Heavy Rain: Review

So Quantic Dream showed a tech demo a few years back. They said they're making a game and it's going to look like that. We all said no way. In truth the game itself doesn't look like the tech demo. Somehow it's way better looking. Heavy Rain's main draw is that it is essentially a video game in cop drama movie clothing, or is it vice versa?

The game centers around four playable characters on the hunt for the serial killer known as the Origami Killer. Said killer has been killing little boys you see, and that's bad. In fact, said killer has been drowning them. Wanna know in what? Probably rain. The story itself is rock solid in its roller coaster, whodunit style that was the hallmark of really good cop flicks. It's a story that will keep you guessing until the end as the red herrings swim all around and the ending is never telegraphed (though I am really bad at mysteries).

The Dad of the newest missing son jumps through these crazy hoops to answer the games tagline question, "How far would you go to save someone you love?" All the while giving a believable performance as someone who has nothing else to lose and his (now) only son to re-gain.

The private investigator rough and tumbles his way around the city working all the leads and busting a few heads along the way. All the while keeping his asthma inhaler at the ready lest a flare up take the big man down.

The girl finds herself caught up in this whole mess and gets sucked further and further into the drama, losing more sleep than her insomnia already took.

And the doped up FBI agent with the aid of some sweet future glasses (the game takes place next year you know) and one of those Dirty Harry cops plies his Federal law trade up and down the block.

All these fine folks are some of the most human characters in video games to date and each has their own unique personality that is felt in every move they make and everything they say.

That's where the games troubles pop up however as the game does take place in an unnamed east coast, US city (with subways and a building that looks suspiciously like the Chrysler Building). Why does everyone in New York--I mean unnamed-ville--sound like Europeans with bad American accents? Because they are. It's a bit jarring to get into an involved scene and get sidetracked thinking about if that's how you say that word. It's not game breaking, but it is weird.

What is sort of game breaking is the control scheme. I get that we are trying something different, but there's a reason why nearly all games use the sticks for movement. Holding R2 to walk doesn't really work as well as it sounds like it should (which is already not at all). I suppose it could have been made better if the look sensitivity were more consistent though. I can't tell you how many times my incredibly humanesque character looked like an idiot spinning in circles trying to turn a corner.

The rest of the controls play off well, which is nice since the game is essentially all quick time events. The presentation of the button presses sometimes gets sort of muddled up in the scenery, but I'm of the impression that the alternative was worth forgoing. I'm glad the buttons don't just pop up in random spots on the screen. This also affords neat analogs to the on screen action which range from brushing your teeth to climbing out of sinking cars.

Heavy Rain isn't a game for everyone. I for one am inclined to say that Quantic Dream's last game, Indigo Prophesy was better. But for anyone who liked that game, likes a good mystery, believes games may not be just for kids. Go buy Heavy Rain.

PS3 Exclusive. Beat on the hardest difficulty.

The Saboteur: Review

Hey, a World War II game! Don't lose interest just yet though, The Saboteur is definitely of a different sort than we're used to on this subject.

The game is actually less about the war than it is a simple revenge mission for protagonist Sean Devlin. You see, Sean is an Irishman who fixes and races cars for an Italian guy and hangs out with a couple of French people; did you get all that? Now some Nazi guy seems to think Sean and his French friend are spies for the British and ends up shooting Jule (the French guy). Understandably mad, Sean decides to kill all the Nazis.

The game's story is almost action movie simplistic and it never really tries too hard to be anything more, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The presentation more than makes up for the lacking story, though it may seem to be spread a bit thick. Taking place mainly in Paris with other parts in small chunks of Germany and some other undisclosed place that I assume is Ireland, the game is first presented largely in black and white. The Nazis have drained all the local color and spirit. It's certainly very stylish, though it serves to contrast with the color you see later on. After you complete some major missions the region experiences an explosion of color with neat effect, though in color the city sort of looks boring. The environment is still interesting though as the people believably populate the city along with the occupying Nazis who will periodically beat up or shoot civilians (Nazis are kind of jerks remember?).

In order to effect these neato color effects and Nazi killing, Sean moves "deftly" about the rooftops of the city. I quote "deftly" because this free running mechanics feels utterly broken. For some reason Sean's climbing ability is linked to madly tapping the A button and in so doing he will climb in seemingly random directions. Poor form, especially right after Assassin's Creed 2. Even when mashing the button, the mechanic doesn't seem to work all the time and there are numerous times when a quick getaway is needed that Sean will simply decide against climbing up the damned rail! Climb! Go you bastard! Maybe the mechanic is hackneyed by the overly slow animations, but it could have been done better.

The stealth mechanic works much better however and it feels genuinely cool to sneak up on a bad guy and punch his head to death so you can take his clothes. Just like in Hitman, it's a good thing all the bad guys wear the same size as the hero. Being in disguise is really helpful in a lot of missions and helps to add depth and alternate routes to mission completion that makes the experience more organic. Most of the missions offer tons of ways to complete them.

It also helps that the Nazis aren't all that smart. When shit gets crazy and you have to run for it to one of the provided hiding spots, so long as a Nazi isn't looking directly at you they'll forget about you. I don't remember hearing that Nazis couldn't see people who were peeing in notice board posts, but that's okay it's at least funny.

Some of the glitches are not as funny however, and the game is pretty buggy. Some bugs are to be expected in a game this large, but there are far too many to excuse, unless floating Nazis and two-headed Nazis that spawned into each other are intentional. Ugh. There are even a few times that easily get you stuck in geometry that may force you to blow yourself up.

Probably the most fun you'll have though is blowing up things. Sean keeps a whole bunch of bombs on him at all time which you use to blast sniper towers, fuel depots, tanks, and all sorts of other Nazi property. The cool thing is that if you blow up enough stuff, there are fewer Nazis around making escapes a lot easier. This is a very cool mechanic that should absolutely be copied.

Lastly, one thing that bothered me about the whole thing is the language in the game. Not the foul stuff, that's okay, but the language in general. The game is all in English (except for incidental German screaming) which is understandable, but which language are they speaking? It should be French, but the Germans understand them. It could be German, but the French don't all speak German. It couldn't be English because it takes place in France. Perhaps I'm just nitpicky, but I like stuff like that to be explained.

The Saboteur is a good game overall. It probably wouldn't win any awards, but it has some good ideas that I hope will garner it a sequel. It also has some troubles that need to be addressed before a sequel would be worth shelling out $60 for. If you are dying in this mini-game drought, pick up The Saboteur, you'll like it.

Assassin's Creed 2 Review

The first Assassin's Creed brought us a whole slew of gameplay innovations, but the sad fact of it is that the game itself was overlooked or disliked by many.

Thankfully though, the game was made by Ubisoft and they have a nice little reputation for taking fan grumblings and turning them into gold.

The story continues on where the first left off with protagonist Desmond Miles and his new Assassin friends making an escape out of Obstergo (the evil company run by the evil Templars). Remember the modern parts of the first game where you could either walk slowly or slightly less slow? Now Desmond can punch up fools!

Ezio DeFiorenze is the main star of the show this time though, having left our more ancient ancestor Altiar behind. Taking place mostly in renaissance Italy, AC 2 adds a few totally new elements to the Creed. The addition of swimming is definitely fitting with the setting and a natural progression, though I can't help but feel that it either could have been fleshed out a bit more or left out entirely. I won't complain too much with how many ninjas in other games can't swim at all.

For all the flying that goes on in the trailers, there is precious little of this actually in the game. Good thing too, the controls for the glider and indeed the mission structure itself really felt hackneyed and tacked on.

Though for all the minor complaints, Assassin's Creed II does a lot more right than wrong. The free running is back in full force with all the runny, jumpy, climby we've come accept if not love. The animations for it are silky smooth too, easily transitioning from one move to the next without skipping a beat. There will still be the odd moment where Ezio will decide he'd rather fall 3 stories to his death than grab the damned ledge, but most errors like that can be chalked up to user error.

The monotony of the previous game has been largely erased with mission structure being less structured with things you must do. This however sort of forces the story to be told through more cutscenes than before, which isn't necessarily bad, but there is something to be said for organic story presentation.

One of the best new additions to the game though is the fact that all the collectibles now actually do something when you get them. They also mostly tie into the story in some way, giving the most time conscious gamers something to sidetrack to for a bit.

The new economy system is worth mentioning. While it's easy to see where the idea was going, one can't help but feel that this system never quite made it. The game tries to emphasize customization, but who is really going to buy anything after they can just get the strongest weapon? Also, about half way through the game, you pretty much have money coming out of your ears, effectively breaking the economy idea anyway. It's nice to feel rich, but it strips away motivation.

Altogether though, Ubisoft really did well with the improvements so the series. If you hated the first Assassin's Creed, this one probably won't make a believer out of you, but if you sort of enjoyed the first, the second is a must.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

Modern Warfare 2 is the follow-up to Infinity Ward's seminal Modern Warfare of two years ago. Coming hot on the heels of Activision developed World at War, Modern Warfare 2 brings us back to the future for some more of that soapy sneaky shooting action we loved back in the day.

The first Modern Warfare was a hard act to follow as evidenced by the lukewarm reception of World at War. Who better to do it than Infinity Ward? Following a great act doesn't necessarily mean improving upon it however.

The story of MW2 is quite convoluted and outrageously hard to follow, especially if you didn't play the first story. While the first one made good use of the disparate characters to tell one cohesive story, this time it seems that IW tried to tell three different stories at once. Sure they all sort of tie in, but not in any sort of way that's easy to care about. Also there are some scenes that feel as if they were just put there to try and one-up MW which just leaves you wondering why that happened.

The gameplay is far more intense than the predecessor and the scripted events really help to sell the desperation of the various situations. There always seemed to be something going on at which I wanted to look. Control is tight and immediately familiar making providing the double edge of making the game feel like an extension rather than a sequel.

For most though, all the shine is coming from the multiplayer. This stands as the biggest change to the game. CoD4 and World at War vets will find all the modes immediately accessible and familiar while glorying in the new perks and a larger variety of kill everyone, grab the thing modes. A welcome newcomer is the Spec Ops mode where you and a friend cooperatively complete some mission ripped from the game. It's quite fun to go through an area with a friend that you took solo the first time around and see how your friends go about laying waste to everything wearing red.

Overall, I'm a bit disappointed by the heavy-handedness of the story mode and would have preferred a more natural story flow. Also, it seems weird to me that about half-way through the story *MILD SPOILER* a different bad guy pops up and suddenly everyone is no longer mad at the original bad guy. And no one seems interested in him anymore. *SPOILER OVER* Situations like that that are clear sequel setups anger me.

The multiplayer is something that even the most jaded players can enjoy though, providing some decent justification for the rest of the box.

If I had to give it a number, I think I'd say 8.5ish.

Played on Xbox 360. Beat story mode on Hardened difficulty.

Movie Review: Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace owns the distinction of being the only Bond movie that acts as a direct sequel and as such suffers from the syndrome that sequels inevitably suffer from.  While Casino Royale pumped new life into the James Bond mythos by making Bond more human than his predecessors; giving him realistic motivations for doing what he does; and stripping him of his outrageously unrealistic gadgets, Quantam of Solace was clearly a shameless attempt at cashing in the 007 moniker rather than continuing excellence.

Don't get me wrong, Quantum of Solace wasn't a bad movie, it just wasn't a Bond movie.  I like action scenes as much as the next guy, but calling John McClain (the hero of Die Hard) James Bond and sending him to exotic locales doesn't qualify the movie as a Bond film.  The action sequences; as unbelievable as they are; are quite stunning and there are plenty of them to keep the pretty lights crowd entertained, but don't expect things like; enjoyable story; character development; or motivation.

I'd like to reiterate that I did enjoy the movie, but in the way that you enjoy a Jean Claude Van Dam flick at 4 AM on TBS, not in a let's go pay $10 to see the new Bond flick sort of way.  On a side note, who the hell powers their house with unshielded hydrogen fuel cells in the middle of the desert and doesn't include fire resistant compartments?  You'll know what I'm talking about.