Antichamber Review

Game:  Antichamber
Year (s):  2013
Company:  dev.  Alexander Bruce
pub.  Demruth
Engine:  Unreal Engine 3
Type:  Puzzle
Viewpoint:  First-Person
Metacritic Score: 82
My Score:  An astonishing shit.

Price (as of July 21, 2013)

Regular list price on Steam:  $20
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  Not Available

My Game Time: 18 minutes

Obligatory Trailer:  http://store.steampowered.com/app/219890


Review

I first noticed Antichamber about a month ago.  After watching the trailer, I came away thinking that it had graphics to rival that of 1990 (I am not exaggerating, check out the trailer).  Nonetheless, it had a decent Metacritic score, solid reviews, a few awards, and sounded like something different.  When it was discounted during Steam's summer sale for six bucks, I figured it was worht a shot.

Antichamber is a game without an introduction or tutorial.  You start off with a red flight of stairs going down, and a blue one going up.  There are two pictures on the walls that change, but there are no clues as to what you're supposed to be doing.  At one point, I'm pretty sure I found the objective, but I couldn't figure out how to interact with it.  I tried hitting E, F, clicking the mouse, nothing.  So I continued on the stairs.  After eighteen minutes of that, I deleted the game.

Don't be fooled with the Escher-esque pitch, the awards, or anything else.  This game looks awful, teaches you nothing, and, out of 176 total games, is THE WORST GAME I have ever gotten through Steam.

BRINK review

Game:  BRINK
Year (s):  2011
Company:  dev.  Splash Damage
pub.  Bethesda Softworks
Engine:  id Tech 4 (modified)
Type:  Red vs. Blue shooter
Viewpoint:  First-Person
Metacritic Score: 72

Price (as of June 26, 2013)

Regular list price on Steam:  $19.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $6

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8HYs90WXms

The Good

BRINK allows for a great deal of unlockable abilities and weapon customization.  The more you play, the more things you have access to.  A selection of dozens of firearms are avialable, and any weapon can be used by any character class.  There are a few different game types to keep things interesting, and there's full bot support.


The Bad

As shown in the trailer, the game is supposed to be big on parkour movement (trailer is NOT actual gameplay).  During the campaign I could climb on some objects and sometimes get a slide to work.  I found this more realistic, but not particularly useful in a firefight.  I certainly didn't move like they do in the trailer, I don't know if these movements had to be unlocked or if the game just failed to teach players how to do things.

Another flaw is lack of a map or compass waypoints for objectives.  Levels are not symmetrical.  While I could see where my teammates were, following bots doesn't always lead one in the right direction.

Personally, I didn't feel that the four classes were very different.  Some objectives had to be completed by a specific class, but gameplay was mostly the same.  


The Verdict

BRINK is one of those games that is meant to be played with friends.  I think I could really get into the unlocking and weapon customization aspects, but my experience playing with bots was just not quite enough to have me tell friends to buy this.  BRINK isn't a bad game, per se, it just didn't do it for me.

Morph Deck

I recently came across Ixidron, an interesting guy that flips all other creatures face-down.  If my guys all have morph, this isn't so bad.  Training Grounds and Dream Chisel help ease the mana cost for morph guys, and the rest is pretty straight forward.  Here's the deck.


Morph
60-Card Format
Blue

Ixidron
Ixidor, Reality Sculptor
Voidmage Apprentice
Willbender
Quicksilver Dragon
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Aphetto Runecaster
Weaver of Lies
Echo Tracer

Training Grounds
Dream Chisel
Extraplanar Lens

LANDS

Islands
Zoetic Cavern

Serious Sam 2 Review

Game:  Serious Sam 2
Year (s):  2005
Company:  dev.  Croteam
pub.  Devolver
Engine:  Serious Engine 2
Type:  Old-School Shooter
Viewpoint:  First-Person
Metacritic Score: 74
My Score:  The nadir of the franchise.

Price (as of May 19, 2013)

Regular list price on Steam:  $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $6

My Game Time: 17 hours

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=334FeWTYDCU

See Also

The First Encounter Review:  http://fpsandmtg.blogspot.com/2011/06/serious-sam-first-encounter-review.html
The Second Encounter Review:  http://fpsandmtg.blogspot.com/2012/05/serious-sam-second-encounter-review.html
Serious Sam 3 BFE Review:  http://fpsandmtg.blogspot.com/2012/01/serious-sam-3-bfe-review.html

Plot

Sam must fight through several planets, gathering pieces of a medallion, in order to defeat Lord Mental.


Save System

Manual Save?  No
Quick Save?  No
Area Load Save?  Yes
Checkpoint Save?  Yes


The Progression

This was the last game of the franchise for me to play.  Carrying through the franchise we have tons of enemies, retro gameplay, some humor, giant bosses, and general quirkiness.  The Second Encounter added a few new enemies and several new environments.  Serious Sam 2 had almost completely new enemies and environments, the addition of vehicles,  new weapons, and replaced textrual plot with cut scenes.  

Then, the HD versions of The First/Second Encounter were realesed, continuing a gradual graphical improvement.  Croteam lastly went back to the basics and the original enemies and environments for Serious Sam 3: BFE.


Final Thoughts

The nearly complete departure from familiar foes, along with some jokes that fell totally flat, made Serious Sam 2 feel like a third-party knockoff.  From a plot perspective, SS2 is the last game of the bunch, and I thought the ending was very unsatisfying.  I say pass on this one.

Sniper Elite and American Nightmare

I have updated "the first post."  This includes dates of reviews and has been rearranged.  Here is the link:  http://fpsandmtg.blogspot.com/2010/08/first-post.html  I don't update that as often as I should.

Game:  Sniper Elite
Year (s):  2005
Company:  dev.  Rebellion
pub.  MC2 France
Engine:  Asura
Type:  Stealthy Shooter
Viewpoint:  Mostly Third-Person
GameRanking Score: 73
My Score:  Why did I buy this in the first place?


Plot

At the tail end of WW2's European theater, you take on the role of an American sniper, disguised as a German, dispatching Russian targets.  The cold war began before the world war ended.

Engine

Rebellion has continually used, and improved, the Asura engine since 2003.  Graphical quality, therefore, has a large range.  As a 2005 game, this was not a contender.  While I didn't hit any glitches in the brief time I played this game, the graphics were, at best, comparable to UT 2K4.

Combat/Gameplay

Army-crawl from one point of cover to another, take a couple of shots, and then crawl away before the enemy pinpoints your position.  Ideally, fire in sync with bombs or thunder.  Optional aiming problems include wind, bullet fall, and breathing.  I found this game style, while more realistic, tedious at best.  Everyone has their own line between challenging and stupid, and this crossed it for me.

Expansions / DLC / Sequels

Sniper Elite V2 was a remake that came out in 2012.  It looks better, and has at least one DLC.

Final Thoughts

I'm not good at sniping, and I don't like being forced to sneak around.  This game just wasn't my type.


Alan Wake's American Nightmare

Alan Wake's American Nightmare has a few things in common with Alan Wake's DLC: the plot is garbage and the game is short.  This is compounded by cakewalk combat and poor writing.  Play Alan Wake.  It's good.  Don't play anything else associated with the franchise.

Alan Wake Review

Game:  Alan Wake
Year (s):  2010 (XBox 360), 2012 (PC release)
Company:  dev.  Remedy Entertainment
pub.  Microsoft Game Studios et al.
Engine:  MAX-FX 3.0 using Havok physics and Umbra occlustion
Type:  Survival Horror, Shooter
Viewpoint:  Third-Person
Metacritic Score: 83
My Score:  A refreshingly good game.

Price (as of April 8, 2013)

Regular list price on Steam:  $29.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $12.99

My Game Time:  23 hours, first time on easy, including both DLC

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF2ZdvBtp1k


Plot

Alan Wake, a successful author a la Stephen King, has writer's block.  His wife, Alice, takes him on a retreat.  After getting to their cabin on Cauldron Lake, the two get in an argument, and Alan goes down to the dock to cool off.  Some time later Alice screams.  Alan runs to help, and dives in to the lake.

The next thing you know, Alan's in a wrecked car with his head bleeding.  He fights shadowy figures that disappear when defeated.  He gets to a gas station to call for help, to find that a week has gone by.  The sheriff picks him up, and tells him that there is no cabin on Cauldron Lake.

It's a great start, and the plot really motivated me to keep playing.  This has more story than I've come to expect, with nods to Twilight Zone, Stephen King, and others.  The ending ties up most of the mystery, but leaves a couple of big questions unanswered that could be addressed in further games.

The plot is told in acts.  Each act ends with an song to sum up events.  This is a cool idea and they implemented it well.  Oh, by the way, the plot is by the Sam Lake, the same guy that wrote for Max Payne.

Engine

MAX-FX 3.0 is the newest engine from the developers that brought us Max Payne.  Graphics are significantly better than the last Max Payne title, while the third-person view, some of the sounds, level design, and the general look feel familiar.  As a port of a 2010 console game, it is not in the running for cutting-edge beautiful, but it works and I didn't snag on any bugs.

Save System

Manual Save? No
Quick Save?  No
Area Load Save?  Yes
Checkpoint Save?  Yes

Combat/Gameplay

Enemies are protected by The Dark Presence, so you'll have to burn their darkness away before you can hurt them.  Flashlights, floodlights, flares, flashbangs, anything will do.  Then a limited arsenal of firearms finishes the task.  This allows for the novelty of R to reload guns, and Q to replace flashlight batteries.

I tried playing the game on normal, but ran out of ammo.  There is no melee attack, so I started over on easy.  I'm not sure what I could have done on normal; I don't play a great deal of survival horror, limited-ammo games.


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

"The Signal," and, "The Writer," are two very short DLC.  These add a small amount of additional gameplay, but don't do anything to move the story forward..

Alan Wake's American Nightmare, "is not a sequel."  It take place after the first though, with the same gameplay and some of the same characters.  This came out in 2012.

Remedy has said that they are not done with Alan Wake yet, and there is a lot of speculation for Alan Wake 2, but no information yet.  There was a web-based miniseries prequel to Alan Wake created called, "Bright Falls."


Final Thoughts

This was a longer article because Alan Wake has more to offer than a lot of the cheap games I grab on sales.  While the DLC were pretty limp fare, I thoroughly enjoyed Alan Wake from start to finish.

Far Cry 2 Review

Game:  Far Cry 2
Year (s):  2008
Company:  dev.  Ubisoft Montreal
pub.  Ubisoft
Engine:  Dunia
Type:  Open-world, Shooter
Viewpoint:  First-Person
Metacritic Score:  85
My Score:  Average enough to play something better.

Price (as of March 24, 2013)

Regular list price on Steam:  $9.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $10

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMTDjKusVqY

See Also- Far Cry Review:
http://fpsandmtg.blogspot.com/2011/11/far-cry-review.html


Plot

You're a mercenary sent into a war-torn African region to kill an arms dealer.  You catch malaria instead, and get caught up in the civil war, all the while hoping to track down and kill the arms dealer.

Dunia Engine

This looks ok, but not the best at the time.  AI is much dumber than in Far Cry.

Save System

Manual Save?  Yes
Quck Save?  Yes
Area Load Save?   Not sure
Checkpoint Save?  Yes


Combat/Gameplay

Grab three weapons and some medkits, get in a vehicle, and start killing.  Standard fare for the genre.

Far Cry 2 does a couple of things that really turn me off.  First, the setting, plot, characters, environments, and enemies have abolutely nothing to do with the first game.  Secondly, Far Cry 2 had a different developing company.  As is sometimes the case, the gameplay was starkly dissimilar to the first.  These factors all together left me disappointed and wondering why it had the Far Cry name at all.  


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

A DLC called Foturne's pack added some new weapons, vehicles, and multiplayer maps.

Far Cry 3, also by Ubisoft, came out in 2012.  It had gotten fairly good reviews and has been described as, "Skyrim with guns."

Final Thoughts

This here's an average game at best, with the added satisfaction-level of such sequels as Highlander 2, Fievel Goes West, or The Lion King 1 1/2.