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!

Review: Sonic Generations (Xbox 360)

As you might have guessed given the name and theme of this blog I'm a pretty big Sonic fan. Or at least I was. I haven't actually bought a retail Sonic release in about ten years since I got Sonic Adventure 2 on Gamecube release day.

So what made me pick up Sonic Generations? It was a mixture of things really - I tried the demo but wasn't overly impressed but I heard a lot of praise for the game and the nostalgia factor definitely had me interested. What sealed it though was the chance to buy it for just £8.99 in an out of the blue flash sale (thank you hotukdeals.com!)

The story of the game is... not important. But basically we've ended up with two Sonics - one short and stumpy who doesn't speak and one a bit gangly who does speak and has a 'tude. This premise opens up a key gameplay feature,  as you traverse through the zones each Sonic takes a turn at it and each one plays very differently. Act 1 plays like a classic 2D Sonic game while Act 2 is a 3D stage more like the Sonic games we've come to know post-2000.

All of the stages are taken from previous games in the series, one from each "major" release, though sadly Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are counted as one game. This is both a gift and a curse to the game - obviously it appeals to players' nostalgia, but on the other hand there's always going to be an argument over the stages that were selected or more likely those that were left out.  Personally I would have loved to see Ice Cap Zone included ahead of Sky Sanctuary from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.  Another problem with this approach is that once what is undoubtedly the peak of the series has been covered - after the first 3 zones - the reveal of the levels is a bit less exciting.  That's not to say they are bad levels by any means, the last few were more challenging and engaging than any of the ones I was familiar with from previous games.

The gang's all here!  Thankfully you don't have to play as them.

Previous Sonic games have tried to switch up the flow of the game by introducing other characters (or Werewolves???) to have some slow paced levels to "compliment" the fast paced Sonic ones.  Common opinion is that these types of levels suck balls.  So you'll be glad to hear that although a whole host of characters return, their roles are firmly supporting ones.  As I said before, the change in pace comes from the switch between 2D and 3D levels.  This is where the game shocked me.

I enjoyed the 3D levels a lot more than the 2D ones.

There, I said it.  I'm not sure what it is, but the 2D levels just seem to drag a lot more than the 3D ones to me.  Part of the problem may be that after playing the 3D stages (which feature their own two dimensional gameplay sections) where Sonic has his homing attack, switching to "classic" Sonic without the homing attack just feels incredibly gimped.  To combat this the game designers have brought back some of the shields from the old games (Flame, Lightning and Water/Bubble), but in my opinion they aren't used nearly enough and feel more like an afterthought.

As has been the case with Sonic games since he moved to the third dimension, the camera can be pretty wonky at times and when the action slows down Sonic can be very tricky to control when jumping from one ledge to another.  Sonic's all about blistering through a level at high speed bouncing from enemy to enemy, but when he slows down it can seem like his legs have turned to jelly.  Most of the time I spent falling off platforms were at times when the action had slowed right down and Sonic moves like he's on ice skates and jumps like... an idiot. Obviously the game is meant to be played fast, but there are times where you've no choice other than to slow down.

Something that Sonic games have always done well is bosses. This game is no exception as the bosses and sub-bosses are mostly inventive and good fun to play.  I say mostly, because the very final boss is a real pain in the ass and one of the low points of the whole game.  It's a pity because the boss fight just before the end is fantastic and would have been a better ending point in my opinion.

From a technical standpoint, the graphics are decent enough without being mindblowing.  They do the job, but compared to games like Rayman Origins and even Mario Galaxy and Donkey Kong Country on the Wii they're pretty forgettable.   The soundtrack fits the game well with simple infectious tunes and remixes of classics that you'll be humming even after you turn the console off.   As a nice added bonus if you aren't feeling the music you can unlock classic tracks from past games and use them as the soundtrack while you play.  Admittedly the classics don't tend to fit the new levels as much as the actual songs do, but I had some fun with it.

If you plan to just blast through the game at Super Sonic speed - ahem - playing each stage and jumping onto the next one, you could be done with that in probably around 4-6 hours.  To help extend the game, somewhat artifically, once you complete a few zones you unlock a set of challenges - five for each act.  Most of these are based around replaying a section of the act with a twist that can range from specific enemies to a companion with their own unique powers to help you on your way. You only need to complete one challenge from each zone to move on, but if you want to beat all 90 of them it will extend your playing time a fair bit, with my final playing time probably somewhere around the 12 hour mark.  To be honest though I'm not sure I'd recommend playing through them all - some of them are good fun, but a lot of them are just fecking tedious.  They made the whole experience a bit of a chore for me in the end, but as I said before they're 90% optional so if you're not enjoying them don't be a glutton for punishment like me just to unlock a poxy achievement!

If it sounds like I've been quite harsh on Sonic Generations, well I didn't particularly mean to be.  It's a fun game that is well worth picking up for cheap.  Could I recommend it to somebody at full price?  Honestly, no.  But the way you'll get the most out of this game is if you treat it as a budget title that can be played as your "side game" rather than your main one.  It's perfect to play in bite size chunks when a two hour quest through Skyrim isn't quite what you're looking for.  It's light-hearted fun that can be enjoyed by gamers of all ages, especially if you spent hours of your youth fighting Dr. Robotnik on the Mega Drive/Genesis.  Many have said it's the best Sonic game in years, but it does have it's fair share of flaws that hold it back from taking Sonic back to the top level of gaming.  The 3D stages were a pleasant surprise while for me the 2D ones were a bit of a let down and to be honest I enjoyed Sonic 4's levels a lot more.

In conclusion, if you like fun, you will enjoy this game, just don't expect a world beater.

Phil