[REVIEW] Freedom Fall

James Davenport 
(PC [REVIEWED]) 

The only conscious emotion I felt while playing Freedom Fall was a banal curiosity. It is completely subpar in nearly every respect: the platforming is loose and float-y, the level design is repetitive, and the art feels kitschy, borrowing heavily from Bastion and pie-in-the-sky Platonic cartoonism. Freedom Fall’s only saving grace is a hearty narrative drive that playfully coerced me through the otherwise forgettable experience.

You are a prisoner in the sky. A tower reaching into the clouds is your cell, and your task is to escape. How do you accomplish this daring feat of brawn and bravery? The answer: avoid spikes and flame-breathing dragon statues. If you know what video games are, then chances are this is nothing new, and it’s been done better. The only differentiating conception is that the majority of the platforming is vertical, rather than mom and pop’s traditional side-scrolling comfort food.

The verticality harms the gameplay more than anything. Given the wide viewing-angle of most monitors and televisions these days, horizontal side-scroller design just makes sense. Obstacles enter the player’s field of vision earlier, thereby allowing the player to react appropriately. In Freedom Fall, the player can’t see what lies ahead unless they stand still and hold up or down, which isn’t the most exhilarating mechanic despite its good intentions.

Even if the player reacts appropriately to a given obstacle, it isn’t a signed-sealed-delivered guarantee for success. The hitboxes are a mess; that, or in some sweeping canonical whiff over my head, the air around fire, spikes, and arc-lightning is just as lethal as its neighbors. None of this is to say that vertical platforming can’t be done well (see VVVVV), but in Freedom Fall, I felt painfully constricted. Constricted by a holistic mechanical failure, and cheapened further by flashy wrapping-paper.

The narrative heartbeat’s flicker only exacerbates the game’s flaws. Upon the player’s first few flops downward, they’ll notice some crude graffiti etched on the wall…bearing a MESSAGE! *dramatic whirl* And since this thread is the game’s final saving grace, I won’t delve too much into it, other than to state this: it has heart and some pretty solid potential to tell a sweet moving story, but it ultimately falls flat and joins the majority of games’  boring narratives in the Badguy/Boss-fight clearance section somewhere way in the back between piles of blank CD-RWs and JCVD single-DVD movie combos (tragic, I know).

But remember: I was compelledby the narrative. It may not have had much payoff–well, no payoff–but at least it dragged me through an otherwise banal experience with only a few I’m hungry’s and Are we there yet’s. And for some designers cracking out the pockets of air in their young mitts, I say, keep it up. Because, there may not be much here worth seeing, but Freedom Fall is the early stage of budding talent…probably…maybe…well, what’s the hurt in hoping so?

[REVIEW] Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams

Christopher Sheridan

(PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC [REVIEWED])

The Giana Sisters have been around for a lot longer than many gamers may realize. They first saw the light of day in the late eighties on the Commodore 64, and continued in spirit with unofficial sequels and a remake on the DS, though an official second outing never really came to fruition. That changed earlier this year when developer Black Forest Games started a Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight campaign to finish production on a sequel. I had never heard of any of this, but after seeing Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams trip a couple of times, but ultimately show modern platformers how it’s done, I’m glad things turned out the way they did.

A peaceful holiday for Giana and her sister is interrupted when Maria is sucked into the dream world by a dragon, with Giana in hot pursuit. As a teenager, Giana has the ability to transform into “Cute” and “Punk” versions of herself at will, which also changes the dreamworld and the nature of her enemies. Each version of Giana has different abilities.  Cute Giana twirls and glides, while Punk Giana dashes and attacks. Using both of her forms, finding secrets in the large levels, and traversing the hazards of the dream world will all be necessary if she is to save her sister.

The way the environment in Giana Sisters will suddenly change with the girl is fantastic. Pillars crumble, bridges break, plants wither and die, and roots turn to skeletons as the word takes on a dark, rusty hue. Switch back and the entire world springs to life again and vibrant color returns to the world. Sometimes it’s easy to just get caught randomly switching to observe the dynamic change in the surroundings. With the visual change comes a shift in the audio, as well. The song remains the same, but the instruments fluidly change without missing a single beat. Cheery electric guitar gives way to colder synthesizers, but the upbeat music remains the same at its core. It’s an ingenious mechanic.

The changing environment serves more than just an attractive aesthetic, however. At times, changes to the environment are necessary to progress: the dead world’s demolished well clears a path to the next part of the level, certain platforms can only be used in the living world, and deadly piranhas will change into traversible turtles in the living world, allowing the sister to get across the lake of acid. It becomes something of a puzzle at times, trying to figure out which persona and/or environmental change is necessary to progress.

The puzzles themselves are generally pretty good, with most being easy enough to allow for a generally breezy speed run of the levels. Others, however, are abstract and non-intuitive, creating some situations in which you may spend quite a while attempting to make the same impossible jump before realizing that there is an entirely different necessary method for progressing. These are uncommon, but like in any other game in which these issues appear, it brings the game to a screeching halt. For the most part, however, the puzzles generally require some clever usage of abilities, and it feels good to conquer them.

Things are further mixed up with the addition of boss battles. These require much more creative thinking, considering that Punk Giana’s dash attack doesn’t always work against the bosses, so timely shifting to take advantage of environmental hazards is a must. These can get frustrating, as they usually take a while, but it’s also nice to get a break from the standard platforming. It would have been preferable, however, for the bosses to have their own levels instead of being tacked onto the end of the existing levels, merely for replay purposes.

The changing environment wouldn’t be nearly as impressive if the game didn’t feature such a beautiful art design. While there has been a resurgence in hand-drawn 2D sprites, Giana Sisters makes a strong case for the 2.5D style of platforming composed of 3D models and environments while traversal remains on a 2D plane. Sharp graphics, sumptuous colors, and a creative environment make the game great to look at. The engine was developed in-house at Black Forest games, and it certainly looks attractive enough to be used in later titles.

Despite the game’s rather short length, there are a handful of additional modes to increase longevity that revolve around the same levels. For purists, there are time and score attack modes that focus on specific benchmarks in contrast with the generally leisurely pace of the main game. If the challenge of those modes is not adequate, there are two hardcore modes: one that does not have any level checkpoints, and one which doesn’t have any game restarts: if you die, you restart the game. There are a couple of other holiday-themed levels as well, but it’s still easy to hope for some additional DLC sometime in the future.

Despite having no knowledge of the series, I enjoyed my time with Twisted Dreams. While it’s all familiar territory in terms of general mechanics, the world shifting mechanic is what makes the game a little more special. Some tightening up of some of the other basic elements would have made a true gem, but as it is, this game is yet another solid entry in the new revival of platformers. Black Forest Games has a bright future.  

[REVIEW] Awesomenauts

Leighton Lagerwerf
(PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC [REVIEWED])

At first glance, I knew this game was not my glass of scotch. At second glance, I still knew this wasn’t my game. After my third look, and with a few drinks in me due to the previous glances, this game finally started to look good.

The story basically involves a waging war between the red and blue armies over a liquid metal known as “Solar”. The armies attempt to ensure victory by hiring mercenaries to fight at their disposal. The Awesomenauts are these mercenaries; hired to do the dirty work, and to take the heat for it as well; not so awesome at all. The story lacks since it is an online game, but some more back story to each character would have sufficed instead.

The graphics are not demanding at all, so the market for this game is vast. To elaborate more on the graphics, the game comes off like a Saturday morning cartoon. The game is narrated like it would in the said cartoon sense. The controls are not of a foreign origin, they are simply comprised of using the age-old “W, A, S, D” for movement and the mouse for aiming. When it comes to games I am always critiquing the graphics. The graphics are usually the deciding factor and with Awesomenauts it manages to pass the test.

Awesomenauts gives the player the choice of playable characters. I should have mentioned this previously: it is strictly online-based with 3-on-3 matches. The first mission the game allows you to play is the typical training mission, and story orientation. Afterwards, you unlock the choice to enter practice matches, as well as online matches. The option for a quick match is present as well, in order to appease those who are impatient. At first, this was not so appealing, but after a few matches and some getting used to the controls, it became fun.

As you progress via winning matches, you gain experience, which of course leads to leveling up. As you level up, you unlock more maps for online play, as well as more playable characters. Each character has a certain skill that can be used in combat, but the only downside is that you are required to purchase these skills before use. Purchases in this game are done at the in-game store using currency that is picked up after killing an enemy bot, or player. This level-up way of playing has been seen multiple times over, but the addition of a prestige was too much in my opinion. To some it may be great to reach the highest rank, and then restart to do it all over again, but to me that is a waste of valuable time.

If you wish to succeed in any conflict this game throws at you, then start off each match by collecting mass amounts of Solar tokens that are spread across the map and dropped by enemies. This will grant you the choice to purchase upgrades that increase the effectiveness of your special skills or attacks in general. Everything after that will come with ease.

The maps themselves are not large which makes traversing from base to base, or turret to turret, less tedious and more engaging. The addition of a third party is a great balance to the matches, as well. This third party includes the alien natives of the map that drop health globes upon being killed. There is an alien “boss” that drops Solar tokens and a larger health globe, but it’s considerably difficult to kill. 

All together, with the main attraction of online gameplay, and a diverse character and map selection, Awesomenauts is a well-rounded and built MOBA for the not-so-demanding gamer that wants to sit down and play something fun.

Rayman Legends: The Future of Platforming

Mat Paget

To me, the present state of side-scrolling platformers is dismal. That’s not to say there haven’t been gems in recent years, but it seems that the genre in general is taking a path that just isn’t any fun. New Super Mario Bros. Wii started the trend of being able to “grief” your friends while playing. Although this was funny at first, it can be really annoying if one of the players decides to go rogue. And with the added feature of the Wii U’s touchscreen, they’ve brought “griefing” to the next-generation with New Super Mario Bros. U. But thankfully, there’s a light at the end of this narrow tunnel, and it’s coming from Rayman Legends.

Rayman Origins was a good game. It did allow players to “grief” each other, which was beyond annoying when playing with a group of friends, but it was also one of the best looking games of last year. Also, the game shone most when played as a single-player experience, as the platforming becomes extremely tricky in the second half of the game. It’s one of those games I would love to see more of, but the poor release date convinced me that this was a one-time thing. Fortunately for everyone, Rayman has earned himself another adventure. And the best part about this new entry is, surprisingly enough, the multiplayer.

Picking up the Wii U Pro Controller felt familiar, even though there were some noticeable differences from the Xbox 360’s controller. It is considerably lighter than the aforementioned controller, but that’s not why I’m mentioning it. The best thing about this controller is its D-pad; I was bummed out that I had to return home to inferior D-pads. The only thing that I didn’t like about the controller is how light it is; I like a bit of weight to my controllers. However, getting to the point, this game will benefit exponentially from the Pro controller’s D-pad.

Anyway, let’s jump into the gameplay. In my first demo, I played as Rayman, and the demo-guide played as Murfy, a fly-like character who helps Rayman along the way by utilizing the Wii U Gamepad. Murfy can cut ropes, knock down enemies, push and pull platforms, as well as use slingshots to shoot Rayman to new areas, or protect him from enemies such as dragons. The majority of this is done on the touchscreen, but at times you’ll need to rotate platforms, which is done by turning the controller itself. The way you’ll be able to work together with one person doing the platforming, and the other assisting on the Gamepad is absolutely fantastic in two ways. Less-skilled players won’t have to worry about holding their friend back, as Murfy doesn’t actually platform, but instead flies around. Also, no griefing between Rayman and Murfy.

The game not only felt fantastic to play, but it was also very pleasant on the eyes. It still shocks me at how beautiful it looks; I had no idea platformers could look this good. As good as the characters and platforming playground look, it’s the background details that are the most eye-catching. With dragons flying around, and even the details in the dungeon, it is a strikingly beautiful game.

But of course, you can see that for yourselves in any of the videos online. What many people have been asking about is the “Platforming Hero” level where you run through the level while a song is being played, and it seems like a platforming-rhythm game hybrid. How exactly does it work? Does it work? Is it just as cool if you’re not very coordinated when it comes to these types of games? These are all questions I’ve heard, and have even asked myself. Well, I can answer all of those questions, as I played through this demo several times just to experience that part “one more time.”

So, throughout the entirety of this level, you MUST be running. As the person controlling Rayman is running, the player controlling Murfy taps giant, pink eyes as they open throughout the level to play a part in the percussion. That’s where the actual rhythm-game part stops, as the rest of the music serves as more of a metronome than anything; it’s there to help you time your jumps and attacks. Experienced players will have no problem with the level, and will have an absolutely amazing experience. But unfortunately, players with little experience in the genre could have a rather frustrating time. I made it through the level without having to restart, but I noticed several other people becoming rather annoyed at some of the obstacles.

Seeing this hurt me a little. That level in particular is an amazing experience, and being a part of making it through the level without dying is an awesome feeling. However, thanks to the Gamepad, younger and inexperienced players will be able to play a part in this absolutely wonderful game. Everything I’ve seen of this game so far has shouted me to that this is the future of platforming. Not only does this make the purchase of a Wii U seem more appealing, but it also uses the Wii U’s unique features in really intelligent ways. One can only hope that when Rayman Legends hits stores, it is filled with the same kind of awesome moments that the demo featured.