Reviews - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Review - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Pros: Rich and well written storyline, open ended game play style, lots of content to experience.

Cons: Nagging camera bugs and invisible walls are jarring to play experience.

Final Judgement: Not an instant classic, but a decent RPG that’s worth the purchase price.

http://reckoning.amalur.com/

Available for: Xbox, PS3, PC

Riddle me this! What does Todd McFarlane, R.A. Salvatore, Ken Rolston and Kurt Schilling have in common?  The likely answer at first glance, absolutely nothing. There is nothing that these four men have in common, they didn’t grow up in the same town, they didn’t all have the same stallion of a father and they don’t form up like Voltron and fight space monsters on weekends. They are, however all working at a game studio called 38 Studios, and are the creative team behind a new entry in RPG market Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a game which I am admittedly enjoying, although I have some nagging reservations.  Before we get into the review however, it occurs to me that a better question for me to lead with would have been: Do you know who Kurt Schilling, Todd McFarlane, R.A. Salvatore and Ken Rolston are? No? Well, let me tell you.

Ken Rolston is a game designer, one of the old school types that would appear in a Rat Pack-esque show if you were to gather together the so called “fathers of gaming”, you know the ones. The champions of years of pen and paper games gone by, working He has worked on such games as RuneQuest and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I can see it now, he’d be up there along with Gary Gygax , Bryan Ansell and that  math dudewho created Magic the Gathering. More recently Rolston is responsible for stealing days, if not weeks of your life as you trundled around Tamriel buying houses and picking herbs. That’s right, Rolston is the mad king behind Elder scrolls games Morrowind and Oblivion. For his retirement Rolston became the senior designer at 38 Studios and Lead Designer for Kingdoms.

Robert Anthony Salvatore, or R.A. Salvatore, as he likes to be called (I assume because it makes him sound more scholarly and sophisticated) is best known for his work on the Dungeons and Dragons “Forgotten Realms” campaign setting as well as the ubiquitous super hero/kind hearted rouge/brooding figure with a troubled past/walking argument for nature vs nurture guy Drizzt Do'Urden. Oh Drizzt, I can’t think of a single adolescent male who read the Ice Wind Dale trilogy and didn’t come away from it thinking Drizzt was the bees knees. I’ve got to give it to Salvatore, the man knows how to spin a good fantasy yarn. A skill which he brought to Studio 38 as the (and I can’t make this up) “Executive Creator of worlds” wow. Did Salvatore make up that title himself because that is creative. Anyway, in Kingdoms, Salvatore wrote all the story and dialogue.

So brooding and way awesome with his swords and shit, this guy is like elf batman.

Todd McFarlane, or Toddy-McF as he is called by no one, is not only a fellow Canuck but is also, according to my friends at Wikipedia, a “Comic Book Superstar”.  He has worked on a few small run comics… you know the type that nobody has ever heard of such as Batman, and Spider-man. M.C. F-Bomb is also the guy that created Spawn, the undead solider guy from hell sent back to earth to, I dunno, get revenge or something. T.G.I.McF. has a unique art style that is easily recognizable and defines the comics of the 90’s. He comes to Studio 38 as, you guessed it, executive art director. His fingerprints are all over the creatures you face in Kingdoms.

Finally, Kurt Shilling is the chairman of 38 studios.  A former major league baseball pitcher (links to Kenny Powers on standby) and by all accounts Shilling probably shoved dudes like McFarlane, Salvatore and Rolston into lockers back in high school. I’m not sure what Shilling’s contribution to Kingdoms is, I mean aside from him owning the studio, I don’t know what he contributed directly to Kingdoms. Unless there is a baseball mini-game I haven’t encountered yet. That being said at least I solved the mystery of the studios rather odd name, 38 was Shillings jersey number back in the glory days when everyone wanted a piece of his shit.

So now you know what it boils down to -  a proverbial super group of talent coming together to make a fantasy RPG the likes of which we have never seen. With this roster, I was fairly excited to give the game a whirl. Any who, after a solid twenty hours of game play and no end to the game in site I think I’ve seen enough that I can at least begin to review this game. Kingdoms has a lot of good in it, there is a lot that will bring a smile to the face of any RPG’er that being said, it also has nagging issues that won’t stop bothering me.  Rolston, Salvatore and McFarlane all do great jobs in their specific areas of design but I found that the good brought by the three is compartmentalized. The end result is a game that has some absolutely brilliant parts but overall lacks the consistency to make it a classic. As it is, it is fairly easy to see where their influences of Rolston, Salvatore and McFarlane begin and end. Let’s start off with Salvatore and the story:

Well written story and characters, yet as in all fantasy settings, less still equals more for females.

The story of Kingdoms of Alamur begins thusly: The Faelands region, where the game takes place, has been plunged into a war. A war that has been raging for years and pits the mortal races of the world against a powerful sect of the immortal Fae creatures known as the Tuatha Deohn, the Tuatha can die but they always come back to life reborn exactly as they were destined to be. This is a problem for mortals, because it’s tough to win a war when the bad guys just keep coming back progressively more pissed off at you because your spawn camping them. Which by the way, is a legitimate strategy.  The game begins with your character dying and being resurected in the well of souls, essentially a work around of death that the Gnomes came up with. Almost as soon as you begin to draw breath after resurrection, the Tuatha show up and destroy the well because immortality is their thing and they don`t like to share. You narrowly escape and in the process learn that as a by-product of your resurrection, your character no longer has a pre-determined destiny and that can now change the fate of others.

Now that’s some heavy stuff. Essentially you are an agent of change, an injection of chaos into an otherwise perfectly ordered universe where everyone’s life is pre-determined. By far, the best part of Kingdoms has to be the story and dialogue. Salvatore is a New York Times bestseller and shows us why with the Kingdoms story line. The story is engaging from the beginning and is well paced.  Even the side quests and optional faction quests are well written and engaging. My only question - what is with fantasy authors and the plight of immortal fae creatures?

He looks pissed off because now that he's seen you he needs to go throw himself off a cliff.

Fae also known as the fairy folk or fay folk seem to perpetually be in a state of decline whenever they rear their nature bound heads in any novel, show or video game. Think about it, movies like Hellboy, Lord of the Rings, Princess Mononoke and even fucking Fern Gully include Fae as a dying race. Every time mortals (ie humans) get anywhere near Fae they suddenly start falling apart, or running away or dying off. It makes me wonder if its symbolism for societies damage to the natural environment or just unoriginality on the part of the authors. It’s like a god damn literary rule like “I before E, except after C, or when sounded as A, like in neighbor or fey who must always be dying off when in close proximity to humanity.” This is the only place in the game where I felt Salvatore took the easy road out. As soon as I saw the first Fae in the game I thought: “I wonder how long it`ll be before they tell me that were killing them and destroying the forest?” The answer: About five minutes. Oh well, such is the way of Fantasy games I suppose.  

Speaking of fantasy games and people who know their way around them:

Rolston also plays to his strengths, several game mechanics from the Elder Scroll series crop up in Kingdoms (blacksmithing, collectable resources, houses to buy). In addition, Rolston also creates a destiny system for Kingdoms which can be selected and changed at any time to customize play style, much like in elder scrolls you decide your characters role organically as you play, not by selecting one of a handful of classes at character creation.  On innovation by Rolston is the “fate shift” game play mechanic, allows you to score huge experience bonuses by taking large groups of enemies to the edge of defeat before ending one of them off with a finishing move that would make Kratos proud. Well done Rolston, Fate shifting is way cool. There is nothing like finishing off a tough enemy in Kingdoms then by fate shifting them as a parting ‘fuck you’ because not only did you beat them, you just unmade them, they don’t even exist anymore once you’re done with them.

I like to imagine this was taken right in the middle of screaming "FUCK YOU DUDE!"

The gameplay in Kingdoms is solid; the combat is a lot more stylized and entertaining and plays more like an action game then what one would normally expect from an open ended RPG. Rolston also included a number of different skills, spells, abilities and attacks that your character can learn as you go along which keeps gameplay fresh. The experience is not without itsflaws however: Some places in the game suffer from invisible walls which are always jarring, and the enemy AI fluctuates from clever to lobotomized. Furthermore I found that the camera had an annoying tendency to clip through the ground if your character was engaged in combat on a slope. One second I’m watching a Brownie charging towards me down a hill the next all see is skybox. At least it’s a good looking Skybox, which is where McFarlane’s role in this comes in.

Look at these things! LOOK AT THEM!

McFarlane’s presence is definitely felt in the creatures and monsters you encounter as they have a classic monstrous flare to them that McFarlane is known for. Do bears need help looking ferocious? Toddy-boy thinks so, and the rats are downright terrifying, they’re like a cross between and Angler fish and leper. As well, much like in Spawn, there is blood… lots of blood, and impaling and tearing asunder. The Blood and violence which doesn’t really fit with the cartoonish fairy tale-esque setting that appears whimsical and definitely not the Hyperrealism that other RPG’s like Elder Scrolls try for.  Not that there is anything wrong with that. I actually like this art style when it comes to fantasy setting games.  It gives the game a  “Fable” like feel. As well, the varied and colourful setting compliments the rich fantasy story that Salvatore weaves.  

So, should you buy Kingdoms? If RPG’s are your thing, sure. Best RPG ever? No. Evidently it takes more than a boat load of big names to make an awesome game. Make no mistake, Kingdoms is definitely a good game, it’s a solid RPG and the talents of McFarlane, Salvatore and Rolston are definitely seen in the overall structure of the game. The action oriented style of the game is enjoyable and the world is colorful and fitting with the fantasy tone of the game. While some of the gameplay mechanics could definitely use polish, the excellent story and great dialogue will help to dull the sharp edges of some of the nagging gameplay issues. If you’re an RPG fan grab this title, you’ll get your money’s worth, and it won’t leave you disappointed.

Reviews: S.P.A.Z.

S.P.A.Z. (Space Pirates and Zombies)

Pros: A fun, value priced title that will bring back memories of classic games.

Cons: Repetitive game play and a lack of variety in content.

Final Judgement: SPAZ lives up to what it’s trying to be and will entertain most gamers, definitely worth the download price.

Available for: PC (Steam)

Does anyone remember the old Star Control series from the early 90's? Or more to the point its follow-up title Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters? That, my friends, was a game that was air tight and dipped in gold. Pull up a stump children, and let's rap about this for a minute. In this diddy of a game, you found yourself in a galaxy made up of hundreds of stars and planets. You were the captain of a ship that was completely customizable. Your job was to fly around this galaxy meeting aliens, building alliances, and forming an unstoppable armada of ships which often resembled the end result of an out crazying contest between Gene Rodenberry and Disney. All this so you could tear down an evil empire made up of evil squid like creatures who’ve enslaved the human race. Why did the evil octopi do this you ask? Because, once they were enslaved, and they didn’t like it very much and after emancipating themselves they figured they should try the whole Overseer gig. Now that I think of it, the plot of Star Control II actually makes a compelling argument for the whole “Learned behavior theory” in violence.

As I said... Out crazying contest.

Star Control was awesome. It was an excellent mix of role playing, resource management, and arcade action. The story was spiced with humor, the characters were original and the plot was entertaining. What’s more, though its graphics were simple, it was chalked full of content. Every system you explored had something unique about.  Whether it be mineral rich planets, earth like moons teaming with life or the colony of one of alien races populating the galaxy there were endless means to exploit them all. Star Control II just had plenty for you to do. Provided, of course, that your idea of a good time was exploiting the fuck out of everything you laid your eyes on. Come to think of it, in the Game you, the hero, use the fact that your race is enslaved as an excuse to exploit, lie and more or less weasel your fellow sentient races into destroying each other and dying at your whim. I gotta say, in retrospect, this game kinda goes to a dark place.

Although Bio Wares Mass Effect series comes close to replicating the feel of Star Control even making that comparison still feels like a stretch. Star Control was a completely unique experience. One that would only really work in the way it was originally presented - a 2D top down space fighter game. It’s unfortunate so few people that I talk to have ever heard of the game let alone played it. That being said I know of at least two brochachos that have not only heard of Star Control II but quit their day jobs and spent countless hours crafting a game that was a love letter to it. Two hombres who if they continue on their current path may prove to be for video games the next incarnation of the Buddha. Two pillars of digital justice who created the game which is the focus of this week’s review. Richard Clifford and Andrew Hume who created SPAZ or Space Pirates and Zombies.

Richard Clifford and Andrew Hume, two guys who worked together for several years at RadicalEntertainment.( the studio behind the Prototype series).  After working on two projects that were cancelled half way through development and seeing sixty of their co-workers and friends get laid off, the two decided that working for Radical and its cancel-happy ways was not for them. Their response? Stick it to the man by quitting and working for free from the dim and dank basements of their respective homes. The two decided that they wanted to take gaming back to its roots and to create a game that was in the same vein as Star Control and Master of Orion.

I have a lot of respect for these dudes, what they did took a lot of balls... So much so that here is a link to the slow clap from Cool Runnings to help underscore their achievement. Respect.

The results of the efforts, exactly what they promised... A 2D top down shooter that takes a hugechunk of inspiration from Star Control and Master of Orion.

In SPAZ, you play as a Space Pirate in command of a cobbled together star ship called the Clockwork. The galaxy has been populated by humanity and most of our efforts as a species revolve around the mining of a special element known as "Rez". The goal of the game is to escort the Clockwork to the galactic core where rumors abound of a "Rez" mother lode. The only sticking point is that the Galaxy wide authority, known as the UTA, has closed down interstellar travel by blockading the various warp gates that connect star systems. The UTA's reasoning?   “To prevent the spread of interstellar sicknesses through careful inspection and stringent regulations.”  As you are a Space Pirate, your response to the UTA is a big Yo-Ho! And YARRR! as you mercilessly blast your way through the many blockades between you and the galactic core. Now as this game is called Space Pirates and Zombies, I suppose it is no surprise that as you wind your way towards the core you discover the interstellar sickness the UTA is concerned about containing is a parasitic alien that turns humans into brain munching Zombies and ships into Zombie carrying spores of doom. Zombie carrying spores of doom which quickly transition from being a novel distraction from blasting the UTA into “those fucking things that make every mission a hundred times more difficult then they need to be.”

The Clockwork just kinda floats around, it would be nice if it helped out a bit more often.

That is more or less the plot of the game. Some nifty features of SPAZ include a randomly generated galaxy that you define the size of as well as a plethora of ship designs which you pick up through the game. The ship designs have a number of slots and systems that can be customized and reconfigured which allow for a fair amount of experimentation and play. For example, I found myself playing around with various weapon configurations in an attempt to find the optimum mix that would allow me to burn through an enemy space stations shield while still having the armor piercing punch to crack its hull open.

The game play itself is fairly straight forward, you command a fleet of three ships. You personally pilot one of them while the other two are controlled by AI. You use your mouse to target and orient your ship and you use the "WASD" keys to control its Thrusters. Combat is an arcade slugfest where you basically trade fire until one ship explodes. There isn't a lot of strategy involved as the Space you do battle in is more or less devoid of any meaningful terrain. The combat in SPAZ doesn’t require a heck of a lot of thought, but that’s not such a bad thing. Sometimes you just want to blow shit up, not agonize over the details of how you're going to do it. More to the point however, the quick paced combat in SPAZ is fun, so who cares if it’s simple. 

As for the graphics in the game, MinMax did an excellent job of sprucing up the 2D style of play by adding 3D backgrounds and layers of space debris, clouds and other effects on to the 2D gameplay. The background is full of, planets, nebula, ship wrecks and space junk which adds eye candy polish to the presentation of the game.

Engaging in battle with the aforementioned fucking zombie ships.

For all of the good to be found in SPAZ, after a few hours of play players are likely going to start feeling that the title lacks variety. At this point players will have seen everything that SPAZ has to offer. Every mission in the game involves blowing up enemy ships. Enemy ships which are all the exact same design as ships that you have access to. Aside from the Zombies, which only appear in the last third of the game, the only other things you encounter that you can meaningfully interact with are the two factions: The Civilians and The UTA. Both factions are in every system and more or less fly the same ships. The only change from star system to star system is the randomly generated relationship level of the two factions in relation to you. I would have liked to see a bit more variety; maybe some missions where you need to assist with research or transport items between systems or maybe a couple of more factions such as Pirates and local governments. As it is, the SPAZ galaxy feels a bit empty and incomplete. Yes you have a giant and nearly endless galaxy to explore, but when it’s all the same, why would you want to?    

And they will all look almost exactly the same.

To be fair, Hume and Clifford acknowledge this short coming in SPAZ and have even said that they had wanted to include four factions and more types of ships but as the game grew in complexity and the release date got pushed back they were unable to add in all the content they had originally intended. Given the nature of how SPAZ was developed. I have to say I can’t be too upset with their decision to release the game without all the brainstormed content.

I picked up SPAZ off of steam on sale for four bucks and it gave me a good few days’ worth of nostalgic game play. When I last checked its regular price was ten dollars. I can guarantee you that even at twenty dollars SPAZ would be a good investment of your time and money. Yes it lacks variety, but it makes up for it with its simplistic charm and fun, fast paced arcade style.

In closing I would also like to mention that while I was researching for this article, I came across a website entitled “The Ur-Quan Masters”. A port of Star Control II which was developed by a group of guys who had gotten together to re-master and re-release the original game which I believe is now considered abandon-ware. It’s ready to go and it’s completely free! Check it out and let the good times roll.

Review: Deus Ex: Human Revolution - The Missing Link DLC

Reviews: Deus Ex: Human Revolution – The Missing Link DLC

Pros: Fleshes out the final Chapter of Human Revolution

Cons: Your decisions and objects do not carry through to the actual Human Revolution game

Final Judgement: The solid eight to ten hours of gameplay Missing Link’s playtime will give you your money’s worth and quench any Deus Ex fans thirst

http://www.deusex.com/themissinglink

Available On: PSN, Xbox Live, Steam

Well here we are, deep in the belly of the after Christmas season. God I hate this time of year for gaming.  All the major developers have gone big for the holidays and have now gone home to either count their money or lick their wounds. There was literally nothing of note being released this month. I mean it. What did we have? Final Fantasy XIII-2, Thirteen… Two.  Aside from being a title with a cluster fuck of both roman numerals and numbers, why do they need to make a sequel to a game that you had to play for over a full twenty-four hour day before it stopped being a hallway simulator? You would think that after the last game there would be no more hallways to see, even the deepest and most final of your fantasies. I think I’ll pass.

Yeaaaaah... It was a lot of this.

Things were so bad that I had to go to the island of lost and forgotten games and dig out a title that I had picked up on sale weeks earlier. A game which was so terrible that I don’t even want to waste your time by writing a full review, so instead I’ll lambast it in a paragraph. I speak of… ugh, Homefront.

Homefront is a game where, in 2027, Kim Jong-Un (who looks a lot slimmer then in real life) gets all up in America’s business and invades the mid-west. The game starts out with you in a rag tag group of guerrillas.  You then proceed to start shooting your way through hundreds of Korean dudes and American refugees that look like they got lost on their way to a Macintosh Superbowl commercial. The game was less than six hours long and crashed five times during my play through. Homefront desperately tries to stand on its own two legs by throwing in some Modern Warfare style shock value vis-a-vis discovery of mass graves and public executions.  However, the characters are so campy and the story so shallow that the game just ends up shitting the bed. What’s more, the Gameplay is bland and uninspired and reminded me of eating a bowl of gruel.  If you’re starving for an FPS it will sustain you but I doubt you’ll be left feeling satisfied. Gameplay wise Homefront is a shooter by the numbers, but that’s all it is. There is nothing in it to make you want to play it, there is nothing that it does that will make you want to take a second look. Save your time, skip this game.

"What do you mean Homefront sucked?"

Fortunately not moments after I had finished Homefront, and subsequently gargling with whiskey to get its taste out of my mouth, I remembered that a way better game that also takes place in the jolly good year of 2027 had released some DLC a few weeks back. Deus Ex: Human Revolution - The Missing Link, bringing us content that promised to take us deeper into a conspiracy that ended… rather abruptly… in the original story.

Without spoiling Human Revolution, I can sum it up by saying there is a point in the game right before the final act begins where the cybernetic hero Adam Jensen stows away aboard a cargo ship that he believes will take him to the answers he’s been searching for are. The game fades to black as Jensen climbs into a stasis pod about to be loaded onto the ship.  In the next scene Jensen is in a warehouse being told by his mission handler that he’s been off the grid and out communication for several days. The Missing Link DLC fills this gap in the narrative and lets us see what Adam was up to during the black out.

More or less Missing Link has Jensen being found and captured by Bell Tower Security, one of the puppets of the conspirators in Human Revolution. Jensen awakes in the brig of the cargo ship he stowed away on and has to either sneak or fight his way through the ship and onto Bell Towers deep sea naval base. Here he makes a few unlikely allies and uncovers a sub plot involving a large number of abductions of women which is mentioned in passing in Human Revolution but never expanded on. This sub plot  helps to clarify the final act of the game and explains why Jensen seemed uncharacteristically unfazed by what he discovered at the end of Human Revolution. I see what they did there Edios: you’re filling in the “missing link” between the cargo ship and the warehouse in the story line, while also showing players the “missing link” between the abductions and the larger conspiracy. HA-HA! Double Entendre!

On paper this sounds pretty good, however there are two concerns I always have when it comes to DLC, especially in role playing games:

One, as I had already played through Human Revolution months prior to the release of Missing Link, the immediate concern that jumped to my mind when I purchased this DLC was if I was going to have to play the game over from the beginning. After all, how was I supposed to go back and play a section of the game after I had already, in theory, completed that section of the game? Thankfully, Missing Link bypasses continuity concerns by not altering the retail release of Human Revolution. Once the player downloads the Missing Link, it is a stand-alone section of the game that can be played at any time and is accessed from the “Downloads” Section of the games main menu.

Two, I find DLC is sometimes super lame, like a cash grab that developers and publishers use to wring a few extra dollars out of people who have already paid full retail price for a game. For example the oft cited “Horse Armor Pack” for Elder Scrolls IV, why would your horse need armor? It basically never dies, and even if it does Elder Scrolls has heaps of Horses like Snopp Dogg ‘be tripp’in bitches’. (I don’t know Mr. Dogg, but I’m lead tobelieve from his music, that he in fact has a lot.) Missing Link cost me around $15 and it provided me with a good ten hours of game play and an engaging, well developed story line. You really can’t ask for more than that. Now granted it doesn’t really deviate from the Deus Ex formula nor does it add any new skills, powers or equipment but it really doesn’t have to.  Why reinvent the wheel? Human Revolution is a great game; Missing Link is just giving you more of what you want.

Some people paid money for this.

The thing that I really liked about the Missing Link was the nostalgia it gave me for Metal Gear Solid from the Playstation One. Much like in Metal Gear, Missing Link picks up with Jensen being by himself with nothing in his pockets. You start out the story with Jensen back at Level 1 and you need to scavenge or steal for every piece of equipment or weapon that you want to use. Much like in Metal Gear Solid, Jensen is dropped into a facility that requires a lot of moving back and forth through the same areas in order to collect quest related items and bypass various traps and problems. The game keeps it fresh by switching up the number and types of enemies that are encountered as the story progresses to ensure you never feel like you’re just embarking on another “fetch quest” to pad the play time. Even the naval base itself with its loading bays, warehouses, narrow office corridors and prisons feels reminiscent of the setting of Shadow Moses Island from Metal Gear.   

Jensen does ol' Solid Snake proud in this game.

In keeping with the Deus Ex’s style, the Missing Link allows the player to choose to run in guns blazing or take a stealthier approach. Unlike in Human Revolution where you get experience bonuses for sneaking in and out undetected, Missing Link ups the ante by increasing the number of enemy resistance you encounter the more you are detected. Basically if Jensen is only detected once while attempting to sneak off the ship there might be an extra guard or two posted at the choke points between areas. On the other hand, if you try to Rambo your way off the ship you might find a platoon of well-armed guards with security robots lying in wait on the dock, sure guns blazing can be a lot “easier” depending on your skill, but you allies on the Naval Base really don’t appreciate the whole sale slaughter and it just feels much more rewarding to have people going on about how they can’t find you and you’re the unholy off spring of a Ninja and a Ghost. All said and done, at the end of my play through I wanted to go bust out the old Playstation and give Metal Gear another go ‘round.

Because he does, and I find meme's funny.

Overall the Missing Link content exceeded my expectations. The storyline is of the quality that I came to expect from Human Revolution, the characters are interesting and the game play, especially the stealth aspects, were enjoyable and challenging. While the stand alone nature of The Missing Link was handy, I would have liked the option to have it integrate into Human Revolution and be able to play through both Human Revolution and Missing Link as one cohesive story line.  If you are a Deus Ex fan, you won’t be disappointed by this DLC.  Furthermore, the many fans of Metal Gear will definitely appreciate the familiar flavor of this content.

Reviews - Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Review - Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Pros: Ties up the stories of Altair and Ezio while adding some much needed depth to Desmond.

Cons: The only real revelation in the game is that Ubisoft just bilked you out of your hard earned cash for a title that could probably have been DLC.



Final Judgement: The game is a must if you’re playing Assassin’s Creed for the story, if you just like the game play or multiplayer, skip this title.






Available for: PS3, Xbox, PC (Steam)
http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/revelations/en-us/home/index.aspx

Instinct is an interesting phenomenon when you really stop and think about it. I mean, really think about it. To know something without any guidance or instruction?  Now that’s cool. Salmon instinctually know where to spawn, birds know to fly south for the winter and I know to change the channel when Sex in the City comes on. Certain reactions are hardwired into us, written into our DNA and the very basic nature of our being.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

A while back I read an interesting article about a theory by David E. Jones.  The theory explored how different cultures around the world all have a universal image of a Dragon, the mythical creature that never really existed. Jones believed that dragons were the sum of the three creatures which menaced hominids in their earliest years: Raptors, (the birds not the dinos) Snakes and large Cats. Jones hypothesized that a fear of these primary predators by early humans is so encoded into our genetics that over the years our unconscious minds muddied them together into a dragon like creature.  The dragon is simply a learned behavior of our ancestors interpreted by our unconscious minds as a peasant squishing, village burninating, flying lizard. I’m sure there are plenty of holes to poke into Jones’ theory but still, interesting stuff! I should probably read his book and, you know, not rely on Wikipedia and my memory to tell you guys shit that leads into my game reviews.

Assassin’s Creed takes this genetic theory a step further and proposes that the very memories of our ancestors stretching all the way back to the beginning of time are written into our DNA like a black box recorder. Every event that created our ancestors and defined who they were is encoded into our genetics. Through the use of the “Animus”, (a machine that allows these genetic memories to be read and experienced in a virtual reality) you can re-live the lives of your ancestors and even lean their skills and abilities. How awesome is that? Well… in reality it would probably suck for 99% of the population. I very much doubt many people would have a lot of awesome, kick ass, adventurous ancestors. Most would probably come out of the Animus with a strong knowledge of how to heard sheep or till fields or knit a mean tunic. C’est la passé vie.

"Whee... fun!"

Why am I telling you all this? Because I think Assassin’s Creed on the whole is an awesome series. I love the idea of two separate stories being told in parallel. The first story of Desmond Miles, learning about his family lineage of bad ass boot stomping assassins that stretches back to the Crusades, while being pursued by modern day Templars.  The second is a story about the adventures of Desmond’s ancestors Ezio and Altir which takes place inside the Animus and is usually a more interesting and intriguing version of actual historical events. Events that Assassin’s Creed usually boils down to the ongoing war between the Assassins who believe humanity should be free to determine its own fate and the Templars that believe humanity must be controlled if it is to survive.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is the fourth installment into the Assassin’s Creed series and I believe is fulfilling the role of tying up the loose ends of Altair and Ezio.  In addition the game is, in a roundabout way, attempting to add some depth Desmond’s character.  On the whole, Revelations isn’t bad but the story felt thin.  When stacked against the other games in the series, Revelations is the lame duck of the family. It didn’t feel like there was anything really at stake. There was nothing pushing me to want to finish the story or learn what was going to happen next. It’s like when you watch one of the plethora of reality T.V. shows out there that feel the need to stretch the show out by another episode by throwing in a “Highlights of the show!” or “Never before seen footage!” episode right before the big finale. Yeah, you’ll still watch it, but at the same time you’re kind of pissed off at the cop out.

Revelations starts off immediately where Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood left off.  Desmond, after suffering a trauma which I won’t spoil, is hooked up to the Animus to essentially keep him alive. He awakens on a desert island where “Subject 16”, the mysterious figure that the Templars had been experimenting on prior to them capturing Desmond  appears. 16 explains that both he and Desmond’s consciousness is trapped inside the Animus and that while it may be too late for 16, he can help Desmond get back to reality. Apparently all Desmond needs to do is defragment his brain and separate from his conscious mind the memories that belong to Altair, Ezio and himself.   Yeah, okay, I don’t really see how that would work either but screw it. After all, I’m playing a game where the main character spends 90% of the game inside another game where he controls his ancestor in a simulation, created from his DNA. If I can swallow all that I suppose I can suspend my disbelief a tad longer.

Don't mind ol' 16, he's just hanging out and getting progressively crazier. 

Before I go any further I should say that the whole idea of Desmond being stuck on a desert island, utterly alone with no escape, is actually very fitting for this game. I felt a bit like that while I was playing it. Revelations just feels unfinished; it didn’t have the same depth of story or breadth of game play from the previous Assassin’s Creed games.  For example, the previous two games had a very compelling sub plot where you could locate hidden codes around the cities Ezio explored; these codes would send you to a mini-game puzzle that was a lot like the Da Vinci Code and would shed light on the worldwide Templar conspiracy. There’s none of that in Revelations, no hidden codes, no collectable armor pieces, you can’t even buy artwork to hang in your hideout and admire like you used to.  What’s more, aside from Ezio’s love interest, Sophia, almost every character in the game is flat and barely developed. They traipse into and out of the story with barely enough gusto for you to even take notice of them in the first place. Even 16, who was mysterious but interesting character in the previous games suddenly disappears without a word after the opening scenes in the game and doesn’t show up again until the climax, it’s almost as if the writers just forgot about him.

In any case, the lion’s share of the game follows Ezio who has traveled east from Rome to learn about the legendary assassin Altair. Ezio has come to Constantinople to try and locate Altair’s five keys which will open his library and reveal some grand truth about the world.  There is also a plot involving the Templars which is never really expanded on in any depth and doesn’t seem to really matter or concern anyone.  

Altair getting older but still laying boot to ass.

The only two parts of the story that I thoroughly  enjoyed were the scenes that you play as Altair which are unlocked as you locate the keys, and the side story between Ezio and Sofia Sartor. The Altair scenes were compelling and dramatic. The Sofia scenes was nice as she quickly becomes Ezio’s love interest and gave are a welcome change of pace as Ezio get his happily ever after opposed to getting screwed over by the Templars once again.

I mean we all knew Ezio was gonna get a lady, how else would Desmond be able to relive all this if Ezio never had kids?

Gameplay wise Revelations isn’t going to show you anything you haven’t seen before in the previous games. Yes Ezio gets a few more weapons, but I never found Ezio really needed more weapons in the first place. On any given day Ezio lugs around a hidden blade, a sword, a dagger, throwing knives, poison darts, a crossbow and a wrist pistol. The man is a walking arsenal; in Revelations they give him a “hook blade” which allows him to grapple onto things at the top of his jump, and the ability to craft bombs. Both these things may sound cool but the hook blade is just a repackaging of the extended jump technique in the previous games, and bomb crafting just gets silly. There are three hundred different bomb combinations that Ezio can create. Three hundered. But you‘ll only ever use three of them so don’t worry too much about getting overwhelmed. You’ll use the grenade for taking out groups, the cherry bomb for distracting guards and the smoke screen for covering your escape, everything else is just window dressing and a bit gimmicky.

The only other new offering to the Assassin’s Creed series that Revelations serves up is a Tower Defence mini game. As you take over districts of Constantinople the Templars will become more aware of your presence, if their awareness gets too high they’ll attack one of your assassin’s dens scattered about the city and you will have to rush to its defence. Once there you play overlord and order your assassins to build barricades, take up sniping positions from roof tops and so on. The defence game is challenging but you only ever have to play it once when it’s first introduced. After that you can completely avoid that entire facet of the game by simply monitoring the amount of heat you’re generating from the Templars and paying off heralds and assassinating city officials to reduce your awareness level as required. It’s slightly confusing, why put even put this game mechanic into the finished product if you’re only ever going to require me to play it a single time in a tutorial setting? Why not just cut it, or make it a more prominent feature of this installment of Assassin’s Creed?

At the end of the day, Revelations leaves me with mixed feeling and a lingering sense of dread. A sense I have had from other Ubisoft titles in the past. Ubisoft seems to be of the mind that it must release the next installment of its big ticket game every Christmas until they fall on their faces and the game gets mediocre reviews. They did it with Splinter Cell and they did it with Prince of Persia. A week prior to Revelations release Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, announced that Assassin’s Creed 5 would be released in time for the Christmas 2012 season and that it would be a fully-fledged title for the Assassin’s Creed series. I can only hope that the reason that Revelations was not up to snuff was because they were working on something big for the next game and not because the development team is exhausted and just trying to limp this series to the barn for the sake of Ubisofts financials.

16 and Adam Sandler, I mean Desmond Miles.

While I would recommend Revelations to fans of the series, I only do so because it covers some fairly important plot points that you’re going to need to stay on top of its complex and progressive story. This is not to say that the game is bad, it is still very much an Assassin’s Creed game and has all of the action and free roaming fun of the previous games. Revelations does however lacks a lot of the depth and polish that took the Assassin’s Creed games from being good and made them great.  

Commentary - Five games to play from 2011

So here we are.  We’ve opened our presents, drank our nog and rung in the New Year with earnest abandon. Welcome to 2012 my friends. I sincerely hope you all had a wonderful holiday because the end of the god damn world is just around the corner. Indeed, the Mayan calendar is set to end on December 21^st, 2012, a mere three hundred and fifty three days from now. Three hundred fifty three! Don’t you see what this means? The Mayan long count calendar is ending. Logically the world must be too! It’s not like the Mayan dude charged with making the calendar didn’t just figure that four thousand years’ worth was probably planning far enough into the future, right? It’s not like he was thinking, “Well guess I can call it a day. Someone will just add more years on if we still care four millennia from now. I mean it’s not like they’ll just assume it’s the end of all creation.”

How the hell do you even read this thing? Scheduling must have been a nightmare.

Wrong ancient dead guy! Dead wrong.  I did my own research and I have to say that the folks over at www.2012warning.com seem totally legit, look the twinkling star wallpaper and animated gif of Jupiter. I think these people know a bit more about space and stuff then those NASA hacks telling us all to chill. So what are you going to do with your remaining months on earth?  Perhaps ponder the meaning of life or do and say all those things you wanted to do before you die?   Well I have a better idea.  I’m going to help you invest your remaining days on this earth by telling you the five games from 2011 you must play before the world implodes.

Soon.

Perhaps you’d like to begin by playing a game that puts you in the role of the one man who could save the world from its impending doom? I don’t mean Superman, that guys a douche. All “Do you know who my father is?” and “I’m just naturally this awesome, it’s all because of my sweet tan.” Screw that guy, I’m talking Batman bitches.

Batman: Arkham City (PS3, Xbox 360, PC – Released October)

Batman is sick of your shit.

Arkham City, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. In the Christopher Nolan age of amazing Batman movies, it’s nice to get a video game series that so far seems to stack up to the quality of the films. Let’s be honest with ourselves, at some point in life we’ve all wanted to be the god damn Batman.  If you say you haven’t you have either A) never heard of Batman, or B) are a Liar. In Arkham City You get to live out all of your caped crusading fantasies by playing the Dark Knight as he opens a family value sized can of whoop ass on the Joker, Two-Face, Penguin and a horde of other supporting villains. Arkham City took everything that worked in Arkham Asylum and improved on it.  The fighting is visceral, the stealth sections are exciting and the game has enough side missions and collectable quests to keep a gamer happily soaring over the city, pouncing on unsuspecting crooks for hours on end. For more check my full review here.

If playing a millionaire playboy/high tech, ass-kicking ninja isn’t your thing then maybe you’re more of the ‘make your own name’ type.  Maybe you think bathing and personal hygiene should be optional? Maybe you secretly wish your name was Elfayis Silverbow and that you’re from the magical domain of the Summerset Isles?   If this is the case then may I suggest you put on your wizard cloak and hat for the Skyrim adventure?

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3, Xbox 360, PC – Released November)

Skyrim - The only game where you can pretend to be a cat and not get accused of being a furry.

For anyone who has been following the buzz on Twitter and other gaming sites since Skyrim’s release, its inclusion on this list probably isn’t a surprise. Since my initial review of Skyrim, in which I confessed that I had only been playing for ten or so hours, the Skyrim game hasn’t left my Xbox. I’ve logged almost a hundred hours on this game. A hundred hours and I’m still not sick of it, not even a little! There is just so much to do and see in this game.   You can join a warrior’s guild, become a werewolf and then run off to the Skyrim equivalent of Hogwarts to become a wizard. Then, while you’re waiting for your classes to start you come across an interesting shrine.  The shrine kicks off a story line that takes you to the other side of Skyrim where you meet a guy who turns out to be a demi-god that slips you roofies over a beer  and starts yet another story-line that is the Norse equivalent of the hangover.  Skyrim isn’t so much a game as a vacation from reality.  Skyrim is all about freedom and there are almost no decisions that can’t be reversed if you decide you don’t like them. The sheer open ended nature and vastness of the game can feel a bit overwhelming but if you give Skyrim a chance you’ll quickly find that the game rewards your perseverance.

Then again, maybe having near infinite freedom and zero consequences doesn’t appeal to you, maybe you want to agonize over every decision you’re faced with. Does the idea of deciding to have eggs with breakfast instead of pancakes, only to learn at lunch that the pancake maker was forced out of business due to your pro-egg/anti-cake policy and thus committed suicide excite you? Then boy-howdy is Assassin of Kings for you!

 The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings (PC – Released May)

Assassin of Kings is an adventure/RPG game that is all about consequences.  Throughout the game the hero, Geralt of Rivia, is forced to make morally grey choices and decisions. This approach to decision making was refreshing as most Role Playing Games make your decisions too black or white, good or evil.   More often than not I found myself deciding based on my own belief system and not on any real direction provided by the game. The decisions in the Witcher aren’t trivial decisions either, they can and do have profound repercussions on the games story hours of game play later. For example: Do you side with the Imperials who protect the civilized world but are slowly committing genocide against Elves and Dwarves? Or do you side with the rebels who are fighting for Elven and Dwarf kind but do so by slaughtering innocent civilians?

Geralt gets a lot of action... The ladies dig scars.

Beyond the consequence based plot line, Assassin of Kings also focuses on Geralt’s vocation in life, hunting down and slaughtering of monsters for monetary gain. The real enjoyment of this facet of game play comes from the monsters all being based on characters and creatures from folk lore and fairy tales. As the hunt unfolds you’ll find yourself remembering childhood tales that add another level of enjoyment to the game.  Although Assassin of Kings is not without its flaws - no real tutorial for how to play and combat that is punishingly difficult until you get the hang of it - the Witcher has excellent graphics and a thought provoking plot that will draw you in from the moment you pick it up.  

Speaking of killing monsters for a living, once you get the hang of combat, the Witcher, makes it look easy. If you’re the type that wants to slay horrors that should not be, but want the added danger of possibly craping yourself while you do it, then turn off all the lights, turn up the volume on your sound system and play Dead Space 2.

Dead Space 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC – Released January)

This is actually part of the game play, not a cut scene. Where you stick a needle... in your eye. Urk.

Survival Horror games have always been a pleasure of mine. There is something about being so into a game that I find myself on the edge of my seat. Dead Space 2 was exactly what I was looking for. From the moment this game starts, Dead Space 2 throws you waist deep into the shit. You begin the game running for dear life through utter chaos, bound in a straitjacket, plagued by the pursuing necromorphs (monsters that infect the dead) and your own psychological dementia. Everywhere you turn in Dead Space 2 something is going to come scuttling out of the dark or attack from a shadow. In the moments when you aren’t under attack it’s even worse because you worry about when the next thing is going to pop out and scream at you..  It is clear that the developers took time to develop the main character Isaac Clarke from an easily forgettable silent protagonist in the first game, into a broken man clutching to the shreds of his sanity and plagued by guilt that you can identify with. For anyone that enjoys sci-fi horror, or psychological stories, Dead Space 2 is the title to play.     

Part of his psychosis is seeing his dead girlfriend... I'm not sure what he saw in her in the first place.

Last but certainly not least, is a game that I was looking forward to for most of 2011. This is a game that will be enjoyed by Tom Clancy and Phillip K. Dick fans. I of course speak of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PS3, Xbox 360, PC – Released August)

At its heart, Deus Ex is a partnership that takes Square-Enix’s ability to tell a story and combines it with Eidos’ Montreal’s ability to make a game that isn’t a fucking hallway simulator. Honestly Square? What the hell was Final Fantasy 13 all about? Was it a test to see how long I could tolerate pressing the forward button on my controller? Thankfully Deus Ex is a far superior game and has a plot involving government and big business and is set in a future heavily influenced by Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell. Although the protagonist Adam Jensen, appears to have taken raspy voice acting lessons from Christian Bale, the game has a solid plot which I enjoyed all the way through.

"Bale gave me some real pro tips on sounding like a badass."

The world painted by Deus Ex is intriguing and the environments are detailed. The game has plenty of discoveries and places to explore. Deus Ex also gives you a fair amount of choice in how you play through the story line.  You can play the stealth game or you can do the run and gun. You can be a hero and avoid unnecessary death or you can be the maverick and murder everything that gets in your way. Deus Ex provides you with the tools and upgradeable skills to allow you to play a style that is enjoyable for you and doesn’t make you feel like you’re missing out on half the game.

So there it is, my friends, five games from 2011 that I feel are worthy of your hard earned money. If you want to share your thoughts on the best of the year gone by, toss me an email, or leave a comment. Maybe I’ll do a readers choice article down the road, who knows?  Happy New Year once again and here’s to an even better 2012.