Review #296: Tomb Raider(2013)

 's fine, 's fine.

 And now it's Tomb Raider's reboot turn at my hands. By the by, I find it hilarious that this game took a huge cue from Uncharted... since Uncharted borrowed a lot from Tomb Raider back when it was released! It went full circle!

 How to tackle the story? It's a bit of a mess... Lessee, the supporting cast is cliched, stereotypical, bland and predictable. You've the fat 'native' guy that believes in supernatural stuff from the get go, the short tempered black woman(They went there), the guy that's totally not suspicious and totally not a coward and totally not putting a front for the cameras even though he behaves like a character from a cartoon show with all his mysterious pauses while he speaks, etc. You'll be able to predict the fate of most characters, because they are just that uninspired. Then there're some truly jarring moments, like when Lara is administered CPR when... she totally didn't need CPR but somehow it saves her, or how she decides that the best way to deal with impalement is to... just remove the arrow there and then, which would've caused tons of bleeding and internal damage. It's also a bit inconsistent, Lara just shrugs off said impalement, and gets beat up(While the wound is still fresh) and... just walks it off. But later on, she receives some blunt hits, and now suddenly she needs first aid(Which is conveniently nearby). There's a lot of contradictions between what you are supposed to do in game, and what the cutscenes portray. For instance, Lara cries when she has to kill an animal to survive. SHE CRIES. But then you are allowed to freely hunt any animal you want, not for food but for sport, and you are rewarded for it. And she's supposedly scared and a bit of a wreck since she has to kill... yet you are killing enemies by the hundreds as if nothing. The game even rewards you for finishing them off in special ways, 'Headshot', 'Axe finisher', etc. So much for making such a big deal of her first kill. And there's a lot of cutscene incompetence as well, sometimes Lara seems to forget that she has taken care tens of enemies at the same time, yet she is easily captured by a few. There's this moment where she has a clear, easy shot against the big bad and yet... lets everything unfold, because why not. Or she does really silly stuff that gets her in danger. You are a badass as you slay enemies as if nothing, yet when the cutscenes start, Lara suddenly turns into a foolish weakling. As for Lara herself, I don't agree with the direction they took her in, wanting to make her more vulnerable and wanting to make the player want to protect her, but, BUT, the new Lara is very likeable, and you just root for her. But I still don't agree with them doing it to Lara. Even Young Lara, back in the PS1 days, was much more of an adventurer than this one.

 You'll be surprised to learn that this game is a Metroidvania. Kinda. The game never forced me to backtrack, but most of the time you are free to backtrack(You can 'fast travel' from specific 'Camps' on each area) and search for collectibles with your new upgrades and tools. I do wish that there were more of these camps, or at least allow Fast Travel from any camp, since the map isn't very clear at times, and some areas are rather large, so just for convenience's sake, it would've been nice. They also took a page from Batman with 'Survival Vision', by tapping L2 the environment will turn grey, and both enemies and interactibles will be highlighted. Speaking of collectibles, there's a ton of them, plus, 'goals'(Like setting X amount of banners on fire) and a few Tombs to explore. Tombs consist of one-puzzle 'challenges' that rewards you with a fair amount of XP, scavenge and a map that shows all the collectibles in the area.

 But when you are not exploring, you'll be shooting your way through, and combat works pretty smoothly. Lara will automatically duck besides any object higher than her waist, and you pop out by simply holding L1(Aiming). It works very well and doesn't make Lara stick to the surfaces, which allows for more movement when it comes to evading. There's four weapons in the game, Bow, Gun, Shotgun and an Automatic Rifle. Truth be told, I spent 90% of the game with the bow, it's easy to use, lethal, you'll recover more ammo than the one you use, and by the end of the game enemies come with armor... but the bow can be upgraded to ignore this armor. That said, sometimes it's a bit slow, so I did alternate between shotgun and bow on some of the latter shoot-outs. Lara can also use her climbing axe, once she finds it, for melee attacks, which were fairly fun to pull off.

 One aspect I really liked about the game was all the upgrading. By defeating enemies, or hunting animals, or finding a few collectibles, you'll earn experience points, and upon leveling up you can acquire different perks. From more damage resistance, carrying more ammo, to having Survival Instinct highlight collectibles as well. But it doesn't end there, you will also come across crates, as well as searching enemy bodies, for scavenge, which is then used to upgrade your weapons! The upgrades actually change how your weapons look, and randomly, you may come across 'upgrade parts' that will upgrade the weapon, change the entire look of the weapon, and enable purchasing even more upgrades.

 One thing I did not appreciate, however, were the many, many QTEs. QTEs to kill enemies, QTEs to hold onto ledges, QTEs to avoid rocks... the entire first half hour of the game is filled with these, and gave me a fairly bad first impression. Their frequency does lessen, somewhat, as you advance through the game though. There's also bugs, I came across two. The Rope Ascend Bug, that is almost gamebreaking, if only there wasn't another bug you can exploit to proceed forwards! Then another one during an elevator section, where you are to break some jammers, the game allowed me to break one of them when I shouldn't, and while the floor didn't break, as it should've, it let me kill myself and upon reloading, the way was cleared.

 This game has been compared to Uncharted, and it's... somewhat deserved. There's a fair amount of scripted sequences throughout the game, or stuff breaking as Lara 'parkours' over it. From highlighted climbables in yellow or white! But when it comes down to it, the game is its own beast. The cover-based shooting is completely different, the Metroidvania approach is different, etc. Inspired by? Definitely. A ripoff? Not even close.

 Tomb Raider is a pretty fun game, even though I don't agree with the new direction they took Lara in, Lara as in the character, as for the game itself, I did enjoy this new direction, but then again, I do love Metroidvanias....
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Tomb Raider

 More like QTE Raider, am I right?

 So, where to start.... Hmmm, I know. At first, I wasn't really feeling the game. I hate the new direction they went with Lara, how they wanted to make her 'vulnerable' and wanted you to want to 'care' for her... which came across as slightly sexist and misdirected. You don't usually see male characters go THIS 'vulnerable', even on their origin story. And it's even worse if you grew up with Tomb Raider, even her Last Revelations younger form had more of a... drive towards action than this Lara. It didn't help that I hated the first parts of the game, where everything was a QTE. QTE to dodge rocks, QTE not to fall, QTE to push back the assailant, etc. It was particularly bad when the game teaches you 'If Lara doesn't hold with both hands from an edge, you have to tap square', only to have her fall during a scripted scene. DON'T TEACH ME SOMETHING ONLY TO BREAK THE 'RULES' MINUTES AFTER THE FACT, GODDAMN IT.

 But then you get the bow. And then the axe. Then you get to explore, and the game became fun. It's sort of like a Metroidvania, you will find collectibles, or even routes, out of reach, due to a certain obstacle. Later you'll find a tool that will be able to deal with the obstacle, so you can backtrack, etc etc. It also breaks its attempt at 'realism'(And man, is the game gruesome) by letting you fast travel from camp to camp, but at least its convenient. Oh, and the game isn't nearly as Uncharted-y as people make it out to be.

 What I didn't like:
 - QTEs up the wazoo.
- The new direction they took Lara in.

 What I did like:
- The Metroidvania like gameplay.
- The skills and upgrade system.

So, about the Borderlands 1.08 update...

 It received an update...

 ...and everyone's been talking about how it has fixed everything. Well, I decided to put it to the test. I launched the game, started at Scarlet's DLC, which I stopped mid-way since I was tired of all the freezes. Well, the Framerate is definitely much better. But that's not enough for me, I had to truly test the game, so I went to Lynchwood, the glitchiest part of the game, and.... 10 minutes later the game froze. I kid you not, I got 10 minutes of gameplay out of the game before it froze on me.

 To put it bluntly, the framerate is indeed better, but the freezes are still there, and these break the game. The fact that you can't get more than 10 minutes out of game time before a freeze is unacceptable. The game is still broken.

Review #295: Vitamin Z

 Not to be confused with the Japanese dating sim.

 Vitamin Z on Playstation Vita is a free to play game I've been playing on and off since last year, and I think it deserves me talking about it, seeing how much time I've spent on it.

 You play as this cutesy scientist girl, who must defend herself from wave after wave of mutant vegetables. This is a 'Defense game', in this case your character is firmly stuck to the center of the screen, and you use the analog sticks to direct her firing. Normal shots are done automatically, but the more enemies you kill, the more Heat you generate which allows you to use your special shots. There's also a Stomp attack that pushes all surrounding enemies back, but this is governed by some kind of invisible cooldown period. I say 'invisible', because sometimes the game won't let me use the stomp, even though I haven't even used it yet on a playthrough. It always bugged me, since I just can't figure out when I can or can't use it, I used to think that it had to do with the color of the platform, or that it reloaded when steam came up, but... doesn't seem to be that way.

 The more enemies you kill before dying, the more money you'll earn which you can then spend on all types of upgrades. From health upgrades, to damage upgrades, to unlocking possible power ups like Spread Shot or Ice beam. Frankly, I thought the differences these upgrades did was negligible, I never really felt much stronger or sturdier than before. Also, scrolling through the store is done with the touchscreen, but sometimes it seems to get stuck, which makes it annoying to go through. If you can't be arsed to earn the money, you could always buy the microtransactions. Seeing how the game is free to play, and everything can be earned in-game, I don't really have any complaints about them.

 The review would've ended there and then, but I just booted out the game(To check out what the Microtransactions offered) and... it turns out it didn't save my progress from the last time I played. I don't know why it didn't save, but it's mighty annoying, since I'm missing the last two fire power upgrades!

 Vitamin Z is not a very good game, but damn if it isn't addictive. I've played this game more than I like to admit, and hey, it's completely free!
 4.5 out of 10

Review #294: Katamari Forever

 What the hell, Namco...?

 I like the Katamari franchise, they are quirky, fun games that can be enjoyed by anyone. But as creative as the premise is, why is it that Namco always fails to put the same amount of originality into the sequels? The fact that the original creator jumped ship after the second one might be the reason...

 The story this time around involves the King of all Cosmos losing his memories, while the Prince and his Cousins build a RoboKing and... stuff happens. Story has never been an important part of the Katamari games, but they've always offered funny cutscenes, specially the Vita storyline, but this game just didn't make it for me. I don't remember even cracking a smile during the cutscenes. Again, this didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the game, since the story is always fluff, but still...

 For the uninitiated, in the Katamari games you play as the Prince, or as a cousin if unlocked(They all have the same abilities), as you roll a ball around different environments. This ball, the Katamari, has the special property that rolls up onto it anything it rolls over smaller than itself, and slowly grows in size. Basically, roll up small stuff in order to increase the size and then roll up bigger stuff. Some levels, my favorite ones, have you starting from the bottom, rolling up mice and nickels, before eventually going around grabbing entire pieces of land. It's fantastic. This time around levels are divided into two 'branches', the Roboking and the King of all Cosmos. Usually the RoboKing has the more straightforward levels, 'make the biggest Katamari you can', while the King gets more gimicky levels, like 'Roll up hot stuff', or 'grab the biggest Bear or Cow you can'. Oh, and I should mention this game doesn't take itself seriously, at all. Everything is done in a very cartoony style, and you'll see all kinds of weird characters doing weird stuff, or even stuff in weird places, like cats underwater!

 This game will either be the best Katamari game you play, or the worst. Before I get into the meaty stuff, I'd like to delve into some of its features. Firstly, you can unlock different graphical styles for when you replay levels. There's Sepia, Wood, Comic(Cell Shaded/traditional) and New, which looks as if everything has been painted by hand, which is beautiful. It's a neat addition, but you can only switch styles when replaying a level, and only on Modes that you've already played that level in. Modes are another addition, almost every level has 4 variations: Forever, which is the standard, that lets you jump(Which, unlike the awesome stretch ability from the Vita game. is fairly useless and unwieldy) and grab power ups(There's up to two per level, they either instantly attract all nearby stuff to your Katamari or makes nearby stuff attract to your Katamari as you roll around for a short while), there's Drive Mode, which is Forever but sped-up, Eternal, which lets you play a level without any kind of time limit and finally Classic, which removes the Jump ability and the power ups. This is a great addition, since it adds variety, buuuuuuut, the conditions for unlocking Eternal and Classic variations for each level are unknown to this day, seems to have to do with how much you replay a level and how you score. I've read that some people replayed a level up to 24 times before they unlocked one of these modes. Plus, the game doesn't tell you if you can unlock Eternal on a level(Since not every level has Eternal), which is a bit of an oversight.

 Had I not foreshadowed it before, so far everything sounds really cool. Multiple graphical filters as well as modes? Sounds like the best Katamari game, and it could be. It could. The problem is that this game is the ultimate example of everything that's wrong with the Katamari series: Originality, or lack there of. The game has 34 levels, which sounds like a ton, until you realize that only 3 of these levels are entirely new.  About 14 of them come from We Love Katamari, another 14 from Beautiful Katamari and the rest from the first game. Almost every unlockable customization item is recycled from previous games, and there's only two new cousins. So you see, if you've played both We Love Katamari as well as Beautiful Katamari, you've basically played most of this game already. Now, in my case, I haven't played We Love Katamari(Yet) or Beautiful Katamari(Since I don't own a 360), so most levels were new(Except the ones from Katamari Damacy and, well, the levels that the Vita Katamari game would use in the future) to me. But that's me. I got a ton of new levels, cousins I hadn't seen before, a ton of modes and even graphical filters, which makes it the best Katamari game I've played yet. But that's my case, if you've been following the franchise, there's almost nothing new for you here, and there's no real reason for you to invest on this one.

 All that said, the game still has the same issues it has had ever since I can remember: A rather low draw distance and some framerate issues. On weaker consoles, this was understandable, but why is this still happening on the PS3? Sure, there's a lot of stuff on the screen at the same time, but everything is so simple that it shouldn't be taxing the system so much. For what it's worth, the framerate issues are fairly unusual, and the draw distance seems to grow as... well, as your Katamari grows in size. It seems that when the Katamari is smaller, the draw distance is smaller as well, so you'll see a lot of stuff just pop into view as you move forwards.

 Katamari Forever is a hard game for me to score. I loved the game to bits, I really did, but it's hard to ignore the fact that most of this game is recycled content. So you see, if you want to get into the series, I'd say that this is the game to get. If you've played either We Love Katamari or Beautiful Katamari, then it's a tougher sell, as you've played half of the levels already, but maybe the new filters and additional levels can make it worth it. If you've played both, just skip this one.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #293: The Evil Within

 Survival Horror is(was) back. Kinda.

 Shinji Mikami's at it again, after the action-shooter Shadows of the Dead, he decided to go back to Survival Horror. Kinda. I'm not gonna beat around the bush, this is what Survival Horror is in modern gaming, for reference, it's a little bit more Survival-y and a little bit less Action-y than Resident Evil 4.

 The game follows Sebastian Castellanos, a detective, who after answering a call for help, arrives, alongside his partner Joseph(whom I like to call Broseph) and rookie cop Juli Kidman, to a hospital where everyone's been killed. Things soon turn to worse, as the world comes crashing down, and Sebastian keeps getting thrust into different places and maybe... eras? There's an explanation as to why everything, from locations to weapons, seem to come from an anachronistic stew and why there's ammunition everywhere, but I'd rather let the game explain it. As for your teammates, you'll get to interact with Broseph a whole lot, and I grew rather fond of, while Juli is just there to be rescued a couple of times and then disappear.... which is probably why she had two DLC starring her. Mind you, the DLCs explain a couple of things that go unexplained in the main game, which is just no cool at all. Still, I found the game to be perfectly enjoyable by itself.

 The more I played the more I thought 'THIS is, probably, what Mikami wanted to do when he made Resident Evil 4'. The game plays from a third-person perspective, but interestingly, aiming turns it into a quasi-first person camera. It's an interesting approach, and one that works very well, I'd say it's even better than REvil 4. As a matter of fact, Sebastian can move while aiming, so suck on that Leon. There's also stealth in the game, which works rather well and is a must if you want to conserve Ammo, and boy, do you want to conserve ammo. While in REvil 4 ammo would drop pretty frequently, and usually ammo pertaining to the weapon you are using, ammo is very scarce in the game, particularly in the first few chapters. It's not unusual to run out of ammo for your preferred weapons, although I'll admit that I was never left completely defenseless. Another thing to note, is that the ammo you can carry is limited as well. Oh, and enemies hate staying dead, there's only two ways to know for sure that they won't get back up again: Either if they drop something(Ammo, Green Gel, etc) or by burning them by using matches.

 Green Gel is a currency that you can use in the Safe Houses to upgrade Sebastian. You can upgrade things like: Stamina(For sprinting), health, effectiveness of healing items, how much ammo you can carry as well as your weapons. Green Gel is not all that rare,  but you'll want to think carefully about what you want to upgrade. If you ask me, invest on how much ammo you can carry for the revolver and shotgun, as well as how many Syrenges you can carry first. There's also a ton of traps on every level, and their use is twofold. You can disarm them and convert them into ammo for the crossbow, which is what I did, or use them against your enemies! Frankly, I was pretty adept at pistol headshots, and I cared too much about ammo, so I just disarmed every single trap I saw.

 The game is divided into 15 chapters, and each chapter takes place in a different location. There's no backtracking, and puzzles are rather few. Most of the time is about going forward, rather than staying on the same place for too much time. There's exceptions, like the fantastic level based on Resident Evil's mansion, in which you must find stuff to activate stuff and solve puzzles in order to progress. Still, while there're more survival horror elements than say Resident Evil 4, the focus is still on action. Sure, sometimes it's better to avoid enemies rather than waste bullets, and sure, there are a few puzzles here and there, but shooting your way through is always a viable option. As far as difficulty goes, I thought it was just fine. I played on Normal(Survival) and accumulated 83 deaths, but I didn't think it was too tough, besides a couple of cheap deaths and instakills. Yes, there's a ton of stuff, mostly bosses or boss-like enemies that have instakill attacks, and they are not fun, not fun at all. While there are very few 'Safe Houses' to save your game, there's a moderate amount of checkpoints as well, although the placement isn't the... kindest. If you die, get ready to replay some rather tough sections every now and then, but hey, you'll do better upon continuing, since now you'll know what's coming! Anyways, back to the difficulty setting, I thought Survival was just fine, but apparently a lot of people thought the game was rather hard even on its easier difficulty, so a new patch has actually made 'Easy', well, easier.

 Something that annoyed a lot of people, although I didn't care for it, was that the entire game is played on letter box mode(Meaning, black bars above and below the screen). Supposedly it was done for cinematic effect, but... I didn't mind it. I got into the game every time I played, so I honestly never even noticed them. That said, supposedly the new patch allows you to turn them off, but then again, I don't usually download patches. What I did notice however, was that on a few, select occasions, the camera gets a bit too close to Sebastian's back. It happens only in places where there're no enemies, but as someone who likes to explore for items, it annoyed me a few times, since I wanted to see more of my surroundings. There's tons of texture pop-in as well, both in cutscenes and in gameplay, which is impossible not to notice. Once again, it didn't affect me in any way, but from what I've heard, it annoys a few. Lastly, loading times are a bit too long. About 10 seconds(Which sounds like little, but trust me, it's a lot) when loading a chapter it doesn't matter, since its the only loading screen you'll see in a chapter.... but if you die, you'll have to go through it again. And as I mentioned previously, there's a couple of very cheap deaths that you can't see coming(Or have little time to react), as well as finding out firsthand which enemies can instakill you and how, so... get ready to wait. A lot.

 I loved The Evil Within, it's a fantastic game. While I wouldn't call it a 'return' to Survival Horror, I'd call it more like a... 'rebirth'. Unlike games from the past, it's not about encumbering the player with stiff controls and movement, rather, control is excellent, aiming is simple and what not, so the difficulty is not 'artificial' so to speak. You have to make the most of what you are given, because ammo and healing items are scarce. That means knowing when to fight and when to run, and how to fight. Maybe you'd rather waste a match instead of bullets, so hit'em in the knees and burn them, Even better, run around, group'em together and blast their knees with a shotgun shell, and then burn them all together with a single match. Because of that, even people who were turned off by REvil 4 might want to give it a try. While the game plays very similarly, this game has a lot more survival horror elements to it.
 9.5 out of 10

Review #292: Short Peace - Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day

 Suda 51 in its purest form.

 Short Peace is a 5 piece project by Katsuhiro Otomo, made up of four shorts and a videogame. And it fell upon Suda 51 to write the game, and it shows, oh boy, does it show!

 The story makes absolutely no sense. Seriously. But it's downright hilarious, there's a bunch of cutscenes and they all use different animation styles, to very amusing results. Mind you, the game is rather short, made up of about 10 stages, each one 1 to 3, at most, minutes long, for a game that can be beat in under an hour. UNDER ONE HOUR. The game is packed with unlockable concept art(By finding certain boxes and killing certain enemies), as well as unlockable in-game costumes, but even then, you'll be lucky to get over an hour worth of gameplay out of this... but what an hour! Even taking that into account, the game is packed with all four shorts, in beautiful, crisp HD, which add little less than an hour of entertainment. Each short features different animation styles, plot and themes, and they are... interesting, to say the least.

 This game is what modern-day Sonic wishes it was. This is a high speed action game, that has you jumping and slashing your way to victory. I hesitate to call it a platformer, since pits don't mean death, they just mean multiple routes, and there's a ton of alternate routes on each level. The square button is used to attack enemies on your way, but you won't do much of that, since killing enemies results in visually overloading 'side effects' upon their deaths that will kill even more enemies, and sometimes, even produce platforms so that you can access alternate routes. The real challenge comes in the way of an unbeatable enemy-type-thing-wall-thingie that's chasing you, and you can only slow it down by firing your laser, of which you have limited shots, and you earn more by killing enemies. Honestly, the game is very, very easy. I only died during the game's three boss battles, and only once per boss, as I figured out how to defeat them. This is a very easy game, but a very fun one.

 The controls are responsive, and work well... when you are on the move. There's a few sections in which you might have to backtrack slightly to defeat a certain quota of enemies, or find something, and in these instances you'll notice that the jumping is a bit... finicky. Sometimes it's hard to get your jumps to stop where you want them to stop, which isn't a big issue when you are constantly running to the right, but when you require precision, that's when they let you down a bit. The localization is also rather lazy, they didn't even translate the in-game dialogue windows, opting instead for annotations that look straight out of a Youtube video. There's some cutscenes in which either the subtitles either go by too fast or some lines go unstranslated, it's very noticeable in the 'animated manga' cutscene.

 I had a blast with Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day, but it's not a game for everyone. It's probably the craziest game Suda has ever worked on, and that's saying something. Plus, the short length of the game will turn a lot of people off, but I think it's worth it, there's few games like Ranko, and you even get the animated shorts! Plus, Sonic could certainly learn some lessons from this game...
 8.0 out of 10