Spider Man Web of Shadows

There have been a number of Spider-Man games in recent years, and they have often been as frustrating as they have been fun. In this latest outing, however, developers Treyarch and Shaba Games have gotten it right. Freed from the confines of a movie license, Web of Shadows is a game that, while not free of blemishes, is a superpowered blast from start to finish.
 The terrific introduction throws you right into the midst of a crisis. The forces of SHIELD have occupied New York and are fighting a losing battle against a massive symbiote invasion. Amid the chaos, Spider-Man is desperate to find Mary Jane. After a quick tutorial that has you swinging across the city pummeling symbiotes, you encounter MJ, and it's clear that all is not well between Peter and her. As she chastises him for using his black symbiote suit, a mysterious figure emerges from a nearby explosion, extends its symbiotic tendrils to envelop Spider-Man, and everything goes dark. Then the game flashes back to four days prior, when Venom assaulted Spider-Man and part of the symbiote that gives Venom his power attached itself to our hero, giving him greater, more destructive strength. This lets you pick up cars and hurl them at Venom, which is as spectacular and satisfying as it sounds. With Venom defeated, everything seems normal again in New York, and Spidey has more run-of-the-mill problems to deal with, like full-scale gang wars. But we know the crisis that looms on the horizon. It's a great setup that pulls you in and makes you eager to keep playing to find out how things get so bad and how it all ends.
 
 Swinging and zipping your way across Manhattan is easy and tremendously liberating, and Spidey leaps, soars, and dives through the air with a preternatural grace. It's such a joy that you may want to spend some time swinging high above the city enjoying the sense of freedom and ignoring the crimes happening far below, of which there's never any shortage, should you feel like breaking some skulls. A few of the game's more thrilling moments have you putting your webswinging skills to good use as you pursue villains across the city; though the chase sequences aren't especially challenging, the breathless sense of speed (and, in one case, the wake of destruction the villain you're pursuing leaves behind him) makes them a lot of fun.

While Treyarch's movie-based Spider-Man games tried to shoehorn a lot of content into the game using side missions that made much of the action seem peripheral, here, everything ties in to the game's excellent story, resulting in a cohesive, compelling experience from start to finish. As in past games, you'll swing around the city to take on various missions, which are given here by a selection of characters from the Marvel universe. Whether you deal primarily with heroes or with villains depends on some choices you make. From time to time, you'll have to decide whether to do the moral thing or to give in to the temptations of Peter's dark side. These choices don't have much impact, though, because the missions you undertake are largely the same regardless of whom you're undertaking them for, though there are a few different endings to the game that vary based on whether you're more aligned with the red suit or with the black. You can also call on an ally for support at almost any time, and whether you're joined by a hero or a villain will also depend on the decisions you make, but you probably won't feel the need to use this feature much.
There's an excellent variety to the missions and to the enemies you fight that keeps things from growing stale. You'll take on easily dispatched thugs, hulking mechs, and enemies who fly around on Green Goblin-esque gliders. Combat against airborne enemies is especially thrilling, because the camera generally does a terrific job of circling around to stay focused on the action, creating a dizzying sense of altitude as you see the city spinning below. There are also a number of great boss fights, including a fight with Vulture that has you swinging from flying enemy to flying enemy to reach him, and a knock-down, drag-out brawl against Wolverine, who doubts your identity and so will periodically quiz you on obscure bits of Spider-Man lore to determine if you're the real Peter Parker, which is a nice bit of fan service for hardcore Spider-Man fans.
It's in the game's final act, though--when New York is once again the symbiote-infested, SHIELD-occupied city glimpsed in the game's introduction--that the missions become outstanding. Pockets of humans need to be rescued from buildings and rooftops throughout the city, and there's a real sense of desperation as you accompany SHIELD APCs and hovercraft and fight to protect the civilians from oncoming swarms of symbiotes that you can see approaching even through walls, thanks to your handy spider sense. The symbiotes are relentless and a bit creepy, and the feeling of dread is enhanced by the gloomy red sky and the desperate skirmishes taking place all over the city between SHIELD troops and symbiotes.
Red skies or blue, the city looks beautiful, especially when you're swinging high above it. You can see the skyscrapers of Manhattan stretching far off into the distance, with light reflecting convincingly off their surfaces. The city still looks sharp when you're on the ground, though it's not especially detailed and doesn't have the amount of activity you'd expect. You'll occasionally see odd things, like people walking up against walls or vehicles with their front wheels on top of the car in front of them, which can be distracting, but they don't happen often enough to severely impact the experience. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions look nearly identical, though we did encounter a few instances of screen tearing on the PS3, which seemed to be absent on the 360.

The sound is generally good, with some strong performances from the voice cast. Spider-Man delivers his so-bad-they're-funny (sometimes) one-liners with great geeky charm, while also giving a sense of the inner conflict he's experiencing in his struggle with the black suit. The music is sweeping and cinematic, but the best accompaniment to Spidey's swinging is the whistling of the wind you hear when there's no music at all. The sound has its technical issues, though; music and dialogue will sometimes cut out for a moment, and dialogue during cutscenes occasionally gets out of sync with the action.
Web of Shadows doesn't break the mold of earlier Spider-Man games, but its cohesive, engaging story, varied missions, and consistently thrilling action sure make it a big improvement for the series. The campaign is a good 12 hours long, and the gameplay is solid enough to hold up to a second play-through if you want to find out how it ends when you choose a different path. There are a number of minor technical issues, but they're far outweighed by the sheer enjoyment of the gameplay. Web of Shadows delivers nearly everything you could want in a Spider-Man game.

Bully

Nobody likes a bully, and nobody likes being bullied. But what do you do when confronted by a bully? Do you sit there and take it out of fear that standing up to the bully will lead to even more torment? Do you rat him out and hope for the best, knowing that it'll lead to a parking-lot brawl after school? Or do you stand up, fighting fire with fire? Rockstar's latest game, appropriately titled Bully, puts you in that situation and gives you the tools to stand up to those bullies, knock them around with your fists, and rise to the top of a boarding school's social scene. The interesting story and unique setting set Bully apart from the pack, and the result is simply exciting.
Bully opens with you, 15-year-old troublemaker Jimmy Hopkins, getting dumped off at a boarding school by your newly remarried mother and her rich husband. Your mother and her new husband intend to spend an entire year away on a cruise while you languish in what might as well be a teenage prison with slightly better-looking uniforms. Bullworth Academy is run by a clueless administration and a series of social cliques that are always scrapping. As the new kid thrown into the equation, you're quickly painted as an outcast. You're also befriended by another such outcast, a weird kid named Gary, who is apparently off his attention deficit disorder meds and has delusions of taking over the entire school. However, crazy Gary removes himself from the picture relatively early on, leaving you to fend for yourself against the school's different factions while attending classes, avoiding authority figures, and occasionally kissing girls. 

While the gameplay is certainly strong, it's the setting and storyline that make Bully worthwhile. The characters are over-the-top caricatures of what you'd expect to see from jocks, principals, nerds, cheerleaders, and so on. Jimmy, however, is sort of the street-smart kid in the middle of it all. His dialogue is well written, portraying him as the one who can see through almost all of the personalities before him. That, plus the high school setting, is relatively untapped for this type of game. The conflicts seem real and edgy without being gratuitous, and the game maintains a T-for-Teen rating, without making you feel as if it's pulling any punches. It's like a modern-day River City Ransom.
Bully is an open-ended mission-based game, but don't mistake open-ended for a lack of structure. This is school, after all, and you're expected to attend two classes each day. You wake up at 8 a.m., have a morning class at 9 a.m. and an afternoon class at 1 p.m., and after that you're free to take on additional tasks until 11 p.m., which is curfew. Of course, rules were made to be broken, so as long as you dodge the prefects who roam the campus or the police who roam the nearby town, you can stay out and about until 2 a.m., at which point you'll automatically pass out from exhaustion and wake up at 8 a.m. the next morning. The game time moves pretty quickly, but because there's no real deadline for getting things done, you can take missions and classes at your own pace. So the game does have a specific structure to it, but it never feels as if you don't have enough time to get things done.
While it may be tempting to blow off all of your classes, staying in school has very real benefits. Each class has five minigame sessions, and succeeding at each task gives you a bonus. Doing well in gym class teaches you new fighting moves via wrestling and gives you increased accuracy by winning at dodge ball, which is a simple take on the game and serves as a bit of an homage to the classic '80s game Super Dodge Ball. English class gives you a set of letters, and you have to come up with as many words as you can by using those letters. Passing English gives you increased verbal abilities, allowing you to beg off from beatings or apologize to authority figures to avoid getting busted. Chemistry class gives you access to a chem set in your bedroom that lets you make firecrackers and stink bombs. Shop class has you pressing buttons in a set sequence to build BMX bikes, which are then unlocked for your use. Art class is a Qix-style minigame (or, more accurately, it's maybe a little more like the seedy naked lady Qix clone, Gal's Panic) that has you claiming parts of a painting while avoiding erasers and other enemies. Photography is the least essential of all classes because it just unlocks the ability to take photos and save them to your memory card. It also gives you a side mission as a yearbook photographer, with the goal of finding and snapping pictures of every student. Once you complete all five sessions of a class, you're no longer branded as a truant for skipping that class. So on top of getting some necessary upgrades, getting school out of the way early opens up your schedule for more missions.
Bully is broken up into chapters. Each chapter has you butting heads with one of the school's different factions, so you'll be going on missions to trip up that faction. For example, the preppie kids prefer in-ring boxing to street fighting, so one mission will have you head to their boxing ring and take on some challengers. In the segment where you take out the jocks, you work more closely with their nemeses, the nerds. You'll sneak into the girls' dorm to take naughty photos, steal the school mascot's uniform and use it to sneak around and pull off some nefarious deeds, and so on. Some missions are less about your current target, though. During the course of the game, you'll also help out some teachers, like the pervert gym teacher who asks you to go on a panty raid or the alcoholic English teacher who needs a little help cleaning up his act. None of the missions are lengthy or difficult, but the variety of the tasks you take on will keep you interested from start to finish.
Jimmy's abilities grow as you unlock new attacks and get new items. You interact with specific students by holding down the L1 button to lock onto them. From there, you can greet them positively or negatively. These social buttons are also used to hire bullies as bodyguards, to attempt to kiss girls, and so on. Of course, locking onto a target is also the best way to fight it. You get a good number of weapons during the course of the game, and they're all appropriately adolescent, like a slingshot, firecrackers, a bottle rocket launcher, a potato cannon, itching powder, stink bombs, the occasional baseball bat, and your fists. Your fists and feet are your most potent weapons, and there are no guns, knives, or anything else that would just straight-up cause death in the game. Enemies can block your basic attacks, but you can learn overhand hits, low sweeps, and other moves that can get around an enemy's block. On top of that, you can also grapple enemies, taking them down and kneeing them in the groin or hitting them in the face some more. The fighting system is really satisfying, though no single enemy is ever very tough. The enemies do, however, provide more of a challenge when you're outnumbered. Many of them drop life-restoring cola, so even when you're outnumbered, the odds never seem too overwhelming.

From a technical perspective, Bully won't immediately blow you away, but that's because of the age of the PlayStation 2 platform. Taking the platform into consideration, Bully looks great, with a lot of lifelike animation that makes the characters come alive during its cutscenes. The frame rate isn't 100 percent solid, but it always maintains a playable speed, and things like camera control rarely get in the way. The voice work is fantastic. The characters are perfectly cast with voices that fit them, though you won't recognize many, if any, of the names behind those voices. The same goes for the music. Rather than being filled with a bunch of instantly dated modern music that any teen might listen to, Bully has an original score that is thematically similar throughout, with plenty of harpsichord, all of which helps give the game a cinematic feel. The game has widescreen support and Dolby Pro-Logic II, which both work about as you'd expect.
Bully isn't a very difficult game, and it's likely that you'll be able to get through the storyline and see its somewhat predictable conclusion in about 15 hours or so. If you're a completist, there are plenty of hidden objects to collect, clothing items to purchase, and side missions (like bike races) to take on, and you can go back and do those things after finishing the main game. Overall, it's interesting from start to finish and most definitely well worth playing.

Way of the Samurai 3

Way of the Samurai 3 is a unique action hybrid with role-playing elements that immerse you into the ancient world of the samurai. Its most distinctive feature is its interesting focus on cause-and-effect relationships, which it promotes by rewarding you for good behavior and punishing you for acts of reckless villainy. Unfortunately, the gameplay is complicated by an annoying camera and an occasionally sluggish frame rate, while repetitive combat and quests severely lessen your motivation to replay. Its core mechanics and interactivity options also remain primitive and outdated, culminating in a substandard samurai adventure.
 The game opens in feudal Japan during the Sengoku era, with numerous warlords vying for territory. You're cast as a wandering samurai who stumbles into Amana, a once peaceful countryside torn apart by war. There are three main faction storylines to explore, with each being distinctly different and satisfying to unravel. There are plenty of townsfolk to interact with, and their witty dialogue can trigger subplot storylines that drive you to continue playing. The most intriguing aspect of Way of the Samurai 3 is its design as an open adventure that gives you total control over your destiny; you're completely free to join any faction or make a living out of beating villagers with sticks. The game capitalizes on a cause-and-effect mechanic, prompting you to perform certain actions during key moments, such as bowing in apology or sheathing your weapon. This makes something simple, such as drawing your sword, problematic because it has both immediate and unforeseen consequences. This also keeps the action enticing because it affects potential alliances and endings. It's disappointing that your interactive options are so limited and recycled from previous games, but this is still the franchise's most novel and exciting facet.

Combat utilizes basic, fast-paced mechanics that are easy to learn but also repetitive and boring. You're limited to two attack types--swift, weak attacks or slow, powerful blows--but both are crude hack-and-slash maneuvers. You'll find a healthy variety of combat styles to master along with an abundance of skills to unlock by leveling weaponry, but these "skills" are nothing more than simple combo strings that promote mundane button mashing. An instant kill feature lets you finish off an opponent in one ferocious strike, but the amount of depth it provides is miniscule because slashing targets works far better. A push/pull mechanic enables you to knock opponents off balance by "pushing" through weak attacks and "pulling" back during strong ones. The system takes some skill to master, but it's worthwhile because it can afford you crucial time to counterattack or regenerate health via a handy quick-select item feature.
Unusual design flaws and irritating quirks make combat cumbersome. A fussy camera blocks your view whenever you're fighting near objects or backed into tight corners, which happens constantly and often results in you getting hacked to death while adjusting the camera. The combat system's intense speed keeps you moving across cluttered battlefields, but the poor physics means you'll get partially lodged inside rocks or be slammed into--and sent rolling up--trees. Targets, meanwhile, can get stuck walking into poles or other obstructions. Combat is somewhat cheapened by advantageous opponents that'll knock you down and slash you to bits before you can get back up. You'll also trigger significant slowdown when facing multiple opponents, which is especially irritating because it makes it tougher to dodge, which is something you'll need to do in busy situations.
Though the game incorporates some RPG aspects, most of these paltry offerings are rudimentary or irritating. Weapon enhancement is limited to modifying the basics, such as attack power and defense. There are no combat abilities or character growth options. Your weapon's statistics determine your character attributes, so the only customization you can do is the limited weapon enhancement. Amusing jobs are implemented for you to gain trust with each faction and help determine your ending, but they are made dull and tedious because missions are constantly recycled with only eight areas to investigate. Character customization options are fun to unlock and let you create a unique look; however, most of these only modify your character's appearance, which is marginally disappointing.
Combat is challenging, but its exacting nature is relentless and not for the impatient. A single slipup usually leads to death, which is frustrating when these mistakes are caused by elements out of your control, such as slowdown or the irritating camera. The game also starts slowly because it takes a good deal of time to finish jobs, unlock skills, and improve your weaponry before you can tackle major opponents. You'll also stumble across random cutthroats and ninjas that can finish you off in a single lucky strike, which is quite vexing for the unprepared.
You won't find breathtaking visuals in this samurai journey, but detailed feudal architecture dots the landscape. Decent texturing enriches buildings and pathways, but noticeable jagged edges and clipping create an unrefined aesthetic. Character models are less detailed and employ some ridiculous motions, though some of this is for comedic effect. The soundtrack is pleasantly tranquil, mixing modern elements with traditional Japanese instruments to impart a dramatic tone. Ambient noises--such as chirping birds and crickets--also work with the music to set a believable exploration backdrop. You can finish the game in less than 10 hours, but you'll spend three times as long unlocking everything and triggering all the different events and endings. However, limited areas and repetitive quests drastically undercut Way of the Samurai 3's replayability. Though the game's cause-and-effect focus is highly distinctive, its gameplay comprises mundane, barebones mechanics that seem almost archaic, while a troublesome camera and choppy frame rate further limits its appeal. Way of the Samurai 3 has its entertaining moments, but its lackluster next-generation debut provides little advancement over its predecessors.
 

Devil May Cry 4

Capcom's notion of what's cool--a concept on which its PlayStation 2 action game Devil May Cry was built--may not find complete synergy with today's gaming audience. In fact, much of Devil May Cry's aesthetic presentation is rooted in stereotypical gothic and cheesy '80s metal imagery. But beneath that overstated surface is one of the most interesting and generally entertaining 3D action games in recent years. Perhaps for the first time in the 3D action genre, Devil May Cry has successfully captured the twitch-based, relentlessly free-flowing gameplay style of so many classic 2D action games.
In Devil May Cry, you assume the persona of Dante, the half-human, half-devil son of a legendary dark knight known as Sparda. A powerful and malevolent ruler of the underworld, whom Sparda vanquished 2,000 years ago, has awakened and, although Dante doesn't quite know it at the game's onset, he--like his father--has been chosen to defeat this evil being. At his aid, at least for portions of the game, is a beautiful woman named Trish, who invites Dante to Mallet Island, a gateway to the netherworld. The game's story, and much of its script for that matter, draws heavily from tired clichés and presents generic plot points. But as Dante descends into the grimy underworld--a great place for blasting a wide variety of demons--it becomes clear that you must accept the game's formulaic story to fully appreciate the fine-tuned gameplay that it veils.

Perhaps Devil May Cry's greatest gift, in gameplay terms, is its highly intuitive control scheme. It is one of those rare games in which simply moving the character around the screen and performing various attacks is innately entertaining. Blasting Dante's dual handguns, which are amusingly named Ebony and Ivory, in rapid succession or double-jumping through some of the game's open areas is simply a lot of fun. Throw in a variety of opponents, including everything from hovering marionettes to ruthlessly persistent, lava-spewing demon spiders, and Devil May Cry becomes one of the most entertaining action games in gameplay terms alone. In practice, the responsive controls mean that the more adept you are with the game's control scheme, the quicker you're able to dispose of the demonic enemies. Once again, like classic 2D action games, Devil May Cry rewards the skillful game player.
Devil May Cry has been cleverly designed, in harmony with the fast-paced gamplay and control scheme, to challenge the player with a steadily increasing learning curve. The gradual unlocking of a variety of weapons and moves, which are secured by bartering mystical red orbs that are collected by disposing of evil souls, means that in general, your strength increases in precise concert with the game's overall difficulty level. Dante is superquick and is able to perform a myriad of attacks, but his enemies are powerful and are generally highly skilled at disposing aspirant demon hunters like our hero. This is another essential success of Devil May Cry, as it keeps you involved in the flow of the game and is constantly challenging without becoming frustratingly so. Devil May Cry will challenge even the most capable game player, while its easy automatic mode, which is unlocked after you finish the first mission, makes the game accessible to players of varying skill levels. In either case, both the intensity and the difficulty build gradually, as the game culminates almost predictably in an epic and multitiered final battle.
The final stages, although still quite entertaining, also produce the game's few failings. Without giving away the ending, it's safe to say that the game loses its direction, branching into a variety of different genres, some quite unnecessary. The game's final sequence almost feels forced and artificial, as it strays from the game's general course. Also, despite the drawn-out conclusion, Devil May Cry's difficulty level reaches a plateau near the end and isn't nearly as challenging as it could have been.
Another issue that some may have with Devil May Cry is its fixed camera angles. As surprising as it sounds, Devil May Cry began its life as a Resident Evil game, and although it has grown out of the confined conventions of the survival-horror genre, it has retained the static cameras of Capcom's zombie-infested series. Like in Resident Evil, you'll sometimes find yourself blasting away at unseen enemies who are outside the camera's view. Also, at times--although this is relatively infrequent--you will find yourself battling the analog stick and reorienting your sense of direction after a quick camera switch.

Still, the camera issues are not overbearing on you and are generally dealt with quite ingeniously. Usually, the camera is positioned farther from the action than in the Resident Evil games, for example, so that you are given a greater field of view. Also, Dante is quite adept at auto-aiming, which means that even if enemies are not visible onscreen for a few seconds, they're still being battered by the rapid fire from Dante's dual handguns. Besides, the fixed camera angles let you appreciate Dante's fluid and ultracool movements and are useful in showing panoramic views of the game's gorgeous environments.
Devil May Cry is no one-trick pony, and its outstanding gameplay is complemented adeptly by some of the most stunning visuals yet seen on the PlayStation 2. In terms of the game's environments, once again, the Resident Evil influence is vaguely visible. The castle in particular, with its spiral staircases, open courtyards, and stone columns, is reminiscent of the mansion in Resident Evil. Still, in Devil May Cry, the environments have received a healthy dose of texture detail, as the stone walls of the aged castle show cracks and subtle hints of wear and stained glass windows are adorned with elaborate designs. In fact, some of the locations in the game are almost awe-inspiring. Much like in Sony's ICO, there are some areas in Devil May Cry, like the deck of an intricately detailed submerged pirate ship or the black-and-white décor inside a church setting, that you will want to revisit just to gawk at the magnificent scenery. Environmental visuals aside, the characters, although a bit ragged around the limb joints, are generally nicely modeled. Plus, they all move with a graceful fluidity.
In fact, the animation is perhaps the glue that coagulates the convincing synergy between the gameplay and graphics in Devil May Cry. Dante's transitions from one animation to another are done convincingly and with the utmost of ease. The game's signature move, which involves Dante slashing his opponents up in the air with his sword and keeping them suspended with the rapid fire of his handguns, is a perfect example of the game's ultrasmooth animation. But Dante isn't the only character gifted with effortless animation. The variety of demons also moves at a fluid pace. For example, the shadowy feline--which appears near the beginning of the game--twists, turns, and contorts its body into a variety of shapes, all the while moving freely and naturally through the battle area.
Much like the animation, the game's music is quite adaptive to your actions. While engaged in battle, the music transitions to a faster, guitar-heavy vibe, but as Dante swiftly explores the game's environments, the music becomes understated, as the sound of Dante's footsteps and demonic wails fill the air. Still, although the game's soundtrack matches the in-game action and its general visual theme, the guitar-heavy riffs may not be to the liking of some.
Devil May Cry isn't the type of game that will provide countless hours of gameplay--in general, it will take a little less than 10 hours to complete on the harder difficulty levels. And other than the challenge of the increasing levels of difficulty, there really isn't much replay value to speak of. Still, for those hours that you will play Devil May Cry, you will enjoy every second of it. Those able to look past the overly dramatic voice acting and superficial story will find themselves being utterly enveloped by the stunning visuals and, in particular, the engrossing and satisfying gameplay. Devil May Cry generally lives up to its considerable hype and is one of the PlayStation 2 must-haves for fans of the action genre.

Heavy Rain - PS3

Heavy Rain for the PS3 was detailed for the first time today. But while there’s no doubting that the game looks great, the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Can the actual playing experience ever match up to those gorgeous visuals? If Sony’s great hope for the PS3 this year is LittleBigPlanet, with its lead character of Sackboy being touted as the face of the Playstation 3, then next year seems to be all about Heavy Rain. The Quantic-developed title was officially unveiled, complete with release schedule and gameplay footage, today at GC 2008 in Leipzig.
The game looks sweet as a nut, I mean really beautiful, with stunning human faces and jaw dropping backgrounds. The demo shown at GC 2008 was of actual in-game footage, although it looks to play just like one long cut scene. Check it out below.

The game is scheduled to be released late in 2009, so there is still a massive amount of scope for improvement, but even so, the gameplay mechanics seem to be in place and on first look, they are nothing but some very basic QTEs (Quick Time Events).
Don’t get me wrong, QTEs certainly have their place in gaming, but if that’s all there is to a game then they can become very dull, very quickly. I first experienced them in Shenmue on the Dreamcast, but they have also been used in many games since, notably Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit), Quantic’s last game.
The QTEs is Heavy Rain also look decidedly simple, with just the four main buttons used to control your character’s choice of action. Choice seems to be the keyword bandied about by David Cage, the writer and director of the game, during his unveiling of the game.
Heavy Rain essentially sees you becoming the main character, the director and everyone else in between as you play out the story in the way you see fit. Every decision you make can have a moral and meaningful impact on the storyline.
So graphically, I haven’t seen anything finer all year, and I also like the idea behind the game, with a mature storyline putting the gamer supposedly in the hot seat. I’m just not sure whether the gameplay is going to work for me, and I worry that we’ll end up feeling more like passengers on a train rather than the driver of a car.

Silent Hill 3

Back in 1999, Konami unleashed Silent Hill, its first entry into the survival horror genre. But rather than ape the shock-based thrills popularized by Capcom's Resident Evil series, Konami went for a darker, creepier feel in everything from the game's environments, to the monsters, to the story itself. The resulting game offered its own fair share of shocks, as well as some genuinely fearful, emotional, and disturbing moments. What began as a game with something of a cult following has ballooned into a strong franchise, giving the new Silent Hill 3 some big shoes to fill. The good news is that this latest installment lives up to the series' high standards and is especially well suited to those who've enjoyed the previous Silent Hill games.
Like with most horror-themed games, Silent Hill 3's gameplay is a combination of combat, exploration, and puzzle solving, structured around a mysterious story. The game puts you in control of a young girl named Heather, who finds herself in an all-but-abandoned shopping mall after waking up from a frightening dream about a dilapidated and monster-filled amusement park. Soon after waking, she meets two of the game's more prominent characters, a detective named Douglas and a fanatical religious woman named Claudia, who both suggest that there may be more to Heather's childhood than she has come to understand. The story's slow buildup is arguably one of Silent Hill 3's few downfalls--it takes off with considerably less momentum than the stories in the previous games. In both those games, you were looking for a missing person, someone your character apparently cared about, and you were looking for that person in the ominous town of Silent Hill. In Silent Hill 3, you don't even get to town until the second half of the game, and in the first half, you get pieces of the story only little by little.

The structure of Silent Hill 3 has been left almost completely intact from the first and second game. You explore a closed environment for clues, keys, notes, or anything else that might help you get to the next section. Along the way you'll encounter a multitude of monsters--some that creep slowly toward you and others that may fly or run quickly at you--and each is notably horrific in its own right. You'll fight them off with a variety of different weapons, including both melee weapons and firearms, and this is where the gameplay has changed significantly. In past games it was relatively easy to fight off every single monster. However, in Silent Hill 3 you may find yourself barely scraping by with a minimum amount of ammunition and health supplies to stay alive, so running instead of fighting will often be the preferred method of survival. As you take damage, you'll heal yourself with energy drinks and first-aid kits, and you'll also have packets of beef jerky, which you can use to bait monsters so you can quietly slip past them. Once again you'll have your map of each area, where you will take notes, mark doors that are locked or broken, and jot down clues for puzzles to aid you in their solution.
Silent Hill 3 introduces a number of new environments to explore and also revisits some familiar locales. Heather first finds herself in a shopping mall, after waking from her dream, which should be recognizable if you played the first Silent Hill. Heather will also find herself in a subway station, in which the game makes reference to a long-standing inspiration to the series, the film Jacob's Ladder. You will also explore a maze of water-treatment tunnels and an abandoned office building, all before returning to the quiet town of Silent Hill. Here you will revisit Brookhaven Hospital and eventually make some sense of the beginning dream sequence. As you proceed, nearly every environment shifts to its "dark world" counterpart when a key part of the story unfolds. Heather will lose consciousness and awake to find the once-familiar environment transformed--walls appear bloody or made of flesh instead of wood, rusted grates cover the floor, and many details are obscured by shadow. Gory hospital beds and discarded corpses can be found everywhere, and every detail speaks to extremes of human misery, decrepitude, and destitution.
Without a doubt, Silent Hill 3's strongest suit is its production values. Its predecessor was no slouch in this regard, either. With its grainy camera filter and outstanding lighting effects, Silent Hill 2 raised the bar for what could be expected of a PlayStation 2 game's graphics. If Konami had simply produced another game using the same 3D graphics engine, it would have stood up quite well. However, a new engine was created for Silent Hill 3, and it makes for some truly amazing visual effects. The characters all look outstanding and are rendered with exceptionally high resolution models and textures, especially in the in-engine cutscenes. The dynamic lighting allows environmental lights, as well as Heather's flashlight, to cast detailed shadows. In the "dark world" areas, some textures on the walls will pulsate and bleed, move in and out of focus, and otherwise trick your eyes, which gives you the sense that perhaps you shouldn't trust what you see. Each enemy is rendered with an equally high level of detail, and they are animated in an unworldly, unsettlingly horrific manner. The grainy filter is back in this game, though its presence has been toned down to the point that you may not even notice it--but you can turn it off if you prefer.

Going hand in hand with the staggering visuals is an outstanding show of force in the audio department. Every single treatment to the audio, from Heather's footsteps in an empty hallway to the howl of a far-off monster, helps to create an atmosphere dense with fear and tension. As monsters close in on Heather, a broken radio she found earlier bursts to life with crackling static, growing louder as the monsters draw near. The soundtrack is as well placed as the audio effects--sometimes it makes music out of environmental sounds, such as creaks and ambient industrial noise, and other times it weaves lonely ballads out of a single guitar or synthesizer, giving the game a deep, brooding overtone. Each character is voiced reasonably well for his or her demeanor, though sometimes their deliveries aren't quite believable. Additionally, you might notice that a number of sound samples have been recycled from the previous game, but these just help make Silent Hill 3 feel like a part of the series and don't cheapen the game.
All in all, Silent Hill 3 is an excellent addition to the series. Its story is tied into the story of the first game and keeps a number of themes and locales from the second game well in focus. There's no remarkable new gameplay to speak of, so the game is clearly intended for fans of the series, who've been impressed over the years by Silent Hill's unusually dark and psychological style. This new game will be familiar to them in many ways, and the story, the characters, and the visuals add up to make Silent Hill 3 a worthy successor.

Silent Hill 2

Capcom's Resident Evil series had for several years been the uncontested king-of-horror video games until Konami's Silent Hill came along to give it competition. While Resident Evil focused on "boo!"-style shocks, Silent Hill created an atmosphere that was not only eerie, but also often psychologically unnerving: David Lynch's Twin Peaks combined with the look of a Marilyn Manson video. The original Silent Hill delivered excellent scares and built up the player's need to know the secrets behind this quiet New England town gone hellishly wrong into a fever pitch, only to provide an ending that was not only harshly anticlimactic, but also one that players would have to replay multiple times for it to make some semblance of sense.
Hopes have been high that the game's PlayStation 2 sequel would provide a more satisfying storyline on top of the graphical improvements expected from the series' jump onto a next-generation game system. It succeeds in that, in a sense, but loses some of the original game's appeal along the way.

With its completely new cast of characters, Silent Hill 2 requires that you forget everything you ever knew about Silent Hill, except for the fact that it's one hell of a foggy town and that there are things out there lingering in that mist. You play as James Sunderland, a man who comes to Silent Hill after he receives a mysterious letter from his dead wife, asking him to meet her there. Shortly after you arrive, you notice that there's something seriously wrong with the town--the only people you find are noticeably mentally unbalanced, and monsters shamble out of the rolling haze. As in the original, you soon arm yourself with a board-and-nail makeshift weapon and a radio that emits static whenever creatures are near, venturing out to unlock the many secrets that Silent Hill holds.
Expect to spend most of the time solving puzzles, which is the game's main focus. Some puzzles require you to collect and combine key items, others make you scan found notes and documents for certain numbers to apply to combination-style puzzles later, and a few are there randomly for you to figure out. Silent Hill 2's puzzles are well done--tough enough to make you think a bit about how to solve them, but not difficult enough to force you to refer to a walk-through. The few times that you might get stuck in the game will likely be due to a missed item or puzzle, calling upon the "open the refrigerator door multiple times" way of checking over every room until you find it. The game's excellent mapping system helps greatly with this because it shows you which rooms you've visited, which doors can't be unlocked, and where the puzzles you've already found are located, as well as checkmarking them once you've solved them. Another nice feature is that as you walk into a room or down the street, your character's head turns toward any noteworthy items in that area, which saves you a significant amount of time while searching every corner and object in the town.
The game's monsters rarely present much of a threat to you. The gameplay provides plenty of opportunities to pick up ammunition and medical kits, and the creatures almost always appear so far away that you can dispatch them before they get close enough to attack. Indoors, you must destroy them for you to pass by, but outside, they're slow enough to just run past. Suffice it to say, the combat isn't very challenging and feels repetitive at times. The few fights that vaguely resemble boss encounters are easy work for anyone who's ever played a Resident Evil game.
The best aspects of Silent Hill 2 are its graphics and sound. The few unique monsters that you encounter in the game are superbly designed. The first, for example, looks like a man strapped into a straightjacket, covered by a layer of shiny worm flesh. Another is a bizarre assemblage of mannequin parts. Many, if not all, are disturbing on a subconscious as well as visual level, making this a game that's definitely not for kids (even though it's been toned down since earlier work-in-progress versions).

The creatures in Silent Hill 2 sound as scary as they look. The most innocuous breed of monster sounds like a dog pieced together from broken clock parts. Once you actually locate it, it no longer worries you, but until then, you'll entertain a few nervous moments, wondering where that weird noise is coming from. The game's musical score is environmentally sparse, and at points barely noticeable, but crescendos appropriately at key moments to great effect. The solid soundtrack and sound effects are only slightly undercut by the game's voice acting, which is due more to awkward writing than to poor acting.
The impressive visuals have some drawbacks as well. Although there's a large degree of variety within the game's murky indoor environments, the dark and misty exteriors rarely push the PlayStation 2's graphical capabilities--and even if they did, it would be too foggy to see them. A haze effect casts over the game's visuals to make the proceedings look more eerie, but ultimately it doesn't add to the game or detract greatly from it.
Silent Hill 2's default control is similar to that of Capcom's Resident Evil series in that you must turn your character to face the direction you want him to move before he can move forth. Critics have condemned that feature in Resident Evil, but it's less problematic here because you turn and respond so quickly. Those who disagree with this function can change the control setting so as to move without the directional turn as in Capcom's Onimusha, but this setting seems like an eleventh-hour add-on and feels awkward.
Besides offering different settings for the control, Silent Hill 2 also provides several options for puzzle and monster difficulty. Set the monster difficulty to beginner and you can walk away from the game for 15 minutes while being attacked by multiple monsters and still be alive when you return. Likewise, the harder settings will make the game more challenging for die-hard survival-horror fans.
The game's storyline makes more sense in the end of this sequel than it did in the original, but unlike in that game, it never creates the pressing need to understand it in the first place. It's a disjointed narrative that will find many saying "Oh, that's what it's all about" in the end. (As in the original Silent Hill, there are multiple endings, but it's much easier to get a good one than before.)
Storyline is important to this type of game, as many will come just for the progressive horror element and the possible gruesome unveiling of a horrible truth in the end--as found in similarly themed movies. Those looking for this type of thrill should know that Silent Hill 2 is creepier than the first game, but it's not scarier. For example, one of the monsters in the original was a half dog/half man that chased you through the mist and let out a gruff bark capable of making the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Silent Hill 2's creatures may look as disturbing, but you tend to destroy them because they're in your way and you're carrying a lot of ammunition, not because you're afraid or fighting for your life. Like many horror films, Silent Hill 2 starts off slowly, appearing as an attempt to build suspense. But once the action starts, it immediately levels off and focuses on puzzle-solving rather than a heart-pounding fight or flight thriller one might expect, having weathered out the setup. That said, the puzzles are well done, there's little in the way of backtracking, and the game looks and sounds great, so a definite give-and-take occurs.
Silent Hill 2 is a much prettier, somewhat smarter but less-compelling game than the original. Those who had hopes that the sequel would improve upon every aspect of Silent Hill will be disappointed, because it doesn't. But high expectations aside, you're still left with a sturdy game.

Silent Hill Origins

When you think of Silent Hill, what jumps to mind? A misty town? Cryptic dialogue? Walls dripping with blood? Well, the good news is that Silent Hill: Origins has all those things, and now Konami has lifted the foggy veil on the PlayStation 2 version of last year's PSP iteration. That alone should please series fans who are looking to developer Climax's prequel to provide plenty of atmosphere and further expand on the Silent Hill mythos. But in this case, the good news is also the bad news because from a gameplay perspective, Origins is exactly what you would expect. It delivers a conventional adventure that relies on eight-year-old franchise hallmarks at the expense of anything truly new.
Origins is a prequel set before the events of the original Silent Hill for the PlayStation. This time, you're in the shoes of Travis Grady, a trucker navigating through a downpour of rain on an eerie, foreboding night. If that sounds familiar, well, that's because it is. Like the previous Silent Hill games, Origins is light on scares but heavy on murky atmosphere and mysterious dialogue. In this case, it also relies heavily on nostalgia to set its mood, which may be fine for many fans, but the setup lacks the originality of prior series plots. In any case, Travis spots a little girl in the middle of the highway just in time to avoid hitting her. She runs off, and Travis, for no apparent reason, takes pursuit. If you're a Silent Hill fan, you may already have an idea of who she might be.
What's missing here is a clear sense of suspense. Unlike with previous series installments, Travis doesn't have any pressing reason to visit Silent Hill, save for pursuing the strange child. A subsequent fire rescue adds some missing urgency, but the opening never gives you the sense that Travis needs to be in Silent Hill, which makes him the least interesting of the franchise's protagonists. Nevertheless, how Travis fits into the ongoing mystery of Silent Hill eventually becomes clear. If you're here to fill in the missing pieces of series lore, Origins has plenty of meat for you to chew on and plenty of familiar locales to explore.
You control Travis from a third-person view, navigating between destinations through the foggy streets of the titular town. There's a lot to piece together here in the way of puzzles, many of which are entangled in other puzzles. For the most part, they are pretty clever, requiring you to explore every nook and cranny for scraps of clues and various items. They also require you to move in and out of the otherworld (an alternate dimension) at will by touching any of the various mirrors that are scattered around, which is a new mechanic for the series. It's in the otherworld that Origins is at its most disturbing. Dirty, bloody asylum walls and ragged teddy bears are series standards that still manage to elicit chills. Random groans and sudden encounters with other characters are also appropriately creepy, if not exactly scary.
You'll encounter your fair share of monstrous oddities, some new, many familiar. Unfortunately, combat is as weak as ever for the series. Melee is as plodding and unsatisfying as you remember, usually bloody but too measured and monotonous to be much fun. In all fairness, there are some attempts to spice things up. At times, an enemy attack will trigger a contextual minigame that requires you to hit the necessary buttons within a prescribed time limit to avoid taking damage. Of course, we've seen this mechanic in countless games, and Origins does nothing to make it any more interesting.
The other main combat addition is that of limited-use melee weapons. You can grab a television, radio, or hospital drip stand that you can use to bash your enemies. You'll get multiple uses out of some of them, whereas others are done after a single hit. However, as long as you avoid combat (usually an easy task), you'll have plenty of weapons at your disposal. It begs the question, though: How can Travis carry a TV, a hatchet, a drip stand, a scalpel, a meat cleaver, a filing cabinet, and a huge plank of wood at the same time? Impossibly huge inventory space isn't new to games, but the extent to which it's carried here feels wildly out of place. Gunplay feels better, though again, it's wiser to simply avoid combat whenever possible and save your ammo for the boss fights. This is where Origins is at its best: Boss monsters are huge, designed well, and fun to take down.

Origins certainly looks the part, thanks to the traditional Silent Hill mist and its re-creation of the environments we've come to know over the years. Nevertheless, when compared to its PS2 predecessors, the visuals simply can't compete. Although some aspects of the PSP original, such as character models, have been obviously enhanced, the animations are stiff, and textures that looked sharp on the handheld iteration look pixelated on the larger screen. Fortunately, the sound design is fantastic, thanks to a terrifically disturbing soundtrack and all the menacing bump-in-the-night echoes that ring throughout the streets and hallways.
The problem with most of the game is that it's all been done already, and was done better by the last three games in the franchise to hit the system. It's like the developer had a laundry list of everything that makes a Silent Hill game a Silent Hill game, but forgot to throw in anything distinct. It doesn't even fix long-standing problems. Finishing blows are still a pain to pull off at times, especially when an enemy falls on top of another corpse. Getting a handle on your health status is still too vague a prospect. If any franchise has room to grow, this is the one, yet not a single meaningful element of Origins takes the gameplay anywhere the original Silent Hill didn't already go. This comfort blanket of unevolved familiarity might be welcomed by accepting fans, but it might make you wish that the series would grow up a bit.

The Red Star

The Red Star was in a near-final state and was fast approaching its original fall 2004 release date when its beleaguered publisher, the now-defunct Acclaim Entertainment, filed for bankruptcy. Acclaim shut down all operations and sold off whatever assets it had--from office furniture to unfinished games. The Red Star, though, seemed to have been lost in the shuffle, permanently shelved. Nearly two years passed before XS Games unexpectedly announced that it was resurrecting The Red Star and bringing it to the PlayStation 2. As entertainingly tumultuous as this development history is, The Red Star beats the odds and manages to stand on its own as a highly concentrated action game that ably blends two old-school genre staples--the beat-'em-up and the top-down shooter--into an unrelenting experience.
The Red Star is based on a graphic novel of the same name that takes place in an alternate-history version of Soviet Russia, the URRS, where technology and magic commingle. The game features plenty of locations and characters from the graphic novel, but the game doesn't capture that hard, cold, Soviet feel, nor does it put much stock in the story. Instead, The Red Star focuses wholeheartedly on the action. You can choose from two different characters to play as, and while both can dish out ranged weapon fire as well as up-close melee attacks, each encourages a different play style. Makita is nimble, but she doesn't deal much damage with her hammer and sickle, and can't take much damage, either, while Kyuzo is more like a tank--slow-moving, heavily armored, and capable of administering powerful attacks.
When you first start the game, it has the appearance of a standard side-scrolling beat-'em-up. You walk to the right down a narrow path as squads of enemy soldiers come at you, and you dish out multihit combo attacks by repeatedly tapping on the square button. Even if it never deviated from this formula, The Red Star would be pretty good as a pure beat-'em-up. There's a good variety of enemies, each of which requires a different strategy to defeat. Some enemies are unharmed by either ranged or melee attacks, or they might be damaged by a ranged attack only after being stunned by a melee attack, while others are able to roll out of regular combos. There are enemies that can prove to be a handful when you're just fighting them one-on-one, and after you've had a few encounters with that type of enemy, the game's not afraid to throw several of them at you at once, along with a few other types of enemies for good measure. You've got a formidable arsenal on your side, but it still gets real hectic real quick.
As much fun as the pure beat-'em-up action in The Red Star can be, the game's real strength is how it constantly mixes up the action. At several points during every mission, alarms will go off and the camera will shift perspective. Your side-scrolling beat-'em-up will suddenly turn into a top-down shooter, complete with screen-filling war machines that spew complex bullet patterns for you to maneuver around. The recurrently shifting nature of the gameplay keeps you on your toes, and knowing that each level will contain what amount to several massive boss fights is great motivation to push forward. Though the back-and-forth pattern of fighting a gang of enemy soldiers and then blasting your way through some giant boss fight eventually becomes a little predictable, it ultimately staves off the monotony that often plagues both shooters and beat-'em-ups.
The levels in The Red Star aren't particularly long, and the game is actually pretty generous with how it ramps up the difficulty, but the pacing is unyielding, and when the game gets hard, it is merciless. You've got but one life bar with which to complete each level, and while you'll usually get a little first-aid kit after each of your big shooter encounters, it's not uncommon to get most of the way through a level just to get smoked and have to do the whole thing over again. The game isn't sadistic about it, but having to replay a full level several times can still prove a bit frustrating. Still, when you do finally get past that one boss fight that you've been banging your head against, it's supremely satisfying.


While the gameplay concepts in The Red Star aren't particularly new, the way they're assembled is smart and refreshing. As much fun as The Red Star is to play, the presentation is serviceable, but it doesn't really pop. The scope of the visuals is focused, with a cohesive, industrial feel, but the environments don't give much sense of depth, and the characters look pretty blocky. The weapon fire has a good, bassy sound that's complemented by some surprisingly noteworthy use of the Dual Shock2's force feedback, but the battle cries and background music are otherwise forgettable.
The Red Star isn't an exceptionally long game, but it's the kind of game that begs to be replayed, and the inclusion of two-player co-op action makes it that much more appealing to come back to. Considering its troubled past, it's impressive that The Red Star came out at all, let alone that it's a great game.

Dragon Age Origins

When was the last time you felt totally lost in a fantasy gameworld? When was the last time you played a game with such a well-crafted and enjoyable story that you knew you’d remember it for a long, long time? Dragon Age: Origins is that kind of game, so rich and involving that you are powerless to resist its wiles and whims, so touching and triumphant that your mind and heart will be moved. In the fictional land of Ferelden, you meet memorable characters and fight for a cause you believe in, and it's this backdrop that makes developer BioWare's newest role-playing game so extraordinary. Dragon Age is more than a well-crafted story, however: It's a lengthy, intricate, and thoroughly entertaining adventure that's easy to fall in love with.

Dragon Age's plot, which deals with the impending invasion of a horde of demonic creatures called the darkspawn, isn't where the story's biggest surprises lie. The shocks, the joys, and the disappointments spring from the repartee among a number of remarkable characters; they lurk within books of lore and stories of martyrs; and they burst forth during spine-tingling moments when you must choose from a selection of difficult choices that affect the tale's direction--and the way your associates interact with you. Ferelden is a colorful and fascinating kingdom that takes enough cues from well-known fantasy tropes to be familiar, but bends enough conventions to feel original. Dragon Age features dwarves, but their caste-based society and the social paragons that rise above it twist the norms enough to keep you intrigued. Mages remain under the constant watch of templars, a restriction that doesn't sit well with those who view such policing as virtual slavery. The role of religion in human circles is of particular note. Chantries provide refuge to those worshiping the all-powerful Maker, and chanters recite the holy word near their houses of prayer. But lest this world sound too serious, don't despair: One such disciple slides food references into her chant, and a few dwarves warn you not to fall into the sky. Small, humorous touches like this are plentiful. Even if you aren't the literary sort, Dragon Age may inspire you to read every note, every character bio, and every creature description, thanks to the richness of the world and the consistency with which it's presented.
You'll learn even more from the companions who join you, and you'll grow to care about them on your quest for glory. There's Morrigan, the cynical apostate mage bound to your cause for reasons that become clear only late in the journey; Sten, the strong, silent type who isn't so quick to reveal his innermost thoughts; and Zevran, a darkly mischievous would-be assassin with a wild streak and a playful disregard for the law. There are others too, including Alistair, a wisecracking, vaguely insecure member of the Grey Wardens, an elite group of champions that recruits you early on. Great dialogue and fantastic voice acting make these characters leap off the screen as if they were real friends, and the way they interact with one another feels authentic. Morrigan and Alistair banter about the role of templars in the lives of mages, and the sweetly devout Leliana tries to communicate with your trusty canine cohort in some amusing exchanges. You may even develop a romance (or two) before all is said and done. The course of love isn't always a smooth one, though it can be a bit steamy, in a PG-13 sort of way.

Relationships must be nurtured; in the world of Dragon Age, love doesn't develop at first sight. Rather, you must improve your standings with available party members by giving them gifts and fulfilling quests in ways that please them. Doing so opens more dialogue options and may even reward you with unexpected gifts beyond the private pleasures of your tent. Your personal relationships aren't all you need to worry about when facing a difficult decision, however. On significant quests, you'll encounter complex choices that force you to weigh the risks against the rewards, even as you try to stay true to your own vision of your character. Are werewolves heartless killers, or is there a method to their madness? Should you wholeheartedly embrace a political candidate, or will some unexpected information have you playing double agent--or just killing the opposition? Such open-ended quests have become staples in many similar RPGs, but few make these decisions feel so momentous. The anxiety that results when you encounter important choices is a result of superb writing and character development: When you care about your destiny, decisions have more weight.
Even Dragon Age's initial moments present important decisions that affect how your adventure plays out. You'll customize your own avatar's look from a variety of presets, but more importantly, you'll choose a race and class. The choices may seem initially limited, but your options eventually expand. Later, you can choose up to two subclasses once you reach the necessary level requirements, and there are a few different means of unlocking additional skill trees. Your initial race and class choices don't just determine the kinds of skills and spells you will have access to, however; they influence how the first few hours of the game progress. You will experience one of six different "origin stories" that follow the events that lead you to the elite Grey Wardens. Every origin story leads to the same place, but that doesn't mean you leave these events behind for good. Characters you met early on will cross your path again, and crucial moments of your origin story will continue to haunt you. The varied origin stories not only provide plenty of replay value, but allow you to see familiar characters from a different angle. A prisoner you meet within a dank dungeon may not have much impact on you if you are playing as a Dalish elf, but if you play as a human mage, this encounter is a bittersweet reunion.


You aren't a lone adventurer, however. You can take up to three companions along with you, and eventually you will meet more willing (or unwilling, as the case may be) darkspawn slayers. You can switch out party members back at your camp or in other friendly areas. Party members you don't use will remain at camp, though they thankfully level up even when you don't take them along. Your comrades aren't just AI-controlled henchmen; you can take full control of any party member at any time, though how you do so depends on the platform. PC owners get the most versatile and rewarding experience in this regard. You can zoom the camera in to a close third-person view when exploring and conversing with non-player characters, or pull the camera back to a tactical view, which makes it a breeze to quickly and easily micromanage every spell and attack, in true Baldur's Gate tradition. On consoles, you always view the action from behind a single character, and you use a shoulder button to switch among them. It's a great way of experiencing the buzz of battle, though occasional pathfinding quirks are more apparent in the console versions, simply because you experience the action from a single perspective at a time, rather than while managing four characters simultaneously.
If you've played a BioWare fantasy RPG in the past, you'll feel right at home with the combat system. By clicking on your target or pressing the attack button, you don't just swing a sword, but you approach your target and queue up your attack. Once your party has gained access to a good number of spells, stances, and skills, battlefields explode with bright colors and raucous sound effects, and it's a lot of fun to switch back and forth between party members, managing your abilities and taking advantage of various spell combos to wreak havoc. There are dozens of different types of enemies to slice up, from giant spiders and darkspawn, to ghosts and walking trees, to demons and, of course, dragons. Allies will join you in the biggest battles, and the best of these, particularly those toward the end of the game, are thrilling. On the PC, they're particularly challenging, and many battles benefit from frequent pausing and tactical thinking, so that you can queue up attacks across your entire party. The same battles on consoles are noticeably easier.

Nevertheless, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions have their challenges, and no matter which platform you choose, you can customize your cohorts' AI behavior to be more effective in battle. Using the tactics menu, you can set characters up to drink potions when their health gets low; have Morrigan cast helpful crowd-control spells when enemies are clustered together; and program sturdier characters to draw enemies' ire when more vulnerable party members are under attack. As you level up, you will earn additional tactics slots, allowing you to implement even more intricate actions. You can also apply basic behaviors to your team members, making them more aggressive or defensive, and you can switch them around on the fly if an experimental custom tactic isn't working as you intended. When things come together as you plan--such as when Morrigan freezes a hurlock in place and Alistair smashes it to smithereens--battles are even more rewarding.
All of these elements coalesce wonderfully, making for a memorable and exciting adventure that keeps you on the move. The flow of loot and pace of leveling are both highly satisfying, and because you have four active characters to consider (in addition to others back at the camp), you spend a lot of time poring over armor and weapon choices. The tempo is even quicker than the Dungeons & Dragons games that preceded Dragon Age, thanks to important tweaks that minimize downtime. For example, you do not need to rest between encounters to replenish your health and recharge your spells. Instead, health and stamina are replenished quickly once the skirmish ends, allowing you to string encounters together without unwanted breaks in between. Should a party member fall during battle, he or she will be resuscitated once the battle has ended, albeit with a stat penalty applied (though it can be cured with an injury kit). These factors, and more, give Dragon Age an excellent sense of forward direction.
All the spells, tactics, and skills sound like a lot to organize, but the interface does a great job of helping you keep track of things. The PC interface is brilliant, letting you browse through your inventory and tweak your quickbars quickly and easily. The console versions do a surprisingly great job as well, making it simple to sort through your quests, and to queue up actions while battle is paused. One particularly useful feature is the ability to identify inventory items as trash and sell them all with a single button press once you're back in town. There are some console-specific interface irritations that could have been cleaner, however. For example, identifying new codex (that is, lore) entries can be troublesome, because the list doesn't scroll down until your highlight cursor reaches the bottom of the window. As a result, you can't always distinguish new entries from old ones, which is an issue that doesn't plague the fantastic PC interface. The consoles' radial menu, on the other hand, is an excellent way of letting you access every battle skill, and it works somewhat like the similar interface in Mass Effect--albeit with a few more layers.
The differences between versions aren't limited to the interface. Dragon Age doesn't look amazing on the PC, but it's an attractive game nonetheless. Zooming from an isometric view to a third-person perspective is slick, and while environments don't hold up quite as well when viewed up close, they're consistently lovely when viewed from above. On the flip side, the Xbox 360 version looks positively disappointing. Textures are highly compressed and colors are washed out, though the upside is that this version maintains a smoother frame rate than on the PlayStation 3, where things might get jittery when swiveling the camera around. The PlayStation 3 version features higher-quality textures than those on the Xbox 360, better color saturation, smoother facial animations, and shorter load times. Minor visual hiccups, like corpses that disappear and reappear, are a bit more common on the PS3, however. The PC version is the superior experience, but if you're choosing between the two console releases, the PlayStation 3 has the upper hand. Some minor glitches are shared between the console versions, however, such as rare occasions when the soundtrack or voice-overs disappear. We also ran into a few quest malfunctions that could be replicated on all three platforms, though they were relatively minor and did not interfere with the progress of the main quest.


No matter which version you choose, however, there are plenty of audiovisual details to note. In many ways, Dragon Age looks and sounds like other high-fantasy games, but while the towers, forest paths, and underground caverns are what you've seen before, the art style is attractive, and a few sights, such as an underground dwarven city, are particularly eye-catching. Character models don't exhibit Mass Effect-level expressiveness, but they look good and animate smoothly enough. Also of note are the splatters of blood that appear on your party members after battle. It's a nice idea, but the splotches look like they've been splashed across you with a paintbrush. The crimson stains are a cool thematic touch, however, because blood plays an important role in Dragon Age. The sound effects are excellent, console glitches notwithstanding, and the soundtrack, while typical for a fantasy game, swells and murmurs at all the right moments.
Few games are this ambitious, and even fewer can mold these ambitions into such a complete and entertaining experience. You might spend 50 or more hours on your first play-though, but there are so many paths to follow, so many details to uncover, and so many ways to customize your party that you'll want to play again as soon as you finish the first time. PC owners even get an extra dash of depth via the downloadable toolset, which lets you create new levels, spells, skills, and even cutscenes. But any way you slice it, here's the fantasy RPG you've been waiting for, the one that will keep you up late at night, bleary-eyed, because you have to see what happens next. Like the best fiction, Dragon Age will sweep you up in its world, so much so that when you're done, you'll want to experience it all over again.

Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty

Metal Gear Solid 2 is one of the single most highly anticipated video games of all time. Many consider its 1998 predecessor to be not just one of the greatest games for the PlayStation, but also one of the greatest games ever. No wonder--Metal Gear Solid took the Metal Gear stealth action series from its humble 8-bit origins to completely unprecedented heights with its combination of cinematic 3D graphics, memorable characters, diverse and unusual gameplay elements, incredible production values, terrific showdowns, and surprising plot twists. A game of this quality demanded an encore--if nothing else, players were eager to find out what would happen next to Solid Snake, the tough secret agent hero of the series.
Snake made an understated appearance on the Game Boy Color last year, but when Metal Gear Solid 2 was first revealed for the PlayStation 2 a few weeks later, everyone was stunned. The incredibly detailed graphics and few tantalizing bits of its story that were shown promised that designer Hideo Kojima's next Metal Gear Solid would be even greater than the first.

It's hard to believe Metal Gear Solid 2 is finally here. And though fans' expectations for this sequel have been set almost impossibly high, both fans and skeptics alike will now discover that Metal Gear Solid 2 indeed lives up to its promises. It's an undeniably impressive game that's just as unforgettable as the original, and it's longer too. Perhaps best of all, Metal Gear Solid 2 stays true to its roots. Though you'll undoubtedly get swept up in the game's plot and be dazzled by its cinematics, it's the incredible story and the tense, enjoyable action at the heart of Metal Gear Solid 2 that make it so extraordinary.

Then again, Metal Gear Solid 2's story is what drives the action along, and it's such a major portion of the game that it demands to be addressed even before the gameplay itself. If you've played Metal Gear Solid, then you'll vaguely know what to expect from the story of the sequel--"vaguely," because you'll know nothing more than the fact that you're in for a real roller-coaster ride. Even some of the most minor points of the game's convoluted plot are entertaining and interesting.
This review will not disclose any specific plot points, since you'll enjoy the game so much more if you experience it all firsthand. As such, if you take just one thing away from this review, then it should be this: Do not let anyone reveal the plot of Metal Gear Solid 2 to you, whether intentionally or inadvertently, before you play the game yourself. In fact, you'd even be better off not reading the manual that comes packaged with the game, as it includes more information than you'd probably like. You'll learn how to play the game in context anyway. If you do happen to hear something about the story, don't worry. Even if someone told you what The Matrix was really about, that still wouldn't replace the experience of watching the movie. It's a similar case with Metal Gear Solid 2, a game that can't suitably be described in words, even if its plot twists can.

It's safe to discuss Metal Gear Solid 2's story on some levels. For instance, it's safe to say that it gets at least as much attention as the story of its predecessor did. This means you should expect to watch Metal Gear Solid 2 almost as much as you actually play it. Lengthy cinematic sequences and extensive dialogue are common throughout the game. The abundance of noninteractive sequences opens up Metal Gear Solid 2 to justifiable criticism--games are made for playing, not for watching, right? If you want to just stare at a screen, then turn on the TV or go to the movies. But Metal Gear Solid 2 is an exception. It's worth watching more than most anything that's in theaters or on TV. It's a great game, too, but make no mistake--a noninteractive story, a very good one, makes up a significant percentage of the game's overall length.
As you're playing, you'll discover soon enough why it's best not to discuss the plot of Metal Gear Solid 2 with anyone who hasn't played it yet--so they may enjoy it as much as you. But like with anything exciting, you'll yearn to talk about it with someone who's also shared in the experience. You'll probably compare the plot with that of the original Metal Gear Solid. You'll debate over which game had the better story. You'll draw comparisons between the games' somewhat overstated political agendas--much like Metal Gear Solid, the sequel can get preachy and is maybe even somewhat hypocritical in some of its underlying themes about nonviolence and environmental awareness. You'll compare the great cast of characters of the first Metal Gear Solid with that of the new game. You'll wonder what Kojima will do next.
It's more than likely that lot of people who never played the original Metal Gear Solid will play the sequel, even though the original was successful. Since the plot of the sequel ties in with the first game, these people may find themselves confused by some of the references. Metal Gear Solid 2 does include a brief rundown of the events that transpired in the previous game, but it's best to actually play through the original prior to playing the sequel. On the other hand, if by chance you've never played Metal Gear Solid, then the surprises in Metal Gear Solid 2 will be even more pronounced since you'll be unfamiliar with what Hideo Kojima is capable of in his storytelling.
Technically, the story sequences in Metal Gear Solid 2 are slick and stylish, far more so than what you'd typically find in other games. The fully 3D cinematics are rendered on the fly just like the rest of the game, making these scenes blend in seamlessly with the actual gameplay. The story sequences are often very dramatic, and they're directed with a flair that's comparable to that of Hollywood's--and Hong Kong's--greatest action movies. The characters are very expressive for the most part, thanks to the painstakingly detailed 3D models and the motion-captured animations. Sometimes, the characters' faces don't exactly convey the emotions they're supposed to be feeling--that these are rare exceptions speaks highly of the artists' work in capturing a real sense of humanity (or at least personality) in the excellent cast of Metal Gear Solid 2.
It's worth pointing out that much of the story is revealed through dialogue over the codec, a high-tech transmission system some of the characters use. The action is paused when the codec screen comes up--you'll sometimes take calls right in the middle of a battle--and the codec screen itself is just a green-tinted, mostly static display featuring the faces of the two characters talking. Needless to say, then, that codec conversations aren't as interesting to watch as the cutscenes are. Still, the strength of the story makes the codec scenes engaging, even if they can be long-winded and a bit too frequent at times. The best part about the codec is that, as in Metal Gear Solid, it doubles as a thoughtfully integrated in-game hint system. At virtually any time, you'll be able to contact your allies for advice in the context of any situation. You'll first get general suggestions on how to proceed, but if you get really stuck, then repeated calls will eventually yield more-specific tips.
Though the game is optionally subtitled, every line of dialogue is spoken out loud, as in the original Metal Gear Solid. The speech is of similarly good quality in the sequel, partly because all the voice actors for the returning characters reprised their roles, including X-Men screenwriter David Hayter as Solid Snake. As in Metal Gear Solid, the voice-overs don't always sound natural. The speech of some of the characters, including Snake, is exaggerated, and though the dialogue mostly flows smoothly, it still sounds scripted. Even so, the over-the-top voice acting justly fits the game's over-the-top characters, and the dialogue itself survived the translation from Japanese intact. The game ends up having the feel of a good graphic novel. It may not seem completely serious, but it takes itself seriously, though with a few clever in-jokes thrown in for good measure.
While some won't be completely satisfied with all the voices, it's hard to imagine anyone not being smitten with Metal Gear Solid 2's soundtrack, which was written by experienced Hollywood composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Some of this dramatic score has already been etched into the memories of fans who have watched Konami's various teaser trailers in anticipation of the game. The rest of it is just as remarkable, and it serves to magnify the epic feel of the plot. What's particularly great about it is that the music is situational and changes with the action. As you're sneaking through enemy territory, the soundtrack is deliberate. If you're caught, it deftly transitions to a fast-paced theme that will make you want to keep running just as much as the swarms of gun-toting guards on your tail will. Music is used to excellent effect during the cinematic sequences, too.
Metal Gear Solid 2's soundtrack will likely stick with you long after you've finished the game, and the rest of the sound effects are equally good. From the deafening gunfire, to the distinct tones of footsteps on different surfaces, to the game's wide variety of ambient effects such as seagulls squawking and torrential rain pouring down, Metal Gear Solid 2 sounds fantastic. The game even supports Dolby Digital 5.1 audio in a few key cinematic sequences.
The core gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 2 is similar to that of its predecessor, though with a few additional complexities that make it even more interesting. Unlike the game's story, most of its gameplay elements were revealed some time ago when a playable demo of Metal Gear Solid 2 shipped with Konami's Zone of the Enders. If you played that demo or the original Metal Gear Solid, then you know that the object is to stay hidden whenever possible, as you've infiltrated an enemy compound and are facing superior odds. Circumventing the opposition is difficult but not impossible thanks to a great variety of moves at your disposal: You can flatten a guard with a quick martial arts combo, crawl while prone, peek around corners, and even perform an acrobatic leap to make a quick getaway. More-complex moves, like hanging from railings, shaking down fallen guards for their items and dragging their bodies out of sight, and sticking guards up with a gun to their backs, are also possible. And, of course, you can run around while hidden beneath a cardboard box, if you happen to find one. No matter what you're doing, the controls are smooth and responsive, and the character animation looks consistently outstanding.


Besides the cardboard box, you'll have various other gadgets at your disposal. The most important of these are a radar display that shows enemy guards in your vicinity and your highly advanced sneaking suit, which protects you from injury and makes you all but silent, though not invisible. Many of the other devices, such as thermal goggles and a mine detector, will be familiar if you've played previous Metal Gear games, and they're still fun to use. But your wits are what will get you past guards, security cameras, and more. Darting from cover to cover can get you through some areas, but at other times, you'll have to take out guards without them noticing you. The guards are all rather nearsighted--you can see their field of vision represented by a cone on your radar display, and it stretches only to about 30 feet. On the other hand, this is more than enough for them to spot you within the game's generally confined environments, and besides, you can't always depend on your radar to indicate whether enemy forces are nearby or if you're within visual range. That's because, in most areas, your radar will initially be disabled until you find a computer terminal and establish an uplink. Metal Gear Solid players should appreciate this catch, as they'll realize the always-useful radar can't be taken for granted.
You're bound to be spotted by a guard sooner or later. He'll likely take a few potshots, duck for cover, and radio in for reinforcements. The alarm will sound, your radar will go offline in the commotion, and heavily armed sentries will pour in. Unless you manage to find a place to hide, you'll likely succumb to these aggressive forces, which use surprisingly devious tactics to flush you out and take you down. If you die, you can usually continue play from the point at which you entered the immediate area, which keeps the game from getting frustrating, even when the going gets tough.
You'll start out with a modified single-shot M9 pistol that uses tranquilizing rounds. It can knock your foes unconscious, but the drugs won't work instantly unless you score a hit in the head area. Doing so requires the use of the first-person view, which you can switch to instantly by pressing and holding the R1 button. Here, you can take precise aim at your foes using any of your weapons, and this is probably the biggest gameplay difference between Metal Gear Solid 2 and the original, where you could look around from a first-person view, but couldn't fire, except with certain weapons. In the sequel, you'll find yourself always shooting from the first-person view, since it's tactically advantageous to do so. The constant switching from the third-person view to the first-person view takes getting used to, though the game integrates some tutorial lessons to get you up to speed. Actually, the fact that the first-person mode is used so often in Metal Gear Solid 2 may make you wonder why the game can't be played exclusively from that perspective. As it is, like in Metal Gear Solid, you can rotate and look up and down in first-person mode, but you can't move.
The original Metal Gear Solid was sometimes criticized for the implausible behavior of its guards. If they spotted you, they'd rush at you mindlessly, and while killing them was easy enough, all you really had to do was stay out of sight for less than a minute and then they'd go back to their business as though nothing happened. They're more believable in the sequel--guards will hunt for you for a much longer period of time than in the previous game, so the alarm is a bigger problem than before. What's great is that, since guards have to radio in to raise the alarm, you'll actually have a moment to react if you're spotted. Most notably, a well-placed shot can disable a guard's radio, preventing the general alarm. But in a devious new twist, in many areas, even if you take out all the guards undetected, reinforcements will eventually show up to investigate why contact was lost with the others. This will make you think very carefully about whether you wouldn't be better off just trying to sneak by.
All this isn't to say that Metal Gear Solid 2 is perfectly realistic. For instance, rooms respawn with guard patrols when you later revisit them. Metal Gear Solid 2 keeps the realism mostly superficial--it's still got a lot of traditional gameplay elements under the hood, such as rations you can eat to instantly replenish your health. Things like this keep the game fun and should be a nostalgic treat for fans of the series.
Rations notwithstanding, Konami's preview trailers promised that the world of Metal Gear Solid 2 would be very lifelike and interactive, and it is. Shooting various things in the environment produces appropriate results. Mirrors and bottles shatter, crates and furniture break, and bags of flour and fire extinguishers burst--sometimes revealing infrared tripwires as their powderlike contents waft through the air. Other such details abound. You tiptoe over the bodies of knocked-out guards. Tiny bugs can be seen buzzing next to light sources. The rain and underwater effects look strikingly realistic, and they are perhaps the best of their kind in any game to date. When you're shot, gouts of crimson blood splash onto the nearby walls and floors, sometimes even onto enemy guards' bulletproof riot shields--a grisly effect, though the fainthearted can toggle off the game's gore. Despite all this, the game always runs at a perfectly smooth frame rate.
In contrast to the staggering
Of course, like its predecessor, Metal Gear Solid 2 isn't all about stealth. There are a number of interesting, inventive gameplay sequences that break up the more usual action. Some of these require logical thinking or good observation skills. At one point, you need to figure out how to get through a high-security door that won't open without a retinal scan by an authorized individual. At another, you need to provide long-range cover fire for a friend attempting to breach an enemy perimeter alone and unarmed. A few sequences aren't as good as the majority--for example, at one point you need to make a series of death-defying leaps, but the awkward perspective of the scene makes it very difficult to do so. On the other hand, you'll relish every showdown with the game's various villains. Here, you'll need quick thinking and reflexes to survive. Metal Gear Solid was praised for its spectacular battles with boss characters, and the sequel's drawn-out, exhilarating boss battles are just as great.
The original Metal Gear Solid was relatively short, especially if you skipped the cinematics. Happily, the sequel is longer and should take you from 15 to 20 hours to finish the first time through--assuming you watch all the story sequences, which of course you should. Still, as with its predecessor, Metal Gear Solid 2's focus on its story means it's a mostly linear game that doesn't really lend itself to lots of replay value. But the painstaking level of detail found in the game's graphics does extend to the gameplay, meaning there will be a good deal for you to do and explore once you've already finished the game. For instance, though your best bet is to stay hidden at all times, you'll also collect a small arsenal of real-world weapons over the course of the game, with which you could just as easily take a more violent, more direct approach. Or, starting with your trusty M9, you could optionally try to go through the entire game without actually killing anyone. Even bosses can be defeated using nonlethal weapons, though the outcome of the encounters will still be the same.

The game is loaded with little secrets, and the higher difficulty settings, together with the option to completely disable the all-important radar, make Metal Gear Solid 2 much more challenging. The gameplay itself is therefore fairly open-ended, which makes for more replay value than you might expect. It's true that you could finish Metal Gear Solid 2 in a dedicated weekend. But it's also true that you'll undoubtedly want to revisit it multiple times, if not to show it off to others, then just to keep on playing it and discovering new details you hadn't noticed before, both in the game and in the story.
It boils down to this: You need to play Metal Gear Solid 2. All the attention it has received leading up to its release was fully justified. All its popularity after its release will be completely warranted. Metal Gear Solid 2 isn't the perfect game for everyone. It has scenes of graphic violence. Its plot is dense and not always focused or easy to follow. And, it's true, the game could have been longer. Some naysayers will complain that Metal Gear Solid 2 is all style and no substance, under the false assumption that the game's great cinematics mean the gameplay itself was compromised. Others will claim that this and all the other positive reviews of the game are merely the result of fans buying into their own hype or giving in to peer pressure. Such arguments are predictable enough--not everyone likes to go with the popular opinion. Yet for all the many concrete reasons already described, popular opinion will ensure that Metal Gear Solid 2 will be remembered not just as a great sequel, but as a defining accomplishment in the history of gaming. Though that's beside the point--you don't need to play Metal Gear Solid 2 just because everyone else will. You need to play it because it stands a good chance of becoming one of your all-time favorite games.


variety of detail in the other aspects of the game, most of the actual environments in which Metal Gear Solid 2 takes place are homogeneous--the industrial settings are brought to life because of the game's fantastic graphics, but at the end of the day, they're still industrial settings, all reinforced steel and sharp angles. You'll nevertheless enjoy exploring them, if only because you'll know full well that while the game's locations may appear mundane, there's much more to them than meets the eye.