Scorpion Is On His Way To Injustice: Gods Among Us

Mat Paget

And just as the Internet forum prophets predicted, Scorpion is indeed coming to NetherRealm’s DC fighter. If you’re not familiar with who Scorpion is, you’re not familiar with NetherRealm’s other fighting franchise — oh, you know… a little-known series called Mortal Kombat.

To properly bring the demon warrior of the deceased Shirai Ryu into the world of DC Comics, Jim Lee designed a brand new look for Scorpion. Not only is it a brand new look designed by Jim Lee, but the team at NetherRealm Studios also went through the trouble of recording new lines (including some for the Clash system), and a brand new cutscene for his Super move — if you were worried they’d just be throwing the Scorpion you know from Mortal Kombat (2011), no need to worry anymore. Aside from the things that make Scorpion what he is today, this isn’t a re-skinning of an old character.

For Wii U owners feeling left out, Polygon has also reported that Nintendo’s latest console will receive DLC for Injustice at the beginning of the summer.

Scorpion will be available to all those who purchased the Season Pass to Injustice: Gods Among Us. For those who didn’t purchase it, you’re looking at a price tag of $4.99 or 400 MSP from the PlayStation Store or Xbox Live Marketplace respectively.

Also, if you stick around until the end of the trailer, you might find out who the next DLC character will be… might…

Fans Nag Ed Boon, Get Mortal Kombat On PC

Mat Paget

My mom always told me nagging doesn’t get you anything.

If you follow Ed Boon on Twitter (@noobde), then you’ll know that he has been constantly nagged for NetherRealm’s latest fatality-filled fighting game to come to PC ever since it was announced. Well, those wishful fans may finally have what they’ve wanted all along.

High Voltage Software is porting Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition to PC, which will include all four downloadable characters–Scarlet, Kenshi, Rain, and Freddy Krueger–; classic fatalities for Scorpion, Sub Zero, and Reptile; and a slew of classic skins.

Polygon reports that the PC version of Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition will also support controllers (obviously), as well as the Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition Fight Stick. I’d assume that it would work with the Klassic Fight Stick as well, but can’t confirm this.

Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition will be coming to PC digitally on July 3, and in retail stores on August 6.

[REVIEW] Injustice: Gods Among Us

Mat Paget

(PlayStation 3 [REVIEWED], Xbox 360, Wii U)

NetherRealm Studios is back with Injustice: Gods Among Us, the developer’s newest fighting game that isn’t Mortal Kombat — but totally is. There’s no doubting that the similarities between Injustice and Mortal Kombat are striking, but the newest DC fighter does a lot to try to be its own entity. And although it doesn’t exactly work in all aspects, as it’s really easy to put together the pieces and see Mortal Kombat, the actual fighting in Injustice is the best the developer has put out so far–even if you do recognize Reptile’s Slide, or Ermac’s Force Lift–and proves that the developer can create a fighting game that feels great without the need of Fatalities, or intense, brutal violence.

When it comes to the fighting, there are some key differences — like holding back to block instead of a designated button. For instance, when on an edge of the screen, hitting back and the heavy attack button at the same time will trigger a level transition, resulting in a really satisfying, oftentimes hilarious scene of a character being tossed through the environment, hitting pretty much everything on the way there. Once the fighting starts up again, there’ll be a whole new area for you to fight in, giving the players a bunch of new objects to interact with. For example, if there’s a barrel present, a stronger character can throw that over their head at his opponent, while other characters will have to live with rolling it. Some of the more acrobatic characters, such as Batman, can also use these interactive objects to move around the arena.

Those are just two of the things that can turn the tide of battle in a really significant way. If you’re on your second bar of health, you can initiate the Clash system; this combo-breaking mechanic will send both players to opposite ends of the screen, where you’ll be able to wager any number of bars you have filled of your power meter. If you wager more bars than your opponent, you win the Clash, granting you a special bonus that either regenerates your health, or deals damage to your opponent. It’s a really fantastic system that has turned the tables a lot more than once. Of course, this uses up your meter, which will prevent you from being able to use your Super move.

The Super moves are similar to the X-Ray moves in Mortal Kombat in the way they’re triggered in the same way, as well as the fact that a cutscene is played. What’s different is that instead of an intense scene filled to the brim with one of the most brutal, violent beatdowns seen in a videogame, you get an over-the-top, cinematic scene that  demonstrates exactly what makes the hero so powerful. These moves are, at times, awe-inspiring, but some characters do feel like they were given the short end of the stick, even if it does feel like it’s at the character’s fault — a character like Catwoman just can’t perform the feats that a hero like Superman can achieve.

The fighting itself is really great, too. It’s a bit more combo-focused than Mortal Kombat, meaning you won’t be able to get by on just special moves. But saying that, it’s probably the most accessible fighter released so far, as you’re able to tag moves and combos to the HUD in single player; this is actually really helpful, as it’s a quick reference if you just haven’t been able to memorize every single combo. The fighting animations are also very fluid, running at sixty frames per second, and the game looks absolutely marvelous in action. In fact, it actually looks better during the gameplay, then it does in the story mode’s cutscenes. And the arena falling apart in the background looks fantastic, and makes it feel like there’s a lot more weight behind every attack.

The story mode is a lot like the one you’d find in NetherRealm’s previous two fighters, where it moves seamlessly from cutscene to fighting, and then back to cutscene. The new addition to this mode comes in the form of small minigames that take place right before a fight; these games all have to do with hitting the designated buttons that show up on the screen. Every successful button prompt, you take away some of your opponent’s health before the fight, and start with a nice advantage. But if you mess up one too many times, you can lose health before the action begins. These don’t really add much to experience, as they are just minigames, but some of them are actually a bit of silly fun.

The story itself will be a mixed bag for those who come to this game. For fans of the DC Universe, it’s a really great story that is sure to entertain. But for those who aren’t exactly fans of the series, it may not hit in quite the same way. The Joker tricked Superman into killing Lois Lane and his unborn child, pushing Superman past his limits. Superman kills The Joker, triggering a chain of events that eventually turns him into a fascist dictator that isn’t afraid of killing ex-Justice League members if they get in his way. Batman, of course, isn’t too fond of this, so he rebels against the Regime. Also, dimension/alternate timeline-hopping plays a big part in it. The best part of the story is seeing characters like Harley Quinn fight on Batman’s side, as well as characters like Nightwing and Catwoman side with Superman — if you have any familiarity with these characters, you’ll probably find these dynamics pretty interesting as well.

If you’re not one to spend a lot of time on multiplayer, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a lot more than just the story to occupy yourself with. Battles replace what is normally referred to as Ladder or Arcade Mode. The cool thing about Battles, though, is the number of options you have to choose from. You can go with Classic, where you choose a character, the difficulty, and fight through ten characters. Or you can go with one of the other choices, such as Heroes Only, which should be pretty self explanatory; Random Fighter, which forces you to fight each opponent with a randomly chosen character; Speed Run, where you have to defeat all of your opponents in under two minutes; and Impossible, a mode where you only have one life bar for all of the fights. These variations on the classic “Ladder” or “Arcade Mode” seen in other fighting games is really appreciated, and adds a good variety of challenges that are all pretty fun to mess around with, even if I’m never going to be able to make it through some of them.

And the single-player content doesn’t stop there. S.T.A.R. Labs adds 240 missions players will be able to play through, with ten for each character in the game. If you’re familiar with Mortal Kombat‘s Challenge Tower, then you’ll have the basic idea of what this is. This time, each mission has three stars you’ll be able to collect — yes, exactly like Angry Birds. Each star is attained by completing a specific sub-objective, which can include things like “Throw 6 Times,” or “Don’t Move Backwards.” The game challenging you to not move backwards usually happens in some of the more unique missions; these more unique missions include, but are not limited to, moving from one side of the screen to the other without being detected, playing a minigame similar to Asteroids, and cracking a safe by beating it senseless. The only criticism I have is that the mission details for collecting the three stars are hidden away in the menu, and not more apparent when you start each new mission.

Throughout all this, you’re collecting XP which will allow you to unlock Access Cards and Armory Keys, as well as new portraits, backgrounds, and icons for your Hero Card. The Access Cards and Armoy Keys are used for unlocking things like Concept Art, Music, and Costumes in the Archives. Another use for Access Cards is similar to that of what you’d find in a micro-transaction-laden iOS game. Thankfully, there are no actual micro-transactions in this game. Instead, you can just use Access Cards to give you an XP boost for a designated number of matches. Your Hero Card is a customizable card that you can take into the multiplayer to represent yourself, much like Call of Duty’s Player Card.

And the multiplayer is not lacking, either, as you’ll see when first starting it up. The game gives you Daily Challenges to complete online, which normally consist of defeating a certain number of one character with another character — for example, defeat five Sinestro players with Green Lantern for 5000 XP. There’s the classic 1V1, and King of the Hill (or KOTH) returns from Mortal Kombat with a new wager system that allows you to bet on each match, but there’s also a mode called Survivor. Survivor works just like King of the Hill in every respect, but the “Survivor” doesn’t regain his health after every match. And thankfully, the online runs really smoothly and I didn’t experience any lag at all, though I’m sure this won’t always be the case due to varying internet connections with other players.

If you’re having trouble against some characters, online or off, then the Training mode is going to be a lot of help to you. With the ability to record combos and then play them back, you can practice trying to get out of a combo that was put together by a real person, instead of an A.I. sparring partner. This feature alone makes the training mode worth playing in. And for those who get right down to the nitty gritty of fighting games, you can take a look at the information that’s under the hood like frame data, from start-up and recovery frames, to the hit and block advantages. I’m not one to take advantage of information such as this–nor do I really understand how to utilize it in my favour–, but for the players that are looking to be competitive, it’s all there for them.

Let me get this out of the way first: I am a huge fan of DC Comics, Mortal Kombat, and fighting games in general. A DC fighting game that is highly derivative of Mortal Kombat is something I was very interested in upon seeing it for the first time. What I didn’t expect was it to be this good. The amount of quality content this game contains is staggering, the fighting and animation looks just as great as it feels, and the best thing of all is that it’s really easy to jump into and enjoy, so anyone that’s questioning whether or not they’d be able to enjoy a fighting game should stop questioning and start playing. Because no matter who comes to it, Injustice: Gods Among Us is one of the best fighting experiences available today.

[REVIEW] Guacamelee

Mat Paget
(PlayStation 3 [REVIEWED], Vita [REVIEWED])

Although the charm and humour stay relatively close to what DrinkBox Studios has been known for with the Tales From Space series, Guacamelee is a big step in a somewhat new direction for the developer. DrinkBox has put together a game where you play as a luchador in a Mexican-inspired Metroidvania world. On top of that, there’s a great melee combat system that helps the luchador Juan fight the undead in an attempt to save El Presidente’s daughter, who just so happens to be a woman he’s very much in love with. Humour. Luchadores. Great melee combat. Metroidvania. Sounds like a formula that’s bound to work, right? Not to mention that the title is a play on guacamole, which is delicious.

First up, let’s talk about the game’s combat. Upon receiving the luchador mask, players will be able to attack with the square button. This sets things up for a slew of combos that you’ll discover throughout the course of the game when collecting new powers. At first, fighting enemies consists of hitting, then grabbing and throwing with the triangle button. After unlocking new moves, and powers, there’ll be more variety in the combat; players will be able to grab an enemy, and perform moves such as suplexes and powerbombs. The powers will also give players the ability to perform specials moves, such as the Rooster Uppercut and Dashing Derpderp, that can further elongate the combos you’ll be able to perform. The game’s combat is surprisingly deep, becoming more and more similar to a fighting game, or AAA brawler, as you progress through the game.

The powers that you receive from smashing Choozo Statues–that will probably look familiar if you’ve played a Metroid game–also help you navigate the world, as well as get to new parts of it. This makes backtracking through levels you’ve previously visited worth it, as there are paths you won’t initially be able to take due to not having the correct power — these paths usually lead to a heart piece, a skull piece, or money. There are also a few ridiculously difficult platforming sections that players won’t be able to access, or complete, without some of the late-game powers. These sections prove tricky, and can even be a bit tiring, but ignoring these tests won’t cause you to miss out on the best parts of the game — the game will still deliver a generous helping of difficulty in the form of its boss battles. And if all that is still not enough for you, a hard difficulty is unlocked upon completing the game — and it’s definitely not lying when it calls itself hard.

There’s also a mechanic that switches the world you’re in to the Living version, or the Dead version, of it. This affects the platforming and combat in some pretty meaningful ways. At times, enemies can only be attacked in one of the two worlds, causing the player to have to switch between the two worlds to dispatch of them — enemies can hit the player regardless of the world they’re in. Switching worlds also changes up what platforms are available to jump on. The mechanic isn’t the most complicated, but it does shake things up to add a bit more strategy to the combat and platforming in a really great way.

And the game’s charm and humour are there throughout almost everything. You can learn some of the more complicated combos from a giant chicken, a man-goat will scold you for smashing his Choozo Statues, and there are references pretty much everywhere you look. The dialogue is also quite funny, oftentimes edging on silly, but very rarely serious. The side quests, in particular, hold a good variety of feelings to be had. One quest will have you chase down a treasure-stealing chicken, while another will have you reunite a sad, dead girl with the doll she used to play with as a child. These side quests can actually be a bit tricky to complete, as you may not actually know where to go, or what to do — and the game does very little to throw any hints in your direction.

Assisting the game’s charm are the fantastic sights and sounds of the game. The game’s look is very similar to that of Mutant Blobs Attack!!!, the developer’s last game; it’s a nice, hand-drawn style that looks especially fantastic when the characters are in motion. It makes the flashing neon scenes when unlocking a new power–or starting a boss battle–stand out, and that much more awesome. You really need to see them for yourself.  And the music is fantastic as well; it consists of music that feels authentic to the Mexican setting, heavily involving trumpets backed by the rhythm of guitars. There are even some hints of electronic music in there that really put a nice touch on the game’s already fantastic soundtrack.

Probably one of the coolest things about this game is the fact that you can play it on the PlayStation 3, while using the Vita as a controller. Think the Wii U: the controls are the exact same as the Vita version, but the world map is now on the Vita’s screen, while the television hosts the gameplay. Although the actual way to get this working is longer than it should be, especially if you want to play the game without a co-op partner, it’s a really awesome way to play the game; if you’re looking to explore every nook and cranny the game has to offer, and you already own both a Vita and a PlayStation 3, play the game like this. And although there is some noticeable latency between the gameplay and the touchscreen’s map, there is no latency at all between the Vita’s controls and the game that’s being played on the big screen.

Unfortunately, there are still a few minor issues you’ll experience if you decide to play the game without using the Cross-Controller Play feature. There are times when you’ll be facing off against a giant skeleton that will attack you by smashing his hands against the ground. During these encounters, you might experience the framerate dropping — thankfully, I only noticed this happening in one area of the game. A more serious, yet still uncommon issue is when the game just stops from proceeding during enemy encounters. Enemies will stop spawning, or the next sequence in a boss fight just won’t trigger, forcing you to quit back to the main menu — this occurred only twice during my first playthrough. I did not encounter either of these issues on the PlayStation 3, but they’re so uncommon that they shouldn’t stop you from playing the game however you want.

Guacamelee is a game that not only shines in one way, but in all of them. It’s actually hard to pinpoint the “main attraction” here. Is it the combat with its simple, yet surprisingly deep, fighting game-like combos that never get old, while the game throws new enemies that need to be defeated with different tactics at you? Is it that DrinkBox charm that the studio has taken to the next level? How about the music? Or just the fact that you’re a luchador playing in a Metroidvania playground? It’s rare for a game to exhibit such great gameplay in all regards, and contain humour that is actually laugh-out-loud funny. And despite its very few issues, Guacamelee is a fantastic game that you should definitely play — and that goes tenfold if you own a Vita.

[NEWS] Aquaman Is Confirmed For Injustice: Gods Among Us

Mat Paget

Today, IGN posted a reveal trailer for none other than the King of Atlantis himself, Aquaman! Now, before I get a bunch of people saying, “Aquaman is lame!” or any other ridiculous variant, I want to make it clear that Aquaman in DC’s The New 52 is actually a really great series. He’s an awesome hero and I, personally, am very happy that he’s joining the roster of super friends and foes.

The trailer also reveals more alternate costumes that are worn throughout the game’s story mode, and a look at Aquaman’s “super moves.” You can check out the trailer below.

Injustice: Gods Among Us is scheduled for release on April 16 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U.

[NEWS] Lex Luthor, Joker’s Voice Revealed In New Injustice Trailer

Mat Paget

Well, if you had no clue about the story of Injustice: Gods Among Us, then you’ll probably still be confused. But what this new trailer does officially reveal is Lex Luthor as a playable character; however, like the Joker and Green Lantern, there was no actual fighting gameplay shown of him.

Oh, and one more thing is revealed: Mark Hamill is definitely not doing the voice of The Joker.

You can expect Injustice: Gods Among Us to hit stores April 19 on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U. For now, check out the trailer below.

[REVIEW] Primordia

Blaine Arcade
(PC [REVIEWED])

One could claim that video games have more niches and subgenres than any other entertainment medium and that there’s no need for any two games to take up the same slot.  That’s why I initially suspected Primordia, from Wormwood Studios, was trying to steal Machinarium’s thunder.  Both games are point-and-click adventures starring robots in human-free wastelands, who wind up traveling to a city that’s just a few strips of duct tape short of being a scrap heap.  Luckily though, the similarities end there.

Primordia is very much its own animal.  Rather than acting as little plot trolleys, like the big-eyed doodle-bots in Machinarium, the characters in Primordia are so fleshed out that you get clear pictures of every little glitch in their minds and every little flake of rust on their shoulders.  Each character is broken in their own individual and endearing way; there’s the game’s protagonist, Horatio Nullbuilt, who avoids civilization like it runs on Windows Vista and seems to have had his memory wiped at least four times. We also have his sidekick Crispin Horatiobuilt, who constantly hounds his master to build him a pair of arms, so he’s not just a wise-cracking frisbee, floating behind the action. And then there’s Clarity Arbiterbuilt, whose devotion to the law is tantamount to insanity, but who still comes off as likable.  All of these hopeless basket cases pull me deep into Primordia’s rich but dusty world with the help of calm but competent voice acting.

The backgrounds evoke some of the darker animated films of the 1980s.  The style between areas is consistent, morbid, and distinct, as if taking a tour of an aquarium featuring many exotic but dead fish floating at the top of their tanks and moldering.  As a point-and-click game, the gameplay is simple and singularly focused on the backgrounds much of the time.  I ran into a few issues here and there that halted my progress and proved frustrating for ten to twenty minutes.  Occasionally, a background will be larger than you think because it doesn’t offer you an ‘exit’ option when your cursor scrolls over it like most sections of the game do.  So sometimes I felt like I was missing some crucial part of a puzzle instead of just strolling six more paces to the left.

The inventory can be a tad on the spotty side as well.  It will often deny you an item combination because the two ingredients weren’t combined in the correct ‘order’.  It may have been my imagination, but sometimes the game seemed not to accept some item combinations until I had gotten a bit of dialogue that ‘activated’ that part of the puzzle.  In addition to these slightly annoying design choices, there are a few spots in the game that could use some more aggressive and well-timed sound design.  There were some moments meant to be dramatic that fell flat because of awkward silences that suddenly made me feel like I was reading a comic strip rather than playing a game.

Primordia more than makes up for these issues with its lore, which often lets you dive as deep into the landfill of history as you like, and offers unique choices in the story.  After a while it became apparent that some puzzles are entirely optional and can give you a choice between tests of memory and logic, or, if you’re not feeling like straining your little gray cells, some more point-and-click exploration instead.  When I reached the game’s finale and fiddled around with my save points and some various choices, I discovered at least five different endings that range from happy, to tragic, to neutral, to ambiguous, and to violent.  The presence of an item I never found a use for convinces me there is at least one more ending I did not manage to reveal.

Primordia is the kind of game I miss.  We are somewhat awash in cartoonish, satirical, and humorous ideas these days that seek to respond to your button presses by tickling your funny bone.  Primordia has its fair share of clever quips (and one hilarious moment where you force a giant robot to pick its own nose) but most of the time its world is vast, quiet, dangerous, and besot with the hundreds of mental illnesses unique to malfunctioning machines (I must also mention some of the more obscure references to other fiction, like Tom Servo’s body in a junk pile, a bit of paper work from the film Brazil, and the fact that the robot swear word ‘b’sod’ is an acronym for blue-screen-of-death).

It’s a deep, sobering, surprisingly gripping, cold-swallowing, tale of a world forged in violence that’s rapidly cooling and cracking to dust.  Despite the familiar elements of the post-apocalypse and worlds populated by androids, I still find myself remembering the plights of Horatio, Clarity, and a dozen other unique machines every time I stare into Crispin’s eyes on the game’s desktop icon.

[REVIEW] Syndicate

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

One of the big new things these days seems to be rebooting classic franchises. Deus Ex, XCOM, and now Syndicate. While Deus Ex: Human Revolution and XCOM: Enemy Unknown stayed fairly close to their original incarnation, Starbreeze Studios has taken Syndicate in a completely different direction; instead of an isometric real-time strategy game, it has resurrected the series as an adrenaline-pumping, first-person shooter. It’s a difficult task, not to mention an unpopular one with many fans, but not only do they do a good job at it, they make a fantastic first-person shooter that never ceases to be entertaining, even during its more slowly-paced moments.

The world of Syndicate is engaging. The main story may not be the greatest–and more of a funnel to shooting more dudes–but it’s the world itself that makes the game so interesting to play. The world is no longer run by governments; instead, the world is now divided by controlling corporations. These corporations have rendered devices, such as the iPhone, completely obsolete by offering the public neural chip implants that do everything you could ever want from the comfort of your own head. What do the corporations gain in this? Well, they now have complete control over anyone who happened to adopt this new technology — pretty much everyone. And, of course, just like countries, the corporations are at war with each other constantly.

This is where Kilo comes in, an agent for Eurocorp. Agents are the soldiers on the frontline; they are the ones who infiltrate bases, steal intel, and partake in the rest of the shady business. Like I said, the main story isn’t a huge draw here, but the moments of story-telling they do supply are done well. It’s really all of the background stuff that is deeply engrossing; if you were like me, and tried to read every piece of email in Deus Ex, then you’ll have a heyday with this game.

But where Deus Ex is more of a stealth-focused RPG, Syndicate takes a more “noticeable” approach to things. Its main focus is its action and, boy, is it good. The shooting feels great, the aiming is tight, and there is even a nice variety of guns without tossing in too many unnecessary options. Even the cover system is done really well, and I actually found myself enjoying the use of it — something I haven’t found too great in other first-person shooters. The game also brings something new to the table: the DART Overlay. The DART Overlay makes every shot more powerful and more accurate. It also allows the player to see every enemy, even if there’s an obstacle between the two of you.

Joining the DART Overlay are some of the special applications you gain throughout the game: Suicide, which lets you hack into an enemy’s chip and cause them to commit suicide; Backfire, which causes an enemy’s gun to, well, backfire on them; and Persuade, which “convinces” an enemy to fight on your side. These end up making the game feel different from your average shooter. It also fixes a few of the annoyances found in other games; if there’s one guy left on the other side of the area, you can simply just cause him to commit suicide. And if there’s an enemy who just won’t come out of his cover, use Backfire to push him out of it. However, the best feature causes enemies to gain a blue outlining when they’re dealt with; this makes it easy to know when an enemy has actually been taken out, instead of just knocked over.

There is an upgrade system similar to a skill tree, but it’s governed completely by the progression of the story, and has nothing to do with how your perform in-game. When you encounter a boss character, a small cutscene plays where you try to hack into their systems; it’s pretty much the exact same every time, but it’s such a cool scene that it never gets old. After finishing them–some are incredibly difficult at first, others not so much–you can extract their chip to upgrade yours. It allows you to upgrade your health, damage, resistance to certain types of damage, as well as making your applications stronger and more effective. It definitely would have been nice to have your actions dictate some of that stuff.

For those who are looking for more than just a single-player campaign, you’ll be happy to know there’s also a really great co-operative multiplayer. Players can customize their agent’s loadouts, as well as upgrade their chip, and weapon and application blueprints. The actual gameplay puts you into a level with one to three other players, and tasks you with a variety of objectives. The majority of them have to do with infiltrating an opposing corporation’s base and stealing something of value. To complete a level, you’ll definitely need to work as a team; players who rush ahead, and try to do things on their own, won’t get very far.

It’s highly dependent on playing as a team, but there is a sense of competition to it. Only one player can do certain things, including ripping chips out of an enemy’s head, and even the characters will make snarky remarks to each other. It also keeps track of your scores, and even highlights who is in the lead. This seems to damage the experience a bit, as it can be exceptionally embarrassing if you’re lagging behind the rest of the group, or even if there’s a more-experienced player in the game, and they’re a good 10,000 points ahead of everyone. The points translate directly into experience, and every rank you gain, you get one more upgrade for your chip. And there are also the syndicates, which are this game’s counterpart to clans.

Visually, this game is outstanding. Whether you’re in a dark, lit, or outdoor area, the game doesn’t fail to look beautiful. It strikes a good balance between modern and futuristic design, without ever looking too “out there.” The faces even represent the actors playing them incredibly well, too — Brian Cox‘s character looks exactly like him, as does Rosario Dawson‘s. And the soundtrack is very fitting; the dubstep and electronic music makes the game sound as sinister as some of the corporations really are — I could definitely see some evil CEO laughing over top of some of the tracks, all the while looking over a brightly-lit, Utopian city.

Give me the future! I want evil corporations to take over the world, humans to get augmentations, and dubstep to play whenever I’m about to kick ass. Don’t put me too far into the future, where I’ll wish I had saved every bottle cap I carelessly plucked from the top of my drinks, but send me far enough to reach the world of Syndicate. It’s an intelligently-made, unique first-person shooter with a world that is actually interesting to read up on. And with its gorgeous cyberpunk visuals, incredibly-fitting soundtrack, and exciting firefights, it makes this grim look into the future one you won’t want to forget soon.

[REVIEW] Stealth Bastard Deluxe

Mat Paget

(PC [REVIEWED])

Haven’t you heard? Stealth is in. What exactly is it in? Pretty much everything these days. Even if the game isn’t wholly stealth-oriented, you can probably bet there will be a section where you must be quiet, nimble, and patient. But the realm of 2D stealth gameplay has only just been touched upon; with Mark of the Ninja proving itself, it shows that a 2D plain can supply an awesome playing field for sneaky behaviour. Stealth Bastard Deluxe is an update to a free downloadable title from Curve Studios, and also takes up the task of a side-scrolling stealth game. Thankfully, it gives more than enough reason to put money down.

If you want to try out the original free version, click here. You’ll notice that it isn’t strictly a stealth game; it’s also a very competent puzzler. The game absolutely exudes a Portal influence, as you take control of a clone that is put through a series of tests. It even has its own GLaDOS figure of sorts: words appear on the walls of this mysterious facility, sometimes offering encouragement, other times putting you down. Thankfully, it doesn’t come off as copying Portal, as it differentiates itself in a few key ways — one being the lack of voice acting.

Another key element is, of course, the stealth. First off, you don’t sneak up on enemies and dispatch of them, like in most games of the genre. Instead, you act as if you were never there in the first place, and carefully sneak by — there are times when you’ll be able to drop things on certain enemies, resulting in their demise. The game has two different indicators to let you know if you’re fully visible, partially visible, or not visible. One of them consists of written word, but these are easy to involuntarily ignore. The other is the colour of your clone’s goggles — red means fully, yellow means partially, and green means not at all. It’s easy to forget that it’s a stealth game, not just a puzzle platformer, and ignore these systems altogether. 

There are definitely times when the game is more of a puzzle platformer than it is a stealth romp, but that doesn’t mean the stealth takes a back seat. There are plenty of moments to exercise the art of stealth, and they’re some of the best the game has to offer. As someone who absolutely hates boss battles, I can’t be happier with how the developer handled them. In these boss encounters, the game plays to its strengths and keeps it about sneaking around undetected. This makes these levels really fun to play, and some of my favourite moments of the game were during these “battles.”

If you’re interested in multiple playthroughs, you’ve already unlocked one of the five special outfits; special outfits are unlocked by completing the levels multiple times. These outfits can create holographic decoys, turn you invisible, create spots of shadow anywhere you please, teleport enemies or objects, and create distractions through sound. Some feel more useful than others, and it’s relatively easy to go through an entire level without using the suit’s abilities even once, but they definitely make it easier to get through the levels faster and in more interesting ways.

But if the levels–which there are a lot of–don’t satiate your hunger, then you’ll be glad to know there is an in-depth level editor, as well as an area to download levels created by others. The level editor itself can definitely be a little intimidating at first, and might even discourage less creative players that are willing to stick it out and learn the intricacies of it. If you do decide to stick with it, you can end up creating some really impressive levels with it — one person even managed to replicate parts of 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. 

Fans of puzzle and stealth games alike will have no problem enjoying this game. It finds a good balance between the two, runs with it, and doesn’t lose steam. Best of all, you can try a solid number of 28 levels before you buy (link here). Thankfully, Stealth Bastard Deluxe not only adds a significant number of levels to that number, but also brings a great level editor, as well as a community full of new challenges. It definitely gives more than enough reason to warrant a purchase.

[FTP REVIEW] Arcane Legends

Marcus Estrada 
(PC, Mac, Android [REVIEWED], iOS) 

This review is of a free-to-play game. Because of this, we are not assigning it a score, as free-to-play games are subject to change dramatically over the course of its life. Also, it’s free.

Are you a fan of smartphone or tablet games? Often, the answer that gamers give to such a question is, “No.” For many, there is a stigma surrounding these types of games; it is thought that they aren’t as engaging or worth your time. When it comes right down to it, though, most of the people making these claims have hardly spent any time with games other than Angry Birds. Both that group, as well as satisfied portable gamers, should give Arcane Legends a look.

First off, Arcane Legends is probably one of the most complex games available on Android and iOS at the moment. This isn’t just some simple auto-attacking dungeon crawler, but something much more akin to Diablo and Torchlight. There are three classes to choose from: rogue, sorcerer, and warrior. Each class has their own special abilities and ranges just like you might expect. Each character also gets a pet to use with them in battle. Once that is all set up, you begin your journey fulfilling quests for villagers and folks trapped in dungeons who need your help.

The game is simple enough to start with, but adds a fair bit of customization as you plod along. As you level up, you may select your stats, as well as learn new abilities. These range between magic, healing, and super attacks depending on the character. Each even has its own set of upgrades to be done to it after being unlocked. For example, you may unlock a healing move first, then later add in effects that extend the range of healing, or make it last longer. The ability to respec your character is also included at no additional charge, which is hugely convenient.

What is it that makes me compare this game to the Diablo or Torchlight series? Just look at the game! It takes a isometric perspective of the world and has you travel around fighting hordes of enemies by clicking furiously. Well, in the case of this game, you’re tapping instead of clicking, but the same principle is there. You’re awarded with gold and loot, and there’s tons of it to be had. Although it’s not quite as addictive as these other games, you may find yourself coming back day after day just to get in one more dungeon run. The only problem is that if you play for too long, then it does cause some strain on the tapping finger.

Although attacking is fairly simple, you can still get in some strategy with it. Each attack includes a charged variety, which is much stronger. Charging simply requires you to hold down on the corresponding button for a second or two before unleashing it. As long as you’re close to enemies, the character will automatically hit it, too. Some more exciting strategy comes in when you use your special skills. They get mapped out around the main attack button and you’ll quickly get a feel for where they are. From there, it’s simple to fire them off whenever necessary. As you might expect, they have to recharge, so this makes deployment a fairly precise science.

Visually, Arcane Legends stands out as looking quite good. The graphics won’t impress those playing the latest hit games, but how can they? For the smartphone and tablet market it’s pretty good, though. They are fairly stylish as well, evoking art styles that would feel right at home with popular indie games. The layout is designed quite well, too, with nice bold buttons to let you know where everything is.

One big reservation that people have with these kinds of games is how much in-app purchases matter. Arcane Legends is free to play and as such there are ways for you to spend real money in it. Although it would have been easy to make this game “pay to win,” there really aren’t as many benefits from spending money as you might think. First off, paying for anything is never required. There are a few times the game suggests that you spend, but it never becomes a necessity to continue playing.

What these IAPs do offer are quick access to new pets, additional gold, and chests filled with random items. There are other ways they help make the game simpler, such as by letting you revive instantly where you died. Even if you don’t have any of the paying coins for that, though, you are transported to the beginning of the section for free. It may be a slight annoyance, but is nowhere near the realm of basically paying to get a super-powered character. However, this doesn’t mean the game is a perfect balance of both worlds.

Those who never spend a penny on the game may find that it moves too slow. When you’re a weaker character with cheaper weapons and armor you will obviously have more trouble. Although most enemies are not hard to take care of, many bosses are extremely tougher. This requires other players to get in on the action and makes it nearly impossible for someone to just wipe down a whole dungeon themselves. Without paying for stronger stuff, it is even harder, and causes many more deaths and potion uses. After being given potions, you are basically on your own to buy more. Although they cost in-game gold (that is found by questing) you may quickly eat up your reserves of money and potions. Someone who pays to get more gold will have a much easier time due to stronger goods, as well as simply having access to more potions.

After a while, grinding becomes a fairly tedious affair. The writing in the game is passable, but hardly fantastic. The voice acting mostly consists of blabbering and is also annoying after a bit. With little story, the main thing that keeps the game going is the compulsion to acquire more gold and goods, as well as playing with others. The game is just not meant for solo play. Thankfully, there are always loads of people bustling in the world which means you’ll rarely have to raid a dungeon yourself. This works best when there are other players around of different classes, as each provides their own methods of supporting the team. So far, though, it seems like the majority of players are picking one class — Warrior.

If you’re looking for a game that is more hardcore than Angry Birds, then Arcane Legends certainly fits the bill. It manages to be a good recreation of a dungeon crawler for portable devices. The issues it suffers are that, in attempting to be a fair free-to-play game, it makes progress too slow for free players. Thankfully, there is no easy way to pay your way to victory either. Arcane Legends is a fair bit of fun, but only if you’re willing to sink the time into it to actually nurture a strong character.