G'day there guys and gals!
*This review is 100% spoiler free!*
Over the course of the years, many gamers worldwide are unfortunate to subject themselves to terrible games. Glitch and bug filled, wonky controls, the list goes on. But ever so often a game will be released that takes all expectations and blows them away. Bastion was one, Portal was another and now comes Valiant Hearts.
Setting a buzz at E3, Valiant Hearts takes place during the majority of World War 1 or as some still refer to it, The War To End All Wars, from 1914 to late 1917. The game follows four main characters; Emile, Karl, Freddie and Anna, all connected inside and outside the war they quickly become friends and all aided by a lonely and friendly dog named Walt. At the beginning of the war, Karl is separated from his wife and newborn child in France as the government forces out all German born civilians from the country. Karl's wife is also the daughter of Emile, the main character in game, who also is drafted into the war.
While it is a War based game, Valiant Hearts is overall a puzzle-solving game, with each character having their own ability or skill: As a nurse, Anna has a small but engaging Quick Time Even healing game, Emile can dig in certain areas to create an opening or find another path, Freddie can cut through barbed wire and Karl can switch costumes to sneak around areas (Although that ability is used rarely in the game). With help from the dog Walt, players must navigate through areas via pulling levers, using throw-ables to break or open different areas or even ordering Walt to fetch a particular item to aid you. Gameplay wise, each challenge you face is unlike any other, from using the heat of a flamethrower to set alight dynamite to digging around shells that have not exploded on impact, the game mixes up each task. Taxi driving, sneaking past enemies (or knocking them out when they're not looking), judging trajectory to blow up a target, solving codes to doors, the game mixes these moments and more well to keep gameplay engaging and fresh. Controls do tend to become fiddly when rushed in time but that is mostly player's forthcoming mistake so results may vary.
Narration also takes place during gameplay as well as during loading screens, by an unknown man or Emile himself. Collectables also make up a massive part of the gameplay as over 100 are fit into the four chapters and can be easily found through exploration. Not only holding achievement value but also interesting facts about life in the early 20th century, from helmets to biscuit tins to even personal family documents to help aid the game from contest winners. Alongside this is also Diary entries from the four main characters and Marie, Emile's daughter, as well as Facts in each different part of the chapter ranging from treatment of P.O.Ws to facts about the battleground.
The storyline is beautifully made, mixing fiction with fact and delivers a beautiful story. Having multiple characters does not deter from the strength and emotional bond between each character as their story develops. With the four chapters, each has around 4-7 parts, lasting around 20-30 minutes depending on your puzzle ability. If you managed to get stuck (and trust me, you will), the game is timed to give you hints via a carrier pigeon, highlighting specific areas or clues.
The graphics on this game are definitely appealing. While you'll only ever see the eyes of one character (as long hair is the rage in this game), the art style of the game is beautiful and charming. Backdrops have bold and bright colours that are shaded and lighted perfectly to each scenario, even older areas clearly showing the change the war did to Europe. The sound effects and musical score help make this game come alive; each sound comes in clear and crisp, even the almost unintelligible babble of characters. But musical score is definitely the stronger of the two; I found myself non-moving on menu screens or whilst reading facts as the soft piano is utterly beautiful. While it does repeat, it won't disappoint as it changes progressively by the end. Usually I would also put into factor the voice acting, but as there is only the narration(s) and inane babble of characters, I will only say this: Valiant Hearts brings out little comedy in a few characters but when words are spoken, the realism and depth of fact and fiction is truly shown.
Personally I have not experienced any glitches or bugs and have yet to find anyone who has experienced otherwise, which truly shows how hard UbiArt and Ubisoft Montpellier have been working on this game. A brilliant storyline, fun and engaging gameplay, beautiful musical score, a ton of lore and collectables, easy and worthwhile achievements, I cannot sing the praises for this game enough, as multiple playthroughs are a definite guarantee. For such a cheap asking price for so much to offer and 10-12 hours of gameplay, Valiant Hearts The Great War is nothing short of a masterpiece of gaming and I most definitely implore you to play this must-buy game.
Out of 10, I give Valiant Hearts The Great War a 10/10
PERFECT SCORE
+ Flowing and constantly engaging gameplay
+ Beautiful musical score/soundtrack/sound effects
+ Outstanding gameplay for a puzzler
+ Fact mixed with fiction don't mud the storyline/gameplay
+ Multitudes of lore and sidestory
+ Art style and graphics are bold and magnificent
+ Collectables have massive meaning to WW1
+ Puzzles range from easy to difficult fluently
+ Tutorials simple and effective
+ The feels....dems be real
Valiant Hearts The Great War is out now for $15
Go buy it! Fatman approved!
G'day there guys and gals.
Personally, I have always been a little bit of a history buff, especially wars from revolutions to a coup, and war games have a special place in my heart. But Enemy Front will not be there and only deserves to be in your garbage bin. Better yet, left on the shelf at your local store to rot. Enemy Front starts Robert Hawkins, an American war correspondent AKA generic straggly unshaved guy #1, who becomes to find himself fighting in the resistance groups around Europe and particularly, Warsaw as the game takes place roughly before and during the Warsaw Uprising. Sounds interesting right? But what makes this game horrid and utterly not worth your money? Sit down and let me tell you.
Firstly, let's start off with the bandaid issues. Voice acting in this game is cringe worthy at best; main cast members feature relatively unknowns in voice acting, let alone TV or movies whereas the extras range from well known to animated movies. Voices are flat, monotone and carry very little emotional depth, failing to make a connection to player or other characters. Personally, I couldn't even care about the death of a character when they have 10 second cameos in three second scenes.
Speaking of which, scenery is a mix of small cutscenes edited down to bite sizes of 20-50 seconds and even these are torture to endure. In-game scenes tend to stick to small amounts of dialogue, or very minuscule choices such as weapon or task, which turn up rarely and often make little difference. Enjoyable, but too little too late. This brings me to the worst atrocity: gameplay.
To summarise the game is one word is incredibly easy: generic. Little/no tutorials were given in game other than throwing rocks or attaching bombs to items, personally I didn't discover the second weapon slot until the end of the game, which lead to me missing a lot of achievements! Controls float and character AI drift when stationary, weapons have little to no difference other than bolt action/automatic or silenced/unsilenced weapons as they deal the same amount of damage on all enemies, which limits down to three: generic shooters, snipers and commanders who hide with a pistol. While there are many weapons to enjoy, the few promoted the most was the sniper rifles. Advertised to have state of the art realism, their slo mo is a cheap rip-off of 505 Games' Sniper Elite mechanic without the gorey payoff. The only truly enjoyable gameplay moments is taking enemies hostage and using them as meat shields. Commanders can be captured to force enemies to surrender (With an achievement attached to that perk) while low level enemies will fire, and players will still take damage regardless. The injury meter is also misleading as blood will line the outside of the screen but enemies can die depending on where they're shot. However approaching an enemy will faze them through your body and make their damage to you minimal.
Each 16 levels have large maps but bigger isn't always better: textures are bland or never fully load while enemies literally camouflage into the bushes or buildings due to bad lighting. Each map also feels unfinished as enemies can also shoot through walls, walkways, boxes ect, despite the game not offering this feature, the only answer being these areas overlooked during creation. Maps continue to render as you approach them but at least they never stop to load midgame at least, but checkpoints are also a hassle. 20-30 minutes of sneaking and accidentally dying will set you back to the start of the mission, causing much rage quit moments. One or two more would have been appreciated. A small factor I'd like to mention also is the grenade system: grenades have a small explosive area whereas molotovs, a burning bottle of liqour, doesn't set enemies on fire. Instead it only destroys vehicles (even tanks!) and blows back enemies.
I can go on, but I'll stop here.
Graphics do look beautiful in parts but because of the slow rendering during maps tend to stay bland and uninteresting, reducing the gameplay a lot. The game also fails in lore, explanation and very little character development in our protagonist, quickly changing his mind from "This'll be an interesting story" to "I've gotta fight then Nazis." with little other reason than fighting itself, each mission present or not usually featuring another gruff, unshaven generic fighter alongside Hawkins. Musical score offers little enjoyment to the game but enjoyment nonetheless, whereas sound effects are dull, bland and almost muffled. Storyline is historically accurate but only barely, with many fantasy moments also thrown into the game, with little explanation or lore involved other than "I decided to go to back to Warsaw.". Why? When? How? Nothing is explained.
I would also like to mention that the multiplayer is barren of players. Personally I've sat on the menu screen looking for players for a decent amount of time and not found a single player. I have seen the Multiplayer via videos but since I did not experience it, I shall not hold that to the final score.
Enemy Front makes its moves to try and tie you down to our protagonist, with little emotional depth and "saddening" death scenes for characters I can barely name, as the only difference between male or female characters is the colour of their hair or clothing or the rarity of a beard, as stubble seems to be the rage. Wonky, irritating controls, dissatisfying gameplay, utterly terrible voice cast, the list goes on. Perhaps the game will be fix with patches in time but as all games, I review at their presented state.
I can say in confidence, stay far away from this game. $70 for an unfinished, unpolished game is not worth your time by a long shot, at best wait for a price drop but I only recommend to those who wish to hammer out 10-15 hours of pure hell.
Out of 10, I give Enemy Front my lowest score to date: 2/10
+ Musical score/achievements are decent at least
+ Taking enemies hostage is satisfying
- But the rest of the game is filled with bugs/glitches
- Bare minimal tutorials
- Controls slide/player AI moves on their own.
- Maps never fully render
- Graphics decompose quickly
- Voice acting is cringe worthy
- Not a clear enough distinction in all weaponry, especially explosives
- Sniping slo-mo = cheap Sniper Elite ripoff with no payoff
- No lore, minimal storyline, extremely hard to follow
- Checkpoints are painstakingly few
- 16 missions of long and utter boredom
- Collectables have only achievement value
- Enemies faze through player AI when close enough
- Breaching slo-mo glitchy and repeats same cutscene animation each time
- 10-15 hours of my life I'll never get back
I can go on but I'll stop here.
God forbid you buy this, but Enemy Front is out now for the standard price of $70
G'day there guys and gals!
*Warning: This review contains minor spoilers in regards to content, not storyline. Read at your own caution*
Once again I flew into a game with very little knowledge on what to expect or how the game would play. Enter in Murdered Soul Suspect, a relatively average story with a twist: Ronan O'Connor is a criminal turned detective on the search for the Bell Killer, a mysterious killer targeting the people of Salem. In the midst of duty he discovers this fiend only to be thrown from a window and die. With literally nothing left to hold him back, Ronan now sets his eyes on nothing but the Bell Killer and how to bring them to justice.
Murdered Soul Suspect offers a different variation of a mystery and puzzle solving game with few horror elements to enjoy. Although the game does have some terrific moments, it's sad to say that everything is sub par of what it could have been.
Let's start off with Gameplay. In your deceased form, you are practically a ghost stuck in limbo: while the world is at your finger tips, any concrete building cannot be entered unless a window or a door is left ajar to which only plotpoints allow this to be. White/blue objects of the past (Such as 19th century buildings) despite being ghostly forms themselves cannot be interacted or passed through despite most, if not all, ghostly object being at your fingertips. The game does offer slight horror factor in other ghosts and their stories, or plain ghosts that disappear as you come closer, while the big factor lies in demons. Hungry for souls trapped in limbo, demon pits will be placed randomly on the ground blocking your path while Demon themselves will patrol specific areas until you sneak past or kill them all, which is only achieved by approaching their backs and performing a Quick Time Event. With this and your few ghostly powers (Such as Teleportation and making objects disappear) players must traverse the area to a specific point in which you must hunt for clues.
Clues can consist of anything in the world, such as broken glass, keys, pictures ect and some won't appear until you perform a specific action such as using your Poltergeist ability to distract a living person to remove papers off pictures, seeing through their eyes at clipboards or using already gathered clues to spark their memories.
By now you're thinking "Wow, that sounds cool!" But what the game fails on is how repetitive and boring this becomes over time. NPCs are boring and lacking, with a total of 4 side missions to complete (Unless you collect memory objects in specific areas to unlock more) whereas other side characters will have one or two lines) As Ronan you question witnesses about five times throughout the game and the rest of it is spent travelling from point to point or searching for clues. The game does offer you to quicken this by solving the riddle of the case earlier but this is flaw massively. Each mistake you make will take a badge off your perfection meter in that particular clue to the murders BUT the game will offer this option even if you don't have the clue you need, making you fail on idiotic clue over-thought to have meaning to the case.
The ghost abilities, while cool, are almost useless and you won't use them often instead of the "Hide" option when trying to kill Demons. Transport it twitchy and only useful in small areas and making walls/doors disappear is used ONCE in the main story.
Enough about that. Onto the story. As I said, Ronan has been killed by the Bell Killer and now sets off to escape limbo to rejoin his wife in peace, as she was killed several years earlier. The story does pull at your heart strings now and again with the ties between Ronan and his wife or Joy (A teenage medium) and Ronan but these happen rarely and a bond created doesn't hold mass for long due to the voice acting. Jason Brooks as Ronan does a great job in connecting players to his story but animation in his character can fail this connection as his mouth may not move or match during cutscenes. The rest of the cast feature unknown actors in the voice acting genre and many blend in or hold no significance. The musical score of the game is brilliant and the sound effects add to this, especially around Demons adding to the horror elements. Playing as a cat and meowing is also a brilliant touch. Graphics, while looking clean, also tend to be bland and unappealing outside the living realm. This adds to the ghostly appearance of the game, much of the game's beauty is lost in the blackness or plain look of the game when it truly tries to connect with you the most. The final moments of the game hold very little weight as the game rushes you to an anti-climatic "Boss Fight" (which is nothing more than an interrogation) and ends the story on a sour, predictable and cheezy note.
Overall, there's nothing I can really say about this game to benefit it in any way. I had no glitches or KTD issues throughout gameplay and enjoyed the 12-15 hours of simplistic gameplay. But at the end of the day that's all that can be said about Murdered Soul Suspect: Simplistic. An average story with an interesting twist of fate, repetitive gameplay with few "more fun than chore" moments and forgettable characters that hold no real meaning by the end. A game for those after easy achievements or some time to kill but for now, in my detective skills, it's not worth the asking price.
Out of 10, I give Murdered Soul Suspect a 4/10
+ Interesting story telling
+ L.A. Noire, ghost style
+ Great voice acting, at times
+ Few, but good, horror elements
- Gameplay is repetitive, fast
- No real drive to explore Salem
- Ghost powers have too few useful moments
- NPCs are boring and plain
- Storyline predictable
- "Boss Fight"/ending extremely rushed
- Relies too heavily on back button
- Characters talk, no mouth/face animation or movement
- Salem free roam nearly pointless
Murdered Soul Suspect is out now for the standard price of $100
Not worth it. Wait until it drops a bit.
G'day there guys and gals!
*WARNING: Some minor story elements will be touched upon in this review, read at your own caution!*
Ubisoft is well known in the community today for it's arrange of AAA titles and high budgets as well as high class games and iconic characters. Watch Dogs is a game that has been pushed back and delayed several times, originally meant as part of the Xbox One console launch back in November of 2013. Fans have been patiently waiting, cosplayers have been making costumes in anticipation and finally, Watch Dogs was released to the world. How can I describe the game in a single word? Only one word comes to mind: Sublime.
Watch Dogs takes place in modern day Chicago, the city all connect by a program called ctOS which allows the Blume Company to record, monitor and observe the day to day life of the citizens, even down to their biometrics. But that's not all it can do; wired into the city itself, to those lucky enough, the city can become theirs to control with the entire system of hardware right under their fingertips. But with power, comes those corrupted to it, those trying to control it and others wanting to be freed of it. Enter Aiden Pearce AKA The Vigilante, a man on the run from the law and our protagonist, hell bent on discovering the truth of a single night that changed his life forever; becoming a man willing to change himself in more ways than one in order to uncover it all.
First off, let me touch upon the storyline of the game, which can be no less stressed as beautiful. With 40+ missions in the main storyline in 5 Acts to do so, the game opens up slowly to a massive build up of plot twists and turns as Aiden discovers the truth of how he became what he is. I will admit that the final level is tense and heart-pumping, the end seems a little rushed to make ends meet, with the build up by then almost gone, not to mention the first and only use of Quick Time Evens in the last hour of gameplay. However even then the game's story won't end as midway in the credits you will come to a choice. Thankfully it's not like a Deus Ex choice, as you are presented with the choice but sadly, it does not effect the outcome nor the ending, it's simply a moral choice. With main missions aside, the side missions are phenomenal and by far the best that I've experienced in any game. With things such as Criminal Convoy, Digital Trips and more, with Side Missions and activities, there is plenty to do and see, almost indefinitely as Potential Crimes continuously pop up now and again. Missions alone will set players back 20-25 hours and Side missions even more. Watch Dogs has done something that very few games have ever managed to do; keep me continuously interested in side missions, at points more interested in them.
Which brings me to gameplay. What I'm about to say may cause a lot of controversy: the game's shooting and driving mechanic is arguably better than Grand Theft Auto and the hacking is just gravy. With Focus activated, players can knock off enemies with ease but in this mode, you can truly feel the weight and difference between weapon choice, the shock paddles in the controller clear evidence of that. Driving is fluid but overall realistic-jumping over bridges is one of my small joys as you can see the physics in each vehicle differ, each bending downwards over time instead of soaring off into the air. Crafting gadgets is creative and fun to do so, but players will find themselves only using a selected amount, as many are just there to give alternative options to the four or so that the game mostly promotes during the storyline. Navigation through these menus could have been slightly better or offer more areas to cover, as weapons and gadgets will bundle up to 6-12 options in the same category and trying to find one that you need in the midst of battle is a massive pain. I suggest players use Focus to give you more time to navigate.
In a small mention, I'd also like to touch upon customisation. The game does offer a lot of different options for players to enjoy, with a mass amount of cars or clothing to try, but lacks the option for players to have any depth. Assassin's Creed offers players to dye their clothes (And capes depending on game) different colours in the least, here there is a lot of pick and tolerate in the game, personally liking the look of a jacket but hating the army cap or Fedora (Yes there is an option to wear a Fedora. Much awesome. Wow.)
That being said also, money is much too easy to obtain. Do a few Side Missions or unlock the perks in your tree and each NPC you hack can potentially give you $10'000 at a time. Not even halfway through the game I owned all the clothing options and a lot of the cars, the only ones I missed were the collectables and the highest paid that can be stolen at specific areas. Players can easily earn six figure digits within thirty minutes but other than cars (Weapons costing nothing at all if you loot dead enemies), having nothing to spend it on.
The musical score of the game is perfect; the perfect mix of tragic and meaningful, gunfights and police chases heart racing to slow tragedy of the atmosphere. However the games soundtrack is pretty bad, almost terrible if you will. Limited to four specific music groups (Alternative Rock, Dubstep, Country and Pop), players can activate this music list anywhere and anytime. While giving a vibe to what type of music Aiden likes, variety would have been preferable, or customisable. Players can find more music by hacking NPCs or unlock naturally during gameplay but they offer little else than bands that personally I haven't heard 90% of.
Graphics are also beautifully done, the scenary of day to night and the backdrop of Chicago is terrific. Characters look lifelike however hair can have its moments, especially facial hair. T-Bone (A character you meet midway through the game) beard tends to glitch through his face however has volume, whereas Damien's soul patch looks glued on his face. These aren't game breakers but just little observations that break the realism of the game at times.
Voice acting, if not all unknowns to the voice acting game, have done a brilliant job. NPCs hidden coverstaion have depth and value to even some of life's small quarrels, sometimes even comedic views on life and gamers in a whole (If you can find them, many hidden easter eggs involving Assassin's Creed and the rage quits we all do) The main cast has a terrific back and forth, Aiden's shifting between talking to his family and then his distrustful allies is clearly seen. It's hard to describe; the game's voice acting is lifelike. Conversations have few raw emotional scenes and this can seem flat at times but otherwise scenes act almost like everyday life which is something games have a hard time doing. Lastly I want to touch upon the Online aspects; online players have the opportunity to stalk you without you knowing and initiate mini games as soon as you try to play any other mission outside the free roam. This can be particularly annoying, as the mini game is forced upon you, even as you're trying to save and quit the game. You do have the option to turn off the mode completely but your stats level to 0 and no one can join without your permission and even then, stats will remain at zero.
Personally I have experienced two Kick To Dashboard issues and a lot of bugs and issues with Side Missions and these do take away the fun of the game at times but overall, you will find yourself playing more simply for the fun and ingenuity that has gone into this brilliant masterpiece. Because of these and the few issues the game presents I cannot give it a perfect score with a whole heart. Watch Dogs deserves its praise and more as a true contender for GOTY, Watch Dogs has plenty to offer players for months to come, even without DLC. With the addition of the Season Pass and the UPlay downloads, this game is just one of the few that comes from me with a high recommendation of playing.
In short, this game deserves your attention.
Out of 10, I give Watch Dogs a 9/10
+Gameplay is terrific
+Shooting/Driving is better than any other modern day game
+Hacking is fluid and vary among perks
+Musical score is perfectly matched with the mood
+NPCs/Side Missions are sublime
+Mini games such as Chess and Drinking are fun and addictive
+Graphics and Scenery are beautiful
+As an uncle, much sympathy/connection to Aiden
+Loads of customisation
-Not enough mix & match
-Navigation can be a pain
-Odd glitch/KTD here and there
Watch Dogs is out now for the standard price of $100
