Reviews

Hector: Badge of Carnage E1

May 2, 2011

I have fond memories of playing Sierra adventure games as a kid. I helped Rosella save the land of Tamriel in King’s Quest IV, I nearly peed my pants playing Shivers 2, and I laughed myself silly playing all of the Space Quest games over and over again. And after my brother and I went to bed, I would listen to my parents playing Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Once I knew it existed I had to play it, and I was hooked. Adventure games were great by themselves, but LSL was fun, funny, and it felt a little naughty. Hector: Badge of Carnage feels much the same with one key exception – I understand all of the jokes now.

The titular Detective Inspector Hector is a rude and lewd excuse for a detective. He would rather do the bare minimum to continue drawing a paycheck than put in a long day’s work to get the job done right, and when the town of Clappers Wreake is taken hostage, it falls to Hector to negotiate with them. Since Badge of Carnage is an adventure game, Hector doesn’t negotiate so much as he takes every demand the terrorists make (strange as they are) and fulfills them. Throughout your “negotiations” you will fix up the town clock tower, start up the town’s renovation campaign, and do your best to knock the Clappers Wreake porn industry down a few pegs.

Badge of Carnage is going to be both familiar and foreign to fans of Telltale. The visuals are cartoony without looking juvenile, the dialogue is great, the voice work is fun (it sounds like about five guys are giving their all and voicing every character – even the female ones), and the puzzles make sense once you take a step back and turn off your sense of disgust. You will have to scoop a paperclip out of a toilet using an old shoelace and a used condom. All of the adventure game staples are there. You need the paperclip, you have both the lace and the condom in your inventory, the two items need to be combined, and after solving the puzzle you can move on.

I am looking forward to episodes two and three of Badge of Carnage, and that is really the highest praise one can give an episodic adventure game because it did its job. I played part 1 and am now chomping at the bit to play parts 2 and 3.

Pros: Great writing, fun raunchy humor

Cons: The game occasionally stutters after a scene plays.

Super Monkey Ball 3D

April 27, 2011

3DS / Reviews / by Shawn Vermette /

Super Monkey Ball 3D is something of a mixed bag. It has a fun (albeit short) main game, a decent Mario Kart clone and a bad Smash Bros. clone. Its saving grace would be its use of 3D, but even that has some problems.

Past Super Monkey Ball games gave you some pretense of a story, but not Super Monkey Ball 3D. There’s not even an attempt at a story to give you a reason to play through the main game. Instead you are simply tasked with picking a monkey and guiding it through various, increasingly-difficult stages without falling off the edges of the level. There are 8 worlds with 10 levels each to play through. This mode works really well with the 3DS’ 3D technology, as it really helps with the depth perception needed to prevent accidental falling. It works so well that I found myself shifting my head to try to see the level from a different angle, which unfortunately had the side effect of destroying the 3D and causing me to lose a life. In the end, I could only play it in 2D mode because of that subconscious need to adjust my viewing angle. Unfortunately, in 2D mode the graphics aren’t that great.

In Monkey Race, the Mario Kart clone, the 3D works well yet again, and the racing works very much like Mario Kart, complete with random items that can be used defensively or offensively. The only real problem this mode faces is a lack of replayability and variation. There are all of 9 courses in 3 grand prix. That lends itself to being a one-and-done game mode.

The last gameplay mode is called Monkey Fight, and it is definitely a substandard Smash Bros. clone. Rather than be solely about fighting, the 4 player fights focus on who collects the most bananas, which you get by picking them up around the stage, or by beating out of your opponents. The 3D in this mode is just annoying, as is the fighting. I found myself avoiding fights completely, just jumping around the levels picking up bananas from the other monkey fights. That actually served me better than fighting did as far as collecting lots of bananas. Like Monkey Race, it suffers from a lack of variation, as there are only 3 stages available for fighting, and they all have very similar layouts.

The sound design in Super Monkey Ball 3D is mediocre. The sounds are about on par with the rest of the games in the series, almost to the point of being directly ported from previous games.

As mentioned throughout, the 3D is a mixed bag. In some cases it is done very well, but for the most part you’ll likely want to play it in 2D, if you are anything like me.

If you really, really like Super Monkey Ball games, then this is the launch title for you. Otherwise, you’d probably be better off passing on it for a different game.

Pros: Well-done 3D in the main gameplay mode, main mode is fun and challenging

Cons: 3D has issues at times, no replay value, very little game for the price

The Next Big Thing

April 27, 2011

PC / Reviews / by Graham Russell /

The Next Big Thing is an adventure game in the classic sense. These days, the genre is almost entirely dominated by Telltale, with its similar-feeling and playing titles. If you’re familiar, though, with the design of days past, you’ll feel at home with Pendulo’s latest. You have mostly-static screens and menus, and click-to-navigate is your only option.

The Next Big Thing is also very, very weird.

The story follows reporters Liz and Dan, as they go around an area that’s sort of like Hollywood but also with monsters and other ridiculous things. Liz is the go-getter, and Dan doesn’t care so much. Liz is constantly referred to as strange by other characters, as they make fun of her speaking style as awkward and full of non-sequiturs. It’s clearly meant to give the game some character while explaining the weird dialogue choices you’re given, but here’s the problem: everyone says awkward things and blurts out non-sequiturs. It’s an acquired taste, but those who really get into it will probably love it. It just adds one more barrier to a game with a small target demographic.

Adventure games are never without their frustrations in puzzle solving; after all, without challenge there isn’t much reward. Unfortunately, The Next Big Thing‘s difficulty seems just a bit too artificial. Despite being able to wander around and see items and talk about subjects that will be relevant in the near future, you can only really act on one immediate task. See that person holding that thing and know you need it? You can try to talk to them about it now, but only later will that help, and it’s not because what you did in the interim would affect that. It’s sad, but genre purists can get over a lot of the pitfalls.

I’ll say this, though: the game looks great. The characters have a lot of personality, and there’s lots of imagination in the worlds and situations. (Maybe a bit too much sometimes. Did we mention the game’s weird? Because it’s quite weird.) Regardless, while in the gameplay itself the game feels dated, the engine’s a nice one, and we’d imagine it’d be a fun passive experience when watching others play. (Especially notable is the game’s almost-seamless use of static backgrounds with polygonal characters. That’s hard to pull off.)

Those who have spent maybe a bit too much time with episodic adventures will be surprised by the game’s length, as it isn’t a short experience. (Unless you click through everything crazy-fast, I guess.) The puzzles in the game don’t exactly ramp up in difficulty like any standard game, but they stay relatively consistent, at least.

The Next Big Thing is one of those games that should develop a cult following: those who enjoy it will be talking about it years and decades later, like Grim Fandango or Sam & Max Hit The Road. For everyone else, it may not hit the spot now. It’s worth checking out, though, so give the demo a taste and, if you like that, you’ll enjoy the meatier full course.

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD

April 26, 2011

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Justin Last /

Capy has managed to do with Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes HD what Infinite Interactive could not do in their two attempts since Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords first combined an RPG mentality with puzzle mechanics. These type of games are perfect for those who like to sit back, take their time, and plan out their battle scenarios. I don’t care a lick about the story, but each and every battle is challenging without feeling cheap, and rewarding without making you feel overpowered.

Clash of Heroes is a port of a DS game, and it shows a little bit. There is more loading than it seems like there ought to be in a game with static maps, little voice acting, and next to no animation. That doesn’t take away from what Clash of Heroes does exceptionally well, however: engrossing battles. At its most basic level, Clash of Heroes plays like Capy’s other recent puzzler, Critter Crunch. Pull a unit off of the stack and put it back down on another stack. Form a vertical set of three, and you have an attack formation while a horizontal set of three forms a defense formation. Wait the prescribed number of turns (no more than three for standard units) and then an attack is unleashed. Taking a cue from Magic: The Gathering, it is useful to attack your opponent’s units, but you will only be victorious after attacking your opponent’s hit points directly.

In addition to your three standard units in three colors, you will pick up special units along the way. The majority of your force will be made up of normal units like rangers, bears, and knights, but you can augment your force by progressing through the story or by winning out-of-the-way battles. Winning these battles is worth it, because as a reward you will find sentient trees, dragons, and unicorns to fight on your side. Elite units work like standard units. Line two units of the same color up behind them, create an attack formation, wait two or three turns, and watch your opponent’s units fall. Champion units are larger and require a square of four standard units behind it. It isn’t always easy to find four available blue rangers to line up behind your dragon, but it’s worth it. Champion attacks are devastating, and they can turn the tide of just about any battle in your favor.

Clash of Heroes reminds me a lot of Othello’s tagline: “A minute to learn… A lifetime to master.” Clash of Heroes is deceptively simple, but the strategies possible when it comes to linking attacks (arranging to have several attacks fire off on the same turn which imparts a bonus on each of them), fusing attacks together (creating two attack formations of the same color in the same column, combining strength and firing at the earlier time), and strategically removing units from the field make for a great experience in both single player and multiplayer. Multiplayer works just like single player, except your opponent is a real live person so you can expect a better challenge than the AI can provide in campaign mode. (There’s also a bonus to the HD version: a co-op battle mode. You can play two-on-two or play against the AI, and each side’s units are color-coded so only one team member can move them.)

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is a rare thing – a puzzle RPG that works well. If you enjoyed either Puzzle Quest or Critter Crunch, then Clash of Heroes is a sure hit.

Pros: Surprisingly-deep strategic gameplay

Cons: Unnecessarily-long load times

Portal 2

April 25, 2011

PS3 / Reviews / by Andrew Passafiume /

Very few games have been as beloved by gamers everywhere as the original Portal; it was only a matter of time before a full-fledged sequel was released. Many people were afraid it might stretch the experience too thin, or that it might even ruin what made the original so great in the first place. The actual result is a clever game that is leagues above the original, and could be an early contender for Game of the Year.

Portal 2 picks up shortly after the events of the first game. You find yourself back in the Aperture Science labs, rescued by a small robot named Wheatley who is attempting to get both of you out of there. It isn’t long before you find yourself performing another series of portal-based tests. Despite the simplicity of the first game’s plot, the sequel expands upon the story in great detail. To talk about it anymore would be ruining it for everyone else, but the combination of amazing (and hilarious) writing with clever storytelling twists make this a story you’ll be sad to see end.

Ellen McLain returns as the voice of A.I. nemesis GLaDOS, who is as snarky and sarcastic as ever. New to the cast are Stephen Merchant, who plays the quick-witted but often misguided Wheatley, and J.K. Simmons, as Aperture Science founder Cave Johnson. All of the performances are outstanding and really allow the writing to shine; there is never a dull moment to be had.

As you may have expected, Portal 2 is all about the puzzles, and it delivers on all fronts. Just like the first game, you are slowly reintroduced to the portal gun through tests that start out simple but get more difficult as you progress. And just when you’ve mastered one type of puzzle, a new element is slowly introduced to make things even more challenging. The puzzles are excellently-designed, as are the many levels you traverse, and the difficulty is balanced perfectly. You are never once lost or confused, and the game eases you into each new scenario rather well.

The new elements that are thrown into the mix include aerial faith plates that bounce you from one point to another and gels that will, for example, make you jump higher or run faster. The addition of co-op adds a lot to the experience. It’s an entirely different story with some unique twists that connect it well to the single player content. You can play it both online and locally, but don’t expect to get very far without some kind of way to communicate with your friend.

To talk about the game anymore would simply ruin the experience for those who haven’t played yet, but I think you get the idea. Despite the lack of challenges that were so prominent in the first game, Portal 2 packs a lot of content for the price. It’s everything the first game was and more, with very inspired level design, some ingenious puzzles, and some of the best writing you’ll ever see in a video game. It might just be Valve’s best game yet.

Pros: Brilliant level design, pacing and writing; co-op adds a lot to the experience

Cons: Lack of challenges might disappoint some

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