The Five Most Addictive Payday 2 Features
Because hundreds of hours of gameplay don't just happen.
http://www.gamecupid.com/content/five-most-addictive-payday-2-features
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The Five Most Addictive Payday 2 Features
Because hundreds of hours of gameplay don't just happen.
http://www.gamecupid.com/content/five-most-addictive-payday-2-features
Hand of Fate: Early Access Preview
An absolutely gorgeous fusion of tabletop card game and frenetic fantasy action.
http://powerupgaming.co.uk/articles/281-hand-of-fate-early-access-preview
Dragon Age Keep: Open Beta Impressions
So I was finally able to give Dragon Age Keep a go, and after a few hours of tinkering, here's what I have to say on it:
http://powerupgaming.co.uk/articles/292-dragon-age-keep-open-beta-impressions
Shelter
Given its focus on cute animals and an endless quest for food, at first glance Shelter seems designed to appeal to the average person on social media (Instagram foodies, I’m looking at you). Essentially a badger simulator, you play a mother badger trying to lead her five cubs to food and safety, and it never really gets more complicated than that. However, after only a few minutes you very quickly grow attached to your little badgelets, ready to kill every living thing that crosses your path if it means your family gets another meal.
The first thing you’ll notice will probably be the audio. Subtle but gorgeous, acoustic guitar mesmerises both as immersing background music and a charming riff that plays whenever a cub finishes eating. Almost as beautiful is the art style, depicting the game world almost like origami. However, this sometimes feels less like a design choice and more like a way to justify how jagged the polygon models are. The screen also always looks like someone turned the contrast all the way down on their monitor, then cranked up the brightness. This is less of a glaring problem in outdoor areas, but it just makes indoor ones such as caves seem really uninviting, not the warm family burrow you’d expect.
Guess I should have taught them to share.
The controls are extremely basic, consisting of movement, action, sneak and sprint. Sneak is next to useless, as you move so slowly when sneaking that you can’t actually gain any ground on a moving animal. Given that you have a lot of ground to cover in each level and the ticking clock of five hungry bellies to fill, it’s tempting to just sprint everywhere. However, your cubs can’t run as fast as you can, so you’ll constantly be looking back to check they’re all still there. The camera doesn’t work so well in small spaces, either, often getting stuck inside a tree right when you needed to see what you were doing.
Each of the five levels is expansive and unique, ranging from crossing a river, to navigating almost complete darkness, to escaping a forest fire. Some of these have an irritating fusion of linearity and openness, with the worst of both worlds. There is often only one right way to go, but you are given very little indication of where that is, with only occasional landmarks on the horizon to guide your path. Furthermore, while in other games this could allow for some very freeing exploration, here it becomes rather more frustrating when you know your babies will be turning grey with hunger any minute.
Wow, that is one densely packed solar system.
To supplement the extremely short story (roughly 1 – 1.5 hours), Shelter also comes with a Nurture mode, which is basically a very slow-paced survival mode. The idea is that you venture out of your cave to scrounge for food, then once you’ve brought all you can find back to your cubs, you come back the next real-world day and do it again. This Animal Crossing approach means you can only play in short bursts of 5 – 10 minutes at a time, because there’s literally nothing else to do for the rest of the day. While new areas open up for you to explore after about a week, Nurture proved to be too much of a slow burn for me to stick with.
Shelter’s strength lies less in its technical features or gameplay elements, and more in the way it makes you feel. Losing a cub to predators or the elements hits hard; the loss made all the more devastating by the knowledge that your poor leadership was the cause. While the game gets markedly easier with fewer mouths to feed, admitting this to yourself is likely to make you feel worse, rather than better. Even frustration that you can’t move as fast or as freely with little ones to worry about isn’t really a detraction from the experience, but rather part of it.
In this way, Shelter isn’t really about badgers at all; it’s about being a parent.
LA Cops: Early Access Preview
I'm finally getting to play things before they're properly released! Minor success is mine! Read the full article at: http://powerupgaming.co.uk/articles/245-la-cops-early-access-preview
The Most Memorable N64 Games
This week I got all nostalgic about the Nintendo 64. Join me on memory lane here: http://powerupgaming.co.uk/articles/219-the-most-memorable-n64-games-part-1
6 GAMES LIKE AGE OF EMPIRES II: THE AGE OF KINGS
My latest GameCupid article is up here: http://www.gamecupid.com/content/6-games-like-age-empires-ii-age-kings
Shelter Review
Hey guys, check out my review of Shelter on Power Up Gaming: http://powerupgaming.co.uk/articles/200-shelter-review
Also, in case you've missed anything, you can find all of my published work with them at http://powerupgaming.co.uk/users/owen-atkinson
5 Shadowrun Returns Features That Will Keep You Coming Back
Check out this article here: http://www.gamecupid.com/content/5-shadowrun-returns-features-will-keep-you-coming-back
Unrest
Game developers' approach to story has changed enormously over video gaming history. Whereas once all we knew was that "our princess is in another castle", now games are being used specifically as a story-telling medium. And as gaming narratives have become more sophisticated, so too have their dialogue systems. Story-driven series such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age have harnessed dialogue as a device to not only characterise your protagonist, but also make choices that have lasting and unpredictable effects. But is a dialogue system strong enough to stand on its own, without any of the action to which gamers have grown so accustomed? Would Shadowrun Returns still be worth playing if you didn't actually get to run the shadows? This is the experience Unrest offers, and the result feels less like a game and more like an extremely vivid choose-your-own-adventure book. The setting for this tale is the once-great city of Bhirma, ravaged by drought, unrest and xenophobia. You play as a series of protagonists, each with different backgrounds, loyalties and opinions about how best to weather the crisis. The majority of the game consists of conversations via dialogue boxes, offering choices that tend to be either kind, rude or neutral. Depending on the choices you make, you can gain additional information, quests or support from the person to whom you're talking, or else find yourself snubbed or even imprisoned if the conversation turns sour. However, as misfortune for one protagonist can potentially lead to good fortune for another, there is no right or wrong choice to make.
I suspect my character may have resting bitchface.
Unfortunately, Unrest doesn't do a very good job of explaining its mechanics. For example, every conversation choice you make has the potential to positively or negatively affect the degree to which someone likes, respects or fears you. However, you aren't ever told what effect this has. Similarly, each playable character comes with a few personality traits, and if you consistently choose certain types of dialogue (e.g. calm, direct, bold) new traits will be added to reflect that. But again, there's no indication if this is opens up any new options, or if it's just for characterisation purposes. Furthermore, though the controls include buttons for attacking and blocking, I never had the opportunity to use them even once throughout the entire game. While I understand this isn't some hack and slash gore fest, there were times when combat should have been available, but wasn't. Any time my character was able to draw their sword, the game immediately jumped to after the supposed battle, expressing the results in another dialogue box.
The most fearsome weapon of all.
Despite occasionally feeling like the game was glossing over the exciting parts, I quickly became absorbed into this world. The captivating art style perfectly expresses the Indian setting, making even slums and their pox-riddled inhabitants look beautiful. Whenever the soothing music began to play, I immediately found my mood lifting, all frustrations forgotten. Most important of all, the different ways each character sees the world and its various inhabitants will keep you guessing about who is in the right--if anyone. I found it hard not to empathise with even the most monstrous characters, for even they only did what they believed was either right or necessary.
Unrest often forces the player to make tough choices between serving their own interests and serving others. At one point you play as a priest who frequently has to decide whether to selflessly perform his holy duties or play it safe to ensure his own children's safety. At another point you play a peasant girl who has to decide whether to accept her arranged marriage to a spiteful boy and his unwelcoming family, or else find some way to sabotage or escape the wedding. Your available options are broad and varied with multiple solutions to problems, but not all will work out as intended. For example, my ultra-selfish choice to have the reluctant bride run away on a stolen horse with her parents' life savings seemed to be the best move to save her, but without knowing how to ride a horse, her escape ended up less than perfect. There really aren't any easy decisions, as even seemingly insignificant choices can set off chain reactions that affect the fates of thousands.
I might just hang out in here, if that's cool with you guys.
Clocking in at about five hours, Unrest isn't exactly War and Peace. What it is, is a poignant exploration of just how much people will sacrifice to save either themselves, their families or their homes, and the unintended consequences that can follow. If everyone played through Unrest at least once, perhaps more of us would think before we speak.
7.5/10
The Sims 4 Create A Sim Preview
With The Sims 4 only a couple of weeks out from release, EA has allowed early access to the game's upgraded Create A Sim (CAS) mode, one of the three significantly overhauled features of the series' latest instalment. Here's what a few of us at PUG have to say about our experiences with the demo:
Austin: You know, I haven't extensively played the Sims games, but I have dabbled so I was no stranger to making a new character. The first aspect about the Sims character creator or Create A Sim demo as Maxis and The Sims Studio have so "creatively" named it is the amount of minor tweaks you can make to the characters. I tinkered with my avatar for a good 30 minutes and I still felt like I could do more to improve what I had. Not only does the program come with presets, but after a player chooses a face or body type he/she likes they can click on minor features like the cheeks or hips to enlarge or minimize the selected area. It was a nice little touch that seemed to give more control to gamer's who are all about making that picture perfect avatar (you know who you are!). Beyond that there is an option for facial hair, clothes, tattoos and much more. After my 30 minutes of work this is what I came up with:
Who wore it better? My friend Josh, who has very limited play time with the Sims, also decided to try his hand at making a mini him. The experience was fairly entertaining and as you can probably tell *sigh* we didn't use source material for these characters. The demo also came with the option to personalize your Sim's walk, hobbies, personalities and life goals. Even if I didn't care much for the creator itself, the character abilities dictated by a Sims' personality made me curious as to how they will translate to actual gameplay. Although I'm not sure this was enough to ignite a burning passion inside me for The Sims 4, I absolutely didn't hate the experience. So to put it into perspective... I might not go out of my way to buy this game, but if a buddy asks me if I want to try out their copy, I wouldn't turn my nose up to it. Taylor H: The Create A Sim demo for The Sims 4 is fun. It features a range of options previously unavailable to game players. For example, players can choose a base body shape and then manipulate individual parts. This includes arms, calves, thighs, buttocks, and feet, all of which could not be altered in past versions of the game. The ability to change body parts independently allows for a great variety of body shapes. Facial features can also be altered with greater precision and the game has many skin tone options. The graphics are fantastic and do not take long to load (loading time will probably be different with the full game, though). I am most impressed with the hair and clothing. Although the demo only gives a sample of what the base game will offer, they both look much improved from previous versions. I often stuck to a few styles for my Sims because most of the choices just looked ridiculous, but I can tell that The Sims 4 will be better in this regard.
Isn't that my accountant? However, I did have a few problems with the demo. Unless I somehow did not see the correct button, you cannot create your own colour. You can only select from the swatches you are given. I certainly hope this is not the case in the full game as I like to give my Sims highlights and funky-coloured eyes. The demo also did not let me choose favourites for my Sims and when creating relationships within a household, the demo only gives three options: roommate, brother/sister, and husband/wife. In addition, my cursor got stuck in a sort of rotate mode. When I went to click on something, it changed into a video camera icon and would only let me rotate my Sim. I couldn't do anything and I couldn't figure out how to get the normal cursor back. I couldn't even exit the demo normally. To fix it, I had to use the Windows task manager to force an exit and then re-enter, causing me to lose the entire household. This has only happened once, though, and I have used the demo several times. Overall, I really like the new Create A Sim. I think it will enrich the game and allow players to create unique Sims and situations. Experimenting with the demo has made me excited to play The Sims 4. Owen: For all the hype and big claims, The Sims 4's CAS doesn't seem to me that much of an improvement over the previous game's offering. The Sims 3 split facial and body features into multiple categories filled with sliders, each keyed to a different physical attribute. The Sims 4 has tried to replace this with a more organic system that lets you simply click on a body part and manipulate it at will. However, with each body part comprising so many smaller parts (e.g., nose bridge width/depth, nose height/width/length, nostril size, nose curve, etc.), you can't really map all that to a mouse that can only move in two dimensions. To remedy this, you have to go into the fine detail mode to individually manipulate each feature. Even so, it can be hard to know exactly how the body part will react when you move the mouse one way or the other until you try it. For example, moving the mouse up on the lips could just as easily move the whole mouth as it could just thicken the lips, so a bit of trial and error is required. The result is that this CAS still feels like you're manipulating sliders, only now they're hidden within the face itself.
I can't decide if the personality options are deeper or shallower than the previous game's selection. On the one hand, traits and aspirations are much fewer in number, most of which being linked to one skill or another. On the other, traits are designed to work in conjunction with the new emotions; for example, Sims with the Bro trait will become confident when near other sims with the Bro trait, as well as gaining unique interaction options. Happiness is no longer the single ideal state, either, as other emotions can boost certain skills—sadness and creative skills, for example—which means that it is now much more feasible to make flawed Sims. See, little Sim? I'm not tormenting you just for the fun of it; it's also to help you finish your book!
She's plotting something, I just know it.
I agree with Taylor H in that while upgraded technology makes for much livelier and less generic-looking Sims than in The Sims 3, I still really felt the loss of the Create-A-Style (CASt) tool. So often in the Sims 3, articles of clothing wouldn't quite match, or wallpaper and floor tiles wouldn't look quite right. The CASt tool let us circumvent that, finding our own creative solutions without relying on the developers to think of everything. It also meant that if I wanted to give my Sim a cowboy hat made of galvanised steel, I could. Hopefully CASt will be added to the main game somewhere down the line either as a free update, or (more likely) paid content.
My general impression of clothing and hair styles is that players seem to be getting funnelled towards creating stylish and partying Sims, which seems like the kind of market EA is looking for (if the licensed tracks in Need For Speed: Most Wanted are any indication). Clothing options are surprisingly few--the rest apparently unlocked by in-game achievements--and the ones currently available seem to feature a disproportionate number of "going out" clothes. As someone who tends to dress my Sims in paint-splattered overalls or the most comfortable-looking track pants available, this feels like a sign that the series' demographic is not only expanding, but shifting. While The Sims has always catered for creativity and wish fulfilment, now it seems the latter is overpowering the former. I just hope that when the full game ships, those of us who have grown accustomed to playing as eccentric time-travelling inventors wearing perfectly colour-matched wooden outfits will still be able to realise those dreams.
Explodemon
The classic 2D sidescrolling platformers are not so much dead as they are mummified. Every now and then a new 2D Super Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog will lurch out of its sarcophagus, getting gauze all over the place as it tries to recapture its glory days. While such games aren't exactly bad, they also aren't exactly new, aside from a few half-baked mechanics tacked on to the same basic formula. The real innovation these days is coming from indie developers, who understand that if the genre is going to capture our hearts (and wallets), it needs to offer something fresh and varied, challenging but light-hearted, something that taps into the reasons why gamers want to play platformers in the first place. Something like Explodemon.
While this game has some clear influences--the art style is very Megaman, while the platforming puzzles are reminiscent of Metroid--Explodemon isn't afraid to walk its own path. You play as the game's namesake, a jovial and volatile lab experiment who talks like if Minsc from Baldur's Gate had been run through an internet translator about four times. Accidentally broken out of cryogenic stasis by the alien Vortex invasion, Explodemon takes it upon himself to heroically and gratuitously rid his people of this menace--even if that means destroying everything else in the process.
A for effort, I suppose...
The story is light-hearted and intentionally silly, which pairs well with the cutscenes' simple but smooth animation style. The bright colours and funky soundtrack are a welcome distraction from the drab blues and browns and obligatory orchestral score of so many of today's Triple A games. Level design is fairly varied between the three playable worlds, with plenty of breakable walls, windows and crates to obliterate in your relentless pursuit of justice.
Everything in Explodemon is built for speed. Menus are minimalist and intuitive, with only a couple of button presses from the start screen to get you straight into the action. Though the volatile hero isn't as blindingly quick as a certain blue hedgehog, quick reflexes are just as important if you want to stay alive. Explodemon's platforming is geared more towards good timing than accuracy, as with a little skill, missed jumps can often be corrected mid-flight.
Uh, guys, a little help here? Guys?
Double jumps, wall jumps, phase dashes and explosions can be combined to perform all kinds of aerial manoeuvres, and more than once I found myself accidentally pulling off a move I hadn't even known existed. The at-times blistering pace of the game encourages you to throw yourself about with reckless abandon, blasting through anything that moves--and plenty more that doesn't. However, the inclusion of instant-death pits from the second planet onward forces you to slow down a little, but as death only takes you back to the start of the current screen, it's a minor speed bump.
Puzzles are fairly standard, usually involving moving weighted blocks onto pressure plates or destroying a power generator to open a door. However, since Explodemon can't actually pick anything up, solutions tend to involve skilfully timed or directed explosions, to bounce a block over a gap and set off a chain reaction. Many of these are off the level's main path and so can be ignored, but the rewards--usually power or speed boosts--are worth the effort. However, a few required puzzles toward the end are maddeningly difficult, so don't think you can just breeze through this game without engaging your brain a little.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Given the short range of Explodemon's powers, combat is up close and personal. As explosions do more damage the closer you are to an enemy, precise timing is key. Explosion chains can shred single targets, and the fearless charge attack is a great way to mow through a half dozen critters in only a few seconds. Victory does tend to favour perfection, though, as the more damage you take, the less damage you can deal. Boss battles could also do with a little more variety; arch nemesis Absorbemon wins the Golden Robotnik award for most appearances with the least change in strategy required.
Explodemon'sfrantic but frustrating gameplay lends itself to quick bursts, ideal for filling a spare twenty minutes here and there. Like Super Meat Boy, it instills the player with a manic determination to attempt each platforming puzzle "just one more time", and when you do manage to pull off that perfect run, it feels pretty great. As such, both casual and more hardcore gamers should find something to enjoy with this ode to property damage. While the adventure is fairly short--only about four hours--each of the twelve levels has a par time and a ranking to beat, enough to keep completionists happily blasting away for hours.
7/10
Banished
After the first few hours of Banished, I felt like I was playing Dark Souls in slow motion; one mistake can cost you everything, but it will take about forty minutes for your demise to be complete. The frustrating combination of slow pace with punishing difficulty almost put me off this game for good, but within a day I found myself drawn back into this deceptively harsh world, determined to not only survive, but thrive.
Despite the intriguing name, Banished has no story. Beyond the tutorials you have no missions, no objectives and no guidance. You simply oversee a group of exiled villagers who must draw from the randomly-generated environment to stay alive. And what an environment it is: crystal clear rivers cut through verdant grassland, herds of deer gallop through forests, and gentle snowfalls coat the countryside in a soft white blanket of snow, while warm plumes of smoke billow out of the chimneys of your villagers' thatched cottages. The art style is beautifully idyllic, but the life of a settler is not as pleasant as it looks.
It's raining marshmallows!
Banished's play style is not so much city building as it is ecosystem management. People need food, shelter and warmth at a minimum, with other services such as taverns and graveyards to keep them happy. This sounds basic enough, but there are a lot of ways that it can go wrong. Unlike other strategy games, this world tends not to find a natural equilibrium--for example, population growth will not level off to match food production. If you don't keep up with food production your people will begin to starve, but as these people include your food producers, this hinders your food production even more. The same is true of firewood shortages; villagers freeze to death, leaving fewer villagers to gather enough firewood to supply the rest, and so it goes on. All too often, the tiniest problem can quickly snowball into a death spiral that is practically impossible to escape.
Also, not supplying enough tools to your workers will damage their productivity, leading to shortages that cause freezing or starvation. Similarly, welcoming nomads into your village causes a small population spike that may strain your resources enough in the short term to kick off any one of these death spirals. Even going for too long without children being born results decades later in the ageing workforce dying off with nobody old enough to replace them. The only way I survived--after many cataclysmic attempts--was by stockpiling ridiculous amounts of resources, while monitoring production and consumption rates at the town hall so I would have enough margin for error to react before anyone died. In Banished, prevention is not only better than the cure; there is no cure. Once that first villager drops, the game is pretty much over.
How do you starve to death while harvesting corn? Eat on the job, genius!
Banished would be much more manageable if jobless labourers could do more to look after themselves. Even if this weren't automated, adding a button to command them to hunt or gather all food resources in a set area--much like the existing buttons for harvesting other resources--would help to provide damage control if starvation was starting to look likely. Also, production buildings such as tailors require too much babysitting, requiring the player to manually switch them from one output to another once raw materials for the former run dry. If people are freezing to death because they're out of wool, the tailor shouldn't have to be told to switch to leather. In a game where a potential issue can become a full-blown crisis in seconds, the player can't afford to get bogged down in micromanagement.
How addictive and enjoyable you find Banished depends largely on your appetite for punishment and amount of free time. If you're the type of person with the patience to successfully bake a soufflé, this might just be the game for you. If rolls of raw cookie dough are more your style, you might want to try something a little faster and more forgiving.
7/10
Shadowrun Returns
A disillusioned drizzle falls upon the restless Seattle streets, feeding the grime that coats every surface. Unperturbed, a razor-toothed ork stalks the Barrens, involuntarily flexing his cybernetic arms as a local gang of thugs take notice. He grits his teeth and stares them down; they aren’t the contract, but there’s always nuyen in cleaning up the streets. The ork laughs as the thugs draw their bats. With a shotgun in one hand, a manabolt in the other, and a cyberdeck slung across his back, this shadowrunner is ready for anything.
An unusual blend of cyberpunk and fantasy, the Shadowrun series’ premise is of a dystopian near-future made even more unstable by the return of mythical and magical creatures to the world. As wars rage both out in the open and behind boardroom doors, elite operatives called shadowrunners emerge to solve the problems that armies and arguments can’t. Whether honourable gunslingers, cold-hearted assassins, cunning spellcasters or wily hackers, all runners care about two things: getting the job done, and getting paid.
I wouldn't stand there if I were you.
From the moment you load the game, Shadowrun Returns sucks you into its dark, mature setting. Junkies waste away in unconscious bliss as they plug themselves in to the digitised memories of those more fortunate. Cults prey on the vulnerable as much as any gangster or serial killer, while corporate wage slaves toil day and night in their cubic prisons. Even the tormented spirits of dead children are dredged up to provide witness statements to investigators. This is a cold, bleak world where no one is happy and everything is fair game.
Complementing this Machiavellian atmosphere is an absolutely gorgeous art style, which somehow manages to be both poignantly drab and electrifyingly vibrant at the same time. City streets come to life with neon signs, racist graffiti and structural decay. The music fits perfectly with the setting, seamlessly switching between hauntingly tense refrains to throbbing battle music as the situation warrants.
While the plot is somewhat unimaginative (there should be a five-year ban on game writers using giant bugs just for the creep factor), the way it is told and the characters that populate it are magnificent. From a sadistic and corrupt detective, to a tough-as-nails bartender-turned runner, to a legendary decker masquerading as a janitor, this world is fit to bursting with deeply human people—even if they’re trolls—each just looking to make it through the day the only way they know how.
Yes, I'd like a large Hawaiian, please.
Tactical turn-based combat comprises the bulk of the game, and is for the most part very intuitive. Cover works well and special abilities—such as burst fire or marking a target to increase its to-hit ratio—bring enough strategy to elevate combat above a simple brawl. As money for first aid kits is scarce and healing magic only recovers the most recent attack’s damage, clever application of abilities is necessary to minimise damage and ensure long-term survival.
Unfortunately, skill customisation isn't that deep and doesn't give statistics on improvements. For example, increasing Strength improves your chance to hit in melee, but there isn't any information on exactly how much it will improve with each level. As karma (i.e. skill points) is in fairly short supply, and requirements rise exponentially in each category, knowing exactly what is offered in return would help determine each skill’s worth. Moreover, many have prerequisite skills that must be purchased before they are unlocked; to put karma in Melee Weapons, for example, you have to already have the same amount of karma in Close Combat, which again, requires the same in Strength.
Classes exist mostly as recommended character builds, with no restrictions as to what categories they can learn, but also no class-specific benefits such as unique abilities. While a loading screen cautions against spreading karma too thin, venturing outside of the recommended classes can be rewarding. For example, blending a Street Samurai's melee weapon skills with the unarmed-focused Adept's chi magic grants some powerful magical melee skills that neither would otherwise have.
This must be one of those interpretive dance clubs I've heard so much about.
While immensely enjoyable, the campaign is quite short, only 10-15 hours in length. This would be fine except that the way the game is paced, the campaign feels only about a third over when the credits roll. Both major and minor storylines and character arcs are left open, perhaps for a sequel. Partway through the game your shadowrunners get upgraded with an extra Action Point to add more flexibility to battle, and given the lack of context, this feels like it would be the first of multiple such upgrades distributed over the course of the campaign. Yet it isn’t; the campaign ends before that can happen.
Fortunately, Shadowrun Returns comes packaged with a comprehensive campaign editor that facilitates easy creation of user-generated content. While even the most highly rated creations available don’t quite measure up to the base campaign in terms of writing, balance and bug testing, they at least offer something fresh to chew on while contemplating a second playthrough of the main game.
Shadowrun Returns may be the most aptly titled game in recent history, for a return is exactly what it is. A return to classic tactical combat. A return to form for a series that started to lose its way. A return to the way stories should be told, and the way games should make you feel. In one move, it has closed more of the gap to perfection than most series do in even a full decade of yearly sequels. What comes next will be very interesting indeed.
9/10
Omerta - City of Gangsters
I have spent many years dreaming of a game like Omerta. In my mind, the concept of a Crime: Total War of sorts, that allows players to take over a city's seedy underbelly through a mix of strategy and combat was extraordinarily appealing. So when I heard of Omerta, I was more than a little excited. But can the reality live up to the dream?
Aesthetically, Omerta is quite pleasing. Though the visuals are more cartoonish than realistic, this fits with the semi-farcical approach the developers have taken. Even so, the rain effects as a downpour drenches the city streets are downright beautiful. The music is immediately catchy and memorable, with some of the best jazz and swing I've heard in a game (as well as an acoustic guitar track that would have been insane in Guitar Hero).The resulting atmosphere is at once charming, even romantic, blended with a darker, grittier feel just under the surface.
You know, that footpath would make a nice slip'n'slide...
This surface is the strategy half of Omerta, wherein players set up illegal businesses, arrange heists, bribe or blackmail public figures and generally try to make as much cash as possible. The interface is fairly simple and intuitive, though the way the camera automatically jumps to a character any time they finish an assigned task can get a little annoying. The option to disable this would have been nice, especially as players can already jump to a character any time they like simply by clicking on their portrait.
Businesses are designed to be used in conjunction with one another, either by consuming a resource that another provides—as with a brewery and speakeasy—or by offering boosts to others' efficiency—as does a bookmaker to casinos and boxing clubs. Businesses' efficiency also depend on whether players are liked, feared or both, which result from the actions and choices players make. This both encourages a specialised approach to business, while at the same time leaving players free to play however they like.
What exactly is that pool made of? Angels?
Combat is where the city's darker and more violent side comes out. Turn-based with tactical control of the entire team, the combat events are somewhat reminiscent of Fallout: Tactics. Weapons are varied and each type remains useful throughout the campaign, allowing players freedom of choice in how to build their team. I got through most of Omerta using an all-melee squad, within which I still had unique builds for each character. I was, however, disappointed that I could not modify the look of any gang members, not even my protagonist.
No one will ever know we were here...
However, combat can become a bit of a grind at times, and itself offers no benefits such as experience, so players may be tempted to automate as many combat events as possible toward the end of the game to save time. Difficulty spikes enormously in the last couple of levels, with the sheer number of enemies sent against the player making many strategies—such as stealth/melee or blitz attacks—suddenly worthless. These levels can be extremely frustrating, especially as success or failure often hinges on luck; missing on 95% hit chance happens all too often, and at the worst possible times.
The Japanese Incentive (TJI) add-on is a separate campaign set within the original, which immediately improves upon the base game. All gang members from the main campaign carry over, though without any of their weapons or perks, forcing players to start from scratch. However, TJI makes up for this by providing five new gang members designed to wield the three new badass weapons types—the versatile but critical-dependent katana, the panic-inducing flamethrower, and the machine gun for players who can't choose between a rifle and a tommy gun.
Well this murder mystery seems pretty straightforward.
The most important addition, however, is the new gang wars. Previously, the so-called seedy underbelly of Atlantic City felt a little too peaceful, with nothing able to threaten players other than police investigations, regardless of who the supposed enemy was in each mission. TJI introduces AI opponents that aggressively competes for the same territory and try to run the player out of business.
This makes for much more defensive but engaging gameplay, as you won't be dropping three grand on a labour union unless you're sure you'll be able to defend it. It also increases the use of firearms to attack enemy businesses, which were previously little more than a high-value resource. However, the AI's rampant aggression drives away independent businesses, making any kind of strategy that depends on these—for protection rackets, insurance companies, trade or police scapegoats—all but useless.
Despite its frustrations, Omerta remains a charming and highly addictive game with enough customisation options to ensure replayability. Hopefully developer Haemimont Games will learn from its few mistakes to one day create the game I continue to dream of.
8/10
Payday 2
Bank robbery is in right now. Last year, Grand Theft Auto V offered a taste of the bank robber lifestyle, but with only half a dozen heists and still none released for GTA Online, it left players wanting. Payday 2 is here to satisfy that desire. Within minutes of loading up the game, players can be hitting a bank, clearing out a jewel store, stealing and transporting guns and drugs, or doing shady deals for a corrupt politician. It's fast, frantic and doesn't try to be moral or nail players to a linear storyline. You are here to rob, steal and kill. Mask up, gentlemen; it's time to work.
Oftentimes Payday 2 feels like two games in one, which is not always a good thing. The two approaches to most jobs—stealth and loud—are fairly mutually exclusive, having little overlap in skills, equipment and strategy. For example, sneaking a bank requires shutting off camera feeds, luring and neutralising the guards and controlling all civilians inside, while loud just takes walking in with a big gun and holding out until you can escape, with only a couple of civilians as hostages in case a teammate gets arrested.
This means that most stealth efforts are wasted as soon as the alarm sounds, and players suddenly find themselves surrounded by hordes of SWAT with little more than a silenced pistol and a very nice suit for protection. On lower difficulties players can usually make it through a botched stealth effort if they play smart and stick together, but on Overkill or Deathwish, anything less than perfection tends to be fatal.
You might say I'm in two minds about this game.
This feeds into another issue with Payday 2: required multiplayer. On Normal difficulty, the game seems to cater to both single-player and multiplayer gamers, with most jobs possible to pass alone. Lack of arbitrary player number requirements—such as GTA Online has—coupled with easy drop-in blurs the line between singleplayer and multiplayer, theoretically making for a seamlessly flexible experience. However, going it alone is subtly discouraged, as many tasks are much easier with another pair of hands, such as moving a dozen bags of loot or simultaneously using two keycards to open a vault.
This would be less of a problem if players could give commands to AI characters, who can only shoot enemies and revive allies, and are useless in stealth. Inclusion of individual or group commands such as "bag this body", "pick that up" or "hold this position" would open up whole new avenues of strategy, but as it is, players must rely on each other to get through a tight spot. The ramping up of difficulty amplifies this need for human support, and can result in hour upon frustrating hour of failed jobs because a player left or the server disconnected at just the wrong time, leaving the host with nothing but semi-brainless AI for support.
While waves of cops, SWATs and snipers can provide quite a challenge, especially as they get tougher armour and weapons on higher difficulties, special enemies really emphasise the need to work as a team. Shields are practically invincible from the front, but can’t defend against multiple directions at once.
Tasers can incapacitate a player with electric shocks, requiring another player to kill the Taser to break them free. Cloakers’ stealthy approach and one-hit melee kills make them the bane of anybody who wanders off alone, too far away for teammates to revive them. Lastly, Bulldozers are walking tanks that can slowly mow through the whole team, killable only by explosives or focused fire on their faceplates.
Oh come now, Mr Dozer. My singing's not that bad...
Fortunately, the police aren’t the only ones with tricks up their sleeves. Players can design their ideal bank robber by choosing skills from four different classes. Masterminds are all about manipulating people, with medical bags and buffs to aid teammates, upgraded civilian management and the ability to convert enemies to their side. Technicians are masters of machinery, boasting faster and quieter drills, automated sentry guns and trip mines that can be upgraded to blast through doors and safes in an instant.
Enforcers are the crew’s answer to Bulldozers, bearing the heaviest armour, most powerful shotguns, ammo bags and portable saws to crack open deposit boxes. Ghosts are the antithesis to Enforcers, slipping through missions unseen with faster lockpicking that can even crack safes, camera loops and rather overpowered ECM devices that can block all phone and camera feeds, open security doors and incapacitate enemies with feedback.
While playing a class straight can work well, combining upgrades of different classes provides the most effective builds. For example, pairing a Technician’s 50% armour boost and faster armour regeneration with an Enforcer’s heaviest armour and health upgrades makes for an extremely durable bank robber, while a Mastermind’s spotter asset can make a Ghost’s efforts at stealth much easier.
First time I've ever been smack-talked by a safe.
One interesting feature of Payday 2 is that jobs’ layouts change slightly on every attempt. Cameras, guards, loot and objectives will often be in different locations each time you try the job, the intent being that players can’t simply memorise where everything is and design an optimal strategy. A nice idea, but it ultimately fails because while these placements are randomised, where they appear still falls within the overall category of scripted spawn points, so after a few dozen hours players will know all the places to look in every job.
That said, it keeps things fresh enough that players still need to keep their eyes peeled for unexpected trouble, lest a camera or guard appear somewhere unexpected. Also, the recently released stealth-only Shadow Raid job introduces an enemy helicopter after a few minutes, which will either be carrying some valuable loot or a few extra guards to make things that little bit trickier. This feature forces players to re-evaluate their strategy, making it an excellent step forward for the series.
Every completed job rewards players with cash and experience, and the game feels unbalanced in both categories. Cash starts off being in extremely short supply, leaving scores of weapon mods sitting in players’ inventories because they can't afford to attach them until without finishing another five jobs or so, each of which could yield more mods. However, by about Reputation 50, most weapons are unlocked, purchased and fully upgraded, leaving little use for cash.
Experience is the opposite, with quick level gains early on, but around Reputation 80 it seems to spike drastically; getting from Reputation 0 to 80 requires roughly ten million experience in total, while 80 to 100 requires another fifteen million. This eventually makes all but the most bountiful jobs seem like a complete waste of time.
I should really pick that thing up before someone gets hurt.
Weapon modification is deep, with changes made reflected both in function and aesthetics. Stat-wise, a mod rarely gives an advantage without taking something away in return, which means players need to focus their efforts, lest they end up with a confused mish-mash of mods that all cancel out each other's benefits.
Mask customisation runs even deeper, providing millions of possible combinations. However, players can't see their own mask while on the job, nor is there often time to admire anybody else's mask outside of the lobby screen. Also, given that body armour is fairly bland, it would have been nice to be able to modify it or the underlying suit in similar ways. Also annoying is the restriction of customisation colours being locked in set pairs, rather than letting players choose two colours independently.
Players can view their collected weapons, masks and stacks of cash in their underground safehouse, which has been rumoured to eventually include customisation options of its own. However, it only has space for nine primary weapons, nine secondary weapons and eight masks (despite a blank section of wall right next to all this), even though players' inventories have space for eight times that much.
Oh, if only I could wear you...
Developer Overkill has kept to their word in providing ongoing content and support for Payday 2. New content seems to be released every few months, and often comes at no cost. These updates have included exciting new jobs such as armoured truck heists and game-changing weapons that include sniper rifles able to pierce Shields and even take down Bulldozers in a single shot if hit just right.
Overkill's next batch of missions is set for release soon, and includes a special diamond heist, a bank job with a vault stacked full enough to move one to tears, a Las Vegas casino heist and a special rescue mission of crewmate Hoxton (a.k.a Hoxtatron, Hoxtalicious and Hoxtonator). Whether Hoxton players will be able to contribute to their own breakout remains to be seen, but if so, this could be a very interesting twist on the standard job format. To top it all off, these jobs will be available through a new contact, the Dentist, played by the rather magnificent Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad fame.
If he pulls out a box cutter, I'm leaving.
Few developers seem able to combine instant gratification gameplay with long-term interest, but Overkill appear to have done it. With 280 Reputation levels gained over almost as many hours, this game became the most-played on my Steam list without me even noticing. Though my attention is beginning to drift back to my other games, as long as the new content keeps coming, I won't be away from Payday 2 for long.
8/10
Elder Scrolls Online Preview
Combining one of the most time-consuming gaming series with one of the most time-consuming gaming genres, Elder Scrolls Online may well become the biggest time sink in gaming history. But is it worth the effort?
The story of Elder Scrolls Online follows a war between three alliances—The Aldmeri Dominion, Ebonheart Pact and Daggerfall Covenant—all vying for the Imperial throne, while Molag Bal, Daedric Prince of domination and slavery, tries to take over the world by pulling it into his realm of Oblivion. Just like Skyrim’s civil war during a dragon apocalypse, petty mortal concerns are given far more priority than one would think. Nonetheless, the world is rich and vibrant, with the greatest variety of locations to explore of any Elder Scrolls game to date. I rejoiced when I encountered an entire village of Argonians, and seemed to laugh almost constantly on the island full of Khajiit, where quests were tailored to their chaotic nature, sense of humour, and love/hate relationship with moon sugar.
Character creation seems more detailed than ever before, but a little unbalanced in its options. For example, there often isn’t much of a dramatic difference between the minimum and maximum settings on any of the appearance sliders. This is especially true with female characters. With the possible exceptions of Argonian lizard people and Khajiit felines, I found that no matter how thick the neck, no matter how square the jaw, no matter how flat the nose, I could not manage to make a female character look ugly. Their muscles didn’t seem as large as their male counterparts, either; in fact, the only body morphing option that did seem to have significant depth for female characters was the “chest size” slider. Character creation being all about the player injecting their own creativity into the game, I felt more than a little frustrated at having my choices limited to what gamers are expected to want.
You know you’re playing with a stacked deck when even the orc ladies have got it going on.
The problem extends to race choice as well. While I accept that the different kinds of humans and elves have their own genealogies that influence how they can look, that shouldn’t extend to my choice of tattoos and hair styles. It’s understandable that Bethesda would want players to have avatars that visually reflect their race’s alliance—so as to create a certain “them versus us” camaraderie in Player vs Player (PvP)—but that shouldn’t mean that a Redguard couldn’t style his hair like a Dunmer if he felt like it. A possible solution would be to unlock all styles for all races—again, possibly excluding the Argonians and Khajiit who have more specialised physiology—and simply have a symbol pop up telling the player that they are looking at what is traditionally a Nord tattoo.
Players are also required to choose a class for their character, with the options being Dragonknight, Templar, Nightblade and Sorcerer, and more coming soon. The last three on that list seem quite a bit like the archetypal Warrior, Rogue and Mage, but the classes don’t restrict your choices as much as in other games. Within each of those four classes, there are three branches of unique skills, so if players want to specialise they already have twelve options to choose from. None of these classes prevent you from using any weapon or armour combination you like, either, as the Elder Scrolls series is practically synonymous with open-ended skill choices.
Combat is easy except for when it isn’t, with seemingly endless spawns of weak enemies being broken up by the occasional apocalyptically difficult one. Against these foes, you basically have the choice of coming back at a higher level, or coming back with other players to take it on together. Skyrim had enemies that were too tough to kill at lower levels, but these were mostly giants and mammoths that would leave you alone unless provoked; they weren’t quest enemies you had to fight while still learning the ropes. Elder Scrolls Online’s enemy balance of one strong foe in a sea of weak ones feels like Bethesda forgot they were making a multiplayer game for much of the development, and then very hastily buffed up a few quest bosses to force players to interact.
Such interaction can be rewarding, however, if in rather unexpected ways. Bethesda has included a nice touch, where if you open the inventory screen, other players will see your character as digging through a bag for an item. Similar animations play out when looking at the map or your journal, too. Not only does this increase immersion, it also means that if you team up with someone who suddenly stops in their tracks, you should only have to look at them to know why. And there’s no need to fear any of your allies stabbing you in the back while you rummage for a potion, as friendly fire is disabled outside of PvP.
Where was the tavern, again?
The experience system seems a little backward. The Elder Scrolls games’ usual method of player advancement is to have players use skills to improve them, and with every improvement they gain experience to their next level. This deepened the role playing by forcing players to use the skills they wanted to improve, rather than simply killing a tough enemy, levelling up and suddenly knowing more about alchemy. By contrast, Elder Scrolls Online gives players experience when they kill something, complete a quest or find a new area, and then skill improvement is rewarded to whatever skills’ abilities and items you have equipped at the time. The change is disappointing, not least because there appears to be no particular reason for it.
Of course, to improve skills you’ll need skill points. These are in constant short supply, but that serves as incentive to push on to the next level, or hunt down the rare skyshards for a free point. The limit of five hotkey slots for skills, as well as the opportunity to evolve skills with new abilities as they improve, encourages players to focus on their favourites, rather than try to use everything available to them. With such wealth of options in skill development, the odds of encountering another player with the exact same character build as you is extremely low.
Crafting is deeper than ever before in an Elder Scrolls game, but not all versions of crafting appear to be equally useful. Provisioning, for example, is an easy skill to grow with the masses of cooking materials you’ll stumble upon in your travels, but the end result isn’t all that useful. The early-game food items provide one of only six minor buffs that last for half an hour each and can’t be stacked. I would call it a watered-down version of alchemy, except that the actual version of alchemy is the exact opposite. I struggled to find many alchemy ingredients at all, which made each failed experiment a costly mistake. Enchanting fell somewhere between the two in terms of abundance of supplies and potency of the creation, but all the ones I was able to make could only be applied to jewellery, which seems conspicuously absent from the game. Crafting for profit is ineffective as well, because created items are generally worth less than the sum of their parts.
The only subsets of crafting that really seem worth the effort are clothing, blacksmithing and woodworking, which differ only in the types of equipment they let you make. Equipment crafting is almost fiendishly detailed: you start by choosing what you want to make, such as an axe. You then choose the material the axe shall be made from, the most basic of which is iron. Then you determine the axe’s strength and level restrictions by choosing how much iron to use. Then you choose a racial style, which is purely cosmetic and requires unique items—for example, flint for Argonian and moonstone for Khajiit. Lastly, you can choose to add an additional characteristic to the weapon, provided you have learned any, and of course have the requisite jewel to imbue it. Even then, the weapon’s journey is not over, as you can improve it with special items, and add any enchantments you’ve found or created. And then of course, once you find higher quality crafting materials, it’s time to do it all over again. Despite the staggering detail, I found these creative options—particularly choice of racial style—extremely appealing, and I was always trying to scrape together a few more moonstone to complete my Khajiit’s armour set.
Behold my furry friend, as menacing as he is fabulous.
Unfortunately, scraping together items makes up a large portion of Elder Scrolls Online. Given that a single piece of armour may require a minimum of six pieces of refined material, and given that creating that refined material requires a greater quantity of the relevant raw material, gathering enough of that raw material could be a lot easier. Not only are natural deposits of ore and plants used for fabric depleted for a time once another player harvests them, slain animals often do not drop any hide at all. This results in hours of trudging back and forth, waiting for deposits to respawn and hoping that the next wolf you kill will be worth the effort. Perhaps the scarcity and competition for resources is meant to foster some kind of player-to-player trading system, though surely there are more pleasant ways to encourage cooperation.
Fortunately, Elder Scrolls Online offers a solution. Any items you put into the game’s bank will be available for any of your other characters, but even if you’re just playing the one, the bank is invaluable. Not only is it a handy place to dump items you want to hold onto but don’t really need to carry around all the time—for example, crafting materials or weapons and armour with characteristics you want to research—you are also able to use these items when crafting or researching without having to withdraw them from the bank. This also means that any crafting materials you do have in excess will be available for any of your other characters. For example, races of the Aldmeri Dominion will spend the early game in areas with plenty of animals to slaughter for hide, but comparatively little of the other resources. The bank is a simple yet elegant feature that cuts down on a lot of back-and forth, and helps to mitigate grinding as well.
If you can't craft armour, grow it.
The music strikes the right balance between memorable and background noise, so that players may find themselves humming along without being driven mad by repetition. The main theme is somewhat reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean, while I noticed one or two pieces picked and remade from Oblivion, fitting considering that game also involved a Daedric assault on Cyrodiil. When grinding takes its toll, and the game starts to feel like nothing more than a series of numbers going back and forth, you can count on the music to breathe life back into the experience.
Anyone who’s seen Elder Scrolls Online’s game case on Coming Soon shelves will know that Player versus Player is the major drawcard for this game. This is where the conflict between the three alliances comes to a head, and thousands of players compete and cooperate to capture the Imperial City. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and server issues, I have not yet reached far enough into the game with any one character to gain access to Cyrodiil, and by extension PvP. Expect a dedicated PvP review in the near future.
Having over a dozen hours gained twenty levels across four characters, I know I have not even scratched the surface of Bethesda’s gargantuan offering. What I don’t know is if I’ll be playing to see anything more than the plot play out in a variety of pretty settings as I progressively upgrade my weapons and armour. Unless the combat balance is redressed to give a more generally exciting experience, I don’t see myself sticking with Elder Scrolls Online to the end.
Beta score: 7/10