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.