candyciangaming

[candyciangaming]

Convention Review: 8-Bit Coference

https://8bitconference.com/

I had the pleasure of attending my first video game convention this weekend, and I'm happy to report it was a fantastic experience from start to finish.

8-Bit Gaming Conference took place on the 28th and 29th of July 2018 at Griffith College, Dublin. This is the second year of the conference and the organizers should give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done. I only managed to get to the Saturday event, but I soaked up enough throughout the day to come back satisfied, but it left me wanting more!

8-Bit is the brainchild of Graeme Moore, and with the help from dedicated volunteers and the staff of Griffith College, the event went extremely smoothly and was great fun for all ages. On site were security personnel, a fire marshal, along with first aid attendants.  The event was backed by a multitude of sponsors, such as AllCast Irish Gamers, The National Computer & Video Game Museum, The R.A.G.E, Four Star Pizza, The Guild of Nerds and Republic of Gaming, to name but a few. The entire list can be found on the events Facebook page (link at bottom). Many of these partners set up as vendors or donated to the conference in one way or another.  8-Bit conference 2018 was in aid of Inner City Helping Homeless.

General admission started at 10am, but early entry was granted to people with special needs at 9am, and there was also a quiet room on-site for people who needed it. Beanbag chairs were kindly donated by the crowd at Beanbags.ie.

My first trip in (after a coffee in Arthurs Cafe), was to the room set up by the National Computer and Video Game Museum. The room was filled with arcade machines supplied by Mini Arcade Systems, and the Museum had a choice selection of video game memorabilia and retro video games. I was more than over the moon to see boxed copies of Final Fantasy IV, Super Mario 3, and Sonic The Hedgehog.

Mini Arcade Systems supply a retro bartop console arcade, complete with tonnes of old 8 and 16bit titles. I had a go playing the original Shinobi game, which was an absolute blast. I would have stayed longer, but I knew I'd never get to leave.

The next room was a mixture of retro consoles, featuring a Dreamcast, Playstation1, SNES, and more. It was like a trip through time. Most impressive of all was a Gameboy hooked up to a massive LCD TV. Playing Tetris in HD never felt so good. The Gameboy was also modified to be used with an SNES controller. It definitely made for a great gaming experience. Super Smash Bro's was also on the go on GameCube, along with House of The Dead on Dreamcast.  

Unfortunately, the PS1 didn't feel like working which was a let down. I'm a huge Playstation fan and it was a shame this particular Playstation wasn't working. There were other Playstations on-site, but it's a shame how one faulty system managed to make it's way through.

After a quick go of Street Fighter II on the SNES, I went upstairs to the main conference room. As I ascended, I was greeted by some familiar 8-Bit music playing through a PA system, along with a huge Mario Kart flag draped around the stairway.

When I entered the main room, I didn't know where to look first, it was my idea of heaven. Game Vendors as far as the eye could see. People gaming, people dressed up in Cosplay, and it was only 11am at this point.

After doing a lap of the floor, I seen a few familiar faces. The Guild of Nerds were hosting a Cosplay competition later on in the day, and had prints of different Cosplayers for sale. The Irish Chapter of the 501st Star Wars club were out in Force (pun definitely intended), and the RAGE (Record Art Game Emporium) had also set up a stall in the room, along with generously setting up a SNES for people to come along and play some games.  The Ghostbusters were also on call for any ghostly problems that might occur throughout the day, just to be on the safe side!

A row of tables had been set up for some casual gaming, Destruction Derby 2 and Rayman 2 were on PS1, an emulation of Streets of Rage was on the Wii, Ninja Gaiden was being played on Xbox. Tekken 5 matches were taking place on PS2, and Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time was on Gamecube. People were also on the Dreamcast having a few games of Crazy Taxi. A couple of Laptops were also set up with Wolfenstein 3D for those old school FPS fans, Quake 2, and Worms. It wasn't just games of yore however, Gamevan.ie had set up a few consoles with Fortnite on the go, along with having a vendors booth. I had my fair share of games at the retro table before heading off to do a little bit of shopping.

Rewind Retro Gaming and Retro Ralph sorted me out with some fantastic PS1 titles to ad to my collection. The games were all in fantastic quality along with being extremely cheap in price. I helped myself to a few games (and came back for seconds). Word of advice for people interested in coming to 8-Bit, I couldn't find an ATM machine on campus so come prepared.

I wandered over to Like The Bog Flower Designs and Beanies Art Mart who both had a fantastic selection of homemade figurines, stickers, badges, T-shirts and prints.

As the day went on, I took part in the Tekken 3 tournament, after days and days of training, I got my ass absolutely handed to me by Eddy Gordo, not the most graceful of losses, but it was a great bit of fun for all involved. Other tournaments were Mario Kart, Street Fighter, and Super Smash Bros.

One of the spectacles of the day was a 10-player Bomberman game being played up on the big screen in the main room. This was headed up by the lads at AllCast Irish Gamers, who were also the MC for most of the events throughout the conference. These lads know how to work a crowd and kept everyone entertained until the end.

I was in attendance for a few events on the main stage, the first of which being a panel of gamers discussing all things retro. It was interesting to hear other people's ideas about the way retro games are perceived by a modern audience, and do they still hold up as much today as they did when they were first released. They also held a relatively retro quiz which was a good laugh to see go down.

Ansonix was on the music side of entertainment for the day and kicked things off by performing his cover of the Streets of Rage theme song, before playing some of his own original works. I really dig this kind of 8-Bit style and I think Ansonix is someone we're going to be hearing a lot more of in the future. You can check out his music for free over at https://ansonix.bandcamp.com/.

I grabbed a Slushee from the Candy Pop Man and took a seat in time for the cosplay competition, headed up by the Guild of Nerds. Nate ó Cadhla was the MC for the competition, and there was a panel of cosplaying judges; Jichiie, Shonarrrrrgh, and Twin Tails Cosplay. Some of the Cosplayers really put in a lot of love and effort to both their costumes and their cosplay persona. A particual favourite of mine was Deadpool, who I tried to wind up by calling him Deathstroke (he wasn't too happy  about that)…. The Cosplay competition was short and sweet, with the victor being Totoro (from the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro).  

The day wound down with the tournament winners competing on the big screen.

My only regret about 8-Bit Conference 2018 was not being able to hang around long enough to enjoy the entire weekend. I feel like I missed out on so much even though I was there for most of the Saturday. Next year I'll make sure to be in attendance for the whole weekend so I don't miss out on the fun. Graeme, and all of team 8-Bit should be really proud that they put on such a fantastic event that catered to the retro needs of veteran gamers, but was also a fun and insightful look for the younger generation. 

My advice for people who would like to attend the conference in future:

Plan your route, Griffith college is located just outside of Dublin City and isn't a central location

Bring money, as there is no ATM on-campus

Most importantly, take part and have fun, you can sit here and read this review all you like, but trust me when I say, you need to be there to get the best out of it.

https://8bitconference.com/

Photos Courteousy of 8-Bit Conference

Partners associated with 8-Bit Conference

Griffith College Dublin

Trust Gaming

Ti.to

Beanbags.ie

Ansonix

The Pulse Group

Emergency Services Training Institute

Buyndplay/Video Games And Consoles Ireland

Republic of Gaming

Inner City Helping Homeless

AllCast Irish Gamers

National Computer & Videogame Museum

Mini Arcade Systems

The R.A.G.E.

LudoSport Ireland - Sporting Light Saber Combat Academy

Loud Room Studios

Bear Sporting Events Limited

Four Star Pizza

RetroGaming.ie

GameVan.ie

CCS Fitouts

Candy Pop Man

Facepainters Dublin

Retro Ralph Gaming

Rewind Retro Gaming

8-Bit Creations

Game Freeze

Like the Bog Flower Designs

Beanie's Art Mart

Guild of Nerds

The 501st Legion

Ghostbusters Ireland

Fierce Fun

Jairo Lopes

Altero-game

Dublin Games Festival 

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review: Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation [Playstation One]

Alright, let's talk about Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation  

I don't think it can be overstated how much of an important pop culture figure Lara Croft was throughout the mid to late 90's. The titular archaeologist was plastered all over the media at the time, on video game magazines, in TV advertisements, TV spots, parades, and other major events. Nearly being a Kim Kardashian of her time, you could be forgiven for forgetting Lara was the main role in a series of video games. By the time Tomb Raider 3 had come out in 1998, the world was gripped on Lara Croft.

Eidos and Core Design brought out a new Tomb Raider game from 1996 onwards on a yearly basis, by 1999, the Tomb Raider formula was done to a T. These were a series of games where players took the role of Lara Croft on globetrotting exploits to uncover ancient artifacts, and maybe save the day before going back home for tea if there was time.

The fourth Tomb Raider title, The Last Revelation, is the culmination of the developers past three efforts into one huge game. Instead of a globetrotting adventure, this time around, the story takes place across Egypt (ignoring the prologue). From the get go, we can see something very different about this game. Yes, it is still Tomb Raider, yes, it is still the same Lara Croft that players have grown to love and idolise, but something is a bit....different.

Even from looking at the main menu of the game, where is Lara's Home? Where is the menu ring we have become all too familiar with? They have been removed in favour of a simple menu of "New Game", and "Load Game". To players unfamiliar with the Tomb Raider games, this may seem like nothing, but to people who have spent the the previous three games in Laras boots, this may feel like a turn off. The theme music is also absent, most likely to Tomb Raider 2/3's composer Nathan McCree being swapped out for Peter Connelly.

Starting Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation reveals that Lara always had a knack for adventuring. Starting as a teenage Lara in Cambodia in the 1980's, we see she was a protégé of Werner Von Croy, another world renowned archaeologist. This section replaces the "Laras Home" section from previous games as the tutorial. Instead of Lara guiding us through the level and explaining new moves she can perform, it is us up to Von Croy to interrupt the gameplay with short cut scenes to explain every single thing that needs to be done. This section is fine, but the flow can really be cut with the amount of exposition by Von Croy. This can probably be shaken off as a bonding experience between the two so things later on will make sense.

Once players get through the tutorial stage, the main story can begin. A now grown up Lara is exploring Eqypt in the search for the Amulet of Horus; an ancient Eqyptian relic. Some stuff goes down and Lara unwittingly releases the god Seth from an ancient slumber. This causes all kinds of chaos to occur throughout Eqypt, and sends Lara on a quest to correct everything. Throughout her adventure, she will travel to the ancient city of Karnak (I wonder what else has been "Exhumed" there? heh heh), she will uncover a lost library under the city of Alexandria, and will finally traverse the Great Pyramid of Giza. This all takes place throughout a massive 15-20 hour adventure that will keep players on the edge of their seat with excitement, scares, and the occasional frustrating death. Thankfully Lara is just as nimble as ever, and packs her entire move-set from the previous games. She can now swing on ropes, climb poles, and shimmy around corners. The inventory system has also changed, it is no longer a ring inventory, and key items can now be combined together, leading to exploration. In one area for example, Lara needs to make something to grab a set of keys. Finding a handle is one part, but then she'll need to attach the hook, found somewhere else.

This brings me to talk about what I like and dislike about Tomb Raider 4. There is a great variety of levels all set in the same place. This isn't Laras first rodeo in Egypt (the first being in her debut title). This time around the developers did a fantastic job in keeping every new area feeling fresh. The Tomb of Semerkhet has an entirely different vibe and aesthetic to the Cleopatras Palace level, even though at a glance you can tell they're authentically Eqyptian in design.

The Puzzles in each area are clever, some of which are tricky and can stump the player and interrupt any advancement in the game. Luckily a lot of these puzzles are telegraphed well and if you don't know what to do, generally pushing the correct stone of pressing the right button will help to figure out how the puzzle works.

Lara's weapon count has dropped to six weapons, she keeps her trademark dual pistols, shotgun, Uzi and grenade gun, but now the revolver and crossbow are introduced. What's new here is that ammo can be interchanged. The crossbow for example has normal bolts, poison bolts, and explosive bolts. Each has its own purpose, luckily I never found myself running out of ammo too often. Pickups are quite numerous if you know where to look. Exploration is also heavily advised, checking off the normal route normally provides ammunition, medi-packs, or other goodies.  

The vehicle sections are also quite interesting, if a bit frustrating. They don't fly off in an unwanted direction, but the poor draw distance of the game can lead to players being flung into a spike pit if they don't take their time in these sections. Overall, vehicles are done just fine and they are a nice break from the general Tomb Raiding.

The combat in Tomb Raider has never been anything to write home about. Generally it's fine but it hasn't really gotten any tweeks here. Lara simply aims her guns at the nearest target and fires. One new addition is the option to choose between automatic and manual aiming. Manual aiming, I found is the way to go. With the press of a button, Lara will change targets, making some annoying gunfights a little bit easier.

Enemies range from dogs to humans, to invincible mummies (pain in the ass). Really all Lara can do is hop from side to side to avoid being attacked while holding down the fire button.

Now, what I have to say negatively about this game isn't good, because I really really really enjoyed this Tomb Raider, but the negatives unfortunately broke the game for me in my own regard. I'm playing on PS1 so quicksaves weren't an option for me.  

If  Lara dies, you have the option of loading a previous save, or being thrown back to the main menu. This isn't good at all. In previous games, if a death occurred, players had the option of at least starting that level from scratch. Why the developers just removed this outright is a bit infuriating at the best of times.  

Later on in the game, around 13 hours in, I encountered a puzzle that had to be solved by pushing blocks in a correct order, this then opened a room depending on the order of blocks pushed. I completed the room and went back to the blocks to enter the next combination, only to realise that the puzzle did not reset itself. I thought this was my own fault, but by doing further research I realised I was not the only person to suffer this. My final save was just after I entered the initial combination so no matter what I did, my game was broken. I had to resort to using a cheat code to get myself through the level, but it was a bit immersion breaking, because up to that point I had absolutely no trouble. If that cheat code was not there, I would have had to reset the game and start all over again....I'm a bit surprised no one caught this in the development stage because it was a major bug for many people, both on PS1 and PC.

Another thing this game really needed to work on was the brightness. First of all, what I will say is this game has a fantastic use of dynamic lighting, both on the surface and underwater. Torches are used to great effect in some of the tomb stages, but for the life of me, I found it nearly impossible to see where I was going half the time. Flares are available, and in large quantities, but they don't last particularly long. Also, this time around, Lara comes equipped with a pair of binoculars. It took me a good long time to realised that there is a flashlight attached to the binoculars when they are being used. Once I found this out, it was heavily implemented, but it's slow and sluggish to use, especially because Lara cannot move while using binoculars.

The lack of lighting in areas made me miss entrances and crawlspaces I would have seen otherwise. Generally the way forward is clear but in the back of my mind, I'd always be thinking "is there something I missed", without realising the way forward was just obscured by shadows.

Instead of singular levels, areas are now spread into 4-5 stages with one Hub area. This leads to greater exploration of an area, but with more area to cover, the more a player is more likely to miss.

The aformentioned Peter Connelly takes over as the composer for Tomb Raider this time, and he puts the source material to good work. It's a bit of a downer not being able to hear Lara's theme music in full. It kind of just drops in and out at points. Some of the sound effects and musical pieces are put to great use. Such as the jump scares. They are triggered exactly when they need to be. At times you can hear when the ambient sounds reset itself, but the sounds of falling rocks and wind flowing through the temples is put to really good work.

Visually, Tomb Raider 4 is strikingly different than it's predecessors. Lara is still the same old girl we know and love, but her model is different, and she only sticks to the one costume throughout the adventure. Her outfit is now low cut (for all the lads out there), and she has natural slits in the side of her top, allowing her model to look around naturally, without her joints looking out of place.

Tomb Raider 4 was a great experience. It was an extremely challenging trial of everything I had learned so far in the series. For a game that lasted 15 hours, which is a very long campaign for a PS1 game on one disc, I never felt bored or that any of the areas were overdrawn.

The biggest issue I have with this game was the brightness of some areas. In places like Karnak, it was fine, but the by later stages it was near impossible to know what was going on without wasting my entire flare reserve. The sense of stepping into the unknown addded to the experience, but it led to some nasty pitfalls and annoying deaths.

The original Tomb Raider trilogy will always be very close to my heart, and this fourth addition was a great installment. It changed the Tomb Raider formula while still being accessible to both old and new players of the series. This would be Laras penultimate adventure on the Playstation One before the next game: Tomb Raider Chronicles.

The Good

Lara is back and better than ever

Combining items adds to the puzzle solving

Really involving story

Feels authentically eqyptian

Dynamic lighting is put to great use

The Bad

A few gamekilling bugs and glitches

Some areas can be extremely dark, a pain without flares

Combat isn’t fantastic

No level select/level retry available at game over screen

Overall

7/10

Definitely worth a play, probably more-so for veteran Tomb Raider fans

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out Stellas Tomb Raider Site, really practical and useful Tomb Raider guide. Makes notes about bugs in each area.

https://tombraiders.net

Check out The Game Statistics review of Tomb Raider The Last Revelation. It’s extremely in depth and really funny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_h98ORt9vk

[candyciangaming]

Retro Game Review: Exhumed [Playstation One]

When I was a little kid, around five or six years old, I was fascinated by ancient Egypt and wanted to be an explorer like Indiana Jones. Twenty years later and sadly, I never fulfilled that dream. However, I managed to find an absolute gem of a game which gave me the thrills of unearthing ancient tombs for the first time.

Exhumed (or "Powerslave") is a first person "doom clone" shooter released on Playstation One in 1996, brought out by Lobotomy Software. Like other shooters at the time, it features fully 3D environments with 2D sprite textures. Now I know what you're thinking, with massive FPS games like the latest Doom and Call of Duty, why would you want to go back and play a game with such retro charm. Well, I'll tell you why!

Set in Eqypt at the end of the 20th century, the world of Exhumed is brimming with character, with different areas having their own unique charm. The levels are progressively more difficult with each turn and there is a great sense of semi-linearity. Levels must be revisited to continue on with the story, but this never feels tedious. New powers are obtained throughout the story which grant access to new areas, hidden secrets, and extra power ups. For example, the lake you kept drowning in early in the game can be revisited after you get a breathing apparatus for extra rewards.

The story pits you right into the boots of a weathered explorer, when an evil force takes over the City of Karnak in Eqypt, you find yourself alone and being tasked by the spirit of King Rhamsees to seek out artifacts that have the power to restore peace to the land. This journey will take you through desert sands, gorges full of lava, swamps infested with poison water, and that’s just part of the action.

Exhumed has a decent learning curve and doesn’t pander to players like a lot of modern shooters tend to do. Here’s your gun, go shoot things, if you need help. look at the manual. If you don’t have the manual......well I’m sure you’ll figure it out!

The gameplay of Exhumed is extremely similar to the likes of Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior etc. Movement is extremely fast and fluid, the player can hold a button to move extremely fast (perfect for speedrunners). The L1 and R1 buttons are used for strafing and holding triangle allows the player to look up and down. Unfortunately Exhumed came out before the release of the Dual Shock controller so it does not support analogue controls.  Square is fire, and there are a whole host of weapons and magic to dig into. Starting with a machete and a pistol, the player will find a machine gun, snake-launcher, bullet fingers, and more! The guns don't use bullets here, instead a blue "mana" bar represents how much ammo the player has left. This can be refilled by collecting blue orbs dropped by enemies and items.

The player has a whole host of enemies to come up against throughout their adventure, from scorpions and mummies, to fire spitting magma creatures and semi-naked cat monsters (to please all you furries out there)

The soundtrack has to be commended for keeping a solid Egyptian vibe throughout the whole game. The score consists of tribal instruments along with traditional woodwind and booming vocal choirs that really help bring each stage to life. Other tracks, such as the music that plays during boss fights consists of rock elements such as a drum kit and distorted guitars, while keeping the Egyptian theme. Take a listen here!

By todays standards, Exhumed probably feels like an ancient relic with it's blocky graphics, but I was very surprised with how well it holds up today. Even after beating the final boss, there were still reasons for me to go back to previous levels and do some further exploring for important items I may have missed. That level of replayability is lost on a good load of modern FPS games I've played recently.

Most people who don't have a good hand for shooters without an analogue stick may want to try this on PC instead. There is still a big community of Exhumed fans looking for a remake, and there may be one on the way.

If you find Exhumed on any console, be sure to give it a go. With amazing replay value, a fantastically atmospheric game with plenty of character, charm, and challenge, Exhumed boasts a good 8-10 hour campaign mode, it's a game you can really "exhume" for a good gaming session.

The Good:

Interesting variety of level design and weapons

Good challenge – difficulty curve isn't too steep

The guy who does the narration for movie trailers is in it, yeah, the "In a world - " guy!

Great music/sound effects

The Bad:

Visuals are a bit blocky by todays standard of graphics

Low frame rate when screen is full of enemies

No mid-level saving/checkpoints

FINAL VERDICT

8/10

Now go and touch de camal

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review: Gun

Remember in the first Toy Story movie, Woody the cowboy gets thrown to the side for a more impressive toy? Well, 2005’s simply titled Gun is here to prove that cowboys are still badass in their own right, and it doesn’t fail in showing us a filthy, gritty, violent side to the old west, if only for a short few hours.

Gun, developed by Tony Hawk veterans Neversoft, and published by Activision, takes place in the year 1880. As cool-tempered gunslinger, Colton White, players will traverse a huge open world on a bloody tale of betrayal, murder, and revenge across two cities and one big wilderness where anything goes. A nice little tutorial kicks off the game, teaching the player the ropes. Then the game wastes no time catapulting both player and Colton into the violent world of the Old West. Colton will have to get his hands dirty to track down his fathers’ killers and retrace his own origins.

The game play in Gun is nothing original, but it works, and it works very well. Missions can be started at the player’s leisure by going to certain marks on the map. Missions range from story quests, to bandit hunting and buffalo herding. Completing these quests rewards the player with skill upgrades and money. Outside of missions, Colton can often find himself being ambushed by Apache Indians, mercenaries, or bandits. Also between missions, Colton can visit stores, using money earned to upgrade his stats. Or, if he likes, he can go on a rampage, but too many criminal activities will test the towns patience.

The main story of Gun is interesting; however it suffers from some major flaws. It’s extremely short lived, while some important plot points are brushed aside so fast you’ll be wondering what exactly just what happened. Thankfully, this inconsistent storytelling is compensated by the fantastically challenging game play. On the harder difficulties, it will be nearly impossible to complete without doing a few side quests first and increasing Colton’s strength. It’s very easy to be overpowered by enemies half way through a gun fight, and restarting missions over and over again can become extremely frustrating. Upgrades are very well received and it doesn’t feel like a tacked on feature. Tracking down the money and side quests to receive an extra health slot or extra quick draw time felt extremely rewarding. These side quests add a good couple of more hours onto the overall play time and can be quite enjoyable, although somewhat similar to each other at times.

Players control Colton in third person, as he shoots, dodges, jumps and climbs his way through the old west. There are some basic crouch and cover mechanics in place during combat scenes, and players must thread very carefully. One mistake could mean death and having to restart a mission. Thankfully, Colton has a big ol’ flask of whiskey, and taking a swig can totally replenish his health.

Colton can carry a vast array of revolvers, shotguns, rifles and bows. However, only one of each weapon can be in the inventory at once. Although, each new weapon received is more powerful than the preceding weapon. I have never seen myself using an old weapon after picking up something much superior.

By killing enough enemies, Colton can fill up a meter and enter “Quick draw” mode, where time slows down, and in first person, Colton can take down a roomful of enemies in just a few seconds using his revolver and infinite ammo.

The world of Gun is a pretty big map in itself, so Colton can use horses to get from one location to another. He can also upgrade his horse’ skill, however, Colton can just go and ride any horse without any repercussions. I believe if Colton had one horse for the main story, there’d be so much more emphasis on keeping the horse alive. If your horse dies, Colton can find a nearby horse and carry on like nothing had ever happened. Colton can also fire from horseback and this leads to some very intense gun battles. Players must also put into consideration, if they ride the horse too hard, they run the risk of killing it. This means the player has to use the horses’ energy at a sensible rate and not overdo things.

The most impressive thing about Gun is the visual design of the cutscenes and character models. Each character has their own personality, and as the adventure goes on, Colton will meet a whole host of gruff western types, along with dodgy outlaws, tempting prostitutes and roughhousing cowboys.

Gun absolutely oozes atmosphere and that’s what makes this game fantastic. Even if Colton is in an old saloon or in the middle of a ranch rustling cows, the game really ropes you into the world of the old west. This is backed by some fantastic sound design and an absolutely beautiful soundtrack. The team really did their research in old Western films to provide the most authentic Old West experience.

The soundtrack uses a host of traditional Old West instruments, such as acoustic sliding guitars, harmonicas and violins, but balances out by using an emphasis on bongos and other percussive instruments to really show the thin line between the cowboys and the Indians. The soundtrack is probably one of my favourites in a very long time, it never becomes boring and it helps to build an even bigger picture of the landscape.

Each character gives a fantastic performance, which is why I wasn’t surprised to see some very recognisable names on the bill. Actors such as the Punisher’s Thomas Jane and legendary actor/songwriter Kris Kristofferson are just two of the names that provide a fantastic portrayal of the main characters.

Gun was a very enjoyable experience, and with games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 on the way next year, it’s good to go and see other games set in the old west. For such a short game, I spent an awful lot of time just enjoying being a cowboy for a while, and with such high praise from fans and critics alike, it’d be great to see a sequel to this fantastic game in the future.

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review: Medievil 2

There are some games out there which have stood the test of time over the last number of years, with or without the exposure to make them as popular as they should be. These games are always a pleasure to revisit after a long time of not playing them, and they always radiate a certain sense of nostalgia and charm, and grip me just as well as they did on my first playthrough.

I’m talking of course about Medievil 2, the second entry in a series which was such a refreshing spin on the horror genre as a whole. Released in 2000 after the extremely popular Medievil received such high praise from fans and critics alike. It was released in a time when Silent Hill, Resident Evil and other mainstream horror games were arriving on the scene, and it was great to see a game that held a traditional style of horror, along with some tongue-in-cheek humour, and a hack n’ slash style of gameplay to really clash swords with the competition.

New players to the Medievil series will be happy to know that they are brought up to speed with the events of the last game once they boot up Medievil 2. Sir Daniel Fortesque, an undead, skeletal, one-eyed knight, has defeated the evil Lord Zarok in the year 1386 in the fictional kingdom of Gallowmere. Fast forward five hundred years, and we enter “a new world, but with the same old problems”. Although I’d whole heartily recommend playing the original first, it’s a nice touch to at least show some events of the previous game before settling people in to this new adventure.

Medievil 2 is set in Victorian Era London, and this is established with a great opening cutscene of a young boy running around a small section of a London marketplace, as he enters the museum, we see Sir Dan, our main protagonist, lying on display. Obviously not as highly regarded as the hero he was back in his day.

The focus then switches over to a group of three men, the leader of which, Lord Palethorn, has uncovered pages of Zarok’s spellbook, and casts a spell which raises the dead and causes havoc all over London. Palethorn himself is transformed into a devilish looking demon, and this is when the game finally begins.

A groggy Dan wakes up in the museum and we are first given a brief explanation on the situation by a friendly ghost named Winston, who appears at spectral points throughout the game to provide advice on what to do, hints to get by difficult puzzles, or even save the game halfway through most levels.

The game then wastes no time getting us straight into the action. Dan finds a sword and is slicing up zombies within the first minute of gameplay.

Gameplay in Medievil 2 is a more refined version of what was in the previous game. Dan can walk, run using the analogue stick, and use the “Daring Dash” abilty, and he can still take off his own arm to use as a club. A fun little gimmick but I never found it useful at all, besides grabbing the sword at the very start. Dan has an overall health bar of three hundred health points, which can be recovered using energy vials, or life streams poking out of the ground at different areas. Life bottles make a comeback as Dans “lives”. These can be refilled, but one gets totally used up whenever Dan dies, so make it count.

Dan now also has a whole host of new abilities, most notably the ability to have two weapons equipped at once. Dan can toggle between selected weapons at will, which saves a lot of time going into the inventory for a preferred weapon. Torches can be used to brighten dark areas,  climbing can now be done to access different areas, along with the iconic “Dan Hand” ability, which players can even see on the cover art.

Later on in the game, Dan can remove his own head and place it on little green hands running around the place. This is used in a lot of the fantastic puzzle solving, and also a great incentive to return to earlier levels for hidden surprised.

The overall control of Dan suffers from the same problems as the first game. Control is a little bit erratic, combined with some awful stiff camera angles in certain areas, leads to a lot of clumsy deaths and frustrating platforming moments. Thankfully these are few and far between and the game settles players in with some simple platforming exercises before the difficult stuff begins.

The blow is also softened by much smoother animations this time around.  The original Medievil suffered from stiff frame-by-frame animations, but it seems the team at SCE Camebridge took the time to rectify this for a much smoother experience. The graphics are a touch better, but are still nothing incredible by PS1 standard.

Sadly there is a lack of CG cutscenes, of which there are only a handful at the start and end of the game. These were abundant in the original game and instead there are certain FMV cutscenes scattered throughout the game,

Medievil 2 sounds great, and although the soundtrack isn’t very memorable as a whole, the song that plays in the Museum level at the start has always stuck with me as a very iconic intro song to any game. The music adds a lot to each level, and it shows. Levels such as at the Greenwich Observatory provide a certain level of creepy ambience alone. Listen to the song in the middle of the night and you’ll see for yourself. The sound of zombies in the background adds to the dread, but overall the groans and moans they make when they’re being attacked are a little immersion breaking with how easy they are to kill. Overall, Medievil 2 does what it needs to do with the sound design, and it does it very well. Even little touches such as the clang a sword makes when it hits a wall adds to the experience. Gunshots are equally as satisfying to hear, and the sound enemies make when they die, which essentially a soul is leaving their body, is a satisfying indicator that you’ve done something good.

The voice talent in Medievil 2 is believable at most, but sadly I believe that Lord Palethorn gives the worst performance as his deep, cockney accent cannot be heard half the time over some sound effects. He’s a “Grant Mitchell”-esque character with a lot of potential, but as far the voice acting is concerned, he doesn’t make for a memorable enemy. However, Mark Silk, who does the voice of Palethorn, also voiced Sir Dan, and Winston, so it’s nice to see he held up a good performance on these characters.

Sir Dan, who had a gruff, incomprehensible accent in the first game, has now got a British accent in Medievil 2. I see what they were trying to do here, for comedy sake, but there’s no context to how he would’ve ended up with this accent. However, due to the increased dialogue in Medievil 2, it works.

After Fortesque traverses through the Museum, he arrives at the laboratory of Professor Hamilton Kift. This area serves as the Hub for the games locations. I honestly much prefer the map from the original game, but now all Dan has the do is step beside a projector and scroll through each level and pick the one desired. The Professor can also give Dan a briefing on certain missions which adds a grander scale to the scheme of things.

Dan eventually rescues an ancient Egyptian princess named Kyia, who plays as Dans love interest throughout the story, but sadly that’s all she is. She works into the time travel element of the story very well, although I don’t see much else for a reason to have her in the story. Medievil 2 is a significantly shorter game than the original, and I believe the designers needed to add in an extra element to give the game an extra bit of run time.

Throughout the adventure, Dan visits some very interesting and different locations, including a Freakshow filled with bearded ladies, a vampire infested manor, a naval base over run with sailor zombies, and a huge gothic cathedral. As short as the game is, it’s nice to see a bit of variation between levels, and there are a considerable amount of fun little minigames thrown in to keep players busy, such as the Dankenstein boss, which plays out like a boxing match.

There’s so much to be said about how good the boss battles are in this game! They all revolve around dodging attacks and waiting for the right time to strike or a weak point to present itself. Thankfully, bosses are smart enough to have multiple attacks so Dan can’t simply stay put in one place or he’ll have his bones broke, literally! Defeating bosses is very satisfying and it’s never revealed at first what you need to do, Bearing in mind you may get a little hind from your ghostly companion. The music also adds a lot of tension to these fights and it’s a little bit intimidating to see how much more health a boss has compared to Dan.

The first Medievil game was obviously meant to be Halloween themed, from the get go, pumpkins and jack-o lanterns are scattered everywhere. Tim Burtons The Nightmare Before Christmas was an obvious influence for the original game, and I’m sad to see that aesthetic switch to a steam-punk theme. Obviously, steampunk is a real Victorian style, but personally I believe the Halloween design of the original game is vastly superior.

The dynamic lighting in the game is something that is very impressive to see, most noticeably in the Tomb area where Dan must light up the area using torches. Areas such as the Museum which seem warm and welcoming due to the sunlight through the windows are worlds apart from areas such as the graveyard in Whitechapel which is covered in an eerie green/grey colour scheme which adds the scare factor onto a somewhat goofy game.

The Chalice is an element that carries over from the original game. Kill enough enemies to fill the chalice, and then it’s yours to collect, as long as you can find it. Sometimes the chalice is hidden in plain sight, and it may require a little bit of backtracking before Dan can find it. Bringing the chalice back to Professor Hamilton rewards Dan with a new weapon. Thankfully throughout the adventure, Dan is provided with an entire arsenal of weapons, both old and new. The sword, warhammer and axe make a welcome come back, but Dan can also now use a pistol and other firearms, along with a flaming crossbow to replace the flaming longbow from the previous entry.

The Spiv is a shady character who serves as a shop for Dan to charge up items like his shield, or purchase new ammo for weapons. Gold is strewn about the place, ready for Dan to collect, and although the Spiv doesn’t have a heavy price on goods, it’s best to try and preserve ammo at all costs.

Medievil 2 is a thoroughly enjoyable game for fans of the series and newcomers alike. It’s a game that isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself or add in a bit of slapstick humour at the cost of a complete horror experience. On the surface, it’s a whole new Medievil game, but if you played both games in a row, Medievil 2 is nearly like an expansion of the first game. There are a lot of neat new things thrown in like the Dan Hand ability and the new characters, but it plays the same as the original and there’s only a few new tweaks here and there. This isn’t exactly a bad thing but I wish the team would’ve held back a year or two to produce an even better, longer experience on Playstation2.

I believe the Medievil series as a whole is a totally underrated gem. 2005’s Medievil: Resurrection is a nice way of trying to get new players into the original game, however being released on a handheld only device is a bit of a shame. Meaning us console players are going to have to hope and pray that a reboot comes out in our favour.

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review: Fahrenheit

Every once in a while, I find a little holy grail of a game, sitting on a shelf in some charity shop or a random video game store: lost, abandoned and forgotten….Being the kind person I am, I’ll wrap it up, give it a good clean and bring it home for play and add it to my ever growing collection of nostalgia.

Sorry, I’m getting a little emotional here, thinking of all those abandoned games in the world. They just want to be played!

Anyway, Fahrenheit, or Indigo Prophecy as most people know it in North America, is one of these games. A very rare gem of a game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Atari in 2005, Fahrenheit is a very story-focused game with little emphasis on action, but more on a heavy narrative with a very different control scheme unlike any other that’s come before. Don’t let the Atari tag fool you, you’re about to enter a murder-mystery like no other.

I remember reading about Fahrenheit in a magazine in 2002-2004 and thinking it was going to be the most amazing, most realistic game that ever came. I was genuinely very excited to play it when I picked it up dead cheap in a shop. Sadly, with the emphasis on “choices have consequences” that it boasts about, it’s been outdone by many other games since. I’m sure at the time of its release it was groundbreaking, but over the years it’s been done before.

The best way to describe Fahrenheit is pretty much Heavy Rain mixed up with Broken Sword. Bear in mind Heavy Rain is a much better looking, more refined game, and Broken Sword has more of an emphasis on puzzle solving, but Fahrenheit is definitely something worth picking up if you just happen to find it.

Players take control of a man named Lucas Kane, a normal guy with a good job working with computers and a failing love life, but as we see from the very first scene in the game, he is sitting in a bathroom in a seedy restaurant on a blistery snowy January evening, in a trance-like state, carving his own arms with a knife, and then proceeds to murder an unknown man in the bathroom. He snaps out of the trance, covered in blood, scared and confused, not remembering any of the details that led to this point.

This in turn  sets off a chain of events in which turns into Lucas having to avoid to police to find the truth of what happened that night. The glory part though is, you also control two of the detectives trying to hunt him down; Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles.

Carla is a headstrong, powerful woman with a strong sense of what’s right and wrong, while (as much as I like him) Tyler seems to be more of a Comic relief character. He has his moments, but he seems to just be thrown in to take a lot of seriousness away from the story. For example, in one scene we see Tyler playing basketball with a co-worker over a debt he owes. One thing that bugged me about this, is the fact that they’re playing basketball in a snowstorm, and also, if Tyler is on the hunt for a killer, he shouldn’t be messing about shooting some hoops. C’mon!

Overall the game is set in different chapters which contain different set pieces or elements that add to the story. Most of the time, players can actually choose which character to play as first before continuing the story.

Players take control of Lucas, Carla and Tyler as they walk around the areas, using the left stick to walk, holding X to run, and using the right stick to perform all the actions in the game. This involves stuff such as flicking the right thumb stick up in order to climb a ladder, or talk to a person. All the actions in the game are done this way, besides the action set-pieces and other parts of the game which involve tapping L1 and R1 repeatedly to survive.

Quick time events are ever present throughout Fahrenheit, although the game is generous enough to tell you to “get ready” before they pop up. At the very start of the game, this may be a little overbearing, but it’s easy to get the hang of once you become more involved in the game. As the action is happening, two circles appear on screen which looks like “Simon says” boards. These correlate to the left and right analogue sticks. Different corners of the screen will light up and you must flick the stick in that direction. Do it too slowly or mess up too much and you’ll be penalised, ultimately leading to your character dying or becoming more stressed out.

The mentality meter is a very interesting addition to the gameplay and it really makes players consider the different choices they make before actually making them. A character starts out on 100% which is “neutral”, finding out bad news, seeing things they don’t like or failing quick time events can drastically reduce your mental state and ultimately lead to a game over if you’re not careful. Although this inclusion is a very unique element of gameplay, I had one of my characters commit suicide just because they had seen a homeless person. Things aren’t that bad mate!

Characters can regain mentality by eating, sleeping, listening to music or doing other hobbies such as watching TV or playing guitar. It’s a great relief to have 5% mentality restored up to 40%, but the game likes to throw curveballs all the way and you might get penalised for saying something wrong a few seconds later.

Fahrenheit looks fine, and that’s all I can say about it without bashing it for being dated. The character models look great, some of the facial motion capture is a little off, and the level design can be a little bland, looking like something out of the first Max Payne game. Besides that, characters are very real and believable, and thankfully the great voice cast of the game did as much as they can to really bring the Fahrenheit universe alive. Most of the voice actors in the game portray more than one character, and it’s great to see the talent they had on the production of the game. Even the dialogue is great, it’s very strong and believable, although it can get a bit too “Hollywood” at most points. There are some fantastic camera angles done at certain points a lá 24 where the player can see multiple perspectives, which can really help, or add much more tension into gameplay.

The only downside of the story is that sometimes things can jump around too much or not make a lot of sense, by the time you reach the end credits, you’ll know everything there is to know, but for the most part the narrative is very slow to reveal some plot points. The last hour of the game seemed a little rushed to me, after such a very convincing start and a great mid-section, and there’s an unbelievably stupid love interest that really hammed in and it was totally unnecessary and irrelevant to the plot. Sorry, I don’t do many spoilers, but it annoyed me on a huge level, so consider this a warning.

I was very surprised to see actual licensed songs were used in the games soundtrack, mostly from Nickelback wannabes Theory of a Deadman, but there are also songs from Bobby Byrd and Nina Simone. The original score of the game is great, sounding like something from an A-list Hollywood flick. The score is only used when appropriate, during intense action scenes, or heartbreaking emotional scenes. As repetitive as it may scene, the score never really grows old as it’s always used in appropriate places, when the player is too busy to be focusing on the music. The addition of real world songs also makes this world feel like it could be happening right now. There are also little nods at real world newspapers and movies for good effect.

Fahrenheit is a great story, but there’s not a whole lot worth coming back for, unless you want to see all the bad endings when you fail. As players progress through the game, they can acquire bonus points used to buy artwork, music and cutscenes in the extras menu. There are also minigames players can participate in, but for me, this wasn’t a drawing point after I watched the end credits. There are some interesting making-of videos to watch, which is always a fantastic inclusion. Fahrenheit is more like an interactive book you can pick up every once in a while for a good ol’ read.

Fahrenheit has been remastered for PS4, if you can grab a copy for yoruself, I’d fully recommend it! 

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review: Shadow of the Colossus

Here we are, Shadow of the Colossus, which is the stuff of gaming legend at this point. If you haven’t played this game, you may have heard of it at some point. Shadow of the Colossus is the spiritual successor to 2001’s ICO. Developed by Team ICO and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2005, Shadow of the Colossus is a unique masterpiece of a game which instils so much emotion through its short run time, but by the time the end credits roll, it’s a satisfying adventure full of thrills, excitement, and wonderment.

The beauty behind SOTC is the imagination behind it. Players take control of Wander, a young man who, along with his loyal horse Aggro, traversing a long and winding path to a mysterious temple in the “forbidden lands”. Through this lengthy, yet quiet opening sequence we get a good sense of world building. This is a lonely, foreboding story, yet we have no idea of the premise of this journey.

As the Wander arrives at the temple, which is a huge stone building amidst a giant plain of land. Dialogue in the game is kept to a minimalistic low, and anytime we hear someone speak it’s in incomprehensible language. He takes someone off his horse and places them on an altar. As he removes the cover, we see it’s a young girl who is obviously dead.

We are then introduced to Dormin, a ominous voice which explains to Wander that if he can destroy the sixteen Colossi scattered throughout the forbidden lands, he can bring back the girl from the dead. This is when the game finally gets underway.

Gameplay is kept very simple, Wander is equipped with a sword, and a bow and arrow, which doesn’t change for the whole game. He also has the ability to jump and grab onto objects by holding the R1 button. While holding onto ledges and the Colossi themselves, the grip meter, indicated by a pink circle, begins to diminish. This adds a lot of tension for the player and encourages a lot of planning while taking on the many Colossi throughout the game.

The Colossus fights are the only combat that Wander will take part in throughout the game. The Forbidden land is devoid of any enemies which can add to the loneliness of the journey that Wander takes part in, and the emptiness of the Forbidden Land.

The battles with the Colossi are fantastic and they are all very cleverly designed. Some may look similar to previous enemies, but each battle has its own amount of strategy, planning, and puzzlesolving. The idea is to climb onto these huge creatures and stab their vital points, indicated by a glowing blue sigil on their body. Taking down these monsters is easy enough once you know what to do, as they don’t have a whole lot of health, and it’s so satisfying to take a huge chunk of health out of a Colossus in one go. Some of the most challenging parts, and fun are finding out how to get to the vital point.

While not taking on these huge monsters, most of the game time is spent actually getting from the starting point of the Temple, to the Colossus you’re meant to be taking on. Aggro the horse is an invaluable asset to Wander throughout the game, as the Forbidden Land is absolutely massive and would probably take hours to traverse on foot. It still takes a long time to get from one place to the other, but it gives the player and Wander a lot of time to reflect on the fight to come, and even the fights that have passed previously.

A map is available in the pause menu to see where you are in the world, but to find the correct way to go, Wander can hold his sword upwards and follow the light reflected from his sword to find the next Colossus. This is actually a genius element to gameplay. It shows the general direction without holding your hand and leading you to the exact spot. This can lead to some wonderful bouts of getting lost among the beautiful cliff faces, grasslands, deserts and lakes within the forbidden land.

ICO and Shadow of the Colossus were released together as a HD remaster on Playstation3 in 2011, and I believe this to be the definitive version of the game. The beautiful visuals of the original PS2 entry are only enhanced in stunning 1080p and the inclusion of stereoscopic 3D, which shows an even better scope of the landscape, and an even better depth of field. There are a few issues such as stuff in the distance popping in, but the framerate is consistent at 30FPS, which is great and doesn’t break the immersion or slow down the journey at all.

The sound design was also given a good polish with this new release, and this serene, majestic, almost playful soundtrack is beautifully performed and adds so much excitement to the Colossus fights, and is supported by 7.1 Surround Sound. No music plays throughout the horse riding segments, but once the battles begin, they build up the tension, and once Wander is on the right track to defeating the Colossus, the music shifts to an even more upbeat, yet melancholy tone. I never got sick of the music in SOTC, it’s used at the most appropriate times, and even when a Colossus is defeated, the music which plays isn’t a fanfare, but it’s almost like a dramatic realisation that you have just taken a life.

SOTC isn’t just a typical action/platformer title, but it’s a story about sacrifice, suffering, and the lengths a person will go to save someone they care about. It’s a bittersweet tale, and although it can be completed in less than five hours. It’s a tale that will stick with most players, and revisiting this amazing game is always a welcome treat. On completion of the game, Hard mode is unlocked, along with a time attack mode, where new items can be unlocked. Some people may be satisfied by completing the game once, but die-hard fans and trophy hunters alike will probably stick around to pick up all these nice little add-ons.

Shadow of the Colossus is a game of the ages, it’s one of those “you must play this before you die” kind of games. It really shows the beauty of what video games can truly be. This game is no less of a game, than a piece of art.

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review: Silent Hill: Downpour

When a game is established and a new developer takes the reins of the direction of a new game in a series, it can usually end in disaster. Thankfully, this isn’t the case with Silent Hill: Downpour, which is the eight Silent Hill game in the series. Developers Vatra Games have tuned up what Double Helix did with Homecoming, and have made this the most expansive Silent Hill game to date. Bearing in mind the story is not the greatest in the series, but with an addition of character choices, side quests, and tense set pieces makes Downpour a fantastic game to experience.

Players take the role of Murphy Pendleton, a convict from Ryall State Prison being transferred to Overlook Penitentiary on the outskirts of the town of Silent Hill. Naturally, things don’t go as planned, the prison bus crashes, leaving Murphy the only one alive, and from there he enters Silent Hill, searching for a way out. Things don’t seem right, the place is abandoned, thick fog covers the town, and as the rain begins to get heavy, the monsters come out….

Even if Downpour is weak in the story department, the game has a very strong opening, as Murphy traverses the woodland area, coming across a deserted diner. I haven’t felt a tension like this going into a game since Resident Evil 4. When a game makes you feel nervous like this, it’ll keep you on the tip of your toes until something comes out of the woodwork that gives you a reason to be scared.

When Murphy arrives in Silent Hill, he can take on some very clever side quests, such as finding an art collection and arranging the pieces into a map, or following ribbons tied on lamp posts to find a missing child. These are totally optional, but add a lot more depth to the story, and help to branch out the short runtime of the game. Some are absolutely terrifying quests however, I won’t throw in any spoilers, but think cinema, think haunted, and think dark. Have fun!

Gameplay is a mishmash of awkward fighting, and although exploration throughout the town is really fun and possibly the most explorative Silent Hill to date. You’re gonna find yourself on foot for the whole game, and after a while it can become a bit tiresome, especially if you have to wander from one end of the town to the other to complete a quest. This can be even worse when being swarmed by enemies.

The game is played from a third person perspective, players control Murphy with the left stick and the camera with the right. Murphy can run faster or even sprint away from fights by holding down R1, using L1 the camera shifts to face Murphy so we can see any potential dangers lurking in the darkness behind him, and the overall control scheme has been refined greatly from previous entries. The game takes more of an action/adventure approach rather than the series’ previous “survival horror�� elements.

Combat has been toned back from Homecomings “I know what I’m doing with a weapon” to a scavenge system, where Murphy must use items from the environment to take down enemies. Murphy can only carry two weapons at one time, one gun and one melee weapon. This involves using chairs, pipes, axes, knives and other objects. Guns are also available but ammo is extremely scarce. This makes every shot count and I found myself resorting to throwing bricks at enemies from across the room (this is much more fun if you pretend you’re in Shaun of the Dead) instead of wasting those last few precious bullets.

Silent Hill: Downpour has introduced a “fight or flight” system where Murphy can run away from the enemies, or you can even do a totally peaceful playthrough without killing any monsters at all. This can save so much time, resources and frustration when it comes to enemies. Melee weapons also deteriorate with time so sometimes it’s best to just run away from a fight instead of leaving yourself without a weapon. Homecoming uses elements of the weather to increase the difficulty of monster encounters, so sometimes it’s best to just run.

As Murphy walks the foggy streets of Silent Hill, he may encounter a few enemies that he can easily take care of, but when things begin to darken, and the rain becomes heavier, Murphy must find his way indoors before he gets overwhelmed. When there’s a downpour of rain, the monsters come out in even greater numbers, and they also become much tougher and can damage Murphy so much more. This is a great addition to the series, as Silent Hill has always been known for being foggy, it’s great to see a new element of the weather incorporated into the game.

This Silent Hill game has possibly some of the most fun puzzle solving I’ve seen in any Silent Hill game, this is seen through all the very fun side-quests that Murphy can take while on his stint in the town. Through the game, Murphy can use a lighter, a flashlight, and a forensic UV light to search different areas. Exploring areas with the UV light may find Murphy hidden goodies, or using the lighter (where the camera switches to an over-the-shoulder view), Murphy can use these tools in some very unconventional ways. Other puzzles include cracking the codes on safes throughout the town, rearranging blocks to create a picture, and pressing coloured buttons in the right order using your only clue which is a morbid poem. These puzzles aren’t too challenging but at some points I found myself actually having to take notes instead of remembering the answers, and including the player in real world situations such as taking down notes and using logic is one of my favourite elements of puzzle solving in video games.

The overall look of Downpour is fantastic in general, the character models are very well designed, thelevel design and lighting teams have to be commended for their fantastic job on the game. Areas seem really believable and as is Silent Hill nature, most of the doors or entryways are blocked, so Murphy must find alternative routes. The characters all look great, even if the game is four years old at this point, but everything from the animations are great, to how Murphy’s clothes become more blood-stained with the more damage he takes. The lighting has been improved tenfold from SH Homecoming, the flashlight is actually useful this time. It gives a good amount of illumination to areas but also encourages exploring every single area just incase you catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye. The fog outside is thick enough so that you can see where you’re meant to go, but there’s always something just out of sight, and it looks great, not just like the “invisible fog wall” from the HD Remasters of 2 and 3. The wet texture on Murphys clothes is very impressive to see when he gets caught out in the rain, it’s a shame he dries up as soon as he enters a building.

Sadly, Silent Hill Downpour suffers from some absolutely appalling frame rate issues, and some texture loading difficulties when the game boots up or when a new area is entered. These are only minor issues but can definitely ruin the games immersion when you’re out and about, and suddenly the game decides to slow down.

The monster design is also quite poor. Normally Silent Hill monsters are absolutely terrifying creatures that would scare even the hardiest of lads. I’m not gonna say they aren’t intimidating, however, they are just people. Besides the creepy Weeping Bats which hang from the ceiling, all the monsters are just humanoids which attack very viciously. There’s not a whole lot of subtly like there was in previous entries. Each enemy type is introduced with a very strong, spooky opening, but after you see them once, the fear is kind of lost.

Silent Hill Downpour has a great soundtrack, with a theme song by numetal legends KoRn, the sound design uses all the usual eerie Silent Hill traits such as droning ambient noise while Murphy is exploring the town, or sometimes there’s an absence of music, using the environmental sounds such as the waterfall when entering “Devils Pit”. At certain points Murphy will find radios that play different songs from the Silent Hill universe, and this is a great callback and can add some very creepy atmosphere to the game as you struggle to find out what is really going on.

The performance of the voice actors is some of the best so far, using an almost unknown cast. Murphy sounds like a guy who is on the run from the law, and there’s also a fantastic performance of one of the guards, Frank, portrayed by Leer Leary, who plays Jim Gordan in Nightwing: Escalation. Players can also hear Murphys thoughts as he collects items and travels to different areas, using a enforced by a heavy reverberant sound.

Silent Hill Downpour is the greatest Silent Hill game we’ve seen in a very long time and although the traditional tank controlled survival horror series we all love is gone, Downpour is a great game with so much to offer, despite a flawed story, and a dodgy frame rate which needs improvement. With many different ways to play, secrets to discover, hidden endings to see and side quests to complete, there’s no reason you shouldn’t come back to Silent Hill one more time, explore all the sights, sounds, and experiences it has to offer…….

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review: Silent Hill Homecoming

Horror in video games has kind of lost its touch in recent years. Games like Five Nights at Freddies and Amnesia are spooky, but they don’t have the same kind of impact that some games had just a few years ago. I’m talking about games that scare you enough to not even think about playing in the dark. Games like Silent Hill.

Silent Hill is the literal interpretation of what it feels like to be truly alone and helpless. This is a game of an everyman who just managed to end up in the wrong place, for whatever reason, and is plagued by terrifying monsters and horrific imagery. Silent Hill is no more a place than it is a state of mind, a terrifyingly warped, messed up state of mind, which leaves both player and character changed psychologically.

It is so unfortunate how after so many good Silent Hill entries, there has to be a few (not exactly bad, but bad) eggs in the basket that don’t live up the highly intense experience that the first four games gave. I’m talking about 2008’s Silent Hill: Homecoming.

Silent Hill: Homecoming is the fifth entry in the series, and the first game to be developed by a company outside of Japan. Double Helix games took up the mantle for this entry, and while it still has a lot of the original Silent Hill aesthetic, it really misses the point by a long shot.

Players take control of Alex Shepherd, a young man returning from war to his hometown of Shepherds Glen. After a somewhat spooky introduction, Alex arrives in Shepherds Glen, but something is….different. The town is covered in thick fog, the townsfolk are acting weird, and children are suddenly going missing.

Alex goes home to find his mother in a depressed, catatonic state. She tells Alex that his younger brother, Joshua, and his father are both gone. This sets off a chain of events which brings Alex all across the small town of Shepherds Glen, and inevitably, the empty streets of Silent Hill.

Personally, I actually really enjoyed this game for the most part, but after playing through Silent Hill 1 – 3, it’s clear to see that Silent Hill has just become another brand for these people. There’s love in the stitching but this could have been any other game if the name Silent Hill wasn’t thrown in to appease fans.

Traditionally, as I mentioned earlier, Silent Hill games have you taking control of an everyman, someone who doesn’t have any combat experience or survival skills. This is all changed because of Alex. He’s not a bad character by any means, I mean, he’s a little dull at the best of times, but he’s a soldier trained to use weapons and firearms. This means he doesn’t just recklessly swing a pipe around like James Sutherland, or doesn’t fire aimlessly like Heather Mason, he actually knows what he’s doing. This really takes the edge off the scare factor if you know you can just beat the crap into any monster that comes your way. Alex can use melee weapons such as fire axes, steel pipes and knives, and is also handy with firearms, using pistols and shotguns to take down enemies. Ammo is hard to come across early on in the game, so expect a lot of close one on one fights. Alex can also dodge attacks at the right time to get the advantage on an enemy.

The scare factor is still there thankfully, I’m talking about a particular hotel section that had me jumping at shadows, just because of the ambient noise. Unfortunately, there are scenarios that have you running around with other characters, and this loses a lot of the “lost and alone” side of the Silent Hill mould.

As Alex, you travel from place to place, exploring different buildings, completing puzzles, and fighting enemies. Some puzzles had me completely stumped, having to look up the solution online, other puzzles are just logical and are quite fun to solve.

Exploration is done in third person, using a map to help to see where Alex is meant to be going. He can also use a flashlight to see in dark areas, but sadly, the poor lighting in the game means the flashlight can sometimes be absolutely useless at times. Alex also has a walkie-talkie which picks up static whenever monsters are nearby. This is tradition in the Silent Hill franchise, and it’s good to see back in the game.

Exploration is actually encouraged by secret areas that may contain health drinks, or ammunition. Alex can also collect eerie drawings done by children, or Polaroid photographs taken by his brother Josh. This doesn’t do a whole lot for the gameplay except expanding the game world a little bit. Unfortunately, this is as much replay value as the game has without trying to beat the game on the hardest difficulty, or trying to find some of the games multiple endings.

I was sad to see that trophies for Silent Hill Homecoming are nowhere to be seen on Playstation3, although there are achievements on the Xbox360. This might be an incentive for some of you Xbox heads out there. Sadly, a lack of trophies didn’t encourage me to come back to the game; I was satisfied completing it once.

What did draw me in, however, is the gritty, disturbing visuals of the game. Overall the graphics look a little dated, but it adds to the games disturbing features. From the start we are led down blood soaked corridors, filled with a void into the unknown. As Alex continues along, things begin to change, the scenery flakes away and turns into an unholy nightmare. Normally in Silent Hill games, the “otherworld” sections are transitioned by a cutscene, but in Homecoming, we get to see it happen right before our eyes, and it’s beautifully grim. Alex finds himself in dank, rusty pits of hell. Throughout the game you may also see a grainy filter over the camera, which helps to create a kind of “horror b-movie” feel to the entry.

The design of the monsters has to be one of the games strongest points. These monsters are genuinely scary, whether you’re in knee deep water waiting for a Lurker to pop out, or even the fantastically designed bosses, which all have their own amount of symbolism behind them, and are one part terrifying and one part absolutely beautifully designed. It’s great to see such effort went into the design of these monsters. There is a certain triangle dude pushed into the game, where he doesn’t exactly belong in this particular Silent Hill game, but even he gets a nice HD makeover.

These visuals make up for the games audio, which is sloppy at best. Dialogue doesn’t exactly feel believable. Although Brian Bloom does a good portrayal of Alex Shepherd, the rest of the cast do a pretty sub-par performance.

The sound design of the game is quite good, leading to a very minimal soundtrack. Silent Hill Homecoming works more on ambient sounds, such as monsters groans, the industrial sound of machines in the distance, and an ever present spooky humming sound in the distance. Perhaps that IS the soundtrack. Whenever music does play in the game, it never feels out of place.

Overall, Silent Hill Homecoming is a decent game, with a very short run time. Although it may appeal to newer horror fans rather than the hardcore old school Silent Hill fans, it’s definitely a game worth picking up cheap for a good few hours. It’s great to see what can be done with Silent Hill on a next gen console, but a tweak in the lighting, combat and story wouldn’t go amiss. It’s still spooky when it needs to be, but it won’t leave you wide awake at night.

[candyciangaming]

Compare and Contrast: Final Fantasy IX & Final Fantasy XIII

Over the course of my twenty-something years as a gamer, I’ve always had to deal with fierce arguments and discussions with people who simply do not like turn-based RPG games, those who go for an easier, more action oriented approach. Or maybe they’re only a social gamer who doesn’t want to invest in the many many hours you need to dedicate to all that stat building and levelling up.

I can’t totally understand that.......it’s just their wrong opinion.

Okay, so maybe I’m a little biased. I remember being around 8 or 9 years old when I first played an RPG game. I didn’t understand it, I didn’t know what I was meant to be doing and all in all, I sucked at it. I got a demo from Planet PC magazine, which included Earthworm Jim 3D, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, some weird NERF arena-shooter (which never ran very well on the ol’ Windows 98), but nestled away in the corner of the disk was a preview of “Final Fantasy VIII”. This was my first taste of a fully fleshed out RPG, and I didn’t get hooked on the genre until I received Pokémon Gold for Game Boy Colour on my 10th birthday, that I really understood that idea of “random encounters” in games, and all this levelling up nonsense, and actually having to make a strategy for the harder battles. My love of RPG games grew, especially with the Final Fantasy series. This series has been maturing and growing for nearly three decades, starting with the original 8-BIT Final Fantasy in 1987 all the way up to a fifteenth instalment on the way (not even counting the amount of spin-offs, add-ons, movies and other additions to the games), I have decided to look at two Final Fantasy games which contrast very differently, yet are so similar at the same time. The Final Fantasy games have often stuck with a certain formula. These are incredibly huge games which will take a very long time to complete, but it’s always one hell of a journey! The player takes control of a character, or many characters, as they embark upon a quest to *insert heroic deed here*, and save the world. These characters are almost always a rag-tag bunch of misfits setting out to do good (AVALANCHE from FFVII comes to mind) and eventually they get drawn into some strange conspiracy and shit literally hits the fan from there. There’s a great deal of world building to be done so it’s nice that you’re given a chance to settle in and talk to other characters to find out what’s going on before setting off on the journey, even if you may not understand what’s going on from the get-go.

Gameplay generally takes places on three seperate planes; villages/towns/dungeons which feature pre-rendered backgrounds; battle screens rendered in real time, and also an “overworld” which the player must traverse to get to a new location, also rendered in real time. Each Final Fantasy game is set in a different universe, so you can pick up Final Fantasy V or VII without having to play any other games and you won’t be missing anything.

Battles are totally random, which can lead to the frustration of many a player when trying to complete the story, and most RPG’s are renounded for these random battles. The party consists of up to 3-4 characters, who must fight the enemies on the other side of the battle field using weapons, magic, summons etc, until the enemies are defeated. The victory music plays and the player collects the spoils, usually in items and money. These random battles add a lot of hours onto the overall play time. Losing a battle means Game Over, and I like to call the FF series very unforgiving. If you haven’t saved in a while, and you die. You are royally screwed my friend!

This is what I like to call the “classic” Final Fantasy formula. It was easy to get the hang of, very difficult to master. Each Final Fantasy has something new thrown into the mix to make it unique. FF7 had the Materia system, FFX had the sphere gride, FF12 had the license system, and FF9 has the ability system. Normally these are explained in detail at the start of the story by a support character. It settles you in nicely before letting go of the training wheels. Final Fantasy 1 through 10 is what I like to refer to as “classic” Final Fantasy, while the newer games follow a different formula gameplay wise. This is possibly to do with how powerful consoles are becoming, allowing for real-time battles, online play, voice acting, greater sound and video depth, and greater detail with more content overall.

Now, where do I even begin with comparing these two behemoth games that are Final Fantasy IX and XIII respectively. Being released nearly a decade apart (2000 and 2009), it was only seen that the hardware would allow for XIII to be an even bigger, more expansive game. Please don’t take this as IX being a bad game, oh no, it was it’s own level of charm, atmosphere and depth that always make it a game very close to my heart, and always a pleasure to return to.

Final Fantasy IX sees the player take on the role of protagonist Zidane Tribal, a happy go-lucky thief who belongs to the theater group Tantalus. These swashbuckling misfits are on a mission to kidnap Princess Garnet, the daughter of the queen of the kingdom of Alexandria. This in turn leads Zidane and a huge colourful cast on a fantastical journey which leads to daring rescues, traversing abandoned dungeons and castles, and visiting bustling cities and serene villages.

From the very moment you select “New Game”, players are greeted with some absolutely gorgeous CG animation which draws us into the world of Gaia. Beautiful orange and yellow colours, backdropped with stunning, nearly Disney-like castles and huge flying airships show us the kind of world we’re settling into. Final Fantasy IX looks like something taken straight out of a fairy tale, it’s always very interesting to see the bright, vibrant streets of Lindblum, compared to the murky green and brown shades in Qu’s Marsh, or even the ever gloomy and rainy streets of Burmecia. One thing the Final Fantasy series has thrived on, is never having two scenes look alike.

Final Fantasy XIII takes more of a mature route. From the start it’s not exactly clear who we are, why we’re playing as these people, or what we’re doing. Final Fantasy IX at least had the luxury of explaining what the objective was. XII dives straight in with our protagonist, We see our hero, Lightning Farron, taking down armed PSICOM guards on board a speeding train. This is a very strong opening to an absolutely stunning game.

People who are infected and turned “L’cie” (you’ll hear this word a LOT in the game, are sent to the other world of Pulse to be “purged”. This is an almost holocaustic link within Final Fantasy XIII, with a death train taking doomed people to their fate. The Final Fantasy series has always dealt with topics such as war, murder, religious sacrifice, but this is on a whole new level altogether.

In the first few hours of FFXIII, our heroes are “branded” as L’Cie, and set off through the world of Cocoon to try and fix their fate. This leads to some amazingly tense and emotional situations throughout the narrative. Just, be prepared to do a LOT of walking for the next 50+ hours. 

Final Fantasy XIII is an extremely linear game, which a lot of people have been very critical of. It’s definitely a big change from the free, open game that IX was. Sadly, Final Fantasy XIII is a game that needs a lot of patience. You may feel like you’re walking down a corridor that never seems to end, but it all pays off in the end. For the predicament that the main characters are in, it’s understandable that time is of the essence for them, and they don’t have time to dilly dally about with time wasting tasks.

Final Fantasy XIII also comes with a Datalog in the pause menu, which provides in depth information about the games events, characters, and other jargon, just in case you don’t understand what’s going on. FFIX is a little more straightforward story-wise, everything is explained in an easy to understand way.

Final Fantasy IX has a lot more exploring, with a full open world to explore. The world of Gaia is huge, especially for the PS1 era. Zidane and Co can get by on foot, riding Chocobos, boats and airships to get to different locations on the overworld map. The worlds of Cocoon and Gran Pulse are traversed fully on foot, with Chocobos being found later on in the game, along with way stones to help Lightning and friends fast travel to different areas. For the most part in both games, you’ll be hoofing it for most of the journey. Thankfully, it’s not boring to look at.

The art direction in XIII is a far cry from IX, going for more white and grey colours, after all, the world of Cocoon in which XIII takes place is a futuristic dystopian society, compared to Final Fantasy IX’s storybook setting. The two worlds of Cocoon and Gran Pulse are a huge contrast to each other. They both have some amazingly beautiful scenery, and you’ll be forgiven for stopping to admire the view. Personally, I stopped for about five minutes just to look at the sunset in Palumpolum. Not many games have ever made me just stop and stare, but it was so worth it!

You can even see from both introductions, the contrast of characters and species’ within the games. Final Fantasy IX has a host of species living among each other, such as Hippo people, Rat people, and Moogles, this nearly plays out like a cartoon. XIII favours a more realistic approach of having an all human cast, although monsters do exist within the game world, the main cast are all human to some degree.

This is where I see the first very big contrast between the cast of FFIX and FFXIII. Without spoiling too much, they all have different personalities, that’s for sure, but because of the situations the two parties are thrown into, they all take it very differently.

Steiner, one of my favourite characters from IX, is the Captain of the Queens guard, he is headstrong and also extremely stubborn, and constantly gets into fights and arguments with Zidane and other people in the game. However, by the end of the game he becomes a totally different character through learning to trust his instincts and just let go. It is actually very hard to describe character development without spoiling too much, but lets just say certain developments happen which cause Steiner to question everything he is doing.

This here is great character development, and it shows that even though a character is flawed, they can still change and come out on top. This carries over into FFXIII, and other characters, such as Snow, who comes accross as very arrogant and cocky, is also flawed. He hides his own fears behind his confidence to try and look like the “hero”, as he calls himself.

There are a good few cheesy lines thrown in for good measure, most noticeably in FFXIII, with outrageously cheesy dialogue. This adds to the charm of the game, and adds to that “anime” style of the game.

The characters are all fantastically portrayed by some extremely talented voice actors the industry, most noticeably Troy Baker, the voice of Snow, who voices Joel from The Last of Us, The Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins, and Ocelot in MGSV, along with Vincent Martella, the voice of Hope, who also voices Phineas in Phineas and Ferb.

Final Fantasy IX on the other hand is all portrayed through on-screen text boxes. The Final Fantasy series didn’t have full voice acting until the tenth series, so this has been a staple of the series since the very beginning.

Famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu takes up the mantle for both of these games’ soundtracks, and he literally puts the soul into both entries. Each game has a different score which brings them to life. Final Fantasy IX works on a more classical basis, from the main menu and many of the battle themes, you can hear a heavy emphasis on classical instruments, such as woodwind flutes, and a sound somewhere between a marching band and a battle fanfare. The use of classical guitar, harpsichord and grand piano are very prominent in a lot of the ambient pieces. It’s an incredibly vibrant soundtrack and possibly one of my favourites in the whole series.

Final Fantasy XIII has a lot of vague similarities to the IX soundtrack, with a use of “marching” drums in many of the pieces, and a fantastic orchestral score. Nobou has also merged classical and hard rock into this soundtrack, so when you listen to the piece “Defiers of Fate”, heavy bass drops and a metal guitar riff suddenly change into this massive epic of a song. There are also some wonderful pieces which incorporate fantastical piano flourishes accompanied by synth keyboard and an orchestra to make even the smallest battles feel like you’re taking on something more than just an enemy.

The Final Fantasy score incorporates nearly every genre of music into the soundtrack, and it’s a welcome addiction. It may not be the most memorable of soundtracks, but it’s by no means a bad ol’ listen.

I could literally talk about the soundtrack for days, it’s wonderful, it truely is. However I felt it got a bit repetitive around the halfway mark. None of the songs felt boring to me, but if I had to hear the pop version of Serahs theme for one more minute I probably would’ve cracked. I nearly teared up the first time I heard it, because it’s an absolutely beautiful, especially the piano rendition on the main menu. It kind of loses it’s touch after the millionth time on repeat.

Gameplay between Final Fantasy IX and XIII are worlds apart, and if you were to put these two games side by side, they wouldn’t feel like they belong in the same series.

Final Fantasy IX relies on fixed camera angles when in a town or dungeon, and battles occur at random. This has been the way of Final Fantasy since the very start. When battles occur, players are taken to a battle screen where up to four party members can fight the enemies. The player picks the move for each character and the battle plays out. The ATB (Active Time Battle) gauge shows how much time to wait before the next character can make a move, so it’s all very strategy based.

Defeating enemies rewards each character with experience and ability points. Experience points level up characters, making them more powerful, while ability points are added to whatever ability is currently equipped.

Equipping abilities, characters must first equip a weapon or armour with an ability on it, then when the correct amount of AP is obtained, the character learns the ability.

Final Fantasy XIII reinvented things with a lack of random battles. This time around, enemies are seen wandering around the map, and by walking into them, the battle commences. This is a great way to sneak by enemies without having the fight, or even being able to get the drop on enemies and have the upper hand with a preliminary strike. The ATB system is still here, but instead of loading time until the character can make a new turn. It’s seperated into blocks. For example, “attack” may only take up one block, which a spell such as “cura” will take up to two or three ATB blocks. As the ATB bar expands, players can combine different attacks and spells together to create the best result.

The Paradigm system is also introduced. This allows the player to assemble a party of three, and assign specific roles to each character. Maybe you want two mages while someone heals from the background, or maybe you want a full on assault, or maybe you want two healers while someone draws the enemies attacks.

Defeating enemies rewards players with CP (Crystarium points). The Crystarium is a crystalised grid (similar to the Sphere grid from FFX). Players earn enough points to make their way around the grid and become stronger. This can be done between battles, so players have the option of increasing stats after each battle, or hoarding points and boosting up everyone in one go.

“Auto-Battle” is something that may be off putting for some people, where the CPU generates the best course of action without the player actually doing anything. Thankfully, with the Paradigm system, the player must control which roles the three characters have, and later on in the game, this becomes a fierce strategy. Having three commanders on the field may seem like a good idea, but if no one is there to heal them, you’ll end up dead pretty fast.

Dying in Final Fantasy games is always a nightmare for players, especially players who haven’t saved in a long time. Getting wiped out or “annihalated” in Final Fantasy IX will lead to a game over, getting sent to the main menu, and having to load up a new file. In the words of Metal Gear Solids Ocelot, “there are no continues my friend”.

Final Fantasy XIII holds your hand, as developers probably understood how frustrating it can be to have to introduce a totally new battle system after twelve installments. In FFXIII, if the lead character gets wiped out, it’s game over, it doesn’t matter if the other two characters are still kickin’, if the leader dies, forget about it. However, you are then asked if you would like to retry or quit the game. Retrying leads to the character being respawned just outside the battle, so the player can rectify their mistakes.

The ironic thing is, save points in FFXIII are very near to each other. I never found myself backtracking much to save. Save points also work as shops and weapon upgrade centers, which removed the need for actual shops, which was half the fun of exploring the towns in Final Fantasy IX.

Weapons can be upgraded using composite materials in FFXIII, while in IX, new weapons and armour can be synthesized from old items. This is a good incentive to hoard all your old items. Just in case.

The Final Fantasy series has been a personal staple of my childhood as a gamer, and to this day I’m still blown away but the fantastic visuals, stellar gameplay, convoluted plot, charming characters and absolutely absorbing worlds. Final Fantasy is the definitive role playing experience. Although it’s not for everyone, some people simply don’t like these types of games. If you stay for the journey, you won’t soon regret it.

Although Final Fantasy IX and XIII are worlds apart, the stories of each games seem a bit muddled and hard to follow at some points, never once have I ever regretted it. Each game left me feeling totally satified, and I’m very proud of Square Enix for what they’ve achieved so far, as well as being very excited to see how they fare in the future. 

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review - 007:The World Is Not Enough (PS1)

Movie tie-in games are always a fierce mistress, they can be absolutely fantastic with a great homage to the source material, they can even improve on the movie and add in more plot points and story elements (see the Harry Potter games for example), they can also be a total disaster with nothing to do with the film, and just be a means for developers can get a quick buck in on a franchise (do I need to go into ET....?)

Thankfully, 007: The World Is Not Enough on the original Playstation is a fairly fun, slightly frustrating first person shooter which isn’t a bore to play. It’s very close to its film counterpart, and it’s definitely a great way to kill a few hours.

After the fairly cold reception (get it? ;)) that 1999′s third person Tomorrow Never Dies received, TWINE developers Black Ops Entertainment decided to reinvent the 007 gameplay, taking a leaf out of Goldeneye’s book, they went back to first person. Definitely not a bad move, as you really feel like you’re a super sleuthy spy, defending Queen and Country.

The game, released in 2000 to tie in with the release of The World Is Not Enough movie, sees the player take control of Her Majesty's finest M16 agent, James Bond, as he thwarts a plot to destabilize the worlds oil supply. Each mission follows a certain plot point in the film, with segments of actual movie footage thrown in before and after each level. For 2000, this was pretty cool, it was the closest thing you could get to owning the movie before it even came out on VHS.

Bond must use an arsenal of weapons, gadgets, and his own cunning wit to get through each level. This involves fierce firefights with enemies on the streets of London, remaining undetected in a huge villa, and chasing down villains through busy streets.

My nostalgia got the better of me when I took up this game for the first time in over ten years. I remember as a kid each level taking me forever to finish, but the truth is, TWINE is a great game, although it’s not very long. If you know what you’re doing and don’t get killed, you can have this finished in under two hours. The best incentive to keep playing is the scoring system the game has in place. You are ranked based on how well you played each level, factors including your accuracy, efficiency with each weapon, time taken, and health remaining. Players can challenge friends to see who can get the best score in each level, although this seems to be the only replay value the game has going for it. Getting the stop score in certain levels unlock cheats which can make replaying old levels a little bit more interesting, but not by a huge amount.

Bond has a fantastic arsenal of different weapons and gadgets to use, ranging from his trusty silenced pistol, machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, satchel charges and even a heat seeking rocket launcher, built into a camera. Gadgets consist of fingerprint scanners, phone buggers, exploding pens, and a cell phone/taser. Although I spent most of my time gunning down enemies with the pistol, players will be spoiled for choice on how to take down enemies. The game also incorporates a great inventory management system in the pause menu. Players can select the items they want to appear on their inventory scroll in-game, without having useless items appear.

A lack of multiplayer, which was the staple in the Nintendo64′s Goldeneye, is a bit disappointing to see. A few 1on1 Death matches would have increased the replay value of TWINE. Players are given the option of Agent (Normal) or 007 (Hard) difficulties, which seperates the boys from the men. On 007 difficulty, enemies are extremely tough, and Bond can get wiped out in a few seconds if he doesn’t throw on some armour before getting into a fight.

The control scheme in the game is very reminiscent of pre-analogue stick days. Although dual-shock controllers are supported, Bond can only rotate on a horizontal axis without having to manually aim. This can be quite frustrating when getting fired on, and not being able to see at a glance where the attackers are. Bond cannot move while manually aiming, which can mean a lot of drawn out fire fights, and also a lot of trial and error.

A lack of checkpoints can also be pretty frustrating. Getting killed means you have to start the level from the very beginning, this can be really annoying when you keep getting killed at the same point in the game. All in all, the only strategy is to just try and fire from as far away as possible. That’s if the draw distance allows it, as you’ll see in some of the larger levels.

Graphically, the game is pretty standard for the late PS1 era, the game does a fair job of representing the games areas in the film. Character models, especially enemies all look fairly the same, with a facial texture kinda just plastered onto their face. This may be off putting and weird to some people, but bad guys do have different damage location, which means it’s more rewarding to get off a few head shots instead of wasting ammo firing into their arms or legs.

Levels themselves are detailed very well, with some great lighting and ambience. The level “Russian Roulette”, is a far cry from “Cold Reception” which just preceded it. No two levels look identical, which is always a good thing, I never found myself backtracking unless I forgot to pick something up, there’s a nice variation between each areas in the individual levels. For example, in the first level, the first two floors in the building look very sub-par and “pedestrian”, for lack of a better word, but when you get to the penthouse, you’re suddenly surrounded by nice wallpapers and floors, with heavily armed guards to boot! 

One thing I have to say about the visual design of the game is, at the start of the level, we see Bond before we take control of him. So, if he’s wearing a green ski suit at the start of the level, how come we can see he’s wearing some sort of dinner jacket while we’re playing as him. Not many dinner parties gonna be happening on those mountain slopes, Bond!

The visual ambience in the game is mirrored fantastcially by the music and sound effects, Moreso the latter. I’m very conflicted about the games music to be honest. It’s a very well composed soundtrack and I do like it, as it differs between each level, however each song isn’t exactly long. Depending on the level, the song is either a face paced rock track with an emphasis on rock and orchestral sounds and fast paced drum loops, or for the more subtle missions, slow jazzy beats with an emphasis on bass. Although this is appropriate for a Bond game, I believe the sound people on this game could have done with lengthening the soundtrack a little bit, to stop it feeling boring on repeat playthroughs.

Sound effects are done very well, there’s a great sense of satisfaction when firing off a silenced pistol, or an automatic shotgun. Each weapon has it’s own sound and the background sounds of NPC’s and vehicles really bring the world to life. In “Kings Ransom”, Bond must fight his way through a pub full of bad guys, and civilians. Background noise of people talking gives a better impression that the area is a lot more crowded than it actually is.

The voice acting in the game isn’t amazing, truth be told. All the actors’ likeness’ are used in the game, although John Cleese is the only actor to also voice a character in the game. There isn’t a whole lot of in-game dialogue, leaving most of it for the little movie segments in between levels. It gets the job done, but it wouldn’t have hurt to try a little harder. Also, why did they make Elektra King have a really bad French accent. Was she even french....?

Overall, 007: The World Is Not Enough, is a great little gem from the late days of the PS1. There have been a whole host of new Bond games on the shelves since, but it never hurts to take this one out for a little play every once in a while. It’s not the most amazing game in the world. It has it’s flaws, but it’s still very enjoyable for old and new Bond fans alike.

Also you can play BlackJack!

[candyciangaming]

Game Review - Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Directors Cut)

When I began writing reviews, my goal was simple: clear, concise information from an independent source about games I have a particular interest in, and why you guys (my adoring public) should play them. I’m not a part of any online magazines, review websites, or anything like that. I’m just a normal guy who enjoys games.

SO LET ME BE QUITE CLEAR WHEN I SAY YOU NEED TO PLAY THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

The original Deus Ex, released in 2000 for the PC was ground breaking in it’s design, emphasising gameplay that had so much open ended-ness, a story which gave you a choice in how you played, deep themes and plots, and multiple gameplay mechanics. Eleven years later, Deus Ex: Human Revolution takes everything great about the original title (and to a lesser extent, Invisible War), and cranks everything up. I guess you could say the Deus Ex formula got a well needed augmentation ;)

I originally played the normal version of Human Revolution back on the PS3 in 2012, a year after its release, and since then I was completely in love with the game, unfortunately it was not my copy so I had to give it back. However, I managed to pick up a copy of the Directors Cut for next to nothing in CeX, and I was very eager to get back into the Deus Ex universe. Lemme tell you now, if you find this game sitting around for a steal, it’s definitely worth the money.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, developed by Eidos Montréal and published by Square Enix, is a prequel to the original Deus Ex game, setting in the year 2027, twenty years before the events of the first game. Technology is becoming more and more advanced with each passing day, and people are starting to get cybernetic prosthesis’ and augmented enhancements, much to the debate between many different factions throughout the world. This is the set up the universe, and throughout the game you will see a lot of arguments over the topic of human beings being able to control their own evolution.

You take the role of Adam Jensen, a loose cannon ex-cop with a penchant for long jackets who doesn't play by the rules (I swear he is not a cliché). Adam works as a security manager for Sarif Industries, a company who is at the forefront of augmentation engineering.

Just before an important convention which will see a new breakthrough in human augmentations, Sarif Industries is attacked by mercenaries, leaving Jensen near death. In a “we can rebuild him, we have the technology” sense, he is rebuilt into a half-man, half-machine and carries out a quest to uncover the truth behind the attack, which leads him into some deep plots, compelling stories, satifying side-quests and some fantastic supporting characters.

Before you say “hang on, this is sounding an awful lot like Inspector Gadget!”, hear me out.....

The story of Deus Ex has always been filled with some fantastic character-based narrative, and Human Revolution does not fail to deliver on this promise. As Adam progresses through his adventure, he will meet many different characters who provide support and knowledge to help him. He can also find hundreds of emails, e-books and newspapers which help deliver a deeper understand of what is actually happening at that current moment in time. Everything is left in the hands of the player, and they can choose to find out as much about the world as they like, but fans of compelling stories will find this addition to the game a welcome treat.

As I said earlier, this is a story all about the choices people make, and it’s ironic how Adam, who has no say in his augmentations, gets to make an unbelievable amount of choices throughout the game. Everything, from side-quests, to how you augment yourself, to how you play the game is optional. Obviously you must complete main quests to advance the story, but for example, say you enter a facility filled with enemies, you have so many choices on how you can proceed.

You can take the macho route, chuck a few frag grenades in, run in all guns blazing and tear everyone apart with Adams badass elbow-blades. OR, you could be sneaky, use your stealth augs to get you through the area without being seen. You could even find a hidden ventilation system to get yourself through the area without ever having to go into the room.

A personal favourite method of mine is to hack the security panels, and turn all the robots and turrets in the room against the enemies. It feels good to be in charge!

Hacking is a big part of Human Revolution as you’ll probably spend a good few hours of your playthrough looking at computer screens. If you find the code to a computer login somewhere, more power to you, however, most of these computers/keypads/security systems need to be hacked. Hacking is a pretty fun mini-game where you must get from your starting node to the final node without alerting the security system within the computer. This may sound simple at first but the higher the security, the more the difficulty increases. Thankfully you can find Stop Worm software to slowdown the security timer, and Nuke software to instantly take over a computer node. Adam can also upgrade augments to become a better hacker as the game goes on.

The play style is totally in your hands. You do get more XP points for taking the sneaky, non-lethal route, although if you don’t have all that time, the “all guns blazing” route is just for you. You are rewarded, and rewarded well for exploring, even the game itself tells you to think outside the box. Not ever route is the safest route, and not every safe route is the most rewarding route. Thankfully you are given plenty of checkpoints throughout the game, as well as the feature to save whenever you like, which adds to a lot of “trial and error” testing.

As this is a role-playing-game, you earn XP points for completing tasks, taking out enemies, finding secret areas etc, and each level you progress earns you a new Praxis Kit. These kits may also be bought at Augmentation clinics (LIMB clinics), or found in secret areas, or just given to you for completing goals. Praxis kits allow you to upgrade one or more of your augmentations, to which there are so many. It’s up to you to decide which one you should upgrade next, because the idea of having no falling damage may sound really good, but there might be a level 4 security panel you need to hack in the next room, so you need to be wise about your decision.

Combat is another one of the games choices, I am very happy to say I was a good boy and got the “Pacifist” trophy for completing the game without a single kill. Adam can use his augs to take down enemies non-lethally, or brutally lethal, which offers a very wide selection on how you take out your targets.

The cover system is very unique, as DE is an FPS, Adam can duck behind cover using L1 (or LB for you Xboxers out there), this pulls out of the 1st person camera to a 3rd person perspective which helps to see around corners or over cover. As much as I found gunplay a bit of a disappointment in this game, it’s very easy to take potshots at enemies behind cover and be able to duck back down before they every knew you were there. There is also a cool option to dive in between different cover spots when the prompt appears on screen. 

Weapons range from small arms such as stun guns, handguns and machine pistols, to huge bulking weapons like rocket launchers, laser rifles and plasma guns. Each gun has their own unique design and most of which are fully customisable with the right upgrades. Ammunition is few and far between and you may end up hoarding ammo for a gun that you don’t actually use, which can be a pain. However you can at least sell it down at the black market for some sweeeet credits.

Boss battles leave a little something to be desired, because even through the story, you never find out much about these characters before you fight them. They just seem to be super enhanced bad guys thrown into a few set pieces, and although I love the idea how there’s more than one way to take out these bad guys, I never found the encounters too intense or heart wrenching, because I barely knew the people I was fighting against.

While playing the directors cut version of Human Revolution, even though the game is 5 years old at this stage, the visuals look absolutely beautiful. Everything is draped in a futuristic black/yellow theme, which compliments the metallic, cold feeling of the level design. For most of the game you will be in huge cities or facilities, and you can see the art team on Deus Ex really put a lot of effort into making everything seem believable. Nothing in this game feels too out of place, even a completely white room near the end of the game feels natural due to the amount of textures used on each surfaces.

Most of the conversations in the game take place in real-time gameplay, so you can see a real contrast as the pre-rendered cutscenes play out. They look absolutely beautiful and I love how as the player sees one of the city hubs for the very first time, it’s actually a matte painting which brings the entire city to life.

As most of the gameplay takes place at night time, the moments when you get to see daylight really show a huge contrast from the dark, metallic colours to the bright and vibrant natural colours in the outdoor areas. Lighting and shadow effects are implemented very well, and I must give a lot of credit to the art department for the depth they added in each background.

Sadly, backgrounds are all they are, when you look at the fantastic Detroit skyline, you want to explore the big vast city, but mainly you are stuck to a central city hub. Although these are very big open areas, there was so much potential to add in more content. Such as a riot at the halfway point. We see all these police barriers and robo-guards everywhere, and we can hear a riot in the distance, but you can freely walk about the areas without any threats of anti-augmentation protesters. This could have added to an even more immersive experience in-game, but sadly we are subjected to a lot of this “could have been” throughout the story.

In the real-time conversations you can see the character models act very “twitchy” throughout, even though they are detailed very well, and the motion capture is top notch, there was always something about the body language in conversations that made them a little bit erratic looking, thankfully the voice talent in Human Revolution saves this. Elias Toufexis does an absolutely amazing job at portraying Adam Jensen. His harsh, husky tones do a great job at showing the kind of person that Jensen is, and the script he has is absolutely golden. As I keep saying, this is a game of choices, and mostly every conversation in this game has many different branching lines of communication within each selection. Characters may also remark on how you have played the game, such as if you have killed a lot of people or if you haven’t been spotted getting through an area. “Social boss battles” are also frequent in-game. These are little conversation set-pieces in which you can negotiate with a character to give up information, or release a hostage, or any other scenario that may pop up throughout the game. This gives players a chance to take charge of the conversion and try to talk their way through the scene and get what they need to progress. The body language, facial movement and expressions of these characters throughout these conversations make the experience feel like you are actually talking to another human being. Like the rest of the game, the things you say here may have dire consequences, so you need to choose what you say carefully.

The sound direction and score in Human Revolution is utterly outstanding, and Michael McCann, who composed the score should be totally commended for his work. Each location uses different music which suits the scenario perfectly. Missions where Jensen must trespass or sneak around an enemy base have appropriate “spy” music with smooth instrumentation and slow bass notes, where as if an alarm is raised or Adam ends up in a tense gun battle, the tempo is raised and the music becomes so much more intense. As Michael McCann says in the “making of” documentary which comes with the directors cut edition, each instrument used in the game has a certain “augmentation” of their own. There is a heavy emphasis on synth sounds, although any acoustic instruments such as guitars and pianos have been mixed to sound so much more “sci-fi” and the whole thing just adds to a beautiful soundtrack, and helps to compliment the seedy, almost dystopian background of 2027. The Directors Cut edition of Deus Ex: Human Revolution also comes with the added DLC package “The Missing Link” which see’s Jensen taken by the baddies, stripped of his augmentations, and place on a boat in which he must escape. This is a very enjoyable expansion and adds a good extra 4+ hours into your total play time. The story of The Missing Link doesn’t entirely effect the main story, but it’s a great way to fill in the blanks between two of the main story’s chapters. It’s a worthwhile venture for any hardcore Deus Ex fans out there.

You may also see that the overall graphics and textures of game are updated throughout the Missing Link, and although I say “you wouldn’t wach porn for the story, why play a game for the graphics”, the revamped graphics and textures do say a lot for what an absolutely stunning game this is. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an outstanding game in it’s own right, it does the original game justice, including a nice couple of homages to it’s predecessor, and it’s still a treat to sit down and play even five years after it’s release. It’s safe to say I still get butterflies playing this game, and I’m still finding stuff I missed the first time around, which just adds to the replayability of Human Revolution. Mentioned earlier, the Directors Cut also comes with a full 8 hour long commentary from some of the Eidos team members, and it’s so worth it to play through the game again and get the inside scoop about the game, and hopefully it will give you a deeper understanding of how much love went into creating this game.

After playing through the game twice in three days, its safe to say I am very very excited for the upcoming sequel “Mankind Divided”, and it’ll be great to see what the fantastic team at Eidos Montréal can do.

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review - Spiderman (PlaystationOne)

Over the last decade, especially within the last five years, superhero movies have taken the world by Storm (X-men pun :P), but now with the likes of Batman V Superman, Ant Man, Deadpool and the long anticipation of Captain America: Civil War on the brink of being released, I decided to go back a few years and check out one of the first heroes I fell in love with, and the game that revolutionised how we play comic book video games.

Spiderman, released in 2000 for the original Playstation, then ported to the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo 64, was a groundbreaking experience in the 3D superhero action/adventure genre. Many games based around comics up to that point were 2D, such as Batman Forever, some of the earlier Xmen games, and Captain America for Sega Megadrive. There were few 3D Superhero games, such as Superman 64 (but we won’t talk about that disaster). Spiderman was a game that gripped me from the very start and did not let go til after the end credits rolled.

This wasn’t Spidey’s first video game outing, with a few 2D games being released for megadrive and other consoles. This was the first Spiderman game to encorporate a fully 3D world into the game.

Produced by Activision and developed by Neversoft, who were also working on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 at the time, Spiderman is a 3rd person action/adventure game in which you take control of the Web-head through a linear story mode.

The game was made to mirror the amazing 90’s Spiderman cartoon that came out of (if any of you remember) FOX Kids, so expect cameos from other heroes from the Marvel Universe.

While at a science convention, a (newly-reformed) Doctor Otto Octavious, or Doc-Ock as he’s known, is presenting a new invention. However, Spiderman breaks in and steals the device. The only thing is, Peter Parker is in the crowd when Spiderman steals Doc-Ock’s device, so he couldn’t possibly be behind the heist, or could he?

Meanwhile, New York is covered in a weird yellow fog, and it’s obvious that some bad stuff is about to go down, so let’s get to it! There are four difficulties to select, Easy, Normal and Hard, and also Kid Mode for those of you who are new to video games and don't want a big challenge.

The game starts off with a nice little introduction by Stan Lee, who most Marvel heads will know is the man behind Spiderman, X-Men, and other Marvel heroes. You then take control as Spiderman who has a conversation with Black Cat who tells him that the bank is being robbed. This is a nice little scenario to get the player into Spidey’s costume and learn the ropes in a nice pace, with question marks left around for hints and tips on what to do next.

Spiderman can jump, punch, kick, and shoot web with the shape buttons, move about using the analogue stick, and the shoulder buttons are used to zip-line quickly across to ceilings or walls, swing across using web, and aim. Web Swinging is fun but unlike the newer entries in the Spiderman games, Spidey can only swing twice before getting to a wall or having to change direction. It can be a bit disorienting at first, especially if your swing doesn’t take you were you need to go.

Overall, the controls are pretty responsive, if you need to you can jump out of a swing by pressing X, although due to some bad camera angels, you may not see where you’re going and fall to your death. Tapping L1 will place the camera behind Spiderman, but this doesn’t always work.

You are given a trusty Spidey-compass to show you were you need to go next, so this saves the trouble of getting lost for first time players.

As you make your way across the rooftops you start to encounter your first bad guys. Spiderman’s Spidey Sense being thrown in here is a nice little way of telling you there’s danger ahead, with little red arrows indicating where your foes are.

Baddies earlier on are easy to take care of. They don’t take a lot of punches before they’re downed, or you can just hold triangle until they’re covered in web. This technique doesn’t work for all enemies, like bosses and stronger enemies who can just break out. Low level thugs can be taken care of with ease and it’s a nice way to settle into the, sometimes tense combat.

Along with punching and kicking, Spiderman can combine the two together for combo attacks, and along with shooting web, he can also fire balls of web at enemies to knock them over, he can wear web-gloves to make his punches strong, pull enemies towards him to drag them off buildings or into walls, and finally he has the web-dome, which can be used to both protect Spidey, and also to knock down many enemies at once. Spiderman can also use his super-strength to pick up items in the environment, such as desks and chairs, and throw them at enemies.

The combat can be a bit stiff at times, especially if Spiderman is knocked down, it takes a while for him to get back up. It’s not as free flowing as say, the Arkham series amazing fighting system, but big groups of enemies can be taken down if planned properly. Running into a group of armed thugs isn’t always the best course of action. Spidey doesn’t have a whole lot of health, but health pickups are quite easy to come across, even in the boss battles. On medium difficulty I didn’t find many of the bosses particularly threatening since I always had enough health or web cartridges to get me through.

Different collectables are on hand, like the trusty Spidey-armour which gives Spiderman an extra bit of protection which doesn't wear off until you take enough damage. There are also hidden comic book covers scattered throughout the levels which encourage exploration to try and find them all, and collecting enough lead to more hidden extras and goodies.

Levels are broken up into platforming and puzzle sections, with a few fights  in between to keep you on your toes. For example, one level has you in a sewer trying to find Venom, who is behind four locked doors, and you have different switches you must open in the correct order to progress. These switches are all on different platforms and one wrong move can send you on a one way trip to a game over screen.

Other levels include chase scenes, where you're either being chased by something, or you have to keep on the trail of a bad guy, or get to a location on time. These are all fun, tense additions to the game play, and really put your web swinging to the test.

The outdoor levels lack a lot of detail, but are quite big for the time. The cityscapes are fun to swing around in but there's not a whole lot to do besides search for little bonuses and beat up bad guys.  Indoor levels are full of different objects, switches, and  hidden areas.  Exploring these areas for the first time can be a bit unnerving, even with Spiderman's Spidey Sense, you never know what'll be around the corner.

The character models all look unique, although there's no variation in bad guys from level to level which is a shame, the bank level only has bank robbers and the city level only has armed thugs, throwing a few of these in together would make for some interesting fights, as some enemies are stronger than others.

The CG scenes are beautifully animated and voiced by the same actors from the cartoon which is a great little nod to its origin. It does the traditional PS1 "no mouth movement" when characters are talking, but thankfully the hilarious dialogue and great voice acting from the likes of Rino Romano (Spiderman Unlimited, Resident Evil 4), Jennifer Hale (Metal Gear Solid), and Dee Bradley Baker  (American Dad) make the cut-scenes a delight to watch again and again. Even throughout the game, Spiderman gives these little quips when exploring secret areas or beating up bad guys that really gives you the feeling that you are Spiderman.

With many secrets to find and unlock, the game also comes with a training mode for new players, and a challenge mode for people who just want to kick as much ass as possible. You pick the level and wave after wave of baddies are sent at you, and you have to survive for as long as possible.

The Gallery allows players to view cut scenes from the game, see story-boards, hear about different characters in the game (with a description by Stan Lee), and see the comic book covers you have collected. It all stays very true to the Spiderman franchise and these little details really show how much effort the developers put into the game. There are even little nods at Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2, Neversofts other project, in-game, like giant billboards advertising the game

Special Mode allows the player to input cheats if they desire (I highly recommend the "What If" cheat after completing the game, simply because it's hilarious), and change costume. These days, a different skin on a character isn't such a big deal, but most of Spiderman's different costumes have  something unique about it, such as unlimited webbing or invisibility. It's a great addition to game play and really makes re-playing the game a treat.

Spiderman is definitely a game that set the bar for superhero games at the time, and although Spiderman 2 for PS2 is ranked very highly by people as one of the best games on Playstation, it doesn't hurt to go back and play the game that started it all. The visuals and stiff fighting controls make the game seem a bit dated but it's definitely something a project that a lot of love and care was put into. For Spidey-fans and people who loved the cartoon as a kid it's really a great homage to the web head, and as the first fully 3D Spiderman game, it is still a load of fun to play, and the story mode is lengthy enough for first time players. The addition of other characters from the Marvel Universe make for some great cameos from fan favourites, such as the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four.

It was followed a year later by "Spiderman 2: Enter Electro" which only built on what the foundations of the first game lay, but personally the original Spiderman is an all time favourite, and as far action adventure games go, it still holds up very well today.

[candyciangaming]

Classic Game Review - Tony Hawk’s Underground 2

The year is 2004, “Love Machine” by Girls Aloud is topping the charts, and Facebook is only 9 months old. Meanwhile, skating fans and gamers alike are waiting to play the long anticipated sixth entry in the Tony Hawk skateboarding series.

Tony Hawk’s Underground 2, developed by Neversoft and published by Activision, is an extreme sports/skating simulator, and the penultimate “good” Tony Hawk game. It was released across the board for Playstation2 (for the sake of this review I’m playing it on PS2), Xbox, GameCube and GameBoy Advanced, with a spin off “remix” for PSP. You can already tell the developers really put a lot of effort and love into this game, and after the success of the Pro-Skater series and the first Underground title, from the very start it’s going to be an enjoyable experience.

THUG2 boasts from the back of the box that it’s “two games in one”, and it doesn’t lie. From the get go, players can choose between “Story Mode” and “Classic Mode”. “Free Skate” is available from the start; however most of the levels need to be unlocked in the latter modes.

Story Mode makes you the start of the show. While out skating one day, you are abducted by men in masks and taken to an undisclosed area. It is later revealed to be Tony Hawk and Bam Margera (of Jackass and Viva La Bam fame), putting on the “World Destruction Tour”, a skating competition with two teams competing to cause the most chaos at different cities across the world.

When I say you are the star of the show, I mean it. By using the “create-a-skater” option, you can create your very own skater from scratch, and the options of clothes, accessories, hair styles, deck options are limitless, meaning no two characters will look the same, and it all incorporates into the gameplay and cut-scenes flawlessly.

The visuals are quite lovely, especially for the PS2, the facial mapping and character design of each pro-skater is great. All the levels look lovely and the animations are fantastic. The team really took a lot of motion capture from real life pro skaters to make the in-game skating look as real as possible, even if you can bust out some impossible combos.

The game has a lot of charm to it, although the story itself is quite short. There is a lot to do within each level. With four playable characters in each level, you can choose between your character, a pro-skater from your team, a special guest, and another non-skating character which uses some crazy method of getting around. Each of these characters has goals to complete and some goals can be quite vague and difficult to finish. Depending on what difficulty you choose, the goals such as combos have higher points, and boosting stats is also more difficult on the higher levels.

On normal difficulty, story mode should take between 5-6 hours to finish 100%. However, THUG2 is a game that encourages challenges. With each completion of the different difficulties, you unlock new playable characters, levels, and skating videos, and you unlock even more goodies by doing every single mission in the game across all three difficulties.

When you complete the story, it’s time to move on to Classic Mode, and it does as it says on the tin. It’s classic Tony Hawk Pro Skater, only with newer levels, and a few levels from THUG1 and THPS for a bit of old school nostalgia. There are the classic high/pro/sick scores to rack up, collecting S-K-A-T-E, secret video tapes to find. Level challenges, such as grinding the longest bench in Barcelona, are also great fun and the game makes it feel like you really achieved something worthwhile when you complete a challenge. It really ads to the THUG2 experience, Classic Mode doesn’t feel tacked on or half-assed. It’s a genuinely enjoyable and challenging part of the game.

Bring a friend over and you can choose from a multitude of multiplayer games, such as the classic HORSE, slap, firefight and capture the flag. The multiplayer in THUG2 is implemented fantastically, and it’s a shame the Online mode is no longer available as it would be such a treat to play to this day.

The level design is a typical Tony Hawk fashion. You have a lot of room to skate, although each level can feel quite small when not playing a mission. There are some really neat hidden secrets in each level though, like finding Star Wars Kid in one of the apartments in Boston. All of these little nods to pop culture and little “in-jokes” gives each level have its own touch of class and charm, and it’s always a treat to discover these secrets for the first time. Each level feels very different and it leaves the player excited to move on and see what else there is to explore. A lot of civilians in the game all have their own little personality, like the cops in Berlin who shout at you for skating, or the maniac in Boston who tells you set your board on fire. It all adds to the immersive experience. It’s a shame these guys don’t appear in free play and multiplayer modes

The gameplay itself is nailed down and simply improves on the THUG1 formula. Players can switch from skating to running by pressing L1 + R1, although skating is definitely a faster way of getting about. Being able to get off your board is such a convenient way of getting to high places with the ability to climb ladders, pipes and shimmy across ledges.

The skating feels very natural and flows beautifully, but this all depends on the characters stats. A character with low stats won’t be able to grind or manual for long without bailing, and they won’t be able to Ollie higher or get as much speed or air as they’d like, so it really feels like you’re playing as someone else when you switch to a pro skater, or another character with high stats.

New features have been added to the gameplay, such as the graffiti tagging. Players can create their own tag and spraypaint across the walls in the game, which adds to the uniqueness of each playthrough. Sticker Slapping replaces THUG1’s wallplant, pressing X while jumping towards a wall will make your character slap a sticker and this becomes an invaluable tool when trying to rack up huge combo scores. New moves are also implemented such as the Natas Spin, where characters can spin on the tips of poles, fire hydrants and other vertical objects.

Finally, the pinnacle of the new moves is Focus Mode. Getting into Special mode and pressing L3 will slows down time for a brief period so players can focus on lipping/grinding/manualing for longer. This can make completing some challenges a bit too easy; however it’s a welcome addition to the gameplay and it flows very naturally.

The gameplay is complimented very handsomely by its absolutely pumping soundtrack, featuring over 30 songs by classic heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, and rock artists. Nothing feels out of place here. Pop punk legends Less Than Jake’s “That’s Why They Call It A Union”, heavy metal gods Metallica’s “Whiplash”, and nu-metal legends Disturbed’s “Liberate” all make the game feel extremely fast paced and lively, while other songs such as Johnny Cash’ “Ring of Fire” and Frank Sinatras “That’s Life”, still feel  like the soul of the game. Tony Hawk games have always been praised for the soundtrack alone, but the absolute bangers on THUG2’s extensive list just makes the game a joy to play over and over again.

Other sounds and the voice acting in THUG2 are good, to say the least. The voice acting leaves a little to be desired, some of the dialogue sounds really forced by the pro-skaters. A cameo appearance by Jackass’ Steve-O and his line “My bull’s rad, yeahhhh!” always makes me cringe a little bit. However, you have four different voices you can choose from for your own character while playing the game, and I think this was a nice little inclusion.

The sound effects while skating all sound very clear and concise, the background music is well put together and it’s nice to see how it blends into the game. For example, in the New Orleans level, the soundtrack plays while you’re in the street, but when you go into an Irish bar, it’s taken over by an Irish jig and the sound of people chatting which makes you really feel like you’re in a living, breathing city.

You may find a glitch or two, such as the camera going through a wall, or losing control of your board for no reason, however these are very rare occurrences and are not game breaking.

Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 is an absolute gem of a game. Even with all the *ahem*, less than memorable Tony Hawk games to come out after 2006, it’s a pleasure to sit down and relive the World Destruction Tour over and over again. If you haven’t played a Tony Hawk game previously or you don’t know a whole lot about pro-skating, you should still try and pick it up. It has a very nice “easy to play, hard to master” feel about it.

The satisfying gameplay, lovely visuals, excellent customisation and hilarious story make this one of the greatest games to ever grace the PS2.

PLUS YOU CAN PLAY AS SHREK!!!!!