Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Reviewed Platform: PS3

Other Platforms: Xbox 360, PC

WARNING: SPOILERS

I loved Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. It was my favourite game in the series so far, and I theorised that it would probably be the best combination of gameplay, gameplay elements and story that we’d find within the Assassin’s Creed series. If you want to see why just check out my review of it.

When Revelations was coming out I was sceptical. I had kind of had enough of Ezio. He’s cool and everything, but his story was over in Brotherhood. So, I went into Revelations not really sure what to expect story wise, nor was I sure what they would change to make this one stand out.

The answer came to me quickly. They changed very little that mattered. The UI had a complete overhaul and they added bombs. Neither of these things did it for me, the change in UI seeming pointless and the inclusion of bombs just irritating. I went through the entire game without using bombs as they seemed pointless and too much worthless effort as I wanted to get up close and personal or use my crossbow to take dudes out, which I couldn’t as the crossbow is super expensive. On top of this we have a hook-blade, which just seems to defy common sense and biology (I swear using it would cause your wrist to snap off in an instant). 

Oh, and the less said about the stupid Tower Defence mini-game the better.

Everything that was introduced to Brotherhooddidn’t seem to have much of a place in this game. In fact, a lot of things were dropped. For one, horses are no longer in the game. Nor is an interesting city layout, which now just seems sloppily put together (we’re in Constantinople now). Building up a brotherhood just seems purely peripheral now and seems nigh on useless.

Viewpoints are no longer as spectacular as they once were

So yeah, the gameplay was kind of lame. But a lot of the little niggles I had were always there (such as parkour not always working properly). Why was I suddenly noticing these things? I loved the gameplay in all previous games, even the first game. What went wrong? Well, I theorise the problem is that the others had a cohesive and interesting story to hold it all together. You lose this and it all falls apart. And this was my biggest issue with Revelations.

Revelations no longer seemed to tell Ezio’s story. This time it was about the struggles of Constantinople. There’s a Templar presence, of course, but they just seem to want to bring the Byzantines back, rather than do anything seemingly useful. There’s a massive focus on this story that seems to have nothing to do with Ezio. He’ll get involved, but for the most part I can’t see why.

What should have been the focus of the game was the side plot. All these B-side missions that come about involving Ezio gaining his humanity back at such an old age. He gets to know this other Italian, Sofia, and through their bonding he realises that he is getting too old to be an Assassin. He needs to pass on the torch. This coincides with the story of Altaïr, another part of the game that had little focus on it.

Quite clearly some futuristic DVD

See, Altaïr has left these DVDs around and they tell his story bit by bit. But they really don’t, as the story skips around so much we can’t reconnect with him. The story tells of how he has been exiled and how he deals with it, I think. He gets married, has children and attempts to bring down a colossal douchebag who has taken over the Assassins. This would be a good story in its own right, but it falls short so many times.

Here are some problems. Firstly, how did that guy get to take over the Assassin’s? He’s clearly incapable of doing so and an absolute tyrant. Secondly, Altaïr’s son dies and Altaïr goes to ask the tyrant why he ordered his execution. I couldn’t care as I didn’t know he had children as this was suddenly forced upon us. Thirdly, who is this woman? I can only assume it is the woman who pretended to be Robert de Sable in the first game. She was shown to be romantically involved with Altaïr in another game, but this was only shown and not developed. Fourthly, when she dies I can’t care as this is the only time she is in the game. Fifthly, Altaïr can easily kill the guy, but doesn’t.

They completely ruin Altaïr’s story, and I know this is all very picky, but Altaïr is an important character who needed more time focussed upon him for development. Just showing snapshots of his life is pointless as we can’t really connect with him, nor can we cohesively follow his story.

If they were to remake this game then this is what I’d do: have two plots, one with Ezio and Sofia, the other with Altaïr and his life. Focus on both equally. Then you can connect with the characters and feel for them as they go through tough times and attempt to overcome them.

I feel that Ubisoft lost their way with this game, just trying to squeeze out yet another game before Assassin’s Creed III. This could have been handled very well, especially if the story actually revealed a lot, but for a game called Revelationsthere aren’t many revelations. The game just feels rushed, and that’s a shame as it did have potential to be great. The ending was very good, but the game itself wasn’t worth it (apart from the Sofia parts of the game).

For Assassin’s Creed fans this is, of course, an important game to play as it does continue the story, but I can’t help but feel it was completely unnecessary. Non-fans would probably have fun with the game, but for me, who cares a lot about the story and characters, this just didn’t do it.

E3 2012: Thoughts and Feelings – Sony

Well, we’ve had a terrible Microsoft presentation, a well presented but somewhat vacant EA press conference, and then Ubisoft’s travesty with a surprise ending. Well, now we have the (so far) best presented one. Sony definitely knows what to do when trying to sell their products. That is to say that they try to sell stuff hard between talking about games. But what of these games?

Beyond: Two Souls

Quantic Dream, you’ve hooked me already. Ellen Page as the main character with some beautiful motion capture, impressive graphics, some weird psychic/paranormal shit, amazing atmosphere and some dodgy looking SWAT team. I love it. Everything seems great. Oh, and there appears to be branching paths.

Not much has been shown of this game, but the game looks to be dark, mature and have some pretty cool action. This is one to keep your eye on.

Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royale

Super Smash Bros. for the Playstation? Well, I was previously sceptical, but now I have to say that this game looks pretty damn interesting. The action is easier to see than the Super Smash Bros. games, making things less of a clusterfuck, and the characters are more my kind of characters. The levels seem to change as the matches go on, with games crossing over (the level was meant to be from Ratchet & Clank, but suddenly the God of War Hydra appeared).

Sadly, I can’t quite understand the health system in the game. The HUD doesn’t seem to show what health your character has or if they are using the stupid Super Smash Bros. damage percentage shit. I suppose we’ll find out more as they release more information.

One interesting development with the game is that you can play with both PS3 and the PS Vita at the same time.

Other Stuff

Then the presentation went onto all kinds of other stuff. Cross-controller Little Big Planet 2 DLC was announced, allowing people to play co-op with both PS3 and PS Vita. Seems to be a big focus of the Sony team now. PUSH THAT VITA!

They also announced more things about PS+, which will have new downloadable titles. Also, people in the audience got 1 year free for PS+.

And then we have more PS Vita pushing. Black Ops Declassified has been announced for it, not that we were shown any gameplay, and PS1 classics are coming to Vita. On top of this a new Assassin’s Creed game will come out for the Vita, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation. This game has the first female assassin and utilises touch screen controls and the in-built camera. Not sure how well this will work, but it looked good.

Assassin’s Creed III

Ah, this again. Surely they aren’t going to show more stuff for this and will just show a trailer. No? Oh, well it will probably just be more of the combat and stuff. No? Well, what is it- Oh my God naval combat!

Okay, this was very gimmicky but it looked good. It looked fun. It looked pretty. Assassin’s Creed III has recognised naval combat as an important part of the American Revolution, and so now you can fight at sea in a ship you control with cannons you can fire yourself. It all looked very good and seemed to imply you can also dock ships, which should be fun.

I almost forgot to notice they were still showing you only fight the British...

Far Cry 3

BOOBS!!!

Wait, no boobs? Huh, odd.

Well, they did show some 4 player co-op. Again, it looked pretty but it doesn’t seem like anything particularly new or innovative. Just your basic co-op. Nothing much here.

Wonderbook

What the hell is this? Why can’t we just read books? This is gimmicky as hell and will probably be overpriced.

But I am somewhat intrigued. It seems to be some sort of virtual pop-up book utilising the Move controller and the PS Eye. “Books” have games or something in them which kids will probably have quite a lot of fun with. Especially with their first title coming from JK Rowling: Book of Spells. It looked fun to an extent, but is definitely something you’d become bored with quickly.

Just read a book.

God of War: Ascension

It’s just more God of War. Not that this is a bad thing. God of War is always fun. Not much story was hinted at, but a new power that reminds me of the Sands of Time from Prince of Persia was shown. It seems to have uses in both combat and platforming/traversal. Looks good.

The Last of Us

If you aren’t excited about this game then I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Naughty Dog have made something absolutely spectacular. If there’s anything I can say good about Uncharted then it’s that the games are gorgeous to look at, and The Last of Us is just that. The environments look absolutely stunning.

But games aren’t all about the graphics. They have gameplay! So what is the gameplay in The Last of Us? Well, amazing, really. There is a stealth element involved which seems appropriate as when the character got shot he took a lot of damage. There are many enemies to contend with, and you need to go about it in an appropriate fashion, especially as bullets seem greatly limited (the guy had 4 bullets, which only went up to 6 when he picked up someone else’s ammo).

So, to combat this you have some hand to hand stuff going on and it looks brutal. Not in a God of War sense, but more so causing you to go “ooh”, “ouch” and “bloody hell” when he dispatches of enemies by repeatedly smashing their heads against a desk or beating them in the back of the head with a revolver. This creates a sense of tension and desperation. This is not from choice; this is for survival.

The AI seems greatly intelligent too, searching for you and attempting to ambush you. The Ellen Page looking companion is also effective, jumping on your enemy as he attempts to strangle you to death and stabbing him in the back.

The game is hard to put in words, so I recommend looking at the demo that they showed.

Ending Thoughts

Kudos to Sony for probably being the only one of the main 3 to actually include new IPs (Nintendo aren’t going to give out anything new). There may not have been too many games on show, but what they did show they showed well and in a way that makes you want to see more. Definitely best presentation so far, and probably the best for all of E3.

Worst Gaming Experiences: The Shotguns of Railroading

So, imagine this situation. You’ve been shot on a train full of enemies. You blow up the train in some vague hope you’ll survive because you’ve been able to survive every explosion imaginable and you do, indeed, survive. You climb out of the wreckage, surviving explosions and your body slamming into all kinds of surface. You shoot a few people on a way to safety. You traipse through snow in just a t-shirt and jeans. 

You come across a large group of enemies and you know you can take them out silently. You do so, in the meanwhile looking for an exit. No one has found you and you are pretty sure all enemies have been dispatched of. You find a way you can climb out. Your first instinct is to climb and escape. However, as you are climbing two people appear behind you from nowhere and shoot you before you can react.

Thanks, this guy. You cause me pain and misery.

Now, imagine this in terms of a video game. You think you might not have taken everyone out, so you start trying to stealth kill everyone, making sure to leave none behind. You try to sneak past everyone, taking out no one. Neither of these tactics work: you get shot. Suddenly you think that maybe you should kill everyone. Loudly. With guns. More enemies start coming, so that can’t be the way, surely? But it is. 

In this scenario you have to kill everyone who comes your way, and there are waves and waves of enemies. When you have killed them all, your character slows down, exhausted, climbs up and you get away. The game has artificially constructed a situation to increase tension. No, not artificially, it’s straight up unfair. No game should set you on the rails like that, cheating you out of continuing the game because you are doing to logical thing and trying to get away without bringing attention to yourself and thus preserving your life.

Well, I have to say thank you, critically acclaimed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. You have possibly the worst moment in gaming I have ever experienced. I am glad I have to understand exactly what the developers wanted me to do because they think action is a better way of dealing with what should be a tense and slow paced moment. You have shown me that instead of giving players a choice you should just shoot them in the back without warning with teleporting, psychic, shotgun-wielding soldiers.

Yeah, I don't like Uncharted 2 that much...

Aliens: Colonial Marines - First Impressions

Having just got back from MCM Expo I have looked back on my time at my first convention. It was extremely fun and I would definitely love to go again. It has certainly given me a taste for the convention atmosphere. However, one thing I remember most about Expo were the several games shown there. Out of these games there was one I played a demo for that really stuck with me.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is a first person shooter, though the demo we got was the competitive multiplayer. This meant that whilst the marines were in FPS mode, the aliens were in third-person mode. When we went in we were shown what the alien side was, watching the SEGA team battle against the normal guys. Xenomorph (the aliens) gameplay looked simply fantastic, with climbing on ceilings and walls being a major part. The entirety of the gameplay looked far superior to the gameplay in Alien vs. Predator, which had the Aliens in first person, making running along walls give you motion sickness.

But the xenomorph side was not the gameplay we got to experience first person. When the game finished (41-37 for the SEGA team) we played against the SEGA team. As marines you are dropped in apart from each other, but it is easy to find each other. A key approach is to take the Left 4 Dead tactic of stick together. Many people would run off on their own and immediately get shanked by a xenomorph. In fact, many of my kills were trying to make sure a person wasn’t on their own, see a xenomorph or two drop down on them, leaving me to try and protect them.

Another tactic that needs to be used for this game has to be one many people did not employ: turn on your flashlight and keep your eyes upwards. At one point four of my team members ran through a door with an obvious prehensile tail hanging from it. A few quick shotgun blasts and I had saved their lives. Of course, I found employing this technique actually heightened my fears, as I was looking out for the xenomorphs so much I kept seeing things.

 

The weapon loadouts given to us were great. My personal favourite was to use the shotgun as it was easier to hit the moving targets, plus xenomorphs need to get up close to hurt you, so a shotgun blast to the head before it stabs you is perfect. The other two weapon loadouts consisted of a machine gun (useful) and an assault rifle that shot in bursts (not as useful). The trailer showed a flamethrower which was not in the demo but I can imagine being extremely useful in the full release.

The game was a paranoia filled bundle of fun and is definitely a game I would like to get on release date. The L4D style of gameplay was absolutely fantastic and made us all work together. On top of this the game is simply gorgeous to look at, albeit it very dark (though a flashlight will solve that). Plus, the gameplay feels very balanced (our side lost 39-38, which is pretty close), even though when playing the game you do feel very vulnerable, which is how you should feel against the xenomorphs.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is out on Microsoft Windows, PS3 and Xbox 360 in February 2013, and Wii U in 2013.

Warp

Reviewed Platform: PSN

Other Platforms: XBLA, PC

Well, it sure has been a while on here. What with all the coursework and general University-ness going on I haven’t really had time to concentrate on something to review it. Luckily, I managed to get Warp a week or two ago and have been slowly playing through it. As soon as I started playing it I knew this was review material. Something about it just said “easily reviewable” to me.

But before we get into that we must ask: What is Warp? Well, Warp is a game I was very much looking forward to. A downloadable title developed by Trapdoor Inc., Warp is about a cute little alien called Zero going through a facility, trying to escape from the scientists and soldiers that have help him captive and tested on him. That’s all. A nice, neat little story and, to be fair, it’s not too bad. Nothing in depth but gives the player enough motivation to get to the end of the game.

The game does have other good parts, but sadly these parts are hampered by the game’s design. Firstly we have to look at the art design. Zero is, as you can probably tell, fucking cute (LOOK AT HIM!). He is adorable. That’s great. But what isn’t great is the fact that his art design is not conducive with the design of the rest of the game. There’s something that seems wrong when looking at Zero near the human characters. Zero’s overly cartoonish style just doesn’t mesh with the slightly realistic looking people and this means that scenes with humans in don’t feel right, almost in an uncanny valley sense. Otherwise, the art design is alright.

The dialogue is actually also somewhat entertaining. I would love to hear more and more of the scientists babbling on about what stereotypical nerds they are. Sadly, I can’t. This is because dialogue doesn’t happen enough and when you get close enough to the characters to hear what they are saying they have usually reached the end of their sentence. Once I just heard “mumble mumble masturbation.” I have no idea what that line is about in context because I couldn’t hear it. A simple fix for this would be to utilise subtitles, but the game sadly doesn’t have this option.

Talking of sound, the game does actually have some pretty good sound design. When you warp into enemies in order to make them exploding there’s a rather satisfying squelch as blood sprays everywhere. But, of course, there’s something to combat this area of sound being good: the lack of music. The game is extremely dull to play through without music. Not enough is going on to keep my full attention and some music would have been enough to keep me going. The design on the game warrants some wacky Splosion Manstyle music, but it’s just not there.

There are some other minor problems. The game doesn't really have a progression in difficulty, so it all seems like a massive grind to get to the end. Field of view from enemies isn't very easy to gauge and sometimes they seem to come out from nowhere. The game also glitched out a few times, not allowing me to go forwards until I ending up killing myself attempting to solve some imaginary puzzle. Also, the load times are horrendous for this title and get especially irritating when getting to sections where you'll die a lot.

There are some interesting powers in the game, but none of them really alter gameplay enough.

But none of these currently listed problems are the biggest. These are simple nitpicks. You might be wondering what playing this game involves. You know, like what you need to do and what the controls are. It is at thispoint the entire game falls apart, and disastrously so.

The controls to this game are HORRIBLE. At first the game seems to be quite good with controls. It you notice how when you are going to warp in a barrel or a person the pointer usually locks on. It’s handy. As the game goes on, however, you’ll find this to be almost irritating. A simple warp from one location to another can be hampered by a stray barrel getting in the way. Or even then the pointer won’t lock on to the barrel, getting you stuck behind it and then getting shot.

For a game that requires such precise controls the game is amazingly imprecise. You’ll find yourself dying over and over and over not because of ineptitude but because of the shite, stiff controls. And there is no place that these controls are more atrocious than at the end of the game.

The final level has a ship rocking from side to side. It is here you desperately need tight controls, but this game doesn’t have any. Instead you’ll find the physics going wild and your ability to accurately move between lasers waning. The gap you need to get into would be fine with precise controls, but nope, this game doesn’t have any. Once you power through all of the shit thrown at you come against the ending boss. If, when playing through the previous section, you thought the controls were being crap then THIS is where they fall apart.

Fuck physics and fuck the controls and fuck this game. The boss just doesn’t work and feels broken. I didn’t complete it. Once I have defeated the boss I have to sit around and not get hit. I don’t have any way of stopping myself getting hit, but I usually get hit almost straight away, giving no time to try and do anything. I just have to pray like it’s fucking Earthbound. Sure, there seems to be a way of doing it, but from looking online there are people who spent 30 minutes on this final boss. I can only suppose this is due to the controls.

If this game was more mechanically sound I’m sure I would love it. People seem somewhat polarised about this game and I can understand why. At first I thought it was OK, but as the game went on I found myself hating it. I was interested in this game for a while and I am disappointed with how it came out. The idea is one that it incredibly interesting and with a bit more polish and playtesting I’m sure it could have been great. Sadly, for me Warp is just... well, shit.

Stacking

Reviewed Platform: XBLA

Other Platforms: PSN

Dear Lee Petty: you are a genius. When Tim Schafer split Double Fine into four teams during the development of Brütal Legend you came up with the idea for Stacking and here it is. When you saw your daughter playing with those matryoshka dolls and thought “these could be everything needed in an adventure game” you were spot on. Thank you.

As I have just said, Stacking is an adventure game, as well as a puzzle game, based around matryoshka dolls. These dolls have their own little world, set during an industrial revolution filled with steam trains, top hats and zeppelins. You are Charlie Blackmore, the smallest doll in the word, and all of your family have been taken from you by an evil industrialist, The Baron. Now you set forth to set free all of your family and bring down the tyrannical Baron.

Yes, that plot sounds extremely simple and sounds exactly the same as every plot that involved an evil baron, who probably has a twirly moustache, and industrialism. To be honest this is exactly how the plot is. But Double Fine’s trademark humour is placed all over this game, be it high brow subtlety or low brow fart jokes; it’s all over the place. You are guaranteed to laugh. It’s got humour for everyone.

But where the game really comes into its own is in design and gameplay. You solve puzzles by jumping inside, or stacking into, other dolls and controlling them. This brings up all sorts of questions revolving around what happens when you are inside them (Is this normal? Is the doll aware of what is happening to it?) but these questions don’t matter, it’s all whimsy and fun. In doing this you get to use their ability, which allows you to solve puzzles.

These puzzles are solved using a variety of dolls, either in combination with each other or just using one of them. But unlike most adventure games there are many different ways to solve a puzzle. The game encourages you to try different tactics and allows you to retry the puzzle until you have completed all solutions. This makes the game almost obsessive, as you want to complete it in all of the different ways, but it still remains extremely fun.

Everything about this game has a feeling of heart about it. It feels like the game was a labour of love, that the developers had fun making the game and designing every single aspect. The game looks wonderful, set in a world that seems like it is built from what was found in your child’s room and what could be found in a random cupboard somewhere. Every doll has a surprisingly large amount of detail to it, especially so when looking at the faces of dolls.

The cutscenes look fantastic and have fun animation with some funny moments.

But not all of this is fun and whimsy. Yes, it has that exterior, but when you look deeper into the game it is somewhat dark. There’s a constant undertone of not just child labour but child slavery. When we get to the final level things get even darker when all of the children are tricked to go onto a train, which has a sign that initially reads “FUNFERALL” has letters fall off to spell “FUN ERA L” which I honestly found a bit creepy. Then there’s some creepy as hell clown.

The game all comes to an amazing crescendo of puzzle solving and a final battle against The Baron: an epic game of Rock Paper Scissors. Seriously, that’s the endgame. But not any normal game of Rock Paper Scissors. No, you take control of one of three types of doll: one with a rock, one with paper and one with scissors. You use these to destroy the dolls The Baron is in. So, basically you are KILLING THE INNOCENT DOLLS THE BARON IS POSSESSING! What the hell, Double Fine?! But I guess we’re not meant to think of it to that level...

Nonetheless, this game is extremely fun, fairly challenging and a treat to look at. If you do decide to get this game I am certain you will enjoy it and see the love the developers put into creating this game. But I hope you can get past some of the ethical implications of Charlie’s actions. I could... just about... *shudder*

Final Verdict: 9/10

Singularity

Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, PC

In the past I have wondered “Why are there so many games out there that are playable but have such bad storylines?” When I say playable I don’t necessarily mean good gameplay, I just mean gameplay that is enjoyable. Wet was like this. I despise the game, but it was alright to play. Same goes for the 2008 iteration of Prince of Persia. But I can’t actually think of a game that had a good storyline but I hated every second I played it.

Well, that was until Singularity, which has one of the most interesting storylines I’ve played recently yet with gameplay that just pissed me off. See, the story involves time travel. I’m a sucker for time travel. I just find time travel extremely interesting. I love things like Chaos theory, which is exactly what this game deals with.

The main character, Renko, accidently alters time right at the beginning of the game by saving someone in 1955 who turns out to now rule the world in 2010. And it is ALL YOUR FAULT! You spend the rest of the game attempting to right your wrongs whilst everything around you attempts to kill you. If this was a film it would probably be pretty good, and I recommend watching any Let’s Plays that are around on the internet.

I say watch the Let’s Plays because then you wouldn’t have to play the game. At the heart of a game is the gameplay. It’s what sets apart video games from other forms of media: interactivity. But it all feels so lacklustre, so is no fun to play.

The shooting is possibly the least fun part of the game. For an FPS that is just inexcusable. When shooting the enemies it doesn’t feel like your shots are actually connecting. You can unload half a clip into a normal soldier and he will shrug it off. Don’t the developers realise that bullets don’t just tickle. They kill you.

It gets even more annoying when shooting the mutants. Rarely does it looks like the shots are actually having an effect on the enemy. They just keeping running at your to tear your to shreds when they get nearby. And boy do they tear you to shreds!

Forget the size of your life bar. It’s pretty much useless to think that all of those dashes next to each other show you having a lot of health. When any enemy hits you your health will go down fairly quickly. The only ways to get your health back are through stimpacks, which give you health straight away (but are very rare), or health packs, which are everywhere. I admire them for using health packs in an age when it’s all about the regenerative health. However, the animation for using a health pack takes up so much time and within that time you can still keep getting shot, meaning that using one just delays your death.

But nothing takes down your health more than the Phase Ticks. Fuck these things. Seriously. Fuck them. If Phase Ticks ever became real I would devote my entire life to hunting down every single one of the bastards and making them pay. What these things do is run right at you and explode, kind of like the Tickers from Gears of War 2. Unlike the Tickers, though, you have no time to react to them. They are tiny and hard to shoot. And when they come along there is a lot of them, and I mean a LOT! When you first see them you are guaranteed to die over and over until you realise how you are meant to beat them: run, hide, and try to blast them.

On top of all of this terrible gameplay we have something that just slightly bugs me: a lack of subtitles. Now, hear me out on this one. There are some audio issues in this game. There are a few game that have this issue and the issue is that if you turn to face away from the person talking you can barely hear what they are saying. Hell, you have audio logs everywhere which you need to stand right next to, facing the audio log, hoping some evil thing doesn’t come behind you to shank you up. They never do, but you still keep turning around just in case. Subtitles would solve this issue. Also, it’s equal rights: helping the hard of hearing (though I’ll admit I just want them because I like listening to music when gaming).

The TMPis pretty cool, but using it in combat is rare, unless it's against Phase Ticks!

All of this builds up to a surprisingly great finale, which the game really doesn’t deserve. In this section the gameplay doesn’t feel too bad because it is all fast paced, so you are concentrating more on living than the terrible controls. That is, at least, until the actual endings, which all seem pretty rushed, two being more of an epilogue than anything. One of these endings is somewhat fitting, it just didn’t seem like a great conclusion to this game.

So, like I said, go see a Let’s Play of the game. It will probably look good, but that’s because someone else is playing it. Yes, the game is very pretty and the story is very good, but when you sit down and play Singularity it just doesn’t feel fun at all.

Final Verdict: 3/10

Alice: Madness Returns

Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, PC

On the cult success of American McGee’s Alice it isn’t surprising that a sequel was spawned, but no one seemed to be asking for it. Most who I have talked to wanted the original to be updated on consoles, where the controls were far smoother and allowed the game to be played... well, just played rather than endured. And so we get Alice: Madness Returns.

The title doesn’t help the game in selling. The name of American McGee is tucked into the bottom of the case so anyone who played the original game might not be able to see it very well and twig that this is a sequel. In fact, the game never seemed to get that much coverage.

But this is all nit-picky. How does the game itself hold up as a sequel?

Well, in playing the game you might be surprised that it is, in fact, a sequel, as all the characters that died in the first game are alive again and have shifted allegiance, such as the Duchess, who now shows you how to acquire one of the many collectibles in the game (but that’s a story for another paragraph). Not only this, but there is little to no mention of the events of the first game.

The story involves Alice now living in an orphanage where a doctor is attempting to assist her in overcoming her troubles after her family died in a house fire, which we assumed Alice had overcome by the ending of the first game. It then transpires that the horrors of industrial England bring her back into her Wonderland, which now has an Infernal Train riding through it, destroying everything in its wake to leave perfect platforms for jumping from one end of Wonderland to the other. Through her travels through Wonderland Alice discovers what truly happened at her house the night of the fire and, yet again, grows as a person.

As the game continues the story seems to devolve into a mess of ambiguity and plot points seem extremely rushed or impossible to get a hold of. By the end of the game things start to make a bit more sense, but this ending makes the rest of the game feel pointless as very little of the plot throughout the game has any bearing on the ending.

The story is shown through simple cutscenes that show cut-outs of the characters moving in a basic animation style that perfectly suits the world and the story, though may seem lazy to some. There are some cutscenes shown through the in-game engine, but these are not as eye catching as the cut-out cutscenes.

The actual gameplay is similar in a way to the first game. It involves platforming sections as well as some places requiring fighting. The fighting mechanics in this sequel are far superior to the fighting in the first game, but this just makes the game feel overly easy. All enemies attack in the same patterns that are quickly picked up on and so they can be dispersed in seconds.

Platforming in this game feels fun at first, but as it progresses it feels more like a chore. Platforms are placed an exact distance from each other to easily do a triple jump and float to safety. This makes the game feel even less challenging and when you don’t reach the desired platform it feels less like there is a difficulty and skill to platforming and more that the game is badly designed. Not to say that the levels ARE badly designed. Levels are extremely complex looking (well, some of the levels such as the East Asian level) and involve some forward thinking and trial and error. Furthermore, a mechanic in the game revolving around invisible platforms requires a keen eye and skilful platforming.

However, these platforming sections are, overall, extremely linear and don’t have the feeling of being in a large area that the first game did. You often feel as if you are simply being guided to the end of the game rather than figuring the game out for yourself. Not only this but the levels seem overly long and, again, seem like a chore rather than fun.

Puzzles within these levels seem useless, as they mostly revolve around finding a specific clock to shoot or using pressure pads to open a door. The world of Wonderland should revolve around maths and word puzzles, like the first game, as this was what Lewis Carroll dabbled in.  They play a very major part of the game, but come across as an inconvenience as these are stopping you from advancing yet require no logic to solve.

This brings me onto something else that is useless, and that would be the collectibles. My word. How many types of collectibles do most games have? Usually it is either none or one. Sometimes two at a stretch. But this game has three different types of collectibles: bottles, which do nothing; pig snouts, which give teeth and other collectibles, and memories, which show a bit of back story (which usually amounts to nothing). I’m not even mentioning the teeth (used for upgrades) or rose paint (used for getting extra health), which I’m not quite sure class as collectibles. There might be more, but I probably didn’t find them.

There’s not much else to say about this game. At its core it should be a fun game, and at times it is, but there are too many problems with it to have complete fun. The game does look beautiful, the platforming can be entertaining and the story and characters can be intriguing at times, but the flaws hold it back from being as good as the original game. I personally feel the game is just above average, but not quite good enough.

Oh, and the game teases you with boss battles, but doesn't actually give you any (well, one... kinda). Just saying.

Final Verdict: 6/10

American McGee's Alice

Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, PC

American McGee’s Alice was originally a game from 2000 on the PC that was to be ported to the PS2, however, this never happened. Personally, I think this is a shame. I once found myself trying out a little bit of Alice on the PC and I found there to be problems with the controls, which seemed far too complex and not allowing for a perfect platforming experience. A port to a console would have been extremely useful, as the entire game had a style that would have better suited a console as opposed to a PC.

It would not be until 11 years later that we would be able to play Alice on consoles. With the release of Alice: Madness Returns, EA also distributed, as a download on consoles, the cult classic from 2000. As someone who has wanted their hands on this game for quite a while I found this extremely welcoming. So, how does American McGee’s Alice hold up as a console port?

The visuals in Alice definitely look dated compared to today’s standards. Yet somehow this does not matter. The world is very angular and the character models are not perfect, yet the player still feels as if they are connected to this world. The dark tones of Wonderland as opposed to the imagined Wonderland from Disney films definitely show the player that Wonderland has hit hard times.

The story of Alice is that of Alice after her second adventure (Through the Looking Glass) falling into madness after her house has burned to the ground, with all of her family dying inside. This initially sets the tone of the game as one of depression and dismay, especially as she is now living in an insane asylum.

Throughout the game Alice travels through her Wonderland, each area and character displaying some part of her broken psyche. The characters from the story, such as the Rabbit and the Mock Turtle appear, displaying different parts of her personality. Her guide is the Cheshire Cat, who appears to be another side of Alice’s ego. As the story continues some of these characters die, some survive, showing the player the extent to which Alice is breaking down, as well as curing herself.

The game’s goal is to find and kill the Queen of Hearts, the cause of all of Alice’s woes and troubles. The threat of the Queen of Hearts is built up throughout the game, as well as the threat of the Jabberwock. Both of these characters, as well as many others, appear in the game as bosses for Alice to defeat in order to advance. Some are easy to defeat, whilst some are extremely difficult.

As well as these bosses there are the normal enemies in the game. These sometimes vary depending on the area, such as red chess pieces appearing as enemies in Looking Glass Land or soldier ants in the Wonderland Woods. Some of these enemies are annoying to fight whilst some are too easy. Either way, this increases the challenge in the combat, which is somewhat slow and flawed but still engaging.

The actual platforming of this game is somewhat hard to get used to at first, but it is easy to get used to later on and is far superior to that on the PC. Not always is it necessary to have precise platforming as there are not as many jumps from one surface to another, as the main focus is exploration and puzzle solving, both of which are excellent. The exploration truly comes into its own during the endgame stages when attempting to navigate mazes. Puzzles are very much based on Lewis Carroll’, mostly being base on words and at times mathematics.

The game lasts for quite a long time, but not so long that one might get bored. All the way it is interesting, engaging and, most of all, fun. It is also surprisingly a bit too logical at times (for Wonderland) though not too logical as to not get a feel for the world.

I recommend buying Alice: Madness Returns almost purely for this game, but who knows, you might enjoy that game too. But that’s another review...

Final Verdict: 9/10