My Initial Reaction to Skyrim

            As you all may have guessed, I've been playing Skyrim for the past week and rather then write a full review on it I decided to give my reaction to it after playing for about thirty six hours.  It's just going to be a quick pros/cons sort of thing; what I like so far and what I don't like so far so don't go apeshit if I say something that offends you fanboys.  Even if you are completely wrong.  So, here they are.

            On the positive side the open world gameplay is really fun and there are an endless number of things to do.   The combat gameplay and leveling system is a massive improvement over Oblivion as it feels a bit more natural and not as stiff and clunky.  Graphic wise it's also a big improvement over the last one but I would recommend playing it either on a CPU or on an HD TV to get the full effect of it.  The various random missions are really fun but get tedious after a while, (especially when 90% of them involve some kind of Indiana Jones style caves/temples).  The guild missions have also been radically improved, seeming a bit more mature then the previous game.  The Thieves Guild for example is a criminal organization rather than the Robin Hood style band of thieves they were in Oblivion.

            On the negative side, the plot and characters are mediocre at best.  They're better then those of Oblivion but that's not really saying much.  The characters are just boring and there isn't really anything compelling about them.  The same can be said for you character.  Again, he's better than the protagonist from the first game but again that's not saying a lot.  The plot is just as uninspired.  Dragons coming back to destroy the world?  I mean come on!  It's not that the concept is bad but we’ve already heard it half a dozen times in the past five years.  This wouldn’t be so bad but the main story missions I've played are executed in such a way that it just seems like more generic high fantasy.

            Ultimately, my initial reaction is this: It's better than Oblivion, has great gameplay and the guild missions are interesting but that's where my praise of this game.  I'm of the belief that a good RPG should have a good plot and compelling characters and this game falls flat in that regard.  If you want a really good open world RPG that has these I say go for Fallout 3 or New Vegas and if you’re looking for a really good fantasy RPG go for Dragon Age: Origins or The Witcher 2 because they're all a lot better than this game in many regards.  But again, keep in mind that this is just my initial reaction to the game.  Maybe it'll gets better the deeper I get into the plot and guild missions but I doubt it.  Is it game of the year?  Well, in my humble opinion, no.  But maybe the rest of the game will change my mind in this regard.  So until next time, this is The Illusive One signing off.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

           Well it’s time for another promo review and because Skyrim is almost upon us and I decided to give my thoughts on its predecessor, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Now, just as a quick warning to all you fanboys out there, I won’t be pulling any punches for this one. Because the game is so old, this review will be more on how the game holds up today rather than how it was when it was first released. I'll try to take into account how influential it was for other games and how it was when it was first released but for the most part, this will be more on how well it holds up today. So if you get pissed off at what I say for this, please leave your insulting comments to a minimum. So here we go. These are my thoughts on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

The Plot and Characters

           I decided to put these two together because I’ve often found that the plots and characters of games with complicated gameplay is usually what determines how well a game will hold up in the long term, not unlike the way movies do and because both have the same strengths and weaknesses. The plot of Oblivion revolves around your character who is trying to help the last heir of the empire of Cyrodiil prevent an invasion from the realm of Oblivion.

          Unfortunately, this is an area where the game fell flat and even fanboys of the series don’t deny this. Now I will say that the concept of the realm of Oblivion was pretty cool and is a one that holds up even today. But unfortunately nothing else does. It took nearly every fantasy cliché in the book and portrays it in its blandest and most uninspired form.

Ultimate Evil trying to destroy or take over the world? Check

Basterd son of a king/emperor tries to take the throne? Check

Wizard and/or politician who wants to get in hero’s way and make evil succeed? Check

Current Kingdom based on some old Empire? Check

Some random dude who gets caught up in this B.S. for no apparent reason? Check

Red Shirt Characters? Check

Protagonist Getting Captured? Check

          Now in fantasy, it’s nearly inevitable that these clichés are going to appear and they usually do. However, most fantasy writers actually have the brains to put some kind of new twist on the whole thing and that’s where Oblivion really dropped the ball in the plot department. Now some people may argue that it’s an older game so they may not have thought to put new spins on these things.

BULL SHIT!

          Considering that writers had already been putting fresh spins on these clichés for nearly a decade before this game came out, I don't think that argument is going to fly.

I think what really pisses me off about this is that the developers have proven that not only can they write decent plots and characters to their games but they can do a great job at it. To me, the plot of Oblivion just seems, and has always seemed, like an excuse to make the game rather than a compelling story and it just pisses me off to no end.

          The characters aren't much better and suffer from the same problems in writing. Their facial expressions are very wooden and could be really creepy at times and even great voice actors like Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean couldn't lift the blandness that the graphics and writing portrayed.

          Then we have the protagonist. Ugh....Where do I even begin with this guy? He's not compelling in the least bit. There are very rarely any dialog options for the character, (something that RPGs had been doing for a while even before this game came out), and he has zero back story. You literally know nothing about this character and it's as if he never existed before the game began. With other RPGs like KOTOR and later ones like Fallout 3, you could actually select the character's dialog from a list of options which in turn made the character compelling and it was almost like you were the character you were playing as. Your protagonist in this game just lacked any of that and this was something I had a gripe with even when it was first released

          All around, the plot and characters sucks. Again, the only thing that really holds up or was even good when it was released was the realm of Oblivion and even that's open for debate. It's not a storyline that I have any respect for and the characters are just as bad and these categories are probably worst I have ever seen with a game with such widespread critical acclaim.

The Gameplay

           While the plot of the game was god-awful, most people tend to run to the gameplay for their reasons in praising it. And to be fair, it was really good for its time. The large open world was unlike any other of its time, with an endless number of things to do, that included various guild quests, (but we'll get into those in a minute), being able to customize and armor your character anyway you sought fit and being able to pick up nearly every object and enter every building and all of these things keep players, (myself included), coming back for more.

          There were things, however, that were bad even when it first came out. The environments seemed to repeat themselves over and over again and you see the same dungeon and ruins designs over and over again and it gets a little tedious. The other thing that was really aggravating was the combat gameplay as it always felt stiff, clunky and a bit of a button masher, (I can't begin to count how many times I won a fight by just back stepping and swinging my claymore).   

          As I mentioned the main story is crap and the missions for them are just as clichéd and repetitive. The only guild storyline that I found appealing in the game was The Dark Brotherhood storyline. The rest, however, just felt like they were written for ten year olds, (working your way up the ranks of each guild in a ridiculously small amount of time and becoming the head of it and so forth).   

          Now, allow me to talk about the elements that don't hold up well today. The graphics are no longer appealing and just about everything that was good about Oblivion was made obsolete by Fallout 3. Granted, the game does owe a lot to Oblivion but it's still a fact.  

           All around, when the game first came out and when we walked through the world for the first time it was amazing and the good outweighed the bad back then. Today, however, it's nothing special. Everything that was good when it was first released has been made obsolete by the games that have come sense and the bad things have only gotten worse.

The Verdict

           Ultimately, this game does not hold up well at all and is one of the fastest aging games I've ever seen. I don't mean to pan this game because I did like it when I first played it but everything that was good about it became obsolete the moment Fallout 3 hit the shelves and the bad things that everyone seems to ignore have only gotten worse. I won't do a numerical rating on this game because it wouldn't be on par with the rest of this review, but suffice to say that I wouldn't recommend buying this game now. Again, don't get me wrong. I did and do like it and it was great when it first came out but has quickly proven itself to be the fastest aging game I have ever seen.

           So what's next for the franchise? Well, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and I would be lying if I said I wasn't hyped. I can't honestly say that it's going to fix all the problems that I had with Oblivion but it definitely looks like they improved on all of them. The graphics look amazing, the combat gameplay looks vastly improved on, the character interactions look great, there appears to be an endless number of things to do and you get to kill a shit ton of dragons! Granted I wasn't sold at the teaser trailer the way I was with Mass Effect 3 or The Dark Knight Rises but now it seems like it will be the best of 2011. And I can't wait to get my hands on it.

          So until next time this is The Illusive One saying....

Holy shit!
What is this?
Forged in God's very flames!
Do mine eyes
Tell me lies,
A new Elder Scrolls Game?
Time is nigh
I must fly,
Venture forth on my quest!
Goodbye Ma,
Goodbye Pa
And goodbye Girlfriend's breasts!
I'll be off
Azeroth
Catch you later Hyrule!
I'll be gone
Albion
I'm no longer your fool!
Other crap
Filled the gap
While I waited to begin...
The adventure of my life in the land of Skyrim!

Fallout: New Vegas

Throughout October, I reviewed a number of games in preparation for the late releases this year.  Now it's time to actually review one of these games.  I held off posting this review until I got what I felt was a fair perspective of the game  This is the followup to Fallout 3.  This is The Illusive One's Fallout: New Vegas Review.

   The Plot

            Unlike Fallout 3, the plot of this game was fairly straight forward.  A new democracy has emerged in California, calling itself the New California Republic and has quickly become the dominant power on the west coast.  As the Republic expanded it stumbled upon Hoover Dam intact and usable.  Not far from it, they also discovered a city untouched by the nuclear fire of the Great War called New Vegas, (formally Las Vegas), run by the mysterious and reclusive Mr. House with his private army of robots and rehabilitated tribals. 

            However, another power had emerged east of the Colorado River calling itself Caesar's Legion and the two great factions went to war over Hoover Dam with the NCR only just emerging victorious.  The Legion's defeat, however, was not decisive and across the Colorado river they prepare for another attack.  Four years have passed since the Battle of Hoover Dam and the New Vegas Strip has remain open for business.

            You play as a courier who is hired to deliver a platinum poker chip to the strip only to be ambushed and shot in the head by a mysterious man in a checkered suit.  Somehow you survive and peruse him to New Vegas and learn of the increasing hostilities between the NCR and the Legion and ultimately decide who will rule New Vegas, Hoover Dam, and the Mojave Wastelands.

The Game Play

            The basic game play was nearly identical to that of Fallout 3 with the same leveling upgrades and the same controls.  The only significant difference is the ability to look down the irons of the gun whereas in Fallout 3 it only zoomed in.  One of the major differences of these two games is your Fame Meter.  Different towns and different factions have different opinions of you based on your actions for or against the town.  For example, working for the NCR against the Legion gives you fame, (they like you), for the NCR but infamy (they hate you) for the Legion. 

            The game offers nearly identical sets of armor as Fallout 3 other then the Legion and NCR armor.  Wearing the armor of either of these factions makes them think you're one of them and will allow you to go places that would normally be forbidden.  However, this will make the opposing faction shoot at you on sight as long as your dressed in that armor.  Depending on the armor your enemy is wearing can determine how difficult it will be to kill it.  Wearing armor, for example makes it far harder to kill an enemy then it did in Fallout 3 and requires you to buy a variety of different ammo types such as armor piercing bullets or hollow points to kill different targets.

            The guns, however, are of a much larger variety in this game.  It has has the guns from Fallout 3 but also offers weapons such as a variety of Assault Carbines that resemble M16s.  There are also other familiar weapons such as 9mm pistols, light machine guns, and grenade launchers.  Additional mods can be bought for these weapons such as sights and handles for improved accuracy.

            There is also a huge number of quests in this game.  By my count there are over 200 and most don't offer Trophies or Achievements.  These quests usually involve the main factions and the independent towns throughout the Mojave and determining their fate.  Getting sidetracked from the main storyline is easy as a result and you could spend twenty hours on the game before even getting to New Vegas.

            You are also able to recruit a number of companions in this game and much easier to control then in Fallout 3.  For one thing, they don't die unless you kill them or if the game is in hardcore mode.  They just get knocked out.  There is also the Companion Wheel, that enables you better command your troops such as telling them to wait, be aggressive, to watch your back or to keep your distance.  Each of these companions also has a personal quest that involves their past, culture, or family.  Sometimes these quests improve your characters or have the opposite effect depending on the results of the quest.

            Another noteworthy part of the game play is Hardcore Mode.  This is a mode that requires you to eat, drink, sleep in order to survive and makes for a much more challenging game.  Failure to do these things will result in death.  Ammo is also given weight, limiting the amount you can carry.  Healing items, such as stimpaks, heal over time, rather then immediately and broken limbs can only be healed by a doctor or a doctor bag.

            If there is one bad thing to say about the game play it's that it is glitchy as shit!  These glitches  include but are not limited to enemies falling through the ground, problems loading, frequent freezing, and delays in pressing buttons and the reaction of your character and nearly make the game unplayable.  Maybe this was due to the programer laziness, to a tight budget, or due to the changing of people who hate you but who can say.   A lot of these glitches are being fixed by downloadable patches for the game that have already come out or are going to come out in the near future.  Regardless, the glitches are their and it's nearly a fatal flaw in the game play.

The Characters

            Unlike its predecessor, Fallout: New Vegas did not have a great cast of characters.   While your companions and their quests are interesting the rest of the characters often come off as wooden and cliched.  Mr. House tends to come off as your typical mafia/CEO overlord, Caesar as an insane but driven leader, and Oliver as your typical pencil pushing officer.  Ron Perelman reprises his role as the game's narrator and Mathew Perry does the voice of Benny or the man in the checkered suit.  Kris Kerstofferson also has a role in this game but it's so obscure that its actually possible not to encounter his character throughout the game. 

            Danny Trejo and Zackery Levi provide their voices for companion characters, but are also obscure and missable as are most of the companions in this game.  The companion quests are interesting and it's cool to see how a lot of these characters started out and to help determine where they go.

The Verdict

            All around this game was decent.  It was everything I expected but nothing more.  It was incredibly distant from Fallout 3 in the way they took its plot.  Their was no Enclave, the Brotherhood of Steel's involvement is minor, and Super-Mutants and Gouls are rare.  In this game, the true horrors of the wastelands are the people around you where there are no true villains, only the lesser of a number of evils and is more about prospering in the waistlands rather then just surviving in it.  It show guts on the part of the developers that they were willing to take a different approach to this game whereas the plot of Fallout 3 sometimes just felt like a remake of the first two.  But unfortunately the plot just wasn't as compelling as it was in 3. 

            The game suffered from flat characters and a huge number of glitches and sometimes seemed like it borrowed to much in game play from 3.  The environment, however, was great and was truly a unique thing to bring to the gaming world. 

            If you liked Fallout 3 I say give this one a play but just don't be expected to be blown away the same way you were with the last game.

All Around
8/10



Fallout 3

            It's October and this is the time of the year when the best games of year are released.  There are a number of impressive and anticipated titles that are due for release in October and November for the holiday sales, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fable III, Fallout: New Vegas, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2.  In preparation for these new games I shall be reviewing the immediate predecessors of each of these games over the next few days starting with Fallout 3.

The Plot

            Like previous Fallout games, this one takes place in the distant post apocalyptic, 50s themed, future, this time in the wastelands of Washington D.C.  You play as the only child of James, (or Dad), who's mother died during your birth.  You live your entire life in Vault 101, a society that never returned to the surface after a nuclear war, and your are convinced that you will live the rest of your life their.  One night, however, your dad suddenly leaves Vault 101.  The Overseer of Vault 101, (a dictator of sorts in the vault), goes nuts and  places the entire Vault in lock-down.  Fearing for your life, you flee the Vault and enter the harsh environment of the Capital Wastelands.  And so you go on a journey to find your father, and in doing so, get involved with his efforts to make a large water purifying device, help fight the war against the Super-Mutants, and eventually fighting a war with the Brotherhood of Steel against the Enclave, a tyrannical army claiming to be the rightful government of the United States.

The Game Play

        The game play was, without a doubt, the best for this kind of RPG.  The environment itself was just perfect for this kind of game.  While many people claimed it was bland with to much desert and gray, it's what I think a Post-Apocalyptic game should look like; a land scarred and mutated by nuclear fire  The entire environment reeked of tension.  Walking down any road could result in an attack by raiders or Super-Mutant and you'd never even know they were coming.  In the old subway systems, you never knew what you were going to run into and could be ambushed in the city at any time.  It's a harsh environment where everyone’s a killer and only the quickest survive.

            The V.A.T.S. System was awesome but made the game incredibly difficult when you ran A.P.  This is a system where you went into a kind of auto fire mode, aiming at specific parts of the body for greater damage.  This brings up one of my few criticism for this game.  With most games, you look down the irons of a gun, whereas in this game, you simply zoom in on the target.  This is an incredibly irritating thing when in fight, as its next to impossible to fire a well aimed shot, effective without the V.A.T.S.

            The game also offers a unique selection of weapons and armor.  The armors in this game, range from dusters to prison rags, from raider armor that looks like something out of a Mad Max movie, to power armor that has a delightful mix of futuristic and campy 1950's look to it. 

            Most of the weapons in this game are not that recognizable and are original.  You get your basic weapons that are mandatory for most shooters but the rest are not recognizable at all.  No M16s.  No machine guns.  No AK-47s.  What you get instead are Assault Rifles and Chinese Assault Rifles that are similar to the AK-47 but still different.  There are also rocket launchers and mini-nuke launching Fat-Mans but their effectiveness is limited mostly to larger enemies without risk of taking damage to yourself or your companions.

            The highlight of the weapons are the energy weapons.  While not the rifles or pistols you might see in Terminator or Star Trek, the energy weapons are impressive and the most effective weapons of the game.  The designs of the energy guns are crude, to put it lightly.  The plasma guns, for example  looked like mini-generators with triggers and gun barrels attached to them.  Despite their crude appearance, however, these guns are powerful, effective, and get the job done and more.

            This game also offer you to choose your sex and the way you appear in the game.  There is also a Karma System, very similar to what you would find in Fable.  Like Fable, people react to you differently the way your Karma is aligned.  Your Karma is effected by the choices you make and by whom you kill or don't kill.  For example, very early in the game you are asked by a man to activate a nuke that is in the center of a town called Megaton.  Choosing to destroy the town results in Bad Karma and deactivating the bomb results in Good Karma. 

The Characters

            This game, like many others of the modern gaming world, has an impressive collection of characters and voice actors.  The voice cast includes Liam Neeson as James, (Dad), Malcolm McDowell as President John Henry Eden, the leader of the Enclave, and Ron Perlman as the Narrator.  Other supporting companion characters include Fawkes, the intelligent Super-Mutant, Charon, the Ghoul solder, and Dogmeat, your faithful canine companion who you can find in a junk yard.  Other supporting characters include Amata, your best friend in the Vault, Overseer Alphones, the Overseer of Vault 101, Lucas Simms, the Sheriff of Megaton, Colin Moriarty, the saloon owner of Megaton, Elder Lyons, the leader of the Brotherhood of Steel, his daughter Sara Lyons, leader of the Lyons Pride, Dr. Li, a scientist who works on the water purifier with James, and Colonel Bells, the second-in-command of the Enclave.  All around the characters of this game were great.  They had great voice acting, great lines and were well written

The Verdict

            When the game was released in 2008, it was immediately met with praise on all fronts and won several Game of the Year awards.  For this review I am going to have to agree with the other critics.  This game was, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest games ever made.  While the game has its faults, it doesn't water down the over all experience at all.  It is a must play for any video game player and a crowning achievement in game development, showing anything is possible.  With Fallout New Vegas scheduled for release for October 19^th, expectations are high and we can only hope it will live up to the already lengthy legacy before it.

All Around

10/10