Okay, bear with me for a second here. Do you remember a game (electronic or otherwise) known as Battleship? Did you ever think that two-player strategy/board/pen-and-paper game would translate well into a movie? Well, someone thought it was a good idea. That film released last week (or last month if you are in the UK), as did its accompanying video game, which we’re about to review. I’ll let that sink in a bit. Yes, what you are reading is a review of a video game, based on a movie, based on a board game (boardception?). Let’s see if the idea has any merit.

In case you haven’t been watching television or have just been avoiding trailers altogether recently, the basic synopsis of the Battleship film is as follows: NASA finds an extra-solar planet that appears to have a similar environment to Earth. These scientists then get the bright idea to send an extremely powerful radio signal in that planet’s direction. Turns out that was a bad idea – it gave our location away to aliens living on that planet which have space-faring technology, and these aliens are quite hostile. What any of this has to do with the original board game, I have no clue. The movie has released to average reviews, which usually doesn’t bode well for a video game based off of it.

That could not hold any truer for Battleship the video game. From the start, you know things are going to be rough – there’s a cutscene that features a low framerate and no voice acting. It appears to be footage from the movie at first, but it becomes quite obvious that this is not the case. You play as the faceless and mute demolitions specialist Cole Mathis who probably looks exactly like all the other human characters in the game. We know nothing about him, other than the fact that he is given control of an entire naval fleet via a tablet-like device that can also somehow freeze time when in use. Okay, so they don’t present it like that, but I do feel like I’m cheating when I’m surrounded by enemies only to whip this thing out and issue commands to remote ships without consequence.

The tablet I mentioned is one of Battleship‘s few redeeming qualities. As you play this first-person shooter, there is a naval war going on which you play a key role in. This portion of the game takes place on a grid of the island you are currently fighting on, as well as the surrounding ocean, where the ships are stationed. Your fleet is represented by the white ships, and enemies are red. Each ship has two statistics from the start, which determines how effective they are against other enemy ships or submarines. While you are fighting on land, enemies will randomly drop wild cards, which are powerups that can be added to buff up your ships’ stats. Most of these cards are stackable, so you can increase your ship/submarine’s attack and defense up to three times. But there are some issues with this system; wild card drops are so frequent, that eventually you end up with extremely overpowered ships and the aliens do not pose much of a threat at all. Maintaining your ships becomes more of a chore than a strategy. One wild card offers 20 seconds of remote control over a selected ship, during which time that ship’s weapons become 200% more powerful. Suffice to say, you hardly need 20 seconds to destroy any enemy ship. This includes the game’s “boss” at the end. If you know of any other game where the final boss takes under 20 seconds to kill, please let me know. This strategy portion to Battleship is an interesting concept, but the execution is sorely lacking.

You do feel like a badass when you call in support from your ships, though. Once said ships are in specially-marked support squares on the map, you can call in artillery, sonic shockwaves and more to devastate your enemies. It’s pretty cool, but is definitely not enough to carry this game to the next level. Speaking of levels, if you took footage from any level, you’d be hard-pressed to know which one it is or at what point in the game it is from. Part of this has to do with the environment – it’s all just Hawaiian islands. This makes for a colorful pallet, which is always a welcome change from the three shades of brown and gray we get with first-person shooters these days. However, there are only three enemy types to kill, and one hazard to avoid. You have a Thug/Soldier alien, a Brute alien, and a Sniper alien. The soldiers behave and pretty much look like humans from most distances, and you can easily forget you’re fighting aliens when only they are around. The Brutes sound pretty fierce, until you realize that a couple of shotgun blasts will take them out easily. Finally, the snipers use a railgun that they charge all the way, every time, giving you ample time to kill them. The only hazard in the game are mines which can get up out of the ground and roll straight towards you. Of course, shooting these gets rid of the problem without much issue.

The whole game is such a blatant attempt to milk the Battleship franchise, it’s not even funny. Before each mission, you are briefed by yet another faceless character, who identifies herself as what sounds like “Reagan.” It’s hard to make out her voice thanks to a poor radio filter applied to it. Her voice acting is passable, but what makes these cutscenes particularly boring is that all you are shown is a 3D map of the level that you are about to play, as the camera pans around and various key points are highlighted. The cutscenes also chug along at a ridiculously low framerate, which is odd given that when you actually play the game the framerate stays pretty solid.

That solid framerate is likely due to the fact that this game looks decidedly last-gen, and as such is hardly taxing the PlayStation 3′s CPU. Everything disappoints graphically. Explosions from grenades are decent, but the explosions shown of defeated enemy ships bogs the entire game down when you are remote-controlling a ship. There are invisible walls everywhere, and the game is so reliant on checkpoints that if you run too fast, it doesn’t register that you are in the correct spot until you back up a few paces.

When all is said and done, I cannot recommend Battleship to anyone. The story has very little relation to the movie upon which it is based. The graphics and presentation are bland. There are only three enemy types to dispose of. There is no multiplayer. Other than collecting in-game pegs inspired from the board game, replayability scarcely exists. If the alien-invaded world taken from the Battleship movie really entertains you, I would still only recommend that you rent this game. You can finish it in a single sitting on a weekend, and be done with it. Just please do not pay $60 for this obvious cash milking.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + Naval warfare is presented in a unique way… - …but it is poorly executed and quickly becomes a chore. - Boring story, graphics, enemies, ending…

© Paulmichael Contreras for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us

My physics professor once said, “Earth’s gravity is a relatively weak force, as far as the universe goes. I fight and defeat gravity every time I walk up the stairs. We fly through the air on planes, hang gliders, and hot air balloons all the time. We laugh at gravity.” If our current aerial transportation modes are the equivalent of laughing at gravity, Gravity Rush on PS Vita is like giving it a huge middle finger, then running over its dog with a truck…while still laughing.

A common misconception about Gravity Rush is that the main character can fly, but rather than flying, leading lady Kat controls the direction in which gravity will pull her. The player will activate her power, aim at gravity’s new origin, and with the touch of a button, send Kat falling in whatever direction that might be. Shel Silverstein would be proud. This unique power is the source of Gravity Rush‘s real strength. Floating, aiming carefully, then choosing the new official direction of gravity as Kat’s main mode of transportation is insanely fun. When a mission calls Kat the entire way across town, the journey there will sometimes be as exciting as the task itself. Not since Jet Grind Radio has simply moving from one place to another been such a joy.

Bright pink gems add another reason for the player to try and see every single spot in the city. These stones function as Kat’s upgrade system; players collect them and level up attributes such as the power of certain attacks, her health, her fall speed, and so on. Collecting these gems is grand fun, thanks to the game’s unique movement style, and deciding how to spend them is rewarding, though grind addicts may be disappointed to realize that each attribute is capped per chapter. Sorry, you won’t be maxing out your gravity tornado the minute after learning it. This isn’t necessarily a drawback, but worth a mention.

Through the art, character design, direction, and controls, the game does a superb job of making the player actually feel like he is soaring through the air. Having been a game fan for over a quarter of a century, I’ve played plenty of games with flying characters and jumped off my share of high places, but never before have flying and falling come together like this, and never before have they been so fun.

Its introductory stages and missions are constructed perfectly, as Gravity Rush is fun to play while still learning how to play. The player is given simple tasks like “go over there,” which might seem elementary, but in a game this unique, such is a necessary inclusion, to avoid mass frustration. A tutorial that combines learning how to play the game with actually enjoying its features seems hard to come by these days, and Sony Japan Studio deserves credit for pulling this off. After only a chapter or two, most players will have a firm grasp on how to play and how to get the most out of doing so; any time a new ability comes along, it’s taught to Kat in similar fashion. Never did I feel like I didn’t understand a certain ability or other aspect of the game, from beginning to end.

Japan Studio deserves a tip of the hat for the job done on Gravity Rush‘s controls and camera operation. In a game all about falling every possible direction and running around on walls and ceilings, it seems like confusion or disorientation would be part of the package. While it’s not without occasional instances of those feelings, they’re well minimized. The camera always seems to find a good spot, and when it swings around, will give the player a vantage point that makes sense. Kat will jump off a ledge, free fall for several seconds, halt in mid-air, re-launch towards the underside of a balcony, land on it (now walking upside-down), and begin running with smoothness of both control and camera movement that allow the player to keep track of what’s what, the whole time. Whether falling, hovering, fighting, or moving about the city, manual camera operation constantly feels natural, and it’s always easy to see what one need to see. A neat use of Vita tech allows the player to move the machine around and get a look at the surroundings while in mid-air—gimmicky most of the time, but nonetheless cool to show your friends, and it does make itself useful once in a while (although it’s also a good way to look like a tool while riding a bus or train).

While commendable overall, the controls are not without their quirks and imperfections. When doing one particular slide move, the player needs to turn the Vita not unlike the steering gimmick found in Mario Kart Wii. That might add a dimension of fun, especially on a home console, but it lowers the portability of this portable game, because swinging the system around like that makes you a problem to those you’re sitting next to and a spectacle to those you aren’t. The even bigger sin of control, however, is that dodging is only doable by swiping the screen. In a situation requiring twitch movements like a dodge roll, removal of a thumb from a stick or button and leave the character open in another way or rob the player of another function. On the bright side, one can make it through the game without even using the swipe-dodge.

Every little detail contributes to making the experience unique: the visible wind, the camera movements, the way Kat’s hair flows, the changing position of her rising and falling body, everything. Innumerable games have used shaky cameras, but Gravity Rush uses it to perfection—not too extreme, but it conveys that something is going on, adding just enough of an extra touch to the free falling and smashing into the ground. These tiny bits of attention to detail and feature use-without-abuse is indicative of a dev team really caring about its product. Most players probably won’t even notice these touches, but will definitely feel their effect on the whole package. With all that goes on, Gravity Rush is an entry into the list of games that could be considered art.

Gravity Rush is very brown, especially in the first area; the first district consists mostly of brown, beige, several shades of dark red, occasional deep purple, and a big helping of gray, all of which was actually a favor to the player, since this makes it easier for brightly colored gems, checkpoints, and enemies to stand out. It helps players’ eyes become used to the art of spotting gems while falling at full speed. It’s all part of Gravity Rush‘s friendly learning curve. Later areas get slightly more colorful, though GR maintains its same general look and feel throughout. Don’t take the heavy use of Earth tones as a negative, though, as Rush visually pleasing in practically every way.

Kat’s adventure will take place mostly in a floating city called Hekseville, more districts of which will open with the passing of time and chapters. One won’t find much interactivity around the city in terms of shops or buildings to go into, and only a handful of NPCs in each section of the town will ever have anything to say, but the much bigger attraction to GR’s exploration is seeing the city itself. Hekseville features impressive, beautiful architecture around every corner; gazing around from any vantage point—land, sky, or the side of a building. There’s so much fun to be had whizzing around the village that one doesn’t need an Elder Scrolls or Yakuza level of interactivity with the townsfolk.

Story is certainly not the reason one plays a game like Gravity Rush, but what’s there is surprisingly interesting. With gameplay this good, this unique, and with this much innovation, Sony could have easily gotten away with phoning this aspect in—”Oh whoa I got these crazy powers by being hit by a shooting star and bitten by a radioactive moon man, now I have to save the world from moon men!” We see that happen in all kinds of games with regularity, and frankly, that’s fine in most cases; yet the story in Gravity Rush actually manages to do a bit more than one might expect…while still of course including a few helpings of moon men. It’s not going to win award for its tale, but it does the base job of an action/adventure/platform game story in providing the character with a reason for doing what she’s doing, then keeping things fresh and somewhat engaging for the game’s duration. This rabbit hole goes deeper than what would generally be expected of this type of game, for the better.

A lot of this tale will be told through digitized manga pages. The player will see mostly still images on the screen with borders around the edges, then advance to the next block of the “page.” Dialogue (most of which is unvoiced) pops up in speech bubbles, making the majority of Gravity Rush‘s story segments like an electronic comic book. I’m not usually a fan of comics, but found the storytelling in Gravity Rush surprisingly enjoyable.

At times, Kat will be called upon to fight off black blobbish enemies, which all have a bright glowing orange weak point that she must strike for massive damage. Enemy types get more varied as the game goes on, and after about the halfway point, there are intense battles to be had. Several of these larger-scale fights take place entirely in mid-air, feeling like their own special brand of dog fight—the constant soaring through the air, turning gravity control on and off in order to stay unpredictable and dodge projectiles, using her attack powers when an opening appears, frantic hunts for health restoration gems, Gravity Rush has some riveting combat. These huge battles that I’ve called “dog fights” don’t happen often, especially in the early going, but when they do, they provide quite a thrill.

Initial combat abilities include of course the basic kick and dodge, though the latter’s required use of the touchscreen makes it often unwieldy. Over time, Kat learns some new powers. Some of these have a target lock-on which is impressively functional. Given that one will be falling every direction and may not even know which way is “up” at times, it’s good to see the enemy lock-on be as forgiving as it is in Gravity Rush. It doesn’t make, for example, Kat’s gravity kick a freaking homing missile with 100% accuracy, but it comes with just enough of an allowance to prevent combat from becoming a headache. There are a few moves in Kat’s repertoire that lack much value in combat, but any player using his head should be able to figure out his priorities.

Gravity Rush has so many strengths, so few weaknesses, and is such a unique title, that it deserves some form of attention from every gamer. The premise and gameplay are so unique that we, as gamers, should reward and encourage this kind of creativity in our industry. It’s not a perfect game, but no game has to be. Playing Gravity Rush delivers sensations that I haven’t felt in years, and it’s truly unrivaled in providing this exact type of fun. Believe the hype. Gravity Rush is a game like no other.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + You’ve never played a game like this. + Really, shut up, no you haven’t. +/- Neat use of Vita tech, sometimes forced-in or awkward.

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© Knifefight for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Rock of Ages is a one of a kind combination of racing and tower defense encased within a bizarre and humorous alternate historical take on the world. The result is something that is both absurd and original.

In Rock of Ages players take control of a boulder in order to smash down an opponent’s castle gates. Once broken down, the helpless opponent screams in terror as you move in for the kill by smashing them with the boulder. In between being able to attack an opponent’s gate your followers have to rebuild the boulder for the next run. This gives the player a chance to put down towers, catapults, fans, and even angry livestock to prevent, hinder, and even, in some later stages, destroy an enemy’s boulder before it can reach the player’s gates. Of course the opponents are gunning for the player’s gates too and can also put down their own set of elaborate traps in order to lengthen your path through the level or chip away at your incoming boulder.

As the boulder takes damage, its healthbar will deplete and as it goes down the boulder will break apart. When the boulder breaks up it loses mass and limits the amount of damage that can be done to a rival’s gate. There are also special boulder specific power-ups that can be applied such as iron armor which makes the boulder invincible for a short amount of time, or even fire which gives the boulder an increase in damage. Of course, destroying obstacles or an opponent’s weaponry does grant gold rewards so there is an interesting risk-reward balance to the offensive and defensive strategies. The levels are also built high in the sky, so falling off an edge while racing to an opponent’s castle is a very real possibility. Luckily, the game does not penalize the player for falling off an edge with respect to the health of a boulder. Rather, the amount of time to reset the boulder onto the level’s terrain can mean the difference between winning and losing in a very close match. Of course, these game mechanics would mean nothing without the incredibly absurd, but hilarious plot setup of Rock of Ages.

For the course of the single player campaign, players take on the role of Sisyphus. For the uninitiated, Sisyphus was a Greek king who was sentenced to eternal torment in the realm of Hades. His punishment was to roll a boulder up a hill, but as he was about to reach the top, the boulder would slip from his grasp and roll back to the the bottom. He would then have to go back down and try it all over again. During the course of this punishment, Sisyphus has had enough and realizes that if he lets the boulder roll back down the hill he can break down the gates of Hades, and escape into the mortal realm.

Upon his escape from the underworld, Sisyphus and his boulder companion (which for reasons unexplained by the game is strangely sentient) embark on a journey through not just different geographical locations, but also different time periods. Starting in ancient Greece, players move through the Middle Ages, the Rococo period, and all the way to the Romantic period. Throughout each age various historical figures are the AI opponents for each of the levels and each figure is introduced in a cutscene that aesthetically pays homage to Monty Python. Some of the historical figures include Vlad the Impaler (who’s introduction includes a wink and nod to Castlevania), Zombie Plato and Zombie Aristotle, and Napoleon. There are loads more characters and rather than spoil them all I will say that there are some really brilliant standouts as far as the humor is concerned. Indeed, the introductory cutscenes are probably my favorite part of the game primarily for their shear nonsensical nature.

At the end of each age (save for the first one) there is also a boss battle. The boss battles aren’t really tough and follow the standard rule of three. This means that an enemy’s weakpoint has to be hit 3 times in order to win. The intro cutscenes to these moments point out where the weakpoints are on the bosses so that you aren’t rolling around without a clue as to what to do. Of course, there are moments were the hit detection on the bosses can be a problem. In fact, collision detection overall is a problem within the entirety of the game especially around the edges of the level geometries. So don’t be too surprised to see a catapult shot send your boulder way, way off course in a clear violation of the rules of physics. However, while this problem can be a bit of a nuisance it doesn’t happen with enough regularity to be game breaking.

Another aspect of the single player campaign that tends to be a bit lackluster are the RTS elements. While the units provided are weird and quirky in line with the rest of the game, the units provided in the early levels might as well be non-existent as they can break very easily and don’t tend to hinder or damage the enemy to any large extent. Also the game’s camera doesn’t pan across the span of the level fast enough to get to a strategically important spot. This becomes less of a problem as levels get longer later on and have more places to set up good choke points. When combined with better unit types the tower defense elements begin to feel fairly competent, but even so it takes a while to really get going.

Rock of Ages also features a Time Trial mode where you race from the start of a level to the end attempting to get the fastest time possible. There’s also a Skeeball Training mode where the end of the level has a skeeball target setup. Knocking down structures nets you points, and getting the boulder into specific holes on the skeeball ramp provide different multipliers. In single player this is offered as a training mode for the multiplayer suite. New to the PSN version there’s also an Obstacle Course mode where the player goes head-to-head in a best of three series of races against an AI opponent. However, there are also obstacles that get progressively worse which will slow down you and your opponent in successive rounds. There are also power-ups to pick up along the way to help you get an edge through some of the trickier defenses.

Which brings us to the the multiplayer. Sadly the multiplayer in the PSN release of Rock of Ages is completely broken. Quick matching and custom game setup don’t work at all, and while it was possible to see games being hosted I could not connect to anything. There’s a forum that has been started on the ACE Team support forums for the game, but there has not been any response from Atlus or ACE Team regarding when, or even if, they are going to patch the game. For my money, I imagine that they will patch the game, but when we can expect it is still up in the air. For now though it sadly counts as a major strike against a game that otherwise is pretty fun. Rest assured though that when the online does become available I will update this review accordingly.

From a creative standpoint it’s an absolute miracle that Rock of Ages even exists. I’m flabbergasted that no suited executive in a board room at Atlus said “This game is absurd and crazy! There’s no way anyone would buy it.” Luckily for ACE Team that did not occur, and instead the incredibly quirky game has now finally made its way to PSN. To put the game into perspective, it’s like Monty Python got together and said “Let’s make a video game.” They brought together the animators and writers from Flying Circus and Holy Grail and created a game that crossed the NES classic Marble Madness with a tower defense game. They packed in about 20 plus weird looking levels, a bunch of historical figures as enemies, and an absurd premise involving Sisyphus to create a game that’s bold, original, and downright crazy. While it’s a tragedy that the online components aren’t working, the single player is robust enough to keep players engaged for around 5 hours in terms of content. Plus the local multiplayer does work, so if you have a friend and an extra controller that is an option. Moreover, it’s tough to be too hard on the game since Plus members will get it for free this month. However, the rest of you will want to hold off until a patch is issued to fix the game. But if you’re in the market for something completely different and totally original (and don’t care too much for playing multiplayer), Rock of Ages has quite a bit to offer.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + Bizarre story with a great sense of humor. + The most original game to come along in a long time. - Online suite is currently broken.

© Vivas Kaul for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Dragon’s Dogma caters to a very specific type of gamer. If you don’t consider yourself a fan of fantasy role-playing games or action-heavy dungeon crawlers, stop reading this review right now and focus your attention elsewhere, as this is definitely not a game for you. Those of you that do however find yourself in this camp of hardcore RPG fans will be pleased to know that Capcom has created an experience that was designed specifically with you in mind.

A number of critics have described Dragon’s Dogma as a sort of hybrid experience that blends elements of Dark Souls and Skyrim, a comparison that is undeniably spot on. Capcom has crafted a vast, expansive world for gamers to explore while at the same time interjecting a challenging (and often times punishingly brutal) action-heavy experience. If you consider yourself a fan of the sadistic, old-school style gameplay that From Software has recently revitalized, then you’ll feel right a home with Dragon’s Dogma, a characteristic that is great for some, and incredibly off-putting for others.

Some of the talent behind both Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry 4 was brought on to develop the action-packed gameplay of Dragon’s Dogma and it certainly shows. The fast and fluid combat is definitely the the best thing that this game has going for it. While not quite as smooth as 38 Studios’ Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the combat of Dragon’s Dogma is responsive, tight and rewarding. At the start of the game there are three basic classes to choose from: Fighter, Mage and Strider. These can eventually be changed as you gain experience, allowing to to try out a completely new discipline or progress your class further to one of the more advanced classes, which include the Warrior, the Sorcerer and the Ranger. Those who like to mix-and-match can elect to choose one of the three hybrid classes that blend various elements of the primary three. As such, it goes without saying that there is plenty of customization here to keep role-players entertained for quite some time.

In an effort to give the player a sense that they are not alone in the sweeping world of Gransys, a handful of AI companions – dubbed “Pawns” – accompany the hero on his/her quest. At the outset of the game, you will be able to customize one Pawn (appearance, class, etc.) to your liking. That character will then serve as your sidekick throughout the game. In addition, you’ll be able to select other Pawns to join you on your quest, which are interestingly enough crafted by other players. Capcom has done something pretty unique here with its online system, allowing players to share Pawns with one another, adding that small sliver of online connectivity. While it’s not the most revolutionary thing in the world, the communal aspect inherent within this mechanic is an interesting novelty if nothing else.

Visually, the game is sort of a mixed bag. There’s nothing here that will really knock your socks off in the graphics department, but some of the game’s larger enemies are designed and animated particularly well. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the non-playable characters that litter the world. Facial animations – especially during dialogue moments – are particularly ugly, which only serves to amplify the weak writing and voice acting. As such, I felt incredibly detached from the game’s cast of characters, uninterested in not only the surrounding personalities, but also the game’s protagonist.

The game begins with our hero attempting to protect his or her village from a massive dragon. A bit cliché, but it could be worse, right? Wrong. In what unfolds as a series of perplexing events, the dragon proceeds to pluck your heart out of your chest with its claw, leaving you – somehow still magically alive – laying on the ground with a gaping wound in your sternum. Naturally, you are on a quest to get your heart back, which serves as the premise for the entire game. I don’t know about you, but I’ve come to expect a bit more from an RPG’s story in today’s day and age.

Due to my lack of investment in the game’s plot, I couldn’t help but feel uninterested and bored by the majority of the game’s quests. Sure, a few throwaway fetch missions are to be expected in an open-world game, but when I find myself emotionally detached from what I am doing for five hours at a time, there’s something wrong. Honestly, the highlight of the game for me happened pretty early on when I was tasked with escorting a hydra head to the game’s main city. It served as a great “guided tour” that introduced me to a new part of the world, but unfortunately fell flat shortly thereafter, when I was suddenly faced with the question: Okay… now what?  Those of you who enjoy exploring and making your own fun likely won’t find it quite as frustrating as I did, but as a gamer who likes a bit of additional guidance, I was often times left feeling a bit lost and confused.

The game’s poor autosave feature didn’t help aid in my enjoyment either, as I learned the hard way that you constantly need to be manually saving the game, especially when exploring the world. You could be out venturing for an hour or two and then suddenly come across the wrong pack of bandits who wipe you out without a moment’s notice, bringing you back to where you last remembered to actively open the menu and save the game. I’m sorry, but this is completely unacceptable by today’s standards, especially when the game presents you with a decent level of challenge with every enemy encounter. Honestly, there were a few instances where I just wanted to cry in frustration.

That said, those of you with thick skin who like a good challenge will probably be able to overlook some of the flaws that a more impatient gamer like myself are quite sensitive to. Dragon’s Dogma serves up a role-playing experience that was designed for those truly loyal to the genre in its purest form. The gameplay is great and the unique Pawn system makes you feel like you’re playing with others even though it’s a single player experience. The world of Gransys is massive and will keep you busy for many, many hours. If you’re looking for an experience that will last you quite a while and don’t need a compelling story to keep you coming back for more, then Dragon’s Dogma is right up your alley.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + Vast, open world with plenty to explore + Responsive, challenging combat - Weak story, uninteresting characters - Terribly unforgiving autosave feature

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© Alex for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Ever since it’s debut at E3 2010, Sorcery has been by far, the most anticipated PlayStation Move game. And because good software has been hard to come by that solely features Sony’s motion controller, Sorcery has been looked to as what could be the Move’s first killer app. But is Sorcery‘s spell strong enough to make the PlayStation Move exciting again?

Like the scent of freshly baked cookies set aside on a stove-top to cool, there’s something heart-warming about Sorcery, its story, and the way it uses the PlayStation Move. What child hasn’t picked up a stick and pretended it was a magic wand? For the five or six hours Sorcery lasts, the kid in you will finally get its chance.

Sorcery is fun in an innocent type of way. It’s a nice break from pumping people full of bullets and tearing heads clean off their shoulders.

The way the PlayStation Move works in Sorcery is both a blessing and a curse. Flicking your wrist sends bolts of magic coursing through the air, and the bolt reacts according to the angle at which you flick. It’s accurate, and it feels, well, magical. It’s switching between spells where the Move stumbles over itself. While holding the Move button, different gestures activate different spells. But for some reason, even though the gestures are dissimilar enough, frustratingly, the wrong spell can be chosen. In the heat of the battle, it hampers the fluidity, forcing you to pause your thinking and perform the gesture to perfection.

If you curve your wrist ever so slightly during a flick, the magic bolt will curve, too. Such a cool thing to be only used once or twice during the entire playthrough. Instead, the majority of the time the game requires “button-mashing”—but since you don’t use buttons to shoot magic bolts, the button mashing looks more like you’re beating the PlayStation Move off your chest repeatedly in short, jerking bursts.

The main characters Finn, and Erline, an elf princess turned into a feline to avoid her nightmarish mother, are incessant whiners. Finn, belly aching about not being respected; Erline complaining about Finn being a novice taking on a task to great for him. Even after Finn has proven himself, it’s not until almost the very end of the game where he begins to be appreciated by the other supporting characters. Because of this, it’s hard for you, yourself, to ever take Finn more seriously than just a sorcerer’s apprentice.

As an apprentice, Finn starts off with very limited skills. And it’s not for a couple solid hours before you learn enough spells to feel like you have much of a variety at your disposal. When you finally do, fire and ice are only effective against certain types of enemies. Wind is nearly useless except for clearing away cobwebs or solving puzzles. Earth attack is so ho-hum and ineffective, that you’ll quickly forget it’s even there. It’s not until you gain the Lightning spell that you finally get some power, however, then, it’s too powerful. The one redeeming factor with spells, is that you can combine some of them in really cool ways—such as combining a whirlwind and flames to create a fire storm (below).

The game really does start off drab. The enemies, the lack of spells, even the environments make for a bland time. At about the game’s mid-way point, things start getting very interesting. It’s about that time when you begin using spells for puzzles, creating potions with alchemy, and discovering hidden treasure chests. For a couple hours, Sorcery starts to feel like it could transform into a great game. Just as soon as it does, though, it all comes crashing down in the last level or so. The end of the game doesn’t build to much of a climax, and the final boss battles lack excitement.

Combat is lacking throughout. As is the variety in enemies. Rarely do they require much strategy, and instead call for that “button-mash” fast, repetitive flicking to get the job done. The game never gets that difficult, either. The sparse moments that it does get tough, it is only so because it’s not clear how you’re supposed to approach an enemy.

Sorcery is packed with great opportunities, but none of them are fleshed all the way out to their potential. There are treasure chests hidden throughout your travels, however, most are hidden in plain sight. It negates any need for exploration, which would fit well within the game. The alchemy is incredibly clever, using the PlayStation Move to sprinkle, pour, grind, and mix ingredients into potions, which you must then shake and drink, all using realistic gestures. Again, though, with only eight ingredients, there’s not enough to it to make it a main attraction. Puzzles make an appearance, but offer no challenge…at all. You keep thinking, “there we go, this is going to be great”, but it never stacks up.

Even the glowing orb on the PlayStation Move isn’t used fully. It glows purple to match Finn’s wand, and it changes colors when you go to drink a potion. But why not have it change colors as you change spells. Each spell is based on an element, and is represented with a color. It makes no sense to me at all as to why it would change for a potion, but not the spells. It could have been a simple touch to bring the level of immersion up even just slightly.

And immersion is the goal with motion controls, right? But then you’re pulled right out of the immersion by having to press X to jump down onto a different platform. I just have to scratch my head. It’s really a shame, because at many points Sorcery is fun.

This review comes off very negative, but Sorcery isn’t all that bad (especially not when it’s priced at $40). Its biggest problem isn’t with what’s in the game, it’s more about what isn’t. Negativity takes up more of this text because one can’t help but see the obvious traces of unused potential—so many areas that could have been turned into memorable experiences and so many golden opportunities for greatness don’t deliver as fully as they could have. It’s truly saddening. Sorcery is like baking a cake, but with only a teaspoon of sugar, one egg, a pinch of flour, and a tablespoon of baking powder; all of the ingredients are there, but there’s not enough of each ingredient to make the magical game that PlayStation Move owners have been looking for.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score +Turns the PlayStation Move into a magic wand. +Fun adventure, full of innocence. -Everything else in the game isn’t fully developed to potential.

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© Anthony Severino for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 28 comments | Add to del.icio.us

PixelJunk 4am is part game, part music-making/mixing software, and part freeform experience. No one part of those components ever overtakes the other, which makes describing PixelJunk 4am even more difficult. So, to put it a different way, PixelJunk 4am is a game without most definitive components that make a game. It’s music making without the unnerving intimidation of using music software, which most times is far from friendly to new users who understand little about music. It’s also an artistic experience, one that allows the player to make what they want without penalty, fear of failure, or barriers in the form of the usual constructs associated with gameplay (levels with predefined paths, music that must conform to specific patterns/rhythms set by the game’s developers, etc.). PixelJunk 4am is just good-natured, accessible fun with music and is one of the most unique titles available for the PSN or PlayStation Move.

PixelJunk 4am is simply about just making music for the sake of making music in an easy and intuitive way. The tutorial begins by introducing some basic concepts, such as effects, which are achieved by holding down the Move button and moving the controller. Seems simple enough, right? The tutorial then moves on to other concepts such as “pulling” loops for the four different tracks (Synth, Bass, Drum, Rhythm), muting tracks, reverb effects, and more. Initially, while playing through the tutorial, a feeling of intimidation may sink in a bit at first. However, as quickly as that feeling can sink in, that’s how quickly it fades away. Q-Games has already taught the player everything that they need to know and once they’re in front of the gameplay area, the lessons learned come into focus and the lack of a failure state allows players to get creative and begin enjoying the game right away. Nothing is imposed on the player—playing the game is very loose, free, and fun. No “bad way” to make music really exists in the game.

So what is PixelJunk 4am‘s core gameplay? Users select a track set of gameplay “canvases” (visualizers with tracks), then start making music. They make music by creating effects, reverbs, pulling loops (holding down the T button and releasing in the center of the “canvas”), muting tracks (holding down one of the four face buttons that correspond to the tracks, which can also restore them), and more. Loops fade in and out over time—indicated by the activity of the visualizer on the screen—so new loops must be pulled from the four corners of the canvas. Players can change between tracks on a set on canvases by pressing Select. Players can also enlist the help of a friend, who can mix his or her own music independently of the first player, or can also help the first player pull off new and different techniques not possible with just one Move controller if they select the same canvas.

The music creation in PixelJunk 4am is enjoyable, non-traditional, and freeform. However, after playing for a while, the question of whether or not enough game exists in PixelJunk 4am begins to emerge. On one hand, as it is, PixelJunk 4am is a different kind of music game experience that is empowered by its unorthodox roots. If it became “more” of a game, that could be its undoing. On the other hand, the premise of mixing the same songs over and over again for groups of PSN users begins to wane in strength a bit. PixelJunk 4am has no characters, no worlds—nothing more than its canvases and its technology to present to the player in the form of gameplay. PixelJunk 4am‘s technology could be used to power quite an interesting music or rhythm game, but again, adding gameplay elements to it may destroy its appeal. Still, PixelJunk 4am is also such a compelling experience that it standing on its own is worth it.

A player’s performance is live for everyone with the Live Viewer to see. Players can offer “kudos” to performing players by waving their Moves during a player’s performance. Kudos and viewer totals periodically fade in and out at the bottom of the screen to let the player know that people are enjoying his or her performance. The player can also notify friends via Facebook and Twitter as to when he or she is performing. The social element here is interesting and the notification to other players via social networking that someone is playing would be great for games with online multiplayer, but will anyone other than PixelJunk 4am enthusiasts turn on their PS3s, sit down, and watch a performance? How many active users will be around to watch in the time ahead? If some kind of online cooperative music mixing were possible, maybe the notification system would have stronger appeal. Again, the game has a crossroads: if cooperative music mixing was added, it might interfere with the game’s core experience.

One tiny nitpick is that the game offers a series of canvas sets, but isn’t really specific on how to unlock them. I had played PixelJunk 4am‘s first “Random” canvas for over an hour before quitting out to discover a new tutorial for previously undisclosed functionality was available and that new canvas sets had been unlocked. The game doesn’t really communicate what, if any, criteria there are to unlock them. The developers may have just wanted players to enjoy the experience and not worry about earning new levels, but not really knowing how they unlock at all is just a bit odd.

PixelJunk 4am really has no target audience or ideal gamer. Gamers who like music will like it, gamers who like innovative games or unconventional gameplay experiences will like it, and gamers who just want to have fun will like it, too. The game offers stress-free, relaxing gameplay that allows its users to be as creative as they’d like to be. Although PixelJunk 4am may have a lack of traditional game elements, that same lack of traditional game elements is what makes it great and one of the most fascinating and intuitive experiences available for PlayStation Move. Anyone who thinks that Q-Games’ music experience is for them should definitely consider it up, as the odds of them being disappointed are slim to none.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + A unique, stress-free, music experience like no other + Ease of accessibility and enabling the user to create whatever they want without penalty - Lack of traditional game elements may or may not appeal to some gamers

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© nickmichetti for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us

There isn’t a single developer out there that can hold a candle to Rockstar Games when it comes to character development. The studio’s knack for sharp writing and poignant social commentary has led to the realization of some of the most authentic and memorable characters we’ve ever seeing in video games. As such, it goes without saying that when Remedy Entertainment turned the Max Payne franchise over to the capable hands of the Houser brothers, anticipation for the third installment flew through the roof, as gamers couldn’t wait to see how the famed Grand Theft Auto developer would flesh out the series’ complex and disturbed protagonist.

So now that they game has finally arrived, one question remains: Has Rockstar managed to do the pill-popping, alcoholic action hero justice?

Max Payne fans can rest easy, as the answer to that query is a resounding yes. Much like Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3 serves as a shining example of how Rockstar can take a pre-existing franchise from a completely different studio and breathe new life into it by capitalizing on their storytelling strengths. However, that isn’t to say that Max’s latest outing isn’t without its fair share of flaws, as a strict adherence to a number of series’ mainstays holds it back from being a truly remarkable experience.

Open world, sandbox gameplay has been a hallmark of the bulk of Rockstar’s titles, so Max Payne 3′s overly linear structure stood out to me like a sore thumb. While yes, the franchise is centered around a much more story-driven, scene-by-scene kind of experience, I couldn’t help but feel as though I was being funneled from one firefight to another. The game has this fantastic dark atmosphere, I just wish they did more to really flesh it out and make it feel like a place to explore, rather than just a backdrop for an endless torrent of white knuckle action.

The combat itself is fun, but isn’t quite as responsive as I had hoped. For those that aren’t too familiar with the series, the game’s bullet time mechanic will take a bit of getting used to, but once everything clicks, it serves as a competent third-person shooter. If you’ve played Grand Theft Auto IV or Red Dead Redemption, then the game’s core control scheme should feel right at home. I was actually pretty disappointed about this, mostly because I’ve always found the controls of most Rockstar titles to be their Achilles’ heel. But unlike the aforementioned titles, Max Payne 3 doesn’t have an open world to hide behind. This game is first and foremost a third-person shooter, and as such, it should bear the responsiveness and fluidity of others in its class. In the end, the gameplay of Max Payne 3 felt more like GTA IV with tacked on bullet time than anything else. That’s not a bad thing by any means, it just not a major selling point either.

And finally, just one more gripe, the health system. Now I know that hunting around for bottles of painkillers has been a staple to the franchise in the past, but come on, Max Payne 2 came out nearly ten years ago. When I’m playing a shooter, I don’t want to have to worry about healing myself—that’s why regenerating health, while hardly realistic, has become so popular. Fortunately, the game is void of virtually any load times—which are expertly masked behind cutscenes—so when you die, and I assure you, this will happen quite often, you’ll be able to jump right back into the action within seconds. Sure, drugs play a significant role in conveying the troubled character that Max is, but I don’t need to see him popping pills in the middle of a firefight to get the gist. Rockstar does a fantastic job of fleshing out who Max is outside of archaic gameplay conventions like life bars and health packs.

The presentation of Max Payne 3 is without a doubt the game’s crowning achievement. From the game’s cleverly written and well acted cast to the dark and disturbing cutscenes that glue the action together, Rockstar has outdone themselves yet again. The inner turmoil and demons that haunt the game’s protagonist feel believable and real. As the game progresses, you witness the slow but steady downward spiral that pulls Max further into a state of complete hopelessness. The cleverly narrated moments during both cutscenes and gameplay give the play a deeper look into the conflicted and completely lost mind of Max. The intimate connection that the game managed to foster between myself and Max was unlike anything I have ever experienced in this medium before.

The overall plot, while compelling enough to keep you on your toes, doesn’t compare to the underlying character journey of Max. Sure, the superficial events that transpire in Brazil as Max serves as a body guard for a wealthy family in São Paulo is intriguing, but it’s the underlying motivations that stem from our hero’s troubled past that will have you truly invested in Max Payne 3. I’m going to refrain from sharing any specifics with you so as not to spoil the experience when you get around to playing it yourself. Just know that this is a dark tale, so the faint of heart need not apply. After all, it is a game from Rockstar, so you should be well aware of what you’re getting yourself into.

While not groundbreaking on a technical level, the game’s visuals are the best we’ve seen from this studio. Every locale feels authentic and lived in, making the experience, although incredibly linear, still feel organic. The attention to detail is astounding, and the same can be said for the character animations. When Max has a shotgun in his offhand, he literally is holding it in his left hand. Seeing him swing his second weapon at his side while picking off foes with a handgun is intensely rewarding. Additionally, Max interacts with the environment in such a way that feels natural. If when leaping sideways in bullet time, Max collides with a wall or some other object, the player can feel and see the weight of that collision; which not only adds an additional layer of realism, but also forces the player to adjust his/her strategy as such a mistake will slow Max down. It’s clear that Rockstar poured a lot of time and effort into the look and feel of this game, which is only enhanced by the game’s haunting soundtrack.

The single player experience spans a total of 14 chapters and should take the average player anywhere from 12-15 hours to complete. To give the solo player an added incentive to keep coming back for more, an Arcade Mode, complete with both “Score Attack” and “New York Minute” serve up a few interesting twists, having you either rack up points or race against the clock through the game’s various levels. Additionally, Rockstar has packed in a fully fledged online multiplayer mode which makes use of its Social Club, allowing you to create “Crews” with your friends as you work together to rank up online. Game types include the standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, as well as a King-of-the-Hill inspired mode dubbed “Payne Killer.” Those looking for a more cinematic experience will appreciate “Gang Wars,” a mode that infuses story elements and mission objectives into the battle, resulting in a unique and dynamic experience. While the single-player is enough to justify the price of admission, the robust online offering certainly will keep this disc spinning in gamers’ consoles for quite some time.

Max Payne 3 tells a dark and gripping tale that benefits from stellar writing, compelling characters and a careful attention to detail. Rockstar Games has a solid reputation among the gaming community and their latest title lives up to the studio’s pedigree. If you’re a fan of classic Max Payne and want to be taken on a journey that tips its hat to a number of series’ mainstays—if at times to its detriment—then Max Payne 3 is just the fix you’re looking for.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + Fantastic writing and voice acting + Amazing portrayal of one of gaming’s most tragic characters - Gameplay mechanics borrow too heavily from prior Rockstar titles

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© Alex for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Datura in the real world, is a genus of flowering plants known for its psychotropic toxins, often causing hallucinations, delirium, even death. A fitting title for the “game”, because after playing through it, I’m left wondering what the hell just happened.

I’m loosely calling it a game, because it’s more of an experience. And it’s an open, deeply psychological experience that’s completely up for interpretation. Even when you’re done with it, you may still not fully understand the series of events that have taken place, why they’re happening, or what they stand for. I’m still trying to make sense of it all my self.

At times, Datura‘s foggy, wooded landscape can be peaceful and serene. But underlying that beauty is pure insanity—just like the flower itself.

The games starts on a hospital gurney. It’s dark, but you can see electrodes on your chest with connecting wires leading to a heart monitor. Using the PlayStation Move, your hand reaches to remove the electrodes from you chest, tossing them to the side. The screen goes black, and you awaken in a misty forest, filled with white-barked trees, fallen leaves, insects, butterflies, and Datura moonflowers. It’s all very strange, but I assure you, that’s the least odd scene in the two hours it takes to complete Datura.

Datura can be played using the Dualshock 3, but it’s meant to be played using the PlayStation Move, as it’s more natural to mimic the hand’s movements. The entire game is played as this unattached floating hand, using realistic gestures to interact with the environment. It’s also meant to be played through to completion in one sitting in order to fully take in the experience.

But because the movements with the hand are done by making natural gestures with the Move, actual movement like walking and turning in place is frustratingly clunky. Visual cues are added in an attempt to simplify things, however, you still end up wasting too much time trying to get the game to do what you want it to. You do eventually get the hang of it, but by that time the game’s almost over. At least the second playthrough will be more fluid.

And play a second time you will. Each of the eight main events you encounter give you a choice—bad or good, represented by the insects or butterflies; or on your map by a black or a white circle. The choices you make effect the outcome, and therefore, how you interpret the experience.

Despite having this replayability, the two-hour length makes Datura a hard sell at $9.99. Still, I do recommend trying this unusual, unique psychological experience, if only to see what it’s all about and to try and figure out what I means to you—even if it is accompanied by overly frustrating, cumbersome controls.

Note: If you happen to own a Sony HMZ-T1 “wearable HDTV” headset and two PlayStation Move controllers, then Datura is a must-own. The combination of Datura, a PlayStation Move in one hand, and the other attached to the headset for precise head-tracking, creates a true virtual reality experience.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score +\- What the fuck did I just play? + Unique, insane, beautiful, and thrilling. - Controls get in the way of enjoyment.

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© Anthony Severino for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Starhawk, LightBox Interactive’s spiritual follow-up to the online-only PlayStation 3 exclusive Warhawk, is about to drop on Sony’s home console. But is it the worthy successor that fans have wanted?

Starhawk walks a very fine line of being a lot like Warhawk, and being completely different. The feel of the gameplay, the team-based strategy, and the vehicular combat closely resemble that of the early PS3 game, but a single-player mode, co-op, and a new build while you battle system make a world a difference in the end product.

The single-player story is told through the narration and actions of Emmett Graves, a contract Rifter who has been infected by Rift energy. His world’s economy revolves around the mining of this dangerous resource, and such, different factions fight to claim it for their own. It’s like the Gold Rush in early American ‘Wild West’, and the music and desert-like settings help to make for a Space Cowboy-type theme.

Emmett found out just how volatile the Rift can be, as an explosion of it infected and took the life of his brother. Like many others infected, Emmett glows the same teal blue color as the Rift itself. The only reason Emmett hasn’t turned into an Outlaw—a once-human lifeform overcome with this Rift infection—is because his comrade Cutter stopped the infection before it was too late. Other humans mining on the Frontier aren’t so lucky, and are turned into Outlaw “scabs”.

Unfortunately, the story is uninspired and disappointingly cookie cutter all the way through to the end. Even the big surprise is easily anticipated and almost expected. With Starhawk, though, the story in single-player is the last thing you should care about. Although it’s a hell of a lot of fun in and of itself, the real benefit single-player offers is that it acts as a four- to five-hour tutorial on how to properly strategize and utilize the game’s Build & Battle mechanic in multiplayer and co-op. Without it, multiplayer can easily become overwhelming.

Following Warhawk’s legacy, multiplayer acts as Starhawk’s main dish, and rightfully so—it’s where the action is. Given the wealth of vehicles and structures you can build using the Build & Battle system, no two multiplayer matches will ever be the same. Build & Battle works effortlessly at the press of a button. Once enough Rift energy is absorbed, simply press triangle to bring up the wheel of available choices—everything from standard, connectable walls, to Supply Bunkers and Turrets, to Tanks or the series’ mainstay “Hawks” (which are now transformable mech suits rather than just warplanes).

Don’t try to be a lone-wolf hero; it won’t work, and will have you doing more respawning than building. Although even respawning itself can be used to your advantage as a form of attack, as you enter the battlefield in a drop pod that can destroy enemy structures or even take out the opposition. The vehicles and structures you build drop out of the sky in a similar fashion, so be wary of placement so that you don’t drop an Outpost on yourself… which will kill you.

Constructing a balanced mix of defense, support, and offense is paramount to victory, and enjoyment. This heavily relies on your fellow teammate’s ability to plan accordingly, and be willing to work together toward a common goal; which make Starhawk the perfect game for serious clans. Knowing this, LightBox Interactive has added full clan support and a wide host of community features including an event calendar, leaderboards, in-game invites and friend’s lists, tournaments and more. There’s even an Android application incoming that lets users track their clan and Starhawk stats wherever they are.

In addition to the 32-player multiplayer’s Zones, Capture the Flag, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes, Starhawk offers a co-op ‘Prospector Mode’. Here, two players can team up to build a Rift-mining rig, which must be defended from an increasingly difficult onslaught of Outlaw scabs. Again, a strong balance of offense and defense is important here, but the action plays out more like that of the single-player mode than the multiplayer.

Regardless of what mode you’re playing, the action is intense, shooting is fast-paced, and the strategy is challenging and rewarding. Mastering and using each of the structures and vehicles available in Build & Battle takes practice, but pays off in spades once you get the hang of it. Playing the single-player campaign first before jumping into multiplayer can save you a world of grief.

As you play, you earn XP to unlock a variety of skills to give you an edge on the battlefield. Customization doesn’t end there—you can even alter the look of Razorbacks, Hawks and Sidewinders to add your personal (or clan’s) flair.
Environments, both in single or multiplayer are vast and expansive, giving off an intergalactic, but Western vibe. The graphics, though, are awful. After seeing what other PS3 games are capable of, Starhawk looks like an early PS3 title. During battle this isn’t that striking, but during some of the non-animated story sequences, character models are lacking detail. Enemies are, for the most part, very bland.

Cutscenes, however, are done in a motion-comic style and look excellent—very reminiscent of another PS3 exclusive, inFamous. In fact, a lot of Starhawk reminds me of inFamous: the action, the movement, the story is told split through action and narration, the absorbing of energy, and the way your comrade is constantly in your ear. Even the ending feels similar in ways. That’s not really a bad thing, because inFamous was a great game. But there is an unmistakable air of familiarity between what’s mentioned above and through the deep roots of Warhawk.

As a complete package, Starhawk isn’t a groundbreaking PS3 exclusive in the way that Uncharted or God of War is. It’s lacking in a few areas, keeping it short of greatness. But if you liked Warhawk, enjoy strategy in your multiplayer, or are thoroughly ingrained in a clan, then Starhawk will be welcome break from the norm. And even if those points aren’t your thing, although not quite a must-have, Starhawk is still worth trying—it’s a pleasant surprise.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score +Build & Battle is innovative, fast, and offers a ton of strategy. +Plenty of multiplayer-focused community features in tow. -Graphics and tired story hamper the experience.

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© Anthony Severino for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 30 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Activision and Radical Entertainment’s open-world action game Prototype 2 features a different kind of action, one reminiscent of the old days of Grand Theft Auto III‘s five-star wanted level insanity, when taking on the police was not only achievable, but all-out fun as well. Replace “police” with “evil soldiers and scientists,” then replace “taking on” with “annihilating,” and the basics of Prototype 2‘s gameplay come into focus. While not a deep game, the second installment of this super-powered action franchise does offer a brand of action that some gamers will find rewarding and nothing short of solid fun.

Prototype 2‘s story starts out with a nice degree of storytelling that almost feels like the opening sequence to an action movie. Players quickly meet Sergeant James Heller, a military man on his way home to his wife and daughter, who, like most everyone, are concerned about a new outbreak of the “Mercer Virus.” The plot quickly gets personal for Heller, and the first Prototype‘s protagonist easily persuades him to help take down anyone and everyone associated with the virus.

Unfortunately, it’s after the first few hours that the story begins to show a lack of depth. Gentek and Blackwatch are almost “ordinarily” evil, for lack of a better term — they enjoy hurting people, they don’t mind feeding people to infected bestial behemoths, and they never really show any inclination to do otherwise. Father Garcia, Heller’s main contact, begins the story as a sympathetic and conflicted figure. However, the more that the story progresses, the more that Garcia seemingly resigns himself to the fact that Heller is just going to kill people over and over again. Even Heller’s manhunt seems to lose some of its edge after a while, as he’s basically assigned to kill someone or destroy something in every single mission, in very similar ways.

Story isn’t Prototype 2‘s main draw, though — the gameplay is. Prototype 2‘s gameplay is similar in structure to that of Sony and Sucker Punch’s open-world superhero franchise inFAMOUS — go to a spot on the map, follow mission orders, and unleash some superpowers on some enemies. However, Prototype 2 begins deviation from inFAMOUS there, especially in the realm of restraint. Heller has no morality meter and suffers next to no consequences for attacking civilians. He’s a powerhouse and free to unleash any brand of destruction he can, without having to worry about powers or moral alignment changing. It’s a strange contrast to the nature we were introduced to, as he begins the game as a just, country-serving family man and has undergone no plot-driven change to make him a genocidal maniac.

Part of the core appeal of Prototype 2 is the fact that Heller is a powerhouse — he is so powered up that most enemies are little threat to him, at least by themselves. Heller is capable of so much damage that even when completely surrounded, the odds are never against him, which makes for some truly entertaining scenarios in which tanks and helicopters are effortlessly blown to pieces. The chaos that ensues when Heller uses his powers is gratifying, especially for fans of action games. A frequently recurring visual in Prototype 2 is Heller destroying everything in sight, consuming foes, and the enemy having no other choice but to continue to be destroyed and hurl more of the existing failing forces at Heller.

As Heller continues to upgrade his powers, though, Prototype 2 attempts to narrow the odds a bit by introducing more difficult enemies and increasing the numbers of enemies to nearly be swarms. Some of the enemies have QTE-style combat inputs required to defeat them. When more than a few of those kinds of enemies arrive in battle, players may find themselves in the midst of balancing the regular combat with the specifics of the QTE inputs for the enemies, which can prove to be a little frustrating.

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© nickmichetti for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us

Telltale Games has had some stunning game successes including the multi-season Sam and Max series and the very well adapted Back to the Future season. But fresh in everyone’s minds is the flop that was Jurassic Park. However, JP seems to have given Telltale an adequate enough testing ground to refine some of their bigger ideas for the point-and-click adventure genre. These ideas are utilized to full effect in Telltale’s newest game The Walking Dead. I might even go so far as to say that The Walking Dead: Episode 1 – A New Day is a well made introduction to what could be one of the best Telltale adventure games of this generation.

The game opens with your character, Lee Everett, in the backseat of a cop car. He’s been convicted and sentenced to a prison term at a facility outside of the city of Atlanta. As the car speeds down the Atlanta highway, a conversation begins between you and the driver. After some Q&A and a brief tutorial, the car, for reasons that I won’t spoil, careens off the road into an embankment. Lee’s leg is injured, but he manages to escape the car and get out of his handcuffs. Unfortunately, the driver appears to have already been turned into a zombie, and Lee has no choice but to kill him. The sound of the gunshot, summons more ‘walkers’ to the area and Lee hightails it to safety, thus beginning his adventure.

Regarding the story, A New Day does a great job of really pushing pathos. The actions of the characters are shaped by your decisions, and it becomes clear early on that each decision can have enormous consequences within the context of this episode and future ones as well. Each of the characters has their own unique looks and personalities. These personalities shift and change based upon the player’s actions and dialog choices. If you choose to side with a character you will end up displeasing the one you disagreed with. Every decision seems like a double-edged sword which makes them feel more realistic and genuine. Further to this, the game also tells you when other characters pick-up on something that you’ve said or done. If you choose to trust someone or decide to hide the truth about something by using a certain phrase they’ll notice. All of these dialog moments are also timed adding to further the tension meaning that you only have a few seconds to choose what to say or, in more extreme circumstances, who to save.

With regards to the game’s controls, the first immediately noticeable thing in TWD is how the camera controls. Unlike games like Puzzle Agent or Back to the Future, the camera is free to move around the screen without having to jump from anchor point to anchor point. In the past, the lack of a freely controllable camera has made some Telltale titles infuriating to play as the player often had to wrestle with the game in order to make a selection. Here the camera is controllable with the right stick and any objects that can be interacted with in the environment are highlighted. When the cursor is placed over the objects a series of interaction buttons appear which are mapped to the face buttons on the DualShock 3. As an example of this, in the escape from the cop car Lee has to bust open a window, but initially placing the cursor on the window only brings up a triangle button prompt allowing Lee to look at the object. Using the left stick, the player can move Lee to the window and then gain the ability to bash through it by pressing the x button. This small, but crucial change makes TWD feel more like a traditional PC based point-and-click adventure game, but also less restrictive as the player can still choose where to move around.

Inventory management has also been streamlined. Unlike Back to the Future where items had to be selected and then another object had to be interacted with, TWD automatically allows the player to use items within specific contexts. Here again these interactions are mapped to the face buttons with special items usually being mapped to either x or circle. Coupled with the controls, this makes for some very suspenseful gameplay, especially when the action is ratcheted up. Granted, the game isn’t hugely emphasizing action in order to focus more on the bleakness of the situation and the character’s roles, but one particular stealth sequence in this episode allowed you to move around from cover to cover, but you had to find a way to silently dispatch several zombies so that you could rescue one survivor. All the while you could peek out from behind cover, but staying exposed for too long would alert the zombies. It’s moments like that that make TWD fun, tense, and deeply rewarding, and show just how far Telltale has come regarding optimizing controls for consoles as opposed to PCs. The only downside to all of this is the fact that puzzles, in the normal Telltale sense, are missing from this episode. It’s a minor thing, but some hardcore Telltale fans may find the lack of actual puzzles a bit amiss.

From a graphical standpoint some will simply state that it looks like every other Telltale adventure game, but the hand drawn art style very closely mimics the look of the comics upon which the game is based. There’s also a particular emphasis on dark strokes and heavy ink lines to accentuate elements of the environment and the characters themselves. Also Telltale appears to have been busy coming up with a whole slew of new facial animations to go along with the persistent nature of each of the decisions. As mentioned before, some nuances will evoke a response from a character. This is often represented in subtle facial animations that really convey what’s on an NPCs mind. Sometimes it’s as subtle as narrowing the eyes when they suspect that you aren’t being truthful, or a relaxing of the shoulders and a smirk when they realize that you agree with them. Again, this isn’t a Heavy Rain or Kara level of realism, but it breaks the mold from other game’s that Telltale has done and makes TWD that much more unique. Overall, it makes conversations with the NPCs seem much more human as opposed to the stiffness that some characters in other Telltale games have suffered from.

By the time I finished A New Day I was itching for the next episode in order to see how the decisions I had made in this one would turn out later. Even the “Next time, on The Walking Dead…” segment at the end of A New Day gives a small taste of how some of those choices will impact the next episode. Also at the end of the episode you can see what choices other players made in terms of percentages. It’s an interesting bit of information to supply to the player and, in my case, had me second guessing some moves I made. Did I choose to save someone because they’re a good shot and may prove useful later? Why have I chosen to protect Clementine instead of being a real dick? Should I ignore the horror movie enthusiast in me and travel by night? Also, a small thing that unburdens the player from worrying about their decisions, is that the trophies within the game are all progression based (there’s also a platinum trophy in case anyone was wondering). None of them is for finding special objects or doing something extraordinary. Indeed, the main message of A New Day is make your choices, but be prepared for the consequences. Having made my decisions, I’m eager to see what new options I’ll be presented with and what consequences I’ll have to live with.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + The game has you making choices that feel like they actually matter in the long run. + Streamlined and more precise controls. - Traditional Telltale puzzles are strangely absent.

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© Vivas Kaul for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us

While PlayStation LifeStyle was busy playing PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale last week, that same press preview event also featured LittleBigPlanet Karting, which was officially announced a few months ago. Now that the game has had some more time to polish, how is it shaping up? Is it little more than ModNation Racers X LittleBigPlanet, or has the team at United Front Games done enough to make this feel like a true extension of the LittleBigPlanet universe? Find out in our hands-on preview.

Before I get started, let me just say that I have been a huge LittleBigPlanet fan since I first witnessed the game in motion. I’ll never forget when I first saw that GDC demo of the first game. I made it my goal to get in the beta as soon as humanly possible, where I then crafted a little skatepark level in about 10 hours of fooling around in the Create mode. From then on, I was constantly amazed at just how creative the community became. So you’d think I went into this preview session a bit biased towards loving an LBP Karting game. You wouldn’t be faulted for thinking that, however, nothing could be further from the truth. I went into this demo with pretty doubtful expectations. Since LittleBigPlanet is very near to this gamer’s heart, seeing the beloved franchise in another developer’s hands is always cause for concern. Plus, how well could LBP work in a karting-only environment? This got me thinking, surely there must be 3D Kart levels in LittleBigPlanet 2 that would satiate my need for Sackboy-flavored speed.

Then I Googled “LittleBigPlanet 2 kart levels,” and I was sorely disappointed. Sure, there are some cute levels, but they are all sidescrolling. Although doing a pseudo-3D level in LBP 2 is possible, it is hardly easy to do, and there is no level that I have found that accurately replicates all the nuances that go into a  decent kart game – no powerups, no weapons, and of course the way that LBP 2 handles players falling behind in a race (it kills you after you’re offscreen for too long) just wouldn’t work here.

Ok. So we’ve established that LBP 2 cannot really be used to make a full-fledged kart simulator. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to hand over the license to the glory of Sackboy to United Front Games. After all, ModNation Racers was a thoroughly enjoyable, customizable kart racer, load times aside. But would this be a simple character swap of placing Sackboy into ModNation Racers? After playing quite a few races and battles, I can safely say that this is a karting game within the LittleBigPlanet universe. The interface is not reminiscent of ModNation Racers whatsoever. You still have a Popit menu, including customizing your Sackperson with new textures, stickers, etc. The same thing also now applies to your cart. You can choose the materials your car is made of, which wouldn’t feel out of place in LBP 2 – cardboard, soda cans, paper clips, and more. You can also decide how your car actually moves, whether that’s regular tires, a hovercraft, a zeppelin, or something else entirely. United Front Games got the whole feel of the LittleBigPlanet world intact. Speaking of which, for those who may not know, Stephen Fry had earlier been confirmed as the narrator for LBP Karting, which was a big relief. We didn’t see how the game handled splitscreen, but I have faith that UFG is more than capable of delivering a smooth experience based on their track record (pun sort-of intended).

So now we’ve come to the most important question – how does the game play? This is where you are reminded that the game is being developed by UFG. It feels basically like ModNation Racers while you drive. The cars are fast, the turning is a little floaty, and the drifting is really easy to keep going. The grappling hook from LBP 2 makes an appearance here – you latch onto the familiar spongy material, and if you time it right you can get to a higher platform of a level, which is usually a shortcut. It adds separate vertical pathways, and is a creative way to incorporate a familiar tool from the previous game.

Taking a cue from Mario Kart, there is a battle mode in LBP Karting. Rather than having a certain set of lives from the start, it’s a race to the top of the scoreboard as you rack up KOs. In the demo’s case, it was first to 10 wins. The AI was really easy, but I was assured that this can be tweaked. All weapons from the race mode are here, picked up by running through what appeared to be the Paintinator. Notable weapons included explosive box mines and bomb lobbers that looked like they were pulled straight from LBP 2. In this battle mode, it’s one hit KOs for everyone, but aside from a lock-on missile the ammo doesn’t tend to be too accurate, so you have to time your shots. Although you’re using some explosive weapons, there’s no real carnage here – you simply vanish with a puff of smoke when you get hit. It’s a mildly entertaining mode, and it’ll be interesting to see what kinds of levels people come up with for this mode.

As the day concluded, I left the demo impressed with just how well UFG got the feel of LBP down pat. The game was fun, but not that ear-to-ear grin I got when I first laid eyes on LittleBigPlanet. Some of that may be because I am now used to seeing Sackboy, or maybe I’m just not that big of a fan of kart games. None of the levels really stood out and impressed me. Granted, I only saw three levels, and mastered them rather quickly, but unlike LittleBigPlanet you can only create one kind of level – a karting level. How far can you stretch that concept? Is a karting game starring Sackboy really necessary? Time and sales will dictate that, but in the meantime I remain cautiously optimistic about LittleBigPlanet Karting.

© Paulmichael Contreras for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us

At an upscale hotel on Sunset Blvd, two unassuming devs started their demo of The Unfinished Swan, a game designed from the ground up to take advantage of the artistic ground-breaking thatgamecompany has done with titles like Flower and Journey via the PSN.

At the press of the button, a story book appeared on screen and eased the player into the game’s big hook. When you were a child, your mother kept a large portfolio of her paintings at home. When she died, your could only take one painting with you to the orphanage.

That was The Unfinished Swan, and now it’s missing from your room.

At first, players will be greeted by a completely white screen and no prompt for what they’re to do. The developers have found that players typically begin to make frantic inputs after a few seconds of staring at the screen. It’s perhaps this inauspicious beginning that kickstarts the player’s imagination, as they’ll quickly find that they can throw balls of black paint at their surrounding to reveal their environment.

Players discover that they’re in an unassuming square room, but the environment quickly becomes more natural, bringing players to a garden filled with statues and very little color. These brief splashes of primary colors help to direct the player so you don’t get completely lost.

Vantage points also show where you’ve come from and how you played. First-person shooter players have tested to be very liberal with their use of the black paint, while others have proven more reserved.

The way gamers paint their environments is certainly a memorable means of exploration. Having seen the tech demo of this as an indie project at GDC 2009, I asked about how the project has transformed in all that time. Creative Director Ian Dallas explained that they wanted to take the mechanic they had and wrap it in an appropriate setting to draw players in. Using a children’s story book setting provided that invitation to the imagination. Dallas was quick to point out that The Unfinished Swan is mature in the same sense that Journey is mature. Players take away from it what they want to, and with the gameplay’s unique twist, there are plenty of things to walk away with.

The Unfinished Swan is aiming for a PSN release in 2012. We’ll keep you tuned in to any more we see on the project at E3 and beyond.

© Daniel Bischoff for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us

At first, you may think that the team at NetherRealm Studios performed a Babality on the console Mortal Kombat, shrinking it down to fit on the PlayStation Vita. That’s not at all the case: Mortal Kombat for the PlayStation Vita is the real thing, every bit as feature packed as the console version, if not more.

Mortal Kombat for the Vita, is very much the same game as the recently released Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition. In fact, I don’t really understand why it wasn’t just labeled as the Komplete Edition; because if anything, there’s more content in the Vita version.

During the transition to the Vita, the graphics took a bit of an uppercut. Environments are just as detailed and gorgeous. But the character models themselves fall a little flat. Part of it is because everything else looks and feels so much like consoles, that the character models stand-out. They’re not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they are a bit washed out and jaggy. Physical deterioration is here, too, although it’s less-pronounced. Remember, though, this is a portable system, so these are comparisons being made to the console version. If there was no console comparison to be made, the game would be applauded for how good it looks.

Minor nitpicks about graphics are a worthy trade-off, though, because the game runs at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second. This ensures that the fighting itself—the whole point behind the game—is flawless. And oh, how it is. Special moves, combos, X-rays and fatalities work without a hitch. Except, exclusive to MK for Vita, you can touch the screen to perform an X-ray, or swipe the screen for fatalities. Swiping the directional inputs for fatalities brings a accessibility to newcomers, while series’ veterans like myself, may even find it a pleasant surprise. For one, I first though the addition was blasphemous, and now, I use it most of the time. It just feels natural. Besides, you only need to enter the directional movements, dropping that final button press to initiate the fatality sequence. It also negates the need to hold block during some fatalities to prevent jumping. I like that a lot.

The entire roster is here, plus all of the DLC characters and costumes that were available post-launch on consoles. There are even a few Vita-exclusive costumes added in for good measure. Much of the costumes can be unlocked through the Challenge Towers, giving more reason to play all the way through them.

Also in-tact is the full story mode. Mortal Kombat‘s story mode is by far the most enjoyable, involved story mode in a fighting game ever. Playing through it gives you a massive dose of Mortal Kombat lore from the first three games of the series, fills in some backstory, and does a great job with introducing you to the various characters and their fighting styles.

The Challenge Tower returns, but with a second added bonus Challenge Tower with 150 challenges focusing on the Vita’s unique touch and tilt capabilities. Just like the first challenge tower, tasks are varied in both scope and in difficulty, all with a smidge of NetherRealm Studio’s signature humor. Challenges are enjoyable most of the time, but there are a few that are frustratingly difficult. But hey, it’s not called a Challenge Tower for nothing. The majority of the challenges have some sort of touch or tilt integration, sometimes both. Tilting your Vita, in some matches, can literally turn the entire arena. Touching is more straightforward, such as tapping incoming projectiles to stop them from causing damage, wiping blood off the screen, and more.

The bonus Challenge Tower also introduces you to two new “Test Your” mini-games. The other ones are there, too, but for the purpose of this review, I’m only going to talk about the new additions. “Test Your Balance” sets a kombatant out on a plank, hovering over a deadly pit. The plank leans to one-side, and you must tile the Vita in the opposite direction to keep your fighter balanced. As they get more difficult, decapitated heads get tossed at you to try and break your concentration. For “Test Your Slice”, the decapitated heads make another appearance, but this timed, they’re tossed in the air and you use your finger to slice and dice them, Fruit Ninja-style. There’s no two ways about it, this is a complete knock-off of Fruit Ninja, but with a gore-filled Mortal Kombat touch. Watch for modifiers like Sub-Zero’s head, which freeze all the other heads in place, allowing you to build up more and more score. It’s fun, it’s gross… it’s perfect for Mortal Kombat. But truthfully, you probably won’t spend much time playing these if you didn’t spend much time doing “Test Your Might” or the others.

The game features all the other modes, such as Ladder, Tag Ladder, Practice, and Versus. The Krypt is even back, too. Versus can be done via local ad-hoc connection, or online over Wi-Fi. The eight-player King of the Hill matches are gone, unfortunately, but both 1-on-1 and tag matches are available however you choose to connect. Online connected with any issues, and the result was a perfectly stable few matches against a number of foes. Online also includes voice chat via the Vita’s built-in microphone, great for talking smack.

[Highlight text between spoiler tags to reveal spoiler] There is a hidden Augmented Reality mode, inspired by the original “Fight Anyone, Anywhere” commercial, tucked away in the game’s Practice mode. It uses the Vita’s rear-camera to superimpose the selected fighters over whatever it is the camera is facing. It’s so damn cool, but is unfortunately relegated to only the Practice mode. To unlock, press triangle at the character select screen to select an arena, then press L and R on the Vita. Shao Kahn will laugh in a sinister way, letting you know that you’ve unlocked the AR mode. [End spoiler]

As a complete package, Mortal Kombat Vita is an impressive piece of software and a near-flawless port from consoles to a handheld. It’s one of the best fighters of this generation, magically tailored to work to PlayStation Vita’s advantages. Although unfair yet impossible to avoid comparisons will be made of it to its console counterpart, the Vita version proves that console-quality games and experiences are possible on Sony’s new portable. And it proves that it can be done with hardly any compromise.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score +Everything the console version offers, and more. +Fighting, both online or off, is flawless. +Touch controls offer some benefits to normal gameplay.

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© Anthony Severino for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Within the last couple of years, the fighting game genre has been privy to a revitalization and has gone on to see a significant surge in interest from both experienced fighting game players as well as amateurs eager to learn more. But despite the spike in the number of new players coming to the genre, the big developers responsible for forming the basis of its origins have largely remained the same. Just the phrase ‘fighting game genre’ is enough to conjure images of Capcom, NetherRealm Studios, SNK, or Arc System Works. So it’s rare when a completely original fighting game IP takes center stage and is created by a lesser known or even entirely new developer. But that’s currently where we find ourselves with the release of Reverge Labs’ debut title Skullgirls.

Skullgirls is a 2D anime fighting game that takes place within a world known as the Canopy Kingdom, which has a distinct style that is an anime take on art deco. Within this realm, a special artifact known as the Skull Heart is sought after by adventurers for its ability to grant a wish to those that find it. Unfortunately, if a person with an impure soul makes a wish, the artifact will grant their desire, but turn them into an all powerful being known as the Skullgirl hellbent on destroying humanity. The game’s story mode is comprised of eight self contained vignettes that follow each of the individual female characters in different plot lines complete with still image cutscenes and dialog. The game also has an arcade mode which will pit the player against randomly generated opponents. At the end of any of the story campaigns or the arcade mode the player faces off against the titular Skullgirl. But Skullgirls, like many other fighting games, is not able to overcome the cheesiness of this premise. Fortunately, the main draw of Skullgirls is how it plays rather than the story wrapped around it.

In terms of the actual fighting, Skullgirls borrows mechanics from various other games within the genre. Outside of the story mode, players have the option to play as a single fighter, a pair, or in a team of three. At first this idea may sound odd in that both players make this choice individually, but the game does a fantastic job of scaling both the damage and health depending on the choice made. So, as a single fighter players that dislike the Marvel vs. Capcom school of fighting can opt for a very powerful main fighter at the expense of calling in assist attacks or being able to tag in another fighter. Meanwhile, a player opting for a triplet will find that they have more versatility in terms of comboing from one character into another and having access to multiple fighters for any situation. However, each individual does less damage and has less health.

Additionally, players opting for this approach can configure and customize the assist attacks to anything desired. While this could potentially be a huge way in which to exploit the game, Reverge Labs has implemented an infinite breaker system in order to prevent such abuse. Simply put, when an infinite loop is detected the game will allow the player being pummeled to instantly break out of the loop. So while there are no combo breakers (in the Mortal Kombat or Killer Instinct sense of the phrase) the prevention of infinites through this system gives players creative license to go nuts. The decision of which team setup to go with is a matter of personal preference, but can have a major impact on strategies employed. Giving players a choice in the matter adds a great layer of depth to the fighting system.

In terms of controls, combos are relatively easy to pull off with either a DualShock 3 or a joystick. In my case, I used my second generation Hit Box arcade stick. A stick does seem ideal for Skullgirls as the game has a light, medium, and heavy setup to the controls. As such, a six button arcade stick will work fine given the button combinations needed to pull off specials and supers. Of course, I should mention that the latency and input speed of some joysticks can be a problem as there are times where the game had trouble recognizing specific button inputs when I was pressing too quickly. However, this is more of a problem between the integration of the Hit Box’s hardware with the software that is Skullgirls. Still, traditional joysticks should have no trouble working with Skullgirls and the game also offers players options with respect to reconfiguring controls if necessary.

Another major aspect of Skullgirls is the tutorial system. The tutorials within the game go to a level of depth previously unseen within the genre. Have you ever wondered what a ‘hit-confirmation’ is? Do you know how to ‘poke’ your opponent? Are you upset because you don’t know what a ‘cancel’ is? Can you defend against a ‘hi-lo mix-up’ in order open your opponent up for a ‘punish’? Like many of you scratching their heads at the previous questions, I didn’t know what many of these terms actually were until I played through the robust tutorials within Skullgirls. In fact, I actually played through all the tutorials first and as a result the normal experience of button mashing my way through the opening hours of a fighting game were replaced by bread and butter combos comprised of normals (that’s what they call punches and kicks) in a ‘magic series’ (a combo made up of normals strung together).

Most of the tutorials will take a few tries, with the last three in particular taking a larger chunk of time. However, practice does make perfect and getting through the tutorials not only gives a player a deeper understanding of the mechanics at work within this game, but also many other fighting games within the genre. It’s a fantastic way to make the game more accessible to new players without sacrificing difficulty for those who may be more familiar with fighting game principles.

The online suite of options is pretty standard and features GGPO netcode integration, much like Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Online. Before each match, the game will detect your ping and recommend a GGPO delay setting for a match. Setting the delay appropriately ensures that ranked fights happen in smooth, lag free fashion. It is a bit weird that the game doesn’t simply set the delay for you once it determines what the optimal setting should be, but this is a minor complaint that does nothing to really mar the online experience. Players can also create unranked rooms in order to just duke it out, but when I tried to join some unranked rooms during my time with the game I didn’t find any in operation. This is probably due to the fact that the quick match option (which pits players in a ranked mode fight) connects very fast and finds appropriately skilled opponents quickly.

Skullgirls also features a nicely rendered anime art style which, while developed by a western studio rather than a Japanese one, is fluid and distinct enough to stand with the best. Each character has a unique look and feel that also feeds directly into how they play. As an example, Peacock is a robot that has several cartoony projectile attacks which make her very good at zoning and locking down an opponent. Ms. Fortune is more of a rushdown/pressure character that can use her head as a weapon to hot box an opponent making it easier to land high damage combos. This is also complimented by a awesome jazz soundtrack produced by Michiru Yamane, who some may remember was the composer for Konami’s Castlevania series including Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the PS1. There are also some unique bits of dialog if certain combinations of characters square off against each other before the start of the round. As an example, if Valentine and Peacock square off Valentine will say “It’s time for your check up!” before Peacock exclaims in an Animaniacs inspired voice “Hellooo nurse!”

Reverge Labs has done some pretty innovative things with Skullgirls but there are some problems that are just too large to ignore. The first problem is that there’s only an 8 character roster which increases the potential for mirror matching. This probability goes up when triplet team setups are also taken into account. Reverge Labs has already stated that they will be adding in more DLC characters (including some male characters) in the future provided that the game sells well. Also, the game doesn’t feature movelists in-game. The solution to this problem is to go to the game’s website and download a PDF which features all of the movelists. It’s not the best solution to this problem, but again Reverge has stated that they will patch the game and include movelists at a later date.

The end boss battle of the single player modes in the game is also ridiculously tough. While Skullgirls is not the first game to throw an absurd boss battle at the player (and it probably won’t be the last), the Skullgirl battle at the end of the arcade or story modes is very cheap even on the lower difficulties. Finally, the character designs are hypersexualized, a problem that is only exacerbated by the fact that all of the characters are female. This is the opposite direction that the fighting game community is trying to go these days in the wake of the Cross Assault/Wednesday Night Fights sexual harassment controversy. Indeed this is partially mitigated by the fiercely independent nature of the characters, but it’s difficult to view the game that way when Valentine’s celebratory animation is sticking a thermometer between her boobs, and most of the characters are dressed in skintight outfits.

Normally, contradictions are considered bad, but Skullgirls has some contradictions within it that are actually innovative in practice. It’s a western developed game steeped in Japanese influences both artistically and mechanically. The game maintains an adequate level of difficulty while at the same time having a robust tutorial structure that allows new players to learn the basics as well as advanced moves inherent to this game and others within the genre. Unfortunately, there are a few flaws that will make some players hesitant to pick this up, but, for $14.99, Skullgirls is as complete as any retail fighting game package. So if you have some friends to play with locally or a decent internet connection, Skullgirls is definitely worth a look. It’s a fun fighter that will keep dedicated players practicing special-to-super cancels and air dashes for months to come while attracting new players to the genre. Let’s hope that Reverge builds upon some of the great ideas on display here and that the larger community of fighting game developers take a cue from Reverge Labs’ tutorial structure. Indeed, we live in exciting times for the fighting game genre and here’s hoping it only gets better.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score + Robust tutorial system gives you a great primer on Skullgirls and fighting games in general. + GGPO netcode produces a smooth online experience. + Excellent art deco anime style and kicking sound track.

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© Vivas Kaul for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2012. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us