Review - Mars: War Logs

Mars: War Logs

Focus Home Interactive

Windows (reviewed), PSN & XBLA TBA 2013

Action-Adventure, RPG

April 26, 2013

The Preamble

Mars: War Logs came out of nowhere for me. I woke up on Saturday morning and it was looking me in the face on the front page of the Steam store. After watching the trailer and getting a sweet, cyberpunk, Riddick/Witcher vibe, I was pretty much sold, especially for the very reasonable price of $19.99.

I breezed through the game in six days, spending about 15 hours in game. While Mars: War Logs is certainly no game of the year, it was a fantastic surprise to get a character and story driven action RPG like this out of the blue.

The Overview

Mars: War Logs is set in a futuristic, cyberpunk Mars, rife with conflict between warring water corporations, fighting to take control of the most precious resource on the red planet. 

Thrust into the middle of this is you, Roy Temperance, a mysterious multi-talented badass that is stuck in a POW camp while two of the biggest corporations, Aurora and Abundance, duke it out to see who will control the future of the planet.

Mr. Roy Temperance.

You'll get the full action RPG experience with Mars: War Logs, including many companion characters to meet and fight with, meaningful moral decisions to make in dialogue, a plethora of side quests, three unique skill trees, tactical combat, armor and weapon customization, and crafting. You get the full package!

The Good

• Escape missions are badass. I loved The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and the first third of this game brings back that feeling of suspenseful escape in a big way.
• Original setting and story. Okay, it's Mars, which doesn't seem very original on the surface, but the world is surprisingly well imagined. It's steeped in a good deal of lore that you can read through as you explore the world, giving you a great sense of the conflict at hand, and how these water corporations have come to power and shaped the Mars that you inhabit in the game.

Yes, there are massive, multi-mouthed sand beasts to fight.

• RPG elements. Good RPG elements can make or break a game like this and thankfully with Mars: War Logs, they're great. There are three distinct skill trees, a decent crafting/upgrade system, lots of material gathering, tons of side quest content, and a great deal of dialogue mixed with moralistic decision making for the player. It's sort of a mix between The Witcher/Witcher 2 and Mass Effect in regards to RPG elements.

• Interface. So many great games screw this up. The Witcher 2 and Far Cry 3 are just two recent examples; countless others have detrimental, non-intuitive, cluttered user interfaces. Mars: War Logs does not! Fast navigation, intuitive design, cohesive layout... I was immensely impressed with the interface in this game. 

Everyone knows copper pipes are the best.

• Combat. It's a blast. Rigging copper pipes with razor blades and leather grips, then dodging and dancing your way to victory using tactical melee combat techniques is awesome. It feels a little rigid at times (see below), but overall I really dug the combat all through the game until the credits rolled. It's very Witcher 2 like, again with a mix of Riddick in there.

The Bad

• Voice acting. It's baaaaaaaaaaad. Really, really bad. I don't know what these people were doing, or if they have reading problems, or what. The intonations are almost always completely off and lines are misspoken on a regular basis.

• Combat targeting. While combat is good overall, there's definitely some wonkiness to it. Targeting is sort of a pain to manage because of the control scheme, and this results in some minor frustration, especially in harder difficulties.
• Mars: War Logs?? WTF kind of title is that for a game? It sounds horrible when saying it out loud. This has nothing to do with the quality of the game, but come on, that title sounds like shit... literally.

Maybe lumber is a popular resource on Mars? I don't know...

The Verdict

For a $20 dollar game that had absolutely zero marketing and seems to have come from a smaller development budget, I think this game does a lot of things right. Sure, it has it's problems, but I think if you're looking for an action RPG with a fresh and new setting/story, solid gameplay mechanics, and a nice price tag, I'd highly recommend giving Mars: War Logs a go. 

Review - Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3

Ubisoft Montreal

Dunia Engine 2

Windows (reviewed), XBOX 360, PS3

FPS, Action-Adventure, RPG

December 4, 2012

The Preamble

I’d never played a Far Cry title before Far Cry 3, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I knew the gist of it: Open world, tropical island setting, first person shooter. Far Cry 3 is certainly all of these things, but it’s also so much more...

The Overview

You play as Jason Brody, stereotypical rich frat boy who’s out vacationing in Southeast Asia somewhere with a bunch of friends. After taking a skydiving trip and landing on seemingly deserted island, the vacation comes to an end when a band of pirates kidnaps the group and holds them hostage. You manage to escape, but your buddies aren’t as fortunate, some are killed, and some are whisked away to other parts of the island. With the help of the local natives, you unlock your Rakyat powers, which give you the strength to defeat the pirates and rescue your friends.

The Good

• The open world aspect of the game is really well done. It achieves the feeling of being able to go anywhere, and supplies you with two giant islands to explore. While I feel like there could have been some improvements in the exploration rewards (see The Bad), the ability to tackle situations in the game from any angle you can imagine is really satisfying and adds a nice diversity to the plethora of enemy outposts that you can take over throughout the game.
  
  
  

  

  I can't even fit everything on the screen!

• Hunting! I don’t think I’ve come across a game that makes hunting as amusing as it is in Far Cry 3. Red Dead Redemption makes a pretty good attempt, and the hunting/skinning/crafting system is very similar but far more satisfying in FC3. I think the key here is that you, as the player, not only are hunting animals but you also feel hunted as you venture throughout the jungle. The first time I came across a stream out in the middle of the jungle, I stopped to gawk at the beautiful water and all of a sudden, a massive crocodile jumps out of the water and takes me down to the ground. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The developers do a great job of making you feel genuinely threatened and vulnerable while wandering the jungle; you never know what’s going to jump out at you.
  

  

  Oftentimes you'll see your enemies get taken down by wildlife as well.

• Crafting! What are you going to do with all those animal carcasses and skins? Craft stuff of course! There’s a pretty robust crafting system in the game that requires you to hunt animals and gather herbs in order to make inventory bags, ammo pouches, healing potions, etc. While I hated the interface, the system itself was well designed, and compelled you to go hunt more than you probably would otherwise.
• The game is beautiful. Like BioShock Infinite and Skyrim, I was constantly stopping to just enjoy the sights, taking screenshots left and right. The game uses the Dunia 2 Engine, an evolved form of the engine used for Far Cry 2, and it is really, really nice. This is one of those games where if you have a powerful machine, it pays off.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• The FPS combat mechanics, while not doing anything especially different, are solid and fun. The wide array of weaponry at your disposal and cool stealth-melee attacks that you can put skill points into are extremely satisfying to utilize.
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
• Yet another FPS that employs some RPG elements that are actually quite good! This makes the game almost feel a little Skyrim-ish. There are 3 skill trees, each having its own theme. It’s not terribly important which one you decide on first as you will get more than enough points to get nearly every skill, especially if you’re going the completionist route. But the choices are nice, and they provide a nice sense of progression as you play through the main story.
• Insane antagonist. I could take or leave most of the characters in Far Cry 3, but the antagonist, Vaas, is really well done. He’s got sort of a Tuco vibe, making him extremely unpredictable, and downright frightening to encounter. The times where I was face to face with Vaas are some of the most memorable times in the game.
  
  

• The story is actually pretty good. It’s not great, I’ll admit, but the voice acting is on point, and while there is a fair amount of supernatural mumbo jumbo involved in Jason’s acquisition of strength, you get a pretty good feel for the character developing and getting used to the situation that he’s been thrust into. It was good enough to keep me compelled until the end, and I think most people would feel the same way.
  

  The Bad
• I wish the loot crates that are all over the islands had some useful stuff in them. Instead, you get money and vendor trash to acquire more money. Never any crafting material, weapons, nothing. Hunting for loot is a big draw of exploring for me, so without this, I was less inclined to explore after a while.
• The UI is clunky and obnoxious, at least on the PC. It really doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the game too much, but it was a minor annoyance for me.
  
  

The Verdict

This is a great game that I would highly recommend to any FPS-RPG fan. Diversified, fun FPS combat, tons of exploration, RPG skill progression, beautiful setting, fairly compelling story; I would go as far as to say that this game comes close to being perfect. I'll be looking forward to seeing the next game in the series!

The Extras

Here are some videos of various gameplay from my playthrough. Mostly just messing around, but it will give you a good idea of what to expect from the game.

Review - BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite

Irrational Games

Unreal Engine 3

Windows, OS X, XBOX 360, PS3

FPS, RPG

March 26, 2013

The Preamble

We’ve been waiting (not so patiently) for this game since Irrational Games officially announced it back in August 2010. After numerous heartbreaking release day push-backs, the day has finally arrived that we can feast our eyes on the beautiful vision from Ken Levine that is BioShock Infinite.

In the line of System Shock and BioShock games, I’ve only played one, and that is the original BioShock. Ken Levine was involved with the development of the System Shock and the BioShock games are supposedly heavily influenced by these games. BioShock 2 wasn’t developed by Irrational so I was ultimately too skeptical to give it a go.

I absolutely adored BioShock; I would say it’s one of my favorite FPS/RPG games of all time and therefore I've had high hopes for BioShock Infinite since the moment I heard of its development. I'm pleased to announce that it does not dissapoint!

The Overview

BioShock Infinite is the third installment in the BioShock series. You play as Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent who is trying to find a young woman, Elizabeth, in a floating city called Columbia. Similar to Rapture (from BioShock), Columbia is a dystopia, rife with racism, jingoism, and xenophobia. As you make your way through the city to find Elizabeth, you unravel the mystery of how the city came to be, what the ultimate plan of the main antagonist and leader of Columbia, Father Zachary Hale Comstock is up to, and ultimately, how you fit into the puzzle.

Like the original BioShock, BioShock Infinite focuses strongly on story and world building while keeping solid first person shooter based gameplay mechanics with a nice mix of RPG elements.

The Good

• The world is incredibly rich, with loads of detail and polish. You can tell that the extra time we waited for this game was put to good use. Massive set pieces, building exteriors, building interiors, skylines, sound, color palette; all of these work together perfectly to deliver a living, breathing world to your eyeballs and ear holes.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• One of the most creative and original storys I’ve seen in a video game. The original Bioshock stood out for it’s unique, creepy, and immersive story and Infinite does a great job of carrying the torch. There are tons of audio logs to find that illuminate the world and characters beyond the main storyline, in addition to random easter eggs throughout the game that are truly magical to discover.
  

  
  

  

  
  
• Characters that you care about. Booker, Elizabeth, Comstock, the Luteces; everyone is wonderfully voiced and written. You start out knowing nothing about Booker and his back-story, and throughout the game grow to really relate to him and understand him. Elizabeth has a great progression throughout the game, and the co-op interaction you have with her is nothing but positive.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• Enemies are incredibly creative and badass. This was much the case in BioShock as well, but Infinite is even better. The Handymen and Motorized Patriots, in particular, have great character models and are extremely intense to fight.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• It’s rare for games with a strong story to also have great gameplay mechanics, but Infinite pulls it off. With the addition of roller-coaster-like skylines to hop around, and “tears” that can be opened to bring in interactive items via Elizabeth, Infinite is far from being a cookie cutter FPS experience.
  

  
  

  

  
  
• Like the first BioShock, Infinite melds a number of RPG elements into it’s shooter mechanics. There are a variety of guns to play with, and if you thoroughly explore each area, there's a ton of gear that you can find to give you perks in various areas of combat and maneuverability. Vigors (the new Plasmids) can also be upgraded to give enhanced effects. These elements give the player a significant choice in how they play the game as well as provide a nice degree of replayability.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• While I haven’t tried 1999 mode, Infinite still provides a significant challenge in Hard mode. I’m not a huge fan of the ‘checkpoint’ system (see below), but the no-quicksave makes for a more intense, and ultimately more challenging experience.

The Bad

• Checkpoints vs. Save anywhere. It makes sense for some games, and while they made it fit pretty well in BioShock Infinite, I still would have much preferred a ‘save anywhere’ system, like in the original BioShock.
• While there is exploration in the game, it still feels sort of linear. This is coming from someone who's been obsessed with open world games lately, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit confined while playing Infinite.
  
  

The Verdict

If you enjoy video games as an entertainment medium, and are interested in seeing a divine example of how video games can be art, as well as entertainment, this is maybe the best game you could choose to play. I can’t recommend this enough!

The Extras

This is very early in the game, so don't worry about spoilers. This is just the first 6 minutes of my time in Columbia. You can tell I was in awe when I first started looking around... (sorry for the shabby sound, I'm working on it)

Early Impressions - Defiance

Defiance

Trion Worlds

Windows, XBOX 360, PS3

MMO, Third Person Shooter, RPG

April 2, 2013

The Preamble

It happened again... The MMO itch. Everytime I quit playing an MMO I tell myself I will never play another one again. Silly, silly, Thomp. I ought to know better by now.

At any rate, the itch has been lingering for the last several weeks. I’ve been fighting it off with moderate success, playing the closed beta of Marvel Heroes when I can to subvert the voice in my brain telling me to pick up a real MMO.

Well, the voice won. I picked up Defiance on Tuesday evening.

I thought I'd give a cursory overview of my thoughts so far. I’ve really only scratched the surface of the game, having not even tried the co-op missions or battleground-like PvP.

I’ve sunk about 5 hours into the game so far and while I have some gripes, I’ll definitely be continuing on this adventure through Defiance.

The Overview

For those who aren’t keeping their ear to the ground in the MMO space (I don't blame you), Defiance is a recently released MMOTPS (massively multiplayer online third person shooter) developed by Trion Worlds (creator of Rift). Money wise, Defiance uses the Guild Wars model of paying full price up front for the game and then letting you play it forever without any monthly fees. There is a micro-transcaction store (again, like GW/GW2) but the items you buy are almost exclusively cosmetic, so it’s reasonable.

The game is set in a post-terraformed San Francisco Bay area, several decades in the future. A number of alien races have come to Earth to make a new home for themselves, not realizing that the planet was already inhabited. This led to a war (what a shocker), but a war that has a semi-peaceful ending, leaving a large population of humans and aliens that become allies and attempt to live together in harmony.

You, the player, join in the story as an Ark Hunter about 20 years after the reconciliation. You crash land in the Bay Area with a mission to search out advanced alien technologies found in Arks that are scattered around the area (as well as crashing around the world map at random places and times).

The unique thing about this game is that the game world and characters tie into an upcoming SyFy television series entitled (you guessed it) Defiance. Supposedly, things that occur in the show will affect the game world, and events that occur in the game have the potential to make a difference in the show. I think this is the first time a multi-medium experience has been presented in this way, so it should be very interesting to see how things pan out. The show premieres April 15, 2013, on SyFy channel.

Nolan and Irisa (main characters from the TV show) taking a rest at a local watering hole. 

The Good

• Multiplatform! Defiance was released on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, and while it’s not cross-platform (PC players can’t play with console players), it’s a step in the right direction. This doesn’t affect me too much as a PC gamer, but I’m happy to see MMOs moving toward the console space. There are very few MMOs on consoles, so props to Trion for widening their horizons and releasing this on some other platforms.
• Episodic missions. There are quest (mission?) lines that intersect directly with the show’s storyline and characters. It’s hard to say exactly how this will work, but it looks like more of these missions will open up as the series goes on. This is yet another cool and unique aspect to the television tie-in mechanic.
  

  
  

  
  
• An MMO that requires some skill! You’re not going to find yourself spamming frostbolts on auto-targeted enemies like in most traditional MMOs. You’ll have to actively fight and dodge attacks in real time, and while the AI isn’t great, the game poses a significant challenge to players, especially when solo’ing.
  

  
  

  
  
• Tons of dynamic content. Rift was one of the early adopters of this mechanic (Guild Wars 2 also employs it), and it’s definitely prevalent in Defiance. Arkfall events are occurring all the time, letting you team up with a ton of people and fend off a small alien invasion, resulting in a good deal of XP, gear, and fun! Also, as you run around doing the plethora of side quests and challenges, there are all sorts of small dynamic events that you can take on in a solo or duo group that provide a good deal of XP and fun. (See Extras for extended Arkfall video.)
• Early vehicle access! Just wanted to note this, as I personally hate the grind to get a mount. Defiance throws one at you free of charge when you’re about an hour into the game. Bravo Trion!

The Not So Good

• The AI is bad. This is a weird criticism for an MMO since mob AI is almost always terrible, but it seems somehow more apparent in a shooter setting as opposed to RPG.
• The interface is awful. I guess the problem with bringing an MMO to consoles is that you have to dumb down the UI to the point of being able to use it with a controller. As a result, it’s pretty horrible for PC players. On top of this, Trion does a terrible job of explaining the damn thing. I did a lot of fumbling around and googling before I felt comfortable with it, and even now, it’s only tolerable.
  

  
  

  

  That's right, no dragging and dropping.

  
  

  

  The dreaded wheel. This is the sort of thing I hate about console-ifying interfaces. 

  
  
• I’ve never played an MMO where the chat channels are so vacant of discussion. It’s so weird, I don’t think I’ve seen a single line of text in chat since I started playing the game. I don’t know what the deal is, but it makes it extremely difficult to group up with people.

The Verdict (sort of) 

Massively multiplayer online games are unique beasts in that they each have their own evolutionary paths. Defiance adds the television tie-in element, which will bring about a new evolutionary track for the game world that other MMOs haven’t explored yet. I guess what I'm getting at is, the game has barely been out for a week. There's a lot up in the air right now.

It's really impossible to come to a verdict for an MMO so early, especially after only 5 hours of gameplay (a piddly amount for an MMO). What I can say is that I have some gripes, but overall, I'm very enthusiastic about this game and I'm looking forward to exploring and uncovering more of what Defiance has to offer.

There are many things I have yet to explore:

• PvP
• Co-op missions
• End game content
• Significance of TV show tie-in (the show hasn’t even started yet!)

I’ll be sure to post again with more details about the bullet points I’ve mentioned above, as well as the general state of the game as time goes on.

For now though, I think that if you like shooters, especially in the vein of Borderlands, and you're fond of MMOs (you know you feel that itch!), then I'd recommend picking this up. It should be an interesting experience playing the game along with the screenings of the show.

The Extras

Here's a longer look at what sort of dynamic content you can encounter in Defiance. I'm on my way to an Arkfall event, and find an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road that turns into a mini-event. Anyway, it's not a lot, but gives you some idea of what you can expect to see in the game.

Quick Review - The Witcher 2

A Quick Review of...

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

CD Projekt Red

REDengine

Windows, OS X, XBOX 360

Action, RPG, Hack-n-slash

May 17, 2011

Preamble

So I picked up The Witcher on GOG.com in early 2011 as a result of seeing some early gameplay footage of The Witcher 2, and being blown away from what I saw. With The Witcher, I was greeted with an unexpectedly immersive and adult oriented RPG with its main drawback being mediocre combat mechanics. But it hooked me. The story, characters, setting; all of it sucked me in and made me care about the world.

Despite my satisfaction with The Witcher, I didn't get around to playing the sequel until now. It was one of those games that sat in the backlog, and every time I thought about playing it, I came up with some excuse to justify not starting quite yet. I'm quite disappointed with myself for putting it off this long, but better late than never, right?

With recent news of the development of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (which is going to be open-world!!) and CD Projekt Red's new IP Cyberpunk 2077, my desire to jump back into the world of Temeria was rekindled. I couldn't be happier that I did, as this is easily the best game that I've played so far this year.

The Quick

Play the role of Geralt of Rivia, a famous witcher (essentially a mutant bounty hunter that hunts monsters) playing bodyguard for King Foltest, when all hell breaks lose. The king is assassinated pretty much right under your nose (not really a spoiler as it happens almost immediately) and you are the prime suspect. Your job is to find who's responsible and clear your name. Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, the story branches in many different directions, presenting you with plenty of decisions to make and monsters to fight, resulting in an exceptional RPG experience.

The Good

• Combat. Clearly a massive improvement to the pseudo-QTE (quick time event) combat of The Witcher. The combat is technical, challenging, and fun to engage in. Timing is critical in stringing together combos with your strong attacks, weak attacks, and magic and even more essential in dodging and parrying.
  
  
• Deep story made possible by great writing. Not only is the overarching main story rich with a variety of character arcs to encounter and decisions to make, there’s a plethora of content to explore on the side that illuminates the world and characters in a variety of ways. Outside of a couple of MMO-like collection quests, the side quest content is quite robust and punctuated by great story lines that tie back into the main plot. 
  
• Replay value. Depending on what choices you make during Chapter 1 of the game, you will see one of two completely different versions of Chapter 2. Different village to explore, different characters, and different quests. Couple that with the generous amount of story changing side quests throughout the game and you've got yourself a sizable number of possible outcomes. Few games really do this well so I have to give props to CD Projekt Red for clearly putting an emphasis on player choice and individuality in this game. As an RPG enthusiast, I LOVE to see stuff like this.
  
• Graphics. The visuals in this game are out of this world. Perfect lighting, vibrant colors, wonderfully detailed character models and succinct, smooth animations to go along with them. This game came out almost 2 years ago now, and it still stands out as one of the most visually stunning games to date, in my opinion. Kudos to CD Projeckt on their RED Engine, it is downright spectacular.
  
  
  

  

  Just to put things in perspective, here's a screenshot from The Witcher.

  
  

  

  Still shots really don't do this game justice, but you get the idea.

  
  
• Sound. So many great things about the sound in this game. The music is spot on. It fits in the setting perfectly, and helps a great deal in immersing you in the culture of your environment and surroundings. The ambient sounds you encounter throughout the towns and out in the wilderness are just as engrossing as the music. Then there's the voice acting. From the little kids playing in the thoroughfare to the oftentimes antagonizing banter of villagers to the intimate conversations you have with your significant others, everything sounds natural and great.

The Bad

• Character customization. While there’s a ton of skills to pick from for customizing your build and a good deal of decision making to shape Geralt into someone unique to your role playing tastes, you are largely stuck with Geralt... as Geralt. While this wasn’t a big deal for me, as I think Geralt is a badass character, I could see people wanting some more wiggle room with customizing their character.
  
  
• Region sizes. While there is a ton of quest and story content in this game, the environments are somewhat limited in size. You will spend a lot of time running around the same villages and covering a lot of the same ground throughout the chapters. This was a complaint I had about The Witcher as well, and while they've improved the size of the regions, I was hoping they'd open things up a bit more.
  
  
• Reverse difficulty curve. The game is top heavy in terms of difficulty. It will absolutely kick your ass initially, especially as you're trying to figure out the combat mechanics. But as you progress through the game and level up, things just get much easier, to the point that by the end of the game you are downright dominating anything that crosses your path.

The Verdict

Despite its minor flaws, The Witcher 2 will go down as one of my favorite RPGs of this generation, hands down. If you fancy yourself an RPG enthusiast, even in a minor respect, get this game immediately. To put a cherry on top of this great experience, CD Projekt Red has to be one of the most respectable game developers I've come across. They deliver great games, release gigantic content patches for free, and distribute their games without DRM. If nothing else, pick this up just to support the efforts of this great company.

The Extras

Unfortunately, I forgot to record any video (or really take any screenshots) while I was playing this game, and since the review, I had to clear it off the hard drive to make some room. Therefore I can't show you any authentic Thomp gameplay today, but I will provide a couple videos.

This was a new introduction video added for the Enhanced Edition. It is amazing.

This is a short environment walkthrough with one of the developers. It gives you a good idea of what the game looks like.