Viking: Battle for Asgard Review

The game is set in Midgard where the Legions of Hel have invaded and all seems lost. The character you will play, Skarin, is wounded and dying and all seems lost. The God Freya comes to him and chooses him as her champion. She gives him an amulet of great power and restores him to health. She then performs magic, which banishes the legion from the village, and leaves Skarin to do her will. Which is to raise an army and lead it against Hel.

During the long course of events as Skarin rebuilds the infrastructure of war, we meet Drakan who is Hel's champion and our nemesis. We find out about Drakan's past as Freya's fallen champion and are led into a quest to find out about Skarin's own heritage. The story builds to a suitable apocalyptic conclusion.

During the game I was enjoying the story, however it did seem to build and build to a great last act only to just stop and give up. Hel is defeated and Skarin sees that he has been used by Freya as a pawn in the God’s games and is left wanting revenge. This game feels more like the start of a trilogy, as if it was meant to have a cliff-hanger to be continued ending. Shame it didn’t as this game wraps up the rest of a two game epic story line in a two or three minute voice over with concept art. The fact that there seems to be no sequels planned leaves a bitter aftertaste. 

The game is set in a series of three free roaming islands each one larger than the last. The first two look similar and summery and the final one is in the grip of winter and has an active volcano with lava all over the place.

The view is third person from behind Skarin. Controls are the usual sticks for movement and camera control. There are slow and fast attacks with various combination button presses leading to differing attacks.

As you wander you can speak to various a.i. characters that give you objectives to complete. 

The objectives are fairly varied though by far the largest mission type is reaching an area where Vikings are imprisoned and freeing them, where they will aid you in battle to free the area from legion occupation. The locations for these skirmishes include farms quarries, distilleries, and lumbar mills. There are also guard towers to liberate, enemy patrols to destroy and items to recover for characters.

Some factions need you to go somewhere specific, kill the larger enemy there and bring back a trophy to prove your worth before they pledge their aid for the cause. You also find yourself looking for dragon stones and amulets to give you control over the dragons of the land.

Combat is fairly repetitive stuff, and you find yourself getting by without much skill until the later islands where the introduction of armoured and shield carrying enemies mean that you need to learn to block and have a bit more strategy than simply hitting the nearest enemy. Bosses, giants and Champions need their health taken down a bit and then quick-time button presses come into play to finish them off.

The unique part of the game is the two huge battles on each island, one to open the other half and the other as the climax of events on the island. These battles can be triggered when you have met criteria, e.g. having enough troops, having dragon air support etc.

Once the battles are triggered it's a matter of storming the castle or fortification with your mass of troops, there is only one real objective for the player here, to kill off the enemy shaman who are responsible for spawning endless replacements for the enemies you kill. Once they are dead the legion's reinforcements are cut off and you must bring your shaman to the summoning stone, where they perform magic that banishes the legion from the area.

The battles are huge with an astonishing number of characters on screen. There are siege weapons and giants amongst the melee. Your dragons can be summoned once you have enough dragon runes. Killing a shaman gets you a dragon rune, there can be up to ten shamans to be killed in the later levels.

The dragons can be used to air-strike certain targets taking them out of the game, for example, archers or giants that are making it difficult, or the shaman's saving you the trouble of killing each one individually. Shamans are killed by destroying the four posts surrounding them, which breaks their magic shield, it's then a swift sword thrust to kill them off.

The first time you see the battle it is astonishing. There is true chaos and everything seems exhilarating. After 6 battles you know the drill and the effect wears off. Don't get me wrong the battles are still a spectacle, it's just that you know you are just going from place to place killing shaman. That is your only role, maybe a bit of variety of objectives in the battles might have kept it fresh.

The fortresses have two roles, to be the site of the final battles and also the site of stealth missions. You are tasked with obtaining a certain item from inside the fortress, and have to sneak inside. If you are seen then the alarm is raised and you will find yourself fighting against overwhelming force. To progress you must find a very deliberate route into and through the fortress killing using a stealth attack which is instigated when you are near an enemy that has it's back to you by pressing x, which silently kills in a satisfying manner.

The stealth missions are almost on a par with Splinter Cell and Metal Gear games here. Which is a bonus and it mixes up the game-play. The only thing I can say in criticism is that the stealth missions are necessary to complete the campaign. Those that bought a hack and Slash open world sandbox game might not have wanted to play a stealth action game It would have been nice to have been told that stealth would play a big role in the game before purchase. Might also have gained the game more sales from the stealth action fans.

There are the obligatory shops where you can upgrade your sword with combat runes and buy ranged weapons like axes and firebombs. You can also buy maps, which show the location of gold on your radar, this makes the collection of money for buying said items much easier. There are in addition to the gold barrels of mead dotted around which will be paid for by innkeepers.

Collecting rage orbs from the dead allows you to use the magic of fire  and ice for a limited period until the rage energy runs out. Giving your blade the ability to freeze or set on fire the legion.

There is also a ghostly warrior trainer who in return for gold will teach you newer and more devastating combat moves.

There are a large number of ruins and caves, which can be explored in a tomb raider style to find gold. Sometimes just getting from place to place due to the landscape can be a bit of a puzzle.

Finally ley lines can be used to fast travel across the island once the stones have been found by walking to the location.

The a.i. is average, they do stupid things like walk off ledges to get to you, and usually just approach you and stand in a circle around you waiting their chance to strike.

The boss fights are fairly simplistic with you basically hacking and dodging until their health is down and a quick-time sequence finishes them. The bosses like the champion are introduced slowly then used increasingly throughout the game. There are two real main boss characters, Drakan and Hel herself.

Drakan is fought twice and Hel is the end of game boss. I have to heavily criticise the Hel fight however, the difficulty spike here will kill you. From being a fairly easy game the final fight is a real problem. I spent about four hours trying to kill Hel and screamed at the screen and threw controllers around. I will go as far as to say that the final fight tarnishes the whole game.

You have to fight many enemies in tight confines while destroying Hel's shaman pillars before finally getting to her. It's not the actual fight with Hel, it's the sheer weight of numbers of advanced hard to kill enemies that force you from being average at the game the whole way through to become a master of it's combat.

One tip for anyone playing Viking after reading this review is to stock up on health potions and firebombs before attempting the fight. Be warned though, once used they don't re-spawn with you when you come back for another go. I know it's the end of game boss and it should be hard, however this really is a huge jump in difficulty.

The islands are very well designed. Beautiful locations and thoughtful real world places. The areas look drab and lifeless when controlled by the legion, once liberated the sun comes out and everything looks idyllic. The art direction is perfectly in sync with the Viking legends.

Graphically the frame rate is good for the most part with understandable drops in the huge battles. This isn't a criticism, the number of objects on screen is staggering, on a par with Kameo and Heavenly sword for huge battle melees.

I don’t know what game engine was used here but it should be used more often.

Sound is good with some good voice work, especially the perfectly cast Brian Blessed. Checkpoints come after each mission or item pickup, and are handled transparently by the game to good effect. There are a few checkpoint gaps near the end of the game which are a little unfair, however not a real problem. Menus are sparse but functional.

I played Viking for around 20 hours and received a very nice 960 points. Most of the achievement flow from completing the story and upgrading the character, which really is necessary anyway. No real achievement hunting points, apart from finding hidden skulls in the fortresses. Which is a little unfair, as you can't travel back to an island once you leave for the next.

No multi-player at all, and it isn't missed. I doubt it would work well.

I had a lot of fun with this game, it never got as much hype as some games. Leading to many dismissing it as a purchase or even a rent. Having played two games recently with Norse mythology I know which one was better and it isn't Too Human. I would urge everyone to play this game. One of the better releases of 2008.

Scoring

Graphics 9

Gameplay 9

Story 5

Level Design 9

A.i. 5

Total 7.4

Too Human Review

What if the stories from myth about viking Gods were all true? That there really were Gods that ruled over our ancestors? What if the theories about us reaching a technological level only to obliterate ourselves are true? That for many cycles humans have developed computers, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence etc and been destroyed by our own creations or nature.

Too Human suggest that Norse Gods were in fact representatives of an advanced technological civilization. An elite ruling class tasked with the protection of ordinary people. Baldur, Thor, Odin, simply people evolved beyond baseline human by staggeringly advanced technology.

Who do these gods protect the humans from, goblins and elves who are the a.i. that ran amok, however there are two factions, the norn are benevloent a.i. who control a cyber world woven into the fabric of being by nano tech viruses inside every living or non living atom. they know far more than they are telling us about everything we see.

These God's fight the goblins and trolls on one side and amongst themselves on the other, over the direction of policy. Loki believes one ideology and Odin another. The clash will shake the world.

Baldur is introduced to us as he is rescued from Hel. Why is was there? The next time we see him he is stalking the Grendel in a bar that is part viking with huge tankards and the other part holographic strip club.

We find out Baldur's history in bits a pieces from his shattered memory. We get the sense that Baldur is not being told the full story of events about his wife or his recent history. We know that his wife is dead and Freya wishes to comfort him and become his wife, however, Baldur is distant with her. Loki is imprisoned and Baldur takes his army of men to hunt down the Grendel, a new species of machine threat.

The scene is set for a story with many twists. The problem is in the execution. The makers of Too human have had this story in their heads for too long. they have a huge library of information I would wager on the back story. The problem is none of it shows in the game. Most of what I know I had to piece together from many sources. Some of the clever parallels drawn I have read about in forums for game, not gleaned from the game itself.

Some plot points regarding death for example are not explained. Maybe this is due to the final revelations that will come in later games, however leaving the player wondering if there is a huge plot hole is not the best policy.

For example Baldur does not die, nor it seems does any of the a.i. helpers. The valkyries come and carry them away and bring them back seconds later. Conversely we are also told that Hel claims the corpses of the fallen and that In taking Baldur from Hel once he died the Aesir broke a pact leading to war.

Death seems to be a state of being here, alive you are free in midgard, dead you go to valhalla or Hel. I am getting irritated thinking about it, if the final reveal at the end of the trilogy is that Midgard is a virtual world and the characters are living in a matrix style world that they didn't know about I won't be happy. The game already plays with Baldur's perceptions once with him thinking he has left cyberspace back to reality and finding that he never left cyberspace. To fully confuse me at one point, one of the Aseir Gods is killed for good and doesn't come back again or get a valkyrie, why? I never saw any explanation.

The story has some points to make about technology being a double edged sword with manipulation of media fed to a character making him act against character. Never quite seeing the real world and worlds within worlds seems to be a heavy plot element.

The story feels episodic, however, it does have an introduction middle and resolution. It's just that one crisis has been resolved, only to make wider matters worse and the future look bleak for the Aseir. A large war is now now being waged on two sides, which look like they might unite in their hatred.

Baldur is a cold and an unlikeable hero, his treatment of his wife feels wrong. Thor is a horrible mix, a cybernetic superbeing, who drinks like an alcholic and seems terminally stupid. All the aseir seem cold and aloof, and not a bunch of people that feel like they need your support, I might actually start rooting for Loki and the Goblins.

On starting a game you are presented with 5 classes to choose from, which I don't like, there I have said it. It's fine to upgrade your character all you like, but to have to choose before you even know the game, which attributes you will like best is just stupid. I am not going to play any game that takes 15 hours five times over to see all the variances, no matter how interesting they are.

I think I have played only a handful of games more than once through in my life, games like Doom, Half life 1 and 2 and Mass effect. I have to really, really like a game to give it that much time. To suggest to me before playing that I might want to take five classes through a fifteen hour game is a little much. I want one character that all abilities are open to. I chose bioengineer at random. After all the stats meant little too me with know experience. Five times fifteen is seventyfive hours. If you want the full levels in each class that is doubled to 150 hours play time. Later on in the game you are given the choice of staying human or having technological implants, again the implications of these choice isn't clear enough and they are unchangeable. 

The combat is fairly deep. As it should be being the main focus of the game. Using the right stick swings whatever weapon is equipped, swords, hammers, poles. The left and right triggers shoot pistols or fire grenades and bullets from rifles. If you are near an enemy and facing it you lock on, pushing the stick in the direction of the enemy strikes it or slides Baldur towards the enemy and strikes. Double tapping the stick will make Baldur deliver an uppercut which throws then enemy in the air where good timing with your guns will keep it in the air with the force of your firepower.

You can also lock onto various body parts of the larger enemies and shoot pieces off of them. Pointing both sticks in a direction at once sends a larger blast from your current weapon which is very useful.

Baldur has a Norn spider weapon on his back which performs special attacks depending on your class with a press of the Y button. The X button performs healing spells, at least on the bioengineer class. As you fight a combo meter fills and once full you can unleash an explosive type special attack called a finisher with the right button.

There are about seven types of enemy robot, all with their own attack patterns and combat strategies. They drop weapons and armour when they die and there are pillars dotted around which also unleash collectibles. Note must be made of the sheer amount of attackers, usually no less then seven at one attacking you for the most part of the game.

Some enemies explode or freeze or poison on contact, making their destruction a priority as they charge at you. The enemy simply run at you,  or stand still and shoot bombs until you get close. No prizes for a.i. here.

Cyberspace takes the form of a well, where once you enter you are transported to a small area of virtual real estate where actions taken impact on doors and machinery in the real world. The cyber environments are forests and rivers which clash with the bleak frost ravaged world of Midgard which seems to be in the grip of an ice age caused by the Aseir themselves.

When you die a valkyrie comes down from above and lifts you up and vanishes with you. You then respwan a little further back from where you died. The enemies are left with the damage you dealt them and you simply have to wear them down. Each time you are respawned your current armour becomes damaged and less effective leading to a quicker and quicker death unless you change the armour.

There are four main levels, and they are huge. each one takes a good hour or two to complete. Between each level you return to a city where story cut scenes are triggered and you can wander around and buy armour and weapons at the shops.

There is a huge variety of weapons and armour. Swords, poles, hammers, pistols, rifles. Armor consists of helmet, gloves, chest piece, trousers and boots. Each item can be given upgrades in the form of runes making it more effective. Weapon blueprints can be found in cyberspace and then manufactured at a cost in the real world. Weapons collected can be sold to make money for newer models. The combinations are huge and you spend a lot of time juggling your inventory. Which is fun, however the menu's are a little more confusing than needs to be at first. A steep learning curve. Though I am sure if you have played similar games before it will be a breeze. If you haven't be prepared to spend a long time weighing up armor points, weapon damage stats and buying and selling endless lists of weapons. A best possible button would have made a lot of micro management redundant. Still a lot of people like this kind of thing. I have to say I do too, though I feel a bit nerdier for admitting it.

There are many large robots which could be considered bosses, well they are earlier in the game and then repeated on the later levels a lot. There is a fight with another Aseir called Hode, also a huge dog which belongs to Hel and Hel herself is the final boss. Her fight is long and protracted, chasing her through her Fortress.

The boss battles are wars of attrition really, there is never any doubt you will win, it's just how effectively you can manage it.

The levels have a feeling of grandeur, which is carried by scale alone, there is little opulence with basically big halls and tunnels. The characters are an interesting cross between viking and cybernetic futuristic. It has to be said that some armors make Baldur look a little daft. There is no real design to the levels, they are simply just big long corridors punctuated with the odd area open to the sky. The first one is meant to be something to do with barges that take away the dead to Hel, referenced by the odd moving coffin. The last Hel's fortress with it's undead hordes. The other two levels have themes, ice forest and the ship of the world serpent. In the end though there is little spectacle or of memory. The city is the best looking area and it is rather small.

The engine seems fine, however, there are various clipping issues, especially the valkyrie and the floor never seem quite well matched. The frame rates seem pretty good for the most part with a large number of enemies and explosions going on. There is slowdown but it isn't really that noticeable.

Sound is average, with theatrical music and good sound effects. Checkpoints are very regular and death only ever seems to send you back a small distance. Menus are a little cluttered, but that is excusable by the amount of information they contain.

I received 535 achievement points. I'm happy with that for one play-through. Again to get all the points they seem to be asking far too much of your time for one game.

Multiplayer is fun, I have worked through a few levels with strangers online. You never really get much of a sense of teamwork however, you tend to get attacked by a circle of enemies each and only come together when attacking the larger robots. I never take off any points or give them for multiplayer in my review scores. I do comment on multiplayer when I play it, however only a few games get much play from me online. Those I have to say tend to be the ones my friends play. I don't have anyone on my friends list playing this game and to be honest I don't really fancy hours on end with strangers one on one in this game. Same goes for Fable II to be honest, which is a shame that all my friends want to play is shooters like Bad Company, Rainbow Six and Call of Duty. I think it could be fun if you had a good rapport with someone who was enthusiastic to play Too Human.

The biggest problem i have with the game is the wisdom of leaving out weapons and abilities that need a game to be played through two times to unlock. If I walk into a restaurant I don't expect to be given a meal that is only three quarters compete only to be awarded the full meal on the second or third visit.

If you only buy one game every month then yes there is replay value here. You can happily run through the game ten times with the five classes and upgrade them all to the maximum. I am sure if you really liked this game then you could do that happily.

The problem I have is one of time. I am not rich, nor am I poor. I buy on average a game each week. I play some games for longer than others and I have a backlog of games sitting on my shelf that I have bought and never got around to playing yet. So with Too human completed I have Mercenaries 2, The Force Unleashed and some older games still sitting to waiting to play. I don't have the time, nor unfortunately the inclination to play Too Human over and over looking for the best from it. If I can't see it at it's best first time then I am sorry I am going to miss out on the best.

Scoring

Graphics 7

Gameplay 7

Story 7

Level Design 5

A.i. 5

Total 6.2

Tomb Raider: Legend Review

It's Tomb Raider one remade using the 10 year advance in hardware and engine technology. Is it any good? Will this game stand up to the test of time and can they make a better game with ten years practice?

Most people who play this will have some knowledge of the original or will have played other Tomb Raider games. Therefore they may have played the original and already know the story and levels presented here. Will a remake do a genre justice that tends to have little re-playabilty, once you have worked out the puzzles, it's never the same again replaying a Tomb Raider game. The magic is lost, and it becomes an exercise in memory and repetition. The fun is in scratching you head working out what to do and where to jump to.

Lara Croft is approached by a man called Larson on the behalf of a woman named Natla, who happens to own Natla industries, a very large multinational. Lara is asked to look for the scion of Atlantis, at first Lara is skeptical as there are no leads to it's location. Natla provides her with one and she cannot resist going after the fabled artifact. Lara finds herself deep in Qualopec's tomb searching for the scion. After much work she finds it only to have Larson who has followed her try and kill her to claim the scion from her. Lara escapes leaving Larson unconscious and goes back to Natla for answers. Finding Natla missing from her offices she goes after the second of three parts of the scion, which Natla has leads on. The story progresses to some dangerous reveals about the nature of Atlantis and Natla, who isn't what she seems. Leading to Lara desperately fighting to save the world from subjugation from a horde of genetically engineered monsters controlled by an evil godlike power.

The story is told through cut scenes at the beginning and end of each level, there is little dialogue and interaction in the actual levels, Tomb raider for the most part is a solitary game, Lara spends many a lonely hour with only the tombs and some wild animals for company.

There has been an attempt to inject some emotion into the story, which is mostly the same as the first game except for a little streamlining. Lara's guilt at taking a life and her subsequent doubts and temptations about her descent into darkness are new to the story. Looking at the blood on her hands you almost feel sorry for what Lara has been forced to become in her quest. At first a desire to complete her fathers work, and ends up with her becoming a monster to fight another much more dangerous creature.

How would I define a Tomb raider game? Well you have large enclosed rooms with platforms, somewhere in the room is an objective and you have to manipulate objects and work out a path to reach the objective before moving on to the next.

Lara has a few abilities, she can shoot at things using a variety of weapons, shotgun, pistols, machine gun. She can also use a grappling hook to swing from, wall run and pull objects with. She can also  climb on vertical columns, swim underwater, move crates and balls around, and finally perch on top of thin columns.

The environment is the puzzle for the most part, it is also hostile, falling too far, spikes from walls and floor, collapsing rope bridges, moving platforms and poles, huge indiana jones style rolling balls, flaming platforms and steam jets. crushing walls and ceilings, huge scythe like whirling blades. collapsing platforms.

Some platforms, poles and grapple hooks, lower or recede into the wall when you reach them  or run out of time making timing important. If you take too long you fall to your death or have to reset and try again.

Puzzles take the form of finding keys, missing cogs from machinery to repair a dam, shooting certain jewels in fresco's to open doors, moving water levels up and down to reach certain areas. On several occasions you are asked to insert three or four artifacts into an object to open access to the next area. There are a few places where there are little mini-game puzzles, involving rotating scarabs, turning pillars so that symbols match. These have a logic, or a handy guide located on the hieroglyphs nearby. Though there was one of them that I half got the idea of and managed to do only by trial and error.

In one room there is a good puzzle where you have to bring down pillars so that light reflections make a pyramid shape that shines on a lock and opens the door. For variety at one point you have control of a crane which you must use to make jumps possible and also to smash down a piece of the scenery to progress.  Another neat puzzle is one where a dopple ganger of Lara mirrors your actions in a symmetrical room. the problem is if you flip the switch to open the door she also flips the one that closes it. You have to use the environment to your advantage to take her out of the equation.

The puzzling in the game is balanced and logical for the most part, however maddeningly at time the developers use some dirty tricks. There are a few well hidden switches that really should be more obvious. I can see the developers quandary when it comes to making certain puzzles, some explanation should be given when the player is really struggling, a hint system that could be turned on or off even.

There is one particular puzzle that I am thinking about. You have a handhold and a path that is clearly visible as the right way to go, but you can't jump up to it as it's only a finger stretch out of Lara's reach. I spent ages trying to work out what to do. I eventually caved in an watched a you tube video walkthrough, where I learned that you have to swing on the grapple hook that swings you to that area twice or thrice increasing momentum which makes the jump achievable. There are other sections like this, in one area you cant seem to get into a room, it's easy you shoot out the glass window and you can easily get in, the only thing is there is no reason for you to suspect you can shoot out the glass, it's near the end of the game and the first time that glass has been seen, as there is a shortage of glass windows in most of the Tombs. It is just a new concept, and as such hard to make the logic leap to. The game needs a system, once a player has been wandering around aimlessly in an area for say half an hour that the game just displays a hint of what to do. Surely play testers give this sort of advice to the developers and they can add this to the areas where it's most needed.

Solutions just aren't always as  obvious as they should be, which is a problem with Tomb Raider as a game in general. You are presented with large rooms, with lots of interactive scenery, and most of the time the objective is unclear. To be fair the game does sometimes shows you a hint by showing you a view of where to go, but not always. You are simply presented with the ability to explore the area trying everything you can think of until you realize the objective and then work out how to get to it and achieve it. There were a few times during my playthrough of the game that I felt disenheartened by completing a huge area, moving on to the next and finding yet another huge challenege. I didn't feel this way with Tomb Raider Legend.

It seems to be a problem with my familiarity with the game. Having played and really enjoyed the original on Playstation one and PC, completing it on both. I was familiar with the story and my memory was jogged by most of the levels, which are certainly not exactly the same as the first game, but the settings are. At times I found myself wishing the game was a bit shorter. That might sound silly, by the time I finsished this game the savegame clock said that I had spent very nearly twenty hours with Lara. That is almost the same as My first playthrough of Mass Effect. It felt like twenty hours though, playing Mass effect I was ready for another twenty. Gta IV I spent forty hours on and lost track of time. I am not sure why I felt like this, maybe I shouldn't complain about a game being good value for money and a challenge. I just got weary with this one, maybe it was a case of deja vu that caused this, that is what I am going to pin it down to. If you haven't played the original take it as a glowing recommendation, that this game will take you nearly twenty hours to complete and is excellent value for money. Especially if you take the option of buying this as downloadable content for Tomb Raider Legend, which makes it much cheaper.

The enemies are there to add some variety and a use for your guns apart from the boss fights. They include bats, bears, wolves, raptors, rats, gorillas, crocodiles, cougars, mummy cat humans things and big mummified birds that shoot fire. The objects you have to find are keys to doors in all but name, though some are interesting, at one point you have to find lead bars and turn them into gold using a statue of Midas whose hand had the ability to turn anything to solid gold, including Lara if she is silly enough to land on it. 

A big questions that has always baffled me is why are these previously unexplored for thousands of year old tombs littered with guns, ammo and health. Surely it's time to let go of the old health bar and have Lara's health rebuild over time as long as no further damage is incurred. Also her pistol weapons have infinite ammo which is unrealistic, so why not have the other guns the same. I am aware that I want to swap one unrealistic feature for another here, but everyone I have ever spoken to about Tomb raider has mentioned the question of who leaves the ammo lying about, if there was a skeleton or decomposing corpse of a failed adventurer lying beside the ammo that would also be a good way of explaining the issue.

Thrown in for added value are quicktime events in the cut scenes. Something I never really like, especially when they get as complicated as guitar Hero on expert to complete, Spiderman III i am looking at you here.

There are also collectibles scattered in areas off the beaten path, which unlock concept art, outfits for Lara and also achievements.

At it's heart Tomb raider is a platform game, and it does it well, jumping around as Lara is a great experience, she is agile and strong, with her gymnastics. For anyone who loves the 3D platform genre, it's a must play. Be aware though, that there are some times when you scream at Lara and feel nothing but glee as she plummets to her doom and breaks every bone in her body in a sickeningly convincing thud. Her controls are excellent, just sometimes a little finicky as to which direction she will jump when swinging or hanging from things. The camera can be a pain in smaller area, especially when fighting monsters, one area near the end has targets you shoot which start time clock mechanisms, each time you shoot one for the first time two monsters are spawned, trying to get the lock on to choose the monsters and not the targets can be very hard when you are on a small ledge avoiding fire bolts.

The a.i. is very simple, the monsters basically run at you and attack, the shooting monsters shoot if you are at a certain distance otherwise they attack physically if you are close enough. At one point I saw two wolves running on the spot facing a wall, and shot them down, while they continued in the same locked animation. To be fair a.i. isn't a problem, this is a puzzle for your intelligence, not artificial.

There are four boss fights, all of them challenging, the first two especially. Dinosaurs, mythical beasts, all with good animation and a different strategy for beating them. The boss fights however are good examples of the lack on intuitiveness that the game displays.  The first two bosses both require certain actions that aren't made very clear, both require a lot of practice to get past on the hard difficulty setting. Expect to look up a FAQ for these bosses, which I feel is a failing, as you should be given enough of a clue to get through without needing a guide.

The bosses all require use of the enraging system. This means that as you shoot a creature it becomes enraged, as shown by a bar that goes up when you are locked onto it. Once the bar is full a sparkle comes from the creatures head and it will charge you, at one point in it's charge a button press shows on the screen, hit it right and the game goes into bullet time and two targets converge on the creatures head. Hit the fire button at the correct time and the monster will be killed outright or suffer massive damage. When two or more baddies are attacking this can be confusing a glitchy.

Level design has always been a triumph of Tomb Raider. Each area is a lovingly crafted puzzle box designed to look like an ancient tomb, Roman, greek, egyptian, peruvian, and the mythological Atlantean architecture are well designed. Mostly workmanlike, but occasionally breathtakingly beautiful. There are fourteen huge levels to work your way through.

Graphics aren't actually bad, though they don't push any technical envelopes at all. workmanlike and dependable, frame rate can vary when the amount of details changes when panning the camera, but it's never a noticeable slowdown problem when playing properly. The character models when seen in the in game engine cut scenes show their lack of polygons, Natla especially.

Sound is there, yes, some dramatic music when beasties leap out at you, some tinkly relaxing music at other times, which is needed as you scream and throw the controller when Lara misses a ledge you were sure you were going to be able to reach.

Checkpoints are employed well. There is an ability to save, but it only saves at the last checkpoint, not at any point in the game.

There were no places where checkpoints were too widely spaced. Someone has made a study of seeing where in the game you would get killed and has placed a checkpoint before each one, this must be applauded as there are a whole lot of frustrating jumps, and knowing that you will be placed only a few paces back after trying something stupid that might or might not pay off encourages you to experiment.

The front end is satisfactory, some clear, plainly written menus and some nice extras including artwork etc. All unlocked during in game exploits.

There were a few glitches that I noticed, at one point the game froze and when i switched off and rebooted the save game insisted I was about an hour further back that I was, the only option was to repeat about an hours work. Which probably took half the time when you know what you are doing.

There was one area where a box that was moveable sank into the floor leaving only the top of it showing, I could still drag it around the room, sunk deep into the concrete floor.

There were a few jumps which seemed to only work when the game was feeling in an especially good mood, one in particular which I did about ten times in an area i couldn't work out, and would only let Lara catch the ledge on one out of ten tries. maybe I was going the wrong way, but I knew it worked, and was the only way I could see back up out of the pit. There are also a few areas where Lara sunk into the floor to her knees.

I received 185 achievement points for completing the game on hard. The achievements I didn't get are for completing the levels and finding all artifacts, and without dying, also under a certain time. To get them all would require several passes through the game, as some of the artifacts are very well hidden and death is only a mistimed jump away. Rock hard achievements then, in a game I was wishing over after about halfway, looks like I will have to settle for my 185 points.

There is no multiplayer, and it's not needed. Co-op might be an idea for these types of game. Might be fun to have a friend work out the puzzles with you.

Scoring

Graphics 7

Gameplay 7

Story 8

Level Design 8

A.i. 5

Total Score 7.0

The Club Review

The premise behind the club is simple. An organization employs or blackmails 8 individuals with superior firearms and athletic ability to perform in an extreme murder sports league. The heroes are tasked with various goals in a series of filmed gunfight events for the entertainment of the ultra rich.

That's it, no real plot, just the tournament. It's really rather akin to a racing game, in that you have events and you are looking for the best score.

There are several introductions to the characters and the owner of the club. Also once the game is completed on tournament mode with each character you get another cut scene for each one showing more of their brief story.

The game is viewed from a third person perspective, there is no cover system. Though you can duck behind objects by pressing the left stick. You can zoom in for more precise aiming. Your character can vault over low objects and break through some barriers. Pressing Y turns your character 180 degrees which can be quite handy when fire comes from behind.

You can melee attack and throw grenades. The game is very much run and gun, with several of the events against the clock there is little time to stand still.

There are several ways of playing, however the intended first choice is tournament where you play through the game in a set way.

There are 8 locations, a steelworks, Venice, a prison, an ocean liner, a warehouse, a manor house, a bunker and a war-zone. In each of these locations there is a selection of eight events. There are 5 types of event siege, sprint, survivor, time attack and run the gauntlet.

Siege

This game-type sees you hemmed into a small area by markers, if you stray outside the markers for more than five seconds you explode thanks to explosives implanted in you. You basically have to shoot as many of the hordes of attackers as you can and survive for the length of time specified.

Sprint

You have to go from point A to point B as quickly and as efficiently as you can, you are given marks on time taken, amount of bullets used, head-shots etc.

Survivor

Much like Siege only with a larger area.

Time Attack

This game-type has an area marked off like a track and you have to complete a set number of laps without dying or running out of time. Time can be gained by shooting enemies or little signs placed around the level.

Run the Gauntlet

Very like sprint except this one is against the clock as well.

So, basically, instead of the usual eight levels strung together and the player working their way through them. You have 5 event types in each area. Some events reuse parts of the location, others don't, think of the locations like small sandbox levels with each event fencing off or laying down chalk marks to denote the area for each event.

Personally I found the sprint levels to be the best for my playing style. I tend to spray and pray a little and the basic getting from one end of the level to the other felt right. The survivor and siege sections were averagely tolerable.

The time attack and run the gauntlet spoiled the game for me. Running out of time was a real pain. Yes there is a lot of skill involved and perversely taking your time on the time attack and shooting each and every enemy and time sign works best. It's just that on the hard difficulty the time limits are very very tight.

The actual difficulty of the game isn't that hard. I know I could have breezed it, however I was forced to go to the normal and ultimately the easy setting for the last location time attack. 

The problem is compounded by the fact that you get five goes at each event before being sent back to the start of the tournament. For example you have to complete 7 events to find that the last event in the tournament for a location is time attack. You then fail that time attack five times and are dumped at the menu. Where to get back to the time attack you have to do seven events that you have already completed again. I hated time attack, really really hated it to the point i considered stopping playing this game.

Playing with different characters is slightly different, with some being slow damage sponges and others faster. There is little to distinguish all 8 of them however other than their looks. Like the difference between fine wines some people it will just be lost on, and I was one of them.

There are various collectibles like health and ammo, also the signs to shoot for time a score.

I can't help but wonder if this game would have grabbed me better if it had been presented in the normal fashion. Having a story with all eight levels strung together is a semblance of plot.

I understand the idea here. Bizarre creations have taken the menu system from Project Gotham racing and implemented it into a shooter. Bringing  the Kudos system with it for luck.

You are playing for score, to see your name on the leader board. I imagine people playing these events over and over again so they can run faster than seems possible through the levels killing each enemy with a single headshot and hitting each hidden sign. Ranking up huge scores and sitting at number one on the leader board to the envy of their friends. Just like a racer, practice makes perfect.

It's innovative, even if the game itself isn't, I have to give them that. I don't like it though. Against the clock gaming now goes down in my pet hates list.

I managed to complete the tournament technically finishing the game, but this is a game you can never really finish until you have the highest score.

The a.i. is satisfactory, it takes cover and runs at you. Nothing innovative there. There are no boss fights at all. The levels are video game cliches from every other shooter out there and there is only really corridor level design shown. 

Graphics are average, good frame rate, though nothing that taxing anyway. Sound, what can I say, it has some. There are no checkpoints or save system as they aren't needed due to the short event style structure. Menus are instantly familiar to players of PGR, everything seems clear enough.

I played the game for roughly six hours, around three of those were too long. I only got 360 achievement points, I felt cheated I should have got the whole 1000 for the amount of frustration that time attack caused me.

The multiplayer I gave a try and it seemed to be still populated, and not actually that bad in an old school way. No ranks or xp points to nerd over here.

I actually wanted to snap the game disc a few times, not a good thing really. Though what that says about me is about as much as it says about the game. I hated it, it pushed my buttons in all the wrong ways. What I think is so stinging is that the sprint events were really good fun. I liked them a lot. The game could have been good, as it is for me it's something I wish I had never bought.

This must be tempered though as for the person that enjoys playing a game with style and grace it might just be a perfect fit and deserve a higher score. The score it gets here would be upgrades to the 6.0 area if there were no time attack events. Even so the content here is slim pickings and experienced shooter experts can expect less than the six hours I spent with the game.

In short flawed and too short, a real missed opportunity.

Scoring

Graphics 7

Gameplay 5

Story 0

Level Design 5

A.i. 5

Total 4.4

Battlefield: Bad Company Review

Preston Marlowe has been a naughty boy, instead of being court marshaled he is transferred into Bad company. Landing at the base he meets Sarge Redfield along with Sweetwater and Haggard. Bad company it turns out is a place for the rejects and nutjobs. The army hopes they will all get blown to bits and hence solve the problem. Sometimes though the nutjobs actually do a good job, even if they destroy half the country in the process. The four guys spend most of the time alone directed by a female radio operator that Sweetwater has a thing for.

In the wreckage of the first mission the boys discover a mercenaries body and a bar of gold. This sets in motion a chain of events that sees the boys trying for a little private financial enterprise inside their objectives from the Army. However, once the scent of a truckload of gold is sniffed they go awol looking for the gold. By the end of the game we see them invading a neutral country all on their own, getting in tow with an insane dictator and taking apart half of Eastern Europe to get their hands on the mercenary gold. there are many twists and turns, and the hero's go from being official sanctioned warriors to awol terrorists, to being back into the fold, but unofficially, if they are caught then the army will deny all knowledge.

Sweetwater and Haggard are the stars of the show however. The pair of them are huge stereotypes, but they are funny. Sweetwater is a geeky nerd and Haggard an explosion loving idiot redneck. His antics nearly get you all killed too many times to mention. The best one I remember is when he fills a helicopter with fuel in the wrong nozzle, necessitating Sweetwater to clean it out before you can escape the enemy army that is descending onto your position. The one liners and dialogue that Haggard especially comes up with are very entertaining. What is essentially a generic and cliched dull first person shooter story-line is made one hundred percent better by the use of comedy. Who would have thought it would work, I for one enjoyed the characters and dialogue in this game immensely.

Bad company is the latest in a series of games which take the normal FPS gameplay into large free roaming maps, giving you vehicles to traverse the distances.

You start with a quick tutorial to explain weapons and controls and introduce the drill which restores the health of vehicles.

One of the things you realize early on is that there is no real penalty for death in this game. There is a finite amount of enemies in the areas and when you die the only inconvenience is that you might re-spawn at some distance from where you died. There is no amount of lives as in similar games like Frontlines fuel of war. This leads to what I am going to term the Bioshock syndrome.

Remember in Bioshock, if you died you simple re-spawned at the nearest chamber. The damage done to the enemies stayed the same. You could go through the entire game with the wrench bashing the big daddies to death. It would take you about a hundred respwans per big daddy, but it was possible. There is simply not enough punishment for sloppy play. You can run around in the open getting shot to hell without fear. Simply shoot one guy, come back again a few seconds later and kill another, there is no incentive other than personal pride in taking out a hundred enemies before dying or taking out one. This really means that the game will be finish-able by everyone irrespective of their skill. To be fair in one or two areas you do fail and have to restart from the last checkpoint if you loose a mission specific object like a helicopter that is needed for progression.

There is the, now obligatory, arsenal of similar weapons, of course there are shotguns and sniper rifles and assault rifles. You can call down air-strikes, mortar strikes and put down c4 charges. grenades and grenade launchers etc. The vehicles are varied, jeeps, tanks, apc's, golf buggies, helicopters, dinghies. All control well and allow you to switch seats and use guns or drive. Thankfully the a.i. characters don't drive.

The a.i. characters have the usual appearance of doing some shooting but never really seem to be getting anywhere unless you do it all for them. Which is I suppose as it should be. Grenades i must comment on as although they do seem to blow up buildings etc. they don't seem to kill soldiers as easily as you would expect. Although an exploding barrel seems to take out more than it should.

Missions are fairly basic, you start at one point and must get to another, then new objectives until the end of the level. Examples of what you are asked to do include, blowing up a cast of thousands of objects including tanks, artillery emplacements, fuel dumps, radar installations, missile launchers, radio equipment, antenna boxes, anti-aircraft guns, a small town, bridges, and a silo. In addition to these missions you have protecting convoys, storming locations like a palace, harbor, monastery and armory. You get separated, reunited, have to save people.

There are some on rails sequences where you ride shotgun on tanks and jeeps etc driven by others. Some stand out missions include driving a fuel laden truck around a battlefield, which is like driving a bomb. There is also a mission where you have to take down a helicopter after running the gauntlet along a railway line with a crashed train littering the way.

You can blow most walls down, though the structure of buildings can't be broken. However, you can leave them as shells, which means cover for the bad guys is a thing of the past.

There are gold bars and weapons littered around the maps to make you explore for collectables.

The health system employs the age old chestnut of a number counting down with damage from 100 percent. The gimmick here is that you carry a hypodermic that restores full health without you having to search out health packs. You can take damage as much as you want as long as you get out of the way of fire and use the hypodermic. Which is controlled with a flick of a button and a trigger press. This is slightly more sane as a game mechanic than just taking cover and recovering from bullet wounds, though only just.

The checkpoints usually come when an objective is reached. Ammo is freely available from enemies dropped guns and crates littered around the maps. 

The a.i. is standard, there is nothing really to praise here. I doubt the a.i. code has been touched since the first battlefield. If it has been, and i am sure it has then it escaped my attention. They use cover, sprinkled with running at you. They don't seem to go into cover just spawn there. This isn't a criticism of Battlefield rather than most FPS games. Compared to Rainbow six Vegas the a.i. needs work.

No bosses as such just storming heavily guarded areas to get to objectives. The helicopter at the end of the game could be classed as a boss battle i suppose.

There are seven single player maps which are huge with realistic looking countryside and buildings. The golf course level stands out for sheer originality, a tank on the fairway should have golf-course keepers throwing a stroke.

Graphics are excellent, especially detailed are the characters, Preston's polygon count easily tallies that of Snake in MGS4, his armor having similar texture style. The frostbite engine looks to have a bright future, with little frame rate drop even when you take the helicopter to it's highest altitude. The graphics are above average, on a par with Call of Duty 4, maybe if the size of the maps are taken into account actually a bit better.

Sound is acceptable with some nice oddball goofy music choices when you are in vehicles and can hear the radio.

After playing through the game on hard i was awarded 415 achievement points. Which is I suppose acceptable for a game with such a large multiplayer focus. The biggest complaint here is that you don't unlock the easy and medium level achievements which cheats you out of 120 points you should have got for playing through on hard. To all developers, never do this, it is a real turn off. If I want to play your game three times I will, making me do it for achievement points you should get for going through on hard the first time won't do it. That said though I will play through this game again.

I don't play enough multiplayer to really review the multiplayer portion of this game properly, so I won't, suffice to say it has it's fans and I am sure it is very enjoyable for it's fans. I simply put don't really rate multiplayer unless it's co-op. Co-op should have been included here in the single player game.

I only saw one glitch, which occured when a tank got stuck under a bridge. the problem was blowing up that tank was a mission objective. I was lost and waiting to be told how to progress, I eventually found the stuck tank and blew it up and the game carried on as normal. I have to say that is the only isolated glitch that i encountered.

Scoring

Graphics 8

Gameplay 8

Story 8

Level Design 8

A.i. 5

Total score 7.4

Army of Two Review

At first I thought this game was going to have little to no story whatsoever. The player is thrown into the action with little introduction. From what I had heard of the game before playing it I wasn't expecting a huge story either. I was surprised to find a rather intriguing story.

The game follows the fortunes of two Soldiers Rios and Salem. At the beginning of the game they are soldiers in the US army. Tired of following orders that get them into situations rather more deadly than they would like they take an offer from a man called Dalton to join a private security company called SSC. During this first mission the player is introduced to Clyde, another mercenary who is in charge of the mission. From the off the two heros are given cause to hate the very deadly and arrogant Clyde.

The heroes come into good fortune through misfortune, the war on terror in full swing gives SSC plenty of work. As the story progresses Our heroes find themselves uncovering a huge plot which will affect the entire US army. Having discovered the plot the Heroes are duped and framed for a murder of a prominent Senator. This leaves them on the run and having to decide wether to vanish with their fortune or do the right thing and go back and take down the plotters.

The story is told in cut scenes and also plays out to a certain extent in the actual game itself which is to be applauded.

The debate opened up here about the ultimate aims of a company that profits from human misery is actually very deep for a shooter. I wasn't expecting it at all. The tone is a little off however, Rios and Salem seem a little unlikely as guys who would do the right thing. With their Gears of War style grunt look, that suggest more muscle than nervous tissue. 

Army of two uses a third person perspective. There is no stick to cover mechanism which makes it feel more like a run and gun game than Gears of War. There is plenty of cover, and you can duck behind it pretty easily, there is just less incentive to do so than say in Gears or Uncharted.

The title of the game is Army of Two and it does make a big play on just that, the game is meant to be played with two co-op players or with the games a.i. partner.  There are a whole host of what feel like shoehorned mechanics to emphasize the two person motif.

The first is an aggro meter which basically goes up the more you aggravate the enemies. If both players shoot at the same time then it stays the same. If one player shoots and the other does not then the non-firing player will change color to blue and the shooting player turns red. Not entirely, just a translucent tinge. This means that the a.i. will practically ignore the cool player and concentrate on the hot player. This can be used to tactical advantage to sneak up on emplaced guns and flank enemy positions. It becomes a necessity to use when playing with the a.i. partner.

Secondly there is a mechanic where the two players stand back to back and everything goes into bullet time and enemies come from all around. These sections trigger by themselves at set points in the game, and while fun don't really add that much to the game.

There is also certain moments in the game where two guards can be taken out simultaneously by sniping at the same time. When co-op snipe is initiated both players choose a target and headshot them together. This means that the alarm isn't raised and less enemies attack you in the next section.

There are larger armored soldiers who are only vulnerable to bullets hitting them in the back, which means that one player must attack them from the front to draw their fire while the other flanks them.

There are also areas of the map where both players have to press buttons to simultaneously lift heavy objects together and use each other to vault up to high areas.

Ultimately all these gameplay mechanics feel tacked onto the gears of war style maps. There are a succession of mostly open areas where a set number of enemies reside and you must kill them all or most of them to proceed. There is even a familiar for whom the bell tolls sound when all enemies have been killed in an area.

There are what seems like little airlocks, which are really to hide the joins between two levels loading.

Weapons are bought from between level menus with cash you accquire for completing missions and in game objectives. There are a few objectives that are optional in each mission, such as destroying a certain truck or person. Also there are collectible laptops and suitcases with intelligence which is paid for by the SSC if collected.

There are a few times when you are parachuted into an area, sometimes you drive the chute, other times you shoot at enemies from the chute, both of you are tied to the same chute.

On a few occasions you rescue a person and have to carry them out of the area. They can be picked up and put down while you clear the area of enemies.

If one player is killed then they fall to the ground wounded, the other player then has about thirty seconds to come and administer first aid. If this is done then it's back to the fighting otherwise it's back to the last checkpoint. This is fine when playing with a friend, when playing with the a.i. partner it can be a lesson in frustration.

On one occasion i died at the edge of a map behind a large crate, the a.i. circled three sides of the crate, but was unable to get to my position to save me. That is an extreme example which happened only once, however, there are many times when you scream in frustration at poor decisions the a.i. partner makes when hauling you to cover to heal you.

You also have to save the a.i. if it gets killed. You have several commands to give it however, you can make it move forward aggressively, hold position passively or follow you like a lap dog. This give you the option to allow it too attack aggressively but also keep an eye on it's health and order it to retreat to safety when it's getting pounded.

There is a section where you get to drive a hovercraft, which is fun, though it does feel a little tacked on and feels very like the similar section in Perfect Dark Zero. Also there is an on rails section in a monorail car.

The a.i. in this game takes a target and sticks it to it's head. Having both enemy a.i. and partner a.i. The enemy a.i. is pretty standard, they take cover, use gun emplacement, run at you shooting when you get too close. Nothing new, and fairly effective in large numbers. They make no effort to flank your position or anything clever.

The partner a.i. is actually reasonably good. Though I have to qualify that it is once you learn to allow it to fight and then reign it back when it's taking too much damage. Once you have that balance and really learn how to control it then it does a good job. It will annoy you and if you want a good experience from Army of Two then play it online with a real human partner.

Enemies are a variety of soldiers, and armored soliders. There are enough character models to provide variety, but you will know all the models well by the time the game is over. There are also some exploding enemies, which is a personal hate of mine, in the form of arabs with bombs strapped to them.

Boss fights are present in that in most missions there is a certain person that has to be stopped. When you meet up with them they have more health than the normal soldiers but they don't really do that much different other than having bigger guns than the usual soldiers.

The game does have some nice environments. With the story ranging around several countries including Iraq, Somalia, China and Hurricane torn Florida. There is a rather good shoot out on the deck of an aircraft carrier which was well designed. The levels all felt fairly accurate to the real world. There were some areas which felt like box rooms joined by endless corridor. But for the most part the levels felt like areas modeled on real world locations. 

Graphics are good, there is little frame rate drop and everything seems to be running at around 30 frames a second for the most part. The game uses unreal engine. It's not doing anything new or pushing new boundaries, but it isn't doing anything wrong either.

Sound is satisfactory, Music and effects are as you would expect from a shooter. 

The checkpoints are for the most part excellent, you do only have one save slot which is really not the best option. The checkpoints are sometimes a little unfair around the later levels but not that annoying.

I found the menus functional and clear, however when starting a game the most common options should be under the gamers fingers. You shouldn't have to scroll through menus to start the game at the last checkpoint you played from. If you weren't paying attention it could be easy to start a new game rather than start at the last checkpoint, its an unnecessary frustration. And one save slot is a stupid idea really.

I came away with 340 points over 5 days play, playing a couple of hours each day. I played on the contractor difficulty which is the highest you can play on without completing the game to unlock the hardest difficulty. The remaining achievements are for shooting a certain number of people with each gun or  using melee attacks. Also whilst at the highest aggro level. In short they would need a little bit of effort spent on each one to target a specific weapon and use it until the achievement pops up. There are also multiplayer achievements.

Multiplayer is present for those who are interested, It took too long to find a game suggesting that the multiplayer isn't the busiest. Co-op is fun if you have any friends that are playing it, or like talking to strangers for 10 hours.

Scoring

Graphics 7

Gameplay 8

Story 8

Level Design 8

A.i. 8

Total 7.8