To the Moon Review

This game made me cry.

There's a lighthouse involved...somehow.

To the Moon, the first commercial release by Freebird Games, is unique in the fact that it delivers its story through a game premise but ultimately lacks a lot of gameplay to speak of. In its defense, that's not a bad thing and makes what would otherwise be a 4-5 hour movie more interactive and compelling. The story takes place in what seems to be the not-too-distant future. The player controls two doctors, Dr. Neil Watts and Dr. Eva Rosalene, who have machinery capable of replacing someone's memories. Due to the conflict this can cause the patient in the real world, their business is focused on providing this service to people on their death beds. The result allows a person to die believing he or she has fulfilled his or her lifelong wish. The doctors make this task, which requires following memory's path back to childhood and offering strong suggestions to make the dream come true, seem rather rote in its execution, but their newest patient, Johnny, offers them an emotional challenge.

As the title would suggest, Johnny's dying wish is to go to the moon. He lays on his deathbed surrounded by his doctor, his caretaker, and her two children in a house on a cliff by a lighthouse. Conversations are completely composed of text, and there are no vocals except for a single song which plays in the background later on (similar to Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX). After some light comedic elements, including a fake RPG battle scenario, the doctors get to work hooking their patient and themselves to the machine that makes dreams come true. What they find out before diving in, though, is that neither Johnny nor the people surrounding him know why he wanted to go to the moon in the first place, and this proves to be the crux of the narrative. Clearly, if you don't know why you want to do something as a mature adult, it'll be hard to convince yourself as a child to go for it.

Given its brevity, I won't delve much further into the story itself because much of the mystery starts shortly after the machine is powered on. The gameplay is relatively simple for the majority of it, though. For every memory Eva and Neil enter, they must find a gateway object which lets them travel further back in time towards childhood, but in order to do that, they must find five memories to break its barrier. This involves either picking up certain objects, entering particular places, or experiencing special events. After opening the gateway object, readying it for use involves solving a small puzzle. Based on conversations between the doctors, it is usually rather simple to find gateways back to childhood very easily, but Johnny presents a challenge, and each jump is rather short, meaning the player will be repeating this process a significant number of times before reaching the conclusion. There are eventually small variations thrown in for flavor, but none of them are remarkable aside from a clunky but funny reference to Plants vs. Zombies (the game's credits feature composer and sound designer, Laura Shigihara).

You can't tell how ugly the children are because this is 16-bit. Trust me.

Regardless, in its 16-bit presentation and simplicity, the story of To the Moon is the star of the show, and it managed to deliver probably the most emotional and unique moment I've ever experienced in a game. As the subheader would suggest, I cried. I really did. And I really had doubts that I would. For one, I have never been too moved by text conversations, and sometimes this story can be silly. Although it never overstays its welcome, the ways the different scenes seem to connect come off initially as obvious and pedestrian though cute. Eventually, there is a neat twist, which puts some of the stranger events into perspective. However, it all builds up to a moment about four hours in that left me in tears. That scene (actually, that line) coupled with the following events wrapped this up as one of the most wonderful stories I've had the privilege of experiencing.

Even though there is not much game to speak of regarding To the Moon, I think everyone who believes in making emotional connections in video games must play this. At the very least, it's not too challenging to get through, and the whole experience is short enough to cover in a few play sessions. Do yourself a favor, and go for it.

This game is currently on sale on Steam and GOG for $4.99.

Assassin's Creed III Review

Running, Jumping, Climbing Trees, Killing Blokes While You're Up There

This should reveal enough about the new setting for you.

The Assassin's Creed franchise has come a long, long way since the first game came out in 2007. Still, it would seem rather strange to new players that with four previous console releases and three portable that the latest entry would carry the "III" on the end. Now that Ezio Auditore's adventure is finally over, Ubisoft saw fit to end the side stories and usher in a new assassin, Connor Kenway, to carry the adventure along to its first numbered entry in years. However, compared to the innovation Assassin's Creed II ushered in compared to its predecessor, this entry leaves me questioning if more couldn't have been done.

The story takes place in the colonial American countryside, particularly the area between Boston and New York, before and during the American Revolutionary War. As a citizen of the United States, I will admit I could not help but be charmed by participating in so many historical moments even though I am not much of a history buff myself. It is just nice to add the game's secret layer on top of things, I suppose. After a twist near the beginning of the game, Desmond, the overarching protagonist of the series, gets to control Connor in the past as he races in the present to find a way to prevent the end of civilization as he knows it on December 21st, 2012. Connor is motivated by the desire to protect his native American tribe from the dangers that threaten them, and finding out a Templar had a hand in a tragedy he experienced is enough to embroil him in the assassin cause.

Despite the set up of the previous few games, the assassins' brotherhood is all but dissolved, and Connor makes a lot of effort to rally the local colonists to join him. I do not want to ruin any major plot points, but by the end of the game, there isn't the same sense of satisfaction as there was present at the end of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood when Ezio gained the support of the beleaguered Roman citizens. This might be due, in part, to the fact the Connor's cause piggybacks on the colonists' cause and not vice-versa. Though early interviews suggested he would remain neutral, enlisting the help and ire of both sides, the story proves this wholly untrue by siding entirely with the colonists. While it doesn't make his cause more worthy of my time, the efforts of the writers to blur the lines between right and wrong ultimately shine as each Templar's death reveals more dogma highlighting the flaws in the assassins' and Connor's fights. For the first time, the Templars have something worthwhile to say, and the confusion they cause finally establish them as the perfect antagonists whereas they were just blindly evil in earlier entries.

Get in line. I have all day.

There are only subtle hints to this dilemma in the story that takes place during the present day. After the end of the previous game, Desmond and his rag tag group of assassin pals are on the last leg of their journey to stop end of the world. Demond's father also joins the team if only to provide the unbelievable trope story of the father who isolated his child for a higher cause but proves his love after being forced to work together. You will ultimately not care how these two feel for each other, and the other two characters, short their other friend since Brotherhood, still make no effort to be interesting despite the player's opportunity to talk to each while outside the animus. If anything, Shaun Edmonds, the English tech whiz who writes the database entries, manages to make himself utterly deplorable through constant condescension and double entendres written into each paragraph. Actually, scratch that, it ceases to be a double entendre once you write, "penis." Then, it's just crass and unfunny.

Off to gameplay, something new thrown into the fray is the ability to climb the many mountains and trees in each environment. After doing so for only a handful of minutes, you will quickly become convinced that there's no going back to simply climbing building facades. Navigation has also been streamlined to become much simpler, acknowledging both the actions you'll do often and the actions you'll intend to do in certain contexts. Running is made possible by holding the "high profile" button alone and a direction on the left thumbstick, no more holding the "feet" button. Connor also automatically will push people aside, showing the developers finally learned there is no time you will try to run into a crowd and purposely wish to trip over the people.

Combat has also been made a touch more interesting by adding more actions to perform to counter foes. Moved to a different button, the counter sequence allows players to kill, disarm, or throw enemies around, though not all enemies are susceptible to all actions...only most. New weapons have been added to the fray, including guns that require reloading delays, a bow and arrow, and a rope dart that allows Connor to hang enemies in various ways. Being a native American, Connor also carries a tomahawk at the outset, which peculiarly bears the assassin insignia, but that's part of a larger narrative puzzle. Like previous games, there are different classes of weapons to carry around, and the player has the ability to steal bayonets off of soldiers, which act both as firearms and the series' form of spears. It is easier to be more aggressive in battle, especially since your actions are no longer dependent on holding the "high profile" button, but you will still find yourself dependent on waiting as you are attacked one at a time by each soldier if only to watch the fantastic counter animations. It is both a shame and a constant source of entertainment.

What a nice hat, right?

My favorite new addition to the gameplay was a complete shock, actually. Connor is given the opportunity to command a frigate on the open seas replete with crew and weaponry. Not only does traveling on the water reveal some of the most beautiful and versatile environments in the game, but battles are awesome departures from what is mostly the same game you've been playing since 2009. Unlike the atrocity that the tower defense game of Assassin's Creed: Revelations was, you will not purposely do everything in your power to avoid completing these extra tasks. Like your character, the ship you command is fully upgradeable  and relatively easy to control. Of course, the rules are different out on the water than when fighting one-on-one, but the designers managed to take artistic liberties to keep battles fun and in the player's favor without being a cakewalk. It also comes with a reasonable backstory, something I've complained about before.

Assassin's Creed III carries over the optional objectives of the previous games' missions, but to add more depth, most missions, including some side missions, have multiple objectives to try to complete. I appreciated the majority of these because some of them compel you to play differently from how you intended, and they test out all aspects of the new skills the game has taught you. Moreover, not all optional objectives are revealed at the beginning of each mission. Instead, they are tied to checkpoints, so if you need to backtrack a little, you won't lose what you have already completed in the first half or third of a mission. Unfortunately, this new system is not without drawbacks for completionists (let's not kid ourselves to think that this has any bearing on anyone else). There will be a number of annoying times when a new objective is revealed during an action sequence with little opportunity to look in the corner of the screen to read them, resulting in missed opportunities and more backtracking. Also, a few missions carry optional objectives that are either insane or made practically impossible to achieve due to flawed design. While most of these task the player with thinking outside the box, all the ridiculous ones task the player with doing things no one, assassin or commoner, would do to achieve a goal, certainly not with such specificity. I did finish the last mission with 100% of these completed but a stupid amount of my time devoted to the effort.

In keeping tradition since Ezio threw his first punch, the game is loaded with additional activities to pursue. Instead of upgrading a village or city, Connor is tasked with rebuilding a section of the frontier, dubbed the Homestead. Instead of dumping money into every building type to gain a regular allowance, there are now characters to find, save, and invite to live and thrive on the once-forgotten section of land. Each mission not only has a small story attached to it, but eventually the stories intertwine as the citizens of the Homestead believably grow to care for and support each other. And it all comes to a head in a remarkably satisfying way for a side quest that is not downloadable DLC. Completing the Homestead missions results in material gatherers and artisans becoming available to Connor for a number of purposes, and fulfilling multiple tasks for the same villager results in him or her becoming more useful. Along with assassination and courier missions littered about the game's main areas, there are also delivery requests for items only the villagers can craft.

There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.

Furthermore, as you come across shops, you can utilize your Homestead to trade crafted items for additional funds. The interface for crafting and trading, unlike the rest of Assassin's Creed III's UI, is disappointingly clunky. The are many items to sift through, and every time you are done with whatever you have selected, either an item you crafted or an item assigned to a trading slot, going to select the next item requires going through all the categories and linearly arranged lists again. This becomes tedious almost immediately, but it is necessary to persist in order to make enough money to afford all the extra baubles and upgrades the game has to offer. I could go on forever, but there are also land convoys to attack (templar) and defend (your own), animals to hunt and skin (more convincing than Far Cry 3 by miles), treasure chests to loot (with a silly minigame), forts to capture for the colonies (available before you even know you're on their side), citizen missions tied to assassin recruiting, underground networks to explore (a weirdly compelling time sink), and tall buildings and trees to climb, of course. In addition to the activities the frontier has in store for you, Desmond's story features a handful of present-day missions to retrieve power cells to power the ancient machinations he comes across. Not only are they reasonably fun missions, but they test the player's skill by featuring confrontations without the useful icons and indicators that assist with countering.

All the features and activities come wrapped up in what is a pretty package in its presentation but mangled by its execution. Real weather is the shiny new coat on Assassin's Creed's familiar appearance, and it adds an enjoyable layer to exploration. On top of day and night cycles, the passage of time is represented through changing seasons with the most notable shifts happening between winter and any of the others. Rain makes surfaces credibly slick, and trudging through the snow not only inhibits on-foot navigation, but it does so convincingly despite the fact that our hero never freezes even if he takes a dip between land masses. For me, the time period's saving grace is the abandonment of terra cotta roofs covering buildings composed of boulders. Instead, brick and wood are welcomed materials to hear under Connor's feet as he tramples houses in pursuit of the next objective. Hopping between rooftops in the snow with the masses walking below you is sometimes breathtaking in its beauty and complexity. Animation continues to be top notch as characters move in astoundingly versatile ways, and the number of NPCs on screen has been increased enough that the cities really feel full of life. It also enhances the handful of missions that take place during large-scale battles in America's history, and navigating huge battlefields and countless soldiers is memorably exciting.

Regardless of how everything looks, there are still technical hiccups to surmount. The most egregious offender is the horrific texture pop-in that takes place upon entering almost any area. There were times I would just wait almost a minute as muddy stand-ins finally rendered into houses and trees for me to traverse, that is, if the game didn't keep me frozen in place while I waited. The fast travel system has been streamlined so that one need only access the map and zoom in and out to go practically anywhere, but all this waiting seems to counterbalance the new ease. Moving on, sometimes the AI just acts strangely, and this is excepting battle instances where Regulars more or less line up to die. You'll enjoy chasing someone who forgets you're trying to kill him when something walks in his way, people who talk to you without looking at you or staying nearby to be heard, soldiers who don't notice as you tear down your notoriety posters in front of them (this might be purposeful, but it doesn't make any sense), duplicating NPCs who speak and move in uncanny synchronicity, and of course, all those times your assassin either makes a stupid platforming decision due to imperfect camera tracking or when he just decides to run up a wall to no avail despite a nearby handhold. I want to defend the game for all its fun distractions and compelling missions, but you can't help but imagine what an extra year of development would have yielded. Let's not kid ourselves.

So badass, he can run through war unscathed.

But you're not playing the game simply to have fun. You are a fan and you want some resolution! Ezio and Altaïr got theirs in the last game, and it's time for Desmond to achieve whatever's he's been working towards all this time, right? Well, his story along with the threat of the apocalypse do wrap up, but they do so in a manner that forces the player to ask too many new questions for it to be satisfying. I could've gone for a greater sense of accomplishment after all Desmond and I have been through together (including his weird face lift between Brotherhood and Revelations). Connor's story ends in a more fulfilling manner even if it does stretch the limits of credibility to get him to the conclusion successfully.

Sadly, the story surrounding Connor is more interesting than he is. Whether it is his voice actor, the script, or a mixture of both, he is a needlessly aggressive and argumentative protagonist given the opportunity to be the savior to an infamously oppressed set of people. His conversations with others are generally uncomfortable, and I couldn't help but feel annoyed that the first native American character I've had the opportunity of playing as becomes the first hero in this series I've had enough of after one game. I actually find it amusing that the spoiler-laden launch trailer for Assassin's Creed III features Connor stating, "It is time for the world to know my name," when in fact, his actual name is left at the beginning of the game due to its supposedly challenging pronunciation. The character is flawed, but not in a worthwhile way, and his rich heritage is never embraced in a respectable way. Thus, it's also a learning opportunity completely missed unless you peruse the exhaustive database.

All in all, Assassin's Creed III, is a fun time sink with many bothersome flaws. The added navigation possibilities, weather effects, NPCs on the screen, and other design features coupled with the more streamlined controls add up to a more enlightened game for fans of the series, but it comes with the added acknowledgement that all of these things belonged in the earlier games. Basically, compared to the leap the second numbered entry had over the first, the game we all waited for with a "III" in the title only adds some very nice and necessary touches to a familiar coat of paint with the only standout being the naval missions. It tries to get away with adding a new character while closing out the story of another one, but it ends up being a facade. Fans will want to know what happens and will still revel in the familiar gameplay, thankful for the tweaks. Newcomers will be baffled by the story enough to not want to bother dipping their toes in the pool, not that Connor does much to convince them otherwise. It adds up to a game I really, really enjoyed playing due to its familiarity but was continually aware that I've enjoyed other, more recent games a little bit more because of the new elements they brought to the table. I look forward to the next entry, and I can only hope with futility that Ubisoft will actually take the time to catch up.

All images obtained from Game Informer.
I'd also like to note that the subheading to this review is a reference to the amazing Dress to Kill comedy special by Eddie Izzard.

Far Cry 3 Review

Cool Jungle, Bro

One of the beautiful sights of Rook Island

I must say that I've developed quite a fondness for sandbox games. Whereas some people are paralyzed by the ton of things to do, I become obsessed with trying to do all of them. Far Cry 3, developed by Ubisoft, was honestly not on my radar, but I was given the opportunity to try it out. Let me tell you, this game is a lot of fun, and if you're looking for yet another game to scratch that sandbox itch, there is really no way to go wrong with this game.

I'll start with what is the weakest element of the game so far, which is the story. The main narrative begins with with a group of friends vacation in the Pacific islands somewhere, and they end up skydiving over Rook Island. It seems their landing was rockier than normal because it landed them in the grips of a drug and human trafficking ring of pirates somehow, managed by the intense Vaas Montenegro. After a bungled stealthy escape attempt, the game's hero, Jason Brody, manages to run for his life through the jungle before he passes out. A man residing with the local Rakyat rebels, Dennis, saves you from certain death and tries to empower you to save your friends and support the local cause. He simply sets Jason off on his quest into the dangerous jungle. As Jason points out to him, he's never even shot a gun in his life, but so goes the story of a bro who becomes a hero. (Hebro?)

After finishing some introductory steps, the whole of Rook Island becomes Jason's oyster to crack. Along with following the story, there are a number of side activities to follow. First, in similar fashion to the Assassin's Creed series, climbing to the top of radio towers reveals portions of the map to better navigate the terrain and find secrets, and there are many secrets. Chests containing ammo and money, ancient relics, memory cards with pirate logs, and letters from WWII are littered all over the island. Next, there are outposts in every square area of the map; by overtaking these areas for the rebels, the amount of enemies reduces making the majority of that section relatively safe for passage.

There is nothing creepy about this scene.

The game even rewards Jason with more XP based on how stealthily these outposts are claimed. As much as I enjoy this, given my preference for stealth, I can't help but feel bad for the players who prefer to waltz in with guns blazing. The game even rewards you for stealthy takedowns better than normal shooting. Still, taking over these areas are fun, and when you're done, they become fast travel points replete with a locker that acts as a mini-shop and extra sidequests including assassination missions and rare animal hunting. What remains baffling still is that when you're done, the local rebels drive in with a handful of guys holding machine guns. Almost all the rebels hold machine guns. Why can't they take over these places themselves? Better yet, why can't you recruit them to help you? The connection is so obvious there.

Personal progression through the game is represented by a strange tattoo involuntarily given to Jason early in the game. Utilizing a skill tree system with three branching paths, as you learn skills, the tattoo grows down your forearm, a symbol of your growing skill as a warrior. Great games have great skill trees, and this one is no exception with unique abilities like kicking an enemy away from you as you pull his grenade clip or taking down a guard stealthily and using his knife to kill another one. However, those great skill trees don't always need great backstories, and this tattoo, which grows on its own without ink, only has a ridiculous explanation. Circling back to the story, this ultimately makes Jason's story of a simple partying twenty-something turned guerilla warrior seem like it could only possibly appeal to the already empowered single heterosexual white male audience that most video games are already marketed towards. It's a rather shameless plea for their rapt attention. You can already imagine Jason's friends after the end game going, "Cool tat, bro!" For a game that is enough fun to appeal to anyone, it is sad to have a sellout protagonist geared towards a niche demographic. That said, to Jason's credit, he is not silent in a story that demands he speak up, one of my gripes with Dishonored before.

Back to the good, though, Rook Island bears one of the most fascinating terrains I've explored in video games. The designers really went through a lot of trouble to create a huge area that is actually believable as a setting. With only endless waters surround Rook Island as a hidden wall around the whole setting, the environment  of Far Cry 3 is really yours to travel and have fun with. The terrain has many elevations ranging from tall mountains to underground caves. Every time I found a waterway that led to the middle of the land via a winding cave system, I was in awe. However, getting lost is not really an option. The map allows you to set way points to any objective, outpost, or mission, and the minimap is handy enough to help you navigate the local terrain without popping open the main map too often. I think it could afford to have mulitple zoom options (like the one in Grand Theft Auto IV), though, which would help with fast driving segments over and around hills where you can't see the road ahead too well.

Seriously, look at this.

Along with the varied topography, Rook Island features equally varied wildlife populating the area. As I said, you are given missions to hunt some of these animals, but otherwise, they are roaming free waiting to be picked off. Although you are not rewarded with any XP for the endeavor, the game features a crafting system that utilizes the hides from the deer, boars, tigers, and whatnot wandering in the wild. At the beginning of the game, Jason's ability to carry ammo and money is limited until he can craft larger carriers for all his stuff. Each time you craft an item, the next size up usually requires the hide of an animal in a completely different section of the island, which encourages more exploration and risk taking.

Also in each area are different color classes of flora, which Jason can use to craft syringes that enhance his performance (ahem) and abilities. I won't deny that all of these systems are useful and provide more fun to have in this well-developed game, but once again, the writers ask me to suspend a lot of disbelief. Jason is immediately knowledgeable in the art of hunting and skinning an animal, though his grunts of disgust never dissipate regardless of how often he does it. Slicing leaves off of plants is an easier skill for me to believe he can figure out on his own, but his willingness to shove syringes in his arm repeatedly tells me that he should've been in rehab instead of traveling the world. Oh, and this is all without going into his divinely conceived recipes and crafting diagrams for this stuff. And can anyone explain why he needs two deer hides to make a so-so wallet, but he can't craft a larger wallet with either more deer hides or better utilization of large hides? How does he know he needs a tapir? Has he ever seen one before?

Far Cry 3 features a plethora of weaponry to fit your killing desires. On top of covering essentially every class of firearm you could desire, it also feature multiple types of each, including a bow and arrow to make you feel like Rambo. (Rambro?) Then, if that doesn't sate you, you can purchase attachments to modify almost each gun to your liking, such as better sights and silencers. I have never played a game carrying an arsenal of bow and arrow, silenced sniper rifle, and silenced assault rifle before, but it makes me feel awesome. If the price for any high class weapon seems prohibitive, climbing the aforementioned radio towers and reestablishing radio access to the locals opens up higher classes of weapons for free. With all the XP and money you can earn from sniping random pirate camps and the like, this game is practically giving you more power away for little effort. It could probably afford to be a little more restrictive with the weapons, but I can't complain while I'm having fun accomplishing my tasks with deadly accuracy. The only problem is the backstory with the skills designates that until you reach a certain point in the main narrative, you will be stuck a limited set of skills to unlock and a surplus of skill points waiting to be spent. I personally recommend breezing through the story at a quicker pace to make the skill tree more accessible sooner.

To accompany the continuously fun gameplay, the graphics are really gorgeous. Not simply a console port, the settings allow players to really ramp it up and make it look quite lush. Admittedly, since The Witcher 2, this is the first game in a while that I couldn't run on max settings without sacrificing playability, but even on lowered settings, the game looks really good. An additional bonus is that human and animal character models all look good and animate believably, though the game suffers from the common trope of giving the most discernible details to the main characters, leaving the citizens of Rook Island to live with doppelgangers meandering about.

The majority of textures look good and are fairly passable up close, i.e., I did not focus on muddiness like I do in other games. The plants are all gorgeous from afar, too, but hiding in a bush does reveal the cracks in the rendering work. I should also mention that I experienced zero texture pop-in. The soundtrack varies from tribal to techno, which is all fitting without any one song standing out from the rest. Voice acting is all handled well and words generally match lip movements on all characters and NPCs. What is confusing is that the locals and rebels all speak Malay convincingly  but when it comes to English, they vary between a Pacific Islander accent and a Kiwi accent, going so far as to occasionally say, "Kia ora," when Jason passes by. I don't get it, but it's a detail the majority of gamers won't be bothered to notice.

Your digital camera acts as a way to tag and track enemies. Also, you can just look at the graphics better.

Control in Far Cry 3 is fairly comfortable with a typical mouse and keyboard setup on the PC. Most elements react well to input. The worst offender seems to be driving vehicles, where using a keyboard clearly lacks the nuance afforded by a controller with thumbsticks and pressure-sensitive trigger buttons. There is essentially one gear, and it's pedal to the metal. Also, the game allows you to maneuver the camera while driving, which I don't suggest doing ever because you'll drive off a cliff and not know why. In that regard, the game is a lot like real life! Another navigation gripe is the game's sensitivity to walking over small edges. I complained about something similar in Borderlands 2, but here it rears its ugly head in the silliest areas, requiring you to literally jump through doorways to proceed inside a house. Jason's ability to climb ledges is restricted to ones with overhanging ropes or vines that he doesn't actually use as grips despite their presence. Coming off of Dishonored, with the best first-person platforming ever, I found it jarring.

Finally, the game is a little too particular about the exact angle and distance at which you can interact with objects, such as found money and bodies to be looted. You have to be the in a precise position before it'll prompt you to do anything. This also emulates real life but in an unpleasant way. With all the money to steal and bodies to loot, you just want to grab and go. The worst culmination of all these came when I wanted to open a chest on a porch. I could not walk right onto the porch, of course, but the roof over it was too low for me to jump onto the porch. However, the extra foot the edge of the porch set me away from the chest prevented me from opening it. I had to climb nearby stairs on the other side of the house, jump onto and over a lounge chair placed at the corner, and maneuver myself to the chest that way. Imagining this scenario in real life yields only puzzlement.

Regardless of all these meaningless faults, I must reiterate that Far Cry 3 is a ridiculous amount of fun. The narrative notwithstanding, you will just have so much fun actually playing the game. The sandbox style is remarkably rewarding, and it affords you to have a very meaningful time doing nothing important. There is just the right amount of things to do written into the gameplay, and there are enough enemies, animals, and caves to pursue in between these moments. Combat is fun and provides a silly amount of options to play the way you want. Even as frustrating as it is to hear a tiger growling right behind you while you are picking off a pirate base one guard at a time, it's these unique moments that separate the game from others. I don't know what else I can tell you. Go play it!

Images obtained by playing the games through Uplay through Steam. It's like video game launch Inception.

Assassin's Creed Revelations DLC: The Lost Archive Review

Wait, This Isn't Portal

LASERS!

Though I had purchased it beforehand, I didn't play "The Lost Archives" DLC for Assassin's Creed: Revelations until I was already midway through Assassin's Creed III. I had every intention to, but ACIII arrived the day I was done with Dishonored, and I was too excited. The impetus for me finally playing it was a sort of spoiler tweet I had read about a major character from the series, so I wanted to find out firsthand how all that gets revealed.

Assuming you've played through the main game, "The Lost Archives" is similar to Desmond's revelatory missions when you take a break from Ezio's quest. In those missions, the camera switches to a first-person perspective, and you are tasked with navigating abstract environments to passively receive more background. The DLC is no different except instead of Demond's mind, you're perusing Subject 16's. It makes sense that on your fourth game of being aware of his existence, you should be granted the luxury of finding out what happened to him and why he's mildly insane when you meet him.

There are a lot of right angles to consider.

The environments are mostly composed of monolithic slabs with varying textures to mimic specific environments from Subject 16's memories. There are added details to make your location very clear, and sometimes, the abstract ways the DLC conveys actual events are creative. For example, there's a gridded texture that "kills" you if you touch it (i.e., sets you back to a checkpoint). There's a point where Abstergo security is chasing you, but instead of showing actual figures coming after you, many red gridded blocks begin to form and multiply, pushing you to move quickly and leave the area. Scenarios like that are a nice touch due to their applied approach, but like the Demond missions from the main game, you can't help but wonder how exciting this could've been if you just played something representational like the core campaign. There is never an explained reason why things have to look like this given the Animus' capabilities, but I can't deny that the look is somewhat compelling.

Oh, the blocks are slanted now. I get it.

Platforming is sadly unlike the assassins' abilities you control the majority of the time. You can't run up walls and ledges; you can't run at all actually. Movement is restricted to a power walking pace, and you are given a weak jump to bridge tiny gaps as they arise. Navigation is instead tied to blocks you can generate at will (for reasons unknown). You can prestidigitate long rectangular blocks or sloped triangular blocks right in front of you, though after three blocks, the game removes the oldest one you created. New to the DLC is a springy block that allows you to perform a remarkable jump to higher places or farther reaches. It is definitely necessary in some parts, but landing is extremely unwieldy, and you will find yourself frustrated more often than note when you need to cross large areas with them.

Instead of enemies to kill or chase you, there are mostly just hazards. The aforementioned gridded texture acts as the "lava," and there are also lasers to avoid for the same progress-stunting reasons. New to the DLC is a yellow laser, which can be blocked by your blocks for a limited time. Initially, this is introduced via some simple puzzles, but later on, there are areas where you have to avoid those yellow lasers and craftily place your blocks all while the blocks are moving. Many of these scenarios await as you get closer to the final sequence, and they sadly become frustrating the worse they get. Granted, I did not find any one scenario insurmountable, and only a few of them required quicker reflexes than normal. What's unfortunate is that aside from receiving the spring block, you do not get more powerful or capable. You are expected to navigate a 2 - 4 hour game with the same set of skills you were given from the get go, contrary to the main game, which continually enables you.

Well, this looks peaceful.

Along with these qualms, the effect of the narrative is dichotomous. As I said, you passively receive information about what happened. As you enter specific rooms, you can hear dialogue from Subject 16's past that reveal small tidbits about how he ended up in his predicament. However, you never participate in the telling of the story, making the DLC almost a museum. I did appreciate the areas where it is obvious you are accomplishing a certain task in the game's abstract way, but in the end there is one way through every area, so you can stumble upon the same story pieces anyone else would in the same order. To its credit, the narrative is rather interesting, and there's a rather big reveal that makes some things make more sense. (This reveal is also sort of addressed in Assassin's Creed III, but this is the only way to find out the background behind it to answer your questions.) It is just a shame that it all couldn't be delivered in a more engaging manner.

All in all, it is hard to justify the $9.99 (or equivalent points) price tag for something you actually know could've been so much more. The narrative is interesting, but its delivery and the gameplay behind getting it are just obviously subpar. I should note that it comes with some extras for the main campaign, including a secret area and armor, and three new multiplayer characters, none of which I have touched yet. Still, I would argue that since none of those things contribute to the main story like the labyrinthine missions do, and you were probably already done with the main game and its multiplayer by the time this came out, they are not of additional value. I would also warn that if you want to suss out your time's and money's worth of value, you should pursue the hidden collectibles in each area. Otherwise, you'll be more disappointed. So...buy it if you're curious!

Images obtained from The Assassin's Creed Wiki.

I Had a (Fever) Dream

Wherein Advil Cold & Sinus Develops a Game

Last week, I was granted the misfortune of being sick. It was one of those couple's colds where you sit around blaming each other and reconsider living in close quarters. However, on the worst night of my cold, I actually had a rather amazing dream.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game where you do...stuff.

Let me preface this by saying I've been playing Assassin's Creed III lately, and right before that, I finished two playthroughs of Dishonored. My dream starts off in a dank sewer or some underground space. There are a few people near me as well. I already have a vague knowledge of what I need to do, though. It seems this sewer connects to a nearby headquarters for some business, and I'm tasked with killing the president/founder/what-have-you. I know he is arguably evil, but I'm never given the full rundown as to why. (I assume if I want that, I should purchase the full dream for $49.99 on Steam.) I also know there are a number of ways to get up to my target's office and a number of ways to get through each of these points. You see, I can't just walk straight through and murder him, but unlike a lot of games involving assassination, the area I'm infiltrating is not solely filled with soldiers waiting to kill me. There are office workers, too, who may not recognize me, but they also don't know me from Mike on the third floor in Accounting, who tells really boring stories about his kids in the lunchroom. So I know I'll be safe to walk around in some areas as long as I don't arouse suspicion.

All of this seems pretty par for the course, but here's where it gets interesting (to me at least). First, I am made well aware that my target is free to walk around and that he knows I might be coming. Thus, I need to use resources around to figure out where he may be at any given time, but I also need to make sure he doesn't catch me unaware. Next, to breach certain areas, those people around me in the sewer also come into play. They each possess some knowledge or skill set that can get me through certain areas of the building, and I'm given the option of going completely solo or accepting their help. However, they all want something, and they also don't all like each other. Their motives are sadly never revealed to me, but it is apparent that asking for assistance and returning the favor to one will piss off another. Pissing off another person around may close off an entire area of the building due to that person's influence over people there; I assume they work for the company or have close friends there. The other risk is that the people I anger may actually try to surprise me later on by alerting security or even making an attempt on my life.

Assassin's Creed is also a franchise where you can do...stuff.

The rest of the dream is pretty hazy. I know that I "played" a few times with varying levels of success. A few times I got really far, and other times I was ambushed. I honestly cannot remember if I ever killed the target, but I do remember that he caught me off guard a couple of times. For some odd reason, he was wearing a posh red smoking jacket, but I assume that was Dishonored's influence on me. I definitely found the whole scenario interesting. While poorly implemented in my dream (none of my dreams ever reach full credibility), it was cool just how much choice I was given. Multiple pathways, peculiar relationship system, and of course, the regular choices of stealth/confrontation and kill/subdue were looming around. There was definitely a more futuristic aspect to it, which was reminiscent of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Still, if developed exquisitely, I'd buy my game.

It just needs a much better writer.

Images obtained from Game Informer.

Dishonored Review

A Watercolor Painting of Revenge

Behold! The beautiful, but troubled city of Dunwall.

Your name is Corvo Attano. You are returning from a trip back to your home of Dunwall, where you serve as the protector to the Empress, who dispatched you to find aid to cure a plague that has beleaguered her citizens. However, shortly after your return, magical assassins infiltrate the tower and murder the Empress before your eyes. Before you can recover from the shock, her daughter is kidnapped, as well. To make matters worse, you were (conveniently) alone when this happened, so as soon as the assassins disappear from existence, the guards are there to accuse you of murder. So begins Arkane Studios' new game, Dishonored. From there, you begin a tale of conspiracy and revenge as you try to find the Empress' daughter, Emily, and right what's been wronged.

The first noticeable feature of the game is the design and the amount of thought put into it. Although for the most part, objects are rendered realistically, there's a layer of cel-shading, creating a beautiful watercolor effect over the environment. Body forms are exaggerated to have overly broad shoulders and large hands on men and skinny legs and long necks on women. The effect enhances the fantasy but also creates an internal dilemma between the violent actions you're asked to perform and the actual impact that killing caricatures could possibly have. Still, the game is a marvel to look at, and all elements of the design serve each other well. After the opening moments, Dunwall becomes something of a military state, mostly defending the rich from the diseased poor who wander the streets like zombies. During the course of the 15 to 20 hours the game could take you to finish, you will see both plague and opulence juxtaposed in colorful glory next to the military machinations and decorations of the ruling party.

He's thinking, "I'm a knife, knifing around. Cut cut cut cut cut cut..."

As with any game featuring open environments, you will also see some technical errors - characters stuck in geometry, disappearing bodies, dancing corpses, the sudden inability to move forward, and the like - but none of these happen often enough to detract from the experience that much. The worst offender would be overused character models and spoken lines. Encountering two identical guards in combat in a world with such character is kind of a let down. Similarly, after playing the game twice, I'll be happy if I never hear one guard ask another guard if he thinks he'll get that promotion. Here's a hint: he won't.

Gameplay seems most akin to Deus Ex: Human Revolution in terms of the options set before you. You become an assassin like those who wronged you, so you're mostly expected to lurk in the shadows. However, compared to it's half-brother, Dishonored leaves you better prepared to handle enemies when they are alerted to your presence or, at the very least, prepared to disappear from their view and lay low. After completing an introductory level (Sneaking 101) and some exposition, the game gives you a magical ability, Blink. This is granted courtesy of The Outsider, a character who is much like Satan in the Book of Job in the way that he opts to meddle in human affairs from the sidelines. Blink allows you to teleport to a location in view and ultimately becomes the most useful traversal ability in your possession. As you progress, you can find runes to gain more abilities or upgrade existing ones, both active and passive, and there are bone charms to discover which provide buffs to combat and magic as you equip them. Like receiving a treasure map, The Outsider also gives Corvo a standalone beating heart which can point out where to find these collectibles. It is strange, to say the least, and the voice inside it is never clearly explained.

No, nothing seems right about this at all.

In terms of navigation, I'd say Corvo is the most capable first-person platformer since Faith from Mirror's Edge, only the feats you're expected to perform are much simpler to execute given the slower pace. The most noticeable convenience is the automatic climbing mechanic. While you can't run up walls like Assassin's Creed, pressing the jump button near a climbable object (read: nearly everything) results in a very quick but fully animated hop onto the top of it. If you encounter a ledge, holding jump makes Corvo surmount it. Thus, there is little jumping distance or height estimation involved. Automation takes the height while Blink takes the distance. Beyond this amazing but obvious leap in platforming, Corvo has capable running and sneaking modes when needed.

Stealth itself is handled gracefully, and I encountered no omniscient AI. For those who are interested, I was playing on Easy mode, so it is possible the NPCs are all-seeing gods on the harder difficulty settings. Although a first-person perspective makes it troublesome to know when you are out of view, the game makes it simple - if you can't see an enemy, he can't see you. This is made fallibly untrue when using the lean mechanic, though, which allows you to peer around objects without being seen even though your head would technically be sticking out. I won't deny its use, of course, and I can only assume it makes up for your ability to see around the protagonist in games played from a third-person perspective. Other abilities also help out stealth, such as Dark Vision, which lets you see people through walls along with their cones of vision, and Bend Time, which lets you slow down (or stop with an upgrade) time to navigate around obstacles quickly. Another rule set clear is that stealth mode mutes your footsteps while it reduces your speed and vision height. All of these things work to make first-person stealth very satisfying while maintaining the challenge of remaining unseen. Another compensatory gift Dishonored offers is an extended reaching distance, both for grabbing items and dispatching foes when sneaking up on them. The reduced guess work is a great bonus.

A beautiful shot from my favorite mission in the game.

The choice between being stealthy or blatant isn't the only one presented to you. Choice is the shining light of the game. First, many of the environments present multiple pathways to your objectives. Getting from point A to point B could mean navigating back alleys, carefully crawling along exposed ventilation shafts up high, or finding an unaccounted-for rat tunnel between two buildings. Next, completing your objectives typically involves a layer of player choice. Despite being an assassin by trade, you are able to lay the no-fail choke hold on NPCs to make them unconscious. The game even has achievements based on the number of people you kill or don't kill for those enthusiasts. [I'd like to note that there is a known bug regarding receiving the Ghost and Clean Hands achievements. I won't be specific because spoilers, but you can find out about it on internet forums out there. To the developer's credit, Harvey Smith, the co-director of the game, said they are presently looking into it. This does not affect gameplay or overall enjoyment of the game, only two specific achievements.]

Furthermore, if not suggested to you by a primary character, Corvo will typically come across additional side quests. Some of these have multiple tracked steps while others are a matter of being in the right place at the right time, for example, to stop an over-zealous guard from killing a civilian for a health elixir. The rewards for completing these tasks range from safe combinations to runes to newly revealed ways to reach and complete your objectives. I talked to every NPC I came across on one mission, and that resulted in finding a man willing take my target away instead of performing the kill. All of these are nice touches, which encourage exploration and reward completionists for their extra efforts while not penalizing those who opt for the quick and dirty. The game is essentially yours to shape. While not a negative, the amount of abilities you unlock along with the weapons you find will outnumber the amount of either that a typical player will use during a given play session. Mission structures are fluid enough that no one ability or weapon is required to move on. As a designer, I would be disappointed to create a neat ability only to see someone ignore it, but it also speaks volumes about these designers that they are willing to let players arm themselves as they see fit. I can't think of a single moment where I was funneled into doing something specific to finish what I was doing.

Speaking of shaping the game, your actions do have a binary set of consequences, though. Killing your targets alone will not have much of an effect, but going on killing sprees increases the chaos level of the game. This results in a larger level of armed guards and plagued citizens as Corvo reaches the final hours of his efforts. Reaching the last level of the game is vastly different depending on whether the overall chaos level is considered low or high, and your objectives will be satisfyingly altered to compensate. While I won't speak to the specific details, I would like to note that the ending to the game is clearly biased towards the low chaos approach, resulting in a more rewarding though equally brief cinematic at the end. In contrast to the slew of trailers and demos Arkane Studios provided demonstrating the multitude of fun and fulfilling ways to dispatch your enemies, the game ends up admonishing you for doing so. My personal suggestion is to try for a no or low kill playthrough first for the achievements, the challenge, and the "good" ending and then follow it up with as relieving a slaughter as you can muster. Dishonored does warrant multiple playthroughs if only to exercise more choice and change your overall approach.

While there is so much to enjoy about Dishonored, I wish the story was on par with the gameplay and the presentation. I do appreciate a game that puts more of itself in my hands, but many of the explanations for your environment and even your abilities come from books and notes you can find along the way to your objectives. Of course, many of those are in the optional areas, so someone just flying through the game is not presented with much depth to this fully-realized world the developers have created. The game then becomes a list of targets to remove from the world somehow with an exciting twist somewhere along the line. The biggest failing is that Corvo is a silent protagonist in a story that practically demands his input. He's the one who's been framed for murder, and he's the character who should be most motivated for revenge, especially given some later revealed facts (if one stops to read them). However, because of his silence, he becomes the least invested in his own actions. None of your mission objectives are choices made on your own; they are all assigned, and that's unfortunate for a game that boasts, "Revenge solves everything." It isn't revenge if you're assigned the people to exact the revenge on. Though I take little umbrage with the silent protagonist in games in general, it acts as a glaring omission in this narrative.

However, don't let this rather specific problem sway you from playing an immensely satisfying game. The amount of choice it affords you is better than other games that force the player into trial-and-error situations until he or she discovers the developer's intent. Here, every way you get there is the right way, and every action you perform is rewarding somehow. There's nothing like playing a game that is adept at both conflict and stealth and keeping them fun.

Go for the beautiful kill (or don't)!

Trolling Needs to Stop

A Big and Unfocused TL;DR about Hurricane Sandy and Loss

On Monday, around 7 PM, the power to my apartment went out entirely. I had just finished Dishonored (review coming) earlier that day and was just perusing around the internet. This power outage, sadly, was no coincidence. It was the result of the infamous Hurricane Sandy, which tore its way through the northeast. Notably, it left millions of homes and businesses in my home state, New Jersey, without power. Worse, it devastated the Jersey shore, destroying homes, tearing up boardwalks, and leaving entire towns covered in water and sand. The photos are heartbreaking, and though I am an indoors kind of guy, I feel severely dismayed about what has passed through my state.

As of 11:50 AM yesterday, power returned to my apartment following a 15-minute fake out the previous day. Since then, I have been able to enjoy heat, hot water, and internet unfettered. I am lucky, however you wish to interpret the word. Many people in New Jersey and New York City are still without power, and many are still evacuated from their homes, living in hotels or with family if they managed to escape the hurricane in the first place. Although my home has been returned to normalcy, the fact is that the area around me still has not. Supermarket stock is being wiped out as soon as it is put on the shelves because of people's empty refrigerators at home. Gas stations that manage to get power have lines going down highways within five minutes of reopening, and many are reporting that they have run out of gas due to their supply being overtaxed. For lack of a better word, it is chaos out there.

By now, you are probably wondering why I am talking about this on my video game blog. Aside from a single game reference, this largely seems irrelevant. Here's the truth, and it is a truth I shared with a lot of gamers out there. It was not long before I missed my video games in a bad way. During the week, I work full time, and I miss playing. Work also requires me to travel, which means even less gaming. But the fact that it's there when I get home along with my partner and two cats is comforting. Even when I'm home doing something else, I know I can power on my PC or PS3 and escape into the fantasy world some video game developer has envisioned. Whatever psychological reading one can make from it, I do use video games and their environments as an escape from the day-to-day grind. For nearly three full days, I had no escape. I lived minute to minute completely confronted with darkness, cold, and boredom.

This isn't about me, though. I feel so close to my video game hobby that the thought there are others out there presently deprived of their passion upsets me. Video games can be seen as juvenile by the ignorant public, but they mean a lot to a lot of people. Also, if you're purely a console or computer player like I am, it's not as portable a hobby. You can't leave your home with a game in hand and expect that, like a DVD, your family member or hotel has something to play it. For those who have lost their homes entirely, they have also lost hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of their prime source of joy. And along with books or DVDs, when it comes to rebuilding, these objects - these escapes - will not be the first items they purchase to return to normalcy. Seeking warmth and food is the primary objective for a lot of families right now, and no amount of I Am Alive or Red Dead Redemption playing has prepared any one of us to deal with constantly trying to survive. The comfort of video games, too, is that we are not personally dealing with the protagonists' problems.

Maybe this is a surprise, but this isn't about those people either. The fact is that daily, gamers around the world act privileged to a disturbing degree, and it's because they don't deal with real loss. The internet has become a hot bed of disturbing trends in behavior mostly enabled by the anonymity it provides. When a game reviewer gives a big-budget game an 8 out of 10, there are those who feel entitled to attack that reviewer personally, threatening his life and his family. Two points higher, and people go on long diatribes about how the reviewer was bought and exerting effort to discredit him, knowing nothing about the actual truth or his personal financial situation, which I'm pretty sure is only slightly above that of a retail worker's. If a woman wants to engage the gaming world in an open discussion about the disservice video games do to women, it is unnervingly OK to unload threats of rape and violence that would make most prison inmates blush. Lastly, when a trusted developer releases a subpar (not necessarily awful) game, cries of execution and public shaming begin to surface.

You know, it's fine to complain. Don't let anyone tell you that you don't have a right to complain. It is impossible to spend every minute of every day deciding whether the problem you're experiencing right now is as big as a starving child in Africa or a cancer patient in Haiti. When your game freezes or your hero unheroically falls through the floor he was standing on, you have every right to feel bothered. It is by a reasonable set of standards that developers can create gaming experiences which successfully act as escapes for us, the gamers. However, complaining and wishing loss on anyone for any reason are two seriously different actions. Do not lose sight of the fact that you are physically able to complain. You have a body that functions as you desire it to do so, not strapped to a wheelchair and blinking to communicate. Don't forget that whatever goes wrong in the game, you can reset and keep playing because you have a home, electricity, and a system to play it on. There are others who wish that your problems were the only ones they had to worry about, but more importantly, they wouldn't wish their experience on someone. Someone whose spouse and son drowned in a flooding basement during a hurricane would not threaten pain or loss of life to someone else who wants to talk about redefining gender expectations.

Here is the TL;DR for those of you who just want the point:
Keep complaining, and try offering constructive criticism to make gaming continuously better. But, until a game developer, publisher, journalist, or even player causes you or your family significant loss of wealth (bankruptcy), shelter (home destroyed by tide), or livelihood (more games with female or gay protagonists do not threaten this category), and sometimes even then, you have no right to threaten that person or company violently or sadistically. That is called harassment, and it is destructive and sickening. Moreover, it does not serve the gaming world, including yourself. Things will not get better because of your threats and insults.

I don't have a huge readership here, and maybe I never will, but if this post nets me a label as a "White Knight Fag" or some such, then I will embrace it. There is a whole army of White Knight Fags ready to clean up this goddamn kingdom.

Borderlands 2 Review: Episode II

That, My Friends, Was a Good Game

Lava! Environment effects! Purple!

It is probably about time that we address the elephant left in the room since the first part of my review. There may have been a particularly important feature of Borderlands 2 I completely neglected to mention. The game features cooperative play with up to four players at once. Oops. Now, we will talk about it, and you will learn more about me. The previous game also featured co-op, but getting it to work was often a mess. First, you had to sign up for and log into GameSpy. Then, you couldn't just join a friend's game, no. They had to invite you and vice-versa if you wanted a friend to tag along. Sometimes those invitations didn't work, even as recently as right before Borderlands 2 was released. (I was finishing up the DLC, so I could mentally move on.) It was cumbersome, especially for someone who would rather play games alone.

That's right. As I've discussed before, I like playing a lot of games solo, and I even play some games with fully-featured multiplayer modes solely in single-player mode. Borderlands 2 may be one of the most obvious games to play with your friends, but I'm happy to let all my solo-and-loving-it brethren that there is no loss of enjoyment playing this game by yourself. The entire experience still remains captivating, and while some parts feel a little too tough for a single person to tackle, I rarely pined for another human being to join my game. That said, I did test out the co-op, and it works so much better. I really could gush all day about how much better it is. You literally just have to launch the game, and all your friends are displayed right on the home screen. Not only that, your buddy list displays what levels they are, what story missions they are on, and whether the game thinks that you will make a good fit for each other based on the previous two criteria. To join the game, one must simply click on the person, verify that he or she wishes to join that game, and the home screen is reloaded showing all present players. I also thought it was cute that the person hosting the game gets a little crown on his or her username.

I know what you're thinking. Bandits can't spell.

When playing co-op, everyone is actually free to meander about in any given area, but the group has to travel together to get to new areas. The host controls what mission everyone is trying to complete, too. If everyone is around the same point in the story, completing these missions together means completing them in your own game, which is great because you don't have to backtrack. If your host friend is significantly ahead of you in story, the game will prompt you to skip a mission when you are faced with it later on. Coupled with a brand new but really obvious mini-map, it's also easier to find your friends if you join in the middle of whatever they're up to. Borderlands 2 also recognizes there are more players and appropriately increases the number of enemies in any given encounter. It can sometimes feel insane, but it's a great way to gain more experience if you're particularly good at beating up bad guys. Experience and items other than currency are not shared. When everyone is done fighting for who gets to grab a weapon or shield, if someone is charitable enough to give a weapon to a teammate, the game has a sharing menu to transfer items between each other. I found it a little wonky to use, but it is better than dropping the item on the ground for your friend to pick up. Other than being less cruel, the game also exaggerates item dropping, and a nice gesture could turn into a friend chasing after a flying shotgun.

Aside from my problem with object edges mentioned in the last part, I had a few game-breaking issues, which are worth mentioning. At one point, I was climbing up a long ladder and hit the reload key, and I was no longer able to move on or leave the ladder. I couldn't bring up any in-game menus except the one to escape. A friend was actually playing with me, and I had to leave him in the dust while I backed out. That was annoying because we already cleared out the gauntlets of enemies, and I was trying to finish this one mission before going to bed. I was faced with returning and running through throngs of baddies just so I could sleep soon. At another time, I went to an area as dictated by a story mission, but I picked up four additional side missions while I was there. I like to finish all the side missions in an area before I leave to turn them in, and this became my downfall. The game froze on three separate occasions. Given that there is no manual or quick save feature, I would force the game to quit and return only to find myself with all my side missions incomplete (and unique loot lost). I don't know what was special about the place, but I ended up quitting after finishing each mission just to ensure the game was saved appropriately. Finally, I was tackling a round in Fink's Slaughterhouse when I killed the last enemy shown on the minimap only to have absolutely nothing happen. I had to quit the game to make the entire multi-wave mission reset. I could've melted metal with my anger on that one.

This was my prettiest gun, and the game makes it easy for me to show you my weapon.

Moving on, I did finish the game last night, and it was much better than the first one by far. In general, more happens in one story mission than happened in the entire first game, or at least, that's how it comes off. The game goes to more lengths to show you things happening and have you interact rather than just letting you hear about it in your earpiece. There are some exciting sequences with the characters from the last game joining you on your adventure. Much of it happens during player-controlled gameplay, though, so be sure to actually watch what they're doing, or you'll just hear nonsense in your ear about something happening out of sight. Overall, though, I witnessed a lot of bombastic action on my screen in beautiful color. There is even a brief visit to good ol' Fyrestone from the first game, which reflects how things have changed in the years past. The endgame was really satisfying, but this is mostly because of all the story content from before. I completed every darn side mission I could find on the way to the end (with the exception of the survival rounds in Ore Chasm), and on top of doing so much, I learned a lot about what is and was going on in the world of Pandora. Borderlands 2 also did not set me up for an underwhelming ending like the the first game. I didn't beat the boss this time and think, "That's it?!" I also felt the final boss experience was appropriate. The whole scenario was not an absurdly tough encounter, though I did die as a result of my own stupidity once. After imbibing so much of the craziness, it was nice to have a simple encounter that just looked really big but was over quickly. I just wanted to go home, and the game let me do so without issue.

In total, I spent 77 hours playing Borderlands 2, and now there is DLC out for it. There are also a lot of Badass challenges I didn't complete, such as finding out more about the four new vault hunters. I'll get to all that once I catch up with all my other games that have been vying for my attention. Meanwhile, if you haven't bought this game, go do so. It's pretty. It's funny. It's fun even for people who suck at shooters. There are few reasons not to play it.

Borderlands 2 Review: Episode I

Making heads explode in stylish fashion

If you played the first game, you'd understand what a graphical step up this is.

The original Borderlands is one of those games that I resisted for a while. Touted as a "first-person role-playing shooter," my hesitation laid in the "shooter" part of the genre description. It was never my strongest category – I can't aim to save my life –, but the cel-shaded style made me impeccably curious. Finally, the shining light, a Steam sale, came around and convinced me to purchase, and I'm happy I did. Sure, I enjoyed the game, but I'm mostly thankful that it prepared me for Borderlands 2 to knock my socks off.

In almost every way, Borderlands 2 is a complete improvement over its predecessor. I'm only about halfway through the game, but I've been enjoying every minute of it. If you are new to the game and are wondering how the game exists as a FPRPS, let me explain. Like any first-person shooter, you are constantly staring down gun sights and have an array of weapons available to you to destroy your enemies, of which there are many. However, all weapons and protection are randomized. Every weapon you pick up is unlike every other weapon available in your game or other players' games, and they all have a set of statistics, which you can use to compare them against what is already in your inventory. Weapons can even have elemental characteristics, and some emulate other weapon classes, such as an awesome assault rifle I had which shot bullets like rockets. Building upon this, the RPG elements go much further. Your character gains experience points as he/she defeats enemies, increasing your level. You gain skill points to dump into speccing the character to your taste. Battles come across as typical firefights, but the fact is math and the roll of the die is still at work here. Shooting an enemy reveals the amount of damage caused, which is based on a number of behind-the-scenes factors, so shooting someone in the head does not automatically kill him like it does in typical military shooters – it definitely is highly possible if you're using a sniper rifle, but if the enemy is levels above you or has a strong shield, don't say I didn't warn you.

The original four protagonists play a big vocal part this time around.

More or less, the game is the ideal setting for someone that depends on the numbers game, and it's hard not to enjoy because it is continually giving you loot. You can barely walk a foot in Pandora, the planet on which it takes place, without encountering some kind of container to open. These range from small boxes with stacks of cash to huge chests with elaborate opening mechanisms containing rare weapons and ammo. In fact, there are so many, it is almost arduous to seek out every container in a small area, but the game rewards you with some precious finds sometimes. Borderlands 2 threw in extra rewards for killing, using different weapons, exploration, and even opening containers via its Badass Ranking system. Performing all varieties of challenges that are entirely based on playing the game, you are frequently rewarded with Badass tokens which boost different characteristics as you redeem them. It is literally impossible to play without earning them, which is what makes playing the game continually rewarding on top of the leveling and skill point system. These Badass boosts also apply to all characters you create for the game, so starting over with a different class can still come with a little help (if you don't turn the feature off).

Moving around Pandora and shooting your foes is all fairly simple to control. I am currently playing on a PC, and the keyboard and mouse layout is similar to other shooter titles. It is also completely customizable if it doesn't meet your specific needs. Personally, I remapped the melee button, V, to my middle mouse button to keep the majority of attacking on the mouse like it should be. Each character has a remarkably high and floaty jump, which is useful for navigating the terrain and finding additional secrets on far off ledges. It definitely does not resemble a realistic jump that a human could perform, but the majority of the game is exaggerated in its style. This sequel also improved the running speed from the first game, so now one can breeze through a pile of dead bodies on the way to an area's exit with ease. The only problem is that the land has occasional tiny hidden walls preventing the player from moving forward if he/she doesn't jump over them. Seriously, you could be running along a road and get stuck on the edge of a small flat rock that is exactly the same as one you simply ran over earlier. When trying to run and strafe around enemies, it can be very frustrating to stop in your tracks because of a pebble the game decided is abnormally tall. (Note: I personally call this frustration, Geometry Wars.)

I know this looks like a normal tea party, but it isn't. It really isn't.

Probably the greatest glory of Borderlands 2 is its presentation. The completely cel-shaded graphics make it stand apart from every other shooter and most other RPGs. The environments and enemies are all really bright and colorful, and there are many animated elements abound, especially if you play on the PC with its added particle effects. Characters are also more animated this time around with exciting features like moving lips and limbs that the first game didn't find as important for some baffling reason. None of them are too over the top, but at the very least, they move around the environment instead of acting like mission boards stuck in place. The game also went bigger with explosions, both bombs and bodies, which makes the battlefield more exciting to navigate and watch during intense firefights. The AI of the enemies has also been upped a little. Notably, humanoid characters will actually dodge and move around as you shoot, and the variety in the packs you face means dodging Psychos coming right at you while avoiding gun fire from enemies afar. There are also some fun areas where the enemy types are varied, involving two or more species, who may or may not fight each other in between attacks against you. It is very frenetic, and often it can be challenging to deal with if you're like me and lack a real tactical approach to shooters. (My approach: "Please don't hit me. Please stay in place while I line up this sniper rifle crosshair. Thank you for participating in your death. Have a nice day.") Every now and again, this new AI initiative to move around a bit more can break the immersion when an enemy spends his entire time dodging or hopping between platforms while you just watch in curious awe.

The music is also way improved. Although the soundtrack features a similar combination of Jesper Kyd, Raison Varner, and the Sonic Mayhem duo (absent: Tim Larkin of Myst: Uru and Myst V fame), the background tracks are more present and demand more attention. Aside from the intensity of music during battle, the ambient and undulating tracks in the Caustic Caverns or the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve bring a lot of delight while you meander through their maze-like environments. There is also a special place in my heart for the song that plays during the gauntlet in Fink's Slaughterhouse. There are still some songs in more desolate areas, which go mostly unnoticed, but the overall execution is more attractive.

I went looking for a hotel room, and then I remember that you don't sleep in video games. I'm gonna go.

The final evidence of the ante being upped is the story. Let's be honest. The first Borderlands didn't have much of a story. You landed on Pandora and went looking for a fabled vault, and that was kind of all it gave you. The ending was also sudden and on the side of WTF. Borderlands 2 fixes that by providing more explanation not only for your current actions but for the events of the first game, too. The four protagonists are all back and play a heavy role in leading you along your bread crumb trail towards the ending. Taken out of the player's hands this time, they are given the opportunity to interact with each other more and be the sources of much of the game's humor  Although there is a linear set of story missions to pursue, the game also features a ridiculous amount of side quests. However, compared to the first game, even the fetch quests manage to engage the player with the insane characters more, sometimes via their constant comments on whatever you're doing or via ECHO recording you find littered about. (I particularly enjoyed the awkward recordings of Lillith and Roland you find on one side quest.) Even better, many of the side quests are now multi-part affairs which sometimes take you to multiple locations you wouldn't have explored otherwise. Written mostly by Anthony Burch, known for his video web series with his sister, "Hey Ash Whatcha Playin'?", the plot is a thousand times more intriguing, funny, and complex. There are some sad moments, too, which I was not prepared for at all. It all goes a long way towards immersing the player in the game.

I'm still playing the game and will probably remember more to comment on when I write the second half of this review. For now, all I can tell you is the Borderlands 2 is an engaging and rewarding experience that goes a long, LONG way towards improving upon its predecessor, which is now unmistakably barren compared to this iteration. Oh yeah, it also doesn't take place almost exclusively in the desert. You're welcome.

Part II

All images taken via Steam's screenshot feature.