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Titanfall 2 is Respawn Entertainment's second game and the second installment in the franchise. The first Titanfall was a solid online only FPS (first person shooter) game set in the future revolving around pilots taking to the battlefield either on foot or in their giant mechs known as Titans. Originally a game exclusive to Xbox One and PC the sequel has been released for the Playstation 4 as well.  Titanfall 2 does all that the original did and more now boasting a great single player campaign. Online play has seen a lot of changes that will be gone over later in the review. The campaign has some great moments and set pieces. Your character Jack Cooper starts the game as a rifleman training to be, but not quite yet a pilot. On your first deployment, your squad and captain die and you inherit your Titan BT-7274 more as the last option as opposed to earning it. Throughout the game, the core focus is on the bond between you and your Titan BT. You're given dialogue options to talk to BT through the choice of two options selected by pressing up or down on your d-pad of how to respond to him. These are entirely optional and yet I grew to like BT so much that even in areas where taking my thumb off the joystick to choose my option was dangerous I would do it anyway. BT becomes a likable companion almost similar to a droid in Star Wars with just as much personality. The level design and set-pieces are also worth pointing out here. The levels are designed in such a way as to be fluid and just feel play good with the games parkour wall running mechanics. If you can read the levels you can always traverse in a quick and lethal way. There was only one point in the game that I ended up being a little stuck and it was only because I didn't know I had to use a crane to make a platform to the next point in the level. Two levels especially worth pointing are a construction plant and an old IMC that has an interesting time-shift mechanic. The construction plant is highly lethal with moving platforms essential to continuing through it often being deadly. You can be crushed into the ceiling or flipping to drop you to your death. The time travel base involves you phasing in and out of the present ruins of the base and the base in its heyday. You will find a device that controls which point of time you are in, and you can utilize this to strategically flank enemies and obstacles. Both of these levels are just plain fun and in addition, you can expect big battles full of infantry and titans alike, as well as big boss battles. Boss fights in Titanfall 2 are great fun. You're going to go up against baddies in different arenas each toting their own brand of Titan. Now how these fights play out is going to be drastically different and I honestly feel that some of them would have been better if they were balanced slightly differently. Towards the beginning of the game it feels as if you're going against the same Titans as you would see online, if not slightly weaker versions. As you progress through the game though some of these boss Titans will have different abilities or balance to make them more of a challenge. It's worth stating that BT compared to most of the Titans you see online is a bit overpowered having more options but it's nothing compared to some of the end game bosses. Some of the bosses went down a little too fast and others were almost too challenging. On one occasion I even had to switch from my beloved Scorch Loadout to take them down. I did thoroughly enjoy that almost all except the first boss you will hear talking over the comms often planning to kill you. This lets you get to know them before you even actually meet them and lets you feel that “I don't even know you but I want to kill you” feeling that not all games can get down. Even here though it's unfortunately hit or miss. Some of the bosses as soon as they showed up I had a goofy grin on my face ready to take them down, and others I had only a feeling of “I guess you're here now.” Whenever a boss would show up I always sat back and just though I'm ready to do this. Titanfall's signature fast and frenetic online gameplay is back and with it comes it's parkour movement. Titanfall is the one game to really nail that parkour movement in a shooter. The movement system in Titanfall takes some initial time to get used to (at least on console) but after you get the hang of it you'll be seeing walls as boost ramps to jump on to titan and steal batteries. Respawning is nearly instantaneous in most modes (excluding those without respawns) so you get right back into the fight. Another point of interest is the Titan execution system. I love this and always have since the first game. The titans all have their own execution that when they pull off you will see in glorious third person. While the online play is great there are a few changes made from the first that you should know about. Changes made in Titanfall 2's online play include the Titan rodeo, the discarding of burn cards, a new pilot loadout option for movement and abilities, and Titan customization. The rodeo used to include jumping on a Titan and firing a pistol into the core to take it down. This let players have a fast reliable way to take down a Titan even if they were on foot. Now the mechanic has a player jumping on to remove a battery from an enemy titan. This battery can be given to an ally Titan or your own to give a shield and some charge to the core ability. If the enemy Titan has already had it's battery stolen you'll drop a grenade down the hatch to take down some of the Titan's life. The burn cards are gone and to this I honestly have to say good riddance. I hated managing my burn cards and I would always forget to use them to the point I just had an abundance and would only keep a stockpile of my favorites around. Now instead we have a system of perks you can choose before a match. These perks include (insert here). Pilots also have tactical abilities to give them an edge in battle. These include the grappling hook, pulse blade, holo pilot, stim (faster movement for a short time), cloak, phase shift (phase out of this plane of existence keeping you safe), and A-wall (a small protective wall to shoot from that adds damage to outgoing shots). Lastly, we have a change to Titan Customization. You can choose from six premade titans made of three chassis types light, medium or heavy. For the light Titans, we have the Northstar a long range sniper and Ronin a shotgun-toting sword slasher. Medium Titans are made of the Ion and Tone. Lastly for the heavy Titans you've got Scorch a fire Titan and Legion a minigun Titan. Each Titan has a premade kit including a shield and offensive abilities like rockets or a power shot, and a core ability you can use for heavy damage. The level design online I initially felt wasn't as good as the first game and I still believe this to a degree. When the first game came out I remember thinking that almost all of the levels had been designed for the movement of pilots and Titans in mind. Levels like Angel City you could cross without ever touching the ground, yet here in the sequel I found this to be far more difficult. Spending time with the levels though I think you just have to get a little more creative with the lines you weave throughout the different cityscapes you have to play with. It also gets way easier playing with the grappling hook to extend your lines even further. Playing through them as Titans does feel excellent though. There is plenty of varied terrains to hide behind or use to block line of sight to flank your opponents. Or if you're using the Northstar to fly over to bomb your opponents. While Titanfall 2's campaign is definitely the thing to bring you in, there's so much fun in the online play that it's worth staying for. For those out there who really want to be able to spend a lot of time with the game, the online definitely has unlockables to offer. Each time you level up online you will earn something; a new gun, ordinance, pilot type, Titan, or faction. In addition to all of these, there are also unlockables for every type of weapon and Titan. These will have you earning new abilities and camos. If you aren't feeling like waiting for something you're not going to be able to unlock until level fifty though there is an in-game currency you can use to unlock things like guns perks and titans. The camos for guns and Titans, and Titan nose arts though have to be unlocked by playing with them. Personally for someone like me who can't have a main game and will mostly be playing this casually from here on isn't a huge fan of this, but if you are someone with plenty of time or more so likes having goals to chase then this is going to give you plenty to do. Finally, there is the bad part, paid content after you buy the game. This content is all cosmetic and does nothing to give you an advantage. Even so, I paid for a AAA  release and find this kind of business practice greedy. I have heard that Respawn is going to keep updating the game with free content but I don't feel this excuses them asking for more money especially at the prices they're asking. The two dollar banner pack is about a dollar too expensive and the Prime Titans are going to run you five dollars. That's five dollars per Titan, not five for a pack of all. Five dollars for all the prime Titans that's reasonable and I might even be tempted to want it, but five dollars a Titan with six Titans. If you want all of them it's going to run thirty dollars which is the price I paid for the full game. In conclusion Titanfall 2 is a great game and an even better sequel. It delivered everything that was wanted the first time around and the single player campaign goes above and beyond. Though the online multiplayer does leave me wishing that the game played it a lot closer to what they did the first time around, the movement is still fun and fluid. If you log on to the server, win or lose you're going to have a great time. I wish the customization let me play with what guns I put on what Titan as opposed to just being able to put camos and nose art on them. In the end though it's not going to stop me from playing. Titanfall 2 earns an 8 out of 10.

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Just wanted to put out there that I’m going to start putting updates on twitter instead of here. Follow me at DoctorGhostCop on Twitter

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Super Meat Boy: Well Done with a side of Mashed Buttons

Super Meat Boy is my kind of game. I’m a huge fan of Edmund McMillen and have been for years, he’s one of my favorite artists in the business. The meat and potatoes of the game, or meat and bandages if you will, is that you are Meat Boy and your goal is to save your girlfriend Bandage Girl who has been kidnapped by the evil Dr. Fetus. Super Meat Boy is a plat former, and a damn good one. It’s certainly one of the best out there especially that I’ve played. Mario is the good clean Italian plumber that your parents have no problem with, Super Meat Boy is the game that you don’t tell them about. While at first glance the two are similar Super Meat Boy has a much darker side to it, but I feel I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to the review.

Controls:

This is the draw of Super Meat Boy, you have complete control. Down to the most minute distance of your jumps, to standing in the one correct pixel on the screen so that dropping buzz saw will only cut your toenail (if Meatboy has toenails) instead of going through your head. Super Meat Boy feels like an extension of yourself and any mistake is your fault. This is the kind of game that demands you master it. If you play Super Meat Boy you can’t be okay, you can’t be alright, you can’t even just be good. You have to be great, you have to earn every single victory you get, and it’s all the much better for it. While I love Mario, it doesn’t give me the same feeling of accomplishment I get from Super Meat Boy. Clearing Hell was one of the best feelings I’ve gotten from a game since playing Dark Souls, and as of the time of writing this paragraph, I’m still stuck on the first stage of Rapture. This brings me to my next point.

Difficulty:

Next to the tight controls, the other thing you’ve probably heard about Super Meat Boy is the legendary difficulty. I’ll say upfront that this game is difficult and it’s going to put hair on your chest. It starts easy enough introducing you to the idea of get to Bandage Girl to end the stage, then move on to the next. Then it introduces the ideas that you’re going to be using to traverse the stages like wall jumps and long jumps. Once it’s taught these to you though you’re expected to use them, and each level (with some exclusions in my opinion) the level of difficulty only increases. Not only is Super Meat Boy a difficult game but you’re also given the option of playing the Dark World version of the level. This will be a level very similar the original, but often with an added mechanic or set of obstacles to make it even harder.

Level Design:

Team Meat the developers of the game are a team of two people Edmund McMillen, and Tommy Refenes. These two guys poured their hearts and souls into this game and they’ve created something of a masterpiece. Super Meat Boy’s levels are designed so specifically that they create a sort of rhythm with the player, almost like their having a conversation with you. Honestly whenever I get stuck on a stage, it gets to the point that I can very nearly play it with my eyes closed. You get to learn the levels intimately and break them down to see them as the developers likely did. They must have play tested the hell out of this, because I swear when I played the level Weibe (a nod to Steve Weibe as it’s a Donkey Kong inspired stage) when I first learned I had to jump under the lava barrel as it was on the wall to make it through I felt so clever. I felt like I understood what they were trying to say to me, and we’d communicated. That’s a really rare feeling and I’m so glad that there are developers like Edmund and Tommy to make it happen.

Visuals and Art Style:

The visuals in this game are fantastic for what they are. They’re all done in flash art but honestly there’s some real gold here. There are a handful of levels that are done in silhouette that look breathtaking, and don’t get me started on the design of Little Horn. While they aren’t the glossiest looking I think they give a real charm to the game, they make it feel like Super Meat Boy. They give it personality and character. It stands out from other games, it’s not 3D graphics, it’s not pixel art and it works like a charm.

Sound and Soundtrack:

I have such conflicting feelings about this game’s soundtrack. While I definitely am sure I like it, I don’t think it’s anything that stands out. All the music in the game fits the stage you’re playing, but after playing that stage I’m really hard pressed to remember it. For an example today I’ve played the Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy. I can’t remember a single song from Super Meat Boy but I can remember nearly every song from the Binding of Isaac, both from the Rebirth and Vanilla soundtrack. While the soundtrack definitely isn’t bad, it’s hard for me to say that it lives up to the rest of the game.

Bosses:

Here is something interesting, especially to me. The bosses in this game, with the exception of one, all feel like what plat former bosses should be. Most bosses either include being chased, or racing, and this seems like a no brainer for plat former bosses. The first fight against Dr. Fetus is him in a giant chainsaw wielding robot suit chasing you. This felt awesome. It was like trying to run for your life while hoping that something would impede him. The next boss fight was against C.H.A.D. who is this fish type monster swimming in blood that chases you upwards until you stop him with sunlight. The next was Brownie, a race to the finish. And finally there’s Little Horn in Hell. I want to acknowledge that before I fought him I saw a Jontron video in which he said Little Horn was a memorization based boss battle and he’s right. I totally share Jontron’s opinion and don’t want to sell it as my own, likely because I might be slightly biased because of it. I think they could have just given him some tells so you could more effectively maneuver the fight, and probably would have enjoyed the fight more if Little Horn had Tells, and his attacks for random. I realize this was likely done though because of time restraints on Team Meats part, but this game was released five years ago, they could have in this time put out a patch.

Playable Characters:

I felt like including this segment because at the very least it made me happy. Super Meat Boy has other playable characters other than Meat Boy mostly consisting of other characters from Edmund McMillen games and characters from different indie games. The thing I love about this though is that they each have a mechanic to them that varies the feel of the levels, and will make some levels just a bit easier. The way to unlock these characters is by either collecting enough bandages to earn them, or by beating their warp zone. I’ll never forget the first time I was playing Super Meat Boy I found this extremely hard warp zone (from what I remember, this was a couple of years ago) and I unlocked Mighty Jill, from Mighty Jill Off. I had never heard of Jill or her game, but her air break move was a God send in some more difficult levels.

Conclusion:

Playing Super Meat Boy you can tell it’s a game made by gamers for gamers. It celebrates games as a whole, nodding to greats of the past, and holding its own alongside them.  When it comes to complaints about the game, really the only thing I have thus far to say is I wish that they’d done more with the boss Little Horn in Hell and that the music was more memorable. This really though are fairly petty shortcomings, and this game is a rare gem. With all of it’s bandage collecting, playing through levels both normal and Dark World, and Warp Zones, Super Meat Boy is bursting with content. Of course you don’t have to play through it all, but this game is so much fun, I guarantee I’ll be spending a few extra minutes here and there trying to work my way through what I still have left.  My final rating for Super Meat Boy is a 9/10, it’s a game worth your time, and easily its asking price of 15 dollars. A last word of advice though is to take a break from it now and again. Not only with this immensely help your jump button thumb recuperate for the next round, but personally I also found myself thinking about levels I was stuck on at work and figuring out in my head how to get past the next obstacle. Trust me, a break every now and again is going to help you keep coming back to this game hungry for more.

[doctorghostcop-blog]

Currently putting the finishing touches on the Super Meat Boy review.

I should have it uploaded by tomorrow. I’ve also got some  good news for you Mario fans out there, New Super Mario Bros. Wiiu came in the mail so I’ll be starting my play through of it tomorrow and will hopefully have a review of that up soon along with one of Super Mario 3D World.

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Thought I’d post this here.

I’m playing through Super Meat Boy to do a review, and I just got to the boss of Hell. I haven’t fought him yet, but goddamn. Hell is probably some of the most intense, precision required levels I have ever played in my life. If anyone knows a game that takes more precision please tell me. Unless you’re going to say I want to be the Guy. Trust me I know about it.

[doctorghostcop-blog]

The Binding of Isaac. I know a lot of you have already played this, but this game is fantastic. I loved the original version, I love Rebirth. I’m sure if I owned it I’d love Afterbirth. The thing is I’m not even that good at it. If you watch people like NorthernLion play the game, they’re fantastic with many runs beating it. I have conquered Mom’s Heart twice. That’s not even one of the real ends of the game, it just the first thought to be end all boss.

Let’s talk Gameplay:

The gameplay of The Binding of Isaac is literally just Zelda from NES, at least to start with. What it boils down to is your left hand will move you, and your right will shoot tears in one of four directions. These controls will depend on the platform you play on, but generally speaking they will be right joystick and your four buttons for any given controller or portable system.  You start in the basement of your house and explore each floor until you kill the boss. Each floor will have a treasure room where you gain a powerup that can range from health up, to a small companion that fires lasers, to having a bleeding lung that builds up until you spew the blood all over your enemies. These powerups drastically change the play, and what’s most interesting is seeing them synergize. Getting a ludovico technique that lights on fire feels awesome. There are massive amounts of replay ability here if only to see what crazy combinations of powerups you can gain and fit together.

Boss Fights:

This is a 2d retro inspired title, and its 2d retro inspired bosses are similar to the 2d retro games they have been inspired by. The obvious comparison to the Binding of Isaac is the Legend of Zelda, but where Zelda has a dungeon where you find a weapon that kills the boss, Isaac has random powerup drops. This leads to the bosses in Isaac being more difficult in this reviewer’s opinion, but much more satisfying to fight. Instead of an orchestrated fight, it’s a bullet hell balls to the wall competition of you versus a monster. Sometimes they’ll be easy as pie based on your current arsenal and sometimes it takes skill, luck, prayers, and begging. Either way the random boss encounters at the end of a floor are always something I look forward to fighting. Additionally if you beat the boss without losing a single point of health especially beyond spirit hearts, you will unlock a Deal with the Devil where you will gain additional possible powerups, sometimes costing a heart or two, and sometimes for free, but they are often very powerful and worth the tradeoff.

Story:

The story in this title is somewhat controversial. And by somewhat I mean completely. You play as the titular character Isaac who lives with his very devout Christian Mother. One day his Mother hears God speak to her and tells her that Isaac is full of sin and must be dealt with. Eventually this leads to her knowing that she must end Isaac’s life and she chases in with knife intent on killing her son for God. Isaac runs to the basement to get away from his Mother. This is where the game begins. From here you continue fighting through the basement until you come to one of the many conclusions of the game or, and this is the more likely outcome, you die down there.

Visuals:

This review is mostly focused on the Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, but I will mention here that the visuals in the original Binding of Isaac were great. They were adorably disgusting flash art. In Rebirth Edmund chose to use instead a 16 bit inspired pixel art that is fantastic. I really do love the art style of Rebirth. From the flickering flames on walls, to the small trickles of water down stone walls of the depths of the basement, this games visual design is magnificent. It may not be the best pixel art out there, but for a game portraying things like spiders, Mega-Fattys, and of course sentient poop it’s more than competent.

Game Feel:

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is fun, really fun. It’s the kind of game that you just keep playing knowing that you can do better. You start to understand the nuances of it. You know that if you play that key beggar you’ll get an item that could change this run, or if you mix technology with brimstone you could become an unstoppable killing machine. Every time you die you slap the play again button ready to go. You don’t even mind that you’ve been reset to the beginning because you can do this. This run will be different. It’s a very Edmund McMillen feeling game. Similar to Super Meat Boy death isn’t so much of a punishment because the game is so good the second you can you’re ready to go at it again.

Sound Design:

The sound design is alright. Compared to the visuals I’m pretty sure what I know got the short end of the stick. It’s not that it ruins the game it just isn’t quite what it could be. I do have to say this though. I have no idea why they change every song away from what was in the original game. The original sound design of Binding of Isaac was a haunting and beautiful soundtrack that deserves a listen through no matter how you feel about the game or its content. It’s wonderfully composed and fitting for every single environment it belongs too. I can still hear it in my head typing this, whereas the new soundtrack just feels lazy. I understand if it was Edmund wanting to move away from the original Binding of Isaac in its entirety to build the game from the ground up but I feel that it just wasn’t the right choice here.

Conclusion:

The Binding of Isaac is a fantastic game that I have lost countless hours to and don’t regret it in the slightest. Honestly Edmund McMillen is one of my favorite current game makers. The controls are tight, and fun is abundant, and the fact of the matter is it’s worth the asking price of $15. There’s a huge amount of gameplay and replay ability here due to its massive amount of powerups and combinations of said powerups and ever-changing randomly generated maps. It’s a game that only gets better the more you understand it. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a remake that no one felt was necessary, but we are so lucky to have. It only improves an already fantastic game. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth gets a 9/10. Just one suggestion, check out the mod to replace Rebirth’s soundtrack with the original soundtrack. It’s just so much better.

Written by Spencer Campbell, December 1st, 2015.