Let's Talk... Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

After the rather disappointing Assassin’s Creed 3, it’s hard not to approach AC 4 with a natural sense of both caution and intrigue. Fortunately, AC 3’s painfully slow start has been replaced with an intro that throws you straight into the game, the protagonist has been replaced by someone much more qualified to fill the role, and the core gameplay you've come to expect is all still intact. A decent show-piece of next-gen hardware, AC 4 is certainly visually striking and fortunately the look of the game is not an exception to the rest of the game’s quality.

Even though the story does a decent job of explaining itself, if Black Flag is your first AC game then you’re going to be a little confused. Who are the Assassins? Who are the Templars? And what in god’s name is an Animus? If you want background information then you might just want to play the previous games (but make sure to skip AC 3) However, if you don’t really care all you need to know is that the Templars are bad, the Assassins are good and the game is set in the past but not really. Straight off the bat the new protagonist Edward Kenway (supposedly related to Connor in some way?) is an infinitely more likable protagonist than AC 3’s dull and mopey Connor, his happy-go-lucky attitude makes him feel a lot more like Ezio, the star of the previous games.

So many guns!

Without spoiling it, the way that the game implements the whole real-life animus part of the game is pretty great and it’s quite hilarious that Ubisoft actually handle it this way considering how the last couple of games went. Personally I much prefer this whole set-up to how previous games handle it, and I never really liked the Desmond part of those games anyway. It’s a very weird and very “meta” way of handling it but it certainly makes a nice change. It feels like a great excuse for Ubisoft to just take the Assassin’s Creed formula and apply it to whatever time periods they want without narrative constraints restricting when and where they could take it.

The combat has a nice flow to it, and feels a lot more dramatic and cinematic than in previous titles without feeling downright ridiculous. Although it still has a very automatic feel to it, you’re not quite able to chain a counter into a dozen kills like you could in Brotherhood or Revelations, which actually makes the combat refreshingly difficult for an AC game. Some the kill animations offer a satisfying brutality, with Edward kicking guards of off rooftops and slicing-and-dicing with his dual scimitars. Of course, one of the newer additions to the combat is Edward’s barrage of four pistols that can be used to chain a ridiculous, but rather awesome, number of kills together. Although Black Flag clearly isn't a stealth game it still continues to offer stealth as a quicker, more convenient option to combat, and the game throws a lot of chest-high bushes and shrubs to sneak through which actually makes stealth a legitimate possibility.  

Tense ship battles play heavily into some of the game's crafting and upgrading systems, as well as just being downright epic

Black Flag does a great job of creating a huge, sprawling and beautiful world, but a lot of the side content feels somewhat recycled. Although there are a lot of things to do, if you’re a veteran of the series then some of the tired mechanics it still uses will quickly wear on you. Quests like “tail this guy without being seen” or “eavesdrop on this conversation by blending into a crowd” become quickly tiresome, especially when the mechanic is something that was a drag even when it was first introduced to the series. However, sailing the open seas in search of land, loot, and rival navy patrols is something that never gets old and offers an excellent reprieve from the typical AC trap of unfortunate repetition. Black Flag is still an AC game in every sense of the word, but the change of scenery really benefits the series whilst some of the new quests offer enough variation to keep the game getting as stale as Revelations did.

Of course, sailing makes a valiant return in Black Flag as not just one of the game's core mechanics but also one of the best mechanics. Sailing takes centre stage as the crux of the story and your ability to navigate the vast and open world. The ships still feel weighty and have a strong pull to them but control well with the varying toggled speeds. Naval battles are tense and exciting and have a very epic feel. Sailing really does feel seamless without a loading screen in sight, and once you're on the open seas you’re free to hop in and out of your ship as you please. You can even dive into the briny depths in search of ship wrecks and buried loot once you've acquired a diving bell.

Black Flag keeps the standard busy town environments but adds tons of vast and beautiful Mediterranean scenery

A crafting system very reminiscent of the one in Far Cry 3 makes an appearance in Black Flag. Hunting and skinning animals will provide you with the materials to create things like health upgrades and increased pistol capacity that allows Edward to hold up to four pistols. Hunting usually just involves killing an animal in any way and then skinning them, but sharks? Well, sharks are a special case, so special that they've earned themselves their own harpooning mini-game. Overall, it’s a nice way to implement the hunting mechanic that makes it feel both necessary and beneficial, but not forced. Upgrades to your ship and weapons can be either bought with goods seized from captured or destroyed ships, which makes blowing up ships fun as hell but also really rewarding. And if you want to take on some of much, much bigger ships then you're really going to need some of the better upgrades.

It goes without saying that Black Flag looks fantastic; environments look great with some excellent lighting effects, the water looks especially incredible, and the game looks significantly brighter and more vibrant than previous AC titles. However, as with all AC games, character faces and character models have a weird look to them that makes them look oddly dirty and ape-like. As well as looking fantastic the game also far better optimized than previous AC games, something that was a major issue for AC 3 in particular on PC. The sound design is also top notch, with some excellent voice acting and some occasionally sharp writing to match.

Sharks!

The core gameplay that makes Assassin’s Creed such a strong franchise is well intact. A shiny new setting, a much stronger lead protagonist, and some new features and gameplay tweaks offer some much needed variation to a formula that was certainly growing stale. Black Flag has a lot to offer, whether you’re new to Assassin’s Creed or a veteran of the series. A quality PC port makes a nice change following AC 3, and the game looks really great on next-gen consoles running at a solid 60 fps at a now up-res’d 1080p. If you've never played an AC game then Black Flag offers a really great starting point, the series' typical gameplay is refined and fun as ever and the Desmond storyline appears to be fully tied up, at least for now.

Let's Talk... Marvel Heroes

The story is jam-packed with Marvel references, characters, nods to countless story arcs, and some crazy reaches to some of the more bizarre ends of the Marvel universe. The whole game is pure fan service at its best and if you’re even remotely interested in the Marvel universe then you’ll really appreciate the crazy level of detail the game goes into. The excellent fan service is just as crazy as it was in Marvel Ultimate Alliance (although sadly you don’t go to Atlantis), with a ton of playable characters and recognisable faces (although some characters only briefly appear as NPCs and quest givers when they feel like they should take much larger roles, like Beast, for example). The story itself is pretty typical of comic books: Dr Doom is looking for the Cosmic Cube to do some evil things and, of course, every super villain ever created is on his side. It’s all pretty well done, with cutscenes that appear in the form of voiced motion comics done by Marvel writer Brian Bendis himself.

Gameplay-wise it essentially plays like a more mouse-orientated Ultimate Alliance with a larger focus on loot. If you've ever played any Action RPG, in particular games like Diablo or Torchlight, then Marvel Heroes’ gameplay will feel extremely familiar and perhaps even too similar for some. There really isn't any originality and if you’re looking for a fresh take on the Action RPG genre then this certainly isn't it, the game really is just the Marvel universe copy and pasted into Diablo, and I mean that in a good way. The characters and premise of the universe make Marvel meets Diablo a perfect match and although you've likely done the whole loot-grinding, boss killing, trash filled madness before and yet Marvel Heroes manages to make it still feel as fun as ever.

You'll spend a lot of time fighting nameless generic mobs

At the start of the game you’re given the choice of a handful of playable starter heroes, which includes Captain America and Human Torch amongst others, and all other heroes must be purchased with either money or the surprisingly common Eternity Splinters that drop in-game (some of the more expensive heroes cost 400 Splinters, but by the time I’d beaten the 20ish hour game I could afford one of the cheaper 200 Splinter heroes). The way character progression is done is reasonably flexible; of course, every hero levels independently from one another and so whenever you buy a new hero you’re given the choice of either restarting story progression (which does not remove your waypoints and ability to do daily, although they could explain that a lot better) or simply grinding levels through your various unlocked waypoints. You can also switch between heroes on the fly.

As far as Action RPGs go, Marvel Heroes is generally pretty easy, not always in terms of difficulty because the late game can get pretty intense, but mainly because of how lightly they deal with death penalties. Dying incurs zero durability damage to armour or weapons, in fact gear doesn’t have durability, and dying will only respawn you into the same area with all enemies on the exact same health. Although durability is just a pain to deal with anyway, the challenge of boss encounters and densely populated dungeons is removed by the fact that you can effectively die your way through any boss. The lack of difficulty may put off some of the more hardcore fans of the genre, but if you’re there for the fan service then I doubt you’ll mind that the Green Goblin can be cheesed.

There are a ton of costumes and skins, but some of them feel wholly overpriced.

The game likes to call itself an MMO, and although there is a persistent world and multiple dudes running around there doesn’t feel like there really needs to be. The game just feels like it would still work exactly the same if it was a single-player experience, and although there are guilds and open, non-instanced areas the MMO side of the game feels weak and underdeveloped. The whole can easily be done on your own, you might run into a guy who’ll fight with you for a little bit but you tend to spend more time fighting on your own. Although they wouldn’t have been able to implement a free-to-play business model into a single-player game, I guess, and some of the persistent world stuff could be pretty neat if you’re looking to get into a guild or something but, to me, it just feels a little unnecessary. 

Unfortunately, the game suffers from some pretty major performance issues and some seriously poor optimisation that can make playing almost impossible at times. For a game that boasts such densely packed areas and mob packs that fill the screen, having such poor performance is pretty unacceptable. The game also has some frequent server-side troubles that can often lead to unfavourably high ping. There’s been a lot of server maintenance and frequent updates so they at least appear to be working on it. The controls are your standard PC hack ‘n’ slash set-up with mouse movement and six bindable hotkeys, all fully customisable of course. The game looks pretty nice, the character models look especially nice, and the game commits to a great art style that feels extremely well-suited to the comic book premise, with the typical comic book font appearing as floating damage numbers. Generally the sound design is also pretty solid, with some pretty decent voice acting and an array of your typical thwacks and smacks, the soundtrack can get a little ridiculous at times but serves its purpose.

The game is full of excellent fan service and ultimately fun gameplay

Although Marvel Heroes might lack originality, its well-made blend of fun and satisfying action RPG gameplay with its endless Marvel universe fan service makes for an engrossing experience for any Marvel fan, and even fans of the genre for that matter; although games like Diablo and Torchlight offer much deeper and longer lasting loot-grinding experiences. If you can find a hero from the starter heroes that you enjoy playing then you can easily get through the whole game without spending much, or anything, and perhaps just buy an extra hero and perhaps an extra stash slot. Marvel Heroes certainly has a lot of to offer fans of the universe granted you avoid some of the admittedly rather rotten free-to-play traps hidden within the tiered hero/skin costs, although the prices have been rather dramatically reduced since launch. 

Let's Talk... Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2

It’s a major understatement to declare that zombie survival is an extremely overdone and stale genre in video games. It’s been done excellently and it’s been done horribly. It’s been done with a co-op focus and it’s been done with a narrative focus. It’s been done with guns and it’s been done with knives, blades, and all things sharp. The bottom line: it’s been done before, and yet Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 still manages to keep blowing zombie's heads off sound at least vaguely autistic. 

Weapons feel powerful and exploding heads is always satisfying

Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army doesn't need a storyline to justify the bizarre aspergers, (I mean, just look at the title) but it does, and it’s surprisingly cohereant. Although the first SE: NZA didn't  have a particularly prominent narrative, its sequel actually has a half-decent plot that generally acts as an feasible excuse to kill zombies. You and your crew of merry multi-cultural, yet oddly silent and lacking in any personality whatsoever, heroes set out to stop the zombie apocalypse by gathering three “Sagarmatha relics” and defeating the Occult General, again. It’s dumb, ridiculous and completely over-the-top, and really just serves to give some background to the surrounding chaos, but at least it doesn't take itself quite as seriously as the first NZA did and features a dumb looking Hitler being swarmed by some angry zombies. It might be a dumb and hardly original premise, but having a visible goal certainly makes the zombie-slaying feel more purposeful and more compelling.

The core gameplay remains unchanged from the first NZA, it’s still the same mindless fun with a much needed layer of polish. You go from area to area fighting waves of zombies whilst hitting safe room ammo stations along the way; it's a very basic formula and it can get a little too repetitive after a while, but it's ultimately fun. Say what you will about the repetitive nature of NZA, but killing six zombies with a single shot is extremely satisfying and these are inevitably the moments that offer a way for NZA to stand out from the huge crowd of co-op zombie shooters. Although the basic formula of the game remains the same throughout, and is unchanged from the first game, NZA 2 offers enough variation in enemy types and weapons to keep the gameplay from getting stale too quickly. The game offers a very basic brand of gameplay with no other gameplay outside of fighting waves of zombies, but what little it does it does well with its powerful and satisfying weaponry. The decently long storyline takes you through a nice variation of environments, from abandoned train stations to dilapidated department stores, which certainly keeps the visual appeal from getting too boring.

Snipers, MG wielding, minion spawning; there's certainly a lot of enemy variation.

It's hard to deny that NZA 2 is heavily inspired by the highly popular Nazi Zombie game mode from the Call of Duty franchise, however I actually find myself to be having a lot more fun here than in the more recent iterations of CoD's Zombies. Whilst recent CoD Zombies have strayed more towards solving puzzle-like sequences and trying to achieve a particular goal or set of goals, NZA maintains its laser focus purely on simply killing waves of zombies, something which might actually put off some people. For some strange reason, the game doesn't come with any sort of formal survival mode, with only the story mode to play and re-play (although aside from well-hidden collectibles, there really isn't much reason play again). It seems a little crazy that a zombie survival game that has you fight relentless hordes of zombies has no straight up round based survival mode, though the story mode is basically that anyway.

The game uses Sniper Elite V2's engine so naturally it does look pretty decent with just a few muddy textures here and there. Some added zombie noises and spooky lighting effects also make it feel distinctly horror-themed and far less serious than SE V2's desolated environments would have you think. It runs pretty well, too, likely because it really isn't that graphically impressive. Sound design is consistently solid with epic sounding gunshots that make every weapon feel satisfying to use, zombies sound zombie-like and the soundtrack is sufficiently horror-based. Controls are generally solid, although the game does use the spacebar as the default multi-purpose key for use/vault/sprint which can get a little frustrating, and there's only partial controller support.

This game features Hitler, so you know it's serious business

Piercing sniper shots shown through dramatic x-ray bullet cams and setting up volatile perimeters with trip mines and land mines are both fundamental to the core brand of Sniper Elite's gameplay, and the main reason players should seek this particular co-op experience over others would have to be to simply see a zombified version of that. Because although NZA 2 is a fun and exciting co-op game, there are just so many other, and potentially better, options to choose from, like Killing Floor or Left 4 Dead, that offer much broader and longer lasting experiences than NZA 2 can offer. Nevertheless, Nazi Zombie Army 2 is a solid co-op focused zombie survival game that takes the formula of the original title and adds a welcome layer of polish and some great weapon, enemy and environment variations.

Let's Talk... Blood of the Werewolf

Challenging platformers aren’t exactly lacking these days, and although action-platformers are slightly less in abundance they still aren't hard to find. It takes a lot for difficult platformers to stand out from the crowd of excellent torture platformers like Cloudberry Kingdom or Super Meat Boy, something which Blood of the Werewolf just might not be able to do. Blood of the Werewolf offers a colourful, unique art style and the ability to transform into a powerful werewolf whenever you’re outside which varies the pace a little. Although there are more difficult platformers out there, Blood of the Werewolf manages to remain challenging and engaging throughout its 6-7 hour lifespan; and for $10 you could do a lot worse.

Human form gameplay is tense and methodical

The game tries to tell a deep and investing story about a human-werewolf mother who seeks to save her child from evil, basically. It offers a cute little distraction from the gameplay but feels ultimately unnecessary, and some questionable writing makes it feel even more pointless. A little context doesn’t hurt the game and some people will surely appreciate the break between the frustratingly difficult levels, and the mini-cutscenes feature some decent voice acting and they have a pretty nice visual aesthetic to them. A variety of horror flick villains and monsters make quick cameos, usually in amount of blue relics, often placed in risky or hard to reach places, but the game the form of boss fights, from Dracula to Mr. Hyde from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Gameplay combines precise platforming, especially later in the game, with taking out targets who insist on making your life living hell. Basic gameplay has you play in human form when indoors, wielding a crossbow that can fire single shots or multi shots, and a werewolf when outside, which, naturally, can rip foes to shreds with its all powerful claws as well as a host of unlockable abilities. New werewolf abilities and their upgrades can be found throughout levels, hidden out of sight or out of reach, health upgrades must also be collected and so deep exploration and cautious progress can be nicely rewarding. Since your health will increase after collecting a certain amount of health relics, the game would definitely benefit by telling you how many more relics you need for your next upgrade.

Whilst werewolf gameplay is fast, fluid and embeds a satisfying all-powerful feeling

The game is split into several stages that take place in a nice variety of locations, from snowy peaks to dark, dank woods. Early levels have stronger focus on action and offer generally feature pretty forgiving platforming, but as the game progresses the platforming starts to get more precise and often pretty punishing. Blood of the Werewolf is at its best when it’s fluidly switching between human sections and werewolf sections, which is certainly done better later in the game. Human sections feel calculated and methodically paced, often requiring you to snipe projectile firing enemies that prevent you from making progress, whilst werewolf sections have a fast and exciting pace to them, as you rip through enemies half your size and dash through platforming segments. The constant variation in pace fits excellently with the game’s general tone. The excellent level design of every stage makes precision platforming completely necessary in order to progress, as avoiding projectiles and falling objects requires some calculated movements. Thankfully, although later stages can get pretty punishing at times, most of the checkpoints are fair and well-spaced out.

Boss encounters act as filler in between every second stage, and range from super intense and challenging to pretty lacklustre, but that usually depends on how long it takes you to figure out attack patterns. Most boss fights take advantage of both human and werewolf form, taking particular advantage of the werewolf’s double jump and the human’s slow movement speed and long range. The last couple of bosses in particular can get really challenging at times, and the last boss really starts to outstay its welcome after the first three phases. Boss encounters are a great way to see the benefit of your upgrade hunting, especially your health upgrades, and really make exploration feel rewarding.

Platforming is precise and can be pretty punishing in later levels

Blood of the Werewolf has a vibrant and unique art style that plays well off of the goofy fantasy-horror themes. An intense and slightly goofy soundtrack fits the game well whilst some decent voice acting does the job serviceably, although the dialogue can get a little self-serious at times and sometimes the game’s tone seems a little confused at times, as it tries to juggle a goofy art style and fun horror flick cameos with a tense and self-serious storyline. Naturally, this is a platformer, and a precise one at that, so the game controls much better with a controller, but the game is actually playable with a mouse and keyboard and I actually found aiming the crossbow to be easier with a mouse.

Overall, it’s a fun and challenging 6-7 hour experience with some decent replay value in the form of upgrade hunting and collecting all of the relics, and for $10 you could do a lot worse. The challenge generally feels fair with some well-spaced checkpoints to match. Unfortunately, the game’s story features some questionable writing and the self-serious tone of the dialogue often clashes with the colourful art style and cartoony appearance.

Let's Talk... Demonicon

As somebody who is completely unfamiliar with the Dark Eyeuniverse, Demonicon’s story and setting just feels like another generic fantasy universe with its own set of races, conflicts, and more than its far share of evil demon lords. Perhaps I’ve just seen too many different fantasy universes, but a lot of fantasy universes fail to sufficiently engross me with their complex lore, often unremarkable characters, and generic storylines, especially with fantasy giants like Warcraft or The Lord of the Rings to compete with. But hey, if you’re a fan of The Dark Eye franchise, then you might really enjoy the lore that Demonicon has to offer.

Combat goes for a cinematic approach but ends up feels weak and sluggish

The story is, for the most part, pretty interesting and certainly goes in some pretty unexpected directions, but it’s often let down by poor writing and dull characters. The basic premise is that you are looking out for your sister and father whilst trying to uncover the truth behind your new found magical gift and defeating the source of the ever-present demonic invasion. Demonicon’s story is bordering on being obsessed with ethically questionable moral choices that consistently end every single quest and quest line in the game. Some of the choices you encounter are rather interesting and will offer two equally bleak resolutions to some seriously grim situations. One choice, for example, has you choose between killing a demented, highly dangerous cannibal at the expense of innocent lives or letting him live and saving the innocent villagers in his captivity. Although some of the choices can be a little predictable, they really do make you think at times and your choices do seem to have a notable impact on the story and the world around you, although no more than when villagers would follow you round and shout at you in the Fable series.

The combat attempts to go for a sort of cinematic looking approach, with the game pausing for a brief second after each of your attacks, but it just makes the combat feel slow and strangely sluggish. Basic combat is very hack ‘n’ slashy with a focus on accurately timing your attacks to build up your combo enough to activate “demonic wrath” mode, which offers significant buffs your stats. Having a timing window to continue for combo feels unnecessary and a little punishing for combat that is so spam-based. Your melee attacks build up mana required to fire off your underwhelming “Gifts”, or spells, which consist of icy slows, fiery damage-over-time abilities, self-buffs and debuffs, which can all be upgraded with GP (gift points). Magic spells are accompanied by melee-based abilities purchased and upgraded with AP (adventure points), these generally consist of varyingly powerful blows. Unfortunately, the combat just feels oddly-paced and a little sloppy, the lack of a lock-on system and the length of some of your drawn out animations can often leave you dying unfairly, especially when the game throws groups of ten or more enemies at you at any one time.

Visuals generally look ugly and out-dated

 Generally, some of the game’s RPG mechanics and limited exploration are pretty fun and work serviceably well. The game is rich with poorly written dialogue, seemingly useful loot mechanics that generally offer nothing but useless crafting materials, and a whole host of utility skills, like lockpicking or herbalism, to dump your excess AP into. Such utility skills will often allow you to further explore dungeons to scavenge as much loot as possible, which can be fun and allows for a kind of completionist attitude to loot-finding, but it often isn’t necessary to waste your AP on these skills when it can be spent on much needed improvement for your combat performance. The fact that these utility skills must be purchased with points that are also used to purchase combat abilities just seems like lazy design, a unique currency or even just an entirely different approach to utility progression would have perhaps worked a little better.

Occasionally the game will throw some fairly basic puzzle or obstacle to overcome, but these are quite rare. They can range from choosing the appropriate dialogue options to aligning symbols in the right order to open a door. Although they are fairly basic and can just be guessed, they are often quite bad at explaining what exactly needs to be done and it often turns into a monotonous guessing game. An example of one of the lengthier and more frustrating dialogue puzzle sequences has you go through a long conversation to get to the five part puzzle that requires you to guess the right choice five times in a row, but if you get it wrong you are taken out of dialogue and have to go through the whole conversation to get back to the puzzle sequence. It’s a lot of these minor frustrating moments that make the game feel so unenjoyable, consistently poor design decisions will have you banging your head against a wall at all times.

The game goes pretty heavy on the combat at times, which can be pretty frustrating

 The game’s visual design is nothing short of lacklustre; some half-decent character models fail to account for murky, low-res textures, clunky animations, as well as some really poor optimisation. Despite the game looking more than five years old it runs horribly, even on the lowest settings possible, and I experienced some really significant screen tear, even with v-sync enabled. The game was also extremely unstable, with audio sometimes cutting out mid-sentence or music just failing to play and the game frequently crashing, often whenever I was trying to cast a particular spell; in short, I found the Vision Engine 8 severely lacking and I wish that a more modern engine would have been employed.

Like the visual design, the game’s sound design is also pretty poor, a generic soundtrack and voice-acting that ranges from fairly okay to bland and extremely boring (including the main character, who just sounds quite dull).

The controls work serviceably well for the most part and I had no problem playing with a mouse and keyboard, even if using a controller did feel a tad more responsive. In the end, Demonicon just generally seems like pretty poor execution of some unoriginal ideas, and unless you're really into the Dark Eye universe I would try to avoid this title. Aside from the fact that there are dozens of much better RPGs and Action RPGs that do what Demonicon tries to do with much more fluidity and, frankly, much more originality. Although not a down right dreadful game, Demonicon can pretty safely be skipped, at least until the price drops.