Tag Archive: review


EGM Review: New Super Mario Bros. 2

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August 13, 2012

Mario loves da gold! Wa-hoooo!

Ever since Mario had to traverse eight definitely different worlds, donned his first set of raccoon ears to fly, and bashed Bowser’s seven nasty Koopalings, the formula to making a great side-scrolling Mario game hasn’t changed much over the years. New items have been introduced, and Bowser Jr. sometimes takes the place of Larry, Morton Jr., Wendy O., Iggy, Lemmy, Roy, and Ludwig, but for the most part, things have stayed relatively the same.

And this formula’s maintained once again with New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS. The Koopalings, who have a bit more of a grown-up design—they’re technically of legal drinking age now, after all—and their dad, Bowser, have kidnapped Princess Peach for the billionth time. So, it’s once again up to Mario and Luigi to storm through the Mushroom Kingdom and leave kicked turtles shells and flattened Goombas in their wake, whether alone, or by linking up for some brotherly co-op action.

The twist this time is that the Mushroom Kingdom has apparently gone through some sort of economic boom, because coins are everywhere. New Golden Fire Flowers turn blocks into coins or cause enemies to yield coins when defeated. Golden turtle shells leave a path of coins in their wake for Mario and Luigi to collect. The brothers can even carry around golden blocks that drop more coins as they jump, run, and fly through eight more worlds based in familiar Mushroom Kingdom locales. Along with these new items are the returning regular Fire Flower, Super Mushroom, Invincibility Star, and Raccoon Leaf. With the Raccoon Leaf, we also see the P-Meter return—which, when full, allows Mario and Luigi to temporarily fly through the skies of a given stage.

Aside from the new items, New Super Mario Bros. 2 does offer something that’s been critical to all Mario games, side-scrolling or 3D: tight controls and intricate puzzles that can be solved using Mario’s bevy of jumps and other abilities like the butt-stomp. This platforming perfection is what makes Mario games so fun, and in that regard, New Super Mario Bros. 2 definitely succeeds with its own share of secrets, collectibles, and branching pathways that can be unlocked depending on how you should advance through the game. The more time you put into practicing your jumps, the more you should get out of this Mario adventure.

It’s also nice to see the Koopalings gimmick taking a necessary step forward to provide us wily old Mario veterans a little bit of a challenge this time around. Not only do the Koopalings have their trademark magic wands that allow them to blast fireballs at Mario, but each one also has a lair uniquely designed to their strengths, requiring Mario to overcome extra obstacles he’s never seen before from Bowser’s seven brats. This adds a tinge of excitement to reaching the end of each level; you never knew what to expect next, as the lairs are definitely brand-new experiences.

And speaking of new, the newest game mode, Coin Rush, is probably what will help keep New Super Mario Bros. 2 fresh in people’s minds more than anything, as it provides an arcade-like replayability we haven’t seen in a Mario game in decades. Traversing through three random stages with one life and trying to set a coin high score to share with your friends via StreetPass not only keeps in line with the theme of the game—which promotes you to try to collect 1 million lifetime coins—but also gives you a chance to readily compare scores with your friends like you’d see with online leaderboards.

All in all, not much has changed since the last New Super Mario Bros., but not much really needed to change in the first place. The controls are still as tight as ever, the look and sound drips classic Mario, the platforming puzzles are expertly designed, and even the Koopalings have seen a bit of a facelift. The new Coin Rush mode adds some needed replayability, and the StreetPass leaderboards can become addictive if you’re into that arcade style of play.

The only thing you might not enjoy is the fact that the Princess still hasn’t figured out how to keep out of Bowser’s clutches, but then again, it wouldn’t quite be a Mario game if she did. New Super Mario Bros. 2 succeeds in finding a way to stay entertaining using a formula first used 25-plus years ago, and fans old and new shouldn’t wait to jump into the world’s most famous plumber’s latest adventure.

SUMMARY: Though we’ve seen this formula before, New Super Mario Bros. 2 finds a way to keep itself just fresh enough while still hitting platfroming perfection.

  • THE GOOD: Still the tightest platforming out there.
  • THE BAD: We’ve seen this formula before.
  • THE UGLY: The Mushroom Kingdom’s imminent economic collapse.

SCORE: 9.0

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a 3DS exclusive.

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EGM Review: The Expendables 2 Video Game

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August 8, 2012

Worst. Movie Game. EVER.

Most movie games are rushed projects that require developers to take an idea loosely based around the corresponding film, staple some play mechanics together, and hope it holds up enough to warrant even making the game at all. So, when I heard that a game based on The Expendables 2 was coming out just before the movie, I definitely didn’t think we’d be getting a masterpiece—but it’s been a while since I’ve seen a pile of slop this bad.

Understandably, the game took the twinstick-shooter route, since it’s easier to create a fully realized 3D world in a short amount of time in this genre (just look at all of the twinstick-shooter indie titles on XBLA). This also allows for 4-player drop-in, drop-out co-op, the one thing that actually works here. But on every other level, this game is a horrible waste of time. Oh, The Expendables 2 Videogame, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways…

The first—and most obvious—offense to your eyes comes with the graphics. The models lack any sort of detail whatsoever once you enter a story chapter, and the game only utilizes two colors, it seems: brown and gray. Not only does this have the effect of blending everything together so you can barely tell who or what is shooting at you, but it also means that most levels blend together as well.

And while we’re on the aesthetics, let’s get to the second point of hatred: the putrid voiceover work. I appreciate Dolph Lundgren and Terry Crews actually lending their voices to the game (not like they got a lot on their plate these days), but the Stallone impersonator is just awful, and the dialogue is horribly written. “What’s the plan, Barney?” “Same as always! Kill everything between us and the objective!” Are you kidding me?! I know elementary-school kids who have a better grasp of dialogue. At least the music’s somewhat enjoyable and gives the game an epic action-movie feel, even if nothing else about the game does.

And just think—I haven’t even gotten to my hatred of the actual gameplay yet! Twinstick shooters don’t usually allow for a lot of gameplay variety—you simply mow down the same two or three enemy types for however many levels the game entails—so I appreciate the fact that the game attempts to break up the monotony that can sometimes plague these titles with some on-rails shooter levels. But bizarrely, the one element the game insists on realism is the gun clips, which cause you to constantly reload and never let you get into any sort of pace when on foot, making you miss many targets during the on-rails levels.

Plus, making the player hold the right trigger in order to fire when on foot defeats the purpose of using both sticks for much of the combat. And since only the sniper character has a laser sight, unless you’re constantly firing—which you can’t, due to the clip sizes—you have no idea where your chosen character is aiming, making the combat feel choppy all around. Additionally, the glitchy hit mechanics mean that you don’t even get proper feedback half the time on whether or not your shot actually hit an enemy, leaving you guessing until they mercilessly fade away instantly after falling to the dirt.

Finally, I hate the story. The dialogue definitely doesn’t paint a vivid picture, but what’s worse is that the game offers no opening cinematic to explain anything and just throws you right to the wolves. This left me hating the experience even more, as your purpose is constantly and consistently murky.

And that sums up The Expendables 2 Videogame in a nutshell: This game has no purpose. It’s one of the worst wastes of time I’ve ever had to review. It has no direction, shoddy controls, an ugly look, and possibly the most absent plot in the modern console generation. It’s an embarrassment, even as movie games go. I implore you to steer clear of this title at all costs.

SUMMARY: Aside from the seamless drop-in, drop-out co-op, this is one of the worst videogames I’ve had the displeasure of playing in a long time. It looks awful, controls horribly, and the plot is nonexistent. 

  • THE GOOD: 4-player drop-in, drop-out co-op.
  • THE BAD: Everything else.
  • THE UGLY: The one-liners, the voice acting, the entire premise…

SCORE: 1.0

The Expendables 2 Videogame is available for XBLA, PSN, and PC. Primary version reviewed was on PSN. 

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EGM Movie Review: The Watch

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July 27, 2012

With summer movie season typically being all about the major action blockbuster blowing us away with intense scenes of bullets flying and exploding fireballs melting people’s faces, it’s easy to forget to just laugh once in a while. Lucky for us, there’s The Watch. Starring comedic powerhouses Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill, The Watch follows the bumbling antics of four unlikely friends who come upon an alien invasion that will wipe the Earth off the face of the galaxy if they don’t do something about it.

The movie starts with Stiller as the manager of the local Costco. When he arrives for work one day, he finds his night watchman has been killed while on duty…and his skin unceremoniously ripped off his body. With the local police unprepared for such an event, Stiller takes it upon himself to form a neighborhood watch and track down the killer. Enter Vaughn, Hill, and relative newcomer Richard Ayoade to complete the rag tag band of local misfits that quickly get in way over their heads.

Now, to add to the comedy gravitas already of the leading men in this film, we also saw the motion picture directorial debut of Akiva Schaffer, best known for working with Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone on many of the Saturday Night Live digital shorts of the past few years, and the script was co-written by Seth Rogen. And honestly, sometimes with all those dynamic personalities coming together, you’d expect that the movie would suffer as it was worked to make sure everyone had a chance to shine. But The Watch succeeded in having me literally laugh out loud for much of the movie as everyone had their moments, including Akiva who inserted himself into a hysterical cameo.

The Watch isn’t perfect by any means though. It gets off to a really slow start and for a movie that’s 1 hour and 40 minutes long, the first 40 minutes really is spent just setting up the situation and the personality foundations for the main characters, and I definitely checked my watch a couple of times because of it. The beginning does have a few nice one-liners to not lose you completely, but thankfully that last hour was strong enough to pull it all together with one joke just rolling right into the next.

I also appreciated the fact that once the alien invasion was exposed, the movie took a step away from that and let it just linger there while focusing back in on the dynamic between the four leads. You knew they would get back to it sooner or later, being the major conflict of the movie after all, but the funniest moments of the movie were just the four guys bantering back and forth with this galactic-sized situation on their hands.

I think part of this also is the movie taking full advantage of its R-rating. Not pulling any punches with language, sex, drugs, or violence, The Watch definitely drew a few laughs just by its willingness to occassionally go to places people don’t normally go to outside their home, if ever. Then again, what do you expect from the guy who helped make shorts like “Motherlover” and “D*** in a Box”? This is definitely for adult eyes only folks.

When all was said and done, I could say I genuinely enjoyed The Watch. It had a lot of great moments and once it hits its stride, even though it took a little while longer than expected to get there, the smile never left my face. Stiller, Vaughn, and Hill all hit their notes perfectly and Richard Ayoade may have been the most pleasant surprise of all as he stole several scenes with his expert comedic delivery. If you’re tired of seeing guys in costumes beat up on each other and need a good hearty laugh this summer, The Watch is a fine and funny alternative.

SCORE: 8.0

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The Pullbox – Issue #6.2

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An absolutely massive week made this Pullbox a little harder than normal as it seemed comics were coming from everywhere! Marvel, DC, and a cavalcade of indie stuff was successfully sifted through though and now we have this week’s Pullbox!

IDW – Ghostbusters #11 – The Ghostbusters continue their tour across America, battling pesky poltergeists all over the country, and this time they end up in Roswell, New Mexico on behalf of that state’s governor to take on a whole slew of alien ghosts!

Still probably my favorite monthly book that I’m picking up, Ghostsbusters does a brilliant job of coming up with new and interesting foes for the Ghostbusters to face while maintaining the humor that made the movies such classics. I literally can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud at a comic book before this monthly started almost a year ago. The best part of each book though is they are so easy to just jump right into because if you’re reading this book, you likely already know all the major players and what is going to be involved. I honestly hope writer Erik Burnham can continue the hysterical momentum he has going with this book as I continue to look forward to it each and every month.

DC – Batman: The Dark Knight #11 – Commissioner Gordon has been abducted by the Scarecrow and Batman is hot on his trail after finding traces of a variant to the Scarecrow’s infamous ‘Fear Toxin’. The Dark Knight though stumbles right into a trap laid out by the villain and ends up with a dose of this new toxin himself!

While reading this book, I was a little worried that, like with Mr. Freeze, they might be twisting The Scarecrow’s origin as well, and unfortunately I was right as it seems Jonathan Crane had a father who liked fear more than the boy ever did. At the very least, he is still the villain he always seems to have been, just crazier and with ‘Fear Toxin’ being in the BatComputer database, we at least know Batman should be more than aware of this new look Dr. Crane’s potential. Seeing where this rather generic, at least up to this point, Scarecrow story goes from here though should be interesting as this book tried to pull itself from the doldrums towards the end.

DC – Green Lantern #11 – After saving Sinestro from the Indigo Tribe and reformatting his ring, Hal Jordan wants to start enacting a plan to save the Guardians of the Universe…from themselves. Sinestro though points out that in Jordan’s haste to save him, he let Black Hand escape and in his mind, that is a far greater threat at the moment. So the unlikely duo travel to Sinestro’s secret layer where he hides the Book of Black in the hopes it will give them insight to both their problems.

I admit that I’m starting to tire of the world’s worst buddy movie pairing in Sinestro and Hal Jordan and long for this ‘Third Army’ arc that clearly looms on the horizon. Where exactly the relationship between Hal and Sinestro is heading, I have no idea, but I sure hope it gets there soon as I’m a little sick of it. At the very least, the re-introduction of Black Hand as a villain and his ability to re-animate the dead should prove a worthy adversary for the Green Lanterns for the time being and is the only thing keeping me interested in this book at the moment.

Marvel – Secret Avengers #29 – Max Fury, the evil clone of Nick Fury, has succeeded in putting together a hive of scum and villainy that would make Mos Eisley cower away. With many of the Marvel’s major and B-list villains congregated in one place, the Secret Avengers have their work cut out for them, especially as whatever it is this new Masters of Evil is planning could spell doom for the world as we know it.

It’s nice to see Secret Avengers get away from the AvX event and get back to the story that was being told before all that nonsense started. Unfortunately, it was such a convoluted storyline to begin with that if you’re like me, you can barely remember what happened a few months ago and how everyone is connected. All we really need to know though is the world is in trouble, Ant-Man is a traitor, and Venom and Taskmaster are gearing up for a battle of epic proportions next issue. And honestly, Venom seems to be the only interesting character in this bunch now as Cap and Beast are still dealing with AvX so the more he is featured the better. His little ‘disguise’ was absolutely brilliant as well and made a relatively boring book somewhat interesting as a whole.

Marvel – X-Treme X-Men #1 – After returning home from a parallel dimension where X-Men were sacrificed to keep the planet powered, Cyclops was looking for a way back to help those he left behind. Meanwhile, three alternate universe X-Men in the forms of a youthful Nightcrawler and Emma Frost, and a grizzled Wolverine, serve as leaders for this new world and use the psychic abilities of severed Charles Xavier heads to teleport their world into a new dimension with an uninhabited Earth. Teleporting six billion people between dimensions is a little difficult though and it seems they’ve awaken almost a dozen new threats to the multiverse. Now joined by our Earth’s Dazzler and one of the Xavier heads, this odd grouping of multiverse X-Men must save us all!

If you couldn’t tell from the description, this book is out there. Like way out there. There’s even an octopus Charles Xavier. And some of that deals with the fact this feels very much like Exiles did for some time. I don’t know how long this book will last, as these multiverse adventures start to get a little confusing and drive folks away after a while, but it definitely seems to be a lot more fun and upbeat than any other X-book out there right now, even if with entire universes collapsing in one each other. The weird dynamic between characters is entertaining beyond words and with plenty of action promised for future issues, this is a new monthly that, at least through the first issue, has pleasantly surprised me.

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EGM Review: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier—Arctic Strike DLC

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Not much Arctic about this Strike

The most memorable and entertaining levels in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier’s single-player campaign were definitely the maps set deep in Siberia. Trudging through snowdrifts, squinting through whiteout conditions, and laying waste to your enemies left me immensely satisfied. So when Ubisoft first announced the Arctic Strike DLC, I was looking forward to seeing how those elements might work in versus multiplayer.

The Arctic Strike DLC comes with three new versus maps, a new co-op map, a new multiplayer mode called Stockade, and six new weapons. Unfortunately, to my surprise, not a single versus map has a single damn snowflake. The only snow-oriented level is the Guerilla co-op map, which, thankfully, does drop in a blizzard after hitting level 10. Still, not getting a versus snow map boggled my mind—especially given the Arctic Strike moniker—and if it weren’t for the co-op map, I’d think it was blatant false advertising. Typically, when you think “map packs,” you think versus first and co-op second.

At least the versus maps work with what they set out to do and provide a little diversity. The first map, Skyline, is set on a rooftop. I expected this to be a smaller map, but it also includes a pleasant vertical element. And with wide-open spaces in the middle perfect for a team with a sniper to mow down unsuspecting noobs, this was my favorite map of the pack.

The next map, Evicted, is a massive area set around an apartment building. Since it takes place during the day, the visibility lines are clear, and the map plays well to campers and snipers, as you can go long periods of time before bumping into someone. Due to the lack of regular conflict, though, I found it boring at times.

Rounding out the maps is Riot, which may be the smallest of the pack but definitely fits into the category of a more traditional medium-sized map. Don’t worry, shotgunners—you can still get your kills here, but I had a lot more success with a strong assault rifle. And since it’s an urban setting, there’s plenty of cover, as well as chances to flank unsuspecting foes.

But the best value for the $10 (800 MSP) price tag this DLC carries may be the new multiplayer mode. Stockade plays a lot like prison dodgeball; if you’re killed, you get sent to a queue. Only by someone on your team killing an opponent, and you being next in the queue, can you return to the match. If your entire team ends up in the queue, or “stockade,” the match is over. Unfortunately, if you’re on a team with a bunch of campers or snipers and you bite the bullet, this mode can get boring quickly, as you spend several minutes at a time waiting in the queue with nothing to do. With an experienced team, this mode could offer up some interesting matches.

In the end, this is a standard map pack in terms of quality versus price. The three versus maps offer a little variety, but they’re nothing exceptional—and the fact that the lone co-op map is the only actual “Arctic” map still sticks in my craw. The only element of real note is the new versus mode, but it loses its appeal quickly if your team’s inexperienced or likes to camp all day, so unless you’re a hardcore fan of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier’s multiplayer modes, you can probably steer clear of this DLC and won’t lose any sleep over it.

SUMMARY: The new multiplayer mode definitely adds an interesting wrinkle to the online gameplay of Future Soldier, but with a name like Arctic Strike, shouldn’t there be, ya know, a bunch of snow and ice maps?!

  • THE GOOD: New multiplayer mode adds interesting dynamic to Execution-style gameplay.
  • THE BAD: Only three maps.
  • THE UGLY: Watching an entire match from the bench after only one death.

SCORE: 6.0

Tom Clancy’s Ghost: Recon Future Soldier – Arctic Strike DLC is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Primary version reviewed was on the Xbox 360.    

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EGM Review: Wreckateer

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What a wreck

Continuing on with the Xbox’s Summer of Arcade promotion is the one required Kinect title of the group: Wreckateer. Best described probably as a 3D Angry Birds clone, Wreckateer sees you play as an up and coming trainee in the lucrative world of…well…wrecking. 60 Goblin infested castles await you and your Scottish-accented trainers as you have been tasked by your king to clear the land of these green, smelly little hellspawns. And, of course, the only way to do that is to destroy the castles they now call home and send them packing.

The controls for the game are simple, and as proven with many Kinect titles in the past, the more simple the controls for the sensor to pick up, the better. All you have to do with Wreckateer is walk a step forward to grab your ballista launcher, step backwards to ready it, turn to aim, and spread your arms out to let go and let buck shot fly, hopefully demolishing all in the shot’s path. And so yes, the controls for Wreckateer actually work and don’t require constant recalibration like some other motion control games, and their simple appeal make them perfect for gamers of all ages.

The only other motion you have to worry about is raising your arms above your head to activate the special abilities of some of the shots you can use. With six special shots in all ranging from the lift shot, which you can boost in mid-air up to three times, to the split shot, which breaks up into four smaller pieces and scatters its chaos across the screen, the game has a bit of strategy to it in that looking ahead and saving certain shots for certain targets is critical to reaching the best score possible. And only by medaling with at least a bronze high score, can you advance to the next castle.

Unfortunately, even with the controls of the game being as solid and as responsive as they are (for a Kinect game anyway), the game play itself loses its appeal rather quickly. I love blowing stuff to kingdom come as much as the next guy, but 60 castles was a bit much to be standing in front of my TV for and most of them really just seemed like excuses to try to bloat the game into a slightly longer experience.

My other major problem with the game is the hit detection. Often I would smash these massive, sprawling towers at their base, and when they came crashing down onto other parts of the castle, as I stood by proudly, like a mighty lumberjack after felling a redwood, much of the still standing castle wouldn’t see nary a brick crack after being pummeled by the concrete I brought raining down upon it. This proved frustrating as I longed to see towers and castle walls topple like dominos. And this is when the towers actually decided to fall. There were several instances where it looked like a single brick was holding towers up that should have fallen, again adding to my frustration as I fell just short of the computer generated high score due to the game blatantly ignoring several laws of science.

When all was said and done though, I reminded myself that at $10 (800 MSP) Wreckateer is the cheapest of the Summer of Arcade titles and even if it became dull or frustrating after a while, there was indeed some fun had, at least early on, and I could see this easily winning over a pre-teen audience.. And should it’s arcade-like game play, high score targets, and online leaderboards be your cup of tea, then this might prove worthwhile to a larger audience. The rest of us know however that it’s probably just a lot simpler to download Angry Birds for an even cheaper price tag and we won’t need to move around as much either.

SUMMARY: Entertaining at first, the repetitive grind of 60 cookie-cutter levels wears on you quickly in this Angry Birds clone.

  • THE GOOD: Simple controls that respond relatively well to the Kinect
  • THE BAD: Dull, repetitive game play becomes boring after short amount of time
  • THE UGLY: Having to listen to Scottish narrators for 60 levels

SCORE: 5.0

Wreckateer is a XBLA exclusive (Kinect required).

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EGM Review: Heroes of Ruin

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July 20, 2012

Need a dungeon-crawling hero on your 3DS?

When gamers think of expansive dungeon-crawling action-RPGs, they tend to think of games primarily on the PC. And with the popularity of these titles as of late, it’s no surprise to see Square Enix throwing their hat into the ring, too. With the help of developer n-Space, they’ve given us a hack-n-slasher that still provides that sense of collecting loot, leveling up, fighting off swarms of bad guys, and teaming up with friends—but, in this case, it’s on the 3DS.

Heroes of Ruin tells the tale of a world ravaged by war until nearly all-powerful Lords rise up and broker a temporary peace. When Ataraxis—who happens to be a Sphinx and one of the fabled Lords who rules the city of Nexus, which also serves conveniently as a hub world—falls ill, heroes far and wide are called upon to find a cure. And, of course, in the process, they’ll also uncover a sinister plot.

From the start, you can choose from four classes. The Gunslinger is your standard ranged badass type; the Vindicator looks like Lion-O from ThunderCats and swings a massive sword like him, too; the Alchitect is your typical mage character; and the Savage is your brutish tank that likes to get his hands dirty. Once you choose your character, you can do some minor customizing before your adventure starts, but as you start to collect bushels of loot, your character’s look will definitely change further as your progress.

Once you actually begin your quest to save Ataraxis, you’ll quickly recognize that each character has stat sheets that basically translate to “attack,” “defense,” “magic,” and so on. You’ve also got several slots in which you can equip items to bolster these stats, ranging from torso and leg armor to belts, rings, and shoulder pads. You also have three different ability trees, and you can assign one from each to the three corresponding face buttons. If you’re like me and play as the Gunslinger, you’ll find you can throw flasks that act like flashbangs and stun enemies from one button, while you can perform a sweeping arc of fire from your guns to perform a large area-of-effect attack with another.

In terms of gameplay, this is indeed your basic dungeon-crawling RPG, and it does little to differentiate itself from the crowd. If you’re expecting something on the level of Diablo out of this top-down action-RPG, you’ll certainly be disappointed—but, of course, if you were actually expecting Diablo, you might also be certifiably insane. Heroes of Ruin looks nice for a 3DS game, but compared to what you can get on your PC, it obviously pales in comparison. The same goes for the audio, as the voice acting and music push the 3DS’ tiny speakers as far as they can go. I probably could’ve done without the enemies respawning every 30 seconds as well, considering the backtracking required to complete a lot of quests. At least this leads to quick leveling and more new powers, though. So, on the surface, little stands out in a positive way about Heroes of Ruin—though there are also very few outright negatives, either.

But there’s one aspect where the game really shines, and that’s in the social and multiplayer aspects. The game features seamless 4-player drop-in, drop-out co-op and the ability to perform daily challenges via SpotPass, which helps with leveling as well. The most impressive feature, though, is the use of StreetPass to access Traders Network, where you can swap items you pick up as you play. If you’re playing by yourself, this encourages you to be a little social, as you’ll accrue a lot of loot for classes you aren’t using. Instead of just quickly cashing that loot in for a few gold coins, you can get its full value or an item of equal or greater use if you put it on Traders Network.

Overall, Heroes of Ruin won’t disappoint fans of dungeon-crawling RPGs. In fact, it’s a solid effort for a 3DS entry considering the scale and scope of the adventure; the game really only falters from its lack of originality and the fact that anyone expecting more from the hardware will likely end up migrating back to their PC sooner rather than later. If you’re looking to kill a few hours with a hack-n-slash dungeon-crawler that shines brightest when it links up with three other 3DSes for 4-player co-op, though, this might be a good way to get your fix on the go.

SUMMARY: Heroes of Ruin is a pretty game by 3DS standards, with a compelling story wrapped around unoriginal combat, quests, and leveling. 

  • THE GOOD: Seamless 4-player drop-in, drop-out co-op
  • THE BAD: Unoriginal story and gameplay
  • THE UGLY: Never-ending streams of respawning baddies

SCORE: 7.0

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EGM Book Review: Darksiders: The Abomination Vault

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Nation of Abomination

Many major gaming franchises have found numerous ways to break out of their digital worlds and continue to permeate the pop culture between game releases. This cross-medium promotion helps franchises like Halo, Gears of War, Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, and many more stay relevant while also expanding on the fiction started in games.

Another of these franchises is Darksiders, which had a comic book one-shot around the release of their first game. With Darksiders II just around the corner though, author Ari Marmell brings us a lot more words and pages (no pictures though) depicting the Darksiders universe in the new novel Darksiders: The Abomination Vault.

The main plot of the book revolves around Death who has just returned from exile for some unknown reasons and the secrets that he has kept hidden for millennia, back when his kind were a dominant, realm conquering species. Only with the help of key angel allies and his brother War can Death hope to keep these secrets safe from those would use them to pick up where Death’s people left off and once again bring pain and suffering to all beings in existence.

If you are a fan of the Darksiders game, this book does a tremendous job of laying a foundation for Death before you get a chance to play as him in Darksiders II. You learn about Death’s personality, his powers, and the lengths he is willing to go to reach his objectives. You also appreciate the brotherly rivalry he has with War as the two play off each other’s strengths in and out of battle very well and very often and it strongly establishes their relationship before you see Death go to battle for his brother in the upcoming game.

But this book isn’t just about building hype up about the game as it stands up as a wonderfully action-packed tale all on its own. The descriptions of the battles that take place and the sinister villains who rise up to face-off against Death and War are brilliant and fans of this kind of fantasy will not be able to put the book down as the pacing is intense and adrenaline fueled.

The only real downside I felt from this book is that there are four horsemen and although it was nice this book wasn’t a Death only adventure, what with War playing an integral part, I would have enjoyed more interaction with Fury and Strife, the other two horsemen in the Darksiders universe who really only had small cameos. Their descriptions were intriguing and their personalities were definitely different enough from War and Death to make them stand up on their own, so for them to never really factor into this grand, realm threatening adventure was disappointing.

All in all though, fans of Darksiders should blow through the 351 pages this book entails in no time once it becomes available July 24th as it’ll serve as a tantalizing appetizer to Darksiders II in August. If you have $15 to spare, this book is definitely a fun and enjoyable read and should be considered if you’re looking for a new fantasy book to pick up.

SCORE: 9.0

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EGM Review: The Walking Dead: Episode 2—Starved for Help

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July 9, 2012

Zombies aren’t always the biggest concern…

Continuing the five-part series based on Robert Kirkman’s celebrated comic book, Telltale’s second episode of The Walking Dead will leave you horrified, disgusted, and inexplicably craving more by the time you’re done.

Subtitled Starved for Help, this tale takes place three months after the end of the first episode and sees Lee, Clementine, and the rest of the survivors from the first chapter bunkering down in an abandoned motel. Running low on supplies and even lower on food, the group starts to turn on each other, with Kenny and Lilly vying the most to assert themselves as the alpha dogs. All seems lost, but other survivors suddenly approach the gate and offer a trade that seems too good to be true: food for fuel.

It turns out these survivors happen to own a dairy farm up the road, so Lee and the rest of the gang set out to explore the grounds in order to see whether a change in venue might give the group a better chance of surviving. But along the way, they run across bandits—and, when it seems like these aren’t just any ordinary old dairy farmers, Lee realizes that the zombies aren’t the only monsters out there in the world…

If you enjoyed the first episode of The Walking Dead, then Starved for Help definitely won’t disappoint. The continued character development of the core group—with the introduction of several new members to your ragtag band of survivors—constantly intrigues. All decisions and non-decisions are even more critical this time around, and I loved the fact that the zombie invasion really serves as more of a simple backdrop for this episode—the whole motif surrounding humanity’s dark side will make you rethink a lot of your decisions as the game unfolds. And all I can say is that I can’t wait until more of my friends play so that we can discuss certain scenarios and explore how we all handled them differently. Personally, I was in the minority for some and the majority for others; the stat tracker that illustrates how other Walking Dead players approached the game is a highlight of the experience.

That’s not to say that this episode is without its flaws, though. Lee’s walking pace is dreadful, and though this understandably builds suspense at times, it just feels like a drag most of the time—it takes forever to walk from one end of the farm to the other. I just wish that, in certain scenarios, the player could hold down a button, and he’d break out into a light jog. There’s a zombie apocalypse going on, man—show some hustle! I also love how, no matter how big an item Lee may add to his inventory, it magically disappears when he places it behind himself—like he’s got a wormhole in his butt that he uses to dispose of all large items.

If you love The Walking Dead and enjoy point-and-click adventures, though, this series may well be Telltale’s crowning achievement when all is said and done. Until then, we’ll all just have to endure the painful wait until the next episode, Long Road Ahead, finally becomes available later this year.

SUMMARY: The second episode in this five-part series cranks the twisted-ness up to 11—and may push you in directions you never even thought possible. 

  • THE GOOD: A twisted story chapter that shows zombies may not be the only monsters out there…
  • THE BAD: Lee’s lackluster walking pace needlessly extends the experience.
  • THE UGLY: Human-flavored beef.

SCORE: 9.0

The Walking Dead: Episode 2—Starved for Help is available on XBLA, PSN, and PC. Primary version reviewed was for XBLA. 

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EGM Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

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Spider blood…spider blood…radioactive spider blood

The Amazing Spider-Man marks Beenox’s third Spider-Man game in as many years, after 2010’s Shattered Dimensions and 2011’s Edge of Time. But unlike the Quebec-based developer’s previous representations of everyone’s friendly neighborhood wall-crawler, this title marks a return to classic form for Spidey, as Beenox finally takes a shot at inserting Marvel’s webhead into an open-world New York City.

Taking place immediately after the events of the alternate-universe movie from which the game draws its inspiration, Amazing Spider-Man sees Spidey once again saving the city from a cataclysmic threat—and he’ll need to forge unusual alliances in order to overcome the hurdles thrown his way. And that’s all I’ll divulge; while the game spoils elements of the movie, I won’t ruin anything when it comes to the plot. Just trust me when I say that whether you’re for or against this Spider-Man relaunch, the Amazing Spider-Man spins an intriguing tale that features lots of entertaining callbacks from the wall-crawler’s history that’ll have old-school fans cheering—yet it still stays true to the new universe that the folks at Sony Pictures created for the film.

The most marked difference in Beenox’s open world comes from the camera angle; it pulls in tight on Spidey as he swings through a beautifully rendered digital Manhattan. This up-close, personal feel really imparts the proper sensation of swinging at high speeds through the concrete canyons. Unfortunately, when Spidey moves into indoor areas—such as when he infiltrates labs or goes deep into the sewers—the zoomed-in camera becomes a hindrance, as it makes wall-crawling and combat much more difficult.

And speaking of combat, that element sees an overhaul as well, as it takes a page from Batman: Arkham City and offers Spidey a new counter system. But instead of wavy lines appearing above enemy heads à la Arkham City, they appear above Spidey’s noggin as an indication that his Spider-Sense is tingling—and using the wall-crawler’s inherent super-agility to pull off impressive combos definitely feels rewarding. But the zoomed-in camera makes it difficult to see where all the enemies are at a given time—and to know just when you’re in or out of trouble. As a result, using Spider-Sense really becomes necessary, as many enemies like to lurk just off-camera.

Another new addition to Spidey’s arsenal is the Web Rush maneuver. Old-school fans will immediately see similarities to the Web Zip move from older Spider-Man games, but the Web Rush is interesting because you can pull it off just about anywhere, anytime—the game’s engine calculates, in real time, how Spidey would naturally get from Point A to Point B. Sure, the animation makes it look like he’s floating instead of actually using his superagility, but indoors, Web Rush is critical—and outdoors, it makes gathering the game’s 700 collectibles much easier.

Yes, I said 700 collectibles! That, unfortunately, is another downside here. Literally every corner in Manhattan is littered with digital comic-book pages, and if you’re a completist like myself, you’ll go insane trying to collect them all. I appreciate that these pages unlock some digital versions of key Spider-Man comics from which the game draws its inspiration, like the first appearance of Iguana (Spectacular Spider-Man #32) or the first appearance of Rhino (Amazing Spider-Man #41), but the bevy of collectibles, along with a plentiful amount of side missions similar those seen in older Spidey games, comes across as clutter that almost gets in the way of the story the game tries to tell.

Still, this is certainly a well-polished Spider-Man experience, and it’s rare that a movie game actually doesn’t suck. The story is intriguing, web-swinging is enjoyable, and you honestly can’t fault Beenox too much for cramming in so much content—after all, we’re usually complaining when it’s the other way around. I will warn you again, though, that you’ll probably enjoy the story a bit more if you actually see the movie first, which means you’ll have to wait at least another week before playing the game. It’ll be worth the wait, though—all Spider-Man fans will enjoy this novel, twisted take on one of comics’ most iconic heroes.

SUMMARY: The best Spider-Man adventure in years isn’t quite what it should’ve been. Developer Beenox actually crams too much into the package, cluttering what could’ve been a landmark tale for Marvel’s wall-crawler. 

  • THE GOOD: Best web-swinging mechanics in years.
  • THE BAD: Way too many collectibles and side missions clutter up the main experience.
  • THE UGLY: Rhino, Iguana, and Vermin cross that line in a three-way tie.

SCORE: 8.0

The Amazing Spider-Man is available on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, 3DS, DS, PC, and iOS. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox 360. 

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