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Long Overdue Review: Dead Space

Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

The future must really suck since everyone always ends up lost in space (pun very much intended) fighting aliens, zombies, mutants, etc. Dead Space follows this blissful thought and runs with it. At first glance I had assumed it was yet another generic addition to the Sci fi-Horror genre, running around shooting alien-zombies with significant amounts of blood and gore. However, what I found is what can be considered a sophisticated scifi-horror. The game contained a compelling plot with many surprises. Be that as it may, the story begins in a fairly generic way, some emergency on board a huge ship orbiting a baron world in a debris field….hmmm…

From the get-go the game throws you into the action. After a violent crash you are shortly put into a heart racing sprint through an alien infested corridor, unarmed. This has to have been the most freaky event in a video game I have experienced ever. (by the way, this is not a game to be played at 1 AM in a dimly lit room, it will guaranteed scare the pee out of you). However the edge is slightly taken off once you find a weapon to defend yourself, until you find out that this is no ordinary alien-zombie infestation. The creators of Dead Space obviously took some time to think outside of the box on this one. The common perception of zombies is that you want a shotgun and aim for the head. But for Dead Space, these ones simply wont die until they are broken into several hundred pieces and then some. Otherwise they tend to jump back up and try to bite your head off again, and again, and again.

The plot of Dead Space is definitely something to applaud (minus the fact that it shares an uncanny familiarity to a little known movie called Event Horizon). They masterfully are able to put in strategic horror scenes that always keep you on your toes. Nothing is ever what it seems. Another interesting fact somewhat reminds me of Bioshock is the introduction of Vid-Logs and Audio logs scattered through the game. The difference in the case of Dead Space is how well these are integrated into the plot. As you explore the crippled USG Ishimura it is hard not to run into several hundred of these logs scattered about, however they contribute to the plot significantly. They all tell back-stories of the crew and what happened on the colony on the planet below. Unlike some games, these never actually get in the way of combat. If an enemy pops up, shoulder your weapon and the Vid-logs kindly get out of the way and play the dialog in the background as you quickly defend yourself.

The combat and menu system is quite intuitive and interesting as there is no HUD per say. All of the in game menus are projections off of panels on consoles or off of your character’s suit, the application is amazing. Some games in the past have tried to include menus within the environment but only Dead Space has so far accomplished this task successfully. As to your more explosive arsenal, all of the weapons in the game are fairly original and have some seriously intense functions. For example you have the Pulse Rifle. This weapon gives you the choice between rapid fire like a simple machine gun, or hit the alt fire button and unleash a ridiculous hail fire of bullets in all directions. Or our favorite here at Full Rez, the Line Gun, which shoots a massive wide pulse that nearly shreds everything to bits or plants timed mines. The majority of the weapons are specifically designed to deal with the new concept of these alien-zombies and they all fulfill this purpose splendidly.

Something that is becoming more common in modern games is the ability to upgrade equipment and weapons in game. In the case of Dead Space they decided to take the concept of a large grid that you fill with ‘Power Nodes’ to upgrade everything (which if you are familiar with the Final Fantasy X ‘Sphere Grid’ then you’ll feel very at home). Along your travels you will also encounter new schematics for your suit, which not only makes it look more menacing, you will slowly look like a window shutter.

In summary:

Pros:

• Graphics and visual effects are well done.
• Isaac’s Suite looks awesome as you receive more upgrades.
• Control Interface is intuitive and has a relatively shallow learning curve.
• Weapons are fun and imaginative.
• Plot develops in a surprising way leading up to a climatic finale on an absolutely epic scale.
• It is quite good at scaring the pants off of you.

Cons:

• The half dead aliens jumping back to life gets fairly repetitive.
• The inventory limitations become quite a hassle.
• Support characters can have the tendency to beg the question “If you’re already there, why don’t you go do it?”.
• The plot does suspiciously follow a similar plot to the scifi movie Event Horizon, but minus Laurence Fishburne.

In all, Dead Space is a good 7 hours of some serious fun (14 for myself and ready for another round). If you have a chance pick up a copy and see for yourself, you won’t be disappointed.

–David “snake8head” James

P.S. don’t forget Peng!

Review: MadWorld

Alright so here’s the deal. If your into blood, gore, and violence, try this game out. If your into serious gaming with thriving plot lines and stunning graphics, keep walking, this game is not for you. Overall this game was fun, and really thats what it’s about. The fun didn’t last for long though. The single player is entertaining and it strokes your creative gene, allowing you many possibilities of turning your foe into a two piece bathing suit, but after a few levels the game becomes a bit repetitive.

Sadly the multiplayer didn’t have a lot to offer. The only thing that you could do on the game in multiplayer were challenges, which weren’t the best part of the game to begin with. Personally I would have like to see a free mode or something in this game that just allowed me to turn everything with legs into wall ornaments for an endless amount of time.

As for the storyline, your basically competing in a contest called Death Watch. The story doesn’t get all too complicated otherwise. The control’s are a bit temperamental and the game has the occasion to have poor depth perception. Another burden of the game is it’s black and white comic book styling. Although it gives the game a unique characteristic, it’s pretty distracting from whats going on. As for camera controls, you press the C button to center up, otherwise good luck looking around.

This game is basically the new age Twisted Metal, without the cars, or the color. If you have a Wii sitting at your house and it’s only use is holding up your Friday the 13th collection because your not a huge fan of bright colors and a little Italian guy in overalls, dust that Wii off and pick up this game. Otherwise don’t buy it. maybe rent it.

Platform: Wii

Long Overdue Review: The World Ends With You

I’m not sure if a JRPG is a junior or Japanese role player, but as Tetsuya Nomura has given birth to another snarky and spiky haired adolescent, The World Ends With You certainly is a JRPG. It follows Neku a recently deceased headphone wearing 14 year old as he roams the streets of modern Shibuya presumably as a ghost fighting against the Reapers of Shibuya for the chance to be reincarnated, probably to continue his moody snarky introverted hipster lifestyle. He fights with pins which enable psychic attacks activated by tapping or slashing the lower DS screen with the stylus. There’s pyrokinesis, telekinesis, electric bolts, and many others. However, Neku is not the only dead kid in Shibuya. Many other wish to have their lives back so Neku must partner up with other dead kids. For partners you have the self conscious fashion obsessive girl, the androgynous rich kid, and a muscle-head even Neku thinks is stupid. These partners melee battle on the top DS screen controlled by the D-pad by the same player. That’s right: one player simultaneously controlling two characters with totally separate and unique real time combat systems. As TWEWY is the product of Square Enix and Nomura, the brains behind Kingdom Hearts, I expected a real-time button smackers which will control the spiky haired doofus de jour. To my pleasure, this game offers plenty of mindless button smacking and sporadic stylus scratching. I’m curious to see if this combat system will appear in Squares’ Kingdom Hearts DS release.

The game play is compelling, the story is immersive and delivered with a comic book aesthetic, and worth a replay or two if you want to understand for sure how Neku died. Just as you spent hours and hours leveling up your Pokémon on Game Boy Color, you’ll spend just as much time finding every single pin, determining your favorite fighting style and most powerful pin combination and then grinding and maxing out the levels on each. This is one of the few games I actually sought out for the DS because, just like Pokémon, there is no age limit. The DS tends to cater to the family audience, meaning children and their parents who allow violent free video games to keep them entertained and quiet on long car rides. TWEWY is rated for teens for its use of language and moderate violence, a bit different from Nintendogs and the like. But really, since TWEWY, I’ve not been motivated to buy a DS game. Not that Nintendo cares, I’m a bit out of the DS audience.

As story makes up half my impression of a game, its unavoidable to mention thematic elements, the main one being that the world does in fact end with you. You are only as cultured and socially open as you allow yourself to be. Enter TWEWY’s multiplayer which involves no aspect of the single player mode. Using the DS Wi-Fi, you and a friend can go head to head in a pog style mini game using six pins from your own collection “slamming” against six of your opponents. Also using the DS Wi-Fi, you can enter mingle mode, where you can close the DS lid and pocket it as it searches for other DS’s on Wi-Fi, even the ones not playing TWEWY. Doing so earns you mingle points which also contribute to raising the level of your pins. In addition to Battle and Mingle points, your pins level up with Shutdown point, earn for time you spend NOT playing TWEWY. That’s right, a game which rewards you for not playing it. A video game that discourages playing video games and encourages people to socialize with real people and expand their world. So, like Neku, I encourage you to don your trendy purple headphones and experience the magic of the world around you as only a video game can deliver.

-Mark “The World Began With Me” Randall

Review: Tom Clancy’s H•A•W•X

Tom Clancy’s H•A•W•X is the first game in the Tom Clancy series to detach from ground warfare and focus solely on air combat. Although Ubisoft has created an air warefare game before (Blazing Angels), they have truly pushed the limits on Console flying games.

Let’s talk about the story line for a second. You are emerged in the role of a military fighter pilot by the name of David Crenshaw. You start out as part of a fighter squadron called HAWX(oddly enough) that is unfortunately getting decommissioned. You then get picked up by a ‘Private security company’ that is really a corporation of mercenaries that falls under some international law made in 2012 that claims having a private military for hire is cool. I would love to go into more detail but after the beginning of the game the story line falls into the same script as almost every other Tom Clancy game. You begin on one side, switch to another side, and end up back where you started by the end of the game. Although the games campaign levels were both entertaining and challenging the story line itself was about as dull as a plastic knife.

Aside from the story line, the campaign offers 19 stunning levels of graphic ecstasy. The environments are breathtaking and the detail put into each aircraft is so precise it overshadows the dull knife that was previously noted. another problem I had with the campaign was the inability to take off and land. I know it could be seen as a small thing and its easy to see why Ubisoft left that out, but surely the mass amount of gamers can’t think that every mission that the air force has ever flown started in mid air already.

The controls were a bit easy in my opinion. Although I personally have never been going 1500 knots in a F-22  I would imagine there would be a little bit more resistance in turning as sharp and easy as the game allows.

HAWX also offers us two features that are unique to this flying game. ERS, standing for enhanced reality system, gives us the ability to return to the days of Star Fox. Pressing the button when prompted to enter ERS mode makes floating triangles pop up on you HUD. If you fly through them they will lead you to the quickest way to shoot down the plane you’re desperately trying to catch.

The other feature is the ability to turn ‘assistance off’. When you do this the camera changes to a 3rd person action view and it allows the limits of your aircraft to be broken. You see everything going on around your aircraft, giving you the ability to out maneuver enemies or missiles.

The golden egg in this game for me was the online multiplayer. You have the choice of participating in an online coop run of the campaign, or dogfighting up above various maps from the campaign. The dogfighting in HAWX brings the term ‘Team Deathmatch’ to a new level. The only thing that puts a smile on my face more then blasting opponents in a standard first person shooter is to do it a 1500 knots.

So, although the story line didn’t float my boat, the stunning graphics and wonderful multiplayer gave me the replay value I was looking for. Which is why I give this game a solid 8 out of 10.