Recent reviews by D0ugyT

The first video game I played was GTA3, all the way back in 2001, on the PS2. I didn't enjoy it very much (and still don't enjoy GTA-style games in general). The second game I ever played was much better - Age of Empires 2, on the PC. Why do I bring this up? Because it's important to note that I started playing video games well beyond the era of the text-based adventures and RPG's of the 80's. Which is important to note because Monster Loves You! is essentially a text-based adventure game, albiet one that doesn't require typing and has a graphical interface.

It's definitely a solid game, with a clearly defined goal that you're working towards, and it's probably the right length for a modern text-based adventure. The graphical interface is cutesy enough, and is very effective in capturing the player's interest. The game also successfully incorporates some clever RPG-like stat-building, with a series of stats that can be raised or lowered depending on the conversation options the player chooses. All these elements combine into a lighter game that will be enjoyed more by casual gamers than those that play more seriously.

Which is why I can't recommend this game; most people on Steam simply won't enjoy it for long enough to get their money's worth. While I enjoyed it, that was only for 51 minutes; I have no desire to play through the game again. That's not the fault of the game, moreso the fault of the genre. Gamers have simply moved on from the days of the text-based adventure, and now prefer their RPG stats to be accomponied by a 3-dimensional world that they experience through the eyes of a character they make. If you enjoy text-based adventures or more casual games, than this is a game that you'll get multiple hours of enjoyment from. Otherwise, the stat-building and graphical depiction of the story simply won't be enough to keep you captivated beyond the first playthrough.

The 80's was a trippy time - drug use was commonplace, evreything was rainbow-coloured, and lazers were an essential component of one's daily diet. Blood Dragon is very much a game from that era, made for today's audience. It's a window into the 80's culture, and what a fantastic time those people lived in.

The best way to describe this game is: Sgt. Rex Power Colt (yep) is on acid and thinks he's a Cyborg super-soldier. He runs around an island, shooting robotic soldiers and savig the world from an evil guy who wants to blow up the world. You've seen it all before - it's every 80's action movie rolled into one. It's so cliche that it makes red roses and heart-shaped chocolates on Valentine's Day look like a fresh idea. But that's where the beauty in this game lies - it embraces the cliche. Sgt. Rex Power Colt (yes, I will type that out in full every time) spits out awful one-liners every couple of minutes. And yes, there is the essential "damsel in distress" - her name's Dr. Darling. And yes, her and Sgt. Rex Power Colt do have sex.

The tihing that makes this game truly awesome, though, is that it is very much a Far Cry game. There is an open-world to explore, there are wild animals to kill (including Blood Dragons; essentially big dinosaurs that shoot lazers, because lazers), you can ambush enemies patrolling the wild, and there are multiple ways to approach each objective. So therefore, because Blood Dragon simply builds on the winning formula of Far Cry 3, the only fault one could really find witht the game is that it's too short, or perhaps too easy due to it's over-the-top ridiculousness (remember, you're a Cyborg super-soldier). If Ubisoft Montreal could have some more spare time, it would be wonderful if they could push out some more of these - something with swords and castles really should be on the cards next, in my opinion. Because if the next Far Cry 3 mod can make fun of fantasy films like Blood Dragon makes fun of 80's action films, I don't think I'll ever need to play another video game again.

Half-Life 2, and its episodic sequels, are examples of the pinnacle of story-driven gaming. Sure, they're all incredibly linear games, but they're so perfectly linear and captivating, almost to the point of perfection. Their stories flow from scene to scene, taking the player on a wild ride that, just like a good book, they just can't put down.

Estranged is not Half-Life 2.

It uses the same design principles, is builty on the same engine, and apart from the story could even be described as the same game. However, the story of Estranged fails to capture its audience and get them interested from the start, by using the cliche of "guy becomes shipwrecked on a mysterious island". It also moves quite slowly, with the only real action emerging in the last third of its 120-odd minutes of gameplay. Just as in Half-Life 2, the gameplay is lacklustre, so the story must pick up the slack and keep the audience interested, which it fails to do.

That said, there are some interesting sequences which may yet save this game. Creeping through a warehouse expecting to find zombies (yes, there are zombies) was tense, and the ability to view the desktops of some virtual computers give some hints as to what the story is about. All that, and taking into account that this is only Act 1 with more to follow, tip the scales slightly in favour of me recommending it. Also, it's free, which is good because you wouldn't want to pay money for this. So for now, I'll give Estranged the benefit of the doubt, but if Act 2 fails to capture my interest then I will probably give up on the series entirely.

Fez's are cool. This does not make Fez cool, however. Fez is a platform adventure game, the main puzzle-solving mechanic being that you can rotate your perspective along the x-axis. The world may appear to be 2D to the characters, however your avatar discovers that the world is in fact 3D, like a cube. You then go on a quest to recover a series of golden cubes that make up a larger, magical cube, that shattered somehow when you first encountered it and holds the fabric of reality together. Or something.

The main mechanic of the game is interesting and innovative, and Fez does experiment and evolve it further as the game progresses, however the game fails to capture an audience. The story is lacklustre, and the characters are all blank slates devoid of anything that could make them unique (they're even coloured white, just to reinforce this). The game lacks any sort of personality; there aren't even any NPC's in the world beyond the starting area, save this raindow-coloured cube that acts as the game's hint system and exposition device (and lacks any sort of personality either). Not even in the player's avatar could you find any personality - the only thing that sets it apart is this magical fez that somehow grants him the power to turn in the 3rd dimension. There aren't even any monsters to battle; the closest the game appears to come to introducing any sort of opposition is through these "black holes", which are simply static "touch them and you die" pieces of the background.

After watching the documentary Indie Game: the Movie, which tells the story of Fez's creator, I was very excited to play this game. However, I was not expecting to be given a demo of a mechanic, which is basically what this game is. Even failure, resulting in death, is handled poorly - you simply respawn at the location that you jumped from, as if the game is apologising for being too difficult for you. The ability to rotate along the x-axis is this game's only saving grace, as there is room for someone else to take it and utilize it more effectively. It's just that the rest of the game was only built to highlight it, not to support it and keep people interested.

Mark of the Ninja is a curious game. By all rights, a non-linear, replayable, 2D platformer shouldn't even exist, but here we have a perfect demonstration of how to make one. You can almost compare the amount of choice available to the player to that which is presented in Dishonored - do I kill this foe? Can I get past this section without being seen? Are there alternate paths to my objective? Head-on combat is very difficult in Mark as well, encouraging players to find paths around obstacles rather than charge headlong into a fight.

The game's art direction makes it feel as though you're playing out a Manga more than anything else. It's animated and 2D, and looks beautiful. None of the environments feel samey, and everything you can interact with is clearly visible at a glance. The zoom when you perform a perfect kill looks seamless, and fits right into the Manga theme of the game. The Japanese-inspired musical score supports the visuals nicely, with a track specially composed for the end sequence of the expansion, Dosan's Tale.

Playing this game with a controller is recommended - it feels easier to use and the controls are robust. It can be jarring at first, but you'll have planty of time to get used to it. The first playthrough may only take about 9 or 10 hours (including Dosan's Tale), but the addition of different equipment restrictions and upgrades give players enough reason to go again. There's no need to worry about being bored by the story - it's not why you play this game, and quite frankly it's quite lacklustre. It will keep things moving but it's nothing special, and is perhaps the biggest Mark against this game's name.

Mark of the Ninja is one of the most innovative games I have seen in a while, taking a 15-year-old genre and breathing new life into it, thus creating a game that even people who don't enjoy platformers will want to play. It's not every day that something like this comes along, and hopefully Mark shows other developers what you can do with old game genres, and inspires someone else to try something new.