Lisvender reviews GoW III
Reviewed on PS3 Developed by Sony Santa Monica/ Published by Sony Computer Entertainment
Oh (Greek) God. Kratos is back in town, and he’s pissed. I mean, really pissed. He’s so pissed this time, that tearing off heads and slitting open bellies isn’t enough for him; now he’s out to annihilate the very fabric of nature.
In God of War III: Kratos Kills Everybody, the outlandish violence that’s the signature of the series has been inflated to a ridiculous level, and the Playstation 3’s hardware makes it look prettier than ever before. Unfortunately, little has been done to adjust or improve the structure of the game. If anything, with the game’s new emphasis on showing off artwork and fancy cinematics, it’s gotten worse.
The game begins with Kratos riding the shoulders of Gaia, a woodsy, rocky giant who’s clambering up Mount Olympus in a balls-out assault on the gods. Zeus and his posse, which includes Poseidon, Hades, Helios, and the very annoying Hermes, are none too happy about this aggression, and each god will set out to taunt and irritate Kratos in his own way. Before Kratos will take his precious revenge on Zeus (which he reminds us of regularly), he’ll plod through several gorgeous mythological backdrops, ride on the backs of titans, collect weapons and magic spells, rescue Scarlett Johansson, and endure endless flashbacks that clobber us over the head with their message of hope.
Throughout this trek, Kratos will repeatedly face the typical God of War challenge: barriers will enclose you in a small arena, and a crowd of ineffectual, undead Greek soldiers will pour out of the ground, spoiling for a fight. What you do in these situations is hit Square over and over, occasionally throwing a Triangle in for variety. Kratos will do a little dance, swinging his chain-blades around in fancy patterns, until all the enemies are dead. If you see an bad guy winding up to get a hit of his own, just hold L1 to block, and then commence the Squaring.
After going through this ceremony dozens of times over the past few years, I began to wonder if God of War would play just as well if Kratos just swung his blades constantly, and you’d have to press a button to stop him. It would probably work.
When you’re done Squaring your enemies to death, the barriers will vanish, and you get to run ahead for a minute or so. Eventually you’ll encounter…a puzzle.
Most of the puzzles in God of War III use familiar video game logic: activate a switch to open the way forward. Kratos can push buttons and pull cranks, set things on fire, or search for hidden passageways using a glowing severed head. You’ll also find weird, blue stones jutting from the ground here and there. They usually obstruct you from reaching a secret or a goal. You’ll need the Cestus, a pair of laughably large metal gloves, to punch through the stone. Since they’re also powerful enough to fell even the biggest creatures in a few hits, I recommend that you just keep the Cestus equipped at all times. They really are all-purpose tools, silly and uncomfortable though they look.
A couple of the puzzle sections are clever, like a garden that uses Escher-like illusions to connect pathways, or a labyrinth constructed from an array of rotating cubes. The rest, though, are recycled from the Book of Zelda, and they go on for so long that you’ll start to wonder when you can just back to killing monsters already.
If you’re especially patient, you can always travel off the path that the game’s camera leads you down, and try to find some secrets. Kratos can discover treasure chests that contain the usual collections of Gorgon Eyes, Phoenix Feathers, and red orbs, which increase his health and magic meters, and the strengths and capabilities of his weapons. The game is very generous with these orbs, and you won’t have to stray from the main road too often to get most of your weapons maxed out. I guess the designers wanted to be sure that everyone will get to see all the fancy combo animations they came up with.
One of the few additions to God of War is the Minotaur Horn, which increases the length of Kratos’s new Item meter. Kratos is now limited on how often he can use special items, such as Apollo’s Bow, Hermes’s Shoes, and Helios’s Head. I’m not sure why there are limitations on these things, as they don’t provide any great advantages to Kratos in combat, but the meter is there anyway, and now we have Minotaur Horns to go searching for. Locating a hidden chest and finding a Minotaur Horn, when you were hoping for a far more desirable Gorgon Eye, is a tremendous disappointment.
As in previous God of War games, you’ll run into some stupid segments that break things up rather unpleasantly. Like the parts when Kratos has to climb hand-over-hand across ropes, kicking at approaching enemies like a spastic idiot. Then there are the scenes where he has to ride steam plumes up enormous shafts, dodging obstacles and unexplained balls of fire like this is Star Fox or Battletoads or something. I dreaded these scenes, and couldn’t wait for them to be over.
So what, if anything, is the true draw of God of War III? It would seem to be, as with Heavy Rain, the dazzling Quick-Time Events, which involve astounding action and camerawork that still isn’t possible in regular gameplay. After you’ve beaten an enemy or boss into a sufficient level of weakness, a huge, flaming Circle will appear above it. Get Kratos close and press Circle, and watch the magic begin!
Kratos is as gymnastically skilled and cruel as ever in this game, and in these Quick-Time Events, he’ll swing, jump, fly, stab, and just beat the hell out of whatever he’s up against, provided you press the buttons that appear on the screen at the right times. It’s Dragon’s Lair rendered on a Cell processor. I must admit, though, that these scenes really are impressive, and even therapeutic, especially when you get to see Kratos punish an irritating boss.
The violence in God of War III has already garnered a ton of internet attention and gorehound love, but those who are squeamish probably won’t have to turn their heads. Sure, the grisly deaths Kratos imparts on his opponents are pretty gross, but they’re also so bizarre, and so far over the top, that they’re hilarious. The flashy spectacle of the QTEs had me saying “whoa” quite often, but they also had me cracking up. The designers at Sony Santa Monica have obviously watched a lot of horror movies in order to devise kills this creative.
What I realized while “playing” God of War III is that it’s not a game to be played so much as a game to be looked at. The QTEs are impressive enough, but there are plenty of other aspects the designers labored over to make the game an eye-popper. The characters are superbly detailed, especially Hephaestus and Kronos, with their wrinkled, stained skin and burnt out eyes. The designers planted some books on pedestals at scenic overlooks throughout the game, and they function like the mounted binoculars in Brutal Legend: they do nothing but allow you a lengthy eyeful of the landmarks the artists constructed. Aside from the Cestus, Kratos’s multitude of weapons and attacks differ in appearance only. You’re not going to be changing them because one weapon is more effective against a specific enemy than another, and it’s pretty safe to ignore the many combos the game offers in favor of hitting the Square button over and over. One attack works just as well as another.
Pretty pictures don’t make a game worth buying. This is a rental, through and through. It will take around eight or nine hours to complete, so maybe two rentals will be necessary, but that will still be cheaper than buying the game. I hope that games like Heavy Rain and God of War III – and hell, let’s throw Metal Gear Solid 4 in there too – are not representative of a trend, one in which video games throw out all the thoughtful and challenging play and then replace it with cutting-edge imagery and interactive movies. That stuff is entertaining in its own way, but it should be kept in the venue where it belongs: the theater.
To close, I’ll say that even God of War III’s cover is stupid. It’s just Kratos’s eye, glowering with rage. It’s a terrible cover that tells us nothing about what you actually do in the game. It looks like the teaser poster for a movie, which is probably fitting, because that’s more or less what’s in the case.
Controller1.com rating: 1/3
Reviewed on PS3. Developed by Sucker Punch. Published by Sony.
Infamous, in a nutshell, is an amalgamation of Sucker Punch’s earlier Sly Cooper series, infused with a healthy dose of Crackdown and a little Force Unleashed. You play as Cole McGrath, a courier who’s at the heart of a massive energy release in Empire City. Surviving the deadly blast, Cole finds himself infused with super powers the same way warm water is infused with tea leaves. Hmm. Time for a cuppa.
skip ahead 10 minutes
So begins Infamous, with its great comic book style cutscenes and an open world city with game play ripped from Crackdown. You play, gather XP every time you beat a mission, defeat an enemy or perform an act of cruelty or kindness. As you get more XP, you can level up your powers, becoming more and more badass. You can also play good or evil, with the game giving you lots of opportunities to decide on your path. The story, though very well done, drags on a bit longer than you’d like. This is perhaps unavoidable on longish games like this, but what the hey- it’s a fun game. You have a Karma meter which has Infamous on one end and Hero at the other. Kill a pedestrian or drain the life force of a vanquished for, you get evil karma points. Heal a citizen and merely lock up a defeated foe, you get positive karma. There are both good and bad story missions- beating the good mission will lock the bad mission, encouraging multiple playthroughs if you’re into that thing. I always tend to play these games as a good guys since I’m such a cunt in real life.
The game structure is fairly familiar. You start off in one section of the map with the rest blocked, in this case a third of the city and you progress by completing the story missions that appear on your map. There are also side missions which ask you to do things like, remove all surveillance devices off the side of a building, defend an area or clear and area of enemies, pose for photos, etc. These are mostly good missions that enhance your Karma but there are a few evil missions in there as well. More on that later. Each side missions you complete will mark the map in a way so that enemies don’t respawn in that area so there is a very real reward for side missions since in some areas you can’t walk down the street without some asshole shooting at you. All of the collectibles are woven into story so there are no blue orbs floating arbitrarily at the top of a building. There are blast shards you collect to up your electrical storage (fragments of the device that explodes at the start of the game).
Its an open world but not really a sand box. You don’t drive cars so vehicular stunts are out but you can climb almost anywhere within the map if that’s your thang. And I mean almost anywhere and straight out of the box. Your climbing powers are pretty much the same from the start, you just get the gliding ability later. Want to climb up that building now? You don’t have to wait until your level is maxed out in Infamous. You can climb up most buildings just by tapping X a lot. A lot. For a game that’s not about climbing, Sucker Punch didn’t make the climbing a limiting factor in the game play. Some areas require special attention to climbing (like in Uncharted) but these are very much in the minority. You can go where you like in most cases.
Your powers are what the game is about. You start off just shooting electricity as your ranged attack and a simple melee attack for CQC. Since the powers are based on power, you will need to restore underground substations in each area to progress. These conveniently hold the key to you gaining new powers so you will need to do these a lot in order to beat the game. Its funny how some of the powers you have in the demo are those you would have fairly late in the game. You do get one power that slightly overpowering but you do get that so late in the game that its not like the gravity gun in HL2 where you just have a win button. It also doesn’t help against the final boss.
On criticism is that the game does have some annoying boss fights with specific methods required to defeat them, which is where Crackdown shines- the rules are the same. You just shoot them more in the 360 game- you use the same rules as the rest of the game. AI in the game is another mixed bag with NPC’s with pathfinding, both good and bad. But then you’re in world where the equivalent of a small nuke has gone off and everyone is just going about their business as if nothing as happened. There can be major battles going on and the citizens of Empire city are not running and hiding, panicking as they soil their pants in terror- they are just milling around, walking into your zone of fire.
Graphically the game is a mixed bag. With its fantastic comic book-style cutscenes, the game has a boold style. But then you get in-game cutscenes with horrendous models with off lighting. The animation is definitely very ordinary. Its adequate, but you can’t call it good. Sound is quite well done with very good voice acting from the cast. Cole McGrath has a 50 a day habit by the sound of him. Must make being a bike courier hard.
So Infamous. The best PS3 game since MGS4. Its better than Resistance 2, Motorstorm 2, Little Big Planet and Killzone 2. Its the type of game you would buy a PS3 for.
Controller1.com rating 3/3
After returning from a holiday and trying three different local stores, I finally found a copy of inFamous. This morning I have been having a great time playing it and feeling kinda sad for Prototype. Its also killed any chance I had of ever replaying Crackdown. Infamous is better in some ways. Its making Protoype look like an also ran and Uncharted 2 look limited by comparison. Sly Cooper 4 Infamous also has its problems, such as really ordinary animation but overall its probably the best PS3 game so far this year, easily eclipsing Killzone 2 for fun.
Its a free roaming game set in an open world where you play as a guy who has suddenly developed all of these cool powers, mostly to do with Electricity. You don’t shoot guns, you discharge electricty and you consume electricity in order to fire off more electricity. The guy’s got some serious rubber shoes on his feet and its a lucky thing his head is shavd otherwise he’d be a dead ringer for one of the Jackson 5 circa 1974. Infamous has everything Crackdown has apart from a Halo 3 beta invite.
So if you like Crackdown like controller1.com’s very own Cameron, you will like infamous. So what does Infamous do better and what does it not do as well?
Better than Crackdown:
Movement and climbing is so easy and therefore fun. You don’t feel like you’re fighting the controls (as you do in the god-awful-to-control Prince of Persia). It manages to make Assassin’s Creed movement seem clunky (which was one of its better features) and now I feel Uncharted 2 will feel more restrictive during its platforming sections after the total freedom afforded in Infamous. Of course, restricting movements to paths is a gameplay decision. Infamous doesn’t make platforming difficult since its not a platformer- you just need to get places and the game doesn’t make it too hard to do that.
Story: The actual storyline is more involving that Crackdown’s simple “cleaning up the streets” mantra. It also has fantastic comic book style cinematics (even if they are just a modern version of those flat cardboard rod-puppets children have)
Not as good Crackdown:
The in-game animation is really, really ordinary. Even bad in places. Combat is a bit less fun (at least initially). This Sly Cooper in a new skin. Really. Not a bad thing but oh boy is it obvious the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
You have the time-trials and equivalent of the agility orb hunting as well, though they are more neatly integrated into the story, rather than just being collectibles. So play this while we wait for Crackdown 2. I would hope the guys at Ruffian games have a good look at this
This is really the best PS3 only game since MGS4 (yes better than KZ2, Resistance 2, Little Big Planet, Singstar AB- huh?). If you have a PS3 and don’t have this game yet, what are you waiting for and if you don’t have a PS3, it means you haven’t played this, MGS4 or Uncharted. I hear there’s a price cut brewing around the launch of Madden 2010
Well, its the saviour of the PS3 and very pretty but how is it as a game? Very good. Before I started this, I had the last level and a half of Mirror’s Edge to complete since my backflip. That done, it was time for some Killzone. Being sceptical of the lacklustre original, I was very pleasantly surprised (I knew the positive critical reaction wasn’t down to people being blind fans of the original but the first one didn’t leave me with much hope the sequel would play well).
So in essence:
The Good: Looks great. It does lighting and particle effects very well, even if the textures aren’t always that crisp (apart from when they want to show off something in extreme closeup in a cutscene. It makes the flat-looking mess that Resistance 2 look like a PS2 game. Oh wait, Insomniac already did that. Sound is phenomenal. Online is very smooth.
The OK: The gameplay is very, er “tried and true.” That means its not only familiar, but a little too familiar and unadventurous. Large parts of the game consist of two standbys-
STANDBY 1: Kill X number of enemies (sometimes its X number within a timeframe) to progress
STANDBY 2: Infinitely respawning enemies until you reach a certain point on the map
We will give grief to a licensed game for using the rinse-and-repeat level design cliches so its appropriate to mention it here. The game is still fun, you just realise that it doesn’t change very much while you play. Its not full of gimmicky tech like the god awful mess that is Resistance 2 (Yes, I went there).
Multiplayer was very good apart from one gripe. The gameplay mode would constantly change from simple Team Deathmatch to Control points to Assassination, etc, making it hard to get a rhythm on one mode before it changed again. I’d rather have shorter rounds.
The Bad:
Control is not particularly tight. It is rather loose and hard to target (If R2 and Battlefield can do it on PS3- why not this?). The field of view is rather narrow, meaning enemies are right on top of you before you know it. Story is barely there and makes the criticism of Gears 2′s story and dialogue seem as bad. The dialogue is just as macho cheesy. One character looks familiar though…
His name is Farcus Menix.
One thing KZ2 did was make me wish I was playing CoD WaW. So after going about halfway through the single player campaign and a few rounds of MP, I popped this into the 360, patched it, DLed a free map and hopped online. Yes, I still get stuck on servers where everyobne else is in North America, which kinda kills my ping, but it didn’t seem as bad as it used to be. I hope to play a bit more of this before I put it away. I think the world has to live with the fact that I seem to respond to CoD multiplayer more than anything else, console or PC.
Before KZ2 was begun, I finished Mirror’s Edge (PS3 version). I had to add parts to my original review since I felt the break from it made me want to finish it so much. Game has problems to be sure but it was a worthwhile experience.
Lastly I bought Peggle for $3. Popgame games website, coupon code blitz1. That is all.
Well the storm begins this week with Little Big Planet and Fable II and next week, Fallout 3. Its not possible to play all of the big games coming out at once. So far this month I have already cut out of my ‘To Do’ list, the following big titles: Dead Space, Far Cry 2, Mercenaries 2, Fracture, Wii Music and Saint’s Row 2.
Why?
Dead Space: Because its a horror game and I can live without horror. Yes I’m a big scaredy cat.
Far Cry 2: I played a bit of the PC original and about 99.9% of Far Cry Instincts on the original Xbox. I though the PC one played a bit ‘meh’ but the console version (a completely different game) was really quite nice. Apart from that cheating bitch of a final boss who never ever died. I liked the game a lot and all I can remember is trying to beat that final boss over and over until he got stuck in the mesh and I stopped caring.
Mercenaries 2: More sandbox and no compelling reason to play. The demo promised much and delivered little. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original.
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway: I did beat the first game in the series but never played the second, despite my professed love of WWII shooters. Its not really a shooter and its not Full Spectrum Warrior either. I played the demo and was unimpressed. I was unmoved.
Fracture: Another demo that showed off all you need to know in 5 minutes. Generic story and gameplay built around an overused gimmick.
Wii Music: If I wanted to play a music game where all the songs sounded like a Casiotone, I would have bought Casiotone Hero.
Saint’s Row 2: I played the first one even though I wasn’t impressed by that demo. I think I’m just not that keen on sandbox games per se and having played GTA IV, I think I’m done with the genre. SR1 did do some stuff that GTA IV either stole (or should have stolen) but it’s not so great and I’m not that keen to pop caps in people’s asses anymore. I was keen once, but they say you can never go back.
So what do I want to play?
Little Big Planet. One of its major selling points is completely lost on me. I was quite happy to leave all of my spore creations untextured. I do not wish to gain employment as a level designer. I do not wish to make maps for TF2. I just want a platformer. And really, there’s this and Banjo and that’s really it for this year.
Fable II. I must one of the few people who doesn’t hang on Peter Molyneaux’s every word. And hence I wasn’t disappointed in Fable- I was able to ignore the hyperbole and just enjoy what was a very finely crafted game. I only had two minor complaints against Fable 1- you could beat enemies by running circles around them, and you were likley overpowered by the time you reached the final boss. The rest of that game was so much fun I am very much looking forward to number II.
Fallout 3. I have never, ever played a Fallout game. Somehow, this looks like I might enjoy it.
So I’ll get it.
So it looks life Fable II and Fallout 3 on Xbox 360, and Little Big Planet for PS3. Wii and PC go home empty handed.
