Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines (PSP)

Game: Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines
Platform: PSP
Publisher:  Ubisoft
Developer: Griptonite Games
Genre: Action/Adventure
Release Date: November 17, 2009
Score: 6.5 out of 10

 

After playing through Altair’s Chronicles for the DS, I was scared to give this game a try. While its not perfect, at least the developers attempted to make an Assassin’s Creed game and not just use the name on a glitch-filled platformer. Its a stripped down Assassin’s Creed, but its still recognizable as part of the series. The game had some issues like camera control, spotty AI, and bland cities, but none of these problems was enough to make the game truly terrible. Its not going to be Game of the Year, but its fun and I have played a lot worse.  It felt like a good addition, albeit a short one, to the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

Story: While much better than the Assassin’s Creed for the DS, this wasn’t a bright spot for the game. Players are back in control of Altair, the 12th century protagonist from the first console Assassin’s Creed. He sets off for the island of Cyprus to finish off the Templars as they retreat from the holy land. Altair ends up taking Maria, the Templar woman who’s life he spared in AC1, and meeting up with a group of citizen resistance members fighting against tyrannical Templar rule in Cyprus. Along the way there are the typical side missions involving saving and aiding the local citizens but for the most part, it felt very generic. I didn’t really care if Altair bested the Templar invasion of Cyprus, I just wanted to stab people. With no great mystery and very little motivation, the story lagged and I found myself surprised when characters were reintroduced to the plot as I had mostly forgotten everyone and their role immediately after encountering them.

Sound: I’m going to venture a guess and say there was music in this title, but it clearly didn’t make any sort of impression. I do, however, remember the music associated with the Griptonite Games logo, oddly enough. I don’t remember the music being bad, so I guess it could be worse. One bright spot in the sound was the voice work. Altair sounds much better in this than he did in the console game. The voice actor should be commended. While the story wasn’t great, he did a good job with the dialog he had. Who ever voiced Maria takes top honors, though. She had some of the best lines in the script and she delivered them perfectly.

Graphics: I was pleasantly surprised by the graphics in this game. No, it wasn’t as expansive as the console version, but they did a good job of making an open world game with exploration options without sacrificing beauty. My only complaint was that the world was so sparsely populated. I wanted to assassinate guards and then blend in with the citizens but there were usually no citizens around. Also, the buildings seemed too far apart to get a good rhythm going for rooftop navigation. Just as I would be bounding over buildings I would get to an impassible gap and fall to the ground. My favorite graphical feature of the game was the combat animations. It was nice to successfully pull off a combat move such as a counter or combo and get to see a neat cut scene. This was something I enjoyed in AC1 and I was particularly glad to see it could be accomplished on the PSP.

Controls and Gameplay: Generally the game controls so smoothly it makes the times it doesn’t that much more painful.  Altair still controls with a puppeteer scheme and still gracefully scales walls and leaps buildings, but without a second analog stick for camera control it just doesn’t always happen the way you plan for it to. Sometimes the camera changes angles awkwardly, forcing the player to stop moving and adjust it using the shoulder button and face keys in tandem. Not a big deal, but it interrupts the flow of the game more than you would think. Its not enough to deter one from playing but it will get frustrating. The gameplay, though open world, follows a linear progression. There is no choosing certain missions of the main story or the order in which to do them. The game still has Altair investigating and assassinating minor targets for information about larger ones, but now it prompts you on where to go and who to kill next. There are a few side missions in the districts and a few viewpoints to climb but for the most part they seem like an afterthought. I did them all and it didn’t seem to add anything. The main target assassinations also were not so much assassinations as boss fights. I freely admit I’m not great at the combat in these games, but I am one hell of an assassin. I did not enjoy having to fight bosses in combat when I would have much preferred to find a way to secretly assassinate them. This game is titled Assassin’s Creed, right? One of the new features I did enjoy was the upgrade system. Instead of flags, each district contains Templar coins scattered about which can be used to purchase upgrades for Altair, such as extra throwing knives or a larger health bar.  It sucks that you have to exit the game to buy your upgrades, or wait until the end of a memory block, but I liked the idea behind it. I also liked the achievements. Oh, I’m sorry, I mean accomplishments. This list of tasks to do in game, such as collecting all the coins in a given area or killing a set number of guards, also nets the player coins with which to purchase upgrades.

Replayability: The game definitely tries to give players a reason to keep playing this game. With upgrades to max out and accomplishments to complete, the developers seemed to give players more than just a single story to focus on. I was able to do everything in one playthough, however, but  I was making a conscious effort to do everything. If I hadn’t accomplished everything I definitely would have gone back and replayed some memories.

Score: The developers might not have made a game as great as the first Assassin’s Creed, but they certainly made a good game. They managed to capture the spirit of the series while including the most important features from the original game. I may have been disappointed with some of the choices made, but I still enjoyed playing through the game. It rates a 6.5 our of 10 for me.  The developers are on the right track with this game, and the next one could easily be even better!

Why yes, I am sleepy, why do you ask?

Yay for Wednesday updates! I’m still busy replaying the Assassin’s Creed series. I’m on Brotherhood right now. I better hurry and finish or my reviews are going to catch up to me and I doubt I can beat a game a week. Well, I could, but my children would like to eat. I might have started the bad habit of playing games at the crack of dawn while everyone else sleeps. My son is sleeping through the night now, mostly, but every few days he seems to wake up around 4 in the morning. After his bottle I stay up and play. I did it again this morning. My alarm goes off at 6:30, so it felt like a waste to go back to bed. I did at least switch the laundry and do the dishes first. If I’m going to sit and play a game all morning I needed a few things done. I couldn’t do more around the house without waking everyone up. That’s what I tell myself, anyway.

If you had asked me what the plot of AC:Brotherhood was I would not have been able to tell you even though I played it a few years ago. I had combined it with 2 in my memory apparently. When I played through 2 again I kept wondering were the guild challenges were or when I would get my assassin recruits. Turns out that all happens in Brotherhood. It’s a great game, but there are so many side quests I’ve forgotten what is going on in the story. I’m in sequence 4 and I went back to do a story mission; no clue what was going on or why I was helping a little boy. That would be my only complaint so far. It feels just like AC2 which is a great thing. After the last review I put up, I’m leery of too many changes to this franchise. Yes, that was a DS game, but still, it was so terrible. I’ll take consistent, similar gameplay over broken redesigns any day.

Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles (DS)

 

Game: Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles
Platform: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gameloft
Genre: Action Adventure/Platformer
Release Date: February 5, 2008
Score: 3 out of 10

While this game may have Assassin’s Creed in its title, it plays nothing like the console version of the game. It’s a passable, if short, action platformer which plays fairly well until the glitches hit. I started out enjoying this game more than I expected to. That enjoyment didn’t last. Halfway through my second playthrough I encountered a glitch I had read about on the internet where upgrade orbs are no longer found. No big deal, I was only on medium difficulty, I beat it just fine. Somehow though, when I went to start the game on hard difficulty, that difficulty wasn’t unlocked. It should have unlocked after beating the game; the game displayed a message saying it had been unlocked. After starting a new game, resetting my profile, and popping the cartridge out, it became clear that the blue orbs were apparently gone forever, along with my hard mode. I’ve dealt with glitches before but nothing on this scale. It is absolutely ridiculous that not even resetting a profile would bring back the missing orbs.

Story: Set before the console version of Assassin’s Creed, the plot of this game focuses on Altair’s quest to retrieve a relic known as the Chalice from Templar possession. I’m not so sure I would call the tiny amount of exposition here a story. Frequently confusing, with no link  to the other game, one is often left wondering just what exactly is going on. *Spoiler Alert* The chalice turns out to be a woman, and one Altair apparently knows, and knows well enough to runaway with. Even more confusing, the game ends with no resolution. I understand setting up a sequel, but after a boss fight with a rescue eminent, the woman sails away on a ship and a screen pops up informing you the game has been completed. It felt like there should have been more story and game left. While I don’t expect handheld platformers to have stellar plots, when a game has Assassin’s Creed in the title I expected it to have more than this game did. Maybe this wasn’t even supposed to be an Assassins Creed game orginally.  It seemed thrown together in a cheap attempt to cash in on the console version’s popularity.

Sound: The sound isn’t going to win any awards in this game, but its acceptable. The music is a generic mix of Middle Eastern feeling tracks designed to fit within the game’s setting. Enemies let loose a nice death scream, however, this gets old fast. Honestly, since its a DS game I kept the sound turned down most of the time. It wasn’t special enough to annoy others with or for me to lament its absence.

Graphics: For a handheld title this game looks pretty good. Of course the majority of the characters are a bit blocky, particularly noticeable with the females you encounter, but overall it looks nice. The rooftops and city streets Altair navigates through are nicely detailed and shadowing helps players land some tricky jumps. The cities start to feel a bit generic, but this is forgivable considering they at least look nice. The cut-scenes look great as well. I didn’t expect them to look as good as they did on the DS since the system is not really known for its graphical prowess. These, along with the character portraits visible during dialog, were a pleasant surprise. One of the few graphical missteps occurred with the structures and buildings players must navigate around. These are supposed to turn translucent when you pass behind them in order to see where Altair is. This did not always happen as it was supposed to, leaving me trying to find my way out of a maze of buildings with no real idea where I was, except for the mini map on the touch screen which wasn’t much use in situations like these.

Controls and Gameplay: The best word to describe the controls and gameplay of this game is inconsistent. Every time I thought I had the controls down and I was sailing over rooftops with ease, I would plummet to ground level as I missed an easy jump. It seemed like sometimes Altair just wouldn’t jump as far as normal or sometimes the combat combos did not produce uniform results. The gameplay was inconsistent as well. Just when I would be enjoying the game, some stupid mini-game would pop up, forcing me to play either an operation-style pickpocket mission, or a careful tapping exercise to interrogate someone. These are frustrating and seem to hold no place in relation to the rest of the gameplay. I suppose they are included for variety, but they end up feeling like a gimmicky use of the touch screen. Luckily they are used very sparingly. Combat with guards and Templars is also a large portion of this game. The combat isn’t bad, combos are included, but I found random button mashing got me just as good or better results in most of the fights. Most guards can be avoided by sticking to the rooftops, but they drop upgrade orbs upon death so killing them is a good idea. While this platformer has Altair running across rooftops dodging traps and leaping buildings, it occasionally forces the player to sneak past guards and infiltrate camps. I actually liked the concept of this, but the controls seemed counter-intuitive to this type of gameplay.  Players must hold the right shoulder button to walk and this became uncomfortable after a while. I have small hands so after a long section of stealthy gameplay my hands were cramped up monster claws. Its a small complaint, but if I have to hold a button for an extended period on the DS, please, make it a face button. Like the majority of platformers, its a linear progression game, with no freedom to explore. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. As you progress further in the game chapters unlock, becoming available in a memories section where players can replay pieces they have already beat. This sounds neat, but Altair’s Chronicles manages to screw it up. Don’t go back and pick an early chapter to replay and expect to continue your game from a later chapter. Choosing a memory makes the game save over your data and its as if anything past the chosen memory has never been unlocked forcing you to continue your game from the newly selected point. I made this mistake when looking for upgrade orbs. Not that it mattered since they had all disappeared anyway.

Replayability: There isn’t much here to encourage a second playthrough. You a can upgrade your sword and a health bar via orb collection and the upgrades do carry over to  a new game, if the orbs don’t disappear. The game does have three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard, with hard locked until one of the other difficulties has been completed. Some gamers may not even get all three as an option. It’s inexcusable for me to be unable to actually unlock a difficulty due to a glitch. The same thing goes with the sword and health bar upgrades. I can’t unlock them all when the game decides to take away the means to acquire them.

Score: What started out as a generic but decent little platformer ended up being an exercise in frustration. While not an expansive, open-world game like the first Assassin’s Creed, the developers created an enjoyable action/platformer that managed to catch a  bit of the spirit of the original game. However, a poor story and game destroying glitches keep this game from rising above an intriguing footnote in an amazing series. It had the potential to be a great side note, but I’d really have reservations about recommending this game. A fan of the series might be able to overlook some of the more glaring flaws in an attempt to revisit Altair’s world, but everyone else should stay away. Therefore I give it a 3 out of 10 based on my experiences with the glitches. If you manage to avoid the glitches, which some people have, I’d give it a 5.

Delays

So clearly I haven’t been updating regularly like I had planned. I had the misfortune to be tornado hit a few weeks ago. We are all ok, the house is in need of a few repairs, but its ok overall, but this has made time a little precious. You never realize how many trees you have until you have to cut them down and drag them to the curb. Thank goodness for insurance, we should have a new roof this week, but it’s still been a lot more work than I would have anticipated. Things are calming down now, however, so we should be back to our regularly scheduled updates. In fact, I’m just about to post a new review for the first Assassin’s Creed ds game: Altair’s Chronicles! It’s good to be back. 🙂

Thoughts on the Original Assassin’s Creed

The latest review is up and it’s Assassin’s Creed for the Xbox 360. I can’t even begin to say how much I love this game, or conversely, how much it means to me. I had pretty much gotten out of gaming regularly and had moved on to sporatically playing WoW when I picked this up. It pulled me back into console gaming big time. It’s not like I ever didn’t want to play, but with a husband and kid it was hard to find the time or to find something that made it worth the extra effort to stay up and play. Sleep is a powerful thing and I don’t get too much of it these days. I will stay up and play me some Assassin’s Creed; I have coffee. Seriously though, I’m not a FPS fan, I like traditional RPG’s and classic adventure/platformers. While there are some good titles out there for people like me there isn’t a ton. AC managed to feel new, but also like a really good action/adventure game from long ago.

I replayed it just a few months ago, and I still love it. It’s a game I can pick up anytime and still love. I’d rank it up there with Mario and Zelda for me personally.  I had always liked the first one best, but I will say I think 2 slightly edges it out for me, but this is still a wonderful game. I couldn’t get my husband to play it. He watched most of my cut scenes and I don’t think he is a fan of the story, which is insane. I didn’t marry him for his taste, obviously. I’m playing through the AC series while he is begging me to play FFXIII. I do love Final Fantasy but frankly the new ones don’t seem as good. And don’t get me started on the trailers I’ve seen for XV. It’s just not my style of rpg, so I am continuing my slog through the AC series. I say slog only because I’m on the PSP one right now. It leaves a little to be desired.

Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360)

Game: Assassin’s Creed
Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Action Adventure
Release Date: November 13, 2007
Overall Score: 9 out of 10

It has been a long time since a video game has made me irresponsible enough to stay up all night playing. Oh, Assassin’s Creed you tempt me so! From the moment I put this game in and assassinated a guard with a hidden blade I was hooked. Players control Desmond Miles, a modern day bartender who is being experimented on in order to retrieve his ancestor’s memories. Most of the game is spent controlling Altair, the afore mentioned ancestor, as he partakes in his assassin duties during the third crusade. I giddily cried “Assassin!” as I jumped over roof tops dropping down unexpectedly on my prey. Full disclosure: I’m a history and English major with a specialization in the medieval era, so playing a game set in this time period was perhaps a little more thrilling to me than to others. Still, the game has your character talk to Richard the Lionhearted, and who wouldn’t find that awesome? I kept looking for the option to tell him to return to England as his brother John was trying usurp the throne. See what a nerd I am? Moving on, the game places the player in the holy lands during the third crusade and gives the player free reign to explore and amazing controls with which to do so.  An exciting premise, spot-on controls, and incredible beauty make this a must play for most gamers.

Story: While it can get a little convoluted at times, it really felt like the writers tried to craft an excellent story. Desmond Miles, who was born into and ultimately rejects the modern day assassins, is kidnapped in order to aid the modern day Templars in their search for a treasure lost to them during the third crusade. Its location is locked away in Desmond’s memory, genetically imprinted by his ancestors. Desmond lives out his 12th century relative’s memories leading up to the location of the treasure. He is tasked with assassinating many men, for reasons which become more and more questionable as the game progresses. Are the men he assassinates truly evil? Without giving too much away, let me just say Altair and Desmond both make a few startling discoveries. The story is obviously not historically accurate, but the writers did a great job of creating a historical fiction which has just enough truth behind it to make it interesting. The game centers around the third crusade and the historical figures involved. The men targeted for assassination are all known to have died in 1191; the year the game is set. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, Richard the Lionhearted is in it making for historical awesomeness.

Sound: The game’s weakest area is sound. Of course weak by the standards of this game are perfectly acceptable in any other context. The score is decent without being overly memorable. Voice acting is prominently featured and for the most part it is excellent. I didn’t care for Altair’s voice work, but one nice surprise was Kristin Bell as Lucy. Most of the voice work was well acted, and complemented the dialog nicely. However, the dialog heard during the save citizen missions was ridiculously repetitive considering the quality and variety given to the voicing of the citizens. If you are going to hire different voice actors or people who can do numerous voices, why not have them say something different? This is a relatively small complaint which, fortunately, did not interfere with my enjoyment of the game in the least.

Graphics: Polished graphics and an overwhelming sense of space all contribute to making this game a real beauty. The holy land is recreated in stunning detail. Three cities, each one of which feels unique, and a wide open kingdom filled with people and buildings are available to explore and marvel at. The inclusion of view points, high towers to climb which opened up your map, took full advantage of the graphics, spinning the camera around letting you see the area in full panoramic view. Its in these moments one gets a true sense of the enormity and detail found in this game. Jumping off these structures gives an even bigger rush. The graphics helped create a sense of falling that occasionally had my stomach in my throat. The people who populate the game had a good amount of variety as well. Of course some character models were reused, mainly noticeable in the soldiers, but overall a good effort was made to include an assortment of models. Not everything can be perfect though. One complaint I had was it was too easy to get lost in the cities, since most all of the architecture looked the same. One row of buildings began to blur into the next. It was easier to navigate by rooftop, but even then only a few landmarks stood out. Part of me appreciates the realism of this, but it’s still a video game; I don’t mind some distinguishing characteristics for the sake of easy navigation.

Controls and Gameplay: After a brief period of acclimating to the controls, this game allows for incredibly fluid movements. Utilizing what is called a puppeteer control scheme, where each button controls a body part, the game has very intuitive controls. The buttons are in low profile, meaning your actions do not draw unwanted attention, but change to a high profile set when the right trigger is pressed. For example the button for feet is walking in low profile and running in high. It does take a bit of getting used to, especially the switching between high and low profile actions, but once you learn the controls it becomes second nature and you are soon leaping between buildings like a pro. Combat is not the easiest thing, but ideally most kills will take place while stealthed. Many weapons are available for dispatching enemies: throwing knives for distance kills, a hidden blade for stealth assassinations, and two different swords for when fighting breaks out. The gameplay has Altair traveling to different cities assassinating leaders, but first he must learn some information about them. This is accomplished through investigation missions which can take the form of pickpockets, eavesdropping, or even smaller scale assassinations. Not all of the available missions need to be completed to move on to the main target, offering players a chance to progress faster. Also, scattered throughout the city are citizens to save from harassing guards and viewpoints to scale in order to clear the fog away from the map. Neither of these activities are required to be completed in order to progress in the game, however, they offer some tangible benefits. Both will increase your life bar after 15 extra missions are completed, and saving the citizens gets the player NPC’s who will aid in escaping from guards. Believe me these come in handy, especially later in the game as more guards populate the cities and assassination missions turn into an all out battle in which you must flee after your target is downed. Some gamers seem to dislike the repetitive nature of these missions; each district in each city has around 10 citizens to save, 10 view points to find, and 6 investigations to complete. Personally, I like being able to look at a map, do the missions I want in any order but still know what to expect. I don’t enjoy wondering if I missed a branching plot point by saving someone or not. I get the best of both worlds: an open world to explore with a linear sense of progression. I haven’t mentioned any of the gameplay where Desmond is controlled. This was the only area I was a bit disappointed with. Basically you walk around a room and talk to Lucy on occasion. It was great for the story, but, honestly, it could have been told in cut-scenes instead of making me walk slowly from the Animus to my bedroom every few assassinations.

Replayability: This title gives players lots in the way of extras. First and foremost are the extra missions. It’s oddly satisfying to clear my map of flashing mission indicators even though I could have beaten the game without doing so. With around 60 citizens to save there was plenty of extra content. Plus, doing all the investigations gives the player extra information about the assassinations which make them go a bit more smoothly. Also, the viewpoints are not required to be climbed, but players would be missing out on some incredible city views and it’s much easier to get around when you have a filled in map. Perhaps the best feature for replayability is the flag collecting. Each city and the kingdom itself has 100 flags to find. Boy can these get tricky! I found every one and I attempted to not use any maps, but when I got down to missing 3 or 4 in each area I gave in. The kingdom was the worst! 98 flags found and I had to take a map and double check each dot. Still, it added hours of extra gameplay. It was really satisfying when I happened upon my last flags. Also, there are 60 Templar knights in the world to slay. These extra tough enemies can be found in the cities and the kingdom guarding a treasure chest. And let’s not forget the achievements the game has. They are all fairly straight forward and can be unlocked by playing the game and completing all the extra content. I was going to find the flags anyway but it’s nice to get some gamerscore while I do it.

Score: Great story, great graphics, and a collector’s paradise make this game an amazingly good time. The only drawback I can see is that perhaps if one doesn’t do the extra missions or find the flags it could be a little short. It would still probably take around 10 to 15 hours depending on skill level, but with all the great extras why someone would not complete them is beyond me. This game gets a 9 out of 10 from me. Bring on more medieval games, developers!

A Rare Weekend Entry

So I feel a post is due. I meant to post Monday about the review I had posted, but I had it set to a timer and I didn’t have a chance while I was on vacation. It was a nice mini get away for Spring Break, but I’m home now so I’ll talk a little bit about Alice: Madness Returns before I post a new review tomorrow.

Yet again I played this with my husband. This time at least he wasn’t noticeably better than me. He did finish it faster than me, but I collected every item and he didn’t. We both liked it, me perhaps a bit more than him. I liked all the collectibles and I”m a sucker for a well done platformer. I really wish this game had gotten a better reception. I had heard there was going to be a third one, but all they did was a couple of short films. How this was supposed to be what gamers wanted was beyond me. Ugh. I want another game, not a movie.

Anyway not too much to say about that. It’s been awhile since I played it. I did get all the achievements, husband didn’t. HA! Tomorrow I’m posting an Assassin’s Creed review. Love Love that series!

Alice: Madness Returns (Xbox 360)

Game: Alice: Madness Returns
Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: EA
Developer: Spicy Horse
Genre: Action/Platformer
Release Date: June 14, 2011
Score: 9 out of 10

 

The sequel to American Mcgee’s Alice takes players back to the twisted version of Wonderland found in the title character’s demented mind. The first game became a cult classic and this one has the potential to as well. As a rabid Alice in Wonderland fan, and also a fan of platformers, my opinion may be a bit skewed toward the positive, but honestly I loved this game. I do not understand why it reviewed so average or why EA did not market it more. No, it isn’t  super innovative, but it’s fun. Solid combat, excellent platforming challenges, and beautiful, twisted settings make this a game worth checking out. Of course there were parts that weren’t perfect. Some levels dragged and sometimes the platforming was hindered by the camera, but overall it’s a fun game with a good story. It’s not everyday you get to play a game that lets you take on the role of a classic literary character armed with a kitchen knife sent to kill deformed living toys inhabiting her mind.

Story: Set ten years after the previous game, Madness Returns has Alice out of the mental institution but still searching her own mind for the cause of her family’s death.  Her new psychiatrist, Dr. Bumby, is treating Alice by having her forget her memories. Alice finds herself pulled back into Wonderland as her mind attempts to fight the process. She must save Wonderland to save herself. I’ve read reviews that complain this game is not as dark as the original. They must mean atmospherically, because the story is quite disturbing. Personally I find murder, torture, and child molestation themes to be very dark indeed. Maybe I’m just naïve. Although Alice blames herself, she cannot remember exactly what happened the night her family died. Throughout Wonderland Alice will find memories scattered about to help fill in the story. These belong not only to her, but to other characters in a position to know what has happened as well. These range from the drunk nurse at the asylum, to Alice’s doctors. Revealed in 2-d short cut scenes, these memories are a creative way to have Alice and the player discover the truth.

Sound: The sound track does an admirable job conveying the mood of Wonderland. The twists and turns throughout the game are mirrored in the music. Haunting and eerie at times, it can turn dissonant and angry in a moment. The score is definitely the strong point of the sound in this game. The voice acting was a missed opportunity. It’s a shame considering many of the original cast reprised their roles from the first game. The script just didn’t seem all that great for many of the characters, especially the characters in Wonderland. I noticed it particularly with the Cheshire cat.  I’d give it a solid meh; not great, not bad, but not memorable.

Graphics: This game is beautiful. It can’t be easy to make things both pretty and menacing at the same time, but Madness Returns succeeds. Wonderland itself is divided up into several worlds that each present a distinctive look and feel. Whether Alice is under the sea or in the mad hatter’s mechanical factory, the area feels completely unique down to the tiniest details. Alice’s dress even changes depending on what world she is in.  The bright and colorful world of  Wonderland is counter-balanced by the dark, grimy streets of Victorian London, which Alice visits in-between levels.  Another great design choice was to use 2-d animation for the memories Alice finds. These contrasts to Wonderland offered a nice graphical change of pace.

Controls and Gameplay: Alice is an action/platformer and both combat and jumping perform well. Alice has a good variety of weapons to take out the weird, acid spitting doll heads and other strange creatures found in Wonderland and each one is useful. Alice has her vorpal blade and hobby horse for close combat, pepper grinder and tea pot for ranged, and an umbrella for deflection. Nothing feels useless, and even after acquiring a new weapon there were situations that required an older weapon. They are also upgradable. Alice collects teeth throughout Wonderland which she can sell for upgrades. Players make their way through Wonderland and they face several puzzles and platforming challenges. Alice is able to shrink to find hidden areas and hidden platforms. Some of the jumps are tricky due to camera issues but overall it was a rare occurrence. Alice has learned triple jump and is equipped with a glide mechanic ( a trick I’m sure she learned from the Super Mario Brothers 2 version of Princess Peach)  to ensure every ledge can be reached. They come in handy too, since there are so many collectables to find. While the game itself is pretty linear, there are lots of hidden paths to discover usually leading to collectables. There are memories and bottles to find, pig snouts to pepper, and radula rooms to find and complete. Wonderland can feel sparsely populated making a few of the levels drag. To change up the’ fight/ platform to another fight’ formula several mini games are interspersed throughout the game. Some are well done if over used, such as the slide, and some are needlessly frustrating. One of my issues with the game is simply wishing there was more. More enemies, more areas to explore, maybe even a boss fight or two would be nice. Each level is grand and the story builds, making the player feel as if an epic boss battle is just around the corner. Encounters that could have been fights end up being cut scenes. It’s a big let down and one of my biggest complaints about Madness Returns.

Replayability: By having multiple types of collectables to find and weapons to upgrade, players will probably play the game more than once. Finding all of the numerous collectables in one playthrough is nearly impossible. Upgrading the weapons in one playthrough is possible, but since there is a new game plus option it’s not something to stress over. There are four difficulty levels available as well, and achievements for each of them. I played through each and I didn’t notice too much of a difference, especially with upgraded weapons.  Also, a DLC dress and weapons pack is available which will change Alice’s dress while giving her special abilities and upgrade your weapons. The achievements give the game some replay value as well. I unlocked all 1000 and none of them were difficult to get. As an added bonus, if you buy the game new it comes with a copy of the first game, American Mcgee’s Alice for free. 100 of the 1000 achievement points are for completing the original game. These will probably be the most difficult achievements for everyone to unlock.

Score: I had a great time playing this game. Yes, it had some gameplay elements that were less than innovative. It didn’t make the game any less fun for me, in fact, it made it more enjoyable. Madness Returns took classic gameplay elements, matched them with a good story, and created an amazing world to put them in. What it set out to do it did well. Could it have done some things better? Sure. But overall it was a fun game that I played and explored completely. Plus, if you buy the game new you get a free game. For me the game gets a 9 out of 10. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it certainly was mine.

Another Assassin’s Creed Down!

So late last night I beat AC2. I was so tired but I knew the end was coming, I might not have gotten to bed until around 1. Eh, it happens. Not many games grab me like that any more, but the Assassin’s Creed series is definitely one of them. We are off on a family vacation tomorrow; just a short weekend get away. I will, however, be taking my PSP and hoping to play AC: Bloodlines. I had planned on replaying it before AC2, but my PSP battery and memory card were shot. I just got the new ones in, so fingers crossed it works, otherwise, I’m going to be furious. I was all set to play Bloodlines, found my PSP, found the charger, and I plug it in and the battery light is blinking and it’s acting crazy even plugged in. I figured out the battery door wasn’t closed right, and I remembered my ex had said it was broken. I assumed he just didn’t know how to get the battery back in. I couldn’t get it in either and I realized the battery was swollen. After a quick google search, it turns out the lithium battery is bad. No big deal, I order a new one from Amazon. I do some more research and it turns out I can play if the PSP is plugged into an outlet. Ok. It still won’t work for me. The damn memory stick isn’t being recognized. My PC wouldn’t recognize it either, so back to Amazon for a new one. After all that mess it better work. I don’t like playing games out of order, I’m too OCD for that.

I’m not super tech savvy, but I’m going to try to have a new review posted Monday by setting it to post after I upload it tonight. We will see if it works out. If not, I’ll post as soon as I get home. Its going to be Alice Madness Returns. It’s a very underrated game in my opinion, one I wish more people had played because I would love a sequel.

Late Night Assassinations

This week I’ve started playing Assassin’s Creed 2. I’ve beaten it before but its been awhile and I’m playing through the entire series this time. I got a lot of game time in last night when my three month old decided to stay up all night. He just sat in my lap and I played. I should finish it in another day or two. Of course I’m having to collect everything; again. All because I lost my save file to an ex. At least I’m at the point in the game where I’ve collected everything so now its just playing through to the end. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this game. I had always preferred AC1 but I think I might have changed my mind with this play though. The tipping point may actually be the dialog in the DLC of Caterina Sforza. Hilarious! I probably have more I could say, but I want to get back to the game. It’s rare I have two sleeping children and an occupied husband these days. 🙂