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Batman: The Telltale Series - Episode 5: City of Light | Xbox One

16/12/2016

 
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The battle for Gotham reaches its climax as Bruce and Batman fight to their very limits in an engaging and affecting finale; though we came in with a healthy dose of scepticism, suffice to say, Telltale largely delivered the goods.

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by Sam
​Sant

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@SlamShotSam


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Developer: Telltale 
Games
Publisher: Telltale
Games
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, PC, Mac, iOS, Android
Players: 1 - 12
City of Light opens in one of two places, depending on your past decisions, though both scenes unfold in much the same fashion. They share key events and structure, only swapping out the setting and villain, making the goal of quickly converging to restore a more linear timeline transparent. Though this ensures players don’t miss out on anything substantial, it doesn’t meet the promise extended when loudly proclaiming to possess a story tailored by how you play.

Unfortunately, those opening segments also suffer abysmal frame rates that reduce them to little more than slideshows. The pairing makes for a deflating start - one that might even make us think twice before requesting more divergence in future, should this be the cost - but things soon recover (and then some).

When Lady Arkham, leader of the Children of Arkham, kidnaps a close personal friend of Bruce Wayne’s, the episode adopts a deeply personal tone. With the series’ events already eroding his faith in humanity, Wayne can’t afford to lose one of his few remaining confidants. This kickstarts a significant investigation that, whilst still overly simplistic, gifts a nostalgic hit of classic Telltale adventure gameplay.

During the course of his detective work, Batman uncovers a dark secret that leaves him shaken. It continues the theme of evoking empathy for an antagonist - in this instance one with an abused past and a resulting thirst for revenge - rather than portraying an entirely one-dimensional caricature as can often be the case with supervillains. That said, the development feels somewhat forced as it comes so late in the day. Though it’s understandable Telltale would want to use as many characters from a library of pre-existing icons as possible, a more focused approach would have ensured even deeper engagement with the supporting cast.
City of Light has a decidedly game-y feel.
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One final encounter with the frustratingly flakey Selina Kyle and a tease from the maniacal John Doe at least hint we could see an established suite of characters return for a potential second season, which should help combat the issue by both allowing the time to further flourish and (in theory) any newcomers more screentime to grow.

When the World’s Greatest Detective inevitably cracks the case, he uncovers both the whereabouts of Lady Arkham’s captive and her plan to free the inmates of Arkham Asylum. Chances are a good portion of people will begin to roll their eyes at the thought of retreading this ground, perhaps even see it as an attempt to piggyback on the success of Rocksteady’s Arkham series, but Telltale seek to pay homage with a few sly references. It also feels like a declaration of intent, an indication that they can stand alongside the industry’s biggest and best.

You’ll carve a path through deranged inmates by utilising the returning attack planning phase, but while it illustrates Batman’s unparalleled powers of deduction, the fact it’s impossible to botch (and Bats manages to handle a vast majority of fights without you providing this input) makes the segment ultimately unfulfilling.

It leads, however, to perhaps the most satisfying QTE combat sequence ever conceived. The breakneck-paced showdown is beautifully choreographed, smoothly animated, and, importantly, runs without a hitch - it’s about as close as you’ll get to a boss battle in a Telltale game.
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The encounter melds with the classic adventure game vibe, as well as a more prominent ability to move through scenes manually, dodging booby traps all the while, to give City of Light a decidedly game-y feel. It’s to the episode’s benefit, leaning on the medium’s strengths to maintain engaging and varied pacing throughout without any detriment to the central narrative.

With a few lazily executed episodes in the mix, Telltale went all out on ending their first Batman foray. City of Light certainly still has some shortcomings, but by providing a satisfying conclusion to one of the more unique Batman stories out there, while simultaneously improving gameplay to nail the pacing, there isn’t much more we could have asked for.

Pros

  • Manages to satisfyingly wrap-up the busy story
  • Engaging, more traditional game-y structure
  • Stunning fight scene with Lady Arkham
  • Ends the series on a high, when it could so easily have gone the other way
  • Offers a tantalising tease of what might be to come

Cons

  • Severe technical issues early on
  • Attack planning phases are still pointless fluff

Score 8/10


Interested in trying the series for yourself? Then you might want to enter our latest giveaway, for your chance to win one of two Season Pass codes enabling access to all five episodes on Steam.
0 Comments

The Last Guardian Review | PS4

15/12/2016

 
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The Last Guardian is a successful achievement in emotive and interactive storytelling, and my first few hours of playing were filled with wonderment. To observe how Trico, your half-bird/half-dog hybrid, animates and reacts to their environment is a beautiful moment to witness. The bond shared between these two companions is an accolade we haven't experienced since playing The Last of Us, in 2013.

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  by
  Gabriella
  Petty

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@gabriella_petty

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Developer: GenDesign,
Team Ico, JapanStudio
Publisher: Sony
Platforms: ​PS4
Players: 
1
​However, where it succeeds at developing a heartfelt bond between two unlikely companions, it's frustratingly lethargic camera controls and occasional choppy frame rates, restrict its true potential.

Little is known about your history to begin with. You awake in an abandoned cave, littered with strange and unexplained  body markings, and you find yourself tending to a creature that needs your immediate assistance.
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Playing as a young boy, you are restricted in your ability to navigate the landscape, and you must rely on Trico to fight your battles as you are incapeable of doing so. When you and Trico are separated, this often results in having to fumble your way past enemies and subsequently alert Trico to their presence so that he can come to your rescue. There's a feeling of vulnerability, as you find yourself clambering, crawling and climbing your way through areas, and this feeling of being so helpless resonates throughout the game, pitting Trico as the gallant and protective guardian he’s intended to be.

Eventually, we derived a feeling of comfort from Trico's presence, as he gradually evolves from a sporadic and unpredictable-natured beast, to a loyal and trustworthy companion. This is perhaps the game's greatest strength, providing an emotionally engaging experience.

​
The Last Guardian relies on the pair using one another in gameplay to purposefully progress. While puzzles rely predominately on instinct, there is a healthy balance of challenges that kept us intrigued, and better yet - curious. A lot of gameplay includes jumping to higher platforms, directing Trico to your next objective, and collecting barrels that satiate his hunger. All of this serves to develop your new-found friendship, deepening it in the act of taking care of each other.
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Technically ambitious - its core mechanics are often neglected, and left as a second priority.
Where it excels visually and narratively, hinderance lies heavily on the game's controls. Clambering onto Trico's back during combat, being thrust in numerous directions in the process, needs the support of reliably stable camera controls, but they just aren't there. It often feels so technically ambitious that it comes at the cost of core mechanics, seeing them become a secondary citizen and the experience suffer for it.

Breathtaking moments were often sullied by lazy and inaccurate camera design, which inhibited our ability to focus on the action.​ One pivotal moment towards the end relied upon quick response times, but we were unfortunately met with bouts of terrible frame drop, resulting in some real frustration during an inopportune period. It was particularly disappointing considering the game had so far executed some fantastic cinematic set pieces without similar issues.
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​The Last Guardian strikes an interesting artistic merit as well, providing a unique mix of anime and Western 'triple-A' gaming. The world is shrouded in mystery and symbolism, and because of this, it feels compelling to discover its secrets, as well as uncover your own. The attention to detail on elements like the flicker of Trico's ears, which are receptive to his emotional responses, resemble that of a of real-life animal, and is a huge technical accomplishment. We cherished watching Trico bathe in pools, yawn and make himself comfortable, and use his claws to softly and playfully suggest the answer to the next part of a puzzle.
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A marvel of interactive storytelling.
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A treasurable experience.
It’s been a long 8 years of speculation, curiosity and excitement. After the 15 hours it took to complete its story, we're left feeling both profoundly moved and saddened at the thought that our time with Trico has reached its end. In The Last Guardian's greatest moments, it’s confident while sensitive approach to storytelling makes for an emotive and treasurable experience. At its weakest, sticky and lethargic camera controls disturb an otherwise beautiful story-driven experience.

Despite this, The Last Guardian is a game that should be experienced by all players. On a personal note; it's comfortably my personal Game of the Year.


PROS

  • Emotive and responsive storytelling
  • Touching bond between the two lead characters
  • Comfortable pacing
  • Delicate and fitting soundtrack

CONS
​
  • Technically over-ambitious, resulting in poor technical performance
  • Neglected camera controls​ become a nusance 

Score 9/10
0 Comments

The Brookhaven Experiment | PS VR

12/12/2016

 
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VR is often at its best when coupled with horror, which The Brookhaven Experiment seems to understand, despite retaining issues from its original HTC Vive release and introducing new ones in the porting process.

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by Sam
​Sant

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@SlamShotSam


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Developer: Phosphor
Games
Publisher: Phosphor
Games
Platforms: ​PS VR, HTC
Vive, Oculus Rift
Players: 
1
What was an involved, room-scale shooter for the Vive has become relatively stationary when faced with PlayStation VR’s comparative constraints. That isn’t inherently a positive or a negative, it's a matter of preference, but developer Phosphor Games have largely done a good job of translating the core gameplay unharmed. Pressing circle on the Move motion controller in your dominant hand now flips your perspective 180-degrees, allowing for defence on all fronts without leaving your seat and keeping the action entirely in view of the PlayStation Camera.

To hold the line against waves of the incoming horde you’ll wield a firearm and grenades of your choosing in one hand, along with a torch and a hefty combat knife in the other. Most games that utilise motion control endeavour to minimise button presses for the sake of accessibility, but The Brookhaven Experiment isn’t afraid to utilise everything at hand. The added complexity in switching equipment and remembering their unique manual functions makes success feel hard earnt, while failure is all the more harrowing as you frantically fumble in the ugly face of danger.

The disfigured mugs come in various shapes and sizes, with enemy types spanning swarming packs of imps, lumbering brutes, toothy worms and more. They each fall separately on the list of priority targets, which makes identifying each classes’ distinctive 3D audio cues, and using them to quickly locate those most pressing, an integral part of your strategy.

​Sadly, acid-spewing spiders can spoil the fun. They’re a novel idea in theory, but when you’re required to shake vision-obscuring webs from your head they become a horrible one in practice. After carefully positioning the headset for optimal focus, the last thing you want is for it to be thrown skew-whiff - especially when the game can’t be paused to allow time for readjustment.

Campaign is the meat of the experience, spanning ten locales as you journey to close the otherworldly rift that was opened when the titular experiment went awry.
As you collect new weapons and upgrades hidden around maps they become less of an issue, thankfully. Loadouts can significantly impact play, comfortably accommodating a range of gamers. All avenues of approach are satisfyingly empowering, whether you might choose to carefully pick enemies off at distance with a laser-sighted magnum, blast them Mad Max-style with a capacity-boosted sawn-off, or spray, without needing to pray, courtesy of a recoil-reduced submachine gun.
​

In these latter stages, scares somewhat give way to the power trip, though the age-old trope of limiting flashlight batteries and forcing you to face the dark unknown remains unnerving throughout. The same goes for taking your eyes off approaching enemies in favour of hunting bigger, badder alternatives first, inevitably leading to a slow turn back, filled with dread, to find them lurking within touching distance before filling your pants.
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The Brookhaven Experiment won’t so readily fill your pockets, however, as it’s pretty light on content. Campaign is the meat of the experience, spanning ten locales as you journey to close the otherworldly rift that was opened when the titular experiment went awry. You’re guided by an involved scientist’s monotone narration, but you’ll probably phase it out - if not through disinterest, then pragmatism, as you focus instead on your surroundings - it’s total fluff, so there’s no real loss.

A Cloverfield-inspired behemoth makes recurring, obscured appearances throughout, menacing with its gaunt appearance and imposing size. The campaign culminates in an unsatisfying encounter with the creature, dragging on just long enough for you to begin wondering whether it’s actually taking damage.

Completing a game’s primary attraction is generally a graduation of sorts, leading into any secondary modes, but that’s somewhat backwards here. Survival poses very little challenge on normal difficulty when compared to the campaign - we exhausted the associated Trophies and continued to progress with no apparent end in sight on our first run. Definitely crank the difficulty up and opt for one of the later maps to get the most out of it.
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Darkness is engulfing with the headset on.
You’ll take more from the game if you own a PlayStation 4 Pro console as well, thanks to a recent enhancement-enabling update. Having played both pre and post patch, resolution, lighting and colour depth seem improved, if not so much as to be immediately pronounced. 

If you’ve played Until Dawn: Rush of Blood to death, then The Brookhaven Experiment is the next best thing. That’s not a knock; it’s an accurate and immersive horror shooter that transitioned to PlayStation VR surprisingly well, but, unfortunately, some irritating issues and a lack of content mean it just doesn’t have the legs that would otherwise make it essential.

Pros

  • Immersive 3D environments and sound
  • Some genuine scares
  • Feel like a badass once you’re decked out with the best equipment
  • Smooth transition from room-scale to seated experience

Cons

  • Weak story and closing boss battle
  • Lacks replayability, making for a lacklustre length
  • Spider enemies and the associated head-shaking

Score 7/10
0 Comments

Batman: The Telltale Series - Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham | Xbox One

2/12/2016

 
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Guardian of Gotham finds Bruce Wayne an inmate of the infamous Arkham Asylum, following a violent, drug-induced public outburst at the end of episode three. Still under the drug’s effect, Bruce’s addled mindset offers a true-to-life perspective on Gotham’s criminally insane.

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by Sam
​Sant

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@SlamShotSam


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Developer: Telltale 
Games
Publisher: Telltale
Games
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, PC, Mac, iOS, Android
Players: 1 - 12
Canted camera angles, a toxic colour palate and distorted filters make for a visually and thematically standout introduction, in which you’ll rub shoulders with a number of recognisable villains. Observing staple baddies during their recreational time is bizarrely fascinating, especially those there by Batman’s hand, but the nameless ‘John Doe’ is all business.

John’s unmistakeable green hair and wide-mouthed smile aren’t yet known to Wayne, though his charismatic enigmatism, twisted humor and maniacal laugh confirm who he is to the player. This first encounter is a sacred moment in Batman lore that, thankfully, plays out masterfully by establishing an uneasy mutual respect between the two; a respect we know flourishes in the shared knowledge that each would cease to exist in the absence of the other.

Whilst we’ve seen the physical effects of vigilantism on Bruce before now, his all-too-brief stint in the asylum and a tangle with the Children of Arkham’s psychoactive drug reveal developing nicks in his mental state, completing the once invulnerable figure’s human deconstruction. For a critic of Harvey Dent’s politics, his behaviours can be remarkably two-faced.

During Batman’s inevitable hiatus throughout Wayne’s incarceration, Dent seizes the opportunity to morph Gotham into an oppressive police state somewhat unopposed. With Catwoman fleeing in the face of danger and intentional restructuring of the GCPD ousting his allies, the landscape a free Bruce Wayne discovers is far from ideal.

Concocting an antidote in all of a minute to cure his ongoing ailment, (which is frankly galling, considering the drug is framed as a significant threat) not one to lay about, the Caped Crusader moves to restore equilibrium. In the spirit of the series, however, it doesn’t quite go that smoothly. Bombardment from Penguin’s sustained hostile WayneTech takeover; from Harvey and the city’s supposed civil servants; from the Children of Arkham’s freshly unmasked cult leader - it all proves a little much, leaving a lot of resolutions to reach in the upcoming finale.
Though pacing issues perpetuate the series’ alternating ups and downs, from an interactive perspective, Guardian of Gotham is on the stronger end of the spectrum.
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While the busy narrative offshoots emphasise the desperation of Gotham’s plight, at this late stage, they should be meeting to form one gripping throughline. Steps are taken towards this goal, but not striding enough that we can fully shake the feeling that our last outing might be somewhat scattershot. The omission of a customary teaser for what’s to come further stokes the flames of uncertainty, but hopefully it’s to avoid spoiling what’s all killer no filler - laser-focused - rather than carrying a negative connotation.

Though pacing issues produce another slight lull and perpetuate the series’ alternating ups and downs, from an interactive perspective, Guardian of Gotham is on the stronger end of the spectrum. A gruesome crime scene maintains engagement, even if the links are blindingly obvious to draw, while a Scarface-inspired action sequence is the best one yet. Whether you actually see the latter depends on the decision you make in closing, which finally seems to make good on the promise of choice carrying significant consequence, though we won’t truly know until we see how the wider picture pans out.
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Despite starting and ending strong, these moments simply bookend a mostly uneventful middle that comprises a majority share of the short episode. Guardian of Gotham has more redeeming qualities than episode two, but having been bitten then and nipped now, it’d be easy to become shy.

Pros

  • More significant choices
  • Stylistic opening and introduction to The Joker
  • A desperate, darker side to Bruce Wayne
  • Strong interactive gameplay segments
  • Eager to see how Batman will fix a Gotham in shambles...

Cons

  • … but there’s so much to do we don’t foresee being satisfied on all fronts
  • Antidote makes a mockery of the Children of Arkham’s drug
  • Fizzles out in the middle
  • Short runtime

Score 7/10
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