Consolation Prize

Game demos seem to come in two flavours - those that ease you in gently and those that throw straight into the action without any explanation. In some respects the latter approach is perhaps the best way to experience a demo; the raw nature of being plunged into the deep end quickly highlights any flaws and it allows the formulation of an opinion based upon the time it takes to go from bewilderment to enlightenment. The faster this can be achieved, the more intuitive the game is to play.

Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena successfully takes the latter approach, and anyone who is remotely familiar with first person shooters shouldn’t have too much trouble learning the nuances of controlling the anti-hero Riddick and dropping straight into the game.

This demo doesn’t really give too much of the plot away. All that can be surmised is that Riddick has escaped, is working in cooperation with another mercenary, and is about to free all the captured prisoners aboard the Dark Athena. This story fragment is really of little consequence until we get to see the bigger picture in the released game, but it does at least give us a brief (very) insight into the characterision - especially that of Riddick, whom thanks to active participation of Vin Diesel looks and sounds like he should.

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Mirror’s Edge has a lot of potential. It promises to take the FPS in a new direction focusing on the art of free running - Parkour - and away from shooting. In fact, FPS is probably the wrong acronym to use and it would be best described as a first person action game.

Mirror’s Edge is placed in a seemingly utopian city with clean streets and gleaming skyscrapers. All is not as it seems however, and this perfect society is in fact a mask for a totalitarian government with a penchant for over the top big-brother-like surveillance. The only way to deliver sensitive information in this day and age is to employ a runner - specialists in moving data under, over, and around the radar. This is where you come in as you play the role of Faith.

There are a couple of things that you need to get used to before you can get the most out of Mirror’s Edge. Firstly the controls are a little more complicated than one would usually associate with a first person game. This is mainly due to the fact that Faith can perform a variety of manoeuvres that allow her to traverse the environment with speed and grace or disarm dangerous opponents. But, it is also true that you’re brain will require a minor rewire to automatically associate “jumping” and “ducking” actions with the assigned left shoulder buttons on the controller. Secondly, you need to be aware of your environment and make good use of Faith’s “runner’s vision” which conveniently highlights objects that will be of assistance when traversing the cityscape a bright red.

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While waiting for the release of Fable II this week, a title I’ve been anticipating for many months, I took the opportunity to play through the Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway demo. An historical tactical first person shooter based on the events that occurred during Operation Market Garden, an allied airborne invasion that saw two American divisions and one British division dropped behind enemy lines in the Netherlands with the aim of securing key military bridges.

The WWII historical theme may be getting a bit too close to overstaying its welcome since the market became saturated with sub-par historical shooters, but there’s no denying that as a back drop for a story it’s one of the richest veins a developer can tap into. And, if handled correctly, can still deliver a meaningful FPS.

I’ve never played a Brothers in Arms game before but I definitely get the impression that this is a more tactical shooter than say Call of Duty. Playing the role of squad leader Matt Baker of the 101st Airborne Division, you’re in command of a fire team which you can order around the battlefield to provide suppressive fire support. Suppression of enemy forces is in fact the key to game, and whenever an enemy soldier is in cover a small round dial appears above their head to indicate how “suppressed” they are; the aim is to ensure the dial is completely grey, thus making life easier for yourself as you approach their flanks.

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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 finally managed to make it through Half Life 2: Episode One. Not unscathed however, there were plenty of close encounters where Gordon Freeman flirted with death, and he even visited the pearly gates once or twice (or was it nine or ten times) before the episode concluded.

Episode One is a direct continuation of the events that occurred at the finale of Half Life 2. Beginning immediately after the destruction of the Citadel reactor in City 17 Gordon awakes in the pitch black only to discover he’s buried beneath rubble from the explosion. Fortunately he’s excavated from his stony grave by Alyx Vance’s pet robot Dog and is soon reunited with his companion. The subsequent story centres on Gordon and Alyx’s attempts to escape City 17 before the reactor goes into meltdown and completely destroys the city.

Although in certain chapters of Half Life 2 there were some cooperative aspects, Episode One takes the principle much further and really focuses on the interplay and cooperation between Gordon and Alyx. When playing the game it’s obvious that the level designers at Valve have taken the “cooperative play” mandate very seriously and each level has been considerately planned to help promote the idea. Alyx is not just a pretty face, she is there to help out when required; hinting at possible puzzle solutions, warning the player of imminent danger, and providing well needed firepower when things start to get a bit hectic. The actual cooperative play between the two protagonists works beautifully and it’s easy to forget at times that Alyx is an AI construct.

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Due to be released this Friday (23rd May, UK) a demo of the eagerly anticipated PS3 exclusive game Haze can be downloaded from the Playstation Network, weighing in at a mighty 1.57GB.

For its huge download size the actual demo is really quite short. You play a soldier from the Mantle Corporation and along with your fellow squad members are dropped into the jungle and tasked with locating a downed transport craft and securing its valuable cargo of Nectar. All in all you can blast through the level in about 15 minutes and even quicker on successive runs and this level merely acts as a tutorial for the controls and the effects of Nectar on your combat skills.

As a Mantle trooper you have access to the performance enhancing drug Nectar. When coursing through your blood Nectar enhances your vision allowing you to easily pick out enemies, increases your strength, and improves the body’s ability to recover from wounds.

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Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is yet another FPS to be set in that highly plundered period of World War II but promises to offer a new perspective on events. The whole premise of Turning Point is based upon the idea of an alternate timeline. A reality where the then diplomat Winston Churchill hadn’t survived a collision with a New York taxi cab on December 13th 1931, and thus didn’t become the hugely influential prime minister of the United Kingdom. In this timeline the tide of Nazi Germany domination couldn’t be stopped and the United States is about to be invaded.

At the start of the demo you find yourself in New York atop the semi completed structure of a skyscraper during the initial air invasion. Your task is to navigate your way down from this precarious position to street level far below. Unfortunately the first segment of this demo as you immediately get control is flawed, requiring the player to negotiate a series of narrow girders. Although as long as you don’t jump off you can’t really fall to your death, merely grabbing the girder and hauling yourself back up, as an introduction to unfamiliar controls this design leaves a lot to be desired.

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Released about three years ago on the PC to mass acclaim Half-Life 2 is now available on the Xbox 360 as part of The Orange Box. If you’ve not played either the PC game, or the Xbox port released back in 2005 then you’re in for a treat.

In the first game Half-Life, our protagonist Gordon Freeman was involved in an incident at the “Black Mesa Research Facility” which resulted in a dimensional portal being opened to an alien world. Half-Life 2 kicks off an unspecified amount of time after the events of the first game as Gordon finds himself on a train on route to City-17 and learns that the world has been conquered and humankind enslaved by an alien force known as the “Combine”.

What follows is a series of story driven events split into a number of seamlessly merging chapters as Gordon tries to escape the Combine forces that are hot on his heels, and help the resistance movement fight back against there alien oppressors.

Although I’ve summarised the story rather succinctly I don’t want to give too much away. The unfolding story line, witnessed first hand without cut-scenes and narrated though dialog and characterisation is excellent and certainly one of the highlights of the game. Even though Half-Life 2 is now a few years old I still found myself very impressed by the emotional expressions shown by non-player characters and struggle to name another FPS game that can show the same mastery.

The world that the developers, Valve, have created is both believable and full of interesting locations. The urban setting of City-17 and its network of canals compliment locations outside of the city like the abandoned settlement of Ravenholm, or the hideouts along the coast-line, ensuring that repetitive locations are kept to a minimum.

Unlike a number of recent games where the player can only carry up to two weapons, Gordon can carry all the weapons he comes across during the course of the game. Although the actual number available just runs into double figures there’s a good assortment, including the trusty “crowbar”, sidearms and fully automatic weapons. The much touted “Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator” also known via the much catchier name of the “Gravity Gun” is the key innovative weapon and can be used in a variety of ways both defensively and offensively to grab, throw and manipulate environmental objects.

Throughout Half-Life 2 not only will your reactive shooting skills be tested but also your grey matter will be called upon to solve puzzles that stand in your way. The puzzles nicely act as a change of pace, sometimes allowing for a breather, but always keeping the game feeling fresh and stopping the action from becoming monotonous.

I’ve not mentioned much about the look of the game up to this point, but even though the “source engine” is now a few years old this port is still looking great today. As an an extra benefit this (Orange Box) version features HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging to further enhance the visuals. Audio is yet again decent with good voice acting for characters, although Gordon is once again silent throughout, and some pumping background music kicking in at key moments. The radio calls between Combine troops as they relay information to one-another, or the audible radio “white noise” and monotone beep as they’re killed are excellent examples of how sound effects when used correctly enhance a games atmosphere.

The greatest negative I can say of the game are the “loading” points. Although they’re not poorly situated they do detract from the game as suddenly everything comes to a halt for the 20 or so seconds it takes to load the next portion of the map.

It took about 16 hours to play through Half-Life 2 and as part of The Orange Box represents incredible value for money as this game alone is first class. Highly recommended!

See also:
The Orange Box: Portal Review