Demon's Souls

Developer: From Software
Year of release: 2009, June
Platform: Playstation 3
Official website: http://www.demons-souls.com/
Date finished: February 2010
Playtime: +-100 hours, finished the game 3.5 times every time with a different class character

Demon's Souls is one of those games that has only been released in Asia and the US. I can remember that my brother was in Hong Kong and later in 2009 in Toronto seeing this game. At that time I thought it would also be released in Europe somewhere in the near future. Probably with new content than the US version. So I waited until I heard that there won't be a release in Europe. In the mean time a few colleagues of mine had imported the game and they had this love/hate opinion about the game. Hate because it can be so hard and unforgiving. To me that sounds like a good point; I'm always in for games that have a high difficulty.

It was around December 2009, since it wasn't available in Europe my only options were to import it or find a local special game store. I wasn't really keen on importing; it was soon going to be Christmas which means that it takes longer before a package is shipped over. And there were already some good games released that I had not played yet; Uncharted 2, Assassins Creed 2. So I thought well just leave this game and play the other games first.


At my company for Christmas present we always get coupons that can be used to buy games in the national stores. Normally you get the present before going on Christmas holiday, but in my case I took a few days off earlier so... I wouldn't get my Christmas present with coupons until after the holidays. The funny part here is that in the holidays I found a local toy store that had at least 6 copies of Demon's Souls. I was really surprised that they had the game; they normally never have import games.

The game was 65 euro which is expensive. I normally don't buy a game for that price. Online I can get the game way cheaper but I can't use the coupons that I was going to get. So I left the game at the toy store thinking that since the game is not released in Europe nobody knows the game and it will probably still be there after the holidays. So after the holidays when I got my coupons, I called the toy store and, gladly, they still had Demon's Souls and I could use the coupons there. So after work I drove off to the toy store and my thoughts were right. They still had at least 6 copies of the game on the shelves as if nobody had noticed them. Which is actually a shame; Demon's Souls has won multiple awards including game of the year by some sites. Anyway I was glad to be a proud owner of a copy.

The story goes that the Old One has returned with a deep fog that covers the land of Boletaria. Every living creature that is in the fog is attacked by demons or turned into a demon. Heroes from other countries are coming to Boletaria to defeat the demons and to prevent the fog from spreading. You are one of those heroes. The story stays vague through the entire game but it is interesting and fits the game atmosphere.


At the start of the game you can create your own character. You can choose 1 out of 10 classes and define the look of your characters head. There are a lot of options to change your characters face. In my first play I chose a male wanderer and spend 1.5 hours to put my own face in the game. The class you have chosen defines the initial character statistics and starting gear. It really makes a big difference which class you chose. I chose the wanderer because they are more focussed on speed, luck and start with a good weapon, but weak on defence due to their shabby gear. In the instruction manual I read that you can block and dodge so I thought I could use that to counteract the shabby gear. But man was I wrong.

The first play through was really hard with the wanderer. Due to its low health and shabby gear I would die easily. Even when you block attacks you still get a little damage, depending on the shield you are wearing. I was able to dodge attacks, this works in open spaces where you have the space to dodge, but you are often in areas where there is no space for that. In the levels there are also a lot of traps where enemies are hidden to ambush you.
It was from the start that I noticed or better said experienced the unique design choices that the designers made. Dodging, blocking and attacking with a melee weapon requires stamina. So when you attack you need to watch your stamina bar to make sure you have enough stamina left to dodge or block an attack from the enemy. Depending on the attack of the enemy you need more stamina to block that attack. Another thing that really took some time to get used to was when using a melee weapon in a small area near a wall, you often hit the wall which cancels your attack and leaves you dangerously open for a small period.
In the game there are lots of weapons all with their unique look and feel. Fighting with a different size or type of weapon feels completely different in speed, range, attack type and stamina usage.
Next to melee weapons there are also ranged weapons and a lot of different type of gears to wear, magic spells and miracle spells to cast.

Demon's Souls consists of 5 big areas that are inhabited by demons; a big castle, a mine that goes deep underground, a huge tower reaching high in the sky, a deserted Island and a dirty swamp area. Each area consists out of 3 sub areas with their own boss demon except for the big castle which has 5. Each area has its distinct look and feel. Some are beautiful with landscapes and impressive looking buildings and demons while other areas are dirty with blood, bodies, horrifying sounds and detailed disgusting looking demons. It's those areas where you need to have a thick skin to not be horrified.
Next to the 5 areas there is also the Nexus. Nexus is a safe place where your character can deposit his/her items, learn new spells, buy, repair, upgrade equipment and level up. In Nexus there is a portal for each of the 5 areas. Each area has its own world tendency. The world tendency can be pure white to pure black. Depending on the world tendency the demons in that area will be more aggressive and more dangerous rewarding you with more rare items drops and more souls.


The game is all about demon's souls. Souls are used as a currency to buy, repair and upgrade weapons, gear and items. Buying equipment can only be done at certain locations in levels. Souls are also used as experience to level up. Levelling up can only be done in the Nexus. The player can chose to spend the souls for equipment or to level up. You gain souls by defeating demons and from certain soul items. The big challenge is to keep your souls until you reach a NPC where you can spent the souls.

When you die you will drop your souls at that location. You will respawn at the start of that sub area and all the demons you have slain are revived. If you manage to get to the location where you have died, you can pick up your souls again, but if you die before picking up your souls, those souls will be lost forever. You can only pick up the souls from your most recent death. What often happened to my wanderer was that I died pretty far, like at the end of a sub area facing the boss demon, leaving a lot of souls. When I respawned at the start of that sub area I tried to move to the place of death as soon as possible thinking that I could easily defeat all the enemies again and pick up my souls. This was often a painful deception. Losing all the precious souls you have worked so hard for really hurts the mind and can be really frustrating. If this happens often, you won't progress much in the game, because you need souls to upgrade your equipment and to level up.

So what causes you to die? Well the game has a lot of different types of demons and each demon has its own behaviour. This behaviour is influenced by the world tendency of that area. All this makes it hard to predict which attacks a demon will execute. Sometimes you defeat a demon easily, but the next time you face the same demon it can be way more dangerous, because it has a different attack pattern than before. It is one of the strongest points of Demon's Souls, for every fight you need to be focussed, unless you are way over powered, or you might be surprised by the demon and lose your life (again). This makes almost every fight exciting in the game. The best way to fight a demon is to examine its attacks and find an opening to counter attack. And if you need to run, make sure you run a big distance because the demons will follow you quite far. Other things that can get you killed is falling from a higher platform. In some areas there are quite some small ledges and hidden trap holes.


When you have defeated all the impressive boss demons you will face the Old One and fight the final demon. Here the player can chose to defeat the Old One and safe the county or join the Old One and become the strongest demon.


The good

• The exciting combat, there are a lot of things that have influence in combat, the weapon you are using, the gear you are wearing the amount of stamina that you have, the demon you are facing, the world tendency and the space that you have to fight in. Every fight is exciting because it requires strategy, quick thinking and focus to be victorious and if you don't you will suffer the often painful consequence. Because of all this, fighting never gets bored.
• Upgrade weapons and level up system, with souls and ores you can upgrade shields and weapons to be more powerful, depending on the ores you can give magical stats to weapons and shield. You can also spend souls to level up you character stats. There are 9 stat attributes that can be upgraded to level 99 and every time you chose to level up you can increase one of the 9 attributes.
• Cool demons and good AI, all the demons have their distinct look and feel. The AI is really impressive in combat; with a lot of different moves and often unpredictable patterns. The demons are often positioned at a location that is often not to your advantage and they try to ambush you. Especially the boss demons are really impressive with their appearance and their behaviours. Each boss demon is well designed and has its weakness that needs to be discovered and a different strategy to defeat.
• Excellent level design, each area has its own look and feel but they all look really good. Each area has its own atmosphere; some are more action and fighting in brought daylight on beautiful locations while other areas are more focussed on puzzles and horror themed in the darkness.
• Different Classes, there are 10 classes to play with and because of their initial stats, weapons and spells they play really different. Especially in the first half of the game your class choice is really important and defines your play style. Later on you can level up, get other equipment and be any class you want.
• Moral choices, through the entire game the player can chose to be a good hero that tries to stop the fog or a bad one who is only obsessed by souls. You can kill NPC that will define your entire play through and at the end of the game you can chose to save the world or to become the strongest demon.
• Secret side quests, events and equipment, there are quite some secret side quests and events to be discovered. They often require a certain world tendency before they can be done. Side missions can be; defeat a special demon, find a special item, rescue a NPC. There are a few boss battles where a NPC will help you if you have saved him in a secret side quest.
• Free to play any area in any order, from almost at the start of the game you can chose which areas you want to do in any order. This gives the player a lot of freedom and depending on the class and your equipments some areas can be easier to do first. This makes the game really dynamic and interesting for each new play through.
  
  

The Bad

• Demon AI, a lot of the demons seem to have a flawed AI. There seems to be a maximum distance in which a demon will chase you. When the demon has reached that distance it will turn around and walk back. When it walks back it will not attack you so you can attack it without worrying. With this strategy you can kill some of the tougher demons. There is also one demon that will only attack you when you are close to it. If you use ranged weapons or spells you can kill it without being attacked at all.
  Since the game can be really hard, I can imagine players to exploit this flaw (at least I did ^_^).
• Final boss battle, when facing the Old One there is one final boss demon to defeat. This is the easiest boss demon of them all and does not require any special strategy or focus to defeat. It is really hard to get killed by that boss. So after all the exciting battles and awesome boss demons the last battle is the most disappointing. I could not believe that it was the final boss. The final boss should have been a climax.

Demon's Souls is one of those addicting games that never gets tired. The game is really hard and often frustrating at the start when you play your first play through, but when you have passed that pointed it only gets better and the feeling of defeating a demon because of your own sweet skills is awesome. Even when you have finished your first play through there are still 9 other classes to play and you are free to chose which area you want to go and if you want to be a good or bad hero. Because of all the different classes, weapons, spells, world tendency and secret events; the game stays interesting for a long time. I finished my first play through as a wanderer that was purely focussed on quick hack and slash combat. It took me 48 hours. The second play through I played as a magician that was purely focused on magic. It took me 22 hours to finish the game. In my third play through I was a soldier wielding a giant dragon claymore and finished it within 16 hours. My fourth play trough was a temple knight that was focused on faith, wielding the secret Large Sword of Moonlight. It has been a long time since I had finished a game multiple times especially now when I have so much other potential good games to play.
Demon's Souls has some unique design choices that I have never seen in other games before. Some of them are bold and might be interpreted as bringing more frustration, but to me the game fits and is awesomely well designed. For me it is the best game of 2009! (Together with Street Fighter 4)

9.3/10

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Developer: Naughty Dog
Year of release: 2009, October
Platform: Playstation 3
Official website: http://www.unchartedthegame.com/U2AT/
Date finished: X-mas 2009
Playtime: +-14 hours story on hard, 30+ hours multiplayer

The first Uncharted was one of the best games I had played in a while and my expectations for part 2 were of course really high.
At the Leipzig game convention I played the U2 demo for the first time. It was at the Sony stand with other kick ass games; God of War 3 and Heavy Rain. The U2 demo was quite good; it looked awesome, the controls were nice. It all played very well, but I was not blown off my feet so to say. It played as I had expected and nothing more. My feelings were the same with the God of War 3 demo. The Heavy Rain demo is a different story; that one really impressed me.

That was all a few months before the official release of U2. The demo felt pretty solid already which is a good sign for the official full title release. I pre-ordered the full game, knowing that I wouldn't have any time to play it. It was in the X-mas holiday where I finally had time to play U2.


Uncharted 2 is a great game. It is one of the most polished games I have seen so far. The graphics are stunning, the ingame cutscenes with mocap are excellent, the character animations are smooth and blend in perfectly, the sound is good, the music really suits the locations, the level designs are good. It does almost everything good. Playing the game felt like watching a nice movie, like watching Avatar with all the beautiful scenes. I finished the story mode in 2 days, it was nice to play, But I still had the feeling it lacked something. Batman Arkham Asylum did a few things better.

The story of U2 is one of the weaker points of the game. It is shallow and not really that interesting. The story does not 'touch' me at all. Another thing is the gameplay variation. The start of the game is like a sneaking mission; passing guards without getting noticed, sneak up to them and silently take them down. This is some nice gameplay that was not there in the first Uncharted. I thought that this would be a choice for the player; I can sneak up on enemies and take them down silently without using gun fire or I charge in, take cover and shoot everything that moves, like in the first game. Unfortunately my thoughts were wrong and the main part of the game is shooting and taking cover. There is no other sneaking mission in the game. You can do some sneaking and take out an enemy, but you will always be discovered and it will be shooting and taking cover for any action scene. This leads to the same action pattern; take cover, shoot, throw grenade that is it. It is well polished gameplay but not refreshing.
The variation of gameplay is less than in the first Uncharted. In the first game you had shooting, puzzling, climbing, jet skiing, railed shooting. In Uncharted 2 it is only shooting and climbing with little bit of puzzling. It seems that the excellent balance which they had in the first game is disturbed. It is all action and less of the other things that made Uncharted 1 excellent. Due to the too much action paced gameplay the pacing is also not as good as the first Uncharted.
The tension curve in U2 feels more like a straight horizontal line. From start to end there is constantly a high tension. The problem with that is that there are no real climaxes in the game.


Next to the story mode there is also the online multiplayer mode. There are several modes in the online multiplayer mode; the well known FPS modes (Team Death Match, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill etc) and the online multiplayer story mode. In the multiplayer story modes you can play with up to 2 other players and play a short story, 30 - 45 min story. There are 3 different short stories that you can play in coop.
I was really surprised how good the online multiplayer is especially the FPS modes. For most games I only play a few days to see what is there to play and because it takes to long to master it. In U2 even as a noob I would still get quite some kills and level up quickly at the start. This stimulated to keep on playing. In the 30 hours that I played online I went up to level 35. For multiplayer they found a perfect balance to make it easy accessible for new players and still interesting for the more hardcore players.
The maps are really well designed and feel 4 dimensional; left, right, up and down. Every map has its high places where you can climb to and low places to drop in. You always need to watch out that you are not being attacked from any of the 4 directions. Climbing works really well and adds an extra dimension to the gameplay.

The good

• Visual, the best looking Playstation 3 game out there. The graphics, models, animations and mocaps are amazing.
• Sounds and music, great sound effects and music that really fits the locations well.
• Polished action gameplay, it feels and plays smooth, shooting, covering, climbing and melee combat works excellent.
• Online multiplayer, easy accessible for new players and interesting for hardcore players. Excellent designed multiplayer maps.

The bad

• Story, shallow and not interesting. Feels like a mindless action story.
• Less gameplay variation, it is for 85% shooting, taking cover and throwing grenades and 15% for climbing and puzzling. The first Uncharted had more variation and was more balanced.
• Pacing and tension curve, due to the lack of gameplay variation the pacing is less than in Uncharted 1 and there is constant the same amount of tension and lack of real climax scenes.
  

In overall Uncharted 2 is an excellent game. With a lot of things it is the top of the league, but the story mode has its flaws. The story mode is not as good as the first Uncharted or as Batman Arkham Asylum. But on the other side there is the excellent online multiplayer mode that brings hours of gameplay and online fun for new and veteran players.

8.9/10

Batman Arkham Asylum

Developer: Rocksteady
Year of release: 2009, August
Platform: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC
Official website: http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/start
Date finished: 20 December 2009
Playtime: +-14 hours, spread over 4 weeks

A few months before the games release, I downloaded the demo and was really impressed how polished the demo was. The movies, cutscenes, graphics, animation, combat and the ambiance all are of high quality and perfectly fit the Batman franchise. The only issue that came to my mind was that it felt small; narrow passageways and small rooms. But in overall the demo was impressive.

Another thing that was done well is the moment of release, summer of 2009. In the summer there was no other game being released that could threaten Arkham Asylum in sales. It was the best game to get in Q3, while all the other big titles were aiming for Christmas.

Even though I got Arkham Asylum in the early weeks of release, I still had some other games to finish first. At the time that I started playing Arkham Asylum, 4 weeks ago, Uncharted 2 was also released and I thought I'll quickly finish Arkham Asylum and start with Uncharted 2. Thinking back of it, that was quite an unfair thought.

So I started playing Arkham Asylum and just as in the demo almost everything in the game feels polished. But after 2 hours I stopped playing it, because I thought it sucked. Why? Well, every game that I play, I try to do as much as possible in 1 run. In Arkham Asylum I wanted to solve every riddle question the moment that I got it. I spend 10 to 15 minutes searching through small areas just to find the answer and became quite frustrated when I could not find it. An other thing that got on my nerves was that you can sometimes see the riddle trophy, but you can not reach it. Until later in the game, but at that time I did not know and I spend quite some time looking for a way to get to it. After 2 hours when I got outside for the first time and saw this big area, I was really thinking by my self that it would take a long long time to solve the riddle. So I quite the game out of frustration.


A few days later I gave Arkham Asylum a second chance. In the days that I didn't play I came to the conclusion that I should spend not more than 5 minutes to solve a riddle and otherwise leave them be. So with that thought I started playing again and from that moment the game really started to appeal to me.

In the next play sessions I had hours of fun and I just kept on playing. I was really hooked up in the story. It felt like watching a good movie that makes you forget everything around you.
The story itself is fairly simple; when you bring the Joker back to Arkham Asylum he takes over the place and since you are there it is your duty to stop him. Later in the story you will find out that it was all planned and that the Joker wants to create an army of super goons. One of the doctors in Arkham Asylum holds the key to the 'venom' serum that turns inmates into super strong versions of them self. The Joker needed to get back to Arkham Asylum to attain this serum and to give it to the inmates. It is the amount of detail that is put into the story that makes it so good. Almost every villain of Batman is in the story. Some have a big role while others are just mentioned briefly.

The game is like an action adventure detective game. The action is in the combat, since Joker has taken over Arkham Asylum goons are everywhere and trying to make sure that Batman does not jeopardize Jokers plans. The combat is fairly easy with one main button for attack and one button to counter. But as you level up you can unlock new moves like throws and special finishes, and use the batarang, explosives and the batclaw in combat. If you are facing a few unarmed goons the combat can be very easy, but when there are a lot of enemies with weapons the combat can be quite challenging and you may die once or twice. When you are fighting enemies with fire arms, it is best to take them out by surprise instead of heads on. Once they fire at you, you will take a lot of damage. The enemies with fire arms are often in areas where you can hide and climb on objects from where you can take down the enemy one by one by surprise.

The adventure part is that you often need to find new ways to get to certain places, climb shafts and buildings using your batclaw or blow up walls and ceilings to create new entrances. The detective part is that you need to find clues and trails of people and backtrack them to find out where they have moved to. Finding clues and trails is done in the 'detective' mode. In this mode the clues and trails will light up for Batman to be scanned.

All over Arkham Asylum, there are riddle trophies to be found and riddle question to be solved. Solving riddles can unlock character profiles from friends and villains. The profiles give background information about the characters, their strength, and appearances in the comic. For some villains there are audio tapes to be found. The audio tapes are interviews from the doctors with the villain and give you extra information about the villain and often also about the main story. Excellent voice acting is used for these audio tapes.

At the start I didn't like the riddles, but as I played more I had more feel for them and left the once that I couldn't solve for later. Later on you will find the Riddler maps for each area. On the map the locations that contain a riddle are marked making it much easier for you to solve the riddle. After I had finished the story mode of the game, I toke the time to look for all the riddles with help of the Riddler maps.



When you find the riddle trophies you will unlock new challenges in the challenge mode. There are 2 types of challenges; combat and predator. In the combat challenges you need to defeat enemies and set the highest score. This can be done by creating big combos and by using different moves to defeat enemies. In the predator challenges the enemies are armed with fire arms and you need to take them out by surprise as fast as possible. Each predator challenge has different requirements e.g. certain moves that need to be performed in that challenge. In the Playstation 3 version there are a few special challenges where you can play as the Joker. The Joker really has some funny moves.


The good

• Highly polished, Arkham Asylum is a polished game. Almost everything in the game is good. The cinematic, graphics, animations, combat, ambiance, voice acting, sounds and music are all done very well.
• Scare crow levels, their design are really good. When the scare crow levels start the game turns into a horror game, with some crazy things happening that really play with your mind and turn up the suspense. I was really suprised and amazed with the first scare crow level and the moment when you are the Joker bringing Batman into Arkham Asylum. In the scare crow levels the game changes from a 3rd person action to a side scroller platform game.
  
• Clever level design, Arkham Asylum is not that big at all with the areas, but you often have to visit places multiple times with a different objective. Later in the game, certain areas will be changed by Poison Ivy and her plants. Because of the clever use of the areas the game is quite lengthy.
• Excellent pacing, all the game play types; combat, predator, scare crow platforming, adventuring, playing the detective, follow up perfectly. I never had the feeling that any of the gameplay types were to long, except for solving certain riddles. They mixed the gameplay types well with a good pace. It always feels fresh when you transition to an other gameplay type.

The bad & improvements

• Riddles can kill the pacing; some riddles really killed the pacing for me. With some riddles I spend 15 minutes just to find out that I can not get to them yet and that often got me frustrated. Making someone frustrated about something in your game is like the worst thing that can happen; it completely kills the intended experience of the game. It would have been nice if there would be a signal that would let you know that you can not get to it yet, like Batman saying: 'I need the ... gadget to get there'. That would have saved me from the frustration.
• Bosses could be better, most bosses in Arkham Asylum are fine, but some of them could have been better, especially Killer Croc and the final boss, mutated Joker. For Killer Croc you only need throw your batarang, while with the mutated Joker the goons are the boss and not Joker him self. For Killer Croc it would have been nice if you could really fight him face to face and the same counts for the mutated Joker. When you play as the Joker in challenge mode, he has some awesome and yet funny moves. It would have been nice if he would also do those moves against you in the story mode.

Arkham Asylum is a very well polished game. It is hard to mention any flaws except for riddles killing the pacing. The game plays really well and contains all what you expect from a Batman game. In most cases the game felt like an awesome ride and if you ask me it may have continued much longer. It's good that Arkham Asylum 2 has been announced, cause I'm looking forward to it.

8.8/10

Borderlands DLC: Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

Developer: Gearbox Software
Year of release: 2009, 24th of November
Platform: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC
Official website: http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/
Date finished: 13 December 2009
Playtime: +-5 hours, played local split screen, character level went up from 37 to 41


It was already a few weeks after I had finished Borderlands, the main game. Since Borderlands was so addictive I always thought if they would release new missions I would definitely play them. On the 24th of November Gearbox Software released the downloadable content package Zombie Island of Dr. Ned.

It was 12th of December and my brother and I finally had some free time. So at last, time to get the Borderlands DLC and play it local split screen! I got the DLC from the PSN store for 7.99 Euro. This seems to be a fair price; the Fallout 3 DLC's are also around this price and also give the same amount of additional game play time, +- 6 hours.
Even when the price was higher, let's say 10 Euro, I still would have gotten the DLC pack. The main game has left such a good impression, that I would not mind paying a little more to get the same level of fun.

After downloading and installing the DLC, we could finally start. In game at an outpost you can teleport to the new area. When you arrive the introduction movie of Zombie Island of Dr. Ned starts. Just like the movies in the main game, they are really fun to watch.

The story goes that the Island has been taken over by the zombies and that Dr. Ned, who claims to be a brother of Dr. Zed, is looking for a cure. Of course later in the story you will find out that Dr. Ned was playing tricks on you and that he is the one who is the cause of all the zombies. Another nice part is that 'Jacobs', one of the weapon manufacture brands, is involved in the story.


The gameplay is the same as in the main game, with some new enemies. In most cases enemies consist of hordes of zombies who charge at you and do melee damage or vomit/spit on you to slow you down. The areas that you will visit are mostly new with one exception, 'Dead Haven' which resembles the 'Old Haven' area except filled with zombies.


The good

• All the good things from the main game are in there, especially the humour.
• The story has improved; the DLC has a much smaller story than the main game, but this time the story stays focussed on the zombies and Dr. Ned, which is good. With sub missions that give more detailed information about the zombies, Dr. Ned and the weapon manufacture 'Jacobs'.
  
• Better weapons in the vending machines, in the main game I stopped cheching the weapon vending machines. They never had anything interesting to sell, but in the DLC it seems that they are slightly tweaked. I have seen some interesting weapons and bought this awesome rocket launcher. In the DLC I do check the weapon vending machines.

The bad & improvements

• Bosses, just like in the main game the bosses in the DLC are not good; to easy and boring with one exception, the pumpkin boss, which was quite good. The other bosses are boring and don't require any tactic to kill. Most of them can be killed by standing at one spot and fire at them without ever being seriously threatened, this also applies for the DLC's final boss.
• To easy, the enemies in the DLC are from level 35 to level 38, while we started the DLC with oure characters at level 37 and finished it at level 41. This made the DLC most of the time a 'walk in the park'. I can't remember dying by the hand of enemies. It would have been better if the enemies would level up with you and that the level difference would be not more than 1, keeping the fights dangerous and exciting. By making the fights more dangerous, it would also add a little more gameplay time. It took us 5 hours to finish the story and all its sub missions.
  
  

Borderlands DLC: Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is a nice add on to a great game. I was glad that I could upgrade and level up my soldier even more. The humour is good and perhaps even better than in the main game, with some hilarious comments of Dr. Ned. The story has improved giving some information on the weapons manufacture 'Jacobs'.
But the flaws are still there; boring bosses and to easy fights which sometimes makes it less exciting.
In overall the gameplay is good and stays addicting in co-op. I look forward to the next DLC.

8.5/10

Borderlands

Developer: Gearbox Software
Year of release: 2009
Platform: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC
Official website: http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/
Date finished: 11 November 2009
Playtime: +-35 hours, played local split screen and finished the game at level 36.


I heard good stories about Borderlands from my brother and colleagues a few weeks before it was going to be released. 'A FPS with Diablo elements' which sounds awesome, but I was not planning to get Borderlands; I still had Batman Arkham Asylum to play and Uncharted 2 on pre-order. It was a coincidence that a colleague had bought the wrong version, PS3 while he wanted the Xbox360 version. So he sold the game to me for a fair price.

So the first time I started up Borderlands I was really surprised about the looks of the game. It has a unique toony cell shaded look, which looks pretty need if you ask me. In the first ingame movie, in the bus, I could immediately notice that they put some humour into the game.
The way how characters are introduced and the things that are said are often funny.

Shortly after it, you get to choose which class you want to be; soldier, hunter, siren, berserker. Each class has its own favourite weapon and unique skill tree and require a slightly different approach to play. Of course I did some research about each class and to me the soldier is the most all round class so I chose to be a soldier.


The story goes that there is a legendary treasure, called The Vault, on the low populated planet Pandora. You as a treasure hunter are determined to find the vault.
The game starts off in a slightly futuristic dessert area, like in the 'Mad Max' movies. Later in the game you go to grasslands, and snowy planes areas. Each area has its small towns where you can buy and sell items and caves and building areas. There are vehicles that you can drive to move to a certain area and later on you can also teleport to areas.
Each area is populated with creatures; there are small adorable and funny robots called Claptraps, skags (wolf like creatures), insect like creatures, flying dragon like creatures etc and other humanoids that are looking for the vault.

The game is a mission based sand box game. You have different areas and you are free to go where ever you want. Each area has its own mission that you can get from inhabitants and bounty boards. You have the story mission that you have to complete to progress in the story and you have the extra mission which give you experience, money and sometimes weapons and items.
Mission goals are often; looking for and item or person and killing a certain enemy along the way.
A mysterious woman will tell you what your overall story goal is and will contact you whenever you reached a mile stone in the game.


The game plays like a FPS shooter with lots of weapons. There are like 8 types of weapons from assault rifles to pistols to alien weapons. Each type of weapon has its own level, its own brand and often its own special magical ability. This is where you really notice the Diablo element. The special abilities can be improved damage, fire rate, reload speed, accuracy, elemental damage etc even crazy abilities like bullet regeneration. Just like in Diablo there is a weapon rarity that colors from white (normal) to orange (super rare). Some rare weapons have a red phrase that give the weapon some secret special powers. You have to look up on the internet what power each red phrase stands for.

Next to weapons there are also shields, grenade mods, class mods and artifacts that can be bought in the store or found on the fields. Class mods are specific for each class and can be very powerful. As a soldier I had class mods that would regenerate bullets for the entire team and improve my class skills. The weapons and magic items are a important part in the game. As a player you are really looking forward to find new weapons and items that are better than your current ones.

The game also has a experience level up system. You gain experience from killing enemies. You want to go level up to improve your stats, which is automatically done, and to improve yourself in a skill from your skill tree. Your skill tree consists of three parts. Each part is from a certain subtype; as a soldier I had the subtypes infantry, defender and medic. Each subtype has 7 skills, in total 21 skills. You are free to chose in which subtype skill you want to improve. You are free to build up you character how ever you want, just like in Diablo. Something that Diablo does not have; you can spend money to redistribute you skill points. So if you don't like your character build up you can easily change it.


The best part of Borderlands is that you can play the entire campaign in multi player; either 4 player online or 2 player local split screen. I played the entire campaign split screen with my brother, who chose the hunter class. As a soldier I would be the tank; fighting the close enemies heads on, while my brother was snipping from a safe area. Playing with more players will make the game harder, but your reward; rare item drops, will be bigger.


The good

• Items, there are a lot of different weapons, shields, grenade mods, class mods etc. And all these items can have magical abilities, like in Diablo. Every time when you see a weapon box or an enemy dropping an item, you get excited and wonder if it is something better than what you currently have.
• Class and Upgrade system, it is always nice to have different playable classes in a game. Especially when they have there own distinct skills tree that you can upgrade. Another nice thing is that you can chose in which skill direction you want to go. If you want to change your skill direction, you can always spend money to redistribute you skill points.
• Multi player campaign, it is always good when a game has multi player functionality and even better when you can play the entire campaign in multi player. There is nothing better than teaming up with a buddy and share the game experience.
• Humour, the game has quite some moments that turn a smile on your face; character introductions, funny phrases that are said when you land a critical shot or find a nice item, nicely phrased mission texts and dying claptraps.

The bad & improvements

• Story, the story is very thin and uninteresting. It would have been nice if they paid more attention to the story e.g. use more cut scenes to tell the story, to give it more detail and impact on the players.
• Bosses, there are a few story bosses, but they aren't that interesting. They often were only slightly different than any of the regular enemies. It would have been nice if they were more distinct and had more impressive behaviours and require a different approach to defeat. Especially the final boss was really a let down. I was able to kill it by standing behind a rock where I could shoot it, but it could not touch me.
  
• Overpowered class mods, a good example is the soldier class mods that have high ammo regeneration for the entire team. Since I got this class mod I didn't have to spare or look for ammo anymore. I also didn't have to switch weapons anymore to save ammo. All this made the game much easier and killed a part of the initial gameplay.
• Good item drop pacing, I noticed that from level 20 to level 30 I would only find weapons that would sell from 1k to 12k, but in the last 5 levels, 31-36 every weapon I found was often selling from 10k to 50k. The issue I have with this is that during level 20 to level 30 the game became less interesting, because the item rewards were not interesting enough. It is than that you will notice that the missions can get a little repetitive. At the end, last few hours of the game, it gets interesting again because of the good item drops.
  I had rather seen a more steady good item drop, making the game stay at an interesting level from start to finish.
  
  

In overall, Borderlands is a solid FPS that is quite fun to play and really fun in multi player. The fact that there are so many different items to be found can make Borderlands quite addicting. The skill upgrade system is also nicely done and drives you to get more experience to unlock or improve a skill. The humour is well done often putting a smile on your face.
Next to all it's good points the game also has it flaws, but the good points outweigh them.

8.7/10

Policenauts

Developer: Konami
Year of release: 1996 (1994 on NEC PC98)
Platform: Playstation
Official website: to old to have one, translation site: http://policenauts.net/english/
Date finished: 6 October 2009
Playtime: +-15 hours

Policenauts is one of those games that I wanted to play since I read Hideo Kojima's background a few years ago. Having played his Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders series, I just had to try some older games from him. I would have played this game earlier if it wasn't only released in Japan and never translated!

The last few years I had forgotten about this game until I read the kotaku post "Policenauts English Localization Completed". Finally I could play the game in English! Thanks to the people who did the translation project!

The game is a cinematic adventure game with a mature science fiction story line. The first thing that I noticed was the visual style of the game. The game looks like a Japanese animation, anime, from the early '90s, which in my opinion is one of the best looking anime style. The anime style that you see today, with all the big eyes and boobs and cute faces, just isn't my thing. I used to be a big fan of anime, but the visual style of today's anime just isn't as good as before.
Since the game is done in this beautiful '90s anime style it can still match up with today's anime graphical standards in games. It looks much better than the anime cut scenes in SF4, which were horrible. Of course the animation in policenauts isn't as smooth in frame rate as today's anime games.

The gameplay consist of 90% point and click exploring the environment and having conversations with other characters. The other 10% of gameplay consists of rail shooting and reload, like the old lethal enforcers or house of the dead style, and mini games; comparing pictures and quick and steady movements and timing to disable a time bomb, handling security cameras. You can say that the game is 90% story and 10% play. The story plays a big part in this game.

The story is played in the future where mankind has created a colony in space, called 'Beyond' and where earth is called 'Home'. You play as Jonathan Ingram who was one of the first policenauts short for police astronauts. Due to an accident, you have been floating in space for 25 year in a life vessel in a hibernation state. In the life vessel you haven't aged, but everyone around you has. The story starts three years after you have been rescued. You are now a lonely detective on Home. Just this start of the story already got me hooked, it's really a cool sci-fi start.
Your ex-wife who has been living on 'Beyond' comes to your office with a request to look for her husband. After this conversation, she gets killed by a car bomb right in front of your office. To find more clues about her assissination and her husband you travel to Beyond. On Beyond you meet your old policenauts partner and other former policenauts. One of the former policenauts is now the leader of the biggest company on Beyond, the Tokugawa group, which controls almost everything on Beyond. The story evolves to a conspiracy in the Tokugawa group and serious crimes as producing narcotics and trade in human organs. You even visit the moon and fight of armored suits in the story.

The story is told from Jonathan's perspective; you often look through his eyes and occasionally you will know how he thinks of situations that the story gets him into. In most cases you will see an anime drawn image of an environment with some looping animation in there and often a character to interact with. You have to explore the environment by clicking on objects, Jonathan or if there is someone around will tell you very detailed what the object is and does. The cool part is that the game is developed for a mature audience; for some objects they give so much detailed information that I really learned some new interesting things. Since it is a science fiction game there are also objects in the game that are pure fiction, even those have incredible detailed information as if they exist for real. Definitly plus points in my opinion, it really shows that the developers did some deep research on every object that they put in the game.
To progress you need to click on the right objects to get new information. When talking to a person you choose which questions you want to ask which often lead to new questions. The goal is to ask the right questions to get the information that you need to continue the story. Since I always want to do as much as possible in a game, I asked every question that I could choose multiple times, which gave me a lot of background information about the person and the world they are living in. It's not necessary to know al that, but it is interesting and it really shows that the developers wanted to create this massive colony filled with lively people that all have there own personal experience.
Before you talk to someone you can also chose to look at the person first. All the female persons that are in the game are of course beautiful looking and Jonathan can flirt with them. In some cases if you are really persistent you can be a little pervert and touch their boobs.

Next to the great visual style and story, the game also has a nice sound track and great Japanese voice acting. The necessary information that you need to ask for are often supported by nice voice acting and there is lip sync in the animations! Information that isn't necessary is often only shown on screen in text form without any voice support.

Since the game is directed by Hideo Kojima, you also see some homage to movies and other games. Jonathan and his partner really look like the main characters in the Lethal Weapon movies and Myrl from the Metal Gear Solid series plays a role in the game.


The good

• Visual style, the early 90's anime visual style looks good even for today's standard. That visual style has always been a more realistic looking style, than today's anime visual style. I'm more in favor of the detailed realistic style, which makes it timeless.
• Story and setting, I'm a great fan of good sci-fi stories especially when they are ment for a more mature audience. The world where the story is told in has lots of detail and you can get plenty of background information about characters, by having a nice conversation with them, and the sci-fi world. The information is so detailed as if the sci-fi world really exists.
  
• Mini games, the rail shooting, comparing pictures, disabling a time bomb etc are nicely done. I never would have thought that 'comparing pictures' could be done so well in a game that is focused on a more mature audience.
  

The bad and improvements

• Gameplay pacing, the rail shooting gameplay could have been spread more even through the story. At the start and near the end of the game you get quite some rail shooting gameplay scenes, but in between you get it sporadically; after some hours of story you get one rail shooting scene. It would have been better if there was a rail shooting scene between every hour of story gameplay.
• Player feedback, I noticed that in one rail shooting scene; on the speed way shooting on a motorcycle, the player feedback was lacking. In most rail shooting scenes you would get some feedback when you hit the target, visually or a sound, with the motorcycle there wasn't any clear feedback, so I really had no clue if I was hitting the target or not. Also the hints that where given for the motorcycle scene weren't really helpful. I died quite often before I understood what I had to do, which was quite frustrating and could have been prevented with a little more feedback to the player or a slightly better hint.
  
  

It was a long time ago since I played a point and click adventure game. The last game I can remember is the Curse of Monkey Island; that was more than a decade ago. At the start of Policenauts I wasn't really sure if I would like the slow or less active gameplay compared to today's games. But after seeing the visual style and the massive detailed information that is put in the game world, I really did not mind at all. I took my time to explore every object and had long conversations with every character in the game. It felt relaxing and it kept me in the interesting story from start to finish. In overall it was a nice experience and I'll probably play some more of these old point and click games between all the action and fast paced games of today.

8.5/10

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Developer: Naughty Dog
Year of release: 2007
Platform: Playstation 3
Official website: http://www.unchartedthegame.com/
Date finished: 19 September 2009

It was two years ago at a Dutch games convention where I played a demo of Uncharted for the first time. The game already played quite ok back then. I played for around 10 min and what I can remember it was not bad.

That was still a year before I would buy my PS3. Up till last week those were the only 10 min of Uncharted game play experience. A few weeks ago, I visited the game convention in Cologne, where I played a demo of Uncharted 2. Yet again it was nice; it looks great and plays very smooth.
Since Uncharted 2 is one of the most anticipated games for this year, the demo reminded me that I still hadn't played Uncharted 1. I have the game at home for a few months now, but Street Fighter 4 and Red Faction Guerrilla kept me busy.

So after finishing Red Faction, I was thinking to play Batman: Arkham Asylum, but when I saw the release date of Uncharted 2, 13th October, I decided to play Uncharted 1. I'm probably going to pre-order Uncharted 2 and if I do, I have to play the first one before I can start playing part 2.

So last week I made a start and the first thing that directly got my intention was the cinematic. They are all done with the game engine and they look so lively; the character movements and facial expressions are very realistic. Having motion capture in your game can really bring some high quality result.
Next to the lively appearance of the characters the cinematic are clever used to tell the story and the relations between the characters, with great voice work and nice dialogs which really make the characters come alive. Also the positioning of the camera feels professional. All together I had the feeling that I was looking at a Hollywood production.

As for the gameplay, in short, it is a 3rd person action shooter with platforming and puzzle elements.
The shooting works really well, with an excellent cover system. By a simple press of a button you take cover behind the closest wall or object around. Aiming while you are in cover makes you shift out a little, giving your enemies more chance to hit you. The cover feels natural and the animations while in cover are really good looking. In hard mode, which I played on, taking cover is a must.
Also the aiming works well and is very easy; with a stable crosshair you can easily aim and perform headshots with any weapon. As for the weapons, you can only carry 2 guns and grenades. You can take guns and ammo from the enemies that you defeat.
Next to the shooting there is also a melee combat system. You can perform a melee move depending from which side you are approaching the enemy and there is a light combo and heavy combo that you can pull off. As with the cover system and shooting, the melee combat is easy to perform.
All together the cover system, shooting and melee work well and feel really satisfying.

There are also some platforming and puzzle elements in the game. Platforming is often jumping from one ledge to another and climbing up walls. Jumping and climbing works really well, it is only facing the right direction and a little timing that does the trick.
There are a few puzzles in the game. Most of them are interesting and quite easy to solve.

Next to standard shooting, platform and puzzles gameplay there is also a rail shooting car chase, water scooter shooting, run away shooting and some quick time events.

The AI is also done nicely. Enemies will take cover behind objects and react on bullets that are being fired at them, even when they miss. They will throw grenades and charge at you when you stay put at one spot and do not fire.

The gameplay is really well done, the actions are easy to perform and satisfying. Because of this the game plays smooth and you have the feeling that you are always progressing. You never really get stuck anywhere and if you do, the game will give hints so you won't be stuck for a long time.

The pacing in the game is really good, the variation and timing between shooting, platforming, puzzling and cinematic are done so well. During the whole game I never had the feeling that I was bored or that things got repetitive. Another thing that helps is that you never notice any loading times. I guess the levels get loaded when a cinematic is played and a cinematic gets loaded when you are almost nearing the end of a level. It is always that you come to an area, cinematic starts and when the cinematic is over you can directly play. There is never a moment where the menu or a screen comes up where you have to wait until things are loaded in. Even when you die, there is no loading screen. Within a few seconds you are back at the last auto save point. And there seem to be a lot of auto save points. I didn't die much but when I did, I only had to replay less than a minute. This all really keeps the player into the game. Like looking at a very interesting movie, where you can really be sucked in with your full attention.

The game hud is clever made. When you are walking around, platforming or puzzling the hud is not visible at all. Only when you switch to a weapon, you will see the weapon swapping hud pop up for short a moment and when you have a weapon in your hand the weapon and ammo hud will be visible. As for health, when you get hit, the colours turn a little grey the more grey the more health you have lost, but there is no health bar visible at all. You automatically regain healthy when you do not get hit for a short period. I can remember that I and others were impressed by the clever hud in Dead Space, but at that time I did not know that Uncharted also had such a clever hud.

The story of Uncharted is also nice, treasure hunters exploring dungeons and travelling to exotic locations. Looking for clues that lead to the treasure of El Dorado. Taking notes from history, the Spaniards and Germans who where also looking for the treasure. Nice plot twists and building up to a nice climax. The story feels like it is a script from a Hollywood movie.

The good

• Cinematic, good looking, good use of motion capture and facial expression. Interesting dialogs and events. It feels like a Hollywood movie.
• Excellent pacing, good timing and variation between shooting, platforming, puzzling and cinematic. No visible loading times. Lots of auto saves, when you have died, you respawn within a few seconds, replaying only a few minutes.
• Easy to play, simple controls, most actions can be done by a single press of a button. Platforming is interesting and very forgiving. Puzzles are quite easy and hints are given when the player is stuck.
  
• Polished in every way, the game looks awesome even for todays standard 2 years after its release. The animations of the characters are fluent when walking, climbing, jumping etc. Shooting and cover system feels well. Hud is simple and clean. The camera follows you well, the story is good, cinematic are awesome, excellent voice acting and great characters with their own distinctive look and feel and even the music and sound effects are nicely done. Also the 60 treasures that you can find and the things you have to do to get the trophies are well done.

The bad and improvements

• Throw grenades using six-axis, using the six-axis to determine the distance of the throw does not work to well. It requires the player to hold the controller in a certain angle and it takes time, which makes you vulnerable when you are trying to get the distance right. Having the right analog stick to set the distance would have been a better choice.
• Sound effect not being heard when you are not facing the sound source. I heard from a colleague that it is a PS3 issue and not only for Uncharted. Of course when you are standing near a sound source you should always here the sound even when you are not facing towards it.
• Human zombies/monsters near the end, the entire game is quite realistic; your enemies are always human until a certain point. From that point the game goes from a realistic adventure shooter to a horror zombie monster shooter. This breaks the experience a little, because it doesn't really fit in what the game has been till that point. But its only for a short moment after that it turns back to reality.

Uncharted is one of the best games that I have played the last few years. It looks awesome, it plays well, the controls are good and user friendly, the cinematic are high quality and interesting, the pacing is excellent, the story is good...what do you need more?
It is rare to see a game that is so polished. Nothing but praise for Uncharted and I'm really looking forward to part two.

9.6/10.0