Sanctum 2, which released on the XBox Live Network and on Steam on May 15th by independent game studio Coffee Stain Studios, appeals to more than one side of my gamer personality. Yes, I'll admit, I've spent more than a few hours planting pea-shooters to defend my home from zombies or shooting toy soldiers with flamethrowers as they march towards my base. And yes, I've spent more hours than I care to admit blasting Elites with needlers, quick-scoping, and zapping portals onto distant walls in order to make my way through a maze. Tower defense games and first-person shooters both, in general, have the necessary components to make for addictive gaming experiences. But can they be put into one neat, super-addictive package? Sanctum 2 makes an attempt to do so.

 

A Beautiful, Deadly World

First off, the game is beautiful: bright, colorful, and smooth. The cel-shaded animation is colorful and interesting. We're introduced to the game by way of a tutorial level, in which we are instructed on both the mundane and expected parts of the game (movement, aiming and firing our weapon, etc), as well as those that meld the first-person environment with the tower defense concept (the building and placement of defensive structures). The controls are quite simple, and for folks who are familiar with PC-based shooters, will be quite familiar. I was thrilled to find that the game flawlessly integrated the use of a gamepad; while the PC user might be more comfortable with the mouse and keyboard combination, I personally prefer the gamepad when playing shooters, and found the controls easy to learn and master.

 

“Be As a Tower Firmly Set”


Skills learned in other shooters will translate over to this game well: the ability to zoom and shoot, targeting a specific body part (the Lumes, the antagonist race in the game's campaign, all have "weak spots" which, when shot, produce extra damage), the use of multiple weapon types effectively, and so on. The firing of weapons feels good and the first person element is very immersive. Those tower defense skills will certainly come in handy as well, though: the building of "mazes" through which you steer your foes, lining them up to be shot, etc. The amalgam of the two skill sets makes for interesting tactical and strategic choices in-game, as different sets of enemies, with different abilities and weaknesses, will often approach from multiple points: players may choose to set up choke points, bristling with energy weapons and cannons, at the site of one approach, while focusing first-person fire on another, more lightly defended choke point. The variety of weapons, tower types, and character abilities make for a wide variety of options and combinations for the player, and these options expand as characters level up and skills are unlocked.

 

Building a Better Killing Machine


The progression of the game borrows more from its tower defense genetics than from shooters: each level consists of a series of waves, each wave progressively more challenging than the last and consisting of a wider variety of enemies. Between waves, construction takes place: the player builds turrets and turret bases until he or she runs out of resources, which are earned via pickups between waves. Then, the wave is started and the action begins, turrets rotating and blasting enemies, and the player jumping and running from place to place, putting down Lumes that make it past the turret gauntlet, and defending the Core, which produces vital oxygen and is the ultimate target of the attack. Similar to other tower defense games, the core is essentially the base, and has a number of hit points. An on-screen warning (along with vocalizations from the character) alert the player to a direct attack on the core.



That said, the character progression is very reminiscent of shooters. As players progress through scenarios, their characters level up, and each level brings new choices: backup weapons, tower types, and unique perks which improve the effectiveness of the player's primary weapon, how the core behaves, and so on. Players have a choice of primary weapons in their initial choice of character, as well: the characters have unique skills and abilities as well as weapons, including an assault-rifle wielding, double-jumping scout, a heavy weapons expert who sets Lumes on fire with each shot, a shotgun runner who does massive damage up close, and a sniper whose reach is very long.

 

Greater than the Sum of its Parts

The game works very well as a hybrid: the two phases in each wave essentially represent the two halves of the game, but don't feel like separate things. Phase one is the tower defense phase: constructing your series of tower bases, and placing cannons on those bases. Once you're done or you run out of resources, phase two begins: you draw your weapon and become, in essence, a moving tower defense element, running to put down threats as necessary.

 

The Verdict

For fans of both the tower defense and first-person shooter genres, this one is a no-brainer. At $14.99 on Steam and 1200 points on the Xbox Live network (with a similarly-priced PS3 release apparently on deck), Sanctum 2 has a large amount of bang for your buck. For folks who are not familiar with the tower defense side of this game, it might be worth checking out a demo or video before buying to familiarize with the gameplay concepts. Realistically, despite the first person interface and heavy shooter influence, it's still very much a tower defense game. In the end, though, this is a fun, challenging, beautiful game that you'll come back to, where one can drop in for a quick 15 minute game, or can spend a night solving the puzzle of how to defend the core. While I can’t speak to replay value until I finish the game, I’ll definitely be playing through to the end to find out. Highly recommended!

Anyone who played Far Cry 3 hit that point in the game where they said “self, this game is pretty cool, but would be even more awesome if they replaced Jason Brody with a Mark 4 Cyber-Commando, voiced by Michael Biehn, and had dragons that shot freaking lasers from their eyes.” Take that concept, apply a liberal helping of 80’s cheese, and serve it up in a post-apocalyptic island crockpot called Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, released May 1st for PSN, XBLA and Windows.

Alone, tired and sleeping in a little hut in the Outpost Settlement, an unlikely hero (or poor sap…your choice) awakes and embarks on an unforgettable journey to recover a stolen and powerful artifact known as the Crown of Kings.

Thus begins the first book of Steve Jackson’s classic Sorcery! gamebook series, expertly transformed into an interactive adventure for your iOS device by the talented team at inkle.
 

Initial Thoughts

Never having read the original series (I think they were more popular in Jackson’s native England) I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Though during my sneak peek at PAX East earlier this year, I was immediately captivated by Sorcery’s beauty and combat and spell mechanics, but I didn’t really get to dive into the story itself, which plays out on a gorgeously illustrated and sprawling 3D topographical map. The map while not only beautiful to look at, does a nice job of helping you keep your bearings while navigating this vast and unfamiliar land.

Some may look at Sorcery! and incorrectly assume it to be a fairly static, reading experience, but there is a lot going on and it is much, much more than just another forking adventure story. Unlike most digital gamebooks, Sorcery’s narrative is written (and re-written) on the fly based on the choices you make and all of your past experiences and decisions well. Though there are obviously a finite number of possibilities, it gives the story arc a more personal feel, tailoring it to your play-style, allowing for not only a unique experience for each reader, but increased replayability as well.

 

Getting Around

To navigate the game’s map, you simply drag a line from your character to the flag marking your desired destination. Sometimes there will be a fork in the road, leaving it up to you to select a path. Every time you make a map decision, a check point is marked and you can rewind back to any of your previous check points should you die or just decide you want to make a different choice. The only thing lacking here is the ability to sync your progress across multiple devices.

One way in which your personal decision tree (fighting style, whether or not you trust others or are more cautious and inquisitive) manifests itself within the digital gamebook is through your spirit animal, which changes as you make certain choices throughout your journey. Are you a Panther with a balanced heart or perhaps a Fox, who is always scheming? What does your animal say about you as a person? Your spirit guide can be called upon (prayed to) in times of need; when you require some assistance, healing, etc.

 

 

A gamebook wouldn’t be a gamebook if there wasn’t a lot of reading…

Fortunately it is here too that Sorcery! takes a bit of a departure from the status quo. Short passages of text are elegantly presented with each being stitched to the previous one as the story is built and decisions are made. It is a somewhat subtle, but cool looking effect and one of those little touch of polish that makes this gamebook so rich.

Not being much of a reader myself (I usually opt for audiobooks) the smaller digestible chunks make Sorcery! a pleasure to read and easy to pickup and play whenever I have a short (or long) slice of time. The ambient music and sound effects along with the high quality of writing do a fantastic job of setting the scene and really drawing you into this world. This app’s story is based only on The Shamutanti Hills, the first book in Jackson’s four-part Fighting Fantasy gamebook series. However, the folks at inkle have added at least 100% more content to the narrative to create more locations and forking paths to expand and extend the experience even more. Again, having never read the original, I couldn’t even begin to tell you which portions are from the original source material and which have been added, the quality of the writing felt consistent throughout.
 

Gameplay

Unlike the perhaps more familiar “Choose Your Own Adventures”, gamebooks generally contain a combat element and your character has some related heath / power stats. In Sorcery! these stats consist of stamina, gold and rations. You carry around an inventory of items like food, weapons, ingredients and a spell book and need to make sure you manage your character’s health with food rations and take rests to restore stamina lost in battle.

In the original (physical) Sorcery gamebooks, combat was handled with the typical rolling of dice, however, for inkle’s digital gamebook Jackson insisted that the team come up with something new…and innovate they did! Rather than relying solely on chance, the fighting mechanic in Sorcery! allows for much more strategy and player influence. It is a turn-based system in which you set the power of your attack (or just take a defensive stance to try to build back up energy). You have a limited supply of energy, so a strong attack on one turn means that your max power on future attacks will be greatly diminished, so you have to watch for written clues in the dialog and plan your attacks based on how powerful of a strike you think your combatant will wield. At the end of a battle, if you are unhappy with your performance (or lose), you can try again. Overall, this system makes for some really fun and more dynamic battles. Plus it helps that Jackson has come up with some really great enemies.

It is called Sorcery! so there must be spells right? Yep! In fact, the game’s spell system is also quite unique. Spells are cast by forming special three-letter names that map to each spell. To cast a spell you just spell out its name. You will not always have all the letters you need to cast a particular spell and certain spells require that you have particular ingredients in your inventory. Properly timed spell-casting can mean the difference between life and death in battle and it is fun to experiment with them. My only complaint is that I wish it was a bit easier to access the spell book directly from the spell casting page, so I can more quickly look up details on a particular spell.

 

In Conclusion

With Sorcery’s engrossing and well-written story, simple yet elegant interface and innovative combat and spell casting systems, inkle has set a new standard when it comes to digital gamebooks. The constantly forking and on-the-fly story-building give this create your own adventure loads of replay value. With so many possible narrative branches it seems like there is always plenty more for me to explore in this book while I wait for more of the series. As I said, I am not a ‘reader’, so if you can find a way to get me to read a lot of content AND find it so entertaining that I don’t want to put it down, then you are most certainly doing something right!

 

About the Author

Brett is a 37 year-old software engineer, gadget geek, Founder/ Editor In Chief of AppAddict.net, husband and father of two little girls. He is a fan of all types of apps, especially adventure games and boardgames. (Devices Owned: iPhone 5 & 3rd Gen iPad). You can follow Brett on twitter at @otggamer.

NOTE: This review was originally published on AppAddict.net on May 3, 2013 and is republished on 2old2play with permission from the Author.

Deep Silver’s sequel to the “zombie apocalypse in paradise” game, Dead Island Riptide (April 23, 2013), picks up right where the original Dead Island left off. The four characters from the first game board a helicopter with a convict and island native in tow, with the intention of fleeing the island of Banoi and returning to a zombie-free lifestyle somewhere less tropical.

The survivors land on a military naval vessel and apparent safe haven, but instead of freedom they are treated to testing and captivity. Naturally, the situation on the ship goes South when the crew becomes infected and the survivors are shipwrecked on the monsoon-ravaged island of Palanai.



Another immune Aussie, John Morgan, joins Sam B., Logan, Xian, and Purna as a playable character. Morgan is a hand-to-hand combat expert, so players are finally able to make use of all those brass knuckles and claws just laying around the archipelago. The plot is nearly the same as the first game: find transport and get the fuck off the island before the government nukes it. Okay, so it’s exactly the same as the first game.

 

Peculiarly Familiar

Dead Island Riptide suffers greatly from the same shit, different island syndrome. A lot of the game looks exactly the same as the original, which gives some credibility to allegations that Deep Silver recycled environments from the first game. Endless looting returns as an unwelcome leftover from Banoi. My character was carrying somewhere around seven tons of canned food, wire, electronic scraps, magnets, and other crap scavenged from suitcases and dead island folks. Why does Deep Silver limit the amount of ammunition that a character can carry, but not the amount of trash? I guess we have magic backpacks but ammo belts grounded in reality.

My least favorite part of Dead Island makes a strong return for the sequel: the idiotic side quest. After the newness rubbed off in the first game, players soon found their quest log filled with the lamest of side quests like “find my teddy bear that I dropped at Zombie Central” and “I’ll give you a shiny quarter for each can of beans you bring back to me.” Riptide makes characters scour Dead Zones for a film director’s camera, round up supplies for lazy beggars, and score cocaine from an undead dealer. The denizens of Palanai live a quid pro quo lifestyle: nobody on the island is willing to part with anything until you perform some suicidal act of reciprocity. Just give me the fucking map or I’ll kill you! Yeah, you can’t do that in this game. You can only kill the folks that the developer wants you to kill. I tried to kick mouthy villagers, shot an elderly German doctor in the head, and attempted to machete an addict barricaded in a hut. As far as I know, they’re still alive and well.



Regenerating zombies were another low point in the game. I ended up backtracking through several parts of the jungle, as well as the town of Henderson, only to find that the dozens of zombies that I stomped and decapitated along the way regrew their heads and respawned in the exact same spots that they were before. I would not begrudge new zombies springing out of cover to attack, but placing the exact same zombies in the exact same place turned exploration into a grind where random zombies would enhance the tension that should be prevalent in a zombie game. These scripted spawn points feel like an impediment to progress and an unnecessary depletion of resources.

 

Henderson and That Ol’ Co-Op Magic

The first game started out strong but lost steam as the game progressed. Riptide starts off weak but finally perks up once the characters make it out of the jungle and arrive at the town of Henderson. The jungle environments are very similar to the first game, but a lot of it is underwater. Henderson rewards those stalwart souls who braved the monotony of the jungle to an interesting town with real personality. Henderson plays home to the Old Town Cinema, a WWII fort, an open air market, and its own superhero...The Zombinator!

Once in Henderson, the little side quests become rooted towards reality and an actual sense of progression can be felt. The enemies also become more varied and numerous, which allows the co-op experience to really shine. Co-op, although a bit on the laggy side, provides quite a bit of entertainment, especially during a horde siege. These siege events occur when something attracts a large number of zombies to the players’ location-such as music, noise, or smoke- requiring players to bolster and repair perimeter defenses while fighting off waves of the infected. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday night.



Weapon mods were expanded for the sequel, and characters can be imported from the original game, so Dead Island veterans do not have to start over from scratch. Players now have access to different types of mines, which makes surviving sieges much easier and enjoyable. Riptide also dreamed up a couple of new zombie types to keep players on their toes...or the edge of their seats.

 

The Sound of Silence

There are a few major glitches that were exposed early in the game. I completely lost all sound twice during the first mission while trying to escape from the ship. I lost it again during co-op play while advancing through a military base in an attempt to reach a radio to call for help. I had to leave the game both times to reacquire sound, which was aggravating. Another point of contention is the autosave feature. I had finally acquired a boat and installed the engine at the inland marina, but a drowner knocked me out of the boat in deep water and I drowned. All that shit in my backpack probably didn't help.

The boat was unreachable due to the depth of the water, which resulted in subsequent, and repeated, drownings , closely followed by a rage-filled chapter restart. After the acquisition of a boat, suddenly boats appeared all over Palanai. I found boats to be a very unpleasant way to travel, and almost preferred walking in the waist high water, especially in single player. Vehicles, like trucks and Jeeps, make a return in Riptide, but due to the condition of Palanai’s roads, I spent very little time driving over zombies.

 

Final Verdict

Dead Island Riptide is unlikely to be anyone’s favorite game. It’s a roller coaster ride of awesome highs and annoying lows. However, the moments of magic cannot overcome the tedium, repetition, and restarts required to get there. Play it with friends to make the most of the experience; just realize that you won’t be playing it two weeks from now. Dead Island Riptide is one and done.
 

Injustice: Gods Among Us (April 16, 2013) excites my inner nerd in two ways: the comic book nerd and the Mortal Kombat nerd. My first introduction to Mortal Kombat was at the arcade. If you possessed the fighting chops, you could hold the machine hostage for hours while the hopefuls lined up behind you to wait their turn to challenge your dominance for a quarter, or token. Eventually, the game released for the Sega Genesis about the same time that arcades became a thing of the past. I played a lot of games over the years, but only John Tobias and Ed Boon could keep me playing the same game for hours trying to perfect combos, special moves, and fatalities.




Moovin!

While Injustice may feature DC heroes and villains, it plays like an MK game. Each match is a best two out of three utilizing a double life bar instead of designated rounds. Heavy, medium, and light attacks are still mapped, on the 360, to the X, Y and A buttons respectively. Most of the special moves are simplified to match a Scorpion/Sub Zero/Johnny Cage special move: down towards attack or down away attack. Away towards attack usually involves a rush or projectile weapon. While the special move mapping steals a bit of individualism from the character’s fighting system, it makes Injustice a bit more approachable than a Mortal Kombat title, and gives the game more of a pick up and play quality, which fighting newbies will especially appreciate. Building up the character’s power meter will allow players to double trigger the character’s super move and deal some serious damage to their opponent.




The Story

Single player story mode provides a scenario where Superman, in a parallel universe, unintentionally, by The Joker’s design, takes a role in the destruction of Metropolis, killing Lois Lane and his son in the process. Superman kills the Joker during an interrogation conducted by Batman, which leads him down the path of worldwide oppression under a single Superman government. Opposition to this government, meta-human or otherwise, is crushed. Only a handful of rebels remain to stand against the oppression: Batman, Lex Luthor, and Deathstroke are the beacons of justice in this world. Batman brings some of the heroes from our universe, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Batman, along with The Joker, to help put an end to Superman’s destructive regime and restore the world to its proper state of imperfection.



The story mode in Injustice tells a far better tale than any piece of MK fiction, which are inevitably variations of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. Players can unlock alternate endings by playing through the Classic combat mode, similar to ladder Kombat in MK. Single player also features several different takes on ladder Kombat, like Poisoned, which features a declining health meter. Beating these modes will unlock more modes, giving single player combat unlimited replayability. The S.T.A.R. Lab feature presents a separate series of stories, featuring objective-based battles. Completing objectives earns up to three stars that the player uses to unlock more Lab content. Players gain experience, through either versus or SP combat, to gain levels and unlock content: alternate costumes, concept art, etc. This game has a shit ton of content.

Most of the character balancing issues from the last game are also resolved: if you spent hours trying to defeat Shao Khan using Raiden in the last Mortal Kombat, then you understand how important balance can be in a fighting game. The end character battle, against Superman, seems almost an even match compared to the last game. Even in multiplayer, there is no one character that can defeat all others, like Noob Saibot from MK Trilogy or Shao Khan from the last Mortal Kombat.

The Way It Was Intended

Yeah, Injustice features a lot of great single player content, but fighting games are not meant to be played alone. The best way to enjoy any fighting game is side by side on the couch, trash talking and eating Doritos, and Injustice is no exception. MK veterans will likely make associations between these DC fighters and their MK counterparts. The closest thing to Liu Kang in Injustice would be Catwoman: she’s fast, fluid, and capable of landing a 10-hit combo in the right hands. The largest fighters like Solomon Grundy, Bane, and Doomsday, are slow but powerful, and best countered with a smaller, nimble fighter like Nightwing or Catwoman. I found Green Arrow to be the least capable fighter, but strangely, one of my favorites: he has too much personality to be left on the sidelines. Never, under any circumstance, pull out Green Arrow when facing a capable human opponent using Aquaman or Catwoman. Aquaman was the big surprise of the game: although his combos are short and tough to string together, his special moves are quite powerful and his superpower is the best in the game. Environments are not only destructible, but many items can be used as weapons, and who doesn’t enjoy broiling a buddy in jet flames or driving over a friend with a motorcycle?




DC Online

The last Mortal Kombat game will be remembered as a great fighting game, but also remembered by its tragic online play. The prevalence of dropped matches, poor hit detection, and horrific lag produced some of the least enjoyable online play in recent memory. Has Ed Boon and company found the rotten apple in the barrel? Hell, yeah they did! Not only is the online version completely playable, it plays just as well as the couch version. I played several matches with SofaKingSpecial, and we experienced none of the online drama that characterized Boon’s last fighter. Online is good to go!




The Verdict

Ed Boon and the Netherrealm gang produce some of the best fighting games, period. They have been around for a very long time, because they’re good at what they do. Injustice: Gods Among Us will never convert hardcore Street Fighter fans, or cause fighting game haters to finally embrace the joys of the uppercut and 10-hit combo, because that's not what it is designed to do. It’s designed to give some brutal interactivity to DC fans, and give Mortal Kombat veterans a change of cast and scenery. Injustice is well written, immersive, exciting, fun as shit, with a ton of content and replay value. This is a must-have for fighting fans, and a good way to entertain guests for other gamers. Injustice: Gods Among Us gets a perfect score.

The year is 1912: the Republic of China forms, Cy Young retires from baseball, the Titanic launches for its maiden and final voyage to America, Teddy Roosevelt runs against Woodrow Wilson in the November election, and Booker DeWitt arrives in the floating city of Columbia.



Booker is dropped off at a lighthouse on a stormy night, which is reminiscent of our introduction to Rapture in the original Bioshock. However, instead of riding a submersible to the bottom of the ocean, players are rocketed upward to a city in the clouds. Hallelujah!

DeWitt hasn't come to Columbia to stroll down the boardwalk while eating hot dogs and cotton candy. He is here to extract a girl named Elizabeth and deliver her to his creditors in New York to erase an excessive gambling debt. Booker is no angel. We learn as the game progresses that he lives a life of violence, as both a union-busting Pinkerton man and an Indian fighter, which makes him perfect for the job at hand.

Columbia
Irrational Games obviously meant for Columbia to play the role of main character in this story of alternate realities. Columbia has more personality than any character in Bioshock Infinite, and she is as nuanced and multi-layered as any protagonist, or antagonist, one could find in the annals of history or fiction. In previous Bioshock games, we visit Rapture after the fall and she is well past her prime. In Bioshock Infinite, we get to see Columbia on her best day, then participate in her destruction. On the surface she promotes a facade of clean industrial age wholesomeness: shoe shines, grand statues, street vendors, boardwalks, and penny arcades. The founding fathers are regarded as saints. Statues of George Washington with his sword, Benjamin Franklin with his key, and Thomas Jefferson with a scroll are the very first sights visitors to Columbia see, after the prerequisite baptism. Religious propaganda, courtesy of “The Prophet”, Zachary Hale Comstock, permeates every nook and cranny of Columbia. On the surface, Columbia is populated with happy, religious folks living the easy life.

Columbia, like Rapture, has its dirty little secrets hidden behind the smiling, white faces enjoying the fair. Racism is in full swing behind the scenes, where Black and Irish workers work sixteen-hour days in the employ of Columbia’s industrial leader, Jeremiah Fink. Fink’s intolerable working conditions and unfair wages sow the seeds of revolution, in the form of the Vox Populi. The Vox is led by rebel, Daisy Fitzroy, former maid to the Comstocks, who stands accused of the murder of the First Lady of Columbia.



Elizabeth
The extraction target is a girl named Elizabeth, who possesses the ability to open multidimensional tears to alternate realities. Consequently, her prison consists of scientific equipment designed to siphon her abilities in addition to locks and doors. Her warden, a giant bio-mechanical flying menace, named The Songbird, further complicates the acquisition of the target. Booker gains her tentative trust, through false pretense, and escapes with the girl, bringing the vengeance of both bird and prophet upon the duo. Elizabeth is far from helpless and aids Booker by bringing allies and equipment through tears and into the fray, as well as scrounging for ammo, salts, and cash.

Snake Oil and Shotguns
Players who take the time to visit the booths at the fair will get a taste of tonics: Columbia’s version of Rapture’s plasmids. Almost identical in application and implementation, tonics provide the imbiber with supernatural abilities. My favorite was Murder of Crows, which sends a flock of murderous birds towards the intended target, much like Rapture’s Insect Storm. Other abilities include Devil’s Kiss (fireballs), Shock Jockey (electricity), Possession (enemies to allies), Undertow (water), Bucking Bronco (telekinetic levitation), Charge (bull rush), and Return to Sender (magnetic shield). These vigors are powered by salts, which can be found in almost every environment, or purchased through vending machines. Gene tonics have been replaced with specialized clothing, called gear, which possess ability-enhancing properties.



The firearms in Columbia aren’t terribly dissimilar from those found in Rapture: shotguns, automatic pistols, semi-automatic carbines, revolvers, machine guns, RPGs, and grenade launchers. Most weapons have a Vox Populi counterpart, complete with a homemade look to them, and just as dangerous in Booker’s hands. Players can carry only two weapons at once, and I preferred the carbine/shotgun combo. Irrational added a third dimension to Bioshock Infinite: aerial combat. The Skyhook doubles as a melee weapon and mode of transportation. Shooting foes while whizzing down a skyline or dropping down on them for the whole “death from above” tactic was a blast. Different pieces of gear focus on skyline combat, so be sure to tailor your gear to your play style.

Formidable Opposition
In addition to the alternately antagonistic forces of Comstock’s cops, automated turrets, rocket-firing Mosquitos, The Songbird, and the Vox Populi, Booker and Elizabeth also must face some of the heavy hitting mechanical horrors that Columbia has to offer. The Handyman, Columbia’s version of the Big Daddy, is a giant hulking half man, half machine antagonist of particularly dangerous proportions. The Handyman is very big, incredibly fast, and a huge pain in the ass to put down, especially on the hardest game mode: 1999. Aim for the heart, amigo.

The motorized Patriot is another high-powered pest. A clockwork rendition of George Washington armed with a crank-powered Gatling gun, this automaton usually bolsters enemy forces and is only rarely encountered alone. I would suggest using cover when fighting a Patriot, lobbing Shock Jockey to stun and then shooting the gears in his back. Take him out first as his Gatling gun is fatal in mere seconds.



An Irrational Attention to Detail
Despite the highly improbable setting, Ken Levine and crew fleshed out a very authentic 1912 environment. The buildings and attire found in Columbia seem very era-appropriate, if you can get over the fact that the buildings are floating. The hummingbirds in the gardens outside the Temple of the Founders are engaging to watch, the fair stands as a testament to Irrational’s period research, and the AI is refreshingly intelligent. Players will likely note that conversations, although non-paticipatory, are never repeated, if you’re the eavesdropping sort.

Facial animations again showcase Irrational’s attention to detail, especially concerning Elizabeth. She is very expressive, both vocally and facially, and you only need glance at her briefly to gauge how she is feeling. Dropping the multiplayer aspect allowed Irrational to really breathe life into the characters and environments of Columbia, providing some wonderful immersion that was prevalent in the first game, but missing in Bioshock 2.

Almost Perfect...Almost
Not everything in Bioshock Infinite is a triumph of storytelling and attention to detail. The game itself is a short-lived experience: I finished my first run in just under twelve hours. This does not bode well for the single player only experience. Irrational has a tendency to inject politics into their games as well: previous themes could be interpreted as a blow against the Ayn Rand brand of conservatism, and Bioshock Infinite couples that concept of free enterprise gone mad with the dangers of mixing politics with religion. The game also includes a great deal of racism. Although this kind of racism would have been present in 1912 America, I did not particularly need to see filthy bathrooms designated as “Irish and Blacks Only.” The depiction of Daisy Fitzroy, a black woman fueling the Vox Populi with her rage, tended to dehumanize her character to the point that she was almost a caricature in a game full of real folks. I also experienced a few minor gameplay lags, but no major technical glitches. My last point of contention involves the autosave feature. Previous Bioshock games allowed a hard save, Bioshock Infinite saves at checkpoints so when you have to quit and come back to Columbia because you had to wash dishes or whatever, you end up retracing the last ten minutes of game time instead of picking up where you left off. Not a big deal, but it is kind of irritating.

Final Verdict
Yeah, Bioshock Infinite is a short game, but it has some replay value, especially for achievement hunters. I would expect this game to be high on 2Old2Play’s GOTY shortlist at the end of the year, and deservedly so. Very few games can pull me in like Bioshock Infinite did. It was so completely worth the wait, and I’m going back in for another run, on 1999 mode. Wish me luck!

In a future imperiled by unspeakable inequity and an unstoppable intergalactic threat, one man can make a difference for humanity....if he has a bad-ass nanosuit. EA claimed that Crysis 3 is the game that is going to “make every other shooter its bitch.” I think John Carmack once said the same thing about Daikatana. Does Crysis 3 have the chops to shoot BLOPS2 and Halo 4 off their respective pedestals?

Eidos gave the gaming world a shot of adrenaline straight to the chest in 1996 when Tomb Raider released. The game presented its protagonist, Lara Croft, as a sexy, female version of Indiana Jones: adventurous, resourceful, confident, and competent. Tomb Raider broke a lot of new ground, both technically and by breaking female stereotypes that were perpetually spoon-fed to gamers since the industry took its first baby steps. Lara Croft is no damsel in distress. Lara quickly became an icon, enjoying several sequels and a successful jump to Hollywood with two blockbuster movies under her belt. The inevitable decline in the series can be blamed on the progressively increasing sexual objectification of Lara herself, muddled plot lines, and a fracturing of her personal history. No sequel could have dug Lara out of the hole: Tomb Raider needed a reboot.

 

Engineers are typically a nerdy bunch: they know how to use slide rules, love Linux, and use mechanical pencils. I’m sure if Isaac Clarke wasn’t so busy dismembering necromorphs he would sit down and bitch about how wasteful and slow Windows is, and show you his slide rule. Fortunately for fans of Visceral Games’ Dead Space series, Isaac is way too busy saving the universe to drag us down with his nerdiness.

2old2play was able to get our hands the mind bending indie game The Bridge that hit the Steam store February 22nd. The game’s creators describe it as “a 2D logic puzzle game that forces the player to reevaluate their preconceptions of physics and perspective. It is Isaac Newton meets M. C. Escher. Explore increasingly difficult worlds, each uniquely detailed and designed to leave the player with a pronounced sense of intellectual accomplishment.”