AddictNauts: Awesomenauts Review

Awesomnauts is the latest game from Ronimo Games. And with a name that includes “awesome” it has a lot to live up to. If it had been called “PreparedToBeDisappointedByALackOfLevels-nauts” I would of known exactly what to expect.

The game had been in development for some time and almost never seen the light of day when the publisher dtp Entertainment announced that they were struggling financially and had filed for insolvency. Since then Awesomenauts has been fortunate enough to not only release the game but announce the first batch of DLC for the game.

The story is set at the beginning of the game with the news that the galaxy is at war with itself. The rivalling sides are locked in a stalemate with no victory in sight. This deadlock has lead to both sides recruiting some of the galaxies most notorious and deadly mercenaries in a bid to sway the outcome. “Who are these deadly mercenaries?” you ask, the Awesomenauts that’s who.

With a charming cartoony background and player art each level has a vibrant and almost childish appeal to it. Some levels have giant worms that remind the player of Star Wars and the worms from Dune where other can be described as the most cuddly cyclops monsters ever. The characters all look fantastic too. There has never been such a cool motley crew; jetpacking monkeys, killer robots, brains in a jar and many more are all thrown into the maelstrom and everyone is as fun to play as they look.

Awesomenauts has a unique set of mechanics, it has several different elements from games like League of Legends and those of the same MoBA ilk. Although the gameplay may be similar as LoL it is by no means as complex. Every character can deal devastating damage if levelled correctly and any combination of miscreants can be wielded efficiently given the right team mates. The main aim of the game is to advance towards your enemies supplies as you slowly tear through your opponents defences, in between advancing on your opponent's defences you are confronted by turrets and whatever worthless peons they can toss at you. There are some different enemies in specific levels but once you learn how to level quickly you may avoid these completely, unless you need a quick burst of money to push for the next upgrade.

A unique mechanic that makes Awesomenauts stand out from the crowd is the way in which you enter the battlefield. Upon entry your character drops from the skies in a flaming drop pod collecting resources as they hurtle towards the battlefield. This can be extremely effective as you might have died just short of an upgrade and that little boost you get from entering the battlefield occasionally boosts your resources that little bit.

When all is said and done Awesomenauts just falls short of its name. With some great game mechanics and really interesting character design you will lose countless hours to tense matches but on the whole the experience feels empty and you will slowly be ground down by the lack of levels. With the news of DLC being developed and the possibility of more to come the game will hopefully see a lot of growth over the coming months.

8 rocket monkeys out of 10.

Square Eyes: A Minecraft Review

When you were young your mother would always warn you that too much television would give you square eyes. So it would almost seem fitting for this unbelievably addictive game to cause such a condition would already provide a rather blocky outlook on life.

Minecraft is every indy developers dream. It shot to fame in late 2011 with a very small team and large dreams. Since then the game has seen continuous updates and several different platforms. The most recent of which being the Xbox Live marketplace. With such a buzz about the game it has went on to smash expectations reaching over 1 million downloads on XBLA alone.

The game is based on a randomly generated map, a sandbox in which you can build whatever you may desire. This could be a simple construct such as a house or something as elaborate and a replica of the millenium falcon. So although there is no direct story, the universe is what you make it.

The graphics are nothing to gawk at as they are very simple and the texturing is comically retro but therein lies the charm. Such a simple and basic palette can be used by a veteran crafter to create some buildings you would struggle to comprehend in real life let alone in a world comprised of cubes.

As you make your way through the expansive sandbox you realise that the worlds is at your fingertips. Countless hours can be lost and days can drop off your calendar as you dig in search of the ever elusive diamond resource or trying to kill enough cows to build a full leather suit. A large part of this can be contributed to the absolutely splendid soundtrack. The melodic sounds relax and soothe you as you start to delve into world.

There are no real objectives to the game but in a sense the game can be associated to with that of the sims and a survival type game in which the player must build their own defences and gather the resources needed to survive. The achievements in game can serve as objectives but on the whole the game is vast sandbox in which you can do whatever you like. Unfortunately the maps are constrained to a size of 1024x1024 which does dwarf in comparison to the much larger maps available on PC. That being said there is still plenty to do and since the Xbox game is several versions behind the current PC build there have been rumours of planned expansions and title updates if the game were to highly successful.

Minecraft is a joy to play and you can get lost in such a large game. It is more suited for the creative types as without a vivid imagination you can sometimes feel lost for something to do. Played with friends you will usually find some flamboyant task to undertake and if it turns out well you might just feel like you have accomplished something albeit in your underwear most likely. If you love to explore and create this game is definitely up your blocky alley so make sure you pick it up and support one of this generation's biggest indy hits.

9 poorly constructed blocky castles out of 10.

The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day Review

Had enough of brain dead games and want to sink your teeth into a meatier, darker game? Well look no further than The Walking Dead. This nail biting action gem is an episodic game from Telltale games. The Walking Dead is a downloadable episodic series that has started with episode 1; A New Day, the episodes will be released monthly thereafter to a total of 5 games and a plethora of tense situations.

The Walking Dead started as a comic book back in late 2003 and gathered a cult following who fell in love with the gritty storyline and dark tone. Since then the comic book has shot to fame with a TV series and now a game.

Unlike both the comics and TV series, The Walking Dead focuses on a different group of survivors. More specifically the game focuses on one man in particular, Lee Everett. Lee is a convicted criminal on his way to the state penitentiary until an accident leaves him stranded in the woods amidst a the coming zombie apocalypse. Lee looks for shelter and finds a small girl by the name of Clementine who set out and try to survive in the new harsh world forming around them. The story is strong and you feel invested in the outcome of every situation, you will feel yourself struggling to put the remote down and will go back for more once you have seen the first set of outcomes.

 

Graphically the games is what every comic book fan dreams of. Although the game is not in black and white the cel-shaded art style and almost hand drawn feel brings the game to life. You will find yourself in awe of the zombie lying on the ground in front as you mash it’s brains to tiny pieces with a blunt object and stunned by the atmosphere that is created just by the visuals alone.

The atmosphere is enhanced by the astounding dialogue and the realistic soundtrack. You will find yourself hard pushed to accept the game hasn’t been made by Robert Kirkman himself. Each conversation weighs heavy on your conscience and you will start to form alliances with your favourite characters along the way.

The game is reminiscent of Telltale’s Jurassic park game (which has unfortunately not made it to XBLA yet) in which the majority of it is made from point and click adventure and dialogue choices. That’s not to say there aren’t any quick time events but most of the game will be based in the exploration of story and the perfectly dramatic choices you are forced to make.

 

The Walking Dead is a great experience for those who are massive fans of the franchise and a great point and click adventure for those looking to try something different on the XboxLive Marketplace. You will find countless hours of fun acting as the hostile convict or the wrongfully accused while crossing paths with some very familiar faces. Great things have yet to come for The Walking Dead and for a price of 400msp there really is no reason to not pick up such a unique and exciting game.

Some Girl on Girl Action (And No Not That Kind)

This startlingly beautiful game is the first to be made by Reverge Labs and is the culmination of almost a decade's worth of work. Skullgirls is the first game to be produced by Mike Z and it has gained fame amongst the fighting game community as being the game designed by the community for the community. And with a tagline like that who can resist?

The story starts with the arrival of the Skull Heart in Canopy City. This heart possesses the power to grant any woman/girl a wish. It almost sounds like a fairytale but with every fairy tale there comes a catch and this one is a biggy. Although the skull heart can grant any of their wishes they wishee must be pure of heart, if not they are consumed by the power it holds and become a skullgirls destined to torment humanity. As with every fighter each character has their own needs and wants for the artifact, some wish to destroy it and others want to abuse its power but they all inevitably end up at the same point face to face with the current skullgirl.

With mountains of experience behind him Mike z has taken the best ideas from across all different types of fighting games. There is your standard 6-button layout with light,medium and heavy punches and kicks as well as an intricate tag system. The game also boasts the very ingenuitive variable tag battle in which the is no restrictions on either side meaning that a single character can face off against a team of 3, this would seem that one sided might be slightly disadvantaged having less characters but the game allows this team of one to have more power and health whereas the team of 3 could have a lot more variety for different situations. There is also the infinite prevention system that prevents the player from discovering an abusable loop and puts the player in a position where they can develop their own combos with different ways around them.

The game places itself in amongst the masses of different types of fighting games perfectly drawing inspiration from BlazBlue, Marvel vs Capcom and Streetfighter and you can see in the mechanics alone that there has been a lot of love and care put into the game to make a truly fun experience.

With so much time and effort being used to create an in depth system to the game, naturally it would need some form of explanation to how everything works and so far Skullgirls has taken the prize on introducing new players to the true basics of fighting games. What a player would usually learn from peers or trial and error is laid out in front of the explaining terms they are unfamiliar with or they are given the true meaning behind the term. Each stage places the player in situations where the intuitively build upon skills to deal with more complex strategies and understand why they do what they do as well as a good reason behind it. This is something that has never really been tackled before within a training mode, or at least not as in depth and it is nice to see it done so well.

As with any fighting game there is a story mode an arcade mode and a local versus. Unfortunately it is within the single player aspect that the games faults rise to the surface. The story lines are short and have very little deviation from a set list of fights, although the world in which the game is set is vibrant and bursting with character the short cutscenes struggle to convey such an awesome atmosphere.

What really sets SkullGirls apart from the majority of modern fighting games is the hand drawn art, other games do have bragging rights in this area but none of which breathe the same character into the world or its inhabitants in quite the same way. Each level has a vibrant colour scheme and compliments the madness that surrounds the fights. This art style is another testament to Mike Z’s involvement with fighting games from an early age and you can see where 2D art and BlazBlue have influenced the game. I think it is best left to see the art in action and with no palette swaps or “redux” levels in sight and some truly inspiring design the art style will leave you begging for more.

With a cast of 8 characters many would be quick to judge the game on its lack of variety. And for those of you who do embody this sentiment, shame on you. The 8 characters present are nothing like you expect from a fighting games, with no; multi coloured ninjas with slightly differed moves, palette swapped american rivals or duplicated move sets SkullGirls’ cast is something else. Each character has their own quirky puns and pays homage to other famous games, attacks and characters. Another point of interest is that even with an all female cast each of the characters have their own style, story and even bra size all laid out on skullgirls.com. If you don’t like the look of the big breasted nurse then maybe the more sinister shape shifting nun will take your fancy but you will be hard pressed not to find a character that doesn’t stir up some curiosity inside of you.

As a massive fan of the game and genre I have got more bang for my buck from Skullgirls in the past week than some more high profile fighting games released in the past year and with a price tag of 1,200 MSP to boot you will struggle to justify not buying the game too.And if you are really interested in a larger roster it has already been announced that there will be more characters and stories added to the universe throughout the year. In short with characters as unique as the art style you will struggle to pull yourself away from this punchtastic slugfest.

What I'm Playing 29/04/12

It has been a while since my last update to the plethora of games that lay before me incomplete. So I thought it was about time that I gave a little insight to the laundry list of games I aim to complete relatively soon.

First up is the latest instalment to the Elder Scrolls Franchise, yup Skyrim. Although it has been out for several months I haven't quite mustered up the courage to plunder the depths,dungeons and ditches of Skyrim. It might be a bit too late to capture the inital excitement of setting up my own little trading business in alchemy but hopefully the DLC will bring a breath of fresh air and entice me once more.

Next up is yet another popular RPG. I have recently bought The Witcher 2 and I am totally engrossed in the story. I feel it is definitely one of the few games you can truly believe the hype with. Every choice has its consequences and you are pulled between tough choices along the way. I really look forward to delving right in and see how dark the story can be.

Slowly dragging myself away from RPGs with japanese grindfest may not be the best idea but the allure of another "Warriors" game is just too great. On the plate this time around is the ever so appetising Warriors Orochi 3. I personally feel that these games combine the best from Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors without compromising either playstyle. With a step up in story and a lot more characters I have found myself dedicating far too much time to the slaughtering of thousands of snake like warriors.

I've also got Armored Core on back up in case the countless hordes of warriors doesn't quite satisfy my need to grind. This is where I can indulge in even more grinding and with endless customisation to boot. So far ACV is the best looking in the series and has loads of online possibilities from creating a clan of Mecha-Warriors to help in your missions or fight 5v5 in an all out robo-war.

Next up is Skullgirls, a charming fighter from Reverge Labs. As it is only an arcade title you wouldn't expect the game to have such a massive impact on what I have been playing but it has and in the best of ways at that. I cannot tell you how much fun I have had with the game, it is best played with friends but if you can convince them to buy it is a lot of fun. With slick visuals and a unique cast it has been a delight to lose countless hours in first to 50s and play in to the wee hours of the night. 

And finally the newest edition to the collection is The Walking Dead. The game truly sticks to the feel and art of the comics, with interesting dialogue and truly human decisions it begs for countless play throughs. Although I can't give much insight as of yet I can't wait to fire it back up and start to develop my own zombie survival plan.

So that is the long and short of what I am really playing just now but as with any gamer there is even more anxiously fighting for some screen time in my pile of shame. I guess they might just have to wait a little longer.

Generation Lost

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is the latest in the “Ultimate Ninja” series in the Naruto game franchise. Much like the others the game collects a vast cast from all over the naruto manga and pits them against each other to see who truly is the ultimate ninja and this time it comes with a twist. Generations gathers both the old, the young and even the alternate versions of Naruto’s foes, friends and ancestry all in one large roster.

With a story that spans almost 10 years the game does a great job of summing up the highlights of the Naruto manga in 11 different storylines. This starts with a young, fresh faced Naruto graduating as a ninja and progresses through the story at an alarming pace to the more recent stories such as the Kage Summit. Not only does the game tell the story of Naruto but it also has 8 other campaigns based off other members of the cast including Itachi Uchiha, Zabuza, Kakashi and Killer Bee. With such a large cast and extensive back catalogue of story the developers have been hard pressed to squeeze in such an elaborate story all in one game, which unfortunately leaves the story feeling a bit hollow and rushed at times. That being said other sections of the story have been elaborated on with new anime and different perspectives on the story that have never been seen before.

The game itself struggles to hold down multiple game modes with very little in the way of “extras” beyond different tournaments and a very basic survival mode. While the button system remains largely unchanged the game’s mechanics feel more polished and smoother than its previous iteration. This means that there is still only one dedicated attack button and the others are dedicated to projectiles, charka concentration, assists, items and substitution jutsu.

Although all this polish and shiny new story points have came at a price, there is no longer the RPG like game play between missions nor is there much replay value to the story unlike the previous games in which you had the opportunity to replay missions for extra money and rewards. The online was rather weak too and every player I faced seemed to lag dramatically, which resulted in giving it a miss for the rest of the time I played the game.

As with every Naruto game the extras are all there. They range from the rather insignificant titles you can give yourself, extra images and substitutions that differ from the standard log as well as a customisable item set for battle. In comparison to its predecessors Generations is again lacking.

Although I greatly enjoyed playing Naruto there is little to no replay value to be found. If you are a fan of the series you will love it and there are some quirky sections I won’t spoil but for the majority of those who don’t divulge in weekly readings of the anime and don’t care too much about the battle between Sage Naruto and Rasengan Naruto it might be best to look at the older games and pick up The Broken Bond or Rise of a Ninja.

6 tails out of 10.

Resident Evil: Operation Left for Dead

Operation Raccoon City is the latest instalment in the Resident Evil universe. Many of us have grown up with the original clunky stop and shoot controls of the survival horror genre that Resident Evil built its foundations on. Many players have grown to expect a certain standard from the series, although over the years many people like the core games have strayed from the mainstream into their own territory and this title is no different. Operation Raccoon City is the first and hopefully the last squad based shooter in the franchise.

The game takes place during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3 with you operating on the other side of the story. The game starts with you being tasked to prevent the spread of the T-Virus and exterminate Dr. Birkin, the majority of Resident Evil enthusiasts know where this leads so I’ll spare you the details. In short, zombie apocalypse once again ensues. As part of the Umbrella Secret Service you need to cover up any involvement of the ludicrously evil organisation and attempt to calm a rogue tyrant. Unfortunately the story is rather short and lacks any real depth or character development but there are some points where you get to see what happened on the other side of things when the outbreak occurred in the old games.

I don’t quite understand how metallic shades of blue can quite constitute an art style but Capcom appear to be really pushing this envelope in ORC. The art is hard to make out amongst the poor lighting and overbearing shades of black, even the whole team are kitted out as some sort of fetish group’s big day out. Every character has their own wonderfully Matrix-esque gas masked ensemble that seems highly inappropriate for a covert mission as amongst a city of survivors and zombies they stick out like gimps in the apocalypse. The series brings very little ingenuity to the already established characters of the Resident Evil series and the extent of the monster design is rather bland.

The gameplay should be where this game flourishes Can you see “should” carefully placed in that sentence? Good. The game itself isn’t particularly bad but feels like a very weak rendition of Left 4 Dead crossed with Clive Barker’s Jericho (there’s another bondage based game we would all rather forget). You play as 1 of four members in a team and fight your way through several levels in an attempt to kill zombies. As for controls the game plays very similar to nearly every other 3rd person shooter with a few twists for each character’s specific power. These powers are special to each class of character and tend to be rather generic with armour, detection and invisibility type traits.

The worst part about the game is the computer AI for your teammates. They bring a new definition to dead weight as on many occasions they joined the ranks of the living dead and proceeded to slabber intently as they lumbered after me and then they got infected. On several occasions they could be found rubbing up and down against door frames or blocking the only exit to the room in an attempt to act as some form of edible zombie blockade. This difficult hurdle can be overcome with the addition of friends online but without a full team of 4 you will have to be accompanied by the wonderfully stupid AI. The best analogy for them I have managed to concoct was that of comparing them to a bunch of children juiced up on red bull and blue smarties, they constantly run around you each individually begging for your attention before they crash in the middle of a rather crowded street and proceed to cry for the next 10 minutes about how they need help.

The online modes are very similar to different deathmatch and capture the virus type scenarios. This tends to be on a 4v4 with one side playing as the USS and the other as Spec Op forces. There is a lot of fun to be had online but it can drag at some point when the lag results in floating guns and what appears to be some odd sort of stasis mode for some players in which although they do not appear active but are actually present somewhere on the map and are continuously on the attack. My personal favourite was the Biohazard mode in which the player had to capture vials in a capture the flag based game mode. On the whole the multiplayer did feel rather bare and lacked that special something that made left you begging for more.

If only the game was this colourful.

Resident Evil:Operation Raccoon City is barely worthy of it’s name. An awfully short campaign and bare bones online leaves you feeling cheated at the end. The game could have been great but with so many issues and lacks of modes coupled with the abysmally short story you will honestly question if you even want to buy RE6 in the future. Long gone are the days when Resident Evil spin-offs had the complexity or the storyline of outbreak or the atmosphere and panic of the survivor series. Instead we are presented with a lackluster attempt to keep up with the times.

3 dribbling AI out of 10 wonderfully similar zombies.