Let's Talk... Alien Rage

I have to admit I had pretty high hopes for Alien Rage from what I'd seen. It looked like a fun little $20 arcadey shooter with some truly gorgeous visuals. The whole space marine scene doesn't grab me all that much, and I certainly think it gets pretty regularly milked, but it looked pretty good. Sadly, I was wrong. The visuals are certainly gorgeous, at least, but some confused combat that quickly grows surprisingly tiresome and a sheer lack of variety amount to a pretty disappointing title.  

The opening cinematic sets up a generic but potentially interesting story: the humans are fighting generic alien race for control of the Universe’s super magic energy source. It’s your standard space marine affair and certainly nothing special, but there’s plenty of room for them to expand it into something far more interesting. Unfortunately, as the game rattles on at its turbulent pace, you begin to realise that the opening cinematic is nothing more than a weak set up for you to kill an entire race of generic aliens. It’s almost as if they pretty much scrapped the story as soon you get into the actual gameplay, the only reason you seem to have for doing anything is simply to make progress. Which isn't a total disaster, I guess, I wasn't exactly expecting a gripping narrative but I was a little disappointed after the opening cinematic to find that the story goes absolutely no where.

All of the game's issues aside, the game looks pretty gorgeous

The gameplay couldn't be any more basic: you move through a series of tight corridors and small rooms killing everything that moves, stopping only to press some random button or go down an elevator. Well, okay, it’s an FPS, what did you expect? I hear you say. Don’t get me wrong, I love FPS's and my problem is not with the repetitive nature of monotonously killing endless aliens, which I did found far more tiresome than I normally would. I don’t know whether it was the sheer lack of variety or maybe it was just the depressingly dull colour palette of grey and more grey that had me feeling so bored so quickly, but I was bored to tears 20 minutes in. Enemy variety is severely lacking and may as well be categorized into those who run at you and those who don’t. Weapon variety isn't all that bad, with the usual assault rifle, SMG, sniper, pistol and then the alien equivalent of each, but I wish the game had taken advantage of its futuristic setting to get at least a little creative with some of its weapons rather than just recycle weapons that already exist in every video game ever made.

Most of the weapons feel pretty decent, with the exception of the alien shotgun/railgun that has the kickback of a raging bull and is damn near impossible to use without getting extremely close to the enemy, which they make almost impossible to do without dying. I found that most of the guns sounded pretty weak often sounding more like pea-shooters than powerful rifles, and they felt pretty weak too. The game’s idea of making the game difficult is just to make you extremely squishy and make all the aliens spongy as hell in an attempt to emulate a challenging game. I found that your pathetic survivability really messed with the game’s pacing, since the game is full of high-octane action and things consistently exploding, and generally appears to want to be a pretty fast-paced game. However, your low health pool has you running away to recover health and cowering behind cover every five minutes, which dramatically stunts both your progress and the flow of combat. Whilst the small section of the game where you aren’t in combat emits a real sense of oh shit, you better run because you don’t want to get caught in that explosion or something to that effect. I don’t know what they were trying to do here but what comes across is some confused combat with really some flawed pacing.

I don't know what everyone is so mad about but this guy seems pretty pissed

One of my main problems I have with Alien Rage is that it’s so confused about what it wants to be. The game will feel familiar to anyone who has played Bulletstorm with similar weapon designs and a scoring system that grants you a bonus for scoring a headshot or explosion kills. The scoring system and the game’s goofy tone give you the impression that the game wants to be an arcadey shooter that requires methodical cover-based shooting. However, the game’s habit of throwing melee enemies who just run and stun you kind of screws with the whole methodical shooter concept. It makes it seem as though Alien Rage is trying to more like Painkiller or Hard Reset than Bulletstorm, which it most certainly isn’t. I found it quite frustrating when the game tried to balance the careful cover-based gameplay with crazy close-range mayhem because when it focused on just one at a time they worked pretty well. The scoring system also feels a little unnecessary, almost as if they included a scoring system, with a knock-off Unreal guy shouting “DOUBLE KILL” “MEGA KILL” and “HEADSHOT” every five minutes, into a pretty dull shooter to make it seem like you’re having more fun than you are.

Okay, okay enough shitting on the game. Maybe I am being a little unfair here. All the problems I have with Alien Rage aside, the game is still a competent shooter with a goofy tone and some beautiful visual design. The gameplay might have its flaws but it’s still quite fun and it will certainly appeal to some people. Although the guns sound pretty weak, some decent voice acting and generally good sound design make up for it. There’s also a multiplayer mode which isn’t anything special, your usual blend of deathmatch and team deathmatch, but it’s a reasonably competent multiplayer mode. At the end of each level you are given your overall score, which you go back and try to beat as much as you want, so there certainly is some replayability if that’s what you’re into. Overall, I would have enjoyed Alien Rage a whole lot more if it had just sussed out what kind of shooter it wanted to be instead of trying to dabble into a little bit of everything. Oh, and insert cringe-worthy pun about how the game put me into an “alien rage”.

Let's Talk... Marlow Briggs

With the recent success of both Payday 2 and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, 505 Games have proved themselves as a worthy studio, and the recent 3^rd person action game Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death is further proof of Starbreeze’s competence at developing or publishing great games. However, I’ll admit that I was pretty sceptical when I saw that it was developed by the makers of the abysmal Expendables 2. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised to find that Marlow Briggs is in fact not the disappointment that Expendables 2 was. With serviceable combat and a goofy story, Marlow Briggs is certainly entertaining but never stands out with anything unique.

The story is extremely over-the-top and never takes itself too seriously. You are Marlow Briggs, seemingly normal everyman who unlocks the power of the ancients after he is resurrected after being brutally murdered under the orders of the stereotypically evil Japanese dictator-wannabe Mr. Long. It’s as crazy as it sounds but it’s certainly entertaining to see what ridiculous thing the game will try to pass off as believable next. Your main aim is to rescue your archaeologist girlfriend, who is being forced to aid Mr. Long in becoming an all-powerful demon god… or something to that effect. The story is utterly nonsensical throughout; it serves as nothing more than a continued motive for Marlow to keep on trucking whilst providing a few laughs along the way.

The game has some visually impressive set pieces and decent environment variation

Whilst far too many 3^rd person action games fail to deliver effective combat, whether it be unarmed combat attempting to copy the Batman Arkham series or a combo-based hack ‘n’ slash trying to capture some of that God of War magic. With aerial and ground moves, chained weaponry, and a variety of powerful combos, Marlow Briggs certainly enters the God of War inspired group; the combat is hardly original but it still works as fun, serviceable combat. Over the course of the game, you’ll unlock four weapons of varying speed, impact, and range, as well as the four elements unleashed in four potentially powerful but ultimately lacklustre “ultimate” abilities. Each weapon has a decent variation of combos and they each have a fairly unique feel to them. Grabs and throws add a little bit of spice, whilst mounting larger foes in a very Castlevania: Lords of Shadow way makes defeating mini-bosses feel much more satisfying. The combat is fun and well-paced, but don’t expect anything new and unique.

Imprecise platforming and pretty weak puzzles act as filler in between combat sections. The puzzles are pretty basic, usually requiring you to pull a lever or move a box onto a button, these puzzle sections aren't inherently bad but they don’t feel all that necessary and I certainly wish that they weren't so frequent. The platforming is bearable for the most part but the imprecise and unpredictable nature of your jump makes it far too difficult to coordinate a successful jump, especially on the platforming sections that aren't side-scrolling. The game will often throw you into a sort of “race against the clock” mode that has you navigate through falling boulders and collapsing platforms or slide down a steep slope avoiding whatever is in your way. These sections mostly feel tense and exciting but punishing checkpoints combined with the poor platforming can quickly make them feel frustrating and unfair. Platforming does become somewhat more enjoyable when you unlock angel-like wings (which are unlocked several hours in) that allow you to glide when you hold down jump. The wings may make it more fun, but it still feels imprecise and frustrating and the platforming itself is still pretty unforgiving.

Combat is fun and well-paced, with some decent weapon variation

Level design is pretty good, even if it does consistently feel a little too narrow and restricting, and is accompanied by some often very beautiful and decently varied environments. The game is very linear but some basic exploration will reward you with plenty of experience points, which are used to upgrade your weapons and powers and so there’s a good reason to find as much as you can. In recent times we’ve seen an increasingly frequent emergence of visually stunning low-budget $15 titles, with recent games like Outlast wielding stunning graphics, and Marlow Briggs is certainly no exception. Gorgeous panoramic views of vibrant jungle scenes and a deep level of character detail make this title extremely visually appealing throughout.

Although the game is playable with a mouse and keyboard, I would recommend playing with a gamepad if possible. Awkward shimmying and QTEs that have you press P rather than use the mouse both point towards a console port that expects you to have a gamepad (unfortunately, my gamepad wasn't working and I definitely had a lesser time because of it).

Most platforming sections feel frustrating and imprecise. 

Marlow Briggs certainly has a fair number of frustrating areas, but if you can look past some of the game’s obvious flaws you’ll find a fun, surprisingly long (took me a good 6-7 hours to beat), and silly $15 action game that is well worth the price. Impressive visual design and some pretty okay sound design, with some pretty average voice acting, all add to the sheer mediocrity of Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death.  

Let's Talk... InFlux

The peaceful natural landscape and wonderfully ambient soundtrack make InFux an ideal way to unwind after a long day. There’s something very calming and oddly compelling about rolling a mysterious disco ball around a serene landscape solving puzzles as you go. Whether you’re there for the exploration or the psychics-based puzzles, Impromptu Games’ first title is still a real charmer.

The core of InFlux’s gameplay is that you are a small metallic ball, equipped with a powerful boost, which can use forces of attraction and repulsion to manipulate objects in the environment. Your aim is simply to progress through a series of natural and abstract environments gathering orbs that will open up small puzzle areas, which you need to complete in order to open up the next area. General traversal of the environment will require heavy use of speed and momentum, which is greatly enhanced by your ability to boost through the air at tremendous speed, something that looks and feels awesome. Many of the landscapes you’ll encounter are fairly vast and the game gives you plenty of room to do some relaxing exploring.

The mysterious yet beautiful world offers plenty of free exploration

As far as some kind of narrative goes, there isn’t much of one. The game opens with the mysterious ball falling from the sky onto a planet presumed to be Earth. It’s never explained why you landed here, who or what you are, or even why you must continue to proceed, the game just sort of leaves it for you to ponder about. Some will no doubt criticise the extremely vague narrative as being artsy and “pretentious” but I rather liked that they leave it up to the player’s own interpretation, I think a grounded story and fixed explanations of the world would take away much of the wonder and curiosity the player feels when they’re exploring. The loose, patchy story also somewhat reflects the non-puzzle aspects of the gameplay since you’re never explicitly told where to go, and although you are given the most basic of tutorials you’re still expected to largely figure everything out on your own.

However, this is still a puzzle game and so the quality of the game is still largely dependent on the quality of its puzzles. Thankfully InFlux’s puzzles are both fun and thoughtful. Although traversing the world is a testament to your skills of speed and momentum, the actual puzzle segments require you to push and pull one or more coloured balls to similarly coloured areas. The puzzle segments take place in bright white four-sided room that can be rotated clockwise and anti-clockwise through pressure plates and switches. The puzzles of increasing difficulty provide a hefty but satisfying challenge as they incorporate elements of height and momentum.

An example of the game's clinically white puzzle sections

The aforementioned visual design of InFlux is both gorgeous and impressive. The varying natural and more bizarre environments are consistently interesting and beautiful, taking you through serene grasslands, dry deserts, and deep caverns. The peaceful, ambient soundtrack could calm anyone down with waterfalls calmly flowing and the quiet sounds of your little ball whizzing around. Unfortunately I did experience more than a few sharp frame rate drops whenever the game was loading a new area, which it was doing a lot of the time. I also stumbled across a couple of game breaking bugs that required me to revert to my last checkpoint (fortunately the game autosaves frequently) which usually involved me falling through the map. InFlux certainly has a handful of issues but hopefully they are swiftly resolved.

Let's Talk... America's Army: Proving Grounds

After four months of beta testing, the 4^th release in the America’s Army series has finally been released and is available for free on Steam. One thing I that’s important to note is that America’s Army: Proving Ground is free-to-play but it isn't the free-to-play that has developed such a negative connotation in recent times, this game is literally just completely free. Thankfully, unlike the notoriously buggy AA3, America’s Army: Proving Ground feels nicely polished and is pretty much bug-free. AA: PG is a pretty fun online tactical shooter that I feel isn't getting as much attention as it deserves. Sure, the relative realism may seem a little daunting at first and there’s certainly a slight difficulty curve to get over but if you give the game a bit of time you should have a pretty good time.

For those for don’t know, America’s Army is actually made by the US army, which always amuses me when I think that there’s a team of game devs amongst all the burly soldiers. Home to some controversy in the past, America’s Army has been criticised for being something of a recruitment tool to entice the youth, which is essentially what it’s intended to be but to someone with zero interest in joining the army it’s just a pretty cool shooter.

A basic HUD makes the game feel more modern than previous AA titles

 America’s Army: PG is a team based tactical shooter with an emphasis on teamwork that very much rejects the classic “run ‘n’ gun” attitude that most modern shooters instil.  Players are incapacitated when they go down, where their team mates must revive them before the enemy team tags them to take them out of the round permanently. Players can also temporarily mark enemy targets for the rest of their team to see, and you can even take ammo from your team (they don’t lose ammo, that wouldn't be any fun). There’s definitely a “stick together or die” attitude that this game tries to enforce, but personally I found that a trusty trigger finger and a keen eye were trustworthy allies also.

This game is free so it isn't exactly bustling with content. A surprisingly packed map pool of 13 maps and a very basic weapon rotation of traditional weapons are pretty much all there is to this game. The five weapons consist of an assault rifle, sniper rifle, shotgun, pistol, and an LMG. You can choose between a small selection of sights and scopes and have the ability to switch between firing modes on the fly. You can also choose between a combination of either smoke grenades, fog grenades, or grenades that blow balls off. Pretty basic stuff and I certainly would have wanted a little bit more in the way of weapon variation, but it’s free so what can you really expect?

The game looks pretty good and there's a nice selection of maps

The game suffer from a few balance issues, however, and even though there are only five weapons to choose from I rarely felt the need to use anything other than the assault rifle. Which is okay, I guess, seeing as I wouldn't call it overpowered but I would have liked some incentive to use another weapon outside of being bored of the AR. I enjoyed the gunplay once I had tamed the wild kick of the guns and I really liked the reliably accurate feel that the guns provide, something can feel a little sporadic in some shooters. An exciting tension makes reviving team mates in the open a risky gamble whilst choosing between tagging an enemy or waiting around to use them as bait keeps every kill tense right down to the last second.

Weapons sound and feel great (something you’d hope the US army gets right) with some pretty strong kick on most guns that certainly takes some getting used to.  The game looks pretty great and runs pretty well on medium rigs, I had it running at around 60 FPS on medium settings and my PC is several years out of date. All things considered I rather like AA: PG, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it certainly feels a lot more approachable than previous more “hardcore” iterations of America’s Army. It’s something that’s more enjoyable to play with friends, especially because of the emphasis on team work. It’s worth checking out and hell it’s free, so why not?

Let's Talk... Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

The most notable change to the Amnesia series is that it's now no longer developed by Frictional Games, who, of course, made the horror hit Amnesia: The Dark Descent. A Machine for Pigs is instead developed by The Chinese Room, who are responsible for 2012’s experimental and controversial title Dear Esther. No doubt this news will be followed by pained groans from the many critics of Dear Esther, but A Machine for Pigs keeps the focused storytelling of Dear Esther whilst still maintaining an incredibly daunting atmosphere with its wonderfully disturbing setting. The move away from sheer terror to deep and involving storytelling will inevitably upset some fans of the original Amnesia, but if you can look past the move away from its terrifying roots you’ll find a fantastically crafted and deeply engrossing story.

Eerie set pieces and pigs... lots of pigs

In typical Amnesia style, you start the game alone in your huge mansion with no memory of what has recently transpired. What starts off as a simple quest to find your two children quickly dissolves into a desperate descent into the ever disturbing madness. The storytelling is consistently superb and easily the game’s biggest strength, an engrossing story is slowly uncovered whilst excellently written documents layer extra details about the sick, twisted world that surrounds you. For much of the game the story is being told all around you, the story is carved into the grim industrial setting, and it’s easy to feel like you’re being taken for a ride with pretty basic levels of interactivity. This is something that may put a lot of people off, especially those expecting another terrifying horror show like the original. The story is certainly a slow burner, but is well worth sticking around for the end.  

Gameplay in the original Amnesia was pretty simplistic, the game would often want you to complete small environmental puzzles that would often involve putting object A into object B.

Although there was still an extra layer of complexity on top of that which A Machine for Pigs has totally scrapped. In the original Amnesia your lantern, often your only source of light, required a constant supply of tinderboxes and lamp oil to keep the lantern fuelled at all times. This required cautious monitoring of your oil levels whilst making sure to only use the lantern when necessary. Tinderboxes and oil lamps weren't exactly difficult to find but they did depend upon thorough exploration of the world, often leading you astray to spooky areas that you otherwise might not have found. However, whilst the lantern still remains your trusty companion through the darkness it now no longer requires oil or tinderboxes to keep the flame burning bright. This takes away to stress of light management and allows you to keep your light up at all times, which certainly makes the world feel a lot less terrifying.

Amongst the filth of smoggy industrial London is the perfect backdrop for such horror

Also in the original game was the constant necessity to stay in the light in order to prevent the protagonist from going insane, which increased your heart rate and distorted your vision but has also unfortunately been removed from the new Amnesia. A Machine for Pigs is certainly a far less petrifying experience and genuinely scary moments are few and far between, but the tense atmosphere still does a great job of keeping you on your toes, even if it ends up being for a lacklustre scare. For those looking for the horrifying experience that made the original Amnesia so iconic I’d recommend the recent Outlast, which offers a much scarier journey with less focus on storytelling for the same price. Carried over from the original game, however, are the basic environmental puzzles that involve item A and item B and some simple basic labour, which often feels like dull busywork at times as you backtrack through mentally blueprinted areas to fix fuses, restore power, or open up hidden passages. With all the added stress and tensions of the original having been completely removed, the gameplay in AMFP is far less enjoyable than soaking up the next bit of hidden exposition.

A Machine for Pigs may have stepped down on the horror front, but the outstandingly ominous soundtrack adds an extra layer of spooky to the eerie Victorian hallways and looming industrial structures. Wonderful voice acting continually impresses with the excellent writing making the voice acting seem all the more impressive. The visuals are thoroughly pleasing with plenty of disturbing imagery and imposing set pieces to both amaze and disgust you. I experienced a couple of game breaking bugs and the odd crash but nothing major and certainly nothing that can’t be fixed. Controls are extremely minimalistic, likely to allow you to focus on absorbing the world and breathing in the petrifying atmosphere, with only movement and basic interactivity to worry about.

Overall, A Machine for Pigs certainly wasn't the experience I was expecting but I came away from it with no feelings of disappointment. AMFP might not be what you hoped but it’s still a worthy experience nonetheless.

Let's Talk... Outlast

Fear is a pretty subjective thing. What may frighten the life out of one person may come across as laughably cheesy to another. Fear can often be based on personal experiences and some fears may seem downright insane to most people, but fear of the unknown may be the one thing that has the power to make anyone, no matter how immune to fear they may be, sleep with the lights on. Darkness also plays a part into the unknown, not knowing what lurks in the shadows provides a sensation that’s extremely unnerving, and yet there’s an entire culture of horror games and slasher movies dedicated to giving one the feeling of discomfort. 2010’s Amnesia: the Dark Descent is a great example of entertainment that plays on these common fears in the name of exhilaration. Since its initial announcement Outlast proposed a similarly thrilling experience with the same focus on non-combat gameplay, but will it be as terrifying as Amnesia?

Every good horror story needs a spooky set up to make it both scary and somewhat grounded in some sort of reality, since I find a believable asylum full of dangerous nutters wielding lead pipes much scarier than fear of the supernatural. You play as one Miles Upshur, the world’s ballsiest journalist, who for some strange reason decided to independently investigate an abandoned haunted asylum alone at night. Very little background information is given to you and all you know is that shit has hit the fan. Documents that offer some fascinating insight litter the bleak rooms of the asylum whilst capturing things on your trusty camcorder provides some hand written insight from the otherwise silent Miles himself. The story maintains it’s “this is seriously fucked up” vibe throughout and offers enough context for you to shit your pants. There are plenty of freaky characters along the way and enough weird shit to satisfy even the most sadistic of us so I won’t spoil anything.

Hey there, buddy...

Outlast adopts Amnesia’s trademark non-combat first-person approach to horror, whilst replacing the environmental puzzle solving with an emphasis on light platforming. Much of the game’s tension comes from not being able to fight only run and hide. It makes much of the gameplay a petrifying attempt to stealthily bypass patrolling enemies with fleeing to the nearest locker as your only option if you mess up. Not being able to fight back adds an extra layer of suspense to getting caught that stealth focused games cannot achieve since fucking up in most stealth games is mostly an inconvenience and usually followed by fleeing for your life. Getting chased provides an incredibly exhilarating rush even when AI routines begin to sink in and the ease of vanishing becomes frankly underwhelming. There are certainly issues with the gameplay side of Outlast that, if you can’t look past, can significantly downplay the experience. The main issues are with the often very blind and seemingly deaf AI that will often not spot you in obvious places and that will also return to a neutral state if you find particular ‘blind spots’ that seem to reset the AI. The AI will also follow limited patrol paths that are heavily repeated and often cover small areas of rooms, making them sometimes too easy to bypass.

Outlast’s own identity comes in the form of a night vision equipped camcorder that essentially acts as your flashlight and your only trustworthy companion. Naturally, night vision drains the battery and so a topped-up supply of batteries becomes a must. Creating a very Alan Wake-esque setup of searching for batteries whilst managing your current ones. The idea that you only have a limited time to use your light source is a nice idea and battery management adds a tense survival horror aspect to the game, but I found it pretty hard to run out of batteries considering they’re pretty easy to stumble upon. However, it does provide a few terrifying moments when it comes to replace your battery and you are plunged into total darkness. You’ll spend the vast majority of the game with your camera raised and night vision on as the ratio of darkness to light in this game heavily favours the darkness, and when its dark boy is it dark. As you’d expect with any camcorder this one has a zoom feature, which might not sound particularly astounding but certainly plays a big part in further building tensions when you slowly reveal the darkness what lurks in the shadows.

Chase scenes are always utterly exhilarating

When you aren’t simply getting from A to B your goal will often be to bypass some sort of obstacle by turning on power or putting off a fire, for instance. Tasks soon get pretty mundane though as they play out like repetitive fetch quests and they unfortunately contrast the exciting unpredictability of the game with predictable drudge. Very basic platforming add a bit of spice to general traversal, especially when it’s mixed together with the killer suspense of what’s below you. I’ve already seen Outlast get criticised for hinging too heavily upon jump scares and cheap thrills. Whilst it’s true that much of the horror comes in the form of jump scares and scripted events, I found that the expert way that the game builds up the suspense to each jump makes you paranoid of opening doors, turning corners, and approaching crazies. Jump scares may be used a little too frequently for some, but the placement and timing of them does make them feel a lot less cheap and much less predictable. That’s what makes Outlast so exciting: the sheer unpredictability of it all, of everything. Every person is a potential threat; every room a potential scene of inexplicable violence; every creak a potential pipe wielding psycho missing his medication.

Something that isn’t all that common for horror games is the incredibly high-fidelity graphics and triple-A animation quality. Amnesia looked quite nice but it has nothing on Outlast’s sheer beauty while boasting some great optimisation. Looking through your camera with night vision enabled adds an eerie effect to the already freaky world, reflecting light off damp walls and illuminating dark hallways. Enemies look seriously messed up if you dare to get close enough. Clearly having all been mutilated and dissected every fucked up psycho is littered with scars and stitches, often with stitched up mouths or gruesomely violated eye sockets. Animations are fluid and genuine. Accompanying the incredible visuals is some top notch sound design that often makes the game sound more terrifying than it looks. Every footstep you take sounds like thunder, slamming doors echoes around for what seems like forever, your ragged breath is barely louder than your own as you hear them coming towards you...

This game offers a lot of messed up set pieces

Outlast certainly isn't without its issues. The gameplay has some notable issues that are often hard to look past, the story is alright but isn't exactly stellar, and there are enough game breaking bugs and frame rate drops to screw with immersion. However, the incredible atmosphere and extremely eerie setting maintain a high level of tension makes this game worth playing for anyone looking for some cheap thrills. I think it’s important to note that, as with any horror game, if you want the best experience than you must play it blindly. No Quick Looks, no Let’s Plays, no Spook ‘em with Scoops. Nothing. Outlast is infinitely more exciting when you've no idea what each corner awaits.

Let's Talk... Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC)

On top of being a thoroughly enjoyable and charming experience, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons feels like a demo for an interesting concept: single-player co-op. A concept that may sound too messy to work, but an excellent control scheme allows it to work. A highlight of this year’s somewhat smaller “Summer of Arcade” line-up Brothers offers a touching story delivered in a very unique way for only $15, almost sounds too good to be true.

It may not be technically astounding but Brothers has a gorgeous art style

The whole concept of this game is that you control two characters referred to only as “big brother” and “little brother”. Each brother is controlled with a different joystick (the Steam version is plastered with warnings of a recommended controller and you shouldn't take that lightly) as you progress through puzzle and platforming segments that, obviously, involve simultaneous actions. Brother’s story is a short but touching tale of two brothers who take it upon themselves to find the cure for their father’s life-threatening sickness. In a very Lord of the Rings fashion the desired location is a really fucking long way away and the only way to get there is to walk. Aside from the unique control scheme, what gives Brothers its own charm is that nobody speaks any intelligible dialogue, or at least not English (may well be Japanese..?). So the interaction between the two brothers is done through primitive caveman-like grunting and pointing. Although it may sound quite odd at first that there isn't any dialogue and you’re probably thinking that you're not going to have a clue what anyone is trying to say. Thankfully, you’d be wrong. The game does a pretty great job of making things clear, which pretty much comes down to the game never giving you a situation that you can’t figure out yourself.

As previously mentioned the aim of Brothers is to get to the apparently extremely rare cure for your father, so the aim of gameplay is simply to make progress. Which, in this case, is barred by two-man puzzles and plenty of platforming. Oh, and a freaky spider-lady thing. The focus of all aspects of gameplay is on using both characters for everything, be it pulling levers, evading rowdy dogs, or just getting across some deep water. The gameplay is relatively simple, with most of the puzzles simply requiring two levers to be pulled or one brother using his own personal traits (little brother is small and able to fit through small gaps, for example, whilst big brother is stronger and capable of pulling bigger lever). In some parts the real puzzle isn’t so much the what as much as the how, for example how exactly are you going to manoeuvre this unusually large pipe around these tight corners? There are some really fun and creative sections that have you pilot a hand glider using the weight of each brother to control its angle and direction or row a boat controlling each paddle separately. Its segments like these that make me say that Brothers provides an excellent demo for an interesting and incredibly fun concept that I hope is used in other games.

Gameplay focuses a lot on performing simultaneous actions

The world of Brothers is strikingly gorgeous, with art style trumping technical feats here. Sweeping valleys offer beautiful panoramic views that show off how great this game looks. Its colourful and lively art style offers clean designs for some outstanding environments. The high quality sound design of Brothers also deserves mentioning: the dialogue (real or not) has a quirky charm that suits the art style and the soundtrack is a spectacular feat. Unfortunately, however, I did run into a couple of game-breaking bugs and experienced a few crashes. The game ran at a consistent 60 fps with the frame rate occasionally dipping below 30, and although the game does have fairly low minimum requirements it seems a little lazy that the only graphics options available are resolution, V-sync, and brightness. This aspect of the PC port, along with the controls, certainly feels a little lazy and I definitely would have liked to have seen more than the bare minimum settings.  

I cannot stress this enough: use a god damn controller, you’ll need one. As it turns out controlling multiple people with a keyboard becomes an extremely clumsy affair when you throw in trying to interact with things at the same time. If you don’t have a controller then I’d honestly hesitate to buy this on PC because the clumsiness of the controls that significantly takes away from the experience.

Overall, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is an incredible must-play, yet unfortunately short, experience that exercises an interesting and well-executed concept. The PC port is let down by a few issues but Brothers is still one of the best games I’ve played this year.

Let's Talk... Rayman Legends

Rayman has always been a fairly weird franchise but the Raving Rabbids trilogy launched our French friend into a level of insanity that seemed unrecoverable. However, 2011 saw Rayman return to his slightly less crazy 2D platforming roots with Rayman Origins, and 2013 has seen Rayman spawn a sequel that very much improves on everything Origins did right. Full to bursting with colourful charm, Legends is in every way the brilliant reboot that Rayman so desperately needed.

Legends has a story but it’s very iffy and frankly completely irrelevant. Rayman and co have for some reason been asleep for 100 years (sounds great) and, as you’d expect, shit’s gone down during their prolonged nap. So naturally it’s up to Rayman and friends to save the world, collect Lums, and save Teensies. But you don’t need context to rescue some Teensies, do you? You also don’t need much context to know that you have defeat bosses, beat musical levels and play some good ol’ Kung Foot!

Rayman Legends is fast-paced, exhilarating, and so much fun

The main aim of Rayman’s gameplay is essentially to rescue all ten Teensies (adorable little creatures in cages) and reach the high score of Lums for each level. Completing levels unlocks progressively harder levels until to reach the boss stage and eventually a lovely little musical level to end each world on. Legends isn’t exactly a hard game, unless you’re going for 100%, and the levels have a great flow to them if you can avoid dying too much which makes the overall experience an absolute blast. Boss fights are fun and feel appropriately challenging for a Rayman game, meaning that they may take a couple of tries but are ultimately more fun than frustrating. The musical levels are an absolute treat to play, they feel so meticulously crafted and the music is so excellently timed to your own movement that you can’t help but feel anything besides an exciting mix of exhilaration and awe. The general crux of these musical levels is simply that you traverse the level in time to the music, it sounds simple but it’s an absolute blast. 

For those who don’t know, Rayman Legends was originally announced as a WiiU exclusive title and so some of the game’s mechanics are based around the idea that you’re playing from a WiiU. Which, of course, the vast majority of people aren’t. So-called “Murphy mode” is one of the features that was initially designed for the WiiU and basically has you control a little flying dude in order to manipulate the environment by pulling levers, eating cake, or cutting rope. Whilst on the WiiU it’s quite an intuitive mechanic it degrades into nothing more than a button prompt when playing on consoles or PC, making it feel completely unnecessary and frustratingly shallow. Although it does sometimes play out in a puzzle-like way with the way you have to time the button press it still feels like it should’ve been done differently outside of the WiiU or removed completely.

3D Boss fights are fun and appropriately challenging

 If there is one thing that Rayman Legends is certainly not lacking then it’s definitely content. There are six main worlds, each with around 6-7 levels each plus boss and musical, that have a pretty nice difficulty curve as the game introduces new mechanics and progressively more complex level design. On top of the 6 main worlds, which must total around 50 different levels altogether, there’s an unlockable set of worlds called “Back to Origins” which contains just under 30 levels from Rayman Origins re-imagined with Legends’ beautiful art style. Daily and weekly challenges feed those who grow ever hungry for some competition, whilst time trials of previous levels are ready for the fast-paced racers out there. As cheesy as it may sound, the new multiplayer soccer mini-game “Kung Foot” is a surprisingly fun break from the usual platforming around the place saving Teensies and whatnot.

Whilst Origins had some pretty decent level design, it’s completely blown out of the water by some of the beautiful and excellently crafted levels in Legends. Level design is fun, colourful, and full of variation whilst the beautiful blend of 2D and 3D make levels look truly wonderful. Some levels are worth playing again just to stop and stare in awe at the beautiful art and gorgeous visuals. Sound design is as upbeat and vivid as the visuals with heart-warming cheers from rescued Teensies and extremely happy victory music. The soundtrack really shines through during the unfortunately limited musical levels, which combine classic beats with some hilarious themes such as a Mexican cover of the classic Eye of the Tiger. Controls feel really tight which makes platforming a blast.

Strengths:

       -Beautiful art style that blends both 2D and 3D

       -Tons of content for a $30 game

       -Daily and weekly challenges and time trials add nice competitive edge

       -Musical levels are a blast to play with excellently timed music

       -Everything, even the loading screen, has a wonderfully upbeat charm to it

       -Boss fights feel fun and appropriately challenging

       -Level design is colourful, fun, and varied

Weaknesses:
       -“Murphy Mode” is shallow and feels unnecessary on consoles and PC

Let's Talk... Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PC)

It’s been 3 years since it was initially released on consoles but the PC version of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is finally here. Why it took 3 whole years is an utter mystery, especially when you realize that the actual port isn't of particularly high quality; the game doesn't look all that much better than it did on console and some of the QTE prompts were clearly designed for a controller’s thumbstick. However, with Lords of Shadow 2 just around the corner here’s your chance to pick this title up on PC and the game still is just as great as it was console, even if there are a few frustrating issues.

Vast and glorious landscapes are cut short by invisible walls and out of reach platforms

The story of Lords of Shadow is one big fantasy cliché that fails to create its own identity because of its sheer lack of originality. You are Gabriel Belmont (wonderfully voiced by Robert Carlyle) a ridiculously tall werewolf slaying badass who must defeat the “Lords of Shadow” to avenge and save his deceased wife. Occasional twists keep the otherwise dull story interesting throughout most of its 20 hour duration but it can get a little tiresome. The PC version is the Ultimate Edition, which features two story expanding DLC pieces Reverie and 

Resurrection to add even more playtime to this enormous game. None other than Patrick Stewart himself is the narrator of the story in between levels and although his classic charm shines through here, there’s just something about his performance that doesn't feel right in this clichéd fantasy setting. Its not that his performance is especially bad it’s more that the game’s cringe-worthy script really brings down the overall quality of his appearance. Also I personally don't think he fits a fantasy setting. The story of Lords of Shadow is definitely not its strongest point, so think again if you came for that.

The highlight of the show is easily the game’s hack ‘n’ slash combat. What starts out as a generic 3^rd person action that simply has you randomly spamming attacks until they go down becomes much more focused when you begin unlocking new combos that chain ground and air attacks together with devastating results. Magic in Lords of Shadow is turned on and off and comes in two forms: one that gives you a life stealing effect and the other that increases your overall damage. When you are introduced to the game’s “magic” it seems at first to be nothing more than a way to overcome puzzles and environmental obstacles. However, it quickly begins to play into boss fights when you can block, counter and unleash hell with what is essentially “magic mode”. Many people have rightfully pointed out that when chains begin to feature in combat it quickly dissolves into a very God of War–like ordeal. Although it’s a fair comparison between the two hack ‘n’ slash giants, I feel as though Castlevania does it in its own unique way (not necessarily better) that separates it from God of War enough to prevent it from just being a big rip off. Combat isn’t the only area where similarities are plentiful between the two games: environments, platforming, puzzles, themes. You name it, but they’re still both great games regardless of how similar they may be to one another.

Combat is fun, fluid and easily the best area of the game

Boss fights are frequent and most of them are pretty memorable. There are two types of boss fights: Titans, towering 200ft monsters that Gabriel must mount and destroy the glowing runes to bring it down (just like in Shadow of the Colossus) and others that have you fighting incredibly tough monsters (usually the Lords of Shadow, but sometimes disgustingly huge spiders). Much like the combat these boss encounters are lot of fun and provide a decent challenge and the story gives enough context to explain why you must tackle these enormous foes. One major problem I had with the second Titan boss is actually more a problem with the quality of the PC port. A quick time event commands you to make a circle with the movement keys (WASD, naturally) in a way that was clearly designed for a controller and not for a keyboard. I still don’t know how you’re supposed to do that with a keyboard as I had to kill that boss with a controller. I don’t mind ports where using a controller is preferable but it’s extremely frustrating when you’re required to use one simply because the port sucks.

Broken platforming and some interesting puzzles act as an underwhelming filler between combat and boss fights, but unfortunately these sections fall short of the combat’s high quality and appear far too frequently. With so much platforming in Lords of Shadow (platforming is pretty much the only way to get from A to B in this game) you’d have thought that they would get it right, but inconsistent camera angles and sloppy indication of where to go next make platforming a real chore and completely unenjoyable. As for the puzzles, most of relatively simple and require you to find certain objects and solve some basic puzzles using mirrors or timed platforms. None of the adventure elements on LoS are particularly original but then again not much of this 3D Castlevania reboot is. In the end, some nice ideas fail to execute properly and are just an obstacle that prevent you from getting to the much more enjoyable combat. LoS gives the illusion of being a huge world open to exploration but an array of invisible walls and platforms that you can’t quite reach do a good job of keeping you enclosed to tight and sadly limiting paths. Straying off the correct path will reward you with health or mana upgrades, but that’s as far as exploration goes unfortunately.

Boss encounters are challenging and fun, even if they are taken from Shadow of the Colossus

Just as it was on consoles 3 years ago the game looks great with plenty of vast panoramic shots to remind you. My only problem is that the game hardly looks any better than it did on consoles which is a shame considering that the game is now 3 years old and now on PC, the world still looks great but I feel they could have done more. The soundtrack is as booming and epic a score as you could possibly hope for but its effect soon grows tiresome when you realise that there’s a small selection of tracks. Aside from the aforementioned issues with QTE prompts the controls are generally okay, but only after you map them to the mouse and take them off IJKL (why? Just why?). The controls mostly feel pretty tight with the exception of the use action feeling a little stiff and unresponsive at times.

At the end of the day Castlevania has finally had its much needed 3D reboot, but the sheer unoriginality of ideas taken straight out of titles such as God of War and Shadow of the Colossus prevent the reboot it from having any sort of identity to call its own.

Strengths:

        -Combat is fun and fluid

        -Memorable and challenging boss encounters

        -Beautiful and varied environments
        -Epic score, even if it is repeated heavily
        -Combos and magic add extra depth to combat
        -Robert Carlyle puts in a great performance as Gabriel, even if the script isn't so good 

Weaknesses:
       -Puzzle segments and broken platforming fail to give a fun filler between combat
       -Story is pretty weak, filled with fantasy cliches
       -Poorly communicated QTE commands are frustrating to do without a controller
       -Boss encounters are fun, but the Titan fights are clearly ripped from Shadow of the
       Colossus