Review #272: One Piece - Unlimited World Red

 Unlimited grinding that is...

 Y'know, I liked Unlimited Adventure on the Wii, I liked it a lot. Sure, it was a bit of a grindfest and had framerate issues up the wazoo, but it was fun. Did you know? It actually had a two-part sequel in Unlimited Cruise 1 and, but they never made it outside Japan and Europe. And here we've got Unlimited World Red, the latest installment in the series and... I think I'll stick with the one on the Wii.

 The game starts with the Mugiwaras bringing a raccoon, Pato, back to his home Island, the intro is filled with what looks to be 'running gags', so much so that I suspected the story picked up from where Unlimited Cruise left off, but I was wrong. That was the first red flag that the story wasn't gonna be very good. As for the rest of the story, it's just excuses to have the Mugiwaras tread old ground from the series, y'know, Skypeia, Arabasta, Ennies Lobby, etc and fight the 'copies' of the enemies, Lucci, Eneru, etc. They even spout some of the same lines they did, even though these copies know that they are copies. It's very lazy, and kinda dumb considering Unlimited Adventure pulled off a very similar gimmick. I would've preferred an entirely new story or a retelling of the series, not this half-backed mishmash of events from the anime and a new storyline. It's a very lazy form of fanservice.

 This is a third-person action-adventure game. You bring up to three different characters, the CPU taking over the other two although you can switch at will, and you go through rather open, but linear, areas, breaking stuff for materials or bashing enemies for experience points. Ah, materials, just as with Unlimited Adventure, this game is a grindfest, albeit an optional one. Materials are used to enhance words, equippables on which I will expand later, rebuild the town(To open up shops or galleries) or enhance your tools. It's a massive grind, but luckily, it's a 100% optional... but if you are somewhat of a completionist, like me, it's gonna affect the way you play. You will have to repeat the same annoying button-pressing minigames any time you want to fish or catch bugs, which you will need to in order to get certain upgrades, and have to destroy every single breakable you catch a glimpse of.

 The game offers a ton of optional sidequests, which will reward you with materials, experience and 'Words'. The sidequests are a bit of a chore really, you have to go through the same 7-8 areas, usually looking for a boss to kill. They get old pretty fast, and hard too. But not hard because they require skill, but hard because enemies will start doing too much damage and you too little. Nothing that grinding for experience can't solve. To tilt things in your favor, as you play you'll get the aforementioned 'Words', which are basically equipment. Words are unique to each character and they raise(And sometimes lower) certain parameters, like attack damage. Then there's item words that function as skills and are used in battle for momentary boosts, or even healing. It's a decent idea, but the rate of acquisition is a bit low, I kept up to date with quests and didn't really have enough words to toy around until near the end of the game.

 Repetition is one thing, but it is coupled with how shallow the game is. Combat is relegated to three main buttons Y is a weak attack, X is a strong attack and A is a context sensitive 'I win button', basically, press it when the game tells you to and you'll avoid any kind of damage coming your way. Still, the game's engine doesn't lend itself to creativity or combo-making. You just press the buttons, the enemy falls, you wait for it to get up and use another two or three button string. Rinse and repeat. If you are not gonna have any depth, at least have style, but the game has neither. For whatever reason, the game feels as if it's running in slow motion the entire time. It's not that the framerate is terrible, au contraire, there are no framerate issues at all, the animations themselves are very slow, it's hard to explain, but if you look at it you'll notice that something is off. Mind you, the game looks beautiful(Well, the character models anyways), but the animations cycle veeeeeeeeeeeeery slowly. Even worse, the feedback to your attacks doesn't feel very good, sometimes it feels as if you aren't hitting the enemies at all. Oh, and then there's the boss characters that can be used in the Coliseum mode... well, just as with Unlimited Adventure, not all characters are made the same, and most these feel very limited. Instead of remaking them from the ground up, they have the same boss-moveset they have as, well, boss enemies. Which means few moves, and very slow. Take Buggy, or Shanks, they are not very fun to use at all. Not to say that they aren't effective or strong, just that many of them aren't fun to play as.

 The 3DS version has a few problems as well. For starters, the camera is too close to the characters back, so at times it can be hard to look at what's ahead, although the camera mercifully zooms back the moment you engage in a fight. Moving the camera around without a circle pad pro is impossible, so you will have to learn to use the L button to set the camera behind your character's back. Switching characters is done by pressing their tiny buttons on the touchpad, which can be annoying in the heat of battle. You have to look below and tap their small icon. Then there are the 'Item Words', sure you can use the Directional Pad to scroll through your items on the bottom screen... but you are gonna have to look below to see just what you are equipping, which once again, can be a chore during a battle. Then there's the costumes. Remember how Unlimited Adventure had three costume per character? In this game, if you want characters, you are gonna have to pay up. The game doesn't even have original redesigns, like both Unlimited Adventure and Unlimited Cruise did.

 I don't know if I got my message across, but I didn't really have much fun with the game. It's alright, at times, when it doesn't feel soulless. Combat is dull and shallow, the tacked-on minigames for when fishing or capturing insects are annoying, the story is lazy at best... And yet, nothing is fundamentally broken. It's painfully average, but that's all it's gonna get from me.
 5.5 out of 10

Now Playing: One Piece - Unlimited World Red

 I dunno about this one...

 So I was a big fan of Unlimited Adventure on the Wii, it was a fun Metroidvania-like One Piece game, sure, it had it's flaws, like huge slowdown and limited movesets for characters outside the Mugiwaras, but it was fun for what it was. It later got a two-part sequel, Unlimited Cruise Part I and II, but Namco never saw it fit to bring it to USA, and since the Wii is region locked... yeah, not a good time.

 And now we have the third(Fourth?) iteration of the franchise and... I'm not completely sold. Mind you, all my views are based off Coliseum Mode, the only one I've tried, and beaten, yet, and I've already got a ton of issues with it. Remember how in Unlimited Adventure secondary characters would get very limited movesets? Yeah, it's the same deal here. Luffy's got a ton of moves, Zoro as well, but then there's Buggy and Shanks with their paltry 2-3 moves on land. It's very disappointing, and this game has even less characters than Unlimited Adventure, so there's no excuse. And remember how Unlimited Adventure and Unlimited Cruise both redesigned all the Mugiwaras with new costumes? Yeah, you only get their basic post-timeskip costumes this time around. Oh, but there're alternate costumes, just as with the previous games... except that they are DLC only. I was lucky enough to get the day 1 edition, which grants me the 15th anniversary DLC costumes, which are really nice, but still.

 And then there's the fact that the game runs as if it was underwater all the time. It's hard to explain, but if you see it in motion, even on videos, you'll see that the game looks very slow. Maybe it runs on 20 FPS? I dunno. To be fair, at least the frame rate is consistent, which is more than I can say about Unlimited Adventure. And since we are talking graphics, they look kinda blurry on the top-screen. And I think the hit boxes are kinda iffy. Switching and using Words(Buffs) is also kinda cumbersome, since you need to know what they do before hand, and good luck using them in the heat of battle, since you need to look at the bottom screen.

 If you couldn't tell, I'm not very impressed with the game. It's not terrible, but it's not noteworthy either. Just a middle of the road game. But hey, maybe the main mode can save the game!

Review #271: Puzzle Quest - Challenge of the Warlords

 You cheating sunuvagun!

 Ah, I still remember playing Puzzle Quest back in the day, the game was the bees knees! I'd play it every morning before going to highschool. Back then, the game kind of became a big deal, enough to warrant a direct sequel and a galactic spin-off. But I have changed, my tastes have changed, and the console as well, since I actually played the PC version back in the day.

 The game is an atypical 'match-three-to-score' puzzle game, atypical since it actually marries the tried and true formula with... RPG elements. And it works. You've got experience points, spells, mounts, quests, towns, a storyline... the game's got it all! So how does it work? Well, there's four types of items on the board: Purple asterisks, that grant bonus experience points, colored orbs, that translate into different mana pools, skulls, that deal damage and gold that grants bonus gold. You and your opponent take turns trying to deplete the other's HP, either by matching skulls or gathering mana in order to unleash one of many different spells. Matching more than 3 items will grant you bonus turns.

 In order to play, first you have to create a character out of four different classes, which differ on which spells you'll earn as you level up. Stat growth is done manually by the player, so your class won't affect that. Afterwards, you can take your character against other players or battle the CPU(Either a random opponent or pick him yourself) or... challenge Quest Mode. Quest Mode has you traversing over an overworld, doing sidequests, earning sidekicks, capturing monsters(Which can then be used to research skills from them), singeing towns and finally defeating Baal. It's rather lengthy, I clocked over 18 hours on this mode alone. Needless to say, there's quite a lot to do.

 One thing to keep in mind, that annoyed me to no end, is that the CPU cheats. The developers denied these claims, but anyone who has played this game can tell you otherwise. It's like they know what's coming above, and many a times, after you make your move, stuff will just fall into place for them to pull epic combos. It's frustrating and annoying, luckily you can turn down the difficulty at any time, and I suggest you do, unless you want to be subjected to the game's cheating shenanigans. Also, the game can get a bit boring near the end game, when enemies start having over two hundred hp points, and battles turn eternal, not to mention the 'random encounters' that pop up around the map and that you need to deal with in order to go to other towns. It can be a bit of a bore. And don't be surprised if you come around a few graphical glitches, but be glad that they are mostly harmless, the PSP version is downright broken. The PC version is probably the way to go, it also received a few patches, like adding cooldowns to all the spells, but the DS version is just fine.

 Puzzle Quest is a fun, addictive game if a bit frustrating at times. And hey, at the end of the day, it's a much better alternative than 'modern' puzzle games like Candy Crush and it's ilk, this game has no microtransactions, for one, and as annoying as the AI can get, it's not like it's trying to make you part with your money!
 7.0 out of 10

Review #270: Binary Domain

 Holler if you are dead!

 I'm gonna cut straight to the chase, Binary Domain is amazing. This is a third-person shooter done by a Japanese Company, the 'Yakuza team' particularly, and it's amazing. You wouldn't expect a TPS from a Japanese dev to be THIS good, but it is, while maintaining a particularly strong Japanese flavor.

 The game pits you as Dan and his 'Rust Team' crew, a team comprised of members from England, America, France and China that band together to stop the Japanese Amada Corporation, a tech-corp that broke the third Geneva convention that prevented companies from researching into human-like robots. But obviously, Yoji Amada broke it, planting 'Hollow Children', robots disguised as men that don't even know that they are robots themselves, as sleeper agents. The story is very generic 'Action Movie' fare, with cheesy lines and cheesier deliveries, but it works for what it wants to do. Your team members are a lovable bunch, Charlie the deadpan snarker bookworm, Rachel, the explosives expert that came from the slums, Faye, the silent type, Cain, the most badass robot out there, and then there's Dan and Bo, those two guys! As previously mentioned, the game was designed by the Yakuza Team, and it shows. There's a ton of cutscenes, much more than your average Third Person Shooter, and a ton of drama, and I wouldn't have it any other way, the cutscenes are great anyways.

 This is a modern third person shooter, so y'know the drill: Regenerating health, large focus on cover-based shoot-outs, carry a limited amount of weapons(two main weapons, a gun with infinite ammo and explosives), over-the-shoulder aiming, etc. As far as the shooting goes, it doesn't reinvent the wheel, not does it do anything particularly original, but it works and it works well. There were a few quirks though, like getting into covers sometimes is a bit iffy, if you press X while dashing, even if in front of cover, most of the time you will roll, instead, you have to let go of the analog stick and then press X. Also, sometimes, while popping out of cover, Dan will aim towards a wall, these cases are easily fixed by holding the left analog stick in the direction you want to pop-out of... but this shouldn't have been an issue in the first place.

 The game employs a 'relationship gauge' for each team member. Performing well in battle, as well as giving the right answers when your allies engage you in conversation will the increase, or decrease, their individual gauges. This affects two things: A) How well they'll respond to your orders and B) The ending. I didn't particularly care for the relationship system, but if one thing annoyed me, your allies will occasionally run in front of your line of fire, and if they get hit, their relationship gauge decreases.

 Your enemies are all manner of robots, and there's all kinds of ways you can dismantle them. Aim for their heads and they'll go blind, engaging in friendly fire. Or break their legs in order to handicap their movement. Or you know, destroy their arms in order to... dis-arm them, literally. The more damage you cause to an enemy, the more points you'll earn, which can then be exchanged for upgrades to your main weapon as well as your allies, or buy Nanomachines which can be equipped on any team member for passive buffs.

 I loved Binary Domain. The story is great in what it wants to be, what it presents tribute to, rather than what it is at face value. The gameplay is tight, even if it suffers from a couple of quirks. It all comes together into this fantastic tribute to action and sci-fi movies that's a blast to play.
 9.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Binary Domain

 Amazing.

 Now why isn't this game more popular? IS it because of the terrible box art? Because Sega didn't promote it right? It's baffling, because the game is great.

 This is like one of those action movies that take themselves too seriously, except that it's in game form. The shooting is tight, the characters are engrossing, while the concept behind the 'Evil Robots' and the Team of Special Ops with clashing personalities isn't particularly original, they've did it so well it feels like a tribute more than a rip off.

 What I liked:
- The shooting, it's tight, it's fast.
- Upgrades, both characters and/or weapons.
- The main characters. Dan and Bo are hilariously stupid, which makes them loveable.

 What I didn't like:
- NOTHING. Maybe, if I had to scratch the bottom of the barrel, I'd say that melee attacks aren't what I look for in a melee attack. But that's just nitpicking out of my personal preference!

Review #269: Bioshock 2

 Once you see Bomberman on the cover, you can't unsee him.

 Even though I hadn't played Bioshock at the time of its heyday, I had heard and read about it, and when news came about a sequel in which you would play as a Big Daddy I felt a bit dumbstruck. Play as a big daddy, really? Regardless of my prejudice, Bioshock 2 was fairly divisive, some considered a way superior sequel, and others a terrible follow-up. Not me.

 The game has you playing as a prototype Big Daddy, subject Delta, awakened after being left for dead 10 years ago, which places this game 8 years after the original Bioshock. Not that it really matters. There's a few audio logs that might give some spoilers away, a single returning character(Who quickly goes away) and the fact that the world of Rapture is under a new rule, but otherwise, you don't really need to play the first one to understand this one. The new cast of characters is alright, and there's a few really great, poignant moments, but that's all they amount to: moments. Y'see, the story, as a whole, is rather weak and uninteresting, with the occasional great moment that piques your interest and keeps you going.

 The game plays almost exactly the same as the previous game, you go from place to place, scavenging for ammo and money, while battling dozens upon dozens of baddies. There's no real penalties to dying this time around either, but the game does feel a teeny tiny bit more challenging. You'll fight the same enemies from the previous game, with the addition of the Big Sisters, Strong Splicers  and the Rosie-type Big Daddy got replaced with a new Big Daddy that drops turrets. Most, but not all, Plasmids from the previous game return, with the addition of a couple new ones, like 'Scout', which I didn't care for at all. Delta's basic weaponry is analogous to Jack's, but they differ in the alternate ammo, suffice to say that Delta has much more options under his belt.

 As you can probably tell by now, the game recycles and reuses a ton of stuff from the previous game, but it does offer some changes. For instance, Bioshock 1 had certain few horror elements, but Bioshock 2 has none, it's an action-adventure game all the way through. Areas are bigger, larger and more colorful, which lend themselves to bigger shoot-outs with none of the build-up Bioshock 1 had. I remember that Take 2 made a big deal out of the new underwater sections... they are nothing but a gimmick, every now and then you'll have to venture outside Rapture, but these sections are very linear and short, nothing but gimmicks. The way Little Sisters works has also change a bit, you can still harvest them, but either before choosing to save or harvest them, you can take them to certain particular dead bodies and protect them while they gather extra Adam, you can do this up to two times with each Little Sister. Initially, it was fun, but it became tedious after a while. Sure, you don't have to do it, you can simply take them to a vent in order to save them, but why wouldn't you? Extra Adam means extra upgrades!

 Being a Big Daddy has its perks, namely dual wielding a Plasmid on the left hand and a weapon on the right hand, not having to switch between armaments makes for a much smoother and fun experience while fighting. For as lame as the story is, compared to the previous game's, the combat is so much better this time around. It's true that most of the Plasmids are from the first game, but while upgrading them only upped their damage, in Bioshock 1, this time around they get extra perks, like harming multiple enemies at once or bestowing stronger attacks by charging them. And as previously mentioned, while the basic weaponry basically emulates Jack's, the alternate ammunition gives you many more choices. You can place landmine-like bombs with the basic gun or deploy mini-sentries with the hacking tool, for instance, and this kind of trap-weaponry works well for setting a perimeter, something that you'll do more often in this game's shoot-outs, or while defending a little sister.

 And seeing how I got Ultimate Rapture Edition means I get access to the DLC, and let me tell ya, 'Minerva's Den' is Borderlands-Quality DLC(Which means, REALLY Good). It has a completely new story that runs parallel to the main game, playing as another Big Daddy, Sigma, you get a few new enemies(A new Big Daddy and a Big Splicer variation), new weapons and a new Plasmid. It's mad up of two large different sections. It's really good, offering a better, and self contained, story than the main game, and lasts about 4 hours(Though I've heard of people spending more time on it than that!). Then there's the Protector Trial DLC, basically, survival mode. It's a drag, at least after finishing the entire game and having had to protect little sisters dozens of times, I just didn't find them any fun. There's also a Multiplayer Mode, for whatever reason, but I couldn't find any players to try it out with. Suffice to say, the game stands just fine on its own.

 Bioshock 2, as a game, is great, but as a sequel, it's a bit disappointing. It plays it safe, doing a little tweaking here and there, for an overall more polished game, at least as far as gameplay is concerned, It's also hard not to feel deja vu, seeing just how many assets are recycled from the last game. At the end of the day, I still feel that Bioshock 2 needn't exist, but I'm not gonna complain about it.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #268: Bioshock

 Would you kindly take a trip to Rapture?

 Bioshock is one of last gen's darlings, while hardly revolutionary, this first person shooter is a beloved piece of gaming history.

 You play as Jack, just Jack, after surviving a plane crash, destiny takes him down to Rapture, an underwater city envisioned by Andrew Ryan, a visionary of sorts that wanted to give free reign to artists. But things turned sour real fast, these people weren't held back by laws, so boundaries became non-existent and they let loose to their inner demons. Plus, the addition of internal strife and the discovery of a substance named Adam, which took humanity to the next level quickly turned this utopia into a dystopia. Yes, there's quite a bit of story, most of it told through audio logs found throughout Rapture, or via text logs. And while it's impossible to have avoided spoilers by now, the story is still pretty darn entertaining! And while secondary characters get a rather limited screen time each, most of them are very memorable.

 In order to survive, Jack is armed with a few fire arms as well as a metal wrench, but he can also make use of 'Plasmids', that run on Eve, which grant him a ton of abilities, like fire blasts, electric jolts or even turn enemies against each other, then there are equippable Tonics that grant a plethora of passive skills. While ammo can be pretty scarce, and money is hard to come by at the start of the game, the game is overall pretty easy, and you've infinite continues that respawn you close to where you died, and enemies don't even get their health back! Personally, I found that equipping Tonics that enhanced your melee damage and restoring health on-hit was the most effective way to get through the game.

 Bizarrely, there's a sort of 'photographing' 'mini-game'. Early in the game you get a camera, and by taking pictures of the various enemies you'll get passive bonuses to your damage output, or even some Tonicss. This felt like a chore, as most of the time I found myself defaulting to the camera, and taking as much pictures of each enemy I came across as I could before they would stop giving any points. It's not mandatory by any means, but the upgrades are worth it. It simply felt weird, it takes a ton of pictures to unlock every reward.

 Currency comes in two forms: Money and Adam. Money can be found from fallen enemies or throughout various containers, and it's spent on automated shops for ammo or health packs. Adam is harvested from Little Sisters, which are always accompanied by Big daddies, bosses in mook clothing. Don't be surprised to spend a whole lot of medikits and ammo on these bastards, but the Adam is worth it, as you can spend it on new plasmids or health and Eve upgrades.

 Bioshock is a game that hasn't lost is lost, even as hard as the Internet has tried to give all its surprises away. The only part of the game that feels dated, if any, is the visual presentation, but hey, it's not like you can play graphics!
 8.0 out of 10