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Headlander review

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
August 23, 2016

Where’s your head at?

There was a period when the metroidvania was a forgotten category of game, with few developers wanting to take on projects in the vein of two of gaming’s more classic franchises. But times have changed, and with the rise of indies and small teams following through on big ideas, the genre has seen a resurgence in recent years—to the point where we’re getting multiple games in the category a month. So, I was tasked with looking at my second metroidvania of July in as many weeks when a game called Headlander rolled into my office. The genre doesn’t get old for me, though, especially when the game is done well—and Headlander is proof of a metroidvania done well.

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In a far off future, humanity as we know it is extinct. In a bid to live forever, people have transferred their personalities into robots, and anytime something happens to their metallic body, their personality is simply shifted to another bot. But Methuselah, the computer program tasked with maintaining this process, has taken things a step further. Methuselah suppresses people’s personalities with special chips, making humanity trapped in a prison of its own design. So, what happens when a lone human head, still feeling and made of flesh, wakes up in a self-sustaining thruster-propelled space helmet? It becomes the Headlander, and must find out why humanity fell so far while trying to fix this haywire program once and for all.

Developed by Double Fine, Headlander carries all the trademark humor and insanity their games are known for. Starting with the visual design, I imagine Headlander is what would happen if Tim Burton decided to make a retro-futuristic film in the 1970s. Neon lights, groovy dancing robots, and twisted security bots with laser beams called “Shepherds” flood many of the rooms you’ll explore on your outer space journey. Even the sideburns on the Headlander—unless you choose the female head—made me flash back several times to Logan’s Run.

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The real joy in Headlander comes from its gameplay. Set up as a side-scrolling shooter, the Headlander’s greatest ability is that he can use a small suction device on his helmet to remove the head of any given robot and screw himself onto the remaining body to move through the world. Citizen robots have access to general areas, but removing the heads of a rainbow-assortment of Shepherd security bots (thus taking them over) provides offense with their respective laser cannons, along with access to different parts of the world depending on their color. Red robots can only access red rooms, but purple robots can access all rooms because of where they sit on the color spectrum. You can also detach your head at any given moment to access air ducts or hidden passageways, sometimes finding power-ups, other times finding recordings that fill in holes of the story, and the Headlander’s missing memory.

Finding the right robot body to advance past the world’s various traps, puzzles, and locked doors plays right into the best parts of most metroidvanias: the exploration. Backtracking with new robots or the Headlander’s floating dome (after some upgrades) to get new power-ups or complete the game’s handful of side quests allows you to both become familiar with the game’s world, and bolster that sense of accomplishment when you clear an area of every secret. One of my favorite moments came when a side quest had me take over the body of a robot dog, having to work my way back to its owner without any of the special abilities that come from humanoid robot bodies. Moments like those highlight some of the Double Fine humor we’ve come to expect, and some of the interesting challenges the game posed on a regular basis.

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Of course, as fun as exploring the world in Headlander is, and how ingenious a lot of the puzzles are, it does become a bit stale after a while. Part of this, I think, is because even though the Headlander has a massive upgrades tree with four separate paths that you can max out by game’s end, you’ll rarely find yourself ever needing to do more than the mechanic given to you at the beginning of the game—popping robot heads off bodies and putting your own in their place. Some upgrades for the Headlander’s helmet do come in handy later—and are even required to collect all the items in the game—but when it comes to combat, really all you ever need is to just jump onto a Shepherd’s body and start blasting away with its laser. And, considering you won’t die if the robot body dies, evading laser fire via cover or rolling (I’d say jumping, too, but oddly enough you can’t do that in the game) you can just snatch another body and continue to mow down Methuselah’s mindless minions.

Headlander is a prime example of the greatness that can come from metroidvanias done right. It’s zany setting, retro-futuristic design, and tight gameplay come together in a nice package that should please all fans of the genre. It might lack the replayability of some games after you one-hundred percent it, and the gameplay can get a tad tiresome when you start approaching the endgame about six to eight hours in, but Headlander is a great summer pick-up if you love exploration or old-school side-scrolling shooters. Just don’t lose your head over it.

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Developer: Double Fine Productions • Publisher: Adult Swim Games • ESRB: T – Teen • Release Date: 07.26.16
9.0
Headlander is a great metroidvania whose retro-future style, humorous story, and tremendous exploration come together in one of the summer’s most complete experiences.
The Good Clever puzzles, tons of exploration, and a retro-future world that is nothing short of groovy.
The Bad Lots of powers, but not much need for them.
The Ugly The Headlander’s sideburns don’t belong in any decade.
Headlander is available on PS4 and PC. Primary version reviewed was for PS4. Review code was provided by Adult Swim Games for the benefit of this review. EGM reviews games on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 5.0 being average.
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Furi review

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July 24, 2016

Bullet hell meets Bushido

The concept of a gauntlet against boss characters, or “boss rush,” has been around for almost as long as modern games. Franchises like Mega Man had you face all the game’s bosses again in quick succession before fighting Dr. Wily; Shadow of the Colossus was set exclusively against mammoth monstrosities; classics like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time added the mode in later re-releases; the idea has even permeated the Indie scene with games like last year’s Titan Souls. So, when I first heard about the latest boss rush Indie darling, Furi, I was curious to see if it could do anything that would differentiate itself from that crowd. And, after playing it, I can attest that it falls in line with other great boss rushes of the past—but also offers enough distinctions that allows it to stand on its own.

In Furi, you play as a man simply known as “The Stranger.” Imprisoned for crimes unrevealed, you spend your days in isolation and constant torment from a three-faced being called “The Chain.” After regaining consciousness one day, an odd man with a rabbit mask named “The Voice” loosens your restraints. Finally free, The Stranger reclaims his sword and must fight his way through each layer of the prison (each protected by a powerful jailor) if he, and in turn The Voice who follows closely behind, are to escape and reclaim their freedom.

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The story isn’t the main draw for Furi. You’ll learn more about the world in-between each epic bout—and even the jailors themselves—from The Voice who seems to have a personal connection with everything around you, but these are easily the slowest moments of the game. The Voice’s dialogue is intriguing, but it comes during the only time players are given control of The Stranger outside of combat. There’s nothing to explore here—you simply walk along the world’s narrow path, from one battle to the next. You can even forgo the small amount of interaction you have during these scenes by pressing a button to make The Stranger walk on his own, saving you from having to control his progress with the analog stick. I can’t help but question why proper cinematics weren’t used to bridge the gap between fights, as it could’ve provided more artistic and focused moments for driving home the game’s few narrative points. A very weird decision for a game stylized in almost every other way. At the very least, this time gives you just enough backstory to hook you early on—revealing enough about why you were captive and The Stranger himself by the end to have made the experience worthwhile—but there are clearly more effective ways to tell a story.

Luckily, the star of the show makes up for this lackluster downtime: Furi’s aesthetic design. Furi is quite simply dripping with style. If boss names like The Chain, The Line, or The Beat weren’t enough, its neon-infused visuals and an original electronica soundtrack—provided by artists like Carpenter Brut and Waveshaper among others—should get the point across.

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And that’s just the opening. When the action truly starts, boss fights up the ante, constantly trying to find new ways for color to explode off the screen as every confrontation blends the high-pressure feel of a one-on-one showdown with the fast and frantic movements of an arcade shooter. Each successive boss not only brings new patterns for you to learn and attempt to overcome, but a new theme to the fight as well. The Stranger will go from fighting a battle akin to ancient samurai clashing swords on the beach, to taking on a medieval knight in a lush forest—all sharing in the purpose of trying to lock you away again.

As slick as Furi looks, all the amazing character and world designs would be for naught if the gameplay wasn’t there to back them up. Although not as powerful as the visual motif, Furi impressively blends hack ‘n’ slash melee with the projectiles and speed of a bullet hell shooter—but unfortunately fails to provide as much depth as one would hope.

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Each boss has its own unique tricks in how they try to put The Stranger back in his cage, but gameplay all boils down to two phases. The first phase of each boss’ lifebar revolves around them flying around the screen, firing all manner of energy projectiles and waves at The Stranger, creating scenes reminiscent of busier shoot ’em ups. You can deflect some of these projectiles, but since your own lifebar is limited, dodging through or around them is a far more effective course. You counter with your own laser pistol, often having to chip away from far off distances as you flit around the screen like a dragonfly on a placid pond.

Once the boss has taken enough damage, the camera will shift from overhead to a more intimate third-person side view, with both The Stranger and the respective boss constrained to a small circle they must battle in. Here, besides continuing to dodge, parrying and attacking with your sword are your two primary moves, with a heavy emphasis on the former. Parrying is critical to not only opening up the bosses for short flurries of offense, but also is often one of the few ways to regain health regularly in these fights. A rare (at least for me) perfectly-timed parry not only gives health, but rewards you with a special animation and guaranteed hit from The Stranger.

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I found combat overall to be very simple, considering the complex moves I was asked to constantly deflect or find ways to work around. There were some other options—like charged blaster shots, charged melee swipes, and charged dashes—but the time it took to actually charge them up often left The Stranger far too open, and provided too small a reward for using them. I ended up abandoning those techniques after the second boss, leaving me often wishing I could do more with the tools the game gave me.

This isn’t to say Furi wasn’t still fun, though. Learning the punishing patterns of each boss on the path to my eventual freedom became an obsession that I couldn’t walk away from. Each fight made The Stranger feel more like a legendary Ronin, sword in hand and looking to reclaim lost honor on the field of battle. With each defeat, I was only galvanized to push my thumbs faster on the next attempt. No fight ever felt the same, and what amazed me even more was the intensity each battle provided, as I whittled away each subsequent lifebar of the bosses. Some fights would feel like they lasted hours, and I’d be shocked when I would look at the clock and realize only a few minutes had passed.

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Furi will initially grab you with its visual style and original soundtrack, but it’s solid gameplay and decent narrative will be what keeps you coming back from every death in each punishing boss battle. It may need a little more depth in these areas, but if you’re a fan of action games, then Furi serves as a great summertime fix.

Developer: The Game Bakers • Publisher: The Game Bakers • ESRB: M – Mature • Release Date: 07.05.16
8.0
Furi excels in some areas, serving as an audio/visual treat as you work your way through the game’s world. Its narrative and gameplay could use more depth, but both provide more than enough value to make this a worthwhile experience if you love action or boss rush games.
The Good Intense boss rush gameplay that pushes your reflexes and pattern recognition to its limits.
The Bad The long, boring path between boss fights.
The Ugly The agony from the narrow defeats is greater than the joy felt from the narrow victories.
Furi is available on PS4 and PC. Primary version reviewed was for PS4. Review code was provided by The Game Bakers for the benefit of this review. EGM reviews games on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 5.0 being average.
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Just Cause 3: Mech Land Assault review

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Understanding the gravity of the situation

After an unfortunately low bar was set with Sky Fortress—the first piece of Just Cause 3’s three-part expansion pass—I admit I wasn’t expecting much from part two, Mech Land Assault. A lot can change over three months, however, and it seems that at least some of my issues with the first part have been addressed—although this DLC add-on is still far from perfect.

Mech Land Assault opens up with Rico stumbling across a cargo plane being loaded with prisoners (as evidenced by their orange jumpsuits), and gets word from his old buddy, Tom Sheldon, that international mercenary group The Black Hand have been rounding up prisoners like this for weeks. Knowing the Black Hand can’t be up to anything good, Rico stows away aboard the plane and uses it to sneak through the protected airspace of an island just to the north of Medici. Here, Rico will uncover a Black Hand plot that involves an abandoned eDEN research station (bringing back unsavory elements from the last DLC), as he tries to free the Black Hand’s captives and get to the bottom of the illegal operation.

As usual, the story is really just an excuse for you to blow more stuff up in the open world Avalanche Studios has created. The true main draw for this DLC is that, as part of Black Hand’s operation on this new island, they’ve retrofitted advanced gravity-wielding construction equipment with auto-cannons, and are using them as makeshift walking tanks. Early on, Rico gets his hands on one of these new mechs—and, suddenly, you have your greatest chaos-causing weapon yet.

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Each mech can send out a powerful shockwave, as well as rip objects up from the ground (like prison walls and trees), turning them into deadly projectiles. My personal favorite, though, was lifting up a goat and launching it several hundred feet off a cliff—a great ride, at least until you get to the landing. This is the kind of mindless fun that has always been at the core of the Just Cause experience, and I’m always amazed at the new goodies Avalanche Studios continues to come up with, not to mention how seamlessly they are integrated into the game’s pre-existing open world.

Another plus with Mech Land Assault is that, while the gravity gun may seem all-powerful, it is actually very well balanced with the world around you—especially when facing off against other gravity tanks. Unlike Sky Fortress’s jetpack, which made you almost god-like in that DLC (and actually still comes in handy at several points here), your mech is still susceptible to the ever-present danger posed by the Black Hand and their occupying force. The new island Rico finds himself on may be full of plenty of things to wreck with your new toy, but this vulnerability provides a challenge that only makes the experience more enjoyable overall.

Where Mech Land Assault begins to stumble is reminiscent of where Sky Fortress also ran into problems: a clear lack of content being offered. While you do get the benefit of being able to take your mech tank back into the main portion of Just Cause 3, one new vehicle and a small additional island are meager offerings in a for-pay DLC pack. All told, Mech Land Assault does add a dozen or so new outposts to be liberated, but with only two story missions and two gear challenges, you can one-hundred percent this add-on in two and a half hours maximum. There’s also then the fact that the few cut scenes presented for the story missions are, once again, just art stills accompanied by voiceover.

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Just Cause 3: Mech Land Assault is a fun little add-on for Avalanche Studios’ latest sandbox adventure, but considering the overall lack of content and its relatively steep price point, you might need to be really desperate to get back into Just Cause 3 if you’re using this as your excuse. Still, what is here is enjoyable, and much better balanced than what we saw in Sky Fortress, showing Avalanche Studios is at least moving in the right direction with this post-launch content—and giving me hope for the final chapter in the three-part DLC season pass.

Developer: Avalanche Studios • Publisher: Square Enix • ESRB: M – Mature • Release Date: 06.10.16
7.5
More fun and better balanced than the first DLC in Just Cause 3’s season pass, Mech Land Assault suffers from the same issue of having just an overall lack of content to hold your attention for very long.
The Good The gravity mechs are fun new vehicles for Rico to play with and don’t mess with the balance of the game.
The Bad A lack of overall content.
The Ugly You ever try discus-throwing a goat?
Just Cause 3: Mech Land  Assault is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox One. Review code was provided by Sqaure Enix for the benefit of this review. EGM reviews games on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 5.0 being average.
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Let It Die proves it’s far from dead after our first hands-on

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June 8, 2016

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Whenever I hear Suda51 is working on a new game, my ears immediately perk up. Since he made his North American debut with Killer7, I’ve always at least been curious to see what zany scenario he can come up with next. Some of them I’ve been absolutely enamored with, like No More Heroes; others have missed their mark with me, like Killer is Dead. But no matter what, if Suda is attached to it, I got to try it out. So, naturally, when the chance came up to try out Let It Die, I was all for it.

Let It Die is a free-to-play third-person action-RPG exclusive for the PS4. In it, players will have to work their way through what can only be described as a waking nightmare, fighting horrific creatures in twisted environments. In the demo I got to play, I specifically had to navigate what looked like a macabre carnival on the outskirts of a city before finally finding myself in a tunnel system filled even more grotesque horrors.

Some of the enemies were simple enough—mostly just other humans like my character, but they were sadists getting off on the carnage and mayhem around us. Many would try to use their bare fists, but some carried weapons ranging from clubs and bats to nail guns and shotguns. If I was lucky, I’d be able to loot their carcasses for their weapons that I could assign to one of six weapon slots (three for each hand, with two-handed weapons taking up a slot on each side).

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Some enemies also wore armor for various body parts that I could also collect and customize my character with. On one play through of the short demo, I had a gas mask and a leather vest on, but no pants. In another, I was able to confiscate jeans with kneepads, but was left bare-chested. Longer playthroughs that go deeper into the game would surely warrant more impressive gear.

There were also enemies floating around that looked completely otherworldly. One creature had a birdcage for a head and long, forked claws protruding from the end of each arm. Moving through the tunnels, I finally came upon the boss: a monstrous creature comprised entirely out of dead bodies, conjoined by a seething hatred for the living. Its charging attacks were not to be taken lightly, but more serious was its habit to rip human limbs off its form and chuck them at me as projectiles. Yup, definitely a Suda game.

Fortunately, I could use the environment to my advantage, finding small animals like frogs and rats to eat in order to replenish health, or mushrooms that gave special boosts to attack and defense. There were also some “grenade” mushrooms that would explode if I tried to eat them, though, so I had to be careful.

Besides the weapons I could find scattered about, my character also had some basic melee attacks. Punches, kicks, and running dropkicks could keep the more difficult enemies off of me for long enough to find better items, but I needed to be careful that my stamina meter wouldn’t run out, as doing so would render my character near useless until they caught their breath.

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Beyond the dark and twisted design of the world and enemies, you might think Let It Die sounds like a pretty straightforward action-RPG. There’s a leveling-up system that we didn’t get to see in action, and there’s still no talk of exactly how monetization will work in the game. There’s one additional significant twist that makes Let It Die unique, however.

When players die in Let It Die, their characters and loadouts are placed into other players’ games, becoming new enemies for people to fight and new loot for them to possibly collect. This cycle of death and rebirth is an interesting concept, as while you might be playing by yourself at any given moments, a half-dozen clones of you from different levels could be out there invading other games and wreaking havoc. It’s a two-way street, of course, because as was proven to us when one of the Grasshopper Manufacture devs suddenly popped into my game, seeing a human-controlled face isn’t necessarily a good thing in Let It Die.

Let It Die still has some big question marks circling around it, especially if it’s still going to drop in 2016 as is currently planned. What I saw in my brief time with the game is a solid core for Suda51’s latest twisted vision of a tried-and-true game genre. Whether there is a market for a F2P action-RPG exclusive to the PS4 of this style is yet to be seen—but, at the very least, I can confirm at this moment that Let It Die is far from dead.

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Stories: The Path of Destinies review

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April 20, 2016

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Choose your fate

Immersion has always been a big factor for me enjoying not just games, but a lot of the media I’ve consumed over the years. So, it shouldn’t come as a shock to find out I was a fan of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books while growing up. I found it particularly easy to insert myself directly into their stories, and it could take hours to repeatedly work my way through them, finding all the different endings. It’s no wonder then that I immediately fell in love with Stories: The Path of Destinies.

Stories follows a clever fox rogue named Reynardo who, through a series of unfortunate events, has found himself smack dab in the middle of a civil war between an evil king and his kingdom’s upstart rebellion. The events that led to Reynardo’s involvement in the war also saw a magical book find its way into his possession. This book allows him to see his potential fate based on decisions he has yet to make, and only by overcoming countless trials and errors will Reynardo discover the truth behind the war and discern what will be the one path he can take to victory.

While the story sounds simple enough, much of the charm of Stories comes due to its lone voice actor. The storyteller/narrator acts similarly to the one in Bastion, dynamically and amusingly calling out many of Reynardo’s actions, from the epic (fighting off a dozen enemies and not taking a hit) to the mundane (yes, smashing all those pots is necessary). Some of the writing misses the mark, but most of its mistakes can be forgiven considering the tone of the entire adventure. Plus, it should be commended as a whole, considering how everything interconnects.

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You see, just like those Choose Your Own Adventure books of my youth, Stories features 25 different endings for our hero, and only one of them can be considered “good”: the good guys live, the bad guys don’t, and the world is saved. The fun, though, is in collecting the clues to learn how to get to that good ending.

Each playthrough of Stories only takes about an hour total as you work your way through five chapters. Each chapter has a decision at the end of it, which branches the story off in different directions before culminating in one of the endings. With each “bad” ending you receive (Reynaldo dies, world is destroyed, etc.) one of four universal truths is potentially revealed. These are facts that never change, no matter what path Reynaldo takes, and which contain knowledge he can then use when he flips back to the front of his magical, fate-revealing book. The truths also unlock additional choice paths when you replay certain scenarios due to the new information our protagonist has gained.

Once you learn all four truths, you should have the pieces necessary to figure out how Reynaldo must navigate the book—like a magnificent meta-puzzle—in order to emerge a true hero. Of course, with 24 bad endings, there’s no guarantee that each ending will reveal a truth, but the fun is in course-correcting each time around, changing one decision—or many—in an attempt to uncover the information you need. So, at minimum, you’ll need five playthroughs (I admittedly stumbled and needed a sixth) to unlock the hero’s best path.

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My only gripe with how this was done comes from the fact that unlike a true Choose Your Own Adventure, you have to replay full storylines just to get to the one decision you want to change. For completionists out there who want to see all 25 endings, this will be particularly frustrating, because instead of being able to bounce back to a decision in chapter four, you have to go all the way back to chapter one each time and start all over, forcibly lengthening the game.

This becomes particularly bothersome when you realize there are only around eight different levels rotating in and out of the five chapters, so playing the game over and over again causes you to see a lot of the same areas repeatedly. Each level has a couple of alternate paths that you can unlock on subsequent playthroughs, but when you’re traipsing through the desert for the tenth time, the levels lose their luster.

One aspect that helps keep this repetition from bogging the game down too much is the gameplay. Stories plays like a relatively straight-forward action-RPG, but there is some surprising depth to the combat when you mix in the four swords Reynardo can acquire and level up, the hookshot that allows him to quickly close the distance to enemies, and counter attacks reminiscent of the “exclamation mark above the enemy’s head” system from super hero games.

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There’s also a deep leveling system, with perks that carry over from playthrough to playthrough. This way, by the time you’re trying to make a speed run for the good ending, Reynardo will be almost tank-like in his ability to mow down enemies and keep pushing the story forward.

There is a shortcoming with the gameplay, in that there are a fair amount of glitches in the game. I found myself stuck to certain walls, or half-submerged in the ground like it was quicksand, on several occasions, requiring me to restart the chapter. While no chapter is more than 15 minutes long depending on how much you explore, it quickly got bothersome after it happened more than a couple of times.

Stories: The Path of Destinies is a love letter to the Choose Your Own Adventure books of my childhood. It’s multiple paths and endings will keep you coming back for at least a few playthroughs as you attempt to unlock the best ending possible. It also acts as a solid action-RPG, with a surprising amount of depth to keep you engaged for at least as long as it should take you to uncover all the hidden truths. If you’re looking for a narrative-driven game that you can come back to again and again, then Stories: The Path of Destinies is a game you should probably choose.

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Developer: Spearhead Games • Publisher: Spearhead Games • ESRB: T – Teen • Release Date: 04.12.16
8.5
Solid action-RPG gameplay is elevated by the meta-puzzle that is the game’s branching storylines. The entertaining trial and error of trying to find the one “good” ending channels Choose Your Own Adventure books, and lends itself to a story that you’ll love playing again and again.
The Good Choose your own adventure-style narrative with over two-dozen endings for tons of replayability.
The Bad Level repetition can lead to fatigue, especially when needing to restart due to a collision glitch.
The Ugly Thinking too hard about a fox falling in love with a cat.
Stories: The Path of Destinies is available on PS4 and PC. Primary version reviewed was for PS4. Review code was provided by Spearhead Games for the benefit of this review. EGM reviews games on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 5.0 being average.
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MLB The Show 16 review

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Take me out to the ballgame

I’ve loved sports all my life, and while football and hockey have earned copious amounts of my attention over the years, my first love remains baseball. Many of my earliest sports memories revolve around playing, watching, and studying the game (my 1995 MLB Almanac that began my obsession with statistics still holds a special place in my personal library). So, it’s no wonder that I get an extra spring in my step when Opening Day begins to roll around once more. I start studying rosters, rotations, scouting reports, schedules, and more with the tenacity of an FBI manhunt for a most wanted criminal.

In recent years, my annual routine has slightly shifted to include playing MLB The Show. I’ve picked up every copy of the game since 2010, and have found it is a great way to prepare for the season—even if it’s never exactly been perfect. But each year I still return to the only true baseball simulation on the market to help take the edge off when I need a fix of America’s pastime.

This year’s entry into the annual franchise, MLB The Show 16, looked to enhance the game in every aspect and mode while also adding a bevy of new features, especially in their online suite. Some of these changes add a lot to the experience, and I can say Sony San Diego knocked them out of the park. Others, however, are clear swing and misses.

Visually, the game is stunning. More realistic lighting, and a whole slew of new hitting, running, and fielding animations makes this easily the prettiest entry in the series thus far. Even after putting nearly two-dozen hours into the offline modes, there wasn’t a glitch to be found.

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The core modes of MLB The Show—Franchise and Road to the Show—have also seen upgrades. Franchise mode, which gives you total control over your favorite MLB team, has more stats than ever before, and finally gives a player’s full career history when you look at their numbers. Baseball is a stats driven game, and it’s about time this was included.

Also, taking a page out of EA Sports’ NHL franchise, players now have morale indicators based on a variety of factors. These influence their performance, as well as the likelihood of them signing or re-signing a contract with your team. Whether your team is located close to their home, how much money you’re offering, the coach, your team’s position in the standings, and much more will affect the player’s happiness level, making contract negotiations a more involved process than just throwing more money at players.

Road to the Show, which gives you a chance to create a player and live out your own major league aspirations, has added even more new features than Franchise. One new aspect in particular hugely changes gameplay here, and it’s called “Showtime”. This special meter allows players to slow down time and focus on really big moments. Need to make a diving catch to save a run? Stepping to the plate, down by three with the bases loaded and wanting to walk-off in style? Slow down time, hone in on the moment, and come through in the clutch. It takes a fair amount of time to get used to—especially when you slow down your at-bats at the plate—but when you get the timing down, it’s a fun new wrinkle to help accelerate your player’s growth from AA-prospect to MLB-superstar.

Another way that RTTS accelerates your development is that you can play entire series after one load screen. Sitting down and fast-forwarding to each of your at-bats and moments in the field in three or four game clips really zips you through the minors if you’re good enough. I polished off my first month of the season in just a couple hours, a process that used to take much longer in previous years.

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Besides this, new training tools allow you to add perks to your players as they improve, like better contact when hitting to cut down on strikeouts in high-pressure situations, or increasing the likelihood of opponents making errors in the field so you always get on base. The mode even kicks off with a chance to play in the Bowman Scout Day, helping define your player the second you start down the path to a major league career.

The biggest changes that came to MLB The Show 16, though, easily fall under Diamond Dynasty, MLB’s online fantasy mode that lets you put together a dream team by collecting different player cards. More cards are available than ever before, and that’s because of a new category called “Flashbacks.” These cards feature superstar players who might be in the twilight of their career, but with statistics from different chapters of their MLB playing time. Texas Rangers MVP Alex Rodriguez, and Oakland Athletics rookie Kurt Suzuki are just a couple of the new cards featured, and Legend cards also return featuring the likes of Nolan Ryan, making it so you can turn your online team into a juggernaut in no time.

To help flesh out your rosters, there are also more ways than ever to get cards, using either the franchise’s traditional in-game currency earned by playing the game known as “stubs,” or the brand new ticket currency added to MLB The Show 16. When you start the game, you’ll be allowed to pick from one of six special captains from around baseball: cover boy and reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson from the Blue Jays; Mets pitcher Jacob DeGrom; retiring Red Sox slugger David Ortiz; defending world champion Royals first-baseman Eric Hosmer; Astros speedster second baseman Jose Altuve; and Cubs superstar first-baseman Anthony Rizzo. By playing different modes in MLB The Show 16, you’ll earn experience towards each captain. In a way, the six captains work as a form of prestige for the game itself, because by leveling up each captain to their max, you’ll have a chance to buy special cards associated with each one at higher levels. Each captain also offers unique challenges towards earning those award tickets, which can then also be redeemed for special reward cards.

I like the idea behind the captain system, but I think, as it is, it’s a bit too convoluted. Trying to keep track of what challenge you’re going for and introducing a second currency feels like a ham-fisted attempt at trying to jam more overarching content into the game. Plus, limiting the system to only these captains—instead of offering less levels to max each one out, but representing each team around baseball—feels like a missed opportunity. Not to mention, you can always find a lot of the cards being offered in random packs or the game’s online auction house. The inside track this mode offers doesn’t really expedite anything, considering the grind to max each captain out to get to the best cards available.

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There are also two new modes in MLB The Show 16’s online suite of games.

Diamond Dynasty is no longer limited to just playing people in head-to-head matchups, as there’s now also a weird RTS Risk-style game where you take your team online in an attempt to conquer all the other MLB teams across North America. By playing and winning repeated games, you’ll earn more fans and your influence will grow. When you completely absorb the fan base of another team, you’ll conquer their region.

I love the concept, but as is, even with each game being limited to 3-inning exhibitions, this mode is a grind to play. It might take you days to beat Conquest even once, and considering the game forces you to play on higher difficulties when you have fewer fans (or your fans are too spread out between multiple fronts), the reward for playing feels minimal compared to the time investment.

The other new mode is Battle Royale, which takes a page out of EA Sports’ Madden playbook in that it comes off a lot like their Draft Champions. You begin the mode by drafting a 25-man team from current and hall of fame baseball players. After setting your line-up, you have to hop online and play 3-inning games against human players. If you win, you’ll earn more player cards. The more you win, the better cards you get, and the stiffer the competition you’ll face as online rankings start being taken into account. If you lose twice, the mode is over and you have to re-draft and start over, trying to win crappy cards again before moving on up. The mode is also a gamble as it requires 1500 stubs to play. That isn’t a monumental amount, but it’s enough for most folks to take pause before jumping right in—and the rewards don’t feel like they justify the time sink.

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Unfortunately, I ran into one major issue with these new modes during my time with MLB The Show 16, and that’s the fact that they require you to be online in order to play them (unlike RTTS and Franchise). Lo and behold, just like almost every other year, the game’s servers have been completely unstable at launch. In fact, in the first 48 hours of playing post-release, I’ve had more full disconnects from MLB The Show’s online servers than I’ve been able to connect and finish a 3-inning game with people. And even when I do connect, the lag is atrocious.

Talking with friends and even the strangers I’ve played online, I’ve found they are experiencing the same issues. I’ve played other online games without a hitch, again pointing to the fact that just like every year, Sony San Diego could not get their online act together in time for launch. It’s a huge disappointment, especially considering these new modes are all tied directly to online play.

There also seems to be a tendency on Sony San Diego’s part to fix things that aren’t broken instead of fixing things that are. I’m sure the servers will get to a better point sooner rather than later, but minor things like UI changes to the menus and stat cards for players—including player stamina meters now being a circle bar instead of a more clearly readable long bar like in last year’s game—just seem wholly unnecessary when you have these sorts of netcode problems.

A part of me wonders if it all stems from the fact that MLB The Show 16 maybe tried to offer too much new stuff this go around. Had they focused on making a couple of the new features they included as polished and user-friendly as possible, and for once had a smooth online launch, this could’ve been a very special baseball sim. As it is, it is very good, with some solid ideas being added, yet you can’t help but knock them for botching online play again—especially when the majority of new features are connected to it. You can’t win the World Series in the first month of the season, but you can lose it with a slow start, and there’s no doubt that MLB The Show 16 at least stumbled out of the gate on that one. That said, if you need a baseball fix and find you spend most of your time playing RTTS and Franchise modes anyway, MLB The Show 16 delivers in spades on those fronts.

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Developer: SCEA San Diego • Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America • ESRB: E – Everyone • Release Date: 03.29.16
8.0
MLB The Show 16 continues to find innovative ways to push the series forward by adding new features and improving on old ones. Some new problems have arisen, however, and old ones—most notably the horrendous stability of online play—continue to persist and hold the series back.
The Good Deeper Road to the Show mode, better visuals, and the concept of new online modes.
The Bad The online play itself is as atrocious as ever.
The Ugly Even with thousands of new lines of commentary recorded, Steve Lyons, Eric Karros, and Tom Vasgersian still started to repeat themselves after only a half-dozen games or so.
MLB The Show 16 is available on PS4 and PS3. Primary version reviewed was for PS4. Review code was provided by Sony for the benefit of this review. EGM reviews games on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 5.0 being average.
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République review

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment

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Big Brother’s still watching

When République’s Kickstarter launched back in 2012, I was instantly intrigued. Admittedly, a premise touting a dystopian future and corrupt government that you have to fight back against through stealth and sabotage is an easy way to perk my ears up. Then it was revealed to be episodic in nature, with the first episode coming December of 2013. As interested as I was, I knew I’d want to binge-play all the episodes in quick succession, so I decided I’d wait for them all to be released.

So I waited. And waited. And then I forgot about République. This was because for a while there it looked like the end might never come with huge gaps between episodes. Finally, though, here I am, sitting down to write a review I thought would’ve come much, much sooner. And with the long-awaited arrival of the fifth and final episode on mobile and PC came a PS4 edition collecting the entire adventure together for easier consumption, which is exactly how I wanted to experience it to begin with.

In the PS4 version of République, players take on a unique dual-role. Half the time you’ll assume control of Hope, a beaten-down young girl who has already been “recalibrated” several times, yet still her spark for rebellion keeps emerging. For the other half you’ll be a nameless friend from the outside who must help Hope finally escape by hacking the video cameras and electronics in the totalitarian République, turning the Orwellian dictatorship’s paranoia-inducing surveillance tactics against itself. Along the way, you’ll learn about the République’s faceless Overseer, escape his head of security—a masochistic man named Derringer—and his “Prizrak” soldiers, and peel back the layers of conspiracy to learn the truth.

République’s greatest strength comes in its storytelling. Although the beginning of the series may drag a bit as it establishes the universe you’ll be exploring, the pace soon hits its stride, giving you a perfect mix of drama, suspense, action, and just enough breadcrumbs to make you keep wanting to fall down the rabbit hole. Of course, the more you put into exploring République’s small, interconnected Metroidvania-like world—one that opens up some as your security clearance increases—the more you’ll learn about everything that led to the creation of the République in the near-future of 2020, and about the rigid structure you’re tasked with rebelling against.

A major element that gets République’s backstory across is the beautiful design of the world, which firmly plants one foot in modern reality and another in this possible future. Some areas feature the cold, gray technology you’d expect from a futuristic civilization, with supercomputers, biolabs, and advanced surveillance tech dotting the many hallways. Meanwhile, rainy graveyards, an intricate library with books approved by the state, and a museum that pays homage to revolutionary leaders—including a wing dedicated to the Overseer—show how society reached this point in only a few years.

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There’s also an interesting mesh of technology seen in the collectibles, highlighting the backwards, fascist thinking of the game’s antagonists. Rarely do collectibles add so much to a game’s ability to immerse you in a world (oftentimes it’s the exact opposite). Even though you are surrounded by all this future tech, it’s the discovery of cassette tape messages from fellow rebels, saving books marked for burning like Orwell’s Animal Farm, Nabokov’s Lolita, or Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, or indie-darling video games like Bastion, Flow, and This War of Mine on floppy discs that help paint a picture of subjugation and isolation critical to the atmosphere the game tries to convey.

The characters themselves also go a long way to selling the plot. Hope’s plain white jumpsuit and pink control collar immediately scream oppression, whereas the Overseer dons a pristine white military uniform seen favored by modern dictators, trying to convey a sense of pureness and cleanliness despite his tyrannical ways. It also must be mentioned that tremendous voice acting across the board only heightens the tension of every confrontation between all the major characters.

The only negative about the story comes from the fact that if you want to replay any episode on the PS4 version of the game, you have to start an entirely new game. You can’t just jump into an episode at any time to go back and hunt for collectibles or change the couple of branching decisions the story gives you. At that point, why even bother rolling credits after each episode? Just cut that out and make it one long game.

As great as République looks and sounds, and as much as I may love the story, there’s still the matter of gameplay. République, at its core, is a stealth game. Memorizing guard patterns, sneaking around, and using the environment to your advantage to hide in plain sight is the only way Hope will survive the night and escape. The PS4 version of République is the third different control scheme the game has been given, though.

On mobile, where the game started out, tapping the touch screen was used to move Hope around and change cameras. The PC/Mac version was then given point-and-click controls to simulate the touch-screen experience. The PS4 version needed an entirely new system, however, to be playable. It works in some regards, though in others there has clearly been something lost in translation, detracting from the stealth required to make it through the game unscathed.

Whereas before you would simply use the cameras to see where Hope is going and then tap to start her moving, the PS4 version has you bouncing back and forth between Hope and the cameras, controlling only one at a time. The benefit of this is the duality I mentioned earlier, helping you feel like a separate character in the universe and not some omnipotent force controlling an avatar. When Hope is caught by the Prizrak, your options as the camera are also limited, and that feeling of helplessness—if Hope isn’t carrying a one-use item that lets her escape, like pepper-spray, Tasers, or sleeping gas bombs, that is—grounds you even more in the idea of being a friend on the outside.

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Having more direct control over Hope in this version of the game, though, leads to some frustrating moments. Since Hope only moves when controlling her and you can’t set her off a path like a Lemming, if you get too far away from a particular camera, the viewpoint may automatically shift to a closer one at a different angle. But in my playthrough there were moments where one camera would be farther away, but offer a better angle when sneaking up on a guard. When the camera suddenly shifted, so did my controls, and I’d bump into the guard or instantly start walking in the opposite direction I’d intended.

Speaking of guards, the Prizrak may be the dumbest enemies I’ve seen in a long time. Prizrak mooks have about as much peripheral vision as a VR headset, meaning if you aren’t directly in front of a Prizrak’s eyes, they won’t notice you. While their patterns are complex enough that you can’t predict them all the time, there’s a larger margin for error than you see in many other stealth games and often Hope can be standing right next to one without them noticing her.

You can also weirdly freeze time when controlling cameras, painting the world in a film-negative tone. While this allows you to scout areas up ahead, better plan paths around guard patrols, and hack computers without worrying about said patrols, it’s an immersion-shattering element. The last thing we need is another game with some sort of “radar sense” or “detective mode,” and I think keeping everything in real-time would’ve much better served the narrative the rest of the game supports.

Not every aspect of the gameplay is a mess, though. The few puzzles that players will have to help Hope overcome are fun and inventive. And some hacking mini-games, like twisting the state-run newspaper into incriminating high-ranking Prizrak, or deleting criminal records to free people from the Overseer’s grasp, offer enough variety to keep you on your toes and make things a little more interesting.

République’s attempt at creating an Orwellian-nightmare is largely successful, giving us a deep conspiracy-laden plot driven by compelling characters, stellar world design, and good writing. It only really falls flat in some gameplay aspects, but it works well enough on the whole that if the story digs its hooks into you, you’ll be able to look past the shortcomings and hopefully guide Hope through to the end.

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Developer: Camouflaj, Logan Games • Publisher: GungHo Online Entertainment • ESRB: M – Mature • Release Date: 03.22.16
8.0
République’s transition from mobile to console is a mostly smooth one, but does feature some control hiccups along the way. The star of the show is the modern Orwellian tale crafted here, though, allowing you to look past a fair amount of technical issues.
The Good Classic conspiracy-driven Orwellian tale will suck you in and leave you wanting more.
The Bad Camera controls are difficult to get used to and often switch angles at the worst times.
The Ugly You’re being watched now for reading this review.
République is available on PS4, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. Primary version reviewed was for PS4. Review code was provided by GungHo Online Entertainment for the benefit of this review. EGM reviews games on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 5.0 being average.
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Just Cause 3: Sky Fortress review

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment

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Fly like an eagle, then fall like Icarus

When Just Cause 3 came out at the end of last year, it delivered all the insane, bombastic action the series is known for and then some. New tools for Rico Rodriguez coupled with another island nation to obliterate meant I ended up sinking close to 40 hours into this game over winter break and not regretting a single second of it. So, when the Sky Fortress DLC expansion—the first of three coming to the game—had finally been added, I was thrilled to have an excuse to take control of the maestro of mayhem once again and blow up a little bit more of Medici. Just how little that bit would be came as something of a shock, though.

The Sky Fortress DLC starts off like some of Rico’s other missions over the course of the game, with him getting a call from his shady friend and government handler, Tom Sheldon. Countless Medicians have been slaughtered by robotic drones that belong to the eDEN Corporation—a tech start-up that fell out of favor with many world governments decades ago—and the drones are now mining the explosive mineral Bavarium from various parts of the island. Rico will have to track the drones to their airbase located off the coast, stop eDEN from killing any more civilians, and force them to cease their mining operation.

In order for Rico to defeat an enemy that defies gravity, he’ll have to do the same. So, Tom provides him with a new Bavarium-powered wingsuit. The suit is actually more akin to a jetpack, giving Rico upwards boost that recharges when he levels out for a brief time courtesy of the actual wing part of the suit, and also straps a rocket launcher and machine gun to Rico’s back, making him more fighter jet than wingsuiter really at that point.

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Just Cause has never been known for a great story. Like french fries serving as vessels for various sauces, the loose narrative around Just Cause games is just an excuse to blow up as much stuff as possible. The Sky Fortress DLC is no different, centered on demolishing drones and the titular airship that eDEN Corporation is based out of. As epic as that may sound, unfortunately, it all falls surprisingly flat, especially in the shadow of the main game.

All told, I beat the entirety of Sky Fortress, optional side missions included, in about 90 minutes. That means if you focused solely on the narrative content, you’d probably be looking at an experience that clocks in at an hour long, if you’re lucky. Three main missions, four outposts to liberate, four Bavarium wingsuit oriented challenges, and then roll the credits again. Avalanche Studios couldn’t even be bothered to give us full cutscenes. Instead, we get what amounts to a few pieces of concept art stills of the main characters with voiceover dubbed over it.

One small saving grace for Sky Fortress at least is that you can carry over your new wingsuit and a couple of new guns over to the main game if you haven’t beaten it yet. And if you’re just getting started in Just Cause 3, the DLC missions unlock about one-third of the way through the primary campaign, meaning you’ll be even better equipped to overthrow General Di Ravello and his army. Just like the lack of content devoted to your new toys, however, there’s an unfortunate catch that comes with all of this.

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For as fun as it is to fly almost limitlessly around a hugely destructible open-world with a rocket launcher strapped to your back, the Bavarium wingsuit also makes your old tools almost null and void. Why bother with a parachute when you can air brake and come to a soft landing? Why worry about how many rockets Rico can carry when you have an unlimited supply when flying? And why even bother with a grappling hook when you can literally soar from point A to point B both vertically and horizontally now?

The Bavarium wingsuit takes away any sort of challenge for the game. There’s even a barrel roll maneuver when flying, which breaks all missile locks on you. This means it’ll be near impossible for you to ever take damage as long as you keep moving. It is basically like turning on god mode and removes the little skill it once required to get around and destroy stuff in the game. Just Cause has never been a punishing game, but a little bit of challenge can go a long way to having a good time, and this new wingsuit snuffs that out pretty swiftly.

Just Cause 3’s Sky Fortress DLC sounds amazing when you look at what it entails. But from the second it begins, it comes off more as a hastily thrown together weapon pack than a fully fleshed-out expansion. It is held loosely together by minimal content, and mitigates what already exists in the main game. There’s nothing inherently broken about what Sky Fortress does, but it adds so little to the overall experience of Just Cause 3 that you’d be just as well off if you had never played it at all.

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Developer: Avalanche Studios • Publisher: Square Enix • ESRB: M – Mature • Release Date: 03.15.16
5.0
Any excuse to return to the world of Just Cause 3 is welcome, but by the time you just start getting warmed up and comfortable with the new weapons, gear, and enemies, this new chapter is already over and you’re left asking where the rest of it is.
The Good The Bavarium wingsuit is the natural evolution for causing chaos in Just Cause.
The Bad New gear largely nullifies need for grappling hook, parachute, and conventional weapons. Largely removes all difficulty from the game.
The Ugly You can 100% the entire experience in less than two hours.
Just Cause 3: Sky Fortress is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox One. Review code was provided by Square Enix for the benefit of this review. EGM reviews games on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 5.0 being average.
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Just Cause 3 Sky Fortress DLC – Taking Control Mission

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March 15, 2016

I played Just Cause 3’s Sky Fortress DLC, the first of three post-launch DLCs for Just Cause 3. In this video, I tackle the Taking Control Mission which will unlock the “Break a Leg!” achievement and show off the new Bavarium wing suit! Just Cause 3’s Sky Fortress DLC is available March 15 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC, unless you have the season pass and then it’s available March 8.

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Song of the Deep’s story will pull you in, its gameplay will keep you coming back

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment

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Usually when people think of Insomniac Games, over-the-top action and insane weapons are the first thoughts that come to mind. In a creative field like video games, though, patterns are meant to be broken and comfort zones are meant to be stepped outside of—and that’s what’s being done by a fifteen-person team within Insomniac. This small group of staffers is hard at work on Song of the Deep, a side-scrolling metroidvania-style passion project that definitely moves away from what some may consider the studio’s bread and butter. I was recently able to play about 30 minutes of the game, and you’d think Insomniac had always been working within that genre.

Song of the Deep follows 12-year-old Merryn, a young girl whose fisherman father has been lost at sea. When Merryn has a vision seeing her father trapped on the sea floor, she decides the only way to save her dad is to find him herself. So, she puts together a makeshift submarine and sets off to explore the murky depths. What she soon realizes, however, is that all the old bedtime stories her father used to tell her about the sea might actually be true, and only by navigating various hazards will she ever be able to bring him home.

Dropped into the middle of Merryn’s adventure, I began by trying out the variety of tools and weapons that her sub has to help it navigate its surroundings. A grappling hook can be used to tether the sub to craggy surfaces in strong currents, pull and carry objects around a level when solving puzzles, or even to try to punch enemies. The sub also featured sonar with pulses that can stun certain enemies, a turbo booster which can really crank up the engines on the sub, and lasers and torpedoes to either defend yourself with or destroy crumbling walls for entry into submerged ruins.

Speaking of ruins, as I explored the world around me, I began to realize that some of the story was being told via the vibrant environments I was navigating. Large tendrils of seaweed acted as window dressing on larger set pieces, but also at times visually obscured hidden pathways. Intricately-carved stone, long lost to time, had eerily been preserved in the deepest recesses of the ocean. Unknown clockwork technology still operated when Merryn interacted with it, opening up new wonders to explore. Song of the Deep is nothing short of beautiful when it came to providing a visually captivating experience.

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As I began to make headway during my hands-on time, I soon came across my first upgrade. It was a special suit that Merryn can wear in order to freely exit the sub. Being much smaller than the sub, the suit allows her to explore tiny crevasses and pathways that lead to special items or solutions to different puzzles. It basically serves the purpose of Samus’ morph ball from Metroid, but Merryn is far more vulnerable in this mode than Samus ever was, leaving Song of the Deep’s heroine open to far more danger.

And danger is something Song of the Deep is fraught with. Being underwater, Merryn and her sub provide a unique twist to other games in the same genre in that there is no platforming. Being submerged, you can always move in every direction as long as there isn’t a wall or other obstacle in your path barring progress. This means bottomless pits or spike traps aren’t on Merryn’s list of concerns, but in their place, Insomniac needed other ways to provide challenge along the adventure.

One way of doing this is to fill each level with hostile wildlife, with jellyfish, urchins, and other sea creatures trying to turn you into dinner if you’re not careful. Another way of upping the difficulty is with puzzles. Navigating labyrinthine corridors with jet stream currents trying to toss you to and fro, using your grappling hook to throw items through narrow openings in order to open up ancient, rusted gates, or working steampunk-like machinery to reflect light at different sensors were just some of the head-scratchers I came across in my time with the game. Although not impossible to overcome, they definitely added a welcome challenge to the adventure.

Although my time with Song of the Deep was short, its appeal is evident. Whether a longtime fan of metroidvanias, or just looking for another endearing digital story to experience, the team at Insomniac is showing their pedigree reaches far past extraordinary weaponry and mind-blowing action. Song of the Deep should be a game to keep an eye out for when it releases sometime before the end of the first half of 2016 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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