machinarium

machinarium Developer: Amanita Design Publisher: Amanita Design Adventure - PC HDD, 6 Save Files 1 player

Yes, yes, another PC point-and-click adventure game. This may be the last one I review for a while (although, I'm working on the original Myst so I could be lying) . But what an amazing point-and-click adventure this is.


What sucks you in immediately are the hand-drawn visuals and a soundtrack that feels choreographed to each situation. machinarium oozes atmosphere. You feel like you're in a post-apocalyptic alternate world populated only by mechanical entities. Characters squeak as they move.  Most of the overworld has a cold, rusty and abandoned feel to it.

One charming detail I enjoyed is the way the story unfolds. The story is told not in cutscenes or text, but through simple pictures and animations in character word bubbles. This gives the game more of a universal appeal, not having to deal with language and complements the game world that much more.

But the heart of machinarium is its puzzles. Every step of the way, you're in the midst of trying to solve one or multiple puzzles. Sometimes you're stuck in a room, and need to find items and manipulate objects to figure a way out. Other times, you come across a locked boxes which require deciphering logic puzzles to open. There are a lot of creative puzzles scattered throughout the game, and no two are the same. Many will challenge even the best puzzlers out there. I admit I had to resort to a FAQ on a couple occasions, but when I struggled through and finally overcame many of the puzzles on my own, the sense of accomplishment was incredible. Best of all, I love how machinarium offers the player an single hint for each room. It's completely optional, but will prove vital when you have no idea what to do.

machinarium is utterly brilliant. As far as puzzle-adventure games go, this is my favorite. It offers mental challenge after mental challenge, but you never feel like the game is unfair. Sure, it doesn't offer quirky humor or make you fall in love with the characters like other adventure games do. But in its focus to create a logic-based puzzle adventure game, machinarium is unrivaled. Kudos to Amanita Design for bringing it. Their next project, Botanicula, is just around the corner.

Adam's Venture Ep1

Adam's Venture Episode 1: The Search for the Lost Garden Developer: Vertigo Digital Entertainment Publisher: Iceberg Interactive Puzzle Adventure - PC HDD 1 player

The original Tomb Raider is one of my favorite games. It completely nailed the 3D puzzle-adventure and set the standard of what came next. Recently, a new title popped up on the Steam Store at $3.99 (launch discount price). The trailer looked incredible for a $4 game, and gave me the whole Tomb Raider vibe. Was it warranted?

In short, no.  I can't really say the trailer was deceptive, but they showed the most exciting parts and the rest of the game didn't quite live up.

The hero of the game is Adam, a cocky adventurer. The story starts out with him decrypting a message which shows the location of the original Garden of Eden, hence the game's subtitle.  As a result, biblical references show up all throughout the game.

I THOUGHT the game would play out like an Indie Tomb Raider with some platforming, exploration and puzzles.  But any platforming/climbing is really there to break monotony of walking.  The designers put up blockades all around you to funnel you to the next destination, for the most part, so there was little exploration to be had.  The puzzles themselves started off amusing, but devolved into repeating the same few basic types. Most of them were entirely straight-forward, and required little thinking to solve. 

Visually, the game is based off the Unreal 3 Engine. It actually looks really good for an independent game, with plenty of interior detail and lighting effects. The backdrops are fantastic, and probably helped to sell me on the purchase. But there's enough jankiness to the character animations and some odd glitches that remind you that it is not as polished as a full-fledged commercial title.


Overall, Adam's Venture Episode 1 feels like a low budget title, which should be expected given its low price.  So far there are three episodes out, but only the first is available on Steam. I should mention that the Steam version has at least one puzzle that the original indie version lacked, so there may be other differences other than the addition of achievements.  It's possible the more recent episodes have more interesting things being done.  But having completed this first episode, I ultimately found the experience unsatisfying, even at its bargain bin purchase price.

Journey

Journey Developer: thatgamecompany Publisher: thatgamecompany Adventure - PS3 1 Save Slot 1 player / Online Multiplayer

Art Game


That's what someone said to me, when I mentioned I picked up Journey. I wasn't sure what I was in for, but it seemed like this game was getting a lot of acclaim. Although I haven't played them all that much, I have had exposure to thatgamecompany's previous games, fl0w and Flower. Even though Journey is a much different beast, it has a familiarity to it that is very much in line with the other two games. But what IS Journey?  What do you DO?  Well, that's a lot harder to describe. And that's also part of the point.

You begin the game as a nameless face dropped off in a sprawling desert. There's no hand-holding, no automap, and no explanatory cutscene that puts the game into context. All you know is that you are there, and your field of view immediately centers upon a mountaintop in the distance. Everything in between is the journey.

As a game, you don't have much at your disposal. You can walk. You can interact with just a few things in the game. But there's little else. Early in the game, you acquire a red scarf. You'll see ribbons with a similar design scattered throughout. Interacting with those ribbons charges your scarf. And your "charged" scarf allows you to jump and float for a small duration of time. You're able to increase the length of your scarf, and hence float time, by finding these specific markers throughout the game. With just the ability to float and interact with a select few objects, your goal in each stage is to find the path to the next. But Shadow of the Colossus this isn't. The puzzles and platforming are quite lite.

Journey is about the experience. It's about the feeling of pursuing a single-focused goal, and not quite knowing what to expect as you explore the process. And although you could say that about any game, Journey is perfectly choreographed. Although the visuals are somewhat minimalistic in design, how they're used can be utterly breathtaking. You get the sense that every angle and every frame was intentional, even though the world is fully 3D. The moody orchestrated music only accentuates the intentionality.  Everything works together in tandem, and succeeds.

Make no mistake. This is an art game. On gameplay merits alone, Journey is a bit on the shallow side. There's little in the way of hand-eye coordination and puzzle logic.  And what's there refuses to put up much of a challenge.  Even the ability to find extensions to your scarf to increase float time is convoluted, because you don't even need any of them to finish the game. Still, you've got to admire the pretentiousness of it all. What thatgamecompany set out to do, they accomplished. They blended gaming and art in a way no other medium could have. Best game ever? Hardly. I enjoyed the Journey for what it was. At $14.99, I can't help but feel it's overpriced, beauty and all. The $10 threshold would make it much more appealing. It's ultimately not all that fulfilling, even with its artsy shell. Nevertheless, it's unique in what it does and that makes it worth a playthrough for me.

As a side note... since this doesn't really fit the flow of the review, I'll just mention that the online multiplayer is automatic. Other "Journey"ers will show up in your game in real time, and their presence helps enhance the feeling of the journey. You can't really interact with them, aside from being able to charge your scarf through contact. But their presence makes the journey feel like you have a partner walking alongside you (or apart from you, depending on the players).

Blackwell Trilogy Remastered

Blackwell Trilogy Remastered Developer: Wadjet Eye Games Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games Adventure - PC HDD 1 player

After loving Gemini Rue, I picked up the Blackwell Trilogy Remastered from the Indie Royale Xmas Bundle.  Like Gemini Rue, it's a point and click adventure game using the same underlying engine.  Nevertheless, the games have very distinct feels to them.  Whereas Gemini has a gritty detective / bleak scifi vibe to it, the Blackwell series has sarcastic humor and dark undertones.  Your primary role is that of a medium, and your partnership with a ghost.  It sounds hokey, but it works without being too far-fetched.  The good thing is, the game plays out like that of a serious investigation game.  It very much feels like what Phoenix Wright or Miles Edgeworth would be like, if it were a traditional PC adventure game, as you have to present "evidence" to get people to talk.  Here's my thoughts on each game of the package.

Blackwell Legacy - Beginning of the saga.  You get a bit of background story of Rosangela Blackwell that sets up the entire series and what it's about.  The scenario is a nice balance of unsettling deaths and light-hearted humor to break up the tension.  Solutions to puzzles can be quite varied too.

Blackwell Unbound - Interesting direction, considering the events of Legacy.  Unbound introduces a new game mechanic - the ability to switch characters, which opened up a couple of new possibilities.  But otherwise, the puzzles were much simpler than Legacy and also more repetitive, so I liked it least as a game.  Whereas Legacy leaves you with a wealth of emotions, Unbound's scenario leaves me feeling unsettled.

Blackwell Convergence - No new game mechanics here, and in fact, they simplify the game by doing away with combining notes/clues.  Still, there are still puzzles to be solved and connections to tie together.  This outing wraps up the package nicely.

I think Phoenix Wright comparison is apt for this series.  Like the Ace Attorney stuff, the Blackwell games  are heavily focused on plot and characters.  It's a great combination and has the same payoffs.  Each game is very interesting in of itself.  But as you play additional games and see how the characters interact in different situations, it's building an overall story.  It's very rewarding to see the progression.

Blackwell games are also short.  Each adventure takes about 4-5 hours to complete.  I personally love that they're so short.  It's probably why I was hooked enough to play them through.  If the length bothers you, the best way to think about each Blackwell entry is that they're equivalent to a Phoenix Wright case.  It's also priced appropriately.  Full price for the Trilogy is $20.  Not too shabby for 15 hours worth of games.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed playing Blackwell.  While Gemini Rue was really neat for its atmosphere and unpredictable story, Blackwell was more enjoyable as a game.  I always love putting pieces of a puzzle together, and the way you combine clues, present evidence, and convince characters to tell you the truth is what makes adventure gaming for me.  Combine that with a strong emphasis on character establishment and story continuity and you've got yourself a winner. I love Blackwell for the same reasons I love Phoenix Wright.  And despite the medium / ghost stuff in Blackwell, it never gets in the way like the mysticism does in Phoenix Wright.  Things don't just magically resolve themselves.  You're involved every step of the way.  In case you can't tell, I really had a blast.

Gemini Rue

Gemini Rue Developer: Joshua Nuernberger Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games Adventure - PC HDD 1 player

Point-and-click adventure games are a relic of old PC gaming.  I don't see too many of them still being made, but indie publisher Wadjet Eye Games still believes in them. I picked up Gemini Rue as part of the Indie Royale Launch Bundle a month back. After viewing the trailer, I was intrigued.

The game's initial scene is cold, clinical, and disturbing.  A group of scientists have a man called Delta Six bound.  Delta Six apparently has tried to escape, and so the scientists wipe the man's memory.  Soon after the credits, the scenery changes to something more akin to a gritty detective film.  Azriel Odin is an ex-assassin, but he's out to investigate the disappearance of his brother Daniel.  And thus the story begins.

As a point-and-click adventure game, there's no real tricks.  There are some isolated combat segments which require WASD controls, but the overwhelming majority of the game requires only left and right clicking.  A groundbreaking gameplay-driven game, this is not.  But if you're after adventure, this has got it.

The game is interesting in that it has two personalities.  The game will switch scenes between Azriel the investigator and Delta Six the captive.  Playing as Azriel, the scenery is very moody, with the pitter-patter of the rain adding to the melancholy.  Everyone you meet seems to be suspicious or desperate, intensifying the desire to figure out what's going on.  Playing as Delta Six leaves you feeling uncomfortable and awkward.  He's roughed up by his peers.  The surroundings are clinical.  The atmosphere ends up being just plain creepy.

The control interface and the puzzles themselves could be less clunky, but that's really not the point.  What Gemini Rue does so well, is to pull you into its world.  Everything is designed to make you feel what the characters are feeling.  By the time the plot kicks into gear, and philosophical questions are raised, those things end up as a bonus.  The meat and potatoes of the game is the discovery process that the characters, and you the player, engage in.  To that end, Gemini Rue is absolutely thrilling all the way through.

TRAUMA

TRAUMA Developer: Kristian Majewski Publisher: Kristian Majewski Adventure - PC HDD, 1 Save File 1 player

Continuing with my Indie PC gaming kick, I picked up TRAUMA as part of the Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle. It's a throwback to the old point-and-click adventure games, but with a little bit of a modern twist.

The game begins with a woman awakening in a hospital bed. Her memories are jumbled, first with a recollection of driving and then random bizarre imagery follows. And hence the game begins.

Like all point-and-click adventures, you will use only the mouse. Click on specific locations of the screen and you will either investigate an object or move to a different location. The interface of this game has a photograph theme, where mousing over key spots shows a translucent photo, letting you know you can move. This is extremely helpful so you're not just clicking in random locations. The game also gives you visual indicators when mousing over key objects too.

The twist to it all is that it adds some interactivity, by giving you powers only accessible through mouse movements. For instance, you can move Right just by "drawing" horizontal lines on the screen from left to right. Moving right can just as easily be accomplished simply by clicking on a navigation spot, but this is just one example of the interactivity. There are some abilities you obtain that can only be accessed by drawing with your mouse.

What's really enjoyable about the game is the whole theme of discovery. It's an adventure game, so you're trying to discover what's going on in the story, discover how to progress, discover different paths. But it also includes a collectathon element, where photographs are scattered throughout each scenario. The photographs fill in a little bit of backstory, but they can also teach you some of the mouse maneuvers in the game. Everything works together really well.

I won't say that TRAUMA is game of the year material or anything. But as far as point-and-click adventures go, I rather enjoyed it. It's mysterious and atmospheric, offers some interactivity with the mouse movements, and wraps it all in a package that emphasizes discovery. Oh, and it's pretty short too ( < 3 hours?), which is a plus in my book. Don't think I'd buy it alone, but as part of a bundle, it's a pleasant surprise.

Sol Survivor

Sol Survivor Developer: Cadenza Interactive Publisher: Cadenza Interactive Tower Defense - PC HD Backup 1 player, Multiplayer Co-op & Versus

Now that I'm packing a modern PC, I'm experimenting with PC gaming.  First order of business, some indie packs from Steam.

I picked up Sol Survivor as part of a Strategy bundle. Turns out each of the 5 games in the bundle is some sort of tower defense variation. Lucky for me, I generally enjoy them. For those of you who aren't familiar with the genre, tower defense games feature maps, where waves of enemies traverse a fixed (or not-so-fixed) path. If the enemy reaches their destination, you lose life.  Hit 0, and it's game over.  The goal of the game, then, is to build "towers" that attack the enemies and hopefully kill them before they ever reach you.  As you destroy enemies, you earn the ability to build more towers or upgrade existing ones.  The fun of the genre comes from understanding the specific nuances and special powers of your "towers" and placement of those towers to do the most damage.  For instance, most games of the genre will usually have a tower that can slow down the enemy, but does little or no damage.  That's a great supplemental strategy to use in conjunction with offensive towers, but not good by itself.  So the right blend of towers is required.

That description generally applies to all tower defense games.  Sol Survivor is a pretty standard entry to the genre, and as such, makes a good intro.  The setting is very sci-fi, with an alien invasion as a backdrop.  Instead of towers, you have turrets, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

There are two design decisions that make Sol Survivor distinct.  There's an "Orbital Support" system that makes the game more interactive than its peers.  In addition to the ability to build turrets, you have an energy bar that you can spend to alter the game.  While your turrets are shooting at the enemy, you can click on the Laser Orbital Support, point at the enemy and then hold down the mouse button.  A laser beam will follow wherever your cursor is to do additional damage.  This is especially handy to finish off foes that weren't killed by your turrets.  There are other orbital support options - some enhance the abilities of your turrets by giving bonuses temporarily; some will slow down any enemies within a radius; some will deal direct damage to an enemy like the laser.  The orbital support system helps to make the game more action-focused and less passive.

While the Orbital Support is a significant addition, the choice of Officers has an even greater impact on the gameplay.  This is the first tower defense game I've played where you don't have access to all the towers in the game.  Sol Survivor makes you choose from 10 different officers, each with their own subset of turrets and orbital supports.  What this means is that each officer has a different playstyle and strategy to employ.  This was my favorite aspect of the game.  There are a total of 20 stages in the campaign, but I found myself replaying the same stages with different characters just to get a feel of how the game changes.  By limiting the types of turrets you can build and mixing up your orbital support abilities, the developers made the game better as a result of those restrictions.  You're forced to make do with what you've got and it gives the game more of a personality.

In addition to the single player campaign, there is also a single player survival mode where unlimited waves of enemies come knocking at your door as well as a co-operative multiplayer experience.  I haven't had the opportunity to try the mp game, but according to the videos I've seen, it looks like it works really well.  If you're a completionist, there's tons of achievements both in the game and through Steam, that will keep you occupied for many many hours.

Still a generic tower defense game overall, but solid.  The addition of orbital support and multiple characters doesn't drastically change the genre, but they sure make things more interesting.

Half-Life 2 Episode Two

Half-Life 2 Episode Two Developer: Valve Publisher: Valve First Person Shooter - PC HD Backup 1 player

After four years, I finally played through all the (available) HL2 games! Picking up immediately from where. Episode One left off, you pretty much know what to expect from Episode Two. Thankfully, Half Life 2 Episode Two isn't a carbon copy of HL2 like Episode One was.

Although you have the same weapons and tools available to you, Valve tried to mix up things a little bit by adding a few new enemies and varying the settings. Sure, it does have the same feel of generic action game + occasional light puzzle. But Valve also added some new tricks, like experimenting with collectathon aspects by having you seek out supply caches. There's also a new addition to how you can use your weapons to take down some of the bigger enemies of the game. The result of their efforts pays off. Somewhat.

The biggest problem is that the additions feel a little tacked on. They're too segmented. When you're in the ant hill section, the game plays like such. When you're searching out hidden supplies, that's more or less what you do for that specific section of the game. It lacks integration. You play the game a certain way for only a fixed scene and that's it. Thus despite their best efforts, Episode Two is still pretty mediocre overall.

If you've read any of my write-ups on the series, I never enjoyed any iteration of Half-Life. One might find the setting and story interesting, but the games come out so far apart from each other, I really don't remember what events occurred previously. As far as gameplay, I find the combat scenarios to be pretty dull overall, relying too much on hordes of generic enemies than actual game design. Episode Two does little to change my opinion of the series.

Half Life 2 Episode One

Half-Life 2 Episode One Developer: Valve Publisher: Valve First Person Shooter - PC HD Backup 1 player

I never quite understood why Half-Life 2 Episode One is a follow-up to Half-Life 2. The naming convention sounds like it'd be a prequel, but it's actually a direct sequel. Semantics aside, I'm torn.

The game has no surprises. If you've played through Half-Life 2, you know exactly what to expect. The story unfolds in the exact same real-time manner. The enemies are the exact same ones you previously fought. You have the same weapons. And the kicker.... Ep 1 has you in pretty much the exact situations as HL2. I would actually say the game structure is like playing HL2 in reverse. To that end, Ep 1 is the worst kind of sequel. Uninspired. Treads no new ground. Needless existence. As much as I hated HL2, Episode One is an even worse sequel.

But that being said... had Half Life 2 never existed, Episode One would be pretty decent. One could say that Ep 1 is a streamlined version. The pacing is faster. And it removes the awful awful vehicular segments of the previous game. In a lot of ways, it's what Half-Life 2 SHOULD have been.

Thus I'm mixed. I thought Half-Life 2 was probably the worst game I've ever played. In an absolute sense, I think Half-Life 2 Episode One plays a lot tighter and removes the stuff that really made the original drag on. But as a sequel, it's the worst kind. It doesn't try to achieve anything other than more of the same. And even in that regard, it fails because there's no new situations, only a re-presenting what already was.

In the end, I'm not really sure what to think. OK on its own merits, but is the perfect example of what NOT to do in a sequel. Here's hoping that Episode Two will actually push the series forward.

Ghost Trick

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Adventure - Nintendo DS 1 player

From the creators of the Ace Attorney games comes a new kind of adventure: Ghost Trick. There are marked similarities between the two titles: a detective mystery backdrop, character-driven story and dialog, and plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested.

What Ghost Trick does differently is the gameplay. You begin the game as a newly departed spirit of a nearby corpse. Who are you? How did you die? Why did you die? Those are all questions that the game will answer, in time. But what this means in terms of gameplay is something completely different. As a spirit, you have two powers - tricks, if you will.

1. You can possess objects and interact with them in real time.
2. You can manipulate time to go back to a few minutes prior to someone dying.

You're thrown into the game and thrust into many confusing situations, with no immediate context. But these powers not only give you the opportunity to investigate the scenes you come across, but they also allow you to be able to influence the past to change the present outcome. In a sense, Ghost Trick isn't considerably different from other adventure puzzles where you interact with objects in a manner to solve a problem. But because the action takes place in real-time, the puzzles take on a fresh persona.

Here's an example. You rewind time to 4 minutes before a victim's death. In that rewind, you see an assailant approach the victim, raise a gun and shoot them. Now that you know what happens, how can you change that path? Well, you rewind again and get to work. The goal is to thwart the kill. So you now are moving in-real time, possessing objects, interacting with them, just as in the foreground, the events are playing out. The assailant is still approaching the victim, is still going to pull out a gun, and will squeeze the trigger. Your job is to find a way to prevent the situation, and to consider the timing in which your actions will occur. Manipulating objects too early, and the assailant may still end up killing the victim. Manipulating them too late, the victim remains dead. Because you have to consider logic and timing, the gameplay feels more like an action game than your run-of-the-mill adventure game.

As far as charm, Ghost Trick sports a similar style to the Ace Attorney games where the mood is balanced by both serious moments and light-hearted humor. What's notable about Ghost Trick are the fluid character animations. It's often a treat just to watch how the characters move on the screen, because obvious care and intention was poured out in this area. Characters will have specific animations based on the scene at hand. Gone are the static screens and functional visuals of Ace Attorney. Ghost Trick is out to impress stylistically, and it works.

I like what Ghost Trick set out to do overall. It's a unique adventure game with fun mechanics, a character-driven story, and a lot of personality to boot. I'm glad that this team decided to try something different, rather than make another Ace Attorney game, and it succeeds in its own right. Nevertheless, I found the overall plot to be a bit hokey - much like the worst parts of Ace Attorney, and it never does get as serious as the Ace Attorney games. Some of the plots/subplots of AA shocked and had an emotional impact on me. GT never did. And although GT was definitely more interactive in its gameplay, I personally enjoyed the logic-based gameplay in AA games more.

In the end, I'm glad Ghost Trick exists and it's definitely worth playing as a unique an fun DS title. I just don't know if I'd stick around for a sequel.

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors Developer: Chunsoft Publisher: Aksys Games Adventure - Nintendo DS 1 player

"Wanna play a game?"

Those words are iconic of the SAW film series, and are quite appropriate for 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors too. Both have masterminds who kidnap select groups of people for a forced game with strict rules. Violate them, and the reward is a messy death. Both are gruesome, although 999 mostly describes the details in text rather than explicit visualization. And both have their viewers wondering many questions before finally resolving them at the end.

I had no idea what 999 was until a friend asked me about it. When I saw the trailer, it just seemed like a generic Adventure game. That is... until someone gave me another tidbit: "It's by the guy who did Ever17". Ever17 completely blew me away, and singlehandedly changed my mind about the legitimacy of visual novels. It proved to me that the video game medium could be used for creative storytelling, and in fact, could surpass traditional books in some ways. I was completely captivated by how you only get pieces of the puzzle through various endings, and the final reveal required experiencing each of those pieces first. I knew that 999 would offer a similar experience.

It did. But what surprised me most about 999 wasn't its brilliant E17-ish story structure - it was the fact that it's not a visual novel. 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors is very much an adventure game. You investigate, find items, and solve puzzles. The way it works here is that you end up trapped in rooms as part of the Nonary Game, the game within the game. Scattered throughout the room are items and clues. You can hold one active item at a time while you investigate objects, so if you have a key and then select a locked door, you will be using the key on the door as opposed to just observing the locked door. Items can be combined with other items in your inventory. The actual puzzles in the rooms are actually quite interesting. Many involve math problems or lining things up or even piano playing. I thought there was a pretty good amount of variety to the puzzles and enjoyed how they fit in logically with the structure of the story.

As far as the story goes, it plays out sort of like a scifi murder mystery. People do end up dying. Depending on the types of decisions you make in the game, the story can diverge in different directions. But that's all part of the process. Just like Ever17, if you take a path through the game, then you only see the consequences of that specific path. But it's necessary, because you learn certain things about the overall story by following that mini-story. If you take a different path, the ending could be radically different, yet you would still learn some truths about the overall story. It's this type of story-telling that I think both Ever17 and 999 really excel in.

So this is a game in which you must play multiple times to get the most mileage out of. In fact, you pretty much have to play it multiple times to get ANY mileage out of it. If you're not willing to commit to that, you shouldn't even start. But see it through and you will be rewarded with a one-of-a-kind experience. The game does offer a fast-forward to speed through only the text you've seen before, so that comes in really handy as you do your next playthrough.

Complaints? The first thing anyone notices about the game is that the text speed moves slowly. It's less of an issue later on though, particularly because in subsequent playthroughs, you can fastforward through all of it anyway. And when the text suddenly slows down (due to choosing a new path), the slow scrolling of text can actually be exciting. The other thing that's a plus and a minus is that in replays, text can be fast-forwarded but puzzles can't be. I guess part of that is that there's some important dialog choices you make during puzzle sequences, so you can't just skip past them. But on the upside, you can quickly go through the puzzles since you already know the solutions. And if I'm honest, I liked the story in Ever17 much more. But that's just a personal preference. There's nothing really earth shattering here as far as downsides.

All in all, this game can pretty much be summed up with this: If you love the scenario writer of the similar KID games (Never7, Ever17, Remember11, etc), you'll love 999. If you've never experienced his work, 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors would be a perfect introduction to his style. It's got the same familiar feel and method of storytelling. I am so glad that Aksys translated this game into English, because the people behind it deserve a broader audience. The way they tell the full story through multiple playthroughs is unlike any other video game I've played. Make no mistake. 999 is without question one of the star gems of the DS library. Absolutely recommended.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky Developer: Level 5 Publisher: Square Enix RPG - Nintendo DS 1 player / Multiplayer WLAN

Best. Selling. Game. Ever.

I did not intend on playing Dragon Quest IX, but I was convinced otherwise due to its new features. Level 5 took over the helm starting from DQVIII, and introduced some new mechanics that are present here. IX ups the ante with some additional changes, most notably the addition of visible encounters. Since my main issue with V was that it was too similar to IV, I wanted to see if the jump to IX was drastic.

Well... it's not.

The good thing about that is, it feels familiar and excels at the things that Dragon Quest is good at. I personally love the narrative. It takes a Judeo-Christian influenced slant, where you play the role of a Celestrian, which is akin to an angel. In this context, you're specifically a Guardian Angel of a town. So you start the story by doing guardian angel-y type things: You'll overhear conversations of some kind of conflict or problem, and in the typical DQ fashion, you go ahead and try to help people in their distress. It's pretty comical because you also hear banter among the Celestrians, where some of them deride the folly of humans. Anyway, things start out pretty well, as you do good, receive appreciation from humans, and then present that appreciation as an offering to the Creator. But things spiral out of control really quick, as there's an attack on the heavenly realms with hints of betrayal, greed, and vengeance.

The other good thing is that the solid combat remains intact, and is not at all overshadowed by the new mechanics. I understand that VIII introduced this concept, but in IX, your main character has the ability to EGG ON your party members. Doing so costs a turn, but then raises your party member's tension one level, up to a maximum of 4 levels.

Some caveats:

- Benefits of tension at lower levels have little effect
- Doing an action with the "tense" party member makes use of that tension level, and then resets it.
- Raising tension to the max level can fail, costing a turn.

So why would you want to do it? If you successfully ramp up your tension to the max and dish out an attack, it does about 700% of your normal damage. The math still doesn't quite add up because that's 4 turns of your main character using EGG ON, and 4 turns of your other character not doing anything (to prevent tension from resetting). The last ace is that if your other character has the PSYCHE UP skill, then that character can boost their own tension in addition to the main character using EGG ON. So in the best case scenario, you'll have max tension at the end of turn 2, 4 turns altogether, + the 5th to actually attack to do 700% damage. There's a lot of factors involved, but it's definitely another strategic option for boss fights in particular.

The other battle mechanic added is bonus damage. If your party members consecutively attack an opponent, they'll form combos and gain damage bonuses. Let's say that all four members attack an enemy before the enemy has a chance to hit back. Your 1st does 1x damage. Your 2nd does 1.2x. 3rd: 1.5x. 4th: 2x. These damage bonuses also factor into strategy, as sometimes I'll attack with my priest instead of using a needed healing spell, just so that I can continue the combo and do real damage with my warrior. Of course, if your 1st attacks, your 2nd attacks (1.2x), and then the enemy attacks you, your combo is interrupted. Your 3rd member will do normal damage again. Enemies can also combo your party members too. This system adds another layer of depth to consider when you play.

Another interesting thing about this game is how it approaches classes. Your party members can switch to any class they want, but each class has its own level. So if you switch from a level 99 Warrior to a level 1 mage, your stats will plummet. The catch is, although your character stats are entirely tied to the class you currently are, there are some bonuses that carry over. Each class has its own 5 sets of skills that you can upgrade. 4 of these skills are equipment specific, so if you invest your upgrades in sword skills, as long as you use a sword, you will retain those bonuses, making your level 1 sword-wielder far more potent than a regular level 1 character. More importantly, the 5th set of skills for each class contains specialized skills that carry over. For instance, one of the skills acquired through the Sage class allows you to class change at anytime instead of being limited to the one town in the game. Once acquired, you don't have to be a Sage to continue using that skill. Some of these specialized skills also include stat bonuses like +30 Resilience, which will carry over when switching. That's how DQIX handles your character level being equivalent to your class level. As you use different classes and gain their skillsets, your "character" ultimately becomes much better. Spells, on the other hand, are class specific, so you will never be able to cast OOMPH with your Priest.

So far so good. But there's a definite downside to these systems. The benefits of Tension doesn't work unless you have characters that can PSYCHE UP themselves. Otherwise the cost/benefit analysis isn't favorable. But the only way you can get PSYCHE UP is if you upgrade the skillset in the Martial Artist class. That means to make use of this subsystem, you are forced to grind all your characters as a Martial Artist for a time. Since I didn't, that tension system was mostly useless to me. It's not a game-breaker for sure, as you don't have to use Tension to get through the game. But it would be nice if they built it better into the game by just allowing all characters to PSYCHE UP without having to grind for it. It's not a heavy investment to get, thankfully, but you do have to go out of your way to gain access to something that should have been part of the game from the beginning.

Then there's some complaints I have about this game that bugged me about DQV too. As much as I enjoyed the scenario and story in this game, it is entirely main character focused. That means your other party members are throwaway. In fact, your other party members are just hired/created hands and have no identity of their own. They are never referenced when talking to townsfolk, or moving along the plot. They exist merely to give you a party to fight with. Then there's the ability to rotate the screen for towns and dungeons. The DS DQIV remake had view rotation too, but made use of it by having items hidden from the default view. DQIX, on the other hand, is just like the DQV remake where its only use seems to be to make up for the occasionally inadequate camera angle. Disappointing.

But what's most disappointing is how Level 5 tainted things. There's some changes that can have pretty big repercussions. In general, Level 5 made things easier. For one thing, exploration is less interesting, because dungeons are all mapped out for you upon entering. That kinda takes away from the experience. Another thing I'm not sure how I feel about is that when party members die during battle, they still receive experience points. I think I kinda like(?) having to revive party members in other RPGs before the battle's end for them to get their fair share. It's almost like a risk vs reward type of thing. Then there's the visible encounters in this game. They're really handled poorly, because it lacks most of the advantages that visible encounters are supposed to give. In DQIX, enemies will appear on the screen at random, sometimes materializing on top of you. They can spot you, and rush towards you (or away from you if you're overpowered), which is nice. But it's really stupid because they can rush you, causing a battle. But the battle can say "The enemy doesn't notice your presence." What? YOU'RE THE ONE WHO ATTACKED ME! So there's inconsistencies like that, which bug me. But aside from those continuity issues, it's not all that different from random INVISIBLE encounters.

Then there's the technical deficiencies. When you have a party of four, the game can not keep up with it. The framerate stutter can be maddening, especially in towns. What's worse is that battles are now sluggish as well. Gone is the brisk pace of your standard battle, since all of the attacks and spells have to have their own animations in glorious 3D. In a game like this one, where the game structure encourages building up your character through class skills and grinding, these added seconds to every battle become a huge deal.

Finally, I forget if these are specific to DQIX or was always a part of DQ, but two things really bothered me here.

1. The archaic UI has got to go. When you're on the overworld, for instance, and cast ZING on your dead party member. Half the time, it fails. Fair enough. But to recast it, you have to select Cast Magic, scroll down to your caster again, then scroll down to the cast-ee again in order to do it. WHY CAN'T THE STUPID GAME REMEMBER. This might seem like a minor point, but when your ZING fails 8 times in a row, it's tear-your-hair-out frustrating.

2. Something more major is the order of turns in battle. Because of the way combos work in this game, where you get bonuses for successive actions, the order in which your characters take battle actions matters a whole lot. I would have thought that it's determined by a character's Agility statistic, and for the most part it is. Maybe 60% of the time, your party has a predictable order. But the other 40% seems like it's completely random. Your "slow" guy suddenly performs their attack 2nd. Your "fast" guy goes 3rd. This all happens with no rhyme or reason. I don't understand how a turn-based game can work when things like this are completely out of your control.

Dragon Quest IX just has too many flaws. None of them are game-breaking. But when there's an irritation here, and an annoyance there, it does hamper an otherwise enjoyable experience. It's a shame because there's a lot of meat here: hundreds of sub-quests, items to alchemize, secret dungeons to explore, and quite a bit of post-game content. Flaws aside, DQIX is ultimately not a different enough game for me to continue playing the series. Even 4 entries after the last DQ I played, it's too similar that I'd only recommend that a person play one in their lifetime. Just as long as it's not the first one (ugh). I still intend on finishing up the Zenithia trilogy with DQVI, but I cannot wait to retire from this series altogether.

BioShock

BioShock Developer: 2K Boston/2K Australia (Irrational Games) Publisher: 2K Games First Person Shooter - PS3 1 player

I remember my old roommate being really excited about a game trailer he had seen for this upcoming game called BioShock. It was the first and only time he called me to watch a game trailer. The footage was all FMV, but it showed off water-themed environments, and this hulking menace with a huge drill as an arm. It certainly piqued my roommate's interest. Fast forward to three years ago, when BioShock was finally released to the world to unanimous praise. I didn't (and still don't) have a PC capable of playing it, but I knew I had to try it. Thanks to my succumbing to the current generation of consoles, now I can.

Lauded for its portrayal of an alternate reality, BioShock begins fairly normal. You start the game in the ocean, having just crash landed. There's little explanation for what has just occurred, but you know one thing: you must survive. You come upon a lighthouse. But things are not what they seem. The moment you board a bathysphere, you are brought into an underwater city you had no idea existed. It is modern, technologically-advanced, and is vastly developed. The only problem is, the environment is eerily deserted for the most part. And the life that you do find is quite unexpected...

BioShock is a pseudo-horror First Person Shooter. Just like any FPS, shooting action is a priority. You'll have your assortment of weapons - even different bullet types to fit the occasion. You'll also have an assortment of plasmids, special powers that allow you to do some cool things like freeze an enemy or use telekinesis (think Half-Life gravity gun). There's flexibility in using different plasmids with your standard weapons, as they tend to complement each other.

But BioShock also has elements typically found in the survival horror genre. Since the environments are sparse, most of the storytelling is told in audio logs spread throughout the universe. By listening to them, you can piece together the back-story of all the events. The backdrops of the stages themselves also contribute to the feeling of dread. The first stage, for instance, takes place in a medical clinic. Some of the wards are pretty gruesome, with disfigured bodies and blood spilled all over. It's similar in feel to the horrific scenes in Silent Hill. Creepy stuff.

The thing is, after that first stage, things go downhill fast. A game like this is about the atmosphere, but apart from the medical clinic and maybe one other stage in the game, most of the scenes come off as generic, underwater city or not. The bulk of the game just feels like any other FPS, but quieter. It feels like the game wants to be horror, but is hesitant to take it all the way.

The story? Dreadful. And not because it lacks scares. The plot has its own logic that's equal parts convoluted and just plain ridiculous. Not that the story has to be grand, because I'd just as well have any paper-thin excuse to go out and shoot things. But with all the praise lopped onto BioShock, you'd think it won a Pulitzer.

But the worst sin of all is that BioShock is just plain boring.

First of all, the game is guilty of lacking "design". Sure the stage design is fairly solid, but enemies are haphazardly placed - especially since they respawn randomly. My number one complaint about Western developers is how they focus their talents on the big picture - creating a world. It then becomes up to that world and the player to generate a game. But it just doesn't work for me. In that kind of "design", enemies are merely filler, set up as random obstacles between you and your goal. This contrasts what I play video games for, where every scene is a specific challenge to overcome, and enemies are integral to that experience. Needless to say, BioShock generally follows convention, and comes up short in this area aside from boss fights.

Secondly, there are only five enemies in the game. Five.

Third, you have the ability to hack into machines and locked safes. When you do so manually, it'll bring up a water puzzle, where you must flip and exchange tiles to connect the pipes so that it will flow properly. While it was an amusing diversion initially, by your 10th hack (and 20th and 50th and 100th), you're so annoyed by it that you simply just pay the hack cost so you don't have to do that stupid puzzle anymore.

And that brings us to the totality: BioShock is full of repetitive tasks. You fight the same enemies over and over. You solve the same water puzzles over and over. And if that wasn't bad enough, the game makes you do it for 10 more hours than it should have. The pacing is painfully slow, with no reward.

I'm surprised - Shocked even - that sequels were made of this tepid game. Funny enough, when I last talked to my old roommate, he thought that BioShock sucked too.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge

Shantae: Risky's Revenge Developer: Wayforward Publisher: Nintendo Action Platformer - DSi Ware 1 player

I never got a chance to play the original Shantae - partly because I never owned a Gameboy Color, and partly because I'm skeptical about western developers taking on the 2D action platformer - a genre that has largely been dominated by the Japanese. But Shantae nevertheless had a cult following and is highly regarded as being a fine contribution to the genre. Developer Wayforward was supposed to release a follow-up on the Gameboy Advance, but because of the length of development and the timing of the GBA's demise, the project was scrapped. It wasn't until the DSi debuted a downloadable network that Wayforward decided to continue and finish the project. Thankfully they did, because this is without question, the quintessential DSi Ware title.

In Risky's Revenge, you take up the role of Shantae, a half-genie. You walk around in a free environment, talking to people you meet, jumping over bottomless pits, and facing off against enemies. Your primary weapon in the game is actually your hair, which is pretty effective at whacking all enemies from start to finish. There are some magic spells that you can purchase too, that expand your arsenal and give you access to projectile attacks, but they drain your magic meter so you can't proceed by magic alone. The structure of the game very much follows the Metroid / Igarushi Castlevania / Haggleman 3 style, where you are given freedom to go anywhere in the game from the get-go, but certain barriers will prevent you from progressing unless you have the right skill.

Here lies one of the more amusing parts. As a half-genie, you can discover powers along the way that allow you to transform. For instance, the very first form is that of a monkey. Because of the monkey's ability to grip walls and climb surfaces, it allows you to scale new heights, giving you access to areas you couldn't go to before. You'll pick up other forms along the way, and upgrades to those forms. So a lot of the fun is seeing what options are open to you at any stage of the game, exploring where you can go, and switching between the different forms to progress. It's apparent that a lot of polish went into level-design, and integrating the different acquired abilities into it.

Did I mention that the game is gorgeous? The visuals are sprite-actular and colorful, just like the best of the SNES era. Shantae's animations are really fluid and there's a lot of personality even in the way she walks around. The backgrounds are also really neat, because of the way you can shift planes. Enemies that are in your plane suddenly become part of the background when you leave that plane, giving a bit of depth to your 2D gaming. The surroundings are pretty detailed besides that too.

The adventure lasted 8 hours for me, which is quite reasonable for a platforming game, especially one that costs $12 retail. It might be the most expensive download on DSi Ware, but believe me, it's the most complete package. I loved the game from start to finish as it's truly one of the finest maze games out there. If there's any complaint to be had, it's that just like Haggleman 3, I'm left wanting more.

Fat Princess

Fat Princess Developer: Titan Studios Publisher: SCEA Action / Capture the Flag - Playstation 3 1 - 32 players

Fat Princess has gotten a lot of press in the PSN shows like Pulse and Qore. I knew it was an online multiplayer game, but BECAUSE it was an online multiplayer game, didn't think I'd get much mileage out of it. I barely touch my consoles as is. But who could resist a 50% off sale?

The gist of the game is simple:

Capture the enemy princess
Protect/retrieve your princess

All in all, very much like your standard capture the flag game. But there's a twist. Fat Princess so gets its name from one fact: You can stuff the princesses with cake, making them fatter and heavier, and consequently much more difficult to move. You control one of 16 characters on your team, and you are free to change classes similar to a game like Battlefield. The nice thing is, you don't need to die in order to change classes. You just need to pick up a hat of the class you want to change into. Your base generates all of the class types, so you can immediately pick your role there. On the battlefield, you can pick up the hats of fallen allies and enemies. This allows class-changes to be seamless and instantaneous, so you can focus on the action. There's 5-6 standard classes and an additional 3 available via DLC, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some units are better at front-line combat, while others are better as support.

Fat Princess isn't just action. Unlike a FPS capture the flag, Fat Princess has some RTS elements to it, where you can farm resources to upgrade buildings, ultimately upgrading the units. You can also use resources to construct shortcuts (ladders, bridges, etc) and build barriers to block out the enemy. This aspect gives Fat Princess a little more depth than the standard CTF.

Contrary to what I first believed, there are decent single player options where you play against AI-controlled opponents. There is a brief story mode with different objectives that allow you to understand the different modes and get familiarized with the classes and maps. There's also an arena mode where you pick a class and try to survive through a series of combative challenges. So there's a bit to play around with if you're not as interested in jumping online.

But of course, if you want to play online, it's very easy to jump in. You can host a game and set things up if you want to play a game with specific settings. Or you can just Join a Game and it'll drop you into an existing game going on, where you just replace one of the AI-controlled team members. It all happens automatically, so you don't need to go to any lobbies, or pick a game from a list. And because the game substitutes you in for an AI-team member, if you need to go, you can quit without really disrupting your teammates. It'll just sub an AI teammember back in when you leave. Once an online game is finished, all the human players can vote for the next map. The way the online component was designed makes it incredibly easy to play for just a few minutes or a few hours.

My only complaint about the experience is that the documentation is pretty poor. Yes, the in-game manual gives you some direction into class abilities, upgrading buildings, the available game modes, etc. But many of the finer details are not explained, so even though I've played the game for hours, there are gameplay elements I don't quite understand - particularly with using resources towards upgrades.

Nevertheless, if it's a solid, fast-paced, user-friendly multiplayer game you're after, Fat Princess delivers. Whether you have just a few minutes to spare or want to devote an entire afternoon, you'll be thoroughly entertained.

Half Minute Hero

Half Minute Hero Developer: Marvelous Entertainment Publisher: XSEED Games RPG / Variety - Playstation Portable 1 player

First thing you need to know is that PSN hosts a decent number of PSP demos, and for the most part, made me NOT want to purchase the full game. Half Minute Hero was the exception. It was quirky, brilliant, and most of all entertaining. I was sold after, well... 30 seconds.

Half Minute Hero isn't really -a- game, and more of a collection of games tied together with an overall storyline. The games themselves are all quite different, but they all have the recurring motif of a 30 second time limit.

Hero 30

This fast-paced RPG is the principle mode. The premise is that an evil lord is casting an apocalyptic spell which requires 30 seconds to complete. So your job as the Hero of the story is to race to defeat the lord.

Just like a "real" RPG, you can purchase items, talk to townsfolk for advice, recruit party members, grind for levels, solve puzzles, and explore dungeons. Of course, these activities are much more basic and streamlined than the typical RPG (battles are largely automatic and average 1.5 seconds, purchasing EQ automatically equips, etc), but the content is there.

That begs the question... how can you do all of that in 30 seconds? For the first few scenarios, it's all a matter of speed and efficiency. You have to figure out how much to fight / level up and balance that with the ticking clock. Luckily time stops when you're in towns, so you can take a breather, talk to citizens, heal and improve your equipment. On the world map, you can make mad-dashes which eliminates random battles for the duration, but costs you HP. So there's a time management aspect to making a beeline to your intended destinations, stopping only to fight when it's necessary, and balancing that with how much HP your hero has.

Later scenarios have the same balancing act, but gives you ways to extend your 30 second time limit. There's a time goddess that will reset the clock to 30:00 at the cost of gold. The catch is that the cost of gold increases everytime you use it, so it becomes economically unfeasible past a certain point. But what it does is present you with larger and more complex game scenarios. In fact, this little game has "achievements" that trigger when you meet certain criteria (2 per scenario) and even multi-branching paths that introduce new scenarios. An amusing touch is that each scenario is considered a game in of itself and has its own set of credits once cleared.

Evil Lord 30

From what I gathered, this "real time strategy" game isn't a particular favorite among players. Although it's billed as a RTS, I actually feel it's more accurately described as a summon action game. Basically it's like an ARPG where your character, the Evil Lord, cannot attack directly, but needs to summon monsters to fight for you. You can summon 3 types of monsters, with rock-paper-scissors affinities. That's where the strategy component comes in.

You can summon as many monsters you want and as often as you want, but the faster you summon them, the weaker they are. The monster strength is determined by the size of your summon circle. Once you summon one monster, it shrinks and then grows over time. As you defeat enemies, you do gain experience points. Once you level, your max summon circle expands, allowing you to make bigger monsters. Get hit by an enemy, and your circle shrinks.

The premise of this game is that the Evil Lord is trying to save his beloved Millenia, who has been turned into a bat. But after 30 seconds, daylight breaks and they are doomed. Just like Hero 30, you can find the Time Goddess and turn back the clock. This is a necessity since later stages are all about throwing you in mazes full of enemies, so you'll need every second you can get.

Princess 30

Princess 30 is absolute silliness. The story is that the King has fallen ill, and the naive Princess ventures outside of the castle in attempts to get help. Naturally, this worries her parents, so they give her a strict 30 second curfew.

The actual gameplay is closest to a shoot-em-up. The screen will autoscroll in a predetermined direction, but you can influence its speed based on the path your princess takes. Surrounding the princess is 30 bodyguards which has a dual purpose: more bodyguards = more offensive strength, but more bodyguards = larger hitbox. Enemies will come from all four directions, so you have directional fire mapped to the buttons. But the essential goal of each stage is to collect a person / item, and then race back to the castle before the 30 second limit runs out. The time-extenders here are red-carpets, which turn the clock back a little for as long as the princess is on it.

Guard 30

As you may have guessed, Guard 30 is a protection game. This time, it's your group that is casting the spell of destruction. A Sage is being targeted by all sorts of monsters, and has asked you to provide protection until the spell of destruction has been cast. So within those 30 seconds, a flood of monsters, demons, and bosses will try to thwart the Sage's plans.

You have a few resources at your disposal that can help. You can choose some one-time use tools before a stage begins. These items range from bombs to barriers. You can also pick up weapons on the field. And foregoing that, you can ram your body into monsters to push them away. Unfortunately, monsters don't "die". They only get knocked out for a few seconds, before they start coming for the Sage again. So you'll have your hands full here.

Unlike the other games, there's no time-extender because you actually want the clock to run out. But since the Sage just stands there chanting the spell, it will often put your group in peril. So another valuable tool is being able to pick up the Sage and relocate. The cost of doing this is that the Sage cannot chant while you're in motion, and so the clock is not progressing. But considering the layout of the stages, you pretty much have to move around to avoid the masses of enemies. Luckily, there's another benefit to moving the Sage around. There are hotspots on most stages which double the speed at which the spell can be cast. So there's another positive incentive to move around.

Overall

The games in Half Minute Hero are all quite distinct. I don't think any of them are bad. Hero 30 has the most meat and is the most fun by far. But there were really good moments in each of the games, where the gameplay elements came together in a entertaining, this-is-awesome way. I know that the gamer community was not as enthusiastic about Dark Lord 30, Princess 30 and Guard 30 and to be fair, they are uneven experiences. There generally isn't a progression of difficulty or complexity, so the challenge and design feels unbalanced. They're also really quick to blast through, compared to Hero 30. But as a whole package, it offers variety, a lot of content, brilliant fun and never takes itself too seriously. It resembles nothing else on the market. This is my favorite PSP game thus far.

Killzone Liberation

Killzone Liberation Developer: Guerilla Publisher: SCEA Action - Playstation Portable 1 player / 2-6 player Ad-Hoc & Infrastructure

Killzone Liberation was one of the first titles recommended to me when I purchased my PSP. I didn't know much about the KZ series, other than the fact that it was an exclusive that Sony fans praised. Unlike the first-person perspective of the PS3 series, Killzone Liberation took a different path by being presented top-down. I'm always down for a hearty action game, and because of the view, I was looking forward to something that distinguishes itself from the pack.

Indeed, KZL sets itself apart for a few reasons.
- The top-down perspective did make it play very differently than other shooters. For one thing, there's no jumping. You can still crouch behind objects to gain a defensive advantage, but because there isn't much of a vertical axis to the camera, height isn't emphasized much.
- The game is hard. The enemies are pretty accurate with their bullets, and aren't afraid to spray you. The few bosses that are here are also throw-your-PSP-out-the-window hard, which while frustrating, is quite respectable.
- Although there are some segments with allied AI, which I hate, you have some control by being able to designate your partner to specific locations on the screen or to follow you. The great thing is your allied AI partner listens to you, so if you tell them to protect themselves behind a barricade, they will remain there, even if you wander away from their area. You can also command your partner to do certain things, such as setting up bombs and clearing the way. It's nice to be able to exert some control over the computer controlled characters.
- The game shipped incomplete, so you can only receive the final 20% of the game and the ability to play online through DLC. Luckily, the DLC is free, but when I "finished" the game, I thought it was weird that it ended on a cliffhanger. It was then that I learned that the DLC wasn't a bonus, but a fix for what really ought to have been there in the first place.

Ultimately it comes down to whether the game is fun, and I think this is where Killzone Liberation slips. I never got the sense that it was anything more than clinical and generic. There isn't much variety in the types of foes you face. They only come in a handful of flavors. For the most part, I felt that the waves of enemies were only there to keep you occupied, rather than an integral part of the game design. A common scenario is that you'll face 3 enemies. So you kill them, and out comes another wave of the same enemies. It gets repetitive. That's what made the challenge harder to deal with too. It seemed like it was hard for the sake of being hard, and left me with no satisfaction when I overcame those challenges. It was a soul-less experience.

Probably the biggest complaint of mine is the lock-on targeting system. Theoretically you kinda point your character towards an enemy and then your gun is locked onto that individual. Since you don't have the precision of a 1st person shooter, the lock-on certainly helps a game like this. And this totally works when there's one enemy on the screen. Where things go bad is when there are several enemies in the same direction. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get your gun to lock onto specific enemies in these situations. Worse yet, even if you're targeting one enemy, once you knock them to the ground, your auto-aim will then lock on to another enemy. It is extremely annoying when you want to finish off an opponent, but the game sometimes decides to just shift targets on you. And this is where most of the frustration came in. Your auto-aim goes wherever it wants to. Yes, the game is hard, but a large part of that hard is because you are at the mercy of the finicky targeting system. If the mediocrity in design wasn't enough to ruin the game, the lock-on targeting system definitely did.

On paper, Killzone Liberation is a great game. It's intense, fast-paced, challenging, and relentless - all very good things for an action game. It's got a bunch of challenge stages that make it feel very different from the regular campaign mode too - and more content is always a good thing. But no matter what the game offered, I never quite enjoyed playing it. If the rest of the Killzone series is like this, Sony fans can just keep it.

PixelJunk Shooter

PixelJunk Shooter Developer: Q Games Publisher: SCEA Action - Playstation 3 1-2 players

When I got a PS3, several people recommended that I get all the PixelJunk titles. I'm not entirely sure what the PJ branding indicates, but they seem to be simple 2D games with High Definition visuals. Seems like a fine combination to me. PixelJunk Shooter is the most recent PJ game from Q Games and well... it's a shooter. Sorta.

Although it has bullet dodging and shmup'ing elements, Shooter is more like one of those classic rescue games. Each stage has a certain number of people that you have to fly around and save before the exit is opened. Then you move onto the next stage and you do the same. Although this might seem basic, there's a lot of modern tweaks to make it interesting. The first thing you notice about Shooter is the fluid physics. There are three primary elements you'll encounter: water, lava and oil. All of them have their own attributes to them, but their motion is very realistic in their fluidity. The liquids flow and drip rather than a constant pour, making for some interesting interaction. These fluids are very critical to the game. Lava is a destructive element, and touching it not only harms you, but it can kill people you're trying to save if you don't get to them in time. But lava can be neutralized with water, thus forming molten rock, that you can also use to your advantage or disadvantage.

Therein lies the simplicity, and yet the brilliance of Shooter. You have your classic shooter elements with enemies that try to shoot you down and bosses at the end of each area, but it is ultimately a puzzle game where you have to figure out how to save everyone without losing any of them. Enemy locations, gates you can interact with, the natural flow of lava and water, and various suits your ship can "wear" for special abilities - all of these things are meticulously designed as puzzle tools. And like most modern games, saving people is just a form of collectathon. You don't have to save everyone to move onto the next stage (they could also die, which also accomplishes that goal), but it is far more rewarding to. There are also tons of crystals that you can collect too - many of which are hidden or somewhat obscured until you trigger some events.

I personally loved PixelJunk Shooter more than any other PS3 game I've played. Maybe my love of 2D is hard to quench, but Shooter has that kind of clever gameplay that feels familiar, yet completely fresh. Perhaps more than anything else, that's the kind of game that resonates best with me. Some may complain that the game only has 3 areas (15 stages), but if you actually 100% everything, it'll take some time to get through all of that. Plus, PixelJunk Shooter 2 is already in the works, promising new ideas and a lengthier run-time, so I couldn't be happier.

Syphon Filter Dark Mirror

Syphon Filter Dark Mirror Developer: Sony Bend Publisher: SCEA Action - Playstation Portable 1 player / 2-8 player Ad-Hoc & Infrastructure

I'll be honest. I've never played Syphon Filter, but I always got the impression that it was a sub-par knockoff of the stealth-action genre that Metal Gear Solid created. But the PSP versions were said to be different. They were said to be good. IGN gave Dark Mirror the 2006 PSP Game of the Year award - a dubious source, I know, but it's worth noting. And since I was craving a shooter at the time, it was reason enough to check it out.

From what I can tell, Syphon Filter Dark Mirror is a 3rd person shooter, with some stealth elements at times. MGS has a higher emphasis on stealth, because it's designed to be able to go through each stage undetected, and that aspect of gameplay is fleshed out better. Instead, SFDM might be more like Goldeneye 007 in that certain parts, you are automatically detected and other parts, you have a choice to use stealth techniques or go with guns blazing. Unlike First-Person Shooters though, there's some elements of climbing, shimmying, grappling, etc that you can do which helps for area exploration.

As an action game, Dark Mirror is competent, and generally varied enough to be entertaining. There's a host of different weapons you can collect and use. There is a decent amount of interactivity with the environments that you can use to your advantage, like the typical oil canisters that explode if you shoot them or activating switches that electricute enemies. Scoped weapons allow you to zoom in and make one-hit-kill headshots, or cripple enemies by shooting their legs. All the necessary ingredients are there, but it feels like it lacks something to make it truly special.

Perhaps the defining feature of the game is its use of goggles. You can equip one of 3 different types of goggles and knowing when and where to use them will be monumental in how you approach a stage. The "EDSU Goggles" generally help you figure out what items you can interact with, and can reveal things that are hidden. The "IR Goggles" help you to sense heat, and thus makes enemies visible even behind solid objects. This is very handy for scouting out the next room before you even open the door. Finally there's Night Vision, which helps to see in dark areas. There's also a flashlight, which doesn't illuminate as well as the NV goggles, and alerts enemies that you're there, so I'm not really sure why it's in the game. At first I found the goggles cumbersome, but once I figured out the nuances, strengths and limitations of each pair, I realize they are pretty integral to the gameplay, particularly if you want to use stealth techniques.

One of the things I had to get used to was its mix of stealth and action. On one hand, I feel Dark Mirror doesn't know what it wants to be. It's ok to give the player a choice on how to approach each situation. But there are segments where the game forces an action sequence, so it is inconsistent. On the other hand, what makes everything work together are the "achievements". I really feel like this is the one area where the game shines brightest. For each stage in the game, there are the same six goals. They require you to do things like get 20 stealth kills, or kill 30 people with headshots, or kill 15 people with a knife. If you're obsessive about this stuff like me, it'll force you to play stages over and over but the upside is that you get to fully understand the design of each stage. It is only then that you come to really appreciate each situation. Particularly for the stealth sections, it's almost like a puzzle to figure out how to kill X number of people without being detected. Fulfilling these goals will net you some unlockable weapons and bonus stages, but for me, fulfilling these goals made the game that much deeper in of itself.

The other major triumph of Dark Mirror is its control scheme. It has historical significance on the PSP because it was a huge step forward for having intuitive controls on the awkward PSP. With the standard configuration, the nub controls movement, the face buttons control your aim, and holding the D-pad brings up a subscreen where you can easily pick an item or weapon with the face buttons. It is a control scheme that would be adopted and become the standard for all such games on the system, including the Metal Gear Solid series. And it works. It feels just as intuitive as a dual analog setup, and the D-pad inventory management allows you quick and easy access to what you need, when you need it.

If you play the game strictly for its story mode, Syphon Filter Dark Mirror is a decent diversion. It has its cool moments, but mostly feels like you're going through the motions. But if you take the time to pursue all of the available goals, you will develop a greater appreciation for what the game has to offer. There's a ton of unlockable content to be had, including 5 bonus stages, early development videos, etc. While I'm convinced that SFDM falls short of brilliance, no one could accuse Sony Bend of skimping out on the details.

Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations

Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Adventure - Nintendo DS 1 player

I admit it. I'm a sucker for this game series. Ever since I first heard about it (a courtroom drama video game? really?!), I've been intrigued. Oh sure, the games have had their ups and downs. But through it all, it generally maintained a certain charm. Miles Edgeworth marks a departure from the previous entries, and even has a different title than the other games (Gyakuten Kenji, instead of Gyakuten Saiban). But if this Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations is anything to go by, the original Ace Attorney series is officially irrelevant.

Miles Edgeworth somehow kept everything I ever loved about the series, but ditched everything I hated.

Gone are...
- Mysticism (psychic powers, channeling spirits and the like, magatama)
- Gimmicky touch screen garbage (having to simulate forensic work is NOT gameplay)
- Perceive system in Ace Attorney 4 which has no logic whatsover

Still contained within are...
- Distinct (and sometimes outrageous) character personalities
- Using logic to connect evidence to refute / confirm testimonies
- Plot continuity not only between cases, but entire games

Unlike the regular Ace Attorney games, Miles Edgeworth does not take place in a courtroom at all. Instead, the scenarios in this game focus on detective-work and apprehending criminals, but the techniques you use are very similar to what Phoenix Wright uses in court. You still talk to people, convince them into telling you their alibis, and point out problems in their arguments with evidence. So it's still very thought-based. The investigative parts resemble those in Phoenix Wright, but they're much more streamlined. First of all, movement is now done in third-person. You can see your character visually on-screen and move him around. It doesn't make for a huge change, but some might appreciate the increase in interactivity. To alleviate some of the irritations of previous games, Capcom got rid of the clunky navigation between areas by keeping investigations focused. If you're in a room, the game generally won't let you leave until you've gathered everything you need. Phoenix Wright would allow you to wander through 8 different locations, until you trigger an event that lets you get back to court. In Miles Edgeworth, though, the investigations are contained.

If it stopped here, it would already have the best gameplay in the series, but Ace Attorney Investigations adds a couple of new systems that reinforce the concept of making logical connections. The first is aptly named, "Logic". "Evidence" is the physical clues gathered and documented that you use to point out flaws in testimonies, etc. But new to this game are ideas and thoughts. As you find interesting tidbits or things that don't quite make sense, you keep track of your thoughts. At any time, you can connect two thoughts if there's a link, and it can reveal a new truth. It is may be an extension of what's already in place, but it makes for a great addition. Similarly, the second new addition isn't a completely new game system, but rather a twist on what you already do in the game. In a select few situations, you're able to evaluate simulations of past events and point out inconsistencies. The overall end result is a very focused experience of piecing together logic.

The only slight letdown to it all is that it seemed easier to me than the previous games. Part of it is because the main character is so much more competent than either Phoenix or Apollo, and as such, points out hints, whenever you need to present something. But even without those hints, I generally thought that connections between evidence and testimonies were much more obvious than the older games. I suppose it could just mean I've played too many of these games, so that the formula has become predictable.

Still, I hope Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations is the future of the brand. It takes all the stuff I liked from the Ace Attorney games, expands on it, and dumps the junk I wasn't crazy about. The eclectic character personalities are still there, with a mix of old faces and several new ones. And the gameplay is by far the most sophisticated of the series. Even though the overall story wasn't as satisfying as some of the previous entries, it was nevertheless a complete joy to play. I want more.