xbox 360

Game Corner: Quantum of Solace (Xbox 360)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 31 October 2008
Developer: Treyarch

Also Available For: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3

Quick Facts:
When Activision secured the rights to the James Bond franchise, they immediately developed a videogame tie-in to the largely divisive Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008), handing the project to Treyarch. Their Call of Duty (Various, 2003 to present) game engine provided a basis for enemy behaviours and gameplay mechanics. Though reluctant, star Daniel Craig also appeared in and offered feedback on the game, though Quantum of Solace released to mixed reviews that criticised the rushed narrative and repetitive gameplay.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Quantum of Solace is a first-person shooter (FPS) that retells key events of the movie of the same name, while also featuring a massive interlude that recaps Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006). For anyone hoping for a classic FPS 007 experience, you may be disappointed to learn that Quantum of Solace has more in common with the Call of Duty games, setting a precedent for Activision’s subsequent 007 titles in the process. Accordingly, players fire with the Right Trigger, reload with X, toss grenades and flashbangs and such with the Right Bumper, and press the left stick to briefly sprint. You use the Left Trigger to “aim down the sights”, using this alongside a mild auto aim to quickly target enemies even when they’re behind cover, while the Left Bumper switches weapons (of which you can carry only three). Bond vaults over obstacles and gaps with Y, crouches with B to either sneak up on enemies or use cover, and “snaps to” cover with A. While under cover, players can either pop up to return fire, shoot around whatever they’re hiding behind, or use A to quickly dash to alternative cover, with the game adopting a third-person perspective for these moments. The directional pad (D-pad) alters your weapon’s fire rate and equips a silencer (if possible) and cycles through your different grenades. Bond can bring up his hand-dandy smart phone with the “View” button, receiving an overview of his objectives, cycling through any security cameras he’s hacked, reading data files, and consulting a pretty substandard map as a compass guides you towards your objectives. By default, Bond automatically regains health when taking cover or staying out of harm’s way, though Quantum of Solace is pretty generous with its checkpoints so it’s hardly an inconvenience when you die.

Take cover in firefights, hack locks, and shimmy past guards in this substandard COD clone.

When sneaking up on enemies, players can press in the right stick to perform a silent “takedown”. This initiates a quick-time event (QTE) where you must hit the right button to subdue your target, though enemies will be alerted if they spot the body, if you make too much noise, or if you’re spotted by cameras. Thus, it’s better to disable these by holding X when prompted rather than shooting them. Bond also shimmies along balconies to bypass guards, with the game often employing a picture-in-picture perspective to make it easier to time when to hop past windows and such. Occasionally, players must maintain their balance on beams using a pendulum mechanic, jump larger gaps with Y when prompted, and use a mounted turret to mow down enemies with no danger of it overheating. X interacts with the environment, retrieves phones for data files, activates switches, opens gates, and hacks PCs. When used on certain locks, a hacking mini game is initiated where you must press a direction on the D-pad when the number appears in green. Naturally, Bond has a small arsenal of weapons to choose from, either by grabbing guns dropped by enemies or opening special crates. You’ve got his standard-issue Walther PP9, of course, and similar variants alongside the high-impact Super Magnum, two heavy-duty shotguns, and a super fun grenade launcher. There are a couple of sniper rifles, with Bond able to hold his breath for a short time to steady his shot, and a whole bunch of machine and submachine guns. Some come with silencers and special scopes, some burn through ammo faster than others, and some are pretty weak and inaccurate or take longer to reload. I quite enjoyed the Uzi-like Mantis, the hefty TLD22, and the heavy-duty 8-CAT, but the M14 can go die in a ditch. You won’t have to worry about buying upgrades or add-ons or anything so just grab your favourite weapon and go for it.

It’s rare, but some missions offer unique objectives and mechanics to mix up the tedious gameplay.

While some sections promote stealth, being spotted usually just raises an alarm and sees more enemies swarm in, which can end your run pretty quickly so it’s better to pick enemies off with your silenced PP9 or sniper rifle. When stealth is necessary, you must crouch-walk around deactivating cameras and subduing enemies, though this can be tricky if you’re impatient like me. Other times, you’re forced to “survive” against waves of enemies who dive and crouch behind cover or toss grenades if they see you camping. You can shoot electrical boxes and explosive targets to thin out their numbers or occasionally shoot specific targets to drop boats onto them or collapse their rickety platforms. When Dominic Greene’s elaborate estate catches fire in the finale, you must shoot fire extinguishers to dose the flames, crawl though vents in the science centre, and quickly take out enemies before they separate your speeding train from Vesper Lynd’s. You get thirty seconds to do this and there are other similarly timed challenges to contend with, like when you’re given twenty seconds to run, crouch, and escape the tunnels before turncoat Craig Mitchell sets off his explosives or forty-five seconds to kill Greene. There are a couple of chase sequences, with the game (mostly) recreating the famous parkour chase from Casino Royale, forcing players to take alternative paths when the way is blocked or the ground gives beneath them, or when you chase Mitchell across the rooftops and through the houses of Siena. To infiltrate the opera house, players must sneak around disabling cameras and putting down enemies, heading under the docks and manipulating the gantries with switches, and finally sidling along on precarious ledges to avoid being spotted by snipers. The train missions see you taking ladders to the roof to take out and get the drop on enemies, you must snipe the guards outside the science centre, and stumble across a busy road to cure Bond of his poisoning in Casino Royale.

Presentation:
Quantum of Solace does a fairly decent job of bringing the movie’s locations and major action sequences to life, with environments showing a lot of life and detail if not really rewarding or promoting exploration. It tells an extremely truncated version of one of the weaker Bond stories, jumping from place to place and moment to moment and assuming the player is familiar with the film before derailing things to flashback to Casino Royale. When Bond and his MI6 cohorts do appear, they all reflect the likenesses of their actors but are little more than emotionless marionettes, quickly running through key moments of the plot to get back to the action. To make matters worse, most cutscenes are simply voiceovers placed over animated menus as MI6 and Mister White review or listen in on Bond’s actions. As ever, this remains a disappointingly cheap way to advance the plot, so I generally just skipped these when allowed. On the plus side, the movie’s awful theme song is replaced by a far less grating alternative from Kerli, the classic Bond themes punctuate the action, and Bond’s death animation is delivered through the classic gun barrel sequence. Enemies are quite lively, wandering around without a care in the world and leaping into action when they spot you, diving to and shooting around cover and even climbing ladders after you. They occasionally ragdoll about, comically toppling over balconies and such, which is always fun to see. Two of my favourite moments were when the drugged Bond stumbles through Casino Royale, his vision blurred and his body woozy, and your desperate climb up a sinking building in Venice. You also Vesper through the streets, automatically alternating between armed and unarmed if civilians are about, and I was very impressed with the opera house sequence. The environment is large and ominous, with opera music echoing in the background, and Bond must carefully sneak about behind the scenes to progress.

While character models are soulless puppets, the environments are surprisingly faithful to the movies.

After recreating the ending of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace opens with an all-out firefight at Mr. White’s luxurious estate. You start in the gardens, blasting baddies between flowerbeds, through the greenhouse, and through Mr. White’s fully stocked wine cellar. A new version of the film’s title sequence follows this and then you’re chasing Mitchell through claustrophobic caverns and across rooftops in a pretty impressive sequence as the environment is full of market stalls, drying clothes, and the sounds of football from televisions. The sinkhole mission is unremarkable by comparison though there is a section where you briefly protect Camille Montes from Greene’s goons and it leads to a Casino Royale flashback that starts with an exciting and fairly accurate recreation of the parkour sequence, with you crashing, jumping, and balancing about a construction site, and leads you into the visually unique science centre. The airport sequence is a stealth mission in the first half and a firefight in the second, with you frantically clambering up stairs to take out the would-be suicide pilot. The train mission was once of the most visually impressive as you start in the passenger carriages with Vesper and venture onto the roof during a torrential downpour, hopping to a cargo train and picking off goons as you go. While we never see the poker game, players do sneak Bond into Casino Royale, pushing laundry carts, shimmying across ledges, and using the vents to reach the spa for a firefight. The visuals take a bit of a hit on the barge, though it does add to the tension as you race to find Vesper and the Venice mission makes up for it by being in broad daylight. Like the movie, the game culminates with Bond and Camille infiltrating Greene’s impressive, ring-shaped Eco Hotel lair, which both catches fire and is rocked by explosions that force you to find alternative paths to avoid being roasted.

Enemies and Bosses:
As one of the duller James Bond movies to adapt to a videogame, Quantum of Solace features a forgettable slew of goons to mow down. While they will take cover, hunt you down, and toss grenades and their gunfire can ignite explosive barrels, their behaviour is generally predictable, and most can be put down with a few well-placed shots. If you’re spotted, they will shout for backup, generally bringing in better armed goons or perhaps guys in body armour, so it’s usually advised that you use stealth. At first, you’re just gunning down Mr. White’s bodyguards, but you do attack his helicopter to keep him from escaping, at least, and Bond can be easily put down if he runs head-first into an ambush. As you pursue Mitchell, he plants explosives and calls in goons to hold you off, with the game occasionally enforcing a “bullet time” sequence or rattling your senses when they use flash grenades. As ever, snipers can be the bane of your existence, especially at the opera house and science centre, so you’ll want to master the shimmying mini games and the sniper rifle to even the odds there. The science centre, especially, can swarm with machine gun-wielding guards if you’re not careful and the level layouts don’t always make it easy to spot who’s shooting you or from where. Even regular enemies can be troublesome on the train mission as you’re facing a strict timer to reach Vesper and they’re firing from all sides, making it easy to get caught in a crossfire. When infiltrating Greene’s Eco Hotel, you’ll encounter more of his “elite” guards (heavily-armed, armoured military types) who take a few more shots to put down. When pursuing Vesper through Venice, you’ll often get caught in a kill box as enemies bustle around courtyards and stick to the upper levels.

When you’re not taking out choppers and completing QTEs, you’re left to just gun foes down.

Sadly, boss battles are few in Quantum of Solace, with the game generally tossing in a timed challenge, a QTE, or forcing you to fend off waves of enemies either with your equipped weapons or, one time, a mounted turret. Helicopters crop up a couple of times, with you easily downing Mr. White’s chopper by blindly blasting at the cockpit and later using a convenient grenade launcher to take out another chopper at the science centre. This is a tougher objective, however, as the available cover doesn’t help much against the chopper’s guns and enemies drop in to cause you more grief. Another one pops up in the sinkhole mission, though there’s more cover and you can use a sniper rifle to target the pilot. Other bosses are reduced to simple QTE sequences that somewhat mirror the fight scenes from both movies. You battle Mitchell in a crumbling tower, for example, and machete-wielding Steven Obanno in a staircase at the Casino Royale. Naturally, you’ll want to pay attention to what’s happening as you’ll fail if you press the wrong button and you’re sometimes asked to mash a button. While Vesper’s busying drowning, Bond is jumped by Adolph Gettler, who stands there and unloads with his pistol. Since Bond is so desperate and grief-stricken, you’re only option is to take aim and fire with a nearby nail gun before you’re killed. As in the movie, Camille finishes off the depraved General Luiz Medrano, but you must shoot an explosive target to give her the chance. These same targets appear when you finally have your showdown with Greene, who wisely takes the high ground and calls in his elite guards to bombard you with gunfire. Since there’s plenty of cover and your objective is to kill Greene, and you only have forty-five seconds before the Eco Hotel explodes, you can just shoot the explosive targets to put him down and then make a break for it with Camille for a different, but equally unsatisfying ending.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements in Quantum of Solace. While many are now unobtainable as the Xbox Live network is down, these are still the only reason to sit through his forgettable game as they’re pretty simple. You get Achievements for completing each chapter and four for beating each difficulty mode. You’ll get an Achievement for finding some and all cell phones, hacking every lock, scoring fifty headshots, and executing fifty takedowns. Best of all, every level features a unique Achievement tied to it to encourage a replay (easily done after clearing the game and unlocking the chapter select). These require you to use only the P99 on the train, reach the Casino Royale spa and airport server room without being spotted, destroy every overhead light in the science centre, shoot down seven satellite dishes on the rooftops of Siena, and rescue Vesper in less than two minutes on the barge. The multiplayer mode offered standard options like free-for-all-team-based combat, and capture the flag. You could pick different maps based on the game’s missions, customise weapon loadouts, choose to play as either Bond/MI6 or the mysterious “Organisation”, and fight for control of the legendary Golden Gun or to disarm bombs. You would also earn points by playing the multiplayer mode, which could be spent on weapons, gadgets, and attachments, all for additional Achievements and to add a bit more spice to your deathmatches.  

Final Thoughts:
I first played Quantum of Solace years ago as part of my research for my Master’s degree (I did an essay about James Bond videogames). The experience was so shallow and by-the-numbers that I shied away from modern James Bond videogames for many years, only playing them out of sheer morbid curiosity or content for the website. Going back to it now, it’s not as bad as some later games (mainly because Bond isn’t using his damn cell phone for everything), but it’s still a dull and ultimately forgettable experience. It’s telling that so much of the game is based around Casino Royale as Quantum of Solace just isn’t interesting enough to carry the action. The gunplay and basic mechanics are serviceable, but the weapon selection is largely uninspired and there’s not a lot of meat on its bones as it’s simply another hastily thrown together cash-in title that ends up being a poor man’s Call of Duty. I could forgive the lifeless character models if Quantum of Solace didn’t cheap out with its fancy PowerPoint cutscenes, which are just so cheap and insulting that there’s little point in paying attention to the story. There’s little incentive to explore unless you’re desperate to find all those cell phones, what few “bosses” there are are just bog standard QTEs, and you’re barely encouraged to do more than just barge through all guns blazing. It’s a shame as the environments are pretty good, especially for the time, and there’s the ghost of some decent mechanics here. Sadly, knowing these would be both convoluted and driven into the ground by subsequent Bond games only drags Quantum of Solace down further as it set a bad standard for the franchise. As ever, you’re better off sticking to the classics rather than wasting time on this one, unless you fancy boosting your Gamer Score for an affordable price.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Were you also disappointed by Quantum of Solace? Did you enjoy the Call of Duty-inspired gameplay or do you agree that it set a bad precedent for the franchise? What did you think to the stealth mechanics and gimmicks like the hacking mini game and balance beams? Did you also find the Casino Royale missions the most enjoyable? Did you ever play the multiplayer mode and, if so, how was it? Which James Bond videogame is your favourite? How are you celebrating 007 this month? Share your thoughts down below, check out my other James Bond content, and go suggest anther Bond videogame for me to review by donating to my Ko-Fi.

Game Corner: Hellboy: The Science of Evil (Xbox 360)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 24 June 2008
Developer: Krome Studios

Metacritic Scores: 44 /2.8
Also Available For: PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP)

Quick Facts:
Having brought his trademark gothic art style to both independent and mainstream comics, monster-loving artist and comic creator Mike Mignola got his big break in 1993 with the distinctively Lovecraftian Hellboy, whose first live-action venture became an instant cult classic. Hellboy’s first jump to videogames was a poorly reviewed bomb and, despite roping in the creative forces behind the first feature films, The Science of Evil didn’t fare much better and was almost universally lambasted for its poor graphics and gameplay.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Hellboy: The Science of Evil is a third-person hack-and-slash (more of a “bash-and-smash” thanks to Hellboy’s signature Right Hand of Doom) that primarily follows Hellboy’s quest to track down a malicious witch but which features flashbacks to his earlier cases and run-ins with Nazi forces and ends with him confronting crazed Nazi commandant Herman von Klempt at his gothic castle. While the developers may have hoped to make something akin to the Devil May Cry (Capcom/Ninja Theory, 2001 to present) and God of War franchises (Various, 2005 to 2024), they instead lumbered players with a repetitive brawler that features no skill tree to expand upon, few collectibles, and a far too short campaign mode that drags out its runtime with mindless brawling and dodgy platforming. Players make Hellboy (or his allies, fishman Abraham “Abe” Sapien and pyrokinetic Elizabeth “Liz” Sherman in the co-op multiplayer mode) jump with A (holding it to jump higher and tapping it to clamber over ledges) and attack with X (for quick, light strikes) and Y (for heavier strikes or hold it for charged “Boom” attacks that stun enemies). You can dive roll by pressing A and X together (though its use as a dodge is negligible), perform a jumping strike or ground pound (at the cost of some energy), and grapple with the Right Trigger. You can then pummel and toss enemies or instantly kill them with B if you have enough energy. If knocked down, you must tap Y to recover and you must also do this if you respawn after a death. There are no lives here and plenty of checkpoints, and Hellboy’s health automatically refills after a short time (or if you perform a jumping ground slam). Smashing enemies or the environment sees you collecting blue energy to fill your meter, which lets you instantly kill enemies and perform some moves, and you’ll extend this meter by finding artefacts in each area.

Whether playing alone or in co-op, the action quickly becomes tedious and repetitive.

You shoot Hellboy’s versatile handgun, the Samaritan, with the Left Trigger. Although you can freely aim with the right stick, I wouldn’t recommend this as the aiming reticle is as tricky and unreliable as the grapple, which often failed to register my inputs. Hellboy can shoot lots of ammo types, with some being more effective against certain enemies, from regular rounds and the shotgun-like shots to grenades, flame rounds, and magic crystals. You cycle between these with the Left Bumper and collect ammo from crates dotted (or hidden) about, repeatedly tapping RT until your ammo is full. When your energy is full, you can enter “Hellmode” by pressing in both control sticks. This temporarily boosts your speed and attack power or unleashes a flaming shockwave, though I found this to be relatively useless as it doesn’t last long. Hellboy can also grab various weapons (barrels, stone slabs, massive warhammers, drainpipes, swords, and such) to use or throw at enemies. Though these are great for crowd control, can light lanterns or defeat certain foes, and will stun larger enemies, they break pretty quickly. Performing your grapple finish on certain enemies disarms them, gifting you a unique weapon like a machine gun or an exploding round, and you can execute a few basic combos by mashing different combinations of X and Y. However, most enemies take a hell of a beating and continuously swarm the area, to the point where I often felt like the game was glitching. Different enemy types attack each other, which is helpful, and a friend can help you out in the co-op mode, but combat becomes very tedious very quickly as it’s primarily slow, uninteresting punching. It might’ve been nice if you gained experience points to trade in for some fun new moves, like spewing hellfire or some kind of spinning attack, or could upgrade Hellboy’s Hellfire mode to see him go on a rampage as Anung Un Rama. Instead, you’re left with the same moveset for the whole game, with Hellboy acquiring new ammo and little else.

Puzzles and combat often boil down to mashing the same buttons or performing the same actions.

There are no difficulty modes here, though you can enable “friendly fire” to make co-op more frustrating interesting. The game is divided into six chapters, each containing a handful of sub-chapters and asking you to follow a fairly linear path. Along the way, you’re beset by enemies you can largely ignore unless a “ghost barrier” blocks your way. In these instances, you must defeat all nearby enemies to dispel the barrier. Other times, you must cut through ghost tentacles with a special crystalline sword or blast them with your crystal rounds. Occasionally, you activate levers to open gates, stop toxic gas spewing into the arena, or create new walkways. You do this by holding RT and tapping X, which is the go-to method for every “puzzle”. Spot a glowing wall? RT+X to smash through it. Path blocked by fallen trees, rocks, or stalled vehicles? RT+X to clear them. Need to ring a giant bell or push over a column to make a path? RT+X. You get the picture, I’m sure. The game gives the illusion of offering side quests by having Hellboy interact with corpses who ask him to do a task for them to open gates or doors. These generally amount to smashing up some enemies and, you guessed it, holding RT and tapping X. Cursed graves endlessly spawn enemies in the first chapter, but they’re easily destroyed with exploding Bambini heads. Enchanted coffins also appear here, though your “release” ammo will remove their threat and allow you to RT+X to open them for such rewards as…nothing or some ammo. While platforming challenges are light, they’re annoying due to the useless camera, which often switches to different perspectives and angles to screw up your controls. Chapter two introduces the lantern mechanic, where you must light torches and get rid of gnarled roots blocking your path, but this is more aggravating than fun as you must often backtrack for torches. Chapter four also sees you hurling frog monsters down pits to light torches and open gates.

Presentation:
I was somewhat optimistic about Hellboy: The Science of Evil when I heard Marco Beltrami’s Hellboy (Del Toro, 2004) theme on the main menu and saw that Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, and Doug Jones were reprising their film roles. However, the game has a very confused identity and isn’t sure if it’s a movie tie-in, a spin-off from the comics, or something else entirely. While Hellboy looks and sounds like he does in the film, this world seems very different and closer to the comic books, being full of witches, ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural threats. While Hellboy’s stone arm lights up and even bursts into flame, and he adopts different outfits for each chapter, he has no idle poses and repeats the same one-liners and nonsensical statements throughout the game. There are no pre-rendered cutscenes and, strangely, barely any story. There’s some text between chapters and a handful of cutscenes that use the in-game models, but I was very confused about what was happening as there’s no real introduction, chapters abruptly end and jump to the past with little explanation, and the game essentially has no ending, either, as Hellboy’s just blasted into the water after defeating the final boss and the credits roll! I didn’t play in co-op so I have no idea if Abe and Liz appear in cutscenes, but it seems like they don’t, which is weird, and the story felt very disconnected and slapped together to me. This was a shame as it could’ve taken more inspiration from the source material or even retold key moments from the first movie to better tie things together. While the game performs relatively well, I did have some odd moments where the camera got stuck, Hellboy wouldn’t build energy, and the music cut out or oddly looped.

The visual style is somewhere between the comics and the first film, making for a confused game.

While you visit various locations and time periods in Hellboy: The Science of Evil, they’re all very drab and repetitive but I give the game kudos for evoking the dark, gothic aesthetic of the comics over the slightly more polished and sci-fi-esque presentation of the first film. You begin in the Carpathian Mountains of 2007 Romania, smashing your way through a mausoleum and emerging in a crooked, foreboding graveyard full of crypts, gravestones, gnarled trees, and dishevelled woods. A cauldron of bats often swarms in doorways or as you enter new areas, which serve as the calling card of the crazed witch Hellboy’s pursuing, and you’ll find crypts home to loquacious skeletons, a sentient gate who demands a password, and flame pits in dank caverns. Chapter two flashes back twenty-three years to a misty forest in Japan, where Hellboy follows a magical kitsune, encounters a mysterious, isolated monk who offers some exposition, and follows snaking cobblestone paths and fights through a bamboo forest. Pagodas are dotted about and this is where you experience how destructible much of the environment is, though it largely amounts to building your energy meter and discovering the odd collectible. Chapter three returns you to Romania, depositing you in an abandoned village beset by a thunderstorm. I liked the rain effect and lightning flashes and fighting in the narrow streets and on the precarious rooftops in this area. You also detour through a house to encounter a tortured suicide victim and eventually land in some dank catacombs home to disgusting frog monsters. This sewer-like area is alive with slimy egg sacs and razor-sharp tentacles (which helpfully target enemies), scurrying rats, and vaguely Lovecraftian statues. Chapter five flashes back to 1967 Tunisia, where you battle Nazi zombies in the ruins of an archaeological dig, smashing apart their camps, odd crystalline growths, and crashing through ruins. You end up in von Klempt’s gothic castle, a distinctly Mignolaian setting full of 1930s style laboratory equipment, Nazi paraphernalia, and the leftovers of their atrocious experiments with the occult.

Enemies and Bosses:
While there are only a handful of enemy types in Hellboy: The Science of Evil and the game is more likely to toss mini bosses at you and quickly make them regular enemies than wow you with big, action-packed boss battles, most enemies are somewhat unique to their chapter to give each setting a distinct personality (though they all show up in chapter six). At first, you’re beset by pigmy-like Bambinis, mischievous little imps who toss their explosive heads and scamper all over you. They’re relatively harmless unless they clamber onto your back; I had trouble working out how to throw them off before they drained my health. A slightly bigger variant wielding a chain also shows up and the Bambinis chip away at you as you face a pack of werewolves (though these guys look more fearsome than they are and simply swipe, howl, and bite). In Japan, you battle spear-carrying kabuki warriors (whose weapons can be stolen to light lanterns) and encounter troll-like oni, who guard against your attacks, bash your head in with their large metal clubs., and push you back with a sonic blast. You also battle katana carrying demons who swipe and charge with their blades. These guys introduce a mechanic where you must stun them, grapple them, and hit Y to counter their attacks, mash X to pummel, and finish them off with B when prompted. This strategy works on the giant Bambinis (who tackle you, toss exploding Bambini heads, and grab you and throw you into walls), the horned frog monsters, and the cybernetically enhanced apes you later encounter. You fight frog monsters in the sewers (through they’re easily tossed onto spikes) and various Nazi zombies. These guys can take a hell of a beating in chapter five and wield machine guns, electrifying blade arms, grenade launchers, and even these weird, steampunk-esque buzzsaw weapons!

Bosses are as disappointing as the gameplay and lack the visual spectacle I’d expect from the license.

Hellboy constantly encounters a witch in Romania. Each encounter takes place in a different arena but is essentially the same, with her always teleporting as a cloud of bats and tossing exploding Bambini heads. You must throw these (or other objects) back to send her packing and, in the final battle with the witch, you chase her to the rafters and finally corner her in the church attic, where you can get close enough to hit her. Hellboy’s hounded by a volatile cyborg ape…thing in chapter two and is trapped inside a pagoda with it at the chapter’s end. The large ape is deceptively fast with its leap and charge and has a hell of a reach thanks to its mechanical arms (which it fires and swings on chains). If you get too close, it grabs you and throws you about and, instead of fighting it, you attack pillars to drop down a few floors and eventually bring the whole structure down on it. Variations on this enemy appear in chapter six, with one surprising you on a narrow castle wall (however, I fled back and it seemed to despawn!) Chapter four ends with you dispatching some frog monsters and their horned giants, eventually destroying the central chamber of their lair, while chapter five culminates in a more aggravating boss battle against a large, Lovecraftian worm-thing. In the first phase, you must avoid the Nazis swarming the chamber and toss crystals at its mouth when it roars, then use RT+X on the nearby pillars to blast it with lasers. In the second phase, ignore the Nazis and attack with your unbreakable flaming sword, dodging its whipping tentacles to put it down. The game’s final boss is a demon unleashed by von Klempt that’s essentially fought like other giant enemies. You must stay away to avoid being pounded or eaten and dodge its erratic mouth laser, using any nearby debris to stun it or unloading with combos and your gun. Eventually, it’s joined by frog monsters and toxic gas and you must grab von Klempt’s floating cybernetic torso to finish it off, but this was a lacklustre end to a disappointingly mediocre game.

Additional Features:
There are twenty-seven Achievements in Hellboy: The Science of Evil, with one awarded each time you complete a chapter. You can also kill twenty-five enemies with different weapons for some more, kick fifty Bambini heads for another, and toss fifty enemies onto spikes for another. Every chapter hides a hidden artifact and finding each nets you another six Achievements (then a seventh for finding them all). Fall off a cliff twenty times for an Achievement and invent time travel to go back to when Xbox Live was a thing to snag two more for finishing a multiplayer chapter with Ape and Liz. Artifacts and lore that boost your energy gauge are hidden in each chapter  and playing through the game unlocks behind the scenes extras, interviews, and artwork. Completing each chapter unlocks it for you to replay from the main menu and finishing the game allows you to replay the main campaign with all the extra energy and ammo you’ve found. Although there was downloadable content planned where you’d play as Lobster Johnson and Achievements were programmed for this, it never released (not that you’d be able to get it now, or that I imagine it would’ve been that good!)

Final Thoughts:
I’m a big fan of the Hellboy movies, and the character (despite not having read many of his adventures) so I was excited to get into Hellboy: The Science of Evil. Since it’s only tangentially related to the films and released soon after the first movie, I had high hopes it’d avoid the stigma of movie tie-in games. Unfortunately, this really was one of the most disappointing, barebones, cash grab licensed games I’ve ever played. There’s barely any story here and no effort put into any of the cutscenes or even the script, with Ron Perlman muttering statements that seem strangely disconnected to what’s happening and the game seemingly failing to tie into the films or the comics. While Hellboy looks great and the environments are okay, evoking both the movie and Mike Mignola’s distinctive art style, nothing interesting happens with the character or where he goes and the game just feels like a series of events loosely tied together. The combat is so boring and gets old super fast. With no skill tree or additional combos or attacks to learn, Hellboy feels underpowered and frustratingly limited. If the developers were aiming for something akin to a Devil May Cry or God of War title then they missed the mark by a wide margin with the slow, lumbering combat and unsatisfying gunplay. The puzzles were a joke, with every solution to any problem simply being to hold RT and tap X until you win. The quick-time-event-like moments with bigger enemies and bosses were as finnicky as the camera angles and the grab, leading to some frustrating moments. The bosses were laughable as well, with only one offering something more than what you’d get from a larger enemy, and the collectibles and replay value were sub-standard, at best. I’d say this one’s only worth playing if you can get it cheap (a tall order these days) but you’re better off sticking to the Devil May Cry or God of War games for a satisfying hack-and-slash adventure.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

Are you a fan of Hellboy: The Science of Evil? If so…why? Were you disappointed that the game didn’t have more to do with the movies and comics? Would you have liked to see more unlockable combos and attacks? Which of the bosses and ammo types as your favourite? Did you ever play the game in co-op? Which Hellboy videogame is your favourite? Leave me a like and drop a comment below, then donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest more Hellboy content for the site.

Game Corner [Global James Bond Day]: 007 Legends (Xbox 360)

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To celebrate the release of the first of many filmic outings for James Bond, October 5th is officially recognised as “Global James Bond Day”.

Released: 16 October 2012
Developer: Eurocom
Metacritic Scores: 45 / 4.6

Also Available For: Nintendo Wii, PC, and PlayStation 3

Quick Facts:
After James Bond 007: Blood Stone (Bizarre Creations, 2010) eased the sting of Activision’s poorly received GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997) reimagining, Activision were keen to develop a new title to coincide with the franchise’s 50th anniversary. Built on their pre-existing game engine, 007 Legends saw Daniel Craig lend his likeness to six classic James Bond adventures alongside some returning faces. Sadly, 007 Legends was widely criticised for its repetitive gameplay, awful stealth mechanics, and slapdash narrative. Though the multiplayer options were praised and the game was bolstered by an additional downloadable mission, 007 Legends is largely considered to be one of the worst 007 videogames ever made.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
007 Legends is an infamous first-person shooter (FPS) in which players revisit truncated and largely reimagined versions of five classic James Bond films – Goldfinger (Hamilton, 1964), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Hunt, 1969), Licence to Kill (Glen, 1989), Die Another Day (Tamahori, 2002), and Moonraker (Gilbert, 1979) – in the guise of the Daniel Craig version of the character, completing anywhere from one to three missions for each. You might be wondering why the films are ordered like that and that’s a great question. The films are presented as flashbacks Bond relives during a near-death experience in Skyfall (Mendes, 2012) and, as such, there’s nothing cohesive linking them together (beyond some recurring characters) and no logic behind presenting Moonraker last except to have a finale in space!! Anyone who’s played Activision’s previous Bond videogames, or the Call of Duty franchise (Various, 2003 to present) will recognise 007 Legends’ control scheme and basic gameplay mechanics, though you can select different presets. By default, players jump and hop vault over low walls with A (though be careful as Bond takes fall damage!), crouch behind cover or to sneak up on enemies with B, reload with X and hold X to interact with the environment (to open doors, activate switches, or hack terminals), and switch weapons with Y (double-tapping it to quickly whip out Bond’s signature Walther P99). The Right Trigger fires while the Right Bumper tosses your primary explosive. The Left Trigger aims down your sights (and offers a partial lock-on when used correctly) and the Left Bumper throws your secondary explosive. You can briefly sprint by pressing in the left stick, perform melee attacks and quick takedowns by pressing in the right stick, and use the directional pad (D-pad) to activate gadgets and add-ons. These apply a silencer to your weapon, whip out Bond’s multi-use dart gun, use his wristwatch as a radar or to disable security cameras, or pull out his smartphone to hack terminals or scan the environment using different filters.

Whether you go in all guns blazing or use stealth, you can upgrade Bond’s abilities with XP.

Players can pick between “Modern” or “Classic” health systems, with the former seeing Bond’s health regenerate if he avoids damage for a time and the latter having him collect med-kits and body armour. Bond has an array of weapons (though he can only hold three at a time), with many found in MI6 cases scattered throughout each environment. You can utilise various pistols, from the standard Walther P99 and its variants to the high-impact Iguana .44, close-quarters shotguns like the Camara US6 and super fun Drumhead Type-12, and different sniper rifles (one boasting an infrared filter) for long-range combat. You’ll also grab different Moonraker Laser rifles (which boast infinite ammo), a rocket launcher, various grenades and mines, and a wide assortment of submachine guns and assault rifles. While these are great for thinning out hordes of enemies, many quicky burn through their magazines or are widely inaccurate, though you can compensate for this by purchasing upgrades with experience points (XP). Each weapon and weapon group as an “XP Challenge” tied to it where you’re awarded XP for “eliminating” different numbers of enemies or performing headshots and such. This XP is spent in the XP store to either upgrade Bond’s maximum health, durability, recovery time, sneaking ability, weapon switching and such or on attachments for each weapon class. You can buy bigger magazines, silencers, scopes, stocks, laser sights, a rapid-fire mode and more, however you can only apply three upgrades at a time to each weapon (and to Bond). Bond will also take the controls of a mounted mini gun during On Her Majesty’s Secret Service to mow down Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s minions and can use his dart gun to subdue, shock, or distract enemies. Although largely optional, some areas force you to stealthily avoid enemies or cameras, subduing them with takedowns, your silenced pistol, or your dart gun. This was incredibly aggravating in Licence to Kill, where guards and scientists kept spotting me, but was surprisingly easy in Moonraker. It’s generally beneficial to use stealth when prompted to avoid being set upon by reinforcements and to earn additional XP.

Sadly, there’s more focus on hacking than driving or exhilarating gameplay mechanics.

007 Legends quickly establishes its repetitive gameplay loop, tasking you with gunning down various guards or sneaking through areas, liaising with or fighting alongside non-playable characters (NPCs), and exploring various offices. As was the style for Bond videogames, Bond’s smartphone is a key component as you must either photograph evidence or use the camera’s different filters to locate hidden switches (and thereby hidden doors) or analyse objects of interest. You’ll also hack many devices using the phone, holding LT and RT to keep each bar blue or rotating coloured circles to complete a circuit, or rotating segments on Bond’s watch to crack safes. In Moonraker, you must wander through side doors and laboratories, sneaking through ventilation shafts to disable security turrets, while Licence to Kill relies far more on critical stealth sections. You’ll often follow or fight alongside the likes of Felix Leiter and Giacinta Johnson/Jinx and these guys more than hold their own, gunning down guards (occasionally alongside soldiers or marines) and leading you in the right direction. Other times, you must protect your ally, covering Doctor Holly Goodhead or Pam Bouvier as they said you. As far as I could see, these missions only fail if you die or leave the area as your allies seem invulnerable, though I could be wrong. Licence to Kill and Die Another Day offer two driving sections, with you holding RT to accelerate, pressing LT to break, and executing a handbrake turn with A. In Die Another Day, you use the D-pad to activate threat indicators, traction control, and the car’s missile lock-on systems (fired with B). Moonraker’s finale is played entirely in zero gravity, with you flailing about using A and B to ascend or descend and destroying Hugo Drax’s space station turrets. Finally, some enemies and nearly every boss is fought in a janky first-person fist fight sequence that basically amounts to a quick-time event (QTE). You must use the left or right stick, LT and/or RT, or tap A when promptly to land blows, parry, block incoming attacks, and disarm your foes.

Objectives and gameplay mechanics quickly become tedious as the game lacks innovation.

Naturally, every mission is loaded with a few objectives, with Bond having to complete more depending on what difficulty you’re playing. Secondary objectives also pop up, earning you additional XP, and your accuracy, completion count, and performance is ranked at the end of each mission for more XP. The onscreen radar and compass guide you towards your primary objective, but secondary ones must be sought out yourself and range from successfully bypassing enemies and cameras without triggering the alarms, analysing samples, destroying Blofeld’s anti-aircraft defences, and taking out Franz Sanchez’s terrorist cronies. You’ll hold X to open doors and plant bombs, analyse nerve gas, download data from terminals, plant tracking devices, gun down enemies, take out snipers, and automatically switch to night vision to explore certain areas. This is most prominent in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, where Bond and Marc-Ange Draco explore Blofeld’s maze-like lair to find Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo/Tracy. This mission also begins with a high-speed ski sequence where you frantically dodge trees and rocks and take out Blofeld’s jet-skiing minions and helicopters to catch up to Tracy (easier said than done). Some objectives are timed, such as when you enter serial numbers into terminals in Moonraker to stop Drax launching his poison pods, or when you race into Gustav Graves’ jet, or a nail-biting escape from Drax’s shuttle launch that I barely cleared! Die Another Day starts with you mingling around and investigating Graves’ ice hotel alongside Jinx then taking out his guards in his impressive biodome before dodging lasers from his Icarus satellite and mortars from Zao. Occasionally, players “breach” areas, setting off a slow-motion sequence where you gun down everyone in sight, or you must shoot overhead pipes to dose flames blocking your way. Other times, you can interact with the environment to cause distractions or take out enemies. Some missions take nearly an hour to get through while others last about ten minutes, some rely more on stealth or shooting, and others take your weapons and gadgets away entirely in a desperate attempt to keep things fresh.

Presentation:
007 Legends continues to trend set by GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (Eurocom, 2001) in replacing past Bond actors with Daniel Craig (likeness only here) and having his stoic, no-nonsense Bond relieve classic Bond adventures. Although Timothy Watson does a striking job emulating Craig, his delivery is robotic to the point of apathy, robbing iconic Bond lines like “Do you expect me to talk?” of all their gravitas. All of Bond’s returning villains are modelled after their respective actors (except for Blofeld, who’s modelled after the Donald Pleasance incarnation) as are some of his allies, meaning Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel, and Toby Stephens all return alongside the voices and/or likenesses or Carey Lowell, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman. Oddly, while Dame Judi Dench, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear all return, Jeffrey Wright is recast as Felix Leiter, completely ruining even a slight chance that this game is supposed to fit into Craig’s Bond canon. Bond isn’t seen often but, when he is, he’s little more than a marionette, like his supporting cast. Lacking Halle Berry’s allure and charisma, Jinx is robbed of any memorable characteristics, characters simply go through their motions with little fanfare, and line deliveries are about as disinterested as the soundalike score, which evokes some of the memorable Bond themes but never fully commits to any. The game feels very slapped together, with each mission providing very little context and relying on the player already being familiar with these Bond movies. This might be fine if they didn’t change some elements around, such as Pam infiltrating Sanchez’s organisation in Licence to Kill and ignoring Graves’ true origins in Die Another Day. The flashback bookends and interludes are a cheap way to tie these stories together and I would’ve much preferred that the developers try to rewrite these movies into a cohesive narrative, perhaps using Quantum as a common thread (as the rights to the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion (SPECTRE) were still up in the air at this time).

The game does a decent job of reimaging classic locations and characters despite some inconsistencies.

On the plus side, 007 Legends does as commendable a job as GoldenEye 007: Reloaded at updating and reimagining locations from each movie. Things start off pretty strong, recreating the gold-painted Jill Masterson and dropping Bond outside Auric Goldfinger’s Swiss airbase (which is alive with guards and explosions). Players eventually storm Fort Knox alongside Leiter and some troops, battling down to the vault and encountering the same bomb as in the movie, and eventually confront Goldfinger on his private jet just like in the finale. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service sees you racing down the Swiss Alps and launching an all-out assault on a faithfully recreated version of Blofeld’s mountainside lair, complete with brainwashing bedrooms and underground laboratories. Licence to Kill starts you at the ruins of an Otomi temple, where you stealthily take down guards to infiltrate Sanchez’s elaborate drug operation. This, again, closely mirrors the film but is obviously expanded to incorporate the heavy reliance on stealth in this mission. Licence to Kill ends with you securing a helicopter, chasing Sanchez’s truck on a highway, and even mounting it to take out pursuing Humvees. Die Another Day impressed considerably with its near-identical recreation of Graves’ ice palace, which featured a gaggle of NPCs at the bar, bedrooms and offices, and leads to a man-made jungle environment housed within a high-tech biodome. The laser cutters and ice field Bond drives across even return, as does the finale within Graves’ jet. Moonraker continues this trend, recreating Drax’s ridiculous henchmen and their yellow jumpsuits and seeing Bond sneak through his astronaut training facility, complete with gyrospheres, treadmills, and spare suits. Bond and Dr. Goodhead must escape a launching shuttle’s exhaust flames and sneak aboard another shuttle to board Drax’s space station, where the Earth, other shuttles, and a full-blown laser battle take place in the void outside. This was probably the most visually impressive section, however I did encounter a dramatic and nearly game-breaking period of slowdown during my playthrough. Textures also often warped or popped in out of nowhere, and enemies tended to comically ragdoll when shot.

Enemies and Bosses:
You’ll gun down a small continent’s worth of nameless, faceless, repetitive goons in 007 Legends, each of whom appear slightly different depending on who they’re working for but all follow predictable behaviours. Enemies patrol laboratories, facilities, and areas in a pre-set loop, becoming alerted to your presence if they spot dead bodies or you make too much noise. They call for reinforcements by triggering alarms (which sometimes instantly fails the mission), though you can negate this by disabling overhead cameras or quietly subduing them. Scientists and other NPCs also alert guards if they spot you, costing you the mission or kicking off a gun fight, and enemies are more than capable of taking and firing over cover, opening doors, and climbing ladders to pursue you. If you linger in one spot for too long, enemies toss grenades that can be tricky to avoid, though you can throw your own or blast explosive barrels to take out large groups. Enemies wield machine guns, pistols, and even rocket launchers, firing from afar like the ever-annoying snipers (distinguishable by their laser sights). As you progress, enemies wear more obvious body armour, necessitating the use of more powerful weapons, and they’ll even shred you with mounted guns and hit you if you get close. Occasionally, random guards will surprise you and force a fist fight, often with one or both of you swinging a pole or a wrench or something, which can be annoying as these fights quickly get tedious. Very rarely, enemies will race around in Humvees or on jet skis or attack from helicopters, rappelling down or firing from above and requiring you to blast them from the sky with a rocket launcher. I found Drax’s laser-firing goons particularly difficult to tag in Moonraker thanks to the disorientating zero-gravity, Graves’ suited-up bodyguards were surprisingly durable, and the security turrets will cut you to ribbons unless you disable them.

Every boss is fought in a tedious and all-too-easy fist fight and QTE sequence.

Any time an enemy forces a fist fight, this essentially counts as a mini boss, I guess, or a reminder of the clunky fighting mechanics for the real bosses. In Goldfinger, this means throwing hands with Goldfinger’s stout, mute bodyguard/assassin, Oddjob. Just like in the movie, you swing a pole at Oddjob and must dodge his razor-sharp hat (which instantly kills if you don’t react to the QTE fast enough). Like every fist fight, though, it’s a simple affair made even easier as Bond finishes Oddjob in a cutscene, though you must remember to hit LT to send Goldfinger packing. After cutting down Blofeld’s soldiers and beating up his goons hidden throughout his lair, you’ll get into a fist fight with SPECTRE’s head honcho in a cable car. Blofeld throws hands and an axe, which you must parry and then take from him, but it’s the same fight you have every time, just dragged out more. Similarly, after making it through aggravating critical stealth sections in Sanchez’s drug lab, you fight his sadistic right-hand, Dario, who swings a pole and ends up falling into the machinery. You must then succeed a QTE on Sanchez’s tanker truck and fist fight him, too, parrying his machete when prompted. Die Another Day mixes things up by having you race from and then fire missiles at Zao across the ice, dodging his mortars and Icarus lasers. Though the mission again ends in a fist fight, Graves is at least wearing his ridiculous cybernetic suit and you must complete a few more QTEs to dodge his electrical blasts. Moonraker not only employs aggravating critical stealth sections but has you circumventing and disabling overhead turrets to infiltrate Drax’s operation, where you’re naturally attacked by Jaws. You must tap A to avoid being bitten, tap RT to toss a screwdriver at him to save Dr. Goodhead, bash his head with a metal pole, and finally hit RT to electrocute him. When pursuing Drax, Bond must float around destroying six mechanical arms to stop his poison pods launching, which is tricky because of his disorientating zero-gravity is, the enemies firing at you, and the small window you have to attack the arms. You can destroy the pods as well, but the gas will chip away at your health, and this is basically it as Drax is finished in a cutscene.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements in 007 Legends and most of them are pretty easy to obtain, meaning this is the only real reason to play the game. You’ll get an Achievement for finishing each movie and two for finishing on “Agent” difficulty or higher or using “Classic” mode. You get another Achievement for fully upgrading one weapon, gadget, and buying all of Bond’s health and gameplay buffs, another for earning 10,000 XP, and another for scoring “eliminations” with every weapon class. There’s a bullshit but also amusing 0G Achievement, another for photographing Graves’ alligator and completing the Die Another Day driving section without gadgets, and another for sending Drax’s gyrosphere haywire. Every location has intel and biographical items hidden in it, usually in the bad guy’s office, which you must collect for additional Achievements and to unlock character bios and models. You can also view concept and production art, input cheat codes (mostly to unlock multiplayer extras), and tackle various “trials” for each mission and difficulty. These task you with having high accuracy, finishing each mission in a set time, utilising stealth, and amassing certain “eliminations” for a higher score, more XP, and a handful of Achievements. Similarly, you can take on the “Challenge” mode to revisit missions with less resources or certain restrictions in place. 007 Legends also offers local multiplayer (I assume the online functionality is long gone), featuring additional classic characters and some familiar gameplay modes, such as a free-for-all, capture the flag, team-based gameplay, limiting your lives, or offering more points for using the fabled Golden Gun. Though no longer available, there was also an extremely short, downloadable Skyfall mission (that had no new Achievements) that saw you pursuing the Patrice on a motorcycle (in first-person, no less) across the rooftops and through the streets and buildings of Istanbul, tracking the assassin to a skyscraper, and using cover to engage in a shoot-out against his sniping skills rather than offering another fist fight.

Final Thoughts:
I’d heard all about how bad 007 Legends was and, having been disappointed by Activision’s previous James Bond videogames, I was very reluctant to try it for myself, especially as it’s priced too high for its reputation and the Skyfall mission is now lost media. However, I finally relented, reasoning that the Achievements would be worth my time and it couldn’t be all that bad. Truthfully, it’s really not that terrible; it just continues the trend of these games being painfully repetitive and generic. It lacks the excitement and fun of Bond’s classic Nintendo 64 outing, fails to stand up to the celebrated (if equally uninspired) Call of Duty franchise, and, worst of all, doesn’t do anything interesting with the license. Recreating classic Bond movies was a great idea, but presenting them as disconnected, truncated flashbacks suffered by Craig’s Bond robs them of all context. While there’s some impressive attention to detail at times and fun little Easter Eggs dotted about, this is a cheap, clearly rushed celebration of the franchise that doesn’t even include an end cutscene! The shoot outs are quite fun, for the most part, but dulled considerably by the tedious hacking mini games and boring fist fight mechanics that reduce every boss to a painfully easy and tiresome slugfest. The stealth sections are even worse, raising the alarm and costing you the mission at even the slightest hint of your presence, and the pacing is all over the place, with some missions taking ages to finish and having multiple sections and others being over in the blink of an eye. The upgrade system is alright, I guess, but somewhat redundant given you can recover health, but it doesn’t take long to get everything you need. I don’t know if paying for the likenesses or the other Bond actors would’ve salvaged 007 Legends but it’s certainly a disappointing, half-assed, and forgettable experience that’s really only worth it to say you tried it and agree with the general consensus…and to add to your Gamer Score.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Do you agree that 007 Legends is one of the worst James Bond videogames? What did you think to the movies selected for the title? How do you think it holds up compared to other Bond games from this time? Did you also struggle with the critical stealth sections? What did you think to the hacking mini games and repetitive fist fights? Did you ever play the Skyfall mission? What’s your favourite James Bond game and how are you celebrating the character this month? Whatever you think about 007 Legends, please share your thoughts in the comments, check out my other James Bond content, and suggest a Bond movie or videogame for me to review by donating to my Ko-Fi.

Mini Game Corner [Sonic Month]: Sonic X Shadow Generations (Xbox Series X)

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Sonic the Hedgehog was first introduced to gamers worldwide on June 23 1991 and, since then, has become not only SEGA’s most enduring and popular character but also a beloved videogame icon. Thus, in keeping with tradition, I’m dedicating some time to celebrate SEGA’s supersonic mascot.

Released: 25 October 2024
Originally Released: 1 November 2011
Developer: Sonic Team
Metacritic Scores: 80 / 8.9

Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S (Shadow Generations); PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, PC, Xbox 369, Xbox One (Original Version)

Quick Facts:
SEGA celebrated Sonic’s 20th anniversary with Sonic Generations (Sonic Team, 2011), a largely praised love letter for long-time fans. The game remained a strong seller for SEGA but got a new lease of life as part of the 2024 “Year of Shadow” to coincide with Shadow the Hedgehog’s big-screen debut. Bundled alongside a new remaster of Sonic Generations, Shadow Generations featured an open-world, additional powers for the brooding anti-hero, Shadow-specific levels, and downloadable content (DLC).

The Review:
Since I’ve already reviewed Sonic Generations, I was tempted to gloss over treading the same ground again, however I think there are a few additions to the original game that are worth mentioning. We get a new title screen and some updated visuals for the original game, with Sonic X Shadow Generations offering a bunch of new options and even removing the lives system so you can play through levels (or “Acts”) and Challenges as often as you like. You’ll still die if you’re hit without Golden Rings or fall down a pit, and your ranking will decrease, but at least you don’t have to grind for Rings and lives. As before, Sonic Generations sees you blasting through nine reimagined areas (or “Zones”) from Sonic’s past as the “Classic” pudgy Sonic and the sleek “Modern” Sonic. Classic Sonic runs through Act One of each Zone on a 2.5D plane while Modern Sonic switches between 3D and 2.5D as he blasts through Act Two. Both share some common controls despite these differences: you jump with A or X and press either again in mid-air to perform a Homing Attack. You crouch or slide through gaps with B, activate any equipped “Skills” with Y, and blast away with Modern Sonic’s “Boost” or Classic Sonic’s Spin Dash with the Right Trigger. Golden Rings, tricks, and bashing Badniks fills Modern Sonic’s Boost gauge, allowing him to plough through enemies and destructible objects. Holding the Left and Right Triggers lets you drift, the Left and Right Bumpers quick step, and Modern Sonic performs a mid-air stomp with B, wall jumps off certain walls, and dashes along Ring lines with Y. Both Sonic’s now begin with the Drop Dash equipped, allowing you to hold A or X to quickly dash away, and you can again unlock Skills with the points you earn from clearing Acts and by finding Red Star Rings and completing Challenges.

The original game returns, as fun as ever, with a couple of new features and a visual upgrade.

These Skills increase your acceleration and underwater movement, grant elemental shields, extend the Boost gauge, and give you a skateboard, among other perks. You must clear each Act to partially restore the bleak White Space hub world, collecting Boss Gate keys and taking on rivals and additional Challenges as you go. These see you race against or team up with a friend, like using Rouge the Bat’s feminine wiles to discombobulate enemies, digging for treasure with Knuckles the Echidna, and being smashed higher by Amy Rose’s hammer. Each Zone faithfully recreates its source material by with added gimmicks and twists, such as incorporating parts of Hidden Palace Zone into Sky Sanctuary and adding an airship to Rooftop Run. You still utilise Wisps to traverse Planet Wisp, still run from that rampaging truck, and still hop to rails and avoid bottomless pits. You must also tackle three of Sonic’s rivals and three reimagined bosses to acquire Chaos Emeralds, with each sporting new attacks such as hurling debris and attacking from the background. Alongside the five Red Star Rings hidden in each Act, there are three Chao to find, too, which bring more life to White Space when found. Finding them all pops a new Achievement, though most of the original Achievements return, earned for restoring each area and unlocking all Skills. Sonic Generations continues to impress, with remixed tracks returning for each area and fantastic detail packed into every environment, even if things can get cluttered. Sonic X Shadow Generations isn’t just a visual upgrade; the game runs faster, with no lagging or slowdown, which greatly improves the gameplay experience. The payoff is that it’s even easier to slip or fly off stages, and both Sonics still have an incredibly stunted jump that can make platforming trickier than it needs to be. The focus remains on high-speed, action-packed gameplay, however, with each Zone sporting multiple paths and shortcuts (via springs, pulleys, rockets, cannons, and the like) to shave a few seconds off or find Red Star Rings or Chao. The Casino Night minigame is here by default and there are two skins to purchase for each Sonic, one that turns Classic Sonic into a Saturn-era polygonal model, and another ripped right out of the Dreamcast Sonic Adventure (Sonic Team, 1999). Unfortunately, the game remains as short and easy as ever, with no new Challenges or additional stages or unlockables added, which is a shame considering I would’ve loved to play as someone other than Sonic.

Take on an additional challenge using Shadow’s new powers and abilities.

For Shadow Generations, the controls remain the same, with Shadow performing his own version of the Homing Attack, blasting along with a boost, and stomping through crates. Unlike Sonic, Shadow cannot equip Skills and instead stuns enemies with his Chaos Spear (Y), builds a gauge to activate Chaos Control (LT) to temporarily slow time, and gains new “Doom” powers by attacking Black Doom’s eye to acquire a Doom Gear. When cashed in, Shadow can launch Chaos Spear at up to five targets, surf across water (and attack with RT or LT) on a manta ray-like lifeform, launch Black Arms soldiers by charging X, traverse sticky goop by pressing X to transform into a tentacled form, and sprout Doom Wings by pressing RB and LB together when he has 50 Rings, allowing him to awkwardly glide for as long as he has Rings and Boost. Some of these new abilities are more fun than others, with the Doom Surf being quite slippery and the Doom Morph being quite finnicky and the Doom Wings quickly draining your Boost gauge and being stunted since you can’t freely fly. Instead of Red Star Rings, players can find three “Collection Keys” in each Act, which open coloured crates in his version of White Space, thereby unlocking concept art, music, and other goodies. Players can also shoot balloons to collect pages of Professor Gerald’s journal (a physical version is included with the game) and find Machine Parts in White Space to help Cubot and Orbot escape. There are also sixteen Achievements specifically tied to Shadow Generations, with most popping when you restore areas and defeat bosses, but you’ll need all those “S” ranks and collectibles to 100% the game. Shadow also doesn’t have to worry about running out of lives, but you must be super quick and super attentive to earn an “S” rank as Shadow’s stages are much longer and tougher than Sonic’s. Pits, hazards, and enemies are plentiful, with you having to make faster decisions on the fly to take alternative paths, switch rails, and avoid a nasty fall, especially as Shadow is just as slippery and wild as Sonic at times.

Open-world gameplay and an increased difficulty add an extra kick to the core gameplay.

Shadow Generations mimics Sonic Frontiers (Sonic Team, 2022) by making Shadow’s White Space more of an open-world experience, allowing you to freely roam, spawn rails, springs, and platforms, and search for goodies. While I found this tedious, you can skip to an Act, boss, or Challenge Act from the pause menu and shortcuts do appear. You’ll again have to beat Challenge Acts to earn Boss Gate Keys, with these seeing you complete obstacle courses with just one Ring, defeating a certain number of enemies, utilising Shadow’s new powers to clear gaps, and avoiding or triggering environmental hazards. These are much harder than in Sonic Generations, but fun challenges that ramp up after you clear the game and activate “Doom Zone”, which also makes the bosses tougher. Shadow’s allies, like Rouge the Bat and E-123  “Omega”, appear in White Space to offer encouragement, Shadow’s reunited with Professor Gerald and Maria and once again reconciles his past, and Doom’s Eye taunts him in most Acts, warping the environment and testing your platforming skills. Shadow’s stages are mostly decent, with players revisiting various locations from the Space Colony ARK, rushing through Rail Canyon, and blasting through a dramatically improved version of Kingdom Valley. Shadow’s Act Twos are usually shorter 2.5D challenges, as in Sonic Generations, but Act Ones see Doom’s Eye dropping Shadow in an increasingly twisted and nightmarish version of Radical Highway. This serves as the final area of the story, and the toughest challenge yet, but I was surprised that Westopolis didn’t appear as well (or instead). I was baffled by how many stages went with the “wrecked city” theme and by the inclusion of Chaos Island, an area Shadow never visits, rather than a stage from Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Team USA, 2005), and that Sunset Highway was reimagined considering Shadow’s small role in Sonic Forces (Sonic Team, 2017). By dropping some real-world cash, you can unlock a bonus stage where you play through downtown Shibuya from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Fowler, 2024) as the movie version of Shadow, with Keanu Reeves reprising his role. Upgrade to the digital deluxe version and you also get a prototype skin for Shadow, though I’m not sure this is worth the hefty price tag.

Shadow’s old rivals get monstrous makeovers for epic and action-packed rematches.

Shadow Generations takes place alongside Sonic Generations, with Shadow menaced by the revived Black Doom and struggling to control his anger and new powers. In addition to playing through reimagined versions of some of his most recognisable stages, Shadow also battles some returning enemies, mainly Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.) robots, Artificial Chaos, Black Arms soldiers, and Ancients. A gigantic, dragon-like Black Arms conjures twisters and blocks your path in Radical Highway, massive Death Egg Robos destroy the environment in Sunset Highway, while terrifying robotic trains barrel at you in Rail Canyon. Although Shadow encounters Sonic in a cutscene, there’s no do-over of their Rival Battle from Shadow’s perspective, and no Rival Battles at all, unfortunately. Instead, players battle four of Shadow’s most fearsome foes in reimagined fights, starting with the fearsome Biolizard. Like Sonic Generations’ Nintendo 3DS port, you must race away from the creature’s chomping mouth and thrashing tail, dodging energy balls and grinding up to attack its life support system. You still bounce off orbs to do the same, but the Biolizard now spawns extra limbs and produces shockwaves, and clings to the wall to spit projectiles. Next, you battle the Metal Overload while Doom Surfing, knocking back its projectiles and sea mines and avoiding spike balls and laser walls. After grinding along rails to attack it, you must time jumps to avoid its tail (trickier than it sounds) and win a bout of dead man’s volley to finish it. Shadow then battles Mephiles, Doom Morphing to attack, destroying his minions and clones with Chaos Spear, and dodging his massive mouth laser. The finale pits you against Devil Doom in a three-stage fight. First, like with Metal Overload, you Doom Surf and hit laser orbs at the demonic alien; then, you Doom Morph to swing about, dodging fireballs and pummelling his eye, hopping to platforms as he destroys them beneath you. Black Doom then transforms into Neo Devil Doom and Shadow attacks with Doom Wing rather than as Super Shadow, though you’ll still need Rings to stay alive. Dodge through debris to reach him, then reflect his projectiles and charge towards his eye when prompted. Neo Devil Doom attacks with his tentacle-like tail, summons a vortex, and is constantly launching shit at you, but it’s not too difficult to bypass these, break free of his Chaos Control, and finish him off with a quick-time event.

Final Thoughts:
I’ve always enjoyed Sonic Generations. It was a fast-paced, action-packed adventure full of fun Easter Eggs and references to Sonic’s colourful past. My biggest gripe with the game was how barebones it was and how it could’ve done more to celebrate gaming’s famous hedgehog. Sonic X Shadow Generations aims to fix that with a visual overhaul and some new features to refine the original experience and add a few new bells and whistles, though nothing’s really that different in the main game. The big selling point here is Shadow Generations, an impressive and thrilling celebration of Sonic’s infamous anti-hero that takes the core gameplay and mixes it up to offer a brand-new challenge. The presentation here is top notch, with genuinely impressive CG cutscenes and an open-world hub world that, while still a bit bland and aggravating, shows more effort than a simple white void. Shadow’s new powers were a bit hit and miss but were largely very fun, with players blasting through enemies and wrecking the environment in a blaze of glory. While stages do stretch on for a while and are noticeably more challenging than in Sonic Generations, I loved the recreations of Shadow’s past, though it’s genuinely perplexing that Shadow the Hedgehog isn’t represented considering the main villain is Black Doom! I really enjoyed the reimagined bosses, which were suitably epic and a blast to fight, incorporating elements from Sonic Frontiers for an extra kick. The challenge is certainly upped in Shadow Generations, which can make it a bit frustrating, but I had a great time here. However, it’s still too short and Sonic Team didn’t let Sonic and Shadow crossover into each other’s White Spaces, or include Rival Battles, Super Shadow, or even a motorcycle section. If you’ve never played Sonic Generations before, though, this is absolutely the definitive and recommended way to play as it revamps and bolsters the original. And, if you have played the game, there’s enough here to warrant a replay, though all the old gripes remain behind the action.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Were you a fan of this revamp of Sonic Generations? What did you think to the tweaks to the original game and did you find all those Chaos? Were you a fan of Shadow’s new abilities and powers? Were you surprised by the stages chosen for his story? What did you think to the added challenge and the reimagined bosses? How are you celebrating Sonic’s anniversary this year? Whatever your thoughts on Sonic X Shadow Generations, leave a comment below, support me on Ko-Fi, and go check out my other Sonic content!

Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Perfect Dark (Xbox Series X)

Dr. K4 Comments

January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.

Released: 4 August 2015
Originally Released: 22 May 2000
Developer: Rare
Metacritic Scores: 97 / 8.3

Also Available For: Nintendo 64, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

Quick Facts:
One of the biggest UK-based videogame developers, Rare cemented their legacy with the classic first-person shooter (FPS) GoldenEye 007 (1997) but lost the James Bond license to Electronic Arts (EA). Taking inspiration from science-fiction movies and television shows, Rare crafted an original sci-fi shooter that vastly improved upon GoldenEye 007’s game engine and mechanics. Perfect Dark’s development was tumultuous and taxed the Nintendo 64 hardware, resulting in plans to incorporate the Game Boy Camera and Transfer Pak being scrapped. Perfect Dark was met with critical acclaim, though a spin-off was cancelled and the game’s prequel was universally derided.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
As the spiritual successor to one of the greatest first-person shooters ever made, it should be no surprise that Perfect Dark focuses on gun combat, stealth, and accomplishing various objectives across its nine missions. While the game allows two players to play solo simultaneously with one of its controller settings, allowing one to move and interact and the other to aim and shoot, Perfect Dark also offers co-operative play and “counter-operative” play, in which players actively try to interfere with each other in a single playthrough. “Perfect” Agent Joanna Dark is a spy working for the Carrington Institute, allowing GoldenEye 007’s mechanics to be expanded upon and refined. Though you can change the controller setup, I always found the “classic” controls to be the best so I was interacting with the environment (opening doors, activating consoles, and such) with A, cycling through weapons with B and Y, manually reloading with X, and using the Right Bumper to switch to my weapon’s secondary function. The Left Trigger aims, the Right Trigger fires, and I crouched behind cover (crates, desks, and such) by pressing in the left stick. You can also toggle a few options from the menu (such as the crosshair, auto aim, and the blood), create and name multiple save files, and pick from three difficulty settings. As in GoldenEye 007, these not only increase the intelligence and durability of enemies but also add additional objectives to each mission to provide a greater challenge. Upon clearing a mission, you’re presented with your performance, which tracks how long you took, your accuracy, your kills, and other stats and also displays any cheats you unlocked. As Perfect Dark is a more futuristic setting than GoldenEye 007, Joanna utilises shields to extend her health, slows time with the “Combat Boost” item, and utilises gadgets like infrared goggles and various scanners to detect objectives. However, like Bond, Joanna fails missions if she destroys key equipment or kills too many innocents, so you can’t be too trigger happy.

Joanna utilises some familiar, and alien, weapons to complete objectives and clear missions.

Anyone who’s played GoldeneEye 007 may be familiar with some of Joanna’s weapons. The standard issue Falcon 2 isn’t a million miles away from the Walther PP7 or the DD44 Dostovei, the DY357 Magnum is functionally identical to Bond’s Cougar Magnum, the super powerful RC-P120 is essentially an upgraded RC-P90, and Joanna also utilises grenades and various mines. Joanna also gains a wrist laser, a hunting knife, and utilises a sniper rifle in the second mission, alongside blasting enemies with a high-powered shotgun and blowing attack choppers out of the sky with a rocket launcher. There are plenty of new toys to play with as well, such as a wrist-mounted crossbow, a gun that masquerades as a laptop, the super fun Cyclone machine gun, and high-powered assault rifles that seem ripped right out of Aliens (Cameron, 1986). Thanks to its sci-fi narrative, players also wield various alien weaponry, such as the super slick Maian firearms and the more destructive weapons used by the vicious Skedar. These include the sniper-like FarSight XR-20 with its infrared mode and wall piercing rounds, the rapid-fire Callisto NTG, and the grinder-like Mauler. Every weapon has two functions, with the primary fire being a standard shot and the secondary varying between weapons. While most pistols have a melee function, Joanna can punch out or disarm targets, kill or subdue, or switch to a weapon’s explosive shot. This makes your Dragon a grenade launcher or allows you to toss it as an explosive, lets you deploy the Laptop Gun as a sentry or expel an entire Cyclone clip, has the MagSec 4 fire a three-burst round, and sees some weapons to lock-on to targets. The RC-P120 comes with a limited cloak, the shotgun can be switched to a double shot, and the K7 Avenger can highlight nearby threats. It’s fun discovering each weapon’s secondary mode and you can hold multiple weapons at once, and even bring up a weapon wheel, though your arsenal switches out between missions and some unlockable weapons don’t have secondary modes. Joanna can also utilise explosive crates and barrels, hoverbikes, and even turrets to help take out or bypass enemies, though sometimes you’ll need a stealthier approach. At least two missions (on “Agent” difficulty) require you to change into an outfit and hold off from killing to infiltrate areas, which is fun even with the time limit, and you must sometimes bring explosive crates to cracked walls to progress.

Even simple missions have multiple objectives and some obtuse puzzles to solve.

Some missions see you escorting a non-playable character (NPC), like the sentient laptop Doctor Caroll, or pushing the unconscious Maian “Elvis” to safety in Area 51. Elvis fights alongside you numerous times, gleefully taking out enemies from afar and up close and activating alien technology to open new paths for you. Joanna also works alongside Jonathan Steinberg of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at one point and has to get the United States President to safety more than once. Thankfully, these NPC allies are more capable and durable than Natalya Simonova and are often protected by shields. Your objectives change depending on the difficulty you’re playing, but generally you must reach certain areas (lifts, rooms, etc), disable security systems (either manually, with a device or by decoding a password, or by coercing nearby NPCs), obtain items (key cards, evidence, disguises, prototype weapons, etc), and reach the exit. Sometimes, you’re given or must obtain a weapon that must be saved to complete your objectives, such as tossing a timed mine to detach a spacecraft from Air Force One or affixing target amplifiers to the correct Skedar ruins. Other times, you must reprogram service robots, capture (non-lethally subdue) or eliminate specific targets, such as the President’s clone or malicious dataDyne Corporation executive Cassandra De Vries. You must go to infrared to cover Elvis as he activates teleportals on an alien ship, switch to the CamSpy to photograph targets or listen in on meetings, rescue hostages when the Skedar infiltrate the Carrington Institute, and eliminate the monstrous aliens to gain control of their attack ship. By far the worst mission, for me, has always been “Chicago – Stealth”, which sees you recover your equipment, create a division by setting a taxi to explode, avoiding an indestructible drone, and sneaking into the G5 building before the guards lock the doors. You must also prepare your escape route, place a tracking device, and avoid killing the undercover CIA agents. “Crash Site – Confrontation” is also tricky as it’s a very wide, open area full of enemies, turrets, and cliffs you can fall down. While the radar helps, it’s easy to get lost or accidentally kill the wrong President, and tricky to find your way at times. “Skedar Ruins – Battle Shrine” can also be needlessly obtuse at times with its narrow passages, dark, maze-like interiors, and randomly generating which ruins must be targeted each playthrough.

Presentation:
Everything that made GoldenEye 007 an instant classic returns in Perfect Dark, but amplified and refined thanks to the game utilising the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak. While characters’ mouths don’t move in cutscenes, all cutscenes are fully voiced and there’s a greater emphasis on narrative here, with some missions being interrupted by cutscenes to change the environment and objectives. While Joanna isn’t nearly as iconic as Bond, she’s a decent character, with some wit and snark about her, though she’s outshined by the smart-mouthed Elvis whenever they’re paired together. While it might not seem like a big deal now, Perfect Dark has so many fun little touches that make it and impressive game, such as Joanna visibly (and uniquely) reloading each weapon, her vision going blurry when hit by melee attacks, and her talking and reacting to events and NPCs as you play. Enemies are more expressive than ever, shouting when they spot you, jumping for cover, limping and screaming and running when shot at, and not only even surrendering but also double crossing you at times! You can disable the blood but you really shouldn’t as blood now splatters on the environment and enemy bodies even stay on the ground, allowing you to easily see where you’ve been. Enemies also punch and kick up close, rush to alarms, sometimes utilise a cloak or shield, and non-lethal NPCs sometimes betray you when you coerce them. Glass shatters when you shoot it, areas are sometimes plunged into darkness, and environments are littered with little touches, from wine cellars, pictures, desks, and consoles to bizarre alien architecture and sprawling, futuristic laboratories. Unlike GoldeneEye 007, which sometimes struggled when too much was happening, Perfect Dark is slick and stable no matter how many enemies are coming for you and the textures (while retaining that signature blocky aesthetic) are more detailed and varied than ever, with Joanna and her enemies switching up their outfits and weapons each mission.

The game improves everything over its predecessor to be, perhaps, the greatest FPS on the N64.

Perfect Dark also boasts a hub world, the Carrington Institute, where you can freely explore the controls, chat with NPCs, and even test your shooting skills at the range. This area is repurposed for one of the game’s final missions, which is a great touch as it’s quite harrowing seeing the normally serene hallways crawling with Skedar. Joanna’s assignment starts simple enough with her infiltrating the towering dataDyne skyscraper, an area you must first descend into and then escort Dr. Carrol through after liberating him from the shiny, high-tech (if repetitive) labs beneath the structure. After that, Joanna takes out snipers and eliminates dataDyne soldiers who’ve captured Daniel Carrington at his villa, exploring his luxurious abode and reactivating the wind generator. While Perfect Dark owes a lot of its visual identity to Blade Runner (Scott, 1982), this is most keenly felt in “Chicago – Stealth” where you’re on the rainswept streets of a cyberpunk city filled with skyscrapers and dingy alleyways. The interior of the G5 building isn’t much to shout about but things pick up when you infiltrate Area 51, with you bypassing the outer defences and taking a freight elevator down to the futuristic lab where scientists are preparing to eviscerate Elvis. Joanna also explores a couple of snowy environments that put GoldeneEye 007’s “Surface” missions to shame, with “Crash Site – Confrontation” being an intimidatingly large map filled with smouldering debris from the crashed Air Force One and alien ships. Air Force One recalls GoldenEye 007’s claustrophobic “Train” mission but hides some fun nooks and crannies to explore, alongside a tense escort mission as you get the President to his escape pod. Once the alien plot really kicks in, you’ll be exploring the sprawling ocean vessel Pelagic II before forming a brief and ill-fated partnership with Cassandra aboard the Skedar attack ship. This sees you running around the ominous, threatening alien craft with few resources but soon backed up by Maian reinforcements. Finally, you explore some ruins on the Skedar home world, a surprisingly restricted, arid landscape full of ancient structures and canyons, where cloaked Skedar roam and their hidden army awaits in an alien lab.  

Enemies and Bosses:
Joanna’s primary opposition throughout the game, even when the Skedar come to the forefront, are the various soldiers of the malicious dataDyna Corporation. These come in a few different forms and wield various weapons, such as regular infantryman carrying CMP-150s, masked shock troopers using Dragons, and green-clad troopers. Cassandra is protected by female, shotgun-wielding bodyguards and snipers patrol the rooftops of Carrington’s villa. G5’s various guards are functionally similar, though many give you the run around with their cloaking devices or are quick to sound alarms when they spot you. DY357 Magnum-carrying Federal agents appear in “Chicago – Stealth” alongside a high-powered, shielded drone that’ll gun you down on sight, while Area 51 is protected by various troopers carrying MagSecs, grenades, and SuperDragons. You must also contend with technicians who try to drug you, corrupted Secret Servicemen who riddle you with Cyclone bullets on Air Force One, and towering, blonde-haired brutes who are actually Skedar in disguise! The Skedar come two forms: a smaller, less threatening minion and the larger, much more vicious warriors. While the smaller Skedar appear in packs, the larger ones can be cloaked and carry the devastating Reaper and Slayer, as well as biting and slashing up close. Still, most enemies can be put down with a few good shots, or immediately with a bullet to the head, but you must always be wary of enemies appearing from previously locked doors, taking cover behind barricades, tossing grenades, or swarming from thin air when alarms are raised.

Just about the only area the game doesn’t shine is the lack of bosses, where the Skedar king stands alone.

Like GoldenEye 007, there aren’t really any traditional bosses in Perfect Dark, with some exceptions. When playing “dataDyne Central – Extraction” on “Special” or “Perfect” Agent, you must grab a rocket launcher to blow an attack chopper out of the skies before it cuts you (and/or Dr. Carrol) to shreds. G5’s robot drones can also cause a headache as, while the drones in “Crash Site – Confrontation” can be destroyed (unlike the one in “Chicago – Stealth”), their laser cannons are tough to avoid and you must be quick (or discover the higher path) lest the President is executed. Turrets also appear (though less frequently than in GoldenEye 007) and you’ll run into the corrupt Trent Easton a couple of times (though he ultimately dies in a cutscene). The Skedar that patrol “Attack Ship – Covert Assault” are particularly difficult to deal with as you don’t have a gun or much ammo, forcing you to rely on your knife or fists. Cassandra’s bodyguards must all be eliminated to clear the final part of the first mission, and the towering blonde men could be said to be mini bosses despite how easily they go down. Indeed, the only true boss is the Skedar king fought at the end of the game. After escaping the labyrinthine caves and eliminating his secret army, you battle the king in a throne room of sorts, dodging his rockets and projectiles and taking out any minions he spawns. You’ll quickly see that the king is protected by an impenetrable shield; however, you can significantly weaken this with a charged shot from the Mauler. This sees the king take a few seconds to regenerate, in which you must fire another charged shot at the spiked obelisk behind him. Repeat this enough times, chipping away at the ruin, and a cutscene eventually plays in which the Skedar king is crushed and the day is saved. Three more Skedar kings appear in a bonus mission where you play as a Maian soldier; though these can be fought more traditionally, they’re by no means less lethal.

Additional Features:
There is loads to unlock in Perfect Dark and loads of replay value packed into the game. Every mission hides a mysterious piece of cheese that, while useless, is fun to spot. You can tackle every mission on different difficulties to challenge yourself, visit different areas, and accomplish different, more difficult objectives. You can play the main campaign alongside (or against) a friend and explore the Carrington Institute hub world and take on a series of tutorial training scenarios that not only teach you the basics and complexities of the controls but also unlocks a virtual reality duelling simulator where you engage in firefights with various characters. There’s also a shooting range where you’ll unlock classic GoldenEye 007 weapons if you achieve a “gold” rating and, like in that game, clearing missions with fast times on various difficulties unlocks some fun cheats. These grant you invincibility, extra shields, unlimited ammo, and all guns but also enlarge characters’ heads, speed up your punches, shrink characters, and allow you to play as Elvis! Clearing the game on each difficulty unlocks bonus missions, such as another visit to the dataDyne tower, this time as Mr. Blonde (in possession of a limited cloak) to apprehend Cassandra, a return to the Skedar home world (as and alongside Maians) to defeat three more Skedar kings, and another mission where Elvis battles through the G5 building. This version of the game also comes with twenty Achievements, with three earned by beating all three difficulty settings, one for clearing the first mission, one for completing one mission in co-op and another for clearing a mission in counter-operative mode, and another for killing enemies in various ways. You’ll also get Achievements for destroying Carrington’s wine collection, destroying five security cameras, and earning all the leaderboard crowns. Additionally, Rare Replay (Rare, 2015) features bonus materials related to the game and you can create save states when playing on the Nintendo Switch.

Unlock extra modes, classic guns and cheats, or tackle the addictive deathmatch simulator!

Like GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark also boasts a multiplayer deathmatch mode, the “Combat Simulator”, though again this is vastly improved! Now, you can not only select a character to play as but can also customise them to your liking, setting up weapon load outs (or choosing from a preset list) and setting kill, time, or score limits, handicaps, and even the music. There are loads of game options to pick from, such as a standard free-for-all and team-based deathmatches, one-hit kills, slow or fast movement, disabling the radar and/or auto aim, and highlighting players or items. You can play a couple of “capture the flag” variants where you either claim a briefcase or capture an enemy base, score points by hacking terminals, or pursue a randomly selected target. There are sixteen maps to play on once you’ve unlocked them all, with all but three reusing and recycling assets from the main game. Honestly, you won’t be playing on any of these maps as the classic GoldenEye 007 “Facility” map has been recreated as “Felicity” and is the only map you’ll ever need (though two other classic arenas are also available). At the end of each round, all players receive some stats showing how well they played and are given a ranking that either commends them or chastises them for “camping” or playing dishonourably. Perhaps the best aspect of the Combat Simulator is that you don’t need friends to play as you can customise “Simulants” of various difficulties to play alongside or against you, changing their behaviour and weapons to suit your gameplay. There are also thirty challenges to complete in this mode, with you awarded up to three stars for completing them, which task you with playing each loadout against different Simulants with different weapon sets and rules. This sees you playing king of the hill with only pistols, using cloaking devices and N-Grenades, fighting in slow motion, or desperately trying to keep hold of the briefcase while one-hit kills are enabled. I wasted so much time on this mode back on the Nintendo 64 and it’s honestly such a blast to play that it baffles me more online only, asymmetrical games didn’t include this for offline single player.

Final Thoughts:
As a massive fan of GoldenEye 007 as a kid (and to this day), I naturally snapped up Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64 and played it to death. I marvelled at how visually superior it was to is predecessor, how the controls and gunplay were refined and enhanced, and at how much more lively and interesting enemies and environments were. I loved how packed full of little details and content the game was, from the co-op and counter-operative modes, to the unlockable cheats and weapons, to the incredibly addictive Combat Simulator and it’s other challenges. Decades later, I jumped at the chance to experience the game in high definition as part of Rare Replay and I wasn’t disappointed. The graphics and gameplay had only been enhanced further, resulting in a slick, smooth game that makes shooting baddies and saving aliens a blast. However, Perfect Dark has some flaws. The improved graphics highlight the odd textures, some areas are either too dark or you’re blinded by lights, and some missions can be needlessly challenging since the objectives are so obtuse. I’ve never been a big fan of Joanna either and find her a bit obnoxious and annoying, but the main reason Perfect Dark loses out on a perfect score is simply that it isn’t GoldenEye 007 and I always found myself choosing that game over this one because of how powerful nostalgia is. That’s definitely unfair as Perfect Dark is a five-star game, but I’ve always felt a touch of sadness that it wasn’t a true GoldenEye 007 sequel. Still, this is a fantastic FPS game and perhaps the best FPS on the Nintendo 64. The sheer amount of unlockables and options make it well worth the money and it’s one of the few games that really got the most out of the console. While it’s a shame it released too late in the day to make as big an impression as GoldenEye 007, I always enjoy revisiting it and have a greater appreciation for it now than I did as a teenager.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Were you a fan of Perfect Dark? Do you agree that it’s better than GoldenEye 007 in every way except for nostalgia? What did you think to Joanna’s character and the improved graphics? Were you a fan of the bonkers sci-fi plot or did you find it a bit out of left field? Which mission and/or weapon was your most or least favourite? ere you a fan of the Combat Simulator? Would you like to see more of Perfect Dark and what are some of your favourite sci-fi-orientated videogames? Tell me what you think about Perfect Dark in the comments, then check out my other sci-fi content, and support me on Ko-Fi if you want me to play more Perfect Dark videogames.

Game Corner [Bat-Month]: Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate: Deluxe Edition (Xbox 360)

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In the decades since his first dramatic appearance in Detective Comics, Bruce Wayne/Batman has become a pop culture icon. The brainchild of writer Bob Kane, Batman was brought to life by artist Bill Finger and has been a popular staple of DC Comics over the years. Accordingly, September celebrates “Batman Day”, the perfect excuse to celebrate comic’s grim and broody vigilante.

Released: 1 April 2014
Originally Released: 25 October 2013
Developer: Armature Studio
Also Available For: Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita

The Background:
Batman’s “troublesome” relationship with videogames was changed for the better when Eidos Interactive, Rocksteady Studios, and celebrated Batman writer Paul Dini collaborated on the critical and commercial success Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios, 2009). This was followed by a bigger and better sequel, Batman: Arkham City (ibid, 2011), that was even more lauded, an achievement Rocksteady Studios didn’t take lately. Eager to capitalise, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment turned to WB Games Montréal to develop a prequel while Rocksteady worked on a third game. Although it received a fair amount of praise, Batman: Arkham Origins (2013) was largely seen as mediocre and derivative. Yet, Warner Bros. doubled down on their desire to cash in on the Arkham franchise and outsourced the development of a portable spin-off title to many of those behind the Metroid Prime trilogy (2002 to 2007). Armature Studio collaborated with WB Games Montréal to ensure continuity between their titles, and the portable versions were developed to be unique for each system, though reception was mixed regarding the downgrade to portable hardware. Indeed, considering reviews criticised the bland prison setting and clunky combat, it’s surprising that the game was re-engineered to run on home consoles, though with updated visuals, controls, and maps, to deliver this slightly better received Deluxe Edition of the game.

The Plot:
Three months after apprehending the maniacal Joker, Batman is forced into an unlikely alliance with Selina Kyle/Catwoman to quell a prison riot at the Blackgate Penitentiary, which has been taken over by the Joker, Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, and Roman Sionis/Black Mask. 

Gameplay:
Unlike other entries in the Batman: Arkham series, Arkham Origins Blackgate is a 2.5D “Metroidvania” style title that restricts Batman to a self-contained, largely linear series of environments explored and expanded by acquiring additional gadgets. While the 3DS version divided the gameplay to the top screen and the map to the lower screen, the Deluxe Edition emulates the Batman: Arkham style but on 2 2.5D plane. Therefore, players must press the ‘Back’ button to bring up a janky 3D wireframe map and check their objectives and collectibles, and use the Left Bumper to enable the trademark Detective Mode rather than tapping on the bottom screen. Similarly, LB allows you to scan the environment, pinpointing crates to open, clues to solve cases, and interactive elements in the environment (that, strangely, need to be scanned every time before use). Otherwise, the controls should be relatively familiar for anyone who’s played a Batman: Arkham game before. Holding A allows Batman to sprint and double tapping it sees him to hop over enemies to attack from behind or roll past spiked hazards. B stuns enemies with a swipe of your cape, allowing you to pummel armoured foes, while X sees Batman attack with strikes, building combos for fancier moves and additional damage. Tapping Y when the icon appears over his head counters incoming attacks, while the Right Trigger is used to crouch and enter vents. Batman’s various gadgets are selected with the directional pad, aimed with LT, and used with RT, allowing him to toss Batarangs or quickly grapple to higher ground as needed.

The game tries to emulate its main console counterparts by recreating Batman’s abilities,

Given the 2.5D restrictions, you won’t be battling large waves of enemies and foes tend to come in manageable groups and only swarm from the background and foreground sporadically. There is no level-up system like in other Batman: Arkham games so you can often bypass enemies rather than fighting them, which is sometimes preferable given that the combat feels much clunkier than in the other games. Countering, in particular, can be a bit hit and miss at times. Knife-wielding thugs and those with stun batons cut through your defences surprisingly easily and Batman seems much weaker this time around. This means electrical currents and poisonous gas drain your health extremely quickly and Batman cannot withstand even a short burst of sustained gunfire. Although Batman doesn’t have to worry about gaining experience points and levelling-up, he can still improve his suit and gadgets by finding WayneTech crates. Similarly, you upgrade Batman’s “Rush” ability (something I struggled to understand but seems to do additional damage as his combo increases) or obtain gauntlets to increase your regular damage. There are numerous helpful autosave points and you can skip cutscenes when reloading, which is even better, but it can be very frustrating to fail again and again because you were spotted and got caught in a crossfire. Arkham Origins Blackgate tries to recreate the “Predator” sections of its bigger, better counterparts but these are both painfully limited and needlessly frustrating. Detective Mode highlight enemies and objects to distract them, and Batman can toss a snare to tangle goons when up high, but there are few options to avoid being spotted. Batman can still hop into floor grates, shimmy along ledges, or sneak behind enemies to take them down or can just dive kick them. Still, you’ll mostly rely on distracting enemies or take them out by dropping hazards into them or destroying the ground beneath them.

You can explore new areas with Batman’s different gadgets and abilities.

Blackgate Prison is split into three main areas: the Cell Block, the Industrial Area, and the Administration Offices. Each has sub areas, such as a sewer system, a dock and lighthouse, and the maximum-security Arkham Wing and you’ll be going back and forth between these areas many times. In many ways the game has more in common with Batman: Arkham Asylum than the other open-world titles, meaning you’ll inevitably reach an obstacle and be forced to explore elsewhere to acquire a different gadget or a key card for your Cryptographic Sequencer. Each area has different entrances and exits and there are shortcuts you can take, but it would’ve helped speed things up to be able to return to the main map from the pause screen. Once there, you can jump to different areas, which is helpful, but it’s not always clear where you need to go or what you need to do no matter how helpful the map thinks it’s being. To be fair, if you haven’t acquired the Line Launcher then you obviously can’t cross gaps and if you don’t have the right key card you can’t open new paths. However, the game is structured to allow you to tackle the main bosses in any order provided you don’t mind backtracking. The puzzles are pretty simple and familiar and largely centred around the Cryptographic Sequencer, which launches you into a number matching/finding mini game, but you’ll also be activating consoles, grappling to switches, and using your various gadgets to access new paths scanned with your Detective Vision. Batman starts with his Batarang and grapnel gun but soon acquires the Batclaw to rip down grate covers and certain walls, the Line Launcher to cross gaps, and explosive glue to explode floors. These can also be upgraded as the story progresses, providing a shock upgrade for the Batarang to create an electrical current to activate doors and machinery, the ability to walk on your line like a tightrope and clumsily ascend up shafts, and glue gel to temporarily jam gears and mechanisms.

Presentation:  
As you might expect, given that it’s a conversion of a 3DS game, Arkham Origins Blackgate isn’t anywhere near as impressive as its main console counterparts but, for the most part, it looks and runs quite well. Batman’s character model fittingly gets the most attention, though he won’t show battle damage and he’s obviously limited in his animations and movements because of the perspective shift and lesser game engine. Combat is a little sluggish, unfortunately, and nowhere near as slick and satisfying as in the other games, which makes one of the franchise’s most enjoyable aspects a chore. Thankfully, much of the gameplay is focused on exploration, simple puzzle solving, and backtracking and Batman controls much better in this regard. Catwoman will help him on the comms, presenting a unique dialogue dynamic compared to talking with Batman’s usual allies. Thugs still engage in some amusing and distracting banter as you wait in the shadows, but the visuals let the game down a bit, appearing more akin to a late-PlayStation 2 or PlayStation Portable title.

Blackgate fails to impress with its drab visuals, however ambitious they may be at times.

Much like Batman: Arkham Asylum, the game is awash in drab, uninspired, grey locations. It’s all very dull and clinical whenever Batman’s indoors, with the only things separating one area from another being one might have some elevators while another has more office equipment, one will be a gothic almost steampunk sewer and the other will have more advanced cells for inmates, but none of it is very visually appealing. The lighthouse and docks are a notable exception, but I was glad to venture into the sewers (generally one of the more visually uninspiring videogame locations) just to mix things up. When I played through the 3DS version, I chose not to engage the 3D function; while it offers a decent sense of depth, the game’s too visually dull to make the most of it. As many environmental puzzles and collectibles are hidden, this means it’s usually better to play with Detective Mode activated so you don’t miss anything and can see during blackouts. The game’s cutscenes largely use a motion comic style reminiscent of Tim Sale’s artwork and they’re fully voiced. You’re gameplay is also often interrupted by cutscenes showing Amanda Waller observing and commenting on your progress, though cutscenes using the in-game engine are restricted to a few short sequences.

Enemies and Bosses:
Blackgate Prison houses some of Gotham City’s most violent criminals, but they’re not the most colourful. Most of the common thugs return from the bigger Batman: Arkham games, with no new additions or interesting wrinkles added. You’ll get into fist fights with enemies, some of whom wield blunt instruments like baseball bats, but those with knives will slash at you mercilessly unless you stun them with a swipe of your cape and beat them down and those with stun batons must be hopped over and attacked from behind. You won’t have to worry about thugs using car doors as shields or coming at you with swords, or any brutish goons, but anyone with a gun should be avoided at all costs. In these instances, you’ll need to use stealth to take them down as it won’t take much to alert them to your presence and see you riddled with bullets, but easily one of the worst dangers in the game is the annoying abundance of spiked hazards lining the floors!

Bosses can be ridiculously simplistic or ridiculously frustrating, with little middle ground.

As Batman progresses further into the prison, or to facilitate this progression, he must face some of his most memorable rogues…and also Benjamin Turner/Bronze Tiger and Floyd Lawton/Deadshot…in boss battles that range from simplistic to ridiculously frustrating. First, you’ll chase Catwoman across the city’s rooftops to a construction site, then you must tap Y to evade her claw swipes and press B to stun her with your cape when prompted. If you try to attack any other time, she’ll slap or whip you away and you’ll need to be quick with your counters for the final hit as she swipes at you three times in slow-motion before going down and offering to help you out. As you explore the cell blocks, you’ll end up in a specially constructed electrified arena made for the Penguin’s amusement where you fight Bronze Tiger in a battle that’s functionally very similar to the one against Catwoman. You’ll initially need to counter Bronze Tiger’s attacks, stun him with your cape, and hit a quick combo but he also has a leaping attack that you must dodge to smack him up, and you can deal a fancy finish if your combo hits him into the electrified cage. As much as I mock him, Deadshot at least mixed up the challenge for his boss battle. Initially, you control Batman from the perspective of Deadshot’s sniper rifle, using cover to avoid being shot and making your way around the area. Then, he switches to a machine gun and will cut you down in seconds if you don’t duck down, meaning the timing to hit a nearby spotlight and blind him is very tight, but at least it wasn’t just counter/stun/attack/repeat.

These three bosses had me tearing my hair out during each encounter.

Down in the sewers, you randomly fight Cyrus Gold/Solomon Grundy, the game’s solo gigantic foe. Accordingly, he’s immune to your standard attacks and you must use Batman’s explosive gel and Batarangs to activate electrical cables to shock him when he charges over puddles. It’s probably just me but this wasn’t immediately clear and I struggled to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do but, once you figure it out and get the timing right, it’s not too difficult. This frustration continued into the fight with Black Mask. As he’s not a physical match for the Batman, Sionis sends in his goons, tosses grenades, and blasts away with his machine gun. He’s also very slippery and forces you to disable three generators in a time-consuming puzzle before waiting to gun you down the moment he spots you. You need to distract him with the nearby alarms, take out an overhead light, and use the floor grates to lure him into position to take him down, all of which was far more aggravating than it had any right to be. Easily the most difficult of the regular bosses, for me, was the Penquin. Cobblepott is flanked by armed goons who cannot be defeated without disarming them, which is extremely difficult to do. Instead, it’s better to distract them so you can drop onto the Penguin and avoid being shot to death in seconds by his shotgun. As the battle progresses, more goons and even an overhead drone makes things harder, though thankfully there is a checkpoint for the final stage.

Your greatest challenge will come, surprisingly, from the Joker and Catwoman.

In a change of pace for this series, you go one-on-one with the Joker in Arkham Origins Blackgate, to a degree. You fight him in a small, enclosed space where his minions toss grenades and the Joker races around a central obstacle, smacking you with an electrical baton whenever you get close. Accordingly, you must run in the opposite direction and time your Line Launcher to fly in and land a combo, but he’ll also take shots with his pistol, floods the arena with poisonous gas, and has the largest health bar of any boss so far. However, he’s a walk in the park compared to the final boss, initially teased as another tedious fight against Bane but which turns out to be an infuriating three-stage fight against Catwoman, of all people. Before you fight her, you’re forced to search all over finding and defusing bombs before you battle her in the same format as in the first encounter, except she’s added Bronze Tiger’s leap to her arsenal and trying to counter her claw swipes is even more difficult. After this, she blinds Batman and strikes from the darkness; your only cue to when she’ll attack is the brief glow of her goggles and a little jingle, meaning it’s way too easy to miss-time your counter and get hit. Survive this phase and she appears to duplicate, with her doubles feigning attacks and the true Catwoman striking so quickly and so awkwardly that it’s near impossible to correctly time your counters as you need to press Y slightly before the indicator appears. Oh, and you need to repeat this last phase three times, with the fakes and attacks increasing each time, making for the most irritating boss battle in the franchise since that God-awful fight with Slade Wilson/Deathstroke!

Additional Features:
There are thirty Achievements on offer in the Deluxe Edition of the game, with one being awarded each time you defeat a boss or hit a continuous combo (up to 100). You’ll also get Achievements for solving detective cases, destroying Joker teeth, explosive bird cages, and replica black masks (which also unlock extras in the game’s gallery), and locating armour and full costume sets. Interestingly, there are some creative Achievements available too, such as dying from the Joker’s laughing gas, facing a different final boss each time, and defeating Grundy with the shock Batarang. While there are no Riddler Trophies, you can find and scan various clues to different criminal cases; some are hidden and others require your gadgets to uncover. What you really want, though, are the WayneTech crates containing the different Batsuit parts. Find all five of each to apply a new skin to the Dark Knight and be afforded additional perks, such as increasing your resistance to damage or just making you invincible! Although there are no Achievements tied to it, the Deluxe Edition offers “Normal” and “Hard” difficulties and you unlock “New Game Plus” after clearing the game, which carries over any Batsuits, clues, and unlocks you’ve earned but will overwrite your save data, take away your gadget upgrades, and present you with re-ordered boss battles and some new items.

The Summary:
I knew that Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate wouldn’t be as expansive or as impressive as its home console counterparts, but I held out hope that the game would make the most of its new format and genre to deliver a fun and engaging Metroidvania. In many ways, Batman suits this genre perfectly; it really opens a lot of avenues for exploration, unique use of Batman’s gadgets and abilities, and speaks to his reputation as the World’s Greatest Detective. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to its potential, the standards set by its bigger cousins, and to meet the expectations of its genre. The combat is slow, sluggish, and unreliable; you’ll try and counter an attack only to get hit and this makes fighting, especially boss battles, extremely aggravating. The Predator sequences are far too limited; I think it might’ve been better to switch to a different presentation for these sections, perhaps a little more zoomed out or isometric perspective but, as it stands, they’re just too finnicky to be anything other than a chore. Some aspects are interesting, like tracking the Penguin’s blood trail or rescuing hostage or even defusing the bombs in the game’s finale, but it’s so difficult to navigate that it’s easy to get turned around or exit an area before you’ve completed your objective. I appreciate it when a game doesn’t hold your hand but, normally, the Batman: Arkham games give you a little more direction than here, where you can just fail constantly trying to figure out how you’re supposed to take out Solomon Grundy and the Penguin or get to where the map’s directing you. I’m not really sure what makes this version so “deluxe” compared to the 3DS title as it barely improves upon the limited 3DS version. As a budget title that offers a taste of Batman’s bigger adventures, it’s not bad but, as an entry in the lauded Batman: Arkham series, it’s a clear disappointment.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate? Do you agree that it fails to make the most of its new format and genre? Did you also find the game world difficult to navigate or were you able to find your way without much problem? What did you think to the game’s bosses? Did you struggle against Black Mask, the Penguin, and Catwoman? Would you like to see the Arkham Origins games given more spotlight? How are you celebrating Batman Day and what is your favourite Batman videogame? Whatever you think about Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, or Batman in general, please leave a comment below and check out my other reviews of the Batman: Arkham series.

Game Corner [K-Month]: Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Xbox 360)

Dr. K1 Comment

In the absolutely bonkers science-fiction film Pacific Rim (del Toro, 2013), the monstrous Kaiju first attacked humanity on 10th August 2013, which was subsequently branded “K-DAY”. To celebrate this event, and giant monster movies, I dedicated every Sunday in August to one of cinema’s most prolific monsters: King Kong!

Released: 22 November 2005
Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Also Available For: Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Mobile, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox

The Background:
Considering his status as one of the titans of the monster movie genre, it’s kind of surprising that King Kong hasn’t featured in more videogames. Between his debut in 1933 and the release of Peter Jackson’s blockbuster remake of the influential original, King Kong had only featured in three videogames and was perhaps best represented by unsubtle knock-offs like Donkey Kong and the Rampage series (Various, 1986 to 2018). After a long period of dormancy following a slew of questionable sequels and the impressive 1976 remake, King Kong returned with a bang when life-long King Kong fan Peter Jackson reimagined the original into a critical success. Though plans for a sequel were scrapped in favour of a later reboot, the 2005 King Kong was accompanied by this videogame, whose Xbox 360 drew initial criticism for being unsuitable for standard-definition televisions. Heralded as an innovative title due to its cinematic presentation and minimal use of onscreen text, Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie allowed players to explore Skull Island as a first-person shooter or as the titular ape, though the visuals were criticised compared to the elaborate environments. A commercial success, the game was praised for being ahead of its time and one of the rare, more competent tie-in games, though the simplistic gameplay was noted.

The Plot:
In 1933, film director Carl Denham coerces playwright Jack Driscoll and struggling actress Ann Darrow into accompanying him to Skull Island, a treacherous, forgotten land populated by dinosaurs, savage natives, and a gigantic ape who becomes besotted by Ann and the focus of Carl’s excursion.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (which I’ll simply be referring to as King Kong going forward because that is a ridiculously long and convoluted title) is a hybrid first-person shooter (FPS) and action game based, obviously, on the big-budget, long-winded remake of the same name. The game is split into a number of chapters that vary in length and primarily takes place entirely on Skull Island, with the bulk of the action seeing you controlling screenwriter Jack Driscoll, who turns out to be very handy with a variety of firearms (though he can always rely on his fists or one of the many spears). You get a pistol, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, and a Thompson machine gun, with this latter being the best weapon in my opinion. When playing as Jack, you’ll use the Left Trigger to aim your weapon, the Right Trigger to shoot, and (oddly) the Left Bumper to reload. RT also allows you to grab new weapons, swapping out your current one (Jack can only hold one firearm and one torch at a time), “repel” with a melee attack, or use levers. Y drops any spears you’re carrying, B checks your ammo (which is simply Jack commenting on how many rounds or magazines he has left), A lets you talk to nearby non-playable characters (NPCs), and X does nothing. Jack can crouch when you press in the left stick (though I found minimal use for this), zoom in by pressing in the right stick, and can bash open wooden barricades and push rotating locks with RT. If he runs out of ammo, Jack can use his fists or any spears nearby, or can smash ammo crates that drop from planes or even grab more ammo or a weapon from helpful NPCs. He can also light spears using any fire sources to solve puzzles or burn down thorny bushes to clear a path. Fire can deal additional damage, and take out some of the game’s smaller enemies, but don’t get too close as it’ll quickly sap your health, too.

Kong uses his size and strength to make short work of the monstrous enemies that prey on Jack,

Neither Jack or Kong need to worry about grabbing health kits as they’ll automatically regenerate health if you avoid damage for a bit, but there are also no power-ups to find beyond ammo crates and Kong’s “Fury Mode”, meaning there’s no real incentive to explore beyond trying to find a lever. If you’re hoping for some fun King Kong action, then you’ll be left disappointed. The titular ape is only playable a few times, and each is little more than chasing and mindless combat sequences that somewhat break up the monotony of the FPS sections. Kong is a massive, lumbering beast able to swing from branches and leap to handholds, cliffs, and vine-encrusted walls to chase his quarry. These actions are performed with X and see Kong rampage through the jungle and primitive settlements like a heavy, unstoppable beast. Kong can also push enemies, bite them or enter “Fury Mode” if you rapidly tap Y. This slows time and seems to empower Kong to easily dispatch the island’s biggest predators. He does this with A, which sees Kong hit enemies with clubbing blows or simply break their jaw if you tap the button like a madman. Kong can also grab Ann with B to carry her or put her down, and Ann will helpfully open doors or burn down obstacles so Kong to progress, though you’ll need to protect her by fending off any incoming attacks. Kong can also muscle obstacles out of the way, bash down doors, and clamber up buildings in downtown New York. However, he’s as vulnerable to harm as Jack. Both automatically regain health if you avoid danger for a short time, but Kong tends to jump from perfectly fine to near death with just a few attacks, meaning you’re best off activating Fury Mode before you tackle the game’s larger, more aggressive enemies. When in the city streets at the end of the game, Kong must avoid the military’s heavy cannons and take out spotlights on rooftops as artillery fire will quickly cut him down. He can also grab and pound the island’s monstrous inhabitants with relatively ease but you’ll be more concerned about being hit mid-jump and plummeting to your death.

Jack’s gameplay loop is sadly as repetitive as Kong’s, with little variety on offer.

Just as the movie plodded along and quickly outstayed its welcome, so too does King Kong very quickly fall into a repetitive series of simple tasks and annoying hazards. The gimmick of having no or very minimal information onscreen is interesting, but hardly anything game-changing and actually makes it more annoying to navigate or locate levers and keep track of your ammo. Jack repeats the same basic puzzles again and again, blasting monstrous creatures, finding levers, and pushing doors with NPCs. Sometimes you must defend Ann and your other allies (and you’ll be met with failure if they die); others, you must carefully cross narrow wooden platforms that collapse under your feet. One of the most common tasks is using fire to burn thorns to uncover new areas, find levers, or reach a goal. You can do this either by lighting your spear or breaking flaming skull symbols around the environment, and you must light multiple torches, with one enjoyable moment seeing you avoiding a herd of Brontosaurus’. Occasionally, you’ll be chased by the ravenous Vastatosaurus rex or King Kong himself and must  use flaming spears, stone buildings for cover, and distract the beasts util doorways open. One key way of achieving this is using the game’s “food chain” system, where enemies are distracted by your kills or various bait (large worms and flies) to allow you to escape or ambush them, which is essential for clearing spiders from levers. As for Kong, he has an even simpler gameplay loop; you just swing and jump and chase Ann as she’s carried away, and battle V. rexes and the bat-like Terapusmordax obscenus. It is fun playing as Kong, but his sections are far too brief. However, I did enjoy ploughing through the native’s village, clambering about avoiding a lava pit, and the parts where Kong’s massive hands and face burst through the scenery as he follows Ann when she’s rescued by Jack.

Presentation:
King Kong uses clips and footage from the movie its based on very sparingly. So sparingly, in fact, that they only really appear in the game’s opening, which tells an incredibly truncated version of the events that bring these characters to Skull Island. I don’t necessarily mind this as the movie spent what felt like an age set on the Venture, but there were plenty of times where film footage could’ve been used as cutscenes or to bolster the in-game action, but the game chooses to use its in-game graphics instead. Luckily, these aren’t too bad…for the most part. While characters have the voices and likenesses of their movie actors, they resemble marionettes more than anything; however, they are a little more lively than regular NPCs. Carl will continuously stop to bust out his camera and chastise you for obstructing his shot, Ann is actually very helpful and will burn thorns or open paths, and NPCs are always gifting you weapons or chiming in on the bizarre events around them. The game’s environments are quite impressive, too. While it gets repetitive exploring the thick jungle of Skull Island, rain and thunderstorm effects are used very effectively and the island is very alive thanks to the food chain system and a great deal of care has been put into creating the aesthetic of the movie, it’s just a shame there’s no collectibles or interesting Easter Eggs to find.

Although it faithfully echoes the movie, the game is quite bland and visually uninspired at times.

While the game runs fairly smoothly, I noticed some graphical pop-up, slow down, and fogging that’s used to obscure more complex models (however appropriate the fog is to the setting). You’ll venture into a number of dank, dark caves, so you might want to turn up the brightness settings. I’d also advise saving often as I had a few instances where the game wouldn’t load in a scripted sequence, forcing me to reload and do the section again to progress. There are some fun moments that break up the gameplay, such as when you’re forced onto makeshift rafts in tumultuous rapids or when Kong or the V. rex are chasing you, and it’s quite exhilarating playing as Kong. Kong feels large and sluggish but also nimble and powerful, exactly as I expect he would, and there are some impressive sections involving him, such as when you creep through his bone-littered lair to rescue Ann or when he first appears as you’re tied to a stake. Kong also hounds you, dropping you into a cave filled with giant insects, and there are times when you can set large parts of the jungle ablaze and explore some interesting ruins, but these are merely stop-gaps in the endless gameplay cycle. The finale sees Kong rampaging through downtown New York City, which should be an epic and thrilling experience but it’s actually quite claustrophobic and restrictive. The game doesn’t immediately tell you to clamber up buildings to use the rooftops, meaning you’re left wandering around and getting shot at, and it’s really more of an extended, interactive cutscene as there’s nothing to do except plough through obstructions and climb the Empire State Building.

Enemies and Bosses:
Jack and Kong will be set upon by the numerous prehistoric creatures that inhabit Skull Island, from giant bats and insects to more formidable dinosaurs. Even the island’s natives get in on the action, hurling spears and causing the environment to catch fire as they either chase you or desperately fend off your rampage. Typically, you’ll contend with giant insects and giant bats, which slither from every dark corner and swamp the skies at times but are easily put down with your basic pistol. If you don’t have any ammo, a spear will do the trick, or you can distract them using the food chain system, which is true of all the game’s enemies. Although Jack can’t kill or even damage to V. rex, he can put down the smaller Venatosaurs, which regularly attack in voracious packs. He also has to contend with scorpion-like creatures, blast at lizard-like beasties when his allies are crossing banks of water, and make sure that he’s keeping his friends alive whenever hordes of creatures close in. While Jack is limited in his means of fending these off, King is not. He doesn’t have to worry about ammo, only the game’s janky camera, his inability to lock-on to a target, and his inconsistent durability.

While Jack is spared fighting the bigger dinosaurs, Kong must wrestle them alongside the controls.

Kong simply pummels enemies that Jack has to pick off either strategically or in a frenzy. Kong can grab Megapedes and pound them into the dirt or toss them about, swat Terapusmordaxes out of the air, and flatten the natives, and offers players a fighting chance against the larger Queen Terapusmordaxes and the V. rexes. These are essentially the game’s boss battes; while Jack has to run and hide from these creatures, Kong tackles them head-on, to varying degrees of enjoyability. The Queen Terapusmordax is flanked by any of her smaller minions; she’ll dive at you, whereupon the game prompts you to hit X and A together to tackle her out of the sky, which can be tricky to master. When battling the V. rexes, you must avoid their tail swipes, bites, and claw attacks. The V. rexes will try and bite Kong’s neck, so you must mash buttons to escape, and you’ll often fight two or three at once. Your best bet when faced with Kong’s monstrous enemies is to quickly enter Fury Mode and swipe at them a few times. This quickly allows Kong to perform his jaw snap finishing move, allowing you to make short work of them, which is preferable as these can be frustrating sections. In the finale, Kong swats at biplanes from atop the Empire State Building, but there’s obviously no way to win this fight as Kong simply plummets to his death as always.

Additional Features:
If there’s one benefit to King Kong it’s that the game is short and the Achievements are simple to attain. Just play through the game and all nine Achievements will pop as you complete each chapter. It’s good in the sense you can rush through for an easy 1000G but disappointing that there aren’t any fun Achievements here. There are no collectibles to find, no Easter Eggs that net you extra Achievements, and not even basic stuff like “Kill 100 Enemies” or “Clear a Chapter Without Taking Damage”. Some extra content unlocks in the game’s gallery as you play, but it’s nothing but images and videos and such. There is no two-player mode where you and a friend work together as Jack and Hayes (or one of the other NPCs), no battle mode where you fight as Kong against the game’s bosses, no skins, and no real incentive to play the game again once you’ve beaten it as its so unremarkable and easy. There are push-button codes that’ll grant you unlimited spears, questionable invincibility (you have to enter the cheat every chapter and I found it often didn’t work), or gift you specific weapons but the game’s so easy that you shouldn’t need them and they don’t exactly make it more fun anyway.

The Summary:
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie tries to go for a unique, cinematic presentation to stand out from the many terrible videogame adaptations and, in some ways, it achieves this. The game lovingly and faithfully recreates the visual aesthetic and atmosphere of Jackson’s overblown remake and you definitely feel immersed when exploring the dense jungles and ruins of Skull Island. It’s interesting incorporating a food chain system and giving Jack such limited ammunition to increase the tension felt when enemies attack, but the repetitive gameplay cycle soon wears thin. While King Kong should offer some entertaining alternatives to this system, he doesn’t feature enough for it to be anything other than a glorified mini game and a boss battle system. I definitely would’ve preferred to see Kong’s gameplay fleshed out more, perhaps telling a prequel to the film’s events and then showing his perspective on what happens in the game. Rather than switching between characters, you could’ve had two story modes: one with ten longer, more unique missions as Jack and one with ten, more action-packed missions as Kong. Instead, we get an overall bland experience that suffers from pacing issues. Some chapters are over in a minute or so, others drag on needlessly, and none of them offer any variations on the gameplay beyond mixing up the enemies you fight. Ultimately, this is a game only worth playing to quickly add 1000G to your Gamer Score and is far from the definitive, immersive King Kong videogame I’d like to see.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

What did you think to Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie? Were you disappointed by how repetitive it became and the odd pacing of the chapters? Did you enjoy utilising the food chain system? What did you think to Kong’s gameplay, and would you have liked to see him included more? What’s your favourite videogame featuring giant monsters? Would you like to see a new King Kong videogame someday? Whatever you think, comment below, support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other King Kong content.

Game Corner [00-Heaven]: GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (Xbox 360)

Dr. K2 Comments

To celebrate the release of Dr. No (Young, 1962), the first of the James Bond movies (Various, 1962 to present), October 5th is known as “Global James Bond Day”. This year, I’ve been spending every Saturday commemorating cinema’s longest-running franchise, and one up of the most recognised and popular movie icons.

Released: 1 November 2011
Originally Released: 2 November 2010
Developer: Eurocom
Also Available For: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii (Original Release); PlayStation 3 (Reloaded)

The Background:
Like many gamers back in the day, much of my social gaming was spent playing GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997), a best-selling title for the Nintendo 64 that began development as a simple rail-shooter before bucking the trend of videogame tie-ins by being universally praised as one of the greatest first-person shooters (FPS) and multiplayer experiences. Unfortunately, Rare lost the James Bond license and fans had to make do with spiritual successors like Perfect Dark (Rare, 2000), and other Bond titles, and blatant attempts to cash-in on GoldenEye 007’s popularity, like the shameless and mediocre GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (EA Los Angeles, 2004). In 2006 and 2008, both Nintendo and Microsoft expressed interest in releasing a port of the game on the Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade platforms but rights issues led to Activision charging Eurocom with developing a reimagining of the classic shooter for the Nintendo Wii. Built around the same gameplay and mechanics as 007: Quantum of Solace (Treyarch/Various, 2008), this new GoldenEye 007 saw Daniel Craig reprise his Bond role and many reviewers comparing it to the Call of Duty franchise (Infinity Ward/Various, 2003 to present). Despite some positive reviews GoldenEye 007 was mostly met with a mixed response that painted it as a lacklustre title. This didn’t stop Activision from releasing this high-definition port of the game to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 a year later, though critics remained as unimpressed as before. Thankfully, after numerous leaks, the original GoldenEye 007 was finally released on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One so that a new generation of players could experience it and this middling reimagining was left mostly forgotten.

The Plot:
Renowned super spy James Bond/007 in drawn into a globe-trotting adventure as he races to stop a rogue 00 agent Alec Trevelyan (now a terrorist known as “Janus”) from causing a global financial meltdown with a satellite weapon known as “GoldenEye”.

Gameplay:
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is a first-person shooter in which players assume the role of James Bond, now sporting Daniel Craig’s likeness and voice rather than Pierce Brosnan’s, and journey through reimagined maps and locations that are loosely based on the original videogame and movie. There’s a reason why GoldenEye 007: Reloaded has been referred to as “Bond of Duty”; if you’ve played any of the Call of Duty games, the controls, mechanics, and overall “feel” of the game will be very familiar to you, for better or worse. The game is therefore very much a modern reimagining of the classic Nintendo 64 FPS rather than a true, high-definition remake of the original game. This is first reflected in the game’s control scheme, which a helpful MI6 tutorial walks you through. Bond can climb and vault over downed objects (desks, trees, rocks, and the like), crouch with B to sneak up on enemies undetected for a stealth take down with the right analogue stick, manually reload his current weapon by pressing X and activate certain consoles or pick up new weapons by holding X, and switch weapons with Y. Holding the Left Trigger lets you aim down the sights of Bond’s gun and tapping it enables a helpful auto lock-on to the nearest target, if enabled. The Right Trigger is used to fire, and Bond can throw primary and secondary grenades and similar explosives with the Right and Left Bumpers, respectively. Finally, you can briefly sprint by holding down the left analogue stick, melee attack enemies up close by pressing in the right analogue stick, and apply a number of gadgets (such as a silencer or night vision goggles) with the directional pad (D-pad).

Use stealth, Bond’s phone, or go all-out in a tank in this mediocre shooter.

Your main gadget throughout the game isn’t a fancy watch or bizarre invention of Q and is, instead, disappointingly, your phone. Gameplay is invariably interrupted by phone calls from M and Bill Tanner that update your objectives or add some nuance to this re-told story, and you’ll be using your phone to scan partygoers to find your contact, investigate the environment to find and photograph objects of interest (like weapons caches and such), make recordings, activate remote explosives, and hack into terminals and drone guns. It’s a bit of a shame that so many of the game’s objectives require the use of the phone as it’s not that interesting to use and completely halts the action, though it’s relatively versatile and it can be fun to hack drone guns and gun down large groups of goons. Bond can also crawl through vents as a shortcut and to get behind groups of enemies, shoot fire extinguishers, explosive panels and barrels, and other parts of the environment to take down groups, and utilise his stealth and subdue skills to keep enemies from calling in reinforcements. Sometimes, you’ll be asked to press the right stick rather than hold X to open doors. This causes a “breach” that slows down time so you can dispatch armed foes and rescue hostages, like those on the frigate and Bond’s ally, Natalya Simonova. You’ll also be taking out security cameras to keep reinforcements at bay, activating surface-to-air missile launchers to take out choppers, acquiring and planting explosive charges, and even ploughing through the streets of Russia in a heavily armed tank! This chase mission is far more involved this time around, with Bond firing a chain gun, the main cannon, and even a homing shot, though the controls can be a bit clunky, and you can’t dawdle too long or you’ll lose General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov. Another prominent feature in the game are quick-time event (QTE) sections. These pop up when Bond needs to pull apart doors by mashing LT and RT together, in first-person cutscenes where you need to activate explosives, and during bosses battles against turncoat Trevelyan and his right-hand assassin, Xenia Onatopp.

The locations are large but the objectives and requirements are sadly lacking.

QTEs rear their ugly heads at the worst possible moments, such as when Bond is racing after a plane down an airstrip. You need to fend off the pursuing troops and then leap to the plane with LT and RT, with failure returning you to the last checkpoint. Speaking of which, checkpoints are relatively generous here, allowing you to reload if you get spotted or are caught in a crossfire. GoldenEye 007: Reloaded has four difficulty settings (“Operative”, “Agent”, “007”, and “007 Classic”), with the enemy AI and objectives increasing for each setting. If you’re playing on “007 Classic”, you’ll be relying on body armour to replenish your health similar to the original game; otherwise, Bond will automatically regenerate health while taking cover, just like in the Call of Duty games. You’ll need to do this quite often, or at least be stealthy and smart about how you play, as Bond is surprisingly weak here. Enemy fire (and, especially, explosives) will end your mission in a split second and you always need to be aware of snipers and even sheer drops off cliffs! Thankfully, an onscreen radar highlights nearby enemies, allowing you to better anticipate their movements. This also points you in the direction of your main objective, with a phone icon altering you to any additional objectives in the nearby area. Unfortunately, Bond is far more limited here than in the original game. You can only hold two additional weapons alongside your standard issue pistol for three in total, though you can retrieve dropped weapons if you wish and the game is pretty good about providing you with helpful or necessary weapons (like sniper rifles or rocket launchers) in key areas. While the game is far more linear than the original version, you have a few options available to you (taking vents, lifts, and vaulting through windows, for example) to explore. You’ll need to pull apart rocks to progress, race through burning environments, fend of guards as they rappel through windows, and yes even defend Natalia as she sabotages the GoldenEye satellite. I actually found this a lot easier this time around (on “Agent” difficulty, at least). It didn’t seem like Natalia could be killed and it was much easier to target enemies, despite having to rush about between different consoles.

Graphics and Sound:  
Technically speaking, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded looks and plays perfectly fine. Many of the environments recreate and update the familiar stages of the original game, including the same sweeping camera cuts and décor choices. These are most prominent in the “Dam”, “Facility”, and “Archives” stages, which take the original map, apply updated textures and mechanics to them, and greatly expand upon them. “Dam” now takes place at night and in the pouring rain, for example. Bond and 006 commandeer an enemy truck to progress further towards their objective, there’s a helicopter pad, and the entire area is transformed from a relatively short and simple experience into a more nuanced opening stage. However, many of the returning stages are so different that they’re basically unrecognisable. It’s as though the developers were told the general concept of GoldenEye 007 and given free rein to imagine that however they like. “Frigate”, for example, is now comprised of a lengthy section where Bond must fight his way on to the ship. There are barely any hostages to rescue this time and you’re mainly disabling the ship’s systems to plant a tracker on the EMP-hardened helicopter as it takes off. Similarly, the “Surface” and “Bunker” levels are now far more detailed and basically entirely new stages. Bond must take cover within the wreckage of wooden huts and make his way through the burning wreckage of the Severnaya facility, and the “Depot” and “Train” stages are entirely reimagined, with the “Train” section being just a short run through a few wrecked carriages and a lacklustre escape where you need to shoot open a panel rather than use Bond’s watch.

Mostly, the game looks dark, bleak, and terrible and doesn’t do much with the Bond license.

Technically, I don’t really mind this. It makes sense that stages are expanded and changed using the new engine and mechanics, but any nostalgia you might feel creeping through the vents of “Facility” or stealthily taking out Janus goons in “Statue” is completely lost when you realise just how different and unrecognisable these environments are. “Statue” is a great example as the stage now takes place in a memorial park and museum. The confusing, maze-like layout is replaced with a dark and dreary covert mission past giant statues and stone trappings, using the sewers and silent takedowns to dispatch Janus’s men. The game also omits entire stages, like “Silo” and “Control”, replacing them with a nightclub stage full of raving partygoers where Bond meets a heavily altered version of Valentin Zukovsky. In fact, every character has had their likenesses completely remodelled with the exception of M, who’s still played by Judi Dench. Obviously Bond is Daniel Craig and that’s fine but the guy they got for Trevelyan is no Sean Bean and doesn’t even sport any facial scars to go with his Janus moniker! It’s almost a blessing, then, that much of the game’s story is conveyed through voice over and cheap MI6 briefings where all we see is digital information rather than character models. However, I think I preferred the text dossiers from the original game as at least that wasn’t doing the Nintendo 64’s graphical abilities a disservice like here. This translates to certain aspects of the gameplay, too. I noticed a few instances of graphical pop-ups and texture warping in the “Jungle” and “Surface” stages, enemies and gunfire often clipped through solid walls, and the game can get so dark and chaotic that it’s easy to get confused and frustratingly picked off before you even have a chance to react. One aspect I did like was that  “Dam” transitioned into an all-new title sequence, with Nicole Scherzinger performing an okay cover version of “GoldenEye” to give the game a cinematic flair that’s sadly missing in its otherwise muted, clinical, and bleak presentation. This is reflected in Craig’s delivery, which is decidedly lackadaisical, and juxtaposed by the vibrant “Jungle” stage and the high-tech “Cradle” finale, where blasts of blinding light cause gantries to collapse under your feet and goons to riddle you with bullets in the confusion.

Enemies and Bosses:
An endless supply of goons, guards, and soldiers will be patrolling every location in the game. If you follow them while crouched, you’ll get to listen in on some fun banter and discussions between them that might have you feeling a little remorse when you execute them with a headshot and you can see enemies going through certain motions, like patrolling back and forth, resting against barriers and walls, attaching charges to walls, and ransacking the environment. This opens a few options to you, such as sneaking up to subdue them, silently nailing a headshot, or going in all guns blazing, though the latter action is not always recommended as it’ll alert all nearby guards and cause tougher goons to come swarming in until the enemies are dealt with. Enemies are generally armed with an array of machine guns, but some also pack rocket launchers, take the high ground with sniper rifles, and you’ll have a fair few grenades lobbed at your head if you camp out in one area. Enemies can take cover (overturning tables and dramatically sliding behind walls) to fire at you, and have their hats shot off. They also busy themselves at computer terminals, vending machines, and in toilets but their gunfire is just as likely to ignite fuel tanks to cause explosive damage as yours so be sure to mind your surroundings at all times. Bosses aren’t really a thing in GoldenEye 007: Reloaded. Most stages end when you’ve completed your objectives, entered a facility, and either evaded capture or been captured. Sometimes you’ll need to hold off against waves of enemies as you wait for a lift to arrive. Other times, you’ll be switching to night vision to take out goons in darkened tunnels

Sadly, the game’s few boss encounters boil down to pressing the right buttons at the right time.

You will also be tasked with finding efficient ways of dispatching rooms or areas full of guards without raising too much of an alarm, and others you’ll be contending with helicopter attacks. This is fine when you’re in your tank but, when on foot, you’ll need to dodge between cover and activate a surface-to-air missile to down the chopper, with the one in “Jungle” unloading a missile barrage that limits your options in this regard. When in the tank, you’ll come up against a fighter jet near the end of the stage that takes a few more hits from your cannon to down, alongside loads of RPG-wielding soldiers, choppers, and trucks in the road but this is closest you get to battling Ourumov as he’s simply executed in a cutscene by Xenia. Xenia is fought as a boss, but this time it’s purely a QTE. Simply tap the buttons as they appear onscreen and Bond will dodge and parry her wild kicks until the sequence ends with her death. As in the original game, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded culminates in a showdown with traitor Alec Trevelyan, revealed as the terrorist Janus, in his antenna control facility. After overcoming the aggravation of getting past the dangerous gantry area, you’ll have another QTE-ladened fight with Trevelyan where the hardest thing about it is realising you need to mash LT and RT together rather than one after to other to avoid having your face burned off. After this, you’ll face one of the game’s toughest and most annoying challenges: a shootout with Trevelyan where he’s protected by a bulletproof vest and calls in goons and even a chopper to help him out. After failing multiple times, I realised that the best option is to shoot him with your unsilenced pistol (which oddly does more damage) and then head outside to the far left. The chopper won’t move around the building to fire at you so you can simply fend off the goons and shoot at Trevelyan until he runs off. Then you simply need to win one final QTE sequence that culminates in a fatal shot to the treasonous agent, and you’ll have achieved a final, if unremarkably hollow, victory.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Since you’ll only be picking up body armour on the “007 Classic” difficulty, the closest thing you’ll find to power-ups here are the various guns and gadgets you’ll find throughout your adventure. Bond can use a silencer to muffle his shots and remain undetected and can use night vision goggles in areas with low lighting to take out enemies (thought they don’t seem nearly as handicapped by the darkness), and of course use his trusty phone to hack drone guns. Otherwise, you’ll grab a fair amount of different guns, though barely any of them resemble their counterparts from the original game. You’ve got Bond’s regular pistol but there are other hand guns on offer, including one with a nifty aiming laser and one that fires in bursts. You can snipe from afar with sniper rifles (and some machine guns also make use of a scope or targeting attachment) or blow enemies away using a rocket launcher or a grenade launcher feature to one rifle, and blast goons in the face with powerful magnums and shotguns. My favourite weapon was the Masterson M557, a kind of high-powered, rapid rife shotgun! Classic Bond weapons like the one-hit kill Golden Gun and Moonraker laser also appear in the game’s multiplayer alongside grenades, though I never encountered either of these in the single player campaign. Honestly, I was a little disappointed by the weapon selection. You’ll come across locked crates and cabinets that can be smashed or shot open to grab new weapons, but they all seemed to be variations of machine guns and submachine guns, so I struggled a bit to tell them apart or favour one over the other, generally relying on whatever had the most ammo in the immediate area.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements up for grabs in GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, four of which are awarded for completing every objective on every mission for each of the game’s difficulty levels (though these do stack up, so you can snag multiple in one playthrough). Many of the game’s stages contain the opportunity to earn an additional Achievement, such as getting forty kills with the Wolfe .44 magnum in “Nightclub” and twenty kills with hacked drone guns in “Jungle”, or require you to finish missions quickly or without reinforcements being called in. Five Janus emblems are hidden in every stage, and you’ll get Achievements for destroying one, twenty, and fifty of them, as well as for finishing any mission without taking damage of any “007 Classic” mission without any body armour. Outside of the main story, you can also take part in “MI6 Ops” missions for extra Achievements. These charge you with revisiting locations from the main game and eliminating enemies as quickly as possible, using stealth tactics, or defending three consoles and you’ll earn star rankings based on how well you perform. A good chunk of the game’s Achievements are also tied to the game’s multiplayer component. This can be played on- and offline and sees you again selecting from a roster of characters (including classic characters like Jaws and Oddjob) that you can now select different weapon and gadget loadouts. There are ten different maps to choose from and a variety of familiar game modifiers, such as melee only, team conflict, and a race for the Golden Gun. There are also some new modes here, too, such as “Escalation” (where killstreaks grant you better weapons), “Bomb Defuse” (like a “Capture the Flag” mode except you need to retrieve and defuse a bomb), and “Detonator Agent” (where you’re carrying a bomb and can either pass it to someone else or rack up a greater kill streak). While you don’t unlock fun cheat codes through gameplay like before, you can input some off websites to unlock some extra features for the multiplayer component, though not for the main campaign, which is limited to simply replaying missions on higher difficulties.

The Summary:
I played GoldenEye 007: Reloaded years ago on the PlayStation 3, around the same time as I played through the equally lacklustre Quantum of Solace game, and remember it being a largely uninspired FPS experience. Like many who bought the game, I was excited at the prospect and compelled by nostalgia to pick it up and it’s that same nostalgia that drove me to re-acquire it for my Xbox 360 library. Sadly, time and my experience with the Call of Duty franchise hasn’t made this game any better. While a lot of it visually resembles the original GoldenEye 007, so much has been changed and awkwardly shoe-horned into this samey, uninspired game engine that it may as well be an entirely different game. Indeed, I do wonder if it might’ve been better to tweak the concept a little to simply be a distant homage to GoldenEye 007 rather than an actual, explicit remake but that wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting or profitable, would it? The gameplay is okay, but even on the “Agent” difficulty things can get very frustrating, boring, and repetitive very quickly. I found myself burning through weapons since they’re all so interchangeable, getting annoyed with how linear and obtuse the stages could be, and being unimpressed by the cutscenes, story, and voice acting. The QTEs were also annoying as they felt very out of place against the shooting gameplay. I disliked how much waiting and faffing around with the phone was involved, and the stealth mechanics were poorly implemented. When the game recalls and provides an updated twist on the original, it’s okay, but the rest of the time it’s just another painfully generic shooter where all you have to do is hide behind a wall until your health regenerates and then push a little further forward. It’s a shame as it could’ve been so much more, but GoldenEye 007: Reloaded was probably doomed from the moment it even thought about trying to cash-in on the original’s success and ends up offering nothing new for either Bond or FPS fans.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Have you ever played GoldenEye 007: Reloaded? If so, did you like it? Do you think it lived up to the standards of the original game? How do you think it holds up compared to other Bond games of this era? What did you think to the recreations and changes featured in the game? Were you annoyed by the QTEs and overreliance on the phone gimmick too? How did you find the game’s multiplayer and additional modes? What’s your favourite James Bond game that isn’t GoldenEye 007? Whatever you think about GoldenEye 007, please share your thoughts in the comments  and be sure to check out my other James Bond content across the site!

Game Corner: Dead Space 3 (Xbox 360)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 5 February 2013
Developer: Visceral Games
Also Available For: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X (Backwards Compatible)

The Plot:
Three years after narrowly surviving a Necromorph outbreak on Saturn’s moon, Titan, former engineer Isaac Clarke and his allies explore the frozen planet Tau Volantis to discover the origins of the Necromorphs and oppose the fanatical Unitologists, who wish to “cleanse” humanity through the Necromorphs.

The Background:
Taking its cue from seminal survivor/horror franchises like Silent Hill (Konami/Various, 1999 to 2012) and Resident Evil (Capcom/Various, 1996 to present), Glen Schofield and his small (but committed team) shook up the genre with Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores, 2008). Highly praised and selling over one million copies, a sequel was greenlit almost immediately. The team worked hard to improve and refine Isaac’s gameplay and character, which was reflected in Dead Space 2’s (Visceral Games, 2011) equally positive reviews. Unfortunately poor sales meant that development of Dead Space 3 was almost cancelled, so the team scrambled to up the focus on action to appeal to a more mainstream audience and increase sales. Halfway into production, the decision was made to incorporate a co-op mode, which required an adjustment of the mechanics and enemy AI to allow for simultaneously two player gameplay. Environments in Dead Space 3 were bigger than ever, resulting in larger locations, new ways to play, and the inclusion of a rappel system to take advantage of the bigger play area. In anticipation of Dead Space 3 being the final game, the developers sought to wrap up Isaac’s story, expanding on both his character and the lore behind the Markers, while also using the new, frozen setting to tweak and refine the Necromorph designs. Consistent with its predecessors, Dead Space 3 released to generally positive reviews; reviews praised the action-orientated gameplay, co-op mode, and use of horror. Although sales started strong and the game was bolstered by some downloadable content, Dead Space 3 failed to meet EA’s expectations and tentative ideas for a fourth game were scrapped. Largely considered the worst of the trilogy, Dead Space 3 was criticised for its length and repetitive gameplay, and it is generally regarded as a fall from grace for a once-promising franchise.

Gameplay:
Like its predecessors, Dead Space 3 is a third-person survival/horror game set in the vastness of the cosmos many hundreds of years into the future. You’re once again placed into the role of Isaac Clarke, a former engineer now turned disgraced nobody thanks to the traumatic events of the last two games. This time around, you have a few control options available: you can pick from three control schemes or, if you’re feeling very fancy (or very stupid), you can use the Kinect to play! Obviously, I didn’t do this and went with the default control scheme, which sees you aiming with the Left Trigger, firing or bludgeoning enemies with a melee attack with the Right Trigger, and reloading with X. You can press and hold the Left Bumper to run or tap it for a handy (if occasionally clunky) dodge roll, tap the Right Bumper to stomp on enemies or crates or use your weapon’s secondary fire mode when aiming, and drop a temporary waypoint marker towards your next objective or destination by pressing in the left stick. Pressing in the right stick sees you crouch, which is somewhat handy when you engage in firefights with Unitologist leader Jacob Danik’s forces, and you can quickly replenish your health or stasis meter by pressing B and Y, respectively (as long as you have the associated items in your inventory). A is your action button, used to pick up items, open doors and interact with panels, switches, and such. You also press the left stick to take off and land when in zero gravity environments, where you’ll speed about using the bumpers but must collect air cannisters to avoid suffocating. Eventually, you’ll reacquire the use of your telekinetic abilities: while aiming with LT, you press B to interact with certain doors or objects and move them about, blast them with RB (skewering enemies with their own limbs in the process), or press Y to temporarily freeze enemies or hazards (such as large cogs or crushing weights) so you can pass them or easily decimate them.

Between the co-op and rappel sections, there are glimpses of a fun horror adventure here.

So, overall, the gameplay and controls are as you’d expect from Dead Space. Where Dead Space 3 primarily differs, though, is in the inclusion of a two-player co-op mode. Playing with a friend will require to you switch discs at a certain point, but you can play alone and avoid this option and also won’t have the benefit (or handicap) of an AI-controlled partner to worry about (John Carver appears in cutscenes but not alongside you like in other co-op games). While the option to play online is probably disabled now, you can still play in couch co-op, but I’m not sure how much this impacts the gameplay. There’s a certain hacking puzzle where each player guides a circuit to a certain point and presses A but that’s it, and it’s easily bypassed in single player by using both analogue sticks. There are no other areas where two players need to press switches or activate doors so I barely even noticed it as a function, though a late game objective would benefit from two players as you’d be able to split up and cover more ground. The co-op mode may also explain the abundance of Necromorphs (Feeders are especially abundant and annoying in single-player mode) and resources to be found. Another new aspect is a rappel mechanic where you and your partner zip down (or up) walls, shafts, and inclines, hopping across chasms, avoiding debris and hazards, and picking off Necromorphs. It was an okay mechanic but wore out its welcome pretty quickly and became more aggravating by the third of fourth time I endured it. Zero gravity sections are few and far between this time around, replaced by more open-ended sections set in the vast bleakness of space. You’ll float and fly about retrieving key items and activating doors in these sections, but they’re not as prominent in the previous games. One cool section sees you guiding a shuttle towards a planet as it crashes. You need to stay in the pre-set guidelines, blast at space debris, and even repair the ship’s engines to stay on course, which was quite fun.

Puzzles and space-faring sections are short breaks between all the gunplay and gore.

While some familiar Dead Space puzzles return here, they’re also far less prominent than in the previous games. You’ll still be hacking open doors by rotating a cone of light and pressing A on the blue sections, moving batteries to power up lifts and doors, and freezing hazards so you can slip past, but the focus is much more on seemingly never-ending, bloody combat this time around. You’ll make more use of your telekinetic abilities to power up generators and open certain doors, and there are a few puzzles where you use it to move plates into the correct order or awkwardly bend and twist alien architecture to match hieroglyphics or turn large structures to activate power nodes. However, the trickiest parts about these sections are the waves of enemies that’ll burst in the spoil your concentration. Later in the game, you must pay attention to film reels, onscreen prompts, and blood smeared around to activate alien translator devices, and take shuttles to new and previous destinations to explore other areas or take on optional side missions for new loot. You will also frantically tap A or make movements with the analogue sticks to succeed at quick-time events (either during dramatic cutscenes or when enemies grapple with you), and occasionally be forced to explore without your handy compass. Opportunities to use stasis and kinesis in interesting ways are few and far between here; you won’t be freezing bridges or moving about the environment to create new paths all that often. Instead, you search for key items to cobble together at workbenches and insert into something else, diverting power from one system to another to power up lifts or allow you to burn away the Necromorph infestation with a volatile gas, and blasting about through high-speed teleportation tunnels. You can pick from four difficulty modes, each of which increases the aggression of the enemies, and you can use the resources you find from crates, lying about the environments, or pick up from bodies to upgrade your suit and weapons, but you can only carry two weapons at a time and this time you need to craft new ones. I found this to be very aggravating; I wasn’t always able to create new weapons as the resource cost is so high, so I ended up playing most of the game with an upgraded version of the default Plasma Cutter. Furthermore, while it’s fun seeing flares scattered about and revisiting different areas to find new enemies and challenges there, I quickly became frustrated by how often the game simply throws a barrage of enemies at you in place of more intimate encounters and meaningful puzzles.

Graphics and Sound:
Graphically, Dead Space 3 may be the most ambitious of the entire trilogy. While human character models suffer from the same issues that dogged most games of this generation (namely, appearing to be little more than action figures or oddly-rendered puppets pretending to be flesh and blood), the environments, scope, and lighting effects are better than ever. You see this right from the beginning where, in a first for the series, you’re stuck on a frozen ice world and bombarded by snow and limited visibility before running through a gritty, futuristic city that’s ripped right out of Blade Runner (Scott, 1982). Although environments remain cramped and claustrophobic, there’s a grander sense of scale on offer, especially in the zero gravity sections. Far from being confined to scuttled spaceships, you can now blast through the openness of space using your suit’s thrusters and rocket along at blinding speeds thanks to alien technology. The writing and character interactions are also far more dramatic this time around; Isaac is at his lowest, estranged from his love, Ellie Langford, and constantly butting heads with her new lover, Robert Norton. Twists and turns are abundant as the Unitologists infiltrate and brainwash people to their cause, adding greater stakes to the gameplay as you race to rescue or protect Ellie and the other disposable side characters are killed off for dramatic emphasis. I still don’t really like that Isaac is so chatty now, but he’s given a little more weight and characterisation here. He’s not only still struggling with the traumatic influence of the Markers and the previous games, he also has intense rivalries with Norton and Danik and builds a rapport with new character John Carver that makes their poignant decision to stay behind and give their lives to save Elli (and the world) all the more impactful.

Drama, gore, and ominous alien architecture is at the forefront here.

All of this is merely window dressing for what I consider to be the strength of this franchise, and that’s the unsettling, ominous environments you explore. Blood, bodies, and flickering lights all add to the tension, as do the randomly falling grates and corpses, crucified torsos, non-playable characters who commit suicide or are reanimated before your eyes, and the many ominous messages written in blood over the walls and floors. Enemies burst from vents, crawl up through snow, explode to shambling life when infested with parasites, and clamber around walls and over railings to get to you. If you can’t fight them off or get pummelled too much, you’ll be treated to a gory death scene, and body parts will be sent splattered around as you target the Necromorph’s limbs to dispatch them. As ever, Isaac’s meters and ammo are displayed on his suit and weapons rather than a traditional heads-up display, though you can still bring up a live inventory, map, and objective screen and Isaac receives regular incoming video and voice messages from enemies and allies to clog up the screen space. Environments are similar to before, but noticeably different in same areas. You’ve still got dark, confined corridors, barracks, and other areas on spaceships and space stations, but you’ll be in steampunk-like facilities, genetic labs, and Necromorph infested outposts, too. Much of the game is set on a frozen planet, where snow and ice are naturally abundant, and you’re buffeted by snowstorms and crossing crumbling ice caverns. Perhaps the most visually interesting location comes in the final stretch of the game where you’re exploring an alien city, caverns filled with Markers, and a degenerating moon home to a gigantic eldritch abomination that really ups the ante for the finale.

Enemies and Bosses:
Many familiar Necromorphs return in Dead Space 3. As ever, no matter their appearance or attack pattern, your best bet is to target their limbs, severing their blade-like arms and their legs to slow them down and reduce their threat, though many are more than capable of attacking even without a head or reanimating if you don’t pick off the spider-like parasites infesting them so don’t forget to freeze them with Stasis when in a tight spot. “Slash” Necromorphs burst up from corpses, out of vents, and around corners without warning, leaping at you, slashing, and grabbing you to try and rip your face off, so be sure to keep your distance wherever possible. Only a handful of Necromorphs can fire projectiles, but these can be the trickiest to hit. Small variants scuttle about on walls and ceilings firing from their lashing tentacles, “Pukers” cough up acidic bile to slow you down, and the fatter variants spawn tiny parasites that’ll quickly consume you if you’re not careful. Spider-like parasites can infect corpses, making them zombies who shamble after you with wrenches and frantically blast you with assault rifles. The odd wall-mounted Necromorph also reappears, and you’ll again have the “joys” of encountering “Regenerator” variants who can only be slowed and fled from as there’s no dramatic way of putting them down this time. Mine-like cysts will blow you off your feet, large tentacles will block your path, and the aforementioned “Feeder” variants will swarm all around you from overhead vents. In addition, you’ll also get into firefights with Danik’s troops. These guys take cover, fire assault rifles and laser-guided rockets, and can even toss grenades at you that you can throw back using your Kinesis ability. Luckily, if Necromorphs are about, you can hang back and let the two groups battle it out, thinning their numbers to make your life a lot easier.

Despite some horrific Necromorphs, the game suffers from a lack of boss battles.

One aspect of Dead Space 3 I was quite disappointed by is the lack of bosses. Bosses have always been a bit of a weak spot in the franchise and Dead Space 3 noticeably suffers from a lack of tangible boss moments. Some Necromorph enemies can be analogous to bosses, such as the ever-annoying Velociraptor-like “Stalkers” who hide behind crates and rocks and charge at you from out of the blue and the large, skeletal Alien Necromorphs that gore you like a rhino. Easily the most persistent boss in the game is the crab-like “Snow Beast”, a gigantic crustacean you’ll battle in three separate locations, with the main strategy repeating each time but with less options for cover and resource replenishment. The Snow Beast lunges at you and tries to squish you with its spiked legs, only being vulnerable after you sever the whipping tentacles on its back and blast at its exposed mouth/underside. Stasis is useful for keeping it at bay but you’ll need to time your dodge roll well to avoid its lumbering attacks. Eventually, you drive it away but it pops back up again later, this time with crates in the way and no opportunities to recharge your meter, and a third time in the middle of a snowstorm where it’s joined by regular Necromorphs. This time, you use Kinesis to activate two generators and then lure it into the path of two harpoon guns that finally tear it apart. Far more visually interesting is the gigantic, Lovecraftian “Nexus” creature. This squid-like thing tries to crush you with its tentacles limbs, spits up Feeders, and tries to suck you into its maw. You must dodge and dispatch these annoyances and blast its tumour-like growths before targeting more globules inside its digestive tract! Finally, you battle the Tau Volantis Moon itself! The very surface crumbles and changes around you as an eldritch nightmare looms overhead, throwing rocks and depositing Necromorphs onto an unstable circular platform. Luckily, there’s a glowing circle here that will super charge your Kinesis and Stasis abilities, allowing you to slow and dismember enemies and launch large blue rocks into the thing’s eyes. Blast its tentacles when it tries to suck you in and repeat this three times, then succeed at a simple quick-time vent and you’ve won the day.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
It’s hard from me to talk about Dead Space 3’s weapons as I struggled with the system. This time, you start with the standard Plasma Cutter and can add attachments and circuits to increase its stats (damage, reload time, clip size and such), which is fine, but you also use these same resources (alongside blueprints found scattered throughout the game) to craft new weapons. While many can be pre-made from these blueprints(providing you have the resources), others are cobbled together to give a sense of customisation. Unfortunately, the cost to create and upgrade weapons is so high that I often found myself relying on the standard Plasma Cutter. I created a rapid-fire submachine gun and a shotgun variant, but they were so weak that I rarely used them. A flamethrower proved much more reliable but you can also craft weapons that shoot lightning or acid rounds, darts, and explosives. I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t get to experience much of this, however. One of the appeals to games like this is naturally acquiring new weapons, but I found it difficult to craft new ones and their benefits lacklustre compared to upgrading the Plasma Cutter. A big reason for this is that the same resources are used to upgrade your suit. While Isaac gains new suits as the story progresses, you can spend resources upgrading your maximum health and armour, extending the range and recharge time of your kinesis meter, and improving your oxygen supply. It seems to be much more stripped down and barebones this time around, but these benefits are useful as you have limited inventory space for things like health and ammo. When you reach a workbench, you can store items in a safe for later use, which is useful, and this is also where you scavenger bot will deposit more resources after you deploy it. It’s worth taking the time to smash enemy bodies, crates, and explore your surroundings for pick-ups as they’ll frequently drop ammo, health, and resources to upgrade and craft your equipment. Recharge points for your abilities are also common and you can occasionally make use of environmental hazards (drops, explosive barrels, and laser traps) to dispatch enemies.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements to aim for in Dead Space 3, many of which you’ll get from a simple playthrough. You get Achievements for beating the various difficulty levels, for example, dispatching the Snow Beast, crafting a weapon, and retrieving resources from a scavenger bot, all things you’d do without even trying. Some are a bit more obscure, such as shooting a deer head in an office, using the gas to destroy five Cysts, and not taking damage in certain sections. Others are a little more grindy: there are audio and text logs and alien artifacts to be found, blueprints and weapons to collect, and limbs that need to be severed if you want to tick off all the game’s Achievements. You’ll also need to play in co-op mode, use different weapons and melee attacks, and complete all optional missions to get the full 1000G associated with the game. Finishing Dead Space 3 on any difficulty unlocks “New Game”, which allows you to restart with all the upgrades and weapons and such from your last playthrough, access a new suit, and acquire better upgrade parts. If you have a save file from Dead Space 2, you get access to the “Planet Cracker” Plasma Cutter. Finally, if you managed to download the game’s additional content, you can play an epilogue story that comes with eight additional Achievements and sees Isaac and Carver escaping Tau Volantis, battling Dik’s cultists, and learning of an impending Necromorph invasion of Earth!

The Summary:
I’d heard that Dead Space 3 was the weakest of the original trilogy. Nothing specific comes to mind regarding that statement, just a general consensus that it’s not as strong as the first two games. I went into it with this in mind but expecting more of the same and, in many ways, that’s true. Dead Space 3 doesn’t stray too far from the previous formula of exploration, puzzle solving, and Necromorph slicing, but it adds a few wrinkles and changes things around just enough to drag it down a little bit. The crafting system, for one, was a major headache for me. I really didn’t like that I couldn’t swap to different weapons to break up the action as I lacked the resources to craft and/or properly refine the other weapons. It also took a lot of the fun out of the exploration when all you’re rewarded with are parts to cobble together weapons rather than an actual gun. The puzzles were extremely stripped down, and nowhere near as prominent. Sure, sometimes you have less time to hack a console or need to craft something to open a door, but ultimately the game failed to utilise the Stasis and Kinesis abilities in interesting ways compared to the last two games. It’s the same for the zero gravity sections. Yeah, it’s fun flying through space but these are merely distractions from the main gameplay rather than being standout sequences since the game would rather waste your time on frustrating rappel sequences. The lack (and recycling) of bosses hurts the game, too. I like fighting big, monstrous creatures but these encounters were few and far between. It’s also weird to me that you don’t get an AI partner in single-player and the game didn’t lean more into the co-op aspect. I honestly forget John Carver was even there as he only appears in cutscenes and scripted sequences, making you wonder why they bothered with the co-op function at all. Ultimately, there was a lot to like here – the game is as horrific and nerve-shredding as ever – but I can’t help but feel as though something was lacking. The soul, perhaps? I can’t quite put my finger on it but it was definitely a far less enjoyable and much more aggravating experience compared to the first two, which is a shame considering the core gameplay and mechanics are just as appealing.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Dead Space 3? How do you think it compares to the previous two games? What did you think to the co-op mechanics and the new rappel gimmick? Were you also disappointed by the lack of boss battles and frustrated by the increased enemy swarms? Were you able to craft some decent weapons or did you also struggle with this system? Did you ever find all those artifacts? Which game in the franchise is your favourite? What horror-theme videogames are you playing this October in anticipation of Halloween? Whatever your thoughts on Dead Space 3, drop a comment below.

Game Corner: Terminator Salvation (Xbox 360)

Dr. K3 Comments

Released: 19 May 2009
Developer: Grin
Also Available For: Mobile, PC, and PlayStation 3

The Background:
The Terminator franchise (Various, 1984 to 2019) has quite the history with videogame adaptations. Every film in the franchise has been adapted to at least one videogame over the years and the murderous cyborg even matched wits with RoboCop (Verhoeven, 1987) back in the day. Despite the mixed reviews that accompanied Terminator Salvation (McG, 2009), the Halcyon Company turned to developers Grin to produce a tie-in videogame, one whose in-game assets and engine were used to produce a prequel miniseries. Much like the movie upon which it was based, Terminator Salvation was met with mixed reviews that criticised the repetitive combat and lack of replay value and the game was generally seen as a disappointment considering the vast potential offered by its cover-based shooting mechanics.

The Plot:
Years after Judgment Day, John Connor leads Resistance soldiers on a dangerous rescue mission that sees them storming one of Skynet’s main bases and encountering their most dangerous creations: The Terminators!

Gameplay:
Terminator Salvation is a third-person shooter that can be played alone or alongside another player in co-op. When playing alone, AI-controlled allies will provide cover fire and even a bit of ammo every now and then to help fend off the machines, though you’re unable to issue them with orders or change your playable character. The game’s controls are similar to many other similar shooters of the time, and even now: the Left Trigger lets you aim or peek out from cover, the Right Trigger fires your current weapon, and the Right Bumper tosses a grenade or pipe bomb. You can switch weapons with B; holding the button gives you access to a limited weapon wheel where you can switch to different firearms and bombs, but you can only carry two guns at a time. You can pick up new weapons Y, which also focuses the camera on certain objectives or points of interest and gives you control of nearby turrets. X lets you reload, you can review your objectives by pressing the ‘Back’ button, and you can snap to, from, or dash between cover using A and the left stick. Anything from cars, columns, partial walls, and metal barriers can be used as effective cover. You can quite efficiently fire blindly from behind cover and dash between cover to avoid incoming fire, but some enemies can simply come around whatever you’re hiding behind and murder you on the spot.

Use cover and your partners to take on Skynet’s repetitive forces with some mediocre weapons.

The game’s narrative is told over nine chapters, each of which sees you navigating the war-torn remnants of downtown Los Angeles, various dilapidated buildings and sewers, and infiltrating the ominous factories of Skynet. However, your mission objectives and the basic structure of each chapter is painfully tedious and predictable: you’ll explore a path so linear that there’s no onscreen map required, following your allies to open or enclosed areas where you’ll be ambushed by T-7-T machines and drone-like Aerostats (referred to as “Spiders” and “Wasps”, respectively). You’ll be forced to take cover, or go up stairs to take the high ground, and clear out waves of these enemies, flanking the Spiders to target the battery packs on their backs and opening fire when your aiming reticule turns red so you know you’re dealing maximum damage. Unlike many games where you’re accompanied by AI partners, Terminator Salvation’s AI is almost too good; there were many times when I simply stayed behind cover and waited out the fracas as my AI companions destroyed all nearby enemies. This was surprisingly effective, though not the most enjoyable gameplay experience; it’s great that your partners can’t be killed and will so helpfully destroy incoming enemies, but it can make you superfluous or leave you sitting and waiting for battles to end as you’re out of ammo or close to death. Your health will only be refilled after a battle has been won, but you can recover a bit of health if you avoid incoming fire for a time; unfortunately unlike other third-person shooters with this mechanic, this can take a long time. I don’t know if this was because I was playing on “Hard”, but my health would take ages to recover in these situations, meaning it was usually better just to let myself be killed so I could try again. In co-op mode, you can revive and be revived by your partner to continue the fight, but this doesn’t happen when playing solo. However, there are a decent number of checkpoints in the game, which can be helpful, though it quickly becomes tedious having to go through the same fights again and again with little reward. Occasionally, you’ll be tasked with protecting Barnes as he sets explosive charges but there isn’t actually any danger of him being killed so this is just another case of battling against waves of machines. Similarly, there’s a cool section near the end where you have to pass through a suburban area on the way to Skynet’s control centre. T-600s and “Skin Jobs” patrol the buildings and grounds, which seems to encourage a stealthy approach but, no, you just take cover behind cars and walls and blast at them until they explode and disappear into the ground like always.

A few rail-shooting and first-person sequences break up the gameplay, but can be frustrating.

Thankfully, it’s not all cover and shooting in Terminator Salvation. In addition to being pinned down, caught in crossfires, or being relentlessly hounded by the T-600s, you can man turrets to blast Spiders and Wasps (though you need to be good with your accuracy as this leaves you completely vulnerable), must run away from pursuing T-600s, and your objectives generally include reaching evacuation sites, finding survivors in the wastelands, and fending off attacks from the machines in open and enclosed areas alongside allies and with weapon caches nearby. Gameplay is broken up further by a handful of rail-shooting stages; in these, you’ll man a gun on the back of a truck or wield a rocket launcher with infinite ammo on the back of a speeding subway train and fire at incoming Wasps, Moto-Terminators, and Hunter-Killers (HKs). Sometimes you’ll need to protect an ally in a truck or a school bus but, while these sections aren’t very long, they can be extremely frustrating and are far from enjoyable. You have no options for cover and no way to regain your health, and enemies can be tough to hit since they’re very small and nimble. Your AI companion is also far less useful in these sections, and you have to endure the annoyance of your gun overheating if you hold the trigger down for too long. Thankfully, these sections aren’t very long and they can be fun when you’re just blasting at HKs, but they were one of the most aggravating parts of the game. Later, you’ll control a gigantic HK Tank; here, the game switches to a first-person perspective and employs the red Terminator vision as you automatically stomp across the devastated landscape using LT and RT and RB and LB to fire your gatling guns and missiles at machines and anti-aircraft turrets. Unfortunately, this is also quite a clunky and frustrating section; checkpoints are plentiful, and your health will refill, but the weapon charge time is a joke and you have no way to avoid being blasted by enemies since you can’t move or dodge, so you need to fire quickly and accurately to get past each section without being blown to pieces.

Graphics and Sound:  
Terminator Salvation is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of presentation. On the one hand, the environments look pretty good; I liked how the streets are littered with cars, debris, burning planes, and the fallout of all-out nuclear war. Buildings are partially destroyed and full of disused furniture; they’re overgrown with vegetation, and everything has a very bleak and ominous feel to it. Like the source material, much of Terminator Salvation’s action takes place in the daytime; if you stop and think about it, it doesn’t make much sense for the world to be in this state considering it was subjected to nuclear war and there’s a disappointing lack of skulls and bodies strewn about the place, but the general presentation works pretty well. When you’re inside, things become suitably claustrophobic and you’ll have to endure stages set inside dilapidated buildings, sewers, and subway tunnels; nothing massively out of the ordinary, but still in keeping with the Terminator theme. The subway actually makes for a really fun and depressing location; the survivors huddled there have built a pitiable shelter from abandoned subway cars and it really speaks to the desperation felt by the rag-tag survivors. The game’s final stage takes place in one of Skynet’s facilities, an industrial factory where they build their machines. These sections more accurately evoke the dark, desolate Future War seen in the first two movies, and there’s even a cool part when John sets of an electromagnetic pulse and you dash past incapacitated T-600 endoskeletons.

The machines and environments are better than the character models, but it’s a very basic presentation.

While the in-game music generally isn’t anything to shout about, it impresses when the classic Terminator theme kicks in when you complete objectives or to bolster bigger, tougher battles. The T-600 encounters are often accompanied by the ominous T-1000 theme, which I really enjoyed, and the machines themselves are a particular highlight of the game’s presentation. While their intelligence is often questionable (they’re either laughably incompetent or annoyingly relentless), the machines impress when they appear. Spiders scuttle through the ruins, T-600s burst through walls and doors guns blazing, there’s a definite sense of dread every time a HK flies overhead (even if they’re pretty easy to take down with your rockets), and there’s even a few genuinely tense moments as you frantically flee from the gigantic Harvester or from a persistent T-600. It’s a shame, then, that the human character models don’t impress anywhere near as well; John lacks Christian Bale’s voice and likeness and it is just a general Jarhead as a result, though Common and Moon Bloodgood do lend their voices and likenesses to their characters. Sadly, they’re stilted, puppet-like imitations of themselves; as there are very few pre-rendered cutscenes, you’ll have to endure these marionette-like soldiers flailing and yapping about and it’s genuinely laughable seeing them (and their vehicles) being pounded about in the game over sequences. The story itself is actually pretty serviceable and works as a prequel, of sorts, to the movie, but I did notice some instances where the game lagged when too much was happening at once. Some glitches, like enemy fire passing through your cover and the AI just running in place aimlessly or dropping through the ground (both of which were actually very beneficial!) also appeared.

Enemies and Bosses:
As you might expect, you’ll be battling Skynet’s forces throughout Terminator Salvation; unfortunately, the malicious AI doesn’t exactly favour variety and simply sends the same handful of enemies at you over and over again, without even any colour or weapon changes, which makes the game very tiresome very quickly. Drone-like Aerostats sweep across the sky raining fire at you and can be annoying to hit as they’re small and nimble; similarly, the Moto-Terminators can be difficult to destroy as they’re very fast and you’re stuck on a set path that can mess up your shot. The most common enemy you’ll face at the T-7-Ts, large mechanical spiders that scurry about firing incessantly once they spot you or your allies. The only way to destroy them is to get around behind them and target their battery pack, which either you can do, or you can distract them so your partners can take them out, but this becomes extremely aggravating in close quarters situations and when the Spiders are flanked by Wasps and T-600s. The T-600s are easily the game’s toughest enemies; wielding gatling guns and shrugging off your bullets, they relentlessly fire at and pursue you and the only way to defeat them is to lob pipe bombs at them or unload all your ammo into their chests from a safe position.

The game is a non-stop barrage of battles against the same machines over and over again.

The T-600s are initially presented as mini bosses of sorts; at first, all you can do is run away, luring them into traps to try and bury them under rubble, but soon you and your allies are cornered by three of them and you need to dash to a table to pick up pipe bombs to take them out. This is where the game really takes a sharp difficulty spike; the crossfire here is unreal and you only have a limited number of pipe bombs, plus it’s super tough to get close to the T-600s so I actually found it easier to stay under cover, rely on my AI companions, and fire the way overpowered shotgun at the Terminator’s chests to dispatch them. Later encounters are much easier, even when you’re again forced into a tight corridor, as you have better weapons to help you out, like the rocket launcher or a turret. You’ll also encounter “Skin Jobs”, T-600s in rubber skin, which I actually found weaker than their endoskeleton cousins, and these Terminators soon start to appear out in the open and alongside Spiders and Wasps as the game progresses and things ramp up. While you must run for cover when the Harvester makes its single appearance and never get to engage with it, you’ll be taking on a fair amount of HKs. These are some of the best sections as the massive ships linger outside buildings firing plasma blasts and unleashing Wasps to weed you out. You need to grab the nearby rocket launchers to bring these huge ships down, which is a lot more fun than when you’re steaming along in a vehicle or even in that massive tank as you can actually use cover and aim your shots more effectively. Sadly, there’s not really any big, climactic final battle in Terminator Salvation; the entire game is a series of shoot-outs or tense moments against the same enemies over and over, and the finale is much of the same. Sure, there are more T-600s and it can be really difficult juggling between the different enemies, dashing between cover and using the heavier explosives at the right time, but it would’ve been nice to have a big final boss battle, perhaps against a prototype T-800 or even the Harvester. Instead, you simply blast through the machines until John disables them with an EMP in a cutscene, and then just run to the evacuation chopper to end the story.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As disappointing as the enemy variety is in Terminator Salvation, the weapon selection isn’t much better. You’ve got an assault rifle, a shotgun, a heavier machine gun, a rocket launcher, and a grenade launcher, alongside standard tossable grenades and pipe bombs. You can only carry two guns at a time, they don’t hold much ammo, and you can’t upgrade or customise them or your character’s abilities in any way. Turrets and vehicles are also on offer, but they’re painfully limited by their cooldown and reload times, and there are sadly no laser rifles to be found here; you can’t even use the T-600’s gatling gun, for God’s sake! However, if you’re going to use any weapon, make sure it’s the shotgun; this thing is ridiculously overpowered and works amazingly well even at long range and against the T-600s, so be sure to keep it in your inventory.

Additional Features:
There are eleven Achievements on offer in Terminator Salvation, with nine being awarded for completing each chapter. You’ll gain an additional two Achievements for beating the game on Medium and Hard, but these Achievements stack and the game really isn’t all that difficult (beyond a couple of really frustrating parts) so you’re better off just playing all the way through on Hard and snagging every Achievement in one playthrough. This is all very disappointing; the game has a co-op mode but there are no Achievements for playing with a friend, there are no items or collectibles to find or unlock, no audio logs or concept art, no additional skins or modes (like deathmatches or anything), and no downloadable content on offer. It really is a disappointingly cheap and barebones presentation; you can replay any chapter after completing the game, but what’s the point when you can sweep all the Achievements in one go and there’s nothing to go back for?

The Summary:
Terminator Salvation is a pretty poor rip-off of the Gears of War games of the time (Epic Games, 2006; 2008); it lacks none of the pulse-pounding action, satisfying weapon combat, or macho bravado of those games and instead distils the gameplay down to a tedious cover-based shooter where you could probably set your controller down at a few key points and let the AI take care of things without your involvement. It’s such a shame as there are some tense and enjoyable moments here; I love how the T-600s and larger machines are portrayed as a real threat and the ominous and desperate atmosphere that accompanies these encounters. Sadly, the enemy AI is absolutely bonkers and easily exploited; even when you’re literally pinned down in a corner and will be cut to ribbons the moment you move, you can still win the day with bucketloads of patience and some well-timed explosives. These sections are incredibly frustrating, though, and result in an uneven pace to the game; even on the hardest difficulty, some chapters and sections will be a breeze (annoying and boring, but not exactly hard) but then others are like running into a brick wall! The rail-shooting sections, especially, are very aggravating due to the lack of cover and small margin for error afforded to you, yet you can be cornered by waves of machines and easily take them all out with no problem at other times simply because you have cover and heavier weapons and competent allies nearby. The lack of real bosses is also an issue; I liked the encounters with the T-600s and HKs, but there could’ve been so much more here, like a showdown with the Harvester or more enjoyable use of the HK Tank. The absolute worst thing, though, is the lack of replayability, collectibles, and unlockables; once you’ve beaten the game and gotten all the Achievements, there’s no reason to play it again over, say, Terminator: Resistance (Teyon, 2019) or any of the Gears of War titles this game so shamelessly apes. There as a bit of an effort made here, but then the developers just kind of gave up. It’s just another videogame tie-in that’s really not worth your effort unless you have nothing else to do and want to earn some quick Achievements, though I’ll give it an extra point for having some decent visuals and moments amidst all the mediocrity.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Have you ever played Terminator Salvation? What did you think to it and how do you think it compares to other Terminator videogames, and the movie it’s based on? Were you a fan of the cover-based shooting and repetitive combat or did you grow bored by the gameplay? What did you think to the T-600s and the rail-shooting sections? Did you ever beat this game with a friend? What’s your favourite Terminator videogame and how are you celebrating Judgement Day this year? No matter what you think about Terminator Salvation and the Terminator franchise, feel free to leave a reply down below or drop a comment on my social media, and go check out my other Terminator reviews!