By Duane / 2010-09-03 08:16:41Worms, Worms, Worms, its been a staple of the British gaming industry for over a decade, slowly evolving, sometimes trying bold new things that don't quite work out (Worms 3D). Every so often a new edition is released, unfortunately the feeling is that the series peaked with Worms Armageddon ten years ago. Even so, its always nice to have a new release to play with, with the hope that it can attract more people to play against, and by releasing Worms Reloaded through Steam (with a couple of bonuses thrown in for those that pre-ordered), that appears to be the goal of Team 17.
What we have here then is a compilation and rebranding of the games released on the consoles' digital distribution platforms. Neither of the games received a huge reception, but both were as entertaining as you'd expect from Worms, in short there wasn't really anything new on the plate and it looked a little lean, particularly in the weapons department. Worms Reloaded has tackled this by giving the player a greatest hits of Worms weapons without including too many of the gimmicky arsenal. This, tied to the tried and tested 2D gameplay and a tweaking of some of the devices' power has made for a much more streamlined and focused battle experience.
To add variety there are more customisation options than ever before, including more voices, hats, gravestones and even flesh tones for your team of worms. There's also a variety of single player modes, offering you the chance to learn different approaches to abusing your opponents squad and different methods of using each weapon and the landscape around you, the feeling of improvement as a player as you progress through the single player modes is incredibly rewarding, especially when you manage to turn the tuition into a victory in a multiplayer match.
So Worms Reloaded is a tuned down "Best of" for the Worms series, there'll always be things that fans will feel should be included, but overall Team 17 have succesfully blended the past with the present making the game as fun and as accessible as it ever was and best of all it doesn't feel tired in any way.
What we have here then is a compilation and rebranding of the games released on the consoles' digital distribution platforms. Neither of the games received a huge reception, but both were as entertaining as you'd expect from Worms, in short there wasn't really anything new on the plate and it looked a little lean, particularly in the weapons department. Worms Reloaded has tackled this by giving the player a greatest hits of Worms weapons without including too many of the gimmicky arsenal. This, tied to the tried and tested 2D gameplay and a tweaking of some of the devices' power has made for a much more streamlined and focused battle experience.
To add variety there are more customisation options than ever before, including more voices, hats, gravestones and even flesh tones for your team of worms. There's also a variety of single player modes, offering you the chance to learn different approaches to abusing your opponents squad and different methods of using each weapon and the landscape around you, the feeling of improvement as a player as you progress through the single player modes is incredibly rewarding, especially when you manage to turn the tuition into a victory in a multiplayer match.
So Worms Reloaded is a tuned down "Best of" for the Worms series, there'll always be things that fans will feel should be included, but overall Team 17 have succesfully blended the past with the present making the game as fun and as accessible as it ever was and best of all it doesn't feel tired in any way.
By Ben / 2010-08-12 10:49:40There are a few mitigating factors when it comes to reviewing Privates. Firstly it’s free, it costs you nothing, it cost me nothing, so expecting perfection is perhaps unreasonable. Secondly it’s designed to raise awareness and promote safer sex, commendable, but something else it needs to do well to prove it’s worth.
There’s a fair chance that you went to download Privates from Channel 4’s site and found your computer wouldn’t run it. The developers warn that you need a computer on par with a 360 and they’re not wrong. Making a game to raise awareness, but having requirements that exclude the vast majority of people is not the smartest move.
It’s not like the graphics really justify the horse power demands. The framerate never gets especially high, there’s few special effects, little detail, and only the bare minimum of animations for projectiles. Character models are basic, and glitch more often than not, there’s no particle effects to choke the processor either.
Gameplay is simple, various STD’s and bodily fluids will attack you. You need to scan to get the low-down on enemies weaknesses, then alter your ammo type accordingly. There’s some basic platforming, with only one level really making use of this. Tagging along with you are 3 privates, they’ll lend a hand with the blasting, but it’s your job to keep them alive. Failure to do so means game over, although each level has a handful of restart points, so things never get too unforgiving.
Even though the gameplay is simplistic it’s still littered with problems. Too often your hits wont register, be it a relatively harmless bout of herpes, or the more menacing Chlamydia. Your privates occasionally decide not to follow you, meaning you have to track back and try to force them along. Which actually led to a relatively severe bug, whereby I reached a checkpoint, but the game wouldn’t progress until my remaining privates joined me, only they were stuck, under attack, or lost in their own pitiful thoughts, causing the game to freeze and me to have to restart.
There’s a shoddy feeling to the game, it’s not quite finished, certainly lacking in polish. Understandable for a free game, but the gameplay isn’t there to make up for it. For some the script might, there’s lots of jokes and innuendo, but for me that too fell flat. The voice work is patched together, although reasonably well acted, it just all feels like it was knocked up by a handful of people (and it was).
Privates does get its message across quite well though, certainly I learnt a few facts and had my memory poked on a few others. The problem is that the game just isn’t fun enough to recommend persevering with. The combat is boring and unreliable, the platforming clunky and uninspired, and the script rarely raises a smile.
There’s a fair chance that you went to download Privates from Channel 4’s site and found your computer wouldn’t run it. The developers warn that you need a computer on par with a 360 and they’re not wrong. Making a game to raise awareness, but having requirements that exclude the vast majority of people is not the smartest move.
It’s not like the graphics really justify the horse power demands. The framerate never gets especially high, there’s few special effects, little detail, and only the bare minimum of animations for projectiles. Character models are basic, and glitch more often than not, there’s no particle effects to choke the processor either.
Gameplay is simple, various STD’s and bodily fluids will attack you. You need to scan to get the low-down on enemies weaknesses, then alter your ammo type accordingly. There’s some basic platforming, with only one level really making use of this. Tagging along with you are 3 privates, they’ll lend a hand with the blasting, but it’s your job to keep them alive. Failure to do so means game over, although each level has a handful of restart points, so things never get too unforgiving.
Even though the gameplay is simplistic it’s still littered with problems. Too often your hits wont register, be it a relatively harmless bout of herpes, or the more menacing Chlamydia. Your privates occasionally decide not to follow you, meaning you have to track back and try to force them along. Which actually led to a relatively severe bug, whereby I reached a checkpoint, but the game wouldn’t progress until my remaining privates joined me, only they were stuck, under attack, or lost in their own pitiful thoughts, causing the game to freeze and me to have to restart.
There’s a shoddy feeling to the game, it’s not quite finished, certainly lacking in polish. Understandable for a free game, but the gameplay isn’t there to make up for it. For some the script might, there’s lots of jokes and innuendo, but for me that too fell flat. The voice work is patched together, although reasonably well acted, it just all feels like it was knocked up by a handful of people (and it was).
Privates does get its message across quite well though, certainly I learnt a few facts and had my memory poked on a few others. The problem is that the game just isn’t fun enough to recommend persevering with. The combat is boring and unreliable, the platforming clunky and uninspired, and the script rarely raises a smile.
By Duane / 2010-06-26 16:28:35Normally a franchise with as much pull as the BBC's Doctor Who would see some sort of cheap cash in thats not really worth playing. Odd then that the BBC have indeed seemingly pulled out all the stops to try and provide an entertaining game thats free to download.
Developed by Sumo Digital and co-produced by Charles Cecil, plus featuring likenesses and voice talents of the current series' stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan not to mention some of the series' more famous bad guys everything is here to provide a perfect accompainment to the television series. Indeed the BBC are even treating the 5 downloadable games as additional episodes to the TV series resulting in stories that may even be referenced at certain points during the TV script.
The overall quality for such a product, especially if you factor in the price is astounding. Visually it won't blow anything away, its very basic looking and textures are used a fair number of times, even in a game thats only about 2 hours long and features only a very small handful of locations. Even so the production levels, story telling and indeed script are perfectly designed giving you the genuine feeling of playing an episode of the show. This first episode see's you face off against The Doctor's most famous enemy, The Daleks.
Unsuprisingly there's no big "crash, bang, wallop! Lets attack the Daleks head on" style game play, instead you defeat the menaces in the normal Doctor Who fashion of using their own technology (or as is the case here, something they've found) against them to save the Earth. The story is a little more basic than you'd expect from TV Who but the script is punchy and witty and well delivered by its stars.
The gameplay itself is rather simplistic, and the puzzles rather easy for pretty much everyone over the age of nine. But that is unsuprising really, after all Doctor Who is a family show and this game will have been designed to entertain everyone of all ages which it manages to do to a mildly succesful degree.
Developed by Sumo Digital and co-produced by Charles Cecil, plus featuring likenesses and voice talents of the current series' stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan not to mention some of the series' more famous bad guys everything is here to provide a perfect accompainment to the television series. Indeed the BBC are even treating the 5 downloadable games as additional episodes to the TV series resulting in stories that may even be referenced at certain points during the TV script.
The overall quality for such a product, especially if you factor in the price is astounding. Visually it won't blow anything away, its very basic looking and textures are used a fair number of times, even in a game thats only about 2 hours long and features only a very small handful of locations. Even so the production levels, story telling and indeed script are perfectly designed giving you the genuine feeling of playing an episode of the show. This first episode see's you face off against The Doctor's most famous enemy, The Daleks.
Unsuprisingly there's no big "crash, bang, wallop! Lets attack the Daleks head on" style game play, instead you defeat the menaces in the normal Doctor Who fashion of using their own technology (or as is the case here, something they've found) against them to save the Earth. The story is a little more basic than you'd expect from TV Who but the script is punchy and witty and well delivered by its stars.
The gameplay itself is rather simplistic, and the puzzles rather easy for pretty much everyone over the age of nine. But that is unsuprising really, after all Doctor Who is a family show and this game will have been designed to entertain everyone of all ages which it manages to do to a mildly succesful degree.
By Duane / 2010-04-09 15:09:43Sticking Ninja Robots in a 3D platformer deathmatch game where the ultimate aim is to gain points by commiting suicide sounds like one of the greatest ideas for a videogame ever. Well thats my humble opinion anyway, so it was with some excitement that I approached Beatnik Games' Plain Sight hoping that the game I was about to play would be half as good as what was going on in my head.
So is it? Well, the short answer is, not quite, the long answer is that it has the potential to be just as good as I'd hoped. Confused? Yeah, me too as thats the general feeling that I was left with by Plain Sight.
You see everything is there for it to be absolutely brilliant. The controls are intuitive, the visual appearance of the game is, initially anyway, rather cool looking and it runs rather well on a low to mid end system just like something like Torchlight. However the game just ends up being a bit too confusing for you to jump straight in and enjoy from the off. The camera is the biggest issue here, even altering the sensitivity of it its difficult to keep track of anything that you get your little robot guy to lock onto.
Lock on? wouldn't that make things easier? you say. Well, no, because its not the camera that locks on like we've all come to expect from the term within gaming. Instead your attack locks on whilst you charge, but you still need to give chase whilst holding down the attack button and keep in range of the opponent you're locked onto before unleashing your attack. Kill him and your energy meter fills up, you begin to change colour and your robot grows a bit. Eventually you'll become the target for everybody else, the strategy is to release all your energy at once in order to convert your energy points into game points. The resulting suicide results in an explosion that can take out anyone nearby resulting in even more points. It still sounds utterly excellent doesn't it?
Well it is really, but its that stumbling block of the camera, aswell as El Mono's (the name the developers have given the robot) habit of clinging to anything that you happen to jump near, meaning you all too often get stuck on a wall whilst trying to keep up with an opponent which more often than not results in you being killed and any energy you've collected being wasted.
There's a radar system in place to help you identify where people are, but the levels make it difficult to use as all too often you're left confused by the camera as you go over the side of a block or platform in a Mario Galaxy kind of way (basically its impossible to fall off the arenas).
In all honest, I may be being overly harsh with Plain Sight, as I said, everything is there for it to be thoroughly entertaining, but the camera really lets it down and makes it too confusing to play early on and it takes far too long to acclimatise to the games spacial demands. Even so, less than a tenner, its worth a pop. I do realise that this review comes across as a little harsh, but if you like the sound of Plain Sights ideas and core elements, please give it a try, it just takes a little time to get used to things, once you have you'll be smashing up other robots and exploding all over the place. Short term its frustrating, long term its really enjoyable and perfectly designed for short bursts of play.
So is it? Well, the short answer is, not quite, the long answer is that it has the potential to be just as good as I'd hoped. Confused? Yeah, me too as thats the general feeling that I was left with by Plain Sight.
You see everything is there for it to be absolutely brilliant. The controls are intuitive, the visual appearance of the game is, initially anyway, rather cool looking and it runs rather well on a low to mid end system just like something like Torchlight. However the game just ends up being a bit too confusing for you to jump straight in and enjoy from the off. The camera is the biggest issue here, even altering the sensitivity of it its difficult to keep track of anything that you get your little robot guy to lock onto.
Lock on? wouldn't that make things easier? you say. Well, no, because its not the camera that locks on like we've all come to expect from the term within gaming. Instead your attack locks on whilst you charge, but you still need to give chase whilst holding down the attack button and keep in range of the opponent you're locked onto before unleashing your attack. Kill him and your energy meter fills up, you begin to change colour and your robot grows a bit. Eventually you'll become the target for everybody else, the strategy is to release all your energy at once in order to convert your energy points into game points. The resulting suicide results in an explosion that can take out anyone nearby resulting in even more points. It still sounds utterly excellent doesn't it?
Well it is really, but its that stumbling block of the camera, aswell as El Mono's (the name the developers have given the robot) habit of clinging to anything that you happen to jump near, meaning you all too often get stuck on a wall whilst trying to keep up with an opponent which more often than not results in you being killed and any energy you've collected being wasted.
There's a radar system in place to help you identify where people are, but the levels make it difficult to use as all too often you're left confused by the camera as you go over the side of a block or platform in a Mario Galaxy kind of way (basically its impossible to fall off the arenas).
In all honest, I may be being overly harsh with Plain Sight, as I said, everything is there for it to be thoroughly entertaining, but the camera really lets it down and makes it too confusing to play early on and it takes far too long to acclimatise to the games spacial demands. Even so, less than a tenner, its worth a pop. I do realise that this review comes across as a little harsh, but if you like the sound of Plain Sights ideas and core elements, please give it a try, it just takes a little time to get used to things, once you have you'll be smashing up other robots and exploding all over the place. Short term its frustrating, long term its really enjoyable and perfectly designed for short bursts of play.
By Ben / 2009-12-19 16:59:25It may be a late, and somewhat surprising contender, but dont be surprised if Torchlight gets a mention among the Bitparade games of the year
I wont spend a lot of time describing how Torchlight plays, it’s really quite a simple dungeon crawler. You click where you want to move to, click on enemies to attack, cast spells, and pick up loot. It is not a complicated game. There’s only one dungeon to explore, and when you’re not fighting your way through it you’re in the small town of Torchlight. There’s a bit of novelty with the inclusion of a pet, essentially playing as a second character, but even your interactions with this are limited.
That said dismissing Torchlight for its simplicity would be a huge mistake, as it is without doubt one of the gaming highlights of the year. While the plot may be standard fare, the graphics and sound add a huge amount of charm. The chunky cartoonish visuals mark the game out as something a little different, adding charm and humour to what is a fairly pompous genre. The sound too, while perhaps a tad cheap sounding in its spot effects, is well worth commending for its unobtrusive yet atmospheric score.
The joy with the game undoubtedly comes from its rpg mechanics. You can equip 2 weapons at a time, charms, a bodies worth of armour, spells, and then do the same for your pet. Add to that a fairly open levelling up system and it means there’s always something going on. As you progress the basic stat boosts become less noticeable, the same with the skill tree, as you can only realistically use so many spells, but it’s something to hold your interest.
The weapons and armour are seemingly randomly generated, meaning that every item you pick up could be worth your time. The abundance of attributes assigned to items also help add intrigue and strategy. Just because something’s new and higher level doesn’t mean you should equip it. If your weapons are Ice based, then charms that boost that stat are worth keeping, similarly if the enemies are throwing lightning, then something that resists that is the smarter choice. The cherry on top of all this is the possibility to add enhancements, either in town or the occasional fountain in the mines, these can add new life to an item, or boost a powerful item even higher.
Torchlight isn’t without it’s flaws, but they are quite minor. The mash of colours do look garish when the spells start flying around, and it’s also quite hard to pick out a target amongst all the spells, dropped items, and strewn bodies. I also found that I’d quite often lose my cursor, it’s mediaeval look is fitting, but doesn’t help it stand out against the similarly toned backgrounds. The limited inventory, while clearly deliberate, is a little too restrictive, particularly if you want to horde stones and armour for future use. Of course you could just make use of the ample Town Scrolls, to escape from the mines and return to Torchlight.
It’s hard to imagine Torchlight would have found itself a niche as a full priced game, but it’s reduced price means it suddenly seems like incredible value for money. It’ll take around 15 hours to complete, more if you explore the purchasable bonus stages, or simply want to expand your skill tree by levelling up. The difficulty is pitched just about perfectly, with the odd spike when you encounter the hidden levels (activated by besting a ghost version of you pet).
There’s a lot to love about Torchlight, and it is supremely addictive. The promise of some form of multiplayer makes me dread what my life will become next year, but it’ll all be worth it for more Torchlight.
I wont spend a lot of time describing how Torchlight plays, it’s really quite a simple dungeon crawler. You click where you want to move to, click on enemies to attack, cast spells, and pick up loot. It is not a complicated game. There’s only one dungeon to explore, and when you’re not fighting your way through it you’re in the small town of Torchlight. There’s a bit of novelty with the inclusion of a pet, essentially playing as a second character, but even your interactions with this are limited.
That said dismissing Torchlight for its simplicity would be a huge mistake, as it is without doubt one of the gaming highlights of the year. While the plot may be standard fare, the graphics and sound add a huge amount of charm. The chunky cartoonish visuals mark the game out as something a little different, adding charm and humour to what is a fairly pompous genre. The sound too, while perhaps a tad cheap sounding in its spot effects, is well worth commending for its unobtrusive yet atmospheric score.
The joy with the game undoubtedly comes from its rpg mechanics. You can equip 2 weapons at a time, charms, a bodies worth of armour, spells, and then do the same for your pet. Add to that a fairly open levelling up system and it means there’s always something going on. As you progress the basic stat boosts become less noticeable, the same with the skill tree, as you can only realistically use so many spells, but it’s something to hold your interest.
The weapons and armour are seemingly randomly generated, meaning that every item you pick up could be worth your time. The abundance of attributes assigned to items also help add intrigue and strategy. Just because something’s new and higher level doesn’t mean you should equip it. If your weapons are Ice based, then charms that boost that stat are worth keeping, similarly if the enemies are throwing lightning, then something that resists that is the smarter choice. The cherry on top of all this is the possibility to add enhancements, either in town or the occasional fountain in the mines, these can add new life to an item, or boost a powerful item even higher.
Torchlight isn’t without it’s flaws, but they are quite minor. The mash of colours do look garish when the spells start flying around, and it’s also quite hard to pick out a target amongst all the spells, dropped items, and strewn bodies. I also found that I’d quite often lose my cursor, it’s mediaeval look is fitting, but doesn’t help it stand out against the similarly toned backgrounds. The limited inventory, while clearly deliberate, is a little too restrictive, particularly if you want to horde stones and armour for future use. Of course you could just make use of the ample Town Scrolls, to escape from the mines and return to Torchlight.
It’s hard to imagine Torchlight would have found itself a niche as a full priced game, but it’s reduced price means it suddenly seems like incredible value for money. It’ll take around 15 hours to complete, more if you explore the purchasable bonus stages, or simply want to expand your skill tree by levelling up. The difficulty is pitched just about perfectly, with the odd spike when you encounter the hidden levels (activated by besting a ghost version of you pet).
There’s a lot to love about Torchlight, and it is supremely addictive. The promise of some form of multiplayer makes me dread what my life will become next year, but it’ll all be worth it for more Torchlight.
By Ben / 2009-10-01 13:48:18I would love to write this review without any comparisons to Football Manager, but it just isn’t feasible. Sports Interactive’s game has set the benchmark to which all other football management games must be judged, so appologies in advance.
Poor Championship Manager, it used to be king. Back in the 90’s it was hard to imagine a time when ‘Champ Man’ wouldn’t reign supreme. Things all changed of course when Sports Interactive left Eidos for SEGA, leaving Eidos the brand but taking the database and engine.
The rest is history, Football Manager is now the undisputed king, so much so that Eidos didn’t release a Championship Manager game last year, choosing instead to spend time improving the game so it might stand a better chance. Part of this thinking was also to allow people to pre-order the game for whatever they wanted (above £2.51 at any rate). The question of whether these tactics will make a dent in Football Manager’s market share remains to be answered, but maybe it deserves some.
For the first time Championship Manager includes a 3D match engine, and it’s quite a good one too. I’m not sure the claim that it can be used to judge player’s performance holds water, it’s too glitchy for that, however it’s certainly entertaining to watch. Your tiny players are capable of some nice moves, and feel less stiff than those of the recent Football Managers. It does throw up a few issues though, most noticeably players will occasionally just boot the ball out of play for no apparent reason. If you win/lose possession, and the computer feels it’s made a mistake, it will rectify it immediately by the attacking team wilfully relinquishing possession. It’s things like this that remind you that you’re watching a simulation, not controlling things yourself.
The games move at a frenetic pace, which is fantastic as a spectacle, but as mentioned makes it harder to diagnose anything meaningful from games. This is indicative of a greater problem with the game, something that isn’t just restricted to the in-game match engine. Namely that you don’t really have the power to affect things you feel you should.
As an example, with Football Manager, I used to pick my fullbacks to match the opposition front line. Would I need more height to help my centre-half’s, or pace to combat their wingers? Here it feels as simple as just making sure my team is better than their team. Even in game tactics pose a problem, choose to have your players perform any duties other than the default and they’ll be knackered by half time. This means recreating the tactics of a top team, such as pressing the opposition to force mistakes, firing the ball around quickly to break down a smaller teams defences, come at a massive cost.
The reduced media and player interaction compared to Football Manager is no bad thing, but I’d like some forewarning of players about to announce their retirement, especially as there’s no way to talk them out of it. There’s also, unless I’m missing something, no way to turn off attribute masking, meaning that pouring hours into scouting young and hidden talent isn’t really feasible. Perhaps less of an issue if you’re playing as one of the European giants, but a real, if realistic, problem for smaller clubs.
The game’s also not especially intuitive. It looks nice enough, and most things are there if you look, but too many things are hidden behind menu’s, or have no description as to what they do. Perhaps this is lack of prior-knowledge because of the series reboot, but it’s also hard to tell if what you’re doing is the right thing. The scouting for example, it’s nicely presented (you select a country and choose how much you want to spend on scouting there), but it’s hard to tell if you’re over/under doing things. The same is true of players, because everyone is scored out of 100, things become too vague. Is a player amazingly good with a shooting ability of 85 or just mid-table standard.
There’s a few other oddities such as the frequency of penalties, at a guess I‘d say I was seeing penalties awarded every 2-3 games. However if the ratio of penalties awarded is too high, so to is the number saved. It’s like having David Seamen back from the footballing dead. Diving is also too common, with at least 1 player a match being booked for the offence. Also the ‘back’ button doesn’t work as it should, a tiny complaint but without doubt the single most annoying thing about the game.
This all reads as a lot of problems, but really they’re all fairly minor and amount to the same thing, that Championship Manager lacks depth. That’s not necessarily the worst thing, as Championship Manager is without doubt easier than it’s more successful rival. As mentioned that itself is a mixed blessing with regards to how much control you have over things, but it does keep you playing. You’ll turn the game off out of sheer frustration far less, and the promise of beating your next opponent will keep you playing.
Indeed Championship Manager 2010 has the same compulsivity that the best management games should have, regularly it’s kept me playing past my bedtime. Championship Manager suffers chiefly from comparison, in a straight fight with Football Manager it can only be second place. However, as a first attempt at a fresh start it’s very solid, and that it is breezier to play that Football Manager should not be forgot.
If they add depth and common sense to next years game then Football Manager could really have some competition.
Poor Championship Manager, it used to be king. Back in the 90’s it was hard to imagine a time when ‘Champ Man’ wouldn’t reign supreme. Things all changed of course when Sports Interactive left Eidos for SEGA, leaving Eidos the brand but taking the database and engine.
The rest is history, Football Manager is now the undisputed king, so much so that Eidos didn’t release a Championship Manager game last year, choosing instead to spend time improving the game so it might stand a better chance. Part of this thinking was also to allow people to pre-order the game for whatever they wanted (above £2.51 at any rate). The question of whether these tactics will make a dent in Football Manager’s market share remains to be answered, but maybe it deserves some.
For the first time Championship Manager includes a 3D match engine, and it’s quite a good one too. I’m not sure the claim that it can be used to judge player’s performance holds water, it’s too glitchy for that, however it’s certainly entertaining to watch. Your tiny players are capable of some nice moves, and feel less stiff than those of the recent Football Managers. It does throw up a few issues though, most noticeably players will occasionally just boot the ball out of play for no apparent reason. If you win/lose possession, and the computer feels it’s made a mistake, it will rectify it immediately by the attacking team wilfully relinquishing possession. It’s things like this that remind you that you’re watching a simulation, not controlling things yourself.
The games move at a frenetic pace, which is fantastic as a spectacle, but as mentioned makes it harder to diagnose anything meaningful from games. This is indicative of a greater problem with the game, something that isn’t just restricted to the in-game match engine. Namely that you don’t really have the power to affect things you feel you should.
As an example, with Football Manager, I used to pick my fullbacks to match the opposition front line. Would I need more height to help my centre-half’s, or pace to combat their wingers? Here it feels as simple as just making sure my team is better than their team. Even in game tactics pose a problem, choose to have your players perform any duties other than the default and they’ll be knackered by half time. This means recreating the tactics of a top team, such as pressing the opposition to force mistakes, firing the ball around quickly to break down a smaller teams defences, come at a massive cost.
The reduced media and player interaction compared to Football Manager is no bad thing, but I’d like some forewarning of players about to announce their retirement, especially as there’s no way to talk them out of it. There’s also, unless I’m missing something, no way to turn off attribute masking, meaning that pouring hours into scouting young and hidden talent isn’t really feasible. Perhaps less of an issue if you’re playing as one of the European giants, but a real, if realistic, problem for smaller clubs.
The game’s also not especially intuitive. It looks nice enough, and most things are there if you look, but too many things are hidden behind menu’s, or have no description as to what they do. Perhaps this is lack of prior-knowledge because of the series reboot, but it’s also hard to tell if what you’re doing is the right thing. The scouting for example, it’s nicely presented (you select a country and choose how much you want to spend on scouting there), but it’s hard to tell if you’re over/under doing things. The same is true of players, because everyone is scored out of 100, things become too vague. Is a player amazingly good with a shooting ability of 85 or just mid-table standard.
There’s a few other oddities such as the frequency of penalties, at a guess I‘d say I was seeing penalties awarded every 2-3 games. However if the ratio of penalties awarded is too high, so to is the number saved. It’s like having David Seamen back from the footballing dead. Diving is also too common, with at least 1 player a match being booked for the offence. Also the ‘back’ button doesn’t work as it should, a tiny complaint but without doubt the single most annoying thing about the game.
This all reads as a lot of problems, but really they’re all fairly minor and amount to the same thing, that Championship Manager lacks depth. That’s not necessarily the worst thing, as Championship Manager is without doubt easier than it’s more successful rival. As mentioned that itself is a mixed blessing with regards to how much control you have over things, but it does keep you playing. You’ll turn the game off out of sheer frustration far less, and the promise of beating your next opponent will keep you playing.
Indeed Championship Manager 2010 has the same compulsivity that the best management games should have, regularly it’s kept me playing past my bedtime. Championship Manager suffers chiefly from comparison, in a straight fight with Football Manager it can only be second place. However, as a first attempt at a fresh start it’s very solid, and that it is breezier to play that Football Manager should not be forgot.
If they add depth and common sense to next years game then Football Manager could really have some competition.
By Duane / 2009-07-10 14:36:27Before I go ahead, I should point out that I've never really gotten into Point & Click games. I've always admired their sense of humour from afar and after playing Psychonauts I really wanted to sample more of Tim Schafer's work, but I've never really been able to get my head around them. It's important I point this out as I think it means that I can approach Tales of Monkey Island Episode 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal with an unbiased opinion of wether its actually enjoyable or not.
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is the first of 5 parts in this new Monkey Island adventure. As fans would expect you take control of Guybrush Threepwood, who in this episode has washed up on Flotsam Island after a battle with Le Chuck goes wrong for all parties involved. Once on Flotsam Island, Guybrush discovered he is unable to leave the island as the wind has always blown inland resulting in a handful of other pirates becoming stranded there and making it their home. Guybrush gives himself the task of finding a way off the island, and its here that the puzzles begin.
Now, as I'd mentioned before I've always struggled to get my head around these type of games, the solution to the puzzles has always seemed very straight forward, even if they're a bit odd, after they've been solved (in all honesty I had problems with the old Resident Evils because of the same thing), but thanks to the games adjustable hint system, Tales of Monkey Island is incredibly accessible to everyone from the experience point and click fans to people new to the genre, a good thing considering this is also heading to WiiWare sometime this summer. As you'd expect, one thing pretty much leads to another thing happening and its literally about setting off a chain of events using items you've picked up as you've gone along, and the fact that the episode is roughly 4 to 5 hours in length means you're never too far away from getting the answer right.
The games also wonderful to look at, and whilst its not always obvious what key items are that are lying around, on screen tabs when you hover over specific objects are very clear and will either lead to Guybrush picking up the item or simply examining it and giving you a description with a weighted clue as to what it could be useful for. Unlike previous Telltale games, like the Sam & Max episodes, you don't move the lead character around by clicking on the ground, instead the game is designed around a "drag" system where Guybrush will follow where you move your mouse (whilst the left button is held down). However, this feels really clumsy and is actually made all the worse by the changing camera angles when the camera wants to focus closer on certain area's or you move from one screen to another. This is easily rectified however as you have an automatic choice of just using WASD or the arrow keys instead which do their job competently.
The genre is well known for its sense of humour, even to those of us who have never really managed to properly gain entry to any point and click game, and Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is no different with some genuine chuckle out loud moments and brilliant one liners from most parties. Guybrush easily steals the show here though, but the main "villain" of this episode isn't too far behind and whilst the other characters aren't very strong, or well designed for that matter, they still have their moments.
So as someone new to the genre I found Launch of the Screaming Narwhal highly accessible, never too challenging but not particularly easy either, a delight to play once I'd abandoned the drag controls and genuinely entertaining for the short period of time that you spend on Flotsam Island, the fact that it does feel like an introductory episode might not please some, but on a whole its a very good start and definetly a reccomend for anyone who wants to try the genre out, be it on PC or Wii and for older fans of the genre too.
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is the first of 5 parts in this new Monkey Island adventure. As fans would expect you take control of Guybrush Threepwood, who in this episode has washed up on Flotsam Island after a battle with Le Chuck goes wrong for all parties involved. Once on Flotsam Island, Guybrush discovered he is unable to leave the island as the wind has always blown inland resulting in a handful of other pirates becoming stranded there and making it their home. Guybrush gives himself the task of finding a way off the island, and its here that the puzzles begin.
Now, as I'd mentioned before I've always struggled to get my head around these type of games, the solution to the puzzles has always seemed very straight forward, even if they're a bit odd, after they've been solved (in all honesty I had problems with the old Resident Evils because of the same thing), but thanks to the games adjustable hint system, Tales of Monkey Island is incredibly accessible to everyone from the experience point and click fans to people new to the genre, a good thing considering this is also heading to WiiWare sometime this summer. As you'd expect, one thing pretty much leads to another thing happening and its literally about setting off a chain of events using items you've picked up as you've gone along, and the fact that the episode is roughly 4 to 5 hours in length means you're never too far away from getting the answer right.
The games also wonderful to look at, and whilst its not always obvious what key items are that are lying around, on screen tabs when you hover over specific objects are very clear and will either lead to Guybrush picking up the item or simply examining it and giving you a description with a weighted clue as to what it could be useful for. Unlike previous Telltale games, like the Sam & Max episodes, you don't move the lead character around by clicking on the ground, instead the game is designed around a "drag" system where Guybrush will follow where you move your mouse (whilst the left button is held down). However, this feels really clumsy and is actually made all the worse by the changing camera angles when the camera wants to focus closer on certain area's or you move from one screen to another. This is easily rectified however as you have an automatic choice of just using WASD or the arrow keys instead which do their job competently.
The genre is well known for its sense of humour, even to those of us who have never really managed to properly gain entry to any point and click game, and Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is no different with some genuine chuckle out loud moments and brilliant one liners from most parties. Guybrush easily steals the show here though, but the main "villain" of this episode isn't too far behind and whilst the other characters aren't very strong, or well designed for that matter, they still have their moments.
So as someone new to the genre I found Launch of the Screaming Narwhal highly accessible, never too challenging but not particularly easy either, a delight to play once I'd abandoned the drag controls and genuinely entertaining for the short period of time that you spend on Flotsam Island, the fact that it does feel like an introductory episode might not please some, but on a whole its a very good start and definetly a reccomend for anyone who wants to try the genre out, be it on PC or Wii and for older fans of the genre too.
By Ben / 2009-05-14 17:51:14Contrary to what you might have heard, gamers are an easy bunch to please. All you have to do is pick a genre, then find some way to cram some zombies in there. Using that logic it was only a matter of time until digital distributions favourite genre had its turn at battling the undead hordes
The principle of the gameplay is quite simple, using flowers and plants you must defend your garden/home from various types of zombies. You have a limited amount of space, and as you progress different types of terrain to plant your flowers in, these changes also affect what you can grow (e.g. the fungi wont grow in the day). To plant flowers you effectively have to buy them using suns, during the day stages this comes from the sky, but can also be earned by planting sunflowers.
Initially the tactical element to the game comes from trying to balance earning some sun and building your defences. Earning enough sun to plant a few attacking plants using only what comes from the sky will take you an age. However, plant a couple of sunflowers and you’ll be left short handed. As the action heats up so does the pace, these type of management decisions must be made whilst picking up items, rebuilding defences, and selecting the best means of attack.
Occasionally money will be dropped, and depending on your performance awarded after each round. Eventually you’ll be able to buy special types of flowers, peripheral items (such as items for your zen garden), and if you’re willing to save for long enough, an extra item slot to take into battle.
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, all the best games are deceptively simple. While I’m not sure how true that statement is, it certainly does apply to Plants vs. Zombies. We’ve covered the basics of the gameplay so I wont labour the point, but it’s certainly conceivable that a ‘casual’ gamer (yeah I know) could get to grips with the game reasonably quickly. That being said however, I’m not sure my mum, for example, would be willing to even attempt it, especially if she saw the pace of the later levels.
While the game does start out easy enough, spoon feeding you information, and never throwing at you more than you can handle later on the difficulty does rise. Thanks to your initially restricted arsenal you’re never overpowered, but the pace and frenetic nature of the later levels means things stay interesting for even seasoned gamers. I did find the game to be a little without climax, there’s a final boss, but other than relying on my lawn mower/roof cleaners on a handful of occasions, I never failed a level.
The downside to the constant tutorials, new items, and terrain changes is that you’re never really left to just play the game. It’s true that nothing outstays its welcome, but then you’re never left to experiment, as soon as you adjust to things a new tougher enemy will appear.
It’s terrifyingly easy for one quick go to keep you playing past your bedtime, trying out new flowers and seeing what the computer is going to throw at you next is always going to add an addictiveness to proceedings. There’s also quite a lot of content to the game. The main game alone will take you a handful of hours alone, but there’s also the survival, puzzle and zen garden modes to try out. The main adventure mode also ramps up the difficulty once beaten, so there’s reason to go back, even if it’s just to keep your bank account topped up.
It’s perhaps unrealistic to expect Plants vs. Zombies to hold your attention for months on end, but it could easily manage a week or so. The £7 price tag on Steam is quite a reasonable one for what’s there, and that’s not taking into account how much fun you’ll have. Perhaps not perfect, but certainly worth your time.
The principle of the gameplay is quite simple, using flowers and plants you must defend your garden/home from various types of zombies. You have a limited amount of space, and as you progress different types of terrain to plant your flowers in, these changes also affect what you can grow (e.g. the fungi wont grow in the day). To plant flowers you effectively have to buy them using suns, during the day stages this comes from the sky, but can also be earned by planting sunflowers.
Initially the tactical element to the game comes from trying to balance earning some sun and building your defences. Earning enough sun to plant a few attacking plants using only what comes from the sky will take you an age. However, plant a couple of sunflowers and you’ll be left short handed. As the action heats up so does the pace, these type of management decisions must be made whilst picking up items, rebuilding defences, and selecting the best means of attack.
Occasionally money will be dropped, and depending on your performance awarded after each round. Eventually you’ll be able to buy special types of flowers, peripheral items (such as items for your zen garden), and if you’re willing to save for long enough, an extra item slot to take into battle.
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, all the best games are deceptively simple. While I’m not sure how true that statement is, it certainly does apply to Plants vs. Zombies. We’ve covered the basics of the gameplay so I wont labour the point, but it’s certainly conceivable that a ‘casual’ gamer (yeah I know) could get to grips with the game reasonably quickly. That being said however, I’m not sure my mum, for example, would be willing to even attempt it, especially if she saw the pace of the later levels.
While the game does start out easy enough, spoon feeding you information, and never throwing at you more than you can handle later on the difficulty does rise. Thanks to your initially restricted arsenal you’re never overpowered, but the pace and frenetic nature of the later levels means things stay interesting for even seasoned gamers. I did find the game to be a little without climax, there’s a final boss, but other than relying on my lawn mower/roof cleaners on a handful of occasions, I never failed a level.
The downside to the constant tutorials, new items, and terrain changes is that you’re never really left to just play the game. It’s true that nothing outstays its welcome, but then you’re never left to experiment, as soon as you adjust to things a new tougher enemy will appear.
It’s terrifyingly easy for one quick go to keep you playing past your bedtime, trying out new flowers and seeing what the computer is going to throw at you next is always going to add an addictiveness to proceedings. There’s also quite a lot of content to the game. The main game alone will take you a handful of hours alone, but there’s also the survival, puzzle and zen garden modes to try out. The main adventure mode also ramps up the difficulty once beaten, so there’s reason to go back, even if it’s just to keep your bank account topped up.
It’s perhaps unrealistic to expect Plants vs. Zombies to hold your attention for months on end, but it could easily manage a week or so. The £7 price tag on Steam is quite a reasonable one for what’s there, and that’s not taking into account how much fun you’ll have. Perhaps not perfect, but certainly worth your time.
Portal
By Duane / 2008-09-07 13:39:11
t's odd reviewing a game such as Portal, especially when you take into consideration that, in a physical sense, you're not actually able to buy the game in the shops. Sure, its available within Valve's Orange Box on XBox 360 and PC in disc form, but you can't walk into your local Gamestation or whatever and just buy Portal on its own. Of course, if you don't mind not having a disc there with the files on, you can buy the game singularly on Valve's Steam network, although, aside from this just being a review for Portal, I'd suggest buying the Orange Box as it is incredible value for money.
To Portal then, what do we have? Well, on the surface, it appears to be just another Source based First Person Shooter. Screenshots reveal a gun of sorts and a world to explore, so pretty much everything you can expect from any normal First Person Shooter. It also controls the same as all other First Person Shooters and handles exactly the same as the Half Life 2 series of games. This in itself would help it gather a fair amount of respect from gamers, after all Half Life 2 is widely regarded as one of the best videogames ever created.
But once you get round to playing Portal, you soon realise its a completely different beast, it blends the lines between puzzler and FPS in a similar way that Nintendo's Metroid Prime did with the FPS viewpoint and adventure games. In effect, this should make it appeal to fans of both genres, and unlike Metroid Prime it doesn't feel tediously slow or repetetive, depsite its sterile visuals, and while that sounds like a criticsm on Portal's part, it really isn't as the visual styling fits in with the story and theme of the game.
The game centres around a test centre for a new device. Similar in concept to Half Life 2's Gravity Gun, but different in that instead of controlling gravity, the device you are testing allows you to shoot an entry point in one place, and an exit on the other side of a room, resulting in the ability to cross a room in seconds. However, thats not all the game requires you to do as it throws 19 devilishly fun puzzle based rooms at you, with only the gun and Valve's amazing phsyics engine at your disposal. Each new area you are forced to make your way through has camera's dotted about with an AI interface monitoring your progress and its this AI that sets up the slight plot to the game, you see, your reward for completing the tasks at hand is a promised cake. But as you make your way through the tortuous levels you begin to question the everything the AI tells you, this is helped by grafitti you come across in some mildly broken rooms trying to inform you of the truth.
However, whilst the game really does grab you and doesn't let go, it can easily be finished in under 4 hours, depending on your mental capacity when dealing with 3D puzzles. However, this again, isn't really a true criticsm of the game. It really does feel like the right length, and theres so many memorable moments that the length of the game really doesn't matter. Also, when taken in the context of being one of 5 games on The Orange Box, and that its essentially a game built by students and the Source mod community whom Valve have employed and it really is a considerable achievement that a game that may have slipped under most peoples radar had it not been bundled with other games, really does deserve any nominations it may recieve for game of the year, not to mention all the cultural references to it that are popping up all over gaming communities online.
Duane Weatherall
By Duane / 2008-09-07 13:39:11
t's odd reviewing a game such as Portal, especially when you take into consideration that, in a physical sense, you're not actually able to buy the game in the shops. Sure, its available within Valve's Orange Box on XBox 360 and PC in disc form, but you can't walk into your local Gamestation or whatever and just buy Portal on its own. Of course, if you don't mind not having a disc there with the files on, you can buy the game singularly on Valve's Steam network, although, aside from this just being a review for Portal, I'd suggest buying the Orange Box as it is incredible value for money.
To Portal then, what do we have? Well, on the surface, it appears to be just another Source based First Person Shooter. Screenshots reveal a gun of sorts and a world to explore, so pretty much everything you can expect from any normal First Person Shooter. It also controls the same as all other First Person Shooters and handles exactly the same as the Half Life 2 series of games. This in itself would help it gather a fair amount of respect from gamers, after all Half Life 2 is widely regarded as one of the best videogames ever created.
But once you get round to playing Portal, you soon realise its a completely different beast, it blends the lines between puzzler and FPS in a similar way that Nintendo's Metroid Prime did with the FPS viewpoint and adventure games. In effect, this should make it appeal to fans of both genres, and unlike Metroid Prime it doesn't feel tediously slow or repetetive, depsite its sterile visuals, and while that sounds like a criticsm on Portal's part, it really isn't as the visual styling fits in with the story and theme of the game.
The game centres around a test centre for a new device. Similar in concept to Half Life 2's Gravity Gun, but different in that instead of controlling gravity, the device you are testing allows you to shoot an entry point in one place, and an exit on the other side of a room, resulting in the ability to cross a room in seconds. However, thats not all the game requires you to do as it throws 19 devilishly fun puzzle based rooms at you, with only the gun and Valve's amazing phsyics engine at your disposal. Each new area you are forced to make your way through has camera's dotted about with an AI interface monitoring your progress and its this AI that sets up the slight plot to the game, you see, your reward for completing the tasks at hand is a promised cake. But as you make your way through the tortuous levels you begin to question the everything the AI tells you, this is helped by grafitti you come across in some mildly broken rooms trying to inform you of the truth.
However, whilst the game really does grab you and doesn't let go, it can easily be finished in under 4 hours, depending on your mental capacity when dealing with 3D puzzles. However, this again, isn't really a true criticsm of the game. It really does feel like the right length, and theres so many memorable moments that the length of the game really doesn't matter. Also, when taken in the context of being one of 5 games on The Orange Box, and that its essentially a game built by students and the Source mod community whom Valve have employed and it really is a considerable achievement that a game that may have slipped under most peoples radar had it not been bundled with other games, really does deserve any nominations it may recieve for game of the year, not to mention all the cultural references to it that are popping up all over gaming communities online.
Duane WeatherallBroken Sword: Angel of Death
By Duane / 2008-09-07 13:39:10
or fans of the adventure genre, the exploits of George Stobbart, patent lawyer and treasure hunter extraordinaire, are legendary. His epic struggles against the Templars led him on epic quest after epic quest across the globe, most recently culminating with a one-on-one battle with an actual dragon (Broken Sword 3: Sleeping Dragon). For all of his famous exploits, George now has little to show for it: His on-again, off-again love affair with the feisty Nico Collard a thing of the past, even his job as a patent lawyer seemingly over, George now actually works as a bail bondsman with an office in a seedy neighborhood these days.
The story begins as most do, with a girl. A mysterious blonde woman approaches George for help, moments before a group of thugs enter George’s office followed by our hero escorting the lady to safety from the dangerous men, thus beginning yet another globe-spanning adventure for George and company.
As an adventure game, Angel of Death makes use of a hybrid of the traditional point and click gameplay. As a 3D game, Angel of Death allows play via point-and-click or through the use of the arrow keys, with options that allow running instead of walking. One would think that something as simple as pointing and clicking or arrow key movement would be a no-brainer; sadly this was not the case.
Angel of Death turned into a constant struggle: me versus the game controls. Between the poor path finding and the slightly awkward arrow key movement, one would’ve thought that things would have to get better eventually; sadly that was not the case, either. The game uses a system of icons: the magnifying glass indicates that you are looking at something; two gears indicate an action can be performed; a grasping hand points, of course, to something that can be picked up. More than once, I found myself unable to proceed further until remembering to left-click on the objects to see if there was more than one choice. For instance, where you may see a magnifying glass indicating something you can look at, a left click may show that the item can also be used. This non-intuitive system will lead to occasional, but not deadly, frustration.
The other area where the gameplay really bothered me is in the interaction with whichever sidekick George currently has. The companion will appear in the inventory, forcing one to click on this person, then on whatever they should interact with. There were times where I wondered why George hadn’t simply asked for help in accomplishing whatever two-person task he was faced with. In the end, as long as you come into the game aware of these unique control aspects, you will probably be all right.
This game has the look and feel of the Broken Sword 3, and many of its controls are quite similar. The biggest difference I experienced was with some of the graphical slowing and loading issues. Angel of Death doesn’t seem to be all that friendly with dual core machines; in fact, my hyper threading seemed to be the root cause of my slowdowns. The game is also too dark. Normally this isn’t an especially big deal, as most games that are dark feature gamma correction, something not included in this game. I also faced an issue with the CD-ROM software which kept telling me that I needed to install the original game CD and not a copy of it. As someone who never plays ROMs, warez, and never makes “back-up” copies of my games, I found this odd and frustrating. Still, this only occurred the first few times and hasn’t happened since.
The dialogue is where this story really shines, as the wit of George Stobbart comes right at you, chock-full of inside jokes and witty puns and banter. At the end of the day, the Broken Sword series has always been about telling a story and that is where this game truly reaches its aims. The voice acting is up to par with previous installments, although some will notice that Nico Collard has a new voice actress – something I found slightly disappointing.
This game will certainly not be for the faint of heart, as many of the puzzles can be quite challenging. At times, the environmental and inventory-based puzzles will take you longer to realize and solve than you may be used to, but when you find the solutions you will see why they work, if not understand the logic used at arriving at the solution. The PDA hacking puzzles, for example, I found to be a bit of a chore. These require a whole lot of trial and error, but then again this is a definite staple of the genre. Overall, I am pleased to say that this game is markedly more difficult than Broken Sword 3, and I was happy to see that I didn’t have to solve numerous sliding block puzzles.
For avid fans of the series, this game was a solid adventure, but it will likely not be your favorite game in the series, as it seems to lack a little of the magic that made the previous games so engrossing. Nevertheless, while George has fallen on hard times here, he seems to have retained that core personality that fans of the series know and love. I think part of the reason this game falls short of some of the others is that the other characters in Angel of Death, while interesting, lack the depth that I have found in the previous titles.
As a summary, here is what you need to know. Angel of Death is a solid adventure game with decent production values, something lacking in many of the genre’s titles currently for sale. Angel of Death was released with some annoying bugs, but nothing that cannot be followed up with a solid game patch. The gameplay of Angel of Death is somewhat frustrating, but once you master it you will be able to progress through the game at a solid pace, hopefully without a walkthrough.
I myself am quite an adventure game enthusiast, and the simple fact that this game uses the point-and-click/inventory management methodology, is not a detractor for me. While people always beg for innovation and then blast the adventure game genre for its lack therein, I see the forest for the trees. To me, the adventure genre is a kind of interactive story, where you actually play the character in the story and choose his path for him. Thus, I do understand the adventure game genre and judge this game accordingly.
Given that, Angel of Death is still not really a step forward for the adventure game genre. In fact, playing this game felt a lot like playing the previous game, which, in turn, felt more like a retread of previous George Stobbart adventures than a completely new adventure. A game in this genre also faces the problem of being entirely linear and not offering any reason to replay it after the first time. I think the phrase “Out with the old, in with the old” would probably best sum up this game. I would only recommend it to the most dedicated of adventure game fans, particularly those familiar with the previous games in the series.
By Duane / 2008-09-07 13:39:10
or fans of the adventure genre, the exploits of George Stobbart, patent lawyer and treasure hunter extraordinaire, are legendary. His epic struggles against the Templars led him on epic quest after epic quest across the globe, most recently culminating with a one-on-one battle with an actual dragon (Broken Sword 3: Sleeping Dragon). For all of his famous exploits, George now has little to show for it: His on-again, off-again love affair with the feisty Nico Collard a thing of the past, even his job as a patent lawyer seemingly over, George now actually works as a bail bondsman with an office in a seedy neighborhood these days.
The story begins as most do, with a girl. A mysterious blonde woman approaches George for help, moments before a group of thugs enter George’s office followed by our hero escorting the lady to safety from the dangerous men, thus beginning yet another globe-spanning adventure for George and company.
As an adventure game, Angel of Death makes use of a hybrid of the traditional point and click gameplay. As a 3D game, Angel of Death allows play via point-and-click or through the use of the arrow keys, with options that allow running instead of walking. One would think that something as simple as pointing and clicking or arrow key movement would be a no-brainer; sadly this was not the case.
Angel of Death turned into a constant struggle: me versus the game controls. Between the poor path finding and the slightly awkward arrow key movement, one would’ve thought that things would have to get better eventually; sadly that was not the case, either. The game uses a system of icons: the magnifying glass indicates that you are looking at something; two gears indicate an action can be performed; a grasping hand points, of course, to something that can be picked up. More than once, I found myself unable to proceed further until remembering to left-click on the objects to see if there was more than one choice. For instance, where you may see a magnifying glass indicating something you can look at, a left click may show that the item can also be used. This non-intuitive system will lead to occasional, but not deadly, frustration.
The other area where the gameplay really bothered me is in the interaction with whichever sidekick George currently has. The companion will appear in the inventory, forcing one to click on this person, then on whatever they should interact with. There were times where I wondered why George hadn’t simply asked for help in accomplishing whatever two-person task he was faced with. In the end, as long as you come into the game aware of these unique control aspects, you will probably be all right.
This game has the look and feel of the Broken Sword 3, and many of its controls are quite similar. The biggest difference I experienced was with some of the graphical slowing and loading issues. Angel of Death doesn’t seem to be all that friendly with dual core machines; in fact, my hyper threading seemed to be the root cause of my slowdowns. The game is also too dark. Normally this isn’t an especially big deal, as most games that are dark feature gamma correction, something not included in this game. I also faced an issue with the CD-ROM software which kept telling me that I needed to install the original game CD and not a copy of it. As someone who never plays ROMs, warez, and never makes “back-up” copies of my games, I found this odd and frustrating. Still, this only occurred the first few times and hasn’t happened since.
The dialogue is where this story really shines, as the wit of George Stobbart comes right at you, chock-full of inside jokes and witty puns and banter. At the end of the day, the Broken Sword series has always been about telling a story and that is where this game truly reaches its aims. The voice acting is up to par with previous installments, although some will notice that Nico Collard has a new voice actress – something I found slightly disappointing.
This game will certainly not be for the faint of heart, as many of the puzzles can be quite challenging. At times, the environmental and inventory-based puzzles will take you longer to realize and solve than you may be used to, but when you find the solutions you will see why they work, if not understand the logic used at arriving at the solution. The PDA hacking puzzles, for example, I found to be a bit of a chore. These require a whole lot of trial and error, but then again this is a definite staple of the genre. Overall, I am pleased to say that this game is markedly more difficult than Broken Sword 3, and I was happy to see that I didn’t have to solve numerous sliding block puzzles.
For avid fans of the series, this game was a solid adventure, but it will likely not be your favorite game in the series, as it seems to lack a little of the magic that made the previous games so engrossing. Nevertheless, while George has fallen on hard times here, he seems to have retained that core personality that fans of the series know and love. I think part of the reason this game falls short of some of the others is that the other characters in Angel of Death, while interesting, lack the depth that I have found in the previous titles.
As a summary, here is what you need to know. Angel of Death is a solid adventure game with decent production values, something lacking in many of the genre’s titles currently for sale. Angel of Death was released with some annoying bugs, but nothing that cannot be followed up with a solid game patch. The gameplay of Angel of Death is somewhat frustrating, but once you master it you will be able to progress through the game at a solid pace, hopefully without a walkthrough.
I myself am quite an adventure game enthusiast, and the simple fact that this game uses the point-and-click/inventory management methodology, is not a detractor for me. While people always beg for innovation and then blast the adventure game genre for its lack therein, I see the forest for the trees. To me, the adventure genre is a kind of interactive story, where you actually play the character in the story and choose his path for him. Thus, I do understand the adventure game genre and judge this game accordingly.
Given that, Angel of Death is still not really a step forward for the adventure game genre. In fact, playing this game felt a lot like playing the previous game, which, in turn, felt more like a retread of previous George Stobbart adventures than a completely new adventure. A game in this genre also faces the problem of being entirely linear and not offering any reason to replay it after the first time. I think the phrase “Out with the old, in with the old” would probably best sum up this game. I would only recommend it to the most dedicated of adventure game fans, particularly those familiar with the previous games in the series.Older posts
