Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Kerberos Productions
System requirements: Windows Vista/XP, Core2Duo or better CPU, 512 MB graphics card with DirectX 10 support, DirectX 10 (February 2011 or newer), 2 GB RAM, Vista-compatible sound device, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: RTS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Fans of 4X games spent last summer waiting in anticipation for the release of Kerberos’s Sword of the Stars II. Given the excellence of the previous installment in the series and its expansions, expectations were high as trailers were released and the developers teased their fans with tidbits about the game. After wrestling with it for hours on end, it’s clear that SOTS II doesn’t live up to the hype. In fact, it doesn’t even live up to the basic promises to be expected of any game that had an original release price of $39.95.

SOTS II, in the tradition of the series, includes basic 4X gameplay. You still explore planets and systems, build your empire, negotiate and fight with other civilizations, and ultimately try to dominate the galaxy. Ship building, planetary development/colonization and maintaining trade are the norm for most civilizations. Like its predecessor, SOTS II gives each race its own unique method of faster-than-light travel, meaning that building a Hiver empire is, by definition, a very different experience than building a Liir empire.

The sequel also takes a page from the original and implements the randomized tech-tree that worked so well in the past. While most civilizations have potential access to most technologies, you can never be sure from game to game what exact technological possibilities exist. In addition to researching new things, players also conduct feasibility studies to determine what potentially profitable research paths are available. Even if you play the same species three times in a row, you might end up developing differently each time, thanks to how the tech-tree works out for you. It was a feature that worked so well in the original, Kerberos wisely kept it with only minor tweaks with some new research possibilities, such as the feasibility studies.

Planets and governments are now much more important than they were in the original game. The actions you take with regards to your empire’s domestic and foreign policy can impact the morale of your citizens on individual planets, but it also changes they way your government functions. There are several potential government types you can assume based on your actions, everything from anarchism to military juntas. Instead of forcing you to accept a certain play style for a specific race or scenario, you can adopt a natural evolution of domestic politics based on your choices in the game. Crushing minor races or making your space habitats friendlier to other species all impact your government type and the benefits it provides.

Before I go any further and begin pointing out the game’s many flaws, I must be honest and indicate that I specifically put off reviewing this game for a number of weeks because of the troubled release that SOTS II had last October. I normally wouldn’t do such a thing, but the release version of the game was so bad it was unplayable. There’s a reason why refunds were offered for those who purchased the game, even through Steam. As such, telling you that the game was in what appeared to be an early beta state two days after release wouldn’t have told you anything you didn’t already know. Now, months after release, the game has been patched several times, and it’s still plagued with problems. I don’t mean that you notice bugs if you play it for a few hours. There are so many problems that even as I write this, I’m not totally sure whether some issues are bugs or features. For example, when starting a new game, you select a map. The interface has buttons for increasing or decreasing the number of players, the number of starting planets, and the number of starting technologies. Currently, no map seems to support changing these values. Is that a bug or a poorly implemented feature? I can send Hiver ships on missions to plant a teleport gate in a new star system to enable colonization and exploration. But the fleet I send just builds the gate and then teleports home without doing anything else. I can’t find a way to force the fleet to stay in place and conduct other missions, which wastes valuable game turns and jump gate capacity because I have to resend the ships to the unexplored star system to conduct survey missions. Bug or feature? There is a button on the new game interface labeled “Scenarios,” just like the original game, but pressing it does nothing. Bug or missing feature? Even in terms of the game’s main menu, something is amiss. For the past four months there has been a greyed-out cinematics button on the interface. Bug or missing feature? Considering how important narrative is to this franchise, I’m surprised that nothing has been done to correct this issue one way or another.

These issues are just the tip of the iceberg. These kinds of problems have induced some players to complain that the original release of SOTS II was more or less a beta copy of the game. They are, in fact, wrong. I’ve done beta testing, and the inability of the opening menu to register mouse-clicks properly, as was the case during the first few patches, isn’t even beta-quality work. The only reason I’m not angry with Kerberos is that they have publicly apologized, and they did the right thing in offering refunds. We’ll probably never know what happened with the release of SOTS II, but it wasn’t worth the purchase price on release day and people who pre-ordered it were right to be angry. And as of now, it still isn’t worth buying because it still appears to have all kinds of problems. I’m very disappointed in Sword of the Stars II, and I can’t recommend that anyone pay the $39.95, even in its present condition. If you want a good 4X strategy game, go buy the original SOTS instead.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments

Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Developer: InterWave Studios
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7/Mac OSX 10.6.7, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or better CPU, 2 GB memory, 6 GB hard-drive space, 128 MB DirectX 9-compatible graphics card with Shader 2.0b support, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device
Genre: FPS/RTS
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

My PC brethren, turn in your hymnals to #1337, and sing along with me: “Mods are good, mods are great, mods are things we appreciate.” Some of your favorite games started out as mods, and the others were undoubtedly influenced by them. Indie developer InterWave has been in the Source mod scene for a while now. Both Stargate: Last Stand and Insurgency (which is quite nice) are notches on their collective belts. Tossing the budget-o-meter up from “freebie” to “costs money,” they’ve cranked out the generic-titled Nuclear Dawn, which proclaims to offer a “full FPS and RTS experience within a single gameplay model, without crippling or diluting either side of the game.” Featuring six maps and 32-player matches, Nuclear Dawn isn’t just a funny pun on my mother-in-law’s name. It’s the best multiplayer FPS that you should be playing right now.

On the FPS side, Nuclear Dawn features four classes, each with different loadouts. Each class is marked by its own activated ability. The Exo can go into lockdown mode, turning into a living chaingun turret. This is countered by the Stealth, who can use (gasp!) stealth to run around and stab said Exos, who in turn are countered again by Soldiers and their stealth-detecting thermal goggles. Meanwhile, the Support class decides to stay out of it and tosses medkits, repairs buildings, or barbeques everyone. All classes are bolstered with the gradual unlocking of attachments. The unlocks simply add tactical versatility instead of greater power. If you’re a skilled player, you can top scoreboards regardless of rank.

Yet, this old formula gets really interesting when you have two commanders playing the game like an RTS against each other. Now you have to capture and hold resource nodes so your leader can build, using a deep tech-tree to unlock goodies or drop turrets on the field. Forward spawn points, fueled by a network of power relays, let the battle change momentum in ways that static control points never do, as you push forward to knock down the enemy’s command bunker.

The RTS/FPS crossbreed makes for some truly engaging team play. Even as a foot soldier, you’re engaged in the macro-level strategy. Defending critical power stations or sneaking behind lines to swipe a secondary resource node, you’re constantly aware how your actions affect the battle. Ideally, the players and commander work together to reach goals, each informing the other as situations arise. However, we all know that things never go quite like that, and mutinies are remarkably common. Pub games can be rough on commanders, but on a good server, the experience is unmatched.

Even though its built on the latest Left 4 Dead 2 build of Source, Valve’s venerable engine is certainly showing its age. If you want flashy graphics that use all eight cores of your rig, this isn’t your game. Nuclear doesn’t have much, but what it does have it uses very well. The maps are not only well constructed, but each also has its own feel. Pre-war ads flicker across urban walls, adding the right splashes of color. The floating HUD isn’t just functional, but pretty spiffy to boot.

There are many multiplayer shooters that compete for your time and your wallet, and InterWave has made sure to make more than just another copycat. While many of Nuclear Dawn‘s features, such as squads and unlocks, are borrowed from larger games, its soul is all-original. The RTS/FPS hybrid concept isn’t a gimmick, it’s a huge feature that makes the game stand out in a crowded field of look-a-likes. For $20, you get far more bang-per-buck out of it than most AAA games give you.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments

Publisher: Zachtronic Industries
Developer: Zachtronic Industries
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Win 7/Mac OSX 10.5.8 (Leopard), 2.0 GHz CPU, graphics card with frame buffer support, 1 GB RAM, 300 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

SpaceChem doesn’t seem to have a lot going for it. It’s a simple-looking 2D game about programming machines to build molecules. Yet, under this unassuming surface lies a game of such seething excitement that it’ll have you shouting and yelling more than when you play an FPS. I myself spoke such dark utterances that Khorne himself shivered. How can a science-themed puzzle game go so right?

As the title correctly suggests, SpaceChem does indeed involve chemistry in space. As a Reactor Engineer for a leading chemical synthesizer, it’s your job to take base elements and construct them into usable ones. Your reactor has two mechanisms, lovingly called “waldos,” which you program by dropping clearly-labeled instructions into the reactor. The entire process is demonstrated through a series of tutorial missions that teach you the techniques, step by step.

When you think you’ve got the basics down, the game starts layering upon itself like an insane Escher Sonata. Suddenly you have to manage entire pipelines of factories, some with limited functionality. When you’ve got that down, then you get inputs that provide variable atoms, forcing you to add if-then statements into your machines. Then there’s the occasional timed boss battle, just to make sure you’re still breathing.

Like the enshrined Portal, SpaceChem does a wonderful job of slowly layering mechanics, leading you to complex solutions without explicitly giving away the answer. After completing a level, it shows you where you fit in the bell curve of players. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself replaying missions again and again, trying to find ever more efficient solutions each time.

The soundtrack in particular deserves special praise. There’s something about Evan Le Ny’s soaring orchestral music that adds an element of urgent danger. The fact that it provides something of an immersive atmosphere is nothing short of astonishing.

Space Chem hits that gooey sweet spot in the center of your analytical cortex and explodes into a thousand splinters. Every new puzzle looks more impossible then the last, yet finally clicks with such immense satisfaction your roommates might rat you out to the narcs. Once you’ve finished all 50 levels, gnawed at the expansion pack and its “quantum junction” addition, there’s also a sandbox mode that lets your creative beast free from corporate restraints. SpaceChem is more than just a Gainful Employment Simulator for out-of-work post-grads. It’s the best piece of brain candy for those of an analytical bent to come along in a long time.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Ian Davis for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1.8 GHz Pentium IV or better CPU, 256 MB graphics card, 2 GB RAM, DirectX 9.0c, DirectX 8.1-compatible sound device, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

There was a time when some part of creator Dick Wolf’s ubiquitous Law and Order TV franchise was on the tube almost every day in the US. Some didn’t last long (Crime and Punishment, Trial by Jury, Law and Order: Los Angeles), while the parent show became one of the longest-running scripted shows in American TV history. These days, only Special Victims Unit remains, but now Wolf and NBC/Universal are pushing the franchise into new frontiers with the help of game developer Telltale.

Law and Order: Legacies is a series of seven episodes based on the original show, featuring characters from all of the major periods of its run (plus one character from SVU to give younger players someone to recognize). Several of the characters are so old that the actors who played them have since passed away (Steven Hill as prickly DA Adam Schiff, and most notably, Jerry Orbach, who played the now-beloved detective Lennie Briscow). In fact, Briscow is a major part of the game; one of his old cases forms a thread that connects all six of the game’s episodes. In the first three, the Law half of the show features detectives Rey Curtis, Mike Logan and Olivia Benson (from SVU), while the Order half includes attorneys Mike Cutter, Abbie Carmichael and Jack McCoy (if these names are unfamiliar, don’t fret; the beauty of the show is that the characters have next-to-no backstories, so you don’t really have to know who they are to understand what’s going on).

Just like the show, each episode of the game is played in two parts. In the first, you play the detectives as they examine evidence, conduct interviews and make an arrest. In the second, you become a DA and try the case in court. You select dialogue options from a pop-up menu. Occasionally you’re asked whether or not to believe the things the suspects are telling you, using information that has been previously introduced to back up your claims (a running transcript of the dialogue is available to refresh your memory). Choosing correctly earns you stars, which raise your rank as a detective or sway the jury your way as an attorney. Additionally, in the detective phase you complete hidden-object minigames to locate physical evidence, and in the court phase you can choose to plea bargain or take the case to the jury, depending upon how your case stands with them. You also get a primer in courtroom procedure; you must occasionally make objections, and you have to pick the correct objection (text boxes describe each of the available objections and when to use them). Stories include a cellphone hacking case that leads to murder, a cockfighting suspect killed by his own animal, and a serial killer targeting prostitutes.

Legacies tries its best to give you the full Law and Order experience. You get the narrator, the teaser that ends with a line of darkly ironic dialogue, the credit sequence (complete with Mike Post’s iconic theme music). You even get the trademark “thunk thunk” sound effect. But once the story actually begins, you need to pay attention. Every off-hand statement made by a suspect can become important as you try to catch them in lies, and the more of them you catch, the more likely it is that the perp will be shipped off to Rikers, never to be seen again. The characters are modeled fairly well in that fans of the show will recognize who they are, although the animators took a few pounds and a few inches in height from Benson, made Schiff quite a bit younger and Curtis a bit older than their actor counterparts. And the writers seem to have a love for Briscow, since his is by far the best dialogue in the game. Of the two sections, the court sequences are much more engaging. You’re given more to do and you have to apply yourself much more than you do when playing the cops. Decisions you make in court can significantly alter how the case is eventually resolved.

From an artistic standpoint, however, Legacies is a disappointment. The graphics are primitive and low-rez at best, mostly owing to the extreme age of the Telltale Tool, the developer’s decade-old graphics engine. None of the original actors appear on the voice tracks, which is troubling; it’s understandable in the case of Orbach and Hill, and you’re not likely to hear pricey talent such as Benjamin Bratt (Curtis) or Angie Harmon (Carmichael) in a videogame, but it would’ve been good to hear at least one familiar voice (other than the narrator, of course). The find-the-evidence minigames can be frustrating, since certain items are buried under other items and you get a limited number of guesses before your detective rating goes down. And the interrogation sections are straight out of LA Noire, but not nearly as high-tech; making mistakes means practically nothing when playing as the cops, but it can cost you a conviction in the courtroom.

I’ve been a fan of the Law and Order franchise ever since the first show debuted in 1990, and I have to admit I smiled profusely when the title card appeared and I heard “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups…”. And the first case on the docket had a twist that genuinely caught me napping. But the other two cases lack that extra creativity, leaving us with an occasionally tedious procedural that only piques our interest once we get off the streets and into court. Combine that with the ancient tech upon which the game is built and you get something that only the hardest of the TV hardcore (or budding trial attorneys) could really love. But there are four episodes left; maybe the best is yet to come.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Rocksteady
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Core2Duo/Athlon X2 4800 or better CPU, GeForce 8800GT/ATI 3850 HD or better graphics card, 2 GB RAM, 17 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Developers take their careers in their own hands when they set out to make a superhero game. If they want the legions of comic-book fanboys to give their game their seal of approval, it has to be almost perfect. All of the canonical i’s have to be dotted and the t’s have to be crossed, over and above the things that the rest of the gaming public want to see (good story, great graphics, etc). Rocksteady accomplished this with Batman: Arkham Asylum back in 2010. Now they’re trying to make lightning strike twice in the same place with the sprawling action/adventure Batman: Arkham City. In most ways, they’ve succeeded. In some others, not so much.

Since the conclusion of Asylum, Gotham City leadership decided to adopt the Escape From New York theory of criminal rehabilitation: they built a wall around a large section of the city and turned all of their criminals loose inside to fend for themselves, under the watchful eye of prison administrator Hugo Strange and his private security army. For some reason, billionaire playboy/industrialist Bruce Wayne has been arrested and sent to Arkham City. After a hearty welcome from his fellow inmates, Wayne finds his way to a waiting storage container, dons the iconic batsuit and begins his search for Strange, who can be heard periodically counting down to something called Protocol 10. But before the search can begin in earnest, Bats has to come to the aid of his old pal Catwoman, who’s suspended over a vat of acid by a group of thugs.

From this point, you have the run of the city. You can go anywhere, do practically anything (except escape to the outside world). You’ll run into some of your favorite DC villains, and even help some of them (Mr. Freeze is pining for his kidnapped wife, so you try to find her in exchange for his scientific expertise). Of course, no Batman game would be complete without his primary adversary, the Joker, and the Riddler has scattered 440 (!) glowing question marks throughout the city for you to collect. And from time to time, you leave Batty behind and guide Catwoman through a side story of her own.

Artistically, very few games can hold a batsignal to Arkham City. The art direction is stunningly beautiful and amazingly detailed, from the views atop the various structures to the unkempt squalor of the city streets. Combat is almost completely melee-based (Batman has an aversion to firearms), and the fight animations are the smoothest you’ll find in any game; I’ve never been good at hand-to-hand fighting, and even I managed to learn to use the dozens of unlockable combat abilities and takedown moves (not to mention those wonderful toys). The open-world concept is similar to the one found in inFamous. Side quests become available as you travel around the city. You can choose to ignore all of them and stick to the story quests, but you’d be missing some of the most interesting parts of the game. But if you do choose to speed through the main story, you can go back and do the side quests after you complete the final boss battle (and watch the 21 minutes of closing credits). Actually, there is a veritable mountain of content in this game, including the challenge modes that you unlock as you progress. Nick Arundel and Ron Fish’s soundtrack is sufficiently brassy and effective, with more than a few Danny Elfman influences present. And let’s not forget the outstanding voice work (once again) by Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as the Joker (somewhat underused this time but still entertaining), and “It’s that voice guy again” Nolan North as the Penguin. Also, fans of the TV show Castle might recognize the sultry tones of Stana Katic as Talia al Ghul.

Unfortunately, with all of this freedom to explore there are bound to be a few hiccups here and there. The most annoying of these is the constantly respawning enemies. Those of you who’ve played Far Cry 2 will recall wiping out all of the baddies at a remote crossroads, only to come back five minutes later and have to fight all of them again. So it is with Arkham City. You can choose not to fight (being able to reach a rooftop in seconds is a big advantage that you don’t have in Far Cry 2), but there are times when engaging multiple times is unavoidable. The Riddler trophies are much more difficult to grab in City than they are at the Asylum. Some of them are inaccessible unless you’re far enough into the game to unlock particular gadgets. But more troubling than how tough they are to acquire is that you are required to grab all 400 of the Batman-targeted trophies to complete one of the side quests (the other 40 trophies can only be picked up by Catwoman). The issue of collectables has been a touchy one with me. There are tons of them in the Uncharted games, but you don’t lose anything by not finding them. The blast shards in inFamous at least add strength to your character. But to close off one of the Arkham City side quests to those who don’t want to scour the city for green question marks strikes me as ill-advised. All this does is artificially lengthen the game, to the point where I got tired of swinging from building to building like Spider-Man, searching for a trophy that I can’t get because I don’t have the right gadget. Oh, and about that chalk outline on the ground where Bruce Wayne’s parents died. After all these years, you’d think it might’ve faded a bit by now…

In 2010, Rocksteady made a pie that everyone loved to eat from the first slice. So, they figured that it would be great to bake a bigger pie, so folks would eat that much more of it. And we gobbled it up just as they planned, and so we should. Batman: Arkham City is an unparalleled artistic achievement, with great melee combat, an interesting (though wandering) story and lots of gameplay options. But it really is possible to have too much of a good thing, which is why Arkham Asylum will always be the better game. Sometimes just a slice is better than the whole thing.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments

Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Reverie World Studios
System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista, 2.4 GHz Pentium IV or AMD CPU, 1 GB RAM (2 GB Vista), 1 GB hard-drive space, 256 MB GeForce 7600 graphics card or equivalent, DirectX 9.0-compatible sound card, Internet connection
Genre: RTS/MMO
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now
Review by Mindy Hartman

Those darn elves, orcs and humans are at it again: building cities, competing for resources and just plain refusing to get along. Dawn of Fantasy was released a little more than three months ago by developer Reverie World Studios as their first released game. Publisher 505 Games looks like they’re trying to branch out with this publication too, as their bread and butter seems to be cutesy animal games for the DS.

Dawn of Fantasy is a standard real-time strategy game that allows players to select their race (human, orc or elf), build up their nation in the realm of Mythador and try to conquer everything surrounding them. Once you select a race, you must choose two starting attributes from a fairly staggering list; your choices determine your starting bonuses and penalties on everything from camp setup price reduction to increased gathering or production abilities. Upon entering your world, a booming voice introduces you to the scenery and your primary task giver. At this point, the world is yours, and building and questing are up to you.

Gameplay is solo; you accept quests, gather resources (food, wood, gold and stone), and conquer nearby baddies such as trolls and goblins. Construction and gathering is done in real time. For example, building a barn really takes half an hour; an archery range takes two and a half hours. While the game has an MMO tag, the MMO aspects of conquering other players’ cities isn’t any different than conquering an AI city in solo play. There’s no aligning with other cities to meet bigger objectives, and conquering another player’s city doesn’t grant you access to the other city or wipe them off the map.

According to Reverie, Dawn of Fantasy has been in the works for 10 years. The game looks and sounds like it was programmed 10 years ago and then sat on a shelf until its recent release. The feel of the game is ancient, too. There appears to be some detail in the graphics, but you can’t zoom in or out enough to take in the big picture (up close or on a grand scale). Dawn suffers in looks, sound and general feel, and it’s been patched 30 times in the last three months. That’s a patch every three days!

As far as actual gameplay goes, there’s not much to rave about here either. There’s no tutorial or easy-to-access game manual to give you hints about what to do. If this is your first RTS, you’re going to be severely turned off from the genre because this game isn’t intuitive enough to get away with skipping a tutorial mode. And real-time building and gathering is a serious problem. Who wants to spend hours waiting for construction of new buildings or weapons? I know I don’t.

I tend to be a pretty positive person. I look for the silver lining in just about every situation. However, I just can’t seem to find anything shiny about Dawn of Fantasy. Nothing is ever going to make me want to wait through its patch and load times again.

Our Score:
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© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2012. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: Muzzy lane
Developer: Muzzy Lane
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7 (Also available on Mac), 3.0 GHz Pentium IV or greater, 256 MB graphics card, 1 GB RAM, 1 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now
Written by: Ian Davis

You’re something of a nerd. When asked what you read, you say “history.” What upset you about the movie Valkyrie wasn’t Tom Cruise, but the liberties taken with the actual facts. You regularly brag that were you Stalin (as you wiggle your thick mustache), you would have made a pre-war land-grab for Africa. Muzzy Lane Software understands you, unlike your so-called “friends”. “We know of your desires,” Muzzy whispers softly in your ear. “We know you yearn for more than just a wargame, but a mature, full-featured simulator of the mid-20th century.” Muzzy slips a disc from its coat and slyly passes it to you. It’s labeled Making History II: The War of the World. A shiver runs through your body. Can it be?

You’re wary. You’ve been told about this Making History II before and you’re concerned about bugs and performance. Muzzy knows and cares. Nurtured from its pupate state, the motherly developers have woven a cocoon of patches around it. Six months later, it emerges; evolved into something unlike its original state. It is now a pinnacle of grand strategy, rippling with all the promise and depth inherent in the genre.

As expected of the genre, Making History II lets the player control any political entity around WWII, from the USSR down to Bhutan. Four scenarios are available, each in different stages of the war. From there, you’ll trade, build, develop and battle. The permutations of verbs placed before you too numerous to list. A complex web of decisions stands before you and your goal, whether it’s conquest or survival, empire or hegemony.

It works well, but with a few caveats. The economic side is far more developed than the military; the battles themselves being largely uninvolved affairs. Yet, all military units are represented by the same models, regardless of size, forcing you to rely on info boxes and tooltips instead of a simple visual. The interface often relies on arcane symbols where text would be much clearer. You’ll quickly memorize their meanings, but it’s a bump that could have easily been avoided.

Making History II tries to be as approachable as any grand strategy game can be. With mechanics that are patterned after global geo-political phenomena and scenarios that are not always “winnable” by easily quantifiable methods, the barrier to entry is understandable. Here, the simplifications (a relative term) are good things to those just entering the genre. The tutorial (posted online, not in game) does a good job of leading you along and showing you the basic components with which you’ll try to construct an empire. You’ll need more help, but the active community is more than happy to help you with their guides and FAQs spattered all over their message board. However, you will fail, quickly and often. Soon, you’ll fail more gradually, and you’ll count this as success.

MHII will scowl at you and demand that you peruse PDF manuals and message boards for hours during gameplay. Yet, for every standard Man Power Unit (MPU) you allocate to “Project: MH2”, you’ll be rewarded with two units of satisfaction. It stands as a bridge between more deep but obtuse titles and the easier, shallower ones. It won’t placate those raised on a diet of Sisyphean XP bars, but to the scholars and plotters among you, Making History II will eagerly stoke your slow-burning fires into world-consuming flames of conquest. Or peaceful Hegemony, if you wish.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Naughty Dog
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Nathan Drake, the man with the strongest fingertips in gaming, returns to close out his debut trilogy in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Developer Naughty Dog has thrown in everything save the kitchen sink: foot chases, car chases, scenes on horseback, puzzle solving, fast-paced combat sequences and lots of personal moments, all framed with gorgeous graphics and another evocative music score. It does more interesting things in 10 to 15 hours than half a dozen lesser games combined, yet somehow it also manages to be somewhat less fulfilling than its predecessor.

After all of the tomb raiding and outdoor adventuring that has gone before in this series, it’s surprising that Deception begins with a bar fight. Drake and his crusty sidekick Sully meet a dark-suited villain named Talbot, who is prepared to pay big money to buy Drake’s ring, a keepsake that ties Drake to 16th-century English seaman Sir Francis Drake. Things go pear-shaped and a classic movie-style bar brawl breaks out, after which they meet the big bad of the story, Katherine Marlowe, who will stop at nothing to acquire Drake’s ring. From here the story trots the globe, from France to Syria, Yemen and the Arabian Desert as Drake and company search for the lost treasure city of Ubar, the “Atlantis of the Sands.”

Gameplay in Deception is pretty much the same as in the previous games. You move through the world as Drake, usually accompanied by at least one NPC companion, all but one of whom you’ve met before in the series if you’ve played the other installments (newbies, have no fear; you won’t be lost if this is your first trip through Drake’s universe). Combat controls are the same as before, with the exception of the grenade mechanics. Tossing back grenades thrown at you has been made simpler, and tossing one of your own is as easy as tapping the left trigger, while holding it down generates an arc of trajectory, similar to the one found in the Gears of War games. There are also many opportunities for hand-to-hand combat, which is a combination of button-mashing and short QT events. Unlike many recent shooters, it’s possible for you to take a wrong step and plummet to your death, so you have to be careful where you walk or jump. For trophy hounds and completionists, there are 100 hidden objects to find in the world. Some you blunder into by accident, others can be identified by a slight glint of light in the background. Multiplayer includes six competitive and three co-op modes featuring up to 11 maps and as many as 10 players, and requires the now-dreaded Online Pass (a one-time-use code found inside the DVD case) for access.

Deception is the biggest, most diverse game in the series. From crawling around the dark ruins of the London underground, to chasing (and being chased by) villains through crowded streets, to chasing an armed convoy through the desert on horseback, there’s something fun to do at almost every turn. The graphics and sound are amazing once again, including the little touches that many developers overlook, such as the slow change in contrast when you move from bright daylight to shade. Difficulty-wise, the game is no cakewalk. Your shooter skills are well-tested, even at Normal difficulty level, and there are one or two devilishly tough fight scenes that should have most players frequently reloading a quicksave. Weapons and ammo drops are plentiful, yet you still could find yourself frequently going mano-a-mano with enemies (Drake fights dirty this time; lots of boots to the groin). Unlike other games such as Two Worlds 2 and Red Dead Redemption, Deception gets horseback controls right; just push the stick forward to ride. Enemy AI is very smart; villains frequently attempt to flank you and can move around in groups as well as alone, and some of them are bullet sponges, requiring you to figure out the most effective weapon to use on the various bad guys. Deception is also one of the growing number of AAA games that present an effective, involving story to go with the bloodletting, featuring well-acted and animated cutscenes that are just the right length to keep the plot moving without dragging down the pace (a la Metal Gear Solid 4). Nolan North, Richard McGonigle, Claudia Black and Emily Rose once again provide excellent voice-overs; it’s so much easier to care about these characters when they are brought to life so well. And composer Greg Edmonson has delivered yet another score that perfectly supports the action on screen.

Deception has lots of great things going for it. So why am I not totally fulfilled? Well, it could be the strangeness of some of the combat; if you’re surrounded by enemies with guns while you’re melee fighting, the guys with the firearms miss you most of the time, even from point-blank range. It could be the occasional loss of camera control at crucial times; there are several instances when you have to run towards a fixed camera without knowing what’s ahead of you. It could be the length of some of the scenes, making it tough to remember what your ultimate goal is (after a particularly lengthy sequence, Sully sits down and says, “I’m losin’ the plot here.” He wasn’t the only one). It could be the multiplayer graphics glitch that respawned my character inside solid objects, making me a sitting duck, or the lack of multiplayer matchmaking, which constantly puts newbies into the same matches with much more experienced players. And it could definitely be the very disappointing final fight scene; unfortunate that so much action and adventure ends with such an unimaginative climax.

Naughty Dog has wrapped up the Uncharted trilogy in a nice box and bow, just in time for the holidays. The story has all of the off-the-wall antics of an Indiana Jones movie, with a group of characters who make the outlandishness of the plot easy to ignore. The visual presentation is spectacular, the pace is excellent (unless you take time out to go treasure hunting, which can add quite a bit of time to your playthrough if you’re not careful), and the music is good enough that you might want to buy the soundtrack. There are some annoying little problems; there’s no such thing as a perfect game, after all, and Uncharted 2 is a more satisfying total product for my money. But even with its faults, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is still a quality game that anyone with a PS3 should hope to see under the tree this Christmas.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: PETA
Developer: PETA
System requirements: A browser and a keyboard
Genre: Poorly-crafted satire?
Release date: Available now

In a world where seemingly nothing is sacred, PETA has created and launched a new browser-based game called Super Tanooki Skin 2D. In the game, everyone’s favorite plumber is depicted as a bloody, fur-wearing murderer floating away from a freshly-skinned tanuki. Players control the tiny, hairless animal as he chases Mario down to get his fur back.

Super Tanooki Skin 2D is brought to you by PETA’s latest campaign, “Mario Kills Tanooki.” PETA suggests that the fancy suits Mario wears to save the princess are made from animal furs, and therefore he supports killing animals. I always thought the suits were just that… Suits created that look like the animals they emulate. You can’t tell me he is skinning person-sized frogs so he can swim underwater. And where are all the massive turtles? But I digress. This is a review and I shall review the game.

Super Tanooki Skin 2D is a side-scrolling platformer with a very basic control scheme. Pressing the space bar causes the skinned tanuki to jump over obstacles as he chases down Mario. That’s it. The game’s visuals and some of the sound effects will take you back to the SNES days of Mario, but the game’s main theme is forgettable. After a minute or so of jumping, the tanuki catches up with Mario, curses at him, and then takes his skin back. I found the jump controls to be a little unresponsive, though it could be the cheeseburger grease dripping onto my keyboard as I played it. The game also appears to lag whenever you jump, which is unfortunate, because jumping is all you can do.

In conclusion, the game is a miss. There is no depth, no replayability, and it isn’t any fun. I get what PETA is trying to do here, but I think the execution was lazy. It did, however, manage to get me to talk about the game, so mission accomplished, I guess.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: November 11, 2011

In the early days of the Xbox 360, new adopters found one game to rule them all. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was released in the Spring of 2006 (a scant six-months after that console heralded this new generation of game systems), and it proved to be one of those bridge titles that united the hardcore RPG elite with the mainstream. Western RPGs have always held court in the console space but unlike the welcoming PC world, they remained a modest, niche success. Since Oblivion’s successful release, big, brawny role playing games have slashed their way to the tops of sales charts. Since then, Fable, Mass Effect and the Fallout series inspiring more and more players to drag dungeons, slay dragons and journey there and back again. With news that the next iteration of consoles is being prepped by the Big Three for debut over the next few years, Bethesda’s latest Elder Scrolls release, Skyrim, makes for a nice bit of symmetry – potentially a fitting swan song.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim opens 200 years after the events in Oblivion. At the outset, players choose there gender and select from the ten available races utilizing the expected robust character creation toolset. In the early moments, the game is on rails as Bethesda hammers down the dramatic stakes. Amidst a crippling civil war that has rocked the Skyrim region, a new, dire threat has emerged. After centuries of slumber, fearsome dragons have returned to the world. With factions warring for control of Skyrim in the wake of the King’s assassination, this new development upsets the geographical and political landscape. War is hard enough to wage without the omnipresent fear of fiery death from above. Into the rising tempest, your character plunges. Soon he (or she) may emerge as an important cog in the machinations, as in the grand Elder Scrolls tradition, the choice is up to the player to decide whether to follow their destiny or simply ignore the main plot and live the hard life of Skyrim.

Skyrim builds off of the narrative drive established in Oblivion. While the Elder Scrolls series has always been known for its open-endedness, allowing players to explore the world and play the game in whatever way they choose, it was Oblivion that took large steps in implementing a compelling core plot without disrupting the persistent world around it. Story quests could be picked up and chased down at any point while players were free to wander off the beaten path should they find some shiny new obsession to hunt down along the fringes. Or, if a player was content to simply pick flowers and make potions for a living, that livelihood (among so many other options) was available to pursue as well. Both Oblivion’s quest and story scripting proved that Bethesda could organically plant an overall plot, one that the player helps shape, without taking anything away the feeling of freedom that set this franchise apart from its more linear counterparts.

While Skyrim does not represent the revolutionary leap that Oblivion was over the meandering Morrowind, it certainly stands as a huge evolutionary step for the series. Everything that worked well in Oblivion is back in Skyrim, and Bethesda takes pains to craft a game that doesn’t simply echo past accomplishments. Jaws dropped when Oblivion capped its extended prologue with that eye-opening gaze at the whole, wide world that stretched beyond the player once you scurried through those claustrophobic sewers. It’s a move that the studio’s follow-up, Fallout 3, mimicked to similar success. Skyrim may open with another carefully choreographed introduction, but the studio refrains from going to that well once again, intent on ladling out just enough information about the political strife, the dire threat building and your hazy role in it all to push you forward before releasing the reins. In that, they continue to perfect their handle on world-building – realizing that as many players love to have a reason to fight there are others who just want to get lost in the world. Once the player has a handle on their character, they are free to go wherever they please while the main plot remains identifiable and within reach for those who want it.

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 30 comments

Manufacturer: TekNmotion
MSRP: $29.99
Written by: Ethan Nixon

Today, I have for review the TekNmotion Yapster Blaster headset. This headset has quite a powerful impact for the price and size. The universal headset supports both PC and XBOX 360. Inside the package you will find the headset, necessary adapters to connect to the XBOX, and a USB amplifier. The cables included with the Yapster Blaster are quite long, so get ready to scrunch them up.

From a design aspect, the headset is quite generic, sporting a grey and black color scheme. The TekNmotion logo is featured on both ear cups, as well as the top of the headband. On the inner headband, there are tiny Yapster Blaster logos. Being as the design is quite plain, the materials used are also quite generic, and even flimsy during most instances.

I loaded up my favorite game, Counter-Strike: Source to test out this headset. At first, I didn’t use the USB amplifier and noticed quite decent audio. The highs were a little tinny, but the mids and lows were respectable, especially for the price of the headset. The microphone was very clear, and there is very little static as well. It’s omni-directional, so it can pickup quite a bit of background noise.

In-game, I noticed very nice audio. Footsteps were clear, even when there were other sounds being echoed, and the bass response was low enough to keep the vibrations out of my head when getting pelted by grenades. I received clear directional audio from the Yapster Blaster, which is comparable to some of the higher end headsets on the market.

With the amplifier in use, I did notice a slight performance increase, but I was using on-board audio beforehand, so I can see that as a major factor for the increase in performance. With the added amplifier I noticed the same highs and mids, but with a slightly better bass response. For a headset this size, and for this price, the bass response is actually incredible.

All in all, the headset is not a bad headset. If you are getting into gaming and want a slight edge over some of your friends, I would try this headset to get your feet wet. If you are a hardcore gamer and want the best of the best, this is a pass. I find this headset to be acceptable for in-game audio quality, but the quality for music and movies is lackluster. Due to the subpar sound quality out-of-game and very cheap materials, I cannot recommend this to a serious gamer.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: Nexon
Developer: Eyedentity Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, Pentium 4 dual-core CPU, 1 GB RAM, GeForce 7600 or better graphics card, 4 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9.0c or newer, broadband Internet connection
Genre: MMORPG
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

MMORPGs have become a major segment of the modern gaming landscape, but many of the most successful of them feature content that really isn’t meant for the younger gamer. Publisher Nexon brings PG-13 material to the genre with Dragon Nest, a fantasy/action MMO that tries to tone down the graphic violence while still making the game enticing to adult gamers.

The story is fairly complex, but you’ll most likely forget most of it as you move through the game. Fragments of a long-dead dragon are hidden in the world of Verathea. The fragments, called shards, offer great power to those who find them, but they can’t be recovered without a key. This key is in the form of a young, red-headed girl who is kidnapped by unknown villains intent upon claiming the power of the shards for themselves. You must rescue the girl before the villains can get their hands on the shards and resurrect the dragon.

Dragon Nest was first released in Asia in 2010 and has only recently arrived in North America. It’s a kid-friendly MMO featuring bloodless combat and cartoonish graphics that can run on almost any PC with a decent Internet connection. It’s also free to play, with in-game transactions available in the Dragon Vault, where you can purchase items such as costumes for your character, extra item storage, etc. You start by creating a character in one of four classes (Archer, Cleric, Sorceress or Warrior) and customizing his or her appearance. Select a server where your character will reside and off you go.

The game world is organized into villages, which are the hub areas where the quest-givers reside. NPCs are attractively drawn and broadly voiced, fitting into the general cartoonishness of the environment. Quests take you outside the villages into “dungeons,” which you can tackle alone or with up to three other players. Finding a party is easy: you can search existing parties for those who are exploring the dungeon you’re seeking, or you can form a group of your own. The party browser is simple to use, but the sort function doesn’t always return the results that you seek, which can be frustrating when you need to find players of similar levels to tackle the more difficult dungeons. Once you enter a dungeon, you must progress through several areas to reach the final battle. Most require you to kill all of the enemies you find, although some quests also have you looking for specific items or talking to NPCs. Experience points accrue as you move through the dungeon and are credited to you when you defeat the end boss, which forces you to play the entire dungeon even if you fulfill the quest requirements before you reach the last area (you can jump out of the dungeon at any time, but you have to bring up the game menu using the ESC key, and you lose durability in your weapons and your accrued XP). It’s an artificial method of stretching out gameplay that can become tedious and frustrating, since each dungeon’s layout is the same every time you play it; the only difference to be found is when you replay them at higher difficulty levels, when enemies become stronger and more numerous.

Dragon Nest has some good things going for it. The price is right, for starters. It downloaded and patched faster than any MMO I’ve ever played; I was playing less than 30 minutes after I started the client download. There’s a strong player base, with every hub world bustling with activity at almost any time of day. There are multiple fast-travel methods available to you without having to unlock them. Dungeons are designed so that you can’t fall off of cliffs or other dangerous areas during battle. Inventory management is simple; it’s easy to identify items that aren’t usable by your character’s class, so you can avoid picking them up after combat is over and clogging up your limited inventory space. The death penalty is less severe than in other MMOs: you get five respawns to use during combat, after which you’re sent back to the hub area with no loss of XP or currency, and the respawns are reset every 24 hours or so. And you don’t have to fight your way back to the beginning of the dungeon when you defeat the boss; one touch of a button transports you back to the hub. But there are also significant annoyances. Avoidance controls have a cool-down period, so you can’t roll out of the way of an enemy more than once every 10 seconds or so. The penalty involved with exiting a dungeon before defeating the boss is disturbing, especially if you complete the quest conditions early in the dungeon. Items can be obtained before you know what to do with them, making it possible for you to trade or discard things that you might need later (this wouldn’t be such an issue if more free storage was available). You can learn a skill before you’re allowed to use it; I unlocked a Level 16 attack skill when I was only Level 12. Inventory items can be enhanced by the local blacksmith, but you have to unequip them before you can have them enhanced. Quests are available from Commission Boards throughout the hub areas, but some of the quests have you completing tasks that you’ve already done. But the worst part of Dragon Nest is the constant repetition in the questing and the lack of variety in the dungeons. You can skip the side missions and concentrate on the story quests, but in doing so you limit the amount of XP you can earn and slow down your level progression. If you choose to do the side quests, you keep being sent back to the same dungeons over and over again, as many as five or six times each, making gameplay boring and unsatisfying.

I applaud Nexon for making the MMO genre more accessible for players of all ages. The graphics are bright and colorful, the characters are engaging and pleasant, the NPC dialogue is cleverly written and humorously voiced, and the combat mechanic is simple and easy to use. But there is a crushing lack of variety in the environments and the gameplay that threatens to make Dragon Nest tedious and uninteresting long before you reach the Level 32 cap. Hopefully there will be more material available during the life of the game, but as it is now, Dragon Nest might not hold a serious player’s interest for very long, especially considering how many options are available in the MMO space these days.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: Overhaul Games
Developer: Overhaul Games, Interplay
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 3 GHz Pentium D or better CPU, GeForce GT 120/Radeon HD 2600 XT or better graphics card, 512 MB RAM, 1 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9
Genre: FPS
ESRB rating: Not rated (original game rated Teen)
Release date: Available now

Old games are like a comfortable pair of shoes that have faded over the years. Sometimes you want to take them out, polish them up and take them for spin. This is what Overhaul Games has done with the 2000 FPS classic MDK 2, a goofy, definitely retro piece of gaming history that’s a simple yet refreshing shooter diversion, even after more than a decade.

MDK 2 HD is the sequel to Shiny’s 1997 sci-fi shooter MDK (reportedly an abbreviation of “Murder Death Kill,” which is the most threatening thing about the entire game). MDK 2 follows the continuing adventures of mad scientist Dr. Fluke Hawkins; Kurt Hectic, his superhero janitor; and Max, Hawkins’ six-legged, cigar-smoking robotic dog. The game opens with a comic-book cutscene that catches you up on the action from their previous outing. The heroic trio are just about to toast their victory when the Earth comes under attack yet again, this time by alien forces under the command of a giant blue creature named Shwang Shwing. Your job in the next eight to 10 hours is fairly straightforward: defeat the invaders and save the Earth.

MDK 2 HD is first-person shooting stripped down to the skivvies. No regenerating health. No cover mechanics. No achievements or trophies. You don’t even get a targeting reticule unless you’re in sniper mode. It’s just you, your weapon of choice (some of them silly, others very effective) and your circle-strafing skills as you power your way through 10 levels of primary-colored mayhem. You get to play as all three heroes, alternating between them for the first nine levels, then choosing one of them to progress to the final boss battle.

Each character has his own specialty. Hectic has a chaingun attached to his arm that never runs out of ammo, he can shift into sniper mode for long-distance attacks, and he wears a special suit that sprouts coils that allow him to drift upwards with any drafts he might find. Max is the tank; he can quad-wield Uzis, gatling guns, shotguns and magnums, and he gets a jetpack. Playing as Hawkins means solving puzzles, platforming, and combining objects to make useful items (mostly explosives and weapons, including a toaster that fires exploding baked goods such as white bread, baguettes and pumpernickel). The HUD is designed so that all functions you need are always on the screen; you use the mouse wheel to select weapons or items on the fly. And your friend the Quick Save button is also available to use at any time, and you should make frequent use of it; sometimes the game auto-saves at very inopportune times, such as while you’re plunging uncontrollably to your death or trapped with only one health point available.

Developer Overhaul has made MDK 2 look much prettier than it was, but it appears that they did nothing to fix the game’s various problems, including graphics errors and the above-mentioned auto-save difficulty. In fact, there’s one section that was made tougher by the visual upgrade; a key item blends into the background so well that you can’t see it, which cost me numerous reloads and some mild frustration. But putting all of that aside, what you get in MDK 2 HD is a weekend’s worth of shooter silliness that will most likely have you smiling in spite of yourself. The dialogue sounds like it was lifted straight from a Saturday morning cartoon. Enemies include turkey creatures with energy weapons; squeaking, farting jalapino peppers with legs; and some that look like evil Buzz Lightyear clones (one particularly rude alien actually flipped me the bird during a fight). This is also one of BioWare’s early efforts; their proprietary Omen engine powers the game, and several notable BioWare names are on the credits, including Mass Effect producer Casey Hudson and company co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk (who’s credited with providing “inspirational lounge music”).

I was a frequent arcade visitor in my youth, back when all you needed was a joystick, one fire button and a pocketful of quarters to get a few hours of gaming goodness. MDK 2 HD takes us back to a similar time in the history of gaming, when all you needed to do to survive was shoot straight and stay alive. It’s short (experienced shooter fans will finish it in two sittings, even on the “Jinkies” difficulty setting) and it still carries the same flaws that it had in 2000. But the variety in gameplay from one level to the next and the pleasant goofiness of the story should keep you glued to your desk chairs to find out how it all ends.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments

Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Certain Affinity
Genre: Hack and slash
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Certain Affinity has made their name through map creation for a variety of other games. Crimson Alliance sees their bid to take to the gaming stage proper. It is a hack and slash dungeon crawler in the same vein as Bastion and Torchlight, in that it offers player input in terms of item and weapon choices. However, if you prefer a game where you have to decide whether to wear your “Tights of Valhalla” or your “Ankle Socks of Death,” then you should move along quickly using your “Stockings of Swiftness.” Micro management isn’t part of the game’s ethos – simplicity is. For example, you only get three characters to choose from. The game offers both single player campaign action and a four player co-op mode (available both locally and online). So is Crimson Alliance worth a trip through the dungeon?

Hardcore dungeon-crawler fans might not like this XBLA-only game. There probably isn’t enough micro-management and character development to hold their attention. There is no dialogue engagement, no moral dilemma decisions (unless you love goblins), and no in-depth character development. Yet, the move away from these in-game management systems is, I must admit, a breath of fresh air. Not laden by all these complexities, you are free to just hone your dungeon eradication skills. You become a one man, dungeon pest control system.

As I’ve established, there are three different characters to choose: The Wizard, the Mercenary, and the Assassin. Each character plays differently and each has just three unique skills. This decision keeps the game focused, and it works well. Each power has specific tactical advantages during a fight, and while your character doesn’t level up as such, better equipment does becomes available, and it improves these skills substantially. While your characters do earn experience points, it’s the gold and unique artifacts that you’ll be after. Gold buys better weapons and gadgets, while artifacts earn you greater health or special skills. For example, when you buy a new weapon or piece of armor, it simply increases or decreases one or more of your character’s attack abilities, possibly adding a knock-on magic effect. One instance of this is adding poison to the Assassin’s blades.

The game itself revolves around combat. Your task is to hack and slash your way through each level and stay alive. Due to this emphasis, the combat system is actually is one of game’s biggest strengths. Each of the characters has a standard attack, a stun ability, and an evasive maneuver. Fighting is actually quite fun, and perhaps more engaging than you might expect. Knowing how to work the block and evade are critical, and making the most of special attacks like the Wizard’s freeze spell is vital. The game comes with some added fun, such as exploding barrels and poison gas canisters that the characters can pick up and lob into enemy crowds. There are more challenges than merely completing the single player campaign. If you’re planning to master the online leaderboards, you’ll need lightning fast reactions. Score multipliers are tough to build up, and knocked down a notch each time you get hit. You have to successfully alternate attacks with dodging. The game also has a multiplayer mode with up to four players, locally or online, working cooperatively to beat each level.

The game has weak areas, however, that could be improved. Opponents are not all that interesting once you have encountered them a few times, and generally the boss fights are unremarkable. The dungeon environments do look nice, but more variation would make it more interesting to the player. Given all the fighting you have to engage in, there is actually very little loot in the game aside from just a few treasure chests containing rare equipment or consumable items, such as a deployable turret and an area-effect healing totem. More thought could have gone into a better range of equipment rewards. Pricing of the game is also a bit odd. 1200 MSP gets you the full game with all three characters, whereas an 800 MSP purchase gets you the game with just one of the three. If you can’t wait to get your hands on new equipment, you can also fork out 80MSP for 40,000 gold.

Overall, Crimson Alliance may not be a deep or complex game, but that wasn’t Certain Affinity’s intention. Despite its gameplay familiarity, it is fun, frantic, and refreshingly honest. It is not pretending to be anything it isn’t. In my opinion, these things make it a great game to introduce newcomers to the genre, while dungeon veterans will have fun in the co-op mode with friends.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Simon Moore for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: Sony
Developer: Recoil Games
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: Teen
Release Date: Available now

One of these days, someone really ought to release a game called “Metroidvania” and retire on the never-ending residuals. That superlative; the Reese’s Peanut Butter cup-style fusion of two great things – in this case Super Metroid and Castlevania; is usually all an action-adventure fan needs to hear to know their money is well spent. Those titles certainly hit a sweet spot for people who hunger for games that reward methodical exploration with carefully doled out abilities that open new, exciting reaches of whatever castle or labyrinth they happen to be exploring. A few years ago, Chair Entertainment (a subsidiary of Epic) took the “Metroidvania” formula and married it to the spy genre; churning out one of the better titles that year, Shadow Conspiracy. And while the wait for that game’s sequel continues, we now have Recoil Games’ Rochard to scratch the itch as their PSN exclusive aims to send players scrambling through a variety of interstellar installations solving puzzles, chasing down new pathways and keeping the “Metroidvania” dream alive.

Rochard is both the main character’s name and a really bad pun. See, John Rochard (pronounced with a hard ‘C’) is a good ol’ boy space miner, toiling away for the cosmic conglomerate Skyrig, whose bread and butter is made by blasting away at asteroids in hopes of finding treasured minerals. It’s during one of Rochard’s latest missions that he unearths something far more mysterious, sending him on the run from the nefarious space pirates and other shadowy conspirators who are quick to put a lid on things. The game plays out on a vibrantly designed 2D platforming plane and requires John to work through a number of tricky puzzles and combat situations to save the day.

Rochard may sport the look of a next-gen “Metroidvania” title, but it borrows a significant chunk of its game play from another modern classic: the gravity gun from Half Life 2. Named the G-Lifter, this “tool” is used by Rochard to move obstacles out of his way by utilizing a gravitational beam. As the player works through the maze-like interiors of the various asteroids and facilities Rochard is sent into, the G-Lifter is called upon to work in concert with the environment and the particular navigational challenges that working in weightless orbital surroundings can introduce. This leads to a number of physics-based puzzles that demand players exercise their brain in order to clear a path to the next puzzle-laden stretch of landscape. Along the way, a number of combat opportunities present themselves, requiring Rochard to utilize the G-Link and the more offensive attacks afforded by his trusty Rock Blaster to turn the tables on his attackers.

Rochard is most enjoyable when it’s following its primary directive of puzzle-based exploration. All of the conundrums you’ll encounter can be resolved by careful observation and manipulation of your surroundings. In the best puzzle game fashion, the tools you need to survive are right at the gamer’s fingertips with little need for backtracking. If you step back and take a look at where you are at, those delightful “ah-hah” moments occur with satisfying regularity. Early on, John also gains a tool which allows him to momentarily alter gravity. This factors into the various platforming sections you’ll encounter, adding another element to consider when working your way through the adventure.

Of course, John is on the run from a legion of space mercenaries which leads to several combat sequences. These play out similarly to those in recent 2D adventures such as Bionic Commando and Shadow Conspiracy, although those games certainly gave players more weapons to fend off their foes. The lunch-pail toting John is not a traditional action hero, so his battles play a bit more loose. That may be the intent but there is no doubt that Rochard is most engaging when it’s focused on the puzzle-solving and can grow unnecessarily frustrating when the game sends an armada of foes your way and you feel significantly underpowered. That said, the melees can be overcome and fortunately, the generous checkpoint system never sends you back too far should Rochard fall victim to his pursuers.

Rochard is another great downloadable title that underscores the notion that an independent game design renaissance is in full swing. Each month seems to bring forth another carefully crafted and entertaining title that flourishes on the downloadable frontier. While it takes elements from popular, proven titles in the “Metroidvania” form, from its unique ‘Everyman as adventurer’ to its masterful sequences of brain-teasing exploration, Rochard mines a great gaming experience.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments

Publisher: Sony
Developer: Team ICO
Rating: T (Teen)
Available: Now

In the age of HD gaming, backwards compatibility is a mixed blessing. While it makes for a “nice-to-have” feature on the back of the console’s box, the truth is many of your old favorites are more visually pleasing when revisited in your mind’s eye. Once you get these ancient treasures running on spiffy new hardware, and splashed across a pristine 1080p widescreen, all those ugly blemishes once hidden by reduced resolution tear at your peepers. So, the loss of backwards compatibility on later iterations of this generation’s consoles is not that big a burden when you consider the care and craftsmanship that Sony has implemented in spit-polishing some of the PS2’s most prominent releases. Taking a long-awaited place alongside the previously released God of War and Sly Cooper collections are two of the PS2’s crown jewels – the sublime Ico and Shadow of the Colossus – fully remastered for a new generation to play and the past to covet.

A few years ago, gamers waged a no-win battle with film critic Roger Ebert over his blind faith assumption that video games could NEVER be art. It’s classic oil versus water with two sides coming at the debate from completely diametric viewpoints. At one point, Bioshock’s creator, Ken Levine, inserted himself into the dialogue offering up a sane and rationale bid for cease fire. Why does anyone care if games are art, he questioned in an editorial. While he makes a great point, many gamers pointed to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, two modern classics, that had done more than entertain them. Through the course of sending their heroes, Ico and Wander, through their motions, gamers had forged an indelible bond with a pile of pixels. A plaything had done more than entertain, it had aspired to something greater. Many who played these epic adventures reported the same findings. They had been affected at an emotional level and while the definition of true art remains elusive and subjective, the fact that these games had charmed their way deep into the collective soul of a whole legion of players was all the supporting evidence they ever needed.

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are works of art. At least that’s my opinion. Reviewed individually, at the time of their release, I would slap them both with a 5-star, spoiler free review and lead readers just far enough along to entice them to dive in and draw their own conclusions. Taken as a whole, both titles share kinship with the same developer, Team Ico, who carefully embraces gaming archetypes of the past to give gamers something new. The intrepid young hero facing seemingly insurmountable odds is the same story trope that drives the treasured Legend of Zelda series; a vaunted property that equals these two games in their shear unbridled creative craftsmanship.

In both games, Team Ico wove simple story threads through a remarkable feat of world-crafting tapestry, plopping the player down into massive, haunting landscapes that looked lived-in and long since forgotten. It’s this attention to atmosphere that elevates their work, and both titles possess a transporting quality. This is true role-playing that focuses less on stats and experience and instead pulls all of the elements together, from the taut narrative to the intricate puzzle solving and awe-inspiring art direction, to make players forget the cares of this world as they quest in another. People can argue whether these games are art but there is no question, they are fully formed experiences that my life would be lessened without.

That’s really all you need to know about my take on the games. Ico came first and it shows as the experience is slight when compared to the brawny Shadow of the Colossus. While Ico is the foundation upon which Colossus was built, the two co-exist in seemingly interconnected worlds. Toss away the lofty artistic aspirations and at their core both titles exist as compelling adventures. With the focus primarily set on exploration and environmental puzzles, both games frequently tax the brain more than the trigger finger.

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | One comment

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: id Software
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Once upon a time, id brought fire to the masses. With the advent of the first person shooter (popularized by their two fisted salvo of Wolfenstein and Doom), id tapped deep into the collective gamer mindset and dreamed up a compelling new genre that gave life to our most visceral impulses. By putting the BFG into our hands and letting us loose on the demonic hordes, they revolutionized the marketplace. They provided a compelling product that underscored the evolutionary shift transpiring. These games weren’t necessarily just for kids anymore, and with the spark ignited, developers weaned on Doom and Quake began adding to the mosaic by taking a fairly simple archetype born from that primal urge to blast stuff and turning it into the box-office busting behemoths we battle through each holiday season. id may have burst onto a barren wasteland way back when, but in the decades since, the landscape has grown fertile. With the release of their long-gestating new IP, we watch to see if id’s Rage can cut through the boisterous noise of their crowded competition.

Although a tried and true first person shooter, Rage opens with eerie parallels to Fallout 3. Following a catastrophic asteroid collision, the Earth is decimated. Small pockets of survivors make their way into a brave new world forming tight factions hoping to rebuild some sense of order among the chaos. Although the world’s governments had collaborated on a series of Arks aimed at preserving the best of our species, the project fails and only one participant survives. Reawakened in the year 2139 (a full 100 years after the event), the Ark Survivor steps out into the world, observing a vast wasteland where shining cities once stood and begins working to piece together his memories while aiding the small townships that have sprung up on the frontier. Sound familiar?

Unlike Fallout 3, Rage’s emphasis is squarely on the action. While visits to towns and interacting with the colorful people that populate the map will result in quests and side jobs, the game is not a true role playing game. Once the bullets start firing, this is a fast run-and-gun shooter, drawing upon the core strengths inherent to the developer. There is a narrative that runs through the story, but it takes a little while to get going. The early sections of the game focused on teaching mechanics and letting you soak in the world. NPCs offer up simple fetch quests that often send you into long, twisting labyrinths or enemy encampments to clear out mutant factions or procure the supplies necessary to augment your gear.

There is a palpable sense of déjà vu that affects Rage from the very beginning. That opening sequence that sets the Ark Survivor loose upon the Wasteland closely resembles the early hours in Fallout 3. The desolate expanse of desert that confronts you also calls to mind Borderlands; and it’s that title (with its Mad Max refugees decked out in biker bondage ware), that fills in the rest of Rage’s DNA. This is an industry that survives and thrives on homage, with developers grabbing whole chunks of past innovation and adding their own elements to compose something new. That being said, all of these allusions to recent hits should not be a knock on id’s vision. It just took them a little longer than the others to get their product to market.

What those 4 years have produced is a stunning new graphics engine. Over the years I have seen a never-ending parade of games built off the Unreal Engine 3, and they have started to look like cookie cutter variations of each other. Rage is built on id’s new idTech5, and it’s a stunner (especially when it comes to rendering landscapes). With every other shooter seemingly sending me into dusty, desolate canyons, it takes something special to draw my eyes to the dunes. I never got tired of seeing the vibrant, colorful, realistic textures that idTech5 paints.

The gameplay is also lightning quick, with no screen tearing or artifacts present while running it on my Xbox 360. It’s locked in at 60 FPS and it really shows. This is a showcase on the 360, setting the benchmark for visual fidelity on a home console. It should be noted that the 360 version comes on 3 discs and the developer recommends that players install the discs to their hard drives to minimize load times and increase performance. That’s a 22 GB install which might prove a bear for some (although you can install one disc at a time, if necessary), so you can also simply run the game off the disc and sacrifice some of the performance. On the PS3, gamers are looking at one Blu-Ray disc with a smaller install (8 GB).

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | 11 comments

Publisher: Robot Entertainment
Developer: Robot Entertainment
Genre: Action-Strategy
ESRB: Teen
Release date: October 5, 2011

Orcs. I hate them. You hate them. Their continued existence promises to bring only pain and suffering. They are a constant threat to the well-being of society, and should be dealt with swiftly and violently. Robot Entertainment’s Orcs Must Die! is an action-strategy hybrid that poses a question that is surprisingly difficult to answer: What is the best way to kill an Orc?

Orcs Must Die! begins with the death of an ancient wizard tasked to protect the world from an Orc invasion. This wizard was a Rift guardian, and he used spells and traps to keep the Orcs from entering portals to our world. After his sudden death, his apprentice became the protector of the Rifts. His apprentice, who the player controls for the duration of the game, loves killing Orcs and likes to celebrate his victories with a little dancing.

In Orcs Must Die!, strategy and planning are very important to victory. Learning the layout of the level and how to use it to your advantage is crucial. At the beginning of each stage, the player is given a small amount of money with which to purchase traps. While the initial trap selection is rather limited, as you progress though the game you will be rewarded with new weapons and up to 17 unique traps. Once traps are placed and the round has begun, the player can choose to let his traps do all the work or grab his trusty crossbow (among other weapons) and fight the oncoming horde. Some levels contain environmental hazards, such as acid pits, which the player can use to his advantage. Despite the game’s title, there are more than just Orcs to vanquish. At later levels you will have to deal with Kobolds, Ogres, and many other types of monsters, each with varying speed and armor.

Orcs Must Die! is fast-paced and difficult to put down. The level layout is interesting and keeps you from using the same strategy several times in a row. Combining traps, like using a tar pit to slow enemies down as they walk past a wall that shoots arrows, gives bonus points which raises your score and position on the leader boards. Performing well on a level grants skulls, which can be used to upgrade your existing traps. The trap variety is large and allows for tons of different combinations and strategies. Completing the campaign unlocks an impressively difficult “Nightmare” version.

While the game is a blast to play, one glaring omission is co-op mode. While Orcs Must Die! functions well as a single-player experience, it would be much more fun with a second player. There are rumors that Robot Entertainment is looking to add this function at a later time, but for now it feels like a big hole. While there are trap upgrades available, they are limited and not always worth the price. Weapons and spells each feature a secondary attack, but combat in general feels bare bones and isn’t nearly as effective as setting traps.

Orcs Must Die! is a great way to kill some time. The game is amazing at forcing the “one more level” mentality that causes people to go to bed after midnight when they have work the next morning. While the lack of co-op seems like a wasted opportunity, the stages are endlessly replayable and testing new trap combinations helps to keep things interesting. You can purchase Orcs Must Die! now on the XBLA, and it will be available for the PC on October 12.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: UTV Ignition
Developer: UTV Ignition
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Before the digital distribution networks, PSN and XBLA, became the showcase for ambitious indie darlings like Braid and Limbo, these cyber storefronts featured a dependable selection of classic arcade titles and addictive puzzlers. In fact, on the day I bought my 360, I logged more time playing the freebie Hexic than I did with the show stopping Call of Duty 2. That’s the beauty of a good puzzle game: if the concept is tight and the execution flawless, the intangible “just one more level” mindset takes root; leaving those speaker-blasting battles to wait another day. Nowadays, the marketplaces are jammed with a vast menagerie of downloadable delights, representing all genres. Where these once bite-sized titles have grown much larger, smaller titles like Mercury Hg exist to tax your brain.

Like many popular puzzle games, Mercury’s origins can be traced back to the popular classics of the form. The game presents players with tiltable levels, upon which they must navigate a blob of mercury through obstacles in order to reach the exit point. The level design is evocative of Marble Madness, and utilizes a similar tiled aesthetic, while the tilt mechanics are on loan from the Super Monkey Ball series. The game also layers in rhythm controls, similar to titles such as Lumines, allowing players to add their own music tracks which effect the “pulse” of the levels.

Boasting over 50 initial levels, and a series of unlockable challenge levels, there is a good deal of game play in this small package. As you work your way through each group of levels, arrayed on a board designed to resemble the Periodic Table of Elements, new variables are constantly introduced into the game. One objective may call for the mercury to change color before exiting – at which point the player must hunt down a device that will alter their hue. In addition, some levels feature multiple mercury blobs that you need to navigate through the levels, causing players to really think through their motions as they tilt the board. The entire time you are racing through each level, trying to avoid the edges which will cause you to lose mercury (as well as various environmental obstacles such as dividers and magnets), a timer ticks down. Success is measured by making it to the Exit Point in time without losing any of the mercury, and bonus points are awarded to players who beat the designated par time with a full compliment of mercury, as well as for collectibles found through the course.

Mercury Hg is a decent budget-sized puzzler that for $5 packs a good amount of game play. The original series of levels should take you a few hours to work through and while none of the levels prove particularly taxing, the game does a nice job of mixing up the objectives and keeping you on your toes. Bonus Levels, which are unlocked through skillful play, demand that the player make it to the end of each level without losing any mercury which makes for a great added challenge. In addition, the Leaderboards provide ample opportunity for players to continue slicing seconds off of their best time.

Mercury is designed to be played via the Sixaxis motion controls or through the traditional dual analogue stick-format, with the left controlling the tilt of the level and the right handling the camera. I found that the analog sticks work best as you need to rely upon a series of quick, subtle movements to maneuver through the tough later levels. The finicky nature of the Sixaxis set-up can cause frustration on those levels that feature narrow real estate. When there’s not much room for error, the slight lagginess of the Sixaxis control scheme does not work as well as the full control afforded using the analog controls. From a visual perspective, Mercury boasts a sharp, clean appearance that looks great in high definition. It’s a simple design but one that is pleasing. The audio tracks included in the game fit the puzzle genre, however the ability to pull in your own songs, which have an effect on the levels, is a welcome touch.

For small money, Mercury makes a big impression. While I tend to spend the majority of my game time in the big AAA rated retail titles, little pick-up-and-play puzzlers like this one make for a nice tonic to the blistering battle royale. Mercury Hg may not introduce anything new to the puzzle genre but it does perform a skillful job of cobbling together elements from past puzzlers into its own winning formula.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)

Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Kung Fu Factory
Genre: Fighting
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Fighting games work best when they adhere to a simple design philosophy: “easy to play – hard to master.” A good fighting game should be built around a model where anybody can pick it up and have fun, but still be deep enough that those willing to commit the time to learning its systems can mine the true treasure beneath. A good fighting game should evolve the better you get at it. That’s the standard I apply when reviewing a fighter. Can someone mash away and come off feeling satisfied while experts are able to discover a whole new level of strategy? That’s the challenge Supremacy MMA faces today.

In a welcome change of pace, Supremacy MMA is a mixed martial arts fighting game that was developed along the lines of an arcade fighter, and not the close-to-the-vest simulation of the explosive sport that we usually see in this genre. Titles like UFC 2010 are so complicated that they appeal primarily to fans of the sport; more niche curio than mass market success. MMA’s control design immediately opens the title to the masses. The game plays fast and loose with the fighters, mimicking contemporary fighting games such as the Tekken series, which means players don’t have to be as concerned with the real-life affairs of mixed martial artists.

With 12 fighters to choose from, including a couple female characters featured in the alternate Femme Fatale mode, players can choose a fighter from the discipline they like best (with fighters varying in their use of judo, kickboxing or submission wrestling) and work through each fighter’s Supremacy Story. The Supremacy Story is played across a series of rounds in which you learn their story and motivations for wanting to inflict so much pain and torture upon their frames and their opponents’ faces. This is the core to the game and players who groove to the fighting style will likely want to play through each player’s story to get the full picture before tackling opponents in competitive play.

Supremacy MMA’s controls are probably the best facet of the game. As I mentioned in the intro, this title is designed as an arcade fighter, which makes for a notable contrast from the most complicated, sim-based UFC titles. That being said, there isn’t a lot of depth found once you get beneath the surface. This is a button-masher’s paradise, but there isn’t a deeper, more complex fighting system for expert players to grapple with. Instead, everyone is treated to easily controlled, graphic bouts between the two pugilists; a conceit that is likely to turn off the devoted MMA fans.

As with the real-world equivalent, this is a dark and gritty sport on display here. Bones break and blood flies, and as you fight through a series of dank prisons and slaughterhouses, the fun inherent in an arcade title is diminished. Games like Tekken and the Street Fighter series garner their fans based on the marriage of their pulp-comic aesthetic and a flexible fighting style. With the arcade emphasis of this game mixed with the dark MMA surroundings, the title doesn’t really appeal to any group. Fighting fans have plenty of competition to choose from that provides a more rewarding completion while MMA fans are likely to be turned off by the lean roster of fighters and the lack of sim features. The casual fans that have no interest in the MMA are likely scared off by MMA’s Fight Club-esque motions and surroundings.

While I admire Kung Fu Factory’s goal to ape the arcade fighters in this release, I think the ultimate product ends up dead-on-arrival. I do appreciate the pick-up-and-play controls, but I don’t think casual fighting fans will find the litany of colorful characters they embrace in the fantastic Street Fighter and Tekken series. MMA fans will find their favorites but are likely to be put off by the diminished depth in this fighter. The game has a nice, gritty look and the visceral bouts certainly look like they hurt, but aside from that, I can’t recommend you wrestle with the decision to purchase this one.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation:

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2011. | Permalink | No comment(s)