Amazing. Just utterly amazing. It’s a totally new, but totally retro, video game that plays fantastically, and is even better than the games it apes.
I won’t spoil it all, but I do need to say how much I enjoyed spotting references to other games in this one – both in the levels, and the items you can buy. I love that sort of stuff.
If you haven’t already, buy it now.
I’ve not read the comics. I’ve not seen the film. But, after seeing just a handful of screenshots a few weeks ago for the game, I knew I’d want it. So confident was I, that I didn’t even bother trying the demo – I stumped up my 800 Microsoft Moon Pounds and bought the full game.
And I was right – I love it. It’s a great mix of River City Ransom, Guardian Heroes, Streets of Rage, and that Puffy AmiYumi DS game I quite enjoyed a few years ago. The retro graphics were always going to appeal to me, and the collect money to buy power-ups and character level progression suit my OCD perfectly.
The fighting is pretty good too, with more moves unlocked as you level up, and attacks becoming faster and stronger as you buy “upgrades” from the various shops. It’s a shame this is all lost on those trying the demo – as on Level 1 with no extra moves, the game is reduced to a painfully slow, difficult, brawler with only a couple of moves to pull off. I wonder how many people tried the demo and were put off?
I’ve just beaten Evil Ex-Boyfriend #3, and am now going to rinse the first couple of levels a few times for more money for stat increases. Again.
I was one of the lucky ones to get a free code for this, since The Times cocked up and allowed their “subscriber only” offer to be accessible to all and sundry. I’d just played the demo too, and was about to buy it anyway when I realised I had enough other games to be getting on with so would wait for a price drop. Ten minutes later – free code!
You’ll be noticing that there’s no “Tomb Raider” in the title. There are, however, tombs (of a sort) to traverse, and indeed “raid”, but the developers have chosen to distance this a bit from those platforming, 3rd person puzzle shooting games, instead turning this into a sort of grown-up Lego Indiana Jones crossed with the likes of Geometry Wars. No, stay with me on this…
You see, it’s a simplified Tomb Raider, in terms of types, quantity and complexity of puzzles. Puzzles much like those in the Lego games. There are also some objects that can only be destroyed or activated with certain weapons – like in the Lego games. And it’s all viewed from a sort of isometric angle, not entirely unlike the Lego games. Then there’s the combat, which is pretty standard twin-stickery, like Geometry Wars (and 446512 other games). See? That wasn’t so hard to imagine, was it?
But is it any good? Let me put it this way – I got it on Friday, completed it on Sunday, and it was the only game I played (or even wanted to play). So yes, it’s good. It’s short (although there are more episodes planned as DLC), at around 4-5 hours, and pretty easy, but it was great fun and it surprised me how well a Tomb Raider game could work when not actually presented like a Tomb Raider game.
The only real disappointments were that the end boss was far too easy, and some of the game is repetitive. It also suffers a bit from a cliché of how to make games harder later on: simply have more baddies.
This is a big game, isn’t it? I mean, long. Huge. Hours. I’ve plugged over 20 hours (offline) and at least 3 (online) into it so far, and I’ve only just started the 3* offline quests and have barely touched the online quests – let alone go back to previous quests to complete the subquests I’ve missed.
For the first 10 hours or so I was totally lost. Everything was confusing, from inventory management, to farming, the way online works, quests and hunting, combining items, forging armour and weapons, upgrades, skills… the lot. After every quest or two the game threw in another thing to cope with (I can send fishing fleets off? There’s a chef? I can trade commodities?!), and even at 20 hours I’m still learning. How do I even work the bowgun? Why is the Switch Axe useless? Where on earth do I get all these items I need to upgrade stuff?
But it’s excellent. It should be repetitive, mundane, and full of grinding. But somehow, it isn’t. It’s fun, frantic (in places), sedate (in others) and has an OCD Factor 5 hook to keep playing. And who doesn’t like smashing dinosaurs the size of buildings in the face with swords as long as telegraph poles?
It’s the only thing I’ve played since my last post (well, aside from the usual iPhone trio of Words with Friends, Carcassonne, and THPS2), and somehow over the weekend and today I plugged enough hours into it in order to finish it last night. I was convinced there was only an hour or two left, so started at 8:30 this evening and – well – it was almost midnight when I’d read the end credits.
As with CiNG’s other titles (e.g. the original Another Code and Hotel Dusk), the game’s “win” is in the story. Particularly in this case, the pacing of the story – how little side stories end up becoming parts of other stories, how bits of information are dropped here and there throughout the course of the game, and how some connections are just left to you to make yourself. The “game” is secondary to the plot, and it kind of shows in that it consists of little more than a few puzzles. Very few puzzles, when you think about it – especially since it took 16 hours to play through.
Some of those puzzles are great, though. The starting-the-clock-tower one was an excellent, more traditional, puzzle, whereas the item-in-the-box puzzle from the game’s final chapter was outside-the-box genius. The TAS door lock puzzles, however, started to grate near the end of the game (especially since the last few hours has so damn many of them), and when they started needing you to rotate the Wii remote in addition to button presses, they just got frustrating rather than hard.
As I said though, story is everything here, and it really makes you want to progress. Just don’t be afraid of a lot of reading!
Before I rushed back into Super Mario Galaxy 2 to get a load more stars, I decided to play something else I’ve had on my To Do list for ages. Something a bit different to Bioshock 2 and Mario. So I chose point-and-clicker Another Code:R for the Wii.
I played, loved, and completed the original on the DS what seems like ages ago. Oh, it was – just over 5 years ago! Good lord.
5 years in real life have passed but only 3 in Ashley’s world. The intro and some of the first flashbacks helped remind me of what happened in the first game, which was very helpful as (ironically, given the plot) I’d forgotten most of it. Actually, it seems so had Ashley. Silly girl.
I’ve put almost two and a half hours into it so far, but there’s very little story yet, despite the masses and masses of dialogue I’ve read through. I suppose so some people that would be annoying – it is very chatty – but I’m taking it as an interactive book, like the original, so it’s fine.
Slightly disappointed there haven’t really been any puzzles so far though. The only difficulties have been how to use the controller to do something (like moving a door – that was a pain), but then, I am only half way through Chapter 2 so it’s still in-game-tutorial territory.
I’ve been playing this since completing Bioshock 2 the other week, and last night I claimed my 70th Star, beat Bowser, saw the credits roll, then played for another couple of stars afterwards.
And I got this message on my Wii:
Obviously, the game is excellent. And yes, I’ll be returning to get the rest of the stars. It’s also at least as good as the first game, with the “hub world” being much better to navigate. However, I’m surprised at how easy the game has been (so far). With all the reviews suggesting it’s much harder than the original, I’m wondering why I’ve not found a single tricky level so far. And every single boss has been beaten first time – most without even taking a hit.
Maybe I’m just ace?
At a rough guess, I think I’ve put around 18 hours into this. My understanding is you can complete it in under 10, but since I have OCD, I had to search everywhere, examine everything, access every bit of the map, open every door, hack every machine, rescue every Little Sister, max out every research track, buy every plasmid and gene tonic slot, and listen to every audio diary. I even found myself using up ammo just so I could collect more ammo to replace it. Yes, I clearly have a problem.
How to sum up the game without spoilers? Well, it was more of the same of the first game really. Some improvements (dual-wielding plasmids and weapons, better “where am I going” hints, less getting lost), and some let downs (more linear game, too many “collect X of Y”, less powerful storyline, no proper end boss). Still an excellent game, but perhaps a 4/5 rather than the 5/5 of the original.
Strangely, the thing I missed most from the original was something I thought quite irritating at the time – all the vending machines singing “Welcome to the Circus of Values!” and stuff whenever you went near them. They rarely did it in the sequel.
How can so many amazing ideas be crammed into one game? Some levels in Super Mario Galaxy 2 have more fantastic, original, gameplay ideas than most entire games. Even more amazing, is how they managed this even after already filling an entire game with them!
I’m now up to 24 stars collected, on the 3rd “World” (you can’t really have worlds containing galaxies, can you?), and really loving it. It’s still very easy though – easier than the original was at this stage, I think. Even the Prankster Comet that I’ve done was pretty simple, and I’ve only died three times in total so far.
TONY HAWK. He’s the best guy ever! Well, maybe Tom Jones is better. Hmm. But he’s still GREAT, and his games (aside from RIDE, but we’ll just forget that one…) are GREAT. And THPS2 is one of the MOST GREAT games.
And now it’s on the iPhone!
Amazing! Surprisingly, it works really well. Controls are great (and I generally hate virtual d-pads and buttons), and pulling off tricks isn’t any harder than I remember from the Dreamcast and PC versions. There’s a bit of slowdown (though I got that on the PC a lot too), but nothing game breaking.
So far, I’ve got all bar the 100% goal on the Hangar, and around a third of the goals in the School. And it’s lovely.
For just one level. For a reason.
I have my daughter to thank for buying me the game, which ordinarily I’d have had to have waited months and months for, since it’d take an age to drop in price to below my self-imposed £20 limit.
But that level? Glorious. Blue skies, happy music, bopping Goombas, bright colours and everything lovely about great games. Hurrah!
Since completing Lego Indiana Jones 2, Bioshock 2 is pretty much the only game I’ve played. I’ve not played it terribly far in, either, having only picked up the film camera about an hour’s play ago, and I’ve only just finished the Sinclair Hotel bit. I don’t know how far that puts me through the game, but if I assume the train line map is an indication, then perhaps a quarter?
Things I’m liking so far:
Things I’m not liking so far:
It’s certainly enjoyable, and it’s nice to be back in Rapture. I think it’s a shame that the original seemed to have all the “best” locations (so far) as the amusements were little more than a single “ride”, and Pauper’s Drop is dull. The hotel is almost a clone of the apartments from the original too. Doesn’t look like you get to revisit anywhere from the original either.
I suppose it was never going to be as good as the first game, and it’s not bad at all, so I can live with all that. Needs to have an OMFG AMAZE reveal like “would you kindly” though.
I got given an MSX this morning. Not only that, but it works! Not only that, but it came with some games! What an amazing day.
First up was Pairs. It’s a pelmanism-style matching pairs game, but you have a little man you have to guide to the cards to flip them, while avoiding the baddies. It was fun for a bit.
Then I played Eric and the Floaters. The original Bomberman game. Coincidentally, I’d actually blogged about this very game here only yesterday – even putting the Spectrum game on my site to play. Amazing! It’s virtually the same as the Spectrum version, except the deadly balloons have little smiling faces on them. Evil smiling faces.
Next was Hunchback. Which was very hard. I got as far as the screen with the arroes that shoot from the left, but couldn’t get past it.
Finally, International Karate. No, not “+”, the original. It was OK, but I couldn’t get to grips with the controls. Part of the problem was the stupidly loose Toshiba joystick with far too much travel.
Torn. Very torn.
You see, Lego games are some of the BEST. THINGS. EVAR. However, Harry Potter and Harry Potter Related Things are some of the WORST. THINGS. EVAR. So Lego Harry Potter is an irresistible force meeting an immovable object, innit?
I don’t know. It was OK. But I hated it. And I loved the Legoness. And having idiot wizard children and beardman and a rubbish dog was stupid. But smashing things and collecting studs was great. But it was Harry Potter and I wanted to smash my TV instead. Gah!
You know I’ll buy it.
All done! Finished the final two achievements (replay all the levels in Quick Play, and the quite difficult Complete Hangar 51 In Under 5 Minutes). The Hangar 51 one took 6 or 7 attempts, but finally I managed to do it in 4:46 having fluked three hits on the end of level boss. Phew!
That means I’ve 100%ed it, 1000/1000ed it, and seen and done everything the game has to offer. Hurrah!
Well, it’s about time I finally completed something! It’s been months! Admittedly, I’ve been somewhat busy for the last couple of months, and consoleless for around a month of that time, but still.
Not only have I completed Lego Indiana Jones 2 today, but I then went on to 100% it. Since I’d been playing to get 100%, that wasn’t too long afterwards as I’d already done nearly everything necessary. The final few % came from just buying stuff in the Creator mode, which was a bit unsatisfying. I still have two achievements left to get though.
My overall verdict of the game? Pretty good. The hub worlds were a bit confusing to start with, but I grew to love them and I hope future Lego games also have them. The levels themselves were a little short, and the Super Bonus Levels were pretty rubbish (not a patch on the equivalents in previous titles, anyway) since you just smash trees and collect studs.
Still rattling through this. I’ve now 100%ed both chapters 1 and 2 of The Crystal Skull, completed both the Super Bonus levels for doing so, and completed (but not 100%ed) both chapter 3 and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
You know, at first I wasn’t sure of this new hub-based level structure, but I’ve grown to really like it. I’ve noticed there’s no Free Play mode any more either – instead, you redo old levels, differently. Like the giant spider creature you fight: Go back there later and you do the same level only it’s all trampolines and careful jumps rather than a boss fight!
It’s pretty much all I’ve played this week. And it’s very good. Better than the other Lego titles? Yeah, I think so.
I’m now most of the way through Chapter 2 of the Crystal Skull. The hub world here is huge, and the puzzles in it and hidden items really add to the fun. There just seems so much more to do in it than any of the other Lego game “hubs”.
What I’m not so keen on, however, are the vehicle “bash them off the road” levels. Mind you, I’ve not really liked any of the vehicle levels in any of the previous games, and these are different in that you can get out and walk, so it’s not all bad.
It was my birthday yesterday, and my lovely wife and daughter bought me this (and two other sequels – Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2). So I set up my 360 for the first time in three months and had a go.
It actually took quite a while to get into the game, but once in, it was all great!
Clearly it’s going to be more of the same Lego stuff, but there are differences. Each “episode” has its own hub world where some of the action takes place, and other levels (“proper” and bonus) are opened up from. There are puzzles in the hub to do this. The actual levels themselves are more like the original title, only (so far) they’ve been a fair bit shorter. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course.
The graphics have been really upgraded since the last Lego title too. No longer do they just look like shiny PS2 bricks – they’re proper HD now!
So far, I’ve completed two “proper” and three “bonus” levels, as well as some of the smaller story events, for The Crystal Skull.
I got internet access back at home this week, finally, just in time for the release of Bit.Trip Runner. I’d played one of the previous Bit.Trip games – Beat – a while back, but found it way too hard. Although I liked the style, I didn’t bother with Core and Void as I thought they’d be too hard too.
With Runner, however, I couldn’t resist. I knew it was going to play like a “big” version of games like Run! on the iPhone and Canabalt, both of which I love. And Runner, too, is amazing.
And hard.
It took me about 40 minutes to clear levels 1-1 to 1-10. Then it took a whole hour to finish 1-11! Now I’m on the boss, who is also hard.
Thing is, the instant-restart (you don’t press anything – you just begin the level again immediately upon death) really pushes the just-one-more-go factor, pretty much forcing you to play again, so it was quite difficult to stop!
Yes! I bought a PSP game! Mainly because I saw it in a bargain bin for less than three quid, and I quite like Outrun 2006. And I quite like this too.
It’s not without fault, though. Firstly, there’s the save game bug. Like some other early (and mainly Sega) PSP games, the game won’t recognise there’s any free space on memory cards bigger than 4GB. Mine is 16GB, with 14.5GB free, and Outrun said there wasn’t enough space for it to create a 1600KB file. Oops!
Luckily, a downloaded-from-GameFAQs Outrun save solved that, and I deleted the licence info from it, and it’s all working now.
The other main problem is the controls. The analogue “nub” is useless, and the d-pad doesn’t give enough control, what with being digital and all. Combined with the whatever-the-left-action-button-is-called being used as brake (rather than the right action button), it made drifting a bit hard. I’ll probably get used to it, I suppose. Unless I just put my PSP away again (which is likely).
I did manage to complete an “Easy” route on the Outrun 2SP course, though.
This is really more than a bit good, isn’t it? I mean, it’s a bit like Mario 64 in that each level has to be completed multiple times to get different treasures in different ways, but obviously in 2D. And it’s more puzzley. But the idea is still the same.
I’ve collected about half the treasures so far, and opened up quite a few levels meaning I was wrong with the 4-levels-per-world statement in my last post. At least one world now has 6! I only have 2 or 3 (it’s difficult to tell on the screen) bits of the musical box though.
I played a little bit of this last week, but have managed a few more hours on it over the last few days.
And I’m enjoying it less and less. A couple of days ago, I had to catch a fish. Which was fine, except it then took almost an hour figuring out that I wasn’t supposed to pick the fish up, but turn into the wolf and sniff it. Obviously. Then yesterday there was an awful snowboarding section. Yes, snowboarding. In Zelda.
Today? Crate puzzles. Yes – Irritating and Unnecessary Gaming Cliché #2. Joy.
Hello! No, I’m not dead. I’ve just had no time to game, no unpacked consoles to game on, and no internet access to update my diary even if I did have both of those.
For reasons I don’t really understand, I started playing this yesterday. On an actual Game Boy Colour as well! How exciting! I’d never played it before, but have played, and completed, the second and fourth games in the series and enjoyed them. This is more like the second, as it doesn’t have the silly race-out-the-level Wario Land 4 had, and is the better for it.
There seem to be 4 worlds, with 4 levels in each world, and 4 treasures to get in each level. So far, I’m on World 3, having got at least one treasure on each level so far. I don’t know if it’s necessary to do the lot to complete the game, but we’ll see!
Hmm. I’m now over 11 hours in. I’ve just got all the tears from Lake Hylia. And it still doesn’t feel like Zelda. It has the right place names, and the right characters, and the right music and sound effects, but it doesn’t play like a Zelda game.
I really, really, dislike the wolf bits. And they’ve made up more than half the game so far. And after 11 hours I’ve still only had 2 dungeons? It’s just not right.
