SPARTACUS Legends - Review

 

I read about this game a few months back and saw the trailer with its snippets of gameplay; obviously I was instantly crazed about this game and was in dire need to play it. I mean gladiators is a theme that I want more games to be made using, I loved Shadow of Rome, back on the PS2 and I also loved the part in fable where you have to compete in the area, I don’t know what it is about the setting of the arena and gladiator but I just love it.  The fact the game uses the Spartacus TV series IP is just a big 1+ for me, as I loved the TV series from begging to end and it had one of the greatest ending of a series I have ever seen, I was extremely sad to see it go.

Off the bat when loading up this game you can feel that it is using the Spartacus IP well, the sounds, the visuals and just the gritty look of the game really says, this is Spartacus. You start the game and you get one slave to train as a gladiator. My guy was a sword a shield user, at first all you have is your weapon and some dingy cloth for armour, but as you win battle you gain more coin and this allows you to buy better weapons and equipment. The setup of the game is cleaver it makes you feel like a lanista from the series owning your own set of gladiators and sending them to battle to gain glory and coin for you. You can recruit more gladiators as you gain more coin and fame, each gladiator has a different fighting style ranging from sword and shield to hard hitting hammers or even dual daggers. I found while using these different styles, that none of them are at a disadvantage to any others; the hammer guys are slow but powerful whereas the dagger guys are fast but do less damage. The main menu is a map of Capua (the city in which the game and series is set) there is different section where you can go and fight but at first many are locked because your ludas(your gladiator fighting school) must gain fame and coin to access the higher paying fights. So you start at the bottom beating the lower tier gladiators, eventually you will unlock a primus fight, which will be against a more renowned gladiator, when you win these primus fights you unlock perks for your gladiators to use that give little bonuses to sway a fight in your favour. One you gain enough fame you will unlock a boss battle and these battles use characters from the TV series as your opponent and they are extremely hard to defeat, but when you beat them you unlock them and can add them to your ludas to improve it (or so the game says).   

Now as this game is about the fights let’s talk about the game mechanics, the battles are fast a fluid and all the moves are recognisable for anybody who has watched the series from Gannicus’s jumping dual sword slash and even including my favourite move “the superman”.

 You have light attacks and heavy attacks, grabs and defensive breaks such as kicks or shield bashes. You can block and also roll and dodge. Using all these moves in combination makes for a fast paced energetic fight. At the moment I am using a dual sword user he is fast and aggressive and that how I like to play, on the constant attack, whereas if you use a sword and shield user he’s a little slower and more about jabbing your opponent and then running back. You really get the feel the developers did their research to see how the gladiators moved and used their weapons because you have to watch your opponent and take advantage of any mistakes or missteps. There is a health bar and a block bar, the block bar goes down as you use dodges or block an opponent, but when it empties you are defenceless and this is the perfect time to strike and really go to town on your opponent, but if you’re smart you can go on the assault when you bar is emptied and let it refill while your smash your opponent up.  One final thing about the fights there is a crowd metre and depending on how your gladiator looks and performs it goes up and if it full at the end of the fight you get to perform a killing blow such as severing an appendage from their body. This is where I think multiplayer would be amazing I haven’t tried it myself as I can’t seem to get a match but as the game is so heavily focused on psyching your opponent out and using their mistakes to your advantage I’m guessing it would be an amazing experience against a live opponent. 

I must touch on the big thing about this game and that is that its free 2 play, this game tackles it very well, there are two currencies in this game, gold and silver coin. Silver coins you gain in the game from winning fights and so on. Whereas you gain gold coins from only levelling your fame or buying them. The gold coins allow you to buy better weapons and equipment for your gladiators and also it allows you to get this stuff a lot earlier. So far though I have found you could play the whole game and not spend a penny. It would take a lot longer to complete all the fights as the coin values of the equipment and gladiators you need gets extremely high. I feel though that you could pick this game up play for a few hours and not play again for months. It’s just that kind of game, at its core it’s a fighting game with a sprinkling of gladiators. 

In conclusion I think Ubisoft have done a great job with this game and I think everybody should give it a try, there is near to no bugs and problems that I have found and for a free 2 play game there is nothing to moan about here. i advise everyone to play it as its free and something that shouldn’t be misses especially if you are a fan of the TV series.

The Last of Us Review

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Ok so The Last of Us, a game by naughty dog and what a game it is. When this game was first announced back at the VGA awards in 2011 I was instantly buzzing to know more about it. After watching all the gameplay videos and trailers countless times, the game was finally released and wow is just the beginning of what there is to be said about this game. 

Let’s start off with the main thing at hand with this game and it is that it’s not a nice game, its hard and harsh and it doesn’t care about your feelings it will rip your face off and it doesn’t matter because that what this game and its world is all about. 

The relationship between Joel and Elle is the star of the show, with the game mechanics and environment while superb put aside the game wouldn’t feel as alive without these two. It starts with Joel just being in complete control of the twos relationship but turns into them actually needing each other on the journey. As I played through the game I could feel the two bonding but then Joel would put up a wall even stating at one point that they aren’t father and daughter. Elle is a 14 year old who acts like an adult but at times you can see her revert to being a child, at one point she collects some comics and starts reading them and taking a real interest immersing herself with the characters the way a child does, after that she finds a nude mag and starts laughing about it with Joel showing she has some sort of maturity even at that age. Elle was born into this world 6 years after the outbreak of the infected and knows little of the world before and this is one of the strong suits of her character, she is always asking questions of Joel about the world before, one particular parts she sees a picture of a models and asks why she is so skinny when Joel tells her she chooses to be like that for looks Elle is shocked. Although acting like a child at time and an adult at others the world has hardened and desensitised her to all the killing and violence in the world as she is just another survivor like everybody doing what needs to be done to stay alive. Joel on the other hand has always been hard, since the day the infection started spreading. Joel doesn’t show much emotion throughout the game apart from the commitment to the journey with Elle. If he is confronted about his daughter or anything that makes him show any emotion he instantly blows it off. This does change though as the game goes on and he bonds with Elle showing he would do anything to protect and he kind of becomes a father figure. This bond even had me as the player raging at the screen with events that would unfold later in the game.

While scavenging the world and crossing from area to area you will see some beautiful environments and that’s what this game is its just beautiful everywhere you look there is intense detail whether it’s in a characters face or a corner in a room. Everywhere is beautiful and has character, I searched most rooms and building while playing this game and not once did I feel like it was just another copy and pasted place just to fill the environment. Along with Joel and Elle’s story you can discovers artifacts which are collectables along your journey. Some of them are notes and these give more life to the world, in the notes it will be another survivor writing about his journey so far but then late in the game you will find more notes about their journey surviving and even possible their body. Personally I loved this element of the game and I found myself looking in every possible place for more artifacts to further find more about the world I was in. during the main story's you will meet other characters and they are written so well even as a supporting cast that you start to care about them, even if your only with them for a little while. By the end of the game I cared so much for Elle and Joel I was on edge for everything that happened, I had learnt to this point how unforgiving the world was and I wasn’t ready to see these characters (which I had infested 16 hours into) go anywhere.

The world around these characters has a real taken back by nature feel, everything has fallen apart and there is greenery everywhere which makes for some nice background when moving through the world.

The mechanics in this game control perfectly as you would expect from naughty dog. The fact that they made uncharted is another reason I’m amazed at how different this game is. This game is not a run and gun shooter, it a journey that tells a story not just of Elle and Joel but of a whole world and like the walking dead TV series you get the sense that if they did a second game then it would be with different main characters somewhere else in the world because it’s just that expansive and the possibilities are endless. There are two great threats in this world one is the infected and one is other groups of humans who are usually called hunters. In a world like this other people are going to be scavenging for supply’s  just as much as everyone else, so you are going to run into them and most of them aren’t nice, they will attack you and also try and grab Elle to kill the both of you and take your stuff. You must work together with Elle to fend off these groups of hunters. The hunter’s work very well together adjusting their way of approaching a situation according to your actions. They will split up and find you and if they know you position they will try and flank you.  The hunters aren’t the only threat in the game there is also the infected who come in a variety of types which are runners that are fast and agile, Clickers who are extremely strong but can only see you by using sound and then there are bloaters which are so infected their whole body has been taken over by the fungus. Again like the hunters they have intelligence to adjust to your situation by moving closer if you make noise. This is where the combat system shines, stealth is your friend and ammo is scarce so you must use stealth and melee weapons as much as possible which adds a new dynamic to the game. There is an amazing crafting system which you use supplies such as tape and alcohol that you find on your travels to craft nail bombs, med packs and even Molotov cocktails. Also you can collect parts to improve your weapons at work benches but you don’t have a huge amount of parts so you must choose wisely which weapons you will upgrade.

This game isn’t about a story where there is an ending and then it’s all said and done, this game is a journey and something you need to experience. There are times I was shocked and times I felt sad and sympathetic for the characters in this world. I feel the game has been written and scripted so well that it almost feels like a film and a world has been created that is waiting to have more expansion made upon it.

In conclusion all I can say is this game is a masterpiece and Is definably in the running for game of the year candidate and possible the greatest game on the PS3

Uni - The be all and end all?

Hi I'm Jamie, this is a new blog i am starting up. It was meant to be originally for video games content and i still intend that to be the case, ill be posting game review, my thoughts about the industry, possible article about things i would like to discuss and finally just general chit chat.

This first post though is more of a get to know me and where i am in life at the moment. so 2 years back i started university doing a games art course with the aspiration of becoming a 3D modeller as my forte, as the course progressed i found i wasn't enjoying it, but i pushed on anyway. i failed a module the first year (which was a foundation year BTW) and then i had to retake through the summer, but adamant that i should still be at university i pressed on and passed into the next year.

 Next year rolls around and I'm going through all these lectures and lessons hating it and not enjoying what i thought i had a passion for, but once again i pressed on too the finish line. so summer starts and that demon question comes back again, Should i leave uni?. I started having a hard think about my future and if i really want to continue uni and if i really want a job at all in the games industry, designing games. I know its hard work (which i don't mind), long hours and worst of all I'm not that passionate about it that i want to sacrifice most of my life to that type of job. So i made the decision to drop out, nothing is official yet but i have no clue what to do next, get a job, an apprenticeship? who knows?.

This is where blogging comes in, i have always entertained the idea of becoming a games journalist, i mean whats not to like about reviewing games, talking about games and attending event eh? Well lets be serious i know that industry isn't all rainbows and sunshine, but none the less i only love one thing in the world and that's gaming and i realised making them isn't where i need to be involved but maybe writing about them is. Here lines my most troublesome problem, I'm not a great writer i have never been as you can probable see in this post :), but maybe if i continue this blog posting game reviews and so on then ill improve and maybe give myself some prospects and a possible free lance job on a gaming news website and work my way from there, the world really is my oyster. 

 So thanks to anyone who takes the time to read and i will start posting weekly or as much as i feel is necessary