Dragon Age 2: Mark of the Assassin

            As I have mentioned before, there are many games out there with many pieces of DLC available for them.  Some are good and some...aren't so good.  But with that said, it's been a while since I've actually reviewed any of these and because it came out within the last month I decided to review the Dragon Age 2 DLC Mark of the Assassin.

            Now a lot of people were disappointed with Dragon Age 2 and it truly has divided BioWare fans more than any of their other games have done before and people tend to love it hate it.  But the game was still financially successful and reviews were generally positive and because of this DLC would inevitably follow.  The first major piece of DLC was Legacy.  In short, it was ok.  I told you some interesting things about the Hawk family and had a few interesting villain characters but was all around nothing special.  So was Mark of the Assassin anything special?  Well let’s find out.

            The plot of it revolves around Hawk as he agrees to help and elvin agent named Tallis steal a jewel from an Orlesian noble named Prosper and in doing so, gets caught up in her battles.

            On the positive side it had a great story that was well written, well-paced and full of twists.  The less said about the plot the better but take my word for it.  It's good in this area.  The new enemies like the wyverns and ghasts were welcome additions to the game and I hope to see more of them in future games and DLC.  The environments were well designed and it was very refreshing to see something that didn’t include recycled environments from a Dragon Age DLC, (for more info on this refer to my Dragon Age Review: Part 6).  They also included a few areas where you could use stealth rather than just fight your way through and I felt that was a welcome change of pace.

            In my opinion, however, the best part about this piece of DLC was the characters.  You had a lot of cameos by characters like Liliana, Bann Teagan and other characters introduced throughout both games and I thought that was really cool.  Other characters like Duke Prosper made for some interesting antagonists and the rest were just as interesting.  The best character out of all of them however, was the character of Tallis.  Her voice actor was great as was the writing for her and unlike many of the other Dragon Age 2 characters, she was actually a character you wanted to know more about.  It's actually a shame these characters weren't in Dragon Age 2 because if they had been, who knows?  It may have not received such mixed results from fans.

            The negatives are actually very few in number.  Combat-wise it doesn’t really offer much new to the game, other than the for-mentioned things and to my knowledge you don’t get any noteworthy items in it, (although I could be wrong in this).  Even though you control Hawk's actions, it's never really made clear what your motivation is in helping Tallis.  I know that's a weird thing to comment on but it's the truth.  There really isn't any clear motivation for Hawk to help her. 

            It also didn't really feel like a part of the game, so much as just another mission and that‘s the problem a lot of DLC has and this one fails to escape that shadow.  The only other negative thing I have to say is that I didn't care for the ending.  Minor spoiler alert but don't expect Tallis to become a regular companion.

            All around, this was a good piece of DLC as far as Dragon Age goes.  My standard for DLC, however, was kind of set with Dead Money of Fallout: New Vegas and Layer of the Shadow Broker of Mass Effect 2 and if you compare it with those two, it's doomed.  But it's still an all-around decent add on to the game.  If you take it for what it is, it's pretty good and if you liked Dragon Age 2, you'll like this one.

All Around

7.5/10

The Illusive One's Top Five Games of 2010

              Well, 2010 is over, 2011 is here, and a new year of games, films and books will soon be out or have already been released.  But before we get into anything from this year I'd like to take a look back at my five favorite games of 2010.  These games will be in order from my least favorite to my most except for the top two as it's next to impossible for me to put one ahead of the other.  So, without further delay, I present to you The Illusive One's Top Five Games of 2010.

          At number five is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.  Anyone who owned a NES or a Super Nintendo in the 80s or a Sega Genesis or a PlayStation in the 90s has to remember the Castlevania games.  For those of you who don't, allow me to refresh your memory.  To make a long story short, they were games where you played members of the Belmont family and/or their allies as they battle Dracula and the forces within his castle once every century.  However the games were unable to effectively make the transition from 2D to 3D in the late 90s and the series went way downhill and virtually unnoticed during the 2000s.

            That, however, changed with the release of Lords of Shadow in October of last year.  The game takes place in Medieval Europe and a spell has cut off Earth from the Heavens keeping all souls of the dead stuck on Earth.  In order to break this spell, the protagonist, Gabriel Belmont must slay the three Lords of Shadow, the creatures they command, and collect pieces of the Mask of Shadows in hope that he will use it to break the spell and resurrect his recently dead wife.

            The game had a large variety of enemies that included werewolves, vampires, zombies, ogres, trolls, goblins, wargs, giant spiders, and enemies that I have never seen or heard of before.  While the game is a button mashing hack and slasher it didn't come off as being repetitive like other hack and slashers such as Dante's Inferno.  The enemies were constantly changing, you gradually get upgrades and they never reused the same environment twice.

            While the plot may have been a bit clichéd, it made up for it with great gameplay, great voice acting, great enemies and a great after credits twist.  While there's no Dracula and many things from the old Castlevania games are missing, it is still, in essence, a Castlevania game and is one the greatest installments of the franchise.  So don't miss out on it.

           At number four is Fallout: New Vegas.  Since I have already done a review on this game I'll keep this one short.

            The plot of the game revolves around a courier who is shot in the head while delivering a package to New Vegas.  By some miracle he/she survives and goes after the men who did this and in doing so becomes a key player in the current war between the various factions in the Mohave.

            While the game did have a huge number of faults, it was still a Fallout game and that ensured it a spot on my list.  It still had giant, mutated creatures and enough human enemies for you to kill to rival a Call of Duty game.  It still wasn't as good as 3 and was a bit of a disappointment but was still one of my favorite games of 2010 and I would highly recommend playing it if you enjoyed 3.

           At number three is Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.  Once again, I've already done a review on this game so reference that if you want more detailed info on it.

            The plot of this game revolves around Desmond Miles as he once again takes control of Ezio Auditore in search of where Ezio hid one of the Pieces of Eden.  In Ezio's story, Ezio has to stop the Borgia family from conquering Italy by cutting off their support in Rome.

            The game, in a nutshell, it took everything that was good about Assassin's Creed II, put in a smaller scope, added a multiplayer, and gave you the ability to recruit other assassins.  As I said in my review, it was one of the greatest of 2010 so check it out if you liked II and enjoy ramming a few blades into a few throats.

           Now this is where the games get tied up.

           The first game tied for number one is Red Dead: Redemption.  Do I really need to explain why?  Well, once again, I will anyway.  You play as former outlaw John Marston as he hunts down his former gang for federal agents who are holding his family hostage.  In the process, you fight a war against outlaws, get involved in a Mexican Civil War, and have to put down a Native American uprising. 

            Up until this point, there really hadn't been a single decent western game released and I truly believe that only the creative minds at Rockstar Games could have pulled this off.  All of the previous attempts had gone under the assumption that giving a character a six shooter and a duster would automatically make it a good western and this game did so much more than that.

            As far as gameplay goes, just thing of a western version of Grand Theft Auto IV and you got it.  It was full of everything a western should have, ranging from six shooters to old time saloons.  A great twist on the whole thing is that it takes place in 1911 with a dying Wild West theme.  It adds a sense of a changing time; a period of uncertainty for the people of the west and those who have prospered in it and I really think this added to an already great environment.  Later in the game you go to a modern town and actually see and use weapons and technology that wouldn’t have been available in 1880s.   

            It had great gameplay, voice acting, great characters, a great plot and one of the most mature and realistic endings I have ever seen in a video game that leaves you feeling empty inside, just the way an ending should.

            It's already won many Game of the Year awards and John Marston is already considered to be one of the greatest video game characters of all time and was ranked at number 2 on Game Informers The Thirty Characters who Defined a Decade, so in truth, me writing this description is kind of pointless but I still had to give my opinion.  It is truly a masterpiece so don't miss out it.

           And finally, the second game tied for number one is Mass Effect 2.  Taking place two years after the events in the first game, Commander Shepard finds himself working with the pro-human terrorist organization Cerberus.  Together, they try to stop a race of aliens known as the Collectors from abducting human colonies for unknown purposes.

            The gameplay, environments, and graphics were hugely improved, the dialoged and voice acting was just as good as the first, and the characters were hugely improved.  The fighting controls were fluent and completely re-mastered and made for one of the best third person shooters I have ever played.  It's one, however, that you have to play in order to understand.  But still, it had great gameplay, great environments, great characters, a great plot, and great voice acting.  So don't miss out on it.

           

           

         

          Well, those are my top five games of 2010.  Keep in mind there were many games released last year that I didn’t get the chance to play and there are certain genres of games I just like more than others.  Until next time, this is the Illusive One saying thanks for reading.

 

 

Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money

            As my more dedicated readers know, I have done several game reviews over the months and many of which have had several pieces of downloadable content released for it.  For some reason, however, I have never gone into great detail with these but now feel that I should.  So, this is my first review of a piece of downloadable content.  It's The Illusive One's Review of the expansion for Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Money.

The Plot

            The plot of Dead Money is set in the time before the end of New Vegas.  You play as the courier, (obviously), when he picks up a radio signal on his Pip-Boy that advertises for the Sierra Madre Casino.  Eager to see what it is, the courier traces the signal to its origin but is knocked unconscious, striped of his/her gear and finds himself/herself in a hellish territory, (even by Fallout standards this place is bad), with a bomb collar strapped to his/her neck.  A hologram of a man named Father Elijah then appears and tells you that the only way he will let you go is if you help him break into the Sierra Madre Casino Vault that supposedly contains a fortune.  And so you go off to try to break into this Vault, free yourself, and escape the Sierra Madre.

The Gameplay

            While the controls and general rules of Fallout: New Vegas still apply to Dead Money, it still added a lot of things.  The difficulty factor in Dead Money was extremely high for several reasons.  The entire territory reeked of danger and the environment itself was poisonous and many areas were impossible to walk around without losing health.  Another constant hazard were radios and speakers  as they interfere with the frequency your bomb collar is on and can cause it to explode if you’re in a certain area for too long.    

            Rather than fighting Super Mutants, Ghouls, or people you fight these strange, humanoid creatures called the Ghost People and let me tell you they are tough to take down.  They move quickly, their tough, bullets do next to no damage against them, and even when you take down all their hit points they will just be knocked unconscious.  The only way to permanently kill them is so chop off some limb and that can be hard, especially when facing a pack of them.  Other noteworthy new enemies were the holograms.  These were major pains in the assess as they shoot very damaging lasers and were impossible to kill without disabling their projectors.   

            The game also offered a few new weapons that are worth mentioning.  The first was the bear trap claw.  That one has to be seen to believe.  Others were the magnum powered police revolver, the micro fusion powered holorifle, and the knife spears wielded by the Ghost People.

The Characters

            Strangely enough, there are only four characters, (not including the courier), in Dead Money.  The first, obviously, is Father Elijah who serves as the antagonist but is a forgettable one.  Throughout the Sierra Madre you meet three other people who serve as your companions.  The first is the Super Mutant with a split personality disorder named Dog who shifts between an intelligent Super Mutant to a savage monster.  The second is the treacherous Ghoul, Dean Domino, who wants nothing more than to take all of the Sierra Madre Vault's contents for himself.  The last to mention is the mute tech specialist Christine.  While the time with these characters was limited they were all good.

            Before I move on I feel I have to mention one last thing.  Towards the end of Dead Money the characters mention another courier who impacted their lives in some way and the epilogues mention that the two will one day meet and fight at the edge of the world, (who knows what the hell that means).  This addresses a minor plot gap that existed towards the beginning of New Vegas where another courier passes up the job you take after recognizing your name.  Never again was this mentioned or referenced to throughout the rest of the game and I can't help but feel that the epilogues mentioning of this mysterious courier is a foreshadowing for another piece of downloadable content.  And honestly, it's one I can't wait for.

The Verdict

            All around, this was a great piece of DLC and they don't get much better than this.  It had a great environment, great characters, great enemies, great additional weapons, and a great foreshadowing of things to come.  If you already own New Vegas I strongly recommend getting this piece of DLC.  So buy it, download it, and be ready to die a shitload of time.  It's worth it.

9/10

           

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