Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Spec Ops: The Line Review - I Walk the Line
Spec Ops: The Line
Xbox 360 - PS3 - PC
Developer: Yager Development (Sp) Darkside (Mp)
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: June 26th, 2012
Pros:
- A compelling narrative for a military shooter
- Combat is easy to get the hang of
- Visual eye candy for each chapte
- Powerful performances by the voice cast
- Linear corridors limit your options in a firefight
- Cover mechanic feels clunky and unrefined
- Enemy and friendly AI can often become vacant and predictable
It is easy to look at a game like Spec Ops: The Line and cast it aside without a second thought. Let's be honest, a cover shooter involving a squad of hardened military commandos blasting their way through a city is nothing new. Not to mention the previous Spec Ops games have been less than stellar military adaptations, with the last true title coming to light a decade ago. A trailer in 2009 showed a welcome departure for the series norm in the form of a third person perspective with dynamic terrain elements, and inspiration from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. With Yager Development heading up the single player and Darkside working on the multiplayer component, Spec Ops: The Line results in a surprisingly enjoyable military shooter.
Hold the Line
You assume the role of Captain Martin Walker, the leader of Delta squad sent into the heart of Dubai. A series of sandstorms has cut Dubai off from the rest of the world and destroyed any remnants of a once thriving civilization. In a mysterious transmission from the 33rd Battalion who refused to evacuate the city, Commander John Konrad ominously informs that events went awry with the evacuation and Delta squad is sent in to investigate.
The story starts out obvious enough, but as you move through each chapter you begin to see how this particular narrative outshines other military shooters. Instead of a glorification of war and typical cocky soldiers, you get a much grittier and emotionally heavy story. Each chapter gives way to the horrors of war with unspeakable violence and moral ambiguity, and your squad becomes a shell of their former selves. The cocky wisecracker transitions to a frustrated, second guesser. Your tough guy soon become furious and reckless. Even the subtle hint of a more aggressive in the tone of your voice as you cry out "reloading" for the eightieth time combine to show characters that are affected by the increasing body count.
Propelling the story forward is a superb presentation. The desert ridden city of Dubai holds glistening skyscrapers, war-torn rooftops, and once-populated courtyards. The environments remain fresh with few repeating corridors and plenty of panning overworld shots to showcase the scale of the world around you. The polish shows not only in the surrounding environment, but the sharp character models and motion capture on close ups. Audio is also top notch in delivering some solid original tracks, well known hits, and bass-inducing bullet fire. Despite Nolan North heading up his hundredth or so voice in gaming, both he and the rest of the cast deliver some real power to each cinematic sequence.
The Hallway is Your Playground
While the narrative is compelling, the actual gameplay stays close to the norm. Typical cover to cover combat will be the bulk of gameplay with breaks in the action for a few stealth segments, moral choices, and on-rails sequences. Despite these mixups and a vast backdrop, you cannot help but feel a bit claustrophobic by the bottle-necked corridors you are forced to traverse. The choices made and successful stealth segments have little affect on anything but the immediate situation, often leading to avoiding a small skirmish with nothing long term.
Spec Ops boasts a dynamic environment to keep things from getting stale. At certain moments you are able to shoot vents or cracked glass to send a wave of sand to take out a group of enemies. These are satisfying at first, but fail to really alter as much as it should. Sure it takes out a group of enemies, but beyond that it does very little in providing the desired affect of walking into a room with a playground of hazards at your disposal for varying approaches. There are also segments where a storm will roll in obscuring your view and decreasing you overall accuracy. These occur during a few segments in some of the chapters and provide some brief mixups in the firefights, but their potential and span feels constricted to scripted events.
The campaign is paced fairly well and will impress with a few segments, but some of the basics of the game drag it down below perfection. The friendly and enemy AI preform fairly well by flanking your position or drawing you out with grenades, but they can become incredibly vacant at times occasionally standing in place while being littered with bullets. This is more frustrating on the tougher difficulties, due to the fact that your AI buddies can bleed out and send you back to the last checkpoint. Cover to cover transitions work well enough, but pale in comparison to some of the more refined systems out there.
This is one Big Sandbox
In addition to a single player campaign, there is also a fairly fleshed out multiplayer available.Six gametypes throw in the typical mix of objective based gameplay and classic deathmatch. These are littered with various sand hazards, and even features the occasional sandstorm to add to the cover shooting mechanics. Coupled with zipline systems used to get across the stage quickly, and the multiplayer hits what the campaign failed to do in providing a multitude of ways to use your surroundings to your advantage.
Like most additions these days, you are able to equip your character with a loadout. Weapons and perks are slowly unlocked as you gain experience from matches. As you gain more levels the arsenal at your disposal allows you to customize a class any way you see fit, with up to three different perks, a main weapon, and a sidearm. With this system, the higher level players will have a clear advantage with a larger weapon variety and even body armor to decrease damage taken.
The multiplayer can be enjoyable, but the servers themselves are quite sparse in looking for objective based game types. Finding a match for deathmatch is quick and easy, but the objective based games are reminiscent of the desert I wish to actually play on.
Overall
Spec Ops: The Line has its downfalls, but ends up being a surprisingly enjoyable experience. The compelling narrative allows the minor faults within the game to be tolerable, and the twist ending and hidden collectibles will warrant a second play through for a better sense of closure. It may not break any new ground in gameplay, but provides a welcome step up in overall presentation for a military shooter. If you are a fan of the cover based shooter genre, chances are the Specs Ops: The Line is one line worth crossing.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Quantum Conundrum Review - You Win Again, Technology!
Score: 8 / 10
Quantum ConundrumPC - Xbox Live - PSN
Developer: Airtight Games
Publisher: Square Enix
Release Date: June 21st, 2012 (July 11th for consoles)
Pros:
- Dimension switching gameplay is simple, and easy to get the hang of
- Feeling of satisfaction from solving each room never lessens
- Cartoon atmosphere is enjoyable and entertaining
- Repeating interluding hallways and textures become an eye sore
- Abrupt, and lackluster ending
- Little incentive in replay value
Imagine If You Will
You assume the role of a twelve year old on an annual visit to his uncle's mansion. His latest undertaking causes an explosion, sending him to another dimension with short term memory loss and leaving you alone to a mansion full of faulty experiments. Donning his latest dimension altering glove, he guides you through the task of restoring power to the mansion and finding a way to bring your uncle back. The game does not possess a very compelling narrative, but the simple story is all that is necessary for a puzzle title. The quirky persona of your uncle will guide you through each room and acts as the soul source of dialogue with only an occasional cutscene to hint an ominous events to come. The story serves its purpose, but the abrupt ending will do little in terms of closure.
The look in Quantum Conundrum is akin to a Saturday morning cartoon. A palette of colors adorns each room, portraits of characters change with each dimension switch, and fuzzy adorable Ike creatures add to the humor of the game. With every change in dimension, the environment around you adapts accordingly with the fluffy dimension adding a lighter haze to your view and the gravity dimension throwing a green hue about the room. The textures and lighting may not exceed most of what is out there, but it melds well with the overall cartoonish atmosphere.
Your uncle is the sole source of conversational dialogue, and John De Lancie makes a fantastic mad scientist persona with numerous chuckle worthy puns and quips to break the silence. The audio is all tied together with a fitting original soundtrack, complete with one catchy end-credits tune.
The Powerglove of 2012
From a first person perspective you solve a series of physics based puzzles to progress from room to room. These usually involve hitting a series of switches to domino over into opening a door. The mansion is split into three zones, each culminating with powering a generator at the conclusion to open up the next area. As you enter each room you cannot shake the feeling of being a lab rat as you press every button available to you to piece together the intended solution.
The core concept lies in switching between four different dimensions to alter the density of objects, time, and gravity of the world around you. Fluffy dimensions makes things adorable and lighter, allowing you pick up heavy safes with ease to move them around the room or create momentary platforms near a fan. Heavy dimension makes everything heavier, offering objects immunity to being destroyed by lasers and allowing cardboard boxes to hold down switches or break glass when thrown. Slow-mo dimension will slow everything around you while you maintain normal speed. Lastly, anti-gravity dimension changes the polarity of gravity for objects in the room. You soon find you are able to mix these abilities together to add further possibilities, such as picking up a safe with fluffy, tossing it and hopping on with slow mo, then using it to cross a gap by alternating anti-gravity on and off.
Accompanying these physics altering features are a slew of hazards that you must overcome. Lasers that can destroy objects, ceiling height fans that can blow your platform away, and bottomless pits are just a few of the many hazards you have to work around to reach your goal. Your glove powers are also kept in check by locking out select dimensions until you retrieve the appropriate battery. Rarely will you ever have all four dimensions available in each room, and in one puzzle you even choose your preferred power at the start. The later complexity in utilizing spring boards and platforming with slow mo can be entertaining, but no puzzle really sticks with you.
Extra Credit
The core game itself is completed in about four hours time depending on how often you stray from the beaten path, but there are a few things you can do once all is said and done. A level select option is available with opportunities to beat time goals or complete each room without dying. There are also a number of hidden collectibles tucked away in less obvious corners of the map to hunt for, but the most these will do is add decor to your hub room.
Though DLC is inbound, there is not a lot offered considering the price tag. Some challenge rooms or a multiplayer feature would have been welcome, but as it is Quantum Conundrum feels like a bare bones campaign. The general experience is great, but it tends to get dragged down with a few issues in platforming and finding your footing, repeating hallways, and a lackluster closing segment.
Overall
Quantum Conundrum is a unique, albeit short-lived, experience. The dimensional rifts add plenty of variety to the puzzles, and the feeling of accomplishment with each room never lessens. Its obvious similarities to Portal feel more like an inspiration, and less like a cheap rip-off. The small nuances can get in the way of the game's intended experience, but you should be able to look past them to see the solid puzzle game that lies underneath and fans of Portal will find plenty to enjoy.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
June Gaming Releases - Summer Selection
Highlighted Release
PC - Xbox 360 - PS3
Developer: Yager/Darkside
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: June 26, 2012
Some stunning physics and incredible looking visuals make this one game to keep your eye on. The game focuses on the natural elements to provide dynamic terrain changing during gameplay, such as the sandstorms bringing in new pieces of cover. Coupled with a multiplayer and multiple modes carrying over online, this is the title to own for the month of June.
June 6th
June 12th
June 19th
June 26th
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