Portal 2

So finally got around to playing Portal 2 and I liked it but I do have some concerns and some things I did not like about it. One of the annoying parts of the game is that it simply did not work until I tried it two days ago; The game would not start and I had not even heard of many people encountering this problem and I am normally the last person to have problems playing games with my computer.

Basically, Portal 2 is Portal with a normal game like plot, a longer single player campaign, and a quite long cooperative two player online multiplayer, and new puzzles elements.

Lets start with my first point and, what I would call, the most controversial part of of the entire game, how it is far more like a normal game. There are long, numerous, and unskippable cutscenes throughout; A whole lot of dialogue, and lots of new environments and situations. In a lot of ways this is fantastic, most of the dialogue I love, it is simply hilarious; But it is not the same elegant minimalistic unique game that Portal was and is. This part of the game is quite well done and a very enjoyable but it is not Portal. While Portal gave you extremely well written witty and well placed dialogue, in Portal 2 someone is almost constantly chatting into your ear and there is as many cut scenes as puzzles. And a lot of the dialogue is fantastic but some of it is not, for the most part there is just so much dialogue that eventually you go over the same stuff multiple times. So yes it is terrific and better then almost all mainstream video games but it is not in a whole other category like the original.

On to the length; I would call it a four hour game (single player campaign), which is ridiculously short but then a lot of people will probably take longer. And then add onto that the multiplayer which is supposed to be almost the same length again. But I for one have no interest in coop, and of course should not be included in any game length stats. Coop sounds interesting but unless you have a friend who wants to play it with you then it is going to be a very hit and miss. You simply cannot progress one single step if your partner is unwilling or unable to help.

So what about the puzzles? The puzzles are another controversial feature in my opinion. Yes, the additions work pretty well and are fun to use but they just seem too complicated. The original Portal works so well because it does something basic and simple, bridging two areas of space together seamlessly. But my biggest problem with the puzzles is simply the design, that is it is far too closed.  The original Portal was great partly because quite a lot of the walls were made of portal-supportable materials, basically unless a surface needed to be inaccessible or ruin the entire puzzle it was left usable; This allowed multiple solutions, the very enjoyable challenges, and a lot or real analytical problem solving; That's all gone now, instead you have puzzles where every portal-able surface will have to be used at some point to solve the puzzle, which is a linear one solution puzzle (with not very many steps). So basically all challenge has been taken out of the game.

If you have not noticed yet I am really not sure how to rate this game. It is good but it is a horrible sequel to Portal. It is a very fun game, but ultimately I think it is more like a very well polished turd then anything else. Portal is great because it has a inner beauty, but most of Portal 2's beauty is just skin deep.

Kaptain Brawe: A Brawe New World

Just posted over at The Indie Elitist about a great adventure game I just finished playing, Kaptain Brawe: A Brawe New World.

The following is a excerpt from the article:

The graphics are nice and really good but I would not go so far as to call them great. The puzzles similarly are good, there are a few problems, a few good parts, and few sections that show a lot of promise, but overall it is just good/decent. Probably the most interesting part of the entire thing is the setting, which is a steampunk Victorian, scifi, alternative past. But by far the most well done part is the dialogue. For the most part I find games that try to be funny, just corny and forced sounding; Which is not at all how Kaptain Brawe turned out, it is quite funny and more then worth not skipping.

But everything is not rosy. The game is a little buggy and way too short. It has around three hours of gameplay and not really worth the original selling price of $20 (you can find it for less now). Also at some points the dialogue is just filled with mistakes and the ending seemed really inconsistent to the rest of the game; The entire game seemed to be trying (quite hard at some points) to keep the adventure G rated and then at the end the villain gets sodomized by two inmates, which just seemed out of character.

Overall it is a great game and I liked it a lot. I hope that they produce sequels and I will play them, but there are two things that would really benefit from some polish. In the game you control a total of three different characters, by switching between them, and Rowboat the robot, who is used like an item. And it works great, they have very different personalities and often they must be used in tandem to get past a obstacle. But the characters are so diametrically different that I would of loved puzzles that could be solved in different ways depending on which character you are currently controlling and puzzles that are only solvable using a specific person because it requires a specific mental or physical trait. As it stands now the puzzles and their solutions are just too generic, Kaptain Brawe is supposed to be a overly brave stupid action obsessed hero type and yet he solves normal mental puzzles like everyone else and shows a complete lack of interest in just charging in and solving a puzzle disregarding of the dangers. The second thing I would love to see improved is the setting, it is supposed to be the 1800's but in space with one major invention and conceivably a bunch of others that it inspired. But the technology level is just far to high in all areas. Sure Kaptain Brawe's ship is made of wood but it still is absolutely filled with technological marvel after technological marvel and some places actually look like a futuristic normal scifi location, with metal domes and force fields. In some areas the technology should be extremely lacking and far more Victoria era steampunk architectural really should of been used (even the oldest looking, least technically advanced, things looked at least one hundred years too new).

Arvoesine

Finally got around to plaything this commercial turned free action platformer. I, and I can only assume every other person with any sense, has admiring this great retro looking game from afar and now that it has been released for free I no longer had any reason to put of giving it a try. And here is the recounting of my experience:

• First try, died after about 5 seconds on second encountered enemy.
• Second try, died after about 5 seconds on spikes right after third enemy.
• .....
• 6th try, died after about 10 seconds on the 7th enemy (pretty sure I am still only about 1% done level 1).
• Gave up.
• Tried a few more times and got to the first level boss, but no apparent way to even damage him.

So while the game looks amazing, and does not even look all that hard, it is; The strange thing is that you actually have quite a lot of health and I normally love games that give a challenge. Still it looks great, and seems to play quite good as well, I just could not get into the hang of it.

I recommend anyone who is a fan of Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts style super challenging action platformers give it a shot, but I for one am done trying to completely it (or even just a single level).

You can download Arvosine here.

No Time to Explain

No Time to Explain, the instant KickStarter success, has just got significantly more cool and been released. What they did was upload there own game, very shortly after release, to The Pirate Bay (a torrent site), allowing anyone to download it for free (normally $10). The one catch is that the version they uploaded is all pirate themed and apparently moderately more buggy.

So you can download this game right now and give it a try before you buy, and while you are waiting for it to finish downloading you might as well read this interview on the pirate version and why they made it.

Half Life 2 (a review and a comparison to the original)

Half Life 2 is the 2004 sequel to the critically acclaimed original Half Life (my review) and set fifteen years into the future. Since Gordon Freeman's victory, things have taken a turn for the worse and the earth is now under the totalitarian and dystopian rule of the Combine. These Combine, in addition to running a quite normal totalitarian police force, also employ a few alien monsters/creatures you will recognize as well as a few new ones, which they unleash onto the resistance.

In Half Life 2 you run, you jump, you shoot, you platform, you drive, and you solve physics based puzzles. The puzzles are actually quite good, if far too infrequent and being physics based make the game seem really down to earth and immersive. The platforming, and in particular the driving, is also quite well done and entertaining, but I think more of it could of been done without the constant pressure of enemy fire; Which is really my biggest gripe with the game, the near constant action.

For the most part you are in firefights, and while I think that Half Life 2 handles this action better then the original I sure enjoyed the greater amount of peaceful and non-action sequences in the original. Additionally, while the plot of the of the original had a few mysterious unexplained sections you had a basic idea of what was going on and what you did not know; This is not at all present in this sequel; You are working for the still completely mysterious G-Man; Fighting against an enemy that you have never seen before and other then the obvious observation that they are some sort of totalitarian police force you only know their name, you know absolutely nothing about where they come from, what they want, or even what they have been doing; And the rebels, you suddenly appear after fifteen years and everyone takes it in stride, does not even bother to get you caught up in recent events, and apparently have recruited the vortigaunts, a common enemy from Half Life who apparently have become a race of Yodas (incredibly wise and powerful) in your absence.

For the graphics I am somewhat divided, Half Life 2 still looks great and has even better graphics then the original is a few ways but I also think that a few things look significantly better in the original. Overall, I would say that Half Life 2 is superior but it is not quite as cut and dry as you might expect, but no matter where you think it stands with regard to the original it still holds up even to today's standards in attention to details and high resolution realism (while it is obvious that the original looks dated).

Overall, played basically back to back with Half Life original, it is simply not as good a game as the original. It is still a great game, and different enough that I hesitate to say it is objectively worse; I sure enjoyed the original  more, but I am sure that some people will enjoy Half Life 2 just as much or even more. But Half Life 2 does not really need to be compared to it predecessor and standing with the other games of its era it looks quite good, and it is undoubtedly one of the top FPSes of its decade.

Limbo

Limbo is a very famous indie XBLA platformer that recently got ported to the PC, giving me and many others the ability to finally play it. At its core it is simply a platformer with some puzzles but what makes it great is its style.

It is wonderfully dark, and I am not just talking about the graphics. The giant spiders, zombie worms, murderous children, and effective traps are all fantastically realized and delightful cruel, made all the more poignant because you are playing as a child. And while the officially explained plot is minimalistic I think it is safe to say that it all takes place in a dream that he has after falling asleep in a forest.

Penumbra: Overture First Impressions

So I am finally giving Penumbra: Overture another go after the severe physiological trauma it inflicted on me a few years ago.  And it already does not look good; As I clawed ineffectively on the mine's entrance as the blizzard sucked at my strength and numbed my extremities I knew that this playthrough would be no better then my first. Penumbra: Overture is a great game; It is a graphical adventure with the best and all encompassing physics of any game I have ever played, it is a stealth/action game that gives you a choice of hiding or fighting. But most of all it is a horror game that is many times more scary then anything I have ever seen and often leaves my with a racing heart after an encounter.

But now I hear banging from the deep and know that I must go down there, that there is no other way. It seems like far to good and unique of a graphical adventure to succumb to the fear and leave the game in some dark forgotten area of my hard drive.

Half Life

Recently finished playing Half Life: Source, which is simply Half Life ported to the Source engine. It has the same levels, same graphics, same everything; Wrapped in a shiny new and theoretically better engine. It is simply a fantastic game with a wide range of entertaining experiences to offer. Playing the game I could not help but stop and think that they really don't make FPSs like they used to. There are elements of horror, action, tactics, and even a few puzzles.

It is simply an amazing game full of unique and enjoyable gameplay. On the the most acclaimed parts of this gameplay is the enemy AI; While the monsters act quite normally for games of that era the human squads act far more realistic then ever before seen. They will run away if losing and even have a habit of flanking you. Overall it is a simple system that seems to be based on damage ratio (do significantly more damage then you take, particularly in a short period of time, and you can cause the enemies to turn tail and run) which adds a significant amount of tactics and strategy to the game. Adding to this are remote controlled bombs, vicinity detonated mines, and turret emplacements and a plethora of unique weapons.

But above and beyond the AI and the action and shooting is what really makes the game. There is a ton of platforming, exploring, and even a few puzzle like challenges. The shooting as actually a minority of the gameplay, it is really the platforming and exploring that the game is about, i just wish that more developers understood that a FPS does not have to be all shooting and that anything done in enough repetition is boring.

My mini-review of Half Life.

A New Beginning

A New Beginning is a graphical adventure and the latest release from the esteemed people over at Daedalic Entertainment, the creators of the 2010 hit The Whispered World. And like The Whispered World it has beautiful hand drawn graphics, which really is the main draw of the game in my opinion.

The game's story is all about environmentalist, and that is not just something that they threw into the game without thought; It is obviously that they have studied and understood many of the issues. The basic premise is that in the distance future mankind is facing extinction. Forced to live in underground bunkers and having declined in numbers to only a few hundred people, the earth no longer able to sustain human life, they decide to send a group to the past to try and convince or force the people to mend their self destructive ways. And not that it is seen much, actually not at all after the opening cinematic, but this future is very clockpunk.

For the gameplay, A New Beginning, utilizes a type of verb disk, but unlike most verb disks it only shows relevant results. And in particular it makes a lot of use of these extra options, allowing you to dissemble, modify, or use in a special way when applicable. Overall it has moderately normal puzzles, but I did enjoy utilizing the advanced technology. One thing I absolutely hated about a series of puzzles is that the plot behind them made absolutely no sense; On multiple occasions you, as a time radio operator from the future are called upon to setup your temporal radio. What does not make sense is that she has absolutely no idea about how to use this radio and at one point actually needs to ask a random civilian from the past how to fix it.

Overall it is a pretty average adventure with a good story, and a great message, with simply fantastic art.

Bulletstorm

Bulletstorm is the latest release from the esteemed studio of People Can Fly, and like the rest of their games it is a over the top shooter, and in this case one of the first person variety. It has gotten moderately good reviews overall and I agree with them in general. It is a fun game, but I have played FPSs with better core mechanics.

The first issue I want to tackle is a problem that this game shares with many recent FPSs and other combat focused genres. Bulletstorm, even on very hard difficulty (the hardest difficulty setting), is only moderately challenging. And I am not even a FPS person, so I feel bad for all the veteran FPS players out there, you just cannot seem to find a FPS that should not be played on the hardest setting the first time through any more. All in all it was not a bad difficulty to play on, but if I wanted to replay the game it would certainty be far too easy now to be worth it.

Additionally, I found the difficulty to be very inconsistent. For one the most hyped up, supposedly uber powerful, enemy in the game, the Burnouts. These enemies have giant soft spots all over their bodies in the form of puss filled cysts which act as instant kill (or head-shot) locations if given a small amount of damage; These enemies are also not quick, have no long range attack, and have absolutely no special abilities in other words they are a joke, and yet the game warns you about these end game super enemies more then any other. And the bosses and to an extent the mini-bosses make these Burnouts look like Rambo in comparison. The first boss is by far the best one, and the only one I would consider an actual boss, with multiple phases and tones of HP; The others are all clones of themselves, fight identically, only have one phase, and can be killed almost instantly. But there is one thing that all of these bosses have in common, it is near impossible for them to even hit you, let alone kill you (and even though I was playing the game for the first time on the hardest difficulty I still was never even close to hurt by any of them).

Not that the game is bad by any means, it simply is not as dedicated to this sort of finesse stuff. Instead Bulletstorm focuses on over the top, macho, and run and gun gameplay. For this you have the ability to kick objects and people and send them flying across the map; Leash them and send them flying towards you; Or doing a sliding kick which sends you sliding across the ground and kicks anything or anyone you come into contact with. Add to this the strategically placed explosive barrels, spikes, and pits and you get some pretty creative ways of killing people. And even the guns are styled in such a way to promote this run and gun style. For example, the sniper rifle goes into a slow-mo time when shot and actually allows you to aim and move the bullet as it travels to such an extent as to go around corners and over barriers to reach the target.

But probably the most unique aspect of the game is the skill point system. As you play you are awarded points as you kill people and the more creative you are the more points you get. It is basically a FPS version of Madworld. Except that I found it annoying to keep having to look up and memorise special combos and change guns simply to get the other gun specific ones. Additionally, more points then just playing like normal were not needed. Points are used to purchase gun upgrades and ammo. The ammo is at least moderately useful, but the upgrades also include additional storage space for ammo and both the ammo for and additional storage spots for charged shots, which are super powerful single shot attacks; Which are useful in some situations, but are too slow for the average firefight.

So it is a fun game but it hardly seems polished. Worth checking out if a less sophisticated FPS sounds appealing to you but it is hard to compare to the many well balanced titles out there.

My mini-review of Bulletstorm.

Puzzle Agent 2

With mysteries remaining in Scoggins, Minnesota detective Nelson Tethers just cannot get it out of his thoughts or the gnomes out of his nightmares, even if the case is officially considered solved. So taking vacation leave Tethers returns to Scoggins to finally bring the mystery of the forest gnomes and the missing people to a close.

Puzzle Agent 2 is most of all a sequel to Puzzle Agent, it has the same cartoony 2D hand drawn graphics, wacky plot, selection of mini-games, and starts off right where the first game ended. So if you enjoyed the first game you are likely to enjoy this one just as much but for anyone who has not played either of these games I will try to convince you in the following review.

Puzzle Agent 2, and more generally the entire series to date, is a very unique adventure/puzzle game. In addition to the normal conversation trees with NPCs and story progression there are numerous and diverse mini-games, which are the centrepiece of the entire game. There are optional puzzles and bonus puzzles, mathematical based puzzles and logical puzzles, hard puzzles and easy puzzles, as well as familiar puzzles and unknown puzzles, but all of them are at least somewhat enjoyable.

The graphics are interesting if nothing else. Quintessentially, cartoony and at least appearing to be hand drawn with minimalist jerky animation. They lend a unique visual style which is as essential as beauty, but I cannot say that they look great or even much better then good.

And equally as unique as the rest of the game, the plot of Puzzle Agent 2 is a direct sequel to Puzzle Agent. But where the first game has a freaky and strange plot already Puzzle Agent 2 takes this concept and runs with it, and it definitely keeps you on your toes. And like the graphics I cannot really say that is is a great plot; It serves to differentiate and give the Puzzle Agent world its own theme and mood, which is as important as anything else and it does make one enjoyable world.

Overall it is one of the more realistic fictional worlds. Everything just fits together, makes sense, and makes a finished product that is even better then the sum of its parts. The one bad part of the entire game is the length which, even while not using a single walkthrough or external hint, I was able to complete in under 4 hours, and I think 2 hours would be easily possible, for anyone who is not worrying about their score.

My mini-review of Puzzle Agent 2.