PC – Matheus Pitillo

August 20, 2013 — Comments are off for this post.

Review: Disney Infinity

Disney Infinity

Release Date: August 18, 2013
Developer: Avalanche Software
Publisher: Disney Interactive
Genre: Adventure / Sandbox
Plataform: PS3 / 360 / Wii U / Wii / 3DS / Mobile / PC

Lets face it: everyone is a Disney fan! I honestly won't believe you if you say that at one point of your life you weren't touched by Disney's unique way of telling stories. Whether by their characters, art, animations, parks, shows, songs or even by Mickey himself. I bet you have experienced that "magic" and, if you are a human full of emotions, you probably fell in love too.

And finally the big day arrives for all of those Disney lovers: the big release of Disney Infinity, a game that - as Disney - is everywhere. Or at least in almost all platforms. The player can find it on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo WiiU - as the main console version - or even on Nintendo 3DS, following more as a "Mario Party" gameplay style. Nintendo Wii also received the game for its platform, though with fewer features, such as the absence of a co-op experience in the Play Set part of the game. And if it wasn't enough, players can also experience Disney Infinity on PC and iOS devices, offering the options to build, edit and share all of your toy box experiments at any time.

For the ones who still don't know, the game allows players to share their creations on ANY PLATFORM. It doesn't matter if you are a Nintendo player, you can easily share your Toy Box with an user that plays on PlayStation 3, for example.

WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE

Disney Infinity it is not just one game, it's a game within a game. Imagine that you have the opportunity to go back to your childhood and you are gifted with an amazing and colorful Toy Box. All you need to do is to drop all of these items on the floor and start to build your own dreams. You can do "anything", you just need to use a spark of your imagination. Who never imagined making the boring Winnie the Pooh do a quick visit to Cruella de Vil's house? Well, maybe not! Who would want to do such a thing, right? *cough cough*

The point is: while the game offers original Play Sets with original adventure experiences related to the character's Universe, it also offers a second game mode in which it is YOU who have freedom to create whatever you want, in the way that you want, to finally share with your friends and see how they will react whitin your creations. This concept allows the game to attract an even wider audience. Whether you are a big fan of the movies, or adventure games, or even if you are just a crazy action figure collector person like myself, you will always find people getting trapped inside this expensive cycle. So, by following this philosophy I will write this review in a different way than usual: find the category that best fits you and read this review. (Or, you might just read it all, since I lost loads of time writing it! LOL)

DISNEY INFINITY FOR GAMERS

First of all, Disney Infinity is not Skylanders. The only thing similar between both games is the Base that allows to have figures being "scanned" inside the game. But besides that, the games are totally different. It's almost like trying to compare Assassin's Creed with Watch Dogs, because both use basically the same control scheme. Anyway...

By purchasing the Starter Pack the player will receive three characters/figures - Jack Sparrow, Sulley and Mr. Incredible - and a Play Set with their unique worlds. Play Sets are a piece that contains the whole Universe of a specific group of characters. The player needs to place this piece on top of the Disney Infinity Base - that comes in the Starter Pack - to finally be able to access this Universe. Within the Play Set, players also needs to place their characters on the DI Base, so they can be brought to "life" into the game.

Each Play Set delivers a complete open world campaign experience - based on the Play Set theme - full of objectives and collectables. Because of the theme related experience, the players can only use the characters that are part of that Universe. So, if you want to play, for example, in The Incredibles' Metro City, you will need to use Mr. Incredible, Mrs. Incredible, Dash, Violet or Syndrome. But if you want to use different characters from different Disney Worlds, you will only be able to do it by playing in the Toy Box. And that's the good news: there is a secret Big Vault in each one of the Play Sets, that can only be opened if you use all of the characters from that Universe. By opening it you will be rewarded with an already designed Toy Box of that specific Play Set. So you and your friends can play together, without the restriction of only being able to use characters of that specific universe. Finally, there are also unique items to unlock in the Toy Box that can only be found in specific Play Sets.

Gameplay wise Play Sets also offers different types of gaming mechanics and experiences. Although all of them follows for an open world adventure idea, each one of the Play Sets focus more on a different concept. Monster University is all about pranks, scares and competing. They even have a school points scale, that reminds me the whole idea of House's competition in Harry Potter series. LOL. Pirates of the Caribbean introduces swordplay combats, ship battles and even ship customization. Yeah, you can customize your own ship! And, finally, The Incredibles gives you loads of melee combat, with super powers and small missions around Metro City.

Each Play Set can take around 5 to 7 hours to complete, plus the hours that you will spend by searching for all unlockable items. Since the Starter Pack comes with 3 Play Sets, you can easily calculate 15 to 21 hours of experience to complete the whole game of this first wave. Of course the player can always place a new character and search for all the specific missions and items related to that character, increasing even more their gameplay.

Not everything is perfect, though. Even offering different mechanics, story lines, environments and experience, all the starter play sets end up giving the feeling of lack of something. The stories are not very strong - compared to the original movies - and the missions tend to not vary too much, differing only on basic mechanics, for the same theme/idea. But don't get me wrong! I am not saying that the game, or these Play Sets, are bad. They are actually very good. But not perfect, you know? I was actually quite surprise with The Incredibles in specific, because I felt like they had a bigger variance of characters vs. powers, compared to Pirates of the Caribbean for instance. But on the other hand, in the Pirates Play Set I found that the universe looked bigger, and with more stuff to do, while the characters themselves were almost the same.

Regarding the controls, while the Nintendo Wii U seemed to be the best option to play the game - considering that the player could easily use the gamepad to navigate through the items, objectives and menus - if the player decides to play on Co-Op, the only controller that will actually work for the second player is the Wii Remote. This kind of sucks, considering that it's a mess to move and rotate the camera, or even to use special attacks etc. Luckily Disney already announced that they will soon release a patch giving support to the Pro Controller as well. Besides that, all controllers are pretty easy to learn and it seems to be very intuitive, even with loads of options to do.

Finally, if you are a gamer who loves to create your own Worlds, quests and stories, the best game mode for you will definitely be the Toy Box.

The Toy Box is this empty environment/level to be filled up with your imagination, using the items you collected in the game. By playing the main campaigns - or the characters specific Adventures - and leveling up your character, the player is rewarded with Spins. Spins can also be found in capsules, around other pre-made Toy Boxes. Those Spins can be used in the Toy Box Vault which randomly rewards the player with one item, out of 16, per spin. Every time that you want to increase the number of items to use in your Toy Box, you will need to rely on your luck and in your progression with Spins. The other option, of course, is to collect those items around each one of the Play Sets, as I said before.

It is not hard to create your own adventures, but it might require a little bit of patience. You just need to change between pages of categories and items, and finally place it on the environment. You have the option to rotate and move those pieces until you achieve the best spot for your adventure. To change textures or even to delete something, you can use the Magic Wand that offers more options to the player. There are also items that help you to quickly change the sky just by pressing a button, as well as to spawn new enemies etc. But talking about "patience" one more time, what I found a little bit frustrating is the low speed between menus and items. Maybe it's just me, but every time I decide to move from gameplay mode, to building mode, it drives me crazy because of the delay between options.

Triggers, events box and links can also be used in the Toy Box. if you are familiar with some Game Engines such as UDK or Unity, you will find that to "script" the events on Disney Infinity is very easy. Players can connect special items together and give them basic rules. You can easily link a button that, when pressed, will activate fireworks, open doors, start a song or spawn new objects or enemies. There are even cameras to unlock in the Toy Box Vault that allows you to change from top-down to side-scrolling games. And the character will also follow this pattern while locked inside this camera mode. It's awesome! And, the best part is that for the new players, the game also offers tutorials teaching the basic mechanics of the triggers and objects.

After creating your own Toy Box, you can easily share it online between your friends, or even send to Disney to wait for a review. If approved, your Toy Box can be downloaded directly from their Original Database. Players can play any toy box in any of the platforms.

So, if you are included in the GAMER category that I said before, I would recommend Disney Infinity if you like an easy-to-play adventure experience, with building and customization options. If you are a big fan of Little Big Planet and Minecraft you will probably love this game.

DISNEY INFINITY FOR FANS

It's pretty clear how much love the effort the team put into this game. Disney Infinity was made by Fans for Fans. Each one of the Play Sets features a whole new storyline in parallel with the original one shown in the movies. And it was confirmed that Avalanche Software and Disney worked directly with Pixar to make these storylines as good and complete as the ones seen in theatres. It might have not succeed 100% - as I said earlier in this review - but it was pretty close to it.

You can easily recognize the personality of each one of your favourite characters. The voice acting is stunning and the animations make them be extremely alive. It's nice to have the option to see how their lives existed after the movies and how we have total control on top of that now.

Right in the beginning of the game the player can experience one of the most beautiful introductions I have ever see in a game. All the first part is actually playable - and without spoilers - you will learn the first mechanics and controls, and also be enchanted with the beautiful Universe that Infinity is part of. All the possibilities are introduced right there, and it just make us, fans, even more excited to start building everything that we always dreamed as well.

As a fan, if there is a negative point in the game I would say that it is the lack of classic characters. Of course this problem can easily be solved soon, in the next wave of characters and Play Sets. But the thing is, as much as I love Monsters University, The Incredibles, Cars or any of other Pixar movies, I really miss the classic characters from the first Disney animations. Where is Simba? What about Ariel, Mulan or Pocahontas? One Play Set about Aladdin would be amazing as well, you know? I understand that the developers can add it, if they decide to, but I really don't get why there was a lack of this content for the first wave of the game. I just hope they are not planning to do only Play Sets related to Pixar movies...

DISNEY INFINITY FOR COLLECTORS

Now comes the best part - And also the most expensive one! If you are a crazy collector like me, you finally found the perfect game. Man, no words describes how well done each of the figures are. The quality is amazing! Their unique poses represents perfectly each one of the characters and all that I want is to buy them all, even if I don't end up playing the game anymore or bankrupting myself in the process.

And if it wasn't enough, everything related to Disney Infinity comes in waves, bundles, accessories and pieces. You will not only collect figures, but also Power Discs, albums and cases. To have the most powerful character, or the most complete Toy Box, the player can add Power Discs on top of the DI Base, to increase a character's stats, or add tools and characteristics to your own Toy Box.

For the first wave of items, there are 20 official Power Discs - 3 of them are rare pieces - while stores like Toys R Us and GameStop have their own exclusive Power Discs as well. So, if you decide to have all figures and all Discs, expect to spend at least 200 hundred dollars, if not more.

Knowing about this huge marketing, Disney Infinity created a special feature inside the game that they call the Hall of Fame. Every character or Power Disc that the player purchased and unlocked in the game will appear in this Hall of Fame as a physical statue. The statue can vary from Bronze, Silver to Gold, according to the level experience of the character. The Hall of Fame constantly evolves, growing walls, celling, flowers etc. It's a very beautiful and stunning experience to face. And you end up having your original figures in hand, but also inside the game.

So, if this review is for you - a collector - don't think twice and go buy your figures. Take zillions pictures of them. Place it inside protection cases - available from all major retailers for a small cost - and show it to your friends or enemies, so they can envy you too. LOL. Yeah, it's awesome and I love it! And since Disney knows exactly how to sell more dreams, a new wave of characters are coming soon, with new Play Sets. You will be able to find characters such as Rapunzel, Skeleton Jack, Woody etc.

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

Disney Infinity has everything going for it to be one of the biggest hits for the ending of this generation of video games. It's a game that allows for the mixing of any type of genre, with the ability to create anything that only relies on your own imagination. It's a game which also puts friends and family together, with infinite fun and choices. To know for sure how long this game will last, it only depends of how long the developers will give support to it. But I would guess that it will take a long, long time, to disappear from your shelf, or from the stores.

My Personal Score: 4/5

[button type="icon" icon="paper"]Written by Matheus Pitillo.[/button]

Published by Matheus Pitillo in Game Articles, Reviews

March 31, 2013 — Comments are off for this post.

Review: Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite

Release Date: March 26, 2013
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Genre: First Person Shooter
Plataform: PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 / PC / Mac

When a game gets to the point that it is able to convince players to invest in a genre that they never enjoyed in the past, it means that the game did it right. I felt exactly like that when the first Bioshock was released and fell immediately in love with this incredible masterpiece of storytelling. The Bioshock series deserves all the honour and admiration it has received, again sending the player to one of the most beautiful and incredible cities ever.

COLUMBIA - THE CITY IN THE SKY

In Bioshock: Infinite the player controls Booker DeWitt, a private investigator that refers to himself as an "independent contractor". Following a series of events and problems that he faced in the past, he become involve in gambling, leaving an enormous debt to pay. To find a way to pay his debt, he is sent to Columbia - a floating city in the sky - to find a girl named Elizabeth and bring her back to New York City.

Columbia is divided into two different factions: the Founders and the Vox Populi. The Founders try to keep the city for pure Americans only, while the Vox Populi represents the others of color or different ethnicity. With that in mind, the player will face all types of conflicts between those two groups of people.

Different of the other Bioshock games, Infinite introduces to players a character who actually speaks and have his own personality. Full of opinion and attitudes, DeWitt will express himself from beginning to the end of the game, creating a very strong bond between player and character. And all of this "expression" gets even deeper when the player finally meets Elizabeth, having in-game dialogues all the time during the game experience. Some players have criticised these dialogues as annoying during the gameplay, but in my opinion - considering how immersive and important the story of the game is - those dialogues worked pretty well and I could not complain of a single one. Elizabeth is extremely interesting and special and I could listen to her talking for hours and hours.

Columbia is one of the most exciting and "welcoming" cities that I have ever experienced in a game. Every corner of Columbia is filled by NPC's actions, colours, songs etc. You don't feel like you are walking around a "synthetic and plastic" city. Columbia actually convinces you that you are facing a "real" and nice place to live. Right in the beginning of the game when you first gets to Columbia, a city fair is happening, full of people, music, activities and fireworks. Everything looks amazing and magical. Columbia is huge and everything that you see of it by distance are actually parts of the city that you will still visit at some point of the game. But there is something dark brewing below the vibrant exterior.

ELIZABETH - AN AI THAT ACTUALLY WORKS

Elizabeth is an extremely special character in the game. While the whole plot of Infinite runs around her, the player also has her help during the combat situations and other moments of the game. And, so far, I guess this is the first time that an NPC artificial intelligence for in-game co-op works so well. Elizabeth will "never break" during the game. She always knows exactly where to go and where to hide from the enemies, as well giving you 100% of support all the time. She is there to give you tips, more ammunition, health packages and money - in this case it's kind of annoying at some point, considering that she gives you items all the time, making the game too easy at times.

The mystery surrounding Elizabeth is the main plot of the game and goes from beginning until the last minute of it. Don't expect to figure out the twist in the storyline, because YOU WILL NOT. Just let things happen and try to absorb as much information as you can from the game dialogues and Voxphones - the new Audio Diaries of the first two Bioshocks - and you will not regret it.

It is not too odd to compare Elizabeth with some princesses from Disney. The classic princess locked in the tower, watched over by a monster, and waiting for her hero to save her. To be more specific, her tastes and desires to live in France, as well as your looks, love for songs and dances and even her commitment with reading, makes me compare her directly with Belle from Beauty and the Beast. In the first half of the game Elizabeth will earn your affection, with all of her kindness and love. She is definitely more than an AI. She is a true character that will follow you during your journey and staying at your side, allowing you to see how she grows up.

So, while Elizabeth "is" Belle, Songbird - the giant mechanical bird - is Beast; having mixed feelings that evolves from protection, to possession, rage and love and uncomfortably evokes feelings of a possessive lover. I just wonder if this relationship between both characters were suppose to have some reference from the classic of Disney.

LEVEL DESIGN AND GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE

As I said before, and you probably already saw in some videos of the game, Columbia is an huge city. So, probably you are wondering if you will feel lost in some moments of the game, while searching for your main objective direction. The answer is NO! DIfferent from the first two Bioshocks, in Infinite the game offers an option to guide the player to the right direction by just pressing a button and following the arrow that will arise in the floor in front of you. In theory this may seem like a very weak strategy, but in practice it works very well and can save hours lost by players who would be looking for the right direction until now.

Another cool aspect in the game is how the player is introduced to the new gameplay mechanics. By using the city fair that is happening in Columbia as an excuse, the tutorial is presented as part of this festival, offering at the same time more details for the plot, like how racist and heavy the game is, as well as an amazing set for the two first Vigors - the new Plasmids in Infinite - as well as shooting and aiming game controls. But as always, not everything can be perfect. Something sounded weird for me, considering that he is using the two first Vigors for the first time in the game, DeWitt does not react hesitant or different, despite knowing that his body is changing and being affected by this strange power. But what is even more odd is that when he finally gets for real a fixed Vigor, he starts feeling weird and uncomfortable, and reacts with that by dialogues in-game. I understand that the first Vigors to be introduced are there just as a part of a "tutorial section" of the game, but even so, they could have at least activate an "event" condition that by the first time that DeWitt gets the first Vigor - tutorial or not - he should react with his body changes.

But you know what? The Vigors are awesome, the special effects by using it are amazing, and the traditional "new power old-style explanation" is still in there, so I will stop being too judgmental and start giving positive points to Infinite.

Level Design wise the game works very well. All objectives are creative and pretty clear. I didn't feel bored by completing any of them. Everything makes sense with the plot and with what you are searching for in the game. Another nice thing about the levels / environments is that if you actually come back in an old area to complete a side mission, or even just to visit a specific place again, the game will not reload enemies. All enemies are spawned for a reason in each one of the environments and they all make sense for the game storytelling and combat situations. By playing the game you can see that each part of Columbia was constructed to be able to be revisited in different moments, with different "eyes".

The combats in Infinite are very similar of the old Bioshocks - not considering the newest AI help from Elizabeth - you will be basically just swapping between weapons and vigors, trying to find the perfect match between them. The difference is that this time you can only care two weapons with you, forcing you to think carefully before making a choice. Another cool thing is that the game also allows you to combine Vigors Powers, damaging the enemy even more.

Another big surprise is how easy and intuitive the skylines are. It's pretty easy and pleasurable to control DeWitt around the huge number of skylines around Columbia. They help you to reach some places faster of the city, as well as offering amazing exciting combat situations.

Although the game offers some choice moments, your actual decisions for those choices does not influences the plot of the game at all. I can understand that this was added more like a way to explore more how the players will react and judge according to each situation, but I don't think Irrational Games explored this in the best way possible.

Besides that, what else was changed for the best? Mini games! They are not present in the game anymore and I am just glad for that. You will not face mini games to unlock doors or hack computers and machines. That's why Elizabeth is next to you after all.

STUNNING VISUALS AND AMAZING ENVIRONMENT ATMOSPHERE

Bioshock Infinite is stunning! I don't have too much to say besides the fact that EVERYTHING in the game seems so well planed from Pre-Production to the actual Production of it. Again, Columbia is the most convincing city that I ever played on. Everything is so colourful, magical, beautiful, well modelled and alive.

The game starts introducing this amazing and bright city, that drastically moves to a radical atmosphere, darker, dirtier and "cold". Each one of the environments have something special that characterizes the game moment and explore the maximum of its forms. We can feel exactly the feelings that they wanted us to feel by playing and walking around the city.

LESS HORROR, LESS HARDCORE

Different of the older Bioshocks, Infinite is extremely easy, considering the Normal Mode Difficult. Enemies seem to die easier and if it wasn't enough, Elizabeth is always there to give you extra life and salt, to help you during combat. Out of combats, the girl will also offer you loads of cash, making it super easy to buy new items, weapons and vigors upgrades. The whole financial hard time presented in the old Bioshocks are not here in this game and I still don't know what I think about that...

Difficulty is not the only thing that changed in the game series. Infinite has no sense of horror or tension. Don't expect to feel the tension that you probably had at the first time that you fight against a Big Daddy or a Big Sister. What Infinite offers is a very deep and strong sense of action. I guess my biggest mistake was to wait too much for Songbird and the Boys of Silence. Don't get me wrong: both enemies are amazing and they totally make sense with the plot, but I was expecting to see them more often in the game and to face epic combats against them. And, unfortunately, that's not what happens. I would actually say that characters like the Lutece twins were much more interesting characters to me, if not my favourite ones in the game.

Finally, independently of whether you are a fan or not of Bioshock, you definitely need to try this one. Infinite brings all the big aspects of an epic game, with a magical environment, a plot full of intelligent twist and characters that makes you believe that even a digital character can have real feelings. I am trying to not show my personal feelings for this game too much, but I can say that it is one of - if not - my favourite games ever.

My Personal Score: 5/5

[button type="icon" icon="paper"]Written by Matheus Pitillo.[/button]

Published by Matheus Pitillo in Game Articles, Reviews

Tags: 2k Games, Beauty and the Beast, Bioshock, Bioshock 3, Bioshock Infinite, Booker DeWitt, Columbia, Elizabeth, game, Irrational Games, Matheus Pitillo, PC, PlayStation 3, Rapture, review, Unreal, Xbox 360

March 7, 2013 — Comments are off for this post.

Review: Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider

Release Date: March 05, 2013
Developer: Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Studios - Montreal
Publisher: Square-Enix
Genre: Action
Plataform: PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 / Microsoft Windows

Lara Croft is iconic for a number of people around the world since she first appeared 17 years ago. Often times we would hear a woman with a strong personality be compared with the famous Lara Croft. And at some point, woman started to actually try to achieve that. Lara is the whole package: intelligent, strong, sexy, rich and powerful; so why women would not want to be like her? And for men she was more than strong, she was also a sex symbol that was cultivated for generations, from the digital world until Angelina Jolie donned the famous persona. (That, by the way, the blood river scene in the game was suppose to be a reference to Angelina Jolie in Beowulf? LOL.)

But this time in the new Tomb Raider, this is not the Lara Croft that we have come to know. Ok, she is still sexy, very good looking and can still do some gravity-defying acrobatics; but now Lara is young, inexperienced, vulnerable, naive and in some moments even too dramatic. All that she wants is to go back home and leave behind all the nightmare that she starts to face, but of course, this is not an option.

A SURVIVOR IS BORN

I would be lying if I don't admit that my first impressions of the game was totally incoherent with the rest of my game experience. If you were expecting to play a little bit before the whole "ship accident" happens, you are totally wrong - I was wrong too! - The game starts exactly with the same cinematic that we have seen countless times since Tomb Raider was first announced long ago. You don't have time to connect yourself and gain affection with the other characters of the ship Endurance. The game just starts: BOOOM! And you are trapped in the middle of a creepy cavern. Why would you want to risk your life to save someone that wasn't even introduced to you - as a player - in the game? That was my first bad impression. And unfortunately, this impression was followed by the next moments in the beginning of the game.

Since the cavern moment was the first part of the game, they try to make it so spectacular that they actually don't think about how the "new" Lara Croft would be able to face all the obstacles she faces inside the cave. We know that the whole game idea is to focus in how the little girl grows up and turns into a strong woman, but if Lara still needs to grow, how believable is it that, even in the first minutes of the game, Lara would be able to do all that she does? I just think that if they wanted to make her evolve, then allow a little more time for that. All this should be presented and learned with time, when she finally see herself as a Survivor. And not as the old heroin right from the start. (...) Besides that? The rest of the game is incredible and my opinion totally changed right after the first 20 minutes of gameplay.

The whole game runs around the idea of putting Lara Croft into situations that will test her limits. She is a Survivor and to keep alive she needs to defend herself by killing people, learning how to hunt animals, as well as exploring, climbing and hiding in different environments. The game also offers a cool "Survivor Instinct" option in which, when used, it makes the game screen black and white, highlighting only objective direction, items, enemies and animals. It's almost like the Eagle Vision in Assassin's Creed, working pretty well.

STORY AND ENVIRONMENTS

In search for the lost Japanese civilization of Yamatai, Lara convince the Endurance Crew to enter the Dragon's Triangle, an area renowned for causing ships to disappear. And, of course, the Endurance is added to this list by facing a huge storm and crashing in the island. When Lara wakes up in the beach, she is attacked right after, starting the whole cavern first game sequence. After the first minutes of the game you start to understand that the habitants of the island are in search of a woman sacrifice to resurrect the Sun Queen, Himiko. And guess what? Samantha - Lara's friend - is the one chosen.

The plot may seem to be a little bit weak or cliché, but actually it works pretty well. With some twists of magic and legends, and with some mature and gore content, all the island and each single environment compliments the game in an amazing way.

The environments' representation are amazing and it varies a lot during the game. There are forests, beaches, tombs, snow areas and everything that you could expect. The lighting matches according to those environments, creating even more an appropriate atmosphere. When it is raining you can see the lightning illuminating the environment, while the rain actually affects the game camera, making us believe that we are part of that world.

SOME ELEMENTS OF THE CLASSIC GAMES

So, here we are with this new Lara and the question arises: Does she faces puzzles and explore tombs like before? Does she like it? Well, if she likes I'm not so sure, considering that in a moment of the game she actually says that she hates tombs. But that does not means that she will not explore some of those. In this Tomb Raider the player has the option to find and explore different tombs - in a total of 7 of them - Upon completing it you are rewarded with some item and XP points, as well as a Treasure Map for an area on the island, helping the player to identify certain items.

Most all of the puzzles are presented in those optional tombs. Out of that, the player will probably face 3 or 4 different puzzle situations, which makes me feel as though they could have added more and increased the difficulty a little bit. I can count on one hand the number of times that I actually had difficulty with one puzzle in the game.

The relic viewer mode is also here. The player can find and collect relics around the game and, by doing that, you can visualize it by close, zoom in, rotating and even trying to find some extra clue. Those clues do not affect the gameplay itself, but give extra information to the main plot. By collecting relics you are rewarded with XP.

And finally, Lara Croft is still a very fast and light character, that can jump very far, hang in platforms, climb and shoot.

NEW ELEMENTS FOR A NEW GENERATION

What would be good new features for the game? Surprisingly - for me at least - the upgrades are one of the nicest part of the game. By collecting relics, killing enemies with headshot, finding treasures in tombs or even reaching new environments, the player will be rewarded with XP. Accessing one of the camps, the player can exchange those XP for a number of new abilities to Lara, increasing from Hunting Skills to Fighting Skills.

Another upgrade system is related with the weapons and gears. By collecting Salvage - destroying boxes or getting from enemy bodies - you can use it to upgrade your weapons. Sometimes you need more than Salvage to get the weapon to another level. In this case, the player will need to find more parts of the respective weapon, usually by collecting the treasures that you can find in each optional tomb. In the end, both upgrade system works very well and it's not annoying or hard to understand. Actually the game makes me want to collect everything, just to be able to upgrade my equipments and skills and this is something new for me.

The hunting is one of the newest element in this game, but also the most stupid. The idea of it is pretty nice, but the execution went very bad. Right in the beginning of the game you are "forced" to hunt a deer, to learn how to do it and how to collect something from their body. But the problem is that after this first time, you can play the whole game without ever having to hunt again. It turns something totally unnecessary and with no purpose, considering that Lara Croft does not have a hunger bar or anything like that.

LEVEL DESIGN AND GAMEPLAY

I had loads of fun by playing Tomb Raider. Maybe because it features various elements that are present in two of my favourite game series: Uncharted and Assassin's Creed.

Uncharted by following the recipe of integrating many cinematic sequences while you have a total in-game control, loads of enemies appearing all the time, incredible combat situations, explosions, different types of gameplay - like the one in the parachute or in the waterfall - and a charismatic character. And Assassin's Creed by considering a whole area that you can "free" explore, quick travelling between camps and even with some screen glitches.

The gameplay and controls work in a very smooth way. Everything is very intuitive and clear. It's fun to use Lara's Bow, trying to kill the enemies while keeping yourself in a stealth approach. That was actually one of my favourites part of the game: the use of the Bow.

While the gameplay gives us a very good experience, the Level Design tends to try to convince us of a fake freedom. As I said before, some elements remind me of Assassin's Creed, when you see that you are surrounded by this big map, full of choices and directions to go. But all this freedom is broken by following the right path in the game. The player ends up needing to follow ahead to the next point, moving on with the right direction, not actually giving choices to the player. They tried to sell us a free experience, but in my opinion is just a linear Uncharted Level Design, with clear objectives and directions. Well, not that I am complaining. At least I didn't get lost.

IN THE WAITING FOR THE NEXT ONES

Finally, Tomb Raider did a good job in returning to this generation, promising something new and fun to play. With a large and beautiful environment, super exciting gameplay moments and cinematics, it seems that they finally got the right choices for the game and we are assuming that next ones will come soon. It will be interesting to imagine what new ideas and features can come. And, if they accomplish at least half of what this Tomb Raider offered to us, I'm pretty sure it will be another success.

My Personal Score: 4.5/5

[button type="icon" icon="paper"]Written by Matheus Pitillo.[/button]

Published by Matheus Pitillo in Reviews

Tags: 2013, Action, Blood and Gore, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Studios, game, Matheus Pitillo, Multiplatform, PC, PS3, review, Square-Enix, Tomb Raider, uncharted, Video Game, Xbox 360

December 3, 2012 — Comments are off for this post.

National Mech League

National Mech League is a 3D Dual Stick Shooter PC Game that my team and I created as our Final Project of the Game Design Program at Vancouver Film School. Myself and two other students had three months to develop the whole game from the Game Concept, Pre Production and Production Phase. NML was developed using Unity Engine, and had the theme of a futuristic Sport Arena where Mechs defeat waves of enemies robots, while attempting to gain attention from sponsors.

In the far future, mankind is finally able to build Mechs. The only logical outcome of such engineering achievement is to use Mechs in a newly created sport: Mech Match! In the NML, Mechs fight waves of enemy robots in arenas around the world, in order to earn sponsorship and please the fans. By collecting sponsors points, the player can exchange these points for new upgrades, increasing their original stats.

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My Roles

Level Design
Game Design / Game Design Document
Environmental Art
Set Dressing
Lighting
Project Management
Graphical User Interface
Menu Screens Composition / Lighting

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Why Create this Game?

NML provides a theme that possesses mainstream appeal and humor potential as well. As the game focuses in a League representation, introducing a new type of Sport, players will be able to try it in a game with over proved gameplay. The game provides a fun narrative, with an intelligent AI system, in which winning often requires strategy. The goals set forth in creating this game include, but are not limited, to the following:

Combine gameplay with a Sport League Theme, allowing players to relate their favorite sports to a new concept, while providing a fun experience;
Make the player constantly modify their strategy according to each Mech Weapons.

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Design Notes

Created in Unity Engine;
3 month development time by 3 people;
4 Levels;
4 Major Objectives;
10 to 20 minutes of gameplay.

[button link="http://projects.myvfs.com/games/GD25_NationalMechLeague/NML.zip" type="icon" newwindow="yes"] Download National Mech League[/button]

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Major Features

• Unique Playable Mech
Player will control The Ocho, the Badass Cowboy. The Mech is the materialization of the pilot's personality and their design is also inspired by it.

• In-game Sport Commentators
The in-game experience is commentated in real time by two different commentators, creating a fun and humorous atmosphere that mirrors the feeling of an actual sporting event.

• 3 Unique Weapons
The Ocho features three different weapons: Shotgun, Revolver and the Gatling gun. Weapons have different effects against enemies, creating different types of combat experience.

• 5 Unique Enemy Behaviors
There are 3 different enemy classes and 4 different behaviors. Each one of the enemy behaviors has a defined characteristic in order to vary gameplay. The enemies are Red SwarmBot, Blue SwarmBot, WormBot, and BeeBot.

• Dodging and Shooting Gameplay Experience
Game places equal emphasis on dodging and shooting enemies and projectiles.

• Upgradable Mech according to Sponsor Points
Player needs to complete combo kills to collect Sponsor Points during the game. Sponsor Points can be exchanged for new Mech Golden Armor Upgrade in the Mech Shop. The upgrade will increase Mech Stats and change appearance, but will not provide any new abilities.

• 3 Unique Power Ups
Player can find Power Ups around the League Arena. Power Ups affects Mech's Stats and Weapon Stats for a pre-determined time interval. Power Ups vary into: Improving Mech Speed, Improving Mech Shield, and Increasing Weapon Damage.

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Published by Matheus Pitillo in Game Titles

Tags: Dual Stick Shooter, Environment Art, Final Project, game, Game Design, game design program, Game Projects, GD25, Level Design, Lighting, Matheus Pitillo, National Mech League, NML, PC, Project Management, Roles, sport game, vancouver film school, VFS