Month Overview: January 2018

 Tally:
 Shadow of Rome 8.0
 Rise of the Argonauts 7.5
 God Hand 9.0
 Musashi - Samurai Legend 6.5
 Spec Ops - The Line 8.0
 Fear Effect 4.0
 Fear Effect 2 - Retro Helix 5.0
 Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time 9.0


 It's 2018 baby! Even though I started working and a programming course, meaning I'm out from 9 AM 'till 10 PM, I still managed to play a fair amount of games. Chiefly, I finally played the Fear Effect franchise!.... but I was not impressed, I can appreciate how mature and original its plot and characters were for its time, but it has aged very, very badly. I also got around God Hand and was pleasantly surprised, about how good it was, and surprisingly relieved at how overrated its difficulty was.
 I also started the PoP franchise, because Grandia Xtreme was so dull, and I was surprised at hot... lame I'm finding Warrior Within, considering how much I used to love it. And it has nothing to do with the tone shift, I'm quite OK with it actually. On the flip side, I absolutely adored the Sands of Time, despite its shortcomings.


 Runner-up:

 God Hand was bloody phenomenal. The humor was great, and funny if a bit offensive. The characters where interesting, ridiculously so. But the gameplay was weird... but amazing at the same time. It's a surprisingly deep game, albeit one that can only appeal to fans of beat'em up games.

 Game of January 2018:

 Alright, so it was a hard choice between God Hand and Prince of Persia, but PoP won the premise that it did so much more. God Hand excelled at the one thing it did: Beating up thugs, but Prince of Persia gave us an engaging adventure, fantastic platforming and OK combat, alongside some pretty unique mechanics. As far as I'm concerned, The Sands of Time is every bit as good as it once was.

Now Playing: Prince of Persia - Warrior Within

 The Prince's teenage rebel phase.

Alright, now the Prince is even MORE serious.

 I'll always wonder why people automatically assume that dark and gritty means that it's bad. Alright, so Warrior Within tries hard to be dark and edgy, with buxom babes, cursing and maiming... but that doesn't make it bad, particularly when it polishes and expands upon the first game.

 The Sands of Time? Excellent, but with passable combat. Warrior Within has the same parkour, but with a few new tricks, has better combat, I'd call it good, and expands on the sands powers. Sure, the story is not as good, although the set-up is more original, and yes, its portrayal of women seems as if straight out of a 12 year old's mind... but the gameplay is more of the same but better.

 Regardless, I used to love Warrior Withing when I was younger, I played this game over and over and over again. Even though on my first playthrough I was victim to the Sand Wraith bug, which turned me into the Sand Wraith way before it should've and it meant that I could advance through the game... at to a certain point. Just in case I'm playing with two savefiles this time around! Still, as soon as I found out that I was stuck for good, and I kept playing as the Sand Wraith because I didn't notice I wasn't the Prince any more before it was too late, on the off chance that I would be able to finish the game... and I couldn't. But I didn't care, I immediately started the game again and got to the end. And I loved it. Hopefully I'll be as in love now as I was back then by the time I finish it.

Review #517: Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time

 As if time hadn't passed at all....

The Prince's shirt gets torn to shred as the story advances.

 The original Prince of Persia was a bit of a landmark as far as videogames are concerned, yet its first jump to 3D was pretty much terrible. A few years later Ubisoft would acquire the IP and deliver The Sands of Time, a game that continues to influence other games to this day with its then-unique blend of combat and parkour.

 You play as the Prince, victim of the Vizier's treachery, having unleashed the Sands of Time on the Sultan's abode. The sands have turned everyone but him, the Vizier and the captive Farah into sand demons, so now he and Farah team up to stop the Vizier. Luckily, he is armed with the Dagger of Time, a weapon that allows him to manipulate time to his will... as long as he has enough sand stored. The story is pretty cookie-cutter, but the interactions between the Prince and Farah are pretty adorable. Plus, even though the story is nothing special, it's still well told and it's an enjoyable trip. The story is told to us by the Prince, so every time you die he'll exclaim that 'that's not what happened!', which surprisingly doesn't grow old. A simple, but enjoyable tale that runs about 6 hours long... which would be an acceptable length if only the game wasn't so good that you just want more.

Heavy enemies require block-and-counterattacking to be defeated.

 Prince of Persia is the precursor to Assassin's Creed, as a matter of fact, the first Assassin's Creed began life as Prince of Persia: Assassins. But I digress, what I meant to tell was that this game did the parkour thing before any other game. This is a linear game, so you'll constantly be moving forwards and only forwards, although it's in your best interest to explore a little so that you can increase the maximum amount of health and sand you can have. Heck, you can also unlock the very dated first Prince of Persia game, although you'll need a guide to do that, since the wall you must break is pretty well hidden.

 The platforming in this game is pretty much fantastic, the Prince remains one of the most nimble characters out there, he can run on walls as long as momentum allows him, jump from wall to wall, cling to ledges, spin on bars and a few other nifty tricks. The game puzzles come in the form of figuring out how to traverse the environment, as you pull trick after trick to get to where you need to go. If you mess up, which you will every now and then, you can spend a sand tank to rewind time with L2 to before you screwed up that jump and save yourself. The game is pretty lenient with this mechanic, if you die there's ample time to press L2 before the retry screen pops up. Word of warning, as great as the time rewind is, don't grow to dependent on it, as the last few stretches of the game part the Prince with said ability.

The game could've used less enemies and more jumping instead.

 And then comes the game's weakest link: Combat. You use square to slash with your sword, R1 to block, X to vault over enemies(Or roll around) and triangle to use the dagger, and you can spend a secondary sand gauge to turn enemies into sand and do quick work of them. The combat is very simple and rather dull, the game throws waves upon waves upon waves of enemies and combat never gets too interesting. Enemies must be hit with the dagger when they are downed in order to finish them off completely, which also refills a sand tank in the process. The thing is... the vault move is so good that it downs pretty much any enemy that can't counter it instantly, so there's no reason not to use it... unless you want to slowly hit an enemy's guard until they decide to counterattack so that you can block their move and counterattack yourself. Heavy enemies later in the game grow immune to your vault so you'll have to resort to counterattacks to win. You've also got the Mega Freeze move, called Haste in the instruction booklet, which requires your full sand reservoir to use, as well as the secondary sand gauge, and turns every enemy into sand for a short while, so you just mash square and easily wipe them out. Mind you, the combat can get a bit dull, but it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

 Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time hasn't aged a single day, it's every bit as good as it once was. The combat can grow a bit stale, but the parkour is fantastic, and exploring the palace while the Prince and Farah banter is great. This game is one of the finest adventure games out there, and it won't be going obsolete any time soon.
 9.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time

 More like 'Almost done: Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time'

Why so serious?

 So, I got bored with Grandia Xtreme, since 'Xtreme' is the last thing that game is, so I decided to take the Prince fo a spin. I was only gonna play until I hit 20%. But then until I hit 25%.... until I got over 60% of the game done!

 As far as the Prince goes, I had a very brief stint with the original PC game, which I never liked, and I played a little bit of The Sands of Time, I can't remember why I stopped playing it, must've been by the time my PS2 was already dying? That said, I did play Warrior Within, on my PC, and... I kinda loved it.

 Yeah, yeah, the Prince was turned emo, edgy and angsty... but why is that bad? Why are edgy makeovers necesarilly bad? You can have your kid-friendly games, but what's so bad about games that try to appeal to an older demographic?... even if they do it by being as immature as they can with breasts and blood. But alas, this is about Sands of Time and not Warrior Within!

 ....but I think I needn't say anymore, I played way, WAY more than I intended to. The combat is kinda mediocre, but the platforming is ace, even to this day.

Review #516: Fear Effect 2 - Retro Helix

 It's called Retro because it's a prequel, get it?

Some things never change. Like Eidos' penchant for unnecessary fanscervice.

 My experience with Fear Effect 1 was a bit disappointing, but I wasn't done with the franchise, oh no, there's a sequel/prequel left for me to play. Actually, there was one, because I'm just done with it and... it's more of the same, for better or worse. Mostly for the worse.

 Remember how the cast of main characters was easily the best part about the first game? Wouldn't it be nice to get to know them better? Well, the game delivers... a bit. The first half of the game has you playing as Hana and her lover, newcomer Rain Qin, as both girls get embroiled in far more than they bargained for. If you liked Deke or Glas... you're for a disappointment, since, as previously stated, you're stuck with Rain for half of the game, and she's kinda bland. Both Deke and Glas make their official appearance halfway through the game, but you only get to play as Deke on the first half of a single disc, which is completely ridiculous. On the whole, we get to learn more about Hana as a character, we learn Glas' past, we learn a tiny bit more about Deke and we're introduced to Rain. As for the plot itself, it's the same pseudo futuristic modern day era meets Chinese mysticism. And it works well. The game is longer than the first one, and there're many more cutscenes, as well as more, well, plot, than in the previous game. As far as how good the story is... it's about as good as the first one, but it feels like they should've done more with Glas and Deke... or at least make Rain half as interesting as any of the other three.

Hana is as great a character as you remember her.

 The game plays exactly like the first one: Fixed camera angles, tank controls, stiff movement and unreliable dodging, clunky real-time inventory, passable auto-aim and the 'fear gauge' doubling as health bar that goes up or down depending on things like doing well in combat or being around enemies for too long. It's practically the same game, but now with new environments. I will grant them that they made the collision detection much better, there were fewer times, albeit it still happened rarely, in which my shots would hit an invisible wall as opposed to my target. There's a new option for '3D movement' but it's very clunky, so just stick with the tank controls.

 The game feels much fairer too, don't get me wrong, some encounters still feel like luck-based affairs, but they are rarer, since your characters seem to be able to take more punishment, and there're more weapons available. Dying and retrying was a pain in the rear in the previous game since there were long loading times, but that's a thing of the past, retrying is now instantaneous. The game is quite longer too, each disc has two 'parts'... although the game will have you shuffling discs all the time, you go from disc 1 to disc 3(!!!) to disc 2 to disc 1 again to disc 4 to disc 2 again... you'll have to swap discs at least 8 times, so don't get too comfortable on your chair!

Rain, the new addition, is such a boring character... and you're stuck with her for half the entire game.

 The game has more than double the amount of puzzles the first game had, but... they have aged horribly, requiring almost Sierra Adventure Games-ridiculous levels of thought processing to solve them. Just a tip, play the game with a guide at hand. it makes for a much more enjoyable experience rather than running around trying to use every single item on every single interactive object you can find. Some don't even make sense, like why would you try to fix your shovel by melting the goblet and then pouring it on top...? Argh! Trust me, don't bother trying to solve them, just keep a guide close by.

 Fear Effect 2 is definitely better than the first game: Environments aren't as pixelated, the shooting has been tightened, the difficulty is more balanced and it's a longer game... but the game is still horribly dated, it still looks ugly and grainy, the shooting is still janky at worst and passable at best, some moments still feel as if they require more luck than skill and the game might be longer, but you have to swap discs all the time! If you're not too sure if you'd like the franchise, I'd suggest starting with this one, it's a prequel so it makes sense to play it first and you don't need to have played the first one and it's not as unfair as the first one. And, if you end up not liking it, at least you played the game at its best, so you won't have to endure the age-induced sloppiness of the first!
 5.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Fear Effect 2 - Retro Helix

 Retro Helix? The hell does that mean?!

Yeah... there seems to be even more fanservice this time around. Me no likey.

 Fear Effect 1 was probably good at its time, but as of now? It's very, very dated. Fear Effect 2 is almost exactly the same... but seems like it'll be a better game.

 The game plays exactly the same as Fear Effect 1, but it feels... tighter. I still shot at invisible walls a few times, which was annoying, but the game seems more lenient. Hana can definitely take more punishment than before. It also seems to have cut back on instant deaths, coupled it with removing load-times whenever you die and restart, which is a godsend. This first disc took me an entire hour, so this game might be longer than the first one.

 The instructon booklet, as well as the intro cinematic, promised me Glas and Deke, but they seem conspicuously absent from the game's boxart and backside, and considering they weren't playable on this first disc... I think they might be NPCs this time around, which kinda sucks since their replacement, Rain, kinda sucks. At least Hana still kicks butt.

  It might be too early to tell, but this one seems to have aged better. Hopefully.

Review #515: Fear Effect

 It's scary how dated this game is.

Meet your (anti)heroes. They're a loveable bunch.

 Fear Effect is an interesting game, published by Eidos after their hit series Tomb Raider was ending its run on the PS1, it's quite a different beast altogether. Mixing full motion backgrounds, with a dark, mature storyline as well as very stiff gameplay making for something that feels like Resident Evil but is anything but.

 The game follows a ensemble cast made up of three no-good amigos: Hana, Glas and Deke, who team up to rescue a kidnapped girl... so that they can ransom her instead. What begins as a crime story about murderers and low-lives soon turns into the supernatural, turns out this girl might be more trouble than she's worth. The story isn't fantastic by any means, but the cast of characters is an interesting bunch. The story focuses mostly on Hana, as she gets the most background information and development, and she's quite an interesting anti-heroine. That said, throughout each chapter, or disc, the game will periodically change your playable character between all three. They play exactly the same, although Deke gets access to dual shotgun-guns, that neither Hana or Glas get to wield. All in all, it's a decent, but unremarkable, story featuring good characters.

The game... is very cheesy in how fanservicey it can get.

 The game has full-motion video backgrounds, think pre-rendered backgrounds but animated, and they... haven't aged very well. They look like a pixelated mess. The game has fixed camera angles as well as tank controls, like Resident Evil, but this game has a bit more action... which works to the game's detriment. The controls are abysmal. Firstly, your inventory runs in real time, so you must scramble with Square and Circle to select the appropriate item, in the heat of battle, and press triangle to equip or use it. It's particularly annoying when the game, as it often does, puts you directly into a gunfight with nothing equipped. There's no way to avoid getting damaged at times. Plus, there's a dodge mechanic, by holding L2 and pressing a direction, but the rolls never come out in the direction you want, and characters often times get stuck on invisible barriers. Which also happens to bullets, sometimes it looks like your bullets will hit, only to hit invisible walls. It's very wonky. The controls are so bad, and the shooting is so mediocre that some encounters and boss fights feel like luck-based affairs.

 You'll die in the game. A lot. It spans four discs, but it's very, very short, each disc should last about 30 minutes, if only it wasn't filled with cheap deaths. To be fair, the developers came up with a few interesting cinematics when your characters bite the dust, but upon death you have to endure a rather lengthy loading screen. It can get pretty bad when you have to deal with pattern-based bosses or situations, since every failed attempt will result in a loading screen. Pro-tip: Try to sneak up on human enemies, stealth kills are one-hit kills and allows you to save your ammo for the supernatural. On another note, whenever you aren't shooting at stuff you'll be solving puzzle, and they can get rather challenging, y'know, gotta sell those Prima Gameguides.

Don't run! Stealth is your friend, particularly in the early going.

 The last gameplay element worth talking about is the Fear Gauge, y'see, the game was too good for traditional life bars, instead you have a fear gauge, which decreases when you are too close to your enemies, taking damage, running out of ammo and a few other things. It goes from green to red, and afterwards... you die. There're no health packs, instead, you recover health, or fear gauge, by doing well in battle, solving puzzles or, sometimes, the game will completely restore you after triggering a certain scene. I was not a fan of this system.

 Fear Effect is... a very dated game. You can have fun with the game, the characters are engaging and there's a certain charm to the gameplay that keeps you coming back for more. However, you'll have to contend with dated gameplay that seems to involve luck more than anything, a very unfair amount of instadeath traps and some dated, obscure puzzles to solve. It's a game best appreciated if you're into late 90s games and their sometimes unfair shenanigans.
 4.0 out of 10