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Almost two years after it’s release Episode 1 felt a little shallow. It was not bad but I could feel how Valve was thinking more about episodic content and digital distribution than the game itself. But my hopes were high for Episode 2. Fortunately, Valve did deliver and made Episode 2 a memorable experience.
The game starts off were Episode 1 left. The Citadel exploded and the shockwave hit the train I was on. The train crashed and Alyx and I are going on by foot to White Forest, where Eli Vance and the other scientists are waiting on us to deliver the information gathered in the Citadel to launch a rocket that shall destroy the portal that connects the world of the Combine with the earth.
The first minutes included the only minor annoyance of the game. Why in hell do I start without all the weapons I had at the end of Episode 1? From a gameplay perspective this is clear to me. But this is supposed to be episodic gaming, similar to TV series. So consistency from episode to episode is very important. I should start completely as I have left off in the episode before. Stripping you from all your gear without any explanation just destroys the illusion.
However, this thought lasted only for a couple of minutes as Episode 2 is so good over all. I critized Episode 1 for rehashing older content, throwing only known enemies against the player. Valve did better this time and used a new unit called Hunter to lay the tracks for the game as a hunter hurts Alyx badly. A Vortigaunt steps in to heal her. Since Alyx’ wound is too bad, he needs the help of other Vortigaunts and a certain extract. With my help Alyx can be rescued and the journey to White Forest can be finished.
The levels are very varied this time and have a perfect mix of shooting and puzzle solving. The bridge puzzle is fine example of physics enhancing the game experience. You’re tasked to retrieve a car that is standing on the other side of a bridge. To get there you have to cross a river of toxic waste. Once you are at the car, the bridge starts to crumble and break at certain points. The middle part of the bridge stands askew with the near end elevated. Just driving over the bridge is impossible now. So you have jump on the middle of the bridge, get the car wrecks there on the elevated side so that it all evens out and you can drive to the other end. To be honest, it took me a while to figure that out. But it was fun.
Still the main focus is on shooting and there are a lot of very challenging and rewarding skirmishes in the game. And obviously no annoying “the battery of my flashlight is low” parts. The hunters are hard to fight and close the gap between the normal grunts and zombies and enemies like the striders. I bitched about the final fight in Episode 1, this time it is hell of a ride against a lot of striders and hunters which I have to stop from destroying the rocket before launch.
Story wise Eposide 2 is much for fulfilling. But I don’t want to spoil anything here. Just so much: G-Man is back again and his absence from Episode 1 is explained and his role gets a little bit clearer. The ending is sad and a huge cliffhanger that makes me want to play Episode 3 as soon as possible. So Valve, would you kindly finish Episode 3 for me?
I mentioned it before, Mass Effect devours time. But I had no regret yet. I left the huge space station on my mission to fight the alien race Geth which is terrorizing the known universe. The first main quest led me to the planet Ferros. A human colony was attacked by the Geth and the goal was to find out what they were looking for. So in best RPG tradition a lot of talking and fighting had to be done. Again some short but rewarding side quests were included.
It turned out that a herbal life form was living on the planet that had the ability to control the minds of people. The goal of the Geth and Saren was to obtain it. The quest led me to fight the life form in the end because it took already the control of parts of the colony’s people. This was the first time that I wasn’t happy with the fighting system and the squad AI. In the boss fight I had to kill a lot of zombie type enemies in narrow rooms. The fight system though is too slow for fast indoor fights. This led to many frustrating moments. The squad AI was annoying at times, too, because the squad mates often shot each other and didn’t want to do a thing about it. It happened often that I entered a fight and my shields were down before the enemy made a shot at me.
But besides that the mission was fun. Before I started the next main quest, which is to find the daughter of the matriach that is helping Saren, I flew to some other planets to finish side quest. I am already 16 hours into the game and I feel I haven’t seen 10% of the game. Great!
See, when I read all those rave comments about Portal, they sounded suspicious to me. How could a small bonus game to a huge franchise be even better than the rest? I couldn’t believe the praise it got. But boy I was wrong. Initially I expected the gameplay to be the main factor. While it truly is new, a puzzle game in a first person shooter environment, it was the presentation that really struck me.
Usually, good puzzle games work because they are addictive in one way or the other. While the possbility of the portals is a very unique element, it became at least for me trivial to the end of the game. It took me 5 minutes to inherit the concept so that even the later levels didn’t pose any problems for me. But never had a puzzle game more charm like Portal.
Turrets softly whispering “No hard feelings” or “I don’t blame you” when you take them out makes you want to give them a hug. The remarks of the AI make you laugh often. The companion cube with the heart at it’s middle is just lovely. So much love in game that is essentially full of traps to kill you. A very interesting contrast. And somehow I had the feeling that the credit screen with the now famous Portal Song is a statement for nerd culture.
Hopefully Portal 2 will be a little more of a challenge. I love cake.
Mass Effect is the perfect game to lose a lot of time. After the initial mission the game really starts off on a huge space station called Citadel. So many people to talk to, a lot of side quests which are fun and rewarding. The pace and narration is spot on. I am over 10 hours into the game and have just left the station on my quest to fight the Geth.
I love the presentation of the game. Usually I get bored pretty fast with the dialog in RPGs. Not this time. I am talking to everyone I can talk to. The facial expressions and the voice over correspond perfectly. The fight system is great so far, not too easy but also not too hard. The only thing that frustrated me in the beginning was the lack of explanation on the upgrade and skill system. There should’ve been some in the manual for a game with so many possibilities. But that is just a minor flaw in a great game so far.
Remember how I told you that I took just a quick peek at HL2: Episode 1? I finished it already. I had some free time on Friday night, not enough time to dive into the vast world of Mass Effect, but just enough to have another look at EP1. And all of a sudden I saw the credits. What a short experience. That’s episodic gaming now, huh?
The game begins where the original HL2 left off and starts in the ruins outside of the citadel. After stopping that from happening, it is all about escaping City17 as the the combine leads the reactor to explode again. The problem is that Episode 1 isn’t new. The levels are mostly rehashed from the main game, the enemies are the same ase are the weapons and the gameplay elements. This would all be okay if it at least gives more hints on the story. But other than the information that humanity has more success at fighting the combine and the speach of the doctor no further hints are given. Which sucks. I didn’t like some of the levels, too. Especially when the game leads into old buildings and multi-storey car parks. Those are dark so you are running around in Doom 3 style holding your flashlight up all the time. This is just too oldschool for a game like HL2 that can do better.
The boss at the end of Episode 1 is also a little uninspired. You fight against a strider, one of the enemies that you fought a lot of times in the original HL2, in a train station and to effectively beat him you have to go through some sort of jump and run section to get to the other side of the station where ammunition for the rocket launcher is hidden. It is too easy for a boss fight. The game ends with you standing at the rear end of a train watching the citadel explode and the screen going all white.
For all the flaws Episode 1 has, it is still on a very high level, technically and artistically. It is also a game that has to be seen in context. it was an experiment on digital distribution. To see, if episodic content could be a concept to bring games in a shorter form directly to the player. So when the game came out this played into the valuation. This novelty has worn of today and leaves a good, but not extraordinay game. It is a solid 8/10 and Episode 2, which I will play in the coming days, will probably smooth the flaws out.
Today I had to bring Devil May Cry 4 back to the rental shop. I managed to beat Dante finally after many attempts but couldn’t finish the 11th mission anymore. As I don’t want to pay another 10 Euros for an additional week, the game has unfortunately to go back. But I’ll keep the save game on the HDD so that I can borrow the game in a couple of weeks from a friend and finish it properly. It may be not the pinnacle of gaming, hack&slashs are however pretty addictive.
On the weekend my damn curiosity led me to have a look in yet another game. I didn’t have a PC for 2 years now and my iMac never let me regret it. I hadn’t upgraded to Leopard yet but Saturday was the day that I bought the new version of OSX. With it comes Bootcamp which made a Windows installation possible. With the prospect of having Steam and it’s huge back catalog again, I decided to run Windows on the iMac. The installation was pretty easy, although it took some time. Having Steam installed the Orange Pack smiled at me alluringly. I am a weak bastard so I grabbed my credit card, entered the 16 digits and after a night of downloading I finally had the full HL2 goodness on my Mac.
I played HL2 when it came out 2 years ago so I was more than curious how Episode 1 would fare. And although the first 2 hours are not the best in the HL franchise they’re still on a very high level. The art direction is refreshing in a time, where the Unreal 3 engine dominates with it’s bright colours and shiny bump mapping everywhere. An apocalyptic yet comprehensible story finishes the good impression so far. I am still in the city, on my way from house to house looking for a way to leave the rotting town with the citadel in the middle.
Yet, Episode 1 (and 2 and Portal) will have to wait a little. From what I’ve read probably some weeks. A friend of mine gave me Mass Effect to play. Yeah, I know, the next game I started. But that is just how I am. Too curious to let a game just wait for it’s time. But I have the feeling that Mass Effect might be worth it. I played a couple of hours yesterday and it feels good, despite the flawed menus and the confusing upgrade system. I finished the first mission on Eden Prime which ended with the destruction of the sender I initially had to retrieve. Bad luck. I arrived at a huge space station called The Citadel looking for the next missions. As I’ve said, it feels great so far, even the localization - the game got synchronized for Germany - is surprisingly good and in sync with the motion of the lips.
I didn’t have much time to play the last week, Work kept me busy most of the time, and when I wasn’t at work I wasn’t fond of serious gaming. So I looked for something mindless and found it in Devil May Cry 4. I rented it on Monday and played every day a couple of minutes and I am now in the 10th level, where I have to fight that Dante guy at the end.
I have mixed feelings about that game. It is undeniably fun. the controls are very responsive, the story is over the top anime style and the cutscenes are georgeous. But it often also feels bland, the graphics are sometimes butt ugly and the difficulty is very inconsistent.
Devil May Cry 1 was the only entry in the series that I played before. And I loved it. Not neccessarily because of the gameplay. But the game had style. It was the most stylish game I have ever played in a more emo-goth way. The 4th entry lacks this. And I miss it. The style made the simple hack&slash formula stand out. Devil May Cry 4 feels generic.
But it is still mindless fun and I haven’t finished it yet.
Today I had a decision to make. Do I want to keep Assassin’s Creed for another couple of days or did I have enough of it and want to bring it back to the rental shop? To be honest it was a question rather easy to answer. After the endeavours in Acre the next mission was to kill a slave-trader in Jerusalem. As in the first two missions I had to ride to the city, get in somehow and do the steps to fulfill the tasks. The problem was that it was all the same again for the third time, with two exceptions. The first one was the boss fight, in which I had to chase the victim throughout the city. The second one being that the mission played in the upper class part of the town. Problem was, that this wasn’t really noticeable because there were still the beggars around every corner that would annoy you with the same 3 sentences over and over again.
The game suffers from two big problems. Very loose storytelling and repetitiveness. I was one third into the game but still had not the slightest idea what the story was about. Assassin’s Creed is basically a sandbox game and as such has to rely on tight storytelling to keep the player motivated. The game fails here miserably. And by god the repetitions make it even worse. When you’ve heard the same sentence over and over and over again, you feel the urge to punch someone in the face. Not to mention the identical mission structure in every city. And yeah, the game is far to easy.
Technically Assassin’s Creed is quite an achievement. There is no doubt about that. It has some of the most beautiful graphics on any system to date. Altair and the people of the holy land are perfectly animated. Although the movement of Altair has many possibilities, the controls are very intuitive and easy to learn. Unfortunately it is a little too dumbed down as the fights are way too easy.
So yes, this game is a rental. But the technical perfection in Assassin’s Creed let’s me hope that the next game will be as good as the hype suggests.
Disclaimer: I am playing the german version. This is why some names of towns may differ. I try to translate them to English names. This is why I wrote about Akkon before which is actually called Acre.
While Damascus was nice, it seemed too clean to me. Although I was running around the slums of the town there was not much of the typical suffering in the middle ages present. Sure, some beggars, but all in all the town looked pretty friendly. Acre was in strong contrast. Standing in front of the gate the town looked dirty, dead or starving people lay around. To get into the town I had first to help a monk who was harrassed by soldiers. This led to a group of scholars to arrive in which I could hide to enter the town.
Acre was held hostage by the Knights of Hospitaller. My main mission was to kill the head of this order. I could have done this after 20 minutes but the city sucked me in. The game depicted the dark ages exactly in the way I imagined them. Suffering, diseases, poverty, hunger, polution. Everything was present and so real, that I couldn’t just move on. Instead I climbed every outlook and finished every secondary mission. There were also two informants in town that wanted me to fulfill certain duties in exchange for tips on how to kill Garnier. As I gathered more and more information the picture that was drawn of Garnier was that of an evil nazi doctor similar to Mengele.
The game also got a little bit harder than in Dasmascus. When I caused an alarm in Damascus it was pretty easy to run away. Climbing up the houses and hiding there was pretty easy. This changed in Acre because soldiers guarded the roofs of the city. But a death jump here and there and I was save most of the time. The fights got harder too as there were often 5-6 soldiers against me. I figured that counterattacks were a very good instrument to come alive out of these fights.
The actual kill of Garnier was a quite difficult task. He was in some sort of monastery where he did experiments on sick people. Fortunately I had helped a monk right around the corner before so that there was a group of scholars in front of the monastery that I could use to get past the guards. Finally in I witnessed a small scene in which Garnier talked to one of his “patients” who was in fear of the doctor. After that I entered the medical station and waited for the right moment to stab the doctor silently from behind. Escaping was rather easy: running as fast as possible.
That was that for Acre for now. Back with my master who gave me one of my skills back I am now on my way to Jerusalem.
Oh my god, it is 8am and I just finished playing. For all the frustration I felt on my way to Akkon, the actual town was just awesome. It was so awesome that I even finished all the side quests. I’ll write that up when I am back from the sleeping dead.