Review: The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

Plenty of innovation in the gaming industry comes from Japan and North America.  While these developers continue to push boundaries and reshape the landscape of our beloved medium, more often than not it seems that our European colleagues are forced to take a back seat thanks to incredibly large marketing campaigns and press demonstrations that simply can’t be afforded by anyone not being published by the likes of EA, Ubisoft or any of other large houses.  One brand that thankfully has pierced this veil has been The Witcher, a series based on Polish fantasy novel series.  CD Projekt RED, the developer behind the video game adaptations, released the first two games on PC this generation.  Prior to their announcement of The Witcher 3 though the team has chosen to release an updated version of the second game, Assassins of Kings, and port it to the Xbox 360, the team’s first home console project.

Assassins of Kings received rave reviews when it was released last year but, a year later and on a brand new platform, does The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition find itself well adapted to gamers with inadequate PCs?

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The Second Coming of the White Wolf

Based on the novel series started by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski in the 90s, the universe of The Witcher takes place on what is simply known as The Continent.  Dominated by humans who relegate all other species to the status of being second class citizens, the land is primarily divided into two major regions: the ever-growing Nilfgaardian Empire in the south and the divided Northern Kingdoms.  In a world of Elves, Dwarves, Trolls and all manner of magic folk, the citizens of this world live in constant threat of the monsters and evil creatures that lurk in the shadows.  Where a brigade of soldiers or a powerful mage fail there are those amongst us who border on being monsters themselves, ones whose abilities and powers bridge the gap between mage and warrior.  These rare beings are known as witchers.

Once human, witchers are mutated at a young age and given supernatural abilities allowing them to see in the dark and exercise limited amounts of magic.  These mercenaries are both hated and yet a necessity to quell the threat of the monsters of the world and few are more famous than Geralt of Rivia, the series’ protagonist.  Several months prior, Geralt had served and saved King Foltest of the Northern Kingdom of Tameria from an assassin.  Grateful, Foltest employs Geralt as a bodyguard.

At the start of Assassins of Kings, Geralt is imprisoned in the dungeon of La Valette castle, a fortress King Foltest had laid siege to in an attempt to quell a rebellion.  Geralt recounts his story to fellow brother in arms Vernon Roche who reveals that, on the cusp of victory, Foltest was murdered by a witcher assassin who escaped just in time to frame Geralt for the crime.  Believing him, Roche aids Geralt in escaping the castle and, with the aid of sorceress Triss Marigold, the trio set out to find the assassin and bring light to this sinister conspiracy.

Like most large RPG releases on the market today, The Witcher 2 makes a point of giving the player choices, both minor and major, that shape the plot.  Some might be as small and simple as creating a trap that later aids in a boss fight.  Others, such as one major one you have to make in the first chapter, can change the course of the rest of the game and have severe end-game consequences.  Unlike other titles however these choices feel a bit more personal and direct in terms of action and result, making these moments feel far more important than in a game like Mass Effect.

Probably the most intriguing part of the choices present to the player is the nature of them.  Most RPGs tend to employ a morality system and weave these choices in to present a plot that diverges based on good/evil decisions.  The Witcher 2 doesn’t utilize this gameplay structure however, instead opting for a design which has mostly morally gray ones.  More often than not there is no right or wrong decision to be made in the game and, despite some of them resulting in dire, world altering moments, CD Projekt RED’s focus on Geralt’s story rather than trying to deliberately change the world as a whole makes for a far more interesting and wondrous experience.

One issue I could not help finding myself at odds with though was just how much The Witcher 2 makes mention of the previous game’s story.  As a newcomer to the Witcher universe as well as a console player I became quite confused at most of the instances that discussed the events of the first game.  Had The Witcher been released on consoles as well I’d be more inclined to dismiss this as Xbox 360 owners would have the option to play it but, given the previous game’s platform exclusivity and the lack of inclusion of a preamble explaining who Geralt is and what his previous exploits encompassed, it results in quite a bit of player confusion.  Assassins of Kings instead does little more than continue the plot set up in the first game and forces the player to learn about people and things like the Grand Master and the Golden Dragon on their own in the game’s quest codex.  The information provided is ample but, for a game that puts such a strong emphasis on story, it doesn’t provide much context for newcomers.

Despite this, The Witcher 2 delivers a strong narrative that will keep you wanting to play far later into the evening than you should.  With a strong story and side quests you can find yourself putting in well over forty hours in a single playthrough.  Couple this with branching story paths and multiple endings and the result is a game that almost demands being played through twice if not more.  You’ll come away satisfied with the story and quite excited for the prospects of The Witcher 3.

The Butcher of Blaviken

Despite having been born and raised on the PC, The Witcher 2’s Xbox 360 port makes the game almost feels like it is better suited for a controller than a mouse and keyboard.  Some PC quirks such as the lack of procedural movement for analog sticks and more mouse friendly menus unfortunately do make the transition to the console but, for the most part, it is a fine translation.  The arrangement of the buttons fits most of the appropriate actions taken normally in the game and they flow quite well so you should find yourself getting the hang of most of the in-game actions within at least the first hour or so.

Combat in The Witcher 2 is an exercise in patience and is certainly difficult to master.  Despite the controls being fairly adaptable, the gameplay forces the player to focus almost entirely on playing defense.  Geralt does regenerate health over time but it takes a decidedly long time to regain it, lasting well past your most recent battle.  Players will not find anything resembling a standard health item for instant regeneration either so dodging and blocking the attacks of your enemies is an absolute necessity.  Unlike other hack-n-slash games you’ll find yourself staring at the ‘game over’ screen more often than you’d like even on normal.  It isn’t nearly as difficult and repetitive a games as the likes of Dark Souls but it can still be quite difficult at times.  Several enemies in particular can be especially heinous in just how punishing they can be so take some advice from me: save, and save often.

As a witcher, Geralt is forced to face enemies both sentient and not but, unfortunately, his variety of weapons doesn’t allow for much variety in combat.  Players can equip two primary weapons at any given time, one dedicated for human and elven combat while keeping a default silver sword for fighting monsters.  Players can trade out their normal sword for an axe, club and other items but, more often than not, the game will hand you a new sword to use.  Shields cannot be equipped, nor can items like spears and halberds despite many of your opponents using them.  Geralt may be a professional monster hunter but, despite definitely having the skill to take on the task, CD Projekt seems intent on keeping his weapons focused on blades and not much else.

To augment Geralt’s paltry weapon selection though our main character has access to magic spells known as Signs.  Players have immediate access to all five signs in the game upon startup with a sixth being unlockable provided the player does some strong character leveling.  Each of these abilities have distinct advantages and disadvantages but you will find yourself falling back on one in particular for the majority of the game: Quen, a spell that protects you from a certain amount of damage, is easily the game’s biggest combat-related crutch.  Signs are definitely helpful in being forced to take on multiple opponents and since you magic quota regenerates considerably faster than your vitality, you can easily find yourself using several different spells multiple times during a conflict.

Pursuers of the Wild Hunt

CD Projekt RED’s initial launch of The Witcher 2 last year yielded a phenomenal graphics powerhouse of a game, stunning gamers in a way not really done on the PC since Crysis.  I’m happy to report that the transition to the Xbox 360 has yielded minimal issues and compromises. Throughout many parts of the game you might find yourself a bit stunned as to the presentation brought forth, the first chapter of the game in particular showing off a fantastic looking forest.  The nature of these graphically beautiful worlds does a great job of disguising just how compact each hub area in the game actually is, though it is a bit disappointing once you can see through the facade.  Character models look great, dialog syncing is spot on and, aside from the occasional facial mocap bug, every character emotes in a believable manner.

The audio portion of the game’s presentation is probably one of this year’s best 5.1 surround sound mixes.  Standing in the middle of the forest outside Flotsam you’ll hear birds singing, the creaking of trees, the distant howls of enemies; all of it presenting itself in a wonderful, almost symphonic presentation that gives you the feeling that you really are in this ancient, untamed environment.  Character voices and very well done and the actor’s presentations really give the player a sense of just how conflicted society is in The Witcher series.  The only downside to the acting you’ll find is in the form of Geralt himself as, for a majority of the game, he seems quite monotone and unexcited.  Hopefully this will change with The Witcher 3 but, as this game stands, Geralt doesn’t seem nearly as emotionally invested in the story he finds himself in, especially so given how much of a journey his character undergoes in the series.

As the Enhanced Edition stands, Assassins of Kings yields a fantastic demonstration of what this generation’s consoles are still capable of despite being nearly seven years old.

The Dragonslayer

I’ve made it clear in the past that I’m just not a fan of traditional fantasy titles.  Elves, Orcs, Dwarves: if your game has them and a traditional fantasy narrative chances are that I’m not going to be interested.  The Witcher 2, on the other hand, tickles my fancy by incorporating one of the more mature, well thought approaches to a story seen this generation.  Series like Lord of the Rings allow for an epic journey yes, but The Witcher 2’s approach allows you to shape a fantasy story in ways that I can’t recall having been done in the genre before.  The game’s relationships feel real, the power of Geralt of Rivia is satisfying and your influence on the world is fantastically strong.  While the lack of information for console-only players about Geralt’s previous adventure is regrettable, the series’ future is very bright. 

Assassins of Kings’ Enhanced Edition is not only a great game, it’s also a great port to consoles.  For gamers who love a good story and a fantastical, interesting narrative, you can’t afford to ignore The Witcher.

Review: Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City

In 1996 Japanese publisher and developer Capcom, known for their history with such beloved franchises as Mega Man and Street Fighter, released a game for a genre that, up until this point, they’d never truly delved into on an international scale: survival horror.  Resident Evil was the name that the world came to know that franchise by.  The rest, as they say, is history as the series went on to be one of the most powerful voices in survival horror.  Fifteen years on however the series has gone from scaring players to simply engaging them in an action style game.  While the core entries in the series follow a specific track and method of play though Capcom likes to experiment with lesser titles, hence the game we have before us today.

Wanting to see just what could be done with the series, Capcom hired out developer Slant Six Games, known for their work on the SOCOM franchise, to explore new lines of possibility with Resident Evil, an action that has yielded Operation Raccoon City.  Does this experiment open a new avenue to such a storied saga of games?

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Revisiting the Outbreak

In September of 1998 Raccoon City, a Midwestern town of seemingly little importance was wiped off the map in a hail of fire and death after a viral outbreak turned its inhabitants into flesh eating monsters.  This would eventually lead to the downfall of the Umbrella Corporation, the developer of the viruses that destroyed the population.  Every Resident Evil fan knows about the days of horror that plagued that ill-fated city but this new title answers an often asked question: what if Umbrella got away with it?  Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City attempts to find out in the first non-canon entry in the series in over a decade.

You play as a member of a six man elite Wolfpack squad of the Umbrella Security Service.  Dropped into Raccoon City just prior to the events of Resident Evil 2, you are assigned to help obtain samples of the G-virus developed by Dr. William Birkin whom intends to sell them to the US government.  Entering the lab far beneath the streets of the city you aid alpha team leader HUNK as he fights his way to Birkin’s lair.  The rest, as anyone who has played the early entries in the series can contend, is history: a dying Birkin injects himself with his creation, turning into a hulking giant of death and subsequently releases the G-virus, leading to the infection of the entire city.  Team Wolfpack barely manages to escape the facility but, as punishment for their part in the infection of Raccoon City they are ordered to stay until all signs of Umbrella’s involvement are destroyed.  Evidence, be it paper, digital or human is to be eliminated and you and your team aren’t getting out of this hellish nightmare until you’ve done just that.

Operation Raccoon City (ORC) has a lot of potential as a non-canonical entry into the Resident Evil series.  Without having to conform to the restrictions of the core series, Slant Six had the opportunity to allow us to explore Raccoon City in ways that couldn’t have been done before.  This was further aided by the fact that the game functions as a third person, squad-based shooter, a first for the series.  ORC could have been a great game, emphasis on could.

What has been released to the public however is a badly constructed and poorly thought out narrative that injects itself into the world of Resident Evil 2 with little regard to anything going on around it save for the chaos that fills the streets.  Much of the game has you running around performing errands for Umbrella before they inevitably decide to betray you after you fail to complete a certain objective.  Even the primary marketing point for ORC, the hunting down of survivors, only appears in the last third of the game and, even then, is ultimately disappointing.  This, coupled with characters that are neither likeable nor memorable and paper-thin narrative growth, produces a singleplayer/cooperative campaign that is easily the most unsatisfactory story in the series’ sixteen year history.

Probably the most frustrating part of the game’s story is the laundry list of things that could have been.  So much could have come from Operation Raccoon City from a narrative perspective that wasn’t previously attempted in the previous Resident Evil titles.  Exploring the city as the outbreak engulfs it, killing surviving witnesses and even encountering the soldiers that appear in the opening cinematic for the game could have been undertaken.  What we have been given however is a story that doesn’t even try to do anything new plotwise, only stopping to highlight a few key series characters and locations before abandoning them to focus almost entirely on gameplay.

In short, don’t come looking for an enthralling tale here, folks.  Turn around and don’t look back.

A Tale of Two Viruses

As previously stated, Operation Raccoon City is a four player cooperative third person shooter that pits you against both the hordes of infected as well as the government forces attempting to curb the outbreak.  Playing as one of six different characters whom conform to a unique class, you battle through the streets of the destroyed city while trying your best to stay alive.  This is a task easier said than done, and it’s not because of the game’s setting.

Put simply, this latest entry in the series is, by far, the most unbalanced and frustrating entry to date.  While most games that feature zombies tend to put less emphasis on the term ‘horde,’ ORC amps the tension up significantly by throwing wave upon wave of infected at you with little regard for your ammo count or health situation.  Despite the logical conclusion that headshots kill zombies every time, more often than not the result is an enemy that keeps stumbling after you even after two or even three rounds enter their skulls.  Even the most coordinated team of gamers will find themselves unable to stand ground against a wave of zombies, even when taking into account grenades and melee attacks.

Almost every single creature featured in the Resident Evil universe’s first three games make an appearance in Operation Raccoon City save for the giant spiders and the more obscure mutations like giant frogs.  This would have been a nice contribution to the game’s focus on fanservice but the end result only frustrates the player more than helps them.  Every single enemy is far more difficult to kill than in any other title released to date as each and every one of them are bullet sponges, absorbing more damage than seemingly seems possible for the creature.  For reference, a Hunter in takes several shotgun blasts to die in most games in the series.  In ORC however you can unload well upwards of thirty shells into a Hunter before they keel over.  Couple this with less than frequent ammo drops and never facing anything less than two or three enemies of such strength and you know you have a problem.

Playing alone in Operation Raccoon City is an exercise in building tolerance, one that few people can every hope to achieve in the game’s current form.  Enemy AI across the board is almost unacceptably dumb, so much so that it’s fair to say that you don’t have much hope of beating the game without seeing the ‘You Are Dead’ screen dozens of times without playing with human compatriots.  Enemies will regularly switch between not even knowing you are there to being the deadliest things ever to exist.  Your AI teammates are not programmed to pick you up if you go down and regularly charge into incoming fire unaware that they won’t get two feet closer without going down.  There is no mercy to be had in ORC even on the game’s normal difficulty.

Apart from having a five to six hour long main campaign, Operation Raccoon City features a multiplayer suite that actually fares better than the story mode.  Players can choose from four competitive modes including the standard Deathmatch mode.  Heroes mode, one of the few bright spots of the game, allows you to play as series staple characters such as Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Ada Wong and HUNK among others in a 4v4 bout.  Biohazard has you collecting G virus samples for points and it can be relatively fun.  The clear highlight of the multiplayer has to be the Survivors mode which has two teams facing off against wave after wave of zombies and BOWs while you wait for a rescue chopper to arrive.  The catch with this mode however is that there are a limited number of seats on the helicopter so you have to battle the other team as well in order to insure getting out alive.  The multiplayer isn’t exactly one you’ll be coming back to after the first week but it definitely offsets the deplorable main campaign.

With absolute certainty, the most egregious part of the game is not the game itself but rather Capcom’s plans for downloadable content for the game.  Normally I do not make mention of DLC plans in a review of a game as I want to focus on the product at hand but Capcom’s strategy is one of the worst post-launch support plans in recent memory.  The game launched with day one paid DLC which included a whole multiplayer mode featuring Nemesis, one of the most notorious enemies in series history.  This alone is bad enough but the game, despite word to the contrary, will only feature content and missions from Resident Evil 3 only as DLC (albeit free) later on.  This is also the only way you get to play as the US government forces in any story capacity, negating any chance of actually playing as protagonists in the core product at launch.  Capcom is also offering downloadable packs of weapons and alternate costumes at exceptionally high prices, going so far as to rival that of the work Namco Bandai has done this generation.  Some of this content is even already on the disc!  For shame, Capcom, you should know better than this by now.

By the Light of the Dying Car Fire

One of the few things Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City stands a chance of getting right is the game’s graphical content.  Texture work in the environment really hits home just what has happened to this once populous town and feels about right for a town in 1998.  Character models vary at times as do the particle effects (explosions and fires can be quite bad) but the best item in the graphics department’s favor is the gore factor.  Limbs and body parts explode in a gorefest to rival games like Dead Island and, in some ways, surpass them.  Melee attacks against zombies and human enemies can be especially brutal.  Character animations could use some reworking and proximity interactions, say when you are knocked over by an enemy, do need some work though.

The game’s sound design fares far less favorably.  Voice work is shoddy at best and leaves no lasting impression other than boredom and indifference.  Sound effect issues such as getting stuck in a loop or disappearing altogether is a frequent problem in ORC and the game’s 5.1 surround sound mix is underwhelming.  In comparison to the game’s other flaws however these items are but minor issues.

For any title like this one however one of the largest driving forces for sales is the fanservice factor and, in some ways, it does succeed.  Several locations in the game feel very authentic to their original counterparts, particularly the Raccoon City police station.  Dialog in the cinematics for the game (at least the ones not altered by this non-canon insertion) actually remain true to its original design.  ORC doesn’t succeed however in matching the time period with exact authenticity though.  Many of the character designs seem taken directly from previous entries in the series, the Hunters most notably looking exactly like their 2002 Resident Evil remake counterparts instead of the Beta or Gamma Hunters that actually appeared in RE2 and 3.  Weapons specific to the Raccoon City games are present in the game but, given the game’s severe lack of balance in the favor of everything else but you and your squadmates, you don’t really get an ample demonstration of their historic power.

Better Off Dead

The Resident Evil series is beloved by millions of fans around the world and while the franchise has had its share of lesser titles no entry to date has been more disappointing than Operation Raccoon City.  What should be a nice jaunt down memory lane turns out to be a broken, frustrating mess of unbalanced gameplay mechanics, a story whose brevity is more than welcome and a multiplayer component that will only hold your interest for a short while.  ORC had quite a bit going for it and was surprisingly fun to play at E3 2011 but somewhere in the nine months between then and now something happened that turned this into a shambling pile of wasted effort.  Even with ongoing DLC and bug fixes this game simply cannot be saved.  Thank goodness that this is not a canon entry because, if it were, Resident Evil might truly have lost its way in the eyes of countless fans.

Review: Mass Effect 3

2007 was a great year to be a gamer.  Infinity Ward was set to release a modern Call of Duty title with an advanced multiplayer suite, Bungie was going to conclude the Halo trilogy and Valve decided to bundle up all their recent achievements and release them in a pack called The Orange Box.  There were plenty of great experiences to be had but hidden amongst the crowd of assassins, underwater cities and police crackdowns was an RPG from a developer whose previous game had become near legendary last generation.  Bioware, having come fresh off of a fantastic Chinese mythology RPG title called Jade Empire, released Mass Effect, a sci-fi epic that had you exploring alien worlds, meeting new sentient species and fighting against an unknown, extra-galactic threat.  It was released to rave reviews and fans eagerly awaited its impending sequel.

Fans got it just a few years later in 2010, and while some design decisions put gamers at odds with one another it was still one of the best experiences to have that year.  Over a year’s worth of downloadable content kept gamers coming back to Mass Effect 2 for more but what gamers really wanted was the epic battle for the galaxy and the conclusion to the series we have all come to love.  The final journey of Shepard and the crew of the SSV Normandy is now upon us and the anticipation for it couldn’t be higher.  Does the conclusion to the Mass Effect trilogy deliver us unto salvation?

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Assuming Direct Control

Six months after the destruction of the Alpha Relay during the Arrival DLC in Mass Effect 2, Shepard finds himself on Earth, court-martialed for his actions in the destruction of the relay and the subsequent annihilation of a Batarian colony.  Ordered before a frightened admiralty board, Shepard realizes that the day he has spoken frequently of to deaf ears has finally come: the arrival of the Reapers.  Humanity’s fleets are decimated in a matter of minutes and before the board can even react, the galactic menace lands in Vancouver.  Shepard barely manages to escape aboard the Normandy and is given one last order before he leaves the planet by long time friend Admiral Anderson: bring together the species of the galaxy and take back Earth.

Uniting the various races in this galactic war is no small task and it in and of itself will be a task almost as large as fighting the Reapers alone.  Long standing divisions are your biggest obstacles to overcome and with the Reapers attacking every sector of the galaxy each race has to sacrifice their own worlds in order to bring together their collective firepower.  To convince them to do so, Shepard has to solve long-standing issues and do his best to build up enough resources to insure a strong fighting force for retaking Earth.

One thing that absolutely has to be mentioned is the overall nature of the game’s story.  To put it mildly, Mass Effect 3 is a dark game.  Death is all around you, comrades you’ve grown to love will die for the cause and you’ll be left to ask whether their sacrifice was truly worth it.  Shepard himself is haunted throughout the story by the image of a child he tried to rescue but ultimately was killed as he was attempting to escape Earth at the beginning of the game.  Having to abandon Earth alone eats at Shepard as the game goes on and your eventual return is just as devastating to his character.  Many of the decisions you make can also have a significant effect on entire races, possibly leading to the downfall of entire civilizations.  In several cases there is not right call to be made at all so you have to live with the consequences no matter what direction you go in with them.

Given the controversy raging throughout the gaming community I fear that it wouldn’t be prudent to not address Mass Effect 3’s ending.  Though I will probably go into the details of the ending in a later post I would like to say that the way Bioware chose to end this fantastic trilogy is certainly a ballsy way of doing so. The impact of your decisions has never hit home quite as strongly as your choice in the ending and there is no one right ending to choose.  By comparison (and not to put too fine a point on it), the endings present feel a lot like those the player is forced to make in the Deus Ex series as your choice will affect the galaxy as a whole, not just your allies and the survivors fighting on Earth.  While it isn’t what many people would feel is the proper, best way to end Shepard’s story, it can be said with absolute certainty that it’s an ending that you will be talking about for a long time to come.

Regardless of your choice of conclusion, Mass Effect 3 is a fantastic, desperate story of struggle against an almost insurmountable foe.  If you weren’t already a fan of the series you will be by the end of the game.

Salvation through Destruction

Mass Effect 3, like its predecessors, is a galaxy hopping, exploration-focused epic that takes you everywhere you didn’t know you wanted to go.  From the ruined battlefields of occupied Earth, to the home planets of the Turians and the Asari and even the refugee-laden docks of the Citadel, Shepard will travel to every known corner of the galaxy to help destroy the Reapers.  Many of the places you had only read or heard about can be or is visited throughout the course of the story so for those who have wanted to visit and see what the worlds of various races look like (albeit at war time) you certainly get your chance in Mass Effect 3.

The overall experience is not unlike that which you got in Mass Effect 2 as the combat remains the same with the addition of several new abilities and smarter AI for both your enemies and your teammates.  Your teammates seem to be even smarter this time around and rarely seem to be knocked out in battle.  Many enemies, such as some of the more powerful Reaper creatures, offer significant challenges to overcome in a game based on cover-based combat as they will charge you ruthlessly.  Still though, ME2 veterans will find themselves right at home with the core ME3 combat mechanics.

Two new additions to the combat system make for an interesting twist.  Melee, only briefly feature in the previous games, actually gets a proper reworking in Mass Effect 3.  You (as well as your teammates and enemies) can utilize heavy attacks using your omnitool which are particularly devastating, all but killing most of your lower tier foes.  Players can also deploy explosives to the battlefield in the form of mines and grenades.  Coupled with biotic powers such as Pull or Throw Shepard can easily clear an area of enemies in a way that biotics couldn’t.  These explosives are mighty handy when faced with a horde of enemies such as Cerberus or Geth troops in tight conditions and can be a great equalizer at the right moment.

Like the structure of Mass Effect 2, Shepard’s final mission hinges on a certain aspect you are supposed to be doing throughout the entire game.  Whereas ME2 had you focus on collecting allies and upgrading the Normandy for the suicide mission, ME3 has you collecting what are called War Assets.  These assets range in number and diversity from personnel to tools, equipment, soldiers and even entire fleets of ships in your struggle to take back Earth.  War assets tie directly into the number of endings you have available at your disposal as well as just how these endings play out.  Your war asset count is also affected by the Galaxy at War multiplayer component which I will get into in a moment.

Many of these resources you gain are earned or even multiplied by the characters present in the game.  Almost every character you have encountered in the two previous games makes an appearance here, many of whom you probably forgot about, and your interactions with them help determine whether or not you earn new war assets to help fight the Reapers.  Characters that died in Mass Effect 2 will not appear if a save is imported but a replacement character will take that role over.  These replacement characters will not join your party though and, beyond their initial appearance, aren’t necessarily memorable and don’t yield as strong a war asset count as you’d get with the core characters they are filling in for.

Importing your Mass Effect 2 save data into the third title yields far more benefits and consequences than what was done between the previous two games.  Whereas only eight decisions in ME1 carry over to ME2, nearly a thousand decisions are counted and calculated when imported into Mass Effect 3.  Many of these decisions you won’t remember even committing to but simple ones like rescuing the crew of the Normandy immediately in ME2 can yield significant benefits like retaining old crew members and even aiding refugees at the Citadel.  Your skill level is retained if you import your save and for those wanting to try a new way to play you can change your character class as well.  There are even incentives for players to go through the story a second time as your character level, skills, credits, armor and weapons are all ported into your next playthrough.  This also applies to your reputation which gives you access to new Paragon/Renegade decisions that you previously couldn’t choose from.

On a disappointing side note though (at least to me) a Mass Effect 2 save that saw Shepard dying at the end of the suicide mission cannot be imported into ME3.  This is understandable as the main character is dead but I’d have loved to see how Shepard would have been brought back to combat the Reapers.  Clone?  Rebuilt again by Cerberus?  We’ll never know but it certainly would have made for an interesting twist.

We Fight Together or Die Alone

Bioware is well versed in creating a masterful singleplayer story (despite their design controversies with some of their recent games) but their experience with the multiplayer realm has, up until now, been quite limited.  Mass Effect 3 changes this as it introduces multiplayer to the universe for the first time.  Called the Galaxy At War, it is a four player cooperative experience that sees you playing as a member of an N7 Spec Ops squad sent on missions to secure resources in the galactic war against the Reapers.  While N7 distinctions are primarily reserved for humans, the Spec Ops nature of these unofficial operations allows for any of the primary races to be played as.  This includes Asari, Turian, Krogan, Human, Drell and Quarian so for those who were hoping to play as a badass Hanar, Elcor and any of the other races I’m sorry to say you’ll be disappointed. For the rest of us however we have a variety of characters to choose from across all six classes, though each race will only correspond to their appropriate class (ie. Asari Adept, Quarian Engineer, etc.).

The multiplayer part of Mass Effect 3, as previously stated, is a cooperative one and not a competitive one in nature.  Much like that of the Gears of War horde mode, Galaxy at War pits you against ten waves (and one extraction wave) of either Reaper, Cerberus or Geth enemies in one of six locales seen in the singleplayer experience.  Players earn points for kills and assists in eliminating enemies and completing objects which, in turn, level up your character in the same manner the player would upgrade Shepard in the main game.  Participants also earn credits to spend in the multiplayer store which purchase packs of randomized weapons, items and characters to use in combat.

Perhaps the most interesting (and controversial) part of the multiplayer is its relevance to the singleplayer.  For the first time in recent memory, the multiplayer component actually has a strong influence on the singleplayer campaign.  As you complete N7 missions and level up your character your galactic readiness in each sector of the galaxy rises, starting at (and never going below) 50% and rising depending on the circumstances of the mission.  This percentage acts as a multiplier on your in-game war assets which, if left untouched, can significantly alter Shepard’s mission to retake Earth.  This all but forces you to actually play the multiplayer instead of leaving it alone, something that can be an issue to some players who simply want to experience Mass Effect 3 alone.

This would have been an even bigger issue in people’s eyes had the multiplayer turned out to be crap.  I’m happy to report however that this is anything but the case as Bioware has yielded a surprisingly interesting and fun component.  Combat is fun, mission objectives are randomized to insure different experiences every time and enemies are tough yet exciting to fight.  Each race of enemies has unique minions to combat and can drastically change your battleplan going in based on what they choose to spawn.  In short, the multiplayer is never boring and with a little more fleshing out could be a remarkably interesting experience to come back to in a genre that is, more often than not, sees players playing only once through and then never again.  A couple more pieces of DLC and a few refinements and the multiplayer could be just as celebrated as the singleplayer is.

The Vanguards of Our Ascension

It was clear from the start of the series that Bioware wanted to craft the Mass Effect universe into one that both they and their customers will love.  Three games in and five years since players first got to play as Commander Shepard, the game still looks as remarkable as it did before.  While the Unreal Engine 3 has been showing its age as of late Mass Effect 3 still looks fantastic and has some of the best looking character and object models in the industry to date.  Faces still look great, animations seem to have been improved over what we saw in the previous games and particle effects and still wonderful eye candy.

One noticeable thing players should be made aware of is the setting of the environments.  While Mass Effect 1 and 2 were about putting the combat of the game in the moment and focusing the player in on it this series-ending entry takes that focus and de-blurs the rest of the world, allowing you to take in far more.  Whereas in the previous games you saw yourself as the focus on the conflict going on Mass Effect 3 allows you to see that you are but one small (if very important) part of the war as a whole.  In several missions of the campaign you will be able to look around and see Soverign-class Reapers landing and destroying a city, fighters desperately trying to evade pursuing Reaper Harvesters and even entire starships being blow to smithereens.  You really get the sense of being in a losing war against a merciless, nearly omnipresent foe and it makes you feel both enthralled as well as intimidated.  Kudos to Bioware for taking the blinders off this time around.

The work on the game’s sound and music was really hit home as well.  Though Jack Wall, the composer for the previous two games, did not return for Mass Effect 3 his replacement, Clint Mansell, does just as good a job.  Though Mansell’s soundtrack doesn’t have much in the way of Wall’s electronic soundtrack (save for the classic galaxy map track) he does deliver a power, brass score that sells the chaos-ridden struggle against the Reapers excellently.  His inclusion of piano work conveys a sense of loss and sacrifice explicitly well and all but demands that you put some money down on the soundtrack when it is eventually released.  This might be Mansell’s first foray into designing music for video game but if this is typical of his future works then I look forward to what he’s going to bring to the table.

Breaking the Cycle

Mass Effect 1 was an RPG of exceptional caliber.  Mass Effect 2, despite having fierce competition and launch in January, went on to be one of the best games of 2010.  For all the controversy Mass Effect 3 has landed itself in though it still garners the outstanding praise its predecessors enjoyed.  It’s an epic conclusion to a groundbreaking trilogy whose campaign is immensely memorable and whose multiplayer is very well done for a first effort such as this.

With this generation of games more than likely coming to an end next year Bioware’s epic saga is one that deserves to be heralded as one of the pinnacles of the last seven years.  This wonderful game more than worthy of your hard-earned cash for series veterans and for those who have yet to put their feet in the boots of Commander Shepard it is all the more reason for them to sit down and find out why this series is so remarkable.  I’m Chris Davis and, only three months into 2012, this is easily my favorite game on the Citadel.

Review: Syndicate

Science fiction stands as one of the backbones of fiction, interactive or not.  The line between near future and distant future science fiction seems to blur every decade or so when the amazing gadgets of today’s movies and games become the tools we use every day only a few years later.  This is the area where the cyberpunk setting used to thrive with pieces of entertainment such as Blade Runner back in the 80s and 90s but was all but subsequently overthrown by the fantasy and modern settings we see far too often in video games.  Thankfully it is making a return as of late with Deus Ex Human Revolution leading the way.  Syndicate, a series long beloved by PC strategy fans in the 90s, is the next in line to restore this genre to its proper place in gaming.  Few studios are qualified enough to restore such a proud series and bring it up to speed with today’s game design paradigms but luckily Electronic Arts chose well, assigning the task to Swedish studio Starbreeze.

With a pedigree of titles like The Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness behind them, does Starbreeze’s effort to reboot this almost forgotten franchise bear fruit worthy of plucking?

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The Man/Machine Gap

Today, man and machine are fundamentally separate entities whose integration is only experimental and usually out of medical necessity.  In Starbreeze’s look at the world of tomorrow however this pairing is far from uncommon.  In Syndicate, the world’s first neural enhancement augmentation, the Dart chip, is released in 2025 by Eurocorp, creating a dataverse that makes most devices like PDAs and cell phones all but obsolete.  Knowledge and tools are now readily available on demand for anyone augmented with the Dart chip and the social revolution that follows redefines the meaning of the term ‘being connected.’  Governments dissolve and megacorporations known as syndicates take over, offering their wares and whole lifestyles to people.  In just a few short decades over half of the human population is chipped while the remainders are considered outcasts by society, abandoned by the syndicates.

By 2069 Eurocorp is set to release the Dart 6 chip, the latest and greatest neural enhancement which has the potential to all but corner the world market.  As Miles Kilo, an agent for Eurocorp, you are one of the test beds for the Dart 6.  As an agent your job is maintaining corporate security and committing espionage against other syndicates to help secure Eurocorp as the dominate force in the world.  Embarking initially on a standard espionage mission against a rival syndicate, what evolves is the beginnings of a major power shift in which Eurocorp may not necessarily come out on top.

The story Starbreeze put together for Syndicate, while interesting at the start, becomes a bit of an unfortunate confusing mess.  This is especially an issue toward the last third of the game when a predictable plot twist occurs.  While the story as a whole is enjoyable I found myself a bit upset at the quality presented to us in Syndicate: it simply isn’t on par with the developer’s previous efforts.  Given how long Project Redlime was in development I was hoping for more but this final product, while better than most of the other stories in shooters these days, doesn’t do enough to garner the word ‘good.’  I have to commend Starbreeze for not leaving us with an ending that screams “sequel me!” but at the same time I wish the story had been more satisfying.

Hostile Takeover

Like the rest of their pedigree, Starbreeze’s newest title is a shooter with an emphasis on combining tight gunplay with unique gameplay mechanics.  Whereas The Chronicles of Riddick had a strong stealth element and The Darkness gave you supernatural powers, Syndicate gives you a technological advantage over your opponents.  The Dart 6 chip, one of the driving plot points of the singleplayer story, also serves as the primary tool in the game.  Augmenting the already good gunplay, the Dart 6 includes three primary functions: suicide, backfire and persuade.  Suicide hacks your enemies’ neural chip and causes them to, well, end their lives, usually taking their friends out with them thanks to a grenade.  Backfire causes a number of enemies weapons to explode in their hands, knocking them to the ground and making them quite vulnerable (and weaker) for a moment.  Persuade, the last ability you gain, tricks an enemy into fighting on your side before subsequently terminating himself.  Each ability comes in handy when in a squeeze against a large enemy force but suicide becomes nearly useless in large, outdoor environments.

Each of the abilities can only be used once however before they need to be recharged and this is done by acquiring adrenaline.  In a similar manner to the point-grinding systems of games like Bulletstorm, you accumulate points to recharge your abilities by killing enemies fast and in a variety of ways.  Creating and mixing up combos will result in higher adrenaline gains and thus allowing you to earn your abilities faster.  Given the nature of the cover-loving enemies you confront in the game though you won’t find yourself reusing the same ability more than twice in any firefight.  The accumulation of adrenaline is also one of several stats that are calculated at the end of a level.  Your performance is graded and encourages replay value for higher scores but outside of achievements it is almost irrelevant.

This is balanced however by the game’s gunplay.  Unlike their previous titles which lagged a bit in this department, Starbreeze’s effort on Syndicate has resulted in an enjoyable, fast-paced shooting game.  Weapons feel strong and each one has an alternate fire mode allowing for a little more variety despite being confined to only having two weapons at a time.  At several points during Syndicate the game attempts to reinforce just how dangerous an agent is by giving you access to a heavy weapon such as a minigun or a flamethrower.  These brief sequences are nothing short of wonderful as you are beset upon by waves of angry, moronic enemies who subsequently get slaughtered by the player, leaving you with the same “I am the destroyer of worlds” mentality the player gets when earning a jetpack in Warhammer 40k: Space Marine.  The only downside to the combat comes in the form of grenades which unfortunately find themselves in a position to where they don’t have a dedicated button on the controller and thus have to be selected manually.  Grenade handling is sloppy as well so it might take you quite a few tries in order to figure out just how to throw them at the right trajectory.

Keeping with the game’s original roots, Syndicate also have a leveling system.  As you go throughout the game you will find various chip upgrades to augment your character.  Players can choose their upgrades from a map but you can only activate these new attributes if you select an adjacent one.  There’s plenty of variety to be had in upgrading your character but the convoluted approach all but forces the player to choose a higher upgrade at the beginning of the game and work their way to it over the course of its entirety.  Given that you only get a handful of upgrades throughout the game you won’t find yourself really creating a supersoldier like you want to.

Riding High on Stock

For all the talk about Syndicate that’s been made since the game’s initial announcement just a handful of months ago the most prevalent topic of debate has been the games art style and visual presentation.  It’s hard not to talk about Syndicate and not draw comparisons to Eidos Montreal’s work on Deus Ex Human Revolution.  If anything, these comparisons are apt as, for all intents and purposes, the game appears to be a brighter, more vibrant version of Eidos’ effort that was released last August.  It’s curious to see two titles, long in development but virtually unknown to each other having such similar visuals but the results are visually impressive.  Fans of Human Revolution’s presentation will find themselves enjoying Syndicate’s.

 One thing I found particularly enjoyable was the game’s choice in voice casting.  Though I appreciate prolific voice actors like Nolan North and Jennifer Hale it’s refreshing to hear new voices in a games.  Starbreeze’s history with Vin Diesel must have had quite a bit of clout as they were able to get Rosario Dawson, Michael Wincott and, surprisingly, Brian Cox to play the three primary characters in the game.  Each provide a convincing and entertaining act that, while not quite worthy of being remarkable, is still memorable.

A Shift in the Market

When Syndicate was announced back in September I was almost instantly worried about the title.  A shooter reboot of an almost forgotten franchise has the potential to provide a layer of depth and intrigue to old fans and newcomers alike but the suddenness of the announcement with a quickly approaching release date made me fear that Starbreeze would not be able to bring an exciting experience to the table.  After having played through the campaign however I only feel marginally better about it.  Don’t get me wrong: Syndicate is a fine game but, in a year that will see such exciting titles as Mass Effect 3, Assassin’s Creed III, Halo 4 and dozens of others I fear that it will become lost in the crowd as the game simply doesn’t have the voice to rise above it.  It’s well worth a look in terms of universe and presentation but if you play it and feel that this should have been the Perfect Dark sequel that should have been then you are not alone.  It’s a good start but Starbreeze needs to bring more to the table if a Syndicate sequel wants to truly stand out.

State of the Slacker: Plans and Review Schedule for 2012

We're just about through with January and I'm still coming to grips with what kind of a year 2012 is going to be.  Sure, 2011 was huge, but the amount of games on the horizon will be an exciting yet financially devestating year for everyone.  As such, I've begun to compile my purchase/review list for the year and the results, as you will see shortly, may require me to get a new shelf to hold my games.

This past year has been an interesting one for me.  A week after going to E3 2011 I had to move out of my apartment but, due to financial difficulties and a higher-than-a-kite rental market here in Austin, I was forced to move in with my father.  I got the raise I was hoping for in August and was just about to move out when a friend of mine contacted me looking for a roommate.  We've known eachother since elementary school so I thought 'yea, what the hell.'  We had to wait until January to move but we've finally settled on a new place.  We move in during the first half of March so now that I have my living situation figured out I can start to plan my 2012 activities.

This year I plan on attending E3, Quakecon, PAX East and PAX Prime.  For E3 and Quakecon I will most likely be representing Hooked Gamers while both PAX events will be done for 4Player Podcast.  I'm still working out the details of these various events but, barring an act of holy spite, I'm going to all of these.

As for my review plans for 2012: I have ambitious plans.  Last Fall I almost succeeded in review every title I bought save for Dead Island and Battlefield 3.  This year I plan on reviewing double the number of games I did in 2011.  This is no small order of action considering what I plan to purchase this year.

The following list contains my entire purchase/rent list for the year.  Titles that will be reviewed for certain are in bold while the rest are subject to time and availability.

February

• The Darkness II
  
• Syndicate
  
• SSX
• Asura's Wrath

March

• Mass Effect 3
• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

April

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (leftover review from not playing it in 2011)

May

• Sniper Elite V2
• Ghost Recon Future Soldier

July

• Darksiders II

TBA Release Dates

• Bioshock Infinite
• Prey 2
• Tomb Raider
• Hitman Absolution
• Metro: Last Light
• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• Far Cry 3
• Medal of Honor 2
• Resident Evil 6

All of the games you see above, as well as ones not mentioned that are subject to announcement, will be played and reviewed this year.  I hope to stay true to this list but you never know...

That's what I've got lined-up so far.  I'll probably post an update as the months roll on.  In the mean time keep an eye out on the blog for my review as well as my random thoughts.