Review
Played on: Xbox 360
Released: 2011
Released: 2011
Deus Ex: Human Revolution bases itself around three different approaches to completing your tasks. Either go guns blazing, stealthy or hack your way through systems. Combining all three, what I personally preferred, is perhaps the most enjoyable. That said, large gun fights are indeed avoidable and probably should be, considering the difficulty of open gunfights. In other words, Human Revolution continues the franchise's formula in a great fashion.
Apart from its unique choice of gameplay styles, what stands out the most for me is it's atmospheric design. Right from the beginning you get the impression the developers have used time in making the futuristic setting into something special looking. It's yellow tinted urban environments remind you of classic movies like Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell, even from a gaming point of view it echoes atmosphere from games like Halo: ODST.
Apart from its unique choice of gameplay styles, what stands out the most for me is it's atmospheric design. Right from the beginning you get the impression the developers have used time in making the futuristic setting into something special looking. It's yellow tinted urban environments remind you of classic movies like Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell, even from a gaming point of view it echoes atmosphere from games like Halo: ODST.
Lighting and attention to the small detail of indoors locations is consistent throughout. I like added effects like billowing smoke and great fire animation too. The artstyle is cleverly designed and really helps build a living sci-fi world to sink into, with lots of NPCs wandering about their daily life. Sure, there's a lot of usage of high-tech office landscapes and labs throughout, but they feel well designed and believable.
I appreciate how it begins the journey in a linear fashion, masking a tutorial level by an intense opening level as a high-tech lab is attacked by terrorists. Then, further in it opens up into a sandbox design, albeit not massively open world in anyway. From you futuristic office building, you can take on side-missions as well as complete the main ones in a small urban portion of Detroit. Doing side stuff will earn you more XP and money to upgrade your character and weapons with.
As the story progresses you'll be sent to other locations far off in a helicopter like spaceship. Allowing the game to visually vary it's locations and atmosphere in new environments.
The level design is quite unique, allowing for multiple paths to enter buildings and taking out enemies, suiting your preferred playstyle. Their extensively detailed designed with a lot of thought gone into the caring for the various entry points and non-linear layout. It doesn't feel at all like the terrible "walk from A to B levels" so many modern titles have. Think of how Metal Gear Solid 2's room designs, but expanded further and you're getting there.
You'll be heavily challenged in difficulty, perhaps one of the hardest games this generation. I found the learning curve extremely unforgiving and felt they should've have had more easy missions before throwing you into quite tricky scenarios. Especially if you're banking on me non-lethal in your approach. There were some early episodes of extreme frustration on my behalf, before finally getting my head around how to approach the gameplay.
You'll be heavily challenged in difficulty, perhaps one of the hardest games this generation. I found the learning curve extremely unforgiving and felt they should've have had more easy missions before throwing you into quite tricky scenarios. Especially if you're banking on me non-lethal in your approach. There were some early episodes of extreme frustration on my behalf, before finally getting my head around how to approach the gameplay.
That said, difficulty level gives you a sense of reward, bringing back the old feeling of actually becoming good at the gameplay to complete missions, rather than simply having checkpoints save you through most of the game and never actually progressing your skills. I miss those days...once and a while at least!
Luckily, you'll be glad to know that the infamous boss fights now have been updated with an easy option weapon if you're find the learning curve tough when up against bosses. Call it cheating, fact is to enjoy the game from beginning to end, and if this is a way for you to do so when stuck on a boss level, well then be it. They're still not easy though and it requires an upgrade to unlock.
The storytelling, characters and beautiful designed environments on each level gives it a unique feeling and I warmly recommend people looking for a deeper and more engaging action adventure to play it. I would've preferred a slightly easier learning curve and the gunplay is stiff, especially considering the unforgiving nature of checkpoints and the extremely high difficulty level. Covering from fire and advancing slowly is key to survival.
Those with patience, making their way through the steep learning curve and difficult battles titles of later years. It definitely is a game for those who miss the more traditional difficulty and challenges of old-school PC games, while at the same time want a unique atmosphere and visually impressive futuristic world to sink in to.
The storytelling, characters and beautiful designed environments on each level gives it a unique feeling and I warmly recommend people looking for a deeper and more engaging action adventure to play it. I would've preferred a slightly easier learning curve and the gunplay is stiff, especially considering the unforgiving nature of checkpoints and the extremely high difficulty level. Covering from fire and advancing slowly is key to survival.
Those with patience, making their way through the steep learning curve and difficult battles titles of later years. It definitely is a game for those who miss the more traditional difficulty and challenges of old-school PC games, while at the same time want a unique atmosphere and visually impressive futuristic world to sink in to.
Review
Played on: Xbox 360
Released: 2012
Released: 2012
This is a strange release, so absurd at times that passers by while you're playing, will probably utter the words "what the fuck is this?!". Multiple times. But they'll laugh and they'll find the chainsawing of zombies so satisfying once they try it. In a sense that's how Lollipop Chainsaw, in all its simplicity, wins you over.
The story is about a high school girl, called Juliet, arriving late for school and realising it's been infected by zombies. After slaying a good number of them, violently, she sees her boyfriend bitten by one. The result is that she has to decapitate him and she keeps his head in her belt. As you would.
Mind you, the boyfriend still lives on through this and constantly states his sarcasm towards Juliet's completely naive and bimbo view of the world with some hilarious comments. The dialogue between these two absurd characters, so clearly stereotyped, is what really drives the story and humour. The voiceovers do a great job to drive this point through in the English version.
Gameplay is on the surface a typical 3D hack and slash style; you have some ordinary kicking moves to knock out the zombies and then a batch of melee attacks to kill them. The catch? You do so using a chainsaw, ending in violent dismembering. To expand Juliet's attack roster, more attacks and combos can be purchased for gold coins you recieve from killing zombies. It's all about chaining multiple kills and keeping the combos going.
What's really entertaining is that the brutal violence is covered up by this naive, pink coloured and glittering world Juliet sees. It looks ridiculous, yet so violent it makes you almost laugh each time you get a combo kill and Juliet shouts out "Yay!" in her naive and over the top fashion, combined with a little cheerleader dance.
While the gameplay is simple to grasp for the simple attacks, it's tricky to master the special moves. It teases the player to constantly improve high scores, tempted by earning the more difficult platinum coins. Addictive for sure and begs for replays after completion!
There are some downsides. Environments have this simple, PS2 level, geometry. Mostly relying on being a corridor game, seldom giving the player big areas to roam. This is kind of questionable considering it uses the Unreal Engine 3, it really could've done with better detail and more exploration in the environments.
It's also a short playthrough, compensated somewhat by tempting replays of levels and kept fresh with lots of variation alongside just slaying zombies, mini-games for instance are a great distraction from the main game.
Soundtrack is really cool, ranging from 80's hits, all the way to current music like Skrillex. There's a portion mowing down zombies on a field with a farm vehicle accompanied by "You Spin Me Round" in the background, hilarious and amazing at the same time!
Of all the complaints I've expressed about Japanese gaming lagging behind, having incoherent stories and cliche anime-styled main characters, Lollipop actually understands comedy. It delivers a wacky plot, clearly being incredibly weird in a Japanese way, yet it somehow comes together so well. Regardless of Juliet's sexualised design.
It depicts some truly insane characters, voiced well and has a ton of funny lines. It's a statement that weird games with great gameplay and humour can work if you appeal to more western audiences and still maintain the absurdity of Japanese pop culture. There's a tricky balance and this game manages to do so.
Now imagine playing as Juliet in a free-roam Dead Rising setting, without the time limits, but with combo and violent chainsaw attacks....that would've been truly amazing!
Review
Played on: Xbox 360
Released: 2011
Released: 2011
Therefor it was a quite advanced 2D release, considering the details in sprite drawn graphics and smooth animation. 3D games followed, but only last year did Ubisoft return to the original concept.
Origins is without doubt a beautiful hand drawn 2D platformer, showing it's glory in 1080p with the smoothness of 60fps. It shows that even old genres of games can benefit from modern technical advancement and HD graphics. Just like New Super Mario Bros. Rayman Origins lets you and three of your friends get to together to traverse varied and exciting levels contained in worlds with various scenery settings.
Rayman Origins lends a lot of ideas from NSMB and benefits from following that formula. It looks far more stylish and pretty than it's modern Nintendo genre brother, and equally offers the same amount of environmental variation. Origins perhaps surpasses the competition when it comes to gameplay variation and abilities you gain along the way.
Origins is without doubt a beautiful hand drawn 2D platformer, showing it's glory in 1080p with the smoothness of 60fps. It shows that even old genres of games can benefit from modern technical advancement and HD graphics. Just like New Super Mario Bros. Rayman Origins lets you and three of your friends get to together to traverse varied and exciting levels contained in worlds with various scenery settings.
Rayman Origins lends a lot of ideas from NSMB and benefits from following that formula. It looks far more stylish and pretty than it's modern Nintendo genre brother, and equally offers the same amount of environmental variation. Origins perhaps surpasses the competition when it comes to gameplay variation and abilities you gain along the way.
Collecting all the gems in the game proves to become a collection nightmare and something I just didn't have the patience to do. I like the variation added with some of the running levels, they are fun and very hard, but feel rewarding once completed.
Rayman Origins is definitely something for classic platformer fans to check out and feels more of a breath of fresh air when compared to the 2D efforts of Nintendo with their NSMB releases.
I had a ton of fun, especially playing it coop!
