Gaming with Buzzman

[Buzzman]

Bioshock 2
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- The story
- Audio Diaries
- Hacking
- Weapons

What did you hate about the game
- No horror element
- Researching
- Constant community talk
- Big Sister difficulty

Graphics – 9

Bioshock 2 seemed to have the same graphics as the first one, but that’s not a bad thing considering the first ones are still good to today’s standards. The city of Rapture is now in a worse state then when you left it 10 years ago. Its falling apart and a new leader as emerged after the death of Andrew Ryan. Walking around Rapture, you can see the effect the new leader has had on the city, with writing of rebirth written all around the city, splicers worshipping little sister vents, and years worth of tear all around you. It was quite pleasant to the eyes.



Sound – 8

Bioshock 1 had the best voice acting in gaming and had the perfect music that complemented the tone of the game. Needless to say, the bar was raised high. This time around, it definitely fell short, but still accomplished what they needed in the major roles. Sinclair and Sophia Lamb both were voiced perfectly; it was vital too because they were the two main characters of the game that talked. (you don’t obviously) The problem it had with its characters were the side ones you meet along the way. Grace Holloway and Stanley Poole felt dull and boring, while you had Gil Alexander, who seemed great, until you actually met him. The game just seemed to be missing its Sander Cohan. The music this time around sounds the same but it never gives any tense moments or scares like the first one. In fact, the scares are all gone this time, except for maybe the first time you meet a Big Sister.

Kudos to them having an Andrew Ryan before his ego got the best of him, it was a nice change of perspective on the guy. Another character had a brief cameo audio diary,

 

Frank Fontaine had 1 diary where he talked about his facial reconstruction, which was really cool. I wish they would have had more of him

.



Gameplay – 9

Gameplay is essentially the same from the first one, just a hell of a lot smoother. With your left hand, you have access to plasmids, which give you the ability to choose to shoot fire, ice, or electricity at your enemies. There are 8-9 in all but those are the main three. Winter Blast is my favorite, freezing my opponent then breaking them into pieces. As you gain more Adam, you can upgrade your plasmids to make them stronger. On your right hand, you have access to a whole slew of weapons. Nothing more vital then the Drill that killed you countless times in the first game. The drill can be used in a variety of ways. Actually spinning it into your foes, to beating them with it, to a super smash after there frozen that sends them flying. Its really fun to use. The guns you get this time around are really great. The Rivet is a single shot gun that you’ll use most throughout the game, while switching to the machine gun and shotgun when things get tough. This time instead of a cross bow you get a spear gun but its very ineffective at small to medium range. The thing I found most disappointing was you found either a Thompson or ppsh lying everywhere but you never actually got to use it. It was a lot of fun trying out combinations to use with the plasmids and the guns.

Onto hacking. The pipe mazes in the first game where more of a nuisance then a reward. Most of the time it was not worth it. They decided to change it for the better this time. Instead of the pipe maze, it’s a little timed needle that moves across the screen and you have to make it stop on the green section to successfully hack. If you hit the white, you get shocked and lose a little life, and if you hit red, get ready to run to a bot shutdown because flying robots are sent after you. As the game progresses, it gets difficult and you actually have to think about whether to hack something because those bots are a pain in the ass.

Researching your enemy in the first one was actually fun taking pictures, but for some reason they changed it to a video camera. So now when you find an enemy you have to take out the camera, then kill them in different every time otherwise you get jack in terms of research. It was a pain in the ass to research to the point I gave up on it a few attempts after I got the camera. The reward for doing this wasn’t even worth it, getting a little bit more damage vs. them was lame.

Since you play as a Big Daddy this game, they created a foe that even you should fear, a Big Sister. She’s fast, strong, and can heal herself. But the problem is that she’s too easy. It didn’t take much to defeat her. I was a little disappointed. They also added an Alpha series(?) suit, a plasmid junkie tough guy, as well as the Big Daddies. When things started going crazy they all came at you. You have to be quick or you’ll be visiting those Vita-Chambers often. It was more challenging clearing levels, which was a nice change.

Last thing I’d like to address was the moral choices the game makes you face. The first gave you a very unique choice, in either saving or killing the little sisters. With this one, not only do they give you the same choice from the first one, but they give you the choice to kill the side bosses along the way or let them live.

 

The one in particular with Stanley Poole was hard because I wanted to kill him, but something about Lamb wanting him dead too made me feel dirty, so I let him live.

Lasting Appeal – 8

This game doesn’t have the same epic feel of the first one but it’s still a really great game. You’ll want to go back and play through it again discovering more about this still mysterious world. Its fascinating the world that has been created and seeing a different perspective of Rapture and how it came to fall. Multiplayer was added to this game and while I didn’t play a lot of it, it felt like something that would be fun with friends or once awhile, but it wont be something that is addicting.



Final Comments

Bioshock 2 is said to be the sequel that wasn’t needed. Well, that’s a big fat lie. This world of Rapture and the story of its people need to be explored and this game did a great job with that. They really did a nice job in throwing in easter eggs of the first one but without halting the story of the second. Ken Levine should be proud of this sequel.

Also like to say thanks to GDD for selling this game for $40, it was defiantly a steal and I even got it shipped in 1 day, once again thanks.

Category Scorecard
Graphics 9
Sound 8
Gameplay 9
Lasting Appeal 8


Final Score: 8.5

[Buzzman]

After im done with Mass Effect 2(which I should by tommorow or Wed) should I play and review

A.) Valkyria Chronicles for ps3
B.) Mirrors Edge for 360
C.) Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando for ps2

[Buzzman]

Battlefield Bad Company 2
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- The multiplayer
- The ground vehicles
- The team-work style play
- Hardcore mode

What did you hate about the game
- The single player
- The airborne vehicles
- Squad size
- Lonewolves

Graphics – 9

Bad Company 2 contains some great graphics. While you’re running around the battlefield, so much is going on and you can see the effects of war. Buildings are destroyed, debris laying everywhere, and clouds of dust or snow block out your view. Its really is amazing when you stop and look at how much is going on whether your playing single player or online. The game features many environments, from snow, to the desert, and even to the jungle. All are done quite well. For me it was the first time actually playing in a heavy jungle type level and the colors were really great. By far my favorite type of territory.



Sound – 9

The voices in Bad Company are gone. Rarely anymore jokes form your characters, but when they do tell one you’ll definitely laugh if you get it. The soundtrack is really nice that fits its style of game. The weapons and equipment sound nice, but where it really is noticed is in the middle of a firefight when you can hear everything going on. Snipers in the far, apaches flying over, and bullets flying everywhere. It sounds realistic and sharp. Not something, I noticed as much in the 1st one.

A thing I don’t like with the online part is that you can only talk to your squad in a game because if you could talk to your whole team, it would make the game go a lot easier at times in controlling the battle at hand.



Gameplay – 9

Immediately playing the campaign you will realize DICE were caught up in the Modern Warfare bonanza and went with a different approach to the story this time. Gone are the fun free roaming humorous levels and enter the serious so-called “epic” tone. But all that humor and free roaming approach is what separated the first battlefield from the other shooter campaigns. Now instead of choosing the route you want to attack from, they give you a linear direction that you must follow. It really ruined the single player for me. The freedom was the best part in the first game. The actual storyline is very dull because you already feel like you know whats going to happen, sure you don’t know how they will get from Point A to B, but you do know what A and B are, so it really was lame playing the single player. Really wish they would have added co-op, which seems like a mandatory thing for shooters. The real juice of the game comes from its online portion. This time around they added much more then the first one. They still have Rush with a little tweak, but they now have Conquest (think Domination mixed with Team Deathmatch from COD) and squad based games. Then they added I believe 8-9 maps which is a far improvement from the first game. The squads in the game add such a great dimension of teamwork to the game. A game finally rewards you for working together by giving you points for helping out your squad. Gone are the lonewolf days, even though when you do happen to run into them they are annoying, but the battlefield is so huge that you wont notice them often. The classes in the game are Medic, Assault, Recon, and Repair. They once again add a lot of teamwork into the game. Low on health or have your tank clicking, just get a teammate to spawn on you and fix you right up. The vehicles in Bad Company might be the first game where I felt they didn’t downgrade the game. They are not overpowering but if used right can be deadly and sway the momentum of the battle. The guns and equipment are plentiful and so far no gun feels overpowered, but as the game goes on and people start unlocking everything one is bound to pop up as a crowd favorite.

Hardcore mode is probably the biggest single improvement they made. I hated the 1st game. Felt way to generic loading a clip into the enemy just to see them keep moving and kill you. Now you have to be more careful and take a strategic route to your objective. You see my point im making with strategy and teamwork? Lol this game requires it to win.



Lasting Appeal – 10

The single player will not leave you itching to go back to it, once you’re done with it, your done with it. So if you don’t have online, rent the game. Where you will get your real value for your buck is the online. The cover of the game says its going to define online warfare and its as close to truth as it can get. It is the most fun Ive had in a while, even topping the beginning of Modern Warfare 2. As long as you have a squad of 3-4 you’ll keep coming back for more.



Final Comments

As stated earlier, definitely buy this game if you have access to internet and have the time to play online, otherwise it’ll just sit on your shelf. DICE really hit the nail on the head with this sequel. I hated the first game, and didn’t even want to try this out because the demo turned me off, but I rented it to play with my friend and next day I bought it. The game is incredible. Once again, very nice job DICE on creating such a great sequel.

Category Scorecard
Graphics 9
Sound 9
Gameplay 9
Lasting Appeal 10


Final Score: 9

[theMINI]

After im done with Mass Effect 2(which I should by tommorow or Wed) should I play and review

A.) Valkyria Chronicles for ps3
B.) Mirrors Edge for 360
C.) Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando for ps2

mirrors edge :D

[Buzzman]

Mass Effect 2
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- The storyline and characters
- The shooting mechanics
- The side-missions
- Mining unexplored planets
- The import system

What did you hate about the game
- Terminator Salvation
- Heavy Weapons
- Some loyalty missions


Graphics – 9

Mass Effect 2 jumps out at you as just a slightly better polished version of the first game, but considering Mass Effect 1 had some of the best graphics of its time; it’s not a problem at all with the sequel. The space environment of Mass Effect is more of the same but you can see the effects the galaxy has had due to the events of the first game with the Citadel having the biggest change. Gone is the free-spirited, beautiful looking station now replaced with a smuggy, depressed looking facility. Its amazing how changing a few colors and throwing up a few walls and security checkpoints can do to a place. The unexplored worlds this time are not the same thing with different color marks. Each world has its own unique terrain containing different things from mines to secret bases, but they all are pretty small areas, that kinda make traveling to them pointless unless you just want to check out the beautiful landscapes some of them contain. Lastly, the characters of Mass Effect are once again top-notch. They all have the own unique features, which you choosing Shepards yourself. Miranda may be the hottest female video game character out there in that tight space suit. Besides her, all characters features just feel right, specifically the Turians, who happen to be my favorite alien race because of Saren and hope that one day we come to find out that they are a real species.

Last minute edit about some negatives. Occasionally the game will have a hiccup and the screen will freeze for 2 seconds and game gets fuzzy but it only happened about 3-4 times in my 52 hours of playing so I wouldn’t consider it a big deal at all. The other thing was sometimes I would use biotic powers and the effect would work but you wouldn’t see the blue force field that you would normally see, but once again its not a major problem, just a little nit picking.



Sound – 10

Its amazing what Bioware has accomplished with Mass Effect and its dialogue system. They must have recorded thousands of hours of dialogue from hundreds of people to get all that they have in the game. Its definitely something that gets overlooked. The thing that makes it even more impressive is that they tend to always match there characters to the perfect voices. The voice acting is top of the line, with each characters establishing there own identity through the emotions they express through the body language and dialect. My favorites being the salarian doctor named Mordan(sp?) who talked extremely fast and was quite amausing to talk to, and the assassin named Thane because of his past life and they way in which he spoke of it. As well as the voice acting, the soundtrack was awesome. Most games always seem to get this right. They tend to know when the music adds to the tone of the scenes and how long it should last and shit. Its always been one of my favorite parts in video games and Mass Effect mastered it, specifically at the end. The weapons in0game all sound very nice. The sniper rifle after you fire off a shot, gives off a laser-type sound that actually appeals to the ears.



Gameplay – 10

The first Mass Effect felt like an RPG with shooter mechanics. This time around, they improved the shooting so much, I’d actually call it a shooter with RPG elements. The games guns handle with much better smoothness and have a vast majority of weapons then the first game. The game also adds in a new cover system that is similar to Gears of War, that does the job its supposed to do, but at times you can see the problems it has. You’ll uncover to shoot but the target will be blocked by a wall when he shouldn’t and you wont move around from cover to cover as easily as you’d like as well as hurdling over little covers. But like I said, its definitely a great third person shooting game.

Now the RPG aspect of the game is just as fun as the shooting. You have classes that helps you handle guns better or turn your biotic powers more powerful. As you complete missions and side-quests you gain experience. The higher experience you get the higher level you become unlocking more skill points. You use the skill points on yourself and your characters to make there biotics more powerful, such as Warp Throw(that grabs your foe and throws him up into the air so you can shoot him) or Overload(that prevents shields and health regeneration). There are like 15 biotics in total and once you learn how to use them, they are very good to use in battle. Now the way you amp up your guns is by researching technology to make them better. By doing this you read scans on planets, to hacking safes and finding papers, to just unlocking it. But once you find out how to make them powerful, you have to research them and make them by using one of the 4 main minerals that you mine on unexplored planets.

Now onto the mining part. The unexplored planets in the first game were dull and pointless. This time you get a scanner that allows you to scan the planet little circle at a time that reads like a metal detector when you find something. At times it can get boring, for the most part I found it to be like an addicting mini game with the actual game that I enjoyed. I ended up 100%ing all the planets by games end taking up like 5-10 hours of my time.

Last thing that needs to be said is the dialogue wheel. Its one of the best features in any game. A nice and quick way to put the player in control of what the tone of the scene is like and how your main character is looked at. By having this wheel you effect so much, in such a fast convenient way. The choices you make in your conversation not only affect your character but everyone around you. By the end of the game, I was actually nervous on what to do because I was worried my team was going to die.

Cant believe I forget to mention the main part of the game lol. The main thing your doing throughout the game is adding member to your team and then trying to attain there loyalty. Normally I enjoyed them because I enjoyed the characters the game had me go after. I wanted to know more about them and by doing the missions, I found out more about them. However, there were two people I did not like and because of that, I found there loyalty missions to be more of a pain then reward.




Lasting Appeal – 10

Mass Effect 2 took me in total to 100% of everything almost 54 hours. You cant get more bang for your buck. Considering you can find the game for $40, your essinetlly only paying like .80 cents for an hour of game time, which is a great deal, and more then other games offer. It is one hell of a thrill ride and the game will definitely want you going back to play it again to see what happens if you do things different just in case you want things different for that Mass Effect 3 save import. From what others tell me on the 2nd play through it’ll take 25-30 hours so in total your looking at 75 hours at least.



Final Comments

Mass Effect 2 was essentially what a sequel should be. It nearly improved on everything, added another epic story in the universe of Mass Effect, and left you wanting more. Its definitely my favorite game on the 360 and will be for a long time or at least until part 3 comes out. This world is just so remarkable I love exploring every last detail. I do think you need to play Mass Effect 1 first though if you plan to play this cause you wont want to go back to the first one once you play this. And plus you’ll miss out on a lot of things. I read in an article ME2 contains 750 cross overs from the first game. That right there tells you just how much you’ll miss. And considering you can pick up both games for $60 total right now seems like a great deal to me.

Shepard Out, Once Again!!!!

Category Scorecard
Graphics 9
Sound 10
Gameplay 10
Lasting Appeal 10


Final Score: 10

[Buzzman]

Mirror’s Edge
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- The Running Gameplay
- Time Trials
- The Soundtrack
- Faith

What did you hate about the game
- The gunplay
- The storyline
- The game’s length
- The Glitchiness of its gameplay


Graphics – 8

The game for the most part shows off some nice graphics. The characters look and feel real, but sometimes there movements look stiff and there mouths don’t match up with there words. It can get a tad annoying when you notice these things. The world around you is nice on the eyes. White, red, blue, and orange objects and buildings are all around you. It’s quite a sight to see. When you play on normal mode, a pre-determined path is shown for you that is red. I’ll say it once again though, the colors just give off this freshness feeling that is very appealing to the eyes.

The cutscenes in the game though take a very different approach from the actual games graphics. They use a comic book style anime type thing you see in the picture below. While I didn’t like it, I felt it was necessary for the game to take that route because the character models would have looked funky while in a cutscene, and they could do a lot more with the story and characters by adding this style.



Sound – 9

The first thing you’ll notice about Mirror’s Edge is how catchy the theme song is, “Still Alive”. Its not something you’ll sing but you can hear it in your head and it just matches the game. If you watch the trailer that’s posted above you can hear some of it and get a feel at what im saying. The voice actors are all hit or miss. There are some characters, including the main character Faith, which sound good while there are others that sound constipated. Considering Faith is the only real talker, it’s not a big deal, the constipated characters tend to be the very minor ones.

Considering how poor the gunplay is, the actual guns sound pretty good. One of the coolest parts of the game though is when everything’s quiet and your just free running, you can hear your footsteps hitting the ground, your hands fighting the air your running against, and Faiths breathing as you run. DICE did a good job with that.



Gameplay – 8.5

Now Mirrors Edge is doing something I’ve personally never seen before in gaming, so you have to give them credit for it. While what they accomplished wasn’t perfect, it was a hell of a job on there part. They created a First Person Action Adventure game that has you running around “playgrounds” jumping over, under and through various objects, with gunplay coming as a last resort. Its truly a nice change from all the shooters out there.

First things first. The main part of the game is running. You run through rooftops and buildings and other parts you’d find in a city, and essentially you are trying to get to point A to point B, with B usually having a person or info you need to help prove your sister innocence. If you play on normal, the game helps you get to your destination by setting up a pre-determined path you can take to get there. Whets cool about this is your path is a long red line that highlights everything you need to jump over or under etc. You don’t actually have to take these paths though. There are faster ways if you look close enough, and that’s where the game is at its funnest. The one real problem with this though is when you are jumping across or sliding under stuff, your movements wont register and you’ll fall or wont slide far enough. It’s a pain sometimes, and can kill the momentum you had going.

Considering DICE made Bad Company 1 before this game, im surprised the gunplay is so poor. The aimer is a complete mess and half the time you end up missing because of it. Plus there are like 3 guns total in the game. That’s why most of the time you’ll find yourself fighting the “blues” instead. You can kick, punch an disarm them. Disarming is really fun at first but loses its freshness as the game goes on ut it’s a very handy thing to use as the game progresses. To disarm you slow down time and when there gun turns red, you grab it and kick there ass. When you miss you get pissed, all there is to it.

Last I’ll say about the game is the actual story. Its very boring. Your sister is set up for murder and your out to prove shes innocent. Very clichĂ©. Not much goes on that you’d not expect. What really is a bummer is that you dont run as a messenger as much as you do because that’s your actual profession. Despite the story being lackluster the gameplay by far makes up for it.



Lasting Appeal – 7

The game’s story isn’t even for you to go back more then once. You’ll kinda be done with it once you are and that’ll run you about 7 hours, which isn’t very long. But they did add a nice time trials mode they will let you do what’s funnest in the game and that is to run there tracks or levels and record your time to see how fast you can complete them. I try and get 3 stars on everything but you gotta be really good at this game to do some of them. Look up no youtube and see all the crazy things you can do once you get good at this game. I wish I was that good.



Final Comments

Mirrors Edge was a definite risk for EA and DICE, but I feel they pulled off a very nice game for the first attempt. Things could be better, but I cant complain with the final product I was given. Its an extremely fun game that is very unique for the syle they went with. Considering you can find the game really cheap now, you should go and pick it up. There have been rumors on both sides whether Mirrors Edge 2 is in development, so I don’t really know what to expect, except that I hope a sequel comes out and they learn from what they did wrong because if done right it can be a masterpiece.

Category Scorecard
Graphics 8.5
Sound 9
Gameplay 8.5
Lasting Appeal 7


Final Score: 8

[Buzzman]

Shadow Complex
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- The old school style gameplay
- The Graphics
- The Proving Grounds
- Finding items

What did you hate about the game
- The AI
- The Length
- The Story
- The Boss Fights

Graphics – 9.5

Shadow Complex is one of the best if not the best graphical game the XBLA has to offer. The game uses the Unreal Engine to perfection. When I started the game I was stunned at how realistic your environment around you looked. Then I saw Nathan Drake, err I mean Jason Flemming and the game instantly won me over. The water sequences when you flooded a section of the building or when you swam in it looked extremely good as well. I was just amazed that an XBLA game could look this good.

The only thing I didn’t like was at times, they would have so much shit on screen, like 5 robots, 3 heavy gunners, and 7 regular AI foes that the game couldn’t handle it and would sorta lag and freeze up for a second, but considering the amount that was on screen, I’ll give it a pass.



Sound – 10

The first thing that pops into your head when you start the game u is how they got Nathan Drake into this game. Not only do Drake and Flemming look like twins, but they even got the same voice actor as well. But that made my time with the game more enjoyable because Nolan North is one of the best voice actors in the gaming business. The conversations they guards have before you attack is laughable and wonder why they ever were hired in the first place. The guns and vehicles all sound real nice, and the main theme song before you start up the game fits the tone perfectly. A+ in my book.



Gameplay – 8.5

This is where the game makes it or breaks it for you. Your either gonna like the 2D side scroller in a 3D environment or your not. For the most part, you should end up enjoying it though. Finding the various paths to get to your destination is fun but when you cant find it can be frustrating. There are so many things to the gameplay. You can climb up walls, double jump with boosters, crawl through vents. Numerous options of your choosing and its fun. The gun play is good, but at times you find yourself not shooting exactly where you want to and that pissed me off a few times while playing, but not to worry though because the AI in this game sucks ass. I played on hardest difficulty and found myself either standing still killing everyone or just running right by them because they either never saw me or missed all there shots. The bosses were a bit more challenging but once you find out how to damage them, its just a game of repetition. Plus they even gave you infinite ammo and so amny saves to resupply your special ammo that you never had to worry about that. Too me it was disappointing how easy they seemed to make the game.

Last thing to mention about the gameplay is finding all the items. You cant find every item until you unlock everything, but once you do and go back and try and find them, it can get fun and creative on how to get there. Plus the map gives you a ? mark to kinda show you where they are if you ever cant find one you may have missed.



Lasting Appeal – 8

I beat the game is 5 hours and found a little over 50% of the items. If you attempt to go for 100%, then it’ll probably take around 7 hours to beat. Not only is finding the items fun but you get rewarded with an achievement for it as well, so that’s always a plus. Then once your done with the game, you can go to what the game calls “Proving Grounds” and see how fast you can complete various so called obstacle course and pin your times up with the best of the world. I personally wont go abck to them since I beat all the ones I wanted but many people tend to like these types of modes. Good for them.



Final Comments

For 1200 Microsoft Points your really not gonna get more bang for your buck(except maybe Trials HD and Castle Crashers but those are for another time). Shadow Complex is definitely in the top 5 best arcade games XBLA has to offer and you’d be a fool to pass this up if you ever got the chance. But the one thing I need to say about the game is at times despite being only 6-7 hour game, I couldn’t play it for more then an hour before I had to stop playing, don’t know why but I never could. Maybe others have the same problem, IDK but thought I’d mmention it. If they ever run a deal for like 30-50% off it’s a must buy.

Category Scorecard
Graphics 9.5
Sound 10
Gameplay 9
Lasting Appeal 8


Final Score: 9/10

[Buzzman]

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- Potion Making
- The World of Harry Potter is back

What did you hate about the game
- The Collecting of Crests
- Dueling and Quidditch
- No exploration


Graphics – 8

Harry Potter has always had decent graphics. Last game, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, had the best graphics of the series. So somehow, EA managed to make the graphics worse in this game as its predecessor did. The actual characters looks have improved, they look less blocky, but the environment of Hogwarts looks like shit which is a huge bummer because that is the games main attraction. No one wants to explore a world that is dull and boring; they want fun and livingness. But back to the actual characters, if you’ve seen any of the movies, then you’d be satisfied with these in-game characters because they look like there real life counterparts.

The quidditch sections looked pretty decent though but the matches were so short that you barely had time to look around. They even restricted where you go. Also, while you got into full sprint mode, they took a page from Mirrors Edge and had your environment go blurry that wasn’t pleasant to the eyes.



Sound – 9

The audio has also been a strong part in the whole series. They always get the movie character voices in the game (because what else are they going to do) while sticking to that great theme anything related to harry Potter has had. All the voices were good, this time the sound actually went in flow with there mouths unlike the previous versions.

The one thing the past game had which this kept on was the side comments people say to you as you go by them. Most of them are so stupid there somewhat hilarious. My favorite has to be “go away Potty McPotter Pants”.



Gameplay – 2

Here is where the game took a complete shit. They literally took out almost everything that was good from the first game. I will mention the only things positive about the game so I can get to all the negatives. Potion making is a nice mix and match, and despite it being kind of easy and short, it was still the funnest thing in the game. Quidditch was actually pretty fun, they made Quidditch shit at the same time because you cant choose where to fly you just get to move left, right, up and down, while the matches only last 5 minutes. So even though it was a positive, it was also a negative.

Next, we have the exploring. It was the best thing in any game last game. They let you explore Hogwarts and the ground around it, while looking for secrets and Easter eggs. This game does not let you go anywhere, and makes you find crests that are a bitch to get once you find them, and then collect 25,000 mini crests, which might be the dumbest feature I have seen in a game since the flag hunting in Assassins Creed. To top it all off, when you open up the map, it doesn’t even tell you the % of your findings in each area like the last game so if you miss 1 thing, good luck going over EVERYTHING. Whenever you got lost in the first game, you could open the map choose where to go and follow the footprints in the ground, but now you chase a ghost around that takes the longest route possible.

The spells are boring and repetitive. They are the same thing with minor adjustments with the right analog. At least do some things with the analog and buttons at the same time. In duels, you literally can use 1 spell and win in 10 seconds. Very piss poor job with everything here EA.

One last thing I forgot is the animations. Its complete crap you can sprint but if you touch anything you either fly through the air and fall or you completely stop on the dime. Also you have to walk down stairs, and since it’s a 7 floor castle, you use them a lot, so GREEAT FUCKING JOB GUYS.



Lasting Appeal –2

The story is boring, not fun to play and very short. The online dueling is dumb as fuck as well. Those two thing right there should give it a zero but at least they made the game 10 hours longer if you want to 100% achievement this thing because the collecting is a long ass bitch named Johnson.

Final Comments

I will leave it quick and easy for everyone. Only play it if your really into HP or want to buy a copy so you can burn it and rid the world of one less copy for someone to play.

Category Scorecard
Graphics 8
Sound 9
Gameplay 2
Lasting Appeal 2


Final Score: 2/10

[Buzzman]

Red Dead Redemption
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- Single Player
- Free Roam
- Characters
- The AI
- Side-Missions

What did you hate about the game
- Slow-paced missions
- Difficulty (it was easy)
- Competitive Multiplayer


Graphics – 9.5

The Wild West has never looked more gorgeous. When you ride around in this open world you will come across a variety of animals, random people that may or may not need your help, and plenty more. One of the best features I’ve seen in this game is the actual change in days. The sun moves across the sky according to the time and when nighttime falls, random fires start up and certain animals come out to play. Then some days will be sunny and hot, where heat waves effect your line of sight, to a huge thunderstorm where lightning strikes often. Its crazy the amount of detail they went through in making this game. The Wild West feels alive and well again.

With a game this massive, you’re bound to have problems though. While playing single player I’ve rarely had problems with invisible things, but online while in Free Roam you run into quite a bit of invisible people and animals. Its not as bad as it was at launch but you will till run into these things. As well as invisible things, you’ll sometimes have to pick up the gun or skin the animal twice in order to actually get the item. Fairly minor things that should be given a pass considering the amount of detail they put into the game. I’ve seen much worse with a linear path.



Sound – 10

Red Dead has one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard in a video game. Combine the best some from every western movie you’ve watched and you’ve got this games soundtrack. Everything you do has its own music to set the mood. When your riding to a battle during a mission, you get the “duh dun dah dun” music you hear in the movies, then when you get into Mexico you hear trumpet music often and its crazy good. Never before have I seen such a variety of music that matched its environment and added to the scene as much as I did in this game.

The characters offer a wide range as well. You get a boatload of accents yelled your way throughout your journey for redemption and they are sure fun to listen to when they get rambling with your character. Rockstar did a great job with the conversations you have whilst riding a horse. Instead of a cutscene, while you ride to the destination your headed both characters will talk to each other and fill you in that way instead of a long talking cutscene. The things you hear though can be pretty funny, and with the voices each character was given you won’t want to miss out on them. The characters of Seth and MacDougal are by far the best two characters I’ve met since Andrew Ryan of Bioshock. One gave me the creeps while the other provided numerous funny lines.

 

 

Seth Briars

 

Harold MacDougal

Gameplay – 10\

This is the moneymaker in all sandbox games. Rockstar did a unbelievable job with this and I’ll try and include everything I think needs to be said but there’s so much I’m bound to miss much.

First off, the story started extremely slow. The missions were boring and pointless, but as you progressed farther into the game and developed, what you’re doing and why you start to get care about John Marston and have a hard time putting the controller down. The last fifth of the game was brilliant, but the ending was a bit of a plot hole to give a more emotional stance on it, but because it worked the hole can be shrugged off. It ranks as one of the best single player stories of this generation. *Now one thing that doesn’t really matter but bugs me though is the fact that most of the characters you meet were going to die if you never showed up so you wonder how convenient it was for you to show up at that precise time one after the other.*

The game plays as a third person sandbox game. The contols are great, with nothing as a real bother. Never did I die or miss something because they failed me or what not. The auto aim is a bit annoying at times because it’ll lock on an bird flying through the sky in the middle of a battle. You can turn it off if you want but if you do be prepared to die a lot because the cover system is clunky. Sometimes you wont cover right away or when you switch weapons, you come out of cover even if you don’t want to. Overall, I found the gunplay was top notch and fun to play with.

The main story missions go with the story but the side ones are the most fun. I ran into a shitload of stuff that I never thought could be put into a game. I tried to help someone out just to have them steal my horse to actually helping a person catch and hogtie someone for them just to have to kill him because he was actually a cannibal that was going to eat the person I captured. Its just awesome the amount of effort they went into to give you the most enjoyable time possible.

Onto the RPG type aspect of the game where you could hunt animals, then skin them and take there parts to sell. You get different values at different stores and you actually have to plan where to sell and buy. Your honor and Fame effect prices. You gain Fame by doing the missions, but if you wear a bandana you lose out on it but you also don’t get a bounty if you do something bad. By doing something bad, you get negative honor. That has its own consequences. The bounty you gain can be paid off or you can turn yourself in. One of the coolest things is when you do something bad, you can either kill or payoff the witness so you don’t actually get a bounty. Small but great feature.

Animals are plentiful in the game ranging from cougars, bears and boars to birds snakes and rabbits. Skinning them is cool at first with the blood getting on the screen but after awhile it loses its magic and starts to get repetitive. First time I saw a bear I nearly shit my pants.

Once you’re done with the storyline, you can go to your journal and do the challenges set for you. They range from picking flowers to killing animals. Some of them can be fun, they feel like the collection items other games have for achievements. If you don’t feel like doing that you can go to the wanted signs and take on the criminals of the world and collect there bounties; Plenty to do.



Lasting Appeal – 9.5

The game took me 20 hours to complete the storyline and that was with ignoring most of the side missions and taking stagecoaches where I need to go instead of riding there myself. I’m betting the game is going to take at least another 10 hours to 100% it, add in another playthrough and you have at least 45 hours of game times with just the single player. The online is a whole nother monster. Its lobby system is called Free Roam where up to 16 players can play in and it contains the open world of single player just without any of the missions, but what it does have is its own journal with challenges that is fun to do with another player. I’ve spent hours with my friends messing around in this lobby. At times it can be better then the single player. The competitive part though is not very good. The casual modes are ruined by the auto aim, and the hardcore (without auto aim) is full of campers. Even with friends it’s not very fun and I don’t see myself coming back to it much.

They did have a slip in the game case that said co-op missions would be arriving sometime this summer. If its anything like the single player and comes at a decent price its just another thing the game has to offer. That was the only thing they did wrong is not include co-op. Sandbox games have come so far, yet none have yet to include that very popular feature and have it work well. Look at when they do though, cause all hell will break loose.



Final Comments

Red Dead Redemption is going to be 2010’s best game of the year. Nothing else needs to be said.

Category Scorecard
Graphics: 9.5
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 10
Lasting Appeal: 9.5


Final Score: 10/10

[Buzzman]

Earthworm Jim HD
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- Jim is Back!!
- Re-polished Graphics
- The awesome bosses
- The local co-op

What did you hate about the game
- The difficulty
- The aiming
- The platforming hiccups


Graphics – 8.5

Earthworm Jim HD is probably one of the best, if not the best, remake graphically for a SNES/Sega Genesis game. No blurry old sprites upscaled and smudged into a gooey mess here. All of Jim's levels, sprites, backgrounds and special effects have been redrawn, reworked and thoroughly upgraded to create a beautiful piece of work. Earthworm Jim himself is another outstanding achievement. He looks fantastic. His actions and movements all look so smooth and crisp. This is a big step in the right direction, other remakes need to take a look at this.



Sound – 8.5

The game keeps its original tracks, which is a great thing and remasters them so you can hear everything going on unlike the previous installments. It truly was one of the better soundtracks, and now its even better. The little side comments, screams, and celebrations Jim does are funny and fun. They really bring you back into a little kid again. But why the hell did they have to change Jim’s voice? This new one isn’t as fun, and the whole groovy talk just doesn’t sound right. Really the only thing they did wrong here.

 

We even get a cameo from KEYBOARD CAT!!!

Gameplay – 8.5

This is where Earthworm Jim really improved because of the remake. Some of the biggest improvements is being able to switch ammo type with the touch of a button, unlike before where you had to waste your good power ammo before using the actually gun. The other major improvement is the water levels. It’s a lot more smoother controlling the sub, and docking for air supply is much easier with auto lock-on. Aiming as well as improved with the move to analog over d-pad, so now you can aim quickly in all directions. The space racing missions run smoother, but are less challenging with the use of the analog.

One thing that is good and bad is the difficulty. I love the fact that the game challenges you but it really is one hell of a bitch to beat it on its hardest difficulty, which is ironically called original difficulty. As with every platformer ever made, they always have the hiccups of missing the ledge and falling down and having to start all the way over. It happened to me numerous times and it was controller breaking worthy.



Lasting Appeal – 7.5

The achievements for Jim will take you some good time and effort. They are are not easy and will take skill and a lot of luck to achieve, but there’s some great replay value for cheevo whores. Next is the multiplayer. A mode added to this HD remake. It’s the singe player, just with up to 4 players allowed to play with you. Its awesome because you can do it locally as well, which seems to be rare these days. The game with friends is fucking awesome and fooling around can provide with some good ass fun. It’s a mode though I don’t think you’ll be coming back too. You’ll pop in Jim from time to time to beat it again, but its replay value is good at best.

Final Comments

Nice job on the developers for remaking a classic and actually improving upon it. It could have been real easy to just release the original project with a $10 price tag, but I feel you really get the bang for your buck. You should already have an idea whether this game is for you or not before you buy it, but rest assured because if you missed out the first time around, you wont this time.

A nice little reward of playing is a kickass Earthworm Jim spacesuit and shirt for your avatar. I’ll def be rocking the suit for awhile. It makes me look thin.

Category Scorecard
Graphics: 8.5
Sound: 8.5
Gameplay: 8.5
Lasting Appeal: 7.5

Final Score: 8.5/10

[Buzzman]

Trials HD
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- The Ambition
- The Early Levels

What did you hate about the game
- The Difficulty
- The Late Levels
- The Feel for the Bike


Graphics – 8.5

There is no doubt Trials HD is a good looking game. A 2D side scroller in a semi three-dimensional has rarely looked better. The animations of your crashes provided some good entertainment but its disadvantage was the games color scheme. It was dark and depressing which made the game look fuzzy and gave yourself a headache quite a bit. (more on that later). Had they went with a more colorful approach (Joe Danger looks much better) the game would have looked better and maybe even set the mood to keep playing and going for gold.



Sound – N/A

Due to the lack of essentially any sound, the subject is irrelevant.

Gameplay – 5

This is where the game fails hard for aiming at the hardcore gamer.

There is a major difference between making a game challenging for the gamer and making it downright impossible. Early on the levels are way too easy. You can complete the first two stages with relative easer, never having to learn the tracks to achieve a gold medal no the obstacle course, but then comes Medium, Hard and Extreme. They are so difficult you may break your console, punch a wall, or even pull out your hair. One thing’s for certain though, your going to be swearing at the TV. It got to the point where the game wasn’t even remotely fun.

If you add the difficulty of the game + the games fuzzy graphics, headaches are guarantee. Depending on how many you get is how you can handle the bikes. The bikes are very tough to control. You will find yourself leaning even without pressing up and the reverse to accelerate is very shaky with your bike rocks back and forth until you eventually just crash.



Lasting Appeal – 4

The medals are too tough to get gold for everything, the achievements are shit and there is nothing to comeback to unless you absolutely have to beat everything you play to 100%. Good luck on that though because it doesn’t require just skill but a lot of luck and random occurrences.

More to ya if your man enough to waste money on the DLC that is sure to be every bit as hard as the original content.



Final Comments

Trials HD was awarded best XBLA game on the 360 last year. Boy, I must have been in the minority because this POS pissed em the hell off and then some. I am going to try and avoid playing this at all costs again.

Category Scorecard
Graphics: 8.5
Sound: N/A
Gameplay: 6
Lasting Appeal: 4


Final Score: 5/10

[Buzzman]

Dante’s Inferno
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- The story
- The layout of Hell
- The platforming
- The flashback presentation

What did you hate about the game
- Repetitiveness
- The type of ending
- Too many man boobs


Graphics – 9

The cutscenes of the gameplay are extremely beautiful. If a random person walked into the room, they might think your watching a movie, but you’d know otherwise. The actual in-game graphics differ far from the actual cutscenes. While the game still looks great, it has an arcade-y type of look to it. The textures are flat and the game blocks off all the edges it doesn’t want you to run off. Hell though looks great with walls of souls, sea of the dead, and firey pits lurking in every area. It doesn’t have a scary feel to it but more of a depressing look.

The monsters in the game were very creative and disturbing. They ranged from Marc Antony and Cleopatra, anabaptized babies with blades for arms, to the devil himself and his hanging horse dick. The amount of diversity between everyone helped keep the repetitiveness of seeing the same monsters over and over again. Yet I think we could all do without those flying demon birds that were just there to annoy the fuck out of you.

The developers decided to change up the flashbacks scenes but giving them a 2D look of hand drawn animations instead of the computer type, which gave them a better opportunity to portray the violence better as it would have been difficult with the regular computer generated stuff. Plus it was another thing different about that game that made ti feel more fresh.



Sound – 10

This might be the easiest thing for video games these days. It seems like every game, good or bad, has great music and good to great voice acting. Dante’s Inferno is just another shining example. It features some badass music that creates an epic feel every time you hear one of the many tunes the game features. I can’t really describe the music because I can’t recall where I’ve heard the type before, but it definitely feels like it belongs here in Hell.

The other part is the voice acting, in which they did a fantastic job. Dante emotions run through his voice, and you feel exactly how he does because he screams out his emotions all game and he feels like the ultimate badass. Beatrice was an annoying bitch, but at least she looked and sounded hot when she was in human form. Then the devil himself had that creepy ass deep voice with a high pitch laugh. You wont find many misses in this department.



Gameplay – 8.5

There were some good things and some bad things but the good outweighed the bad.

The game is a hack and slash button masher. In order to feel fresh and keep it, you have to provide plenty of moves and combos that are good enough for the player to keep using. One thing I hate about these types of games is there are usually 2-3 dominating moves that the user will use through the game but not this one. There are a nice variety to choose from and certain monsters require certain strategies. It makes the game better and less boring. The magic was less creative with only four to choose from and one of them sucked and another you required late in the game.

They managed to try and counter this with the level up system with the holy aspect of the game. You can take the holy route of the game and upgrade your holy cross that you use to shoot cross shaped “dust” at your foes or shockwaves through the ground. Then you can take the unholy path that helps you gain more moves with your scythe or upgrade your magic powers. I felt they kinda cheated with this though because you can literally grab all the little monsters and choose one of these actions and keep doing to all of them and they won’t interrupt you. Making it easy to level up either path.

QTE’s have never been a great thing in games to me because I feel they are pointless. Your either going to complete it or mess up and try again, that’s it. Nothing else will change, only Heavy Rain has had consequences to missed QTE’s. The big boss battles are ruined because you usually end up killing them with QTE’s which can take the fun out of defeating a monster 20x your size.

The story was an unusual and fresh one that didn’t feature guns or cities. It was a general with a giant fucking scythe fighting through hell to atone for his sins. While it was a linear path, it still felt great and in an open world with the amount of scenery you saw. Watching the flashback story and learning about Dante’s past was entertaining. Everything was going great and the game even had an epic battle with Lucifer where I didn’t feel cheated and had to work my ass off to defeat but that damn ending was a cheat, pissed me the hell off.

 

A To Be Continued…. Ending is quite possibly the cockiest and dullest endings you can give. Now imagine if the game sold like crap and no sequel is made. Good thing it sold like hot cakes, otherwise, all hell would break loose. No pun intended.

Lasting Appeal – 8

The game is a good 8 hours long, but I do think you cant play it for hours at a time. I needed to take some breaks every hour or so, due to fingers hurting or just plain tired of the game, but the last hours will keep you fighting. So its not a bad 8 hours, and im sure you will play through it again. If you like 100%ing a game then you’ll have coins and “damned” people to find and even max out the holy and unholy paths because you probably wont get both in just one playthrough. They released some DLC but I have no interest in playing it but from the fans of the game say it extends the game quite a bit and is a decent purchase.

There is also an animated film that EA released for the film that uses the flashback animation in the game as the basis for the film. I plan on watching it to see if its any good so look for the review on that as well. I heard its worth checking out if you enjoyed this game.



Final Comments

EA did a great job with turning a poem into a game. It’s a great addition to there brand and leaves open a slew of opportunities to extend the story. Expect to see more Dante, and soon. I’m hoping they turn away from the Hell setting though and would like to see what other environment that could do.

Last Note: The Devine version of the PS3 really isn’t anything to brag about. It really didn’t contain anything cool or worth your time. So if you ever saw the 360 version cheaper get that but at the same price, then pick up the PS3 version.

Category Scorecard
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 8.5
Lasting Appeal: 8


Final Score: 9

[Buzzman]

up to date:bolt:

[Buzzman]

Dead Space
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- The Atmosphere
- The Weapons
- The Government vs. Church background
- Dismemberment

What did you hate about the game
- The wife and her story
- The side-characters
- Physical Combat


Graphics – 9

When you look at Dead Space at its core and compare it to some of the better graphically received games, they're not nearly up to par with them. Some of the areas of the ship feel the same with it’s dull color scheme and narrow hallways, but when you take into account this is a survival horror game, the picture instantly jumps to top notch.

Walking around into the darkness of the ship was scary, and when you looked around you saw blood splattered anywhere and everywhere. It looked like something just ripped right through everyone on ship and couldn’t be stopped. Countless times, if you looked at the walls, you saw farewells and words of warning that added to that great atmosphere of the game. The absence of windows and communication, it really felt like you were trapped in a lost ship in the emptiness of space.

The characters looked good in the little time you actually get to see them and even less time you interact with them. This at times felt like I was Jason from Jason X and the side characters looked like characters from that movie, and even ended the same sort of way. The big difference is Dead Space was good and Jason X was not, all due to the execution of the environment.



Sound – 8.5

Here is where it was extremely good, but also a tad bit overdone. The soundtrack was good, but it inconsistent at times. When they got it right, it was fantastic; getting chased or grabbed by something to their own tune of Jaws was terrifying. Then other times something would jump out and they would play a string instrument of some type and ruin the moment. They would have been better off having absolutely no sound other then what you make yourself. It would have added to that claustrophobic feel they had during the game. The strangest thing during the game was when you hear a woman singing a song that’s title runs by me, but while it was scary, it felt out of place here. When you truly are alone, who’s left there to sing?

One Last Note: They decided to go Gordon Freeman on us and had the protagonist Isaac be a silent hero and it did wonders for the game. Having him not talk made distanced you from everything other then the setting around you.



Gameplay – 8.5

*This is a 3rd-person survival horror game*

The actual storyline of investigating the ship and trying to escape the same fate o most of its crew is actually kind of boring, but the back-story you find along the way in the forms of audio and text logs, sets up a bigger picture that could transform into a fantastic story piece.

The first thing that jumps out is how unique the weapons and killing is in this game. All of the weapons are energy based and range from essentially shooting vertical lasers, using a circular saw at an arms length away, or you’re straight up assault rifle shooting energy bullets at your enemies. Your enemies are unique in that they don’t die if you cut off there head. You can either waste all your bullets shooting the body or place some well aimed shots at their limbs and take them apart piece by piece.

Having so many choices is required because there are so many different kinds of enemy that you need them all. Some have tentacles that can be taken off easily with the lasers, and then there is some that need a full clip to the body to kill them before they reach you. The games presents you with such a variety of monsters that are a challenge and have their own forms, it will keep you using all weapons. The game features two bosses, with one being difficult and the other being easy. One feels like a cakewalk after dealing with the first. Very satisfied with how both were done though.

If you don’t have a weapon in a time of need, they have physical combat system that lets you curb stomp your enemies or swing your in-hand weapon at them. These animations are clunky and poorly aimed. Most of the time you won’t hit what your trying multiple times and its not very powerful move, but if your able to connect you clears up some leeway for you to runaway and find something.

The dismemberment in the game is great because you can shoot the arms and legs of some monsters and watched them try and squirm over to you. Even the dead bodies on the ground present a problem for you because if a parasite attaches itself to one of them they are a bitch to defeat. That’s why whenever you see a dead body stomp off there arms and legs so you don’t have to worry about them anymore.

The save system is similar to other games in its genre. You can’t just press start and save, you have to make it to a save machine. Sometimes you’ll hate it because you just want to stop playing and don’t want to start over next time, but for the most part it gives the game a scarier tone because you wont want to die. Its more of a positive then it is a negative.

The game has “stores’ set up all along the ship that you can buy ammo, weapons, and upgrades from. It’s in no way deep because you can find credits all along the ship you can essentially buy anything you want, it would have been better served having ammo lying around and not having stores period. The other thing was the “bench”. You can upgrade your weapons and parts of your suit their and this is more RPG-like because it requires power nodes and those are hard to find and are expensive at the store. You won’t be able to upgrade everything in one play through.



Lasting Appeal – 8

The campaign will take you a good 10 hours to beat. By good I mean it will feel a lot longer then that. Once you beat the game you can go back and keep all of your stuff and try and beat it again and 100% everything. It makes some of the trophies easier if you’re into collecting them. I’d say after 2-3 playthroughs, you probably won’t touch this for awhile. A great purchase at the price it is now. (<$20)



Final Comments

Dead Space was a great addition to the genre and is the second best one of its kind on current consoles. The game feels fresh and fun to play. If you missed out on it earlier like me, give it a try. The sequel is coming out in the beginning of 2011 so the time to play is soon.

ONE LAST THING: They completely jumped the boat on Dr. Challus Mercer. *Spoilers Below*

 

He was a very intriguing character and I pondered what the final confrontation would be with him, but then they just had him kill himself near the end. What a shitty conclusion on the man who caused a lot of this.

Category Scorecard
Graphics: 9
Sound: 8.5
Gameplay: 8.5
Lasting Appeal: 8


Final Score: 8.5

[stevsta]

Dead Space
A VSNDaily.com User Review
Author: Buzzman



What did you love about the game?
- The Atmosphere
- The Weapons
- The Government vs. Church background
- Dismemberment

What did you hate about the game
- The wife and her story
- The side-characters
- Physical Combat


Graphics – 9

When you look at Dead Space at its core and compare it to some of the better graphically received games, they are not nearly up to par with them. Some of the areas of the ship feel the same with it’s dull color scheme and narrow hallways, but when you take into account this is a survival horror game, the picture instantly jumps to top notch.

Walking around into the darkness of the ship was scary, and when you looked around you saw blood splattered anywhere and everywhere. It looked like something just ripped right through everyone on ship and couldn’t be stopped. Countless times, if you looked at the walls, you saw farewells and words of warning that added to that great atmosphere of the game. The absence of windows and communication, it really felt like you were trapped in a lost ship in the emptiness of space.

The characters looked good in the little time you actually get to see them and even less time you interact with them. This at times felt like I was Jason from Jason X and the side characters looked like characters from that movie, and even ended the same sort of way. The big difference is Dead Space was good and Jason X was not, all due to the execution of the environment.



Sound – 8.5

Here is where it was extremely good, but also a tad bit overdone. The soundtrack was good, but it inconsistent at times. When they got it right, it was fantastic; getting chased or grabbed by something to their own tune of Jaws was terrifying. Then other times something would jump out and they would play a string instrument of some type and ruin the moment. They would have been better off having absolutely no sound other then what you make yourself. It would have added to that claustrophobic feel they had during the game. The strangest thing during the game was when you hear a woman singing a song that’s title runs by me, but while it was scary, it felt out of place here. When you truly are alone, who’s left there to sing?

One Last Note: They decided to go Gordon Freeman on us and had the protagonist Isaac be a silent hero and it did wonders for the game. Having him not talk made distanced you from everything other then the setting around you.



Gameplay – 8.5

*This is a 3rd-person survival horror game*

The actual storyline of investigating the ship and trying to escape the same fate o most of its crew is actually kind of boring, but the back-story you find along the way in the forms of audio and text logs, sets up a bigger picture that could transform into a fantastic story piece.

The first thing that jumps out is how unique the weapons and killing is in this game. All of the weapons are energy based and range from essentially shooting vertical lasers, using a circular saw at an arms length away, or you’re straight up assault rifle shooting energy bullets at your enemies. Your enemies are unique in that they don’t die if you cut off there head. You can either waste all your bullets shooting the body or place some well aimed shots at their limbs and take them apart piece by piece.

Having so many choices is required because there are so many different kinds of enemy that you need them all. Some have tentacles that can be taken off easily with the lasers, and then there is some that need a full clip to the body to kill them before they reach you. The games presents you with such a variety of monsters that are a challenge and have their own forms, it will keep you using all weapons. The game features two bosses, with one being difficult and the other being easy. One feels like a cakewalk after dealing with the first. Very satisfied with how both were done though.

If you don’t have a weapon in a time of need, they have physical combat system that lets you curb stomp your enemies or swing your in-hand weapon at them. These animations are clunky and poorly aimed. Most of the time you won’t hit what your trying multiple times and its not very powerful move, but if your able to connect you clears up some leeway for you to runaway and find something.

The dismemberment in the game is great because you can shoot the arms and legs of some monsters and watched them try and squirm over to you. Even the dead bodies on the ground present a problem for you because if a parasite attaches itself to one of them they are a bitch to defeat. That’s why whenever you see a dead body stomp off there arms and legs so you don’t have to worry about them anymore.

The save system is similar to other games in its genre. You can’t just press start and save, you have to make it to a save machine. Sometimes you’ll hate it because you just want to stop playing and don’t want to start over next time, but for the most part it gives the game a scarier tone because you wont want to die. Its more of a positive then it is a negative.

The game has “stores’ set up all along the ship that you can buy ammo, weapons, and upgrades from. It’s in no way deep because you can find credits all along the ship you can essentially buy anything you want, it would have been better served having ammo lying around and not having stores period. The other thing was the “bench”. You can upgrade your weapons and parts of your suit their and this is more RPG-like because it requires power nodes and those are hard to find and are expensive at the store. You won’t be able to upgrade everything in one play through.



Lasting Appeal – 8

The campaign will take you a good 10 hours to beat. By good I mean it will feel a lot longer then that. Once you beat the game you can go back and keep all of your stuff and try and beat it again and 100% everything. It makes some of the trophies easier if you’re into collecting them. I’d say after 2-3 playthroughs, you probably won’t touch this for awhile. A great purchase at the price it is now. (<$20)



Final Comments

Dead Space was a great addition to the genre and is the second best one of its kind on current consoles. The game feels fresh and fun to play. If you missed out on it earlier like me, give it a try. The sequel is coming out in the beginning of 2011 so the time to play is soon.

ONE LAST THING: They completely jumped the boat on Dr. Challus Mercer. *Spoilers Below*

 

He was a very intriguing character and I pondered what the final confrontation would be with him, but then they just had him kill himself near the end. What a shitty conclusion on the man who caused a lot of this.

Category Scorecard
Graphics: 9
Sound: 8.5
Gameplay: 8.5
Lasting Appeal: 8


Final Score: 8.5

what difficulty did you play the game in