Consolation Prize

Too Human is an unusual game to play. Not from the perspective of its genre, as it could be catogorised as a futuristic action RPG dungeon crawler, but in the way that it requires a serious investment of both time and energy in order to fully understand how to play the game and enjoy its full potential.

I’ve not played a game in a long while where I’ve been left feeling completely confounded by a game. It was only through determination - and gritted teeth - that the veil of fog clouding my comprehension of its mechanics began to lift. Only now, after completion, do I feel like I’m starting to get a handle on some of the peculiarities surrounding Too Human.

Finally I’ve grasped how light and dark “polarity” enemies’ work. Virtually impregnable to either melee strikes or ballistic attacks the correct type of attack must be used against these opponents otherwise they’ll benefit from whatever you throw at them. It sounds like a simple rule but as it’s not explained in depth (correct me if I’m wrong) it led to many frustrating encounters where I was slaughtered by these seemingly invulnerable opponents. It was only through enabling the damage meter that I could spot these enemies and witnessed my ballistic attacks having a negligible effect. Thus I needed to switch to an alternative strategy - melee where ballistic resistance was obvious - to dispatch the numerous hordes.

Discovering how to use the dodge manoeuvre effectively is a key skill in Too Human. Not only in the literal sense that it gets the character out of the way of incoming projectiles, but also in the fact that while dodging your character will have a few frames of invulnerability, which if timed correctly will help avoid any knockdown effects from area attacks. Again, this is another aspect that isn’t taught, but learned through trial and error - and numerous deaths. It’s a revelation when you realise those Troll hammer attacks and ground pounds are not to be feared after all.

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I think it’s safe to say I’m now done with The Orange Box after successfully escorting the garden gnome - sometimes affectionately known as Trey - to the White Forest missile silo. Placing him carefully into his streamlined carriage with only Lamarr as company we said our farewells, or rather a moment of respectful silence passed between Gordon and Trey as neither uttered a word.

Overall the achievement wasn’t particularly difficult, just time consuming, and careful progress is required in some areas. The most frustrating aspect of the entire adventure was trying to keep poor old Trey in the Dodge Charger, whom had a tendency to fly out of the car at the slightest change of direction or touch of the brakes as neither the car seats nor Alyx are apparently solid objects.

It got me thinking as to the reason why I bothered to spend the time and effort to get this achievement given that it’s only worth a measly 30G. I mean to be fair; some games award that many points just for putting the game disc in the 360 so it certainly wasn’t for the miserly boost it gave my gamerscore.

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They say that “all good things come to he who waits”. An adage that certainly feels relevant as I’ve only just completed Half Life 2: Episode Two even though it has been nearly a year since the release of The Orange Box. I can now at last join the millions around the globe whom are anxiously awaiting the concluding chapter in this trilogy of episodic content – whenever it finally materialises.

So here we go again with another finely scripted, beautifully paced game that kicks off immediately after the events of Episode One as Gordon Freeman regains consciousness in the wreckage of the train - derailed by the portal storm from the Citadels destruction - which he and Alyx Vance used to escape from City 17. Reunited with his companion Alyx, and the familiar zero-point energy field manipulator (gravity gun) the pair set off in haste for the “White Forest” resistance stronghold with there precious cache of transmission data they’ve recovered from the Citadel. The Combine haven’t of course given up on there quarry, and our fleeing protagonists will be pursued mercilessly throughout.

Whereas its immediate predecessor took place in the claustrophobic surroundings in and around City 17, in contrast Episode 2 is mostly played out in a more open rural environment with trees aplenty, rocky outcrops, mining outposts, and abandoned dwellings. All of which add a great deal of diversity to the surroundings. I’m not sure whether it’s the new locales, but Episode Two certainly looks the more visually impressive entry of the series thus far even though it’s using the now ageing “Source Engine”. Whatever the reason for the apparent improvement, it would all be for naught if it wasn’t backed up by the solid level design we’ve come to expect from Valve.

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I noticed that while searching for the Mercenaries 2 demo on Xbox Live Marketplace last week that a demo for Fracture had been released. Now, I must confess that the idea of this landscape deformation game certainly had me intrigued, so it went straight to the top of the download queue… However, after playing through the tutorial and demo level I have to say that I’m not completely sold on the game just yet.

It all started off very promising with the tutorial; starting aboard an airborne assault craft flying over what looks like was once San Francisco Bay and past the Golden Gate Bridge while the commanding officer explains the fundamentals of your HUD, before finally getting dropped into the incursion point at the beginning of the training level. After my initial disappointment at realising there are design restrictions to the landscape deformation (there were bound to be!), which in reality meant I could only raise or lower the landscape by about 10 foot wherever some “dirt” was present, the tutorial actually turned out to be a pretty good introduction to the controls and the various weapon types and abilities on offer.

The main selling point of Fracture is of course going to be the novelty factor involved from being able to manipulate the landscape using the “Entrencher”; implemented via pressing either the left or right controller bumper buttons which in turn fires off a pulse that will lower or raise the landscape respectively. It’s an integral part of the level design and throughout the demo you’re invited, nay required, to use this ability in order to reach inaccessible higher platforms, jump over or tunnel under obstacles, and even to provide tactical cover. It all works reasonably well, even with the noticeable limitations.

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Having played through the sublime Castle Crashers a couple of times now, and in addition to my initial impressions, I thought I’d give you five six reasons why this rapidly became one of my favourite games of the year and is definitely my top pick from Xbox Live Arcade. Oh, and just as a warning: I’ll be referencing a few events that transpire during the game so if you don’t like spoilers now is the time to jump out.

Visual Splendour

There’s no denying that Castle Crashers looks absolutely amazing thanks to the artistic talents of Dan Paladin. The locations, characters, and environmental effects are all lovingly drawn and a joy to behold. While a lot of mainstream developers strive for what seems to be the holy grail of “ultra-realism”, this game shows us that an unconventional art style which is well designed and implemented can still easily hold its own in today’s marketplace and in fact actually elevates it above the masses making it stand out from the crowd. It reminds me of why I play video games in the first place – Escapism.

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You generally know within the first few minutes of playing a game whether or not you like it, or even if you’re willing to persevere with it for a little bit longer just in case you missed that hidden gem of game-play that suddenly adds cohesion to the entire experience – but I’m afraid no such epiphany happened while playing through the trial game of RocketBowl.

The idea behind RocketBowl is quite appealing; take the familiarity of bowling, place it all in an open area with multiple “lanes”, an undulating landscape replete with obstacles, and add in the ability to give your ball a boost or fire it off in either a left or right direction by igniting a rocket. It sounds quite interesting in theory, but in practice, I’m sorry to say, we’re left with a fairly dull game.

Given 10 frames on the course you have three attempts to knock down all the pins of each frame in sequence to accumulate the highest score. It’s not essential to aim at the set of pins directly ahead, and in-fact you are free to launch in any direction - which is actively encouraged given that there are lots of points bonuses and power-ups dotted around the course. The only real requirement is that you hit some pins somewhere if you want to keep those extra points and avoid the shot being called a “miss”. It doesn’t feel however, like you can do a great deal to control the rocket ball. You’re only able to nominally apply some swerve and fire off the occasional rocket, thus, it feels like you’re more of a spectator than an active participant.

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In between playing Castle Crashers, which seems to have been dominating my gaming habits recently, I took some time out from creature bashing to try out the latest race game offering: Pure from Blackrock Studios.

Instead of road or track racing - which seems to be the more dominant racing variant on the Xbox 360 with titles like Forza Motorsport 2, GRiD, and PGR4 - Pure instead spins its wheels off-road featuring Quad bikes, unfeasibly huge jumps, and the ability for the rider to perform a variety of crazy tricks.

The demo features a tutorial level and three laps of the “Mount Garda” course. The tutorial is quite rudimentary and is basically just an oval, but it does provide the basis for an introduction to the controls and on how to perform tricks. However the actual race course itself is a far more interesting affair with branching routes, varying terrain, and a total number of 16 competitors all vying for position.

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The summer season of Xbox Live Arcade which delivered exceptional high quality releases in Geometry Wars 2, Galaga Legions, Braid, and of course Castle Crashers has unfortunately come to an end and it seems like we’re once more back into the familiar “hit-and-miss” territory that’s so representative of the service.

Shred Nebula is a top down space shooter, similar in some respects to Asteroids, in which you control a single ship that rotates on a central axis, can fire and thrust in the direction you’re facing and whereby the ship’s inertia has a significant effect on movement and controls. However, unlike the simple joys of Asteroids this is a far more complex beast to handle.

Taking command of the prototype ship: the RIP Rocket, your task is to explore the nearby solar systems trying to locate the lost Algron Exploration Fleet which failed to return from an expansive exploratory charting mission 12 years hence. Along the way you will encounter both hazards and hostile aliens all of which are detrimental to the integrity of your ship.

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