Video Game Review #136: Life Is Strange

Life is Strange

PlayStation 4

When I got my PS4 last Christmas, one of the first things I did was to head to the PlayStation Store and look through the downloadable games selection. There was a holiday sale going on, which meant that many of these games could be purchased for dirt cheap. One game in particular caught my eye. It was called Life is Strange, and it was on sale for only a couple bucks. Since I had never heard of the game before, I looked up a few reviews to see if it would be worth buying or not. The feedback I read on the game was not just positive, but overwhelmingly so. It was enough to make up my mind for me. I was going to buy the game.

About five months passed before I finally got around to playing it. I came in to the game relatively blind. All I knew was that it was mainly story and conversation based, relying heavily on player choice. I also knew that it was split up into five chapters. Telltale Games and their library of titles immediately came to mind, for obvious reasons. Unlike most Telltale games, however, this was an original story as opposed to being based on an already existing property.

I was not sold on the game when I first started playing it. I played for an hour, if that, on the first night. The game felt too much like a silly high school drama to me. I joked around to my friends that I didn’t know this was going to be “Mean Girls: The Game.” Even though I didn’t have a great time with the game that night, I still stuck with it. Because that is what I do.

The more I played the game, the more interesting its story became. A quick recap for everyone who has never played:  you play as a teenager named Max. Max has returned to her hometown after being away for several years. As a result, she feels like a bit of an outsider with some of the girls in her school. The first hour or so of the game is spent navigating through school and exploring some of these relationships. It isn’t long until you discover that your character has the power to rewind time. She uses this power to save a blue haired punk from being shot in her school’s bathroom. Later, she encounters this girl outside of school. Turns out that this is her old friend Chloe that she grew up with, now punk-ified and almost completely unrecognizable.

Is it just me or does the teacher look like Danny Gokey?

A good chunk of the game is spent hanging out with Chloe and exploring your powers. During this time you still have to go to school and interact with your classmates, navigating through tricky social situations. Using your power to rewind time and correct mistakes is definitely a power I wish I had in high school! As you play, Max begins to see visions of a giant tornado-like storm hitting Arcadia Bay. Weird unexplainable things start happening around town. Clearly this has something to do with her time altering powers, right?

As Chloe and Max hang out, the two begin to investigate the disappearance of a girl from town while Max was gone. This girl was Chloe’s best friend, so naturally Max wants to jump in and help. I will try not to spoil too much, but this investigation leads to the discovery of a killer in town, complete with a basement torture shelter straight out of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Oh, look: her nose bleeds when she uses too much of her power. How original!

As Max explores her powers, things start to get out of control. The visions won’t go away. Time itself starts to act up. You can tell that all of this is taking a physical and mental toll on Max. In one of the game’s more heartbreaking sequences, Max accidentally  jumps back into the body of her childhood self and stops a tragedy from taking place. But preventing this tragedy has unforeseen circumstances (Chaos Theory, Butterfly Effect) and the future turns out to be not as pleasant as she thought it would be. So she then has to  go back and re-change time to its original setting.

In the present, Max and Chloe uncover the killer and save the day… or so they think. The storm that Max had dreamt about becomes a reality and threatens to tear the entire city of Arcadia Bay apart. In a twist that I saw coming a mile away (I have seen the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode All Good Things many times in my life), we discover that the storm is caused by Max using her power. The only way to call off the storm and save the city is by making a very tough decision which I will try not to spoil. I finished the game doing the “right thing” that I needed to do to save the city. I don’t know what happens if you choose the other option, but I can only imagine the ending you get is much different.

Fortunately, as this is a story based game, the story is very strong. It got off to a slow start, but by the end I was completely invested in the journey of Max and Chloe. The pair has great chemistry together, and it was refreshing to watch two female leads take center stage. I never cried during the game, but there are emotional moments aplenty, to be sure. My main problem with the game’s story came near the end of the game. It is hard to say much without completely spoiling things, but there is a segment where Max seems to lose control of her time shifting ability and ends up jumping around through time all willy-nilly. She also experiences some very bizarre hallucinations. One common thread is that she keeps getting brought back to one specific place: the Dark Room. The game doesn’t explain much of what is going on at this time. Is this real? Is it going on in her head? What’s the deal?

That part aside, this was a pretty well put together story line. It is intriguing, there is lots of mystery, and the characters are memorable. Plus I felt like the choices I made impacted the way things played out. I always felt like a real, impactful character in the world of this game. When I finished playing, I immediately wanted to go back and play it again, making new choices this time around. I didn’t (that will come at a later date, probably around the time the inevitable sequel rolls around) but the fact that I wanted to says a lot about the quality of the game.

Make no mistake, though, that this is a story based game. Don’t expect a lot of actual video game gameplay here, if that makes any sense. You are not going to be jumping around and collecting coins and shooting enemies or any of that type of stuff. Gameplay mainly consists of walking around, talking to people, making dialogue selections, and the occasional timed sequence where you have to examine items in the environment and decide what you want to do with them. These timed sequences require a lot of trial and error, but since you have the rewind option they are often quite easy to figure out and complete.

On a technical aspect, I don’t have too many complaints. The game looks nice but it is not anything to write home about. The environments are the strongest part of the game visually. Everything is very detailed and the environments feel like real lived-in spaces. The character models are… fine. They don’t look bad by any means, but I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that this entire game could have been done using PS3 technology and you wouldn’t even notice one tiny bit. The voice acting and the music are, again, decent. My major complaint was Max herself. I didn’t even notice this the first half of the game, but around the time you sneak into the school’s swimming pool I began to notice that she speaks in this weird “whisper-shout” voice that often seems quite stilted and out of place. But that is a minor complaint, I guess.

My list of complaints so far: the voice acting, the graphics, and some of the unexplained events of the latter portion of the game. My only other major complaint that I haven’t touched on yet is that rewinding time can be a bit messy. Many times something happens and you are forced to rewind time to stop it from happening again. You do this by holding down one of the trigger buttons. A gauge pops up on the screen that represents the timeline. You will often will see a notch on this gauge which represents an “event” that you can revisit. Many times I would rewind to the notch, but then when things went back to real time the event would already be in progress and I would have to rewind again. It still wouldn’t be right, so I had to rewind again, and again, and again until it finally put me where I wanted to be. Throw in multiple events happening at the same time and this can lead to a relatively frustrating experience. Rewinding too far can also be problematic, and something you want to avoid as well.

The time travel mechanic in general has a lot of holes and flaws in its logic. Sometimes it works one way, sometimes it works another. For example, Max can go back in time where she simply transfers her mind into her old body. Other times, her whole body will physically move over to where she is when she jumped back. So if something is blocking your way and you need to move it without being seen, just push the thing out of the way and run through. You will be seen, but you can then rewind time to before you pushed the thing and you will magically appear on the other side of it before you ever would have had the chance to push it. You can grab objects and jump back in time with them as well. In fact, you need to do this to solve certain puzzle. Maybe this is all explained at some point and I wasn't paying attention. Physical jumps: the shorter time jumps, and mental jumps: the longer ones?

I don't know. In the long run, I think that those complaints are not too big of a deal. Some of them are simply just minor inconveniences to be honest with you. The game is still very entertaining. The storyline and time travel logic flaws simply bugged me because I always feel that things have to make sense! But I had to demonstrate that this is not a flawless game by any stretch of the imagination.

Not flawless, but still very good. It took a while for me to truly get into the game, but when I did I found it to be a very fun and rewarding experience. Just remember that when you play a game like this, you should be playing for the story and not for the actual gameplay itself. If you come into Life Is Strange expecting to have the same kind of experience as if you were playing Call of Duty or Ratchet and Clank, you are going to end up sorely disappointed. If my description so far doesn’t make it sound like a game for you, it probably isn’t a game for you. But if a detailed, mysterious story line with rich characters and the ability to shape your own experience sounds like something you would enjoy, you should check this out. It is not the world’s greatest game, but it is something I certainly enjoyed and can’t wait to play again.

Overall:

B

If you liked my take on Life is Strange, check out these following reviews:

Back to the Future: The Game

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series

Beyond Good and Evil HD

Beyond Two Souls
The Walking Dead

Video Game Review #135: Frogger

Frogger 

Sega Genesis

When you think of classic arcade games most people think of things like Galaga, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong. To me, Frogger has always been a “second tier” arcade classic. A classic, sure, but not one that immediately comes to mind when you think of the genre.

I’ve played Frogger a small handful of times in my life. Most of these occurrences came from my youth when I was out at a family restaurant or a bowling alley or something like that. I’d pop in some quarters, play a few rounds, only last a couple of minutes (if that) before dying, and then move on to the next game. I liked the concept of Frogger, I just was never very good at it.

And that’s been the extent of my experience with the game. I haven’t played any home versions of the game. I haven’t played any of its sequels. I’ve never even really thought much about Frogger at all, to be honest with you.

Until now!

Over the lifespan of this blog I have mentioned many times the box of Sega Genesis games that my cousin Ryan loaned me. I am getting down near the end of that box. I was looking through it, trying to find a quick game to play and review. Toy Story? Nah. Too long and too hard. Lion King? Same. Primal Rage? I almost picked that one actually. But I wanted something shorter. Something I could play for an hour or so before I called it quits and started putting a review together. Frogger seemed like a perfect candidate.

A little background on the game first. This is an arcade-perfect port of the 1981 version of Frogger. It came out for the Sega Genesis in 1998. This is believed to be the very last Genesis title ever released for the system. Why they would release a seventeen year old arcade port that no one really cared about anymore as one of the last titles ever for a dying system is beyond me. I am sure that to them, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Gameplay is extremely basic. You control a frog and you have to guide him through a traffic filled road, over obstacles in the water, and to its comfy little frog hole destination. You move in only four directions (left, right, up, and down). The majority of the time you spend playing is spent moving back and forth dodging objects that will kill you instantly. The road is filled with cars but it is pretty simple to traverse, as the traffic patterns can be easily predicted. The tough part is jumping over logs and over turtles when you get to the water. Things are constantly moving in the water and at different speeds. This makes it hard to line up your jumps properly. Fall in the water, you die. Touch the edge of the screen while on a log, you die. Jump on a turtle just as it is submerging? You die. Guide five frogs across the water and into their frog holes, and you pass the stage. Then you move on to the next stage, which is slightly more difficult. Play long enough and pass enough stages and things get REALLY tough.

I came into this home version of the game with low expectations. I knew from my past experiences with Frogger that I liked the game, but I was expecting more of a Paperboy type scenario to unfold. In case you skipped over my Paperboy review, that is a game that I always liked as a kid and I had fond memories of. Then I played the arcade-perfect Genesis version as an adult and I was like “holy hell this game sucks!!” Frustrating, hard to control, extremely unfair in the way things just popped up out of nowhere and would kill you without you being able to defend yourself. I truly expected to feel the same way with Frogger.

That didn’t happen. If anything, the opposite happened. With Paperboy, I went from loving it as a kid to hating it now. With Frogger, I went from indifference as a kid to really, really loving it as an adult. The game is flat out addicting. On my first attempt, I probably passed a level or two before dying and having to start over. But it was MY fault I died. Unlike Paperboy, I couldn’t blame the controls. Nothing came out of nowhere and blindsided me unfairly. I was the only person to blame for my failure. So I restarted and tried it again. Did better, but still lost because of my dumb mistakes. And then I played again. And again. And again. Each time trying to get better and learn from the mistakes of my previous attempt.

Before I knew it, that hour I had allotted myself to play the game had passed. Was I going to pack it up and write a review? No! I wasn’t done with the game yet. I played it while I watched TV shows in the background. I played it while I listened to music. I played it before going to bed. Several days later at the time of this review, I still am not done playing it. The game is more addicting than Candy Crush. I keep telling myself – just one more try! And then that turns into ten more. I have gotten pretty good at the game, too. Frogger doesn’t really keep track of the number of level you are on, but I think I made it to somewhere in the thirty range. My highest score was 100,000 something. I don't know the exact score because your points reset to 0 when you hit 100,000 points, which is kind of lame. My main goal was to hit 100,000 points though, and I did it. When I hit that, I was able to safely consider the game beaten.

The key to playing well is pattern recognition. There is almost no excuse for getting hit by a vehicle. As I said, they follow a very strict and reliable pattern. Getting hit still happens from time to time though, and it kills me a little bit on the inside each time it does. Getting across the water is more difficult. There is a lot more that could go wrong. Again, everything follows a pattern. So in theory if you play the same level over and over again you should be able to do it easily. But things pop up that throw a wrench into that pattern. Snakes will appear on the sidewalk and on logs in the water, forcing you into actions that put you at risk. These red bird things skim over the water from time to time. They can’t come up onto the logs, but if you are standing too close to the edge they will kill you. I’ve gotten good at avoiding them now, but man they used to kill me all the time and it would be super irritating. Logs float on the water at different speeds, so if you time things poorly and get stuck on a log while waiting to jump to the next one and it moves off the edge of the screen, it kills you. Also, when things are moving quickly and you are running out of time, you make dumb decisions that can result in instant death. Like, trying to jump over a group of frogs that is about to submerge. Nope, not fast enough. You dead! Trying to jump quickly to the next log just as they are passing each other. Nope. Dead. One thing that seems super easy happens to me ALL the time. It is when you get to the last row of logs and have to jump into your frog hidey hole. I have mistimed my jump and smashed into the sides of those holes more times than I can count. Nothing is more annoying than making it all the way across and then dying just as you are reaching your destination.

The thing that makes this game so addicting is that it really puts you on the spot as a gamer. I always feel so disappointed in myself when I die. Then I start a new game, looking to rectify my previous mistake, only to die in a different manner. Then I start a new game. This time, I am so impatient to get to the tougher levels that I try to rush and wind up dying on the easier levels. Then I start a new game. I’ll do well, but I think to myself that THIS time I will do even better. Then I start a new game….

 That’s the true genius of a game like Frogger. It is so simple that you think it should be a walk in the park. Then you start playing and you find out that it is very brutal and unforgiving. Brutal and unforgiving but fair. This just makes you want to keep playing. If this was like Paperboy and I was getting killed over and over again over something that I couldn’t control, I would have stopped playing already. But this game is different.

If I had to knock one thing about this home version of the game, it is that the difficulty level kind of plateaus after a while. On my most recent playthrough I was on cruise control. It was the best game I had ever played. My points reset back to 0 because I had made it so far. I continued to plug on and drive that score up. I was on an absolute tear. Eventually, however, I kind of gave up. The levels weren't getting any harder. The points were back to 0 and I couldn't even really aim for a high score. And even if I did keep going for a high score, it is not like I had anyone around to share it with. The monotony started to set in. I stopped trying as hard as I had been, and kind of let myself lose my last few lives. After days and days of being smitten by this game and trying to master it, I finally did. I found that it wasn't nearly as fun to play anymore when I wasn't being challenged. So I think I am going to have to put this game down for a while.

That being said, I still had an absolute blast with the game. If you would have told me that I would have loved this so much and sunk so much time into the game before I started playing it, I would have told you that you were nuts. But it really is a true retro gem. The graphics, the music – these all ooze classic 80’s charm. It is fun, it is addicting, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is one of the most influential arcade classics out there. The fact that a game can be reviewed by some schmuck like me over 37 years after it was released and STILL garner a near perfect score should say a lot about its quality. What I thought would end up being just some game I would play for an hour to pass the time ended up turning into one of the best things I have played in months.

Overall:

A

If you liked my review, of Frogger please check out the following reviews:

Paperboy

Smash TV

X-Men

Guerilla War

Mortal Kombat

Video Game Review #134: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park

Nintendo Entertainment System

In the early 1990s I was fully enveloped in Jurassic Park mania. Anything that had the Jurassic Park name on it, I was going to check out. This included all of the many, many Jurassic Park video games. I owned both a Sega Genesis and an NES at the time. As an eleven year old, my funds were pretty limited. Since the NES was on its last legs, I ended up buying the Genesis version of the game and only renting the NES one. The Genesis version looked way cooler anyway. I played the NES game over and over again on that weekend I rented it. Although now I can beat it in one sitting, back then I thought it was pretty hard. I did end up beating the game, but it took quite a lot out of me!

The story of how I ended up owning the game is a funny one. I would say it was at least four or five years after I played the game initially. I was at a birthday party for one of my mom’s friend’s daughters. While everyone was outside eating and socializing and having fun, I ended up going inside and going down into the basement, where they had a rec room set up with a ton of video games. The NES wasn’t even hooked up to the TV. It was in a dusty box in the corner. The box next to it was loaded with an even dustier collection of games. I already owned most of the games, but when I saw Jurassic Park a strong urge to play it again washed over me. What did I end up doing? Stealing it, of course. Shame on you, Dan. Shame on you. My justification was that it was sitting there neglected in a dusty old box in the basement, and would probably never be played again. At least I was going to put it to good use. I keep telling that to myself every night before I go to sleep. In reality, some sad girl (or her dad) is probably out there crying herself to sleep every night, wondering what happened to her prized copy of Jurassic Park for the NES. Wishing and longing to be able to play it again, if only for one last time…

Yeah, probably not. Most people I know have never played this game. And if they did play it, they didn’t like it. I am one of the few who actually thinks that this is a pretty solid game.

The game takes place from an isometric perspective. Like pretty much all of the Jurassic Park video games released around this time, you are in control of Dr. Alan Grant. You must wander through the game’s stages, collecting eggs and completing various objectives. You are under constant attack from dinosaurs. To destroy them, you have to shoot them with your funky Nerf ball shooter. When you kill them, they vanish in a puff of smoke, leaving ammunition behind for you to collect. You will collect different colored Nerf balls as you progress. Standard Nerf balls will kill dinosaurs in three to five shots. Stronger ones deal double the damage. There is a blue one that can kill most enemies in one shot. A red one that has a wider range of attack.

Each stage has different tasks you must complete. One constant is that you will be collecting or destroying dinosaur eggs. Getting them all gives you a keycard that you can use to unlock new areas in the game. The first stage takes place in an open outside area with a couple of little maintenance buildings nearby. You have to collect all the eggs outside, which will give you a keycard. This unlocks one of the buildings. Enter that building and collect all the eggs in there. THAT gives you another keycard. Enter the second maintenance building and collect all the eggs once again. That gives you a keycard which you can use at a computer terminal to unlock the main gate. When you progress through the gate, you must rescue Tim from a herd of stampeding triceratops. When I first played through this as a kid, I thought it was borderline impossible. But through the years and countless number of times I have played this game, I can beat it pretty easily. I still get hit once or twice, but I consider that a major win. I vividly remember dreading the stampede sequences (there is another one later) as a kid, though. The second stage has you looking for Tim’s sister Lex, who is trapped in the tyrannosaur paddock. Same formula here. Kill dinosaurs. Collect eggs. Get keycards. Access new areas. There is a funky rafting section here, which I actually thought was pretty fun. The stage ends in a battle with the T-Rex. Again, easy to beat in present day. As a kid, I would often get here and lose all my lives. You have to shoot the T-Rex, but it is only vulnerable when it brings its head down to try and eat you. Not only can it eat you, which results in instant death, it can eat Lex as well. That also results in you losing a life. Maybe it was just dumb luck on my behalf, but on my most recent playthrough I only died once during both of the game’s T-Rex battles, when it ate Lex. Constant motion seemed to be the key for me here.

In the game’s ensuing stages, you complete more tasks and do more things. One stage has you restoring power to the park. I found this level to be quite annoying. You have to turn on computers in the proper order, but there are quite a few computers to be found in this level. Only through trial and error can you find the correct order. You have to backtrack back and forth a LOT between computer stations. Not only is it obnoxious and time consuming, but the dinosaurs respawn every time you enter a new area. So you are going to be fighting and losing ammo and taking unnecessary damage the whole way through. Another stage has you entering the velociraptors’ volcanic lair and destroying all of their eggs. This stage reminded me a bit of a scene from the book that wasn’t included in the Jurassic Park movie. Another stage has you exploring a large dinosaur infested boat that has communication equipment that can connect with the outside world. The final stage has you going through an InGen complex as you try to make your way off the island.

All throughout the game I found myself having a lot of fun. The game is not entirely perfect though. As I mentioned, the tedious backtracking and the respawning dinosaur bit can get a little old. In addition, dinosaurs often hide or are obscured behind objects in the environment and come rushing out at you with little to no chance for you to defend yourself. On the flip side, raptors for some reason can’t walk through open doorways and enter new rooms. As a result, you can just stand on the opposite side of the doorway and pick them off through the opening with no resistance. Another thing I don’t like: the mystery boxes. You will find boxes scattered about as you play. They have a question mark on them. The boxes either contain precious, precious health or they will explode and zap a decent amount of your health bar away. Collect at your own risk. It is pretty much a 50/50 split. It helps add to the tension level of the game a bit, I guess. You are low on health, down to your last life, and desperately need a little bit of health to survive and go on. Do you get the ignore the box because of the risk that it will kill you, or do you take the plunge and go for it? Personally, I found this to be more annoying than anything.

Graphically, the game isn’t much to look at by today’s standards. But it is by no means ugly, and it looks pretty good when you consider just how old the game actually is. The music is decent, though, and has some catchy tunes. One theme I enjoy the most is the one they play during the game’s opening sequence with the big scary T-Rex head. I actually found myself dancing along to the song when it kicked into high gear. I am not normally a dancer, but I may or may not have been under the influence when this happened. Don’t tell anyone. Dang, first I admit to stealing and now THIS? You must think I am a terrible person. And you are undoubtedly correct about that. But the music is in the video at the top of this review. It kicks into high gear around the 27 second mark. TRY not to dance along. I dare you.

The game took me somewhere in the area of an hour to complete, but that is because I have played the game many times in the past and knew exactly what to do and where to go in all the levels. If you are playing this for the first time, it may take you a couple days to finish it, depending on how often you play. Of all the old Jurassic Park games out there, this has turned into probably my favorite title. It doesn’t hold quite the sentimental sway for me as the Genesis version does (since I owned that game and played it nonstop for months on end), but it may actually be the better of the two Jurassic Park games. You know what? I am actually going to give it a better score than that game!

If you are a fuddy duddy you might take a look at this game, maybe play it for a half hour or so, and then call it quits. I have read a few online reviews where this has happened. It's too old! It is too hard! The graphics suck! I don't know what I'm supposed to do! But if you stick with it like I did, you will find that this game is a very fun and rewarding experience.

Overall:

B+

If you liked this review, please check out the following reviews:

Jurassic Park (Genesis) 

Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition

Lego Jurassic World

Demolition Man

Guerilla War

Re-Review #2: The Walking Dead Season Two

Re-Review!

The Walking Dead Season Two

PlayStation 3

>click here to read my initial review of this game<

These re-review things are not something I plan to do very often. One of the main focuses of this blog is for me to play and explore new games, not revisit the same old ones over and over again. But it should come as no surprise that shortly after re-reviewing the first Walking Dead game for the PlayStation 3, that I would be doing the same for its sequel. The reason for this is because I wanted to play the third game in the series, but at the same time I didn't remember where the first two games left off. After all, I had last beaten the second game a little over three years ago. It was no surprise that I did not remember much about its ending.

But now I have played it again and I am ready to take on the third one whenever I feel like it. Has my opinion on this game changed since I last played it three years ago? Not really, actually.

While I gave the game a B+ in my initial review, I couldn't help but feel that the game wasn't as good as the original Walking Dead. This game didn't have anything near the emotional impact of the first game for me. There was no Lee in the game, or anyone even like him for Clementine to bond with. The first title had such a memorable cast and so many gut wrenching moments. Its ending is one of the all time video game greats, in my opinion. So when nothing happened in the second game to match that same emotional intensity, I was a little bit disappointed.

Playing it again, I agree that it is true that this game doesn't really have any big, crying, heart-breaking moments. I never got emotional while playing this. But that is not to say that this game is a bad game at all. In fact, it is quite good. But the lack of a big, defining moment like in the last game definitely makes this not as memorable as its predecessor.

The game's presentation is excellent. Playing it now, I can most definitely see that the game's quality is much, much stronger than the original. The graphics are sharper and the characters look more refined. Character interactions feel less stiff and wooden.The locales in this game are very intricate and well detailed as well. I put on headphones when I played, and completely lost myself in the game's world.

You can see that the makers of the game went for a more cinematic feel this time around. Action sequences are much more polished. There are more things you can do. This game mixes in a bigger variety of button mashing and quick-time events than the previous Walking Dead. Things feel a bit more fresh and less mechanical. You are more involved at all times. You always have to be on your toes because you never know when you are going to need to make a quick button selection.

Story wise, the game is strong. Playing as Clementine, you find yourself on your own after being separated from Christa and Omid. In a pretty tense sequence, you are bitten by a hungry dog that you find out in the wild. You are injured, but happen to be discovered by a group of survivors. The survivors aren't very friendly to you at first since they think that your dog bite is a walker bite. But when Clementine doesn't get sick, they finally accept her as one of their own.

You find out that this small group of survivors is on the run from a larger group of survivors led by a man named Carver. They flee with Clementine, their travels taking them to an old ski lodge. There they discover another group of survivors - this one led by Kenny from the first game. The two forces join together to face off against Carver. Things don't go so well.

The second half of the game's story consists of escaping from Carver's complex. The group heads north to a city where there is rumored to be a growing group of survivors who are looking for members. That is where the game ends. I assume the ending is different depending on the choices you make. Mine ended arriving at the city with Kenny at my side. But the group would only take Clementine, so Kenny had to sadly wander off on his own as the credits began to roll.

The game is a lot of fun. I was invested in the twists and turns of Clementine's journey. I didn't want to slow down or stop until I was done! I am very intrigued as to what the next game will entail. Where Clementine's path will take her next.

Overall, this was a solid game. It is hard for me to judge because technically, it is a lot better than the original Walking Dead title. Everything from music, to graphics, to voice acting, to controls... all the way down the line this game is superior. The only place where this game falters is in its storyline. It is not a bad one. In fact, it is very good in a lot of places. But I can't help but hold it up to the high standard set by the original game. With how much I loved that game, whatever came next was bound to let me down. But if I put thoughts of the original game to the side, I can clearly see that its sequel is a very high quality title.

It got a B+ last time, and I think that is a good place to keep it. Can't wait to play number three!

Overall:

B+
(original score: B+)

Video Game Review #133: Gex: Enter the Gecko

Gex: Enter the Gecko

PlayStation

Back in the late 90’s my favorite genre of game was far and away the 3D platformer. You know the type – Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro the Dragon, Croc, Jersey Devil, Crash Bandicoot, the list goes on and on. It was a fun time to be a gamer, especially if you loved those types of games as much as I did.

When I was at Blockbuster Video looking to rent a game for the weekend, I saw Gex 64 sitting on the shelf. I picked it up and gave the back of the box a good look. It looked like it would be a lot of fun and something I would enjoy. I had always had an interest in the original 2D Gex title for the Sega Saturn, but for some reason, I had never gotten around to playing it. Why not check out Gex 64 and see if the series was worth my time?

I ended up renting the game and bringing it home. Right away, I remember being completely awed by the game. Having never played a Gex title, I didn’t really expect much of it. But the game was terrific! At least it was to me, back then. I remember wandering around and checking out that first stage of the game. The open space, the green grass, the trees, the rainbow bridge thingies on the waterfall, all the stuff there was to collect. I was very impressed. I distinctly recall thinking: “Wow! Video games can’t get much better than this!”

I played that game a bunch that weekend, and a bunch may be an understatement. I probably only powered off my Nintendo 64 when it was time to go to bed. I am trying to use every ounce of brainpower I can, but I cannot for the life of me remember if I actually beat the game or not. I don’t think I did, but I can’t say that with any degree of certainty.

Needless to say, the game left a very positive impression on me. I also remember renting the game’s sequel Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko, but I recall very little of that game. Years and years passed before I saw Gex: Enter the Gecko (the original PlayStation version of Gex 64) on sale on the PlayStation store. Immediately I was all like “oh hey that game! I loved that game.” So I bought it. This was about two years ago.

I finally got around to playing it in 2018. Since the game is nearly twenty years old and I hadn’t played it since it first came out, I didn’t expect that it had aged very gracefully. But aside from a few camera and control issues, I actually had a pretty good time with this game.

The concept of the title is that you are playing as Gex, a TV addicted gecko (and hero of the previous game in the series). Gex is called into action when the villain from the last game resurfaces and interrupts television airwaves all over the world. Being the TV addict that he is, Gex will not stand for this. He jumps into TV world and heads off to take out his nemesis once and for all.

If you have played games like Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie, you will instantly become familiar with the format of the game. There is a main hub world that you can explore. This hub world contains portals to all the different stages of the game. In each stage are a certain number of hidden remotes. The more remotes you find, the more of the hub world you unlock and the more additional stages open up to you. In Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie terms, these remotes act like stars or puzzle pieces.

The stages of the game take on the form of different forms of television entertainment. There’s cartoon stages that seem to be a parody of Bugs Bunny and other Loony Tunes cartoons. There are horror themed stages that take place in haunted houses, prehistoric stages where Gex is dressed like a caveman, outer space science fiction themed stages, kung-fu inspired stages, and more. Gex is clearly trying to be different from other similar video games where they have the same types of water/jungle/ice/lava themed stages over and over again.

The graphics of the game are really nice. Like I said earlier, I expected them to have aged poorly. But it is actually quite the opposite. No, the graphics aren’t perfect. Some stages are pretty basic looking, and background draw distances can be painfully short. But the game just oozes classic 90’s charm in its look. The sci-fi stages and the “inside the computer” stages are freakin’ brilliant looking with those dark backgrounds with the popping neon colored ledges and platforms. I just think they look super cool. Gex and his enemies are animated well too. Things can look a bit pixelated at times if you look too closely at them. But this will only be a major problem for you if you like to nitpick.

As far as the game’s audio, this is where I have read quite a few complaints online. The music and sound effects of the game are fine, if nothing memorable. They do their job. They work. The main issue seems to be with Gex himself and his constant need to spout off one-liners every minute or two. The complaints are valid. I had to hear some kind of variation of “It’s tail time!” more times than I could count. Luckily I am good at drowning stuff like that out. Gex’s other one-liners I actually thought were pretty funny. I had a good chuckle over some of them. “Ahh, to see life as Keith Richards does” was a good one. So was “Don’t take career advice from Joe Piscopo.”  How about: “In a land before time, when Saturday Night Live was funny." Or “Boys, Tron didn't work once...it's not going to work twice!" Irony, I know. This game was released twelve years before Tron Legacy saw the light of day. Also, can’t forget the X-Files shout out: “Has anyone seen Fox Mulder's sister?" But for every funny or amusing one-liner shouted out, Gex would launch into an equally obnoxious Austin Powers impersonation or some different rendition of “It’s tail time!” As I said, I am good at drowning that stuff out. But I can understand why this is a legitimate complaint for some people.

 My number one complaint came from the game’s camera system. I have played a countless number of games like this before and I always see people harping on the camera system. But honestly, I am not a huge camera complainer. I adjust as need be and I make it work. But this game…. this game (I shook my head back and forth as I wrote the italicized this. Could you tell?). The camera is bad. There is just no way around it. Bad. I tinkered with the options and all the different camera settings, but I just couldn’t find anything that worked for me. The camera is very difficult to align behind Gex’s back, especially if you are standing on a moving platform. If you are in a cramped space, it is very hard to realign the camera behind you. A lot of times when you are trying to line up a jump, the camera will have a mind of its own and wander off to look in a direction that does not help you one tiny bit. Oftentimes when you are trying to jump to something off-screen, the camera will suddenly twist as you are in midair, and all of a sudden you will be holding down the wrong direction and you will badly miss your intended landing spot. It is frustrating on every level. In fact, when I first started replaying this game, I thought it would make the game unplayable for me. Luckily I pushed on.

Camera hiccups aside, I had a ton of fun with this game. It is not an all time classic like Banjo-Kazooie or Mario 64, but it is close. The levels are all cleverly designed and very diverse in theme. There are secret items and secret areas galore; this game always keep you looking for something. I didn't unlock every single remote on my play through, but I did my best to snag as many as I could. The game is challenging in spots, but never too overly difficult. I racked up fifty some lives while mining the earlier stages in the game for all their hidden items and remotes. Graphically, Gex withstands the test of time. The music and sound effects do their job, but are nothing spectacular.

This game feels a lot like (although it's not as good as) Super Mario 64. It has got the action, the exploration, the hidden items, and the bright and colorful graphics. To top it off, the game is super funny too. Gex is definitely not lacking in personality. I wish that more games would come out in the series, but alas, I think Gex’s ship has sailed. If you are like me and you enjoy this genre of late 90’s 3D platform games, you will probably like Gex a lot. It starts out a little rough, but grows on you the more you play. If you don’t like this type of game and you are frustrated by hard to control camera systems, you may want to avoid this. I like it though. And this is my review, so my opinion is the only one that matters!

Overall:

B

If you liked this review of Gex: Enter the Gecko, please check out the following reviews:

Super Mario 64

Banjo-Kazooie

Bug!

Ratchet & Clank

Lego Jurassic World

Video Game Review #132: The Last Guardian

The Last Guardian

PlayStation 4

The Last Guardian is created by the same people who brought cult classics ICO and Shadow of the Colossus to home consoles in the early 2000s. Supposedly the production of this game was an ordeal and a half for its creators. The game spent about ten years in production hell before it was finally able to be released to the public back in 2016. There is a lot to this story and it is an interesting read. I suggest checking it out.

Despite both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus getting rave reviews, I have never been a huge fan of either game. I like the world of the games and the atmosphere they create. But I never found them to be very fun. They were interesting, sure. But fun? Ehhhh… The storylines, or lack thereof, were equally unimpressive to me.

So when I first heard about The Last Guardian, I had a very neutral reaction. Supposedly the game would be taking elements from both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus and combining them into one new experience. I thought the game looked nice and had potential. For sure at some point I would give it a try. But given my feeling for those two games, I was not exactly jumping out of my seat over it.

Towards the end of April 2018, the opportunity to play the game finally came to me. I was canceling my GameFly subscription due to extremely long wait times for shipping in between games. I only had about two weeks left and I didn’t want to play a longer game since I was going to be canceling, so I put a bunch of shorter games at the top of my queue. A few Lego games. Walking Dead season three. This game. As luck of the draw would have it, The Last Guardian ended up being the lucky winner.

Despite the fact that I didn’t really like the game’s predecessors that much, I was still very happy to give it a try. I had heard all about the game and the bond you create with your companion character, Trico. I had also read reviews that he (or she, but I will refer to Trico as he from now on just because it is easier) was very difficult to control. But if you could get through the game, supposedly it was a very rewarding experience. I like rewarding experiences. Why not give it a shot? So that is what I did.

The Last Guardian opens in a very mysterious manner. Playing as a small nameless boy, you wake up in a dark cave, strange tribal tattoo-like markings all over your body. Chained up near you is Trico, a giant beast that has the head of a dog, the body of a cat, and the wings and feathers of a bird. Trico at first is openly hostile to you (for obvious reasons, he is chained up and has broken and bloody spears sticking out of his body). Clearly he has been through some serious shit. You explore the cave and find that there is no way for you to escape. You have to figure out how to calm Trico down and set him loose so that he can help you out. After pulling the spears from his body, feeding him some kind of glowing blue barrels that give him energy, and unlocking the chain around his neck, Trico is freed. A bond is formed between your character and his. If you have ever seen Star Wars, I liken it to a Wookie life debt. Trico becomes your loyal companion 4 lyfe!!!11!

After freeing Trico, you explore the cave system and finally make your way out. You don’t know it yet, but you are in the heart of the beast’s homeland. You and Trico venture deep into this mysterious territory, where a threat is discovered that puts the life of Trico and all creatures like him in jeopardy. Working with Trico, you must destroy this threat and set all of the Trico-like beasts free from the power that binds them. Like with ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, the game’s storyline is a bit vague, but at least its basic concept seems clear.

The game’s controls are definitely the worst thing about it. Your character controls very sloppily. Running, climbing, and jumping often feel like a messy, inaccurate ordeal. You have to line jumps up exactly or risk falling to your death. The camera often gets in the way and makes this even more difficult to handle. You can tell that this game has been in production for a long time, because the controls and  the camera functions make this game feel like something that came out in the mid-2000s. A big part of the game is climbing onto Trico and riding him around. Anyone who has played Shadow of the Colossus will instantly recognize how familiar this feels - it is like climbing up onto a Colossus all over again. I often got stuck on Trico though. I’d be climbing up his leg towards his back and even though I was holding the up button, I would stop and not be able to go up anymore. I’d have to wiggle around left and right to find the exact spot where I could begin to move up him more efficiently. This didn’t happen every time, but it happened often enough. Seeing as how climbing Trico is such a huge part of the game, it became a big nuisance after a while. I feel like I wasted a lot of time climbing (or attempting to climb) the beast when it should have been something that you could easily accomplish in five seconds or less. The camera often gets in the way of climbing too. Trico is a big beast and takes up a lot of space on the screen. If you are trying to climb him and there are obstacles around you, the camera often adjusts so that you are just looking at a big blob of pixels on the screen. Am I climbing him? Am I stuck? I can’t tell because I can’t see my character.

The biggest complaint I have is how difficult it is to get Trico to follow your commands. I am not alone in this assessment. As I mentioned before, that was one of the biggest complaints I had read about the game before I actually played it. I thought it wouldn’t be as bad as people had said. But it was. You climb up on Trico’s back. You see a ledge that you are clearly meant to jump to in order to access the next part of the stage. You point Trico in that direction. He just stands there. He scratches himself. He wanders off and starts sniffing around. No, Trico. THAT WAY! He still doesn’t listen. Rinse and repeat for several minutes. You start to question whether that actually is where you are supposed to go, because Trico sure ain’t going there. That happened a lot in this game. This would lead to me second guessing myself. I’d have to pull up an online guide because I couldn’t figure out where I was supposed to be heading. If not the obvious spot, where? But then it would turn out I was right the whole time. It would take a lot of coaxing and finagling, but eventually I’d get him to follow my command. A simple segment that should only take a minute or two would take fifteen instead. So frustrating. This happened to me where I got stuck about a half hour before the end of the game too. You’re supposed to care for this beast and have an emotional bond with it. I’m just sitting there screaming at it to freaking move! That definitely took me out of the game a little bit. When I got to the end and started watching the ending sequence, it didn’t have as big of an impact on me because I was so irritated with the beast. The ending is clearly meant to invoke all these “feels” from you, but when Trico is pissing you off so much it definitely detracts from that emotional bond you are supposed to feel.

The game’s graphics are a mixed bag. At first glance, things look really good. The landscapes are large and beautiful. The atmosphere of the game has this whole magical and mystical feel to it. You really feel as if there is a deep history to this world and you have barely scratched the surface of exploring it. The water and lighting effects are sensational. Trico himself is wonderfully animated and is fun to just sit there and look at. His feathers can be mesmerizing at times, especially when they are blowing in the wind.

It is when you start to look a little closer that you notice some of the game’s rough edges. There are many areas of this game that look kind of grimy and gritty, almost as if you are looking at things through a screen door. A lot of rocks, cliffs, and segments of old ruins are boring to look at. When the camera glitches out and gets in super close to the walls, they can look pretty rough. This doesn’t look like a next generation PS4 game. In fact, there are times where this game looks more like a PS3 game. Sometimes even a PS2 one. Of course, there are many atmospheric effects that likely couldn’t be done on one of those earlier systems. But this game does not look new or current at all.

The Last Guardian’s music and sound effects are very good. The musical score blends in well with the atmosphere and the environment of the game. It is subtle when it needs to be subtle. It amps up during those rare moments when it needs to be amped up. It feels like something you would see in a major motion picture; it is very well done. One song in particular made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It embodies the mystery and the discovery of the game, and your relationship with Trico. Do yourself a favor and Google Overture Lore. It is such an epic track! Sound effects are everything you would expect from a game like this. Your characters spoken language and Trico’s roar both fit the game’s world like a glove. Bonus points for the game’s language being spoken in Japanese and not some made up gibberish language.

The game itself isn’t very long. It isn’t short either, so don’t worry about tossing money away on a game that can be beat in a day. I beat it in about three or four days. I had to return it, so I didn’t get the chance to play it again. But there is definitely replay value here. Especially when you know what is going to happen in the end. I can imagine that going back and playing again would be interesting. Seeing that bond formed between boy and creature for a second time. Exploring the deliberately vague storyline of the game and making more sense of it another time around.

Despite the game’s flaws and frustrations, it did leave a lasting mark on me. I enjoyed exploring its big, mysterious world. Trico pissed me off to no end, but I still felt sad when the game was over and I wouldn’t be able to interact with him anymore. There was this big empty gap in my heart where Trico had been. Not only Trico, but the nameless boy too. It was like I lost one a couple of my closest friends. The game stuck with me for several days, and I couldn’t help but think back on it at random points throughout my day. That is the mark of a good game for me, when thoughts of it linger around in my mind like that.

I enjoyed this game much, much more than I ever did ICO or Shadow of the Colossus. It is not a perfect game by any means, but it is a very good one. I have to pick it up someday and play through it again. Until that day comes, I will treasure the memories I had with Trico. That fucking asshole piece of shit that made me scream at my TV all night long.

Overall:

B

If you liked this review, please check out my reviews of the following games:
Rime

Journey

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Flower
Beyond Good and Evil HD

Re-Review #1: The Walking Dead

Re-Review!!

The Walking Dead

PlayStation 3

>click here for my original review of the Waling Dead<

There is a first time for everything. When I first started this blog about three years ago, one of my main goals was to work through my video game collection one game at a time. I have a huge collection of games and I had been finding myself playing the same ones over and over again while a ton of them were not even getting played at all. My solution? Write a review for each game I complete. Put the game in a shoebox and store it away. If it was a digital game, delete it entirely. I'd work my way through my whole collection. If I ever felt the need to go back and play a game I had already reviewed – ignore it! It would take time but eventually I would get through my entire collection. But even three years into this project it seems I have barely made a dent in my collection.

So why am I breaking my own personal rule and playing the Walking Dead a second time? I have a good reason. That reason is called the Walking Dead Season Three: A New Frontier. I have played the Walking Dead Seasons one and two, but it has been a long time since I have completed season two. So I don’t really remember where things left off. I don’t remember the choices I made in the first two games. So before I play season three, I want to go back and play seasons one and two over again. Makes sense, right?

I just finished Season one and I figured this would give me a decent chance to try something new and write a “re-review” for the game. I would see if it stacked up as well in real life as it did in my memory. Did it? Well, yes and no.

I’ll start with the yes. I still had a great time playing this game. To me, it is one of the best Walking Dead stories out there. There are a ton of great moments in the game. The house full of cannibals. The supply raid on Crawford. Lee getting bitten on the arm. The heart-wrenching ending. If this was a movie or TV show and not a video game, I would still love the story. Not only is the story great, but the characters are as well. You really feel a kinship with many characters as you play this game. The relationship between Lee and Clementine is very touching and is something you don’t see a lot of in video games today. There is a definite emotional connection that this game made with me. I vicariously experienced the character’s highest highs and their lowest lows. When Clementine goes missing towards the end of Episode Four, I felt the panic that Lee must have felt settle in. When Lee got bitten and had to hack off his own arm, I felt the anguish and the desperation as well. I am not a crying person normally, but I did shed tears while playing through the game’s very tragic ending.

So in terms of storytelling, the Walking Dead Season One is still a very good game. What did I not enjoy about it the second time through? I’ll elaborate.

First and foremost is the game’s pace. Some of the conversations seem just a bit too drawn out. Especially when the characters are in the middle of some kind of panicked event. A generic example: zombies are busting down the door of the room you are hiding in. The game makes you explore a four segment conversation branch with someone before you can do anything about the zombies. Hellllooooo? Zombies are busting down your door. A little sense of urgency would be nice. That was just a generic example but things like this happen all the time throughout the game and it drove me nuts.

The game also seems very basic. Perhaps I am spoiled because I have recently played a couple of newer Telltale games: Guardians of the Galaxy and Batman. It seems like there is always something to do or something to see in those games. They keep you involved at all times. It is understandable that this game is a lot older and Telltale hadn’t perfected its craft yet when making this one. But there were times I just sat there staring off into space because things were moving too slowly or the conversations just would not end. It also seems like there are a lot of filler areas of the game where your only goal is to walk around and converse with each character before you can move on.

There are some technical squabbles to be found too. The save system isn’t ideal. You have to wait till the game automatically saves for you before you can turn the console off. You can’t just manually save the game yourself. Lee walks at a snail's pace and often will get hung up on small objects on the ground that you for some reason can’t simply walk over. You have to take the extra time to go around them completely. There is occasional slowdown during conversations as well. I was worried my game would freeze at a few points, but luckily it never did. Of course, the game is nearly five years old now so the graphics aren’t going to be as good as a lot of current Telltale games. The character models are fine, but I often found the areas and backgrounds uninteresting or boring to look at.

I also played through the game's DLC - The Walking Dead: 400 Days. It is a collection of five different stories that tell the tale of six different survivors during different random points of the zombie apocalypse. Each tale is about ten to twenty minutes in length. They are all pretty good stories, but because you don't get to spend much time with each character they don't carry the same emotional weight as the tale of Lee and Clementine. They tie together in the end, however, and the choices you make directly affect who appears in the Walking Dead sequel and who does not. Normally I am not a big DLC person, but for only a couple bucks this was definitely worth it.

Overall I still find this to be a very good and very deserving game. Is it worthy of the A+ score I gave it in my previous review? I don’t think so. Perfect scores should be reserved for perfect games, and this game is most definitely not perfect. I can see why I would want to give it a perfect score though, especially with the emotional heft of the game’s storyline and the way in which you connect with its characters. As characters, Clementine and Lee are nearly flawless. As a game, this title is excellent – maybe even great. But flawless? No. In fact, there are quite a few flaws to be found here. So its score is going to drop just a little bit.

Side note, I am very curious to play the Walking Dead Season Two over again now. Overall I recall liking that game, but at the same time I was slightly disappointed in it. I had such high expectations for that game the first time I played it that it was bound to let me down just a little. It was solid, but I didn’t like it nearly as much as I did the original title. I wonder if I will like it more this time since my expectations aren’t quite as high. We shall see.

Overall:

A-
(original score: A+)