I Am Alive Review

Have machete. Will travel.

Somebody never learned his lesson in kindergarten.

After finishing Deadlight, I thought I would continue the motif of playing as a father who is trying to save his wife and daughter in a post-apocalyptic world. Of course, the previous game had zombies. I Am Alive has The Event. The development of I Am Alive is one of the darker stories out there, rife with delays, altered expectations, and entire gameplay changes. What's left is a game severely pared down from early trailer footage but otherwise shows little evidence of the development woes it suffered.

The story features an unnamed though still vocal protagonist who has spent a year trying to make it back to his home town of Haventon prior to the beginning of the game. As mentioned, The Event happened, and though it is never made explicitly clear what it was or what caused it, its impact is clear – earthquakes and dust storms have been ravaging the land since it happened, and almost everything is in shambles. In the opening tutorial level, Protagoniste, as I shall refer to him henceforth, makes his way through the exterior ruins of Haventon to his home in the hopes of finding his wife and daughter, who are sadly not there. Shortly afterwards, he finds a lost little girl, and this leads to the bulk of the narrative thereon.

What I want you to think about is how well that chandelier was installed.

Getting around Haventon involves mechanics similar to the Uncharted series with a lot of platforming coupled with automatic handhold grabbing. The difference is in the stamina meter Protagoniste must monitor in order to traverse safely. While climbing large structures and jumping from grip to grip, the stamina meter continuously depletes, which also results in tense music getting louder and louder as it does so. Once stamina hits bottom, Protagoniste's stamina capacity begins to deplete rapidly, and when that's gone, he will fall to his doom. Although stamina recharges automatically and quickly as soon as you're on solid ground, stamina capacity can only be regained through the use of items you find in the environment. Although a little trite, the game highlights usable items in white so that they are easier to discern from afar, especially in the dust cloud-filled streets of the inner city. It may lack a real-world explanation, but I was thankful for it. The developers do hide a lot of these items behind corners and objects in an effort to make finding them a little bit more challenging and rewarding, however.

Along with stamina is a health meter, which mostly depletes from being attacked by the neighborhood transients. As is common in post-apocalyptic stories, the dissolution of any kind of government has led to some folks being just plain mean to others, and it's your job to decide how best to deal with them. There are the innocents out there, who found safe spots and often ask you to provide some form of aid, usually in the form of those precious items you find along your journey. Others threaten you with guns from a distance but will not attack you as long as you keep walking along. To complete the triad of personas, there are the aggressors, who will kill you if you let them.

What is that guy looking at?

Dealing with the aggressors is actually a fun puzzle. Instead of turning into a predictable cover-based third-person shooter every time one appears (though just like the Mass Effect series, you can still kind of tell when they're going to appear), it is up to you to be resourceful and handle them carefully. Protagoniste is equipped with a machete and a gun, but bullets are the scarcest resource of all in this world. You rarely have even one bullet, especially in the earlier sections of I Am Alive, so you can't just go in shooting. The trick is in knowing when to brandish your empty weapon to enemies who don't know any better. If you face two enemies who clearly only have melee weapons, you can lure one in close, slash his throat by surprise, and then point the empty gun at the other, providing an opportunity to knock him out with the the grip of your weapon. You need to be wary of enemies who are carrying guns, though, because they won't be afraid to pop a bullet in you just for being so bold. These scenarios boil down into quick reflex thinking where you decide who to surprise, who to threaten, who to shoot (with the hopes of picking up another bullet from the body), who to push off a cliff, and who to go toe-to-toe with in a button mashing QTE to assert machete dominance over.

I loved dealing with these scenarios for a number of reasons. First, they require more brains over brawn, so to speak. Rather than reward aiming prowess, most aiming is automatic, so combat is easier to tackle than in a shooter but still challenging to a player who is not used to putting thought into it. Next, it invites real resource management, better than I've witnessed in games that touted the feature, such as Dead Space. I wasn't kidding when I said you spent a good amount of the game with no more than one bullet, and you'll go stretches with no bullets either because you haven't found any or because as soon as you got one, you had to use it. It wasn't until close to the end of the game that I had up to four bullets in my gun, but a few encounters after that dwindled the number back down. Last, these encounters feel raw. By facing only a handful of guys (always men) at a time and needing to mind your weapons, the weight of killing other human beings isn't as diminished as games where you have to shoot thirty guys to proceed. Don't get me wrong. You don't really care for these people, but at the same time, you realize you're not in a world or a game that is teeming with them to the point of instigating apathy in the player. You're never in a situation where a door won't unlock or you'll never get off an elevator if you don't kill every last one. The consequence could be death or severe loss of health but not always progression.

Is the building sideways, or am I?

In terms of execution, the mechanics of the game work well together, creating a mostly believable atmosphere. There is some variety to the environments and buildings you need to explore, so you don't get too tired of going down the same hallways over and over again. The street level in the center of Haventon is under a dust cloud, so stamina continuously depletes just by walking through it, the effect eventually tempered but never eliminated by finding a gas mask. Although this made basic sense, it became a little tedious running from ladder to ladder to get above the dust and regain stamina. This was I Am Alive's version of hiding behind cover until you regain health, more or less, and you get a little tired of it by the end of the game.

Despite my joy in figuring out enemy puzzles, I did wish the developers created scenarios whereby I don't have to kill every last guy. There are some moments where holding out your gun will get your enemy to crouch with his hands behind his head and surrender, but if you try to walk away at that point, he'll come at you again as if he forgets that you still have a gun (and automatic aiming). I'd like to believe that in reality, some folks would just give up despite the setting. There is also an armored machete-toting enemy type that appears later in the game that requires manual aiming, which is an easy button toggle. Although more challenging, it's hard to believe the guy wearing the armor would never carry a gun so as to be a better threat. Yes, it works better for the player, but it ruins immersion. They could have been excluded.

His talents never cease.

By the end of the game, mostly because of exerting extra effort, Protagoniste was basically a walking pharmacy replete with snacks and water. I would argue that this breaks the atmosphere and the need to be resourceful, but in all honesty, it's nice to be rewarded for looking around every corner like a true forager should do. The white highlights helped. What also helped was performing admirably in combat and while climbing structures. Quick thinking in the former and taking time to plan your route in the latter result in less item waste, which helps you provide to the needy around you. Doing so gives the player extra retries, which allow Protagniste to begin from a recent checkpoint instead of restarting a chapter. I was not a big fan of managing checkpoints like a resource, but it wasn't the burden I was predicting. For those who are not as good at the combat puzzles and traversal, it might be a bane, especially if they hadn't managed to help those asking for it. But for someone like me who is better at puzzles than shooting, it was a friendly survival setup. I would encourage people to consider restarting a chapter instead of using a retry depending on how much ground or time was covered. The game keeps track of inventory, so if you started a chapter strong, the penalty is low.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that after the opening to the game, Protagoniste spends time trying to assist the lost little girl. However, the amount of time the game spends on helping her was unexpected. Though it's easy to complain that the game doesn't focus much on Protagoniste's efforts to find his own family, what transpires is ultimately believable. It is harder to fathom that a father desperate to locate his wife and daughter would allow a little girl to remain abandoned or in danger afterwards. It ultimately demonstrates an admirable amount of compassion, but much of what you're tasked with makes you seem like an errand boy, a common problem present in many games. Still, the story has a lot of heart and ultimately resonated with me. It's nice not to dislike any of the characters, including the child.

I do take mild umbrage with the ending, though. I'll start that argument by telling you the ending makes absolute sense. That isn't the problem. After completing the final mission, there are some obvious events that happened between then and the end that really should have been included in the game. It is tough to swallow the idea that the writers did this on purpose, and it appears this is one of the major victims of the troubled development cycle. That said, everything that gets you to the end is well-written, and investing time in the stories of the other survivors, however small, complements the experience. I also really like the declarative nature of the title. Rather than being cool or witty, it captures the nature of survival in three simple but bold words.

The Ritz-Carlton, this is not.

Presentation in I Am Alive offers mixed results. On one hand, the environments, especially the exteriors, can be striking. Dictated by the story, you'll travel around Haventon during various times of day, and one sequence near sunset also contains the most opportunities to view the ruined city against the horizon. Interiors are restrictive, as they should be, and the minimal lighting provided by infrequent light bulbs and bonfires works well to set mood and tone. Character and object models need more refinement, though. Up close, characters look a little off, and Protagoniste's hair is notably awkward and grungy. Also, some character models are used way too often. The items you find don't blend with their environments very well, white highlight notwithstanding. They just look too clean next to the areas surrounding them. In the sound department, sound effects and music are subtle and understated – not much to talk about there, but the voice acting is good.

I was reluctant to play I Am Alive because of what I read about the development and the mixed reviews. That said, I'm really glad I did. Despite lacking a resemblance to the disc-based blockbuster it was supposed to be, this is a great survival game that really requires wits and resourcefulness, sometimes being scarier than what passes for a survival horror game nowadays. If you want a great downloadable game with an amicably slower place compared to most AAA games, you can't really go wrong with I Am Alive. Despite the trauma of its troubled history, it has barely a scratch on it and no PTSD.

All images taken through Steam.

Deadlight Review

I don't remember any of this happening in 1986. I was four.

Good ol' Mullet's.

One of my most beloved games from years and years ago was Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. It was a 2.5D platformer where every room was a puzzle. The goal was for the titular hero to save his friends from becoming food despite having zero combat prowess to save himself. Enter Tequila Works' Deadlight last year. The initial trailers captivated me because they exhibited similar 2D gameplay with room puzzles, though while the goal to avoid becoming food remained the same, mostly everything else was different. This game takes place in an alternate reality in 1986 Seattle after a zombie outbreak has begrudged the world. You play as Randall Wayne, a Canadian forest ranger looking for his wife and daughter, who have gone ahead of you seeking a safe haven.

It should come as no surprise that gameplay in Deadlight is vastly different from Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and not just because of a lack of a chanting ability (insufficiently replaced with yelling). Here, the goal is to find your family and the safe haven alive all while avoiding the zombies surrounding you. Compared to more confrontational zombie games, such as Left 4 Dead or Dead Island, the key to survival is circumventing the undead foes as much as humanly possible. Randall has typical platforming abilities – running, jumping, crouching, rolling, climbing – and must use his wits to navigate around enemies and environmental obstacles. For example, one area had an immolated fuel truck preventing progress, and you are tasked with pushing a broken tank of water off the top of a building to put it out. Randall's abilities are more than serviceable, and it was fun to navigate the environments and figure out ways to fool the zombies, such as by calling for their attention and making them walk off cliffs, all the while looking for ways over walls and through windows to continue on.

Note: this isn't real.

The only real problems in the gameplay surfaced when you're faced with zombies in his path that you can't avoid. The game equips you with an axe to take down one or two at a time, and you eventually find a gun, but ammo is limited. When it came to some areas with long paths to the right, no platforms to jump on, and no objects in the environment to use for defense, I sometimes questioned what the designers wanted me to do to ensure success. Running with the axe does not always knock zombies down, and it is sadly impossible to run and shoot off your bullets. You must stop and aim first, which takes a life-altering second to ready. These situations did not happen often, though, and in most cases where using the gun is inevitable, Randall's default aim is head-level with the zombies. Still, checkpoints are frequent enough that the penalty for dying is being set back a little.

The story driving you from one end of Seattle to another is not remarkably compelling. You are trying to find your wife and daughter while staying alive, and the game occasionally provides playable flashbacks and hallucination segments to hint at the rather obvious revelation at the end. There were aspects of that revelation, which I found maddening, and what was an otherwise forgettable tale, wrought with Randall's gruff remarks about life and death along the way, took a stupid and puzzling turn for the cliche. The only other puzzle would be why the writers saw fit to throw in a segment in the middle that is literally just a series of rooms and traps that Randall must pass in order to continue on his journey. Aside from being forced in its execution (though still a fun area to play through by contrast), it didn't make sense. The traps were intended to keep out zombies, but by following the laws that the zombies of this game follow, they would not have otherwise been able to navigate to the platforms the traps are on. They can't jump. Come on.

I wonder if I can hire a zombie maid service.

Thankfully, the game is really breathtaking to look at, featuring a style that overlays Limbo's shadowed foreground aesthetic on top of beautifully detailed and colorful backgrounds. Using these shadows, the game's secret areas are hidden away until you discover the ledge or door that reveals them. These rooms typically lead to finding objects for Randall's scrapbook (for you completionists out there), but they can also lead to health and stamina powerups to boost his abilities. Among the scrapbook objects you find are a slew of discarded IDs, which apparently belong to a number of famous serial killers who operated in the northwest during the 80s. This may be another knock against the writers, but I didn't really understand the purpose of including these other than to be futilely tongue-in-cheek. Even my basic effort at performing some internet research revealed that a few of these folks were in jail or nowhere near Seattle in 1986, so I can only surmise that Tequila Works just wanted to be cool.

In terms of sound, effects and music were really top notch. Even basic details like floors cracking under Randall's feet and glass breaking were handled well. The soundtrack was surprisingly astounding though brief. I was actually really mesmerized by the Deadlight's theme, which plays while you navigate the main menus to look at the bonus content (artwork, trailers, and documentaries), which unlocks as you play through the game. Unfortunately, discussing the sound leads to the biggest problem I had with the game. All the cutscenes, including the introduction when you select to start a new game, are done through passable comic-book style animations, but apparently, the PC version of Deadlight has a terrible bug that prevents all sounds from being played during them. If I didn't have subtitles on (yeah, I do that), I would have missed the dialogue behind these events. Thankfully, the sound returns when you are actually playing, but this technical problem comes as a huge disappointment, especially considering how long it's been since the game was released. This kind of thing could have been addressed in the months before I got around to playing it.

If it's alright with you guys, I'll just hang out up here.

So Deadlight is something of a mixed bag whose main highlight is that it's fun to play. This didn't stop me from playing almost 40 hours of Far Cry 3, and it shouldn't prevent anyone from playing 5 hours of this game. Just don't take it too seriously. My sincere hope is that Tequila Works comes out with a spiritual (and more functional) sequel to this game that takes place in their supremely more fascinating home of Spain, especially since the zombie outbreak in this game supposedly originated in Europe. Just sayin'.

Jade Empire Review

Like an Open Palm to the Head

When citizens complain about a lack of street lighting, they don't usually mean all in one place.

Despite the number of games I've played which have come from Asia, I have only played two whose stories take place in Asian settings: Okami and now Jade Empire. The latter is surprising considering BioWare is located in Canada. Also, considering the controversy BioWare ignited in 2012, it may come as a surprise to many gamers that they created an RPG once that was not Mass Effect or a Star Wars derivative. I once started Jade Empire a few years ago but ended up abandoning it for reasons I cannot recall, but it might have had something to do with the difficulty. Thus, it ended up in my backlog again, not to arouse my interest until almost eight years after its creation. Regardless, I have been digressing for an entire paragraph now.

Jade Empire's story takes place in a fictional ancient Chinese setting whose name you can guess by now. You are given the opportunity to choose from a variety of male or female player characters, but they are not customizable in appearance whatsoever, just character stats. No matter whom you choose, the story is the same, and only a handful of interactions with NPCs and your romance options are affected by the gender. The player character begins the tale at a martial arts school up in the mountains in the village, Two Rivers. Here, you are Master Li's very special student with an important destiny that is continually alluded to during the introductory act. Eventually, the village and the school are attacked, your fellow students save for one, the spirit medium Dawn Star, are slaughtered, and your master has been kidnapped, presumably by the Empire's minions. So begins your empire-trotting tale to learn your destiny and save your master. If I sound sarcastic about having a wunderkind player characters, it may be because I think it's cooler to find out you're special than to have everyone at the beginning of the game remind you ad nauseam.

If you thought cell phones were huge way back when, get a lot of this coffee maker.

Overall, the story is a mixed bag. The setting and the folklore behind it are the most impressive qualities with just enough magic to make it intriguing without delving too far into high fantasy. The result is a believable land with strong traces of ancient mysticism and gods. Along your journey, you will also meet plenty of unique characters, which add to the rich setting with personal tales of strife and triumph, some of whose outcomes to affect through side quests. A number of pre-designated characters also join you on your quest and assist you in battle. The main narrative, which drives the player along, is just OK, though. Nothing is thrown at you that you've never seen coming, though the laudable twist is handled gracefully. Where the story fell short is in the rather brief cluster of chapters that make up the conclusion to the game after the twist in the fourth act. It feels like the developers felt a need to pad the time until the ending, so they just threw in some repeated areas with almost none of the exploration or the side quests offered by the first three quarters of the game. To top it off, your time is extended needlessly with battles of escalating difficulty instead. The pay off for your troubles is an extremely brief cutscene with the final boss followed by text explaining what became of your companions. I now question whether or not BioWare ever really knew how to wrap up a storyline.

That said, Jade Empire is still enjoyable to play; I clocked in about thirty hours of gameplay between the main quest and all the side activities. Before the crux of the narrative even comes to pass, Two Rivers offers a number of optional missions to complete, which net you bonus experience and money to really start prepping yourself for the challenge ahead. These are but a taste of the deeper, more relatable side quests that you encounter during your travels around the Jade Empire. Unsurprisingly, the game features a binary choice system where good is called The Way of the Open Palm, and evil is called The Way of the Closed Fist. Although one character argues that neither path is inherently imbued with good or evil, the system's implementation is pretty rudimentary. Open Palm is colored blue, and Closed Fist is colored red. I need not explain further. However, the methods behind gaining favor with either path are varied. Depending on your character's stats, you are able to influence NPCs into doing what you ask of them using charm, intuition, or intimidation. The leanings are situation dependent, but even if you're not being intimidating, it can be obvious when you're trying to convince someone to do something that is ultimately not right, so don't be surprised when you get that red glow about you. Killing folks with abandon isn't the only evil action to take.

We're all done freaking out about this kind of natural phenomenon, right?

The experience you earn from completing quests and doing battle allow you to upgrade your three main stats: body, spirit, and mind. Increasing these influence the bars for your health, chi (magic), and focus (weapon dexterity), but the three unique combinations of each affect your level of charm, intuition, and intimidation for conversation. Battle is focused on using an impressive array of fighting styles – martial styles involve physical attacks with your limbs, weapon styles need no explanation, support styles inflict status effects but no damage, magic styles allow for a bit of ranged fighting and status effects, and transformation styles allow you to turn into a powerful but chi-draining spirit. Not every style works on every type of opponent, either, so it's necessary to stay on your toes when fighting varied groups. Each level you earn also nets you points to apply to improving each of these styles to become truly powerful. The variety of styles you earn or buy during the game outnumber the amount you can bring into battle (10 on PC, one for each hotkey), so you should have no trouble customizing battles to fit your own perception of your ultimate martial arts fighter. I really enjoyed this aspect of combat, and I only wished there was an option later on to reallocate skill points to newer skills you wish to replace older ones with. This is a minor complaint, though.

Battles actually take place in the same environments you traverse, so it's highly possible that saying the wrong word to someone in conversation could result in a fight right where you stand. The only time this becomes a problem is when the battlefield borders feel arbitrarily drawn, and learning that you can't evade because of an invisible wall can lead to doom. Problems aside, what I did like about this feature was that some battles were actually total surprises. Compared to Mass Effect where a giant room or corridor with a lot of waist-high walls meant inevitable cover-based combat was afoot, environments in Jade Empire are varied enough that you honestly can't tell when battle is coming (unless it's a respawn point) and may end up surprised. Overall, combat is satisfying and offers a lot of variety and engaging difficulty. Sometimes, the difficulty spikes when fighting larger groups of spirits in one of the earlier acts of the game (I cursed a lot), but I did find that exerting patience and defensive maneuvers (things I suck at) do lead to triumph.

Even the chickens are holy.

Beyond combat, Jade Empire offers open environments to explore in its second and third acts, which comprise the bulk of the seven act game, believe it or not. The Imperial City in particular, aside from being the largest explorable area in the game, features a slew of side quests and activities to undertake. I was really baffled by how much time I spent there ignoring the main quest, though the writers did throw in squeeze points where you have to proceed with the story for a mission or so to continue with ongoing side quests. One of the city's side quests requires the player to go round after round in a fighting arena. But unlike similar implementations in games like Borderlands, as you progress through the rounds, more side quests and stories spawn from the characters you fight and those who control the arena. It is practically a stand-alone game in itself!

Despite being almost eight years old, Jade Empire is a treat to look at even if it is readily apparent that technology has come so far since its release. There are a lot of organic and large environments with winding paths, and many areas feature details which provide unique character and charm. Despite its impressive size, the Imperial City could have used more variety and colors in the wall and ground textures to be as captivating as the characters seem to think it is. (It's not the Citadel.) Also, the HUD is a rather blocky and large and could afford to be implemented more gracefully. The soundtrack, composed by the amazing Jack Wall (total fanboy), is wonderful. It manages to evoke the Asian setting while layering more modern orchestral compositions over traditional instruments. Most of the voice acting, by contrast, felt a little stiff and forced especially when coupled with the rather silly conversation animations of the character models. Now is a good time to mention that the player character never speaks aloud, only through text options, something obvious that BioWare fixed for its next game.

A ship! This can only have a positive outcome!

Jade Empire was a fun game, and I am glad I picked it up again (ah, the power of a Steam sale) and tried my hand at it a second time. I really enjoyed the battle system and how powerful I felt by the end, and the side quests added a lot of needed depth to the overall story that the main narrative really lacked. Even though it's showing its age, it's definitely a solid RPG to try out if you've got thirty hours to kill.

All screenshots taken by me through Steam. The camera turns with the character, so no face for you!

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.

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)!

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.