My Month In Games: March/April 2015

Resident Evil Revelations 2 - PS4

Regular readers know that I LOVE me some RE (yes, even Resident Evil 6), so it should come as little surprise that I've recently made my way through Capcom's latest zombie shooting gallery, Resident Evil Revelations 2. Now, I was somewhat harsh on this game's predecessor when I reviewed it back in 2012. While I applauded that game's relatively large scale and scope, I also called it out for gimping the combat and for having some of the blandest enemy designs in the entire series. Now, some three years later, I'm happy to report that Revelations 2 has greatly improved upon the shortcomings of the original Revelations, and it makes a strong argument for the continuation of this spinoff series.

Revelations 2 follows the exploits of series stalwarts Barry Burton and Claire Redfield, while also introducing newcomers Natalia Korda (an orphan child) and Moira Burton (Barry's adult daughter). In my review of the original Revelations I made a quip that no one plays Resident Evil games for the plot, but in the years since I've come to rethink that somewhat. No rational person would ever hold the storytelling in this series up as an example of video gaming's finest work, but it does have a handful of memorable characters as well as a satisfyingly cuckoo-bananas B-movie meets Michael Bay sort of vibe. Case in point: this game. I thought it was a great choice to have Barry "What IS this?!" Burton do a turn in the starring role, and the story about a madwoman conducting bio-mutation experiments on a secluded island is effective, if at times a little boilerplate.

Still, the main reason I play RE games is the combat, so let's dig into that. In general terms I think that, with a few exceptions, the gunplay and the weapon upgrading in this game will remind people most of RE 4. Unlike RE 4, you can easily move your character while aiming and shooting, and you also have full control over the camera using the right stick, but apart from that there's not much to differentiate the gameplay and strategy of RE 4 and Revelations 2. Stuff like the diving, crawling, and counter attacking maneuvers of RE 6 have been stripped away in favor of streamlined melee, dodging, and healing systems as well as the welcome return of upgradeable weapons. I could quibble a bit about the somewhat irrelevant crafting and stealth systems or the variety of "status effects" that can greatly limit your view of the action, but none of these things did a whole lot to dampen my enjoyment of the gameplay overall.  Simply put, Revelations 2 has a solid combat system with enough variety to keep things interesting, but not so much that you get bogged down by clunky controls, submenus, and quick-timed events.

The presentation is probably the one aspect of this game that will prove to be the most divisive. The original Revelations seemed to strike a good balance between the exploration and asset management of the first few games in the series and the more action oriented direction of the series that started with RE 4, but I have to say that with Revelations 2, Capcom is once again steering the ship into combat heavy waters. This works for me, as I tend to enjoy these kinds of solidly built, "shooting gallery" style games, but I fear that any goodwill the developers may have gained by appealing to fans of the earliest games in the series with the half action/half puzzle solving exploration gameplay of the original Revelations might be lost again with this follow up title. If it's any consolation, the enemy designs in Revelations 2 are far more interesting and detailed than anything I can recall from the original Revelations, and the excellent Raid Mode mini-game returns with more playable characters, more missions, greater weapon options, and even some nostalgic battlefields from previous games...so there's that!

In the end, I really can't think of a reason not to recommend this game to fans of the series post-RE 4. Those who want puzzles, jump scares, and tight corridors will likely be disappointed (even if they enjoyed the original Revelations), but if action is your bag then this is worth a look. Revelations 2  does little to push the series forward in any truly meaningful ways, but it's solidly built, and at $25 for the season pass, it's a good value as well. I'm on board with Revelations as a spinoff series. I see it as a means for Capcom to further flesh out RE's lore and characters and tinker with the gameplay formula as they develop the next numbered entry in the franchise. If you're over RE there's nothing here to bring you back into the fold, but die-hard fans like myself should find Revelations 2 rather enjoyable.

Grade: B


Bastion - PS4

Supergiant Games' stunning sophomore effort Transistor was my game of the year in 2014, so I became genuinely excited when I learned that their first game, Bastion, would be headed to Playstation 4 after an extended run as an Xbox exclusive. You know that feeling you get when you first discover a band deep into their career but upon listening to their earlier work you find you don't like it as much as their current stuff? That's kind of how I felt when I started playing this game. I think that, for me, the similarities between Bastion and Transistor were hard to ignore, so early on I may have done a bit more direct comparison of the two than I maybe should have. Both games are action oriented RPGs with an isometric view; both feature a large array of weapons and encourage experimentation in combat; both games have a silent protagonist with plot exposition coming from a narrator.... I could go on, but you can see why it might be tough for someone in my position to go back and play what almost feels like slightly less polished version of one of my favorite new games.  Why bother, right? Only problem with that is, I was wrong!

Bastion is a wonderful game in its own right, and after a few hours with it that became very clear. Charming, challenging, and mechanically solid, it's the plucky, fresh faced tomboy to Transistor's elegant belle of the ball. And really, I'm kind of just talking about preferences here. Some folks prefer the tomboyish type. Where Transistor was more strategy oriented, Bastion brings the action. Where Transistor rocks a sic-fi vibe, Bastion goes high fantasy. To be clear, I'm not trying to say that these games are radically different from one another. They're not. They're more like flip sides of the same coin. I may prefer Transistor just a bit more, but Bastion holds its own as an immersive and highly playable action RPG.

Grade: B+

New 'N' Tasty! Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee  - PS4

This is an HD remake of a PSone sleeper that really gets it right. The vastly improved visuals and smoothed out control mechanics do well to breathe life into this somewhat underrated action platformer from the 90's. Time has done little to curb the notoriously steep challenge of this game, but the addition of a "save anywhere" feature greatly cuts down on the frustration I felt while playing it back in the day. If you loved the PSone version, don't hesitate to check this out. For the rest of you, check the video below, as the gameplay may feel just a bit too old school for some players.

Grade: B

Resident Evil 6 Demo

The RE6 demo is now available for download and you can bet your sweet pippy that I have made my way through it! I'll start out by breaking down the individual campaigns and wrap up with my overall thoughts.

The Campaigns

So the demo (and the game itself) consists of three different storylines or "campaigns".  It is unknown whether or not the campaigns will intersect in the full game, but in the demo they appear to be independent of one another.  The campaigns follow Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, and series newcomer Jake Muller as they work with their partners to stop outbreaks and kill zombies and shit.  Let's dive in...

Leon and Helena

I started off by selecting Leon’s campaign. From there you can choose to play as either Leon or his new partner Helena.  As I came to find out, this campaign is the most “survival horror” of the three offered in the demo. The player guides Leon and Helena through the many stairwells and narrow hallways of an Ivy League college campus while fighting off zombies. The enemy encounters are sporadic at the outset, but as the campaign progresses things pick up, and a couple of intense battles ensue near the end of this 10-15 minute chapter.

Chris and Piers

Next I played Chris’s campaign.  In this section you can choose to play as either Chris or a dude name Piers.  This campaign is the most action packed and combat heavy of the three. You start out in a European looking city environment.  Chris and his team are aboard a transport truck discussing their upcoming mission when suddenly they are attacked by bizarre looking men wearing kabuki-like masks and motorcycle jackets. Unlike the shuffling zombies in Leon’s campaign, these guys are armed and they move quickly. As the enemy closes in, you must use cover and shoot accurately in order to take them out.  Near the end of this section, Chris and his team must defeat a HUGE three-story-tall mutant freak in order to progress.

Jake and Sherry

Finally, there’s Jake’s campaign. This time you can play as either Jake or Sherry as they make their way through a downtown cityscape at night.  The enemies in this section seem a lot like the baddies from RE 4 and 5 in that they are human but they also occasionally mutate. Remember the “snake heads” from the last two installments? These guys are kind of like “snake arms”. They can grab you and hit you from longer distances and (I guess since they still have their heads) they can still move around fairly deftly. There’s also another new enemy type in this campaign. Right now I’m calling them “fishraptors”. While moving around they sort of resemble fish with legs, but occasionally they rear up and spit (or shoot needles, I can’t tell) and do damage that way.

My Thoughts

In general, this demo has me pretty excited about the full game.  A few minor gripes aside, I think I'm going to have a hell of a good time with this.  First, I'll tell you what I liked:

Combat feels pretty good.  The system has been tweaked a bit (yes, you can move and shoot now) but those who are familiar with RE 4 and 5's combat system will have little trouble catching on.  One of the biggest and most welcome changes is that now you can perform a melee attack at any time.  You can still stun your enemies with a well placed bullet and then move in for the coup-de-grace, but you can also take them down with a well placed combination of kicks, punches, and finishing moves.  This was a smart move I think, as it takes the already visceral RE combat scheme and makes it even more brutal and fun!

I like that they've decided to break up the narrative by offering three different storylines.  The RE story is kind of boilerplate in general, and doing it this way will keep things moving while also allowing you to play as more characters.  Plus, as any RE fan knows, more characters = a more robust "Mercenaries" mode! It's also good to see Leon back in the fold; I like that character and I'm happy to see him make his comeback.  I'm also interested in this Jake Muller dude.  Supposedly he is the "son" of  super-freak Albert Wesker, and I can only imagine what strange powers he might have inherited as a result.

Also welcome is the decision to map the action, melee attack, and item use functions to DIFFERENT BUTTONS!!!  This was a hugely annoying issue in RE 4 and 5.  Thank you for fixing that Capcom.  Seriously, it's like developers don't even play their own games sometimes. 

I didn't really have too many negative reactions to the demo, but there were some things that concerned me:

Control-wise, most things worked pretty well.  Aiming and shooting is much as it has been in RE 4 and 5 (if not a little smoother) and it's generally not difficult to move around.  Still, a few little things gave me some big problems.  Performing a 180 degree turn, while easy to do and a reliable means of escape in RE 4 and 5, is made more difficult by the game's sometimes wonky camera controls.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Also somewhat troublesome was the newly introduced cover mechanic.  Like a lot of games that allow you to duck behind things for safety, the controls for this feature are kind of confusing and involve the pressing and holding of many buttons.  It's usually easy enough to get into a cover position, but I encountered some problems when I tried to return fire.

Weapon and item selection is pretty strange as well.  It may just be that I'm not used to it, and things may change in the full version of the game, but the icons for the weapons look very similar and it's often kind of hard to tell which is which.  In addition, it seems you can't assign hotkeys to specific weapons as you could in RE 5.  The result is that you have to scroll through your weapons until you reach the one you want.  It's inelegant at calm moments and frustrating during intense firefights.  I'm sure I'll get a handle on it after awhile, but it could end up being something of a drag.

This demo is also quite DARK....as in it's difficult to see shit.  Scrolling through the game options I can see that there's an option to tweak the brightness, but the demo doesn't allow you to change it.  This will obviously change in the final version, but it makes me wonder if RE 6's visuals might be a little on the muddy side.  Don't get me wrong the graphics are nice, but they don't represent a huge improvement over RE 5, and like that game they're still only running in 720p.

The Verdict

Overall, I'm very positive about RE 6, and I believe that that I will have a lot of fun with this game.  The combat is a lot of fun and it seems to contain all of the visceral, in-your-face thrills of RE 4 and 5 and then some.  I have my issues with some of the control and presentation schemes, but I don't think we're talking about anything game-breaking.  Potentially annoying yes, but not exactly deal breakers.  In my review of Resident Evil: Revelations I mentioned how I thought that Capcom is in the odd position of trying to please two distinct audiences for the Resident Evil franchise.  With the multiple campaigns of RE 6, I see them trying to appeal to BOTH the classic survival horror fans, and the more action/combat oriented fans of RE 4 and 5.  It remains to be seen whether or not they can please everyone (I expect a lot of crying from both sides), but I'm fairly confident that RE 6 will be a hit with me.

...and Conan.

Resident Evil 6

Oh shit...

How I Became A Nintendo Ambassador (emphasis on the -assador)

Back in March, when Nintendo released the 3DS system (the successor to its immensely popular DS line of dual screen handhelds) I started thinking that it might be time to give the Big N and their portables another look. I went with the PSP during the last generation of portable consoles, and while I gave it high marks as a piece of hardware, I didn't find myself wanting to play a whole lot of games on it. The way I see it, Sony's strategy with the PSP has more or less been about bringing the console experience to the small screen. It's a noble endeavor (and one that's earned them a great number of fans) but when it comes to portable gaming, I tend to gravitate towards puzzlers, platformers, and other games that can be played in fits and starts. Nintendo always releases loads of these kinds of games for its portable systems, and it was for this reason that the Nintendo DS always appealed to me. In fact, I'm not really sure why I never broke down and bought one....just the right combination of lazy and poor, I suppose!

Anyway, at $250, the initial price of the 3DS seemed a little steep to me. The system's 3D capabilities and scant number of interesting launch titles also did little to motivate me into opening my wallet. Still, I was intrigued by the potential of the unit and I decided to keep an eye out for a price drop and a must-have title. For me, that first must-have game turned out to be Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. I am OBSESSED with the Mercenaries mode from RE4 and RE5, and the thought of having a portable version seemed pretty slick. Still, The Mercenaries isn't exactly what you'd call a system seller, so I kept waiting.

Then, about three weeks back, amidst lower-than-expected sales numbers and competition coming soon in the form of the PSP Vita, Nintendo suddenly announced an $80 price drop for the 3DS. A price cut of this size so soon after a system launch is generally unheard of and those who bought the system for $250 were understandably irritated by this move. To appease the early adopters, Nintendo decided to offer 20 free downloadable games to those who had bought the system before the price drop. Anyone who used their system to sign into Nintendo's online shop before the August 11 price drop was deemed an 'ambassador' and was entitled to the free games. I thought it was a solid show of good faith on the part of Nintendo and once again I began to consider purchasing a 3DS.

Then something really interesting happened...

Rumors began to circulate that Wal•Mart was planning to drop the price on the 3DS two days early, giving consumers the chance to pay the lower price AND get the 20 free games. This was exactly the motivation I needed! I wasn't able to find any confirmation of this rumor online, and I know better than to actually call a Wal•Mart store, so I decided I would get up a little early on the morning of August 9th and try my luck before work. When the store opened at 8am I headed straight for the electronics department, and to my disappointment, the 3DS was still priced at $250. 'Oh well', I thought, 'it was just a rumor after all'. Once at work I turned to the internet and found, much to my chagrin, that Wal•Mart WAS in fact selling the 3DS at the reduced price... it just so happened that the store I went to hadn't yet changed their stickers. Bastards! After work I made a beeline back to the store only to find that they had completely sold out of systems. I asked to speak to the manager and, after explaining the situation to him, he offered to call a few other stores and see if he could find a system for me. He was actually able to locate an unsold 3DS at a store that was about 10 miles away. He had them set it aside for me so I rolled out, picked it up (along with a copy of The Mercenaries 3D), and I've been enjoying it ever since.



The free games don't become available until later this year, so I haven't downloaded them yet, but I was able to sign in to Ninteno's E-Shop and I have been confirmed as a 3DS ambassador! Booyah!

Big thanks to the assistant manager at Wal•Mart who helped me out. Expect more 3DS coverage here in the future!