Reviewed on Xbox 360. Developed by Bungie. Published by Microsoft
After five Halo games, Bungie are riding off into the sunset, off to work on multi-platform games with Activision. Reach is their swansong to the franchise that took them from a Mac game developer to makers of the defining console FPS franchise. Bought by Microsoft and later gaining their independence, Reach is the best thing Bungie have done, and that’s no mean feat.
A prequel of sorts to the Masterchief starring trilogy of Halo 1-3, Reach puts you in the suit of Noble 6, replacement trooper in a squad stationed on the planet Reach. At the start you think you’re dealing with rebel colonists but things get shitty very quickly when you find yourself defending against a Covenant invasion. Being a prequel, it’s not a spoiler to say things don’t end well for Reach, but Halo Reach is a game where the journey is its own rewards.
Being a Halo game, you can shoot and melee opponents, drive vehicles (and steal them from foes), activate the odd switch and take control of some turrets. Reach adds new weapons and new vehicles to the Halo formula, but also adds armour abilities such as jet-packs, sprinting, holograms (to draw fire away from yourself), shields and armour lockdown (and no, I still can’t work out what the hell that last one does). If you’ve played a Halo before, you know pretty much what to expect. Bungie have given fans what they expect, but added new elements to the mix.
Each Halo game seems to have fun in rebalancing the weapons in the game. Reach gives us the DMR, which is more like an M1 or M14 semi-automatic rifle than the battle rifle of old and occasionally the grenade launcher which fires a bouncing shell. There’s still the standard assault rifle, a scoped pistol, sniper rifle, rocket launcher and a new grenade launcher on the human side, but it’s the Covenant who have received the most munitions upgrades. Easily my favourite is the Needle Rifle which is like the Needler but with a slower rate of fire, a scope and longer range. The Beam rifle and the carbine don’t seem to be in Reach in any form but the plasma rifle now has an automatic rifle version in the form of the Plasma repeater. The energy sword from Halo 2 and the Gravity Hammer for Halo 3 are back. Like ODST, there is again no dual wielding of pistols.
The above-mentioned new things include being able to drive more prosaic vehicles like Forklifts and trucks as well as Covenant Revenant (which replaces the Choppers from Halo 3) but the big ticket item are the Space Battles. Yes, you get to fly a starfighter and for about 20 minutes the game becomes Ace Combat or Rogue Squadron. While the game seems to made it very easy for you to hit anything, it is very well done and just shows that Bungie have taken the “cut and paste” design criticism over the years to hear and taken positive action.
So that’s the single-player. There’s this other thing that I hear the kids are into called co-op. Four friends can apparently play through the single-player campaign as a team, though with difficulty that scales with the extra players. I haven’t tried Reach with coop but I did find Coop useful for beating tough areas in Halo 3. There’s also Firefight which is an extension of the mode from ODST (really the only new thing ODST brought to Halo’s multiplayer), now with matchmaking.
But while I ignore most games’ online components, Halo isn’t one of them. These days, most games offer ‘new takes’ on multiplayer but in the end, most gamers stick to one or two favourite modes. Reach, whilst keeping the best of earlier games in the series, has a fair few new modes worth investigating. The beta introduced players to the objective-based Invasion mode, which pitted Spartans Vs Elites for the first time in Halo multiplayer. There’s also my new favourite, Headhunter, which is like a mix of Team Deathmatch, Headquarters and Capture the Flag. Each time you kill someone, they drop a flaming skull. To actually score points, you have to collect the skull and head to the randomly appearing collection zones for your score to be counted. Of course, if you die, those skulls fall wherever and you score nothing. And anyone can collect your fallen skulls and claim them. This is fun until all the kiddies start stealing your skulls. Mates don’t steal Mate’s skulls. Mate!
There has been some criticism of the number of maps included, some of which are all created on Forge World (bundled tools allowing you to build your own levels) but at the end of the day, whilst MS probably have designs on selling a few map packs, they are also allowing you to play other people’s maps for free (hi, Activision). Bungie have, by far, the best console network code outside of games using dedicated servers and the matches I’ve had have all been lag- free so far, even when my connection wasn’t always optimum (ie- my wife watching streaming videos on her computer-”Honey, I’ve taken out the trash but you may possibly be lagging me, dear”). A large local player-base probably helps reduce lag as well and I hope MoH and CoD developers remember to add those filters into their matchmaking solutions at launch (it took Infinity Ward several months to patch MW2 with that ‘feature’).
So whilst the gameplay in Halo has always been lauded, on area that hasn’t always had an easy ride was graphics. The first two games looked great on the original Xbox (though Halo 2 did have that horrid texture pop where the high resolution texture would load a little later than was optimum), but Halo 3‘s graphics had a far more mixed reception with horrid looking human characters. Reach looks, in a word, superb. Every model looks great, every texture detailed and apart from a few minor framerate hitches, the game runs near perfectly. And at 720p (Halo 3 was derided by pixel counters for its sub-HD resolution). The particle effects have also had a noticeable jump in quality and apart from a motion blur effect that takes some time to adjust to, this game looks better than not only all previous Halo titles, but almost any other Xbox 360 game. Gears of War, with it’s corridor based gameplay, still has the edge but without having to draw the vast open-air vistas as seen in Reach.
Sound is again great. We have an almost totally new score from Marty O’Donnell which only occasionally cribs from the Halo catalogue and some top-notch voice work all round. But the sound effects, always a high point of the series, sound beefier here than any previous game. Also, the low-gravity level has some serious audio processing that gives that space so much more atmospheric than you’d normally find (despite the literal lack of atmosphere in that level).
After playing it, you can’t help feel this is what Halo 2 needed to be, a Halo game that everyone felt beat the original game. I didn’t feel the buzz that I got when I got the first Halo game, but I didn’t feel shortchanged in the way that some fans felt they were by Halo 2, Halo 3 and ODST. It offers an excellent single player with replayability, co-op, firefight and excellent multiplayer. You sure get a lot out of your $60 (OK- add a few bucks for XBL Gold).
Controller1.com Rating 3/3 (Get this unless you really dislike Halo for whatever reason, or you can’t stand shooters)
Reviewed on Xbox 360 (soon on PS3, PC). Developed by Crystal Dynamics. Published by SquareEnix/ Eidos
Once upon a time, Lara Croft’s breasts were the biggest thing in gaming. She was featured in commercials, model shoots and Hollywood movies. And apparently there were nine videogames in there as well. Lara Croft: Guardians of Light is as radical departure from your typical Tomb Raider as you can get and still have Lara Croft front and centre. Except she’s not so much front and centre more from above and to the left. Isometric Lara Croft is a mix of platforming, puzzles and twin stick combat in a way that makes everyone think “Why did this take so long?”
So Lara’s in some South American jungle ridden with underground temples littered with fiendish traps from a bygone civilisation. So if the ancient Aztecs, Mayans and Toltecs were so smart, as is depicted in games like this, how come they never invented a bulletproof vest before the likes of Cortez and Pizarro turned up? There’s a coop character who appears if you play through with a friend but I played this as single player game so you infinitely old chum Totec didn’t figure too much in my playthrough outside of the odd cinematic.
With a new perspective that puts less emphasis on minge-cam and more of gameplay, you direct Lara to jump between platforms, manipulate giant stone balls, use an infinite supply of spears to create jumping points, pull levers, etc to progress through the level. Along the way there will be optional side rooms that allow you to pick up a collectible that may also help increase your health or ammo stats, as well. The game is a compulsive’s dream as there are red crystal skulls to collect in each level (collect ‘em all to increase your real-world wealth), a number of challenges that don’t affect the outcome of the game in any way but give you a reason to retry sections over and over (which increases the size of your genitals in real life), time attacks and weapon upgrades. Each level has its own weapon upgrade from pistols to assault rifles, rocket launchers and more. It gets almost silly how much Lara can carry tucked into her bra.
Thanks to well thought out level design, mostly tight controls and generous checkpoints, the game plays well and is fun to boot. Occasionally you’ll get a puzzle that makes you scratch your head for a bit but solving it only adds to the sense of achievement the game engenders. I did have one bit of scripting break the game and I had to restart the level but that wasn’t too much of a hardship. Ingenious use of Lara’s available tools (my favourite are the infinite bombs) in the puzzle design and the wider field of view makes this feel like how Tomb Raider games should have been all along. There’s coop with Totec with online functionality added after launch. How this changes the gameplay I can’t says since the single player doesn’t feature the second character as an AI character.
Graphics are very pretty and sound gets a good rap too. In short it’s a quality product for $15 that will easily take 6-8 hours on a playthrough, more if you attempt to beat a number of challenges. CD say a’proper’ Tomb Raider game is in the works but I think I’ll wait for the inevitable sequel to this title.
Overall, this is this one of the stronger DDD games on XBLA (And eventually PS3 and PC). It’s not an absolutely essential purchase but it is worth the 1200 points/ $15 Square are asking for.
Reviewed on Xbox 360. Developed by Ruffian. Published by Microsoft.
The tale of the making of this game is a saga in it’s own right. The first Crackdown came out in in mid 2007 bundled with the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. Once the beta was over, some of those people actually tried the game and found they had a fun superhero game rather than just a lukewarm open-world cop game promised by the demo. Demand for the game, driven initially by the Halo 3 beta, kept ticking over and the game eventually sold over 1.5 million copies. Of course, this slow burn meant Crackdown developers Real-Time Worlds moved on to APB (and their eventual demise) and a new studio, Ruffian, was set up to make a sequel. Ruffian, located close to RTW in Dundee in Scotland, hired several ex-RTW staffers to quickly make the DLCmission packre-skinexpansion pack full priced sequel.
At the end of the original game, there was a twist (of sorts) but here we are back in the same Pacific City ten years later. In the years since you cleaned out the three gangs terrorising the place, a resistance group called The Cell have taken over large chunks of the city, broadcasting propaganda and shooting at you as you go about running your agility orb collection business. Also, a plague has created the zombie-like Freaks that swarm the city during night time hours. You play as a new agent backed up by the dulcet tones of Crackdown Guy (he also plays almost the same role in Red Faction: Guerrilla) whose job is to clear up Pacific City. Again.
Like the first game, you have 500 agility orbs to collect and can level up other stats by driving, using melee attacks, etc. There are also the rooftop races and car races to help with stat-building. Later on your agent can even glide and this ability can be levelled up by glider races where you fly through rings. Crackdown was one of those games that catered to OCD by having 500 agility orbs to collect. CD2, whilst being a decent open-world game, is also a decent collectathon if you so wish. There’s the agility orbs, online only co-op orbs, hidden orbs and, in taking ironically a pointer from inFamous, audio logs which flesh out the fiction of Pacific City. There are types of renegade orbs, which are orbs that move away from you forcing you chase after them if you want to collect them.
Instead of the three gangs whose bosses you are looking to take down, you have the Freaks and the Cell. The Cell are in charge during the day and Freaks play after dark and the game is structured so you take on both. The cure for the freaks is Project Sunburst, which involves you powering up the network of nodes in each area so that you can enter a Freak lair (typically underground) and face the horde whilst a power beacon (think EMP for Freaks) charges up. If both the beacon and your agent survive the onslaught, the resulting flash will instantly obliterate all traces of Freakdom in the area. You also have to face off against the Cell in their strongholds which amounts to killing x number of enemies without moving too far from the start point. This is the main point of differentiation between the original game and the sequel and it’s one area where the original way is best. You don’t get that element of working your way towards the boss at any stage and the game doesn’t really give you many clues as to your progress without digging around in the menus.
You can upgrade weapons by picking them up from fallen foes and calling in a chopper to save (the closest thing to the safehouses from the original game), and you can do likewise with vehicles. I barely bothered with cars, something I always liked about Crackdown, since the cars aren’t necessary to beat the game, that’s just how I roll. On foot. There’s the assortment of assault rifles, shotguns and machine guns with a few grenade/ rocket launcher weapons as well as standard grenades and mines. There’s also the UV shotgun, harmless to humans, but devastating to Freaks but even better is the harpoon/crossbow which shoots a lethal metal bolt at your foes. There are also mounted turrets around the place you can detach and become walking artillery shooting up the place like something out of a Sam Peckinpah film. Also of note- collateral damage is not something you’re going to find easy to avoid. Just take Crackdown Guy’s remonstrations in your stride. By the end of the game, you will have no choice but to use Rocket Launchers to clear out Cell strongholds and any civvies or peacekeepers who get too close will just have to die. It’s the price of cleaning up the city.
GTAIII and GTAIV are both set in something called Liberty City but they feature different takes on the same place. Pacific City is the same in both CD games, just that in CD2- it’s a little more rundown. Buildings that housed massive gang hideouts are now nearly derelict and it’s kind of cool to see how things have changed. But if you’re someone who’s run through the original more than once (or even just recently), you might find the similarities a bit of a cheat. It doesn’t feel like it’s the same game but it doesn’t feel like a full sequel, more an expansion pack using the same code and assets as the original. It’s not worse than the original, but it does lack that wow that many felt after getting into the original back in 2007.
There’s a strong co-op component to the game- evidenced by the co-op orbs around the place. I found Cameron’s story where, after having just started to play the game he went online and some stranger who was able to get to the final level joined the game and finished Cam’s game for him. I actually find that anecdote to be a good reason for changing your online options to friends only.
The graphics are still in Crackdown’s cel shaded style but the overall look is slightly dated. In it’s favor is the sweeping vistas the game offers when you can literally see forever. Things run at a stable clip and I only once noticed some slowdown in proceedings (others have had it worse). The sound is the same quality as the first game, which is to say, very good. I did, however, find Crackdown guy to be rather verbose this time around. Funnier, but sometimes he just won’t SFTU. He’s also got a bit of a potty mouth this time around, which is fun. The Audio Logs you collect are nice because they give the game some more voices to listen to. Sure, the crowds can get quite chatty, but for the most part you want to hear more than Crackdown Guy talk about online orbs.
Overall it’s fun package and should give you at least 12 hours of fun, which is a decent amount. I say if you like open world games, you’d like Crackdown 2. It’s not an essential game that you simply must play but it is a good one.
Controller1.com rating 2/3
(1/3 if you fear deja vu or 3/3 if you have more than one Commodore 64 in your cupboard)
Available on PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. Developed by Avalanche Studios. Published by Square Enix.
I fucking love this game. Just Cause 2 is one of the few games I’ve played that actually delivers what’s promised on the back of its case: “relentless, adrenaline-fueled action.” The genii at Avalanche Studios have slapped the Rockstar trend of angry, dramatic, and satirical open-world games right in the face, and have given us a boisterous smorgasbord of outrageous excitement that doesn’t take itself seriously at all. Just Cause 2 doesn’t give a shit about providing a powerful, emotional experience, it just wants to make you smile. And smile you will, as you turn acre after acre of banana republic property into a mad and swirling inferno.
Just Cause 2 is the latest and best in the recent line of open-world, gently structured action games with big environments, oppressive governments, stupid stories, and even stupider acting. Crackdown started it, Red Faction Guerilla continued it, The Saboteur took it a few steps further up the silly meter, and now Just Cause 2 has mastered it. The story is ludicrous, but I’ll go over it anyway: The president of the tiny Southeast Asian country of Panau has died, leaving his spoiled son in charge. Unfortunately, this new prez, “Baby” Panay, won’t answer the phone when NATO calls. What’s more, Tom Sheldon, a former US agent who was called out of retirement to investigate the Panau situation, has gone missing. So the mysterious “Agency” sends in Rico Rodriguez, played by Al Pacino, to find Sheldon and, in time, bring the misbehaving Panay to his reward. You’ll take control of Rico as you cut a path across the lovely forested landscapes of Panau, exploring villages and towns, piloting vehicles, collecting collectibles, shooting shootables, and most importantly, completing missions for the Agency and the various local criminal groups who also want to see the government pushed to its knees.
You’ll accomplish this revolutionary goal by causing Chaos. Chaos is your measure of progress in Just Cause 2, and you earn it by blowing up government property, such as gas pipelines, fuel depots, radio antennas, and military equipment. When you see an object with the red-and-white Panuan emblem on it, find some way to blow it up. Shoot it, throw a grenade at it, plant some C4 on it, or crash into it with a vehicle. Whatever suits your fancy. As your Chaos number rises, all kinds of things unlock, from strongholds/safehouses, to new Agency missions which advance the story. If you find yourself unable to push forward with the game, just look around for more things to blow up. You’ll get back on track in no time.
Naturally, the Panauan military won’t appreciate your efforts to destabilize it. You can kill all the civilians you want, but if you so much as shoot a government-issued trash can, look out. As you cause Chaos, the “Heat Meter” fills up, and the redcoats will come after you in droves. You’ll wield the usual assortment of shoot-em-up weaponry (revolvers, shotguns, SMGs, rocket launchers) to battle them. Just Cause 2 features a helpful automatic lock-on aiming system, so you can run and jump all over while you fight, and as long as you keep your finger on the trigger, you’ll probably hit someone. Once you’ve had your fill of gunfighting, or once the odds start to turn against you, head for the hills. Stay out of sight for a while, and the Heat meter will empty. The soldiers will eventually lose interest in you and leave you alone again, so you can plan your next assault.
Alec Mason liberated Mars with a simple sledgehammer. Sean Devlin fought the Nazis with a fistful of dynamite. Rico Rodriguez takes on the Panay regime with two slightly more unusual tools: a parachute and a grappling hook. These two items are a revelation. With Rico’s parachute, there’s never any fear of death by falling. You can leap off of any tall building or out of any high-flying jet, and land safely. Magically, Rico seems to have an infinite number of these parachutes in his little backpack, and they never get caught on tree branches or power lines. The grappling hook is also surprisingly useful. If you can see something, you can get to it with the grappling hook. Just aim at any surface and hit L1/LB, and Rico goes soaring towards it. It works simply and performs beautifully. The grappling hook is great for getting yourself out of enemy firing lines and behind cover, crossing long stretches of land, and for quick escapes to the rooftops.
The hook also has some more creative applications than these. You can fire it at enemy soldiers to grab them and yank them. This is great for pulling them out of cover, or from behind mounted gatling guns, or down from lookout towers. By holding L1/LB to attach the hook to one object, and then releasing the button while aiming at another object, you can tether the two objects together. You can hook a big truck to a statue of Baby Panay, and then drive the truck forward to pull the statue down. You can hook a soldier to the ceiling and then fire at him while he dangles. You can hook a car to a helicopter and airlift it. You can hook a person to a gas canister and then shoot the canister, propelling it forward on a fiery leak and taking its hapless attachment for a wild ride. You can spend hours just dreaming up crazy and cruel tricks to try.
Assault helicopters, the bane of characters like Mason and Gordon Freeman, are but a minor irritation for Rico and his grappling hook. If a tenacious chopper swoops in to strafe you, all you have to do is aim up and grapple onto it, where you’ll hang from the underside. From there, you can climb to the front of the chopper, shoot out any armed passengers, toss out the pilot, and commandeer it yourself! The most satisfying part of this is hearing the poor pilot scream and scream as he plummets to the earth. Truly, the grappling hook is the heart and soul of this game.
If you don’t want to wait for the military to send a chopper after you, you can always call up your black market buddy Sloth Demon, and have one delivered. After completing the game’s first Agency mission, Rico is given a special beacon, which he can use at any time, even during missions, to have armaments and vehicles dropped at his feet. It functions similarly to the air drops in the Mercenaries games. The items aren’t cheap, and the best ones have to be unlocked by causing Chaos, but since you rack up money and Chaos just by blasting and collecting stuff, finances are rarely a problem. Sloth Demon will become your very best buddy when you get caught without ammo during a tense firefight, or when a target on the horizon looks a little too dangerous to conquer on foot. Even a broad and steely military base offers little resistance when you can just order up a tank at will, as I do in the following video:
Yes, Rico can quickly and seamlessly move from one deadly vehicle to another, but they’re not invulnerable by any means. Military installations are often dotted with SAM sites that are just waiting for you to pilot a flying vehicle so they can take you down. Good thing you have your parachute! Remember that cutscene in Uncharted where Nathan Drake and his chick are flying a plane out to an island, when they get hit by anti-aircraft fire, and they have to skydive out to safety? Well, in Just Cause 2, not only can you actually DO that instead of just watching it, you can do it several times in one gaming session!
Traveling is a big part of Just Cause 2, but it’s rarely the chore that it is in some other open-world games. Rico can pilot any of the dozens of motorcycles, sedans, sports cars, ATVs, speedboats, jeeps, tanks, helicopters, airliners, and jet fighters he’ll find around Panau, but even on foot, Rico can maneuver in some nifty ways. One of these moves is the stunt jump, accomplished with a single press of Circle/B, which makes Rico leap onto the hood or roof of a nearby vehicle, even if it’s in motion. From this position, he can fire on approaching enemies, grapple onto a nearby surface, throw the driver out and take the wheel for himself, or even stunt jump onto another passing vehicle! If you’re on a busy highway, you can perform “stunt jump combos” by leaping from one vehicle roof to another.
Rico’s other great trick is the slingshot maneuver, or as I like to call it, “grapplechuting,” which combines the utilities of his trusty parachute and grappling hook. You start it off by firing your grappling hook into a distant surface, and then opening your parachute while you’re being pulled to your target. Then, while your chute is open, aim at the ground ahead of you, and fire the hook again. Rico will keep his parachute open and reel himself forward with the grappling hook cord. If you can repeat this process often enough to maintain your momentum, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll get around.
For all the goodness it provides, I’m nonetheless willing to admit that Just Cause 2 can be pretty annoying at times. The first problem most players will encounter is the surprising learning curve. Rico’s moves aren’t especially difficult to pull off, but he has so many of them, from dual-wielding to grappling around to ordering items, that it’s easy to forget what your options are once the bullets start flying. It will take some practice before your eyes finally open up to Rico’s impressive maneuverability.
Just Cause 2 is also susceptible to a disease common to open-world games, which I call “Who-the-fuck-is-shooting-me Syndrome.” Since the game has no intentional level design, enemy soldiers can and will spawn from just about anywhere, and they’re going to hit you before you can hit them. This is especially frustrating when you think you’ve cleared an area out, and you’re trying to relax or grab a pickup, and then a new horde of bad guys starts firing from behind you.
The game’s health system is also unnecessarily complicated. Rico has the Halo/Gears/Uncharted Healing Factor that refills his health bar if he avoids damage for a short time, but it won’t fill the bar completely. To get all your health back, you need to find and activate first aid kits, and they’re not as common as you might think. This can be frustrating when you complete a tough mission with reduced health, and then have to choose between hunting around for first aid, or beginning your next task at a disadvantage. For some stupid reason, you can’t order up or carry first aid kits with you to use in emergencies. What the hell, man? Even Mega Man can do that!
I should also mention that one of the mandatory Agency missions involves an extremely frustrating escort segment. Rico has to protect some unarmed moron who can’t stop himself from charging headlong into enemy ambushes. I’ve been playing video games for a long time, and I haven’t met a single person who actually enjoys doing escort missions. Pay heed, Avalanche: no one liked escort missions in Wing Commander, no one liked them in Dead Rising, and no one’s going to like them here. I say we put a stop to this escort nonsense right now! Who’s with me?
The Agency missions can be lengthy and complicated, but the criminal faction missions are all pretty brief, and some of them can be completed in a minute or two if you use a good strategy. Unfortunately, one of them, called “Black Gold,” has a serious glitch that makes the mission impossible to complete. Your goal is to fly to a distant offshore oil derrick and blow up a certain number of its fuel tanks. If you destroy only a portion of them, die, and choose to retry the mission from the you-died menu, the mission progress meter will reset, but the fuel tanks you busted in your first attempt won’t return. This means that you won’t be able to perform all the destruction you need to do to finish the mission. Thankfully, this is not a game-killing bug, and it can be resolved by manually aborting the mission and then accepting it again, but it can be maddening if you don’t recognize it as a bug right away.
Funky bugs are all over the place in Just Cause 2. Some of them are frustrating, such as a strange one that causes enemies to spawn within buildings, where they can shoot you but you can’t shoot them, while others are pretty damn funny, like this headless fellow here:
Amazingly, when set against the undiluted craziness that this game is intentionally providing, this sort of glitch isn’t disruptive in the slightest. It’s just another thread in the tapestry, another gift from the game that keeps on giving.
Just Cause 2 isn’t just a gem, it’s a perfectly cut diamond. I know that I’ve been gushing on about it for good while here, but I doubt that I could ever run out of good things to say about it. If you’re looking for your game to deliver something “grown-up” and “meaningful,” go kick a horse around the dull and depressing deserts of Red Dead Redemption. If you want a terrific, beautiful action game that’s just a ton to fun to fool around in, Just Cause 2 is it. From its opening skydive to its hilariously stupid final objective, Just Cause 2 is so far over the top that it really should be called Just Awesome. As goofy as it is, though, I don’t think it goes quite far enough, and that’s what keeps it from dethroning Total Carnage as my favorite video game of all time. What I’d really love to see is a game with the same controls and basic structure as Just Cause 2, but which engulfs you crazy, crooked, sci-fi architecture, hordes of mutated creeps to kill, and towering, bloodthirsty bosses that you have to grapple onto and tear apart piece by piece. THAT would be, quite honestly, the only game I would ever play.
To nobody’s great surprise I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Crackdown 2 in those horrible, cold hours that are the time I am not playing Crackdown 2. It wasn’t until Ravi forced me to explain my rabid defence of the game that I was able to really wrap my head around how I feel about the game. And it is thus:
Crackdown 2 magnificently succeeds in the areas that are the most important to me. Thus, to me, it is an absolutely incredible game.
All I wanted, at the end of the day, was more Crackdown. Now for different people more crackdown means a lot of different things. All I wanted was jumping off buildings, COLLECTING ORBS, and blowing people up with a homing missile. That’s it. To me, Crackdown is the never ending joy of finding an enemy, jumping, pressing LT to lock on and, while you’re still in mid air, pressing RT and watching the enemy blow up real good like. I swear I have a Povolv-ian reaction to this, just sitting there like an idiot drooling doing it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And then to top it off I jump off a building and get vertigo and land SO HARD on the ground that NEARBY CARS EXPLODE.
That’s Crackdown to me. Crackdown 2 has more of that. Therefore it’s great.
Crackdown (left) compared with Crackdown 2 (right)
For the life of me I couldn’t understand the backlash. It’s bad because it’s more of the same, but different? Who the hell complains about following up the best steak you’ve ever had in your life with ANOTHER STEAK BUT THIS TIME WITH EXTRA SHRIMP IN THE MIDDLE OF IT?
I have to admit Ravi had a point. For a lot of people ‘more Crackdown’ is about watching different factions fight each other for control of a city, or it’s about watching a working, vibrant city that is desperately trying to cling onto normality getting screwed up by crime. Some people spent most of their time in the vehicles, which I never really was interested in. And…OK, I’ll admit, Crackdown 2 doesn’t have that. The visually unique areas are replaced with a uniform desolation, and because everywhere is so broken you can’t enjoy being anywhere as much. I thought the Peacekeepers, Cell and Freaks would be the three factions that fight each other, but they’re all just everywhere and you never get the sense you’re in Freak territory or whatever. Everywhere is the same as everywhere else really, and that’s a shame. The city isn’t what it used to be.
I kind of miss it.
But, like everything else in life I miss, I try not to think about it and just play more Crackdown 2 and start grinning like a God damn lunatic again.
Editor’s Note: A less mentally unstable review of Crackdown 2 is coming in a few weeks
Reviewed on Xbox 360. Developed by Remedy. Published by Microsoft
Finland-based Remedy have a reputation for taking their time. The original Max Payne has been hyped up for quite a while before it eventually landed in stores. It’s not-as-well selling sequel ditched the padding for a polished improved second outing before Remedy said goodbye to Max Payne (owned by Take 2), and hello to Alan Wake, a 360 exclusive.
Alan Wake is a third person adventure game, but not a shooter per se. Mixing Resident Evil 4 with a western-style shooter and borrow liberally from creepy-horror writers such as Stephen King and you have this game. It’s a much slower game than Max Payne and combat is more deliberate. Each encounter requires some thought since you are not a one-man army, nor do you have unlimited ammo.
In the story, successful novelist Alan Wake and his wife arrive in Bright Falls, a quite little town surrounded by forests- FORESTS WITH MONSTERS IN IT. The townsfolk appear a little eccentric, as is wont in this genre but to cut a long story short- Alan wakes up after a car crash with the last week of his memory gone and his wife missing, believed kidnapped by a nutter who wants the manuscript to Wake’s latest book. So starts a tale that twists and turns many times before the end, leaving your scalp with patches as you continuously scratch your head to try and catch up with what’s happening. But importantly, it’s a game about light and dark.
Of course, the spookiness manifests itself in the form of reincarnated corpses known as the Taken. These seem to be made up of people from the town who’s been overcome by the darkness and who’s main interest now is to kill you. Some are slow, some not so much and generally attacking you in numbers, so it’s easy to be overwhelmed.
You usually do have the means to defend yourself, usually a firearm and a torch/ flashlight. You aim the torch at the approaching bad guys and burn them with it (The lens flare will decrease before flashing, meaning it’s time to stick a fork cause they’re done) before finishing them off with a round or three from a firearm (a revolver, a shotgun or a hunting rifle). You’ll also be able to stave them off when they surround you with a flare. Later in the game, you’ll pick up some other helpful devices for fending off the Taken and in some situations, the environment offers alternative ways to bump off the competition.
While ammo isn’t all that plentiful, you’ll find that there’s always enough (later on in the game, anyway). I found myself wishing I hadn’t saved some of the more powerful weapons at points because of the way the game manages to pull the “take everything you’ve got away from you” so you can start from scratch several times. Sometimes, the best way through is to just run away, or at least run to the next safe haven. Safe havens are usually checkpoints are bright areas (such as under a streetlamp) that will stop the Taken from coming anywhere near you. Handily, they generally offer you a chance to stock up on Energizer brand lithium batteries and revolver bullets. You read that correctly, some subtle product placement is at work in Bright Falls, apart from the fact that the lamps still seem to use ‘AA’ batteries.
Obviously you have your consumables to collect (ammo and Energizer batteries), but there are also pages from Alan’s manuscript laying around. Collect one of these and the game asks you to go to the menu’s to listen to Alan read out the pages, with no option to hear the text whilst you continue to play, which is a little disappointing for a game in 2010 (Doom 3 managed this before this game was even started). The other collectibles include the coffee thermos (don’t ask me), knocking over piled up cans and shooting birds (according to the statistics screen).
The levels are well laid out and though you will revisit some areas, it’s often a substantially different experience that doesn’t feel like back-tracking. Occasionally, the game gives you access to a car to drive around in, and other times you can use powerful searchlights as turrets against oncoming Taken. One or two checkpoints could use better placements but on the whole I felt the game is very well put together. There are three difficulties to choose from Normal, Hard and Nightmare. I normally games on normal or medium and here I played hard without feeling it was too difficult or too easy- just the right amount of challenge without feeling like a chore to play. I figure it’s a good 10-12 hours to finish ( there will be sections you retry several times) and pretty good value for a full price single player only game though your mileage may vary.
The dude on the right is Rusty. Hail Caesar!
The story is so mired in Stephen King-isms (his name is mentioned several times just so we know) that by the end it’ becoming slightly confusing, but whatever the fuck happens in the story, it is rather poetic to watch as it unfolds. The overall presentation is polished shinier than body armour made from mercury. From pretty scenery to nice character models (though some of the faces are a little low-rezzy compared to the supermodel Alan Wake), the graphical star of the show is undoubtedly the lighting. From the chillingly atmospheric night time ambience to the effects used when you fire off a flare to the use of colour and darkness- this game just screams “I am a sexy georgeous video game!” So texture work and poor lipsync in some cutscenes aside, this is a graphical quality bar for this gen.
Voice acting is rather well done with the star of the show being the Chris-Penn-esque voice of Barry, Alan’s agent- also the most colorful and fun character in the game. The performances are just perfect all round, bringing the right balance of creepy and appropriate without descending into parody. Sometimes, Alan Wake’s internal monologue does get a little intense due to the occasionally flowery dialogue, but holds up for the most part. In one later level, the tone of the game goes from one against the horde to almost a single player Left 4 Dead clone. That level brings out the game’s sense of humour to the point where it almost sounds like Nolan North taking over as Wake’s voice.
Overall, this is an impressive game. It doesn’t feel like a clone of anything, it doesn’t go for the lowest common denominator and it effortlessly nails what its trying to be. Recommended.
Reviewed on Xbox 360. Also on PS3. Developed by Rock Star San Diego. Published by Rock Star
Many years in the making, this sorta-sequel to Red Dead Revolver, offers the industry to take another crack at making the definitive western-based game. I don’t know if this is that game.
The original game was started off by Capcom before Rock Star/Take 2 tool over publishing duties. It was a relatively linear third-person shooter that was a reasonably successful game at retail, competing against a few disappointing western games such as Dead Man’s Hand and Gun (which seems like the best game to compare RDR to).
You play as John Marston, a former outlaw roped by unscrupulous government agents into hunting down his former gang members. Along the the way you take on missions for various people- sometimes on opposing factions, engage in a number of diversions and take your cousin Roman to a strip club.
The theme of this review will be similarities between this game and GTAIV. Considering GTA uses the Rage engine developed for this game, and considering that GTA is Rock Star and Take 2’s major source of income, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing such a similar game.
So you can walk around with the lft analog stick, press A to run, tap A repeatedly to sprint (despite the fact you have an ANALOG stick to control movement. You can also ride a horse and move the horse by pressing… well, you can guess, can’t you? You can jump and climb but these actions are best used occasionally.
Of course, this being a western, it’s all about guns. You have access to pistols, rifles, shotguns, knives, bombs, a lasso and of course, your fists. GTA has never gotten the hang of shooting in third-person mode without locking on to targets. Here, it has been greatly simplified, so much so that it’s inordinately easy to pull the left trigger to zoom in on the nearest foe and shoot with the right trigger. Perhaps, too easy.
To get around, you have a horse, who thankfully will appear whenever you whistle for it. Since so much of the game’s exposition is relayed to you while you’re travelling to somewhere new with someone, holding down A will more or less put you on autopilot so you can just sit back and marvel at how much you don’t want to listen to the conversation. Occasionally, the game gives you the option to skip the journey.
Missions consist of the usual “kill this person and his henchmen” though often you’re given the chance to use your cowboy skills with a rope and hog tie the target and carry him on your horse. Then there are numerous missions where you escort a train, and others where you ride shotgun on a carriage. And then a fair few on rails sequences where you’re manning a gatling gun. Truth be told, they get a bit stale as the game wears on since so many seem cut and paste.
Some missions involve you performing actual cowboy work such as herding cattle and breaking in wild horses. These are so much fun that I intend on shooting any stray cattle or horses if ever come across them in real life. The kicker is some of these are not optional and you need to do these to progress. And there’s another kicker, you have to do some of this right at the end of the game before you can undertake the final mission.
This being an open world game, there needs to be a plethora of side missions to keep you busy and in this regard, Rock Star does not disappoint. Well, it doesn’t disappoint in terms on numbers of side missions, but it might in terms of how much fun they are for anyone not having OCD tendencies. You can collect herbs, hunt and skin animals, herd cattle, find missing people, stop robbers and cattle rustlers, break horses, and test the limits of your patience.
The game lets you save more or less anywhere apart from someone else’s settlement and a road by setting up a campsite. Campsites also give you access to fast travel to anywhere you’ve been before, but at some point you can also warp to a waypoint. This is a little sluggish since you select the campsite, wait for a nice animation of Marston kneeling down by the campfire, then select fast travel, then your destination, then watch Marston put out the fire before you go to a loading screen. Not for this game, the instantly changing HUD of, say, Mass Effect or Gun.
The game’s presentation is top notch with the only minor niggle being some sometimes very obvious pop-in (something that many open world games suffer from). The art style is appealing and nicely rendered and animations are detailed as you would expect from a game utilising Euphoria for it’s animations. Of course, you often have to wait for these animations to do their thang so while that takes away some immediacy to your actions, it does offer a level of polish not seen this side of a cadet review.
The sound is noteworthy. Voice acting, like most Rock Star games, is top notch and feature some of the Houser twins cynical wit. Something to note is the lack of familiar voices (no Keith David or Nolan North) which sometimes pull you out of the game. Music is fantastic, evoking the west and the best of Morricone’s spaghetti western scores without being a slave to the era *cough* folk rock *cough*
So it’s mostly fun, then again, I avoided almost every side mission where possible and skipped the cutscenes. “Why would you do that? They’re beautiful,” you say. Well, they are paced to show off the animation, meaning they’re mostly dull (the ones I sat through anyway). I find that in GTA games, knowing the motivations of the characters is moot since many of you allies will eventually be your enemies. And then there are the interminable conversations when you travel with someone. These are mostly unskippable and while they fill in the details for skippers like me, they still just remind you that your are watching a cinematic without any editing. Checkpoints are mostly well spaced and seem a lot less punitive than GTA, so there’s one major improvement on the template. You can be a rogue or a good guy, but as it’s not really going to affect the story or more than a few of your character’s stats, it’s up to you how douche you go.
I didn’t touch multiplayer since it seems to be a bit unfocused and chaotic (not in a good way) for my liking (as in GTAIV), but there’s a decent amount of single-player fun to be had. How much fun is down to your enjoyment of the side missions on offer here- bounty and stranger missions aside, are close to Animal Crossing type mundanity.
Worth the praise it’s received? No. Good? Yes? Worth playing? Probably. you have to enjoy cutscenes and have some patience as there is not the ability to cause as much mayhem as in GTA. If tooling around doing nothing is your thing, you might find this world to be a little lacklustre.
So Portal. Although we briefly reviewed it long ago, it’s back, it’s on Mac for the first time, and it’s free on Mac or PC for a limited time (if you’re reading this and the date doesn’t rhyme with Bay two thousand and Len, it’s too late). How do you describe this phenomenon? Starting off as a HL2 mod before Valve released it as a full product and as part of The Orange Box in 2007, Portal is a first person puzzle game with more charisma than a cheerleader after a half a bottle of bourbon.
The protagonist is a girl called Chell, who remains voiceless, locked in an underground testing facility with only your wits, and eventually a strange gun that opens up holes in the wall. Think of those old Looney tunes cartoons where Daffy Duck moves a hole in the ground as if it was was a piece of cloth, or more recently, the short film with the magician and the rabbit that preceded Wall-E- that’s what the Portal gun does.
Your abilities in the game are rather limited. You can walk, crouch, jump and lift and that’s about it until you get the Portal Gun, which allows you to open up one end of a tunnel in the wall, the floor or the ceiling (though not every surface). Later on, you receive an enhancement that gives you control over the other end of the tunnel, but it’s a fairly simple move set. Of course, add momentum and the game opens up to a whole new level of fiendish puzzles, each more dastardly…
YOU BASTARDS, VALVE!
So the game itself is brilliant and two and a half years later is still fantastic. We have a sequel coming later this year which is a full priced game with multiplayer aspects to it. Huh? Doesn’t take like three hours to beat? I haven’t mentioned GlaDOS yet.
Chell may not speak but GlaDOS, the computer running the Aperture Science facility you find yourself in sure as shit has a story to tell (Aperture are a competitor to Half Life’s Black Mesa and are briefly glimpsed at the end of Half Life 2: Episode 2). GlaDOS is a rather typical computer offering you hints and tips in between challenges and occasionally during levels. But the hints and tips aren’t particularly reliable as you come to realise GlaDOS isn’t particularly trustworthy. GlaDOS turns a cool puzzle game into something special. The vocoded/autotuned voice augments a fantastic vocal performance. GlaDOS is almost the only voice heard in the game but you’d have to have a pretty cold heart not to crack a smile at the inanity of its statements.
The graphics were never flashy but there were clean and gave you a good sense of the environment inside of Aperture. The sound is simple and works fantastically. There’s very little music in Portal but it has its probably the most quote song lyric of any game. Still Alive is still considered one of the best pieces of game music ever written and I love it. So does Bob Dylan.
So how does it work on a Mac? Like a PC, only you change the mouse first. Yes, one button mouse jokes in 2010 are funny. They just aren’t particularly accurate. That said, any USB Logitech or MS mouse will be a better gaming mouse than a mighty or magic mouse. OK, I have a decent machine with a decent card, not something the entry level Apple computers have featured but hopefully Valve’s entry into this more or less untapped (apart from casual games and two year old ports) market will stimulate development in this area. A few teething problems (Valve have patched it twice in the few days I played this), but nothing worse than Windows. I am looking forward to finally playing Left 4 Dead 2 when it shows up in a few weeks, a game that should be a much better showcase.
Mac’s main ting hamstringing it isn’t the reduced spec of video cards, it’s the lack of Direct X- something most PC games are based around. Open GL fills in many of the holes but wit will take more development to see both systems on par. That said, if you already boot camp for the PC only stuff, Valve allows you to play the game on Mac or PC without charging any extra. Nice. And it only takes 3-4 hours to play. If you get bored there’s also the developer commentaries, plus you can import bonus maps and challenges- though I can’t say if these are the same as those on Portal- Still Alive expanded edition released on XBLA a while back.
Get in quick and grab it for less that it costs to buy a DVD-R.
Reviewed on Xbox 360. Also on PC. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal. Published by Ubisoft
Announced yonks ago with a long-haired hippy Sam Fisher and retooled to higher res-version of the Sam we’ve always known and loved, SCC updates the series with a new take action-stealth. Similar to how the stealth in MGS4 was not the only way to go, SCC is an intense game. It’s also shorter than the height requirements for tag-team midget wrestling.
So Sam’s been away for a while. His daughter’s dead, accidentally hit by a car. Sam’s brought back into the fold, when Third Eschelon, Sam’s old paymatsers, come a knocking. Aided by old friend Grimsdottir and that old guy from Uncharted, Sam embarks on a mission to find the truth.
Firstly, this is a complete re-tooling of the SC formula. Gone are so many of the gadgets, replaced by upgradable weapons and a more limited, tough more useful selection of gadgets acquired during the game. Sam can run and crouch, take cover and that’s about it without the help of a context sensitive button. “A” button (on 360) is used to jump, to climb, to use, to talk, to open doors and windows, to upgrade, pick up weapons, to peek underneath doors- all depending on what you’re facing. Sam can also attack enemies who are close by using B to attack, or use them as a human shield.
Ubisoft Quality Control
Incapaciting enemies without weapons earn you executions. So if you knock out one of the chatty cathy guards, you can mark a number of targets and press Y for Sam to execute them more or less instantly provided they’re in range. You can kill between two and four enemies, depending on the weapon, some upgrades up the number of marks a weapon can offer. You may think this is a bit of a cheat but there’s nothing compelling you to use it.
You earn points for everything which act in a similar method to achievements, except each one gives you a set number of points that you can spend on upgrading weapons. Be careful though since you won’t come close to upgrading everything during the short campaign, nor will you need them. I do believe some of this may carry over into the MP and coop missions but I concentrated on the single player portion of the game. Thankfully these happen around checkpoints, where there are weapons stashes that can just refill your ammo, change weapons and, quite usefully, restock during a battle. It probably lowers the difficulty significantly but it’s not a cakewalk.
As you start the game a rogue agent, you don’t have access to the gadgets of old, at least not initially, though many old favourites do pop up during the game including sticky camera and remove mine, but you’ll also be using EMP mines and flashbangs to distract guards while they espouse the benefits of kicking your ass. Hiding in the shadows is still your number one best tactic, which sends the game black and white to indicate you can’t be seen unless a patrolling guards walks right into you. It’s a pity since the game is quite pretty, and made worse when you do reclaim old faithful later in the game, since the picture effects dirty up the screen so much that you will spend very little time using night vision in the game.
So one change is, for the most part, you don’t instafail a mission by killing guards. There are one or two areas where absolute stealth is required, but these are in fact few and far between. However, if you do decide to start shooting up the place as your main strategy, expect to see the game over screen more often ex-Infinity Ward staffers update their Linked-In accounts. Sam is not made of metal and most of the time, he can take only a very small amount of damage before succumbing to his wounds. I found the balance of checkpoints is generally well-spaced out (though not always) and the difficulty reasonable, though I did restart sections fairly often. Three difficulty levels (I played on normal) mean there should be some extra challenge for those who want it, an no challenge for those that don’t. Trial and Error is still part of the game play, but whereas in the previous games, you were scratching your head at what to do next, here, you know what to do next, it’s just making that happen that’s what trips you up. I mean, you can’t fail to miss what to do next…
The first thing you notice about the visuals are the text projected onto walls. These might be phrases telling you what to do next or reflect Sam’s state of mind. You also often see flashbacks, which are quite impressive, but the more you move through the game, they become annoying or distracting. Which of those is up to you. It is however, striking and the thing most people take away from the game.
So we’ve touched on the fact it’s an attractive game with good visuals, great audio and decent voice work from the likes of Michael Ironside and other Canadian superstars. Apart from one important respect. The guards in the game talk. A lot. Have you even been stuck in a lift with a very talkative person with verbal diarrhea, someone who has to talk for absolutely every second of the day because they are so enamoured with the sound of ther own voice. Well that’s the guards here. If they haven’t seen you, there might be a little chit-chat between two guards, sometimes recounting events earlier in the game. But if they know you’re there. They taunt you a lot. And in a frankly embarrassing way that possibly sounds better said in French.
So is it good? Yes? Is it essential- I think so but there are caveats. Are you likley to play coop and multiplayer modes as well as the single player? Are you likely to replay a quality game? If so, the game is definitely worth picking up. Are you likely to play the single player only on easy? Don’t bother, it’s too short to justify at full price. Also- are likely to play on PC and your internet connection is regularly flaky? The PC version uses Ubisofts new always on DRM.
controller1.com rating 2/3 (or 3/3 if you’re likely to explore multiplayer elements as well as single player)
Reviewed on PC. Also on: PS3, Xbox 360. Developed by Rocksteady. Published by Eidos (Square Enix)
So you’re Batman. You’ve just captured the Joker and are just dropping him off at Arkham Asylum, Gotham City’s biggest and best nuthouse. And then, shit gets real…
All hell breaks loose on Arkham Island and Batman has to track down his nemesis, as well as several other villains conveniently locked up in the asylum. It’s a mix of exploration, combat and action, telling a story in a way that sounds like an ordinary license but has so much flair and inventiveness that you will never automatically talk about Uncharted 2 as the best game of 2009. How is this possible? Let’s break it down.
Note: I played this on PC with a mouse and keyboard. And it needs a gamepad and since there’s no 360 gamepad driver for my computer, mouse and keyboard it is. I recommend playing this with a controller.
You play as Batman (duh), criss-crossing the island in search of clues, beating up roid head convicts, taking on the odd boss, exploring all sorts of nooks and crannies. You detect, you codebreak, you grapple and you beat the living shit out of things. You are, after all, THE Batman. Not just a batman. The definite article.
Unlike other superheroes, Batman doesn’t have superpowers. He’s just an ordinary roid-enhanced (as are all the men in this, it has to be said) dude with lots of gadgets such as his Batarang, a grappling hook, a decoder etc, to help him through his tasks. Gadgets unlock at salient points in the game, many of which allow Batman to get to areas you would have noticed during the early stages of your travels, areas that early on, you can merely look at longfully, ruing that you will have to come back at a later date if you’re remotely OCD. Batman also has Detective mode, which highlights areas of interest and x-rayed allies/enemies. It will help Bats to find ledges to grapple to, to find vents, track down traces of DNA, etc. And if you find yourself not playing in Detective mode 90% of the time, I would be royally surprised. Some gadgets can also be used as weapons, but these generally only have a temporary stunning effect on some foes, but useful nonetheless. Batman doesn’t use guns. He’s Batman.
Combat in the game is simple- usually just a button for attack with another for countering and a third to stun some foes who are otherwise impervious to your blows. Combat is generally not random and metered out in a fun way at intervals that help vary the game’s overall pacing nicely. Often the game will lock you in a room with a set number of foes to beat (like 90% of other games). Of course if you knock them down, you’ll still need to perform a takedown in many cases. Bosses are well thought out in general with a degree of variety (apart from Scarecrow encounters, which are really just 2D stealth missions) though your enjoyment of them may vary. Of course, the game, though it looks like a brawler, isn’t a beat-em-up. It just does the fights it does offer quite well. This could so easily have turned into fight wave after wave of enemies, monotony being your constant companion and repetition your amusingly Southern sidekick dealio.
If you end up in an area with armed foes, then the game requires you to take a stealthier approach, since if you run in expecting to take out armed guards with just your fists, you’re going to die faster than a whale on a plankton-free diet. These chambers usually have stone gargoyles along the ceiling and you’re meant to take a guard out quietly, then using your grappling hook to zip up to a Gargoyle. If you’re seen, rapidly moving between gargoyles seems to confuse your pursuers, because really, they’re that stupid. AA is easily the best stealth game since Metal Gear 3 or Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory (not to denigrate MGS4 or the latest Splinter Cell- but they aren’t really stealth games any more, are they?). Many of your gadgets also assist in combat with the batarang, explosive gel and grapple gun able to assist you in briefly disarming foes while you move in for the takedown. The game will also mix these up by placing restrictions and adds to the feeling that everything old is new but still way cool and fresher than a daisy that’s won Fresh Daisy of the Year. Remember how everyone says Grabbed By the Ghoulies is one of Rare’s worst games (I’d put Perfect Dark Zero in that slot)? Well Rocksteady obviously took something away from that game since they do the exact same thing here.
You upgrade your gadgets by finding them, but every little thing you do contributes experience points, which will unlock upgrades such as better suit armour, enhanced abilities for your gadgets etc. You also have The Riddler placing puzzles all over the island, most of which just involve finding an icon, but some others require scanning using detective mode. You can also find recordings of Therapy sessions with some of the choice inmates. Replay is a big focus with this game, with challenges unlocked as you play the game (these are accessed separately from the main game.
The game has a story to tell, something many titles based on comics don’t do very well, concentrating on action. Comics have wiz-bang action but they tell a story and here, story is well serviced by what’s happening. You feel the story unfolds around you, not just in loading mission briefing screens on games such as MW2. The story also doesn’t usurp the game as Hideo Kojima fails to understand time and time again. So we do get to see a fair few of Batman’s favourites, to name them all would A) spoil the game and B) reveal I haven’t gotten to the end. Oops, what a giveaway! Batman fans of most persuasions will get a kick out of this game (unless you can’t accept anyone other than Heath Ledger portraying the Joker).
Speaking of actors, Kevin Conroy’s more measured Batman is easier to listen to than the what-the-fuck-is-going-on with Christian Bales’ voice in the latest films. Occasionally there’s a little wood in some of his lines, such is the deadpan delivery but he’s as badass as he needs to be. Of note is Mark Hamill’s performance as The Joker. Whether in cutscenes or bombarding you with his wisdom over the Asylum’s public address system, he gets it note perfect. All’s I can say Luke- lay off the lucky strikes and Bourbon-flavoured Corn Flakes. Huskier than the Iditarod, he gives it his all. It’s probably his best villainous performances since Cock-knocker but since that wasn’t that great. Anyhoo…
The presentation in this game is uniformly excellent with this being possibly THE single most polished game of last year. Visuals are fantastic with an art style that let Rocksteady’s team bring this dense world alive. Sounds is top notch with a sound design that games will be referencing for years to come. It’s purdy and sounds nice, too. I’m assured the console versions look nice as well.
It’s hard not to recommend this game to practically anyone referring to gaming as a hobby. It’s got action, it’s got drama, it’s got Harley Quinn upskirts, it’s got a ***-**** (how the fuck to you build that under a high security installation with no-one noticing?). Also- it’s usually quite cheap by now so no excuses.
Controller1.com Rating 3/3
Review rig specs: quadcore PC with 8GB RAM and a 512MB ATI 4870 card. Monitor resolution at 1920X1200. Win 7 64 bit. Steam version tested.
