Stuff That I Played: God of War 3

Before I start the review, a quick note.  I realized the other day that I haven't actually written anything in regards to comics.  I'm sorry about this; all my new videogames have been cutting into my reading time somewhat.  I was writing a Dark Knight Strikes Again review, so hopefully that will see the light of day soon once I actually write the thing adequately.  I'm also almost done the short New X-Men Omnibus I just got, so expect something on that shortly.  Again, sorry about that.  I will rectify this ASAP!

Anyways, God of War 3.  Yay!  This review will be RELATIVELY SPOILER-FREE, but will likely have GOD OF WAR 2 SPOILERS.

For some reason, the actual box art didn't come up on image search, but this one's way cooler anyways.

I've been waiting for this game since the cliffhanger conclusion of God of War 2 in 2007.  Many people found issue with cliffhanger, but I understood - I wanted my epic Titan/God battles to be jaw-droppingly huge and furious, and this could not be done with the limitations of the Playstation 2.  Now on the next-gen Playstation 3, God of War 3 delivers almost everything I could have asked, albeit with a few issues.

The first thing I think I have to stress is the graphics, which are absolutely beautiful.  Everything looks fantastic - most impressive is Kratos himself, who's detail has been gloriously bumped up the last two games; he is now so good-looking that you can even see his pores.  This isn't to say that the rest of the game is slouches, of course.  The game runs extremely well; everything looks detailed and crisp, shading is outstanding, and the framerate runs at a steady clip.  In fact, the game runs so well that it took me about a half hour of playing to adjust to the speed of it: I'm just not used to seeing games look so good.  This also has the effect of making the game more brutal than the others, and that's really saying something.  Kratos gets realistically covered in blood as battles, people are decapitated with bare hands, and monsters are slit open, their intestines spilling out of their bodies.  It's all very gruesome, obviously.  Let's put it this way: the game looks so good that they didn't have to use any "cutscenes" to speak of - everything is done with the in-game engine (outside from a couple striking flashback sequences which are done in a stylistically different manner).  I assure you, you've never seen anything with this much scope and scale in a game before.

I wanted to do this side-by-side but couldn't figure out how.  Anyways, here's Kratos from a cutscene of the first game.....

.....And here's his in-game model from the third.  Hot damn!

                                                                                                           

God of War 3 picks up right from the end of the second game (SPOILERS): the Titans are storming towards Mt. Olympus to take revenge on Zeus for enslaving them years ago.  Kratos (our "hero"), having been denied of his revenge on Zeus in GoW2 and discovering that Zeus is his father, rides on the titan Gaia, and he is PISSED.  What follows is an appropriately brutal conclusion to Kratos's long journey of vengeance on the gods.  The plot is done pretty well, though after a few hours the game's narrative loses a bit of steam.  See, the problem is (SPOILERS) that by the halfway point of the game, you've already killed all of Zeus's brothers and two Titans, which means that for the last half of the game boss battles are relatively scarce and the plot becomes a tad unfocused.

Gameplay-wise, the game is largely similar to the first two games.  The combat remains relatively unchanged, though new moves have been added to deal with the larger number of enemies that are capable of being on-screen at once, such as the ability to use smaller enemies as battering rams.  The magic system has been replaced somewhat: now, each magic is tied to one of four different weapons, and what would be magic in earlier games are now side weapons, which have a refilling bar.  This is an interesting switch and one that works rather well - it means that you don't have to waste precious red orbs (which is what you upgrade your weapons with) on magic that you probably won't use that much, and allows you to use the more useful abilities (such as the bow and arrow) more often.  My one problem with this is that the game is too easy; it is without doubt the easiest of the three games, and this is largely due to the number of ways in which you can defend yourself.  Also, it's a bit of a bummer that out of the four weapons, three of them fall in the "chains with _____ attached".  While they all control pretty differently, I found myself not using the two chained weapons you get later in the game at all, sticking with Kratos's default weapon and sometimes switching to the Cestus (which are basically mythological boxing gloves).  This weapon balance is a problem the God of War games have always had, and it continues in the third installment.

One nice thing about the GoW3 is the puzzle design, which is actually really smart and generally pretty interesting.  The second game amped up the puzzles as well, but they were still largely based on boxes and switches.  The puzzles in this game are quite thoughtful, and all feel contextually appropriate (except for one weird rhythm-based puzzle which stuck out a little bit).  You won't get stuck on them, but you will have to take a look around the environment a bit and actually think of what you need to do.  It's a nice addition, and really helps break up the flow of the game in an effective manner.

The boss battles, as expected, are ridiculously over-the-top.  The best battles are the larger opponents, such as the breathtaking battle with Poseidon that begins the game.  The God of War series is known for having incredible opening sequences, and Poseidon is definitely the best opening of the three.  Bosses do not disappoint at all; there was one boss later on that I wasn't too sure about, but that's because the actual "battle" with him is extremely short - the difficult part is a really nice platforming section where you have to chase him down.  Now, this being said, I did feel like some of the kills were just a little bit disappointing; it didn't happen too often, but I found that some of the boss kills boiled down to "stab repeatedly in the same spot, decapitate".  It all adds to the brutality, but at times I was yearning for God of War 2's interesting, almost balletic kills.  Again though, this didn't happen enough to significantly affect my enjoyment the game.  Also, the problem with having such huge, impressive boss fights is that when you're NOT fighting a boss, the game feels small - it's a comparative thing and a problem that only comes with the mountainous highs of the thrilling bosses.

Pacing-wise, also like the other games, God of War 3 is incredibly strong.  The game keeps you moving briskly from one event to the next, switching between platforming, puzzles, fighting, and even some short flying sections (which are pretty improved from the boring flight sections of God of War 2).  The pacing does falter a little bit halfway through the game - the plot changes somewhat significantly, and boss battles are scarce.  This means the last half of the game is a little bit closer in feel to the first two games as opposed to the largeness of this one.  It also loses the exploratory feel of the second game; it's more like the first game, where you explore one or two really large areas, at times backtracking through older sections with new abilites.  It's a bit of an unfortunate sacrifice, and means you don't see too much variation in environments.  Luckily, the game picks itself back up in the last few hours as it approaches its conclusion.

Which leads to some controversy.  The ending of the game has been a little bit disputed with critics; some consider it a stroke of genius, others have been less than impressed.  I don't want to talk about it too much for fear of ruining it (that's for tomorrow's post), but I thought the conclusion was perfectly fine; however, I took issue with the actual END of it, as in the last minute and short epilogue.  More on this in a crazy spoiler post tomorrow.

As a side note, one you beat the game you unlock a bunch of behind-the-scenes videos.  God of War games have always had an hour-ish long mkaing of feature, and GoW3 has that AS WELL as individual features about specific parts of the game's design, i.e. voice acting, writing, animating, etc.  If you like this kind of stuff (and I do), it's a very cool bonus.

Play this game if:
-You played and enjoyed the other two (three if you count the PSP one) God of War games.
-You want some crazy ridiculous action sequences and boss fights
-You want to see the best graphics in current video gaming thus far.


Don't play this game if:
-You're squeamish
-You can't handle over-the-top, somewhat comic book-esque plots and dialogue
-You haven't played the other two main games in the series (and seriously, if you want to play this one and you haven't played the others yet, what's your excuse?  Go out and buy the HD remasters of them!  They look great!)
-You want a deep battle system - I say this because while the system is very intuitive and controls extremely well, it's not the deepest fighting system in a game of this type.  Put it beside the Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry games and there's really no contest.


Later days,
Daniel

Stuff That I Played: Heavy Rain

SPOILER-FREE, so don't worry about reading.

A friend of mine recently was kind enough to lend me his PS3 because he has to study for exams, so I'm finally able to play through some of my most anticipated games on the console. This is gonna be pretty quick because frankly, it's hard to judge Heavy Rain in relation to other games because it's so unique.

Heavy Rain isn't really a "game" per se. It's more of an interactive movie; I suppose it's sort of like if you were able to say "DON"T GO THROUGH THAT DOOR!" during a horror movie and that character actually listened. The game is extremely immersive as you control the most basic of actions; the first hour or so of the game basically just has you go through one of the main characters' morning routine, getting dressed, brushing his teeth, eating, etc. Some would find this boring but due to the interesting control scheme and overall uniqueness of the game, it really worked for me.

Most of Heavy Rain is played using a variety of quicktime events. For those who don't know, what happens here is that you don't control the entire character; rather, a cinematic plays, and button prompts are put up on the screen. If you press the button in the the required, you "Win" the action; this keeps going in a particular sequence. For example, you control Guy A in a fight. Guy B takes a swing; the screen flashes X. If you press X in time, you dodge; otherwise you get smacked in the face. The fight resumes in this fashion. Quicktime events have been fairly criticized over the years as being a little bit lazy, but they can be used to good effect (see: the God of War games), and in Heavy Rain this is true. All of the "action" scenes play out in extremely intense quicktime events, using the face and shoulder buttons, as well as the movement of the Sixaxis controller - while I'm not a big fan of motion controls, the Sixaxis is superbly implemented, making the sequences more nerve-wracking(as you have more button choices to worry about) and greater simulating the action of, say, driving a car. What's most impressive about these parts is how smooth they are - you'll never see a "game over" screen in the game; if you mess up a quicktime event really badly, there's the possibility that main characters will die, or certain plot points unfold differently. In this way, the game brings a sense of immediacy to the proceedings, and stresses the importance of split-second actions and decisions; it really keeps you on your toes.

The game follows four characters who all have some sort of relation to a recent child murderer dubbed the Origami Killer (due to the origami figures he/she leaves in his/her victims' hands). Paths intersect and plotlines twist as each of the characters search for the Origami Killer for their own reasons and in their own ways.

The plot is extremely involving even from the start of the game; again, it comes down to immersion and feeling like you are mostly in control of events. There's a certain thrill you get from watching these characters and controlling their every move, like some sort of virtual puppeteer. At times, despite my own personal feelings, it reached a point where I was making decisions based on what I thought the characters would do, rather than my own personal wants (I should have a post tomorrow or tonight pertaining to this, but it will contain spoilers, so read at your own risk). It's a powerful, engrossing game, with some extremely moving scenes and great writing. My only problems in this respect are that side characters are largely one-dimensional and not written as well, and the fact that the script uses a lot of movie cliches. However, this almost works in the game's favour; because it's so influenced by film and uses a lot of Hollywood cliches (In particular regarding to the archetypal main characters), it truly works as an 8 hour movie that you CONTROL. I felt that the length of the game was absolutely perfect, keeping the plot moving at a brisk pace and containing only a couple filler scenes - I blew through the game in about 3 extended sittings, and most others probably will too.

I only have a couple of problems with the game. First off, the movement controls are clunky, using an old Resident Evil-type control system where you press a button to walk and use the analog sticks to just point in whatever direction you face. You get used to it, but I don't understand why they couldn't just make a regular old 3D movement system. My other problem is that it's not until halfway through the game that your choices really begin to affect what happens; for the first half, though you still control the characters actions, most scenes will end with the same outcome, regardless of the details of the scene. Also, the graphics are pretty, but side characters have noticeably less detail than the main characters, mostly in regards to facial expressions, and they still haven't been able to nail a realistic-looking kiss in games; kisses tend to look like the characters' faces are just floating in front of each other with open mouths. It's a weird effect and pulls you out of the game momentarily.  Finally, while the voice acting is generally top-notch all around, children sound uniformly strange; most of them have this weird accent that makes them sound kind of like they're mentally-challenged, to the point where I couldn't quite decide whether Jason (one of the main protagonist's sons) was in fact mentally handicapped or not - it certainly wouldn't be too much of a stretch considering his actions (you'll understand once you play the game).

Overall though, Heavy Rain is an engrossing thrill ride of a game, and one that is incredibly unique. Whether it will be groundbreaking or not remains to be seen - I'm curious to see whether the game will form a whole new genre, or even influence other games majorly; I also wonder how well a game like this will sell; in its first week it sold over half a million copies, so I guess it's doing just fine (stat taken from IGN.com). So, the scorecard:

Play this game if:
-You liked Shenmue (seriously, if you liked that whole day-to-day minutia sort of thing, which I did, you'll totally dig this game. Shenmue was also the first game to popularize quicktime events, so hah!)
-You like movies (particularly movies that deal with more mature subject matter)
-You want a totally unique gameplay experience
-You are a casual or hardcore videogame player; I say this because the controls are unique enough that I think even if not accustomed with games, anyone should be able to get some enjoyment out of it. In fact, before the game starts, it asks you for a difficulty setting, based on how much you play games and how familiar you are with the controller. I'm not sure what this does, but I assume it affects how big the window for doing quicktime events is.

Don't play this game if:
-You are bored easily
-You need a lot of gameplay depth to get into a game
-You just want to shoot stuff

Later days,
Daniel

STIL Quickie: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Howdy y'all! The first trailer for the Scott Pilgrim movie (entitled Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) just got released, so I thought I'd just write out some quick thoughts about it.



I picked up the first volume of Scott Pilgrim a little while back on a whim and fell in love instantly; it's one of the most unique series I've ever read, perfectly mixing extremely strong characters, absurd comedy, and over-the-top videogame-inspired chaos. So far, I only have the first two volumes, but I'm looking to get more. The gist of the series is that Scott Pilgrim is a normal dude; he doesn't have any outstanding character traits (though he's apparently an awesome fighter), and is kind of a loser - but there's something about him that's inherently cool. He eventually meets a girl named Ramona Flowers who he becomes enamored with; she likes him too, but in order for him to date her, he has to defeat all of her 7 evil ex-boyfriends in battle.

The movie seems to be extremely faithful to the plot and characters; I noticed a lot of shots straight from the comic. It stars Michael Cera as Scott and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona. I actually really like Michael Cera, but I'm not sold on him as Scott yet; in the comic, Scott really toes the line between being a total loser and being the coolest guy in the world, and I don't think Cera does that; he just seems to do the awkward, geeky thing. I haven't seen Winstead in anything, but she looks like she'll do a good job as the free-spirited Ramona.

What's really striking about the trailer is how much it takes from the comics; you can see sound effects flash on-screen as the characters hit each other, for example. The film is directed by Edgar Wright, who directed Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, as well as the TV series Spaced; I'm a big fan of his work with Simon Pegg and his crew, so it's interesting to see him do something without their involvement. It looks like the movie contains some really balls-out action scenes, which is exactly what it needs. I'm hoping the strong character work doesn't get lost in the shuffle, but I'm pretty optimistic about it.

Also, I think it's funny that one of the fights is going to be with the actress who played Anne in Arrested Development; somehow it seems Michael Cera always ends up with his Arrested Development cast members in other movies.

Any other thoughts on the trailer? Comment!

Stuff That I Think: God of War 2

So, I was going to do a post that wasn't video game related, but I just beat God of War 2 (My second time actually, but the last time I played through it was about 3 years ago when the game originally came out) and I wanted to sort out some of my own thoughts about it. Not in terms of the game itself, mind you (which is stupendous), but about the character of Kratos and whether his spree of revenge is actually validated. This post will most definitely contain SPOILERS for the first God of War game, and probably will for the second game as well.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Kratos works extremely well as the protagonist to God of War because he's a pretty simple dude. Essentially, he's a little bit psychotic and basically angry all the time, which makes him an extremely fun character to play as. This is because of how totally unhinged and brutal the violence of the God of War games are; if you're ever in a pissed-off mood, this is the game for you:

Yipes.

Kratos's design itself perfectly encapsulates his character and personality; the general lack of clothes reflects a raw, animalistic brutality; his albino white skin and weapon of choice (well, not really "choice" per se) serve story purposes; And the tattoos? Well, they make him look more badass, and they're red, a colour often symbolizing violence, fury, and aggression. For more on this, check out Yahtzee's excellent article about character design:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/7071-Extra-Punctuation-Darksiders

Of course, a protagonist such as Kratos needs a motive that still makes the player want him to prevail; otherwise, he's just a super-violent villain. Kratos was a great general for the Spartan army who conquers like no other. That is, until he fights a barbarian that is able to overpower him. Instead of accepting his fate, Kratos sells his soul to Ares, the God of War, who chains a bunch of blades to Kratos and makes him his servant. This goes pretty well until Ares decides to be a dick and fools Kratos into killing his family. Whoops. Then, adding insult to injury, he covers Kratos's skin in his dead family's ashes. What an asshole!

Most people would probably say that Kratos's quest for revenge against Ares is valid, but I'm not so sure. We don't know what Kratos's life was like before becoming the servant of Ares, but it's safe to say that there was much killing and conquering. We don't even know how his life with his family was; how strong of a bond could he have with his family when he's constantly going around and brutally murdering people? For that matter, while Kratos never really smiles, he is so vicious towards his enemies even before losing his family that you can tell he clearly enjoys his job. It certainly doesn't help that all of these problems are probably increased after he becomes a servant of Ares. While serving the God of War himself, Kratos probably had even less time to go back home to his family, and those blades grafted to his forearms must have made intimacy with his wife and/or child quite difficult. Granted, this is all conjecture, and I guess it's possible that Kratos did have a good relationship with his wife and daughter, but I think that's rather unlikely.

In the second game, I would argue that Kratos's new target, Zeus, is more deserving of the wrath of Kratos. Newly-crowned the God of War, Kratos is tricked by Zeus into having all of his power sucked away and is then promptly killed. Luckily for him, the Titans, imprisoned since the Great War between them and and the gods, see that they have a use for Kratos and help him come back to life, go back in time, and hopefully kill Zeus.

One thing that I never understood about the second game is why exactly Zeus decides to do this to Kratos. We find out later in the game that it's to stop the cycle of sons killing their fathers (Kratos is Zeus's son! Gasp!), but Zeus's reasoning, at least in the beginning of the game, makes no sense. Why is Kratos penalized for conquering civilizations with aplomb? Isn't that his job? What else does a God of War do if not assist with wars? It made sense to stop Ares because he was taking over Athena, but as far as I know Kratos wasn't stepping on any other god's toes. I could be wrong though. If so, comment!

That being said, Kratos is actually MORE brutal in the second game, killing several mythological figures (Prometheus, Icarus, Perseus, and the list goes on) and innocents to further his own tasks. I think it's at this point that he becomes a little bit less sympathetic and a little bit more unsettling. Kratos leaves a disgusting trail of death and destruction behind him; he's rather selfish but also unable to accept any responsibility for his own actions. In fact, he blames the gods for almost every sour fate that he comes across, even though his killings are very much his own decisions and actions. Kratos was obviously brutal in the first game, but the second game brings him to new levels of psychosis. Seriously, look at this shit (MASSIVE GAMEPLAY AND PLOT SPOILERS): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5YBl0QJERQ

In conclusion, Kratos is one crazy motherfucker.

-Daniel