Other Great Games of 2010

           Although they didn't make my top five list, there were many games that came out in 2010 that I feel I have to at least mention and give a small take on.  They won't be in any particular order as they are all from different genera’s and some I never beat.   So this is the Illusive One's Other Great Games of 2010.

Darksiders.  Yet another hack and slasher that came out in 2010 alongside God of War 3, (still haven't played it and it killing me).  In it, you take control of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as he battles both Angels and Demons, trying to restore the balance between Earth, Heaven and Hell.  While it wasn't as over the top as the God of War games or as fluent as Lords of Shadow, it's still a hack and slasher worth picking up and playing through.

Final Fantasy XIII.  While the plot of this game was incredibly confusing, wasn't revealed until like halfway through the game and had mostly flat characters, it did have the best battle system of any Final Fantasy game to date.  You may like it.  You may not.  I personally never beat it but I did enjoy it.

Dead Rising 2.  Sadly, I never got the chance to play much of this game but from what I did play, it was awesome.  Running through malls and casinos, fighting endless hordes of zombies and people gone insane, putting together different object around the malls to make devastating, limb dismembering weapons; what's not to love?  And I hate myself for not playing it more.

Super Meat Boy.  Yea the only downloadable arcade game to make the list.  In it you play as...um....well...a square wad of meat named Super Meat Boy as he tries to save his girl friend, Bandage Girl, (yet another square only this time made of, you guessed it, bandages), from the evil Dr. Fetus, who is a fetus in a robot wearing a tuxedo,(I'm not kidding).  Sounds like the Game of the Year doesn’t it?  In it, you will literally die dozens, if not hundreds of time on a single level avoiding all kinds’ crazy stuff that has to be seen to believe.  Check it out if you ever get a chance but try to avoid chucking your controller at a wall.

Fable 3.  The latest in Lionhead Studios Fable Games, 3 takes place during the industrial age of Albion as you join rebels to over throw your older brother for the throne but find that the crown is, indeed a heavy burden.  While it still wasn't as good as the original and had a number of flaws it was still a good sequel and I would recommend picking it up if you liked 2.

Bayonetta.  Yet another hack and slasher that came out in 2010 alongside God of War 3, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Darksiders, and Dante's Inferno, (the latter of which was a big disappointment).  In it, you play as the witch Bayonetta as she tries put together her past, all the while killing hordes of angles to avoid being sent to Hell.  Delightfully cheesy, ridiculous, and over the top, check it out if you get the chance.

Call of Duty: Black Ops.  Yet another game in the long line best selling Call of Duty games, Black Ops was a Cold War based game that, like the Modern Warfare games, had a great plot and compelling protagonists.  In it, you play as various CIA agents as they try to prevent insane Russians from releasing a deadly virus in America.  It also featured a great cast of voice actors that included Sam Worthington, (I always thought he would make a good voice actor), Ed Harris, Ice Cube, and Gary Oldman reprising his role of Victor Rezsnov from World at War.  While the multiplayer was just the same crap we've been play since Modern Warfare the campaign was more than worth my time and had great references to films such as Apocalypse Now and Deer Hunter.  Because of the campaign, this is the only game on this list that almost made my Top 5 List.  Odds are you've probably already played it, but still check it out if you haven't.

And the last on my list.

Halo: Reach.  Definitely the best Halo game to come out sense 3, Reach is Bungie's final game in the franchise, (and could possibly be the last game in the series), and, boy, did they send it out with a bang.  The game is a direct prequel to the first Halo and tells of the destruction of Reach, a major military planet of the UNSC and in it you discover the origins of Cortana and exactly why the Master Chief is the only Spartan Left.  You play as the faceless and mostly silent Spartan known only as Noble Six, the latest addition to Spartan Team Nobel as they battle the Covenant on Reach and slowly but surely die off one by one.  Like a lot of other Halo fans, this was the game I had been waiting for since the end of 3, (although my reasons were probably different); a prequel to the first game that detailed the fall of Reach.  While it wasn't the epic story of a final stand I was hoping for it was a great game and well worth any gamer’s time.  Just don't expect a happy ending.

           Well, that's it for my favorite games of 2010.  Now, you might think it's time to move forward with my game review; start reviewing games of 2011.  Unfortunately that's not going to happen just yet, as I have one last epic review of a game and its DLC and expansions.  And that's coming up next, on the Illusive One's Reviews. 

Fable 3 Review

          Throughout October, I reviewed a number of games in preparation for the late releases this year.  Earlier I did Fallout: New Vegas, but now it's time to do another.  This is the follow up to Fable 2.  It's the Illusive One's Fable 3 review.

The Plot

            The game begins roughly fifty years after the end of Fable 2 and Albion has entered the Age of Industry.  After defeating Lord Lucian, the hero from Fable 2 unites all of Albion under his/her rule and becomes king/queen.  The hero from the last game is now dead and his/her eldest son, Logan, is now ruler of Albion.  At first he is a fair but firm ruler, but almost overnight becomes a tyrant and the people suffer under his harsh rule.  It opens with a cinematic that explains the entire situation in the land that depicts a chicken running through the streets of Bowerstone.  You play as the Prince or Princess, Logan's younger sibling, who, after being forced into a terrible situation by Logan, start a revolution against him to place yourself as the ruler of Albion.  After obtaining the throne, however, you find that your promises are harder to keep when Albion faces one of its greatest threats of all time.

The Game Play

            For the most part, the game play of Fable 3 was identical to Fable 2.  The controls were the same, your dog did the same things, you're still able to buy and sell property, and most of the enemies were the same as they were in Fable 2. 

            One major change in the game was the way you upgraded your character.  All of the other Fable games had your character go into an upgrade menu, where you spent strength, skill, will, and general experience for new abilities.  In this game, however, in order to upgrade your character you need to go to a surreal area called The Road to Rule, where you find chests along a path that upgrade your skills.  Rather than using experience, you use these things called Guild Seals to unlock the chests that are earned through combat, missions, and obtaining friendships with people in the world.       

            Another change was the way you used spells.  In previous Fable games the ability to cast spells seemed to be innate, but in this game, the Hero must use a gauntlet in order to channel the power.  The number of spells you are able to use has also been reduced and I and many people I know were disappointed by this. 

            One irritating thing about this game is the enemies and let me tell you, they got lazy in this department.  They are almost the exact same as those of Fable 2; bandits, (though they call them mercenaries), Hobbs, Balverines and hugely overused Hollow Men.  While they did include a few new enemies that come from a desert land they don't really do anything to lift the problem, as they only appear sparsely and only in certain areas at certain times of the game.

            The jobs in this game have also changed.  In Fable 2 you could be a bounty hunter, an assassin, a black smith, a bar tender or a wood cutter.  In this game however, only the bounty hunter and black smith jobs return and adds in the jobs of a lute player and a pie maker.  The way you do the job has also changed into a button sequence rather than hitting the A button at certain times and I thought it was a great improvement. 

            The game also includes more cut scenes than in previous games.  But they and many other parts of the game were very glitchy, as trails of the characters seemed to be left behind as they walked and made playing it nauseating.  Often when getting a critical hit, the camera would remain zoomed in on the enemy in question making you open to enemy attacks.  Even the trails leading to your destinations were glitchy; often disappearing or leading you to God knows where and made the game infuriating.

             The last thing to mention in this department is the karma system.  While there are decisions to make early in the game, the major ones don't start until you become the ruler of Albion.  They mostly have to deal with the promises you made to the people who supported your rebellion and whether or not to keep them.  In the end, you can either become the tyrant you fought to overthrow, or become the greatest ruler Albion has ever known.

The Characters

            Unlike the characters in Fable 2, the characters in this game were flat and extremely forgettable.  Walter is your typical mentor, Jasper is your typical supportive butler and the rest were just as clichéd.  Even the antagonists were boring and forgettable, although it did have a decent final boss fight. 

            Reaver returns in this game as the head of a company called Reaver Industries and is your typical evil CEO and I found it a bit disappointing that you never get the chance to fight him.  Theresa is also back, once again as a kind of guide to the Hero but her involvement is minor and disappointingly lazy.  Even the dog in this game was downgraded and wasn't nearly as charming or entertaining as it was in Fable 2.

            This game was also the first to give the Hero a voice.  But the Hero hardly has any lines and the voice acting for him/her is so bad that it makes you wish they never gave him/her a voice in the first place.  All around, the characters were a big disappointment. 

The Verdict

            All around, I enjoyed this game much more then Fable 2.  The characters and upgrade system went down, the enemies remained the same but the plot was by far greater.  There was just as much, if not more, to nitpick at as Fable 2, and it was still no where nearly as good as the original Fable, it was still, in my opinion, a much better sequel then Fable 2.

All Around

8/10

Fable II

            For my next review, I shall be doing another game that has had mixed response fans.  Like the 2008 reboot game of Prince of Persia, this game also released to generally favorable reviews but got  mixed reactions from fans.  It's time for a Fable II review.

The Plot

            The game takes place five hundred years after the first Fable and the events in it have become subject to legend and interpretation.  After the death of Jack of Blades the Heroes became obsolete, tyrannical, and were finally wiped out by the people of Albion after the invention of gunpowder.  In this game you once again play as a silent, unnamed Hero who is revealed to a descendent of the Hero of the first game.  In this game you seek to avenge the death of your sister and to prevent a man named Lord Lucian from rebuilding an ancient device, called the Spire, that will grant him the power to shape the world as he wishes.  In order to do this, you must find the Hero's of Strength, Will and Skill who, along with you, hold the key to defeating Lord Lucian.

The Game Play

            The fighting system of this game was very much like the original Fable with a few things added.  Like the previous game, you had the choice of using your usual hack and slash weapons like swords and axes and a number of spells to choose from.  Unlike the previous Fable, however, bows and crossbows have been replaced by muskets and pistols.  The game also offers a variety of clothing, ranging from the cloths of a commoner to the clothes of a noble.  The tradeoff for this, (and an unfair one) is that in this Fable there is no armor. 

            Perhaps the best part of the game is your dog.  Found by you and your sister at the beginning of the game, this dog is your constant companion throughout it.  He finds you objects, opens doors, fight along side you, and is fun as hell just to play fetch with.

            Another great part of this game is the ability to buy property.  The first one was limited to buying houses, whereas in this game you can buy huge amounts of real-estate, town stores and stalls, and can own almost everything in Albion.  Like the previous game, there is a karma system that determines your appearance, in this game the appearance of your dog and the way people react to you.  While in the first one, the karma system was more or less based on decisions you made in the storyline, this one had a karma system that was more based on the choices you made in the jobs you took.  That's not to say their aren’t karma decisions to make in the storyline but they don't hold as much weight in this one as they did in the first.  For example, choosing to be a bounty hunter results in good karma while choosing to be an assassin results in bad.

            There is also a corruption/purity meter and also affects the appearance of you and your dog.  This meter is generally determined by the way you handle the property you own.  Charging high rent for living on your property, for example, results in corruption while having low rent results in purity.  

            The way you earned money has also changed.  In the previous game, you earned money by completing missions.  In this game, you take up various jobs to earn money, such as blacksmithing, wood chopping, or bounty hunting.  This makes earning money considerably easier.  That, in turn, made the entire game easier.  Another factor of the game play worth noting, is the ability to buy experience potions.  This made leveling up extreamly easy and made the entire game considerably easier as well.

          The Characters

            Despite the relatively easy game play and a silent, nameless, protagonist, this game had a number of noteworthy characters.  The first of which, is you dog who never stops being a delight.  There is also the enigmatic mentor of the hero, Theresa, (who appears to be the sister of the hero from the first game).  Then there is Hammer, the Hero of Strength, Garth, the Hero of Well, and Reaver, the Hero of Skill.  Hammer is a former monk who joins you to avenge the death of her father.  Her personality often reflects her upbringing with the monks and develops a fast friendship with both you and your dog.  Garth is a mage who once unwittingly helped Lucian in his attempts to restore the  Spire and joins you after being trapped for years as a prisoner in the Spire.  Calm and patient, Garth seems to be a loner and is a man of few words.  Reaver is a pirate leader who is extremely skilled with a gun but has a cocky and abrasive manner that make him unlikeable but believable and joins you after Lucian attacks his mansion.  Lucian himself is, in his own right, a great villain.  While nowhere near as good as Jack of Blades, the character is believable as a man who has lost everything he cares about and is willing to do anything and kill anyone in order to get what he wants.   All around, the character of this game were great.

    The Verdict

            All around, this game was OK.  While, for the most part, it had great game play and great characters, the game suffered from being to easy.  The storyline was short and seemed like it was just put in as an afterthought.  The final boss fight at the end of the game was just stupid and wasn’t even in the same league as the first one, (anyone who as played the game will know exactly what I mean).  The various jobs and buildings you can buy take away much of the difficulty in earning money and the ability to buy experience potions made the game far to easy.  All around, it's a decent game in its own right, but as a sequel to Fable, it falls short and was a disappointment.  Fable III is due for release on the 26^th of October and I can only hope it proves to be a better sequel then this game was.

All Around

8/10