The Story

Aarklash is one of the worlds in Creation, but it is the only one where all of the elements are in perfect balance.  As such, it holds a power that many seek to harness and exploit.  Confrontation takes place in Aarklash during the dark war of the Rag’narok.  You start out as a Griffin(human) warrior, behind the enemy lines of the Scorpion, twisted human scientists performing cruel experiments and mutations.  It was the Scorpion, also known as the Alchemists of Dirz,  who began the Rag’narok and it is now, many years later, behind enemy lines, that you are hoping to turn the tide in the favor of the Griffin.  It is thought that the sick experiments in the labs of the Scorpion will hold the key to helping understand and defeat the Scorpion.  You step into the greaves of the Griffin warrior Darius and attempt to find your team and uncover the plans that the Scorpions have for the Rag’narok.  There are rumors that the Orcs, under the Jackal god, and the beasts of the Wolfen have been spotted, but it is yet unknown what sides each faction lies on, or if there are allegiances to be had.

The Gameplay

As I’ve mentioned in my preview, Confrontation is a tactics heavy RPG game.  You start with a preset team of four characters–mage,tank,support and ranged characters.  As the game progresses, you will unlock a total of 12 characters to customize your team.  The game uses and interesting blend of steampunk-inspired technology and fantasy to make you ranged characters trade traditional bows and crossbows for pistols and rifles.  As with games like Baldur’s Gate and Dragon Age, you have to carefully balance your team and pause combat frequently to issue new orders, counter-attack and buff and rebuff your perks and stats.  Not being familiar with the nuances of the Confrontation lore, there is a bit of a learning curve to how this plays out.  The Griffin warriors worship the god of fire, so most of there attack abilities and spells will find their base in fire.  Combat can be a brutal learning experience as experience will be your only teacher, and a harsh one at that.  You navigate the varied environments in a traditional isometric view, with the ability to zoom in and out, or rotate the camera as needed.  The leveling system also carries a bit of a learning curve, as it is not well explained and can be easy to overlook and underuse.

As you explore, your will find stones containing magical runes and weapon caches that allot you weapon and armor points.  Those points will be used within a character’s stat sheet to upgrade their armor and weapons, but they are shared between all of your characters, so if you spend them all on one character, you will not have any left for remaining party members.  Each character carries two weapons and both weapons and armor customization has a branching tree of abilities unlocked at 5 level increments as well as rune slots to equip the various runes picked up within the dungeons, granted added stat perks.  As I stated, none of this is explained and can be tricky to discover the hard way–especially since it seems there is no way to reset and reallocate those points and runes once you have submitted your changes.  Of course, each character will also gain stat points and ability points to be allocated at your discretion.  The battles begin to follow a “rinse-lather-repeat” system fairly early of engaging the enemy, using tactics to overcome them, waiting to heal and regenerate mana, and then moving on to the next cluster of enemies.  The lack of a loot system and the shallow leveling system remove any semblance of a dangling carrot mechanic from the game.  Yes, there are new enemies to encounter and new characters to unlock, but without new items, new weapons or new armor, it began to feel a bit grindy.  Added to that, the newer team members seemed to be far behind the curve of characters that I’ve already allotted precious few weapon and armor points to, so swapping out team members meant you would take a fair thrashing before those new team members cut their teeth in battle for a while.  All of this came together in a game that I found difficult to play for long stretches, and far more palatable in small bursts.  There is a multiplayer component, where you can step into the Jackal, Wolfen and Scorpion factions and play, but I was extremely hard-pressed to find any matches available.  That was definitely a shame too, since the game allowed you the option to create your own paint schemes for each faction and it’s unit, tipping the hat to the tabletop franchise it is based on.

The Verdict

Confrontation had a lot of satisfying combat moments-there was nothing like lining up and executing a new strategy successfully.  When you found a battle plan that worked for you and executed it well, the game was complete poetry in motion.  This game definitely would have been a force to be reckoned with during the heavy strategy ’90s.  Today, however, it just didn’t seem to take advantage of many of the innovations that the genre has brought to the table.  There were simple annoyances, like unlocking codex entries that you cannot view in-game, unskippable cutscenes and an inability to back out of some of the menus with a quick tap of the ‘escape’ key.  Then there was the story.  The story was incredibly fascinating, but seemed very slow to play out in-game, and was only told through scripted narrations.  The characters themselves seemed to have no depth or life, and just didn’t develop and pull you into the lore, as I’d hoped they would.  Starting with Darius and being able to reunite his crew of elite warriors delivered no emotions as you picked up each team member.  New team members were discovered along the way and simply dropped in your queue; they weren’t asked to join your cause or fight alongside you, they just popped up at the next team select menu.  We know nothing of the Griffin warriors’ backstories or their motivations, beyond completing the tasks at hand.  Each character has a handful of preselected battlecries (or death cries, as I found all too often), but there is no interaction between them within the game.  Coupling the less desirable story delivery system that was chosen with the lack of a sense of progression from the leveling system and the lack of a loot system and you come away with a game that is well crafted but does very little to motivate you to continue down it’s corridors.  I definitely came away from the game feeling as if the developers and writers made the assumption that I already had a strong foundation in the lore of the tabletop game, which I did not.  If you lack that background and are just looking for a tactical RPG with some new mechanics and interesting lore, you may find a mixed bag here.  If story is less your desire and loot is not your bag, then give it a go.  All in all, Confrontation was a fun experience and it’s budget price of $39.99 still makes me wont to recommend it at full price.  I’d say that if you are really interested in the game, you may want to do some homework on the tabletop game, get yourself some background and perhaps wait for a Steam sale discount to jump into Aarklash.

The Story So Far

In Mass Effect 3, you once again take on the role of Commander Shepard. The threat you have been trying to warn the entire galaxy about is now here. The Reapers have taken Earth, and much of the rest of the galaxy is under heavy attack. You must rally the various races together to beat back this seemingly unstoppable foe, getting them to set aside their own differences in the process. Let’s just say this is a bit of a tall order. BioWare is a master of storytelling, and Mass Effect 3shows this in spades. From the very beginning, you are faced with just how desperate the situation is. Earth barely puts up a fight against the Reapers, and the rest of the galaxy is not doing much better. As you work to try and unite the various factions against what should be a common foe, you are constantly reminded of just how desperate this battle is. You find yourself in the middle of intense negotiations between species who have been enemies for years, and it will take more than just some well chosen words to bring them together. Add to that the herds of displaced refugees, the overflowing hospitals, the snatches of conversation you hear as you explore, and you come to realize just how much time and attention the developers paid to making the reality of this war come to life.

Joker and the crew of the Normandy are back, and the stakes have never been higher.

Returning players are also given a chance to interact with former team members, even from the first game. Some will join you on the Normandy, pitching their lot in with yours to stop this threat once and for all. Others will fight this war elsewhere, but their interactions with you can affect just how much good they can do. As someone who has been playing my version of Shepard since the very first game, it felt great to get to work with the people I have come to know as my friends and comrades. BioWare has done a great job of building a rapport with the characters of the game, and that is even more evident in this final installment of the trilogy. While many of the storytelling devices, including choosing the tone of what you will say instead of the exact words, will be very familiar to veterans of the series, one thing really stood out. In previous games, the choice between Paragon and Renegade was very well defined. Paragon was obviously the “good guy” choice, while Renegade was definitely the “bad guy” option. As EDG writer Jordan de Boer once put it, your choices were along the lines of “Throw the puppy in the furnace or turn off the furnace.” That is not nearly as true in Mass Effect 3. The Paragon choice is often the idealistic response, the one chosen by someone trying to save everyone. The Renegade is the realist, understanding it is not possible to save everyone. When in past games it was obvious to me which choice I was going to make for most situations, I often found myself contemplating which would be better this time. This added a weight to your decisions, making the story truly come alive. At various times in this story, I found myself screaming in anger, laughing out loud and nearly driven to tears. This game drew me in emotionally in a way few games have, causing me on more than one occasion to have to step back from it and process just what had occurred. Stories of this quality are rare in any form of media; they are especially rare in games.

Refining the Fight (Mostly)

While the combat in Mass Effect 2was greatly improved from that of the first game, many complained the actual RPG elements were removed. This one brings many of those back. The power up options feel more like true level ups, with the latter choices making players really consider which option would be better for their style of gameplay. On top of that, you will find many different weapons and weapon mods throughout the game, and how you manage these can be crucial. While heavier weapons may do more damage in a firefight, carrying extra weight slows down your biotic cool down time, making your choices of weapons critical. As I was using a Sentinel and really wanted his biotics to be available for use quickly, I often would carry a heavy pistol and a sub-maching gun into battle; I was willing to trade the lower damage for a much faster recharge time.

The Omniblade adds a new dimension to melee combact.

Movement in combat has also been improved. You have better control over your characters while running now, allowing you to actually dodge attacks. You also have a side dodge and forward roll, both of which can save your life in the heat of battle. You can also transition from cover to cover in this game, and you no longer have to pop into cover before vaulting over something; a quick double tap of the cover button (A on the 360 controller) allows you to do just that. You also will find yourself less likely to stick to the wrong cover this time, something which was a major issue in part 2. There is also a heavy melee attack which does massive damage to enemies and, if used when in cover against enemies immediately on the other side of said cover becomes a one hit kill. That is extremely useful. There is one major problem with the combat, however. Just like Gears of War, all the major movements are mapped to your cover button. This includes dodging, running, forward rolling… any of the major actions. The designers even added the ability to revive a fallen comrade by walking up to them and holding that same button, allowing you to save medigels for times you cannot get to them or need healing yourself. Unlike Gears of War, Mass Effect 3 does not handle having everything mapped to one button well. I lost track of the number of times I dove forward when I was trying to take cover, something which proved fatal on more than one occasion. I also tended to find myself taking cover instead of reviving someone. We will revisit this particular problem when we get to the multiplayer. That issue aside, the overall gameplay of Mass Effect 3is extremely enjoyable, even if there are a couple of times where your team will be facing insane odds. One segment in particular was really annoying me until I found some weapons which would have made the battle that much easier. And then there is the one major change to the gameplay: 4 player coop.

This Is How You Add Multiplayer to Mass Effect

When BioWare announced there would be four player coop in Mass Effect 3, the response was lukewarm at best. Many people were ready to write it off as something EA was forcing them to add so they could have something to put behind the gate of the Online Pass. I was actually looking forward to it, and the more I heard about it, the more excited I became. Well, if the shear number of people I see playing it is any indication, the criticisms were wrong. In multilayer, you and up to 3 other people put together teams of N7 Special Ops soldiers to take on a hoard-style mission. The ultimate objective is to make sure everyone reaches extraction, the point after facing all 10 waves of enemies where the team is picked up via shuttle and taken to safety. I am sure this all seems pretty basic so far, right? Well, it gets better. You can choose to play as any of the classes within the Mass Effectuniverse, giving you a great opportunity to try each class out. Ever wondered what it would be like to charge an enemy as a Vanguard but don’t want to switch from your Sentinel class? Choose a Vanguard in the multilayer and rush into danger as much as you like. You level each class up by playing as that class, getting experience by killing enemies, achieving goals like melee or biotic kills, reaching extraction and completing mission objectives.

Who would have thought multiplayer would be this addictive?

What are mission objectives you ask? As opposed to just trying to survive 10 waves of increasingly greater strength, on waves 3, 6 and 10 you are given a timed mission you need to accomplish. These missions can range from killing high profile targets to hacking databases. If you complete the mission in time, you are awarded with credits which can be redeemed for bonus packs. Failure means failure to advance to the next wave. Getting back to those credits, you use them to buy packs from the store between missions. The more expensive the pack, the better the chance you have of getting rare items. You can even unlock alien races for the various classes, each bringing a different set of powers to the class. In other words, a Quarian engineer has different abilities and plays completely differently than the human or Salarian engineer, and don’t even get me started on how different the Krogan is. If you find yourself wanting to experience these new races and weapons but not having the time to spend accumulating the credits, you have the ability to buy packs with Microsoft points. This is completely optional, and yes, I have done it a few times. After each mission, you are awarded with the credits and your experience. As with the main story, you choose how to level up your character’s abilities. The level cap for each class is 20; once you reach that, you have the option of promoting that class into your single player game, adding it to your war assets. If you do this, all of your characters in that class will drop to level 1, but any races you have unlocked will still be available. There are a couple of issues with the multiplayer. Remember what I said earlier about the battles getting frustrating because so many actions are mapped to the same button, which is the A button on the 360 controller? This really becomes an annoyance in the multiplayer. You will often find yourself taking cover while trying to revive teammates, diving forward when trying to take cover and at various points cursing the fact that no one has been able to master the “one button handles all movement” other that Epic with Gears of War. The other issue is there is a major jump in difficulty based on the level of challenge you choose. While higher level characters will often skate through a Bronze Challenge with relative ease, the same characters may barely be able to complete a Silver and have absolutely no chance to taking on Gold. You’ve heard the phrase “The difficulty ramps up?” Well, in Mass Effect 3, the jump in difficulty is more akin to going from relatively normal speeds to escape velocity. While this does encourage teamwork, it can also make even experienced players think twice before selecting the higher difficulties. Still, there is something about the multiplayer that keeps me coming back, and it is not just the various missions BioWare keeps running. It is a great example of what you can do when you set out to create a tight coop experience which can be enjoyed in bite sized chunks, as most Bronze matches will only take experienced players around 20 minutes. I would love to see BioWare expand upon this framework in future Mass Effectgames. So, engaging story, overall improved gameplay and great multiplayer. Everything you need for a great game. The 360 version, however, has one added bit of functionality.

Kinecting With the Game

Mass Effect 3 has a small blurb on the front of the box stating “Better with Kinect.” This phrase has started appearing on many games, and many gamers have questioned whether adding Kinect functionality to core games like Mass Effect 3really improves them. Well, I for one feel this game is improved by Microsoft’s latest toy. The Kinect adds two things to the 360 version of the game. The first is the ability to control combat without constantly having to pause the game to select squad powers or biotics you do not have on the hot buttons through voice commands. For example, if I need to activate Overload, I can just say “Overload,” and Shepard will hit the area I am currently targeting with one. I can call out commands like “Follow Me,” “Attack” and “Liara, Singularity” and have my teammates react as if I had just given them the orders. This is very useful, and while there will be times it does not work perfectly, it really does help to be able to give commands on the fly when necessary. As impressive as the voice commands for combat may be, it is the other functionality of Kinect which really drew me in. I remember watching the demo at E3 where the player was speaking Shepard’s dialogue suggestions and thinking “Why would I want to say something just to have Shepard say something else?” Still, I decided to give it a chance, and it did not take long for me to realize this was adding a whole new level of interaction to the game for me. I truly became Shepard, even if what my Shepard said was not exactly what I was saying. Even more impressive was I did not have to say the lines in “voice recognition speak.” You know what I mean. If I was reading the line “Don’t ever do that again,” I did not have to say that over-enunciated so Kinect could understand. I could even practically snarl that line with the venom I felt Shepard would have at that time, and that allowed me to role play within the game in a whole new way. I thought this was going to just be some throw away idea BioWare added as they were already using the voice recognition, but it became so much more than that for me. Now there have been arguments that all of this could have been done with the 360 headset or that these do not really add that much to the game. All I will say is Kinect made my experience with the game better.

A Fitting End to the Story

Before the game was released, BioWare had confirmed Mass Effect 3was going to be the end of Shepard’s storyline. Many gamers were wondering just how they were going to tie up all the various loose ends which could be created by the various choices you made throughout the games into an ending that would appease the fans. Well, unless you have been living under a rock, you know many fans were not pleased with the way BioWare chose to end the game, and the outcry was loud enough BioWare is actually working on an extended cut of the ending which the company says will fill in the gaps. While many gamers may decide to revisit their thoughts about the game after the extended ending releases this summer, I do not need to wait. I loved the ending.

Just a hint of what the ending has for you. I think it is excellent.

So why did I like it when many other gamers did not? Well, I think the way they chose to end it puts you as a gamer in the position of having to decide if you are going to betray the way you played Shepard for three games. I do not want to spoil anything (you can read my spoiler-filled commentary on it here), but I thought the ending was just about perfect, and it is an experience which still sticks with me. A fantastic story, excellent gameplay, phenomenal addition of multiplayer and an ending which has affected me in a way few endings have. Gee, guess what score I am giving Mass Effect 3? For cementing the series as my all time favorite in all of my years of gaming, Mass Effect 3 gets a 10 out of 10.

Gameplay

There is very little, if any, story to Dustforce.  The game allows you to choose between 4 characters- Dustman, Dustgirl, Dustkid and Dustworth.  The forum members notice subtle differences between Dustman and Dustgirl, but the difference seemed negligible to me.  Dustkid has a shorter jump,but the ability to triple jump makes up for it.  The older, wiser and vacuum wielding Dustworth(I like to call him Jeff) moves a bit slower, but his vacuum has a longer attack range and higher jump(thanks to the Steam community for clarification here).  The game trades menus for a larger level that you can navigate to pick your level to play through, in one of four arenas – City Streets, Forrest, Mansion and Laboratory.  Reaching all the doors can take a little finesse, and only 16 of the more than 50 levels are unlocked at the onset.  Playing through a level has you sweeping away leaves, dust, sludge or litter using acrobatics to keep your combo throughout the level-take too long to navigate from one dustpile to the next and the combo drops.  Earning a perfect rating on a level grants you a key that can be used to unlock any silver door in the main screen.  Complicated double jumps and wall running make this a tough 2D parkour game, with only about 5 seconds of a buffer to keep that combo flowing.  The game will grade your performance on Finesse(how many times your combo dropped) and Completion (clearing every last speck of dust).  Along the way you will fight monsters with light and heavy attacks, allowing  you to juggle in the air and add an extra jump after striking.  There are leaderboards, replays of your own after each level that you can view, as well as the option to view the replays of the top players on the leaderboards, so that you can see and adopt their strategies.  The soundtrack is fantastic, it’s a mix of relaxing, whimsical synthesizer music that brings an air of side-scrolling nostalgia to the game.

The Verdict

I have to preface this with the fact that I do love the art style, the visuals and the soundtrack-but the game is just not for me.  I found the so-called beginner levels to be far beyond me, let alone the couple Silver levels that I was able to unlock.  The game requires absolute perfection in both combo and clearance, so drop your combo once and you will not earn a key for that level.  Normal levels yield silver keys and silver levels yield gold keys, and my janitor’s keychain features a paltry 2 silver keys.  Being able to view the replays that won is an awesome option, I love it…and yet it makes me feel like I am having to watch a tutorial that I must flawlessly mimic to progress through the game.  I’ve had some real difficulty with the controls, I’ve tried the default mouse & keyboard setup and then remapped it.  Then I tried two different gamepads, and no matter what I do I cannot seem to get my characters to flow the way I want them to.  Wall clinging doesn’t always work the way I want, wall jumping can be sporadic and unexpected and I always seem to fudge a move and drop a combo, forfeiting the level due to those control issues.  There is a lot of clever gameplay packed into Dustforce, but for those that don’t mind the repetition.  I can see why other reviewers have been praising it, I just not a fan of the slow progression and rough controls.  I can only play for 10-20 minutes before I feel like I’ll be getting my janitorial pink slip, then I move on to something else.  The posted video will show some of my fumblings, and will showcase the better features of the game, could I master it’s controls(click the link below for the video).  If you are a completionist or a 2D platformer fan, Dustforce might be right up your alley, but if mastering levels to progress is not an attractive venture, you might want to check out the demo first.

Run Roo Run has crisp clean graphics with bright colors which is very pleasing to the eye. Each world introduces a new gameplay mechanic such as double-jumping, sliding on sludge, pushing switches, gravity changes, etc. Each world focuses on that new gameplay so much that the game almost feels like one big tutorial preparing you for whats ahead. The only problem is that it doesn’t stray from that style at all and the levels never get truly difficulty. This is not a huge problem for me as I like easy games that I can play in chunks. Run Roo Run is perfect because it doesn’t take much time and you will find yourself flying through it with no problems.

Besides never really getting off it’s feet from feeling like one big tutorial Run Roo Run is an awesome game. I love the graphics and I love the simplistic gameplay mechanics. I highly suggest this game to anyone as it’s only $0.99 and well worth it. 5th Cell is also promising 10 new levels a week for free so I think I’ll be coming back to this game often.

The Story

Being once again summoned by the Trine, Zoya, Pontius and Amadeus find themselves in the company of Crown Princess Rosabel.  Her kingdom is overrun with goblins, and she bids the Trine trio aid her in cleansing the land of said monsters.  As the trio descends down the rabbit hole, the plot seems to thicken and pieces of the puzzle revealed only beg more questions.

The Gameplay

The game is absolutely, jaw-dropping gorgeous.  The graphics are the first thing that will grab you about the game, not the mechanics, not the characters, not the story, but the awe-inspiring detail of the game’s visuals.  The color palette, the variety of locations, the foreground portions, the lighting effects, the nuggets and easter eggs that can be found in the background, it all surpasses anything I’ve seen in a game of this genre.  Now that we’ve got that out of the way, the gameplay is a fantastic mix of physics puzzles-each with different solutions, and obvious, alternate co-op solutions.  You will use the unique abilities of the mage, assassin and knight to solve puzzles, and collect bottles, upgrading there abilities.  You have the freedom to respec those skill points at any time, at no cost, and it’s a must for solving all of the game’s puzzles.  Many times it’s easier to spot a co-op solution, but the level of challenge is both frustrating and inspiring.  The game frustrates you with a new problem and gives you the satisfaction of brilliance when you craft the solution.  The levels are widely varied, in setting, and the puzzles are a good mix of new and old.  I learned to dread walking into an area with a level, knowing there would be an obnoxious timed puzzle nearby.  Most of the puzzles have more than one solution, many times more than one character can be used to solve the puzzle, but the most amazing part of the game is the co-op.  Being able to tackle the puzzles with a living partner takes the Trine franchise to new heights.  Even though going back to find all of the hidden potions and bonus items in single player is a great incentive to replay the game, doing it with a co-op partner makes it all the more worthwhile.

The Verdict

I know that I have done nothing but sing Trine’s praises until this point, so let me shed a little light on what I didn’t like.  For me, the game can definitely hit that “Not again!” frustration button a little too often, causing me to have to put it down and switch to something else.  There were mechanics and perks that I felt were poorly introduced-giving me freedom is great, throwing mechanics in and leaving me to the wolves to figure them out is less desirable.  One mechanic that irked me was the seeming need to reset all the skill points for your characters, simply to solve a puzzle and move to the next room.  Again, I enjoy having that freedom, but Trine 2 dipped a little too frequently into that well.  The endgame exemplified all of these complaints personified, I found myself stuck very often and having to resort to some online aid.  There seemed to be a loss of pacing and progression at the game’s later levels, in exchange for chaining together frustrating puzzles a bit too closely for my liking.  The combat can be a bit clunky and the boss battles can be hit or miss, as they ranged from genius to tedious.  Knowing that the game is challenging and requires more attention can be a bit of a barrier for entry, making it one of those games you really need to be “in the mood” to pick up and play.  I certainly enjoy a challenge, and Trine 2 delivered on that, though I wonder if it delivered just a bit too well.  There were definitely times in the endgame, where I would probably have left the game unplayed, had I not been reviewing it.  Still, the game is fantastic, the presentation is top notch and the co-op just elevates it to further greatness.  The graphics and the lengths that Frozenbyte will go to and make those “ah-HA!” moments so well presented is unparalleled.  Trine 2 is a wonderful and visually stunning experience that should not be missed by anyone.  Hats off to Frozenbyte for making such a graphically stunning game with such fantastic puzzles in whimsical locations.

So you can kind of imagine how wary I was when the newest Lord of the Rings game, War in the North, was announced. The more info I started to hear about the game, however, the more it started to interest me. An action RPG done by Snowblind Studios, a developer rather familiar with the genre. Three player coop with brand new characters involved in a story which intersects with the main story of the quest of the ring but is separate from it? Yeah, I was interested.

The question is, in the midst of this whole mountain of new games which have released these last couple of months, is War in the North worth your consideration?

30 Second Review

(+) Good, unique story

(+) Nice hack and Slash adventure using the Mature rating to its fullest

(+) You choose how characters level up, even when you are not controlling them

(+) Environment graphics are impressive

(+) Fantastic coop

(-) Suffers a little from the “rinse, lather, repeat” syndrome

(-) Inconsistent ally AI

(-) Checkpoint system can work against you

A Parallel Story

Enter your new heroes, Eradan, Farin and Andriel.

Most of the Lord of the Rings games have put you in the midst of the conflict over the One Ring, meaning there was only so much they could do with the story. War in the North heads in a different direction, putting you in control of three champions who must complete and equally important task to keep the heroes of the story from being overrun by Sauron’s minions. Enter Eradan, a member of the Dunedain rangers, Andriel, a magic wielding Loremaster from Rivendell and Farin, a dwarven champion from Erabor. As the game opens, you find yourselves at the inn of the Prancing Pony in Bree, having just barely managed to survive an attack on the rangers by the Nazgul, lead by Agandaur, an ally of Sauron from the Northern Kingdoms. While in Bree, you meet Aragorn just before the hobbits arrive, and he charges your group with a quest to try and determine just what Agandaur is doing in the North. As you progress through the story, you find Agandaur is trying to raise an army to attack the free people of middle earth from the north while Sauron and his forces attack from the east. Your band of heroes and the allies you make throughout the story are all that stand in his way.

As you may have already noticed, the events of War in the North run parallel to the story of the quest to destroy the One Ring. You will be given the opportunity to interact with most of the members of the Fellowship when you meet up with them in Rivendell, and you will find yourself seeking the council of both Elrond and Bilbo as you progress through the story. Snowblind Studios was given full access to all of the assets used in making the films, and it shows; Rivendell, Bree

Locations in the game really come to life, like Rivendell pictured above.

and all the various lands you traverse jump right off the screen at you as if you just stepped into the films. By running the parallel story, however, the studio was able to take you to lands unfamiliar to all but the more diligent Tolkien fans. You will find yourself fighting through the ghostly Barrow Downs, driving back both spiders and orcs in the Mirkwood and defending the dwarven stronghold Nordinbad. You will work with the sons of Elrond, make friends and powerful allies of the eagles, rescue one of the few remaining wizards and even try to figure out how to keep Agandaur from enlisting the aid of one of the last remaining great dragons. The entire story has an epic tone very reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings, weaving a tale that feels like it truly belongs in Tolkien’s world.

So the story is definitely a success. Is the gameplay?

Mostly….

When It’s Good, It’s Epic

War in the North is a hack and slash RPG with three very distinct characters with their own unique abilities. Eradan is your rogue archetype. While he is a strong fighter and can take on enemies head on, it is when you unlock his ability to vanish into the background and attack your enemies from the shadows that he shines. Andriel likewise is a decent fighter, especially once you unlock her ability to wield a staff and another weapon at the same time, but magic is her strong suit. Her most useful spell is Sanctuary, which creates a dome of light in a specific area which both heals allies and blocks incoming projectiles. Then there’s Farin, your tank. Designed to take more damage, Farin has a War Cry which, when powered up, can give him and his allies a boost to their attacks, make the enemies attacks weaker and even draw the enemy’s attention to him. As you can probably guess, these special abilities are best when used in combination. Farin’s War Cry can direct enemies to him while Eradan sinks in behind. Andriel’s Sanctuary makes a great shield from which Farin and Eradan can use their ranged attacks to take out archers who will not be able to hurt them. These abilities and others you will unlock will allow you to work together to take on the overwhelming forces of darkness, and you will absolutely need to work together in this  game, especially when dealing with larger enemies like trolls. Of course, you can always call an eagle in for aid against harder enemies if you are fighting them outdoors.

So, as it is apparent your characters will need to work together, the AI must be set up in such a way where they will, right? Well, sort of.

When It’s Bad….

Don’t get me wrong; if you fall, the computer will go out of its way to revive you, and your AI counterparts will definitely use the various abilities to their fullest. They just might not react as would really seem logical at times. For example, you will use Andriel to cast Sanctuary to protect your team from projectiles just to have your teammates step outside its protection to fire at the enemy. Other times, you might really need the healing light of Sanctuary, and the AI controlled Andriel will cast it, only to immediately dispell it to damage nearby enemies. While you can give rudimentary commands to your team (attack this target, defend this person), you will tend to feel like you just don’t have any real control over your AI teammates, and sometimes that will truly be frustrating.

Snowblind made some other interesting choices in game design as well. Leveling up for instance. Your AI teammates will apply their points for leveling up automatically, but when you are given a chance to switch characters, the points will reset to the last time you chose the upgrades, giving you the ability to build the characters you play as you see fit. Same is true of the items your characters equip; the AI will equip as it sees fit, but you will be allowed to have your versions of the characters equipped as you see fit. While some would have prefered the ability to do this themselves on the fly, my guess is this was a concession to how things would work for coop, which we will get to in a bit, and as such, it works fine.

Trolls are tough, especially if you fight them on your own.

Probably one of the games greatest strengths can become one of its greatest weaknesses, however. Snowblind has built a good checkpoint system into the game. This system will even save at various points within a boss/end battle so you do not have to repeat the entire battle if you die. While this is usually a good thing, it did lead to the most frustrating, make me want to throw my controller moment in the game. I was defending these front gates from attack, and I barely was able to defend them from the first two waves. The next wave included two heavily armored trolls, and the gates had taken enough damage that just two hits from the trolls would break them down. My AI Teammates would not position themselves between the door and the trolls no matter what I did, so it was up to me to try and find a way to kill them before they got those two hits. I failed. I failed again. In fact, I failed again on several occasions, yet because the game had saved at the checkpoint, I had to start back on the same place instead of starting all over to see if I could get to that point with the gate more in tact. Now maybe there was a way to start the entire battle over, but it was not apparent, and this became very frustrating. I did finally pass it, and fortunately I never ran across that issue again.

So the game is not without its flaws, especially if you are playing by yourself. What about when you are playing coop?

Everything is Better with Friends

While I enjoyed playing War in the North on my own, this game is much better in coop. I was able to play through many portions of it in coop mode, and being able to work with your friends in tandem using the abilities the way they were meant to be used is a blast. For example, you have to fight some nasty creatures in the Barrow Downs who throw chunks of rock at you. Have one of you control Andriel, cast Sanctuary and laugh as the rocks break apart on your shield while you and your friends pick them off at a safe distance. Or wait for you friend controlling Eradan to enter hero mode, where he does more damage, and use Farin’s War Cry to make him even more fearsome an adversary. Draw the attention of the enemy so your friend can get in behind them for better attacks. All the things you are used to doing in coop work brilliantly within the game, making the experience that much better.

War in the North is a great addition to the Lord of the Rings games.

How about the questing? The whole team can do quests while in coop, which allows you to actually play though the entire game this way if you so choose. You can also bring a higher lever character into a lower level game, so if you are farther along than your friend, you can bring your stronger, better equipped warriors into battle to come to his aid. At the point of writing this review, I have only had the chance to play two player coop. I cannot wait to see how a full three player experience plays out.

There was only one thing in coop which really did not seem to work. As my partner was spending some time talking with characters in Rivendell, I decided to try and talk to some of the other people there. I could do that as long as they were not a part of the main story. Since I had already progressed further than my friend, it would not let me speak with the characters directly tied to the main quest, EVEN if I wanted to talk to them about non main quest related things. That seemed a little odd, but it was only a minor issue.

Worth the Time

Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a very enjoyable game. Sure, it has its faults, but overall it is definitely worth playing, especially if you are a fan of the movies or just of Tolkien’s universe. The biggest issue with the game is it was released in the middle of a pack of too many AAA titles. This means many people will not give this game a try, and that is truly a shame.

For great coop play and a fantastic story parallel to the quest to destroy the One Ring, War in the North gets a 9 out of 10.

The Story

Dungeon decor 101: dim lighting always sets a torturous mood!

Dark Souls is the spiritual successor of From Software’s 2009 hit, Demon’s Souls. Demon’s Souls was praised by many for its insanely challenging and difficult gameplay and much of the same carries over into Dark Souls. This third-person RPG dungeon crawler starts with your character cursed and imprisoned as a hollow, a doomed soul not allowed to rest after death in the land called Lordran. You are merely a shell of your former self, but there is hope. Rumors whispered in the dark speak that there is a way to regain your humanity and no longer be a shadow of your former self. Of course they’re not going to make it easy on you. Standing in your way are legions of undead soldiers, giant minotaurs, dragons, and other creatures that make the darkest nightmares look like teddy bears. You soon find yourself freed from the prison and the quest to regain your humanity begins.

Though beautiful, very deadly.

After a brief tutorial and orientation, you are shoved into the world on your own. Unlike most games, this game does very little to hold your hand. It gives you the minimal knowledge needed to play the game but after that, everything you learn is from trial and error (with heavy emphasis on the error). This creates a sense of self discovery and makes you feel like a true adventurer. There is a large variety of locations to explore including dark forests, abandoned castles, dungeons, poisonous swamps and more. And there are an equal many number of enemies to take on at each location. Even more impressive is that all areas are seamlessly joined together. There are no loading screens in between maps or painted backdrops for locations. If you look out and see a bridge in the far distance and head in that direction, you will most likely come to that bridge and be able to cross it.

Gameplay

Maybe making your mother-in-law angry wasn't the best idea after all.

It is in fighting enemies this game really begins to shine. The game is extremely combat driven and is done very well. You simply can’t go running into a group of enemies swinging your axe like a mad man (well, you could, but don’t expect positive results!). Boss battles are truly epic and pit you against giant powerful beasts that will test your skills. These boss battles are the true heart of the game and are usually a blast to battle against.

Whether you are facing a common skeleton soldier or a Boss the size of a three story house, each battle requires strategy and timing. One wrong move could easily kill you. There is much precision in this combat. The majority of the times I died were due to my own mistakes of not paying attention or not making the right move at the right time. However, the controls aren’t 100% perfect. Currently, there is a bug in the game that randomly causes a delay in performing any magical attacks while holding up your shield. This has caused me to die a few times (out of the hundreds), but like the rest of the game, it is a factor you soon learn to account for in combat.

Simple battles can become nail biters when your souls are on the line.

Make no mistake though, this game is extremely punishing. As you defeat foes you gain souls. These souls serve as a currency for everything in this game. Whether it be for leveling up your stats, upgrading weapons, or buying new items, souls are what you need. There is a high risk of trying to bank too many souls. If you die, you drop all souls and pieces of humanity you have collected at the spot of your demise. You get one chance to go back to the place you died and collect your souls. Die before that and all your hard work is lost. Additionally, check points are few and far between making it very challenging at times to make it back to a place you just were. Because of the difficulty at times it does feel you earn these souls through sweat, blood, and tears making it extremely stressful to die and even more so to die again before reaching your souls. But, it is this same mechanic that provides a level of tension and fear rarely experienced in most games.

All this is not without some problems. This game is plagued with choppy low frame rates that happen randomly in certain locations. The frame rate can become so poor that it almost seems like you’re watching a stop motion video. Thankfully it rarely gets that bad. And while the majority of frame rate dips is noticeable, it doesn’t affect game play that much.

Multiplayer

Why, granny, what big te….AAAHHHH RUUUUUNNNN!

While the majority of the gameplay will be spent as a single player game, if you’re not connected online you’re honestly missing out on half the experience. Dark Souls offers a community based experience unlike any other game I have played before. As you play, you will see ghostly outlines of other adventurers playing in the same area. Orange markings will also appear on the floor of your world offering messages and tips from other players. Some can be extremely helpful and others…well, not so much. You can even leave your own messages for others to find.

You can even join other players by laying down a summoning sign. Like the orange marks, white summon signs will appear in other players’ worlds and allow them to summon you to their world for help. But not everyone out there is playing nice. You can invade other worlds. As the name implies, you will invade another person’s world and must hunt down and kill that adventurer. Never had my heart dropped and adrenaline pumped so much in a game as when the first time the words “You are being invaded” filled my screen. All this doesn’t even begin to cover what you can do in Dark Souls multiplayer!

While there is a lot you can do with other people, if you think you’re going to get together with your friends and chop off a few gargoyle heads, think again. This game is not friends-list friendly. There is no easy way to invite your friends to play in your world and vice versa. Only way to play together is through a combination of dumb luck, being in the same area, on the same server, with the similar stats, and being lucky enough to have your summon signs appear in each world. On Xbox 360 you’re not even allowed to be in a Party Chat while playing the game (you still can private chat with someone). This makes no sense since you can’t talk to those you join in the game and it’s ridiculously hard to play with friends. For being a great game, it would have been even better if you could have more easily played with friends.

**If you’re not able to connect online, never worry! There are scripted events throughout the game that will allow you to experience most of these multiplayer features with NPCs.

Final Verdict

Perhaps not the best time for a dramatic photo opportunity Indie.

This game certainly is not for the faint of heart nor for those lacking patience. It is hard. It is unforgiving and will punish you. It will eat you up and spit you out without a second thought. All these things sound like they would make a terrible game, but in the case of Dark Souls, they don’t. The huge world, numerous epic boss battles, and creative unique community experience will leave a lasting impression on those brave enough to battle through it.

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.

Anyone who has played Flower knows exactly what I mean. The gameplay is not what made so many people a fan of that game. After all, using the six access controls to move the breeze around never really felt extremely crisp, at least not to me. I didn’t care, however, as the art and styling of the levels kept me coming back for more.

Eufloria is that type of game. Simple yet beautiful art work and great atmospheric music make it easy to lose yourself in its simplistic design. I just never thought I’d be saying that about an RTS.

Real Time Strategy Meets Relaxation

No, you did not read that wrong. Eufloria is a Real Time Strategy game. That is not the kind of game you generally think about when you think of ambient atmospheres,but that is just what you have here. The game is the PSN version of the indie PC game Dyson with expanded levels and music. Question is, how in the world do you create a relaxing RTS?

Eufloria is a very artistic game. You can easily get lost in the art and music.

You start with a deceptively simple premise: you control a group of seedlings, or organic ships, which are trying to colonize asteroids. In order to form colonies, if you want to call them that, you must sacrifice ten seedling ships to create Dyson trees, which will in turn create more seedlings. As these seedlings form, you are given the option to move on to the next asteroid or plant more trees on the current one, up to the maximum limit. Capturing more asteroids will not only give you more chances to build your fleet of seedlings, it will also give you access to more distant asteroids, as your seedlings can only fly so far without being able to slingshot off another asteroid. In most levels, you advance once you control all the asteroids in the level.

It does not take long, however, before you begin to run into resistance. Your first battles will be with the grays, seedlings which have seemed to lose their way and now attack you. As you progress, you will run across enemy seedlings as well, and defeating them will unlock all sorts of new abilities for you, including the ability to create defensive trees and plant beacon plants which can automatically direct newly created seedlings from one asteroid to travel to another.

So you have the basics for an RTS, but where does the relaxation come in? Well, the first thing you will notice is the art style is not what you would generally expect from a game of this genre. The graphics actually take on an artistic appeal which is, for lack of a better way to put it, easy on the eyes. As you continue to colonize an area and build your forces, you will not be able to ignore how fluid and downright elegant everything is. The music just adds to this overall relaxing feel, presenting an ambient, almost soothing atmosphere in which it becomes rather easy to lose yourself as a gamer. I have passed many a stage with no clue of how long I took beating it until I saw the time tally at the end.

So, if Eufloria works so hard to be such an atmospheric experience, it must not be that deep of an RTS, right? Well, while it will not rival the intense strategy of StarCraft or challenge the very way you look at the genre like Achron, you will find there is a little more to this game then meets the eye.

Hidden Depth

I have seen some reviews of Eufloria in which the writer states all you have to do to win each confrontation is build overwhelming numbers of seedlings and perform what would be this game’s equivalent of the StarCraft “Zerg rush.” While this is not entirely untrue, it is unfair to paint that as the only strategy for beating the game.

This particular asteroid is high in strength and speed. You could choose to increase its energy by sacrificing up to 100 seedlings.

Not long into the storyline, you will run across seedlings which are really difficult to overcome. The reason for this is seedlings will take on the characteristics of the asteroid from which they are grown. Each asteroid is rated on three different attributes: energy, strength and speed. Energy determines the health a seedling has, strength the amount of damage it can do and speed how fast it can move. Well, when you are trying to attack several seedlings which have high strength and energy, you can find yourself loosing even if you do severely outnumber the enemy.

So how do you combat this? One way is choosing just what seedlings you send into battle. When you select an asteroid from which you will launch your forces, you can choose to send primarily those with greater strength, energy or speed, making it easier to choose the proper attackers for the proper job. Another way is to try an capture better asteroids so you can build stronger fleets of seedlings. As each asteroid has a cap of seedlings it will produce (set to ten times the number of trees which can be planted on it), you can choose to mass forces on weaker asteroids so you can make sure to have your stronger ones continue to produce units.

There is one other thing you can do once you unlock the ability. At the cost of seedlings, you can “teraform” and asteroid to increase one of its attributes. For example, if you have an asteroid which has high strength and speed but low energy, you can plant a flower to change the asteroid and sacrifice up to 100 seedlings to improve that attribute, meaning the seedlings grown from that asteroid will be truly formidable.

This is just the start. As you gain more abilities, you will have flowers you can pluck from your Dyson trees which can create either Dyson or defensive trees and ones you can pluck from the defensive trees to form mines (think orbital defense platforms as opposed to what we would normally think of as mines). These give you even more options to use in your conquest.

So you have a decently deep RTS combined with ambient atmosphere to create something truly unique in gaming. Only one question remains.

Does It Work?

Eufloria attempts to do something which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been done before: create a real time strategy game which is as relaxing as it is deep. So does it succeed?

The short answer would be yes, though not entirely. While it is true that there is a fair amount of strategy buried in the game, it is also true that the “Zerg rush” tactic generally works best. Granted, you cannot just rely on overwhelming numbers; some levels will require you to be very intentional in both how you divide your forces and what asteroids you choose to claim first, but in the end you will find yourself more often than not relying on having more seedlings than the enemy can deal with.

That being said, Eufloria manages to be a great palate cleanser. If you are looking for a game unlike any you have played recently to kind of break up the monotony, you will probably find this one fits the bill. Add the skirmish levels and a much more difficult dark matter level which you can unlock, and you will find more than enough here to justify the purchase. Eufloria gets a 4 out of 5.

The Story

Admittedly, this is not a story driven game, but I certainly admire the details that Robot Entertainment has placed in the game.  There’s even a digital prequel comic, available for free here, if you are interested in the backstory of the game.  Long ago the world was invaded by the Orc Mob, entering through the Rift they decimated our world, pillaging and burning everything in their path, until the Order was finally able to push them back.  With control restored, the Order constructed fortresses of deathtraps around the Rift locations in the Orc world, to prevent the Orc Mob from repeating their onslaught on the humans.  After your mentor meets a clumsy and tragic end, you step into the shoes of one of the Order’s War Mages–apparently the last one that the Order wants charged with saving the human race.  The growing numbers of the Orc Mob are pressing in on a large scale assault and trying to penetrate the Rift Gates of the Order.  It is the War Mages that are charged with using all of their weapons and spell skills, and an array of Prince of Persia style traps, to prevent the Mob from crossing into the Rift Gates and sealing the fate of the human race.  Your War Mage has all the tact and intellect of a college fraternity throwaway, but with many War Mages fallen around him, he is one of the last chances the Order has to stop the rushing Orcs.  It is a tough challenge for the rarely serious and clumsy War Mage, but this could be your chance to thwart the naysayers and carve a name for yourself in the blood and corpses of the Orc Mob you must stop.  I won’t spoil anything, but there are some interesting story twists and a clever ending to the game.

The Gameplay

As the War Mage, you find yourself in a simple fortress consisting of a single straight hallway.  You grab your crossbow and spear sword, and a couple of simple traps and take a few minutes to plan your defense, before triggering the oncoming Orc horde.  Each level will get slightly more complicated add add a few more goodies to your bag of tricks, but they all revolve around using strategy and your arsenal to allow as few Orcs as possible to pass through the Rift.  Orc death earns you coins, with bonuses given for kill streaks and headshots.  These coins are then traded in to place traps within the level to help thin the Orc Mob numbers and aid you in preventing them from reaching the Rift.  The gameplay feels like the lovechild of Torchlight, Prince of Persia and Wile E. Coyote–and it’s insanely addicting.  Each fortress level tasks you with fending off around 9 waves of Orcs, and, depending on the level, you get a couple breaks in the action to place more traps and take advantage of choke points in the level.  Traps start out simple with spike floor traps and tar pits that slow the advancing Mob, and grow to wall blades, arrow walls and, a personal favorite, spring loaded floor traps that can hurl unsuspecting Orcs into lava, acid or other hazards.  Depending on which of three difficulty levels you play on, you can earn a number of skulls for a good performance in a level, that are used to trade for upgrades to your traps and weapons.  Progress a bit further in the game and you will meet the Weavers, skilled mages who lack the skillsets of the War Mages, but provide fantastic support abilities to make your weapons and traps more effective at leveling the Mob.  The levels slowly grow in size and challenge, and there is a fair bit of replay value attempting to top your friends’ leaderboard scores or master a level at a harder difficulty.

The Verdict

Genocide should never be this much fun–but it is.  I almost feel dirty extracting insane amounts of pleasure from slaughtering the Orcs within the levels, but Robot Entertainment has found the perfect balance of challenge and pleasure.  Orcs Must Die! makes a habit of throwing you a curve ball, every time you think you have discovered a useful tactic.  Other times you will unlock expensive new traps that may not be as effective as your tride and true cheaper alternatives.  Still, no matter how many times you are forced to rethink your plan of attack, the game stays fresh and keeps getting better.  I can’t find a single thing I would have changed or done differently.  I think, as a bonus, it would have been interesting to see a mode where you have a hefty treasury of coins and are given the chance to try and survive the maps using only your traps, in a more true tower defense fashion.  Still, it is the versatility and wealth of options that the War Mage presents the player with that makes this game soar like an Orc flung from a spring board.  I’ve already begun competing with my son for high scores on missions, I’ve got the edge on him for now, but watching him strategize, I wonder how long that will last.  Robot Entertainment struck fantasy gold with Orcs Must Die, it’s well worth the low price of entry at $14.99 .  If you aren’t a PC fan, go check out the game on XBOX LIVE Arcade or Playstation Network, it controls just as well with a gamepad, despite my preference for a mouse and keyboard.  For the Alliance!  Ahem….err…….I mean…..For the Order!

I have to say I honestly wasn’t paying much attention to Rage before it was released. I knew that it had the potential to be a great game but I was a little skeptical due to the fact that we just got over the Borderlands high as well as Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Both of these post-apocalyptic shooters did the setting great. I knew Rage could be on par with both of those games but could it do it better?

Rage is a very interesting game. I think if it had come out before the other two games I mentioned then I wouldn’t be so jaded but Rage doesn’t do anything new except look freaking amazing. Stop and look at the scenery is the first thing any player will want to do as they emerge from the underground. It’s absolutely beautiful. I think it’s safe to say that Rage may be the best looking shooter on the 360 but it is also hindered by it’s texture pop-in. If you stop to look around you’ll notice the final textures popping in and it’s kind of annoying. There are times when I would stop to look at the city skyscrapers and they all look plain as if the textures are still loading. It’s dissapointing because Rage is a game that you actually want to stop and look at when your driving/walking through it.

Rage is not an RPG. There is no experience and there are only minor upgrades to armor and weapons. Most of the loot you pick up (which is scarce compared to Fallout and Borderlands) you will use to either build stuff or use to sell and make money. Part of me wishes it was an RPG to give me the thrill of upgrading and leveling up. Rage is not a very open game either. Basically it is a shooter in which you drive to each level. There is no exploring. While there is the occasional side mission it is a very linear game. Linearity is not a bad thing, you just have to get used to the fact that this is not like what you would expect from a game that is “open world”. When you are not working on a mission you are in Wellspring or Subway Town stocking up on ammo. You’ll want to buy a lot of ammo because you won’t find much during missions and some missions can get pretty long. Enemies take a full clip or more to take down as well. Another thing you’ll want to remember is to save often. I mean, save all the time. If you don’t get in the habit of saving often you will be kicking yourself later. Saving can be your worst enemy. While I am thankful Rage has the “save anywhere” feature it doesn’t have enough auto-save points. It only saves when the game has to load an area. More than a few times I’ve had to play missions over again from the start because I forgot to save and ended up dying at the end. This is very frustrating.

While I may have a lot of negative things to say about Rage the game is awesome. The enemy AI is very impressive and the menus are a breeze to navigate which is great. The main thing is that Rage is fun and having fun is the most important thing for me when playing a game. Sure, maybe it’s not what we expect from a post-apocalyptic shooter but it’s nice to see a developer taking a different approach. If I want something more like Borderlands then I’ll just wait for Borderlands 2 to come out next year. I can honestly say that I think Rage is worth $50-$60. There is no reason not to pick this up if you enjoy Borderlands and Fallout. Is it a game of the year contender? Probably not. Is it a great game? Yes, definitely.

*[UPDATE]* – I had a chance to sit down and play the Legends of the Wasteland cooperative missions and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy them. Not only do they give you a behind-the-scenes look to some of the stories of the wasteland they are also very fun and well put together. Basically you play through a mission with a friend, if you die you can revive yourself with your defibrillator. You can do this twice but if you die a third time your partner has to come and revive you. If you both run out of defibrillators and die at the same time then you have to start the level over from the very beginning. I have to admit these levels were a little challenging and we found ourselves restarting them a handful of times. I love the fact that Id Software took the time to include splitscreen co-op. I think more games need to do this. There is also the option to play it with a friend over Live. Overall, the Legends of the Wasteland missions are a great addition to the main campaign and I highly suggest playing through them with friend.