found it very hard to keep still whilst playing).

From start to finish it was amazing because it felt very fluid, responsive and downright fun to play, which is the most important aspect of a game. Not to mention that it was the best anyone could have done to pay homage to Nintendo’s masterpieces (and also a nod to a few other games, namely Metal Gear Solid) - if you haven’t done already, at least pay some respect and try out the demo!