GeekReads

Kratos is one angry dude...

A quickie review of God of War 3 to finish off the week. This game probably deserves slightly more verbiage than I’m willing to dedicate to it, but suffice to say that there are many ardent supporters of this ground-breaking series (often literally) that blends together 3D action platform gaming, excessive violence and Greek mythology.

The game borrows heavily, but largely successfully, from other genres: there are bits of Shadow of the Collossus, Street Fighter, and even bits of Echochrome, all seamlessly integrated into the overall narrative structure. This game closes off the the storyline from the previous games, which sees the “Ghost of Sparta” exacting revenge on the Olympian gods for causing him to accidentally kill his own family.

The plot is driven along by crappy, but mercifully sparse, dialogue and finishes with a climax that leans quite heavily on existentialist claptrap. But the point of the God of War series was never the story; it’s about dishing out retribution with extreme prejudice, and in that sense the game delivers in spades. In this final instalment Kratos is not content with  taking down monsters and gods, but also Titans of such immense proportions that they form entire game levels by themselves.

By the way, was it just me, or did the lyrics for the Ominous Latin Chanting in the final battle sound a lot like “Kratos, Kratos, Kratos, ha ha ha…”?

Awkwardly, they've dropped the "4" from "Call of Duty" for this sequel

Imagine somebody put a gun in your hand, and ordered you to kill innocent civilians. Could you do it? The latest game in the Call of Duty series asks the player this, and other tough ethical and moral questions, as it propels you through a narrative of conflict in the context of today’s society. It’s a continuation of the plot originally kicked off in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which paints the US as the saviour of the barbaric ways of Russia and the Middle East.

American hyper-patriotism and ethnic clichés aside, Modern Warfare 2 isn’t merely a game, it’s another example of the new breed of games that offers an interactive experience. The main difference between the two is that while previous video games simply used story as a device to explain a game mechanic or to give the protagonist a raison d’être, these new, more mature offerings are beginning to layer in complex emotions and philosophical considerations, integrating them directly into the gameplay in a more fundamental way, than the odd rhetorical poser in the cutscenes between levels.

The example touched upon in the beginning of this review is a stage, early on in the game, in which the player takes on the role of an undercover agent posing as a Russian terrorist, and on order to progress, must participate in the slaughter of innocent civilians. Even the player refrains from firing and simply watches, he or she will still see their collaborators shooting stragglers, execution style. It’s a heavy moment, and highly controversial.

Having only recently arrived in the world of First Person Shooters through Transformers: War For Cybertron, the pedigree of the Call of Duty series is evident. MW2 takes the spit and polish up a big notch – the interface is well thought out and snappily responsive; the graphics are impressive and the sets amazingly detailed (e.g. in one scene set in an airport, you can shoot pieces of luggage that are strew around, and random pieces of clothing and underwear come flying out); and the game mechanics much more refined.

In multiplayer, there are a wealth of game modes (Free-For-All, Search & Destroy, Demolition, Sabotage, Domination, Team Deathmatch, and Capture The Flag) and several players can play together on a single TV in split-screen mode. Along with the downloadable map packs, MW2 offers exceptional replay value.

I’ve never been a big fan of FPS – especially anything war themed – but I found Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 so imaginative and stimulating that I barely noticed. Definitely one for the collection.

The "coming soon" cover with Cybertron in the background looked cooler. Oh well...

I don’t know when or why, but I took a wrong turn somewhere on my gaming journey and fell out of line with the First Person Shooter – a genre that I had sacrificed many a sleepness night to, at LAN parties not all that long ago (or so it seems). I just can’t play FPS games any more – my last attempt was Half Life 2, and I dry-retched my way through the entire game as my brain fought back the waves of nausea brought on by motion sickness. As a result, I’ve passed on some of the biggest gaming franchises in recent times such as Call of Duty, Gears of War, and their brethren.

Hence it was with great sadness that I discovered that Transformers: War For Cybertron was an FPS, because Transformers is one of the things that I love (to the point where I fought the bureaucracy to import a Megatron toy that is classified as a restricted firearm). To rub salt into the wound, the Intarwebs reported that WFC was more more than just a competent welding together of the Transformers lore with the war gaming mechanics, it was actually a decent game. So it is with great thanks to the Contagious Network that I’m able to give the game a go in spite of the fact I would never have purchased it for myself for fear of the barf monster.

When you first hear Peter Cullen say "Cybertron..." in the game's intro, you know it's gonna be good

Since I’ve divulged my shame, I won’t pretend familiarity in talking about the gameplay. All I can say is that using the Sixaxis controller to run-and-gun is more difficult than I thought it’d be. Flying in particular, is a brain-melting exercise in hand-eye co-ordination. This is also the first game I’ve played where you see the character that you’re playing in 3rd person, but they’re off to one side so as not to obscure the action, which leaves me with a “lopsided” feeling after playing, like I’ve been craning my neck to see over somebody’s shoulder the entire time. Surprisingly though, I’m not getting motion sickness from playing, huzzah!

Anyway enough whining – this is the good stuff. War For Cybertron positions itself as a sort-of-prequel to G1 (for the uninitiated, that’s the original Generation 1 cartoon from the 80′s), so in the Decepticon single-player campaign we get to see when Megatron and Starscream first meet, and why there exists the thinly veiled animosity between them. On the Autobot side, we have the story of how Optimus takes on his role as leader of the Autobots after the death of their leader, Zeta Prime.

At one point, Megatron goes "Ooh a car, I'm scared!"

The voice acting is superb, with the inimitable Peter Cullen again providing his mellifluous tones as Optimus. The dialogue is snappy, obviously written with great care by folks who know and understand the franchise. I LOL’d at this little exchange between the Seekers:

Starscream: These guys are as dumb as Skywarp!
Skywarp: I’ll show you dumb, Starscream!
Starscream: You always do, Skywarp.

While you couldn’t mistake this for G1, being that all of the characters appear in their Cybertronian modes, they still carry a very strong G1 vibe about them. My only criticism is that because both the characters and the environments are metal or metallic, everything tends to blend in and makes things hard to see*, especially when the action gets frenetic.

Speaking of which, the multiplayer action is supposed to be where this game is at. The game is able to create matchups locally or globally, and even in the late evening, there were still around 1600+ people online, so it was pretty easy to find a game to join. The good old Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes are there, plus a plethora of options that I don’t claim to understand, which probably involve some other tactical manoeuvring that I’m not yet brave enough to try (I’ve come last in every match I’ve played so far; pity the poor sods who ended up with me on their team).

Not everybody will like the aesthetic, but many agree that it's better than the live-action movies.

Sadly, the PS3 version of the game suffers from bugginess. I’ve fallen through the floor for no reason a few times, and the game occasionally crashes the system (requiring a hard reset). Hopefully, commercial success means that patches will be quickly forthcoming – even as I write the first patch has already been released, taking it to version 1.01.

Seriously, I could go on all day. I haven’t even mentioned character classes, weapons, unlockables, G1 homages, etc. – there’s a LOT here for die-hard fans and newcomers alike, and considering that the launch price at JB is $59, you’d be hard pressed to find better value for money.

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* Take a look at the thumbnail pictures of the game here and tell me you wouldn’t use the word “dark”.

A promotion for Heavy Rain done up like a movie poster

Since 1999, French musician and videogame designer David Cage has created only 3 games – Omikron: The Nomad Soul, Fahrenheit (a.k.a. Indigo Prophecy in the US), and Heavy Rain. Besides the fact that all of these have a plot centred around a serial killer, a common element that runs through Cage’s work is high quality, compelling stories, and a game mechanic where players’ choices affect the outcome, with each iteration making massive improvements over the last.

Despite general critical acclaim and achieving cult-status amongst gamers, one of the biggest criticisms of Fahrenheit was its ridiculous deus ex machina ending (which I won’t give away here, ‘coz it’s still worth going back to play if you haven’t already). Cage learnt his lesson well, because Heavy Rain a cinematic tour-de-force from start to finish, and will most likely turn out to be a significant turning point in interactive storytelling. I base this claim on the fact that my wife Jenny sat through 10 hours of watching me play, totally engrossed – pretty major for somebody who otherwise has absolutely zero interest in gaming.

It’s impossible to say much without giving away the storyline, but the game gives most Hollywood scripts a run for their money. Ethan Mars is a father already having difficulty coping with the loss of a son in an accident 2 years ago, when his other son Shaun is kidnapped by the “Origami Killer”. In the quest to find the culprit and save Shaun, we’re also introduced to: Madison Paige, a journalist; Norman Jayden, an FBI agent; Scotty Shelby, a private detective; and a large supporting cast. In the whole time throughout my first run of the game, the suspense and tension never let up, and the twists and turns kept coming right through to the very last moments. It’s all the more impressive when you consider that many movies fail to deliver this in their mere 2 hours.

Ethan Mars, one of the game's four main protagonists

The “acting” is lifelike and realistic, having been created using motion capture techniques, although occasionally you do get the uncanny valley effect where they look somewhat artificial and creepy – particularly for bit-part roles. There’s also plenty of what Jenny calls “the treadmill”, where characters walking up against a wall continue to move as if they are still walking, but go nowhere. As a seasoned gamer I’d never have noticed this if she hadn’t pointed it out. Otherwise, the graphics are as real as you’re ever likely to see, and both characters and scenery are amazingly detailed.

A "quick time event" scene

Besides the story and the graphics, another major improvement that this game has over Fahrenheit is in how the “quick time events” (button presses during action sequences) no longer appear in the dead centre of the screen, obscuring the action and forcing the player’s focus away from the action. Instead, indicators appear near the action itself – throw a punch, and the icon appears next to – and moves around along with – the character’s arm. It both looks and feels intuitive, as well as greatly contributing to the immersion – like when the character is agitated or nervous the icons will twitch and quiver, or when the character is confused many thoughts will be swimming around his or her head.

The other thing that bears mentioning is that there is no way to save – it automatically locks in your progress as you reach certain milestone events, which means no going back if you did something you regret. This forces you to think through decisions very carefully, because if you make a mistake you can’t simply reload (to a certain degree anyway. You can restart the scene again if you’re quick enough to catch it before the next automatic save point). Just another way that the game forces you to build an emotional commitment to the story (in a good way).

Because of your emotional attachment to the character, some scenes, like this one in the shopping mall, can be quite traumatic...

This isn’t gaming like you remember it. It’s very adult, containing graphic violence, nudity coarse language and strong adult themes. I’m not talking about the stylisted graphical violence like that of the God of War series for example. Because these are realistic events happening to realistic people in realistic settings, they hit much closer to home. Jenny even thought that because of the player involvement, some who are susceptible might even suffer vicarious trauma when things happen to their on-screen alter-ego. This isn’t something that cinema will ever have to deal with, because there’s always a clear distinction between the movie and the audience.

There’s an easy segue here into the discussion about both whether video games are art as well as the relationship between video games and real-life violence, which only goes to reinforce my earlier point about why I believe this game will play pivotal role in the history of the medium. Those aside, Heavy Rain is a truly exceptional experience that anybody in any way serious about gaming must not miss out on.