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12.9.12
Choice.
It’s the mainstay in most games published by Bethesda, and is one of the biggest, most defining elements of Dishonored. A product of French developer Arcane Studios, Dishonored gives players a deep suite of powers to wreak as much or as little havoc as they like in their quest to restore honour to their name.
The hour-long demo I played at Bethesda’s booth assigned me with infiltrating a party and assassinating one Lady Boyle, a member of the upper crust and financier for my enemies. The representative from Arkane Studios told me that it’s possible to finish the entire game without killing a single person, save for a handful of crucial encounters, and that all of my assassination targets can be dealt with non-lethally. I decided to take him at his word, having heard similar claims about the original Deus Ex, and chose a pacifist approach for the length of the demo.
I began my mission outside the Boyle estate, noting the regular patrols of guards and tripedal robots reminiscent of Half-Life 2’s Striders—no coincidence as both games share Viktor Antonov, art director on Half-Life 2 and design director on Dishonored. Rather than cutting a wide swath through the Boyle manor’s security detail, I possessed the body of a fish in the surrounding moat and swam through a gap in its drainage system, gaining entry via the mansion’s sewer access.
Dishonored allows for multiple approaches to its gameplay challenges.
Once inside, I discovered that the party was a masquerade ball, and that Lady Boyle’s two sisters were also in attendance and wearing similar costumes to my target. Needing more information about which Lady Boyle was my actual target, I chatted up the party attendees, hoping to learn all I could about my hostess and what she might be wearing.
In talking with Lady Boyle's party guests, I started to learn about Dishonored's setting, a sort of alternate universe Europe where the industrial revolution was sparked not by coal, but whale oil. The Arkane rep explained that the non-lethal approach requires players to scour their environment for information related to their target, often revealing more of Dishonored’s extensive world-building. For lore-nuts like me who love learning about a game's world in a natural way, playing Dishonored non-lethally might be the most rewarding way to go.
I eventually came across a gentleman who claimed he knew of my mission to end Lady Boyle's life and pleaded with me to let her live, saying he loved her and would whisk her away to a faraway island and she would be safe and sound. His earnest speech sounded creepy, given that Lady Boyle likely didn’t know of his existence, but it was a bloodless way to dispose of my future victim and I took the unrequited Casanova up on his offer, agreeing to bring Lady Boyle to the basement where he would meet me.
The art in Dishonored is grotesque, exaggerated, and compelling.
From there, I fetched a flirty party-goer a drink and she described the true Lady Boyle’s costume to me. I talked with the Lady and tried to get her to follow me, but she didn’t trust me and shoved me off. Not giving up, I waited until she was near the entrance and tapped into a few of my powers. First, I possessed her the way I had done with the fish earlier, then I froze time for a short period to move even closer, and finally I used an ability called Blink to teleport past security before I ran out of possession time. When I finally had her out of sight, I knocked her out and brought her down to where the would-be lover was supposed to meet me. Unfortunately, by that point I had run out of time, leaving me unable to see what the rest of the demo held.
The grand level of choice offered by games like Skyrim or Fallout 3 often leaves me paralyzed with indecision; when I’m given the ability to do everything, I often shut down and don’t want to do anything. Dishonored is different; it gives me one specific thing to do—get rid of this particular person—and a hundred different ways to do it. Dishonored’s focus on macro-level decisions rather than big ones results in a game that feels manageable while still offering variability of play style that all but guarantees repeated attempts and playthroughs. Dishonored sneaks onto European shelves on 11 October and North America on 9 October.
Labels: Arkane Studios, Bethesda, Dishonored, PAX Prime 2012
- Andrew Testerman
Sometimes, just before you witness something grand, you get that indescribable feeling that what you're about to experience is going to be incredible.
That's what I felt when we were ushered into the Bethesda theater to watch the showcase on Dishonored, Arkane Studios' supernatural stealth-action adventure title. Easily stealing our game of the show award, Dishonored not only draws some of its strength from the magical titles of old, but it manages to be seminal in world plagued by derivative and hackneyed titles.
Dishonored interview
You are Corvo Atano, a legendary supernatural assassin who is blamed for the murder of the empress of Dunwall. Your job is to find out who framed you, why they did it and then enact revenge upon them. A simple premise, for sure, but what makes Dishonored different than any other game out there is... well, basically everything.
The city of Dunwall can best be described as a steampunk city in the midst of a semi industrial revolution. The entire game will take place within the walls of the city so expect it to be enormous and writhing with life for you to pass judgment on. Each mission will drop you into a certain part of the city where you make the path to the objective. Sometimes side-quests appear that may or may not help you reach your goal, but there are always multiple pathways to reach the mission end. Whether you lay a path of destruction or take a more mild approach to your enemies is another choice and each way opens up new scenarios you'll encounter. How's that for being different?
He was a Dallas Cowboys fan. What?
Still not satisfied? Much as it alludes to, Dishonored is not an open-world game. As a matter of fact, each mission is hand-crafted and tailored to the situation. While that might put some people off, I remind you that old-school games like Thief worked much in the same way. Ostensibly the game may seem linear, but within each mission structure are a multitude of options and, as I previously stated, multiple pathways to get to the main objective. You can complete entire missions without killing anyone. Better? You're a supernatural assassin. There, how's that sound?
It doesn't matter how badass the protagonist or setting sounds if the combat is shabby and thankfully Dishonored delivers. Being supernatural and such, Corvo will have a ton of options of how to deal with each situation and yes, there will be upgrades to sate that RPG fanatic within. For instance, let's say a patrol man makes his way over to a secluded area but killing him there still might get you seen eventually. Well, use Corvo's blink to teleport right behind the target, stab him in the neck, pick the body up, blink back onto the roof. Done, and all within a good five seconds.
It might not look like much, but what you aren't seeing is something magical or in this case... supernatural. Sorry.
Combat is just as satisfying as it sounds. Players who relish timing-based mechanics can make Corvo parry and counterattack with ease. At one point in the showcase, Corvo wielded both a one-handed crossbow and a sword to fend off an assault of guardsmen. We also saw Corvo control the wind to throw back a missile at one of the enemies called a Tall Boy. He even called a swarm of rats to rip a man into tiny bits. Excessive, but oh so necessary.
You never see games explore areas like this and, being a stealth game fanatic, this is something I've been waiting to see for some time now. Lethal or non-lethal methods of play, your actions changing the missions dynamically, supernatural moves, a steampunk environment, a seemingly solid story, it's all gold for someone like me. If the game plays as fluid as it did on the showroom floor and delivers on what we've seen so far, it'll be hard not to consider it a game of the year contender. Get ready, because Dishonored drops October 9th on PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Labels: Andrew Whipple III, Arkane Studios, Bethesda, Dishonored, E3 2012, Interview, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
- Andrew Whipple III
When I woke up on the 10th of November, I knew it was going to be a bad day. I think many felt the same way, as it was the eve before Bethesda's latest, the long-awaited Skyrim, was to be released.
A guest article by Cathal Geoghegan.
As I drank my morning coffee, I watched several of the Skyrim videos that had made their way onto the internet. It made the wait worse, but I just couldn't tear myself away from the beautiful landscapes and fantastical people of Skyrim.
Just as the wait was becoming unbearable, I received a phone call from an unknown number. Normally I would have ignored the call, but I somehow felt the call was important. I answered the phone. I was confused when the person on the line asked if I had ordered a package. Initially I didn't think it was Skyrim, because I hadn’t selected the express delivery and I had only just received an email confirming that it had entered shipping. My surprise was almost palpable when the courier arrived twenty minutes later and handed me the behemoth package.
I had expected the Collector’s Edition to be in a huge box, but I was very surprised by its actual size. I would say that the box is at least twice the size of the PlayStation 3's box, and it's also surprisingly heavy, considering the Alduin statue is only made of PVC. As you open the box, the first thing you see is book showcasing the artwork of Skyrim. Surprisingly, this was my favourite part of Skyrim's C.E. I had expected the quality of the artbook to be similar to books that you get in other Collectors' Editions, but I was absolutely wrong. The Skyrim Artbook is A4 in size (roughly the 'letter' paper standard, for American readers) and bound in a faux leather, which is of the highest quality. As a life-long bibliophile, I could tell that this book is definitely worth at least £30, or perhaps even more.
After the artbook, you will find the box containing the game itself, the DVD and the very special burlap map of Skyrim. Like the artbook, the quality of the map is superb and is worlds apart from the cheap paper map that came with copies of Oblivion. The map is also very detailed and will probably be essential for anyone wishing to play Skyrim.
Arguably the best thing about the whole of the Collector's Edition.
I then came to the pièce de résistance of the Skyrim Collectors' Edition, the Alduin statue. The statue itself is contained within a second box. When you open the box, you are greeted by a nice little touch from Bethesda; the polystyrene lining the box is embossed with the Elder Scrolls logo. The statue itself is fantastic, if somewhat light and delicate. As you set the Alduin dragon upon its base, you would think that it was actually made from metal, but its weight and the way that it feels shatter the illusion. Despite this, the quality and detail of the statue is amazing. The IP Factory, which manufactured the statue, went to great lengths to ensure that the statue is as authentic as possible, going so far as to use actual models from the game to create the statue.
Personally, I would consider this to be the best Collectors' Edition in a long time. I would also say that the Skyrim Collectors' Edition is a must have, for all Elder Scrolls fans. Despite the quality and lustre of the Collectors' Edition, you probably won’t have time to admire it once you start playing the leviathan that is Skyrim.
Labels: 2011, Bethesda, Cathal Geoghegan, collectibles, Feature, Guest post, Skyrim, Skyrim Collectors Edition, The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Linford Butler
To celebrate the release of the long-awaited latest iteration in the Elder Scrolls franchise, Skyrim, GGTL LIVE presents the whole of the first hour of the game with Andrew Whipple.
Join us here from 11:30pm EST to watch the very first hour of Skyrim, streamed live. If you haven't yet managed to get your hands on a copy, can't afford it until the month's wage slip is due or just want to see how another person makes all the decisions and deliberations that make each player's journey through Skyrim so unique, make sure to check back here just before the start of the stream to join in with all the fun.
We hope you enjoy it.
Skyrim LIVE: the stream
We'll be streaming live at 11:30pm EST. Translated into your local language, here are the times for where you might live:
United Kingdom: 04:30am GMT, Saturday 12th November
Central USA: 10:30pm CST, Friday 11th November
Eastern USA: 11:30pm EST, Friday 11th November
Pacific USA: 09:30pm PST, Friday 11th November
Midwestern USA: 10:30pm MST, Friday 11th November
Western Australia: 12:30pm AWST, Saturday 12th November
Central Australia: 02:00pm ACST, Saturday 12th November
Eastern Australia: 02:30pm AEST, Saturday 12th November
Central Europe: 05:30am CET, Saturday 12th November
Central USA: 10:30pm CST, Friday 11th November
Eastern USA: 11:30pm EST, Friday 11th November
Pacific USA: 09:30pm PST, Friday 11th November
Midwestern USA: 10:30pm MST, Friday 11th November
Western Australia: 12:30pm AWST, Saturday 12th November
Central Australia: 02:00pm ACST, Saturday 12th November
Eastern Australia: 02:30pm AEST, Saturday 12th November
Central Europe: 05:30am CET, Saturday 12th November
We can't guarantee that there won't be spoilers, and nor can we guarantee that there won't be content unsuitable for minors. Skyrim carries a PEGI 18+ certificate in Europe, an ESRB Mature (17+) certificate in the United States of America, and a ACB MA15+ certificate in Australia, so those under the age the game carries in their region should seek parental permission to view our livestream.
Labels: 2011, Andrew Whipple III, Bethesda, GGTL Live, Linford Butler, livestream, Skyrim, Video
- Linford Butler
Competition closed, and winners announced here. Thanks to all who entered!
Almost a week ago, we gave you the chance to win one of six Skyrim plushy helmets. The competition was a resounding success, and we thank each and every one of you who joined in. But those hats were snapped up, winners were told, and that was that.
But we at Gamer's Guide to Life.com like to surprise. And, alongside our beautiful new design, we're giving you the chance to win a Skyrim plushy hat all over again, courtesy of the lovely people at Bethesda. And it may just be your last ever chance.
You probably know the drill; you enter for the chance to win one of the two remaining Skyrim pushy helmets we have - and, as far as we know, the last ones Bethesda had in stock. This is your final opportunity to be a part of history, a part of something special. Since we've had time to discover more about these helmets and their magical powers of awesomeness, here is a new list of their incredible powers:
Put a helmet on a cat, and it'll turn into a Khajiit. Put it on a kitten, it turns into the cutest Khajiit you've ever seen. Ever.
Put the helmet on a tree at sundown, and there's a chance a wild Bosmer will appear. And then shoot you with an arrow.
Put a helmet on a nerd, he'll become a Nord.
Put a helmet on a dork, he'll become an Orc.
Put the helmet on at midnight and say 'Candyman' three times, and myth has it that Todd Howard will appear, and will lull you to sleep with his warm, cosy voice.
Put the helmet on in public, and become Dragonborn.
Put the helmet on a tree at sundown, and there's a chance a wild Bosmer will appear. And then shoot you with an arrow.
Put a helmet on a nerd, he'll become a Nord.
Put a helmet on a dork, he'll become an Orc.
Put the helmet on at midnight and say 'Candyman' three times, and myth has it that Todd Howard will appear, and will lull you to sleep with his warm, cosy voice.
Put the helmet on in public, and become Dragonborn.
Want to see what it looks like on a half-person, half-glitter-zombie? It's a good thing that we have just the image for you, then.
Note: we have no idea what is happening in this picture. You'll get the awesome hat, but we won't smear you in dirt and put glitter in your mouth. We have some dignity.
So, how do you get your hands on the last of these rare artefacts?
To enter, all you need do is tweet the following message using an unprotected, personal Twitter account, and follow our sister site's Twitter account at @systemlinkblog:
RT and follow @systemlinkblog to win 1 of the last 2 Skyrim plush helmets, courtesy of Bethesda! Details and terms: http://bit.ly/sl-skyrim
You asked, and we listened. Since some of you seem to have an acute fear of social networking, we've decided to open the competition to permit e-mail entries, as well. Whilst Twitter is by far the faster, easier and arguably better way of entering, we never leave a man behind. If you must, send us an e-mail at competitions@gamersguidetolife.com, with the subject line as Skyrim plush helmet competition entry. You will be treated to exactly the same random chance as those who enter via Twitter, and that's a promise. Please note: only one entry option is allowed. If you enter via Twitter and E-mail, we will only count one form of entry.
And, finally, we've taken the big choice to make this competition worldwide. Whilst it'll undoubtedly cost us a bomb to ship out to the furthest reaches of Antarctica, we can't put a price on a fan's happiness*.
There you have it. This is the last Skyrim competition we'll ever do, so make sure you're part of it. The competition will close at 11:59pm GMT on Wednesday 9th November, with winners chosen on Thursday 10th.
* We can, and it's anything upwards of £14.99
FUS-DO-RAH!
Terms and conditions:
- Entrants must submit their entries by no later than 11:59pm GMT on Wednesday, 9th November, 2011.
- Winners will be chosen at random on Thursday, 10th November, 2011.
- There will be two chosen winners, and each winner will receive one Skyrim plush helmet.
- The prize consists of one Skyrim plush helmet.
- There is no alternative prize and the prize may not be exchanged for any other item, nor any monetary amount.
- Entrants must follow both the SystemLink Twitter account (http://twitter.com/systemlinkblog) and retweet the given message in order for their entry to be valid.
- The Gamer's Guide to Life Network reserves the right to withhold prizes for any reason it sees fit.
- The immediate families of Gamer's Guide to Life Network staff are prohibited from entering, as are past and present members of the Network.
- The prize will be shipped to directly from the Gamer's Guide to Life Network, and thus winners will need to contact us to provide shipping details.
- Entrants must enter the competition using a regularly-updated, non-spam personal Twitter account, which is not set up merely for competition entries and/or promotional purposes.
- Following the competition, the winner will be required to contact a given Gamer's Guide to Life Network representative in order to provide the details we need to have the helmets dispatched.
- The prize cannot be redeemed in any other form than the prize designated.
- The Gamer's Guide to Life Network reserves the right to refuse entry to winners if they see fit.
- The Gamer's Guide to Life Network redeems the right to change, edit or otherwise add to or modify these Terms and Conditions at any time.
Labels: 2011, Bethesda, Chris Hawke, Competition, Exclusive, Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Chris Hawke
COMPETITION CLOSED: You can see who won on this tweet here. However - don't lose heart. With our new site coming any day now, we'll have a few more competitions to run - and who knows, maybe it will be your last chance to grab something Skyrim-based?...
Ladies and Gentlemen, Nords and Orcs, Khajiit and Dunmer, we have a special treat for you all. With The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim fast approaching, ready to swoop into your living room and tear the beating heart out of your social life, Bethesda want you to start getting into the mind of Dovahkiin. And how can you possibly feel like the Dragonborn? You can wear his helmet.
Bethesda have been kind enough to send Gamer's Guide to Life.com six glorious, wonderful and mesmerising Skyrim plush helmets to give away to you, our lovely readers. These fuzzy-yet-intimidating pieces of headgear not only keep you warm on cold winter nights in Whiterun, but also grant you the power to take down world-eating dragons.
Here's a full list of the perks it grants you:
+1 softness
+5 charm
+3 bartering skill
+10 hand-to-hand
3% chance to do a critical hit when shouting 'Strun-Bah-QO!' in a public place
-15 flame resistance
+100 social awesomeness
100% chance to attract opposite sex all the time
+5 charm
+3 bartering skill
+10 hand-to-hand
3% chance to do a critical hit when shouting 'Strun-Bah-QO!' in a public place
-15 flame resistance
+100 social awesomeness
100% chance to attract opposite sex all the time
These might just be the last Skyrim helmets left for you to snap up without stumping up almost $100 on eBay. It's your chance to be a part of history, to be the coolest of the cool, to wear a plush hat with pride and scream "I. AM. DRAGONBORN!".
To enter, all you need do is tweet the following message using an unprotected, personal Twitter account, and make sure to follow our Twitter account at @ggtl:
RT and follow @ggtl to win 1 of 6 Skyrim plush helmets, courtesy of Bethesda! Details and terms: http://bit.ly/ggtl-skyrim
Entrants must be in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, or Europe.
And whilst you're at it, feel free to follow @systemlinkblog for all the latest breaking and exclusive news. They're our sister-site, and if Mum finds out that we're getting more attention then them, we'll be grounded (again).
If you want a sneak preview of what the hat looks like, take a gander below:
Note: we have no idea what is happening in this picture. You'll get the awesome hat, but we won't smear you in dirt and put glitter in your mouth. We have some dignity...
Just follow @ggtl and retweet us, and we'll pick the six winners at random when the competition closes on Thursday 3rd November, 11:59pm (GMT).
However, heed this, young warrior. Word has come from Mournhold that more helmets have been found in the wilderness of Elsweyr, and are making their way to Skyrim. Keep an eye on Gamer's Guide to Life.com, and you may just discover the truth very soon...
UPDATE: And if that wasn't quite explicit enough - all you people with an odd hatred of Twitter or living somewhere outside of the competition? Keep your eyes peeled - all is not lost.
Terms and Conditions:
- Entrants must submit their entries by no later than 11:59am GMT on Thursday, 3rd November, 2011.
- Winners will be chosen at random at midday, Greenwich Mean Time, on Friday, 4th November, 2011.
- There will be six chosen winners, and each winner will receive one Skyrim plush helmet.
- The prize consists of one Skyrim plush helmet.
- There is no alternative prize and the prize may not be exchanged for any other item, nor any monetary amount.
- Entrants must follow both the Gamer's Guide to Life.com Twitter account (http://twitter.com/ggtl) and retweet the message in order for their entry to be valid.
- The Gamer's Guide to Life Network reserves the right to withold prizes for any reason it sees fit.
- The immediate families of Gamer's Guide to Life Network staff are prohibited from entering.
- Prize will be shipped to you by Gamer's Guide to Life - thus, we will need to get in contact with you via your Twitter.
- Entrants must enter the competition using a reguarly-updated, non-spam personal Twitter account, which is not set up merely for competition entries and/or promotional purposes.
- Following the competition, the winner will be required to contact a given Gamer's Guide to Life Network representative in order to provide the details we need to have the helmets dispatched.
- The prize cannot be redeemed in any other form than the prize designated. Gamer's Guide to Life reserves the right to refuse entry to winners if they see fit.
- The Gamer's Guide to Life Network redeems the right to change, edit or otherwise add to or modify these Terms and Conditions at any time. Entrants must be located within the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, or any European country.
Labels: 2011, Bethesda, Chris Hawke, Competition, Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Chris Hawke
We like to treat our readers occassionally, and this is one such time, as Andrew Whipple III reviews Hunted: The Demon's Forge in both written and, in a Gamer's Guide to Life.com first, video format. Reviewed on Microsoft Windows PC.
As cooperative-based action-RPGs go, Hunted: The Demon's Forge treads a careful path. So careful, mind you, that it barely tries to do anything imaginative to grab your undivided attention. Whether it be the story, combat, or core mechanics of the game, Hunted is a supercharged mothball of lost potential. From the mind of Brian Fargo, this is something rather hard to believe.
Hunted spins a tale straight from the cloth of the typical anti-hero. Its protagonists, E'lara and Caddoc, are hardened mercenaries bent on amassing a fortune in gold, regardless of who - or what - hires them. After accidentally stumbling upon an item called the Deathstone, which allows clairvoyance into the past of the dead, both mercs begin dealing with an albino, busty goth lady named Seraphine. Seraphine promises augmented power beyond mortal reckoning, if they do what they are told. Somehow, this leads to the discovery that an angry demon is ravaging the land by using his followers, all of whom are addicted to a substance known as 'sleg.' Caddoc and E'lara must find out what's going on before it's too late, yadda, yadda, yadda.
At least the view is nice. ...I didn't mean that.
If you couldn't tell, I'm terribly unimpressed by this game's narrative. It's one thing to be safe and standard, and something completely different when you're nothing but derivative. Surprisingly, that also just so happens to be the theme of Hunted; being unoriginal and boring. You see, with the founder of Interplay at the helm of the studio (whose work included such classics as Baldur's Gate), it's tough to accept the fact that there's no compelling story to follow. The game tries to think its plot is intelligent, but never ventures beyond its very limited imagination.
Since the story is rotten, the combat must be somewhat decent, right? You'd think so, especially for a self-proclaimed 'dungeon crawler', but it definitely isn't. The problem stems from the game being far too simplistic. With a single four-hit combo and a heavy attack button to throw in, the manoeuvres you pull off in the thick of combat are extremely underdeveloped, right from the very beginning. You do gain three unique abilities along with three magical spells, but even these special powers are hardly impressive. E'lara ends up being the more useful of the two characters since she can sit back and take out hundreds of encroaching enemies with her bow. Both characters have mêlée and ranged functionality, but I'll give you one guess as to who's better in mêlée combat and who's better at range. The predictability is just a testament to the lack of imagination in Hunted.
In case you couldn't tell, this game can often be pretty dark.
Depending on the game's mood at a particular moment, you may also have the occassional opportunity to execute an injured opponent. The first few times this happens are cool, but the animations never change and you can only watch someone take a slow-motion arrow to the face so many times. The spell effects from weapons and special abilities do sound excellent and are visually appealing, but that positive fact is sent to the depths by the mechanics behind the weapons. Remember how I said that Hunted was a 'dungeon crawler'? Well, there's zero inventory in this game. That's right; the only difference, besides certain increases in damage, is the speed at which a weapon attacks. Enchanted weapons deal a tonne more damage, but their special ammo is limited in quantity, usually making you toss your weapon away soon after you pick it up. What kind of dungeon-based game disallows an inventory and wide array of weapons to select?
Weapons aren't the only thing the game is stingy about, either; you can only switch your playable character at specific places throughout the game, called Obelisks. Why you can't dynamically switch on-the-fly, I'll never know, as it leaves much more to be desired when it comes to combos and other special attacks. You can play with a friend over the internet to lessen the pain, but even that won't save you from the dim-witted AI enemy.
Weapons that glow in the dark. Pretty cool right?
I've never played a game where I've felt bored wailing on a Minotaur. How does that happen? Even worse, the game is riddled with awful, overly-extended encounters with AI who, sometimes, will run in wild circles and perform other aneurism-inducing feats. I can't tell you how many times I was thwacking a skeletal soldier in the back without having him retaliate. There are about twenty other ludicrous encounters I could share, but I think, by this point, you get the idea.
Hunted's enemies are ankle-biter spiders, Wargar gremlin... things, skeletons, and Minotaur. That's the extent of the lavish selection of beasts you can slay. But, wait: once you travel to a new area, you can fight the same exact creatures, with a different skin! This is incredibly lazy game design, and it's only accentuated when there's a door every twelve feet that transfers you to the next area. Caddoc and E'lara even joke about the amount of doors in the game when they're opening them.
...hilarious.
After you give up on the monotonous adventure mode, you can always jump into the Crucible mode. The Crucible is a map-maker of sorts, but one that doesn't allow you to create actual levels; instead, you can only select from presets. The gold you amass in the adventure mode unlocks these presets and, regardless of what you choose, it'll always be a wave-based, room-to-room map. In other words, it's a complete waste of time. The potential here was huge yet, because of lazy design, the Crucible turned into random used space on your hard-drive.
What. A. Tramp.
With all the bad, the only decent things I can compliment about Hunted are the new library of sounds InXile have freshly recorded, and the occasional scenic view. The banter, combat, enemies, and doors are all part of a considerably heinous package that you must steer clear from.
Hunted: The Demon's Forge is laughable at best. It isn't the worst game in the world, but it certainly isn't anywhere near above-average. Perhaps the mindless nature of the game could save you from untold hours of boredom, but by my experiences that's a stretch. Save your money and save your time, because The Demon's Forge will only make you cry.
4/10 [?]
Labels: 2011, Andrew Whipple III, Bethesda, Hunted The Demon's Forge, InXile Entertainment, PC, PS3, Review, Video, Video Review, Xbox 360
- Andrew Whipple III
Our first review of the PC version of Brink can be found here.
"Move more than you shoot" is an interesting premise, not least in a first-person shooter, a genre of gaming that intrinsically lends itself to combat-heavy bulletfests. Counting them on one hand, there aren't many FPS games that I can think of in which more movement than combat would be logical, let alone effective. Yet, it's key advice in Brink; a focus on movement, rather than the discharging of one's weapon, is supposed to be the core mechanic of the game, the key component around which the rest of the game is built. Goodness knows that the S.M.A.R.T. system - the mechanic which facilitates the movement aspect of Brink, and is surprisingly reminiscent of EA's Mirror's Edge - has been lauded enough. Yet, Brink is also simultaneously trying to play the 'meaty, manly, gritty FPS' card, one which we know lends itself to mindless explosive shooting and not alot besides. Being frank, Brink steers dangerously close to being an incomprehensible, hazily-defined mess of nearly-incompatible ideas, but Splash Damage's latest creation manages to hold steadfast by rewarding players with a rare, intelligent tactical experience that, when all the aspects come together, can sometimes create the perfect storm.
That only happens in very specific circumstances, however. At the outset, Brink can feel bloated, laggy, inaccessible and generally unpolished, as though the foundations are there but are barely built upon. This is, perhaps, the main criticism of Brink cited by games journalists; though the original creative interpretation, the 'vision', is there, most of what Brink does and is feels underdeveloped, with seemingly important aspects proving, in truth, the most irrelevant. The first question Brink asks you, for example, is whether you choose to save or escape the Ark, the floating city in which the game's action plays out. Two simple options on a serious monocrome screen, that - whether through the minimalism or the build-up that the choice is given through an 'all-that-happened-up-to-now' video preluding the choice - suggests some level of importance leading into the rest of the game. It should have been a choice that massively shapes how you experience Brink but, in fact, it has no effect whatsoever; it seems a superflous addition that appears to act solely to give some underdefined sense of context to the story. The story itself is really given little attention; there is the vague suggestion of a relatively generic civil-war-esque struggle, but the narrative is limited to the extreme, delivered within the tight boundaries of incredibly short cut-scenes at the beginning and end of each mission, and a slightly longer but still restricted cut-scene at the outset and resolution of the overarching campaign.
Brink's campaign mode is played out in what is, essentially, a series of faux-multiplayer arenas. This, combined with the minimal narrative, is a real shame. Brink's basis is there, but stylistically it is poorly executed offline; I found myself craving a much more linear, character- and narrative-based storyline, instead of the arena-based multiplayer-with-AI that Brink's offline component is made up of. Such a storyline, as seen in other first-person shooters, would have provided opportunities to develop the sense of plotline and character progression, giving much more of a feeling of being part of a larger struggle and allowing some aspect of emotional involvement with the characters' plight, and therefore increasing the player's immersion in the world of Brink. Unfortunately, the style of offline gameplay that the developers chose - whilst admittedly increasing the players familiarity with an online style of gameplay, even before jumping into the internet-based world of Brink's online component - simply didn't leave any space for a rewarding narrative and plot, a major oversight which leaves the player feeling, at the end of each campaign, no more affected or involved than they felt at the outset.
On a lighter note, the combat in Brink is solid, and - whilst occassionally suffering from slight lag issues, and despite needing some concerted effort to even out the damage balancing - can admittedly be enjoyable to play. There is a wide range of weaponry, all of which is available from the beginning of the game, and which can be tweaked and customised with additional unlocks (such as scopes, special magazines or muzzle breakers) earned through completing the game's 'challenges'. Customisation is a major aspect of Brink which is developed and polished: the sheer number of possible options for customising your character or weaponry (from headwear to clothing, and much more besides) is incredible, and ensures that a player can be relatively sure that their character, warts and all, is unique. The shooting itself is fine, but nothing particularly special, and major improvement to the damage balancing (in addition to increasing the level of force feedback through the Dualshock 3) would serve well to increase the level of satisfaction gleaned from the shooting mechanic itself, something which is currently lacking. Brink's class-based structure can work well, but is really only fully effective online; offline, the only useful aspect is the medic's ability to revive fallen teammates, although the class roles can remain entirely untouched without much impact on the outcome of the mission.
Brink's 'S.M.A.R.T.' system - which stands for 'Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain', a sort of parkour-based free movement mechanic which essentially enables the player to move freely over obstacles and climb objects, in Mirror's Edge-esque style - is a strange beast. The idea is interesting and innovative, introducing something rare and unusual to a first-person shooter; a component which reduces the relatively monotonous, unvarying nature of a shooter's mechanic by adding something that removes the restrictions posed by the game environment, allowing a more free-flowing, organic-feeling battle through much more liberated movement. Whilst, the majority of the time, S.M.A.R.T. does its job, it can be rather hit-and-miss at times, and though it's meant to be one of the most core aspects of Brink, it is incredibly easy to largely ignore or grossly underuse during play. There just isn't enough in the way of signposting or involvement in the game's situations; where S.M.A.R.T. could have been the central entity, key to success, S.M.A.R.T. feels, honestly, like merely a late addition. We all know it isn't, as it has been heralded throughout Brink's extended marketing campaign as the game's unique selling point, but it just doesn't feel as key or as central as it should have done; it can be easily sidelined or even forgotten entirely by the player, particularly in the face of the multitude of different objectives and enemies that one has to deal with simultaneously. Moreover - and Andrew touched on this in our first review of Brink - the mere concept of the player moving instead of trying to despatch enemies is illogical, considering the fact that the enemy can merely shoot players down, mid-freerun.
S.M.A.R.T. an intelligent, inspired concept that has real potential, but needed to be more focussed and more integral to the core functions of Brink; in other words, the implementation needed to lead players down a more linear route in order to make the S.M.A.R.T. system key to solving challenges posed by the environment that the player encounters - the freedom of movement would be better obtained not by giving the player entire freedom to traverse the map as they wish, but instead by leading them more directly into challenges where the S.M.A.R.T. system would have to have been utilised, increasing player familiarity with the function and also making it tenfold more relevant.
To be frank, I've thus far been relatively scathing of Brink. The truth is, it isn't bad. It's just that all the technical aspects of the game are just... well, passable, but flawed. They're nothing special, they aren't polished and some aspects are underdeveloped, but they do function at least somewhat well, allowing the player to meander through the storyline and have some fun in places. Yet, as a whole of its technical parts, Brink solely does what it has to do to work, and not a whole lot else. Each idea behind it is interesting and, potentially, could have been groundbreaking, but they're many ideas which have come together to make an indistinct mess of different influences, rather than the carefully shaped composition it should have been, and which would have ensured success.
And then you go online, and things change drastically.
This is the 'perfect storm' I mentioned earlier, and it only happens online and when some key constituents come together. Playing with people you know, utilising voice comms, and particularly if your online compatriots are familiar with the game's mechanics and environments, Brink becomes an entirely different beast altogether. When playing with real people, all those individual aspects that, offline, create a mulch of goodness-knows-what, become clearer, more defined, and infinitely more relevant. Instead of gameplay where the class-based team structure has little or no pertinency, due to the patchy use of buffs by AI, each online player has a real sense of responsibility to support their teammates within the power of their class - each person becomes important, even essential, to the overall performance during a mission. Furthermore - and this applies to most FPS games online, but particularly to Brink, due to the objective-centric gameplay - the online encourages a gameplay style which is boundlessly more tactical than offline, due to the fact that - playing alongside real human beings - one can predict and anticipate their teammates' movements and offensives, and so can then compensate in their own playstyle for their teammates tactics and plan accordingly, leading to an overall more tactical, more intelligent experience that's likely to be much more successful and rewarding to the player, due to each player's individual feeling of involvement and influence. True, there are still slight issues with lag (and all the other technical shortcomings that plague the offline function), but online play on Brink is truly an experience, which somewhat evens out the problems and pulls Brink further towards what it should have been in the first place - an intelligent, tactical, rewarding shooter.
Brink has been a particularly interesting game to review. It poses questions about the inherent nature of videogames reviewing, ones that have seriously made me reassess the way I analyse and judge a game, and the way games journalism tackles reviewing in general. Should a reviewer consider the game based solely on what is there in front of them, the sum of its technical parts and nothing more; or should one review a game based on the emotional response it inspires, the abstract concept of an 'experience' which isn't included on the disc, but which the game serves as the trigger for? It's a question with particular gravity when it comes to Brink, as the two different approaches to reviewing would warrant two entirely different review scores, two strikingly dissimilar responses. Technically, I think it's fair to say that Brink is sub-par and, in many ways, a disappointment, particularly considering the extensive marketing campaign that painted the picture of a game of the year candidate. However, when the right things come together - that is, when online - Brink can be tense, exciting, tactical, and - dare I say it - groundbreaking, a first-person shooter that disinclines the typical run-and-gun fray and, by the nature of its objective- and role-based mechanics, creates an FPS in which pre-emptive thought is not merely a sideline, but is entirely instrumental in the success of the team.
When it comes down to it, however, Brink exhibits many key technical issues which show less than the highest level of polish. Those looking for a deep storyline or developed narrative won't find a home here, and whilst the art style is original, texture popping and other such graphical issues can often prove irritating, entirely ruining player immersion in whichever cut-scene they're watching. The gun roster is relatively widely spread, but the effort spent on it would have been better employed in ensuring the damage was balanced between player and enemy. The S.M.A.R.T. system is an intelligent idea but, sadly, underdeveloped and largely sidelined. Brink, online, can be intelligent and rewarding, but the mere fact that it takes certain independent components to come together before Brink is rendered entirely enjoyable (in this case, other people) is a testament to the fact that more work was needed in every aspect - further development of the core game mechanics, and a larger focus on appropriating them to be essential in the way a mission plays out, rather than the somewhat ignorable implementation of those mechanics in Brink currently. Brink has potential and can be an excellent experience, but it just doesn't deliver on what it could have been. It's an intelligent, even groundbreaking, idea - but it could have been so much more.
6/10 [?]
Labels: 2011, Bethesda, Brink, Linford Butler, PlayStation 3, PS3, Review, Splash Damage
- Linford Butler
What do you get when you combine a famed, first-rate publisher in Bethesda with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars creator Splash Damage? If your answer was an excellent, innovative and superbly-polished game entitled 'Brink', you'd only be a quarter right. Saying that, Brink accomplishes quite a bit with its unique formula and functionality, but its overall lack of ingenuity turns this incredible-looking first-person shooter into a derivative afterthought.
Brink's story begins and ends with the Ark, a massive structure built to withstand extensive flooding. The planet just happened, coincidentally, to feel destructive, and the waters came, destroying everything and only leaving the Ark, forcing it to become a sanctuary for humanity. But with the Ark isolated and supplies scarce, people began to fear for their lives. Some wanted to escape the Ark to search for other life, but others felt that staying organised would provide more of a benefit. Your decision on this dilemma forms the opening of the game: will you escape the Ark, or save it?
Customisation is clean and the visuals are nice. Kinda like TF2.
The initial narrative sounds intriguing. It's too bad, then, because this is the only striking bit of story the game contains; the rest is merely trivial filler to provide some vague context to whichever map you're playing in. Each map you play begins with a small cut-scene, a conversation between several faceless characters. They can talk about almost anything, from their brother being part of the opposing force to how badly they want to crush the security force barring their escape. Whatever the case is, you simply can't think about what's going on in the world of Brink because you'll never have a friggin' clue.
But then, you were never supposed to.
There's no issue with a game being completely multiplayer-focussed, as there are plenty of titles out there that have utilised this type of design, and succeeded. The problem is that Brink cannot decide what sort of shooter it wants to be. As mentioned above, the game begins with a choice and it appears to be a rather heavy one - the sort typically found in single player games. Once you make this decision, you're immediately taken to the title screen where you can select all the missions for both Security and Resistance factions. What's the point of this choice being present if I can immediately skip to the final mission for either faction? To further amplify this empty function, whether you accomplish or fail there is simply no effect on the world of Brink. There are a couple of scenarios where someone could escape or something could have been blown up, but its effect on the overarching world is negligible. If Splash Damage wanted to create a decent narrative in an interesting world, they should have gone all the way instead of making what is, frankly, a juvenile attempt.
Not even close to as satisfying as it looks.
Being a class-based FPS, you wouldn't expect much from Brink in the way of unique design due to the sheer volume of replica shooters on the market. Surprisingly, Splash Damage conceived some differentiating material that actually makes Brink intelligent when compared to its competition. Gone are the standard deathmatch modes, the lone gunmen and the grenade spamming monsters that plague conventional titles. Brink wants you to work with your team, choose the right class, and complete objectives around the map to build a successful co-operative environment.
Fancy that.
The idea behind this style is fantastic. I can definitely support a developer who wants to move beyond basic kill/death ratios and throw in intuitive gameplay, but Brink just doesn't evolve enough to accomplish these goals. For one, the game comes with two game modes. Two. Your standard 'freeplay' matches are basically the campaign, and both Security and Resistance either play the role of attacker or defender. One completes their objectives while the other prevents them, someone wins, game over. Stopwatch is basically precisely the same thing, but the sides switch after the initial match to see if the other team can gather a higher score. I refuse to believe that a developer like Splash Damage failed to think of other scenarios besides Unreal Tournament's Assault mode.
I don't know why, but the mounted guns in this game really suck at killing people.
At the very least, Brink offers you experience for every little thing you do. Hardly any points are rewarded for kills as the big money is doled out to those who capture points, heal their teammates, provide ammunition, and so forth. That's all dandy, but it brings us to the other major flaw of this game: the classes. Be it the Soldier, Engineer, Operative or Medic, every single one manages to be boring and uninspired. The experience you earn whilst playing as a certain class can unlock other class-specific abilities (like the Engineer throwing down a turret), but none is more useful than the medic who can revive others and boost health, as well as heal himself. Other classes aren't nearly as effective, like the Operative, who can disguise himself as the enemy but, if he so much as tries to open a door, finds his disguise compromised. The only real reason to switch to another class is to complete an objective that only that specific class can accomplish.
Switching classes doesn't bring you unique weapons either. Brink has no prejudice when it comes to weapon selection. Once again, this seems like a neat idea, but all it does is break the classes down even further. The only variation in which arsenal you can use relies solely on your character's weight: light, medium, or heavy. Furthermore, it's a choice you can only switch by going all the way back to the customisation page on the main menu. Heavies are slower but can tout miniguns, whilst lightweights are much faster but can't carry heavy weaponry or equipment at all. Why, come hell or high water, would you make such a unique and game-influencing choice only switchable out of the game?
Hey, that guy is down. Too bad, it'll take a full clip to make him respawn.
All shooters are judged by the percieved weight, overall feel, and control of the weapons you tout, and I'll bet you'll never guess how I feel about these. The soldier gets Molotovs, which single-handedly have the most vapid effect I've ever seen in a video game. Grenades in general are underwhelming, and couldn't be less satisfying to throw. The worst, however, comes with the weapons themselves; they don't feel or even sound satisfying when you shoot them. It doesn't help either that characters are abnormally beefy and can require several shots with a sniper rifle to take down.
You might have heard of Brink's 'Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain', or 'S.M.A.R.T.', system. This technicality was supposed to be one of the more unique features of Brink, but all it comes down to is holding a single button as you sprint around the map. With S.M.A.R.T., your character will interact with whatever you encounter automatically. That includes sliding under pipes, scaling fences, jumping across chasms; whatever it may be, you can do it automatically. This parkour style - an incredibly unique feature, particularly in FPS titles - certainly grabbed my attention in the game's many previews, but Bethesda's "move more than you shoot" motto definitely doesn't make sense in the game's context. S.M.A.R.T. doesn't do anything useful since running away from a conflict doesn't help the team and will simply net you a needless death. What's the purpose of moving over random terrain when the other guys can just shoot you while you do it?
S.M.A.R.T. isn't exactly the best implemented feature.
Since it's on topic, I should also mention that this game has had ridiculous launch issues with ATI cards. The in-game lag is also beyond redemption, and it'll probably take you at least a few dozen attempts to find a decent server to play on. But my ultimate grievance - the number one thing I hate the most about Brink - is having to wait for a patch to fix these issues. Releasing a game with some minor flaws and glitches can be endured, but issues that render the game essentially unplayable should never be encountered. With a couple more months of polish, I can't help but think that Brink could have avoided most of these technical flaws.
Brink is an intelligent game at heart, and one that aspires to be much more than Splash Damage has made possible. Its lack of narrative, fractured gameplay and ambitious but shortfallen design leave me only with the resolution that Brink is a welfare version of Team Fortress 2. Brink hints at something that could have been much greater, but never fully explores the imagination that could have made it exceptional.
Want a second opinion? Check back over the next week or so for Linford's Second Opinion review of Brink, for PlayStation 3.
5/10 [?]
Labels: 2011, Andrew Whipple III, Bethesda, Brink, PC, PS3, Review, Splash Damage, Xbox 360
- Andrew Whipple III
These two weeks see the release of two of this year's supposed 'biggest hits' Brink and L.A. Noire, which both aim to both bring a new set of dynamics into the lives of gamers. Yet, how do the changes offered by the two big budget titles rack up against one another?
Rockstar's L.A. Noire is, straight off the bat, a completely different experience from most mainstream games released today. This, coming from the publisher that brought us Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, is to be expected; Rockstar are known - nay, famed - for their top-quality, innovative games, and their recipe certainly seems to work, as all they touch seems to turn to gold.
One of L.A. Noire's features that Rockstar really want to push home is the facial detail that they've managed to achieve using the MotionScan system, a sparkling new feature which manages to express a character's every feeling. From gameplay videos, it is clear that the team have really used the system to their advantage; it is arguably the first time a player has been able to easily distinguish lip movements, allowing for near-perfect lip reading.
However good it may look, though, some may question whether the tech will significantly change gamplay in the way Rockstar hope that it will. Rockstar claim that the features offered are needed for the detective-action title, as one needs to physically note whether the character they're interrogating is telling the truth. If it is true, then perhaps we'll see the MotionScan wizardry adopted for other titles, even despite the time-consuming process needed for significant results.
Connections between L.A. Noire and many other titles can be drawn, as it manages to delve into several different genres. It can be difficult to avoid placing it in comparison to Heavy Rain, as both share some common roots, but if you were to look further into the gameplay mechanics of L.A. Noire, you might find it closer to something in the point-and-click genre. Indeed, when searching a crime scene for a set of clues, we are reminded of the lovable Sam & Max duo. In certain scenes, equipped with a gun, elements from third person shooters are seen, although it is apparent that these areas of the game are minimal. The game is trying to 'blend' the genre boundaries, like many titles this generation have attempted to, but perhaps it is worth mentioning that L.A. Noire seems to have picked its colours from a very different palette to those other titles.
The other big hitter of this week is Brink, a title which, similarly, tries to 'blur' the genre boundaries by bringing single player and online play closer together. The system that Brink utilises allows for 'drop in, drop out' gameplay, whereby a player can invite their companion to join them straight from a single player game, without the need to set up lobbies specifically for online campaign game modes.
In my honest opinion, I've been extremely excited for a system such as this, and I really want it to succeed, in the hope that other companies will adopt the idea. Imagine the variety it could bring to other genre; for example, in something like Skyrim, one could wander into a town, find a tavern and seamlessly 'recruit' a friend as a mercenary force. One of the biggest pitfalls for a system like this, though, is that it could be completely ignored by players - if you want to maintain a single player campaign, it's likely you'd entirely leave any sort of seamless offline-online, jump-in-and-jump-out feature alone.
Brink is also a title which offers a grand amount of customisation for gamers, with recent stats having revealed the scale of this mechanic. Bethesda stated that there are over 4,963 different combinations of weapon attachments, and a mind-boggling approximate of 47,325,358,080,000,000 costume combinations (that's over forty-seven quintillion combinations, if you couldn't work it out). It's one crazy amount, and means it'll be extremely difficult (if not impossible) to find two players with exactly the same qualities.
Both games are set to rock some pretty nifty changes from the norms that gamers are used to, and both are extremely unique. For a purely technical advantage,the most impressivle has to be L.A. Noire, as the impressive facial animation is something it is difficult to find in past games. However, with questions surrounding how many games the advanced technology will really change, the award for influence to the way we play can only go to Brink, whose innovative online system will hopefully lead to a fluid mix of online and single player play.
Labels: 2011, Bethesda, Brink, Jacques Hulme, L.A. Noire, Rockstar, Splash Damage, Team Bondi, Trailer, Video
- Anonymous
Update
Games journalists do not run. It's less a physical limitation and more a product of said journalist's innate laziness; whatever the situation, whatever the danger, a games journalist must never run. It was a rule which I'd faithfully stood by, and - on the surprisingly warm October morning in Central London, where this story begins - wasn't one that I had any sort of plan to violate. Until, that was, Jacques and I got off the Tube and remembered the first thing on our list for the day: Brink.
For the uneducated, Brink - developed by Splash Damage, the company behind Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and published by Bethesda - is a first-person shooter. Before you switch off, having heard the term 'first-person shooter' a million times before, let me describe Brink this way: it is a game which I was prepared to run for.
Returning to that October morning in London for a moment, let me set the scene. It is nine o'clock in the morning, after a restless night of sleep at a very cheap hostel and a rushed breakfast in a tiny café opposite Earls Court Underground station. Jacques and I are waiting outside the entrance to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, queuing for the final day of the Eurogamer Expo 2010. We're lucky: not only are we at the front of the press queue and guaranteed to be the first into the Eurogamer Expo (no mean feat - to be at the front means a very early start), we're also with friends. Miles Jolliffe, Adam Jones, Ben Marshall, Jacques and I (amongst others) pass the time in the only way possible without a stable internet connection: by talking about everything and anything to do with games and the Expo. Brink, however, comes up more than any other title in our conversation, and each one of us have a clear plan for when we get onto the show floor: to do whatever necessary to get a play session on Brink, short of actual physical murder.
Let me make it clear how necessary it was to break that most ancient of games journalism rules and run for Brink. The day before, both Jacques and I were at the Eurogamer Expo, and (inside our extensive network of journalist contacts and gaming friends) we'd heard that the queue to play Brink was a three hour wait. We were lucky to be the first people to play the game on the Sunday, but Brink is the sort of game for which a three hour wait begins to look more attractive the more you consider it. You begin thinking "there is no way, come hell or high water, that I am waiting three or more hours for twenty minutes of play", but the more you consider it, the more you begin to think "three hours isn't really that long". And - had I not run, and had I missed the opportunity to be the first to play - by the middle of the day I know that I would have found myself in that never-ending queue, desperately asking myself, "Why didn't you just go with the others? Why didn't you fucking run?"
When you start to play Brink, the distance between the creation in front of you and other first-person shooters is evident. There are leagues between the smooth, polished experience of Brink and alternative titles. Before beginning your online 'career', you customise the entire aesthetic of the character you'll play as, from the basics right down to details such as facial hair and scarring. Whilst it's a relatively simple system of customisation, the wow—factor comes in the intuitiveness of the system - it is incredibly simple to use and navigate, and is a joy to use - and the wonderful interface used by the player to customise their character. It isn't complex, but simple, and yet in being simple it is to-the-point, fit for purpose and therefore hugely efficient.
And then, of course, the shooting begins. Brink is, in the purest sense of the word, a shooter; everything which appears on-screen is precisely placed and serves a purpose, whilst every control is perfectly mapped to the controller. Nothing about Brink feels pasted on, nothing feels pointless and nothing feels half-arsed. The action is fast, furious and immensely enjoyable, the SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) system works well in allowing players to navigate the playable map smoothly using Mirror's Edge-esque first-person parkour, and small aspects like the ability to change weaponry and equipment on-the-fly at an armoury whilst in the middle of a match is very impressive.
Playing a match on Brink could easily be compared to the sort of 'finding oneself' activity that teenagers so often find themselves partaking in; it opens your eyes to the possibilities of FPS games online, whilst simultaneously giving you a rush of adrenaline and introducing you to emotions you never knew you were capable of feeling. However, whilst the game is an exciting parcel of chaotic magic, the actual shooting is the stand-out aspect of Splash Damage's work. Brink's gunplay is pin-point accurate and the hit detection is spot-on, meaning skilled players will be able to aim and take down a target without disappointment. The guns have a weightiness somewhere between Call of Duty and Killzone, which serves to make them feel realistic without the mechanic being too clunky. The matches have a perfect balance between feeling arcadey and realistic, bringing authentic physics and entertaining gameplay together to form what felt to me like the most flawless shooting mechanic in a first-person shooter that I've played.
The games in Brink work very much like those in games such as Guerrilla Games' Killzone 2 in that the mission objectives change on-the-fly during the game as tasks are completed. Not only does this make for a continuous, smooth play experience without the irritation of constant 'lobby breaks' between games, it also makes combat more tactical and much more exciting, due to the need to be thinking about what might come next: if your entire team is trapped within one area when a new mode begins, it can hinder you drastically as the other team has the upper hand. Brink's range of in-game, as-and-when changes mean that an online game is constantly evolving; the state of play is always changing, leaving things much less predictable and much more exciting.
Editor's Note: The lovely people at Bethesda contacted us to clarify that Brink does in fact have an offline, single-player mode which will be seamlessly integrated with the online mode. Apologies for the misinformation previously published and a big thankyou to Mark at Bethesda for the heads-up.
From what I played at the expo, the game works as smoothly online as any single-player game, and - far from feeling like an add-on to a main campaign like on other FPS games - the online feels like every effort has gone into it to make it as enjoyable an experience as any offline campaign mode. For players reading this who haven't done the work to get their console online yet, Brink is the sort of game for which getting a broadband connection and PSN/XBL account is worth the time, effort and even money.
I haven't ever walked away from a game at an expo feeling truly lost for words. At least, not before I played Brink. It is a fast-moving, hugely enjoyable game with a purpose-built beast of an engine under the bonnet. Splash Damage have truly outdone themselves with Brink and - if the gaming public recieve it as they should, considering its sheer quality - it should be one of 2011's bestsellers. If there is one area of gaming in which I consider myself somewhat 'specialist' it is shooters, and yet I have never played a game like Brink. It evokes excitement, adrenaline, awe and such a feeling of absolute badass that you begin to wonder if any other shooter will ever feel the same after playing it - at least, that was my reaction after only twenty minutes of play. Sensationalism is a scourge of the gaming industry which I loathe, but I don't hesitate to say that Brink is the best first-person shooter that I have ever played in all my years of gaming.
The moral of the story, journalists: never be afraid to run - if you are, you might well miss an absolute gem.
Labels: 2011, Bethesda, Brink, Eurogamer Expo, Feature, Linford Butler, Preview, Splash Damage
- Linford Butler
Those of you sitting at your computers, soaking in all the information Bethesda has spilled on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (which is none, you'll have noticed) - you are all fools. How plain your minds must be to comply with such a lethargic lifestyle. Your hopes and your dreams will be dashed upon the icy rocks Oblivion was wrought from and your soul will be shackled, tethered to the perpetual hope that this game will function correctly.
Is there a chance of redemption, you ask? A man of power to make demands of Bethesda to ensure that disaster does not once again occur? Ha. Who would do such a thing? Santa? Come then, friends: I will hear more from this 'Santa' and what Bethesda needs to do to make Skyrim not suck.
Santa’s First Rule: Stop breakin’ the law!
Remember in Oblivion when you were so entranced by the visuals that you accidentally stole a plate from a bar? Remember how, after your thievery and crossing the whole world, you were stopped by a guard as though you'd just murdered the king? It needs to stop. Not only is it dumbfounding to be stopped and shaken down for every coin you're worth over a worthless plate, but it’s nonsensical. You mean to tell me that the guards have nothing better to do than track down a lowly plate smuggler? I guess portals to otherworldly dimensions and demons manifesting themselves all over the place is low-key.
This very response also occurs when you break into someone's home, steal all their belongings of any monetary worth, and kill the inhabitant. How do they even know who did the deed? Does word travel via laser pigeon in Tamriel? Apparently so.
Santa’s Second Rule: Sluggish, unrewarding combat makes for choice words.
Backpedaling and firing your arrows or magic missiles is only fun for so long. After taking down all manner of unholy creatures and garnering untold powers, how satisfying is it to get bum-rushed by two bandits that seem completely deprived of any clothing and having to work for the kills? Not too damn good. You see, there are some showy spells in Oblivion but nothing worth attaching the phrase 'eye-candy' to. I want a goddamn flare to strike down on that putrid orc because I didn’t like the way his teeth looked. The same can be said for physical combat. Swishing and swashing your sword, twanging gaggles of arrows; it can only carry so much weight behind it without that special 'umph'. That umph could be me infusing my sword with the blood of a fallen ice nymph and, after laying into a midget lizard creature, the land around the beast is stricken with a frigid shockwave that shakes it to pieces. That’s the push we need to see in Skyrim. That and more fluid dodging mechanics. You know, because you kind of need to dodge things. Better.
Santa’s Third Rule: Employ more than three people for your voice work!
That conversational pie mini-game was a crock and a bore. "Oh man, let me tell this joke again and, oh wow your dress looks so good! Wait, I don’t like your views on trees." How does this benefit the character's likability in any way? If someone told me my shoes were too feminine I’d roundhouse kick them back to Morrowind. All the people you speak to sound strangely similar, and it’s pretty hard to get into the game when the dude you just murdered sounds like he’s reincarnated as your next quest giver.
Also, for the love of everything that is holy and true, could you make some good-looking character models this time around? No matter how hard you tried it always seemed like your character looked ugly. By ugly I mean dustbin-worthy. And I won't even start on the female models...
Santa’s Fourth Rule: Horse Armor was so cool... wait.
No. It wasn’t. Actually, it's because of the horse armor that DLC got a bad name to begin with. Let’s make sure nothing like this ever happens again. How? Very simple my friends; follow the standard procedure that was taken in Fallout 3. It didn’t take that long for content to roll out, but when it did the game was all the better for it. Higher level cap, new unique items, questing joints, characters to meet, etcetera. Make us salivate at the thought of approaching other non-living, digital organisms.
Santa’s Final Rule: Utterly annihilate your scaling system for all time!
The worst and absolute killer of Oblivion for me was the levelling system. As you level up, you scale with every single thing in the entire game. In case you didn’t know, that sucks: let’s say you’re level twenty, you have an assortment of magical equipment, decent spells, and a nasty right hook. You are a walking battle tank. But you see those two wolves coming at you from the fields? Get ready to chop ‘til they drop. The damn things felt like they had hides reinforced with adamantium. I’ll never forget shooting a tiny, floating imp thirty times with arrows before it finally died.
The thing looked like a particularly abused voodoo doll.
This is serious.
You’re a hero who has closed many a demonic gate, slain countless enemies of the world, and saved entire nations from peril. You wield power beyond anybody’s reckoning as well as unparalleled skill. And yet, despite all of this, a standard group of dumbass bandits could attack you on a central road and completely decimate you.
Why?
These lowlife bandits, probably looking for meat and water, have equal or better equipment than you. How does this even happen? I mean, just give these dudes some meat and cheese, tell ‘em to kill some dudes and bam, game, set, match. No demonic king would dare mess with scaling bandits right? Right?
Exactly. Sort it out with Skyrim, Bethesda. Oh, and Merry Christmas!
Labels: Andrew Whipple III, Bethesda, Christmas Season 2010, Feature, Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Andrew Whipple III
Yes, yes, it's been a while. But better late then never; that Fallout: New Vegas Community Interview we did all the way back in May has been through hell, but finally arrived at our virtual doorstep brimming with exclusive information and only slightly burnt around the edges. A big thanks goes to the men and women at Bethesda and Obsidian, and without further ado, we present our community-driven Fallout: New Vegas interview, courtesy of Gamer's Guide to Life.com.
Have there been any graphical updates to the game engine? Did you always plan to use the Fallout 3 engine?
Fallout 3's engine was the natural choice for us, given the timeline we we had and what we wanted to accomplish with the game. While we haven't made direct changes to the engine to support enhanced graphics, we worked on the texture resolutions and made performance tweaks.Did you enjoy Fallout 3? Are you trying to improve upon it, or just make your own game of the Fallout universe?
I think pretty much everyone on the team enjoyed Fallout 3! I think the latter questions aren't independent of each other - we wanted to both make our own game in the Fallout universe, and improve upon what Fallout 3 did. I think we succeeded on both accounts.Can you modify and look down the sights of every single firearm? Are there any new types of weapon - we've seen flame, plasma and ray guns in Fallout 3, but will you add any new ones?
Yes, every firearm has 'true' ironsights (this is actually a mode that can be disabled, for players that prefer the 3rd-person shoulder cam). And as far as I can recall, every firearm has at least a couple of mods. Overall, we’ve got about double the guns that were in Fallout 3. Players will also be able to use different ammo types with weapons.Are gambling activities like Poker or Blackjack just mini-games, or will they sometimes play important roles in missions or game progress? Will lockpicking return?
I think enough of us complained about 'mandatory' mini-games that we shied away from the idea of forcing the player to play them. There's more to be won at the tables than just caps, though! Lock picking will definitely return in Fallout: New Vegas.Will there be any sort of multiplayer/online component? If not, why not?
There is no multiplayer or online component to Fallout: New Vegas. While there's a lot of potential there, that wasn't what we wanted for our game; it's definitely tailored to be a solo experience (though of course you'll have NPC companions). To have multiplayer or online components, I think it's important to decide what aspects you'll have and how to implement them very early on, and we decided against this.In Fallout 3, the most populated place was the slightly barren Rivet City, with only a small handful of NPCs. Will there be much larger settlements in New Vegas, with many more interactive NPCs?
Since the Strip (and a lot of the surrounding region) didn't get hit by nukes, you'll find more intact settlements, and more people overall. In fact, the first town you wake up in (Goodsprings) has a decent number of folk, and you'll find more populated areas as you explore the wasteland. Overall, we've got a ton of NPCs.Will there be any major differences between platforms? Are you planning to include exclusive DLC, and will the G.E.C.K. return for PC?
There shouldn't be any major differences, no. While we're tinkering with things here and there, we're trying to keep the differences minimal (they're done solely for performance reasons). There will be DLC but we can't talk about specifics yet, but PC modders should look forward to an updated GECK release.
Will there be new stealth systems?
No, but Sneak (like most skills) can be temporarily boosted by skill magazines, a new item that gives you a small temporary bump (as opposed to Books, which give you a permanent bonus).How long will Fallout: New Vegas be? Can you continue playing after the main storyline?
It's hard to give an estimate because of how many different ways you can play the game, but rest assured that there's plenty of content for the Fallout addict! You won't be able to play after you've finished the main storyline, but you'll be given clear warning before you pass that point, so you can go back and mop up any threads you left open.How many perks from Fallout 3 will reappear, and how many of your own are you adding? Could you possibly spill any examples?
The majority of Fallout 3's perks are back (some are modified, some were removed), and we've added quite a few of our own. We should have more information on that soon.Is there a new side-quest system, or ambient events like Red Dead Redemption, or are set quests only given to set people?
There isn't a new 'system,' but there are a number of side quests. There are also ambient events that you'll see occurring in the world around you, triggered by various things you've done. We're committed to making quests feel unique and "make sense" in the world, so we always associate quests with specific NPCs.Are there any sly hints at past Fallout games?
Maybe a few. ;)Will there be a weather cycle?
No. We did, however, completely redo the sky and times of day, so look forward to some scenic sunsets!Will it be possible to max out all skills in one playthrough? Will there be many different endings (not just variations on a few opposite ones as in Fallout 3)?
If it's possible to max out all your skills in one go, no one's done it yet! There is more variation to our endings, as they depend on your reputation with various factions, actions you've taken, and companions you've recruited.Will Dogmeat return, and will companions have more character, with detailed pasts, etc?
Dogmeat isn't around for this adventure, but the companions each have their own personalities, back story, and some of them have their own motives and quests they'll want you to give them a hand with.To round off, a few quick-fire ones from the community:
Can you play as a ghoul?Nope, you can't play as a ghoul. Sorry!
Will there be vehicles present?
You'll see different wrecked cars, but no vehicles you can ride or drive.
Are there destructible environments?
No destructible environments, but some stuff still blows up when you shoot at it.
Is there a Level Cap?
Yes, the level cap is 30.
Will the Metro play as important a role as Fallout 3 (ie. Will you constantly have to go down there to reach new places?)
We don't have the Metro. There's something similar, but you don't have to explore it at all if you don't want to.
We hope you enjoyed the interview, and you can pick up New Vegas on the 19th October 2010. Stay tuned (via Twitter) to Gamer's Guide to Life.com for more Communinty Interviews on upcoming AAA titles.
Labels: Bethesda, Chris Hawke, Community Interview, Exclusive, Fallout, Fallout: New Vegas, Interview, Obsidian
- Chris Hawke
UPDATE: That's it, folks! We've had almost 300 questions, and we've sent off as many as we could to the Fallout: New Vegas team. Thank you all so much for your questions, and stay tuned to GGTL for the full interview soon!
There seems to be a sort a nuclear mist surrounding Fallout: New Vegas. Not much is known about the upcoming Obsidian/Bethesda title, a spin-off from the popular - no, sorry, award winning - Fallout series. Gamer's Guide to Life wanted to know more.
'Course, we're not ones to leave you behind! We've secured an exclusive interview with the Fallout: New Vegas team, and since we forgot to send you a birthday present last year (sorry, it totally slipped our minds), we'll make it up to you by letting you ask your questions of the New Vegas boys and girls.
All you have to do is add a question you'd like answered about upcoming RPG/FPS hybrid Fallout: New Vegas is one of the following:
Pop it in the comments section.
Possibly the easiest way to ask your question from this page is via the comments system. You can login using your Disqus, Twitter, OpenID or Yahoo account, or can comment without an account too. It's quick and almost offensively simple. Just make sure to leave a name with any comment so we can credit you!
You could be all a-Twitter.
Have a Twitter account? Tweet us over your question. All you need to do is send us a message via @ggtl. Please use the GGTL hashtag - #ggtl - so your tweet shows up on the side of GGTL and you get five minutes of fame.
Old fashioned? Shoot us an electronic mail.
If you're not a fan of comments systems or social networking, then I'd advise you - other than telling you to join 2010 for crying out loud - to send an email over with your question to chrishawke@gamersguidetolife.com and we'll do our best to include it.
Ask questions that are as in-depth as you want, on any area of the game, development, or future of the series, and with any luck we'll squeeze as many as physically possible in the interviewee's inbox. It couldn't be easier!
So, get to it. We'll hopefully have the answers sometime before E3 this year. Speaking of which - check out GGTL's extensive E3 2010 coverage.
Chris
Labels: Bethesda, Chris Hawke, Exclusive, Fallout, Fallout: New Vegas, Interview, Obsidian
- Chris Hawke
It's not often that all the DLC for a game is reviewed at once. Then again, it's not often that a multi-million selling, already-successful game gets five seperate DLC packs, but far be it from me to judge. Fallout 3 might have been one of the best-selling games of the last couple of years, but Bethesda don't seem to have given up on it yet. And thanks to the kind people at Bethesda's PR company, I've got an extravaganza of a review for you.
Find out all the thoughts on the Fallout 3 DLC after the jump.
BROKEN STEEL
If you're an avid Fallout fan, then you'll be pleased to return to the brown wilderness. If not, it's not good. You don't get any new locations, like in other DLC's - you just get the good ol' wastes. However, why wouldn't you want to return? It's the harsh dog eat dog land that you already know, with a few tiny changes. One of the biggest is perhaps the addition of Aqua Pura. It's a tasty, watery beverage that's a welcome change to the irradiated water you usually find.
Another new addition, is a lot of equipment. One of the most recognizable parts of equipment new to the DLC is the new Hellfire armour and incinerator. Carried by some Enclave, they're basically tank armor with flame throwers. It's some decent armour too - as good as the T-51b Power Armour (Editor's note: which, we presume, is very good). In terms of weapons, there is a generous amount. I've already mentioned the Heavy Incinerator, but there are others too. Two notable ones are the Tesla Cannon - portable epicness - and the new Tri-Beam Laser Rifle, carried by Super Mutant Overlords.
One of the nicer perks to this DLC is the raised level cap. Before, you only had 20 levels, but with the increased cap you get a whole 30. And with these new levels, come new perks. Some are really well thought out, for example the ‘puppies’ perk which, if Dogmeat ever dies, gives you another pup waiting outside Vault 101. For those of you that can't be bothered to do the whole game three times, to get the evil, good and neutral trophies, Bethesda have included a perk that automatically sets your karma to your chosen one. This is obviously a great advantage, but perhaps it's a bit too easy to get the trophies with these perks.
In terms of content, you get three new missions, and three side ones too. In the main storyline of these missions, you enlist to help out the Brotherhood with their Aqua Pura plan. The main missions will have you fighting against the Enclave alongside Liberty Prime, whilst the side missions are mostly helping the Brotherhood distribute water to the people. They include helping protect transports, dealing with fake Aqua Pura and finding out why Megaton needs so much water. Also, perhaps one of the best set pieces in the DLC pack is near the end of the main missions - you'll be taken to watch the destruction of the Adams Airforce base. It's a nice explosion but it's over pretty quick.
So Broken Steel is good. It's nothing special, only raising the level cap and unlocking the game. Some think that the gamer shouldn't be charged for these bits but someone's gotta make money, eh? Like the other DLC, it's short - 2-3 hours to do mostly everything, and then perhaps a little longer if you want to get to level 30. In my opinion, the other DLC packs are better than this one, but the open-endedness it brings makes it worthwhile.
7/10
THE PITT
A radio broadcast can be picked up in the wastes by a so called slave. Head to his position, and you'll find him battling a new enemy - the Pitt Raider. After helping the poor guy, named Wernher, you'll find that he's escaped from a slave camp in the old Pittsburgh. He begs you to help his people. Accepting, you'll be dressed as a slave and sent into the tunnels to reach The Pitt.
Compared to the massive expanse that you usually find yourself in, The Pitt is quite small. It consitsts of a main lower town, that has an old steel mill to the left. After completing a few missions, you're introduced to the upper town, roughly the same size as the lower town. Another area added with this DLC is the Hole. It's an arena you'll be forced to fight in one of the later missions, and best of all its irradiated.
With these new enemies come more armor and weapons. The best has to be the slaves' home made Auto axe, a hand to hand circular saw. The raiders also carry a new weapon, the Infiltrator. It uses 5.56mm bullets so you probably won't run out. It's got a nice scope on it too, and is silenced - perfect for the sneaky kills. In terms of armour, however, it's pretty poor. There is plenty - but it's a load of rubbish; you've probably got better stuff already. However, you can get hold of some power armour, which is great.
The Pitt holds 3 main missions, which ultimately end with you freeing the slaves. Along the way, you'll have to collect Steel Ingots for the foreman. These are found in a deadly environment, infested with Trog's, men and women that have turned mad over time working in The Pitt's fumes. These creatures are tough, specially when you don't have your usual equipment. It's a bit like starting Fallout 3 again, scavenging everywhere looking for ammo.
After successfully collecting enough steel ingots, you are thrust into the hole. These battles are much easier than the Trog's. With only 3-4 fights it's simple and a bit boring. It doesn't feel finished, and the whole DLC is over in 1 hour.
A very poor effort for £7.99. Not much to do, a bit small and little in the way of good equipment. However, if you want to have a look at a different part of Fallout's world, it's quite good fun, and if you're up for collecting all the ingots, you might be here for a little while longer.
5/10
OPERATION ANCHORAGE
And then, the second pack was announced, named Operation Anchorage. It gave me a perfect chance to stick Fallout back in. Once loaded, you start the quest from an Outcast distress radio signal which you'll hear while running the wastelands. It requests 'backup' at a certain location. For those of you that haven't played Fallout, the Outcasts are a sect of the Brotherhood of Steel (the good ones) that broke away following a dispute with the leader.
If you decide to head over to the Outcasts, you'll find them engaged in a fierce battle with some Super Mutants. With your help, they quickly overpower the mutants, and you will then be instructed to follow the outcasts back to an underground base. Here, you discover your exact reason for being recruited by the Outcasts - they've found a locked door that can only be accessed by someone with the pip boy. If you choose to help them, you are promised to the contents of the locked room. After accepting, you're told you must run a 'program'.
This is where the fight starts. Heading into the simulation, you will be informed about where you're going to go. You're told you'll be joining an elite squad fighting to reclaim Anchorage from the communist Chinese. Fallout 3 players may have noticed that the game seems to have an obsession with the Chinese communists: links to them are everywhere, as books in the libraries, names of quests/people and even some of the weapons (such as the Chinese assault rifle). However, one of the more obvious examples of this obsession are present as some of the things that Liberty Prime says. As you're playing Broken Steel, keep your ear out for what he says.
Once in the simulation, you'll be greeted by a fellow American soldier. He tells you the basis of your mission, and then gives you the choice of a sneaky knife approach or the more violent guns blazing way. Once chosen, your commander will climb a sharp cliff, leaving you to proceed on your own. What follows is a small journey through Anchorage, where you assassinate many a Chinese commando and collect a total of 10 pieces of intel. This intel is a nice touch, but with little gain, there's not much point.
As it's a simulation, you can't scavenge any of the bodies lying around, which is a really annoyance as there are a few nice pieces you could collect. The campaign continues with you destroying Chinese artillery and then heading back to base. Back at base, you're briefed on your next assignment and then get to take on a bit of a commanding role: you get to choose who to have in your squad and where you want them to go. It's a nice touch but very simple. Also, they all seemed to die rather early, and I was left fighting on my own. You'll proceed with a counter attack on the Chinese with a few other objectives before you're able to go for the full on assault.
Once the simulation is finished you'll be let loose in the locked room, which contains some nice armor. However, after the quite respectable amount of time you've put in, it's very basic. A few pieces of unique armor and a lot of grenades that you'll probably already have will be your only reward, and it happens to be a little disappointing.
The DLC is good. It won't keep you going that long - I managed to do it in 1-2 hours - and it's definitely overpriced for the amount of time you'll spend on it but, if like me, you're a die hard Fallout fan then it's gonna be good no matter what you get for it. It doesn't necessarily bring you much new equipment but the new area is a welcome change from the brownness of the CW. The show is awesome - it's a really welcome change from the normally dull environment and gives a great atmosphere to the DLC. There are a few annoying problems with the quest however - a bit short, very linear as you can't really go anywhere other than the path, and also not very rewarding.
7/10
POINT LOOKOUT
It's a wonder that no one had set up boat rides of the wasteland rivers before. With Point Lookout comes a trip to the coasts of Maryland. You're promised adventure and treasures beyond your wildest dreams, so why stay in the wastes?
Taking the boat, you'll be greeted by a small film where you see some of the main parts of Point Lookout: the mansion, ferris wheel and seaside front. Once off the boat, you’re free to explore the whole wilderness that's available. If you take a look at your map, you may notice it’s massive - defiantly the biggest of the DLCs so far, and there’s a nice surprise still to come - what you see to begin with isn’t all Point Lookout has to offer.
If you do decide to take a wander, then be prepared for a fight. Much like the Trog's in the Pitt, these enemies are solid. And, what’s more, they like to fight in packs. Say your picking the head off one of the smaller Creepers, don't be surprised if you find yourself being crushed by one of the other enemy types: Bruiser, Scrapper and Brawler.
So you can see that the enemies have been toughened up, but how much do you get for your money? Well, compared to the others, you get five whole main missions. If that isn't enough for you, there’s another 5 side quests to keep you busy. One thing is for certain - this DLC is huge: there’s a massive area to traverse, 10 missions to play and another tonne of equipment.
There’s not much in terms of armour, but collectors will be happy to find plenty of named pieces of clothing. And, if you’re looking for a new weapon, then the Double-Barrelled Shotgun might satisfy your needs. It's very powerful, but with only 2 shots it's slow to reload.
With inbreds, strong enemies, a humongous area to explore and some nice guns, Point Lookout is by far the best DLC you can get for Fallout. It's got plenty to satisfy your needs for a good 2 hours. And if you want to go for all the trophies, then it's going to be a 4 hour job to find everything required.
9/10
MOTHERSHIP ZETA
After marvelling at the aesthetics of the ship, you might want to take a look at what the inhabitants like to keep. Following in the same shoes of the other DLCs, there's plenty of new rubbish to collect. There’s not much in the way of armour this time round - most of it is worn by your accomplices - but there are some exiting new weapons. The alien disintegrator is a nice one to play with, as there’s plenty of ammo for it, it packs a nice punch and, for goodness sakes, it’s a disintegrator, how can it not be fun?. For those of you that found the crashed spaceship in the wastelands, there are another 100 power cells lying about the ship, yours for the taking.
As you may have guessed, with this new equipment comes a new threat. This time it's everyone's favourite green skinned extraterrestrials. Most are easy bullet food, but some - for example, the drones - are a bit tougher and, if you’re not careful, could take you down. Having said that, they’re not likely to, as nearly every alien carries Alien Biogel, a blue gel that restores health. You can even get it modified to provide you with even more health points.
The ship itself is pretty big. There are plenty of corridors to explore, and even a space walk at one point. This pack is full of great set pieces - getting abducted, floating through space and a great view of the earth – but the best bit has to be toward the end, where you actually get to control the ship and fight another one! It's even got a slight tactical lean, allowing you to distribute power for a powerful hit, or to tighten defences.
It's probably one of the smallest DLC packs in terms of quests. You only get 3 missions, and not a single side quest. However, if you’re after trophies then you've got to spend a bit of time searching for the records of the ships captives. Some of them are pretty funny, and I advise taking your time out to look for them. If you’re not that bothered about trophies then you’re not going to be in space for very long - a typical play through will only take an hour tops. But, then again, you’re probably gonna enjoy being surrounded by something other than brown mud.
8/10
CONCLUSION
So, these DLC packs are great for the average Fallout fan. Point Lookout is, without doubt, the biggest and best - there's plenty to see and a tonne to collect. Coming in close second is Mothership Zeta, which is just as fun thanks to the change in scenery. However, it’s the shortest and perhaps not worth £7.99. Next would have to be Broken Steel, based on the fact that it lets you keep on playing. It's not got much more to offer apart from that, though, so it's all gonna be over pretty quick. Coming in next is Operation Anchorage, which is fun but too linear - you can't go off the beaten track, and don't even get much for the time you invest. Without a shadow of a doubt, The Pitt is the worst: it's over in a flash, doesn't provide the lone wanderer with much exiting equipment, and most of all – as much as I hate to say it – it’s boring.
Jacques
Labels: Bethesda, DLC, Fallout, Jacques Hulme, Review
- Anonymous
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