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"Assassin's Creed Rogue" & "Assassin's Creed Unity" Reviews

It's time once again for a dual review. This time I'm tackling the two new Assassin's Creed games which saw their debut on the same day, with Unity obviously overshadowing Rogue, but should that have been the case? Well, that's why I'm here, to give you my opinion. Let's get to it. 

Assassin's Creed Rogue

Ubisoft's final last generation Assassin's Creed game came out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with a PC date slated for next year. One would think that the previous generation limitations would hold this game back especially compared to it's next generation counterpart. While this may be true graphically, Rogue still provides an interesting story, fun gameplay and innovative changes that are equal to, if not better than Unity's. 

You play as an Irish assassin Shay Cormac who betrays the assassin's and becomes a Templar after they send him on a mission  that causes the unspeakable to happen (no spoilers here), in what I found to be one the most fun missions I've played in an Assassin's Creed game. 

Shay, upset by what happened, leaves the Assassin's and is later found by the Templars, Whom he sympathizes with and joins them on their quest for World Order. 

Both the past and present day stories take place after Black Flag. Shay's story takes place many years after Edward Kenyway's adventure, as Edward's son, Haytham (a familiar face) is now a grown man. Shay's story also proceeds the events of Assassin's Creed III and ends years after the events of Assassin's Creed III, tying directly into the beginning of Unity. Aside from Haytham, Adewale and Achilles both make a return appearance, with the former being older and the later being younger than we remember them. 

The present day portions take place directly after the events of Black Flag. You're still an employee of Abstergo Entertainment, helping them research memories so they can shine Templars in a better light and literally rewrite history. However, this time, instead of being instructed by a mysterious IT guy, you're instructed by your insulting mentor to help them fix the computers. Someone has released a virus into Abstergo's network, causing the whole system to crash and reboot, resulting in many computers crashing. This, of course, leads to more hacking minigames and chances to snoop at Abstergo's personal files. If you feel so inclined. 

Anyways, back to Shay... Rogue plays very similar to the other games in the Kenway Saga, you run, jump, climb, stab, hide, fall, sail, hunt, counterattack, and sync viewpoints. There are a few changes and additions however. For one thing, they took the detection compass from multiplayer and implemented it into Shay's Eagle Vision. When you're walking around you may start to hear whispers, indicating an assassin is nearby and stalking you. Once Eagle Vision is activated the compass will indicate the direction in which the assassin is hiding. They could be in hay bails, hiding behind walls, behind doors or even above waiting to jump on you. Shay's training and reflexes as a former Assassin prove useful as he is able to counterattack the assassin's sneak attacks. It's a really fun addition and constantly keeps you on your toes. 

Remember the forts from the Ezio trilogy? They're back. You can infiltrate Assassin hideouts and loot their treasures. It's very similar in fact. You take out the leader, climb a bit, and cut down the flag, replacing it with a British one in fact. 

Now I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that the naval combat and sailing is back. The good news is that it is much more painless now. The naval combat has been vastly improved, making taking down ships easier. It's also significantly easier to upgrade your ship. Upgrades not only require less materials but materials are also easier to comer by, making the frustration of waiting to start missions because your ship isn't strong enough, not as frequent. 

Overall, Assassin's Creed: Rouge is a solid farewell to last gen Assassin's Creed. It's a well done game with a surprisingly interesting story. It's only downfall is that, while Rogue does offer a fresh experience, it doesn't really bring anything new to the table. All of it's best aspects are borrowed from previous titles. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. Also, it's fair to say that the North Atlantic is a little more empty than the Caribbean, making travel sometimes bland. I have grown personally weary of the naval elements and seriously hope this is the last we see of them. 

My Rating: 8/10

Assassin's Creed Unity

Ubisoft's next-gen Assassin's Creed game that launched alongside Rogue was met with a lot of harsh criticism due to a plethora of launch bugs and glitches. However, I am going to opt out of using those as part of the basis for my review. I am doing this for two reasons. The first reason is because I hardly ran into any of these bugs or glitches during my PS4 playthrough, and any of the ones I did run into were not sufficient enough to warrant a bad review. Secondly, I do not feel it is fair to judge a core game that is otherwise passable by a few bugs that could be easily patched out. With all that being said, there are some non-glitch related things I did not enjoy about this game, but we'll get to that. 

In Unity, you play as Arno Dorian, a French-Austrian ladies man with a cocky attitude who takes up the blade after the death of a family member and becomes a reckless Assassin who takes matters into his own hands too much and... wait a minute. Haven't we been here before? Indeed we have. Arno's story is very similar to that of Ezio's. Of course it's not a complete copy-paste. Unity's story also offers childhood friend/love interest that plays a major role in the campaign. Either way, I did find Arno's story to be interesting, to me it felt more like a traditional Assassin's Creed story than the last few games. 

The modern day portions are a little bit different now, however. Abstergo Entertainment has now released the Animus to the public under the guise of a Virtual Reality Video Game Console, and they call it "Helix". Much like the previous games YOU are the modern day protagonist. You have purchased this Helix from Abstergo and are now giving it a whirl. You're greeted with a Story Selection screen in which only one option is playable at the moment. This, to me, was obviously Ubisoft's way of making it look like you're actually in a VR Console and each story is a different game. A lot of the options are previous actually existing games, while some appear to be Ubisoft's way of saying "here's a hint towards our next 5 games and/or DLC and standalone titles." Anyways, after you select the only available option you experience the final moments of a famous Templar from the medieval era (skewed to make the Templars look better of course, because this is Abstergo) when your Animus-- sorry, HELIX session is hacked into by assassins with fake names. Tell tell you that Abstergo is using you and then proceed to use you themselves. They want you to relive the memories of Arno and help them find the body of someone known as a "Sage" (a human reincarnation of Juno's husband if you've been paying attention to thew last few games). 

This is an interesting concept, it shows that Abstergo is slowly gaining more power, and the assassins are getting desperate. They're now reaching out to random consumers at home to help them with their cause. However, there's a few things that bother me. The first one is that the modern day portions are not playable. The second thing I take issue with is that it's never really clear in the previous two games if you're playing as yourself or a silent protagonist that works for Abstergo. If the former is true then this would cause some confusion. You're obviously not the same "you" that you were in Black Flag and Rogue, so this, in my mind, creates a paradox. Unless you assume your character in Black Flag and Rouge is a silent protagonist, then the modern day section of Unity makes a bit more sense. 

Anyways, in terms of gameplay, Unity is vastly different from the more recent games. For one thing, there's no sea travel. Also, the game takes place primarily in one big city, Paris. Also, they brought back the dual button holding for climbing on stuff like in the older games. Lately, just holding the shoulder button was enough, but in Unity they returned to holding the shoulder button and action button. This may sound inconvenient but the reason behind it actually pays off. The game now offers a free run DOWN mechanic. While holding the shoulder button to free run UP stuff, you can now hold the shoulder button and the cancel button to free run DOWN buildings and other such things. This feature comes in very handy when attempting to get down from high places since hay bails for a leap of faith are now scarce outside of right under viewpoints. When using free run down, Arno will automatically determine the best route to the ground and follow it. 

The world is now drowning in NPCs. Almost everywhere you go there are people to be found. The game takes place during the French Revolution so you get to experience people rioting in the streets; starting fires or carrying heads around on sticks. There's also a lot of crime, pickpockets and bullies you can put a stop to. Doing this so many times usually nets you with a decent chunk of cash, so it's worth your while. Sometimes this seemingly endlessness bounty of NPCs can be a bit overbearing as they easily get in your way when attempting an escape from guards, or certain areas can be so overstocked with random civilians it can cause them to stack on top of each other or cause the game so start lagging a bit. The game is also littered with side quests and collectibles. The map is now 3D, showing buildings in scale, which makes it easier to tell if the item you're trying to get is on the roof or the ground. If it's inside a building your guess is as good as mine as to how to get to it. Internal building layouts can get cluttered and confusing, especially when the seemingly only open window leads to a room with no stairs and the item is below you. Also, there's so much stuff that the map can be hard to read, and it doesn't help that they don't allow you to fully customize the icons that are displayed, instead opting-in for a virtually useless predetermined subcategory of icons. I just want to be able to see where the viewpoints and social clubs are, why is that so hard? Also, let it be know that if you don't plan on utilizing the Unity companion app on a smartphone or tablet, or the Initiates website, then about half of the chests scattered about are useless to you anyways.    

The combat is very similar to the Kenway Saga but it feels a little more clunky and more difficult to manage. Now, instead of obvious alerts when an enemy is about to hit you, their health bar flashes yellow for all of a split second, giving you a very limited window in which to counterattack. On top of that, enemies now have difficulty levels indicated by the number of diamonds above their health bar. The more there are, the harder they are to kill, especially if you difficulty level doesn't match theirs. That's right, if you look above your health bar you will see diamonds as well, indicating your level of preparedness for certain areas of Paris. You can increase this level by purchasing better armor and weapons as the game progress. You can now choose between a one handed, heavy or long weapon and a pistol or a rifle. Also, when purchasing new armor you can now customize each little piece, the hood, the shirt, the pants, the bracers and the boots. Each piece of armor has it's own rating which is critical in determining Arno's rating and how ready he is for certain missions. Each piece of armor also increases or decreases your stats in Health, Stealth, Ranged Attack and Melee Attack. Equipping a certain piece of armor may, for instance, lower your ranged attack but increase your health, and so on. Much like the previous games required ship upgrades before doing certain story missions, Unity encourages you to upgrade Armor before moving on. So they took out the naval combat but somehow managed to squeeze in its inconvenience factor. Here's the crazy part though, the armor can be upgraded which costs more money, but you can also hack an upgrade using Helix credits which you earn apparently randomly in the game over time, but also you can use real life money to purchase extra Helix credits if you're one of those micro-transaction addicts South Park recently made fun of. 

Abilities can now be purchased with Sync Points, special points earned from doing missions. The abilities fall under four categories:  Health, Stealth, Ranged Attack and Melee Attack. This is an interesting concept that ultimately fails for two reasons. The first being that a lot of the abilities that you can purchase, such as being able to sit on a bench to blend in, are now locked behind this new ability system. I guess the simple task of sitting can elude even the greatest of assassins without a visit to Ye Olde Vending Machine. The other reason this new gimmick fails is because it's impossible to unlock everything without playing co-op missions. So, those who usually shy away from online multiplayer are forced to play it if you want to unlock every ability. While I'm still on this, let me point out how ridiculous it is   that Eagle Vision is now limited and has to recharge. Also, your hidden blades are only used when you make sneaky kills, otherwise they're essentially non-existent. You can't even fight with them or select them as an active weapon. Pressing up on the D-Pad now gives way to using medicine to heal yourself, because they brought that back from the Ezio Trilogy. Which isn't a bad thing, auto-healing is just awful. The issue, is that everything is so damn expensive and money is scarce. My advice is to start renovating social clubs and doing side quests ASAP or you may find yourself going for broke most of the game. 

A welcome addition to the series are these rifts, or glitches in the animus. At certain points of your session Abstergo will attempt to hack in and the assassins open a glitch in the animus for you to jump through temporarily. These rifts always lead to an alternate Paris from a different time, such as the Medieval Renaissance or World War II. These make up for some of the game's best moments, which isn't saying much, I know, but it's worth playing for those alone. The other welcome addition to the series is the Open Assassination System. Now, when going to Assassinate a target, Arno will scout the area looking for entry points, vantage points, weaknesses and distractions he can use to get to and assassinate his target. It's much more player driven and gives you the ability to chose from one of many different ways to find your target and terminate them. I also like that Unity added more stealthy elements to the games. You can now crouch and hide behind cover, a feature almost as common in stealth games as pushing the Start button but somehow Ubisoft took 12 games to figure it out. There's also lock-picking, which would be more useful if you got better with practice and it wasn't linked to ability upgrades.

I did dabble a little bit in the online co-op, and by dabble I mean I tried it once because every other time the game refused to connect. From what I gathered, unless you're playing with friends with whom you are willing to communicate, the co-op is an organized assassination free for all. You are all given an objective, which would be simple on your own. However, what should be a quick and easy assassination turns into a stabbing ball of blood and confusion. For instance, I was making an attempt to approach the target stealthily, when one of my companions decided they were going to run in like Rambo and slice up anything that moves, causing every guard from here to Italy to come after us. Needless to say he was overwhelmed. Then the second idiot decided the best idea was to try and revive someone who was surrounded by guards, knowing damn well that they respawn eventually. Meanwhile, my third companion was content to sleep in a nearby hay bail the whole time. A mission that should have taken 10 minutes took a half hour and three respawns. Not very efficient.    

Overall, Assassin's Creed Unity is a mediocre addition to the series; that offers a bunch of welcome new additions with a bunch of unwelcome ones as well. Is it a bad game? I wouldn't call it that. Naughty Bear is a bad game, Brink is a bad game. I would call Unity more... unpolished, if you will. I would still recommend playing it but only if you're a fan of the series. Newcomers will be severely disappointed. It is worth at least one playthrough, because the game is fun, it just has some setbacks. That being said, I'd suggest Rogue more and tell you to wait on Unity until a few more patches and maybe a price drop. 

My Rating: 6/10           

   

"Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor" Review

Another review I'm a bit late to... but they say, better late than never, right? 

Anyways, shadow of Mordor is a game that's based in the same universe as the Lord of the Rings movies and in our experience games based on movies are usually not that great and vice versa. But is Shadow of Mordor an exception to the rule? Or is it just yet another crappy money-grabbing scheme? well, like usual, let's find out...

Shadow of Mordor, much like Murdered: Soul Suspect, is about a dead guy. Well, not technically. You see, you play as a ranger of Gondor named Talion who is played by none other than Troy Baker the Nicolas Cage of video games. Talion is forced to watch as his wife and child are brutally murdered by Sauron's right-hand man who is played by none other than Nolan North, the Samuel L Jackson of video games. Sauron's right-hand man, also known as the Black Hand, then tries to murder Talion but he is saved by a Elf-Wraith named Celebrimbor, who has no memory of his life. Celebrimbor possesses Talion, keeping him alive, and together, they set out on a journey across Mordor to exact revenge on the Black Hand while simultaneously uncovering the memories of Celebrimbor's past.

At it's core, Shadow of Mordor is an action/stealth/sandbox game. You traverse the open fields of Mordor's decaying lands, climbing on buildings, assassinating Orcs and Uruk-Hai, and collecting experience points to level up your attributes. The game is clearly very heavily inspired by Assassin's Creed. Some might even call it a rip-off. I call it an improvement. There's much to be done in this game, outside of the main story, and the game is pretty laid-back in how it let's you go about doing them. Even the main story quests, of which their are at least 2 or 3 at any given moment, can be tackled in any order. Aside from main story quests, Shadow of Mordor is littered with collectibles and weapon themed side quests, for your sword, your bow and your dagger respectively. Completing these quests not only earns you experience points but upgrades to your weapons as well.

Speaking of weapons, let's talk about combat. The combat in Shadow of Mordor is ripped directly from the Batman Arkham games. When fighting hordes of enemies you have to keep an eye out for counterattack opportunities and watch for chances to perform a finishing move on downed enemies. After awhile, the game starts to throw shielded enemies and berserkers at you, forcing you to change your strategy by using stuns and ranged attacks, which, might I add, are fantastic. Your bow and arrow are a wraith power controlled by the elven wraith within you. Time slows down momentarily, allowing you to line up and successfully execute multiple headshots within seconds. Eventually you gain combat skills that make for some amazing and often grotesquely bad ass finishing moves.

Now, let's talk about the biggest and most interesting aspect of this game: The Nemesis System. Implemented into the game's core gameplay is a sort of RTS style ranking system among the Uruk's. Going into the game's main menu and selecting Sauron's Army will unveil a plethora of gruesome baddies for you to pick off one by one. You can select one, make them a target and then go hunting. It's like a buffet menu for sociopaths. The enemies are constantly changing in rank too, mostly dependent on your actions. For example, if you die, the enemy who killed you will suddenly go up in rank, and if they weren't already a captain, you know just a regular disposable follower, well they're a captain now. Your death actually causes damn near every enemy to go up in rank and new, unknown enemies to come take their place at the bottom of the ladder.

You may be wondering how that works and how dying doesn't just entitle you to a re-spawn. Well, here's the thing. Being possessed by a wraith means you cannot die, not permanently anyways. The enemies have caught onto this though. Anyone who kills you gets marked as a revenge target and if you attempt to confront them again, they will remember you and will verbally make that clear, saying something along the lines of "hey, didn't I already kill you? No matter, I just do it again. You clearly enjoyed it so much you're back for more." On that same note, not all enemies you kill stay dead either. There's a good chance that if you kill any of them in any way but decapitation that you didn't actually kill them, but rather, fatally wounded them from which they somehow healed and are now looking for revenge. I actually had an incident where I "killed" one using wraith arrows and he came back later with a bag on his head to complain about how I messed up his "pretty face".

Now, you may notice upon first glance that a lot of enemies in the army are just silhouettes. This can be fixed by gaining intel from other enemies, papers or corpses. You can use that intel to revel an enemy's identity and, depending on where you get the intel, their strengths and weaknesses as well. This is essential when going up against enemies of a higher rank, as the higher they are up the ladder, the less weaknesses they have, essentially making mano-a-mano combat the only route to take.

Shadow of Mordor is a game I fell in love with instantly, but the second half of the game is what really sucked me in. Eventually you are blessed with the ability to brand Orcs and Uruks and make them obey you, including captains and warchiefs. I won't say much beyond that as the best aspect of it is discovering the things you can do with it for yourself.

The only part where Shadow of Mordor doesn't shine for me is the story. Which is weird, because I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan. But something about the way it's presented makes it feel a little bland. That's not to say it's bad or uninteresting, it could just use some tweaks. There are some parts where it really stands out, and they mostly involve Gollum and an Orc named Ratbag.  

Overall, Shadow of Mordor is an amazing game, which is rare for licensed movie themed games. I suggest any fan of Assassin's Creed or Batman Arkham pick this up, because it is both of those and so much more, and in a lot of ways, it's better.

My rating: 9/10

   

"Murdered: Soul Suspect" Review

Murdered: Soul Suspect is another game I was highly anticipating if for no other reason than it's original storyline. But is it a game worthy of investigating or does it deserve to be dragged to hell (much like that God-awful movie of the same name)? Well, like usual, let's find out... 

Murdered: Soul Suspect takes place in none other than Salem, Massachusetts, and for good reason. You play as a detective Ronan O'Connor who immediately gets killed and is tasked with solving his own murder as a ghost. Along the way he meets Joy Foster, one of the only humans who can see and talk to ghosts, and together they must solve the mystery of the Bell Killer while simultaneously looking for Joy's lost mother. 

On paper this sounds interesting, and would actually make a great movie. But in video game form it can be a hit or miss, depending on who you are. Murdered: Soul Suspect is in every way, shape and form, an investigation/mystery game. The core gameplay involves going from Point A to Point B, investigating a crime scene and then moving on once you've successfully solved the current mystery. It's like if you took the investigation parts of LA Noire and that's it and made a game out of them. Mix in some stealth, exploration and collectibles and you have a game. 

Outside of the game's core element there are sections where you must stealthily avoid demons who try to drag Ronan's soul down to hell. If you're spotted you must hide in ghostly apparitions until it's safe to come out and try again. To take the demons down you must sneak up on them and... well, I'm not entirely sure what you do to them exactly but whatever it is, it works. Outside of this, you're free to explore the city of Salem, possessing people, reading their minds and looking for collectibles. You'll also see other ghosts and ghostly walls and structures that the humans can't see mixing with the normal environment. A lot of it is meant to halt your progress until you gain abilities necessary to progress. Some of your fellow spirits are recently deceased and confused about their current state. You can choose to help them find peace by investigating their death but this involves more or less more of the same investigation gameplay. One of my favorite aspects is that you can possess a cat, yes a cat, and use it to reach high ledges. You can even make it meow. That's game of the year material right there. But seriously... 

Murdered: Soul Suspect, outside of having a pun for a title, has a interesting story. I actually found myself getting immersed in it. I'm a fan of a good ghost story and a nice murder mystery, of which this is both. You solve not only your own murder, but that of other recently departed denizens as well. Not to mention that every level has this age old artifacts and if you find all of them you are treated with a haunting tale that will send chills up your spine. The main story itself is an engaging tale with a few twists and an ending you may or may not expect. With only one human able to help him and the ever present danger to her by the Bell Killer, Ronan is tasked with more unfinished business than one dead person can handle. 

For the most part the characters are engaging but it doesn't say much when the dead are more interesting than the living. Joy appears to be the only interesting human character. Ronan, however, comes across often times as a dick who's just using Joy to meet his own needs. He's a hard character to like at first but will eventually grow on you. Most of the cops are dicks and some of the dead are even unsettling, purposely stalking the living because they're mad and causing demons to appear from their negative emotions. It's a regular grab bag of colorful characters, some likable and some not on both ends of dimensional planes. 

Murdered: Soul Suspect stands out in one more area, atmosphere. While it is not a horror game by any means it does provide a creepy and unsettling atmosphere in many ways, especially in the deformity of some of the dead. The town is misty, dark and too quiet. It certainly comes across as a place I'd rather avoid, much like Silent Hill. 

Overall, Murdered: Soul Suspect is far from perfect but it fun in it's own rights. If you're looking for a high speed action game with guns and violence, this is not the game for you. However, you're looking a slow-paced murder mystery with a haunting atmosphere, you've come to the right place.

My Rating: 7/10             

"Watch_Dogs" Review

After much anticipation and being pushed back a couple times, Watch_Dogs FINALLY makes it's appearance on the gaming market. But does it live up to the hype, and were the delays truly worth it? Some say no, others say yes, and some even say "what the hell is Watch_Dogs?" But the real question here is what do I say? You didn't come here for other people's opinions and to be frank, I never have and never will care what other people think of video games. I'm an individual. So, without further delay... let's get to it... 

Watch_Dogs is an open world action/adventure game that shares similarities with Grand Theft Auto and one of Ubisoft's most popular series, Assassin's Creed. The core element and selling point of the game is hacking. Using his smartphone Aiden Pearce can hack anything electronically connected from traffic lights to generators to even underground steam pipes (don't ask me how that one works but it looks cool and makes a loud noise so we're gonna go with it). The hacking can be used to stop cops and gang members chasing you in vehicles, tap into citizen's bank accounts, or stealthily take down guards protecting a ctOS server.

While the hacking is essentially the core element of the game it is not alone what makes Watch_Dogs so fun. Which is a good thing seeing how the hacking mechanic can tend to get a bit over-saturated after awhile. I remember numerous occasions where I would hack a citizen's phone only to end up eavesdropping on the same conversation I've heard once or twice before already. It's understandable that some things will eventually repeat, but one of Watch_Dog's main selling points by Ubisoft was that every citizen would be unique and have a different occupation, income, and special fact about them. While this is true in theory, I see a lot of repeats, just on citizens with different names. But overall this is a nit picky observation and does not take away from the game's enjoyment.

One of the most fun elements of Watch_Dogs is vehicle chases. The cops in Watch_Dogs will chase after you when a citizen calls them because you stole their car or because they heard gunfire. Often times you weren't even the shooter, but Aiden is a wanted man and they'll come after him anyways. You can stop these phone calls before they have time to respond, but here is the fun in that? During these police chases you have numerous tools at your disposal to stop your pursuers, and the more upgrades you unlock, the better tools you can use. There's something satisfying about being in a high speed chase, dodging in and out of traffic and then driving over a manhole cover, hacking it as you go, and looking back to see a cop car go flying sideways into a wall or another car and cause a pileup. Destruction, be it taking down a gang, blowing up a gas station, destroying transformers, or desecrating cop cars, is so much fun and I dare say, even more so than the hacking element.

I heard a lot of players complain that the vehicles controlled like ass. Bouncing around like cartoons, spinning uncontrollably, and other such debauchery. But, in my personal opinion, this is a good thing. And I might be in a minority here but I feel like expecting 100% realistic car mechanics in a fantasy based video game is simply folly, and, if anything, would take away from the fun. In real life, jumping a raised bridge would blow your suspension upon landing, your tires would fall off and you'd probably be injured. This is an action game, therefore it should play as such. You don't go to a Fast & Furious movie expecting them to obey traffic laws. So don't play an open-world action game expect Gran Turmiso level realism.    

Much like Fast & Furious (speaking of the devil), all the entertainment value lies in the action and eye-candy and the story is unfortunately, sub-par. In Watch_Dogs you play as hacker vigilante Aiden Pearce who's mix-ups with the wrong people cost him the life of a loved one, for which he constantly blames himself. And instead of doing what any sane person would do and calling it quits before anyone else gets hurt, he continues his underground work with revenge on the mind. While he is overall a good person who seems hellbent on doing the right thing, often times his motives, methods and associates are all questionable. The story itself actually picks up halfway through the game but the main characters all remain so-so throughout. Aiden's main posse in particular never really grew on me. In fact, it was one of the villains, a gang leader named Iraq whom I took particular enjoyment from if for no other reason than his portrayal as a black gang leader was so over done and borderline racist that it made me laugh uncontrollably. The game's ending felt cliche and anti-climatic as well, and in fact does not end well if you mess up the quick time event. Overall, it was ok to say the least but I feel like Ubisoft put most of their effort into the gameplay, eye-candy and hacking and not enough into story and character development. Not to mention that some of the story missions include frustratingly difficult stealth sections, especially near the end. I understand Ubisoft's love of stealth, I'm a fan myself, but some things don't need to be THAT difficult.

Now, I want to take a minute to talk about the multiplayer as well. I don't normally do this but I had a chance to dabble in it a bit and I must say I was pretty impressed. I played a few game modes in a party with a few people and we had a blast. Free Roam can get frustration because you can never find anyone, but I rather enjoyed Watch_Dogs' take on Capture the Flag. In a game of 3v3 one player steals a data packet while their teammates try to protect them, meanwhile the opposing team must try to steal the data and hold onto it for as long as they can. I rather enjoyed it. Another fun aspect was the ctOS app on smartphones and tablets. You can use it to hack into a players game and send cops and helicopters after them, hacking street lights and whatnot in an attempt to stop them from reaching their goal before time runs out. This mingame was loads of fun on both ends. But the most creative aspect of multiplayer that I must commend Ubisoft for is the way they handle social interaction. At random intervals of the game a player may drop into your server and attempt to hack you and it is your job to find and stop them before they succeed. You and the player both look like regular citizens to each other, making this easier said than done. Whether you win or lose this little confrontation matters not, the game proceeds as normal afterwards. The transition is so seamless and well executed you wouldn't know it was another player if the game didn't tell you.

Overall, Watch_Dogs shines mainly in gameplay. There's so much to do in this alternate version of Chicago that you can get lost for hours on side quests before even starting the next story mission. From saving citizens to taking down convoys to having digital acid trips and fighting off aliens or bouncing around on huge flowers Watch_Dogs has something for everyone and is a game with high replay value. I simply cannot ask for more for $60. It may not have lived up to ALL the hype, but it certainly matched most of it, and that's good enough for me.

My Rating: 8/10      
      

"Outlast" and "Whistleblower" Review

It's very hard these days to come across a good horror game anymore. So many once terrifying franchises have slowly but surely started to transition into action shooters with the occasional jump scare. Long gone are the days of our youth where we would stay up late sneaking out of our bedroom to watch our mom's boyfriend play Resident Evil 2 even though it gave us nightmares... Or maybe that's just me. Anyways, you get the idea. I have longed for a good true survival horror game for a long time, so as you can imagine, Outlast peeked my interest. But the question is... is Outlast truly a horrifying experience worthy of the "most times some has changed underwear in 24 hours" award? or is it a overhyped snooze-fest loaded with cheap scares, gore and not much else? Well, let's find out.... 

I'm doing this review differently. I'm going to review both Outlast and it's DLC add-on story Whistleblower, separately. I feel they are both worthy of their own review. So, first, Outlast. The game is about a journalist, Miles, whom you play as and has a serious mental condition that causes him to purposely investigate dangerous stories, even at the risk of his own life. At least, that's what I assumed, because nobody in their right mind would even THINK of sticking around this blood-splattered hell-hole for more than 5 minutes. I would have left at the FIRST sign of blood. But Miles is a bloody journalist by God and those crazy folk will do ANYTHING for a story. Thus, the plot has been established. But it's not so cut and dry. The idea here is that some bad science voodoo is going down in this asylum and Mile's gets a mysterious email from the inside (we'll get to that later) informing him of the illegal and inhumane activities going on in there, and of course, being the reporter that he is Miles goes to investigate. Everything starts off harmless enough, slowly getting creepier by the minute, until a change encounter with a deformed and overpowered inmate sends him flying right into the hands of destiny. And thus the REAL fun begins. Mile's journey quickly goes from getting his story to getting the hell out. Armed with nothing but a video camera with night vision, and his athletic abilities, Miles is about to take a trip through hell that he'll never soon forget. 

Outlast is, in every sense of the word, a TRUE survival horror game. There's no weapons. Only stealth, speed, agility and smarts. Most of the inmates in the asylum are way too big and powerful for you to take on anyways. Deformed and angry from experimentation, they're out for blood. During the game you go from one objective to the next, never knowing where the next threat may be lurking or what surprise is around the next corner. Your only friend in these dark corridors is your night vision camera and even that isn't promised. The camera runs on batteries which quickly drain and you have to find more laying around. If you happen to run out of batteries, you can't see more than a few feet in front of you and that's no preferable. Since you cannot fight, you must rely on stealth and speed to survive. Many areas involve multi-stage objectives such as flipping a few switches or turning some valves, all while avoiding the big angry inmate roaming the halls, looking for you. If you happen to get spotted, your only hope is to run like hell and hope they don't catch you, close doors behind you to slow them down, and hide in lockers or under beds and pray they don't find you.

Outlast, to me, was certainly a refreshing step in the right direction for survival horror. While it does have some jump scares they are not overdone or cheaply used. Outlast mainly scares players by messing with their heads. It builds up tension by leaving you in the dark (quite literally) about what's coming next. Every corner you turn, every noise you hear, every inmate you encounter could be a potential threat. Then, when the tension is built up, when something finally does happen the player reaction is vastly enhanced. Whereas if they just littered the games with random jump scares it would eventually get dull. But no, Red Barrels was smart. They built the game in such a way that it leaves you guessing and nervous and on edge for awhile and then BAM! It strikes when you least expect it. There where even times I had to take a break because my anxiety would flare up and I'd start having panic attacks. 

This is what separates Outlast from other so-called survival horror games. The horror, the fear, the tension, it's all real. The atmosphere is well done, the gore is disturbing and unnerving and the inmates are creepy and unsettling. Especially the inmates known as the "variants" who are the baddest of the bunch. Which include, but are not limited to, a big muscle bound lummox who can rip your head off with his bare hands, a crazy doctor with a mutilation obsession and a pair of naked twins with machetes who stalk their prey calmly, slowly and quietly. 

Outlast is the survival horror experience I've been waiting for. While some of the core elements can get repetitive and the game can get frustrating at times, overall it was a refreshing experience for someone like me who loves survival horror and games that scare you in genuine, horrific ways. 

My Rating: 9/10

Now, on to Whistleblower... 

The events of Whistleblower overall take place before, during and after the events of the core game. It revolves around Waylon Park, an engineer who signed a 2-week contract with Murkoff to help perform maintenance on the Morphogenic Engine. But Waylon becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the unethical experiments taking place at Mount Massive Asylum and thus sends out the email that Miles receives in the core game, leading him to the asylum. But Waylon is discovered and admitted to the asylum as punishment... and it is not long after this that all hell breaks loose and Miles shows up to witness the aftermath.

Compared to the core game, Whistleblower is significantly shorter but the the creepiness of the inmates and the intensity of the gore and overall morbid tone gets turned up a few notches. But this doesn't necessarily make it better. Part of what made Outlast so amazing was the tone it set, and the fact that you had to sneak around in fear of being discovered in a never ending, heart-pounding game of cat & mouse. Whereas, while Whisletblower does have a few of these sections, it's overall tone is more action oriented. I'm assuming because it's right around the time the shit hits the fan and all the inmates rare running loose. But that doesn't explain why it's STILL like that later in (at one point the game fast forwards 12 hours and there's still a linear chase scene like something out of an action movie). Overall, not much can be said about Whistleblower as it's still part of Outlast but it's worth noting that while the core elements are the same, the tone is slightly different. And let it be known that The Groom is one of the creepiest villains in gaming.          

My Rating: 8/10