PC

Dragon Age II

March 21, 2011

PC / Reviews / by Andrew Passafiume Make a comment! / Tweet it!

BioWare has come a long way from the days of Baldur’s Gate. Dragon Age: Origins was their last major RPG that still felt reminiscent of their old days, but Dragon Age II has changed things rather drastically, for better or worse. The game plays less like a typical western RPG and more like a full-blown action-RPG, with popular elements from BioWare’s other massive franchise, Mass Effect. While the changes have been quite divisive, the final product is still just as solid as ever.

The first major change is with the art style. While the overall look of the game seems improved, especially the character models, it still feels a bit drab at times. Most of the environments you explore are similar: you’ll find yourself in the same caves, mansions, mountainsides, etc. Once you’ve been in one cave, you’ve been in them all. Kirkwall, the main city, seems pretty lacking in detail as well. It’s a fun place to explore, but everything looks bland in comparison to Origins.

This ties in with another major complaint: DA2 feels less open than its predecessor. You spend the majority of your journey in Kirkwall, or the small surrounding areas. Aside from the beginning of the game, you’re almost never outside of this area. Kirkwall itself is great, but it definitely feels a lot more linear than Origins. While Origins was not completely open, it still felt like a truly enriched world, not just a single city. 

The story is also less epic this time around. You play as Hawke, who is attempting to escape the Darkspawn hordes with your family after they have destroyed your home. And with some help, you make your way to the city of Kirkwall. The Darkspawn, the major threat from the first game, are barely present in this adventure. The main conflict that looms throughout the three major acts deals with the political struggles of Kirkwall.

The idea that you’re a character in a fantasy game that isn’t trying to save the world from certain doom is refreshing. You’re dealing with conflicts on a more personal level, which is great, but the writers never go far with it. You often find yourself doing rather meaningless tasks and dealing with story points that only vaguely tie in with the main plot. There is no major driving force or threat; you’re simply trying to keep Kirkwall’s inhabitants from killing each other. It’s fine as a subplot, but as the main focus of the entire game it falls flat. There are some good points in the story, but they never go anywhere. And with an incredibly disappointing ending, you’ll feel your adventures in Kirkwall were for practically nothing. 

Complaints about the story aside, Dragon Age II’s writing is brilliant, and some of BioWare’s best. The characters all stand on their own as unique and truly fulfilling, as are your interactions with them. By implementing Mass Effect’s “dialogue wheel” system, your choices feel more impactful. 

Eventually Hawke’s own personality begins to unfold and develop; you can make the typical “good” choices for most of the game, and as you do that, Hawke’s natural reaction to certain events will change drastically. Even the “evil” choices will come across as more sympathetic than you might expect. It’s a great system and it adds wonders to the replayability. 

The major change with Dragon Age II is the “console-ization” of the game’s mechanics. Origins‘ popular top-down perspective has been limited, the skill trees have been simplified, and combat has been tweaked to be more action-oriented. The PC version retains auto-attacking that was scrapped in the console editions, but generally the game has been reworked to make players pause a little less often. 

The battle system is fast, fun, and a huge improvement over the original. While playing as a class like the warrior might get a bit old, the options available for both rogues and mages are quite limitless, making them both the more versatile classes available. The changes made here are the biggest cause for concern, but they only help to speed the game up and make it flow better. 

The game has a huge list of side quests to complete as well, making your time in Kirkwall a lengthy one. While some of them are largely forgettable, a lot of the quests you encounter really add a lot to the game. This is especially true of your companion quests, which open up a lot of information about your party members and could expand a lot in the main story as a result.  

Dragon Age II is, in one overused word, epic. It may lack the grand story and openness of its predecessor, but it more than makes up for it with sharp writing and fast-paced combat. It’s an addictive game you won’t want to stop playing even after the credits roll.  

Pros: Dialogue system and character interactions are top notch; effective writing; fun, albeit simplified combat system; plenty of side quests 

Cons: Overarching story is weak and predictable; despite having a ton of content available, the game doesn’t feel as open as Origins; dungeons and environments are drab; disappointing ending

Managing Editor Graham Russell contributed to this review.

Shogun 2: Total War

March 16, 2011

PC / Reviews / by Shawn Vermette Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The year is 1545 and the Ashikaga Shogunate is weak, unable to control the Japanese clans as they have for centuries. It is sengoku jidai, the Warring States period. Every Daimyo, or clan leader, is rising up, clamoring for its chance to succeed the Ashikaga clan as Shogun of Japan. In reality, the Tokugawa clan succeeded in uniting Japan again, but in Shogun 2: Total War, you’ll get the chance to either re-enact history or change its course.

As with all Total War games, there’s a strategic overworld, where the empire-wide decisions and management take place, and a tactical battle system, where orders are given on a battalion level in real time as you attempt to outmaneuver and outwit your opponent.

There are three different types of battles to participate in: standard land battles, sieges, and naval battles. In a standard land battle, up to 20 battalions of troops per side can participate at a time, with any extras coming onto the battlefield as reinforcements as other battalions retreat or are killed off. These battles will continue until either a time limit is reached, in which case the defender wins by default, or until one side retreats or loses every soldier. In a siege battle, the defenders are in a castle, and the attacker is charged with assaulting it and either killing every defender or taking control of the central tower. While this sounds to our Western minds, to be heavily weighted in the defender’s favor, it really isn’t. In Japan, castle walls were made to withstand natural disasters, which required the walls be slanted. This means infantry can, and do, climb them in Shogun 2. This is a big tactical change from previous Total War games. Naval battles are similar to the standard land battles, though with mines added to the mix. Mines don’t care who set them, they’ll sink any ship that touches them, so be prepared to lose a few ships to your own mines in the heat of battle.

In the strategic overworld, the map comes alive with various animations, making it feel more like running an empire than in past games. As for the actual strategy, you’ll be faced with decisions on a province level such as what type of military units to specialize in, where to station your troops, what arts (technologies) to learn, and where to upgrade your ports, castles, and other provincial buildings. You’ll also be charged with running your own intelligence network and the political and diplomatic systems of Shogun 2. Neglecting any of these systems can spell disaster for your reign. While the AI is somewhat weak in the tactical aspect of the game, it does very well at the strategic tasks.

There’s a fairly robust multiplayer system as well. There’s a multiplayer campaign where multiple humans can fight through the standard campaign for the title of Shogun, a drop-in battle system in the single player campaign (where you can allow a human to take charge of an AI force for a single battle) and a clan wars mode where you join a clan and fight cooperatively against other clans to take over all of Japan.

Graphically, Shogun 2 is a step up from previous games, even on lower graphics settings. A customizable camera allows you to control the action from almost any angle or distance you want. The audio is spot on, with war cries, yells, and clashes of metal on metal ringing out throughout the battles.

Going back to its roots seems to have had the effect of revitalizing the Total War series. After a couple less-than-stellar outings in Napoleon: Total War and Empire: Total War, the return to the sengoku era of Japan’s feudal times has renewed the series in a way that any PC gamer should appreciate.

Pros: Great, deep tactical combat, deep strategic empire layer, graphics are great, multiplayer options could provide long-lasting replay value, AI is better than many strategy/tactical games

Cons: Hefty system requirements

CreaVures

March 8, 2011

PC / Reviews / by Mike Clark Make a comment! / Tweet it!

A puzzle platformer where you use a handful of characters with unique skills together to pass traps and obstacles while collecting items as you attempt to get to the end of stages. No, I’m not talking about The Lost Vikings. I’m talking about CreaVures, the latest release from Muse Games.

The plot of the game is relatively simple: the forest the CreaVures live in is dying and they must band together to gather the fading light and restore the forest. You start with the cat-like creavure Bitey and as you progress through the 15 stages and 2 boss battles you acquire the remaining four creavures to use: Pokey the porcupine, Zappy the lizard, Rolly the armadillo and Glidey the fruit bat.

Each character brings something different to the table. Bitey can latch onto hanging fruit and have his tail used as a vine by other characters. Pokey can fire his quills in different directions and create quill ladders on walls. Rolly is pretty obvious: she rolls and can smash through stone. And Glidey is also obvious as he can glide, but with a twist: he can also pick up other characters and carry them as he glides. Each character is used interchangably and at certain times to progress, giving this platformer a large measure of variety.

The actual gameplay is pretty easy to pick up and it handles well. There were a few times where the game would glitch or bug out on me, forcing me to restart from the most recent checkpoint I had been to though. Playing with both keyboard and controller felt natural and good, and the only problem I had with the latter was double-tapping to turn on the vines didn’t seem to work. Beyond that, the game controlled well and gameplay was fluid.

There are three different difficulties to play on in CreaVures, and each stage of each difficulty has a number of “Essences” and “Motes” – the game’s collectables – to acquire. On top of that, once you beat CreaVures you can use all five characters from the beginning of the game, giving the game a wide berth of replayability. 

The most striking thing about the game is the visual and audio style. With the light fading from the forest, everything within it glows in a rainbow of neon colors. With this gorgeous spread of an appealing visual pallet is ambient and mellow music that only adds to the aesthetic vibe of being within a forest. This changes up when you fight the two giant bosses to that of a more tense variety, but overall works great to supplement what the player sees.

All in all, CreaVures is a great indie puzzle platformer. Even with the variety and replayability packed within, the repetition might turn some people off but the game is a solid title with solid gameplay and a great audio-visual style.

Pros: Visually beautiful, controls well, great variety in gameplay

Cons: Buggy in a few places, replaying the game doesn’t change the experience much

 

Back to the Future: Get Tannen!

March 2, 2011

PC / Reviews / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

As with television shows, the second installments of episodic adventure games are the best indication of where the series is going. The first ones have so much novelty and things to explain, and once that’s gone you just have the game. Well, episode 2 of the Back to the Future series is here. How is it? 

First of all, there’s absolutely no reason for people who haven’t played the first episode to play this one, so go to our review of the premiere if you want the basics of how the series works. 

This second episode, Get Tannen!, has Marty escape from, then return to, Prohibition-era Hill Valley, trying to fix history after his earlier visit prevented the arrest of gangster Kid Tannen. This likely is the least exciting part of the season, as you mostly revisit places from the first episode. The first had some nostalgic moments (like Doc’s house and the mall parking lot). This one’s only nostalgic if you’re looking back to last month. 

Stripped from the novelty of It’s About Time, it’s increasingly apparent that the series’ gameplay matches Sam & Max almost exactly. While the Monkey Island and Strong Bad series had some interesting, context-sensitive mechanics, the original characters in Back to the Future (like Edna Strickland and Kid’s mobsters) seem like generic characters we could see in any other game. various McFlys and Tannens are fun, and the young Doc has some charm, but it can’t help but feel a bit tedious at times. (It doesn’t help that Marty walks very, very slowly.)

Still, if you like Telltale games, it’s a solid few hours of entertainment, and you’ll want to experience this story to get to the final three episodes. It’s a below-average episode in a quality series.

 

Magic: the Gathering: Tactics

February 7, 2011

PC / Reviews / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Magic: The Gathering has achieved what many games haven’t: it made gamers hooked, and it made them happy that they were. The game is wonderful at instilling a “just-one-more-pack” mentality that keeps the money rolling in for the company for over fifteen years now. It’s not a surprise that makers of free-to-play MMOs would want some of that Magic magic, and with Magic: Tactics, Sony Online Entertainment went for an official endorsement.

The result is a game that feels like a cross between Magic, Dungeons & Dragons and Heroes of Might and Magic. For some, that sentence is probably enough for them to rush off and start playing, but you seem to have stuck around, so we’ll continue.

Players start a battle in a small square grid with only their “planeswalker” avatar and a hand of spells. Each turn, an increasingly larger amount of mana is generated (randomly based on the colors in the spellbook, since there are no lands), and you use this to cast spells and summon creatures around you. Everything follows line-of-sight rules, so the early game is about posturing and finding tactical positions behind walls and such, while the late game sees battles between imposing monsters on both sides. The match is over when the planeswalker is killed.

As a framework, it works well. The team promises multiplayer battles and various twists on the formula as time goes on, but the current format is fairly basic. As for the interface itself, it could use some refining. The creatures look nice and convey the correct atmosphere, but the camera is wonky and just doesn’t have an ideal angle for viewing the action. You’ll have to keep moving it around as the battle progresses to keep seeing what’s happening. It seems like they could have implemented a standardized wide angle view to see the full board, as that would have helped tremendously. 

The spells and creatures themselves, though not identical to their card counterparts, feel the way they should. The shift to a tactical format means that effects like first strike and trample work differently, and randomized elements add an element of uncertainty that was removed without the possibility of instants. The team told us they wanted “Serra Angel to feel like Serra Angel” and “Lightning Bolt to feel like Lightning Bolt.” On that front, they accomplished their mission.

In true Magic style, there are constructed tournaments and drafts, as well as free play, but the game also includes single-player campaigns. The first chapter is free, and contains five missions. Each subsequent chapter is $5. Playing these unlocks spells for you to use, as well as small amounts of gold you can save up for tournament entry fees. There’s also a daily mission, and completing it earns two gold.

The tournament structure right now is what’s most troubling about Magic: Tactics. While the gameplay works fine, the interface for tournaments glitches up, adds unnecessary delays between rounds without notification, sometimes crashes completely and even fails to deliver rewards for winning or cards bought for drafts. We’re hoping these issues get ironed out soon.

No matter the mode you play, you earn experience that can be used to level up your character. These are small increases, like giving your creatures a 4% chance of having an extra ability when summoned or randomly generating an extra mana occasionally, so it’s not broken, but it does give some personalization to a game that starts everyone out with one of the same three spellbooks.

With a free-to-play title, there are really two experiences to evaluate: the free one and one you get with a reasonable financial investment. For free, you get a five-mission story and a somewhat repetitive cycle of daily quests, entry into a tournament every ten days or so and a significant disadvantage. (You could use gold to buy cards too, but two a day doesn’t buy much.)

Let’s say you invest $40, though. With that, you’d have the full 25-mission campaign with increasing difficulty and five packs to get competitive spells and use in a draft. At that point, it’s very comparable to retail titles, with a robust online mode and a single-player experience that lasts about eight to ten hours.

We think that Magic: Tactics is a good game with a $40 investment, and the free option serves as a robust demo. Just be aware that, with future expansions and additions, things can be both significantly better and significantly more expensive.

 

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