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Hands-On: Marvel Heroes

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April 7, 2013

Make Mine Marvel

I can’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t want to be a superhero. Whether it was wielding the Hulk’s impossible strength, firing lasers from my eyes like Cyclops, or cutting things to ribbons with Wolverine’s claws, superpowers have always been at the forefront of my imagination. So, I’ll admit that I relished being able to go hands-on with Gazillion Entertainment’s upcoming free-to-play MMORPG Marvel Heroes.

The story starts off with vintage Marvel bad guy Dr. Doom getting his hands on a Cosmic Cube—and the chaos he intends to bring down upon the citizenry of the world will be significant. Therefore, Marvel’s mightiest heroes from across all major lines must come together to root out Doom and his allies. Being as obsessed with comics as I am, this story may look like it’s been done before—on the surface, anyway. But the game’s writer, Brian Michael Bendis (best known for his long run on The Avengers), is clear that it’s difficult to write for a game like this.

“The challenge was to come up with a story that hits as much architecture and landscape in the Marvel Universe as possible without it feeling too much like a knee-jerk thing,” he says. “What’s interesting about the Marvel Universe is that there are just as many interesting things going on at the street level—let’s say the Daredevil level, the Spider-Man level—as there are at the cosmic level, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Silver Surfer, the Galactus level. The cool thing—and the interesting idea for us—was to actually start the story at the ground level and kind of roll like a snowball downhill. As you discover more and more about the actual story and play through the game, you get to travel up toward the cosmic level of the Marvel universe, all the while not getting newcomers lost or confused. I looked at it like this grand opportunity to create almost like a Marvel event comic unlike anything you’d actually seen in publishing. And at the same time, create like a Marvel lifestyle product, if that makes sense. Then, there are some fans who live and breathe these characters—and are going to live and breathe this game. This is going to be, if done well, the next step of the worldwide community of comic-book fans and Marvel fans and just fans of games. To create something that really lives and breathes like the Marvel Universe for them all to live in is a real treat—and a real challenge.”

If you should live and breathe these characters, as Mr. Bendis so aptly puts it, then you’ll probably be as excited as I was to see what he was talking about. I was fortunate enough to play through three of the story’s dozen chapters; in that time, I went from Mutant Town in New York City to the Kingpin’s penthouse to the Morlock sewers to the Savage Land—hopping through some of Marvel’s most iconic locations in a way that makes sense to the story. I also took on iconic baddies like Sentinels, Mutates, A.I.M., and the Purifiers, not to mention individual supervillains like Green Goblin, Tombstone, Sauron, Bullseye, and Lady Deathstrike.

But including characters that we expect to see in a game like this isn’t going to be enough—the gameplay needs to be there, too. Fortunately, Gazillion president and COO David Brevik has a bit of experience in making games like this really shine (he created Diablo I and II, if you didn’t recognize the name).

Steering away from fully customizable avatars, Marvel Heroes wants to make you feel like those great characters we all grew up loving, so you only play as established characters from the Marvel Universe. If you want to smash with the Hulk, you can do it. If Ms. Marvel is more your thing, then no one will stop you. Or maybe purple really does it for you, so Hawkeye’s your man. If they’re a hero in the Marvel Universe, you can unlock them and play with them at some point. And if you don’t like their standard look, you’ve got a bevy of alternate costumes you can unlock—like, if you’d rather your Captain America have that 1940s helmet instead of his modern mask.

And playing with these characters feels as great as you’d expect. Setting hotkeys for special powers or just left- and right-clicking makes it so you can fire a variety of beams with Cyclops or set the world on fire however you wish with the Human Torch. It couldn’t be easier to start mowing down Mole People or putting the screws to Pyro than that.

As Brevik explains, though, you can’t just go it alone if you really want to get through the story and the inevitable expansions down the road. At times, you’ll have to team up, and Gazillion’s trying some different ways to make some of those feel more spur-of-the-moment than camping out in front of a dungeon entrance looking for help.

“We had an idea about the way that we’d like to get invites going and get people together,” he says. “We have events that are more traditional encounters, making sure that there are opportunities for people to socially get together and group up. You hang out in town, and people are like, ‘I need help with the Kingpin fight!’ or ‘Oh, I’m on that, too,’ and group up and go to this thing together. That’s something we wanted from the very beginning as part of the design. Then, we have optional grouping, which is this loose grouping out in the public combat zones. Green Goblin suddenly pops up, and then everybody can get together dynamically and work together, and everybody gets rewarded. So, there isn’t an official formalization of the grouping there. There’ll be other ways to group and other ways to do things, especially in the endgame, that I think will also play right into the kind of MMO hands that people are used to.”

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the crafting system. Going to certain characters like Forge at the X-Mansion or Hank Pym at Avengers Tower will allow players the chance to upgrade their equipment or add buffs to items like Cyclops’ visor or Deadpool’s katanas. This just gives you an even deeper connection to the experience; it hearkens back to Diablo while still featuring the Marvel flair players expect.

Marvel Heroes is shaping up as one of the more special free-to-play MMO experiences. With the power of the Marvel license, writers like Brian Michael Bendis, and David Brevik’s Diablo background, every Marvelite will likely be shouting “Excelsior!” when this game’s finally open to everyone—hopefully sometime later this year.

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EGM Preview: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

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March 9, 2013

Walking the Plank

WARNING: Due to the nature of this preview, there will be spoilers regarding previous Assassin’s Creedgames, especially Assassin’s Creed III. Consider yourselves warned.

The present day setting of Assassin’s Creed always served as a means to explain what we were experiencing in the past. This was done, of course, with Desmond hopping into some form of the Animus to relive his ancestor’s lives to find pieces of the puzzle that would prevent the end of days. But with Desmond’s ultimate sacrifice at the end ofAssassin’s Creed III to save the world, the catalyst to trigger these memories we so enjoyed as gamers is now gone. And yet, the Templar-Assassin War still rages on behind the scenes.

So, before we get into the juicy story and gameplay bits of Edward Kenway and his pirating ways in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (since it’s been leaked all over the internet anyway), we first wanted to look a bit at the new Animus user that would facilitate us experiencing early 18th century Caribbean life. You. That’s right, the player themselves are being directly inserted into the action. Looking to bring the players closer to the story, the unintentional barrier created by Desmond as a character is now completely removed by the narrative of previous games. Players will have a more personal say over their characters as they become one with the story to help immerse them in the Assassin’s Creed universe. And Game Director Ashraf Ismail was kind enough to explain to us how this works with the Assassin’s Creed canon.

“The Animus technology has progressed forward, so that it allows anybody to go into the ancestry of someone else as long as the DNA is in storage somewhere. And the way this is presented to the player is through Abstergo Entertainment. Abstergo Entertainment is a subdivision of Absertgo Industries, who are the present day Templars. So this is a company that does research on historical figures and historical events for entertainment purposes—or so they say. This is the façade. There’s obviously a darker, deeper intent behind all of this. And then you are hired as a research analyst. You’re told to use the Animus to research the life of this great pirate, Edward Kenway. You’re not told why, but as you progress through the story you will find out that Edward had a major impact on the Assassin-Templar conflict. The Templars of the present day need information about what Edward did in the past. And this is why you’re doing all of this.”

Abstergo Entertainment was introduced in the last game’s multiplayer under a similar premise. Therefore, it’s not a stretch to see this branch of the Templars expanded into another game. Just how the player will play through these modern day scenes, whether it’ll be a first-person experience like Desmond’s memories from Revelations, or something like a character customization suite that allows the game to maintain it’s more traditional third-person perspective, is yet to be seen, but something along these lines to help with the idea of being one with this new character was hinted at in our talks with Ashraf.

Because of this, we know now how we get into the world of Edward Kenway, but we should really look a bit more closely at the man himself. After all, it’s through his eyes most of the game really takes place. Edward’s backstory was explained with him being a charming and charismatic man of British decent who grew up very poor. This poverty led him to becoming very reckless and selfish. Upon adulthood, his only real career option was to join the British navy and once accepted, he was stationed in the West Indies (what we call the Caribbean today). The lure of gold, glory, and fame, however, leads him to quickly going AWOL from the navy and turning pirate. It is while being a pirate that Edward runs across the Assassin’s Order and becomes enamored with their struggle. And here is where we pick up with Edward, torn between the selfish pirate life he has cultivated for himself and the new selflessness of the Assassins and somehow, if he is to survive, he must strike a balance between them.

Edward is not just notable for his own exploits, however. He is also the father of Haytham and grandfather to Connor, two integral characters to Assassin’s Creed III. So even though the guys at Ubisoft weren’t looking to do another full trilogy like they did with Ezio, their focus on the Kenway bloodline was something they knew they wanted to do from the very beginning.

“Really early on, in conception and before this game really was started, the brand was headed toward telling the Kenway story. The Kenway saga. This is something that’s important—that we always try to surprise fans with the hero, with the setting. So at some point it was decided that we’re going to do the Ezio trilogy, and then we didn’t want people to just naturally assume that we’re going to do a trilogy with every hero going forward. So we decided for the next round we’re going to surprise people with the Kenway saga. So that’s what we’re telling now. We’re telling Edward’s side of this saga,” said Ashraf.

Like many Assassin’s Creed games though, the main protagonist can sometimes be lost against the backdrop of the recreated historical landscapes. Whether it was Connor in the American Revolution, Ezio in Renaissance Italy, or Altair in Crusades Era Middle East, the time period plays just as big a role in any game as whoever wields the hidden blade. And it looks like it won’t be any different with Black Flag.

The heart of Assasssin’s Creed IV: Black Flag takes place in the year 1715 in the Caribbean, as previously mentioned. Edward is captain of his own ship, the Jackdaw, and he has developed a reputation so that the likes of many other historical figures of the time, like Calico Jack and Blackbeard himself, know to beware of Edward as he is supposedly more ruthless or single minded than anyone else even these famed pirates have ever met.

And this untamed swathe of the globe is the perfect paradise for someone who finds himself clearly on the wrong side of the law as often as Edward does. Because of this, he will travel frequently on the Jackdaw to different islands to let things cool down when he kicks the hornet’s nest one too many times. Ashraf went into great detail about these unique locations Edward will travel to.

“Our map is centered with Cuba and Havana being one of the major cities. We have Nassau in the Bahamas, Kingston in Jamaica, and we’re bordered by Haiti and Yucatán. This is our game world, and it has 50 unique locations. So this is really the most different and freshest AC game that we’ve ever built. This is the most drastically different world. So three major cities, the first being Havana, is a Spanish-colonized city, which has a European flavor to it. For us, we really referenced Venice from ACII, because we love the rooftop running from ACII, and this city is inspired by that. Kingston, this is a British-colonized city, it’s a very dangerous, very threatening environment. It’s probably the most different AC city that we’ve ever had, because it merges natural environments with the city itself. The city actually had a lot of foliage and trees in it. It’s the first time we’ve had a city that’s dense in mixing houses and buildings plus trees and tree navigation stuff. And finally we have Nassau, which is a pirate haven. And this is a city that goes through a transformation in the game. It begins as the pirate haven, but then becomes besieged by the British. So the player really feels a different mood and atmosphere, and the gameplay actually changes as well here. So those are the three major cities, but we’ll also have tons of other locations, like hidden fisherman villages, plantations, tucked away coves where smugglers hide their goods and you can go in and steal it, really dense and claustrophobic jungles to do an opposite of the really open seas, we have naval forts, Mayan ruins, coconut islands— which are the picturesque image people have of the Caribbean—and a new location, a new setting for Assassin’s Creed, is the underwater.”

All these different locations will offer up many new and interesting gameplay challenges we’ve yet to see from the franchise. Just to accommodate the unique landscape of the Caribbean Sea, Ashraf told us to expect about a 60/40 balance between gameplay on land and at seas. And although Edward’s blonde locks may give him a passing resemblance to Aquaman, how exactly he is to navigate or survive in the underwater segments actually in game is still unclear. But no doubt there is a creative solution waiting for us once we experience those segments beyond Edward suddenly growing gills.

With the sea taking up such a large chunk of the game, it’s no surprise to find out that there has been a lot of focus on what you can now do with your ship. Taking a cue from the Far Cry 3 team, a new dynamic encounter system is being incorporated into the sailing portion of the game so that the Jackdaw never knows just when it may come across enemy British, French, or Spanish vessels patrolling a particular expanse of water. There are also several new mechanics now that will not only allow you to engage these ships, but whether or not you wish to board them and try to plunder their holdings or sink them outright.

And how you go about bringing a ship down or capturing it is completely up to you once you’re in the boarding process. You can have Edward lead the charge with sword in hand, use the Jackdaw’s swivel cannons to continue to wreak havoc on the deck, or even jump off the Jackdaw, swim around to the blind side of the enemy vessel, and clamber up the side to attack the enemy crew from behind. How you choose to do it is up to you. Just be careful, as too many failed encounters could lead to your own crew deciding to abandon ship…permanently.

There is a lot more to your sea faring adventures beyond just random encounters though. You can get goods from more than just enemy ships, as the Jackdaw is also outfitted with harpoons if you feel like going hunting for whale blubber or shark meat. There is also a random storm generator meaning Mother Nature is a foe Edward will have to spit in the face of as well. And a tool called the Spyglass will be to critical to scouting out naval blockades or unexplored islands before Edward actually attempts to interact with them, telling him what he might find there as well as what kind of an enemy force to expect.

Some of the new land gameplay elements we know about focus more on Edward’s signature weapons. Much like how Connor had the tomahawk, Edward wields a weapon unique to his character in dual cutlasses. These large swords make Edward even more of an intimidating persona as he strikes with them as easily as most men would with smaller blades. This isn’t to say he doesn’t also wield the traditional hidden blade, but depending on how much of a pirate you wish Edward to be, his swords are a staple that Assassin’s Creed fans should have a lot of fun wielding.

Another pirate weapon that Edward wields are throwaway pistols. Able to carry up to four at once, Edward can fire these pre-loaded pistols to keep his free flow combos going from a distance and it expands his range in the heat of combat, or allows him to take careful aim through a new third-person shooting system to surprise unsuspecting foes.

The most intriguing aspect of the weapons though may be the new upgrade system that allows you to strengthen whatever you wield. Pistols, blades, and even the Jackdaw itself, can be upgraded to make Edward an even more legendary scourge of the sea, and makes pillaging even more important as you look for key components to improve your items.

Much like the previous Assassin’s Creed games, Black Flag looks to be an adventure that brings its own special twist to an interesting period in world history. All while providing the high level of polish we’ve come to expect in game design and gameplay from the folks over at Ubisoft. If you are a fan of Assassin’s Creed, this latest chapter looks to continue the trend of one-upmanship from the franchise, while finally giving gamers the pirate game we’ve always dreamed of come October 29, 2013, for both current and next-gen consoles. Eye patches optional.

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Hands-On: ShootMania Storm

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January 2, 2013

There’s a storm brewin’…

Looking to capitalize on the success of its TrackMania brand and expand their repertoire, developer Nadeo looked to put their unique spin on old-school first-person shooters. Thus, we have ShootMania. And we were able to go hands-on with Storm, the first maps of the first environment for ShootMania.

The main theme behind ShootMania, much like it’s sister TrackMania, is providing entertaining head-to-head competition by simplifying things in order to hopefully minimize time spent not actually in game and to make the games fast-paced with frantic action. There are several ways Nadeo is doing that with ShootMania, starting with your primary weapon. Described as a rocket launcher (although it looks more like a beam cannon of sorts), the weapon fires streaking blasts of explosive light and so all it takes is two hits to eliminate your enemies in what feels like laser tag on steroids. Players also can utilize bunkers that they would hole up in to use “sniper rifles” that really just focused their lasers to maximize their blast distance.

This was all we saw in regards to weapon variety, however. This is so that players wouldn’t worry about needing to customize loadouts or the like as everyone basically plays on an even level. This not only gets you into the action faster, but also ensures that the competition comes down more to skill, and maybe a little luck, to determine the outcome.

There were items that weren’t offensive in nature though that could also help to the strategy. Reminding me of Metroid, each player is equipped with an energy-based grappling hook that can attach to several points on each map and allow players to swing across gaps to hopefully set up better positions for later offense. There is a risk to the grappling hook though as you cannot fire while swinging.

If you don’t like the idea of being defenseless when swinging through the air, there is also the wall jump. Not easy to time considering the game is a first-person shooter, players who master this maneuver can completely change matches by luring unsuspecting players into coffin corners and then leaping behind them by bouncing up the walls.

In regards to game modes, we also played a simplified version of Team Deathmatch where there were only three players on each team. Again, this affords faster matches, but also gives you the chance to really gel with a particular group of guys and tests your skill as a group. To make sure you don’t spend a lot of time searching for opponents though, as a 3v3 match doesn’t usually last long, you play a series of games with the same people where the overall match doesn’t end until a team gets three game wins and are up by at least two victories. Should a pair of teams trade wins back and forth, then it is the first to five wins overall.

Another way to speed up the action we found was by activating a beacon in the middle of most maps. This switched on an electrical storm field that starts closing in around the beacon. Anyone hit by the field is immediately eliminated and so your surroundings start speeding up the competition as well until there is a small patch of safe zone left and you are left in a Mexican standoff with your opponents.

Of course, some gamers may not be all about competing with other players. Well, any players who are transition over from TrackMania will be happy to know that ShootMania will have a similar map editor so you can build your own nefarious mazes with Halo-like launchers or camper paradises littered with bunkers depending on your own personal play style and share these with your friends. And considering there is minimal customization you can do with your in-game avatar, putting a kick ass map out into the community might be the best way for you to stand out if your kill/death ratio isn’t up to snuff.

In the end, veterans of online first-person shooters should quickly be able to pick up and play around with ShootMania, but mastering it will prove a bit more difficult considering its unique take on map design and game play pace. If you’re a fan of TrackMania and what Nadeo has done with that community over there, you can expect a lot more of the same user-interaction and strong community to develop here. And then again if you’re just looking for a cheap way to shoot some giant lasers, ShootMania: Storm looks like it’ll be a worthwhile romp when it launches January 23, 2013.

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Hands-On: Company of Heroes 2

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In Soviet Russia, Game Plays You!

World War II has long be fertile ground of video games, and for good reason. There are clear-cut good guys and bad guys, enough conflict to tell the story of countless heroes, and plenty of opportunities to romanticize the cultures and countries involved. There’s one area of the war, however, that games have long had a blind spot for: the Eastern Front.

As the Germans continued to spread out across Europe and into North Africa, they found their greatest difficulties arose when they attempted to cross the Ural Mountains and conquer the Soviet Union. The USSR, of course, fought using attrition warfare, whittling down German forces, take advantage of the long Russian winters, and even destroying some of their own resources to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Many believe it was this strategy and prolonged conflict that finally led to the fall of the Third Reich.

But that’s enough history for today.

Company of Heroes 2, THQ’s follow-up to the popular real-time strategy game, looks to explore this rarely represented conflict—and take full advantage of those long Russian winters as well. Earlier this month, I got to go hands-on with both the single-player and competitive multiplayer modes, giving me a chance to see firsthand what it’ll take to survive along the Eastern Front.

During my single-player time, I tackled a mission that tasked me with building up the Russian forces and conquering three strategic points along a riverbed. The bleakness of the winter setting was immediately apparent, as a whirling snowstorm blew in and hindered my onscreen vision. I also saw the effects of hypothermia set in on my troops, causing them to take ill and requiring me to build fires to keep them warm while we waited out the storm.

As I started my advance across the frozen tundra, I approached the riverbank and experienced another new dynamic as German tanks started moving across the ice towards my position. The game advised me to use mortars to blow holes in the river to sink the German tanks. It would hinder my progress, shrinking the lanes my troops could use to cross the river, but considering the damage it would do to the German armor line, I was left with little choice. As the Panzers sank to their watery graves (in exquisite detail for an RTS game, I might add), I was able to advance across what was left of the frozen river and conquer the objectives with little resistance from the remaining German forces.

While much of this single-player excursion played out like most other RTS games with regard to stockpiling resources, building units, and attempting to use superior strategy to overcome our foes, the new environmental hazards and dynamic terrain were a joy to play around with. From minor visual details like tank tracks in the snow to the new tactical options afforded by the winter elements, there were enough innovations here to make the standard RTS gameplay feel novel and fresh.

After thumping the Germans in the single-player mode, I was afforded the chance to take on some human opponents in versus multiplayer. Wanting to continue to experience the cold Russian winters, I tried out some new maps—including one where the middle capture point was placed on a tiny sliver of land surrounded by a frozen lake. Here, after my experiences in the single player campaign, I made my greatest RTS stand in quite some time.

Allowing myself to fall behind early and basically giving my opponent the middle capture point, I settled in around my base and began to build. Tank after tank after tank would soon dot my base’s perimeter. With only 50 or so points between me and defeat, I sent my armor columns onward towards the middle point. My German opponent did not stand idly by while I built my forces up and had quite the armor division himself by the time we faced off for our grand conflict.

He had unwisely placed much of his armor on the fragile ice, though. With a few well-placed barrages from my tanks, I sent much of his armor to the bottom of the lake and deployed a single engineer to capture the point. Thanks to my shelling, I’d set up a natural barricade of broken ice that my opponent was unable to overcome. Victory was mine, and it was time to break out the finest Russian vodka to celebrate!

Much like the single player campaign, the multiplayer was tremendous fun, and having to balance the elements along with the unique terrain made for a RTS experience unlike any other. What’s more, the level of detail on each unit and locales is almost unheard of in an RTS. If the small snippet of game play we saw was any indicator, Company of Heroes 2 should be a must-have game for strategy fans and World War II buffs alike when it launches on PC in 2013.

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Hands-On: Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2

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You’ll Never See It Coming

When we think of most military shooters, we think of epic, Michael Bay-inspired moments and frantic, run-and-gun firefights, but sometimes you can change the world more with a single, well-placed bullet than a boxload of clips. There’s a stealthy aspect of war that’s sometimes forgotten about in the modern military first-person shooter—the men who, when they do their job right, you don’t even know they were there.

I speak, of course, of the sniper. While they’re commonly relegated to the role of a long-distance throwaway henchman in most games, real-world snipers are some of the most feared combatants in many environments, as they can decimate enemy forces before the victims even know what hit them. That’s why, when I got a chance to go hands-on with a couple levels from the upcoming Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, I knew I was in for a very different FPS experience.

The first level had me decked out in jungle camo as we infiltrated an unspecified area of the Philippines. Working my through thick foliage and past meager riverside huts, I was quickly introduced to a variety of mechanics I don’t normally see in games. The first was the icon in my scope that let me know where my bullets would hit—and since every bullet is affected by wind and the force of gravity, it was seldom the precise spot where my crosshairs were aiming. With a quick pull of the trigger, I took out a guard smoking a cigarette and was startled as the camera violently shook. I was then informed that a smoother, slower squeeze of the trigger would lessen the recoil and make my shots more accurate, just as if I were shooting an actual sniper rifle.

The Phillippines level was a breeze for someone with as much FPS experience as me, but the devs were quick to note that I was playing on Casual, which means I had access to a few features that wouldn’t be accessible on the higher difficulty levels. On Normal or Hard, the enemies won’t be automatically marked on the minimap—I’d need to spot them with my binoculars. I’d also need to estimate the bullet drop myself, since that handy reticule wouldn’t be there to help.

Even on Casual, however, my skills were put to the test when we took on the next level, a flashback to war-torn Sarajevo in the early ’90s. Here, enemies were more numerous and frantically searching for insurgents, making it much harder to camp and take out enemies one by one. This is where the game’s heartbeat mechanic really came into play. In several instances, I found myself taking enemy fire, which caused my in-game heart rate to skyrocket. As a result, it was much more difficult to steady my rifle for a killing shot on subsequent enemies. And with only a pistol, knife, and said sniper rifle to count on, every time my adversaries tried to rush my position, I was in for the fight of my life.

This is when it really dawned on me, and the concept for the game started to come together. This wasn’t your standard military shooter as much as it was a stealth game. The scenarios you find yourself in may have the window dressing of your other military shooters, but Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is shaping up into something more akin to Hitman than Call of Duty. Fans of the first game will appreciate a lot of the changes that were made to also prevent this game from heading down that typical FPS path, like the removal of the run-and-gun assault rifle segments in favor of more dedicated sniping gameplay.

All in all, our time with the game was unfortunately very short, but I was amazed at how much fun I was having crawling through the tall grass and lining up headshot after headshot. The new mechanics added interesting levels of nuance to sniping. Fans of the first Sniper will love the new changes, while newcomers will appreciate the breath fresh of air this gives military FPS games. I can’t wait to see the full game when Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 releases in late Q1 2013.

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Hands-On: Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel

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November 20, 2012

Just the two of us

The first time we had seen Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel, we had played an over the top sequence ending with a helicopter crash that would put many action movies to shame. It was also the first time many of us met Alpha and Bravo and saw the Overkill ability in action where, when triggered, it granted our heroes the ability to turn their surroundings to Swiss cheese with gunfire, courtesy of the power of the Frostbite 2 engine of course.

Recently, we got to go hands-on again with Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel, and although this slice of game play was promised to be more in line with most of the game’s tone and pacing and not the adrenaline fueled sequence we had played earlier, it still provided us with an interesting look at Alpha and Bravo and how they don’t always have to work together to be effective.

When we started, Alpha and Bravo were making their way through a Mexican cartel stronghold, but events transpired that had separated the two. Bravo was then trapped, downed and bleeding out inside an open courtyard and was fending off enemies left and right. I was playing as Alpha, and had to work my through the stronghold as quickly as possible, for not only was I facing off against other gun wielding maniacs, but was racing the clock to get to Bravo as quickly as possible before he bled out completely. And yes, Bravo can die at this moment forcing you to restart the checkpoint so you had better have your running shoes on.

This sequence was interesting because it showed some role variety for each character, while the Overkill meter also reminded us that these two guys are inexorably linked as each kill either one of us did helped fill the meter for our partners. And a full Overkill meter is always useful when taking on hordes of guys out to kill you. Once I actually got to Bravo and revived him, we then took cover in a fountain and had to clear out the remaining gaggle of hired guns before moving on to a container yard.

In the container yard, a flood of cartel members had us in their sights so we triggered the Overkill ability to turn the crates and other cover many of the bad guys were using into confetti and mow them down with the greatest of ease. We quickly wished we hadn’t been so quick to trigger the Overkill however as after clearing the yard, another helicopter soon appeared over the horizon to makes things difficult for our duo.

The game didn’t penalize us too badly here though as they gave us some cannon fodder enemies with the chopper to rebuild our Overkill. After a few dozen clips into the metal hull of the whirly-bird and she crashed down, again in epic action movie fashion, bringing down a clock tower and a ton of brick red rubble with it.

This wrapped up our time with this new sequence with Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel and in terms of action the game definitely looks to deliver on all levels if this sequence was what most of the game is meant to be like. The game, again powered by Frostbite 2, also looked fantastic, especially when you start using Overkill to destroy objects in the environment. If you’re a fan of co-op and a fan of third-person shooters, then Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel looks like it might a game you’d want to keep an eye out for when it releases at the end of March 2013.

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Hands-On: Dead Space 3 Co-op Mode

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Double Trouble

As frightening as the new Dead Space 3 may hope to be, the thing that most gamers feared from it was the new drop-in/drop-out co-op feature. Many were worried about what having a second person next to them would do for the survival horror aspects of the title. We had a chance to test out this new feature recently, however, and I can attest to the fact that if you thought Isaac Clarke was messed up in the head, just wait until you meet EarthGov Sergeant John Carver.

I was allowed to play as John while another journalist grabbed the reigns of Isaac and we went off trudging through the snow in an unspecified section of the game. The first, and most obvious, major advantage of having a partner popped up almost immediately as we were swarmed by some necromorphs and with two weapons unloading at the same time, we made short work of the twisted creatures. Once we moved inside and out of the cold though, the differences in our experiences started to come forward.

It seems that John Carver has some demons haunting him, much like Isaac, since as we entered the base the walls were adorned with Nutcracker inspired toy soldiers. At this time we were told to look at our partner’s screens and both myself and the person I was playing with were shocked that only my screen had the toy soldiers. A shared play experience with singular hallucinations was definitely an interesting twist as players who communicate well with one another could actually freak the other person out depending on what other surprises the Visceral team had in store for us. And indeed the toy soldiers were not the end of our different game play experiences.

After dispatching maybe a dozen more necromorphs who had crawled out of the vents, we approached a door that only Carver could open. As I laid my hands on the door though, Carver was transported to a world within his mind with children taunting him and shadows clawing at him from all directions, doing monumental amounts of damage. Meanwhile, my partner simply saw my character suddenly spasm and start freaking out as the Carver on his screen was screaming in agony with his hands over his temples. And necromophs love nothing more than screams of torture and torment as a swarm of them came out of the walls.

While I was fighting (mostly running) from John’s demons, Isaac had to make sure neither of our actual bodies got torn to shreds. If I escaped from my moment of insanity, I could help Isaac clear out the necromorphs, but should I have succumbed to my demons, the game would be over and we’d have to start a checkpoint just before my craziness started. I know this, because I did succumb several times before realizing it’s better to run from the demons than fight them.

After finishing our short hands-on time, I can say that the personalized hallucinations and detailed back-story that John begins to exhibit have definitely renewed my faith in the co-op mode for Dead Space 3. The fact that Visceral took the time to fully develop and craft a story for this character lets us know that there is a lot more going on with John Carver than what we’ve seen and what kind of a survival horror game would it be without a few surprises? Knowing that you can play a role possibly in scaring the other player just as much as the environment or enemies around you is a great idea and one that will make me want to play the game through a second time for sure. I only wonder now what special moments may be in store for Isaac that leave John wondering just what is going on inside his partner’s head.

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Hands-On: Guardians of Middle-Earth

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One MOBA to rule them all…

J.R.R. Tolkien’s massive Lord of the Rings universe has provided us some of media’s most memorable characters. From Gandalf to Gollum, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone not familiar with this fantasy realm. Rarely though do many of these great characters ever exist in the same place at the same time in the books or movies and so in the vein of a classic ‘What if?’, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is bringing us Guardians of Middle Earth.

This MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game allows players to control one of 20 different iconic characters from the main series, as well as the expanded universe, as two teams of five players battle to eliminate their opponent’s towers. The major difference for this game, however, is that unlike most other MOBAs, Guardians will be available on consoles. Normally, this would be a problem in regards to the control schemes of most MOBAs that dictate a mouse/keyboard combo as the proper way to play. But Guardians of Middle Earth blew me away when I went hands-on with an Xbox 360 controller and found it had been simplified to a point that made it manageable, yet still a ton of fun.

Each character has a simple basic attack set to the right trigger and a variety of special powers that unlock as you level up with them set to the four face buttons. You could also carry a hodgepodge of different potions that perform the expected functions of restoring health or boosting stats for yourself or your party.

There are also the expected character classes depending on whom you choose. Sauron is a tank, Gandalf is your magic user, and Legolas is your hit and run ranged character. Along with these series staples there are characters from the expanded universe you can use like Wulfrun, a dark magic user best utilized as a defender, and who may be recognized for his role in The War in the North video game. There is also Hildifons the Hobbit, who is only briefly mentioned throughout Lord of the Rings canon, but who makes his first spectacular appearance in this very game as a brilliant tactician whose powers can set up barricades and force opponents into well laid traps.

We also saw for the first time customizable loadouts. Depending on which Guardian you wish to use, you may wish different abilities or buffs and by equipping a gem-laden belt, you can boost many different attributes of your characters. Also, there is a one-lane option aside from the MOBA standard three-lanes so depending on what match you may wish to take part in, may change how you wish to fortify your chosen Guardian.

When all was said and done, although our time with Guardians of Middle Earth was short, I walked away very excited for this game considering its status as a download title. With a bevy of competitive options ready to be explored and with all the attention to detail you’d expect for any game set in the Lord of the Rings universe, I can see myself pouring way more hours than I should into this title as it stands to be the first legitimate offering of the MOBA game style on a home console. I can’t wait to see how ‘precious’ this game ends up being when it hits December 4th.

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Hands-On: SimCity

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Hello City

I admit to never being much of a PC gamer growing up. However, there were always a few titles that crept their way onto my harddrives, and possibly because of rarely using my PC for gaming purposes as a child, those few games hold extra special memories. One of those games was SimCity 2000, where I would actually stay after school in middle school and head down to the computer lab to try to build more and more fantastical cities. As subsequent SimCity titles were then released, it remained one of my favorite game franchises. So, when it was then officially announced at GDC this year that the first new entry into the series in six years would be coming in 2013, I admit a huge smile crossed my face.

Flash forward to a very recent EA event where I was able to get several hours of hands-on time with this title that intends to re-launch this classic franchise and really pick it apart. Mind you, the version I saw still had a lot of work to be done, but if you’re as much of a fan of SimCity as I am, then I think a lot more people are going to be smiling as well comes early March.

You start by obviously selecting a swath of land and building roads outward from the main highway to where you would like to lay the foundation for your, hopefully, soon-to-be megalopolis. And as soon as you wish to start developing this new city, you realize that more so than ever before, every decision you make is a major one and it affects the world around you in ways that you’ll need to see to truly start understanding.

After cutting out a square of roads and designating land for houses, factories, and retail centers, I knew I would need a few basic necessities for my starting population to survive and the first necessity I wished to tackle was power. I had to choose between coal or wind. Now, not only would coal pollute the city I had just founded, but if my initial land choice wasn’t rich in minerals, I might be forced into wind. The same problem could arise if my burgeoning city was at a low altitude and didn’t get very many gusts, I might be forced into coal, showing how even where you start to set up your city is important.

But if neither of these were an option, the new kink in the game is the social aspects where if I had some friends who had a surplus of power in a nearby city, I could trade them resources for access to their electrical grid, at least until I could afford nuclear power or some other option. This option was demoed for us, but wasn’t as clear to me in my game, but it also could have been because we are on a closed server and there really wasn’t anyone for me to trade with to really test it out.

All this then continues as you expand ever outward in the hopes of bringing in more people to your city to bring in more cash. In turn, more people then need more necessities ranging from very basic things like water and power, to trash collection, sewage disposal, police and fire departments, and much, much more as you tackle the problems your populous encounters. And there were a lot more problems than you might think as there were also new side missions that featured some more vocal members of your community. These civic-minded folks could bring dilemmas to your attention and as mayor, should your choose to intercede as all choices have consequences, could earn extra cash for your budget.

With all this serious stuff going on like managing power grids via the amazing layered graphics provided by the GlassBox engine or watching your people dynamically cause new problems for you to solve, it wouldn’t be a SimCity game if there wasn’t some zany fun stuff either. Beyond being able to transform your city in various ways from that of a potential gambling den to the ideal slice of American suburbia and more, there is also the power to destroy that which you create. Yes, you don’t have to just bulldoze what you’ve built to start over if you so choose, you can do it in glorious fashion via divine acts. Earthquakes, tornadoes, meteor showers, UFO invasions, and more can have you wreck all that you have created in the hopes of re-building it better, or just having some fun with wonton destruction.

After carving out a small, but sustainable little paradise for myself in the mountains, my time with the new SimCity ran out. It wasn’t nearly as long as I would’ve hoped, and the build was somewhat early so it still had a few bugs, but overall a lot of great memories were getting ready to possibly be supplanted by some new ones as this game is shaping up to be special for a whole new generation of gamers and I can’t wait to get my hands on the final product come March.

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Hands-On: Assassin’s Creed III & Liberation

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October 2, 2012

They may be two of the most anticipated games of the year, but getting information or extended playing time with Assassin’s Creed III and Assassin’s Creed: Liberation has been like trying to get blood from a stone. Until now. Last week, I had a chance to get some quality hands-on time with AC III’s single player campaign and new multiplayer modes as well as AC:L’s campaign as Ubisoft transported me back to colonial Boston to help immerse us in this revolutionary experience.

AC III Single Player

We started with AC III’s single player campaign and were immediately thrown into a never before seen area of Connor’s world: the Homestead. Similar in many ways to Ezio and Monteriggioni from AC II and AC: Brotherhood, Homestead is Connor’s home base out in the wilderness. Acting as a bastion for Connor between missions where he can gather his thoughts, learn more about the Assassins, and also do favors for others in the wilderness, Homestead is a much deeper experience though than Monteriggioni ever was.

By doing side missions for friendly faces, NPCs will set up shop in and around the Homestead so Connor can trade goods, upgrade items, and perform many of the same functions that you did in Monteriggioni. Giving a little bit of back story to these side missions though allows you to build a deeper connection to these extra characters in AC III and even after just chasing some poachers out of the forest or collecting trinkets for a retired pirate, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the idea of directly influencing the start of a new community with Connor as the lead.

After making a few new friends in my little slice of the wilderness, I wanted to test out Connor’s ship skills and finally take a whack at the naval battles. Not only were there battles that could forward that aspect of the story, but it had its own set of side missions, or could just be used as a quick travel between port cities. But I wanted to blow some ships up and so I just jumped right on into the next mission in the naval story.

In the mission, I was tasked with escorting some merchant ships to port, and after disposing of some small British warships in my way and completing the primary objective of the mission, I found I had stumbled upon a larger Templar plot when a previously abandoned fort in Martha’s Vineyard was suddenly alive and bustling…and targeting my ship! As I switched from half mast to full, this after easily disposing of British mines in the churning waters of the cape, I began circling the fort, pummeling it with cannon fire until its three towers stopped trying to rain mortars and death onto my ship. The best part of this mission was just piloting the ship though as it didn’t feel like I was fighting the ship to maneuver it where I wanted and the cannon aiming mechanics were simple enough to quickly understand.

After docking my ship, I wanted to get into the main plot of the story. Walking around Boston, I was to meet with Samuel Adams and other Sons of Liberty. But I wanted to push Connor to his limits in a fight first. And the British weren’t exactly fans of me killing their soldiers in the middle of the street.

With my new favorite weapons, the rope dart and the tomahawk, I had the Boston streets running red with British blood by the time I was done. I began by pulling a sentry off a roof with the rope dart, and his death  alerted countless other red coats who then swarmed the town square. With the tomahawk, which is the first time in an Assassin’s Creed game that I preferred using a weapon that wasn’t the traditional hidden blade, I began hacking away at red coat faces, kneecaps, and anything that was within range of my righteous rage. I started by countering two guys at once and had them run each other through with bayonets before throwing my rope dart at a heavy’s feet to trip him up and then strike the killing blow in his neck with the tomahawk. Then, I would spin and roll over the back of another red coat, only to quickly whip around while he was off-balance and stab him in the back, grab him as he was dying, and use him as a meat shield as two other soldiers were now lining up rifle shots. Next, with the dead soldier’s rifle, I would take aim at the folks who just perforated their buddy, and take one out with a rifle, toss it away, and then take the other out with my pistol.

This is quite simply the most fluid combat system we’ve seen from this franchise and the bevy of options available to you in any given combat situation will blow your mind into itty, bitty pieces. I could not get enough of it and even after several hours play time, I was still seeing new animations, take downs, and maneuvers from Connor.

After taking part in my own little Boston Massacre, I knew it was time to actually see a little of the story and so I met up with Sam Adams at a bar, a fitting setting if there was one, and found out that my mission was to assist in the infamous Boston Tea Party. But first, I had to help an ornery French-Canadian chef named Stephane who was ready to wreak a little havoc on his own.

After protecting our friend from the north as he set out on his own personal crusade, I was pleasantly surprised that another feature from previous AC games was returning in that Connor gets recruits, and Stephane was the first. What has changed now is that each recruit has a much larger and detailed back story, much like the folks around Homestead, and so in order to help these characters feel more personal to Connor, there are only six recruits.

Another change is that Arrow Storm has been removed in order to help keep the game situations a bit more balanced once you begin unlocking your recruits. In its place, each of the six recruits has a special move besides assassinate. Stephane for example has ‘Riot’, which does exactly as it says and can incite a riot in order to help Connor move more easily through large open spaces. Another recruit has ‘Guard Post’, where the recruit can dress up as a red coat and help escort/sneak you through heavily guarded forts. Unfortunately, we’ll likely have to wait till launch to see what the other four recruits may have up their sleeves.

After I destroyed a lot of tea and killed a lot of red coats, the Ubisoft folks told me my time with single player was done and I needed to move onto multiplayer. Reluctantly (they had to pry the controller from my hands as I kicked and screamed, it took four guys), I left single player and moved into the multiplayer aspects of AC III.

AC III Multiplayer

So, many of the modes in AC III’s multiplayer are returning favorites in how to get your personal stab on, and so this section of the hands-on preview will focus only on the two new modes we saw and played: Domination in Versus and Wolf Pack Co-op.

Now, Domination is pretty much like Domination in every other game out there. You have three markers scattered about a map with the objective being to control these markers for the majority of the match and you score points every few seconds based on how many markers are in control by your faction.  The difference is its done with an Assassin’s Creed flair in that a capturing team cannot kill players who control the section, they can only stun them, and it takes longer to capture a point then it does for someone to recover from stun. This presents the interesting dilemma of knowing when to expose oneself, if at all.

The big draw for multiplayer this go around though was the Wolf Pack Co-op. In this mode, you and three friends attempt to perform as many assassinations as possible and each assassination is scored. By hitting certain point thresholds, the assassinations start to get harder and harder as you move through 25 point thresholds.

The most interesting twist here though is that by coordinating your assassinations with teammates, you can earn larger and larger point bonuses so balancing both quality and quantity is the only effective way to progress through the higher levels. Not to mention communication becomes critical. There are also special side missions that can add to the score and your experience if you can accomplish them with the most impressive being the multi-sync kill. This is where all four members of the team must lock onto their targets and execute them at the same time, triggering an impressive cinematic and massive score bonuses.

After several multi-sync kills and floundering a few times around level 19, it was time for me to move on to the bane of my sausage fingers’ existence: the PS Vita in order to play Assassin’s Creed: Liberation.

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation

Admittedly, my experiences with the Vita have been less than stellar as gimmicks have polluted my favorite franchises left and right when they try adding chapters to their story via this handheld. But I was pleasantly surprised with my first time with Aveline. From assassinating Spanish lieutenants after scaling a massive ancient fort, to making costume changes faster than a Broadway lead, Liberation feels much like other beloved Assassin’s Creed adventures without forcing gimmicky controls on you. They are there, but they are options, not required, to advance through Aveline’s Louisiana.

Aveline’s combat and abilities also were a pleasant surprise as they rivaled that of Connor’s as she fluidly used her meat cleaver and various other tools to bring the pain to the Spanish who occupy and enslave much of her home. But the little bit of what we saw of Aveline’s story may have impressed me the most as she has an array of unusual allies and is torn between her sense of duty to the people, her own morals, and the Assassin’s order, which leads to a wide variety of missions for Aveline to perform. And watching how these all conflict with each other in the story is very intriguing.

There were some concerns though with certain aspects of Liberation. Possibly being spoiled from playing AC III first, I felt the AI of enemy troops was a little lacking in terms of reacting to Aveline and her actions, and her blow dart made her feel almost omnipotent as she could stealthily eliminate foes from a distance. She carries only a limited number of darts, of course, but when you only need one or two to carve a path through Spanish sentries, there was a lot less challenge it felt like.

I suppose part of the challenge as playing with Aveline though comes with her notoriety and the requiring of costume changes. Aveline’s Assassin garb has guards constantly on the lookout for her, whereas her slave garb has varying levels much like the other Assassin’s Creed games, and then her aristocratic garb has her always inconspicuous because no one suspects the lady in the flower dress. These costumes have their own unique positives and negatives, but if you’re like me, you welcome the challenge of constantly being under scrutiny from guards because the combat is so superb and so the Assassin garb was my primary choice.

When all was said and done after our trip up to Boston, the entire slate of everything we saw involving Assassin’s Creed blew me away. Liberation seems like it’ll be the first game for the PS Vita that I’ll thoroughly enjoy and AC III is quite simply a game changer for the franchise and possibly action/adventure games as a whole due to the most immersive and detailed story yet, plethora of side quests, and fluid combat system. After getting my first taste of these two games, I know I for one cannot wait to embody the spirit of revolution come October 30th and play as both Connor and Aveline in what are shaping up to possibly be the best AC games yet.

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