Wow, okay, so far this year has had a butt-load of great games. I’ll do my best to give my thoughts on everything I’ve played (includes games from previous years that I’d only gotten recently) up ‘til now:
January: Bayonetta, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed, Shadow Complex, ‘Splosion Man.
I really enjoyed Bayonetta. I’m not usually into frantic 3rd person action games, let alone the crazily over-the-top Japanese ones, but holy crap this game was fun. Apart from the over-use of Bayonetta’s sexuality at times and the rather statically boring cut-scenes, this game had me completely engaged. Though you can pretty much just button-mash your way through, provided you stick some well-timed dodges in between, the game controlled like a breeze and the amount of combos/moves were close to overwhelming. Also, the storyline was interesting despite being utterly confusing.
I was skeptical about Arkham Asylum. The game received great reviews from all over, but I’ve never been a fan of stealth titles (I can’t stand playing the MGS games the “right way” – I’m the type of douche who just runs and guns). However this game absolutely blew me away! Not only did I utilise the stealth mechanics when necessary, but I also used them at every opportunity. This game made you feel like an absolute bad-ass hiding in the darkest corners of a room, hanging from a gargoyle waiting to prey upon the next wave of Joker’s hulking thugs. Also the level design of the island itself was brilliant – Arkham is perhaps only a square kilometre in diametre, but the amount of places and content was so cleverly crafted together that the setting seemed almost real. There’s also incredibly fluid fighting mechanics – despite the characters looking like bulked up masses of meat, none of the characters ever felt so heavy. Oh, and Kevin Conroy voicing Batman? Hells yeah! Literally my only gripe with this title is the use of generic Unreal Engine lighting effects. But that’s probably a different blog-post for another time…
As for Assassin’s Creed… Meh. I appreciate the effort put in to try something new, and in regards to character animation and interaction, it was impressive. However I found the stealth mechanics too cumbersome, the enemy AI cheap (running down an open street makes dudes want to kill you. WTF?), and the mission objectives were far too repetitive. On an up-side though, I do enjoy a ridiculous religious conspiracy, so there is that.
On the downloadable front, Epic Games’ Shadow Complex and Twisted Pixel’s ‘Splosion Man on Xbox Live Arcade are two fantastic and radically different takes on the side-scrolling platformer genre. Shadow Complex pays homage to classic 2D action-adventure games like Metroid and Castlevania. And does it well.
Much the same can be said of ‘Splosion Man, though I like to affectionately think of it as more the love-child of the classic 2D Sonic and Super Mario games. This game features demanding platforming skills and pattern memory, at a much faster pace. Also it’s hilarious.
February: Mass Effect 2, Shatter, Super Stardust HD.
If you follow video games at all, then you may have heard about this little game named Mass Effect 2, made by some garage developer called BioWare. This game easily took up most of my entire month. On my first play through, it took roughly 30 hours to complete the campaign, and that’s including a minimal amount of side-quests. Major improvements have been made since the first including a streamlined inventory system, smoother framerates and significantly less texture pop-ins. Also the game sports the ability to carry over information from your save file of the previous game such as choices and character customisation to expand upon your tale within the Mass Effect universe. Then there’s the story. My goodness… The only way I can describe it is epic. If you thought that of the original game, then you’re in for a real treat with the sequel. Also if you haven’t bought ME2 then get off your ass and do it now.
Again on the downloadable side are Shatter and Super Stardust HD attainable via the Playstation Network. Both titles are great examples of modern arcade style games. Shatter works like the classic Break Out which is pretty much a single-player version of Pong, however instead of just returning the ball you destroy blocks for points. The real kicker in this though is the suck (L1/2) and blow (R1/2) mechanics, which vary the control you have over the ball’s trajectory and are critical for success.
Super Stardust HD is a top-down shooter that works like the XBLA classic Geometry Wars, in which the left analogue stick controls your movement and the right analogue stick controls the direction of your fire. What sets this apart from GW (and in my opinion, far above) is that Stardust is set on a 3D spherical field, rather than a 2D rectangular grid, and utilises real-time destruction on the asteroid models. The asteroids crumble from the exact point you fire at them, causing rubble to fly in all directions that you must clean after. Though this game gets rather crazy and hectic from all the debris, followed by the inclusion of enemies, completing a single stage feels incredibly satisfying and always leaves you wanting more.
On my next update, March and April.
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