XCOM: Enemy Unknown

A city terrorized by aliens.  The report came in while I was in the middle of some important research.  I’d have preferred to ignore it, but you don’t get to choose when duty calls.  The team I deployed was a bit unfamiliar.  Lion and Buster were in Psi training, so I took to the opportunity to give some new recruits a shot, including a promising Support gal the team had nicknamed “Mother Bird” for her handy use of Medikits, and the new Hover S.H.I.V. heavy weapons platform the engineering guys had cooked up.  Sheriff would head the team, just as she always did.

It was a civilian evacuation mission; things went well at first.  A two-story building, looked like most of the action would take place inside.  Mother Bird would head around back with the S.H.I.V., scooping up any civilians they came across.  Sheriff and Ace would go right for the front doors; Sheriff in particular always had a tendency to jump into the frying pan.

We cleared the first floor with little incident.  I should have regrouped before storming the second floor, but I was confident from the mission’s progress so far.  Mother Bird and the S.H.I.V. climbed the stairwell and ran right into a squad of Mutons and Berserkers.  It would be a couple turns before the others were in a position to assist.  By then, the S.H.I.V. had been smashed to pieces, and a Berserker had shattered clipped Mother Bird’s wings.  That evening I lost a great soldier, and it was entirely my fault.

Despite the presence of an overarching plot, it’s personal narratives like these that form the heart of XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Aliens have invaded Earth.  People are being slaughtered or worse, abducted.  You are the commander of XCOM, an international coalition formed to combat the alien threat.  To do this, you’ll need to hire, train and maintain a diverse contingent of troops and regularly deploy them to various locations across the world to complete missions, while simultaneously developing your facilities to keep pace with the growing threat, upgrading your equipment, and researching alien artifacts.

Gameplay in XCOM: Enemy Unknown is comprised mainly of two aspects.  When you’re not on missions, you’ll spend your time overviewing XCOM headquarters.  From here you can conduct most of your business as commander of the base.  You can research everything alien—from artifacts and technology recovered on the field, to corpses and any aliens you manage to capture alive—in the research lab.  Research works very much like it does in the Civilization franchise, where you assign one thing for the lab to work on, and wait for it to complete before assigning another.  The fruits of your research come to life in the engineering section, which is where you’ll build and upgrade all of your equipment—including guns, armor, ships, and satellites—and your base facilities.

Your soldiers reside in the barracks.  Here you can view each of your soldiers individually, as well as customize everything from their looks and name to their equipment load out.  Disappointingly however, the ability to change your soldier’s armor colors is relegated to DLC.  Soldiers come in four classes: Sniper, Heavy, Assault, and Support.  Snipers utilize sniper rifles to strike from far away.  Heavies use a combination of a light machine guns and rocket launchers to keep enemies suppressed and at bay.  Assaults are designed to jump directly into the fray with their shotguns.  Supports specialize in field assistance with smoke grenades, enhanced Overwatch, and better, more efficient Medikits. 

The more you use your soldiers, the more you’ll find them carving out individual reputations for themselves.  New recruits will be classless, but after a mission or two you’ll discover their aptitude for one class or another.  From there, each class has a tree of perks that you’re able to progress through as that soldier gains promotions through experience in the field.  Soon enough they’ll have their own nicknames, and you’ll find yourself building a narrative and backstory for each soldier.  They become more than just units to command; they become characters in your story.  Sharon “Sheriff” Roberts wasn’t just any Canadian soldier.  She was a badass; someone the others could look up to on the battlefield.  She would leap into every battle and laugh in the face of danger.  Luck was always on her side.  Joan “Lion” McIntosh started as Kitty, but when we saw how sharp her claws really were, she was renamed “Lion”.  Everyone knew that someday she could be the next Sheriff.  Soon enough, my soldiers became more integral to the plot than any of the other characters that would appear in XCOM’s occasional cut scenes, and that’s something I really came to admire the game for.

You can view your current progress and objectives in the Situation Room.  Here, you have a world map and a listing of every country enrolled in the XCOM program.  As you neglect countries, their panic level rises.  If a country is allowed to reach maximum panic, they will withdraw from the program, taking their financial support with them.  The Situation Room also allows you to launch any available satellites at your disposal to monitor a country.  Having a satellite over a country not only increases the amount of money and resources that country gives you each month, but it also decreases its panic level.

Satellites also often pick up flying UFOs, in which case you have the option of launching interceptors to try and shoot down the UFO.  If they succeed, the UFO is downed and you can proceed to send in a team of soldiers to sweep the area.  I’ve found this metagame to be the challenging aspect of the game, however.  Just as the enemies grow in power and number as you progress through a campaign, so too do the UFOs you encounter.  Developing and maintaining an air fleet that is both large and powerful enough to consistently deal with any detected UFOs is extremely costly and time consuming, and whether or not it pays off in the long run is questionable.  I’ve had to ignore a number of UFOs, simply because I knew that my planes wouldn’t be able to down them.

Nearly everything in XCOM: Enemy Unknown takes time.  It takes time to research things, it takes time for wounded soldiers to heal and for new recruits to arrive, and it takes time to build and launch satellites, among many other things.  It even takes time to swap the weapons on your interceptors.  You’ll have to pass the time in Mission Control, scanning for alien activity.  Every few days you get an alert.  Sometimes it's a bomb that needs to be disposed of, or a VIP that needs to be evacuated; other times it's a UFO picked up by a satellite.  Whatever it is, if you’re lucky it will be only one instance.  But more often than not, it will be multiple simultaneous abductions occurring in different parts of the world.  You can only deal with one, and the countries you ignore will have their panic level rise.  Whatever you choose (unless it’s to ignore the contact entirely), you’ll then pick your squad and their loadout, and deploy to the area in question.

Combat in XCOM is a turn-based strategy affair.  Each soldier has two movements they can use per turn.  Once you’ve moved all of your soldiers, your turn ends, and the aliens have their turn, and so on.  Though you’ll most frequently just be using your movements on moving and firing, units have a variety of actions they can use; many are class-specific, others much more general.  All units are able to use an ability called Overwatch, which sacrifices your remaining actions for the ability to automatically shoot at any enemy that moves within a unit’s sight range, albeit with lessened accuracy.  Heavies and Supports can use Suppression, which pins an enemy down, lowering their accuracy and also grants the soldier suppressing a free Overwatch shot if the enemy moves.  Snipers can use Headshot, which is a normal shot with a substantially higher chance of critical damage.

Let’s get this out of the way:  XCOM is a difficult game.  You’re given all the control you’d expect from being commander, but also all of the weight and responsibility.  If you make a mistake, however slight, those are consequences that you’ll have to deal with.  Even something as seemingly minor as a soldier advancing just one tile farther than he/she should have can lead to disastrous situations.  Soldiers that you’ve grown to like and invest in can die, and at some point almost certainly will.  Missions with everything banking on them can be failed.  The game will move on.  A string of bad decisions can lead to outright failure in XCOM; the aliens will have won, and it will have been entirely your fault.

You’re frequently both outgunned and outnumbered in XCOM, which means that every move you make has to be thought out.  Every option must be weighed before taking action, lest that action be the last one that soldier ever makes.  This is a strategy game; if you don’t think strategically, you will lose.  Even if you do think strategically, sometimes you’ll still lose.  Even the best-laid plans can fail, after all.

For an internationally funded paramilitary organization, XCOM is tragically under-supported, which means this element of pressure and responsibility permeates the entire game experience, not just combat.  Though you’ll pick up some extra bits of pocket change doing missions and selling spare alien artifacts, your main source of income arrives on a monthly basis, when all of the countries still enrolled in the program chip in to send you more staff and money.  But it’s never enough.  The battlefield isn’t the only place you’re constantly forced to make hard decisions in XCOM.  Hard choices await you in the research lab, in Mission Control, and perhaps most tragically, in the ledger.  All the time you’ll find yourself presented with a choice between things to buy; things to invest in.  You need all of these things if you want to keep up with the alien threat.  But too often, you can only afford one of them.  Every decision requires you to consider the cost of each option and weigh it against how long it will take to bear fruit.  For example, it’s absolutely crucial that you regularly buy more satellites, as that increases the amount of money you get.  But satellites take almost a month to build, and still more time before they’re operational (and that’s assuming you have the facilities to maintain more satellites in the first place).  You’re throwing money at something that you won’t see the benefits from for a very long time; money that could be better used to build things with more immediate utility, like better equipment for troops, or a new upgrade that would be invaluable on the field, like larger weapon cartridges or increased squad sizes.

Despite being a game that demands a tactical, systematic approach to succeed, there is a large element of randomness to XCOM: Enemy Unknown.  Though you can customize them later on, new recruits’ names, nationality, and appearance are all random, as are their nicknames.  Mission encounters are largely random, as are the maps and their layouts.  Missions and campaigns never go quite the same way.  All it takes is a stray explosive to blow up a new path and totally change the way you progress through a map, for example.  This has the effect of keeping the experience fresh, but it also introduces a tangible element of fortune and chaos to the gameplay.  Sometimes this element works in your favor, like when you nail a shot that only had a 35% chance of hitting.  More often than not however, it tends to feel like its working against you, when Heavy's light machine gun not only misses, but the stray fire destroys the cover of one his colleagues, leaving him/her totally exposed.  It's times like that where I felt like the game was bending me over the barrel.

XCOM is, overall a pretty looking game.  Everything from character animation to object modeling is above average, and the game features surprisingly robust environmental destruction.  It runs on Unreal Engine 3, which is evident enough in its slightly oversaturated effects.  The missions start feeling a bit recycled towards the end of a campaign, but it’s mostly a non-issue.

What was an issue for me were the bugs.  I’ve had the game freeze on me, and clipping issues weren’t uncommon.  I’ve also had enemies literally spawn right in the middle of my soldier’s ranks, as well as have enemies disappear right before my eyes, ending the mission early.  Most of the time these bugs are either comical or minor, but still prevalent enough to scare me away from trying the game’s Ironman mode, which prevents you from saving.  It’s one thing, after all to fail a mission due to my own incompetence, and quite another to fail because the game crashed on me.

Playing XCOM—whether on the field blasting aliens or at base conducting regular business—often feels like balancing a series of spinning plates on your arms and head, where it only takes one movement to cause everything to come tumbling down.  Yes, XCOM is a difficult game.  If you’re not careful, you will fail at it.  You might fail at it even if you ARE careful.  But it’s also one of the most rewarding games you’ll play this year.  When you make the right decisions, and those decisions pay off, it’s a real feeling of triumph; a victory you achieved all by yourself, without anyone holding your hand.

*Note - I did not try the multiplayer, but the singleplayer alone was enough to earn the game its score.

Dead Space 2

Dead Space was part of an attempt by EA to branch out into new ground.  It was a survival horror game with a science fiction setting; not the most original idea I suppose, but it was a good game nonetheless.

EA and Visceral have seen fit to continue the Dead Space saga (well really, they've pretty much turned it into a franchise), and a result we now have Dead Space 2.  In the first game we were introduced to Isaac Clarke, an engineer.  Him and a small team are summoned to the USG Ishimura—a large planet-cracker that was apparently mining the surface of the planet Aegis 7.  Though part of the reason they were being sent out was to investigate why the ship had stopped communicating, it was supposed to be a routine maintenance mission.  Isaac himself had been looking forward to visiting his girlfriend Nicole, who was serving as a medical officer on the Ishimura.

But as they found out within 15 minutes of docking, something had gone horribly wrong on the Ishimura.  Disfigured creatures, dubbed Necromorphs—creatures that apparently used to be the crew--attack Isaac and the team.  As they fight for their lives, they gradually unravel a plot far more ambitious than I certainly expected.  Unfortunately, Issac’s adventures on the Ishimura have knocked a couple screws loose in his head.  Now he’s locked up in a psych ward, straitjacket and all; and here is where Dead Space 2’s story begins.  On Titan Station, otherwise known as the Sprawl; a metropolis located on one of Saturn’s moons.

As I played through the game, it became clear that Visceral had aimed to make a more explosive, more exciting game with Dead Space 2.   You’ll learn that they succeeded in this effort less than a minute in, as you watch a fellow trying to help you escape get transformed into a necromorph right in front of your eyes, then are forced to run for dear life—while still in a straitjacket—as more of them crash in from all sides.  And that’s not the half of it.  By the time you get your engineering suit back some 20 minutes later, you’ll have fought off a necromorph in said straitjacket, seen a man slit his own throat and watched the blood pour from it as he gurgled in pain, and watched a soldier get straight up impaled through the torso before being dragged through the air conditioning system and thrown back out as several chunks of meat.  This game means business.

The core gameplay is very similar to the first, though.  You’ll be minding your own business, finger casually on the trigger, before a necromorph pops out—frequently with friends—and makes every attempt to skewer you.  The unique physiology of most necromorphs makes head and torso shots ineffective; they will keep on trucking even if you blow their brains out.  So, instead you have to go for the limbs.

How’s a simple engineer to cope?  By ignoring all those safety and warning labels that come plastered over the tools of his trade!  The result of this is a surprisingly unique and cool arsenal of weapons, comprised primarily of workman’s tools jerry-rigged for combat.  These include Isaac’s trusty mineral cutter, a rivet gun, a hydrazine torch (read: a flamethrower), and a circular saw blade.  Alongside these (which were also in the old game), Dead Space 2 introduces a couple of toys of its own, while also tweaking the functionality of some of the returning weapons.  Among the newly introduced is the Javelin Gun, a pneumatic spear launcher that fires giant titanium spikes that will impale a target and send it soaring across the room until it is pinned to something.

As you play, you’ll find schematics for new weapons tools, as well as ammo supplies for them, which you can then purchase at store kiosks interspersed throughout the city.  Unfortunately, you won’t find nearly enough money to keep yourself decently equipped just lying on the ground, so like any survival horror game, you’ll need to do a lot of looting and scavenging; usually off of corpses.  Furthermore, as an engineer, Isaac can take a moment to perform upgrades on his stuff at any workbench he comes across, using Power Nodes either bought from the store or found lying around.  Most of this won’t sound new to anyone who's played the first game, though.

That’s not to say there aren’t some notable refinements, however.  Zero G segments are back, but they’ve been revamped.  Now, instead of jumping from wall to wall, Isaac can make use of small air thrusters installed around his suit to float around at will.  This is actually really fun, due in some small part to the fact that enemies are now almost nonexistent during these.  I recall saying that the first Dead Space was not a scary game, but its Zero G segments did keep me on edge, simply because the reduced volume made it impossible to hear and track enemies who would fly towards you from distant walls, attempting a full on collision (often from behind) that would scare the daylights out of me.

Kinesis is also back, allowing you to pick up most loose objects and move them around, as well as throw them as a form of attack.  Though you could do this in the first game, Dead Space 2 heavily emphasizes the use of Kinesis by giving you less ammo drops, and introducing sharp objects like construction poles lying around, that you can use to your advantage in combat.  Hint, hint.  You can even rip the claw off of a dead necromorph and use it to as a projectile.  Another returning feature is stasis, which lets you slow down objects and attacking enemies alike, giving you some breathing room in combat, and a method to solve certain puzzles during exploration.

Dead Space 2’s pacing has also been tweaked a little bit.  Now there are more highs and lows.  One moment you’re walking in silence, listening to audio tapes and text logs a la Bioshock and Metroid, the next you’re being held upside down by some giant abomination, about to be impaled through the head; or otherwise being awesome.  Many of the set-pieces are too epic to be described in words.  The “ebb and flow” pace of the original game is still here, but it’s been injected with a shot of badass here and there.

The visuals of Dead Space 2 look great.  I mean, perhaps from a technical standpoint the graphics aren’t awe inspiring per se, but what it lacks there it makes up in its themes and style.  Unlike the first game, which had you exploring mostly the same sorts of places (you were on a giant space ship, after all), Dead Space 2 has more variety.  Sure, the bleak futuristic locales and elements are still here and dominant, but there are some treats here and there; you’ll explore caverns, a church, and even an elementary school; complete with a showdown in the gym.  Some extra attention has been given to the details, like the various nuances of Isaac’s suit (it’s awesome seeing him put it on), and, perhaps most notably the afore-mentioned necromorph transformation scene.  Like in the first game, your HUD is composed mostly of a vitality bar attached to Isaac’s suit (known as your RIG), and an ammo readout projected above each gun.  Even your inventory is a hologram, and the game doesn’t pause as you sort through it.  This lack of any real overlay adds to the tension-inducing ambience.

As a horror game, I would expect animation, lights and shadows to be up to par, and Dead Space 2 delivers here as well.  Necromorphs exhibit some truly unsettling tendencies, like one that twitches constantly, and another that gyrates as it moves. Should you die in battle, most necromorphs have their own special finishing scenes, like one that beheads Isaac and then settles itself where his head used to be, taking control of his body.

Like the last game though, the real winner here is sound.  This is one game that I found truly benefited from a surround sound setup.  The sound design here is nothing short of masterful, to be frank.  All necromorphs have distinct sounds and screams, and the game plays along when they fake death, killing all the chords as they drop to the ground in mock defeat.  Often you’ll enter vacuums, areas with no oxygen.  Appropriately, the sound becomes heavily reduced and muddled, as if you were underwater.  Suddenly even the slightest audio cues have you glancing over your shoulder.  Even in normal areas, I found myself straining to hear: was that sound a necromorph, or perhaps just something minor thing falling over?  I could never tell, but it had me quaking in my boots sometimes.

This isn’t helped by the addition of a few new enemies such as one that is super fast (such to the point that it is literally a blur), and another that moves only with buddies, intelligently hiding from and flanking you, then performing a hit and run body slam before running back to hide.  You’ll even find yourself set upon by packs of rabid schoolchildren.

The voice acting is also not too shabby.  Isaac—previously a mute—now has a voice, though I didn’t think it changed things much.   It is amusing to hear him go nuts with the F-bombs when repeatedly bringing the boot of justice down upon the bodies of downed enemies.

One final new, if easily forgotten addition to Dead Space 2 is multiplayer.  At the time of this writing, I’ve only spent a couple hours playing it, but I was surprised by how good my impression was of it.  Players take on the role of two opposing teams: the Humans the Necromorphs.  If you remember games like Unreal Tournament and Time Splitters, overall most multiplayer rounds play like a game of Assault.  The humans have a sequence of objectives to complete (determined by what map is being played) and a set amount of time to complete them, while the necromorphs are tasked with stopping them. 

The two sides play very differently, but both require teamwork; a lone wolf is little more than a dead one.  As the humans, you’re given a plasma rifle, a stasis module, and a secondary weapon (the starter choice is a plasma cutter), as well as one med pack and one stasis pack.  Sticking together is key, especially because healing yourself will also heal others nearby (and you get extra XP for that).  Friendly fire is very possible however, so you have to check your fire, even when trying to shoot off a necromorph that has jumped one of your friends.

As a necromorph, you’re able to choose from a few different types, from the Lurker (a small babylike character that can fire projectiles and run on walls), to the Spitter, who can vomit acid across a room that will not only do damage, but slow the victim down to a crawl temporarily.  While the humans stand a better chance in a straight up confrontation, the necromorphs are not without advantages.  First of all, aside from the actual players, a steady flow of regular bot-controlled necromorphs also spawn.  Just like in the campaign, necromorphs can spawn from any vent on the map, unlike the humans who have set spawn areas.  Furthermore, you can fast-travel between vents to save time, and see humans through walls (as well as get a sense of their health via a color-coded glow emitted from their bodies).  Secondly, again like in the campaign, necromorphs can latch onto humans, immobilizing them, doing damage, and possibly performing an execution on them.  Finally, you can keep in mind that necromorphs are only playing defense.  Though you get points for kills, in the end you’ll probably walk away with more XP at the end of the round if your team won, than if you got a bunch of executions.

Like in every modern multiplayer game, your XP adds to your level, and leveling up unlocks new stuff.  For humans, you’ll unlock things like higher stasis capacity, other secondary weapons, and new suits, while the necromorphs get stat gains such as higher damage dealt as a certain class.  There also appears to be some viral content floating around.

Overall, Dead Space 2 is a wonderful game.  The multiplayer is competent, but the game stands strong without it.  Most of the tweaks made to the formula established in the first game work to positive effect.  Since multiple playthroughs (as well as a run through the aptly named Hardcore mode) are required to unlock everything, you’ve got a pretty reasonable amount of game here.  Furthermore, if you got the Limited Edition version on PS3, you got the acclaimed Wii game Dead Space Extraction for free!  Score!  A 9.0/10.

inFamous 2

inFamous was, as I indicated in my post for it, a great game.  If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have had the patience to grab every single blast shard, listen to every dead drop, do every stunt, and otherwise Platinum the game.  So when Sucker Punch announced inFamous 2, you can bet I was interested.  As I read more and more coverage of the game, though, very little led me to believe that the sequel wouldn’t just be more of the same.  A new location, some new powers, and a couple new characters added to the same core gameplay.  Having finished my first playthrough of inFamous 2, I can say with some confidence that for the most part I was right.  And yet that’s not a bad thing.

The game begins not long after the first one--you should skip to the next paragraph if you haven’t finished inFamous.  An introductory cutscene explains what’s occurred in the interlude: Lucy Kuo, a government agent, contacts Cole and Zeke, telling them that her and an informant in New Marais have figured out a way to take out the Beast.  As they’re packing their bags, though, the Beast finally makes its appearance, apparently ahead of time.  Cole stays behind to fight it off (which serves as the game’s basics tutorial), but even though he manages to defeat it momentarily, the Beast drains many of his powers in the process, before reviving itself and resuming its rampage.

The story’s direction is still governed by the Karma system, which remains unchanged.  One of the complaints made against the first game was how black and white the Karma system was, in contrast to games like Mass Effect and Red Dead Redemption.  inFamous 2 ignores this complaint, and in fact embraces the rigid polarization.  When you are presented with a choice or opportunity, it is almost always immediately apparent which is good and which is bad.  And like Mass Effect 2, you’re encouraged to pick an alignment and stick with it, because some powers only unlock at higher levels of Good or Evil Karma, and the final plot choice requires you to be either full evil or full good.

Still, inFamous 2 does what it can with the Karma system.  There are more choices like the one regarding Trish in the first game--you know what I mean.  A new addition is random events, which has either good or evil opportunities pop up nearby as you play the game.  Good ones include crimes in progress, like muggings or kidnappings, that you put a stop to, while Evil ones include roaming cops that you can bully, and citizens in possession of blast shards who you can kill.

inFamous 2 is definitely a case of addition and refinement, and gameplay is no exception.  Most of your powers from the first game will carry over (if not immediately than soon enough), like the Lightning Grenade, Static Thrusters, and Thunder Drop.  Combat still consists of you aiming in third person to fire basic shots, and tossing in the odd grenade or rocket when necessary, and fighting hand to hand when you can.  Though your health regenerates, you can speed up the process and refill your energy by draining electricity from anything that would have it; street lamps, cars, generators, fans, etc.  To summarize, inFamous 2 does indeed play very much like its predecessor; at first.

Then you’re steadily introduced to all the new powers and abilities this sequel has to offer, the first being the Amp, which is more or less a giant cattle prod.  The Amp replaces Cole’s punches and kicks as his melee option.  Melee in general feels much more weighted, much more dynamic.  Consecutive hits fill up your “finisher” bar which, when full lets you perform a flashy attack that will instantly incapacitate most enemies.  For the most part the Amp serves as an extremely satisfying addition, and--combined with the finishers--makes close quarters combat a more viable option than it ever was in the first game.  The camera can, on occasion get a little crazy if you get too into it though.

Cole’s parkour abilities work pretty much exactly as they did previously.  You jump towards something; anything really, and he’ll grab onto it.  This was amazing to see in the first game, but with series like Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted having shown us that climbing can be more realistic looking, Cole now looks a lot like a squirrel to me.  But your mileage may vary.  What is helpful is the addition of a couple more traversal abilities.  In addition to the wires you can grind on, now there are vertical electric poles stuck to the side of many buildings that you can grab onto which rocket you upwards.  Later on you’ll get access to abilities like Lightning Tether, which lets you pull yourself to any object or surface, like the “zip-line” technique in a lot of Spiderman games.  However, another complaint from the first game still stands.  Cole’s not always easy to maneuver in tight spaces due to his being magnetically attracted to the nearest grab-able object.  In fact the attraction seems to have been upped a notch or two.

Stunts are back, and play a more central role in gameplay.  Just like in the first game, Cole can unlock new powers using XP gained from missions and defeated enemies.  But most powers remain locked, each one asking you to do a certain number of stunts before you can use it.  However, since Cole already learned the basic versions of most of the abilities in inFamous, a lot of the stuff you unlock are variations or more powerful versions of what you already know, like turning your basic shock into a rapid fire stream of electric bolts.

Many new abilities are mapped to the R2 button, like the Kinetic Pulse, which lets you hurl various objects (including cars), and the afore-mentioned LIghtning Tether.  The boomstick ability Lightning Storm from inFamous has been reworked into a new category of powers called ionic abilities.  The first ionic ability you learn is the Ionic Vortex, which you’ve likely seen if you’ve been paying close attention to coverage of the game.  Ionic abilities are extremely powerful, and as such, require the use of an ionic charge, dropped by enemies.

Overall, inFamous 2 represents an incredible maturing of the gameplay introduced by its predecessor.  Many of the new additions make some of the stuff you learn in inFamous--like the Thunder Drop and cover system--seem basic or even downright archaic.

The final major addition to inFamous 2 gameplay-wise is UGC, or user-generated content.  That’s right, Play.Create.Share has made its way into one more game.  If you’re connected online, custom missions will show up on your map as green icons.  You can apply filters to the missions that show up, and rate a mission after playing it.  The UGC missions are decent, from what I’ve played so far, but you’re not going to get a level of quality similar to what you get in the story and side missions.  To be fair though, much of that has to do with the lack of voice acting.

Visually, inFamous 2 doesn’t fail to improve upon it’s predecessor.  The new locale, New Marais, is based on a Louisiana type setting, complete with a swamp bayou on the outskirts of town.  There’s more variety to be had, including a red light district, industrial district, and an entire island that’s completely flooded, and of course the previously mentioned swamps.  Citizens still look and act mostly the same the as they did in the first game though, following a pretty limited set of actions.

One aspect of the the graphics that deserves special attention is the body animation.  It was yet another sticking point for people that played inFamous, but here it’s been given a massive facelift.  Facial animation in particular is superb, though not quite up there with LA Noire and Uncharted.  All characters--Cole in particular, of course--move with a newfound fluidity.

I noted in my review for inFamous that the game ran very well for an open world sandbox title.  The sequel retains that standard.  Glitches were few and far between, and the game did not crash or drop in framerate once during my playtime.  Loading screens are also uncommon and fairly brief.

inFamous 2 is, in short, a wonderful game.  Not as often as I’d like do we see excellent games come out, only for their successor to completely improve on them, such to the point that the predecessor suddenly looks unappealing.  Yet this is what inFamous 2 does.  It is, in more ways than one, the mature, developed version of inFamous.  Still, it raises exciting possibilities.  A 9/10.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

For the past two months or so, the only game I’ve been playing other than Apollo Justice and LittleBigPlanet 2--the former of which I finished a couple weeks ago and the latter I’ve only been playing on and off--is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. And at many points I wasn’t entirely sure why.

Lords of Shadow represents a reboot in a series that I’ve never so much as dipped a toe in. As much as they dress it up, the story premise is fairly basic: evil has descended upon the world, and it’s up to you as Gabriel Belmont to squash it, but Gabriel’s real goal is the revival of his love, Marie, who was murdered by creatures of the night. To achieve this, he’ll need the God Mask, which has been broken into three pieces. Each of the pieces, however, is held by a Lord of Shadow. Conveniently, the Lords of Shadow--who each rule over a major race of evil, such as werewolves--are the ones responsible for the current state of things; killing two birds with one stone, I guess.

But really, I’ve come to think that this is all just a front. An excuse, if you will, to not only visit all kinds of locales, but to kill the various fantastical creatures residing in them, and look as awesome as possible while doing it. And do all this you will. Consequently, this is also where Lords of Shadows’ strengths tend to lie.

Combat is not atypical of the likes Dante’s Inferno and Bayonetta, both in style and mechanics. However, LoS definitely places itself in a higher class of difficulty without straying from its fantasy setting. Though the game encourages precision and finesse not unlike what’s required in, say Ninja Gaiden, it possesses enough cinematic flair and outright brutality to make the likes of Kratos proud. The gimmick introduced is that of Light and Shadow magic, each represented by a small bar on the left and right corners of the screen, respectively. Activating Light Magic allows you recover health with each hit you make, while Shadow Magic increases damage output. Furthermore, each also has it’s own share of powerful techniques that can only be used while one or the other is active. For example, with Light Magic you have many moves that are defensive in nature, such as the Holy Cross attack, which projects a wide stream of light so intense it not only dazes opponents, but rapidly damages them the longer they’re caught in it. Shadow augments the strength of many of your normal techniques (like turning normal daggers into flaming, exploding ones) while introducing new ones like a powerful shoulder charge that allows you to dash a short distance near instantly, knocking aside anyone or anything in your way. Both Light and Shadow magic can be enabled and disabled on the fly, in the middle combat. This gave me a nice feeling of control as I could change the flow of battle instantly depending on what I was using at the given moment.

To restore your magic, you have to collect magic orbs. Sometimes these are dropped when you kill enemies, but the quickest way to regain magic in the middle of combat is to simply play well. Consecutive hits dished out without taking damage add to a meter at the bottom of the screen, which, when full, make enemies drop one orb each time they take a hit; naturally there will be a a lot of orbs lying around soon enough, if you keep up the assault. The effect is shattered, however, the very next time you yourself are hit, discouraging simple button mashing.

Finally, you have an assortment of secondary consumable items used to varying effects. Throwing daggers are quick and represent a fast way to do ranged damage. Faeries will distract enemies. Holy Water functions like a grenade, and is especially devastating against vampires and undead. The magic crystal, when broken apart, summons a powerful demon to do major damage to anyone in the vicinity.

Gabriel’s weapon of choice is the Combat Cross, a unique, holy weapon granted to him for his excellent combat performance within the Brotherhood to which he belongs. The Combat Cross is, in it’s basic form, literally a large holy cross (actually kind of like a sword hilt without a blade). However, the tip secretes a long chain which Gabriel can use to..wait for it..whip enemies with. Aha! A whip! Of course.

Enemies come in a quite a variety, and Gabriel often has a unique way of dealing with each and every one of them, regardless of their size, ferocity or stature. The majority of the opponents you’ll encounter offer themselves up for a more brutal finisher after they’ve lost a certain percentage of health. Though our hero will sometimes use his weapon to finish the job (like staking vampires with the sharp tip), I’ve noticed Gabriel has a preference for killing a given creature with its given choice. One boss fight, for example, ends with Gabriel cutting off the arms of his opponent, and then running him through, all with his own blade. What I’m saying here is that the enemies don’t disappoint, and neither do their demises.

Other than combat, you’ll frequently come across platforming and puzzle sections. The platforming is competent, and certainly enjoyable, as it gives you a chance to really take in the gorgeous graphics and environments. At times it’s fairly reminiscent of Uncharted (and, to a lesser extent, Assassin’s Creed). Despite all this, however, the platforming sometimes managed to feel like filler to me, especially compared to the more intense moments in the game presented by the combat. I also found that a minor lack of consistency, with you being able to perform certain movements only at certain times in the game. Think Enslaved and you you’ll have the right idea, though it’s not that bad.

I’ve never really been the type of guy who enjoys puzzles, and I must say I understand even less why developers insist on putting them into action games, of all things. Why, after completing an epic boss battle, would I want to settle down for a brain teaser? The answer is I don’t want to do such a thing. …That said, the puzzles in Lords of Shadow are actually fairly amusing and clever most of the time, even if they are a little to plentiful for my tastes. Fortunately, all of the puzzles are seemingly optional, as you can opt to have the answer revealed to you, at the cost of the reward (which is usually a mild helping of XP).

Lords of Shadow is a surprisingly lengthy adventure. The game is about 11 chapters long, with each chapter spanning as many as nine levels (though more commonly they range from 3-6 levels). And yet, despite this, variety is truly the name of the game here. As you progress, you’ll collect all sorts of upgrades and items (such as the aforementioned Light and Shadow magic abilities, and various upgrades to the Combat Cross), in addition to a hoard of XP from defeated enemies. You can use the XP to buy new combos and also extra artwork. The game throws new experiences at you every chance it gets, to the point that you’ll eventually stop being surprised and just be looking for what new and interesting thing you’ll get to do next. The beginning of the game turns into an epic chase through the woods on a unicorn, fending off invading Wargs. After that, you go on to fight enemies some 50x your size, tame various creatures into mounts, and even engage in a fun variation of chess. All across what seems like a dozen different locales, including an enchanted forest, an abandoned city, Frankenstein’s lab, and the insides of a music box. This is one game that doesn’t try to stick to a single formula.

What finally compelled me to really want to try the full game out after playing the demo wasn’t really the gameplay, however. It was the presentation; the production values. This just reeked of a game that had a lot of time and resources flowing into it. Right off the bat, you see the book format of the pause screen and main menu, complete with narrated chapter prologues and cool little animated sketches exemplifying the various combos you could buy for use ingame (like those flip book sketches that used to be all the rage). You see the village, in the middle of a rain storm, terrorized by a giant Warg. You see a stranger, Gabriel, approaching, drenched in the rain. It’s just all so immersive. But a package like that isn’t complete without a well-composed soundtrack, and Oscar Araujo delivers, with a set of sweeping orchestral scores that give depth to nearly every moment in the game.

I don’t know how it compares to previous games in the series, but to honest, I no longer care. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a quality title that invites you to follow Gabriel on one of the greatest journeys of the year. My only qualms with it are the questionable ending, and the way you are forced to pass many items by, even if they are in plain sight, simply because you don’t yet have the equipment necessary to obtain them. Fortunately, going back through earlier levels isn’t entirely without merit, as each level offers a “trial”, or optional objective you can try for. Overall, however, there’s a lot to like about Lords of Shadow. 9.0/10

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

I wasn’t planning to write another post about a Phoenix Wright game, because to be honest, very little changes between the games, outside of plot and characters. Trials and Tribulations is the third game in the series, and currently the final one featuring Phoenix as the starring character. You’re still a defense lawyer, with the gameplay segments broken up between court and investigation phases.

Someone accused of murder comes to you for help, to prove them innocent, and during the investigation phase you set out to learn more about the case, and gather clues and evidence that will help you in court. You’ll examine various locales and talk to various characters new and old. One new gameplay element introduced in Justice for All (the previous game) is the addition of Psyche-Locks. Frequently you’ll meet characters who aren’t giving you the full story. Maya’s Magatama will react to lies, and the person in possession of it (usually Phoenix) will see a varying number of locks around the lier in question, indicating they’re hiding something. With the number of locks representing how badly they want to keep the secret, Phoenix will have to blow away each lock by presenting evidence that contradicts their excuses, eventually forcing them to tell the truth. It’s just like finding contradictions in court.

What I came back to talk about was the story, by which I was thoroughly impressed. Even though each case throughout the series thus far has had its own, fully fleshed out story, there’s also been one overarching plot slowly developing since the first game, involving Phoenix and the entire Fey Clan. This plot comes to a finale during the 5th case, which is is epic. All the major characters come back for this case, including Franziska von Karma, Dahlia Hawthorne, Mia Fey, and even Edgeworth, who you even get to play as for a while!

The 5th case, and indeed, the entire game ends the entire trilogy on an amazing note, and left me wanting more, only to be saddened when I realized this was the last Ace Attorney game with Phoenix as a playable character. A 9/10.

Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy. The name of one of the largest and most well-known franchises in the industry. Here's a fun fact: the first Final Fantasy was actually a desperation move by a near-bankrupt Squaresoft (what Square-Enix was before they merged with Enix), hence the name "Final" Fantasy. Fortunately for them (and arguably for us), it hit all the right cords, and carried the company to prosperity. Fast forward a couple decades, and we have Final Fantasy XIII. SE's been working on this baby for a few years now (much longer than most games take to make), trying to take the franchise into a new era, and boy does it show.

As per tradition, despite this being an entry in a long-running series, it has its own universe, setting and plot. There are some references and borrowed elements (Chocobos, Cid, summons, etc.), but story-wise it is entirely unrelated to other entires in the series. Speaking of tradition, SE did away with quite a bit of it here.

Final Fantasy XIII follows the stressful life of six different people who are forced together by unfortunate circumstances, and find themselves united against an unfair fate bestowed upon them by higher beings. They come from all walks of life, from main character Lightning, who is a soldier, to Sazh, a civilian pilot.

The setting is Cocoon, a gigantic planetoid of sorts where humanity lives in peace and prosperity, enjoying an age of advanced technology under the guidance of the fal'cie, godlike entities who are heralded as higher beings. Cocoon floats high above the surface of the planet Gran Pulse, known as a wild and untamed place where the strong survive and weak are weeded out. Everyone on Cocooon fears Gran Pulse something fierce. Being associated with anything related to the world below is like a highly contagious disease. If you're suspected of it, you and everyone else living in the same area as you are rounded up and Purged (banished down to Pulse). With Pulse being the equivalent of hell in the minds of most Cocoon residents, this is worse than capital punishment.

When the fal'cie need a specific task done, they pick out a human and make them l'cie by bestowing special marks upon them. While l'cie, being the only humans capable of magic, are known to be very powerful, they are treated similarly to those associated with Pulse: that is, with fear and extreme prejudice. Becoming a l'cie means the end of life as you know it. Suddenly you are hated and hunted by the government, feared by the people you once called friends, and everyone associated with you is liable to be punished by law. What's more, the task you are given by the fal'cie is only hinted at in a glimpse of a vision. Still more, you have only a certain amount of time to complete the task before you turn into a c'ieth (a mindless zombie, basically), doomed to walk the earth forever in insanity until you disintegrate. Complete the task, and you turn to crystal, maybe waking up again several hundred years later.

It's the extremely unfair circumstances that one finds oneself in after being made a l'cie that forms the basis of Final Fantasy XIII's plot. All of the six characters are made l'cie, either due to misfortune or for trying to protect their loved ones.

The six man band consists of the following:

• 21-year old Lightning, a taciturn but determined young woman who used to serve the Guardian Core (the branch of the military that guards Cocoon and its populace as palace guards, police, etc.). Lightning's own sister, Serah, was made a l'cie, and upon learning this, she sneaked onto the first Purge train she saw hoping to find some way to free Serah from her fate. Serah is Lightning's only remaining family, and thus she harbors a deep need to protect her from harm. Perhaps because of this, Lightning maintains a lone wolf personality, and is often frosty towards other characters, who may distract her from her goal.

• Snow, a large and tall young man, and Serah's husband-to-be. They were engaged to be married when Serah was made a l'cie. Lightning is especially hostile towards Snow early on, seeing him as incompetent and incapable of protecting Serah. Leader of the well-meaning but mischievous gang NORA, Snow is determined to become a hero, starting with him rescuing Serah. His extremely positive, carefree and forward-thinking attitude often irritates Lightning, but even she can't always avoid being warmed by his irrepressible flow of passion.

• Sazh, who is on the same Purge train as Lightning by coincidence, and seeing her skill, decides to follow her, hoping to find some way out of the mess. As the oldest member of the group, Sazh sometimes has trouble keeping up with the often-crazy plans and exploits of the rest of the members. He's a very down to earth person and prefers not to stray too far from reality. Sazh has a baby chocobo living in his afro, which he had been hoping to give to his son Dajh.

• Hope, a young boy who was simply visiting with his mother at the time, and was rounded up to be Purged by sheer misfortune, after being caught in the crossfire of a firefight between rebels and PSICOM (Cocoon's other military branch, which deals with foreign threats). Hope's mother joins Snow and his band to help fight PSICOM, but dies in the process. Hope sees this, and as a result harbors a grudge against Snow. Ironic given his name, Hope is thrust into the story entirely through lack of luck, which is a source of depression for him early on, and also makes him unwilling to cooperate sometimes. Lightning understands this, and takes him under her wing eventually. He is the first to break through her icy demeanor as a result.

• The other two members are Vanille and Fang. Can't say too much about these two without spilling a lot of plot content, but Vanille is a cheerful young girl who helps Hope before he bonds with Lightning. Fang is a straight-talking and somewhat cynical woman from Gran Pulse, who views Cocoon and its residents with distaste.

Final Fantasy XIII's plot, while filled with its fair share of secrets and twists, is based more in appeals to the player's emotions. Serah's fate is a constant source of concern and stress for Lightning and Snow, and the entire group is repressed by a feeling of hopelessness that could only come with being a victim of circumstance (some may be reminded of FFX). Constantly hounded by the military, and feared by the same people they used to live with, they have no choice but to seek strength from each other, leading to an incredible sense of camaraderie. As they continue to flounder and fight against their fate, you see these people progress from total strangers to brothers in arms over the course of the story. It's a good feeling.

This element of trust carries over into the battle system. SE cut off a lot of fat for Final Fantasy's appearance on a new generation of a consoles, and while some would argue they cut away too much, the result is a streamlined system that still holds true to the essence of combat in the franchise. That is, the job system.

Every character has six roles to choose from. Eventually (and I do mean eventually), you'll be able to assign any role to any character, but for most of the story each character has a preset assortment of three roles that they specialize in. The roles are Commando, Ravager, Sentinel, Medic, Saboteur, and Synergist. What role your character is playing determines what they are able to do. Commandos are your bread and butter. They have increased attack, and slow down the recession of enemy chain gauges (more on that in a bit). Ravagers are your attack mages. They are essential for raising enemy chain gauges, but also wield elemental attacks. Sentinels are defensive players. They aren't able to attack (they can learn a Counter ability though), and instead task themselves with drawing enemy fire, and guarding against it. In addition to heightened defense that comes with the role, Sentinels have an arsenal of moves that let them absorb insane amounts of damage with relative ease. Medics heal, and heal only. They have access to Cure (and numerous variations of it), as well as Esuna and Raise for keeping allies in fighting shape. Saboteurs and Synergists are your de-buffers and buffers, respectively. Saboteurs make enemies vulnerable by casting status ailments like Slow and Poison, while Synergists strengthen your party members with spells like Shell and Haste.

The ATB system returns, also trimmed down. All your abilities and actions besides items revolve around the ATB bar, a segmented long blue bar that is constantly filling up. Nearly everything you do costs one or some numbers of segments from the ATB bar. Simple commands like Attack only take one segment, whereas more powerful moves like "-ga" level magic attacks can take 3-5 segments. The tradeoff is that there is no MP. As long as you have energy in your ATB bar, you can cast or attack. Multiple attack commands can be queued up on the bar to unleash combos. It may sound complicated, but it works exactly like any semi-realtime RPG battle system with a wait bar (i.e. FF12), except even simpler.

The strategy in FFXIII, and indeed the meat of the combat system, is found in the Paradigm System, which is how your organize you party members' roles. You can only have three members in combat, but there are six roles. The Paradigm system is SE's solution to this. At any time during combat, you can press L1 (or Left bumper on the 360) to bring up your Paradigm deck, which holds up to several different Paradigms, or role configurations. You can switch configurations on the fly, which is called a Paradigm shift. Tougher battles will have you switching Paradigms probably every 30 seconds at least, to accommodate changing circumstances. For example: Relentless Assault is a paradigm consisting of two Ravagers and one Commando. This is an excellent offensive Paradigm, as it allows you to quickly build up enemy chain gauges. However, with no medic, you'd have to resort to items (which become outdated quickly). Instead, if you find yourself in a pinch, you can easily switch to a more defensive Paradigm like Combat Clinic (two Medics and a Sentinel) to nurse your wounds for a bit, then switch back to an offensive paradigm to go back on the offensive. You can only have a handful of paradigms (6-7, i believe) in your deck at a time though, so you won't be scrolling through a big list of paradigms in the middle of combat. Not only does this keep the action fast, it also forces you to carefully consider how you will structure your Paradigm deck. To fight efficiently, you have to have a wide variety of paradigms at your disposal to cover a wide variety of situations. You can always jump into the main menu to re-arrange your Paradigm deck, but you shouldn't have to do this every couple battles.

I really dig the Paradigm system, because it encourages players to always and constantly explore new tactics to fight more efficiently. Nearly every time I was defeated, to me it didn't mean I needed to do some grinding to get stronger stats. It meant I needed to take a hard look at my Paradigm deck, and see just how tight an operation I could run in battle. Combat really comes together when you're switching Paradigms almost instinctively, meeting each enemy and situation head on.

For an only semi-real time based system, battles can become exceedingly fast paced. In battles against Eidolons (character summons), for example, each second counts because not only are you often working with only two members, but they are boss level enemies, and you are cursed with a dreaded Doom timer (which, when it runs out, will cause an automatic game over).

You only ever control one character in battle. Until you are given free reign to choose your battle team, this will most commonly be Lightning, with the other two being AI controlled, acting according to the role they've been given. However, never once did this occur as a problem to me, as the AI is effective and competent at whatever role it is given. Use Libra on an enemy mid-battle to reveal they are weak to water attacks, and your Ravagers will promptly switch to water spells, and your Synergists will enchant your attacks with the water element. The AI will generally focus on the same target you are attacking (to get chain gauges up), but more "all out" paradigms like Cerberus (triple Commando) will often have them pick their own targets. It doesn't waste time, either. Switch to a Paradigm containing a Sentinel and he/she will immediately grab enemy attention and switch to guarding, taking all the heat off you in a matter of 1-2 seconds. They often get to work before the "Paradigm Shift" sign even fades away. Simply put, the AI is responsive, and with their help, and the use of the Paradigm system, the party moves and attacks as a cohesive unit.

To fight effectively, most of the time you'll be looking to raise an opponent's chain gauge. Every enemy has a certain damage threshold, which when surpassed, forces them into a staggered, vulnerable state. This threshold is represented by the chain gauge. Filling the chain gauge is as simple as attacking the given enemy, but only Ravagers and Saboteurs can really fill it up. Commandos stop it from emptying, but don't make much progress filling it. Once staggered, not only is the damage done to enemies multiplied by several times, you gain access to an arsenal of new moves; namely, the ability to "float" the target. Commandos have the ability to launch most enemies high into the air, leaving them unable to attack, and open to more punishment.

It's also worth mentioning that your characters are fully healed at the end of each battle, no matter how bad or good you did. I like this decision, and it's a sensible one given the absence of MP. Not having to constantly worry about the condition of my party members, and flee from enemies due to lack of restorative items is a huge freedom, and lifts a lot of stress from the game. Furthermore, you can always pause during battle and simply restart, which puts you down right in front of the enemy you engaged. Game Overs do the same thing, unless you choose to quit.

This means I often only found myself using save stations if I was actually done playing. Besides saving, save stations grant access to various shops, where you can buy a multitude of items, upgrade components and accessories using Gil. The whole economy in FFXIII is a bit odd, because Gil is only sparingly found on the field, your primary source of it being from special components that sell for a premium. But after your medics gain access to Cure and Raise, you won't have much use for restorative items. You could use Gil to buy accessories and weapons, I suppose, but you find plenty of those as battle spoils and chest contents during your travels.

Which leaves equipment upgrades, the final service save stations provide. Using various components and materials bought and/or found, you can upgrade your weapons and accessories to buff their stats. It's a simple system, with weapons leveling up just like characters do in most other RPGs when they gain enough experience from items being applied to them. Each piece of equipment has a max level that, when reached, often provides an opportunity to transform it into a potentially better weapon using a special catalyst stone (another type of component). You can also dismantle weapons and accessories you don't need for additional materials. Some even contain components that can't be found anywhere else. I'm still not sure how important this is to the game (maybe for some of the much tougher optional bosses), but I got by just fine not really touching the upgrade system throughout the story.

Level progression in Final Fantasy XIII is handled by the Crystarium, which those familiar with FFX's Sphere Grid (or even the License Board from FFXII) should have no trouble getting used to. The Crystarium is a gigantic web of small orbs, each of which represents either an ability or stat boost. You gain these benefits simply by landing on an orb. You use Crystogenesis points gained from combat to travel along the web and gain stat boosts and learn new abilities. While it isn't impossible to grind enemies for CG points, the Crystarium caps out fairly quickly, only being expanded at certain points in the story. Besides that, I think the difficulty pacing and learning curve is done well enough that for about 80% of the game, grinding never feels even slightly necessary.

However, this is due in part to the fact that the game holds your hand for several hours, and takes its sweet time really opening up. The ATB bar and Crystarium are expanded only at certain points in the plot, and you don't even gain access to the Paradigm system (or Crystarium) until a few hours in, meaning battles are not only almost pointless for the first few hours, but they are incredibly simple and boring.

Which brings me to the Final Fantasy XIII's biggest problem: its incredible linearity. For the first 25-30 hours, levels consist mostly of you running down a straight or winding path, with little to no side paths or detours. The game does open up a significant amount eventually, but until then you go where the game wants you to go, and use who the game wants you to use (meaning you also can't switch up your battle team). Since this is more or less one gigantic, extended tutorial, the game is also pretty easy during this time.

If you're only coming along for the story (which works great, actually), this isn't really that big of a deal. If you were more interested in a "traditional" RPG experience, complete with lots of exploration and/or grinding, you're in for a really long haul. The plot itself also takes its time moving along, concerning itself more with familiarizing the player with the characters and setting. The result is a whole lot of exposition, but when things do really get moving (right around chapter 10), at least you'll know the whole situation, and be able to keep up with all the terms. While one could question the quality of a plot that requires 25 hours of exposition and build up, that's another debate.

Back to the positives. Final Fantasy XIII's production values are off the charts. The CG scenes are breathtaking, but the engine-rendered graphics aren't slouching either. SE claims that the difference between their CG scenes and engine-rendered scenes is almost nonexistent, and that's only a small exaggeration. The level of detail and animation work that went into each character model is impressive, and the environments, besides being beautiful, are imaginative, fully realized, and very unique. Really, this is a game that could sit along side Uncharted 2, Gears of War 2, and Metal Gear Solid 4 as one of the best-looking console games ever.

For a Japanese game dubbed in English, the voice acting is pretty excellent (though Vanille walks a fine line with me). All of the characters are voiced with skill and enthusiasm, so the game has no trouble conveying its more emotional scenes. I honestly didn't miss the Japanese voice track one bit.

But when you're talking about audio, the real star here is the soundtrack. And hoo boy, it is phenomenal. As soon as you start the game up, you're greeted to a touching piano piece playing during the title screen. The primary combat theme doesn't get old. Each environment is supported by an appropriate BGM. Each scene is delivered with sweeping music. The soundtrack is a masterpiece.

Despite all it does right, Final Fantasy XIII is not for everyone. Its restrictive linearity peeved me at some points, and I can't imagine myself going through those first few hours again, after getting used to all the freedom I have at the point I'm now at. Furthermore, I can definitely see the touchy-feely tone turning away some people. But only a blind person would be unable to see the amount of work and effort that went into crafting this product. The story weaves together nicely, the audio and visuals are simply exemplary, and it's not exactly a difficult game to get into. This is Final Fantasy, evolved to face a new generation of gaming, and personally I like it. A 9.0/10.

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time

If there's one series that has tested the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" saying time and time again, it's Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank series.  These guys took one clump of ideas, melded them into a single excellent gameplay formula, and continued to apply it to each game they made, polishing it just a little more with each entry.

Before it entered the 7th generation of gaming, the Ratchet and Clank series didn't have much of an overarching plot.  There were numerous references, sure, but the games were primarily episodic in nature.  That changed with Tools of Destruction, the duo's first foray on the PS3.  ToD introduced a single grand plot, which was continued by the downloadable title Quest for Booty, and is now concluded with A Crack in Time.

And just what plot is that?  Well, the origin of our two buddies!  As I discussed in my review for Tools of Destruction, Ratchet is supposedly the only Lombax left in the universe.  His search to understand his past leads to him being separated from Clank.  Soon enough though, he meets General Alister Azimuth, who is another Lombax, surprisingly enough.  Most of the game is split into two parts; playing as Ratchet, who is searching for Clank, with Alister's help, and playing as Clank, who finds himself in the Great Clock.

The Great Clock is a gigantic space station sitting in the center of the universe that regulates the flow of time, to prevent the universe being destroyed by the space-time continuum.  It is the home of the Zoni (who you'll remember from Tools of Destruction), and also Orvus the senior caretaker, who oversees the clock's functions.  Orvus is Clank's father, and wants to pass on the job to him.  As Clank, you'll go through some training for your abilities as senior caretaker, as you make your way to the Orvus Chamber, the central control room for the clock, which holds the power to manipulate time.  Unfortunately, Dr. Nefarious has his eyes on the Chamber too, and won't stop until he gains access to it.

If you've played ANY other Ratchet and Clank game before, there won't really be anything here that's new to you.  Ratchet's sections involve heavy platforming and shooting.  You'll be jumping across platforms, grinding down rails, turning cranks, and (when he receives his hoverboots) boosting through treacherous passes.  When you're not doing that you're dealing with Dr. Nefarious' henchman, who are determined exterminate you.  As always, however, you have a variety of big weapons at your disposal.  There's the Rift Inducer 5000, which generates a black hole from which large tentacles snap out and maul your foes before snatching them away.  You have the always-reliable Negotiator, which solves any argument with two rockets.  Fan favorites Mr. Zurkon and the Groovitron Glove return, this time made into full weapons.  Mr. Zurkon taunts your enemies while blasting them to bits, while the Groovitron Glove tosses out a portable disco ball that, when activated generates pretty lights and some fabulous tunes.  What else are your enemies going to do but stop attacking you and dance?  

The bomb glove-esque weapon and your typical blaster and shotgun-types have been re-introduced as modifiable Constructo weapons.  Weapons of the Constructo line have interchangeable parts, allowing you to change their properties (and their color scheme), a little like the weapon customization present in Deadlocked.  Another returning feature is weapon and character experience.  As you fight and defeat enemies, you and your weapons gain XP.  When Ratchet levels up, he gets more health.  When his weapons level up, they get boosts to their stats.  On your first playthrough, your weapons can get up to level 5, and you can further upgrade them to level 10 in Challenge Mode.

Ratchet's gameplay is split up primarily across several space sectors, each containing a couple primary destinations (planets or space stations), as well as several smaller planetoids (think Super Mario Galaxy) that you can explore for collectibles such as Gold Bolts and mods for your Constructo weapons.  Though you'll still have to warp between sectors, you can freely roam each one (and they're quite large) in the Aphelion (Ratchet's talking ship), getting into battles with Nefarious's henchmen and visiting planets as you please.  For the most part, Ratchet is still as fun to play as as he was back in the first Ratchet and Clank game.

Though the amount of gameplay content is dipped in Ratchet's favor, you'll spend a meaty portion of the game as Clank, too.  While there is a bit of combat and some platforming, it's more about puzzles.  Fittingly, you'll encounter a set of time pads that let you record temporal clones of yourself.  You step on a time pad to begin recording one clone and proceed step on a button to open a door, for instance, then you step on a second time pad to playback your first clone stepping on the button, allowing you to travel past the open door.  It's difficult to explain, but the puzzles are pretty fun.  They're introduced gently, but get pretty complex later on, with four clones to manage, who have several tasks to do.

Overall, the tried and true gameplay formula is just about as fun as it was back on the PS2.  Clank's puzzles are difficult, but engaging, and Ratchet's hoverboots, as well as full space combat and exploration are both extremely welcome additions.

Graphical-wise, the game looks pretty darn good.  The cutscenes are simply beautiful, and the gameplay features impressive animation and detail, without a single hitch.  Most of the environments are well done and fully realized, load times aren't particularly long or common, despite a modest install size (300-400MB if memory serves), and there are almost no bugs or slowdown to speak of (though the game did freeze once during my playthrough).

The audio doesn't always stand out, (though the Groovitron churns out some pretty catchy beats) but when it does it makes an impression.  The voice acting is also superb, as always, and while not all of the game's numerous attempts to humor me hit home, some of them did indeed rip a chuckle or two out (Using the Groovitron on certain bosses, and Mr. Zurkon, for example)

As excellent as the gameplay is, I can't help but feel that it's begun to wear thin.  It's amazing that Insomniac has gotten away with just building on the same formula for eight years now, but I don't think another console entry in the franchise will do well without major innovation.  If you never liked Ratchet and Clank before, I severely doubt this game's going to change your mind.  But when you look at the attention to detail, both big and small (space radio, the fan-made weapon, Challenge mode, etc), you'd be blind to not see that this was a labor of love, and designed as a present for the fans.  And for that, this game gets a 9/10.