I get the feeling that I'm not the first person to make that joke. Red Dead Redemption is a Sandbox style game set in the Old West. It was released for the Playstation 3 May 2010. Developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. This is my first time playing and I don't think there's a difficulty setting so we'll call it "Normal Mode".
Considering the massive success of the Grand Theft Auto series (also developed by Rockstar) you should know how this game plays. The Sandbox genre has a lot of promise to it. You get a wide open space with lots of room to run around and a wide variety of things to do. Red Dead Redemption has all of that, the question is does it do them well?
The beginning of this game was painfully slow for me. We're introduced to our hero Mr. John Marston as he's being escorted to a train. He's being sent to the fictional state of New Austin to help clean up some local gang problems. You have to endure the train ride all the while listening in on two conversations. It's a long ride and nothing happens. I do recommend listening to the conversations as they do paint a pretty decent picture of how people behaved and thought back then.
I do find it amusing how much Mr. Marston stands out among the other people on the train. It's hard not to recognize him as an actual character. Everyone else is so dull looking and he's got a more "flamboyant" look to him. He doesn't look out of place, he just stands out.
Once you get to your destination you meet some guy and you go for a very long horse ride together. There's more conversation between the two but I don't really remember any of it. The ride is long and I kept waiting for something to happen. Nothing ever does.
You finally reach your destination, a place called Fort Mercer. Mr. Marston is here for one Bill Williamson. That means his name is actually William Williamson. Some people just have mean parents. Ft. Mercer is where some big bad group of outlaws is hanging out and I guess Bill is the leader of them. He doesn't really strike me as the gang leader type. The conversation is pretty brief. Mr. Marston wants to "save" Bill, Bill is happy being the leader of a dangerous gang. Marston gets shot. The end.
Sadly, you're awarded a trophy for this. Trophies/Achievements really do suck.
Your first 10 minutes or so of this game is just boring as can be. All you've learned is that Marston and Bill have a history and Marston is stupid enough to pull his gun on a Fort full of criminals. He really deserved to get shot. Thankfully the shot doesn't kill him and some nice lady comes and takes Marston away from the Fort where he's lying in the middle of the night.
Marston is out for three days, but he'll live and he'll recover pretty quickly after he wakes up. Your helper was a Bonnie McFarland Daughter of a ranch owner, she's full of spitfire. She's actually a pretty like-able character overall. I'm not fully sure for her reasons for saving Marston, but she's seems to an ally for the entire game. I'll find out more later on.
This is where you get your first mission, which is ride around the ranch with Bonnie. It was at this point that I was starting to get impatient. I wanted to actually do something interesting. All I've gotten for the last 20 minutes or so is story setup. Couldn't I have at least shot people at Ft. Mercer, but ultimately fallen in the end or something and then gotten rescued? But no, I have to endure boredom first.
Oh wait, that's right. I get to shoot some rabbits that are raiding the garden. Big whoopty-doo. Then I get to shoot some coyotes. A little more exciting then the rabbits, but only because you get to learn how to use your Dead Eye ability. Basically a "slow down time" "bullet time" effect that allows you to shoot more accurately. It's useful so get to know it.
Still not all that exciting so after the mission I randomly beat people up in town, then I stole someone horse. At least then I got chased by the Marshal, that was pretty interesting.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Heavenly Sword - Final Thoughts
Heavenly Sword is a games that ends just as it's really beginning. It's fairly short and fairly easy overall. The story is incomplete and the characters are not fully fleshed out. The action, gameplay, and story were finally starting to solidify when suddenly the game was over.
There are so many things that I still want to know about. What was up with the Raven? Where did the sword really come from? How did Kai initially escape the Flying Fox? Why did Shen think Nariko's birth was a bad omen? Why were all of Bohan's henchmen so stupid? I really feel like I only reached the halfway point in the game. I just hit a major plot twist, there should be more. Give me more!
The combat for the game feels unrefined. Most of the time I would just button mash my way to victory. Rarely did I really have to think about how to beat an enemy. Countering enemy attacks was very tricky so it was a part of the combat system I rarely relied on. I would have really liked a jump ability instead of the grab ability. Throwing items was used more for puzzle solving then fighting. If I actually took time to pick up an item during combat I normally found myself attacked and the item knocked out of my hands.
All of my complaints really come down to one thing. The game needs a sequel. The combat is good, but it could be better. Questions could be answered. Characters could be more fully realized.
Overall this is a game that I had a fun time with. The final fight was well worth the effort of playing through, but I wanted more along those lines. Since the game came out a few years ago I don't know if we'll ever see a sequel or if we'll have to wait for the inevitable revival that all titles seem to go through. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
So that's it. I don't have anything else to say. Good game but cut short. I've moved on to Red Dead Redemption. Got it recently as a gift. I've already played a little ways into it. Since it lacks actual levels my normal style of blog won't really work. I'll just talk about my overall impressions on the games various activities, story, characters, etc...
Until then.
There are so many things that I still want to know about. What was up with the Raven? Where did the sword really come from? How did Kai initially escape the Flying Fox? Why did Shen think Nariko's birth was a bad omen? Why were all of Bohan's henchmen so stupid? I really feel like I only reached the halfway point in the game. I just hit a major plot twist, there should be more. Give me more!
The combat for the game feels unrefined. Most of the time I would just button mash my way to victory. Rarely did I really have to think about how to beat an enemy. Countering enemy attacks was very tricky so it was a part of the combat system I rarely relied on. I would have really liked a jump ability instead of the grab ability. Throwing items was used more for puzzle solving then fighting. If I actually took time to pick up an item during combat I normally found myself attacked and the item knocked out of my hands.
All of my complaints really come down to one thing. The game needs a sequel. The combat is good, but it could be better. Questions could be answered. Characters could be more fully realized.
Overall this is a game that I had a fun time with. The final fight was well worth the effort of playing through, but I wanted more along those lines. Since the game came out a few years ago I don't know if we'll ever see a sequel or if we'll have to wait for the inevitable revival that all titles seem to go through. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
So that's it. I don't have anything else to say. Good game but cut short. I've moved on to Red Dead Redemption. Got it recently as a gift. I've already played a little ways into it. Since it lacks actual levels my normal style of blog won't really work. I'll just talk about my overall impressions on the games various activities, story, characters, etc...
Until then.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Heavenly Sword - It's Over 9000!
Chapter 5, the end of Heavenly Sword. It's actually quite a shame that the game ends here. I feel that it was finally hitting it's stride. But alas it does, and part of my is sad. The other part got a new game and has moved on in life. This is the shortest Chapter of the entire game.
This final Chapter really hits all of the final notes that you could want in the game. It revisits everything and does it's best to keep things interesting at the same time. You finally get to slaughter hundreds of enemy troops and show how much of a "badass" Nariko has become over the course of the game.
The Chapter starts with both Bohan and Shen giving speeches to rile up their troops. Shen's is a pretty typical one. But Bohan's speech is hilarious. He goes so far with his hate-mongering that he actually declares Nariko's people must die because he doesn't like their food. Yep, genocide must be committed over someone's diet. That's just low.
First, you have to fire the cannon again and blow up more catapult things. There are other distractions, such as guys rolling explosive barrels, but once the four catapults are down that section ends. You also need to destroy them before the wall takes too much damage. If the wall falls it's "mission failed" and you have to start over.
Next you have to escort Shen to some stairs. Thankfully Shen does not have a health bar. You only have to worry about Nariko's health. You fight some female assassins who are coming in on gliders. There's a lot of them and they like to randomly dodge your attacks and hit you while you're in the middle of your attack. My O attack really helped get me through this.
Then it's to the outside with Nariko. You're given a hand cannon and the goal to kill 500 troops. Use the cannon wisely. I had to do this section twice because I screwed up with the rockets. I dropped the cannon after only two shots. I only had 50ish people dead and I tried to take the rest out with normal attacks. I had about 475 people dead, but I couldn't refill my health so I eventually died. Second round went much better. I killed 350is with the cannon. Then liberal use of the O attack got me through the rest. I wish I had more time to use the cannon, because it is tons of fun to see 50 -100 people just go blowing into the air after a well placed shot.
Then you have to take out some catapults on foot. You have a time limit, but it's more then generous. You really just need to keep pressing towards the catapults until the prompts appear. Once the two catapults are down you have to rush back to the Fort and that's where the game started. Nariko has her life drained by the sword and she's sent to her own little Purgatory or something.
Once there Nariko yells at the camera, again. I've finally determined that she's actually yelling at the sword. I've also determined that the sword is testing her and seeing if she wants to live. I really like Nariko's argument that if she dies the sword "dies". It becomes a trophy behind glass never to be used again. The fact that she can appeal to the sword's ego impresses me, but she seems to strike a chord because the sword brings her back to life and she's all glow-y now! Yes, Nariko has gone Super Saiyan.
You're given one minute (or was it thirty seconds...) to slice down as many enemy troops as you can. Enemies fall like paper dolls now so go nuts. I recommend range attacks (768!).
Now I've talked before about my dislike of Bohan and how I don't find him to be an intimidating villain and now I know why. He's not the real bad guy of this game, the crow is. I thought the crow was Bohan's familiar, turns out the crow is actually some dark god/demon/monster/creature/wizard/pokemon. When Bohan sees his troops mutilated he begs the crow for power. Apparently the whole plot to get the sword was the crow's idea. Well, the crow gives Bohan power and finally I find Bohan to be intimidating and this last fight is long and hard.
We basically have two Gods meeting at the field of combat. It's the Heavenly Sword vs the Raven King and I love this fight. It's hard, it's challenging, it's tricky, it requires actual knowledge of the combat system and most important of all: IT'S NOT CHEAP! Bohan is a legitimately difficult battle without having to result to animation breaks, over powered attacks or one hit kills. I hope you've learned to fight because I lost this battle a lot.
There are three rounds against Bohan and each one is harder then the last, but I refused to put the game down until he was dead! Turns out that's not actually possible. I really recommend playing this game just for this fight alone. Screw the rest of it, the Raven King battle made me so happy and I could just squeal. Once Bohan is down in the third round it's game over and a surprisingly touching scene occurs.
First, the crow (I guess it's actually a raven) plucks out Bohans eyeballs and then abandons him. Nariko is prepared to finish Bohan off (I'm surprised he actually survived her final attack) when Roach suddenly appears begging for his Daddy's life. It's actually kinda touching. Bohan is relieved that Roach came to help him and Roach really does need his father. In a moment of Mercy, Nariko spares Bohan and allows Roach to take him. I really hope Bohan learns from this and doesn't try to plot his revenge or take out his anger on poor Roach. He would be dead without Roach.
The power from the sword is now too much for Nariko to maintain, she uses the power to heal Kai. She then begs Kai to hide the sword from the world declaring that the sword is evil and is not a heaven sent gift. Nariko then dies. Yep, the hero died at the end of this tale. There's no ambiguity about it. Kai says some stuff, but I wasn't really paying attention.
So the game is over, I'll give my final thoughts in my next post. Then it's off to the next game.
This final Chapter really hits all of the final notes that you could want in the game. It revisits everything and does it's best to keep things interesting at the same time. You finally get to slaughter hundreds of enemy troops and show how much of a "badass" Nariko has become over the course of the game.
The Chapter starts with both Bohan and Shen giving speeches to rile up their troops. Shen's is a pretty typical one. But Bohan's speech is hilarious. He goes so far with his hate-mongering that he actually declares Nariko's people must die because he doesn't like their food. Yep, genocide must be committed over someone's diet. That's just low.
First, you have to fire the cannon again and blow up more catapult things. There are other distractions, such as guys rolling explosive barrels, but once the four catapults are down that section ends. You also need to destroy them before the wall takes too much damage. If the wall falls it's "mission failed" and you have to start over.
Next you have to escort Shen to some stairs. Thankfully Shen does not have a health bar. You only have to worry about Nariko's health. You fight some female assassins who are coming in on gliders. There's a lot of them and they like to randomly dodge your attacks and hit you while you're in the middle of your attack. My O attack really helped get me through this.
Then it's to the outside with Nariko. You're given a hand cannon and the goal to kill 500 troops. Use the cannon wisely. I had to do this section twice because I screwed up with the rockets. I dropped the cannon after only two shots. I only had 50ish people dead and I tried to take the rest out with normal attacks. I had about 475 people dead, but I couldn't refill my health so I eventually died. Second round went much better. I killed 350is with the cannon. Then liberal use of the O attack got me through the rest. I wish I had more time to use the cannon, because it is tons of fun to see 50 -100 people just go blowing into the air after a well placed shot.
Then you have to take out some catapults on foot. You have a time limit, but it's more then generous. You really just need to keep pressing towards the catapults until the prompts appear. Once the two catapults are down you have to rush back to the Fort and that's where the game started. Nariko has her life drained by the sword and she's sent to her own little Purgatory or something.
Once there Nariko yells at the camera, again. I've finally determined that she's actually yelling at the sword. I've also determined that the sword is testing her and seeing if she wants to live. I really like Nariko's argument that if she dies the sword "dies". It becomes a trophy behind glass never to be used again. The fact that she can appeal to the sword's ego impresses me, but she seems to strike a chord because the sword brings her back to life and she's all glow-y now! Yes, Nariko has gone Super Saiyan.
You're given one minute (or was it thirty seconds...) to slice down as many enemy troops as you can. Enemies fall like paper dolls now so go nuts. I recommend range attacks (768!).
Now I've talked before about my dislike of Bohan and how I don't find him to be an intimidating villain and now I know why. He's not the real bad guy of this game, the crow is. I thought the crow was Bohan's familiar, turns out the crow is actually some dark god/demon/monster/creature/wizard/pokemon. When Bohan sees his troops mutilated he begs the crow for power. Apparently the whole plot to get the sword was the crow's idea. Well, the crow gives Bohan power and finally I find Bohan to be intimidating and this last fight is long and hard.
We basically have two Gods meeting at the field of combat. It's the Heavenly Sword vs the Raven King and I love this fight. It's hard, it's challenging, it's tricky, it requires actual knowledge of the combat system and most important of all: IT'S NOT CHEAP! Bohan is a legitimately difficult battle without having to result to animation breaks, over powered attacks or one hit kills. I hope you've learned to fight because I lost this battle a lot.
There are three rounds against Bohan and each one is harder then the last, but I refused to put the game down until he was dead! Turns out that's not actually possible. I really recommend playing this game just for this fight alone. Screw the rest of it, the Raven King battle made me so happy and I could just squeal. Once Bohan is down in the third round it's game over and a surprisingly touching scene occurs.
First, the crow (I guess it's actually a raven) plucks out Bohans eyeballs and then abandons him. Nariko is prepared to finish Bohan off (I'm surprised he actually survived her final attack) when Roach suddenly appears begging for his Daddy's life. It's actually kinda touching. Bohan is relieved that Roach came to help him and Roach really does need his father. In a moment of Mercy, Nariko spares Bohan and allows Roach to take him. I really hope Bohan learns from this and doesn't try to plot his revenge or take out his anger on poor Roach. He would be dead without Roach.
The power from the sword is now too much for Nariko to maintain, she uses the power to heal Kai. She then begs Kai to hide the sword from the world declaring that the sword is evil and is not a heaven sent gift. Nariko then dies. Yep, the hero died at the end of this tale. There's no ambiguity about it. Kai says some stuff, but I wasn't really paying attention.
So the game is over, I'll give my final thoughts in my next post. Then it's off to the next game.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Heavenly Sword - Chasing The Stupid Peacock
*There's a poll up. Go vote for what I'll play next.*
To get started, I don't think Nariko is actually alive. I think she died years ago and some bizarre snake demon possessed her dead body. Do you need proof? Just look at that hair of hers (that's actually the demon). Her hair is having constant seizures and it might just be the most dangerous object in the game. My wife has long hair and she complains that it sometimes gives her headaches. Nariko has MASSIVE amounts of hair and it wiggles randomly. Her head/neck must be killing her. But she never complains about it because her body doesn't actually feel pain, because she's dead. If you just shaved off her hair her body would collapse because the demon would no longer be in control. It all makes sense now.
Chapter 4 is all about Flying Fox. He's been told to kill Kai and Nariko needs to prevent this. So she'll spend most of the level chasing him and fighting through hoards of annoying enemies. It was this section where combat started to become very frustrating especially as I watched enemies randomly ignore my attacks to hit me. This can be extremely aggravating against the heavy-type enemies you encounter in this level. I'll be hitting them and they'll suddenly just launch into an attack that nails me.
Nariko's dodge maneuver doesn't actually take her far enough out of the way of combat. When I'm playing God of War, I know that if Kratos dodges that I'll be okay and I have moment to re-orientate myself. When Nariko dodges I need to keep hitting to right thumbstick so she'll dodge again, this way she might actually be out of harm's way for a moment. Making it worse is if I take a hit, I'm probably going to have to take the enemies entire combo before I have enough control back to block/counter/dodge.
To add to the confusion I'm not sure if my attacks can or cannot stop an enemy attack. I wonder this because sometimes they do and sometimes they don't and I'm not seeing an overall pattern to it. And the heavy-hammer wielding suck. I did find it useful to throw a body into their mist knocking them over and then I'd stab them. Again, it was frustrating to have to wait for the ragdoll physics to stop before I could stab them. They're on the ground, let me kill them already!
There are some ninja/assassin enemies that show up too, but those guys are wimps. Really easy to take them down so don't worry about them.
There's a section where you have to fight more of Roach's pets (turns out they're orangutans). You get to use a rocket and you better make sure your shots count. If you don't kill mass amounts of them with the rocket you can easily find yourself surrounded by a large number of these guys. I recommend throwing a body into their midst to knock them over and then stab them while they're still on the ground.
When you finally catch up to Kai and the Stupid Peacock it appears that you're too late. Peacock has a rope around Kai's neck and then drop her from a pretty amazing height. Being able to fly has that advantage. Looks like Kai's dead. Boss battle against Stupid Peacock then occurs.
Peacock himself isn't that hard to fight, especially if you stay on top of him. He will do two things that make this fight tricky. First, while flying around the arena he'll throw a projectile at you, you need to counter this. Once properly countered you can control the projectile and hit him with if for decent damage. This can be tricky to properly counter though. You can also use these to nail some health containers around the outer arena but those are fairly hard shots and you have to be properly lined up the moment you deflect the projectile to nail them.
His second, and far more annoying trick, is making clones of himself. I'm still not sure what makes the clones vanish. Some clones would apparently get bored and leave while others would hang around taking pretty significant damage. He'll call these guys in on a regular basis once you reach his second health bar. When you reach his third health bar he'll call in 10 clones to harass you. I got through this, but I'm still not sure why the clones would vanish.
Once all 10 clones are down Nariko's part in the fight is over. Big reveal: Kai is still alive and she's still holding her crossbow thing. You get to play as Kai for a moment. You have a limited amount of time to find Flying Fox and shoot him with an arrow. One hit and it's battle over, Stupid Peacock is dead. Man this guy was a lame enemy. He dies talking about how the battle had style, like you actually care.
Chapter ends with Nariko carrying Kai back to her clansmen. Kai will survive, so if you like Kai you can cheer and if you hated Kai you can just pretend that she actually died.
I do think that Kai should have died, it would've had more impact on how Nariko is living her life. Remember that Kai is basically an innocent. Even when she's killing people it has to be justified as a game to her. If Kai died that would mean that Nariko used Kai as a tool for her own selfish ambition. That would've been a great lesson for Nariko to learn. Instead Kai gets to live and Nariko only has to feel sorry for almost killing Kai.
Nariko was apparently followed by a crow. The crow is some kind of familiar for King Bohan. Nariko yells at the crow to tell it's master they they're ready for him. This sets up the final battle. I assume that next time I'll be typing about the final battle.
To get started, I don't think Nariko is actually alive. I think she died years ago and some bizarre snake demon possessed her dead body. Do you need proof? Just look at that hair of hers (that's actually the demon). Her hair is having constant seizures and it might just be the most dangerous object in the game. My wife has long hair and she complains that it sometimes gives her headaches. Nariko has MASSIVE amounts of hair and it wiggles randomly. Her head/neck must be killing her. But she never complains about it because her body doesn't actually feel pain, because she's dead. If you just shaved off her hair her body would collapse because the demon would no longer be in control. It all makes sense now.
Chapter 4 is all about Flying Fox. He's been told to kill Kai and Nariko needs to prevent this. So she'll spend most of the level chasing him and fighting through hoards of annoying enemies. It was this section where combat started to become very frustrating especially as I watched enemies randomly ignore my attacks to hit me. This can be extremely aggravating against the heavy-type enemies you encounter in this level. I'll be hitting them and they'll suddenly just launch into an attack that nails me.
Nariko's dodge maneuver doesn't actually take her far enough out of the way of combat. When I'm playing God of War, I know that if Kratos dodges that I'll be okay and I have moment to re-orientate myself. When Nariko dodges I need to keep hitting to right thumbstick so she'll dodge again, this way she might actually be out of harm's way for a moment. Making it worse is if I take a hit, I'm probably going to have to take the enemies entire combo before I have enough control back to block/counter/dodge.
To add to the confusion I'm not sure if my attacks can or cannot stop an enemy attack. I wonder this because sometimes they do and sometimes they don't and I'm not seeing an overall pattern to it. And the heavy-hammer wielding suck. I did find it useful to throw a body into their mist knocking them over and then I'd stab them. Again, it was frustrating to have to wait for the ragdoll physics to stop before I could stab them. They're on the ground, let me kill them already!
There are some ninja/assassin enemies that show up too, but those guys are wimps. Really easy to take them down so don't worry about them.
There's a section where you have to fight more of Roach's pets (turns out they're orangutans). You get to use a rocket and you better make sure your shots count. If you don't kill mass amounts of them with the rocket you can easily find yourself surrounded by a large number of these guys. I recommend throwing a body into their midst to knock them over and then stab them while they're still on the ground.
When you finally catch up to Kai and the Stupid Peacock it appears that you're too late. Peacock has a rope around Kai's neck and then drop her from a pretty amazing height. Being able to fly has that advantage. Looks like Kai's dead. Boss battle against Stupid Peacock then occurs.
Peacock himself isn't that hard to fight, especially if you stay on top of him. He will do two things that make this fight tricky. First, while flying around the arena he'll throw a projectile at you, you need to counter this. Once properly countered you can control the projectile and hit him with if for decent damage. This can be tricky to properly counter though. You can also use these to nail some health containers around the outer arena but those are fairly hard shots and you have to be properly lined up the moment you deflect the projectile to nail them.
His second, and far more annoying trick, is making clones of himself. I'm still not sure what makes the clones vanish. Some clones would apparently get bored and leave while others would hang around taking pretty significant damage. He'll call these guys in on a regular basis once you reach his second health bar. When you reach his third health bar he'll call in 10 clones to harass you. I got through this, but I'm still not sure why the clones would vanish.
Once all 10 clones are down Nariko's part in the fight is over. Big reveal: Kai is still alive and she's still holding her crossbow thing. You get to play as Kai for a moment. You have a limited amount of time to find Flying Fox and shoot him with an arrow. One hit and it's battle over, Stupid Peacock is dead. Man this guy was a lame enemy. He dies talking about how the battle had style, like you actually care.
Chapter ends with Nariko carrying Kai back to her clansmen. Kai will survive, so if you like Kai you can cheer and if you hated Kai you can just pretend that she actually died.
I do think that Kai should have died, it would've had more impact on how Nariko is living her life. Remember that Kai is basically an innocent. Even when she's killing people it has to be justified as a game to her. If Kai died that would mean that Nariko used Kai as a tool for her own selfish ambition. That would've been a great lesson for Nariko to learn. Instead Kai gets to live and Nariko only has to feel sorry for almost killing Kai.
Nariko was apparently followed by a crow. The crow is some kind of familiar for King Bohan. Nariko yells at the crow to tell it's master they they're ready for him. This sets up the final battle. I assume that next time I'll be typing about the final battle.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Explodemon - The Big Boom Demo
I downloaded the demo for Explodemon. Before I begin I know that there's some controversy with this game. There was this other game called Explosion Man, or is it just 'Splosion Man? Google will give you both results. The two games are fairly similar and rely on the same concepts. I've never played 'Splosion Man. I never liked the look of it. But Explodemon had my interest and so I checked it out.
On some random far away planet, aliens are conquering the people. Normally some Guardians would appear to save the day, but for some reason they are not answering the summons. Only one Guardian remains but the guy in charge refuses to release him from cryogenic storage. Now there is no initial explanation for why this last Guardian won't be released, I found that a little odd.
Thankfully the aliens do it for you. Their attack nails the cryogenic building where the last Guardian is being kept. Big surprise, the last Guardian is Explodemon. Explodemon does just that, explodes and he'll do it at any given opportunity or he'll just do it randomly. Explains why the guys in charge didn't want him released. The amount of collateral damage could be catastrophic.
Explodemon looks like a recycled Mega Man X character. For me, that works in his favor. I love the Mega Man series, especially the X games. I keep hoping we'll see Mega Man X9 as a downloadable title. Explodemon also talks in very broken engrish. Personally I give him a Russian accent. The writing for the game is excellent. It's got a bit of self-depricating, tongue-in-cheek snark going for it.
Game is spot on. The explosion mechanic works nicely and you actually have a variety of attacks at your disposal. There's the dash, normal explosion, close explosion, a multi-explosion. All of them are very worth checking out and learning how to properly use. Level design is great and learning that Explodemon can slide down walls actually opened up more of the level for exploration. There are hidden collectibles in complicated to get to areas.
It's great to see a platformer like this. Platformers are almost a dying breed now days, but they're one of my favorite genres. Hopefully this means that they'll make a come back.
Anyways I recommend checking out Explodemon and then buying it. I really hope to see more of this guy in the future. Not to keen on a second 'Splosion Man though. I still don't dig the look of that game.
For more info on what happened with Explodemon and 'Splosion Man check out the blog of Jonathan Biddle, one of the designers for Explodemon.
On some random far away planet, aliens are conquering the people. Normally some Guardians would appear to save the day, but for some reason they are not answering the summons. Only one Guardian remains but the guy in charge refuses to release him from cryogenic storage. Now there is no initial explanation for why this last Guardian won't be released, I found that a little odd.
Thankfully the aliens do it for you. Their attack nails the cryogenic building where the last Guardian is being kept. Big surprise, the last Guardian is Explodemon. Explodemon does just that, explodes and he'll do it at any given opportunity or he'll just do it randomly. Explains why the guys in charge didn't want him released. The amount of collateral damage could be catastrophic.
Explodemon looks like a recycled Mega Man X character. For me, that works in his favor. I love the Mega Man series, especially the X games. I keep hoping we'll see Mega Man X9 as a downloadable title. Explodemon also talks in very broken engrish. Personally I give him a Russian accent. The writing for the game is excellent. It's got a bit of self-depricating, tongue-in-cheek snark going for it.
Game is spot on. The explosion mechanic works nicely and you actually have a variety of attacks at your disposal. There's the dash, normal explosion, close explosion, a multi-explosion. All of them are very worth checking out and learning how to properly use. Level design is great and learning that Explodemon can slide down walls actually opened up more of the level for exploration. There are hidden collectibles in complicated to get to areas.
It's great to see a platformer like this. Platformers are almost a dying breed now days, but they're one of my favorite genres. Hopefully this means that they'll make a come back.
Anyways I recommend checking out Explodemon and then buying it. I really hope to see more of this guy in the future. Not to keen on a second 'Splosion Man though. I still don't dig the look of that game.
For more info on what happened with Explodemon and 'Splosion Man check out the blog of Jonathan Biddle, one of the designers for Explodemon.
Heavenly Sword - It's All About Kai
Well that's not completely true. It's really 90 - 95% about Kai. Nariko is around, just not for much of the Chapter. We do get to learn a little bit about Kai's backstory, but I have to admit that I was underwhelmed by the reveal.
Since the last Chapter ended with Nariko being captured you get to play as Kai for the majority of Chapter 3. Kai is mobile now so you can actually run around the level. Kai's main weapon is still that super-powered crossbow thing of hers. Playing as Kai sets up a different change of pace that's partially a breath of fresh air and partially annoying. Then again, that's the way this game seems to work. It likes to teeter on the verge of greatness.
Most of the Chapter deals with enemies running at Kai from long distances or standing on far away ledges. Both options gives Kai a chance to use her bow efficiently and if enemies get to close, Kai has some options. First Kai can jump over obstacles. She can't just jump whenever she wants, but if you run up to a pile of debris Kai will vault it allowing you to put distance between you and the enemy. Second is that Kai can grab a close enemy and momentarily stun them, again. allowing her to get away. So Kai play pretty defensively.
Kai's first goal is to find Nariko. Upon doing so Nariko begs Kai to recover the Heavenly Sword for her. Since learning about her father Nariko now feels all alone. Kai understands, apparently she was alone at some point in time. She was so hungry that she ate cockroaches to survive. That's just nasty. It wasn't until Nariko found her that Kai had a home again. So Kai decides to help Nariko, if only so Nariko won't be alone.
There are some massive shooting sections in here and I had no idea that this game was a cover shooter. Kai has to hide behind walls and such to avoid getting turned into a pincushion by the large amount of archers that appear. It's great since the cover will slowly deteriorate forcing you to move. Kai can also light her arrows on fire by shooting them through flames. A flaming arrow can then be used to ignite red barrels for some pretty sweet explosions.
It's really the end of the Chapter that makes no sense to me. Kai can't reach the armory where the sword is kept without a password. To get the password Kai has to talk to the Captain in the West Tower. She's very politely given the basic instructions. So when guards come in to try to kill her I'm not expecting it.
Getting the password is actually kinda fun. First the Captain hides in a room full of fireworks. Kai has to pull off a flaming arrow shot into the building to set off the fireworks that amazingly enough don't kill the Captain. The Captain then refuses to give Kai the password until she threatens to shoot him in his weak spot (crotch) for "MASSIVE DAMAGE!" Her words, not mine. Turns out the password is monkey-peaches.
Kai gives the password to the guard to the armory who then starts yelling "Intruder Alert!" But he was only kidding. Once through the door it's a long gondola ride to the armory. Consider this Kai's big boss fight section. I'm guessing the guard actually did sound the intruder alert because a scores of guards start appearing and shooting Kai while she's in the gondola. Take out what you can and quickly because they will slowly destroy the gondola. Eventually Kai ends up hanging upside down on the gondola remains, still shooting at guards to reach her destination. The armory.
I would call the armory more of a trophy room. Kai grabs the sword, but then she notices a body. Yes, a body in the armory. Turns out the body is Kai's mom. Her mom tried to hide her when she was young. Someone was slaughtering their entire clan and Kai's mom wanted her to live. Guess who the culprit was that slaughtered her clan? It was the Stupid Peacock! AKA: Flying Fox. I lost all sympathy right there. Flying Fox is a moron. If he killed Kai's entire clan that means that natural selection actually got them. Flying Fox just happened to be in the same area.
So Stupid Peacock shows up in the armory. Kai doesn't fight him, she just runs away with the sword in tow. I'm curious where she went since the path she used to get to the armory (the gondola) was destroyed.
Meanwhile Nariko has to fight in some sort of deathmatch in an arena. First she has to fight her clansmen, but you can choose whether to kill them or just knock them out. Just watch your button prompts. I actually saved more then I killed.
Then you have to fight Roach's pets. You only fight one at first and it's a really easy fight. Keep in mind that Nariko is without the Heavenly Sword so she can't use her stances. Once that single pet goes down it looks like 6+ are then unleashed to kill her. After Nariko takes some hits Kai shows up with the sword. How the hell did Kai get there?! She was completely blocked off!
Kai then gives Nariko the sword and the fight becomes a lot easier, stances are back. King Bohan then orders Roach to kill Nariko and get back the sword. Considering the reveal that Kai had to live off of cockroaches I thought that Kai might have to fight Roach, but no, this is a Nariko battle. A very easy one too. Roach telegraphs every one of his attacks by about a mile. His easy to avoid and it's easy to cause him massive damage.
Now Roach worships his dad, King Bohan. King Bohan just uses Roach as muscle. So when Roach is losing Bohan taunts and insults his kid. Emotionally this crushes Roach who no longer has the will to fight. Nariko actually takes pity on Roach and chooses not to kill him. Nariko leaves the arena with the sword and the Chapter ends.
So I'm actually out to just kill a big bully. That's all Bohan is, a bully. He's not really a sadistic madman. He just likes to push people around to make himself feel big. I think this bully needs a swirly.
Since the last Chapter ended with Nariko being captured you get to play as Kai for the majority of Chapter 3. Kai is mobile now so you can actually run around the level. Kai's main weapon is still that super-powered crossbow thing of hers. Playing as Kai sets up a different change of pace that's partially a breath of fresh air and partially annoying. Then again, that's the way this game seems to work. It likes to teeter on the verge of greatness.
Most of the Chapter deals with enemies running at Kai from long distances or standing on far away ledges. Both options gives Kai a chance to use her bow efficiently and if enemies get to close, Kai has some options. First Kai can jump over obstacles. She can't just jump whenever she wants, but if you run up to a pile of debris Kai will vault it allowing you to put distance between you and the enemy. Second is that Kai can grab a close enemy and momentarily stun them, again. allowing her to get away. So Kai play pretty defensively.
Kai's first goal is to find Nariko. Upon doing so Nariko begs Kai to recover the Heavenly Sword for her. Since learning about her father Nariko now feels all alone. Kai understands, apparently she was alone at some point in time. She was so hungry that she ate cockroaches to survive. That's just nasty. It wasn't until Nariko found her that Kai had a home again. So Kai decides to help Nariko, if only so Nariko won't be alone.
There are some massive shooting sections in here and I had no idea that this game was a cover shooter. Kai has to hide behind walls and such to avoid getting turned into a pincushion by the large amount of archers that appear. It's great since the cover will slowly deteriorate forcing you to move. Kai can also light her arrows on fire by shooting them through flames. A flaming arrow can then be used to ignite red barrels for some pretty sweet explosions.
It's really the end of the Chapter that makes no sense to me. Kai can't reach the armory where the sword is kept without a password. To get the password Kai has to talk to the Captain in the West Tower. She's very politely given the basic instructions. So when guards come in to try to kill her I'm not expecting it.
Getting the password is actually kinda fun. First the Captain hides in a room full of fireworks. Kai has to pull off a flaming arrow shot into the building to set off the fireworks that amazingly enough don't kill the Captain. The Captain then refuses to give Kai the password until she threatens to shoot him in his weak spot (crotch) for "MASSIVE DAMAGE!" Her words, not mine. Turns out the password is monkey-peaches.
Kai gives the password to the guard to the armory who then starts yelling "Intruder Alert!" But he was only kidding. Once through the door it's a long gondola ride to the armory. Consider this Kai's big boss fight section. I'm guessing the guard actually did sound the intruder alert because a scores of guards start appearing and shooting Kai while she's in the gondola. Take out what you can and quickly because they will slowly destroy the gondola. Eventually Kai ends up hanging upside down on the gondola remains, still shooting at guards to reach her destination. The armory.
I would call the armory more of a trophy room. Kai grabs the sword, but then she notices a body. Yes, a body in the armory. Turns out the body is Kai's mom. Her mom tried to hide her when she was young. Someone was slaughtering their entire clan and Kai's mom wanted her to live. Guess who the culprit was that slaughtered her clan? It was the Stupid Peacock! AKA: Flying Fox. I lost all sympathy right there. Flying Fox is a moron. If he killed Kai's entire clan that means that natural selection actually got them. Flying Fox just happened to be in the same area.
So Stupid Peacock shows up in the armory. Kai doesn't fight him, she just runs away with the sword in tow. I'm curious where she went since the path she used to get to the armory (the gondola) was destroyed.
Meanwhile Nariko has to fight in some sort of deathmatch in an arena. First she has to fight her clansmen, but you can choose whether to kill them or just knock them out. Just watch your button prompts. I actually saved more then I killed.
Then you have to fight Roach's pets. You only fight one at first and it's a really easy fight. Keep in mind that Nariko is without the Heavenly Sword so she can't use her stances. Once that single pet goes down it looks like 6+ are then unleashed to kill her. After Nariko takes some hits Kai shows up with the sword. How the hell did Kai get there?! She was completely blocked off!
Kai then gives Nariko the sword and the fight becomes a lot easier, stances are back. King Bohan then orders Roach to kill Nariko and get back the sword. Considering the reveal that Kai had to live off of cockroaches I thought that Kai might have to fight Roach, but no, this is a Nariko battle. A very easy one too. Roach telegraphs every one of his attacks by about a mile. His easy to avoid and it's easy to cause him massive damage.
Now Roach worships his dad, King Bohan. King Bohan just uses Roach as muscle. So when Roach is losing Bohan taunts and insults his kid. Emotionally this crushes Roach who no longer has the will to fight. Nariko actually takes pity on Roach and chooses not to kill him. Nariko leaves the arena with the sword and the Chapter ends.
So I'm actually out to just kill a big bully. That's all Bohan is, a bully. He's not really a sadistic madman. He just likes to push people around to make himself feel big. I think this bully needs a swirly.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Heavenly Sword - Stupidest. Henchmen. Ever.
Have you ever watched the original Ninja Turtles cartoon? The main villain was a guy named Shredder. He had two henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady. They were both morons. The difference here is that Bebop and Rocksteady were supposed to be morons. King Bohan's henchmen are supposed to be competent warriors. Only one of them is supposed to be a "moron". Instead all three of them are morons.
At the end of Capter 1 you finally use the Heavenly Sword. Here Nariko gets to use what is referred to as stances. She has her normal stance (using attacks buttons normally), ranged stance (pressing L1 while attacking), and heavy (strong?) stance (pressing R1 while attacking). This actually makes combat far more interesting yet cheap at the exact same time. Normal stance can only block Normal attacks and the Heavy stance can only block heavy attacks. Rnaged attacks only block during specific occasions so far. The issues I have is that enemies seem to randomly change attack styles to hit you. The same attack can be used in Normal or Heavy stance which makes it hard to guess which attack type to block against. It really sucks if three guys are attacking you in Normal and then someone suddenly throws in a Heavy.
In-between Chapters Narkio speaks to the player again. She complains that I have made her a killer. I would like to point out that she killed 700+ people on her own before she actually used the sword so she should just stop whining!
Chapter 2 has you battle 2 different bosses. This is where my first paragraph comes into play. First you will encounter the Flying Fox. I prefer to call him the Stupid Peacock instead. He primps, he preens, he moves like a chicken, he has an annoyingly nasally voice and he isn't scary in the slightest. I was actually doing just fine against him until I encountered the Quick Time Event. Thanks for the warning by way. These QTEs are kinda nice in that if you screw up you can recover. I seem to fail the first time round because I'm not expecting the QTE to occur. So I had to repeat it.
It's not a hard fight and I can't take the guy seriously. He declares Nariko isn't strong enough to entertain him yet so he leaves. I felt like I just wasted 10ish minutes.
Shortly afterwards a cutscene occurs where Bohan is addressing Flying Fox and his other two henchmen Whiptail and Roach. Whiptail is some bizarre snake lady. She really reminds me of Jennifer Coolidge. The final henchman you actually saw a snippet of earlier and that's Roach. Roach is the big, dumb guy. I hate the big, dumb guy. It's a character that I have never, ever liked. Roach also happens to be King Bohan's illegitimate son. Roach worships Daddy, but Daddy can't stand Roach.
The cutscene with these three is just moronic. I don't really know how else to describe it. They argue, they bicker, they insult each other. King Bohan stares at them like a moron with no thoughts in his brain. He also seems to like Flying Fox even though he yells at Fox for failing to get the sword. It's just dumb. Would I be scared to in the same room as these four? Yes. But only because I think they might eat me, not because I actually fear them. These aren't villains you love to hate. They're just villains who you hate. I want to kill them so they're out of the storyline.
Thankfully I get that chance. At the end of Chapter 2 you get to fight Whiptail. This is an okay fight, but the fixed camera angle can really screw you over. You fight Whiptail in a long canal and the camera focuses on her. Now if Whiptail gets to close one of the back walls while in close vicinity to Nariko, the camera will jump back and forth between angles making it very hard to see what's going on. QA really should have been on top of this and design should have found a way to fix it. Give it to the tech team if you have to.
At the start of the battle Nariko rescues Shen, her father. Nariko is also told that Shen tried to kill her when she was just born. Shen confirms this. Nariko turns her back on her father and her clan at this point. Basically the only she has for living is killing Bohan. The dialogue between Nariko and Whiptail is great. Whiptail keeps trying to provoke Nariko and Nariko keeps throwing it right back. Now I'm starting to like Nariko.
There's a Kai shooting section here that I want to talk about. To me, this should have been the tutorial level for using Kai. Kai has to protect Shen while he walks, injured, down a long bridge. I actually found this section to be a little fun. The enemies come one at a time early on giving you a chance to really learn the bow. You also have plenty of room to shoot the enemies. The difficulty slowly escalates at an appropriate level. Eventually more enemies start appearing at the same time and you have to adjust how you fight. It's really well done.
Back to Nariko's battle (Kai's section actually interrupts Nariko's battle with Whiptail). When the fight ends Whiptail goes down with the sword through her. Problem is Nariko is also knocked out. It's actually King Bohan who finishes off Whiptail by snapping her neck. While I doubt Whiptail would have recovered from her injuries, Bohan snaps her neck and finishes the job. Bohan then claims the sword and Nariko is taken prisoner. End Chapter.
I actually don't remember what Nariko said this time and I don't really care. Chapter 3 is up next.
At the end of Capter 1 you finally use the Heavenly Sword. Here Nariko gets to use what is referred to as stances. She has her normal stance (using attacks buttons normally), ranged stance (pressing L1 while attacking), and heavy (strong?) stance (pressing R1 while attacking). This actually makes combat far more interesting yet cheap at the exact same time. Normal stance can only block Normal attacks and the Heavy stance can only block heavy attacks. Rnaged attacks only block during specific occasions so far. The issues I have is that enemies seem to randomly change attack styles to hit you. The same attack can be used in Normal or Heavy stance which makes it hard to guess which attack type to block against. It really sucks if three guys are attacking you in Normal and then someone suddenly throws in a Heavy.
In-between Chapters Narkio speaks to the player again. She complains that I have made her a killer. I would like to point out that she killed 700+ people on her own before she actually used the sword so she should just stop whining!
Chapter 2 has you battle 2 different bosses. This is where my first paragraph comes into play. First you will encounter the Flying Fox. I prefer to call him the Stupid Peacock instead. He primps, he preens, he moves like a chicken, he has an annoyingly nasally voice and he isn't scary in the slightest. I was actually doing just fine against him until I encountered the Quick Time Event. Thanks for the warning by way. These QTEs are kinda nice in that if you screw up you can recover. I seem to fail the first time round because I'm not expecting the QTE to occur. So I had to repeat it.
It's not a hard fight and I can't take the guy seriously. He declares Nariko isn't strong enough to entertain him yet so he leaves. I felt like I just wasted 10ish minutes.
Shortly afterwards a cutscene occurs where Bohan is addressing Flying Fox and his other two henchmen Whiptail and Roach. Whiptail is some bizarre snake lady. She really reminds me of Jennifer Coolidge. The final henchman you actually saw a snippet of earlier and that's Roach. Roach is the big, dumb guy. I hate the big, dumb guy. It's a character that I have never, ever liked. Roach also happens to be King Bohan's illegitimate son. Roach worships Daddy, but Daddy can't stand Roach.
The cutscene with these three is just moronic. I don't really know how else to describe it. They argue, they bicker, they insult each other. King Bohan stares at them like a moron with no thoughts in his brain. He also seems to like Flying Fox even though he yells at Fox for failing to get the sword. It's just dumb. Would I be scared to in the same room as these four? Yes. But only because I think they might eat me, not because I actually fear them. These aren't villains you love to hate. They're just villains who you hate. I want to kill them so they're out of the storyline.
Thankfully I get that chance. At the end of Chapter 2 you get to fight Whiptail. This is an okay fight, but the fixed camera angle can really screw you over. You fight Whiptail in a long canal and the camera focuses on her. Now if Whiptail gets to close one of the back walls while in close vicinity to Nariko, the camera will jump back and forth between angles making it very hard to see what's going on. QA really should have been on top of this and design should have found a way to fix it. Give it to the tech team if you have to.
At the start of the battle Nariko rescues Shen, her father. Nariko is also told that Shen tried to kill her when she was just born. Shen confirms this. Nariko turns her back on her father and her clan at this point. Basically the only she has for living is killing Bohan. The dialogue between Nariko and Whiptail is great. Whiptail keeps trying to provoke Nariko and Nariko keeps throwing it right back. Now I'm starting to like Nariko.
There's a Kai shooting section here that I want to talk about. To me, this should have been the tutorial level for using Kai. Kai has to protect Shen while he walks, injured, down a long bridge. I actually found this section to be a little fun. The enemies come one at a time early on giving you a chance to really learn the bow. You also have plenty of room to shoot the enemies. The difficulty slowly escalates at an appropriate level. Eventually more enemies start appearing at the same time and you have to adjust how you fight. It's really well done.
Back to Nariko's battle (Kai's section actually interrupts Nariko's battle with Whiptail). When the fight ends Whiptail goes down with the sword through her. Problem is Nariko is also knocked out. It's actually King Bohan who finishes off Whiptail by snapping her neck. While I doubt Whiptail would have recovered from her injuries, Bohan snaps her neck and finishes the job. Bohan then claims the sword and Nariko is taken prisoner. End Chapter.
I actually don't remember what Nariko said this time and I don't really care. Chapter 3 is up next.
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