Gears of War 2 review

“Bigger, better, and more badass” said Cliffy B when he announced this sequel, and sure enough it is bigger, better, and more badass than the first game but it’s also familiar, pretentious, and occasionally ropey.

Don’t hit send on that hate mail just yet though because it’s only really bad on about three occasions in the campaign, and it’s only really bad because for the rest of the time it’s really, really good.

The lightmass bomb deployed in Gears of War has failed and the snarling locust hordes are back, complete with new creatures they didn’t see fit to use before while resigning others. The story tries to be epic but is often too big for its chunky boots; attempting to mix emotional anguish with testosterone fuelled carnage is admirable but comes off forced. Meanwhile locations and events fit like a jigsaw, events happen conveniently where you find yourself and you can forget about the bigger war happening around you.

But toiling on story details is pointless as the game mechanics are fantastic; the trademark cover mechanic works perfectly while new weapons and manoeuvres such as using downed enemies as meat shields gel seamlessly into the gameplay, making skirmishes in Gears 2 far more gritty and intimate than the first game.

However the multiplayer is the real meat of the experience, featuring a two player campaign, five player co-op against fifty waves of enemies, and a plethora of competitive game modes for up to ten players. Ignoring the long wait it takes to start a match, Gears 2 plays a better multiplayer than the first game in that it’s no longer an invitation to the shotgun party.

Despite some poor design choices, possibly attributed to a tight development schedule, Gears 2 triumphs as a fantastic game which doesn’t mess with the formula, but polishes its unique stop and pop mechanics until they shine.

Dead Space review.

If I say Resident Evil 4 you would probably start reminiscing on running through a village knee capping Spaniards before kicking them in the face, taking shelter from the masked chainsaw man in a house. But were you scared, horrified, or even a little wet in your drawers? No you weren’t, because Resident Evil 4 was not scary.

Resi 4 single handily became one of the best video games ever whilst pushing the horror genre into action territory, scares became an after thought and Silent Hill disappeared off the map with games like The Suffering and Alone in the Dark jumped on the action bandwagon. It’s taken EA to  wrench the genre back into the realms of the terrifying because let’s face it, Silent Hill Homecoming isn’t that great.

Playing as Isaac Clark, a love sick engineer, your crew answers a distress call from the planet cracker ‘Ishimura’ and after a rough landing, two of your crew mates impaled, and you isolated your team comes to the shocking conclusion that something isn’t right.

Dead Space’s real triumph is its atmosphere, a perfect combination of visual, audio, and lighting. Whilst the combat is as fast as Resi 4 the designers managed to feel restraint, lights will go out and come back on without an enemy in sight, audio logs unsettle you and the sounds coming from every mechanism in the ship as lights play on shadows give the Ishimura the believability lacking from many game locations.

But when it comes to combat Dead Space gives you a small selection of well designed guns and abilities, you will be blasting tendrils off enemies to stop their advance, slowing them down, clobbering them with your gun and giganto boots while throwing explosive barrels at them, Isaac is a combination of Leon Kennedy, Gordon Freeman, and a drunk student who has downed one too many snakebites.

And that’s Dead Space, a ten hour effort to escape a doomed ship that takes plenty of cues from horror movies and games alike. Weapon upgrades and brutal difficulty levels mean there is enough meat for dedicated gamers to chew over but more importantly than that, the proper horror game is back! And if you’ll excuse me I just need to change my underwear.

Fable 2 review.

It’s the return of short reviews, Huzzah! Hear the people cheer in polite un-interest as I post almost 500 words about a game people have already made up their minds about.

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Peter Molyneux is a gaming treasure, a personality in a crowd of faceless PR robots and people who get game names tattooed around their body to garner interest, and while he may occasionally drone on about feeling emotions for a dog, the man’s unbridled joy and hope for his gaming projects can’t help but get gamers excited.

 

And this is why the first Fable was a little disappointing, but with Fable 2 Molyneux’s PR team must have had a leash around his throat or maybe the 360 is really powerful enough because he achieved almost everything he said Fable 2 was going to be, and that makes Fable 2 one of the 360’s finest titles to date.

 

Starting as a child you learn the simple fact that making choices around Albion causes consequence, some things you do as a child have a great impact on the future of your Albion and further decisions have similar effects, not to mention that your character physically changes and whilst in Fable 1 it was only from doing good or evil things,  in Fable 2 eating too many fatty foods will make you fat and pimply whilst lots of celery makes you a twig, but increase your physical attributes and you buff up, which can make you a mightily toned twig.

 

And whilst the engaging and spectacular combat takes up the majority of your time in Albion it’s the myriad of other indulgences that will impress you, characters become infatuated with you meaning you can marry, move into a house and have a child with said spouse but if you’re more of the entrepreneur sort you can buy up shops and rent out houses to ensure a steady income. Albion becomes a world you enjoy spending time within whilst doing nothing in particular, listening to the citizens and farting at the guards, Fable 2 is a game full of personal expression.

 

And what this leads to is a personal experience and connection to your Albion and your hero which, come the end of the game will look totally different from the next ten you compare them to. The only disappointment you will have is that it will end, but then you’ll still sit in the pub gambling your life savings away and drinking copious amounts of beer, and then you’ll play more Fable 2.