God Of War: Ghost of Sparta

A couple of years ago, while on holiday, I played a game that raised my expectations of the Playstation Portable. This game was God of War: Chains of Olympus, and two years later, I find myself in a similar situation; on holiday with a fantastic PSP game. It’s only fitting that the game should be yet another entry into the God of War series.

STORY
With the story of Kratos at an end via the PS3’s magnificent God of War 3, this PSP title takes us back to the days between the first and second games. Kratos has just defeated Ares and claimed his throne, but is still haunted by the visions that the gods had promised to relieve him of.
However, these aren’t the usual visions of his murdered wife and child that he normally sees. These visions concern his long thought dead brother, Deimos. The game follows Kratos’ attempts to learn the truth behind his brother’s fate and his subsequent efforts to save him.

With the God of War series already concluded, I doubted whether or not Ghost of Sparta could be fit into the established canon. My doubts were unfounded, however, when I found that the game often nods to the final game of the series, while being a truly entertaining tale all on its own. I found Kratos to be at his most relatable in this story (although that may not be saying much about Mr. Murder himself).

PRESENTATION
The presentation of Ghost of Sparta can be summed up in one sentence, which is “I couldn’t believe the PSP could handle such slick, fluid graphics and animations, as well as provide the same epic soundtrack and voice acting as in the console games.
While the areas and puzzles provide some variety, the enemies in this game leave something to be desired. More often than not, each area consists of the same 5 types of enemies, but all with a different colour or something.
God of War 3 got my GOTY award for best soundtrack, and that same work shines on the PSP, assuming you have some good headphones to listen to it with. The PSP’s speakers just don’t seem to cut it.

GAMEPLAY
God of War: Ghost of Sparta brings the same hack and slash gameplay from the consoles to the compact screen of the PSP, with very little lost in translation. Combo’s are as fluid as ever, and seem like some kind of fiery ballet of doom, whereas Kratos also acquires some cool magic, ranging from the Eye of Atlantis’ lightning strike, to the Horn of Boreas’ freezing attacks.
Add to this a very cool weapon combo known as the Arms of Sparta, as well as an always present “Fire meter” for adding an extra spice to your usual attacks, and you have one of the most varied combat systems in the God of War Series to date.

Quick time events make a return, but as with GOW3, the symbols appear on the corresponding sides of the screen, meaning that the action takes centre stage ALWAYS. I’ve never really disliked the God of War QTE’s, simply because they never really catch you off guard. As an always present feature of the series, they’re expected, and lead to some really awesome parts of the games.

Gameplay problems are minor, but sometimes keep popping up, each time becoming more and more annoying. For instance, the choice to map the dodge control to the two shoulder buttons often makes the game feel awkward to play effectively. On top of this, some of the larger enemies (cyclops’ in particular) sometimes block the screen, obstructing the view of Kratos and occasionally of some smaller enemies.

REPLAYABILITY
The replay value of Ghost of Sparta is quite similar to every other God of War game. The original playthrough unlocks the hardest difficulty, and subsequent playthroughs can unlock extra media. The challenge of the gods returns and is as tough as ever whereas a new feature, The Temple of Zeus, is the users way of buying bonus content with XP Points.
Aside from that, the replay value is limited. There’s very little to find through exploration, aside from the various skill augmenting items, or experience orb chests. The sole replayability of GOW:GOS comes mainly from the Challenge of the Gods.

OVERVIEW
While not the longest game out at the moment, it’s challenging and entertaining enough to rival many popular games, some of the handheld variety, but many found on consoles. Its certainly a strange day when I choose to play a PSP game over a console game, but Ghost of Sparta may be good enough to do that.
The interesting story, and familiar, yet streamlined gameplay overshadow the minor problems, and the game continues with the usual God of War style, which is well and truly EPIC. It’s just epic on a smaller screen.


I'd like to apologize to any readers out there who have missed me (coz theres soooo many of you...) and I'll be back in full force after next Sunday. Next Sunday will hopefully be my Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker review, which will give me a week with LittleBigPlanet 2. Hopefully followed by Mass Effect 2 (PS3). See you next time!

Donkey Kong Country Returns

Once again, Nintendo is back to whipping all its Original I.P's into the ground with constant sequels and reboots. While not really a bad thing, it's always nice to see something new come up. And here we have... Donkey Kong Country Returns. Fantastic. A reboot of a classic SNES title. I wonder where they got that idea?... Oh wait.. Nintendo have already done that for Mario. Silly me.

STORY
Under the hypnotic powers of Tikis from the Tiki Tak Tribe, the animals of DK Island have stolen Donkey Kongs bananas and, obviously, the giant ape is pissed the fuck off. When did people think it was a good idea to steal I giant gorillas bananas?!
Anyway, the story follows Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong as they try to reclaim the stolen yellow fruit.

I would go on and on about how boring the story is, but lets face it... Nintendo don't have the mental capacity to write good stories, let alone come up with enough bad ones to retire the old ones. We see it in almost every Mario game, and we're seeing it here too. Best not to dwell on it, yea?
The story is good enough to give us a reason to play the game, but not enough to make us care about anything, really.

PRESENTATION
Donkey Kong Country Returns sticks to its 2D roots but, much like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the game featrues fairly slick 3D graphics. Coupled with this however, are the occasional levels with different art styles. For example, one level seemed to have a limbo-inspired silhouette style, which factored into the gameplay too.

The memorable music from the original make a return as well, and the sound effects are as memorable as ever. My one major problem with the presentation is that there weren't really enough of the visually interesting levels to keep the game interesting.


GAMEPLAY
DKCR features classic side-scrolling platforming that would familiar to anyone who played the original. The wii-mote + nunchuk can be used, but many players will opt to just have the wii-mote held sideways. The controls are simple enough so that even the most basic of vine-swingers will navigate the levels with ease.

I do have one big problem with the controls, and it was the same with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The addition of motion controls to this game are completely unnecessary. You don't want to be running through a level, only to have to shake your controller to attack a specific enemy. It breaks the immersion for me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Donkey Kong Country Returns does change up the side-scrolling format occasionally with rocket barrels, visual styles that impact the gameplay and some occasional jumping from mid-ground to foreground to background. It's these things that keep the game from becoming stale.

REPLAYABILITY
DK Country Returns features several challenges for each level, including finding puzzle pieces, letters of the word KONG and time trials to beat. Every level can also be played in co-op with the 2nd player as Diddy Kong. Aside from that, the game doesn't hold much replay value, but hey, its a fun game without it!

OVERVIEW
While I am a bit sick of Nintendo just pooping out sequels and reboots of their most overused properties, I did find myself enjoying DK Country Returns quite alot. It has a lot of humour for a game without a script, and it honestly looks really good, even for a Wii game. The addition of motion controls was fucking moronic, even if it plays a small role; but it doesn't really affect the awesomeness that was DK Country Returns. This is one for the nostalgia freaks AND new gamers alike.

O.K guys, I'm off to the new house, and then off on holiday. If I'm able to, I'll post a review over there, if not, see you next month!

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days

Now, my back catalogue of games has been huge for some time now. Thats the problem with not getting paid to do this. Kane and Lynch 2 has been in there for a couple of months now (4 I believe) but now its time to get down to business. Is it intense, gritty and realistic? More to the point, is it good?

STORY
Kane and Lynch 2 follows the story of two career criminals who are past thier prime (if they ever had one). Lynch is living in Hong Kong with his new love Xiu, whilst still doing some dirty work for the local organized crime syndicate. Lynch calls Kane for aid in a risky deal, in return for a cut of the money. The shit hits the fan after Lynch kills the daughter of an extremely important man, and Kane and Lynch are soon fighting for their lives.

The story that IO interactive are trying to tell isn't necessarily a bad one, its just executed poorly. Unless you've played the first game, you don't really understand why Lynch is in Hong Kong, or whats going on with the whole "Kane's daughter" sub plot. Some parts of the story just seem absolutely retarded as well, one such moment occurs when, instead of using a single well guarded car to transport Kane and Lynch, the local authorities decide to take a fleet of high powered choppers. What the Fuck?

PRESENTATION
The visuals in this game are pretty terrible, to be completely honest. Yea, the character models and animations are smooth, but whats the point of that if it looks like everythings filtered through the shittiest handheld camera imaginable. Everythings all hazy and all the lights emit this massive bar across the screen. And they blurred out all the nudity! I get that IO interactive were going for something different to emphasise the sheer ugliness of the situation, but that doesn't stop the game from still looking crap.

The voice acting is bland and uninteresting, and the Asia pop soundtrack is just annoying (in the menu screen at least; i forgot how the rest of the soundtrack sounds). As far as I can see, theres really not much in the way of redeeming factors for Kane and Lynch 2's presentation.

GAMEPLAY
With such lackluster story and presentation, one would hope that the gameplay would be Kane and Lynch 2's high point. And although that may be correct, that really isn't saying much. Dog Days is based around cover-based combat and while that works fine, it's really, really boring!

Yes, games like Gears of War and Uncharted have done this before, but each of those had their own unique flavour of cover-based combat. GOW had awesome, devastating weapons, whereas Uncharted had more verticality to it due to the platforming. What does Kane and Lynch have?.... Honestly, theres nothing new or interesting here.

Not only is it boring, but the controls are awkward. Who the hell puts a sprint button on the shoulder of the controller? Also not helping the gameplay is the crap presentation. Its difficult to shoot something that you can't see clearly thanks to bars of light across the screen.
This may sound like im nitpicking now, and thats probably because I am. Not because I hate Kane and Lynch, oh no. I honestly wanted to like this game, but its almost impossible to actually enjoy it. I'm nitpicking because I want to make this as long as an average review.

REPLAYABILITY
Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days has a number of trophies/achievements to earn, but why you would bother is beyond me. It also features multiplayer, and It's probably the one redeeming factor of the game. Modes like fragile alliance are co-operative heists with a twist. At any moment, you or your team mates are able to gun down and betray the others, stealing more money for yourself.
While the concept is actually pretty cool, the gameplay once again slams it back down to Earth.

OVERVIEW
Don't buy it. For the love of god, it's better left at the bottom of the bargain bin. Hell, the only way I would suggest you get this game, is if someone is ACTUALLY PAYING YOU TO TAKE IT. Sure, I may be over reacting. Some people may appreciate the handy cam approach to visuals. And some people might actually enjoy the lackluster story. And yes, the cover-based combat is as solid as it was ever going to get. But really? Aren't there better games based off that same mechanic? For the love of god, go buy uncharted or Gears of War, or something!!!!

Stay tuned for my Donkey Kong Country Returns review. Just FYI, I'm posting these because I'm moving house tomorrow, and wont have the internet for about 10 days. And in 11 days, I'm flying to NZ, so this is my holiday fro reviewing. If I'm lucky enough to get near a computer while in NZ I'll be sure to post something.
See you next time!
P.S. Happy New Year!