Max Payne 3

So, just a little background on my Max Payne history: I was aware of the series, but up until a few weeks ago, I hadn't actually played any of the games. But with Max Payne 3 coming out, I swiftly downloaded the previous games on the XBL Marketplace to get a little background on the series. I must say, I enjoyed the bullet-time, John Woo shooting, but what clinched it for me was the surreal, oft over the top Noir style and Max's own dramatic self-narrations, with some poor metaphors thrown in for good measure. And because of that, I was honestly a little taken back by the latest game's bright, tropical setting. Was I right to suspect that maybe it was less noir? Would the gameplay make up for it if it was? Read on to find out!

STORY
Years after the end of Max Payne 2, Max has retired from the NYPD and found himself unable to stay in his new-found rut of painkillers and alcohol (after an incident involving a bar shootout and a powerful mob boss). After fleeing with the help of his now business partner, Raul Passos, he relocates to São Paulo and goes into private security for the wealthy Branco family.

This new business venture eventually turns sour, as Rodrigo Branca's wife, Fabiana, is kidnapped at a nightclub. This sends Max and Raul on a mission to get her back, taking them from the bright neon lights of the club, to the rooftops of the city and to the slums of the favelas.

Contrary to my original thoughts, Max Payne retains it's distinctly noir feel despite it's bright, exotic location. It still features dubious characters, secret agendas and a city with a seedy underbelly. The series does seem to have lost it's over the top nature (outside of gameplay), but very little has changed in the Max Payne story structure. If you've played an entry in the series before, this will feel familiar, but also new.
Some may find certain plot points very easy to see coming, but as soon as I thought that, the game threw in a massive left turn. So yea, Max Payne 3 is somewhat predictable, but not everything is as it seems.

PRESENTATION
When we look at the previous games, we see (aside from the blocky graphics)a lot of grey, black and white. Max Payne 3 not only improves in the graphics department (everything looks amazing), but the colour palette has also expanded substantially. Yes, I know, many people will claim that this is evidence of MP3 losing it's noir style, but I feel that it's more about the story than anything. And besides, while the game is colourful, everything looks surprisingly grimy, lending to the game's seedy aesthetic. For me, this keeps a certain noir style.

The soundtrack is a great mix of local Brazilian dance tunes, orchestral music and licensed tracks (one particular scene in an airport stays at the forefront of my mind thanks to the music), and it really helps the locations and action in the game feel real and powerful. That said, I often didn't notice any music during gunfights because the gunfire just sounded so intense. On top of that, the bullet time sound effect is really overwhelming.

The voice acting is pretty solid; James McCaffrey reprises his role as the titular character, and paints Max as a tragic character who wants to change, who wants to better himself, though through poor choices and worse luck keeps travelling the same dangerous path. Max really comes into his own as a character, dealing with the demons of his past and the demons of his addictions at the same time, and alot of this character is possible thanks to the gritty, grissled voice that spouts one liners and self loathing.

GAMEPLAY
Max Payne 3 is not your typical 3rd person shooter, and any gamer with any Max Payne experience may not quite recognize the the new trimmings that Payne has acquired. But first, the basics. The shooting mechanics work really well, running and gunning feels fast and fluid, with the character animations feeling more natural than previous games with the same engine (GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption) helping that significantly. Dual wielding weapons are a viable choice, and different weapons work for different situations, forcing you to change up your approach depending on the environment and enemies.

Now onto something familiar: Bullet time. Yes, it's back and yes, you're still able to send Payne flying across the room as well as you ever could. Your bullet time is governed by a meter that fills with the more kills/headshots and risks that you take, while emptying at a fair pace. This makes for some incredibly cinematic action scenes as Max flies over a rail while peppering the enemies below, or as Payne dives down a flight of stairs whilst blasting his unsuspecting opponent in the face with a shotgun. The bullet time is extremely satisfying.

Next up, something less familiar to the Max Payne series: a cover system. Blasphemy, I know, but hear me out. It actually works quite well. Don't worry, the game wont become a pop-up shooting gallery, just because you can stick to a chest high wall. Staying in cover will get your ass killed, as your enemies wont just stay in place. The opponents in Max Payne 3 are some of the most aggressive I've seen in gaming today. Running and gunning puts you at risk of bullet perforation, but cover leaves you open to flanking. The key to success is balance: run, gun and dive to your content, but using cover as a momentary reprieve from death.

I do have to say that the game doesn't have any problems with gifting you a cheap death, and this becomes quite apparent in the closing minutes. On the most part, the difficulty is well balanced, but there are some moments of absolute infuriating cheapness. Aside from this, I really can't think of much to whinge about.

REPLAYABILITY
After playing through Max's suicide mission once, new difficulty modes open up for play, including hardcore and old-school. On top of this, the New York Minute mode allows players to go through each chapter whilst trying to increase their ever counting down timer with skillful shots and accuracy.

Then theres multiplayer. Now normally I don't care about multiplayer in primarily single player games, but I think Max Payne 3 is worth a mention. If the servers work for you, Max Payne 3 offers the only really successful implementation of multiplayer bullet time. It takes some getting used to, but it makes for some thrilling online moments.

OVERVIEW
Max Payne 3 is a new standard for sequels. It takes the original game, mechanics and style, and builds on top of it. Some features change (the setting, for instance) and certain mechanics are added (cover systems) but it still keeps the basic feel of a classic Max Payne game. It's familiar, but new. The story is compelling, and deals with issues not normally touched upon in games (the separation/similarities between the rich and poor, dealing with addiction and loss). The gameplay is fast and frantic, and never gets boring.
The difficulty can seem a bit unbalanced at some points, but is generally quite manageable. The game looks and feels great, and whether you're new to the series or an old hand with Payne, this game is worth a look.

That's it for this week, next week (or the week after, depending on how I feel about the frequency of these things) I'll be reviewing either Starhawk, Dragon's Dogma or Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Yea, I'll be busy this week (or this fortnight, who knows?) See you next time!!

Binary Domain

I know I said I probably wouldn't do a review this week, but I picked up Binary Domain on the cheap and smashed it in a surprisingly short time frame. I also thought to myself, "I haven't really trashed a game in a review for a while, maybe it's time to do that again". Well, if anyone was looking forward to me doing that, you're gunna have a bad time. And by that, I mean everything went better than expected. Though it's not perfect. Allow me to elaborate!

STORY
To sum it up nice and quickly, Binary Domain is the best I-Robot/Terminator game never made, and it's narrative shows it's influences proudly.The game is set in a world where robotics has become a massive part of society, and androids are present in almost all aspects of everyday life. As a result, The New Geneva Convention was written, restricting and monitoring the use and misuse of this technology.
Players control Dan Marshall, a former US Army Special Operative, who is now part of a Rust Crew; a team of highly trained Special Operatives utilized solely to uphold the New Geneva Convention. In this case, that means hunting down Yoji Amada, head of the Amada Corporation, who has been accused of creating Robots who look exactly like humans (and don't even know that they are robots themselves). Dan must now infiltrate the heavily guarded upper city of Tokyo with his associates, earning their trust and kicking robot ass in the search for answers as to how and why the human robots (known as hollow children) are being made.

The basic plot of Binary Domain is one that hasn't been tried in recent memory, and it works surprisingly well. It presents players with the plot point of human-seeming robots, and a cast of allies who, at any moment, could turn out to be androids. Hell, even Dan himself could be a robot. It's certainly interesting to see how the characters deal with the revelation of the Hollow Children, and if/when the doubt sets in.

PRESENTATION
Binary Domain is a somewhat decent looking game. The animations are smooth, and the graphics are crisp and pretty to look at. The visual style certainly has a lot more variety than other games of the 3rd person variety. For example, the game begins in the dark, grimy harbour surrounding Japan's seawall. It's in the middle of a storm, and it all looks very dark, and grungy and kind of depressing. Later on, however, the game transitions to one of Tokyo's upper levels. The city is very bright, with nearly all white surfaces, neon lights all over the place: the typical futuristic city setting. Those are just two examples of the variety to be found in Binary Domain's visuals.

The soundtrack has a suitably techno vibe, but is otherwise fairly uninteresting. The voice acting, on the other hand, is delivered with a surprising amount of feeling. The script itself may not be much to write home about, but the way the repeatedly cheesy lines are delivered really endeared many of the characters to me. So yea, good delivery doesn't excuse bad writing, but the characters do seem like almost real people.

GAMEPLAY
On the most part, Binary Domain has some pretty standard gameplay. It's a third person shooter with a cover mechanic, and it's honestly pretty good at what it does. While very Gears of War in nature (from the roadie runs, to the weapon wheel, to the love of cover), the gameplay differentiates itself in two very unique ways.

The first way is through deep squad control via either quick button presses, or voice control. Now I've had mixed functionality with the voice control, and when it doesn't work for a long time in a hectic gunfight, you'll find yourself more inclined to use the buttons. Some dialogue options are also available to nurture your squad's trust in you, leading to some branching storylines near the back end of the campaign.

The second way that Binary Domain really sets itself apart is in the class of enemies you encounter. You won't fight Russians, Zombies or Aliens here. Just robots. All robots. And despite you never killing an organic being in this game, the gun fights maintain a sense of visceral violence, mostly due to the high amount of destructibility your foes present. Shoot a robot in the legs, he'll crawl like crazy at you and try to grab you. Shoot him in the head, he'll begin to fire at both friends and foes. Shoot him in the arm, he'll use the other arm.
Add to this the fun visual of scrap metal flying as you unload into an enemy, and it really does feel like one of the more violent games out there. Yet you'll never shoot another opposing human being. Odd.

There are several huge boss battles that pepper the main campaign, and despite them all appearing different and attacking you differently, the way these go is usually the same. Shoot the glowing bits til you can safely stop. It kind of cheapened some of the boss fights for me, but they are still entertaining despite this.

There are also light RPG elements involved, and the way they're equipped is somewhat interesting (you have a set amount of spaces for nanomachines which take up varying amounts of slots), but the effects are so minuscule that you'll barely notice.

REPLAYABILITY
As I mentioned earlier, there is a trust system in the game, and I personally would be interested in going back through and trying to see what differences there are when you neglect certain characters etc. However, if you aren't looking to see different branches to the storyline, the gameplay will be more than enough for me to come back. I really enjoyed taking down bots, as it felt somehow really removed from what you'd normally battle in a game like this. Yes, I'm sure you fight robots in other games, but this is the first title to make me really FEEL like they're robots that I'm shooting, and not just standard characters dressed like robots.

OVERVIEW
Despite being a game that received very little publicity or hype (or perhaps because of this) Binary Domain may be one of the better shooters that I've played recently. It's one of the few games where shooting robots feels like shooting ACTUAL robots, and the gunplay is just so visceral and awesome that I can't stop thinking about it. The graphics are decent, and the varying visual design keeps the game looking fresh, while the characters are all (mostly) likable. Couple that with a fresh, new story, and we have an under the radar hit.

Next week, look for my Starhawk review. See you next time!!!

Prototype 2

So I've been thinking about having a week off between this review and my next one (which very well may be Max Payne 3). Just need some time to get my head straight, and clear a few games off my to do list in the process. So anyway, on with the Prototype 2 review!

STORY
Prototype 2 picks up where the previous game ended, with Alex Mercer fully realizing his Infected Super Being persona, and about ready to take on the city that's been trying to take him down. In an interesting tonal shift, instead of playing as Alex Mercer, players control Sgt. James Heller, who, instead of just being an unstoppable killing machine who now lives to spread the Mercer Virus, is a VICTIM of the virus; having lost his wife and child to the aftermath of Mercer's destructive fury.

Heller somehow convinces his superiors to send him into the red zone, with the single-minded intention of killing Mercer, no matter the cost to himself. However, he gets a little more than what he bargained for when Mercer forcefully infects and evolves the Sergeant into his very own copy of himself. After realizing what he has become, Heller sets out to finish what he began: he will kill Alex Mercer.

The story is most definitely an improvement over the previous game, with Heller being a somewhat likable character at times, though not necessarily on par with other characters in the industry. He has a near justifiable excuse for wreaking the amount of havoc as he does, though it's still massively over the top. That said, if I was given powers like these guys, I doubt I'd be able to resist throwing a few tanks around.

The writing is pretty generic, with a lot of swear words thrown in to distract from the lack of decent dialogue, though I'll be the first to admit that I doubt many people will be here for the story. It's not the worst I've seen in gaming, but it's no Mass Effect. It certainly has a few good characters and plot twists, but it's not much more than a basic frame for the gameplay.

PRESENTATION
The graphics engine appears to have had very little upgraded since Prototype, and a lot of the animations are still reminiscent of Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. The game is alot more visually interesting than the original game, mostly due to the increase in colour for the majority of the game.

The soundtrack is largely quite forgettable, with loud bass and heavy percussion to emphasize the intensity of the combat. It's all very tough sounding, but doesn't invoke any emotional response other than "I want to beat the shit out of these guys"
On the other hand, the voice acting has improved significantly. Heller really conveys his anguish at his family's death, as well as his limitless fury at Mercer. Mercer on the other hand sounds less whiny bitch, and more cold, calculating infected ruler. It's probably the high point of the game's presentation.

GAMEPLAY
It's time to face facts: chances are that if you're intending on purchasing Prototype 2, you aren't doing it for it's story or production value. While neither of those are terrible, the gameplay is most definitely the main event here. It reaches a level of over the top, uber empowering violence that few games can achieve, and despite the lack of variety as far as missions go, the gameplay very rarely feels repetitive.

The gameplay revolves around Heller's virus powers, which are quite similar to Mercer's in the previous game. This time, instead of choosing between one defensive and one offensive power, players get the option to map a power to one of two attack buttons, allowing mid combat switching. There are 5 offensive powers to switch in and out so that keeps things interesting.
The defensive powers have been replaced by singular shield power, providing a suitable barrier from damage, as well as the ability to reverse certain attacks.

The other faucet of Heller's powers provide the option for super powered travel. Traversing the landscape of New York Zero is both quick and fun, with James running up buildings, gliding over gaps and speeding to earth to deliver ground shattering punches from miles above the intended targets.

The game features some stealth gameplay, but its some of the most simplistic and (quite frankly) easy stealth play that I've ever seen. However, I can't deny that consuming foes and disguising yourself in their form isn't funny as hell.

REPLAYABILITY
Prototype 2 has some of the best gameplay for just mucking around in an open world, it's over the top, entertaining and it works really well. On top of that, there are a bunch of different collectibles to hunt for. And when that's all said and done, the RADNET system provides little challenge modes, where your scores are compared with your friends in a sort of Autolog style of presentation. It informs you when you've become a challenge leader, or when you lose a rank, so for any competitive gamers out there, this is a must have feature.

OVERVIEW
I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Prototype 2's main event is most definitely it's gameplay. If you're the type to champion storytelling in videogames, P2 may not have enough to really keep you engaged for the duration. Along with that, the graphics and overall presentation isn't anything overwhelmingly special. It looks good, but doesn't stand out. However, the gameplay is so visceral and empowering that I can't give this a recommendation; at the very least for those who love open world games and over the top action.

So yea, maybe a week off (if only to buff up on Max Payne 1 and 2, in time for the new one) and yea, I'll keep you guys posted. See you next time!