It’s been nearly 10 years since we’ve seen Max Payne sulk through the New York alleys; he’s decided that he’s had his fill of the big apple and is moving to São Paulo, Brazil for the sun, babes, and gangs. With Remedy being too busy working on whatever it is they’re doing (please be Alan Wake 2) Rockstar decided to pick up the third entry in the series. With the trade of gloomy New York for sunny São Paulo don’t go thinking that things are any more cheerful; Max starts out in the shitter and slowly gets in deeper as the game continues that culminates in possibly Rockstar’s darkest game yet.

The game is quick to remind you that Max is still leaning on the booze and pills to keep him running, but things start to look up a bit for him when he moves to Brazil and gets a bodyguard position to protect a wealthy family. That lasts a good five minutes before things start to hit the fan and Max is thrown between protecting the family and controlling his own substance abuse issues. Besides the new cover mechanic not much has changed in how you play compared to the previous titles. You can take cover if you want, but be prepared for enemies to start flanking your position to deliver a healthy dose of ass whooping. It’s the Matrix styled shootdodge mechanic that’s going to be your main source of dealing out death. You’ll see a meter to the right that shows how much time you can spend in this mode and can be refilled quickly be simply scoring kills outside of shootdodge. With the added euphoria engine that powered Grand Theft Auto 4 and Red Dead Redemption, you’ll be greeted to some amazing moments from shooting enemies and seeing them stumble around to diving in the air over a desk, spinning around, and quickly sending a few thugs to meet their maker. Did I mention the physics? Almost everything can be smashed apart and it will with clean rooms looking like a wrecking crew drove through after gunfights. For fans worried about Rockstar dumbing down the game fret not because painkillers are still your only source of health in this game; only multiplayer has slowly regenerating health, not on hardcore though. I found Max to be stupidly brittle even on normal difficulty. I’m always up for a good challenge but later missions really punished you for using the shootdodge mechanic and I found myself starting to use cover more and more. Painkillers can be somewhat difficult to locate if they’re not in plain view, but the game thankfully refills your health each time you die so at least you can’t screw yourself by walking into a situation with little to no health. You’ll find ‘grinds’ to do through both the singleplayer and online. You’ll find a variety of menial tasks such as finding golden guns, and tougher ones such as shooting grenades in the air or scoring kills while on your back.

Besides the 10+ hour campaign and grinds to, excuse the pun, grind through you’ll also have New York Minute and Score Attack to keep you playing. Score Attack rewards you with points for kills, more points the more impressive the kill, with a focus on keeping your multiplier up. New York Minute on the other hand is meant more for speed-running players with each level starting you out with a timer that continually trickles down; the only way to get more time is to score kills.

So when you start up the playlist you’ll think Max Payne 3 has quite a lot of game modes to play, but in reality out of the either modes you see, there are only really 3 different ones. There’s Rookie Deathmatch/TDM, regular Deathmatch/TDM, large Deathmatch/TDM, Payne Killer, and Gang Wars; there are also hardcore variants you can unlock once you get 5000 kills. The idea behind Payne Killer is that two players will play as either Max or Passos while the other team has to work together to bring them down. The player who deals the most damage to either character is re-spawned as that character loaded to the teeth with painkillers, guns, and adrenaline. It’s a neat mode that has you bouncing between trying to deal the most damage to Max or Passos, or trying to let your teammates whittle down their health so you can score a final kill. You’ll get points for dealing damage/killing Max or Passos, but the real numbers start flowing in when you play as either character; winner at the end is the guy with the most points. The marquee mode here is Gang Wars though; in it you’ll take the role of one of the various factions and complete various staged objectives. Each map has its own little story that snugly fits with the main game and you’ll go through various objectives such as defending checkpoints, assassinating targets, straight up elimination, and more. The neat thing is that you’ll never get the same sequence of objectives twice with each game having a completely random set of objectives that change depending on whether you won or lost the previous one. It’s something I’ve loved since Killzone 2 and really hope more games start to implement it.

So you know I love me some customization in my multiplayer games; it’s not so much that I want other people to see how my character looks, it’s just that I’m so narcissistic that I enjoy seeing how I look. There are half a dozen factions, each with their own look/style, that you can change from head-to-toe with gear you’ll acquire by simply leveling up. You’ll also be able to select how you want to look for straight deathmatch modes and you can unlock story characters by achieving either a platinum in each level in score attack or prestiging. So as you kill other players or loot their bodies you’ll gain adrenaline which fuels both your bullet time and your bursts. Bursts are a sort of perk that grants you a special skill divided into three tiers as you fill your meter up. For example, equipping the heavy firepower burst will give you more damage for 20 seconds, the second tier will replace your guns with a powerful LMG, and the final tier gives you a grenade launcher. Players have to be quick to think if they want to spend what adrenaline they have on an extra kill in bullet time or with a burst. Just as in most shooters, you’ll be able to set up various loadouts that will allow you to change your tactics throughout a match. You’ll be able to equip up to three weapons, a head item that gives effects such as not being affected by flash grenades, body armor, your burst, your projectile/grenade, and three pieces of gear. Gear is a sort of passive skill that doesn’t run on adrenaline; with over a dozen pieces of gear you’ll see ones like a lucky coin that grants more cash from looting or a walkie-talkie that puts any enemy player your teammates see on your radar. The game can get quite unfair though, since it seems to not care who it matches you with and will throw you into games with people at level 50 (max rank). These guys will be rolling around with grenade/rocket launchers and bursts that let them appear as allies which makes fighting them some serious bullshit.

The graphics are damn impressive and the attention to detail in all the environments is just mind boggling. Rockstar also had the noise rock band Health to score the game which ended up being another smart move by Rockstar who have a smart taste for music. Rockstar really has a knack for bringing out the best of their voice-actors with James McCaffrey (the voice of Max) pulling in probably his best work here. The sound team should really get acknowledged for their work on the game because the way everything sounds, from the guns to the environment getting shredded during gunfights, is phenomenal.

The Final Word
Max Payne 3 is a great grab for newcomers to the series, but even more enjoyable to players of the previous two games. With a hefty amount of singleplayer modes and a pretty solid multiplayer component, besides the bit of unbalance, MP3 is definitely something that you won’t be trading in anytime soon.

- MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good

If you’ve been living in some sort of ignorance all your life then I suppose I should tell you that Telltale Games focus on point/click adventure games, and they’re pretty damn good at their craft. After tackling two other previous licenses, Back to the Future & Jurassic Park, Telltale has decided to get their hands dirty (literally) with The Walking Dead.

The game opens up with Lee Everett who’s being given a friendly (or not so friendly depending on your conversation choices) trip in the back of a police cruiser. It’s heavily implied that Lee may have killed somebody, but he never confirms nor denies it, but your choices in the first episode clearly indicate that this information will become a major player in future episodes. You quickly meet up with the 8-year old Clementine and your fun adventures through a zombie infested Atlanta kicks off from there. The story plays simultaneously with the comics so while you play as new characters, you’ll meet and see some familiar locations whether you’re a reader of the comics or the show. You’ll be presented with choices to make throughout the story that will not only branch you into different directions in the story, but the characters you interact with will change depending on how you speak to them and what choices to make. Very rarely do I care about characters in a game (even in games I like) but I couldn’t help but like Lee and Clementine. Both characters provide an interesting dynamic that you rarely see in games and the game even gives you the option of either molding your Lee into a caring father figure for Clementine, or be a total dick to her. As a person who prides himself on trying to be the biggest dick possible in games, I just couldn’t take those options; for once I actually cared about what happened to these characters and didn’t want to fracture their relationship. Not you though Ducky, just know your time will come. The game will take you around two to three hours to finish which feels about right with the full game taking a good fifteen hours if this first episode is a good indication on the length of the following ones.

So you’ll control Lee with the left analog stick and move the cursor with the right; once you hover the cursor over an interactive object you’ll be given a prompt to either use it or have Lee talk about it. At certain times you’ll be given a QTE to perform, but these are done pretty well and come rarely so it’s not a troublesome inclusion. Conversations are handled in a Mass Effect style with some moments giving you a timer to quickly respond before it decides for you and you can’t go back to re-select previous options; I’ve noticed it tends to prefer the “…” option, I guess the game is shy. People who like to see all the options in a conversation might end up hating this, but this is what multiple runs are for. Things you pick decide how characters will react to you at that moment and later on in the game which is going to be interesting to see how they balance that through 5 episodes. The moments with zombies are done well enough with the cursor used to hover over any approaching walker and requiring a quick button hit for Lee to perform whatever action needed. The zombie kills aren’t as brutal as Telltale hyped up (besides one in the beginning with a hammer) which is a shame since they wouldn’t stop talking about how over the line they went with the kills, but hopefully they were talking about the other episodes.

One downside many adventure game veterans might frown at would be at the extreme lack of puzzles in the game. So far we’ve only seen Episode One, but I’d be surprised to see if anything changed. On one hand it does make some sense to not include puzzles in a *slightly* realistic setting where having a character try to find the pieces to a puzzle box wouldn’t really fit, while on the other hand the puzzles they actually have aren’t really puzzles and are more “Click on everything until you find the right item”. There’s one moment later in the game where Lee needs to reach through a gate to pick up a brick to use as a distraction but for some reason he simply couldn’t reach for it when it was right there. I figured I need something to break the lock on the door (still confused considering the remote was within arms length) and the objects you interacted earlier were all viable candidates to use in both breaking the lock and reaching out to get the brick. It probably took me around 20 minutes of walking around for Lee to finally say “Maybe I should go help [person] with her problem” and after finishing that objective I finally had an ax I could use to break the lock. Sure, I felt kinda stupid wasting my time when I could have gone to do this mission to get what I needed, but the game really set things up to imply I needed the objects I interacted with earlier; plus that remote was right fucking there. I just hope the next episodes don’t follow this trend of unclear ‘puzzles’.

So the game takes a more stylized look based off the comic book and it really was the best choice. Everything just has a very slick look to it and the way the characters animate has a bit more charm to it that I don’t think would’ve worked if the game was done in a more realistic graphic style. The sound itself takes many cues from the TV show which works well enough too. One thing that kept throwing me out of the game (figuratively, not literally) were the sudden drops in frame-rate. These would happen during hectic moments such as zombie attacks or even during areas such as walking around the farm. It’s noticeable enough to remind you that you’re playing a game and it surprises me considering it’s not a very intensive game to excuse having it.

The Final Word
If you’re a fan of previous Telltale Games’ works then there’s no reason why you should skip out of this game, but I still recommend new players to come join in on the fun. The first episode is a measly $5 so if you don’t end up liking it then it’s not like you invested a lot in it.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is loooong. Purported to be a game of an extraordinary 200 hours in length and a blend of action and RPG, Amalur certainly seems to rival the likes of The Elder Scrolls at first glance; this shouldn’t be surprising, given support on the project from lead designer of Morrowind and Oblivion fame, Ken Rolston. Indeed, Amalur’s inspiration draws from many great games and ideas that we’ve seen over the years – but is that enough?

Story

In Amalur, you take the role of the “The Fateless One”, a recently resurrected being who, because of his/her death, is no longer tied to the threads of Fate, and is thus able to change the world around them. Shortly after being revived, you are soon attacked by the Tuatha, a group of rebel Fae (read: elves) who seek to conquer the world through the worship of their new God. It’s then up to you to venture out into the world and gather together an army to rebel against the Tuatha and restore peace to the land. However, this is but only one of the many narrative threads that come together to form a fully-realized world.

It’s a shame that despite how well developed this world is, most of the questlines are hit or miss. The main storyline in particular doesn’t seem to pick up until near the last third or so of the game. In fact, as hard as the game tries to build you up as this all-powerful first-of-his/her-kind being that can change, you do relatively little in the ways of meaningful choice. For being “The Fateless One”, all you seem to do is run errands for all the important NPCs that you deal with, rather than be a real leader. Events will play out the same way, and any major choices you might make don’t have consequences beyond what stat bonus you will gain as a reward.

This is not to say that all plotlines are bad – in fact, many of the faction-specific questlines have a greater emotional punch, and you’ll meet characters that have more depth, which really helps the world feel more alive. It’s too bad they’re short, and there aren’t many of them in relation to the other quests of the game.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Amalur follows many of the open-world RPG tropes you’ve come to love from franchises such as Fable and The Elder Scrolls. After a short introduction sequence where you are taught the ropes, you are released in the world to explore as you please, completing the main story at your leisure. Of course, along the way, you’ll stumble upon many a side quest, and the sheer amount of them is staggering. You’ll see golden exclamation marks popping up on your minimap just about everywhere, letting you know there’s yet another adventure to partake.

Apart from the narrative provided, many quests consist of “fetch this”, “kill that” or “walk there” variety. There are also hidden item caches, shrines that grant you temporary stat bonuses and “lorestones” that impart a bit of world wisdom on you and can even grant you permanent bonuses for finding them all. Thankfully, the game’s extensive customizability and combat keep things from ever becoming a grind.

Charater progression in Amalur is separated into combat-based abilities and profession-related skills. Each time you level up, you gain 3 points to place in your abilities, and 1 point for your skills. Abilities are divided into the regular three themes: Might, Sorcery and Finesse. Rather than force you into a role for the rest of the game, Amalur allows you to choose abilities and skills based on your playstyle. By placing points in one of the three styles, you’ll unlock “Destiny” cards that give your character bonuses based on how invested you are in a given tree. Place all your points in Might (the Warrior tree) and you’ll gain bonuses that help you stun enemies more often and make you more resilient to damage. Or you could split points down the Finesse (Thief) and Sorcery and become a Shadowcaster. There are literally cards for every given build and you’re allowed to “respec” at almost anytime so you can experiment to your hearts content.

On top of all the combat abilities you get access to, there are also a wide variety of specialty skills that you can train in, varying from lockpicking and hidden item detection to blacksmithing and crafting gems that can augment your gear. There are quite of few of them, each requiring 10 skill points to master, giving you a lot of choice here. Some skills however, feel like necessities – for instance, Find Hidden, when maxed, will show you the location of ALL treasure chests, hidden doors and caches and lorestones on your minimap in addition to giving you extra gold when looting enemies. While some may choose to forgo this ability, it’s pretty damn powerful and hard to give up in relation to the other skills on offer here.

Where the open-world exploration feels akin to The Elder Scrolls, combat in Amalur feels more like God of War: fast, vicious and action-packed. You can equip two weapons at any one time, varying from an arsenal of 9: longswords, bows, greatswords and hammers—they’re all here. There’s even a new one, Chakrams, a mage-specific weapon that act like dual spinning boomerangs of death. Each weapon has it’s own style and you can unlock new types of moves and combos pending how you build your character. Combat is quick and weapons (especially the larger ones) give a satisfying crunch as they bowl over your enemies. For the magically-inclined, there is also an ability bar than can be accessed by holding the right trigger (this is a hotbar for those of you on the PC) that allows you to quickly equip and sling spells in an easy motion. Finally, as “The Fateless One”, dealing damage to enemies will fill up your fate meter, that, when full, can be released into a “Fate Shift”. Enemies slow down and you’re given a huge boost to damage and a limited amount of time to defeat as many foes as you can and then execute them with a quick-time event for extra experience. It’s nothing new, but the animations are appropriately badass and make you feel powerful.

If there are a few caveats about the combat system the first is that, on consoles, the abilities tab can only hold four spells at any given time and swapping them is painfully slow, as you need to pause the game, scroll down to the ability trees, find your ability and then map it. This can be a real drag on the fast-paced combat, especially for sorcerers, who get access to a good 6 or 7 spells by game’s end. The implementation of this is puzzling, as there is a separate radial menu that hotkeys your items; you can access this by tapping the bumper. It would have made more sense if you could have also mapped spells to these slots to avoid losing the heat of battle.

The second caveat is that sometimes, combat can feel cheap. Amalur makes you feel quite powerful with the array of abilities that it gives you access to, however it seems the game’s only answer to difficulty is to throw more enemies at you that can interrupt your attacks. Some attack animations can take several seconds to play out, in which you can be chain-attacked by a group of monsters before you get a chance to retaliate. In fact, there were several times that I died due to a string of unlucky hits that I couldn’t avoid because I was stuck in recovery animations. I would be more forgiving of the system if it weren’t for every enemy being able to disrupt your attacks, but in it’s current state, it was definitely frustrating at times.

Being an action RPG, Amalur also provides much in the way of loot – so much so, in fact, that you’ll find your backpack stuffed to the brim with all the colourful and epic items that you can’t bid yourself to part with. Thankfully, the inventory interface is easy to manage, if a bit tedious at times when you have too many items. Items that you have no need for can be placed in a junk list at the tap of a button and easily sold at shops whenever you’re stopping by towns. For those specializing in Blacksmithing, items can also be salvaged for parts and the materials used to build new items. Furthering the theme of customization, some items come with sockets as well, allowing you to socket gems for additional status effects.

It’s a little weird that the best gear in the game is crafted, since there are many epic sets of gear with their own unique design that look much better than anything you could craft. I feel like it was a bit of a missed opportunity, however none of the armor pieces in this game don’t actually look bad, it’s just the difference between great and greater.

Presentation

When it comes to presentation, you can really tell that this game has had a touch from Todd McFarlane. The world is full of vivid colour and unique landscapes that emanate a graphic-novel style and look simply astounding at times. It’s a constant delight to explore, as there is so much to see. Item design looks great as well, particularly the armor sets, where even the most basic piece looks more like what many MMO’s would offer in their end-game pieces, and it only gets better from there. Weapons also appropriately make you feel badass and the artistic design is truly one of the most enjoyable aspects of Amalur. Music is whimsical and really helps propel the exploration aspect of the complete, supplementing combat with dramatic horns and aggressive fanfare to help get your blood pumping.

Presentation falters on NPC conversations however, as facial animations are extremely stiff, and many times it doesn’t even look as if characters are making eye contact with you or are cross-eyed. It’s a bit off-putting, and the hit-or-miss voice acting doesn’t help things. While there certainly some characters that pass muster for having a personality, there are others whose vocal tones feel flat and extremely boring. If the situation is so dire, why do you not make it sound like it’s so important? Some energy, please!

Facial movement issues aside, it feels so wonderful to get lost in a world with so much artistic variety – not only in the settings, but the enemies, the weapons, the armor, the people, all of it. Art style obviously isn’t everything when it comes to a game, but the team at Big Huge Games did a damn good job of creating Amalur’s world.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning offers a wealth of variety and intense customizability set is a huge, wonderfully styled open world. The world thrives on rich colour and unique design that looks simply gorgeous and is an absolute joy for those who love to explore. It also helps that every weapon or piece of armour, no matter how low in quality, makes you look amazing. The breadth of character customization allows you to play how you like to play, from being a spell-slinger to a cutthroat to a massive tank, or even everything all at once. Combat is fast-paced and makes you feel powerful, even though it can be a bit cheap at times. Really, Kingdoms of Amalur tries to be a Jack-of-All-Trades, with an exceptional amount of breadth in the things that you can do but unfortunately ends up with not as much depth.

MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 / 5

So there’s a story in here, but you’ll only know about it if you read the manual. Basically the year is 2065 and the United States has been in some deep shit for a while. Their own Hadron Collider decides to explode and creates a wormhole which they soon learn to control which results in the discovery of time travel. A disgruntled general who’s still upset the Confederates lost the Civil War decides to go back in time to arm the South with futuristic weaponry in hopes of changing history. That’s as much of a story as you’re going to get because this is a multiplayer only game so feel free to write up your own story of what happens after. I prefer to think that one side is really a race of ancient robots who lost their memory and have to cope with their sudden realization in a climactic twist. The humans and robots soon learn to accept each other and make toaster babies.

So let’s get straight to the most important part of an RTS: the units. There are just over a dozen units that has a good mix of regular historical troops and futuristic units. You’ll control regular infantry units, heavy chain-gun toting soldiers, cavalry, tanks, APC’s, zeppelins, and futuristic soldiers. Futuristic soldiers obviously cost a lot more points to use than the traditional Civil War ones, but they deliver a bigger punch in return. The biggest feature is that you can directly take control of any unit under your command by selecting them. Double clicking on one zooms the camera to a third-person shooter perspective and that’s when the fun stops. The infantry units have a sort of weird stuttering animation when running and the aiming sensitivity is all over the place. Just don’t bother trying to aim at something because you’ll most likely spend more time trying to actually center the reticle on what you want than actually shooting it. There isn’t even a sensitivity option. Vehicle control is a little better in that regard, but firing at enemies feels a bit hit or miss. Sometimes I’ll be in a tank, fire a shot at some infantry, and apparently miss.

The game supports up to 64 players per server with 4 incredibly large (although empty) maps. The maps are huge, but they don’t use all that extra space since the main command posts are right in the center with large portions just sitting there. There’s a huge water area, but nobody wastes their time going over there since there isn’t a command point worth capturing over there. There are two modes: Deathmatch and Army Skirmish; while both modes have slight differences, the main idea is to reduce the enemy ticket counter to zero. Tickets are relative to the amount of HP for a unit so killing an enemy sniper won’t knock much out of the enemy counter while taking out a Zeppelin will take a good chunk out of it. You can also take out a steady stream of tickets by controlling the various command points around the map. Deathmatch continually spawns units as they die but you can’t issue any orders or select what you want spawned; instead your only choice is to directly take control of a single unit in the TPS mode or move around the map letting your allies know of any incoming enemies. Army Skirmish on the other hand gives you a more traditional RTS game with both allowing you to create your own army (along with other team members) and control units in third person. The game has been out for a few days already and the servers are absolutely empty which does not bode well. The max I’ve seen is 26 players in a single server with the rest barely touching 5 players. The FPS also drops hard when playing online and hit detection is really off. I sat in an APC firing into an incoming cavalry unit and watched as he trotted around me and went off. Don’t even bother playing as an infantry unit because you’ll never be able to hit anything. The tank is a bit better because of it’s explosive rounds, but not by much.

I usually don’t talk about the UI (user interface), but this one is damn ugly that I had to mention it. It really does look like they decided to leave a placeholder UI in the game. The XP bar at the bottom of the screen has text floating above it showing you your current rank but they just put text on top of it as if they did it in MS Paint or something, there’s no blending into the actual UI. The map is garbage and doesn’t show any important details, heck it doesn’t even show what areas are yours or the enemies. The camera is AWFUL, you can scroll around fine, but it seems to hiccup when you’re going up or down and it doesn’t adjust when it hits the ground. It seems to like to jump straight to shoving the ground in your face when you scroll down yet has no issue with calmly taking its time zooming out. Good luck zooming in to view a fight because what you’ll be doing is counting the pixels on the ground instead. You see that stuff in the top right corner of my screenshots? Yea, you can’t remove that as far as I know. Another odd thing is in the army selection screen it looks like you assign each squad to one of the F keys (F1, F2, F3, etc) yet in the game you can’t hit F1 for example to select that squad. They’re also listed in a numerical list while playing and I figured “Ok, I have to hit the actual number, maybe that F stood for something but it’s the number that matters”. Nope, pressing whatever number that squad is assigned to doesn’t do anything. Double clicking on the icon doesn’t move you over to that squad either. Do you see the weapon menu off to the side? Well I assume that they’re going to update different weapons into the game because so far I’m hitting those numerical keys and it’s not switching my weapon like I thought it would.

The graphics are alright I guess. The units look as nice as they can and some of them (such as the zeppelin) look really cool. The environments themselves are all basically the same flat ground with trees and a different color palette. The sounds at least sound great with humorous lines shouted from the units and the vehicles/guns all sound as authentic as they can. I do quite enjoy hopping into the APC to hear the drive shout “WE GOTTA GO FAST” and hearing the sound of the back doors opening up, but that’s just me. The game is getting some mod support through Steam Workshop with an editor and full toolset to be released sometime soon. Apparently there’s a world editor included, but I’m going to assume it was either cut out and the website is out of date or it’s going to be updated into the game later.

I’ve been told that the game was made by a single guy, Danny Green, and I’ve got to say that it shows. I’m impressed with what he’s done so far but he seriously released an unfinished product. Green if you’re reading this I urge you to get a team together and patch everything to turn this into something amazing because it really does have the potential. Get out of the “I can do this by myself” phase because fixing all of these issues by yourself is a daunting task that will take ages.

The Final Word
I really tried to be a bit more tolerant of this game since the end product is pretty impressive considering it was done by a single guy, but I still can’t go around ignoring lots of its faults. I lurked around the game forums and saw that he was actually participating in discussion and plans to address many of the same issues I’m having so I really hope he doesn’t disappoint. This really is a novel idea and deserves some praise for that and the addition of the Steam Workshop is a good step, but this is just simply an unfinished product and it shows.

- MonsterVine Rating: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre

In similar fashion to Orcs Must Die (I’m only comparing since I played it recently) Dungeon Defenders introduces you to a gang of mischievous students who suddenly find themselves under attack by an endless army of your typical bad dudes who want to smash your crystal. While in Orcs Must Die your teacher was embarrassingly killed off, here your teachers have decided to just fuck off and leave a few kids in charge of a giant castle.

The gameplay is almost exact to OMD to anyone familiar to that title. It plays like a tower defense game with a variety of ‘traps’ you can place around the map and you also control your character who can attack the enemies head-on. The similarities end there since this game has a major RPG emphasis on the gameplay. You can level up your character, spend points on various stats, and collect different types of loot. Let me stress for a moment when I say that Dungeon Defenders is not made for solo play. The numerous doors enemies pour through, each with multiple paths to your crystal, make tackling a level alone a daunting task. Playing with 2 or 3 players is fine, but you really get a better sense of how the game is really meant to be played when you have a full room of 4 people. You can either roll with your buddy in some local co-op or jump online.

Before you start your goblin slaughter you’ll have to create your character first. There are 4 classes you’ll be able to play as: the knight, the huntress, the mage, and the monk. You’re really going to want to practice a bit with each character to figure out which play-style you’re going to want to go with since each class has their own specific set of abilities and traps. For example the mage can build skeletal arms that fire magical bolts at your enemies while the knight can build traps such as spike barricades. You can even tweak the colors of the class you select and even change the tint of your crystal. It’s nothing amazing, but it was nice of them to include it.

As you’d expect in an RPG game there’s tons of loot to, well… loot. You’ll find pieces of armor or weapons in chests scattered around the stages that respawn with new items after each wave. Items can either be instantly equipped or sent to your item chest if you want a better look at it (or to sell). The game offers a very simple pop-up on items with a green thumbs up signifying an improvement over your currently equipped gear and a red thumbs down if you shouldn’t bother with it. Once a wave is cleared (or when you head to your tavern) you can view your item chest to check up on anything you sent there. You can sell it for mana which is used to upgrade your gear and buying items in the shop (it’s also used to construct your traps during matches). One disappointing thing about the gear is that while the weapons you equip all look pretty cool, the armor you equip will never change the look of your character. It’s a bit disheartening when you spend the time to upgrade a set of armor and you end up with no visual pleasure to accompany it.

Each match starts you out in the ‘build’ phase. It’s here where you’ll have the time to study the map to learn where the chests are, the best choke points, where the enemies are going to coming from, and all the paths they can take to your crystal. The game helpfully places a magical line that shows you all the potential paths that an enemy will traverse. Once you finish a wave you’ll be thrown back into the build phase where you can open up any chests you forgot about, build new traps, repair any damaged ones, and the mana from killed enemies won’t disappear so there’s no reason to rush. The next wave will commence when you’re ready and activate it on your crystal. Another thing to mention is that you don’t lose anything you gained if you fail a level. Any gear you picked up or levels gained will stay even if you die which is nice.

One thing I particularly like about the game is that it will show you what enemies will come out of each door and how many of them there will be. A door could only hold 2 trolls while the other could have half a dozen goblins with a handful of dark elf arches. There are just over half a dozen different enemies with a few bosses thrown in the mix every so often. These enemies will vary from flying wyverns, evil wizards, goblins, and a few other typical fantasy monsters. Every so often you’ll see a few elemental enemies in the mix. These guys will have status effects such as fire damage which makes them top priorities to take down.

The Final Word
If you like the thought of a tower defense game thrown into a blender with some RPG elements and hack/slash gameplay then Dungeon Defenders should be exactly what you’re looking for. It also has a pretty damn charming art style.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair

Skyrim is a slow game. It rewards curiosity and exploration with valuable enchanted weapons/armor or with a quest that will have you starting out in a drinking game at the local inn, then waking up halfway across Skyrim and having to retrace your steps in similar fashion to the movie The Hangover. Players who simply speed though the main story and call it a day simply aren’t getting the full enjoyment you’re supposed to out of an Elder Scrolls game. When I noticed I had clocked in 35 hours into the game in just 3 or 4 days I had realized that I hadn’t even finished a quarter of the main story quests (I had done maybe 3 out of the 15+ quests that make up the main story). Each time you tell yourself that you’re going to do a certain quest or finish that dungeon you forgot to clear, there will always be something miniscule to distract you that might range from a dragon fight to simply noticing something in the distance and wanting to see what it is. Hell, there are even things you won’t even find in your playthrough until a friend mentions it to you. My friend has double the playtime I do right now (he’s pushing just over 100 hours) and I consider him a bigger expert on the game than I since having more playtime surely means he has to have seen most of everything that I haven’t. It took me to mention how to reach Blackreach, a Dwemer ruin/city, to him for me to realize that even he (with his double playtime) missed out on a massive quest and one of the most gorgeous dungeons I’ve ever had to pleasure of killing stuff in. Although I suppose nothing gets better than entering a town, witnessing one of the many random dragon encounters and joining the city guard in showing it that it shouldn’t fuck with regular folk.

Skyrim opens up in traditional Elder Scrolls fashion with you as a prisoner solemnly waiting for your turn on the executioners axe. Conveniently, a dragon shows up to ruin the party. After a short ‘tutorial’ on the controls you’re basically thrown out into Skyrim, Fallout 3 style. I didn’t really feel awe when I was thrown into the wasteland like some of my friends were in Fallout 3, but when I took my first steps into Skyrim all I could think about was how gorgeous the landscape looked. After finding your way to the first town you’ll soon find out you’re a Dragonborn, a human with the soul of a dragon. You’re special because not only can you absorb the souls of dragons you kill, but you can also learn their language in the form of shouts. Shouts give you various effects such as weakening enemies, turning you invincible, freezing enemies, breathing fire, summoning thunderstorms, or even calling your own dragon to help you out. Each shout has 3 words that make up the full shout and you use the souls of dragons you kill to unlock each word. Bethesda decided that since Skyrim is a pretty big place they’ll just leave all 20 shouts (60 separate words to actually find) scattered around the world on “Word Walls”. If you happen to come across one of these word walls you’ll be able to instantly acquire that word and keep it if you can either kill the dragon guarding it or run away (note: you just get the word, you still need to unlock it with a soul). Once you gain the second or third word in a shout you can hold down the button on the controller/keyboard to do a more powerful shout. A quick tap simply does the first word, hold that sucker down and you’ll let off a fearsome bellow with the rest of the words. I recommend finishing the main quest up until you need to acquire a horn for the mountain men since that gets you the fully unlocked ‘Fus Ro Dah’ shout from the original Skyrim trailer. The first two words simply stun enemies, but that third word will send them flying. You having troll problems? Fus Ro Dah his ass off a mountain. Got a giant problem? Lead him up a mountain and Fus Ro Dah his ass off. Got a pile of cheese wheels in your house that are too neatly stacked? Fus Ro Dah that cheese all over your room. Even though Skyrim is a bit smaller than Oblivion (map), the game just feels larger. While Oblivion had dull quests with a few spotlights, copy/pasted dungeons, and dull NPC’s Skyrim throws you into a world ravaged by dragons, a civil war is dividing families, you’ll help the Dark Brotherhood rise back up to glory, the thieves guild actually feels like a thieves guild, and you’ll help a guild of werewolves fight against their longtime enemy.

Now of course there’s some combat to be done in this game so let’s get into that. If you played Oblivion you know what to expect with the melee combat in Skyrim and the magic system. Things feel a little more refined though, but it’s ultimately the same hack/slash system as before. The biggest addition is being able to dual wield two different weapons (unfortunately not two shields), which means you can roll with two axes, a shield+mace, two spells, or a spell in one hand and a sword in the other. You can mix up whatever you want (even staffs) besides the 2 handed weapons of course. Spells have a fantastic Bioshock look to your hands by having a unique effect for most spells appear in your hand while you’re just standing around. The spells have also gotten an upgrade in effect when you use them from Oblivion and are much more exciting to use this time around. There’s even a skill you can later gain that allows you to perform a more powerful version of a spell if you dual wield the same one and cast them together. You don’t know how awesome it felt to walk into a room full of enemies with the Mace of Molag Bal in one hand and an upgraded flamethrower spell in the other. It was like a symphony of violence. You can also randomly pull off brutal kill animations similar to the slow-motion kills of Fallout. There are two or three different animations for each weapon type, more if you add in the decapitation skill so you shouldn’t get tired of seeing them anytime soon. Exploring for a while can get you pretty annoyed with wolves after a while, so when you watch your character pick up a wolf by the neck them crush its skull with your mace it leaves a big smile your face. You’ll notice that you do have less armor pieces that you’re able to equip, but that change is pretty hit-or-miss with Elder Scrolls fans (personally, I don’t mind it). You’ll come across your basic hide, iron, or steel gear and then enter manhood when you deck your character out in ebony or dwarven gear. All the weapons and armor pieces are beautifully modeled and it’ll make people such as myself want to view them all (and by view them all I mean leave them in a pile in my cheese pile room).

People might have thrown a little hissy fit when Bethesda revealed the removal of attributes, birth-signs, and major/minor skills but you’ve got to trust me when I say they didn’t really remove them. Birth-signs have been replaced with the guardian stones that are found around Skyrim and each one gives a blessing similar to how the birth-signs behaved. The difference here is that you can change what stone you want whenever you want. Bethesda has taken their perk system from Fallout and implemented into the skills. Instead of selecting your major skills and those half dozen skills being the ones that level you up, all skills equally level you. You’ll notice you level faster this time around than in previous games since every skill you use is contributing to your level. With each level you’ll be able to pick whether you want to increase your magic, health, or stamina and given one perk. These perks are then spent on skills within each skill tree like increased 1-handed damage (in the 1h skill tree) or improved sneaking. The removal of attributes does feel like a kick in the RPG balls, but instead of putting points into strength you’re spending perks on skills in the 1h or 2h weapon tree to improve your damage. Bethesda has removed the attributes screen and blended it into the skills without it feeling weird. The game caps your level at 50, but all that affects is that you won’t gain anymore perks for any levels you gain past that. You’re still free to keep leveling your skills after you hit 50. The other fantastic thing is that you aren’t forced to spend your perk the moment you level. You can just horde a couple points if you can’t decide what you want to spend them on and them cash them into skills whenever you feel like it. It does feel a bit disappointing that I can’t make an overpowered character like I did in Oblivion, but this forces you to make choices about how you want to play this game like most RPG’s do. You’ll also be able to find skill books like in Fallout that raise your skills up a level once read.

Some of the newer minor additions to the game are companions that can follow you around. Don’t expect these characters to be brimming with personality like Fallout’s companions, but it is nice that you don’t have to trek through those dark dungeons alone. Marriage is a new addition and you can have your husband/wife cook you food, give you items, or even set them up with a job so they can bring in some extra gold. There’s more of a feeling of being a part of the world with the addition of jobs as well. You can help cut wood, mine, or mill which can help put a little weight in that gold purse of yours. One small thing added to the quest journal is the separation of small quests with the bigger ones. Smaller quests that can be done in half an hour are grouped into the miscellaneous folder which really helps keep your already large quest list a bit smaller. The UI is also really slick and quick/easy to navigate which is a welcome addition. Houses now have usable weapon racks and mannequins for your armor so you can proudly display your hard earned loot without having to sit there for an hour fighting with the shoddy ‘pick up’ button trying to put your items on display like in previous games. I’d say my favorite house addition are the bookshelves that can be ‘activated’ which opens up your inventory and you can select what books to place on the shelf. The best part is that you can still read the book while they’re on the shelf without putting it into your inventory or messing anything up. I’m sure I’m not alone when I used to spend ages sitting there trying to neatly put books on shelves.

Skyrim of course isn’t late to Bethesda’s bug party, but bugs in a Bethesda game is pretty much expected. I had my game freeze twice on me, once in Helgen during the tutorial when you have to jump on the inn roof and right before the end of the tutorial when you exit the cave into Skyrim. Ever since then in my 50+ hours I haven’t encountered a single problem which I’m going to thank the gaming gods for. I suppose this is a blessing I’ve been given after the punishment I supposedly deserved when I played Fallout 3 and had constant freezes, framerate drops, or losing save files. There is a pretty big bug going around on the Playstation 3 version when your save file gets over 6MB. Players are saying their games have become unplayable with severe framerate drops and not being able to turn in quests. My file is getting close to 8MB and haven’t had any sort of issue yet, but I felt it was necessary to mention this. Hopefully Bethesda fixes this instead of ignoring it like a certain vampire quest glitch in Oblivion.

Everything in Skyrim has gotten an obvious bump in quality from Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Characters actually have some detail to them, proportions are correct, you can actually make a pretty good looking character, and even though most textures are all flat you barely notice it when the game is in motion. I know many people will still criticize the game for looking a bit dated, but considering the massive world Bethesda has created I’m pretty impressed with how it all looks. The biggest improvement is obviously in the armor and weapon detail. They’ve added a zoom option in the menu so you can rotate/zoom into whatever piece of armor or weapon you want. It doesn’t stop there though, since you can now look at the dozens of different food, ingredients, miscellaneous objects, or even read books. I can’t imagine the sleepless nights fun the art team had doing all this.

I’ve always considered The Elder Scrolls series to have a great soundtrack, but Skyrim’s thundering music is probably my favorite of the series. The feeling you get when you walk into a town to pick up something from the blacksmith, hear the roar of a dragon and the panic of the villagers, then pull out your mace (any other weapon is for babies, except maybe warhammers) as the dragon fighting music starts playing is one I’ll never get tired of. Bethesda did bump up the quality of their voice actors by hiring more than triple the amount they had in Oblivion (pretty sure they had less than 20 guys doing voices in Oblivion). Everything feels more natural and stopping by to listen to the NPC chatter actually feels like chatter you’d hear in real life, unlike the forced dialog Oblivion suffered from.

The Final Word
Is Skyrim a perfect game? Far from it, but it is one hell of an excellent entry into a franchise and easily one of the best games put out this generation. This is something that will keep you itching to finish one more quest or clear that last dungeon to score some fat loot that no game out this quarter will be able to satisfy. I’m a huge Batman nerd/fanboy, and since I got my PS3 fixed I haven’t been able to actually sit down and finish Arkham City because I’ve got a case of the Skyrim fever. Just go buy this game. Or go steal it, but if the police ask why you did it tell them Will sent you you didn’t get any ideas from me.

- MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent

There has been a lot of loud trumpeting about the superiority of FPS’ this year and it’s easy to see why with so many hitting shelves this holiday season. Battlefield 3 is Electronic Arts’ golden boy entry into the fray who has had much resting on its shoulders. With the addition of single-player and coop campaigns as well as a brand new engine, Frostbyte 2, DICE and EA look to champion the market this holiday season. Does the latest iteration of the Battlefield franchise have what it takes to beat out the best? Or are there crosshairs already focused on this latest FPS?

Battlefield 3 splits itself into three separate experiences, the single player campaign, the coop campaign and the much-touted multiplayer. The single player seats you behind marine Sgt. Blackburn as he’s interrogated for information regarding a possible terrorist threat in New York. Utilizing a series of flashbacks, you play mainly through the eyes of Blackburn but also out of several other varying perspectives. It’s nothing original these days but it does have a lot of parts that are truly engaging, especially when you play in the heat of battle or drive a tank. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, the campaign ends before you know it, especially when it feels like things are just picking up momentum.

More importantly, the short campaign ends up feeling more like a glorified tech demo which, while impressive, feels like it could have been so much more. I was disappointed that there were some moments that felt set up for awesomeness and then didn’t end up paying off, such as an early level where you enter the cockpit of a fighter jet but rather than pilot it you instead sit backseat and focus on firing off flares and shooting down other enemy fighters. In retrospect, it probably gives you more opportunity to view the world that DICE’s Frostbyte 2 engine created but that only adds to the tech demo feeling. Don’t get me wrong: Battlefield 3’s single player campaign is by no means bad but it feels if there was a bit more effort put into it along with a more unique story, it could have been something truly special.

The coop campaign takes select missions from or inspired by the single player mode and adapts them for two players. Missions can vary from defending a specific area to providing air support via helicopter to ground patrols. Overall, coop doesn’t feel forced and it’s nice if you have a friend you can play with but the experience is little more than just that: campaign with a friend. While the coop mode also boasts multiplayer weapon unlocks, it takes a substantial amount of points to do so – so dedication is a must.

Finally we get to the multiplayer which, as far as anyone else is concerned, is the real meat of the game — as it throws no punches. Even on consoles, while maps and player limits have been down-sized, maps feel spacious and combat feels delightfully strategic while retaining the fast-paced action. Maps support up to 12 on 12 with five game modes available at launch: Conquest, Rush, Squad Rush, Squad Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. Conquest acts as a variant of Capture the Flag, whereby teams each have a number of lives and you capture flags to set spawn points across the map. Squad and regular versions of Battlefield’s signature Rush mode sees one team playing the offensive while the other is on defense. Those on the offensive try to capture strategic locations that open up more of the map eventually leading in the capture of the enemy team’s HQ. Squad and Team Deathmatch remain self-explanatory.

Multiplayer loadouts are grouped into four classes: the Assault, the Support, the Engineer and the Recon. The Assault class is now a hybrid of the Assault and Medic classes from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, given a position of killing power but also the ability to deploy medkits and defibrillate dead players back to life. The Support class starts with machine guns, can give out ammo, and is the most effective at a new mechanic called ‘suppressive fire’, which blurs enemy vision and stops their health regeneration when firing in their general direction, even if you don’t hit them. The Engineer class remains largely unchanged from Bad Company 2, can repair vehicles and also take them out with a variety of explosive weaponry. Finally, the Recon class returns as the sniper of the group but now requires players to hold their breath with a click of the thumbstick in order to achieve optimum accuracy.

Each class gains experience as you use them, catering more to players that stick to their style, however your overall rank accumulates with XP you gain from all the classes cumulatively. Individually, as you can imagine, leveling up a specific class gives you access to their specific gadgets like the defibrillator for the Assault class and also gives you access to more of your factions weapons. This allows you to experiment a bit with your styles of play and the weapons you prefer. This meta-system of ranking has become commonplace in multiplayer games but DICE does it well here, rewarding XP for many of the actions you do, like offering suppressing fire or healing teammates. While the top players will still level up fast, this at least means that newer players to the series will still be able to level up at decent pace.

When it comes to presentation, Battlefield 3 is no pushover as the graphics are spot on, bringing a lush variety of colour and light to the warzone that really helps set the atmosphere. I can tell you that even on the console editions, the game looks gorgeous. While it’s easy to see that our modern consoles are showing their age (can I get a bit of anti-aliasing please?), there is something to be said about the way light shines through windows or the resulting smoke and dust from leveling a building. It’s impressive to see a breath of fresh air coming from these machines. Character animations are realistic and detailed during multiplayer and rarely glitch as much as they did in DICE’s beta. Guns each sound and feel unique and the voice work does a good job of selling you the campaign. It begs mentioning how cool the user interface looks, with its glowing blue HUD wrapped around your screen – nothing new, but definitely sleek. All and all, presentation is great here aside from a few texture pop-in hiccups every so often.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

It feels like it’s been a long time coming but Battlefield 3 is finally here. Months of previews detailing the game’s new shiny visuals and multiplayer have not disappointed those who awaited it. DICE’s offering to the FPS market this season is a solid game with fast-paced yet strategic combat and wide-open 12 on 12 player combat. Multiplayer is fun and rewarding with a deep upgrade system that tries to remain accessible to everyone. It is unfortunate that the game stumbles a bit on it’s single-player but there are truly some good moments to be had, and it’s a great way to get a taste of the online action. Be it on console or PC, this is one fight you won’t wanna miss.

MonsterVine Ranking: 4 out of 5

id Software is well known for the Doom and Quake series, but they have not developed a big budget title since Doom 3. It’s safe to say that id Software came back strong with a new I.P. and hopefully a franchise that will stay with us for a while. RAGE is id’s first appearance in the open world genre, but does RAGE have what it takes to pull gamers into a new franchise?

RAGE is set on Earth 106 years after an asteroid wipes out most of the world, save a few pockets of settlements that have managed to survive. Before the asteroid hit, however, governments around the world built “Arks” to house a few volunteers to reenter the world some time after the asteroid hit, to rebuild humanity. This is where the main protagonist (silent protagonist) begins his quest as he enters to find his fellow Ark volunteers dead. His adventure takes him to various locations in the Wasteland, and pits him up against various factions of Bandits, mutants, and the Authority, an organization with mysterious intentions for the Ark survivors, and with so much power that many are afraid to step up against them. The Resistance is the only group that fights against the Authority, but does so from secret hiding places.

Our hero meets various characters on his adventure in the Wasteland, many of which offer unique and interesting personalities. Each encounter with non-playable characters are enjoyable and made me feel immersed in the Wasteland. I found myself wanting to talk to every NPC that I came across just to hear their thoughts on the various happenings in the Wasteland.

The NPCs, however, are a contributing factor to the one thing that bothered me throughout my review run of RAGE. Yes, I was amazed by the voice over work and the sense of immersion that NPCs left me with, but they supplied the motive for the protagonist. Not once did I feel as if my character had his own motive for why he fights against the Authority, other than the motive that the Resistance and other characters give him. Not that I think this game could benefit from a Karma system, or at least the player be given an option to either fight for the resistance or the Authority. I appreciate that id Software has taken a linear path for its story, but I would have loved to see my main protagionst have his own reasons for supporting the citizens of the Wasteland, and have his own motives for fighting the Authority.

I was very interested in the story, as I think there was an uplifting message buried within the surface of an otherwise brutal and harsh game (which I can’t explain without spoiling the story). Some of the story missions, however, made the pace fall flat; leaving me uninterested in what was coming next. Not to say that game play was the reason why I felt bogged down by ‘errand boy’ type missions, because I loved every minute of the combat (more on that soon). I felt that some of the missions made strides in the story, pushing it forward to make me really enjoy the tale id Software set out to tell, however some missions had the opposite effect, and did little to push the story forward and only felt like filler missions.

I am completely sold on the game play, which I think is excellent and never grew old to me. id Software showed that they can develop solid FPS controls that, I believe, can compete with today’s FPS juggernauts. Each shotgun blast, grenade blast, and decapitation caused by Wingsticks (a boomerang type weapon that is also my favorite weapon in the game) satisfied me as much as the last and never made the combat feel dull. Customizing the weapons with different ammo types helps ensure that the combat never becomes dull, and allows the player to think strategically when facing the many foes in the Wasteland.

The combat is intense thanks to the A.I. adapting to your style. If you rush the enemy, shooting everything in sight, your enemy will find cover and quickly pick you off as you foolishly move forward without taking cover. Should you hide behind cover, however, you will soon be greeted by advancing enemies that look to rush your position. The A.I. is impressive in these intense moments, and requires tactics on the part of the player in order to succeed.

Like many post apocalyptic type games, (and most RPG’s for that matter), players will come across a healthy number of loot and random objects around the Wasteland of RAGE. A few of these objects are pointless and are only meant to be sold for cash, but other objects can be combined to form tools important to the protagonist’s survival.

Gun combat and item building is not the only thing RAGE does well. Vehicle game play is done so well that, I believe, id Software could have went ahead and developed a driving/car combat game. Driving a vehicle does not take long to get used to, if not right away, and quickly feels like a natural part of the game. Vehicles is the only sensible way of traveling between objectives (you can try walking, but good luck fighting on foot against four or five bandit vehicles at once). Enemy vehicles patrol the Wasteland, so car combat plays just as important role as the first person shooter game play. You can drive right by the enemy vehicles in order to avoid combat, but I found myself chasing down the bandits with my dual machine guns or auto lock missiles, only to be met with a satisfying explosion when ever my ordinance met their vehicle.

Players can also participate in races and other vehicle related events in order to upgrade their vehicle with armor, new weapons, and even engine and boost upgrades. I was surprised to find an upgrade system for the vehicles with this much in RAGE, something that I appreciated very much.

Car combat plays a big role in multiplayer; in fact, the competitive multiplayer is only car combat. Four players can compete against each other in four game modes, earning experience points to unlock new vehicles, decals, and weapons. The level design is excellent. They are large enough for each racer to get away in a hurry, and hit top speed in their vehicle, but not too large that players will get lost, or that the combat will get slow and boring. id Software is known for making excellent multiplayer maps, and it’s clear with RAGE that they have not lost their touch.

Players can also participate in Wasteland Legends, a two player co-op mode that gives backstories for the various characters and locations in the Wasteland. You can tackle the missions in two difficulties and even going at them solo (you won’t earn trophies or challenges if you do the co-op missions solo). The co-op missions are defiantly a lot of fun, and a good addition to RAGE’s multiplayer.

I can’t end this review without mentioning how beautiful this game looks, thanks to the id Tech 5 game engine that powers RAGE. Lighting is the first thing I took notice too; with ambient effects bouncing off every surface in the game, it’s hard to not fall in love with the lighting. There are the particle effects too that are fantastic during intense fire fights with bandits or the Authority, allowing each explosion and impacts from bullets to make the experience in the Wasteland a harrowing one. Staring off in the distance is something I find myself doing more often than not, soaking up the world’s depth of field, and really appreciating the work id Software has put into the id Tech 5 engine and RAGE.

The settlements that you come across are wonderfully detailed, fulfilling a sense that this is a world in the early steps of rebuilding itself after an apocalyptic event. Each settlement is inhabited with NPC’s that walk around town exchanging conversations with one another and going about their business as if this is a living, breathing world. It’s just another fine touch to the immersive atmosphere of RAGE.

The Final Word: I definitely have my issues with the structuring of the story missions, as I found myself uninterested in what my objective was, and felt that caused the story to fall flat at different points. With that said, id Software has developed a beautiful game set in a harsh environment. RAGE is packed with side quests, gambling games (even its very own card game that is easy to pick up and learn) and a solid multiplayer that adds to the game’s replay value. id Software has proved once again, with RAGE, that they can develop a great video game.

MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 – Great

Leaving many people captivated by its award-winning trailer earlier this year, Dead Island immediately had a lot to live up to. The sullen piano theme and tragic tale of a family besieged by zombies in slow motion painted the picture of a melancholy survival game like no other. As previews began to emerge, however, the game didn’t seem quite what the trailer promised it to be. Does Dead Island measure up to the experience it conveys or is it destined to walk among the dead? Read on to find out.

Editor’s Note: This review was written before the Xbox 360 patch that was recently released.

Dead Island’s story is simple: as one of four survivors, you wake up in a desolate hotel on the fictional island of Banoi. Eventually, you encounter the undead horde and are rescued by a lifeguard named Sinamoi, and later come in contact with a mysterious voice on the radio who promises escape. Survival and escape become your key goals as you help other inhabitants on the island and try to discover what happened. All in all, the main plot will take you anywhere from 20 to 30 hours to complete, with sidequests adding dozens more.

The four playable survivors include the knife-wielding Xian Mei, the mercenary Purna, R&B artist and blunt weapon specialist Sam B. and the former football star and throwing expert Logan. Something I found particularly disappointing was that there was no sense of plot individuality among the characters. There are intricately woven backstories for each character on the character select screen that are ultimately never pursued. No matter who you choose, you wake up in the same hotel and the same situation. In game, characters don’t have much personality aside from the quips they make during combat and end up being bland. You’ll find it hard to care through many of the game’s dramatic moments.

Fortunately, the redeeming qualities of Dead Island lie in its customization and combat. Each of the four characters have three talent trees designed to improve their special abilities, combat prowess and survivability, giving you a point every time you level up. Each character also gets their own unique “RAGE” ability that is usable once a fillable meter reaches its peak. These abilities can range from beating down zombies with your fists to hailing down knives on the horde. Many of the talent bonuses are passive but occasionally you’ll unlock some new abilities such as a stomp to crush fallen zombies. While the characters feel initially the same, it’s the avenues for customization that add just enough flavour to make each individual to seem their own.

As you explore the world, you’ll find a plethora of weapons and mods that will help you upgrade them. Plans found across the island vary from the tried-and-true ‘nail mod’ that adds nails to a blunt weapon to the touted ‘shock mod’ that will make your machete crackle with electricity. You can add these mods via workbenches scattered around the island, which also allow for upgrades and repairs. Weapons degrade fast after use unless talented, so you’ll find yourself switching weapons regularly or looking for benches. Upgrades increase the base parameters for your weapons which increase their value and overall killing potential. Though there are the traditional color identifiers (green, blue, purple) to show the strength of weaponry it’s the upgrades and mods that will keep them valuable enough not to throw away when they need repairs. Funny enough, everything at the non-shopkeep-operated workbenches costs money. Even in times of a zombie apocalypse, the honor system stands strong.

The coup de grace of Dead Island doesn’t just lie in its extensive customization but also in its fast-paced combat system. Combat is mainly a melee-oriented affair and while there are firearms in the game, they don’t appear until much later and can’t carry much ammo. Melee swings feel like they have real weight behind them and there’s always a satisfying crunch as it makes contact with your enemies. In addition to swinging your weapons, which are governed by a stamina meter that increases as you level, you can also throw them at enemies from a distance. Each character also has a kick which can push and even knock down charging zombies. Used efficiently, your combination of abilities can get you out of many encounters without much of a scrape.

Make no mistake: when you’re on your own in Dead Island you will die. A lot. Zombies come in a variety of flavours from the slow-moving Walkers, to the Left 4 Dead-esque, speedy Infected as well as exploding Suiciders and more. These zombies are resilient, and you’ll find in the beginning that it’s easy to be overwhelmed. To top it all off, enemies level with you as you do, providing a consistent challenge no matter where you wander. Despite the difficulty, the punishment for death only sees you waiting a few seconds and losing some money. Dying becomes bearable this way but the game loses some of its ‘survival’ feel in the process.

Dead Island is clearly a game designed for coop and luckily the coop system holds together reasonably well. If you’re connected to the network and other people are near you in their own games, a quick press on the directional pad will allow you to join their game. It’s a convenient and painless system for jumping into coop and works well when there’s no one on to play with. Items and experience points are saved over from coop games and a fast travel system makes it easy to travel to other players when they’re beginning a quest. Standard stuff but it when it works, it works well.

Dead Island’s presentation is somewhat of a mixed bag; lighting is bright and areas are full of variety and colour. Water is beautiful in this game and is truly one of the best parts of this game’s artwork. I literally stood watching it glisten in the sun for a few minutes before I realized zombies were coming to feast on my flesh. Sadly though, the rest of the world doesn’t cope as well: many of the textures take a long time to pop in and a lot of jagged edges permeate the landscape. It’s a bit jarring as it feels like the extensive use of bloom was in an attempt to try and cover up all the unpolished artwork. Character animations are also quite stiff when you talk to other people, who barely move and show little emotion. It’s worth mentioning that in cutscenes the main characters look bug-eyed. It’s creepy enough to be off-putting.

Sounds are generally well-delivered and the background music sets the mood appropriately without interfering too much. Zombies have appropriately distinctive screams so that you can easily differentiate between them. Don’t expect much of the voice acting though, especially from the main characters—I’ll admit that it’s not terrible but many of the lines sounded forced or awkward.

Presentation issues aside, Dead Island is buggy. While the developers have now committed themselves to ironing out issues, especially on the PC version of the game, you’ll find that sometimes items disappear from your inventory or a quest will stop functioning, preventing you from progressing. I found on a particular quest, the quest giver’s voice was replaced for the entirety of his disposition, only to return to normal afterwards. On several occasions, I also got stuck in a corner in which the only way I could escape was leaving the game and re-entering. While not all of the issues are game-breaking, it certainly does take you out of the immersion and can be quite frustrating.

Too Long; Didn’t Read
When all is said and done, Dead Island is a coop game through and through. The wisp of a story takes too long to pick up and won’t capture your interest for long. While there are a lot of bugs that permeate the experience and at times the presentation struggles with stiff animations and tearing, there is a lot of fun to be had here. If nothing else, the game’s satisfying combat mechanics are the redeeming quality on this island full of corpses. Kicking down a zombie and smashing in its face never gets old. Enemies are relentless and the difficulty going solo means you’re going to die a lot. However, despite all of its flaws, Dead Island is full of fun moments, especially with friends. While it may not recapture the emotion of its dramatic trailer, if you’re looking for a zombie-killing simulator with lots of content, Dead Island’s your game.

Avalanche Studios are the glorious developers who brought us Just Cause 2, which was one of my GOTY choices, so I was a little ticked when I heard they weren’t working on Just Cause 3 yet until I heard they were forced by the government to chill the fuck out because JC2 was just too crazy. Now they toned down the crazy into a crazy car combat game that’s fucking awesome and you should totally buy it.

Renegade Ops opens up with Inferno (that’s his name) destroying a city with one of his many nukes and promises to blow up more cities if the world government doesn’t pay him. General Bryant isn’t exactly the negotiating type so he rounds up his team known as the Renegades to kill Inferno. The story doesn’t get anymore in-depth than that, but this is a game built around gameplay over story (similarly to JC2). You have nine missions to go through and each level has a *somewhat* open world. You’re free to travel all over the fairly large map to kill stuff for XP or to complete the bonus objectives, but eventually a timer will pop up to tell you to hurry up and finish the main objective or else it’s game over for you. I found the timer to be a tad bit annoying sometimes since you never know which main objective could be the last one so you try to finish those bonus objectives as fast as possible for the big points you get for doing them. Each mission ends in a climactic boss battle against Inferno who pilots a new vehicle of death each time. These missions can be straight up fights or end up as multiphase bosses instead with the first mission ending with you hopping in a helicopter and taking out Inferno’s battleship. The thrills are high and the explosions plenty in this campaign.

Once you start up the game you’ll be given the option of choosing between 4 different drivers, each with their own car and abilities (PS3 owners will get 2 new cars by October due to the Play program). Armand drives a tank(ish) vehicle and has a sweet shield that makes you invincible while it’s active and can be upgraded to deflect enemy attacks back at them. Dion has an EMP blast which is fantastic for online play to support your buddies, or just to make a quick escape. Roxy has an amazing airstrike move that just obliterates everything in the area. Finally Gunnar has a heavy gun that will replace your basic attack but the downside is that you can’t move while it’s active. You might be wondering why anyone would pick anything other than the airstrike, but once you get into the later missions you’ll realize sometimes you just want to disable the enemies or drive away, plus those support drivers help out a lot online.

Each character can be leveled up by simply completing objectives, doing stunts, or just blowing shit up. I heard the max level is 45, but don’t take my word on it since I only have Armand at 30 and Roxy at 10 right now. Before you start a mission you’re prompted to spend any accumulated upgrade points you’ve gained to level up your skills in one of 3 skill trees. There’s one that focuses on health, another for secondary weapons (the rocket/flamethrower/rail gun pick-ups), and then the last is focused on your specific character. I figured each character would have the same skills in the first 2 trees, but to my surprise they don’t. As my friend was playing Roxy I noticed he got some pretty nice health upgrades that I didn’t have access to while playing Armand. The beginning skills take 3 points to unlock, but that price soon hikes up the higher you go on the tree with some skills taking 11 points. When you look over the skill tree you start to drool at how overpowered your character is going to be once you max them out, but the thing is that you can only equip 4 skills at a time. Having around a dozen skills per tree means you really have to put some thought on how you want to play that mission. You might not have done so well on a certain mission so you could take more health skills to last longer, or perhaps you know the level perfectly so go for the secondary weapon skills that replenish your ammo and bring the pain to Inferno.

The game has local (2-player only) co-op with both a dynamic and static camera. We tested out the static and that simply slices the screen in half diagonally. This works well enough, but I really would’ve preferred if it was done horizontally instead since I found myself wishing I had a bit more screen. I also felt a bit annoyed since (because it’s split diagonally for some reason) I felt the second player had the better screen since they’re given more space of important information. What I’m trying to say is most of player 1′s screen is the health-bar (top) area) where you won’t be looking most of the time while the second player gets more of the actual middle/lower screen where combat usually is. It still works, but I really would have preferred a horizontal or straight vertical split. Now the dynamic screen is a fucking pain I don’t recommend it at all. What it does is split the screen whenever you and your buddy aren’t in the same screen. Stay together and you get one nice big screen to share. Once you venture away from each other the screen not only splits, it fucking rotates. In a car combat game where you’re driving fast, keeping track of your car while not only is the split screen rotating in 360 degrees, but you also have your friend causing chaos on his screen you might get confused which screen you’re on. Seriously, don’t fucking use it.

You can also jump online for up to 4 player co-op. You could either jump into a quick-match that could toss you into any game as you’d expect, or you can get specific with which mission you want, difficulty, and amount of players. Now if you complete a mission online that you haven’t finished in the singleplayer yet it won’t unlock for you, but the nice touch is that you can bring your leveled characters online and keep any experience gained. Going online also helps grind up your characters since you won’t have all the enemies ganging on you like the singleplayer and completing optional objectives is much easier with the added players.

Overall the graphics are fantastic as you’d expect coming from the guys who just made Just Cause 2. The little effects like dust from your car when you boost, spiraling explosions, bullet damage, and just explosions in general look great. The soundtrack has a nice rock vibe to it and the sound effects from the game sound just as good.

The Final Word
You’ve got 9 missions which will last you a few hours by yourself with 4 different characters to level up which means adamant players will put quite a lot of time into this game to max out their characters or get the highscore on a level. This is definitely going to be one of the best downloadable titles of the year and should definitely be on your buy list.

- MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good