unstoppable conglomerate review of several unrelated games: GO
PixelJunk Shooter
I'm not even sure where to begin describing why I loved this game. I think the name is confusing. Yes, you control a little spaceship that flies around and sometimes shoots things. But most of the game is about exploration and problem-solving. Gameplay seems deceptively simple, at first. The controls are fairly intuitive - two analog sticks and two triggers do everything. You fly through caverns, rescuing trapped space miners with an extendible claw arm. The main difficulty (and entertainment) comes in the form of various substances which you must manipulate and/or contend with: Stone, water, magma, explosive toxic gas, and others. Each has its own unique characteristics and interreactions. For example, the ship can move through water with little difficutly, but magma is deadly. When water and magma come into contact, a solid, brittle stone is formed which can be chipped away by the ship's guns. In order to reach certain areas where miners are trapped, it is sometimes necessary to breach various chambers which are filled with water, magma, or other substances, allowing them to flow out or interact; the player may need to use water to neutralize dangerous lava, or use flowing lava to set off clouds of explosive gas to reach new areas. The necessity of watching out for not only your tiny spaceship, but also the safety of the miners you are responsible for adds a puzzle-like element to gameplay.
The graphics are simple and cartoonish, but not retro/pixelated; PixelJunk Shooter has kind of a retro style, rendered in HD. The lines are crisp and clean. The various flowing liquids and substances are rendered beautifully.
Also of note is the accompanying soundtrack by High Frequency Bandwidth. Somehow, it's perfect for this kind of game. Not rushed, not hectic, but funky and stylish. It says: This is not a game about combat; it's about precision and survival.
PixelJunk Shooter is, arguably, the best downloadable game I've gotten from PSN so far (especially given that it was only $10). I can't wait for PixelJunk Shooter 2, which introduces even more weird substances and interactions and looks even better, but they haven't given out a firm release date yet. Supposedly, it'll be sometime this Fall...
Transformers: War For Cybertron
The first thing this game does right is that it's not based on or related to any of the terrible Michael Bay movies.
The second thing this game does right is that you can tell the developers went out of their way to try to make the gameplay not suck. Nothing feels especially tacked-on or thrown-together. Everything flows fairly well. The element of transformation to vehicle mode and back is smoothly integrated into gameplay.
The third thing this game does right is that everything looks cool. Cues are obviously taken from various sources (such as the original cartoon and the War Within comic series), but the designs of characters and places in War For Cybertron are very obviously new and fresh. It has a good style. The voice acting and verbal interactions between the characters only add to this (for the most part). The Transformers fan in me, at least, loves the new reinterpretation of the characters and their world. This is a game that knows and respects its source material, but also understands that its source material was, at heart, a cartoon, from the 80s. (The end-credits theme song is amazing, hahaha.)
Where War For Cybertron loses points with me is story. Most noticeably, the developers put a lot of work into the non-story-related online co-op / multiplayer modes. This is good in that they feel thoroughly finished and well-done, but bad in that this work obviously took time and resources away from the campaign/story mode of the game. Which brings me to the fact that the game is split into two sub-campaigns, an "evil" campaign for the first half and a "good" campaign for the second. So you end up spending the first half of the game trying to accomplish Evil Stuff as the Bad Guys, and the second half trying to undo all the Evil Stuff as the Good Guys. Since this is a "prequel" game to the series, there is never a big, climactic battle between the Main Bad Guy and the Main Good Guy. As a result, it feels more like two half-games than one whole game. It feels shorter and less-complete than it is. You never really get the feeling that you've accomplished anything of consequence, other than screwing up the planet and starting a new cold war between the factions ("but that is a story for another time..." etc). No matter who you're cheering for, the game ends on a bittersweet, unfulfilled note. Neither side even gets particularly badly beaten down. I get it, it makes sense (I guess, in context), but it's not what I want from the ending of a game. I think the technical term is "blue balls".
As for the multiplayer modes, there's a "character creation" option that's about as involved as going to a car manufacturer's website and picking a model, color, and options from a pretty limited list, then getting to name it. Armored Core it ain't. And then you get to do multiplayer stuff like deathmatches and capture-the-flag, which I've never really been into, but I've dabbled in a little to get more replay value out of it. I suppose I've always wanted a game where I can create my own Transformer (albeit within constraints) and then use it to go beat the living crap out of other peoples' Transformers, so in that sense I can't complain too loudly.
Oh yeah, and there's no offline co-op mode. I can't just sit down with my own friends on my own couch and play the game together, with a split-screen or something. Lame. Even Resident Evil 5 had that.
I guess what I want is some story-based DLC, like Resident Evil 5's "Desperate Escape" and "Lost In Nightmares" chapters. I want to wring more out of this unique story and world that seems to have gotten the short end of the stick. Multiplayer's alright, but that's not what I bought the game for. Give me story DLC or give me a sequel.
Space Invaders: Infinity Gene
Infinity Gene is supposed to "evolve" as you do better and better in the game, but what happens is that you play classic Space Invaders for literally 5sec or so, before the game starts "evolving" (in various iterations, based on how well you're doing) into a weird 2.5D hybrid top-down scrolling shooter game. You get the ability to move freely around the screen, and unlock the choice of various weapons which can be made more effective by getting power-ups. And then it kinda stops "evolving". Oh well. Still pretty fun. Graphically, the backgrounds almost feel like Rez's 90s-esque faux "virtual reality", although many of the enemies still copy the classic 8-bit Space Invader ships in appearance. This game feels less like a sequel and more like a sort of surreal tribute to the original game and everything the genre evolved into after it. The title screen makes an interesting point: "Copyright 1978, 2010".
Oh yeah, and there's a "music mode" that somehow makes levels based on any songs you have on your PS3's hard drive. So you can make your favorite song into a grueling ordeal with waves and waves of pixelated UFOs. I mean, if you're into that kinda thing. (My guess is that if you're playing this game, you probably are. So go for it.)
Enslaved: Odyssey To The West
Enslaved's story is loosely based on the Chinese classic novel Journey To The West, with the magical elements replaced by technology. I'd been meaning to read Journey To The West for some time, since it has influenced and been adapted into so many movies/shows/games/stories over the years, but playing Enslaved was what inspired me to actually go out and find a copy.
This game is beautiful. No other way to describe it, really. Where other post-apocalyptic games are brown and gray, Enslaved is colorful. It's not a world we've destroyed; it's a Miyazaki-inspired (in a gritty, non-cartoonish way) world that's bouncing back and thriving, in spite of us. The setting feels very alive and peaceful, almost idyllic, except that there are dormant war robots and landmines everywhere, waiting to be stumbled upon. Refreshingly different.
Enslaved is mostly linear in its progression, but has just enough exploration and area puzzles that it doesn't feel like you're being led everywhere by the nose. Most of the game is basically an escort mission, but the character you're escorting is almost always more of a help than a burden (indeed, many areas are impassable without her help), and she's usually smart enough to hide and stay out of the way when trouble goes down. (Very early in the game, your character yells at her for not running for cover when a dangerous situation arises, and she agrees to be more careful for both their sakes.) In short, Enslaved does a good job of hiding its gameplay constraints and not impinging them too much upon the experience of the player. For the most part, it feels comfortable and smooth. (I did have passing issues with hitting the exact "jump-off points" in one or two of the platforming segments, but they were mostly little annoyances at worst.)
Adding to this, the voice acting and motion capture is some of the best I've seen. The cutscenes are well written and acted, and the interplay between the characters is one of the things that "makes" the game. Superb.
I also want the soundtrack; the music is just right in every scene.
I think my major complaint (if you can call it that) is that Enslaved is a little short. Don't get me wrong; the game is neither longer nor shorter than it feels like it needs to be. It is the exact right length for the story. It feels complete and rounded. I just didn't want to be done with it.
I've heard there is going to be some side-plot DLC coming. Yes, please.
Costume Quest
I'm not entirely sure who Costume Quest is supposed to be aimed at. It's really cute and not especially difficult, so I'm tempted to say it's for kids. But some of the jokes and styling is decidedly more adult in flavor. I don't mean risque; I mean that some of it seems to be stuff that young kids wouldn't "get". So I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this game is aimed at significant others who feel left out.
By that, I mean specifically significant others of people who play "hardcore" games that are more complicated and demanding, and who haven't actually gotten into these games themselves because they are "too frustrating" and "there are too many buttons". (Disclaimer: I don't mean that to sound condescending; it's perfectly normal to be intimidated by something that involves pressing lots of specific little buttons very fast, in the right order and timing, using only your thumbs, if you don't normally do that kind of thing very intensively. It's like if typing and driving had a baby.) Costume Quest is fun without being intimidating or discouraging, or (on the other hand) sickeningly "girly". It's not especially tough, but it does at least ask the player to explore and be slightly dilligent.
As therefore-apparently-not-really-this-game's-target-audience, my experience with Costume Quest was that I was able to beat it and get all its trophies within a day. I just plowed right through it, like a .50-cal round through soft clay. I don't think it was made to challenge people who have developed a kind of objective, relentless "exploration game flowchart" in their heads (e.g., 1 Explore area; 2 Assess immediate threats, defeat or avoid; 3 Assess available puzzles/items, acquire/solve if possible; 4 Assess new items vs previous unsolved puzzles, backtrack if necessary; 5 Deal with new/changed circumstances or move to next area). The game gives you a whole bunch of items that you never need, or at least don't need 95% of the time. In fact, I ended up beating the final boss using the same three costumes I started the game with, and the only time I ever actually died was when I went back to try to fight the final boss again using different (sucky) costumes to get the last trophy. (I had literally killed off all the other enemies in the entire game by that point, so the only way I could get a combat-related trophy was to go back to the end-battle of the game.)
So... what can I really say about this game? It's cute and fun, but not very challenging if you're very hardcore about your games. It was an entertaining diversion, but it took me a relatively short amount of time to thoroughly stomp it into the ground. I did enjoy the cel-shaded graphics and the animations for the attacks and special moves were pretty cool (especially the Statue Of Liberty's "Anthem", hahaha). But I'm sure if I give it to my girlfriend to play, she'll be the one who ends up having more fun with it, overall.
I'm not even sure where to begin describing why I loved this game. I think the name is confusing. Yes, you control a little spaceship that flies around and sometimes shoots things. But most of the game is about exploration and problem-solving. Gameplay seems deceptively simple, at first. The controls are fairly intuitive - two analog sticks and two triggers do everything. You fly through caverns, rescuing trapped space miners with an extendible claw arm. The main difficulty (and entertainment) comes in the form of various substances which you must manipulate and/or contend with: Stone, water, magma, explosive toxic gas, and others. Each has its own unique characteristics and interreactions. For example, the ship can move through water with little difficutly, but magma is deadly. When water and magma come into contact, a solid, brittle stone is formed which can be chipped away by the ship's guns. In order to reach certain areas where miners are trapped, it is sometimes necessary to breach various chambers which are filled with water, magma, or other substances, allowing them to flow out or interact; the player may need to use water to neutralize dangerous lava, or use flowing lava to set off clouds of explosive gas to reach new areas. The necessity of watching out for not only your tiny spaceship, but also the safety of the miners you are responsible for adds a puzzle-like element to gameplay.
The graphics are simple and cartoonish, but not retro/pixelated; PixelJunk Shooter has kind of a retro style, rendered in HD. The lines are crisp and clean. The various flowing liquids and substances are rendered beautifully.
Also of note is the accompanying soundtrack by High Frequency Bandwidth. Somehow, it's perfect for this kind of game. Not rushed, not hectic, but funky and stylish. It says: This is not a game about combat; it's about precision and survival.
PixelJunk Shooter is, arguably, the best downloadable game I've gotten from PSN so far (especially given that it was only $10). I can't wait for PixelJunk Shooter 2, which introduces even more weird substances and interactions and looks even better, but they haven't given out a firm release date yet. Supposedly, it'll be sometime this Fall...
Transformers: War For Cybertron
The first thing this game does right is that it's not based on or related to any of the terrible Michael Bay movies.
The second thing this game does right is that you can tell the developers went out of their way to try to make the gameplay not suck. Nothing feels especially tacked-on or thrown-together. Everything flows fairly well. The element of transformation to vehicle mode and back is smoothly integrated into gameplay.
The third thing this game does right is that everything looks cool. Cues are obviously taken from various sources (such as the original cartoon and the War Within comic series), but the designs of characters and places in War For Cybertron are very obviously new and fresh. It has a good style. The voice acting and verbal interactions between the characters only add to this (for the most part). The Transformers fan in me, at least, loves the new reinterpretation of the characters and their world. This is a game that knows and respects its source material, but also understands that its source material was, at heart, a cartoon, from the 80s. (The end-credits theme song is amazing, hahaha.)
Where War For Cybertron loses points with me is story. Most noticeably, the developers put a lot of work into the non-story-related online co-op / multiplayer modes. This is good in that they feel thoroughly finished and well-done, but bad in that this work obviously took time and resources away from the campaign/story mode of the game. Which brings me to the fact that the game is split into two sub-campaigns, an "evil" campaign for the first half and a "good" campaign for the second. So you end up spending the first half of the game trying to accomplish Evil Stuff as the Bad Guys, and the second half trying to undo all the Evil Stuff as the Good Guys. Since this is a "prequel" game to the series, there is never a big, climactic battle between the Main Bad Guy and the Main Good Guy. As a result, it feels more like two half-games than one whole game. It feels shorter and less-complete than it is. You never really get the feeling that you've accomplished anything of consequence, other than screwing up the planet and starting a new cold war between the factions ("but that is a story for another time..." etc). No matter who you're cheering for, the game ends on a bittersweet, unfulfilled note. Neither side even gets particularly badly beaten down. I get it, it makes sense (I guess, in context), but it's not what I want from the ending of a game. I think the technical term is "blue balls".
As for the multiplayer modes, there's a "character creation" option that's about as involved as going to a car manufacturer's website and picking a model, color, and options from a pretty limited list, then getting to name it. Armored Core it ain't. And then you get to do multiplayer stuff like deathmatches and capture-the-flag, which I've never really been into, but I've dabbled in a little to get more replay value out of it. I suppose I've always wanted a game where I can create my own Transformer (albeit within constraints) and then use it to go beat the living crap out of other peoples' Transformers, so in that sense I can't complain too loudly.
Oh yeah, and there's no offline co-op mode. I can't just sit down with my own friends on my own couch and play the game together, with a split-screen or something. Lame. Even Resident Evil 5 had that.
I guess what I want is some story-based DLC, like Resident Evil 5's "Desperate Escape" and "Lost In Nightmares" chapters. I want to wring more out of this unique story and world that seems to have gotten the short end of the stick. Multiplayer's alright, but that's not what I bought the game for. Give me story DLC or give me a sequel.
Space Invaders: Infinity Gene
Infinity Gene is supposed to "evolve" as you do better and better in the game, but what happens is that you play classic Space Invaders for literally 5sec or so, before the game starts "evolving" (in various iterations, based on how well you're doing) into a weird 2.5D hybrid top-down scrolling shooter game. You get the ability to move freely around the screen, and unlock the choice of various weapons which can be made more effective by getting power-ups. And then it kinda stops "evolving". Oh well. Still pretty fun. Graphically, the backgrounds almost feel like Rez's 90s-esque faux "virtual reality", although many of the enemies still copy the classic 8-bit Space Invader ships in appearance. This game feels less like a sequel and more like a sort of surreal tribute to the original game and everything the genre evolved into after it. The title screen makes an interesting point: "Copyright 1978, 2010".
Oh yeah, and there's a "music mode" that somehow makes levels based on any songs you have on your PS3's hard drive. So you can make your favorite song into a grueling ordeal with waves and waves of pixelated UFOs. I mean, if you're into that kinda thing. (My guess is that if you're playing this game, you probably are. So go for it.)
Enslaved: Odyssey To The West
Enslaved's story is loosely based on the Chinese classic novel Journey To The West, with the magical elements replaced by technology. I'd been meaning to read Journey To The West for some time, since it has influenced and been adapted into so many movies/shows/games/stories over the years, but playing Enslaved was what inspired me to actually go out and find a copy.
This game is beautiful. No other way to describe it, really. Where other post-apocalyptic games are brown and gray, Enslaved is colorful. It's not a world we've destroyed; it's a Miyazaki-inspired (in a gritty, non-cartoonish way) world that's bouncing back and thriving, in spite of us. The setting feels very alive and peaceful, almost idyllic, except that there are dormant war robots and landmines everywhere, waiting to be stumbled upon. Refreshingly different.
Enslaved is mostly linear in its progression, but has just enough exploration and area puzzles that it doesn't feel like you're being led everywhere by the nose. Most of the game is basically an escort mission, but the character you're escorting is almost always more of a help than a burden (indeed, many areas are impassable without her help), and she's usually smart enough to hide and stay out of the way when trouble goes down. (Very early in the game, your character yells at her for not running for cover when a dangerous situation arises, and she agrees to be more careful for both their sakes.) In short, Enslaved does a good job of hiding its gameplay constraints and not impinging them too much upon the experience of the player. For the most part, it feels comfortable and smooth. (I did have passing issues with hitting the exact "jump-off points" in one or two of the platforming segments, but they were mostly little annoyances at worst.)
Adding to this, the voice acting and motion capture is some of the best I've seen. The cutscenes are well written and acted, and the interplay between the characters is one of the things that "makes" the game. Superb.
I also want the soundtrack; the music is just right in every scene.
I think my major complaint (if you can call it that) is that Enslaved is a little short. Don't get me wrong; the game is neither longer nor shorter than it feels like it needs to be. It is the exact right length for the story. It feels complete and rounded. I just didn't want to be done with it.
I've heard there is going to be some side-plot DLC coming. Yes, please.
Costume Quest
I'm not entirely sure who Costume Quest is supposed to be aimed at. It's really cute and not especially difficult, so I'm tempted to say it's for kids. But some of the jokes and styling is decidedly more adult in flavor. I don't mean risque; I mean that some of it seems to be stuff that young kids wouldn't "get". So I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this game is aimed at significant others who feel left out.
By that, I mean specifically significant others of people who play "hardcore" games that are more complicated and demanding, and who haven't actually gotten into these games themselves because they are "too frustrating" and "there are too many buttons". (Disclaimer: I don't mean that to sound condescending; it's perfectly normal to be intimidated by something that involves pressing lots of specific little buttons very fast, in the right order and timing, using only your thumbs, if you don't normally do that kind of thing very intensively. It's like if typing and driving had a baby.) Costume Quest is fun without being intimidating or discouraging, or (on the other hand) sickeningly "girly". It's not especially tough, but it does at least ask the player to explore and be slightly dilligent.
As therefore-apparently-not-really-this-game's-target-audience, my experience with Costume Quest was that I was able to beat it and get all its trophies within a day. I just plowed right through it, like a .50-cal round through soft clay. I don't think it was made to challenge people who have developed a kind of objective, relentless "exploration game flowchart" in their heads (e.g., 1 Explore area; 2 Assess immediate threats, defeat or avoid; 3 Assess available puzzles/items, acquire/solve if possible; 4 Assess new items vs previous unsolved puzzles, backtrack if necessary; 5 Deal with new/changed circumstances or move to next area). The game gives you a whole bunch of items that you never need, or at least don't need 95% of the time. In fact, I ended up beating the final boss using the same three costumes I started the game with, and the only time I ever actually died was when I went back to try to fight the final boss again using different (sucky) costumes to get the last trophy. (I had literally killed off all the other enemies in the entire game by that point, so the only way I could get a combat-related trophy was to go back to the end-battle of the game.)
So... what can I really say about this game? It's cute and fun, but not very challenging if you're very hardcore about your games. It was an entertaining diversion, but it took me a relatively short amount of time to thoroughly stomp it into the ground. I did enjoy the cel-shaded graphics and the animations for the attacks and special moves were pretty cool (especially the Statue Of Liberty's "Anthem", hahaha). But I'm sure if I give it to my girlfriend to play, she'll be the one who ends up having more fun with it, overall.