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Game Corner: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Trilogy (Xbox 360)

06/01/202125/11/2022Dr. K4 Comments

Released: 2016
Originally Released: 2007; 2009; 2011
Developer: Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games
Also Available For: Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

The Background:
This may shock and surprise and annoy a lot of people but…I do not care for the Call of Duty franchise (Various, 2003 to present). Activision’s long-running first-person shooter (FPS) series has seen many releases, spin-offs, and other related media over the years and has, collectively, sold over 250 million copies. Yet…it’s not really for me. As a general rule, I’m not much of a fan of FPS games and my love for them died out around about the same time as the release of Perfect Dark (Rare, 2000). This is simply a personal bias for me; I sometimes struggle with the maze-like nature of FPS games, the restrictive view (I can never seem to see anything and don’t like being attacked from behind), and how many FPS games make the controls needlessly complicated and convoluted. However, when I bought my Xbox 360, it came with a few Call of Duty titles, most prominently the Modern Warfare Trilogy. Therefore, January is going to be “CoD Month” and I’ll be spending the next few Wednesdays going through the Call of Duty games I played to see if my bias against the series was justified and to obtain a bunch of sweet, sweet, Achievements.

The Plot:
In a change for Call of Duty’s traditional World War Two settings, the Modern Warfare trilogy takes place between 2011 and 2016 and is initially centred around a civil war in Russia which eventually (through a series of complex betrayals and double-turns) escalates into a full-on world war between the United States and Russia.

Gameplay:
The Modern Warfare titles are first-person shooters that primarily place players in the role of either British Special Air Service (S.A.S.) Captain (originally Segerent) John “Soap” MacTavish and Captain John Price. While these two are the primary characters of the trilogy, you’ll also take on other roles (such as Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson and Private First Class Joseph Allen in Modern Warfare 2 and Staff Sergeant Derek “Frost” Westbrook and ex-Spetsnaz operative Yuri in Modern Warfare 3). No matter who you’re playing as, the controls and heads-up display (HUD) are exactly the same and very little changes between each title in terms of your abilities and controls.

CODMWTStance — *The stance you adopt affects your visibility and aiming.*

By pressing B, players can assume one of three stances: standing, crouching, and “prone” (where they lie down on the floor), each of which affects your speed, aim, and level of stealth. Standing up makes you an open target, for example, but going prone can render you almost completely undetectable. You can jump with the A button but there’s very little call for this; you don’t have to do that much jumping and this is mainly used in specific areas to vault over low walls and other areas of cover. Holding in the left analogue stick will see you break into a run (you can’t do this indefinitely, though, and there’s no stamina meter to let you know how long you have between sprints so you’ll just have to guess) while pressing in the right analogue stick allows you to melee attack enemies. You can also reload with X, toss grenades or flashbangs with either the Left and Right Buttons, respectively, switch between your weapons with the Y button (you can only hold two at a time but you can hold X to pick up new weapons as-and-when you come across them), and aim and shoot your primary weapon with the Left and Right Triggers. Shooting comes in two forms: down the sights and from the hip and, by tapping the Left Trigger, you’ll automatically snap on to the nearest enemy in a form of auto-aiming.

CODMWTReload — *Be sure to watch out for incoming grenades when reloading.*

Generally speaking, the game encourages you to switch weapons rather than reloading as this is faster but, in my experience, this results in you having two weapons that are low on ammo and need reloading rather than just one and considering how long and complex the reloading animations can be (I swear there’s one rifle that takes a good twenty seconds to reload) so either tactic has its pros and cons. One thing that is helpful is the ability to grab and throw enemy grenades back at them; you’ll need to be quick, though, as grenades have a horrible and annoying tendency to simply explode and kill you in one hit if you’re not fast enough. As in a lot of FPS games, you can recover your health by avoiding damage for a few seconds; while you can do this by taking cover, you need to be careful as the Modern Warfare games utilise a bullet penetration system where certain bullets and munitions are capable of penetrating certain surfaces (dry wall, concrete, etc) plus vehicles have a habit of catching fire and exploding when you’re too close to them. Luckily, each game is peppered with checkpoints so you can return to the fight quite quickly after being randomly shot in the middle of whatever you were doing.

CODMWTVehicles — *It’s not all ground-based shooting; you’ll also get into some nifty military vehicles.*

A mini map sits in the HUD to help show enemy placements and works in conjunction with a small compass that directs you towards your next objective; this system is refined and far more intuitive and user-friendly in the second and third games but you’ll never really have to worry about getting lost despite how grey and brown and uniform a lot of the game’s locations are as each title is very linear in its layout and objectives. Gameplay is further broken up throughout the trilogy by allowing you to pilot and drive a variety of military vehicles; you’ll be driving trucks, tanks, boats, snow-skis, and helicopters. When high in the sky, you’ll switch between different thermal visions and have access to machine guns, bombs, and other explosive rounds to provide air support but, in a lot of cases, these are mainly prolonged gameplay sections that abruptly end in a disorientating in-game cutscene for your character. And make no mistake, the Modern Warfare games love to pull this trick on you. If you’re running through a warzone, you can guarantee that you’ll be falling through a crumbling floor or floored by a sense-jarring explosion, and if you’re driving or flying you’re most likely going to get derailed by a sudden explosion.

CODMWTMissions — *You’ll also be asked to take part in some questionable missions.*

Gameplay is further broken up by tasking you with some specific missions: in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, for example, you’ll have to man a Barrett M82 sniper rifle and take into account wind resistance (indicated by a fluttering flag) and the “Coriolis effect” in order to get a good shot on your target. In Modern Warfare 2, you can choose to take part in a highly controversial mission that sees you going undercover and taking part in a mass shooting at a Russian airport and Modern Warfare 3 sees you manning both a mortar cannon and a small remote control tank to clear out opposing forces. Each game also features stealth missions, generally when working with Captain Price, that see you having to sneak past guards to take them out silently with your melee attacks or sniper rifles. Sometimes, you’ll also be planting explosives or sabotaging controls panels and such and, though tense and annoying at times, these can be some of the best sections in the game as you’re not inundated with enemies you can hardly see. You’ll also have to take part in a handful of quick-time events (QTEs), generally at the conclusion of each game that sees you grievously hurt or otherwise incapacitated and forced to struggle through the sluggish controls and skewed vision to take a shot at an enemy or rapidly tap a button at the right time to win.

Graphics and Sound:
Generally speaking, the three Modern Warfare titles still all hold up pretty well despite the fact that a lot of their loading times are hidden behind doors and gates you cannot open or pass without someone else breaking them open for you. Locations are varied and take place across the globe, placing you in desolate, uninspiring environments such as the desert but also crumbling cities under a massive assault, on the steps of the White House while it’s under siege, and in the frozen Siberian wastes. You’ll also navigate through claustrophobic submarines, the streets and underground of London, and even a diamond mine. The trilogy does a great job of recreating iconic landmarks, making seeing the White House in flames or the Eiffel Tower collapsing quite a powerful spectacle, but a lot of their environments are still very bland and generic. Luckily for me, the trilogy is very linear but it can still be difficult to spot enemies when they seem to blend into their surroundings and I found myself firing on my own team mates more often than I’d like to admit as a result.

CODMWTGraphics — *Weapons and locations are all rendered with a high attention to detail.*

The game’s various weapons and vehicles are all extremely realistic and detailed as well, almost to a fault because, as mentioned, reloading some weapons can take a significant amount of time which, while realistic, can be annoying when you’re under heavy fire. Unlike some FPS games, the character models don’t suffer either and actually look quite decent rather than appearing as little more than action figures; it helps that the majority of the game’s story is told using the in-game engine and voiceovers rather than using full-on CGI cutscenes so there’s a lot less of the weird juxtaposition between in-game graphics and pre-rendered graphics. Each game is punctuated by fittingly rousing military music but, for the most part, I found the trilogy’s soundtracks quite underwhelming and mostly supplanted by the in-game sounds of the dead, dying, and maimed. The trilogy features some strong vocal performances (helped by actors such as Troy Baker, Keith David, Lance Henriksen, William Fichtner, Idris Elba, and Timothy Olyphant) but it’s difficult for me to really praise it all that much as it’s absolutely swamped with military slang and expressions that, again, I’m sure are extremely realistic and accurate but end up grating after a while.

Enemies and Bosses:
Primarily, you’ll be blowing holes through innumerable Russian soldiers and various terrorist forces who, while amounting to little more than cannon fodder to your superior weaponry and skills, can still kill you in an instant thanks to their commendable artificial intelligence. Enemies will dash behind cover, shoot over walls, move to flank you, and won’t hesitate to one-shot you with a melee attack of their own or a well-thrown grenade. When entering new areas, it’s best to take cover and scope out the area, picking enemies off from a distance as you’ll also come up against snipers and enemies who are packing rocket launchers. These, like a lot of the enemies you’ll encounter, like to take positions high above you and, while they mostly go down after one or two shots, have a nasty tendency to take pot shots at you while downed, recover and riddle you with bullets from behind, or even explode in your face if you’re not careful.

CODMWTBosses — *Tanks and helicopters will test your abilities.*

You won’t really come up against boss battles in the traditional sense but you will have to contend with more formidable enemy weaponry, such as tanks and Mi-24 Hind helicopters. Usually, you’re equipped with a rocket launcher or similar weapon to take these down but, other times, you’ll engage them in a similar vehicle of your own and be tasked with clearing the area for your ground-based team mates.

CODMWTFinalBosses — *Each game ends in a glorified quick-time event.*

At the end of each game, you’ll end up in a confrontation with the game’s principal antagonist; in Call of Duty 4, it’s Victor Zakhaev, in Modern Warfare 2, it’s renegade turncoat Lieutenant General Shepherd, and in Modern Warfare 3 it’s Vladimir Makarov. No matter how good your skills are at moving, evading, and shooting, these final battles amount to little more than an interactive cutscene as your character is incapacitated and you simply limp towards a gun to make the kill shot or hit the right buttons at the right time to put them down once and for all.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Given that the Modern Warfare trilogy is going more for realism over anything else, there’s not really much on offer here besides a bevy of weaponry and military-grade hardware to aid in your mission (such as night vision goggles). You’ll get access to a variety of handguns, shotguns, rifles, heavy weapons like rocket launchers and the like and even riot shields but you can only ever carry two weapons at any one time.

CODMWTResources — *You have plenty of modern toys and weapons at your disposal.*

While ammo is quite plentiful, it might be wise to switch to another weapon when one becomes available (personally, I quite like a good sniper rifle as it helps to thin out enemies from a safe distance) and some of them are more useful than others; the M200 Intervention rifle comes equipped with a heartbeat sensor, for example, which looks and functions exactly like the motion sensor from Aliens (Cameron, 1987) and is very helpful for detecting nearby enemies, while the FGM-148 Javelin is perfect for taking out tanks and choppers (if a little unwieldy due to its size) and you can even duel wield some weapons.

Additional Features:
Each game comes with a bunch of Achievements for you to earn; many of these are story based, which is helpful, but others will require you to beat the game on higher difficulty settings or perform certain tasks in certain missions. Some even carry over from game to game, such as the “Purple Heart” Achievement, stealthily offing enemies, finding all the Intel hidden through the missions, or killing multiple enemies with one bullet or explosion, while others are slightly more specific to each game. Either way, they’re a great excuse to replay prior missions and increase your Gamer Score but a lot of them are also tied to the trilogy’s multiplayer element. As with any FPS title worth its salt, the Call of Duty series is well-renowned for its multiplayer component. Unfortunately, my Xbox Gold isn’t active right now so I couldn’t really get the most out of this initially but, luckily, Modern Warfare 2 and 3 feature a “Spec Ops” multiplier mode that allows for split-screen, couch co-op and a variety of solo options that see you surviving against waves of increasingly-difficult enemies or performing certain missions across a variety of the game’s maps. As you play these modes, you earn in-game currency to buy better weapons and upgrades, earn points to upgrade your ranking, and also unlock new maps, modes, and missions.

The Summary:
I went into the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Trilogy with low expectations; I simply wanted to blast through and earn as many Achievements as I could and then put the game away forever and, largely, I succeeded in that goal. While I found some elements of each game enjoyable (the stealth and vehicle-based missions, for examples), I mostly found myself complete underwhelmed with each game’s mechanics, plot, and presentation. Don’t get me wrong; I see the appeal, especially for those who enjoy FPS games (and, specifically, military FPS titles) but, for me, none of the titles are really that innovative or do much to stand out from the many similar FPS titles out there. The games get bigger and more involved as they progress, adding more vehicles and more open locations, but add very little beyond a few bells and whistles. In the end, I find myself wondering why the series is held in such regard when it looks and plays almost exactly like any other FPS title but at least the Achievements were easy enough to get.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

What did you think of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trilogy? Which of the three is your favourite and where do they stand in your ranking of the Call of Duty titles? Do you think I have committed the ultimate sacrilege by besmirching the good name of the Call of Duty franchise or do you agree that the series is somewhat over-rated and stagnated? Whatever you think, feel free to leave a comment below and check back in next Wednesday for another Call of Duty review.

Game Corner: Rocket Knight (Xbox 360)

30/12/202013/07/2025Dr. K3 Comments

Released: May 2010
Developer: Climax Studios
Also Available For: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox One

The Background:
Mate, how absolutely brilliant was Rocket Knight Adventures (Konami, 1993) back in the day? Back when cute, anthropomorphic mascots were all the rage, Sparkster (the titular “Rocket Knight”) really stood out thanks to some absolutely gorgeous graphics, kick-ass music, and fast-paced, rocket-based combat. I used to play that game so much as a kid but never actually managed to finish it (maybe one day); the game did well enough to receive two sequels, one for the Mega Drive and one for the Super Nintendo, but Konami’s long-forgotten and short-lived little franchise went dormant for far too long after these releases. Then, out of nowhere, a revival of the franchise was thankfully put into production thanks to producer Tomm Hulett. A 2,5D, digital-only title, I first played Rocket Knight on the PlayStation 3 but I didn’t hesitate to snap it up once it went on sale on Xbox One so I could get into it again. It’s not an especially long or difficult game but, as one of my favourite franchises that has been sadly lost to the mists of time, I could never not jump at the opportunity to charge up Sparkster’s signature rocket pack once more.

The Plot:
Fifteen years after bringing peace to the Kingdom of Zephyrus, Sparkster has been living a quiet life as a family possum. His peaceful life is shattered when the Wolf Army suddenly invades the Kingdom; heeding the call to adventure, Sparkster dons his trademark armour and rocket pack and returns to the fight to defend his home once more.

Gameplay:
Rocket Knight is a 2.5D action/platformer in which players take control of Sparkster, a “rocket knight” who seeks to defend his land from invasion. All of Sparkster’s moves and abilities from his debut game return here, meaning he is armed with a large sword for some basic close-quarters action and which is also capable of blasting enemies from a distance as well. Sparkster’s unique selling point was his rocket pack; by holding the B button and pointing Sparkster in a direction, players can blast ahead, mowing down enemies and ricocheting off walls to reach higher areas. Sparkster can also drill through certain breakable elements by tapping B again and briefly hover with a tap of the A button to aid with tricky platforming sections. However, Sparkster’s rocket pack isn’t finite in most stages; you’ll have to keep an eye on the energy bar in the top-left of the screen as you won’t be able to blast away if it’s empty. Luckily, this bar refills quite quickly, meaning you never have to wait too long to burst into action and Sparkster can also blow his energy reserves on a cartwheel-like attack that is super handy for bouncing dynamite back at enemies. Sparkster can also clamber across vines and bars with his tail; sliding down these will allow you to jump higher and further and you can also attack enemies by whirling around in a rocket-powered swing. Stages are generally a simply case of moving Sparkster from point A to point B, with a smattering of enemies and platforming segments to contend with, but every so often you’ll be thrust into a sidescrolling auto-flying stage where you can fly indefinitely.

*Blast through enemies with Sparkster’s trademark rocket pack and sword.*

In these stages, enemies, obstacles, and mines will try to slow your progress but you can blast at them with Sparkster’s energy shot. You can also hold X to charge up your shot and unleash a screen-clearing beam of energy that is perfect to taking out tricky enemies. Eventually, stages introduce more complex elements, such as when Sparkster finds his rocket pack affected by extreme cold. Your rocket fuel won’t regenerate in these stages unless you pick up a fuel icon or find a burning torch to defrost Sparkster. Other stages have you dodging and ducking fireballs, blasting from airship to airship while massive cannons try to knock you from the sky, hitting switches to open doors or lower energy fields, jumping from precarious moving platforms or navigating short, simple mazes to progress further, or outrunning a massive explosion. Rocket Knight is not an especially long or complex game but it’s simple, easy to play fun that challenges you by increasing the difficulty of its enemies and stage hazards over time. Fortunately, checkpoints are plentiful throughout the game’s stages; Sparkster can replenish his health by collecting hearts, which are sporadically found throughout each stage, and earn extra lives by collecting 1-ups and earning enough points. Points are accumulated by collecting blue and red gems, finding power-ups, and building a combo by defeating enemies in quick succession. Each time you clear a stage, you’ll earn additional points for how fast you completed a stage, encouraging speedrunning and a degree of exploration as you hunt down hidden gems.

Graphics and Sound:
Rocket Knight is not an especially ground-breaking game in terms of its graphics but it has a simple, adorable charm; favouring a 2.5D aesthetic over the gorgeous sprite art of its original games, the game resembles a cel-shaded cartoon more than anything. Characters pop out from the background and are lively enough (though Sparkster could be a little more animated when left idle), appearing big and chunky and almost anime-like in their appearance.

*Colourful cel-shaded graphics and pantomime-like cutscenes add to the charm.*

The game’s simple plot is told through pantomime-like cutscenes, as in the original game, with a brief synopsis greeting the player as each stage loads. These cutscenes are amusing and quaint, getting the point of the game’s uncomplicated narrative across easily enough and are thankfully not bogged down by copious amounts of voice acting (they are also entirely skippable if you prefer to just jump right into the action). The game’s music is just as good; Rocket Knight wisely opens with a remix of the memorable and catchy “Stage 1” music from the first game (still one of the greatest videogame tracks of all time, in my opinion) and takes its cue from there, punctuating each stage with plucky tunes that could maybe have a bit more oomph behind them but are nevertheless enjoyable.

Enemies and Bosses:
For the first portion of the game, Sparkster will have to contend with the Wolf Army; these are generally little more than cannon fodder, running head-first into your sword and attacks and easily dispatched of. Soon, they start tossing dynamite at your head (though these are easily knocked back with a swipe of your sword) or clinging from walls and ceilings to toss throwing stars at you. They’ll also pop out of the background or try to overwhelm you with sheer numbers, attack with bazookas, or drop bombs on you but are, for the most part, pretty easy to deal with. However, after taking out Ulfgar the Merciless, the King and leader of the Wolf Army, Sparkster is betrayed by former-enemy-turned-ally General Sweinhart and must contend with a renewed invasion from Sweinhart’s Pig Empire. These swines are far more dangerous enemies, taking multiple hits to defeat and blasting at Sparkster with energy pistols, hiding behind shields, erecting electrical force fields, and piloting intimidating mechs to try and squash Sparkster flat. Since Rocket Knight is only a short game (it’ll probably take about an hour to finish on the “Normal” difficulty), you only have to contend with three bosses and two sub-bosses. The sub-boss battles are a one-on-one duel against Axel Gear, Sparkster’s hated rival; Axel has many of Sparkster’s abilities, including his energy beam and rocket pack-based attacks, but also circles the screen leaving damaging clouds in his wake and tosses grenades Sparkster’s way at any opportunity. These are some of the most fun bouts in the game, though, as it’s thrilling to go against Sparkster’s dark opposite; however, they can be frustrating when playing on “Hard” mode.

*Sparkster’s rival, Axel Gear, and general Sweinhart’s gigantic minions offer a significant challenge.*

The first true boss you’ll encounter is a giant mechanical forest shredder that tries to stamp, swipe, skewer, and explode you at every opportunity. The boss’s weak spot is the big, red metal “mask” on its head and you can choose to either rocket yourself into this or try to reflect the dynamite it tosses your way back at it but you’ll have to dodge its rockets and giant, scenery-destroying buzz saws as the fight progresses. Ulfgar the Merciless is a slightly less straight-forward opponent; impervious to your attacks, you must instead bait Ulfgar into charging head-first into blocks, knock dynamite back at him, or destroy the platforms he is standing on to damage him all while dodging his charging and melee attacks and the debris he causes to come crashing down from the ceiling. The final boss is a battle against General Sweinhart himself and is also, fittingly, the toughest and most frustrating battle of the game. Sweinhart hides inside a titanic mech shaped in his image for most of the battle, randomly trying to squash you (or cause bottomless spits to emerge) or fry you alive with his laser eyes. When comes close, you must quickly attack on his metal nostrils; take too long and he’ll spawn an enemy or three into the arena, which causes more headaches. Land three hits and the mech goes down, spitting Sweinhart out. Here’s where it gets really tricky; you have to dodge Sweinhart’s laser and bombs all while trying not to touch the electrified parts of his downed mech and using Sparkster’s rocket pack to knock Sweinhart from the sky in such a way that he gets fried instead. If you’re quick about this, you can significantly knock a lot of Sweinhart’s health off but it’s so fiddly and tricky to dodge his attacks and get him to land in the right place that you’ll have to contend with his giant mech at least two times in a standard battle. To make things worse, the game is really stingy with health in this battle; when fighting the other bosses, a couple of health power-ups are available in the arena but, here, it seems completely random when one will drop from the mech’s nostrils, making this far more frustrating than it needs to be at times.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
In keeping with the first game, there’s not much on offer to help boost Sparkster’s performance throughout Rocket Knight; gems will add to your score to help you towards earning extra lives, 1-ups are occasionally found in stages, and certain stages will see you get an instant refill of your rocket fuel but that’s about it. There’s no invincibility or speed up, no shields or damage increasers, and no upgrades to get or worry about; it’s just you, your sword, your rocket pack, and your wits.

Additional Features:
As you might expect, Rocket Knight comes with a handful of Achievements for you to earn; sadly, there’s not very many and they’re not especially varied in their content. However, while clearing every stage and beating the game on “Normal” might be easy enough to get, others, like beating every stage below the par time or finishing the game on “Hard” mode, can be a mite trickier. You can select “Hard” mode at any time; however, staying in “Hard” mode is easier said than done. The only way to stop the game from automatically dropping the difficulty back to “Normal” is to land a special attack on each of the game’s bosses (such as damaging the forest shredder with dynamite or causing Axel to fly into his own bombs). Once you manage it, though, you unlock two additional skins: one that lets you play as Axel Gear (which is awesome) and the other is Gold Sparkster, which is also an even more challenging gameplay mode. You can input the famous Konami code on the title screen to unlock these at your leisure but I don’t think that allows you to earn the Achievements associated with them.

The Summary:
Rocket Knight is an extremely enjoyable, if all-too-brief, return to form for one of Konami’s more forgotten franchises. Fast paced and simple to play, there’s not much here to really test your skills or have you pulling your hair out as even the game’s trickier moments are fun to play through thanks to the appealing aesthetics of the game’s graphics and soundtrack. The controls are tight and responsive, stages are short bursts of action and enjoyment, and the gameplay is simple yet easy to get to grips with. It would have been nice to see the three original games included as unlockables or bonus content but maybe one day Konami will remember Sparkster and give all four of his titles a bit of a spruce up for a new generation.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

What did you think of Rocket Knight? Were you happy to see Sparkster randomly return from obscurity or did you have issues with the game’s length and presentation? Did you ever play Rocket Knight Adventures on the Mega Drive or either of its sequels? If so, what did you think of them and would you like to see more games in the franchise? Either way, whatever your thoughts on Rocket Knight, leave a comment below.

Game Corner: Gears of War: Judgment (Xbox 360)

09/12/202027/01/2022Dr. K1 Comment

Released: March 2013
Developer: People Can Fly/Epic Games Poland
Also Available For: Xbox One (Backwards Compatible)

The Background:
Gears of War (Epic Games/Various, 2006 to 2019) is a third-person, over-the-shoulder science-fiction military shooter exclusive to PC and the Xbox series of consoles. Originally conceived as more of a traditional first-person shooter in enclosed arenas, the series has seen numerous sequels, spin-offs, comic books, and action figures since the release of the first game and the franchise is easily one of the most successful on the Xbox. My exposure to the series is somewhat limited; though aware of it for some time, I didn’t actually play a game in the series until I was gifted Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (Epic Games, 2015) and I found it to be extremely enjoyably thanks to it’s over-the-top, overly macho characters and plot, all clearly heavily inspired by films such as Aliens (Cameron, 1987) and Starship Troopers (Verhoeven, 1997). Since then, the franchise has been on the fringes of my mind but somewhat intimidating and impenetrable due to the myriad of sequels. Gears of War: Judgment, however, was a prequel to the first game and, as a result, worked as a not only tentative baby step into this wild and frantic bug shooter.

The Plot:
Some time before the events of Gears of War, Lieutenant Damon Baird’s Kilo Squad, all soldiers battling the marauding Locust Horde on behalf of the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG), are placed on trial for disobeying orders, with the majority of the game’s story taking place in the form of flashbacks as each COG tells their part of the story that led to them facing a summary execution.

Gameplay:
Gears of War: Judgment is a third-person sci-fi/military shooter; the camera is firmly placed over the shoulder of your character and there is a heavy emphasis on gore, fast-paced shooting and taking cover from incoming damage, as well as some (very) light puzzle solving. Through the course of the game’s story, you’ll play as each of Baird’s Kilo Squad: Augustus Cole, Sofia Hendrick, Garron Paduk, and Baird himself. Each has different personalities (though they’re all mostly infused with the same ultra-macho mindset and physicality as series protagonist Marcus Fenix) but all play exactly the same as each other (in the main story campaign, at least).

GearsJudgeControls — *Gear up for a bug hunt!*

If you’ve played the first Gears of War, you should be immediately familiar with Judgment’s presentation and controls. You can aim and toss a variety of grenades with the Left Trigger and bumper, blow holes in the monstrous Grubs with the Right Trigger and reload with X. When reloading, you’ll see a little white mark on a bar on your heads-up display (HUD); press the Right Button at the right time, and you’ll reload almost instantaneously. If you miss the window, though, your gun will jam and leave you vulnerable to attack.

GearsJudgeExecute — *Don’t hesitate to execute your fallen foes!*

When enemies are downed, you can choose to finish them off or use them as a shield to stave off incoming fire. Additionally, you can also melee attack enemies with B; if you have the Lancer, you can press and hold B to activate the gun’s chainsaw attachment and slice your enemies in two in fantastically gruesome fashion. Similarly, the Retro Lancer comes equipped with a bayonet-like blade that allows you to charge at Grubs and skewer them by holding B. You can also run, while ducking, by holding A; while this greatly improves your movement speed, it is a bit unwieldy and you’ll find yourself running head-first into walls and other obstacles when using this function.

GearsJudgeCover — *Take cover to avoid gunfire and pick off your foes.*

Just pressing A allows you to perform a somersault (a manoeuvre that you would think is basically impossible given the heavy armour the COG wear) to dive ahead or away from danger. Pressing A near walls and other fortifications will see you immediately snap to cover; this will keep you safe from gunfire and allow you to shoot out from cover or jump from cover to cover to advance further. As with a lot of shooters, a number of generous checkpoints are scattered throughout each mission and you will automatically regenerate health if you escape from danger for a few seconds. If you’re injured too gravely, you’ll fall to the floor and be forced to crawl away from danger, mashing A to call for help. You can similarly revive your fallen comrades by pressing X when they’re nearby, which is strongly recommended as your fellow COG are instrumental not only to reviving you, but also culling the influx of Grubs and other monstrous aliens.

GearsJudgeAmmo — *Ammo and new weapons are plentiful and often within easy reach.*

As you explore the various war-torn environments that make up the Gears world, you’ll find a number of weapons, ammo, ammo crates, and other collectables to aid your mission. Again, like most shooters these days, you can only hold two guns at once; sometimes, you can grab a bigger, vastly more powerful weapon that won’t see you automatically drop your current weapon, which is helpful but these larger weapons are often extremely unwieldy and have very limited ammo. You can also carry a number of grenades; these are great not just for blowing Grubs into bloody chunks but also for closing emergence holes and stopping new enemies from entering the area. Each chapter of the story is divided into a series of small missions that generally involve getting from point A to point B, navigating through dishevelled urban environments, or defending either a robot or an area from waves of enemies. As you progress, killing enemies, reviving your team mates, and staying healthy, you’ll acquire Stars to level-up your gamer profile, earning Ribbons, Achievements, and a variety of unlockables for the game’s multiplayer mode.

GearsJudgeDefend — *Quite often, you’ll be tasked with fortifying and defending an area against waves of Grubs.*

At the beginning of each mission, you’ll find a massive glowing red Gears logo on a wall; pressing X on these will give you the option of tackling the mission with a number of handicaps to earn more Stars. These handicaps vary from reaching your objective under a strict time limit, fighting with either no ammo or certain weapons, having your vision obscured, more enemies being present, or your health no longer regenerating, among others, and are a nice way to add a little more challenge to each mission. Gameplay doesn’t really amount to much more than taking cover, blasting at aliens, and ploughing ahead (unless, of course, you choose one of the aforementioned optional handicaps). However, you earn more Achievements and in-game rewards if you manage to kill enemies with certain weapons, get headshots, blow shit up, or interact with your environment by completing the game’s few, very simple puzzles. These literally boil down to pressing X on a highlighted area of the environment to turn a valve or set a charge and, maybe, pressing A as well. When defending an area, you’ll be tasked with setting up automated turrets or laying explosive trip wires and you’ll also have to defend your robot from being attacked but there are no vehicles or other gameplay styles to break up the action: it’s simply an unapologetic, super macho bug hunt from start to finish.

Graphics and Sound:
Gears of War: Judgment doesn’t exactly move the needle when it comes to its graphics or environments; once again, we have many war-torn, urban environments that are mostly grey or brown, with scattered fire, entrails, and damage all over them. It seems that shooters can’t quite get out of the slump of falling back on these generic colour schemes and locations; every area, whether inside or outside, is deceptively enclosed to localise your firefight to that one area until the danger has passed. This might be in the streets, on a military campus, or on the rooftops over the half-destroyed city but, in either case, you’ll find the same barricades and fortifications to take cover behind.

GearsJudgeSofia — *Surprisingly, the game’s only female isn’t a hyper-sexualised character.*

Luckily, Judgment makes up for this by continuing the over-the-top character designs made famous in the first game; every character is bulging with muscles and testosterone the likes of which made famous by movies like Predator (McTiernan, 1987) and clad in a massive segmented suit of armour that looks completely ridiculous and impractical but it all adds to the elaborate character of the game, and the series in general. This time, the COG are joined by a female soldier, Cadet Hendrick, who, while still hyper-sexualised, is actually surprisingly well-covered for a female character in such a blatantly overly masculine videogame. I mean, she’s the only female in the game (and she of course has a questionable sexual history) and she doesn’t really factor into the plot too much beyond being young and naïve but it’s something, if nothing else.

GearsJudgeGraphics — *There’s little graphical downgrade between the in-game and cutscene graphics.*

The majority of the game’s story is told through cutscenes, of course, wherein the characters all growl and snarl at each other with an amusing level of camaraderie; the cutscenes still hold up really well, being nearly indistinguishable from the in-game graphics, and the in-game dialogue between the soldiers helps to direct your attention and further flesh out the characters. Mostly, though, the game is swamped in either silence, the sounds of gunfire and growling beasts and men alike, or sporadic bursts of suitably military-inspired tunes.

Enemies and Bosses:
The COG have a tall order ahead of them as they clash with the seemingly inexhaustible Locust Horde, an army of monstrous aliens of all shapes and sizes who attack using the environment to their advantage and using intelligent swarming and flanking tactics. Locusts fire from behind cover, dash behind pillars and barricades, and clamber out of emergence holes hungry for human flesh but they’re also bolstered by larger, more durable enemies and smaller, bug-like enemies that explode in your face.

GearsJudgeEnemies — *Even regular enemies can absorb quite a bit of damage before finally going down.*

You’ll have to contend with snipers, Grubs who fire mortars at you incessantly, floating squid-like aliens affixed with machine guns, zombie-like humans, blade-wielding Grubs, massive armour-plated hulks who wield maces and giant protective shields, and even gaunt Kantus enemies who will replenish the Locust’s health and ranks and explode in a suffocating toxic cloud upon defeat. Even the regular, run-of-the-mill Wretches can be quite tough to put down as enemies can absorb a lot of bullets and even then many of them will crawl around on the floor, leaving themselves wide open to a bloody evisceration, but the bigger, tougher enemies will require you to manoeuvre around them to their exposed behinds or simply toss a grenade at them to blast them to pieces.

GearsJudgeEnemies2 — *The game’s bigger, more monstrous enemies act as sub-bosses, of a sort.*

Technically speaking, Judgment only features one true boss battle, which forms the basis for the game’s final mission. However, as you progress through the campaign, you’ll battle some larger, far tougher enemies who basically function as mini bosses. These include the crab-like Corpsers (which burrow out of the ground and shield themselves with their claws), Ragers (which are regular Grubs that suddenly transform into rampaging, bloodthirsty monsters rather than dying), the Bloodmounts (massive monsters the Locust Horde ride into battle), and the giant, spider/octopus-like Reavers that fly around the air shooting missiles at you and then come crashing to the ground to try and stamp you to death.

GearsJudgeKarn — *You’ll face General Karn at the game’s finale.*

The only actual boss battle takes place in the game’s final mission and sees you battle against the Locust Horde’s General, Karn, who attacks from atop a gargantuan semi-cybernetic spider called the Shibboleth. This battle takes place in a large open area with plenty of massive blocks to take cover behind and ammo to grab and can be made harder to selecting the option handicap, which sees a swarm of Elite Grubs help defend their General. The hardest thing about this boss battle is that Karn doesn’t have a health bar so the only way to you that you’re damaging him is when the HUD says he’s been wounded and you can only damage him when your aiming reticule is red. Otherwise, Karn is a large and lumbering target; as long as you take cover and stay out of the way of his charge attack and missiles (and revive your team mates as needed), he isn’t too tough to put down.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Despite the game’s over-the-top premise and presentation, there are no power-ups to be found in Gears of War: Judgment. You won’t get any steroids to make you faster, no invincibility power-ups, and there’s no beer to chug to send you into a blood rage. Instead, you have to make do with the game’s wide and impressive array of weaponry; the standard weapon is, as always, the Lancer, which is great for ranged and close quarters combat and, of course, has a fuckin’ chainsaw attached to it, making it the best go-to weapon of the game once again.

GearsJudgeWeapons — *Snipe from afar or simply blow the Grubs into bloody chunks!*

You’ll also get a few pistols, which can be useful in a pinch, some shotgun variants (which are fantastic for blowing chunks into Grubs when they get in your face), and a couple of different sniper rifle-type weapons. Some Grubs carry heavier weaponry, such as the Boomshot (which is, essentially a shotgun-like grenade launcher), giant Buster Sword-like blades, and one particular weapon that burrows under the ground towards its target and explodes in impact. You’ll also get to use some of the COG’s heavier weaponry; automated turrets, mortars, shielded heavy rifles, and massive hand-held weaponry like the Mulcher and the One-Shot, which are so big and heavy that you fire from a crouched position. They also massively slow you down and have limited ammo, forcing you to pick between mobility and power. You can also set up explosive traps, fire a bouncing grenade, roast Grubs alive with the Scorcher (or “flamethrower”), and defend yourself using a Boomshield.

Additional Features:
Gears of War: Judgment has a fair few Achievements tied to it; most of these are tied to story progression and levelling-up your in-game profile but you’ll also earn them by unlocking certain Ribbons and playing the game’s multiplayer component.

GearsJudgeMultiplayer — *There are many options available in* Judgment‘s multiplayer.

Judgment’s multiplayer comes in numerous forms; you can play the main story campaign in co-op, take part in local and offline deathmatches and the like, and even compete in similar matches against computer-controller ‘bots. Alongside the standard multiplayer matches you might expect, you can also play “OverRun” and “Free-For-All”, with OverRun seeing you play as the COG and/or the Locust Horde in pursuit of gaining ground and raking up kills. You can also purchase some downloadable content that adds further multiplayer maps and modes to the game, if you like that sort of thing. As you play the campaign, you’ll find the game keeps track of various statistics (enemies killed, times downed, number of executions performed, etc) and compares them to those of your friends, which is a neat feature. You’ll also find a number of COG Tags scattered throughout each mission; whenever you spot a dark, blood-red Gears logo, a COG Tag will be nearby and you’ll need to find all of them to get 100% of the game’s Achievements. Additionally, once you complete the main campaign, you’ll unlock a bonus story, “Aftermath”, which appears to take place after Gears of War 3 (Epic Games, 2011), which sees Kilo Squad reunited and attempting to prepare for a bigger Locust assault.

The Summary:
I feel like I came into Gears of War when the series was already deeply entrenched in its lore and nearly impenetrable as a result. While I enjoy the characters and presentation and the gameplay, the idea of playing every single one of the titles is a little daunting to me as there is a lot of content to digest but, after playing first Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and now Gears of War: Judgment, I have to admit that I am tempted to try out more from the Gears franchise. Crucial to this is that fact that, while the game can be challenging, it’s nowhere near as frustrating or aggravating as a lot of similar shooters. Thanks to the game’s optional handicaps, Judgment is only ever as difficult as you choose it to be, meaning you can play as casually or as hardcore as you like. The characters and premise are also massively over-the-top and really appeal to the nineties kid in me, recalling the ultra-macho sci-fi/horror franchises that shaped my childhood and being unapologetically mindless and masculine in its execution. I didn’t see much in Judgment to really make it stand out from the first game or that was especially innovative but there was enough here to appeal to a casual fan of the series such as myself and to inspire me to revisit the title at a later point to try and tidy up a few more of those Achievements.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

What did you think of Gears of War: Judgment? Where do you rank it amongst the other Gears of War titles? Which Gears of War videogame or character is your favourite? Whatever you think about Gears of War, drop a comment below.

Game Corner: Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime (Xbox 360)

02/12/202008/06/2025Dr. K1 Comment

Released: March 2011
Developer: Behaviour Santiago
Also Available For: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox One

The Background:
Ever since the release of Ghostbusters (Reitman, 1984), the concept of four somewhat-bumbling New York parapsychologists running around zapping and trapping troublesome spirits has seen some significant success as a franchise. We’ve had the under-rated sequel, a reboot that was met with middling to less-than-favourable reviews, a couple of cartoons, a whole slew of action figures and comic books, and, of course, videogames. A few years after the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Terminal Reality/Red Fly Studio, 2009) was released, Atari made the…interesting decision to follow-up with a straight-to-digital twin-stick shooter rather than continue the adventures of the titular Ghostbusters after the decent reception of that aforementioned, semi-official continuation of the film franchise.

The Plot:
Some time after the events of Ghostbusters II (Reitman, 1989), the Ghostbusters have been run ragged by an influx of supernatural occurrences through the city. Hiring in four new team members, the Ghostbusters send their rookies out to investigate a disturbance and, soon, the greenhorns stumble upon a plot to summon an ancient evil once more.

Gameplay:
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is a one to four player, top down twin stick shooter reminiscent of the awesome old arcade game Smash TV (Williams, 1990); no matter which of the new Ghostbusters you choose to play as, or whether you’re playing alone or with friends, you’ll bust various ghosts and other supernatural entities in a constant team of four. The controls of Sanctum of Slime couldn’t be simpler; you control your Ghostbuster with the left analogue stick, fire your Proton Pack with the right, and switch to your different Proton Streams with the Left and/or Right Trigger. When a team mate is downed by an attack, you can revive them by rapidly tapping A and they will do the same to you, with surprising speed and efficiency. Your computer-controlled allies are extremely capable and helpful, to be honest; they’ll constantly blasts ghosts with Proton Streams, resuscitate you and the others as a priority, and are generally much more comfortable at navigating the game’s limited areas than you will be. Technically, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with the game’s controls or settings, there’s just not a lot to it; your character controls quite well, being just slippery enough to move at a decent speed but a dash function would have been appreciated.

GhostbustersSanctumHealth — *Watch your health bar as it can drain surprisingly (and frustratingly) quickly.*

You and each of your team mates come equipped with a life bar, unlimited lives, and unlimited continues; should you fall in battle and your fellow ‘Busters also be defeated before they can revive you, you can simply continue from the last autosave checkpoint. Unfortunately, these are often placed before gauntlets and boss battles, which can end up with you having to slog through some of the game’s more difficult and frustrating battles again and again as it seems your health can get drained in anywhere from three to one hits with little consistency. There are four playable characters in Sanctum of Slime but there is absolutely no difference between each of the new Ghostbusters other than cosmetic; why the developers felt the need to bring in four completely new characters is beyond me as their word balloon dialogue could easily have been taken up by the original foursome and it doesn’t really add that much to the plot or the lore to bring in four new faces. Even more disappointing is the fact that you can’t even unlock the original Ghostbusters as skins (or anything else for that matter) to play as.

GhostbustersSanctumCharacters — *You may as well select “Random” as all the characters play exactly the same.*

As you explore the game’s familiar surroundings (we’re back at the Sedgewick Hotel again, a haunted graveyard, and other locations that were rendered far more impressively in Ghostbusters: The Video Game), you can destroy various aspects of the environment with your Proton Stream. Doing so adds to your score and you can gain additional points by reviving your team mates, destroying ghosts, capturing the bosses, and grabbing various power-ups. The score is merely for bragging rights, however, as the team’s performance is ranked (well…not exactly “ranked”…more tallied, I guess) at the end of each mission but you don’t get anything special for getting the highest score. There are no difficulty settings for Sanctum of Slime; the game gets progressively challenging as you venture along, throwing more and bigger ghosts at you and filling the screen with red, blue, and yellow spirits that force you to quickly switch between your three different Proton Streams extremely quickly. This isn’t so bad and things progress quite well until you reach the fittingly-named “Gates of Hell” mission, which sees you having to endure seemingly-endless waves of the game’s most difficult enemies, desperately trying to avoid damage and revive your team mates before you get wrecked and have to restart all over again. As if this wasn’t frustrating and annoying enough, my game crashed on me a few times during one of the more difficult of these gauntlets, which only added to the aggravation in this mission.

Graphics and Sound:
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is pretty basic in terms of its presentation; each area is rendered quite well but there’s not much definition in the character models. This is to be expected considering the perspective the game employs and, clearly, the developers put more effort into rendering the game’s numerous colourful and unique spooks and spirits. Honestly, you’re not going to get the same level of graphical quality as in Ghostbusters: The Video Game or most double-to-triple-A titles and nowhere is this more evident in the fact that there are only a handful of environments to explore. You’ll revisit the same locations in the game’s later missions and maybe they’ve been altered a bit and you battle more difficult ghosts but while the game lacks much in the way of level or graphical variety, for a budget digital-only game, Sanctum of Slime does a decent enough job; you simply move from location to location, busting ghosts and trying to stay on your feet and the game’s pacing is fast and frantic enough where you won’t be stopping to examine the intricacies of the little details.

GhostbustersSanctumCutscenes — *The original Ghostbusters only appear in the game’s comic book-like cutscenes.*

The game’s plot is told using comic book-like cutscenes that use word balloons and the very basics of animation to tell its story; this isn’t necessarily a problem, and you can skip through them (which is always welcome, though you need to watch them all to earn an Achievement), but their visual style clashes somewhat with the more semi-realistic aesthetic of the in-game graphics. Similarly, you’ll hear a bunch of familiar Ghostbusters tunes and sounds in Sanctum of Slime, all of which are ripped or heavily inspired from the first movie to, which adds to the game’s authenticity.

Enemies and Bosses:
As you blast your way through the game’s twelve missions, you’ll come up against all kinds of ghosts, spirits, and supernatural entities. You’ve got the bog-standard flaming skulls, bellhops and chefs who throw luggage and knives at you, respectively, and a whole slew of different slime-born creatures ranging from spiders, to giant hands, to huge, mud-like monstrosities. These basically act as mini bosses, of a sort, as they can decimate you and your team mates in no time at all; as if that wasn’t bad enough, they’re often accompanied by flying gargoyles that spit fireballs at you and a slew of other smaller, more generic spooks. When locked into an area, you’ll generally be tasked with clearing the immediate vicinity out of any ghosts present or enduring a frustrating gauntlet that can wipe you and your team mates out in seconds if you’re not careful.

GhostbustersSanctumBosses — *Bosses are bigger and tougher and some are more than familiar…*

You’ll also come up against some bigger bosses; like most of the other enemies, these have a health bar that must be whittled down with your Proton Streams but, unlike the other enemies, bosses have a far bigger bar and have numerous phases and methods of attack. Whether by coincidence or design, a few of the bosses are extremely reminiscent of those seen in Ghostbusters: The Video Game; you’ll once again find yourself in the kitchen of the Sedgewick battling a demonic chef and tackling demonic spider in a nest of webs, for example (though, to be fair, this latter boss at least looks significantly different).

GhostbustersSanctumFinalBoss — *Ah, yes, the tried and true demonic final boss…*

There are some more original bosses to contend with, though, such as a monstrous, dragon-like possessed subway train and a massive stone gargoyle. However, Sanctum of Slime commits one of the cardinal sins of videogames but having you battle through all the bosses you previously bested before reaching the game’s final boss (which, as in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, involves battling a possessed avatar and the game’s principal antagonist, Dumazu the Destroyer). Ultimately, none of the bosses pose that much of a problem; you simply keep your distance, keep pouring on the heat, chipping away at their health until they are weak enough for you to toss a trap, and then all that’s left is for you to win a quick-time event and the boss is trapped forever. The final boss itself is large and intimidating and can swipe, incinerate, and crush you and your team mates with ease but, for the most part, its pretty simply to stay out of danger and cycle through your Proton Streams to whittle its health down to nothing.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Every time you destroy an enemy, you’ll earn points; after clearing some areas of ghosts, you can pick various power-ups to increase your score (such as a cash bonus or cash multiplier) but what you really want are the full health and invincibility power-ups, which are few and far between and often dropped by blasting Slimer when he floats into the area. When you start the game, you’re equipped only with the basic Proton Pack and a trap, which you can only use in boss battles. Once you reach the second mission, you’ll receive your first Proton Pack upgrade (the Fermion Shock) and, upon reaching the sewers (because Ghostbusters videogames love a good sewer level), you’ll get the third and final upgrade, the Plasma Inductor.

GhostbustersSanctumRace — *Racing missions help break up the monotony a little.*

Essentially, these are just different coloured beams or bolts for you to shoot out; the Proton Stream fires in an inexhaustible beam and is most effective against red-coloured ghosts, the Fermion Shock fires out in waves and damages yellows ghosts, and the Plasma Inductor fires blue bolts that rebound off walls and are best used against blue-coloured ghosts. You can’t upgrade any of these or spend your points/cash on anything to increase your performance, meaning you’ve pretty much seen everything the game has on offer by the fourth mission. To break up the monotony of the constant ghostbusting, a fifth rookie comes and picks your team up in the ECTO-4WD, a jeep-like vehicle that you have absolutely no control over; you simply sit in the back and blast at ghosts as the vehicle races at break-neck speed through a questionably-rendered New York City.

Additional Features:
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime comes with a handful of Achievements for you to earn; honestly, the amount of offer is quite disappointing and the developers simply opted for having you earn them by doing mundane tasks such as beating the first level, the entire game, reviving team mates twenty times, or making it through online with three other players. Yes, the game supports both couch and online co-op and is probably a lot more fun with a few more friends to play alongside. Considering one of my gripes with Ghostbusters: The Video Game was that it foolishly didn’t include a co-op mode for the main campaign so it’s good to see that corrected here but, unfortunately, the game isn’t anywhere near as much fun. Scattered throughout each mission (with the exception of the racing missions and certain boss battles) are a number of collectables; unlike in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, these are all little Stay Puft Marshmallow Men and all you get for collecting them all is an Achievement. They don’t unlock any concept art or skins and the only way to expand upon the main game is to purchase the downloadable content, which consists of a bunch of items for your Xbox avatar and a Challenge Pack that offers you the chance to play completely alone or with a limited number of lives through the game’s more challenging missions.

The Summary:
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is simple, frantic fun; it’s a cheap, digital-only title so you can’t really expect too much from it but, having said that, I have played similar games that have a lot more going for them. Dead Nation (Housemarque/Climax Studios, 2010), for example, is strikingly similar in its execution and presentation but has far more depth to it; in comparison, Sanctum of Slime seems like it was rushed out by Atari simply to maintain the Ghostbusters licence. While there is a lot of arcade style fun to have with Sanctum of Slime, there are a lot of missed opportunities; just adding skins for the original characters or their animated counterparts would have been nice (or, you know, using those familiar characters in the first place) but there also could have been an actual upgrade system or some reason for you to get all those points and collectables. Instead, you’re left with a short, relatively inoffensive little game that is good for a few hours of mindless action but you’re unlikely to come back to it again unless you can find a few other people to play alongside.

My Rating:

Terrible

What did you think of Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime? Which of the original Ghostbusters and the lame new ones introduced in this game is your favourite? Which Ghostbusters videogame do you have fond, or bad, memories of? Do you think it’s time for a new co-op Ghostbusters videogame? Whatever you think about this game, or Ghostbusters in general, drop a comment below.

Game Corner: Aliens vs. Predator (2010; Xbox 360)

21/11/202026/04/2023Dr. K11 Comments

Released: February 2010
Developer: Rebellion Developments
Also Available For: PC and PlayStation 3

The Background:
I’ve mentioned this before but Aliens vs. Predator has been a thing for a long, long time now. These two iconic science-fiction/horror franchises first came to blows in a series of excellent comic books published by Dark Horse comics between 1989 and 1990 and, since then, we’ve seen countless additional comic books, action figures, two divisive movies, and a whole host of videogames based around the concept. In the same year that the exceptional arcade beat-‘em-up was released, Rebellion developments crafted a first-person shooter (FPS) for the short-lived Atari Jaguar (remember that?) that allowed players to take on the role of a Colonial Marine, a Xenomorph, and a Predator in what was, essentially, a reskin of popular FPS games like Wolfenstein 3D (id Software, 1992) and Doom (ibid, 1993). A few years after AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem (The Brothers Strause, 2007) effectively killed the concept of seeing the Predators hunting the Xenomorphs onscreen (though I actually quite enjoyed that movie; it was worlds better than the first AVP movie), Rebellion Developments rebooted the concept for then-modern consoles and produced another FPS title that, despite bringing two of cinemas most iconic franchise together for a new generation, failed to really impress players or critics alike. Despite this, and my general disdain for FPS games (I just don’t like the restrictive view or being shot in the back), these are two of my favourite franchises and the game is dirt cheap so I decided to pick it up and see it was really as mediocre as everyone said it was.

The Plot:
The malevolent Weyland-Yutani corporation finds their colonies, laboratories, and spaceships under attack when their experiments with Xenomorphs inevitably break out and the alien Predators become enraged at the corporation desecrating their sacred hunting grounds. Roping in an expendable team of Colonial Marines to secure their sites, the corporation scrambles to ensure that their new cross-breed specimen survives to be sold as a military weapon.

Gameplay:
Like its Atari namesake, Aliens vs. Predator is a first-person shooter than gives players the option of playing as a Colonial Marine (known as the “Rookie”), a Xenomorph (codenamed “Specimen 6” or simply “Six”, and a Predator (referred to as “Dark”). Each story sees you exploring similar environments and the game’s over-lapping story from different perspectives, with slightly different control schemes, gameplay mechanics, and objectives to fulfil as part of your mission.

*Block and slash with wrist-mounted blades or make short work of his prey with the Predator’s plasma cannon.*

As much as I love Aliens (Cameron, 1986), I have a soft spot for Predator (McTiernan, 1987) so, naturally, upon booting up Aliens vs. Predator, I completed my first playthrough as the Predator character. In an effort to better evoke the spirit of that first movie, you’re dropped into the middle of an alien jungle to learn the many complex controls associated with the Predator, who has access to the majority of his iconic abilities right off the bat. The Predator engages in combat primarily through the use of his wrist-mounted blades; the right bumper slashes with a weak blow, the left with a stronger attack necessary for breaking through an enemy’s guard, and holding them both down allows you to defend yourself from melee attacks. Pressing the right trigger sends out an energy blast from the Predator’s trademark shoulder cannon and holding the trigger down lets you lock on to a target. You can also press the Y button to activate the Predator’s signature cloak, though both of these abilities drain Dark’s energy meter and this can only be replenished by charging up at various electronic panels scattered across the game’s limited environments. Also, it might just be me but I found the cloak almost completely useless; if you activate it and walk in front of a human enemy, they will still spot you and open fire upon you and they’ll still be able to see and track you even if you leap behind cover. Add to that the fact that the Xenomorphs can detect you whether you’re cloaked or not and Dark’s invisibility is all but ineffective in execution and it’s far easier to simply sneak around behind cover than depend upon this mechanic. Dark can also cycle through various vision modes (the usual thermal vision allows you to see human and android enemies but renders Xenomorphs as nearly invisible and the reverse is true for the green-tinted Xenomorph vision) with a press of the B button and you can even lure his prey into an ambush by pressing X and mimicking cries for help. This is the perfect way to sneak up behind your prey and execute a “Trophy Kill” that sees the Predator wrench a man’s head from his shoulders or skewer them with his wrist blades.

*Even with all the Predator’s advantages, first-person doesn’t seem to be a suitable gameplay perspective.*

You can also execute these gloriously gory kills by stunning enemies through melee combat and can expand the Dark’s arsenal as you progress through the story and acquire other weaponry popularised by the criminally under-rated Predator 2 (Hopkins, 1992). As you explore your environments, you’ll be given objectives and hints through your heads-up display (HUD) and can hold down the left trigger to entire a “Focus Mode” that allows you to see points of interest, your exit, and other secrets and items scattered around the environment. The Predator can also jump with the A button and, when in Focus Mode, will leap to higher vantage points automatically to allow you to take the high ground and pick off your targets. Dark has a health bar in the bottom right of his HUD; he can take a decent amount of damage but falls surprisingly quickly under sustained gunfire or Xenomorph clawing. You can restore your health by holding the Y button as long as you have a Health Shard on hand; you can hold three of these at any one time and will find them scattered sporadically across the game’s locations. Luckily, there are numerous checkpoints so, if (well…when) you die, you can simply load up your last checkpoint. You can also manually save the game at any time but this doesn’t create a checkpoint; also, quite often I found that I would reload a checkpoint only to be dumped in the middle of a full-on gunfight, which was a bit annoying, to say the least. Similarly, for me, the FPS perspective is clunky and awkward for the Predator; since you’ll soon run out of energy for your plasma cannon, you’ll be relying on close-combat melee attacks or Dark’s other, less interesting weapons. It’s also slightly awkward and annoying to have to constantly cycle through the Predator’s various vision modes when dealing with combinations of enemies so you rarely get the chance to properly appreciate the game’s surprisingly detailed environments. Personally, I feel like the Predator would have controlled and been realised better if his gameplay had been rendered from the third-person as in Predator: Concrete Jungle (Eurocom, 2005) though, to be fair, I found that game even more daunting in the vast array of controls and mechanics it used to bring to life all of the Predator’s various abilities and weaponry.

*The Marine controls much like a typical FPS,* *but with poorer lighting and a handful of rudimentary puzzles thrown in.*

After finishing the Predator’s story, I next took on the role of a Colonial Marine (known as “Rookie”). The Marine’s gameplay is very similar to a standard FPS videogame, which makes the game far less clunky and awkward when compared to playing as the Predator from a first-person perspective; the HUD is simplified, incorporating the Aliens motion tracker to give you a vague idea of where enemies are and pointing you in the right direction, and the Marine also regenerates a small portion of his health as long as you don’t lose an entire block. You can still pick up health, though, this time in the form of Stim Packs, which operate in exactly the same was as the Predator’s Health Shards, but are afforded far more limited options when it comes to your ability to see and navigate through the game’s many dark and dismal corridors. Pressing B will activate Rookie’s torch (or “flashlight” for you Americans) to bring some light to darkened areas and you even have an unlimited supply of flares that you can toss into the darkness for a brief period of light, which is a nice touch. Rookie’s story is one of survival and meeting many varied objectives; the Xenomorph infestation has left Weyland-Yutani’s many facilities in quite a state so you’ll be repairing power points, activating doors, and setting up automated gun turrets to progress further, fortifying the barricades the few remaining Marines have set up, and mowing down swarms of Xenomorphs. Because of this, the Marine’s gameplay feels far more tense and reminds me of playing Doom 3 (id Software, 2004) thanks to the sparse use of lighting, dark, dank, and dreary futuristic environments, and claustrophobic, mounting horror that fills every area. The Marine is your typical silent FPS protagonist and spends most of his time taking orders from fellow Marine Tequila and being directed by Company android turned good Katya. Generally, this means hacking into terminals and then surviving while hoards of Xenomorphs or Combat Androids (or both) fill the immediate area, which can be a tall order in some situations. Other times, you’ll simply be running from certain death and, while Rookie can jump, he isn’t required to do any tricky platforming, which I am very thankful for, but he also can’t duck and there’s no real snap-to-cover system in place so, in the face of a hail of bullets, you’re limited to taking a more old school approach and simply, awkwardly, hiding behind bits of the environment. You can take advantage of the environment to help clear out enemies, though, as you’ll find explosive pipes and barrels conveniently scattered across narrow hallways and bridges that will help to thin out swarms of Xenomorphs or put down those Goddamn Combat Androids.

*It can be disorientating playing as a Xenomorph since Six’s clunky gameplay makes stealth tricky.*

Honestly, I dreaded playing as the Xenomorph, Six, simply because I could tell that it was going to be the most troublesome and least fun campaign. Six is the fastest and most agile character, able to clamber over walls, ceilings, and pretty much all of the game’s environments just by moving the left analogue stick. While it’s pretty simple to run up walls and use the Xenomorph’s a panther-like leap to traverse the game’s areas, it’s maybe too easy; you’ll slide up walls when you don’t mean too, slip around like you’re constantly on ice, and it’s more than a little disorientating when you’re scuttling upside down on ceilings. Six attacks entirely with melee attacks; while other Xenomorph enemies spit acid, Six isn’t able to do that so must rely on her claws and her spear-like, whipping tail. By holding down the left trigger, you can engage Six’s own Focus Mode to target specific enemies and leap at them at attack; you can also block, like the Predator, and break an enemy’s block with her stronger tail attack. Sneak up on enemies, or damage them enough, and you’ll be prompted to press X to grab them and perform a gruesome instant kill. Six, apparently, performs best when shrouded in darkness so, during her tutorial, you’ll be asked to smash out ceiling and wall lights to keep her shrouded in darkness. In practise, though, I found few opportunities to really do this and, similar to the Predator’s cloaking mechanism, enemies seem to spot you no matter how deep in the shadows you are. Sometimes you can slowly sneak up behind them, other times they’ll turn around with the slightest press of the analogue stick; one time, though, I snuck up on a Marine and skewered her through the chest as she stood next to her team mate…who just stood there, completely oblivious, and let me do the same to him. Scattered throughout Six’s environments are a series of vents that she can dart through to avoid gunfire; unlike the other characters, Six’s health automatically regenerates after a few seconds and she has no other way of refilling her health bar so it’s crucial that you hit and run if you take too much damage. Similar to the Predator, Six can hiss to attract enemies closer to her and you’ll also find some civilians scattered throughout each mission, helpfully highlighted in green. Sometimes, these civilians will run and cower in a corner but others they’ll shoot themselves or blow themselves up so you’ll have to be quick about pouncing on them to harvest them with the X button. If the FPS view is unbefitting of the Predator, it’s really awkward for a Xenomorph; it’s very difficult to know where you are or how to orientate yourself. It’s like the game wants to be like the Predator sequences from the Batman: Arkham series (Various, 2009 to 2015) but it falls way off the mark as it’s difficult to target and isolate Marines in narrow areas. I can’t help but think the Xenomorph campaign would’ve been better as a kind of top down strategy style of game similar to Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction (Zono, 2003) where you play as an Alien Queen and direct drones and other Xenomorphs from the hive to spread her progeny throughout the game’s environments.

Graphics and Sound:
Honestly, for an Xbox 360 game and considering the age of this title, Aliens vs. Predator doesn’t look half bad; graphically, the game struggles to render human models in a realistic way, once again making them appear as little more than plastic action figures, but the various Xenomorphs and Predators all look really good and are very true to their source material.

AVP360Fidelity — *The game’s visual fidelity to the aesthetics of the movies is top notch!*

Visual fidelity is key to Aliens vs. Predator’s presentation; the jungle is clearly modelled after the one seen in Predator, for example, and the various Weyland-Yutani corridors all evoke the same lived-in aesthetic as seen in Aliens but there were a few surprising call-backs to Alien (Scott, 1979) in the game’s visuals as well; even Alien³ (Fincher, 1992) feels evoked through copper-tinted, wind- and water-swept areas such as the mines and the refinery. While I expected the game to recycle a lot of the alien and mixed dynasty architecture of the AVP movies (which it did, particularly in rendering the ancient Predator hunting grounds and pyramids, with liberal use of hieroglyphics depicting the two species’ long history), I wasn’t expecting the game to so faithfully evoke the spirit and feeling of any movie beyond Aliens so that was a nice surprise for me. Unfortunately, you’ll be visiting the same five different environments across each of the three campaigns. Sure, you’ll have access to different areas, different objectives, and different options available to you but, essentially, Aliens vs. Predator simply recycles the same levels three times, which is a bit of a disappointment.

AVP360Sound — *Sounds are all ripped straight from the movies and even Lance Henriksen is back!*

Where Aliens vs. Predator excels, though, is in its sound design; the music and sound effects are all ripped directly from the two Predator movies and Aliens, providing a stamp of authenticity that works really well with the game’s slavishly faithful environments. The pulse rifle sounds exactly as it did in Aliens, the Predator’s various growls and ticks mirror those from the movies exactly, and the Xenomorphs even sequel in pain exactly as they did in Aliens. Aliens vs. Predator even brought back the immortal Lance Henriksen as another iteration of the Bishop Weyland dynasty, lending his likeness and voice to the character and rightfully cropping up more than once through each campaign to add a level of malevolence and quality to the product. The game does feature a number of cutscenes but, honestly, they’re few and far between, especially in the Marine’s campaign. The story is quite minimal, to be honest, and mostly related through onscreen text and in-game dialogue as you progress through each campaign rather than being long, in-depth cinematics that cut away from the game’s many and varied gameplay mechanics. Bare-bones as it is, though, the story is serviceable enough and does a far better job of meshing these two franchises together than either of the movies, which made the inexplicably stupid decision to set their narratives on then-present-day Earth rather than the furthest reaches of future space.

Enemies and Bosses:
Typically, the most common enemy you’ll be coming up against as you play through Aliens vs. Predator are the Xenomorphs themselves; these come in a few different shapes and sizes, from the annoying little Facehuggers, which leap out from slimy Xenomorph eggs, to the regular drones and their larger variants that like to block your attacks, to acid-spitting crawlers, all of which can further damage you with their acidic blood so don’t go running over their corpses! When playing as Six, you won’t have to worry about fighting other Xenomorphs; instead, your primary prey are a smattering of Marines who wander around the game’s environments and blast at you with shotguns, pulse rifles, and flamethrowers as soon as they spot you. Combat Androids pop up later in the campaign and are just as bad but the strategy to taking them out remains the same; stay away, strike quickly, and hopefully split them up the middle with your tail.

*Xenomorphs and Combat Androids will come at you from all sides!*

The Xenomorphs are slippery, agile little devils and will clamber all over the environment to avoid your attacks, sneak in through tunnels, and strike from the darkness with an aggressive fury; quite often, you’ll be faced with endless swarms of the creatures and forced to either run for your life or solve a rudimentary puzzle to escape from them. When playing as Dark and Six, you’ll also have to contend with gun-toting Marines who are far less sporadic than the Xenomorph enemies, moving in specific patterns, taking cover, and blasting to you with their heavy weaponry the moment they catch a glimpse of you. However, while their firepower can easily overwhelm you, they go down pretty easily once you get a good lock on with the Predator’s weapons and you can thin out their numbers by allowing nearby Xenomorphs to run roughshod over them, which is a nice touch. Rookie has a tougher time taking on Xenomorphs, which are much harder to get a good lock on thanks to the Marine lacking the same vision options as the Predator, and, while they don’t have to fight other Marines, they will have to contend with the Combat Androids that patrol Weyland-Yutani’s facilities. When I encountered these as the Predator, they weren’t any different to battling the Marines (except they exploded upon destruction) but the Marine will find himself shot and beaten to death in seconds by these artificial enemies if you don’t attack from a distance with the scope rifle and make liberal use of cover. The androids can only be damaged by shooting their limbs (blow off their heads and they’re still 90% combat efficient) and often suddenly jerk to life and blast at you with a shotgun from the ground; later, they also make use of the Predator’s cloaking technology, practically forcing you to use the scope rifle’s x-ray feature to get a bead on them.

*The Praetorian is not as intimidating as it looks* *whether you face it as the Predator or the Marine.*

Bosses, though, are few and far between in Aliens vs. Predator, which is a bit of a shame considering the vast numbers of different Predator and Xenomorph variants there are and even the presence of those mech-like Loaders from Aliens. Each campaign sees you tangling with different boss battles, though, so at least you won’t have to battle the same bosses over and over again. Dark’s first boss battle is within the walls of an ancient and decrepit coliseum of sorts; here, you’ll face off against a Praetorian Xenomorph variant which looks like a smaller version of the Alien Queen. Though the largest and most intimidating Xenomorph you’ve encountered by that point in the Predator’s campaign, the Praetorian is a joke; you simply strafe around, blasting at it with your plasma cannon or chucking spears at it and it goes down fairly easily. Rookie also gets to take on a Praetorian; the first time, it’s a one-on-one battle in a small, enclosed area as regular drones swarm nearby and, the second time, you take on two after mowing down wave upon wave of Xenomorphs. Luckily, the Marine’s weaponry (particularly the pulse rifle’s grenade launcher and smart gun) are more than up to the task of cutting these monstrous bastards down to size.

*The hardest thing about these bosses is the environmental hazards and waves of enemies.*

Disappointingly, Rookie only encounters a Predator once or twice during his campaign but you do get to battle one in the combat arena as a boss. This generally involves you running around the arena collecting health and ammo and watching out for the Predator’s laser sight; once you spot it, dodge out of the way and trace the laser back to its source and unload your pulse rifle. The Predator eventually (or sporadically) drops to ground level to try and skewer you but just keep your distance and unload with the shotgun or grenade launcher and he goes down pretty easily. The Predator’s campaign ends with him facing off against the Predalien, a monstrous abomination that is a cross-breed between a Xenomorph and a Predator, which takes place on a series of small platforms floating on instant-death lava! Luckily, in this restrictive arena, your energy bar (not your health, mind) regenerates indefinitely so you can simply keep your distance (especially from the Predalien’s devastating pound attack) and blast away to your heart’s content. Don’t even bother trying to jump from platform to platform; simply stay back and shoot him, landing a few melee attacks when it’s safe to do so, and he’ll be done in no time. As the Marine, quite early into his campaign, you’ll have to destroy an Alien Queen; luckily, this is far easier than the fight in Aliens as the Queen is helpless and chained up. You’re simply required to sweep the nearby eggs with a flamethrower, start up the massive furnace, fend off some drones, and then blast at some explosives conveniently located right near the Queen’s head to put an end to her egg-laying ways.

*While Six eventually fights an Elite Predator, the Marine’s final challenge is another Bishop android…*

Rookie’s final boss isn’t another Queen, a Predator, or even the Predalien; instead, you go toe-to-toe with Karl Bishop Weyland who, as you might have guessed, is actually an android. I found this to be one of the toughest boss fights in the game as Bishop shrugs off bullets, you quickly run out of grenades, and he just runs right at you, spouting megalomaniacal nonsense and blasting at you with his devastatingly dangerous shotgun. Once you finally manage to put him down, you’re then suddenly tasked with shooting him in the head after a cutscene so don’t put your controller down after defeating him or you might find yourself getting shot. Six gets off slightly easier compared to her counterparts in that the only bosses she has to worry about are some Predators. When you reach the now-familiar combat arena, you’ll have to take on two Predators at once; the key here is to target one with your Focus Mode and stalk them incessantly. Once they reach ground level, leap in and strike and then back away and strafe around them, whittling their health down (hard to judge as they have no health bar), and don’t try to go toe-to-toe with them or to grab them and, if they block your attacks, back away immediately as you’ll be made mincemeat of in seconds. As soon as the two Predators are defeated, an Elite Predator enters the arena and the battle begins again. This time, the boss does have a health bar, which makes tracking your process much easier. However, while the Elite is technically tougher, the fight and your strategy are exactly the same; the only real difference is that, once you’ve weakened the Elite down, you’ll harvest it to give birth to the Predalien from the Predator’s campaign.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As you explore the game’s different locations, you’ll find a number of collectables to flesh out the game’s lore and contribute towards obtaining all of the game’s Achievements; Audio Diaries, Trophy Belts, and Royal Jelly Containers can be found (or destroyed in the jelly’s case) dotted throughout each of the three campaigns but, unfortunately, this is the extent to which additional bonuses and points of interest go for Aliens vs. Predator beyond admiring the fidelity the game pays to the various movies that comprise each franchise. Of the three available characters, the Predator has the most exotic weaponry; you start off with the wrist blades and the plasma cannon but soon acquire proximity mines (that, honestly, I never actually used during my playthrough), the razor-tipped smart disc (which you must awkwardly direct using your laser targeting), and the Predator’s iconic spear (or “Combi Stick”, which deals massive damage when thrown but is incredibly inaccurate and takes some time to return to your hand).

*While the Predator and Marine wields a bevvy of weapons, the Xenomorph has far less combat and gameplay options.*

The Marine isn’t exactly lacking in weaponry, though; the Rookie has access to a handgun (which, thankfully, has unlimited ammunition) and all the iconic weaponry from Aliens (the pulse rifle, the smart gun, even the flamethrower and shotgun). Pressing the right trigger allows you to perform a melee attack with each of these weapons and they all feature a secondary firing mode as well; the handgun has a rapid fire mode, the pulse rifle shoots out grenades, and the shotgun can fire from both barrels, for example. The Marine also gets access to a scope rifle that is, essentially, a sniper rifle, which comes with a handy x-ray scope that us extremely useful for picking off enemies (and Combat Androids) from a distance but quite tricky to wield in execution as your enemies generally move faster than your eye can track. Compared to the other two, Six gets the short end of the stick when it comes to power-ups and bonuses in that she has no such options available to her. Once you learn everything she can do, that’s all you get; you don’t get taught how to spit acid or do anything new, despite Six metamorphosing into a Praetorian throughout the story, leaving her as the most limited of the three available characters.

Additional Features:
As you might expect, Aliens vs. Predator features a wide variety of Achievements that you can earn as you play through the game’s different modes; the majority of these are tied to unmissable story events or the game’s multiplayer but others will require you to kill a number of enemies with certain weapons or find all of the Audio Diaries, Trophy Belts, or destroy all of those Royal Jelly Containers. The game also features a “Survival” mode where you must hold out against wave upon wave of Xenomorphs for as long as you can using a number of restrictive maps based on the game’s different environments. Unfortunately, you can only play as the Marine in this mode and, honestly, it’s not really all that challenging as your entire health will regenerate in time and there are loads of respawning health packs, ammo, and weapons strewn around the maps. The waves do increase in challenge and aggression as you progress, though, but you don’t really earn anything for playing beyond using the mode to easily grab a few Achievements so there’s not a lot of incentive to revisit the mode. As you might expect from an FPS, Aliens vs. Predator also includes a multiplayer component; unfortunately, I wasn’t able to experience this as there is no couch multiplayer option and I haven’t renewed my Xbox Gold for some time now (if anyone wants to get me a subscription or, better yet, Xbox Ultimate, feel free to drop me a message). The game also apparently did well enough to justify the release of some downloadable content (DLC); however, as this is entirely comprised of additional multiplayer maps and options, I won’t be investing any money into this. How cool would it have been to have an additional single-player DLC that cast you as the Predalien or was themed around the movies? Like recreating the events of Predator or Aliens using the game’s maps, which are already heavily inspired by those movies, or to crawl around in a cobbled together recreation of Fury 161 from Alien³ as a Xenomorph, or even play as the likes of Hicks (Michael Biehn) or Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in a short mission-based campaign?

The Summary:
With three different campaigns to play through and a variety of different gameplay styles on offer, you’d think that Aliens vs. Predator had a lot of replay value and incentive to keep you playing. Unfortunately, despite is aesthetic and aural fidelity to its rich source material, the game ends up being just another lacklustre FPS title with little to really tempt you back once you clear the three single-player stories beyond tackling a harder difficulty level. I suppose it’s possible that the game’s multiplayer is worth revisiting the game but I wouldn’t know about that and, even if it as, I generally judge a videogame by the merits of its single-player campaign and options since that’s where I spend the majority of my time. While Aliens vs. Predator is nowhere near as bad as I was led to believe going into it, it’s also quite mediocre in a lot of ways. Enemies and environments are strikingly faithful to the movies but incredibly linear; while this works to evoke the claustrophobic and atmospheric moments of the films, it doesn’t do much for the game’s replayability and there are definitely better FPS, and AVP, games out there.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

What did you think of Aliens vs. Predator? Which of the three campaigns was your favourite, or least favourite? Did you also enjoy the level of fidelity in the game’s presentation or were you too put off by the game’s short length and simplistic story mode? Was the multiplayer any better? Which Aliens, Predator, and/or AVP videogame or piece of ancillary merchandise is your favourite? Whatever your thoughts on these franchises, please feel free to leave a comment.

Game Corner: Duke Nukem Forever (Xbox 360)

05/09/202019/10/2024Dr. K3 Comments

Released: 10 June 2011
Developer: 3D Realms
Also Available For: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox One (Backwards Compatible)

The Background:
Man, I was a big, big fan of Duke Nukem 3D (ibid, 1996) back in the day; I spent hours playing deathmatches on PC at a friend’s house and, so great was my love for the alien-blasting, ultra-macho first-person shooter (FPS) that I even bought the Nintendo 64 version in order to continue the carnage at home. Given that I didn’t really have a decent PC back then, I never really experienced Doom (id Software, 1993) and I got ribbed to hell and back for owning Quake 64 (ibid/Midway Games, 1998), Duke Nukem 3D basically was my exposure to the FPS genre…at least until GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997) dominated the majority of my social life. So suffice it to say that I was eagerly awaiting the next instalment of the Duke’s ass-kicking series; yet, as we all know, Duke Nukem Forever had a…tumultuous history, to say the least.

DukeNukemForeverDevelopment — Duke Nukem Forever *had a long and troubled development period.*

Originally announced in 1997 and targeting a release between then and 1998, the game was constantly delayed and reworked as the staff and developers came and went, jumped from game engine to game engine, and constantly found themselves lagging behind more recent FPS games and shooters like Doom 3 (id Software, 2004), Halo: Combat Evolved (Bungie, 2001), and Gears of War (Epic Games, 2006). Rather than simply going back to Duke Nukem 3D, staying the course, and releasing an FPS title that harkened back to that classic style of gameplay, the developers scrambled to compete with modern shooters, cramming Duke Nukem Forever with a multitude of unnecessary additional gameplay mechanics and, ironically, rushing the game out to a release some fourteen years after its first announcement. Upon release, Duke Nukem Forever was pretty much universally lambasted; I originally, very briefly, played the demo version for PlayStation 3 and wasn’t exactly impressed and soon forgot about it once Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition (3D Realms, 2015) was released. Recently, however, I picked the game up (dirt cheap, obviously) and decided to rush through it to nab some easy Achievements and I would be remiss if I didn’t share my thoughts on the game as a whole.

The Plot:
Twelve years after the events of Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem has become a worldwide icon and celebrity and, against the wishes of the President of the United States, returns to action when the rebuilt Cycloid Emperor leads an alien invasion upon the Earth in an attempt to extract a modicum of revenge against the Duke.

Gameplay:
Ostensibly, Duke Nukem Forever is a first-person shooter that once again casts the player in the massive boots of Duke Nukem, a heavily-muscular, one-liner-spewing archetypal 1980s/1990s action hero modelled after the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Campbell, and Bruce Willis. Duke is a throwback to a far less politically correct time in the world, and in gaming, when games regularly featured an abundance of violence, tits, abusive and coarse language, and toilet humour…and, as a kid back ten, I loved it! Duke was the best parts of all your favourite action heroes rolled into one: charismatic, sharp-witted, and an all-action hero. Not for everyone, of course, and he probably doesn’t fly in today’s social and political climate, but I’ll always have a soft spot for this big, roided-up bastard. Duke Nukem Forever starts off relatively promising as Duke recreates the ending of Duke Nukem 3D, allowing players to once again equip the Devastator (a rapid-firing rocket launcher) and blast the Cycloid Emperor to smithereens in a football stadium. The moment this is revealed to simply be a game within a game, Duke Nukem Forever begins its slow decline into mediocrity; the aliens are back, as is Duke’s trademark wit but, unfortunately, he didn’t exactly bring along his A-game for this instalment.

DukeNukemForeverExecute — *Blood and gore is plentiful thanks to Duke’s ability to execute his alien foes.*

Initially, Duke is forced to make use of his fists but he soon acquires a firearm and this is one of the game’s first disappointments; unlike in the previous game, Duke can only hold two weapons at a time so, when you come across another weapon, you’re forced to drop one if you want to switch to it. With a press of the B button, you can execute a melee attack to save ammunition and you can also acquire trip mines and pipe bombs to blow aliens to pieces but it’s honestly quite boring to only be holding two weapons at any one time. Luckily, when you come up against tougher enemies or bosses, the game usually leaves a fitting weapon and an infinitely-replenishing ammo crate nearby so you usually always have the right weapon for the right situation but it’s still a bit of a needless handicap. Thankfully, you can use your weapons to blow limbs off of the alien scum you’ll come up against and there’s plenty of blood and gore splattering all over the game’s otherwise bland environments. Additionally, you’ll often find enemies collapsing to their knees and leaving themselves a prime target for Duke to “execute” them with a stiff uppercut, which is a nice little touch.

DukeNukemForeverEgo — *Interact with your environment to boost your maximum health.*

Unlike in the last game, Duke’s health is represented by an “Ego” bar; the bar drains as Duke takes damage but will automatically refill when Duke escapes from incoming fire, as is the style in many shooters these days. You can duck or hide behind cover scattered throughout the environment but most of these are highly destructible so you won’t be hiding behind pillars for too long before you’re forced to come out all guns blazing. Executing aliens will instantly fill your Ego bar and you can extend its length by interacting with certain parts of the environment and defeating bosses. These intractable elements are a fun distraction fitting of Duke Nukem; you can drink beer, eat chocolate bars, admire your reflection, play arcade and pub games, take a piss, and interact with strippers. All of these, and more, will reward you with an Ego boost so you can take more damage but, even with an extended Ego bar, you’ll still find Duke far more fragile than in previous games; get caught in a crossfire or run head-first into the game’s more formidable enemies and you’ll find your health drained in seconds, forcing you to sit through a good two minutes of load screens as the game struggles to reload your last checkpoint.

DukeNukemForeverEnvironments — Duke Nukem Forever‘s environments can be varied but are split up by long load times.

These loading times really drag the game down; the game’s missions see you exploring a variety of locations and environments, ranging from alien nests clearing inspired by the Alien (Various, 1979 to present) franchise to stretches of desert and alien-infested cities. These maps are broken up into sections and, when you clear one, the game fades out to a loading screen to load up the next map; then, when you die, you have to sit through another round of loading screens, which makes dying far more frustrating than it needs to be as it takes forever (pun intended) to jump back into the action and try different tactics.

DukeNukemForeverShrunk — *Duke spends too long being shrunk down or needlessly jumping to small platforms.*

You’ll also find yourself shrunken down to a tiny form, as in Duke Nukem 3D but, while the platforming sections were brief and cursory in that game, the shrunken sections extended in Duke Nukem Forever. Entire sections of missions will see you reduced to the size of a mouse, which is a exasperating experience and, if you’re really lucky, you’ll find yourself faced with the prospect of being tiny and jumping across platforms above an electrified floor that will kill you in seconds. This is not my idea of fun; it’s more like torture as these sections drag on and on with seemingly no end. At various times, you’ll also hop into a monster truck or a radio-controlled car and take part in some of the most janky driving sections I’ve ever experienced. Duke barrels ahead at full-speed, using rocket-powered jumps to clear gaps and flattening enemies beneath the massive tyres of his truck…that is until you happen to collide with the environment. It doesn’t take much to get Duke stuck against buildings and other obstacles, forcing you to try and back up and go around the obstruction in a wide arc, and just clipping walls and objects can send Duke spinning end over end, either ejecting you from the vehicle or forcing you to flip it around to carry on.

DukeNukemForeverTurret — *The auto-firing sections can be a lot of fun.*

Luckily, the auto-firing sections are a lot more fun; quite often, you can jump behind a gun turret and blast away at enemies, bosses, and enemy ships. You can’t hold the trigger down for too long, though, as the turret with overheat but it’s still quite enjoyable to gun down waves of enemies and blow them to pieces by targeting explosive barrels. Duke can also grab and throw a multitude of objects at his enemies (including barrels (normal and explosive), rats, turds, weights, and priceless vases); all of these, and others can help stem the tide against your enemies and you’re often encouraged to make use of the environment to keep your enemies at bay.

DukeNukemForeverPuzzles — *Puzzles and mazes dog you at every turn.*

Also helpful is the fact that Duke spends very little time underwater this time around; the final mission of the game is where you’ll find yourself submerged for large periods of time, forced to find air bubbles to replenish your oxygen supply before you drown and struggling to blast the aliens that join you in the dark depths. Unfortunately, though, Duke Nukem Forever not only lacks a map (even a basic wireframe map would have been helpful!), it also has a large number of puzzles scattered throughout its locations. In Duke Nukem 3D, the most you really had to contend with was flipping certain switches or finding coloured keys to progress further but, here, you’ll be jamming large fans with tool boxes, driving forklifts, ripping open doors, and desperately trying to navigate the maze-like environments without a map or a clear indication where you’re supposed to go or what you’re meant to do.

Graphics and Sound:
Considering its troublesome development history, Duke Nukem Forever doesn’t actually look that bad; weapons and enemies are rendered in big, bombastic glory and environments are generally quite detailed and large in scope (even though the maps are split into separately-loading sections). The game also runs relatively well; it can stutter at times, generally when large numbers of enemies are on screen or the game is preparing to load into the next section, but it was smooth sailing, for the most part.

*The game’s graphics hold up quite well…when they’re not trying to render human characters.*

Where the game fails, however, is in the rendering of its human characters, who all look like lifeless plastic toys. I guess this is actually quite fitting as the game (and the Duke Nukem franchise) is literally akin to a boy smashing his best toys into one another and it’s not unexpected considering the time the game was created and the troubles the developers went through just to produce the title. Duke Nukem Forever doesn’t feature any cutscenes or cinematics; all of the story (such as it is) is told using the in-game engine while the game loads up the next wave of enemies, boss battle, or section to play through. The game is also punctuated by a fitting heavy metal, hard rocking soundtrack that remixes many of the classic tunes from Duke Nukem 3D and adds to the fast-paced, hard hitting action of the game’s inconsistent high points.

Enemies and Bosses:
Duke Nukem Forever brings pretty much every enemy from Duke Nukem 3D back in all their disgusting glory and gives them a nice gloss of paint, updating their designs for a more modern audience, Duke will battle the likes of teleporting, jetpack-wearing alien scum, shotgun-toting Pigcops, and missile-firing Enforcers, each of which takes the time to reload their weapons, can toss pipe bombs at Duke’s head when he’s out of firing range, and include a melee attack for close quarters combat. Duke will also come up against alien eggs, which spew face-hugging Pregnators, and other smaller enemies that are best crushed under Duke’s mighty boot. Easily the game’s most annoying enemy, though, are the Octabrains; these floating, octopus-like aliens hover around your head sucking up items and spitting them back at you and can blast Duke when an energy shot that will kill him in one or two hits. To make matters worse, these bastards also suck up your missiles and pipe bombs, meaning its best to detonate a pipe bomb right as the aliens swallow them and pepper them with the Ripper.

DukeNukemForeverBosses — Duke Nukem Forever‘s bosses are large and require some heavy artillery to put down.

Duke will also come up against some familiar bosses during his adventure; the rocket-spewing Battlelord goes on a rampage on top of the Hoover Dam, the Octaking slowly destroys the small platform you’re standing on as it tries to fry your brains, and the Enforcer poses a significant threat when Duke is shrunk to a small size. Each of the game’s bosses are gigantic, with different phases and attack patterns, and a high point of the game’s action; as bosses are only damaged by explosives and turrets, you’ll generally have to employ different strategies to taking them down while also having to fend off swarms of regular enemies at the same time.

DukeNukemForeverQueen — *The Alien Queen is easily the game’s most annoying boss.*

Easily the game’s most annoying boss battle is against the three-tittied Alien Queen; this bitch shields herself with her huge arms, forcing you to toss pipe bombs at bouncy pads to get her to lower her guard so you can blast her with rockets. This alone is an annoying aspect of this boss battle but it’s made even more maddening as the Queen not only blasts you on your ass, slams into you with its claws, and spits Pregnators onto the field, she also protects itself with Octobrains for her final stage, which can reduce your health to nothing in seconds. Additionally, if you take too long to initiate the quick-time events needed to humiliate and finish off this boss (and others), she’ll regenerate a portion of her health and the battle will continue on until you get it right.

DukeNukemForeverEmperor — *The Cycloid Emperor looks more threatening than it actually is.*

The game’s big bad is, of course, the Cycloid Emperor; in the recreation of the finale of Duke Nukem 3D, all you really have to do is strafe circles around the Emperor, blasting away at it with rockets until it goes down and, while this strategy continues to work wonders in the game’s final battle, it’s made far more tiresome by the presence of regular enemies on the field. You’ll need to kill these to grab the RPG, Enforcer Gun, Devastator, and pipe bombs in order to damage the Emperor but, compared to some of the game’s previous bosses, this gigantic monstrosity looks far more threatening than it actually is.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Duke has access to a small, but effective, variety of familiar weaponry in Duke Nukem Forever; he can use his fists to pound enemies into bloody mush, grab a simple pistol, or load up with a shotgun. As the shotgun takes time to reload, you might want to grab the Ripper to cut through enemies with a spray of bullets, though you’ll run the clip out quite quickly, or the Railgun to blow enemies away in one targeted hit. You can also grab the RPG, Enforcer Gun, and Devastator to fire rockets at enemies; these are best saved for bosses, as they’re the only weapons besides turrets that’ll do any damage, but you’ll find aiming and directing these weapons troublesome, at best.

DukeNukemForeverWeapons — *All of Duke’s signature weapons make a welcome return.*

You can also grab a Shrink Ray and a Freeze Ray to reduce enemies in size or encase them in ice, respectively, leaving them wide open for an execution, and even acquire alien lasers from down Assault Troopers to mix things up a bit. Duke can also acquire a few helpful items to tip the balance in his favour; he can see in the dark with his trademark night vision sunglasses, distract enemies with a hologram of himself, swallow some steroid pills to go on a super-powered melee rampage, and drink beer to increase his resistance to injury. Unfortunately, however, you can’t use a jetpack this time around (at least, not in the single player story), and Duke Nukem Forever also, inexplicably, mixes up its FPS gameplay with a variety of different playstyles. The first, and most frustrating, is the abundance of platforming sections in the game; Duke could jump and fly around levels in Duke Nukem 3D but Duke Nukem Forever takes the piss with the platforming sometimes, asking players to awkwardly jump to small platforms or pipes and navigate narrow platforms with the game’s janky, slippery controls.

Additional Features:
Honestly, there’s not a lot on offer in the base game of Duke Nukem Forever; you can play the game on four different difficulty modes for an increased challenge and revisit each chapter to find any Ego boosts or secrets you missed in order to earn every Achievement in the game but, beyond that, there’s not much reason to go back to the game. Once you complete it (on “Let’s Rock” at the very least), you’ll gain access to some additional options that let you turn on helpful cheats like invincibility and infinite ammo; however, you won’t earn any Achievements with these activated, which renders them largely pointless.

DukeNukemForeverMiniGames — *Sadly, the game’s controls make these mini games more of a chore than anything else.*

At one point in the game, you visit a strip club and are tasked with tracking down some popcorn, a vibrator, and a condom for a stripper; this little side quest also gives you the option of playing a few mini games, including a pinball machine, air hockey, whack-a-mole, mini basketball, and pool. While you’ll get an Ego boost for winning at each of these and there are even some Achievements tied to some of them, the game’s controls don’t really make playing these mini games fun or interesting in any way. Just potting all the balls on the pool table took me about half an hour as there’s no way to judge the power, direction, or spin of your shot and, while I was able to win at air hockey, the janky, floaty, slippery controls mean winning seven to nothing and earning that coveted Achievement is more likely to see you tearing your damn hair out than anything else.

DukeNukemForeverAdditional — Duke Nukem Forever *includes multiplayer and even some DLC.*

There is a multiplayer component included with the game but my Xbox Live subscription has lapsed so I never explored the options available here. Considering how poorly the game was received, and sold, there is also some downloadable content (DLC) on offer for the game that adds extra modes, Avatar costumes, additional multiplayer maps and modes, and a whole new mission to the single-player campaign. Unfortunately, this DLC costs more than I played for the base game and that, in addition to how dreadful my experience with Duke Nukem Forever was, means I won’t be shelling out to play this DLC any time soon.

The Summary:
There’s a word to describe Duke Nukem Forever and that word is: disappointment. Honestly, though, it’s nowhere near as bad as reviews and word of mouth had me believe; the basic aspects that made Duke Nukem 3D are still there and, when the game is focused on mowing down alien scumbags and indulging in is crude, crass sense of humour, it really excels and you get the faint glimmer that the game could have lived up to the hype of its predecessor.

DukeNukemForeverConclusion — *This image sums up how it feels to hold* Duke Nukem Forever…

Unfortunately, it’s just too bogged down with unnecessarily long and difficult platforming and driving sections, annoying puzzles, and frustratingly long loading times. Limiting Duke’s arsenal also hurts the game as you’re constantly having to drop weapons and switch to different ones; enemies are way too tough at times as well, soaking up entire clips and blasting your health to shreds as you frantically try to reload or find tenuous cover, and the levels are largely bland, uninspired, or too cliché to really stand out. It’s a shame because there is clearly a lot of potential in Duke Nukem Forever’s concept and, had it released in more like the early-to-mid-2000s and been more like Doom 3 than this hodgepodge of disconnected ideas, it might have actually been really good rather than just disappointingly mediocre.

My Rating:

Terrible

What did you think about Duke Nukem Forever? Do you think it fails to lives up to its hype or did you find it to be an inoffensive distraction? What do you think of Duke Nukem as a character, especially in our current political and social climate? Do you think he’s a relic from the past or is there room for his brand of humour and action in today’s world? Would you like to see a new Duke Nukem game or do you think it’s best to pull the plug on this once-fruitful FPS franchise? What is your favourite FPS game? Whatever you think, drop a comment below.

Game Corner: Sonic Adventure 2 (Xbox 360)

15/07/202022/09/2022Dr. K16 Comments

Released: October 2012
Originally Released: June 2001
Developer: Sonic Team USA
Also Available For: Dreamcast, GameCube, PC, PlayStation 3

The Background:
After Sonic Adventure (Sonic Team, 1998) finally brought Sonic into the third dimension and proved to be a rousing success, despite a few flaws, Sonic Team passed development of the sequel over to their US branch. Drawing inspiration from their surroundings, the team infused the sequel with a much greater focus on action, speed, and realism than before, making the game feel decidedly more “Western” than its predecessor. Ironically, Sonic Adventure 2 actually dialled down on the “adventure” aspects of its predecessor but featured, perhaps, the darkest and most science-fiction-orientated story in the series thus far, a decision that would impact the franchise, for better or for worse, for years to come. I’ve talked about Sonic Adventure more than once in the past but, despite it being one of my favourites in the Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 to present) franchise, I actually played its sequel first. I never owned a Dreamcast as a kid as I hedged my bets on the Nintendo 64 so, when I decided to get a GameCube, one of the first two games I got was Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (Sonic Team USA, 2002) and it actually took me a while to acclimatise to Sonic Adventure’s radically different gameplay and presentation when I bought Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut (Sonic Team, 2003). However, while Sonic fans (notoriously one of the worst fanbases in all of fandom) have recently turned on this game in favour of, of all things, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (ibid, 2006), it’s always been a favourite of mine, to the point where I’ve bought it on GameCube, PlayStation 3, and, now, the Xbox 360 version for Xbox One.

The Plot:
Sonic the Hedgehog finds himself a fugitive on the run from the Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.) after security footage appears to show him stealing a Chaos Emerald from a G.U.N. facility. In actuality, the culprit is the mysterious Shadow the Hedgehog, the self-proclaimed “ultimate lifeform” who has been released by Sonic’s long-term nemesis, Doctor Eggman, to help the mad scientist harness the power of the long-defunct Space Colony ARK and hold the world the ransom.

Gameplay:
Sonic Adventure 2 is a 3D action platformer first and foremost that, like its predecessor, divides its core gameplay into a series of distinct gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, while Sonic Adventure offered six unique playable characters, each with their own distinct style of play, Sonic Adventure 2 features six playable characters who share gameplay styles with their counterparts. As soon as you begin the game, you’re given the option not to select a character but to select a story; if you pick the “Hero” story, you’ll play through the game’s story from the perspective of Sonic, Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy Rose but, when you pick the “Dark” story, you’ll witness the events from the perspective of newcomers Shadow and Rouge the Bat and, for the first time in the series, Dr. Eggman! Whichever story you pick, you’ll play through the narrative, switching back and forth between the hero- and dark-side characters as the narrative directs.

SA2Variety — *The game’s three playstyles are spread between the six characters.*

If you’ve played Sonic Adventure, you’ll be immediately familiar with the three playstyles of this sequel: Sonic and Shadow play at high speeds, racing through stages that are designed like fast-paced rollercoasters, Knuckles and Rouge glide, climb, and dig as they explore for shards of the Master Emerald, and Tails and Eggman stomp around in massive mechs, blasting robots with their weaponry. The developers lost the slower pace of Amy and Big’s gameplay and the races that Tails had to complete in the original and focused on these three distinct playstyles, which was good for those who disliked the slower, less exciting gameplay of the last game, but not so good when it comes to character variety.

SA2Gameplay — *The Hero and Dark characters are functionally identical to control.*

Essentially, there’s very little difference between Sonic and Shadow, Knuckles and Rouge, or Tails and Eggman; they get to explore different stages (or, at least, different versions of stages) and obviously look and sound different, with different objectives, but they share the same basic move set. Both Sonic and Shadow can fly along rows of Golden Rings using the Light Speed Dash (which, thankfully, no longer needs to be charged) and use the Homing Attack to smash robots, Knuckles and Rouge explore their stages in the same way and attack enemies with either punches or kicks, and Tails and Eggman can both hover and lock on to multiple enemies at once. It’s fun experiencing the story from the bad guys’ perspective for a change but it’s a bit of a shame that the characters don’t have more to distinguish them from their counterparts.

SA2ShadowEggman — *Shadow was a dark, edgy character in a dark, edgy story.*

The game’s narrative is perhaps the most elaborate yet; after releasing Shadow, Eggman teams up with him and Rouge to gather the Chaos Emeralds and power up the long-abandoned Space Colony ARK. Eggman’s grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik, created the ARK fifty years ago and designed Shadow to be the ultimate lifeform; using a Chaos Emerald, Shadow can instantly teleport great distances at high speeds, making him more than a match for Sonic, and Eggman uses his abilities to threaten the entire world with the ARK’s Eclipse Cannon. Shadow, in his debut appearance, would go on to become one of the series’ most recognisable characters, for better or for worse, and has, arguably, never been characterised better than he was here: haunted by fractured memories of his time on the ARK, Shadow has his own agenda for revenge against the world but ultimately his story becomes one of redemption. At the same time, the story is as ridiculous as ever; to stop Eggman from stealing the Master Emerald, Knuckles willingly smashes it into pieces, which is probably the most arbitrary reason to recreate his gameplay from the last game that I could think of. I would have much preferred Knuckles and Rouge’s stages to involve searching for different items or treasures each time rather than search for the pieces of the Master Emerald yet again. Similarly, for some reason I’ll never understand, everyone in the game mistakes Shadow for Sonic and vice versa; even characters like Amy Rose and Eggman think Shadow is Sonic despite the fact that they couldn’t look more different if they tried.

SA2ShadowGrinding — Sonic Adventure 2 introducing grinding to the series and it’s stuck around ever since.

For the first time in Sonic’s long history, SEGA actually incorporated some prominent product placement into Sonic Adventure 2; billboards for Soap shoes were everywhere in the original and Sonic’s iconic shoes were redesigned in conjunction with this brand to allow him to grind on rails. Shadow can also grind and, while this mechanic is more prevalent in some stages than others, it’s not as obtrusive as you might think. It’s pretty simple to pull off, to; you leap onto a rail, ideally with some momentum behind you, and hold down B to crouch and gain speed; in later stages, you’ll have to pull off jumps to other rails but it’s a very fun, fast-paced experience. Rather than expanding and refining the hub world concept of Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2’s story plays out one scene and stage after another. If you lose all your lives or choose to quit, you can access a stage from a simple map screen; from here, you can replay stages under different criteria in an extension of Sonic Adventure’s “Mission” mode. Completing each mission and successfully obtaining an A-rank on each nets you both an Achievements and a pretty cool unlockable stage…but considering how hard it is to even get an A-rank in the game, it’s going to take a lot of your skill and patience to achieve this goal. Unlike other Sonic videogames, rankings in Sonic Adventure 2 aren’t just based on how fast you clear a stage; you also need to be holding a certain number of Golden Rings and have accumulated a high enough score to earn the best rank. You can build your score by destroying enemies, jumping through hoops, racking up combination bonuses in the shooter stages, not using hints in the treasure hunting stages, and pulling off tricks in the running stages using the game’s new grinding mechanic.

SA2Stages — *Stage gimmicks can be frustrating at times.*

Each stage is filled with multiple paths, some of them only accessible using some of the game’s hidden power-ups. If you want to get the best time, score, and rank when playing, you’ll have to take advantage of these alternate routes, which can be difficult. While the game’s controls are decent and improved for the better over its predecessor, the camera can still be jerky at the worst of times, characters have a tendency to slip off platforms and ledges to their deaths down the game’s many (many!) bottomless pits, annoying stage hazards (floors that fall or crumble beneath you, weights that squash you, and even airlocks that flush you out into space!) crop up in every stage, and enemies just love leaping out in your face at a moment’s notice. While Knuckles and Rouge are limited to finding one Emerald shard at a time (unless you’ve played enough to take an educated guess about where to look) and their later space stages can be frustrating, Eggman and Tails don’t have to worry about racing against a time limit like E-102γ “Gamma” did (though it is odd to see Tails stuck inside a mech). Also, when playing as Sonic and Shadow, you’ll often perform a somersault, usually to your death, when you mean to perform the Light Dash since they’re both mapped to the same button, which can be frustrating at times.

Graphics and Sound:
While it looks, feels, and sounds very similar to Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 is quite a step up in terms of graphics. While Sonic and Shadow’s stages aren’t as large or as varied as before, they’re tight, focused, and full of impressive set pieces. In City Escape, for example, you end up being chased by a huge truck that is determined to run you down which is a thrill later surpassed by the excitement of grinding at high speeds through space as you make your way down and through the Space Colony ARK.

SA2Graphics — *Each stage has its own gimmicks and is packed with little details and cameos.*

You’ll also swing, race, and grind through high-speed jungles, explored flooded mines, haunted mountain tops, and even traverse what is basically a 3D recreation of the Death Egg Zone when racing through Crazy Gadget. Each stage is like a short burst of action-orientated fun, featuring different gameplay gimmicks and little details that make them fun to playthrough regardless of which story you’re playing. While Sonic and Shadow’s stages are all about high-octane speed, Knuckles and Rouge’s emphasise exploration and Tails and Eggman’s are also far slower , allowing you to really take in the little details of your surroundings and encouraging exploration.

SA2Music — *The game’s soundtrack is top notch.*

Sonic Adventure 2 also has one of the best soundtracks in the entire franchise; while Sonic Adventure remixed, borrowed, or leaned heavily into traditional Sonic themes alongside incorporating punk rock, rap, and other genres for character’s themes, Sonic Adventure 2 doubles down on the rocking tunes and is all the better for it. Featuring three of Crush 40’s best tracks (“Live and Learn”, “Escape from the City”, and a remix of Sonic’s theme song, “It Doesn’t Matter”), each character’s stages is accompanied by a theme befitting that character (Sonic is mostly rock, Rouge is jazz-inspired, Knuckles is rap, Shadow’s is techno-inspired, for example) and helps infuse the stages and the otherwise-similar-playing characters with a real life, energy, and distinctive personality.

SA2Dialogue — *Lip synching has been vastly improved, though the script and delivery is still a bit janky at times.*

Once again, the game features an abundance of voice acting; luckily, the lip synching is vastly improved here, meaning that the cutscenes are far less ridiculous to sit through. Unfortunately, the script and delivery still flounders somewhat and the game’s music tends to drown out the character’s words or the characters often talk over each other due to the translated dialogue taking longer to say than the original Japanese. Despite that, though, many of the voice actors from the last game return here and put in some of their best performances; Ryan Drummond will always be my favourite voice for Sonic and both the late, great Deem Bristow and David Humphrey set the standard for Dr. Eggman and Shadow, respectively, that have continued to be emulated to this day.

Enemies and Bosses:
Sonic Adventure featured some of the most unique designs, and redesigns, of the entire series. Eggman’s Badniks were recreated in all their 3D glory and full of character and quirky personality and Chaos was a breath of fresh air in a series that mostly relied on robotic creatures. Sonic Adventure 2, however, drops the ball quite significantly in this arena; every character battles the same, generic G.U.N. robots throughout every stage. Some stages do feature a few of Eggman’s Badniks but they don’t crop up often enough. Instead, you’re faced with these dull, lifeless cookie-cutter robots that aren’t really much to write home about. That is, of course, until you make it into outer space and on to the Space Colony ARK. Here, you’ll encounter the most annoying enemies in the game: the Artificial Chaos. These watery monstrosities resemble Chaos and have robotic enhancements and, while they’re easily dispatched with a solid shot to their metallic “head”, they can deal serious damage with their elongated limbs and laser blasts, making them extremely irritating enemies to come up against regardless of which character you’re playing as.

SA2Boss1 — *Bosses that aren’t generic G.U.N. mechs are few and far between.*

For the most part, Sonic Adventure 2’s boss battles are as lacklustre as the enemies you’ll fight thanks, largely, to them being comprised of G.U.N. mechs. Yet, while none of G.U.N.s creations can match up to the quirkiness of Eggman’s mechs from he previous games or the likes of the gigantic golem that defends his pyramid base, they’re just different enough to show that G.U.N. is capable of putting some effort into their creations.

SA2Boss2 — *You’ll have to face your rival in a couple of battles as well.*

The rest of the time, you’ll be battling against your rival in fights somewhat similar to the battle between Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in the last game; the mechanics have been expanded upon somewhat here, though, in that your enemy puts up a bit more of a fight, taking (and dishing out) decidedly more damage as you battle but the real threat in most of these battles will come from the size of the stage you battle on (or in) and how easy it is for you to fall to your death.

SA2Biolizard — *The Biolizard is easily the game’s most frustrating boss.*

Once you defeat Sonic and Shadow for good at the end of both stories, you’ll play through the “Last Story” and battle the game’s most frustrating and annoying boss, the Biolizard. This Shadow-exclusive battle pits you against a massive lizard-like creature that chases you with its gaping mouth or tries to smack you with its tail. When it stops its attack, you can grind up a rail to attack its sole weak point (the life support system on its back) and, as you deal damage, it starts to spit energy blasts at you that you must either try to jump over or somersault under to avoid losing Rings. To make matters worse, you can instantly be sucked to your death if you land in the water between the stage platform and it spawns these really infuriating homing orbs that you must try to avoiding while using the Homing Attack to hit the life support system. Its final attack is easily the worst; this sees you flung helplessly into the air and all you can do is encircle the creature, hope and try to avoid the projectiles, and slowly edge your way closer to deliver the final blow.

SA2Boss3 — *You’ll battle the final boss as both Super Sonic and Super Shadow.*

Once defeated, the creature uses Chaos Control to attach itself to the ARK and force it towards the Earth, becoming the game’s final boss, the “Finalhazard”. Sonic and Shadow power-up to their Super forms and battle the creature in space in a fight that, fundamentally, resembles that finale against Perfect Chaos. Super Sonic and Super Shadow have to dash into the pulsating boils that act as the creature’s sole weak point but are constantly swatted away by projectiles and erratic laser blasts. Also, like Perfect Chaos, this final boss is more annoying than challenging as you not only have to try and weave through its defences and hope your attack does damage, you’ll also be fighting against two time limits: linger too long and the Finalhazard will successfully drag the ARK to Earth and you also have to land your attack before you run out of Rings. Your allies often shout at you to “switch characters” when your Rings are running low but, even after all these years, the only way I could switch characters was to hit the creature’s weak spot so that advice is basically useless. As before, you don’t get to play as the Super forms in the main game but this finale does culminate in Shadow giving his life to save the planet, completing his character arc of redemption. Of course, Shadow was too popular to stay dead and SEGA brought him back in the very next game and have bungled fleshing out his character and backstory ever since. But, in this one defining moment, this angst-ridden, haunted little black hedgehog won over a significant portion of the fanbase and still remains a popular character to this day.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
While Sonic Adventure 2 doesn’t feature as many “adventure” elements as its predecessor, you can still acquire power-ups and additional bonuses in each stage: Sonic and Shadow can grab shoes that allow them to Light Speed Dash, rings that let them perform a flaming somersault, bounce, and/or turn enemies into toys that you can throw at other enemies. Knuckles and Rouge grab upgrades that let them dig to find goodies or breathe underwater without fear of drowning, and Tails and Eggman can upgrade their mechs to dish out more damage to enemies and hover across gaps and hazards. As is standard for Sonic titles, you can also acquire additional Golden Rings, health packs (for Tails and Eggman), extra lives, invincibility, and two types of shields (a regular shield and a Ring-attracting electric variant) by breaking or running into item capsules or passing checkpoints in a fast enough time. Additionally, like in Sonic Adventure, every time you beat a stage, boss, or mini game earns you a Sonic Emblem and collecting all of these and will earn you an Achievement and unlock a bonus stage.

Additional Features:
From the game’s “Options” menu, you can choose different character-based themes and backgrounds for the game’s menu screens and even change the spoken dialogue to Japanese if you’re one “those” fans that simply must have the original Japanese dialogue playing during a game. As you might expect, you can also earn a few Achievements when playing the game; unfortunately, there’s not very many on offer here and they’re disappointingly simple to get…for the most part. As you destroy robots and explore the stages, you’ll find “Chaos Drives” and small animals; when you find a Chao box and smash it open, you’ll obtain a key and, after clearing the stage, will be warped to the Chao World where you can use the Chaos Drives and animals to raise and breed Chao to use in other mini games. The Chao Garden has been expanded somewhat; when you visit from the stage select screen, you can take your Chao to the Chao Kindergarten to purchase new items from the Black Market, leave them in the school to learn songs and tricks, rename them, or get review stats and health. Feeding them Chaos Drives, animals, and different fruits will raise their stats and, eventually, allow them to evolve into a stronger, more adult form. If you primarily used Hero characters when caring for your Chao, you’ll get an Angel Chao, while Dark characters birth a Devil Chao; both unlock an additional Chao Garden themed after Heaven or Hell, respectively.

SA2SChao2 — *Cheer your Chao on as they race or battle each other!*

As your Chao’s stats increase, you can have them take part in the Chao Games, a series of races, fights, and mini games to earn you more Sonic Emblems and Achievements. However, as these mini games can be largely luck-based and involve you putting a lot of time and energy into grinding and search for more Chaos Drives, animals, and collecting Golden Rings to buy new items, it can be a very time-consuming process but it’s a nice break from the game’s fast-paced action. Just don’t expect a lot of depth from this mode. Unlike Sonic Adventure, which featured numerous mini games to break up each character’s story and provide a distraction from the main game, Sonic Adventure 2 only features two other playstyles: a boss rush and a janky little kart racer. In the Hero story, you (as Tails) have to race towards the President’s limo to track Eggman’s broadcast and, in the Dark story, you (as Rouge) chase after Tails to intercept him instead. Once you beat one of these stages, you’ll unlock the Kart Race mini game, where you can play as any of the six main characters in short races made incredibly difficult by the game’s stiff, unresponsive controls.

SA2GreenHill — *Collect every Emblem to unlock Green Hill Zone!*

After clearing both stories, you’ll unlock the “Last Story” mode when you play as each of the six playable characters and race to stop the ARK from destroying the world. This culminates in a space battle where you switch between Super Sonic and Super Shadow and take it in turns to ram head-first into the gigantic lizard-like creature known as the Biohazard. Defeating it earns you the game’s true earning, and an Achievement, but not much else; however, if you manage to complete each of the game’s stages with an A-rank, you’ll unlock one of the coolest rewards in the series: a fully 3D recreation of Green Hill Zone! Unfortunately, you can only play this stage as Sonic and I’ve never actually experienced this as it is way too hard to earn those A-ranks and I just couldn’t do it no matter how hard I tried. Also new to the game is the multiplayer mode where you and one friend can pick between the game’s playable characters and race or battle against them in a series of stages from the main story. If you purchase the game’s downloadable content, you’ll unlock extra stages and characters for use in this mode; these were all available by default in the GameCube port but it’s still fun to play as Metal Sonic, Tikal, and Chaos in the game’s multiplayer. It’s just a shame that, like in the Sonic Adventure ports, Sonic Team decided to leave out certain playable characters and features from the original Dreamcast version (meaning Big the Cat is relegated to mere blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos in each stage and certain cutscenes, which is a real shame and a massive downgrade from his last appearance).

The Summary:
Sonic Adventure 2 takes everything that worked in Sonic Adventure and improves upon it; it trims out a lot of the fat and extraneous elements and focuses on the three, distinct, most enjoyable playstyles of the last game, expanding upon them and improving them to make for a much tighter, more responsive and action-orientated experience. While I do miss some of the things this game dropped (the hub worlds and the diverse characters), I do enjoy the many improvements and innovations that debuted in this game. Making the Light Speed Dash a one-button action was a must, expanding Sonic’s world and lore to include more sci-fi elements helped take the series in a different direction and allowed SEGA to actually tell pretty complex and mature stories in their videogames. While I like the simplicity of the early Sonic titles, I expect a bit more bang for my buck with Sonic’s 3D adventures and Sonic Adventure 2 definitely delivers in that regard, introducing one of the more multifaceted and edgy characters to the series and allowing us to experience events from the bad guys’ perspective for the first time. For many years, Sonic Adventure 2 was the gold standard for the series for many; as SEGA experimenting with different genres and tossed more and more characters and roadblocks into their most popular franchise, fans were clamouring for a return to the Adventure-style formula and the type of gameplay and story of Sonic Adventure 2. While Sonic fans may have lost their mind and turned against this game in recent years, it still holds a special place in my heart; it’s not perfect, obviously, but it’s still fast-paced, high-octane fun and I never fail to have a good time every time I fire it up.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

What did you think about Sonic Adventure 2? Which of the two Adventure games is your favourite? Which console did you first play Sonic Adventure 2 on? What did you think about the game’s Light and Dark story options, and playing as the villains for the first time? What are your thoughts on Shadow the Hedgehog, his debut, characterisation, and legacy? Does Sonic Adventure 2 still hold up in your view or do you prefer a different Sonic title? Whatever your thoughts on Sonic Adventure 2, and the Sonic series and characters in general, drop your thoughts below and share them with me.

Game Corner: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (Xbox 360)

06/05/202006/05/2022Dr. K1 Comment

Released: October 2010
Developer: LucasArts
Also Available For: iOS, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and PC

The Background:
Despite its flaws, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (ibid, 2008) was a commercial success; as a result, LucasArts rushed into production with a sequel to what was, at the time, the official bridge between the events of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Lucas, 2005), and Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (ibid, 1977). My experience with The Force Unleashed was mired by the game’s dodgy camera, wonky physics, and repetitive levels and combat. When the game shined, it shined pretty brightly but even its best moments couldn’t overshadow the flaws in the engine and execution. The story, while interesting, had a few issues as well (even more so considering the games have long since been rendered non-canon by Disney), and was pretty well wrapped up with Darth Vader’s turncoat secret apprentice, Starkiller, dying a martyr to inspire and rabble the Rebel Alliance. But the franchise made money so, armed with the lamest excuse possible, LucasArts came back with this sequel but does it improve on its predecessor’s failings or is it more of the same?

The Plot:
After multiple failures, Darth Vader has finally perfected a clone of his secret apprentice, Starkiller. However, haunted by the memories, feelings, and motivations of his predecessor, the clone sets out to uncover the truth of his identity and reconnect with his lost love, Juno Eclipse.

Gameplay:
Like its predecessor, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is a third-person action title in which the player controls a clone of Vader’s secret apprentice, Starkiller. If you thought Starkiller was a damaged, edgy character torn between his divided loyalties, this clone ramps it up to eleven as duplicating Starkiller’s prowess with the Force also meant duplicating his memories and emotions. Nowhere is this more evident in the fact that Starkiller now wields duel lightsabers, holding them both behind him like an absolute bad-ass. As a result, the already frenetic combat of the original is dialled up in this sequel; whereas you could just mash away at the X button in The Force Awakens to cut down foes, it was also encouraged that you time your strikes to unleash an impressive flurry of damaging attacks. Here, though, the combo system is literally as simple as successively hitting X to turn Starkiller into a laser-sword blur of blades and attacks; regular enemies no longer have their own health bars, meaning you’re literally encouraged to just mash away until they’re defeated.

SWFU2Force — *Starkiller’s Force powers are back, stronger than ever.*

Most of Starkiller’s basic Force abilities make a return; you can fry Stromtroopers with Force Lightning, push or toss them (and objects) with Force Push and Force Grip, or blast them away with Force Repulse. The game also places far more emphasis on pressing Y or O during a lightsaber combo to deal additional damage with Force Lightning or Force Push, which is extremely useful for clearing out waves of enemies or dealing additional lightning damage. While the life-sapping Force Shield is absent, Starkiller can now use a Mind Trick to convince his enemies to turn on their comrades or leap to their deaths which, while handy (and pretty much mandatory in the game’s final battle against Vader), can be clunky; I found it either wore off too fast or enemies just shrugged it off when I applied it. as you cut down enemies, you’ll build up a meter in the bottom left of the screen; once fully charged, pressing down the two analogue sticks will send Starkiller into a “Force Rage”, which increases his attack power and resistance to injure for as long as the meter lasts (which, to be fair, is quite a while). As you cut down enemies, you’ll earn points that can be used to upgrade each of Starkiller’s abilities, similar to the last game but much simpler and more streamlined. Gone are the multiple of combos you had to purchase and you have no need to buy new Force abilities as Starkiller either remembers them or learns them as he progresses, meaning its far easier to power-up Starkiller’s abilities.

SWFU2Grip — *The Force Grip is now, thankfully, much easier to pull off.*

Also like in the first game, you can acquire crystals to customise the appearance and abilities of Starkiller’s lightsabers; you can mix and match the different blades for added effects and bonuses, though, unfortunately, there’s no way to customise your favourite blade colour with your preferred buff. While Force abilities are still a vital part of the game, and the combat system, I found they were mostly relegated to opening doors (which I still find difficult due to the game’s physics and hit detection) and tossing objects. Thankfully, gripping TIE Fighters and lobbing various bits of the environment at your enemies is much easier here; in the original, it felt like I was always fighting to get a grip on passing TIE Fighters and that they would just go flying wherever they wanted but, here, the system is much improved.

SWFU2Grapple — *Grapple enemies to deliver massive damage.*

Yet, for the most part, the game’s combat is focused almost exclusively on lightsaber combat. Perhaps because the clone is so emotionally unstable, combat is fast, brutal, and frenetic; Starkiller can grapple his foes to deliver either an instant kill or massive damage; he also lops off Stromtrooper’s heads and limbs this time around and can once again leave enemies open to a devastating parry with a well-timed press of the block button. Starkiller can still hurl his lightsabers at his enemies to cut them down from a distance, too, but I actually found myself using this far less in combat as it leaves Starkiller vulnerable as he waits for his weapons to return; instead, the game mostly focuses on using this ability to cut down platforms.

SWFU2Enemies — *Don’t let enemies overwhelm you or you’ll have a bad time.*

In addition to attacking with more power and proficiency than before, Starkiller also seems to be noticeably tougher; he can still lose health rapidly when pinned down or subjected to multiple attacks but his new combat style allows him to quickly cut down those before him to refill his health and force meter. You’ll need these skills as well as the game’s enemies seem much tougher and smarter this time around; snipers blast at you from the high ground in the distance or behind waves of regular Stromtroopers, who hunker down behind cover or buzz around on jetpacks. Even the bog-standard Stromtroopers can take a beating as well, meaning you should always go for overkill when engaging with hallways filled with enemies. Speaking of which, while the game is far more linear in its environments and level layout than its predecessor, I find it amusing, then, that the game ditches a traditional map and, instead, allows you to “sense” the way you need to do with the directional-pad as it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get lost in the game’s straight-forward environments. You’ll still be tasked with performing some mandatory platforming; Starkiller can double jump and dash on the ground and in the air to cross gaps but, more often that not, you’ll probably have to use the Force in some way to create makeshift bridges.

SWFU2Freefall — The Force Unleashed II *loves these free-fall sections.*

While platforming is light, it is mostly okay; Starkiller is nowhere near as slippery and janky as before and the game’s engine doesn’t seem to be struggling to render everything this time around, meaning you’re far less likely to slip or glitch off a ledge. The game does suddenly through a whole mess of tricky platforming at you when you storm Kamino’s cloning facilities in the final chapter, however, so it’s best you work on perfecting those jumps. Also as before, you’ll be tasked with performing a number of quick-time events (QTEs), especially against largely enemies and during boss battles. While these aren’t anything too complex beyond either pressing or mashing a button (or two buttons) at the right time, I found that the QTE indicators were harder to spot on the screen as they often appear at the edges of the display. There are also numerous moments where Starkiller dives through the air at high speed, dodging obstacles or blasting them (or enemies) with his Force abilities; while these are fun and exhilarating, the game maybe uses them a few too many times. Luckily, the poorly-conceived Star Destroyer section of the original is turned on its head here where Starkiller has to clear a path for a ship that is crashing through Kamino’s atmosphere, which is much improved.

SWFU2Glitch — *My game glitched out on me, wouldn’t load this boss, and then crashed.*

Luckily, the game’s stability has been noticeably improved over its predecessor; enemies no longer turn into stupid ragdolls when you defeat them or toss them around and I encountered far less glitches and issues with jumping or interacting with the environment. However, I did experience a few issues with slowdown, stuttering, and instances where the game didn’t load in the required environment or boss battle. This may have been because of the condition of my game disc, however as, after I cleaned it, the game continued to run fine but it was noticeable.

SWFU2Length — *Before you know it, you’re facing off with Darth Vader and the game is over.*

What really lets the game down, though, is its length and variety; I was annoyed that you revisited the same levels in The Force Unleashed and that, while the game evoked the spirit and aesthetic of Star Wars, it didn’t really do much to show us more of this sprawling, multi-cultural galaxy. For the sequel, you’ll battle through hallways-upon-hallways in many grey-coloured environments, whether it’s on a starship or the facilities on Kamino. The game tries to mix it up with some puzzle elements involving you powering up doors and visiting Cato Neimoidia (which is little more than a reskinned Geonosis) and briefly stopping by Dagobah but the majority of your time is spent exploring very similar-looking environments. Additionally, the game seems much shorter than its predecessor; I blew through the main story on the “Medium” difficulty and only missed one lightsaber crystal and with only a few Force abilities left to upgrade (easily remedied with a quick replay of some of the game’s other levels). The game’s length is so noticeably short, and its environment so conspicuously limited, that it almost feels like an extended add-on to the first game, like they took an idea for downloadable content (DLC) for The Force Awakens and simply padded it out to fill four to six hours of repetitive combat and gameplay.

Graphics and Sound:
Graphically, The Force Unleashed II isn’t much of an improvement over its predecessor, either; the cutscenes are of about the same quality and the in-game graphics only seem like they have been slightly tweaked and improved. I’ll give it this, though: the game really knows how to render the interior of a starship and the storm-swept landscape of Kamino; while this may mean that the game’s overall stability and quality is noticeably improved as the game isn’t trying to render or process loads of different elements all at once, it does make for a far blander and less interesting aesthetic experience as the game never reaches the heights of the original’s run through the Death Star laser cannon.

SWFU2QTEs — *The game looks pretty decent, for the most part.*

Once again, one of the best elements of the game is the incorporation of John Williams’ iconic Star Wars tracks. While you don’t get the same exhilaration as cutting down Wookies as Darth Vader while the Imperial March plays, the use of familiar Star Wars tracks once again works extremely well with the game’s visual fidelity to the movies to make it feel as though the game and its characters are deeply entrenched in Star Wars lore.

Enemies and Bosses:
For the majority of The Force Unleashed II, you’ll be cutting your way through swathes of Stromtroopers; we’ve got the generic minions, sniper and jetpack-wearing variants, and staff-wielding Riot Troopers. Despite the ease at which you can cut through these guys (the jetpackers, especially, go down much easier than in the first game), it does feel as though their intelligence, durability, and aggressiveness has been tweaked slightly to make them a bit more of a threat. Thankfully, the annoying Purge Troopers are no longer present; in there place, are a series of robotic enemies. The large variants wield shields that you must wrench off them with the Force and can attack with explosives, flamethrowers, or even carbonite sprays. You’ll also battle AT-MPs and AT-STs, both of which require to you reflect missiles back at them and, like these larger robots, can be destroying using QTEs.

SWFU2Gorog — *The battle against the Gorog just keeps going on and on!*

The game also brings back Force-sensitive and lightsaber-wielding foes, who are resistant to your lightsaber attacks and Force abilities, respectively, though the new grapple move is very useful for breaking through their guard. You’ll also battle spider-like terror droids (who can swarm you in an instant and must be destroyed en masse with Force Repulse) and enemies who are invisible and intangible until you stun them with Force Lightning, but, beyond Stormtrooper and droid variants, that’s about it for the game’s enemies. The Force Unleashed II is also a little thin on the ground when it comes to its bosses; at one point, it seems like the game is building up to a battle against Boba Fett but this never actually occurs, which is a shame. While the first game had far more boss encounters, though they were generally all variations on the same thing but, here, there are as few bosses as there are levels. The game tries to make up for it by making the few boss battles you do have to contend with last a long time; when battling the gigantic Rancor-eating Gorog, for example, you’ll have to dodge its massive claws, charge up its shackles with Force Lightning before attacking them with your lightsaber, and then mash the B button to Force Push the creature back into its restraints. Once you sap its health, you’ll then have to blast it with Force Lightning and attack it (and a few waves of Stromtroopers) from a higher gantry in order to sever the structure holding it in place and then you’ll dive after it at high speed, zapping and slashing at it before it can crush your ally, all of which can be an extremely exhaustive experience.

SWFU2Vader3 — *Eventually, the battle is decided by a QTE.*

This exhaustion continues with the final bout against Darth Vader; unlike in the first game, where you could choose to battle Vader to the death or take on the Emperor at the end, The Force Unleashed II ends on an annoying multi-stage duel with the Dark Lord himself. Being so thoroughly bested by his apprentice in the first game must have really pissed Vader off, too, as he’s much more of a threat in this sequel; your Force abilities are all but useless against Vader here, requiring you to unleash your best combos against him on the rare occasions when his guard his down. Like the final duel of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (ibid, 1999) and the battle between Yoda (Frank Oz) and Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) in Revenge of the Sith, this finale takes place on a vertical plane, with Starkiller and Vader having to leap to platforms across a bottomless chasm deep in Kamino’s cloning facilities. As the fight progresses, you’ll have to send debris and objects back at Vader to damage him and then use your Mind Trick to convince flawed Starkiller clones to distract and damage Vader enough for you to really open up on him. Finally, the fight ends out on a rain-soaking landing platform, similar to the fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), where your Force Range will be fully powered and you’ll have to win a few QTEs to finally best Vader in combat and be able to, once again, choose between a Light Side ending and a Dark Side ending.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
as in the first game, you can pick up Jedi and Sith Holocrons hidden throughout every level; these will either give you a bunch of additional points to upgrade Starkiller’s abilities or provide you with a crystal to customise your lightsaber. These Holocrons are far easier to spot than in the first game and there’s even two additional variants, green and blue, which expand Starkiller’s health and Force meter respectively. While you can no longer acquire in-game buffs that make you invincible or the like, the different lightsaber crystals allow you to drain health from enemies, increase the replenishment of your health or Force meter, or earn more points from combat. You can also customise the lightsaber to deal additional lightning damage, possibly set enemies on fire, or even have a chance to disintegrate them entirely with the mythical Darksaber. As you play through the game, you’ll unlock additional costumes for Starkiller; you can also unlock further costumes by succeeding in the game’s “Challenge” mode and, if you have a save file from The Force Unleashed on your hard drive, you’ll gain access to three additional costumes (including the awesome Sith Stalker costume).

Additional Features:
As in the first game, you can unlock concept art and data files by playing the game; you can also input various cheat codes that allow you to save you having to unlock costumes and skins such as Boba Fett, though most of the game’s best costumes are restricted to DLC. Also present is the aforementioned “Challenge” mode; as you play the game, you’ll unlock new maps and challenges to take on in this mode, which generally require you to survive against waves of enemies while staying on a platform or collecting Holocrons, all against a clock. Depending on how well you do, you’ll receive either a bronze, silver, or gold medal and unlock additional costumes. DLC is far less extensive in this game; unlike the first, there is only one additional mission available in DLC. This non-canon extension of the game’s Dark Side ending sees players assume the role of the dark clone of Starkiller, who is sent to kill Princess Leia (who has become a Jedi in this timeline) during the Battle of Endor and winds up drop-kicking Ewoks and killing both Han Solo and Chewbacca for good measure.

The Summary:
For everything Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II improves from its predecessor, it has a near-equal number of failings as well. The game is far simpler; the interfaces are cleaner and easier to navigate, the plot is much more simplifier, and the combat has boiled down to a simply button masher. While this makes the game fast-paced, frenetic fun at times, it comes at the cost of the game’s length, difficulty, and replayability; the environments are even more limited than its predecessor, the plot is paper thin is the bare minimum excuse to produce a sequel, and it largely adds little to the first game or the overall Star Wars lore. Unfortunately, there’s probably less appeal in The Force Unleashed II than in the original; at least in that game, we got to see some familiar characters return and the formation of the Rebel Alliance be fleshed out but, here, we’re not really learning anything new. All this sequel shows us is that it was foolish for players to be emotionally invested in Starkiller and his new allies as even PROXY, who was clearly destroyed in the original, returns here (adding nothing to the narrative) and Juno, for all the importance the game places on her in Starkiller’s life, is little more than a damsel in distress and is never interacted with until the last moments of the game. Overall, The Force Unleashed II is far less frustrating than its predecessor but still an average gameplay experience. The developers definitely tidied up the combat and the physics but it doesn’t change the fact that this sequel is little more than an shameless cash-in n the success of The Force Unleashed. Were this game’s story condensed into a piece of DLC and its improvements and tweaks placed into The Force Unleashed, we could probably have had a really good Star Wars game but, instead, we got two lacklustre titles that, for all their potential, fail to really provide a coherent gameplay experience between them.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

What did you think abouy Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II? Did you consider it to be superior to its predecessor or were you just as unimpressed with the game’s length and variety as I was? What is your favourite Star Wars videogame (or movie, or show, or book, or whatever), if any? Either way, drop a comment below and let me know.

Game Corner: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360)

04/05/202006/05/2022Dr. K2 Comments

Released: September 2008
Developer: LucasArts
Also Available For: iOS, J2ME, N-Gage, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Wii, PC, and Mac

The Background:
Before Disney bought the entire Star Wars (Various, 1977 to present) franchise and decided to reboot it with a bunch of questionable sequels, George Lucas was still firmly behind the wheel of his signature series. Development of a new Star Wars videogame began in 2004, around the time that Lucas was finishing up Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (ibid, 2005), and, eventually, the developers decided to work in close collaboration with Lucas in bridging the gap between that film and the seminal Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (ibid, 1977). The decision was made to introduce the idea that Darth Vader had secretly been training an apprentice, known as “Starkiller”, to not only hunt down and destroy any remaining Jedi but also to assist him in overthrowing Emperor Palpatine. In service of this, Vader would use Starkiller to form the fledging Rebel Alliance, thereby effectively creating his own downfall. While these events would later be rendered non-canon after the Disney buyout, for a time they stood as the established origins of the Rebel Alliance. Personally, I haven’t really enjoyed a Star Wars videogame since Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Factor 5/LucasArts, 1998) and have only dipped in and out of subsequent titles as the franchise has dabbled in almost every conceivably genre. I’d heard, however, that The Force Unleashed was a pretty decent title, if mired by some frustrating controls and gameplay elements. Nevertheless, distrustful of Electronic Arts and their shameless loot crates and being unwilling (read: poor) to shell out for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Respawn Entertainment, 2019) yet having a Star Wars itch, I decided to take the plunge with The Force Unleashed and see if it holds up after all this time.

The Plot:
During his mission to hunt down and destroy the remaining Jedi, Darth Vader stumbles upon the son of a Jedi, whom he takes as a secret apprentice. Trained in the Dark Side of the Force, Vader’s secret assassin, Starkiller, is sent out into the galaxy to purge the Jedi and lay the foundations for Vader’s coup against the Emperor.

Gameplay:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is, like many Star Wars videogames, a third-person action title in which the player controls Starkiller, a troubled and damaged young man who is strong with the Force and well-trained in the Sith arts. As a result, Starkiller wields a lightsaber and can use the Force in a variety of ways to strike down those before him. Combat is largely built around the execution of combos that string together successful lightsaber strikes with Force abilities. Starkiller can blast foes with Force Lightning, push or toss them (and objects) with Force Push and Force Grip, blast them away with Force Repulse, or envelop himself in a life-sapping Force Shield. As he cuts down Jedi and Stormtroopers alike, he earns experience points which can be used to unlock additional combos and improves his abilities. Luckily, there’s no crafting system and the skill tree is ridiculously easy; you can acquire crystals that will allow you to customise the look and abilities of Starkiller’s lightsaber and can improve the strength of his various attacks or regenerative abilities by spending Force Points.

SWTFUCrLightsaber — *Starkiller holds his lightsaber like an absolute bad-ass.*

Speaking of Starkiller’s lightsaber, you know he’s a bad-ass not just because he has a no-nonsense buzzcut or a near-permanent scowl but also because he holds his lightsaber backwards! What a rebel! Holding down L2 will allow Starkiller to block incoming blaster fire and attacks (and pressing it at the right moment will also allow him to parry), though he can also automatically send bolts back to his foes as he runs along. Lightsaber combat is simple and fluid; hitting X at the right moment will initiate a fancy flourish that can be chained with subsequent attacks to deal massive damage, and Starkiller can even hurl his lightsaber like a boomerang to take out ranged foes and charge it with his Force Lightning to electrocute his enemies. It’s not all combat and tossing fools to their death with the Force, though; you’ll have your reaction time tested in more than a few quick-time events (QTEs) and Starkiller generally navigates through a limited number of largely limited, if relatively-well-realised environments, jumping and dashing his way to a series of objectives. There’s some light platforming here that requires the use of a double jump and dash, and a few extremely basic puzzles that pretty much always boil down to using the Force to move something to either cross a gap or open a door (or, sometimes, both!)

SWTFUStarDestroyer — *While impressive, this part is a pain in the ass.*

While Starkiller controls very well, what will mess you up is the game’s wonky physics engine, unreliable camera, and janky controls; I struggled endlessly with the Force Grip, which either allowed me to suspend objects uselessly in mid air or sent them careening futilely against a wall and, as many have commented. This becomes a massive source of frustration during what should have been the game’s crowning achievement: pulling a Star Destroyer from the sky. While pulling the ship down wasn’t actually that difficult (though it is frustrating having to angle it into the right position), it’s the wave-upon-wave of TIE Fighters that make this so aggravating. Starkiller can’t deflect TIE Fighter fire and the only way to destroy them is to grab them with the Force and, I swear, it’s damn near impossible to get a grip on them.

SWTFULevels — *Levels are very* Star Wars but not very inspiring.

Compounding the matter is the fact that Starkiller is actually quite weak; you can upgrade his health and Force meter and the damage he can receive and dish out, but he bounces around the place like a puppet when he’s blasted with heavy weaponry and sometimes takes so long to jump back up that he can get blasted to death with very little effort. As a result, you’ll be constantly jumping and dashing about cutting down the regular Stromtroopers to refill your health and allow you to pummel away at the game’s tougher enemies. While the game is a decent length and tells a pretty engaging story about Starkiller’s eventual redemption and sacrifice, the level variety leaves a lot to be desired. Every environment feels very Star Wars and you’ll battle through a TIE Fighter factory, the woodlands of Kashyyyk, and even through the Death Star itself but the problem is that you basically revisit the same environments twice over. You begin the game as a fully-powered Vader slaughtering Wookies on Kashyyyk and later revisit this planet as Starkiller; Starkiller journeys to Raxus Prime to assassinate a Jedi and later returns there to rescue key figures of the Rebellion. Other environments, like Tatooine and Coruscant, appear as downloadable content (DLC) but it would have really helped to increase the game’s visual variety to have these levels be a part of the main story.

Graphics and Sound:
Graphically, the game is…okay. The computer-generated cutscenes are well-produced but, while the in-game graphics do a serviceable enough job of rendering the game’s handful of levels and environments, they don’t make for very attractive in-game cutscenes. It also seems like the developers were desperate to cram as many different physics engines into the game as possible, from Havok to Euphoria, in order to make the game “state of the art”. However, while the enemies have relatively decent levels of intelligence (Stormtroopers just blast away but the Purge Troopers and Felucian’s systematically attack you with blocks and co-ordinated attacks) and the environments are largely intractable and destructible, the game is riddled with rag-doll physics, glitchy platforms (Starkiller is just as likely to slide off a ledge as he is to land on it), and dodgy graphical elements (the backgrounds are teeming with life and action but then some barriers and trees just disintegrate into dust and fade away).

SWTFUMusic — *You’ll really feel as though you are Darth Vader…for about ten minutes.*

Yet, the game is filled with familiar Star Wars music and compositions based upon the works of the great John Williams. There’s something incredibly empowering about cutting Wookies down as Darth Vader while the iconic Imperial March plays and the music definitely lends a level of professionalism and quality to the game that is, generally, matched by the game’s recognisable environments.

Enemies and Bosses:
The Force Unleashed is filled with all manner of enemies; while you’ll wade through legions of Stormtroopers who go down with relative ease, you’ll also come up against some of the Empire’s more advanced troops who make use of cloaking technology, gatling guns, blast you with concussive bolts from jetpacks, or erect Force-resistant shields. Then there are the enemies who use energy shields or weapons to block and parry your attacks, the likes of the Purge Troopers who grapple Starkiller and want nothing more than to bash his brains in, or the always-annoying Sniper Troopers who pick you off from a distance. Starkiller will also battle Force-sensitive enemies, like the Felucians, or those like the Emperor’s Royal Guard who wield lightsaber-like staffs and weapons and require you to break through their defences to land a combo.

SWTFUBigEnemies — *Larger enemies require a bit more strategy.*

Sometimes you’ll have to target a specific enemy in order to “demoralise” the other troops; this is essential as, when your enemies are bolstered by these bastards, they can kill you in short order. Starkiller will also frequently come up against AT-STs and Rancors as well; these larger enemies are often flanked by waves of smaller enemies and can whittle your health down to nothing in no time with their powerful attacks so you’ll have to make use of Starkiller’s ranged Force abilities and combos and then win at a QTE to put them down for good.

SWTFUSarlaac — *One boss battle takes place right next to a Sarlacc pit!*

As for boss battles, these are pretty much all against Jedi, Sith, or similarly-Force-empowered individuals. While each of these encounters is largely the same (block or parry attacks while you wait for an opening, cut down cannon fodder to refill your health, use your Force powers to throw objects at the boss, and win a QTE), each takes place with slightly different environmental and additional hazards. You’ll duel with Shaak Ti beside a Sarlacc pit, for example, have to contend with Maris Brood’s Bull Rancor, and will have to battle simulations of not only the Jedi you’ve defeated before but also a recreation of Darth Maul when facing off with Starkiller’s droid, PROXY.

SWTFUSEmperor — *The Emperor will try your patience.*

The finale of the game obviously sees you butting heads with Starkiller’s former master, Darth Vader; this is a three (or four, depending on your choice) stage fight that begins in a narrow hallway, progresses to a room where the floor is (almost literally) lava, and ends in the Emperor’s observation deck. Ironically, I found Vader to be less challenging than some of the game’s other bosses as, while he has a powerful Force blast and will choke you out of the air, it’s not actually too difficult to weather his attacks and wail on him with your best combos. After besting Vader, you’re presented with a choice to finish him off in a battle to the death (thus earning the Dark Side ending) or going one-on-one with the Emperor to achieve the Light Side ending. Rather than attacking with a lightsaber, Palpatine uses his Force Lightning to roast you alive, shields himself from your attacks, and throws lightning-charged objects at you (that also explode). This battle is more annoying than difficult as, with careful timing, you can bounce Palpatine’s lightning back at him and whittle him away with your combos as long as you can avoid or block his other attacks.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As mentioned, you can acquire, upgrade, and purchase new combos and abilities as you play through the game and level up; by the time you confront the Emperor, you can take quite a bit of punishment, your Force meter will refill faster, and your attacks will dish out far more damage thanks not just to being upgraded but also to the new combos available to you.

SWTFUUpgrades — *Upgrade your abilities with Force points.*

As you explore your environment, you can also pick up Jedi Holocrons, which will refill your health and Force meter, award Jedi points, and yield other awards (like new lightsaber crystals). With the right lightsaber crystal, your lightsaber can deal more damage or suck health from your opponents, and you’ll also unlock additional artwork, costumes, and other bonuses by finding all of the Holocrons. Starkiller can also increase his odds with one-time buffs by picking up Sith Holocrons; these will grant you with limited invincibility, refill your meters, bestow you with an aura that will drain the health from enemies, or give you an unlimited Force meter for a brief time. Against some of the game’s tougher enemies and mini bosses, these can be essential so make the effort to pick them up and take out the more annoying enemies.

Additional Features:
As mentioned, you can unlock a bunch of concept art and data files by playing the game and collecting Jedi Holocrons. There are also a large number of additional costumes available for use; none of these offer any benefit beyond being cosmetic changes but they do allow you to play as other Star Wars characters, including Obi-Wan Kenobi and even C-3PO! There are three DLC missions you can also play if you bought the extra content (or the Ultimate Sith Edition); one sees Starkiller undergo a series of trials in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant while the other two take place on Tatooine and Hoth and present an alternative scenario where Starkiller replaced Vader as the Emperor’s assassin and battles some familiar faces. As standard, there are a number of Achievements to unlock; most of these are earned through regular play, while other require you to kill a certain number of enemies in different ways or play on higher difficulty settings.

The Summary:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is, ultimately, an average experience; the combat is fast and frenetic and it’s fun to fry Stormtroopers with Force Lightning or cut AT-STs in half but the game quickly runs out of depth and steam and it isn’t long before you’ve experienced everything it has to offer. Starkiller was an interesting protagonist but the story of his redemption is, honestly, nothing we’ve never seen before in Star Wars movies or other media. It doesn’t help that he has to constantly travel through the same environments, fighting variations of the same enemies, and battling against some really dodgy physics and a camera that just loves to get stuck behind objects or jitter about the place at crucial moments. The game’s more frustrating elements really hamper the thrill of fighting through the Death Star laser cannon; battling Jedi and the iconic Sith duo is fun but also a laborious experience that generally comes down to dodging an attack and just mashing away at X like a madman until you win. Despite the fact that the game carries a large degree of sensory fidelity to the Star Wars movies and offers perhaps the best lightsaber combat I’ve experienced so far, it seems to be lacking a real polish to bring together is disparate elements into a cohesive and consistently engaging experience.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

What were your thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed? Did you also struggle with the game’s wonky physics, camera, and controls or do you consider it to not actually be that bad? What is your favourite Star Wars videogame (or movie, or show, or book, or whatever), if any? Either way, leave a comment below and let me know.

Game Corner: Resident Evil – Code: Veronica X HD (Xbox 360)

01/04/202024/03/2023Dr. K14 Comments

Released: February 2019
Originally Released: February 2000
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 4
Also Available For: Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, GameCube, PlayStation 3, and Xbox One

The Background:
After redefining the survival/horror genre with Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996), Capcom were under pressure to release ports of their popular franchise onto consoles other than Sony’s PlayStation. Unable to get a port of Resident Evil 2 (ibid, 1998) for SEGA’s ill-fated Dreamcast off the ground, and with Sony claiming first-dibs on Resident Evil’s next numbered sequel, producer Shinji Mikami opted to develop two concurrent Resident Evil sequels. While Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (ibid, 1999) continued the story of Jill Valentine and was, largely, simply a side-story to Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica reunited Claire Redfield with her brother, Chris, and utilised the superior processing power of the Dreamcast to diverge what was quickly become a stale narrative formula into a more global story.

The Plot:
Three months after escaping the destruction of Raccoon City, Claire Redfield is captured and imprisoned on Rockfort Island while attempting to reunite with her brother, Chris. After an outbreak of the Tyrant-Virus (T-Virus), Claire soon finds herself teaming up with a fellow inmate, Steve Burnside, and once again battling through hoards of zombies and the malevolent Umbrella Corporation’s Bio-Organic Weapons (BOWs) in a desperate attempt to survive.

Gameplay:
Code: Veronica features exactly the same survival/horror gameplay as its predecessors; players once again utilise “tank controls” to navigate Claire, Steve, and Chris through a number of environments but, like in Nemesis, players can now pull back on the analogue stick while pressing A to perform a quick 180-degree turn, which makes dodging BOWs and attacks far easier.

ResiCodeMenu — *Item management is key to your survival.*

As is the tried-and-true Resident Evil formula, players must pick up files and notes to flesh out the game’s story and earn hints as well as collect and combine weapons, ammunition, key items, and healing times (herbs and first-aid sprays) in order to progress. It is crucial to your survival to be constantly aware of your environment and your resources as running out of ammo or herbs can be the difference between life and death. Players can store their items in Item Boxes, which are generally located in safe areas where players can restock and save their progress using an Ink Ribbon and a typewriter. You’ll need to make frequent use of these rooms in order to tackle the game’s puzzles, which can be as simple as moving crates and as complex as risking your life to crush a glass sphere under a massive weighted block.

ResiCodeSteve — *You’ll get to play as this asshole a couple of times…*

Unlike the first two Resident Evil’s, but almost exactly as in Nemesis, Code: Veronica sees players jump between different playable characters as they progress through the story. You begin as Claire trying to escape the zombie outbreak on Rockfort Island but also take control of the irritating Steve at one point, before switching to Chris about halfway through the game. Like in previous games, each have different skills that help them progress (Claire has a lock pick, for example) and players can choose to help out their sibling by clearing areas of enemies or leaving weapons or items behind for them to acquire.

Graphics and Sound:
Unlike its predecessors, Code: Veronica ditches the classic pre-rendered backgrounds for three-dimensional environments that are rendered in real-time; this means that, while there are still some examples of fixed-camera angles, Code: Veronica features the most dynamic and cinematic camera the series had ever seen at that point. This works fantastically with the game’s incorporation of new, foreign locations for its story; while many of the game’s environments will be familiar to Resident Evil veterans (mansions, underground facilities, sewers and the like), you’ll also travel to the frozen wastelands of Antarctica and visit some gothic-inspired locales, though the “HD” makeover isn’t anywhere near as extensive as it has been in recent Resident Evil renovations.

ResiCodeClaire — *Claire is suddenly a bullet-time bad-ass…*

Thanks to the power of the Dreamcast, Code: Veronica not only features a much higher level of detail in character models, faces, and zombie details but also steps up the game’s use of CG cutscenes, which specifically portray Claire in a far more capable and tougher light than she appeared in Resident Evil 2. Just as Leon S. Kennedy jumped from a relatively competent rookie street cop in Resident Evil 2 to a martial arts superspy in Resident Evil 4 (Capcom Production Studio 4, 2005) with little in-game explanation, Claire is suddenly dodging bullets (from a helicopter, no less!) and performing grandiose, bullet-time actions. The game also features a foreboding soundtrack that echoes those of its predecessors; a lot of the time, areas are devoid of music, meaning all you can hear is the shuffle of rotting feet, the moaning of zombies, or the ominous growling of some unspeakable mutation. Subtle, soothing tunes let you know when you’re in a safe area and the dramatic score kicks in as monsters attack and dies down once they’re defeated, which is all standard fair for these early Resident Evil titles.

Enemies and Bosses:
Code: Veronica features a lot of the standard enemies you’ve come to expect from a Resident Evil title; you’ll mainly encounter rotting, bloody zombies who shuffle about, claw along the floor, or burst through windows in their droves. There’s possibly the most variety in the zombies’ appearance here, though, as there’s reanimated corpses from a cemetery, naked zombies in a sauna, zombies with little worker hats, vomiting zombies, frozen zombies, and even zombies with glowing eyes like Albert Wesker. Speaking of which, Code: Veronica inexplicably returned Wesker to the series after he was skewered into ribbons of bloody flesh in the first Resident Evil; while you don’t get to fight Wesker here, he is heavily involved in the game’s plot, which revolves around Alfred and Alexia Ashford developing a new T-Virus strain.

ResiCodeWorm — *I’m seeing a few similarities here…*

The T-Veronica Virus offers a variety of additional BOWs for players to contend with; some will be familiar, like the deadly Hunters and giant spiders, and others are new, like the Tremors (Underwood, 1990) inspired Gulp Worm and Code: Veronica’s most persistent new enemy, the Bandersnatch, which can grab you from afar with its stretchy, clawed arms and will leap and haul tiself around the environment to get at you.

ResiCodeFinale — *Good luck hitting this fucking thing!*

You’ll also battle some messed up, multi-formed bosses that owe more than a small debt to John Carpenter’s The Thing (Carpenter, 1982); there’s a particularly gruelling close-quarters fight with a Tyrant in a plane, the blind, spider-limbed Nosferatu (who can swipe you right off a helipad and must be awkwardly shot at with a sniper rifle during a blizzard), Steve’s transformation into a hulking, axe-wielding frog-like creature that can only be ran from, and Alexia’s mutation from an insectile creature that flings flaming blood at you, bulges out into a grotesque, bug-spewing monstrosity, and finally ends up as a dragonfly-like annoyance that will take not only your best weapons (usually the Magnum) but also the unwieldy Linear Launcher to defeat.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
In true Resident Evil fashion, you can find additional and more powerful weapons as you play and explore your environments; both Chris and Claire can obtain an assault rifle, dual-wield submachine guns, the go-to fan favourite shotgun, and a grenade launcher with four different types of ammo while also being able to upgrade their base pistol to a burst fire mode or improve its power, respectively.

Additional Features:
Players can unlock a couple of bonuses through gameplay. Completing the game unlocks “Battle Mode”, a time attack survival mode where you must battle hordes of enemies with infinite ammo and lets you pick between third- and first-person perspectives. You can unlock not only Steve but also Wesker for use in this mode and, as you might expect, finishing the game with an S-rank unlocks an infinite rocket launcher for your use. There’s also a handful of Achievements you can attain but, as this was originally an Xbox 360 title, they’re mostly tied to gameplay progression rather than Easter eggs or obscure actions on the player’s part.

The Summary:
Resident Evil – Code: Veronica X is about as classic a Resident Evil title as you can get; it hits all of the beats you would expect from Capcom’s survival/horror franchise while also expanding its scope beyond the confines of Raccoon City for the first time. Narratively, this is also where the series begins to kind of fall of a cliff as the plot suddenly becomes far more dense, layered, and convoluted and shifts towards a focus on Wesker’s evil ambitions and away from a faceless corporation’s machinations. Yet, for as good as it is, Code: Veronica doesn’t really offer anything new; despite the benefits offered by the Dreamcast, the game is firmly entrapped in the gameplay mechanics and restrictions of the series, meaning that it’s more a case of the same-old, same-old rather than offering the fresh take on the series we’d see in Resident Evil 4. However, for those (like me) who were disappointed with the brevity of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and like jumping back into a traditional survival/horror title, there’s enough here to sustain your interest and engagement, though you’ll most likely soon forget the experience once you jump to one of its successor titles.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

What are your thoughts on Resident Evil – Code: Veronica X? Did you play the original Dreamcast title or, like me, discover it through one of its many ports? Would you like to see an HD remaster of this title as well or do you think that it’s best left as it is? Sound off in the comments and come back for more Resident Evil content coming soon.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

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Could Be Better

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Could Be Better

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Could Be Better

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Could Be Better

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