Diamonds in the Rough
Much like Hollywood, the gaming industry is also prone to the Blockbuster syndrome, only we get it during the months leading up to Christmas.
I tire of watching nothing but big budget movies, it is often fun to sit down with an indie film. Some of these movies are underappreciated gems that fly under the radar, but often have that one thing that most blockbusters lose: soul.
The same way, I also tire of playing big budget, triple-A games. Lately, I've found myself playing a lot of the middle-of-the-pack games (which I've acquired thanks to various sales and bundles), those that may come from my favorite publishers, but aren't necessarily the marquee titles. Some of them have problems, either 1) they have ambitions that far outweigh their budgets, or 2) they don't have enough resources to properly polish everything.
Much like indie movies, though, they have that mystery ingredient, soul, that gives them their charm.
Here's the recent crop of discoveries I've dug up:
Dark Void
(Developer: Airtight Games / Publisher: Capcom)
Dark Void got a lot of crappy reviews back when it was first released, and to be fair, a lot of criticisms about it are valid. It's a bit buggy, the game suffers a bit of pacing problems, and just when the game gets all awesome, it ends abruptly.
That said, Dark Void comes soooo close to being good that it seems a shame that we probably won't see Dark Void turn into a franchise (which Capcom probably wanted).
Dark Void is essentially Gears of War crossed with the Rocketeer. You spend quite a good deal of the game on foot in a rather familiar third-person shooter format, with the usual cover system (which is kinda iffy). Later in the game, you get a jetpack which allows you to take to the skies at any time and engage in dogfighting. A number of the developers worked on Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge on the original Xbox, and the jetpack levels show this with a very satisfying flight model. The story also channels a bit of Crimson Skies, being set in the time prior to World War II, and it reminds me of those 1950's style sci-fi movies and their fascination with 'Saucer Men from Mars'.
Impressively, one level requires both ground and air combat to complete, and this mission is definitely the highlight of the game, with the seamless segue between both styles proving satisfying. Sadly it goes downhill after that, both from a narrative and gameplay perspective, but that one mission shows the immense potential that the game could have been.
The worst part is that, just as the game seems to be getting good again, it suddenly ends with a head-scratching ending. I guess it's just keeping consistent with the game's theme of being so frustatingly close to being awesome. If you're in the right frame of mind, though, it can be a rush. Nolan North is in it, if that's worth anything.
Alpha Protocol
(Developer: Obsidian Entertainment / Publisher: Sega)
Obsidian's got a strange resume, in that all their previous notable works are sequels to somebody else's work (mostly Bioware's) which was probably farmed out to them since the original team probably got tired of doing the same thing again (remember, Bioware). Off the top of my head, I can count Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Fallout: New Vegas from their body of work.
So, Obsidian doing an original, non-sequel game? Do tell!
Unfortunately, it's not quite as clean a break from Obsidian tradition as I hoped, but you can't always get what you want.
First, the good news: Alpha Protocol is, for all intents and purposes, truly an Espionage RPG. Imagine a game where you can be Jason Bourne, James Bond, or Jack Bauer (Or if you'd prefer, someone who's initials aren't J.B.) and apply some good old-fashioned trees on top of it. By trees, of course, I mean Skill Trees and Conversation Trees, which seem to be the defining factors of modern Western RPGs.
I love that there is as much focus on conversation here as there is in some of Bioware's classics, and that specialisation goes a long, long way to making your agent feel very much your own. To give an example, handguns and rifles are 2 different fields of skills, but levelling your handgun skills makes you more of a stealthy finesse player, while the higher rifle skills make you a deadly long-range scout. You also have a basic deal of customisation to apply to your equipment, like choosing if you should apply a silencer to your weapon at the cost of damage.
There's also a fair bit of plot points that can change depending on your choices (shades of Bioware's Mass Effect?), but since I haven't played through more than once, I'm not sure how major the changes are.
Unfortunately, Alpha Protocol also carries on the Obsidian tradition of being extremely buggy. One mission I had to reload a checkpoint, and suddenly all the nearby enemies were gone. Another time, a soldier spotted me while I was ducked down because when I tried to pick up a sniper rifle, my character suddenly clipped to the top of the rock I was hiding against. But when it works, it works almost brilliantly in helping you live out those super spy fantasies.
Did I also mention that there are several love interests in the game? You know, just to complete the super spy package.
Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing
(Developer: Sumo Digital / Publisher: Sega)
In the Kart Racing sub-genre, there really is only one game in town, Mario Kart, which is also the franchise that started it all. Many have tried to overthrow the champ (notably Naughty Dog's Crash Team Racing), but as soon as one pretender seems poised to take the crown, Nintendo just releases another Mario Kart and takes it back.
Sega's had quite a few tries at this (Sonic Drift on Game Gear being the first notable try) but it doesn't feel like they're really trying. I guess they've got their hands full with arcade racers like Outrun 2 to be bothered with a kart racer.
Which is why it was a pleasant surprise to see Sumo Digital try their hand with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. As the name implies, it digs a bit deeper into Sega lore than just the Sonic series, and, quite frankly, this game feels more Sega-ish than most of the newer Sega games (see above for 1 example). I mean, who in their right mind would expect to see Alex Kidd and Ryo Hazuki in the same game?
It's plays like a standard kart racer at first blush, with weapon pick-ups and unrealistic physics. But then, the first thing you notice is that the Brake button has been replaced with a Drift button.
That pretty much says how intense this game can get. There is no reason to slow down.
You get to max speed pretty quick in this game, and the only way you can go faster is with boosts. You earn boosts by doing tricks and drifting and pretty soon you'll be bobbing and weaving through traffic and traps while building up boosts.
In short, this is not a game where you're just going full throttle even on straightaways. The track design is meant to emphasise this (in that there aren't a lot of straightaways), and winning comes down as much to driving skill as it is to weapon usage (Holy crap, a kart racer that rewards skill?).
So, it's fast, well-designed, controls well, and is even a fair bit challenging, but the complaints I've read online basically boil down to "But Sonic's in a CAAARRRR!" If that bothers you, then don't mind this game. Also, there might be something really wrong with you.
Special note: All three games above are available on all 3 high-end platforms (PC, PS3 and X360), and they're all budget-priced so there's no excuse not to pick them up if you're interested in them.
I tire of watching nothing but big budget movies, it is often fun to sit down with an indie film. Some of these movies are underappreciated gems that fly under the radar, but often have that one thing that most blockbusters lose: soul.
The same way, I also tire of playing big budget, triple-A games. Lately, I've found myself playing a lot of the middle-of-the-pack games (which I've acquired thanks to various sales and bundles), those that may come from my favorite publishers, but aren't necessarily the marquee titles. Some of them have problems, either 1) they have ambitions that far outweigh their budgets, or 2) they don't have enough resources to properly polish everything.
Much like indie movies, though, they have that mystery ingredient, soul, that gives them their charm.
Here's the recent crop of discoveries I've dug up:
Dark Void
(Developer: Airtight Games / Publisher: Capcom)
Dark Void got a lot of crappy reviews back when it was first released, and to be fair, a lot of criticisms about it are valid. It's a bit buggy, the game suffers a bit of pacing problems, and just when the game gets all awesome, it ends abruptly.
That said, Dark Void comes soooo close to being good that it seems a shame that we probably won't see Dark Void turn into a franchise (which Capcom probably wanted).
Dark Void is essentially Gears of War crossed with the Rocketeer. You spend quite a good deal of the game on foot in a rather familiar third-person shooter format, with the usual cover system (which is kinda iffy). Later in the game, you get a jetpack which allows you to take to the skies at any time and engage in dogfighting. A number of the developers worked on Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge on the original Xbox, and the jetpack levels show this with a very satisfying flight model. The story also channels a bit of Crimson Skies, being set in the time prior to World War II, and it reminds me of those 1950's style sci-fi movies and their fascination with 'Saucer Men from Mars'.
Impressively, one level requires both ground and air combat to complete, and this mission is definitely the highlight of the game, with the seamless segue between both styles proving satisfying. Sadly it goes downhill after that, both from a narrative and gameplay perspective, but that one mission shows the immense potential that the game could have been.
The worst part is that, just as the game seems to be getting good again, it suddenly ends with a head-scratching ending. I guess it's just keeping consistent with the game's theme of being so frustatingly close to being awesome. If you're in the right frame of mind, though, it can be a rush. Nolan North is in it, if that's worth anything.
Alpha Protocol
(Developer: Obsidian Entertainment / Publisher: Sega)
Obsidian's got a strange resume, in that all their previous notable works are sequels to somebody else's work (mostly Bioware's) which was probably farmed out to them since the original team probably got tired of doing the same thing again (remember, Bioware). Off the top of my head, I can count Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Fallout: New Vegas from their body of work.
So, Obsidian doing an original, non-sequel game? Do tell!
Unfortunately, it's not quite as clean a break from Obsidian tradition as I hoped, but you can't always get what you want.
First, the good news: Alpha Protocol is, for all intents and purposes, truly an Espionage RPG. Imagine a game where you can be Jason Bourne, James Bond, or Jack Bauer (Or if you'd prefer, someone who's initials aren't J.B.) and apply some good old-fashioned trees on top of it. By trees, of course, I mean Skill Trees and Conversation Trees, which seem to be the defining factors of modern Western RPGs.
I love that there is as much focus on conversation here as there is in some of Bioware's classics, and that specialisation goes a long, long way to making your agent feel very much your own. To give an example, handguns and rifles are 2 different fields of skills, but levelling your handgun skills makes you more of a stealthy finesse player, while the higher rifle skills make you a deadly long-range scout. You also have a basic deal of customisation to apply to your equipment, like choosing if you should apply a silencer to your weapon at the cost of damage.
There's also a fair bit of plot points that can change depending on your choices (shades of Bioware's Mass Effect?), but since I haven't played through more than once, I'm not sure how major the changes are.
Unfortunately, Alpha Protocol also carries on the Obsidian tradition of being extremely buggy. One mission I had to reload a checkpoint, and suddenly all the nearby enemies were gone. Another time, a soldier spotted me while I was ducked down because when I tried to pick up a sniper rifle, my character suddenly clipped to the top of the rock I was hiding against. But when it works, it works almost brilliantly in helping you live out those super spy fantasies.
Did I also mention that there are several love interests in the game? You know, just to complete the super spy package.
Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing
(Developer: Sumo Digital / Publisher: Sega)
In the Kart Racing sub-genre, there really is only one game in town, Mario Kart, which is also the franchise that started it all. Many have tried to overthrow the champ (notably Naughty Dog's Crash Team Racing), but as soon as one pretender seems poised to take the crown, Nintendo just releases another Mario Kart and takes it back.
Sega's had quite a few tries at this (Sonic Drift on Game Gear being the first notable try) but it doesn't feel like they're really trying. I guess they've got their hands full with arcade racers like Outrun 2 to be bothered with a kart racer.
Which is why it was a pleasant surprise to see Sumo Digital try their hand with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. As the name implies, it digs a bit deeper into Sega lore than just the Sonic series, and, quite frankly, this game feels more Sega-ish than most of the newer Sega games (see above for 1 example). I mean, who in their right mind would expect to see Alex Kidd and Ryo Hazuki in the same game?
It's plays like a standard kart racer at first blush, with weapon pick-ups and unrealistic physics. But then, the first thing you notice is that the Brake button has been replaced with a Drift button.
That pretty much says how intense this game can get. There is no reason to slow down.
You get to max speed pretty quick in this game, and the only way you can go faster is with boosts. You earn boosts by doing tricks and drifting and pretty soon you'll be bobbing and weaving through traffic and traps while building up boosts.
In short, this is not a game where you're just going full throttle even on straightaways. The track design is meant to emphasise this (in that there aren't a lot of straightaways), and winning comes down as much to driving skill as it is to weapon usage (Holy crap, a kart racer that rewards skill?).
So, it's fast, well-designed, controls well, and is even a fair bit challenging, but the complaints I've read online basically boil down to "But Sonic's in a CAAARRRR!" If that bothers you, then don't mind this game. Also, there might be something really wrong with you.
Special note: All three games above are available on all 3 high-end platforms (PC, PS3 and X360), and they're all budget-priced so there's no excuse not to pick them up if you're interested in them.
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