Bastion: Review

“Proper story's meant to start at the beginning, aint so simple with this one...”

I don't think I've ever wanted to review a game quite as much as I've wanted to review Bastion. My past reviews have mainly been focused on big name sequals from big name companies but theres a lot that bigger companies could learn from Bastion. Bastion was released as the first part of Microsoft’s 'Summer of Arcade' for Xbox Live Arcade, and what a way to kick it off. Developed by Super Giant games, Bastion is a beautiful and inspirational game that will capture your heart. It's simply a must-have for Xbox Live owners.


Bastion starts with the voice of a narrator, whose gravelly tones sets the scene. His first words tell you about your character, known simply as the Kid, who is lost and stranded in the sky after an event known as the Calamity. From there the Kid makes his way to the Bastion, the last safe haven, and is put upon a quest to save what he can of the world of Caelondia. To tell you more would spoil the story, which is all superbly voiced by the narrator, but what can be said is it's definitely an interesting one with a surprisingly deep set of characters and history. It's all told as and while you play and it's incredibly easy to just lose yourself into the game as each step truly does advance the plot. You'll be fighting from level to level, or trying to last each round in the survivals, and all the while you'll be learning about the rich world that surrounds you.

The afforementioned narrator, later known as Rucks, is one of the most unique things about Bastion. What's remarkable is while he's not explaining the storyline, he comments on almost anything, from your weapon load outs, to your falling from the level, and it ties everything together absolutely flawlessly. None of it feels forced or out of place and, most importantly, none of it interupts your experiance.

It's not just the voice acting which makes Bastion stand out though, every other sound, from the ground appearing, to the background music, to the sound of each weapon is wonderful and sounds perfect to the game. Every new environment you enter, and every turn in the plot, has a beautifully crafted soundtrack which fits so well with the style of Bastion.

Every part of Bastion is rich and detailed

On par with the sound is Bastion's visuals. The game is simply stunning to look at. The aesthetics of Bastion are one of the most stylish and beautiful to grace our consoles this year. As you move forward the ground springs up in front of you, walls and scenery fall down, and everything is completed for you to move on. It's never gets old and is a constant delight. Along with their own sound tracks each environment looks different, and has a different background or type of scenery and you don't ever get the feeling that you're just running over old ground. When it comes to Audio and Visual Bastion has really set itself out from the crowd and is a delight to the senses.

Unlike the other aspects of the game, Super Giant Games haven't tried to do anything innovative with Bastions gameplay, keeping it to a simple Action RPG. What they've done instead is refine it, so theres nothing unnecessarially clogging up the screen or wasting your time. You choose your weapons, assigned to two buttons, and you have a 'secret skill' assigned to the right trigger. You can also block on-coming attacks with a press of the left trigger too. The controls are easy to master and will serve you well throughought the game. Everything is well implimented, thoguh the actual gameplay can occasionally feel a little stale but it's a feeling quickly forgotten. There's enough enemies and situations to mix up the game as you journey through Caelondia.

There are a wide variety of enemies to battle when you're not taking in the scenery

What's interesting in Bastion is the level of customisation it gives you from such a simple set of facts. Firstly the game puts forward quite a few unique weapons to select, from a hammer to a bow, to a flamethrower. All these weapons can be upgraded till you're a force to be reckoned with. It's likely that during the game you'll find a loadout suited to your style and stick with it, but its nice to know the variety is there to break up the monanty should you need it.

Another way of customising the game is your access to special 'Tonics' and 'Idols'. Each have a passive effect to make the game that little bit easier or a lot harder, depending on how you want your experience to be. This does a good job of mixing up the game when you feel it getting that little bit too easy, or you want your character to have an extra boost for an oncoming difficult part.It's aspects like this that mean the simple gameplay can be tailored to your own style as just with a different set of weapons, tonics, and idols you've got a completely different fight on your hands.

All in all Bastion is a game that knows exactly what it set out to do and excels in every aspect of it. It's got a beautifully tied together story, a couple of interesting and deep characters, and some fun, customisable gameplay to go along with it. It's not just style over substance, there's a level of quality in Bastion that you're unlikely to find in any other game this year. You wont want to leave Bastion once you've picked it up, and you certainly wont forget Bastion once you've put it down.

L.A. Noire: Review

N.B.: This review was written using a 360 version of the game, before DLC was released, and therefore cannot necessarily be applied to all other versions. As always reviews are subjective and the thoughts and feelings of the reviewer.

Rockstar is a company synonymous with open world sandbox games; with recent big hitters like GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption. With L.A. Noire on the other hand it seems that Rockstar have taken to following a slightly different path. Does this pay off? Or should Rockstar be sticking to what they know best?

L.A. Noire opens with a hard boiled narration that you'd expect to find with a Noire style film. As the camera pans, the anonymous narrator talks about following orders, chains of command, and issues of trust. This immediately sets the scene and you go into the game wondering wether or not you're going to be back-stabbed or sold out at any moment. The camera then finds it way to Cole Phelps and his partner just out on patrol, before getting a radio call to something a little bit more interesting. Then that's it. That's the openning cutscene and that's how the game begins. You're now Cole Phelps and driving the car. Its a perfect opening to a mystery. Giving absolutely nothing more away then it needs to and the game follows the same path.

The rest of the games missions are laid out in the form of 'Cases'. All completely replayable at any time. You receive a short opening cutscene of some wrong doing, a car accident, someone tampering with a boiler, and then you're sent out to investigate. During each case you and your partner, who changes with each promotion you make, will drive from location to location. You'll question your suspects, and you'll chase down those that run. In the end its down to you to have all the necessary information and evidence to make a convincing and sealed case. A lot of the cases will seem completely separate to one and another and this may give the impression that the game is disjointed but theres actually an underlying mood that is constantly being built up through each case and character interaction. Every case gives you a better understanding of how the police work and whether they're quite all they seem to be. There's also cutscenes between the cases that show flash backs to Cole Phelps' life in 'Nam and its clear that its constantly going somewhere while never giving too much away. Cole is said to be a decorated war vetern with a silver star and the cutscenes will slowly feed you more information on that, along with how it ties into some of the more present day cases. This gives you insite into both the character and the story and its interesting to wonder where the main plot is going.

You'll be dipping into intriguing mysteries straight from the off.

That said, the game can prove to be a little too slow at times. While each case in itself can be quite addicting and hard to put down, the main arching plot is sometimes giving so little away that you wont be hooked enough. Its a hard balance to get right, and its one that will certainly hook some while completely losing others. However, the deeper the story goes the more you'll be engaged and wanting to see where it leads. You'll be asking a lot of questions, and suspecting a lot of different things, and for some the sheer interest of this will be enough to keep you going.

What helps to keep the story engaging and interesting is the voice acting; or should we say the 'acting'. L.A. Noire boasts a new technology in the gaming industry; that of MotionScan. Here the actors of the piece don't simply voice their characters but are filmed by 32 cameras which capture every facial expression. Every actor is expertly cast and fits really well into their role. It's clear the technology is new, there are times where faces blur, or dip straight into Uncanny Valley, but most of the time it stands up stunningly. There are real moments where you sit back and just appreciate the acting, the dynamic facial expressions, and just how accurate it is. It helps to give all the characters a realistic feel and at times you'll believe its a film. Where the acting doesn't necessarily stand up is in the interrogation. Where it can be quite easy to tell if someone's lying simply by how overly-charactered and dramatic their expressions are. In truth it might be hard to do a bit more subtly, especially from an actors point of view, but it can still sometimes break the immersion and bring back the realisation that you're still just within a game.

Aaron Staton of Mad Men fame really does a stand-up job as Cole Phelps.

L.A. Noire's gameplay is nothing like it's GTA predecessor, a fact that will throw a lot of Rockstar fans at the first hurdle. You still drive cars around a sand box city but the game is designed in a much more linear fashion. The game play itself has a lot more in common with adventure games, such as older Lucas Arts titles or current Tell Tale Game titles, but with the occasional car chase or gunfire scene. While anyone who is a fan of the mayhem and freedom of GTA IV is going to be at a loss with L.A. Noire, anyone who relishes a different kind of challenge, or just a nostalgic adventure game, will pick up and enjoy the game straight away. The questioning of the suspects and the collecting of evidence can really be a rewarding experience and those puzzles solvers out there will enjoy piecing everything together.

Te rest gameplay, however, doesn't offer enough variety throughout the course of the game. Every single case seems to play out in a similar fashion, with a crime scene, a few suspects, a gunfight or car chase, with an integration and finally an arrest. The only case that really stands out as being dramatically different is the final one, which is such a break from the norm that it just doesn't fit with the game at all. L.A. Noire can feel like you're taking the cases in your own direction, picking the suspects you think are lying, and hitting them with the evidence you think is hardest, but, as with many adventure games, there is always only one correct way of doing things, one correct answer. Sometimes something that seems to fit, or makes logical sense to the player, isn't what the story writers were looking for. While the game makes a point of still going, even with some suspects not giving you all the info you need, the conclusions you draw are always the same. You can never fail a case, and you can never go so wildly off the beaten track that your conclusions are wrong. Its this lack of freedom which is really apparent in the gameplay and the story. It would be far more interesting if there were more alternative routes and playstyles.

Taking a break from an important case to shoot a robber or two is all in a days work it seems...

Rockstar usually break up the monotony with a fine selection of interesting side missions. There's usually a vast selection of things to do around the city, people to talk to, things to explore, but L.A. Noire simply doesn't put this forward. While you're driving on your cases there are radio calls signalling side missions, many of which take more time to actually get to then they do to complete considering the size of the city. These are almost always a shoot-out or a chase, and simply lack variety in themselves. Theres also no sense of emergency, why should your character break away from the clincher of a case to chase down a thief on the otherside of Las Angeles?

Couple this repetitive gameplay with the slowpaced story and its understandable how many gamers just wont have the patience for L.A. Noire, especially if they're entering the game expecting more of GTA or Red Dead Redemption. That being said, and issues aside, L.A. Noire is better than the sum of its parts. It's still an incredibly immersive game which can prove to be really addicting and have you hanging on. When you finally feel like you're getting somewhere with the main story, and everything is tying itself together, you'll be dying to finish it, and the acting and characters really do prove to be impressive throughout the whole journey.

Authors Comment: L.A. Noire is more like Heavy Rain then it is GTA, and the amount of effort Rockstar have gone into to create the city of Los Angeles is, in my opinion, simply lost by the fact you drive from one place to another with your eyes on your minimap. Theres no sense of exploration, and the repetitive nature sometimes made me want to quit playing. What I hated most was driving the great deal of distances, when chatter with your partner died down it was simply just an effort that I ended up skipping almost every time. All that aside I did really love L.A. Noire. When I first started playing I couldn't put it down, I had to actually force myself to get food or else I'd have just gone without all night. While it wouldn't be my title of 2011, as it simply had a few too many flaws, I'm still glad to have it in my collection and anticipate the DLC.

Portal 2: Review

N.B.: This review was written using a 360 version of the game, before DLC was released, and therefore cannot necessarily be applied to all other versions. As always reviews are subjective and the thoughts and feelings of the reviewer.

Portal 2 is an odd game to review, mainly because of how its predecessor left us. In 2007, when the original Portal was released, it was heralded by many to be a near perfect game. Without sounding too much like a review within a review, the original Portal encapsulated a clever game-play mechanic, an intriguing story, and a wonderful atmosphere in a compact game. It was enjoyable on the first and second play-through and it's not hard to see why Valve were convinced to release a fully fledged sequel. But can Portal 2 truly live up to Portals greatness?

Portal 2 throws you back into the 'Long Fall Boots' of Chell, the voiceless protagonist from the first game. After the events of the first game, where she survived merciless testing and escaped aperture science testing facility, she's been dragged back into stasis and kept for a seemingly unknown amount of time. Chell is abruptly awoken from this stasis by Wheatley. An amazingly bizarre robot voiced perfectly by Stephen Merchant, who's own humour blends seamlessly with the humour we've come to know from Valve. Wheatley then continues to help Chell escape by moving the whole stasis chamber and suddenly casting you back into the old, decaying rooms of the Aperture science test chambers; Ready to begin a new adventure. It's from this moment you know Valve have a story worth telling and have a beautifully realised world, with wonderful characters, that they are about to show off. From start to finish you are fully immersed in Valves' world and are ready to believe anything they tell you. If you're a returning Portal Player you'll find questions you had left over from the first game are believably explained in this one. If you've never touched the original then you won't be at too much of a loss. The history and future of Aperture Science are all nicely explained by the characters, voice-overs, and just the environment that Valve have set out for you.

While Valve have done a wonderful job capturing the atmosphere, the graphics, and the aesthetics of Portal 2, it wouldn't stand up half as well without its brillaint and hillarious voice-acting and script-work. What truly brings the game to life is that every line is delivered in an almost perfect manner. There is no excess script that could be cut, or speech you'll want to skip past. Ellen McLain does a wonderful job reprising the role of GLaDOS, taking her to to new emotional depths, but you're also bound to enjoy the characters voiced by Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons. As almost a contrast to the harsh tones of GLaDOS, Stephen Merchant portrays Wheatley as a loveable, slightly baffled, idiot, who somehow manages to help you excape from Aperture Science unharmed. This contrast of voices and characters is what really captures you at the start of the game and, in a way, they're the reason you keep playing till the end as they're what really makes traversing the chambers of Portal 2 truly memorable. You'll find yourself even stopping just to listen to the end of each script, or stopping just to watch how emotive Wheatley can be despite being one lone orb. It's evident from the Developer commentary just how much time, effort, and love that Valve have put into crafting the experience of Portal 2 and how smoothly everything fits together.

Wheatley is a great addition and a truly memorable character.

The gameplay of Portal 2 is much the same as the first game. You're handed an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, or Portal gun, and left to solve puzzles with it. The basic principle of the gun is that you can open two portals anywhere in the room and move yourself, or objects, easily through the room to reach new areas. While a difficult process to explain the game makes it easy to understand and, as clear from Valves developer commentary, a great deal of beta-testing went in to make it perfectly understandable and incredibly easy to just 'pick up and play'.

However, this is one of Portal 2's biggest, and most apparent, downfalls. Portal 2 has a habit of feeling like a tutorial for something bigger. Whether its the context of the test environments, or the brief use of some of the more creative 'gels' later on in the game, there always seems to be something more that you're building up to, but never ultimately see. Portal 2 also has a nasty habit of holding your hand through the whole game and doesn't really open itself up for anything challenging. Many of the puzzles are quickly overcome, and even have markings on the wall that easily point to the answer. Often its apparent that you're meant to be taking in the story instead and in these instances there is very little to do but keep an eye out for that one wall you can use and continue onwards. Luckily these sections have the wonderful atmosphere and dialogue to keep from being too dull and you'll still be fully immersed in the game world, but part of you will be aching to solve something, or at least jump through a portal or two.

Taking on the roles of Atlas and Pea-Body with a friend is one of Portal 2's greatest strengths.

Where Portal 2's gameplay truly shines is in the Co-Op, where Valve seem to have worked their hardest on creating new and fun puzzles. Unlike many Co-Ops where a single character can do all the work, leaving their partner lagging behind, the Co-Op campaign of Portal 2 really forces you to work together with your robot buddy, be them sat right next to you, or across the world online. It also makes it easy to talk, chat, and communicate, by being able to place signals right where you want your partner to look or shoot. Many of these puzzles offer a great deal more challenge than the single player counterpart, and sometimes having two heads will only confuse the matter, but this is part of the fun. This is the kind of gameplay that won the original portal so many fans, and it's odd that Valve have input so much cleverness into the Co-op and allowed the single-player to focus too heavily on the story. Where Co-Op falls flat is that is very much a one play-through experience and anyone who has previously completed it may be reluctant to try again with a friend who hasn't. After all there's only one correct way to complete the puzzles and knowing the answer takes away all the charm. That said though, the first play-through will take up enough of your time to leave you feeling satisfied at the end.

In conclusion Portal 2 is a wonderful experience to have. It'll take longer to finish then the original game and its packed full of atmosphere and witty dialogue that will actually have you laughing from the start. You'll be hard-pressed not to love the journey it takes you on and the new characters it introduces you to, and you're bound to take away some fond moments. However those returning purely to sample the clever gameplay from the original game better come partnered up, as the single-player game is just that little bit too easy and that little bit too empty at times. While the Co-Op game introduces many new and quirky puzzles that will leave you perplexed for awhile, the single-player is just that little bit too easy and has too many underdeveloped areas.

Authors Comment: Portal 2 is a brilliant game and truly worth playing, but its by no means flawless. I found it incredibly charming and immersive and was quickly addicted to it from the off, but there were many moments where it was just that little bit too much story and not enough gameplay. What really stood out to me, personally, was the Co-Op. I thought it would be horribly tacked on and, favouring Singleplayer over Co-Op tenfold, I thought I'd dislike it. I couldn't have been more wrong, it was the best bit of gameplay. I am sure my issues with the game will be fixed with the coming (free) DLC, and make me favour it as one of the best games of the year, but at the moment it just needs a little bit more something to be heralded as an amazing game...

Dragon Age 2: Review

N.B.: This review was written using a 360 version of the game and therefore cannot necessarily be applied to all other versions. As always reviews are subjective and the thoughts and feelings of the reviewer.

My first game review, just over a year ago now on March 14^th 2010, concerned that of Mass Effect 2. An excellent sequel to a Bioware game. It only seems fitting that after a lull of about 9 months that I return to the scene to review another sequel to another Bioware game. Is this one just as excellent? Dragon Age 2 may not boast one of Biowares best storylines, but it does hold some brilliant characters, some fun quests, and it’s definitely worth spending your time on.

To me Bioware are storytellers first, and game developers second. They have never failed to capture me and have never failed to portray unique new worlds in amazingly deep and rich environments. Bioware are synonymous with great memorable characters and epic plots. However, Dragon Age: Origins, never managed to keep me hooked into the characters. Aside from Alaister and Morrigan, who you met near the start, the characters failed to hold my attention. The plot, on the other hand, was as epic as can be to the point of cliché. A lone man/woman/elf/dwarf setting off on a quest to save the world from the dreaded blight. In Dragon Age2, Bioware seems to have thrown this formula on its head.

Dragon Age 2’s story is far more personal. Gone is the nameless, voiceless, hero from the first game. You are now Hawke, a human fereldan fleeing his/her home with their family in tow. Though you can no longer select a race, or as many starting classes, this is easily forgotten as it allows a much bigger scene to be set with a much more relatable character. It is made clear in the opening cutscene that Hawke is destined to become someone known as ‘the Champion’ and the story follows the years of him/her gaining this title and the aftermath afterwards. Almost the entire story is set in one city, Kirkwall, and in a way Dragon Age 2 suffers from this. The environments you see begin to grow old and somewhat stale and the storyline never feels very epic to the extent of it sometimes dragging a little. In fact, the whole story of Dragon Age 2 feels like a build up to something much bigger. In Dragon Age: Origins there was a very clear threat, a very clear goal, which was to rally everyone against the blight. Dragon Age 2, however, doesn’t have a present threat, or even an ominous one, each chapter seems to have a different goal and story. In the final chapter of the game its more clear what Bioware were trying to do; to weave a growing tension into the town, but the amount of irrelevant subquests you partake in distract from this totally. The opening cutscene itself hints that the Champion is needed for something much bigger but it never truly tells the player what or why. It's a story, that ends anticlimactically, within a story that never gets finished. So it certainly isn't Biowares best.

The tale of the Champion can be as Dark or as Honorable as you choose

However, with all that said the story of Dragon Age 2 is a much more personal tale than Bioware normally tell. This time your character has a family and a history. Some of the side missions have you performing deeds for them, and as you begin to move your way up in the town you can really begin to feel proud of what you accomplished and how you’ve climbed. Other roleplaying games could learn from this level of immersion as so many games try to cast you as a character with relatively little backstory and character fearing it may harm the customisation that they all strive for.

To aid the tale Bioware also bring to life a cast of unforgettable characters to help join and influence the storyline. These characters are well designed and beautifully crafted. There’s characters you’ll instantly love, and some that will down right irritate you, but that isn’t to say they are not well made. Each companion has their own storyline and optional quests which help to add depth, and they all have their own place within the city of Kirkwall. What’s even more impressive is the characters interactions with each other. As with other Bioware games the characters will often talk to each other as you’re running around and you really do get a feel for their relationships. Certain companions in your party clearly get on less well than others, whereas with some, such as Varric and Merryl, its clear they have a close and almost protective relationship. Sometimes you’ll also be treated to little cameos from Characters of the first game and companions of the ‘Grey warden’, a few of your companions have also been seen in Dragon Age: Awakening. It’s a nice feature that ties the two games together without feeling too forced.

Varric is but one of the new characters, and personally one of my favourite Bioware so far.

Graphically Dragon Age 2 is not the most stunning game but it’s definitely more impressive than its predecessor which, even at its release time, fell a little short. As always the environments are well designed and fully believable but there really needed to be a greater variety. Among the quests you visit seemingly different caves but all with exactly the same interior. They look nice but by the third cave or the forth tunnel you’ve seen it all before and are far less likely to explore each path. The character models, on the other hand, are all well designed, and the major characters all have a unique look and feel to them that’s befitting of both their personality and their place in the Dragon Age 2 universe.

In terms of sound Dragon Age 2 is impressive. The voice acting of every character, from the smaller quest-givers to the companions of your troupe, each stands out as believable and remarkable. The voice talent also benefits from a well written and often humorous script which is as fully believable as the voices. The music of Dragon Age 2 is also always fitting, changing when in and out of combat, even down to the use of Florence and the Machine song in the end credits.

The most noticeable difference in Dragon Age 2 is the gameplay. Fans of the original, or fans of older RPG’s in general, might feel that Dragon Age 2 has been ‘watered-down’ or ‘simplified’ but really the game retains quite a bit of customisation and levelling. True there is less specialisation, and you can no longer customise the armour of your friends, but there’s nothing truly missing. You still pick up weapons and armour, sell equipment and buy equipment, and monitor how much you are carrying at any given time. On top of all that the menus are easy to use, easy to follow, and even for someone new to RPG’s. That said, there’s more depth to the game if you look for it. Dragon Age 2 uses the Tatics feature present within Dragon Age: Origins. The Tactics remain in the background and can be very effective if done right. You are allowed to set your AI companions certain tactics, which look like simple formulae (i.e. ‘If x then y’) but can really make the battlefield far more manageable. Dragon Age 2 also sports a new feature, the use of ‘Cross Class Combos’ which are a good, if very underused, feature. As it suggests, different classes can aid each other to form a combo, but each class only has one at their disposal. It’s a neat feature which should have you working better as a team, but it’s simply just a version of rock-paper-scissors that can be quickly forgotten at the heart of the battle. One of the bigger changes on the surface is that you no longer tell your character to just attack and sit back while he or she starts fighting the enemy (which I never felt worked on consoles), you now have to attack for them. While it’s a simple change which leads to simple button mashing, its more engaging and you feel in more control of your character.

The combat of Dragon Age 2 is much more refined and enjoyable

However, combat isn’t the main focus of a game like Dragon Age 2. Sure your character can be a bloodthirsty warrior, or a powerful mage, but these games are always about the dialogue and the choices, which Dragon Age 2 certainly delivers. As with the combat, at first glance Bioware have simplified these features down. You now know which the ‘good’ option is and which is the ‘bad’ as they are colour coded to represent each choice ala Mass Effect 2. However, there are plenty of situations when you are just given a choice, with no colour, and you really have to think which will be the best outcome. Often these can be game or story changing, such as choosing to let someone live or die.

There’s a lot that could still be said but in conclusion Dragon Age 2 is a bit off balance. It’s clear Bioware have set a schema for their games and now it’s all about working out the kinks. With Dragon Age 2 Bioware have got some things a little wrong, but others very right. They do weave a brilliant tale, complete with a whole spectrum of emotions, but the storyline, ultimately, doesn’t deliver an epic quest that most will be expecting. This doesn’t mean, however, that you won’t be addicted from the moment you put the game in and it definitely doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy the journey it takes you on. The characters themselves are worth playing for, and you’ll always be eager to see what’s going to happen next.