Review: Dishonored -Death of the Outsider-

Dishonored has been a series that I have loved since the beginning. The setting and tone mesmerised me, with a dark setting to undetone such a in depth game. My history with reviewing the series has been just as dark; the Definitive Edition, DLCs and the like all scoring low. I specifically didn't review Dishonored 2 for this, and other, reasons. To make up for this, I thought it best to try Death of the Outsider, to see if Arkane and Bethesda could muster a standalone DLC.

The storyline is fairly basic; playing as Meagan Foster (AKA Billie Lurk), you return to Karnaca some months after the events of Dishonored 2. Setting out into the city, she hopes to find her old friend Daud, former Assassin and trainee to Billie (the protagonist to D1's DLC) in order to see him one final time. It's here that Daud gives Billie one final job: kill the Outsider. 
To be frank, while the story does feature heavily on obtaining the necessary components to hunt down the Outsider, the story itself falls somewhat flat. Billie up and runs at the idea, despite saying otherwise in cutscenes, despite not having anything truly against him, yet continues to hunt down all things necessary to enter the void. You must uncover the ancient knife that slit his throat, enter the void at the place of his ritual and find him there, taking place across the city and beyond. Some of the levels are rehashed and rebranded (With sections cut off to avoid level overload) while others are introduced with new gangs and characters in the mix. A special mention to the level design, as the newer levels felt organic and fitted well with the series. 

Sound effects were fairly well done and add a lot of unique sounds (particularly to Billie's new set of abilities - more on that later) and with the musical score, set the tone of the game. Overall it does almost seem like a "New Sunrise" sort of moment, but it is effective nonetheless.
Voice acting was definitely the high part of this game, with each original voice actor for their role returning. Some parts were a little off, with dying characters having no effect in their voices, but otherwise did not detract from the game. 
Lastly, graphics was well set off and added a lot of vibrancy to the game, something we haven't seen in the series for a while. Lots of reds and greens helped the game along in ways I haven't seen take place before. Backdrops were downright beautiful.
Gameplay is fairly typical and taken directly from Dishonored 2, but what gave the game its own voice was Billies abilities: Billie is given a new eye and arm that are directly connected to the Void. While she isn't branded with the Void abilities, her arm and eye give her new abilities. Displace allows her to place a shadowy figured at any place and teleport to it as long as its in sight (Blink but slower). Foresight stops time and allows Billie to see all around her and mark specific people or objects in the world. Semblance (by far the best new addition) allows Billie to look and sound like any unconscious person she attaches a mask to. New weaponry is also available, such as Voltanic Gun, Hook Mine and so on. 

So, what does this all mean overall? To be fully honest, even hours after finishing the game and putting my notes to written form, I'm still unsure how best to put the game. I purposefully stealthed the game because, as previous experience tells, standalone releases of branded games are generally short. Stealthing gave me little over 4 hours of gameplay. If I did a high chaos run, it would be less, and admittedly, there's no point. While Dishonored 2 had Emily and Corvo to have a runthrough of both, here all it takes is one quick save, reload and sit through it all again to unlock both achievements. The replayability is next to nil, even for people addicted to the lore, as there is very little. Your decisions in Dishonored 2 aren't directly mentioned, your actions in Karnaca are completely avoided, and regardless of choice in the end, nothing truly changes. Three difference stills, a bit of dialogue and the game is over.
I had my issues with Dishonored's DLC, but its setting, pacing and tone perfectly matched what was going on in the game. It didn't reuse maps, it didn't release on its own, and they released at a quarter of the price with at least a few more hours of gameplay length. With Death of the Outsider, there's not much keeping me here, unless the die-hard achievement grinders wish to bump their score.

And I guess that's what's holding me back; this game is techincally good, but it lacks in a lot of areas. It shines in the voice acting, it shines in level design and graphics, but the story, the pacing, even the price itself, hold it down. It holds so much more potential, but I only wish it was a little longer, for stealth and hostile players alike.
Perhaps wait for a price drop, or a collection bundle of the entire series.

Death of the Outsider - 6/10

Review: Destiny 2

As I look down onto my Ghost sitting on my desk, I'm reminded of three years ago, with the original release of Destiny; made by the now infamous Bungie, Destiny had been in development since Halo 3: ODST days, and a new IP from the creators of Halo took the world by storm. I was one of these people. I played the Beta, I preordered the Ghost Edition (long live Dinklebot), I stood in line for six hours for the midlight release.
And admittedly, I enjoyed the game. I wasted plenty of hours slogging through the Raids, Strikes and repetitive gameplay to get that sweet, sweet, RNG loot. By the time the DLC came around, I was Destiny-ied out and barely played them, skipping the last all together.

Destiny 2 has been excitedly waited for for some time now, with many younger fans eager to try out the new addition to the series. In truth, I was less excited this time around, but I was curious to see what three years of perfecting Destiny had done to the series.
Now here I sit, writing this review and I've barely mentioned the game. How would you feel if I ended this review now? If over such a long stretch of time I set up this written piece, simply to end it without answering the lingering questions from before and now?
This is what Destiny 2 is.

First and foremost, the biggest positive about the game: the gameplay. Just like the update to the original Destiny, the game plays exactly the same way, right down to controls. Newcomers to FPS may struggle, but any person who has played any other will only falter for the first thirty minutes, as the introduction mission does take about an hour to complete and well establishes itself in what you need to do in order to survive.
To give credit where its due, throughout the game you will be given sections (albeit brief) where the gameplay will rely on your driving skills, navigation, parkour skills, etc. These do help tie together the run and gun gameplay style of the game and help pad the time for otherwise shorter missions.
Musical score is great, but also a little lacking. During the fall of the Tower, and the impending parts later on in the story, we hear a flourish that reminds me a lot of the aforementioned  Halo 3: ODST, and personally speaking, I loved this score. It was beautiful, heart-wrenching and added a lot of character and depth to the story overall. But it lacked that spark that the original Destiny was able to capture: So much of the fighting had these flourishing scores that sparked inspiration. Destiny 2 captures that desperation of the cause well, but fails to deliver the opposite.
Lastly I have to mention the last overly positive aspect, that being graphics. Cutscenes look undeniably beautiful and are much too short for my personal liking. In-game scenes look fairly well, with colours improved somewhat, but that is where the line is drawn. Textures in many parts of the map (especially Io and Jupiter) are clearly unrendered and have been missed, especially tree limbs. Lighting has taken a step back, and black areas without torchlight-via-Ghost are more present than before, leaving players to stumble around black areas with a faded blue screen covering their work. 
Other than this, there hasn't been much improvement that I can notice beyond what we've seen since The Taken King DLC.

This brings me to the nagging bits that have remained behind with me after completion and starting off, I want to mention the Storyline. Before I say anything else I will say this first; the story here is exceedingly better than Destiny 1.0's original story, by far. BUT that does not give it a free pass.
In short, the story of Destiny 2 follows your previous Guardian (if you played any) and starts by showing your actions (the original game and the DLC). As sudden as it begins, the Tower falls, the City and the Traveler follows and you, not cut off from your Light are thrown from a ship and left to die.
Struggling, you escape the city to a zone outside the City's limits and are saved by what little humanity remains outside the borders. From here, you set off to the Traveler's Shard: a piece of the Traveler lost centuries ago in this zone and hope to rekindle your Light to become the beacon you were once more.
The game does well to explain why you must restart your progress all over again and does so easily. While being with the other players does detract from this, the game sets up well that you are truly the only one with the Light left. But therein lies the issue; because the focus is purely on their current predicament, nothing from the previous game is seen, and barely mentioned.
Destiny's 1.0 story and the hidden mystery of The Stranger? Not mentioned.
Mara Sov, The Awoken, and The Reef? Nothing.
The Iron Lords? Nothing.
Eris Morn's set up at the end of the Taken King? Absolutely no payoff.
The House of Wolves and Eris are mentioned a fair amount in the game to be fair, but absolutely nothing comes out of them other than name drops or what appears to be inspirational dialogue for the player. There are a mass amount of extra side missions for you to complete on each world, but these are simply optional. I definitely recommend them as some of them can be more interesting than the main story.
I also have to quickly mention that anyone hoping for more planets will be a little disappointed. Players can travel around Earth in the EDZ, Titan, Io (A new planet made by the Traveler eons ago) and Nessus. The maps on each are massive and with plenty of hidey holes to explore, but it is a clear drop of places to visit in the long run. No returning to The Reef, no returning to the Cosmodrome, or any other of the previously available locations. Everything is brand new.

This is where the issues of the story comes into it. Our entire focus all throughout the game is to free the Traveler, stop the destruction of our sun and kill the Cabal Red Legion Leader, Dominus Ghaul.
Ghaul, like the Red Legion, are set up as these ultra-baddies, the toughest of the tough, a group of Cabal that have never known defeat. But that's where the issue is: we are TOLD they've never known defeat. Yet past the initial loss of the Traveler, they're defeated over and over again by our protagonist, and Ghaul (The final boss fight of the storyline) is by far the easiest boss fight in the game. The Vex AND the Taken (Which both make a return) were much harder than the final boss fight of the entire game!
We are TOLD Ghaul has never known defeat, we are TOLD he's a badarse Cabal who has destroyed worlds, but we are never SHOWN. We see a cracked Mercury being mined for resources, we see his plans to destroy the sun, but otherwise nothing is shown. Why not show him undermine us? Kill our base? Destroy Mars or any of the other planets?
And throughout the game we only see him in cutscenes. We never talk face to face, he doesn't reach out and communicate with you, he never reacts to discover you're still alive, he simply says "I won't let you escape again", despite the fact he let us go. 
*Spoilers for the ending*
And by the time you fight him, you're given a chance at unlimited Light to use your abilities against him. I understand why they're there for him, but why not let us take away his Light from him?
And even after you kill him, he emerges as a giant, Light driven being, proclaiming himself a god, before being killed by the Traveler.
We don't release the Traveler from its cage, we don't affect the electronics around it, we're just told "The Light always finds a way" for an excuse. Imagine if we could have fought him in this massive form. Sure it would be similar to The Taken King Raid, but this would have been forgivable if he was shown as invincible. Imagine Halo Reach Epilogue-like ending: Ghaul is attacking you in this form, massive waves of Cabal are flooding out attacking you, you have no possible way to survive but you fight on, desperately trying to stay alive to free the Traveler. Your Ghost realises there's a way, but we won't like it. He sacrifices himself to free the Traveler and in turn he kills Ghaul.
The Traveler's free, the Cabal retreat, and the Light returns to the galaxy, to everyone and everything but you. But a single call from your Ghost reaches you and you set off from the City to find your Ghost.
Bam. Game over, perfect set up for Destiny 3 or DLC.
But no, we get an all-is-well, the City rebuilt, not a single casualty (despite the cast complaining of it the entire game through) and one small hint at ships in dark space.
*end of spoilers*

The voice acting is fine, the main cast help hold up the game fairly well (including everyone's favourite Fillion, Nathan), and help break the monogamy against the backdrop. The Guardian's few voice lines from before have been completely dropped for mutage, which honestly I'm not too big a fan of, but whatever helps in development. 
Customisation is back in force, but if you're familiar with the previous game, than Destiny 2 shouldn't be too hard. I quickly ran into duplicates on weaponry and clothing (even on names - if I get Project Snow one more time...) which was a shame. Players can also choose the colours for their own pieces of clothing, but they only last so long and are a usage type of thing. Run out of your favourite colour scheme and you're donezo. This isn't even mentioning the smaller issues such as Sparrows and ships customisation not unlocking until you've finished the game, Strikes and Patrols not unlocking until the end as well (I still haven't found how to unlock Raids, although Nightfall makes a return so fingers crossed).
Lastly, I want to mention the microtransations. I've always been a firm believer in never mentioning them as an issue in the games I review as they are optional and totally by choice, but because Destiny has such a massive youth following, I'm putting this here as a warning to parents.
To buy Engrams in the game, you need a currency known as Silver. So far in my travels and my research, it is unavailable to find anywhere outside purchasing some from the in-game screens. Considering that Destiny 2's largest Silver purchase is a third of the cost of the game more than other FPS microtransations (in this case, Overwatch) and offers less chance and no duplicate refund back, is a concern. Parents, I do advise you to watch out in case your children ask for this.

At the end of my ranting, I haven't mentioned the Crucible or any bugs, so I'll have to sum it up here in short: it's your classic FPS. King of the Hill, Team Deathmatch and so on in new maps. Bugs were present in the game, but to their credit, a lot less than I expected with a new release. Some NPCs did glitch in the floor, enemies sometimes transported randomly and killed me (even in the singleplayer moments), but nothing gamebreaking so far. 
What else can I say about Destiny 2 at this point? Honestly, I'm simply just...disappointed. My excitement from Destiny 1 got the better of me, but this time around I went in with low expectations and still ended up disappointed. Other than the few new enemies in game, it's the same mobs, with the same tactics, with the same bosses, with the same weaknesses, with none of the lore that attracted me to the series in the first place. The Darkness wasn't even mentioned this time around as far as I could find. 

In my mind, Destiny 2 is held up by its solid gameplay, voice acting and mechanics, but so much of it lets me down in a way that unless Destiny 3, or its DLC, truly brings about massive change to the series and how its told other than "Here's a mob of enemies, kill them to advance the story", I think I'm done with this series. I don't want to be so harsh against this game, I truly don't. I highly respect Bungie and their team for creating a world that managed to entice me, and my history with gaming is tied closely to theirs, but if I don't voice my disappointments, how can I call myself a reviewer?

A lot of bang, but not enough to stave off the ebbing of disenchantment.

Destiny 2: 5/10

Beta Notes: Call of Duty WW2

G'day there guys and gals!
The following is my recollected notes on the latest Call of Duty beta! Admittedly they aren't as wide based as previous Beta Notes have been, but otherwise if you missed out on the chance to play it, this may give you an idea!
See you in November for the game's full release! Keep an eye out for the review!

• Appears to be set after DDay for the MP. Beach established and signs welcoming recruits
• FIVE classes:Infantry, Airborne, Armored, Mountain, Expeditionary. Each has their own weapon class, skill and training.
•  Decent Customisation: Set faces to choose from both male and female (POC included), Card, emblems and clan tags make a reappearance (Although only set choices). Hopefully more in full release.
• Killstreaks renamed Scorestreaks: So far only 8 have appeared in the Beta:Molotov Cocktails, Recon Aircraft, Care Package, Mortar Strike, Glide Bomb, Fighter Pilot, Artillery Barrage, Paratroopers (To replace dogs I assume)
• Divisions can be reselected and chosen at will, but weaponry must be unlocked with Tokens earned by levelling up
• Weapon Attachments unlocked the more you use the weapon.
• “Basic Training” includes 12 options available to unlock, which act as your perks: collecting ammunition, have two primary weapons, reload faster while sprinting etc
• Top 3 players can emote whole being shown off
• End-game killcam highlights best kill of round, not the final one, of either team.

Beta Playlist

•      Modes are as follows: Team Deathmatch – 8 to 12 players, 10 minutes limit to 100 Points

Domination – 8 to 12 players, unlimited time limit to 200 points
Hardpoint – 8 to 12 players, 5 minute time limit to 250 points
Most Pit – 6 to 12 players, 10 minute time limit to 100 points
War – 10 to 12 players, time and score unlimitedNew addition of War: “A Furious Allied vs Axis battle across the war-torn village of St.Lo, France.” All out onslaught against enemies.

Beta Experience

•      End-game killcams seem to lag and glitch during playback
•      Player running feels halted and sluggish, until a few seconds in and they run incredibly fast.
•      Lag in beta rating: Often. Appears to happen midway during matches while skipping killcams.
•     Having the ability to be near enemy spawn – randomise player spawn across map or not have players spawn together in groups outside initial spawn
•     Cannot fire weapons while in LT zoom animation: Bad luck for quick scopers
•     Maps are evenly distributed: elongated areas for sniping, close quarter areas for fighting.
•     Machine gun turrets appear often on maps at fixed positions.
•     Near-instant respawn times can wrack up high K/Ds and killstreaks.
•     Sub Machine/rifles have fairly accurate recoil on firing.
•     Graphics and setting change from bleak and dreary to bright and colour settings. Fighting takes place at various locations on the western front of the war.
•     Player Divisions act as Classes; pick a faction and your weaponry for it.
•     Beta Weapons were limited to 3-4 for each section. More to come likely.