Never Alone (PS4)

A 2D platforming buddy game that sees you playing as a young Alaskan girl and a snow fox that she crosses paths with early on as they try to uncover the cause of constant blizzards that have decimated her village's ability to hunt.  It's got somewhat basic but still gorgeous graphics and a really nice feeling to it for the majority. Although it can lull you into a false sense of security because like most fables and myths it's got a bit of a darker side as well.  At first I thought this would be a perfect game to play co-op with your kids for example, but a few moments along the way were pretty shocking to me, never mind under 10s!

Gameplay for the most part has a bit of challenge but nothing too taxing - was a chilled out play until the last section of the game which involved a lot of switching between characters on the fly while being chased by enemies and playing these sections solo was fairly irksome - I'd imagine they'd be a lot more enjoyable in co-op.  Up until this point, switching between the two characters had been a really enjoyable part of the gameplay as each has their own unique abilities.  Going through the game with a friend would make the pair's traversal of the world seem a lot more free-flowing and natural, but don't let that put you off playing solo.

You could probably fly through the game in about 2.5-3 hours without too much trouble, but you'd be missing out on one of the aspects I found most enjoyable.  Along the way you can unlock "Cultural Insights" which are basically bite size documentaries featuring Alaskan natives - some of whom helped make the game - ensuring it has a real level of authenticity to the story and the culture that it's rooted in.  The people in these shorts were amazing characters and great storytellers. I found each 2-3 minute video an absolute joy and themes of the videos tied into the part of the game you had just played.  There was a small story told about memories this person had as a child being told the myths surrounding the Northern Lights and it was really cool to see this then play out in the next level of the game.  You're given the choice to play each video as soon as you unlock it but I found the best approach was to watch a group that you had unlocked in between each level.  They gave so much background to the characters, the history of the story, the respect these people have for the wildlife that is such a part of their existence, the general lifestyle and so many beliefs that I know very little about.  You can really feel the love that was put into making sure this game respected the heritage of these people.

Other reviews I'd read of Never Alone had tagged it as an "Educational game" and I didn't imagine I'd come away from it having learned very much - to be honest I wasn't overly invested in the idea of watching all of the videos, but I'm so glad I did.  If you don't watch the Insights there's still a very enjoyable platformer to be played here that can stand on its own two feet, but the combined package is one that I feel is well worth your time.

Platform: PS4
Date Started: 20/02/16
Date Completed: 24/02/16
Time Played: 4:15

Resogun (PS4) - Review

When the PS4 was released back in November its two big exclusive titles, Knack and Killzone, were pretty much universally panned by critics. Most of the big focus was on the multi-platform games being released anyway, but through all of the smoke and hype emerged a little gem of a game that I had seen barely any mention of in the preceding months. The critics loved Resogun and since it was a free game to PS Plus subscribers there were a lot of glowing reports coming from early adopters too.  I loved the look of this game and with all the praise I definitely wanted to pick it up, but I had a dilemma - Amazon were making me wait over a month for my PS4 by which point it wouldn't be a PS+ game any more! Solution - I bought a PS Plus membership and set up Resogun to download to a console that I didn't even own yet. And it was one of the best things I've done since jumping ship to Sony.

The hype surrounding Resogun reminded me a lot of the buzz for Geometry Wars when it was released alongside the Xbox 360 - another console that struggled early on for must-have exclusives. While I played Geometry Wars and enjoyed it I never really "got it" the way that most did - my total play time was probably less than an hour. I had no such problems in "getting" Resogun though. I was hooked instantly, from the moment I pressed start and the game delivered an absolutely room shaking thud to my subwoofer to the satisfying and exhilarating moment that I secured my first ever Platinum Trophy and everything else in between.

At a basic level the game plays like an old school side-scrolling shoot 'em up, but it has plenty of modern twists.  The most immediately obvious one is that the 2D plane that you play on is actually wrapped around on itself meaning that although it looks like you're just moving left and right, you're actually going round in a circle.  This isn't the first game to feature a game world that's "on a loop", but thanks to the PS4's powerful new hardware you're actually able to see the rest of the stage wrapping around behind you.  Although you can't see the whole stage in detail, this allows you to have a preview of what challenges you're facing next as well as allowing you to quickly spot an enemy on the other side of the map when you're frantically looking for something to shoot to stop your hard earned multiplier running out!

The guts of the game is controlled using just the analogue sticks - left for movement and right for shooting.  While some shooters allow you 360 degrees of aiming, Resogun restricts you to only being able to shoot left or right - meaning that the focus is on constant movement and manoeuvring your ship into the necessary positions to pick off the enemies.  At first this can feel slightly restricting, but honestly by a few minutes in I found it a bit of a relief.  I don't know about the rest of you, but my restrictive brain has always kind of struggled with the concept of using one hand to move and the other to control 360 degree shooting with any sort of synchronicity so only really having to concentrate on the movement helped me get to grips much quicker and probably kept me coming back for more, especially on the higher difficulties.

Your other tools in battle reside on the shoulder buttons and you'll need them all at some point to master the game.  R1 enables "Overdrive" which for a short period slows down time and turns your weapon into a wide blast that will eviscerate all who lie before it.  On the same side we have Bombs (R2) which can be really helpful when you're in a tight spot as they destroy not only all enemies on screen, but all the enemies currently spawned in the stage.  It's a weapon that's as visually impressive as it is useful.  Over on L2 you can throw a human (more on that later), but undoubtedly your most important ability resides on L1 - the Boost.  While boosting you destroy anything that you fly through and when you stop boosting you let off a blast that kills any enemies in your immediate vicinity at that time, giving you a small moment's breather to figure out your next move.

Your boost has a number of essential uses - the most obvious one being to escape to a pocket of space when surrounded by enemies with no other way out.  It's a more preferable than dropping a bomb because you get more points (and have more fun) by taking out foes with your lasers, but at the end of the level you also get bonus points for any bombs you have leftover and in arcade mode you carry them over to the next level where they may be more needed.   It's also necessary when chasing down a straggling enemy on the other side of the map in a desperate attempt to keep your multiplier alive.

Your boost isn't an unlimited weapon though - when you use it some of your boost meter is drained and you can't boost again until the meter completely regenerates.  This doesn't usually take too long but can seem an eternity when you're getting pinned down in a tough spot.  Naturally the longer your boost is, the longer it takes to regenerate so I found the most effective method was to use short boosts that got you out of a tough spot but didn't leave you exposed for too long.  And believe me, you become so reliant on your boost that when it's disabled you will feel incredibly exposed.

The core aim of the game is to defeat all the enemies that come before you and then defeat the boss of that stage, which can range from pretty easy to mind meltingly difficult.  The bosses get much tougher on higher difficulties and some of them will push your reflexes and boost management to the limit.  There's a secondary goal in each level as well, one that will ingrained into your mind after only a few plays - SAVE THE LAST HUMANS!

At the start of each level there are 10 humans trapped in boxes dotted around the stage - it's your mission to free each of these guys, pick them up and deliver them to a transporter.  This can prove a lot tougher than it sounds!  The majority of the humans are saved by eliminating a special kind of enemy known as Keepers.  Their arrival is marked by the voiceover announcing "Keepers detected", but it's up to you to find them and it isn't immediately obvious where they are.  Once you get to know them they're easy enough to spot (given that they are glowing bright green) but they can take the form of any type of standard enemy as well as a few that appear only as Keepers.  An added difficulty is presented by the fact that some of the Keepers need to be taken out in a specific order to free the human - take out the wrong keeper or fail to take them out in time and poor old humanoid will die in his or her box.

Having freed the human you often need to zip round to the other side of the map to pick them up before they get killed while out in the open - another scenario where your boost will come in very handy.  Once you've got them in your grasp they still aren't safe - if you get killed while carrying them they die also.  Here's where the L2 button can come in handy as you can throw a human safely into the transporter from a good distance away - though miss the transporter and they'll end up splatting on the ground.  Saving the humans is useful for points and also for trophy hunting but there are tangible benefits for each one you save as well, ranging from an extra life to bombs and weapon upgrades.

Once you're a bit of an experienced Resogun player you should be able to fly through the campaign mode in about 45 minutes, but there's so much replayability here that my final game time clocked in at around 13 hours.  When I first started the game I found it pretty tough going, even on easy mode, but this is one of those games where the more you play the better you get.  Each increasingly difficulty level will feel like a sharp spike to you and on each level up I felt like I had reached my limit and there'd be no way I could take on the next level.  The learning curve is so smooth though that while it was pretty much always a solid challenge I never really ran into a major problem.  There's also an online co-op mode if things ever get too tough for you but I can't vouch for how that plays.

The overall presentation of Resogun is fantastic - it has the vibe of a futuristic 1980's movie (think Tron), but with today's production values (think Tron Legacy).  It's got a relatively simple graphical style but with some stunning particle effects and all the neon you could ever ask for.  The electronic soundtrack and effects are perfectly matched to the game and would be a grand showcase on a good surround sound system or pair of headphones.  That bass!  My word.

So, if you have a PS4 and haven't picked up Resogun I implore you to do so - you definitely won't regret it.  Similarly if you're on the fence about a PS4 but aren't taken in by the sheer amount of ports on offer, maybe this will give you something else to think about.

9/10

flOw (PS4) - Review

So I got a brand spanking new PlayStation 4 and the first game I completed on it was an 8 year old Flash game.  Funny how things turn out.  flOw (no idea why it's written like that) was later ported to the PS3 with motion controls and has now fully evolved into a shiny 1080p PS4 launch game.  I mention this because that's the gist of the game - you start out as a very basic underwater creature that slowly grows and evolves before your eyes as you make your way through the levels becoming the most advanced version of you possible.

flOw is a very minimalistic game - there are no menus, intro videos or tutorials here, you're just landed straight into the game with no instructions on what you're meant to do.  You just start messing around and figure it out as you go.  This is all part of the game's charm - there's no pressure on you to achieve anything and playing it is a very relaxing and therapeutic experience.  Figuring out the purpose of the game is easy enough - eat stuff, grow bigger, repeat - but figuring out how the controls work might take a little longer.  

Your creature's movement is handled entirely by motion controls - although a button press will give you a boost.  Personally I found this all a bit fiddly and ended up twisting my hands in uncomfortable positions for short periods.  Eventually I did become accustomed to it and could move my character around the screen at ease, but it still felt a little gimmicky.  For such a relaxing and immersive game the controls were a bit of a pain and I don't really think they added much to it, given your movement is restricted to a 2D plane.  I can understand that they were added to show off the new features of the PS3's "Six Axis" controller, but given that the game was getting a facelift seven years down the line I would have liked to see the option of a more traditional control system implemented.

With that niggle out of the way, on to the good stuff. As I mentioned before flOw is a very relaxing game, so don't go in expecting to be hit with a bunch of challenges that will perplex your mind or test your reflexes. Calling the game "easy" would be an understatement, but it would also be doing it a disservice. This is more like a casual walk in the park rather than a mountain trek and if you approach it in this way there's plenty to enjoy.

The atmosphere adds immensely to the experience, created mostly by the subdued soundtrack that gives you the feeling of slowly drifting along in the ocean, washing away your worries.  The sound effects that are triggered by your creature's actions - simple movement or devouring other organisms - fit this tone excellently and sound quite musical themselves, so as you work your way through the levels it feels like you're creating your own soundtrack.  There are more sinister moments in the game as well and the music does an excellent job of shifting the tone with a single note evoking the isolation and the feeling of "the great unknown" that exists at the bottom of the ocean.

The graphics are pretty simple but the art style used is absolutely fantastic, often having only two to three bold colours on screen at one time but creating a brilliant contrast that will really show off what your HDTV can do.  The creatures on screen resemble balls of light more than solid objects and the effects are really impressive.

Overall flOw is a well put together game, but to be honest it just isn't that fun.  It's the kind of thing I'd much more enjoy having a gameplay video play on my TV in the background while I do something else - like one of those Christmas Fireplace or Tropical Aquarium DVDs - some kind of autoplay mode would really increase the chances of me loading it up again.  It's not an expensive game by any means and I did enjoy it for a while, but working through five different levels using the dodgy motion controls felt like more of a chore than I think playing video games should be.  There's no real climax or sense of achievement at the end either and I can't help but feel it may have worked better as just a freeplay game with no start or end points.

It takes less than two hours to see everything on offer and after that there's no real desire to go back and actually play the game again, but I still have a lingering desire to revisit the fabulous underwater world it created.  A real mixed bag of a game - not one that I would widely recommend to people, but if you like the sound of the ambience it creates and go in with low expectations of the actual gameplay then you'll find something to enjoy here.  Also, if you're on drugs it'll probably be an incredible experience.

Assassin's Creed III (Xbox 360) - Review

Rewind back to 2012 and Assassin's Creed 3 was my most anticipated title of the year by a long distance.  Assassin's Creed 2 remains one of my favourite games of the generation and I'd spent the early part of the year beating the rest of the games in the series.  So, why has it taken me this long to finish AC3?  Honestly I'm not really sure.

Technically, Assassin's Creed 3 improves upon everything that came before - the graphics are better, the combat is easier and the free running is as refined as it's ever been.  The animations have been completely re-worked from the ground up and the little things that just make everything seem much more realistic really impressed me - the way your character adjusts his run as he brushes past trees, people or other objects was fantastic.  The weather is a lot more varied this time and the different "DNA Sequences" cover multiple seasons, introducing snow and rain that will affect the way you play. Stuff like this, in addition to the new engine allowing "over 2000 characters" on screen at one time made AC3's world feel more alive than ever before.

The game also adds in plenty of new features to the series, including a number of wild animals that can be hunted and then sold to upgrade your gear.  The amount you get will vary based on the quality of the kill so you're encouraged to hunt stealthily by sneaking up undetected on your prey or using baits and traps.  I found this to be a really fun distraction to the main story, though honestly I didn't use it to upgrade my equipment because it seemed to take a long time to get anything worthwhile.  The flipside of this is that you could very easily become the hunted as your travelled through the forest, finding yourself in the midst of a random bear attack.  These sequences consist of quick time event counter attacking, but because they can come out of nowhere they can be really intense and satisfying if you manage to survive.

The biggest change to the gameplay was the introduction of the naval missions.  At first I wasn't a huge fan of these sequences but as I began to get used to the nuances of the gameplay I enjoyed them a lot more.  I've seen a lot of people call these the highlight of the game, but I wouldn't go that far at all.  They're a really good change of pace and a massive improvement over Revelations' tower defense mini game, but the highlight of this game is definitely still the core gameplay.

The setting for the in-Animus world of AC3 is a vast departure from previous games, using the American Revolution as a backdrop to the proceedings.  The timeline lasts around 30 years so you get to see New York, Boston and the surrounding areas before, during and after the Civil War.  I'd imagine this would be great for fans of American History but honestly my knowledge on the area is lacking so I don't think I could fully appreciate it.  Having said that, I'm familiar enough with it that I really enjoyed the whole vibe of the setting.  It's great seeing America in such an infancy compared to what we know today and the fact there's an ongoing war adds a lot to the experience.

You also get to see the life of Native Americans and how the war drastically affected their lifestyles.  Playing Connor as a young innocent lad and then seeing his village being destroyed by Charles Lee really adds a personal slant to the quest similar to how Ezio's early story did.  Herein lies one of my main issues with the game - Connor just isn't that interesting a character, certainly not compared to Ezio who we got to know and love over three games.  He's probably on a par with Altair although a lot more likeable.  Luckily the game is filled with a far more memorable supporting cast.  Connor's father, Haytham Kenway - who you actually play the first few sequences as - is fantastic and I really enjoyed both playing as him and playing against him.  I think without him the game would have really suffered.

More characters are found on the Homestead, with a bunch of settlers whose lives you can watch grow as the game goes on.  You really feel like you get to know them over time and give Connor a bit of personality of his own.  Also on the Homestead is Achilles - the man who acts as Connor's mentor and introduces you to the Assassins - he's a funny character and someone that you grow to really care about.

Connor's story is a personal one as he tries to find his place in this strange new world that he's been unceremoniously thrust into while also gaining a measure of revenge. As is typical in AC games his story interweaves with real historical events and he crosses paths with a number of very recognisable figures from the revolution. This is very cool and adds an interesting twist to the tale. Watching Connor grow into an accomplished leader of a crowd of Assassins with the undercurrent of him seeking some kind of acceptance from his father is fantastic but I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed it as much as Ezio and Altair's epic 4 game, 400 year tale for the ages.

On the flipside we have the supposed climax to Desmond's present day story. Around two games ago this was the part of the story I was most invested in and I couldn't wait to find out what happened next! The original plan of telling Desmond's story over a trilogy of games and the subsequent change to stretching it out over five games has really caught up on it though - by this point I really don't care what happens to Desmond or his merry crew who have undergone a facelift and don't even look like the same characters any more.  It's a pity and they don't end it terribly well but personally I'm glad we got the extra two games to go deeper into Ezio's life as he was a far more interesting character than Desmond anyway.

My only major gripe with the game was how long it took to get going. I enjoyed playing as Haytham so I wouldn't cut that bit out, but the fact I was still doing training missions after four hours was really grating. Given this is the 5th AC game I've played it felt very much like overkill.

Assassin's Creed 3 is a really great game that features a lot of improvements over previous entries, but I just don't feel it's as strong an overall package.  I would definitely recommend it to fans of the series and non fans alike! And now, onto Assassin's Creed IV....

Batman Arkham Origins (Wii U) - Review

Date Started:        18/12/2013
Date Completed:   13/01/2014
Game time:           16h 47m

Initially I hadn't planned to pick up the third entry in Batman's Arkham series.  I mean I loved the first two games, Arkham Asylum & Arkham City, and when Arkham Origins was announced I was excited, but that excitement began to wane (or Wayne, if you will) as the months went on.  Based on some of the previews I had seen I got the impression that Origins was a bit of a rehash of City and on one hand, it is a bit - but on the other hand, Arkham City was a tremendous game so at least it's got a great base to work off!

In the end this was a complete impulse purchase in the days running up to Christmas - the game is set over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so I thought it would be best enjoyed in the spirit of the season.  Having played through December and January I have to say I'm a bit confused about why they even bothered to give the game this specific setting - probably to pray on mugs like me.  Apart from a couple of cutscenes and some sparsely scattered fairylights throughout Gotham there's very little Christmas Spirit on show.  I think part of the main cause of this and one of the overbearing problems with the game is that Gotham itself feels like a pretty dead city.  There are hundreds of tall buildings, obviously apartment blocks and places of work, but there is no evidence that any civilians actually live there.  There's no one going for Christmas Eve drinks, no one trying to get home from work to their families, no one at all.  The only people you will come across in the game are police, criminals and a small handful of hostages (where did they get them from?).  Arkham City was able to get away with this due to the fact that part of the city had been caged off specifically as an open world housing pen for criminals - it was natural there would be no civilians.  But in Origins it felt like it really struggled to create an interesting atmosphere  - something that Asylum and City really excelled at.

The story is pretty good, the gist of it being that Black Mask has put a bounty on Batman's head - he wants you dead, tonight!  This means you've got 8 assassins after you, which in keeping with the previous games allows a wide range of the roster of villains to make appearances.  This keeps the story ticking along nicely as once you deal with one foe, another is sure to be along shortly.  I've heard complaints that this isn't really an "origin" story but I'd disagree with that point of view - it isn't meant to be a story of how Bruce Wayne became Batman and doesn't attempt to, but it does serve as an excellent prequel to the other two games in the series, setting up Arkham Asylum nicely.

Batman is still early in his career here and I found it really interesting to see his relationships with two specific characters quite far removed from what we're used to.  The game also serves as an introduction to one of Batman's foes and provides you with some of his back story as well - including a couple of playable hallucination sequences that I found a lot of fun.

In addition to the 8 assassins there are a series of sidequests that become available to you as you get further into the game, presented to you by some more villains that will be familiar to fans of the Batman universe.  I've never been a huge fan myself - I only really know the villains from the movies - but the characters are all really well designed and the voice acting does a top notch job of bringing them to life.  There's also a full profile for each character you come across so don't let unfamiliarity put you off.

The side missions are definitely worth a look in as one of my favourite moments from the game came from a sequence where you are hunting down the Mad Hatter - a criminal obsessed with Alice in Wonderland - and you are plunged into a hallucination fueled trip through the Looking Glass.  It's reminiscent of the excellent Scarecrow missions from Arkham Asylum.

There are three main facets to the gameplay of Origins - the open world exploration, the stealthy "Predator" sequences and the hand to hand "Freeflow" combat.  If you've played either of the previous games you'll be familiar with how they handle and they aren't particularly reinvented here.  They're still as fantastic as they ever were though.  Gliding around the skies of Gotham City as the Caped Crusader, using your Grapnel Accelerator to propel you high into the air is an absolute joy.  There is a fast travel option in the game but I very rarely used it as just getting from Point A to Point B was so much fun.

I found the stealth gameplay a lot more difficult than in the previous games and not necessarily in a good way. It wasn't that it was much more challenging, it just seemed that almost every Predator sequence ended up in a gunfight - I don't think the levels were as well designed as in previous games to fully support the stealthy approach.

And so we come to the undoubted star of the game - the hand to hand combat.  Honestly I don't think there's a better combat system in any game I've ever played than the formula that the Arkham series has produced and steadily refined over the last two games.  The old cliche of "Easy to pick up, difficult to master" rings true here as anyone could pick up a controller and start pounding criminals into unconsciousness, but the challenge increases as more and more enemy types are introduced, each with their own defensive and offensive quirks that you need to understand in order to be victorious.  It's not just about winning though, you have to win in style!  Putting together massive combos and mixing in counters and attacks with your gadgets increases the number of XP you are given at the end of a battle - which you can then use to unlock more combat skills and open up even more combo opportunities.  This is one of those games where you just go looking for enemies to fight, because it's so damn fun.  

One thing I found amusing though is that for a hero who famously refuses to kill any opponents, Batman *really* seems to enjoy beating the absolute shit out of every mindless goon he comes across.  Gives them an absolute battering at any opportunity!

A common problem in a lot of games is that they don't know how to incorporate boss battles with the core gameplay while still making them stand out and be good fun (Deus Ex...).  That's definitely not a problem in Arkham Origins and the highlight of the game for me was the boss battle with Deathstroke - it tested all of the combat skills you had learnt and then threw in a few extra tricks just to keep you on your toes.  A real challenge but it never felt cheap and even when I was beaten I couldn't wait to give it another go.

So overall, Arkham Origins does suffer a bit from being a bit of a rehash, but it's a rehash of a really brilliant game and the core gameplay remains in tact.  For me that's reason enough to recommend this to fans of the series, but for newcomers I would suggest they go back to the start with Arkham Asylum.  

Sadly I'm not sure where the series can go from here and I fear it may have run its natural course unless any sequel significantly changes up the setting but if this is the end I feel that the Arkham series can stand tall as one of the best franchises to come out of the 360/PS3 generation.

The Wolf Among Us - Episode 1: Faith - Review

Available: Xbox 360, PC, PS3

For anyone who doesn't know, The Wolf Among Us is Telltale Games' follow up to the critically acclaimed Walking Dead series.  I was late to the party on The Walking Dead and picked up all 5 episodes in one go, but to be honest I found them a little bit disappointing after all the hype they had been getting.  So much so that I haven't even felt the urge to finish the last two episodes yet - though I definitely will at some point.  Parts of it were amazing, but there were a few things that held it back from really grabbing me.  The main issue I had was the illusion that you had a real choice in how the story advanced - yes you got to make some tough choices at times, letting one character live over an another etc. but you still had to watch your character do some really dumb shit at points, forcing you into bad scenarios that you could see coming a mile off.

So, having been disappointed with TWD why was I so interested in The Wolf Among Us that I downloaded it as soon as I got home on Friday?  Well, for all the problems I had with The Walking Dead there was still a lot of it to enjoy so I was intrigued to see what they did to follow it up, the setting of the game really appealed to me and the £3-something price tag definitely played a part in it!

The Wolf Among Us is similar to TWD in that it takes an existing fictional universe and creates an original tale within it.  In this case it's set in the world of the Fables comic series.  Personally I had never heard of the comics, but don't let that put you off at all as this game is set as a prequel to them assuming absolutely no prior knowledge.  The basic gist of the story is that a load of characters from the Fairy Tales that we all know have had to flee from their homeland and have taken refuge in an area of Manhattan known as "Fabletown".  You'll see plenty of characters that you instantly recall, but the main one of interest and the one that you play in this tale is the "Big Bad Wolf", who now goes by the name of Bigby and is acting Sheriff of Fabletown. 

The non-human Fables have developed a form of magic known as "Glamour" that will conceal their identity and make them appear human, but it costs money and if you can't pay then you are sent to live on "The Farm", a place that you may (or may not) visit in future episodes but don't see here which is located in upstate New York.  So, having set the scene, let's get to how the game plays

The game opens with a bang, as you're immediately called into action as Sheriff answering a complaint about what seems to be a domestic fight.  From the outset you're able to mould Bigby into whatever character you want him to play out as - you can politely knock on the door, or you can huff and puff and kick the thing in.  Naturally I chose the latter.  From here I was thrust straight into a fight sequence, though this may be avoidable if you're a bit more professional in your approach.

I'm glad the game started out like this because it provides an immediate opportunity to show how much the gameplay in the action scenes has improved since The Walking Dead.  Controlling the fight just seems a lot more natural and smooth than before.  You control Bigby's actions using a mixture of the analogue sticks, face buttons and the triggers using a combination of good timing and mashing the buttons as fast as you can.  Another thing that I *really* liked here is that the button prompts are done in the same art style as the rest of the game, so you don't have some garish green button popping up breaking your immersion in the world.  It reminded me a lot of the kind of in-game-world prompts made popular by Splinter Cell Conviction.  The fights can be really brutal at times, with you targeting specific body parts and delivering crunching kicks to the kneecap or punches to the throat.  The sound effects play a great part in making these sequences so immersive.

While we're on the topic of sound effects I feel I should mention that the soundtrack of the game is fantastic as well - it really sets the scene for a grimy and gritty urban tale.  Add to the this the beautiful art work and style - gorgeous neon EVERYWHERE - and you have an atmosphere better than any game I've played in a long while.

Things in Fabletown seem just about bearable on the surface, but the sinister undertones are evident from the go and it doesn't take long for things to boil over.  Without wanting to spoil the story (since it's the main draw of the game), you're soon investigating a grisly murder with very little evidence to go on.

There are a lot of shady characters you're introduced to and it's hard to tell whether their attitude towards you belies truly bad intentions or if they're simply fed up with the perceived shitty approach you have to doing your job.  The Fables may be living their life in Fabletown, but it would be a stretch to say any of them are happy to be doing so.

One of the joys I had while talking to different characters was the fact that the majority are characters that you're familiar with - Snow White, Beauty & The Beast, Ichabod Crane, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee - but they are far removed from the versions of the characters that you know.  Yes they're still fantastical characters, but they also have a more realistic edge to them and seeing them adjusting to New York life is fascinating.  The script is brilliant, darkly funny and well acted by all concerned.

The conversational choices you have as Bigby are well designed to let you play the character however you want him to be.  In The Walking Dead it never felt natural to me to play Lee as an asshole, he seemed like a good guy and personally I always felt compelled to go down that route.  If you took the 'renegade' option it felt that Lee was behaving that way almost reluctantly.  With Bigby you have a character that is much more of a double edged sword - a man that wants to do his job and serve the Fables, prove that he's turned over a new leaf but who also takes an awful lot of shit from people and isn't afraid to push back when needed.  When you choose the darker option it feels like Bigby gets a real relief out of it with a pang of regret while accepting what he really is.  Whatever way you choose to play Bigby it would seem believable.

Episode 1 is relatively short, it took me about 3 and a half hours but that included playing one section twice due to the autosave points sometimes being a bit far apart.  It's a decent length for the price and left me desperate for more.  I'll definitely be downloading Episode 2 as soon as it's released because I just can't get enough of this world.  In the first episode the game has addressed almost all of the things that stopped me really loving The Walking Dead so here's hoping that trend continues.

I only have two niggles with the game, the first would be the aforementioned save system not giving you the option to save at any point and potentially leading you to replay an investigation section which can seem a little tedious when you've already completed it shortly before.  Secondly the frame rate can dip and cause the game to stutter at certain points, especially during cutscenes.  For a game that isn't that graphically intensive this is disappointing and can harm the otherwise near-perfect immersion that the game provides.

I wouldn't let either of these things put you off playing though.  The game is short and very reasonably priced so if you're sitting around on your own this weekend wondering what movie to watch, you should maybe give 3 hours to The Wolf Among Us and see if you enjoy it as much as I did.  There are four more episodes to go in this series, but if you don't enjoy this one you're under no obligation to play them.  Personally, I've already bought the Season Pass because The Wolf Among Us is the best game I've played in a long while.

Review: Darksiders (Xbox 360)

Darksiders is a game I'd been meaning to play basically since it came out.  Unfortunately for some daft reason it was released in January and as any avid gamer knows you usually have a backlog up to your arms following the release schedule leading up to Christmas.  I'd eventually bought it last year as part of the Xbox Live Halloween sale but it got lost again amongst a load of digital downloads on my 360 that are very easy to lose track of.  But, here we are - I've now played and completed Darksiders a mere three and a half years after I originally wanted to.  Was it worth the wait?

The game opens quietly enough - with the apocalypse raining down meteors in a New York-esque city.  Humans are running (pointlessly) for their lives as everything they know and love is being destroyed before their eyes.  The game does a great job of conveying the enormity of what is happening but very quickly and effectively shifts the focus so that it's made clear that these humans are just bit-part players in this grand tale.

The story is quite convoluted but the gist is that before earth was created there was only heaven and hell, while "The Charred Council" presided between them. Eventually humans emerged and The Kingdom of Man was born.  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were created by The Council to enforce their laws on both Heaven and Hell.  As I understand, The Kingdom of Man is there to be used as the battlefield for the EndWar and when it is time for this war the Seven Seals shall be broken and the Horsemen are summoned to ride across the Kingdom of Man to judge the guilty and destroy them or something.  Somehow this is supposed to restore the balance of Heaven and Hell.

So this is how we are introduced to the game - the EndWar is seemingly upon us as the Seven Seals have been broken and you, as one of the Four Horsemen - War, arrive on Earth to dish out some punishment and pain.

After a brilliant opening sequence you end up in the Council's chambers facing some punishment of your own.  Turns out the 7th seal wasn't actually broken and so you have jumped the gun by coming to Earth.  Quite why War is the only Horseman to make this mistake isn't known, but he is.  So there.
Jumping the gun is considered a mortal sin for your kind and you are sentenced to death!  Thankfully for the sake of the game War comes up with an alternative and vows to figure out this entire mess and deliver his punishment to whoever was responsible.  So, off you go with a slimy member of the Council as your forced sidekick - granted the power to kill you if you step out of line - and with your own Super Horseman powers stricken from you.  Luckily War is a pretty powerful beast in his own right - which makes sense given he has fists the size of his head!

By the time you return to Earth a century has passed and the "last of the mouth breathers" have died off.  This makes for a pretty grim setting but has left enough time for the buildings to become ruins and there's barely any evidence that humans were ever here, other than abandoned cars strewn about the place.  When you first start out on your adventure you come across demons from hell and not so angelic "angels" from heaven waging the ultimate war on each other - this is pretty cool to watch unfold in front of you.  Of course both of these enemies has a problem with you so you're forced to dish out some apocalyptic pain to them via your disproportionate sword known as "Chaoseater" which I prefer to call "The Big Fuck Off Sword".

The combat in Darksiders plays a huge part in the gameplay.  While not as advanced as the likes of Ninja Gaiden or as smooth and satisfying as the Arkham games the combat is a strong point of the game for me.  You start off with just your sword but soon pick up additional weapons such as a massive scythe and even a gun (which is pretty crap).  Throughout the game you will also come across items that unlock new abilities and access to new areas but also double up as handy weapons.  The "Tremor Gauntlet" basically lets you thunder punch the crap out of anything in your way while the Crossblade acts as a boomerang type weapon that can shred your enemies to bits from distance.  War can also gather Souls from fallen enemies or hidden chests which are then used as currency to unlock new attacks to use with the Sword or Scythe and by the end of the game you could easily have 30-40 moves available to you.   The real fun of the combat comes from linking all these different moves and weapons into fast paced combos to dispatch a massive group of enemies.  At times it can be frantic but it rarely feels cheap.

There are a lot of basic enemies that can be defeated by any means you wish but as the game continues you are introduced to foes that require a certain approach to defeat.  Most of these are pretty imaginative though its never too tricky to figure out their weak spot.  If you manage to isolate enemies into a one on one fight you should be able to get the better of them most of the time - it's when you have to watch your back while making strategic attacks that things get really tricky.  Later on in the game you'll find yourself going into battles against waves of enemies that can last a good 15-20 minutes - at times I found these infuriating, often dying with only a couple of demons left to slay!  The game does provide you a bit of a helping hand via a super power up that War can activate once he has filled his Chaos Meter - done by stringing together combos.  You can fill your Chaos meter on any enemy and activate it whenever you like, which means you can store your Chaos Form until you really need it.  Once you do, you'll transform into War's Demon Form leaving you invulnerable to attacks and able to defeat the toughest enemies in a number of strikes.  This form takes away all the fluidity of the combat and although it comes in really handy at times it just isn't that fun.  He does look pretty bad ass though!

War in his chaos form!

The boss battles are some of my favourite parts of the game - the monsters you face are huge and their designs are fantastic.  It feels fitting when you're playing as one of the Four Horsemen that you should face some really epic foes and they live up to that.  Half of the fun comes from figuring out how to take advantage of their weak points and the other half comes from dishing out a shit ton of pain!

Early on in the game you come across a number of "Demons Challenges" that you must complete to progress.  These basically involve you being thrown in a bland room and facing off against a stream of enemies with different markers you have to reach - usually involving defeating a certain amount of enemies within a time limit using a specific attack.  On one hand these could be seen as training exercises, but to be honest they pop up way too often and feel like filler to artificially lengthen the game.  They'd be much more fun as optional mini games accessible from the start menu (I'm thinking something like the Arkham games), but integrated into the game they're quite tiresome and really stop the flow of the game.  If you could skip them completely then the game would be much more fast paced and enjoyable.  The saving grace is that these only seem to happen early in the game and once you get past the first few hours they don't interrupt you again.

The combat covers a good portion of the gameplay but to describe it as a straight up hack and slash would be doing the game an injustice.  The flipside of the gameplay is the dungeons.  The way these dungeons unfold will seem instantly familiar to anyone who has played a 3D Zelda game, from the way the maps are presented to the single use keys to unlock doors and finding a new item or power that will access previously inaccessible areas.  A lofty mix of platforming and puzzle games, these can really test your fingers and your brain at times.

The last dungeon in particular is pretty challenging/infuriating as it involves a lot of portal based puzzles and also a whole lot of fights against enemies that are easy beaten on their own but a lot more tricky and frustrating when there are a few of them.

The dungeons run the risk of being a bit samey since they are all set in a post apocalyptic wasteland, but they are far from it for the most part.  I was pleasantly surprised by how extremely unique each one was and the ambient sound effects do a fantastic job of creating an engrossing atmosphere.  Each dungeon can take 1-4 hours to get through so giving each of them such an identity is one of the biggest reasons I enjoyed the game so much.

The environments whether in the dungeons or in the overworld are absolutely beautiful and I really like the art style.  Graphically this is a strong point of the game, but I feel that the character models are unfortunately less impressive.  The artistic choice of making the characters wildly out of proportion (think Gears of War) could put some people off but isn't a problem for me.  The enemies are varied and some of their designs are really cool but War and his foes just aren't that technically impressive and look quite dated.  Given they are the main focus of your eyes it took me a while to appreciate what a great looking game it is once you get past that.  The screenshots below show off some of the great environments (click to enlarge).

  

I mentioned earlier that the game reminded me of Ninja Gaiden - it's not just the combat but also the quite convoluted storyline that makes struggles to make sense.  A lot of the characters have similar sounding "mythical" names (Uriel, Ulthane, Samael, Straga, Azrael etc.) - due to this I found it hard at times to remember who each character was and what their role was in the story.  Add to this that you have three warring factions and the story is a bit hard to follow, especially when so much of your time is spent focusing purely on what War is up to in the immediate present rather than what his greater goal is.  You play the part of a pawn in this story and you only really get down to War's personal vengeance towards the end.  Despite this, the storyline is highly intriguing and definitely serves as a strong backdrop to some very strong gameplay.

My last niggle with the game is that I found the ending seemed to drag out a bit including a quite tedious fetch quest that seems to be there only to artificially lengthen the game.  At 20+ hours I didn't think there was any need for this - at that point I just wanted to get to the final battle!  The story comes to a head nicely in the final act and when you reach the final battle there is a great payoff for any tedium that preceded it.

Overall Darksiders is a game that I couldn't describe as a "must play" for everyone, but if you're looking for something similar in structure to Zelda (with better combat) and the subject matter appeals to you then I would definitely check it out.  It can be challenging and even frustrating at times but fittingly I enjoyed the hell out it.  Despite having too many characters that are hard to get familiar with, the main characters that you deal with and even War himself are fantastic.  It's brilliantly over the top and humorous at times and despite the serious situations it never take itself too seriously.  You won't be left with a sour taste in your mouth either as the last ten minutes were one of the best parts of the game, which is unfortunately all too rare in a lot of releases today.  I left the game on a high and it set up the sequel very nicely. A sequel that I will most definitely be playing!