Dante Inferno: 8/10
Plot
After his death, Dante pursues his beloved Beatrice. He boldly tries to free her soul from Lucifer, who needs the soul of an innocent in order to escape from the depths of Hell. Lucifer tries to use the soul of Beatrice to escape Hell, and take over the Throne of God. Dante’s journey takes him past many monstrous creatures within the Nine Circles of Hell. Dante must confront his sins, along with his family’s past and his numerous war crimes, in order to save Beatrice. The game is able to create a very interesting story in relation to Christianity, the crusades and the Biblical hell.
People normally focus on the gameplay in regards of the whole “god of war copy” thing, but the story of Dante also reminds us a lot of Kratos, with Dante in a journey of redemption, trying to make up from his past mistakes and his family members are a major part in the story. Dante’s history was very good, but there was something about his character that felt missing, he just didn’t had the same impact to me as guys like Kratos, Prince of Persia, Dante from DMC. Something that bothered me was on how Dante was able to do what he does while supposedly being just a mortal man, like in the beginning instead of dying he just stole Death’ scythe and beat it to death.
Gameplay
Pretty much like God of War, The player engages in fast-paced combat, platforming and environment-based puzzles. In the game, Dante’s primary weapon is Death’s scythe that can be used in a series of combination attacks and finishing moves. His secondary weapon is a Holy Cross that fires a volley of energy as a projectile attack. In addition, Dante can use numerous magic based attacks and abilities channeled from a mana pool to help in combat, many of which are obtained as the game progresses. A quick time event system is used when attempting to discharge the demon of its master and during boss fights, where players must press the highlighted button on screen in order to continue the chain of attacks, or be countered and wounded otherwise.
Many attack combinations and abilities can be unlocked in exchange for souls, an in-game currency that is collected upon defeating enemies or locating soul fountains. Each of these skills fall into two categories; Holy (represented by blue orbs) or Unholy (represented by red orbs) skill trees. At the beginning of the game, both skill trees are equal in power, but as Dante gains more Holy and Unholy experience, more abilities become available for purchase. Experience is collected through the game’s “Punish or Absolve” system, where upon defeating enemies, Dante can either punish and dismember them or absolve and save them with the Holy Cross. Much experience can also be accumulated in punishing or absolving the damned souls of many famous figures in history that appear in Dante Alighieri’s original The Divine Comedy whereupon choosing their fates, players enter a mini game where the characters’ “sins” move towards the center of the screen, pressing required action symbols once the sin is in place. Players are rewarded with more souls and experience as the number of sins collected increases.
The game involves large sections of platforming, including swinging between ropes and climbing walls, both of which can involve hazards such as fire or swinging blades. There is also a series of environment-based puzzle sequences that can impair the progress of Dante’s quest, such as requiring the correct positioning of movable objects or pulling levers at the appropriate time. In addition, there are numerous hidden passages where Biblical relics can be found and equipped to improve Dante’s abilities.
The game is very challenging in its most difficult setting, especially the last boss, having to make good decisions with the upgrades in order to make your characters up for the challenge. The enemies were interesting and unique, providing a good variety in gameplay, the upgrade system was interesting and how it relates to our moral decisions in regards to the dammed souls was original. The game environment is… well guess beautiful isn’t the right word in this case, considering how bloody and disgusting hell is, but yeah it is very creative and shows a very disturbing, fucked up and interesting vision of hell and its 9 circles.
Devil May Cry: 8/10
Plot
Two Milleniums ago a great war happened between the human world and the demon world. The demons were far more powerful than the humans, but then a ray of hope emerged in the form of a different demon, Sparda. Sparda took petty on humans and defeated the demon emperor Mundus, sealing him along with his powers and the rest of the demon world with a spell. And after that he continue to protect the human world until his death, which earned him the title ” Legendary Dark Knight Sparda”. In the game, the protagonist is Dante, the son of Sparda. A very capable devil hunter who uses a great sword and two handguns. He has his own shop which he calls Devil May Cry.
The game begins with Dante being attacked in his office by a mysterious woman named Trish. He impresses her by easily brushing off her assault, and tells her that he hunts demons in pursuit of those who killed his mother and brother. She says the attack was a test, and that the demon emperor Mundus, whom Dante holds responsible for the deaths of his family, is planning a return.
The universe of DMC and Dante is pretty interesting and the story of the game is good on paper but the way its told in the game it’s just boring, the character ends up having some motivation to fight the bad guy… but the cutscenes are bland and it’s just there to have something to fill in the story, the acting also wasn’t very good. Dante isn’t such a bad character, Trish was annoying, the enemies had potential but story wise it felt wasted. The meeting with Mundus was quite good though, the game creates a lot of anticipation for this moments, and Mundus was quite baddass, but the Dante and Trish moments had some really bad voice acting and lines.
Since I played DMC3 first, I thought there would be more to the Nelo Angelo and Dante encounters and finale, but while the rivalry between the two was well done, it’s clear that in this game, they hadn’t really thought of the Vergil we saw in DMC3.
Gameplay
The gameplay consists of levels called “missions”, where players must fight numerous enemies, perform platforming tasks, and occasionally solve puzzles to progress through the story. The player’s performance in each mission is given a letter grade of A, B, C, or D, with an additional top grade of S. Grades are based on the time taken to complete the mission, the amount of “red orbs” gathered (the in-game currency obtained from defeated enemies), how “stylish” their combat was, item usage, and damage taken.
“Stylish” combat is defined as performing an unbroken series of attacks while avoiding damage, with player performance tracked by an on-screen gauge. The more hits the player makes, the higher the gauge rises. The gauge starts at “Dull”; progresses through “Cool”, “Bravo”, and “Absolute”; and peaks at “Stylish”. The gauge terms are similar to the grades given at the end of the missions. When Dante receives damage, the style rating resets back to “Dull”. Players can also maintain their style grade by taunting enemies at close range.
The player can temporarily transform Dante into a more powerful demonic creature by using the “Devil Trigger” ability. Doing so adds powers based on the current weapon and changes Dante’s appearance. The transformations typically increase strength and defense, slowly restore health, and grant special attacks. It is governed by the Devil Trigger gauge, which depletes as the ability is used, and is refilled by attacking enemies or taunting in normal form.
Devil May Cry contains puzzles and other challenges besides regular combat gameplay. The main storyline often requires the player to find key items to advance, in a manner similar to puzzles in the Resident Evil games, as well as optional platforming and exploration tasks to find hidden caches of “orbs”. Side quests, called “Secret Missions” in the game, are located in hidden or out-of-the-way areas and are not required for completion, but provide permanent power-ups. They typically challenge the player to defeat a group of enemies in a specific manner or within a time limit.
The gameplay is pretty fun, not only you have melee weapons but gun as well, enemies are unique and cool, requiring different strategies for each one, using certain weapons instead of others to beat them, it gets trickier in the harder difficulties as enemies get harder. You can find your own way on how to get around your foes, but some enemies have very few options on how to beat them. Only the underwater parts felt really unnecessary in the game, and it didn’t fit in the gameplay.
The bosses are hard and require great reflexes and strategies to how to find the best way to defeat them, being one of the best parts of the game, you face them multiple times, each time they get harder than in their previous encounter. You can upgrade your weapons and character, choosing the abilities you feel will help you the most, to increase your health to the max you need to complete the secret mission and each challenge you in a specific way. The environments are dark and gothic, you do feel like you are in a very isolated ancient place, then you later on you go into the demon world, which has fucked up look to it making things even darker, in that aspect it was pretty good.
DMC is known for its difficult, and yeah it’s quite hard, its normal mode is like the hard mode for other games, also there isn’t checkpoints, you need to use a orb for that, so many times you will have to replay the mission, they aren’t very long, so its not that annoying. The hard and “very hard” difficulties are so hard that they work pretty much as a bonus play, you start the game as your character like he was when you ended in the previous difficulty with the upgrades you had, because playing from zero is fucking insane, like truly rage inducing. I do like a challenge but the very hard mode, named Dante must die is hard as fuck even with a fully upgraded characters, more specifically the bosses, the last fights are crazy, just to think of playing it from zero give me headaches.
Devil May Cry 2: 6.5/10
Plot
Devil May Cry 2 begins with Lucia and Dante separately entering a museum where an important item called the Medaglia is stored. After defeating a group of demons in the museum, Lucia invites Dante to follow her to the Dumary Island, where he is introduced to Matier, her mother. Matier explains that she once fought alongside Dante’s father, Sparda, to defend the island against demons. She asks Dante to help fight Arius, an international businessman who is using demonic power in an effort to conquer the world.
The whole idea of the plot is already not that impressive, not only that but it’s told in a way even worse than in the first game, the voice acting is bad and Dante became a very boring character. It’s pretty much just a worse version of DMC, with bad characters and villains, boring Dante and an uninteresting story. It got quite confusing sometimes, and the story is really just there to have cutscenes between the missions. The game doesn’t add much to the franchise and feels like a spinoff, like those straight to dvd sequels to great movies, like it was only done to gain more money over the success of the first one.
Lucia was even worse than Trish in the first game, as a character and in voice acting, the villains are just boring and empty, the personalities of all characters just doesn’t make me interested in them at all, I just want the cutscenes to end so I can go to the next mission. The story is separated in 2 campaigns, Dante and Lucia, so to see how everything happens you need to play as the girl as well, which I didn’t enjoy at all and even then some of the things that happened in the story aren’t explained well.
Gameplay
In Devil May Cry 2, the player guides either Dante or Lucia through an urban environment, fighting groups of monsters in fast-paced combat. The game consists of missions with specific goals in the play area of the game itself. The player’s performance in each mission is ranked from D (poor/”Don’t Worry”) to S (excellent/”Showtime”) based on the time taken to complete the mission, the amount of Red Orbs collected, the overall “style” displayed during fights, item usage, and damage taken. In contrast to the rest of the gameplay, the style judging system used in the game has been cited as being the harshest in terms of how it judges the player’s performance.
Combat itself is based on the “style” the player demonstrates during a fight. The rating the player gains for style is improved by hitting enemies continuously while avoiding damage. This ranges from “Don’t Worry”, progressing to “Come On!”, “Bingo”, “Are You Ready?” and peaking at “Showtime”. If the character takes damage, the style rating falls back to “Don’t Worry”.
The game’s controls convert short sequences of button presses into complex on-screen actions. New to the series is an evasion button, which allows Dante or Lucia to roll, dodge enemy attacks, or run along walls. Another new feature is a weapon-change button, which allows the player to cycle through ranged weapons without switching to the inventory screen.
The game also features puzzle-solving and exploration elements. Gameplay involves the player examining their surroundings to find items and orbs. Red Orbs are used to acquire new combat powers and abilities for the characters. These Red Orbs are “the blood of demons”; enemies drop them when they are defeated. Dante and Lucia can also purchase items, which allow them to restore their damaged health or even instantly revive should they be killed by an enemy’s attack.
The Devil Trigger ability enables Dante and Lucia to transform into a demon form. This changes their appearance, increases their strength and defense, slowly restores health, and enables them to use special attacks and other passive and movement abilities, including increased speed and the power to fly. The Devil Trigger state lasts as long as there is power in the Devil Trigger Gauge, which increases by attacking or taunting enemies in the normal state and decreases by attacking in the Devil Trigger state or using Devil Trigger-only attacks. Unique to this game is the Desperation Devil Trigger — an enhanced form of the Devil Trigger — available to Dante when he is low on health.
Despite some new added stuff, the gameplay is just worse overall, gets boring and repetitive fast, the style points are different; you can get it by just repeating the same attack over and over and they fall back to zero really fast. Faster than in any of the other games, forcing you keep shooting the enemies while it’s far away to not lose points.
Which is one of the main problems, sometimes your attack don’t reach the enemies making you lose the style point, so you need to shoot it while getting close to it, the swords combos aren’t as good, you get 3 swords but they are just the same thing, same combos and moves. The environments are tedious for the most part, not creative and much bigger than the previous game, and while one could think that would be an improvement, it wasn’t, it just didn’t work with the game, enemies get too much spaced out, making it harder to reach them with a sword, but the big places were made due to…
They made the game more gun oriented, so they are much stronger and sometimes make the swords useless, you can just shoot the enemies and bosses and that’s it, they won’t take long to die, you get different guns, but the gameplay with them isn’t as fun as the first game, just shooting enemy after enemy to deaths gets quite boring. The devil trigger with guns can be very overpowered. Some of the bosses are not so bad, the final boss actually looks really baddass, their design wasn’t a issue.
The upgrade system is… also boring, you don’t get new moves and combos, just the swords and guns get more damage I think, the orbs upgrades are the same, there is new customization with the devil trigger, but no new moves. The secret missions now are just areas that you need to kill all the enemies on, so it’s repetitive and unoriginal.
The game difficulty is lower than the other games, it’s easy to not to die, but getting a S rank is harder since it has more variables to gain it, which includes the style points which feels kind of broken, the bosses kind of try to original and unique, but you can just shoot them all to death from far away. Do unlock the harder difficulties you need to beat Lucia campaign as well, which I wasn’t interested in doing at all.
Devil May Cry 3: 9.25/10
Plot
A prequel to the first Devil May Cry game, Dante’s twin brother, Vergil, and a man named Arkham release the ancient tower of Temen-ni-gru from below a modern city and conspire to use Dante to unlock the gate to the demonic realm. While working toward confronting his brother, Dante encounters Lady, a fellow devil hunter, and the mysterious Jester, an enigmatic figure that aids Dante throughout his journey.
The plot is much more interesting and better told than the previous games in all aspects, there is no comparison, from the characters and voice acting to the storytelling, twists, dam even the music, the emotional stuff is done so much better than what they tried in first game. The relationship between the characters… Dante/Vergil, Dante/Lady, Lady/Arkham, Vergil/Arkham were great and well done, as they change on and develop through the story. In this game they really solved the issue of the other games with the story.
Dante’s personality and character development through the game makes him one of the best characters in gaming. This is the game that made the Dante that most love, a funny entertaining baddass guy that anyone will love playing as.
It focuses on Dante development as a young cocky man to the devil hunter who follows Sparda ideals of protecting humans that we saw later on, as well as his relationship with his brother, how they see their demonic powers given by their father and the humanity given by their mother. Dante is cocky and funny, Vergil is calm and serious. While Dante is hothead and compassionate, Vergil is cold and uncaring. Dante wants to hold onto his humanity, Vergil wants to forsake it in favor of his demon side. Then there is the subplot of Lady seeking revenge against her father Arkham for killing her mother, the game centers about the theme of family, the 2 broken families in the game. Due to her feeling towards her father, Lady develops hatred towards all demons, even half demons like Dante, which was new to the series. Despite her driven to kill Arkham we can see how conflicted she is about her feelings towards her father. Arkham was a great villain manipulative mastermind, opposite to Dante who gains power and loses his family; Arkham is willing to kill his family to gain power. The ending for the 2 plots were great.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Devil May Cry 3 consists of levels (“missions”) in which players battle enemies, carry out platforming tasks and solve puzzles to progress through the story. The player’s performance in each mission is graded from D through C, B and A, with top marks of S and SS. Grades are based on time taken to complete a mission, the number of red orbs (game currency, obtained from defeated enemies) gathered, “stylish” combat, item usage and damage received. Stylish combat is the performance of a series of attacks while avoiding damage, and is tracked by an on-screen gauge. The longer a player attacks without repetition and evades damage, the higher the score. The gauge registers “Dope” after a few attacks, progressing through “Crazy”, “Blast”, “Alright”, “Sweet”, “SShowtime” to peak at “SSStylish”. If Dante receives damage, the style rating falls; if the gauge is “Crazy” or below, it will reset. Devil May Cry 3’s battle system allows a player to link attacks, with each weapon having a set number of attacks. Although the game focuses on battle aggression, a player must also employ strategy; the enemies use a variety of artificial-intelligence tactics, and respond to a variety of events.
The Devil Trigger enables the player’s character to assume a demonic form. This alters the character’s appearance, increases attack and defense, restores health and enables special attacks. The Devil Trigger state lasts as long as there is energy in the Devil Trigger gauge; the gauge rises by attacking enemies in normal mode, and falls when using the Devil Trigger transformation or other abilities using Devil Trigger power. The Devil Trigger mode is not available to Dante until one-third of the way through the game, while has the ability at the outset.
The major difference from previous Devil May Cry games is Devil May Cry 3’s combat system, which allows a player to choose one of Dante’s four combat styles; each style has a different focus and techniques. Style selection is available at the beginning of each level and during gameplay at checkpoints. The styles are Trickster, for dodging and agility; Swordmaster, with abilities for swords and other weapons; Gunslinger, with firearms techniques and Royal Guard, which allows a player to repel attacks with a button press (storing energy for retaliation). Later in the game, a player accesses two additional styles: Quicksilver (slowing enemies, while the character attacks at normal speed) and Doppelgänger (creating a shadow double who fights alongside Dante). A second player may control the shadow double by pressing “Start” on a second controller. A two-player mode, similar to the Doppelgänger style, is accessible while Dante and Vergil battle Arkham. In the special edition Vergil has another style, Dark Slayer, which is similar to Trickster.
The gameplay is very fun and interesting, allowing the player to choose his fighting style either by the Styles or by using different weapons and guns. You can play the game 2 different times while using completely different weapons and abilities, giving the player a complete new experience, despite just being a hack/slash of 5-10 hours it has a lot of replay value, like the ones before.
Not only from the unique ways of different gameplay but the difficult setting also give the player a new experience, like the others, you need to beat the game on the lower difficulties to unlock the next harder one, which one should play with the upgraded character from the previous gameplay. It’s like a bonus play but without the easy thing, since even with a full upgraded character the hardest difficulties are hard as fuck, enemies get better or are replaced by stronger ones so it’s not playing the same game again. To get S rank on them is pure madness. MADNESS. There is even a new setting that you can kill and get killed by just one attack, another original playthrought. Enemies are cool and unique unlike in the first game, there wasn’t any enemies are was pretty much forced to use a certain weapon or strategy to defeat them, in this one yeah the fighting style of the enemies is very variate but you can defeat them in any way you like. Same as the bosses, cool, unique, hard and baddass but the way you fight them can become repetitive, the fighting style is more of a choice than a need in this game. But Arkham boss fight was disappointing, for such a badass villain, his final form was bad.
You can upgrade your abilities and weapons by using the orbs, you get different costumes after beating the game and you can play the game as Vergil, giving yet another playthrought experience. The game is truly an evolution for the series bringing the hack/slash genre to a whole new level.
Devil May Cry 4: 8,5/10
Plot
The story follows Nero, a teenager possessing demonic powers who is on a mission to stop the series’ main character, Dante, after he assassinates demons from the Order of the Sword including its leader.
Nero is a young man living in the castle-town of Fortuna on a remote island, seemingly isolated from the rest of the world. It is here that Nero works as a demon hunter for the Order of the Sword; a previously unseen sect of militarized priests who worship the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda as their God. Through subtext, Nero is inferred as being an orphan of unknown origin, with the white hair and bad attitude not unlike a Son of Sparda. Taken in at a young age by the family of his love interest Kyrie and her older brother Credo, the captain of The Order’s Holy Knights, Nero grows up a loner; unconvinced with Fortuna’s radical faith in Sparda, but all too willing to protect his family by fighting demons alongside Credo, with the best of them.
The way the story starts and develops, through a lot of cutscenes and twists was very good, storytelling was in DMC 3 level as well as the acting and music, the character development wasn’t as great as in DMC3 but also few games can reach that.
Nero and the members of the Order of the Sword were quite good, the relationships between each of the characters and how they go as the story progress were great, the villains were good, both the humans and main demons, the final boss was truly someone you want to beat the crap out of, in the story telling they really make you hate the guy and want Nero to get what he wants. Dante was made into a mix of his goofy personality and the little more serious like one in the first game while maintaining some smartass remarks, he was really great, the badass grown up Dante we wanted to see. Trish and Lady return for a bit, Trish was a huge improvement over DMC1, it’s cool to see their interactions with Dante, and it’s nice to see that they weren’t forgotten and showed up in this story.
Gameplay
Gameplay in Devil May Cry 4 is similar to previous games in the series. The player must fight through levels called “missions”, occasionally solving puzzles or gathering items. Performance in a mission is graded from D being the bottom grade through C, B, A, S, SS, and SSS being the highest grade. Grades are based on items used, Red Orbs gathered, time taken, and the amount of Style Points accumulated. Each Style Point grade has its own tag-word. The stylish grade shows up on the side of the screen and starts at “Deadly”(D); progresses through “Carnage”(C), “Brutal”(B), and “Atomic”(A); then, progresses through one last bar of grade containing the phrases “Smokin'”(S), “Smokin’ Style”(SS), and lastly “Smokin’ Sick Style”(SSS). Stylish combat is the main focus of the game, which is conveyed through unbroken combos of varied attacks while avoiding damage. The player must avoid enemy attacks to continue performing combos, often by memorizing attack patterns. The Devil Trigger is a super state that enables the player to become more powerful adding a slow but steady health regeneration, with increased damage done. Devil Trigger can be activated by pressing the button to trigger it when the minimum amount on the gauge is filled.
Some changes introduced into Devil May Cry 4 are the presence of two playable characters, Dante and Nero, and a slight modification to the shop system. A new currency, Proud Souls, is used to buy new abilities while Red Orbs are used to buy items. Proud Souls are rewarded at the end of missions and the amount varies depending on how well the player performed. Cost of abilities also increase with the purchase of other abilities, though all abilities can be sold back for the original price.
The player plays as Nero throughout most of the game. He is equipped with the Red Queen sword, Blue Rose revolver, and the powers of his Devil Bringer. The Red Queen features an Exceed Gauge that can be charged up, allowing for subsequent attacks that are more powerful than regular slashes, until the gauge empties. Nero also has the powers of his Devil Bringer, and can use it to pull himself towards enemies or vice versa. The Devil Bringer may also be used for context-sensitive throw attacks, leading to high damage and various effects depending on the enemy. Nero’s Devil Bringer also gains new abilities during the course of the game, such as being able to detect secret missions or caches of Red Orbs. Nero eventually gains the ability to use Devil Trigger after getting the katana known as Yamato, which increases his Devil Bringer’s power, thus changing his Devil Bringer attacks into more powerful versions with different animations.
The player plays as Dante through seven missions, taking over halfway through the game. His gameplay is similar to that of Devil May Cry 3, with him having access to multiple melee and ranged weapons which he gains after boss battles, and being able to cycle through them freely in combat, being no longer limited to equipping two weapons of each type as he was in the previous game. Dante also starts with his four styles, each of which grants him different abilities, but he may now switch them at will with buttons or pads on the controller, unlike in Devil May Cry 3. He also gains the Dark Slayer style near the end of his appearance, which only has one style level. Styles do not level up through experience as in the previous game, but must instead be upgraded like other skills in the shop screen in between missions or at statues. Dante can also enter Devil Trigger; in his Devil Trigger he gains most of the benefits that Nero’s Devil Trigger has, though, as he does not have the Devil Bringer, he gets animation and property changes on some of his normal attacks instead.
Many thought the changing the Dante to someone else would be bad, but it adds a new style of fighting in DMC mechanics with new weapons and abilities that fit within a specific character, we have a main sword and a gun like in the other games but the Devil Bringer, the special arm Nero have add a whole new aspect to the fighting. It works both as a melee and long range weapon and can apply special moves on stunned bosses, almost like a quick-time event, that gives them lots of damage. I always though some bosses in the series took way too long to kill, making the challenging but also boring in some repetitive fights, but with this special moves, it accelerates the outcome. Some enemies from the first game return, it’s cool to see them again, there are new enemies, they are different from each other and require different strategies on how to defeat them faster.
Dante is the best that he have ever been, the gameplay as him is even more baddass than in 3, you can switch between all his styles within gameplay which gives the player lots of ways to play the game and switch between it during the fights. While you don’t have as much devil arms and guns as in 3, you get really fun unique weapons, being able to switch between 3 devil arms and guns, and fuck… it’s fun as fuck. Dante is just so baddass and overpowered. The upgrades are great, following a mix of what we had for Nero and some stuff from DMC 3. It’s incredible how while following the way of gameplay, the experience of playing as Nero and Dante can be so different from each other, each one is very enjoyable to kick ass as.
The main issue in the game is the backtracking from the point you play as Dante on, it’s just Nero campaign in reverse, would have been better some new scenarios instead of just repeating the same, feels like you are playing the same game twice. Sure there are more, stronger enemies as Dante, the order of places you go in the missions are different but that kind of hurt the game a bit, making the environment repetitive. But you have to fight the same bosses as Dante, and then again in another Nero mission, which was kind of like the one in 3 which you had to fight all the bosses again, so you end up fighting some bosses 3 times, which despite the fact the games gives you lots of different styles so that the way you fight each boss can be different in each playthrought… it’s still quite repetitive. At least the last bosses were pretty baddass, the Savior, that huge statue is pretty cool to fight, having to climb and fight something that big is quite unique in gaming and reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus. Even the Sanctus was alright, still better than anything out of DMC 2.
Ghost Rider: 7/10
Plot
Gameplay
The game works as a mix of devil may cry and god of war. Combat wise, light/heavy/grab attacks and the upgrade system are like GOW using orbs taken from killing enemies, also orbs to hp and another ability. There is meter that get filled as you attack without taking damage which give more orbs from killing, like DMC. Also there are levels where you ride. In the end the game is quite fun, even though getting quite repetitive but still enjoyable.
God of War: 1 – 9.5/10
Plot
God of War is set in an alternate version of ancient Greece, populated by the Olympian Gods, Titans, and other beings of Greek mythology.
The game starts with our character saying how the gods abandoned him and all hope is gone as he jumps form a cliff to kill himself. The game then chances 3 weeks in the past as our character Kratos, ordered by the gods, defends ships from hydras and is ordered with a final quest, to kill the god of war Ares, after he rebelled against Olympus. Right at the beginning we notice that Kratos is suffering, as we know he will attempt suicide in the future. At the start is shown that he have constant nightmares/visions that have been tormenting him for 10 years and no matter the wine and the women he gets, it isn’t enough to clear his mind. Because of this he have been serving the gods, in hope they get rid his nightmares. As the story progress, we learn more about Kratos, his past and the origin of his nightmares.
The way the story is told was very original and interesting, at first we don’t know much about Kratos, why he wanted to kill himself, why he is hated by many he encounters, why he seems to personally want to kill Ares, through flashbacks we find out what led Kratos to those things, and it really does change the way we see the character. At first we just think he is baddass, strong man, the classic greek hero, a champion of the gods, the perfect male role model, but we can end up hating him, feeling sorry for him, feeling he deserves his fate. And Kratos himself shows self-hatred, guilty, we can relate to him in many ways, which is something a few games can offer many men have felt the desire of power… glory, women, admiration from others, but sometimes to gain something one needs to sacrifice another, and Kratos learned that the worse way for him. The character is interesting, not only a strong, angry, revenge-driven man, but a tormented suffering one who wants to find peace. By relating to Kratos we can feel the desire to kill Ares, we want revenge as well, we find motivation to play to we can kill the god of war.
The game make us feel strong and weak at the same time, we play as a baddass warrior who is also a broken man afraid of his acts who wants peace even if it means death.
Gameplay
God of War is a third-person single player video game viewed from a fixed camera perspective. The player controls the character Kratos in combo-based combat, platforming, and puzzle game elements, and battles foes who primarily stem from Greek mythology, including undead soldiers, harpies, minotaurs, Medusa and her Gorgons, cyclopes, wraiths, satyrs, centaurs, cerberuses, and boss opponents—the Hydra and a giant minotaur known as Pandora’s Guardian. Platforming elements require the player to climb walls and ladders, jump across chasms, swing on ropes, and balance across beams to proceed through sections of the game. Some puzzles are simple, such as moving a box so that the player can use it as a jumping-off point to access a pathway unreachable with normal jumping, but others are more complex, such as finding several items across different areas of the game to unlock one door.
Throughout the game world, the player finds chests colored green, blue, or red, and each chest contains orbs of the corresponding color. Green orbs replenish the player’s health, blue orbs replenish magic allowing further usage, and red orbs provide experience for upgrading weapons and magic—allowing new, more powerful attacks—and replenishing the Rage meter, which, if full, allows for the usage of the Rage of the Gods ability. Red orbs are also collected by killing foes and destroying certain inanimate objects. The player can also find Gorgon Eyes and Phoenix Feathers in unmarked chests. The Eyes and Feathers increase the length of the Health and Magic Meters, respectively; finding eighteen of an item maximizes a meter and in turn, the player’s power.
Kratos’ main weapon is the Blades of Chaos: a pair of blades attached to chains that are wrapped around the character’s wrists and forearms. In gameplay, the blades can be swung offensively in various maneuvers. Later in the game, Kratos acquires a secondary weapon called the Blade of Artemis: a large sword that offers alternative combat options. Kratos also learns to use four magical abilities, (such as Zeus’ Fury: allowing lightning bolts to be thrown at distant targets) which allow the character to kill both individual and multiple targets. Other magical abilities include Medusa’s Gaze, Poseidon’s Rage, and Army of Hades. A relic called Poseidon’s Trident is also acquired, allowing Kratos to breathe underwater and navigate through this environment. Early in the game, Kratos also acquires a special ability called Rage of the Gods, which provides temporary invulnerability and increased attack damage.
In combat, a quick time event (QTE) feature, also called context sensitive attacks, is initiated when the player has weakened a strong foe. The player performs a sequence of actions on the game controller shortly after an image of its circle button appears as an on-screen prompt. This allows for limited control of Kratos during a QTE cinematic sequence, which, if successful, ends the battle; failure usually results in damage to the protagonist. Similar in function is a quick time sex mini-game in the form of an encounter with female twins, which has become a regular feature throughout the series.
The game have one the best openings in gaming, the chaos of the ships being attacked by Hydras, the powerful character we play as, and the animations of combat while fighting the Hydras was something unique and out of the world at the time. The huge variety of enemies, combos and magic makes the game much more interesting and you can keep on killing enemy after enemy without getting bored and excited as new enemies are encountered and how you will defeat them. Some enemies requires different strategies, there are many way to defeat them, the stronger ones makes you more limited on how to beat them so you only have few options. As you upgrade your weapons and magic you face stronger variants of the enemies, always keeping the challenge high, the very hard/God mode is a true challenge, and Ares is one the best final bosses ever, you really feel the power of a god against you.
The environments are beautiful and creative, sometimes you just stop to see how detailed and interesting they made places using Ancient Greece architecture, we see many statues of gods, soldiers, paintings, illustrations, every place you go is unique. Which prevents any boredom from the environments.
God of War 2 – 9.25/10
Plot
After the events of first game, Kratos is considered a threat to the gods and then betrayed and killed by Zeus. Helped by the titans, he goes on a quest to find the sisters of fate and change his destiny. The whole idea of the history is great, Kratos being betrayed by the gods, and then their ancient enemies the titans join up with Kratos to start a new war with the gods and destroy Olympus. But it could have been told better in some aspects, since Kratos’ new goal is to reach the sisters of fate and change the past, there are some time traveling involved and stuff like that always bring some confusion.
The good is that we get more backstory on the titans and the gods, many more characters are introduced, the god of war universe felt bigger. The worst part is the change of Kratos’ personality, instead of the depressed tragic hero from the first game, Kratos went back to his old days as a spartan general, while being the god of war we became much angrier, hateful and warmongering, it’s almost hard to stay on his side on some of his actions, and he have gotten more cocky and arrogant, to the point where some lines just felt unnecessary, of course the gods are assholes, but Kratos didn’t seem much different some times.
Zeus didn’t felt as strong as I expected him to be, he could have showed more feats during the battle and the cutscenes, and we don’t feel the same need to kill him as we had for Ares, at least not with the events on this game alone. I wish Athena would have appeared more, we don’t we much more info on Kratos, the flashbacks aren’t related to him, it has actually one the best endings in games, setting up for the sequel that would make people run to get a ps3.
On Kratos’ personality, the game GOW: Ghost of Sparta helped to explain why he is so pissed off, it really made his change more acceptable, and why Kratos is soon angry and continues to get more and more angry after the events at the end, but the events in Ghost of Sparta are never mentioned of GOW2 and afterwards on 3. Overall the storytelling wasn’t on the first game level, but I didn’t expect them to top that, it would be too hard and I can see why at this point they decided to not focus on Kratos so much on this one.
Gameplay
God of War II is an action-adventure game with hack and slash elements. It’s a third-person single-player video game viewed from a fixed camera perspective. The player controls the character Kratos in combo-based combat, platforming, and puzzle game elements, and battles foes who primarily stem from Greek mythology, including harpies, minotaurs, Gorgons, griffins, cyclopes, cerberuses, Sirens, satyrs, and nymphs. Other monsters were created specifically for the game, including undead legionnaires, ravens, undead barbarians, beast lords, rabid hounds, wild boars, and the army of the Fates, including sentries, guardians, juggernauts, and high priests. Platforming elements require the player to climb walls and ladders, jump across chasms, swing on ropes, and balance across beams to proceed through sections of the game. Some puzzles are simple, such as moving a box so that the player can use it as a jumping-off point to access a pathway unreachable with normal jumping, while others are more complex, such as finding several items across different areas of the game to unlock one door.
Kratos’ main weapon is a pair of blades attached to chains that are wrapped around the character’s wrists and forearms. Called Athena’s Blades in this game, they can be swung offensively in various maneuvers. As the game progresses, Kratos acquires new weapons offering alternative combat options. Although Kratos begins the game with Athena’s Blades and the magic ability Poseidon’s Rage, the blade’s power is reduced and the magic is relinquished after an encounter with Zeus. As with previous games, Kratos learns to use up to four magical abilities, such as Typhon’s Bane that acts as a bow and arrow for distant targets, giving him a variety of ways to attack and kill enemies. Other new magical abilities include Cronos’ Rage, Head of Euryale, and Atlas Quake. The special ability Rage of the Gods, featured in the previous game is replaced by Rage of the Titans. Kratos retains the relic Poseidon’s Trident from the original installment, and gains new relics; the Amulet of the Fates, the Golden Fleece, and Icarus’ Wings, each being required to advance through certain stages of the game.
Gameplay wise it was an improvement over the first one, the attacks, combos, movements, quick time events have gotten better and more creative, the magic was fine, the gorgon gaze is back now with Medusa’s sister head which have more features, the 2 new melee weapons are interesting but are not as fun as the main blades.
There is a bigger variety of enemies, original and creative as expected, but some of enemy variants could have showed up more, like there is a new very cool Cerberus that you need to use 3 quick time events, taking one head at a time, but you only get to fight him once, they brought a lot of things but didn’t use it to the full potential. Well, except the boss fights, there is a lot of them and they each was original and creative, on that aspect they really nailed it.
They really turned the very hard mode into a nightmare, not only it’s enemies have more health and do more damage but all orbs you gain in the game are worth less, meaning it takes longer to upgrade weapons and magic, and only focusing on the most important ones, and the health and magic chest don’t even full recuperate your stats.
So things get 2 times harder than a very hard mode with normal orbs, which would already be hard on its own. Unlike the first game, some parts really made me die a lot, in this one you can’t spare much magic, since orbs are worth less, in 1 you can just spam Medusa’s gaze on most enemies and that’s it, now you are forced to use the blades, block and rolls more. Also depends on the strategy you use, some parts can be harder than others depending on it.
One new feature is the bonus play that has you start the game with all the upgrades which you finished with, new costumes and special urns. It’s fun to play with some of the alternative costumes but most of them end up making the game too easy, since they already make Kratos stronger, and with all the upgrades plus the urns makes Kratos unstoppable, it makes the game have more of replay value. But for me the normal play is better.
Splatterhouse: 8/10
Plot
Rick Taylor and his girlfriend, Jennifer Willis, go to the West Mansion, home of the insane Dr. Henry West to do a report on him for the Miskatonic University newspaper. Minutes after they enter, everything goes horribly wrong. Dr. West shows up, kidnaps Jen, and has his creatures fatally wound Rick, leaving him for dead. Rick, laying in a puddle of his own blood is soon offered an incredible power by a demonic mask known as the Terror Mask.
The story can seems quite simple but as we progress and the time/paradox part comes things get much interesting, also as we unlock West’s journal, we get a lot of information a gives much deepness to the story and to our villain. West was a great character with a lot of background, being a tragic villain. Ricky was pretty much what I expected; an average nerd guy willing to whatever he can for his love but also starting to enjoy his new powers. The mask was incredible, funny, evil, a great antihero that despites helping us, has its own goals.
Gameplay
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II 7/10
Plot
The game takes place approximately six months after the events of the first game, and a year before the first Star Wars. Players control Starkiller’s renegade clone, a failure of Darth Vader’s attempt to create a perfect secret apprentice. The story felt small and empty, things seem to end fast, and well it’s a short game, but the cutscenes are just there to fill space, some parts and characters felt unnecessary, Starkiller isn’t much as a character, just can’t really care for the guy, or his clone in this case… as well as his damsel in distress. The parts with Darth Vader were good though, even the ending was fine, being able to choose a light x dark side ending was good as well. It’s good they didn’t make Vader seem weak, he is still powerful but is vulnerable to force lightning due to his suit.
Gameplay
The Force Unleashed II is a third-person action game in which the player’s character’s weapons are the Force and a lightsaber. The game has a combo system for stringing lightsaber attacks and for combining lightsaber attacks with Force powers. Like the original Force Unleashed, experience points earned by killing enemies and finding artifacts can be used to increase Starkiller’s powers and traits.
The Force Unleashed II refines gameplay elements from the first Force Unleashed, and adds more variety with such features as puzzle solving. Combat was modified to include the ability to wield dual lightsabers, which can dismember or decapitate enemies. The game also adds more Force powers, such as “Mind Trick” and “Force Rage”.
The gameplay is quite fun, you got lot of abilities that can make you feel really powerful with the force, you can upgrade them to get stronger. There is customization on the color of your lightsabers and different costumes, enemies as variations of Stormtroopers and different kinds of robots. There are some unique bosses and fuck… the final boss with Darth Vader was great, best part in the game. So overall the game is fun to play, but it’s short and gets repetitive after a while since you can fight all the enemies pretty much the same way.
The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers: 7/10
Plot
During the Third Age, a still weakened Sauron covertly established a stronghold at Dol Guldur. In response to this undetermined evil, the Valar sent five Maiar to Middle-earth. Taking the form of wizards, they were led by Saruman. Unsure of the origin of the evil power in Dol Guldur, the wizard Gandalf was sent to investigate. However, Sauron hid from Gandalf, waiting for four hundred years before returning. Around the same time, the One Ring was found by a Hobbit named Sméagol, who became utterly corrupted by it, living in the caves of the Misty Mountains, and physically transforming into a creature known as Gollum. For five hundred years, Gollum was consumed and corrupted by the Ring. Eventually, Gandalf was able to determine the evil presence in Dol Guldur was indeed Sauron. Gandalf reported back to the White Council, but Saruman dissuaded them from moving against Sauron. Only when he learned the One Ring may be in the vicinity of the Gladden Fields did Saruman agree to attack Sauron, hoping to find the Ring himself. The Council drove Sauron from Dol Guldur, unaware that he knew the Ring had been found. Just prior to Sauron’s departure, the Ring passed to another hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who used it to assist in the victory of elves, men and dwarves at the Battle of the Five Armies. Sixty years later, Gollum was captured by orcs, and taken to Mordor, where he was tortured into revealing the owner and location of the Ring; Bilbo Baggins of the Shire. In the meantime, Bilbo had left the Shire to live in Rivendell, and upon the advice of Gandalf had given the Ring to his nephew, Frodo Baggins. With the information given him by Gollum, Sauron, still unable to take physical form, thus sent the Nazgûl to the Shire to retrieve the One Ring. Frodo, and his friends, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin “Pippin” Took and Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck managed to escape the Shire and make it to Bree, where they encountered the ranger Aragorn, the last surviving descendent of Isildur, and rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. Aragorn vowed to protect the hobbits on their journey to Rivendell.
After a tutorial level in which the player controls Isildur during the Battle of the Last Alliance, the game begins with Aragorn stating “I am Isildur’s heir. Not Isildur himself. My fate is my own.” He then rides to Helm’s Deep where he awaits the attack of Saruman’s army of orcs and Uruk-hai. Atop the battlements he tells Éowyn of his encounters with the enemy his tale prior to his arrival.
The game follows the story of the first 2 LOTR movies, using movie scenes as cutscenes as well as some game animations, only difference is that it is told by Aragorn perspective to Éowyn while he is chronologic near the end of the game. The game is “Aragorn story” but you can also play as Legolas and Gimli. It was great how they were able to get the actors from the movie to voice the characters in the game.
Gameplay
The Two Towers is a hack and slash action game played from a third-person perspective. The game features levels taken either directly from scenes in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers films, or based closely on elements from the films. For example, the levels during the defense of Helm’s Deep are very similar to the corresponding scenes in the film, but a level in Fangorn Forest in which the player fights orcs, Uruk-hai and trolls is original to the game. For most of the game, the player is free to play as Aragorn, Gimli or Legolas. In the game’s main opening level, however, set at Weathertop, only Aragorn is playable. Isildur is also a playable character in a tutorial level set during the Battle of the Last Alliance. All subsequent levels can be played with any of the three characters. Often, the two characters not chosen as the player character will appear as supporting NPCs. Upon completing the game with all three characters, the player can play through every level with Isildur.
Although all three characters have different weapons and combos, their basic fighting style is the same. Each character has a quick attack which does minimal damage and can be easily blocked, and a fierce attack, which does more damage, but is slower and leaves the player vulnerable to attack. Only fierce attacks can break enemy shields. Each character also has a ranged attack, a “killing move” (which can be used to instantly kill downed enemies), a parry (which can deflect enemy attacks), a knock back (which pushes nearby enemies away), a jump back (in which the player character jumps back away from the enemy) and a devastating attack (a charged fierce attack). Combos are an important part of combat, with each character having access to a unique list of combos, which are achieved by stringing specific button presses together. Additionally, each character is more skilled at a particular type of combat; Aragorn is the strongest and most balanced character, Legolas is better at ranged combat, and Gimli has strong melee and ranged attacks.
Combos, as well as health increases, and stronger ranged and devastating attacks must be purchased between levels in the skill upgrades screen. During each level, the player will be continually graded on the skill with which they dispatch enemies; “Fair”, “Good”, “Excellent” and “Perfect.” The more skill with which the player kills, the more experience they acquire. The player’s skill is measured by an on-screen meter which increases as the player dispatches enemies. To avoid the meter dropping back down, the player must avoid being hit, and must kill enemies using a variety of different methods. When a player reaches a Perfect level, all of their attacks increase in strength, and the experience from each kill is doubled. However, Perfect status only lasts for a brief period of time. At the end of each level, the player is then given an overall rating based on their performance, and awarded the corresponding number of upgrade points to spend on new combos and stronger attacks. The better the player has performed during the level, the more upgrade points that will be made available. Certain upgrades only become available for purchase once a player has reached a specific experience level.
The game and its levels are quite short and can be easily finished with one of the 3 playable characters in 1 play run, but it was really impressive how even with so little they were able to make each level unique, with different enemies, bosses and goals.
The enemies were cool and their design great, they start as smaller goblins then go to the Uruk-hai warriors, they have different variations(with shields, archers), providing diversity in the combat, you also get to fight troll same serve as mini-bosses. The bosses were great, each requires a different way to beat them, some levels can be failed not just by dying but failing to protect other people or objects, which have a health bar.
Aragorn is the easier to play as he is the most balanced character, his health bar is average, his sword is strong and fast, his arrows are good. Legolas have a smaller health bad which can be troubling in the last levels, but he can be very overpowered if you know how to use him, his small swords are weaker than Aragorn’s but it’s easy to go perfect mode with him, at that point you can just spam his powerful arrows that can go through enemies and set then on fire, which are pretty much a one hit kill to most enemies on perfect mode. Gimli was my least favorite, he feels… heavy, his attacks are slower, which sometimes make the enemies hit me before I can hit them, his axe is really strong, can kill in only a few hits, and is a big advantage against trolls, but by killing the enemies so fast you don’t get to hit them so much and with the smaller range it gets harder to go to perfect mode, his throwing little axes are slow and not very strong.
The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King: 7/10
Plot
The game begins during the Battle of the Hornburg at Helm’s Deep, with the Uruk-hai having just penetrated the outer walls. With the defenders falling back to the inner court, Gandalf appears on a hill-top flanked by thousands of Rohirrim. The player takes control of Gandalf as he enters the battle and helps defeat the Uruk-hai and orc army. After this level, the game splits into three separate mission arcs, each with its own individual set of characters. The “Path of the Wizard” follows Gandalf, the “Path of the King” follows Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, and the “Path of the Hobbits” follows Frodo and Sam, although initially only Sam is playable.
The game follows the same style as the previous game, ingame cutscenes and scenes from the movies are used between the levels so move on the history, it starts just at the end of the The Two Towers, parts of the history of the movie is extended to make more levels and combat scenes involving the characters. Overall it was a good adaptation.
Gameplay
The Return of the King is a hack and slash action game played from a third-person perspective. The game is very similar to its predecessor in basic gameplay. Each character has a quick attack which does minimal damage and can be easily blocked, and a fierce attack, which does more damage, but is slower and leaves the player vulnerable to attack. Only fierce attacks can break enemy shields. Each character also has a ranged attack, a “killing move” (which can be used to instantly kill downed enemies), a parry (which can deflect enemy attacks), a knock back (which pushes nearby enemies away), a jump back (in which the player character jumps back away from the enemy), a devastating attack (a charged fierce attack) and a special ability. Playable characters in the console and PC versions are Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo and Sam, with Faramir, Pippin and Merry available as unlockable characters.
Each playable character has their own set of combos and attributes. After the end of each level the player can upgrade their characters’ abilities and combos using experience points. The number of points available to the player depends on the efficiency of their kills. During each level, the player will be continually graded on the skill with which they dispatch enemies; “Fair”, “Good”, “Excellent” and “Perfect.” The more skill with which the player kills, the more experience they acquire. The player’s skill is measured by an on-screen meter which increases as the player dispatches enemies. To avoid the meter dropping back down, the player must avoid being hit, and kill enemies using a variety of different methods. When a player reaches a Perfect level, all of their attacks increase in strength, and the experience from each kill is doubled. However, Perfect status only lasts for a brief period of time. A new aspect of Return of the King is that at the end of each level, rather than purchasing upgrades for the individual character, the player can also purchase “Fellowship” upgrades which apply to every playable character. However, characters will only be able to avail of a particular skill when they have reached the corresponding experience level.
A major change from The Two Towers is the interactive nature of the game environments. The player can operate machinery, for example bridges and catapults, to complete objectives, and use environmental objects as weapons, such as spears and cauldrons, to kill enemies. The levels are also twice the size of the largest level from The Two Towers and many are less linear. Unlike The Two Towers, The Return of the King features a co-op mode, allowing two players to play through the game together.
Samhain13 