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 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.
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!
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.
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.
Utterly, utterly compelling. Excellent script, brilliant story, and some amazing set pieces and twists. The end of Level 9 is a complete shocker too.
I’m always impressed by great story and pacing in games, and Dead Space: Extraction stands as one of the best examples of how to implement a story into a game.
Once again, like many games I’ve played recently, it’s a crying shame that nobody bothered buying this. In fact, on the back of it, I’m tempted to buy the 360 game even though it’s a FPS and I hated the demo. I’m that into the story now.
BWAAAAAAAAAH!
Today I went through the few remaining levels, picking up the final huge XL item – an entire actual plane. Which didn’t really fit properly in the sewers. And then there was the last cow-stealing level, and it was back to the rubbish pile and off to the moooooooooon!
I really enjoyed Rabbids Go Home. Even though it kept crashing. The levels are varied enough to stay interesting, even if some are graphically repeats of previous levels, and the only real complaint I have is that it’s a bit easy. I suppose the challenge is in getting all 400 items on every stage, but that’s not going to happen for me as searching every nook and cranny on every level would get tedious – especially if you miss any, as most levels don’t let you go back through the level, so you’d have to start again.
Blimey. What a lot of Wii games I’ve completed this year.
With just one level left, I soon finished this off. The final level was FULL of mutants. Really – every turn, every door, threw another 6 or more at me. I’m glad I’d swapped away from the Magnum and only the SMG, as although it reduces your accuracy and power, it at least allows you to fend off large numbers of mutants without having to reload before you’ve even dazed them.
Still, was pretty hard and I grabbed virtually none of the golden BRANES as it was just so frantic.
The final boss was pretty easy, if a bit time consuming. And disgusting. And what happens after you beat… it?…even more so. Blurgh.
Before – and after – the credits, it clearly shows a sequel is planned. Sadly, since (like The Conduit and MadWorld) HOTD:O only sold three copies, I can’t see it happening, which is a big shame. It’s hilarious, and more is needed!
Finally! I’ve played this over and over and over (it’s very short) since getting it, but haven’t once managed to successfully complete all three missions in the same sitting. It was usually Mission 2′s “single headshot” finale which scuppered me, but today, I was victorious!
Firstly, I should come clean and say that I completed Mega Man 10 on it’s first-for-a-Mega Man-game Easy Mode. It adds barriers to stop you falling down some holes and removes some of the enemies.
Not that it was a walk in the park. There were still a few difficult bosses, tricky sections with spikes to avoid, and some pixel-perfect jumps to manage, but still – it was waaaay easier than Mega Man 9, which I never did complete.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Mega Man 10 was released on Wii Ware yesterday, and having loved the new-retro MM9, I leapt on it. Unsurprisingly, it’s more of the same stuff Mega Man 1 to 9 gave us, but that matters not. It’s great old fashioned platforming, the sort you don’t get any more. Er, except for 9, of course. And Castlevania Rebirth. Um.
After completing it, I went and tried some of the challenges (complete special stages with certain weapons, or with limitations on your abilities), then started the game again as the slightly gimped Proto Man.
Some have said this game is rubbish. They are wrong.
It’s not fantastic, and it has its faults, but it’s a perfectly competent, technically proficient (for the Wii), excellent to control FPS. And I enjoyed it from start to (somewhat sooner than expected) finish, unlike say… Halo, which I hated.
It’s a little short, suffers a bit from room repetition (nowhere near as badlyas Halo though), and the final level feels like there’s a boss fight missing, but the ASE scanning, organic door locks and hidden secrets add enough to the game to bring it above the usual SciFi FPS mire.
I played it online the other day, and although it was fun, some guy called DMX had an invincibility cheat one, which ruined it a bit. Oh well.
3/5 overall, I think!
This is how I want new additions to old 8 and 16-bit game serieses to be made. As if they’re for 8 and 8-bit consoles. Like Megaman 9 was.
Rebirth is a remake (or rather, complete rewrite borrowing nothing but the plot) of The Castlevania Adventure for the Game Boy. A game I played, and completed, almost exactly three years ago. It was rubbish. Rebirth, is not.
It looks like a SNES game, only with more detailed sprites. It plays like a NES Castlevania, only with more responsive, less fiddly controls. And it’s BRILLIANT.
So much so, I started and completed it today. I had it on pause for several hours, as there’s no save, save-state, password, or continue system (except I found later – there is: hold right on the menu screen) so it’s all-in-one-go or nothing. Just like 16-bit games!
More games like this please. Oh, if only Sonic 4 was taking this approach. Cry!
So I’ve completed this seven thousand times now. Or something like that. This time with Knuckles.
But it’s ACE, so that’s OK!
And that’s the 5-part series over and done. Sam & Max Season 2 can’t come soon enough!
Although the final part was great (as always) in terms of story, it was horribly broken in terms of graphics. Many people have commented that the Wii ports of Monkey Island have all been affected by bugs, stuttering, poor sound, and so on, but aside from a bit of judder on Chapter 1 when changing scene, I’d not noticed. In this one, however, it was awful. The first time I went through the rift (as a zombie) onto LeChuck’s ship, I was entirely invisible – aside from my hook. The second time, as a full human, I was visible, but my hook was visible along with the hand it was supposed to be replacing! And the jerking! Stuttering! Pausing! Gah!
Thankfully, it was only cosmetic and didn’t really spoil my enjoyment. An excellent series, overall. More, please!
With Mass Effect bagged on Monday, my next game to tackle was this. And what an absolutely outstanding game it was!
I didn’t really enjoy the demo when I played that a while back, but now having played the full game I can see why – you miss some of the first part of the game out, and are chucked into a later bit too early. This means you need to use some slightly more advanced techniques too soon. It also doesn’t give you long enough to get used to the basics before you’re ready.
Another thing that concerned me was the fact it was a licenced game, and they’re generally rubbish. Since this is not actually based on a specific Batman comic or film (as far as I’m aware), I think that helps.
Somehow, Batman manages to blend together several games – Tomb Raider, Watchmen, Gears of War, Splinter Cell and even Metroid without losing it’s own identity, even if a few sections (the clambering round near the sewers and caves, and the Botanical Gardens boss in particular) did make me think I’d swapped games for a minute.
Just two things annoyed me: 1) there’s an achievement you can miss if you don’t fight the goons just before the final boss (they don’t attack you, so I didn’t attack them – oops!), and 2) the entire Killer Croc section was utter pants. Thankfully, the former is just an annoyance and the latter didn’t last too long, so all is forgiven.
And replay value? Well, I’ve only got about 65% of The Riddler’s riddles completed, and I haven’t even started the Challenges yet, so there’s plenty still left to do!
Overall, an excellent game! Next?
At almost exactly 22 hours into the story, I completed the game. And it was a very good game too, even if there were lots of things I didn’t like about it (more on them in a minute). I won’t reveal any spoilers, except one: who’d have thought Saren would have turned out to be the Green Goblin? He’s even got the thrown explosives and flying surfboard thingy. I suppose the clue was in his face. See:
Saren?
Green Goblin?
Anyway. The bad bits. Firstly, (and ironically, lastly) there’s the ending. After it, it really is the end – you can’t go back and complete missing missions and assignments. There’s no real plot reason for it either – although not everything goes back to normal after the end, certainly there’s no reason why most of the missions can’t then be completed.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the “point of no return” was well sign posted. It wasn’t, and not only that, it isn’t even the final mission that triggers it. In fact, once you land on Virmire in the game (a good 5 or more hours before the final showdown, on my play through) – that’s it. You’re locked into the ending without being able to complete most of the remaining quests. Yeah, so you might have a save before then, but you’re allowed so few save slots it’s likely you won’t, even if (like me) you were anticipating such an event.
Then there’s the graphics. They’re lovely. Only they jerk around like the whole game is on a bouncy castle. In some of the final sections of the game, there’s horrific slowdown, tearing, and graphical anomalies. Yeah, there’s a lot going on – but it’s supposed to be the nail-biting climax, not a wade through wobbly treacle. Thankfully, this isn’t a problem for most of the game, and it usually only happens in the Mako.
An exception to the graphics being lovely: the geth. Perhaps if they had more than two frames of animation between them, they’d be lovely too. Mind you, they were usually dead before they got close enough to see what they were.
And the lifts! Oh my god. Most tedious part of the game by far. Especially the one on the Citadel that takes you from the docking bay to C-Sec (why? What have C-Sec got to do with the docking?) – it takes AGES and unlike most of the other lifts in the Citadel, it can’t be skipped with a Fast Transport panel.
Item and upgrade management is also a chore. Especially having a limit on how many items you can carry. After every mission I had to sell everything – which takes ages – or lose new stuff, since when your inventory is full, any new items are automatically converted to Omni-gel. Yes – new (and usually, better) items; not old items you would probably sell anyway. Stupid!
Finally, the difficulty. Yes, I know I played it on Normal (I almost always play games on whatever their default setting is) and that there are harder settings. However, for the final 15 or so hours of the game I simply didn’t bother with weapon upgrades, improvements, and that sort of stuff as it was too much of a pain. Which meant I should have found it much harder, only it wasn’t. Every single fight was a pushover – even the final one.
But you know what? None of that really matters. In fact, the only one I can really complain about is the no-way-back ending. Everything else is just a minor irritation. The winning points are the story and the believable, deep universe the game is set in. Bioware have gone all out on making something more watchable (let alone playable) than most science fiction films. The back story, the way you slowly unearth the history of the races and the Protheans, the side missions and overheard conversations. A high point was the reveal of the Keepers’ role in everything – clever how they are there the whole time, but understated and underexposed, then suddenly it all makes sense.
I’m certainly hyped for the sequel now, especially since virtually all of my complaints with the first game have supposedly been dealt with!
There are 16 tracks, which sounds like a lot, but each is only a couple of minutes long so it didn’t take long to nip through them all.
I’ve not S-Ranked them all yet, but they’re all B-or-better, with most being A or S.
I think I’ve completed this today. But since I got no credits or end sequence, I can’t be certain.
I’ve completed all the levels on Earth, and can’t find any more to do, so am I done?
EDIT: It seems, according to GameFAQs, that yes – I’ve completed it. So I’m altering this post to reflect that 
There are still lots of gigs to do, and I only have around half of the 1000 possible stars, but I completed the story today.
There’s not a lot else to say about it, really, apart from that the finale track was a bit poor compared to The Final Countdown (which could have the the finale, only they added a bit more game onto the end).
I’d also like to know why every single time I play a random setlist gig, I have to play that Counting Crows track. Every. Single. Time.
Turns out I only had a few levels left before the end boss, and they weren’t all that difficult. Neither was the end boss actually, as I defeated him without dying. I was surprised he only took one hit, but never mind.
Of course, it then turns out that he wasn’t the end boss. There were more levels. And a sad thing happens with Blob. Then! An AWESOME thing happens with Blob, and you get to “lay the smack down” (as the common yoof is want to say) on the black blobs. So I did!
And then it was the real end boss. He was a little harder (taking three hits, not one), but he was probably the easiest boss in the whole game.
After that, it was the end sequence. Which, tying in with the rest of the game, was stunningly beautiful. What an excellent game. Lets hope we don’t have to wait another 15 years for another sequel, yes?
I will have to admit, I looked up the numerals I needed on Mr Tinternet. It was either that or start the entire game again – simply because of what I assume is a bug. Which I wasn’t going to do.
After that puzzle (which was a pain anyway, even knowing the numerals you needed), there wasn’t much game left – a quick train ride to Scotland and a pretty simple set of puzzles upon arriving, and it was Game Over!
121 puzzles in, and I have just completed the story. There’s loads left to do, of course, but the main bit is done.
Since this is the first entry in my diary for this game, I should probably say I’ve only been playing it for a week or so. I got it for Christmas with $hlmun other games, so I didn’t play it right away.
It’s very much the same as the first game. There seem to be fewer puzzles of certain types (eg chess based, “one of these is a liar” and matchstick ones) and more solitaire based ones, but it’s not a vast departure. There’s a big improvement in the UI, in that there is now a menu function where you can write over the puzzle – very handy for maze based and maths puzzles.
I’m not sure I liked the big reveal near the end, where the mystery of the town was explained, but then, the same silliness was in the first game.
I’ll be picking off the remaining puzzles and tasks soon!
It’s the first game I’ve played of the year, and Its also the first game I’ve completed this year.
Admittedly, I’ve only completed it on 50CC so far (although will be returning to do the rest), but I did come first in every race.
I think this is the best console Mario Kart since the SNES version too. It’s not that I didn’t like the N64 and GC versions, it’s just the N64 tracks seemed big and empty, and the two character mechanic of the GC Mario Kart was a bit superfluous. This one, however, has great tracks and the new “stunt gimmick” is actually pretty good.
Of course, I’ve merely defeated the end of game boss. And I even accidentally found a warp from World 5 to World 8, so haven’t even done 6 and 7 yet. Or got all the gold coins so far. Or rescued all the Toads. But I do have 42 lives and haven’t seen the Super Guide or the Game Over screen yet, so that’s all good, yes?
And, of course, I will go back. In fact, I’m going back now to finish World 5
