Dead Space Overview

For the first game in a new franchise, it’s surprising how few new ideas Dead Space owns. Rather than defining its own rules, it concerns itself with polish and refinement – borrowing from others but implementing them into its own fiction. However by the end, all of its ideas are repeated and worn out and a few more would have gone a long way.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve been fixated on Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 for a good few weeks now and haven’t familiarized myself with the genre lately but the immediacy of the weapons in Dead Space is excellent. A short introduction that attempts to establish the premise and characters concludes with you being chased unarmed by a necromorph, the aliens you eventually acquaint yourself with. Although this slow pacing could have been developed upon further and eeked some more horror scares whilst you’re in a vulnerable state, it’s still satisfying to find your first tool-gun and dismember a slowly descending necromorph, limb by twisted limb.

Without this unique approach to combat the game would have been lacking; had you been aiming a single cursor and firing a standard weapon (as in Resident Evil 4 and Shadows of the Damned) the game would have been too derivative, too unimaginative but the dismemberment system truly elevates Dead Space’s gameplay. These unconventional weapons, mining tools apparently, allow you to strike enemies tactically and exactly. Discovering which weapons work best in dealing with certain enemies is one of the game’s hidden joys though enemies aren’t varied enough. There are necromorphs with weak-spots that explode, ones that crawl and raise three tentacles before spitting their own projectiles; these are unique in design and demand on the player’s approach. On the other hand, there are those that are too human in form and simply require you to take out their arms and legs. For a ten to twelve hour game, facing this basic form of enemy so frequently, especially when they’re made arbitrarily tougher later on, becomes unexciting.

Adding more enemy variety wouldn’t have fixed all of Dead Space’s problems though. Mechanically the game is without fault with controls that are perfectly judged and a HUD that’s so seamlessly integrated, the action is never intruded upon. Health bars and ammo counts are grounded into the environment so you’re given the full spectacle of the Sci-Fi setting. Together with the absence of loading times within levels, pacing could have been manipulated so effortlessly. Indeed the sound design is particularly worthy of admiration and initially it keeps you on your toes though later through the game, repeated audio cues fall flat in raising the pulse.

It’s the structure of objectives and encounters throughout the game that creates a formulaic experience for a genre that is anything but. You’re often asked to make it to a location to flick a switch or repair a connection to progress the story though the stepping stones of encounters eventually repeat. Rooms lock and necromorphs spawn in, tank-like enemies are thrown into larger areas you return to and those deformed presumed dead, leap up with an extravagant sound sting. It’s horror by numbers and forces the game to rely more on the solidity of its gunplay. Dead Space does attempt to break the mould with puzzles that take place in zero-gravity. However, flicking a switch or carrying item A to put in slot B isn’t too fun or demanding when you’re on the ceiling either. Valve puzzles they are not. 

Dead Space is a good game though and certainly an enjoyable experience however it’s a 10-12 hour journey that really should have been 7-9 hours. The fiction seems well realised, if some of the locations don’t seem like ones people would use but the story is too generic or unmemorable to experience again (you’re saying the lady who accuses everyone of being untrustworthy is actually a traitor herself?!!). The game does incentivise multiple play-throughs and the upgrade system is good enough to encourage that, if not living up to the standards Resident Evil 4 set. However I didn’t bother and now I’m moving onto an entirely different game, Yakuza 3 before I even tackle the second iteration in this series, such is the numbing of its re-use and implementation of ideas. If EA want the franchise to become one that can sell 5-million units per game, as CEO John Riccitiello recently claimed, it’s going to need to work for it.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time/Warrior Within Overview

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of those games that makes the pure navigation of a 3D environment a pleasure. Whether it’s a wall run leading to a poll swing that launches you to the edges of a ledge or an assault of backflips from one wall to another that propels you up a vertical corridor, it’s playful approach to traversal never really bores. Of course many games have taken its ideas and mechanics since the game’s 2003 release (Tomb Raider, Mirror’s Edge, even Ratchet and Clank), though none can blend platforming and puzzling together as seamlessly as this.

A lot of games can identify with the fast thrills of vaulting terrain; Crackdown, InFamous, Prototype, et al, yet it’s The Sands of Time that sacrifices the aimless free-spiritedness of those former titles for a more realised and composed platforming adventure. In the same way that Modern Warfare’s orthodox, linear structure capitalises on prescribed set-piece beats, The Sands of Time’s scripted and staged events form a tighter piece of platforming craft.

I only recently completed TSoT and felt compelled to play through once again; a rarity for someone who treats titles as disposable – completion leading to another eBay listing. It’s not just the mechanically solid gameplay and considered level design but the light and airy atmosphere that compliments the game’s tone so well, not to mention the characterisation. The Uncharted games are often praised for their dialogue and script that mould protagonist Nathan Drake, particularly the self-referential lines shared exclusively between himself and the player. That charming narrative technique is present in TSoT, so it felt surprising to see the game’s approach to storytelling and characterisation still effecting games today.

All of this experience just about manages to leave the effects of the tepid combat to subside. As it’s an older, last-gen title I should perhaps take it with a pinch of salt. It’s not that it’s particularly flawed but that its implementation is so poorly realised. Enemies flood in one after the other, in bouts that usually take over five minutes to conclude. It’s still responsive however and when not benefitting the pacing of the game, is worth enduring just to move on to the puzzles and platforming, unlike its successor Warrior Within.

After around four to six hours with the game, I’ve now decided to give up on it. After all, most would consider that I’ve hit the stride of the series by the first iteration. Once the game starts, the stark shift in tone is immediate. The colour palette is darker, the protagonist more generic with an obligatory angry American voice and the dialogue shallower than ever. Still, it only seemed like a change that would give the marketing men something easier to work with. If gameplay was just as solid as last time, these side-effects could go ignored. Instead, it’s created a shopping list of problems that The Sands of Time never had. Perhaps due to time constraints (Warrior Within was released merely a year after TSoT) the game features lots of backtracking through its endless, bland corridors. Most damning of all though is the combat which grows to become as equally laborious as in The Sands of Time but is simply broken. At least with its predecessor, its combat could be eventually mastered; all that was expected was a sense of rhythm for controlling the crowd of enemies. Warrior Within offers new moves with some great animations. It starts to become painful however when finishing moves don’t meet enemies even though they’re still acted out and scripted animations clash with others, glitching the Prince a few feet to the side. When other games since have all but mastered combat (Bayonetta), the game unfortunately starts to show its age.

I’m still pleased that I got to experience The Sands of Time though, all the more impressive that it was released years ago. Even if games are poorly received, it’s still better to make your own opinion of them. In fact, for the first few hours of Warrior Within, I was enjoying the game. It added some new platforming ingredients, building upon what TSoT had already established and experimentation still remained unpunished thanks to the ingenious rewind time mechanic; its effects now being felt in racing games. I just wish I could now rewind back to when I finished Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Not because I wouldn’t have played Warrior Within. Rather I would have known last weekend’s lottery numbers.

MAG Overview

The prevalence and success of First-Person Shooters this generation seems immutable, yet pop culture has a tendency to fluctuate. Perhaps they’re a stepping stone in gaming’s progression of realising gameplay and technology, much like platformers of the 80’s and racing games of the 90’s were. More temporally, they’re riding a very high wave on consoles and PC and so publishers are feeding demand. The sheer wealth of FPS titles already released for the first half of this year speaks volumes at not just their popularity but potential for over-saturation. Luckily, narrow-sighted imitators are infrequent and it’s a wonder at how much distinctive content can derive from a first-person perspective and a protruding gun.

MAG released at the beginning of 2010 for the PS3 where the only online multiplayer I was familiar with contained the same formula. Spot an enemy; pull up the sight and shoot, all the while under suppression from another circling in. What MAG was offering seemed like a breath of fresh air in what I can now describe as Battlefield meets Counter Strike.

62 hours, three minutes and six seconds. That’s the amount of time I’ve invested in MAG, and what is perhaps the full stop in my lengthy career. After innumerable late nights and distracted lunch times, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t think it’s very good.

If you’re at all familiar with other contemporary shooters then you’re already faced with a challenge – one of patience with the game. Online console FPS’s can be immediately energized from the simple, accessible mould that Halo’s controls offered ten years ago; if gameplay is centered around fast, responsive input then the controls must not impede the action. Although MAG recognises a sensible control layout, the player is often restricted by loading animations that refuse to be interrupted, equipment that requires filtering through one by one and a sensitivity to aiming that’s either too twitchy or too stiff. Consequently on many occasions, player demands are never quite reached in time.

This I feel sums up the game's colour pallet

However I did manage to adapt to these mechanics. For example, instead of wading into a confrontation and launching a grenade at the press of a button, a luxury MAG can’t afford, I’d hang back or go prone and swap weapons so as not to fumble my way through a firefight. These precautions may allude to a slower, more thoughtful and tactical game but really, they’re frustrations that other modern shooters manage to cope without (no mentioning of that other cultural zeitgeist).

The mentality that every player is in the same boat, suffering the same mechanical flaws, allowed me to continue playing MAG, though ultimately the skill-tree was the central impetus. It seems like every online FPS needs that carrot-on-a-stick to motivate the player further; certainly MAG’s progression system lives and dies by it. Initially, it offers players choice. You can purchase upgrades with skill points (each given when leveled up) that branch out into different class archetypes such as medic, engineer, et al. Every player is able to mix and match between the tools and techniques found in different upgrade classes, so if you want to play as a sniper with a resuscitation kit that resurrects felled team-mates then that’s possible. 

On the other hand, it’s a system that once empowers players and yet reveals how stubborn its controls are. Why was it necessary to upgrade faster reload times, knife swipes and time spent switching between weapons through this skill tree? The default controls are so unyielding and balky, the most responsive upgrades should have been a part of the fundamental mechanics.

His glove clashes with that dude's vest

As an online FPS, MAG does offer an adequate amount of game modes from team deathmatches to sabotage (capture the control point on the map, hold it and move on to the next). These modes are common in every shooter though, so I spent the majority of my time playing in the game’s USP – a mode called Domination that contains 256 players vying for control over various points on the map, constantly pushing backwards and forwards between them. As chaotic as that sounds, you’re only ever interacting with a small percentage of that number at any one time; MAG’s attempt at controlling the battlefield is fairly accomplished but it could have gone further. 

"Hey Steve, stop dancing!"

Domination is a game of two halves. You’re either attacking or defending the opposite team and both sides of the coin offer vastly different experiences. Defending is the most fun, rewarding and furthermore, the most satisfying to play. It asks you to keep control of a specific asset/objective on the battlefield, be it a bunker with a turret planted on top, or AA guns that shoot down the opposition’s airstrikes. You’re not only keeping the attackers at bay but also repairing objectives. As a result, the defending team has a plethora of tools at their disposable that offers XP, compounded by the fact that they spawn so close to the objective each time. I often had a resuscitation and repair kit at hand to heal others and repair objectives and gates. The glowing flash of XP was a constant, warm presence on screen.

On the other hand, attacking is almost the antithesis experience; it can be arduous, unrewarding and regularly defeating when tried to play the ‘correct’ way. As soon as you spawn, you need to run to the objective (a glowing marker on your HUD) that takes a slow 30 seconds - spawning itself is dependent on 20-30 second cycles. Most of the time, your eight-man squad will split up and end up on the opposite side of the map. You are granted tanks that keep squads together and which reduce lengthy marathons but these are vulnerable and fragile like twigs. Teamwork simply isn’t incentivised enough. If every player’s goal is to chase XP then make that a part of the squad mechanics. Knowing the position of other team-mates more clearly (online headset chatter is too hostile an environment for people to comfortably spout discourse aiding teamwork) coupled with the omnipresent glow of XP for managing to stay together as a squad could have made for a more enjoyable, balanced fight. In reality, once lost in a sea of other squads in the first five minutes, it’s disheartening to face another 25 minutes of this same ordeal.

Eventually, I bought each upgrade and weapon I aspired for but felt disappointed by the conclusion of acquired talents. The journey of MAG far outweighs the final banality of facing pointless XP that doesn’t help anyone.