Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Review Roundup 2/23

Heavy Rain

"A video game can encompass a multitude of experiences, transforming gamers into the heroes of intergalactic wars or the saviors of underwater civilizations. While the settings and scenarios may be different, most titles use similar gameplay vocabularies to immerse and entertain us. Concepts like shooting the bad guys, leveling up your character, and acquiring new items are so pervasive that they have been inextricably woven into most players’ definition of what it means to be a video game. Heavy Rain forces you to reconsider that definition. It is barely a game in the popular sense of the word, but Quantic Dream’s masterpiece makes groundbreaking strides in storytelling and character development, demonstrating that interactive entertainment still has a deep well of untapped potential."

Napoleon: Total War

"Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “One must change one’s tactics every 10 years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.” The talented team at The Creative Assembly would be wise to heed the words of their latest game’s namesake. Like the European conqueror, The Creative Assembly’s signature blend of turn-based conquest and real-time battle ranks among the elite in its field, but as Napoleon: Total War demonstrates, persistent legacy issues have started to weaken the game’s standing."

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

"Some say that landing second place in a race is simply being the first loser. When you’re Sonic the Hedgehog, however, ranking right behind your long-time rival after over a decade of poorly received titles is a big achievement. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is a blatant Mario Kart rip-off, but the hedgehog’s emulation actually executes parts of the kart racing formula better."

Metal Slug XX

"This is nearly an exact port of Metal Slug 7, which released in late 2008 on the DS (read the reviewhere). However, XX corrects the DS version’s ultimate sin of lacking Metal Slug’s trademark two-player co-op. Sure, it’s only local, but I’ll take it."

Risen

"I love the PC version of Risen. In many ways, it's the game that I've been waiting for Gothic creator Piranha Bytes to make for years. It's undeniably European, and may turn some gamers off with its unpredictable difficulty and general disregard for player convenience. It's also relatively polished, toning down the design's ambition to reasonable levels and immersing players in an internally consistent fantasy setting as well as any game to date. This tale of an ancient power waking under the earth, the struggle of two factions, and the little people of society trying to deal with it, is a treat to explore. Charting your shipwrecked castaway's path through the world is as entertaining as it is unlike the genre-standard clichéd ragtag group of unlikely heroes saving the world."

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