Game 38 - Portal Knights - Week 52 - Dec 20

ortal Knights - well what can I say other then this is just good old fun. This is certainly a hidden gem with Minecraft meets Diablo elements. The premise is entirely in the name. Travel through portals to different worlds, gather resources, return to your own world and build your base - all the while your Knight grows in strength and you travel to new portals conquering the known universe. This gameplay loop is at the simple heart of Portal Knight - and the loop is addictive. I played it with a friend well into the night and as time flew by we powered through it and before we knew it the sun was up. I don't remember the last time that happened, maybe in my early teens with friends...

Special mention goes to the biomes and enemy types. They're all novel and just as you get sick of one a new one opens up. The game is perfectly paced and should be on any father-son game list. 

Game 37 - Watch Dogs: Legion - Week 50 - Dec20

hile the original looked bland and was a solid pass, Watch Dogs 2 pleasantly surprised me. I loved the character of the city, the openness of the mission structure and how you could complete entire missions with just hacking. Missions were puzzles that required wit to pull off without letting a bullet leave your barrel. 

Watch Dogs: Legion really showed promise. Having travelled London thoroughly for 2 weeks in 2018 I recognized a lot of the city and it felt pretty darn 1:1. Not only were most of the major landmarks there but they often involved unique missions. Like a drone battle over London Eye, or a platform sequence with a spider-bot through Big Ben, or sleuthing through the catacombs or infiltrating London Tower, a rearmed fortress. But eventually this initial novelty wore off and the story, well... I'd tell you if I could remember. Your cell is destroyed at the start and you need to recruit a new DedSec to fight off the Orwellian private military tech company that the government is bending over for their security tech. That's about it. Zero memorable characters. Except the ones you create yourself. 

Who is this dude? 

Here's where the game shines in some ways. Recruiting characters is the best part of the game as they all come with unique abilities that can be used to approach missions in different ways. Some favourites include the Spy, a middle-aged British woman that can combat roll, use a G36 and knows kung fu. The bee keeper. The graffiti artists with their paint bomb and paint gun. An anarchist with a baseball bat. That's it, a bat. The list goes on. The issue here (when it works and you don't get cheated and lose your characters or progress due to bugs) is characters are all surface level. The upgrade tree is cool but I really wish it catered to individual archetypes more and allowed you to invest in them more instead of a overall legion tech tree. Especially when you end up using the same gadgets on every agent most the time. Character upgrades would have made the instadeath truly shine. Investing precious time and resources into a character only to see them perish... ugh. Imagine seeing your DedSec grow, through the continued sacrifice of it's agents, a legion as you will. While you continually get invested and despair as agents perish. But I don't care. Agents have no investment factor and if they die you can just go find and pull the same type of agent of the street. No consequences. This highlights an issue in Ubisoft games. They just lack depth and appeal to a mainstream audience; but they still try to be hardcore. They're Tom Clancy espionage and action games from an optical perspective, but when you dig your hands in you don't really find much. And that's a HUGE issue. You appeal to an audience that expects one thing and gets another. Assassins Creed has made attempts but mostly relies on bloated RPG mechanics. I've steered clear of Far Cry since 3 (only playing 4 because I bought it on special). The one exception over the last decade was Rainbow Six Siege. Which was likely done by a ragtag team with little faith from the higher ups that it would succeed. I common occurrence in the industry, small teams creativity surprising the money-makers terrified of risk. Hearthstone is one such example. I would really love to see some actual depth added to these games. Maybe even a hardcore mode which they've proven they can do. The Division 2 should have been the survival DLC mode of 1. Far Cry 6 should be a base liberating, rebuilding and management game as you work to build up the resistance through a logistical and tactical metagame (Dragon Age Inquisition did this really well). Enemies can take back bases if poorly defended. Maybe you have named agents and special operatives. A true Guerrilla warfare experience unlike Far Cry 6 that both keeps the great Far Cry formula pure, innovates and adds to it. Watch Dogs Legion could have been no different. 

The punk rebel vibe of London is a welcome fit. But I feel like they could have injected more substance. You need to liberate London district by district and when you do you're rewarded with a strong specialist agent. But London has no visible changes. I wish we'd see riots, rebellion, art, etc coming back to the streets. Taking a page out of the underrated Pandemic's Saboteur (RIP). Set in WW2 occupied France the entire game had a very stylish black and white filter, with Nazi reds. Once you liberate an area colour returned to that part of the city signifying the defeat and Nazi oppression being washed out. The darkness was gone and life had returned. Districts could have had mini-conflicts on the edges and you could have even added a persistent mode that required city management as the antagonist operates to take back districts. After the final resolution of the game and credits roll, in the end-game people are happy as they clean up the aftermath that comes with revolution. 

In the end the game's biggest selling point became it's weakness. Besides the myriad of bugs of course. My character was lost or bugged out several times and at this point I put down the game for good. While it kept the variety of the mission structure from the second game, the lack of depth and focus made it a hollow experience overall. This isn't a game I'm going to pick up again, and now I want to play Saboteur or Watch Dogs 2.... 

Game 36 - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - Week 49 - Dec 20

 

edi Fallen Order is one of many Star Wars games I've played over the years. As I write this I think back on all the fond memories, Jedi Knight Academy, The Force Unleashed, Star Wars the Old Republic, Battlefront OG and the DICE version, Star Wars Lego. I realise that there are A LOT more Star Wars games and most have them have gone unplayed. Knights of the Old Republic, X-Wing, Rogue Squadron, Republic Commando, Galaxies, Age of Star.. Uhh I mean Galactic Battleground the nostalgic FPS that I played once briefly. The point I'm taking the long route towards is that there are a wealth of amazing Star Wars games and I only listed the good ones that come to mind - I think Jedi Fallen Order might just be the best Star Wars game I've ever played. 

If you look at the individual parts that make up Fallen Order the game isn't doing anything special. It's Dark Souls combat lite meets Uncharted traversal and set pieces meets Force Unleashed story structure and progression. But I'm okay with that because it cherry picks all the parts of those games, throws them into a pot, turns up the temperature to Stormtrooper laser heat levels and cooks up the best Jedi game I've experienced to date. No other game has captured what it would feel like to wield the force and a lightsabre this well. The game is set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Jedi are outlaws. Cal Kestis an escaped apprentice is hiding on a junk world until Vader's foreboding Inquisition arrives on planet, detecting a Jedi. Naturally Cal acts the hero as he was destined to, saves his boss and puts a target on his back. Queue the colourful cast and our crew - Greez Dritus our wise crack shot and loveable dwarvish pilot and Cere Junda a down to business fallen Jedi (she handed in her lightsabre for whatever reason) are working in opposition to the Inquisition to find Jedi and restore the order. 

Bracca the ship breaking planet sets the scene for many beautiful planets you'll visit.

The story and gameplay work hand in hand so well to create a genuine Star Wars experience. Mechanically the sabre and force powers feel great - it has this multidirectional feel when fighting mobs but reduces to light sabre duelling with anyone remotely skilled in melee. The progression of these abilities make sense. Cal is an apprentice, his training was interrupted, and through various adventures and the skulls of many storm troopers his skills are developing through field training. Even Cal forgetting the basics like dash or double-jump is explained well. Each time you learn an ability it's accompanied by a flash back to his Jedi Master Jaro Tapal, teaching Cal about the move. For some reason Cal has repressed his connection to the force and is unsure why. Well these flashbacks inevitably back step his memory all the way to Order 66 - Cal has repressed not only his powers but his memories so that he can hide - a subconscious 'forced' failsafe protocol in a sense. As these abilities progress you can just do more and more cool shit. In itself just the general light and strong attacks feel right - cutting up storm troopers with a flurry of flashing light sabre swings. Deflecting laser blasts back into enemies better and better each time. But add in sabre throws to take out that pesky heavy gunner or Darth Maul style light sabre that can be split in half mid combo as Cal goes ham on anyone around him. Force powers give you good crowd control to level the playing field against lethal enemies and later allow telekinesis. Cal was born with the ability Psychometry or Sense Echo and can acquire memories and flashbacks of people from sight, sounds, emotions etc. Naturally this makes him a great deducer, and is invaulable for tracking down the Holocron (to locate other Jedi).  Enemies remain consistently fresh. Special op troopers, aliens, and Cal is eventually tracked down by bounty hunters with jet packs, sniper rifles and even mechs. Just. Dope. Give me that Boba Fett Star Wars 1313 game back EA!!! Grrr. To top all this off the exploration is awesome, secret areas give you reasons to return with a metroidvania still design as future power unlock areas that contain resources to further improve your abilities. I platinumed this one as it was just an enjoyable to 100% overall. 

So Greez is like that uncle that always cracks wise, BD1 is a shoulder mounted R2D2 who is far cooler than the soccer ball droid, Cere is a dull ex-Jedi who failed to keep her student from the dark side and cut off her connection as penance and eventually the enigmatic Nightsister Merrin joins your crew. An absolute babe and love interest of Cal. She gave me serious Morrigan vibes from Dragon Age in her dark, sinister yet loyal and honest demeanour. A victim but in no way a pushover; initially antagonistic she eventually joins Cal to defeat the rogue Jedi Taron Malicos - cool dude btw; a neo-viking Jedi with no shirt and two red spinning floating sabres - who's been running amok on Dathomir (Maul's home). I totally ship her and Cal. Please makebeautiful  interracial alien force magic wielding babies... I really loved the crew banter and comradery and I always took the chance to talk to crew members in my downtime. It made you feel like you were on the Millennium Flacon getting to know your crew better. I really hope they explore this further in the second game, even delving into RPGs for inspiration. Trilla the fallen apprentice of Cere, does no more than an okay job as the primary villain. I didn't think much of her and felt like they leant too much on Cere and their fractured relationship. A story we've seen too many times in Star Wars. Obi-Wan failed with his first, but the new apprentice is his second chance to learn from his prior mistakes..

The crew of the Stinger Mantis - a terrible name for a ship btw, common Greez....

All this becomes abundantly clear when Trilla fails to defeat Cal in the final boss fight. The fight was ridiculously difficult mind you - with a hugeeee difficulty spike compared to everything else. Failure is followed by a fear that marks her face - but not from you or Cere. She has failed for the last time and before she can have some epiphany about the dark side, Vader appears out of no where and cuts his Inquisitor down. It's at this point you experience one of if not the best fan servicey scenes in a Star Wars game. "You would be wise to flee". "Yeah, probably" Cal responds. Oh boy I cannot describe the joy I felt in this scene, Vader towering above you makes you feel trivial. You make a few swings, but it's clear he's not even trying and after almost choking you out you're forced to flee. Vader is still walking and as you turn to run hundreds of panels ascend of the platforms and fly towards you. Entire sidewalks ripped out as you're forced to dodge. Your channel your inner Drake to escape. No door or escape route can stop Vader. They truly capture him as an absolute unstoppable force of nature, persistent and unrelenting, all you can do is run, hide and prey.  He just keeps coming. All your training and progress and you still feel like an ant by comparison. A good reminder Cal still has a long way to go. Eventually cornered in the under water facility, BD1 stuns him momentarily. But not for long and Vader almost forces Cal's own lightsabre into his gut from across the tunnel. Cere returns to hold Vader off momentarily. In a desperate attempt Cal cracks the glass and the water floods in. We're shown a scene of Vader trying to hold back what I can only assume is so much water pressure that even Poseidon himself would struggle to hold it back. But he does, for a moment then goes to one knee from the pressure. Cut to black as Cal and Cere drift off, saved by Merrin. The Holocron is recovered, Vader no longer has the device to eliminate the compeition, and the ragtag crew can start rebuilding the Order. 

Anakin was only 27-28 in these scene - though his body probably felt a little older...

The Vader set piece was absolutely phenomenal and the megafan in me has no regrets it was in the game. However it does highlight just how much Trilla Suduri pales in comparison as a villain to one of the greatest - the benchmark. Instead she is tossed aside both in the game and from our memories, almost immediately forgotten. The set piece marks the pinnacle of many, whether it be hijacking an AT-AT to destroy the others nearby before Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) leader of the rebels swings in, thanks you and asks you to park it by their base.  Or even just the beautiful inspiring and faithful backdrops like exploring a graveyard of Star Destroyers, the ship breaking planet Cal hides on, the planet Ilum full of icey caves where Jedi craft their first light sabre as a right of passage, or climbing the world tree to take flight on a giant majestic bird. Jedi Fallen Order captures the magic I felt oh so many years when I first saw Luke, Vader and Han Solo on the big screen. No other Star Wars game has ever done that.