Let's Talk... Batman: Arkham Origins

It is universally agreed that Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City are both two of the finest games this generation that provided a pleasant change of scenery from the usual horde of sub-par superhero games. This certainly paved the way for some cautious scepticism when Warner Bros Montreal took on the onerous task of creating a prequel to the esteemed series. Making a sequel, or prequel, to a highly successful and beloved franchise is never easy, and no matter how well a team does there will always be some who relentlessly hate on the new games (just look at the outcry about the latest Devil May Cry’s change in developer). If you create something too similar to the previous games then fans will be disappointed by the lack of change but create something that’s too radically different and fans will complain that it just “isn't insert game”. The trouble with Arkham Origins is simply that the core mechanics and the overall formula of the Arkham City worked so well that there’s just very little room for improvement. Fortunately, a much more interesting story, some great writing, and a hell of a lot of fan service manage to just about carry Arkham Origins away from being a totally rehashed failure.

The plot of Arkham Origins sees a $50 million bounty placed on Batman’s head by a notorious gang leader, capturing the attention of eight world-renowned assassins. A consistently interesting and well-written narrative should be enough to keep you going through the insufferably repetitive combat and stealth scenarios. Arkham Origins is, obviously, an origins story and predates the events of Asylum and City. The game plays heavily on the idea of it being an origins tale, with prolific use of the idea that Batman is still just an urban myth amongst thugs and still just a vigilante criminal to the masses. The story is gets pretty crazy at times, perhaps appropriately so for a superhero story, as it follows Batman trying to defend Gotham City, defend himself, and defeat all the evil super dudes on his own because everybody hates him. As crazy as it gets though, it is actually rather compelling, and the story is actually what carries the overall experience unlike in the previous games where the gameplay carried the story through. The idea of the eight assassins is rather immediately downplayed and certainly feels a little underdeveloped, several hours into the story the C/D list villains, that basically just serve as fan service, are pushed to one side for Bane and the Joker, who both quickly steal the show. As in Arkham City, the available side missions offer a set of completely separate narratives that all revolve around a particular villain; however, most of them just end up being underdeveloped sub-plots that are more often than not tied up through anti-climatic means.

Origins is full of C and D list villains for some good old fan service

One of the many things that made the previous two Arkham games so excellent was the fluid and extremely satisfying combat, which featured combos, dodges and counters and the use of quick-fire gadgets. It should be no surprise that Arkham Origins features the same fast-paced combat, and I mean the exact same. Aside from a couple new gadgets and a pair of “shock gloves” that essentially give you more damage for a limited time when you achieve a high enough combo, the combat plays out exactly the same as it did in the previous games, even more so Arkham City. So much so that when you’re out on the snowy streets you’d be easily forgiven for mistaking the game for Arkham City, the combat just looks, sounds, feels and plays the same as the previous game. Although the combat is still fun, satisfying and well-paced, the lack of originality and innovation can make the combat quickly grow tiresome, especially later in the game when the game goes crazy with the combat and just consistently throw 20-30 guys at you again and again. Although they don’t add much mechanically, the inclusion of the “shock gloves”, gloves that are basically just made of lightning, adds a satisfying visual effect to your attacks that makes reaching high combos feel very rewarding.

Just as the combat transitioned into Origins with very few mechanical changes, so did the game’s “predator” stealth sequences. Although the combat changed so little, I feel like these stealth sequences underwent even less innovation. These slow, methodical sequences place you into open rooms full of conveniently placed gargoyles near the room’s ceiling and have you take out a group of patrolling thugs; both armed and unarmed. Methodically take down enemies one by one without getting caught, using vents, floor grates, and the gargoyles to your advantage. The well-paced difficulty of these sequences curve nicely, and the steady progression from unarmed to armed to high-tech sonar detection manages to make them these feel consistently challenging and engaging. Although initially fun and satisfying when pulled off efficiently, these encounters grow tiresome quicker than the overused combat does and, if you've played the previous two games, the daunting realisation that these encounters simply have not changed one bit since they were introduced in Asylum just makes them feel even more frustrating. Just like with a lot of the unoriginal gameplay in Arkham Origins, the repetitive nature allows tedium to quickly set in.

The combat is fluid and satisfying, but has changed very little since Arkham City

The scale of Gotham City makes it feel considerably large, but the frequency of buildings you can’t grapple to and the lack of high vantage points make it feel more enclosed than open. The game rather lazily uses the literal cover of a storm to explain why the streets are only populated by thugs and criminals, which is a shame because I was expecting them to have a more bustling, lively city sandbox if you they were going to set the game in Gotham City, but I guess the whole point is that the city is just full of corrupt cops and criminals anyway. The game introduces a handy fast travel system that allows you to zip around the city and get back to the Batcave, which acts as the game’s main hub. There are no more Riddler trophies in this game, likely because the Riddler has yet to earn his nickname and is referred to only as Enigma, and instead there are “Enigma Extortion Data” which basically act as the same collectibles that are earned through completing mini puzzles, except some can also be found through exploration.

Unfortunately, Arkham Origins was released in an extremely messy state, game-breaking bugs are commonplace here and almost everything is liable to break be it animations or scripting, and I had to restart to last checkpoint far too many times of because I fell through the floor or because the scripting failed to function properly. As well as frequent freezing and crashing, but hopefully these issues will be quickly patched. The game’s presentation continues to be utterly stunning, beautiful visuals, fluid animations, gradual deterioration of your cape and armour, those wonderful cape physics, it all looks absolutely incredible. It’s all well optimised as well, thankfully, and I was able to pull of a consistent 60 fps on medium settings with my rather outdated set-up  The game’s sound design is every bit as good as the visuals, from the fantastic voice acting to the spine-chilling crunch of a thugs bones it is all top notch, when it actually works that is.

Encounters with villains range from exciting to dull and anti-climatic

On the surface, Arkham Origins is actually a pretty great game and a worthy addition to the acclaimed Arkham series, it’s just a shame that a number of game-breaking bugs, character arcs that lose momentum too quickly, and an over-reliance on the previous games’ success make the experience feel rather unforgettable.

Let's Talk... The Stanley Parable

Many games try their hand at critically commenting on video game tropes and generally flawed design choices in games, be it narrative or gameplay. It’s become an increasingly common practice amongst the game’s industry and can be extremely entertaining and sometimes eye-opening when done right. Ironically enough, however, many of these supposedly critiquing titles end up actually being more tedious than the game they were trying to mock. The best example of this comes from the huge wave of games like Breath of Death VII or Cthulhu Saves the World that “comment” on the JRPG tradition to throw endless encounters at the player whenever they take two steps. Games like these often end up losing their message or commentary through their poor “on the nose” execution. Occasionally, however, a game will come along that manage to successfully convey and deliver thoughtful commentary, The Stanley Parable, based on a 2011 source mod of the same name, is one of those games.

Yep, you'll be seeing a lot of beginnings

 The basic idea of The Stanley Parable is that you create your own story through the choices you make. Sound familiar? It probably should, at least to anybody well-versed in video game tropes, which are the people with whom The Stanley Parable will resonate best with. The game starts you in your office, you being Stanley, of course, as the narrator simply states that your co-workers are “missing” and continues to narrate the beginning of Stanley’s journey, prolifically narrating precisely what Stanley is doing and what he’s supposed to do next. For example, the narrator will tell you that Stanley went through the door on the left, and whilst you can follow that instruction you can just as easily ignore it and take the first right, to which the narrator will comment something on the lines of “Stanley never was good at following instructions”. Every time you take a specific path, be it correct or not, you are heading towards an entirely unique ending, of which there are quite literally dozens, and straying too far off the beaten path can lead you to some seriously bizarre scenarios which inevitably lead to seriously bizarre conclusions.

Mechanically the game couldn't be any more minimalistic; you walk around following, or not, the narrator’s instructions, opening doors and futilely trying to interact with the environment. It’s the narrator’s drive to narrate each and every action, and inaction, you make, or don’t make, that makes it all so compelling, however, and you’ll find yourself trying to do everything you can just so you can see what reaction the narrator will have, even if it’s as simple as him saying “Stanley stood in the broom closet for no apparent reason”. The fun of the game is trying to find all the ways to break it, and that is exactly what the game wants you to do, be it through simply going the wrong way or by doing things that wouldn't normally work in most games to trigger scenarios that will genuinely surprise you. For example, without giving away too much, a phone rings and you are told that Stanley answered the phone, to which you can either answer it or just unplug the phone which will trigger a whole new sequence and lead you to a whole new scenario.

The game can get seriously weird if you take the right path... or the wrong path.

The dialogue is excellent and the narrator is suitably brilliant. It would have been so easily for The Stanley Parable to be a tedious experience with an ineffective message attached had the dialogue been dry and the tone inappropriate. Thankfully, The Stanley Parables feels like a love letter to video games that simultaneously critiques and celebrates video game narrative in all its shame and glory. The commentary generally feels thoughtful without appearing to be rude or offensive, it does a great job of putting the state of video game narrative into perspective and basically just saying “this is how it is, here are some jokes and crazy scenarios we made to surrounding it”. It manages to make its points about narrative, in particular that some game’s can often offer players too many choices and begins to lose track of the original story and tone, rather indirectly and discreetly, they don’t scream the message at you but its certainly there.

As for the technical side of things, it really is quite basic. The game generally looks pretty good for $15 game but the game features such visually basic set pieces that the visual design just isn't that important. The game also runs pretty well on pretty low spec machines, too. The game’s sound design is also very basic, the aforementioned dialogue is truly excellent whilst the sound of a mouse clicking in-game whenever you do is a neat little touch that presents the game’s tone and setting nicely. Unfortunately, I did find that the game would have definitely benefited from some kind of hint system that would push you in the direction of new things to see and do. Although this would obviously take a lot of the fun out of the game first time round and certainly for the more obvious events and scenarios available, but for some of the more obscure scenarios some kind of enable-able hint system would have been greatly appreciated. 

The original Stanley Parable, a 2011 source mod. 

In the end, The Stanley Parable is a fun little sandbox you can endlessly poke and prod to see what will happen that leaves a memorable impression on the player and hides a discreet critique about video game narrative. Unlike some of the less successful “critiquing games”, The Stanley Parable knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be which is something that ends up being one of the game’s biggest strengths. The game knows that it is just a commentary on narrative design tropes in video games, particularly the overused illusion of choice, and that’s exactly what it tries to be. 

Let's Talk... Gas Guzzlers Extreme

You'd think that games where cars strapped with oversized miniguns and rocket launchers fight to the death would be the kind of game that is just impossible to mess up. It takes quite a bit of effort to make cars blowing each other up not fun, but somehow Gas Guzzlers makes it feel like a chore and although it's not fair to say that Gas Guzzlers is downright bad, it just gets boring really quickly. The game tries too hard to distract you from its weak driving and underwhelming combat with it's over the top music, the inclusion of Duke Nukem and Arnold Schwarzenegger  voice-overs, and yet another pointless "Unreal guy" impersonator. Gas Guzzlers wacky carnage will certainly appeal to some fans of games like Vigilante, and for $20 you could do a lot worse.

The game does a good job of simulating speed, it's just shame the cars feel so sluggish

The worse thing you can say about a racing game is that the driving feels sluggish and heavy, which is exactly how I would describe the driving in this game. Cars feel more like immobile bricks than cars, and moving in any direction other than forward is far too awkward than it should be for a game that tries to emphasise speed and mobility. The cars you later unlock generally feel lighter and more agile, but you'll get bored long before you've actually manage to unlock a car that feels suitable for the pace of the game, and the cars that are actually good and fun to use take even longer. There are also Mario Kart power-ups and tools to generally inconvenience your opponents, such as a blinding cloud of smoke and oil that slows cars that go through it. Once again, these feel pointless and unnecessary, you have no control over where they go or even who they hit which just leaves you hoping for the best and unleashing whatever you've got.

It honestly feels like Gas Guzzlers was, at one point, just a racing game but the developers realised how dull it was and proceeded to slap miniguns and rocket launchers and a load of dumb voice overs to make it seem a lot more exciting. The weapons generally feel weak and extremely underwhelming, they sound pathetic and it's usually pretty difficult to successfully aim at cars that aren't directly in front of you. Also, there are so many repair kits that restore a car's health which makes it damn near impossible to die yourself and the AI are pretty efficient at catching repair kits. So in a game that emphasises excitement, speed, and exploding cars, so few cars actually explode and it's not uncommon to finish a race without anybody dying. Which just makes the weapons feel like an unnecessary addition, the game would continue to function as a semi-competent racer that has been done much better in the past. It's pretty concerning when a game's main selling point is something that only weakens the game... oh, and there's nitro as well, as if that hasn't been done before.

There's a decent amount of car variation, but getting to the fun ones take far too long

The game features a campaign mode, where you progress through leagues and cups earning money to purchase new cars, upgrades, and weapons. Each cup is fairly lengthy, often requiring you to win a fair amount of races in order to progress onto the next cup, and cups have a habit of dragging on longer than they should. A quick race mode and a multiplayer mode give you other options outside of the campaign, but you need to have unlocked cars and weapons in the campaign to be able to freely use them, which can make finding a decent car feel a like a really painful and slow grind. There are seven tracks and seven game modes, all of which are just slight variations of "drive and fight" and the tracks at all interesting or exciting. The multiplayer is quite fun, its certainly a lot more entertaining than the single player elements, and some of the custom game types and tracks offer far more interesting gameplay, including a straight up arena deathmatch.

Thankfully, from a technical standpoint the game isn't a total failure, the game generally looks pretty nice for a $20 game, with some nice shiny car models and quite good looking tracks. It doesn't run too great, though, I experienced a number of frame rate drops on pretty low-med settings. The sound design isn't too great, however, cars generally sound pretty good and reasonably fast, but weapons sound as weak as they feel and the ridiculously over the top music and dumb voice overs quickly become as tiresome as the game itself. The game controls quite well, thankfully, it has full controller support but it's perfectly playable with a keyboard. Although the controls feel fine, you'd be forgiven for mistaking the feel of the horribly immobile cars for bad controls, as it often feels like taking corners is significantly more difficult than it should be. 

Let's Talk... The Wolf Among Us Ep. 1

The accessible premise of The Wolf Among Us makes it extremely easy for anyone who hasn't read the Fables comic series to dive straight into the game’s rich and interesting world, mainly because its based largely on fairy tale characters and their respective stories but also because the game does a great job of setting up this unique and fascinating universe. However, you’d be very much mistaken for thinking that these fairy tale characters make The Wolf Among Us fantastical and goofy, because the game actually takes a gritty and very noire-like approach to classic characters like Little Red Hiding Hood, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and more. It’s probably important to note that this is a Telltale game and it's very similar to The Walking Dead, and most people will know to expect minimalistic gameplay in favour of a compelling story and deep character development.

Some of the combat sequences are quite graphic and get real up close and personal

Thankfully, for a game that a focuses on its story, the story, so far, is pretty great. Some really interesting characters, truly excellent dialogue, and a fascinating setting offer a promising start to the series that paves the way for a story that could be better than The Walking Dead if it maintains its high level of quality. Although I was one of the many people who loved The Walking Dead, I find the set-up of TWAU to be far more interesting than TWD's fairly generic and largely overdone zombie survival setting. The basic premise is that all your favourite fairy tale characters are hiding away in their own secret community in a secluded area of a gritty 1980's New York. A lot of the universe is left half-explained or undeveloped as of yet, but you are told of a magic force called "glamour" that conceals the Fables community from the "mundane" population. It's a fascinating and unique story with some really strong storytelling. The exceptional voice acting and well-written dialogue make it easy to attach to the game's many characters, even though most of the characters only appear in one or two short scenes so far. Although I was one of the many people who loved The Walking Dead, I find the setup to be a lot more interesting than TWD's pretty generic and largely overdone zombie survival setting. Also, I found the darker, murder mystery-like set-up to be extremely interesting and engaging.

Like TWD, The Wolf Among Us has extremely basic gameplay, with the vast majority of the game spent in cutscenes or dialogue. Those who haven't played should know what to expect but for those who haven't, think of it as a sort of choose your own adventure type deal with some limited interactivity thrown in there. Dialogue branches are exactly as they were in TWD, you're given numerous options and a limited window to choose one. The consequence of each option is often quite ambigious, unlike something like Mass Effect where dialogue options are often plain black and white, good or bad scenarios, and you might not even realise the consequence of your words until much later, or even another episode entirely. Placing a timer on choosing dialogue creates a nice sense of urgency and immediacy, which helps to keep the game flowing at a consistent pace throughout. There is always a fourth and often very valid option: silence. The silence option can be a little inconsistent however, at times characters will react to your silence in a unique and interesting way whilst other times characters will simply act as though you said what you were supposed to say. Which makes it feel like some of the more important and story focused conversations have "right" answers, rather than just give you free reign.

The wonderful art style really captures the gritty, urban setting and dark storyline

The rest of the gameplay and "combat", if you can even call it that, is also extremely minimalistic. Much like in TWD, TWAU is still an adventure game in the loosest sense of the word and so there are still elements of investigative "point 'n' click" esque scenarios in which you are able to search small areas for story based clues and hints, as well as items for future use or dialogue prompts. It's really basic, so don't come to The Wolf Among Us expecting some complex point 'n' click adventure puzzle-like game that you'd have expected from Telltale ten years ago, because this certainly is not that. The investigative gameplay feels more laser focused on storytelling rather than in TWD, where they tended to be lengthier and more complex. As for the combat, the game mostly uses lengthy quick time events which require you to hit button prompts or line up the cursor to a particular area, which I found to be far more precise and accurate with a mouse than a 360 controller. These sequences feel longer than those in TWD but also more engaging and a little more satisfying to complete, and the feelings of inaccuracy and confusion I felt when doing QTEs in TWD are all but gone. Don't get me wrong, I still really don't like QTEs in games but they executed them pretty well here.

It goes without saying that this game looks absolutely incredible. It takes TWD's art style, vastly improves the quality of the look and replaces the slight focus on a realistic visual style with a far more comic book-like appearance. The wonderfully dark art style really benefits the game's gritty setting as well as some of the noire-esque themes. Some of the animations can be a little buggy at times, but certainly not to the extent that they were in TWD, and some of the facial animations can be a little exaggerated and goofy at times. The aforementioned voice acting and general sound design are truly exceptional, the incredible voice acting brings the character to life and each of the characters really do put in great performances. Although the controls are very minimalistic, I still found the mouse and keyboard to be a preferable option when it came to accurately nailing QTEs and when investigating the area, although a 360 controller is a valid option as well. The game features the use of multiple save files, naturally, but I did experience a bug that reset my second save file when I loaded it up for a second time, which can be pretty frustrating when you have to re-do the last two hours. Overall, though, the first episode of The Wolf Among Us sets the series off to a truly promising start, and, even as someone who really  enjoyed TWD, this series has the potential to be better than The Walking Dead.

The Rise and Abuse of Free-to-Play

One of the earliest examples of F2P games is Furcadia (1996) a social MMO aimed at somewhat of a more casual or potentially younger audience, whilst entry to the game required no fee the game featured a variety of optional mircotransactions that allowed players to engage in extra customization. Pretty basic stuff; fairly priced mircotransactions and players who paid nothing weren’t disadvantaged in any way. One of the next major examples of the F2P model is the massively popular Runescape (2001) where players could play for free with the choice of an optional subscription model that allowed players to upgrade their account to a premium “members” account. A member would gain access to the full game, making available new items, dungeons, quests and more, which would otherwise have been locked for those playing for free. Although the original game did not feature mircotransactions, they were eventually introduced in 2012, which allowed players to essentially gamble money with the chance of winning certain items. Naturally, the recent addition of mircotransactions has been somewhat controversial amongst the community, with some people welcoming the changes and others actively speaking out against it. A fine example of a well executed free-to-play strategy, players can play for free but obvious benefits to paying a subscription are advertised without making the non-premium player’s experience completely unenjoyable.

Although Runescape maybe have been one of the first games to actually launch using a F2P model, many MMOs have converted to a F2P model during times of declining revenue. One of the biggest examples of this is Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011), an ambitious project with a record breaking (at the time) budget of between $150 million and $200 million that boasted 1 million subscribers in 3 days, granting it the prestige of being “the fastest-growing MMO ever”. However, after just a few months the game began to suffer dull and stagnating “end-game” content, which led to a significant number of players unsubscribing and eventually rendering the game unprofitable via its current subscription model, and so in early 2012 the game adopted a new F2P hybrid model. Similar to Runescape, players are able to play for free but are severely handicapped in terms of both ability and content (free players can’t even sprint until level 15…) whilst those who continue to pay a subscription gain access to the entire game. Free-to-play MMOs are old news by now, and if an MMO is released you can usually count on it being F2P. Free-to-play has become a lucrative and attractive market, and that’s something that publishers are starting to notice as we see a rapid decline in subscription-based MMOs.

Although free-to-play models were once found solely in MMOs and competitive multiplayer, the rise of mobile gaming has created an entirely new wave of free-to-play games. There are plenty of great free games on mobile platforms that make prolific use of mircotransactions, however sometimes these mircotransactions ask too much for what they offer. PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time (2013) is one of the worst examples of “free-to-pay” games in recent times. A tower defense game released on iOS and Android and published by EA, PvZ 2 is a sequel to the original Plants vs. Zombies (2010) which was not free-to-play. Its successor, however, is the worst kind of free-to-play possible: one that is purely saturated with over-priced mircotransactions, also known as in-app purchases. New unit types; randomly dropping keys that unlock bonus stages; stars that unlock new areas; upgrades and bonuses, if you can name you’ll probably have to pay for it. Everything in this game can be bought with real money, and they certainly aren’t cheap with most purchases costing at least $5, or significantly more for bundles of items. One of the most rotten things about this game is that if you choose not to spend $5 to unlock the next area, then you’re made to tediously grind stars out of the previous ten levels you just beat; disgusting game design designed to encourage players to fork out $5 rather than play the actual game. 

Mircotransactions are pretty standard affair for F2P games these days and when priced appropriately they can work well, but the audacious nature and sheer overpricing of the mircotransactions in some games really shows how rotten the F2P model can become when it’s savagely exploited publishers. EA aren’t the only ones, however, mircotransactions are becoming increasingly prevalent amongst other popular franchises. Activision’s Call of Duty recently added them to its latest iteration of massively popular multiplayer, and no doubt we’ll begin to see it in the next instalment. Apparently, it seems games don’t even need to be free-to-play to include mircotransactions anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, I can really appreciate a free-to-play model when it’s done well. Blacklight Retribution (2012), for example, is a thoroughly enjoyable online shooter that uses a free-to-play model successfully. Players can still play the game for free (I haven’t paid a thing and still played a significant amount) without being put at too much of a disadvantage, and in-game purchases aren’t thrown at the player every five minutes. World of Tanks (2011) is another great example of a hugely popular and hugely successful game that uses a free-to-play model. A game that has been heavily criticised for having an unfair “pay to win” economy that would put players at a major disadvantage for not paying for items and services, the WoT devs at Wargaming.net have promised to "drop their pay to win microtransactions" with perhaps a replaced emphasis on cosmetic items like in TF2. Some of the best examples of the F2P model come from the esteemed Valve, the makers of such enormous hits as Dota 2 (2013) and Team Fortress 2 (2007). Both of these games feature items that offer cosmetic effects only and players get full access to the game for free. Now, obviously this isn’t a strategy that every game can pull of and only massively popular games like these have the dominance to succeed from these models.

It’s clear that a F2P model can be beneficial for both players and developers: it allows developers to create more accessible games with lower system requirements whilst offering players free access to their games. It has its place though: MMOs and strictly multiplayer experiences. Single-player games, in my opinion, simply should not use free-to-play models. EA, one of the biggest publishers in the industry, is a prime suspect for abusing the free-to-play model and heavily capitalising on mircotransactions. Dead Space 3 (2013) for example, was released for the full $60 retail price and yet featured a whole host of in-game mircotransactions that the player could purchase to make the newly introduced crafting system quicker, easier, and generally more convenient. I think what makes it feel so sleazy is that these gameplay elements are being designed to be extremely time-consuming and tedious in order to make remedying the problem with a bit of the green stuff seem like a favourable option. Mircotransactions hidden inside single-player games that aren’t free is a pretty sour practice but sadly it’s not a new problem, EA’s incredibly popular social simulator series The Sims also has a fruitful history of including plenty of in-game items that sit behind a big fat paywall as well.

During its relatively short life, free-to-play has taken on many forms: from fairly basic experiences and a couple of daring MMOs, to mobile gaming and the rise of “casual” games. Gaming is a still very much a young industry, especially when compared to the titans of television and radio, and there are still big budget publishers testing the waters a bit to see what they can and can’t get away with. Call me an optimist, but when things go rotten the gaming community can be really loud (just look at the sheer outcry that erupted when Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One’s anti-consumer practices, which people are still pissed off about even after they were reversed) and I just can’t see such horrid practices continuing for much longer. Although perhaps the inevitable fall of vile free-to-play mis-use isn’t so inevitable after all, I mean these unfairly designed free-to-play games are being aimed at an audience of casual mobile gamers. Perhaps, if the worst occurs, this new emerging market of the masses will be exactly the kind of people who don’t mind paying a couple of dollars to avoid these manufactured frustrations, and this free-to-play abuse will continue.

I have hope that the latter won’t happen, so let’s just remain positive for now though, shall we?

Let's Talk... Arma Tactics (PC)

Arma Tactics is Bohemia’s first attempt to bring the hyper-realistic military sim series Arma to mobile devices. Originally released on the NVIDA Shield and Android, and now released on Steam, Arma Tactics is the first Arma game to be a turn-based strategy game rather than a first-person shooter. By bringing the Arma series to mobile platforms and using a more accessible genre, it’s fair to assume that Bohemia may have been looking to widen Arma's potential audience, and whilst Arma Tactics feels a lot more accessible than other Arma titles I can’t help but wonder who exactly this game was designed for. Hardcore Arma fans will likely be put off by the very arcade-like aesthetic, whilst non-Arma fans will probably be put off by the hardcore nature of the Arma brand. Besides, there are plenty of much better turn-based strategy games on the market, especially with XCOM: Enemy Unknown now having been ported to iOS. However, Arma Tactics is still a serviceable turn-based strategy game, and perhaps making the move to mobile was a smart idea for Bohemia.

Gameplay opens with a pretty limited tutorial that covers the very basics of movement and shooting dudes without going into the more detailed stuff in any appropriate level of detail. I found that quite a lot of gameplay features were poorly explained, or not at all, and the game seems to expect you to figure it out yourself, but most of the mechanics are pretty simple so you should pick it pretty quickly. There are around ten missions in the base game, but you can create missions or play other people’s content, which I thought was a neat little feature for such a small game. Missions will grant you XP and credits, which can be spent on upgrading and purchasing items and weapons respectively. There’s a decent variation of weapons and items and with the addition of user created content, and there’s actually a pretty nice amount of content for such a cheap game.

Expect to find yourself out-manned and out-gunned at all times

The actual gameplay reminded me more of the combat in Shadowrun Returns than anything else, the feel of the guns and the use of AP (action points) to determine movement and actions made it feel very similar to that above anything else. Gameplay is relatively simple, but often pretty challenging, you have a limited area of mobility per turn that take up either 1 or 2 AP depending on how far you move, and using items costs 1 AP whilst you can take shots that use either 1 or 2 AP with relative accuracy and damage rolls. The movement feels a bit clunky (it’s easy to see that the user interface was designed for touch screens), often requiring you to often click multiple times for a command to actually work and aiming the cursor feels spotty and unresponsive.

The game is actually rather difficult due to the extremely squishy nature of your men, though once a man goes down they can be revived within five turns if you have a medkit available. Although this did make much of the game feel frustrating and, at times, unfair, it does a pretty good job of making the game feel really tense and gave me a good reason to really carefully think about my next move, considering cover, angles, and line of sight. Something that I think really captures the tense realism of the Arma series.

The armory, where you can purchase and upgrade guns and items

The camera is pretty rough, it sticks to its current position as it pans to the enemy’s turn, which often places it in front of objects that block your view of what is happening, leaving you wondering what the hell happened in the last turn. The camera is also notoriously bad at tracking multiple enemies performing actions in one turn. Also, enemies aren't visible when the camera goes behind walls or buildings. In other words: the camera sucks.

Missions pretty basically set out, they usually consist of kill these guys and then go here and kill more guys but they can actually get pretty difficult at times. Your squad is limited to four guys but the enemy will usually have three or four times that, and boy do they converge on you quickly. Most missions contain too many enemies in a very enclosed space, which can make keeping sufficient distance from a small group pretty frustrating at times, especially when enemies have a habit of frequently hitting you from impossible ranges. The game makes it so you can’t actually see enemies until you are in line of sight, which would be fine if your line of sight didn't get caught on small obstacles and things that you generally should be able to see over; this becomes increasingly frustrating when you move a guy in front of an enemy without realising. What makes that even more frustrating is the fact that enemies will all too often take reaction shots at you when they first see you, something that you can’t do yourself.

A lot of things that were clearly designed for a touch screen don't work so well with a mouse

Arma Tactics does look pretty great overall especially for a mobile port, although I’d have liked some more video options above basic resolution settings and some extra post processing effects, although I didn't run into any performance issues myself. I did, however, run into a number of graphical bugs, such as the screen being completely broken if I tried to launch the game in windowed mode or other fairly minor glitches. I also experienced some broken or missing audio, as well. The sound design is pretty lacklustre here unfortunately, with some really horrible voice acting accompanied by some really weak sounding guns and a weirdly funky but extremely out of place soundtrack. The voice acting isn't just of low quality, it also just sounds poorly recorded with some voices featuring unwanted and obnoxious ambience. The game does actually have gamepad support, and seems to emphasise the use of one but preferred to play with a mouse and keyboard.

Let's Talk... Shadow Warrior

In recent times, with reboots of classic franchises haven’t all been exactly what fans were expecting, such as the classic strategy game Syndicate receiving an FPS reboot or XCOM getting a third person shooter (yes, I know Enemy Unknown was the real reboot). So I wouldn't expect many fans of the classic Shadow Warrior to accompany the idea of a Shadow Warrior reboot with strenuous groans, but thankfully, these pained fans will be happy to see that Shadow Warrior’s wacky and bloody mayhem shines through in this visually appealing reboot. I'm glad to say that Lo Wang is back and his blade is sharp as ever.

Shadow Warrior’s story is about nonsensical as its borderline cheesy title but tries to take itself a little too seriously at times, creating a misleading and confused tone. For a game that features a protagonist called Mr Wang who spurts out a dick joke every five minutes, the tone of the story just gets a little too serious at times as it slowly develops into a pseudo-dark tale of revenge and loss. The basis of the story is that you are seeking some all-powerful and unpronounceable sword to defeat the very bad man, or something to that extent. The story also goes on a little longer than it should and eventually out stays its welcome.

The story suffers from a confused tone as it tries to balance dick jokes and a dark story

Thankfully, Shadow Warrior’s irrefutably fun combat is able to redeem some of the game’s pretty obvious flaws. Slicing and dicing demons and watching their respective limbs fly off in all directions is wonderfully fun, and decapitating enemies with one of the dramatic moves is infinitely satisfying. However, the game’s limited set of guns feel too weak and dull to actually warrant using them, and although some of their upgrades make them more enjoyable to use they still fail to match the power of your trusty katana. For the first few hours I didn't mind pretty much solely using my katana, but the fun soon wears off and I found myself longing for another effective and fun weapon. Also, if you use the katana as much as I did you’ll quickly start to notice its lack of accuracy at times, and you’ll notice that uneven terrain easily messes up some of your special abilities.

I found the method of performing your special abilities to be fun and pretty unique; the game has you to input fighting game style commands to perform moves, with commands like D, D, RMB with keyboard and mouse settings to heal yourself. It felt fun and refreshing to have to use these sorts of combos, but my sheer ineptitude at completing them successfully made a little frustrating and often a bit of scramble during combat, to the point where it was easier to simply not use them. Besides, some of the abilities feel weak and severely lacked impact anyway so I didn't feel a necessity to actually use them. Also, all weapons have an alt fire which does make them much more effective and usually much more fun, too.

There's a reasonably complex progression system that uses three different currencies

However, don’t expect the rest of Shadow Warrior’s gameplay to hold up to the standard of its combat because unfortunately it just doesn't  Repetitive and unengaging boss fights segregate each fairly lengthy chapter of the game, whilst the very “old school” tactic of find the key to proceed fills every other area of the game. This would be fun if it didn't just descend into a sprawling nightmare of clumsy navigation and endless backtracking thanks to the game’s lack of a map or mini-map. Not to mention the game’s frustrating abundance of pointless maze-like corridors and endless bamboo forests, just to make it even easier to get lost. Admittedly, getting lost will sometimes lead you to secret areas and hidden money and ammo, but money is in easy to find anyway and it isn't difficult to eventually max out your weapons without having to explore all that deeply and many of the secrets offer very little reward other than base satisfaction.

Level design has a nice variation to it, with settings varying from luscious bamboo forests to snowy landscapes, but often evokes a sense of being linear whilst trying to give the impression of being a larger and much more open game. Although there are some secrets hidden around the world, the world looks like it should have far more, with many hidden paths leading nowhere. Whilst the game isn't full of tight corridors in the typical sense, the game is basically just a chain of medium sized arenas that still manage to create a sense of limiting claustrophobia. However, much of the world looks great and the game features some gorgeous set pieces.

Weapons are decently varied but they all feel weak compared to the katana

Some excellent visual design, especially considering the reasonably low budget, makes the game look pretty great throughout, although I personally had a few performance issues and frame rate drops as well as some major graphical glitches. Sound design is generally pretty good, the voice acting is pretty average all round and some of the guns sound weak and lack impact. The controls work well, but they’re fully re-bindable so there aren't any issues there. One thing that I did appreciate, however, was that unlike some of the reboots of classic franchises we've seen in recent times, be it from Kickstarter or simply popular demand, Shadow Warrior is very faithful to the original 1997 Shadow Warrior and was a ton of references and nods towards the original game.