Review: AoT2

When the first Wings of Freedom title was released, I was unexpectedly blown away by the level of detail, care and passion that clearly went into the title. Brilliant controls, excellent voice acting by the original cast, the game was well made and, despite a few bugs here and there, did well to hold itself up on its entertainment value.
A few years later, its sequel known as AoT2, has released to fans eager to continue the story of the popular series with a fresh new take as a customisable character of your very own. That was a massive appeal to me; inserting yourself into one of your favourite series is a utter delight for many fans and at first glance, I was smitten with the game. But despite it's appeal, gameplay and more, AoT2 seems just a bit too familiar to returning fans of the series.

Starting off with the story, you are the "Unnamed Hero"; your character is a citizen of Shiganshina just like Eren, Mikasa and Armin, and survived the breach of the walls, but at the cost of your parent's lives. By Eren's influence, you too swear revenge on the Armored Titan, the titan responsible for their deaths, and begin to train for the Scouts to kill every last titan between you and Shiganshina. From here, your character takes place in all the key moments from both seasons of the anime and plays a small role in each event in the story. While they stick to the canon of the manga, the only addition to the series is the final mission in the story as well as the cutscenes including your character.
Admittedly, I was smitten by this feature alone; any fan of any series, be it anime, movies, books or otherwise, dream of putting themselves into the story and have a small place among the heroes. The customisation options are fairly well done, giving players plenty of options to make their character. The smallest nitpick I can find is that having a chubby, purple haired, bearded Scout of your own cannot be chosen, despite the fact that some characters have facial hair in the game.
From here cutscenes are played in first person with you interacting with the main characters of the series. These in turn transition into the gameplay.
The gameplay is almost exactly the same as the previous game in the series, but with slightly updated controls. Maneuvering has been updated with further control over your character and their direction, but anyone who has played Wings of Freedom can immediately pick the game up and start without hesitation. The Titan targeting system has also been updated, but unfortunately for the worst: often the targeting likes to pick a target at random once you've locked on, and controlling your direction can be a pain. Pushing the right analog stick does target specific parts of a Titans, but it often snaps to the original targeted body part, resulting in crab-clawing both the right analog stick and the Y button to attack while keeping yourself afloat with the ODM gear. It's incredibly frustrating to continuously readjust your character in the heat of battle, especially when you're on a time limit.
Speaking of, mission types have also slightly expanded: players can now capture titans for research if they so choose and unlock better equipment to use while fighting. Missions can also have timed objectives, fail is specific parameters aren't met quick enough or if key characters die. However your main objective, kill as many titans as you can, is still the overall goal of each mission, but the additional objectives at least help span out the fun of the missions.
The heavy customisation is back and bigger than before; as mentioned before, players can customise their character's clothing and hairstyles to a large degree, but also can choose what colours and style they're aiming for. Weapons and ODM gear is also vast and varied and need to be unlocked with a monetary and crafting system and can be improved the same way with Upgrades or Reinforcements, however Upgrades still are your primary way of significantly improving your tools.
You also have the ability to upgrade yourself with specific skills that you unlock with Titan capturing or Friend upgrades. By buying gifts, talking to and selecting correct responses, each character can be leveled up and show you new skills such as more strength, dexterity, more items when dismembering titans, longer blade durability and so on. The further higher your ranking goes, special missions also unlock with that character (Christa needs a plant from outside the walls, Sasha wants to go hunting, Levi needs more to a guard etc) which in turn give you further benefits in upgrading gear.
Scout Missions have returned and allow you to open further parts of the map and improve your skills. These also give you special items needed to upgrade your gear further, however this mode is also the primary online mode that you can play with friends outside the game. 

This brings me to a significant flaw in this game that, while unavoidable, is a major flaw. AoT2, a sequel of AoT Wings of Freedom, replays the entire first game from start to finish. And when I say replays, I mean down to the bone: The maps are exactly the same, the controls are the same, the story is exactly the same, the twists and turns are the same, all the iconic lines are the same. It makes sense to do this, to be sure, with your character's introduction into the series, but it completely negates your previous game (especially considering the price is only $20 less than it was at release).
 True, the map's destructive buildings work fairly better, but when maps play out the exact same, and in turn makes owning your previous game pointless, it draws attention to your future works. Does that mean once Season 3 is released, will we replay the previous seasons again? Don't get me wrong, I adore this game, as a fan and as a gamer. The player's interactions and leveling up your favourite character's Friend Status, the cutscenes, putting you into the key moments of the series, it's incredibly uplifting to play. But these are facts that need to be shared.
The game overall is about 25-30 hours, which would be something to celebrate if the majority of time wasn't spent in Season 1. Season 2 of the anime is shorter than S1 to be sure, but even more time spent with the upcoming storyline would have been appreciated. In short: the gameplay is fantastic but it has so many little faults that they do take away the charm from the game after a while. But I digress.

Musical score and sound effects are incredibly well done; the epic orchestra has made a return, with small nods to the series and previous game here and there. The animation and graphics quality is also sublime. The animation looks as if it's a 3D rendered world of Attack on Titan, and the first person view in cutscenes does help to completely immerse you in this world. Voice acting was brilliant, with a few spots here and there that did seem a little off, but otherwise the additional scenes with your favourite character and yourself make it all the more better. Learning more about Mikasa's past, Annie's person sparring training, learning about how shy Sasha is about her accent, each one on one helps build a bond even further than the show or manga can do.
Finally, while I experienced no major glitches, small moments of the camera clipping through the floor or players busting down buildings by titans Dragon Ball Z style did somewhat take the illusion away a little bit. The ending storyline is non-canon to the series overall and does an excellent job ending the game and setting up the next one, but hardcore fans may not see a lot of replay-ability outside the main story (with Inferno Mode or the gallery information).

In my first few hours of the game, as I have said before, I was immeasurably delighted, and in some small ways, I still am. Fans of the series will rate this game incredibly high, and I wish I could as well. In a lot of ways, this game could absolutely score a 9 or even a 10 out of 10, but only if I never played the original game. The repeated maps and story, the return of the repetitive modes and gameplay, those small complaints do hold down the game from achieving a higher score.
*Spoilers for AoT2 Storyline/manga ahead*
Admittedly I hope that the game continues the story of the Unnamed Hero. His/her story is open ended and is clearly meant to lead into AoT3, so if this turns out to be, I really hope it picks up from Season 3 and continues on past into the manga. Many manga fans are awaiting for one particular arc: the Shiganshina Arc and its events. Imagine your own character, living through hell, fighting through everything and this story's ending, only to be there with the Beast Titan and Erwin at his side, charging into oblivion as an orchestral string of the OG opening plays. That is what I hope for for this series.
*Spoilers end*

To conclude, this game still holds up very well and cannot score lower than the previous game as it improves in so many ways, but the similarities that are here do keep it down from achieving so much more. An addictive and clearly beloved game to the developers, but I await to see where this series goes with caution. 

AOT 2 - 8/10

Click here to read my original review of AoT: Wings of Freedom

Review - Kingdom Come: Deliverance

It's not secret that I'm a fan of history: it was one of my major subjects in highschool and part of my diploma and has continued to be a small-time passion of mine late at night to keep my mind abuzz. Admittedly at first, I knew next to nothing about Kingdom Come: Deliverance other than it's name.

And all it took was a single trailer, late at night, while watching history video clips. I researched further, looking into gameplay, people's opinions and how the game played, and eventually bought a copy within release week.

Put simply: I am hooked. And this review will explain why.

To the people just like I was those few weeks ago or who has missed this release, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a historic piece set in 15th century Bohemia (modern Czech Republic) and follows a young blacksmith's son named Henry. Henry is your typical young man; a drunkard who gets up to mischief with his friends while swooning over a pretty young girl. But life can be complicated. A raid falls upon his home and in the struggle, his mother and father are slaughtered in front of him. Henry flees the village to safety, carrying the last sword his father made. In an attempt to bury them, the sword is stolen and Henry is left to die. When he awakes, he seeks to train and become a better swordsman than a blacksmith, with a single goal: to take back the sword and complete his father's promise to his Lord.

Truthfully speaking, the beginning plot does sound very similar to veterans, but what I love about this story and this game is that you can choose what paths Henry takes. This isn't like a Telltale game or Until Dawn, but something much more: Do you want your Henry to wield a club, thieving off dead bodies while drinking and sleeping with every bathmaid in every village? You can do that! What about a Henry that stays away from ale, is a good Christian and likes reading books? Find your favourite bench and have a break!

Without giving away much of the story as I already have, there are small mechanics in the game that can determine if you fail or succeed and sometimes failure or succeeding is decided on what you say or do! But we'll come back to that later.

The story, in the beginning, is your cut and dried revenge story, but past the first hour or two, the game truly picks up and sets you in this massive, incredibly big world for you to explore. However, be warned! This isn't your classic RPG.

Gameplay, if boiled down to its bones, is a mixture of Elder Scrolls meets For Honor with a decent twist of Dark Souls and beyond. Players are given tutorials, to be fair, but in no way, shape or form is this game easy. Sword play has you remember different patterns and attacks, while defending is challenging and needs pin point timing to not reduce your stamina. Bows and arrows don't have on screen reticle and act like you're actually shooting the arrow yourself and needs to be aimed as such. 

This doesn't even begin to mention the other smaller things that are required to play the game. Roleplaying is taken to the next level! Take too many hits to the chest, your chest is sore. Hit by an arrow in your unprotected hand? Your hand is bleeding and you need to patch it. Chose to drink? You're drunk and can barely stand. Each action has a concequence!
A normal blacksmith wouldn't be able to read in the 15th century. You have to travel to a far off village and see a scribe to teach you. An illness is plaguing a village! You need to travel to this place to study illnesses and diagnose what's wrong so you can make the appropriate antidote. You don't know how to make potions? Well it's in God's hands so let's hope you diagnosed correctly.
The leveling up system is tailored to how you play, and put simply, the more you do something, the higher level you become. If you attempt conversation techniques more and more, succeed or fail will grant you higher levels. The more you swing your sword, the more your vitality grows, the more hits you take, the more defense you learn. But be warned! That tasty bread that's at 40% quality? Well you've got food poisoning now. Forgot to sleep at night? You're ready to pass out! Kept a sword bloody too long? It'll deteriorate faster if left alone, fix it soon! This doesn't even begin to cover the massive amount of customisation at your fingertips; weapons and clothing take center stage, and I truly wish hairstyle and the like were too, but what's there will leave many players satisfied. Remember to shop at different towns to find what you want!
The world can be naked at times, true, but the encounters you'll have travelling on the road, the missions you'll be asked, each one improving your running, or making you stronger.

The graphics are very well done, especially in cutscenes, but can be off in the hubworld. Character's eyes, clothing and body parts clip through clothing and their own bodies at time (especially Henry when changing clothes) and the ground can look very pixelated at times, but otherwise the scenery is beautiful. The musical score is also incredibly appropriate at times, and the sound effects, but I wish there were more of both. Music comes and goes, sound effects can disappear if travelling too fast (mostly elemental like rain, wind in trees etc), but what's there is great.

Voice acting is quite good as well; the main cast shows incredible promise in the field, especially Henry himself. The cast features small role video game actors or actors directly from TV, which is surprising. The releationship between Henry (Tom McKay) and Theresa (Victoria Hogan) is incredible, and I really wish there was more of it! There's also the small issue of Sir Divish, an old man, sounding like a 30 year old, but that's no fault of the voice actor. There are a few NPCs that sound stilted or forced at times, but due to their few lines, it's only slightly jarring.

Finally, I must address the bugs and glitches this game does have, and which has been often the topic at hand. As mentioned before, clothing, body parts and the like will frequently show under clothing. The world tends to only fully load in close proximity to the player, but this isn't incredibly noticeable until you enter towns: buildings look flat and bland and take a few seconds to load at times, while NPCs may T pose before going about their business. Loading screens can glitch out the upcoming cutscene resulting in reloading an old save, your incredibly rare saves may do so before you lose a mission, and so on. I have experienced one or two game freezes, but only in loading screens, which caused much dismay. Large combat moments with many NPCs can also cause camera bugs and insta-deaths, resulting in old save loads.

At this time, I must also mention Savior Schnapps; these items are the tools you'll need in order to save your game. So unless you can make a massive supply (buy the ingredients and use Alchemy), you're looking at a lot of money lost buying them, which money is hard to come by so often. So you're left to use them sparingly and rely on the manual saves after sleeping or gameplay moments, but this will leave you disheartened if any of the events mentioned above happens and reloading a save from an hour ago. They are being addressed by the game having exit saves, but perhaps making the price for their materials cheaper, or the Schnapps cheaper themselves, may resolve this issue. But I digress.

The reason I'm writing this review now is because I cannot express how much I adore and love this game. It has been quite some time since I last played a game up until the early hours of the morning by accident. And this game is hard; you're going to die a lot before you find a technique that works for you. But what keeps me going is that this game is fun to play, addictive to beat your enemies that have held you back for hours, and more. This doesn't mention the realism this game has: the Codex has historic facts about Czech history, the people, the culture, how they lived, who ruled and so on. It's a history nerd's dream.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance could be a clear and easy 10/10, if it wasn't as buggy as it is. Even the developers have admitted it needed more time, and they are addressing these issues, but even at the state I'm reviewing it, if you're a fan of medieval culture, combat and roleplaying, this game is a must for you. Until the time comes that these glitches are addressed, I however have to review it in its current state, and that does drop it a tad. 

But Kingdom Come: Deliverance is definitely already a contender for Game of the Year, and my personal recommendation to every RPG fan. 

Play this game, my Lord, and you will fall in love with it too.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance - 9/10