Uncharted 4 vs Rise of the Tomb Raider

I've wanted to talk about do a side by side comparison of Uncharted 4 and Rise of The Tomb Raider for a little while now but I wanted to wait until I had some time to sit on both games and really think about them. I have broken the games down into 15 categories which I will be comparing the two games and finding a winner for each category at the end, I will add up the scores and find out who the winner is.

With that being said, major spoiler alert to the following games...Uncharted 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider.

1). Protagonist

Uncharted 4: Nathan Drake is arguably one of the most likable video games characters ever created. First and foremost, he's a badass. He takes on thousands of enemies and mows them down like nothing. He's a treasure hunter, incredibly intelligent and most importantly, a witty smart ass. Some companies create characters who are trying to be cool, he's not trying...he just is.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: Lara Croft is the best representation of a female character that I have ever seen. She is not overly sexualized with monstrous breasts and at the same time is stunningly beautiful. But it’s not just about her looks, she's tough, mentally strong and very motivated. She doesn't back down from a fight and will always come out on top. She's the type of woman that little girls should look up to. With that being said, my one gripe is that she takes herself very seriously. I would like to see her lighten up a little bit.

Winner: Uncharted: I'm sorry, this is a tough choice. I like Lara as a character but Nate has this wittiness and banter that make him such an enjoyable character.

2). Shooting Mechanics

Uncharted 4: The shooting in Uncharted is not great, it’s serviceable but at average at best. It’s the one thing that I’ve always hated about the Uncharted series. Also it always annoyed me when I finally find a gun that I like but then the next chapter starts and the gun is gone.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: I don't like the guns in Tomb Raider either, I think the guns in Tomb Raider might be worse than the ones in Uncharted. With that being said, using the bow and arrow in Tomb Raider is extremely satisfying. When you get that head shot using a bow and arrow, it feels like you're on top of the world. The game also has a simple RPG game mechanic of experience and leveling up. Its very basic but it’s nice to get experience for kills, it just gives the kills more meaning.

Winner: Tomb Raider by a long slide.

3). Combat/Stealth

Uncharted 4: Uncharted has very basic combat and combo system. It’s just Square, Square, Square (or maybe Square, Triangle, Square) but the combat animations have been improved and they do look a lot better. For Stealth, the game does add some stealth features where you can actually tag AI. The stealth is still really basic but does work well. 

Rise of the Tomb Raider: The combat in Tomb Raider is primarily revolved around her axe, she stabs people with that and it just feels gruesome. The stealth works really well and I have no doubts that some people can beat entire levels by stealthily sneaking around.

Winner: Tomb Raider, Each level feels like it’s designed to give you multiple options and allow the player creative freedom to play the way they want to play.

4). Platforming

Uncharted 4: The platforming in the game is extremely refined. I didn't find myself dying too often while climbing, jumping or traversing which is always nice. As well as the platforming works there is too much of it. By the end of the game, you are completely sick of it.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: Unfortunately its not quite as refined as Uncharted, there were a couple instances where I died and it felt like it was the games fault. The one big bonus I really liked about the platforming was, there seems to be more variety. The climbing arrows was a very nice addition.

Winner: Tomb Raider-Oddly enough, it just never gets sickening.

5). Collectables

Uncharted 4: There are 109 treasure to collect in Uncharted so there is a decent amount to look around and try to find. The problem is, there really is no reason to unless you want the PlayStation trophies.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: The game has a lot to collect between coins, relics, documents, murals, the list goes on. What I like is, they all have meaning. When you pick up ancient relic such as a cup. There is a story behind the cup,text pops up telling you the history. Lara is talking about the item or reading the document, its a nice little touch. Plus there is an added bonus getting experience for everything you collect. 

Winner: Tomb Raider, The games makes it so you want to collect everything.

6). Exploration

Uncharted 4: Out of the 4 uncharted games, 4th installment certainly has the largest playable area. The problem, there really isn't a reason to go exploring.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: There is more to explore, there are secondary missions. Hidden Tombs, caves with hidden items or maybe wolf dens. I spent a good 10 hours just walking around and exploring the nooks and crannies of each world.

Winner: Tomb Raider, there is not much to say.

7). Puzzles

Uncharted 4: The puzzles in Uncharted are easy enough you won't be stuck for hours but at the same time, tough enough to get you to stop and think about it for a second. Some are memory based and some are kind of tricky. The Cross Puzzle comes to mind where you have to match the 3 crosses with the 3 lights, that one took me a little while but once you stop and think about it,its not too difficult.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: There are a lot more puzzles in this game over Uncharted but its nice because if you don't care about the side quests then you can avoid most of them by not going into the ancient Tombs. There is one puzzle that stands out to me and thats the Orrery Puzzle. You not only have to solve the puzzle but there is this element of platforming where you're jumping from platform to platform but nothing is stationary, everything is rotating around in a circle.

Winner: Tomb Raider because the Orrery is the coolest puzzle I have ever had to solve.

8). Voice Acting 

Uncharted 4: Uncharted has the two biggest voice actors in video games right now, Nolan North (Nathan Drake) and Troy Baker (Sam Drake). I can't just compliment them though Emily Rose (Elena Fisher), Richard McGonagle (Sully), Warren Kole (Rafe)...the list goes on and on. Everyone does a spectacular job and there wasn't a single moment in the game that made me think, "that feels unnatural or just poorly scripted."

Rise of the Tomb Raider: Lara Croft’s voice actress Camilla Luddington was one of the best performances that I saw all year. I know this is very subjective but I love the way her voice sounds and her accent certainly helps. The problem is some of the supporting actors and actresses had small moments where things did seem somewhat forced.

Winner: Uncharted, the three main voice actors just have this chemistry with one another so everything just feels natural when the three (Nate, Sully and Elena) are talking.

9). Character Development

Uncharted 4: A lot of the character development winds up happening in the 2 flash back chapters. In the 2 chapters you play as young Nathan Drake where you meet an old woman and she talks about Nate and Sam's mother. The other big moment of character development in the game is at the very end in the epilogue. I won't go into too much detail about that right now but specifically Nate and Elena really have changed for the better.

Rise of the Tomb Raider:If you look at both games (Tomb Raider 2013 & Rise of the Tomb Raider), Lara has developed so much in these two games. She went from being a scared young woman and she's slowly turned into the Tomb Raider. I'm excited for the future of this franchise for this reason alone.

Winner: Uncharted, the epilogue pushes this game to the top. If you're a fan of the franchise then the epilogue is everything you want in an Uncharted game.

10). Secondary Characters

Uncharted 4: Uncharted has 3 main secondary characters and they're Sully, Sam and Elena. Sam is the new character of the franchise and probably the least likable but as the game progresses he starts to wear on you a little bit. Sully is much older in this iteration but still a fan favorite and Elena is the love interest of the game. Elena and Sully are both such strong support characters for Nathan himself, sully being the father figure and Elena being the rock who ends up being there for Nathan when he needed her the most.

Rise of the Tomb Raider:The two big secondary characters in this game are Jonah and Jacob. I liked Jonah in the first game but his character seems to take a step back in this game and he's just less prevalent. Jacob is a new character in this game and he's not going to be in another one but there isn't a lot about him thats overly that great. Tomb Raider is more about Lara going off onto her own where Uncharted has Nate is almost always working with someone else.

Winner: Uncharted, Tomb Raider is Lara Croft where Uncharted is Nathan and his team.

11). Cut scenes

Uncharted 4: This game flawlessly transitions from gameplay to cut scenes and then back to gameplay extremely well. In the one chapter there's a sequence where Sam, Sully and Nate are at the auction. As Nate is platforming from building to building, Sully is also talking to the games antagonists Rafe and Nadine, the way it the game cuts back and forth between the 2 sequences is something special. It honestly felt like a movie.

I do have to mention my favorite cut scene in the entire game. It's towards the end when Nate and Elena are in the house of Thomas Tew. This is where they discover there was dinner among pirates, Henry Every (Avery) and Thomas Tew wound up poisoning all the other pirates in Libertalia so they could keep the treasure for themselves. I know its not historically accurate but I still loved this scene.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: The cut scenes are a little less are a little less memorable in this game but there is one that stands out to me. Its towards the beginning when Lara is captured by the main villain organization, Trinity. The next thing you know, Lara wakes up and she discovers that not only was she capture but her step mom, Ana was as well. The games main protagonist starts to strangle Ana so Lara will divulge information. Lara doesn't know anything but thats when one the big plot twist of the game happens, you find out that Ana actually works with Trinity. Also, Ana is a bitch. 

Winner: Uncharted, the game is driven by the cut scenes.

12). World/Stage Designs

Uncharted 4: There is a wide variety of different environment and landscapes in this game. You encounter the ocean, a city market place, graveyard in England, Auction house in Brazil, Panamanian jail and Madagascar.  You bounce around so much but it all works flows together so well.

Rise of the Tomb Raider:You spend a little bit of time at Croft Manor, you spend a little time in Syria but spend 90% of the game in Russia. Although there is less variety, there is more to do and the seems to be more creative freedom.

Winner:Tomb Raider- I love the variety of Uncharted but different locations don't really offer up any new game play.

13). Villain 

Uncharted 4: The two main Antagonists who are working together are Rafe and Nadine. Rafe is a rich kid who is a spoiled rich kid who is really looking for a legacy. He wants to go down in history as the man who discovered Henry Avery's great treasure. Unfortunately he has lost some of his sanity in the process. Nadine is his partner but shes just a mercenary who doesn't really care about the treasure. To her, its just another job.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: The two main antagonists are Konstantin and Ana who are actually siblings. Ana is dying so her and Konstantin go to Russia to acquire the Divine Source. The Divine Source is this biblical artifact that grants immortality and so they simply want to save Ana from dyeing. They also wanted to give the Divine Source to Trinity and then Trinity would become all powerful and take over the world.

Winner: Uncharted, I liked Rafe better as a character and his motivations seem less stereotypical and it wasn't all about world domination. He was just a normal guy who became a little too obsessed with a treasure.

14). Story

Uncharted 4: The Uncharted series has always been about fictional history. They take these fictional places of mystery and a create a story of how Nate and the others discover these magical places. The 4th installment is no different but this time, its literally all about pirates from the golden age of piracy. I'm a big history nerd so these kinds of games are going to interest me. No to mention, who doesn't enjoy a good Pirate story?

Rise of the Tomb Raider:The story concept is similar to the Uncharted series but its a little more biblical. I don't mean that the game has heavy religious tones and pushing a Christian agenda, I just mean that the game has more of a biblical historical feel. The story isn't awful but it felt a little stereotypical with the Villains wanting to create a super natural army and wanted to take over the world.

Winner: Uncharted, for a very simple reason...Pirates.

15). Epilogue/Ending

Uncharted 4: The epilogue occurs about 15 years after the games ending so when the scene begins, it’s a little confusing. All you know is, you're a young blonde girl (about 15) and you have to piece together who you are by walking around a house. As you walk around the house you discover that you're Nathan and Elena's daughter, Cassie. The ultimate fan service though is the moment when you find out what Nate and Elena have been up to in the last 15 years. They continued to do what they love but found a way to do it safely and legally.

Another little detail that I have to bring is, some place in the middle of the game where Nate is walking through a city marketplace. In the market there is an option to play with a monkey. If you chose to play with the monkey, Sully will come up and tell you that we don't have time and you have to go. Nate basically calls him a kill joy and makes a joke that he's going to get a dog and name it after Sully. Flash forward to the epilogue, Nate has a dog and names her Vicki. Vicki is of course short for Victor which is Sully's first name.  Its the little things in this game that make it so great.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: The game ends with Lara destroying the divine source and saving the world. The epilogue is where is gets more interesting, Lara and Ana are outside talking about Lara's father. Then out of nowhere Ana is shot by a sniper and killed on the spot. You cut to the sniper and he asks a man about Lara and wonders if he should take her out and he of course says "Not yet." This ending was about a cliffhanger and to get you thinking about the future sequel.

Winner: Uncharted, Best way to end a franchise.

Winner 

Uncharted 4: 8

Rise of the Tomb Raider: 7

It’s a very close call and to simple put it Rise of the Tomb Raider has better game mechanics and overall game play but Uncharted has a much better story and the characters are more likable. If Tomb Raider sticks with formula for game play but comes up with a better story, I have no doubts that a Tomb Raider sequel could become one of the best games in the history of gaming.

Fire Emblem: Conquest

Rating: 8.0

Happy Price: 34.99 - Since that's the only price you'll find it at

Gameplay

Fire Emblem Fates has two versions of itself, Conquest and Birthright. Conquest deals with the bad guys, the imperialistic kingdom that has goals of taking over all the kingdoms of the world. It builds off of the success of each Fire Emblem iteration released in the past, but this one in particular is aimed at veterans of the series and it is definitely more difficult than any other Fire Emblem game. 

Tactics

Conquest will test your ability to strategize and push you to your limits in terms of frustration goes. Unlike previous versions of Fire Emblem, you can't purchase reek boxes to level up weaker members of your army. This means the only time your units will gain experience is during campaign missions or if you've unlocked prologue mission. Prologue missions are very rare because they occur when two units of opposite sex reach full bonding, because they have a child you have to rescue. Once a character has died, they are gone forever. This is how these games are traditionally played, but Conquest allows for this option to be turned off. I would not recommend this as it takes weight away from moment to moment decisions. At the same time, this penalty limits your freedom in risk taking, risk taking that is essential to developing the weaker members of your army.

The AI is terribly unforgiving. The AI's mentality is pretty much that of a suicide bomber and will sacrifice everything to kill one of your units, even if it means sure death. One example is leaving a healer unprotected, but surrounded by a bunch of allies. The enemy will rush in the middle of everyone just to kill a unit that can't defend itself. In return, your allies will demolish each unit that tried to take out one. To me, in a game that prides itself on good decisions it feels unfair that the AI has no regard for its own life, while you the player have to cherish each and every move. There are also units that will deal 7 damage after their turn, no matter how much damage they cause a player during their turn. For example, one of these AI units won't do any damage with their attack, but have an ability that causes 7 damage after the turn is over. Not only that, but it will affect adjacent units. When put in these situations, it is very frustrating because only your strongest units are eligible to fight at that point. 7 damage is a ton in Fire Emblem, which means you have to use someone from your party that will take no damage during the main turns.

Building Your Army

The best part about party based games building your party in the image you see fit. Conquest makes this very difficult to do since it offers no way to grind. The later an ally joins your party, the harder it is to develop them. I had about 6 units that were pretty much useless because I had no opportunity to develop them. Each campaign mission gets harder and harder, and more enemies get thrown your way as the game goes on. The combination of higher levels, volume, and devastating abilities creates situations where you're relying on about eight or so unites the entire game. In other Fire Emblem games, there are opportunities to recruit people during battle which is one of the most rewarding things that can happen. In Conquest, this is non existent. Recruiting party members is built into the story and requires no work from the player, except for a villager in the beginning of the game.

There are new items like Heart Seals and Friendship Seals. A Heart seal for example can turn any unit into a different type based on its personality. If their skill levels make sense, you can turn a paladin into a mage if you need balance in that area. Of course, that unit would then have to learn magic attacks and build up its skill. It's nice to have this option, but at the same time useless. The only time I used this item was on a villager very early in the game. That villager ended up turning into a Sniper, and would grow into the most powerful unit in my army. Friendship seals are similar, but they allow you to change someone into the same unit they have full companionship with. 

One of the better improvements is the PP of weapons is no longer existent. That means you can purchase a Silver Lance and it will never break. This takes an element of stress out of the game that was once there previous. You no longer have to equip three different lance types depending on how much hp the enemy has so you can preserver your gold stash which is nice and makes sense. You will also have the opportunity to spend money on more exotic weapons like Brave Bow's and Killer Lances. 

Narrative

The narrative structure is quite odd, up until Chapter 8 the story is the same for both Conquest and Birthright. Once you get to that fork in the road, you have to make a decision. However, you can only make one decision based on what game was purchased. If you decide, "hm I think I want to do that instead" you will get a message "you don't have the version of the game to support this choice, go to the Nintendo store and purchase for 39.99". Why even offer the choice to the player when I already made the choice when I bought the game? The reasons for going down the path you go down in conquest are really shallow and don't carry any real emotion to you as a player. So the whole game from that point on is set on a very weak emotional foundation since you made the wrong purchase. Every one of your family members is borderline insane, and your father is even worse. It would have been nice if your reasons for choosing the "bad" side had some actual substance you could empathize with, but there isn't of that. Your reasons for conquering a peaceful kingdom is based off of greed and power. 

Even though they are short, the cinematics are done really well. They are well done anime sequences that have tons of actions and really cool particle effects. The art style is 3D as well, so the 3D anime brings everything to life very well. I was actually pretty excited when I would cause them to happen, I would just sit back and relax while I watched a really cool anime sequence with party members from my army. This allows personality and depth to be added to characters inside the army you manage.

Summary

Even though I did not like the game, It does many things very well and it's still a deep RPG. I wouldn't recommend it over Birthright however.  I easily spent 40 hours playing this game, even though only 26 hours are included in my saves. I spent many hours dying therefore shutting the game off without saving so my characters wouldn't die off. You'll be tested from a strategic sense if you decide to pick this game up, and will have to invest a lot of time into it. 

Farcry 4

Happy Price: 39.99

Rating: 9.4

Gameplay

Farcry 4 expands on everything that was built in Farcry 3, but adds tons of polish and features that distinguish it as a separate title rather than a perceived DLC. Taking place in the Himalaya Mountains, verticality plays a role but doesn't define gameplay in any hindering fashion. The storyline has much improved writing which supplements the gameplay experience and takes it to another level that is generally unexpected. 

Combat Mechanics

Farcry is a FPS at it's core, and despite having tons of other gameplay elements, keeps to its core very well. There are a variety of weapons to choose from ranging from the compound bow to a light machine gun. Farcry allows the player to select a stealthy or guns blazing strategy whenever they may choose. This gives the player a ton of freedom and meaningful choice on a minute to minute basis since you're in constant conflict for most of the game. As you progress, better weapons become available such as the Silenced Sniper Rifle which is a very powerful weapon, but an unaccurate shooter will alert enemies at the sound of bullets ricocheting off the ground or buildings. Also, if you decide to shoot someone and another comrade sees a body drop dead, they know what is happening and your cover will be blown. These are the reasons I love Farcry 4. Even when you have such power, you still have to be smart. 

Vehicles

New vehicles are introduced that really change the gameplay of Farcry 4 compared to previous iterations in the series. The gyrocopter, which is a helicopter made of steel pipes and duct tape, enables you to fly around the mountains and traverse from one side to another much quicker than a car. A sidearm can be equipped while driving it, so there is great opportunity to blow up convoys when driving around with a grenade launcher (sidearm grenade launcher, yes). You can also use this vehicle if you plan to hunt, as you can wield a sawed of shotgun as a sidearm. Like a real hunter, you can just fly around and kill animals, all the while skinning them to upgrade your accessories like wallet or ammo bags. This may sound cowardly, but Rhino's do not go down without a fight, and if you don't prepare against one of those things they can make quick work out of you.

Elephants are the other notable new vehicle you can use. With the option to charge or ram, watch enemy camps run around scared as you ride around an Elephant and firing at enemies with your sidearm. It's one of the most fun things to do is run around with a 5 ton flesh shield of controllable fury. I found it humorous to ram my enemies and watch them fly what seemed to be 50 feet each time as they rag dolled across the terrain. Of course it's not easy to obtain an elephant, since they don't travel very fast it's much more convenient to find one near the encampment you will try to "liberate". 

Story

I can usually snooze through the narrative of a video game, but this one has a decent amount of depth and fantastic writing. You find yourself in this situation because your mother dies and request her ashes are spread in a certain place in Kyrat. Turns out, that area is occupied by an insane Dictator, and in order to spread the ashes you have to liberate the area. At first it seems dry and pointless, but as the story unfolds it begins to get much more interesting. The main villain is not pure evil as you'd expect, he believes he's on the right side of the war and is compassionate yet ruthless. He's unpredictable and it adds great flare to the story. Many of the side characters also shine, like the radio host that commentates on your arrival and your progression. One of the notable lines I remember is when he talks about how you "suddenly become good at killing with no prior training" then goes into a discussion on hidden talents, and that your character is likely a serial killer whom has harnessed their long suppressed talent of killing people. I thought it was brilliant since you the gamer are wondering the same thing.

Environment/Art

It feels very good as you navigate through the Himalayan mountainside because the environment is beautiful. There are annoying eagles that will attack if you decide to take in the scenery, which makes the moments you get so much more valuable. As you approach an unsuspecting enemy with your bow and are crouching in the tall grass, it rustles beautifully against your face. And then chaos ensues. You get spotted and have to switch to an explosive arrow, blow up a car that sets a shed on fire, and now you're running around an encampment full of fire, explosions, blood, and flying enemies who have just exploded because of your grenade that was frantically thrown. Everything is beautiful, and the frame rates stay consistent no matter what is happening. I played on an Xbox and didn't try to break it, but playing the game naturally allowed it to hold up. You'll be stunned when on the top of a mountain look around at the scenery. 

Summary

It's a must play. This review is nearly two years late so the game is only $20. It's worth more than that, and you'd be crazy not to play this game! 

     

Madden 17

Rating: 8.8

Happy Price: 59.99

Gameplay

Building off of the previous iterations of the franchise, it's the same football simulator that allows for dealing with the off field dynamics as well as executing everything on the field. With a variety of game modes, there is something for everyone. Franchise is for the RPG oriented user, Madden Ultimate Team for the fantasy football player, and online games for the social player. 

New Features

The focus this year was on ball carrier moves and giving the player more control over the outcomes of one on one situations with defenders. Offensive lineman A.I was also improved so the running attack has taken a front seat in this iteration, something that hasn't been done in years. I haven't had such an experience since Madden 2001. Many things went into bringing this feature set to the forefront. They tightened the controls quite a bit so moving around didn't feel so loose. The previous ten years of Maddens did not have very precise controls which made it difficult to hit a hole correctly, usually you'd see where you want to go and then run into your own lineman when trying to run the ball. If the option is turned on, the game will tell you what to do in order to elude a defender or break the tackle. Above the player a button will appear that must be pressed at the correct time. They've also added a precise mode, which allows you to break multiple tackles or juke multiple defenders with the penalty of increased fumble rates if you mistime it. 

Franchise Mode

The approach this year was to make things more simple and to broaden the audience to a mode that is deep and has a heavy menu set that can be overwhelming. It appeals to both new and old players because you can follow the prompts they provide you and get everything done, or dig into the sub menus if you're very detailed. Depending on if you pick a coach or owner, the experience will be different. The owner has all the same features as a coach, but you can also change the prices of hot dogs, rebuild a stadium, move a team, and sign players. You have far more control over a franchise this way, and it's the preferred way I like to do it. I was very proud that I was able to take the 2-14 Titans to the Super Bowl my third year after drafting and trading players that make my team an absolute powerhouse.

The Titans start with a young quarterback, formidable defense, and a behemoth of a Running back named Derrick Henry sitting on the bench. They lack a receiver corp, have aging linebackers, and a below average secondary. I knew right away after playing eight games I absolutely needed a wide receiver with size and a shutdown cornerback. The deep scouting and combine system allowed me to select the receiver I needed, and he ended up being an all pro which is very fulfilling since a lot of time goes into scouting players and getting ready for the draft. Without this WR, I would have never won the Super Bowl. I could get into a bunch of these scenarios but it would take forever, but when you've wheeled and dealed for players or drafted them and they make plays in the super bowl and playoffs that get you over the hump, it's very fulfilling.

AI

The first few times you fire the game up, its evident the AI has been improved on both the offense and defense. However there are still frustrating episodes where blockers will run right past the guy they were suppose to block, and you end up getting tackled since you followed the blocker and they didn't do their job. Also there is an issue on kick returns where blockers will be out of bounds looking for someone to block, so you can potentially lose two or more blockers during kick returns. The offensive AI is pretty smart though, they will adjust to your defensive looks if you repeatedly blitz, use man coverage, or use zone coverage. After about two seasons, I finally found a few defensive plays that turned me into the #1 defense in the league. I would run a nickel package where the two middle linebackers blitzed, while everyone else was in man coverage. This would handle both runs and passes since it was always a six man rush with five dbs covering everyone else. Screen plays and outside runs killed me though, and I found the AI would start calling those plays if I kept using the play over and over again. I thought it was very fun having to switch things up into zones, man zone combos, and blitzes to keep the offense at bay.

Presentation

Each year EA does a good job at improving the character models and animations. The tackling has however taken a huge leap as they have greatly improved the responsiveness of the physics when someone is getting tackled. It's difficult to tell how they are doing it, but it seems that the player being tackled will contort their body from whichever direction is generating the most force. This applies to double and triple tackles which creates really cool tackle animations where players can be spun into the air, or be lunging forward off balance and a hit stick will jar the ball loose. The couple of times I've taken advantage of a situation like that, it looked just like a NFL fumble where players try to do too much and get blown up and lose the ball.

The commentary is repetitive and annoying, there isn't anything like the Madden Summerall days. I actually heard one of the commentators use a line during a real NFL game where he says "You know what my tall tight end used to tell us? Put the ball up on the top shelf where the kids can't get it". When you've heard this 100 times in a video game then hear it in real life, it makes things seem unoriginal and lazy. The commentators make a billion references to the "old days" where things were done a certain way and how the approach to football is so new and finesse. It just sounds like two old guys talking how their NFL was different than today's, however this doesn't contribute to what is happening on the field at all.  

Summary

If you're a football fan, you've probably bought each Madden since you've owned a video game console. Madden 17 is the best iteration in years, probably since Madden 2001 that debuted on the PS2. If you decided to skip a year due to repetitive gameplay and feeling EA steals your money each year, it's not the case with this game. 

Enter The Gungeon

Rating: 8.2

Happy Price: 14.99

Gameplay

Enter the Gungeon combines skill and random events that create an unpredictable flow of events each time you play. The difficulty is high, but unlike Dark Souls that aren't any patterns you can rely on to adapt to. It plays more like FTL where enemies and environments are randomly generated with a set of minimum and maximum parameters. There is a lot of shooting, dodging, and rolling involved. Your main objective is to make it through a bunch of dungeons, saving ominous NPC's and defeating bosses.

Combat

The main focus is reacting to heavy gunfire and rushing enemies. There are many different enemy types that have different weapons coming at you simultaneously. This is balanced by a roll feature which makes you invincible for the amount of time you're rolling. There are four characters that can be picked from, each with their individual trait that makes them unique. Arguably, if you're good enough, you could beat the game with each characters starting weapon. However you'd have to be on some pro status to accomplish that.

Upgrades

There are two types of upgrades that exist, guns and passives. Upgrades are applied by unlocking chests that contain them. Upgrades come in forms of items, either a type of gun or strange item that has a unique property to it that influences the player's abilities. In order to unlock a chest, one must get keys for them. Keys can be purchased or found, however it's not obvious how to get enemies to drop keys. Depending on what upgrade you get can define how your gameplay run will go, getting an extremely powerful weapon combined with a great passive will significantly increase the odds of you winning. It can be very disappointing however, when you open a chest and the weapon inside is just slightly more powerful than your starting weapon. This is the risk you take each time you play the game, you just don't know or have control over how it's going to turn out.

There are so many gun types it is overwhelming, but adds an element of surprise each time you get something new.  Shown above is a Tommy Gun, but you can get laser weapons, attacking bees, grenade launchers, missile launchers, snowballs, and many other weapon types. It will take hours to uncover them, but there exists a dictionary where you can see all the weapons that exist in the game. There just isn't a clear path to unlocking them. After defeating bosses, there is a currency that is dropped that can be used to unlock weapons that "join" the game. These will get added to the array of weapons available each run. You can always purchase weapons, keys, and other needs at a shop. This adds some predictability to your run, but at the same time you'll have no idea what appears at the shop.

The same goes for the passive upgrades. These things do random stuff like make your bullets bounce off walls, divide into 3 bullets, freeze enemies, electrocute enemies if rolled into, etc. Getting a combination like a beam weapon that bounces off walls can be a huge upgrade since now you can play the game completely differently. Essentially destroying enemies while behind cover. Or when tackling a boss, you don't need to be super accurate all the time and can focus on dodging the onslaught of bullets. 

Boss Battles

Even boss battles will be unpredictable. The game is divided into five different dungeons. Each dungeon has an array of bosses that it hosts. You won't know which boss you face, and therefore won't really know which weapon to purchase if you're in the situation where your weapons are not sufficient. It's guesswork, but after enough time you'll learn the patterns of the bosses and it won't be an issue early game. There are some that argue to save your ammo for dungeon three, and just use the starting weapon against bosses which I thought was too difficult. The bosses are one of the high points of the game, each is a character in its own right and has a combat style that complements it. For example, Medusa is bat shit crazy and uses dual uzis with the ability to turn you to stone. She reminds you of crazy ex girlfriend.

Art

The 2d pixel art is top notch and totally encompasses games of the era it's trying to emulate. The fact that the environments are dynamically generated and the tilesets totally work without any issues is a huge technical feat. It's difficult to create tilesets that don't conflict with one another when they are as dynamic as they are in the game. With the huge variety of weapons and ammo types, there was a good attention to detail, no stone was left unturned. Guns have the appearance for what they do. A missile launcher is big, or if it's small, has a quirky name like the Little Cricket. I spent a lot of time looking for a flaw, but could not find one. Now my expectations are something funny or intelligent each time I get an upgrade. I expect it to look great and feel great, and haven't been disappointed.

Summary

Not a casual shooter by any means, however it appears it would be. There is a lot of depth that is difficult to cut into with purpose since there are many random events happening. It starts off great, but starts to lose its luster after about the 10 hour mark. However people that love shooters and games like FTL can likely play this game for hours on end. It's very difficult to beat.

Saints Row: Gat Outta Hell

Happy Price: 4.99

Rating: 7.0

Gameplay

As a standalone game, you feel a bit cheated because Gat Outta Hell feels very much like DLC to Saints Row IV. It is pretty much the same game with a different narrative and reskinned guns to make them more hell themed. As you fly and sprint through hell, your job is to create as much chaos as possible in order to piss off the devil and have him confront you. 

Narrative

The most unique and best feature of the game was the story. After playing with a Ouija board a hell portal opens up and steals the president. Johnny Gat goes into hell to rescue his buddy, because he's Johnny Gat and a complete badass. The devil is to marry his daughter to the president, so that the union can assist the devil in corrupting humanity. The president has great leadership skills and is ruthless, so he's the perfect candidate for a son in law. There are many surprises inside the story including musicals and many unique endings the player can select. The voice acting and animation are superb making the story immersive and worth your time.

You'll find prominent figures from history down in hell, both fictional and from the SR universe. These figures include Blackbeard, Shakespeare, the Twins, and Vlad the Impaler. These characters have found themselves new roles in hell, and each are favored by the devil in some way due to their work on Earth. Exploring these is fun and entertaining, as it makes you think how their talents would translate to modern society. For example, Shakespeare in hell is an EDM DJ, begging the question if his talents would have rose to the surface in the modern age or would've been diluted by the lures of modern technology.  

Combat

If you've ever played Saints Row IV, skip this section. It is the exact same. If not, keep reading. Johnny Gat has two main ways to navigate the area and avoid enemy gunfire. That is sprinting and flying. Upgrading these two movement mechanics will greatly enhance your experience defeating tons of demons and hellspawn. In order to conserve ammo and generally move around as fast as possible, I sprinted around and kicked people in the nuts as much as I could. The benefit of doing that is health would drop right next to me, and I'd get to see a sweet animation like a wrestling move. 

In terms of shooting, you get a small selection of weapons. There are the pistols, sub machine guns, machine guns, melee, special, and explosive. There are two to three variants of each of these weapon types, and each must be individually upgraded so choose carefully on which you'd like to build out, because you won't be able to build them all out. Don't think the hell version of a weapon is going to be superior than the Earth version, for example the rocket launcher and shotgun are superior than their hell version counterparts. Early game, I assumed since the hell versions looked cooler they'd be more powerful, so I wasted money upgrading them. When the opportunity arises, make sure you get the couch gun. It is by far the most powerful gun in the game, and eventually it can be upgraded to the point where there is unlimited ammo and no reloads. This made defeating the devil a cakewalk.

You do also get super powers, but pick one and upgrade that as much as possible. The currency to upgrade them is limited, and is annoying to obtain early game. Once you've upgraded flying enough it gets a little easier, but it's still a task. Each prominent figure you help out in hell will award you a different power. There are four that were stated above, each with something to offer you. These super powers assist in battles, but are far from the main thing that kills things. Those are still going to be your guns, but when in a tight situation the super powers help. I stuck to the stomp since it cleared out areas which would help when I had to stay and protect an area for long periods of time. A few mission types require this, and it suited me well. The three other options include spawning imps, an arcane blast, and an aura. 

Environments

Hell is a difficult thing to create because it's not real, but at the same time this makes it awesome because you can create it however you imagine it to be. The environment is very underwhelming and I feel like I'm in a hell skinned version of a city from Saints Row IV. No pun intended, but there is no soul to the environment. It feels like I'm in a test version of the game or something, and the details have not been fully fleshed out. There isn't any real soundtrack, so when you're getting place to place it feels dreadful. This clashes with the theme that Saints Row has created, where hell would likely be a fun place. I expected there to be music that got my energy up, but instead I got something that made me want to shut the game off. To me it seemed like there were a lot of assets from other games that were re-used, and just were re skinned. That was disappointing.

Summary

Probably not worth your time. The narrative was the most fun part, and you an youtube that online. This is miles from SR III which is one of my favorite games. SR IV took a step back, and this takes a step way back. It has it's moments of great polish, but It's still taking and building off of a highly polished franchise. 

Doom

Rating: 9.0

Happy Price: 39.99

Gameplay

Doom is one of the best shooters I've played in years, the single player experience was something I haven't experienced since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare back in 2007. So it's the best shooter I've played in nine years. There are a variety of enemies, weapons to use against them, the action is non stop, and the story isn't half bad either. 

Run n' Gun

Doom is all about staying in motion and reacting quickly to enemies. Certain enemy types are weak against certain weapons and when a flood of them approach, you have to think quickly about how to go about the situation. Running around and singling out enemies worked best for me. Each weapon has two modifications that can be unlocked, which then can be upgraded. To add, certain weapons share the same ammo, so you have to be very careful about what you're doing. There are two energy weapons, two shotguns, and two machine guns. Deciding what you want to upgrade becomes very important and you have to compliment your own gameplay style if you're going to be successful.

Weapon Types

Each weapon has a strength and weakness, along with certain enemies that respond differently to weapons. There is the standard combat shotgun which has decent range and good damage up close. It can take out most minion type enemies in one shot or leave them ready for a glory kill. This is the most commonly used weapon to take out weaker enemies. Along with that is the double barrel shotgun which has very limited range but much more power than the combat shotgun. I found no use for this weapon. 

The heavy machine gun and chain gun both share ammo. The heavy machine gun is good for distant enemies since you can upgrade it with a scope. Headshots are very effective and when there isn't too many smaller minions chasing you, this weapon is used to take out more powerful enemies. The chain gun burns through ammo but can be used when situations get overwhelming. It will chop through weaker enemies all while damaging the larger ones that accompany them. It's a good way to weaken everything around you until you run out of ammo, and then switch to a more powerful weapon to finish everyone off. 

The pulse rifle and gauss rifle are the energy weapons. The pulse rifle holds a lot of ammo and shoots rapidly, but has low damage. The Gauss rifle is a long range high damage weapon that uses much more ammo per shot than the pulse rifle. I found the pulse rifle to be useless, and the Gauss rifle was much more superior along with it's upgrade tree. 

Last is the rocket launcher. Extremely good at taking out hordes of low level enemies and formidable against the more powerful ones, it's probably the most versatile weapon in the arsenal. With the nature of verticality and moving around a lot, you have to be careful when using this weapon since there is residual damage from your rockets. Blowing up an enemy too close will also damage you, and this is really the only downside to the weapon.

Artwork/Animations

The enemy AI and animations are some of the best I've ever seen in a video game. The levels are complex with platforming features that require precise timing and jumping. Just when you think you can get to a safe area, the enemy AI gracefully jumps towards you. Even enemies you would not anticipate could do that based on their normal pathing. Nothing looks bad while all of this chaos is going on. Enemies are chasing you all over the map no matter where you go, they also try to get to vantage points. When you witness this happening, you can only appreciate the time and effort that went into that. It's some of the smoothest gameplay I've ever experienced and it seems like each scenario has been thought through, or it was incredible level design to avoid issues. 

The character models are top notch and there is a ton of detail and variety with each enemy. Based on their powers, strengths, and weaknesses comes the design of the character. You can tell fat guy is build for being slow and shooting a powerful weapon. Smaller four legged creatures with a horn are probably going to charge. Once their dead and you've actually inspected them, it seems like every inch of the character was thought about. Everything ties back into the personality of the enemy, from the necklace they have or chips in an enemies horn.

The environments are highly detailed and stayed true to the theme. There are two settings, hell and a facility on Mars. This allowed for a great focus to be put on two environments that have a deep variety. Different spaces in hell created an immersive experience and really makes you envision what hell would be like, and even the politics of what go on there. It truly was like being put in another mythical world and getting some perspective on how it would be.

Summary

If you're looking for a very polished game, this is one definitely worth picking up. Be weary that it's a shooter, and if you're not into shooters and gore this might not be for you. Anyone that loves the genre must pick up this game as it sets a new standard of what a next gen shooter should be.