Game #1247: Dark Sector

  Shouldn't it be darkSector? Why does every site have it as 'Dark Sector'? I'm in the dark!

 My quest to play forgotten action games on the PS3 that I skipped continues, and Dark Sector is up next. Following the trend of my latest playthroughs, it's another third-person shooter, but, hey, this time around the protagonist doesn't wield a sword....he wields a Glaive.

 The plot is interesting because there's barely any of it, and it barely makes any sense. There's a reason for it, apparently, the people editing were so familiar with the plot that they forgot that some details actually SHOULD to be told to the audience. That aside, the game is your standard, linear, third-person shooter. It's also very, very grey, and there's not much variety in the environments or enemies. Exploration is rewarded with Money and Upgrades. Money can be spent to purchase weapons for good, since guns you pick up from fallen enemies explode after a few seconds, or to allot upgrades into your permanent guns' slots. As you advance through the game, better guns turn up for purchase, and you'd better mind your expenses, as money becomes rather scarce late in the game, and the last thing you'd want is for your main gun and side-arm to use the same ammo type!

 The shooting is alright, just your average third-person cover-based shootouts, although the game has a few puzzles here and there to break the monotony. Most puzzles are of the elemental variety, you have to hit something that caught on fire, is electrified or is frozen in order to add that element to your Glaive, and then use the elementally charged Glaive on something else. This elementally charged Glaive can also be used in battle, what's more, while your main gun takes both of your hands, you can dual wield your side arm alongside your Glaive.

 As you advance through the plot you'll actually gain new abilities, like a timed-Glaive throw for bonus damage, the ability to control the Glaive directly after you throw it(Make sure to turn off the motion controls for this!!), and even turn invisible. Oh! There are a few turret sections too, and they are kinda lame, because either they do scrap damage or the accuracy blows. The fire effects actually make it hard to see where you are shooting at.

 Dark Sector is a pretty decent third person shooter, and I won't deny that using the Glaive feels really nice, but ultimately... it's pretty forgettable. You fight the three-four enemy types, around the samey brown and grey environments over and over again. But it's alright while it lasts.

 6.0

Game #1246: NeverDead

  So that means always alive?

 I remember the very first time NeverDead was first announced, as they opened up with Bryce's, the main character, past as he looked like a very generic JRPG hero fighting a very weird and flamboyant demon, only to show us Bryce 500 years later. The premise alone sounded brilliant, the character designs looked right up my alley and it looked as if it was just my kinda weird. Then the game came out, critics panned it as a very subpar third-person shooter and I got turned off from it. But it never quite left my mind, as I always felt that even though it's probably bad... I could probably enjoy it. I was right.

 So, what makes NeverDead stand out from every other third person shooter out there? Well, mainly the fact that Bryce was cursed with immortality. This means that you can't die, not really, but your allies can! Not to worry, as you can pretty easily heal them by getting close to them, should they happen to fall in combat. Bryce's immortality comes into play as one of the game's main gimmicks, the fact that you can lose your limbs. You can lose any arm or leg, and even your torso. Picking up body pieces is as easy as rolling over them, or after a short while, you can just regrow any missing limb. Some puzzles even have you taking your own head and throwing it to wherever you need to go, or even rolling, as a head, through ducts. It gets even better, you can even tough fire or electricity in order to strengthen your attacks, or solve some very simple puzzles.

 As you can tell from the game's main hook, while the overall plot is relatively serious, the game is front-loaded with humor. It's not gonna be for everyone, that's for sure, but I'd say I liked it overall. Bryce follows the generic gruff tough guy bit to a tee, but the immortality curse and how he uses it does add some flavor to his portrayal. The rest of the characters are alright, but I was mostly a fan of the character designs and the aesthetics, I thought the game looked really cool, and the graphics are pretty detailed all things considered. The characters are very striking, at least as far as their visual designs go. While the story is rather bland, the premise is quite original too, so I dug it.

 The game itself is rather decent, it's a very linear romp although if you take your time to explore each level you'll be able to find weapons and even bonus experience points. Since you could lose any arm at any time, each hand can carry a different weapon between: Pistols, Assault Rifles, Uzis, Shotguns and even a grenade launcher. You need to find two of any if you wish to dual-wield whatever type of weapon, sans for the pistols, which are the weapons you start off with. You can also shoot each gun independently, using the L1 and R1 buttons. But maybe, if you are like me, you want to take things up close and personal... so you can take out your sword by pressing Triangle.

 At first I hated it, you must hold down R1 and use the right analog stick in order to slash with the sword. It felt super awkward at first... but 30 minutes later I found out that mashing different directions on the right analog stick felt SO good that the sword became my default approach to every enemy. You'll be surprised by how destructible everything around you is, but it's more than just eyecandy, as using debris is a suggested way to take down enemies. Destroying a pillar to make the roof fall on enemies, or even using the debris of the pillar to smack enemies are both equally valid and efficient ways of taking down enemies.

 As previously stated, there are experience points in this game, which you can either find in the environment or get when defeating enemies. These points can then be spent to purchase abilities, which you can then equip, being mindful of an ability point cap, to make Bryce fit your playstyle. Abilities are very interesting, as you can make different builds. Maybe favor your guns, by enhancing Gun Damage, turning your arms into grenades and making your spring faster to strafe around enemies. Or maybe you'd rather enhance your sword, making melee stronger and adding range to your swipes. But, maybe, just maybe, you want to be weird about it, so you can get abilities to enhance the damage you do to the environment and how much damage you deal with the environment. This system is fantastic, and rather deep all things considered.

 And so far, it sounds pretty cool, so why was the game so divisive? Well... for starters, Bryce is very fragile. Losing limbs is and having to collect them is a genuinely interesting concept, but it seems as if any single attack will deprive Bryce of something. Some enemies will instantly pop every limb from your head and torso with a single tackle. The Final Boss was something of a pain in the rear, as every single shockwave attack instantly popped every limb out of you. Add to this that the game very quickly introduced headsucking enemies, these blobs of doom will go after you whenever you are left only with your head, and if they suck you in... you must engage in a timing mini-game, otherwise it's game over. The mini-game wasn't much fun, and losing progress because you didn't hit X at the right moment feels downright unfair. To be fair, on the other hand, evading this suckers is not too tough.

 And then there's the fact that the game is rather repetitive. You spent the entire game fighting the same 4-5 enemy types over and over again, but, first you have to find every enemy generator and slowly whittle down its health. I enjoyed the game, I did, but sometimes it can feel rather uninspired.

 I don't think NeverDead was deserving of most of the low scores the game received, as it has some very original ideas, and some very interesting mechanics. That said, I understand that the game's tone and humor is definitely not for anyone, but anyone that enjoys quirky Japanese games(It may have been developed by Rebellion, but the director was Japanese and it shows!) will probably find something enjoyable here. And, if in doubt, the trailer will instantly tell you if the game is for you or not.

  6.5

Game #1245: Wet

 The closest thing to a Kill Bill videogame.

 Every now and then it's time for me to finally play a game that I knew existed but for whatever reason didn't care bout, only for me to discover that I missed out. Wet is one such game. A sword-and-gun toting protagonist, just why wasn't I interested in this game before? I don't know, but I regret it immensely, as this was one exciting third-person shooter I could have done with way back when.

 First things first, this is no Uncharted, the budget wasn't quite as large, and you can tell that certain things such as moving around can feel sorta clunky, heck, you'll come across a ton of reused animation sequences and what not. But it's got a lot of heart, they went after a pulpy, grind-house aesthetics and they knocked it out of the park.

 The game feels like an early 2000's PS2 game, thanks to the pulpy soundtrack, abuse of slo-mo mechanics and very simple gameplay, but I say this as high praise. The game just works. You play as Rubi, the deadliest woman in the mercenary business, and she's angry 'cause she was double-crossed and left for dead, but jokes on them, as now she's back for revenge.

 The game's hook is Rubi's stylish slo-mo shooting. You can press R1 and very slowly shoot your gun. It's boring, not very effective, but you can do it. Or you can slide, wall-run or jump and enter slo-mo, upon which Rubi will start shooting with another gun. Whenever you enter slo-mo, which never runs out, a red targeting reticule will pop on top of the closest enemy. Rubi will automatically shoot at it with one of her guns, meanwhile, you get a white reticule that you can move with the right analog stick, letting you shoot any other enemy that you wish, or maybe the same enemy as the one she is already automatically attacking, or heck, maybe you are feeling dumb and just want to shoot at thin air. This very basic and simple mechanic is a ton of fun and allows for some very stylish moments.

 Rubi is armed with her unlimited ammo guns at all times, and she doesn't need to reload them, but as you go through the game you'll unlock dual shotguns, machine guns and explosive crossbows, These other guns do run on ammo, however, and they are used exactly like her main guns, slo-mo and everything. I thought that having to abuse the slo-mo would get boring.... but it never did.

 But sometimes you just want to take things up close and personal, which is why Rubi carries a sword. At first the only thing you can do is a very basic, but powerful, three-hit combo. But you can purchase new abilities, such as aerial slashing, sliding slashing and even a slash while wall-running. Sword combat is, evidently, not very deep, but it gets the job done, and slashing up enemies is fun. 

 The game rewards your stylistic carnage with point modifiers, and the points you earned can be spent on new abilities, upgraded health bar or even upgrades to your weapons. I love upgrade systems like this in videogames, and it's not overly-expansive, so you can get most of them by the end of the game, heck, I was only missing one.

 There are QTEs every now and then, which weren't too bad as the input window is pretty generous. Although, sadly, the final boss is just one extensive QTE section. One final mechanic is the Rage Mode, every now and then, the same exact cutscene will play out in which Rubi shoots someone and her face gets splattered in blood... in which case a red-and-black cell-shaded filter will be applied, and now you deal extra damage. It's pretty cool, although I much preferred the normal graphics.

 The game is divided into three main sections, so to speak. Your basic third-person shooting as you advance through levels, enemy arenas, in which near-endless enemy waves will spawn until you destroy their spawn points... although, I liked the game so much, and wanted to get my upgrades, that I pretty much didn't break the spawn points until enemies completely dried out! And then there are the parkour sections, which are alright. A few times I was completely stumped on how to proceed, but eventually I'd figure it out.

 The best thing about the game is, simply, how insanely cool and exciting it is. There's a lot of action and shooting, and Rubi is one lethal badass, she gets all sorts of cool moments, some you get to create yourself, others you get to watch, Enemies too are an interesting sort, particularly the named ones, and even though many of them get very few lines or scene time, they do manage to make an impression, either because of their quirks or their cool designs.

 I honestly can't believe how long it took me to play this game, and I almost didn't even consider getting it, but for some reason I decided I wanted to try PS3 action games that I missed out back in the day, and even though this one made it to my list, I wasn't too excited about it. Turns out, it was sort of an obscure little gem.

 9.0

Game #1244: Uncharted - The Lost Legacy

 Old man Nate is old news, time for Chloe.

 You might've thought with Nate retiring that Uncharted would be over, but you'd be wrong, as now Chloe and Nadine take center stage with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, a DLC-turned-Spin-off from the now iconic Playstation third-person shooter franchise.

 Just because it started life as DLC doesn't mean that this is a smaller scale game, I mean, it is compared to Uncharted 4, and it IS shorter than any other Uncharted game, but as far as spectacle and narmy-but-charming dialogue, this one's got you covered. They even tried to one-up Uncharted 2's Train scene, now with the power of the PS4, so... yeah, this game is a proper Uncharted game.

 First things first.... Yeah, Nadine is back, Uncharted 4's lowpoint. She was unlikeable and forced into a role of 'FEMINIST FEMALE POWER' in a series that has been all about a male power fantasy. She sucked. In this game they almost fixed her, almost. For instance, since she is now an ally, we learn more about her, and she isn't angry and frowning all the time, she is actually a human and we learn about the things she likes. Her partnership with Chloe was enjoyable, and Chloe too was softened up, and made more heroic, but in her case it feels appropriate as she's the new face of the series. Back to Nadine, just as I was starting to like her, she and Chloe have a fallout midway through the game and the way she reacts..... made me hate her all over again. I think the fallout could've been handled better so as not to make us dislike her again. That said, shortly after, a third character is introduced into the team, and I really liked seeing Nadine play off him. The three characters work well together since they have different personalities. That said, clearly Nadine is going to be the short-tempered prick in the group, which is fine, as long as they make her less of a brat about it.

 The new villain was... quite probably my favorite villain in Uncharted. He is soft-spoken, but also a narcissist, and he looks pretty suave too. That said... there's a moment in which he handled Chloe and Nadine 2 vs 1. Look, I hated how they made Nadine beat Nate and Sam 2 on 1, it made no sense, it felt forced and the fact that she never gets defeated, being the villain, sucked. But they've already established her as the ultimate fighter, so having the new villain beat her and Chloe, at the same time, felt super cheap. I hate to get all anime in here, but what the hell is going on with the series' power scaling??

 As far as mechanics go, it's pretty much identical to Uncharted 4. Remember how Nate mysteriously remembered that he knew how to use a rope and thus was a ropemaster in 4? Well, Chloe and Nadine, turns out, are just as good as him when it comes to using a rope. Even the car returns, for chapter 4... and it's brilliant. Chapter 4 is the only non-linear, somewhat open-ended chapter. You get three main objective and a side objective, and you can tackle them in any order. Visiting the side-objective opens up 11 optional puzzle missions that you can track, if you wish. The reward was kinda lame(A bracelet that reacts when treasure, the series' useless collectible, is close by), but the hunt itself was fun.

 Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is just as good as any other entry in the series. While I don't think they have rehabilitated Nadine just yet, Chloe is the perfect character to carry the series onward, and Nadine can work well with her. I also felt the Chapter 4 experiment payed off really well, so they could easily sneak in a few open-ended chapters like that one in between the more linear affairs moving forwards. All in all, pretty decent for a game that started off as DLC.

 8.5

Game #1243: Zero Escape - The Nonary Games

 Guess you won't be running out of doors any time soon? 

 A few years ago I played 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors on the DS, and it was pretty decent. It was no Danganronpa, but I liked it, so I knew that I'd eventually try the entire series. Lo and behold, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, a two-in-one package that includes the first two games. Both games follow a similar premise, it's a visual novel game that spreads out its narrative scenes with puzzle rooms that you must figure out, as well as decisions that will take you through alternate routes. Both games also feature a cast of 9 characters that must play a deadly game that involves doors and numbers. It's way more interesting than it sounds.

 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors 

 This is actually a remake of the DS original, so I won't delve too much into it. It offers a new alternate 'Adventure Mode' that changes the text so as to cut on the descriptions and make for an altogether speedier read. It's completely optional, so that's fine by me, and you can swap at any moment by pressing R1. The transition to a single screen was done very well, I never felt the interface got in my way.

 The only way to get the true ending is to go through every route and scenario, and it actually plays into the overall narrative, believe it or not, and in this version you can quickly go into the menu screen and go back to any scenario, making getting every route a cinch. In the original it was back to the start every single time, and you even had to solve the puzzles again! This seemingly small additions makes this the best way to play the game.

 Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

 This time around, the nonary games have changed a little, so now it's all about betraying or allying with the other 9 players, and the objective is to reach 9 points in order to open the exit door. I found the premise to be more interesting, although having to go through every route, to get the true ending, meant having to betray characters, which made me feel awful!

 The first game had a lot of pretty JPEGs, but this one is in full 3-D, so actually examining and exploring every puzzle room was made more fun. The puzzle's are way, way harder, so I wouldn't feel too bad about having a guide on hand.

 That said, while the story is better... the dialogue was sorta lame and felt kinda meme-ish? The main character, the guy whose thoughts you read as your own, has some rather perverted lines that I felt were in poor taste. Look, I hate fanservice and I hate the anime pervert-stereotype character, but having to play as it was kinda annoying.

 All in all, I liked The Nonary Games, this collection makes for a pretty convenient way to experience both games as the porting job was excellent.

 8.0

Game #1242: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

  The White-Knuckled Alchemist

 Might as well play every FMA game available, right? Enter Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, a game based on the manga/second anime of Fullmetal Alchemist. Unlike what came before it, this is, believe it or not, a Gundam VS clone.

 And as such, this is a 2 on 2 fighting game that lets you play as a few key characters from the series, up to Ed and Ling's fight against Envy. The game looks pretty good, characters take after the manga's art-style pretty nicely, so they look very squared and chunky. Despite the game having up to four characters on screen at the same time, the frame-rate keeps up pretty nicely. The cherry on top? Clothes break and characters start looking damaged as the fight goes on! And, to make it even sweeter, you can unlock costumes for every character! Most are simple recolors, but you do get a fair amount of fun stuff, such as Roy with his coat hanging over his shoulder, or Ed's artic coat. The character roster is pretty comprehensive, considering up to where the game covers, so you get Ed, Al, Roy, Riza, Major Armstrong, Izum, Ran Fan, Mey Lin, Ling, Ling(Greed), Greed, Lust, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony and Scar.

 Sadly, the game itself is a bit clunky. Battles feel pretty slow, and there's not much you can do with the tools you are given. You can mix weak and strong blows to create various 3-hit combos, you get two different alchemy/special attacks, a jump, you can block(Or dodge, but it's pretty useless, dashing is better 90% of the time). Oh! And you can't use the analog stick, movement is done through the digital pad exclusively. Special attacks are fairly slow to come out, but they are probably balanced that way for 2 on 2 fights. Unlike Gundam there's not much verticality in the fights, so for all intents and purposes, it's an Anime Arena Fighting Game(tm). There's also a Super Combination Attack that you can use once you fill an energy gauge, in which case the character that initiated it must go through 3 sequences of 4-button presses to initiate it. Getting hit, or getting an input wrong, will lower the overall possible damage it will dish out. Once you press every button, an unavoidable cutscene plays out, and the enemy gets to go through QTEs to lower the damage. You can also use these energy stocks to revive a fallen comrade instead.

 But I simply can't stress how dull the game is when the game plays so slowly. It's not even a framerate issue! For instance, your special moves either have a long wind-up animation or a long recovery animation, so pulling them off feels like a chore. The three-hit combo system doesn't work very well, 'cause sometimes you or your opponent can simply start blocking out of hitstun, which is all sorts of wrong.

 And then there's the story mode... it's a bore. In the case of Ed, it follows the plot up to the fight against Envy's real form, however, the story mode for the other characters is mostly made up. Izumi, for instance, ends up teaming up with the Elric brothers and takes down the homonculi. As you go through matches, some optional, some mandatory, you level up and unlock various costumes as well as stat points that you can spread on your Attack, Defense, Special Attack Power and Speed. Sounds neat, huh?

 But it's not. Stat points seem to make no real difference, and fighting the CPU feels unfair to the point of annoyance. They can amass Super Stocks way faster than you, so you'll be eating a ton of unavoidable, unblockable Super Combination moves that will deal 70% or so damage to either you or your ally. Sure, you could try to quickly kill either of them, but they'll have a stock ready to revive each other, and pretty soon after they'll launch a super move. This means that you have to play defensively with your Super stocks, since you'll probably need them to either revive your ally or wait for your ally to revive you. It simply isn't fun, I'm still considering not unlocking every character 'cause I'm dead tired of this game. Oh, and your AI partner? Absolutely useless. He'll let enemies gang up on you, and when they are priming a Combination Attack they'll just let it happen.

 Fullmetal Alchemist on the PSP isn't very good. Even putting aside how annoying the single player mode is, the game is just too slow to be any fun. Even though the game looks really good, it's only skin deep, just avoid it entirely.

 2.5

Game #1241: Ape Escape 3

'sssabout time we open up a Zoo with all them monkeys! 

 In an attempt to prove that you can never have too many Monkeys in your videogame, Ape Escape 3 was created, and this time, they are going Hollywood!

 Not much has changed since the last game, as Ape Escape 3, as this is yet another 3-D platforming game in which you must collect monkeys, and the game makes use of both analog sticks for your actions, the left one moves your playable character and the right one uses whatever gadget you've selected. The game has changed very little, to the point that not much is new, and it retains everything that worked in previous games... as well as everything that didn't.

 In this new entry, Spike and Jimmy, the heroes from AE 1 and 2 respectively, are out of commission, so you get to pick between Kei and Yumi, a boy and a girl. They are pretty much interchangeable and most differences are negligible. Although a few monkeys 'like' Yumi, so they won't attack her. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the monkeys went Hollywood in this one, so you'll occasionally finding aping movie scenes, but it didn't necessarily affect gameplay in any major way, it's just more monkeys doing silly things that you must capture.

 The overall inventory has been reduced, most of the gadgets AE 2 added were removed, as this game features the same gadgets from AE 1 minus the boxing glove. Most of the puzzles too are stuff you have seen already in the previous games. This might be a good thing as there isn't as much inventory shuffling required, although they added a new quick-swap feature, double tapping a face button will start shuffling the assigned tool with the rest of the available gadgets, which made the game a lot more comfortable.

 There is one new addition, however, Transformations. As you go through the game you'll unlock the ability to wear costumes, such as the Knight, which can block flames, the Ninja, that can run on walls and over ropes, as well as a few others. Their use, when it comes to obstacle clearing, is pretty limited since transformations are temporary and run on an energy gauge, so they couldn't expect you to have access to them at all times. It's a bit of a shame, as they could've had more fun coming up with different obstacles that required costumes to make up for the reduced amount of gadgets.

 Costumes do come in handy to handle the monkeys, as they are more aggressive than ever before, they can even knock out gadgets from your hands and steal them for themselves! Yeah, it's very annoying(Not in a bad way), but monkey can't take away your transformations, and transformations tend to have overpowered capture abilities.

 Sadly, as I mentioned previously, what didn't work in previous games hasn't been addressed. The camera is still rather unwieldy, and since this game has tougher and faster monkeys, it actually turns into a hindrance. Some boss battles are needlessly tough because the camera can't keep up with you or the monkey, and pressing L1 to set it behind you doesn't always work correctly, specially when doing things such as strafing with the Cowboy Transformation. The game also had a fair amount of frame rate issues, they didn't ruin the game, but they were there.

 But worst of all, just like before... every new stage has a quota of monkeys you have to capture before the next level opens up. Problem is... maybe you want to capture every monkey? Well, no dice. Back to the game's HUB, if you want to capture every monkey you have to return to the stage and get back on track, which sometimes means going through puzzles or platforming sections again. This means that getting every Monkey requires visiting every stage at least twice. Oh, word to the wise, don't revisit stages when you get new gadgets, for you see, after beating the game for the first time, every stage gets a 'hidden room' with 4 monkeys you have to find. You also have to fight every boss again, and the fights are identical to how they played out the first time around. It felt a bit cheap, to be honest.

 Ape Escape 3 is another excellent entry in the series. Honestly, the biggest thing it's got going against it is the fact that most of the game is pretty much identical to the previous entry, warts and all, luckily, the entire series, at least the numbered entries, are fantastic games. If you ask me, I still think the second entry is the overall best in the series, but this one is no slouch, I just wish they would've worked on ironing out the series glaring camera issues.

 8.5