Review: Naruto Shippuden UNS Revolution

G'day guys and gals!

It's no secret that I'm a massive anime lover and have been since my father introduced me to Astro Boy all those years ago, and of course, I've come to love the many classics over the years - Naruto being one of them. While in the past Naruto games have been genius and downright addictive, even as a fan, Revolution is unappealing, dull, repetitive and downright boring. 
The last game in the UNS series (UNS 3) was a continuation of the manga and anime, picking up from the second game in the trilogy. The ending itself is an absolute trainwreck and completely deters from the original storyline (as the manga is only slightly rapping up now a year later) but Revolution, even if a small play on words from a line in a recent manga chapter, features nothing at all to do with Revolutions. The entire of the game boils down to four modes: Tournament, Free Battle, Online Battle and Cinematic storyline and all of which are short and mostly lackluster.

Tournament is just how it sounds, with players picking their character of choice to fight in ranked matches from D to S+ and beyond. After the initial preliminary round, players must gather new characters or choose from pregained characters and continue in the tournament. This all takes place on an undisclosed area of an island, simply known as Tournament Island, with all the characters in the series standing around in various spots on the island; from every Uchiha to every Kage, dead or alive and some rarely seen in the anime or manga, all are welcome to the island to take place in the fighting. How are the dead ones there? Developers don't explain it in the slightest.
Players of the previous games will immediately fall back into the game as the controls, nor feel nor fighting style has changed. Only with the addition of brand new characters never used in the game and the new "guard break" and "counterattack" moves which can stop defensive and offensive characters in their tracks (but the game fails to explain this in the tutorials which will constantly pop up), the game does allow some fun in battling your favourite characters to get them on your side in the tournament. Playing in your own squad or the classics, players must fight without health loss to collect Orbs; pretty standard that the character with the highest amount of Orbs, wins. The higher the ranking does change the significance of the difficulty, even if AI characters can be duped and overcome easily. This is exploited even more so with the introduction of "rails", which focuses a special attack on a single or multiple characters. With that and Awakening/Ultimate Attack Orbs, traps and extra characters focusing on attacking the players, the gameplay gets more tricky to win even when online players also begin joining the mix. 
And while the island itself does feature freeroam (The first game of which to do so in the last several alterations) the tournament will become incredibly dull and repetitive after defeating the D ranking. The same cutscene camera pans(the only thing changing being the arena), the same dialogue, the same speeches, the same characters speculating, each time you being a tournament will take roughly 20 minutes (If you stick with the same character and minus travel time) even with the 3 minute cutscenes, back to menus and single minute Orb hunts. And at the end of each Tournament, you pick your prize; A new character, a new customising option or cash, and "Fin" graces your screen, leaving you to retrace your steps and begin the process again. Customisation is brand new and fun, but limits to three options on your character, a new Ultimate Attack screen and substitution jutsu object. Do you want to be decked out in Nine Tails gear as Naruto from head to toe? Nope! Can't do it. Voice acting is as standard as ever but nothing stands out outside the cutscenes and even then the majority of the game is nothing but text and pressing A. The musical score and sound effects are just as standard as ever and mostly reused and tend to repeat after 30 seconds. 

Oddly enough the two episode side story of Mecha-Naruto takes LONGER than completing half the tournament itself! With a proper, although cringe-worthy and stereotypical, storyline, players return to the Hidden Leaf with a new friend in toe, whose past and jealousy will come back to haunt him. I will admit, this mode is the only to feature a gameplay boss of sorts and keeps the story interesting and concludes decently. However, what's really shameful about this is that the Hidden Leaf is the exact same model from the last two games, with the exact same layout of the village. No new areas, no freeroam like on the Island or previous games, the only new addition is the Lottery Booth, where players can get the same still-shot cards and mottos, new characters, the same musical soundtracks as before or brand new customisation for your character. The story itself is the classic, stereotypical Naruto subplot fans will know from the fillers and movies: "'You can overcome anything with friendship!' Sob story, sob story, group laughing at Naruto's immaturity, the end."
For fans, the Cinematic Storyline is where the game shines: players see mostly brand new cutscenes and never before heard conversations. Although one of these storylines features no gameplay and just an 8 minute straight cutscene (You get an achievement for it though!), the gameplay ties it in with the extra storyline. 

Regardless of where the game shines, there is still no excuse for how much this game lacks in some of the most important areas of a game. It repeats and reuses so much from the previous games that its downright boring. The gameplay is still enjoyable, the free roam of the island is great and customisation is vast, but this is no excuse for the repetitiveness and reusing content and character skins from a 4 year old game. Fans looking to fight their friends with their favourite team will find no fault, but for those looking for a continuing storyline or even a way to kill more than 20 minutes of content will find themselves wanting more. To those who bought Day One, you'll get a few bonus skins and even an unreleased DVD, but still I believe it is definitely not worth it. 

Even as a Naruto fan, this game is a huge disappointment and no way near worth the current asking price. Wait for a price drop and even then consider renting it or loaning it from a friend. Personally, I'll be sticking to the manga and anime from here on out. Revolution? More like desolation.

Out of 10, I give Naruto Shippuden UNS Revolution a 3/10.

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution is out now for the standard price of $90.
Seriously, wait for the bargain bin. If you need me, I'll be playing The Broken Bond.

Review: Destiny

Review: Metro Redux

G'day there guys and gals!

*Please note: This review will be based on my DLC format (A+ to F) as Redux is a recreation of the games, 2033 and Last Light with few extras. This review will not compromise the points of the original review and will act as a Next Gen port review.*

As many people know, I've been a massive Metro fan since I discovered the game on a friend's advice. Since then I've bought the books, I've played and purchased the games many times over and even written fanfiction (The Metro Tales) and had commission work done for my own OC. When Redux was first announced, I was overjoyed and I still am. After playing the game over and over, I an now say with confidence that Metro 2033 Redux is a true recreation of the original, while Last Light Redux is mostly a port.

Metro 2033 Redux looks, sounds and especially plays beautifully; it took what made the original game so prosperous and enhanced that with LL gameplay type and the bonus of more weaponry. One of the biggest changes noticeably is the addition of keys and safes: finding a red key creates a frantic search to find the safe it goes to. However despite the brilliance of these, they're usually in the same room or slightly out of sight which makes the search usually down to a few seconds. Another picky annoyance is the load times. From start to finish, most load times take 30+ seconds - while this doesn't sound too bad, most Next Gen games take only a few seconds. Perhaps that's me being picky but even so it's indeed slow, even by older gen standards.
Regardless, Metro 2033 Redux makes up for this for the gameplay size. 4-5 chapters are now one continuous chapter, area leveling is almost non-existent and the added gameplay is terrific. There is a teeny tiny bit of screen tearing, especially with cutscene arms but they're very quick to catch and with the addition of new cutscenes and dialogue, it an be forgiven (I do want to mention that they removed Artyom's only spoken word out of narration from the game - ;^;). As for gameplay itself, even on Spartan or Survival mode, the game is extremely too easy. Finding a safe is a goldmine, but each level has a few in it, making military bullets and ammunition much too easy to find. I definitely recommend Ranger Mode or higher for veterans while Normal will do just fine for newbies. I definitely recommend sticking with a Revolver throughout your gameplay experience as oddly it does mass amount of damage, while pneumatic weapons are weaker. Lastly, I experienced eight KTD moments surrounding the War chapter. I have no idea what caused them but they were particularly annoying. If you experience any of your own, restart the entire mission; loading to checkpoint will only make the issue worse.

Achievements are now at 2000, which is great for Hunters; while some have been removed, more have been added. This brings me to Metro Last Light Redux. While having a polish up, not much has been done to the more recent game; extra weapons have been added as well as the extra modes no longer being a DLC. Character models from the game have been touched up greatly (and also feature the same in 2033) and the game looks clean and crisp. Safes are much more rarer in this game but the same principle goes: find a key, turn around and there's the safe it goes to. The extra DLC is also included with a few of its own: The Tower, Developer's Level and The Spider Lair.
The Tower sees you sit in a simulation chair and battle waves of enemies. Yes, you read that right - Horde, Metro style. The mode is fun and offers players to build traps with in game bullets you get with kills (more bullets rewarded the fancier your kill) and traps. Dying reverts you to the last checkpoint (usually when you're outside or in the training area of the simulation) but otherwise is interrupt-able.
Developer's Level is a throwback to all the work done in the game: plays travel to this clean cut metro hall with an elderly woman janitor (She's creepy, trust me), featuring museum halls, a fight simulator where you or the AI battle and a weapons testing room. Looking over models allows you to see the fine work of each one while also seeing them in motion at your leisure. The arena allows you to pit creatures against each other or yourself in challenges if you see fit. The weapons testing room is self explanitory, which each weapon and customisation option at your fingertips. You can choose dummies or undying enemies and pick challenges if you please.
The Spider's Lair is the true extra DLC; Three men searching for D6 are lost in giant catacombs filled with the mutant spiders. Armed only with your lighter, you must fight to find your friends, weapons and by any means get out of the area alive. I felt true, honest fear in this DLC as supplies and weapons run out with barely any others in sight. Players will be overwhelmed at one point or another I assure you.

There is nothing I can say about this game that hasn't already been said. Metro 2033 is a true horror game, now with more realistic mutants such as Librarians and Demons, there are definitely moments of fear. While Last Light still remains with lesser fear moments, the gameplay is still as brilliant as ever. With the DLC free of charge, the extra cutscenes and most definitely the first game with 2000 gamerscore, there is something to appeal to every gamer in Metro Redux. For its asking price, and its lesser so one on PC if you've already purchased the originals, Redux deserves a place in your collection.

Metro Redux: B+

Metro Redux is out now for $50 or $25 on PC for previously owning the games.

Destiny Ghost Edition Unboxing!