Thursday, 2 December 2010
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty review
OK, so it’s been a few days, and I think it’s time for a new review now. Today, I’ll be reviewing Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, alongside most improvements (I’m aiming for all) that were suggested. So, I hope you enjoy!
OK, let’s start with something I usually don’t start with today. Graphics. For a game released on the PS2, in 2001, no less, this game has extraordinary graphics. Of course, nothing is as good as most PS3 titles, but it’s obvious that Konami put some serious effort into this game’s graphics. Sure, there isn’t anything like the FMV in Square’s Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts titles, but still…
The animations also tend to be top-notch. There’s some little quirks in there (Like when you descend stairs pressed to a wall, your back leg lags a tad), but they are brilliant overall. The level of detail gone into the animations is also incredible, going up to even having a separate, more believable animation for going up stairs. It’s the little things that join together that make this game truly impressive.
Snake, doing some sneaking. Better get used to this.
So, anyway, now we move onto the plot. Now, here’s where the game gets interesting. It’s Metal Gear Solid, and by now the franchise has been associated with quite complex plots, and this game is no exception. So, I’m just going to break it down a bit for you, give you the main points. So, you start of as Snake on a tanker, tasked with taking and sending pictures to Otacon about Metal Gear RAY. Or, on the other hand, you may find the game has gone a bit weird and started you off with Raiden, who’s deployed in ‘Big Shell’, an environmental clean-up facility, and tasked with finding the President and various other hostages and rescuing them from the terrorist group Sons Of Liberty. But, however, you’ll go through some pretty major plot twists (And a MGS version of Ico…) before you reach the games end. Oh, and some conspiracy theories get thrown in for good measure. Like I said, complex. Also, be warned. If you don’t like cutscenes, stay away from this game. Seems drastic, but most, if not all, of the game’s story is presented through cutscenes. If you skip those, then you’re left with just another game that blends into the crowd.
And Raiden, not sneaking. Better get used to this too.
And of course, to complete the package. That all-important trump card. Gameplay. And I think it’s definitely safe to say that this game has oodles of it. Despite the amazingly long cutscenes, this game still has plenty of memorable and damn-right enjoyable sequences. The ending sequences are brought instantly to mind, but there’s some hefty spoilers that come across in describing it, so I won’t. All you need to know is that this game promises “Tactical Espionage Action”, and boy does it deliver that.
Also adding to the overall atmosphere is the downright fantastic music. It perfectly complements the in-game action at all times. Kudos to them for that.
So, to draw this review to a conclusion, here are my final scores for this game.
Gameplay – 8/10. Everything flows together well, and it makes the game very enjoyable.
Story- 9/10. It just misses being perfect due to it being quite confusing, but this game’s story is one of the best I’ve ever seen.
Replayability- 7/10. It’s definitely one to replay, but you’ll never get the full experience that comes with seeing everything for the first time ever again, which is part of MGS2′s greatness.
All in all, I think this game is one of the best I’ve ever reviewed.
Oops! Almost forgot the series staple, the cardboard box!
Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children review
First thing first, and it’s something that has to be said about this film, is that the quality of the animation is simply fantastic. Now, I realize I don’t tend to include graphics much in my reviews… But that’s for games. This is a film, so graphics tend to start being a lot more important, seeing as they can imply subtle things that aren’t spoken and so on. Also, yes, the graphics are unrealistic. But, it’s Square and animation. When this was announced, I doubt all that many people would have thought that everything would be true to life, although they do get quite close.
Now, we hit a bit of a snag with the film here… You must have played or at least watched a friend play it to completion to understand most of this movie. That’s one of the flaws with this movie, it’s made with the intention that most people watching it will be fans of the series or game. This isn’t always the case, and has left quite a few negative reviews roaming around the internet because of that. Just be warned of that if you haven’t watched the movie yet, unless you like not understanding a majority of the film.
Now, to the story. The story is fairly by the numbers here, with three main bad guys (Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz) wanting to get back Jenova, constantly referring to her as “Mother” through-out the film. You get an adequate explanation of why towards the end, though, so luckily this isn’t really something that you have to know before-hand. An condition known as “Geo-Stigma” has also swept the lands of Edge, basically the new Midgar for the film, just without the looming Mako Reactors.
Now, seeing as it’s Square, you can pretty much take for granted that there’s going to be some zippy fight scenes in here. Here we see another small problem though, in the form of the camera just tends to whizz about trying to follow them, which tends to obscure most of the fight in motion-blur while your eyes are trying to figure out what the hell just happened. This tends to be less of a problem towards the end of the film, as they then start to stick with some mostly fixed cameras instead of making it whizz around, so it’s not really something you have to put up with for all of the film, which redeems it just slightly.
The characters are also pretty generic, just like they tended to be in the Final Fantasy 7 game. Their personalities do tend to stay the same though, which is good if you want players of the game to relate the film’s version of the characters to the game’s versions. Also worth noting is that many of the characters have undergone some slight and some radical cosmetic changes. Vincent, Red XIII and Cait Sith are the only ones that avoid this. Some changes are major, like Barret’s new string vest and white coat, with a more upgraded arm-gun. Some changes are also minor, such as Yuffie’s clothes having a pretty minor re-design and new colours.
Also, something to be warned of. This movie probably won’t seem all that great the first time round. You don’t really notice much of the background things that they’re trying to put across, and a re-watch heightened my opinion of it greatly. It’s not the best film in the world, but it does make for a good 1 1/2 hours. If you hated it the first time around, rather like I did, just try a re-watch. You might then decide it is quite a good film for what it is.
Final score: 7/10
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing review
Everything or Nothing, released in 2003, is extremely impressive. While some of the games platinum challenges (Which unlock in-game cheat codes, if you want them) are extremely hard and will test your patience a fair bit, the good balance of difficulty is welcomed, with it being neither too easy or too hard overall. The controls are also great, on Gamecube at least.
The story works together quite well, and also leads you on quite the adventure. Each mission also has some hidden “Bond moments”, which are quite fun to find and perform for the most part.
The gameplay is quite good, although you do seem to have two set modes, being stealthy and going in all guns blazing. It’s usually not a good idea to do the latter, especially if you are trying to do the platinum challenge of losing no health in the level. The cover system and rolling from cover to cover works quite well, but bear in mind not much cover can’t prevent being hit by a rocket launcher, which can be quite annoying. The game also offers some chances to get headshots, by using the C Stick to alter a dot that originates inside of the targeted enemy. Pulling one of those off from a far distance is quite satisfying.
Diverting to weapons, for a moment. The choice of weapons is quite good, ranging from pistols to sniper rifles to rocket launchers and assault rifles, most of which have a few variants, with varying power.
The game length is OK, taking me about 7 hours on the easiest difficulty. I’m currently playing through on the normal, which seems to be taking me considerably longer due to me dying a fair bit (I tend to be a more all guns blazing guy)!
The game also features some unlockables, such as production stills and what seem to be character models, which is sure to get completists coming back frequently.
The game also features a multiplayer mode, which is quite good, and really encourages you and your partner to work together with taking the enemies down. It’s worth saying that the co-op is quite a bit harder than the single player mode, but it is kind of balanced out if your partner is good enough. There’s also a competitive multiplayer, which allows up to 4 people to play against each other.
So, ratings.
Gameplay- 8/10. It’s rather enjoyable, and manages to refrain from being repetitive by offering a few ways around the problem you’re faced with. Some driving mission shake it up slightly, but poor traction subtracts slightly from the experience.
Replayability- 7/10. The afore-mentioned unlockable items add to the replay value, and the different difficulty levels also add towards it, unless you complete the whole game on 00 Agent first.
Lifespan- 6/10. the approximate 7 hours it lasts seems to be a rather average game length for this generation. I know I probably shouldn’t be comparing an old game like this to the newer games, but it seems to be a good one.
Comments and critique down below.
No More Heroes 2 Review
This only got a 15 rating. How it did that, I don’t think anyone knows. Constant swearing (The “F” word is said about 50 times each mission), extreme amounts of blood, constant sexual references… It’s GTA with a laser sword and not being someone who can get arrested. Yeah, everything Travis does is legal. Chopping people in half is legal, beheading them is legal, and so on and so forth. I really wouldn’t want to live in Santa Destroy. Maniacs.
But, anyway. Gameplay is admittedly repetitive after a while, as you just press A to slash and B to punch/kick. The only variation of the two is you get a more damaging ,but slower, attack if you tilt the Wii-mote down, and a quicker, but less damaging, attack if you tilt the Wii-mote upwards. Although, a giant robot fight is included for no apparent reason, which adds… slightly less repetition, adding another button to be used, but still doesn’t really save it.
One problem I’ve found myself plagued with was some slowdown during the more graphically intensive parts, such as when there is a lot of blood on screen. It’s not that noticeable though, so if you’re willing to overlook it slightly, you’ll be just fine.
The graphics actually look pretty good. Maybe it’s because I’m a big fan of cel shading, but they just do.
The game, despite offering “50 characters to beat”, the game’s actually pretty short, using rather cheap tricks to shorten playing time. Stuff like moving 25 places up in the rankings by beating one guy. Yeah. The game took me about 7 hours to play through, but that was without completing any of the revenge missions. Those add about an hour maximum to the game though, so it’s still disappointingly short.
Ratings…
Gameplay- 6/10. Repetitive through and through, but it is still fun slicing up people with a beam katana.
Replayability- 7/10. Due to the 3 different difficulty settings, it is somewhat worthwhile for the completists among us to play through them all again.
Lifespan- 5/10. As I have said before, it’s disappointingly short. Mind you, that seems to be the case with most games nowadays, but it still irks me nonetheless.
And yet, despite the low ratings I have given it, I actually quite liked this game. Probably because I’m a sucker for an action game.
Comments and critique down below.
Just Cause review
Published by Eidos and developed by Avalanche Studios, Just Cause is a game released in 2006, which recently spawned a “sequel” Just Cause 2.
The story follows Rico Rodriguez (Who you play as) as he liberates the island of San Esperito from President Mendoza. The basis is pretty by-the-numbers, but the missions manage to just break free of the “generic” label, by managing to mix some stuff up, and offering a wide number of ways to do a certain task. Being a sandbox game, it is of course completely open to exploration, and flying up high in a plane and marvelling at how big the game map is has to be done.
Alongside the missions, you also have some small side missions to complete that earn you “prestige points” with the Guerillas and the Riojas. As you advance in the ranks by doing some repetitive missions (Liberating towns for Guerillas, gaining a Montano villa for the Riojas), you unlock various safehouses and weapons. This offers a slight incentive, but isn’t all that necessary to advance through the game.
The handling on cars and bikes is something that you need to struggle with. Due to the dirt roads that seem to form a majority of the roads, your vehicle can’t get a good grip and slides all over the place when you try turning, which can be quite frustrating, especially if it just so happens to throw you off a cliff during a particularly hectic part of a mission. Thankfully, the planes and boats handle just fine, although obviously the big trawlers and transport planes won’t be quite as nimble as their smalled counterparts.
The graphics are pretty standard fare for a sandbox game, as the vast environment means that it can’t look as detailed as the smaller games can. There are some glitches where if you move the camera so it is close enough to Rico’s head, you see through the back of his head and at the back of his face, which isn’t all too appealing either.
The arsenal of weapons in this game is not very impressive, however. Featuring a few variants on a pistol, assault rifle, uzi and shotgun, that’s effectively your lot. In fact, the whole game can be breezed through with your twin pistols, which have infinite ammo, which pretty much renders all of the other weapons as just something superficial. Although I won’t deny I found the uzi quite nice to use.
The gameplay itself gets a bit let down by some shoddy controls. Wasting 10 uzi bullets every time you hit a rock on your bike without noticing due to the accelerate button being the same as the fire button doesn’t sound like much, but everything adds up far too quickly. Other issues also occur, but none seem to be more noticeable or annoying than this.
So, ratings.
Gameplay- 7/10. It’s mostly good, but the somewhat shoddy controls let it down.
Replayability- 5/10. There’s little to come back for here. Maybe if you want to complete all the missions again, but apart from that there isn’t much.
Lifespan- 8/10. It’s another game that depends on how long you take to go through it, and how many side-missions and how much exploring you want to do. I gave it an average rating of 8, as it does last quite a long time.
Comments and critique down below.
Kingdom Hearts review
This game bears witness to possibly one of the greatest cross-overs of all time. Bringing the rather serious world of Square-Enix and the more (But only slightly) light-hearted world of Disney is not something that you would immediately think will work, but it does. Seeing the Disney logo on the game may well have been something that put gamers off of buying the game. Perhaps they thought it would be too childish for them. All I can say is, how wrong you were. The game pulls the two worlds together with masterful flair, making sure not a single thing feels out of place, which adds a lot to the quality of the game. Each of the characters from the different worlds have their own story of how they got there, and how their planet was destroyed by the Heartless, the villains of the piece.
The story follows Sora, the chosen one of the Keyblade, on his journey to find his two missing friends, Riku and Kairi. This journey takes you through a whole host of recognizable places, including the Olympus Coliseum from Hercules, and Agrabah from Aladdin. On most worlds, you can choose to have the Disney character from that world in your party, which is a nice addition. It’s also worth noting that the difficulty in this game is higher than in the sequelKingdom Hearts 2.
The combat in this game is remarkably well-handled, with a menu in the bottom-left hand side of the screen allowing you to choose what to do next, while you can also equip various abilities, such as Dodge Roll (Allows you to quickly roll out of the way of an attack) and Guard (Which allows you to block an attack if you get the timing right).
The game starts with a small, slow-paced tutorial, which teaches you all the basics you need, and asks you questions that have a direct effect upon your development as a character. This adds a small personal touch to the game, as you answer the questions as you would in real life. Sora becomes almost a vessel for yourself, albeit with big hair and even bigger feet. The slight anime styling really shows through regarding character design, something to be almost expected from Square-Enix, who developed and published the game.
The game itself is a pure RPG at heart, featuring upgrades, levels, different weapons and so on and so forth. The traditional Square-Enix 3-tiered magic system is in place here, featuring “Fire” “Fira” and “Firaga”, for example.
The soundtrack is one to be reckoned with in this game. Starting with the song “Simple and Clean”, what seems to be a very bubbly song, to the looming music at the end, the music suits every single occasion, and is extremely well written.
Summing up:
Gameplay- 9/10. Call me a sucker for a good RPG combat system, but that’s what this is. Learning to strike at the right time also added to the skill needed to master it. The exploration and puzzle solving is also done extremely well.
Replayability- 6/10. There isn’t too much replay value here, but it’s always good to have another play-through.
Lifespan- 8/10. Being an RPG, you can expect it to be quite long. And so it is, so don’t be expecting a quick 10-hour jaunt with this game.
Comments and critique down below.
Spiderman 2 review
OK, so I’m late to the party. Who cares? Say what you like, but older games still deserve a bit of the spotlight. Anyway, I first walked into getting Spiderman 2 after thinking something along the lines of “Well, it’s always cool to just swing around. Surely the game can’t mess that up, whatever happens”. It didn’t. Swinging around Manhattan feels great, pulling of that inch-perfect jump onto the rooftop (Just me?) all feels brilliant. There’s also a few nods to the previous game, but I won’t post those here for fears of people killing me because of potential spoilers.
Sure, the missions are by-the-numbers and just a bit repetitive, mostly involving a lot of punching and kicking, but fans of the comic-book hero are sure to find the super-villains they love in there, including Mysterio and Rhino. Black Cat also makes an appearance in the early stages of the game, leading you on a (Slightly dull) section of following her, but it’s still nice to see her in there anyway. The game is also broken up with chapters that seems to solely require you to gain “Hero Points”, the game’s currency. Sure, these are the most boring parts of the game, but at least it gives you a fair amount to spend on upgrades.
As I said before, the swinging is nailed in this game, also made more realistic by the fact you need an anchor point for your web line now, which is a change from the “swing anywhere” mentality of its predecessor. A good thing if you like some small realism in your comic-book games. Combat is handled simply at first, with a single attack button and another for using your web-line to tangle up your foes, but this expands as you begin purchasing upgrades at the “Spidey Store”. This also adds a slight RPG element to the game, as you purchase new moves and new web-line powers as the game goes on.
The story… Was there one? I couldn’t seem to find any underlying story line, just a random mish-mash of different events. I’m probably missing out on something major here, having not watched the film it’s based on, but still.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. One of the best things in this game is that you are sometimes left to just swing around Manhattan. The game map is vast, and covering all takes some time. Even travelling from the northern-most point to the southern-most point with the fastest swing speed takes close to 3 minutes. Nothing like your true open-world games, but impressive to see on Gamecube nonetheless.
Anyway, to sum up this review, I’d like to give out some scores and reasons.
Gameplay- 7/10. The swinging saves this part of the game, with the rest (Combat) just bringing it down.
Replayability- 6/10. The completist within you is sure to want to collect the many different tokens the game has, and that feat takes quite a while, featuring over 300 over them. Not to mention the “Hideout” set, which are especially difficult to find.
Lifespan-8/10. The main game lasted me around 10 hours, but the amount of time it takes all depends largely on how fast you want to get through the game.
Comments and critique down below.
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