Written for http://www.xboxgamezone.co.uk June 2009

For those of you who haven’t heard of Afro Samurai before (myself included until I conducted some research), it is a Japanese anime series, set in a futuristic yet feudal Japan, starring a Samurai called Afro. Afro witnesses his father’s murder by another Samurai and vows to avenge him. The typical sort of thing you would expect really. However, Afro Samurai does seem quite a special anime. It has a very unique graphical style, its main character is voiced by ‘the coolest man on the planet’, Samuel L Jackson and it features a soundtrack produced by Wu-Tang Clan member RZA. All of which has been transferred to the game admirably. That’s not to say that I fully understand the story though, in fact I didn’t really have a clue for much of it. I just saw it as a good opportunity for some stress relief! As soon as the game begins, you realise just how violent the game is. Everything about it oozes violence, and blood. Even the achievements are blood thirsty, with points dished out for such things as cutting enemy toes and fingers off at the same time to slicing off hands, heads, feet….well everything you can imagine that could be sliced off with a big sword! Initially this is brilliant fun; it feels oddly liberating to have such simple gameplay as ‘slice people up in a variety of different ways’. The HUD or, should I say, the lack of HUD is also refreshing to see. Afro Samurai relies on visual indicators to help you keep track of events. Afro looks more noticeably covered in blood, the more injured he is. The same thing occurs with the enemies you fight. It’s usually quite obvious to know where you need to go next so a map isn’t really required. To keep track of ‘focus’ mode (it’s a bit like a black and white bullet time mode), a necklace that Afro is wearing lights up white when it’s available to use. The only real downside to the non-existent HUD is that there is also no way of tracking experience gain. Throughout the game, Afro gains experience by killing enemies, each level up means that more attack combos are unlocked gaining Afro new moves. However, as mentioned, there’s no way of tracking how near to levelling up you are, which can feel a bit detached. How much this affects you depends on the kind of gamer you are. Many won’t be bothered in the slightest as they will be happy with just hack n slash action, but for those who like basic RPG elements, they will feel that an opportunity has been sorely missed.

Afro Samurai comes out with some classic moments, the likes of which you just wouldn’t see in other games. Early on in the game, I happened to walk into a room full of scantily clad pole dancing female ninjas. Yes you did read that right, pole dancing ninjas. Maybe the feminist in me should have been disgusted, but instead I was impressed at the originality whether it was by the game developers or the anime creators. It’s not often that a game can surprise me by offering me a different sort of enemy to fight. As well as touches like that, Afro comes out with some unique lines while trawling through feudal Japan. In one level where I had to chase after a woman, every time I went in the wrong direction, I would hear Samuel L Jackson’s unique voice shout ‘You’ve spent so long chasing after justice; you’ve forgotten how to chase pussy’. Another somewhat misogynistic line that I couldn’t help but smile at. As said earlier, you do need to be of an open mind to enjoy this, and being a fan of Samuel L Jackson certainly helps. Afro Samurai is a very smooth game, both graphically and in terms of its self assured coolness, much like its main character really. I hardly noticed any graphical slowdown except for when particularly large battles were occurring, but even then it was minor and didn’t interrupt the enjoyment of the game.

As is almost always the case with games though, there is a negative side to proceedings. Afro Samurai suffers from an all too common affliction, slightly awkward camera angles at times. Coupled with somewhat dodgy platforming action at times, things can get infuriating. It’s a shame really as the fighting is terrific fun once you switch your brain off. But by throwing in a few platforming sections, it can make things more awkward. The camera just doesn’t always go where you want it to go, and as the platforming controls feel thrown in as an afterthought, expect a few insta-deaths to occur.

Afro Samurai is an enjoyable romp. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and it knows it’s never going to be a classic, essential title, but what it does offer is fun. It’s not a game you can gorge yourself on, if you play it for a number of hours at a time, you will start noticing just how flawed it is, and things will become distinctly repetitive. But as a game that you can drop into for an hour or two at a time, it’s excellent fun. It could never rival a title such as Ninja Gaiden but as an easier alternative, it is ideal to waste a few hours of your time. The ability to string together impressively violent looking combos, so easily is perfect for stress relief. It’s like a Summer Blockbuster film, you won’t remember it for years to come, but it’s a great way to while away a few bored hours and you’ll come out smiling.

In an attempt to motivate me and get me writing more, I’ve come up with a new concept for the blog. I’m calling these entries, Quickviews. Not the greatest of names perhaps but it works! These will be entries that are reviews of games I’ve been playing recently. They won’t be as in-depth as my other reviews and in some ways they will be more informal. They will only be 750 words at the absolute most, but more frequently 500ish. But hopefully they will give me the chance to hone my writing skills and get some content down, as well as master writing more succinctly so that I don’t waffle incessantly! And on that note, we start with WWE Legends of Wrestlemania on the Xbox 360.

WWE Legends of Wrestlemania is the perfect trip down memory lane for Wrestling fans. Featuring 42 wrestling superstars from the 1980s and 90s, it promises to excite many fans, admittedly this doesn’t include me. I was never very interested although friends were so I’m quite well versed in the likes of Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. I impressed myself by recognising a good 60-70% of the wrestlers in the game. Things were looking good at this point. I suspected I’d have a bit of a challenge on my hands as I was never very good at the Smackdown Vs Raw games and even worse at the Playstation Smackdown games of yesteryear. Boy was I wrong. I found Legends to be ridiculously simple; in fact it was too simple. All that was needed was a few grapple or punch moves to build up a combo bar, a two button press ‘finisher’ move and the fight is pretty much over. My record for finishing a match was a mere 43 seconds! There are a few different game modes available such as Relive where you, quite obviously, relive a famous Wrestlemania match. As well as this, there are Rewrite (you change the course of history so to speak) and Redefine where you are presented with a match from Wrestlemania history but in a completely different situation. Finally is the Legend Killer mode, and the one I concentrated on the most. This is where you create your own Legend and fight a gauntlet style battle whereby you fight 10 Wrestling superstars in a row, then move onto the next tier and so on. This mode ended up a lot more repetitive than the others. Most frustratingly of all, one of the tiers requires you to defeat 38 wrestlers in a row! Not so bad in terms of difficulty, however you have to do this all in one sitting. You can pause, but you can’t save at all. It was quite irritating for me as it meant I had to find a couple of hours that I could devote to this one Tier of battles. Luckily my stubbornness won in the end and I managed to get it done but it really wasn’t as much fun as it should have been. Finally, it was just far too short. The Wrestlemania Tour section would only take about 3 hours to complete and the Legend Killer mode took about the same. I am in no way a Wrestling game expert, but I do know that this should have been so much better and could have been a lot more fun too.

Written for http://www.xboxgamezone.co.uk

When the Resident Evil 5 demo came out in January of this year, many people including myself felt a little disappointed. It was good old fashioned Resident Evil, but outside. Being outside instantly lost the feeling of threat that previous games managed so well, even worse was the realisation that the control system was frankly a bit rubbish compared to modern titles. I am sure I wasn’t the only person that felt rather cheated. In hindsight, it was silly to feel that way. After all, I wanted Resident Evil; I got it, clunky control system included! With trepidation, I approached the full game desperately hoping that the demo wasn’t indicative of the full game. I was both right and wrong, but I’m pleased to say that despite the initial worries, Resident Evil 5 became one of my favourite games of the year so far.

There are two crucial things you need to know about Resident Evil 5. First of all, it starts quite slowly. In the early stages of the game, I spent much of the time frustrated by the lack of ammo available, and worst of all: bored because it just didn’t feel very interesting or exciting. The other crucial thing to bear in mind is that it really does need to be played alongside another person, at least for the first playthrough. You see, the partner AI is just not very good. Now to be fair to Capcom, it was a big step for them to introduce a co-op partner to the game. As a first attempt, I’ve had worse co-op partners than the Sheva AI but not in a few years, so it certainly feels dated in that respect. By now, Resident Evil 5 sounds distinctly average. It has a slow start, odd controls and poor partner AI, why should you bother playing it when there are games like Dead Space available to you? Simply put, because Resident Evil 5 ends up being bloody brilliant! Yet hugely flawed at the same time. No I haven’t been afflicted with split personalities, but I think Resident Evil 5 has.

Resident Evil 5 reminded me a bit of the film Saw. No, not because of the content, there are no unique torture scenes in this. But because, for the first half of the film it all felt rather average to me, and then the second half was so good and different, that I was willing to forgive it for boring me at first. This is exactly how Resident Evil 5 felt to me. I spent much of the early parts of the game fighting with the controls. The story hadn’t really got going at this point. All I could ascertain was that I, as Chris Redfield, was chasing after a ‘mad scientist’ type known as Irving who was trying to sell a bio-organic weapon on the black market. It just wasn’t really doing it for me. It wasn’t a bad game exactly, just not a very interesting one. I persevered and although obviously the controls didn’t instantly improve, I did learn to adapt quite well and I came to terms with the fact that this was not going to be Gears of War in nature. The greatest improvement however was the story. It picked up at a fast pace. It suddenly became bigger than just stopping Irving and along the way came the triumphant return of a few old ‘friends’. I won’t go into any detail regarding the story as it would definitely spoil a few surprises, but it really did grip me in the way that is normally only reserved for Japanese RPGs. What I can say is it ties in wonderfully with previous Resident Evil games so fans should be very happy. As well as that, the game was getting a bit more innovative than simply ‘run to this location, shoot some zomb….infected, collect a key, ad infinitum’ Granted a lot of it was quite similar, but it was the boss fights that made it so much more than a simple action horror game. The first boss that felt slightly impressive at the time was Uroboros, a tentacled creature that can be weakened only by fire. Oh look, there just happens to be a furnace nearby. You can guess what needs doing, encourage him into the furnace, switch it on and watch him burn. A small touch but at the time I was pleased to see a change from shooting an enemy. I honestly thought that would be it in terms of innovation which was probably a little condescending of me. In hindsight, this was nothing for Resident Evil 5. In later stages, a complete change of tactic was required. You actually had to run from a seemingly indestructible boss, not stand and fight. While playing in co-op, it was fun to see how my partner and I reacted differently to this scenario. I suspected that running was the better option but he stuck at the idea that killing the boss was possible. There were a few situations like this where brute force wasn’t required in any way, and just thinking about them makes me want to play it again. It’s extremely difficult to describe many of these scenarios as simply put; it would ruin far too many surprises. I will say one thing though. Only one part of the entire game frustrated me and this was right at the end. But once I figured out what needed to be done, all the frustration was washed away and I was simply awestruck at what a clever method of winning it was. This probably sounds all too mystifying to you, but I really can’t state enough how much I enjoyed playing Resident Evil 5 after its initial shaky start.

Yes the control system is clunky and I can happily concede on that point. I’m not entirely sure what the solution is as I do wonder if changing the control system to a more ‘run and gun’ style might lose some of the Resident Evil feeling to it, but I suspect maybe a reboot of the whole franchise is needed. Capcom have arguably already done this in a way as the game feels less like survival horror and more like action horror. Not one sequence made me alarmed, and overall the game felt a little too open to be scary in any way. However, Resident Evil 5 is extremely well balanced excluding the control system. Although ammo is quite limited and at times difficult to find, it is still remarkably well placed. There is always just enough to keep you going. The transition from a cut scene to the gameplay is sublime, and the graphics on the whole are truly astonishing. The level design has surpassed previous games and although very linear, manages to feel like you’re in a much larger area than you actually are. There are perhaps too few puzzles compared to recent instalments, but the ones that are there are well implemented. I genuinely found that each level was better than the last, with the end sequence in particular being impressively ingenious. Crucially for a game that encourages co-op play, not once did I experience any lag or connection problems while playing online. It was seamless and I might as well have been playing via system link, rather than with someone 200 miles away. My only complaint is you can’t use voice communication in co-op unless you are already in an Xbox Live party which is a minor, but somewhat irritating fault.

As you can guess I loved the game and I’m truly looking forward to going back to replay it a few more times. Capcom have ensured that there are plenty of reasons to return. Besides the obligatory achievements, there are plenty of in-game extras. Perhaps the most fun extra is the infinite ammo options. During the game you can upgrade your weapons, such as increasing capacity or firepower. Once a gun has been upgraded fully, when you complete the game you can unlock infinite ammo for said weapon. Then on a second playthrough, you can use those weapons in their fully upgraded form to play through the game. Obviously this makes things a lot easier, but also a lot more fun! In my case, it meant that thanks to my trusty upgraded shotgun, I could wipe out pretty much anything the game threw at me, including certain sequences that I simply had to run from previously. As well as this, one rather exciting feature is if you complete the game in less than 5 hours, you get a rocket launcher with infinite ammo. What’s not to love there! You can also collect 30 blue emblems throughout the game which adds to the longevity, figurines and outfits to buy, and there are S ranks to gain, whereby you complete a level particularly well, such as by not dying and having a high accuracy rate. If that’s not enough to keep you busy (and believe me, there’s lots to get done), after you complete the game once, Mercenaries mode unlocks. For anyone who’s played Left4Dead or Gears of War 2′s Horde mode, this is essentially the same thing. This as always, on paper, sounds dull, but is quite good fun and certainly a worthy bonus.

Now as much as I’m raving on about Resident Evil 5, that’s not to say, you won’t be infuriated at times. It does get annoying when you get killed, simply because you needed to reload and you have to stand still to do so. I don’t care if it’s more realistic, nothing about the game is realistic anyhow so it could have been avoided for the sake of fun. The partner AI will make you scream at times on higher difficulties, and I would strongly recommend you play Professional difficulty (unlocked after completing it on Veteran first) with a friend otherwise you might end up throwing a controller through your TV. But if you can play Resident Evil 5 with a friend, or don’t mind starting out on Normal difficulty by yourself, I strongly suspect you will have great fun. If you find yourself getting a little bored at first, keep going. Believe me, it gets a lot better the more you play and hopefully by the end you will feel the same as me, quietly impressed at just how clever some of the sequences were, willing to forgive Resident Evil 5 its flaws and desperate for another go of it!

I sometimes think my life can be a bit rubbish at times, not always quite as great as I’d like it to be, as I’m sure many of us do. However maybe on those occasions we should think of those poor souls that end up wrapped up in the world of Silent Hill, because their lives just end up a total mess and presumably in the aftermath of the games, they must end up in some pretty heavy duty therapy sessions.

Who cares about their post traumatic stress disorder though, we just love the disturbing nature of Silent Hill. I’m not really sure why the sensationalist media has never caught onto the fact that Silent Hill is much more disturbing than any Grand Theft Auto game has ever been, but I guess it is best not to question the logic of such people as your brain would only explode through excessive stupidity. Anyway, rant over and time to focus on the latest installment of Silent Hill. For those who have yet to play a Silent Hill game (in which case, where have you been?!), they are much the same in terms of gameplay. I don’t mean this in a derogatory way at all, but they do follow a similar path. They all use a third person perspective (think Tomb Raider) with most sections of the game being indoors, and very dark! When you are actually outdoors, it tends to be extremely foggy and difficult to see. All the kind of features that instantly put you off balance especially when you throw in the various monsters that appear from nowhere. The unique thing about Silent Hill, however, is it’s not the monsters that are the scary part. It’s the fact that everything around you is so down right disturbing and generally very weird. Being taken out of your element instantly puts you at unease and immediately makes things that bit more unnerving. All the games involve some puzzle sequences and combat isn’t really the centrepiece of the game. Finally, there are always multiple endings to encourage you to finish the game numerous times. So far, so good. In fact Silent Hill Homecoming matches with all of these vital Silent Hill features, which you would think would be a good thing and it very nearly is.

Silent Hill Homecoming starts out in classic Silent Hill style…..a flashy FMV sequence explaining roughly what’s going on with some great music playing (One More Soul to the Call for those intrigued). I felt instantly comfortable as if I was spending time with an old friend, assuming the old friend was a disturbing and creepy person that is. The storyline unfolds quite slowly but it’s all very typical Silent Hill stuff. You play Alex Shepherd, an American soldier, recently discharged from hospital (presumably from an unknown war), who is returning home. The opening level of the game is a nightmare that Alex has about his younger brother, Josh, and provides a helpful introduction to both the controls and the general theme of the game if you’ve not played a Silent Hill game before. Shortly after, you return to your hometown of Shepherd’s Glen and things take a sinister turn from therein. Although I can’t divulge the story too much without spoiling things, it does all get rather interesting. It’s a shame I felt a lack of empathy to the characters though, too many of them felt like cardboard cut out personalities rather than people I could really feel for.

For much of the early part of the game, it continued to feel like classic Silent Hill to me. Plenty of creepiness, especially, if like me, you find little children wandering around in dark corridors creepy, and generally extremely surreal and disturbing. It is also immediately quite impressive just how many doors in this game have broken locks! This town certainly needs a good locksmith. Everywhere in the game is extremely dark, it starts out quite atmospheric but can get pretty irritating in places. In one level set in a hotel, in places it was quite difficult to actually see what was going on. Sure you can turn the brightness up on your TV but then it all looks wrong as the game is designed to be so dark. It’s all a bit of a catch 22 situation really which could have been so easily solved by Alex’s flashlight actually working properly and illuminating the way! Finding the map for each area is definitely crucial to help you along your way; it’s unfortunate though that even with a map some areas (such as the crypts you have to explore in the first third of the game) are extremely confusing to navigate! The game is admittedly extremely linear in terms of progression but I didn’t find that to be a problem, any single player game with a strong storyline can pull off a linear level structure and Silent Hill Homecoming does this well. With five different endings it’s not too linear but it does admittedly feel a bit of an afterthought, as the only things that affect what ending you get are a few decisions you make in the latter stages of the game. There were also a few places where backtracking actually produced bugs and stopped me from progressing so Double Helix has certainly designed this game with a very set routine in mind. It was pretty infuriating to be stuck because of something that game testing managed to miss!

I felt it initially very refreshing compared to other recently released horror games, that there weren’t hundreds of monsters around to try to kill me. Unfortunately it didn’t last for very long as in later stages; there are perhaps a few too many monsters for my liking. I enjoyed the exploration element of Homecoming much more than the combat, this is in part due to the combat being temperamental to say the least. It all just feels far too clunky compared to the likes of Gears of War and Dead Space. I appreciate that Silent Hill Homecoming isn’t meant to be a third person shooter, but surely a better combat system could have been implemented? It felt slow and cumbersome to do anything and dodging was particularly awkward to achieve successfully. I did get to grips with it eventually but it just didn’t feel as polished as it could have been. Having said that I had no problems defeating any monsters until I came across the fearsome Schisms who were just plain nasty! Especially as the first time I encountered one, I had very little ammo on me. However other than that, I didn’t actually find anything a huge challenge on normal mode. On a second playthrough on hard mode, you can quickly acquire a laser pistol which makes things even simpler. It’s all a matter of finding the right method to quickly kill your enemy. For example, use a knife to kill the feral dogs as it is quick enough to stop them fighting back. More fearsome looking enemies such as Smogs (they spit toxic fog at you) simply involve shooting at their glowing lungs at an appropriate moment a couple of times. Needlers involve a little more thought as you have to dodge their attacks frequently but it’s still fairly simple to defeat. Even the bosses follow a set pattern that doesn’t take much thought from an experienced gamer to traverse. It’s annoying as it makes fighting anything feel a bit tedious, I felt myself just wanting to get past the enemies so I could get on with unraveling the story instead.

Really the problem with Silent Hill Homecoming is it is just all too familiar. Familiarity breeds contempt as some would say. This isn’t quite the case with Silent Hill Homecoming. It’s a perfectly respectable game; it just feels like it could have been so much more. It’s as if Double Helix played it safe as it’s their first Silent Hill game, so they stuck to the tried and tested formula and made the game adequate, but nothing more. It’s hugely subjective but to me, the crucial thing that Homecoming lacks is passion, and like everything in life, a bit of passion can make things so much more exciting and more memorable. Really, it all depends on what you spend on this game. Full price and you’ll be a little disappointed but buy it at a budget price, and Silent Hill Homecoming is a perfectly respectable way of spending a few days gaming. And don’t forget, there may be no multiplayer mode (which would look very out of place!) but there are five endings to see which is surely worth a few replays! Give it a shot, just don’t expect too much of it.

Sure, sometimes a game will be boring enough to make me want to switch it off and go play something decent, but I resist for the sake of integrity. However, I will admit it now. I failed with Shellshock 2. I hated it with every iota of my body, to the point that I’m afraid I couldn’t face completing it. I got three quarters of the way through and was seriously considering giving up gaming, it was so bad. I know I should bow my head in shame but seriously, if you had played this game (and I hope for your sake you never have to suffer this travesty) you would understand entirely.

There are many games that although not overly good, they still have a certain something about them that means someone likes them, but this? Surely not, I would dearly love to meet someone that enjoyed Shellshock 2, and possibly get a psychoanalyst to determine if they are sane or not. So I have probably intrigued you so much that you are desperate to know what’s wrong with Shellshock 2. A better question would be what’s right with it. Of course if I answered solely what’s right with it, this review would only be one word long: nothing. I suppose from a very optimistic viewpoint, it does two things right. It’s not very long; one playthrough would only take 4-6 hours by my reckoning of 20 minutes per level. The problem is it is so god forsakenly awful that it will feel like an eternity and that’s why you won’t complete it. The other good thing is it has very simple to gain achievement points if you are that way inclined, but you would have to be mad to achieve all 1000 of those points (especially as one achievement requires you to complete the game twice!). So now that we’ve got the good parts of the game out of the way, onto the tirade of things wrong with it!

The story, for once, is set during the Vietnam War, rather than the usual Second World War, which ordinarily would look like quite a positive step in terms of originality. The problem is, after about five minutes, you don’t really care as the focus is hardly on the story at all. You play Nate, a soldier whose brother Cal has managed to get caught up in a virus testing program called Whiteknight. This has caused an outbreak of zombie style soldiers all out to eat you, essentially. Typical zombie game type stuff really. As well as the zombies (technically they’re infected, it seems zombies are out, infected are in this season), there is also the small issue of the Vietnam War so there’s plenty of Vietcong to shoot as well.

After the initial storyline explanation, it all gets positively silly and ultimately you won’t care much. Still, a story isn’t always crucial for a good game is it; maybe the gameplay will make up for it? Excuse me while I try to stop laughing! I really can’t think of a redeeming feature in terms of controls or general game mechanics. Very early on, you will be baffled by why exactly Rebellion, the developers, decided to map the A button to the torch. Why use one of the main face buttons for this sort of purpose? Who knows, but still that’s not a game destroying feature, just a slight irritant. However, everything to do with aiming, perhaps the most crucial thing you need to be able to do in a FPS, is certainly game destroying. First of all, aiming just feels wrong, subjective I know but it feels awkward and inaccurate, and that’s because after a while you realise it is inaccurate! As you would expect in a FPS there is an iron sight on screen to help you aim. I say help in the loosest sense as in Shellshock 2; it just seems to obscure your view even further. It is so large and imposing that you can’t really see what you are aiming at. In the end I found it easier and more accurate to just move the iron sight around and press fire whenever it turned red to indicate an enemy was there. Due to the absolutely atrocious graphics, I’m talking Xbox 1 quality, it really wasn’t worth trying to spot the enemy, and it was easier to just wait for the iron sight to turn red. Excluding headshots, it didn’t seem to matter where you shot as it would always take at least 4-5 hits to kill the enemy regardless of the weapon, level of difficulty setting. I say this; I actually found that melee attacks and using the pistol was more effective than a rifle, AK-47 or even a shotgun. Even my brief time with a rocket launcher was useless, I was better off resorting to the ‘Wait till the iron sight goes red’ trick rather than actually aiming and trying to be skilful. This is in the case of killing Vietcong, but it is a similar tale with the Infected as I found a rifle butt to the body worked more effectively than a point blank range shotgun blast, 2 rifle butts or 3-4 shotgun blasts at close range, the logic? Who knows! Most weapons even required manual reloading which is frankly ridiculous! The enemies themselves are far from bright, they will, for the most part, just stand in front of you firing at you, waiting to die.

However there are still some irritating quirks that I really don’t fully understand. Such as enemies appearing from behind you despite there being absolutely nowhere that they could have come from because of a dead end. If this is how the Vietnam War really was, then no wonder it was such a difficult War! With no cover system and an inability to hit the ground and crawl, it can get frustrating when caught up in the crossfire, as dealing with enemies that you can hardly see and can hardly hit because of an appalling hit box system is really not my idea of fun. Oh and did I mention the appalling way of telling where you are being hit from? White flashes show from the four sides of the screen to show where the bullets are coming from, the problem is it still didn’t really help in distinguishing exactly where the enemy was. With no radar system available (even the first Call of Duty managed to have this!) and the awful graphics combined, it really is awkward to see exactly what’s going on and to be able to make an informed decision as to where to aim. As well as this, it felt difficult to determine exactly how much damage I had taken during a firefight. From what I could determine, a red haze goes around the screen to indicate damage; the problem is the white flashes of being shot obscures the red meaning it is quite difficult to tell what’s going on. This invariably means you die at times which feel unfair, simply because you couldn’t accurately guess how close to death you were. Probably by now, you’re sick of these unfair deaths, so you go to change difficulty for the next level. Oh no you don’t! Despite furious looks, I couldn’t find anywhere in the options that would allow me to change difficulty mid campaign, much like the Call of Duty series and various other games offer. Instead you have to restart the entire game at that difficulty and never change it. This seems incredibly short sighted to me and I really don’t understand why it’s the case.

Besides these logistical nightmares, the game is just so predictable in terms of layout. I don’t mind linear games if they push you along in a manner that disguises it well, such as the Call of Duty series for example, but this just feels so forced. Essentially you start a level, you run a little way, and you stop and shoot at a load of oncoming enemies, then once that’s cleared you move on a bit further ad infinitum. Occasionally there will be booby traps which provoke a Quick Time Event, these are simplistic to the extreme and really don’t add anything to the game. As well as this, occasionally an enemy will jump out at you (or the game will get confused and suddenly warp you to them) and you will have a slightly longer Quick Time Event to survive, on Easy it is a matter of 4 button presses, but on Medium and Hard there are 9 buttons to press, yes 9, that is a bit excessive really.

So, just to recap: the controls are awful, the graphics are terrible, the loading times are slow, the gameplay is atrocious, there is no multiplayer and the story is mediocre at best. Should you buy this? Not in a million years! Seriously, don’t even spend £10 on this awful, awful game. It really isn’t worth it. If you want a War FPS, go play the Call of Duty series, even if you have completed them all, replay them! If you want an atmospheric horror game, play F.E.A.R 1 or 2, play Bioshock, Resident Evil 5. You might as well go buy a copy of The Darkness, it’s cheap but cheerful! Just, please don’t play this. I implore you. If people keep buying this type of unspeakable awfulness, Rebellion might think they are doing something right and make more of this nonsense. Just say no.

Everyone loves Lord of the Rings, don’t they? Well, actually, I don’t. I quite liked the books, but I wasn’t fussed with the films at all which is a bit of a surprise considering my love for all things dwarfy and elfish. Arguably this puts me at an immediate disadvantage to enjoying Lord of the Rings: Conquest and maybe it does. However as I liked Star Wars: Battlefront (also made by Pandemic Studios), Dynasty Warriors and various other hack n slashers, I thought I’d give this game a shot. After all, surely it will be a fun hack n slasher, they can’t be that hard to make surely? Unfortunately it seems I was wrong.

The game opens up initially offering multiplayer and one single player or co-operative campaign depending on if you can find a willing friend to play along: the ‘Good’ campaign, War of the Ring. Once this campaign is completed then the ‘Evil’ side of the game opens up in the form of Rise of Sauron, essentially the same story, just from the evil perspective. The story of course being the main storyline of the books with a bit of poetic license and of course, the Evil campaign having an alternative ending. Each campaign and subsequent levels feel extremely similar in terms of gameplay. On opening, one can choose to play as one of four classes: warrior, archer, scout or mage.

All the classes are controlled in a very similar manner but are fairly well balanced. The warrior, somewhat predictably, mainly has physical up close attacks, although can throw axes a short distance at the enemy. As well as this, the warrior can use special attacks by adding special elements to his weapon such as fire. The archer can fire poison, fire or multiple arrows at its target and in some ways is the strongest of the classes, as a well aimed headshot invariably kills the enemy immediately. The scout can backstab an enemy, if it manages to sneak up behind one successfully, instantly killing them. While the mage can heal as well as fire lightening bolts and flame attacks. But don’t worry; you won’t be stuck with whatever class you choose at the start of the level as at various points in the level you can change class. As well as this, occasionally you will be given the option to play as a hero. These are where Lord of the Rings fans will be very happy as you are given the opportunity to briefly play as heroes such as Aragorn and Gandalf. Unfortunately as exciting as it sounds, it’s not very. You see Aragorn is simply a reskinned Archer class and Gandalf is a reskinned Mage. Still, if you’re a die hard Lord of the Rings fan, you will probably still be very happy nonetheless. Of course, who cares what class you are; if you don’t know what you’re doing you won’t get very far. This is where the trusty yellow arrow comes to it. In game it tends to be a bit manic with warring factions all over the place, so to help you along the way, the yellow arrow points you at every objective you need to get to. Sometimes it stops and you have to defend the area you’re in but for the most part as long as you follow the arrow around, you’ll be ok. This is fine if you don’t mind an extremely linear game. Or the fact that you can just run past everything else, Orcs and all, and head to the nearest yellow arrow to progress in the game. I know it defeats the object of the game but I have no doubt that after the first mission or two, you will be doing this too. After all, you won’t be missing out on much. Sure you will miss out on the ‘fun’ of the clunky combat that feels far too detached, or the reminder that all the classes are mostly the same when it comes down to it. But when it comes to quality gameplay, you won’t miss a thing as it’s just not really there. The objectives almost always come down to a few basic ideas: defend a location, capture a control point (a flag essentially) or meet up with your allies. When you die, you simply respawn at the nearest control point with all the enemies around you having the same health as they did before you died, meaning if you had inflicted a fair bit of damage already then you can finish them off easily. This makes things a little too easy at times considering you can simply keep respawning and chipping away a bit at your opponent. As well as this, if the enemy happens to be right next to a perilous cliff, you can push them off causing their instant death and a very easy solution for you. It’s a pity as I would have liked to have seen more intelligent enemies; it would have made things that bit more challenging. The only really irritating parts I found were when you had to defend an area for a set time. This was where the friendly AI felt a bit lacking as it just didn’t seem very good at defending, leaving everything down to you which in some places got extremely tedious when for the 100th time you were overrun simply because the friendly AI had left the area you were guarding. Perhaps the most annoying thing that then occurs is if you fail an objective, the level ends and you restart right back at the beginning of it which is a much harsher punishment than if you die, which seems a little unfair. To break up the monotony of repeating the same actions over and over again, there are some different segments in the levels such as being able to play as an Ent and using mounts. Unfortunately the controls feel a little clunky. In fact in terms of playing a tree, I found the mediocre Prince Caspian game fulfilled my tree playing urges much better than Lord of the Rings: Conquest has, which is worrying in itself considering how poor Prince Caspian was.

Aiming to be the shining light of this fairly average game is the online facilities that EA has kindly provided us with. For once, they almost work. It does have its quirks but for the most part I can see it making a nice change from the usual FPS/Sports games monopoly on Xbox Live. When I initially went to search for an online game to play by selecting quick game, I was initially rather annoyed to see that I couldn’t because I didn’t have the appropriate downloadable content. So I had to look under marketplace in the game and I couldn’t find any new map packs. Rather annoyingly, the new map pack isn’t listed in game despite all other DLC being there. You have to go back to the Xbox Dashboard and look through there. Only a minor niggle but considering there was a very recent title update, you would think it would already be there. If nothing else, surely EA are missing out on business by not including it? I digress, back to the actual multiplayer element. Offering conquest, capture the ring (flag to you and me), team deathmatch and hero deathmatch, there are plenty of options to whet your appetite. With 2 pieces of DLC available already there’s plenty to keep players busy. From what I have seen, the community is actually thriving quite nicely which makes a pleasant change as so many games lose their community very quickly. In places it reminds me of a third person Halo 3 but without the smack talk which is always good! Although not a reason to buy this game, it is a nice bonus to see a well rounded multiplayer facility despite the somewhat lacklustre offline mode.

Overall, Lord of the Rings: Conquest is the sort of game that a Lord of the Rings fan is much more likely to enjoy than a gamer. To a gamer, it is distinctly average and slow. The combat feels sluggish in places, and the graphics not quite up to scratch. On top of that it just gets too tedious too fast. However to a Lord of the Rings fan, it is a perfect companion piece to the films and books. It will evoke memories of events seen in the films (especially as many FMVs are closely linked to the film), it will excite you as you get to play your favourite character, and Howard Shore’s music score will be like, well it’ll be like music to your ears frankly. Presentation wise Conquest is top notch, it has to be said. It is just unfortunately the gameplay side of the game which has suffered, which is inexcusable considering it is a game after all! As you may be able to guess, no I can’t recommend this game. I would actually go so far as to say I enjoyed Dynasty Warriors 5 more, as although it was a somewhat tedious hack n slasher, it was at least fast paced, as any decent hack n slasher should be. Maybe if you’re bored and it’s very cheap and you enjoy achievement gaining (it is very generous at doling out achievement points), but don’t expect much at all. Unless of course you are a huge Lord of the Rings fan, in which case ignore all this and rush out to get it. But seriously, just don’t do it.

Back in the late 1990s, when the Playstation 1 ruled the roost and the idea of a Microsoft console was a pipedream, there were two indominatable forces when it came to likeable platformer characters: Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. They weren’t quite up there with the likes of Mario and Sonic but boy did they try! The first two Spyro games on the Playstation 1 were great fun, providing arguably some of the best experiences on the system for platformer fans. However, the Spyro series lost its way a bit over the years. The Playstation 2 and Xbox games garnered average to reasonable reviews, but they somewhat lacked in the magic that the earlier games provided. The latter two of these games provided the Legend of Spyro series, and this is where Dawn of the Dragon enters, as the culmination of that trilogy. Dawn of the Dragon also has the honour of being the first Spyro game on the Xbox 360.

For those of you who haven’t played the first two of the Legend of Spyro games, and there’s probably a lot of you considering this is the first Xbox 360 title, you may well be confused at the outset of the game. Starting out in rather dark and unwelcoming catacombs tethered to your companion Cynder with a huge monster staring at you, is not really the ideal way of starting a game, and certainly far from idea if you have just bought this game for your child. Having not played the first two games of this trilogy, I was certainly confused. I was particularly curious as to why Cynder, a female dragon, was now Spyro’s helpful companion rather than his nemesis, and I never did discover exactly why that was the case. However for the average gamer, it doesn’t take long to get into the swing of things. With the help of your friend, Hunter the Cheetah, the first level is part tutorial/part trying to escape from the Catacombs and this monster. The tutorial is quite a helpful introduction for those who haven’t played a Spyro game in a while as well as for getting to grips with the new flying that’s available to Spyro. Yes at last, after only ten years, Spyro can finally fly just like any self respecting dragon should be able to! Unfortunately, it’s not really as impressive as it could have been. It would have been great to see sandbox style sections where you can fly around and explore, but it’s all a bit linear really as for the most part, you feel constricted to follow the set path that’s open to you. It also doesn’t really feel like flying, more like gliding. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s just not quite as exhilarating as I imagine flying should be. It is extremely simple to start flying with a few presses of the A button which is at least a plus point if you’re considering this game for a child. The controls on the whole are nice and simple, they’re perfectly aimed at children but an adult might find them a touch simplistic. You can get through the vast majority of battles by hammering the same button until the enemy’s destroyed. Elite enemies take a bit more thought, but again once you’ve learnt the method, it’s simple. You have to use your elemental attacks to destroy them, by using the opposite element to the one that they are shielded against, all simple gaming mechanics on the whole.

There is also the seemingly obligatory addition of Quick Time Events, which seem to be in every game possible at the moment! They are as always, very functional but it does feel a little lazy at times when surely other methods of interaction could have been used to make the player feel immersed in the experience. In places, I found that Spyro had some incredibly annoying jumps that were required to progress. For an experienced gamer, it didn’t take long to pass but for a child or novice gamer, I can see frustration kicking in extremely quickly. No one likes having to re-do a segment just because they missed one jump, especially not if they already struggled to do the previous jumps. To check if I was being patronising to novice gamers, I handed the game over to my mother, who loved it, that is until those infuriating jumps in places. She gave up in the end, which is a pity as it very nearly hooked her. There’s a lot about Spyro that nearly cuts it, and yet, much like the section I just described, it falls at the last hurdle. The jumping sequences aren’t helped at all by the somewhat cumbersome camera angles which can suddenly change the direction you’re facing, usually at the worst moment. It’s amazing how such a simple thing such as camera angles can really change just how well received a game is. No one likes the feeling of being cheated just because the camera changed direction just when you least expected it.

I don’t want to keep sounding too critical about Spyro, it does have redeeming features. I just hate seeing a game that had so much potential, but was ultimately squandered in favour of an easier route in development. One thing that is definitely a bonus is its 2 player co-op mode. I say it time and time again but every game I’ve ever encountered is infinitely improved if it has a co-op mode, and Spyro is no different. It’s just more fun to play alongside someone than an AI character. It is unfortunate that you can’t play online co-op but it’s still good fun. Considering Spyro is aimed at children for the most part, it makes sense in a lot of ways to not have any online modes as I know I would rather my young child was playing with a friend that is sitting next to them. Spyro and Cynder are tethered by a magical chain meaning that they can’t travel too far apart from each other; it works well and is integrated into the storyline in quite a meaningful way. As is always the way with two characters, they have their strengths and weaknesses. Spyro is able to use fire, electricity, earth and ice as parts of his attacks, while Cynder, being a dragon that was once controlled by the Dark Master (the main bad guy in the game), has the nastier elements: poison, wind, shadow and fear. This leads us onto the various upgrades available to both characters. To use elemental attacks, mana needs to be controlled through smashing up green coloured gems. To upgrade attacks, you need to collect blue gems which, once you collect a sufficient number, allow you to upgrade your attacks to some pretty impressive sights. It’s a nice but basic system that certainly provides a good introduction of basic RPG elements to children. Really, when it comes to presentation on the whole, Spyro ticks every box. It’s even managed to enlist some great talent for its voice acting, providing the likes of Elijah Wood, Christina Ricci, Gary Oldman and even Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame. However if only Etranges Libellules had put this much effort into the rest of the game as it really could have been something special.

As you can probably guess by now, I’m not overly impressed by Spyro. It has flashes of being a child’s Tomb Raider in places but it just doesn’t quite cut it. For an adult, it’ll only take 8-10 hours at most to complete and offers no replayability whatsoever, bar collecting every single gem possible which, frankly, gets a bit tedious after a while. Children will enjoy this at times, but other times they will be driven to distraction by the annoying jumps required and some of the boss fights which ramp up the difficulty far too suddenly. Sometimes I think the most disappointing games aren’t the ones that are terrible; they’re the ones that you know could have been so much more if a bit more time and effort had been paid to them. Spyro the Dragon was a great series of games back at its early conception, but it does feel that the series has lost its way a bit again and I’d love to see a developer help dear Spyro find his way back to the top of the platforming pile. Unfortunately for now, there are just too many games available that do things better. If you want an adult 3D platformer, then look towards the likes of Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia. If you’re looking for a game to play with your child or a novice gamer, then go for something such as Lego Star Wars or Lego Indiana Jones, both of which are much more forgiving and won’t frustrate the less experienced gamer, while still giving you something to enjoy. Finally, if you’re a diehard Spyro fan then you’ll enjoy seeing the culmination of the trilogy, but I’m sure even you will feel a bit disappointed at what could have been such a great game, ultimately let down by far too many frustrations.