2 posts tagged “games”
Gears of War, the highly acclaimed 3rd person shooter by Epic. I have now played and completed Gears Of War (9 or so hours on Hardcore).
My first impression of Gears of War was HOLY SHIT. Gears of War has graphics that are unparalleled. The insane light effects, water effects, armour details and such make the gameplay a lot more immersive.
The only let down of Gears of War is the storyline. I will explain.
In Gears of War, you play Marcus Fenix. After playing the entire game through, this is what you find out about Marcus Fenix
- He was imprisoned (he breaks out of prison in the first level)
- He was a traitor (some kind of military authority spits out "Traitor." at him)
- He likes to swear and kill things.
Other than that, we aren't known how he betrayed whatever. Throughout the game, it's hinted that there's some sort of conspiracy, but it comes of nothing. Almost as if the game devs wanted to have a conspiracy put in the game, but abandoned the arc some time during development. We get the feel that Hoffman isn't enthusiastic about Marcus' survival through the first couple of levels. Either that, or he's an incompetent leader. The end boss (who is also the monster that kills Kim), called RAAM, has no backstory. The only thing we know about him is that Marcus has some sort of deep-seated loathing (or perhaps he just gets angry because it killls Kim). Other than that, RAAM's story is non-existant.
As well, Marcus' father has some sort of significance. He's mentioned a few times, and in one level, we even travel to Marcus Fenix's house, so their family is shown to have some sort of connection with the Locust. What that connection is, and what Fenix's father has to do with it, is never discovered.
There are many other cases of plot holes, because this game is rife with them. However, if you can tolerate somebody hanging a cake on a string in front of your nose until you finish the game, without ever giving you the cake, then this game is for you.
This game isn't a typical shooter. It is heavily involved with tactics. Using cover is a must, as if you don't you get shot down very quickly. This isn't like Halo, where you run through a level, gunning things down as soon as you spot them. In Gears of War, you duck behind cover, then jump out for a second, fire off a few rounds at another revealed enemy, then duck for cover again. In that way, it's very tactical. I'll give you an example scenario.
- You come around a corner to discover a long street
- Several red lasers shoot past your head, maybe even a rocket
- There's a box down the street a little bit
- This is where you hold down A and run, because if you're using your "sprint" (running while holding A makes you run faster), you will automatically throw yourself against cover when you reach it, so no wasted seconds to duck.
- You poke your head around the corner and see one of the big brutish guys are coming towards you. There's another bit of cover down the street further to your right.
- Right before the brute reaches your cover, you hold up and A, then leap over your cover in front of the guy. Then you hold down B, mercilessly carving him in half with your chainsaw bayonet.
- You roll to the right and sprint to the next cover.
- Repeat
Gears of War has stunning graphics. The armour is incredibly detailed. Everything is done very well. If you are in the rain, you can see the water bouncing off your armour. As well, the lighting is very realistic (even though it's rare).
There isn't much to say about the graphics other than "Wow".
The enemies in Gears Of War are brilliant concept-wise and in practice. They aren't amazingly overpowered, nor underpowered. Each foe is formiddable, and has the potential to kill you, sending you back to the last checkpoint. There's no Halo-Grunt-like creatures in this game. From the very largest enemies, down to the small "Wretches" (which we called drop-babies, because their scream is baby-like, and they drop from the ceiling, Resident Evil style), all have their own way of killing you. Wretches are very fast, difficult to hit, and some even explode a second after dying. Grunts are the standard troopers, who have laser rifles which can pack a punch, as well as "Lancers" (chainsaw guns), which they can and will use to carve you up. Another enemy you encounter is the Boomer, who carry rocket launchers and mortar-like weapons. They only spawn few and far between (usually two or three at a time), and they take a hell of a lot of firepower to take down. A particularly difficult enemy that you encounter in the last level are called Reavers. These are two grunts, one a pilot and one a gunner, riding big flying octopus-like monsters. To take these down, you pretty much have to kill the gunners, because shooting at the octopus is very ineffective. You can also use a Torque Bow (exploding arrows) to take down the Reavers in a single shot, but because the ammo is rare, it's good to conserve it.
When you go into Gears of War, one of the vital points it to know that this game follows boss tradition. Every boss has a weak point, it's not just to unload your clips.
For example, a large spider-like boss requires you to shoot it in the belly as it exposes it, then shoot it in the mouth. After doing this a few times, it forces the boss back onto a platform. You then have to shoot a clamp, which will send the boss into the molten-hot lava. RAAM requires you to wait until the Kryll leave his side until you gun him down. We actually killed him by doing this a few times, then waiting until he walked right up to our cover, then popping around and blowing his nuts off using a shotgun. So whenever you go into a boss fight, consider it's weaknesses.
One of the most fun things is cutting people down with your chainsaw bayonet. While it is difficult, and risky (the enemy can melee back, and punch you out), it's hell fun. If you're successful, it goes to a zoomed out camera view, showing lots of blood, and the body of your victim falling apart.
I can see why Gears of War received such high reviews. It's unfortunate that they couldn't have put in a stronger story, because if they had, Gears of War could've rivalled the Halo series. However it's still enjoyable, and if you like eye-candy, you'll like Gears of War.
Hmm... posting on Vox is orgasmic.
Blog-related euphoria aside, let's get into it.
Lately I've been playing a lot of Starcraft. I got really bored, and after finishing Halo (for the PC of course) on Legendary again, I felt like I'd return to my roots. The first game I ever played on a PC was Age of Empires, so right from the start, my heart has belonged to RTS. Starcraft captured my interest shortly after I played Age of Empires (which was then followed by a series of RPG's, like Diablo, Diablo 2, and Baldur's Gate).
So I began charging through the Starcraft campaigns again. It had been a while, so it was at least exciting because the strats I used for each level were different than the ones I'm used to (I'm used to playing the Starcraft expansion levels).
Okay, my language is far too constrained to convey the message I want to convey to you.
These guys fuckin own. I don't know how the hell they do it, because the way they clickety click their fingers, and hammer their keyboards with the key shortcuts, it's almost like they're on crack.
The fact that these guys have found themself a life that provides for them financially, while at the same time, allowing them to PLAY GAMES, is a genius idea. I'm sure we've all dreamt about being a lazy ass for a living before, right? (I know, I know, these guys actually put in an insane amount of hours training).
So why is Starcraft so intensely popular, even though some may call it "dated"?
Because of it's incredible balance. Starcraft is one of the most balanced games ever. If you're a Starcraft player, and you complain about how "xx is weak against everything", it's because you're a noob. I'm not saying that one vs one, every unit has an equal chance of beating the other unit, because that would mean whoever strikes first, strikes last.
What I mean is that if two players of equal skill vsed each other, one went Protoss, and one went Zerg, for example, then they would both stand an equal chance of winning. There's no rock, paper, scissors in this game. Starcraft is a game of intense skill (which makes it different to other Blizzard titles ala World of Warcraft).
Starcraft is a bit like chess. I've realised this from watching videos of players. Before, it seemed to me that Starcraft was largely a matter of bigger army = win. But it's more like chess in the way that you have to clearly plan out what you're going to do several steps before you do it. You need to evaluate the situation, and consider certain scenarios that could negatively impact your strategy, then work to disable those scenarios leaving you on top
If you're NEVER played Starcraft, I think you should. Like I said, some people might call it dated, thus you can get it fairly cheaply. Just don't expect to see it at EB, Gamestop etc etc.
Peace.
