I am just going to come right out and say this, no beating around the bush with this one, Halo 4 is an absolutely amazing, astonishing, and mind blowing accomplishment of gaming. If you did not get it, I love this game. Many people were skeptical of how the new Halo would do without Bungie at the helm but I am here to tell you that 343 industries deserves nothing but praise for what they've done to this classic and much beloved series. The Master Chief returns in a very big way. Floating through space in the half space ship that he escaped the end of Halo 3 in, Cortanna wakes him up as they are gradually crashing into an unknown forerunner planet, not to mention she is kind of losing her mind as she has been active for much longer than an AI ever should and for the past 4 years as she and Chief have been drifting through space she has had nothing to do but think herself to death. Right from the get go as you step out of Chief's cryo chamber you feel that this game has been completely overhauled in the best way.
Never before did I truly feel as though I was this hulking 7 foot wall of nothing but muscles, bravery, and grizzle that is the Master Chief. Every single one of his steps pounded the floor of the space ship you truly felt that with this clanking and shifting body armor on you were this invincible one ton warrior. It was then that, low and behold, the covenant attacked. Why did the covenant attack just as I was starting my new epic journey, well some would say to make it more epic, I say its because they're jerks but it does not much matter because now I had something to shoot, hit and throw grenades at. It was at this point that I had the opportunity to hear the completely re-recorded sounds of the weapons and they sound incredible. The assault rifle no longer spits like a pee shooter it cracks through the air with every shot fired sounding like two huge metal tubes crashing into each other and exploding. It was an absolutely incredible feeling for about two seconds because that was when I died. I am going to mention this right now, Halo 4 is hard, Halo 4 is really hard, really, really, really hard. I played it on heroic and let me tell you those promethean knights are going to destroy you, fair warning.
Moving forward, I found myself on the planet Requiem a beautiful jungle filled planet surrounded by a metal dome in the sky with various Forerunner artifacts covering the ground and sky. I was absolutely blown away by this set piece it was simply beautiful. After a few more run-ins with the covenant I was introduce to Halo's new enemy, the prometheans. I warn you reader do not take the prometheans lightly, they can and will destroy you entirely I promise. While one could call the prometheans and some of their weapons just supped up, repainted version of the covenant, they also have a lot of AI and some interesting abilities that the old familiar enemies have severely been lacking in for quite some time now. The prometheans also have a very interesting past which brings me to the next subject of this review, the story.
The story of Halo 4 is very good but some of the writing could most definitely use work. In fact, this would probably be my biggest gripe about Halo 4, there is a huge lack of context. So many times I would be watching Chief have a conversation with the other NPCs and they would mention something that I had never heard of before yet all of the characters would acknowledge it as something important that they all knew about and then never come back to it again. NO ONE WANTED TO CLUE ME IN, it was so frustrating. It was as though everyone had a secret they were not allowed to tell, some big joke that I was the victim of and I really wanted to know what was going on because they story was very good and relative to the Halo universe it seemed very important. While it probably is an easily fixed issue that does not really take away from the actual game play, this lack of context is actually a really big deal and I can only hope that 343 will reflect on this for Halo 5. With the exception of this issue in writing though, Halo 4 is, as I said before, an absolutely magnificent game and anyone who considers themselves a gamer and owns an Xbox 360 MUST pick up a copy, this is not a choice.
Monday, December 17, 2012
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Review
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a remake of two very old games that were known very well for their length, difficulty, and detail. Fortunately, all of those elements make an astonishingly satisfying return in this very fun and intuitive game. Now, anyone who knows me also knows that I love RPGs but I absolutely abhor turn based games. I find them boring and I feel the need to be right in the action instead of going turn by turn giving each character on the battlefield one slow moving action, it just has absolutely no appeal to me. Despite this, XCOM was able to capture my heart on the game play front. If you wanted me to truly describe what sets XCOM apart at its core combat from all other turn based games, I really could not do it, it is very clearly a turn based game. I suppose there is just something about the difficulty, strategy, and overwhelming tension that you could permanently lose your best soldier with one wrong move or even the support of a full country if this next sniper shot does not hit its mark. I suppose I should explain all this in order to get my point across. You will have a squad of up to 6 specially trained XCOM soldiers all of which can level up to get stronger, be heavily injured and taken out of commission for a few days, or be killed permanently. Like I said, there is a strong attention to detail and RPG elements in this game. When combat begins each of your soldiers will have two actions and their turn will end after you use both of those actions or after you attack. Soldiers can be moved into areas that provide full cover, half cover, or no cover at all which is a terribly unwise choice to make as you have no idea which aliens will appear where even if you are well into a fight. There are various classes, weapon types, and armor types for your soldiers to wear and the way you have them play together will mean life or death for the rest of the world. You definitely do not want to use all rocket launcher loaded soldiers because they do not move very quickly and are not good for support. You also cannot use all snipers because although they are usually accurate and they do a lot of damage, unless you level them up correctly they cannot move and attack on the same turn. It is this really cool dynamic of combat with your classes of soldiers working their skill against a plethora of different aliens that is really alluring in XCOM. However, XCOM's most addictive element does not come in until you have left combat and return to HQ. You are the XCOM commander and as thus it falls on you to make various decisions that will ultimately determine whether we survive this alien invasion or not. You receive a monthly revenue from each country of the world and you must use this revenue to fund the XCOM project by paying for new armors and weapons for your soldiers, satellites to protect your countries and interceptors to protect those satellites. There is so much going on at HQ it can really make your head spin at first. You cannot spend all of your time at HQ though because every time you commission building or researching a new item you must wait for the day counter to go down. As the day counter goes down there is the possibility that you will run into a random alien threat and if you are not prepared to face it before you set the day counter off you may be in some real trouble. In this aspect XCOM shines. I have never seen a game that is so strategic and tense in every single way even when your at your home base you are never safe from the consequences of your own second to second decisions. I would suggest saving often because you are going to want to go back to an old save more than you know, its also a good way to adjust yourself to the game before you take it on seriously. I have friends who have gone thirty hours in and their best soldier was still in the hospital when they had a high alert alien attack and because of that one soldier being out of commission they lost the support of three countries after one mission and then they didn't have enough support money to help the countries they had left. XCOM can be incredibly unforgiving at times but it is almost always fun.
Dishonored Review: Dawn the mask, supernatural steampunk assassin
Dishonored has a very Bioshock-like feel to it. It seems very dark, it is a brand new, never before seen setting, it is first person action with beautiful graphics and a lot of gore, and while we know what the story is about, it seems that many aspects of it are left to be a huge mystery to the player just as Bioshock was. So why even get Dishonored if it seems to be so much like Bioshock? Well I guess that is a valid question, one could just play the two Bioshock games that have already been released, of course the second one is a horrible disgrace for a game compared to the first. I suppose one could also wait for the release of Bioshock: Infinite which, like many others I am incredibly excited for, even though it has been delayed many times and it keeps losing devs. However many people do not realize that Dishonored is truly innovative.
You play supernatural assassin Corvo Atano after being framed for the murder of the empress, Corvo's lover, and watching her daughter the heir to the Dunwall Empire be taken away by her mother's assailants; you wake up behind bars as an odd supernatural deity comes to speak to you. He is the outsider and he leaves with his mark, a sign that you are touched by his power, in order to help you escape. Right from the get go your options in playing this game and how they will effect you unfold. You could kill that first guard and take the keys to the whole jailhouse but his friends will find him and that puts the rest of the area on alert, not only that but it will get out that your escape has caused the death of many innocent guards and people will begin to treat you differently near the end of the game although I thought that could have been handled much better because it really only determined how the very last level of the game played out.
The actual game play in dishonored is an absolute joy. Utilizing Corvo's many powers such as blink, stop time, and possession to interact with the world and its inhabitants never gets old nor do you ever stop finding new ways to combine them. You can stop time as someone is shooting at you, possess them and then walk their body in front of their own bullet, stop possessing them, resume time, and you just made some poor guard shoot himself. The story of dishonored sadly does not hold up to scrutiny as well. I for one was very excited to see how the story played out, I thought that this semi-steam punk world they created was very interesting and I really wanted to know its background as well as that of the outsider, sadly neither of these elements come into play within the story in the long run. All in all Dishonored was a very interesting and very fun experience and it is so nice to see a brand new IP that actually attempts something new and very much so succeeds if nothing else Dishonored should most certainly be commended for that.
You play supernatural assassin Corvo Atano after being framed for the murder of the empress, Corvo's lover, and watching her daughter the heir to the Dunwall Empire be taken away by her mother's assailants; you wake up behind bars as an odd supernatural deity comes to speak to you. He is the outsider and he leaves with his mark, a sign that you are touched by his power, in order to help you escape. Right from the get go your options in playing this game and how they will effect you unfold. You could kill that first guard and take the keys to the whole jailhouse but his friends will find him and that puts the rest of the area on alert, not only that but it will get out that your escape has caused the death of many innocent guards and people will begin to treat you differently near the end of the game although I thought that could have been handled much better because it really only determined how the very last level of the game played out.
The actual game play in dishonored is an absolute joy. Utilizing Corvo's many powers such as blink, stop time, and possession to interact with the world and its inhabitants never gets old nor do you ever stop finding new ways to combine them. You can stop time as someone is shooting at you, possess them and then walk their body in front of their own bullet, stop possessing them, resume time, and you just made some poor guard shoot himself. The story of dishonored sadly does not hold up to scrutiny as well. I for one was very excited to see how the story played out, I thought that this semi-steam punk world they created was very interesting and I really wanted to know its background as well as that of the outsider, sadly neither of these elements come into play within the story in the long run. All in all Dishonored was a very interesting and very fun experience and it is so nice to see a brand new IP that actually attempts something new and very much so succeeds if nothing else Dishonored should most certainly be commended for that.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Games to look out for before the end of 2012
1.Assassin's Creed 3
2 Dishonored
3 Halo 4
4 Adventure time
5 One Piece: Pirate Warriors
This is fairly self explanatory. We all know that the year is coming to an end and we have a bevy of triple AAA titles to look forward to next year but 2012's gaming roster is definitely not dead yet, I mean, Assassin's Creed 3...enough said. So here is what I am most looking for before the end of this year.
NUMBER 5
One Piece: Pirate Warriors
Some of you have seen that my review of Pirate Warriors has already gone up and if you read it you would know that it is definitely something of an esoteric game, that being said this is MY list of most anticipated games and I have been very excited to control a virtual version of the mugiwara pirates in combat for quite some time now. Pirate Warriors allows one to take control of the entire Straw hat crew in some iconic story moments and I cannot wait to finish it and unlock some of the more spectacular attacks and scenarios that the show is well known for.
NUMBER 4
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King why'd you steal our garbage?!
Yes once again you can all see what a child I am as I am looking for a video game that is based on a cartoon, although those of you who are fans of Adventure Time know as well as I do that it is a show that is just as much for people my age as it is for 12-15 year olds as odd as it sounds. The video game takes all the humor and colorful characters and stories that can be found in the show and wraps it around what I have heard is a very Zelda-esque gaming experience. There is 2D side scrolling combat similar to Zelda 2 with different combos that span many interesting actions that Finn and Jake have as well as a full top down over world and a crafting system based on item drops.
NUMBER 3
Halo 4
Alright so at this point in the list I am coming to some games that will be commonly found on the rosters of normal gamers. Halo 4 is something that just about every gamer is looking forward to because of no other reason than it is a new Halo. However, gamers like myself who dig below the surface know that there is more reason to be excited for this particular Halo. At the end of Halo 3, despite its secret endings, many of us were not sure if we would ever hear from Master Chief again it was a hard call to make after Bungie said they did not want to make Halo games anymore. Our minds are now at ease because we know that the Chief is back once again to bring peace to the universe through the power of ultra violence. Not only is the Chief back in this game for a continuation of his story in a brand new area of space, but the game is being made by an entirely new studio and I for one am very excited to see Halo attempted by someone other than Bungie. While many of the original devs of Halo are still on the team, which I submit is actually a really good thing to have, it is still an entirely new studio and hopefully we are going to get some creative new gameplay experiences added to the old Halo formula which I would not say is broken and in need of fixing in anyway but its definitely starved for innovation.
NUMBER 2
Dishonored
Dishonored looks to me like a steam punk Bioshock with some really interesting art direction, a deep story of revenge, and wide open levels where who lives, who dies, and how are left entirely up to the discretion of the player be they a psychotic killing machine or a more compassionate hero on a quest for justice and vengeance. The devs describe you as a "supernatural steampunk assasin" need anyone say anymore?! Trust me, be excited for this game.
NUMBER 1
ASSASSIN'S CREED 3
Before I say anything else...ASSASSIN'S CREED 3. That is it, that's all that anyone needs to say. This game is going to be huge I cannot even believe that we have come this close to its launch at the end of October. Ever since the first Assassin's Creed, I have been in love with this series. The characters, the story, the combat, the movement, control scheme, graphics, there is no aspect of these games where they phone it in ever. Every thing is taken deeply into account and I cannot wait to see what is next for this crazy story. Not to mention that it is the first Assassin's Creed in the last 3 AC games to have a full 3 year development period with a brand new game engine and a development team that is made up of the original Assassin's Creed development veterans. I cannot wait to see how this all comes together, GOTY right here people.
2 Dishonored
3 Halo 4
4 Adventure time
5 One Piece: Pirate Warriors
This is fairly self explanatory. We all know that the year is coming to an end and we have a bevy of triple AAA titles to look forward to next year but 2012's gaming roster is definitely not dead yet, I mean, Assassin's Creed 3...enough said. So here is what I am most looking for before the end of this year.
NUMBER 5
One Piece: Pirate Warriors
Some of you have seen that my review of Pirate Warriors has already gone up and if you read it you would know that it is definitely something of an esoteric game, that being said this is MY list of most anticipated games and I have been very excited to control a virtual version of the mugiwara pirates in combat for quite some time now. Pirate Warriors allows one to take control of the entire Straw hat crew in some iconic story moments and I cannot wait to finish it and unlock some of the more spectacular attacks and scenarios that the show is well known for.
NUMBER 4
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King why'd you steal our garbage?!
Yes once again you can all see what a child I am as I am looking for a video game that is based on a cartoon, although those of you who are fans of Adventure Time know as well as I do that it is a show that is just as much for people my age as it is for 12-15 year olds as odd as it sounds. The video game takes all the humor and colorful characters and stories that can be found in the show and wraps it around what I have heard is a very Zelda-esque gaming experience. There is 2D side scrolling combat similar to Zelda 2 with different combos that span many interesting actions that Finn and Jake have as well as a full top down over world and a crafting system based on item drops.
NUMBER 3
Halo 4
Alright so at this point in the list I am coming to some games that will be commonly found on the rosters of normal gamers. Halo 4 is something that just about every gamer is looking forward to because of no other reason than it is a new Halo. However, gamers like myself who dig below the surface know that there is more reason to be excited for this particular Halo. At the end of Halo 3, despite its secret endings, many of us were not sure if we would ever hear from Master Chief again it was a hard call to make after Bungie said they did not want to make Halo games anymore. Our minds are now at ease because we know that the Chief is back once again to bring peace to the universe through the power of ultra violence. Not only is the Chief back in this game for a continuation of his story in a brand new area of space, but the game is being made by an entirely new studio and I for one am very excited to see Halo attempted by someone other than Bungie. While many of the original devs of Halo are still on the team, which I submit is actually a really good thing to have, it is still an entirely new studio and hopefully we are going to get some creative new gameplay experiences added to the old Halo formula which I would not say is broken and in need of fixing in anyway but its definitely starved for innovation.
NUMBER 2
Dishonored
Dishonored looks to me like a steam punk Bioshock with some really interesting art direction, a deep story of revenge, and wide open levels where who lives, who dies, and how are left entirely up to the discretion of the player be they a psychotic killing machine or a more compassionate hero on a quest for justice and vengeance. The devs describe you as a "supernatural steampunk assasin" need anyone say anymore?! Trust me, be excited for this game.
NUMBER 1
ASSASSIN'S CREED 3
Before I say anything else...ASSASSIN'S CREED 3. That is it, that's all that anyone needs to say. This game is going to be huge I cannot even believe that we have come this close to its launch at the end of October. Ever since the first Assassin's Creed, I have been in love with this series. The characters, the story, the combat, the movement, control scheme, graphics, there is no aspect of these games where they phone it in ever. Every thing is taken deeply into account and I cannot wait to see what is next for this crazy story. Not to mention that it is the first Assassin's Creed in the last 3 AC games to have a full 3 year development period with a brand new game engine and a development team that is made up of the original Assassin's Creed development veterans. I cannot wait to see how this all comes together, GOTY right here people.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
One Piece: Pirate Warriors review
Before reading this review, you should know that this game screams FOR THE FANS ONLY, I would not even suggest you try it if you are not a One Piece fan let alone an anime fan. That being said I am a huge One Piece fan. I love it, I love every second of it and I think that everyone else should too so when I heard there was a new One Piece video game coming out and that it was actually coming over to the U.S. I had to have it, it became quite literally a necessity in my life. So now that all of that has been laid out on the table let me tell you what I think about One Piece: Pirate Warriors. While some people believe that this may be Dynasty Warriors painted over with a One Piece skin I am here to say that this is not entirely true, while it is mostly correct there are some distinct differences between Pirate Warriors and Dynasty Warriors. Both are made by the same company and both have you capturing territories and defeated large waves of enemies who are for the most part cannon fodder and significantly weaker than your character across a large battlefield.
Pirate Warriors has a fairly well made combo system. More often than not you can easily get by with just randomly mashing buttons as you can in most Dynasty Warriors games, however, there are many combos that are modeled after some of the Straw Hat's more iconic moves that cause different effects. Gum Gum Gatling, for example will cover a wide area and dish out many hits often pushing enemies back and allowing Luffy to advance but it does not do too much damage. Gum Gum Bazooka however will do a lot of damage and push a smaller number of enemies back in one hit with the added advantage of causing shields and guards to break. Most of these combos are rather large and can get difficult to remember but considering that I used to love games like that and have not seen one in a while this is a welcome addition in my opinion. Another large difference from Dynasty Warriors is that there are many platforming and puzzle sections in the game.
Keeping true to the source material you will often have to use Luffy's rubber abilities and playful mind to get across puzzles and platforming stages. You can use Gum Gum Rocket to launch yourself across a gap, use Luffy's stretchable arms to swing, and use Gum Gum Balloon to bounce off of walls and redirect cannon fire. In addition to this you can activate any crew member in the vicinity as a partner and by inputting the correct combo you can initiate a powerful crew strike where Luffy dishes out his combo and then you are given control of the partnered crew member for a short time. Speaking of crew members, all nine members of the Straw Hat crew are available to play as in this game as well as four other special characters.
You do not often take control of anyone other than Luffy throughout the story but all crew members can be used in alternate modes like online and local multiplayer and Another Log which allows you to replay story missions as other characters.
One of my biggest issues with this game would be the camera control which is rather erratic and inaccurate, when centering, it centers toward the center of the screen not towards where Luffy is facing. You can also target enemies but the camera does not center on them it just centers Luffy's movement around them. When you are facing large numbers of enemies or deadly bosses you need to clearly be able to see where your character is in relation to them so that your attacks fire off in the right direction. Remember that this game is highly based off of Dynasty Warriors so the only real feedback you have that your attack hit when fighting a boss is that their health bar is moving down with the exception that you may startle them with certain attacks every once in a while.
My other huge issue with this game is that it skips a few very important arcs in the series. Jaya, Skypiea, and Thriller Bark are completely skipped as if they never happened and as a hard core fan this does not sit well with me at all. What does cater to my fandom is the few big story moments that are fully laid out in beautiful CG, Luffy's touching moment with Jimbei at the end of the Marineford War still made me bawl as hard as it did when I saw it in the anime. Truth be told, Pirate Warriors is not really such a great game, you can do much better as far as beat em ups go however for fans like me who really have been dying to take control of the Straw Hat crew in a new video game and use their powers and combat abilities, it can be one hell of a fun time.
6.5/10
Pirate Warriors has a fairly well made combo system. More often than not you can easily get by with just randomly mashing buttons as you can in most Dynasty Warriors games, however, there are many combos that are modeled after some of the Straw Hat's more iconic moves that cause different effects. Gum Gum Gatling, for example will cover a wide area and dish out many hits often pushing enemies back and allowing Luffy to advance but it does not do too much damage. Gum Gum Bazooka however will do a lot of damage and push a smaller number of enemies back in one hit with the added advantage of causing shields and guards to break. Most of these combos are rather large and can get difficult to remember but considering that I used to love games like that and have not seen one in a while this is a welcome addition in my opinion. Another large difference from Dynasty Warriors is that there are many platforming and puzzle sections in the game.
Keeping true to the source material you will often have to use Luffy's rubber abilities and playful mind to get across puzzles and platforming stages. You can use Gum Gum Rocket to launch yourself across a gap, use Luffy's stretchable arms to swing, and use Gum Gum Balloon to bounce off of walls and redirect cannon fire. In addition to this you can activate any crew member in the vicinity as a partner and by inputting the correct combo you can initiate a powerful crew strike where Luffy dishes out his combo and then you are given control of the partnered crew member for a short time. Speaking of crew members, all nine members of the Straw Hat crew are available to play as in this game as well as four other special characters.
You do not often take control of anyone other than Luffy throughout the story but all crew members can be used in alternate modes like online and local multiplayer and Another Log which allows you to replay story missions as other characters.
One of my biggest issues with this game would be the camera control which is rather erratic and inaccurate, when centering, it centers toward the center of the screen not towards where Luffy is facing. You can also target enemies but the camera does not center on them it just centers Luffy's movement around them. When you are facing large numbers of enemies or deadly bosses you need to clearly be able to see where your character is in relation to them so that your attacks fire off in the right direction. Remember that this game is highly based off of Dynasty Warriors so the only real feedback you have that your attack hit when fighting a boss is that their health bar is moving down with the exception that you may startle them with certain attacks every once in a while.
My other huge issue with this game is that it skips a few very important arcs in the series. Jaya, Skypiea, and Thriller Bark are completely skipped as if they never happened and as a hard core fan this does not sit well with me at all. What does cater to my fandom is the few big story moments that are fully laid out in beautiful CG, Luffy's touching moment with Jimbei at the end of the Marineford War still made me bawl as hard as it did when I saw it in the anime. Truth be told, Pirate Warriors is not really such a great game, you can do much better as far as beat em ups go however for fans like me who really have been dying to take control of the Straw Hat crew in a new video game and use their powers and combat abilities, it can be one hell of a fun time.
6.5/10
Friday, September 28, 2012
Borderlands 2 Review
We all remember the grind of Borderlands 1, it was a never ending stream of new loot to compare and switch between, skill points and strength to look forward to with each level, and a large sprawling new world complete with hilarious psychotics, cannibals, shotgun midgets, and of course skags. Somewhere along the lines though, we got tired of having no new missions to complete and once we were fully leveled and had found that one gun that could kill any enemy with a single shot if felt as though there was no reason to play Borderlands and it drifted off as we would sell it back to Gamestop in order to get money for our next big adventure. However, it would not be long before we began to miss the colors, the humor, the overly engaging blend of rpg and fps that no other game had ever dare attempted and now its back.
Yes thankfully we can now return to Pandora and its 85 gazillion guns are at our fingertips. Borderlands 2 features 4 all new vault hunters and a brand new story that actually takes off of the train wreck that was the story of the first game. The opening of the first vault spread eridium throughout Pandora and it quickly became a hot commodity. A man named Handsome Jack saw this as a great opportunity for the Hyperion corporation, one of the major gun manufacturers from the original game, to swoop in and bring order to the lawless planet in order to mine the eridium and gain power and wealth. Now Jack has become the new president of Hyperion and he has found a second vault on Pandora and he invites vault hunters to come help him open it so he can just kill them as soon as they get there ensuring that he has no competition. If you cannot tell already, the story is much, much better in the sequel. I was honestly impressed with it this time around. Not only were they able to salvage the gigantic, mind-numbingly bland story of the first game, but they expanded on it bringing back all of the characters from the original game, including all 4 original vault hunters, and crafted a story of revenge, heroism, tragedy, love, loss, and reflection over good and evil. Of course all the gore, crude humor, and murder remain perfectly intact so do not fret.
The 4 classes have been completely revamped with new abilities and vastly different skill trees that cater to a myriad of play styles and skill levels. There is Salvador the gunzerker who can activate his gunzerking skill in order to duel wield any two guns in the game while he regenerates health and ammo and screams bloody murder much like Brick did when activating his berzerker skill. Salvador is very much a tank/dps class, that is how I utilized his skills anyway. His three skill trees focus on tanking, shrugging off damage and regenerating health. Switching weapons, giving bonuses for constantly using different weapons and weapon types, and continuous fire. A gunzerker needs to never stop firing and if at all possible never stop gunzerking you will probably get the most dps out of this skill tree but not you will essentially be a glass cannon. The commando, Axton, is a lot like Roland in that he is entirely dps and his action skill deploys a sabre turret that I am happy to say is much more useful than Roland's was. All of Axton's skill trees are incredibly useful focusing on powering up the turret for support, powering up Axton's overall damage and magazine size, or strengthening Axton's survivability and being able to get out two sabre turrets equipped with shields. Now I have yet to try the other two characters but Maya and Zero both seem to be ranged support. Zero's action skill makes a decoy of himself that aggros enemies and Maya can grab an enemy in a stasis bubble that does continuous damage and often offers buffs to the team.
The classes and story are not the only things that have been revamped. The multiplayer has been given some upgrades as well. You can still do the classic four player co op and work through the story as a team however the enemy level scale will depend on the level of the host character but having more people in your party makes the game more difficult and rare loot drops more often. Story points can be skipped or re done for more advanced players who do not wish to replay them or for those who do. Weapon and skill menus have a sleeker and more interesting layout that does not take up the whole screen during co op and allowing all players to check their menus or compare weapons at the same time. There is now a full system for trading money and equipment instead of just dropping things on the ground and hoping you do not lose them before the person you are trading with has a chance to pick them up. You can even bet a bunch of money or equipment on the outcome of a duel between you and another player however the arenas have been removed to put more focus on co op play. I am still looking for a good team to take down the gigantic and imposing raid boss Terramorphous if anyone would be interested.
Of course being that this is Borderlands, there needs to be tons and tons of different guns and enemy types and Gearbox did not disappoint. If you can believe it there are actually more guns and enemy types in this game than there were in the first and that is really saying something. I think the first game actually had a around 17 million different guns and it won the Guinness world record for most guns in a video game ever. The guns. grenades and enemies are much more interesting this time around. Each manufacturer adds a new and unique effect to their guns such as gaining accuracy with hyperion weapons and throwing the gun like a grenade to reload it with tediore weapons. The differing abilities between weapons and their elemental effects are much more prevalent and no two weapons are even slightly alike. You can even inspect the millions of impressive 3d gun models in full detail now which as an animator, I found was a very nice feature.
All in all, Borderlands 2 has completely brought back the chaos and the comedy in an even bigger way and I loved every second of it. I cannot wait to start my second play through as the gunzerker and I know that this time around I will be playing through as every character because they are all just way too interesting to ignore. If you like shooters, rpgs, pretty and unique graphical styles, or completely hilarious and over the top experiences that are increasingly hard to come by, you cannot afford to miss Borderlands 2.
9/10
Yes thankfully we can now return to Pandora and its 85 gazillion guns are at our fingertips. Borderlands 2 features 4 all new vault hunters and a brand new story that actually takes off of the train wreck that was the story of the first game. The opening of the first vault spread eridium throughout Pandora and it quickly became a hot commodity. A man named Handsome Jack saw this as a great opportunity for the Hyperion corporation, one of the major gun manufacturers from the original game, to swoop in and bring order to the lawless planet in order to mine the eridium and gain power and wealth. Now Jack has become the new president of Hyperion and he has found a second vault on Pandora and he invites vault hunters to come help him open it so he can just kill them as soon as they get there ensuring that he has no competition. If you cannot tell already, the story is much, much better in the sequel. I was honestly impressed with it this time around. Not only were they able to salvage the gigantic, mind-numbingly bland story of the first game, but they expanded on it bringing back all of the characters from the original game, including all 4 original vault hunters, and crafted a story of revenge, heroism, tragedy, love, loss, and reflection over good and evil. Of course all the gore, crude humor, and murder remain perfectly intact so do not fret.
The 4 classes have been completely revamped with new abilities and vastly different skill trees that cater to a myriad of play styles and skill levels. There is Salvador the gunzerker who can activate his gunzerking skill in order to duel wield any two guns in the game while he regenerates health and ammo and screams bloody murder much like Brick did when activating his berzerker skill. Salvador is very much a tank/dps class, that is how I utilized his skills anyway. His three skill trees focus on tanking, shrugging off damage and regenerating health. Switching weapons, giving bonuses for constantly using different weapons and weapon types, and continuous fire. A gunzerker needs to never stop firing and if at all possible never stop gunzerking you will probably get the most dps out of this skill tree but not you will essentially be a glass cannon. The commando, Axton, is a lot like Roland in that he is entirely dps and his action skill deploys a sabre turret that I am happy to say is much more useful than Roland's was. All of Axton's skill trees are incredibly useful focusing on powering up the turret for support, powering up Axton's overall damage and magazine size, or strengthening Axton's survivability and being able to get out two sabre turrets equipped with shields. Now I have yet to try the other two characters but Maya and Zero both seem to be ranged support. Zero's action skill makes a decoy of himself that aggros enemies and Maya can grab an enemy in a stasis bubble that does continuous damage and often offers buffs to the team.
The classes and story are not the only things that have been revamped. The multiplayer has been given some upgrades as well. You can still do the classic four player co op and work through the story as a team however the enemy level scale will depend on the level of the host character but having more people in your party makes the game more difficult and rare loot drops more often. Story points can be skipped or re done for more advanced players who do not wish to replay them or for those who do. Weapon and skill menus have a sleeker and more interesting layout that does not take up the whole screen during co op and allowing all players to check their menus or compare weapons at the same time. There is now a full system for trading money and equipment instead of just dropping things on the ground and hoping you do not lose them before the person you are trading with has a chance to pick them up. You can even bet a bunch of money or equipment on the outcome of a duel between you and another player however the arenas have been removed to put more focus on co op play. I am still looking for a good team to take down the gigantic and imposing raid boss Terramorphous if anyone would be interested.
Of course being that this is Borderlands, there needs to be tons and tons of different guns and enemy types and Gearbox did not disappoint. If you can believe it there are actually more guns and enemy types in this game than there were in the first and that is really saying something. I think the first game actually had a around 17 million different guns and it won the Guinness world record for most guns in a video game ever. The guns. grenades and enemies are much more interesting this time around. Each manufacturer adds a new and unique effect to their guns such as gaining accuracy with hyperion weapons and throwing the gun like a grenade to reload it with tediore weapons. The differing abilities between weapons and their elemental effects are much more prevalent and no two weapons are even slightly alike. You can even inspect the millions of impressive 3d gun models in full detail now which as an animator, I found was a very nice feature.
All in all, Borderlands 2 has completely brought back the chaos and the comedy in an even bigger way and I loved every second of it. I cannot wait to start my second play through as the gunzerker and I know that this time around I will be playing through as every character because they are all just way too interesting to ignore. If you like shooters, rpgs, pretty and unique graphical styles, or completely hilarious and over the top experiences that are increasingly hard to come by, you cannot afford to miss Borderlands 2.
9/10
About Games-a-blazin
For anyone who would care to know, my name is Geoffrey Epstein, if you have not already figured that out, and I am the sole writer of this blog. I am a gamer, a prospective game designer, a writer, an otaku, a full on "nerdist" some might say and in this blog I am going to give you my take on many of the goings on within the games industry. This will include previews and reviews of many of the games that I play, considering I tend to play just about all of them that is going to mean a lot of previews and reviews.
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