In the first-person underwater survival game Narcosis, you’re a deep sea diver who’s stranded at the bottom of the ocean. But while the development team have figured many of the game’s mechanics, they still have some important decisions to make. As writer David Chen explained when he came to my house to let me play the latest demo of the game, “We don’t even have a name for our team yet.”
Originally released in the ’80s as a series of gamebooks, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! has since made the transition to an interactive fiction game series for iOS devices. With the first installment, “The Shamutani Hills,” now coming to Android, and part 2, “Kharé: Cityport Of Traps,” slated for Spring, Inkle Studios’ Creative Director Jon Ingold discusses what this series is all about, why it’s only now coming to Android devices, and why it won’t be available on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One anytime soon.
Originally released on the 3DS and Vita, the side-scrolling beat-’em-up Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate was generally welcomed with a yawn when it came out alongside the vastly superior Batman: Arkham Origins last year. Now Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate: Deluxe Edition brings the game to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, WiiU, and PC, and with it, many of the same problems that plagued the original versions.
inFAMOUS: Second Son is a comic book-inspired, third-person, open-world action game made by Sucker Punch for the PlayStation 4. It’s also the third installment of a series that’s never had much of an impact on me either way. Sure, 2009’s inFAMOUS and 2011’s inFAMOUS 2 were fun — even if the latter wasn’t called inFAMOUS 2: Electric Boogaloo — but neither was fun enough to make me want to play them twice.
Happily, inFAMOUS: Second Son is just as much fun as its predecessors.
Or maybe that should that be: Sadly, inFAMOUS: Second Son is only as much fun as its predecessors.
Eh, six of one; half a dozen of another.
Seven years after the events of inFAMOUS 2, a politically-minded graffiti artist named Delsin Rowe accidentally becomes superpowered. But instead of fighting crime or saving the world, Delsin uses them to save his friends and drive the military out of Seattle.
As with the previous games, inFAMOUS: Second Son has you using your superpowers, and ability to parkour like a master, to run a series of errands that usually involve killing someone or destroying something. But unlike in the other games, where the hero’s powers were based on electricity — which made him a low-rent version of Spider-Man’s nemesis Electro — Delsin gets his power from a succession of sources. Starting with smoke.
No, not that kind of smoke. Regular smoke, like you get from smokestacks and burning cars.
So what can Delsin do with that smoke? Aside from turning into a cloud so he can dash through porous surfaces or into vents, he can also whack people with a God Of War-like chain (sans the blades), or do some powerful attacks that will make a certain someone say “HULK CALL COPYRIGHT LAWYER!”
But the most useful piece of Delsin’s smoke-based arsenal is his ability to shoot concentrated bits from his hands (it’s a lot more effective than it sounds). It’s why, like inFAMOUS and inFAMOUS 2, inFAMOUS: Second Son often plays like a third-person shooter.
It’s something that continues even when Delsin’s powers transition to another source, such as neon. Except then he shoots concentrated light (though, as with all his power sources, he secondary attacks change based on the source of his juicing).
Of course, this shooting stuff is where, in the previous games, things went awry. Mostly due to the overly loose controls. Not so for inFAMOUS: Second Son. Because of the PlayStation 4’s much improved controller, aiming is a lot more fluid and accurate than before. Which means this often plays like a good third-person shooter.
The thing is, Delsin can’t go all willy-nilly with his attacks. Which is bad for him, but good for you since it adds a bit of strategy. Though he can always whack people, his shooting attacks need to be replenished. When he’s using smoke, for instance, he powers up using the aforementioned smokestacks and burning cars, both of which are commonplace in this version of Seattle. But since some power sources have to recharge before hooking you up again, and others are single use, you sometimes have to plan ahead. Or, at the very least, occasionally run off in the middle of a fight to get your fix.
While combat is better in inFAMOUS: Second Son than it was in the earlier installments, getting around — which was the highlight of those games — has gotten weaker. This is largely because even when Delsin powers are based on electricity, there aren’t any power lines criss-crossing the city for him to slide on, nor are there third rails of subway lines to similarly ride, which were a great way to get around before.
Even when the neon gives him super speed that lets him run up the sides of buildings, it’s still not as much fun as sliding effortlessly along electric wires.
Then there’s the issue of the side missions, which include killing specific people, destroying surveillance cameras, and leaving your graffiti in strategic spots. But as with the other inFAMOUS games, most of them in Second Son end up feeling more like busy work.
It also doesn’t help that the map can be rather unhelpful, even misleading at times. Not intentionally, mind you, but it’s sometimes so inexact that it makes it hard to find the site of your next objective. Which isn’t good for an open world game with numerous side quests and collectibles.
As a result of having good combat but a bad traveling and a crap map, the real fun of inFAMOUS: Second Son comes when you’re running amok with little concern for your current mission…or human life for that matter. If you’re someone who likes to blow shit up, you’ll get a real thrill when Delsin starts laying waste to the military and their outposts, especially he does it with one of his Hulk-ish moves.
That Delsin does Hulk-ish moves is rather apt since, like the previous inFAMOUS games, Second Son explores the dichotomy of man by having you make moral choices. Besides impacting the story in both big and small ways, these decisions also raise or lower your karma, giving you access to specific upgrades you unlock as you level up. But, as before, this really only works well if you go full hero or full villain, since that’s only way you can unlock the most powerful upgrades.
It’s just too bad that the story isn’t all that engaging, or that Delsin is such an unsympathetic, self-righteous twit.
As the first installment on the PlayStation 4, inFAMOUS: Second Son also takes advantage of the system’s unique functions. Such as the controller’s touchpad, which you swipe when you want to tear certain doors off their hinges. Or the controller’s speaker, which cleverly makes a “whoosh” when you’re absorbing some power.
Then there’s the visuals, which are, naturally, more detailed than those of previous inFAMOUS games. Though while they are improved, they’re nothing that will blow anyone away. But, having said that, the game never suffers from any slow down, even when the air is full of both soldiers and what’s left of their barricades.
In fact, the only visual issue I had with inFAMOUS: Second Son is one that’s so common in games these days that I now just cut and paste this paragraph into almost every game review I do: the type is too small. Unless you sit really, really close to your TV — y’know, like your mama told you not to — you’ll have a hard time reading the text that tells you what you’re supposed to do next, what things improve in the upgrade menu, and what people are saying via the subtitles.
Ultimately, how much you will or won’t enjoy inFAMOUS: Second Son can be measured by how much you did or did not enjoy the previous inFAMOUS games. Especially since every step forward Sucker Punch made with the combat is countered by step back in getting around. But while this isn’t as exhilarating as Spider-Man 2, it’s also not as frustrating as Spider-Man 3. Instead, it’s a solid superpowered bit of mayhem that will entertain…even if it doesn’t engage. Just don’t expect me to play it more than once.
SCORE: 7.5
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is a third-person action game in which you have to hack & slash your way through hordes of zombies. But while the game — which was made by Spark Unlimited for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC (via Steam) under the supervision of Team Ninja — has nothing to do with the Ninja Gaiden games, a myriad of serious problems will prevent even the most forgiving of action fans from enjoying this mess as well.
With a main mission that clocks in around two hours, the third-person stealth action game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes — which Kojima Productions has made for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 — might seem like just a glorified demo, not worth the money. But with numerous reasons why you’ll want to play this really fun game more than once, the real question isn’t “if” you should buy Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, but “when.”
Never let it be said that the people at Respawn Entertainment aren’t loyal to their friends. In making their first game, Titanfall, they not only brought back their old pal Jesse Stern — who previously worked with them on 2007’s Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and 2009’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — to help write the game, but they also reunited with composer Stephen Barton, who had the music for the first Modern Warfare.
Though in talking to Barton, composing the music for Titanfall wasn’t like working on a second Modern Warfare.
When Abbie Heppe was first hired by Respawn, it was to be their company’s Community Manager. But as so often happens in game design, one thing led to another, and now Heppe is also the voice of the Militia commander Sarah in Respawn’s new sci-fi shooter Titanfall, as well as the face model for pilots on both sides of the conflict in the game. Which means she’ll probably be running the place inside of six months. Though in talking to Heppe about her career path, it’s clear this isn’t all part of some carefully crafted master plan devised by a career-minded genius. Or so she says…
In the online-only, multiplayer-focused, first-person, overly-hyphenated, sci-fi shooter Titanfall, soldiers use futuristic weapons and giant robot suits to battle it out on alien worlds. And with the game being made for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC by Respawn — y’know, the people who, at their old jobs, made Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — it’s not surprising that this game boasts smooth, intuitive controls and addictive multiplayer.
But what might surprise you is that, while Titanfall can only be played online and with other people, the game’s story-driven campaign is still as engaging as its competitive counterpart.