27 Aug 2020

LTTP: SUPERHOT

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I knew I wanted to play the full SUPERHOT game after trying SUPERHOT TEAM’s prototype. It looked striking and played unlike anything I played before. It felt like an interactive puzzle shooter where lightning fast reflexes were cast aside in favor of methodical decision making. However, I don’t know why it took me so long to sit down and actually finish the game.

I was given a couple of free copies of the game (Prime Gaming and Epic Games Store) and even started the game a couple of times before I finally pushed through. My reluctance to commit to the game stemmed from the way it was presented. The terminal chats and Matrix-inspired story took a while to grab me and even when it did, it was a tenuous connection at best. I don’t know how to improve on the packaging, but it was far too easy for me to just walk away after each set of levels. 

It was quickly evident that SUPERHOT was a bit of a one trick pony. The scenarios and situations changed, but the mechanics didn’t evolve beyond the initial set of rules:

  1. Time moved when I moved.
  2. I can shoot and throw weapons.

New weapons were introduced, but it was fundamentally the same game that I was presented in the prototype. There weren’t any bad levels, but there were plenty of filler levels that didn’t change it up enough. Some of the more memorable levels were towards the final quarter of the game where they ratcheted up the challenge. 

I think SUPERHOT was at its best when I’m trying to figure out how to navigate a barrage of bullets and swarms of faceless baddies as they attack me from all angles. Dying and retrying until it finally all clicked was a rewarding loop. The kernel of the game was muddied by the set dressing and framing of its story, but it wasn’t terrible; it just got in the way. The idea behind SUPERHOT was truly unique and will continue to stick with me for years to come. However, I didn’t need to play the game to come to that conclusion; that prototype conveyed that same message without the fluff. 

Verdict:
It was okay

Ratings Guide

20 Jul 2020

Gears Tactics Review

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When Microsoft announced a tactical Gears of War game in the vein of XCOM, I believe many were like me in thinking: this is a match made in heaven. Gears of War has the enemy variety, the weapon variety, and inherent cover focused gameplay to make the transition from third person shooter to a tactical strategy game. I had blind faith that The Coalition and Splash Damage were going to execute on the tactical layer. Instead, my focus on how the strategic layer was going to function in the context of Gears of War.

I knew Gears Tactics was going to take place shortly after the COG disseminated their own cities in a failed effort to snuff out the Locusts. The idea of building up a small army to fight back against the Locusts made was a suitable premise that wouldn’t be too dissimilar to the aliens invading Earth in XCOM. I thought there would even be a research and development element considering the fact that Gears 5 had upgrades to tech. The Baird of this prequel era could have been the head of R&D, for example. 

To my surprise, a meaningful strategic layer was absent. I initially thought Gears Tactics would have been fine without one because other games like Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle fared very well with just a simple character management layer. 

Gears Tactics focused on their cast of named characters for story missions while customizable nobodies filled out the roster for side missions. I originally set out to play the game at the intermediate difficulty with Ironman mode on, but that turned out to be a mistake. If a named character like Gabriel Diaz or Sid Redburn died in battle, the game was over — save file deleted. Turns out character story driven games are a lot tougher to play through when you have VIPs to progress with.

I initially found the level of challenge fair on the intermediate difficulty. The different mixes of classes, objectives, and maps kept me on my toes for about a third of the game. It didn’t take long before I started to see familiar scenarios crop up. XCOM: Enemy Unknown was no stranger to these mission reruns, but they had a bigger pool of scenarios and locales to draw from.

Weapons, equipment, and armor were necessary to keep pace with the growing challenge that was the Locust horde. However, focusing on maximizing grenades proved to be far too effective for me to give it up. Chaining executions for increased action points via classic chainsaws, curb stomping or bayonet charges gave Gears Tactics a puzzle element that was very reminiscent of Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. If played correctly, an entire squad of Locusts could be cleared before they took a shot. It may sound broken, but it’s also incredibly satisfying.

Those moments of self-gratification were dampened by the fact that many of the Locusts enemy units charged blindly towards the Gears. All I had to do was setup in a choke position and watch them all succumb to overwatch gun fire. This strategy worked far too often in regular mission encounters. Boss battles were a different beast altogether and were the game’s highlight moments. They took the Brumak and Corpser and made them even more satisfying to fight than in Gears of War proper. Mixing fodder units with the giant boss’ far reaching attacks and shifting strategies kept these encounters engaging throughout. After facing off with the Brumak in Act 1, I played through the rest of game hoping for more that. Unfortunately, there were only two other bosses that capped off each of the remaining acts.

I initially theorized Gears Tactics was so focused on its core action because they wanted to focus the Gears of War fan’s attention to it. I believed they didn’t want to muddy the experience with geeky R&D distractions and the like, but by the end of it all, I simply believe the developers needed more resources to make this brilliant union truly sing. There relatively minor issues with unit pathfinding causing said units to get stuck on things, but the most glaring issue is the lack of variety to sustain such a long game. It felt like they had an act’s worth of gameplay and story ideas and stretched out into three overly long acts. 

Verdict:
It was okay

Ratings Guide

30 Apr 2020

LTTP: Gears 5 [PC]

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The Gears of War franchise is now 13 years old. It’s now an awkward teenager trying to grow and establish itself. It’s even going out of its way to shed off its full name and wishes to be referred to as Gears now.  

It’s been a while since the Gears franchise found itself under The Coalition’s stewardship. Gears of War 4 was a safe but worthy modernization of the franchise. After coming to terms with what the franchise had to offer, The Coalition tried a slew of new ideas with Gears 5. Some it was fine but I found a lot of it fell flat. 

The most prominent additions were the giant open chapters where Kait and Del traversed from point to point on the Skiff — a wind surfing sled on skis. It offered Gears 5 a bit more breathing room between the action. We’re exploring abandoned mines, cities, and the like which yielded opportunities for collectibles and world building. I like the tidbits that I picked up about Sera and its history. I also certainly enjoyed seeing the giant vistas. However, I was less enthralled about trekking across these desolate lands for a second time. 

Gears 5 was a looker and was performant on my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 powered PC. I only experienced issues with sporadic juddering when I was a passenger on the Skiff. I lowered settings and resolution in hopes to rid of it all, but no luck. An equally irksome issue was the sound mixing that resulted with speech audio coming in way too low. I tried to adjust the audio settings but I kept missing out on key information. As result, Gears 5 was one of the few games in recent memory that I had to use subtitles for.  

I liked Kait in Gears of War 4 and was happy to see her take the lead in Gears 5. She was driven to accomplish her goals but not stupid enough like JD to endanger others. I hope they continue this trend of changing leads and give opportunities to explore other characters. We witnessed Kait’s diplomatic skills and strength in the face of inexplicable (and undeserved) tragedy. Regardless of how events unfolded, I was content with Kait at the helm of it all. 

This franchise offers some of the more satisfying third person shooting action in the industry but when I’ve played 4 games worth of it already without drastic inclusions: it’s going to get stale. There were, of course, new weapons, enemies, and refinements to systems introduced in Gears of War 4 like the stealth mechanic. They even gave Jack new upgradable abilities to influence the battlefield. Unfortunately, it’s a bit cumbersome to coordinate the use of Jack in co-op play.  

It was evident that they were trying to expand horizons but I felt the ideas were hobbled by old habits. It’s about time the Gears were allowed to mantle over cover without having to take cover first. I realize mantle vaulting is a thing but that requires running at cover. And is it not time that the Gears stop roadie running across open spaces? I bought the conceit when we’re in the thick of it with bullets flying and we’re moving cover to cover, but when all the fighting is done? It’s just highlighting an unnecessary clinging to traditions.  

While I’m at it: How is shoulder switching not possible in this game? 

Gears 5 was in its element when bullets were flying, enemies were piling in, and the Hammer of Dawn was online. Things were popping off and I loved it. Unfortunately, we found those moments too fleeting. Glitches or inexplicable insta-deaths were too prevalent. I don’t ever recall succumbing to so many oneshot kills before. I also cannot recall ever dreading the damage sponge nature of some of the enemies. We were playing on “Experienced” difficulty and I found certain enemy combinations like the Bastion protecting Swarms and the Flock the antithesis of fun.  

They were dumb damage sponges when their A.I. routines were working but at least they were moving. My brother and I experienced at least a dozen instances of enemy A.I. breaking down and just standing or hovering around areas oblivious to our presence. We were even able to repeat a specific A.I. bug during an encounter towards the back third of the game.  

I obviously want Gears of War to grow into a modern third person shooter while retaining all the trademarks that give it character. I know there are fans who live and breathe the way it plays, but they will lose fans like myself if they continue to down this path. The next Gears game needs to finally grow up and “get with the times”. It can learn and draw inspiration from its past but it doesn’t need to feel beholden to keeping things the way they are because it’s always been that way. 

Verdict: 
It was okay 

Ratings Guide

16 Jan 2020

LTTP: Resident Evil 7: biohazard

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It took a while but I finally played Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. I haven’t touched a Resident Evil game since Resident Evil 5 for the PlayStation 3. The demo of Resident Evil 6 was ridiculous but reviews scared me off. I didn’t consider either of them horror games – I didn’t even consider Resident Evil 4 a horror game. The last Resident Evil game to unsettle me was the Resident Evil Remake on the GameCube.  

It’s been well over 10 years since I considered a Resident Evil game unnerving and I’m glad they’re back at it with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. 

A brand new engine, aptly dubbed RE Engine, adorned RE7. It’s a solid engine and ran well enough on my GTX 1070 powered PC but it certainly showed its age when compared to the likes of Resident Evil 2 or Devil May Cry V. Textures were especially grimy looking in daylight. The night is full of terror — or at least — dimly lit and grungy confined spaces are. RE7 was in its element in the opening hours where everything is still a mystery and the imagination is running wild.  

The new first person perspective placed me right in the front row of the horrors. Gruesome faces and brutal attacks that would normally kill any human were directed right at me. I may have been playing as Ethan but I felt those knife and chainsaw attacks. The combination of disturbing faces and spine tingling sounds worked together to unsettle me.  

Resident Evil games were at their most unnerving when they were set in disheveled but familiar places. The creepy houses wrought with cobwebs, dust, and remains that lead imaginations down cynical paths built tension. RE7 had a handful of those houses. I found it a little silly that the Baker family had so many houses on their property. It lead to a couple of excellent areas in which to scare me but its believability unraveled with each passing hour. 

RE7 may have started out as a grounded horror game but it quickly revealed itself to be a tried & true Resident Evil game and all that entailed. Herbs? Knife? Inventory juggling, weird specialty keys, and light puzzle solving all surfaced themselves as the game and story unfolded. Umbrella Corporation, talks of cover ups, and biological weapons testing came back in force by the end of it all. It was somewhat predictable and trite, but it was classic RE fun. 

Fun scares and puzzles but the combat was by far the game’s weakest element. One could argue they’re continuing the franchise’s classic roots but that’s not a valid excuse for lame boss or easily cheesed enemy encounters. It felt like I was supposed to employ lame tactics in order to overcome the adversities. I didn’t enjoy the fact that I was just going through the motion of avoiding enemies or watching some dumb boss attack a pillar in a pathetic attempt to get to me.  

The controls took a bit of getting used to. Years of muscle memory with first person shooters built-up an expectation with regards to speed. There was a deliberate sluggishness to the Resident Evil 7. I was able to pull off everything I wanted but I was forced to play at their pace. Reloading of weapons took longer than I was used to. I also had the turning speed of a tank which could have been remedied by utilizing the classic Resident Evil quick turn, but it rarely came to mind in the thick of it. It reminded me of Red Dead Redemption 2’s first person mode. It felt like they literally took classic Resident Evil and plopped in a first person view. It works but it takes a bit of getting used to. 

After finishing Resident Evil 7: biohazard, I came away rejuvenated with the Resident Evil franchise. It’s fun dumb horror and I’m glad Capcom found their groove with this franchise again. I look forward to playing Resident Evil 2 Remake and the upcoming Resident Evil 3 Remake, but I hope to see Capcom return to a first person Resident Evil game again. They’ve proven it works and they’ve also proven they’re good at it. 

Verdict: 
I liked it

Ratings Guide

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