mozidesign.com Unorganized Thoughts of a Game Designer

Gaming, gaming and more gaming…

Been playing a lot games these days and recently I have completed Dragon Age: Origins, Uncharted, and Infamous. I am slowly catching up on some the PS 3 exclusives as have only had my console for a few months now, otherwise I have would have a done an Uncharted and Infamous review ages ago.  I figured I do three mini reviews for each game to share my thoughts and opinions about them.

Dragon Age: Origins

I am not really a hardcore RPG fan, but occasionally there are few games of the genre that people say every gamer should at least play once; Dragon Age is one such game. At first I was kind of hesitant to get this game so I borrowed a copy for the 360.  I figured if I liked the game I’ll get my own copy, turned out I did, for the PC. I’ll explain why I choose the PC copy in a bit. Basically to some up Dragon Age it is basically Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotoR) meets Lord of the Rings. If you have not played KotoR, that is another RPG that every gamer should play, if you have time I’d recommend getting the PC copy or if you  have a 360 just grab the original Xbox release as I am sure it is backwards compatible. (Though double check before you do buy it)

Dragon Age has all the staples of any good RPG with a very solid story, interesting characters and party members, and a diverse array of quests to complete leading towards countless hours of gameplay. However, the one thing that surprised me when I started my second play through was the fact that the game has multiple intros based on your character’s race and status within society. The first time I played the game I choose a human noble. This choice provided an interesting introduction to game as one of the most powerful races in the game world combined with a high social status. This choice granted me some cool perks such as war dog as a pet right from the start of the game. Throughout the game till the end as a human I earned more respect from the other races and characters

On my second play through which I am currently playing I choose an elf mage. In the game world the elves are the lowest race, scorned by everyone. Additionally elves and humans seem to have an ongoing rivalry, and with the humans being on top of the food chain of society they have elves as common help doing chores of cooking, cleaning, etc for them. Though the elves may be a lower caste in the world, one thing most characters in the game world fear is magic. The lore in the game describes mages as being a loose cannon who at anytime may fall to demonic possession through “blood magic” and thus must be watched at all times but simultaneously feared for their inherit powers. So being an elf who can do magic has made some interesting choices in terms of character interactions and quest choices.

Along with amazing character development Dragon Age offers to the player; the quests are also very diverse and detailed. At times one quest can overlap with another depending how the player interacts with the world characters and circumstances of the quest. I would like to describe some really cool examples of this but doing so would spoil the game if you have not played it yet.

Overall if you are looking for a great single player game with a high level of replayability and countless hours of fun then look no further and pickup Dragon Age: Origins. Now earlier I said I played the 360 first then got it on the PC.  The 360 copy was fun but in terms of party management, UI navigation, and controlling tactical combat scenarios it just did not feel right with a game controller. On the PC with a keyboard and mouse a lot of those issues seemed to be nonexistent.  For me, the difference between the two was mainly a usability issue more than a gameplay hindrance. So if you like console games and don’t own a PC or have a PC that is not powerful enough to play some of the recent releases then I’d say get the 360 copy. If you do have a decent machine, get it for PC it just “feels” so much better.

To conclude this review/summary I’d rank Dragon Age as a 9/10.

Uncharted

Just one word is needed to describe Uncharted and that is, awesome! Right from the start of the game the player is strapped in for a roller coaster ride of action and adventure as they step into the shoes of Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter. Similar to how Dragon Age combined KotoR and Lord of the Rings, Uncharted seemed to take the best of Tomb Raider, Gears of War and the Indiana Jones films (pre Crystal Skull that movie sucked…don’t get me started on that!)

From Tomb Raider, Uncharted has some interesting puzzles and exploration mechanics. From Gears of War, Uncharted adopted the cover system which works great. And lastly from Indiana Jones, the game has an excellent narrative based on treasure hunting, and like most Indiana Jones films there are always other parties after the same treasure!

Though gameplay and story are very solid the one thing that sells Uncharted is the world. At the time the game came out, next games seemed to have this crazy ass mandate that realistic scenes in games are portrayed with drab colors such as gray and brown. Adding high levels of bloom and HDR makes things photo realistic. Sure those games looked nice, but one look at Uncharted and you can agree that brown and gray don’t equal to realism.

Just look at that lush jungle! That’s more realistic than let’s say GTA 4 or Gears of War (both games are great for their own merits but seem to lack “color”)

Though one thing I hate in many action adventure games is jumping puzzles, they seems to be a corner stone in the genre but more often than not jumping puzzles suck donkey balls. Why? Well you jump; you miss your target, fall to a horrible death, and reload the level to try again to the same fate over and over till you get it right.  Uncharted did something cool which made jumping puzzles a lot less frustrating where it seemed the game kind of “snapped” you to where you wanted to jump to. Meaning if I had to jump across a gap, I do the jump and make it the first time! Not after my 50^th attempt! The character just snaps to a ledge or a rock and successfully completes the jump. Excellent design choice! Keep the game fun; don’t let stupid ass jumping puzzles ruin it for the player!

My only gripe with the game is the fact that AI are kind of like bullet sponges, and I can see why. It’s a gamey element, the AI have hit points and it takes x amount of shots to bring them down. I usually went for the headshots and took the AI down instantly, so not really a fun breaking moment more just something you notice when playing the game.

I have heard from my co-workers that Uncharted 2 is 50 times better than the first game. Now I am scratching my head thinking how the hell Naughty Dog (devs behind Unchrated) out did shine their own game with the sequel! Well, I’ll find out this week as my copy of Uncharted 2 should be arriving in the mail anytime. Once I beat it I’ll post my thoughts on it.

My score for Uncharted is 9.5/10.

Infamous

This pun is totally intended, as Infamous can be described as electrifying. Giving the player the power to control electricity to kill AI enemies is awesome. Giving the player a world to explore to save or wreck havoc in is also awesome.  Much like with my experience with Assassins’ Creed 2, I could not let go of the controller when playing Infamous, it was too much fun.

The game offers the player choice to be the hero with their powers of electricity or be the ultimate badass who can kill anyone and completely abuse their powers for evil. So which path did I take you ask? The evil path, because some of the powers I could unlock were just so much better than what the heroic side offered in my opinion at least. Though if I have time I’ll go back and play it as nice guy and use my powers for good.

Anyways in terms of gameplay Infamous does have an open world, but the gameplay inside the open world is pretty linear. It is not like GTA where at one time you may have multiple missions from different characters.  The game does offer up side missions which may help you gain new abilities or help rid part of the city from control of various gangs. However, the more you keep playing you’ll see the side quests do become repetitive.

Like any open world game, Infamous has its share of collectibles scattered around the world. Collecting ‘shards’ around the world reward the player by increasing the total amount energy they can use for various electrical attacks. So in way it’s really not a random element like shooting pigeons in GTA 4 or collecting green orbs in Crackdown.

One thing about Infamous is that it has a doppelganger game, Prototype. If I recall correctly from my brief encounters of playing Prototype at trade shows or a friend’s house, is that Prototype like Infamous has a protagonist with crazy powers he can use for good or evil and use those powers in an open world setting. I can’t say if Infamous is better than Prototype or vice versa due to the fact I have not played Prototype start to finish. But from my short gameplay sessions it does seem fun and I’ll have to check it out sometime soon.

My score for Infamous is 8/10

I am pretty happy that the last three games I have played and completed were fun and highly enjoyable. Right now I am playing through Darksiders and I can’t say if I like it or not at this point. However, the more I play it I am starting to agree with Yahtzee’s review of the game. Once I beat it I’ll let you know if I agreed with Yahtzee or had a totally different experience.