Alan Wake is a very tough game to review. The major draw for this game is the storyline, which stands head and shoulders above most other 360 games. The influences of Stephen King and David Lynch are felt all throughout the game, in particular, the closing music of Episode 1 which is straight out of David Lynch's Blue Velvet, starring the late, great Dennis Hopper. Ultimately, as with the work of David Lynch, everyone will walk away with a different experience from Alan Wake.
Gameplay
The theme of light and dark is taken quite literally when it comes time to actually play the game. Using a flashlight, you have to remove protective layers of darkness before opening fire with a trusty sidearm. I for one, never got bored of this, not once environmental hazards such as loose power lines and red exploding barrels were introduced. The cast of enemies is very, very small and the constant need to shine light first, shoot second could get old for some people very, very quickly.
When you are not shining light on the denizens of darkness you are engaging in some very light puzzle solving. This is basic "hit a switch" puzzling and only serves to break up the gunplay. Vehicle sections also break up the action but they work nicely into the plot and when they do pop up, are a welcome diversion.
A major problem with the puzzle solving, running and gunning gameplay however is that at all times you are reminded Alan Wake is a video game. The ever present HUD always shows you where to go and as a result, the tension level is not as high as it could be had the game been HUDless. The option to turn it off does not exist.
Graphics
It is painfully obvious that the majority of the graphical horsepower went to the lighting effects. The lighting is amazing, easily the best I have ever seen. The character models on the other hand would not be out of place in a PS2 game. Do yourself a favor, and when characters are talking, try not to look at their mouths.
They did manage to make Alan's wife appear to be wearing painted on jeans, so that is a plus.
Controls
Clunky is a nice way to put it. The game demands tight control while playing on Nightmare difficulty but it will fight you. Alan turns slowly and the aiming can be very awkward, both with your flashlight and a gun. Alan is not a space marine, he is a writer, but moving *that* slow is just annoying.
Sound and Music
Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick is the soundtrack for this game amazing. Every chapter ends just as television episode would, with a closing song that accurately captures the mood. The song choice at the end of Chapter 1 is what hooked me, but it was one sequence during Chapter 4 that had the best dichotomy of music to in game action that I have witnessed in years. In fact, that moment gets its very own call out.
The Moment
Every game, no matter what genre or platform, has The Moment. That One Thing which happens and makes you sit up and go "DAMN!" Final Fantasy 7, with the murder of Aeris, is perhaps the easiest example to recognize. Alan Wake, towards the end of Chapter 4 as you're approaching an old, decrepit stage in the middle of a field....it has one of those moments. Gameplay and music meld and make you feel like you are an unstoppable force of destruction.
Achievements
Some of the collectibles in this game, such as the manuscript pages, tv shows and radio shows reveal bits about the world of Alan Wake and are worth your time to collect. TV shows, especially those that are showing "Night Springs", think The Twilight Zone, are really cool. A guide is recommended if you want all the achievements, and a second play through is mandatory, but if you skip the story completely it is a quick game.
Conclusion
Gameplay is fun and different but not for everyone as it can get old quick if the plot does not grab you around the neck like Andre the Giant. Music is amazing and an example of the right way to work it into a game. The abundance of collectibles can be daunting for achievement seekers but the real issue comes from the horrible character models and clunky controls.
The very best part of the game can not be mentioned, as that is the plot. If you are looking for something different, Alan Wake is an unique experience. It may just last you a weekend, but like a good book, you will go cover to cover.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Transformers Multiplayer: How I Learned To Sneak Up and Insta-Gib
Transformers: War for Cybertron has an actual, Call of Duty influenced online mode that shockingly, is quite good. It is class based with each class having its own abilities, weapons and vehicle mode. The Scout can cloak, use both a shotgun and the sniper rifle. They transform into very quick moving, machine gun packing cars. Oh, and if you sneeze on them, they die. Yup, each class has different health bars. The Scout only has 4 bars of health.
Now the Soldier, the bulky longest health bar in the game minigun packing tank (no really, they turn into tanks) is my least favorite class. They move soooo slow and with the exception of the minigun, their weapons are horrible.
The Leader is front line support with heavy, explosive weapons. Buff allies, shield allies and blow the crap out of things with grenades and a high powered ion cannon. Like Optimus Prime, they turn into trucks. I also hate this class. Again, slow, unwieldy and my aim is horrible with that Ion Cannon.
The Scientist, widely considered to be the weakest class with a health bar of 3 blocks, can be killed by being looked at funny. They turn into Jets, can fly (or hover really), heal allies, spawn a defensive sentry or, my personal favorite, disguise themselves as a Scientist on the enemy team. In a great touch, the Autobot/Deception emblem does NOT change. Easily the best part of multiplayer is disguising yourself, weaseling your way in close to an enemy, and blowing them away in one shot with the EMP shotgun. Your not invisible, so you have to play the part and "hide in plain sight" in order to succeed. The playstyle required is unlike anything, outside of course of the Spy in Team Fortress 2. Even then, the spy had to backstab someone, the Scientist?
Shotgun to the face. Much more satisfying.
Sadly Tranformers uses the Gears of War 2 ranking system. Halfway to level 25 is level 18. Yup. I'm going to spend a very long time playing this game in order to max out each class.
Now the Soldier, the bulky longest health bar in the game minigun packing tank (no really, they turn into tanks) is my least favorite class. They move soooo slow and with the exception of the minigun, their weapons are horrible.
The Leader is front line support with heavy, explosive weapons. Buff allies, shield allies and blow the crap out of things with grenades and a high powered ion cannon. Like Optimus Prime, they turn into trucks. I also hate this class. Again, slow, unwieldy and my aim is horrible with that Ion Cannon.
The Scientist, widely considered to be the weakest class with a health bar of 3 blocks, can be killed by being looked at funny. They turn into Jets, can fly (or hover really), heal allies, spawn a defensive sentry or, my personal favorite, disguise themselves as a Scientist on the enemy team. In a great touch, the Autobot/Deception emblem does NOT change. Easily the best part of multiplayer is disguising yourself, weaseling your way in close to an enemy, and blowing them away in one shot with the EMP shotgun. Your not invisible, so you have to play the part and "hide in plain sight" in order to succeed. The playstyle required is unlike anything, outside of course of the Spy in Team Fortress 2. Even then, the spy had to backstab someone, the Scientist?
Shotgun to the face. Much more satisfying.
Sadly Tranformers uses the Gears of War 2 ranking system. Halfway to level 25 is level 18. Yup. I'm going to spend a very long time playing this game in order to max out each class.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Dante's Inferno: From AWESOME to BLAH in 3 Levels
I have tried a few times now to put my thoughts regarding Dante's Inferno into writing. An essay on how the level design is a great strength for the first two levels, and a major weakness through the backend of the game. Starting off with the very first soul you can punish or absolve is Pontius Pilate really sets the mood. By the end, you're encountering such legendary historical figures as "Merchant from Florence." If you're going to adhere to the actual epic poem, well, don't. You already have Dante wandering through Hell using Death's Scythe to cleave demons in half. "Faithfulness to source material" is a Charon that has already sailed.
Again, after writing that paragraph, I had to pause for a few minutes and do something else (reading a WWE Money in the Bank PPV recap) before continuing. I am THAT ANGRY over what a WASTED OPPORTUNITY this game is! The great moments just...run out...and by the time you get Heresy, which has no boss....at all....it's like the designers gave up. Anger is another circle that is just dull. No boss, just a series of fights while dealing with a giant demon that in turn, leads to a fairly cool moment. For five seconds. Then poor design brings it right back down to earth again.
I can not fault the graphics or the control, which is tight like the backside of Emma Watson. (She's 18 right?) The music, well that I can fault. There is not much music to be found in the depths of Hell. What little is used, serves to highlight the action on screen which is cool and all but the ambient sounds gave the Wife of Thunder (WoT) a headache.
In fact, the ambient sounds are perhaps more annoying than the seagulls from Deadliest Catch. Climbable surfaces are made of screaming souls that DO NOT SHUT UP. Some of them shout things specific to that circle, such as "I'll slit your throat and feed it to you" in the Circle of Violence. Most though, are just moanings and wailings. Nevermind the disturbing noises of the evil demonic babies with razorblade arms.
This is a game that for the first two levels, I thought was amazing. Then merely good for the next two (Gluttony and Greed), but once it hit the fifth level, Anger, I just wanted to get it over with as soon as I could. The final boss fight against Lucifer was satisfying at least. The ending? Not so much.
Is Visceral really, honestly planning on a sequel for Purgatory? I've read that poem too, and unlike the Inferno which lends itself quite well to a video game translation actually, Purgatory does not. The essence of Purgatory is that it is a place of...well...waiting. Not good, not bad, just boring.
Which sounds an awful lot like a game they already made.
Again, after writing that paragraph, I had to pause for a few minutes and do something else (reading a WWE Money in the Bank PPV recap) before continuing. I am THAT ANGRY over what a WASTED OPPORTUNITY this game is! The great moments just...run out...and by the time you get Heresy, which has no boss....at all....it's like the designers gave up. Anger is another circle that is just dull. No boss, just a series of fights while dealing with a giant demon that in turn, leads to a fairly cool moment. For five seconds. Then poor design brings it right back down to earth again.
I can not fault the graphics or the control, which is tight like the backside of Emma Watson. (She's 18 right?) The music, well that I can fault. There is not much music to be found in the depths of Hell. What little is used, serves to highlight the action on screen which is cool and all but the ambient sounds gave the Wife of Thunder (WoT) a headache.
In fact, the ambient sounds are perhaps more annoying than the seagulls from Deadliest Catch. Climbable surfaces are made of screaming souls that DO NOT SHUT UP. Some of them shout things specific to that circle, such as "I'll slit your throat and feed it to you" in the Circle of Violence. Most though, are just moanings and wailings. Nevermind the disturbing noises of the evil demonic babies with razorblade arms.
This is a game that for the first two levels, I thought was amazing. Then merely good for the next two (Gluttony and Greed), but once it hit the fifth level, Anger, I just wanted to get it over with as soon as I could. The final boss fight against Lucifer was satisfying at least. The ending? Not so much.
Is Visceral really, honestly planning on a sequel for Purgatory? I've read that poem too, and unlike the Inferno which lends itself quite well to a video game translation actually, Purgatory does not. The essence of Purgatory is that it is a place of...well...waiting. Not good, not bad, just boring.
Which sounds an awful lot like a game they already made.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
I Write Like....
So I plugged in one of my reviews from 360voice, Dog Reviews The Internet, into the site I Write Like/ and Chuck Palhniuk came out. Who's Chuck you ask?
He wrote the book Fight Club.
Not at all who I was expecting (I would have loved oh, say, Kurt Vonnegut or even Chuck Klosterman myself) but hey, writing in the spirit of one of the oddest authors of the last 30 years? I will take that.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Blizzard's RealID System Removed Before It Went In
In case you haven't heard, Blizzard was planning, with the launch of Starcraft 2
later this month, to have your actual, legal name show up in all of your postings on their official forum. All of the internetz lost their minds with this news. Showing your real name was supposed to lead to decreased trolling and generally bring down people acting like douchebags.
Tuesday night, I asked the Wife of Thunder about this, as she is a female gamer and has a very different outlook on things then I do. For example, when she first saw the Tzeentch Lord of Change model for Warhammer, she commented that it looked like he was wearing one of Elvis' jumpsuits:
Her first thought was that now women would stay away from World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 out of fear of being targeted. Both online and offline, it's a major issue for female gamers. Exactly how much of an issue was unknown to me then, but after a few more days of uproar, oh boy do I see how much it means for a female gamer to be anonymous. Stalking, both on and offline, is a major issue that well how to put this nicely....ummm....hmmm...well the sort of World of Warcraft player that gets REALLY REALLY into it is exactly the sort of guy that would stalk a female. See Guild, The. Episode 1.
Penny Arcade today brought to light a connection, just hours before Blizzard pulled the plug on RealID, of a business deal with Blizzard and Facebook: Well, from May, but I never noticed it...which is what Blizzard wanted!
No wonder they wanted to use real names for their games.
Considering I do everything under the name "Dog of Thunder" I'm not exactly on board with the whole "real name" concept, though it's not a huge secret either (just "like" me on Facebook!). ARGH! See what I did there? Facebook has wormed its way into every aspect of the internet, but for now, its evil tentacles are leaving our internet forums alone.
Give it time. This issue will come up again, and again and again. In a few generations, the whole concept of anonymity will be a historical relic. Like the Wii or the 8 track.
later this month, to have your actual, legal name show up in all of your postings on their official forum. All of the internetz lost their minds with this news. Showing your real name was supposed to lead to decreased trolling and generally bring down people acting like douchebags.
Tuesday night, I asked the Wife of Thunder about this, as she is a female gamer and has a very different outlook on things then I do. For example, when she first saw the Tzeentch Lord of Change model for Warhammer, she commented that it looked like he was wearing one of Elvis' jumpsuits:
Her first thought was that now women would stay away from World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 out of fear of being targeted. Both online and offline, it's a major issue for female gamers. Exactly how much of an issue was unknown to me then, but after a few more days of uproar, oh boy do I see how much it means for a female gamer to be anonymous. Stalking, both on and offline, is a major issue that well how to put this nicely....ummm....hmmm...well the sort of World of Warcraft player that gets REALLY REALLY into it is exactly the sort of guy that would stalk a female. See Guild, The. Episode 1.
Penny Arcade today brought to light a connection, just hours before Blizzard pulled the plug on RealID, of a business deal with Blizzard and Facebook: Well, from May, but I never noticed it...which is what Blizzard wanted!
No wonder they wanted to use real names for their games.
Considering I do everything under the name "Dog of Thunder" I'm not exactly on board with the whole "real name" concept, though it's not a huge secret either (just "like" me on Facebook!). ARGH! See what I did there? Facebook has wormed its way into every aspect of the internet, but for now, its evil tentacles are leaving our internet forums alone.
Give it time. This issue will come up again, and again and again. In a few generations, the whole concept of anonymity will be a historical relic. Like the Wii or the 8 track.
What's Next?
For the last 2 years and 2 months, I have been an active member and contributor to 360voice.com, an amazing 360 site. On my year anniversary of joining, I was raised to become a 360voice Community Expert (Mod basically). Even dealing with a death threat, well three, when reworking the way that Genre Badges worked on the site did not chase me away. So what finally did?
At first I thought it was my annoyance over dealing with people all the time through the veil of anonymity that is the non-Blizzard internet. Little support issues here and there, whining about updates not happening fast enough, all these minor things were adding up. Once I realized I could not handle one more posting that looked like it was written by a lemur, I knew I was at a breaking point. Thankfully there was a waiting idiot to push me over the edge where I needed to go in the first place.
It is not that I want to abandon 360voice, it is just that I want to take the time I devoted to others and use it for myself. I am removing all those time sinks that stopped me from updating my own little piece of the internet like I wanted. Instead of dealing with an existing community and helping it function on a daily basis, I want to build my own community. Carve out a little piece of the internet for myself and see what grows. Who knows, it could be nothing, it could be something.
At first I thought it was my annoyance over dealing with people all the time through the veil of anonymity that is the non-Blizzard internet. Little support issues here and there, whining about updates not happening fast enough, all these minor things were adding up. Once I realized I could not handle one more posting that looked like it was written by a lemur, I knew I was at a breaking point. Thankfully there was a waiting idiot to push me over the edge where I needed to go in the first place.
It is not that I want to abandon 360voice, it is just that I want to take the time I devoted to others and use it for myself. I am removing all those time sinks that stopped me from updating my own little piece of the internet like I wanted. Instead of dealing with an existing community and helping it function on a daily basis, I want to build my own community. Carve out a little piece of the internet for myself and see what grows. Who knows, it could be nothing, it could be something.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
WANTED: Weapons of Fate - The Perfect Movie-Tie In
I just finished up Wanted: Weapons of Fate earlier today and it was incredibly satisfying. Wanted had spent a long time on my "wish list" of games that I really wanted to play for one reason or another. The list includes such luminaries as 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, WET and The Wheelman. Not exactly the top of the metacritic or anything. Wanted, with very low expectations, managed to meet each and every one of them. Sadly, this makes it one of the best movie games I've ever played.
While Wanted may actually be based off of the comic series by Mark Millar, it's well, very loosely based. VERY. The comic series, released in 2003, answers the question "What would have happened if the Legion of Doom had defeated the Justice League?" The universe of Wanted is a dark parody of the DC Universe with no heroes and only villains. Wesley in the comics goes through training, but it's to become a straight up EVIL~! super villain that can "rape an A list celebrity and get away with it." The Wanted comic book series is not for the faint of heart, but at least the movie made an attempt to capture the spirit of the series.
The movie introduced curving bullets, which did not exist in the comics, and thank Jabootu that they did because that one mechanic is done so well in the video game, I did not mind playing it twice and then another 3 runs of the last level. I LOVE picking off fools that think their safe hiding behind cover with a gorgeous slo-mo curving shot to the head. The cover system sucks, aiming is rough sometimes, but the mere existence of the easy to use curving bullets raise this game to a higher level.
Why is that? One thing, just one gameplay mechanic makes me overlook the monotonous enemies, drab locales, horrendous color choices and hysterically poor plot with some of the worst voice acting since Transformers 2. Curving bullets is just pure fun. The slo mo sequences? Also just fun. Once you get a rhythm, you can actually move like The Killer, flowing from cover to cover, popping off curving headshots and just generally being an unhittable avatar of death.
It's short, the last achievement is really annoying, but for just balls out action, Wanted: Weapons of Fate is a great game.
While Wanted may actually be based off of the comic series by Mark Millar, it's well, very loosely based. VERY. The comic series, released in 2003, answers the question "What would have happened if the Legion of Doom had defeated the Justice League?" The universe of Wanted is a dark parody of the DC Universe with no heroes and only villains. Wesley in the comics goes through training, but it's to become a straight up EVIL~! super villain that can "rape an A list celebrity and get away with it." The Wanted comic book series is not for the faint of heart, but at least the movie made an attempt to capture the spirit of the series.
The movie introduced curving bullets, which did not exist in the comics, and thank Jabootu that they did because that one mechanic is done so well in the video game, I did not mind playing it twice and then another 3 runs of the last level. I LOVE picking off fools that think their safe hiding behind cover with a gorgeous slo-mo curving shot to the head. The cover system sucks, aiming is rough sometimes, but the mere existence of the easy to use curving bullets raise this game to a higher level.
Why is that? One thing, just one gameplay mechanic makes me overlook the monotonous enemies, drab locales, horrendous color choices and hysterically poor plot with some of the worst voice acting since Transformers 2. Curving bullets is just pure fun. The slo mo sequences? Also just fun. Once you get a rhythm, you can actually move like The Killer, flowing from cover to cover, popping off curving headshots and just generally being an unhittable avatar of death.
It's short, the last achievement is really annoying, but for just balls out action, Wanted: Weapons of Fate is a great game.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)