Hope House

Hope House

By Kane Gord

Chapter one: New beginnings.

To the far north of Majesty, a world of a thousand kingdoms, lies the ancient city of Krazoa. Home to a tribe of Elves known for their magic and craft of making things out of wood.

It is here that a little elve called Sara has just finished the final touches to a wooden doll.

Our story begins just as this wooden doll opens his eyes for the first time.

“Hello” the elve waved her hand in front of his eyes, “can you hear me?”.

The wooden doll looked at her and nodded.

“That’s good” she replied, she put her hand on her chest and said “my name’s Sara, I am the one who created you”.

She moved to her side so he could see the inside of a large room that looked like a workspace. There were tools and pieces of wood everywhere.

“This is where I work, I am a toy maker, I make all kinds of toys. But you’re the one I am most proud of”.

The doll was confused and curious at the same time.

“If your name is Sara, then what is mine?”.

“I thought I’d call you Breezy, it’s unusual but I like it.” She held out her hand and asked him to take it.

“Follow me” she whispered as he grasped her hand. They left and made their way out of the small hut.

The bright daylight left Breezy blind for a moment. But after a few seconds, in all directions he could see hundreds of gigantic trees rising up from the clear, blue sea beneath them.

A pathway linked the small huts that stuck out from the tree trunks, while each of the giant trees were linked together by long bridge paths at the top of them.

He looked up to the sky to see the top of the giant tree, he was immediately light headed. It was so high up that it made him feel like an ant staring up at the tallest tree in a rainforest.

“This is Krazoa, home of the forest elves, It’s a beautiful place to live. Come with me and I’ll show you a better view”.

They made their way to the top of the tree trunk where there was a courtyard, and a view of the entire city.

There was a slight gust in the air that brushed against the treetops above them. Creating strange shadows on the rippled sea water, that was otherwise reflecting like silver diamonds in the sunlight.

They sat down and stared out into the distance.

“Do you want to know why you have come into this world?” Sara asked, but without letting him speak, she carried on talking.

“I created you as a gift, in a kingdom far away there is a human princess called Alex. Today it is her seventh birthday, and we are going to give you to her”.

“What am I supposed to do for this princess?” he asked.

“You are a singing doll, you are something to play with, to make her happy”.

She took his hand and said “you are not like any other doll I have created before, you are special”. She then put her hand behind his back and turned a small key.

At once Breezy began to sing about the giant trees and the sounds of the wind.

When the song was finished, he turned to her and asked “how did that happen?”.

“Magic” Sara replied in an enthusiastic voice, “inside of you is a magic stone filled with songs that are only activated when the key on your back is turned”.

“How many songs are there?”.

“There are over a hundred, but you’ll only sing certain songs that speak to the way others around you feel, so that the music makes them happier”.

“For example, if the princess is unhappy you might sing a happy song about rainbows”.

For the first time Breezy looked at his body up and down. Although he was made from the finest wood, his body was joined together piece by piece.

A horrible thought came into his head for the first time, would he feel any pain if he was broken apart?

“Don’t be afraid” Sara held his hand again and tried to assure him, “you’re going to a lovely home. You’re very lucky indeed, because you’re going to live in a palace”.

“A palace?” Breezy said with a puzzled look on his face.

“A palace is the best kind of house that only kings and queens live in, as well as princesses”.

“And what if they don’t want me?” he asked in distant, lonely voice.

“You will always be wanted, you are special, and I’m sure you’ll be the best gift that she’ll ever get”.

The two smiled at one another, “there is something else that I need to give you” Sara said.

She pulled out a necklace from her pocket. Dangling from the string was a leaf and a tiny piece of tree bark.

She placed it round his neck and said “this is so you’re always reminded of where you came from. The ancient city of Krazoa”.

Breezy smiled once again, for the first time he had something that he knew he would cherish for the rest of his life.

He would carry it everywhere and never let go of it. “I’ll never lose it” he declared as he held it tight in the palm of his hand.

“And I’ll never forget giving it to you”, she gently poked him on the nose with the tip of her finger.

It was quiet for a moment as they both gazed into the distance, watching as the colourful birds flew through around the treetops.

Chapter two: Saying goodbye

Sara showed him her flute, “this is a musical instrument, I can create melodies with this”.

“Melodies, what are they?” Breezy asked

“Music, it’s sounds that make you feel something, it can be anything from happiness to sadness. In some cases it can be used for magic, and as I am about to show you, it can also be used to communicate”.

The elve put the flute to her mouth and began to move her fingers along the instrument.

Breezy looked on in awe as the soulful music tingled up into the air above them.

His eyes could have been playing tricks on him, but the leaves seemed to dance with the sounds.

But it was the sudden and thunderous, whooshing noise that caught his attention.

A few seconds passed before a bird the size of a small dragon appeared from the sky, he was carrying a wooden box under his claws.

Breezy was scared when it landed next to them, he could feel his body trembling.

Sara walked over to the bird and the animal licked her face, for a moment she hugged its beak and stroked the nape of its neck.

“Don’t worry” she said “I have known Edrick for years, he is a very friendly bird. Unless you provoke him he would never hurt anyone”.

She turned away and looked Breezy in the eyes, “this is where we depart. If you get inside of the box, Edrick will deliver you to the princess”.

Breezy did as he was told and made his way inside of the wooden box and sat down.

There was a small hole on one side so he was able to see the outside.

Before closing the box she handed him an envelope, “make sure this is in your pocket when you arrive at the palace”.

“Remember to be a good doll to your new owner, cherish every moment with her because it won’t last forever”.

Before she could say goodbye, he swiftly asked her “will I ever see you again?”.

There was a short pause, her green eyes got smaller, and he felt swallowed up by them.

“No, we won’t, we part ways here, and we will never meet again. But you have the necklace to remember me with.”.

She said goodbye and leaned into the box to kiss him on the forehead.

As he waved her farewell, she closed the lid and Breezy found himself sitting in the darkness all by himself.

Chapter three: The white palace

After a moment or two he felt the box fly high into the sky, and he could hear the flapping of the bird’s wings through the air.

He placed his eye in the hole and watched as they flew past the evergreen wonder below.

In the middle of Krazoa was the tallest tree, it towered over all of the others.

There was countless amounts of small windows that were dotted on every inch of it.

He assumed and he was indeed right that this tree was where all of the homes to the elves were.

As he looked on, he wondered which window belonged to Sara’s home.

At the top of the tree trunk was a small castle. It sat between the tree branches that reached high into the sky, where the green and red leaves bloomed against the sunlight, like fire burning at nightfall.

They flew away from the city and for some time they passed endless amounts of green mountains, with a few towns here and there.

Hours passed before they reached the great Tiber sea, from there they came to a land with nothing but the white sands of snow.

The sunlight beamed down like a golden marble, its reflection pierced the snow like ancient gold discovered in a tomb.

It was simply breathtaking.

The land was empty for miles and miles, as though it had never once felt the touch of a living being.

The bird flew further inland until they reached a circle shaped city called Iso. In the centre of the city was a palace made from white stone.

There were all kinds of buildings in the city below, both Small and big, round and square. One thing was for sure, it was certainly more chaotic than Krazoa.  

The bird swooped down and made its way to the large, steel gates at the front of the palace.

Edrick screeched into the air, the sound was so loud the inside of the Breezy’s ears rattled and shivered.

And then the bird rose back into the sky to fly away, leaving him all alone. He was scared and lonely for the first time.

It was quiet until he heard the sound of a horse heading in his direction. When it stopped, the gate opened and a pair of heavy footsteps approached the box.

“What in the world is this?” one voice asked.

“It must be a gift for the Princess” the other replied. A few seconds passed before the lid opened and the darkness faded away.

Two soldiers with big helmets and heavy armour stared down at him as he lay on his back.

One of them took the envelope out from Breezy’s pocket, “this writing belongs to the forest elves, and this toy, or whatever it is, must be a birthday gift”.

The other soldier didn’t reply, he just closed the box and picked it up from the ground. They made their way through the opened gates and placed it at the back of a horse cart.

When they entered the palace they seemed to be taking him up a lot of stairs. They eventually stopped when the soldier knocked at a door.

“Delivery for the Princess” the soldier shouted through.

“Leave it by the door” an old man shouted from the other side.

So the soldier did as he was told and placed the box by the door. Breezy had to wait a little longer before the door opened and the box was picked up.

The box was taken inside and opened by the king, who was old and had a long, grey beard. He opened the letter before folding it in two and ripping it up.

“Alex, come here, there’s a present from the elves of Krazoa”. A little girl with light, red hair came over and peeked into the box.

For the briefest of moments her eyes were ablaze with excitement. But that changed when she caught sight of him.

“I don’t like it” the Princess said with a dismissive voice, and the tone of a spoilt, rich brat.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy

This review is a little late and the game has kind of dropped off the radar since its released, but I've been busy with other things. But here we are, so Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a remake of all three of the Spyro the Dragon games that debuted on the original PlayStation. Before playing this game I had only ever played one other game in the series before, I just can't remember which one it was, other than it being a PS1 title.

So I was looking forward to this release since the day it was first announced, I am always up for a platform game of any kind, and they don't come around too often. The announcement trailer was impressive, especially the visuals which were full of bright colours and charm. And that hasn't changed, all three games are absolutely gorgeous, along with the impressive voice-over work. It all culminates in feeling like you're controlling a cartoon in motion.

All three games are 3D platform collectathons, not too dissimilar to a lot of the Nintendo 64 games that were released at the time, Banjo Kazooie is just one example. Each game is split into a number of hub worlds which take you to each of the levels via these portals that are sometimes gated off if you don't have a specific amount of crystals at your disposal. It's these crystals that are the dominant collectable in the levels, you can obtain these through simple exploration, beating mini-games and killing enemies.

The levels are relatively short and broken up into different areas within a single environment, the platforming is simple but effective. There's a bigger emphasis on gradual fun and progression over complicated design and challenge. Seeing as you play as a dragon, you kill enemies by breathing fire and ramming into them. It's rather simple and does the job, but it can also be frustrating, in certain situations it's easy to lose control of Spyro when you're holding down the ram button to sprint, which then makes an otherwise good camera angle lose all sense of proportion.

The relatively short size of the levels was perfect for me, not once did I feel overwhelmed and every single design space was used to its fullest. Which is not the case for most 3D platformers, where intricate level design is replaced by large open worlds with far too many gaps between the actual gameplay moments. Yooka Laylee is a case in point.

The fantasy aesthetics of the levels fit perfectly with the games cartoon visuals, you'll be gliding across castles, taking on dinosaurs and riding a minecart. There is an abundance of imagination that is simply breathtaking.

But for all of this, the core gameplay never really evolves much, you can get new moves that help you traverse the landscape in different ways, but it just feels like you're doing the same thing over and over. The enemies might be different but they all try to kill you in the same way, and while the levels are nice looking they're not particularly memorable from a design point of view. For the most part, the only challenge is in spite of the game, which does bring me onto the boss battles which were the hardest part. Which is to be expected I suppose, boss fights should be tough, but the difficulty spike in these games really took me by surprise.

There are a lot of mini games thrown into the mix as well, most of these were timed missions where you'll have to fly through rings. A particular skateboard mission was a delight in the second game. Individually all three games were thoroughly enjoyable, but nothing special outside of the way they looked. If you play each one in succession, as I did, you notice that each game is nigh on identical to one another.

Spyro Reignited is a glorious remake of three decent platformers with plenty of content. Although I don't have the nostalgia for them others have, it was a pleasure getting the chance to play them with a new coat of paint. Fans of the franchise would be foolish not to pick this up, and for those unfamiliar to it, the trilogy of games are pure fun and different to other titles that have been released in the latter quarter of the year. I'd also recommend this for a children under the age of eleven, an often forgotten gaming audience.  


7/10

Ralph Breaks the Internet review

Running time: 1 hour and 52 minutes


Ralph Breaks the internet is a sequel to Disney's Wreck it Ralph (2012), an excellent animated movie about a video game character that lives inside of an arcade machine. The idea was wonderfully flipped because Ralph is a villain with a kind personality, who's voiced brilliantly by John C. Reilly. Outside of the beautiful animation and fun concept, the characters were an abundance of innocent charm. It was also a nostalgia throwback with some of gaming's biggest names making cameo appearances.

We return to Litwak's Arcade where a new Wifi system has been installed, but it's strictly off limits to those inside of the arcade machines. Ralph and Venellope (Sarah Silverman) decide to venture inside of the internet when the steering wheel to Venellope's game, Sugar Rush, breaks off. With only one left, they have to find a way of raising over twenty seven thousand dollars to buy it on ebay before the machine is sent away for scrap parts.

The classic videogame character cameos return from the first movie, but aside from Sonic the hedgehog and Zangief from Street fighter, most are just there in the background. The futuristic looking world of the Internet is ablaze with visual elegance, where everyone on the outside world has their own small avatar that lives out the choices they make on the world wide web.

As Ralph and Vennelope go from one misadventure to the next, the movie does a good job of making gags about modern society's obsession with wanting to be liked on social media, and the popularity of click-bait videos. Without being overly mocking.

But the movie does get far too busy in the last third of its run time, and for all of its heart and warmth, the plot is a little all over the place with stuff just happening to service the characters. There is also a gross and questionable amount of self promotion when the characters visit a Disney themed website in the internet world. We get storm troopers and just about every other Disney character clog up the screen for an entire five minute period of time. It all serves a purpose but it did feel like it was included for the sake of it.

But it's the two leads that elevate the whole experience, the pair are perfectly voiced, giving the characters a sense of optimism and levity in an otherwise emotional narrative. Their friendship feels real, and the two different personalities bounce off of one another to create an unlikely but wholesome duo. One particular moment was heart wrenching but delightfully silly at the same time.

Ralph Breaks the Internet could have been better, it lacks the pacing and story of the first movie. But it's still a thoroughly enjoyable piece of entertainment that's worth going to see if you liked the first one, or even if you're willing to spend the money to take the kids or the family out at the weekend.

3.5/5

Are fighting games worth full price?

I would not class myself as a hardcore fan of the fighting genre, along with racing games it's the type of game I play and experiment with the least. But when I look back at all the years that I've been a gamer, unlike racers there are small pockets of fighters from each console generation that I spent plenty of hours with. From the top of my head I can think of Mortal Kombat 2, Super Smash Bros, Soul Calibur, Tekken Tag Tournament and the more recently released For Honor.

Despite its many flaws I've had a lot of fun with For Honor, it's a rare fighting game that requires you to think rather than just react. There's plenty of content, and the online modes are real fun even if the community is toxic. But if I'm being honest, if it weren't for my online friends I play with I probably would've checked out of it some time ago.

Last year I bought Tekken 7 and I was bitterly disappointed, not only was there an unsatisfactory amount of content but I nigh on got thrashed in every online match that I competed in. And that was when it actually worked without lagging of course. I quickly got rid of it, but I was still excited for the recently released Soul Calibur 6, I loved the Dreamcast version but I'd not played any of the others since. Soul Calibur's big selling point is that it's a full on three dimensional fighter that focuses on weapons combat, and the path to victory is more about timing and movement compared to its competitors.

But the same thing has happened once again, after only three days of playing the game I regretted my purchase, and I can't get rid of it because I bought a digital copy. It's not because the game's bad, quite the contrary, its core gameplay is stellar and just as good as I remembered, and it has a decent amount of content for what it is. I would go along with the critical praise its received, and if I reviewed it I would score it around the seven or eight mark. If I could criticise anything it would be the dull menus, the rather limited online matchmaking, and the paid DLC for new characters on day one. There is also a huge problem with the difficulty, on hard it's just a bit too easy, while on very hard it's way too difficult.

Like Tekken 7, I just can't win in an online match, this is most likely due to me playing against people who are far more experienced with the genre than myself. And I just don't like these kind of fighting games enough to put in the dedication to become competitive, there's only so much of getting hit with an uninterrupted combo chain that I can take.

But it brings me onto my question, are fighting games worth full price? And from my own personal perspective I don't think they are. But from an objective point of view it all depends on how much you care about content, dedication, and how accessible the online modes are.

Soul Calibur 6 has two story modes, neither of which I have tried yet, and I'm unlikely to do so. I buy fighting games for the standard arcade mode where you go from one fighter to the next, until you reach the final boss. I do this with every character so that I'm up to the point where I can play competitively online with each one. After completing the arcade mode with every character, fighting games become my casual go to game when I just want a quick half an hour or an hour of entertainment when I'm bored. Similar to the way I play Call of Duty games, but those games have a lower skill ceiling, and far more forgiving for casual players.


I return back to For Honor, although it belongs in the fighting genre it's vastly different to Soul Calibur 6 and Tekken 7, to the point that you can't compare them whatsoever. But it's online functionality and variety is quite solid, which you can't say about most other fighting games. Soul Calibur 6s online mode is quite bad, I don't understand why they never copied the way Tekken 7 functions.

I am far less forgiving now than I was fifteen years ago when it comes to the amount of content I can squeeze from a game, and I think I speak for a lot of other gamers when I say that. There are a couple of reasons for this, one, games are no longer bought for me, I buy them myself. Two, games have advanced in so many ways, and not just in terms of gameplay but the content they give you. For the amount of money I spent on Soul Calibut 6 and Tekken 7 I could have got a lengthy single player game with a hefty amount of online play attached to it. It all boils down to me getting the right amount of value from the time I spend with a game, which is important for me. Others might be different, I understand.

Going forward I can't see myself ever buying a traditional fighting game on day one again. I just don't have the patience or dedication to master every character to compete in an online mode that is more than likely going to be bare bones, and empty after a short amount of time. As a casual fighting fan I think I'm going wait for a deep sale when I buy Dead or Alive 6.     

Assassin's Creed Odyssey review (PS4 version)

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is the eleventh title in the mainline series of the franchise, released only a year after the much praised Origins, a game that came out after the franchise took a much needed break.

Odyssey is set four hundred years before the events of Origins, moving from Ancient Egypt to Ancient Greece. You now get a choice as to whether you want to play as a male or female character, Alexios or Kassandra to be precise. I personally chose Kassandra for no particular reason other than she’s aesthetically more appealing, and it’s rare to have a playable female in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

After an epic reimagining of the Battle of Thermopylae between the Persians and Sparta, the game jumps forward and begins with you taking control of an unassuming mercenary doing odd jobs for people. After a slow start the narrative progressively entangles you into an adventure of family lineage, betrayal and the unravelling of a secret cult acting as puppet masters, all against the backdrop of a war between Sparta and Athens. The story is compelling from start to finish, but it never really hooked me in, the narrative generally jumped from one point to the next without ever making me feel emotionally involved.

Like Origins before it, Odyssey is somewhat of a diversion from the typical Assassin’s Creed game, in fact it goes even further than Origins in turning the franchise into an action RPG. For the first time there are dialogue choices that make a genuine difference depending on what you decide, as well as opportunities to romance non playable characters. The romance addition seems like a bit of an afterthought, as it’s neither deep nor meaningful, it usually just means you get the chance to shag someone.

The map on first look is intimidating with its large land areas surrounded by small islands, all of them gated off with different progression levels. At the start you have a choice between exploration or guided mode, the game specifically states that the developers want you to play in exploration, but I chose guided. I like to play open world games with a bit of structure on top of their layered content, it gives them more linearity and focus for me.

The campaign progression takes you from one area of the map to another, inside of these vast areas are side missions and side activities for you to discover, as well as equipment to collect to either use or farm off for cash or resources. In this aspect the game hasn’t changed too much from what we’ve come to expect from the franchise, but it is noticeably more level grindy compared with previous entries. There are certain points where the level gap between one story mission to the next is quite drastic. The biggest level grind I had to make was three, but with so much content this wasn’t a problem that really hampered my experience, but I must warn you, Odyssey is a challenging game. The enemy AI is relentless and they attack you in numbers if you’re spotted. So trust me when I say that you’ll get your arse handed to you if you try and overcome enemies that are any more than two levels above you.

Combat is engaging and responsive, but it feels rather floaty and weightless. It’s identical to the system used in Origins, but the camera hangs higher above the character making it slightly easier to fight groups of enemies. Which is still a bit of a problem, a good example of this is when you take part in conquest battles, they are large scale battles that you can take part in after you have diminished the power of a leader within a certain region. This is where you’re surrounded by tens of enemies at once, so locking onto the right target can be cumbersome to say the least, this isn’t helped with the removal of a shield you can use, so there’s a bigger emphasis on parrying and dodging.

However, the upgrade system makes up for all of this, choosing from different damage types such as assassin, hunter and warrior, you can assign yourself with a specific set of skills to use in combat. This can range from firing arrows that explode on impact, one time healing, as well as engraving your weapons with fire or poison effect. The skills tree is not as vast as the one in Origins but it’s far more focussed, giving the player more agency over the way they’d like to approach game’s obstacles.

I was initially dreading the naval stuff going into the game, it’s one of the reasons why I never got that far into Black Flag. But I had a lot of fun upgrading my ship, recruiting people, and fighting in the open sea. And the sea is visually gorgeous, while so much of the travelling from one area to the next is sparse and rather lonely, it gives the game a wild sense of adventure and charm to what is a beautiful but often hollow world.

Assassin's Creed games have always created detailed and engrossing open worlds, in the visual sense at the very least, and Ancient Greece is no different. Whether it’s walking through the gates of Athens or Sparta, or climbing the statue of Zeus, there is a lot of beauty and scale that’s jaw dropping. But for all the visual beauty none of the areas on the map look specifically distinct from one another, you begin to notice the same assets used abundantly over and over. The same could be said for Origins, but the topography of the maps and the locations felt distinct and aesthetically more memorable in that game. It doesn’t help that the transversal can be a terrible burden, at some point you’re guaranteed to find yourself getting stuck in certain spots of the terrain, whether it’s climbing up a mountain or riding through a forest.

Which brings me onto an issue that bogs down most open world games, and that’s the sacrifice of intricate level design, which was integral to the franchise before Origins came along. You can now climb pretty much anything in sight, which is a shame because outside of the brilliantly crafted historical locations that they are set in, one of the reasons why Assassin’s Creed stood out amongst the plethora of open world games is the fact that the worlds were designed around the gameplay mechanics. But I understand why this change has happened, for all of these issues I’ve highlighted there is no doubt that Odyssey takes place in a fully interactive and immersive world to explore.

Another minor but drastic flaw that hindered my overall enjoyment is the addition of mercenaries that hunt you down if you cause too much civil disobedience. On one hand it works because it adds to game’s difficulty and tension, and if you choose to kill them you can loot good equipment from their dead bodies. But they become a problem when you haphazardly run into one on the map unknowingly, or if they suddenly decide to turn up when you’re in the process of clearing out an enemy fort or camp. You can pay these people off but it’s easy to forget the red bar at the bottom of the screen that tells you how much of a bounty is on your head. The idea also feels a bit half baked, outside of giving the game an extra layer of difficulty, it’s just a convenient mechanic so that you hire people to be part of your ship’s crew.

The cultist members that you have to hunt down also feels like a lost opportunity, not only is there plenty of them, but the majority are given little more than a short profile in the menu system. You’re rewarded with legendary gear if you kill them, but I think it would have been better if there were far fewer and their roles expanded within the core narrative. Not only would it have gave the story more gravitas, but there would have also been more satisfaction in killing them off.

It took me sixty three hours to see the ending to the main story campaign, and for most of that time I thoroughly enjoyed myself. But like most Assassin’s Creed games, by the time I got to the last third I was beginning to feel exhausted by the whole experience. There is just way too much bloat and niggling flaws that hold the game back from being something truly special, it’s a fantastic game that’s just shy of being better than the sum of its parts. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood still remains my favourite in the franchise.

Verdict:

4/5

 

     

    

 

What Call of Duty gets right

It was not until 2017s World War two edition that I personally went out of my way and purchased a Call of Duty title for the first time, and it wasn't something I had much intention of doing. It was Christmas Eve and I was about to stay round my mum's over the holidays, aside from Christmas day itself I knew I'd get bored, and I had some money to spare. So with Call of Duty in the sale I decided to buy it, I hoped that it would keep me busy for a few days, and if it was any good I'll play it when I'm listening to a podcast or if I'm not in the mood for anything else, thereafter.

After waiting an incredibly long time for it to download I managed to get stuck into multiplayer, which was the mode that I was really looking forward to playing. Although I did come to like the campaign for what it was, with all of its bombastic set-pieces and linearity. 

WW2 wasn't my first experience with the franchise, in the spring of 2013, during my university break I had a ton of fun with Black Ops 2. I played it on a friends Nintendo Wii U, he used the TV screen while I used the small handheld device. My other experience was with Black Ops 3 on my brother's Xbox One, I couldn't have played more than a handful of matches, which isn't enough to really get a grasp of the game. On both occasions I was pretty terrible, rarely getting more kills than deaths.

Going into Call of Duty multiplayer as a first timer can be a daunting experience, it's not the most arduous of games in terms of skill, but you're going up against people who're usually experienced with the franchise. The time to kill is extremely low and the maps aren't too big, but big enough for the type of fun that the game is trying to achieve. At first I was utter crap but over time I got better, to the point where I was competitive, even now I would never consider myself particularly good at the game. From one match to the next, I can go from being excellent to piss poor.

Having liked last year's game, I bought the recently released Black Ops 4 on its first day of release. With no single player it hasn't been without its controversy. Although I was a little disappointed with the lack of a real campaign mode, it wasn't going to stop me from buying it, I play it for the multiplayer anyway, so I could cut my losses. The new battle royale mode, Blackout, the standout feature the game is being sold on, made up for it in my opinion.

I'm not too interested in battle royale games, but from the little time that I have spent on Blackout, I can safely say that it's a lot of fun. Few games have replicated the same tension and fear of being one of the last survivors on the map. So far I have only played one Zombies map and it was the Titanic one, it was good but the skills and upgrade system seems really complicated and bloated. I will play more of it soon, but if it turns out half as good as WW2s zombies I'll be happy.

But it's the multiplayer that I play Call of Duty for. A Cynical person would call it a brainless, pew pew fest with people getting killed left, right and centre. Which has some truths to it, but the accessibility and instant gratification can't be rivalled. The customisation is not too grand, but there is enough weapons and special classes so that you'll be able to find a loadout that suits the way you want to play.

Even with the manual healing introduced in Black Ops 4, the time to kill is still low, but the quick respawn helps nullify this, as soon as you die you can get straight back into the action within seconds. The quick respawning works because it means that you always feel involved, dying in Call of Duty feels like shit, the same way it feels fantastic to get a kill. There are matches where I'll be absolutely raging because I'm playing badly, with that frustration inside of me the quick respawning makes me want to get right back into the game and make amends. You also have a killstreak, this is the amount of points you collect from kills that rack up your score. Get a certain amount of points and you'll be able to use a one time special weapon such as a rocket bomb or a drone. It's the ultimate payoff for playing well, and an incentive to keep playing.

The movement in Call of Duty games is agile and swift, while the gunplay feels light, the impact of the bullets is weighty. Trust me there's no better satisfaction than the feel of firing bullets that puncture through someone's head in a multiplayer match.

For all of the hate it gets from some corners, there is a reason that the franchise has lasted for so long with such high sales, even if its popularity is past its peak. For quick instant gratification there's nothing that really comes close, Battlefield and Rainbow Six are more complex so to speak, and they're heavily geared towards playing with a group of people. Destiny 2s multiplayer is the definition of mediocrity, the maps are boring and the guns are so unbalanced that it lacks any intuition on the gamer's part.

For me, Call of Duty is the perfect game I go to when I just want to sit back and have some (frustrated) fun when I'm bored, or if I'm listening to the radio or a podcast in the background.



          

Shadow of the Tomb Raider review

Shadow of the Tomb Raider summary and review

I absolutely loved the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, until that point I had only been an on and off casual fan of the series. I’d played the groundbreaking first title, but It wasn’t until Tomb Raider Legend was released in 2006 that I really got my hands on another title in the series, which was the first to be developed by Crystal Dynamics rather than Core Design. I played the subsequent Anniversary and Underworld, which I liked without really loving either of them.

With the changing state of the games industry and the brand in dire need of being relevant again, the developers took a bit of a hiatus to change things up. Although it might lack in certain areas of what we’d expect from a Tomb Raider game, and the emphasis moved further into the action genre, as a package I thought the reboot worked wonders. The exploration was great, the platforming always intuitive, and the combat was fun and rewarding.

The sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider was more expansive with a semi open world, as well as a richer upgrade system. Overall it was a more than worthy sequel, hampered slightly by its meek story, wasted early Syria section and the overall locale nowhere near as interesting as the first game.

So now we have Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the last in this reboot trilogy of Lara Croft’s pseudo origin story. On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed the game, in comparison with the others it represents the best and worst of the trilogy.

This will not be like the majority of my reviews, I will instead narrow it down to what I liked about the game and where things could have been better, because there’s only one minor aspect of the game that I out and out didn’t like.

The good:

Raiding tombs is pivotal:

One criticism you could lob at the 2013 reboot was the fact that the tombs were optional for the most part, this didn’t change much with the sequel, although the tombs were woven into the locales far better. Shadow’s has the best of both worlds, there are plenty of optional tombs that you can explore as part of the progression. While the narrative that drives the story forward is set within contained environments that require a lot more puzzle solving.

Combat takes a backseat, compared with the last two it’s surprisingly sparse, and when it does occur, it focuses far more on stealth. You can go all out, guns blazing but you’ll only make it harder for yourself.

The stealth is serviceable, it’s pretty basic but effective. Lara now has the ability to cover herself in mud and hide within the settings foliage, you can then kill off enemies with the simple press of one button when they are close-by. The kill animations are quite entertaining, but the stealth does the job and not much else.

The environments are incredible and interesting:

The game is set in two locations, beginning in Mexico and then to Peru for the vast majority of the game. Like the two previous games in the series, the locales are rich in detail and elegant to the eye. While there is no breathtaking individual moments like the first time you saw the Mongol ship hanging from the frozen waterfall in Rise. But overall I would say that Shadow’s has the most alluring, intriguing setting in the trilogy. There is a far more diverse range of topography, as you’ll explore the underbelly of a dark and atmospheric jungle, to climbing along sunlit vistas.

In the past two games the settings never really had a location that was brimming with life, none felt like places that people had lived in. Shadow’s changes this in two ways, first, the game begins in a small Mexican town where the day of dead celebrations are taking place. It’s only a short section but it’s a situation we haven’t seen in this reboot trilogy. Secondly, the biggest hub in the game, Paititi, is a little more packed and filled with human life.

Platforming is the best it has ever been:

With the combat taking more of a backseat, the exploration has a bigger role, with the platforming as good as it has ever been. At heart, right from its birth two decades ago, Tomb Raider has always been an exploration game, traversing its level design has always been the highlight. And the same is no different for this game, using the pick axe or the bow to get from one place to the next is still intuitive and a joy to do. All of the tools from the previous games return with the inclusion of a rope ascender that allows you to pull down from higher reaches. It’s hardly a game changer but it gives the platforming a little more immersion, especially when you consider that the tombs are far better this time around. I also have to applaud how agile Lara is to control, the feel of the character has the perfect balance in weight and movement.

Where improvements could have been made

The story is weak, and Lara’s characterization is inconsistent:

The stories in the reboot trilogy are good on paper but mediocre in execution, and I think they have gradually got worse with each entry. The first game masked a lot of these issues because there was a sense of urgency as the whole plot unfolded, seeing as you were in the shoes of an inexperienced and stranded Lara. In the background was also the pursuit of a mythical Japanese queen that gave the narrative a bit of gravitas.

In Shadow’s, Lara is in pursuit of Trinity (a secretive organisation that steals ancient artefacts), and she ends up having to stop an impending apocalypse. The story just never really feels convincing, so it’s hard to ever get invested in it.

The characters are even more of a problem, and they have been from the beginning of the trilogy. Jonah is the only one aside from Lara who has appeared in each game, and to be fair he’s a sympathetic character whose had a bigger role in each subsequent game. He is Lara’s moral guidance, a wrench on her recklessness, he also appears to be the only confident in her life, so the chemistry between the two works really well.

But Lara is a bit of a paradox in this one, in the earlier games, particularly the first one, she had a certain innocence to her. I sympathised with her despite the fact that you kill countless amounts of in-game enemies. But in this version she is entirely in pursuit of selfish needs, the opening section of the game in Mexico is a perfect example of this. There is also an uncomfortable rambo type moment at one point, that felt out of place not only from a gameplay point of view, but it precedes in an awkward moment of brutality.

Although she gradually grows as a character, it’s really hard to care for her, and she’s kind of unlikable for the majority of the story. The ending implies that she has learned from her mistakes, but I think it’s a little unfortunate that the developers too often reduced her to a two dimensional, action hero archetype.

The gameplay is sometimes far too scripted:

It might just be that I have seen the series do the same old tricks before, but there were far too many scripted setpieces in this one, and outside of one particular moment in Mexico, all of them are boring. As I said, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem if we hadn’t seen them done to death in the previous games.

The game’s pacing is a little all over the place, and I’m not just talking about the plot. Having gone back to the previous two games in the trilogy, it’s noticeable how much you could play for long stretches without any interruption to the flow of the game, and this includes the story. When its at its absolute height, Shadow’s has some of the best moment to moment gameplay in the trilogy,  but there is far too many interruptions to the game that grinds it to a sudden halt. On too many occasions it felt like the game was playing me rather than the other way round.

The skill tree feels superfluous:

I won’t dwell on this too much, but not only is the skill tree ugly but its actual impact on the game is minimal, by the end only about two or three skills I’d upgraded felt like they had any impact. Which is a shame because I thought the skills and upgrade system in Rise was not only user friendly, but it got the right balance between making the upgrades noticeably impactful, while giving the player a certain level of agency in the way that they wanted to approach the game.

The skill tree isn’t helped by the sparse combat in the game, which is why I find it baffling that you have four weapon slots. As much as I loved the focus on platforming and exploration, the game could have done with a bit more moment to moment action that didn’t include forced stealth.

The bad

The final boss:

So bad I really don’t want to go into the details.

Final word:

If you liked the previous two games in the series, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a must buy, despite its flaws it’s still a damn, good game. I’d rank it third in the trilogy, only just behind Rise. It certainly left me the most conflicted out of the three games, it’s also one of the few games of this generation that I have an urge to play for a second time. Just to see if I come away with different feelings on the experience.

In regard to the future of the franchise, I’m stuck in two minds, because there’s a part of me that would love to see this Lara Croft return, and see her go onto more adventures. But at the same time I know a more interesting character can be created, either way I hope a new Tomb Raider isn’t too far into the future. I’d like to see a more bright, vibrant setting, perhaps in Egypt or India. While the reboot trilogy has been visually impressive, a lot of it has been quite grim and dark to say the least.