Clive Barker's Jericho: Introduction

“…and God created The Firstborn in his own image.  An entity neither male nor female, dark nor light; a singular being that was both beautiful and terrible to behold.  Disturbed ty the power of his creation, God left it unfinished, banishing The Firstborn from reality to the Abyss, forsaken and unloved.”

These are some of the opening lines of Clive Barker’s “Jericho” a very mediocre, yet all around awesome, game released in 2007, developed by MercurySteam and published by Codemasters.  “Jericho”, despite being relatively well-known as a pile of complete crap, has gone mostly forgotten to time.  It wasn’t good enough to make an impact and it wasn’t bad enough to be memorable.

Resident Evil VII

A return to form.  Resident Evil is finally a Resident Evil game again.  These are the things I kept hearing about the first person survival horror game known as Resident Evil VII.  Finally, save rooms are back, storage boxes are back and limited inventory is back.  Finally, your player character is a vulnerable horror protagonist, rather than a wacky action hero, punching boulders or roundhouse kicking zombies in the face.  After seeing some proper gameplay, I had high hopes that mainline Resident Evil was, in fact, coming back home.  So, the question is, did it really come back home or was Resident Evil VII even more detached from the core franchise than RE4 and its successors?

We’ll start with answering the above.  No, no it is not a return to form, the game is, in fact, more different from its predecessors than even RE4 could ever have hoped to be.  Resident Evil VII is less a Resident Evil game, than it is an amalgamation of gritty American slasher movies like Texas Chainsaw and scary little girl horror, with some bio-terror thrown in.  Oh sure, the game has you running to save rooms and managing your inventory, but that’s not enough to really consider this a return to the franchise’s roots.  Resident Evil: Revelations already did that and frankly, did it better.

Resident Evil VII often feels like it’s going through some sort of identity crisis, it isn’t sure if it wants to be a campy Resident Evil game, if it wants to be campy slasher horror, if it wants to be grim and serious or if it wants to be J-horror.  People may give RE5 and RE6 shit for how straight faced they can get, but they’re consistent with themselves.  People separate RE4 from the lot, saying the camp was intentional, but it wasn’t.  Like RE5 and RE6, they weren’t trying to be ironic and like RE5 and RE6, the “ironic” camp is the result of Japanese writers attempting to write cool American action heroes.  Resident Evil VII’s camp, on the other hand, feels more artificial and intentional, given many of the game’s campier elements are mostly just references to other horror camp.  So on one hand, we’ve got this self-serious horror story and on the other, it’s a celebration of horror and camp.

The mishmash of Texas Chainsaw with the more Japanese imagery of spooky ghost girls with long hair, doesn’t help in making the game feel consistent with itself or the franchise it’s part of.  The game starts feeling even more out-of-tune with itself when Mia, the protag’s wife, decides that she’s in an Evil Dead movie and goes Deadite, complete with cursing and the campy growly voice.  It’s just a weird inconsistent homage to other horror media.  Game starts off on a spooky Southern estate.  Becomes a found footage flick, complete with a nod to Blair Witch, and then it’s Evil Dead, with your Deadite girlfriend chasing after you and lopping off your arm with a chainsaw, just in case you didn’t get the reference.  This is all within the first twenty minutes, before the game proper even starts.

This identity crisis also find their way into the gameplay.  Having been clearly inspired by many of the modern stealth/hiding simulator horror games, RE7 often has you fleeing from, and sneaking around, immortal enemies.  So in some moments, the game is a modern horror stealth/hiding simulator and in others, it’s traditional survival horror.  Unstoppable characters, however, are kind of the antithesis of survival horror.  A major point of the genre, especially in classic Resident Evil, is to conserve and wisely use the supplies and ammunition given you.  You're expected to kill things, but you have to kill wisely.  Even with similar enemies like Nemesis, the monster could be dealt with.  You had options. Do you want to run away from the monster and risk running into some difficulty when exploring areas for key items or do you risk wasting your resources, potentially making future areas more difficult?  There are no choices when it comes to the Bakers.  You’re not wrestling with any decisions here, you know they cannot be killed or incapacitated, so you just do what you’re expected to do in all these games, you run.  These unstoppable enemies create further issues outside of the inconsistencies brought on by two poorly fused gaming horror genres and the issue is that they're tedious.

The Baker AI, frankly, isn’t very good.  These unstoppable enemies are easy to evade and easier to hide from.  As a result, there’s really no horror or tension when the Bakers are around, as would be in something like Alien: Isolation.  They’re really just annoying.  You dread them not because they’re terrifying, unstoppable monsters, you dread them, because they slow progress and they’re too stupid to make encounters with them thrilling or rewarding.  You don’t feel that sense of catharsis when you outsmart and narrowly avoid one of the Bakers.  All you feel is a sense of tedium.  They’re not here to present any challenge or threat, they’re just here because they were on Capcom’s checklist of modern horror gaming tropes.

I think my biggest grip with the game’s inconsistency though, is how much the game throws at Ethan.  He’s supposed to be a rookie, we’re supposed to feel weak in his shoes, because he’s not a badass like Chris Redfield.  He’s weak, he’s inexperienced.  Despite this, Ethan ultimately feels more unstoppable than the entire cast of RE6, which includes a woman with a Wolverine like healing factor.  Ethan takes more punishment than previous protagonists and barely seems phased by any of it. He is stabbed countless times by Mia, gets a knife through his hand, then gets a screwdriver through the same hand and finally, he loses that same hand. What's he do? He casually picks it up, finds a handgun, says "Okay, fine." as if Mia chopping his hand off is just a mild irritation he's finally going to deal with.  Then he enters combat with his chainsaw wielding Deadite wife and he fucking wins. Guy is bleeding out a stump where his hand once was, probably has a dozen or so knife wounds and he still beats his Deadite wife, who just minutes ago had the strength to throw him up a flight of stairs and later through a fucking wall.  The game has the same problem Tomb Raider (2013) did. It goes straight to 11 from the start, with how much they physically punish the player character and then it expects me to feel like he’s weak and helpless.  It just doesn’t work and, again, goes to further create an odd inconsistency in how the game presents itself.  It wants me to feel weak and helpless, while at the same time throwing Ethan through the wringer and having him just walk it off like a bad hangover.

That’s not to say the game doesn’t have its moments or that it’s all bad.  Despite these issues, I did have a good time with Resident Evil VII and I’ll definitely be playing through it again on higher difficulties to get all those sweet unlocks and the like.

For the positives.  The latter half of the game, is thankfully more consistent.  Once we get past mom and pop Baker the game starts to pick up.  Lucas Baker, for instance, is a far more interesting and menacing antagonist character than either of the elder Bakers.  He's also the most entertaining to deal with.  Unlike his parents, he doesn’t stalk an area, instead he lays traps around for the player to get caught in.  This section provides a break from the tedium of sneaking past bad AI and, instead, expects the player to pay closer attention to their surroundings.  It’s not challenging in the least, but I’ll admit it was a refreshing change and enjoyable change.  Lucas’ section seems most like an homage to the SAW flicks, as there’s more an industrial look to his areas and he enjoys speaking to Ethan through televisions.  He also gets off on trapping people in small death rooms, complete with riddles and puzzles for elaborate traps.  His section is definitely a highlight of the game, because of his manic personality and the more inspired trap/puzzle set-up.  Still, Lucas isn’t the best part, a highlight for sure, but not the best.  That award goes to Mia.

Once we’re finished with Lucas and once Ethan takes a nap, handing Mia temporary protagonist duties, the game finally gets really good and drops the references to horror camp and starts to focus on horrible bio-weapons.  In essence it starts feeling a little more like Resident Evil.  This section is also benefited from the fact that Mia is just a more competent and interesting protagonist than Ethan.  For starters, she follows the lineage of characters like Ada Wong, in that she’s something of a secretive double agent, though with a little less femme fatale.  She’s also just more fun and empowering to play.  The moment you take control of her in a flashback, when she pulls out a fucking sub-machine gun and coolly searches for a self-aware and increasingly psychotic bio-weapon, while calmly fighting said bio-weapon’s dangerous minions, you know she’s far more capable than her husband. The game does a good job conveying this, not just through narrative, but through gameplay.  Enemies are nerfed and much easier to take down when playing as Mia.  In this regard, she feels more like a classic RE character, she's competent and not just because the plot gives her super armor.  Mia just feels better to play, because her section doesn’t feel inconsistent with itself like Ethan’s does.  She’s presented as competent and therefore is.  The game even gives reason why she’s meek and scared for a good portion.  She’s got some mild amnesia and doesn’t quite remember what happened before she arrived at the Bakers’ residence.  Amnesia isn’t the best writing, but hey, at least it’s consistent and explains why she’s not a collected badass like she is in the flashback.

The writing and characters, which I’ve so far failed to mention, are also kind of flat and just as confused as the rest of the game.  The first big issue is just how stupid the whole set-up of the game is.  Ethan just decides to continue pressing forward, despite all indications telling him he’s in a bad place and should get the fuck out of there.  This isn’t some James Sunderland like character, who’s motivated to trek into a spooky place because unconscious guilt draws him to this place of punishment.  This is just some dude, whose wife has been missing for three-years and just turns up in bum fuck Louisiana, in a creepy dilapidated estate with saws and animal heads decorating a side entrance.  I get horror characters need to act stupid, but this is pretty up there in terms of really, really dumb, unbelievable decisions in horror media.

The biggest question all over this game, however, is the tanker and the Baker estate.  Some missing oil tanker running aground in some Louisiana bayou is bound to draw some attention.  Sure, the ship was missing, but it clearly wasn’t far from shore and a map in the end credits marks the last location of the ship.  No one looked for it in those three-years and if they did, no one decided to maybe check if some of its remains washed up onshore?  There are also dozens of people who went missing in this area and some investigations are said to have occurred.  Yet the tanker draws no attention.  Blue Umbrella knows about it, so you'd think the authorities would've noticed a big ass tanker just hanging out by some random Louisiana farm, which is also around the same place people have gone missing.  Three-years and there were no other investigations?  Maybe I missed some document indicating why no one other than a private military organization and some other bio-weapons company knew where the hell the Annabelle was.

Also, what the hell is up with the Baker’s house?  I get it was renovated by a company likely working off of the same wacky shit thrown together by the guy who helped oversee design of the Spencer Mansion, but it doesn’t make sense here.  Why is this family just okay with random dog head emblems locking their front door?  Why do they have shadow puzzles which open up secret passageways into their den?  Why do they have a clock puzzle in their room, which opens up a passageway to the basement?  Why do they have such a HUGE basement with a full generator room, an incinerator and a fucking morgue?  Why do they have a shotgun statue, which locks you in the room if you remove said shotgun?  These were normal people prior to the infection and many of these renovations were shown to have been contracted long before they were infected.  The Spencer Mansion design makes some sense in universe.  It was an intentionally wacky booby trap filled place and it was owned by a weird eccentric who hired an eccentric designer to oversee its production.  Same goes for the RPD building.  It’s silly, but it’s also part of the bad camp charm of the original games.  REVII is just too grounded for this zany shit to fly without reasonable explanation.

Anyway, the writing.  Ethan’s not the most strongly written of protagonists, he’s pretty bland in fact.  Occasionally, they spice things up with a one liner here or there, but, again, they just feel inconsistent with the character we’ve been presented with.  One minute, he’s freaking out about some centipedes crawling around a tight corridor he’s creeping through, the next he sees an older woman turn into a human/spider hybrid and remarks “That’s special.”  He alternates between being a corny one-liner spewing Leon clone and a scared husband trying to save his wife.

Mia, while being more interesting, is still pretty under developed as a character.  Her whole shtick is neat, with her having a double life and working with a shadowy company or some such, playing caretaker to a bio-weapon.  Beyond that though, there’s not much to her and she’s just kind of hard to endear to as a player, given our first meeting her ends with her attempting to kill us with a chainsaw.

The Bakers are just psychotic yokels.  The performances are good, especially from Jack, but they’re your typical redneck murder family.  Zoe is also just as uninteresting as Mia and her relatives.  She calls us on the phone a few times, we meet her in person once and then she’s gone from the game.  There’s not much to her, other than being the cryptic/helpful phone lady.

It’s all just so basic, which is odd considering this is the same guy who wrote the much praised Spec Ops: The Line, a game which played with stereotypes nicely.  Here, he’s just offering a by-the-numbers horror plot, with the gritty tone of the Platinum Dunes Chainsaw movies, the bio-weapons shenanigans of traditional RE and a myriad horror references.  While all this stuff can be good and could even be potentially awesome together, REVII’s plot is ultimately less than the sum of its parts.

At the end of the day, REVII is a good game, a flawed game, but a good one.  I didn’t hate my time with it, but I do hope this isn’t the kind of stuff we’re looking at for the future of the series.  Say what you will about Resident Evil 6, but at least it’s a Resident Evil game, over-the-top action and all.  This?  Other than the bit with Mia, not so much.

Doom 2016

Doom 2016 was a disappointment, at least for me.  I know it was praised as a return to roots for the franchise and a return to form for the FPS-genre, but I can’t help but disagree on both accounts.  Doom 2016 isn’t a return to its roots, it’s just as much a far cry from classic Doom as Doom 3 was.  Doom 2016 certainly isn’t a return to form for the genre.  The FPS-genre had gotten along just fine before Doom 2016 came around and enjoyed its fair share of run-n-gun shoot ‘em ups, both with and without some modern conventions.  Even BioShock: Infinite, was doing the kickass triple-A take on arena combat and did so with a lot more style and substance and with an even greater emphasis on momentum.  If you’re still with me and you aren’t lighting your torches and sharpening your pitchforks, let’s really get into exactly why I think Doom 2016 just isn’t the second coming.

Persona 3 - Female Protagonist

Generally, I wouldn’t think a second, gender-swapped, playthrough of a game would merit another review, but P3P just happens to be an exception.  For the most part, games that allow the player to pick between a male and a female don’t really offer a different experience.  Your pronouns are changed, the VA is different and you can bunk with the dudes if the game has a romance option.  These things aside, the core experience, character interactions and story remains the same.  As if to say “screw your traditions” P3P goes the extra mile by completely changing many relationships, offering whole new ones and giving the female protagonist an altogether different feel than what you get in the original.

Persona 3 (Kinda Sorta Mildly Spoiler-y) Review

Well, I take back my original comments on “Persona 4” wherein I state it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever played.  Back then, I didn’t know, I just didn’t know at all how much better its predecessor was on almost every level.  That’s not to take away from “Persona 4” at all, the game is superb and I immensely enjoyed my time with it and plan to return to Inaba for some more shenanigans in the near future.  Still though, aside from some technical aspects, better dungeons and more refined Social Links, “Persona 4” comes nowhere close to touching “Persona 3”, not from a narrative and thematic perspective, nor does it come close in terms of challenge.

The 3rd Birthday - a rant

To start this off, I have a love/hate relationship with this game.  On the one hand, it’s a fun, kinetic and challenging little action/RPG hybrid.  Even on the normal difficulty, the game is extremely unforgiving with a decent learning curve, leading to a frustrating, but rewarding experience.  Top off the sleek action and presentation with a relatively deep customization system and you’ve got one hell of a game on your hands.  I’ve played through it about four times now and still, the game is as cathartic and interesting as when I first booted it up.  On the other hand though, this game is a complete fucking asshole and practically goes out of its way to ruin the legacy of a character and franchise I cared very much about.

Corpse Party: Blood Drive (wherein I rant, a lot)

Well, this is the final chapter in what has been dubbed the Heavenly Host Saga and, well, it was kind of a disappointment.  Now I’m not saying the game was bad, not by a long shot, but compared to its predecessors, especially the original PSP remake that started the trilogy, it’s rather lackluster.  From gameplay issues to story and character problems, Corpse Party: Blood Drive, while occasionally very inspired, often feels less like a chapter in the Corpse Party storyline and more like an episode of this year’s most popular teenage aimed anime.

Child of Light

This was a very pleasant surprise and, all around, one of the most welcome and refreshing little experiences I’ve had in a game.  I decided to pick this up for a friend, to see whether or not the game was worth having.  What essentially started as playing guinea pig, quickly turned into a very enjoyable journey that I’m glad I was talked into taking, as I probably would not have taken it otherwise.

Ubisoft hasn’t had the best rap as of late, with good reason.  From the controversies surrounding Watch Dogs with its exclusive limited editions and the issues with Assassin’s Creed: Unity.  Ubisoft have been proving themselves to be up there with the likes of Gearbox when it comes to screwing over consumers and releasing products that, in no way, reflect what they show off during conventions.  While their controversies may not be as abhorrent as the Colonial Marines debacle, they’re still quoting from the same book, so I wouldn’t say mildly less lies gives them much of a pass.

Parasite Eve

God it was good to get back to Parasite Eve, which still stands as pretty much my favorite Square-JRPG.  It’d been quite a while since I last booted the game up and successfully completing it, so the overall impact from this go through was almost like a second first time and my was it absolutely glorious.  Square, and honestly several RPG centric developers, would do themselves well to learn from Parasite Eve.

Persona 4: Golden (aka Greatest Thing I've Ever Played)

So, I finally completed Persona 4: Golden on the Vita.  Took me about six months altogether, with a total play time of 68 hours and 1 minute, but goddamn was it wonderful.  If anyone who reads this knows anything about me, it’s that I’m strictly against runtimes that go well beyond the 20-25 hour mark and even then that’s really pushing it.  A huge problem I have with a number of modern RPGs is their tendency to pad the runtime to extreme degrees.  It’s often unnecessary, forced and artificially extends the story.  The biggest reason this is any kind of issue with the average big ultra-epic RPG is that the length is well beyond the scope of the narrative.  I mean, the average RPG narrative is rather simplistic; “you’re the last guy can kill dragon, dragon are back, will end the world, are you a bad enough dude to kill an dragon?”

Life is Strange - Episode Three

And so comes episode three of Life is Strange, aptly titled Chaos Theory.  As is the case with the previous episodes, I’m absolutely digging this series, its world, characters and narrative.  As is the case with the previous episodes, the soundtrack is great and the writing continues to improve as the writer’s hone their craft and, both they and the cast, really get into the characters.  It’s still got that semi-awkward use of outdated phrases and words, but it’s written and delivered with more confidence than it had been in previous episodes.

Life is Strange - Episode Two

And episode two is out now, and goddamn was that really a huge improvement over the original episode.  I already loved episode one of Life is Strange for its quirky, Wes Anderson, indie type setup, characters (though none are as unrealistically quirky as Anderson’s) and setting and for its inventive time mechanics that add a little spice to its Telltale era adventure game setup, but damn, episode two really takes the love even further.

Mass Effect 2

So I finally got around to playing and finishing the sequel to everyone’s favorite sci-fi RPG franchise: Mass Effect.  And yeah, everything I heard was true, it’s a damn good game that goes to great lengths to address a good majority of the clunky gameplay mechanics that marred the first game.  Cover is a help rather than a hindrance, combat is fast and satisfying, teammate AI is actually competent and mapped abilities increases the flow of combat.  It really is an improvement over the original title in just about every way possible.

Life is Strange - Episode 1: Chrysalis

So, on impulse I just kind of bought Life is Strange.  Read the little blurb, saw it was an episodic adventure game in the vein of Telltale and, to be honest, I have a thing for indie music and culture.  Call me a hipster if you want, there’s something sort of neat about a culture that revolves around art and simpler things like nature, timelessness and nostalgia.  Sure that’s the romanticized aspect of the culture and in reality it’s a bunch of elitist snobs who reject anything that more than ten people know about.  But nothing’s wrong with the idea of it.  Sort of like the Native American, not quite as noble and loving when you get into the history of it and realize, they weren't exactly peaceful people either.  So yeah, I was sold when part of the game’s description said it uses an indie influenced soundtrack with some legit indie bands to boot.  Then seeing the screenshots with some indie college students aiming guns, smoking pot and looking thoughtful, with backdrops of a beautiful rural town in the fall.

DmC: Devil May Cry

Well, I completed it and I gotta say that like Max Payne 3; DmC: Devil May Cry isn’t all that bad.  Oh that’s not to say it doesn’t piss me off, especially in that opening, but honestly it’s really only the first hour or so and some small nitpicks here and there that ruins it for me.  So let’s get the good out of the way before we jump right into the bad.

Alien: Isolation

Well, I just completed Alien: Isolation, otherwise known as the Alien game the franchise has always deserved.  This is, unsurprisingly, the first time any developer has tried to capture the more tense and claustrophobic nature of the original film.  Instead of being a Colonial Marine mowing down countless Xenos with your Pulse Rifle, you have nearly zero defenses.  Sure Amanda’s got a revolver and a shotgun with which to defend herself, but, for once, the Alien is the nigh indestructible threat it was in the first and third films.  Your only line of defense against the creature is a flamethrower, which only scares it off for a few minutes.  If you don’t happen to have that handy, you better know how to sneak like a champion and in the chance that there’s not a lot to hide behind, you can hide in lockers, crates, under beds or tables.  If you think you’ve got bigger balls than the Alien you can try to take it on with your conventional weapons, but you’ll quick learn, this does nothing but piss it off.

Murdered: Soul Suspect

A few months back I’d bought Murdered: Soul Suspect, but with work and such getting in the way, I rarely have the time to play my console titles for more than a few hours at a time – save for weekends. I’d decided to start giving myself a bit of a schedule and focusing on one game at a time during the weekends, given my rather larger list of uncompleted games. The first on the list was Murdered: Soul Suspect.

To get this out of the way first, I did enjoy the game. It has an interesting premise, I like the location and its sordid real life history. But there are some major issues that hold it back from being anything more than an interesting idea.

For starters, the game has one of the most sputtering frame rates I’ve ever seen; constantly dropping down to like 10-15 frames a second. The laughably bad Colonial Marines frame rate was more consistent than this. While it’s not a game breaker, it is frustrating when the frame rate constantly takes a shit, making exploration quite disorienting.

The biggest issue really is the gameplay itself. It’s not that it’s bad, I have no problems with a title that focuses more on investigation and less on combat. L.A. Noire succeeded in that regard just fine, and honestly I think the game would have been better if there wasn’t an occasional high octane action scene. Problem is, while Murdered is basically L.A. Noire with ghosts, the game treats the player like a moron, which in turn, makes main character Ronan, look like he’s got the cognitive abilities of a small child. Even when all the information is spelled out to him, Ronan needs it spelled out some more, just in case the audience doesn’t quite get it. For instance, the obligatory twist is made obvious about a quarter of the way through, but Ronan’s surprise is understandable. The problem is, the twist comes and he kind of forgets it later on. He knows who the killer is, but then forgets who the killer is, blaming someone else instead.

The clues and answers are far too obvious. It’s less about deduction and reasoning and more like “put circle in circle.” Many of the clues are spelled out to the player, 10 times out of 10, you will find yourself clicking on the clue that the game already said is the relevant clue. The girl escaped to the church, what is the most relevant clue? The church of course. I get the feeling that it was either a developer or publisher decision to make the investigation/deduction stuff as simplistic as possible. Wouldn’t want to challenge the audience and make them think. No, it might scare some people away. It’s insulting how little respect the game has for its audience’s intellect.

In the end, the real crux of the game is the story. And while serviceable with some nice character moments, it’s mostly kind of forgettable. The plot is borderline Quantic Dream bad, complete with the signature David Cage narrative nosedive. For all of its interesting ideas and the grounded historical premise, it’s all very run of the mill.

Hero character Ronan is the most cliché of detective clichés. He’s got a bad past, has a lot of tattoos, is cynical, world weary and wears a trilby/fedora. While I appreciate his design, he’s, well he’s overdesigned. It looks nice, but the design feels like a caricature, he looks like he’s going to a Halloween party as an Irish gangster from the 1950s. He’s got the vest, the pocket chain, a button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a trilby to complete the look. It’s just dishonest. If the game maybe took place in the ‘50s I’d let it slide, but it’s got a modern day setting. Ronan looks like he just stepped out of a time capsule. It’s not like it would’ve been hard to give the guy a modern day design, but instead of going for a modern fedora/trilby w/ suit get up, they went for the classic old school noir anti-hero look. It makes Ronan look like a douche, a poser. Someone pretending to be this cynical chain smoking badass.

His design also isn’t helped by his dreadful monologues. It sounds like Max Payne fan-fiction at points. Like someone with no writing ability thought “man this sounds so deep” and rolled with it. It feels forced, false and dishonest. Max Payne may have had some cheese ball monologues and moments, but there was an honesty to it and a poetry to the prose. You can tell Sam Lake loved and understood the genre and had fun with some of its sillier tropes. That’s where Max Payne worked, it was an honest pastiche of the genre and while it had a serious narrative, it didn’t always take itself to seriously.

Murdered just feels like someone who thought the noir idea and tropes sounded cool, but had no understanding or love for it. It’s hollow, a cheap imitation. It’s less Robert Mitchum and more Christian Slater in Alone in the Dark.

And while the dishonesty and clichés really bring the game down a couple notches, the best parts are the characters. Both Ronan and Joy are quite interesting to watch. While they’re both overdesigned clichés –he’s the tough guy and she’s the rebel teen- their banter between each other gives the game some heart. Maybe it’s the performances or the writer is better at lighthearted dialogue than noir pastiche. Whatever it is I enjoyed every moment of their time onscreen together.

There’s some nice lighthearted moments such as his inability to pass over a puddle of tortured souls.

Joy: “Can’t you just fly over.”

Ronan: “Fly? I’m a ghost, not a plane alright?”

Not quite as funny in text, but you get the point. The actors really get into their roles and their lighthearted sarcastic banter brings some character, to an otherwise characterless story. Honestly, if the game just focused more on their relationship I would’ve been much more satisfied with the overall experience.

The whole thing feels like a lost opportunity and it feels rather rushed. There are little seeds planted throughout the story that never amount to anything and the final act is anti-climactic as they get and comes straight out of left field. You get the sense that they had more they wanted to put into it, but had to rush to meet a deadline. Especially with the ending. There was so much more story that could’ve been explored, but then, out of nowhere it just hits you and it’s over. And it wraps everything up as quickly as possible. We never see Ronan and Joy give their goodbyes, just some narration and a short montage to give the audience some semblance of closure.

I really feel bad about being so critical of this game and this review turned out harsher than I anticipated. I really do like it and what they were trying to do. But Murdered is a half a masterpiece. All the pieces are there, but most of the puzzle is lost.

Corpse Party

After recommendation after recommendation, and me mostly writing if off as some weird Japanese-Hentai-Horror hybrid, I finally gave Corpse Party a shot. After first purchasing the constantly recommended PS Vita of course. I gotta say, the man was right, the game is that good and I’m honestly a little sad knowing it’s something of a cult title and doesn’t get anywhere near the recognition it deserves. Corpse Party is a shoe in for one of the best survival horror games I’ve ever played. From the scares, to the story, to the characters, CP delivers in spades. Which I’ve gotta say is pretty impressive, given the absolutely huge cast of characters. Even the best of writers would have some issues keeping this many characters in order. The main cast is comprised of nine characters, at least four of which could be considered a lead. And that’s not counting the supporting cast, of which there are three primary players, as well as several others.

It’s impressive how well they jumbled these characters and how each one has their own fully fleshed out story and personality. It’s rare that you find this kind of sharp, complex character writing in, well in any fiction really.

Anyway the main game. Yeah, it’s survival horror, so there’s not much to it. Combat is non-existent and most of your time is spent exploring Heavenly Host, running from some ghost kids occasionally and solving the odd puzzle here and there. There are some neat moments that break up the monotony, mostly in the shape of the Wrong Ends, or Game Overs.

While they work as game over scenarios, there’s a little something to them that livens them up from the typical “You Died” screen present in so many survival horror titles. The game kind of fucks with the player a little bit with these, sometimes you’re not even sure you’re getting a game over. You’ll be marching around all fine and doing your thing, when suddenly the game’s like “yeah that choice you made back there, wasn’t the right choice. Now your friend's dead as shit.”

While it was an end I didn’t get, there was one I saw after my initial play through in which a main character is cut straight in half. Prior to that she gets possessed and decides to be a crazy lady for a few seconds. If the player chooses to ignore the character and continues on with a certain puzzle, right as you solve said puzzle, she will come out and the wire necessary for the mechanism to work, will slice her right in half, in Ghost Ship fashion. (Note: this game is not as stupid as Ghost Ship, it’s actually very good) It’s little touches like that that keep you on the edge of your seat, never knowing what choice is the right choice. Should I read this paper or will my character lose sanity if I do? Should I say this, or will it screw things up for me down the line? It’s like Mass Effect, only the choices actually matter.

I’d talk about story, but, I’ll at least lay out the basic premise of the story. During a going away party the students of Kisaragi Academy find themselves trapped in the “closed spaces” of a heavily dilapidated, super haunted, elementary school called Heavenly Host. Really though, I’d say just get a PSP, Vita, or PC (as it’s originally a PC title and this version is being released on PC sometime soon) and purchase the title. It’s more than worth the entry fee. Especially since the core game offers about fifteen hours of gameplay on the first run through, extending its replay value by offering what are called Extra Chapters, of which there are ten. On top of that there are several alternative endings, both for the whole game as well as the Chapters. And of course little pieces here and there, such as collecting all student ID tags, etc. There’s a lot of game here for the small price.

From the pacing, to the score, the game just gets everything right. Each chapter ends with a bang and a cliffhanger, getting the player pumped for the next sequence. Chapter Four’s closing and Chapter Five’s opening, were probably some of the most intense, twisty turny “oh shit” moments I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. The game had me in a chokehold, I was glued to the screen.

There’s really not enough good I can say about this title. It’s just that good. If you haven’t played it, go out, buy it and play it. Don’t download it all illegal like either. This game was independently funded, all in house and shit. Even the VA cast is comprised of unknowns. Buy it! Buy it now!

Resident Evil 6 (Amended Review)

So, Resident Evil 6; it appears I have yet another moment where I enjoy a nice big plate of crow for going by my earlier judgments and not really giving the title a chance. Resident Evil 6 managed to win me over, I wouldn’t have even attempted the game again had it not been for the praises of a good friend. So swallowing my pride I purchased it again and took Resi6 on one more time. There’s a couple things I want to get out of the way first, many of my earlier complaints still stand, and like with Alpha Protocol it is not a point in the game’s favor that it takes some time to get used to before you actually have any real fun with it and its convoluted control scheme. I would only suggest that you give it some time to get used to and you’ll be pleasantly rewarded with a very fluid very fun time. If it still puts you off it’s only the developers fault. Not all of us are willing to re-coordinate ourselves to learn weird control schemes and it shouldn’t be expected.

Anyway, on to the title. Once everything is figured out and you feel comfortable with the game (if you try I suggest setting your camera to 10, 10, 5, it’ll greatly improve the experience and the FOV) it’s an intense and extremely satisfying shooter. Sliding and just dominating the combat area is always a blast and mastering the combos and counters just helps add to the fluidity of the game.  While each campaign has its own style, the controls and gameplay remains consistent throughout.

Where the game succeeds in the gameplay is the clever mixture of modern third person combat and aesthetics, with the sensibilities of character action titles like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. While the mixture of styles is (I’m guessing) the reason the controls are confusing, you’d be hard pressed to find a more fluid and satisfying shooter once you’re used to it all.

Each campaign offers up nice variety, having four different play styles altogether. Leon’s campaign is more survival/horror focused and is the closest we get to the series’ roots. Chris offers us the Call of Duty experience, with some Resident Evil flavor and a surprisingly affecting story. Jake’s campaign is more focused on chase sequences than all out action, and has the most touches of the character action style I mentioned above, given that Jake is the gifted (obviously) son of Albert Wesker. Ada’s bonus campaign (now automatically unlocked) is more stealth focused and is the only solo campaign.

Altogether each campaign offers the player a great amount of variety and are about six to seven hours on initial playthrough. Meaning altogether the game can max at around twenty or so hours, depending on player skill of course. It definitely gives the game some high replayability, and that's not counting the mini-games and the multiplayer.

The story, while not all that great (it is a Capcom game after all) is surprisingly good and some of the best Capcom has done in a while. As stated above Chris’ campaign is surprisingly affective, even if it is bogged down by the very cliché, very inaccurate portrayal of military operations and lingo. They try to get it right, but it’s obvious the writers have no clue how military units communicate or how they speak during operations. For a campaign obviously inspired by Call of Duty and other modern military shooters, it’s rather jarring how out of place and cartoonish some of the military dialogue really is.

Among the occasional crap dialogue and the fake military speak it's Resident Evil’s comic book-ish story in top form, complete with some: memorable lines, characters and events. It’s flashy and at times absolutely ridiculous, but it’s a helluva ride.

As for complaints I still have some of the same and a couple I failed to mention.

For starters, the pause system is still counter intuitive bullshit and the player should not be punished for their batteries dying or the controller disconnecting mid-gameplay, as I stated in my earlier review there’s a reason every game pauses when the controller is disconnected. The cover system while cool looking when you slide into it, still feels unnatural and doesn’t always work as the player wants. Luckily cover isn’t exactly a necessity so it’s not a major issue.

The new menu, while neat with its real time fun, is still a step back from the hotkey menu of Resident Evil 5. I shouldn’t have to fumble through three different weapons before I select my shotgun. It’s cumbersome and often slows down an otherwise fluid game.

An entire block of health should not be gone every time a zombie grabs me. This is incredibly annoying and takes away health more than any other factor in the game - yes even bosses. Not only is the loss of a full bar a cheap way to challenge the player, the zombies themselves are extremely cheap. While you’re taking on a few, you may not notice the one crawling that you’d swear jumps right out of Leon’s ass and tackles him to the ground. Some like to jump from off screen and then there’s the Bloodshots. Big time assholes who jump great distances, always from out of your field of vision and tackle the ever living fuck out of Leon. This does not offer challenge, it is a cheap way to limit the player and make the game harder than it really is. You’d think with Capcom being the same company responsible for Devil May Cry, they’d find better fairer ways to actually challenge the player.

But the biggest complaint would be in regards to the “search for X” sections and the stupid regenerating leech monster thing that they totally stole from RE0 and Outbreak. The sections are already tedious as is, given that you run around a pretty good sized map while searching for random keys. But Capcom thought it would be a good idea to throw in an enemy that endlessly pursues you, keeps on regenerating and apparently multiplies. It makes the already tedious sections that much more tedious. When I’m doing a "search for X" section of a video game I should be left the fuck alone so I can search thoroughly. You want to throw in a couple enemies in some of the rooms that’s fine. But having a stupid regenerating monster constantly pursuing me, means I don’t search as thoroughly and I dump ammo into the damn thing when I get cornered or it happens to be blocking the way.

In the end I’d give Resident Evil 6 a solid 8 out of 10. I’d give it a 9, but it loses a point on the grounds that the controls are damn near counter intuitive and the cheap lazy design decisions they use to “challenge” the player are… well… cheap and lazy.

Alpha Protocol

I said I’d be returning… well at least trying to keep this blog a little more up to date. Life’s been busy but you’re not here to listen to what goes on in the life of  yet another random internet blogger guy who reviews video games as if his opinion of them is somehow important. You’re here to read what the hell I have to say about whatever it is I feel like giving an opinion on and this time it’s an opinion not shared by most. Oooh look at me, I’m a contrarian, always going against the popular opinion!