WET

For PS3, XBOX360 From Bethesda

Hot women, blood, limitless bodycount and a concert of bullets. We know that this formula is successful at most times. And Bethesda’s action shooter “Wet” tries to be one of those cinematic games who combine these elements. But this time there are some drawbacks which make the game not as good as other titles of this category.

           We are on the 70’s and Rubi Malone is “fixer”, an assassin for hire. Blubber mouthed, ruthless, extremely flexible and cold she is perfect for the job! And that’s what Ackers thinks, who hires Rubi to do a “special job” for him. Years later, after the job is done, Acker’s father returns to hire Rubi for a new job. This time, after the job is done, things go wrong and Rubi sets off to avenge Mr. Ackers for his betrayal. From London to Hong Kong Rubi has connections everywhere, so along with her skills her task would not be so hard. But Ackers has at his disposal millions of “bad guys” (smugglers, gangers etc) not to mention his 2 favorite personal bodyguards who will stop at nothing to kill Rubi.

            As every action shooter which respects itself, Wet main gameplay element is “bullet time”. For those who don’t know what “bullet time” is, it’s an ability to wall run, slide, dive, swing from a surface to another, and more, while shooting in slow motion. Luckily Rubi can use her 4 weapons (pistols, shotguns, SMGs and explosive- arrow crossbows) wielding two of each kind. So while two pistols are not anything special, two shotguns are powerful not to mention a pair of crossbows. During “bullet time” Rubi automatically aims with the one weapon leaving the player aim with the other at another target. Rubi also carries with her a katana which is extremely powerful and can be relied on quite often. Now, during story mode, based on how stylish are the kills you make, you earn points to spend to either upgrade Rubi’s abilities or her weapons stats. Speaking of abilities, the game features countless platforming moments so that superhuman Rubi will be able to make huge jumps, swing from poles/railings, jump from wall to wall and many more. The game also features the rage mode and the arenas. In rage mode Rubi fires quicker and enemies drop dead faster. The arenas are -as the title says- arenas (courts, markets etc) in which the enemies will spawn forever until you block their access to the arena. Of course QTEs are used often to either kill an enemy or open a door or anything. A nice addition is that during the loading screens you will see nice commercial from the 70’s which along with the graphics and the soundtrack will represent the 70’s in a beautiful stylized way. Finally, numerous "Boneyard challenges" in which you‘ll have to destroy wooden targets within the time limit are present, but only as bonuses after you finish the game, along with the point count mode. This mode makes you replay the story levels, only this time through the bodycount, you‘ll have to gain a certain amount of points. The control are simple (either they involve aiming or platforming) but they are not very convenient.

            

            The graphics are acceptable. While they are not detailed or polished the are stylized. Grind is present in every second and the characters and environments are animated like they are taken from an adult comic book. Especially when Rubi is on rage mode, everything switches to red, black and whit like “Sin City” but with far less atmosphere and far more action. The soundtrack makes the difference! Unlike the other elements of the game, it is amazing. Funk rock songs consist it. Believe me, you will play through certain parts only to hear specific songs. The voice acting on the other hand is nothing important and apart from the repetitive bang-bang (gunfire) there aren’t other sound effects. In fear of getting repetitive myself, I will once more add that the technological sector provides us with a humoristic and beautiful approach of the life of a hired gun during the 70’s.

            Wet has many drawbacks. First of all it’s repetitive. Killing enemies in slow mo is cool but doing it 60 times in a row gets boring. The loading screens are extremely long and while during most of them we watch some nice advertisements during other we just watch Rubi in an elevator doing nothing. Also the game realism is unnatural low making times like the ones in which enemies require over 50 bullets to die extremely unrealistic and boring as mentioned above. Even the QTEs are a bit tiring at times. The levels are linear. While there are plenty of locations, you finish an arena, run around a bit, finish another arena and end the level. There are 2 levels in which you fight in highway jumping from car to car and another one in which you fall from the sky as an airplane crashes but none from the 9 other levels is interesting. Plus, rage mode -which breaks the game repetitiveness- cannot be manually activated, which means that you will wait till the game decides to activate it. Finally, the story is silly which could be forgiven (considering that the game is an action shooter) only if the plot was ok. But it is not. The plot is neither attractive nor addictive and during the game ending many questions are raised (just pray that a possible sequel will fix the above)

            Unfortunately Wet great atmosphere is held back from its drawbacks. It could be a good game but it needed more time. And let’s not forget that “Bloodrayne” or “Max Payne” are titles you hardly put down to start another action shooter.      

DLC(s); -

A trailer;

Rubi in rage mode;

A part of the gameplay (evolving an arena gameplay);

And finally, one of the Boneyard challenges;

DANTE'S INFERNO

For XBOX360, PS3, PSP From Visceral

"At the midpoint on the journey of life,

 I found myself in a dark forest, 

for the clear path was lost" 

You may have heard of Dante’s Inferno. It is an Italian work of literature. Along with ‘Purgatorio” and “Paradiso’, “Inferno’ consists the Divine Comedy written by Dante Alighieri. But what has this to do with the videogames? It seems that Visceral decided to port the first part of the divine comedy to our consoles.

           

            Dante returns from the crusades haunted by visions of terrible things happening to his fiancée Beatrice. Following a dangerous path and a mysterious stranger through a dark forest, Dante finally returns to his home, only to find his entire family -including Beatrice- slaughtered. Beatrice’s spirit leads him to the nearby church where he watches in awe as Lucifer drags her spirit to hell. As a loyal lover Dante dives after her through the chasm that has been opened. Along with lifeless spirit a spirit with bones and flesh and blood crosses the other side. Landing to the first circle of hell –Limbo- Dante finds the spirit of Virgil the great roman poet. Taking pity over Dante, Virgil decides to help him and they both set of to reclaim Beatrice from Lucifer. A journey to the nine circle of hell begins with Dante defeating king Minos, the great judge of the dead, and ascending to the circle of Lust to defeat Queen Cleopatra. In the third circle –Gluttony- he faces Cerberus, the great worm, while in the fourth –Greed-, Dante’s own father awaits him. In the fifth circle -Anger- he tames the beast “Phlegyas” to help him break into the city of “Dis” where the four lower circle await. The sixth circle –Heresy- and the seventh –Violence- are located inside the wall of Dis. Especially in the circle of Violence, Dante realizes that his mother had hang herself and not died of fever, as his father had told him, therefore condemned to the level of violence against oneself. Also, his fellow crusaders wait for him in the level of violence against god since their war was unholy and deceived they believed otherwise. Beatrice’s brother Francesco also awaits for Dante in this level. The eight circle of fraud comes next and finally, deep down at the frozen foundations of the earth, in the ninth circle of Treachery, chained by the chains of Judeca, Lucifer the master of the inferno waits. During their ascension, pure - hearted Beatrice waged her purity with Lucifer, about Dante’s loyalty and kindness. Lucifer claimed that Dante, during the crusade, had turned into a savage animal. She of course refused to believe that. So what is the truth? What happened to Dante during his absence? The tattoo he has sewn to his chest tells only the truth. The nine circles of hell are occupied by thousand of creatures (minions, heretics, unbaptized babies, temptresses and more.) Obviously Dante also comes face to face with some of the damned few of them familiar to him. The game is partly loyal to the poem. The condemned you encounter are taken from the poem and the environments match the descriptions of the book. Also Virgil’s comments are the same with the ones in the book. On the other hand, Dante doesn’t slay demons and the bosses he encounters -except few- are not present in the book. Finally Dante has nothing to do with the crusades, so everything involving around Dante’s past are taken from the developers.

           

            To comfort the forces of hell, Dante has at his disposal two weapons. The first is a scythe taken from death himself when Dante defeats him, when they cross paths during the crusades. Dante also has the cross Beatrice gave him, before his departure, for good luck. A holy relic like the cross gains supernatural power at Lucifer’s domain. A good variety of combos for both weapons will make the minions tremble before you. Dante may also manipulate the power from the souls of the damned to master magic attacks. Also, you can tame gigantic creatures to fight along you. Apart from the killings now, the gameplay consists of numerous but extremely simple puzzle, many QTEs as well as some bonus minigames. There is also a dilemma for Dante, to either absolve or punish the damned he encounters. Depending on you choice, Dante will take a holy path (the cross is more powerful and holy magic attacks are unlocked) or the unholy one (the scythe is more powerful and unholy attacks are unlocked). Nevertheless, nothing else is altered depending on this choice. Finally, Dante can collect items which will upgrade his abilities. The controls run smoothly and there won’t be any problem responding in demanding situations.

            The graphics are beautiful which along with the soundtrack represent nicely the circle of hell. The characters and creatures are very detailed and the environments are well designed. The voice acting is simple but functions perfectly giving us some touching dialogues. The sound design is ok, with some nice tunes, but most important with a wide variety of sound effects. You will hear everything from the fire which burns till the screams of the damned.

            Now, as you may have heard already the gameplay and the controls are completely taken for the “God of War’ series. Also, the enemies you encounter at the latest circle are reincarnations of the old, with only some characteristics like their attack speed, changing. Finally the game is short which means that your journey through hell will be completed in around 5 to 6 hours.

            Nothing more to be said about the game here. Even if it’s like God of War it’s very good and you should play it without hesitations, if you don’t mind its drawbacks. Oh, something else, I liked the game so much that I was intrigued to read the original Dante’s Inferno.  


DLC(s); The Dark Forest, Trials of st. Lucia

An artistic trailer;

A gameplay video;

A trailer for the animated epic based on the videogame;

DEMON'S SOULS

For PS3 From Atlus

“The game is difficult. Very difficult!” “One of the most challenging games ever!” “It’s like trying to bring down a brick wall with your head!” But does Demon’s Souls really live up to these comments? Let’s see;

            King Allant, ruler of the kingdom of Boletaria, blinded by his desire to help his kingdom, summoned a powerful creature “The Old One” to grand him the power to do so. King Allant though didn’t’ consider the fact that The Old One was a demonic being whose intention had nothing to do with helping people. One after the other the lands of Boletaria became engulfed by a colorless mist, produced by The Old One in order to fulfill his true intention, to devour everything! The people in the devoured lands became possessed and turned into brainless minions of their new master. Many brave souls dare to enter the fog but none returned. And the world seemed condemned, as the mist spread beyond the borders of Boletaria, till a new hope emerged…  

           

            You start the game by fully customizing a -human only- character. Then you can choose one of the ten classes available (Soldier, Knight, Hunter, Priest, Magician, Wanderer, Barbarian, Thief, Temple Knight and Royalty).The game is an action – RPG so obviously there is a leveling system. The main currency of the game is the souls you earn by defeating enemies. They are used to level up, upgrade and buy weapons and armor as well as forging new ones. There are five mist engulfed locations (Boletaria Place, Stonefang Tunnel, Tower of Latria, Shrine of Storms and Valley of Defilement). Each one has its own unique features like bosses enemies and environments. The player in order to unlock the final area, Old one’s lair, must first conquer each of the five previous mentioned locations. Each quest starts from “The Nexus”. There you can travel to the five locations via archstones and meet the persons who have entered the mist before you, what remains of them anyway. Those able to support you will teach you spells and miracles or at least provide you with information. In Nexus you will also find the “Maiden in Black” who will -in return of your souls- level you up. The battle sequences are based on an action system and not the classical RPG one. So far -apart form the battles- we have a common RPG game but Demon’ Souls has two unique features. The first one is the “World Tendency” followed up by the “Character Tendency”. The game supports a system which lets you make every choice you want facing of course the consequences. The two tendencies are based on these choices. Killing or aiding a character will move your Character Tendency towards black or white while killing a boss demon or dying in a world will alter your World Tendency. And speaking of dying, here we have the second unique element of the game. If you die on body form, you still go on as a phantom. Phantom form thought brings your health bar down to half. If you de again as a phantom the game is over. If you are a phantom and want to regain your body form you can either use one of the few “Stone of Ephemeral Eyes” or defeat a boss demon. But will you die often? Is the game so much difficult? Frankly no! While it’s infamous for its difficulty Demon’s Souls is not that much of a challenge. Not in the first playthrough though. After finishing it once, you unlock NG (New Game) mode. In every “New Game” the difficulty level will increase, leading to the maximum increase of 122% in the seventh “New Game”. Difficulty level at 100% is easy but when it’s 222% then your life becomes hell! The controls are Ok, making the game experience run smoothly and turning complex moves easy (like the parrying attack).

           Demon’s Souls graphics are a bit old. The locations especially could be more detailed. Yet, the environments are –partly- interactive. Creating a bridge by knocking a pile of planks over a ledge or unleashing a group of boulders on some enemies is life saving at times. The sound is epic matching perfectly with the atmosphere giving us some of the most beautiful tunes in video games. On the other hand, the voice acting is bad and it’s often hilarious.

       

     The game also supports multiplayer mode. Leaving the “Blue Eye Stone” somewhere in a level can make another player, facing difficulties; summon you to his world in order to help him conquer this level. Or, you can use the “Red Eye Stone” to summon another player to duel with you, using a basic PvP system.

            As you have understood so far the story is nothing unique for an RPG also the Game physics engine is buggy making for example dead bodies stuck to your character’s legs. Also if you want to –easily- keep up with the increase of difficulty level you’ll have to farm souls a lot. This is ok for some but for others is pretty annoying

            Demon’s Souls was a game we had few expectations from. Its budget was low so that Atlus could not achieve much. Luckily Demons Souls prove us wrong because even though it doesn’t stand out from the rest RPGs it is a great game.        

DLC(s); - 

A trailer;  

A gameplay video;

A taste of the online experience;

CLIVE BARKER'S JERICHO

For XBOX 360, PC, PS3 From Codemasters

There was a time when Clive Barker used to write books like “Mister B. Gone”. Back then, he had given us his game, “Undying”. Now that Mr. Barker is into the “Hellraiser” series, he gives us another game, “Jericho”.

  

          ‘Jericho” is a squad of seven elite warriors specializing in the paranormal. There is the leader, Devin Ross, able to move his spirit through the other members, Father Paul Rawlings, a priest with the charisma to heal from great distance and exorcise, Wilhelmina Church, a rogue trained in blood magic, Abigail Black, a telekinetic sniper, Simone Cole, a computer expert with the ability to control time, Frank Delgado, a carrier of a 7.62 mm minigun and summoner of the fire spirit “Ababilini” and Xavier Jones a seer with the ability of “Astral Projection”.

           A portal in the eastern city “Al Khali” opens leading to “The Box” and the team “Jericho” is sent to seal it. The portal is created by ‘Firstborn” (a creature made by god before the human race, without having sex, without neither being pretty or ugly nor having age. After being disliked from its creator for being unbalanced, it was thrown away in the turmoil of a prison called “The box” (Hellraiser anyone?). But Firstborn wanted to avenge this…. Except Jericho another team enters the portal, “Brotherhood of the dark Rapture”, followers of the firstborn’s deity, in order to bring forth their God. But this was not the first time the portal was opened. During the WWII, the crusades, the roman and finally the Sumerian area two teams (fighters and followers of the firstborn) have entered the portal. When the portal opens Firstborn devours everything, the land and the people. But the lands and people the portal devours, before it closes, are deformed beyond any recognition. Homing creatures wonder aimlessly through barren wastelands. When Finally Jericho makes it to the end of the Sumerian area they have to make a choice. To close the portal, they can bound themselves to its turmoil and get trapped there fighting forever, waiting till the next time the portal will open, or, they can go down to the lowest part of The Box (Pyxis Prima) and comfort the Firstborn. They are warned though, that trying to kill it is in vain. Bounding themselves to the portal on the other hand, drives people to insanity and so Jericho decides to try and put a stop in Firstborn dominion. But interfering with Firstborn requires the ultimate sacrifice as Arnold Leach, the leader of Brotherhood of Dark Rapture, had found out, in his pursuit for ressurecting his god.

           The game starts with you controlling captain Ross. But soon –spoiler warning- he dies and so the player can control Ross’ spirit as it switches between the other members. You can control both the paranormal abilities and the standard weapons of each character. There is an option with witch you can give the other members some basic orders (hold position, move and clear etc) but after the first stages it's basically useless. Every stage starts by finding the remaining members of the 7 warrior squad and get information about the stage – time period. Each level ends with you, fighting against the main antagonist (leader of the followers) of every period. Except this fights you will also have to comfort the nightmarish creatures devoured by the portal. During the fights you will often have to respond to QTEs. Now, if during the fight one of your allies is downed you can either use Rawling’s healing ability, or get close to him/her and a simple touch will be life saving. The controls are ok, nicely responding to the commands you give to your character.

    

         The graphics are a bit aged. Yet the environments and especially the characters have a great level of detail. The music is nice but nothing of great importance. That's not a problem though, because during the biggest part of the game you 'll listen to the endless gunfiring and the character's voices - screams. The game's voice acting is fine, without anything special, but some spoken dialogues are really funny! It should be noted that there are some repetitions on the environments and the music tunes used in the game. Also, the whole experience of the game, is like taking a Goth, strapping him to a chair, drilling his brain out and projecting it to a screen.

          

          Let’s move on to the game failures. Switching characters on a FPS game may be original but is very disorientating, exposing you to unnecessary damage. This could be ok if the A.I. wasn’t that bad. Especially your allies’ A.I. is so poor that you will have to revive them almost forever. And when you play as Rawlings, the other members of the squad, seem to take your healing ability for granted, fighting without taking any cover. Also the story is not well told making your head spin if you think about it to much and finally the level of violence in the game is a bit extreme, but what did you expect from the creator of Hellraiser?

         In conclusion Jericho is not a bad game It’s just not as good as Undying. If you are a fan of Mr. Barker or you liked Hellraiser then don’t miss Jericho. You may even forgive its weaknesses but only if you are a sadomasochistic violence fan (or a Goth!).    

DLC(s); -

A trailer;

A gameplay video;