Review: Final Fantasy 13
- The graphics in this game are beautiful. Even down to the facial hair, everything stands out. Sometimes I even had a hard time depicting what was in-game and what was a full-motion video.
- The battle system can be fast and enjoyable, until they make a bit more complex just for the sake of being different.
- The game is unlike any of the other Final Fantasy games in that it’s VERY linear. Other games in the series promoted some exploration, but XIII doesn’t seem to do that at all.
- In battle, you have control over one character, and that character can’t die, or you lose. Even if other party members are up. They can’t bring you back to life.
- I gave the game roughly 6 to 8 hours and I was bored for the most of it. I hear the game doesn’t get fun until roughly 20 hours in. If that’s true, then SquareEnix has forgotten how to make video games.
- The storyline is confusing and doesn’t explain anything – we’re usually given a synopsis at the beginning of these games. Not with 13 and I’ve heard even after about 15 hours in, the story is STILL confusing.
- The battle system gets too complex and eventually boring. I have to start the game buffing up my characters and debuffing my enemies, then swapping paradigms (or however it’s pronounced) between becoming nothing but healers then fighters. Throw in the stun meters, and all you’re doing is looking at the stats, not the graphics.
- To make matters worse, you do essentially three things in battle, select “Auto-Attack,” so the game decides what’s the best route to take in battle, decide the Paradigms and then you decide who to attack. That’s it. Very little to no work or thought necessary in these battles.
- No familiar music and no real familiar Final Fantasy Terminology. No traditional Final Fantasy Intro video and I’m guessing there’s no Biggs, Wedge or Moogles. There is a Cid, and a tiny Chocobo – but I’m guessing there’s no ride-able ones in the game. As a fan of the former games in the series, I’d like to see some consistency. CastleVania, Lords of Shadow is a good example – they are looking to take the series in a completely different direction, but they’re keeping some elements of the older games to keep it familiar.
- Finally and most importantly, the game just wasn’t fun. I was bored within 30 minutes and it never got fun from that point on. If this game didn’t have a Final Fantasy name slapped onto it, it would have been destroyed in the reviews – plain and simple.
Postive Points: 2 | Negative Points: 7 | Total Score: -5
I’ve loved the Final Fantasy series since I jumped on-board when Final Fantasy 4 came out. Final Fantasy 6 is my favorite in the series, and I’ve found every game since then enjoyable. Yeah, even FF7, which I think got too much credit considering what FF6 was able to do on a storytelling and emotional level using less powerful hardware. I enjoyed FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10, FF11 and I probably would have enjoyed 12 if I ever played it.
I was really hoping 13 would be able to be put on top of my list of FF games that I enjoyed, but not only did it do the opposite, it set in stone that SquareEnix will never be able to make a good Final Fantasy game again if they continue down the route they did with FF13. Even if they go another direction, I’ve given up on any of these new titles stealing the #1 and #2 place that FF6 and FF4 were able to take.
I’ve read around, there’s no middle ground – either reviewers say it’s a great game, or it’s an abomination of the series. Considering this is the first game to get a negative score with my current rating system, and no doubt would have gotten a 1/5 on my old one … you can throw me in the pile of people who say FF13 is an abomination and ruins a once-great franchise.
Review: Borderlands
- The graphics are unique. A form of cell-shading, but not too much cell-shaded, if that makes sense. Still pretty, but not top-notch.
- There are roughly 4 to 5 classes to choose from, each with a special ability and a skill tree that is much like WoW. The difference is that eventually all three skill trees will be active in Borderlands.
- The game doesn’t take it self too seriously, which is never a bad thing.
- The game takes on a Diablo 2 style, in that the majority of drops and maybe even the maps are generated randomly. People can also jump in and out of co-op games. Again, like Diablo, the more people there are, the tougher the game can get.
- To help with replayability though, you can start a new game with your old character and the difficulty continues to adjust to your level. So if you end up liking this game like I liked Diablo 2, this game can offer a nice amount of replayability. There’s also some decent DLC, which I heard is definitely worth the money.
- The game takes awhile to get into, but once it does, it gets fun.
- Co-Op can seem unbalanced and unfair. Players of any level can jump in, and whatever loot drops is up for anyone to take. So a nice sniper rifle may drop for a hunter, but anyone can pick it up to sell later. The game doesn’t really enforce teamwork or anything like that. People can go off an do their own thing … although they’ll most likely die if they do.
- The game offers a traveling system, but they only tell the area, not the zone, if that makes sense. So when a quest tells you what zone to go to, the “waypoint system” will tell you the area that the “waypoint” is in, not the zone it’s in.
Positive Points: 5 | Negative Points: 3 | Overall Score: 2
Review: Just Cause 2
A heads up to everyone, Just Cause 2 has provided me with some of the most fun times I’ve had with gaming for a long time. The game isn’t perfect in any way, but when it comes to the bottom line with video games, they have to provide entertainment, and Just Cause 2 did that EASILY.
- There is a ton of ground to cover here – from villages, to military bases to creepy islands – there’s a decent amount of stuff packed in this game. And the map is absolutely huge. Even flying a helicopter sometimes takes too long to get to your destination.
- The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, which makes the game even more enjoyable. Over-the-top voice acting and the various screams from throwing your enemy out of a helicopter are just fun to hear.
- There’s a ton of locations that you can gun for. I cleared the game and had only covered25% of the game. Anyone who is willing to get to 100% is downright crazy. Thank God there’s no trophy for getting 100% of the game covered.
- The amount of destruction in this game is satisfying, especially when piloting a helicopter. Whether it’s rockets or a machine gun, pelting destructible things in the air is enjoyable.
- The parachute/grappling hook combo was fun to mess with. It allowed for fast travel on-foot and not having to rely on getting a plane all the time or driving cars. Just grapple onto anything, and as you’re in the air, whip out the parachute and off you go. Use the grappling hook to keep momentum.
- Again, this game was fun if you know go into the game knowing it’s not meant to be a serious game. Even Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation didn’t destroy the game like he normally does and says it’s fun. Games need to be more enjoyable like this and not 100% serious all the damn time. Well done, Avalance Studios. I can’t wait for Just Cause 3. If I had to guess now, and if I did this sort of thing, I’d elect this game as my Game of the Year.
- A big downside to this game is the repetition. After awhile, you start to realize that you keep blowing up the same things. Some variation would be nice.
- The game can be challenging even on normal. The infinite supply of enemies doesn’t help. A breather here and there would be nice between complete shootouts, but the enemies keep coming. The only real way to get a breather is to just leave the scene.
- This game does have some glitches, nothing that crashes the system, but you will sometimes see enemies and vehicles spawn in front of you and there are some audio glitches.
- In order to get 100% on an area, you have to destroy specific enemy obstacles (specific statue, propaganda trailers, electric generators, water tower, etc.) but you also need to collect items. Because you’re only given a percentage, in some cases you never know if you need to find an item or if you need to destroy one last thing. This is a serious buzzkill when recording your takeovers.
Positive Points: 6 | Negative Points: 4 | Overall Score: 2
I have actually recorded about nine videos from Just Cause 2 that have been uploaded to YouTube. From miscellaneous stuff, to takeovers. If you would like to see them, hit the jump, they’ll all be embedded.
Review: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 actually got a nice little gift in terms of my review. I actually rented it again to give it another shot. And I gotta’ say, I’m glad I gave it another shot. What I’ll be doing for this review is do my standard review for the single-player and spec ops. I wanted to touch on multiplayer as well, but it’s not fair to include multiplayer in the review.
- The graphics are nice, crips and pretty realistic. It also runs in 1080p without very much of a hiccup – actually, no hiccup at all.
- I really enjoyed the story of it. It took awhile to take off, but near the end of Act 2 and from that point onward, it’s pretty interesting. It’s definitely nothing I’ve experienced in a game. I also like the ending, very nice touch. Unfortunately, that saga may not continue since Infinity Ward is pretty much gone.
- The game offers a decent amount of content – single player, spec ops and (of course) multiplayer. Definitely can get your money’s worth out of this game if you shelled out $60.
- The weapons, attachments and the parts of the game where you commanded missiles, etc. all felt very believable – nothing felt too advanced. Maybe the heartbeat sensor … but who knows, with technology today – it may exist. They were also fun to use – not just addons, but features that were entertaining.
- The game isn’t difficult on veteran – it’s cheap. Enemies have perfect aim and seem to know you’re turning the corner even if they’ve never seen you before.
- Spec Ops seems a bit too tough. They can last awhile too, and if you die – you have to start from the beginning.
- Checkpoints didn’t always activate. There were many times I would reach a destination, die, reach it again (after five tries on Veteran) and then see that a checkpoint was activated.
Positive Points: 4 | Negative Points: 3 | Overall Score: 1
I wanted to touch on multiplayer as well since it is a big part of the game. To compliment the multiplayer, despite my consistent swearing at my TV, I still play it. That’s gotta’ say something. And the continuous upgrades throughout the game as well as the challenges are probably a big part of the replayability.
That being said, it’s still pretty flawed. I have experienced pumping a clip full of lead in someones guts only to be melee’d by them, yet later on in the same match, I’ll get shot through metal. The biggest “crime” I’ve seen is getting killed by a guy who shot at me and never connected. He shot around me but still killed me. And I’m always amazed at how I can shoot someone in the gut and not kill them, but they can shoot my legs and kill me. It feels very unbalanced and I actually stop watching KillCams because it’d just piss me off seeing someone holding two shotguns aim above me and still kill me in one hit (despite the fact that a downside to holding two weapons is decreased accuracy).
Another issue I’ve discovered is what I will call a loophole with killstreaks. As you are on a killstreak, you are awarded with options to call in a helicoptor to shoot down enemies, drop a missle, etc. The catch is that a few kills in you get a Item Dropoff. What that dropoff can contain are those perks that people technically need to “work for.”
To make matters worse, those bonuses affect your Kill/Death Ratio. So, what can happen is that someone can get two or three kills, get a care package, get an airstrike and bump up their K/D ratio and hurt everyone elses out of luck. So, while the killstreaks can be a showcase of skill, a lot of the killstreaks I experience are probably from care packages, not someone getting 8 or 10 kills in a row. I also think they should make any kills or deaths by killstreaks not count towards your K/D ratio. This way all they contribute to is you winning the match.
In the end though, it’s pretty fun and addicting. You’ll have good and bad matches, which can be expected. Depending on if you can control your temper tells you if it’s worth getting this game. If you’ll get too pissed at “cheap deaths” or consistent kills through killstreaks, then you may just want to rent the game and enjoy what you can.
If you can get past that though, I think Modern Warfare is worth a buy – and with the millions of people playing, it’ll definitely last awhile.
Invader Gamer’s half-assed reviewathon!
Why is it half-assed? Because I’m not doing it all weekend, or all night. I’m just doing a lot of reviews clustered together.
To make up for the lack of reviews recently, considering I can now rent games whenever I want for however long I want, on Saturday and Sunday I will be posting up at least two two reviews, meaning at least four new reviews will be up by Monday morning. So check out the blog sometime this weekend, or wait until Monday … the games I will be reviewing are:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Saturday Night)
- Just Cause 2 (Saturday Night)
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Possibly Saturday. If not, in the future)
- Borderlands (Sunday Night)
- Final Fantasy XIII (Sunday Night)
- World of Warcraft (Possibly Sunday. If not, in the future)
