Outlast Review

Game: Outlast
Year (s): 2013
Company: dev. Red Barrels
pub. Red Barrels
Engine: Unreal Engine 3
Type: Run and Hide
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: 80
My Score: This will appeal to some players, but
it's not for everyone


Price (as of January 7, 2014)


Regular list price on Steam: $19.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping): No physical copies of this game


My Game Time: 7 hours, rabidly cheating


Obligatory Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkSydla4sxo




Plot


The game opens saying that the Nazis were doing crazy stuff during the war, and some of the scientists came to the US.


You play the part of a modern-day investigative journalist. An anonymous letter tells you that Mount Massive mental hospital for the criminally insane is doing bad things and needs to be exposed.


You pack up your handheld camera and drive out there one night, sneaking in an open window after scaling scaffolding. The place looks quiet and empty- until a mutilated man throws you over the railing to a lower floor. There are bodies and blood everywhere. You have no idea what has happened here, but you plan to find out, get out, and tell the world.




Save System


Manual Save? Yes- Save and Quit
Quick Save? No
Area Load Save? No
Checkpoint Save? Yes




Gameplay


If you've played Amnesia and liked it, you'll like this. Read no further.


There is no combat in Outlast. You can run, and you can hide. If you turn the wrong way while being chased you might reach a dead end, or another enemy, and be screwed. Once I even fell into a pit.


The player's camera has a night-vision function, which is absolutely necessary. This game is incredibly dark, and if you run out of batteries (l did several times) you'll be stumbling into walls and enemies and have an almost impossible time spotting objectives or routes of escape.


I realized very quickly that the extreme darkness made the game too difficult for me to enjoy. I turned on god mode, and tried to turn out infinite batteries as well (both involved editing the config files). I can't think of a game this millennium where I cheated so quickly, but I wanted to see what the story was.


This game comes with a warning for the graphic imagery, and I can't stress that enough. Violence is the primary vehicle for apprehension; there's nothing psychological about it. If it had been just a little more graphic I would have stopped playing. Two dudes about to engage in necrophilia with a headless corpse. Mutilation on nearly everyone. The player getting strapped to a chair and having fingers chopped off. Some people might find that scary (they probably like the Hostel movies too) but I find it gross and gratuitous.




Expansions / DLC / Sequels


A prequel DLC named Whistleblower has been announced, but there is currently no release date or much information about it.




Final Thoughts


In the end, it's all about one's personal likes and opinions.


I do not like gore. I find it unpleasant but not scary; I opt for the psychological fear of the things you can't see.


Extremely dark games, in which you can run out of your light source, put me at a huge disadvantage. I see poorly as it is, so I can't function in a game this dark without cheating. I ran into the same thing playing Amnesia.


While I can appreciate the scariness of running for escape, hiding, dying a lot, and learning by trial and error, it's something I am poor at. I prefer to at least have the option of combat.


I felt the ending, and the last hour of gameplay that briefly explained what was going on, were weak and unsatisfying. A quick search for, “Outlast ending,” shows that I am not alone in this opinion. There are, however, many that were satisfied with the ending.


I would like to end by saying that this is not a bad game, and that many people like it just fine. It is not, however, a good game for me.

A Few Games in Brief

A Few Games in Brief


...or in briefs, if you put underwear on them. These weren't terrible games, but none of them appealed to me.




System Shock 2


I successfully played through the tutorial and class-choosing parts of this game. After that, the game crashed every one to two minutes. I tried a few fixes to no avail. I have heard that this is a fantastic game, but it's not playable for me on modern hardware and Windows 8.


Deus Ex: Human Revolution


I am not stealthy. I quickly found that the gameplay of Human Revolution insists on sneaking. Direct combat is suicide. I was rather looking forward to this, and felt let down. Some might enjoy being a ninja, but it's not something I excel at, and the original game left it open to the player to go about as they wanted.


Red Orchestra 2


It was off to a bad start when a bug in the tutorial left me unable to move and I had to start over. After a successful second attempt and the first campaign map (with bots), I knew this wasn't for me. I'm not accurate. In most games, I rock the shotgun. In Red Orchestra 2, accuracy is realistic. All weapons have built-in inaccuracy, bullet drop, and incorporate not only aiming down the barrel/scope, but also breathing. I found myself constantly being sniped from who-knows-where.


I'm not a fan of realistic shooters because I am not, have never been, and will never excel at sniping in shooters. This may appeal to gamers that are into WW2 weapons, history, and so on.


Happy new year!

Price of Glory Pygmy Hippo Deck

I don't think this is going to be competitive deck, but it might be amusing.  Price of Glory pairs really well with Drain Power, but now that manaburn is gone I have to keep their lands untapped.  Thus, Awakening and Turnabout.  Pygmy Hippo is the only thing like Drain Power (Piracy doesn't work), but is a wimp and has to be unblockable to be useful.  Thus six auras to make it so.  This deck is three colors, and I think it will prove to be too complicated to win any multiplayer game.  I built it because it looks funny (hippos?  really?) and I couldn't come up with a more effective way to abuse Price of Glory.



Price of Glory Pygmy Hippo
Blue, Green, Red
60-card format


4 Price of glory
4 Rhystic study

4 Awakening
4 Turnabout

4 Pygmy Hippo
4 Drain Power

4 Aqueous Form
2 Cloak of Mists
4 Terravore

2 Pendrell Mists
1 Fade Away
3 Propaganda

LANDS

2 Maze of Ith
4 Rhystic Cave
Multicolor lands

Games I Liked 2013

Games I Liked 2013


I continue my annual posting, late but maybe still in time for the holidays, listing games I've first played in the last year (they may have come out at any time) that I would recommend.


Alan Wake


Sam Lake and Remedy Entertainment (creators of Max Payne 1 and 2) bring us a much-inspired game. Alan Wake is a horror-themed shooter with a really cool story that keeps the player guessing. Tongue-in-cheek references are made to The Twilight Zone, Stephen King, and other notable horror works. Note: while Alan Wake is great, the DLC, and American Nightmare pseudo-sequel are not.




Dead Island


Zombies! On an island! Dead Island is an open world hack-'n-slash game, with several different characters and level-up/upgrade options. With side quests, the game has a decent length. The Ryder White DLC takes the story told in the core game and adds a lot of twists that both clarify events and make them far more interesting. This is a good one as far as game time, and it can also be played cooperatively.


Dishonored


Dishonored is set in a steam punk world, and I like steam punk. The player can kill enemies outright, leading to a more difficult game and a darker ending. The player can also sneak, run, hide, and incapacitate foes for a much more rewarding story. Dishonored did a great job of leaving it up to the player, and overall was something a little different than most shooters, and more assecible than most stealthy games.


Honorable Mentions


BRINK


BRINK has a few different game types, marginally different classes, and a crap-ton of weaopn specialization. I saw things I liked, but the single player campaign didn't quite do enough to encourage me to tell my friends to buy it.


Hard Reset


Hard Reset is the first game by Flying Wild Hog. It's all about old-school shooter gameplay, with hordes of enemies and big bosses. Weapon options are wide, and the proprietary engine looked about the same as anything else out there. My only complaints were that the plot didn't make much sense and running wasn't an option. I said in a review that I would look forward to their next game, and now it's out. Shadow Warrior, a remake of a 90's game by 3D Realms, looks right up my alley.




Quantum Conundrum



People buy this game because of Kim Swift. She was behind the first Portal, she was on a group that worked on a demo that inspired Portal, and that's a good track record. Quantum Conundrum is a kid-friendly puzzle game with an emphasis on platforming. The puzzle are usually easy, but are at times made frustrating by difficult timing and jumping elements. Quantum Conundrum isn't a bad game at all, but if you're expecting it to be Portal 3 you're going to be disappointed.

Natural Selection 2 Review

The first Natural Selection was a mod for Half-Life.  I never played it, so nothing more to say there.

Natural Selection 2 is available on Steam, and looked like an interesting game for multiplayer because it combines real time strategy and team-oriented shooters.  There are two sides, marines and aliens.  Most members of a team are grunts, and they move around the map killing enemies, destroying objectives, and building stuff.  Their activity generates resources for the individual and for the team.

One member of each team is the commander.  They view the map from above, and can use team resources to place buildings, research upgrades, drop health/ammo, et cetera.

Marines are regular shooters.  Aliens have a few different forms, with more emphasis on speed, stealth, and maneuverability.  

A short tutorial teaches the player how to be a grunt, which isn't too hard to do.  Do what the commander says, and otherwise carry on as in any other shooter.

There is no tutorial for being a commander, and that's the downfall of the game.  I tried playing with bots, and was forced to be the commander.  I had no idea what I should build, or where, nor did I have any idea on how to respond to grunts asking for health and assistance.  After five minutes of clicking on a bunch of stuff and being informed I didn't have the resources to do that, I gave up.  

Maybe this game was meant for people that played the first and knew what they were doing.  I didn't, and the lack of instruction on how to be a commander was asinine.  As another downside to this one, loading a level (either the tutorial or my off-line, bots-only map) took at least two minutes.  

This game looked like a great idea, and I'm annoyed that I can't play it.  It would just take some more tutorials, or a short campaign, to fix this fundamental flaw.  Not recommended as it is currently.  

Red Faction: Guerrilla Review

At some point a few years back, there were only three Red Faction games (currently there are four).  They all had average metacritic scores, and I picked up the bundle for about ten bucks.  The first game was definitely dated, buggy, and I had to cheat to beat the last level.  It was also pretty short, so overall I wasn't impressed.  The second Red Faction game I plodded through was an easy blah game that was also very short.  I had no hurry to play this game, two and a half years after writing a review for the first.  This will be brief.

Red Faction was set on Mars, where miners were being worked to death and ultimately rebelled.  In Guerrilla, it's the same thing, again, years after the liberation, and also on Mars.  That's a lazy start.  Graphically, the game looks better than its predecessors, but that's not saying much.  The ability to destroy the environment is once again stressed, with many missions involving demotion by any means.  Destruction give you scrap, with is used as money.  It's satisfying to destroy things, and that's the mindless high point of gameplay.

I didn't play this game very long, because it wasn't compelling.  I had missions to kill people, blow up stuff, and drive around, but I hadn't connected with the copy-and-paste characters enough to care.  Overall this is an average game, and I won't fault others if they like it.  I've played a lot of games, good and bad, and don't want to waste my time with this.  I have better games and better things to do.

I have not played the most recent Red Faction game (Red Faction: Armageddon), and I do not intend to.  I have heard good things about Saints Row IV, also by Volition.  I have not played any Saints Row games.  I would not recommend Guerrilla.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Review

Game: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Year (s): 2013
Company: dev. Ubisoft
pub. Ubisoft
Engine: Dunia Engine 2
Type: Shooter
Viewpoint: First-Person
Metacritic Score: 81
My Score: Not Great, But Good


Price (as of November 2, 2013)


Regular list price on Steam: $14.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (digital download): $4.99


My Game Time: 15 hours, completionist


Obligatory Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av5pqJaIeCk




Plot and Franchise


The plot isn't apparent, or relevant, but goes something like this: After Vietnam War 2's nuclear fallout, you, Rex Power Colt, were brought back to life as a Mark 4 Cyber Commando. You're fighting the ruthless cybernetic Omega Force, as well as prehistoric dragons that shoot lasers.


A parody of 80's action movies, Blood Dragon takes place in the near future of 2007. Music fits the era, Michael Biehn is a main voice actor (Terminator, Aliens), and instead of a loading bar there is a VHS tracking bar.


Ubisoft did a good job being over-the-top, and nailed the 80's action movie feel.


This uses the same engine as Far Cry 3 while completely being a stand-alone product. This has nothing to with with any of the other Far Cry games.




Engine


Physics, water effects, nothing new to say here. It didn't crash on me at all. Something to note, you'll have to download Uplay. It's like Steam but for Ubisoft. Redundant with Steam, but necessary and free.


My only complaint was that I couldn't adjust the brightness. They mentioned that you had cyber eyes, so this might have been intentional. Nonetheless, it was hard for me to see at times.




Save System


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




Combat/Gameplay


Blood Dragon has two approaches to combat. The first is to sneak around, and they included silent weapons, distraction, numerous takedowns, and other mechanics to utilize this. I wasn't very good at using their sneak system.


Fortunately, you can always just shoot everything. There are a variety of guns, with most having multiple upgrades (upgrades can be bought after you unlock them through collection quests and side quests). Ammo is pretty cheap, and the leveling system makes the game progressively easier.


Vehicles were present, but I rarely used them because you cannot shoot from the driver's seat. Looting corpses is useful, but very violent (cyber hearts are ripped out because they can be used as grenades).




Final Thoughts


I like ninja turtels references, cheesy lines, and cyber commandos. It's fun and fresh. The game topped out at 15 hours, but it was cheap. I can't think of anything they did wrong, and I liked the game, but I'm left with the feeling that it was good but could have been great. I'm hoping other developers follow suit here.