Red Faction Armageddon Review

I’m determined to keep the Armageddon puns to a minimum in this review…so no Bruce Willis jokes, Aerosmith songs or comments about Ben Affleck.

The newest entry in the Red Faction franchise Armageddon leads off with the grandson of the formers games protagonist on a mission to protect the device that makes mars habitable. Needless to say he fails and everyone has to go hide underground because of the lacks of air, and horrific weather on the surface. He’s then tricked by some bad guys into opening a hidden chamber where loads of bugs live. It’s never really explained why there a tons of bugs underground, and one audio log and text in the instruction manual suggest they aren’t the old inhabitants of Mars, but aliens themselves, which just adds more confusion as to what the hell they’re doing down there.

Also as a note to silly story…you open one tunnel that’s blocking them underground…and then the bugs escape down a completely different tunnel which connects to human settlements. So why hadn’t they already escaped?

Theresa lot of new stuff to the series, from the repair tools and repair grenades, to the advanced powers of the nano forge…which include a Kinetic energy burst (means you don’t need the games signature sledgehammer anymore…not that you need it to destroy stuff anymore – see below), a power that suspends enemies in the air, a power that gives you a protective shield and the ability to go “berserk” and increase damage. Also new is the magnet gun, which is great fun. Its awesome to stick one to a monster and another to the ceiling 200 metres up just to get it out of your hair for a few seconds to reload. The combat walkers are also good fun.
Anyway, Red Faction is a game that has always been about blowing stuff up. And the superb physics engine from the previous game, Guerrilla, is still in place. On the first mission there are the familiar EDF bunkers, barracks and guard towers from the last game to blow up and everything feels great. With the ability to rebuild everything you destroy you are a little less carefully about blowing up walkways you might need. Blowing up buildings from under enemies, removing their cover still feels great.

However you then get to the second mission. And then the third mission. And every mission after that. These pretty much all consist of underground tunnels, or enclosed spaces shooting bugs off of walls. Anyone who’s played the mission “Cortana” on High Charity at the end of Halo 3 will feel right at home. It’s about shooting bugs that jump from wall to wall and shoot at you, walls which are generally curved and that orangey-red colour. And everyone now and then a beefy tank bug turns up. It just feels very familiar. And gets a bit boring. The one mission against human enemies is a refreshing change of pace, but is gone as quickly as it comes. Gone is the free range-ness of the last game to do missions as you want and mess around blowing stuff up. It’s now a series of linear corridor turkey shoots against the same bugs over and over again. Even the building destruction is mostly gone, and when it’s there it’s not enjoyable in the same way, as it doesn’t feel necessary. In Guerrilla missions of blowing up buildings and bridges, setting charges in key places and watching it come down was very enjoyable and rewarding. Now there’s only a few building you ever have to destroy, and most of those are very flimsy comms towers. As mentioned there’s no need to carry the games signature weapon, the sledgehammer because you’ll never need it unless you want to melee with the giant bugs

In here lies Armageddon’s main problem – It’s the little brother to a Guerrilla. It has the same mechanics and options available to it, but chooses not to use its best bits. By taking the emphasis away from destruction the game feels weakened. It’s not a bad game by any means; I’m playing it through a 2nd time now, and it’s still enjoyable. But unlike Guerrilla I won’t be keeping it or coming back to it
The destruction is still there…it’s just in a tacked on extra mode, set in small arenas against the clock or time free, but isn’t the same. Also you only get this mode if you buy a new copy, or pay a few quid extra for it, the games way of joining the increasing trend on games manufacturers fighting the pre-owned market.
Also clearly missing is the competitive multiplayer. In Guerrilla this was great, combining the destruction and carnage of the game with the world of online shooting. And it was good. In its place is a 4 player Horde wave survival mode, which doesn’t hold as much fun I must say. Again, its not bad, but feels like a poor cover up for the missing multiplayer.

In summary…it’s not a bad game. It’s just not an outstanding game. To me Guerrilla was an outstanding game. And that’s why once I’ve wrung the achievements out of Armageddon it’ll be on the trade in pile waiting for something good. And I’ll go back and replay Guerrilla for the 5th time. Because that game shows how it’s supposed to be done.

7.5/10

Game Review - Portal 2 (cont)

Co-Op time!

Having had a bit longer with the game I have now played co-op through (3 times with 3 seperate people in fact) and got all 1000 gamerscore, first time i've managed that with a full retail game in a while.

Co-op...is a bit good and a bit bad.

The good is the puzzles. Adding a 2nd player, and another 2 portals to play with, the puzzle get big, and complex. By the last few they are a real puzzler for a good while.

The C-op controls are great as well. In addition to normal controls you can view your friends view in a PiP screen at the push of a button. You can also "ping" locations on the course using a button, to highlight what you're talking about or where you want portal. You can also set up a stopwatch function, so you time actions exactly. This last one is particularly useful, as sometimes there can be lag between speaking and the other person hearing it, but accoridng to Valve, the clock is consistant between players

The Bad? Its not as engaging. Yes i've played it through 3 times, but mostly by chatting away. After the first play through you've seen and heard it all, and unlike the single player, it doesn't hold re-playability. Glados' commentary and comments are no where near as engaging as in the single player in Portal 1 or 2, and often fall a little flat.

First time play through? 6-7 hours. Every successive play through, thanks to knowledge on the puzzles...3-4.

Portal 2 Co-Op - 7.5 out of 10

So overall Portal garners an 8.5 out of 10. It's funny...if they'd just released the single player it would have got a higher score...even though its shorter!

Also Valve today announced free DLC for the game, in the form of single and multi player challenge chambers. And apparantly it's going to be free, which is always a big tick in my book...seeing as i'm paying 1200 points for CoD maps in a few days...

40k stuff, I will hope to get an update tomorrow, and soon a review on the Gears 3 beta....

Game Review - Portal 2

40K's been on the back burner for a bit...work, games, in-laws visit.

But heres a review for one of the best games i've played in a loooong time. Portal 2

Portal 1 was a revelation. A tiny tech demo almost, that didn't have a story until towards the end, that sparked a huge amount of interest. The humour was sarcastic and dark, perfect for my SoH. The puzzle were mostly great, requiring thought in 4 dimensions and timing on top of that. Some of the exacting timing puzzles were a pain.

Luckily they're mostly gone in Portal 2. No more high energy bouncing pellets to time opening doors for perfectly. Just lots more 4D puzzles. With over 50 test chambers, as opposed to the 19 in game 1, and lots more behind the scenes action its a lot longer. Still, its a little short (about 7 hours) but thats just the single player, i haven't touched co-op yet.

Portal 2 starts with you waking up after being asleep at the end of portal 2 for 9999999... days. You're woken up by the wonderfuly...odd Wheatley (voiced to perfection by Stephen Merchant), who warns you theres a slight chance you might have a severe case of brain damage. From the minute hes asks you to say your name and all you do is jump, the game sets off more of the savagely dark, sarcastic and hilarious comedy.

As the years have passed Apaerture science is in a bad way. But the test chambers from portal 1, act as a tutorial for the game, and seeing them in a new light (usually firelight) brings a lot home. Eventually you go kilometers under the earth and see the original testing centres from when Aperture opened, and was mostly a shower curtain manufaturing company. Here you're guided by Cave Johnson, again perfectly writen and voiced (by the chap who plays J. J. Jameson in the spidermans).

Shortly put this game is brilliant. Theres much more comedy this time, the story is more developed and the puzzles less annoying, but more challenging.

Waiting for my mate to get his copy so i can jump into co-op, but just on a single player front, definently worth a buy, if not a rent.

You won't regret it

9/10

Game Review - Homefront

Game Review - Homefront (or why you should never buy a game which advertises its best review coming from a lad/softcore porn mag)

Homefront, for those of you who don't know is an FPS set around the American Underground resistance in a North Korean Occupied United States. Its story was written by the same guy who wrote the movies "Red Dawn" and "Apocolypse Now". So as far as stories go, it should be promising.I'm a guy that loves a strong narative in a game, which is why Bioshock is so highly held in my eyes, as it the overarching Gears of War and Halo series are.

And it is good...sort of. Without giving too much away it features some grand set ups, some good developments, but at the same time some "twists" that are so obvious if you didn't see them coming the Korean Propaganda has obviously worked,

Never the less the single player is a good well rounded game, with some huge problems.

1) Its way too short - I played through normal in under 3 hours because i couldn't find how to change the difficulty (its hidden in the options menu, only accessable from the front menu)

2)Ordered Sequences - There are some times in the game where you need to climb down a ladder, or crawl through a hole. So you try to. Only problem is your teammates need to go through first. So you're left standing next to the hole you want to crawl through, while your teammates slowly wander over and climb through. Even worse is, if you stand in front of the door your supposed to walk through, even if guy number 1 has gone through, if you block guy number 2 he can't go through so you can't go through. It just heavily breaks the feeling of immersion

3)Special Grenades. In single player (we'll get to multi in abit) it introduces you to special greandes in the first mission. Here its C4 you throw through a window and blow up an APC. Great. You never find any or use it ever again. Or any other special greande. Kinda wonder what the point in that was.

4) Walking/Dialogue sections - In the early game there are sections of long dialogue where you slowly walk around the village, or ride a bus. These take about 5 minutes and are unskippable. If you want all the achievements in the game, you'll probably need to play each mission at least twice (unless you're a gaming god and can complete each mission on the hardest setting without dying once). They just take forever and break it up even more.

5) The Ending. Through out the early game you have control of "Goliath" a drone APC that fires it machine guns at enemies automatically and you fire its missiles at targets you designate. Eventually goliath bites it. At the very end of the game, the last 2 things you do are - Fire a Predator UAV at some white blobs in a unchallenging boring version of the C130 bits from CoD. And then you become the gunner on an APC and have to blow up the enemy Goliath. So basically the last great firefight moment is an onrails shooter, with a infinite ammo machine gun and pressed the button to activate missile countermeasures (on a Humvee? Really?) every 10 seconds or so. And then the highly cliched predicatable ending rolls.

They (the developers) have said there will be 2 single player DLC content packs, with 3 new missions each. So in 2 packs, you get the same number of missions as the game itself has.

Multiplayer

The Multiplayer isn't bad. Could have used a bit more testing, and the menus are annoying (pressing B doesn't drop you out, you have to go and select the option...just irritating).

Also it can't seem to decide if it wants to be a realistic military shooter (like GRAW, or Operation Flashpoint) or a more arcadey style (like CoD). Guns are better set at their ranges, so SMG win at short range, assault at mid, snipers at long (I'll get to snipers in a minute) and going prone helps aim and chances, but at the same time a guy running round with a pistol has a good chance of beating you at long range and runing, jumping and circle strafing work just as well

Snipers...are another problem. They're strong (1 headshot, or 2 torsoshots), they have virtually no recoil, aiming down the sights has little to no movement for "breathing" and are semi automatic. Brilliant for people who snipe. I call those people...something I can't repeat. Yes accurate that snipers rule open areas, but with no drawbacks they seem to rule anything they want.

A good idea in the game is "BP". Working like XP you earn points for every kill you make, objective you capture etc. Each class comes with 2 special purchase slots, which range from UAV sweeps and extra armour, to bombing runs and gun drones. This is a really good system for rewarding good gameplay, as even if you don't get a high killstreak, you still earn points towards goodies, meaning people who win the matches just by claiming objectives get rewards as well as those who run in crazy and get kills.

These BP can also be spent on vehicles in some matches. From the humble humvee (which seems to be missing the missile countermeasures suddenly) to APC's, Tanks and 2 types of helicopters. The game also offers a brilliant option of spawning in the secondary gun seat in someones vehicle, so if you buy a chopper you donj't need to waste time on the ground waiting for someone else to get in.

However the vehicles (particularly the choppers, especially the missile spewing AT chopper) don't seem balenced. Almost impervious to small arms fire thanks to height and armour they have only 2 weaknesses...proximity rockets (rockets that fire in straight lines, but explode if they sense they're close to something) and AT drones, which have lock on missiles. However the neither of these purchaseables are unlockable until about Level 30. The AT drone isn't in any of the premade selections, and the proximity launcher in one of them. Oh and the chopper does have counter measures, which recharge faster than the rockets on the drone do. Also at a high enough level you can have a perk which means you vehicle automatically repairs itself. I understand that the chopper is a significant BP investment (about 2000 points, when you get 130 for a kill) but its just doen'st seem to die. At least drones have a battery life before they fail.

It also seems to favour the higher ranked more than other FPS games do. At higher ranks you unlock better things, like better airstrikes, perks and customised vehicle slots. These just make it easier to dominate the lesser being who are just starting. Example? When you start you have the option of a hell strike purchasable. 2 single shot missiles that damage light armour (kill a humvee in one though)and kill infantry if you hit them directly. At rank 17 you get a white phosphorus mortar round. large area, kills lot of infantry (rarely do I see one of these that doesn't kill at least 2 people) but doesn't do much against vehicles. At rank 40ish you get cluster bombs. Large area, kills anything under it, infantry or vehicles included. Now I understand you need to reawrd hgiher ranking players, but it just feels like a newcomer to this game in say, a month is going to have a serious uphill struggle to get into the game.

Also some of the capture and control maps seem a little one sided. In all the game i've played on most of them one team always wins that round. But maybe thats just fluke.

Anyway in review Homefront isn't a bad game. Its just short, with some good multiplayer innovations, but could use a few tweaks.

And its arbitary grade out of 10? 7.5. Rent it, borrow it, see what you think, then if you like the multiplayer buy it. But do it quick before every online is ranked Lv50.