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.

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!