Tuesday, January 25, 2011

F.E.A.R. Review

Game: F.E.A.R.
Year (s):  2005 (orininal and Extraction Point) 2007 (Perseus Mandate)
Company:  dev.  Monolith Productions (original), TimeGate Studios (expansions)
            pub.  Vivendi Universal
Engine:  Lithetech Jupiter EX
Type:  First Person Shooter, Horror
What I Paid:  Steam sale!  Five bucks for FEAR plus both expansions


Plot

The story is told mostly by answering machine messages and hacking of laptops.  The game starts out with a battalion of clone soldiers, controlled by a psychic commander, get out of control.  As you progress, you learn the dark secrets behind the commander, the player, and a little girl named Alma.


Graphics

For a game that came out a year after Half Life 2 and Doom 3, it looks like it could have  come out a year before.  There are some particle effects, some good use of lighting, and the people look alright.  Aside from that,textures are basic and entirely two-dimensional, mechanical enemies exploding looks like crap, and the graphics are otherwise pretty underwhelming. 


Hallucinations

There are ghosts.  There are creepy scenes with blood and fire interspersed.  This game is lauded for the suspense approach to horror.  Intense firefight, something creepy.  They happen at set spots, but it keeps you on your toes.


Combat

Combat is pretty intense in FEAR, and a big part of it is SlowMo, a power that can be used for a limited amount of time for a huge advantage, then must recharge.  The player is always outnumbered, so that (and the occasional grenade) are important.  Player can carry three guns at a time, and can carry up to ten medkits.  All weapons can be used in melee attacks.    My only complaint about combat, even though it could be very difficult, is that there were only a handful of different types of enemies.  Many of the firefights are difficult enough to be memorable if you play it again a few years later.


Down-Loadable Content (DLC)

Two expansions were made by a third party, Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate.  As far as plot, they suck and are not canon.  As far as gameplay, there are a few different enemies, a few different guns, and mostly otherwise more of the same.  The creepy suspense is replaced by a more graphic and bloody horror style.  If you like the first one, these are fun, just don't expect any of it to matter in FEAR 2 or 3.


Final Thoughts

The Ultimate Shooter edition includes some bonus material about developing the game, a short funny machima clip (same group that does Red vs. Blue), and a short live-action cinematic with Alma and a doctor.  Nothing there that you wouldn't find on Wikipedia, but if you like the game a lot, well, you know.

Anyway, this is an intense shooter that runs pretty cheap, so if you haven't played it, I'd recommend it.  FEAR 2 came out in 2009, FEAR 3 is currently set to be released in May 2011.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Unreal Gold Review

Game: Unreal (Gold Edition)
Year (s):  1998
Company:  dev.  Epic Games, Digital Extremes
            pub.  GT Interactive
Engine:  Unreal Engine 1
Type:  First-Person Shooter
What I Paid:  nothing, got the Unreal bundle for Xmas
Game Time:  tediously long


Plot

You're a prisoner on a transport ship.  The ship crashes on an alien planet.  You shoot everything.


General Comments

This game is a lot like Quake 2.  It's sometimes frustratingly difficult to find out where to go, has a limited inventory, and similar graphics and gameplay.


Combat

Most enemies aren't too bad.  The Skaarj suck, though.  They dodge everything.  Some of them can go temporarily invulnerable.  One particularly stupid boss is basically a flying cyberdemon that dodges in mid-air, and there's lava all over the place.  These factors make combat more difficult than other games of the time.


Down-Loadable Content (DLC)

I think Return to Na Pali is an expansion, I'm not sure how they were originally packaged.  This has a little more plot.  The character from the first one is rescued!  The rescuers send her back to the planet to retrieve something in exchange for a full pardon.  Every few levels, the character will talk a little bit.  So, plot-wise, it's better.  There are twice as many weapons, and some new baddies, but for the most part, it's more of the same.


Final Thoughts

I think this game was pretty competitive in its time.  However, this is 12+ years later.  I find myself frequently going to a walkthrough, or just cheating my way through locked doors and hard fights.  I am honestly playing it just to learn more about the Unreal universe that I love so much in the Unreal Tournament games.  I'm happy to say that several familiar weapons (bio-rifle, flak cannon, shock rifle, ripper...) made their start here.    If you have played Invasion maps on UT2K4, those enemies are from this game. 
If you also got this game with the Unreal bundle, I would not recommend playing it.

Quake Review

Game:  Quake
Year (s):  1996
Company:  dev.  id Spftware
            pub.  GT Interactive
Engine:  id Tech 2
Type:  First-Person Shooter
What I Paid:  was originally given it.  later, it came with a Quake bundle on Steam for dirt     cheap (QuakeCon week sale)
Game Time:  1-20 hours (more on this later)


Plot

An invading enemy codenamed, "Quake," is ransacking about.  For HP Lovecraft fans, the source of the monsters is none other than Shub-Niggurath, an elder god.  The player fights through four planes, collecting runes.  Once all have been collected, the way to Shub-Niggurath is open. 
During the creation of the game, the development team could not reach a consensus on whether to do a medieval, Heretic-type shooter, or to have another shooter based in the future in space.  Cthulu mythos, apparently, is the compromise.
This is the only Quake title (Q3 has no plot) that does not involve the Strogg.


General Comments

This is one of my favorite of the second-generation shooters.  Combat can be pretty damn difficult, and there are occasional traps, jumps, and more traps.


Audio

Trent Reznor did the soundtrack, which can only be heard if the game is played with the Quake CD in the drive.  In homage, the boxes of ammo for the nailguns feature the NIN logo.  Thus continues a relationship started in Doom (there's a secret on level 1 of Thy Flesh Consumed (Ultimate Doom) that reveals the NIN logo) and carried at least through Doom 3, where Trent did some audio work that was later cut.


Combat

Shit, I'm dead!  Repeat until finale.  Lots of tough enemies in this, and the ammo you find will leave you mostly using the shotguns.  Other weapons include the nailguns (Gatling guns), grenade launcher, rocket launcher, and the super powerful lightning gun.  One type of enemy explodes on death, and zombies cannot be dispatched except by explosives... otherwise it's straightforward shoot, shoot, shoot.  Oh, and dodge.  Those fiends will tear you up like a paper bag.


Down-Loadable Content (DLC)

Two expansion "Mission Packs" exist : Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity.  I have both from Steam.  However, this version does not support wide-screen monitors, so the games simply do not launch.  This is fixable with some mucking around in the coding.  I have not played them.


Final Thoughts

Oh, yeah.  Gametime.  I guessed 20 hours for the first play through.  I've played this so many times that I don't know how long it would take someone new to beat.  Of more interest are the speed-runs of this game.  I watched one video where a team patched together beating the ENTIRE GAME, on nightmare, in under an hour.  Definite abuse of rocket-jumping, but it's fun/insane to watch.
As I touched on briefly, there are sequels, all of which have nothing to do with the original Quake.  This is my favorite of the franchise.  Because this is so dated, I don't know if others would get as much enjoyment out of it.  But hey!  It's only ten bucks NOT on sale.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Mass Effect Review

Game: Mass Effect
Year (s):  2007
Company:  dev.  BioWare, Demiurge
            pub.  EA, Microsoft Game Studios
Engine:  Unreal Engine 3
Type:  RPG Shooter (third-person)
What I Paid:  $15 on Steam on sale

Game Time:  25 hours first playthrough, did about everything


Plot

Every fifty-thousand years, a race of ancient robotic beings rampage through the galaxy and obliterate all sentient life.  Well, it's that time again, and it's just you and your ragtag team flying around trying to stop the bad guy from bringing the robots back.


General Comments

Following the main plot, this game comes off as pretty cinematic.  The graphics look good, the plot is to save the galaxy, and the score underlines it all.  This is probably about as much dialogue as there is action.

Side quests are a little repetitive, but right when you're about to say, "I'm not doing any more" ... you've completed all of them.

There is an inventory system and currency.  I found so much stuff just killing enemies, I never bought anything.  The shop system is a little awkward.

Every dialogue has mean, neutral, or friendly options.  Different decisions make no real difference in plot, so though that alone doesn't encourage additional playthroughs.


Audio

Voice acting includes Seth Green (Robot Chicken) and Ketih David (Gargoyles).  The music is good, too.  It may have just been my speaker settings, but for whatever reason, the dialogue was always really quiet and everything else was loud.  Maxing the volume to hear what's going on, then cutting it during combat, was very annoying.


Combat

There are three main  approaches to combat: soldier (tanking), biotic powers, tech powers, and hybrids of these.  Tech and Biotic powers are completely separate trees, one focuses on throwing enemies around, the other on things like healing your shields.

If you stop moving, accuracy improves!  If you crouch, it gets even better.  In Mass Effect, every weapon has infinite ammo.  However, if you hold down the fire button, your weapon will overheat, and you will have to wait for it to cool off to shoot anything.

Down-Loadable Content (DLC)

I have played neither, but two DLC expansions exist.  Bring Down the Sky introduces a next alien species that must be fought.  Pinnacle Station revolves around a gladiator/tournament plot.


Final Thoughts
This game was a pretty heavy on the dialogue, but it was fun.  And, oh, how many shooters have a sex scene?  This one does! 

Mass Effect 2 was released in 2010, picking up where the first game leaves off.  An interesting innovation allows players the option of imprinting save files from the first game to the second.  If a player does so, decisions made in the first game contribute to what happens in the second game. 

Mass Effect 3 is planned to be released in late 2011.