Archive for April, 2012

Finished: The Walking Dead Episode One(steam edition)

The Walking Dead game has recently came out. Being the impatient person that I am, I caved in and bought it. The genre of this game is an interactive horror game. More popular games that fit this type of genre would be Indigo Prophecy or Heavy rain. The Walking dead is listed to have 5 episodes but as of right now it only has 1. The first episode can be completed within two to three hours. Even though it is a short game, there are many branches the player can choose to give this game a high replay value.

The game starts off with the protagonist Lee, a middle age African American man who is being taken to jail, who has no idea about the zombie apocalypse happening. While the game story takes a turn for the worst you find your secondary character 8 year old Clementine. She is the equivalent of Yorda from Ico. She follows you around the game from room to room and basically you are her guardian. The game is all about the voice acting and the choices you make. The only gripe I have with this game is that you can’t skip scenes. This may not sound so bad but if I already did a part of the story and all I want to do is make a difference choice I don’t really wanna hear the 5 to 10 minutes conversation that goes before my choice making.

The story is determined by the choices you make in the game. If the other survivors are in trouble who do I save, character X or character Y? I save character X how do I try to save him/her? Do we leave the town at day time or do we leave the town at night time? These are some of the choices you make in the game. Even though there may look like many choices in the game, the game still forces some important parts of the story to the player. The choices you make doesn’t really matter and it leads to the general outcome. Should that deter your from playing this game? I don’t think it should. The story of this game should be enough to all Walking Dead fans or people who just like good stories.

The major kicker for me in this game is that you get to meet a few of the actual characters from the Walking Dead show and comic. You get to see why they act the way they act in the comic/show. It gives them a little more back story and explains what they did during the early parts of the zombie outbreak. Once you finish the episode, the game gives you statistics of what choices other people did when they played the story which adds a nice touch. To top it off, at the end of the episode, the game gives you a sneak peek of what might happen in the next episode. As of right now I think this game is worth playing even if you don’t watch the show or read the comic.

2012
04/28
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Currently Playing: Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded

I feel like I’m a masochist when it comes to Kingdom Hearts games. I will still play any Kingdom Hearts game no matter how bad it is or how much the games don’t add anything to the overarching stories. Fortunately Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded is somewhere in the middle. It isn’t a bad game but the story really doesn’t do much for me so far.

What I can tell you is that it plays really similar to the PSP’s Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep. The fighting is similar to it in that you do not get to bring two team mates along with you unlike the console games. I don’t want to get into too deeply about the combat yet but so far the combat is different and better for it.

Another thing that they tried to do differently is a leveling grid type matrix. What that really means is that it is really similar to the grid system that is used in Final Fantasy X. It is fun and gave me a little more control over what I’m actually unlocking.

One last thing they added was the ability to combine two abilities to make a more powerful version. You basically can combine two abilities that you’ve put enough experience in. You can get the experience from using the abilities inside battles. This is kind of addicting but I found my usual skill lists already so I’m finding it annoying now trying to gain experiences for the abilities that are less powerful just to combine them with the powerful one. I guess it’s keeping things from getting repetitive.

Oh and speaking of repetitive, Kingdom Hearts games are known for repetitiveness and this game reeks of it. Same music, same character models, and even same environments I believe. But it’s Kingdom Hearts so they add something new to it that makes me want to play it. The only thing I found that is really new in my 5 hr playtime are the cutscenes (four so far!). Hopefully more new stuff comes once it gets to the end.

2012
04/26
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Diablo 3 Beta Review Currently Playing

Blizzard has been dominating the PC gaming for years and they are definitely on a roll right now considering the chain of successes Blizzard has done in the last 18 years since 1994 Warcraft: Orcs and humans. Now considering that the company has been on a spree of success with such games as Warcraft, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft does Diablo 3 live up to the standard that Blizzard has set?

Let me start off from the beginning of the game’s character selection. I say character selection instead of character creation because rather than making a character, you select one out of five heroes. I can understand Blizzard wanting to stay in the old roots that both predecessors had, but I find it rather outdated if not lazy. I don’t mean to beat on it too much but one of the greatest things about playing any online game, especially a role playing game is having a unique look. Blizzard also decided to lower the amount of heroes to choose from. In Diablo 2 it was originally 7 and now it has been dropped down to 5. There will most likely be expansions that will include other classes but as of now its 5.

The heroes in this game are the Barbarian, Demon hunter, Monk, Witch doctor, and the Wizard. I mainly played the Wizard but I did play with a few friends and got to hear and examine their abilities. I will only review the one I played cause it is only fair that I do it that way and not pass judgement on things that I do not know clearly. The Wizard hero is the basic casting type, he shoots projectiles and does a lot of AOEs (Area of Effects). I did enjoy playing this character due to the fact that he can keep a good distance and has a lot of crowd control abilities like frost ray and frost wave, which either slow down enemies or freeze them in their place. This hero’s abilities revolve around his arcane power (mana). Now the issue with some games is that if you run out of mana, your casting hero would probably use melee attacks to finish off the enemies. Which I found in most cases pretty stupid and very ineffective. However, with Diablo 3 you basically get a primary ability which is interchangeable with other primary skills. The ability reusable even with no mana even considering you regenerate mana faster than your primary skills can use. I was able to keep up the damage without the need for wasting a mana potion. The beta was very limited with the skills so I can’t go really in depth with abilities since the future spells could possibly change the hero’s gameplay completely.

After you create your hero you get to watch some cinematic scenes and listen to some lore. The first thing you will notice about Diable 3 once the game starts is that it will remind you about the predecessors pretty fast. Its dark, gloomy, and full of monsters roaming the earth. The graphics for the game are pretty good although I had low frames per second compare to other games with a 3d world. I play a lot of different computer games and I found this to be a rather big issue to start with. Maybe it is just a beta issue and can be fixed later on. The first change that I caught rather quick was that your hero actually talks now. In the older Diablo games your hero was a silent protagonist. The voice acting is pretty good and there isn’t a lot of it to the point that it is annoying you but also not very little so you would not feel like their isn’t a story. The game sticks to its roots pretty well by making everything destructible such as barrels graves and certain spots like chandeliers. Questing in this game is the same as every other action rpg. Its mainly pick up quest and do as quest says. Most likely the quests will be either find X person or kill X monster. As for the other features of the game such as crafting its very simple and direct. All you have to do is get gold and upgrade the blacksmith crafting spot and he will unlock more schematics. Then you give him X item and he creates the item for you. As for socketing gems in armor it wasn’t implemented in the beta and I will get back to it when it does become implemented. The auction house feature is like any other auction house in other games, you put up the item for real money or game currency then the consumer will either bid or buy item depending on what options the seller put in.

This game so far seems like the old Diablo games with better graphics and some slight tweaks, this game won’t be out until May 15th and I will be able to give a real review on it when it does release.

2012
04/25
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Puzzle Agent 2 Finished!

Puzzle Agent 2 is the sequel to the Professor Layton clone Puzzle Agent that was released in 2010 by Telltale Games. Both Professor Layton and Puzzle Agent’s main mechanic is the puzzles that the town’s people you visit seem to want you to solve. They both even have a hint system where you need to find hidden hint icons throughout the game to use them during the puzzles. However, Puzzle Agent adds humor to the game which is really missing in Professor Layton.

Puzzle Agent 2 starts where the first game left off. Agent Nelson Tethers is still confuse as to why his case from the last game has been marked as closed when there is still a missing person. He decides the spend his vacation time revisiting the town folks of Scoggins to figure out where the missing person is. That is the gist of the story but like the previous game, the town folks are what makes this game stand out.

All of the town folks in Scoggins have something funny or weird to say to you. Most of them even have a puzzle for you to solve. The reasons to solve these puzzles work with the story most of the time not unlike Professor Layton. The town folks are all unique. There is the guy who gets really jumpy when you talk to him. There is the suspicious sheriff who doesn’t like newcomers. There is even a character which is very similar to Scruffy from Futurama. There are many more but the best parts of the game are when you are introduced to these new characters. However there are not that many new characters in this game. I believe that is where Puzzle Agent 2 falls short is that they rely heavily on all the great characters from the last game that they don’t introduce not many new characters. Even though I complain about reusing the same characters, I still had a blast when I was talking to them.

The puzzles in Puzzle Agent 2 isn’t as great as Professor Layton or even Puzzle Agent. There are about 4 main types of puzzles if I remember correctly. There’s the sort the puzzle in chronological order from pictures. A puzzle to direct a line or laser to a spot using objects to redirect it. A puzzle to move objects around so that a path is open to the exit. And finally a puzzle that involves some knowledge in math to be able to solve it. Though there are some other puzzle that are not of these 4 types, most of the puzzles in the game are. The puzzles with the math stuff are really confusing as I’m not sure how many people would get it. I mean would you really know the 7th and 8th digit of Pi? Or would you know something about integrals? I’m just not sure how Telltales could think that only smart people would play this game since it is a puzzle game.

Though the puzzles in Puzzle Agent 2 are a little disappointing, I really like the story of these games. I love these characters and the world Telltales had created. I love that the main character is in a division of the government called The Puzzle Division. Even his friend is in a division called the Vegetable Crime division. Random things like these are what attracts me to these kinds of games. I played through the puzzles so that I can see more of the story and interact with these characters. Even the animation is so stiff that I have to imagine that the developers are intentionally doing it for a style. It looks cheap and it is better for it. I played it on the Ipad but I believe you can play it almost everywhere. I believe this game is worth a try if you like randomness or just something close to the humor of Family Guy or Futurama.

2012
04/19
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UFC UNDISPUTED 3

Before I review this game I would like to point out that I enjoy watching UFC and I enjoy fighting games. I have played the last 2 UFC games prior to this new one. I will admit the last 2 games prior to this one weren’t developed as well and could feel stale at times. However, UFC 3 Undisputed corrected a lot of things from the previous 2 games.

The developers completely redid the tutorial from the previous games. It really made the game much better. It made the learning curve for the game much easier to pick up for new comers and learn the fighting system rather than trying to learn it during mid match.

The next thing they added that made this game stand out from the last 2 was that they added a lot more fighters. I have to be a little bias but I was disappointed with the last UFC for having a lack of Asian fighters. I was glad to see that they were able to add all the main Asian UFC fighters from Akiyama to Takanori Gomi. The visuals for each fighter is pretty spot on and they straightened up all the move list for each fighter making them more unique and true to the actual fighters rather than making them feel like skin swaps.

Career mode was also different around this time. They added a good twist by adding videos from actual fighters when you complete a certain criteria like your first loss or first title shot which gives it a bit of depth. They also added a lot more training mini game options like tire flipping or punching bag. They even built up on the make your fighter mode.

Now for the actual gameplay. Once you get situated with the controls, the game plays really smoothly. In the stand up fighting, the game can feel as good as any boxing game. It slows down a bit when you get down to the ground fighting such as submissions and holds but that is how it is when you watch the fights in real life. It makes sense and made the game much more realistic. One of the best things about this game is that submissions have been made easier to submit people in and out of. For example, if you remember the old submission system it was easy to put people in submission holds but to actually submit people it was very grey. I used to spin my analog and hope that it would work but now they changed it to point where a giant octagon pops up on the screen and you have to keep your color on your opponent’s color. Basically stay on top of him til your bottom tug of war bar gets full, the moment it gets full you submit him in. If your opponent gets away from you the entire time and gets his bar full he counters you or breaks out of the submission.

This is one of those games where when you get a kick to the face and you go “ooooh”. A game when you do a highlight knockout and you smack your friend and say “Dude you have to see this?” This game gets competitive not only from playing with a friend but even playing by yourself. In contrast to 2d fighting games where you have to be flashy with a super ultra combo finish to grab attention this game grabs attention from a single punch to even a choke out submission. I would have to say if you like UFC and you like MMA games in general this game is worth a rental.

2012
04/17
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Currently Playing: Darksiders

I’ve been in and out of this game for quite a while now. I even though about getting the superior version on the PC but I decided to stick to my 360 copy. After hearing so many good things from Patrick Klepek at Giant Bomb, I decided I should try finishing this game. At least finish before the sequel and see if the sequel lives up to this game.

Darksiders is a game that can be described as a fan-service game. No not anime kind of fan service but more of a gaming kind of fan service. What I mean is it combines many mechanics from a lot of great games and also add it’s own ingredients into the mix. This game is pretty much 70% Zelda, 20% God of war/DMC, 5% random games, and 5% original. This game may not be original but it copies the mechanics so well that I tend to forgive it. It has dungeons and weapons like Zelda but sometimes it does it better than Zelda. For example, in Zelda you have to do some repetitive mechanic to summon your horse and then wait for your horse to get to you. In Darksiders, all you need to do is press a button and your horse comes out of the ground.  There are some stuff that could have done better like the dungeon design but so far I’m really enjoying it.

The combat is also nice and compare nicely to DMC or God of War. I really like the weighty feel of War’s sword when he swings it. It really brings out an impact to everything he hits. The story is also pretty original. It involves the four horsemen trying to make things right when all hell breaks lose on Earth. It’s not a great story so far but playing as one of the horsemen is pretty exciting. I don’t think I’ll beat this game for a while but I will be sure to write another post about it soon!

2012
04/17
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Ace Combat Assault Horizon Finished!

Ace Combat Assault Horizon is an interesting game. Writing this post is really conflicting. A part of me wants to really recommend the game to others while another part of me just want to say that it is not worth playing. Ace Combat does a lot of things right that previous Ace Combats failed to do. The combat, flying, and even the story is better. However it still falls back to it’s old roots by having long missions that gets really repetitive by the end.

Ace Combat would be an amazing game if the missions were just a little bit shorter. There were many times during the missions when I asked myself “Really? They’re making me do this again?” The missions are only about 20-35 minutes long but even then I wish they were only about 15 minutes long. Fortunately each missions are unique to each other. One mission requires you to bomb naval ships while another require you to use a helicopter to save ground troops from incoming attack. Even though each mission goals are unique, the game forces the player to repeat this task at least 5 times each mission. One mission where you have to take out incoming bombers before they blow up Dubai requires the player to take out 5 waves of bombers. Five! Each wave has at least 4 bombers with 3 enemy airplanes for each bomber. The first 2-3 waves are a blast but I got tired of doing the same thing afterwards. The weird thing is that the next mission would make the player do something fresh which would really get me pumped up and excited only to be let down by the repetitive structure of the goal. I really wish that these missions would have been shorter. I clocked in at 8 hours and I felt that the game cheated me on that because of these long missions. I would have liked more missions but shorter burst.

Another thing that really didn’t make sense is the aforementioned helicopter sequences. Though there are only 2 in the game, I felt that these missions were just dragging the game. They’re even longer than the airplane missions which I already mention that I didn’t like. Even worse is that the helicopter controls are horrible. They fly really clunky and some of the buttons are mapped weird. The button to shoot machine guns in a jet is the A button while you use the triggers to shoot the machine guns in a helicopter. I get that the developers wanted to make some kind of a shooter type level but it doesn’t make sense to change the controls. Another weird change was how use button combinations to dodge missiles. You press the RB+LB button to dodge missiles but you press the RB button to shoot missiles. I found myself shooting the missiles myself as I was trying to dodge them. Someone should have looked into the controls or at least let these controls be customizable.

One more thing that really didn’t make sense is the turret levels. There are two missions with this type of gameplay also and they both felt out of place. Using the turret is fine but it really gets tedious when you’re doing it for 30 minutes. It plays like a rail shooter but imagine a turret sequence where you’re in one place for 10 minutes shooting at the same stuff. Yea not so fun.

Aside from the long missions, helicopters and turret sequences, the game is a blast to play. Flying around the jets were always exhilarating. There were certain moments when I had my mouth open because of the amazing visuals the game had. Flying through a storm only to fly higher and see no more rain was a nice touch the developers added. The environments and weather effects they added made the flying so much more immersive. The missions as mentioned before were really different from each other. One mission in particular was so simple but yet really amazing. It involved chasing after a missile that was going into space to target the united states. All you’re really doing is chasing the missile vertically but trying to dodge the missile’s rocket flames as you’re trying to shoot it down is one of the most impressive part of the game.

The new mechanic that they added called Dog-Fight mode is also a great feature. It takes the flight controls away from the player and makes the player take aim and try to shoot down the enemy. Most of the time, the enemy will try to run away from you in some of the most amazing airplane chase sequences I’ve seen in a game. Flying through buildings and over stadiums as building are crumbling over you is an amazing feeling. You have to speed up to try to get a better lock on but enemies may sometime try to trick you and make you fly straight into a building.  Even though you don’t have much flight controls, the auto follow the game does when in Dog-Fight mode isn’t perfect that it’ll just follow the plane everywhere. You still have to keep the lock on to the enemy aircraft or else you’ll be taken out of the Dog-Fight mode. The Dog-Fight mode really makes the game much more interesting as you’re not just flying around trying to lock on to the enemy and shooting a missile. Though you can still do that, I found myself trying to get into the Dog-Fight mode as much as possible. The Dog-Fight is a feature that was really needed to Ace Combat games and I hope this feature goes over to the next Ace Combat games.

The multiplayer mode is interesting too as the Dog-Fight mode goes over to the multiplayer. It get hectic as everyone usually goes into this mode and you can clearly see planes trying to fly away from one another as there might be 4 jets chasing each other. Though I didn’t play much multiplayer, I was surprise to really enjoy the time I had with it.

Ace Combat is a conflicting thing to write about. I really want to recommend this game to people but the missions might get too long and repetitive for people. I stuck with it because I wanted to see what other unique missions that the game had to offer. I’m glad that I stuck with it because the end missions were one of the best in the game. They were also short too so that might had to do something with it. If you’re into flight combat games I would say to try this game out as it adds new features that you would think wouldn’t work in these types of games. Though they might have added too many features with helicopters and turrets, I believe the new addition of the Dog-Fight mode really makes the game worth playing.

2012
04/14
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Currently Playing: Ace Combat Assault Horizon

This will be a short one since I briefly played Ace Combat. I was never really a big fan of Ace Combat. I always thought that the air combat was too slow and got a little repetitive. Everything also looked the same after a while and you’re mostly doing the same thing. However, after playing the demo of this game, I figure that I have to give this game a shot since it feels so different from a regular Ace Combat game.

The new feature they added is a mechanic called “Dog-Fight mode” where the player is basically locked-on to the enemy target. When the player is locked-on, the plane moves and follows the enemy automatically. What the player has to manage is the speed of your aircraft and the targeting for missiles and machine guns. Being close to the enemy allows the player to get a better lock on for missiles but also give the enemy a better chance to counter maneuver you. Most of these dog fights become very cinematic as planes are counter maneuvering each other trying to get lock on for missiles. I only tried one online match and I can tell you that it is crazy as there are usually about 6 planes locked on to each other back to back. Since the player doesn’t need to direct the aircraft when locked on, I was surprise to see some amazing enemy scripting as they take you through buildings and factories to out maneuver you. This got me interested to keep doing these dog fights in single player mode. I can see this dog fight mechanic getting old real quickly if it wasn’t for some shnazzy enemy scripting.

Oh and before I close this post, I have to say that the non-airplane parts are one of the most boring parts of the game. Especially the helicopter where you’re doing the same thing over for 20 minutes. It isn’t even a challenge at all and I hope there aren’t that many of those missions. I’m only 4 missions into the game so I guess we will see.

2012
04/12
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Not Worth Playing: Xmen Destiny / Shadows of the Dammed

 

This is going to be a two games in one post since I played one right after another. Surprisingly both were not worth my time to finish playing through it. I know Xmen had a bad review but I really wanted to play a superhero game for some reason. I was giving it a chance since it was developed by Silicon Knights but I guess I should have known after all the bad reviews and Too Human. However I wasn’t expecting Shadows to be bad but it wasn’t my type of game. And as you can tell from my previous posts, my range in games isn’t very limited.

I’ll start with Xmen. In the game, you are asked to pick between three different characters: the jock, the average white American, and a Japanese girl. Whoever you choose doesn’t affect what kind of powers you get later on. You get to choose those powers afterwards. Speaking of powers, the game does not give you any access to your powers until about an hour into the game. An hour! What kind of an Xmen game does not allow you to get your powers in the beginning? Or at least one power for me to use so I can at least feel like a superhero. You do get to see this amazing cutscene in the beginning of the game of your character using all the powers you’ll probably get throughout the game. I was stoked when I saw that video. I was thinking “Sweet I picked Nightcrawler’s powers so I should be teleporting everywhere with this!” Unfortunately, I don’t even think I have that power. I stuck with the game thinking that it will get better when I get my powers but it turned out to be some cheap powers that wasn’t in that amazing cutscene. I don’t know what Silicon Knights guys were doing when they created that cutscene but I don’t think you should be showing a cutscene like that and then not even give the player any of those powers. What’s worse is that as you’re going through the level, you see all the other Xmen and Brotherhood mutants using their powers. You get to see Ice Man sliding around in the air making ice walls. You get to see Quick Silver running super fast like the flash as he is attacking enemies. Whenever I saw that, I kept wondering why they wouldn’t let me play as them? They have all the assets already. Why couldn’t they just map some controls to those characters? I believe the game would be much better if they had allowed the players to choose or unlock the real mutants throughout the game.

The game would be better but it still wouldn’t be great. The graphics in the game looks like it could be a Wii or even a PS2 game. Textures are blurry and things still pop out and slow down occasionally. Even the character designs look boring. I don’t know how they could get Xmen character designs to look so boring but they really accomplished it. Another thing that really bothered me was how you couldn’t skip conversations. Even if you accidentally replay that conversation, you’re tasked to wait until they finish talking. Another thing you can’t skip is the camera walk through of the level. Normally in most games, as the level starts, the camera would walk the player through the level so that the player would know where the end point is. The camera walk through in this game, however, is so slow and you can’t even skip it. I feel like the developers were trying to extend my game times with these annoying bugs and it doesn’t make the game any better.

As for Shadows of the Dammed, I didn’t get to play that much. Everything is fine with the game except for it’s repetitiveness. You play as Garcia Hotspur and you’re trying to get your girlfriend back from a demon in hell. The conversations between Garcia and his demon pal Johnson are hilarious and I wish the game was more interesting enough for me to keep listening to their conversation. The game mostly revolves around darkness filling the room and the player being tasked with searching for a goat head to shoot at. I know it sounds weird but imagine doing that in every room. Also the game heavily relies on get key to open certain door mechanic. Even the HUD has three slots for the keys. When a game has slots in the HUD for the same keys to be used, you should be expecting to do this same mechanic a lot. Some times you may have the wrong key so you have to look for the other key. Sometimes you might have to use that wrong key in some way to find the right key. There aren’t many ways to go find a key and I believe I’ve seen all the ways this game has to offer. The shooting is okay too in this game. The aiming feels iffy and while there are settings to change this, I didn’t want to spend my time figuring it out. I wish the game wasn’t as repetitive as it was. Otherwise, I think it would have been one of those unique games that I finished.

So there you go, two games I haven’t finished and probably would not finish because I believe that they are not worth playing.

 

2012
04/10
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Journey Finished!

If I have to describe Journey with one word it would be emotional. I just finished playing Journey (10 mins ago) and I really wanted to write about it. I’m still feeling the ending and all that great stuff so this post might be a little more emotional than previous posts.

Journey is a game created by the company ThatGameCompany. The game starts the player off at a desert where the player is only given the hint of what the controls are. After about 5-10 minutes after the player is shown all the controls, the player is left off to explore the world to himself. It is such a powerful idea to allow the player to learn every little tricks the game has by himself. It took me a while to even figure out how the scarf works in the game. It even get more complicated when another player comes into the game.

Speaking of that, the game does a seamless transition when bringing another player into the game. You may just be walking around and there will be a player around the corner. Normally the players will want to work and travel around the game together. With the help of a partner, you can get to places that would not be possible without. The only way to communicate between each player is by using a “chirp” button which can be held down to make a louder chirp. The chirp button is also used to recharge each other’s scarf so that the player can continue a glide. It takes practice but once both players get the mechanic down, using this trick will allow each other to get to hidden places. The chirp tool can be use to also call or alert the player. It is whatever you want to make of it and I pretty much used it whenever I can. Sometime my chirp will mean “Thank You” or another time it will mean “Wait for me!”

It is amazing what this game did with such simple controls and a unique idea. The unique idea is the whole seamless player transition thing but also that you don’t know who is who. No name tags appear on the player and you can’t tell if they go offline or anything. The only way to communicate is through chirping so if you run far away from your buddy, a new buddy might appear in place of him. I had 4 different companions that were with me throughout the game. Honestly, my first companion was the best. I wanted to say thank you TETUTINA (You get to see the companion names at the end of the game) for making the game so much better. I’m going to say that it is a she since the whole “Tina” in the gamer tag. Anyways, she pretty much guided me throughout 75% of the game. The game is only one and a half hour long but she showed me locations that I would not have explored. She was my tour guide throughout that part of the game. She guided me to places where I could get scarf icons to extend my scarf. She took me to places where I was able to learn more about the world. She even dragged me to places where I would have the best angle for a scripted moment. Finally there was this part where she took me to a very super hidden place. I would remember that spot as one of the best moment I have had in a videogame. Basically imagine a flying dragon that is in a secret location that you can get to if you know where it is. The developers hid this dragon to later use it but if you know where it is hidden, you can see it before it comes into the game later on. Even though you can see it later on the game, it is much more amazing to see it where it was hidden. Pretty much she was the best anonymous partner I have had in a cooperative game.

Sadly, after about 75% into the game, it seems she got disconnected from the game so it switched to another player. I believe you get a different cloak after beating the game and starting again so I was able to tell that it was a different person since the new character had the same cloak as me while she had a different cloak than all of us. Before the new player arrived, I started chirping around for her. I wanted to see if she would chirp back. After chirping for about 10 minutes, I decided to explore the world for myself. Throughout that 75% of the game, there were moments where it would have been easy to lose each other. There was this one moment where both players are sliding down a mountain of sand together. If they don’t stick to each other, they can easily lose one another. Throughout that whole scene I was constantly chirping as she was also to not lose each other. I love that scene because I felt something I haven’t felt in a long time in a videogame. Most games have characters that tries to give the player some emotional connection with them. Most games do not do this successfully so when they die, I usually don’t feel anything for them. However, in Journey, I already had this connection with my anonymous partner. The game needed no introductions with each other. My partner just pop out of nowhere and I shouldn’t have had such a strong connection. But by working together, I was able to build this connection that felt more personal than being force because of the story like many other games.

I guess I started out with the best so it was hard for me to switch to these new players. Their scarfs are short and they look as lost as me. I believe if I had one of these types of players, I would have also enjoyed the game differently. We would have explored the world together and try to see if there were anything in the game that we could find. But as I already found most of the game’s hidden features due to having an awesome partner already, I couldn’t possibly work with these new players. It was hard for me to work together. I even let the first player after Tetutina go far away from me believing that she will come back when a new player pops up. Yes even without giving me any names or anything, I was able to befriend a stranger and had an emotional connection with it. I didn’t want to work with anyone else in the game and it showed. I started to hate the new guys because they would not be as great. I really missed her in that last 25% of the game. That may be the only reason why I had 4 companions. I probably could have had only 2 but I just let them go away from me hoping that whoever would pop into my session next would have the same cloak that she did. Sadly, it did not happen.

As you can tell that this game was super emotional on my end. I was so attached to my companion that it helped escalate the game to a level of emotion I wasn’t expecting from a game like this. It is a true testament of a game for me to be this emotionally attached to an unknown stranger. I plan to send her a message saying thank you for a great time playing Journey and add her to my friends list. Also did I mention that the visuals and audios are amazing? The sand and the way they reflect the sun or interior looks phenomenal while floating scarfs/paper/cloth waver left and right with believable motion. I believe the music also helped brought out these emotion. The music was always perfect with what’s happening in the game. It speeds up when there is a high pace area and slows down when it is more of an exploring area.

Great emotional impact, amazing visuals, and perfect music makes Journey a complete package for an awesome time. The gameplay time may be one and a half hour and the price may be $15 but I believe it is worth every penny. I don’t want to compare a movie ticket with this but I believe this is way more worth it then a movie. It is a unique experience that I wish that everyone could have. I also wish that everyone who plays this game would also have an amazing companion as I did. I don’t think I would have had as much of an emotional impact as I would have without the help from an awesome companion. It is a quick game so anyone can finish it. I really do suggest that this should be played in one session. I mean it is only 1.5 hours!

2012
04/07
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CATEGORY
Finished VideoGames
Relaxing Game
Worth Playing
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