First things first, this is just the first episode of six. So don’t freak out when I say had this wrapped up in under 2 hours. Secondly, this probably isn’t the kind of game you might think. It’s a point-click adventure with some panic inducing quick-time events. You’re going to spend more time talking then fighting the undead, but that’s how it should be. Walking along straight paths and using people around you and the environment to solve puzzles while making dialogue decisions. These choices can range in severity from choosing to hide your shady past or not, too choosing who lives and who dies. These are timed decisions as well, so when you do panic and freeze up…it can really lead to some unfortunate stuff. It’s not clear yet how much these decisions will carry into the next episode, but I sure hope they are going to have serious branching off moments. Nothing is better than playing a game and then talking to someone who had a completely different experience with that same game. Choices resulting in real consequence gives everything weight. Which is something a video game rarely achieves.

I actually prefer this protagonist to the one on the television show. He’s got an interesting back story and an apparent character arch I might actually care about. The dialogue is pretty sharp as well. Visually the game leans heavy on cell shading and artistic qualities. It’s very pleasant to look at. While you might assume that since they steered away from realistic visuals, they might side step the gore as well. Not the case. They embrace that part of the fiction with both arms. Hammering zombie heads to a pulp is immensely satisfying. Yes, sometimes the movement controls can perplex you (PC version), but it’s never a deal breaker. The character animation is what really stuck out to me. I know it’s not going for realistic, but it feels very robotic throughout.

Overall, it’s a pretty fun experience and it gets my seal of approval. It wraps up nicely and now I can only sit here and wait for the next episode. I’ll keep the specific episode reviews on the shorter side before going in-depth in favor of a complete series review once all the episodes have been released.

Single Player

Everyone must know by now exactly what they are getting themselves into with this series. Modern Warfare 3 is every bit as Call of Duty as the previous entries in the series, so don’t go in expecting a revolution. It’s a totally competent shooter. The mechanics have been defined and redefined to the point of insanity. The campaign is what you’d expect (a reoccurring theme in my review). It picks up right MW2, with Price and Soap on the run from everyone and Makarov still at large while mother Russia and the US duke it out on American soil.

Like every Call of Duty game, you will control multiple characters as you progress through a 4-5 hour campaign packed with more explosions then Micheal Bay could shake a stick at. I think the number of helicopters shot down in this game might reach triple digits, a franchise first I’m sure. Throw in some sneaking/sniper missions, a dash of controversial cut-scenes, a gratuitous amount of turret segments and voila. You’re going to shoot a ton of Russians, some guys who aren’t Russians and probably have a perfectly fine time doing so. But maybe like me, you just don’t feel the wow factor anymore. So that’s where we stand. It was fun in COD4 and has become less so every iteration after that leading up to now. Waiting at doors for the guy with “follow” written above his head to come knock them down is just about the lamest feeling in gaming. How can I be impressed with a game when I literally recognized reused building from COD4, a game that came out four years ago. In no way is it a bad game, but it’s certainly an old game filled with tired mechanics.

It must be a depressing place inside the brainstorming sessions for the Call of Duty games, seeing as how the franchise is creatively dead. If I have to crawl my way out of another downed helicopter while my screen blurs and my characters breathes heavily, I think I might scream. And this isn’t a “once a game” type thing, that type of scenario literally happens at least a dozen times in this game. It’s a mechanic from Call of Duty 2 that remains rampant and unchanged. I think it’s a truly fitting way to start the game actually. It let me know right off that bat that nothing has changed and I’m in for the same exact experience as last fall. I’d like to be a fly on the wall of the design meetings for this game. I bet it gets pretty quiet after the ideas for turret segments and planting c4 are already written down on the whiteboard. It’s moment of high drama in the conference room as the team appears to be all out of ideas until Johnson stands and says “Could we put guys with RPG’s in those windows?”. Heads nod and pens click. Suddenly Susan speaks up “We could do a slow-motion breach and clear section!”. Uproarious applause and the creative ball is once again rolling.

I’ll bet the guy who suggested a new game engine was boo’d out of the room, and this game really needs it. The franchise has screeched it’s way to a stop when it comes to visual improvement. I know I could pass this game off as Modern Warfare 2 to an unsuspecting 3rd party. I bet I could squeeze in some COD4 footage as well and it would go unnoticed. It’s the same engine as Call of Duty 2, and unlike the Source Engine or Unreal 3, this one seems to have hit its ceiling pretty early on. It’s rather depressing to compare Modern Warfare 3′s visuals with something like a Crysis 2 or Battlefield 3. It’s cliche to say, but they make Call of Duty look like a last generation game.

Co-Op

My favorite part of this game by far. While still limited to 2 people (LAME), Spec Ops makes its return. They have added some level progression to the co-op as well as a new survival mode. Basically it’s the Modern Warfare version of Gears Horde Mode. Increasingly difficult enemies come and try to kill you, and you do your best to kill them first. Earn money by making kills to spend on weapon upgrades and such. Call in some help from the air, set up turrets…basically do everything to stay alive. It’s a real shame this is still limited to 2 people, because it might be a ton more fun with a larger group.

The Spec Ops Missions are also some of the best parts of this game. Little bite sized missions, they strip away a lot of the annoying parts of the campaign in favor of the good stuff. Hop online with a friend or go at them yourself. This missions sometimes have interesting connections to the singleplayer story, often putting you in the other shoes for some of the games intense sections. A nice addition,

Multiplayer

This is probably what you bought the game for. COD4 invented it, MW2 refined it….and MW3 rearranged it. Oh sure, they added a few new perks and kill streaks, but really it’s almost exactly like the last game. Now you also earn points on your weapons and that’s how you unlock new sights and attachments, but that’s not a new feature. That’s a different way of handling an old feature. Opening the box of crackers from the bottom is not a new and creative way of opening cracker boxes, nor does it change the payoff.

So I set up your class just the way I like it. Picking my specific perks and kill streaks…boy, this all seems awfully familiar. Ohh, now I can choose to be a support class whose streak isn’t stopped by dying, OOHH well then it’s a brand new game with brand new gameplay! Please. But people eat it up and spend hours and hours running about the same small maps planting claymores and hiding in corners protecting kill streaks. No, the environment still isn’t destructible so every match pretty much plays the exact way and vehicles are still a no show. Tactics be damned this game is still just a lone-wolf sprint fest. The high point of tactics in Call of Duty is multiple people all laying prone by the same flag to capture it faster. That’s where it pretty much ends. Either run around and shoot people in the back, or camp in a spot and shoot the guys who are running around in the back. Level up to 50 or 60 of whatever this years caps is and prestige if you want, go ahead. Predator missiles, care packages..it’s all here folks. It was fun 4 years ago, but after playing a lot of Battlefield 3…it feels ancient. I’m sure tons of people will still play endless hours of MW3′s mutliplayer and love every second of it, but I’ve grown tired of it. After playing it for the review, I don’t ever see myself going back for more.

Nothing new to see here.

Final Thoughts

I’ve heard the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. By that definition I am completely out of my mind. I play Call of Duty games expecting a new experience, what a nutter I must be. You would also have to insane to expect anything different. They don’t have any pressure to change anything. Most reviewers seem to be caught in some sort of trance where they throw 9′s and 10′s at anything with Call of Duty in the title. I don’t get it, especially when the same reviewers crucify the Madden franchise for it’s minimal improvements. It’s not an awful game by any standard and it sells like crack, so why bother? People go so ga-ga over the multiplayer, they will subscribe to a service called Elite to get gameplay stats, a feature that respectable games include for free. Now that’s insane.

To be frank, it’s not going to blow you away visually. The production values aren’t going to win awards, but all together they are passable.  In a world with Civilization 5 and Starcraft 2, the less then amazing visuals become a bit of a sticking point. Not being a particularly savvy RTS player, the game spun my head around to start, then slowly lulled me into a sleepy state of tedium. The false alliances and never really knowing if my troops are actually on my team does create some intrigue and that’s probably the games high point. It’s a shame that it can’t keep up that level of creativity for long.

It might actually be too true to the fiction. The show and the game both kind of play like chess as some points. Making underhanded moves during peacetime to further advance your house is a feature both in the show and in the game. Sending in envoy’s to help convince a neutral town to get on board only to run into an enemy spy or an assassin or…. it goes on and on. I understand there is a lot of strategy to be had in peacetime which can help you conquer you enemy through diplomacy. The problem I have is that it isn’t very fun. If you’re like me, when things go awry in the political world, it’s time to draw your sword. Prepare for generic and boring combat. The payoff you were waiting for after all the political swagger, is a real letdown. Some really bad camera controls and interface issues do nothing to help this games cause. You’d hope an RTS would have both of those things locked down, and not creating frustration for the player.

I think what you have here, is a really ambitious idea falling short. I wouldn’t say it was a complete face-plant, but it definitively missed it’s mark. The worst thing you can say about a video game is that you didn’t have fun playing it, and that’s sort of how I feel about Genesis. All the underhanded political positioning can get results, but it’s tedious to an unpleasant degree. I wish I could say that the actual warfare made up for the snails pace segments, but it just doesn’t. The interface being confusing compiled the problems. The game really tries its damnedest to teach you, but I admit my mind has a tendency to stay while playing video games. Basically the game wants to sit you down and explain every little thing over a very long period of time, they call it the campaign.

Some of the best parts of Genesis happen in the mutliplayer. House vs House is an interesting mode that just might suck you in. Although, finding anyone to play with might be a challenge. Stark vs Lannister in House vs House is closer to what you were hoping for, but still falls into some of the same pits as the singleplayer.

In Closing

I don’t know who I can recommend this game too, other then serious RTS players who for some reason, don’t like Civilzation 5 or Starcraft 2. That’s probably a seriously small group of people. Maybe if you live and breathe Game of Thrones and you’ve memorized the books and need something to hold you over till the next season starts, then this game could be for you. The game does have good ideas and with more time in the cooker or a bigger team, maybe we could have had something special.

Every game has flaws and Arkham City is no different. I could definitely use with a few less gadgets clogging up my d-pad as one example. Also, I enjoyed the Riddler trophies in Arkham Asylum as much as the next guy, maybe more, but sheesh. Arkham City has Riddler trophies virtually everywhere you look. They clog up the map later in the game and once you realize the sheer volume of challenges, you might just throw in the towel like I did. Luckily that’s all an optional part of Arkham City. The actual story line is entertaining and roles along at a nice clip, while throwing curve balls and twists at every chance.

The games very premise is bound to cause some head scratching to those not brainwashed by comic book clichés. In response to Arkham Asylum’s shortcomings, a large chunk of Gotham is simply walled off and filled with criminals. Through some weak exposition this is explained away as the due course of things with some shady people doing shady dealings. Murderers walk the streets (fully armed a lot of the time) in this criminal city and do as they please. Apparently this was such a botch job that the city didn’t even manage to empty the banks or museums inside the walls before handing them over. Seems like a recipe for disaster. I mean, Jokers hiding out in a fully functioning steel mill. Let’s cross out fingers he doesn’t use that steel mill for nefarious reasons, like building something to help him escape. Actually thinking about it, Arkham City backs right up onto the water, let’s hope none of the criminals can swim. What about the people who lived in those buildings before the (awful) decision to create Arkham City? Free apartments for them in metropolis? The more I think about it, the more insane it becomes. Ah, but I digress. It’s a little wonky, but it is a game about Batman, so I can forgive it.

While these riddler side missions might not be great, some of the other optional content is fantastic. Tons of notable characters from the Batman universe make appearances in fun and unique ways. It’s a shame to think that you could complete this game and see credits, without even exploring most of the world. I only had 27% completion when I watched the credits role. A lot of that is due to the Riddler challenges, but not all of it. Bane and Deadshot are some examples of characters you could completely miss if you don’t pay attentions and explore the world. The voice talent is also back for Arkham City. Mark Hamill’s joker is still the best of all time and Kevin Conroy was the Batman of my childhood, so it feels right. Even though the game features a heavy dose of Nolan North, it’s still top notch work. Mr. Freeze’s voice was particularly chilling…pun intended.

The basic gameplay remains the same from the first game, but with more polish. No other game does simplistic fighting as awesome as Arkham City. It’s visually stunning, a ton of fun and just makes so much sense. It’s easy to get the hang of, but mastering it as an art form will take some dedication. Countering, getting a combo going with critical strikes…it really is a symphony of pain when done properly. On the other hand, armed guards will still ruin your day. Luckily Batman is very capable at delivering two kinds of ass kickings. There are the kind you see coming…and the kind you don’t. Use all your gadgets to dispatch of rooms full of machine gun totting thugs, or glide from gargoyle to gargoyle (if they are available) and pick them off with glide kicks. This is when the game lets you decide how to play, offering a ton of different options.

All the challenge rooms are back from the first game, so you will plenty to do once the story is over. Predator rooms or large fighting arenas will push your skills to the absolute max. Also, with lots of DLC available now and in the future, you will want to come back again and knock some heads together as other characters in the not to distant future.

In Closing

Buy this game.

Fish Food – Episode #46

GAMING

-What we’ve been playing
-Gaming News

MOVIES AND TV

-What we’ve been watching
-Movie news

MUSIC

-Patrick – “After Midnight” by blink-182
-Jordan – “Broken Lungs” by Thrice

Fish Food – Episode #42

GAMING

-What we’ve been playing
-Gaming News

MOVIES AND TV

-What we’ve been watching
-Movie news

MUSIC

-Patrick – “Gold Coast” by Grouplove
-Jordan – “Meantime” by Givers

Fish Food – Episode #38

GAMING

MOVIES AND TV

-What we’ve been watching
-Movie news

MUSIC

-Patrick – “Abducted” by Cults
-Jordan – “Breath” by Breaking Benjamin

AROUND THE WEB

-Spotify
-Fish Food Five

Fish Food – Episode #35

E3 2011 Day One

Fish Food – Episode #33

2:48 – GAMING

30:44 – MOVIES AND TV

-What we’ve been watching
-Movie news

38:20 – MUSIC

44:46 – AROUND THE WEB

-Square iPhone App
-Look at this car!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF8GhC-T_Mo&feature=share
-Soundset Knock out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXaKmKyoCX0
-Fish Food Five

Fish Food – Episode #30

2:22 – GAMING

28:13 – MOVIES AND TV

-What we’ve been watching
-News

39:53 – MUSIC

50:20 – AROUND THE WEB

-Patrick – VGBoxArt.com
-Jordan – Batman Gets Beat Down, Complete Calvin and Hobbes
-Fish Food Five – Top 5 WWII movies, Top 5 fruits