Home Sweet Home is a single-player, first-person survival/horror/puzzle video game. It was developed by Thai developer Yggdrazil Group. The game features horror elements drawn from Thai folklore.
It is available on Windows and on VR devices. The game focuses on the main protagonist Tim. His life has drastically changed since his wife disappeared. One night, he wakes up in an unknown place. While trying to find an exit, he is chased by a female ghost. Players have to discover the mystery in Tim’s house and find his missing wife Jane.
My Personal Thoughts
Home Sweet Home Review – Xbox One – The Gamers’ Temple Home Sweet Home is a first person survival horror developed and published by Thai developer Yggdrazil Group. Right from the start, the most unique part about the game is its setting and overall atmosphere. The entire game is completely based on Thai folklore which is unique for survival horror. The game is the first game in a planned series of games, so it’s rather short – only about 3 – 4 hours of gameplay – but it has some good potential in it and some overall good horror moments that many survival horror fans will be interested in.
You play as a guy that travels to creepy areas from his house. The house is the central location where you wind up in between stages, sort of like the room in Silent Hill 4. While traveling to various locations, you’ll be solving puzzles, finding items and avoiding creepy ghosts in order to advance through the stage. The majority of enemy encounters require stealth. You can hide in lockers or take cover behind objects to hide from ghosts and other creatures that you’ll run into. There is very little way to fight back besides some button tapping when certain ghosts catch up with your character. The puzzles are nothing super complex, but some of them have some nice thought in them. You’ll often find hints for the solution of a puzzle near it, but the game doesn’t flat out give you the solution. There are also many hidden collectibles to find per stage and notes to read. If you’re a fan of good jump scares, you’ll find something to like in Home Sweet Home since it has a good bit of them and some of them are very well done. There are many cheap scares, such as doors that slam and other loud noises, but the game also has some VERY sudden creative scares that really got me at points.
The person that you are playing as is searching for his wife (Jane). The wife will appear many times and suddenly get closed off in an area and you’ll have to solve puzzles or find items in order to gain access to her last location. Sadly, the game’s story and characters are very vague. You only get to learn about what is actually going on through diaries and a few cutscenes. It’s interesting that you actually get to learn more about the enemies in the game rather than the main character and his wife. Considering this is the first game in a planned series, the story to the game has good potential at this point however, so we’ll have to wait and see before truly judging the game’s story.
The graphics are overall good for setting up the game’s creepy atmosphere. You’ll find some areas that have some extremely creepy appearances to them, such as a floor of a building that is completely dark with only one door open with red light coming from it, restrooms full of blood, rooms with spell tablets stuck to walls, etc. The enemies all have their own unique sounds such as the ghost woman that walks around clicking her knife and making white noise sounds.
The game has a few instances of random glitches and overall weirdness. Sometimes the AI enemies in the game would get stuck in certain places. The ghost woman once got stuck moving against a wall while walking around and one time she caught sight of my character and got stuck running against a table while trying to reach me. I also found it very humorous that the only part of your character that can be seen in a mirror is his hand when he’s holding a flashlight. It’s kind of creepy in a way. Toward the end, you play a sequence where you’re armed with a candle and knife and can only see two hands holding both objects when you face a mirror. Having an actual character model would help a bunch with immersiveness for areas with mirrors or just cut out the reflection altogether. I also find it strange how some doors open toward your character and actually clip through your character (well, the floating flashlight hand).
The actual ending to the game goes off with a huge cliffhanger – I literally just stared blankly at the screen for several minutes after the cliffhanger with how shocked I was that the game ended that way. It tells you that the story will continue in “Episode II” directly after the cliffhanger. It would have been so much better if the developers would have had more closure to the first episode rather than leaving so many questions unanswered. The final sequence to the game is quite interesting, but so very cryptic with the way it all ends up. If the next episode(s) of the game can fill us in more on what is going on and add more depth to the characters, this game series could have a good amount of potential, but as a standalone game, Home Sweet Home feels too incomplete to rank high among many other indie horror titles.
The Good: + Some really good scares + Overall good atmosphere + The game shows potential for an overall good series
The Bad: – The ending has a very bad cliffhanger – AI glitches here and there – Overall lack of character development and story
I will rate this game 6/10.
Developer(s)
Yggdrazil Group Co., Ltd
Publisher(s)
Yggdrazil Group Co., Ltd
Director(s)
Saroot Tubloy
Producer(s)
Pongtham Nantapan
Designer(s)
Pongtham Nantapan
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
Platform(s)
Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release
Microsoft Windows 27 September 2017 Playstation 4, XBOX ONE 16 October 2018
Still burned by 2017’s Need for Speed Payback, I wasn’t sure Need for Speed Heat was going to be the salve the series needed – but this open-world street racer has some surprising pep to it. Heat is a marked return to form, owing its success to ingredients plucked from a few of the franchise’s most fondly-remembered games. It took more attempts than would’ve been ideal, but developer Ghost has finally built a racer that feels fittingly faithful to the roots of Need for Speed. Heat is hardly revolutionary, but it is fast, fun, and streets ahead of 2017’s properly disappointing Need for Speed Payback.
Heat combines elements of fan-favourites like Underground and the original Most Wanted with some welcome tweaks inspired by its contemporaries. The result is deep vehicle customisation and hectic cop chases, but in a world featuring fewer hazards that’ll bring cars to a dead stop. Like in Forza Horizon, even stone walls crumble and trees splinter if you careen off course. Fewer encounters with momentum-killers helped to keep my pace high and my pulse higher. It’s a back-to-basics approach with some modern modifications, and it works. Best of all, it’s completely purged of the free-to-play style lottery-based performance upgrade system, the ill-conceived obstacles preventing access to body mods, and most of the other horrible dreck that plagued Payback. It’s all been ripped out and sent to the scrapyard.
Miami, Twice
Palm City is Need for Speed Heat’s new playground, and the neon-drenched, Miami-inspired map is a great fit for the classic Need for Speed motif. The city itself is the big highlight here – the surrounding countryside is a little unmemorable – but there are a few other cool spots, including a mini Cape Canaveral-style space centre, a fun abandoned racing oval, and a big container yard begging for a shred session. It’s obviously only a sliver of the size of something as wildly ambitious as The Crew 2, and a bit lifeless on closer inspection, but it’s far denser than Payback and makes for a more interesting driving experience.
The neon-drenched, Miami-inspired map is a great fit for the classic Need for Speed motif.
Heat’s interesting hook is that there are basically two distinct experiences to be gleaned here, and switching between each is a manual process. Daytime Palm City is defined by regular, sanctioned street racing on marked courses for cash payouts, while night racing is all about illegal, underground racing and running from the fuzz to build up rep points. Both are needed to progress through Heat’s story, which still plays out like an off-brand Fast & Furious, but the writing’s a lot more restrained than that of the regularly cringeworthy Payback. There’s not a huge amount of story; it’s more of an occasional diversion from Heat’s regular racing events. There’s some nice fan service towards the end but ultimately it just tapers off suddenly like a mid-season TV finale and didn’t leave much of a lasting impression. It’s also worth mentioning that Heat can be played online (where other players can join your events) or completely offline, but you have to opt in to either mode from the main menu; it’s not quite as elegant as the seamless online/offline switching afforded in the likes of the Forza Horizon games.
After multiple generations of open-world racers where the sun rises and sets without awaiting my instructions I initially didn’t know what to make of Heat’s unique time-of-day switching system but, after some time with it, I quite like the power it grants me to focus on what I need. If I want money for parts and cars, I’ll race during the day. Heat looks a bit plainer in daylight – overall, the environment looks better whipping by at 150 miles an hour than under intense scrutiny – but the racing is decent. I’m a big fan of the crash barriers being real, individual objects in the world, too; there’s a lot less pinballing off invincible walls here. If, on the other hand, I need rep points to qualify for more missions and more potent performance upgrades, I’ll race at night. Night is absolutely the superior visual experience, especially when it rains. The racing is also more exciting, with traffic to avoid and more aggressive cops to deal with.
Heat’s cop chases aren’t restricted to pre-set time trial routes like they were in Payback; you now have the freedom to escape in any direction. They are a fair bit tougher, though; certainly until you can secure the best upgrades. While in Payback you could punt them off to the side, Burnout 3 style, in Heat you can’t really go toe-to-toe with the cops in quite the same way. There’s now a damage meter for your car, so while you can fight back a little and earn instant repairs from gas stations up to three times a night, too much rough stuff and you’ll wreck and be arrested.
Chases are definitely biased more towards the cops now. I don’t necessarily mind that – it’s a lot to ask that an AI should be able to out-maneuver a human driver without some sort of leg up – but I do hate that it cheats by spawning in cops in close proximity out of nowhere, and their supernatural bursts of speed get old. Also, the Busted Bar timer that ticks down to an automatic loss is absolute baloney. I can’t see a need for a Busted Bar if our cars can only take a finite level of damage; if I can force my way through a gaggle of pursuit cars without writing off my ride, let me. I get that it’s all in service of making the act of building and banking huge rep scores a thrilling risk but, if there’s no one actually in front or behind me, getting busted thanks to an arbitrary timer and losing all that rep is nonsense.
Hot Stuff Coming Through
There’s a good selection of cars available but the roster may be less impressive if you’re a veteran of Payback as the grand majority of the garage is paid forward from that game. Ferrari has climbed back on board and there’s a nice spread of them, but the nerds at Toyota are still absent. Overall my criticism of Payback’s vehicle roster is still relevant here. For instance, there’s a huge selection of modern supercars, which are an important part of Need for Speed’s original DNA, but peculiarly few icons from the ’90s. As the golden era of JDM tuners, for instance, it’s a shame only a select few from that decade make the cut in a game that seems custom-made for them. And although the cars look best in the rain (like the rest of the world itself), great little touches like animated raindrops trickling down side panels are a bit undermined by the fact nobody animated the windscreen wipers.
When I got behind the wheel, I immediately noticed that the handling in Heat has been tweaked to have drifts initiated by getting off the accelerator and pumping it again while turning into a corner, but I’m not really a fan of the technique as I found myself breaking into unwanted drifts just by normal feathering of the throttle. The good news is Heat lets us toggle it back to brake-to-drift, which allows a driver to stay mashed on the gas and just quickly pump the brake to get sideways. It feels more intuitive to me, like a quick dip of the clutch to spike the revs.
The slow-speed starter cars aren’t the best demonstration of Heat’s driving dynamics.
It does take a minute go get going, though: the slow-speed starter cars aren’t the best demonstration of Heat’s driving dynamics, and I’ve enjoyed the driving much more as things get progressively faster. Heat mercifully does away with needing specific cars for specific classes and every vehicle I’ve bought so far can be tuned and re-tuned for grip, drift, or a compromise in between. Drifting feels a bit slower in Heat than Payback but you have more control of car angle, which has made the drift events quite enjoyable.
Likewise, Heat’s upgrade system is a gigantic improvement over Payback. Beyond a few special reward items there are no more hoops to jump through to apply cosmetics, and no more poker machine Speed Cards to pump up your whip’s performance. Good riddance, I say. Want a part? Buy it. It’s the way it should be. I’m only really baffled by the presence of drag tyres without a dedicated drag mode.
Microtransaction Reaction
At the time of review there are no microtransactions or loot boxes available in Need for Speed Heat and, according to developer Ghost, a return to the multiple currencies and F2P tripe that killed Payback’s economy is not on the cards. Instead, post-release paid DLC in the form of car packs have been confirmed.
A big new addition is engine swaps, which are great because they can increase the overall potential horsepower of cars that previously hit a premature performance ceiling. But even better than that is exhaust tuning, which allows fine tuning of the already excellent exhaust notes available. It’s subtle, but seriously: whoever at Ghost spearheaded this system deserves an extra week holiday this year. This is some straight-up car geek catnip and I am all about it.
Elsewhere, the livery editor remains top notch and stance options are still here for those of you who like their cars to look like Herbie on the brink of death; you know, after he got tossed off that cruise ship and dragged out of a river. There’s avatar customisation, too, if you value that and desperately want to see a strange man’s midriff thanks to clothes I didn’t even know existed. There’s actually a whole parade of prats you can select to be your driver, although none of them look like they could really tell a carburettor from a jar of kombucha.
The Verdict
While Need for Speed Heat feels a little more like a mosaic of existing concepts rather than something especially trendsetting, Ghost has certainly scraped these ideas from some of the most-loved games in the now 25-year-old series. Heat doesn’t always sizzle but it’s definitely much hotter than I’d expected. This is easily the most impressive Need for Speed game in many years.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is an action-adventure game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. Players control Jedi trainee Cal Kestis, in a story set in the Star Wars universe shortly after the film Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. It was announced during E3 2018, with a more detailed reveal during the Star Wars Celebration in April 2019. The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 15, 2019, and received positive reviews.
Plot
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes place five years after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and before Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. The game follows young Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) who is being hunted by an Inquisitor, trained by Darth Vader (Scott Lawrence), known as the Second Sister (Elizabeth Grullon). Supporting characters include: Cal’s friend Prauf (JB Blanc), former Jedi Master Cere Junda (Debra Wilson), ship pilot Greez Dritus (Daniel Roebuck), Cal’s master Jaro Tapal (Travis Willingham), a droid named BD-1 (Ben Burtt), Jedi master Eno Cordova (Tony Amendola), Partisan leader Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), crime lord Sorc Tormo (Luke Cook), the Ninth Sister (Misty Lee), Nightsister Merrin (Tina Ivlev), former Jedi Taron Malicos (Liam McIntyre), and the Clone Troopers (Dee Bradley Baker).
Five years after the Great Jedi Purge, former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis works in a junkyard on the planet Bracca scrapping ships from the Clone Wars, but is forced to use his Force powers to save his friend Prauf during an accident. Unbeknownst to them, the event was captured by a nearby Imperial Probe Droid which transmits the footage to the Galactic Empire, revealing Cal’s true identity to the Imperials. The Empire dispatches two inquisitors trained by Darth Vader, the Second Sister and the Ninth Sister, to take down Kestis. While being pursued by the Second Sister, who kills Prauf, Cal is rescued by Cere Junda and Greez Dritus, and flees Bracca aboard Greez’s ship, the Mantis. Cere tells him she is a former Jedi and knew Cal’s Jedi Master, Jaro Tapal.
Cere takes Cal to the planet Bogano where an ancient vault is located, and hopes that Cal can open it. On the way to the vault, Cal befriends a small droid named BD-1, which shows him a message from Cere’s former Master, Eno Cordova. Cordova’s message reveals that the vault was built by an ancient civilization called the Zeffo, and that he hid a Jedi holocron containing a list of the locations of Force-sensitive children inside; Cere believes this list could be the genesis of a restored Jedi Order that can topple the Empire. However, the only way to access it is to follow Cordova’s path and pass his tests. The only leads Cal has is the location of the Zeffo homeworld, and a tomb on the planet Dathomir. On Zeffo, they find a clue that the Zeffo had contact with Kashyyyk, meaning Cordova’s contact there, the Wookiee chieftain Tarfful, may have information about them.
On Kashyyyk, Cal teams up with Saw Gerrera and his Partisans to fight the Imperial occupation forces enslaving the native Wookiees. Unable to find Tarfful, Cal returns to Zeffo to investigate a tomb when he encounters the Second Sister again. The Second Sister reveals that she was Cere’s Padawan, Trilla Suduri, who was captured by the Empire when Cere betrayed her location under torture. She warns Cal that Cere will inevitably betray him before retreating. Cal learns that he needs to find a Zeffo Astrium to unlock the vault before he is knocked out and captured by a bounty hunter. When Cal wakes up, he is forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena at the whims of crime lord Sorc Tormo. He is rescued by Cere and Greez, and Greez apologizes since Sorc kidnapped Cal due to his gambling debts. They then receive a communication that Tarfful is willing to speak to Cal, and they return to Kashyyyk. Tarfful instructs Cal to seek answers on top of Kashyyyk’s Origin Tree. There, he finds another recording of Cordova telling him that an Astrium can be found on Dathomir, but is then attacked by the Ninth Sister. Cal defeats the Inquisitor and makes his way to Dathomir.
Upon landing, Cal’s progress is immediately impeded by Nightsister Merrin, who blames the Jedi for the massacre of her people during the Clone Wars (Season 4 Episode 19, “Massacre”), and does everything in her power to keep him away. After experiencing a flashback where he remembers Jaro sacrificing himself to protect him from the clone troopers during the Purge, Cal is attacked by Jaro’s spirit, resulting in his lightsaber being destroyed. Cal then encounters another former Jedi, Taron Malicos, who sought to learn the power of the Nightsisters and manipulated them against the Jedi. Malicos offers to teach Cal how to handle the dark power of Dathomir against Merrin’s wishes. Cal refuses and flees Dathomir when Merrin attacks. Cere admits that when she learned Trilla became an Inquisitor, she briefly fell to the dark side, which is why she had cut off her connection to the Force. They then travel to Ilum to find a kyber crystal to rebuild Cal’s lightsaber. Returning to Dathomir, Cal faces Jaro’s spirit again, defeating him by overcoming his feelings of guilt over his death. Malicos again attempts to tempt Cal to the dark side, and attacks when Cal refuses him. Merrin helps Cal defeat Malicos and he is able to convince her to join the Mantis crew.
The crew return to Bogano and Cal uses the Astrium to unlock the vault and reveal the holocron. Trilla manages to steal the holocron and escape. Cere reassumes her position as a Jedi Master and grants Cal the rank of Jedi Knight. They then assault the fortress serving as the Inquisitor headquarters, where Cal is able to defeat Trilla and recover the holocron. Cere attempts to make amends with Trilla, but Darth Vader suddenly appears and kills Trilla for her failure. Cal and Cere barely evade Vader and escape the fortress. With the holocron now in their possession, the crew wonders what they should do with it. Realizing that gathering the Force-sensitive children will only make it easier for the Empire to target them, Cal destroys the holocron, determining that their fates should be left up to the Force before asking where they should go next.
My Personal Thoughts
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the latest game in the canon, is one of the better offerings specifically because it tries to look beyond the trappings of Star Wars. It’s not just another Jedi power fantasy, although wielding the Force with skill and resolve will certainly make you feel powerful. Like the best Star Wars games, it’s one that adds to the ideas of the films and other material, exploring new corners of the galaxy while focusing on the core themes of the franchise: knowing yourself, fighting your own darkness, and braving adversity with the help of friends.
Friendship has always been one of the main drives of Star Wars, especially in the original film trilogy, and it’s the core of what makes Jedi: Fallen Order work in both story and gameplay. The primary relationship of the game is between Cal Kestis, a Jedi padawan in hiding in the aftermath of the Jedi Purge that took place in Revenge of the Sith, and BD-1, a droid entrusted with a secret mission by the Jedi Master that previously owned it. Once Cal and BD-1 meet, they become inseparable, working together as partners to solve puzzles in forgotten ruins, navigate alien environments, and beat back the Empire.
The pair work throughout the game to complete a scavenger hunt created by BD’s last companion, Master Cordova. Before he vanished, Cordova locked away a list of Force-sensitive children throughout the galaxy that could be used to resuscitate the destroyed Jedi Order and challenge the Empire. He left clues to how to retrieve that list hidden in BD, requiring Cal and the droid to travel to various worlds, following in Cordova’s footsteps to free up BD’s encrypted memories.
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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order ? Official Reveal Trailer – YouTube – Google Chrome
Functionally, BD is Cal’s constant companion as he rides around on the Jedi’s back, and Cal regularly talks with the droid as they explore Fallen Order’s planets. BD also serves several support functions in gameplay. Most importantly, BD provides Cal with “stims” that allow him to heal himself in the middle of Fallen Order’s often-oppressive combat. He can also function as a zipline, unlock doors, and hack certain droid enemies to turn the tides of battle. BD is just enough a part of any given fight or puzzle that you’re always aware of his presence and his help, but it’s Cal’s constant interactions with the little droid that really build out their relationship.
You definitely need BD’s help and the upgrades you find for him throughout your journey, because Fallen Order can be punishing. It lifts a number of gameplay ideas directly from the Soulsborne genre; enemies are often tough-as-nails and can deal big damage if you’re complacent, whether they’re Imperial stormtroopers taking potshots or two-foot rats leaping out of burrows to snap at Cal’s throat. Fighting isn’t just about wailing on everyone with your lightsaber, but rather relies heavily on blocking and carefully timed parries if you mean to stay alive against even the most run-of-the-mill foes. You and your enemies also have a stamina meter to manage, which dictates how many blows you can defend against before you stagger, and adds a strategic element to duels. To win a battle, you need to whittle down an enemy’s stamina while blocking, parrying, and dodging to manage your own. Since every blow you sustain can be devastating, combat becomes an exciting, cerebral exercise in pretty much every case. You’ll spend a lot of time not only honing your parrying skills, but also making quick battlefield decisions about how you can isolate dangerous enemies or use your Force powers to even up the odds.
You can only heal from a limited number of stims or by resting at periodic meditation points, similar to Dark Souls’ bonfires, and using them respawns all the enemies in the area, which makes being a smart combatant even more critical. Killing enemies and finding collectibles nets you experience, which accumulates into Skill Points you can spend on new abilities for Cal. But dying costs all the experience you earned since your last Skill Point unless you can find and damage the enemy who bested you.
Though the elements of Fallen Order are Souls-like–it’s probably most closely comparable to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, in fact–on most difficulty settings, it’s far less brutal than From Software’s games. Fallen Order might be considered Soulsborne-lite, making use of the same elements but to a different effect. It’s tough, even occasionally frustrating, but not nearly so much as the games from which it draws its inspirations. That balance achieves something that feels essential to Fallen Order’s identity: It makes you a powerful Jedi Knight, without turning you into an unstoppable Force-wielding superhero. Ratcheting back on the Jedi powers (and forcing you to unlock them as you work through the story and deal with Cal’s past) helps Fallen Order’s take on the Star Wars universe feel grounded and believable–a place where people could actually live.
Your lack of overwhelming power also helps make the ever-looming Empire a frightening threat, even as individual soldiers comedically call out their own ineptitude in pretty much every battle. Cal spends the entire game hunted by the Inquisition, a subset of the Empire’s forces specifically tasked with exterminating Jedi. Because every fight is potentially deadly, running into the game’s specially trained Purge Troopers is always an event, and you’re forced not only test your lightsaber skills and timing, but to consider all the abilities at your disposal to make it out alive.
The rest of the game often has to do with clambering around the environment and solving puzzles, not unlike Tomb Raider, God of War, or Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Navigating the world is as much about using observation and problem-solving skills as your Force tools. Respawn’s Souls-inspired map design allows you to explore off the beaten path without ever really getting lost, and each planet is richly realized and fascinating to explore. The intricate pathways encourage you to wander off and visit each planet’s varied environments to see what you might uncover, and Fallen Order always make sure you’re rewarded with a bit of story, a cosmetic item, or even an optional miniboss fight.
When you’re between missions on planets, you’re spending time with Fallen Order’s two other major characters, Cere and Greez. They’re the pair who manage to save Cal in the early hours of the game when his Jedi nature is discovered by the Empire, and they put him on the quest to find the list of Force-sensitives before the Inquisitors can get their hands on it. Though the story is a little rough in the early going as Cal is thrown directly into the quest with little lead-up or explanation, Fallen Order’s story starts to excel around the halfway point as his relationships with BD, Cere, and Greez really start to develop. Once Fallen Order starts to invest in the interpersonal dynamics and deepening friendships of its cast, it really hits a stride–and its quest feels less like an elaborate series of tasks to fetch a MacGuffin, and more like an essential addition to the ongoing Star Wars saga.
It does take Fallen Order a while to get there, though. The first few planets are a bit on the dull side, rushing to get Cal on his quest through the galaxy without really establishing why you should really care. Until it starts to click later in the game as you unlock more Force powers, combat can be a hassle, especially at certain boss battles or chokepoints, when your last meditation point is some distance away and you have to navigate through the same chunks of the map over and over. And while parrying is an essential part of the game, at higher difficulties, the timing can feel finicky and unreliable.
The game also loves to throw handfuls of enemies at you all at once, which can be overwhelming, and combat against lower-tier enemies is built to lock you into finisher animations in a lot of cases. Instead of making you feel like a cool, well-trained warrior, these usually just leave you open to some Imperial dork wandering up with an electrobaton and clocking you in the head. It’s only after you get enough Force powers to effectively control the crowds that these moments become more exciting than irritating. But throughout the game, there are always times when an enemy you couldn’t see because of the game’s tight targeting lock system gets in a cheap hit, forcing you to replay a fair stretch of its large, interweaving maps.
But especially as it wears on, Fallen Order becomes perhaps the strongest conception of what playing as a Jedi Knight ought to really be like. It’s true that Fallen Order borrows liberally from other action games, but those elements work together with Respawn’s combat and environment design, and a story that finds humanity in the Force and in its characters, to hone in on what makes the world of Star Wars worthy of revisiting again and again. Even with some rough edges, Fallen Order represents one of the most compelling game additions to the Star Wars franchise in years.
Devil May Cry 5 is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed and published by Capcom. It is the sixth installment in the franchise and the fifth installment of the mainline Devil May Cry series. Capcom released it for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on March 8, 2019. The game takes place five years after Devil May Cry 4 and follows a trio of warriors with demonic powers: Dante, Nero and a new protagonist named V as they attempt to stop the Demon King Urizen, from destroying the human world. Across the game, the player can use these characters in different missions. Each of them has their own way of fighting and becoming stronger. As this happens, the mystery behind V is revealed along with his connection with Urizen.
Devil May Cry 5 was directed by Hideaki Itsuno whose goal was for this installment to be his best work. He aimed to make the game balanced for both newcomers and returning gamers by providing adequate, difficult and new demons. Capcom also wanted to bring a more realistic design inspired by the “RE Engine” used in their previous work, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. As a result, models were used to make the character’s faces. The plot was written by returning writer Bingo Morihashi while the setting was based on various locations in London. Multiple composers worked together to produce the game’s audio, creating three main themes centered around the playable characters.
Devil May Cry 5 received positive reviews from critics. Many lauded it as a return to form for the franchise, praising the variety of techniques the three characters bring, with V standing out thanks to his distinctive style of commanding underlings. The game had sold over two million copies less than two weeks after its release. A light novel and manga related to the game have also been released.
Gameplay
Nero battling demons using his Red Queen sword
The gameplay features the return of Dante and Nero as playable characters, along with a new character, named “V”. The gameplay is similar to that of the other titles in the Devil May Cry series, focusing on fast-paced “stylish action”; The player fights off hordes of demons with a variety of attacks and weapons. They receive a style-rating for combat based on a number of factors, such as move variety, the length of a combo and dodging attacks. The game’s music changes based on the player’s performance in combat. Every time the player interacts with the mechanic Nico or finds a statue, he can buy new abilities for each character. While there are three playable characters, the game forces the player to use only one per mission. Like previous games, this title has a Bloody Palace mode where the player can face multiple types of demons in a single area.
The first character is Nero who was introduced in Devil May Cry 4. He retains his Red Queen sword for melee combat, and the Blue Rose double-barreled revolver. However, he does not have his demonic arm from the previous game but has an assortment of new robotic arms called Devil Breakers instead. These have a variety of functions like grabbing enemies from a distance or stopping time to freeze an enemy in place. Nero can also find Devil Breakers during stages. Devil Breakers are powerful but fragile, and can be destroyed if used incorrectly. Late in the story, Nero has access to the Devil Trigger move which expands his combat skills.
Dante plays like his Devil May Cry 4 persona as he can change between four styles to create new techniques or parry enemy attacks. Along with his signature blade Rebellion and the demonic sword Sparda, Dante uses two new Devil Arms, a pair of buzzsaw-like weapons that combine into a motorcycle called Cavaliere, and a set of fiery gauntlets and boots called Balrog. Dante also wields a stronger version of the Cerberus nunchaku introduced in Devil May Cry 3. He also wears the Dr. Faust, a hat that requires red orbs to attack; it is a risk-award weapon depending on the player’s actions. Dante can use Both Kalina Ann from Devil May Cry 3 and the new enhanced Kalina Ann 2 as substitutes for the guns.
The third playable character, V, who wields a book and a silver cane, uses three demons based on enemies from the first game to fight. These include Griffon, an eagle that uses ranged lightning-based attacks, Shadow, a panther that forms blades, spikes and portals out of its body and Nightmare, a large golem. V enters a Devil Trigger-like state, which turns his hair white, to summon the golem, which uses a combination of melee attacks and laser beams. Once the enemy’s health turns light purple, V uses his cane to finish the battle.
Plot
On May 16, devil hunter Nero hunts a demon named Urizen after a dying man in a cloak steals his right arm and the Yamato sword. Traveling to Red Grave City, he joins Dante and finds a demonic tree called Qliphoth planted in the city, which is killing people for their blood. Dante is ultimately defeated by Urizen and ejected from the Qliphoth with his sword Rebellion shattered. His allies Lady and Trish are captured to use as demon-cores while a client of Dante, V, convinces the weakened Nero to escape. On June 15, Nero returns to Red Grave outfitted with the “Devil Breaker” prosthetic arm, made by his friend Nico. Nero meets up with V, who is seeking Qliphoth for its fruit—born of condensed human blood—which makes whomever consumes it the king of the Underworld. As the pair destroy the Qliphoth’s roots while searching for Dante, Nero rescues Lady. while V splits off to discover the Devil Sword Sparda – along with a hibernating Dante, whose presence was hidden by the sword.
After awakening from his coma, Dante frees Trish and begins fighting his way to Urizen. Trish learns from V that Urizen is actually the demon-side of Dante’s brother Vergil, who used Yamato’s power to separate his demon and human halves – the latter manifesting as V, whose body is reaching its limit. Dante uses Rebellion’s power to absorb the Sparda into himself, unlocking his full demonic power. Nero attempts to confront Urizen again and is overpowered once more, but Dante rescues him and gains the upper hand with his new powers. Urizen takes his leave when the Qliphoth bears fruit and consumes it to empower himself further. While Dante arrives first to face Urizen, Nero rescues V from the demon Malphas and learns of Dante’s history with Vergil. Nero and V reach Dante just as he defeats Urizen, but a dying V intervenes and merges with Urizen before Dante can finish him, reviving Vergil.
Vergil returns to the Qliphoth tree, telling Dante to recover his full strength before they battle again. Nero insists on going after Vergil himself, but Dante reveals Nero is Vergil’s son and refuses to let him kill his own father. Dante then faces V’s familiars – revealed as discarded memories from Vergil’s time as Nelo Angelo – and they elect to die by Dante’s hand to lessen Vergil’s trauma. Dante and Vergil fight again, where Vergil learns Nero is his son. Nero settles his emotions in a call to Kyrie and resolves not to let his father and uncle die, fully awakening his demonic powers and regrowing his arm. Intervening in their fight and forcing Dante out, Nero vows to end the pair’s sibling rivalry and defeats Vergil, who gives Nero V’s book to remember him by. Vergil joins Dante in a one-way trip to the Underworld to cut the Qliphoth down and seal the portal before it rips Red Grave City apart, with Nero departing as the Qliphoth falls. Weeks later, Trish and Lady are hired for a new job by Morrison, who Dante left in charge of his office. In the Underworld, Dante and Vergil continue sparring while demons attack them, now friendly rivals instead of enemies.
In 2013, Capcom partnered with Ninja Theory to reboot its hack and slash action franchise Devil May Cry with the polarizing DmC. While many praised DmC for its exciting combat and interesting visuals, others panned the new look for Dante and its abandonment of the franchise’s established lore. Now, over six years later, Capcom has returned to the original Devil May Cry series with Devil May Cry 5, a game that should have no problem winning over any fans still upset about DmC.
Devil May Cry5 is firmly rooted in the universe established by the first four games in the franchise. It once again features wise-cracking demon hunter Dante in the lead role, as he works to stop the ultra-powerful demon Urizen along with the help of familiar faces like Lady, Trish, Devil May Cry 4‘s Nero, and newcomer V.
In typical Devil May Cry fashion, Devil May Cry 5‘s plot is delightfully absurd, with ridiculous dialogue, bizarre imagery, and head-spinning plot twists. Newcomers may be confused, but luckily there is a history of Devil May Cry they can check out from the main menu. Longtime fans, meanwhile, will find themselves enthralled with the story, on the edge of their seat from start to finish. The game not only fills some gaps left by previous installments, but it also moves the franchise’s plot forward in significant, meaningful ways.
Devil May Cry5‘s story hits it out of the park, but some may be more concerned about whether or not the gameplay lives up to the hype. We’re happy to report that Devil May Cry 5 features one of the deepest and most satisfying combat systems we’ve encountered in any action game. The three playable characters – Dante, Nero, and V – all have their own unique playstyles and weaponry. Mindlessly hacking and slashing is certainly an option, but those that take the time to master all of the characters and their attacks will find the game infinitely more rewarding.
Having three playable characters goes a long way in keeping the action from getting stale. One level players may be fighting with Dante’s iconic dual pistols and hulking Rebellion sword, and in the next stage, they will be zipping around from enemy to enemy with Nero’s grappling hook. All three characters are loads of fun to play as, though the stages with V and Dante stand out as especially exciting, as their fighting styles have more moving parts than Nero’s.
V, for example, has three different demon pets at his disposal. One is a smart-mouthed bird (whose verbal jousting with Dante is hilarious) that can attack enemies from afar, and another is a shape-shifting panther that can dole out significant melee damage. V can also bring forth a hulking monstrosity called Nightmare that will burst through walls or come hurtling out of the sky like a meteor when summoned.
Dante, meanwhile, has four different fighting styles that he can cycle between on the fly, in addition to a slew of different weapons to choose from. For these reasons, Dante is the most complicated character out of the three. It may take some practicing in The Void, but once players master Dante’s four fighting styles and successfully employ them in the right situations, his battles become the most rewarding. Plus, he can literally dual-wield two halves of a motorcycle and beat demons to death with it, which is just the kind of insane action that Devil May Cry fans have come to love from the series.
Playing as Nero is also great, even if he isn’t quite as fun to play as V and Dante. Nero’s Devil Breakers are easy to use, and since he really only has one fighting style and limited weaponry, he’s a good way to ease players into the game. Playing as Nero in later stages feels a bit lackluster after getting a taste of the more complex fighting styles of V and Dante, though.
By and large, Devil May Cry 5 nails the combat, and it also successfully grapples with the franchise’s history of camera issues. In past Devil May Cry games, the camera often struggled to keep up with the frantic action on screen, but that’s never a problem in Devil May Cry 5. Combine the improved camera with tight, responsive controls and Devil May Cry 5 quickly becomes the least frustrating game in the series by a wide margin.
Devil May Cry 5‘s core gameplay, from the combat system to the controls, is truly something remarkable. This is a good thing, too, because the game is just a sequence of one battle after the next, with little in the way of the exploration and puzzles found in previous games. In fact, we counted exactly one puzzle in the entire story, and even then calling it a puzzle would be a stretch. The game is more or less a hallway of enemy encounters, with the battles broken up by short walks to the next fight, but since the combat is so engaging the puzzles and exploration elements aren’t really missed.
It’s true that Devil May Cry 5 is a very linear game. But in a sea of dense open world games, that’s not really a bad thing, and it honestly feels like a breath of fresh air. Its linearity also doesn’t mean that there isn’t some extra content for players to discover. There are 12 secret missions hidden throughout the levels for players to find, in addition to hidden items and power-ups, so those that take the time to thoroughly explore the environment will be properly rewarded for their efforts.
When they’re done looking for secrets and battling enemies, Devil May Cry 5 players can advance to the end of the level and face off against an epic-scale boss. On higher difficulties, many of the bosses in Devil May Cry 5 will give players a serious run for their money, capable of dealing devastating attacks and withstanding a ton of punishment. There’s a fine line between rewarding challenge and frustration in video games, but in Devil May Cry 5, the boss battles never feel cheap and their epic scale will leave players breathless.
Some potential frustration with the game’s boss battles is alleviated thanks to Devil May Cry 5‘s revival system. Players can choose to revive themselves with gold orbs that can be found hidden in levels or gained as a daily log-in bonus, or they can spend some of their red orbs (Devil May Cry 5‘s in-game currency) to revive themselves as well. While some fans may feel this robs the boss fights of their challenge, gold orbs are relatively rare, and they can always just ignore the feature. Plus, the real challenge in Devil May Cry 5 doesn’t really come from surviving, but rather mastering all of the characters’ fighting styles to get the most style points possible.
One potential issue with this revival system is Devil May Cry 5‘s microtransactions. Players can purchase red orbs with microtransactions, meaning that they can essentially pay real money to come back to life. Unfortunately, we were unable to test Devil May Cry 5‘s microtransactions before launch, so we can’t say with certainty how they may impact the game. That being said, it’s hard to see how the microtransactions will have an adverse effect, unless Capcom nerfs the rate at which players collect red orbs during normal gameplay. In our time playing the game, we were able to amass enough red orbs that we were never put in a situation where we would even have to consider busting out our wallet. Really the only reason for the microtransactions would be to purchase all the upgrades right away, but that just robs the game of its replayability and progression, making the whole experience far less enjoyable.
In regards to replayability, Devil May Cry 5 is a game that’s meant to be played through multiple times. Each time players beat the story, they unlock a higher difficulty setting with stronger enemies and less resources. Any upgrades or items purchased carry over, so players are never starting from scratch, and this is what makes the game hard to put down. There’s always a new upgrade or attack to save for that has the potential to drastically change up the combat, so even on the third or fourth playthrough, the game still feels fresh and new. And better yet, nothing is so expensive that it feels like a grind to unlock everything through gameplay.
Another way Capcom attempts to add replayability to Devil May Cry 5 is with its multiplayer and social features. While post-launch could be a different story, we found the “multiplayer” in Devil May Cry 5 to be basically pointless. Its implementation is puzzling, with players going through an entire stage without ever seeing another person, and then asked to rate their so-called partner’s performance at the end of the level. One player we were paired with had unlocked a new costume for Nero and appeared in a cut-scene with their fancy getup, which was just confusing, especially since the game didn’t make it clear that we had been matched with someone else.
Pointless multiplayer functionality aside, something must be said about Devil May Cry 5‘s polish. It’s rare that one can play through a game multiple times and not experience a single technical glitch or graphical hiccup, but that’s the case with Devil May Cry 5. The game runs smoothly at 60 frames per second on Xbox One X, with no slowdown or anything that would compromise the fast-paced combat. It’s also a visual stunner, leveraging the Resident Evil 2 remake engine to deliver detailed character models and impressive animations that are some of the best we’ve seen in any game to date.
Life Is Strange 2 is an episodic graphic adventure video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. It is the second main entry of the Life Is Strange series, and was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The first episode was released in September 2018, with the other four released throughout 2019. A fifth and final episode is scheduled to be released on December 3, 2019.
Plot
Three years after the events of Life Is Strange, 16-year-old Sean Diaz witnesses his 9-year-old brother Daniel being harassed by their neighbor Brett Foster in Seattle, Washington, and intervenes. Brett is accidentally injured as a police officer arrives on the scene. The officer draws his gun, and in the confusion Sean and Daniel’s father Esteban is shot and killed as a sudden explosion destroys the street. Sean flees with Daniel as more police arrive. Now fugitives, Sean leads Daniel out of Washington on a journey to Puerto Lobos in Mexico, their father’s hometown, while hiding their father’s death from Daniel.
After spending a night in the woods outside Oregon, the brothers are recognized by the owner of a roadside convenience store, who knocks out and kidnaps Sean. Daniel frees Sean as they escape with the help of travel blogger Brody Holloway. During the escape, Daniel steals a puppy from the store and names her Mushroom. Brody leaves them at a motel a few miles from Arcadia Bay with supplies for the rest of their journey. Daniel learns of their father’s death on the news and has a meltdown that almost destroys the motel, revealing he has latent telekinesis and was inadvertently responsible for the earlier explosion. As the brothers continue south, Sean teaches Daniel to control his new powers. Daniel falls ill, forcing Sean to change course to their grandparents’ house in Beaver Creek, Oregon, just as Mushroom is killed by a cougar. The brothers reunite with their maternal grandparents, Claire and Stephen Reynolds, but when Daniel shows interest in learning about his mother Karen (who abandoned her family shortly after Daniel’s birth), Claire rebuffs them and keeps Karen’s room locked.
Daniel later witnesses the Reynolds’ neighbor Chris Eriksen falling from his treehouse and uses his power to save him. Chris, an avid superhero fan, believes he is the one with powers. Later that day, Sean and Daniel discover a recent letter from Karen expressing the desire to meet her children, leading to an argument with Claire and Stephen. The police arrive in search of Sean and Daniel, and Claire distracts them so the brothers can escape via the Eriksens’ backyard. Chris either helps them escape unnoticed, discovers that Daniel is the one with powers, or is hit by a pursuing police car. Sean and Daniel stow away on a train to California, where they reunite with Finn and Cassidy, two freighthoppers they previously encountered at a Beaver Creek Christmas market. Sean and Daniel earn money working at a marijuana farm in Humboldt County for a cultivator named Merrill. Sean spends his time with Cassidy and her friends, neglecting a frustrated Daniel as his powers continue to grow.
As the group is about to be paid, Daniel is caught sneaking into Merrill’s office, causing an angry Merrill to refuse payment for the others and fire Sean and Daniel. Daniel accidentally exposes his powers to the others while defending himself from Merrill’s henchman. While the others promise to keep it a secret, Finn suggests using Daniel to steal from Merrill. Regardless of whether Sean approves or not, the heist goes ahead. Daniel and Finn accidentally alert Merrill, who holds Sean, Daniel, Finn, and potentially Cassidy at gun-point. In the ensuing confrontation, Daniel violently loses control of his powers and destroys Merrill’s house. By the following morning, Daniel has disappeared with Merrill’s money, leaving the others – including Sean, unconscious and half-blinded by a shard of glass embedded in his left eye – behind.
Two months later, Sean wakes up from a coma in a hospital in Northern California, where he is kept for questioning by the FBI as they search for the still-missing Daniel. Sean discovers a note left in his journal by Jacob, a contact from the marijuana farm, revealing that in the aftermath of the explosion, Jacob escorted Daniel to his former home of Haven Point, Nevada. Sean escapes from custody, hotwires a hospital employee’s car, and begins the journey to Nevada. After stopping for the night, Sean is harassed and humiliated by two racist locals, but he escapes before running out of gas. Sean begins to walk the rest of the way until he is offered a lift by a friendly trucker.
Arriving in Haven Point, a commune for the cult-like Universal Uprising Church led by the charismatic Reverend Mother Lisbeth, Sean is horrified to discover Daniel being called the “Angel Daniel”, with his powers being preached as a divine gift by Lisbeth to her congregation. Sean attempts to take Daniel away, but Lisbeth has manipulated him and he refuses to leave. Church altar boy Nicholas forces Sean to leave at gunpoint. Sean is stunned to find Karen waiting outside, who had traveled to Nevada after receiving a letter from Jacob, although Sean still holds a grudge and is reluctant to trust and forgive her after she abandoned him and his brother many years ago.
Sean and Karen formulate plans to rescue Daniel from the church. The next day, Sean meets with Jacob, who wants to retrieve his ill sister, Sarah-Lee, from Lisbeth’s clutches. Sean and Jacob break into Lisbeth’s home while Karen keeps watch, where Sean learns that Lisbeth was excommunicated from her previous church for her extreme beliefs, forced Jacob to undergo gay conversion therapy, and has been preventing Sarah-Lee from receiving medical help despite a diagnosis of severe pneumonia. As Jacob escapes with Sarah-Lee, Sean and Karen storm the church to retrieve Daniel, and Nicholas attacks Sean on Lisbeth’s orders. Sean makes a heartfelt plea to Daniel, helping Daniel come to his senses and break free of Lisbeth’s control and save Sean. The fight accidentally starts a fire on the altar, and Sean, Daniel, and Karen flee the church as it burns to the ground. The reunited family finally make their way toward the Mexican border
My Persoanl Thoughts
Life is Strange 2 is an episodic story driven adventure & the game is divided into 5 episodes. No previous game characters or settings are copied in Life is Strange 2. We have a new protagonist who is just 17. The story seems to be unfamiliar among new characters & unknown locations, but this is Life is Strange in every other way. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is also set in the same timeline & universe as Max & Chloe in Life is Strange. The decisions you make in Captain Spirit will shape the story of Life is Strange 2.
Life is Strange first episode was launched in 2015 & it is focused on the narrative of Max, who finds out that she can rewind time. Another game known as Life is Strange: Before the Storm was released later which is set 3 years before original Life is Strange & it revolves around the story of Chloe. Buy the full season of Life is Strange 2 & get Arcadia Bay patch bundle which can customize your backpack. The award winning original Life is Strange was developed by DONTNOD Entertainment. Life is Strange returns with another fresh story. Life is Strange 2’s story is focused on 2 brother, 17 years old Sean & 9 years old Daniel.
Life is Strange 2 is an episodic graphic adventure video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment & published by Square Enix. Life is Strange 2 is the 3rd game in the series. Life is Strange 2 is playable from third person perspective. It lets you control Sean, who is escaping from the cops along with his brother. He can interact with the environment, collect objects & talk to NPCs using dialogue trees. The decisions will carry over from The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit into Life is Strange 2.
Sean finds out that it is difficult to live away from home & life on the roads is hard & he has the responsibility to take care of his younger brother Daniel. He realizes that his choices will impact their lives forever. Life is Strange Episode 1 takes around 5 hours to complete. The story seems to be bigger & more complicated than the earlier games in the series.
So why the new characters in Life Is Strange 2? Well there wasn’t much left to tell for the three characters from the Before the Storm (prequel to Life is Strange).
But the developers assured the audience that their goal was not to disappoint their fanbase, but to give them what they truly need, new characters with fresh storylines.
With Sean and Daniel, Life is Strange 2 is just that; they live as outsiders of society, and with these new boundaries comes moral choices for the player to decide upon.
“you have to deal with everyday problems. And don’t steal, Don’t lie, those are the basic rules. But when you are a runaway, when you have the police is chasing you, you have to say, “okay, these rules, I can break them, because for the own good of my little brother.”
In addition to this, Life is Strange 2 is a pretty basic game. But of course comes the supernatural element comes into question here.
“The supernatural element depends on the story you want to tell,” Koch (co-director) says. “So, for Life is Strange 1, the rewind power was a perfect element for Maxine, for her story and the fact that she has to become an adult.
“But in this case, we want players to discover [the supernatural element] by themselves, for sure. We wanted to have this supernatural element linked to the characters and it will, I think, present some interesting questions and difficult questions.”
Tell us, do you think Life is Strange 2 will be as good as the first game? Are you looking forward to playing it?
I will rate this gameplay 8/10.
Developer(s)
Dontnod Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Square Enix
Director(s)
Michel KochRaoul Barbet
Writer(s)
Christian DivineJean-Luc Cano
Composer(s)
Jonathan Morali
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
Platform(s)
Microsoft WindowsPlayStation 4Xbox One
Release
Episode 127 September 2018Episode 224 January 2019Episode 39 May 2019Episode 422 August 2019Episode 53 December 2019
The Surge 2 is an action role-playing video game developed by Deck13 Interactive and published by Focus Home Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is the sequel to 2017’s The Surge.
Gameplay
The Surge 2 is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. The game features a character creator which allows players to customize the appearances and gender of their player avatar. Players can utilize a variety of melee weapons to defeat enemies, whose limbs can be targeted and removed individually. Players can also dodge and parry attacks, which requires players to properly angulate their equipped weapon. Combat drones and consumables such as bio-sensors can also be deployed. When players kill or dismember their opponents, they can collect and equip the weapons, armor enhancements or tech left by them. Jericho city, the game’s setting, offers alternate paths which players can explore freely. In the game, players will meet different non-playable characters and have to make different choices which will affect the game’s world and story. Players can also leave graffiti messages in their game’s world for other players to see.
Setting
The Surge 2 is set in a dystopian future where humans have exhausted the world’s resources, leading to strained social service and environmental diseases bringing mankind to the brink of extinction. CREO, one of the largest tech conglomerates, makes attempts at restoring the environment but with the task taking too long, a second process is developed, Project UTOPIA, a means to use nanites to complete the project faster but costing the lives of 95% of humanity. The nanites behind the project gain sentience, becoming a Rogue Process, and faced with the CREO board voting against their use, trigger a system-wide crash, killing or corrupting every machine and human connected to the CREO network. Project UTOPIA is then launched by an automated system, carrying the Rogue Process nanites.
The central plot of The Surge 2 takes place in Jericho City, an advanced metropolis surrounded by a giant wall aimed at stemming the advancement of the nanites. It follows an unnamed male or female character, dubbed the “Warrior”, who is searching for Athena Guttenberg, the granddaughter of CREO founder Jonah Guttenberg. The Warrior’s journey brings them into conflict with the A.I.D. disaster relief unit who are evacuating the city, and the Children of the Spark, a religious cult that worships the Spark, an unstable but powerful source of energy. Led by Matriarch Celeste, the cult believes that the coming of the nanites is foretold by their prophecy of humans ascending beyond mortality by merging with machines. The Children are split into two factions under Celeste’s two sons; Eli, prophet and heir to the Spark, and Johnny, his drug-addicted, slovenly brother who uses a physical-enhancing drug to manipulate his underlings. The Warrior is aided by the Stranger, a masked man seeking the truth behind the actions of A.I.D.
Plot
Aboard an airplane, the player character befriends a young girl, Athena Guttenberg. The UTOPIA rocket collides with the plane, releasing its nanite payload which severely damages the craft, causing it to crash on the outskirts of Jericho City. Seemingly the only survivor, the comatose player character is recovered to a prison medical facility. Two months later, the player character is awoken by visions of Athena calling to them as her “Warrior”. The prison is attacked by the Delver, a gigantic nanite-creature, freeing the prisoners and allowing the Warrior to escape after installing on themselves a powerful exoskeleton to enhance their abilities. Emerging out into Jericho City, the Warrior learns that the city is now infested with nanites, which are slowly claiming the city and infecting the citizens.
The Warrior meets the Stranger (Warren, the protagonist of The Surge), and they also learn about the Children of the Spark, who believe the crisis foretells the coming of the Spark Incarnate. Brother Eli tasks the Warrior with defeating his brother Little Johnny, so that they can reach the crash site to search for Athena. The Warrior defeats Johnny, but is then betrayed by Eli who intends to claim glory by killing the person who killed his brother. Eli is killed by the warrior. At the crash site, the warrior has one of many visions revealing Athena’s journey since the plane crash.
The Warrior pursues Athena’s trail to the artificial nature reserve, Gideon Point, where the Delver is hiding. After killing the Delver, the Warrior learns that Athena had taken control of it to release the Warrior from the prison. The Warrior meets with CREO founder Jonah Guttenberg at the CREO Institute of Technology (CIT), and learns that Athena has been captured by A.I.D. Alongside the Stranger, the Warrior infiltrates A.I.D. command and discovers that they have been abducting children under the guise of evacuation and using them in failed nanite-based experiments to try and communicate with the nanite swarm. All of the children have died during the experiments, except Athena because her exposure on the plane changed her, making her more suitable for the experiment. The Warrior defeats General Ezra-Shields who is guarding her, but the process begins before he can interfere. Athena is seemingly destroyed and absorbed into the swarm, reborn as a gigantic nanite serpent. An explosion of nanite activity is triggered, devastating Jericho City.
The Warrior returns to CIT and finds Eli has been resurrected and trying to gain access to Jonah’s nanite research. After the Warrior kills Eli for a second time, Jonah reveals that he can remove Athena from the swarm, but that they will require a significant power source, the Spark. Infiltrating the Cathedral of the Spark, the Warrior defeats Eli’s mother, Matriarch Celeste, after witnessing her revive Eli again using their own nanite technology. Eli’s nanite-infused body grants him superhuman abilities. He leaves with the Spark, believing himself to be the Spark Incarnate that is destined to control the swarm and reshape the world in his own image. Eli kills Jonah and steals his research on connecting with the swarm, which combined with the Spark allows him to steal Athena’s powers. The Warrior pursues Eli to the Wall, a massive barrier built around the city, and confronts him.
Eli now possesses near God-like abilities, reshaping himself as Archangel Eli. The Warrior defeats Eli a final time, freeing Athena and her powers, and is given the choice of either executing or sparing Eli. Depending on decisions made throughout the game, Athena takes on her human form composed of nanites and either commends the Warrior for their humanity and compassion, or makes them serve as her guardian because of their lust for power. It is implied that the Warrior died in the plane crash, and Athena used her abilities to revive them as a hybrid of man and nanite. In the aftermath, Athena muses that machines will always be imperfect because they are made by imperfect beings, but that giving them a soul can make a difference.
My Personal Thoughts
Yes, The Surge 2 is that kind of game: an action RPG with a looping, labyrinthine structure and a heavy debt owed to Dark Souls. It’s a hard game in the sense that it demands patience and attention to detail, but it’s not especially punishing. Sure, when you die or rest at a medbay all the enemies respawn and many of them can kill you in a couple of hits. And sure, you have to make it back to where you died to recover your tech scrap. But as with the Souls series and its ilk, this isn’t really a game about clearing an area and leveling up; it’s about learning through repetition and deepening your understanding of the game.
Fighting in The Surge 2 feels strategic and skillful. There’s the element of stamina management you’d expect–you’ve got to understand when you can commit and when you need to pull back and recover. There’s the ability to manage multiple enemies when any one of them alone is dangerous enough to be life-threatening if you’re not careful. And there’s the necessity of learning to read enemy attack patterns–one may be quick and aggressive, while another is slower and turtles behind a shield, and a third may hang back and takes pot shots.
Combat is almost exclusively focused on melee attacks. There are dozens of weapons to be wielded in one hand or two and each can be deployed in heavy and light attacks as well as combos that alternate between the two. Movesets are shared across a weapon class but various stats–such as base damage, stamina consumption or additional damage types–serve to differentiate unique weapons within the same class. All spears, for example, have the same long reach and forward thrusting attacks, but this one hits slightly quicker for less damage while that one consumes more stamina per attack but delivers bonus electrical damage every hit.
Smartly, no weapons are simply outright better than the others, meaning your choice of armament comes down to a combination of what you’ve managed to find, which particular mix of moveset and stats suit your preferred playstyle, and to a lesser extent the nature of the obstacle you’re trying to overcome. Some weapons are better suited to certain situations, but ultimately it comes down to how you want to approach combat. Weapons taken from the one-handed (think futuristic longswords) and twin-rigged (think futuristic knuckle-dusters) classes hit with speed and will let you get the drop on an enemy then deliver a swift combo. Hammers and anything from the heavy-duty class will instead take longer to wind up but when they hit they hit hard and can easily stagger an opponent.
I enjoyed the flexibility of the double-duty class, a weapon type that can transform between slow, heavy hits and a quick flurry of blows. And for situations that warranted a different tactic I switched to a staff for the longer reach of its whirlwind attack and some added nano damage. There’s a huge amount of variety here and, after briefly testing out each new weapon I found during my initial playthrough, I’m looking forward to exploring different weapon loadouts in future playthroughs.
That’s mostly because fighting in The Surge 2 feels really good. Aided by the meaty impact of the sound effects and the responsiveness of the character animations, you can feel the weight of each attack in a manner that never fails to satisfy. Successfully deflecting an attack rewards you with wonderfully gratifying “whomp!” sound, a brief freeze-frame and slow-motion interlude as the enemy is staggered and you’re given the opening to launch a critical strike. Better, perhaps, are the cinematic slow-mos seen when you are able to sever the limb of your opponent, with your character drawing from an impressively wide range of stylish deathblow animations that are solely interested in making you look like the most effortless badass in the post-apocalypse. Be warned, however: they are not for the squeamish (and, fortunately, there’s an option to disable these scenes to reduce the gore factor.)
But it gets even more complex. When locked on to an enemy you are able to target individual limbs, switching between the head, body, arms, and legs with a flick of the right analogue stick. You want to do this for two reasons. One, some limbs may be unarmoured, thus targeting an exposed left arm will let you do more damage and hasten the kill. Two, if you do enough damage to a particular limb you’ll get the opportunity to chop it off and, in a curious application of game logic, claim it as a material for crafting. Once you’ve beheaded an enemy enough times you’ll have the materials necessary to craft a new piece of headgear or upgrade your existing one. The tantalizing risk/reward here is obvious: do you go for the weak point or prolong the fight in order to get that vital crafting component? Boss fights double down on this element, with some of them forcing you to hack off multiple limbs to bring it down while others drop special boss weapons if you target the relevant limb during the fight.
Furthering the complexity, you can also block attacks (assuming you have sufficient stamina) by holding down L1/LB, but to deflect an attack you’ve got to block and flick the right stick in the direction of the incoming blow at the precise moment; mis-time your attempt and you’re going to take the hit. It’s not just another great risk/reward setup, it also reveals one of the clever ways The Surge 2 handles its difficulty. While there aren’t selectable difficulty levels per se, you can equip various implants that boost your character in certain ways, one of which provides a UI indicator letting you know from which direction the next attack is incoming. So if you want to adopt a playstyle around deflecting attacks and you’re not yet familiar with reading enemy attack animations, you can equip this implant and receive a very useful visual aid.
It’s a really smart system that extends into other areas, too. Implants consume core power, a character stat that increases as you level up, and typically the more useful an implant the more power it consumes. Armour also draws power from the same source, and–yep, you guessed it–the better the defensive stats, the more power it draws. You never have enough core power to simply equip your best armour set and all your favorite implants, so this is where you have to make tough choices about what type of character you’re going to be. There were plenty of periods, especially in the early to mid-game, where I had to leave some armour and implant slots empty because I simply didn’t have the power available to fill them. It’s in these situations, when you’re having to sacrifice useful tools and really commit to a playstyle, that The Surge 2 shines as an RPG.
It also shines in its level design–at least it does so in a somewhat cold, theoretical fashion. Like Dark Souls, The Surge 2 trades heavily on a Metroidvania structure that sees you traversing its levels in a kind of circular fashion, pressing forward until you find yourself back where you started only now you’ve unlocked a shortcut that lets you press further forward. Later, you will return to many of the previously visited locations and explore them anew, having acquired certain key items that allow you to access areas previously inaccessible.
There’s nothing especially novel about that structure. The Surge 2 is simply an extremely accomplished version of it. The areas you explore are just so tightly designed, so compact and yet simultaneously sprawling and dense. There’s almost a honeycomb quality to the level design, this vast network of winding tunnels existing almost on top of each other, branching and converging in surprising ways. No space is wasted.
It’s just a shame few of the locations are memorable for reasons other than how they connect to other locations. There’s a midgame detour to a rather scenic wooded parkland, the odd impressive future city skyline vista, and the constant looming presence of the giant metal wall that was hastily erected after the nano-disaster struck. But in between everything is basically the same handful of debris-strewn streets, toxic tunnels and partially collapsed buildings–and it’s all so boringly brown and grey. More than a mere aesthetic complaint, it actually makes it difficult to find your bearings at times. I found myself getting lost and turned around on quite a few occasions thanks to the unremarkable nature of much of the scenery.
Worse, the characters you meet along the way are equally soulless, if not more so. Conversations with major NPCs are written as if they’re throwaway sidequests, eschewing any sense of character development in favor of laboured exposition. The actual sidequests, of course, fare no better–to their advantage at least they’re quick and to the point, even if they barely resolve and rarely offer a reward worth the effort.
Story and sidequests aside, however, The Surge 2 is absolutely worth the effort when the combat is taken in isolation. Not only does it pack a punch, but it also channels plenty of depth in its limb targeting and deflection systems, and is ably supported by a genuinely varied collection of weapons and potential character builds.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (commonly referred to as Ghost Recon Breakpoint) is an online tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. The game was released worldwide on 4 October 2019, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and will release in November 2019 for the Google Stadia. The game is the eleventh installment in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon franchise and is a narrative sequel to the 2017 video game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands.
The game is set in an open world environment called Auroa, a fictional island in the Pacific Ocean. The player takes on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony “Nomad” Perryman, a special forces operative sent to the island to investigate a series of disturbances involving Skell Technology, a military contractor based on Auroa. Upon release, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint received mixed reviews from critics
About Gameplay
Like its predecessor Wildlands, Breakpoint is a tactical shooter game set in an open world environment. It is played from a third-person perspective and uses an optional first-person view for aiming weapons. Players take on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony “Nomad” Perryman, a member of the Delta Company, First Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, also known as “Ghosts”, a fictional elite special operations unit of the United States Army under the Joint Special Operations Command. The game world, Auroa, is an open world environment that features a variety of landscapes, and these can be used for tactical advantages. For instance, players can slide down rocky terrain and use mud to camouflage themselves. According to Ubisoft, Auroa is larger than the game world featured in Wildlands. Players have a variety of ways to traverse the open world, controlling various air, land and sea vehicles.
The game is planned to launch with four character classes. Ubisoft announced plans to make more classes available through post-launch updates. Each class has its own abilities; for example, the panther is a class oriented towards stealth and is able to throw smoke bombs. The player will be able to switch between classes in-game. Players have to gather intelligence in order to progress through the game and can use a variety of methods to approach missions. As in previous titles in the franchise, they can utilize a variety of weapons in combat, with the player’s repertoire expanded to include combat drones and rocket launchers to kill enemies. Alternatively, the player can use stealth to silently neutralize opponents. In Breakpoint, players can equip a variety of new weapons and gear such as a blowtorch to cut through fences, sulphur gas grenades to kill enemies, and electromagnetic pulse grenades to disable drones and vehicles. Players can carry corpses away and hide them so that enemies would not become alerted. Fallen enemies will leave loot for players to collect. Fallen teammates can also be carried away so as to revive them safely. Many of the new features added to Breakpoint were developed based on player feedback in Wildlands.
The game places a larger emphasis on survival than Wildlands. Enemies will be more numerous and the game will feature a wider range of enemy archetypes. These enemies will have access to many of the same weapons, skills and equipment that are available to the player. Enemies will respond more realistically to player actions and patrols wander the game world searching for the player. Ubisoft introduced these changes to give the player the sense that they were “no longer the most dangerous thing in the game world”. Players need to collect different resources in the game’s world and use them to craft resources such as bandages. Regular weapon maintenance checks are necessary to keep the weapons functional and the player will need to manage their character’s fatigue, hunger and hydration. Failing to do so may slow the player down, limit their ability to regenerate health, or cause them to make more noise while moving. The game uses a regenerative health system whereby the player character naturally recovers health, but serious injuries will impede the player character’s performance, as they will start limping and can no longer aim their weapon accurately.
Players can set up a bivouac shelter in order to heal themselves. The shelter is also the site where players can manage their weapons and inventory, customize their character and change the character’s classes. The game can be played with three other players cooperatively, or in single-player with squadmates Kim “Fury” Hernandez, Benjamin “Fixit” Jones and David “Vasily” Zhang controlled by artificial intelligence. The game was initially announced to have no AI squadmates, but the addition of AI squadmates was later amended as post-release content based due to negative feedback from players. Unlike previous Ghost Recon titles, Breakpoint will require a constant internet connection to play, in-part due to the game’s single-character progression system.
The game’s story features dialogue choices. These will not affect the main narrative, but instead enable players to gain intelligence that may aid in their missions. The game also features a mode called “Exploration” that was first used in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Unlike most open-world games where the player is given an objective marker to guide their progress, Breakpoint‘s Exploration mode gives the player a rough approximation of the area where an objective may be located. Their approximation can be refined by exploring the world or through investigating intelligence. A competitive multiplayer mode will be released at launch, and end-of-game content such as raids are set to be introduced post-release
Setting and characters
The game is set in the year 2025, six years after the events of Wildlands. The story takes place on Auroa, an island in the South Pacific owned by billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Jace Skell. Skell is the founder of Skell Technology, a blue chip company producing drones for commercial applications, but the company has also found success as a military contractor developing cutting-edge equipment for the United States government. Skell purchased Auroa with a vision of turning it into a hub for the design, research, development and production of artificial intelligence and drone technology, which he dubs “World 2.0”. The island is made up of a series of individual biomes including marine estuaries and wetlands, fjords, arboreal forests, snow-capped mountains and active volcanoes.
The main antagonist is former Ghost Lieutenant Colonel Cole D. Walker (Jon Bernthal), who has gone rogue after leaving the army. After witnessing his fireteam be slaughtered on a mission in Bolivia, Walker has come to believe that the United States government does not value the lives of its soldiers. A private military contractor named Sentinel has occupied the island under Walker’s command while Walker himself is leading a team of soldiers calling themselves the “Wolves”.
Returning characters from Ghost Recon Wildlands include the members of Nomad’s fireteam Dominic “Holt” Moretta, Corey “Weaver” Ward and Rubio “Midas” Delgado.
Story
Skell Technology starts coming under increased public scrutiny when they are faced with mounting evidence that its products are falling into the hands of corrupt regimes,and the island is abruptly cut off from the outside world. The United States government decides to investigate further when a cargo ship, the USS Seay, sinks off the coast of Auroa. The CIA launch Operation Greenstone, deploying a Ghost Recon platoon to re-establish contact with Auroa and determine the circumstances of the Seay‘s sinking. The insertion ends in disaster when the helicopters carrying the platoon are attacked by a swarm of drones. Nomad is the sole able-bodied survivor of the platoon; of his squadmates, Holt is seriously injured, Weaver is killed and Midas is missing.
My Personal Thoughts
I personally think about Ghost Recon Breakpoint is uneven and conflicted. On one hand it’s a natural sequel to 2017’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, offering a near-identical core gameplay loop of open-world espionage and shooting. On the other hand, Breakpoint is a messy hodgepodge of disparate ideas, pulling various aspects from other Ubisoft games and shoehorning them in, half-baked and out of place. Ghost Recon’s identity as a tactical shooter has evaporated and been replaced by a confused patchwork of elements and mechanics from other, better games. Its defining characteristic boils down to just how generic and stale the whole thing is.
The addition of loot and an ever-increasing gear score fits into the standard template of Ubisoft’s recent open-world games, whether it’s The Division 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, or even Far Cry New Dawn. Breakpoint fulfills its quota by including these light RPG mechanics, but the implementation of its loot grind feels like a severe afterthought. There are numerous pieces of armor to find and equip as you explore the fictional island of Auroa. The numbers attached to each one will raise or lower your gear score, but the effect this has on gameplay is entirely inconsequential. Rare loot might include small buffs like a 2% increase in stamina or a 1% increase to movement speed, yet the effects of these buffs are negligible, and armor doesn’t affect your damage resistance in any perceivable way. A level 5 beanie offers as much protection as a level 75 helmet, so these numbers only exist to raise a gear score that’s nothing more than a flimsy representation of your progress. You’re supposed to feel good about that number rising, but it’s difficult to care when there are no tangible benefits to picking one piece of armor over another. You just end up opting for whatever has the higher rating without any meaningful consideration.
Choosing which weapon to roll with requires slightly more deliberation, although this is mainly due to your preference for specific weapon types as opposed to the number attached to each. Breakpoint features the usual assortment of assault rifles, SMGs, shotguns, and sniper rifles, and these firearms function similarly to armour, with rare weapons receiving miniscule buffs to aspects like reload speed and recoil reduction. Again, the impact these stats have on gameplay is paltry at best, especially because shooting in Breakpoint is still geared towards landing headshots for an instant kill. This is a holdover from Wildlands and the series’ early beginnings as a somewhat “authentic” tactical shooter. The most heavily armored grunts in Breakpoint take two shots to the head to kill–one to take off their helmet, and another to finish the job–but every other enemy can be extinguished with a single bullet.
Weapons feel impactful as a result of this, successfully capturing the rush of being an elite special ops soldier that can take out four or five enemy combatants in a matter of seconds. But this also means the rarity of weapons and the gear score attached to them is ultimately meaningless. You can wander into an area recommended for players with a gear score of 140 with a significantly lower score and still kill every enemy without breaking a sweat. This amount of freedom would be commendable if it didn’t shine a derisive light on how shallow the RPG mechanics are.
The only enemies in the game that require a specific gear score to defeat are the killer drones dotted across the island. Encounters with these unmanned killing machines are few and far between, but because they don’t have heads and aren’t made of flesh and blood, they can be bullet sponges. Facing off against one of these drones is the only time the number next to your weapon actually matters, and even then they’re easier to destroy by using the rocket launchers, grenades, and mines found in your inventory, which don’t even have numbers attached to them. It’s another example of how Breakpoint isn’t a coherent match with Ghost Recon’s sensibilities, which are still reflected in the way headshots function, and the trivial impact that loot has on gameplay makes the constant switching and dismantling of each piece of gear an unnecessary timesink.
Breakpoint’s paper-thin survival mechanics are similarly underdeveloped, hinting at a tense experience that never comes to fruition. You carry a flask that you can refill in lakes, rivers, and even in someone’s backyard swimming pool for that sweet tasty chlorine. Water is used to replenish any lost stamina you’ve misplaced by over-exerting–usually by rolling down a hillside because Auroa is nearly bereft of flat ground. The island consists of diverse biomes including verdant woodlands, snow-capped mountain tops, and muggy swamps, but the common throughline in each environment is the presence of craggy cliffs and hillsides.
As a result, traversing on foot revolves around spending a lot of time sliding down undulating slopes. This quickly drains your stamina, sending you into an uncontrollable roll that inflicts damage with each nick and bump. Health regenerates over time, but if you suffer either a minor or major injury and don’t want to hobble everywhere, you need to use a syringe for instant pain relief or spend longer wrapping yourself up in bandages. Syringes are finite, yet you have an infinite supply of bandages that almost make the mechanic moot. There are never any anxious moments of desperation as you find yourself hindered with an empty medicine box. It’s easy enough to wrap yourself up after a tumble, and injuries in combat are rare enough that having to find a safe spot to pause is not something you have to consider very often. There are also bivouacs spread out across the map that are used as fast travel points and rest areas where you can apply specific buffs by eating, drinking, or aiming your gun at the sky to somehow improve its accuracy. You don’t have to gather food because it’s always available, and there’s some light crafting on the docket if you have the materials to restock your supply of explosives and gadgets.
Much like the loot, these light survival mechanics aren’t fleshed out enough to warrant any engagement beyond the limited amount you’re forced into. The story revolves around your character being stranded alone, trapped deep behind enemy lines. You’re outmanned and outgunned against an elite force equipped with a stolen fleet of devastating, unmanned killing machines. Stealth is encouraged, so much so that when you’re prone you can cover yourself in mud and foliage to blend into the environment and remain undetected. Each of these elements places an emphasis on survival, but Breakpoint constantly skirts around the edges, never committing to mechanics that would extend beyond the feeble survival aspects already included. The plane-like Azraël drone occasionally flies overhead, ready and raring to rain fiery destruction down upon your helpless human body. Yet all this means is that you’ll sometimes have to lie down and wait for it to pass before you can continue with what you were originally doing. You can see the inkling of some interesting ideas here, but Breakpoint never capitalizes on these and is ultimately a generic pastiche of what’s come before.
The gameplay loop is almost identical to Wildlands’: You send a drone into the sky, survey an enemy base, and mark targets before infiltrating in whichever manner you see fit. Navigating through a heavily fortified compound without being seen is still inherently satisfying. Each one is usually designed in a way so there are a number of enemies obscured from your drone’s vision. You might be able to pick off a handful of guards from a distance using a silenced sniper rifle, but at some point you’ll have to enter and find the rest. The only thing impeding your stealthy espionage is the fact you can’t move sideways while prone. Instead, you end up with these awkward animations because you can only turn at right angles. Taking cover is overly cumbersome, too. You do it automatically, but what the game deems as cover is inconsistent from one low wall to the next, and even if you do manage to get behind an object, whether you can shoot over it or not is another question. Though this would be a bigger problem if the AI were the least bit competent.
Enemies in Breakpoint are mind-numbingly dumb to the point where playing on the highest difficulty doesn’t present a significantly harder challenge. Their reaction to a buddy getting shot in front of them is often one of confusion; they’ll stand still in the open instead of scurrying for cover. They don’t fare much better in the midst of combat, either, running between the same two pieces of cover without engaging you or seemingly forgetting you exist. Occasionally they might try to flank your blindside, but more often than not their strategy boils down to charging directly at you, making it incredibly easy to line up your shots and dispatch a few in a row. Bottlenecks like corridors and doorways are by far their worst enemy, though. Sit down one end of a straight corridor and it doesn’t take long for the bodies to pile up. You can even shoot the ground at the entrance to a base and kill each enemy who comes to investigate. Factor in the disappointing fact that enemies don’t so much as flinch when getting shot in the body, and none of this is conducive to enjoyable combat.
Shooting other players in the Ghost War PvP mode fares better since real people tend to have their wits about them compared to the AI. Unlike Wildlands, Breakpoint cleverly unifies progression across both single- and multiplayer. All of your weapons and skills carry over, and any rewards you unlock can be brought back into single-player, too. Elimination and Sabotage make up the game modes on offer, the former ending when one team is eliminated, while the latter functions in much the same way with an additional win condition based on one team successfully planting and destroying a bomb. Matches generally turn into long-range sniper battles due to each map’s wide-open spaces and the fact that a single shot from a sniper is enough to kill somebody. The best matches in Ghost War are tense affairs, especially since you only have a single life unless a teammate can perform a successful revive. The issues with Breakpoint’s cumbersome cover mechanics and awkward prone movement are only exacerbated in multiplayer, however.
It can also be difficult just getting into a match of Ghost War due to relatively frequent server issues. Breakpoint is an always-online game, even if you’re playing alone in single-player. The servers have run into a few problems since the game’s full release, and it’s incredibly frustrating to be kicked back to the main menu and have to restart a mission all over again when you’re not even engaging with the multiplayer portion of the game. If you do want to do so, the servers are running smoothly, and you can get some like-minded friends together, there’s definitely some fun to be had in Breakpoint’s four-person co-op. Silently clearing a base of its enemies is more gratifying with four people. You can plan ahead, simultaneously approach the compound through different entrances, and time sync shots together. It’s more chaotic with strangers but you can jump into matches with random players if you fancy a taste of open-world chaos.
There is, however, some dissonance between co-op and the story painting you as a lone soldier, although this is much more egregious in Breakpoint’s social hub. You can play the whole game solo, but mission givers all hang out in this homely cave where you’ll also find 50 or so other players. Your character is literally called Nomad, and yet you’re in a space with a bunch of other Nomads, all standing around the same NPC like it’s an MMO. And the story’s not great either way. Jon Bernthal elevates every scene he’s in, chewing up the scenery to deliver simmering monologues befitting a villain with a dubious moral code. The writing is mostly cheesy, though, with some flat voice acting and predictable twists. The inventor of the island’s killer drones develops a minor Oppenheimer complex when he realises his creations can be used to kill innocent people, but this aspect isn’t explored beyond surface level, and that applies to the rest of the narrative too.
Much like the loot, the light survival mechanics aren’t fleshed out enough to warrant any engagement beyond the limited amount you’re forced into.
The presence of the social hub and the effect it has on diminishing the story would’ve been worse if the story were better. As it is, the social hub seems to exist to guide players towards Breakpoint’s myriad microtransactions. Maybe that’s an overly cynical viewpoint, but why else would you gather players in an open space other than to encourage them to show off by purchasing fancy new cosmetics? You can buy tattoos, shirts, masks, hats, weapons, vehicles, and more. Purchasing in-game money also comes in denominations that ensure you’re always spending more than you need. You don’t have to engage with any of this stuff, and it’s easy enough to ignore, but this microtransaction structure is predatory by design.
It would make sense if the addition of loot were in service of guiding people to spend real money on better guns, but even then the stats are so meaningless it would take a lot of convincing. There’s some surprising fun to be had stealthily infiltrating enemy compounds and playing with friends, but Breakpoint is still a generic and distinctly sub-par game. It’s essentially every Ubisoft open-world game rolled into one, failing to excel in any one area or establish its own identity. Breakpoint is a messy, confused game and a ghost of the series’ former self.
In Short: Something of a greatest hits collection of ideas from Ubisoft’s other open world games but it also has some fun new ideas of its own… as well as a mountain of glitches and microtransactions.
Pros: A massive amount of content, addictive gear score upgrading, fun feats of marksmanship against horribly unbalanced odds, and a setting that won’t offend any Bolivians.
Cons: The focus on microtransactions in a £60 game is deeply offensive. Laundry list of bugs, largely redundant gun upgrade system, and the worst dialogue and voice-acting in a AAA game this gen.
I will rate this game 6/10.
Developer(s)
Ubisoft Paris
Publisher(s)
Ubisoft
Director(s)
Eric Couzian
Producer(s)
Nouredine Abboud (Executive Producer)
Writer(s)
Emil Daubon David Gallaher
Composer(s)
Alain Johannes Alessandro Cortini
Series
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
Engine
AnvilNext 2.0
Platform(s)
Google Stadia Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One
The Last of Us is an action–adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 in June 2013, and for the PlayStation 4 in July 2014. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post–apocalyptic United States. The Last of Us is played from a third–person perspective. Players use firearms and improvised weapons, and can use stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus. In the online multiplayer mode, up to eight players engage in cooperative and competitive gameplay.
In combat, the player can use long-range weapons, such as rifles, shotguns, and bows, and short-range weapons such as handguns and short-barreled shotguns. The player is able to scavenge limited-use melee weapons, such as pipes and baseball bats, and throw bottles and bricks to distract, stun, or attack enemies. The player can upgrade weapons at workbenches using collected items. Equipment such as health kits, shivs, and Molotov cocktails can be found or crafted using collected items. Attributes such as the health meter and crafting speed can be upgraded by collecting pills and medicinal plants. Health can be recharged through the use of health kits.
Plot
In September 2013, an outbreak of a mutant Cordyceps fungus ravages the United States, transforming its human hosts into aggressive creatures known as the Infected. In the suburbs of Austin, Texas, Joel (Troy Baker) flees the chaos with his brother Tommy (Jeffrey Pierce) and daughter Sarah (Hana Hayes). As they flee, Sarah is shot by a soldier and dies in Joel’s arms. Twenty years later, civilization has been decimated by the infection. Survivors live in heavily policed quarantine zones, independent settlements, and nomadic groups. Joel works as a smuggler with his partner Tess (Annie Wersching) in the quarantine zone in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts. They hunt down Robert (Robin Atkin Downes), a black–market dealer, to recover a stolen weapons cache. Before Tess kills him, Robert reveals that he traded the cache with the Fireflies, a rebel militia opposing the quarantine zone authorities.
The leader of the Fireflies, Marlene (Merle Dandridge), promises to double their cache in return for smuggling a teenage girl, Ellie (Ashley Johnson), to Fireflies hiding in the Massachusetts State House outside the quarantine zone. Joel, Tess, and Ellie sneak out in the night, but after an encounter with a government patrol, they discover Ellie is infected. Full infection normally occurs in under two days, but Ellie claims she was infected three weeks ago and that her immunity may lead to a cure. The trio make their way to their destination through hordes of the infected, but find that the Fireflies there have been killed. Tess reveals she has been bitten by an infected and, believing in Ellie’s importance, sacrifices herself against pursuing soldiers so Joel and Ellie can escape. Joel decides to find Tommy, a former Firefly, in the hope that he can locate the remaining Fireflies. With the help of Bill (W. Earl Brown), a smuggler and survivalist who owes Joel a favor, they acquire a working vehicle from Bill’s neighborhood. Driving into Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Joel and Ellie are ambushed by bandits and their car is wrecked. They ally with two brothers, Henry (Brandon Scott) and Sam (Nadji Jeter). After they escape the city, Sam is bitten by an infected but hides it from the group. As his infection takes hold, Sam attacks Ellie, but Henry shoots him dead and immediately afterwards commits suicide out of grief.
In the fall, Joel and Ellie finally find Tommy in Jackson County, Colorado, where he has assembled a fortified settlement near a hydroelectric dam with his wife Maria (Ashley Scott). Joel decides to leave Ellie with Tommy, but after she confronts him about Sarah, he decides to let her stay with him. Tommy directs them to a Fireflies enclave at the University of Eastern Colorado. They find the university abandoned, but learn that the Fireflies have moved to a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Afterward, the two are attacked by bandits and Joel is severely wounded while escaping.
During the winter, Ellie and Joel shelter in the mountains. Joel is on the brink of death and relies on Ellie to care for him. Hunting for food, Ellie encounters David (Nolan North) and James (Reuben Langdon), scavengers willing to trade medicine for food; despite initially appearing friendly and cooperative, David turns hostile after revealing the university bandits were part of his group. Ellie manages to lead David’s group away from Joel, but is eventually captured; David intends to recruit her into his cannibal group. Refusing the offer, she escapes after killing James, but David corners her in a burning restaurant. Meanwhile, Joel recovers from his wounds and sets out to find Ellie. He reaches Ellie as she kills David and breaks down crying; Joel comforts her before they flee.
In the spring, Joel and Ellie arrive in Salt Lake City. Ellie is rendered unconscious after almost drowning, before they are captured by a Firefly patrol. In the hospital, Marlene tells Joel that Ellie is being prepared for surgery: in hope of producing a vaccine for the infection, the Fireflies must remove the infected portion of Ellie’s brain, which will kill her. Unwilling to let Ellie die, Joel battles his way to the operating room and carries the unconscious Ellie to the parking garage. He is confronted by Marlene, whom he shoots and kills to prevent the Fireflies from pursuing them. On the drive out of the city, when Ellie wakes up, Joel claims that the Fireflies had found many other immune people but were unable to create a cure, and that they have stopped trying. On the outskirts of Tommy’s settlement, Ellie expresses her survivor guilt. At her insistence, Joel swears his story about the Fireflies is true.
My Personal Thoughts
Adolescents have it particularly tough in the zombie apocalypse. Everyone around them is obsessed with survival–which is certainly understandable–but every ounce of a teenager’s instincts is pushing him or her toward goofing off. The psychological toll of burying your most basic desires must be exhausting. Left Behind presents this unique point of view through Ellie, the extraordinary heroine from The Last of Us, and it’s hard to resist laughing along with her when her childlike nature is on full display. Don’t expect this prequel to ignore the dark cloud that hovers ominously overhead, though. By examining Ellie’s plight through the lens of such a bleak existence, we grow ever closer to her, and realize how devastating one’s life in such a world would be.
Riley sneaks into Ellie’s room before the sun rises, pouncing upon her sleeping body while mimicking a hissing neck bite. Obviously terrified that an infected is eating her alive, Ellie tosses Riley to the ground before pulling a knife from beneath her pillow. Jokes aren’t quite as funny when there are monsters lurking. We soon learn that these two best friends had a falling out a month back, and while Ellie is going through training in a military school, Riley has joined the rebel Fireflies. Grievances quickly forgotten, the two risk punishment from their superiors by sneaking into the dangerous city they call home.
There’s a relaxed back-and-forth between Ellie and Riley that’s a marked change from the uneasy chatter that dominated The Last of Us. Ellie is playful and open with Riley, always ready with a quip and eager to experience everything that life has to offer. A few years older than Ellie, Riley soon takes charge, though her direction is subtle. She’s more of an older sister than a guardian. Their destination: an empty mall without any electricity. Or so Ellie thought. When Ellie flicks the power generator, the lights come on, and the two girls are free to explore the shattered remains of what was once a rich and wasteful society.
The Last of Us™ Remastered_20140801201111
Watching these two characters interact is heartwarming. As they try on masks in a Halloween shop, their joy is infectious, and I was nodding along with Ellie when she remarked how much junk people used to buy. Such bric-a-brac must be difficult to understand if you live among people who cherish only the bare necessities. Still, Ellie doesn’t turn her nose up at the novelties around her. As you wander through that store, there’s a Magic 8 Ball that looks like a skeleton’s head. Sure, you could shake it just once if you’re in a hurry, or bolt right through the door to the next area, but once I realized that Ellie had a lot of questions in mind, I kept going back to it until she ran out of things to say. Such moments made me happy. To see Ellie in her own element, acting like the kid that she still is, was so real and genuine that I didn’t want to see it end.
Much of Left Behind is composed of these playful scenes, but there’s more going on beneath the surface. As you explore the many stores of the mall, Riley and Ellie keep up a running dialogue. Having the emphasis placed on wandering around the desolate environments is a welcome change from the tense combat encounters that dominated the main game. The focus is primarily on getting to know Riley and understanding more of Ellie’s motivations, so it’s a relief not to have their bonding interrupted. You want to know more. You want to find out what caused them to fight, what Riley’s future plans are, and how they’re coping with their depressing reality.
The Last of Us™ Remastered_20140803063915
Interspersed between these scenes of Riley and Ellie is a hectic situation that takes place a few years in the future. Here, Ellie has already begun her journey with Joel, although she is by herself during this time. And any thoughts of aimless discovery have been banished. Surrounded by roaming zombies and deadly mercenaries, she must use all of her survival abilities to make it through unscathed.
It’s here that Left Behind more closely resembles the mood that permeated The Last of Us. Ellie lives in a terrible place where every living thing could be considered an enemy. Death is her only companion, always painfully present as she moves slowly through the tattered environments. Going between the lighthearted early days and the foreboding doom years later is so jarring that it’s almost too much to bear. When she’s with Riley, Ellie laughs so loudly that I would hold my breath, scared that a clicker would hear her. Even though no infected were around, I couldn’t forget their terrible wrath. She’s so young, so naive, that she hadn’t yet learned to be cautious at all times. And when you’re alone in the sections without Riley, you feel the weight of the change of the last few years. Now she realizes that death is one loud noise away. I wanted her to stay young forever, ignorant to the threats lurking, while understanding that she needed to grow up fast if she was going to survive. Of course, such different mindsets are impossible, and I was sad to see how quickly her carefree disposition was ripped away.
So I cherished those scenes with Riley and Ellie. When they happen upon a photo booth, they make faces and shriek giddily when their silly mugs are captured. But they can’t print out the pictures. And that goes along with the major theme of Left Behind. We see a brief, happy snapshot from Ellie’s life with Riley, but we can’t take it with us. Her childhood has to come to an end at some point.
When you’re playing as Ellie alone, there are threats around you. There are no jokes here, nothing to distract you from the dour proceedings. When the first fight erupted against the zombie menace, I recoiled. Extreme violence was the norm in The Last of Us, but after spending so much time in peaceful tranquility in Left Behind, I had forgotten how harsh this world was. And I hated that Ellie had become accustomed to her role so quickly. Though Ellie must kill many times during the course of this three-hour story, it’s always uncomfortable. It’s never accepted that this is just the way things are. It’s to the game’s credit that you’re placed on the defensive in combat. Ellie doesn’t want to fight–she has to–so you reluctantly kill your foes because that’s the only option.
Still, it’s disappointing that one section can be completed only when every enemy has been exterminated. As the fight was wearing down, a few zombies were quite a distance away, well out of sight, and yet I could not open the door that stood locked before me. Forcing Ellie to systematically kill everything felt dirty, as if the game were pushing Ellie down a violent path that’s opposed to who she is during the somber cutscenes. Or at least who I wanted her to be.
In many ways, the fights are identical to what The Last of Us offered. The crumbling wasteland of the postapocalypse serves as your battlefield, and you must make smart use of the overturned tables and smashed windows if you’re going to survive the stalking threats. Ellie is quick with a bow and pistol, and can craft smoke bombs, nail bombs, and Molotov cocktails if you need something more explosive. The most important items aren’t traditional weapons at all; rather, they’re bottles and bricks. Ellie has little health, and there aren’t many items scattered about to craft a surplus of medical packs, so you need to stay out of sight. That’s where the bottles and bricks come in. Instead of letting your position be known by firing a gun, you can stun infected and humans by tossing an object at their face and then rushing in to finish them off with a knife. Disturbing? No doubt. But very effective.
There is one addition to the combat that fundamentally changed how I approached fights. In The Last of Us, zombies and mercenaries never mingled. Here, the mercs may be in for an unpleasant surprise when they’re hunting you. You see, infected don’t like any humans at all, so they’re just as happy to go after a gun-toting soldier as they are a teenage girl. If you toss a bottle toward the armed guards, you can draw the attention of the diseased monsters, and then watch from a safe distance as the two sides fight. I admit that I found pleasure in hearing the mercenaries cry for help when surrounded by infected. They were trying to kill Ellie, after all, so they deserved a violent end. Plus, the mercenaries would undoubtedly kill at least some of the infected, so it made my job much easier once their fight was over.
LAST OF US PART 1 TRAILER( 2013)
Conclusion
Left Behind is a hugely successful add-on to The Last of Us. When I played through the main game last year, I had trouble connecting to Joel, because his rough demeanor and questionable choices left a bitter taste in my mouth. So it was a relief that his desperation was nowhere to be found in Left Behind. Instead, the story focuses on love and hope. Seeing how Ellie acts with a peer, a friend, gave me new appreciation for her, and Riley offers another strong character to latch on to. The focus on exploration also lets the well-realized environments breathe, and gives you plenty of time to take in the current state of the world. And when a combat encounter surfaces, it’s so much more impactful considering how rare fights are and the exhausting tension that accompanies each battle. Left Behind is an excellent addition that gives further insight into the chilling world of The Last of Us and its most interesting character. As you know in 2019Last of us 2 Part coming. As you guys must be excited and me too for this game, because after long time Ellie got big girl and in trailer, we also seen that how much more realistic graphics and more fighting scenes. We will able to see and i will highly recommend this game to play and I will rate on its first part is 9/10.
Developer(s)
Naughty Dog
Publisher(s)
Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)
Bruce StraleyNeil Druckmann
Designer(s)
Jacob Minkoff
Programmer(s)
Travis McIntoshJason Gregory
Artist(s)
Erick PangilinanNate Wells
Writer(s)
Neil Druckmann
Composer(s)
Gustavo Santaolalla
Platform(s)
PlayStation 3PlayStation 4
Release
PlayStation 3 June 14, 2013 PlayStation 4NA: July 29, 2014PAL: July 30, 2014UK: August 1, 2014
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the latest game from Dark Souls developers. It’s set in a fantasy vision of Sengoku Japan, in the middle of a conflict between the Ashina and Hirata clans. You play a rogue shinobi called Sekiro—the one-armed wolf—charged with protecting a young lord who has the coveted power to defy death. It’s more of an action game than an RPG. You pick up new prosthetic arms and learn new combat techniques, and even put skill points into a few upgrade trees. Don’t expect to be fiddling with armour stats: this is a game about brief, deadly battles in an age of kunai and katanas.
Plot
Story revolves around ancient japan when samurai use to fight for throne. Starting of game we see their is a fight between two people. After that one person dies and other says General Tamura is no more. After finishing the Battle Master owl sees a child and after seeing this master makes him student and calls him lone wolf.
Story now takes after 20 years when child gets adult now. Master told Sekiro that u need to find young Lord. After finding him he escapes with young Lord but in between a dangerous warrior comes. Our wolf fights with him but he losses match and also lost his hand. And that dangerous warrior takes away young lord too. After sometime when his eyes open he find himself somewhere else in the temple and he sees someone repair my arm and notice that their is a man. Man told him I am the one who saved you and repair your hand. Man says you must need to win and change everything.
After that wolf finds path and travel back to old master. After finding master he sees all the houses are burn in his village but master notice him and gives him a key of mansion to save young lord. Master says to wolf that now young lord is your everything you need to protect your lord, and master dies. After he meets up a friend and plan to attack with him to mansion. And both of them fights samurai in mansion but in last wolf friend get badly injured. And his friend told that our enemy so much strong that they have done some illusion magic on young lord. And to save young lord is impossible.
Their is one last chance to save lord you need to use snap seed. Later he finds out lord but he was in no more in his senses. Wolf tries to help lord but he failed and suddenly a women appear by the name of Butterfly and she says u cant take lord u need to first kill me. Wolf and lady fights and wolf kills her but suddenly a man stabs in his stomach and wolf starting losses his senses. Suddenly lord regain senses and says to wolf I am here for u and your are so much loyal worrior . I will not let you die take my blood.
After that wolf gets back in senses and alive and finds himself in temple with a Monk. And in this scene we know that lord divine blood is magical. By lord Devine blood enemies want to make a immortal army. Again wolf gets back to mission and kills lots of master and samurai. And later we find in a scene Lord Genichiro makes offer to Lord Divine to be with him but lord divine says no to him. And Genichiro is the dangerous samurai who almost killed Sekiro. After sometime wold finds Genichiro and Lord divine and fights with him and kills him this time. After winning wold talks to lord but suddenly Genichiro regains his senses and run away. Lord and wolf makes a deal we will finish all evil from earth.
And wolf again goes to journey and finds grandfather of Genichiro where his grandfather told, I want you kill my son because he is no more humanity left inside him. And he told to wolf if u need to kill him you need to find mortal blade first then you can have a chance of killing him easily.
He again travels to search of mortal blade and for that he fights with big monsters, samurai and monks to enter in temple where he finish the illusion. After wolf finds out a good monk he told if u want to finish all the illusion technique you need to defeat 3 monkeys. 1 monkey cant see but have good senses of hearing and 2 one cant listen but he has a sharpness in his eyes and last but not the least he cant speak but he can see and listen you. So wolf defeats monkeys and finishes all illusion and gets in real temple and finds out their a monk (young girl). She says nobody ever able to take blade. Wolf says I will take it and then suddenly he touches and dies. But wolf was cursed by dragon heritage and alive again and takes blade back to young Lord. After monk tells her to save village from evil.
Where wolf kills all evil guys and suddenly he notice that his old master is alive and asking forcefully blood from Lord divine. Here comes a choice question in game you need to choose whom u wanna kill master or Divine. So, I choose master and kills him and divine takes to temple and where lord makes blade more stronger by his magic.
After he goes to last mission and kills dragon and takes his eyes. And he goes to temple and finds out lord Egine dies because of disease. Wolf finds out that lord got injured by Genichiro and wolf gets in angry mood and kills him and later he gives dragon tear to lord Divine and wolf kills himself to save his lord. And in the end we see Lord and one other person doing prayer on Sekiro cementry.
My Personal Thoughts
I think Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice game launch by dark souls developer is a very nice game and very good graphics and in this game we shown how A warrior name Sekiro is so much loyal to his lord and protects his Lord from everyone. Even in the last he gives his life for Lord to save him. Japanese culture is shown in this game very beautifully. And how much they are so much respectful to their laws and order. Game developer thinking is good even the direction of game in ancient culture of Japanese shown very nicely. I think Japanese is not only popular for anime also but for games now.
Creater of game has given nice visual and graphics are so realistic and story is so sad and emotional too. Even story is not complicated and very decent plot shown.
May be in future we will see part 2 of this game because this game was ended in this part only. May be their can be different story. Lets hope we will learn more about Japanese culture from games.
I personally like a lot Japanese related anime, games and samurai especially their sword. You can find this game combat style like a Prince of Persia. But still it is a different game with different benefits. And as we know we have many famous Japanese games like Devil May Cry and Jump Force and many more. Those Japanese games are made so nicely and with realistic graphics. These are only my opinions on game.
Conclusion
And there you have it, how to get all four Sekiro endings, minus the small inconvenience of actually having to beat the various bosses you’ll encounter along the way.The different Sekiro endings can also have an impact on the length of the game and which bosses you fight.
So, it isn’t just a matter of getting a different cutscene or trophy at the end of the game. It makes for a genuinely different experience depending on which ending you go for, so it is worth trying to get them all. Though, just completing the game once is a pretty titanic accomplishment, so we hold it against you if you just want to stick to the one playthrough. The good news is we have a guide for you covering how to get all four finales, so follow along closely. I will highly recommend this game to play. And I will rate this game 9/10.And this game is also available in Windows Xbox One andPlayStation.
Man of Medan, the first entry in Supermassive Game’s Dark Pictures Anthology, isn’t particularly scary. If it were a movie, it’d be the kind that releases direct to video, one of those schlocky DVDs lining the convenience store displays stuffed between the trail mix and sunglasses. The usual character archetypes are there: the nerd, the hunk, the blonde, the stranger, the horny creep that no one should put up with but do because at least one death should be cathartic. Queue up the ghost ship, murderous pirates, and cheap jump scares galore.
As a film, it would be fun, but familiar and forgettable. You have to have a taste for it. But as co-op adventure game, Man of Medan is unparalleled.
Man of Medan plays a lot like Supermassive’s previous PS4 exclusive, Until Dawn. Think of it like a movie where you take control of one character at a time, oscillating between action scenes broken up by quicktime events and dialogue choices. Occasionally there’s a small stretch of exploration where you’re given some time to look for story clues, weapons, traps, and soak in the setting. It’s very Telltale (RIP).
PLOT
The intro of Man of Medan is a short prologue that sets up the scene and introduces us to two Army men, Joe and Charlie, who are stationed on the Ourang Medan sometime post World War II.
After having a few beers at a dockside market in Manchuria (a location in Northeast Asia), Joe ends up having his fortune told by a mysterious, Chinese fortuneteller.
Depending on the dialogue choices chosen here, Joe hears his fate and pretty much brushes it off and doesn’t think much of it.
Joe and Charlie then go back on the ship in a drunken state and they both get in trouble with their sergeant for their disorderly conduct, resulting in them being locked up in their cells.
Meanwhile, Joanna’s playing as Captain Fliss, cooly rejecting Conrad the Creep’s every pickup line. (In my second solo playthrough, they get to second base. I was curious!) But I only know what Joanna tells me, so when she says a boat is rapidly approaching our own, I start to worry. I really start to worry when the boat speeds off and drags the diver line across the front of the plane, knocking the cockpit clean off.
Imagine how I feel when I see two explosions up top as I surface. Do I swim up and risk giving Julia the bends or stay cool and depressurize with her neurotic boyfriend? At least he didn’t just ask Julia to marry him this time around. The next playthrough, he does, and I send Julia paddling to the surface ASAP. No thanks, pal.
It’s my turn to listen to Joanna panic and explain what’s happening while juggling her own potent dialogue choices or quicktime events—I’m in the dark. Eventually Joanna gets some vital info across that informs my next move. We take our time to depressurize, but in my next solo run I give Julia the bends on purpose. Then I make her drink beer. Things don’t end well for Julia without Joanna’s moral guidance.
Apply that framework to even more threatening and complex scenarios. Rather than relationship problems, safe diving protocol, and mystery explosions, it’s all vengeful men with knives, grim spectres, and the kind of monsters you may or may not expect to find on an abandoned ship with a dark history. Things get messy.
Half of Man of Medan keeps Joanna and I separated, playing unique, interconnected scenes at the same time. And based on the clues our characters discover, the decisions we make for them, and which discoveries and decisions we choose to share, we’re able to both avoid disaster and steer headlong into it. To make things trickier, not every character’s perspective is completely reliable, not every successfully tapped-out quick time event is a win, and not every noble choice leads to a noble outcome. Picking up on little details pays off in that first run.
Alone, I’m a nihilistic monster. Together, we’re the hot people rescue force playing what essentially amounts to telephone and two adventure games simultaneously. It’s a tense, hilarious combo.
My Personal Thoughts
ManThe Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan has everything you could ever love in a horror game. To start with, it is based on an allegedly real ghost ship called the SS Ourang Medan. Then, it uses eerie visuals and creepy sounds to mess with your head. To top it all, your life in the game is determined by the choices made by others. of Medan puts you and some friends right in the middle of a horror story, letting you tough it out together or throw each other under the bus. The choice is yours The game features three modes—solo mode, an online multiplayer and a local multiplayer, also known as the movie night mode. The most vanilla of the three modes is “solo”.
The story in this mode is linear and since you control all the characters, there is little that is unpredictable. The choices you make for your character traits also seem less inconsequential in this mode. That said, the game does manage to get its way, especially through psychological fear, with more than its fair share of jump scares. Though the jump scares are cheap, in most cases it works well to create the environment and get the adrenalin going.
In the co-op modes, however, the Medan is another beast altogether. Here, both online and offline, you can assign characters to friends or players online—up to five of them. The story unravels through the eyes of each character and the big draw here is that you get to make your own choices. These choices don’t only affect the outcome of the game, but also your character’s traits and those of the supporting characters.
This potentially adds another dimension to the game, as you don’t know what choices the next person is going to make.
The overarching story of the game is strictly okay; it engages in a lot of clichés and that is slightly annoying, when playing the game in solo mode. The characters look like a standard horror group. It feels like we have watched this bunch in some similar movie before. While Medan is based on real people, the animation and the graphics are subpar, making the movements and animated sequences robotic. It made it hard to connect with the characters. The connection is a little easier to make when you are playing with other people, as you are focused on one character.
Another potential problem is the fixed camera angles. To make the player feel like they are in a claustrophobic situation with nowhere to run, the developer, Supermassive Games, has gone with fixed cameras. This plays out in some scenes nicely, delivering jump scares and the feeling of dread, but most of the time, it comes in the way of exploring. The tradeoff is not really worth it.
Despite many flaws, Man of Medan is a perfect game for a movie night, where every person gets to play a different character. If you are planning some get-together during the upcoming festival season, this should be on your list of activities. If you are looking for a horror game to play alone, there are many others that will deliver better results.
My Simple Explanation 