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Heavy Rain Chronicle #1 – The Taxidermist

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It’s frustrating that my first thoughts in returning to Heavy Rain with the included DLC, The Taxidermist (for those that snapped up the Special Edition) after only a week was how difficult controlling Madison is. No sooner had she stepped off her motorbike and I had commanded her to walk forward with R2 had I managed to spin her round comically on the spot. Navigating her through an environment crammed with details was an exercise in patience, and it’s a shame that this detracts from what is yet another slice of mature videogaming from Quantic Dream.

Originally produced for gamescom 2008 to unveil Heavy Rain, and largely responsible for the huge amount of hype the game generated right up to last month’s release, The Taxidermist is the first of a promised series of  ‘Chronicles’ – one-off scenes that allow players step back into the shoes of Heavy Rain’s four main protagonists: Norman Jayden, Scott Shelby, Ethan Mars and, here, Madison Paige. It’ll be interesting to see how the developer plans to weave each stand-alone episode into the plot of the main game, or whether that’s the plan at all. Without giving away spoilers, Heavy Rain is a self-contained story from beginning to end, so it’s difficult to see how the narrative can be extended. The Taxidermist neatly sidesteps these potential future issues by feeling as if it could be a scene taken from the middle of the main game, which was subsequently cut. Indeed, it has a payoff in its own right, and Quantic Dream should be congratulated for including a piece of content that doesn’t require intimate knowledge of the main story to enjoy.

But therein lies the rub. With Heavy Rain’s biggest draw being its subtle, myriad web of cause and effect underpinning every action, how much tension can be infused in a standalone scene, when the player already knows that no further scenes follow, and there are no consequences for decisions taken? Upon reaching the end of the Chronicle, the game informs the player that there are five possible outcomes to the scene,  labelling each in a way that makes it clear how to achieve those outcomes, even offering the opportunity to restart from a save point to unlock them all. At a stroke, the brave decision the main game takes to disable player-created saves to watch how things might have panned out differently, is eliminated here. In the place of a constant desire to keep these characters alive at all costs is now a more casual attitude to death, one you might experience whilst playing a garden FPS or platformer. And Heavy Rain deserves more than that – such groundbreaking strides should not be curtailed with a more laid-back attitude to the mortality of your characters in the DLC. As such, these add-on packs tread a very dangerous line between autonomy and familiarity – of existing in and of themselves independently of the main game, whilst still retaining the careful balancing act of cause and effect. On the evidence of The Taxidermist, there is still some work to be done here.

Elsewhere, the DLC delivers. Aesthetically, the taxidermist’s home is a terrifically unnerving environment, akin in style and subtance to Nathaniel’s apartment in the main game, or that of the doctor. It’s intensely, insanely detailed, and once again invokes the atmosphere of the film Se7en. Unlocking the concept art reveals just how closely the conceptual artist’s vision has been adhered to, both for this content and also for the main game, and this Chronicle easily lives up to the astonishing benchmark set by the main game for graphical fidelity. The shocking setpieces are truly graphic, both visually and psychologically, again reaffirming that Heavy Rain is definitively a mature title, one that children shouldn’t and probably wouldn’t want to play.

It will be interesting to see how The Taxidermist is priced when it sees a general release on PSN; for only around one to two hours of content, it’s difficult to recommend spending a comparatively high price for, particularly considering the shift in mindset the player experiences because of that lack of cause and effect. Whilst Heavy Rain fans will jump at the chance to revisit its bleak and adult world, it’s difficult to predict whether the Heavy Rain Chronicles will add to or detract from the main game’s undoubted impact. I’ll be waiting on price details before I decide to buy the second installment in the series.


Final Fantasy XIII

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I can say, with absolute conviction, that Final Fantasy XIII has the finest-looking CG hairstyles of any videogame, ever. Any, more useful, assertions of the merits of Square Enix’s latest instalment in a long, long series may have to wait for the review, which in itself may be a long time coming. I’m over five hours in and after each one of those hours, enquiries as to how I’m enjoying Final Fantasy XIII have been met with answers along the lines of ‘I don’t know, it hasn’t really started yet’ or ‘I haven’t really done anything so far’. I’ve merely been pressing forward down what is essentially a linear, elaborately-dressed corridor, dispatching waves and waves of identical enemies by repeatedly stabbing the ‘X’ button, watching at least an hour’s worth of cutscenes and repeating ad infinitum. I’m tempted to say that, so far at least, Final Fantasy XIII has bored me silly, but at the same time, I still keep coming back to plug just another half hour into it with each play session.

Any further discourse on the qualities of the latest in the franchise should first be qualified with my admittance that I’m something of a Final Fantasy novice. I’ve played precious little of the series so far; in fact, the only Final Fantasy I’ve played is everyone’s favourite, VII, and even then I probably only got halfway through it. Although I thought the story was great and the characters well-rounded, I just got bored of fighting those random battles over and over again, against enemies that didn’t even show up on the screen. With Final Fantasy XIII, you can, at the very least, see when you are about to enter the battle screen, and in some cases even avoid the roaming monsters entirely.

So without any previous Final Fantasy baggage weighing down my perceptions of this iteration, I can evaluate it on its own merits. The game starts off with the player controlling Lightning, the pink-haired, hard-ass moody chick that adorns the box art, accompanied by Sazh, a bumbling, earnest pilot with a cute Chocobo nestled in the enormous afro sprouting from his head. They have just fought their way off a train destined for the world of Pulse, in a mass evacuation known as the Purge. Those who come into contact with a Pulse fal’Cie, an enormous evil creature, are said to be contaminated and are rounded up for deportation by PSICom, a shadowy organisation who allegedly keep peace and harmony on Cocoon, the planet where the entire opening section takes place. The story is all very earnest, and told with gravitas and drama; Final Fantasy XIII takes itself very seriously. I only remember these plot details because of the game’s constant reminders of them – early pacing is slow and laborious, and plot points repeatedly regurgitated to ensure you don’t miss them.

Soon, we are introduced to the other main characters that will soon make up the motley crew that the player is tasked with handling. Snow is the leader of a group of rebels known as NORA, hell-bent on disrupting the Purge and rescuing those who are marked for deportation. He is the typical fist-pumping, pep-talking, blonde-haired alpha male stereotype, constantly referring to himself as a hero, capable of saving the entire world. He is shallow and brash, but it’s disheartening to realise that he is possibly the most likeable main character. Vanille, a pre-pubescent orange-haired teen who yelps orgasmically at every conceivable opportunity is only slightly less annoying than the cowering, whimpering Hope – a newly motherless boy with all the courage and personality of a stick of celery. Interactions between these characters, who seem to have been thrown together by random haphazard events, are cheesy and clichéd – there is plenty of room for improvement here over the course of the game.

The mechanics of battle have been divulged at a painfully slow pace thus far, but this may not altogether be a bad thing, considering the inherent complexity. Attacks and abilities are assigned a numeral, which correspond to the number of segments that each will deplete the ATB gauge. Once all segments are depleted, you won’t be able to perform any further attacks or abilities until the gauge has refilled. You are responsible for the actions of the leader of the group, the character that you control in Final Fantasy XIII’s detailed overworld. Other characters will auto-perform their own actions depending on the status of the fight. Characters can be split into five different classes; Commando, Ravager, Synergist, Saboteur and Medic. Each character is assigned one or more of these at the outset of the game – but, with progress, unlock access to other classes. After a number of hours, the game begins to trust you with the Paradigm Shift, which allows you to switch the make-up of your party on the fly, swapping the class of one or more of your characters in order to respond to what is happening in battle. This has the potential for real complexity, especially when you factor in the ability to customise any of the pre-determined Paradigms.

You might be asking why I’m still persevering with Final Fantasy XIII despite the numerous gripes listed above. Simply put; because of the spectacle. Despite its corniness and over-indulgence, the game positively screams epic. Visuals reinforce this claim – Final Fantasy XIII is a stunningly attractive game. Character models are incredibly detailed; I can’t count the number of times I’ve marvelled at the stubble protruding from Snow’s chin. Despite being linear and only occasionally dotted with useful items, the environments are colourful and crisp, infused with sci-fi aesthetics; the ‘fantasy’ in Final Fantasy obviously dissapated from the series long before this game was released. It adds up to an extremely polished package, and it is these production values that are pulling me through the disastrous pacing and silly plot. Only further time invested in Final Fantasy XIII will divulge whether there is also substance beneath that dazzling style.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

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As readers of my over-verbose discourse on all things videogames will testify, I am rarely lost for words. BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger leaves me lost for words. A snapshot of Japanese insanity, conched in a beat ‘em up whose mechanics I have barely penetrated after a few hours play, BlazBlue both baffles and intrigues. With knowledge of fighting games stretching no further than the ubiquitous Street Fighter series, BlazBlue represents a bold step into the unknown for me, and it’s very fortunate that the Limited Edition of BlazBlue comes with a DVD stuffed full of tutorials on how to master its intricate complexities.

Taokaka (pictured) is half-girl, half-cat, comes from a village that has blocked out the sun, and hides her face in her hood, except for two demon-like pinpricks of red. She constantly searches for food and calls one of the other fighters ‘Boobie Lady’. Rachel Alucard is a vampire who looks like a girl but is thousands of years old. She has two familiars, Nago and Gii, one of which she uses as a shape-shifting umbrella. She often cries out ‘Pervert!’ when attacking others. Hakumen is one of the Six Heroes, and often refers to himself as  ‘the white void… the cold steel… the just sword’ in a very serious, gravelly voice. His ‘just sword’ happens to be bigger than he is.

If fighting games were judged purely by their character rosters, BlazBlue would make a decent fist of claiming the crown. Distinctly Japanese-flavoured, the assorted collection of freaks and misfits delights with a palette of extraordinary special moves, rendered in beautiful 2D art. After only a few hours play, it’s impossible to pick a favourite, or ‘main’, without first getting to grips with the basics of the combat system, but I have had some early success with part-man, part-machine Iron Tager who sports ginormous metallic fists.

Although not as immediately accessible as perennial beat ‘em up yardstick, Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue still borrows movesets from Capcom’s long-running series, with quarter-circle-forwards forming the basis of a few entry-level special moves. Movement and jumping feels sluggish in comparison, however, but any further exposition of the complexities and subtleties of BlazBlue’s battle mechanics will have to wait for the review – this is not a title that has pick-up-and-play appeal but, judging by the sheer amount of modes available from the title screen, this brawler has a lot of depth.

Bonkers, surreal and beautiful, BlazBlue looks like the kind of game in which its rewards correlate directly to the effort put in. However, I think I might need to put the tutorial DVD in before I once again return to the fray, especially if I am to brave the hostile waters of online multiplayer mode.

Super Street Fighter IV

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Judging by a price tag of £22.70 on UK retailer Amazon (at the time of writing) for the full retail version of Super Street Fighter IV, you could be forgiven for thinking Capcom are trying to pre-empt and diffuse consumer ire over an update to the release of Street Fighter IV just over 14 months ago with a bargain basement offer. Whilst a vastly reduced price is obviously welcome, they needn’t have worried. Super Street Fighter IV is absolutely stuffed to bursting with new features – characters, stages, ultras, game modes – which fully justfies another retail release instead of a bloated DLC package. Fans of the series that snapped up the original last February will want to do so again, and newcomers tempted by the price will be rewarded with the definitive current-gen version of a legendary beat ‘em up.

The most obvious change in SSFIV is the character roster. All of the characters that appeared in the original are now unlocked from the very start. Those without the time (or patience) to play through Arcade mode again and again no longer have to miss out on some of the more powerful characters, such as S.I.N. overlord Seth, cannabilized together from special moves from the original World Warriors, and fiery-haired Akuma, with his unblockable Ultra Combo. The variety of characters is now immense; along with the new characters introduced in this edition, SSFIV now boasts 35 fighters. Each of them has also been blessed with a second Ultra Combo, and players decide which Ultra they would like to take into a match after they have selected the Colour and Costume they want to use for their chosen combatant. Easily the most entertaining moments of a fight, Ultra Combos are now even more fun with the addition of a second choice.

It’s the ten new characters that are the major draw here, of course, and Capcom have assembled an exotic bunch, pieced together from old favourites from the Street Fighter II era (T. Hawk and Deejay), several fighters from the Street Fighter III series (Dudley, Ibuki and Makoto), a few originally from Final Fight (Guy and Cody), a Muay-Thai boxer from the Alpha series (Adon) and two brand-new, madcap creations (Juri and Hakan). Far from derivatives of existing fighters, an accusation that could perhaps be levelled at a few fighters in the canon (I’m looking at you Dan, Sakura, Akuma and Gouken), these new fighters vary wildly in fighting style and will need continued practice to master.

Blue-haired Turkish wrestler Hakan was the first one to be given a whirl, and it didn’t take long for this crazy bastard to put a big grin on my face. The first time he up-ends a barrel of oil over himself during a match you know he isn’t cut from the same cloth as the other fighters and his special and Ultra moves, in which he grabs his opponents and spins them round his slippery, oily frame are unique and suprisingly powerful. Some of his moves are tricky to pull off, requiring 360 degree analogue stick spins like Zangief’s spinning piledriver, but Hakan could well become a cult hit. I can’t quite explain why his English voice actor sounds uncannily like Dr. Nick Riviera from The Simpsons, however.

Next up was Dudley, a British gentleman pugilist that provides a counterpoint to rival boxer, US brawler Balrog, and is comprised of a similar move-set. One of his Ultra combos is brutal almost to the point of being slapstick, with big alternate hooks knocking his opponent this way and that in a style that evokes memories of Punch-Out!! on the NES. Ibuki is a ninja schoolgirl on the hunt for boys, who exclaims “Sayonara!” as she applies the finishing suplex to a 27-hit Ultra combo in which she pummels her opponent with a rain of knives. Makoto is another female character, this time with an emphasis on charge moves and lacking a sweep kick – an omission that’s likely to leave her outside my own personal roster of played fighters.

Other additions and improvements to the formula are less eye-catching. There are a number of new stages to fight in, but I couldn’t honestly tell you which are new to this update and which are from last year’s release, with the exception of the delightful African Savanah stage, where enormous hippos roar in the background behind the two fighters. Every character has allegedly been tweaked; some may have had over-powerful moves weakened or weaker moves strengthened, but unless you are a hardcore player or play exclusively with one fighter that has had significant changes, you will likely not notice. Those that clamoured for the old bonus stages from Street Fighter II – destroying a car and breaking a number of barrels – have had their wishes granted, but their inclusion is more a fond nostalgic nod to the series’ roots rather than an integral part of the Arcade mode and their novelty quickly palls.

These are minor grievances, however, and Super Street Fighter IV should be no less regarded because of them. This is the definitive version of Capcom’s beat ‘em up legacy, a package so complete that it makes the original Street Fighter IV feel like a proof of concept. Lack of players online before the full launch means I’ve not been able to test out Endless mode or Team Battle mode, but it’s hard to see how experiencing these modes would affect my judgement of SSFIV’s merits. The bottom line is clear – if you never bought Street Fighter IV, this is a must-buy. For those that already snapped up the predecessor, it’s still a must-buy. Hadouken!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

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Perhaps it can be chalked up to the 100+ hours of driving tanks and ‘pwning noobz’ in the exemplary multiplayer modes, but when I finally got around to sitting through Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s singleplayer campaign, I found it straightforward, or dare I say it, rather easy. Not that this is altogether unexpected; Dice’s answer to Infinity Ward’s smash hit Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was always going to be about its online modes, but the singleplayer campaign still has its virtues, even if it does, at times, feel like an extended tutorial in order to prepare players for multiplayer play on the battlefield.

Good Company

Reprising the role from the original Battlefield: Bad Company, the player steps into the dusty boots of likeable everyman soldier Preston Marlowe, who finds himself amidst a ragtag group of comrades who differentiate themselves from typical military bad-asses with a believable mix of human frailty, humour and pathos. Despite this, it’s curious just how capable Marlowe is; his everyman persona perhaps belied by his extraordinary range of skills. Drive a tank? Check. Pilot a UAV? Check. Snipe? Check. Blow up enemy vehicles with an RPG? Check. Scythe down helicopters with a minigun from a moving Blackhawk? Check.

Despite being at odds with the human vibe that Dice is trying to create, it’s clear why players are tasked with such a bewildering array of missions. Firstly, it’s more fun – nothing would be more boring than performing a basic infantry role, mowing down waves of faceless enemies with assault rifles and light machine guns, for hours on end. Secondly, not only does this range of skills provide variety and colour to the singleplayer campaign, it also gives the player a solid foundation in the use of the various weapons and vehicles that they will need to master in the online modes to be any good at them.

Your squadmates are even more heroic. Downed often by stray grenades and hails of bullets, they stand back up again without a scratch. Absolutely unkillable, they represent a missed opportunity for Dice to incorporate the medi-packs and defibrillator from the multiplayer modes into the campaign. Reviving Sweetwater and co. could have yielded extra bonuses, or simply have been a mission requirement that adds to an extra dimension to each objective. It’s a rare missed trick in what is otherwise a superb primer to online combat.

Military Madness

The story is the usual overblown, convoluted nonsense that seems to systematically plague military FPS games of recent times. It contains all the usual uninspired clichés, including a devastating super-weapon and (surprise, surprise) the Russians. You’ll stay in touch with the unravelling plot for a few chapters, before a slew of betrayals, sudden revelations and shallow characters throw you off track. Not that it matters – you just need to shoot shit, after all. The story sustains itself for around ten hours before burning out in a rather tepid final third. It’s rare that a game’s closing chapters are its easiest, but this is definitely the case with Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Presentation-wise, the campaign delivers in spades. Environments are varied, from wide-open expanses of desert, through sluggish rivers studded with bracken, to rain-drenched enemy encampments; each is presented in meticulous detail. All but one of these levels is linear in nature, with each scenario clearly boxed in and fenced off – any forays into the darker parts of the map flash up a timer in which you must return to the play area, or be killed. This linearity is pretty much par for the course for all solo campaign modes of this type; without such artificial corridors, the game wouldn’t be able to deliver its adrenaline-pumping set-pieces. Hand-in-hand with the polished visuals go perfectly pitched sound design. Everything sounds exactly as you would imagine, from the reloading of tank shells to the metallic ring of a knife kill; war has never sounded so good. Even the banter is well-delivered, the voice actors behind Bad Company all putting in solid performances. Special mention goes to the hippie pilot who ferries you and your squadmates around. He’s a pacifist, but, hey, karma can be a bitch.

Tango Down

Despite this solid and polished solo campaign, it’s the online multiplayer modes where Battlefield: Bad Company 2 earns its stripes, and where the majority of the last two months of my life has been spent. Radically different to it’s closest rival Modern Warfare 2 in all but genre and theme, Bad Company 2’s online multiplayer rewards skilled veterans whilst still offering a welcoming hand to newcomers.

At present, there are four online game types to choose from, with a fifth, Onslaught, planned as paid-for DLC later this year. Conquest is a typical Capture The Flag game type, with a number of capture points dotted over and around each map. Squad Deathmatch pits four four-player squads against each other in smaller arenas, each of which spawns a single tank with which to take the upper hand (or become an easy target). A squad must reach a total of 50 kills first to win the match. Rush is easily the best mode available, and is a tailored version of the Gold Rush mode from the first game. Teams are split into Attackers and Defenders, twelve players on each side, in maximum squad sizes of four; Attackers are tasked with arming and destroying a pair of M-Com stations in each area of a continually unfolding map, the Defenders are tasked with repelling their assault. Squad Rush is a mini version of it’s bigger brother Rush, pitting just a single squad of four players against each other on each map, and still separated into Attackers and Defenders.

It’s in the different classes that Bad Company 2 obtains most of its strategy, fun and variety. The online modes are no places for lone wolves; those used to, and put off by, the insane reflexes and breakneck speed required of the largely one-on-one deathmatches of Modern Warfare 2 can relax into a more measured, but infinitely more epic, pace. Play is geared towards team play – more points are awarded to players who help out their immediate squadmates, as well as the rest of their team. Ammo boxes, repairing broken vehicles, throwing out medi-packs – each of these will award points, and plenty of them. Those who don’t have the skills to be sharp-shooters should rejoice – there is more than one way to be top dog in this game.

Class Act

The Assault class provides the firepower and deadly frontline, packing deadly assault rifles and under-carriage grenade launchers capable of bringing down entire buildings. They also have the ability to throw down ammo boxes, providing themselves with unlimited ammo, and providing others with munitions for easy points.

The Engineer class revolves around Bad Company 2’s vehicle warfare; both a mechanic and a demolitionist, the Engineer has access to devastating RPG weapons – capable of taking out armoured tanks with a few shells – and the repair tool, a handy little power-tool which ‘heals’ friendly tanks, and also capable of inflicting humiliating kills on fools who are not paying attention.

The Medic is perhaps the best class in the game, and certainly my favourite. Wielding LMG’s with enormous magazines, they can stand their own in dealing death. But they are unique in the way they can others from it. Medi-packs heal comrades, allowing them to soak of more damage before being put down – and the defibrillator, unlocked once a certain amount of points are accrued, bring soldiers back from the dead – if you can reach them in time. With a squad revive yielding substantially more points than a kill, it’s not uncommon to see Medics amassing the most points at the end of each game.

Last, and least, is the Recon class – the hated snipers – dressed in silly grass suits and squatting in their own cowardice, taking the occasional pot-shot to preserve their kill/death ratio as their team-mates put the effort in to win the match. As you can tell, I’m not a fan.

It’s the diversity in these different classes that makes online matches so fluid, with any given game completely different to the last, or next. Factor in other variables like tracer darts, anti-tank mines, UAVs, quad bikes, motion mine’s, C4, mortar strikes, knife kills, defibrillator kills, fully destructible environments and more, and you have a recipe for extreme chaos, and riotous fun. With Dice already doling out free map packs and sensibly priced add-ons to counter the expensive DLC additions for Modern Warfare 2, it’s building a strong case to be the online multiplayer FPS of choice.With the welcome bonus of a strong solo campaign packaged in with a continually satisfying online component that has never hinted at becoming stale, it’s clear where my allegiances lie in this particular war.

3D Dot Game Heroes

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Three hours in and I can make two sweeping assertions about 3D Dot Game Heroes: 1. It has the Worst Game Title In The World… Ever and 2. It is the Most Meticulous The Legend Of Zelda (NES) Clone… Ever. You might think that these are both undesirable monikers, and in the case of the first, it is. Seriously, who came up with ‘3D Dot Game Heroes’? It sounds like a lazily-scribbled line for the game’s basic premise right back in its concepting phase – how it stuck is anybody’s guess. Of course, it could be a brutal translation from an awesome Japanese title that has no equivalent in the English language. Plausible, but unlikely. With regards to the second claim, however; it may be a meticulous clone, but that’s some source material. As T.S. Elliott once said, “Talent imitates, but genius steals.”

The plot is the usual adventure fantasy fare; i.e. completely forgettable. There is some Dark Bishop, trapped inside an orb or some such. As the Hero, a descendant of an even more legendary one, of course, it is your task to seek out six Sages (sound familiar) and pick up their corresponding orbs, whose purpose to the story escapes me even after only three hours in. Meanwhile the 2D kingdom you start in is lacking tourists, so the presiding monarch magically transforms it into 3D, thus giving a flimsy pretext to the game’s admittedly wonderful aesthetic. The narrative became a complete mystery to me very quickly as I just started criss-crossing that overworld in order to reach the temples; essentially self-contained dungeons in which the Sages dwell and end bosses need to be vanquished.

One early joy is the sheer tactility of the standard combat. A quick stab of the ‘X’ button sends out your sword (which, inevitably came from a plinth in the middle of a forest) which varies in width and length depending on whether you are at full health or not. If all of your life containers are filled, the blade is enormous and has tremendous reach, making short work of enemies which bear more than a passing resemblance to those that pester Link in the original NES game. Once defeated, each enemy explodes into it’s constituent blocks, which explode and scatter in pleasing arcs. It’s a visual flourish that brings real satisfaction to even these basic encounters, and I have a feeling that I’ll still be enjoying it throughout the latter stages of the game.

Another huge string to 3D Dot Game Heroes bow is the character editor. Any player is able to create their own heroes from scratch, block by block, from an option on the title screen, or pick from a huge range of characters created by the developer. The game gives you the option of changing your pixellated avatar every time you start a game or continue a save, which is a nice touch should you tire of the rather staid appearance of the default hero. I’m rather partial to running around as the skeleton myself; I lack the patience to create my own hero, but the character editor certainly adds another facet to what could have otherwise been a very one-dimensional game. I’d even go so far as saying that it fits in rather neatly with the ‘Play. Create. Share.’ ethos of other PS3-exclusives LittleBigPlanet and ModNation Racers, even though it’s not officially billed as such.

Despite 3D Dot Game Heroes’ wholesale plundering of the 2D adventures of Link on both the NES and the SNES (the Dash Boots in particular are an early homage to A Link To The Past), so far it has struggled to match the ingenuity of either title. Predictable new items such as the boomerang, bombs and bow and arrow aren’t used in enough creative ways, and instead become just another means of eliminating enemies. The game really needs to inject a few ideas of its own over the rest of my playthrough – other than the enormous sword length and unique character creator – in order to even be mentioned in the same breath as its inspirations when looking back in the future.

ModNation Racers

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Meet Pinhead. He is the colourful, slightly deranged fruits of my first Modnation Racers labour. Initially built in the free demo available to all on the PSN Store, the full game of ModNation Racers recognised that I’d already used their comprehensive suite of creation tools – which in fact was only a smidgeon of what I’ve subsequently found to be available in the retail version – and imported him for immediate use. It’s a thoughtful touch that immediately casts a positive light on United Front Games’ stab at the ‘Play. Create. Share.’ mantra that LittleBigPlanet so expertly established. And , judging by the handful of hours I’ve sunk into ModNation Racers, it is a positivity that is only tempered by a few creeping doubts.

“… the game shows a lot of promise, and fans of user-generated-content will likely squeal with delight at the sheer scope of options available here. Those amongst us whose apathy or impatience for lengthy creation sessions will effectively strip that layer of gloss away may have to look harder for reasons to keep ModNation Racers in their disc drives …”

This excerpt is taken from the Closed Beta impressions posted on infinitecontinues back in January, and they mostly ring true. The customisation options are indeed incredible in scope, whether you want to try your hand at creating a Mod (the avatar with which you race) a Kart, or a Track. Most popular characters from videogames have already been created, as well as comic book heroes and cartoon characters. A section of the ModSpot (an online hub which houses the multitude of options for the game and also provides a social lobby for players to hang out in) entitled Top Mods, already displays Mario and Luigi as the top two most downloaded creations; ironic, considering this is a PS3 exclusive. All of your creations can be published at the Share Station for other users to view, rate, comment on, download or even remix, although this option can be disabled if you find yourself a little protective of your painstaking creations.

More stickers, parts, karts, Mods and miscellaneous bric-a-bric are unlocked via the game’s Career mode, the singleplayer portion of ModNation Racers, and the mode in which I’ve spent the majority of my play time so far. Players need to finish in the top three to unlock the next track in the circuit, but there are also various bonus challenges per track that unlock further customisation options, and grudge matches against ‘Elite’ Mods, basically avatars which United Front Games has written into the over-arching story.

The races themselves handle superbly. You’ll be ‘drifting’ through most of the corners by pressing the ‘X’ button, and a long, flawless drift racks up points which fill a boost meter on the right side of the screen. Not only does this provide juice for your boost, obviously, it also powers up your shield, essential to avoid being spun out by an inbound rocket or sonic boom, which are plentiful in Career mode, where ModNation Racers suffers from the same frustrating ‘rubber-banding’ AI that plagued Mario Kart Wii. Even if you’ve executed a flawless race, hit every boost pad and made every jump, the AI will still ensure that there are a few karts right up your ass on the final straight, ready to bury you with an inescapable barrage of projectiles that unfairly robs you of first place. This provides the first cracks in the enjoyment of the game, and I imagine it becomes gamepad-crushingly infuriating in the latter stages of career mode.

Another niggle is the loading times, which are plentiful and long. They fall just short of ruining the experience, but come very close. On the one hand, you can perhaps understand it; ModNation Racers is a stunningly-realised game. It oozes colour and charm, with a visual polish that sends its production values through the roof. Perhaps long loading times are the price to pay for such graphic fidelity, but I’m hoping that United Front Games finds a way to shorten these load times with a patch sooner rather than later. It’s a setback that could potentially turn less patient players off the game, which would be a shame.

The only other gripe is potentially the most worrying – the servers are almost empty. Trying to join a multiplayer XP race is another exercise in patience; at least 60% of my attempts found me sitting alone in the starting grid, waiting for another three players to join so the race could start. Each race can accommodate 12 players, with 4 needed for the race to happen. Not once have I been in a race where there has been more than 5 players involved. Hopefully, this is down to a slow early adoption rate for a new franchise, and once the concerted advertising campaign kicks in we’ll see a more populated online community. Of course, there is another not-inconsiderable reason why ModNation Racers is so quiet right now: Red Dead Redemption.

ModNation Racers has the potential to be a wonderful, constantly evolving game. As a singleplayer racer, it is a solid enough experience, but, as with LittleBigPlanet before it, the amount you put into its suite of creation tools scales to the amount of enjoyment you derive from it. Time will tell whether it gathers the same kind of momentum as Media Molecule’s effort, but solid foundations are already most certainly in place.

PlayStation Move: Demo Round-up

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It’s here. At the end of last week, Sony’s answer to the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s upcoming Kinect technology, the PlayStation Move, brought motion-control technology to the PlayStation 3. Working in tandem with the PlayStation Eye in order to track the movement of the glowing, fleshy orb at the tip of the device, Sony promises true 1:1 motion-tracking to the player and brings the obvious benefits of HD gaming and Trophy support to the table.

So, is it any good? Here at infinitecontinues, we picked up a PlayStation Move and put all the available demos on the PSN Store through their paces, just like any regular punter would, to see which ones were worth exploring further. You can find out what we thought of these below, including our no-nonsense guide to whether they are worth picking up on the strength of their demos. Alongside that, we’ll also let you know what the optimum control setup for each game is, as well as impressions on the Move itself. We are so good to you.

The controller

The PlayStation Move is a handsome piece of kit. Its curved black exterior is very ergonomic, much more so than the rather angular nature of the Wii Remote, and fits snugly in the hand. The Move button on the top is big enough for your thumb to comfortably rest over its entire surface, and the face buttons are positioned well around this. Of these, only the Square button, situated in the upper left of the cluster of buttons, is slighty tricky to reach, but even this is not a game-breaker. The T button (the trigger on the back of the Move) feels very responsive to trigger-happy rampages. The orb at the top of the Move glows brightly too, and changes hue depending on certain situations in-game; for instance, a two-player game in Tumble denotes whose turn it is by turning the orb red or blue to suit. Overall, it feels like a very slick piece of kit, and seems suited to lengthy play sessions without causing any discomfort.

The demos

Tumble

A downloadable puzzle game from the PSN Store, Tumble looks a lot like its Wii counterpart Boom Blox at first glance, but it soon becomes apparent what the distinction between the titles is. Whilst Boom Blox primarily tasks you with knocking down existing structures, Tumble insists that you build them instead, stacking variously-shaped cuboids of differing materials as high as you can in order to win bronze, silver or gold medals. Other game modes do (inevitably) involve destroying structures, but instead of requiring that you pull every single muscle in your arm by hurling an imaginary ball at the screen, it asks that you gently place mines in strategic locations in order to topple as much of the structure as possible.

Presented in bright and crisp aesthetics, with appealing visual flourishes throughout, Tumble controls really rather well. Its training levels run through the basics, encouraging the player to twist a wrist and push towards the screen in order to fit blocks through holes in order to get a feel for the Move’s responsiveness. Stacking blocks requires a steady hand and no small amount of patience, much like a game of real-life Jenga. The different materials, ranging from metal to wood to glass, add an element of strategy to proceedings, and bonus medals add more longevity to a cleared level. The demo contains the tutorial levels, a few building levels and two destruction levels before requiring the full game unlock.

Beautifully presented, and quirkily engaging, this £7.99 downloadable title could be PlayStation Move’s first killer app.

Setup: One Move controller. Verdict: Buy it.

echochrome ii

The most unique Move demo by a long stretch, echochrome ii tasks the player with using the controller as a torch. Seemingly random patterns of blocks are then projected onto the wall behind as shadows which the little marionette can then traverse to reach the goal, and thus complete the level. The tutorial is long-winded and laborious, but echochrome ii’s game mechanics demand a little clarity. Actual levels in the demo are at a minimum and a touch on the easy side, but hint at a greater difficulty in later levels. If the M.C. Escher-inspired original is anything to go by, this will throw up moments of difficulty which will make your brain melt.

Slow-paced and wildly different, this will be an acquired taste for many. Much like marmite, you’ll either love it or hate it. For those with a more thoughtful bent, echochrome ii will provide a quirky and innovative challenge, and an oasis of calm in a videogame landscape of guns and gore.

Setup: One Move controller. Verdict: Buy it.

Beat Sketcher

We’re not sure what to make of Beat Sketcher. If its demo is anything to go, it can’t even be classed as a game. There are no objectives, no rules, no challenge. As far as we can tell, there is no winning or losing. There is only a canvas – in this case, a live feed of the player in front of his TV set – and the ability to using the Move to draw scribbles over this canvas. In the background, annoying music loops continue ad nauseum, punctuated every time the player drops down more paint. A menu brings up different implements with which to get creative, and there are other colours to choose from apart from the default black. Similarly, the player can choose different instruments to produce music with. But, frankly, what’s the point? If the purpose of a demo is to intrigue a player to a game’s full potential, Beat Sketcher fails miserably. If there is a game hidden underneath those annoying music loops and strange gestural paintings, we’d be none the wiser.

Setup: One Move controller. Verdict: Leave it.

Sports Champions

The most high-profile of the Move launch titles, mostly due to the fact that it’s essentially the PS3’s version of Wii Sports. Only two of its six events are available in the demo – the player gets to play two rounds each of Disc Golf and Table Tennis. This seems a bit of a mis-step. A quick go on each of the six events would be a much more persuasive sell to interested consumers; instead the playable events are a mixed bag. Disc Golf is excellent fun – a hybrid of Wii Sports Resort’s frisbee toss and a session on the fairways. The disc responds exactly as you would imagine, responding to increases in power and elevation beautifully. The objective is to get to the basket in the same number of strokes attributed to the course, exactly the same as a round of golf. Table tennis is a little less entertaining, however. Whilst still retaining the same level of responsiveness as Disc Golf, matches quickly devolve into long rallies of identical shots, rarely allowing the opportunity to send in a backhand or smash. Whether this is due to the level of the opponent for demo purposes is currently unclear, but this event could do with more dynamic matches.

The presentation of the package is uniformly excellent however, and presses home the advantage that the PS3 as an HD console has over its Wii counterpart. Character models are brimming with their own personality, even spilling over into how they throw in Disc Golf, and the environments are lushly detailed. If the four other events are as good or better than Disc Golf, Sony could have a quiet smash on its hands with Sports Champions. Although never likely to reach the monstrous sales figures of Wii Sports (although it can thank being bundled with the Wii console for that) it could perhaps provide a bit more longevity.

Setup: One Move controller, although we’re told that some events are enhanced by using two. Verdict: Buy it.

Kung-Fu Rider

The launch title we were keeping an eye on the most, mostly due to its high ‘WTF’ factor, we desperately wanted Kung-Fu Rider to be brilliant. If its mediocre demo is anything to go, it isn’t. The setup is interesting enough – take control of a white-collar office worker or his secretary as you try to escape the Mafia… by riding on an office chair. Slalom this make-shift vehicle down hilly backstreets whilst dodging all many of obstacles to arrive safely at your mobile office (a van, essentially) and complete the level.

The sheer insanity of the game – you won’t be surprised to learn that Kung-Fu Rider is of Japanese origin – is sadly undermined by its clumsy controls. The tutorial levels bombard the player with a bewildering array of moves, each button seemingly being utilised, but none feeling particularly intuitive. The end result is a blind panic when faced with an obstacle as you try and remember what button you need to press to safely traverse it. Jumping is also fundamentally broken. Shaking the Move up and down builds up speed, whilst a sharp upwards motion is supposed to result in a jump, but oftentimes the game fails to register this input. No matter how oddball its subject matter, and what hidden depths it may contain with bonus challenges, money collection, and the occassional martial arts attacks, the broken controller setup will always let it down.

Kung-Fu Rider is a Move-only game which feels like it would work better with the Dualshock gamepad. As such, its a missed opportunity and a bit of a shame.

Setup: One Move controller. Verdict: Leave it.

Start The Party!

If Sports Champions is the PS3’s Wii Sports, then Start The Party! is its Wii Party; a collection of throwaway minigames designed to deliver short, sharp gameplay experiences in a small period of time. Only two of these minigames are available in the demo. One is a strange colouring game, in which a shape will appear on screen, and the player’s task is to fill in as much of it as possible with the Move against a time limit which becomes ever more punishing. The result of these quickfire doodles is a finished drawing, in this case a strange alien-type thing which plays out a little animation as a reward for the budding artist.

The second game has a more traditional feel. The aim is to eliminate the bugs that fly across the screen, the globe on top of the Move becoming a fly-swatter on the screen, which is tracked in perfect 1:1. Swat as many bugs as you can, avoid the red ones, and try and catch the bonus one. Simple and effective, playing a lot like Whack-A-Mole games at funfairs, its the kind of throwaway minigame first seen back when the EyeToy was released for the PS2 all those years ago. Whether there is enough variety and fun in the full package is another thing, but there are glimpses of promise in what’s available here.

Setup: One Move controller. Verdict: On the fence.

The Shoot

If there is one thing that motion control feels tailor-made for, it’s on-rail shooters. The Wii is well-served in this department; Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Dead Space Extraction and House Of The Dead: Overkill are all excellent games. The Shoot is the Move’s take on the genre. The premise is simple; shoot your way through cardboard cutout enemies on a movie set, in the case of the demo, a Wild West stage. The controls are very responsive, and feedback is satisfying.

Achieving headshots unlocks several different power-ups, activated using different gestures. Spinning on the spot slows down time, for instance. There is also the option of activating rapid fire also. Although the full game is likely to be fairly short and straightforward, these kind of games have been popular over the decades for a reason, and this won’t disappoint fans of quick pick-up-and-play shooters. If the multiplayer is as fun as the single player, The Shoot could be an early must-have title when it releases next month.

Setup: One Move controller. Verdict: Buy it.

TV Superstars

Having known absolutely nothing about TV Superstars, we perhaps unsurprisingly expected a TV-based quiz show in the same vein as PS3 smash Buzz. How wrong we were. TV Superstars is squarely aimed at the casual crowd, and could possibly achieve the rather dubious honour of being the first shovelware for the PlayStation Move. The demo comprises of two fake TV shows. One is Frockstar, a turgid attempt at a dancing game. The moves are tricky to pull off, exacerbated by the fact that there is no real positive feedback until each move has finished. An overly-camp presenter screeches banalities at you, as the ‘dance’ wears on and on, seemingly never likely to end.

The second mode has more of an It’s-A-Knockout vibe to it. This time, you strap yourself into a giant slingshot and aim yourself at painted targets, each of which bear a silhouette on them. The aim is to twist the Move round to get your character into the required shape, but again the feedback is spotty at best. The silhouettes are full-body affairs, and would seem to be a better fit for Microsoft’s Kinect functionality, where the camera can (in theory) track every limb. Here, the result is like fitting a round shape into a square hole.

If you are in any way a dedicated gamer, I can safely assure you that TV Superstars is not for you.

Setup: One Move controller. Verdict: Leave it.

Racket Sports

As the title suggests, Racket Sports is all about sports that can be played with a racket; five of them to be precise. Whilst the full game boasts Tennis, Badminton, Squash, Table Tennis and Beach Tennis, thankfully only Tennis and Badminton modes are available in the demo. Whilst the environments are well-presented (the Chinese temple is a highlight) the motion controls instantly let the title down. Any finesse you try to put into your shots, perhaps as a legacy from the tennis game in Wii Sports, don’t translate to your character at all. Try smashing a backhand across the court for example, and more often than not, your shot goes down the line. Badminton is, somehow, even worse, making an already floaty shuttlecock feel even more insignificant. Sports Champions bundles a Table Tennis game in with the rest of its offerings, rendering Racket Sports’ included mode redundant, even though we’ve yet to try it. For the others, either get outside on the real courts, or pick up Wii Sports for a few pennies – judging by comparison with this demo alone, the Wii launch title is still vastly superior, despite its age.

Setup: One Move controller. Verdict: Leave it.


Summary

Launch titles are always a mixed bag, and the Move’s initial lineup is no different. Sadly, there is no stand-out title, perhaps highlighted by the fact that the controller itself doesn’t get bundled with a full game, only a disc containing the demos above. There are some potential gems here, however. Sports Champions has the best chance of doing well, and Tumble is an engaging and slickly-presented download title that deserves some attention. But others will hopefully die a premature death, and bring an end to shovelware on the system before it has a chance to rear its ugly head. Regardless of these launch titles, the Move is a very sexy piece of kit, and the potential for innovative gameplay features is huge. Now it’s just down to developers to take a few risks in bringing these new experiences to our consoles.


Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

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The main issue with Enslaved: Odyssey To The West is that it’s likely to split gamers right down the middle. The bulk of your enjoyment from Ninja Theory’s latest will be derived on what you look for in a game. Do you play games for the challenge, or purely for entertainment? Those in the former camp will find little to keep their interest here beyond its sky-high production values; those in the latter will find an exceptionally-crafted adventure yarn told superbly well, and one of the best games of the year.

Whatever your gaming bent, it’s impossible to deny that Enslaved gets a lot of things right. Having on board high-profile writer Alex Garland (‘The Beach’, ‘28 Days Later’) to co-pen the game results in a warm and engaging script, with an utterly believable relationship between the two leads – Monkey, a lithe but burly beefcake with no home and no family, and Trip, a tech-savvy redhead desperate to get home to hers. It’s the gradual unfolding and transformation of this relationship, from frosty beginnings (Trip fits Monkey with a headband which allows her to control him) to… well, I’ll leave that for you to discover. Rarely has character study been handled with such skill and care, providing moments of genuine poignancy as well as true ‘LOL’ moments. I can count the number of times I’ve laughed at a game’s humour on the pudgy digits of one hand, and Enslaved deserves special commendation for delivering this oft-overlooked quality.

Pigsy – a real ladies’ man.

Much of this comic relief can be attributed to secondary character Pigsy, who steals the show when he joins Monkey and Trip on their quest in the latter stages of the game. Swarthy and crass (his belt buckle is a big pair of ruby-red female lips); he locks horns with Monkey on several occassions, and clearly harbours ambitions on Trip too. He is also crafted with such deftness that it is often difficult to decipher whose side he’s really on. On top of being the third point in a dynamic character triangle, he also provides combat support for Monkey, scrabbling to high vantage points and picking off mechs with a rusty old rifle.

Not that you’ll need it. Although we’d say that Enslaved’s combat has been unfairly derided and lambasted in some quarters, it certainly doesn’t have the depth of some of its contemporaries in this field, namely Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. That’s not to say that it is strictly a monotone experience either; some mechs sport shields that must be removed with a stun attack, some can be taken down with counter attacks after blocking, and still others must be evaded, before bringing Monkey’s staff to bear behind them. It’s all played out with very satisfying feedback, but the camera’s insistence on zooming in on every encounter can be wearying, oftentimes blindsiding you to enemies lingering behind. It’s a streamlined combat system then, but a slick one – button bashers will soon be found out and punished.

It’s not the combat, but the platforming, that will be most divisive about Enslaved. Throughout much of the game, Monkey cannot fail, and will grasp the next handhold or ledge every time, as long as the appropriate direction is being pressed on the thumbstick and the button is pressed. The traversal is entirely linear and scripted, and Monkey will never perform a jump unless he’s standing in exactly the right place. Some may grumble at the lack of challenge here, but the counterpoint is the added cinema to such a system. A fluid clamber throughout an environment, executed with grace and speed,  is still uniquely exhilirating, especially as the camera swoops and soars to frame the action from the most dramatic angle. There are obstacles that add an element of timing later on in the game, as if Ninja Theory themselves decided that the platforming was a little too ‘autopilot’, but its interesting to note that these pitfalls actually hinder the feeling of flow generated throughout the game. Enslaved thrives on its momemtum – a story perfectly paced that pulls you through its action and setpieces with a confident rhythm, and these belated additions at difficulty so late in the game only impede this flow.

Besides, it is the simplicity of the platforming mechanics that allow the player to gape at Enslaved’s most impressive selling point – its gorgeous environments. Set initially in a post-apocalyptic New York, Ninja Theory rejects the notion that the world would be a sludge of brown and grey melancholia, and instead allows plant-life to inherit the earth in splashes of riotous colour and carpets of fuzzy green moss. It’s a striking departure, and a wholly successful one. Double-takes to check out a sweeping vista, spreading out as far as the eye can see, are commonplace, and often the reward for a long climb up some derelict piece of machinery. The view from the top of the windmill in Trip’s village is a particular highlight. Occassionally, the game suffers from its ambition; hectic battles with mechs in highly-detailed areas can sometimes result in a drastic drop in the framerate, and there is some noticeable texture pop-in when a scene first loads. But these are small prices to pay for such a stunningly-realised gameworld, in both originality and production.

One of the many stunning locales in Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

Not to be outdone, the character animators for Enslaved also deserve a huge pat on the back. Facial animation is possibly the best that’s ever been produced in a videogame. Subtle inflections are captured superbly; a wry half-smile forming on a character’s lips, or furtive glances sneaked beneath lowered faces, make these characters decidedly human, and are an absolute triumph. Combat animations are held to the same high standard – Monkey moves like lightning, acrobatically dispatching enemies with twirls of his staff, and oozing effortlessly between handholds across the landscape. Essentially, Enslaved is a product of an art team operating at the very top of its game, utterly confident in its own abilities.

Not everything is stellar, though. Enslaved’s primary flaw is ironically a by-product of its main success. Ninja Theory have crafted such a tight, lean, self-contained adventure that there is little replay value once you have completed it, beyond the ubiquitous collectibles of course. In Enslaved, the collectibles are a rather tedious affair. The masks are manageable and reward their collection with snippets of sensory experience much like the glyphs from Assassin’s Creed 2 provide. The tech orbs are much more plentiful, scattered liberally across every level, and take an age to pick up, often inhabiting the farthest flung corners of wide open areas. They at least affect the game itself – powering the upgrade system which allows Monkey access to new moves, better shields and increased health – but are far too numerous to bother going back a second time for, unless you are a completist by nature.

Also, for a game that prides itself on its narrative and strong plot points, the ending is rather poor, feeling at once both clichéd and abrupt, although this is a more subjective point. It doesn’t tarnish what precedes it, however, and still leaves plenty of scope for a sequel. We’re hoping that Enslaved has enough in its locker to sell well to players concerned about its longevity to see a follow-up, partly because we’re left actually caring for the characters, and partly because we’d love to see this beautiful gameworld again. Enslaved is that increasingly rare beast – a slice of refreshing originality in both approach and tone that feels like a complete package. Its charms will be entirely predicated by your gaming preferences, as indicated at the top of this review, but this is still a superbly-crafted game and a shining example of gameplay and narrative balanced just right. Buy it.

El Shaddai

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One of the most useful tools in the reviewer’s arsenal is that of comparison; the ability to draw on past experiences and previous games in order to give context to the title at hand. Although some of the underlying hack ‘n’ slash gameplay mechanics of Ignition’s El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron can be traced back to genre highlights like God Of War, in other ways it is simply utterly unique, unlike anything we’ve ever played before and unlikely to be repeated again.

Cross-hatched pencil, ever-shifting watercolour clouds, cartoon platforms, vector geometry; El Shaddai’s art style flits about frenetically at a breakneck pace. As soon as your eyes have accustomed to one vivid, unique effect, you are transported off to another world, bedecked in yet another polar opposite one. It’s initially quite jarring, but there is no denying that Ignition’s art directors have outdone themselves here – given carte blanche to do as they wished, and seemingly struck by too many ideas to narrow them down, they’ve simply chucked them all in. The result is a hodge-podge of one-off visual feasts, used and quickly discarded, any one of which you’ve never seen a videogame rendered in before.

It’s a shame then, given the beauty of the environments, that their implementation lets them down. Jagged edges abound when viewed on a large HD TV, and can’t help but break the immersion. In one particular neon-decked area, with huge floating platforms receding into the formidable draw distance, the result is downright ugly. The main character and enemy models fare better though, and provide a rare thread of consistency through the ever-changing landscapes of El Shaddai’s opening chapters.

So far we’ve yet to find gameplay that matches the sheer ingenuity of the game’s visuals. Enoch, the main protagonist, uses standard combos, power attacks and dash moves that characterise the hack ‘n’ genre; a move-set you’ve practised so often, and clicks into place so quickly here that you’d be forgiven for thinking you were playing God Of War if it weren’t for the gaudy, supernatural colours coalescing all around you. Even the weapons are handed out by stealing them from your foes – sound familiar? It seems our well-polished ‘comparison’ tool has gotten a run-out after all.

Familarity sets in further when progression settles into an early, repetitious rhythm. Environments can abruptly be cordoned off in order to spawn a slew of enemies, with the walls only coming down once all have been vanquished. These well-worn hack ‘n’ slash arenas are often interspersed with 2D platforming sections that sometimes call recent downloadable hit Outland to mind, but which lack that game’s finely-tuned physics. There’s something about Enoch’s jump that feels stiff and incomplete which can lead to awkward platforming and common, frustrating falls.

A less than stellar start for El Shaddai then, but if anything can lead us through these unentertaining periods of gameplay, it’s the promise of yet another brilliant new piece of environmental design, yet another artistic lens through which to view the unfolding story. We’ve never seen anything like it, and such originality is a breath of fresh air in an increasingly stale marketplace. We think that’s worth sticking with, so expect our full review soon.

El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron releases in the UK this Friday on PS3 and Xbox 360.

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