Xbox 360 - Assassin's Creed II

Assassin's Creed II by Ubisoft

Assassin's Creed (series) is interesting and unique as a story. It is definitely adult oriented, so parents may want to review the content prior to allowing children access. With that said, let's get going...

Assassin's Creed II is a reasonably well done game. The flaws and repetitive nature have been mostly removed from this sequel. The game plays pretty much like the first game, but with some improvements. I was hoping for more, but Ubisoft didn't improve the game substantially over Assassin's Creed.

Story

The game starts in the present with Lucy and Desmond. Desmond had been kidnapped by Abstergo to probe his mind using a device called the Animus. During probing his mind, the Animus brings to life past historical events. So, Desmond lives as Altair in a distant past and inherits some of Altair's powers.

In this second installment, Desmond and Lucy escape from Abstergo and set up shop as rebel present-day assassins using an different kind of hacked-together Animus devised by a hacker. In this game, Desmond goes back to the time of Leonardo Da Vinci in various cities in Italy (during the Renaissance). The game's new character is Ezio. Ezio has all of the abilities of Altair (climbing, assassinating, weapons and even now armor). There is a fighting arena that lets Ezio learn new skills. In addition to what Altair could do, now there's the ability to build out a town and spend money on things in the town (to improve it). As Ezio improves his town, his 'salary' goes up. The salary is placed into a chest about every 20 minutes of play. The more you improve the town, the more money you make every 20 minutes. So, spend the money on improvements if you need cash.

New Things

Now you can buy paintings and obtain weapons and armor. The paintings improve the value of the palace that Ezio owns. The weapons and armor also improve the value, but at the same time give Ezio more armor and strength. The reality is, these new features are more apt to provide income potential. The new armors only improve the amount of health points you hold. The armor really doesn't do much for protecting you better (i.e., take less damage)

There are now 'leap of faith' points all over town that are easier to spot. Whenever you see pigeons sitting on a roof, that's a 'leap of faith' point. In Assassin's Creed, they weren't as easy to distinguish.

There are other additions like locating symbols throughout the level that compiles a database of the artifacts of Eden. These are side quests and really don't factor into the main story.

Things Removed

Inevitably, some things have been removed. For example, the eavesdropping puzzles in Assassin's Creed are now gone in Assassin's Creed II.

Gameplay / Controls

Overall, the gameplay is similar to Assassin's Creed. So, if you're familiar with climbing and assassination, then you'll already be familiar. The main problem I found with the controls is that they don't always work as well as you would like. I found this same issue in the first game. Worse, as the game progresses and adds more upgrades, it becomes increasingly harder to control Ezio properly. So, he'll jump off of high buildings all the way to the ground when I didn't control him that direction. This control behavior of Ezio is very frustrating.

Repetition

I didn't find this game quite as repetitive as the first game. The repetition is there, but the stories feel much more like Grand Theft Auto IV (the way they begin) than Assassin's Creed did. There are plenty of side quests and some of them are repetitive. There are also side quest areas that reset. So, even though you may have cleared a codex page, the guards will reappear around the doorway even though there's nothing there to get a second time.

Overall

I enjoyed playing this game and it's better than Assassin's Creed. But, it still hasn't fully resolved the issues of being overly repetitive in places. The main problem, though, is the controls. I found, as I did with the first game, that the control of Ezio gets increasingly harder and harder as the game continues. Some of that may be because they are overloading the controller with new skills that are easily triggered, but some of it just seems to be the game.

Score

• Sound: 8/10
• Graphics: 8/10 (needs more realistic shaders)
• Gameplay: 8/10 (good, but not substantially better)
• Story: 9.5/10
• Bugginess: N/A
• Controls: 7/10 (controls get increasingly harder)
• Bang-to-buck: 3/10
• Play Value: $15 (rent or buy)
• Overall: 8/10

Xbox 360 - Batman Arkham Asylum

Batman Arkham Asylum

by Eidos / Rocksteady / Brady Games

This game is a third person fighting and questing style game. You play as

Batman (Dark Knight). As Batman, you enter the Arkham Asylum to ensure the Joker is properly restrained and placed into a cell. Batman is taking no chances and goes into Arkham Asylum. Of course, the Joker has other plans... and that's when things go wrong.

So, of course, the plan to secure the Joker fails (otherwise there would be no game) and that's where you begin this Batman game.

Problems

This game has many problems. From the 'death screens', which are incredibly long and annoying with their 'Sorry you're dead' speeches, to the game constantly cheating and ultimately to bad control over Batman during critical times. Ultimately, the game does not give the gamer a fair shake. While Batman has limited abilities and aim, the enemies have perfect aim and perfect skills. Combining this with overly broad collision detection (bullets always find Batman), and you've got a winning (or losing, as the case may be) combination to make this game entirely frustrating to play.

Worse, the game is designed as a 'death trial and error' style game. So, Batman ends up dying over and over and over and over until you're sick of this process (or you figure out how to get through). Frankly, there is no point in this. It takes far too much time to cycle through all of those 'death' screens waiting to get back into the action. On top of that, you have to wait through intro screens before you can press B to skip the cinematics.

Story

You play as Batman to re-secure the Joker properly into a cell in Arkham Asylum. Along the way, you gain skills and unlock Batman features. To get these skills, you gain Experience Points (XP) which unlocks upgrades. As you upgrade your character you can add armor, weapons and skills. Unfortunately, these upgrades come far too slowly for my liking.

Health

This is one of the biggest flaws in this game. While you play, there is no real way to add health to Batman. Instead, as you unravel quests or subdue 'bad guys', your health meter is increased (if you've lost health). Unfortunately, a single action never adds enough. So, you spend a lot of time trying to gain back lost health. There are no 'health pickups or medicine packs' in this game. So, you have to rely on subduing people and finishing quests to get health back. If you've already cleared the level of enemies and quests, you're kind of stuck.

Dying

This is another in a long list of games that just simply and plainly drives me nuts. Again, the developers have designed the game so Batman must 'die' in order to replay the level again and again and again. So, you find Batman is constantly dying only to restart the level from the last checkpoint in order to muddle through the strategy of the level. Not only does this become frustrating just from the 'starting over' perspective, you have to endure incredibly annoying taunts from the Joker and Poison Ivy (among others) at the 'death screens'. That part of the game frustrated me so much, I turned voice audio off. I simply did not want to listen to this anymore.

Fighting

The style of fighting in this game is limited and, again, the game cheats. There are far too many times where you press the buttons on the controller, but it doesn't respond and the game takes away health anyway. I really despise games that cheat and this is one of them. So, for this alone, this game loses one point immediately from its overall score.

Disarming Enemies

Unfortunately, Batman cannot do this. Instead, you have to keep hitting them until they drop their weapon. However, even though they've dropped the weapon, they can pick it right back up. Batman has no control over discarding, destroying or throwing away weapons laying on the ground. Batman also cannot use these weapons. So, the weapons continue to lay there for some other thug to pick up and use on Batman again.

Bosses

The levels get progressively harder and harder. The bosses also get progressively bigger and bigger (thanks, in part, to the Titan formula.. which you find out more about as the story progresses). The Titan formula (which comes from Bane) increases soldier sizes to much larger soldiers (bosses). As you progress, the game throws more and more of these at you in waves. So, you might fight one big boss and five fighters early in the game, by the end you might have 3 waves of 10 fighters combined with two big bosses (all at the same time). The fights get longer and longer and are extended by the 'death trial and error' gaming process.

Trial and error gaming

I despise games that force the gamer into using trial and error to play through the game. As a gamer, you waste lots of time trying to find the proper 'strategy' to defeat the bosses rather than focusing on the game and story. So, you might spend a day working through a boss level rather than actually progressing in the game. For me, making the story come to a complete stop by requiring trial and error gaming tells me that the story isn't important. It also tells me that the game developer doesn't value the gamer's time. A gamer's time is critical to use properly. Wasting a gamer's time is the quickest way to the death of a quality game. Don't do it. Don't use trial and error as a gaming strategy. Don't require dying as a strategy to play the game. Don't use annoying repetitive dying screens and death taunts that are unskippable. Let the gamer get immediately back into the game.

The End (of the game and of each level)

The endings of the levels and of the end of the game needs work. You work through fighting the bosses, but when it comes time to finish off each boss, it's a complete letdown. Instead of getting to put the finishing moves on the character, the game moves to a pre-recorded cinematic that shows the final blow. Taking this approach is a complete letdown. I've spent the better part of an hour or two fighting through the level only to see a cut scene?

This issue is present on each level and even on the final Joker showdown. Ultimately, this is extremely frustrating and a huge letdown not being able to give the final blow in game.

Audio

The music is tolerable, the chatter is not. After about 1/3 of the way into the game, I quickly realized the trial and error nature of this game. Worse, though, is that during the death trial and error sequences, you have to sit through annoying taunts from the enemies during cut scenes. You can eventually cut these scenes short, but not before the annoying taunt is mostly finished. I ended up turning off the voice audio about halfway through the game and that simplified the game dramatically. It also made the game much more bearable. Otherwise, I would have probably put this game down completely.

Graphics

The imagery used in this game feels an awful lot like Bioshock. The game isn't as dark and moody as Bioshock, but there is still enough feel here for me to think of it while playing Arkham Asylum. But, even as much as the game may look like Bioshock, that's where the similarity ends. This game plays nothing like Bioshock and is a weak wannabe contender to Bioshock.

Overall

This game is a reasonable game that contains some nasty flaws. The levels are reasonably well done. The Bat tools are well thought out and work well. But, the annoyances far outweigh the coolness of playing as Batman. I realize this is the first installment to this series, so the first one will have problems. For the developers, the takeaway is to get rid of these annoyances and let the gamer move forward in the game (and story) without them. Also, you should never ever stop the progression of the story at the expense of a boss level. Never. Let's hope Batman Arkham Asylum 2 fixes these issues.

Score

• Sound: 7/10
• Graphics: 9/10
• Gameplay: 7/10 (a mixed bag)
• Story: 8/10
• Bugginess: N/A
• Controls: 7/10
• Bang-to-buck: 1/10
• Play Value: $5 (rent)
• Overall: 6/10

Xbox 360 - Dragon Age Origins

Dragon Age Origins by EA Games / Bioware

I was hoping for great things from this RPG. Having seen Mass Effect and

Knights of the Old Republic, I was hoping for something similar in terms of play value. Well, unfortnately, Bioware doesn't fully deliver.

It almost seems as though Bioware felt the need to start over in this genre. While the party system and the questing system seems similar to Mass Effect, at the same time, it feels very much like a rewrite. I also don't remember so many fundamental problems with Mass Effect or KOTOR.

Story

You play through this tale as any of the standard RPG classes: Warrior, Mage, Rogue (middle of the road), etc. You can choose from the standard races of the Tolkien-type era: Human, Elf, Dwarf, etc. I say 'etc' because I'll leave part of the game unspoiled in case you want to play through yourself.

Gameplay

The game play style is similar to Mass Effect in that you roam levels, find things and reveal a story in the process. So, the controller layout is similar and there's nothing overly complex about it. So, that's at least a good thing.

Fundamental problems

Where this game falls down at gameplay is the incessant dialog. The dialog is not just never ending, it's downright annoying. Seems about every place you end up important in the game, you end up having dialog that goes on and on and on and on. Yes, you can make choices in the dialog, but please. This is overkill. This is fundamental mistake number 1 from Bioware: too much dialog. At first, I found myself walking through the dialog carefully. After the twentieth time of it, I find myself skipping most of it (X key).

With this game, save early and save often. Especially if you think something is about to happen (like more incessant dialog). This way, you can go back to a previous save and see the various outcomes of various dialog choices. Saving early prevents your entire party's death.

Health issues

The second fundamental problem is that, unlike Oblivion, the enemy is whatever level that they are. So, that means that if you're level 6, you might end up fighting a level 20 enemy. Oblivion would level up the enemies around you close to your level, but yet still a challenge. With Dragon Age, I find my character is far far weaker than the characters in my party and even the enemies. On top of the characters being far weaker than they should, the game is predisposed to throw massive amounts of enemies at you at once. So, your party of 4 may encounter 20-30 creatures at once. You do have the ability to heal and the ability to drink potions. So,while a mage character can heal party members remotely, you must take control of each character separately to drink potions (tedious and time consuming).

Inventory system

The final fundamental problem is that Bioware failed to provide an adequate inventory system. First, the inventory bag is too small. So, after you pick up a certain amount of items (not very many I might add), you're out of space. So, I find myself constantly destroying items to pick up others. Selling items to traders is few and far between. Second, there is no rhyme or reason to size or weight of items. So, for example, you might have to destroy many items just to allow another item to be picked up (like a scroll). It's very random with regards to this issue. I find myself having to go through and delete items throughout the inventory just to find the proper item type or size to allow me to pick up something new.

On top of this problem, there's the lack of randomness of items around the levels. So, when you find an item, nearly every chest or container has the same item (and lots of it). So, you end up picking up 20 of a thing. Worse, when you go into the inventory to destroy an item (or 20 of them). You put them in the trash all or nothing. You can't choose to move only 10 of them. If there are 20, you must move all 20 to the trash and you must destroy all 20. Stupid.

Maps

The map is limited and problematic to navigate. There is no fast travel to speak of other than from the main map which only allows travel when you reach a 'World Map' portal. You can open the world map at any time, but you can only travel using this map when you are at a 'World Map' portal.

Graphics

For as long as it has taken to get this game to market, the graphics feel far too low res. In fact, most of the texture maps (landscape, trees, plants) are poor quality and far too low resolution. I was definitely expecting more out of this title considering the quality of Mass Effect. Unfortunately, it didn't appear here.

Uninspired

Because of the fundamental problems that Bioware did not resolve before bringing this game to market, it makes the game tedious and not very much fun to play. The overly long dialog sequences make the game grindingly tedious. I find the story uninspired and not engaging. As well, the story feels unfinished and the game feels rushed even though I know it took Bioware plenty of time to get it to market. Because of these fundamental problems in design, this game is nowhere near a 10. In fact, Mass Effect's story far exceeds the quality of this story.

Overall

This game could have been something special. Unfortunately, Bioware managed to botch the title and make it average. The game unfolds far too slowly, the dialog is incessant, the characters are far too weak, and the fighting portions are overly uninvolved. That's not to say I don't recommend playing this RPG, just don't put it at the top of your list. Instead, for RPGs, save the top for Oblivion, Fallout 3 and even Mass Effect and follow up with some great shooters like Bioshock and the Halo series. Or, pick up some new titles like Assassin's Creed II or Halo 3 ODST. For more adult themes, there is great play value with Grand Theft Auto, Saint's Row (1 or 2) and even Call of Duty. If you have played all of the other major RPGs, only then would I suggest playing this game. Alternatively, you might want to save the money and wait for Mass Effect 2 in 2010.

Score

• Sound: 8/10
• Graphics: 6/10
• Gameplay: 6/10 (too many fundamental problems)
• Story: 7.5/10
• Bugginess: N/A
• Controls: 9/10
• Bang-to-buck: 3/10
• Play Value: $15 (rent first, then buy)
• Overall: 6.5/10