I Am Alive

This week, I thought I'd review two downloadable games, seeing as I didn't do a thing during the Easter weekend. So let's start it off with Ubisoft's Survival Horror title, I Am Alive.

STORY
I Am Alive follows the journey of a lone man who has traveled across America, back to his hometown of Haventon, approximately 1 year after a cataclysmic disaster known only as the Event. As a result of the Event, massive quakes rock the city and have created massive chasms. The air is polluted with massive amounts of dust, making it near impossible to breathe at the worst of times, and obscuring vision like thick fog.

The survivor you play as has returned home in search of his wife and child, having not heard from them since (possibly) before the Event. He begins with few items to call his own, among which are a gun (with no ammo), some rope, a backpack and a video camera. It's with this video camera that we witness the "cutscenes" of the game, where the traveler leaves video diaries and records key moments in his journey. The playback of these moments are the framing device for this adventure, and it works quite well.

There's a large mystery surrounding both the details of The Event, and the whereabouts of the main character's family. It's intriguing to find out all these little bits of information as you play.

PRESENTATION
I Am Alive is a game that was in and out of development for quite a long time. Longer than the usual development time for a game (let alone a downloadable title). Normally, that would be a warning sign, but with I Am Alive, the effects of it's development cycle aren't quite as easy to see.

The graphics, for starters are quite noticeably dated, and for a full price retail release, that would be a massive problem. However, considering the price of the game and quality of it's other aspects, it's not so much of a dealbreaker here.

The game's music is haunting and ambient, which adds to the atmosphere of this run-down, dilapidated and lonely setting. On top of that, the majority of people you meet want to kill you; the remainder of which want you to give them your limited supplies. It's a harsh environment, a survivalist's paradise, and the music reflects that.

While the graphics aren't the best quality, the visuals aren't all bad. The environments are reminiscent of Silent Hill; desolate, deserted streets, obscured by a thick cloud of dust. The feeling of uncertainty is unmistakable as you try to figure out whether that shadow in the distance is an armed enemy, or an unarmed, injured survivor.

GAMEPLAY
The actual gameplay of I Am Alive all revolves around survival, however the basic mechanics switch between shooting and platforming regularly. The first thing you may notice is that your supplies are very low. Your character first states that he only has a few items, and the gun he carries doesn't have any ammunition. Supplies you find can recover your health and your stamina, as well as increase your stamina bar if it loses size.

While ensuring your survival, you'll often come up against other survivors who will kill you for your supplies. To avoid this, and stay alive, the game becomes kill or be kill. Limited ammo means that you'll want to avoid conflict if possible, and when firing your weapon, you'll have to take out the most dangerous foes first. In a one on one battle, it's easy enough to whip out the machete and perform a struggle kill on someone.

It's interesting to see, however, that even with no ammo, your gun can be used as a valuable weapon. When threatening opponents with it, you'll find that other survivors will freeze and put their hands above their heads in surrender. In this state, you can order them to back off, to the point where you may be able to knock them into a nearby hazard. It's an interesting mechanic, and it works well. The only problem I can see with it, is that your foes often forget that you have a gun the second you put it away.
Enemy types are pretty limited, but there are special variants with thick body armor that prefer a different approach.

The combat and scavenging is broken up with platforming which is somewhat reminiscent of Uncharted. However, the main character is no Nathan Drake or Ezio Auditore; his climbing does have limits. As he climbs, his stamina drops until the bar is empty. When the bar is empty, the length of it decreases until its gone entirely. With no stamina, the survivor will fall to his death. There are ways around this, such as using equipment to take a breather mid-climb, or using supplies to recover stamina.

As you can see, the careful management of supplies makes its way into all aspects of this game. However, your supplies may also buy information concerning the survivor's family. You have to make a choice, do you help these survivors and gain information, or do you keep the supplies just in case you get hurt or your stamina bar drops?

At it's core, I Am Alive is a survival game at its best. The things that I Am Alive does best work exceptionally well, while some of the basic mechanics (particularly climbing) can be frustrating do to a lack of polish.

REPLAYABILITY
While there are no multiple endings or multiplayer options, I feel that I Am Alive is worth more than just one playthrough. There are a number of supplies and survivors that need them, and the odds of you finding them all the first time through are very slim.
Finding out as much as you can about the survivor's family is interesting, and the unique approach to confrontations makes me want to play it over and over.

OVERVIEW
I Am Alive is an interesting game. It's long time in development is certainly noticeable with it's graphics, though the visual effects from the dust create an eerie, lonely atmosphere, that definitely makes up for it. The gameplay mechanics are mostly functional, while a little rough around the edges. Despite that, being able to threaten a thug with an unloaded gun is certainly a cool feeling.

While the game has some great ideas, if it was a full priced retail release, I'd have difficulty recommending it. As it is, however, I Am Alive is only $20, and I'd say that it's totally worth it.

Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow with my review of another downloadable review. See you next time!

SSX

It seems that lately, most of my posts are coming on Tuesday nights, so I may just make that the new post day for 2012. We cool with that? Awesome.
So a little bit of unrelated news before I get started, my girlfriend has recently started up a gaming related Tumblr, called The Gaming Bucket List. It would mean a lot to me if any of you with Tumblr accounts followed and submitted entries to her. And don't just say "Finish "game x"". Try and make it interesting, like "Free my people from Rupture Farms" or "Cleanse the Holy Land of Templars". Something along those lines.
Public service announcement complete, on to the review!

STORY
As with most games of this variety (sports/racing), the story is a barely there wrapping to hold all the events together. Not that we really need one. I don't need a reason to fling a virtual avatar down a mountain on a piece of wood, but what the hell.
You play as all the members of team SSX as they tackle the 9 deadliest mountain descents on Earth. Keeping them on their toes is ex member Griff, who's trying to beat them across these runs. This isn't the most coherent or interesting story out there, but as a means of giving you an excuse to tackle these runs, it works well enough.

The characters are barely elaborated upon past their little comic style intro cinematics, and are little more than a skin choice for your snowboarding adventures.

PRESENTATION
The first thing you'll probably notice about SSX is that it looks gorgeous. The slopes that you tackle have nice, welcoming curves, as well as a nice variety in obstacles to trick across.
The backdrops give a nice sense of scale to the environments, and the environmental effects used in the deadly descents give a powerful sense of realism.

The soundtrack is appropriately groovy, with tracks like "Young Blood" by Naked and Famous, and "Tricky" by RUN DMC giving the game a fun feel, while the effects on the "Tricky" track give an adrenaline surge as you fly down the mountain.

The voices are really quite forgettable, though the game must be commended for having one of the least offensive Australian accent I've heard in a game.

GAMEPLAY
When the game first debuted ages ago, it was under the title of SSX: Deadly Descent. This initially garnered some serious aggro from the old school fan base. Having heard the outrage, the developers seem to have switched the "hardcore, serious, gritty" game that we all expected, for something with the light tone and exaggerated moves that we all were used to. That's not to say that there have been no changes at all, however.

For instance, tricks can be pulled off in one of two ways. Either you can use the face buttons like an old school player, or use the analog control scheme, where tricks are managed via the right analogue stick (ala Skate 2). The face buttons work as well as ever, though I found that the stick controls were surprisingly smooth and tight when executing moves.
The slopes, as I said before, are nicely curved for optimal jumps, and the various obstacles are well placed for epic grinds and tricks.

The tricky and super tricky meters are filled by mastering and combining tricks, and when they become full, uber and super uber tricks become available, gaining you massive points.

The events are split into three categories: Trick it, Race it, and survive it. Trick it and race it are SSX standards, where players gain the most points, or race to the base of the run respectively. Each run has a fairly difficult top goal to reach, though they are certainly not impossible.
The third category, Survive It, is new to the series, and has you using special equipment to tackle descents with various natural occurrences that threaten to end your life and your run. This could range from using a wingsuit to glide across wide gaps, or a breathing mask to tackle the heights of Mt Everest.
These runs help keep the game nice and interesting.

REPLAYABILITY
Taking a cue from EA's other recent games (NFS in particular), SSX has it's own version of the autolog, called Ridernet. Ridernet allows players to keep track of their friends' runs, as well as global events that they're currently on the scoreboard for. It's a useful little addition, and allows easier management of the tracks that you may want to check out. Overall though, you'll basically be playing the tracks over and over again, which is nothing less than what we expect from an SSX game.

OVERVIEW
SSX is a great looking game that plays well and has a fun soundtrack to keep players on it for extended periods of time. It falls short in the story and voice acting departments, but this is a game where nobody should really care about these things. There's a nice variety of game types and tracks, and it just plays really well. If you're looking for a game to just pick up and play, this is one to try.

Next week, perhaps a review of the downloadable title "I Am Alive". See you then!

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

This review has taken a while to get to, as I originally planned to write it about 3 weeks ago. I just didn't feel right about posting a review of a game that I didn't sink as much time as I deemed necessary into it. So, here I am, after a considerable number of hours, ready to tell you what I thought of this title.

STORY
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning takes place in the Faelands, one of the Kingdoms of Amalur, as it is caught in the grip of war between the mortal races of Amalur, and a renegade sect of the immortal Fae, known as the Tuatha. Your character wakes up in the "Well of Souls" after a minor case of death only to discover that, in this world where everyone's fate is written, you are now free to choose your destiny.

The main questline is essentially there to explain why your character has no set fate, and how that affects both the world in which they live, and their particular skillsets etc (more on that later).
Overall, the narrative structure is something quite similar to The Elder Scrolls games, in that the main quests are but one aspect of a game that can be thoroughly enjoyed without touching them (past the tutorial stage, of course). I mean, you ARE Fateless, so you can do whatever the hell you want, in theory.

PRESENTATION
KoA: Reckoning has a very distinguishable visual style, that feels like a mixture of a few different fantasy games, but also works as it's own style. The world map feels large and epic like the Elder Scrolls games, but the actual usable areas are somewhat restricted, and feel like the fable games. The vibrant colours, and somewhat cartoonish people and creatures certainly help keep KOA very memorable, and while not the slickest graphics in the market, they do the trick.

The voice acting is generally pretty good, with lines upon lines of story related dialogue, as well as unrelated history, is almost always kept interesting by the varied voice actors. And I have to say, not one voice seemed out of place for a particular character. On the downside, the lip syncing ranges from acceptable to awful. That said, however, it doesn't really leave that much of a bad impression.

The soundtrack consists of your typical "epic" fantasy orchestral arrangements, and theres really not a whole lot to talk about. Other games have done it better, but Kingdoms of Amalur does it well enough.

GAMEPLAY
The meat of KoA: Reckoning is most certainly it's gameplay, which does what most other RPG's fail to. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning provides a deep and intuitive upgrade system with high quality action combat, the likes of which would normally be restricted to action games such as God of War or Darksiders.

While the combat isn't quite as complex as God of War, the mechanics are surprisingly deep, considering you have 2 buttons for attacks (1 for each equipped weapon), a dodge button, a block button, and 4 powers used via a simple, customizable shortcut.
Many of the advanced combos are achieved by pausing between attacks, or holding the attack buttons longer, and it's quite enjoyable having such a basic combat system that can become quite deep.

There are 3 separate class trees of the standard mage, warrior and rogue fare; but KoA's Fateless premise allows for some mixing and matching. As points go to the different skill trees, fate cards open up, allowing certain class specific bonuses. If players were to choose from different skill trees, mixed fate cards open up, even the 3 class "Jack-of-all-trades" card, if you're feeling up to it.
It's nice to see an RPG that doesn't shoehorn you into a role before you have a chance to play it.

Aside from going places, killing things, and talking to NPC's, there isn't a whole lot to KOA's gameplay. Nevertheless, it certainly leaves an impression, in the already crowded Fantasy RPG market of recent years.

My one biggest complaint, is that while the world seems big and epic, there really isn't that much freedom. While the gameplay is very good, a jump button would have been welcome, as would a deletion of all invisible walls.

REPLAYABILITY
The large variety of weapons, class abilities and play styles should be more than enough reason for most players to keep coming back to the Faelands. And if that's not reason enough, the quests (main, faction and side variety) all have intriguing stories, and many of them delve into the rich history of Amalur and it's races. The story doesn't change much, as far as i can tell (concerning multiple playthroughs), so gameplay changes would be your biggest selling point for a second play-through.

OVERVIEW
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an Action RPG with a simple, yet deep combat system, a vibrant and varied landscape, and a very colourful visual style. It's main story is a good enough way of explaining the world, and why your character is important, but it's just as easy to ignore it, and play how you want. Is it worth a full price purchase? I think so. While it may not have the freedom of Skyrim, it has a charm all of it's own, and the world is just too interesting to completely pass over.

That's another game down, and I'm not sure what I'll be doing this week. Perhaps the downloadable game "I Am Alive"? I'll try to let you guys know before then. See you next week!

Mass Effect 3

There's a lot to cover on this one, so I'm just going to get straight into it. I just want to say, however, if you're looking at playing this game, don't listen to any particularly negative comments about one particular part of the game. While a lot of the arguments surrounding the ending are valid, they don't "ruin" the game, or the series.

STORY
Mass Effect 3 continues the story of Commander Shepard as he/she fights across the known universe in an attempt to avert the inevitable galactic extermination by the cold, synthetic hands (or tentacle things)of the Reapers, a race of sentient warships programmed to eradicate all highly evolved races every 10 millenia.
To save everyone, Shepard must recruit as many allies as he can, in the form of singular squad members, and the war assets of every alien nation that he/she can possibly get.

The story of Mass Effect 3 has been set up for two full games and the execution is near perfect. The hopelessness of the galaxy's situation is well established, even in the first scenes, as we see Skyscraper tall Reapers bare down on Earth, killing soldiers and civilians alike.
The characters have always been a high point of any Bioware game, and Mass Effect 3 is no different. Recurring faces, such as Tali and Garrus are as lovable as usual, while new characters like James Vega and Steve Cortez are certainly easy to warm up to, despite the muscle-bound jock look of Vega. And the characters who are meant to be the antagonists are the the sort of characters that we love to hate.

PRESENTATION
Mass Effect 2 already looked fantastic, so to say that the 3rd installment looks even better is certainly something. The engine change makes animations seem so much more lively, and everything has a nice crisp look. The colours are almost always bright and vibrant. One complaint I do have, is that there always seems to be a lens flare on screen.

The soundtrack is a mix between high bass techno (often found in the clubs) and some orchestral tracks, which create a nice contrast, as well as set the tone of each environment quite well. For instance, the music whilst on the galaxy map has a very mellow, spacey quality to it.

Last, but certainly not least, the voice acting is amazing. Big name actors like Martin Sheen and Freddy Prinze Jr provide their talents to the game, as well as IGN's Jessica Chobot and video game mainstay Jennifer Hale. I can't think of any main or recurring characters that had sub par voice acting.

I must say, one of my only concerns with the presentation is the recurring problem of the Bioware face. That blank expression that characters hold in between lines. But this has been going on since before I can remember, so no amount of nitpicking will fix it.

GAMEPLAY
At it's core, Mass Effect 3 is two things: A third person shooter, and a Role-Playing game. And alone, these two aspects are really quite enjoyable. Together, they make one of the most compelling experiences in gaming today.

The cover based shooting works as well as any other game involving the basic mechanics, though doesn't excel at anything in particular. I like how easy movement between cover is, and the shooting feels different depending on your current loadout, adding variety to the way you can play. The basic squad movement commands you can perform work well enough, though are entirely unnecessary, but being able to control when they switch weapons or use special abilities adds another layer to the barebones cover based shooting.

Also spicing up the cover-hidey, shootey fun are the RPG elements. These usually manifest as upgrades and special tech or biotic abilities, adding to the strategy behind most gun-fights. The RPG side to it also provides the player with a lot of story decisions, normally giving Shepard a good (Paragon) or bad (renegade) way of dealing with situations. These can deviate the story along different paths, adding to the variety of each playthrough.

A new addition to the Mass Effect 3 is the Galactic Readiness mechanic, which gauges how ready your allies are, and the percentage directly affects your usable war assets. War assets are acquired through story missions, and are key to winning the reaper war.

While the gameplay of Mass Effect 3 is pretty awesome, as I said earlier, the core mechanics (3rd person shooting) don't match up to the best in the field (Gears of War/Uncharted). They are solid, however, and combined with the stellar storytelling and RPG additions, it makes for a unique experience.

REPLAYABILITY
As with the other Mass Effect games, it's entirely possible to play the game twice and not do any missions the same way twice. It's somewhat gratifying to do a paragon run and save as many people as possible, and then play again as a total selfish dick. Plus it lets you play around with different powers.
Aside from that, there's a new multiplayer addition, where players cooperate with each other to survive a horde-mode style game. It works well and ties in with the galactic readiness meter, which directly affects the outcome of the Reaper war. It's surprisingly fun, considering you miss out on all the story aspects.

OVERVIEW
Mass Effect 3 is a game that takes fantastic storytelling, characters we care about, and a believable world, and add in solid gunplay and intriguing RPG elements, and come out with a huge success. If you've played the previous games, Mass Effect 3 will please you until the dying moments of the game. To sum it up, ME3 is a huge fan service on Bioware's part; with it being improved upon in almost every way you can think of. There are massive highs and lows, and the game is genuinely epic.

And then it ends. But I'm not here to comment on that. Just know that 99.9% of the game is brilliant.

So next week, definitely Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I promise. See you next week!

Catherine

I seem to be getting later and later with these, but I've been really quite busy lately. Strange I know, but the point is: I managed to drag myself away from Mass Effect 3 long enough to type a coherent page. I recently played Catherine (which was released overseas last year), a pure puzzle game. And it's strange to see a pure puzzle game have such lastability. But is it also fun to play? Find out now!

STORY
Catherine follows a week in the life of Vincent Brooks, a middle aged man with a fear of commitment. This happens to be a big week, as his long time girlfriend, Katherine, starts hinting at wanting a marriage, as well as some other life changing events that could be around the corner for Vincent. As he drowns his sorrows at the bar one night, Vincent is cornered by an attractive, promiscuous girl named Catherine, and Vincent's inner turmoil begins as he tries to figure out what is important in his life, and where his morals lie. These struggles all manifest themselves as nightmares about falling.

To make matters worse, there are also alot of mysterious, cheating related deaths happening at the same time.

Catherine is a game with a surprising story; not many games can base a story on a man's relationship and have it work so well. Sure there's a side story about mysterious deaths, but the main focus is Vincent's inner turmoil, trying to figure out if he wants to stay with Katherine and live a consistent life, or stay with Catherine and live a life of chaotic freedom. The characters that Vincent meets each night before his dreams are mostly quite likable, and Vincent himself has a quite goofy charm.

PRESENTATION
The most striking feature of Catherine is most certainly the cell shaded graphics during the gameplay and in-game cutscenes. At other times, the game uses anime style animation cutscenes, and these not only look great, they look very distinct compared to other game cinematics.

The music is suitably frantic during the nightmare puzzles, contrasting with the games downtime in the bar, The Stray Sheep, which has soft jazz music. It's a good way to change the feeling the player gets when play through either section.
The voice acting is also pretty good, with none of the characters being particularly boring or over the top. Most NPC's hit the sweet spot.

GAMEPLAY
This is where Catherine really shines, as we've seen few games that function the same way. Catherine's main gameplay feature are the block puzzles that Vincent encounters in his nighlty horrors. Each nightmare requires Vincent to climb an impossibly tall tower of blocks, by way of shifting and stacking the blocks in the proper form.

This mechanic is surprisingly deep, as moving a block isn't as simple as it sounds. Blocks can be pulled so long as there's a space for Vincent to stand, and multiple blocks can be PUSHED at the same time. Impossible staircases can be created using the principle of edge connecting where, so long as the edge of two blocks is touching, gravity does not apply normally.

As Vincent climbs ever higher, new kinds of blocks are added to the mixture. Ice blocks force you to slow down and plan your climb better, while bomb blocks may force you to climb faster, away from the blast. It's difficult to imagine a game with such a basic premise with some much variety, but I honestly found it to be quite entertaining from start to end.

To top it off, there are boss levels, where Vincent not only has to climb, but he has to out-climb a monstrous creature that embodies his current fears. This is where the player really has to think, and use all the techniques they learn up until that point.

And before I forget, you'll often see sheep climbing the towers. These sheep are the representation of other people having the same dream as Vincent. These men can also be interacted with in the bar, during Vincent's down time. Just a sort of side thing I'd like to mention.

REPLAYABILITY
I've been told there are actually multiple endings to Catherine, which would explain the use of a morality meter, but that's not the best reason to play Catherine over and over again. No, the best reason to play Catherine over and over is to keep yourself on your toes. The block puzzles are some of the most challenging tests that I've seen in a game, and while some of them verge on infuriating, when they get beaten, you get an immense sense of accomplishment.

OVERVIEW
In summary, Catherine is a damn good game. I easily spent over 15 hours playing Catherine, and while a lot of those hours were spent tearing my hair out, the sense of accomplishment you get from beating a difficult puzzle is entirely worth it. The story is interesting (and different), while the presentation is really different to the rest of the games industry, it may not appeal to many gamers. It almost requires a previous appreciation of anime and the culture surrounding it.

Next week, definitely reviewing Mass Effect 3. Trust me, however, it's AWESOME. If you can't wait a week, take this as my summarised review. Mass Effect 3 is the fitting end to an epic trilogy. Like the other games? You'll love this one too. See you next week!

Asura's Wrath

While working my way through the unbelievably thick RPG, Kingdoms of Amalur, I got sidetracked by alot of other games. One of which was Asura's Wrath, a game that, after finishing it, I had severely mixed emotions about. Read on, and I'll explain why.

STORY
The narrative of Asura's Wrath follows Asura, an ex-guardian general in this worlds army of demi-gods. The world is infected by a destructive force known as the Gohma, and the world's Demi-Gods take it upon themselves to save Gaea (the earth) and it's inhabitants by going to war with this evil force. After a huge battle, the victorious Asura is betrayed by his fellow Guardian Generals, and thrown from the heavens to his supposed death.

He awakens twelve thousand years later, only to find that the 7 Guardian Generals that betrayed him, have now appointed themselves as the 7 Deities. Fueling Asura's lasting rage is the knowledge that his daughter is the source of their powers.

The game is a huge departure from the current gaming landscape: no space marines or military soldiers, instead we have a story where Chinese mythology and sci-fi collide in an insane, bombastic adventure of betrayal and wrath. It's worth a look, if only for it's completely out there story.

PRESENTATION
Asura's Wrath is a beautifully colourful game, with a lot going on on-screen at any given time. Fan's of anime show's such as Dragonball will probably appreciate the colour and speed of everything, and the crisp graphics certainly don't hinder the game.
The game's music is suitably epic, fitting for a tale of a fallen god seeking vengeance. The voice acting is also very reminiscent of an anime, with some truly absurd, over-the-top characters with voices that reflect these qualities.

The actual Presentation of Asura's Wrath is much the same as an anime, say for instance, Dragonball. At the end of each chapter is a sneak peak of the next, and at the start of each chapter. This gets somewhat annoying when you play all the way through, as the narrations start repeating information over and over. Maybe this would have worked better for an episodic downloadable title.

GAMEPLAY
This is where my enjoyment of Asura's Wrath hit's a little bit of a wall. The main gameplay sections of AW are 3rd person beat-em-up (i.e. Bayonetta, GoW) or bullet hell shooters, which work fine as they are. The fighting mechanics aren't particularly deep, but they have the effect of making Asura feel like a godly badass. He also wreaks havoc across the battlefield while the player control's his deity blasts, tearing through opponents.

The problem, however, is that while these sections are somewhat fun, that's all the gameplay there is to Asura's Wrath; unless you count constant quick time events that don't really affect all that much anyway. The interactive sections of the game come in either gameplay sections mentioned above, or button presses during cutscenes. While I enjoy the cutscenes, AND the story they convey, the lack of variety or contrast in the actual GAME really get to me, and taint an otherwise enjoyable experience.

To summarise, I think the game, Asura's Wrath, would be better with more or less actual GAMEPLAY. With less gameplay, I believe Asura's Wrath would have worked well as an anime mini-series. With more AND more varied gameplay, I believe Asura's Wrath has the potential to be a God of War with a Chinese/sci-fi spin. Which would be awesome. As it is, it doesn't hit the mark.

REPLAYABILITY
I honestly don't think Asura's Wrath holds much replay value for many gamers. Yes, the story is entertaining, and the cinematics are colourful and really out-there, but it'd be just like watching a movie over and over again. Nothing you do will change anything, there are no different approaches, and theres almost no point at all.

OVERVIEW
I'm fairly confident that I'd be saving you all a decent amount of money if I said DO NOT BUY this game. As enjoyable as it is, it's just too short without enough variety to warrant spending a large sum of money on. I would, however, suggest renting or borrow this game from a mate. Buying second hand (for a severely discounted price I hope) would also be a choice. But with Asura's Wrath, you aren't getting your money's worth for a brand new purchase.

This Sunday, either Kingdom's of Amalur: Reckoning, or Catherine. Then MASS EFFECT 3!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! See you next time!

The Darkness 2

This review is a couple of weeks overdue now, and that'd be because a) I've been feeling a bit under the weather, and b) other games have really been distracting me. But I'm here now, so let's get on with it!

STORY
The Darkness 2 follows two years after the original game, and we join Darkness possessed mobster Jackie Estacado after this long period of keeping the demonic Darkness under wraps. The game begins with Jackie's mob getting hit at their restaraunt, forcing Estacado to unleash the force within himself to save his life and protect his gang. From here, Jackie must contend with a mysterious group who intend to take the evil power from him, whilst coming to terms with the death of his girlfriend 2 years prior.

The writing is pretty entertaining, with some interesting characters, and the ever constant struggle between the host and the parasite, between Jackie and the Darkness. Furthermore, there's enough mindfuckery going on (of the Batman: Arkham Asylum "scarecrow" scenes variety) to keep even the most on-the-ball gamers slightly confused.

PRESENTATION
Where, during my playthrough of the original, I would have complained about the visuals being far to dark, and highly uninteresting; the Darkness 2's visuals are surprisingly colourful and cartoonish (lending to the games comic book roots). The character models and environments have a lot more going for them now than in the previous title, though some of the characters look a little rough around the edges.

The animations are slick and fun to watch, with the executions being particularly visceral and instantly gratifying. The sound effects add to this sense of violence with the squishy sounds of limbs tearing, while the voice work for the main characters are all very well done. Victor Valente (the main antagonist) really sounds like someone you'd want to keep an ancient evil power away from, whereas Jackie's voice lends a very personal feel to him during his fourth wall breaking narrations.

The soundtrack is suitably dark, filled with lots of heavy guitar riffs, but is overall rather average, considering the interesting art style and gruesome animations.

GAMEPLAY
The best thing about the Darkness 2 is, without a doubt, it's superb gameplay. At it's core are solid gunplay mechanics that work just as well as any modern warfare game, but there's far more to the darkness than that.

First, there's the titular Darkness, normally manifested as two demonic arms, ominously framing the players view. Not only do these look really cool, they serve a purpose, being the main enabling feature for the Darkness's "quad wielding" feature. With the left arm, you're able to grab items like car doors or poles (for slicing and impaling when thrown) as well as enemies (to execute in a gory, fantastic style). With the right arm, however, you're able to slash your victims in half (vertical and horizontal).
Both of these abilities add a little more variety to Jackie's rampage through the underworld of secret societies, and they work really well.

This aspect also allows for a strange twist in gameplay that adds a weakness to Estacado. Similar to the first Darkness, standing in the light takes away the use of the demon arms, and stunts Jackie's ability tor egenerate his health. Staying in the dark is the key to success.

Secondly, there are light RPG elements, allowing players to use Dark Essence acquired through skillful kills, to personalize their play styles. While, by the end, you'll be able to unlock nearly everything, using all the different kinds of executions is certainly excuse enough to buy the abilities you desire. On top of that, dark channeling powers up your guns and ammo, making you feel like an absolute boss.

If I was to describe the gameplay of The Darkness 2 in one word, I'd say "Empowering". While the game never really devolves into "Cake walk" territory, the scales are normally tipped just enough in your favour to make Jackie Estacado feel like an absolute beast, tearing people down, left, right and centre.

Minor issues arise with repetitive enemies, as well as a lack of variety in weaponry. However, if that's not a deal breaker, then the gameplay of the Darkness 2 will more than satisfy.

REPLAYABILITY
The single player campaign is more than entertaining enough to warrant multiple playthroughs, but for the gamer's who have to have a "reason" for replaying campaigns, there are plenty of collectibles to pick up; all with interesting flavour text to fill in some of the Darkness's personal backstory.

If collectibles aren't your thing, then perhaps multiplayer Co-op will scratch that Darkness itch for you. In the co-op mode, you and up to three other players can take control of a Darkness "B-team" who are carrying out odd jobs for the Estacado family. Some of these are even tied to the single player story.

OVERVIEW
The Darkness 2 has stellar gameplay, generally above average visuals, an interesting and entertaining story, so the only thing stopping you from playing this game is your interest in first person shooters, or your current cash. Well, let me tell you, this is more interesting than your average war shooter, so that should be reason enough to at least give it a rent. Do with that what you will.

Next week, (that would be next Sunday, as I'm going to Soundwave this Sunday) I'll review either Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, MGS HD Collection or Asuras Wrath. I'll leave the actual decision a surprise. See you next time!