And I start once more.
- Pressing Select on the map screen, which is basically just a low-poly landscape of Manhattan, goes into a cinematic view of the city and various parts involved. For now, the camera seems to be obsessed with one of the helicopters flying around the city...
- Day 5 is, so far, the only chapter in the game that seems to start without any story set-up. You go straight to the map menu, and that's it.
- Day 5 is also interesting in the fact that you're given multiple objectives, and you have to pick between Chinatown and a Warehouse area. Pretty sure the Warehouse is utterly optional, or maybe you only have to do one or the other and you're good, but today, we're heading to both. They seem fairly short. Chinatown first.
- This starts happening when you first meet Maeda, but at the beginning of every "dungeon," so far, he gives you a charm that he claims wards off evil spirits. The thing is, they're utterly useless. You can't do jack with 'em. They just take up space in your inventory. I have the belief that this game REALLY likes to screw with you whenever it can...
- The designers must have run out of either ideas or resources for this area. Chinatown takes place almost entirely in a sewer system, and much of the screens are repeated ad nauseum. It's a non-linear area, sort of like a maze with very few walls. Luckily, there's some really cool equipment to pick up, but it's just annoying to see the same screen over and over again.
- This area is also home to one of the most annoying enemies in the game: The bats. The secret to this area is to have a quick gun, and spend very little of your time standing still, largely because these guys can inflict the Blind status on you, which, in this game, means there is pretty much ZERO chance of inflicting damage. Luckily, the status does NOT stack or refresh if you're hit with it multiple times, but if you, like me, have been sticking with the grenade launcher up til now, you'll find yourself really annoyed really quickly.
- One of the cool points about this game is the abilities attached to your various weapons. The abilities dictate how many bullets you can fire in one round, what kind of damage it will do, whether or not it will attack random opponents for higher damage... Heck, with the customization option, you can actually transfer abilities from one gun to another. It's pretty damn fun. Now, I bring that up to tell you this: This is the first area where you'll come across a shotgun [a weapon that is disturbingly sparse in this game] with the Spray ability, which allows you to hit multiple opponents. I don't know about you, but I immediately threw the Spray option right on my Grenade Launcher. Here's hoping it works.
- You enter an area of the sewers where all the tunnels lead, and you find a very familiar ooze here, the same kind you saw at Central Park, covering a lot of the piping. In sort of a Ghostbusters 2 move, it's now moving deeper into the water in order to infect the city. Sadly, no Bill Murray is to be found.
- Success! The spray works! Though by the time I got it, I didn't find any more flocks of bats, so... Well, crap.
- ... Wait, disc change? This is one of the most abrupt changes I've seen in years. You pick up the gate key, you see the ooze has decided to head for the museum [though it's impossible to tell from where you and Aya are], you run back to the sewer-- DISC CHANGE.
- Oh man, it's not even a story sequence after. You just show up where you left off. Most disappointing disc change ever. Remember Final Fantasy's usual disc change points? They were at moments where you HAD TO CHANGE THE DISC OMG WHAT HAPPENED?! FFVIII's change to disc 2 is always one of my favorites, since you're literally wondering whether or not one of your characters is even alive.
- Now it's time to head to the Warehouse.
- Aaaaand Warehouse is done! Wait, what? This is an incredibly short area, but its boss battle is pretty much gonna work you over. The crustacean has a nasty grab attack that knocks you down to 1 HP, eye lasers that knock half your total HP off, and a wide bubble spread that is near impossible to avoid. Luckily, that spray grenade launcher I have? Hits all three parts of this boss at once, doing short work of those nasty claws. Luckily, you get a ridiculously awesome ROCKIT LAWNCHAIR. Er. Rocket launcher. Sorry, I've been craving Metal Slug lately.
- You finally get to see the entirety of the museum, despite it being considerably overrun by monsters now. This is a horrifically complicated area, or so it seems. It actually leads you along fairly well, despite having a very intimidating layout. There're a lot of weapons and items here, and if you didn't make that trip to the PD and store a bunch of stuff with Wayne [like I forgot to do], you're going to be in for quite the struggle.
- A cutscene involving the ooze taking over and animating the skeleton of a T. Rex. Awesome points attributed, right there.
- So Klamp has been developing artificial sperm that is without the mitochondria, and instead just has the nucleus, intending to use it alongside Eve to artificially inseminate any volunteers. As it turns out, those people on that HLA list, the one with Daniel's son and ex-wife's names, are all part of this. Klamp intended for them to essentially be sacrificed to Eve. The plot thickens...
- The big reveal! The Ultimate Being, they call it. Referencing to the Parasite Eve incident in Japan. One of the few references they make to the source material. THAT being, however, is referred to by Klamp as Eve's "sister," and claims that creature failed because "the father's side of the mitochondria caused a rebellion." Ooookay... He explains further, stating he created that artificial sperm with just the nucleus, in order to get around the original incident's little problem of the father's side.
- Uh-oh. Eve is now pregnant with Melissa's body. Melissa had gone in for a lot of medical treatment years ago, under Dr. Klamp, and it appears the purpose has finally been revealed.
- Aaaand Klamp is a crispy human piece of toast. Aya, for some reason, STILL insists on saving this guy, but fails in the end. Moving along, then... Maeda and Daniel [both of whom were wandering the museum as well, helping Aya] narrowly escaped. Aya now gets Klamp's special key and Maeda's Gun, which seems to have some sort of Anti-Eve properties, despite it being an absolutely horrible gun [1 attack point?!].
- I just fought a Triceratops and a T-Rex back to back. Ouch.
- After crawling your way back to the top, there's an earthquake. Not much else to add there. However, this is also right at the point where you finally reach the top floor. Things are extra gooey here, and Aya detects Eve but good.
- Holy crap she's pregnant. And in a VERY maternal posture right now, hands over her belly in a motherly way. Even shushing Aya to be quiet. This is... An incredibly interesting scene to watch, since it's also the most non-violent in the whole of the game, as far as CG sequences are concerned. And yet... Absolutely frightening.
- Another CG sequence already? Well, not unlikely. Shit hits the fan right about this point... Mitochondrial creatures are appearing in the city, one very large humanoid one in particular... Oh waitthat'stheboss. Or is it? Eve uses it as a transport out of the museum, and Aya gives chase.
- Aya meets up with Daniel and Maeda. Turns out, Melissa was on immunosuppressants. Melissa got a kidney donation from Aya's sister, Maya, who had passed away in an accident. Aya JUST now finds out her mother and sister were organ donors. We then realize what Aya thought was a younger version of herself was actually Melissa [wait, what?]. The kidney, during the operation, got hot. Just like Aya always got near Eve. Hm... The immunosuppressants act as a catalyst for Eve to grow. Turns out, this is exactly how the Eve in Japan managed things, same organ transfer situation... And, of course, Klamp was involved in it all, concerning Melissa and Maya. The suppressants were to keep everything from being rejected, thus allowing for no problems in Eve's manifestation. Melissa overdosed on her drugs, thus making her body so incredibly weak that Eve had absolutely no problems finally taking over.
... Headache, ow...
Maya is the original Mitochondria Eve, it seems. That sort of explains why Aya is such a special case, being of such close relation. Eve is, theoretically, Aya's sister.
- And now fighter jets are going after the... Statue of... Liberty. Huh? Well, either way, the guys behind all the military action, stationed offseas on a carrier, finally have permission for a full-on attack. Which is real smart, considering their first attack was so successful. Yeah. A bunch of jets versus a Mitochondria monster... So, naturally, what happens? The-- Wait, did the monster just turn into a plasmic egg?!
- So I was actually right. Weird. It's creating a barrier for the Ultimate Being to be born. An-- Okay, NOW it destroys all the helicopters surrounding it. Impervious to missiles [they just bounce right off]. And... There go the fighter jets.
- Now aboard the carrier, Aya has been asked by the Admiral of the Nimitz to nuke the creature from a helicopter on autopilot.
Okay, seeing as how this is the thickest the plot is going to get, and we're nearing the ending, I'm just gonna save my words til I see those credits, except for key areas.
- And... Endgame! The boss was freakin' murder, but that wasn't the annoying part. There's a nasty little chase scene afterwards, where if you don'tgo aftera little control panel, you can pretty much guarantee you're going to die, thus reverting back to your last save point, before the final boss.
The plot has officially destroyed my brain, but I think I walked away with SOME kind of understanding of what's going on. Fun stuff. Hopefully, the next playthrough will be a good deal more entertaining, thanks to the Chrystler Building.
-
Friday, August 21, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Now Playing: Parasite Eve Part 1
Wow, it's been a long time since I touched this, huh? Luckily, I have no readers, so this works out.
Well, I play far too many games to properly review everything. And with time the way it is...
This is going to be a general blog from here on out. Today's post: My progress on Parasite Eve.
See, I've owned the game for several years now, but never actually played it... I even own the sequel. Both are in like-new condition, and I just never took the time to sit down with them. That all changes.
Parasite Eve is a somewhat forgotten title for the Playstation 1 brought to us by Square. SS had a very interesting catalog on the PSX, with fighting games like Bushido Blade, some unique roleplaying games like SaGa Frontier 1 and 2, an arcade-style shooter called Einhander [very fun]... The list goes on. This is actually my favorite era from Square, simply because they were trying so many things, and had a lot of great titles. These guys were on the forefront of amazing CG sequences, and their popularity skyrocketed in this era, after an already strong foundation on the SNES.
What makes Parasite Eve interesting from the rest of Square's catalog at the time is that it's notoriously short, and is something of a survival horror RPG set in a modern New York setting. Aside from the RPG part, this is all fairly new territory for Square, since they don't really deal with anything outside a fantasy or science fiction setting, and horror isn't exactly their schtick.
With an active time battle system, you're given free roam of an enclosed area, dodging enemy attacks and positioning yourself to strike as you wait for your AT bar to fill. You've got a fairly wide array of weaponry, from handguns to rifles, machine guns, shotguns, even rocket launchers. You'll always carry around a seemingly bottomless ammo crate that can supply all your weapons with bullets, and if by some act of God you actually run out? You've got some pretty decent billy clubs to take care of business. Just about everything the main character uses is customizable via Tools you find in the world or Bonus Points that you earn from battle. Tools can swap around abilities that weapons and armor have, and Bonus Points can alter pretty much all the numbers of the game, from how strong your armor is, to how many bullets your gun can hold, even how many items you can have on you at any time.
Aya Brea, the star of this little feature, was a bit of an odd character. For one, she was a strong female lead in a Square game. That was odd enough. It would be a good long while from this game before there'd be another like her, in Lightning from FFXIII [Note: FFVIII was still in development around this time; feel old yet?]. She's actually a pretty respectable character, too; going into battle, taking up charge when she needs to [apart from one moment at the end of Day 2], and generally being fairly strong-willed with a good sense of justice. Best of all? She's not moping about any lost love. Hell, after her date goes horribly awry at the beginning of the game [something about an opera being on fire and her date running and squealing away and everyone else burning alive except for Aya thus kickstarting the whole story of the game], she doesn't really put much mention in a love interest.
Stopping here for a moment to talk about something: Love interests are generally bad in games. With few exception, they're tacked on, feel forced, and are often written by guys who don't know how to write women. Sure, I've often heard complaints levied against Pixar regarding their poor writing skills for women [after all, it's men writing them], but at least they manage some decent characters in the end. In games, it can be just downright tacky, basically boiled down to: "I am a man. You are a woman. And because of that, we are in love." Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an excellent example of poor handling of love interest. I'm just glad this game seems to do away with making it a large point. But I'll cut my rambling.
The game takes place over the course of six days. Aya Brea is tracking down Eve, a mitochondrial monster taking control of an opera singer's body in an attempt to basically stage the rebellion of mitochondria against humans.
Yeah. I don't get it either. But it's a fun, hokey story, and the set-up is perfect for how they deal with monsters and kinetics.
The writing is generally poor, or, at least, the localization is, as was the case with a lot of Square games of this time. At this point in gaming, we at least have writers that can generally string dialog along fairly well, even when we're localizing a Japanese script. But during the 90's, translations were spotty at best, with little exception. The game manages to avoid typos, at the very least, but the dialog is a bit forced, and tends to not mesh well in a flowing string. It's serviceable, and if you're willing to look past it, it's perfectly easy to get the feel of the story, and the emotion of the characters. But if you're picky, it's tricky to keep yourself from cringing at times.
The rest of this post is largely going to be reactionary, as I'm playing the game while I write. Perhaps, at a later date, I'll organize it all to look pretty, and to derive some point out of this, but until then, typographical diarrhea.
- You can collect junk from enemies every so often, which doesn't seem to have a purpose... Until you take it to the NYPD precinct Aya Brea works at, and hand it over to Wayne, one of the guys working in the weapons storage room. Let him dispose of the junk, and he'll eventually make a brand new weapon for you out of it. Here's the thing: You collect a LOT of junk. That in itself is really only an item management problem, but when you dispose of it via Wayne, there will be a sound effect for every. Single. Goddamn. Piece of junk. Seriously? No all-encompassing "sound of rummaged garbage" effect to cover every single piece? I know you're counting it all, but come on, have some decency, sir.
- This game can be a little intimidating at first. Mixing an RPG with a survival horror game can lead to some really cool results [see: Galerians and its pseudo-sequel Galerians: Ash], but an RPG with a limited item inventory? Keep in mind, this was when Resident Evil was REALLY big in its early days, so some of those gameplay elements are expected, but when you're getting tons of junk along with what little medicine comes your way? Yeouch.
- Aya Brea is definitely a respectable character. Sadly, she's also one of the slowest-moving protagonists I've ever seen. RUN, BITCH! RUN!
- Maeda, a scientist from Japan, has a VERY awkward introduction. He spends his time introducing himself to a police officer in front of two other officers, speaking in what seems to be bad English, trying to get past a barrier into a neighborhood area. One of the officers communicates fluently in Japanese, and Maeda continues speaking in English, albeit poorly. When one of the officers spontaneously combusts, Maeda suddenly sprouts an amazing mastery of the English language as he escapes and breaks past the barrier unseen. Why did he try to speak broken English? Was it some kind of hackneyed ploy to confuse the police? Was there ANY chance something like that could work?
- Just noticed, but this is one of the few RPGs where it RARELY pays off to talk to someone. You don't get items, you rarely get actual information... Luckily, most of the people in this game are either dead or evacuated from Manhattan, so you're pretty much good to go.
- A bit of humor: Maeda has an earlier speech about how he doesn't really believe in anything, that he needs proof to convince him of anything. Not five minutes later, Daniel, Aya Brea's partner at the PD, shoots a glass door open at a weapons shop as a means of getting into the place. Maeda: "Are... are you really a cop?" Aya: "We think so. But we don't have scientific proof, if that's what you're asking." It's not delivered in a knee-slapping sort of way, but it gives a pretty good smirk during a particulary tense time.
- Daniel is black. And yet, he isn't much of a stereotype. More a cop stereotype than anything else.
- One of the videos you see a lot affiliated with Parasite Eve is the transformation of the rat into a monster. Sadly, you don't get to see a lot of these sequences, though in usual Square fashion, the few that are there are really awesome to behold.
- Ben, Daniel's son, chases after a dog that goes crazy in the middle of a police precinct currently swarming with monsters. Daniel, I believe your son may be autistic.
- Speaking of that dog, another cool sequence: German Shepherd turning into a gigantic, grotesque Cerberus.
- Just realized that the game is actually a sequel to a book of the same name. The Japanese movie is an adaptation of said book, one I've actually seen to some extent at a convention a few years back. Pretty weird stuff, but I remember it being entertaining. Surprising amount of nudity, actually.
- "Could you help the nurse?" "Yeah, okay. [walks over, finds the other nurse at the other end of the room. Nurse gets up on her own. Not trapped, nothing wrong with her at all.]" "Oh, thank you!" "... ^$*&#"
- The hospital is one of the few areas in the game that really makes use of the survival horror aspect, utilizing more dynamic camera angles that hide just a bit of the scenery. Unfortunately, the gameplay does not support these camera angles, so it's really just for show. Le sigh.
- You run from an F-22 that is about to crash right into the rooftop you're standing on. Reminds me of Metal Gear Solid 1's rooftop battle against the Hind-D, actually. Except there's far less Cam Clarke, unfortunately.
- There is seriously way too much mention of sperm in this one chapter. I mean, sure, there's a knocked over cooler full of sperm [none of it spilled out, thank God], but do we really need to hear for the fiftieth time about the sperm?
Stopping for now. Recap on story:
Day 1: Aya Brea goes to the opera with her date, and watches as the star singer seems to trigger a spontaneous combustion on the cast and audience, with Aya the only survivor, unscathed. Cue first instance of spotting a little girl in a hospital gown with blonde hair that keeps running from Aya. Finds the woman, who calls herself Eve [though originally Melissa, it seems], and speaks of the mitochondria finally going free.
Day 2: Daniel, Aya's partner, is a very busy cop, and an even busier dad. Forgets the concert he was supposed to go to with his son. You meet Dr. Klamp at the Museum of Natural History, who is cryptic about the subject of mitochondria, despite being an expert in the field. Cue foreshadowy creepiness. A concert is going on in Central Park... Or at least, there WAS a concert that was seemingly canceled, since the star, Melissa [guess who?], was "killed" at the opera. However, that somehow didn't stop people from attending? Okay. Turns out, it's the same concert Daniel's son, Ben, is at, and his ex-wife Lorraine is there too watching after Ben. [Glad someone is.] Aya storms Central Park without Daniel, who has to stay behind because he's affected by Eve's range of influence. The ghostly little girl in a hospital gown is seen yet again, and identified as Maya, Aya's sister [very original names, you see]. Aya arrives at the theater, watches as nearly the entire audience is liquefied in mitochondrial ooze. Ben had run away out of fear earlier, which is why he's one of the only survivors. Aya fights Eve on a horse-drawn carriage [what?], and is knocked out in the end of the assault, with more cryptic words from Eve. She's found by a Japanese researcher named Maeda, who'd contacted the NYPD District #17 where Aya and Daniel are stationed to try and arrange a meeting. Maeda and Daniel keep Aya in an abandoned apartment in Soho. The city has been nearly fully evacuated at this point.
Day 3: Aya is still dealing with the possibility that she may be very similar to Eve, right down to a similar fate. After a night of fearing she could turn into a monster, she finally gets some rest, and gets over her fear. She heads out with Maeda and Daniel to the Museum of Natural History, and they storm into Dr. Klamp's lab uninvited. Luckily, he's not there. With a little experimentation and some samples somehow acquired by mysterious means, Maeda determines that Eve's mitochondria has become highly evolved and incredibly sentient, attacking the nuclei of human cells and destroying or mutating them. He also discovers that Aya is a special case, that her mitochondria is defending itself magnificently, having evolved to combat Eve's own. Dr. Klamp storms in, demands everyone to leave. Daniel, by plot convenience, notices a list on Klamp's computer, and notices Ben and Lorraine, his son and ex-wife, on the list. Angered, he threatens Klamp for the info, which he doesn't get. Evicted from the lab, the three return to the district, which has gone under attack. Ben, who had been playing with the police dog Sheeva [lovely foreshadowing name and slight reference to Final Fantasy's own Hindu-based summon], has gone missing, apparently chasing after Sheeva. Mitochondria-mutated monsters have infested the PD, leaving very few still alive. Torres, the maintainer of the weapons area, dies, leaving his protege, Wayne, in charge. Aya works her way up to Ben and Chief Brian, the latter of whom found Ben and had taken up defense against Sheeva. By the time Aya arrives and shuts down the horribly mutated Sheeva, Brian is near death, with Ben making it without a scratch. Daniel becomes the new Chief, landing a nice post-mortem promotion. Cue awkward speech that he barely even gives.
Day 4: As it turns out, the Manhattan incident wasn't the first time Eve got screwy. As it turns out, she has a purpose: The bodies she uses are worn out incredibly quickly, within just a few days, and the only way she can strive is if she births the Ultimate Being. This requires mitochondria mutating human sperm, it seems, the game never explicitly states HOW this works. Anyway, a lead has Aya heading to a nearby hospital, which happens to have a sperm bank inside. As she moves through the hospital, she finds Maya once again, as well as... A ghostly apparition of herself as a little girl? Throughout the game up to this point, Aya has had visions of the past, of Maya in a hospital bed, switching between the two beds on the screen while a doctor examines them. She realizes in the end that it wasn't just Maya; Aya was there as well. Further discovery shows that Melissa was brought in the same day as Maya, and what caused Melissa to have to take medication so much prior to her performance at the opera, the night she turned into Eve, all began there. Eve gets away with a sperm sample just before Aya can do anything about it. Meanwhile, an airstrike sets out toward Central Park to get rid of any last remnants of Eve, but unfortunately, things don't work out. Eve causes one of the pilots to go insane and turn into ooze, and the jet crashes into the roof of the hospital, with Aya escaping only in the nick of time.
So far, this is shaping up to be a far better game than I had imagined. Most of its initial flaws are glossed over quite easily as you get used to the system. Item management's enough of a bitch to cause me to grimace, though. Only two more days left in the story, with Day 5 looking to be pretty long. Probably going to tackle the Chrystler Building after I beat the game, JUST for the alternate ending. Should be fun. Perhaps SquareEnix will consider putting Parasite Eve on PSN once Third Birthday, the second sequel to PE, is released on the PSP? They need to hurry up and release more titles anyway.
Signing off for now, with hopefully the end of Parasite Eve 1. May do the Chrystler Building as a small update later.
-Anderjak
Well, I play far too many games to properly review everything. And with time the way it is...
This is going to be a general blog from here on out. Today's post: My progress on Parasite Eve.
See, I've owned the game for several years now, but never actually played it... I even own the sequel. Both are in like-new condition, and I just never took the time to sit down with them. That all changes.
Parasite Eve is a somewhat forgotten title for the Playstation 1 brought to us by Square. SS had a very interesting catalog on the PSX, with fighting games like Bushido Blade, some unique roleplaying games like SaGa Frontier 1 and 2, an arcade-style shooter called Einhander [very fun]... The list goes on. This is actually my favorite era from Square, simply because they were trying so many things, and had a lot of great titles. These guys were on the forefront of amazing CG sequences, and their popularity skyrocketed in this era, after an already strong foundation on the SNES.
What makes Parasite Eve interesting from the rest of Square's catalog at the time is that it's notoriously short, and is something of a survival horror RPG set in a modern New York setting. Aside from the RPG part, this is all fairly new territory for Square, since they don't really deal with anything outside a fantasy or science fiction setting, and horror isn't exactly their schtick.
With an active time battle system, you're given free roam of an enclosed area, dodging enemy attacks and positioning yourself to strike as you wait for your AT bar to fill. You've got a fairly wide array of weaponry, from handguns to rifles, machine guns, shotguns, even rocket launchers. You'll always carry around a seemingly bottomless ammo crate that can supply all your weapons with bullets, and if by some act of God you actually run out? You've got some pretty decent billy clubs to take care of business. Just about everything the main character uses is customizable via Tools you find in the world or Bonus Points that you earn from battle. Tools can swap around abilities that weapons and armor have, and Bonus Points can alter pretty much all the numbers of the game, from how strong your armor is, to how many bullets your gun can hold, even how many items you can have on you at any time.
Aya Brea, the star of this little feature, was a bit of an odd character. For one, she was a strong female lead in a Square game. That was odd enough. It would be a good long while from this game before there'd be another like her, in Lightning from FFXIII [Note: FFVIII was still in development around this time; feel old yet?]. She's actually a pretty respectable character, too; going into battle, taking up charge when she needs to [apart from one moment at the end of Day 2], and generally being fairly strong-willed with a good sense of justice. Best of all? She's not moping about any lost love. Hell, after her date goes horribly awry at the beginning of the game [something about an opera being on fire and her date running and squealing away and everyone else burning alive except for Aya thus kickstarting the whole story of the game], she doesn't really put much mention in a love interest.
Stopping here for a moment to talk about something: Love interests are generally bad in games. With few exception, they're tacked on, feel forced, and are often written by guys who don't know how to write women. Sure, I've often heard complaints levied against Pixar regarding their poor writing skills for women [after all, it's men writing them], but at least they manage some decent characters in the end. In games, it can be just downright tacky, basically boiled down to: "I am a man. You are a woman. And because of that, we are in love." Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an excellent example of poor handling of love interest. I'm just glad this game seems to do away with making it a large point. But I'll cut my rambling.
The game takes place over the course of six days. Aya Brea is tracking down Eve, a mitochondrial monster taking control of an opera singer's body in an attempt to basically stage the rebellion of mitochondria against humans.
Yeah. I don't get it either. But it's a fun, hokey story, and the set-up is perfect for how they deal with monsters and kinetics.
The writing is generally poor, or, at least, the localization is, as was the case with a lot of Square games of this time. At this point in gaming, we at least have writers that can generally string dialog along fairly well, even when we're localizing a Japanese script. But during the 90's, translations were spotty at best, with little exception. The game manages to avoid typos, at the very least, but the dialog is a bit forced, and tends to not mesh well in a flowing string. It's serviceable, and if you're willing to look past it, it's perfectly easy to get the feel of the story, and the emotion of the characters. But if you're picky, it's tricky to keep yourself from cringing at times.
The rest of this post is largely going to be reactionary, as I'm playing the game while I write. Perhaps, at a later date, I'll organize it all to look pretty, and to derive some point out of this, but until then, typographical diarrhea.
- You can collect junk from enemies every so often, which doesn't seem to have a purpose... Until you take it to the NYPD precinct Aya Brea works at, and hand it over to Wayne, one of the guys working in the weapons storage room. Let him dispose of the junk, and he'll eventually make a brand new weapon for you out of it. Here's the thing: You collect a LOT of junk. That in itself is really only an item management problem, but when you dispose of it via Wayne, there will be a sound effect for every. Single. Goddamn. Piece of junk. Seriously? No all-encompassing "sound of rummaged garbage" effect to cover every single piece? I know you're counting it all, but come on, have some decency, sir.
- This game can be a little intimidating at first. Mixing an RPG with a survival horror game can lead to some really cool results [see: Galerians and its pseudo-sequel Galerians: Ash], but an RPG with a limited item inventory? Keep in mind, this was when Resident Evil was REALLY big in its early days, so some of those gameplay elements are expected, but when you're getting tons of junk along with what little medicine comes your way? Yeouch.
- Aya Brea is definitely a respectable character. Sadly, she's also one of the slowest-moving protagonists I've ever seen. RUN, BITCH! RUN!
- Maeda, a scientist from Japan, has a VERY awkward introduction. He spends his time introducing himself to a police officer in front of two other officers, speaking in what seems to be bad English, trying to get past a barrier into a neighborhood area. One of the officers communicates fluently in Japanese, and Maeda continues speaking in English, albeit poorly. When one of the officers spontaneously combusts, Maeda suddenly sprouts an amazing mastery of the English language as he escapes and breaks past the barrier unseen. Why did he try to speak broken English? Was it some kind of hackneyed ploy to confuse the police? Was there ANY chance something like that could work?
- Just noticed, but this is one of the few RPGs where it RARELY pays off to talk to someone. You don't get items, you rarely get actual information... Luckily, most of the people in this game are either dead or evacuated from Manhattan, so you're pretty much good to go.
- A bit of humor: Maeda has an earlier speech about how he doesn't really believe in anything, that he needs proof to convince him of anything. Not five minutes later, Daniel, Aya Brea's partner at the PD, shoots a glass door open at a weapons shop as a means of getting into the place. Maeda: "Are... are you really a cop?" Aya: "We think so. But we don't have scientific proof, if that's what you're asking." It's not delivered in a knee-slapping sort of way, but it gives a pretty good smirk during a particulary tense time.
- Daniel is black. And yet, he isn't much of a stereotype. More a cop stereotype than anything else.
- One of the videos you see a lot affiliated with Parasite Eve is the transformation of the rat into a monster. Sadly, you don't get to see a lot of these sequences, though in usual Square fashion, the few that are there are really awesome to behold.
- Ben, Daniel's son, chases after a dog that goes crazy in the middle of a police precinct currently swarming with monsters. Daniel, I believe your son may be autistic.
- Speaking of that dog, another cool sequence: German Shepherd turning into a gigantic, grotesque Cerberus.
- Just realized that the game is actually a sequel to a book of the same name. The Japanese movie is an adaptation of said book, one I've actually seen to some extent at a convention a few years back. Pretty weird stuff, but I remember it being entertaining. Surprising amount of nudity, actually.
- "Could you help the nurse?" "Yeah, okay. [walks over, finds the other nurse at the other end of the room. Nurse gets up on her own. Not trapped, nothing wrong with her at all.]" "Oh, thank you!" "... ^$*&#"
- The hospital is one of the few areas in the game that really makes use of the survival horror aspect, utilizing more dynamic camera angles that hide just a bit of the scenery. Unfortunately, the gameplay does not support these camera angles, so it's really just for show. Le sigh.
- You run from an F-22 that is about to crash right into the rooftop you're standing on. Reminds me of Metal Gear Solid 1's rooftop battle against the Hind-D, actually. Except there's far less Cam Clarke, unfortunately.
- There is seriously way too much mention of sperm in this one chapter. I mean, sure, there's a knocked over cooler full of sperm [none of it spilled out, thank God], but do we really need to hear for the fiftieth time about the sperm?
Stopping for now. Recap on story:
Day 1: Aya Brea goes to the opera with her date, and watches as the star singer seems to trigger a spontaneous combustion on the cast and audience, with Aya the only survivor, unscathed. Cue first instance of spotting a little girl in a hospital gown with blonde hair that keeps running from Aya. Finds the woman, who calls herself Eve [though originally Melissa, it seems], and speaks of the mitochondria finally going free.
Day 2: Daniel, Aya's partner, is a very busy cop, and an even busier dad. Forgets the concert he was supposed to go to with his son. You meet Dr. Klamp at the Museum of Natural History, who is cryptic about the subject of mitochondria, despite being an expert in the field. Cue foreshadowy creepiness. A concert is going on in Central Park... Or at least, there WAS a concert that was seemingly canceled, since the star, Melissa [guess who?], was "killed" at the opera. However, that somehow didn't stop people from attending? Okay. Turns out, it's the same concert Daniel's son, Ben, is at, and his ex-wife Lorraine is there too watching after Ben. [Glad someone is.] Aya storms Central Park without Daniel, who has to stay behind because he's affected by Eve's range of influence. The ghostly little girl in a hospital gown is seen yet again, and identified as Maya, Aya's sister [very original names, you see]. Aya arrives at the theater, watches as nearly the entire audience is liquefied in mitochondrial ooze. Ben had run away out of fear earlier, which is why he's one of the only survivors. Aya fights Eve on a horse-drawn carriage [what?], and is knocked out in the end of the assault, with more cryptic words from Eve. She's found by a Japanese researcher named Maeda, who'd contacted the NYPD District #17 where Aya and Daniel are stationed to try and arrange a meeting. Maeda and Daniel keep Aya in an abandoned apartment in Soho. The city has been nearly fully evacuated at this point.
Day 3: Aya is still dealing with the possibility that she may be very similar to Eve, right down to a similar fate. After a night of fearing she could turn into a monster, she finally gets some rest, and gets over her fear. She heads out with Maeda and Daniel to the Museum of Natural History, and they storm into Dr. Klamp's lab uninvited. Luckily, he's not there. With a little experimentation and some samples somehow acquired by mysterious means, Maeda determines that Eve's mitochondria has become highly evolved and incredibly sentient, attacking the nuclei of human cells and destroying or mutating them. He also discovers that Aya is a special case, that her mitochondria is defending itself magnificently, having evolved to combat Eve's own. Dr. Klamp storms in, demands everyone to leave. Daniel, by plot convenience, notices a list on Klamp's computer, and notices Ben and Lorraine, his son and ex-wife, on the list. Angered, he threatens Klamp for the info, which he doesn't get. Evicted from the lab, the three return to the district, which has gone under attack. Ben, who had been playing with the police dog Sheeva [lovely foreshadowing name and slight reference to Final Fantasy's own Hindu-based summon], has gone missing, apparently chasing after Sheeva. Mitochondria-mutated monsters have infested the PD, leaving very few still alive. Torres, the maintainer of the weapons area, dies, leaving his protege, Wayne, in charge. Aya works her way up to Ben and Chief Brian, the latter of whom found Ben and had taken up defense against Sheeva. By the time Aya arrives and shuts down the horribly mutated Sheeva, Brian is near death, with Ben making it without a scratch. Daniel becomes the new Chief, landing a nice post-mortem promotion. Cue awkward speech that he barely even gives.
Day 4: As it turns out, the Manhattan incident wasn't the first time Eve got screwy. As it turns out, she has a purpose: The bodies she uses are worn out incredibly quickly, within just a few days, and the only way she can strive is if she births the Ultimate Being. This requires mitochondria mutating human sperm, it seems, the game never explicitly states HOW this works. Anyway, a lead has Aya heading to a nearby hospital, which happens to have a sperm bank inside. As she moves through the hospital, she finds Maya once again, as well as... A ghostly apparition of herself as a little girl? Throughout the game up to this point, Aya has had visions of the past, of Maya in a hospital bed, switching between the two beds on the screen while a doctor examines them. She realizes in the end that it wasn't just Maya; Aya was there as well. Further discovery shows that Melissa was brought in the same day as Maya, and what caused Melissa to have to take medication so much prior to her performance at the opera, the night she turned into Eve, all began there. Eve gets away with a sperm sample just before Aya can do anything about it. Meanwhile, an airstrike sets out toward Central Park to get rid of any last remnants of Eve, but unfortunately, things don't work out. Eve causes one of the pilots to go insane and turn into ooze, and the jet crashes into the roof of the hospital, with Aya escaping only in the nick of time.
So far, this is shaping up to be a far better game than I had imagined. Most of its initial flaws are glossed over quite easily as you get used to the system. Item management's enough of a bitch to cause me to grimace, though. Only two more days left in the story, with Day 5 looking to be pretty long. Probably going to tackle the Chrystler Building after I beat the game, JUST for the alternate ending. Should be fun. Perhaps SquareEnix will consider putting Parasite Eve on PSN once Third Birthday, the second sequel to PE, is released on the PSP? They need to hurry up and release more titles anyway.
Signing off for now, with hopefully the end of Parasite Eve 1. May do the Chrystler Building as a small update later.
-Anderjak
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Comics
If you're like me, you like webcomics. A lot. It's an unhealthy obsession, and the last thing you need is more.
With that said, I have some webcomic recommendations to make, hopefully flagging some you may or may not have missed along the way.
Girly Online - Josh Lesnick's sequel to CuteWendy. Largely, I recommend this because of Lesnick's ever-increasing talents, which is a rare find in comickery. It's incredibly vulgar, off the wall, random, stupid, and yet... incredibly charming.
Least I could Do - Ryan Sohmer's writing and Lar DeSouza's art style come together and create one of the funniest and best comics out there today. Though the earlier stuff features some absolutely godawful artwork, it still manages to be hilarious, a fair bit vulgar, nerdy, and has some of the worst advice you could ever take from a man.
XKCD - Nothing more than a regular stick figure comic at first glance, but it doesn't take long at all to realize just how genius this thing is. There aren't a lot of comics that can pull off humor in physics and math.
Questionable Content - Indie music and the people who listen to it. It's a fantastically humorous comic, has a great overarcing story to it, and is just relevant enough to the mainstream for just about anyone to get.
Sinfest - Actually... You probably already have this bookmarked. However, Tatsuya Ishida is a force to be reckoned with. Who else can utilize a vaguely Calvin and Hobbes-esque style, Easternize it oh so subtly, and make it last as long as it has and STILL be a superb comic?
Looking For Group - Another one by LICD forerunners Sohmer and DeSouza, this comic takes a lot from fantasy tales of old, with a particular inspiration from Warcraft. Fantastic characters, solid story, and... well, Richard. You'll see what I mean.
Three Panel Soul - The remains of Mac Hall... And all for the better. While a full story has been ditched, it is instead a rather intriguing investigation on Ian McConville's art style, and furthers a lot of the one-shot humor which Mac Hall is known for. What's particularly great: no two strips look alike. Don't be surprised when the art style changes radically from strip to strip.
Gone with the Blastwave - A visually amazing style, and one of the slowest-updated comics I've ever seen, with the exception of my next comic recommendation. It's incredibly funny, with a bit of a Red vs. Blue style of humor in a post-apocalyptic world.
Lackadaisy - I wouldn't make it a point to post a furry comic, largely because of the stigma they have in pop culture, but... Seriously. This is one of the best drawn comics around, and features a great concept: Take the Roarin' 20's, prohibition-era crime-laden atmosphere in St. Louis and replace people with anthropomorphic cats. You'd be surprised how well this works. Always reminded me of "Cats Don't Dance," a WB animated movie in the late 90's, and that is a VERY good thing.
With that said, I have some webcomic recommendations to make, hopefully flagging some you may or may not have missed along the way.
Girly Online - Josh Lesnick's sequel to CuteWendy. Largely, I recommend this because of Lesnick's ever-increasing talents, which is a rare find in comickery. It's incredibly vulgar, off the wall, random, stupid, and yet... incredibly charming.
Least I could Do - Ryan Sohmer's writing and Lar DeSouza's art style come together and create one of the funniest and best comics out there today. Though the earlier stuff features some absolutely godawful artwork, it still manages to be hilarious, a fair bit vulgar, nerdy, and has some of the worst advice you could ever take from a man.
XKCD - Nothing more than a regular stick figure comic at first glance, but it doesn't take long at all to realize just how genius this thing is. There aren't a lot of comics that can pull off humor in physics and math.
Questionable Content - Indie music and the people who listen to it. It's a fantastically humorous comic, has a great overarcing story to it, and is just relevant enough to the mainstream for just about anyone to get.
Sinfest - Actually... You probably already have this bookmarked. However, Tatsuya Ishida is a force to be reckoned with. Who else can utilize a vaguely Calvin and Hobbes-esque style, Easternize it oh so subtly, and make it last as long as it has and STILL be a superb comic?
Looking For Group - Another one by LICD forerunners Sohmer and DeSouza, this comic takes a lot from fantasy tales of old, with a particular inspiration from Warcraft. Fantastic characters, solid story, and... well, Richard. You'll see what I mean.
Three Panel Soul - The remains of Mac Hall... And all for the better. While a full story has been ditched, it is instead a rather intriguing investigation on Ian McConville's art style, and furthers a lot of the one-shot humor which Mac Hall is known for. What's particularly great: no two strips look alike. Don't be surprised when the art style changes radically from strip to strip.
Gone with the Blastwave - A visually amazing style, and one of the slowest-updated comics I've ever seen, with the exception of my next comic recommendation. It's incredibly funny, with a bit of a Red vs. Blue style of humor in a post-apocalyptic world.
Lackadaisy - I wouldn't make it a point to post a furry comic, largely because of the stigma they have in pop culture, but... Seriously. This is one of the best drawn comics around, and features a great concept: Take the Roarin' 20's, prohibition-era crime-laden atmosphere in St. Louis and replace people with anthropomorphic cats. You'd be surprised how well this works. Always reminded me of "Cats Don't Dance," a WB animated movie in the late 90's, and that is a VERY good thing.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Activision vs. Harmonix
In a story that would make any sane man go "WTF?!"...
The PS3 version of Rock Band comes with a slight... Issue. Unlike what was previously promised, the GH3 Les Paul controller does NOT work with the PS3 version of Rock Band. Harmonix was pretty surprised by this.
Well, according to this, Harmonix was totally on the ball. They'd already had the patch made and ready for about two weeks, submitted it to Sony, and it was ready to be released over PSN for automatic download once you plugged in the Rock Band disc.
Well, according to THIS, Activision says Harmonix is full of shit, and Activision's been trying to reach an agreement with Harmonix for a while now which keeps getting turned down.
Now, let's look at this carefully. What does Harmonix have to gain from disallowing GH3 controllers to be playable solely on the PS3 version? Well... Not much. With individual instruments not due out until February, there are a lot of people wishing they had a second controller for RB, thanks to two different duel modes and a full band mode that needs two guitar controllers to play. They're at nothing but a disadvantage.
What does Activision gain from the GH3 controller not being playable on RB? An edge on its opponent. People don't want to pay for a product they feel is inferior, especially when there are plenty of Guitar Hero controllers available to play GH3 with. Of course, this doesn't make much sense, either; with RB's individual controllers arriving so late, there are people who want individual controllers -now-, meaning they go to the GH controllers. Purchase of these controllers goes to Activision, and increase sales. This is a benefit, right? Apparently, Activision must not have thought so, as they still seem to be trying to reach an "agreement" with Harmonix.
This is pure speculation, mind you, but an "agreement" usually has terms in these situations, right? Harmonix wasn't looking to pay or be paid for their completely voluntary work to fix a problem with their game, and have constantly made open-arms approval of Activision and their GH controllers. Activision, on the other hand, feels there's still some issues to be settled first. It could be a monetary value, or a stock issue, or something completely arbitrary.
Or, we could go with the more realistic option and say Activision got caught in a rut when it turns out Harmonix fixed the problem, and Activision doesn't like looking like the lazy one, and is trying to save face. This isn't exactly surprising, as damage control is a large part of big business [for reference, see the Jeff Gerstmann issue at GameSpot, as they do fantastically horrible damage control on that whole problem]. However, this just feels as if it were a completely childish debate. While Harmonix did butt heads and claim it was Activision's fault before, they had since redeemed themselves by fixing it, and everything's ready to go as we speak. So why the hold-up, Activision? What issues hold back the ability to make some customers happy?
Maybe it all comes down to a money issue. However, I'm more inclined to believe Activision's just getting greedy with its newest total acquisition of Guitar Hero, and doesn't want to give Rock Band any edge whatsoever, looking at it from a strictly competitive point of view.
Which sucks, 'cuz, damnit, I need a second guitar for RB!
The PS3 version of Rock Band comes with a slight... Issue. Unlike what was previously promised, the GH3 Les Paul controller does NOT work with the PS3 version of Rock Band. Harmonix was pretty surprised by this.
Well, according to this, Harmonix was totally on the ball. They'd already had the patch made and ready for about two weeks, submitted it to Sony, and it was ready to be released over PSN for automatic download once you plugged in the Rock Band disc.
Well, according to THIS, Activision says Harmonix is full of shit, and Activision's been trying to reach an agreement with Harmonix for a while now which keeps getting turned down.
Now, let's look at this carefully. What does Harmonix have to gain from disallowing GH3 controllers to be playable solely on the PS3 version? Well... Not much. With individual instruments not due out until February, there are a lot of people wishing they had a second controller for RB, thanks to two different duel modes and a full band mode that needs two guitar controllers to play. They're at nothing but a disadvantage.
What does Activision gain from the GH3 controller not being playable on RB? An edge on its opponent. People don't want to pay for a product they feel is inferior, especially when there are plenty of Guitar Hero controllers available to play GH3 with. Of course, this doesn't make much sense, either; with RB's individual controllers arriving so late, there are people who want individual controllers -now-, meaning they go to the GH controllers. Purchase of these controllers goes to Activision, and increase sales. This is a benefit, right? Apparently, Activision must not have thought so, as they still seem to be trying to reach an "agreement" with Harmonix.
This is pure speculation, mind you, but an "agreement" usually has terms in these situations, right? Harmonix wasn't looking to pay or be paid for their completely voluntary work to fix a problem with their game, and have constantly made open-arms approval of Activision and their GH controllers. Activision, on the other hand, feels there's still some issues to be settled first. It could be a monetary value, or a stock issue, or something completely arbitrary.
Or, we could go with the more realistic option and say Activision got caught in a rut when it turns out Harmonix fixed the problem, and Activision doesn't like looking like the lazy one, and is trying to save face. This isn't exactly surprising, as damage control is a large part of big business [for reference, see the Jeff Gerstmann issue at GameSpot, as they do fantastically horrible damage control on that whole problem]. However, this just feels as if it were a completely childish debate. While Harmonix did butt heads and claim it was Activision's fault before, they had since redeemed themselves by fixing it, and everything's ready to go as we speak. So why the hold-up, Activision? What issues hold back the ability to make some customers happy?
Maybe it all comes down to a money issue. However, I'm more inclined to believe Activision's just getting greedy with its newest total acquisition of Guitar Hero, and doesn't want to give Rock Band any edge whatsoever, looking at it from a strictly competitive point of view.
Which sucks, 'cuz, damnit, I need a second guitar for RB!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Mass Effect
If you're aware of Bioware's not-so-long history and amazing track record for making really fucking awesome games, and you happen to have an XBox 360 handy [or maybe you bought it for this very reason], you probably already own Mass Effect. More than likely, you're enjoying it. A lot. And with good reason. In spite of some of its nastier flaws, the game manages to rise above and beyond the shackles that hold it down, but every now and then, these flaws just kinda knock it in the face like a door in the night when you're on your way to the toilet.
The story behind Mass Effect goes like this: It's been 26 years since Humankind has managed to make contact with an alien race... In fact, they made contact with a lot of alien races. What's more, these guys have a whole damn government organizing all these religions, creating a high-order Alliance Council which maintains authority over the entire Milky Way galaxy, and this Council's been around for a great deal more time than humans have had the chance to fiddle around with technology. At the beginning of the story, you find your character Shepard is being considered to become a Spectre, the right hand of the aforementioned Council, an elite task force that stands above the law and gets the job done, no matter what. Even crazier? Shepard would become the first human Spectre ever, meaning this is a pretty damn big deal. On a mission with a member of the Turian race [who is, coincidentally, with you on the mission to review whether or not Shepard is even worthy of becoming a Spectre], the main conflict rises in the form of Saren, a sort of real bastard who shoots your advisor and tries to blow up the whole facility which you are investigating. He's got control of a mechanical race called the Geth, a lethal force which, under the right leadership, have been a great big problem for the Alliance races. With Saren looking like he's taking the Geth on the eventual path of galactic domination, it's up to Shepard and his allies to hunt down Saren and save the galaxy. Throughout the game, you'll find a whole wealth of extremely tough decisions, plot twists, potential backstabs depending on your decisions, and a great deal of backstory which further flesh out the incredibly well-thought out and inspired universe created in Mass Effect. There's no shortage of motivation to push you through the story, and you can easily take a break from the intense plot to do some sidequests which will continue to throw more moral choices and great character depth to further enrapture you.
One of the best aspects of the story is how utterly interactive it is. Much in the vein of Bioware games, you have near-full control of how your main character looks, acts, and plays. Right from the start, a database is accessed, attempting to pull up Shepard's files, but are instantly corrupted... So, you, as the player, reconstruct the profile as you see fit. The only major control you have over the look is the face and gender, though what is here rivals even Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in terms of options. It may not quite have the hair options you might like, and it may not be quite as micromanaged, but it's a whole hell of a lot easier to create a good-looking, human face, and you'd be hard-pressed to see two Shepards that ever look exactly alike. From there, you also figure out a backstory for your character, choosing from three options which determine a fair amount of the psychological history and whether or not your parents totally bit the dust. You also decide on a particular class you want, each specialized between three main aspects of gameplay style, from Combat [use of guns and straight-up damage], Biotics [the "Force" of ME, creating shields, throwing and lifting people, et cetera], and Tech [the "buffers," which help eat away shields, destroy weapons, and allow for hacking and unlocking], and each of the six available classes mix up these abilities for a variety of ways to play. Each class dramatically affects how you play, and force you to utilize different strategies in each and every conflict you come across. The only real problem at the start is a lack of a real tutorial, only offering a short blurb of information which doesn't really give you a grasp of the mechanics, though it's all manageable as you progress further and get more involved.
There are three main portions of gameplay: Adventure, On-foot Combat, and Vehicle Combat. The adventure portion will feel very familiar to anyone who's played a Bioware Game since KotOR: Very RPG in its execution, picking up quests from strangers, interacting with locals, shopping, et cetera. What makes these sections so utterly enthralling is the dialog tree, which features far better choices for conversation than ever before. Unlike KotOR and Jade Empire's rather clear-cut "good and evil" options, you're now given a few neutral options alongside "Paragon" and "Renegade" choices. Paragon is the good cop, where you try to reduce the body count as much as possible, and to come to the morally best results possible, and Renegade is the bad cop, where you pretty much play a total dick, doing whatever is necessary for the job, even if it costs people their lives. The great things about these decisions is you still benefit just about the same no matter what you do, and each decision still radically changes the situation, so the choices you make actually matter. It's very easy to get wrapped up into the story because of this, and is easily the highlight and most important aspect of the game.
The on-ground combat looks like it plays a bit like an over-the-shoulder shooter in the same vein as Gears of War. You switch between a variety of four weapons, you lead a squad of two other soldiers, there are cover mechanics, the method of attack plays out differently depending on your weapons and abilities... However, playing it like a run-n-gun shooter is a very lovely way to get totally reamed. There's a surprising amount of strategy involved in combat, thanks in part to the rather offensive AI and, more importantly, the combat wheel. By holding down the right bumper, you open up a circular grid of abilities that you and your allies currently have. By aiming the screen at enemies and clicking an ability, you can formulate a turn of combat, commanding your allies to use their abilities or to help yourself. This may sound like it slows down combat into a real RPG, but in an effective way, it actually makes things a bit more intense. Each ability has a good deal of cooldown, meaning you have to be careful not to waste all your abilities on a single opponent, since you'll essentially be gimped against the next wave of offenders. Throughout the earlier levels, it's practically required to use your abilities to survive, and though it seems like a bit of a hassle at first, it becomes second nature as you get better and better at the game.
Your abilities are gained through level-ups, which aren't quite as complicated as the D&D rules of KotOR. Out of the list of abilities available to you based on the class you side with at the beginning of the game, you can choose to spend a few points per level on bettering your use over certain weapon types [between Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, and Sniper Rifle], armor [even opening up a higher level class of armor], and even a special class-unique point list that betters a collection of abilities all at once. It isn't hard to come by these level-ups: Anything from killing enemies to completing quests to even some of the more plot-related interactions and searching through things gains yourself some experience, so there's never a short supply of experience to grab at every corner. While level-ups don't come all too often, it's just frequent enough to keep you at just the right level to handle anything the game throws at you, so long as you're careful.
The vehicular adventuring and combat... could be better. Throughout the game, you'll find a variety of planets that you can land on which have nothing to do with the main story, but gain you quests, items, information, and so forth. These planets, along with some of the story-specific ones, are where the Mako, your six-wheeled buggy/armed tank and your primary form of transportation in more gravity-inclined landscapes, is supposed to shine. However, the Mako often behaves in ways you really prefer it didn't. It's rather floaty, flips over a good amount, and drifts like a sled on a baby-oil slicked, iced over hillside made of butter. It's still quite manageable and would be perfectly tolerable if it weren't for the generic, frustrating planet "designs" which feel more like the designers threw in a bunch of mountains haphazardly with absolutely no regard to any sort of sanity. I make it sound worse than it actually is, but it's pretty frustrating to wind up in a valley with mountainsides that are far too steep to traverse without whispering to yourself, "c'mon, baby, you can do it, make the hill, make the hill, c'mooooon..." What's more, every now and then, you'll wind up against a selection of enemies on a few planets while in the Mako, and because of the poor controls, it's difficult to actually manage to hit and run without completely missing your target. Even given the rather accurate submachine gun attached to the vehicle alongside a pretty damn good cannon, it doesn't work unless you actually come to a full stop and aim, which is bad when you're also trying to avoid startlingly accurate enemy fire. Combine this with some of the bad planet design as I've mentioned and you'll find yourself getting stuck every so often, unable to move, getting yourself blown away rather quickly.
The interface with which you equip your characters is a great idea... in theory. However, unlike previous Bioware titles, this game features an inventory system which is a bit of a pain. You get equipment and upgrades for said equipment and weapons all very often, and with a limit of 150 items, your inventory gets very full very fast. It's easy enough to get rid of items by selling at any shop or reduce the items to Omni-Gel [which is used for repairing the Mako, opening locks, et cetera], but the stuff isn't organized very well; an item might be listed as ranking higher than others, but there's a lot of lower-ranked armor and weapons which are actually better than some of the higher-ranked counterparts, meaning you have to sort through the stuff manually. If there were a way to organize it yourself, or to organize everything by certain variables, this wouldn't be much of an issue, but as it stands, it's a cumbersome system. Though it's no gamebreaker, it'll leave you just selling everything in your inventory at regular intervals and just replacing it by all the newer stuff you get during exploration.
Gameplay aside, this game looks very good. Featuring some of the best animations and graphics in the industry, this game will create figures which, no matter how alien they are, feel very believable. Everything gives off an appropriate highlight and sheen, especially the eyes, which could even rival Pixar quality. The story-related planets look fantastic, with great atmosphere and expert design, each of the races look great, the list goes on. The big problem, however, has to do with texture pop-in, which is frequent and a little annoying. Every now and then, the textures of characters will be completely nonexistant, leaving only a colorfully blurry husk of character model, filled in with detail after a few seconds. It's jarring, and is a bit of a kick to any level of immersion with the characters at times. The level designs also suffer from pop-in, but it's not quite as noticeable. There are a few frequent loading issues in the middle of areas; you'll find yourself walking through a level, and, without warning, you'll see a "loading" icon on the screen and everything halts all of a sudden. There's no set locations for these; they sort of happen randomly as the game calls for it, and, alongside some stuttering framerate on occasion, it slows the momentum of the game down a fair amount. Luckily, the game doesn't rely heavily on timing, so these issues don't mess up the game by any stretch, but it's just a further lack of polish which some extra development time could have helped.
The audio quality of the game is, as per usual for Bioware, stellar. The soundtrack evokes a sort of 60's or 70's sci-fi style mixed with modern quality and composition, which creates a proto-retro futuristic sound which is a bit stereotypical but works so perfectly and sounds so great that it fits the atmosphere completely. Sound effects are somewhat forgettable, but match the situations quite well [note to prospective players: know the sound of the overheating of your gun; it'll save your life]. The voice acting is fantastic, with some great performances from known voice actor stars as Jennifer Hale [Bastila from KotOR, Naomi from MGS] and Keith David [the leader of the Saints in the game Saints Row]. Each of the alien races have a particular vocal quality that is very distinctive, and even through these set qualities, each and every character, even the strangers, have drastically unique personalities, and nearly every single figure performs amazingly well.
Mass Effect isn't the savior of Western RPGs by any stretch, and there are far better games out there... But not very many at all. Though not quite insane in length [the main story can be completed in a little over a dozen hours, and coupled with sidequests, about thirty or so hours overall], it keeps you locked in from start to finish, and even offers a great deal of extra content, achievements, and even more replay value. It's very difficult to see even a great deal of the game's content and story in a single playthrough thanks to several ways to tackle each mission and quest, so it's not likely you'll be putting the game away any time soon. In spite of its flaws, it proves yet again why Bioware is one of the best in the industry, and it proves you don't need a name like Star Wars attached to create one of the best sci-fi epics to come around in a very long time.
Story: 10/10 - Indepth story, great characters, solid plot twists, and a fully interactive plot.
Graphics: 9/10 - Some pop-in and framerate, but it's hard to deny this game looks beautiful.
Gameplay: 8/10 - The inventory menu can be a pain, the vehicular exploration and combat sorta suck, and the framerate and loading can get in the way, but it plays well overall, and is a load of fun.
Sound: 9/10 - Soundtrack's not really catchy or too memorable, but it, alongside the voice acting, fits perfectly well.
Polish: 7/10 - It's got quite a few technical bugs and such, and though it's nothing that destroys gameplay thanks to a forgiving autosave feature, it could still be much better.
Overall: 8.6 - If you like Bioware, or RPGs, or fantastic stories in general, you need this. If not, it's still worth checking out.
The story behind Mass Effect goes like this: It's been 26 years since Humankind has managed to make contact with an alien race... In fact, they made contact with a lot of alien races. What's more, these guys have a whole damn government organizing all these religions, creating a high-order Alliance Council which maintains authority over the entire Milky Way galaxy, and this Council's been around for a great deal more time than humans have had the chance to fiddle around with technology. At the beginning of the story, you find your character Shepard is being considered to become a Spectre, the right hand of the aforementioned Council, an elite task force that stands above the law and gets the job done, no matter what. Even crazier? Shepard would become the first human Spectre ever, meaning this is a pretty damn big deal. On a mission with a member of the Turian race [who is, coincidentally, with you on the mission to review whether or not Shepard is even worthy of becoming a Spectre], the main conflict rises in the form of Saren, a sort of real bastard who shoots your advisor and tries to blow up the whole facility which you are investigating. He's got control of a mechanical race called the Geth, a lethal force which, under the right leadership, have been a great big problem for the Alliance races. With Saren looking like he's taking the Geth on the eventual path of galactic domination, it's up to Shepard and his allies to hunt down Saren and save the galaxy. Throughout the game, you'll find a whole wealth of extremely tough decisions, plot twists, potential backstabs depending on your decisions, and a great deal of backstory which further flesh out the incredibly well-thought out and inspired universe created in Mass Effect. There's no shortage of motivation to push you through the story, and you can easily take a break from the intense plot to do some sidequests which will continue to throw more moral choices and great character depth to further enrapture you.
One of the best aspects of the story is how utterly interactive it is. Much in the vein of Bioware games, you have near-full control of how your main character looks, acts, and plays. Right from the start, a database is accessed, attempting to pull up Shepard's files, but are instantly corrupted... So, you, as the player, reconstruct the profile as you see fit. The only major control you have over the look is the face and gender, though what is here rivals even Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in terms of options. It may not quite have the hair options you might like, and it may not be quite as micromanaged, but it's a whole hell of a lot easier to create a good-looking, human face, and you'd be hard-pressed to see two Shepards that ever look exactly alike. From there, you also figure out a backstory for your character, choosing from three options which determine a fair amount of the psychological history and whether or not your parents totally bit the dust. You also decide on a particular class you want, each specialized between three main aspects of gameplay style, from Combat [use of guns and straight-up damage], Biotics [the "Force" of ME, creating shields, throwing and lifting people, et cetera], and Tech [the "buffers," which help eat away shields, destroy weapons, and allow for hacking and unlocking], and each of the six available classes mix up these abilities for a variety of ways to play. Each class dramatically affects how you play, and force you to utilize different strategies in each and every conflict you come across. The only real problem at the start is a lack of a real tutorial, only offering a short blurb of information which doesn't really give you a grasp of the mechanics, though it's all manageable as you progress further and get more involved.
There are three main portions of gameplay: Adventure, On-foot Combat, and Vehicle Combat. The adventure portion will feel very familiar to anyone who's played a Bioware Game since KotOR: Very RPG in its execution, picking up quests from strangers, interacting with locals, shopping, et cetera. What makes these sections so utterly enthralling is the dialog tree, which features far better choices for conversation than ever before. Unlike KotOR and Jade Empire's rather clear-cut "good and evil" options, you're now given a few neutral options alongside "Paragon" and "Renegade" choices. Paragon is the good cop, where you try to reduce the body count as much as possible, and to come to the morally best results possible, and Renegade is the bad cop, where you pretty much play a total dick, doing whatever is necessary for the job, even if it costs people their lives. The great things about these decisions is you still benefit just about the same no matter what you do, and each decision still radically changes the situation, so the choices you make actually matter. It's very easy to get wrapped up into the story because of this, and is easily the highlight and most important aspect of the game.
The on-ground combat looks like it plays a bit like an over-the-shoulder shooter in the same vein as Gears of War. You switch between a variety of four weapons, you lead a squad of two other soldiers, there are cover mechanics, the method of attack plays out differently depending on your weapons and abilities... However, playing it like a run-n-gun shooter is a very lovely way to get totally reamed. There's a surprising amount of strategy involved in combat, thanks in part to the rather offensive AI and, more importantly, the combat wheel. By holding down the right bumper, you open up a circular grid of abilities that you and your allies currently have. By aiming the screen at enemies and clicking an ability, you can formulate a turn of combat, commanding your allies to use their abilities or to help yourself. This may sound like it slows down combat into a real RPG, but in an effective way, it actually makes things a bit more intense. Each ability has a good deal of cooldown, meaning you have to be careful not to waste all your abilities on a single opponent, since you'll essentially be gimped against the next wave of offenders. Throughout the earlier levels, it's practically required to use your abilities to survive, and though it seems like a bit of a hassle at first, it becomes second nature as you get better and better at the game.
Your abilities are gained through level-ups, which aren't quite as complicated as the D&D rules of KotOR. Out of the list of abilities available to you based on the class you side with at the beginning of the game, you can choose to spend a few points per level on bettering your use over certain weapon types [between Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, and Sniper Rifle], armor [even opening up a higher level class of armor], and even a special class-unique point list that betters a collection of abilities all at once. It isn't hard to come by these level-ups: Anything from killing enemies to completing quests to even some of the more plot-related interactions and searching through things gains yourself some experience, so there's never a short supply of experience to grab at every corner. While level-ups don't come all too often, it's just frequent enough to keep you at just the right level to handle anything the game throws at you, so long as you're careful.
The vehicular adventuring and combat... could be better. Throughout the game, you'll find a variety of planets that you can land on which have nothing to do with the main story, but gain you quests, items, information, and so forth. These planets, along with some of the story-specific ones, are where the Mako, your six-wheeled buggy/armed tank and your primary form of transportation in more gravity-inclined landscapes, is supposed to shine. However, the Mako often behaves in ways you really prefer it didn't. It's rather floaty, flips over a good amount, and drifts like a sled on a baby-oil slicked, iced over hillside made of butter. It's still quite manageable and would be perfectly tolerable if it weren't for the generic, frustrating planet "designs" which feel more like the designers threw in a bunch of mountains haphazardly with absolutely no regard to any sort of sanity. I make it sound worse than it actually is, but it's pretty frustrating to wind up in a valley with mountainsides that are far too steep to traverse without whispering to yourself, "c'mon, baby, you can do it, make the hill, make the hill, c'mooooon..." What's more, every now and then, you'll wind up against a selection of enemies on a few planets while in the Mako, and because of the poor controls, it's difficult to actually manage to hit and run without completely missing your target. Even given the rather accurate submachine gun attached to the vehicle alongside a pretty damn good cannon, it doesn't work unless you actually come to a full stop and aim, which is bad when you're also trying to avoid startlingly accurate enemy fire. Combine this with some of the bad planet design as I've mentioned and you'll find yourself getting stuck every so often, unable to move, getting yourself blown away rather quickly.
The interface with which you equip your characters is a great idea... in theory. However, unlike previous Bioware titles, this game features an inventory system which is a bit of a pain. You get equipment and upgrades for said equipment and weapons all very often, and with a limit of 150 items, your inventory gets very full very fast. It's easy enough to get rid of items by selling at any shop or reduce the items to Omni-Gel [which is used for repairing the Mako, opening locks, et cetera], but the stuff isn't organized very well; an item might be listed as ranking higher than others, but there's a lot of lower-ranked armor and weapons which are actually better than some of the higher-ranked counterparts, meaning you have to sort through the stuff manually. If there were a way to organize it yourself, or to organize everything by certain variables, this wouldn't be much of an issue, but as it stands, it's a cumbersome system. Though it's no gamebreaker, it'll leave you just selling everything in your inventory at regular intervals and just replacing it by all the newer stuff you get during exploration.
Gameplay aside, this game looks very good. Featuring some of the best animations and graphics in the industry, this game will create figures which, no matter how alien they are, feel very believable. Everything gives off an appropriate highlight and sheen, especially the eyes, which could even rival Pixar quality. The story-related planets look fantastic, with great atmosphere and expert design, each of the races look great, the list goes on. The big problem, however, has to do with texture pop-in, which is frequent and a little annoying. Every now and then, the textures of characters will be completely nonexistant, leaving only a colorfully blurry husk of character model, filled in with detail after a few seconds. It's jarring, and is a bit of a kick to any level of immersion with the characters at times. The level designs also suffer from pop-in, but it's not quite as noticeable. There are a few frequent loading issues in the middle of areas; you'll find yourself walking through a level, and, without warning, you'll see a "loading" icon on the screen and everything halts all of a sudden. There's no set locations for these; they sort of happen randomly as the game calls for it, and, alongside some stuttering framerate on occasion, it slows the momentum of the game down a fair amount. Luckily, the game doesn't rely heavily on timing, so these issues don't mess up the game by any stretch, but it's just a further lack of polish which some extra development time could have helped.
The audio quality of the game is, as per usual for Bioware, stellar. The soundtrack evokes a sort of 60's or 70's sci-fi style mixed with modern quality and composition, which creates a proto-retro futuristic sound which is a bit stereotypical but works so perfectly and sounds so great that it fits the atmosphere completely. Sound effects are somewhat forgettable, but match the situations quite well [note to prospective players: know the sound of the overheating of your gun; it'll save your life]. The voice acting is fantastic, with some great performances from known voice actor stars as Jennifer Hale [Bastila from KotOR, Naomi from MGS] and Keith David [the leader of the Saints in the game Saints Row]. Each of the alien races have a particular vocal quality that is very distinctive, and even through these set qualities, each and every character, even the strangers, have drastically unique personalities, and nearly every single figure performs amazingly well.
Mass Effect isn't the savior of Western RPGs by any stretch, and there are far better games out there... But not very many at all. Though not quite insane in length [the main story can be completed in a little over a dozen hours, and coupled with sidequests, about thirty or so hours overall], it keeps you locked in from start to finish, and even offers a great deal of extra content, achievements, and even more replay value. It's very difficult to see even a great deal of the game's content and story in a single playthrough thanks to several ways to tackle each mission and quest, so it's not likely you'll be putting the game away any time soon. In spite of its flaws, it proves yet again why Bioware is one of the best in the industry, and it proves you don't need a name like Star Wars attached to create one of the best sci-fi epics to come around in a very long time.
Story: 10/10 - Indepth story, great characters, solid plot twists, and a fully interactive plot.
Graphics: 9/10 - Some pop-in and framerate, but it's hard to deny this game looks beautiful.
Gameplay: 8/10 - The inventory menu can be a pain, the vehicular exploration and combat sorta suck, and the framerate and loading can get in the way, but it plays well overall, and is a load of fun.
Sound: 9/10 - Soundtrack's not really catchy or too memorable, but it, alongside the voice acting, fits perfectly well.
Polish: 7/10 - It's got quite a few technical bugs and such, and though it's nothing that destroys gameplay thanks to a forgiving autosave feature, it could still be much better.
Overall: 8.6 - If you like Bioware, or RPGs, or fantastic stories in general, you need this. If not, it's still worth checking out.
The Beginning
Yet another entry into the already overly-cramped, heavily opinionated blogosphere-o'-doom, it seems. The first question is: Why should I care? What here is so original that it demands my attention? Why the hell should I devote five minutes of my time to this guy's post?
Okay, so that was three questions, shut up, I'm new at this.
To roundabout answer these questions, the chief point here is to chronicle my thoughts on things that have to do with my careers of choice: artist and game designer.
Alright, I'll give you "artist" as a career is just a fancy way of saying "living with my girlfriend and mooching off while I muse about the subversive meaning behind each episode of Squirrel Boy on Cartoon Network.
The reasons for chronicling these thoughts isn't just for my own amusement; I also hope to inform the readers as best I can on matters, and to possibly offer advice, random tutorials, tips, and other synonyms for "helpin' with shit that otherwise might be kinda hard."
Good luck to me, yeah?
Okay, so that was three questions, shut up, I'm new at this.
To roundabout answer these questions, the chief point here is to chronicle my thoughts on things that have to do with my careers of choice: artist and game designer.
Alright, I'll give you "artist" as a career is just a fancy way of saying "living with my girlfriend and mooching off while I muse about the subversive meaning behind each episode of Squirrel Boy on Cartoon Network.
The reasons for chronicling these thoughts isn't just for my own amusement; I also hope to inform the readers as best I can on matters, and to possibly offer advice, random tutorials, tips, and other synonyms for "helpin' with shit that otherwise might be kinda hard."
Good luck to me, yeah?
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