Mega Man X Review

Did you ever have a friend who was so obsessed with a video game series you never really played it, as to not "bite?"  I did, and that friend happened to pick the Mega Man series.  I never really got into it when it was out, even though I've known everything about it, and just recently started trekking through the series.  The one I've chosen to review now is Mega Man X, originally released for the SNES, but has been ported a few times since. As always, I've added a few links below to the product, so while this is an older game, as I mentioned it has been redone, and those links are included as well. Also, note the PSP version isn't a straight re-release; it's a bit different. It's also available on the Playstation Network, for PS3 and Vita.



Mega Man X (hereinafter MMX) is a spin-off of sorts of the uber popular Mega Man (hereinafter MM) series.  Essentially it's a little bit more fast paced, is in a future universe, and you fight Mavericks instead of _____ Man.  And Sigma replaces Wily as your main antagonist.  MMX was the first entry into the spinoff series.

MMX has a ton of similarities with the MM series.  You basically have to work your way through 8 stages, each with its own unique boss.  You then get a weapon which one of the bosses is weak to, and you continue until you defeat them all.  Then, you go through a "castle," fighting all the bosses again, culminating in a large battle with a final boss.  Oh, and the music is typically amazing.

MM was absolutely revolutionary.  It was graphically the most impressive NES title, and boasted really tight, precise controls.  Its simple gameplay was augmented slightly over the years while always retaining the same basic mechanics: shoot crap and steal dead people's weapons.  They eventually added charged shots, sliding, and dashing.  Simple tweaks, but pivotal.  Anywho, this series really defined the action/adventure genre, as you traversed a stage, culminating in a boss battle, and leading to an improvement to your character.  The improvements alone were absolutely groundbreaking...as you progress, you become more powerful, simple stuff now, but really laid the groundwork for adventure games.  The game also featured a full health bar versus a rigid hit limit, random enemy drops, and more diversity than most games on the system could ever offer.

So the MM series as a whole is famous for their boss order.  You have to beat one boss without their weakness, then the one you beat typically dictates the next one you go after.  The popular starting point in this game is Chill Penguin.  I'm just going to throw this out there, but the X series has some of the worst boss names in the history of man.  Granted, Clown Man isn't much to revel at, but Launch Octopus?  What the hell is that?  I mean yea it's an Octopus...that launches?  Nonsense.  I mean...Snake Man makes sense, he dresses like a snake and throws snakes at you.  But I digress.

Ok...so story.  No one plays MM for its story because it's kind of dumb.  Someone creates evil robot masters, you fight them.  After you kill them all, you kill them again, then fight the dude who made them.  Simple.  An estimated 8 people on the entire planet 1) care about MM's story and 2) know it.  I am not one of them.  I shoot things, they die.  It's pleasant.

Ok, so while the game was very similar to the previous iterations, it did add new things.  For instance, stages change depending on the order in which you beat the bosses.  The coolest (literally) one to me was some of the magma cooling in Flame Mammoth's level if you defeat Chill Penguin first.  This also opens up new paths in some stages, adding to the replayability.  There are also weapons that allow you access to different routes, like melting ice blocks with Flame Mammoth's weapon.

Another really cool aspect, and quite a step towards my "improvement" criteria I look for in games, was the inclusion of armor upgrades.  There were four in total: head, legs, arm and chest, and each gave you different abilities.  The helmet upgrade allowed you to break certain blocks, the X Buster upgrade allows a new level of charging your shots, as well as charging boss weapons, the chest upgrade halfs your damages, and most importantly, the leg upgrade allows you to dash, which becomes a staple in the series.  Also hidden is a nod to one of Capcom's more famous franchises, Street Fighter, allowing you to perform a Hadouken under certain extensive parameters and after finding an upgrade.

The game in itself isn't very difficult, especially compared to some of the NES counterparts, which can be brutal at times.  That probably has a lot to do with being familiar with the platform but re-defining it, as well as balance issues with some powerups.  The game has a decent length for first time players, especially trying to find the hidden paths and power-ups, but the MM series in general is very susceptible to speed runs.

This is going to be one of my smaller reviews because, frankly, there isn't much to talk about, and that's ok.  This game is quite different than some other games I'll review, particularly due to the lack of depth, but that's ok and doesn't hurt it all too much.  It does have a ton of things I'm looking for, but this isn't a game I play to grind, or agonize over improvements, it's a quick fix that lets me jump in and out leisurely.  It's more about stage memorization and twitch reflex than working on improving your character; you're really working on improving yourself more than anything.  It's different than other games I've talked about, as it's more action than adventure.  And that's totally cool with me.

While this game doesn't have the length and depth of some of other classic action/adventure RPGs, its action is top notch, and there are enough elements of what I look for to include it in this blog.  I'm not trying to pigeon hole myself too much to the point where I only have 15 more games to discuss, so I do plan on branching out to an extent, even though I do consider this game on point.

Do me a favor, if you read this, let me know some how.  I have no idea how many, if anyone, are actually reading it rather than clicking and simply yelling "TL;DR."  So like my Facebook post, comment and tell me how awful I am...something.  Thanks!

Next up: No clue, tired of lying haha.

Mega Man X Mega Man X Collection Mega Man X Collection Mega Man Maverick Hunter X

Borderlands Review

Borderlands is a futuristic western hybrid RPG/FPS game from 2009 set in a fictional universe.  I know I said I hated shooters...but I don't like simple shooters with no depth.  I have no problem with the shooting system, I have a problem with the absolute brain-dead gaming design and lack of any substance, depth, strategy...etc.  If the entire point of the game is to run around and pull RT, I'm out.  **Burr chill chill** Sorry, it's getting cold up there on my high horse.  Anywho, Borderlands is no such thing, it is essentially an open world "dungeon" crawler with leveling and tons of loot.  I mean TONS.  I present to you: Borderlands.



Borderlands gives you the choice between 4 characters, or class, each with special abilities and varying available perks to level.  Roland is your standard warrior/soldier, Mordecai is a sniper and ranged attacker, Lilith is basically a rogue class and Brick is a melee character.  You can use any class of guns with any character, but characters have different proficiencies in the different classes.  In addition, each character has a specific ability.  Roland has a support turret, Mordecai has a hawk that can decimate enemies, Lilith can go stealth and Brick can basically go insane and punch things.  Each character can eventually specialize in 1 of 3 categories; for instance, Mordecai can specialize in sniping, using revolvers, or using his pet Bloodwing.  You're not pigeon holed, but obviously it's good to have some focus because you can't get enough points to cover everything.

One of my absolute favorite features of this game was the co-op.  While the 4 person online co-op is a great feature, the absolute best part was the 2 player couch co-op.   Yes, it's splitscreen, but yes, it's amazing as well, and I actually played the entire game in my room with my friend.  It made it a thousand times better, and of course you can revive eachother if you die.  There is also an arena battle...which frankly is stupid and seemed like more of an afterthought, and is completely broken if you're Mordecai because Bloodwing will down everyone with one hit.  I think I played it once to get an achievement and was never drawn back.

So onto the leveling.  The level cap started at 50 but has been raised to 69 through DLC.  You level by...completely revolutionary here...killing enemies and doing quests!  Ok, nothing surprising.  As you level, you get skill points you can allocate to skills.  Simple RPG stuff here gang.  The skills are pretty diverse, ranging from damage increases to killing perks.  You're forced to start with your class skill, but after that you have 21 options, with more opening up as you add to the level (standard tree system).  Each tier has 2 perks with 5 levels, once you put 5 stats in cumulatively to that level (in that tree), you can move to the next tier.  You can actually get the 3 major class bonuses on one character, but can only get one level in the last final perk.  Also equipment has level caps, so often you can use new weapons as well.  In my one playthrough with no DLC, I think I got to around 41.  There's no real ability to grind in the standard game, as once you pass an enemy's level...they're useless to you in terms of XP.  You can join a higher level person's game, and you'll get XP even if you stand there and they kill everyone, but it's kind of pointless as it'll just happen naturally.   Especially if you get the DLC.  I got the first three, and Zombie Island and Secret Armory are ENORMOUS and great areas.  Mad Moxxi's kind of sucked, to be honest.  But regardless, there's a new game+ option so there's no point of maxing out your first playthrough.

Alright, so on to equipment.  You start off with 2 weapon slots (that goes up to 4), a shield slot, a grenade modification and a class specific modification (so Mordecai's can only be equipped by Mordecai).  That's about it...but I'll get into more details.  Oh, I should add one thing, you can find elemental artifacts that are specific to a class and will add elemental damages to your special ability.  So basically you stick a gem up a hawk's butt and it can then electrocute people.  Very sensible stuff here.  Also you can upgrade your capacity by finding Claptraps and rescuing them.  Everyone loves an increased inventory.

Ahhhh, loot.  One of my favorite parts about this game and basically its calling card.  It did a great job here to be honest and is one of the best systems I've ever encountered.  Basically enemies drop weapons, you get weapons for completing quests (usually unique), you can buy them from merchants or vending machines, and you can find them from chests.  The uniqueness of the system comes from the fact that the weapons are randomly generated; meaning you may get a pistol with acid bonuses with a larger clip and higher damage, or you can find the exact same pistol with fire damage and lower damage.  The combinations are nearly limitless, and while you will obviously have some overlap and repetition, you will rarely, if ever, find the exact same weapon twice.  And it's not a cheap gimmick; each weapon plays differently and it actually matters.  Weapons also have a level floor, meaning the better the weapon, the higher you have to be to use it.  This prevents people from dropping weapons for friends at a low level and putting them in easy mode.  In addition, weapons have a rarity level, and from common to rarest is white, green, blue, purple, yellow, orange, dark orange, pearl.  Pearls are typically the best, obviously.  More so, weapons can have elemental damage, including fire, shock, explosive and corrosive.  Weapons ALSO (yes I know this is getting absurd) can have "flavor text" added to them, which is typically some cryptic saying in red text that adds yet another boost to the weapon, and needs to be looked up to really know that the heck it does.  I don't even think I covered everything, such as multipliers that detail how many bullets are fired with a single trigger pull...this system is ridiculously deep and absolutely fantastic.  They took pride in their weapon system and nailed it.

Now I mentioned ways to find weapons, and I'm going to go into greater detail about that.  The weapons are randomly generated unless they're a guaranteed reward/drop.  That means that every chest is random, every enemy drop, and every vending machine, will have random stock.  The vending machine actually changes inventory every 15 minutes, and the differences are usually substantial.  I spent hours just hanging at vending machines looking for a monster weapon, which WILL pop up.  Also, chests are not one time use, and you can easily quit and reload your game to do a new chest run.  I spent hours in one town hitting 4 rare chests just stocking up on rare items, which you can keep, or sell to afford other items.  Oh yea, money, you get this from killing people, selling, and doing quests.  Again, standard.  Back to the chests, even the freakin' chests have rarity levels, with the rarer the quest being, the better the items (typically).

So I've managed to detail everything but the game itself.  Basically you're running around a futuristic wild west doing quests you get from characters or the quest boards.  There are quests where you have to find crap and quests where you have to kill crap.  Nothing special here.  There are a TON.  I think it took me like 60-70 hours to beat the first playthrough.  Luckily the localities are pretty diverse and keep it relatively interesting and challenging.  And this game is plenty long, ignoring the DLC, plus as I mentioned there is a NG+, which raises all enemy levels.  You can also only get end-game equipment on the NG+, ignoring DLC again.  This game has a story...but it's kind of dumb to be honest.  It's just fun killing everything, that's enough for me.

Speaking of which, enemies also have a randomness to them and can have random abilities and attack sequences.  The combat is actually a blast.  It's not realistic what so ever, as your bullets hurt more when you're a higher level, so it's like any other RPG.  There is a big focus on head shots here, as that's a guaranteed critical hit, a staple in the genre.  It's nice having control over it for a change rather than it being random.  Ammo...you have to find it, and your capacity is capped.  You can run out at times but you're rarely ever SoL, you can typically find some lying around.  You can also buy it from shops and vending machines as needed.  A big focus is also placed on the class ability.  They can be HUGE life savers and do a ton of damage.  You can use them once, then have to wait for them to cool down.  There are typically skills you can invest in that reduce this time and reduce it with kills as well.  You can also upgrade them, as I mentioned.  I played as Mordecai, and by the end of the game he was killing six targets at once and recharging before he came back to me, also re-filling my health as well.  Honestly, Bloodwing seemed broken as he made it pretty easy.  Ok, so if you die, you become downed.  If you're playing with friends then can revive you, otherwise you have to kill people to get your second wind.  Obviously you're screwed if there's no one in range.  If you bleed out, you lose money and respawn at a medical station, sometimes extremely far away.  It's annoying, but what are you going to do.  Suck less I guess lol.

This game is massive.  Thankfully, you can fast travel and unlock cars.  Claptraps typically open new locations, which you earn by completing quests and furthering the story.  It's a simple progression system: you to quests to move forward, with new locales opening up.  Nothing revolutionary but it works.

Let's touch on the DLC a bit.  I have all but the latest one, which I'm sad I never got around to.  The first was the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, which sends you to an island with...zombies.  And other supernatural creatures like werewolves.  The enemies scale based on when you enter it.  This is pretty enormous and took me and my pal a ton to beat 100%, but it was an absolute blast and a fun change of pace.  There are a ton more enemies than usual but they're also easier to kill generally.  The second one was Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, which is essentially the multiplayer arena mode with set enemies.  I actually despised this DLC and only played it a few times, so I can't really comment on it.  It did add a storage box, so I guess it did have a purpose.  The third was the Secret Armory of General Knoxx.  I beat this and generally enjoyed it, but it forced you to drive a little more than I was happy with and it kind of got old.  The combat and areas themselves were great, just took a little too long to get to sometimes.  Still this was very much worth the purchase.

Something this game has that is pretty rare is good humor.  It's actually a pretty funny game.  The game is FULL of pop-culture references, half of which I didn't even catch.  The cover boss, 9-Toes, is a reference to a villain in Mad Max, and constantly complains about his missing toe and his third testicle.  The splash screen literally says "Also, he has 3 balls."  And his dogs are named Pinky and Digit.  Yes, it's cheesy, but it's also funny.  I remember Die Hard references, Fight Club, hell even Call of Duty.  Half the fun is just finding them all.  Aside from that, the game itself is funny, fueled mostly by the Claptraps and their abuse throughout the game.  Seriously, everyone is trying to kill these things for some reason and they know it, and are thus very uncomfortable.  It's just a weird game, full of sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek mockery of the genre and its inspirations.

If it wasn't obvious, I adored this game.  Typically once or twice a year I get a game that completely engrosses me and dominates my gaming.  Like Dark Souls stole my last year of law school, Borderlands stole the better part of my first year.  The game itself was fantastic, but I'm telling you there is some serious value in being able to play the ENTIRE game with your friend in the same room.  It rekindled being a kid, and just made it that much better.  Unless you don't have friends, then it might realllllly suck.

Aside from that, this game had length without being dull.  There was always something I could do, something to look for, something to work towards.  I was constantly finding better weapons and trying to figure out what worked best, and was always looking forward to reaching the next perk level, or reach the level to use a ridiculous gun I've been holding on to for 5 hours.  It just keeps you hooked.  Do you ever play a game and get to the point where you force yourself to play it just to finish it?  Batman: Arkham Asylum reached that point for me...not Borderlands.  I actually looked forward to playing it every day and WANTED to, because it was fun and funny.

I can't really point to a flaw or something that really bugged me.  I think this game was absolutely fantastic.  It had everything I wanted in a game, and I never expected to find that in a shooter.  Can't really say enough other than to give it a try.  And pick Mordecai, he's the freakin' man.

Next up: Ehhh I don't know, might finally get around to Symphony of the Night.

Borderlands Game of the Year Borderlands Game of the Year

Deadlight Review

I was meaning to tackle Borderlands next, but I finished Deadlight just recently and wanted to take it on while it was fresh in my mind.  Deadlight is an XBLA game featured in this year's Summer of XBOX Live Arcade lineup.  I wanted to review Deadlight due to the popular misconception that it's akin to the Metroidvania style...it's not even close.  For the sake of discussion, I'm going to post MAJOR spoilers after the review just to share them with anyone else who may have played it, because I feel like the main thing this game has going for is it its story.



Deadlight is a zombie apocalypse game set in 1986.  Since calling them zombies is so taboo anymore, they are "shadows" in this game.  Apparently Chernobyl exploded and caused a rabies like outbreak, which is also the new zombie trend.  Nothing ground-breaking here, folks.  The game centers around Randall, a rather hermit-like man who lives in Hope, BC, a town not far from Vancouver.  Basically the outbreak reaches Randall's town, they fail to fight it off, and he and a pack of his townees are trying to make it to Seattle where they hear there's a safe zone.  Randall is also looking for his wife and daughter, who are missing at the time of the game.

The game is a 2D sidescroller.  You get some weapons, but they're under-powered and under-armed purposely to stress the survival aspect of this game.  First and foremost, this game is a platformer.  There are also plenty of small puzzles that involve platforming and using your weapons, like shooting a target to activate a bridge.  Standard stuff.  There are plenty of shadows that attack you during the game; many you're supposed to run away from, jump over, etc, but some you have to kill to move forward.  One shot to the head takes them out, but ammo is so limited you're typically left using your ax, the only melee weapon.  They're a pain to kill, especially in groups, so it's better to just avoid them.  At your disposal is also a whistle technique, which can help you draw some shadows into environmental deaths, or line them up to jump over.

The bigggggggest misconception about this game is that it's like Shadow Complex or Symphony of the Night.  It's not.  It's not even close.  This game is completely linear, combat takes a backseat to platforming, and there is barely any exploration.  There is no leveling up, hell you can barely improve your character, and there is no back-tracking, grinding...anything.  If you've played the XBLA Prince of Persia game, it's closer to that.  Closer even to an old game called Flashback.  This is NOT a knock, it just seems that a lot of people don't really know what they're getting into it.

There are some elements that I look for that are present.  You collect things throughout the game, and you can find small health and stamina upgrades for your character.  That's about it.  Again, not knocking the game, just stating that it doesn't fit my "bill."

This game was, frankly, a disappointment to me.  Not because it wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but because it's just not a very good game.  If you played the demo and thought it was great, stop there.  You're playing the best part of the game.  I loved the environment and overall atmosphere.  Once you get past the 1st Act, it's all taken away from you and it becomes absolute nonsense.

SPOILERS - Running around the city, scavenging, and fighting for your life is a blast.  Then you find "The Rat," another survivor that offers you aid...but then utter stupidity kills the ambiance.  For no reason, he takes all of your weapons and makes you run through rat mazes.  It's not that these stages are particularly bad (some are actually particularly bad lol), but they just KILL the mood.  You've been running around a devastated metropolis, fighting for survival, only to end up in a sewer dodging spike traps.  Frankly it's just stupid and doesn't fit.  These stages and the helicopter chases just kill the game for me.  They highlight the shortcomings of the controls and just are not fun at all.  I played through Super Meat Boy only blaming myself and having fun the whole time...this is not like that.  You just know they're being stupid.   END SPOILERS

The game is also really short, making it tough to justify the $15 price tag.  The game clock doesn't include your deaths and restarts in the time, so I'd say it took me around 3 hours to beat.  It's not a hard game at all.  The only times I died were when I had to to "learn" what I needed to do, or when the controls failed me.  This is really only highlighted in a few areas, but when it comes up, you're just want to freak out.

The things I enjoyed most about this game slowly were taken away from me, or just weren't there enough.  I bought the game because the demo was great; it was a survival game with a great atmosphere.  Unfortunately this disappears and is replaced with pointless puzzles that really seem added just to increase the length.  It does nothing for the plot, the character development...anything.  It takes what you've earned and makes you re-earn it.  It's literally a blip.  The demo had great pacing, had your heart racing, and had it really feel like survival was all you were concerned with.  If they kept that up the entire game and kept it the same length, I'd have restarted and played it again, because it was done that well.  I don't understand why they decided to take a 180º half way through the game, but it really killed it for me.

The collecting was fun, but I find the game did a little too much hand holding in all regards.  Basically anything you can collect lights up when you pass it an (X) just shows up on your screen.  Same with kicking open doors or breaking walls...it tells you what to do.  The only way to miss collectibles is to run past them because you don't feel like dealing with the shadows, or by missing one of the few "hidden" areas, which are usually painfully obvious.  You collect pages of Randall's diary, which I'll get into later, IDs of certain people, and just random stuff you find.  Also you can find 3 fully playable games, reminiscent of the old Tiger handhelds.

The combat was pretty annoying, honestly, so I'm glad it wasn't featured.  Your meleeing is a crap shoot, sometimes you kill them in one hit, sometimes it takes 10.  Not exaggerating.  Sometimes you smash them on the ground and their blood explodes across the room...like you murdered them there.  Absolute nonsense.  Also their hit boxes make no sense.  They can be standing right next to you and you just swing through them and get attacked.  The same can be said of the guns, you can shoot someone right in front of you and just whiff.  It's really a problem, but it can be glazed over since it's not a constant issue.

The story was the one thing this game did very well, and I'll explain at the end since major spoilers are included.  If this is all you're reading, just understand that the story gets very interesting at the end and after that, and that the developers either made it VERY deep, or people read too much into things.

Here's my recommendation.  If you liked the demo, stop there.  If you loved the demo, wait until the game goes on sale.  It's rare I regret a purchase, I regret this one.  It's just not worth $15.  Go buy Shadow Complex or something better.

Next up: Borderlands.

MAJOR SPOILERS

As I mentioned, you collect pages of Randall's diary.  It's 60 pages long, and covers roughly a year's time I believe.  At the end of the game, you find out that Randall killed his wife and child at their request to prevent them from becoming shadows, and that Randall somehow suppressed this from his memory.  There are clues, however, that show 1) Randall might have been a mass-murderer and 2) This might have all been make believe.  And it's not some crappy Dallas cop-out...they don't even tell you it happened, it's pure speculation.

The first clue is that the IDs you pick up are all named after famous serial killers.  Gacy, Dahmer and others are included in this.  But the real clues come from his diary entries.  Here are some key quotes I've taken out that support this notion:


-2 - Sometimes having someone close is dangerous
-4 - People betray you easily. I will never betray them.
-10 - I'm having this fear of everything coming back again...Sometimes, I also see what happening if I'm awake.
-12 - I know that all deaths are the same.
-15 - Everything is crossed out, followed by "dreams are my reality."
-17 - Everything is inside me, but there are times that it decides to show up.
-18 - If I don't [go home to my family], it will happen. It will happen whether you like it or not. Like the girls in the forest...they are the ones who go to the forest to look for trouble. I can't stop myself from defending it.
-19 - I may still be able to forget everything and be only aware of the good things inside me.
-20 - There is no doubt that a void surrounds me, but I am also sure that I haven't completely fallen into it.
-42 - I need to take care of the problem. In my own way.

Also, he refers to two young girls as poachers, talks about defending his land, then says he has a dream where he kills kittens and carries them away in a bag.  This bag is shown, and it's way too full to include two kittens.  So it seems the developers left the possibility open that all of this was made up by Randall, and that he was a crazed killer.  Best part of this game by far.

Anywho, hope you enjoyed this, and if you want to add in some discussion on this, go for it!

Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions Review

While the Metroidvania-esque games are my favorites, even if an adventure game is missing some integral elements, I can still thoroughly enjoy it.  Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions (hereinafter SSD) is one of those games.



I'm a comic book nerd, and I always love playing a good game based on a beloved Marvel character (DC can suck it, IMO).  The original PS1 Spiderman was one of my most beloved games of that system, and while the Spiderman 2 movie game for PS2 was quite excellent, it was a different kind of wonderful.  I had been tracking SSD for quite some time, and was skeptical, as any comic book gamer always is, that it could halfway decent.  The concept was intriguing enough and the game seemingly attempted to branch out from the cesspool of comic book adaptations that have plagued our consoles for years.

The basic premise of this game is that Mysterio decides to muck up the space time continuum, resulting in fragments of this super powerful ancient artifact being strewn across four dimensions that conveniently all have a resident Spiderman.  I'll be honest, I spaced during most of the cut scenes because the story isn't what I'm here for, and they're usually nonsense anyway.  Basically, creepy Madame Web gathers four Spidermen from those realities and unites them to gather the fragments before Mysterio gets them and basically becomes Infinity Gauntlet Thanos.  Those four Spiderman are 616 Spidey, Ultimate, Noir, and 2099.

Each Spiderman plays differently, which is the draw of this game.  616 is your typical Spidey where you just zip around and beat everyone up while mocking their existence.  His combat is basic melee and web based attacks, like his adorable web hammer (I'm not going to point out that the hammer should just flail like a noodle...being made of web and all).  Ultimate Spidey is more of a brute, being all hopped up on his Symbiote strength.  He can also enter roid rage mode.  2099 Spidey is the swiftest, and uses his suits technological advancements to be...swifter?  He can also slow time, which is pretty handy.  Last up is Batma....Noir Spiderman, who is a lousy fighter and has to rely on creepin' around to take out his enemies.  Seriously, if you ever played Batman Arkham Anything, you've played Noir Spidey.  It's pretty shameless, but it works.  Oh, and also every Spidey has Spider-sense, which is basically Batman's detective mode.  This game bites a lot from the new Batman series, but it is an enjoyable system worth pilfering.   Combat is "deep" in the sense where there are options and combos, but can become a button masher as it's not very difficult.  It can get a bit repetitive, but it's not bad.

There is a pretty decent collectible and upgrade system present.  Basically, everything you do gives you  "Spider Essence," which is the in game currency.  You get this from killing enemies, collecting coins, finding hidden spiders, breaking stuff, and from completing challenges.  This currency is used to purchase upgrades for each character, which includes new costumes, moves, and abilities.  To unlock these moves, you must complete the same challenges that give you the essence.  The challenges are listed in the Web of Destiny, and range from killing X amount of Y in a stage to defeating the boss under specific conditions.  Some of these you get automatically through your progression, others you have to work for.  There are 15 in each level.

Each Spiderman has 3 unique levels, and there is also a final battle and an introductory stage that includes all 4.  Each level ends in a boss fight, who is extra super powered due to the powerful fragment they all somehow end up possessing.  Boss battles include Deadpool, Kraven, Sandman and other worthy adversaries.

I should also touch on movement.  You don't have the freedom you did in the open world games, but the web swinging is more than serviceable.  Crawling can get a bit confusing sometimes, but you really don't do it enough for it to be a real nuisance.  Also, the Spidey Sense mode makes it easy to find where you can zip too and interact with, making the movement that much more fluid.

With the ground work laid out, I'll explain what I enjoyed about this game and what kept me engrossed enough to finish it.

First thing's first, they really worked hard on these levels.  Each level has a uniqueness about it that separates it from others, especially in the 616 and Ultimate worlds.  Sandman, Deadpool and Juggernaut's levels were probably my favorites.  I don't want to spoil too much, but most of the stages are tied very well to the character.  Sandman's in a giant sand quarry that you must traverse to end up at him.  His sand storms become a platforming element to get across large chasms, and everything just relates to...well...sand.  It just makes sense.  Electro forces you to reach a power plant he's hijacked, with tons of electrical barriers, forcing you to travel along live wires and avoid electrical currents. Deadpool creates a giant oil rig fortress to film a television show on, sending his minions after you constantly while you're attempting to disable cameras.  This serves the character's ego more so than it does the character itself, but the stage is very well conceived and designed.  I did not do justice to the specifics that make the levels memorable, it's less of a specific thing and more of an overall experience that you just need to play for yourself.

The game itself really reminds me of the days of Spiderman on the PS1.  The combat is solid and fluid, and the movement is just right.  Plus, there are extras to unlock and it's just...fun.

This game also has great replay value.  Each level has three different difficulty levels and tons to unlock/collect.  The challenges are fun overall and definitely add to the game.  You don't really need to dig obsessively for the little Spidey tokens, but the golden spiders will take some extra effort to find.  Plus, upgrades are always a treat, and they don't feel too redundant or unimportant; you usually appreciate the upgrade.

The boss battles are where I think this game personally shines.  The Noir world, while it has blatantly stolen gameplay, does feature the best boss battles, which rely on the shadow dynamic to essentially become invisible.  The battles are just different; you're not relying on force, you're relying on a gimmick that's actually enjoyable, with each level being different.  The other boss battles are fun as well, with some being a bit on the annoying side **cough Deadpool cough cough**.  There are also a few small, absolute nonsense portions where you're in a first person view...they're absolutely horrid but 1) are very few in number and 2) don't really affect anything.  They're just really stupid.

The appeal of this game came to me from the effort they took in distinguishing the stages and the boss fights.  I rarely found myself saying "I did this already..." and sighing.  The game can suffer from a bit of staleness throughout the levels, you'll get tired of rescuing brain dead trapped scientists, but they're annoying, not deal breakers.  It's just a fun game, kind of like how Spiderman on PS1 was just fun.  It's far from revolutionary and doesn't do anything particularly innovative or even top of the class, but everything works (except 1st person) and it just makes an enjoyable experience with replay value.

Well, that about does it for this review.  I enjoyed this game and it was worth playing through.  It wasn't very deep, and wasn't very profound, but it's a fun game that warrants some attention.

Next up: Borderlands Deadlight!

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions

Dark Souls Review

I mentioned in my first post that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night ushered me into real gaming, not just casual gaming.  It stood as my all-time favorite game, alone, for over ten years.  All of that changed when I picked up Dark Souls for the Xbox 360.



I'm not a PS3 gamer, so Demon Souls, the first entry into the "Souls" series, eluded me.  The 360 is a fantastic system, but I had yet to find the game that really defined the generation for me.  I saw an article on the game, speaking primarily of its difficulty, and decided to give it a whirl.

The game starts off with a new created character that ends up being horribly insignificant, you pick a class (which is also insignificant for most) and a starting gift, with little to no guidance as to what exactly you're doing.  That lack of guidance ends up being the defining characteristic of this game: there is no hand holding and you're on your own.  The story is there, but you have to look for it and piece everything together through interacting with the various characters.

Anywho, you begin in a prison cell and are given very basic guidance about your character's basic actions, like attack, block, and movement.  As I progressed through this opening stage, I felt like this game was special.  I fought enemies that really didn't pay attention to me (pretty sure they couldn't even attack...), but I felt a depth in the combat still.  I found a few items, was running around casually, only to be crushed by a boulder on a flight of stairs.  Well, that certainly was surprising, and taught an early lesson: pay attention and be careful.  You eventually fight an enormous girthy demon and the game officially kicks off.  Side note, but they must have loved this fat cretin because you fight him three different times.

I'll explain the basics of the game, then go into some detail about what I liked about the game.

The game is a semi open-world, which we're mostly used to, where the game opens up new avenues as you progress.  One important caveat is you can encounter some REALLY hard areas early on by accident and just get mauled over and over again.  The difficulty scales with the areas, to a degree, so if you're dying over and over again, chances are you're in the wrong area.  I went on a nice sojourn only to be greeted by these enormous smelly fat men beating me mercilessly with clubs.  That's when I got the sneaking suspicion that I was either lost or at an Oakland Raiders game.  The game brags of its difficulty, which really is there; you will die a ton.  However, it is not Battletoads jet-ski impossible, it simply requires you to be patient and learn your enemies.  My first playthrough I died countless times, the second time, less than 5.  It was still difficult, I just knew what I was doing.

The game centers around a bonfire system, with the bonfires replenishing your spells, health, stamina, and allows you to change items, level up, and later warp.

Stamina...about that, you have limited stamina, meaning you can't spring endlessly, nor can you just swing haphazardly.  If you play this game as a button masher, you will die.  There is no "herp derping" your way to victory.  Once your stamina depletes, you cannot attack until you get enough stamina to swing again.  It does replenish automatically, so it's not like you're limited to 5 swings a run.  Your magic does not replenish automatically, and you're limited to a set amount of castings per run from the bonfire.  Your health also does not replenish; you are limited to a set amount of "estus flasks" each run that will replenish your health.  There are other ways to regain health, but estus flacks will be your main source.

Your character collects souls through your adventure, which works as your currency and also allows you to level up.  There is no automatic leveling; you purchase them with souls.  The main way to get souls is by defeating enemies, which automatically go to you, but there are also some consumable items that give you them and you can eventually sell extra items (but this is not very helpful).  Now the fun part about souls is that if you die, all of your souls will be where you died.  You revive at your last visited bonfire, and can either abandon the souls and move on or attempt to get them back.  If you die on the way there, the souls are gone forever.  Your level allows you to add a permanent increase to a category, like strength, dexterity, faith and endurance.  Weapons have parameters you must meet before wielding it correctly, usually a strength or dexterity requirement.  Miracles have faith requirements, magic has intelligence requirements, and so on.  Also your equipment burden allotment increases every level, which allows you to equip more without being physically burdened.  You want to stay below 50% of your burden to have good movement, otherwise you're a slug.

Combat and the inventory options are what makes this game great.  The combat is simple at first but extremely deep.  Every weapon class has different attacks, and some weapons within classes have special attacks.  There is a "light" standard attack, and a "heavier" slower attack.  You can block, and also parry your opponent's attack to get a free attack, as well as an unblockable backstab.  There are also magic, sorcery and miracles, which spice up the combat with extreme variety, and ranged weapons like bows and cross-bows.  This game is full of options with combat.  In terms of items...just wow.  For armor you have helmets, chest pieces, leggings and gloves, with a plethora of options for each.  You also have two ring slows, which allow for various enhancements.  For your weapon, you have even more options.  There are many types, ranging from greatswords to giant hammers, and most can be enhanced with an element, ranging from lightning to occult.  In addition, you can equip a catalyst, a flame, or a talisman, which allows you to use its associated spells.

Weapons, armor and items can be found or purchased from merchants, who are strewn about the land.  One important note about Merchants and NPCs in general...DO NOT attack them.  If you do, they will remain hostile until you either kill them (for good) or have your sins absolved by some creeper in a bell tower.  If you kill them for good, they're dead until your next playthrough.  So don't attack them.  The best way to not kill them is...

Z-targeting!  Well, it works like the famed Z-targeting from the Zelda series.  If you can't ZT them, they're not an enemy (with a few very small exceptions).  This is a great system that aims your attacks and allows you to focus on an enemy and not lose sight.

Covenants are basically little clubs you join and affiliate yourself with in the game.  There are 9 in total, and you can only be in one at any given time.  I'm not going to go into the intricacies, but they all have their different advantages.  I personally enjoyed being a Sunbro and engaging in jolly cooperation.  Basically in this covenant you help people beat bosses, give them medals, and glow gold.  It's a real treat.

One more thing...multiplayer.  It's there but it's freakin' weird.  In a nutshell you can only do multiplayer with those on the same server as you (or bots before certain bosses) and if you're in human form, which requires burning a humanity at a bonfire, no pun intended.  Also, if you're human and online, other humans can invade your world and attack you.  You can also set up duels and invade other people and take their souls.  If you're not the murderous type, you can set up peaceful co-op in most areas and for the bosses.

Now that I've explained 1% of this game, I'll detail why I liked it and why it perfectly fit my criteria for a great game.  I would define this game as the true spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night, a "grown-up" version to say the least.  Far more difficult, but with the same depth that sucked me in initially.

First off, the world is sprawling and geniusly interwoven.  You'll be exploring the Parish, pull a lever and end up at the first bonfire, and I'd constantly say to myself "Ohhhh so that's where I was??"  You don't really appreciate how linked the world is until you progress more.  There is no map, so you really don't know where you are relative to other areas until you fully explore.  There are also plenty of secret areas and little quirks to keep you guessing.

I also look for a game where I can burn an insane amount of time (being the social winner that I am).  My first playthrough lasted 90 hours, my second 40 and I thought I rushed it a bit.  The level cap is around 700...I finished at 109.  There are infinite new game +, that raise in difficulty each time through 7 +s.  It caps at 7, and all of your stats and inventory carries over.  Most people have a soft cap for leveling at 120 to keep multiplayer battles even, but you can go as high as you want, potentially maxing out all stats.  Grinding for souls isn't the only way to kill time, I spent about 10 years just farming rare items from Darkwraiths, a late game enemy.  In order to upgrade your weapons, you need both souls and materials.  The game doesn't force you to farm to be competitive; there are people who did a naked run at level one through the whole game, but it's great for killing time or if you're trying to get the best weapon.

The weapon system is what really engrossed me, as I sought to a chunk of my weapons and make one of each elemental type.  The options are just insane, and the depth of the system is overwhelming.  There are stats for each weapon, requirements, scaling with your stats, elemental upgrades to add, and levels of the weapon.  Armor also has levels, but cannot be given elemental properties.  To be honest, I just love collecting weapons and having a ton of options, and this game really provided it.  And it's not like most Castlevanias where weapons just become useless and outclassed, there are a lot of viable weapons and no clear cut "best-weapon," so the collecting doesn't feel pointless once you find a certain one.  There are also Wolverine claws....that allow you to do Shoryukens.  That alone was worth the price of admission.

What good is a game without good boss battles?  While this game has some duds, it also has some absolutely epic battles.  In the dud category...the leader has to be Pinwheel.  I don't even know if he attacks, he's never made it past 3 hits.  The dude is depressing, which is why I assume he lives alone in a giant tomb collecting masks.  But then there is Sif, who is a giant wolf with a sword in his mouth.  I mean who doesn't want to fight a giant wolf eating a sword?  It's just a treat.  And there is also a joy to defeating the bosses, as most you really have to learn them before you can kill them.  It's rare to just walk in and maul them unprepared, but once you get them down, you're aces.  Oh, and if you're a new player...prepare to hit a major roadblock with the Capra Demon.  You're going to want to hurt those you love to take out your anger, but please refrain.

The difficulty is a hurdle and a positive, as it deters some from ever progressing, but also keeps people because there is always some challenge.  If you mess up, any enemy could kill you.  You'll get to the point where you're on autopilot, but it's still a rare find to always have some semblance of a challenge, and it really makes the experience more enjoyable because you're rarely just "going through the motions."

It's hard to really nail down what made this game amazing for me and at what point it hit me that it was going to be an all-time great for me.  The world is just engrossing, and as you learn all of its secrets, you get more sucked in.  The gameplay is a blast, and you know each death is your own fault.  The world itself is diverse, as are the enemies.  The loot system is good, definitely not the best but exists enough that it's worth mentioning, but the overall weapon and combat options are just fantastic.  You can grind, you can level up...you can make yourself more powerful.  It's everything I've ever wanted in a game.

This is the first review I've ever written, so any criticism is appreciated.  If it sucked, tell me why.  I hope all 3 potential readers enjoyed it!

Next up: Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions

Dark Souls Dark Souls

Introduction

As a 1987 baby, I grew up with video games; as I've advanced, so have they.  I started off playing Tiny Tunes Adventure and Super Mario Bros. on Nintendo, and used to cry because I was scared of dying.  But the seed had been planted.  I moved on to a Gameboy and a Sega, playing Mortal Kombat every morning and the impossible Mega Man series in my grandparents' backseat.  Sixth grade was monumental for me, as I finally upgraded to a Playstation.  I owned only two games at first and never left my house, NFL Gameday 98 and Crash Bandicoot 2.

Around this time I made the purchases that defined me as the gamer I continue to be today.  First was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for Playstation.  I picked it up at EB Games, and bought the strategy guide.  I was such a little chicken that I literally didn't play it for three days, fearing it was "too scary," so instead I read the strategy guide front to back.  When I finally mustered the courage to fire it up, I was just floored.  The game was deep, I had things to collect, I could level up (my first encounter with such madness), and the game was huge.  What's this, you say?  THE CASTLE FLIPS???  I was just so taken back by this game, and it really was the step from the casual gamer I had been to a full-fledged fanboy.  I had always liked games, but had never been so submersed into one before.

The other purchase that really defined me was Pokemon Blue.  Yes, Pokemon.  My appreciation for the depth of this game continues to grow daily, but when I was just a lil' wide-eyed tike, this game literally just sucked me in.  I remember walking around Marshall's with my mom, trying to get my Squirtle to level up against level 3 Rattata's because I was deathly afraid of the gym (I obviously had no idea how pathetic rock/ground types were against water attacks).  To show how obsessive I was, I managed to get him up to a Wartortle before fighting Brock.  Insane.

Anywho, the key to this is that I learned what I liked in games.  It turns out I have OCD (undiagnosed but painfully obvious), and I'm completely obsessive about collecting things.  I have physical collections that make my bedroom look like an 8 year old's dream, but in games, it turns out I enjoy it as well.  I also found out I enjoy leveling for some weird reason, as well as a large game world (or relatively large).  I like tons of items, grinding levels, loot, and other things a lot of people just don't enjoy.  The ability to improve my characters through putting in time with them is just fantastic to me.  I also learned I really couldn't care less about a story, and graphics don't matter as long as they're functional.  And multiplayer is typically just a nuisance to me, unless I'm playing with a friend.

I'm sure there are other gamers with the same tastes as me, and I'm hoping my reviews can cater to that insane crowd that are looking for the same things in a game as I am.  If you're looking for Call of Duty reviews, go somewhere else, I'm not a big shooter guy unless they have the aforementioned elements.  I like sports games, but my niche is really action/adventure games.

I'm also really cheap, so I'll try to include some tips on how to save money and have the hobby sustain itself, or do it for as little as humanly possible.  I'll also include a link to the game I'm reviewing on Amazon, and if you buy it from my link, I'll get a solid nickel for my efforts.  And I do enjoy nickels.  But I'm doing this because I'm bored, unemployed waiting for my BAR results, and I just really enjoy talking about games, especially this genre.

I'm open to any comments or suggestions, in case anyone reads this ever.  My first review will be my tied for all-time favorite game, Dark Souls.