Now Playing: Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII

 Why can't Square do ANYTHING like normal people?

 Oh boy, here we go. There's two thing y'need to know about me, A) Final Fantasy VII is my favorite game of all time and B) I hate Modern Square-Enix. My feelings about the half hour I spent on Crisis Core so far are mixed at best.

 I guess I'll start with the very first thing you see in the game, the CG cut-scenes. They are amazing, Square's forte has always been graphics, and this is no exception. CG cut-scenes? Gorgeous. In-game models? Amazing. The environments are a bit blander though. Now, as for the intro itself... was it really necessary to redo Final Fantasy VII's opening? It pulled at my heart strings, yes, but... why? If you wanted to show parallels between Zack and Cloud, they could've done it by using a different train on a different area. Oh, but they have an excuse, a flimsy one at that... it's a simulation!

 And they screwed it up. Firstly, they try to trick the audience, with Zack asking why are they fighting Shinra Soldiers, and Angeal replies that they are disguised Wu-Tai soldiers. That's dumb, it's a simulation, who cares? You could argue, and it's a stretch, that Zack was trying to be funny "Yo, why are friendlies my enemies?" and Angeal was being sarcastic. But it's a stretch. And why would you simulate fights against your OWN forces? What the hell? Shouldn't the simulated enemies be, well, you know, your REAL enemies? And the 'last boss' is a Sephiroth simulation. What? And why doesn't Angeal need a visor to see/enter into the Simulation? Heck, why does Zack need it? Also, how come a Simulation broke Zack's sword? Let's entertain the notion that it can somehow create matter.... then why would Zack need the visor? This is the type of nonsense present day Square-Enix is known for, seems to be written by the same guy who did Final Fantasy XIII. No bueno. That said, I like Zack's cheery personality being so opposed to Cloud's no-nonsense demeanor. And no, Cloud was never Emo, he was a bit sassy as a matter of fact.

 As for the gameplay... I dunno, I like it, but I don't. For instance, what enemy Zack attacks is almost completely random, it says that Zack targets the nearest enemy, but I'm pretty sure many a times he didn't target the one closest to him... which meant he incurred damage when I sent him to attack. Attacking feels very... automatic. You can dodge at any time, which is cool, but why bother letting you move around if pressing X will have Zack break into a dash towards the enemy and attack? I dunno, I feel like I'm barely in control. And what's up with Leveling up being Random? Leveling up both Zack and his materia is random. I researched a bit, since even Square couldn't be so backwards when it came to game design, and it kinda isn't, but it kinda is. There's an invisible experience meter that makes it more likely for the reels to stop on 777 and you earn a level up. But still, it's a bit random. Getting Limit Breaks is also random. Why... why would you build a game around random mechanics? Why?

 All in all... now that I put my thoughts on paper, or data, I can tell I'm not really enjoying it. Godammit, Square, what happened to ya?

Review #208: Gods Eater Burst

 Gods are yummy.

 Monster Hunter is kind of a big deal in Japan. Namco wanted a piece of Capcom's pie, so they decided to develop their own take on the idea. The result is Gods Eater Burst, which is Monster Hunter if Monster Hunter ever went anime. As a matter of fact, Gods Eater Burst is the localized version of God Eater as well as the God Eater Burst append/re-release.

 The story is set in a post-apocalyptic future where a new race of creatures, the Aragami, have infested the Earth and mankind fights for survival. Humans wield God Arcs, weapons capable of hurting these beasts, since the wielders must get injected with Aragami Cells in order to use them, but must also keep a bracelet with the Bias Factor in order to keep them in check. Now then, the setting, the world of Gods Eater Burst, I totally adored, I loved the concept behind Gods Eater Burst, although the story is pretty weak. You play as a 'New-Type', a God Eater that can freely switch his God Arc from Sword Form to Gun Form, and happens to be a mostly mute hero, it's kinda weird how they decided to give him or her only a couple of lines, either make him mute all the way, or give him more lines! This is a problem, because midway through the game, your character takes the backseat, and the supporting NPCs become the main driving force behind the story, with your character just.. being there along for the ride. The plot is weak in just how unoriginal everything is, you'll see the plot twists coming from miles away, and every character is pretty damn cliched. Firstly, the art-direction is disappointingly pandering, the females wear almost no clothes, and definitely no underwear, something that the game will let you know, each of the three major female NPCs cover the underboob, cleavage and side boob clothes, because Japan. They look terrible

 It's not just a terrible art-direction, the character themselves follow archetypes that you've already seen countless times. See Soma? The loner? He's like that because he is tired of seeing friends die, so he doesn't want to get close to others, like 200 other Japanese characters before him. And what about Alisa? She's Asuka Langhley through and through, the New-Type that comes from another branch and has some mental issues. The dialogue can get pretty cheesy as well, I couldn't help but roll my eyes every single time the 'big bad' opened his mouth. The game is divided through difficulty tiers, each tier having up to 25 different missions, but only 4-8 of them are mandatory to advance the storyline. After finishing the 6th tier, you'll see the credits, and then you'll be able to go up to the 10th tier, these four tiers being the Burst Storyline. Burst is better written, but it goes full anime. It's not a very interesting story, but it's better written than the main scenario... but it's much more ridiculous. At least your character has a bigger part on this plot! I appreciate the game having a Story, but it's definitely not something to be looking forwards to.

 The game plays basically like Monster Hunter. First of all, you create your character, which can be a male or a female hero, but you get a very few clothing options. Don't worry, you'll be able to craft more. However, I felt the color variety on each piece was very lacking, there's a lot of red, black and white, with not nearly enough Yellow, Orange or Purle, to name a few. Also, a lot of the clothes are very... flamboyant, your characters don't look like people that are about to slay giant monsters. And it's a bit jarring, having these very anime and colorful characters fight these huge, dark, badass monsters. Well, most of them, this being a Japanese game, of course that there are some enemies with female torsos and bouncing breasts. Because Japan. That said, your main hub is the Den, it's here that you can chat with NPCs, buy supplies or craft them, alongside equipment, and pick your missions. As mentioned before, missions are divided through tiers, there's 10 different tiers, plus the post-game Challenge Missions, which total to over 250 missions(only 75 are mandatory to finish the game). Even more if you download the free DLC. And the Japanese version gets even MORE DLC, but because of 'reasons', Namco didn't localize them. Shame, as they added new monsters and equipment.

 While there's a lot of missions, there's not a whole lot of variety. There's only 6 different areas, each one is about as large as two of Monster Hunter's 'sub-areas', however, there's no loading times when moving around, which in my book is a plus, but you'll be seeing the same areas over and over again. There's also only 9 'big monsters' and 3 weaklings. However, each monster gets at least one variation, and they come in 'Fallen' or 'God' variations. Fallen Variations only change the color of the monster, while God variations have slight changes to the 3D model. That said, they each monster and all of its variations behave the same. They may have slightly different attack, for example, the Chi-You and its god variations(Hera and Sekhmet) have the same 'Burst' attack, but the Gods' cover a different area. The Vajra and his two variations are the only monsters with different attacks, but it's mostly in how they work, as they reuse the same animations. Also, the other thing that changes with the variations are the resistances and weaknesses, as well as their weakspots, but otherwise, they are the same monster, but with a different color. Burst adds more 'Variations' to the strong monsters(Arda Nova and Ouroboros), and a new monster, the Hannibal, while the DLC adds Venus, and entirely new monster, and Caligula(A Hannibal variation).

 Now then, from difficulty 1 to 6, while you are fighting the same monsters, they will get stronger, damage and resistance-wise, more aggressive, and they will also gain new attacks as you go up the tiers, so it does feel different when you go up against them again. Burst is a bit.... dull in this regard, monsters don't gain any new attacks, they just get stronger and become damage sponges. It's artificial difficulty really, you are fighting the same exact monsters, except that they can one or two shot you now. To be honest, by the end game I just stopped switching weapons before each fight, or using healing items, since the game wasn't hard, for reasons I will talk about later, it just wanted to eat up my time with damage sponges. And you can argue that Monster Hunter monsters are damage sponges as well, but challenge is a big part of Monster Hunter, this game is not hard.

 If I were to describe the game, I'd call it an easy Monster Hunter. For instance, you can take up to three NPCs alongside you. These NPCs are pretty good at dodging(interrupting your combos with projectiles) and can revive you indefinitely. Kinda. Y'see, when you 'die', the NPCs have 30 seconds to get to your body and give you half their health bar. They've got almost limitless healing supplies, so you can just keep dying and dying, and they will revive you. In over 50 hours of gameplay, they only failed to revive me in time twice, and even then, you get two respawns(Which consume part of the hunt's reward). This is why, eventually, I just stopped buying healing items, and took bigger risks, since the CPU were so reliable in keeping me alive! This can create bad habits, since you don't get such leniency upon death! What's more, enemies in Monster Hunter will go after you if you try to heal without waiting for an opening, not so here, you can just heal in front of their faces. Scavenging for items on the environment doesn't require nets or pickaxes, you just press circle over the shiny spots on the ground. Furthermore, you have a lot of mobility in this game, compared to Monster Hunter, sidesteps are fast, you can jump around and run much faster, all which consume Stamina, but it recovers fairly quickly. You can also use your God Arc to take a bite out of an Aragami, which puts you in Burst Mode for a while, granting better mobility(Double jumping!), and faster stamina recovery, alongside special Bullets.

 Equipment in Gods Eater comes in threes. Your God Arc is made up of three parts: Sword, Shield and Gun, each of these also come in three varieties. Just as with Monster Hunter, weapons have upgrade trees, and you upgrade your equipment with money and items savaged from your prey. The game has a very neat 'exchange' store, where you can trade some materials for others, which can lessen the pain of grinding, when it comes to getting the material you need for your next upgrade. There's many types of damage to take into account: Crush, Sunder, Pierce, Blaze, Freeze, Thunder and Divine, naturally, enemies have different resistances and weaknesses, plus, they may be weak to certain damage source on only some of their limbs. Monsters also deal damage from these sources, and you have three slots of optional equipment to raise your resistances... or other buffs(Or debuffs!) if you prefer. I only cared about these at the start of the game, as soon as I realized just how reliable my team were(About midway through difficulty 7) I stopped caring and stuck to my Wild Yang sword and my Health items. It's an easy game, there's no need to concern yourself with these stats.

 The biggest issue this game has are the controls. As far as melee combat is concerned, the controls are great. The camera can be a bit of a handful, but you can use the digital pad to maneuver it or just tap the L button to position it behind you. You can also use the L button to lock the Camera on an enemy, and most of the time it works well, but sometimes it will choose a terrible angle to get locked at, still, just tap L to 'unlock' it, move it around with the digital pad, and lock onto an enemy again. Using items in the heat of battle can be a bit finicky at times as well, but you'll get used to it after a while. I mentioned that your character is a New-type, and can switch between Sword and Gun Mode at will. Well... the Gun is very unwieldy. You can't lock onto an enemy with the gun, instead holding the L button will put you in 'aiming mode', where you use the digital pad to move the reticule around. Yes, move with the analog pad while aiming with the digital pad, both which are on the same side of the PSP layout. It works terribly. When I used the gun, which is suggested as some Aragami are better dealt with by using the bullets you steal from them, I relied mostly on jumping and shooting, preying I would hit. I did. Most of the time. There's also a fairly in-depth bullet creation mode, and if you use guns mostly, you may get a kick out of it. I just searched for some good combinations online and called it a day.

 It sounds as if I'm mostly being critical, but the game is a blast. I like the fact that it's a more accessible Monster Hunter. I love how much mobility it allows you, in order to move around and dodge attacks, things like stopping a mid air combo with an air block to block an incoming attack, for example. It feels good, and gives it a fairly different flavor to the more methodical MH. Most of the monsters look very cool, and it's fun to fight them. Upgrading your weapons is always fun and rewarding, and trust me, there's a lot of weapons. And the controls? Easily remedied with a console port... which God Eater 2 got!

 While I disliked the art direction on the human characters, the graphics, on a technical level, are phenomenal. Character's hands look a bit... pointy, but otherwise are really good. And the best part? Even when fighting three giant monsters, with three other NPCs... the framerate remains steady. It's amazing. And the environments, while few, look great as well, further selling the idea of a post apocalyptic earth. Graphics get straight As all the way through. Music is very... Japanesy, there's a lot of songs with lyrics, and they fit the game very well, while I'm not gonna be humming the songs any time soon, I don't think there was a single track I disliked. Voice acting is really good as well, the Japanese names are pronounced a bit... off, but no biggie. That said, good voice acting can't save a bad script, heh!

 Gods Eater Burst might be a shameless rip off, but it's a quality rip off. If you like Monster Hunter for the challenge... nope, skip this one, but if you like the franchise for, well, the gameplay, Gods Eater Burst gets the highest of recommendations.
 8.5 out of 10.

Now Playing: Einhander

 Well... unlocking the Bonus Ships is pretty much out of the question!

 I broke my Maximo disc. Yes, I did. The PS2 wasn't reading the disc, and I did some searching around, seems most Maximo copies are... troubled. People recommended putting scotch tape over the disc, which I did, but it didn't work... and when I removed the tape, it took part of the data layer with it. True story. Long story short, I wanted to play Maximo, but got stuck with Einhander instead.

 Shooters are not my thing, but Einhander had always interested me... well, I just wasted 10 continues and didn't make it past Stage 4. On Easy. Which pretty much means I'm not even gonna bother trying to unlock the two ships. That said, I like the game, it's quite fun, when my butt isn't getting kicked! And as hard as it was, every single one of my 30+ deaths was my fault, and it felt like it was my fault. It's not cheap, and it's far from a bullet hell game, I simply suck at these! Heh. I'm like it, I'm not particularly fond of the genre, but I can recognize the game's quality.

 Oh, and this being a SquareSoft game, of course it had to have a very convoluted story line! It's two pages long!

Review #207: Power Rangers Super Legends - 15th Anniversary

  It's morphin' time!

 Power Rangers Super Legends is a 2D action-platformer game, featuring characters from over 15 years of Power Rangers history. Kinda. One thing to keep in mind, is that this game is aimed at children, first and foremost, which makes it easier to forgive some of its shortcomings. That said, as someone who enjoys Tokusatsu shows and enjoyed Power Rangers back in the day, there's quite a few of missed opportunities.

 The premise is simple, Lord Zed has gone bad again, and he comes across the Time Crystals, that allow the holder to travel through time. The Future Omega Ranger, a somewhat original character created for this game, tries to stop him, but the crystal shatters and the Omega Ranger gets stuck, however, the Operation Overdrive Rangers come across shards of the Crystal, which allows the Omega Ranger to contact him. What follows is the Omega Ranger recruiting other Rangers to aid him stop Zed. The story is pretty simple, but to be honest, it works. It is a kid's game, and the premise works well for the game. And this is where a lot of my gripes reside. The game features 15 levels(Or is it 16? More on this later), each series getting 3 stages, and this would probably raise some eyebrows, as it can't possibly cover all of Power Rangers' story... and it doesn't. Operation Overdrive, Lost Galaxy, Ninja Storm, Mighty Morphin' and SPD are the only series that get levels, with two 'guest' Wild Force Rangers. What the hell? How is this an 'Anniversary' game? As a game for kid, it ignores most of the older series, like Zeo, Turbo, Time Force and Dino Force in lieu of having the most recent ones, y'know, the ones children may be most familiar with. And what's up with Tommy Oliver, arguably the most iconic Ranger in the franchise, not being represented in any way, shape or form? No other Character has had so many appearances in the franchise, not having Tommy in the game is an absolute crime. Lastly, the cut-scenes are told via animated 2D cut-outs of the 3D models, they look terrible. Was animating the 3D models so hard? Even the game's cover looks pretty bland, mixing real photos with art, plus, the Yellow Ninja Storm Ranger doesn't even appear on this game.

 Gameplay is surprisingly good, and it can be played the whole way through with another player! You've got an attack button for a three-hit combo, a launcher, a ground pound, an aerial ground pound, throwing, dashing and air dashing, blocking, double jumping. The beauty of it, is that it has a pretty decent juggling system, that allows for some simple aerial combos and juggles, you can even downed enemies with a ground pound or a slide! It offers more depth than, probably, any other kid's game out there. Hilariously enough, you can perform infinite jumps by juggling an enemy, since every time you perform the aerial launcher, it allows you to jump again... and it's actually an encouraged game mechanic, as some collectibles can only be accessed by using it! While the fighting is fairly good, the Blaster enemies can get downright annoying, as you can't block blaster attacks, it's suggested to throw another enemy towards them, but when in tight corridors, and these blaster enemies are guarded with heavy enemies, that can't be thrown, they become a problem. Not that dying has any consequence, you just lose some of the experience orbs that you've collected and respawn right where you died.

 When you are not fighting, you'll be jumping around and trying to collect as many items as possible. The levels aren't particularly well designed, but every now and then you'll come across some fairly good platforming sections which require using the different combinations of jumps and aerial dashes to get through.... But then again, there's the occasional Leap of Faith. Then there's also the wall jumping, which is a bit iffy. For starters, two walls may look the same, but not all of them will let you cling on it to let you perform a wall jump, hilariously, in one stage your Ranger will actually cling on thin air. It doesn't stop there, sometimes if you don't initiate the Wall jumps on the right wall, or at the right altitude, you will miss the ledge, and the game won't let you cling to the wall immediately below said ledge to wall jump again, no sir, back to the bottom and start again. Throughout the level you'll find experience orbs, which are also dropped by defeated enemies, and will 'level up' your Ranger after each level. Not that there's an experience gauge or anything, so there's no way of knowing how much you need for each level up! Plus, besides an extended life bar, I didn't notice my Rangers getting any stronger. There's also temporary power ups to be found, that can aid you in battle, like increased damage or invulnerability. Each level also has four goals: Defeat a certain amount of enemies, perform a X-hit combo, collect all Ranger letters and find all 10 "timeline collectibles". The Timeline collectibles unlock art, while the Ranger letters unlock Rangers. Here's the kicker, some of these are veeery well hidden. And I do mean VERY well hidden. As in I needed a guide to find some of these.

 My issue with this is that finding all these RANGER letters, or Timeline Collectibles if, for some reason, you really want to see concept art of the level, is a bit of a hassle. Not only are they well hidden(It is the third time I say it, but I really want to make it clear just how well hidden they are!), but the levels have a ton of  'Points of no Return', usually in the way of a barrier that activates as soon as you go across them. Levels are fairly long, upwards 10 minutes long, and if you miss a letter, it means replaying the entire level. Not only that, say that you finish a level but miss just one letter... the next time through, you have to find each letter again, not just the one you missed. What the hell?! Now, y'see, playing as different Rangers is one of the game's most important selling points, but all 20 of them play exactly the same. Sure, they may have different max stats when fully leveled up, but they share EVERY. SINGLE. ANIMATION. I don't feel rewarded for collecting these Letters, just let me play as the darned Rangers! Worst of all, if you are gonna make all characters simple palette swaps... why include only 20 characters? There's no excuse for, at least, not having the entire Ranger teams featured in the game. Was making different textures so hard?

 Now then, every 'normal' stage ends with a boss fight(It translates to fighting the same 'boss' in each timeline twice, they don't even change their tactics), and every fight is the same. The boss attacks, you must jump out of the way, wait for them to laugh, and then attack. Or you can just mash the attack button, it's not like dying is so bad. Every time they lose a fourth of their health bar, they will jump back and summon minions for you to kill before they come back to fight. Every single boss fight is the same, but at least they have the decency to have different, if similar, attacks. As mentioned, each series(But Operation Overdrive and Super Legends, which only have two each) have three stages... but the third one is a Zord battle. Zord battles are disappointing to say the least. They are glorified QTES the play exactly the same all the way up to the final Mega Zord battle in the game. Every Megazord in the game has the same exact animations and attacks. Plus, it seems like the Mega Zords and Giant Bosses have lower quality models than the ones used in the normal stages. Remember that I mentioned a 16th stage? It seems that some PS2 discs are missing the Mega Zord battle from the SPD levels, mine included. I tried searching for footage online, but the only pieces of proof about this 'level' existing are the cut-scene at the end of the second SPD level(Which has Zed powering up the boss you just defeated) and the word of some random GameFaqs user. Whichever the case, you aren't missing much, it would've just played like every other single Mega Zord battle.

 The presentation is, unsurprisingly, pretty lackluster. Character models are fairly simple, and there's very few enemy models, most of them being palette swaps of 5 different enemy types. To be fair, it's a colorful game, and the Rangers' animations are pretty smooth. While on a technical level the stages are fairly bland, on an artistic level they look quite alright, sometimes even good. Music is dull, for lack of a better word, there are a couple of tunes that are decent, but most of it is forgettable. Voice acting is passable, but I think the overreacting and how the Rangers talk somewhat fits the vibe of the franchise, so I didn't really care for it.

 The worst part about the game is that it carries the '15th Anniversary' subtitle, this is not an Anniversary game, it does not celebrate everything Power Rangers related, instead, it's just A Power Rangers game, no wonder the European version lost said subtitle! I may have been harsh on the game, but at the end of the day, as far as kid's games go, it's pretty good. Platforming can be satisfying, and the uncomplicated, but somewhat stylish, combat and juggling system are a good introduction to other, better action games. That said, as a Power Rangers fan... it's hard to recommend, while it's really good, for a kid's game, it really doesn't offer much for someone who likes the franchise.
 5.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Power Rangers Super Legends - 15th Anniversary

 These collectibles...

 Lemme level with you, Gods Eater Burst is fantastic, I was playing it in tandem while I was studying. But I already finished God Eater(Difficulty 1-6) and am currently playing through Burst(Difficulty 8 to be precise). Thing is, I really want to upgrade my weapons, which means grinding, and I've been grinding the Sehkmet and Magma Gboro-Gboro for a while now... I grew a bit tired of it, I needed something else.

 To think that at one point in my life, I spoke highly of this game to a friend of mine, I might actually have compared it to Devil May Cry. Evidently, it had been a while since I had played DMC, else I wouldn't have lied like that. Anyways, the game is... acceptable. The combo system is alright, it's dead simple, but taking into account the fact that it's a kids' game... it's fine. That's as far as I'll excuse it though. Every character is a color swap of each other, which baffles the mind as to why they only included 20 characters in the game. THIS GAME IS SUPPOSED TO CELEBRATE POWER RANGER'S 15TH ANNIVERSARY, goddamn. It also skipped a ton of series. So we are missing characters, missing series, and every character plays exactly the same, with the same exact animations. What the hell? And what's up with the lack of Tommy? You know, Tommy Oliver, arguably the most iconic character in the Power Rangers franchise, the one with the most roles? And there's no 'Super Sentai didn't have Tommy!" excuse, this game was made in the West, for Western players. So where the hell is my Tommy Oliver? You mean to tell me that BILLY made it over Tommy? That there's no Turbo or Zeo Rangers? And need I remind you that every character plays exactly the same? ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ALTER THE TEXTURES. GODDAMN.

 And the cherry on top? Collectibles are devilishly hidden throughout the game. Just let me play as the color swap of my choice, dammit! Sometimes, collectibles are lost forever until you restart the whole level, and stages are pretty darn long. I can excuse this in games like Kirby, because Kirby is actually fun, and I feel rewarded for finding these secrets. I don't feel rewarded by finding every Ranger letter, all I get is a friggin' palette swap of the same character I've been playing since I started the game.

 It is an acceptable game, just a terrible, terrible Power Ranger's Anniversary Game.

Archile's Grab-bag: Evil Edition

  YES. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

 Threads of Fate: One of the first PS1 games I've ever played, it's a sort of successor to Brave Fencer Musashi. It was pretty fun.

 Power Rangers Super Legends - 15th Anniversary: It's no secret that I love Tokusatsu shows, no in small part thanks to Power Rangers invading my childhood. It's disappointing that no version of Tommy Oliver made it in, but I remember it being a pretty decent game.

 Maximo - Ghosts to Glory: Another of the first PS2 games I ever played, along Okage, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Dynasty Warriors 2. Back when video game news weren't so readily available, and I didn't know just what I was getting into. And that made it all the much better, the only thing I 'knew' about Maximo was the cover of the game, and the game itself was a blast, hard, but extremely fun.

 Resident Evil 2: I suck at Survival Horror games. The only  SH game I've ever finished was Silent Hill 4(foreshadowing...?). I also began Resident Evil 1 a couple of years ago but soon gave up. The classic Resident Evil game in which I made the most progress was Code Veronica. But I was always curious about Resident Evil 2, and I did say I was gonna play it, so.... Oh god.

 Einhander: I'm not a shoot'em up guy, but Einhander is a game I've been wanting to play even since I heard about it, but I never bought it for one reason or another. Ah well, it looks pretty decent.

 Red Faction II: I loved this game. Loved it. I have fond memories of the gatling rifle-thing actually, I think it was one of my favorite weapons in an FPS ever. It also had a fairly cheesy storyline, heh!

Review #206: Half-Life

 Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman.

 Half-Life 2 is an undeniable classic. Half-Life 1, while it didn't receive the highest of critical acclaims, was well received as well. My only experience with HL was, and still is, with the PS2 port, which I played shortly after it was released, Back when I finished it for the first time, I loved it, it was great and quite unlike the second one. It's time I go back to Black Mesa and find out just how well has the game aged.

 In Half-Life you play as the scientist Gordon Freeman, who is in the center of an experiment gone wrong, which results in uninvited guests from planet Xen. At first Gordon must try to escape Black Mesa and survive the invaders, but pretty soon the Government gets involved: Nobody leaves Black Mesa, in an effort to erase the accident from history. The narrative is pretty simple, but for an FPS, it works. There's little in the way of character development, Gordon being a mute hero, but the beauty in the story is in how it's told, there are no cut-scenes in the game, instead, every dialogue and exposure is done in real time, as NPCs talk to Gordon. You are free to listen to them, run around while listening, or just leave them talking to a wall. Honestly, it's done a bit better in Half-Life 2, it's pretty easy to miss important dialogues in this game, still, it was done pretty well for it being their first attempt.

 As far as gameplay goes, while it's a first person shooter, it also has its fair amount of puzzles, beyond 'find the key to open the door', and platforming. Gordon comes equipped with a HEV suit, that greatly enhances his endurance capabilities, lets him run faster, eventually grants him a super jump, and protects him from the elements. Health is restored by finding medikits or medi-stations on the walls, and the HEV's energy, which only applies to the defense capabilities, is restored by finding energy cells or Energy Stations on the walls. This being an older FPS means that Gordon can carry an enormous arsenal of weapons, most are pretty by-the-numbers, y'know, your shotgun, rifle and pistol, but you'll also come around experimental weapons and a couple of alien weaponry. Regardless, as lethal as Gordon is, sometimes the best strategy is to run, if you want to survive Black Mesa, you'll have to learn when to fight and when to run.

 The puzzles are pretty interesting, most of these involve dropping Gordon on a rather open area, and then you have to activate stuff on different rooms in order to open up the way. As a matter of fact, there's many enemy encounters, not categorized as bosses, that are simply too tough for Gordon to handle by himself, so you'll have to use the environment to kill them. It's pretty fun. What's not so fun is the large amount of platforming in the game. Jumping in a first person shooter works as well as you would expect. To be fair, only a few of my deaths were due to platfoming, but many times it felt as if I just barely made the jump I needed, still, jumping in this game isn't very fun, and it certainly could've used less of it. Level design is pretty good, there's the occasional obtuse level in which it isn't immediately obvious where to go to, but it's the exception to the rule. I do like how it's one persistent world, it's not divided by stages, you are always moving forward without 'cut-aways' between levels.

 Back in the day, one of the most touted features was the interaction with NPCs. There's guards and scientists, the former aid you by shooting with their puny guns, while the scientists can heal you. I don't know if this was an issue in the PC version, but in this game, the default speed is sprinting, you can either sprint or walk, in order to run you have to push the analog stick slightly close to the plastic's border, so it's very cumbersome. Thing is, NPCs can't keep up with Gordon HEV's sprint, thus often falling behind, and eventually stop following you. They are not very useful, but it's annoying not being able to rely on them, well, they have a very bad pathfinding, so they may get stuck following you anyways.

 One thing to keep in mind, is that this game is from an era before console games employed autosaving. You'd better save often, particularly before platforming sections, but that's alright, you'll learn the hard way. And hey, look at the bright side, you can save anywhere at any time. A rather helpful feature is Quick Saving, which saves to the PS2's memory, which means the Save is good until you turn off the console, what makes this feature so good, is that reloading a Quick Save is pretty fast, allowing you to retry pretty quickly.  Aiming with the analog stick isn't as precise as aiming with a mouse, which is why the game allows you to lock on, by pressing circle while the reticule hovers over an enemy. It works well, and it does make up for the lack of mouse... but then again, this game allows you to use the PS2 Keyboard and Mouse, if it tickles your fancy!

 Exclusive to this port, well, at the time of its release anyways, is the Decay mode. It's a separate storyline that follows Dr. Gina Cross and Dr. Colette Green, who were in Black Mesa at the moment of the incident. As a matter of fact, their story runs parallel to Gordon's, while it doesn't further the story, it fleshens it a bit. This mode is made up of 10 different stages, and it's meant to be played by two players. You can play it by yourself, but it means switching characters constantly, the character you are not playing as will not move. Ever. They will fight back, often times wasting ammo, but they won't move an inch. Decay is a very fun mode, the puzzles are fairly fun, but playing it by your lonesome is very tedious. There's also a Deathmatch mode if you are so inclined. That said, multiplayer modes in this game have a very small issue.... the models for the guns are gone. You only get the HUD and the targeting-reticule, but no gun, which I felt was a joykill.

 Ah, the presentation... it hasn't aged well. Back in the day, the visuals were an upgrade over the PC version, but nowadays, it looks pretty bad. Animations are rigid and textures are muddy. The color palette is fairly subdued as well. Music is... alrightish, nothing memorable, but the main theme is rather good. Voice acting is... passable. There's nothing particularly outstanding or convincing, but it won't break immersion.

 Half-Life has fairly well were it matters. The presentation has seen better days, and the jumping is pretty annoying, but everything else works really well. It made some pretty nice tweaks on its way to the Console in order to make up for the lack of Keyboard and Joystick, and the Decay extra is great, when played with another person.
 8.5 out of 10.