Review – Dead Space: Extraction ⁰

by Adam Blue • Reviews

If I started by telling you that Dead Space: Extraction is an M-rated, on-rails shooter for the Wii, you’d pretty much just ignore it and move on. Some may even talk bad about it before even playing it. So let’s pretend this first paragraph didn’t happen and read the rest of the review as if it’s some Dead Space game – a prequel to a game I assume you love. Only a handful of people didn’t like the original.

Dead Space: Extraction is a prequel to Dead Space, and starts of on the planet when the marker is first found. As you know from Dead Space, a possible alien artifact was found that may or may not have had powers to make people go crazy and create zombies. Sounds awesome, huh? The game plays out as a first-person movie. With much voice-acting, character interaction, and story elements that are more than enough to pull you in. This perspective rivaled Uncharted 2′s story for me, personally. As the story progresses, obviously the shit hits the fan. It does a good job of answering the questions brought about by the first game, and seeing the familiar (and haunting) locales is even more exhilarating.

Once the shit hits the fan – or blood, it literally looks like blood has hit a fan – the game seamlessly gives you control to shoot oncoming enemies. To keep the cinematic approach, you can only control your characters ‘arms’. You are being moved by the game for story purposes, but you have the ability to shoot wherever, use stasis, and use your gravity beam. This is where some people may be turned away at first, but even on-rails, this game is highly imerssive and requires a great deal of skill. As the game world moves you around, enemies pop out which of course you have to take down. Like the previous Dead Space, the most effective way to do this is to shoot at the limbs. This way, you can keep them back as many swarm at you. This is where skill comes in, as you have to be able to aim correctly and in a timely manner. To help you out, you have stasis which slows down enemies to buy you time. The game also offers a plethora of weapons to take out enemies.

As you play, many items will be visible around you. But you have to be quick to use your gravity beam and grab the items. These items can be health, ammo, guns, and upgrades. Upgrades make your weapons much more powerful and really help you. Each weapon has four possible upgrades and there are more than four guns, as you can only hold four at a time – so I don’t have an exact count…maybe eight? By completing the mission with good accuracy and many collected items, you can also upgrade your Rig suit, so that gives you another reason to play skillfully – it will help to have more health/resistance later on! All of this is what gives the game much replay value. In addition to co-op, playing through to collect items you’ve missed or select different paths, is just a number of reasons to play over again.

The controls here work great. I use the wiimote in a Nerf Blaster in one hand, and a nun-chuck in the other. You obviously shoot with the wiimote, but also shake in dark areas to activate your glow-worm. The nun-chuck allows for gravity beam, stasis, weapon selection with analog, and shack-to-reload. It also uses a Gears of War style reload mechanic. Shake, then shoot when the reload bar hits a specific area. This helps with quick reloading when fighting enemies – a must. You can also use mele attacks by pointing the wiimote outside of the screen and swiping the nun-chuck. This helps when breaking through barriers or knocking back enemies that have jumped on you.

The graphics are also very well-done for the Wii. While HD is obviously absent, it looks like the original Dead Space was taken, and HD was removed. Models look the same, animations are spot on, but there’s just a hint of jaggedy-bluriness that the Wii is known for. I even think the character models – especially faces – are some of the best around. While this is the one negative thing to say about the game, it does not change the gameplay and can not be faulted to the developer. They did great with what they can on the Wii.

With the many characters also comes the voice-acting. There’s a lot of talk the whole time. Like I said, this plays like an action movie. You get to know and learn about the characters, and the best way to express that is through the voice acting. While not movie quality, it’s actually the standard style found in games. So not horrendous, but hilarity is found. Again it helps move the story forward, which is amazing. Other sounds throughout are from the original Dead Space, which is unique and makes it easy to nail this as a Dead Space game.

In the end, you should definitely play this game. Because of the replay value, I say it’s worth a buy. Especially with co-op! If you are just strapped of funds, find a way to play this. Not only can I not wait for the real Dead Space sequel, but I want another Dead Space: Extraction.

Review – Brutal Legend ⁰

by Adam Blue • Reviews

I’m going to be honest – I’ve never played a Tim Schafer game through entirely. They were fun, but too wordy and story driven for my tastes. But that’s just my preference because that style of gaming is popular. I mean, heck, I don’t even like RPGs. But Brutal Legend stood out because of the setting. Metal. My favorite bands are Judas Priest and Iron Maiden (sadly absent from the game), and I even play drums/guitar while Sean and I are working on a metal album. So it was very easy to get me hooked.

Watching previews and playing the demo, the game looked to be a 3rd person action/adventure title. Now that I have the full game, I’ll call it a 3rd person real-time action/adventure/strategy. The RTS elements in the game are pretty badass. But because there is emphasis on the hand to hand combat, it’s not a full-blown RTS, and commanding of the units is pretty easy. You never have to send them out separately. You are more or less babying a group of fighters to go along with you. You have the option of using double-team abilities with all the units that will only help you in battle, and you can play solos that help out to, by either killing enemies or strengthening your troops.

The main singleplayer campaign is an open world game that have stage-battle missions that then bring in the RTS elements. Other than that, you are exploring to expand on the story, finding items throughout the world, and doing side-missions. The story is great as it is about metal, and features some of the coolest voices of the genre, specifically, Rob Halford. I would have hoped for some Maiden, but my belief is since Maiden and Osbourne have some issues, Maiden didn’t want to be part of a project that featured Ozzy as a big character. On a personal level, and as huge Maiden fan, the Ozzy camp have been real pricks, so I can understand in a way why the Maiden camp just steers clear. But unfortunately by doing so, Maiden is turning their backs on their fans. The official maiden boards even include a video games forum! …and no one is even talking about the game. Fortunately though, Tim went as far as naming the main character Eddie Riggs. A big time nod to Maiden fans.

So with the story, all elements of the metal culture are given some sort of explanation, which plays out both awesome and humorously. It makes sense. But I have to wonder, will you get it if you don’t care for metal? Well, as a 3rd person brawler, the fighting is pretty goof, but I feel the controls could be tighter. The idea of busting out your guitar for rhythm-game style solos is an awesome addition. And having a car to drive around and blow up shit is also entertaining. As you explore, there are many things to activate/collect/find which gives you points you can use to upgrade almost every aspect of the game. Guitar, axe, gun, and car. And as far as the RTS elements, I’m sure RTS fans would have fun with the multiplayer. I’m sure if the game was marketed as an RTS and you expected that, you might possibly still be impressed, but the elitists would cry.

As for graphics, things here are pretty simple but ooze with style. Again, it’s all based around the metal culture and makes sense. I personally love the style of the baddies. They are the black/death metal style, as you can hear that music in the background. Their look is really just terrifying to me. Traveling around in their part of the world gave me the chills, so I went back to make sure I was fully upgraded first. The main villain, Doviculus, just looks fucking awesome. I want an action figure STAT! But to go back on the negative points, this does look like something you can play on the PS2. Even though graphics aren’t everything, people still complain.

With the sound, you got some fun voice acting to go along with the characters. It’s much more cartoony than realistic, and jack Black delivers as Eddie. The soundtrack is brutal. Not a lot of metal that I like, but the Priest choices are spot-on, and hearing 3 Inches of Blood in a game like this works. As Priest is a favorite band of mine, I like metal in the style of Liege Lord or Attacker. Both are similar to Priest/Maiden. Check them out.

Shortly after the game was released, Tim posted some strategies on Double Fine’s site:

Some people find it hard to split up the army and give individual orders to individual troops. This is kinda true, mostly because you shouldn’t be doing it! That’s how you play an RTS game, not how you should play Brütal Legend. True, there are times where you might want to split your army, but it’s not common. I play complete Stage Battles most of the time without issuing a single Individual order. Your army is most effective when it’s together. The AI automatically groups your warriors into battle formations where the troops support each other. Many of the units buff or heal each other. When they are together they can all be enhanced with a single Battle Cry (or other buffing) solo. And when they are all together and you are in the middle of them, that is when you have the greatest number of options for Double Team attacks.

Tim is right (well, he made the game…). You can go about as if it’s not an RTS, and it’s much easier. By thinking of it as an RTS, I did lose some battles. Once I understood it’s really about fighting with your army, it became clear. You don’t send guys out to different locations, you don’t sit back and plan where to put what. You get a good amount of dudes, send them out, and then jump in, taking advantage of the many abilities provided. By doing this, I tore up a stage battle that made my previous attempt look very, very sad.

Tycho from Penny-Arcade then posted this:

This is a statement I honestly don’t understand. Much of the game (and the entirety of the multiplayer) is self-evidently an RTS, and one must engage in real-time strategy battles in order to progress though the body of the campaign. The fact that the game is also many other things, perhaps too many things simultaneously, doesn’t alter the fact. And you can’t really blame people for playing the game as an RTS when that’s explicitly how you taught them to play it.

I see where Tycho is coming from because he is a hardcore gamer who has played many RTS’s in the past. As a console game with a wide market appeal, many, many non-hardcore gamers will play this. Most, have not played an RTS. They go into battle going by what the game tells them and without a background knowledge of what to do in an RTS, and they will do a lot better.

I love rhythm games, but I don’t want to play a rhythm game while I’m playing an RTS while I’m playing a third person action game. In the middle of RTS battles, some basic commands require wyldde soloz to be rocked via a timing mechanism, which serves Brutal Legend’s theme but not its gameplay, and that’s the problem here in general. Brutal Legend is like a spoiled child, afforded every luxury, but grown wild in in the absence of discipline.

Again, he misses the point. Doing a solo is just another way to perform an ability of some sort among your army. By doing the solo wrong, you don’t activate that ability. This is no different than a button combo that will activate an attack or spell. Plus…it’s simple and adds to the setting.

I can see if you don’t care for metal and love RTS’s, you might have a hard time with this. But with my love for metal, I was able to overlook what seemed to be an RTS sneak-attack, and was able to play the game for what it is. If you love metal, play this game asap. It’s worth the $60 if you can swing it. If you don’t care for metal, you might just want to try it out. And if not now, some time soon. It doesn’t do anything amazing for those not into metal, but the stage battles are a little different and may interest those who want a little bit of strategy in their brawling.

Review – Uncharted 2 ⁰

by Adam Blue • Reviews

I bought the PS3 originally for Uncharted, and it did not disappoint. I still consider it the best game of this gaming generation. I guess you can say that would be hard to beat a second time around, wouldn’t you say? Uncharted 2 lives up to the hype, but if you can be as awesome as possible, it’s hard to be any awesomer. That’s Uncharted 2. Oh, and minor spoilers below. Nothing drastic though, because as you will find out, there’s not much to spoil.

The graphics are still as good as the first Uncharted, which is saying a lot. I do believe Batman: Arkham Asylum now holds that title though. One thing though that I notice on PS3 games are rough edges. Most people (including Sean) call me crazy, but look at both Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2, and while the graphics are fucking incredible, there’s no anti-aliasing (or something else that creates that blurred/rough edge look)! This can be debated for some time, but bottom line is I can tell if a game is a PS3 game because of this. And while it’s present here in Uncharted, Uncharted still looks great. The colors are what really stand out for me.

The gameplay is another unchanged element. You have your platforming, shooting, and mele combat. Nothing more to see here. I think now you have more stealth moves than the original, which is actually fun to use if you want to get by all the enemies without them noticing you. The sound is top-notch too. DTS has never sounded better, especially with character chatter going on around you. The character dialog is great; voice-acting is superb and the story is wonderful. Though, as good as the story is, it’s not as good as the first, and not as exciting. I guess I let myself down by hoping for a twist, but IMO, there’s not much of a twist here. It’s more like, ‘we’re going to do this’, ‘ok we’re here’, ‘stop bad guys’, ‘ok we’re done’. Yeah.

One complaint I had in the game had to do with movement. For some reason all of this only became an issue during the second half of the game, but it was frustrating. Jumping around to find ledges, what looked like ledges weren’t. But, they were if you were supposed to use it. This made the game too linear when it gave the impression of not being. Even if it didn’t get me to somewhere in the end, I would have liked to be able to climb around. One time I saw a treasure piece on the side of a wall that was against a lake. Now, this lake is dangerous and one touch takes away the ability to swim. I had two options, from what I could see: Climb up the wall from the back side, or drop down onto the hanging ledge above the water. Because too many times in the game I grabbed ledges when I was really trying to jump down. So, I decide to drop, but that section did not allow me to grab the edge, so I fall into the magical water. That kind of ruined the immersion of the world for me. Also be sure to stay away from your invincible AI buddies. Since they know they are immortal, they kind of forgot you’re not. So when a grenade gets thrown at you and you try to dodge away, you’ll run into their immortal wall-hard bodies and get blowed up. They then scream as if they are shocked you died from a grenade blast.

Those complaints made the end half feel a bit unpolished. I didn’t remember having this problem with the first game, and that along with the weak story makes this just as awesome as the first, but not better. Maybe it’s hard to make a better game? They added some fun multiplayer, which consists of capture-the-treasure or deathmatch. With the controls and platforming, it really does become a lot of fun. You are awarded with cash along the way to buy upgrades which adds some re-playability to the game.

In the end, this game is a must-play. Immediately. The multiplayer is good enough to consider this a purchase, but if not, rent or borrow now.