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The Red Herb’s Top 10 Games of 2020

Hey, fuck 2020. You might notice that many of the “Best Of” lists you read this year and last can’t help but mention how terrible 2020 was. That’s because every day was like hitting a new, splinter riddled branch on our 365 day plummet off a shit-coated tree. The year brought with it a viral pandemic that served as a pressure cooker for the societal and systemic issues boiling beneath the surface of our every day life. And we’re not out of it. 

At least one positive holds true of 2020: the games were pretty darn good. One has to wonder, though, if 2020 was the last year of what can be called “normalcy” for the video game industry. Now that the remainder of titles brewed in pre-Covid times are out in the wild, what will the future of gaming look like as studios shift to work-from-home and distribution models migrate to digital as the primary bread winner? What will games look like going forward?

I have no fucking clue. We’ll get there when we get there. But looking back, I’m glad to have had such solid distractions from the stress and strife. If 2020 is any indicator for the industry going forward, then my takeaway is that games will continue to grow in prominence because of their ability to help us cope and, more importantly, stay connected.

Anyway, here’s video games:

10. MARVEL’S AVENGERS

Oh, Marvel’s Avengers. I know you expected to be on more prestigious Top 10 lists than mine. Truthfully, I debated whether or not you should be here. But I had to search my soul (stone) on this one. Really assemble my feelings. Tony Stark my thoughts (?). Here’s the short of it: Marvel’s Avengers has a great story campaign with a surprising amount of emotional weight thanks largely to Kamala Khan’s quest to reassemble the heroes of her youth. Once the final cutscene ends, though, players were expected to take their play box of Marvel heroes, jump online, and duke it out against hordes of villains for the privilege of precious loot and level gains. It would be impossible to get bored because Crystal Dynamics was going to continually Bifrost in new quests, cosmetics, and heroes -- for free!

Except, after fans blasted through the campaign (took me a solid weekend), they found a multiplayer mode filled with repetitive fights against non-descript A.I.M Bots, a handful of dull, un-Marvelous environments (the PNW?! In a video game?! Wowwee!), and a grind for gear that became useless minutes after it was equipped. Oh, and bugs. Tons of bugs. It must be hard for A.I.M. to take earth’s mightiest heroes seriously when they’re falling through the fucking earth every other mission.

So why the Kevin Accolade™? Of all the mistakes and underbaked ideas, Crystal Dynamics got the most important thing right: they made me feel like I was a part of the Avengers. Cutting through the sky as Iron Man; dive bombing, fists-first as the Hulk; firing gadgets at cronies as Black Widow; cracking a row of skulls with Cap’s shield… Avengers is a brawler on super soldier serum.

The combat is crunchy and addictive, and surprisingly deep once you unlock your character’s full suite of skills and buffs. The gear matters little. But choosing a loadout that works for you -- like ensuring enemy takedowns grant you a health orb every time or turning area clearing attacks to focused beams of hurt -- does matter. When it comes to games with disastrous launches, Avengers is the most deserving of a triumphant comeback story because, if you clear the wreckage, I think there’s a solid game here. If I was able to spend hours playing it in its roughshod state, I can see myself digging in for the long-term once it’s polished up and given a healthy dose of content. You know...if Square Enix doesn’t outright abandon it.

9. STREETS OF RAGE 4

Here’s a fact about me: I love beat ‘em ups. From Final Fight to X-Men to The Simpsons, I prioritized my quarters for the beat ‘em up machines (and House of the Dead simply because House of the Dead fuckin’ owns). Unfortunately, Streets of Rage wasn’t in arcades, and I didn’t own a Genesis growing up, so I didn’t get around to the series until Sega re-released as part of a collection. Though my history with the 29 year old brawler is shorter than some, the basics stand out out right away: it’s an awesome side-scrolling brawler filled with zany character designs and high octane boss fights.

SoR4 nails that simple spirit while adding an electric soundtrack, buttery smooth animations, and an art style that looks like a comic book in motion. You can button-mash your way through the game or master your timing to combo stun the shit out of bad guys. Same screen co-op is a requisite for the beat ‘em up genre but I have to call it out nonetheless given that it's next to obsolete these days. The story campaign is, of course, finite but a stream of unlockables and a Boss Rush Mode pad out the package nicely.

I really don’t have to go on and on. I’m on board with any game that captures the arcadey high of classic beat ‘em ups, and Streets of Rage 4 does it with flare.

8. RESIDENT EVIL 3 REMAKE

Resident Evil 2’s remake was my game of the year in 2019. It’s a pitch perfect revision that captures the pulse-pounding fear of the original while beautifully updating its graphics and gameplay for modern audiences. The most striking aspect of RE2’s remake is how it expands and reconfigures the classic game’s environments and set pieces. Capcom managed to recontextualize, and even improve on, the original’s design while staying faithful to its tone and atmosphere.

Resident Evil 3’s remake is less successful in modifying and improving on its source material. If the game feels like it was handled by a different team than RE2R, your gamer hands have good eyes (roll with it). It was developed by a separate internal team (three different teams, in fact), but that’s actually one of many choices mirroring its 1999 forebear. Just like the original, RE3R is a tighter (i.e. shorter) experience that launched less than a year after its predecessor. And just like the original, the game skirts away from survival horror in favor of action horror.

Unlike last year’s remake, however, RE3R paints in broad strokes with the original material much in the same way that 2004’s Dawn of the Dead remake shared a vague resemblance with Romero’s ‘79 classic. Capcom at least nails down what matters: you play as Jill Valentine, beaten and discredited after the Arklay Mountains incident, during her last escape from the zombie besieged Raccoon City. Her exit is complicated by Nemesis, a humanoid missile that relentlessly pursues her from minute two of the game. Her only chance of making it out alive is by teaming up with a gaggle of Umbrella dispatched mercenaries, including an overly handsome fellow named Carlos Oliveras that you control for a spell. But fans struggled to get over what Capcom didn’t remake. Several enemies, boss fights, and a “divergent path” mechanic that had you choose how best to escape the Nemesis in a pinch were omitted from the remake. Even an entire section set in a clock tower was cut. But, let’s be honest, the biggest omission is a secret ending where Barry Burton saves the day using only his beard. For real, YouTube that shit.

If you look at what the remake does instead of what it doesn’t, you’ll find a lightning paced action game highlighted by tense, one-on-one fights against the constantly mutating Nemesis. The tyrant’s grotesque transformations evoke the mind-rending, gut turning creature designs found in John Carpenter's The Thing. It’s sad that Nemesis doesn’t pursue you through the levels as diligently as he did in the original, or as Mr. X had in last year’s remake, but these “arena fights” end up being harrowing and fun, culminating in a memorable final encounter. The remake also treats us to the best incarnation of Jill to date. She’s a cynical badass, exasperated at how Umbrella upended her life, and can take a plunge off of a building yet still muster enough energy to call Nemesis a bitch. RE3R also shines thanks to its snappy combat, including a contextual dodge that feels rewarding to pull off, less bullet-sponge enemies than RE2, and an assortment of weapons to get you through Jill’s Very Bad Night(s). It makes for a necessary, though shorter, companion to last year’s stellar remake.

7. HADES

I’m experiencing a new type of shame including a title that I haven’t beaten on my Top 10 list, but I can assure you that I’ve dumped hours into its addictive death loop. It’s probably because of my resistance to looking up any tips, but given the skill-check nature of the difficult boss fights, I’m almost afraid the top shelf advice will amount to “die less, idiot.”

My failings aside, Hades is brilliant. It’s the perfect merger of gameplay and storytelling. You play as Zagreus, son of Hades, and your entire goal is to escape your father’s underworld domain. You pick from a selection of weapons, like a huge broadsword or spear, and attempt your “run,” seeing how far you can make it before an undead denizen cuts you down. It’s familiar roguelike territory, but where Supergiant separates their game from the pack is in the unique feeling of constant progression, even as you fail. With each run, not only is Zagreus earning a currency (gems or keys) that unlock new skills that make the next go a little easier, you’re also consistently treated to new lore. The fallen gods and heroes that line your father’s hall greet you after each death and provide a new insight into their world. The writing is bouncy and hilarious, the voice acting ethereal and alluring, and the character designs could make a lake thirsty.

Supergiant’s stylistic leanings are at their peak here. They’ve managed the impossible feat of making failure feel like advancement. Sure, it totally fucks up other roguelikes for me, but that’s okay. None of those games have Meg.

6. DEMON’S SOULS

Whereas Capcom takes liberties with their remakes, Bluepoint took the Gus Van Sant approach and made a 1:1 recreation of the 2009 title that launched the “Soulslike” genre. The dividing difference is a 2020 facelift brought to us by way of the PlayStation 5’s next-gen horsepower. There’s been online arguments (surprise) regarding the loss of Fromsoftware’s visual aesthetic in translating the PS3 original in order to achieve a newfound photorealism. It’s true, some beasties lose their surreal weirdness -- a consequence of revisiting designs without the worry of graphical or time constraints -- but the game’s world is still engrossing, morbid, and bleakly gorgeous.

That’s not to say all Bluepoint did was overhaul the graphics and shove this remake out the door. No, their improvements are nuanced, under-the-hood changes that gently push the genre into the next-generation. For one, the loading times are incredible. You could hop between all five archstones in under a minute if you wanted. And this game is a best DualSense controller showcase outside of Astro’s Playroom. You can feel a demonstrable difference between hitting your sword against a wall compared to connecting it with an attacking creature. Likewise, the controller rumbles menacingly as to let you know enemies are stomping across a catwalk above you. “Better rumbles” was not on my wish list of next-gen features, but the tactile feedback goes great lengths to make you feel like you’re there.

Granted, sticking so closely to the original means its pratfalls are also carried over to the next-gen. The trek between bonfire checkpoints is an eternity compared to the game’s successors, and Fromsoftware hadn’t quite mastered the sword ballet of boss fights prevalent in Dark Souls. Instead, a handful of bosses feel more like set pieces where you’re searching for the “trick” to end it versus having to learn attack patterns and counters. Still, it’s easy to see the design blueprint that bore a whole new genre. From having to memorize enemy placements to hunting down the world’s arcane secrets in the hopes of finding a new item that pushes the odds in your favor. Bluepoint’s quality of life improvements only make it kinder (not easier) to plunge into the game, obsess over its idiosyncrasies, and begin to master every inch of it. That is until you roll into New Game+ and the game shoves a Moonlight Greatsword up your ass.

5. YAKUZA: LIKE A DRAGON

Here’s a fact about me I’m sure you don’t know: I love beat ‘em ups. Streets of Rage 4 had an easy time making it on this list because it can be classified as both a “beat ‘em up” and “good.” Here’s another fact about me: I’m not the biggest fan of JRPGs. I’m told this is not because of any personal preferences I harbor, but rather due to a distinct lack of culture. I’ve made peace with that. At least my uncultured ways are distinctive.

But my disinterest in JRPGs is notable here because it illustrates how very good Like A Dragon is. Transitioning the Yakuza series from a reactive brawler (entrenched in an open-world SIM) to a full-blown turned-based RPG was risky -- especially 8 entries into the mainline series -- but it pays off explosively for Like A Dragon. Not only does the goofiness, melodrama, and kinetic energy translate to an RPG -- it’s improved by it. Beyond a new protagonist -- the instantly likable and infinitely affable Ichiban Kasuga -- we’re finally treated to an ensemble cast that travels with you, interacts with you, and grows with you. Their independent stories weave into Ichi’s wonderfully and end up mattering just as much as his.

The combat doesn’t lose any of its punch now that you’re taking turns. In fact, it feels wilder than ever and still demands situational awareness as your enemies shift around the environment, forcing you to quickly pick which move will do the most damage and turn the fight in your favor. RGG purposefully made Ichi obsessed with Dragon Quest (yes, specifically Dragon Quest) as an excuse to go ham and morph enemies into outlandish fiends that would populate Ichi’s favorite series. It’s a fun meta that never loses its charm.

This is the best first step into a new genre I’ve ever seen an established franchise make and I hope like hell they keep with it for future outings -- and that Ichi returns to keep playing hero. There’s plenty of callbacks and treats for longtime fans, but RGG did a masterful job rolling out the virtual carpet for a whole new generation of Yakuza fanatics.

4. GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

Sucker Punch’s dive into 13th century Japan doesn’t redefine the open-world genre. But like Horizon: Zero Dawn before it, Ghost of Tsushima takes familiar components of the genre and uses them exceptionally well, creating an airtight experience that can’t help but stand out. I can tell Sucker Punch mused on games like Assassin’s Creed and Breath of the Wild, tried to figure out what makes those games tick, and then brought their own spin to those concepts. You can feel it in their obsession to make traversal through the environment as unobtrusive as possible, letting the wind literally guide you to your destinations instead of forcing the player to glue their eyes to a mini-map. You can feel it in how seamless it is to scale a rooftop before silently dropping on a patrol, blade first. You can feel it in the smoothness behind the combat as your sword clashes against the enemy’s. Every discrete part is fine-tuned yet perfectly complements the whole. The game is silk in your hands. 

The mainline story can be humdrum, though. It mirrors the beats of a superhero origin story, which isn’t surprising when you account for the three Infamous titles and satellite spinoffs under Sucker Punch’s belt. But Jin Sakai’s personal journey outshines the cookie-cutter plot. His gradual turn from the strict samurai code to a morally ambiguous vigilante lifestyle (to becoming, eventually, a myth) is a fascinating exploration in shifting worldviews. This is bolstered by the well-written side-missions dotting your quest, some of which play out in chains. It’s these diversions about melancholy warriors and villagers adjusting to life under invasion that end up being the essential storytelling within the game. Whatever you do, don’t skip a single one.

Before GoT can overstay its welcome with collectible hunting and stat-tree building, the ride is over. If you find exhaustive open-world titles, well, exhausting, Sucker Punch coded enough of a campaign to sticking the landing and not more. But if you were looking for more, the game’s co-op Legends mode is the surprise encore of the year. It strikes its own tone, with vibrant, trippy designs, and a progression system that embarrasses other AAA titles in the space (I mean Avengers. I’m talking about Avengers).

3. THE LAST OF US PART II

The Last of Us is widely regarded as a masterpiece. It’s a melancholic trek through a realistic post-apocalypse, driven by the budding bond between a world-weary survivor and a would-be teenage savior. The fungal zombies and violent shootouts with scavengers were scary and exciting, but ultimately just window-dressing compared to the level of complicated, and honest, human emotion on display throughout the tale. While a segment of detractors helpfully pointed out that The Last of Us’ story isn’t unique when compared to years of post-apocalyptic books, comics, and movies, that argument seems to forget that a narrative more concerned with the human protagonists’ connections to one another instead of saving the world or feeding into a hero complex is pretty unique for games -- especially a high profile, AAA budgeted game.

Still, fans made heroes out of Joel and Ellie because of their own connection to their journey. And that connection is almost instantly challenged in the opening hours of The Last of Us Part II to heartbreaking effect. But I’m here to tell you that any other sequel would have been dishonest to the legacy of the original game. To be given a hero’s quest as a continuation, an imagined sequel where Joel and Ellie do battle against the viral infection that’s swept the earth, would have been a despicable cash-in. It would have been a mistake to follow-up the original’s careful examination of human nature just to placate an audience that seems to have missed the point Naughty Dog made. The Last of Us Part II hurts. But it has to or else it wouldn’t have been worth making. It’s a slow-burn meditation on the harmful ripples revenge creates, how suffering begets suffering, and how, if we don’t break the cycles of violence we commit to, suffering will come for us.

To drive this point, we’re given two distinct perspectives during the meaty (and somewhat overlong) campaign, split between Ellie Williams, the wronged party seeking revenge, and Abby Anderson, an ex-Firefly whose actions set the sequel into motion. The greatest trick Naughty Dog pulls off isn’t forcing us to play as a character we hate, it’s giving us reasons to emphasize with them. It was gradual, and despite some heavy-handed moments meant to squeeze sympathy out of the player (how many times do I have to see that fuckin’ aquarium?!), I eventually came to love Abby’s side of the story. The obvious irony being that she unwittingly walks the same path Joel did in the original.

My love for the narrative shouldn’t distract from how well designed the world is. Being a King County local, the vision of a ruined Seattle strikes an uncomfortable note -- it was eerie seeing recognizable buildings overgrown with vegetation but otherwise devoid of life. Maybe the heart-wrenching story also distracts from the fact this game is, by definition, survival horror. Exploring toppled buildings in the dark, hearing the animalistic chittering of the infected, defending yourself with limited resources… It manages to be a scarier entry into the genre in 2020 than even RE3R. There’s a particular fight in a fungus covered hospital basement that easily goes down as my Boss Fight of the Year. Human enemies make for clench-worthy encounters, too, with incredibly adept AI that forces you to keep moving around the environment and set traps to avoid getting overwhelmed.

Admittedly, the subject matter -- or more to the point, the grim tone -- was tough to stomach during an actual pandemic which has happily treated us to the worst of human nature. Still, The Last of Us Part II is absolutely worth playing for its balance of mature themes and expertly crafted world, and the way it juxtaposes beauty and awfulness in the same breath.

2. SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES

The most impressive thing about Miles Morales is that, despite being a truncated midquel rather than a full-blown sequel, it’s a better game than 2018’s Spider-Man. It’s not because of the instantaneous loading times or the fancy ray-tracing techniques used on the PS5 version of the game. Rather, it’s how it takes the joyride of the original game and hones it into a laser focused experience filled to the brim exclusively with highs. Like Batman: Arkham Asylum going into Arkham City, Miles starts the game off with his mentor’s best abilities and tools. From there, he discovers his own powers, his bioelectric venom strike, which ends up feeling like the missing ingredient from the first game’s combat.

Your open-world playground -- a locale in the Marvel universe called “New York City” -- is exactly the same size as the previous installment, which helps avoid making the game feel “lesser.” But Insomniac wisely consolidated the random crimes Peter faced into a phone app that Miles can check and choose which activity to help out with. Choices like this really trim the fat from the main game and help alleviate “the open-world problem” where the story’s pacing suffers because players are spending hours on end collecting feathers. This is great because Miles’ story is also great. The narrative kicks Peter out pretty early on, focusing on how Miles assumes the role of city protector, primarily focused on his new home in Harlem. Insomniac avoids retreading the same path paved by Into the Spider-Verse by telling a relatable tale where Miles defines his identity as Spider-Man. With a strong cast led by Nadji Jeter as Miles, the game lands an impactful story that weaves its own new additions to Miles’ mythos (light spoiler: I loved their take on The Prowler).

Miles Morales was pure virtualized joy from start to finish. A requirement of the platinum trophy is to replay the entirety of the game on New Game+. I didn’t hesitate to restart my adventure the minute the credits were over. Everything I loved about 2018’s Spider-Man is here: the swinging, the fighting, the gadgets, the bevy of costumes. But it gave me a new element I adore and can’t see Insomniac’s franchise proceeding without: being Miles Morales.

1. FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE

I love subversive media, I do. And Square Enix’s “remake” of one the most beloved video games ever made subverts expectations by openly acknowledging that, yes, the original story you love exists and is consistently referenced in this game. But this is not that story. This is something..else. Because the truth is, SE could never have recreated FFVII and delivered a title that matched the Sacred Game fans created in their heads. That impossible standard is like an imagined deity, given power by feeding on raw nostalgia reinforced by years of word-of-mouth and appearances on Top 100 lists. I’m not saying FFVII is a bad game or that fans give it too much credit. Not at all. There’s a reason it’s so influential -- it’s good! But memory works in a funny way over time. We have a tendency to codify our perception of a thing over the reality of it. The connection we make to certain media, especially when introduced at a young age as FFVII had been to a whole generation of fans so long ago, creates a legend in our heads. Unfortunately, it’s a legend no developer could achieve when tasked with remaking it.

So Square...didn’t. Final Fantasy VII Remake has the same characters, setting, and plot beats as the first third of the original game but it’s not the same game, nor is it a remake of it in the traditional sense. It’s something new. And I fucking love that about it.

Everything is reconfigured, including the combat. After years of trying to merge RPG mechanics with more approachable (and marketable) real-time action (see FFXV and the Kingdom Hearts games for examples), Square Enix finally landed on the perfect balance. You fully control Cloud on the battlefield, from swinging your impossibly huge buster sword to dodging attacks. The ATB gauge (no one knows what the acronym stands for -- that information has been lost to time) gradually fills up, letting unleash powerful moves. But best of all, you fight in a party, and you can switch who to control on the fly.

That may not sound revolutionary, let alone for a Final Fantasy, but each character has a completely unique feel and suite of moves. At times, it feels like playing a Devil May Cry game where you can switch between Dante, Vergil, and Nero on the fly (that’s a free idea, Capcom. Hire me, you cowards). You can soften up an enemy with Cloud’s buster to increase their stagger meter, switch to Barret for a quick gatling barrage, and finally switch to Tifa to crush them with her Omnistrike. You can accomplish this in real-time or slow down the action to plan this out. It’s a great mix of tactics and action that prevents the game from feeling like a mindless hack n’ slash.

What really, really works here is the character work. Each lead walks in tropes first, but the longer you spend with the members of your party, the more their motivations and fears are laid out. You end up having touching interactions with just about the whole main cast. There’s a small segment, after Cloud saves Aerith from invading Shinra guards, that the two make an escape via rooftop.They make light conversation -- small talk really -- but it’s exchanges like this that feel genuine, perfectly framing their characters (stoic versus heartfelt), and grounding an otherwise larger-than-life adventure.

Many bemoaned the fact that FFVIIR only revisits a small portion of the original game, but I think it was a brilliant choice -- to massively expand on areas we only got to see a little of in the original. I honestly didn’t want to leave Midgar. It’s a world rife with conflict and corporate oppression, sure, but Midgar is beautifully realized, from the slums below the plates, populated with normal people trying to make the best of life, to the crime controlled Wall Market, adorned with gaudy lights and echoing honky tonk tunes. It very well may be years before FFVII’s remake saga comes to a close, but if each entry is paved with as much love and consideration and, yes, storytelling subversion as this introductory chapter… It’ll be worth the wait.

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Amanda Ripley Alien Isolation character concepts

by Calum A.Watt  

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“The wrecked ship +Salt mines” : new concept arts of RESIDENT EVIL 7 ↳the last one is special art of “Zoe”

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New Resident Evil 7 Concept Art

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Review: Resident Evil 7

[Originally posted on When Nerds Attack.]

“You’re about to see something wonderful.” Jack’s freshly charred skin is peeling off his body. But he’s still alive, and strong. He’s clutching your wrist, pulling it to his face. He wraps his mouth around the handgun you just plucked from the desiccated cop now lying dead on the floor. With a resounding pop, a chasm erupts from the top of his skull. His body falls limply to the ground. You survived, but you didn’t win. Jack will be back. He deliberately ate a bullet just to prove a point.

It’s been a long time since Resident Evil has scared me. For the better part of a decade, Capcom remodeled the franchise that coined “Survival Horror” into gun-centric action games meant to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Familiar draws were included to bait fans that remember the fixed perspective, tank controlled days of yesteryear — whether it was tangential ties to the sinister Umbrella Corporation, hulking bio-weapons, or the franchise synonymous living dead. More often than not, though, these nostalgic additions felt like window dressing. While latter day sequels like Resident Evil 6 coated their levels in shadows and foreboding atmosphere, at their core, they were third-person shooters. True horror, the kind that the original trilogy is lauded for to this day, was left behind.

With Resident Evil 7, Capcom has finally returned to the franchise’s roots. It takes inspiration not only from its own past but from other stand-out horror experiences in order to rework and revitalize the genre they helped inform. The result is an expertly paced, incredibly tense hell-ride through a literal madhouse — and it’s actually pretty goddamn scary. Long-time fans have been yearning to hear this for years: Resident Evil 7 is pure survival horror.

SWEET HOME

Eschewing the tradition of military trained, boulder boxing heroes, you assume the role of prototypical everyman Ethan Winters, whose wife, Mia, disappeared three years before the story’s start. Beckoned by an ominous email from his estranged love, Ethan travels to an abandoned homestead located in a forgotten slice of southern Americana called Dulvey, Louisiana.

The Dulvey estate is a decaying wreck slowly being digested by the thick marsh that surrounds it. Inside, what’s truly unnerving isn’t how empty the house is, but how lived in it feels. Family portraits and hand-scribbled notes lie side by side with festering trash bags and dirtied pots filled with putrid meat. Somehow, people live here, and your surroundings do a fantastic job of letting you know that there’s something very, very wrong with them.

The new first-person perspective (rather than the third-person view in previous entries) introduces a newfound sense of dread since you’re vision is narrowed and you can’t see what’s behind you. It serves to make the experience eerily intimate and allows you to soak in every meticulously rendered inch of house. Passageways are splashed in pervasive darkness (some of the best shadow effects I’ve seen in a game) while the sound design pummels you with constant creaks, groans, and distant footsteps. Walking through the house is gloriously nerve-wracking.

I won’t spoil the first thirty minutes or so, but I will say the proceeding goes from Zero-to-Evil Dead fast enough to blow a gasket. It’s a joyfully malicious intro that perfectly sets the tone for the game to come — one that’ll have you laughing and recoiling in disgust in equal measure.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Before long you’ll encounter the main villains of the show: the Baker clan. There’s Jack Baker, the stern head of the household; his wife Marguerite, whose disposition flashes between motherly and vitriolic in a heartbeat; and their son Lucas, the only one of his kin that could pass for normal until you see the bottomless pit of insanity swirling in his eyes. There’s a certain level of camp to the Bakers that the game is unafraid to play with. Only horror aficionados would get this reference, but they call to mind the maniacal Sawyer family specifically from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (just one of many cinemacabre influences found in the game).

It’s apparent there’s more affecting the Bakers than a simple case of the batshit crazies. They’re inhumanly strong, can regenerate severed body parts, and worship the notion of ‘family’ with a murderous zeal. Figuring out what’s wrong with them, and how it pertains to your missing wife, reintroduces a story component absent from the series since the very first game: an engrossing mystery.

Each Baker is tethered to specific areas of the plantation — castellans of their hillbilly castle. But they serve a more dynamic role than just the inevitable boss fight earmarking a section. Jack, for instance, will patrol parts of the house, and if he spots you, will relentlessly chase you down until you he buries a shovel into your soft dome. There’s a sick thrill to tangling with Jack. He’s a walking bullet-sponge and difficult to shake-off until you learn to out maneuver him by running serpentine patterns all around the house.

Marguerite will also guard her part of the residence with a lantern in hand in case an intruder is hiding in the shadows, and when she finds you… well, I hope bugs don’t freak you out. Unlike the horror games these segments are derived from (namely Outlast and Amnesia), RE7 has little interest in being a hide and seek simulator, and uses these encounters sparingly. That restraint goes a long way, making an appearance from “Daddy” feel more surprising and random, keeping players constantly off-kilter as they trek through the house.

BACK TO BASICS

Given the change of perspective and overhauled, backwoods-y tone, you might wonder why Capcom bothered to slap a number on this seeming reboot. Despite its modern influences, the gameplay is most reminiscent of the original Resident Evil. Just like the granddaddy of survival horror, there’s a huge emphasis on exploring your environment, managing inventory, and picking which battles to fight or take flight from.

You’ll navigate the Baker house in search of keys that unlock new parts of the homestead and its surrounding areas. Arcane puzzles will block your progress, but they can typically be solved using simple order-of-operation: find Item A, combine it with Item B, slot Item C into hole. Not exactly Witness level headscratchers by any means, but they serve to break up the tension. And they’re just so quintessentially Resident Evil— a kooky house filled with inexplicably placed puzzles.

Apropos to the genre, the amount of items you can hold at once is limited. Thusly, item boxes — the bottomless chests that are magically linked to each other — return along with the save rooms that harbor them. Whereas completing some puzzles will condemn you to do battle with some unholy aberration, save rooms are the one true respite that allow you to breathe and collect yourself. (Special shout out goes to the calming, ambient melody that plays whenever you reach one of these bastions — that shit is lit).

There’s also an extra meta to how you organize and use items you find. You can find healing herbs and use them raw (I guess… I guess Ethan chews them?) but they become much more potent if you combine them with a Chem Fluid. If you hang on to the very same Chem Fluid until you found some loose gunpowder, on the other hand, you can craft your very own handgun bullets instead of having to forage for them. Combining items also frees up inventory slots which in turn can be filled up with more ammo, health, or key items. It all cleverly underlines the “Survival” in “Survival Horror,” rewarding savvy mixologists with a longer lease on life.

You’ll attain weapons to beat back the creatures of the night, and the UI lets you organize them within your inventory so that they’re mapped to the D-Pad. It’s a useful appropriation of one of Resident Evil 5’s better ideas especially given the fact that digging into your inventory doesn’t pause the action (you’ve been warned).

FIGHT NIGHT

It wouldn’t be a Resident Evil game without monsters. Enter the Molded — humanoid tarman formed from a viscous black goo. They’re mostly slow but they have wolverine claws, their faces are roughly eighty-percent teeth, and they’re dangerous in numbers. Helpfully, they haven’t mastered the art of opening doors, so they’re easy to trap, and you can also block incoming attacks to soak up the brunt of their damage. Eventually, though, you’ll have to go on the offensive.

You’re equipped with a pocket knife early on, but that’s only a rung more effective than harsh language– it’s the handgun and shotgun you’ll be relying on. It’s important to note that, despite the viewpoint, this isn’t a first-person shooter. Aiming down the sights slows your movement to a crawl and can actually put you in harm’s way which means placement is as paramount as precision — a concept not altogether foreign if you played the original games. There’s a value play to using weapons, too: if you mow down every single critter that jumps at you in the dark, you’ll find your clip empty the next time you’re truly up shit’s creek.

Ammo scarcity forces you to plan and act accordingly. Do you feed your last few bullets into a Molded so you can search an area in peace? Or can you evade long enough to save those shots? There’s few things more satisfying than the pus geyser that erupts whenever you relocate a Molded’s head, but I was more thankful to have those shots whenever Jack would burst through a wall like a redneck Kool-Aid Man. It’s the kind of on-the-fly strategizing that has been sorely missing from Resident Evil.

True to genre form, you’ll be tasked to engage in boss fights. Unfortunately, not every battle is a memorable showdown of wits and brawn. I’ll keep it vague, but there’s one sore thumb in the bunch, early on, that forces you to rely on the game’s clunky melee mechanics. Thankfully, the bar raises as you contend with the Bakers. Again, I’m being purposely vague, but one cool bit has you hopping between levels of a decrepit greenhouse as you hunt down a baddie, expertly making use of space, and another is such a wickedly good callback to Resident Evil 4, it’d bring a tear to Leon Kennedy’s dreamy eye.

FOUND FOOTAGE

When you’re not juggling items or tip-toeing in the dark, the game has you watching VHS tapes. Playing tapes isn’t as passive as that, however, since you’ll be tasked to play as the character within the video. It’s a really ingenious narrative tool that not only gives you insight to what the hell happened before Ethan arrived, but also spotlights crucial clues in your current environment. One tape stands out in particular — “Happy Birthday.” In it, you play as an ill-fated cameraman that has to solve an intricate puzzle to escape from a sealed room. The Saw inspired conundrum is by far one of most impressively realized pieces of design the game owns — it had my jaw to the floor by its conclusion.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY

Biological terrorism, global domination plots, superhuman villains… Resident Evil’s stories have arguably degraded into over-the-top comic book fare as the years have gone on. RE7 wisely reigns in its scope to tell the most grounded story in the series since the original. It follows the beats of a low-budget horror movie, and it’s a great direction. Like a lot of micro-budgeted horror movies, this is a plot driven vehicle.

Subsequently, character work is on the thin side, especially in regards to Ethan. His few spoken lines keep him from being a silent protagonist but it’s obvious he’s meant to be a blank slate for players to project onto — sort of in the vein of Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman or mute soldiers from early Call of Duty games. Mia, his wife, fares a little better — and she should; she has five times the amount of lines as Ethan — but at no point would you even think her and Ethan are married if it wasn’t explicitly stated. But it’s a double-edged sword: much of the momentum of the plot is owed to the fact that it doesn’t linger on personal details.

Whereas the first two-thirds of the game are brilliantly crafted and paced, RE7 loses a lot of steam on its march to the endgame. Again, in an attempt to not spoil any surprises, I won’t name the location you reach in the third-act. I will say that it like feels by-the-numbers horror fare — a disappointing contrast to everything the game so confidently builds beforehand. Disappointing, but nowhere enough to derail the experience.

It’s right around here that the game decides to increase the amount of Molded you fight by tenfold, totally inoculating players of any fear the bizarre tarmen might’ve wrought. We’re talking a small island nation’s worth of Molded. While there’s three distinct types of Molded to contend with — including a spider-y leaper who I hate so much — more enemy variety would have spiced up this last stretch considerably. If you can get through this gauntlet of pus-bloods, you’re treated to a Big Reveal, and get to find out what the hell’s really going on in Dulvey. As a fan, I was pleasantly surprised that they found a way to tie these seemingly discrete events back into the greater whole of what Resident Evil is about (while also leaving us with plenty of questions).

HAIL TO THE KING

After one of my very first sessions with the game, I took a break (game manuals used to suggest you do this often when game manuals were still a thing). Naturally, it was night and, of course, I was alone. I absorb a ridiculous amount of horror media, games and otherwise. They don’t get to me very often. Yet, my skin was crawling. I started jumping at small noises. I was watching shadows. I was still bugged out from my time inside the Baker house. The last time a horror game lingered with me like that was when I first played Resident Evil 2 on the Nintendo 64– I was 10.

Resident Evil 7 is phenomenal course correction for the franchise. It’s unashamed of celebrating established cliches but, like any great horror movie, knows how to subvert them. Capcom’s crafted a legitimately harrowing ride that also manages to never sacrifice its playability. While other games of its ilk will try to depower the player as much as possible to instill a sense of vulnerability, Resident Evil 7 smartly balances its challenge with fun gameplay mechanics. I wanted to get right back into it even as the credits rolled (and I did… four times since).

The game feels fresh, yet it builds on time-tested conventions of the genre. Capcom has proven they understand why we loved the original games, and have found a means to modernize that formula. I can’t see the series going back to the over-the-shoulder, co-op shoot-fests. This is the path to stay on. Not just because Resident Evil 7 is one of the best games in the series, but because it’s one of the best survival horror games ever made.

[If you purchase the PS4 edition of the game, you can enjoy/endure the entirety of Resident Evil 7 in PlayStation VR. I’ve yet to make the $400 plunge into Sony’s virtual space, but I did get to play the Beginning Hour demo in VR at Capcom’s booth during last December’s PSX. Though my time with the VR version of the game was brief, I was thoroughly impressed. Anecdotally, I’ve heard it’s the scariest and most immersive way to experience RE7. Apologies for not having more extensive impressions!]

[theredherb]

it’s a jill valentine

[theredherb]

Is the Nintendo Switch Launching Too Early?

Breaking Down the Info from the Hybrid Console’s Big Presser

When Nintendo finally revealed the Switch back in late October, I was left more excited about the company’s future in hardware than I have been in years. Granted, that initial trailer was the idealized vision of the console: it was direct in its messaging while shrewdly omitting any hype-strangling details like battery life, resolution, and, most importantly, price. What we were left with was the exciting prospect of console quality games (like the newest Zelda opus) on a handheld hybrid that features modular controllers; a machine that cobbles together what Nintendo is best at -- forward thinking portability and first-party games so good they stand head and shoulders with the best this industry has to give.

On Thursday, Nintendo began filling in the blanks, setting about to answer (at least some) of the questions fans have had circling in their heads since the system’s unveiling. You can watch the entire conference here but, coming from someone that sat through a livestream of the proceeding -- awaiting something, anything, that signaled Nintendo’s return to form -- I’d recommend just reading up on the cliff notes.

Though the affair was poised in the same fashion as one of Sony’s knockout E3 conferences, Nintendo couldn’t land the same blows. I began the show with more enthusiasm than Nintendo let me leave with. After the abject failure of the Wii U (a console that only managed to push slightly north of 13 million units -- the worst sales in Nintendo’s hardware history barring the Virtual Boy) the Switch needed to be touted as a reckoning. It was Nintendo’s chance to convince the fence-sitters to choose their side of the picket. We didn’t get that Thursday night.

Nintendo has always floundered in the stage show department, though. You’re asking the same company that thought this shit was a good idea to try and wow us in an hour and a half. Nintendo’s like that shy kid at the back of the class: he tests well and always turns in his homework, but the second you ask him to walk up to the board and present, he becomes a mumbling, incoherent mess. Of course they shit the bed. This is Nintendo we’re talking about. Credit to that first Switch video, though. I fell for it, too! I wrongly assumed Nintendo was trying to demonstrate they’ve turned a new leaf (no pun intended, Animal Crossing fans). At the presentation, however, it seems Nintendo isn’t just making its same old mistakes but brand new ones.

But I think it’s important to remember that a poor showcase isn’t enough reason to condemn the hardware itself. The tech, despite Nintendo’s aloof messaging, still looks cool. So let’s try to unpack what we learned at the showcase (and the info we gleaned in the days following) without having to suffer through awkward squid doctors and a translator whose probably looking for a new job right about now:

The Nintendo Switch launches March 3rd and costs $299.

I had it in my mind that if NIntendo wanted to blow some toadstools, the price would have been $249. However, this gives them some wiggle room if they wanted to make a $50 cut closer toward the holidays (or if it performs, shall we say, shittily?). Still, $300 is in bounds of reason. Base model PlayStation 4’s and Xbox One’s start at that price. While enthusiasts understand, and could potentially be irked by, the fact that they’re paying the same price for a console that has less horsepower than its contemporaries, we should look to the casual consumer’s mentality instead.

The casual consumer is likely to see this new system from trusty Nintendo --a brand so storied that there was once a time in my childhood where my parents referred to any video game console I had as “a Nintendo” -- see the similar pricing, and lump the Switch’s capability in the same bracket. Any cheaper and a casual consumer may begin to think of the Switch as a handheld: a complementary device that can’t do what a home console does. The very perception Nintendo doesn’t want, evidenced by their reminding us that it is a home console every chance they get.

If you don’t think that’s a genuine concern, keep in mind that the mainstream audience who made the Wii a massive success didn’t  know the Wii U was a separate console. Sometimes, even retailers didn’t know what the hell it was.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a launch title. Mario isn’t.

Nintendo ended its ten-mile-jog-through-glass of a presentation with one of the only franchises in this industry that hasn’t been poisoned by cynicism. And goodness gracious does it look breathtaking (sorry, another dollar for the pun jar). Nintendo is well aware that a new Zelda game can pry wallets open -- especially the rare Zelda game that releases at a system’s launch. Unfortunately, Breath of the Wild seems to be the only compelling reason to snag a Switch on Day One.

Super Mario Odyssey, a brand new adventure that sees the Italian reptile stomper leap between dimensions (including an analog for NYC called “New Donk City”... let that settle inside you for a moment), won’t hit the launch window. It’s tentatively set for Holiday 2017. I’m not trying to gloss over the power or draw of a new Zelda title but… that’s coming out on Wii U as well. If you wanted a surefire system seller that tickles the fancies of the mainstream and hardcore, young and old alike, then you sell it alongside a Mario title. So why not wait until your flagship game was ready?

One gander at the launch lineup only underlines this point: there’s only three other games releasing on day one besides Zelda. You have the gimmicky 1-2-Switch that relies on the motion sensors within your Joy-Con controllers to play party games (you can see shades of Nintendo’s belief that the Wii wasn’t a hugely successful fluke in this game); then there’s two third-party offerings from Ubisoft and Activision -- Just Dance 2017 and Skylanders Imaginators, respectively. That’s a paltry showing, even taking into account launches tend to be historically thin.

Beyond that, our confirmed launch window games are either ports of games that have been out for years already (like Skyrim, I Am Setsuna, and Lego City Undercover) or updates to existing Wii U games (like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Splatoon 2… don’t let the 2 fool you, this sequel feels incremental rather than substantial). There’s some standouts, though. Super Bomberman R looks good, as does Arms which is said to be a surprisingly engaging fighter despite its stupid, stupid name and Nintendo’s obvious attempt to make it A Thing.

The accessories cost an arm and a leg and the other leg too.

This one truly boggles the mind. It’s like Nintendo is trying to offset the money they lost on the Wii U by taxing the shit out of us. Here’s the breakdown:

-Left & Right Joy-Con Controllers: $49.99 for one/$79.99 for both. Okay, I get that there’s all sorts of fancy tech shoved into these little guys. They feature “HD Rumble” which offers impressive feedback, letting you feel like you’re rattling a real cup full of ice or fondling a cow. Then there’s the IR sensor capable of spatial detection so precise, it can detect your very hand gestures. Awesome. Except… will that make a difference when you’re playing a traditional single-player game like Breath of the Wild? Motion controls and playing virtual rock, paper, scissors are decidedly not why I’m excited about a console/handheld hybrid.

-Pro Controller: $69.99. Now you’re off your fucking rocker, Nintendo. The way in which traditionalists and hardcore gamers will undoubtedly favor to play is more expensive than a PS4 or Xbox One controller. Granted, they couldn’t resist tossing in that “HD Rumble” and amiibo functionality. I’m sure that drove up the cost. But goddamn. Imagine wanting to play Zelda with a Pro Controller at launch. You’re out $430 and you only own one game.

-Joy-Con Charging Grip: $29.99. If you’re skipping out on the Pro Controller but still wish to play on your TV, you’ll have to snap off your Joy-Cons to go wireless. Ah, but the charge on those babies drains. Enter the Charging Grip, a peripheral that serves as its own controller while it juices up your Joy-Cons. Ostensibly the only other reasonably priced accessory besides the $14.99 set of Joy-Con Wheels.

-Nintendo Switch Dock Set: $89.99. And we’re back into the clutches of greedy insanity. Now, this bundle -- which includes the dock, AC adapter, and an HDMI cord -- is paired with every Switch out of the box. But, say, your toddler decides to feed your dock some peanut butter or subjects it to a water level in your bathtub, this is one pricey replacement. It looks like a hunk of plastic (and very well could be) but the fact games run at a higher resolution when the Switch is docked could point to more intricate internal components. Still, a $90 price gouge dashes most gamers’ dreams of buying a dock for every TV in the house for convenience's sake (don’t act like you didn’t think about it; deep down, we’re all that lazy).

There’s going to be a paid subscription service for online play, and it already sounds bad.

It’s astounding Nintendo hasn’t figured out an online ecosystem. Nintendo struggles with requisite features companies like Microsoft figured out fourteen years ago. I don’t even mind that they’re charging for the service. Feels like an inevitability in the console space -- though I will argue they have a serious uphill battle ahead to prove the service is worth the coin. What bothers me is that there has been no information on the continuity of service when it comes to transferring Virtual Console games over from the Wii U. There’s also been no word if we’ll finally see a system-wide Achievement feature -- another failing of the Wii U that fans have been pleading to see.

What we do know is that the online service will be free to Nintendo Account holders until the Fall -- when the feature is launched in proper.  They’re also offering a free NES or SNES download every month. That’s cute, and they’re incorporating online play to these retro titles, too, but the sour little caveat is that these games are free and playable only for the month you get them. Nintendo, buddy, you’ve already allowed yourself to get meat-checked by the competition, and your system isn’t out yet.

It gets better. They’re attempting to launch a “dedicated smart device app” that “will connect to Nintendo Switch and let you invite friends to play online, set play appointments, and chat with friends during online matches in compatible games -- all from your smart device.”

Are you seriously telling me the console that you’re launching in 2017 doesn’t have native voice chat? That I have to use an external device to play with friends? Nintendo’s been vague when it comes to online-play. Hell, Nintendo’s vague in general, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt until they clarify the matter… Otherwise, I’d have to call them out for being hopelessly fucking antiquated and warn them that their clownish decision making is a self-paved death march out of the hardware business.

Listen, I want to eat crow. I hope Nintendo makes me choke on my own words. I hope, as I always do when they release new gadgets, that Nintendo succeeds. The company is how I first broke into gaming, and those early days with the Super Nintendo are some of my fondest. Of course I want to see Nintendo score another win. In a year’s time, I want to feel like the Switch is an integral, oft used part of my gaming life. The device is interesting and the most appealing piece of machinery Nintendo has shown us in years. But a system is only as good as its games, and this March, there’s only really one title I can hang my hat on. I sincerely hope that changes and that 2017 isn’t as dry as looks right now.

Something stinks about this launch lineup. It stinks of Sega Saturn. The Saturn launched before developers were ready for it, having very little in the way of games prepared for the new console, and Sega suffered the consequences. Again, I’m behind the concept of the Switch 100%. But, from this outlook, it makes little sense for Nintendo to launch in two months. It doesn’t feel ready.

Sure, Nintendo has survived abysmal launches before. The 3DS launched with a nigh empty catalog and that little bastard has been kicking for five years now (managing to smother the Vita along the way). But for as much pull as our favorite Hyrulian has, Mario’s your bigger draw. And what happened to that Pokemon game supposedly in development for the Switch? If Nintendo waited until the Fall and launched with the holy triumvirate of Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, and a new Pokemon, the Switch would sell like gangbusters.

Even the company’s shareholders are having a tough time believing the Switch can reach a wide audience. Just a day after the big conference, Nintendo’s stocks dropped 5.75 percent. It feels just as dismal on the game dev side. The Game Developers Conference released the results of a poll where 50 percent of developers think the Switch can outsell the Wii U. I know, predictions don’t necessarily dictate reality. No, what has me distressed is that, of those who were polled, only 3 percent were actively working on a Switch game.

I’m… trying to remain optimistic. Consoles can make turnarounds. The PS3 famously pulled away from the faulty, downright arrogant decision making that plagued its early years and fought to close the gap Microsoft had forged with the Xbox 360. It’s just that I’d hate to have to wait four years for the Switch to really find its step -- in the same amount of time, the Wii U expended its entire life cycle.

[theredherb]

Aaaand back to fanarts XD

[theredherb]

A painting for the upcoming Nier Automata. Play the demo!

[theredherb]

The Red Herb’s Top 10 Games of 2016

[Originally posted as A Totally Subjective List of 2016′s 10 Best Games on When Nerds Attack.]

2016 was a rough one. Whether it was methodically tearing our cultural icons away from us or trying to plant the seeds for a Twitter Age civil war, 2016 felt like a twelve month beatdown that had us collectively gasping against the ropes. But the realm of escapism thrived, especially in video games! This year saw amazing worlds to get lost in (and given the climate, we needed it). As always, I'll remind readers that this list is entirely subjective and based on my tastes. Is your favorite game omitted? Maybe I didn't play it; maybe I hated it. For every game I got my hands on, there were probably two others I didn't get to hunker down with.

There was a glut of new games this year making it hard to keep up with every single one But that's a great thing! This hobby I hold oh-so dear to my heart is growing, and new experiences are being forged every day. In a defeating year like this one, it's comforting to know art, commercial or otherwise, can and will persist. I'll also I'm not looking to "rank" or pit any of these titles against each other. These are ten standout titles in a year filled with, arguably, many more than ten standout titles. Cool? Awesome. Here's the ten video games that tickled my fancy in 2016:

10. BATMAN: THE TELLTALE SERIES

Though Telltale’s gameplay formula is starting to congeal, their deft approach to storytelling is as a good as ever in this reconfiguring of the Dark Knight’s lore. I loved its play on the superhero’s split persona, giving you the choice to tackle situations using Bruce Wayne’s wealth and status, or skirting outside the law to deliver masked vengeance as The Batman.

It beats that old horse once more – Bruce’s parents’ tragic death in a Gotham alley – but fearlessly alters decades of mythos in order to take us on a surprising, twisting journey. Similarly, old faces are made new again with the liberties Telltale takes: Harvey Dent is a close friend leaning on Bruce’s pull to further his own political career; the Penguin is a former childhood chum that’s returned to make Gotham pay for the fortune he’s lost; and Catwoman is, well, essentially the same Catwoman we know but she picks up on Batsy’s less super-suited ego early on causing some tension that eventually leads to a forum fanfic come to life.

Telltale’s engine is still a technical disaster – low framerates, disappearing characters, and even complete crashes. If you can get past that (without losing your progress), you’re in for not just one of Telltale’s better outings, but one of the better renditions of Batman to grapple his way outside of comics.

9. HEADLANDER

In a year where AAA games blotted out the sky, it was a treat to find small rays of light like Headlander. A smaller project developed by Double Fine, Headlander is a total love letter to that kitschy ‘70s sci-fi aesthetic that made the movies like Star Wars and Logan’s Run so great. A side-scroller established firmly in the Metroidvania genre, you play as a disembodied head that can boost around levels and, well, land on robotic bodies to engage in combat or solve a myriad of puzzles.

Stuffed with sharp humor and funky design, the whole game is as entertaining as it’s weird. The game toys with the concept that humanity has moved on from flesh and now transfers their consciousness into chrome domes, but this apparently happened in the distant future as envisioned by the disco era. You run through environments littered with robo-people spouting, “Alllll riiiight” and everyone you inhabit (by sucking their heads off) can dance sexy. I don’t even know what the hell I’m describing at this point. But forget all that Song of the Deep rabble – Headlander is one of the best Metroidvania games I’ve ever played.

8. FAR CRY PRIMAL

Primal could have been one of those shrug worthy “side-quels” that studios like to squeeze out while fans waited for a proper Far Cry 5. Yet much more care and commitment to concept went into this joyous prehistoric romp than anyone would have thought.

The hallmarks of the series are all there: base capturing, open-world exploration, and light-sneaking/heavy FPS action. But the game trades in your guns and vehicles for spears and ridable beasties. It presents a new challenge for the series just when things were getting a tad too formulaic with Far Cry 4. Far Cry’s weirdnesses are all in play, however. You meet an eclectic bunch of quest-givers, like a piss drinking shaman that sends you on an obligatory Ubisoft Drug Induced Bender, or a displaced neanderthal suffering from a genetic malady.

There’s a greater emphasis on the wildlife this go around, too. Far Cry has always featured animals, but Primal lets you tame them, using a rolodex of different creatures that can aide you in the middle of a battle at a moment’s notice, either as a partner or distraction. You gain an appreciation for their varying attributes, like the mountain bear’s tank-ish fortitude or the wolf’s ability to take out enemies quickly and quietly. They’re practically characters in their own right; I’d hate to see Far Cry 5 (or whatever the hell they call it) do away with the Beast Master system.

7. DOOM

I remember being there for the gameplay reveal at Quakecon and having my face instantly melted the first time I saw the Doom Guy rip and tear a demon apart with his bare hands. That excitement didn’t diminish when the rest of the world finally got their own hands on the game.

Doom expertly hacks into its fast-paced, action-first roots while weaving in modern philosophy. It checks every box a fan could possibly want in blood red ink: brutal, fluid, incredibly kinetic combat; ludicrous amounts of attention paid to the grisliest details; and a roving armory of guns capable of massive amounts of destruction. Whereas games like Call of Duty attempt to impart players with a sense of vulnerability – making you a small cog in a machine of many – Doom fearlessly embraces the action hero power fantasy. You are the Doom Slayer. You are a force to be reckoned with; a living tornado carving a bloody path through the annals of hell.

There’s a semblance of a story to be had (if you’re the kind of goober that picks up a Doom game looking for that sort of thing), but id Software spends precious little time trying to explain it to you. Instead, it tucks visual narrative in the environment and its more explanatory passages in codexes you have to seek out. The thing is, there’s a very conscious effort on the dev’s part to not bog down what Doom is at its core. Doom is rip-roaring ultra violence of the highest order, a rollercoaster made entirely of loops. Don’t get too hung up on “Why?”-- there’s a room full of demons around the corner and they don’t need a “Why” to tear you apart.

6. WATCH DOGS 2

If I could name this game anything but Watch Dogs, I would. It’s unfortunate ties to 2014?s over-hyped and underwhelming predecessor caused many to overlook one of 2016's best open-world games. Set in a lovingly accurate homage to San Francisco, you control Marcus Halloway, an entirely too likable hacktivist bent on sticking it to The Man and breaking it off.

In this pursuit, you’ll perform a number of pranks, heists, and assorted antics to damage, impede, or just outright embarrass the money-worshipping, information-selling shrews running the system. Like Assassin’s Creed II before it, Watch Dogs 2 improves on almost every problem the original had. Stepping away from revenge and placing a focus on youth rebellion, and providing us with an engaging cast to invest in, was smart. The story is lighthearted and humorous, sprinkled with biting satire – a much needed breath of fresh air from the first game’s dour tone. Hacking is vastly expanded as well, giving you freedom of choice in how you tackle encounters. I found myself infiltrating enemy hideouts using just Marcus’ RC car and drone. It sounds ridiculous, and I agree completely, but it meshes so well with Dedsec’s newfound tongue-in-cheek outlook.

Watch Dogs 2 caught me by surprise. It plays with tried and true conventions of the genre, but does it with such style and fun, I couldn’t help but devour the game.

5. TITANFALL 2

It’s a damned shame how EA mishandled this game’s launch – marching it out to die between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s release dates – because Respawn’s sequel deserves a fair shake. Taking to heart reaction to the original game’s omission of single-player, Titanfall 2 came equipped with a campaign – one of the year’s very best.

Centered on the bond between a grunt-turned-pilot and a personable mech named BT, Titanfall 2 dives in and never, ever lets up. Respawn could’ve rested on their laurels, too. The game’s snappy gunplay – an obvious carryover from their years under the Infinity Ward banner – and explosive titan-on-titan fights would’ve made for a solid campaign. The opening hours really give no hint that Titanfall 2 is anything other than a competent shooter haplessly shoved into a year full of above standard shooters. Then, out of nowhere, the campaign goes for the extra mile, pounds a Red Bull, and bolts for the horizon.

We learn how woefully underused the parkour mechanic from the first game is once you’re tasked with navigating constantly shifting, puzzle-like environments, all while trying to mow down hordes of enemies. In one standout mission, you gain access to a time-warping wristwatch (stick with me) that lets you instantly phase between the past and present. The game plays with this concept brilliantly, forcing you to solve problems on the fly – one section demanding you hop between timelines while you’re wallrunning to get past obstacles. Some of the design instantly recalls Portal – it’s that clever.

Top the whole proceeding off with the same solid multiplayer suite found in the original Titanfall, and this sequel is the complete package. One good thing came from EA’s goof, however – hardly any place sells the game for full price anymore.

4. UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF’S END

Though it’s an amazing game in its own right, to really say the least, I should caution anyone from plunging into Nathan Drake’s final adventure without having played the first three games. It’s not that A Thief’s End hinges on your knowledge of the PS3 trilogy – actually, much like the Indiana Jones films it apes, Uncharted’s main plot lines never thread together between releases. It’s just that Naughty Dog has written an emotional send-off that only fully resonates if you put in your time with Drake and his supporting cast of greats like Elena and Sully.

Beyond that, ND proves once again why they sit atop the industry when it comes to design, gameplay, and narrative. Uncharted has historically skewed closer to campy, easily digestible fun, which is why it was such a surprise to revisit an older Drake struggling to find the spark in his settled down, married life, free of the danger he was once addicted to. When his estranged brother enters the scene (another knockout performance from the voice of video games himself, Troy Baker), we’re thrust into a familiar adventure full of ancient ruins, tense gunfights, and platforming galore. But Nathan approaches this proceeding with more reflection. His swagger is slowed by his age, and he examines the weight of this lifestyle on himself and the ones he loves.

It’s a thoughtful, exciting, and emotionally charged journey bolstered by the most refined gameplay this series has seen. It’s an adventure underlined by a sense of finality, which wisely takes a breath to slow down its action and focus on what has always made this franchise work: its characters. Plus, holy shit, have you seen the rope physics in this game?

3. FINAL FANTASY XV

I could level a Summon sized amount of criticisms at this game. I could go on about its arbitrary design quirks, whether they’re dated choices or simply dumb ones. I could groan on and on about its threadbare story, with its rushed conclusion and jarring “offscreen” events that no amount of CG movies or anime vignettes can save. I could write a thesis on how Chapter 13 doesn’t mechanically or tonally work. I could tell you that it doesn’t live up to ten years of hype.

But I had to search my soul on this one, because I had dumped well over seventy hours into exploring the open-world, hunting packs of razor-dogs, finding new recipes for Ignis to cook up at camp, riding Chocobos, fishing for Chrissake, storming labyrinthine dungeons, searching for better gear… It made me realize, for every complaint I could possibly have, few of those damning bullet points could shoot down the enjoyment I got out of this title. The combat is excellent: it’s crunchy, responsive, and expands as your crew levels. The world is gorgeous and giant; sometimes lonely, sometimes stupidly dangerous. And the boys. Your comrades grow on you every step of the way. You learn about their different personalities and how they relate to each other, not least of which how they relate to you (as Noctis). What it lacks in plot it certainly tries to make up for in character. So much so that I blank-stared my way through huge plot shakeups while, during more intimate character-driven parts, I had to fight back mansome tears.

What’s broken in Final Fantasy XV is hopelessly shattered. But what works bangs on all the Regalia’s cylinders. It’s an incredibly strange, profoundly Japanese take on Western open-worlders. One mission could have you on an epic quest to find the best ingredient to throw into Cup Noodle (seriously) while the next will be a bounty hunt pitting you against a beast the size of a mountain. Despite being a complete gameplay departure, there’s something quintessentially Final Fantasy about it all. It’s charming, its music is fantastic – it has heart. In the face of all of its flaws, I had an immense amount of fun in this world and wanted to keep coming back. I hate that I love it, but I do nonetheless.

2. OVERWATCH

What the hell can I even say about this game? If the current active user base is any indication, you certainly don’t need me to evangelize the game. Overwatch became a sensation this year, with some detractors calling the multiplayer-only hero shooter “a fluke,” given that, on console anyway, hardly any shooters without a dedicated single-player mode survive.

But Overwatch isn’t a fluke: it’s a master class in design. It’s the game dev’s game, and shouldn’t just be studied by its peers in the class-based shooter space – it should be regarded by every game maker from here on out. The attention to detail goes beyond painstaking. The commitment to balance is inhuman. On paper, this is not my typical purview. I may have played one round of TF2 in my whole life and that’s all it took for me to call quitsies.

Yet Overwatch reexamines class-based video games and obliterates its weaknesses. Support roles, like playing healer, aren’t the groan inducing last picks here. They’re dynamic and interesting-- as fun as they are integral. Often a huge team revive from Mercy can turn a match faster than an offense-heavy character, and without defenders like Reinhardt and his damage-soaking shield, you’ll find victory next to impossible. This isn’t a game for killstreak hungry lone wolves. Cooperation is not just encouraged – the whole experience hinges on it. It’s a viciously intelligent title that executes on the one tenant that all great games share: it’s easy to pick up but difficult to master.

And there was always something to drag me back in. Whether it was the constant refinements and additions Blizzard made – which, be it a new character or new mode, are all free – or the gold mine of bragging rights offered in each competitive season, more than any other game this year, I found myself entrenched in Overwatch. I’ve had my downs with the game, to be sure. I would find myself on Youtube Fail worthy losing streaks – where every tea-bagging Mei seemed to have a near infinite supply of Ult’s up her ass, and every team I joined acted as if they were being paid to actively avoid the goddamn payload. But when you hit your stride in this game – when your Ult’s lay the land to waste and your team comp feels like science – there were few highs that topped Overwatch in 2016, and more than any other game on this list, I’m guaranteed to keep playing it well into 2017.

1. DARK SOULS III

I want to preface this entry for a moment: I hated Souls-Like games before I played Dark Souls III. I dipped my toe into the original Demon’s Souls and had that toe bit off. That disc was spit out of my console within ten minutes. I gave a heartier effort to Bloodborne, caught up in the whirlwind praise encircling the PS4 exclusive. I didn’t get past the first boss.

Something just clicked when I played Dark Souls III. It was gradual, but I began to understand the kind of animal the game was. I stopped tossing my controller against the wall after every death and started to think of them as… charting the level. Every death taught me something new: be it enemy patterns, places to avoid, whatever. And, fostering a level of resilience that years of hand-holding in big budget games have conditioned out of me, I pressed on. I took my licks. I learned when to dodge, and dodge precisely, and when to attack, and strike true. I took note, and advantage of, the numerous shortcuts winding through the environment. To progress in Dark Souls is to master it – to know more about its monsters and its world than other games would ever care to tell you. My clicking point came when I realized death wasn’t a punishment in Dark Souls; it was a mechanic. A mechanic to be used like healing, or saving, or dodging. And you’ll use it often.

I’m glad I stuck in there because I would’ve missed out on a lavishly macabre fantasy world, filled with gloriously grotesque monsters, with a narrative presented as a painting – open to interpretation. It’s a meticulously detailed piece of art that only this medium could craft. A genuine challenge that reminded me games used to be hard, and we used to welcome that difficulty. Dark Souls III doles out a fair many beatings, but once I learned how to roll with the punches (quite literally), it was the best gaming experience I had all year.

[theredherb]

Samus Aran Sketch

Created by Joseba Alexander

[theredherb]

Mega Man

Art by Christopher Stevens

[theredherb]

rest in fucking pieces

[theredherb]

Final Fantasy XV: Quick Impressions

I’ve beaten Square Enix’s ten-years-in-the-making magnum opus. I do eventually want to write a review, and doubtless it’ll be a long-winded opus in and of itself since I have a ton I want to say, but I thought I’d share some quick impressions now that I’ve resurfaced from my sixty hour journey into a world of magical beings and stupid anime haircuts. Mostly to collect my thoughts on my time with it and also because not writing for me is like holding in a big shit after chugging a pint of coffee.

If you haven’t succumbed to a decade of hype and bought the game already, here’s my entry level takeaway: for every high Final Fantasy XV achieves there’s at least two frustrating lows. It’s a game at odds with itself, no doubt a symptom of a protracted development cycle that switched hands halfway through its gestation. But it’s an immense amount of fun, highlighted by addictive and challenging combat, an engrossing world, and memorable characters that rise above a particularly forgettable storyline. It’s a strange one, to be sure, especially for an open-world game but something compelled me to keep on playing obviously or else I wouldn’t have even made it to the ten hour mark.

Now here’s some thoughts:

- I’m 60+ hours in. Haven’t completed every sidequest and bounty hunt, but I did see the whole story through and earned a Platinum Trophy (that’s a fact and bragging if you didn’t catch on).

- The camaraderie between the mains (Noctis, Ignis, Glaudio, and Prompto) is standout. If you’re looking for further context on these characters, watch the Brotherhood vignettes on Youtube. Yes, it sucks to have to look outside the game for background -- it’s a huge faux pau that should forever be avoided -- but they’re well done.

- That said, Noctis is such a non-character. I get that JRPG’s love to have a stoic lead (I’m a huge fan of Squall, too) but his stoicism borders on comatose. I had no goddamn idea what he was feeling or thinking at any given time. Even when his bros would outright ask him! “Noct, you excited to get hitched to your childhood friend?” “...” Did somebody spill coffee on the script during translation?

- Combat is really, really good. Strong focus on parrying and targeting enemy weak points. There’s a Wait Mode option if you want to get all tactical with it but I never needed to. Fighting is fast and fluid. The Ascension Grid has immediate, and appreciable, affects on combat. You can learn more skills for your crew and their link attacks really cook.

- Why can’t I stack Bounty Hunts? Why?! You’re locked into one and have to return to a “Tipster” to turn it in before taking on another. Completely arbitrary.

- NPC’s like to take advantage of you the same way. Just completed “Fuck a Toad Monster with Your Sword?” Awesome! Here’s “Fuck a Toad Monster with Your Sword II.” Get on back out there, hunter!

- Huge world like The Witcher. Really archaic mission structures, unlike The Witcher. Expect most, if not all, sidequests to either be a beast hunt or a fetch quest. Like an open-world game from, funny enough, ten years ago, FFXV saves its more intriguing shit for the main story.

- An NPC says the phrase, “Git r’ done!” Square Enix, I would like a public apology. I’ll Prompto to exclaim “O-M-G!” but this? This won’t stand.

- For a franchise that spotlights strong female characters, FFXV uses its women as plot crutches rather than provide a meaningful perspective outside of your roving sausage party. Lady Lunafreya is utterly a plot device.

- The dungeons are fantastic. Discovering a new one is a genuine joy. Not all are the requisite “creepy cavern” either. A gorgeous summer glade served host to a winding, floral “dungeon” with a gigantic tree ent monster at that end. Another was simply an upward hike atop a volcano. A latter level dungeon was a mix between medieval architecture and ethereal technology, forcing me to solve environmental puzzles that slowly led me to the center of a castle’s keep. My favorite parts of the game were had in dungeons.

- The world can be gorgeous. Breathtaking, even. I wish there were more geography to discover beyond Lucis’ rural aesthetic, though. It feels vast but all too often very similar to what you’ve already seen. 

- Prompto’s my boy. Especially if you watch his Brotherhood segment. I was a friendless fat kid, too. Of course, it was less “hard work, exercise, and the hope of befriending a prince” that got me in shape and more “drinking water, smoking cigarettes, and hoping girls notice me.” Still, relatable.

- The fishing mini-game isn’t bad. Think Ocarina of Time.

- Building up your Survival Skill is a taxing experience.

- Using the car; also a taxing experience. If fast traveling weren’t tethered to it, I probably would never had used it.

- Chapter 13 is a sweltering garbage fire. All of the charm and enjoyable gameplay we’ve grown accustomed to up till now is thrown out the window. It’s overlong, contemptuously dour, and relies on a sneaking mechanic that’d make Hideo ugly cry. Square doesn’t need to patch it -- they need to nuke this chapter from the game.

- No amount of Kingsglaives or “extra scenes” can fix this story. It jumps the shark almost precisely when you leave the open-world. Everything about the final succession of chapters feel rushed. Nothing ties together seamlessly, and the finale doesn’t feel earned. There isn’t even enough substance behind the story to call it convoluted. Big disappointment especially for a series known for some terrific storytelling.

- Like practically every open-world game, FFXV is at its best when you’re pursuing your own goals. Be it bounties, collecting old FF soundtracks to blast in your car, racing chocobos, or fishing... when you’re free to do what you want, you’ll want to do more of it.

- I doubt we’ll see fundamental changes to the game, but hopefully future content expands on what works: bounties, dungeons, high level weapons. I’d also very much love to see new areas to explore outside of Lucis (we get glimpses but they’re incredibly linear, forgoing the open-world element).

- Fuck you, Adamantoise, and the three hours of my life you stole.

[theredherb]

Me handling my responsibilities.

[theredherb]

Watch Dogs 2 Review

(Originally posted on When Nerds Attack.)

Before fiery forums and contemptuous comment sections damned No Man’s Sky as the poster boy for Overhyped Disappointment, that distinction belonged to Watch Dogs. With showstopping E3 demonstrations years before its actual release and a marketing campaign that inflated the game’s reputation into the next-gen second coming, Ubisoft’s open-world title had expectations stacked to the moon.

But Watch Dogs wasn’t the crowbar to GTA’s knee it was gassed up to be. And it certainly wasn’t the next-generation tour de force of 2014 that displayed the sheer computational power of our eighth generation consoles. It was a bog standard open-world crime game, compounded by a weak story centered on one of gaming’s worst leading men. The one concept that separated it from its peers – the ability to hack parts of the environment to your advantage – felt more like a shallow distraction than a tantamount feature. Shit, Watch Dogs isn’t even the best open-world game with “Dogs” in its title. Despite huge out-of-the-gate sales, Watch Dogs became the cornerstone of Gamestop’s $9.99 bins.

That’s why Watch Dogs 2 is such a huge surprise. Ubisoft has made a herculean effort of addressing the original game’s biggest problems. We’ve ditched the dreary reinterpretation of Chicago for a lively, sometimes uncannily accurate recreation of San Francisco. Aiden’s half-baked revenge quest has been traded up for a lighter toned but more resonant tale of rebellion against a voyeuristic big brother. We’re given a cast of characters that matter, headed up by a charming, cocksure protagonist who’s instantly likable. Watch Dogs 2 is a vast improvement over its predecessor. It’s the biggest turnaround in quality an Ubisoft sequel has managed since Assassin’s Creed II.

ACTIVE HACKTIVST

You’ll control Marcus Holloway, a self-styled “hacktivist” that goes by the name ‘Retr0’. The game opens on a daring heist (of sorts) that sees Marcus breaking into a Blume server farm in order to expunge an unfairly earned criminal record. If you don’t remember from the first game (beyond understandable if not), Blume is the looming corporate evil that’s trying to proliferate ‘Smart Cities’ – metropolises constantly run and monitored by their ctOS systems. They sell it as ‘security’ when it’s really just ‘control,’ with citizen’s personal data often sold to the highest bidder.

In the opening smash and hack, we’re introduced to Watch Dogs’ prevalent conceits: parkour-like maneuverability (that has you hopping railings and scaling up rooftops), sneaking around armed security guards, and hacking the hell out of anything that’ll distract, daze, or kill your pursuers. To that last point, you’re given more options to “hack the world.” It’s all contextually activated like the first game, but now when you highlight, say, an electrical box, it’s your choice whether you want to make it spark, luring in an enemy away from you or simply make it explode in his face, knocking him out. I prefer setting a proximity trigger on it and leaving the box be, letting fate (and enemy patterns) decide whose face will explode. Saves you a hacking node, too, since you have to ration its uses.

The stealth experience is way looser than you might find in other Ubisoft games – you know, the ones starring hooded assailants that like jumping into bales of hay. The bare bones are in place: you can crouch behind corners, move from cover to cover, and activate a sort of sonar vision (a requisite in stealth games since Batman: Arkham Asylum). Marcus isn’t much for fisticuffs, but he does have an adequate takedown maneuver that puts enemies out cold. If you need some range, you start the game with a stun gun that’ll put them to sleep instead for a short amount of time– though they usually wake up and freak out, putting bases on high alert.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

If you wish, you can go analog and tackle most encounters this way. But Marcus’ squishiness should dissuade most from going full aggro: it typically takes three or so hits before he’s pushing digital daisies and you’re forced to sit through the game’s over long loading times. Besides that, you’d be doing yourself a disservice since utilizing Marcus’ range of hacking tools and tricks is when Watch Dogs 2 is at its best.

An extensive upgrade tree maps provides you new ways to cause havoc, running the gamut from immediately useful, like controlling cars remotely, to hilarious, like planting evidence on an unsuspecting passerby that causes SFPD to swarm them like a horde of bees. You can embrace your inner voyeur, just as in the original, and spy on people’s texts or phone conversation, or help yourself to a few bucks from their bank accounts. The feature is less throwaway (and pervy) this time around now that you can recharge your hacking modules by invading NPC’s privacy.

Very early on, you come across two of your greatest weapons. No, it isn’t any of the 3D printed guns available at your “hackerspaces.” It’s actually an RC car and a little drone quadcopter. Just as you can storm into gang hideouts guns drawn, you can complete entire missions just using your remote control duo. And the latter is so much more fun. The RC car can zip behind enemy lines and interact with the environment in Marcus’ stead. Hack terminals, unlock passageways, set off traps, you name it. Upgrade it and you can have it shout insults at guards to draw their eyes away from Marcus. Or just shout insults for the hell of it. Up to you.

The quadcopter serves as your eyes in the sky. It can’t interact with hackable points like the RC can, but its role becomes invaluable, especially in densely guarded fortresses (and by “fortress” I do mean Oakland villas overlooking the bay). The quadcopter can spot and tag enemies from afar, provide a heightened vantage point, and help you scout out climbable throughways you couldn’t see from ground level. Some of the best thrills I had came from using both devices in conjunction, slipping in to snatch (or hack) my objective, and distracting enemies long enough to make a clean getaway.

THE DEDSEC SECT

Though you spend most of the game fighting a giant, faceless conglomerate, the story wisely pulls back its scope to focus on your Dedsec team. Impressed by Marcus’ hacking prowess, he’s soon invited into the fold of the San Francisco chapter of Dedsec. You meet Sitara, a graphic artist that sees the merit in spreading the group’s reach through social channels; Horatio, the group’s intelligence man; Josh, a computer wizard whose skills are as strong as his social ineptitude; and Wrench, an eccentric engineer that perpetually wears a spiked mask with LED emotes.

This ensemble shouldn’t work as well as it does. They’re a gaggle of meme loving, pop culture reference spewing millennials obsessed with technology. If the writing were clumsier, I’m sure people would have hated Dedsec SF. But they have style and humor. The writing is sharp – early Whedon sharp. I loved Marcus and Wrench’s budding bromance, where they recite dumb movie lines together or argue whether Alien or Predator would win in a straight fight. Josh’s feeble but earnest attempts to ingratiate himself with the rest of the group are surprisingly heartfelt. It got to a point where I was glad to revisit the hackerspace just to see another scene play out between these characters.

Their MO isn’t surgical strikes against their opposition. Instead, you’ll be tasked to perform public pranks, often to the embarrassment of in-game analogs for companies like Google and Facebook, just to accrue a following so that Dedsec’s message can be shared. The story falters whenever it strays from this Fight-The-Man narrative in order to try its hand at real gravitas. There’s an especially glaring moment when a (spoiler) character dies that felt so left-field and undeserved. We are talking about a game where the main antagonist is a filthy rich, man-bunned hipster after all. What keeps the whole proceeding from buckling during these dips is the charisma of Marcus and his Dedsec crew. If you’re not won over by Marcus’ recital of the “Los Locos” mantra from Short Circuit 2, well, I don’t want to meet you.

THE CITY BY THE BAY

The standout character in Watch Dogs 2, however, is Frisco herself. Ubisoft has done a fantastic job at virtualizing not just its geography but its culture, too. You can visit boutique stores and adorn yourself in garish, hipster threads. You can overhear passerby ranting about their Silicon Valley struggles or hear them complain about their exorbitant rent. It’s playful satire that doesn’t rip apart its subject like Rockstar might find too hard to pass up.

Your typical smorgasbord of open-world bells and whistles are still at play: stealing cars, ramping off highways, the works. Beyond that, there’s a generous smattering of ridiculous activities to take part in like go-kart and yacht races. This go around, Ubi has refrained from pumping an inordinate amount of collectibles into the world. Your pickups are now limited to Research Points that feel useful since they let you unlock even more hacking abilities to screw around with.

Finding them, however, is way more interesting than just poking your nose behind a trash can. Sometimes you’ll have to put in the leg work and use Marcus’ parkour skills to navigate buildings they’re hiding atop. Sometimes you’ll have to lean on your hacking muscles to solve matching puzzles. And, sometimes, you’ll just have to take the easy way out and hack a scaffolding over to your cause. Don’t expect every Research Point to lie waiting in the open; some will be tucked way behind guarded lines, turning your treasure hunt into a full-on encounter.

Of course, this being your sandbox, you can cause chaos as you see fit. The cops will come down on you with righteous retribution but even simple car chases are way more interesting than usual since you can hack traffic lights, gas mains beneath the street, and the very cruisers they’re trying to run you down in.

Discovering the city isn’t limited to your personal time, either. Several missions have you hitting landmarks and utilizing spaces the Dedsec way. From graffiti tagging the Golden State Bridge to outrunning police battalions in the tomb of Alcatraz, the game gives players a pretty extensive tour during its runtime.

ONLINE WOES

The game’s “seamless online experience” wasn’t working at launch but has since been patched, opening up a few multiplayer modes for players. The first mode is a riff on cops and robbers where you’re either a bounty hunter or the bounty. There’s an obvious dissonance between the game’s campy narrative and the violence it allows you to inflict, and this mode just underlines that divide. The quickest way to end these engagements is to either kill or be killed, which totally dismisses the craftier elements of the main game’s hacking. Bounty Hunt is short, brutal, and usually not worth the prolonged waits you face when trying to hop into a session.

The second mode, a sort of hide n’ hack game, has you attempting to download info from an unsuspecting player. If you’re caught, you can try to run off but practically every encounter ended with the other player gunning me down. This mode at least plays on the game’s central conceit but I doubt many will play past the single Trophy it unlocks.

The final, and best, way to hop online are through co-op missions that see two players working together to hack or destroy objectives in the middle of enemy bases. It’s essentially what you’re used to doing in the campaign, but with a buddy (or a stranger). Your enjoyment here will probably be measured by how tolerant you are of your partner’s mistakes. If they get spotted, it isn’t long before things devolve into a shootout. Given that the best compliment I can give combat is that it’s serviceable, I predict many will dabble, but fail to stick with Watch Dogs 2online.

CALIFORNIA DREAMS

There’s so much to like about Watch Dogs 2. It’s a kinetic playground littered with clever design and likable characters. It doesn’t reinvent the genre by any stretch of the imagination – besides the keynote hacking, there’s very little here we haven’t seen before in other open-worlders. But just because you know the song, it doesn’t mean the song isn’t played well.

Ubisoft deftly balances agency and story to a degree that, when one stumbles, the other picks up the slack. Their tech obsessed rendition of San Francisco is an inviting playground that I suspect this series will struggle to top. Marcus Holloway is a unique entry point for this type of game: he isn’t a sociopathic career criminal nor a mute canvas for players to project on. He’s a charismatic youth in revolt. The prototypical underdog you can’t help but root for.

My biggest complaint stems from having Marcus’ mentality affect me. I felt genuine discomfort committing the atrocities that have become standard fare in games like GTA and Saints Row. It’s a shame that later levels crank up the difficulty so much that going the non-lethal route feels punishing. It speaks volumes of our medium’s maturity when going on a shotgunning rampage is an easier means to attain our goals than not. Ubisoft needed a better reason to include firearms than “the other guys do it, so we did it too.” Watch Dogs 2 is a fundamentally better experience when you’re challenged to subvert the opposition using your wits and the environment. Should a third game get commissioned – the fifteen different Assassin’s Creed sequels and spin-offs give me a glimmer of hope that it just might – Ubisoft would be wise to take the best elements from this game and dig deeper.

Watch Dogs 2, developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft, is available for PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, and PC.

[theredherb]

Overwatch: Quiet Moments - Created by Atey Majeed Ghailan

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