WHOOPS. Just realized that I have a draft of this review saved, but never actually posted it. Better late than never right?
The first Portal was easily one of my favorite games. The brilliant mixture of puzzles and humor never got old despite multiple playthroughs, and despite how short it was (if you know what you're doing you can finish it in half an hour), it also felt like just the right amount of time to be in this mad world of mind-bending physics and homicidal computers. It was short, but oh was it sweet. So after last year's E3 conference when Gabe Newell came out and said "Not only is Portal 2 coming, it's going to be awesome, and the PS3 version is going to be the awesomest," I could not have been more excited. They were promising a longer adventure, a separate but integrated co-op campaign, the introduction of tons of new puzzle elements, and of course the return of our favorite calmly insane AI GlaDOS. So did it live up to expectations?
You bet your ass it did. Portal 2 is easily one of the most intellectually stimulating, well crafted, and hilarious games ever released. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard throughout a game.
Portal 2 picks up maaaany years after the events of the first game. In the funniest tutorial ever made, you wake up in a basic room from induced hibernation with a voice over an intercom telling you to do things like look up at the ceiling as exercise, walk over to and stare at a portrait to be intellectually stimulated, and then go back to sleep. Years later you awake once more to find the room looking quite dilapidated, with a panicked voice at your door. You open it up only to find Wheatley, an AI core that looks like a blue eyeball who is promising to help you escape. Before you know it, you find your trusty portal gun, and through a series of errors by Wheatley, wake dear GlaDOS back up again, who promises to test you for the rest of your life. That is, until she takes up a hobby...like reanimating dead tissue. From there, I dare not reveal any more, as the secrets hidden deep in the Aperture Science facility are all too wonderful not to discover on your own.
As for the gameplay, if you've played the first Portal, you'll breeze through the first few puzzles and find yourself quite at home. But it isn't long before GlaDOS starts throwing in lasers, light bridges, aerial faith plates, and many other new inventions that make the puzzle side of things all the more interesting. Now, I know that I, like many others, was quite perplexed looking at trailers for Portal 2 and wondering just how in the hell we were going to be expected to solve these ridiculous puzzles with all these new inventions. But here's the thing. While Portal 2 has many things going for it, possibly its greatest achievement is its level design and progression. Early puzzles are easy enough to get you understanding the new mechanics while still being challenging, while later puzzles make you use that training to your full advantage yet never seem so challenging that you can't eventually figure out what to do. And once you do, and start pulling off some quite awesome stunts, the satisfaction of completing that puzzle is great. Basically, it's never too easy, but it's never too hard either. It finds the perfect balance throughout. And despite the first Portal being short and that seeming to be the right length for it, the longer campaign here constantly switches things up enough to remain interesting throughout and paradoxically once again, seems to be the perfect length for what it is.
Of course, this is all helped by the fact that humor remains a central component throughout. Wheatley is a wonderful new addition, as is the brash voice recordings of J. K. Simmons as Cave Johnson, founder of Aperture. Between the gleeful menace of GlaDOS, the wild panic of Wheatley, and the gruff Americanism of Cave, there's a lot of comedy to be found here, and Portal 2 takes every opportunity to use it.
Now, I haven't touched co-op yet, but am more than excited to get my hands on it as the story of robots Atlas and P-Body very obviously ties in strongly with the main campaign but provides a new perspective.
In short, and I know this may be trite, but...this was a triumph. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Portal 2 gets a 10/10.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions
Full disclosure, for the first time, I have not finished this game and probably will not. I got it through Blockbuster online from their free trial, played through what appeared to be about 2/3rds of it, didn't care for it, and sent it on its way so I can move on to other games before the trial expires. But on with the review!
Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions essentially takes the concept that Spider Man is fighting Mysterio and accidentally shatters this tablet that contains unimaginable power, so Madame Web shows up and explains that the pieces have exploded into other dimensions and need to be recovered and reunited before they fall into the wrong hands. From there you take on the role of Spider Man in the Amazing, Ultimate, Noir, and 2099 dimensions, recovering pieces of the tablet and fighting your way through various versions of famous villains and their thugs.
None of that make sense? Then this isn't your game. This is a game celebrating all things comics, and all things Spider Man. You know that's the case when the first words you hear are Stan Lee calling on us "True Believers!" to see what nefarious plot Mysterio is hatching this time. It's an absolute hoot, and his narration throughout remains one of the best parts of the game. The other way you can tell this is for fans is that there is little to no backstory for anyone. Sure there are little bios you can unlock and read, but really, when you're battling Kraven and Hammerhead and Hobgoblin and even Electro for goodness' sake, each with special moves and ways of defeating them, who cares about backstory?
So while there's a lot of fan service, and the narration and voice acting/dialogue are great, what about the actual game? Well, that's where things start to fall apart.
Each Spider Man has special abilities. Amazing has a lot of web based attacks, Ultimate is in the black suit and as such does massive damage in a wide radius, 2099 is all about speed and skydiving, and Noir is focused on stealth. Of these, I found Noir to easily be the most fun. It could be because it copied nearly everything from Batman Arkham Asylum, but introducing an element of strategy to a game that was otherwise about mashing buttons at least brought something interesting to the table. Yes, you gain experience from defeating enemies and hunting down spider tokens to spend on better moves and such, but it never really feels like you're doing anything new or interesting or all that useful. Most of the time you end up just swinging off light attacks while trying to dodge the massive amount of bullets and bats coming your way. Of course there are enemies who force you to use certain moves to defeat them, but most of the time I found myself just wading through the hordes of enemies, dodging and mashing square. So when the Noir levels came along I actually felt excited because it meant my thumb got a rest. However, they do mess up quite a bit in that there are distinctly stealth, and distinctly fighting portions. In stealth, if you get spotted, unless you retreat you die, even if it's just one guy. In the fighting sections, you may be weaker than the other spider men, but you can still hold your own against a big horde. This disconnect was substantial, and lessened the experience for me.
As for the others, Amazing and Ultimate blended together for me, and while 2099's style was flashy and interesting, the skydiving sections were a bore and almost impossible to get through without crashing into something due to the sheer amount of indecipherable-from-the-bright-background stuff that comes flying your way. Web swinging was handled fairly well, though it often gets taken away from you in favor of zip lining to certain highlighted spots (Sandman battle), but the problem with that is there's no way of locking onto them, and if you move the camera even slightly you could end up somewhere completely different from where you wanted to go. In one section as Ultimate, there are hundreds of one hit kill enemies coming at you, some of whom perch on lampposts and shoot at you, and the best way to deal with them is to zip up there and knock them off, but it gets nearly impossible when there's more than one place to zip to around as you can't take the time to line up exactly where you want to go and so end up on top of a train instead of the lamppost.
What this really comes down to is the fact that the controls simply don't have the level of precision required of them to make web swinging and fighting feel fun. Instead, they just provide frustration.
The boss battles throw in some great variation, most playing out almost as a puzzle. But then they included this gimmick where you pull into first person mode and punch the crap out of their face with the analog sticks while avoiding their retaliatory strikes, and it really felt like nothing less than a tacked on gimmick. It was stupid, and should've been left out.
Nonetheless, I also think this game wasn't really aimed at me. I got the very clear sense that this is a game for kids. Kids who will enjoy wading through countless enemies that don't require much skill to defeat, who can figure out the simple boss fight puzzles (and if not there's always a handy pop-up from Madame Web), and who would love nothing more than to see villains get punched in the face up close. It seems like the perfect game for them. But having played the more mature and well put together Batman Arkham Asylum, which this game is very similar to in terms of gameplay, I just can't play this with the thought that it could've been better. It's not bad, it just wasn't good.
Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions gets a 5/10
Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions essentially takes the concept that Spider Man is fighting Mysterio and accidentally shatters this tablet that contains unimaginable power, so Madame Web shows up and explains that the pieces have exploded into other dimensions and need to be recovered and reunited before they fall into the wrong hands. From there you take on the role of Spider Man in the Amazing, Ultimate, Noir, and 2099 dimensions, recovering pieces of the tablet and fighting your way through various versions of famous villains and their thugs.
None of that make sense? Then this isn't your game. This is a game celebrating all things comics, and all things Spider Man. You know that's the case when the first words you hear are Stan Lee calling on us "True Believers!" to see what nefarious plot Mysterio is hatching this time. It's an absolute hoot, and his narration throughout remains one of the best parts of the game. The other way you can tell this is for fans is that there is little to no backstory for anyone. Sure there are little bios you can unlock and read, but really, when you're battling Kraven and Hammerhead and Hobgoblin and even Electro for goodness' sake, each with special moves and ways of defeating them, who cares about backstory?
So while there's a lot of fan service, and the narration and voice acting/dialogue are great, what about the actual game? Well, that's where things start to fall apart.
Each Spider Man has special abilities. Amazing has a lot of web based attacks, Ultimate is in the black suit and as such does massive damage in a wide radius, 2099 is all about speed and skydiving, and Noir is focused on stealth. Of these, I found Noir to easily be the most fun. It could be because it copied nearly everything from Batman Arkham Asylum, but introducing an element of strategy to a game that was otherwise about mashing buttons at least brought something interesting to the table. Yes, you gain experience from defeating enemies and hunting down spider tokens to spend on better moves and such, but it never really feels like you're doing anything new or interesting or all that useful. Most of the time you end up just swinging off light attacks while trying to dodge the massive amount of bullets and bats coming your way. Of course there are enemies who force you to use certain moves to defeat them, but most of the time I found myself just wading through the hordes of enemies, dodging and mashing square. So when the Noir levels came along I actually felt excited because it meant my thumb got a rest. However, they do mess up quite a bit in that there are distinctly stealth, and distinctly fighting portions. In stealth, if you get spotted, unless you retreat you die, even if it's just one guy. In the fighting sections, you may be weaker than the other spider men, but you can still hold your own against a big horde. This disconnect was substantial, and lessened the experience for me.
As for the others, Amazing and Ultimate blended together for me, and while 2099's style was flashy and interesting, the skydiving sections were a bore and almost impossible to get through without crashing into something due to the sheer amount of indecipherable-from-the-bright-background stuff that comes flying your way. Web swinging was handled fairly well, though it often gets taken away from you in favor of zip lining to certain highlighted spots (Sandman battle), but the problem with that is there's no way of locking onto them, and if you move the camera even slightly you could end up somewhere completely different from where you wanted to go. In one section as Ultimate, there are hundreds of one hit kill enemies coming at you, some of whom perch on lampposts and shoot at you, and the best way to deal with them is to zip up there and knock them off, but it gets nearly impossible when there's more than one place to zip to around as you can't take the time to line up exactly where you want to go and so end up on top of a train instead of the lamppost.
What this really comes down to is the fact that the controls simply don't have the level of precision required of them to make web swinging and fighting feel fun. Instead, they just provide frustration.
The boss battles throw in some great variation, most playing out almost as a puzzle. But then they included this gimmick where you pull into first person mode and punch the crap out of their face with the analog sticks while avoiding their retaliatory strikes, and it really felt like nothing less than a tacked on gimmick. It was stupid, and should've been left out.
Nonetheless, I also think this game wasn't really aimed at me. I got the very clear sense that this is a game for kids. Kids who will enjoy wading through countless enemies that don't require much skill to defeat, who can figure out the simple boss fight puzzles (and if not there's always a handy pop-up from Madame Web), and who would love nothing more than to see villains get punched in the face up close. It seems like the perfect game for them. But having played the more mature and well put together Batman Arkham Asylum, which this game is very similar to in terms of gameplay, I just can't play this with the thought that it could've been better. It's not bad, it just wasn't good.
Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions gets a 5/10
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sucker Punch
Frankly, after the credits rolled, I had to just kind of sit back and wonder why critics seem to have such vindictive hate for this movie. Sucker Punch is by no means good. The plot is incoherent, the acting is sub-par, the dialogue is laughably bad, and it's an all around mess of a movie. Even the giant action sequences which should be Zack Snyder's (300, Watchmen) forte were fairly repetitive and boring despite being filled with giant samurais, zombie nazis, dragons and mechs (all in slow-motion). But a lot of the criticism seems to go beyond those flaws and focuses on what seemed to make a lot of people angry: its treatment of women. And that's what I don't get.
It seems the biggest complaint is that the entire movie is a bunch of scantily clad women going around kicking ass and being sexy, and yet tries to disguise itself as female empowerment when those women are faced with several rape-like encounters and get revenge. While I certainly can't disagree that the main point of seeing this film (not the main point of the movie) is to watch a bunch of hot girls fight samurais, nazis and mechs, I think those saying this film has anything to do with female empowerment or the guise of such are completely wrong. But perhaps I should explain the movie first.
Sucker Punch follows the story of Babydoll, a childish looking woman who, trying to protect her sister from being raped by her evil stepdad, accidentally shoots her sister instead of the dad. She is then sent to an insane asylum, where the stepdad bribes Blue, one of the orderlies, to have Babydoll lobotomized in 5 days time. Fast forward and Babydoll is sitting in the chair, about to be lobotomized, and then retreats into a fantasy world where she is a newly arrived girl at a Moulin Rouge-esque establishment run by Blue (now a mobster). Forced to dance, she retreats yet again into another reality where she is given a samurai sword and a gun by a wise man, who tells her that her fight is just beginning, and in order to win she must find 5 items: a map, fire, a knife, a key, and a 5th mysterious item only she can find that will be a "deep sacrifice and a perfect victory". He then pushes her outside and tells her to defend herself from 3 gigantic samurai. After the battle, she blinks and returns to the brothel where everyone is extremely impressed by her performance. Realizing that a "high roller" is coming in 5 days to buy her virginity, she engages the help of 4 other dancers to grab the items she needs so that they can all escape. For each item, Babydoll dances for the man carrying the item, entrancing them while the other girls steal what they need. And during each dance we are once again transported into another reality where Babydoll and the girls fight something ridiculous and try to complete a mission that mirrors what they're doing in the brothel.
Understand? Probably not, but that's okay because it doesn't really make much sense in the whole context of the movie either. Basically, think of it like a bad Inception rip off where there's reality, the brothel one level deeper, and the action sequences one level below that. Oh, and all the while they're dressed in semi-revealing clothing. I am honestly surprised anyone in this day and age can point to the costumes in Sucker Punch and say "Oh THAT is degrading to women." Really? Tops that show a little cleavage and bottoms that show off some thigh? By today's standards they're relatively modest.
And as for the whole female empowerment issue, Sucker Punch is very obviously aware of itself throughout the entire movie. It is very obviously a narrative not meant to be taken seriously or literally. It's so filled with empty metaphor and symbology that nothing in it really represents anything at all. The near rapes and subsequent revenges are not meant to be about women being strong and fighting back. I'm sure there are better examples, but do you look at Kill Bill and think "female empowerment"? NO. The rapes are simply illustrative of the whole "this place is hell" theme, while the fighting back follows the "I need to escape" line. As a perfect example, right at the beginning when Babydoll first retreats into the brothel reality as she's about to be lobotomized, we suddenly see her place taken by Sweet Pea, who berates the director because her performance is supposed to titillate and she gets the whole innocent sweet schoolgirl thing but lobotomized vegetable isn't sexy. I just feel that in a movie so completely aware of what it is, that pokes fun at itself for being so ridiculous, you can't help but laugh at all those critics who didn't look past the surface layer and see that the movie was poking fun at them too.
So is Sucker Punch good? No. Even the over the top action sequences which could excuse a bad script, plot, and acting are simply not as fun as they should be. But is it that bad either? No. Despite all the misguided hate against it, it's just another muddled action flick that has a possibly interesting story/message to tell but is too bogged down in its own symbolism to tell it.
Sucker Punch gets a 4/10.
It seems the biggest complaint is that the entire movie is a bunch of scantily clad women going around kicking ass and being sexy, and yet tries to disguise itself as female empowerment when those women are faced with several rape-like encounters and get revenge. While I certainly can't disagree that the main point of seeing this film (not the main point of the movie) is to watch a bunch of hot girls fight samurais, nazis and mechs, I think those saying this film has anything to do with female empowerment or the guise of such are completely wrong. But perhaps I should explain the movie first.
Sucker Punch follows the story of Babydoll, a childish looking woman who, trying to protect her sister from being raped by her evil stepdad, accidentally shoots her sister instead of the dad. She is then sent to an insane asylum, where the stepdad bribes Blue, one of the orderlies, to have Babydoll lobotomized in 5 days time. Fast forward and Babydoll is sitting in the chair, about to be lobotomized, and then retreats into a fantasy world where she is a newly arrived girl at a Moulin Rouge-esque establishment run by Blue (now a mobster). Forced to dance, she retreats yet again into another reality where she is given a samurai sword and a gun by a wise man, who tells her that her fight is just beginning, and in order to win she must find 5 items: a map, fire, a knife, a key, and a 5th mysterious item only she can find that will be a "deep sacrifice and a perfect victory". He then pushes her outside and tells her to defend herself from 3 gigantic samurai. After the battle, she blinks and returns to the brothel where everyone is extremely impressed by her performance. Realizing that a "high roller" is coming in 5 days to buy her virginity, she engages the help of 4 other dancers to grab the items she needs so that they can all escape. For each item, Babydoll dances for the man carrying the item, entrancing them while the other girls steal what they need. And during each dance we are once again transported into another reality where Babydoll and the girls fight something ridiculous and try to complete a mission that mirrors what they're doing in the brothel.
Understand? Probably not, but that's okay because it doesn't really make much sense in the whole context of the movie either. Basically, think of it like a bad Inception rip off where there's reality, the brothel one level deeper, and the action sequences one level below that. Oh, and all the while they're dressed in semi-revealing clothing. I am honestly surprised anyone in this day and age can point to the costumes in Sucker Punch and say "Oh THAT is degrading to women." Really? Tops that show a little cleavage and bottoms that show off some thigh? By today's standards they're relatively modest.
And as for the whole female empowerment issue, Sucker Punch is very obviously aware of itself throughout the entire movie. It is very obviously a narrative not meant to be taken seriously or literally. It's so filled with empty metaphor and symbology that nothing in it really represents anything at all. The near rapes and subsequent revenges are not meant to be about women being strong and fighting back. I'm sure there are better examples, but do you look at Kill Bill and think "female empowerment"? NO. The rapes are simply illustrative of the whole "this place is hell" theme, while the fighting back follows the "I need to escape" line. As a perfect example, right at the beginning when Babydoll first retreats into the brothel reality as she's about to be lobotomized, we suddenly see her place taken by Sweet Pea, who berates the director because her performance is supposed to titillate and she gets the whole innocent sweet schoolgirl thing but lobotomized vegetable isn't sexy. I just feel that in a movie so completely aware of what it is, that pokes fun at itself for being so ridiculous, you can't help but laugh at all those critics who didn't look past the surface layer and see that the movie was poking fun at them too.
So is Sucker Punch good? No. Even the over the top action sequences which could excuse a bad script, plot, and acting are simply not as fun as they should be. But is it that bad either? No. Despite all the misguided hate against it, it's just another muddled action flick that has a possibly interesting story/message to tell but is too bogged down in its own symbolism to tell it.
Sucker Punch gets a 4/10.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
For months now I've been hearing critics praising Enslaved all over the place, saying that despite its practical commercial failure it really does need to be played. So I wondered, why wasn't it selling? What was holding people back? Well, the same thing that held me back when I found it out: while reviewers absolutely loved the story, concept, and environments, the gameplay itself wasn't so great. Which always made me think it would be more worth a rental than owning it. So now Blockbuster comes along, going out of business, and offers a month free of their mail service. Turns out Enslaved is available, so I finally got to sit down with this title. Sure enough, it was worth a rental...but no more.
Enslaved is loosely based on Journey to the West, the old Chinese story. Alas, the only thing I know about Journey to the West is that it involves the mythical Monkey who uses a staff that can extend. And, well, that's who you play in Enslaved. Instead of taking place hundreds of years ago, however, Enslaved sets itself hundreds of years in the future where humanity appears to be on the brink of extinction due to a giant war long ago. Despite the war being over and most of New York and other areas being reclaimed by vegetation, deadly machines still remain, hellbent on killing anything that makes noise or moves. What humans that do remain appear to either be the mysterious slavers, or the people they capture. Monkey begins as one of those prisoners trapped aboard a ship, until a woman breaks free and causes the ship to explode around her. In the resulting chaos Monkey escapes his cell, and rushes desperately to find an escape pod, only to find himself on the outside of the last one as the woman hits "eject". One big crash later and you awake, only to find that that the woman, Trip, has fixed a slave headband to you which she has hacked so that you are forced to obey her commands. Disobey, and experience unbearable pain. And if she dies for any reason, you die. She explains she needs to get back home 300 miles away, and she can't do it alone. So either you help her and be freed when you get there, or you die. From there, it's a literal odyssey through the now jungles of New York fighting off deadly mechs and trying to help Trip reach home and get revenge against the slavers who captured you both.
As expected, the story starts with a fascinating premise and only goes upwards from there. This is undoubtedly especially due to the significant input from Andy Serkis (Gollum, for those who don't recognize the name) towards the story, motion capture, and theatrical elements. The story, separated into 15 chapters, really does feel like it was well thought out and plays like a novel. There may not be many twists and turns, but the simple story (well, simple until the end) it tells is so well developed that it never feels dull or uninteresting. Monkey and Trip's characters feel very grounded in reality despite being essentially a mythical creature and a girl who can hack dragonflies to spot mines. And in a game that is essentially one long escort mission, that's very important.
Where Enslaved falls down is in the gameplay. What it does, it does spectacularly. Each enemy has specific moves that let you know when best to attack it, when to block, and when to get the hell out of the way. Some enemies even have special abilities Monkey can use once he knocks down their health enough, like turning into a walking bomb or yielding up a gun arm that Monkey can then use to strafe enemies to bits. The end result are fights that feel highly strategic and almost puzzle-like, forcing you to think very intelligently about each move you make lest you quickly end up dead. The problem is that the mechanics behind those battles can be very clunky, making some battles endlessly frustrating as Monkey refuses to block or decides to start attacking the ground instead of the enemy next to that ground. Also, the "upgrades" you purchase throughout the game (health/regen, general attacks, ranged attacks, and shield) honestly don't feel like they make a big difference especially in the later game. I kept wanting some kind of staff upgrade that made my strikes more powerful, but alas, no such luck. While this does maintain the sense that Monkey is by no means an all powerful fighter, it also means there's a lack of that need to feel like you are getting at least better at killing the increasingly difficult waves of enemies coming at you.
And then there's the platforming, by far the weakest link of the game. You jump between platforms, across gaps, up crumbling handholds, etc. by simply indicating your direction with the thumbstick and pressing X. What becomes frustrating is that this means Monkey will only jump to certain spots from certain spots, and otherwise will stumble or just shake his head and do nothing. However, you begin to realize the reason for this when you get to use the "Cloud", a hoverboard that ignores that, allowing you to roam pretty much anywhere and over anything, but also meaning you must time your jumps. The Cloud gave me some major headaches with its piss poor controls, extreme sensitivity (touch the thumbstick and expect to jet across the screen), and frustrating trial-and-error chase sections.
Basically, Enslaved is best summarized by the fact that a great deal of the development seems to have come from film people. The story, environments, pacing, and set pieces are amazing and always feel different and exhilarating. The problem is the gameplay behind it isn't nearly as good. Most of it feels like it just needed more tweaking/time in development, so hopefully the obviously planned sequel will happen, those issues will be addressed, and we'll get one of the best games ever made. Until then, what we've got is an enjoyable ride that's certainly worthwhile, but not more than that.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West gets a 7.5/10
Enslaved is loosely based on Journey to the West, the old Chinese story. Alas, the only thing I know about Journey to the West is that it involves the mythical Monkey who uses a staff that can extend. And, well, that's who you play in Enslaved. Instead of taking place hundreds of years ago, however, Enslaved sets itself hundreds of years in the future where humanity appears to be on the brink of extinction due to a giant war long ago. Despite the war being over and most of New York and other areas being reclaimed by vegetation, deadly machines still remain, hellbent on killing anything that makes noise or moves. What humans that do remain appear to either be the mysterious slavers, or the people they capture. Monkey begins as one of those prisoners trapped aboard a ship, until a woman breaks free and causes the ship to explode around her. In the resulting chaos Monkey escapes his cell, and rushes desperately to find an escape pod, only to find himself on the outside of the last one as the woman hits "eject". One big crash later and you awake, only to find that that the woman, Trip, has fixed a slave headband to you which she has hacked so that you are forced to obey her commands. Disobey, and experience unbearable pain. And if she dies for any reason, you die. She explains she needs to get back home 300 miles away, and she can't do it alone. So either you help her and be freed when you get there, or you die. From there, it's a literal odyssey through the now jungles of New York fighting off deadly mechs and trying to help Trip reach home and get revenge against the slavers who captured you both.
As expected, the story starts with a fascinating premise and only goes upwards from there. This is undoubtedly especially due to the significant input from Andy Serkis (Gollum, for those who don't recognize the name) towards the story, motion capture, and theatrical elements. The story, separated into 15 chapters, really does feel like it was well thought out and plays like a novel. There may not be many twists and turns, but the simple story (well, simple until the end) it tells is so well developed that it never feels dull or uninteresting. Monkey and Trip's characters feel very grounded in reality despite being essentially a mythical creature and a girl who can hack dragonflies to spot mines. And in a game that is essentially one long escort mission, that's very important.
Where Enslaved falls down is in the gameplay. What it does, it does spectacularly. Each enemy has specific moves that let you know when best to attack it, when to block, and when to get the hell out of the way. Some enemies even have special abilities Monkey can use once he knocks down their health enough, like turning into a walking bomb or yielding up a gun arm that Monkey can then use to strafe enemies to bits. The end result are fights that feel highly strategic and almost puzzle-like, forcing you to think very intelligently about each move you make lest you quickly end up dead. The problem is that the mechanics behind those battles can be very clunky, making some battles endlessly frustrating as Monkey refuses to block or decides to start attacking the ground instead of the enemy next to that ground. Also, the "upgrades" you purchase throughout the game (health/regen, general attacks, ranged attacks, and shield) honestly don't feel like they make a big difference especially in the later game. I kept wanting some kind of staff upgrade that made my strikes more powerful, but alas, no such luck. While this does maintain the sense that Monkey is by no means an all powerful fighter, it also means there's a lack of that need to feel like you are getting at least better at killing the increasingly difficult waves of enemies coming at you.
And then there's the platforming, by far the weakest link of the game. You jump between platforms, across gaps, up crumbling handholds, etc. by simply indicating your direction with the thumbstick and pressing X. What becomes frustrating is that this means Monkey will only jump to certain spots from certain spots, and otherwise will stumble or just shake his head and do nothing. However, you begin to realize the reason for this when you get to use the "Cloud", a hoverboard that ignores that, allowing you to roam pretty much anywhere and over anything, but also meaning you must time your jumps. The Cloud gave me some major headaches with its piss poor controls, extreme sensitivity (touch the thumbstick and expect to jet across the screen), and frustrating trial-and-error chase sections.
Basically, Enslaved is best summarized by the fact that a great deal of the development seems to have come from film people. The story, environments, pacing, and set pieces are amazing and always feel different and exhilarating. The problem is the gameplay behind it isn't nearly as good. Most of it feels like it just needed more tweaking/time in development, so hopefully the obviously planned sequel will happen, those issues will be addressed, and we'll get one of the best games ever made. Until then, what we've got is an enjoyable ride that's certainly worthwhile, but not more than that.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West gets a 7.5/10
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Tron Legacy
On a whim tonight I stopped by the Crest, and the movie that just so happened to be playing soonest was Tron. So I figured what the hell, if I'm going to see a movie on the big screen it might as well be that. Like many, I believe, I've never seen the original, but like the style of the visuals and the idea of a computerized reality. So I went in with a blank slate, not expecting much of anything. And what did I get in return? A surprisingly enjoyable movie. Not necessarily good, but enjoyable nonetheless.
The premise of Tron Legacy is essentially that an electronics genius named Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) created an electronic world in the 1980s and created two programs to help him make it perfect. One, a mirror image of himself named Clu, and the other a badass named Tron. One day, he promises his son Sam that he's going to show him the Grid, the world he's created, but the morning after Kevin has disappeared, leading to speculation that he's either dead or has retired from running his massive corporation Encom. 20 years later and Sam is the major shareholder of Encom but only invests enough interest in it to play a prank on the evil corporate board members every year. Then, the one man loyal to Kevin's vision for the company meets with Sam, informs him he got a mysterious page from Kevin's old office at the arcade, and hands him the keys. Sam investigates, only to stumble upon his dad's office hidden behind an old Tron arcade stand, and accidentally ends up digitizing himself into the Grid. Trouble ensues, he finds his dad, and there's a race against time to reach a portal in the middle of enemy territory back to the real world. It's not exactly predictable, but it's certainly close to it.
Here's the thing. The story is not exactly easy to follow, and there's a great deal of feeling like "This part would be awesome in the video game". Nonetheless, there's something that kept me watching. I was always interested to see what happened next despite the fact that nothing interesting really happened, or if it did it was very predictable. Yet somehow, for some reason, I enjoyed it. It may have been just the really pretty to look at style, the fancy fights, or the fact that it simply didn't take too much to sit back and enjoy the ride. There were always some distractions, like integrating Daft Punk unnecessarily or Jeff Bridges constantly channeling his inner Dude from the Big Lebowski, but for the most part the movie just kind of goes down easy, offers no big complaints, and easily sets up for a sequel.
It's a popcorn movie in every sense of the word, and doesn't try to be anything more than that. And if you're willing to just let all the flashy stuff fly by your eyes and take everything with a grain of salt, Tron Legacy can actually be a pretty enjoyable experience.
Tron Legacy gets a 7/10.
The premise of Tron Legacy is essentially that an electronics genius named Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) created an electronic world in the 1980s and created two programs to help him make it perfect. One, a mirror image of himself named Clu, and the other a badass named Tron. One day, he promises his son Sam that he's going to show him the Grid, the world he's created, but the morning after Kevin has disappeared, leading to speculation that he's either dead or has retired from running his massive corporation Encom. 20 years later and Sam is the major shareholder of Encom but only invests enough interest in it to play a prank on the evil corporate board members every year. Then, the one man loyal to Kevin's vision for the company meets with Sam, informs him he got a mysterious page from Kevin's old office at the arcade, and hands him the keys. Sam investigates, only to stumble upon his dad's office hidden behind an old Tron arcade stand, and accidentally ends up digitizing himself into the Grid. Trouble ensues, he finds his dad, and there's a race against time to reach a portal in the middle of enemy territory back to the real world. It's not exactly predictable, but it's certainly close to it.
Here's the thing. The story is not exactly easy to follow, and there's a great deal of feeling like "This part would be awesome in the video game". Nonetheless, there's something that kept me watching. I was always interested to see what happened next despite the fact that nothing interesting really happened, or if it did it was very predictable. Yet somehow, for some reason, I enjoyed it. It may have been just the really pretty to look at style, the fancy fights, or the fact that it simply didn't take too much to sit back and enjoy the ride. There were always some distractions, like integrating Daft Punk unnecessarily or Jeff Bridges constantly channeling his inner Dude from the Big Lebowski, but for the most part the movie just kind of goes down easy, offers no big complaints, and easily sets up for a sequel.
It's a popcorn movie in every sense of the word, and doesn't try to be anything more than that. And if you're willing to just let all the flashy stuff fly by your eyes and take everything with a grain of salt, Tron Legacy can actually be a pretty enjoyable experience.
Tron Legacy gets a 7/10.
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