Review

It’s hard to really say anything that hasn’t already been said in other reviews about this game – and that is quite possibly the largest issue I have with the game, it’s so safe. Many of the idiosyncratic, old-fashioned game-design decisions that characterised the older games in the franchise had have been “fixed”, and in particular the story is somewhat… watery compared to some of the more labyrinthine and morally contorted Lynchian storylines of other Silent Hills. Both of these aspects of Silent Hill, particularly in Silent Hill 2, made it somewhat uncomfortable to play – not only was the story confusing and horrific, but the control you had over the game was too. Before playing Homecoming that would have been a snide joke, but I wonder now if it really is.

At any rate, I am probably exaggerating the magnitude of these changes; Homecoming is an immensely entertaining game to play – or even watch. The revamping of the combat system to include timed dodges, attacks, and combos actually makes controlling the game more enjoyable and less repetitive or tedious. There are also far fewer trinket-collecting quests and cha-chinking of the ever-present broken locks that seem to plague the small town with the same intensity as the abominations. To me, these aspects never really added anything to the previous games and made prolonged sessions with them irritating, so their removal is a welcome change. Homecoming also has really great graphics and sound, but I can’t help but feel that almost all of that rides on the already carefully established aesthetic of earlier iterations. It is worth nothing however that the new game dares to finally move away from many of the tired, same-y locales that we have seen repeated ad-nauseam in previous SH games (except, of course, the hospital).

The bottom line for this game I think is therefore quite easy to determine – it’s a watered-down version of most of the earlier Silent Hill games with a few modern updates. Perhaps due to this game being created by an U.S. game studio they saw fit to make it more accessible to a U.S. audience, who are accustomed to more formulaic, by-the-numbers horror films and stories. Maybe it was to broaden the scope of its prospective audience. Regardless, what’s left is easily a four-star game that is a lot of fun. I’m already playing through it for the second time! If only I could get the hang of taking down those damn Schisms. Grr.

The turn-based strategy RPG is a well-established niche genre. There are an abundance of high-quality games and they are exciting to play while still lasting for a good while. Ultimately, if they are good quality they can give some of the most rewarding and fun video-gaming to be had. Here is a list of three that I think are really excellent and should definitely not be missed if you enjoy the genre. I’ll try not to keep these too ramble-tastic but I can’t guarantee it. I love these games.

1. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones – Gameboy Advance

Fire Emblem gets so many things right that its lack of popularity until recently completely defies belief. In fact, I’d say that it is so well balanced that there is no appropriate way to change it. The design is astonishingly well thought out – and complemented by beautiful art, an enjoyable light-fantasy storyline, interesting and unique game mechanics, an incredibly clear, and easy to learn rule-set that has a very significant level of depth, multiple story paths, tons of characters, and some of the best hand drawn pixel animation I’ve ever seen. The length of the game is slightly shorter than most and it isn’t very challenging – however both of these things end up working in its favour as many games in the genre are too drively, making them difficult to bother persevering with. Fire Emblem is an excellent way to break into the genre; meanwhile if you even remotely enjoy games of this type, play this one. Its formula hasn’t changed much in 20 years and hasn’t had to – it was always right. If you are interested in trying any of the games in this list – or hell, even if you just like videogames, I urge you to give this a try, it’s so fun!

2. Front Mission 1st – Nintendo DS

Front Mission is for tinkerers. This game is half strategy-RPG, half mech-mechanic simulator. In playing this game you will likely spend at least half of your time individually configuring each mech in your squad in from the weapons to the paint-job to make the perfect mechanised kill-squad. The gameplay is heavily tactical (often outnumbering you with similar-spec units 3:1) but not prohibitively difficult like other SRPGs. There are lots of fun side-quest related activities that can be done for cash, and the game-world is a very nicely realised military-centric future with lots of lovely details littered around the game. The graphics are amazing – especially when you consider how complicated it is to make every mech look great and still offer the millions of combinations of equipment any single one can have. Front Mission also has a very interesting parts-based damage system that adds an extra tactical element to the battles that adds even more depth. It’s also not too long which is a plus in my books – although some of the battles are going to last you more than an hour – they’re epic! Front Mission 1st is an upgraded version of the original SNES game with better graphics and stuff. Oh yes!

3. Bahamut Lagoon – SNES

Very few people have heard of this game, sadly, because it is one of the most creative and fun games I’ve ever played. It’s very specifically designed – an epic geared towards enjoyment by SRPG veterans who will get months of enjoyment out of it. It is hard to think of even one aspect of this game that isn’t fresh and unconventional, so I’ll mention a few that have stayed with me. Firstly – you are assisted by fun NPCs: giant dragons. You have no direct control over them, but they are absolutely integral to you progressing in the game because of their awesome potential power. During battle, you can issue basic strategic commands, and outside the battlefield you must talk to as well as feed these dragons to keep them performing well. What you feed them determines what they will ultimately grow up to become (of about a possible 100 forms!). Secondly, you have absolute control over your army. Each character is assigned to customisable squadrons of four. Additionally, each character has their own item-set, ability set and special attributes which all influence the usefulness of the resulting squad. There are a lot of built-in features to make this micro-management smoother, but if you are like me you’ll love messing with all of that stuff anyway. The storyline is a multi-path large-scale epic (almost too much at times!) and the game does a remarkable job of making each of the many characters interesting. It is not a perfect game in some regards, but it is so different, and so bold about being different that it glosses over any niggling issues the game has and makes you love it. Oh yeah, the music is wonderful and the art and animations are also incredible. Oh yeah, and DeJap did a fantastic translation of it. So now if you don’t know Japanese, you can play it too. Do so.

Also Awesome:

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Phantom Brave, La Pucelle, Vantage Master Online, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Der Langrisser, Shining Force I & II, Yggdra Union.

Anyone who knows about modern video games has no doubt heard of this game already. It’s super popular, and a truly deserving candidate of many Top-Game-Of-The-Year award lists. This game has something to me that I yearn for not just in games, but in anything that has been designed to be enjoyed: polish. It is a meticulously and passionately made game with beautiful attention to detail not just in art, but in gameplay, balance and overall design.

I’ve never been a big fan of games that try to depict real life – those that strive for a photo-realistic look . CoD4 is one of these games, although anyone who has played the game for a short while will know that the game is closer to the arcade games of old than being a realistic, gritty modern war simulator. Everything about the game has been designed to streamline and simplify the game experience: the pacing is frenetic and your control of it is absolute.

It’s not like this is just a souped-up version of the many other war-based FPS games out there, though. The superglossy Saving Private Ryan-esque look is a merely a setting for a game that recalls the video games early 90s. The single player campaign is a beautiful sequence of varied missions that sweep effortlessly through squad based combat, defending objectives, espionage, sniping – each introducing the player to a different way of playing the game, but never moving so far away from what is familiar that it is hard to understand, and never clinging too close to what is safe to be boring – all interspersed with dramatic, in-game cutscenes that heighten the directed, movie-like feel the game has. The sound design is in a class of its own, and in every sense of the word narrates the game perfectly. It’s hard succinctly and accurately describe what a lot of the gameplay experience is like, as it is overwhelmingly the result of so many details coming together, and ultimately is something that must be personally experienced.
The Multiplayer, however, is where the game truly makes itself stand out. As interesting as the campaign mode is, it cannot rival the fun to be had online. Other than the game engine being an excellent setting for an online shooter to begin with, CoD4 adds freshness to the recipe by blending the tactical and arcade aspects of similar games together for something that genuinely feels different, and constantly rewards the player. The most notable, and important result of this blend is the class system. It isn’t by any stretch of the imagination a new concept to allow the player to customise the equipment loadout they are using, but CoD4 approaches this in an interesting new way. As well as the ability to choose a weapon and sidearm, you are able to choose "perks"- special abilities such as a faster firing rate, extra grenades, radar jamming, greater stamina, extra ammunition and many others. The game starts you out with a competent yet limited set; as you play you earn experience points that unlock other equipment and perks that enable you to further explore some of the harder-to-utilise, but ultimately more rewarding gameplay styles.

The gameplay itself is laced with old-school charm. Every time you score a kill or an assist, points pop up on screen immediately rewarding you. After three consecutive kills a single button activates a radar that shows all enemies for 30 seconds, after five, an airstrike, and after seven an automatic, armed helicopter will come to assist. Every objective in the game requires only a single key to be pushed to be completed, scores pile up quickly, messages spring up constantly, telling you challenges you have completed, ranks you have gained, objectives you have completed. Your ego is being pampered, urging you to pop in another coin to continue the action.
There are also "challenges", which can be completed for large amounts of experience. They not only encourage you to attempt playing the game in many different styles (points are awarded for using each individual weapon available, for example), but also inconspicuously direct you towards developing your skills in certain areas, and gradually garnering a better understanding of the dynamics of the game. Other challenges expand the game in a different way: and often can completely alter your perspective of how to play it. For example: attempting to kill an enemy by purposely tripping a mine they had set, taking someone with you by holding a grenade for too long, vandalising cars, falling from a certain height but not dying in the process, and others. They become rudicrously elaborate later on for the setting, such as killing an enemy, taking his weapon, and then killing him again with it. None of these are needed to advance in the game if you so desire, but they certainly add flavour.

Another significant inclusion is that of "hardcore" mode, which is moderately popular online too. CoD4 has very flexible rules that can be changed at the discretion of a game host, and "hardcore" mode represents a popular ruleset that attempts to make the game more realistic. In hardcore mode you have no radar, no crosshairs, no bullet count – no GUI whatsoever. Damage is significantly increased, too. In this mode you must abandon a lot of what you are used to in modern video games, you are not fed information constantly and rather must concentrate on immersing yourself in the virtual world in order to survive. You have to hear and see where enemies are by being attentive, you must also keep in mind your ammo usage and supplies. It makes CoD4 play almost like a different game, and yet very cleverly the control and style remains perfectly cohesive, and it is very easy to switch between this and the more traditional default mode.

Anyway, the fact of the matter is, this game is wonderful. If you even remotely like this kind of game, try it – it will be the best one you’ve ever played.

Battle Garegga / Arcade, Saturn / International

All things considered, I think this is the best shmup that I’ve ever played. I feel that many games in the genre are too unbalanced in their approach to in-game mechanics, eye-candy, difficulty, depth and intensity. To me, Garegga supplies a near-perfect experience in all areas. If you have any interest in arcade games one of the first things you’ll notice about Garegga is that it is a stunning game in motion. It has a very strong and consistent artistic approach. Many of Raizing/8ings other shooters have a much more saturated palette, with bright neons fluttering all over the screen and explosions lingering. Battle Garegga carefully manages to keep the frenetic, in-your-face feeling that makes arcade games fun, but dresses it in a much more drab, post-apocalyptic wardrobe. The fantastically detailed pixel art emphasises a gritty, WWII style industrial world. The enemies are beautifully designed, and the game throws many large, multi-section enemies at you in the form of propeller-driven behemoths as well as large tanks and trains. Each level consistently hits the mark with this theme, and each level design is as interesting as the last. Tending away from a long arcade tradition, even the projectiles in the game tend to stick to this artistic style too, veering away from the pink-bullets-of-death approach that cave is famous for. This is surprisingly one of the points that the game is criticised heavily for, although I don’t think it’s detrimental enough to cause any concern. Anyway, you can make your mind up regarding this from the screenshots provided.Where any arcade game really has to shine is in providing accessible, yet deep and rewarding gameplay. Something easy to pick up, but hard to master.

Garegga is probably a little bit too difficult for beginners to the shmup genre, and playing it to completion is something that I could never even hope to achieve with my skill level. Despite this, the difficulty is such that you are able to improve slightly with each play and inch slowly further through the game. The player is given the choice of piloting four types of plane, each with four varieties to each plane. There are also four unlockable bonus planes, and each of those has four varieties too. Once playing, destroying objects in the game will create four types of power-ups that drop off the screen. First is a simple shot power-up that will increase the firepower of your ship. Secondly you can obtain helper aircraft (four is the max) that will fly in a specified formation around your main ship. The third button changes them between many different formations, which is one of the very fun aspects of the game (there are also a few hidden formations that you can get by entering in special codes). Bombs are acquired by collecting 20 small bomb power-ups. Lastly, and most importantly, are score medals. Every time you kill an enemy craft, they will drop a medal. For every consecutive medal you collect that does not fall off the bottom of the screen, the value of the next medal will double. If you can “medal chain” by collecting many consecutive medals, your score will obviously accumulate much faster, drawing you not only closer to the much-needed bonus lives, but also working your way up the high-score table. Darting to-and-fro, often into the face of danger, in the pursuit of the medals applies a whole overlying level of impressive difficulty to the game, whilst remaining simple and easy to understand.

The best difficulty modifier Garegga has to offer however, is that of rank. Every time you do something good, such as kill an enemy, or even fire a shot, your rank will increase. As your rank increases, the number of enemies, speed of bullets, number of bullets and patterns of enemy fire will become more difficult. This means that you will get a better score if you manage to negotiate them, however it becomes more difficult. Doing anything bad, such as dying, will reduce your rank. I think the best element of this is that it constantly helps you improve your game. You get the best challenge out of the areas you are most familiar with, and then when you reach a difficult section, or a new section you haven’t seen before, after your inevitable first death, the rank will be reduced to a point that you’ll be able to learn how to approach it next time, and maybe make it a little further before the rank goes down.

For all that I have rambled, it is really a game better actually experienced than talked about. The art, the sound, the music, the pace, the difficulty.. in my opinion, are all perfectly balanced. If you are a shmup fan, I highly recommend you try it out!

[9/10]

Shadow of the Colossus / PS2 / International

This will probably a trite way to start an entry, but some games are impossible to write about because they are damn good in a way that is so easily defensible. Shadow of the Colossus is a game that mechanically lacks a lot of depth, but makes up by being astonishingly beautiful, engaging and epic. It is at times a frustrating game, and it is not without plenty of flaws, but in the wake of the far more important positives it achieves it almost seems petty to draw attention to them.

Your hand is held the most at the game’s outset – the introduction is appropriately thoughtful and deliberate as if to coax you into the unusually proportioned scale of every element of the game. It leaves you feeling insignificant and small against the world’s openness. After a long ten minutes of almost-silence, you are given control of your avatar, Wanda. It feels almost like a nudge as if to tell you to merely continue what you’ve began watching – walk over to Agro, your faithful horse, and continue out into the rolling vastness before you. The game picks up the pace as you are told how to perform the basic tasks that you will essentially not deviate from for the rest of the game, and the tutorial crescendos as you approach your first colossus. It’s funny, everyone I have seen play this game or who has talked to me about it has agreed that somehow you are perfectly willing to charge headlong into this first battle. There is a wonderful sense of majesty about blindly assaulting that first colossus, clambering somewhat clumsily atop it and judiciously sinking your sword into its head over and over again as it thrashes about violently. Once the final blow has been laid, plunging the game into slow-motion as the heroic boss-climax music fades, everything suddenly collapses. A funereal chant plays, you tumble off the falling colossus, now convincingly devoid of life and vacantly staring into space. You are inevitably caught by the black tentacles that fade you out of the chapter. It feels sad, and significant.
After this, the pace of the game is a brilliantly stilted repeat of the same tension-and-release mechanism. The game feels very unthreatening and mythical, almost like a history, something that has already been determined and you can only uncover slowly as you trace its inevitable and predetermined path, led on by curiosity. Shadow is a game that you watch while playing, it is a tragedy that builds itself up with infinite patience it methodically lumbers forward.

The game is maybe a seventy-thirty balance of travelling and fighting – not counting the sightseeing that is more-or-less inevitable along the way. The gameplay has a classic and retro feel to it. The controls are uncomplicated and yet have enough diversity to provide the player with a surprisingly adaptable level of control. Each colossus represents a different challenge, and at least each one requires you to think laterally in order to defeat it, although.. I think we could have done without the “hints” that you are given if you haven’t succeeded after a few minutes – seriously, what the hell were they thinking breaking the mood like that?
After a while it is evident that some of the ideas used for the colossi are somewhat recycled from one to the next (and sadly in itself seems to prove that a sequel is an impossibility for this unique game format), but definitely remain fresh enough throughout the course of the game to be plenty of fun. The world itself is beautiful, but the colossi are without a doubt the centrepiece of the game’s artistic achievement. Careful attention has been paid in order to maintain a similar aesthetic theme to their design, and yet they all look like one-of-a-kind imaginations. The classical European feel to the architecture is excellently carried throughout the game and creatively implemented in the design of the colossi too. Everything about the world looks so convincingly ancient that you have to remind yourself that it has been meticulously broken and decayed by hand.

After playing for a while it’s obvious this is not a game for everyone. If you don’t find yourself drawn into this game by the more artistic flavour of its direction it is no more than a gimmicky distraction with several major faults that even irk the believers at times. It’s hard not to notice the wildly variable and famously sluggish framerate, the uselessness of the navigation tools provided and the technical difficulty associated with how to properly operate camera control when the object of your concern is so large. If you do find yourself drawn into the world of Shadow though, its charm will inevitably divert your attention so far from these fairly major faults to the point that you barely notice them. This brings me to the point that I was originally making: The essence of Shadow is such that you forgive the faults and just enjoy being in the game. Saying that the framerate of the game is low is like saying that colour of chocolate is too dull – it just isn’t the point at all. Many aspects of the game that are a direct consequence of its design are refreshingly unique and give the game a sense of character that is rather incomprable. No doubt in the future we’ll hear plenty of phrases like, “Shadow-of-the-Colossus-esque travelling sequences“… I don’t believe this is because this is the first game to successfully engage the player by using a setting and gameplay style that is simplistic and yet constantly epic – but I can convincingly say it is the first game I have ever played that has made it feel natural.

I’ve tried to avoid talking about the gameplay as much as I can in this, and I think that actively reflects the way I feel about the game. It isn’t about the actual gameplay, even though it is thoroughly enjoyable. I really hate to say it, but this game is a piece of art. Without the game’s sense of setting; the vast world, the detailed architecture and perhaps most importantly the colossi (which really are part of the setting, not just due to their size but also their majesty) it would be another game in a genre of plenty. It isn’t the same as playing another third-person action game that has giant bosses, Shadow is a strange conglomerate of gameplay styles that out of the context of its design would not make any sense – but when put together works as a perfectly cohesive videogame epic that will always be remembered as an absolute classic and an important step forward in videogame history.

[10/10]