Call of Duty: Black Ops 4: There is no Mason.
The past 2 Call of Duty games weren’t really up to the standard that I’d come to expect from the franchise. Part of this can be attributed to Black Ops 3 being my favourite in the series, the multiplayer keeping me going for a good 150+ hours before I decided to call it quits. So my expectations were probably higher than they’d otherwise be for Black Ops 4, hoping to rekindle that love of the COD multiplayer which I’d lost for the last couple years. Whilst on one hand all the ingredients are there for that to happen again there’s been some glaring omissions and strange launch-day decisions that have marred what could’ve otherwise been yet another solid COD game from Treyarch.
This is typically where I’d give a brief synopsis of the initial plot for the game but since Black Ops 4 lacks a single player campaign I have none to give. Sure they’ve buried some meagre bits and pieces on the specialists training modes, giving you a brief cutscene here or there that speaks to why each of the character classes have their abilities, but that does not a single player campaign make. After it was announced that this was the case Treyarch confirmed unequivocally that they never intended to put a single player campaign in, citing the fact that most players simply jump straight into the multi. I have no reason to doubt that but out of the 3 Call of Duty developers they were always the ones who made the most interesting and engaging stories. Leaving that out seems like a missed opportunity, one that this reviewer certainly laments. Of course it wasn’t taken away for just any old reason as it was replaced with Blackout although whether or not the trade off was worth it will be entirely up to you. For me it certainly wasn’t (more on that later).
The Call of Duty games were never known for their cutting edge visuals, instead favouring higher performance to go along with the game’s rapid pace of combat. This trend continues with Black Ops 4 with the game striving to maintain a smooth, high frame rate experience over providing Crysis-like eye candy. There’s also less opportunity for level and set designers to showcase what the engine is capable of doing due to the game being multiplayer only. All things considered though the game looks perfectly fine for what it wants to be: a fast paced shooter. I will admit though that I figured that for the handful of cutscenes they created they would’ve spent a little more of their ridiculous budget on making them a little more cutting edge.
Black Ops 4 retains its 2 core game modes that most players will know, regular multiplayer and zombies, along with the new Battle Royal mode called Blackout. The base multiplayer games don’t deviate from the COD formula much, retaining the same Pick 10 system alongside a familiar cast of weapons. Some weapons now have the option of an Operator Mod which will significantly change the way the gun operates from simple things like massive rates of fire increases to strobe lights for one of the shotguns. Deviating from the last few titles as well is the lack of loot boxes with the only microtransactions in sight being used for buying different cosmetic skins for the specialists. Perhaps the biggest change though is the lack of automatically regenerating health, instead relegated to a piece of equipment which you’ll have you manually trigger to regenerate health. Most interesting of all is that the stim pack is actually a choice, you can replace it with another piece of gear if you so wish. For those who are really at the top of their game this gives them a very high risk/reward balance to play with, one I’ve seen used to both great and ill effect. Suffice to say the core of Black Ops 4 doesn’t deviate too much from the formula with the exception of Blackout.
To be completely open here I’m not the biggest fan of the Battle Royal format. I’ve played my share of PUBG, both on PC and mobile, and it can be enjoyable with a bunch of mates. However I like my FPS games fast and furious, something which the COD franchise has supported me with for many years. Battle Royal on the other hand is very much a slow and considered game, one that favours being patient and formulating a strategy if you want to win. Sure I could just parachute into a hot zone and likely die in the first couple minutes if I wanted to speed things up a bit but honestly, given that there’s a much more capable TDM and other modes available right there I’m far more likely to want to play that. Still in the interests of seeing everything that Black Ops 4 had to offer I figured I should give Blackout a try and, well, it’s pretty much as you’d expect: PUBG with COD weapons. I’ve heard from many that it’s a pretty great experience (which is likely given that Black Ops 4 has seen incredible sales) but for me, as a rusher type player in these kinds of games, it’s the antithesis of what I want from this kind of game. Your mileage may vary, though.
A good chunk of content for Black Ops 4 comes from 3 so right off the bat you’re going to be back in familiar territory. The same goes for the character classes with half of them being direct copy and pastes of their former selves. At first I was a little miffed at that, wanting a whole new experience, but I got over that relatively quickly as I realised it gave me a headstart on knowing the maps and which character classes I’d fit best into. A lot of the weapons have been changed around and there’s a much more wide variety of mods to choose from, making a great deal of the game’s weapons viable in PVP (so long as you can get the right unlocks done, of course). The starter classes are also well rounded as well, one of them coming with a fully kitted out gun that you won’t be able to get until level 50 or so. I’ve found the most success running with the Spitfire SMG, a bullet hose of a weapon that feels like a long range shotgun when you upgrade it with laser sights 2 and the extended mag. The ARs and shotguns were also somewhat viable depending on the map but SMGs felt like the better all round weapon if I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into.
The class abilities are a bit of a mixed bag given that they all seem to have rather lengthy cooldowns and can be real hit and miss affairs. The shock drone, radar beacon, assault pack and razor wire ones seem to be the most useful, having a direct impact on your performance in a match. Other ones like the cluster grenade and trip wire feel hit or miss, unlikely to provide a consistent boost to your ability to win matches. For some of the ultimate abilities you’ll be lucky to get 1 off per game (like the vision pulse one) whereas the other, less impactful ones (like Crash’s overheal) you’ll likely be able to get off 2~3 times easily. I’m sure this is going to be a boon for competitive teams as there’s a clear delineation between support and offensive ultimates, allowing them to fine tune team comps quite well. For pub players like me though it’ll just come down to whichever one feels best to you. I’ve standardised on Crash for the most part since that seems to help my team out the most.
I couldn’t do this review without talking about the current state of the multiplayer networking, specifically the 20hz server debacle. To put it simply the Black Ops 4’s server engine runs at 20hz, meaning all in-game events are updated 20 times per second. That sounds plenty fast enough however most modern games run at double or triple that and even Black Ops 4 itself ran at 60hz during its beta phase. The problem with this is that it leads to really inconsistent play with players able to one shot kill each other, seemingly land shots on you when you’re around a corner or, if you’re lucky, seemingly grant you super powers with the ability to kill anyone before they have a chance to react. This issue only seems to be amplify the host advantage problem as well, making some games an absolute nightmare for the opposing team. Treyarch has said that the limit on server tick rate was done to ensure that they could maintain the service during the initial rush and that it would eventually be put back up to 60hz. If they stay true to their word then Black Ops 4 might actually be a great game to pick up around the holiday season but for now, if you’re someone who’s interested in playing competitively, it may be best to give it a miss until 60hz makes a return.
The lack of single player and the 20hz servers might not sound like big issues but for someone like me, who really enjoyed Treyarch’s cerebral plots and glass smooth multi, they’re huge marks against the best Call of Duty game I’ve played in the last 3 years. To be sure I still feel that Treyarch is the one the others should follow but even this instalment feels like the weakest one from the developer to date. Perhaps I’ve begun to outgrow the series or maybe it’s taking a new direction that leads it away from me, I’m not sure, as all I really know is that the near unmitigated fun I found in previous titles has been gone for some time. Black Ops 4 has a potential redemption story ahead of it in the form of better multiplayer servers but I’ll still have that hole in my heart which only a Treyarch COD story can fill.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 retains the trademarks of the Treyarch style that, in my opinion, makes their version of the IP the best. The combat is still great, the various weapon options still a joy to fiddle with and the familiarity of old maps made the transition in that much smoother. Blackout is something that I personally could do without but it’s likely to be a drawcard for the numerous players out there who love the format and have tired of current offerings. The lack of a campaign is certainly disappointing and the inclusion of a token effort felt more insulting than if they had just left it out completely. The 20hz server issue is certainly annoying but I’m hopeful that it will be fixed as the player base declines from its launch highs. For what it’s worth I’m still enjoying the multi and I’ll probably put a few more good hours into it before I call it quits completely. Perhaps the residual hype from Black Ops 3 is what has doomed me here but I can’t help feeling that I wanted just a little bit more from Treyarch this time around.
Rating: 8.0/10
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 right now for $89.95. Game was played on the PC with a total of 8 hours of play time.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare: Attack of the Space Terrorists.
The yearly Call of Duty release belies the fact that there are 3 developers behind the franchise: Infinity Ward, Treyarch and Sledgehammer. The last game we saw from the original developer was all the way back in 2013 when they debuted Call of Duty: Ghosts, an uncharacteristic stumble for them. By comparison both Sledgehammer and Treyarch’s entries were both superior, signalling that Infinity Ward was no longer the king of the franchise it created. Infinite Warfare was then their chance to prove that they knew how to do Call of Duty best but, unfortunately, they’ve missed the mark once again.
Infinite Warfare is set in the distant future, one where humanity has expanded its presence throughout the solar system. However over time tensions between the United Nations Space Alliance and the denziens of Mars have led to the formation of the Settlement Defense Front; a ruthless militaristic organisation hell bent on Mars becoming the one and only super power in the solar system. You are Nick Reyes, a captain of the Special Combat Air Recon force who commands a fleet of futuristic warplanes, charged with the defense of Earth and all UNSA protected territories. With news of a specialist strike team being taken out by the SDF during a tenuous cease fire agreement tensions are running high and a system wide war is a very real possibility.
Infinite Warfare is the first Call of Duty to be release only for current generation platforms, leaving the PlayStation 3 and Box 360 behind. The improvement in graphical fidelity from Black Ops III is slight but noticeable, the inclusion of more modern effects like physically-based rendering evident the more realistic lighting effects. The automatic graphics selection does a good job although it priortises frame rate over better visuals. With a few tweaks however it’s quite easy to knock up the detail a few notches without any noticeable drops in framerates. Like all other fast-paced shooters the environments are mostly designed to look good as you’re rushing past as up close the lack of detail becomes rather evident. Overall it’s a solid improvement over its predecessors.
Infinite Warfare follows the tried and true Call of Duty formula, pitting you agains the enemy of the day with an array of weapons and abilities to combat them with. The missions are your standard corridor shooter affair with some rudimentary stealth sections thrown in here or there. New to the series is the ability to choose between a variety of different missions, a good chunk of which take place wholly in your futuristic warplane/ship. The missions also give you upgrades to both your ship and your player character, slowly building you up into the war machine every player imagines themselves to be. Other than that there’s not too much difference between Infinite Warfare and the numerous futuristic shooters that have preceded it.
Combat is, as always, fast paced and polished to the nth degree. Whilst you’ll still suffer from the enemy AI that’s able to snipe you with a pistol from across the map (especially at higher difficulties) you’ll still be able to run and gun your way through the majority of the game. One particular letdown here is the weapon variety as a lot of them feel very similar and thus you don’t feel as compelled to experiment as you would have in previous Call of Duty titles. There are some truly inventive ideas though, like the shotgun that has a lock-on sight, something which even made it into the multi-player version. The various grenades and gadgets provide a decent amount of combat variation although once you’ve used them all once it becomes clear that the shock grenades and the shield are probably the only ones you want to keep on you.
The non-campaign single player missions are unfortunately quite bland, especially the SCAR ones which are all basically the same, just played out in different locations. Thankfully they can be ground out pretty quickly, enabling you to blase through the campaign without a smattering of side quests constantly begging for your attention. In all honesty it probably would’ve served Infinite Warfare better to not have the overworld and instead focus on the core missions, feeding you upgrades through optional objectives or something similar. If a space nut like myself gets bored with flying around space in a futuristic warship then you know something is terribly wrong.
The story is typical Call of Duty: heavy on action and light on the details. Infinity Ward tried halfheartedly to avoid the typical America vs The Evil Foreigners trope but with all the key good characters being Americans and the bad ones foreign sounding it fails the sniff test instantly. There’s also too little development given to the numerous characters thrown at you so when the inevitable happens the emotional impact is essentially nothing. The fact that I’m struggling to come up with any memorable moments in the game should tell you just how little of an impact the story had on me.
The multiplayer experience was unfortunately marred by several launch issues, most notably a horrendously broken matchmaking system. After finishing the campaign I immediately dove into the multiplayer only to be met with no games to play. I tried all the options in the hopes it was just one game mode that was broken to no avail. After sitting there for 15 minutes I figured I’d try out Titanfall 2 just to see if I could still get a game and, lo and behold, I was playing not 30 seconds later. This has been fixed for the most part but I still can’t get a game of Domination to save my life. It’s sad really as I had such a good time with Black Ops III’s multi I was really excited to get back into the scene. It seems this time around it’s simply not to be.
One thing that bears mentioning is the new weapon crafting system which, unfortunately, has some of the troubling features of a pay to win system. You see you can craft variants of guns which have perks, all of which stack with their attachment counterpart. These weapons require salvage, a good deal of it for the higher end variants, something which comes in drips and drabs if you play normally. However, and this is the key, rare supply drops come with salvage, something which you can buy with actual money. I was ok with the new weapons in Black Ops III being locked behind supply drops since they were on par with the regular weapons but these ones are by definition more powerful. It’s a pity because I think the system is great otherwise.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is an unfortunate continuation of Treyarch’s previous stumbles, failing to live up to the standard that the other developers of the series are setting. For the most part it’s still your tried and true Call of Duty game however there are several issues which mar the overall experience. The repetitive single player missions distract from the much higher quality campaign missions and the effort developing them would have been better spent elsewhere. The multiplayer had some uncharacteristic teething issues, something which I’m sure turned thousands of players away for good. Finally the inclusion of a system that allows players to pay to get ahead of others isn’t something that should be encouraged, even if the underlying system was novel. Overall whilst Infinite Warfare keeps the core aspects of the Call of Duty franchise in tact it’s additions do nothing but distract from what makes these games good. I hope Infinity Ward takes the lessons learned from this second stumble and turns their next title into something worthy of their pedigree.
Rating: 7.5/10
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 right now for $89.95, $99.995 and $99.95 respectively. Game was played on the PC with 14 hours of total play time and 64% of the achievements unlocked.
Titanfall 2: Welcome to the Resistance, Pilot.
Titanfall was well received when it was first released, garnering numerous awards and praise from both the industry and players alike. It was also something of a redemption story for the studios founders, proving that their decision to leave Activision was the right one. For me personally, someone who enjoys traditional FPS games and lost many an hour to the Mechwarrior series as a teenager, Titanfall was a perfect blend of FPS and mech based combat. However the lack of variety in the multiplayer did mean that I left the game shortly after reviewing it, racking up another 6 hours before I finally gave it up. With the success it garnered however I was hopeful that Respawn’s next title, whether it was Titanfall or not, would be a much more well rounded. Thankfully that hope was not misplaced.
Titanfall 2 takes place shortly after the events of its predecessor with the Militia now on the offensive after their success in segregating the IMC’s fleet at the Battle of Demeter (if you don’t quite remember which map that is, like I did, here’s a good summary). You take the role of Jack Cooper, a rifleman in the Militia who’s undertaking pilot training at the hands of veteran pilot Captain Lastimosa. When you’re sent to attack the IMC held world of Typhoon Lastimosa is struck down but with his final breath he transfers his titan, a vanguard class called BT-7274, to you. It’s now up to you and your new titan to complete the mission.
The heavily modified Source engine that was used in the original is back in Titanfall 2 with a few improvements to bring it into line with more modern engines. The engine improvements bring things like physically based rendering, a new texture system, HDR, bloom and DOF. This means that whilst the models and environments all feel about the same when you get up close to them it definitely feels like a more modern game overall. The trade offs here are most certainly in aid of ensuring a smooth, consistent framerate even in high action scenes, something which happens quite often in both the single player and multiplayer experience. If I’m honest I probably expected a bit more of a step up from Respawn graphics wise, but I can definitely understand the reasons for not going for Crysis levels of fidelity.
The core of Titanfall 2 hasn’t changed much from its predecessor, retaining all of what made it good whilst adding in more variety in both the single player and multiplayer components. There’s now double the number of mechs to choose from, numerous weapons for your pilot, a multitude of modes in the multiplayer and a fully fleshed out single player campaign. You’ll still be alternating between playing as a pilot on the ground, jumping and wall riding to your heart’s content, and the venerable titan mech. The single player campaign functions as an extended tutorial to the main game, giving you a view of all the weapons and titans so that once you jump into multi you’ll be instantly familiar with the arsenal at your disposal. However like all good multi player games these days most of the weapons are hidden behind a persistant levelling system, something you’ll have to grind out to get your weapon of choice. Overall Titanfall 2 feels like a fuller, more rounded game than its predecessor was; one that could potentially have the longevity its creators hope for.
Combat is well executed, maintaining the same levels of polish that the original Titanfall brought with it. Considering Respawn’s pedigree this is no surprise but it’s good to see them not messing with things that weren’t broken. The weapon roster has been expanded considerably although the controversial smart pistol (which honestly was my favourite) relegated to being a boost rather than a primary weapon you can choose. You’ve also got a wider choice of various augments for your weapons and pilot allowing you to really specialize in your preferred method of combat. Thankfully even though most of these things are locked behind levels (or in-game currency, which I don’t think is available for purchase) the base weapons are still highly competitve.
One of the major complaints many had for the original was that the multiplayer campaign was somewhat confusing and underdone. Indeed whilst I didn’t mind it myself, I do recognise that it was far below the standard set for your typical FPS campaign. Respawn have taken this feedback to heart and Titanfall 2’s campaign is true to its name, giving you an extensive single player experience. As I mentioned before it serves well as an introduction to Titanfall’s mechanics and weaponry, giving you a taste of what’s to come in the multiplayer experience. The highlight of it is definitely the exploration of the relationship between Titan and Pilot, something which I don’t think was really elaborated on much in the original. It might not be the deepest story around, following your typical one man army action trope, but it’s definitely more than enough to keep you motivated and pushing forward through the campaign.
The multiplayer follows the current FPS norms pretty closely with your profile, guns and titan all having separate levels attached to them. This does mean that players who’ve played for longer have an advantage over you, something that can be a little frustrating when you first start out. However the levels come with a relatively reliable pace so you shouldn’t be without a particular upgrade for too long. The in-game currency, which comes in at a slow but reliable pace, is one avenue to short circuit the levelling system and buy a particular thing that you’re after. One improvement for this system would be the use of a trial of a certain upgrade (even just a one time trial would be useful) as the cash I’ve spent has, honestly, been completely wasted. That’s on me though really, I should’ve probably looked into them a bit more before laying out my cold hard in-game currency.
Again I preferred to stick to my anti-titan build for both my pilot and titan, although the delineation between specs of titans is somewhat murky in Titanfall 2. The reasoning for this is pretty simple: titan damage and take downs charge your abilities way faster than pilot or AI kills do. Of course this means early game is a bit hit and miss, especially if the other pilots are heavily anti-pilot geared, but afterwards it usually means that I’m rarely without my titan. Of all the titans I tried the Tone seems to be the overall best, having great all round capabilities and not as many drawbacks as the rest of them seem to have. It does require you have a bit better aim than some of the others but honestly the hit boxes are so generous in Titanfall that I don’t think many would struggle with it.
Whilst the overall experience in Titanfall 2 is bug and crash free there is one irritating aspect of it that has caught me out multiple times. If you’re inside a room and you call your titan it appears that whatever determines the fall location doesn’t clip with certain walls. This means that, if you position cursor in the wrong place, you can end up spawning your titan all the way on the other side of the map. This can sometimes be the difference between getting your titan instantly and losing it to the enemy team since it’ll become active and start ploughing head first into them with the usual AI tactics. I’d much prefer a “titanfall out of range” error or something similar as it has happened often enough to be something of an issue.
Titanfall 2 is a most worthy successor, building on all the great core aspects of its predecessor whilst addressing many of the issues that the community raised. You now have a full single player campaign, one that you can actually get engrossed in rather than distracted by. The expanded multiplayer experience is much welcome and the promise to provide free DLC packs in the future will go a long way to ensuring the game doesn’t become a graveyard. Titanfall 2 is definitely one of those rare sequels that manages to markedly improve on its predecessor, no small feat given the high bar the original set. It will be very interesting to see how this game tracks in the coming months given its rather interesting release date that was smack bang between two other heavy hitting AAA titles.
Rating: 9.25/10
Titanfall 2 is available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 right now for $79 on all platforms. Game was played on the PC with 13 hours of total play time and 68% of the achievements unlocked.
Star Wars Battlefront: This is Not the Star Wars Game You’re Looking For.
It’s a great time to be a Star Wars fan, as this writer is. Whilst the IP has never really been left alone it’s seen new life breathed into it with the latest movie and the hubbub that has surrounded it. Released just before the movies the revived Star Wars Battlefront game had promised to bring the big screen action to your home PC or console, putting you on the ground in some of the key battles that defined the franchise. However the controversy surrounding the game’s release has been strong with many long time fans (and the game’s original incarnation) simply straight up boycotting the game. I’ve finally managed to get some time with the title and, in all honesty, I can’t disagree with many of the issues that have been raised, some of which are made even worse by some horrendous design choices.
Battlefront takes place on the various iconic sets that defined the Star Wars triologies. You’ll be down on the ground during the battle of Hoth, fending off imperial AT-AT walkers from the base’s power supplies. Next you’ll find yourself on the forest moon of endor, dodging and weaving through the trees to do battle with the opposing force. There’s even numerous maps on the new desert planet of Jakku where the ruins of an imperial fleet play host to numerous skirmishes and large 40 v 40 battles. There are a few single player challenges for you to try your hand at but they mostly function as a way to introduce you to some of the mechanics and to give you credits to spend on in-game unlocks. Suffice to say in terms of settings EA got a lot right, focusing on the things that fans of both the franchise and the original game wanted to see.
Battlefront stands out as the pinnacle of graphics in 2015 with the expansive environments filled with incredible amounts of detail having no rival. This should come as no surprise given its pedigree with the developer, DICE, being responsible for previous graphical marvels in the Battlefield franchise. This no doubt helps with the larger than life feeling that the game strives to create as no environment feels more alive than the ones that DICE created for this version of Battlefront. Of course if you’re wanting to see this game at its peak you’ll need to pay admission price, something which even my recently upgraded rig struggled to achieve at some points.
Mechanically Battlefront is your typical multi-player shooter set in the Star Wars universe and many of the mechanics take their inspiration from it. There’s a variety of weapons at your disposal, the choice of which largely determine by your play style. The star card system, which allows you to pick 3 different power ups, allows you to customize your character further. The unlock system feels like the original Black Ops online mode with credits being awarded at the end of each match which you can spend to unlock gear (most of which requires a certain rank to attain). There are handful of different game modes most of which will be instantly familiar with a number of them that make use of Battlefront’s more unique mechanics like the hero powerups. Suffice to say Battlefront has all the trappings of a decent multiplayer only shooter however that’s only half the battle and, unfortunately, it’s that other half which it loses hard.
The FPS combat mechanics are a little odd, tending more towards the current console shooter trends more than its PC roots would have you believe. There’s a 3rd person mode which strangely imposes no penalties (which means you should be using it, no question) and the ADS system doesn’t provide an accuracy bonus. As someone who’s played far too many hours of Call of Duty recently this took a little getting used to but it’s serviceable once you get settled. Battlefront, like the Battlefield games before it, is one that rewards players with more powerful weapons and powerups the longer you play. This means that you’ll often come up against opponents that have far better gear than you. Whilst skill can overcome that gap in most situations it does mean for latecomers like myself you feel at a significant disadvantage for a decent period of time. This is somewhat made up for by the relatively fast levelling system, however that’d only work if the matchmaking of Battlefront wasn’t so horribly broken.
Among the various questionable choices made (I won’t touch the DLC debacle, that’s already been done to death) Battlefront’s matchmaking does away with dedicated servers in favour of its own matchmaking service. On PC though this system simply doesn’t work 90% of the time, failing to find games or putting you in an empty lobby which never gets past half full. It’s not limited to the big game modes either as every time I’ve opened up Battlefront I’ve tried every single mode at least once to see if I can find a game. Should Battlefront have the option to queue for a full game (like its Battlefield predecessors did) this wouldn’t be an issue but alas there isn’t one. Worst still is the fact that the teams aren’t balanced or randomized after every game, meaning that should one team completely destroy the other that will likely continue indefinitely. Sure you can try and leave and rejoin, but you’ll likely get stuck trying to find another game for 30+ minutes again.
It’s a real shame because it’s these kinds of frustrations that up and kill most of my motivation to play Battlefront. The game itself is a great bit of fun, even if it’s not balanced well like other shooters are, but when it’s locked behind so much waiting I find myself drifting back to my old haunts. Sure some of these problems are due to the relatively small PC player base (some 10% of the XboxOne or PlayStation4) but even 10,000 players should be enough to ensure near instant queues for games. Unfortunately it seems like a solution to this problem won’t be forthcoming any time soon and will likely be hidden behind the dreaded season pass paywall.
Battlefront has all the makings of a great Star Wars game, one that faithfully pays homage to the original IP, but unfortunately falls short of attaining it. The graphics are simply marvellous, easily the best of any game that was released in 2015. The game play, whilst feeling a little unpolished when compared to other similar titles, does have a certain charm to it even when you’re facing off against foes who are far beyond your own level. The matchmaking brings the whole show down, ensuring that half your play time will be spent waiting for a game which will inevitably end up being an unbalanced horror show, either in or your favour or against. Whilst I’ll likely return for a bash every so often I can’t see myself forking over the extra cash for the privilege of doing so, at least not until EA and DICE get off their collective asses to fix it.
Rating: 7.5/10
Star Wars Battlefront is available on PC, XboxOne and PlayStation4 right now for $59 on all platforms. Game was played on the PC with approximately 8 hours of total play time.
Anno 2205: To The Moon.
Most single player games are played either for relaxation, escapism or a combination of both. However there are some that feel more like running a marathon, igniting your mental faculties in such a way as to leave you exhausted by the end of it. StarCraft and other RTS are like this, requiring concentration far beyond that of any other genre I’ve played. Anno 2205 requires a similar level of concentration however, instead of RAW APM and macro, it instead requires you to constantly recalculate the finite balance of the numerous resources you have to manage. One wrong move can send you on a downward spiral that can be hard to pull out of, or send you on your trajectory to corporate supremacy.
Anno 2205 predictably takes place in the future, some 135 years after the previous instalment in the series. In this future the Earth has become starved for energy and other precious resources and thus has turned towards the Moon in order to save it. You are the head of a fledgling new corporation who has been accepted into the Lunar Licensing program which aims to free Earth from its current energy bonds. Your goal is to establish a fusion reactor on the moon and transmit that energy back to Earth, no small goal for a company that just established its first warehouse. Along the way you’ll have to establish global trade routes, fight off those who would thwart you and ensure that your company remains financially viable so you can continue expanding your empire.
The graphics of Anno 2205 are a marked step up from its predecessor with a whole new engine powering a complete overhaul of the graphics and UI. Gone is the semi-dreamlike aesthetic which has been replaced by a crisp, detailed world. The typical Anno stylings are still present however so if you’ve played any of the preceding titles it will still feel familiar. These upgraded visuals do come at a cost however as even my machine would start to sputter and spurt whenever I hovered over a particularly dense part of the world. Still it rarely became unplayable but for those who might be on lower end hardware long games are certainly going to be a struggle.
Anno 2205 retains the same RTS/city building hybrid game play that its predecessors had however many changes have been made in the name of streamlining the experience. Instead of managing trade routes within a single map everything is shared instantly. You still have trade routes to manage however they’re at a more macro level between areas. Anno 2205 also guides you through the various trials and tribulations that it will throw at you, telling you what critical shortages are impacting you and when you should investigate something. There’s also some new mechanics included to make sure that you don’t find yourself in an unrecoverable situation, however it’s still up to you to get yourself out of it. The combat has also been relegated to its own separate encounter, meaning you don’t have to manage your military and trade all in the one spot. Other than that however Anno 2205 plays out much like its predecessors did, requiring you to make sure you have enough of everything so your employees stay happy so you can remain profitable.
Like most similar games Anno 2205 feels extremely overwhelming on first play as there is just so much you need to learn and understand. Thankfully though the tutorial is great at stepping you through the various goals you need to meet in order to reach the next objective. You are, of course, free to ignore that completely and pursue your own objectives independently however Anno’s rather linear progression means that you’d be wise to follow its instruction. After a while you start to get a feel for the impact that your actions have on your world and that allows you to start building out a plan of attack for progression towards the next goal.
For instance your advanced resource colonies (Arctic and Lunar) are almost always going to be loss-leaders. I tried extremely hard to make them profitable however they just never seemed to get into positive territory. The main tropical ones however can have you rolling in cash in no short order, meaning you should focus on building them out as much as you can whilst only building the minimal components in the others in order to support them. Then, once your cash reserves are high enough, you can look towards building them out a bit more in order to support the next goal or tech tier which will then allow your main colony to thrive further. Attempting anything else seemed to lead to me running into negative cashflow territory quickly, something which torpedoes any kind of growth you were experiencing.
Thankfully when that happens the game, at least on its default settings, is generous with the bailouts it gives and the conditions that are imposed on you when they’re given. This means that, should you find yourself in a dire situation, you’ll get lump sumps of cash from the Lunar Licensing program in order to continue your work. Gone are the days when a downward spiral in Anno meant you’d be restarting your game, something I was thankful for given I flirted with bankruptcy more than once. Past a certain point though credits no longer matter and it all comes down to the resources you can generate.
In the beginning this all comes from simply building as many things as you can, however that will quickly have you running out of credits and space. After that point you’ll need to engage in combat missions in order to get upgrade materials to make your resource generation more efficient. These missions are essentially micro exercises, pitting your combat fleet against a torrent of enemies and objectives. They’re not especially difficult although they do have a gear check requirement for the higher levels which can’t really be overcome with skill alone. Still whenever I found myself wanting for resources it didn’t take long to get them, something I was thankful for given the rather huge time sink requirement games like Anno have. Removing this aspect from the core game is a welcome change too as it always felt far too fiddly having to manage all those aspects together all in the same map in previous instalments.
Indeed whilst many Anno purists where crying foul over the streamlining I feel like it was the best thing about 2205. 2070 always had far too much going on with so many variables to track in order to make sure that everything was working as intended. 2205 by contrast keeps you informed of what’s going on without being too heavy on the information side and shows you exactly where the deficiencies are coming from so you can address them directly. Sure it might be a simpler game, one that’s not so mechanically complex, but there is such a thing as too much complexity and that’s definitely how I felt with 2070.
Anno 2205 is a great evolution of the series, bringing with it streamlined gameplay and updated visuals that really ramps up the Anno experience. The core game remains largely the same, with the resource balancing act still being the key to everything, however it’s a lot less mentally exhausting. The various other aspects have been carved up into their own little sections, further reducing the mental burden. You’ll still be saddling up for quite some time however as reaching the ultimate goal took even this seasoned gamer numerous hours to complete. For fans of the series or just this type of game in general Anno 2205 is a great title, one that’s sure to provide countless hours of addiction…I mean entertainment.
Rating: 8/10
Anno 2205 is available on PC right now for $59.99. Total play time was approximately 9 hours.
Battlefield Hardline: Where Good Cops (and Games) Die.
The Battlefield series has, for the most part, stuck to its roots of giant war-based combat which has served it well over the past 13 years that it has existed. This put it in direct competition with Call of Duty although they favoured a longer development and release cycle with their games usually having a 2+ year cycle with various expansions and DLCs peppered in between. For many it served as the more refined version of Call of Duty, favouring tactics and skill rather than fast action and twitch reflexes. Battlefield Hardline marks DICE’s first departure from the Battlefield formula and whilst parts of what made the series great can be seen in here the game unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired.
Miami has gone to hell, the streets flooded with drugs and gang warfare escalating to all new heights. You are Nicholas Mendoza, newly minted detective in the Miami PD who’s looking to clean up Miami through good, honest police work. However it doesn’t take long for things to start going awry with your first bust turning into a bloodbath and questions to start arising around your methods. Indeed the more you try stop the plague that’s spreading through Miami the more you seem to be drawn into it, with your fellow cops being the ones dragging you in.
Unlike it’s predecessors that used the Frostbite 3 engine Battlefield Hardline doesn’t feel like a massive step up graphically, indeed it actually feels like it’s gone backwards in some respects. Whilst we still have the wide open environments that are a signature of the Battlefield franchise they just don’t feel as visually impressive as they used to, even with the enormous amount of grunt that my new rig can provide. Looking over my screenshots from previous reviews confirms this, showing that the engine is capable of quite a bit more than what Hardline seems to make use of. It makes even less sense when you find out that this isn’t Visceral’s first experience with the Frostbite engine either so I can only assume that the reduction in fidelity was done for optimization reasons.
Hardline plays much like Battlefield 4 did before it, retaining many of the core mechanics whilst adding in a few new tricks that tie into the police theme. You’ll still be running and gunning quite often, although in slightly smaller environments than you’d be used to, and the stealth mechanic that appeared in Battlefield 4 makes a return in Hardline. However now instead of getting points to level up your character by killing people you instead only level up by taking people down non-lethally or arresting them, something you can accomplish by telling them to “freeze” and then tackling them to the ground. There’s also bonus objectives like warrant suspects (who give quadruple score for arrests), cases for you to investigate by finding evidence and completing additional objectives. The multiplayer introduces a bunch of new modes which are mostly variants of the standard game styles we all know and love although it seems everyone is really still only interested in the big, 32 on 32 conquest maps.
The FPS combat in hardline feels a little unpolished as all the guns in their own categories feel pretty much the same as one another. Indeed once you get a few levels under your belt and unlock a couple guns there’s really no need to switch to anything else and the game rarely pits you against enemies with new and interesting guns, meaning you’ll have to level up or complete case missions in order to add in some variety. Couple this with the absolutely dumb as rocks AI and you’ve got a FPS experience that’s highly forgettable, even in the scenes which feel like they’re supposed to be action packed but just end up feeling bland.
This is only exacerbated by the repetition that’s introduced by the arrest mechanic which you’re required to use if you want to level up your character. Sure it’s pretty fun to work out the best way to approach a section so you can arrest everyone in it, but after you’ve done that a dozen times it starts to lose its luster. Thankfully you don’t have to do that for long as I was able to reach max rank somewhere around episode 7 or so but even the freedom granted by being able to run and gun everything past then didn’t add any life back into Hardline’s combat. This is what made it incredibly easy to put the game down at the end of each “episode” as playing more than one in a night was a recipe for frustration and boredom.
The story is somewhat serviceable in comparison to the rest of the game, with most of the characters being given enough screentime and background to be believable even if the situations you find them in are wholly unbelievable. I couldn’t find myself empathizing with any of the characters though, even the main protagonist, as they didn’t really feel relatable until right near the end. Even then it felt like too little too late, even if I had enough information to understand the decisions they were making. The ending might not scream sequel but it’s definitely hinting at it, raising its eyebrows suggestively and giving you a sly wink as you walk out the door.
I’ve only spent a brief few hours with the multiplayer (for issues I’ll dig into below) but the horror that is Battelog has made yet another return for Hardline and the issues surrounding it still remain. For the most part it seems like the community has little interest in the new game modes as servers that cater towards them are barren wastelands, devoid of players wanting to play them. Instead the vast majority have huddled around the safe place of Battlefield’s large scale warfare maps, something that feels quite at odds with the game’s more intimate setting and direction. Suffice to say it pretty much plays how you’d expect it to with the key difference coming from you being able to generate cash to buy new weapons and perks, rather than having to unlock them by levelling a class. It takes the edge of the levelling curve but doesn’t do much else.
The icing on this rather unappealing cake comes in the form of bugs, glitches and good old fashioned crashes that seem to be a mainstay of all Battlefield releases. I had the single player crash on me multiple times, often when I wasn’t doing anything particular of note at all. Battlelog simply refused to recognise that I had Origin installed until I reinstalled it, something I seem to have to do with every Battlefield release. Then when I did try to play some multi games the game would often just up and exit without any notification of what happened, sometimes in the middle of the game and others when I was spending the mandatory 5 minute wait while the game reloaded itself again. I honestly cannot understand why, after 2 previous releases that suffered the exact same issues, that DICE and Visceral couldn’t work out these issues before release and it’s not something I’d expect from a veteran AAA developer.
Battlefield Hardline is an unfortunate fall from grace for the series, trashing the things that made them great and failing to add in anything that could justify taking such a huge risk. The gameplay is bland and uninteresting, failing to capture the player’s attention even for the short duration of the episodes in the single player game. The changes to the multiplayer are completely out of line with what the community wants, as shown by the fact that the only playable servers are those that emulate the previous title’s play style. Topping it all off is the instability and lack of polish on the core game itself, with crashes and bugs plaguing the already beleaguered experience. I honestly can’t recommend this game even for the die hard fans of the series as it just falls so short of the standard that its predecessors set.
Rating: 5/10
Battlefield Hardline is available on PC, Xbox360, XboxOne, PlayStation3 and PlayStation4 right now for $59.95, $89.95, $109.95, $89.95 and $109.95 respectively. Game was played on the PC with approximately 9 hours of total play time.
Evolve: Eat, Sleep, Smash, Repeat.
There’s a new trend among the newer game developers who found success with their earlier titles. Instead of relying on releasing sequels (although most of these kinds of developers still do that) they instead rely on applying their trademark style to different games, allowing them to experiment with new IPs whilst still retaining the majority of the brand loyalty that a sequel would. The most prevalent example of this is Telltale Games who’s titles include various IPs ranging from their signatures like The Walking Dead all the way down to TV tie-ins like their CSI games. Turtle Rock Studios made a name for themselves with the Left 4 Dead franchise which had the unique appeal of putting you in charge of the monsters that terrorized other players. Evolve extends that idea except now instead of being team on team it’s now one versus four and that difference, along with the swath of new mechanics, make it quite an interesting title.
The planet Shear is a planet deep in space, on the far reaches of humanity. We set up colonies there, hoping to plunder the vast riches of this world for ourselves. However the world rebelled against us, sending huge hulking monsters to destroy everything we built and slaughter everyone who dared to tread on its surface. That’s when William Cabot arrived, bringing with him his team of hunters who would put these monsters in the ground, allowing us to escape from the planet’s deadly grasp. You are one of those hunters and its your job to save colonists and collect a fat pay check in the process.
Evolve is the first taxing game I’ve run on my new rig and suffice to say that it looks absolutely gorgeous with everything turned up to its limit. There’s a slight Unreal engine feel to it, most likely due to the texturing more than anything else, which would usually detract from the visual experience however Evolve has so much detail that you stop noticing it very quickly. You won’t have much time to stop and gawk at the huge environments however as you’ll always be in motion, whether you’re the monster or the hunter trying to track it down. This visual pleasure does come at a cost however as DirectX 11 is a strict requirement so if you’ve let your GPU age a couple generations now would be the time to invest in an upgrade.
The mechanics in Evolve are a fresh take on the style that Turtle Rock perfected with the Left 4 Dead series, using the futuristic setting to the fullest extent to create 5 truly unique archetypes that all have their role to play. The monster is the signature character class and, depending on how you play the game, will either be your staple or class you rarely ever play. The Monster is the signature archetype of the game which is controlled by a single player for the entire duration of the match. The hunters make up the remaining 4 archetypes, each of them filling a specific role in bringing the monster down. For the hunters the game centres on team work, ensuring that everyone performs their role correctly and executing whatever battle plan you have in your head perfectly. For the monster however it’s a game of balancing evolving, battling hunters and trying to complete the map’s objective before the hunters get you. So whilst Evolve might be a little derivative from their past titles it’s most certainly a fresh and unique experience, one that is tied to how good your team and/or the monster is.
Evolve gets credit for putting everyone through a couple of mandatory tutorials before allowing them into the main game, ostensibly because playing the monster is a non-trivial exercise and you’ll need to know the basics of movement before you can play effectively as a hunter. Whilst it’s not as thorough as say, the DPS/Tank challenges in World of Warcraft, it’s enough to make sure you won’t be completely useless. Evolve does send a bevy of prompts your way through the game though so even if you haven’t played a class in a while you should be able to pick it up without too much hassle. After that it was only an hour or two before I had grasped all the key mechanics pretty well and was feeling like I was actually contributing to the fight.
There are two main ways to play Evolve: either as a team (which bars you from being the monster) or as a solo player who can choose to play whichever class they want. You won’t always get the class you want however you can set a preference for which ones you’d like to play more than others. I’ve only had a couple games where I wasn’t given my first or second preference so if you’re keen on playing a particular class you shouldn’t go long without getting it. I managed to get some time playing on both sides of the equation and, most definitely, my favourite way is to play with a group of mates. However the game play is still solid enough that playing online with a bunch of strangers is still rewarding although it is a far more variable experience.
This is mainly because in those types of games, the ones which are mostly made up of random people playing together, the advantage tends heavily towards the monster. This isn’t a fault of the game, more a product of the fact that a bunch of randoms are less likely to work as a cohesive whole than a single guy with the power of 4 other people. I definitely noticed this when I was playing as the monster and the hunter’s medic was, shall we say, unaware of the fact that their death would spell the end of their team. I managed to win 4 out of 5 matches against them (foiled at the last stage when the auto balance was at 4 bars in their favour) by waiting for them to trap me in and then going to town on their healer. I’ve also been on the flip side however when a less than stellar monster decided that evolving in front of me was a good idea, something which Parnell (who with Super Soldier activated) took advantage of. I’m not sure how the match making works yet but there definitely needs to be some kind of ranking system in the back end to make the games a little more even since, as it stands right now, most matches are pretty one sided.
Evolve was rock solid for most of the time I was playing it however there were a couple issues that I think bears mentioning. The worst one I encountered was a Cry Engine error that said DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG which highlighted the fact that there’s no way to rejoin a match if you crash, lag or disconnect. I looked around for a solution but nothing seemed to give me a solid answer one way or the other and, thankfully, I only saw it once during my 7ish hours with Evolve. I also had the rather annoying issue of my mouse cursor appearing when it shouldn’t (so I could see it while I was playing) and not showing up when it should (like in the menus). This could usually be fixed by alt-tabbing or shift-tabbing however sometimes it would require an entire game restart to get it working. These were minor inconveniences however and didn’t detract heavily from my overall experience.
Like Left 4 Dead before it Evolve has musings of a story peppered throughout it via bits of conversation between your character and your fellow hunters with a few bits fleshed out in various cut scenes. There definitely appears to be a larger world that the world of Evolve exists in however it’s not explored in any kind of depth beyond that of the back and forth banter that your characters sometimes have. Considering this is a multiplayer-first game (there is the option to do solo stuff if you want) like Titanfall I wasn’t really expecting much and so I can’t really count this as a fault. Ultimately the stories you and your friends create in Evolve will be far more interesting than the lore behind of this world you’re playing in.
Evolve is a wonderfully fresh breath of air, taking all the best parts of the Left 4 Dead franchise and rebuilding them in a new world that allowed Turtle Rock Studios to really experiment with what their niche genre was capable of. The game oozes polish in all the right places with only a hint of some issues still present a couple weeks after release. Playing with friends is a great experience, one that will be sure to create tales that will be retold for years to come as Evolve is broken out at LAN parties everywhere. The match-made multi-player experience is, unfortunately, quite varied although it’s not beyond saving and hopefully Turtle Rock is watching these first few weeks carefully to see what tweaks are needed to make it a much more fair experience. Overall though Evolve is a game that’s incredibly fun to play and one I can see myself coming back to when I need a break from the typical FPS drudgery I find myself in.
Rating: 8.5/10
Evolve is available on PC PlayStation4 and XboxOne right now for $59.99, $99.95 and $99.95 respectively. Game was played on the PC with approximately 7 hours of total play time and 27% of the achievements unlocked.
Titanfall: We Thank You For Your Service, Pilot.
The origin story of Respawn Entertainment is one that’s cemented in many gamer’s minds. Not long after Infinity Ward released Modern Warfare 2 tensions between some of the executive team and Activision began to escalate. This eventually led to Jason West and Vince Zampella being fired from Infinity Ward for “breaches of contract and insubordination”, a line not many in the industry believed. However not long after that the former employees announced that they were starting a new games company (with blackjack and hookers, obviously) called Respawn entertainment. It didn’t take long for many current Infinity Ward employees to follow them but after that they went dark. Last year Respawn announced their first title would be called Titanfall, a sci-fi FPS that would be an Xbox exclusive. Thankfully that, and a few other things, have changed since then and Titanfall has shaped up to be a great first title, even if can’t hide its Call of Duty roots.
It’s the distant future and mankind has succeeded in building warp technology, opening up the universe for our exploitation. Humans have expanded far and wide however with distance became a growing disconnect and resentment began brewing between the core worlds and those that live on the frontier. Over time this has escalated into a full scale war between the core world’s military force, The IMC, and the frontier’s Resistance. Neither side has any intentions of backing down and battles continually rage on multiple planets, devastating their colonies and turning paradises into giant fuel depots and factories dedicated to the war effort. You’re a pilot, one of the elite 2% who make it through the notoriously fatal training programs, and it’s up to you to fight for your cause.
For a game that’s based on a modified version of the Source engine (the same one that powered Half Life 2 all those years ago) Titanfall is surprisingly pretty with all the eye candy I had come to expect from games like Crysis or Far Cry. The initial settings that Titanfall selected for my system had me a little worried that it’d run like a dog once I started tweaking it but, surprisingly, it runs incredibly well with only a few things like shadow detail turned down. Still, as you can see in the screenshot below, those tweaks don’t appear to have a lot of impact on the overall visual quality something Respawn are to be commended for. You won’t be spending much time looking at the scenery however as Titanfall is designed to throw you head first into the action and it doesn’t let up until the round is finished.
Typically I’d go over most things from the view of the single player campaign first before talking about the multiplayer experience but Titanfall takes the interesting route of blending in single player elements into multiplayer matches to facilitate the story. It actually works out really well as a gentle way to introduce you to how Titanfall plays as you’ll likely be matched up against other people just starting out with it, ensuring that you’re not stomped by max level players who’ve already amassed hundreds of hours. The game’s story is also passable however since you’re always in the middle of the action when critical things are occurring it’s kind of hard to pay attention to it which is probably the only major letdown of the multiplayer campaign experience.
Titanfall has 2 distinct modes of gameplay, each of which has its own unique tech tree for you to customize to fit your playstyle. The first is a traditional style FPS experience with the added benefit of lots of mobility, including parkour style wall running and double jumping, and an array of weapons that are distinctly different to anything you’ll find in similar deathmatch style games. The second one happens when you call in your Titan from the sky, giving you a giant battlesuit with high powered weapons to take on both players and other Titans alike. How you customize your loadout, both for Titan and Pilot play, will determine how effective you are in certain situations and whilst there’s no one build to rule them all there’s definitely going to be one that suits you perfectly.
At first glance you’d figure that everything would revolve around Titan based combat because, come on, they’re giant mechs. Whilst this is partly true you’re given a heck of a lot of tools to deal with Titans as a Pilot. This isn’t to say that Titans are your biggest threat on the field however as you’ll likely spend quite a lot of time facing down with other pilots. Thus the larger strategic decision you’ll have to make when customizing your Pilot load out will be: do I want to be anti-Titan or anti-Pilot? The same choice applies to your Titan load out as well and will determine when you’re most effective in the game. Since you’ve got multiple loadouts to choose from this usually isn’t too much of an issue as you can build for multiple situations but each of them will need to be geared towards either one of those objectives otherwise you’ll likely find yourself ineffectual at both.
For me I chose to go for a primarily anti-Titan build for both my Titan and Pilot. I kind of fell into it as I kept tweaking my build throughout the campaign missions, trying out things that were used against me that I felt were pretty effective. The main exception to this is the smart pistol which is like having a sanctioned aimbot and is very handy in showing you where enemy Pilots are hiding. Of course its stopping power is somewhat limited, given its aimbot nature, but if you’re able to dance around someone long enough you’re guaranteed a kill. Walking around a corner into someone else will likely see you dead first, however.
However once I got past level 20 or so (which doesn’t take long to do, I think I got there in about 3~4 hours) my build remained largely static. Whilst I did encounter some other builds that were particularly effective at one thing or another they all seemed to be pretty limited outside of that. Indeed the best one I came across, the light Titan with the Arc Canon, wouldn’t last long after I landed a couple hits on it. Couple that with the Vortex Shield nullifying their fully charged shots most of the time and it made it hard for me to want to try anything different, lest I start getting owned. This is in stark contrast to the way I play Call of Duty where I’ll typically have 4 completely different builds loaded up just for variety’s sake, all of which I feel are viable. Maybe my build just fits into the way I play best but, honestly, whilst the initial customization options seem large they pale in comparison to similar games in this genre.
This, I think, is probably the one thing that could be Titanfall’s… downfall. There’s just not enough variety in the game to keep you going past a certain point as you’ll unlock most things relatively quickly and will tend towards things that work. There’s a whole mess of things in the game that just aren’t worth using, shrinking the pool of viable builds considerably. Whilst 15 maps sound like a lot you’ll get familiar with them quickly and apart from attrition all of the game modes are the same kinds of modes you’ve seen dozens of times previously. Thus in order to keep Titanfall new and engaging Respawn needs to keep releasing content, something which they’ve planned to do but I have no idea how well it will work should it not come out soon.
Titanfall is a gorgeous, action packed game that delivers a great multiplayer experience reminiscent of the Call of Duty series but with an identity that’s uniquely its own. The blended single/multiplayer campaign works well, functioning as an extended tutorial that ensures you know what you’re getting into before diving into the multiplayer in earnest. It’s let down a bit by the lack of variety which is exacerbated by the fast levelling process, which could affect Titanfall’s longevity for some. All that being said it is an incredible amount of fun to play and is a solid first title from Respawn entertainment.
Rating: 9/10
Titanfall is right now on PC and XboxOne for $49.99 and $99.95 respectively with a Xbox360 release due in the near future. Total play time was approximately 7 hours, reaching level 31.
Call of Duty: Ghosts: War in a Post-Apocalyptic USA.
I have something of a soft spot for the Call of Duty series, a trait which I think is highly evident given the fact that I’ve been reviewing their games for the past 4 years. This primarily extends from their highly cinematic single player experiences where the actual game play borders on being more like an action movie rather than a traditional FPS. However I also found myself inexplicably drawn to the multiplayer, finding myself being one of “those people” who just couldn’t get enough of the fast paced, super spammy Nuketown map. I also have to admit that I did feel pretty special to be invited to come and preview their games way back when (something I’ve been unfortunately unable to repeat lately) and the fact that they sent me copies to review was a kind of validation that I hadn’t got before. Whilst that trend didn’t continue this year I’m still a fan of the series in general and have spent the better part of 2 weeks gorging myself on everything Call of Duty: Ghosts has to offer.
Call of Duty: Ghosts takes place in the not too distant future in an alternate timeline to the rest of the Call of Duty series. You primarily play as Logan, the son of a lifetime military man Elias who regales you with the story of an elite unit who faced down overwhelming odds and came out the other side. They called themselves the Ghosts, known for never giving up until their mission was completed and always ensuring that all their men got out, dead or alive. The story is unfortunately cut short as it quickly becomes apparent that the USA is under attack however the origin of the bombardments isn’t quite clear. What is for certain however is that the new world superpower, The Federation, are behind it and they need to be stopped.
Ghosts is one of the first titles to make it onto the next console generation (although its still available on current gen) and the improvements to the graphics that they enable are quite impressive. Whilst the difference between Black Ops II and Ghosts is as great as you’d expect to be, especially with this being the first next gen Call of Duty title, there’s still been a dramatic improvement since the last Infinity Ward game. All of the screenshots were taken in game and I think they speak volumes to the amount of effort put in to the set pieces that Infinity has created. It’s also probably the reason why the game comes in at 28GBs, by far one of the largest downloads I’ve ever had for a single player game (the multi is a separate 4GB download of its own).
The game play is your standard corridor shooter with you being guided from point A to point B by one or more NPCs with different kinds of objectives along the way. Saying that for most games would be a jab at their originality or banality but the Call of Duty series does it so well that it’s hard for me to criticize them for it. Still if you were looking for something innovative or different about the single player campaign you’re going to be disappointed as it really is just a scenic tour through a whole bunch of impressive artwork with action movie style combat thrown in so you don’t get bored walking everywhere. That being said it is quite the ride with you rarely being given more than a couple moments to catch your breath before the next unbelievably epic moment occurs.
The combat is, as always, polished and refined to the point where it’s smooth as glass. The only variation from previous games is the weapons and equipment that will be made available to you and for the most part the differences are largely cosmetic as they’re all guns that shoot bullets. There is a little variety in the way the guns act in different environments, like when you’re in space or under water, but the standard assault rifle will be your mainstay for the majority of the game. If there’s one thing I’ll criticize Ghosts for it’s the use of sniper accurate enemies who seem to be able to hit you from almost any angle, leading to long periods where you have to peek your head out, get hit, figure out where they are and then try to pick them off before they or their friends do the same to you. This is made somewhat more annoying by the unpredictable nature of the NPCs who sometimes charge ahead or seem to get stuck in one position until you do the charging, but then again I’ve yet to find a game where I’ve felt the NPCs were truly useful additions.
Considering the amount of hype and focus the dog got prior to Ghosts’ release I’d be remiss if I didn’t give my perspective on it. Riley (that’s his name) is essentially another mechanic for them to throw at you with his main function being that of a kind of single target grenade that you can point at anyone and have him take them down. There are also some more weird sci-fi sections where you’re able to control him directly, making him sneak behind enemy lines and even take down people from a remote console. It fits in with the overall game, although why such a big deal was made of it I’ll never quite understand, and there’s a particular heart wrenching moment when he gets shot and you have to carry him through the battlefield. Conveniently they also provide you with an insane machine gun at that point, allowing you to go full rambo on the assholes who shot your dog which was probably one of my favourite parts of Ghosts.
I’m somewhat thankful that Ghosts took a new route as the previous storyline was starting to get a little long in the tooth, especially with all the various sub-plots that I just couldn’t seem to keep track over between instalments. They’ve taken a break from the traditional clandestine unit saving the USA from imminent attack, instead putting you in a world that’s been devastated by the newest superpower. It’s best not to think about it too deeply though as it tend towards more being an action movie than a psychological thriller, hoping that you won’t think and instead enjoy the ride. If you do that the story is passable and is more than enough to keep you motivated from one objective to the next.
The multiplayer breaks away from Infinity Ward’s traditional way of doing things (where most things are locked until you level up enough to get them) and instead adopts a Squad Point system for upgrading your character. Unlike the the cash system that the original Black Ops had Squad Points aren’t earned in troves by simply playing. Whilst you will get points for levelling up the system is obviously more geared towards you completing challenges, both grand ones that require multiple games to accomplish as well as field orders which grant you a bonus during the game. Because of this all the guns in the game are available to you from level 1 and all that’s required is that you grind out a few points to unlock them.
The perks, however, are hard locked to your level with the more powerful ones being reserved for the later stages. This does mean that particular play styles are just simply not feasible until you get to that stage as you won’t be able to have your pick of the perks until you hit level 60. For someone like me who’d developed a distinctive play strategy (I’m a rusher style player) it meant that I had to change the way I played in order to get anywhere in the game. It doesn’t take too long to adjust as you can still do the traditional assault rifle style play but I did feel a little miffed that I couldn’t engage in the insane runabout shenanigans that I did in previous games.
Indeed it seems that Infinity Ward is trying to encourage a slightly different style of play with Ghosts as there are now many more open maps that are more conducive to sniping than there was in the previous games. You can imagine how annoying this is to a rusher like me where my style of combat relies on getting in people’s faces, but it means that you just have to adapt or die. There are still a few crazy small maps however it seems that they’re no where near as popular as the Nuketown of old as there’s rarely more than 100 players in the Ghost Moshpit game type with most staying on Team Deathmatch or Domination. This is probably not so much of a problem on the consoles however as there’s an order of magnitude more players around at any given time.
For what its worth I feel that the multiplayer of Ghosts is weaker than previous instalments as it just doesn’t seem to have that same pulling power on me that it used to. I’ve still racked up about 7 hours on it after taking about 2 to find my feet again but I just don’t have that same sense of compulsion pulling me back. Maybe its the lack of Nuketown, maybe it’s the lack of my spammy akimbo style of game play but whatever it is it just isn’t the same as it used to be. Activision said that they were expecting lower sales this time around due to the console switch over and that seems to be reflected in the multiplayer. Hopefully the next instalment won’t suffer because of it.
Call of Duty: Ghosts is another highly polished instalment in the franchise, showing that Infinity Ward is capable of delivering a highly cinematic experience that’s thoroughly enjoyable to play through. Whilst the stories and setting are always different the core game play remains the same and it’s commendable that they can still make it enjoyable this many years on. However the multiplayer experience is definitely a step down from previous games, lacking the same addictive power that compelled me to become a fan of the series all those years ago. Overall it’s still a solid game experience but they’re going to have to aim higher next time around if they want to recapture their original glory.
Rating: 8.0/10
Call of Duty: Ghosts is available on PlayStation3, PlayStation4, Xbox360, XboxOne, WiiU and PC right now for $78, $78, $78, $78 , $99.95 and $89.99 respectively. Game was played on the PC with 5.4 hours in the single player campaign and 7.1 hours in multiplayer.
Crysis 3: All That Remains is Prophet.
As long time readers will know I’m a big fan of Crytek’s flagship series Crysis as it’s one of the few no-holds-barred PC games when it comes to ratcheting up the graphics to insane levels. It harks back to the golden era of PC gaming where every new title attempted to do exactly that, pushing the boundaries of the hardware so hard that yearly upgrade cycles were not only desirable, they were almost required. The consolization of PC games took a heavy bat to this idea and strangely enough even Crysis 2 fell prey to it somewhat with my rather mediocre PC at the time being able to run it perfectly (and admittedly it was still quite good for its time). When Crytek announced that Crysis 3 would be a returning to its roots with insane levels of graphics I was incredibly excited and I’m glad to say that they didn’t disappoint.
Crysis 3 takes place 24 years after the incidents in Crysis 2. Prophet, in reality the amalgam of Alcatraz and the remaining memories of the original Prophet that the NanoSuit stored, has been in stasis for the past 2 decades since CELL captured captured him. You’re broken out of your prison by Psycho, one of your former suit buddies who’s been stripped of his NanoSuit. You find out that CELL has been using some Ceph technology to generate unlimited amounts of energy and has used that to enslave most of the world in crippling amounts of debt. Psycho, saved by people in the resistance, needs your help in order to take them down. As you start to dig into CELL’s activities however the real plan becomes apparent and it becomes clear that only you are able to stop them.
The technology under the hood of Crysis 3 is the same as Crysis 2 so you can imagine I was a little sceptical as to how much of an improvement they could make in the 2 years since their last release. Figuring that my still semi-new upgrade would be up to the task I cranked everything up to its highest, leaving only the anti-aliasing at a tame 2x. What resulted afterwards can only be described as slide show, a very pretty one but it ran so slow that many of the models glitched out and it was essentially unplayable. Dialling back the settings to their recommended levels turned that slideshow into a much more playable game and what a game it is.
Every screenshot you’ll see in this review was taken in game with most of the settings at 1~2 notches below the maximum possible. The level of detail is simply amazing with all models being of the level I’ve come to expect from most game’s cutscenes rather than their in game representations. Crysis 3 makes use of the entire DirectX 11 feature set and does regular things like motion blur, specular highlights and bump mapping better than any other game I’ve played recently. Whilst the framerate wasn’t the greatest in large outdoor areas it was absolutely butter in small to medium sized zones and it was so good that I almost feel like upgrading my PC again just to how Crysis 3 would fair if had room to stretch its legs.
Suffice to say that Crytek has really returned to form with Crysis 3’s graphics.
For those who’ve played Crysis 2 the game play will be very familiar to you with the NanoSuit design staying basically the same as it did in the previous game. You have 3 modes available to you: regular, armoured and cloaked which you can switch between at will. Armoured mode drains energy when you get hit by various things and cloaked mode slowly drains away energy whilst your standing still and even more when you move around. These two active modes are essentially the two ways of completing any obstacle that you might face in Crysis 3: either by stealth or by raw fire power.
Whilst there might be a choice available to you it does seem like Crysis 3 would prefer you to go with one over the other. Right at the beginning you’re given what amounts to the biggest change between Crysis 2 and 3’s combat: the compound bow. Essentially it functions like a backup weapon as it doesn’t count towards one of your 2 regular weapons but like them its customizable with different ammo types and scopes. The key difference between the bow and other weapons however is the fact that upon using it you will still stay cloaked, allowing you to take out enemies with ease and drastically increasing the amount of time you can remained cloaked. Couple this with the fact that the primary type of arrows you can use (impact) can be picked up after you use them you essentially a weapon that’s got unlimited ammunition, kills in one hit and allows you to stealth around everywhere without getting caught. Running and gunning seems rather moronic by comparison.
This is only amplified by the upgrade system which allows you to beef up aspects of the NanoSuit to fit your play style. Whilst its entirely possible to make yourself nigh on indestructible the upgrades for stealth users simply magnifying the already over powered combo of cloak plus bow. Indeed for quite a while I was running around with just the stealth upgrades and multitudes of points available to me. I ended up spending them just before a particular boss fight that required me to go toe to toe with it but I actually found that using stealth was a viable option once I had worked out the fight a little more. This may be due to the difficulty level I was playing on however and I’m sure at easier levels run and gunning would be more viable.
Crysis 3, whilst still technically being an on-rails shooter, does retain the non-linear variations for each section that help to keep it from being yet another corridor shooter. When you’re moving between sections there’s definitely only one path that you can progress through however in those sections there’s usually additional objectives that you can go for which will assist you in getting to the primary objective. For instance there’s one section where two giant walkers are blocking your path. Now on the ground nearby there’s a ton of RPGs scattered about so with a little bit of legwork you could probably take them down. However there’s also a nearby mortar team that’s in need of assistance and should you help them out they’ll let you tag targets which they can then take out for you.
The vehicle sections feel tacked on, almost as if they’re only there to serve as an introduction into what will be available in multi-player. Whilst I applaud their use of larger-than-life maps they only seem to be there to facilitate the inclusion of the speedy Half Life 2-esque dune buggy. I will admit that the optional tank section was pretty fun but it was cut brutally short, right before a time where it would have been a hell of a lot of fun to blast a whole bunch of Ceph out of the skies. This was followed shortly after by an on-rails vehicle section putting you as the gunner which was frankly suicidal as all the Ceph aircraft targeted you instantly and your mounted gun was highly ineffective against them. I’d prefer that these sections stayed in and were revamped rather than them being removed however but they really do feel out of place with the rest of Crysis 3.
There’s also few bugs and glitches to speak of although it pains me to say that at least one of the issues that plagued Crysis 2 are still present in 3. Some guns, for example, will simply not be able to be picked up which can be pretty devastating should you not be able to swap a weapon out for a particular section. The graphics glitches appear to only happen if you’re stressing your hardware too much and disappear the second you revert them to more sane settings. The vehicles are mostly fine except for one part when my tank slowly started turning itself over and then eventually capsized for no apparent reason. Getting out of the vehicle seemed to let it right itself however but the behaviour was still very odd.
I was all ready to pan the story as for the first couple hours there’s really no tension, character development or anything that made me feel for the characters. This all changes later on as the voice acting seems to improve a lot, especially towards the end when certain reveals ramp up the tension between the characters. It’s not an emotional roller coaster like other, more story focused games but it was unexpectedly good for an on rails shooter. They also thankfully avoided the extremely obvious “INCOMING SEQUEL” stuff which plagued Crysis 2, but the current story wraps up well with enough leeway that a sequel is possible without it being obnoxious.
Crysis 3 is simply stunning; a visual masterpiece coupled with highly refined game play that we’ve come to expect from the people at Crytek. There’s no doubt that the graphics are what makes this game so impressive as Crysis 3 is probably the only game that demonstrates the full capability of DirectX 11 on the PC platform today. It’d all be for naught however if the rest of the game didn’t stand on its own however and I’m glad that it does otherwise it’d just be another tech demo ala ID’s Rage. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Crysis 3 and I’d encourage anyone who’s still a dedicated PC gamer to spend some time with it, if only to see how capable your rig really is.
Rating: 9.5/10
Crysis 3 is available on PC, Xbox360 and PlayStation 3 right now for $69.99, $98 and $98 respectively. Game was played entirely on the PC on the second hardest difficultly with a total of 7 hours played.
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