Heavy Rain Demo Impressions

After trying to connect to the Heavy Rain website for hours due to extreme server overload, I finally got my demo code and logged onto the PSN to download it. I've always had pretty high hopes for the game because I'm a fan of things that break away from the mainstream mold and try to do something different, and that's exactly what Heavy Rain does. The demo provides you with two "scenarios" to play through, and neither one of them give you any significant insight into the story, which is a good thing because if the story was spoiled in a game like Heavy Rain, there would be no point in playing it.

Anyway, the demo starts off with your character, Detective Shelby, walking down an alleyway when the game introduces you to it's control scheme. You hold R2 to walk and point the left stick in the direction you want to move, L1 changes the camera angle, while the right stick is used to perform actions. For example, to open a car door you would sweep the right stick over and up, to investigate something on the ground, you would press the right stick down, etc. There are also instances where you must hold down a button multiple buttons that appear on screen to perform actions like climb up a ledge, or shimmy along a wall behind a dumpster. It takes a minute to get used to the walking, but once you figure it out, it's pretty smooth.

You eventually make your way into an apartment building and ask for a woman named Lauren. The man at the desk tells you what room she is in and you make your way upstairs to speak with her. It turns out that Lauren's son had been murdered by the Origami Killer, and Detective Shelby is seeking more information. During the interactions with Lauren, responses float around your character's head with a corresponding button to each response. Some of the responses say "investigate, trick, sympathize," and so on. Depending on which response you choose, your character will continue the conversation according to the choice you made. It's at this point in the game where I truly realized that my choices would affect the story line, because after multiple playthroughs and choosing different responses, the conversation played out differently. I won't say anymore as to not spoil the rest of this section of the demo for anyone.

The second "scenario" puts you in the shoes of an FBI detective investigating a crime scene. The agent is equipped with a special pair of glasses and a special glove which, with a tap of the R1 button, scans the immediate area around your character for evidence. It's actually pretty fun walking around a crime scene collecting evidence with the special glove. I can't really say much more here without giving away what to do, so I'll just leave it at that.

Heavy Rain gives you a little taste of what the gameplay is like without giving too much away. The FBI agent scenario gives me some hope that there is some unconventional gameplay that doesn't include opening doors, asking questions, and mainly everything else that people are bitching about. I just hope that Quantic Dreams have crafted a great story because the idea of my choices affecting the story line or even killing my character is an awesome idea. I'll be waiting anxiously until Heavy Rain releases on February 16th.

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Just downloaded the Heavy Rain demo

I just downloaded the Heavy Rain demo. I'll post my impressions after I play it.

PS3 AvP Demo Impressions

I downloaded the Aliens vs Predator demo last night and played about 5 games. I didn't have very much hype for this game and I had no plans on buying it or even renting it solely die to the fact that it's a movie based game, and movie based games pretty much always suck ass. So I went into the demo with little to no expectations of it being any good, and I was pretty much spot on. The demo provides one map and one gameplay type: deathmatch.

It took me a little less than 10 minutes for the game to actually find me a match to play in, and once I was in a lobby, I selected the Marines character. The Marine loadout has a rifle ripped straight from the Aliens movies, which sounds just like it does in the movies, and a motion sensor to know when a cloaked Predator or Alien is closing in on you. I have read on other blogs that the marine class isn't very good, but I had great success with it, grabbing a first place spot and racking up 30 points in the one game I played with the Marine.

The Alien class was my favorite just because the Aliens are my favorite character out of the three I could choose from. The gameplay style of the Alien revolves around sneaking up on enemies to score a one-hit kill. The Aliens can climb on any wall and attack with their tails, or use the claws, and they are also extremely quick. The main thing that I didn't like about controlling the Alien was how disorientating it was to climb on walls, the constant shift of perspective won't make people who get motion sickness very happy, and even though I don't get motion sickness, I still had some trouble controlling the Alien while on walls.

The Predator class starts off with nothing but the wrist blade, and must find weapons spread throughout the map in order to gain a full arsenal. You have the ability to cloak from the start of the game, which helps, because until you find your weapons, the Predator is pretty weak; although once you get a full loadout, Predator is a force to be reckoned with, but I still enjoyed playing as an Alien more, despite the awkwardness of the wall climbing.

The map that the demo provides is a series of tunnels on a multi-leveled map. The map is very claustrophobic and seems to suit the gameplay of all of the characters pretty well. But the gameplay itself, for all characters seems very unpolished. The graphics are very muddy with a lot of bland textures and the controls are pretty clunk. The whole game lacks a feel of fluidity and as I said, it just seems very unpolished and quickly thrown together.

As I stated in the beginning, I had low expectations for this game, and after playing the demo, my original feelings seem to be correct. I'm predicting scores in the 7 range, with diehard fans potentially throwing some 8's into the mix. Definitely not worth $60 for me, but maybe diehard fans will love it.


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Finally off the ground.

Just got the blog up and running finally. More reviews, previews, and opinion articles to come.

Uncharted 2 Review

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review

I'm going to start this review off with a message: if you own a PS3 you MUST own this game. I don't mean this in a passive, jokingly manner either. I actually mean you must own this game if you own a PS3 and have even a hint of a pulse in your body. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is an incredible action-packed game with an extremely intriguing story line that anyone who has ever liked an Indiana Jones movie will have a nice place in their heart for. But the appeal isn't just to treasure hunters and movie-goes of 80's lore. The story is interesting, unique, and gripping from beginning to end; and packaged along with amazing visuals, top-notch voice acting, and a great cast of characters, Uncharted 2 is a must buy for any video game fan.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is Naughty Dog's sequel to their third-person action/adventure Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Drake's Fortune was praised by many for having great graphics, which until now, were some of the best on any platform. The game also had a heavy platforming element, a satisfying story line, and was overall a very solid game, garnishing an average (metacritic score) on metacritic.com Uncharted 2 improves on Drake's Fortune in just about every way possible. The graphics are better, the gunplay is improved, and the platforming elements are smoother. In other words, Naughty Dog took everything about Drake's Fortune that worked, and improved on it, creating one of the best sequels to a video game that I've ever played.
The game starts out with a cut scene showing Nathan Drake, a young man with a habit of getting himself into precarious situations while going after long-lost treasures of ancient times. (Indiana Jones, anyone?) And at the start of the game, Nathan Drake is most certainly in a precarious situation. He regains consciousness on a train, finding himself alone with a nice stomach wound and bloody hands. To make matters worse, he then realizes that the train car he is on is dangling off the side of an enormous cliff and he needs to start climbing if he wants to stay alive. The game then seamlessly transitions into gameplay, where you first realize how truly beautiful the game looks (I actually found myself shaking the analog stick during cut scenes on more than one occasion to make sure I wasn't supposed to be playing.) Once you make your escape from the train, Nate collapses, which then initiates a flash-back sequence where we find Nate on a beach joined by an old, and new friend. They discuss breaking into a museum to steal an item which they believe is linked to Marco Polo's lost fleet. I wont say anything else about the story so I don't ruin it for anyone, but needless to say, it's a gripping story, with enough humor, action, and plot twists that some Hollywood writers could seriously take a lesson from.
The gameplay in Uncharted is very solid, and if you played the first game then it will feel very familiar to you, but it's also easy to pick up and play for someone who didn't play the first Uncharted. As I stated earlier there is a heavy platforming element throughout the game, whether it be climbing up the side of a dangling train, cliffs, hills, buildings, street signs; just about anything Nate can grab on to. There is also a cover system in the game which, for the most part, works very well. You can press O to take cover behind just about any object you see in the game, and there are also a few spots in the game where you need a partner to reach a high ladder or something of the like, usually requiring a quick tap of the triangle button. Although the gameplay is very solid, it isn't perfect. The cover system can occasionally be clunky in tight areas, and the guns don't pack as much punch as they feel like they should. But these complaints are so minor that they barely do anything to detract from what an amazing experience Uncharted 2 really is.
Something I mentioned before that I'd like to go into more detail is the graphics. I can honestly say that Uncharted 2 rivals Crysis as far as graphics go. I know PC fanboys are going to go out of their minds at that notion, but I truly believe it. The attention to detail in Naughty Dog's gem is astounding. Whether it be the best snow effects I've ever seen in a game, or something so small and subtle, like Drake's hair moving in the wind at the top of a building in Nepal. The graphics shine throughout the game from the lush, tropical jungle settings, to a Nepalese city, to snow covered mountains, and the set pieces. Oooh the set pieces. I've never had so many “Oh shit!” moments playing a video game before in my life. During some of the scripted events, mainly one of the chase scenes, I couldn't help but have a huge smile on my face and laugh out loud during them because they were so awesome. Naughty Dog has done an absolutely incredible job crafting these events with meticulous detail to create some of the best scripted events in gaming (for people who have played the game, all I have to do is say “train sequence.”) So Uncharted 2's single player campaign is easily one of the best single player games I've ever played.

But there's more...

Naughty Dog also decided to add something that they didn't have in the first Uncharted: multiplayer. Now, I'm going to be honest, when I heard Uncharted was getting multiplayer, I thought it was going to suck. I couldn't have been more wrong. I got into the beta for this game and never stopped playing. There are your standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, elimination, modified capture the flag mode which is played with a gold idol instead of a flag, a capture and hold type game, and online cooperative. The game also has a ranking system, where you get money for each kill, capture, etc. The money you make in each game is then added up and once you reach a certain amount, you level up. You can also make more money in games by getting medals. Medals are awarded by completing specific tasks within each match. For instance, the “Fisticuffs” medal is awarded when you defeat 2 players with melee attacks in a single game. The “Afterlife” medal is awarded when you kill an enemy after you die, most likely with a grenade. There are a lot of medals you can get and if you have a good game, you can get a significant boost to your score at the end of the match. With all the money you make in multiplayer, you can buy new skins for your characters, weapon upgrades for co-op mode, taunts, and boosters, which are Uncharted's take on percs. There are a vast variety of percs, and you can have two equipped on your character for a match. All of the multiplayer levels are based off of levels in the single player campaign, and they are all built very well for the 5v5 gameplay the game supports. There are also various modes such as sniper rifles and pistoles, RPG only, and pistols only. The cooperative mode drops you and up to 2 other people in a level from the single player campaign where you progress until you reach the end. There is also a co-op arena mode, where you and your teammates fight off wave after wave of enemies until you are overrun. The multiplayer aspect of Uncharted 2 could have been thrown in carelessly as an add-on that Naught Dog didn't pay much attention to, but they did an awesome job of making an extremely enjoyable experience with a good ranking system and really fun maps.
Overall, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is an extraordinary benchmark for video games. The attention to detail, script, voice acting, and story telling, combined with solid gameplay, amazing graphics, and a great multiplayer component, make this package well worth your $60, and makes this game a front runner for the game of the year in 2009.

9.5/10

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