Video Game Review #205: The Walking Dead: A New Frontier

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

I’ve been wanting to play this game for so long now! I have always been a big fan of Telltale’s Walking Dead games, and earlier in the year I re-played the first two games in the series because I had planned on buying this one, which I did. But then something happened. I got a GameFly subscription. I decided to put off playing this game until my subscription was over so I could focus on getting my money’s worth out of GameFly. Well, months have passed and my subscription is finally over. Time to return to working on my backlog of games. First up? You guessed it: The Walking Dead: A New Frontier.

Story:

This game kicks off a few months, maybe even a few years after the events of the last Walking Dead game. Rather than starting off in Clementine’s shoes, you are introduced to a new character: Javier. Javier is the leader/not leader of a small group of survivors. They are constantly on the move, scavenging for supplies and fighting off zombies and other hostiles. The group decides to hole up in a junkyard that contains supplies, shelter, and everything they need to get by for a little while longer. Don’t forget, this is the universe of the Walking Dead. When something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

A group of bad guys returns to the junkyard and accuses the group of stealing their supplies. A fight breaks out, and who swoops in to save the day? Say it with me: Clementine! Turns out that Clem has a history with this group of bad guys, and has every reason in the world to hate them. It is interesting seeing Clementine from the eyes of an outsider this time around. Is she a good person? Should Javier trust her? Of course we know the answer is yes, but these people do not.

As the game progresses, we get a lot of details on what happened with Clem since we last saw her. She joined this society called the New Frontier with AJ (the baby from the last game). AJ became sick, and when the New Frontier’s doctor refused to use their precious medicine supplies to save him, Clementine broke into his office and used the supplies on the baby herself. Clementine is caught, however, and exiled for her crimes. Believing AJ to be dead, she moves on, looking for a new start. We also get Javier flashbacks as well. Javi and his brother David were at odds with one another at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. After time, the two are separated and David is believed to be dead. Javi hits the road with David’s two kids and his widow Kate, who is the step mother of these two kids. They have been surviving on the road ever since.

In the battle at the junkyard, one of the two kids is killed in the attack. Kate and the surviving child are taken by the New Frontier. Javi and Clementine launch a plan to get them back. It is then revealed that David, Javi’s A-hole brother, is still alive and is one of the New Frontier’s bigwigs. This only serves to complicate matters. Remember, Javi and his brother never really got along. And since they all thought David was dead, Javi and Kate had started to develop a romantic relationship. Can anyone say awkward?

Javi and Clem are captured by the New Frontier, which is ruled by a ruthless warmonger named Joan. Almost all of their supplies have been stolen or raided from other communities. Even though David is a complete tool, he still seems reasonable next to Joan. A civil war brews in the New Frontier. David is accused of being a traitor trying to overthrow Joan, and is to be executed. At the execution, all hell breaks loose as walkers are let in by Kate and they swarm the town.

Long story short, Javi and Clementine save the day. When the dust settles, Javi is asked to be the new leader of the New Frontier. Clementine discovers AJ’s location, and the game ends with her hitting the road. We are only to assume that this is where the fourth and final game in the series picks up. I for one cannot wait to play that game!

Personally, I really enjoyed this game’s story. I have read a lot of criticism online that people hated it because it wasn’t 100% focused on Clementine. I didn’t mind that, though. It was interesting seeing her from the perspective of complete strangers. I liked Javier and I liked his rivalry with David. I liked the New Frontier civil war plot. I liked all the flashbacks. It really felt like all the characters in this game were very-well fleshed out, more so than previous TWD games. That made the stakes seem higher and even more important, in my mind.

My only complaint is that I would have liked a little resolution on what happened to Kenny, since he was alive at the end of my Walking Dead 2 playthrough. But he is never mentioned in this game. I thought that my actions from the last few games were supposed to have carried over to this one, but apparently they did not. They didn’t even ask me any questions as to how my game ended either when I started this one up. Did I miss something? Did I do something wrong?

Gameplay:

I have played and reviewed at least, what, ten Telltale games since I’ve started this blog? There isn’t much to say here that I haven’t said already. Nothing has changed. If anything, this game is a lot simpler and easier than anything I’ve played before. I didn’t die one time, or for that matter even miss a single QTE prompt. This game is laughably easy. You talk to people, you make conversation choices, you respond to quick time events. Occasionally the game lets you walk around and check things out. I don’t really know what else to say that I haven't already.

 

Graphics:

This game looks pretty good. It’s been a while since I played the second game in the series, so I can’t say for certain that there was a noticeable improvement in the graphics. But everything looks really swell. I like the whole comic book feel of the game’s characters. The characters themselves are very expressive with their emotions. Everyone looks unique and different and has their own distinct personality. As far as the game’s environment goes, everything looks exactly as it should. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t Horizon Zero Dawn. It is probably not going to be turning any heads. But Telltale games are never really known for their graphics, more for their storylines. Does the game look ugly? Absolutely not. And that’s all that really matters to me.

Sound:

The voice acting for this game is terrific, which I expected. This is not unusual for Telltale’s games.

The music I didn’t really notice, but when I did notice it, it was good. There was a moment in the game where they use the “Lee” music from the original Walking Dead, and it immediately stirred up all kinds of emotions in my heart.

Overall, the game sounds really good. No complaints from me.

Overall:

After reading all kinds of negative reviews for this game online, I expected to hate it. It turned out to actually be a very pleasant surprise. I had a good time with this game. I was heavily invested in the characters and the storyline. We’re not as bad as Javi and David, but my older brother and I always had kind of a sibling rivalry thing going on, so I was able to really relate to that part of the story. I liked they moved things forward a few years and used flashbacks to fill in the blanks with what happened to Clementine. Overall, I just had a really fun time with this game. I wasn’t able to put it down.

You could argue that I should give this game a low score because the gameplay is mediocre and you do more talking and watching than actually playing. I don’t subscribe to that theory. This is a Telltale game. I knew exactly what I was getting into. It all comes down to you, the player, and what you can get out of this kind of game. If this type of game isn’t your thing, it isn’t your thing. I, however, love these kind of games (well, except for The Wolf Among Us and Back to the Future…. those games can fuck right off).

If you are a fan of the Walking Dead series, this is an absolute must-play. Forget all the hater reviews! Yeah, this game is a little light on Clementine, but it moves her story along nicely and sets us up for what should be one doozy of a final chapter.

Final Score:

A-

If you liked this review, please check out some of my other game reviews:

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead Season Two

The Walking Dead: Michonne

The Wolf Among Us

Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series

Video Game Review #204: Paradise Bay

Paradise Bay

Mobile

Nostalgia Factor:

Nostalgia is going to play a heavier factor than normal for this review, because Paradise Bay doesn’t exist anymore! That’s right, servers shut down for this game earlier in the year on May 17th. I played Paradise Bay religiously for about three years on my phone and I was sad to see it go. I was pretty dang attached to this game - I had to let some time pass before I thought about writing this review, so I could do it objectively instead of emotionally.

It is funny I even played this game at all, because these types of city/community building titles do not appeal to me whatsoever. The only reason I even downloaded it to begin with is because I thought that this was a puzzle title, and I was looking for an alternative to Candy Crush. As soon as I downloaded this game and saw what type of game it was, I nearly turned around and just deleted it. Instead, I decided to give it a shot. Before I knew it, I was absolutely hooked, and I would stay hooked for three whole years.

Story:

There is not much to see here as far as story goes. You play as an unseen villager known as the Trademaster, who is helping to build a community on a tropical island. It is your job to set up various shops around this island, as well as planting crops and trading items with other players. The island is populated with colorful characters that often give you jobs to complete and tasks to perform as you work on the island.

Some of these villagers have their own fun little stories. One of them will say he is throwing a party and he needs several things that you either have to acquire in a trade or build using the island’s shops. Let’s say – party clothes. Complete his order and he’ll give you another order to fill. Let’s say it is drinks this time. Then he’ll tell you to get food. So on and so forth until he is ready to throw the party. You don’t actually see or participate in this party, but it does go down as a mission completed. Money earned, reward items go into your inventory. Then someone else will have a series of tasks for you to complete.

There’s a lot of small conversations and character banter segments that you have to watch in-between filling these orders. I found these conversations to be pretty dull and pointless, and I often skipped over them so that I could get back to working on my island. That about sums up my experience with the game’s story. Paradise Bay is always giving you little conversations to read or small story events to keep you occupied, but I found them all to be pretty inconsequential and minor. This game is all about building and maintaining your island, and everything else plays second fiddle to that.

Gameplay:

I am sure I am going to be forgetting a lot of things here, as I haven’t played this game since May. The first thing you want to get a handle on when playing this game is planting crops. There are several different types of crops you can plant, all of which can be used at the shops to create items. The more common the crop is (like cotton and bamboo), the less time it takes to grow it once you’ve planted it. I think cotton was a minute and a half and bamboo was two minutes. The more exotic the crop (like lavender and wheat), the longer they take to grow. Some of them can even take several hours before they are ready to be harvested.

Once you have the crops you need, you can use them to create items at shops. For example you can use cotton to create fishing nets. Since these are pretty basic items that you are going to be using a lot, they don’t take a whole lot of time to complete. Once you have the fishing nets, you can use these nets to try and catch some fish. If you are trying to catch a basic fish, it will only take you a couple minutes to get one. If you are going for shrimp, it will take a little longer. If you are going for crabs, you are going to have to wait about ten minutes. Once you have the fish you need, you can then use them to create a more advanced item. Combine three shrimp with a lemon and you’ll get grilled shrimp. Just grill a solo fish, and you’ll get a piece of grilled fish. Or you can use these items to craft different types of sushi. Basically, everything starts with the crops. Once you get the crops you need, you can start crafting all different types of items. Food, clothing, beverages, jewelry, supplies. The possibilities are not necessarily limitless, but there is still a LOT you can make. Obviously the items that take the longest to build are going to be worth more money at the trading post.

If you are getting impatient, you can use purple gems to speed up the time it takes for the items you are creating. If you need a gold ring to complete a boat order, but the ring is still 3 hours from being done and your boat order is going to expire in 45 minutes, use your gems to get instant access to your gold ring. Gems can be earned by completing various orders both at the dock and for villagers. You can also buy them with real money, but I never went that far.

That’s the basic gist of this game. Plant your crops, harvest them, use these crops to create things at the shops. You always want to keep that wheel turning. Make sure something is always growing, make sure the shops are always busy creating things. My island was quite prosperous. I leveled up as far as I could level up. I earned so much in-game money that it became useless to me after a while.

When Paradise Bay debuted, only the main island was accessible to players. As the game got more advanced and more features were added, different islands began to open up. One of  these islands had a tree that grew purple gems you could harvest every 24 hours. Some of the islands had special items like ready-made pieces of sushi you could buy without having to wait to create them. Another island contained a trading post where you could turn your dyes into special medallions, and you could then cash in these medallions for things like gold coins, maps to new islands, or pet stickers.

Which brings me to the last major gameplay feature of Paradise Bay – the pets. Getting my hands on every pet I could own became my main goal as I played. There was a HUGE variety of pets you could earn. I must have had at least 40 to 50 of them in my possession when the game shut down. You got monkeys, dolphins, beavers, raccoons, bunnies, bats, hippos, and many more. Some of these pets could be earned by completing “Tradefest” in time. Tradefest is a week-long free for all where you have to collect items and trade them in, in order to gain rewards and access to new pets. Or you could get pets through collecting stickers. That was a long and arduous process for me, as some pets would require 50-plus stickers to activate – and the game only gives you a sticker or two a day. Once you have a pet in your possession, you can feed it every few hours or so. Feeding your pets gives you experience, cash, and rare items like pet stickers and things that expand your inventory.

There are still a ton of layers to the gameplay of this game that I haven’t touched yet. Honestly, I could sit here for hours and tell you everything the game had to offer, which I am not going to do. Let’s just say that this game did a LOT to keep you occupied at all times. Often I would pop open Paradise Bay with the intent of just planting some crops and shutting the game off for a while, and I would get drawn into a two hour playing session. Honestly, I am kind of glad this game is gone because it sucked up so much of my spare time!

Graphics:

Things are pretty basic looking in this game. Nothing to get too excited about. But it doesn’t look ugly either. Things are bright and colorful and full of personality. That is what gives the game its charm to me. The characters are all unique and different looking. The pets are beyond cute, and their animations always had me giggling. Again, the game is not a whole lot to look at, but it is still pretty fun and pleasing to the eye.

Sound:

The music of the game is pretty catchy, which is good because you are going to be listening to it quite a bit. Paradise Bay's sound effects can be a little obnoxious, however, with all the loud jangling casino-type sounds the game makes when you harvest crops. Honestly, I would often mute this game as I played it, and put on some music or a TV show. There is no voice acting, no kind of audio cues you need to be listening for. Just the same music droning on and the same old sound effects that the shops, factories, and pets would emit. It is not necessary one tiny bit to hear anything as you play.

Overall:

I miss Paradise Bay. I really do. It is funny how a game that I downloaded on a complete whim, in a genre that I don’t even enjoy, ended up turning into my “go to” mobile game. I could always open up Paradise Bay and find something to do. Even though the tasks in this game seem relatively mundane (grow crops, craft items at shops, buy and sell items on the trade market), they were fun to me. I had a daily routine where in the morning I would plant a bunch of crops that took a long time to grow so they would be ready for me later. I’d collect all the items from my various shops around the island, and get my shops working on new items. I’d scan the docks for pet sticker or map piece rewards, and start working on the items I needed to complete the boat orders, if necessary. I’d get my seals working on finding buried treasure. I’d visit the bonus islands and buy everything in sight, so when I came back later in the day they would be re-generated and I could buy them again. I’d go around and feed all my pets. I had a routine down pat. You don’t even know. I became attached to my island and my pets in a way that I didn’t even think would be possible.

That’s why it came as such a shock to me when I learned that the game would be shutting down. I took a few breaks from Paradise Bay (one of these breaks was even three or four months long), but for the most part playing this game had been a part of my daily routine for three years. This is going to make me look like the world’s biggest snowflake, but I actually shed a tear or two when I read the news. All that dedication and all that work I put into my island: gone! As a parting gift, the game makers gave each player ten million purple gems so that they could go nuts and really snaz up their island before the game shut down. I initially started to spend these gems to buy all the pets I was missing, but after a while I stopped. It seemed cheap and pointless to just be handed these things. I felt I was cheating by not earning them the natural way. So I decided to stop playing. It was time to say goodbye to Paradise Bay.

I wanted to go out the same way I came into the game: with nothing. I closed up my shops, I put away my pets, I sold every last item in my inventory. It was a rather cathartic way to say goodbye to this game.

Several months have now passed since the game’s removal. Clearly I am going to give Paradise Bay a high score because the game meant so much to me. But no game is flawless. Where did Paradise Bay fall short?

I can think of a few things. First of all, the lack of pet stickers. Like I said before, I was super obsessed with unlocking every pet there was to unlock. But many of these pets were absurdly, almost impossibly difficult to unlock. There were several pets I was trying to unlock for months and months. But the stickers you have to collect to unlock these pets are ultra-rare and handed out randomly. It was possible to go days, weeks, even months before collecting just one sticker for some of these rare pets.

And then there was the lack of incentive to keep playing once you’d maxed out your character. I had hit the EXP ceiling for my Trademaster several times as I played. Eventually they’d update the game and raise the ceiling, but until they did, you didn’t have a whole lot to do in the meantime. When you were maxed out all there was to do was keep plugging away, hoping to earn pet stickers and collect gold coins. These coins ultimately became useless to me because my island was so prosperous. So really it became all about the pet stickers, which were super-rare and would only be sighted a couple times a day. To me, that wasn’t a good enough incentive to keep going. I think this is when I took a few of my long breaks from the game, when my character was maxed out. Sure, they’d update the game and raise the level cap eventually, but those kind of updates only happened every few months or so. There was almost no reason to keep playing until they did so. This is my major complaint about the game.

Still, this isn’t enough to damper my overall feelings on Paradise Bay. I loved the game as I was playing it – and I still think back on it quite fondly. It is a shame it’s been deleted forever. Just to play it one more time, if only for five minutes, would be such a treat. But alas, the game is gone. Pretty soon I will have nothing but this review to remember it by. It’s been a pleasure, Paradise Bay. Adios, au revoir, arrivederci, auf wiedersehen, and goodbye.

Overall:

A

>For a complete index of all my past video game reviews, click here!<

Video Game Review #203: Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

The last few months I've been slowly playing through the new generation of Tomb Raider games, in order. I absolutely loved the first game in the series, and I thought the second one was pretty dang good too. How would I feel about the third? Let's find out.

Story:

I am going to be honest with you. I don't know what my problem is, but I paid absolutely no attention to this game's storyline. What was I doing while the game's cutscenes were playing? I don't freaking know, I was off in la la land or something.

I can't even say that the game's storyline is bad, but for whatever reason I just absolutely could not focus on it. All the long conversations with the natives where they babble on about ancient lore and people with names like Koo Koo Khan bored me out of my mind. I was there for the combat, the action, the rope swinging, the wall climbing, the item collecting, and the puzzle solving.

All I know is that the plot revolves around Lara traveling to the Amazon. Something something you help out a native tribe. Something something evil spirits. Something something ancient dagger. Something something a ritual taking place during a solar eclipse. Blah blah blah. Nothing we haven't seen a million times already.

Gameplay:

One of the reasons I didn't care much about the game's story is because I was too busy focusing on its gameplay. If you've played the past couple entries in the Tomb Raider series, you should feel right at home with this game's control scheme. Lara handles just as smoothly as ever. Running, jumping, rolling, climbing ledges, and grappling from walls all feel very natural. If you are new to the series, things are very user friendly and easy to understand.

At its heart, this is a pretty similar game to its predecessors. That is not to say that there aren't a lot of key differences. I felt that the first game in the new series was very similar to an Uncharted title, but with some Metroidvania elements to it. The second game, Rise of the Tomb Raider, had an open-world collectathon feel to it, like an Arkham or Assassin's Creed game. This game definitely has a more contained and linear feel to it. The plot moves you along very quickly from point A to point B. Sure, there is a lot of stuff to explore and things to check out along the way, but I found myself working more to advance the plot than to collect things. Perhaps I am simply burned out on these types of games where you are always collecting things every few seconds? I don't know, but I just wasn't "feeling it" with this game like I did its predecessors.

Just because I didn't like this game as much as the others in the series doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it at all. It is still a lot of fun to play. I liked all the added stealth elements this time around. Sure there is still a lot of shooting and action, but you have the option of picking off enemies one by one rather than having every encounter turn into a giant guns-blazing free for all. It adds a little variety to the way you choose to play the game.

Although I said that this was a pretty linear game, there is still a lot to do in it. There are a few town areas you enter as you play through the game. In these towns, you can take on jobs and side quests from locals. There are merchants that will sell you items and equipment. Hidden throughout the game are treasures and documents. You learn how to read foreign languages as you advance through the game, and you can use this skill to translate glyphs that lead you to hidden treasure caches. Although this game isn't quite as loaded with stuff to do as Rise of the Tomb Raider, it will definitely keep you busy for a long time.

Graphics:

There's not much I can say about this game's graphics that I haven't already said in my reviews for the last few Tomb Raiders. It looks really good! I like Lara's design. Really, I like all the character design in this game. The landscapes are beautiful. All the effects, like water, fire, explosions, heck even just walking through the mud are all realistic and well-detailed.

This is a very well built and atmospheric game. Whether you are walking through the jungles, swimming through an underwater passage, or wandering through a crowded South American village, everything feels very authentic and bursting with life. A lot of effort was put into all the small details that were necessary to bring the world of this game to life. And it was a rousing success!

My only complaint? It was a little too dark and hard to see in a few of the game's underground areas. Outside of that, though, this is a wonderful looking game.

Sound:

Atmosphere! That is the name of the game in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The game's graphics obviously play a big part in bringing this title to life, but its sound does as well. Just walking through the jungle you hear the wind blowing, the leaves on the trees rustling, animals scurrying by in the brush, birds calling to one another, Lara's footsteps squishing through the mud. The game's audio designers did a perfect job getting all the small details right.

On a larger scale, everything sounds the way it should in battle. The guns blaring, the explosions, the soldiers calling out to one another in combat. Combine the audio quality with the game's sharp visuals and you have a very polished and cinematic end result.

Voice acting is pretty good as well, which is par for the course with this series. Lara is very believable, and the guy who plays her sidekick Jonah has started to grow on me over the course of three games.

Overall:

Shadow of the Tomb Raider gets so much right with its graphics, sound, and presentation that I almost feel bad criticizing it.

I think my main problem with this game is its pace. It feels a lot slower than the previous entries in the series. I know that they wanted to take the series back to its roots this time around: raiding tombs and solving puzzles. Admirable, but in my opinion this decision actually hurts the game. There are too many drab, dark caves to explore. Most of these caves are enemy free - just you and the puzzles. This is fine, but when you are spending hours and hours in these dark locations, it gets tiresome after a while. If you combine the fact that I didn't care about the game's storyline with the fact that I found the tombs and the puzzles to be too dark and boring, we're eliminating a lot of what the game makers probably consider to be this title's appeal.

And can we talk about all the action sequences that end with Lara dramatically falling into a large body of water? This happens so much it almost becomes like a drinking game. Take a shot every time Lara is flung into the water! I kid, I kid. But seriously, this does happen a lot.

Anyway, I liked the combat and the side missions and all the things there are to collect. I liked exploring and hunting rare animals and discovering new sections of the game on my map. The basic gameplay of this game is fine and dandy and at times it can be a lot of fun... but it is nothing I haven't seen already in this series, and dozens of times before in other series like this. That's why, despite all the kind words I have for the game's presentation, I find it hard to get too excited for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. This whole game has a very "been there, done that" feel to it.

Not to say this isn't a fun and well-made game, its just very unoriginal. Especially if we're looking at it for just its gameplay, since I didn't really care for its story. It is fun and I had a good time with this game. But like I said, I've played games like this dozens of times already. It doesn't do a whole lot to stand out from the crowd and make me say "now THAT is a great game!!" It's just a good game.

That's all.

Overall I found this to be the weakest title in the new Tomb Raider series, which is a shame because I really like this series. Even at its weakest, this is still a decent game though. It seems like all I've done is rag on it, but it's not like I hated the time I spent playing this game, or at any point thought to myself "this sucks!" That is not even close to the case. I thought that this game was pretty good. But after the excellence of the last two titles in the series, I think I just expected a bit more.

Overall:

B-

Hey you! If you liked my review for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, check out some of my other video game reviews:

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Horizon Zero Dawn

Tomb Raider 3

Video Game Review #202: Iconoclasts

Iconoclasts

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

I am a fan of Metroidvania type games, so when I first heard about Iconoclasts and read all the positive reviews, I decided to check it out. Onto my GameFly queue it went, and before I knew it the game was on its way to my house.

Story:

Oh dear. This game’s storyline is a complete mess, and I lost track of what was going on just a few hours into the game. Things start out promisingly enough. You control a young woman named Robin. Robin is a mechanic who likes to travel around and help people out. While this may seem noble of her, it is actually considered a crime on her planet. Apparently it is illegal for common citizens to handle tools or machinery, and violating this law is punishable by death. Robin quickly finds herself on the wrong side of the law, and is forced to go on the run to avoid capture. On her journey she crosses path and joins up with other characters on the lam from the law.

Your journey takes a ton of twists and turns. You get caught, you escape execution, you retreat to an underwater city that is run by “pirates” who operate outside the rules of the planet’s governing body. Your brother gets captured. You have to go and rescue him. Other stuff happens too, but this is where Iconoclasts started to lose me. The world of the game is steeped in a rich amount of lore which isn’t explained before you start playing the game. That’s fine by me. I’ve been able to jump into things like this before (see Game of Thrones) and I’ve been fine. I can figure things out as I go. But the world of this game is just a little toooooo weird for my tastes. I would have been okay with a little weirdness, but things go off the deep end pretty dang quick in this game. Zany characters are introduced that are important to the story, and we are supposed to just know who they are and what makes them special. Terms and phrases are used that aren’t explained, and we are just supposed to know what the characters are talking about. Crazy shit like flying to the moon and battling space worms comes up at the end of the game. Too much weird, unexplained crap happens for my tastes.

Again, I would have been okay with this if the connective tissue of the game had been stronger. Explain what things are and why these people who are special are special. Pretend we don’t know what is going on, and connect the dots for us. That would have helped immensely. Instead, I just kinda threw my arms up and said “I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore” and stopped caring about the story. This game leans heavily on its story, so for me to miss out on that part of the game hurts it a lot, in my book.

Gameplay:

Luckily this game is pretty fun to play, and that makes up for the confusing storyline a little bit.

Iconoclasts is often described as a Metroidvania type game. Heck, I even used that term in my opening paragraph. But this isn’t necessarily an accurate term. This game follows a pretty straightforward, linear path. It doesn’t just plop you down in the middle of nowhere and say “okay here you go.” It is pretty clear where you are supposed to go and what you are supposed to do next. There are chests and hidden items that you can see but can’t immediately access. It is your choice to come back later once you’ve upgraded your equipment, but doing so is not by any means mandatory.

Things handle like your standard 2D platform game. You can run, jump, fire your gun, and swing your wrench. You start out with the standard pellet-firing gun, but as the game goes on you get access to a bomb gun and a wavy beam shooting thing. Holding down the fire button activates a more powerful special attack for that specific weapon. You can use your wrench for short range melee attacks. The wrench is also useful for solving puzzles. Whenever you see something that looks like a screw, you can normally use the wrench to turn it and activate a door or platform. You can also swing from screws to reach higher ledges.

Things are pretty easy to get a hang of in this game. The controls are crisp and responsive and user friendly. The map comes in great handy too. Standard enemies are super easy to kill due to the game’s auto lock on feature. Bosses require a little bit more thought, as you can’t usually defeat a boss by just blindly firing away at it. Most bosses are almost like puzzles where you have to use your noggin to figure out how to expose their weak spots.

Graphics:

This game’s graphics are super cool. I can’t even lie about that. It looks like it could have been made on a Super Nintendo, but a Super Nintendo pushed to its absolute limits. Sprite based characters, hand drawn backgrounds, a bright and vibrant color scheme. I won’t say it looks better than current gen titles like Horizon Zero Dawn or Red Dead Redemption 2, but in its own way this game is just as beautiful as those two.

Sound:

The game sounds like it could have been made on a Super Nintendo too. Lots of catchy little tunes. The sound effects are good. I appreciate how the music and graphics work together during story scenes to create atmosphere. It is very easy to lose yourself in the world of the game. Very impressive when you consider that everything was created by just one guy.

 

Overall:

My overall thoughts on this game are somewhat conflicted. It looks cool, it sounds cool, it’s fun to play. At the beginning, I was really digging the storyline too. I was near the end of God of War when I first fired up Iconoclasts, and I enjoyed this game so much in its early hours that I actually wanted to keep playing it rather than return to God of War and finish up that game. Considering how much I liked God of War, that statement alone speaks volumes.

The more I played Iconoclasts, however, the less I found myself liking it. I think a lot of it has to do with the game’s storyline. Not that a good storyline is necessary to enjoy a game like this. Metroid basically has no story, and I consider that to be an all-time classic. But this game leans heavily on its storyline. Every couple minutes of playing, the action comes screeching to a halt while the characters stop to chatter. I can’t just push this to the side and ignore it. It’s too much. If the story was good, that would be one thing. It’s just so ridiculous though. It was dragging down my overall enjoyment of the game. It reminded me a bit of Undertale. Silly characters, useless banter, little to no connective tissue to help make the game make sense. I stopped caring, and that is NOT a good sign.

Which is a shame, because the game itself is pretty fun. I love the boss battles. I love using my head to solve puzzles. I love exploring and discovering hidden secrets. Couple the fun gameplay with the atmospheric graphics, music, and sound effects, and this game is close… SO CLOSE to being a real winner. But the storyline… man the storyline really drags it down. The game is fairly easy too, and also short in length.

I wanted to love this game, truly. And I came close to loving it. All the ingredients were there, but it just didn’t quite come together the way I was hoping it to.

 Final Score:

B-

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Video Game Review #201: God of War

God of War

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

I’ve played through nearly every entry in the God of War series. While on the whole I am a fan of the series, I would never say that I’m CRAZY about it. The games are a bit repetitive, and their storylines are usually all over the place. If this had been just another game in the series, I wouldn’t have been very excited to play it. But seeing as how this is basically a reboot with new characters, a new storyline, and a new setting, I was super pumped to give it a shot. Doesn’t hurt that it got rave reviews, either. I came into this game expecting nothing but the best.

Did it live up to those lofty expectations? Let’s find out.

Story:

God of War takes place an undisclosed amount of time after the events of God of War III. Kratos has put his violent history to rest and has relocated to Norway, where he lives in isolation with his wife Faye and son Atreus. When Faye dies, Kratos and Atreus are tasked with taking her ashes to the top of the mountain to scatter them. Before they can get started, they are attacked by a mysterious tattooed stranger, who Kratos kills (or at least thinks he kills) after an epic battle.

The basic plot of the game is Kratos and Atreus’s journey to the top of the mountain. It is a long, perilous trek. Kratos and the boy have to solve puzzles, open paths, and slay mystical creatures who try to hamper their progress. Atreus is a bit of a mama’s boy, and this is the first amount of real bonding time he’s gotten to spend with his dad. Much of the game focuses on their relationship and how they grow close together as the game goes on.

I don’t know why this came as such a big surprise to me given the fact that gods and mythology played such a heavy role in the first “phase” of the God of War series, but this game is filled with figures and locations from Norse mythology. Thor and Odin exist in this world. Action shifts from the centrally-located Midgard to other Norse realms like Jotunheim and Alfheim. The Yggdrasil exists, and you can use a chunk of the Bifrost to use it to cross realms. Dwarves, giants, trolls, elves, and magic are very real things in this world. Maybe I just assumed because the Greek gods were all dead in this series that it meant that ALL gods were dead. But in the God of War universe, this is not the case.

I don’t want to spoil any surprises, but along the way you will encounter lots of twists and turns in the plot. Stuff about Kratos’s past, stuff about his dead wife Faye, secrets of the lineage of his son Atreus (on his mom’s side), and hints as to what is to come in future games in the series. And there will indeed be more games to come in this series. The way this one ends makes it impossible for there NOT to be one.

Good stuff. If I had to complain, however, it would be that much of the story is told through conversations that take place while you are walking around and exploring and solving puzzles. When I play games I am always very focused on what I am doing and where I am going. I lose track of what the characters are talking about, and before I know it I have missed a good-sized chunk of important plot information. I know that this is more of a "me" problem, and not everyone has this issue. But it affected my enjoyment of the game and likely its final score, so I have no choice but to bring it up.

Gameplay:

This game plays out in a far different fashion from past God of War games. Most of those games are filled with nonstop fighting, death, and destruction, with only occasional gaps in the action to allow you to solve a puzzle or two. This game is a bit slower in pace, and focuses more on exploration and character development rather than combat. Not to say that there isn’t combat. You are going to get more than your fair share of fighting in before this game is done. But I wouldn’t say that combat is necessarily God of War’s main focus.

Action takes place from a behind-the-back 3D perspective. Kratos is less agile and more grounded than he was in the past. You won’t be speeding around and jumping all over everything. He moves a lot more realistically nowadays. What you can do is run, sprint, climb ledges, and swing and throw your battle axe. That’s right, the Blades of Chaos are gone! Kratos has a new battle axe that you use in combat. You can swing it with either a quick, but weak attack, or a slow and powerful one. Different button combinations unleash different attacks. You can also throw the axe at enemies too. I found this to be a pretty cool feature. It makes combat feel more varied than it would normally, as it allows you to attack both close and long-ranged enemies at the same time. The triangle button brings the axe back to Kratos’s hand with a powerful fwoop sound, kind of like when Thor calls Mjolnir back to him in the Avengers movie. Admittedly, it made me feel super cool the very first time I did this, and the feeling never really wore off. Don’t judge me.

I was a little worried about the role of Atreus in combat. I didn’t want this game to feel like an escort mission where I had to constantly protect him and look out for myself at the same time. Luckily, this isn’t the case. I am not sure if Atreus has a health gauge, but I left him unattended in combat and he was fine. Enemies would grab him occasionally and I had to run over and hit them to make them drop him, but this only happened about ten times the entire game. I don’t even know if he would have died if I didn’t rush to free him each time. But yeah like I said for the most part he is not any kind of a hindrance in battle. In fact, he often helps you out. Hitting the square button makes Atreus fire arrows at your enemies. The arrows don’t do a whole lot of damage, but they do work towards stunning your enemies. Each enemy has a stun gauge that when it fills up, leaves them vulnerable to a powerful attack with the L3 (or is it R3?) trigger button. Most enemies die before their gauge fills up, but this does come in handy against boss characters or particularly challenging regular enemies.

God of War contains some RPG elements you don’t see in past games in the series. You collect money, experience points, and you can level Kratos up using a skill grid. Along the way to the top of the mountain you will encounter dwarf weapon shops where you can buy or upgrade your equipment. The world of the game isn’t necessarily “open world” as we know it. You start the game at a fixed location and you progress on a fairly linear, guided pathway for most of your journey. You can backtrack and visit old areas to collect things you missed once you get new equipment, but doing so isn’t necessary to beating the game. I’d almost say it is more of a 3D Metroidvania type game than an open world one.

Once you beat the game, you are allowed to go back and explore to your heart’s content. There is one location in the game that acts like a central hub. This is the closest thing to open world you will see from God of War. It is the Lake of Nine area. Most of this area you will explore during the story campaign, but you can hop on the canoe and check out uncharted islands and locations for secrets. I didn’t realize how much content was crammed into this section. I skipped over exploring most of the lake to focus on the story. I didn’t think there would be much out there to explore. I was wrong. There are missions from NPCs to take on, chained dragons to free, and plenty of secrets to discover. I came back after beating the game, and exploring the lake and its surrounding areas added another 7 or 8 hours to my total play time.

Even when I finally hung up my controller after I'd seen and done everything I had wanted to see and do, there was still a LOT of stuff left out there that I hadn't discovered yet. I could have easily sunk another 10 to 15 hours into the game, if not more.

Graphics:

There is no denying that this is a fantastic looking game. Kratos, Atreus, Baldur, Freya, basically every character in this game looks amazing and lifelike. They move, talk, and act like real people. The animation in the game is top of the line. The attention to detail is too, not just with the characters but with the environments. There were so many areas in this game where I just had to stop and look around and soak it all in because it was so magnificent. Beasts and wild creatures are designed beautifully as well. The deer with the glowing antlers: super cool. The way the tall grass sways in the wind. The world of the game feels so alive and authentic. I expected the whole game to be snowy and drab and dreary, but you visit a ton of bright and colorful locations.

The special effects are eye popping and over the top. When I first traveled to another realm through the Yggdrasil and all the colors on the screen changed and everything shook and the shapes flashed across the room, I nearly pooped myself at how awesome it all was. The whole game is filled with stuff like that. Magic spells, fires, dreams, hallucinations, glowing creatures. It pulls off the whole mystical theme supremely well and constantly left me in a state of "whoa".

Cinematography in the game is great. Right off the bat, you square off against a very challenging god-like enemy, and let me tell you it is one of the most epic and over the top introductions to a game that I've ever seen. Intense, action packed. It tells you right away what kind of game this is going to be.

Sound:

I just got finished saying how this game's presentation was of cinematic quality, and I have to say it is not only the graphics that are responsible for this, it is the game's music and sound effects as well. The music goes from booming and epic in battle to quiet and serene during the game's more personal moments between father and son.

All the little sound effects that you probably don't even notice really add to the game's environment. Wind blowing, waters rushing, birds chirping, creatures moving in the trees, all of this stuff helps immerse you in the game. You can't give all the credit to the game's graphics. Immersion is a team effort.

Voice acting is great too. I am pretty sure there is a new person voicing Kratos, but he does a fine job with the role. All the voice acting in this game is really good. It truly feels like Kratos and Atreus have a believable father/son relationship, and none of it would have been possible without A+ voice acting bringing the characters to life.

Overall:

It seems I have made it pretty clear I am a fan of the game's presentation, as well as its graphics, music, and sound effects. We don't even need to talk about that anymore. Now let's focus on what really matters: is the game any fun?

Short answer: Yes. It's fantastic. Play it.

Long answer: Yes. God of War is an excellent game, but I expected just a bit more from it.

"A bit more?" you say. Well, yeah. Remember God of War was voted game of the year in 2018. To me, a game of the year winner should be a mind-blowing game that I fall head over heels with. God of War is a really good game. You could even say it is a great game. But did it change my life in ways like Super Mario 64, Resident Evil, and Final Fantasy VII did for me in my teenage years? No. It didn't even touch me like The Last of Us or Telltale's Walking Dead did in recent years. Those titles did the whole "adult character protecting a small child" thing much better than this one.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching the progression of Kratos and Atreus's relationship. And I did have a lot of fun playing this. But the game is not without flaws. The fighting gets old pretty quickly. I started running past enemies as I got closer to the end of the game because all the fighting was getting to me. Also, I already wrote up above how I don't like that much of the game's story is told while you are walking around controlling Kratos and exploring. There is a lot going on with this game's plot, and I often missed big chunks of important information because I was too focused on how to get over there to open that secret chest, or what order I had to throw my axe to break the glyph pieces. As a result, I didn't fully understand what was going on and why certain things in the game had happened. Wait, why are we going off course to find this witch person? Why do I have to travel to another realm? I thought we were headed to the top of the mountain. Wait, why are these people trying to kill me and Atreus? I had to go to Google or Wikipedia and read recaps of what I'd missed.

It almost didn't even make a difference, because the game is still a lot of fun to play even if you have no idea what is going on half the time. Fighting can be repetitive, but the big, epic boss battles are worth it. Exploration is fun. There are collectibles to find in this game, but they are more spaced out and not located every five steps like they are in Horizon Zero Dawn. The game's story keeps you moving from area to area at a brisk pace. The puzzles aren't too hard to figure out. You can even stop and explore around the Lake of Nine area to try to tackle side quests, find hidden treasure chests, and take on special challenges.

All in all, this is definitely a very good game and I can see why people like it. It is SO close to getting an A+, but I can't do it. It is missing just the tiniest little thing that I can't even put my finger on. I liked the game a lot, but I couldn't help but feel that I could have liked it a little more. Like I mentioned earlier, The Last of Us and Telltale's The Walking Dead really nailed the personal connection between the adult and the child characters. Both games had me in tears on at least one occasion. That never even came remotely close to happening here. There is a time or two where Atreus appears to be close to death, but I never took those threats seriously because he is too well-protected by plot armor.

Before I wrap this up, I need to point out that I forgot to mention that Kratos calls Atreus "boy" all the time. You've probably seen all the memes by now. You better get used to hearing it, boy. He says it a lot. And by a lot I mean a lot... boy.

My Verdict:

A