Fez

One of the many great things about this generation has been the rise of the Indie developer, although I’m unsure of what exactly defines a developer as Indie, their development teams can be as big as more mainstream developers. Perhaps it has something to do with Publishers.

However it is defined Fez is one of those Indie games that drew the attention of some, offering quirky platforming puzzles and intelligent use of 2D and 3D. After 5 years it has finally been released on the XBLA and it’s refreshing to see an original title appear amongst a sea of sequels.

In Fez you play the role of Gomez, a Simple, cartoonish, white Imp-like character living an ordinary life in a small village in an entirely 2D world. Visually it is simple yet effective, choosing lots of blocks over smooth round edges.

In the first couple of minutes a giant cube appears and gives Gomez a Fez (hence the game’s title) that completely changes the world from one that was entirely 2D to one that is 3D. You still move in 2D but now you can rotate the world to change its perspective.

On the surface Fez is a 2D platformer where you change the environment around you to open new paths. You do this by rotating the world with the triggers, showing doorways around corners, shrinking gaps between platforms, Pushing levers, etc.

While some of these puzzles are unique and the idea works very well, the actual jumping is a little off and you’ll find yourself missing jumps occasionally because you didn’t exactly right. There is also an arbitrary point when falling that if you pass you will die. Fortunately dying isn’t much of a penalty (you’ll respawn after a second in the last place you were safe) but going up is certainly easier than going down. This is slightly annoying as most of your navigation will be vertical.

Fez feels like it’s going to be about spatial awareness but then you discover more interesting elements. A lot of what Fez really is revolves around code breaking. Scattered throughout Gomez’s world there are lots of hidden secrets, usually centred on translating secrets from codes. There are three codes to translate, one letter code, one number code and one that relates to controller inputs.

Translating the codes however can be a pretty daunting challenge, particularly the letter code. The number code in particular is annoying to translate as there are things that look like hints that aren’t. For example there is a dice like object you can collect. Normally the two sides of a dice add up to 7 (i.e. 1 and 6 are opposites, so are 5 and 2, and 3 and 4). The dice object is not meant to be used for translating the numbers, but there is nothing to suggest that using the dice to translate the numbers is wrong. There’s a 10 on this dice but until you work out the numbers you won’t realise this.

There are hints scattered around the world but navigating it can be a bit of a bitch. The Map isn’t the best and finding the route between two rooms is needlessly difficult. The best thing to do is take notes when you play and take a good hard look at any classroom blackboards you find.

At time you feel like the game should give you bigger hints. The hints you do get a very vague and don’t really help. There are also some really horrible puzzles, some are QR codes and not everyone has a smartphone to read them (although you can still get everything without solving these puzzles), there’s a nasty red blinking light puzzle where the lights blink too fast and for too long to get the full sequence when just your eyes, and the less said about the puzzle that uses your system clock the better (xbox live updates your clock so you have to do this one offline, one hand moves every 6 hours or so waiting isn’t really an option).

Still you have to admire Fez for the original way it handles problem solving. Sometimes though it can feel too clever for its own good and could do with providing better hints to stop gamers running to GameFAQs.

Visually it looks very basic but it fits well with the overall theme of the game. Same goes for the soundtrack although there are moments where both are used to great effect.

For all its ambition and originality Fez suffers from being a little too smart and a little horrible to the player. Some horrible puzzles, terrible navigation and fiddly platforming ruin what is otherwise an incredible game that every gamer should experience.

8/10

Sonic 4 Episode 2

I remember a time when the world was screaming for Sonic 4. The same tired old arguments were made time and time again. Sonic only works in 2D, why can’t they just follow the formula of the classics, it can’t be that hard to make another game like them. Give us Sonic 4!

Well SEGA gave us Sonic 4 and everyone hated it. SEGA got very little right. It didn’t look all that good, it didn’t sound all that good and it played like a completely different game. It was an embarrassment that shouldn’t have been called Sonic 4.

To start it only had four zones, this would’ve worked if it was episodic content but then they charged full price for it. Jun tried to emulate the classic games’ music but just ended up sounding like a load of cats meowing. The physics were notably all over the place and it took a big adjustment to get over this, too big for most.

Sega of America invited the general public to visit their headquarters and discuss in detail what exactly went wrong. Months later and the second episode is upon us. Have they learned from their mistakes or does S4:II miss the mark again?

Well actually it’s both.

Episode 1 wasn’t that bad it just suffered from a lot of little flaws that became one big one. As a 2D platformer it was fine but nothing special. As a Sonic game it left much to be desired.

Episode 2 starts off well. The physics system feels a lot better. You don’t stop dead when you let go of a direction and everything feels a lot more solid this time around. Still not quite the way you’ll remember it but a big improvement over Episode 1. The only thing that doesn’t work is the rolling, you will slow down while going downhill when you should speed up, otherwise even the slight differences work well.

Visually it is far more impressive this time. The backgrounds are fantastically detailed and each level is a mixture of two classic levels. Slyvanian Castle is a nice blend of Aquatic Ruin and Marble Garden, White Park combines the best of Ice Cap and Carnvial Night, Oil Desert mixes Oil Ocean with Sandopolis, and Sky Fortress pays tribute to the classic Sky Chase and Wing fortress zones of Sonic 2.

The only problem is that you are far too zoomed in on Sonic. A lot of the time you will not see Hazards until your rings are bouncing on the ground. There is some good use of the scenery though, adjusting platforms with homing attacks, running along collapsing pillars, switching between the foreground and the background to open up multiple routes.

This also extends to the badniks. There is one in particular that appears underwater who freezes itself into a giant ball of Ice, blocking your path if you are not quick enough to get past it.

Episode 2 still suffers from some of the major problems from Episode 1. There are only 5 zones which is not enough for a full price game. The music emulating the classics is still a bad call.

But on top of this the bosses, while imaginative, have long Unskippable sequences that occur every time you fail. Some can last 30 seconds and it’s very annoying to go through the same 30 seconds over and over again. The Last boss is notorious for this.

Even with some clever use of achievements this isn’t going to last you long. There’s very little to unlock and getting all achievements is only going to take you a few hours. It really doesn’t feel worth the full 1200 points.

Better than Episode 1 but suffers from some of the same problems, fixes some but then comes up with some of its own. Like the rest of the series these day it’s getting close but still falls short of greatness.

7/10

Mass effect 3

2007 was a fantastic year for gaming. We saw the PS2 still pull it’s might in Okami, Bioshock kindly asked is we would get rid of Andrew Ryan and Mass Effect gave us a new spin on the RPG genre. It’s focus on moral choice and the way it affects the overall storyline proved to be the series’ strongpoint’s. I think it says a lot that it took two extraordinary titles to stop it becoming number 1 that year.

2010 was another amazing year and there were 6 titles I gave 9/10 to (no 10/10’s that year). These were Super Street Fighter IV, Red Dead Redemption, Halo Reach, Bayonetta, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Mass Effect 2. ME2 took what was so great about ME1 and turned it up to 11. It refined the combat to make it more shooter like, but its best feature was how the choices you made in the first game ran into this one.

For example one of your party in ME1 gets consumed with rage and Lead Character Shepherd has to make a difficult choice. If you’ve done things right you get to save his life, otherwise you have to kill him. If that character dies then he can’t appear in the sequel and that role is given to someone else.

March 2012 saw the release of Mass Effect 3, the end of the trilogy and following on from even more choices from the first two games. Scenes play out very differently depending on the choices you made in the first two games. One scenario in particular involves choosing between two races, essentially killing one of them off for good. However make the right choices throughout the series and you get to save them both.

The level of writing and the multiple ways the whole story plays out is a phenomenal accomplishment, one Bioware can be really proud of. ME3 deals with pretty much every loose thread. You resolves huge conflicts that have been in the background throughout the series.

Very few of your squad throughout the series are certain of never dying. It is possible to kill all but four, and three of them are exclusive to this game only. Yet the story has to continue and for those who died someone has to take their place.

Gameplay wise it is a very well polished Third person shooter. Utilising cover, choosing the right weapons for you and using your powers effectively are all key to your success. When you start you get to pick one of the six standard classes (even if you’ve imported a character you can change their class). These are either pure Biotic, Technical or weapons based, or somewhere in between. Adepts for example have a long list of biotic attacks but no technical ones and no weapon based skills. Sentinels combine Biotics with Technical powers and so can combine basic biotics with combat drones.

Biotics are powers that affect an opponents mind and are generally effective against organics. They are used to push enemies around the screen and attacks can bend around cover. Technical powers attacks things like shields and barriers, Overload for example does a lot of damage to enemy shields but won’t do much damage to their health. Technical powers also cover setting up turrets. Weapons based powers include different types of ammo such as incendiary rounds for taking out organic enemies and armour, or Disruptor rounds for Synthetic enemies and shields.

This gives it a unique edge over other third person shooters that focus on weapons. Each power can be upgraded as you level up giving it an RPG like feel. Mass Effect has balanced the two genres admirably to form a unique experience. In ME3 the system is at its most balanced offering the skill of a shooter with the strategy of an RPG.

Outside of combat there have been some tweaks to. In ME2 you scanned planets to find materials to make better equipment. This proved to be a drawn out fairly dull process that lasted far too long than it needed to. In ME3 only certain planets have items worth scanning for and overall there is a lot less scanning to do this time round.

Instead of raw materials you are now looking for items that will help you win the war. The more War Assets you acquire the better the ending you get (well this was the idea, more on the ending later). This time however you can’t start scanning a planet for a war asset until you identify that planet as having something. Pressing LT sends a short pulse that scans the area for any war assets.

Often scanning for things alerts the Reapers to your presence and they will begin hunting you down pretty quickly as you investigate each system. If the Reapers get you it’s game over. The longer you stay in a system the quicker the Reapers move. Dodging the reapers adds tension to the otherwise boring planet scanning.

What is slightly disappointing is the lack of “towns”. The Citadel is the only location you can go to more than once, it’s the only place you can get side quests besides your in game E-mail terminal, and it’s the only place where you can buy equipment. Imagine Skyrim with just Whiterun and no Riften, Windhelm or Solitude.

The addition of Multiplayer could’ve been a timebomb waiting to go off but thankfully it is very well made and stays in context with the Single player. It’s essentially another Horde/Firefight style mode but with a couple of notable twists.

There are ten waves of enemies each getting progressively harder and based around a particular type of enemy. You could be fighting the Reaper horde in one set of 10 waves, and Cerberus enemies in the next. Every so often a wave will also give you a bonus objective, such as take out specified targets within a time limit, or activate beacons scattered across the area.

The classes also feature heavily in the multiplayer as does the different races. You can be an Asari Adept, Krogan Vanguard or a Geth Engineer to name a few. Each comes with their own powers and abilities. A Human Engineer can use Overload and Incinerate, whereas a Salarian Engineer loses Overload for Decoy. You can switch between characters in between matches to level them up separately. I have a Human Engineer, an Asari Vanguard and a Geth Infiltrator. Each plays differently and are at different stages of progression. There’s so much you can experiment with.

Play well and you’ll accumulate credits that can be spent on packs giving supplies, new weapons, new characters and new customisation options. What you get is random and buying these packs can get addictive. Playing the Multiplayer increases your “Galactic Readiness”, which in turn affects the ending you get in Multiplayer.

How it works is that your war asset total gives you your military strength and this is then multiplied by your Galactic Readiness to give your Effective Military Strength. The higher your “EMS” is the better ending you get. By Default your Galactic Readiness is 50% so without playing the multiplayer your EMS is always half your Total assets. So if you play a lot of the multiplayer you can skip some of the side quests and still get a good ending. It gives another dimension on how the game measures success.

Although the ending is one of the worst crashes in videogame history. On the face of it not a lot is wrong, but the more you dig the more you realise it is a mess. There are so many things out of place for the franchise that it doesn’t make sense. For example your teammates suddenly desert you, no explanation is given for this and it is completely out of character.

Your EMS gives you extra options at the end but these options all end up being the same anyway. Your choices have little effect on the ending beside the final choice. It just all feels rushed and wrong. Hopefully the upcoming DLC will fix this and there is a theory that if true will completely turn my opinion on the ending upside down.

When you think about it though a bad ending is not enough to ruin what is a fantastic well made final part of an incredible trilogy. Everything has been refined and new features have been added to make this the best Mass Effect yet, and the result leaves us with a strong contender for Game of the Year 2012.

10/10

Super Mario 3D Land

You can always count on Nintendo to create a solid Mario game that uses a console strengths effectively and defines itself as a example of how platformers should be. Mario 3D land is no different. It is the classic Mario you all love in 3D, even more so that 64, Sunshine and the two Galaxy games.

The first thing you will notice is how familiar everything feels with a slight emphasis on the racoon suit. Mario hasn’t evolved and to fair it doesn’t need to. For a full 3D Mario game on a handheld this runs very smoothly and looks fantastic. The worlds are bright, colourful and so very Mario.

Even some of the Gameplay elements are taken straight for the very first Mario. For example when fighting Bowser at the end of each castle you avoid his attacks and run across a bridge to hit a button. Exactly the same as the original NES classic but in 3D.

So it sounds good, looks good and plays like Old school Mario. The 3D is also used for some pretty cool puzzles, often involving perspective. The lack of proper camera controls is disappointing but then the camera never becomes an issue. It is always where you need it to be.

Sadly the same flaws I noticed when I played it at GAMEfest are still there. The use of a Sprint button seems pointless; you are going to hold that down throughout the levels as there are very few instances where Walking is necessary.

The length of each level is also notoriously short. There are also fewer levels in each world, averaging around 5 including the final castle/airship. Worlds seem to be over before they’re begun and you can generally get through a couple in an hour.

At first it lacks any real challenge either. It has probably one of the steepest difficulty curves I’ve ever come across although it only really spikes at the end. The 3 star coins per level offer an interesting challenge but most are easy to find and most gamers won’t have trouble getting them. Most of your deaths will come from messing up jumps to get these coins.

By the time you get to the really difficult stuff you will have enough lives to get through it all with sheer tenacity. I never saw a game over screen even though I have around 200 retries and I ended up finishing it with 200 lives (and that includes everything, not just the standard levels).

But it very easy to criticise a game. Super Mario 3D land is an excellent addition to the series. Addictive and perfect if you have an hour to kill and don’t want to get into something meatier. Play it in longer periods and you’ll reach the end very quickly.

I’ll finish by mentioning how I hate how Nintendo treat all it’s customers like little children. I know they want little children to play their games but some of the stuff is patronising for adults. Having frequent “it’s time to take a break” messages is really annoying, and the super items aimed to help you when you’re struggling are insulting. There should be an option to turn these off.

Fantastic yet flawed addition to a series known for having a high standard of quality.

8/10