Zombie Party

Rating: 8.3

Happy Price: 4.99

Gameplay

Zombie Party is a simple twin stick shooter that puts the player through a series of waves in randomly set levels. There are six levels per run, each having the same first level and same final level. Once a run is completed, a harder mode is unlocked that generates more points per kill. The goal is to get the high score on online leaderboards, as there is no way to beat the game. 

Combat

There are two enemy types, hordes of "zombies" that rush you and try to inflict contact, and zombies that fire projectiles. There are hundreds of them on screen at any point, but the simple behavior of the enemies puts you in charge of how successful you'll be. Health potions are a rarity, but this is balanced by fair enemy AI which is consistent and allows for you to get better at adjusting to. Jumping provides invulnerability to both enemies and their projectiles, given that you land in a smart location. To heal 1hp cost 100 gold, which is a steep price given the amount of gold rewarded at the end of each level. It's very important you don't get hit or lose health to complete the run, because gold is required to buy new guns. Improved guns are a necessity to survive harder levels. 

Progression

There are two progression systems at play, the character's that can be unlocked and the in game progression of your character with each gameplay run. When you begin, all that you have is a pistol without any upgrades. As ammo drops happen during the first level, the shotgun, assault rifle, and grenade launcher are unlocked. When the second level comes around, you have a full arsenal ready but limited ammo. Weapons can be modified with bullet modifiers like increased speed, larger bullets, homing, etc. These are universal upgrades that can be applied to any weapon type. So if you want a homing grenade launcher, that can be applied easily. There are also elemental upgrades to weapons which further modify it. These can consist of bullets that freeze targets, set them on fire, lasers, buzz saw's, etc. Elemental upgrades and bullet modifiers are combined, so you can have a homing, piercing, and freeze grenade launcher if that's what you like. 

At the end of each run, you get a gold reward that can be applied to character unlocks. Unlocked characters come with statistical upgrades that are better than the starting characters, which means you get to spend less skill points when building your character into the winning specimen you envision. New characters also come with new starting weapons, which saves gold because you don't have to buy the upgraded pistol. An example is unlocking Agent 47 (Yes from Hitman) will award you a pistol that has piercing damage. Atom is an alien, which has a piercing laser pistol and also 3 speed skill points to start, making the first boss a breeze to beat. When you've gained enough experience points, a skill point is unlocked. Skills include strength, speed, luck, hp, magic, and fire rate. These improve passive stats on our character which apply to all weapons or item pickups.

Art

The 2D pixel art is charming and technically effective. Because there are so many enemies on screen and garbage collection occurring when many are killed at once, I was waiting for frame loss or the game to crash. Time after time I was surprised that did not happen. The art style compliments the gameplay in multiple ways and creates a seamless user experience. There is a great variety of environments, and the characters that populate them appear to belong in the world. The game goes for a retro twin stick shooter, and it accomplishes that look and feel perfectly.  

Summary

I enjoyed this game. It's a great way to blow of some steam and really brings back the great thing about video games. They are not real, and they are meant to be fun. Exploding fish guns in hell make sense here, and that is perfectly fine. A successful run where you get to hard mode takes about an hour, after that I'm not sure because I haven't finished hard mode, but I would imagine it takes around 3-4 hours of continuous gameplay to get the high score. I would recommend this game on sale, as it's probably not worth the 9.99 price it commands. Below is some gameplay

Horizon Zero Dawn

Rating: 9.8

Happy Price: 59.99

Gameplay

At it's core HZD is a third person open world shooter, but it's also much more than that. The world is inhabited with hostile humans and powerful robot dinosaurs. As you play the robot dinosaurs, which are just referred to as machines, gradually increase in both strength and variety as you progress. The tension stays high all the way until the final game boss. It seems no matter high of a level you are, you can't take anything for granted. Precision and calculated risks your best friend, and sometimes avoiding combat is your best option. 

Combat

It's very odd to take down high tech robots that are outfitted with high grade metal and powerful guns wielding a bow and arrow, but it's a game, and the ends of the arrow are lined with metal as well. This is why the game stresses precision. Just shooting a robot, even the least powerful ones, will do about 3-4 points worth of damage. However, hitting the same robot in the canister which holds it's flamethrower fuel can do 200 points worth of damage. Enough hits to the canister, and it will blow up, dealing 400-500 points of damage. It's difficult to be precise against one enemy, but when dealing with 3-4 it's nearly impossible. That's why the game stresses stealth as well. When the moment comes to take down something powerful, you must be ready, and you need to gain the upper hand right off the get go. That can mean headshot or bust, because missing the headshot can mean multiple enemies are now aware of your location, and you've just pissed off the one you hit in the chest and not head.

There are multiple ways to prepare for battle. You will develop your own system, but mine went something like this. Use stealth attacks (1 hit kills against weak enemies) to take down the "watchers" which are low level scout enemies which alert the more powerful ones to your presence. They also can shoot pulse bombs and jump on you similar to a velociraptor. Once those are taken care of and I have something big to take down, I'll set up traps, a lot of traps to ensure I'm covered once I start running around. They can be lured into these traps. Once the traps are setup, I'm ready to fire my first shot. If the enemy has a mounted cannon, I go for that first so I can shoot it off and pick up due to the high and rapid damage it inflicts. Here is some early game footage to see what It's like to take down a Sawtooth.

Story

The game starts and you're a banished child because you are born "without a mother" but the tribe pairs you with another outcast that trains you as a child to survive in the wilds. This is very confusing in the beginning, and it puts you into the same state of mind as the protagonist, Aloy. Since we are not aware of the customs of the tribe, we don't know of the mother passed during child birth or abandoned you when you were born. It is a constant tension for Aloy, and you, not knowing who your mother was but feeling like everyone else. does. The way it all unfolds near the end of the game is unexpected and extremely fulfilling. The story line regarding Aloy's origin was so imaginative and well executed, it's one of the best stories you'll find in any video game. 

The flaw with the story is your motivation to do everything in between when the game starts and when the game ends. The main (human) villain really only makes one appearance towards the end of the game, so his presence is lost while you're out doing things in the open world. It feels like at times you're doing things to assist in surviving the wilds, instead of gaining ground to your original reason of undertaking the daunting task of finding the guy you're looking for in the first place. There were times when I was helping people and I thought, "why am I doing this", how will this help me in the end?

Cinematics

I'm not sure if Guerilla Games got their hands on some new technology, but the facial animations in this game were superb, some of the best I've ever seen. I think the only competition it has is GTAV and The Witcher. This subconsciously enhanced the story because you're not distracted by funny eye twitches or mouth movements. This is coupled with fantastic voice acting and distinct character differences across the board creating a great clash of vibrant and strong personalities. Not only is this reflective in the main story, but all the side quests. The amount of effort to ensure the quality was consistent in every corner of the game must be appreciated, and it also motivated me to do side quests to see who I was going to meet and what their personality was. I think they covered almost every personality archetype, and also made sure to feature some new ones (like a female blacksmith).  

Art

The environmental art was spectacular and was simply a joy to just walk and run through. Never have I played a game where I questioned if I wanted to fast travel or walk. Most of the time running through a forest lined with flowers and fauna was fun in its own right. The fluidity of Aloy's running animations and the way the environment responds to her presence is just amazing. I felt like I was in a Jurassic time period with futuristic weapons which was a great contrasting of styles to create a unique immersive environment. The variety of terrains ranging from a barren desert to the snowy caps of a mountain were all executed cleanly and each had their distinct style. There was an underlying consistency that was supported by the uniqueness of each area that really makes you want to explore every corner of the game just to see what you might find. I'm not even referring to items, but just the artistic quality of a mountain or plant is worth the trip and time. 

The animations of the dinosaurs was so good, I can't even compare it to anything. Each enemy had their own animations and were unique. They resembled animals we see today, and dinosaurs of the ancient past. For example there are alligators, vultures, and Tyrannosaurs Rex. They each respond differently to your arrows or spear hits, and have unique animations for when you hit weak points that cause explosions or massive damage. Nothing was re-used (or so it seemed) and it rarely felt like there were enemies that were reskinned with the same animations. The Bellowbacks had multiple types of fire and ice which had the same animations but shot different types of weapons. In no way did this feel like things were being re-used for the sake of it, but it actually enhanced battles so I had no problem with that at all. Here are screenshots below to demonstrate the quality of the artwork.

Progression

HZD does not have a linear progression system other than the skill tree which is upgraded via EXP points earned. Weapons, Armor, Traps, and additional items need to be upgraded via purchase from merchants or crafting. Upgrading weapons and armor is far more impact than EXP points, yet it can be frustrating to upgrade because rare parts are required to do so, for example "Sawtooth Heart" or a "racoon skin". The game does not make it clear how to obtain these items, other than having to kill whatever robot or animal you need to in order to harvest its part. It gets frustrating when you kill ten racoons, which are rare already, and keep on getting the raccoon bone or fatty meat, when you need the skin. Nothing can be done to influence what item you get from a dead animal or robot, so this turns into a time consuming process.

That being said, the skill tree feels balanced when upgrading. They are divided into distinct sections which will define your play style especially early game. You can go stealth, run and gun, or depend on resources as a harvester. Around mid to late game, I wouldn't really notice that I was hoarding my skill points because the next upgrade never really felt "needed" where I was craving to level up. The sense of needing things came much more with upgrading my bow or armor, and that depended on getting unique parts and acquiring "shards" which are in game currency.

Why a 9.8?

There was a part of this game that really bothered me, and that was climbing. There are certain areas that require climbing, and the terrain or holds on the mountainsides are blended very well and look realistic. The problem lies with the rest of the environment where the game does not think you're going to climb. In these areas, you just jump up against the wall and don't hold onto anything. They should have gone the direction of designating climbing parts of the world a distinct color, because it feels like the game is confused when I see something I should be able to climb in an open world, but then I can't do it. This even applied to ladders that were in old ruins, not being able to climb these is unacceptable. 

Summary

Horzion Zero Dawn is an absolute masterpiece. It's one of the best games I've played in about a year. It did so many things well in terms of technical achievement, graphics, and game design. It will be remembered as one of the best games to come out on the PS4, and if you own PS4 this is a must play. 
    

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Rating: 7.5

Happy Price: 19.99

Gameplay

The Franchise has deemed and perfected one of the most appealing gameplay styles the game industry has to offer. A combination of Stealth, RPG, Tactical, Action, and Story branching gives Deus Ex its own flavor that nobody has attempted to replicate. In many phases of the game there are options to achieve any mission. Level design incorporates multiple routes to your objective, and dialogue situations offer a multitude of ways to convince someone to see things from your perspective. Abilities and traits also cater to all these options, for example someone that likes to find secret passages will need X-Ray vision and a high jump ability to access unique locations. 

Level Design

My favorite part about playing this game was the ability to choose how I wanted to do things. Taking the time to scout my environment paid dividends over and over again as I was able to find smarter ways to accomplish certain objectives. One of the most notable moments was when I was in an alley and saw two dumpsters and a refrigerator. In order to move the fridge, I needed an augmentation that allowed me to have super strength. I placed the two dumpsters next to each other, then laid the fridge on top of the dumpsters creating a staircase. I then had to use my augmented legs to jump from the fridge to a rooftop, where I was then able to easily break into an apartment window. I'm unsure if the level was designed that way, or if I did that with my brain on my own. Were the designers really aware of that edge case? Someone has these two abilities, at this point in the game, and then they can do certain actions? These moments are the reason I always come back to this franchise and have a love for it. 

One thing that was overused is the navigation of ventilation systems. The placement of some vents was unrealistic, and the scale of them as well. It just doesn't make sense to have a human sized vent behind someone's computer monitor. Think about that, a vent so big a full grown man could crawl through it on full blast during a summer day. I don't think anyone could work in those conditions. Yet these vents are everywhere, and quickly become your highway to sneak around facilities. Another thing is after a while, people would catch wind of a guy that is traveling through the vents and killing everyone. I think they'd start bolting these things shut or monitoring them closer. For the game's purpose, they are great tools to use to quickly hide and avoid being out in the open. But from an immersion perspective, it can be humorous.

 Me Getting stuck trying to hop on some boxes

Progression

The progression tree is deep and your choices of what you upgrade matter very early on in game. The game seems to blossom much earlier than your upgrade tree, hence making you feel limited in many situations. Something new that was added is Overclock abilities. Jensen somehow has these abilities buried deep in his operating system, and they are awakened after a traumatic experience. The downside to these abilities, is they force you to turn other abilities off in order to reroute power efficiently. This limitation makes me feel like I'm shifting things around the longer I play, instead of building myself into something better. You won't have enough ability points to max out everything, so you have to make a choice in what type of player you're going to be. Some things go better together, for example the stealthy hacker allows players to be strategic and smart. If discovered however, the situation can be overwhelming. Or, you can build yourself out to be confrontational.

One of the issues I saw with his however, is hacking and stealth tended to yield better rewards than being a brute. You can't smash a safe, it must be hacked. The game is full of situations where you have to break into safes or apartments. Even though break ins can be done through vents, it's a very time consuming task to find vents and finding out where they lead. The overclocking abilities which are mainly cool attacks, drain all of your battery making them a non economical solution since there will still be remaining enemies once one of them is used. For that reason, I built my Jensen out going deep into the basic abilities which made me feel like a whole part of the game went unexplored. I would have to replay the game building out something different, but the first play through was not fun enough to do that to myself.

Narrative

The whole premise is there a division between two types of people, the augmented and the naturals. What does not make sense is an augmentation is something added to a human being that suffered from an injury or sickness. For example, someone got maimed and they have a new arm. It never resonated with me there could be social issues surrounding this to the magnitude it does in the game. This cyber punk era is free of racism, but filled with augment discrimination. If you've never played the previous versions of Deus Ex, Jensen suffers an incredible injury and has several augments added to him. He's basically Darth Vader with military grade augments that, and add-ons can be downloaded to make him even stronger. He's basically the strongest augmented human alive. Yet when it comes to taking sides, he stays with the status quo that discriminates against him even though there are several opportunities to join an extremist revolutionary group that demands equal rights. Typical story structure follows a rising action, climax, then falling action. This story keeps you at one monotone level the entire time, with a small climax at the end in which nothing is resolved. It is one of the worst endings I've ever seen. 

via GIPHY

The presentation of the story is amazing however. The cinematics are top notch and I would argue are Hollywood worthy. The voice acting and animations are stellar, which keeps you engaged and motivated to keep advancing the less than stellar story itself. Characters are developed very well and maintain there quirks and behaviors consistently over time to develop emotional attachments towards them. For example the villain in this story is only a villain because he defies the status quo and has less than noble methods of maintaining control, but he's also oppressed and doesn't have many options. This is clearly presented, but this also hurts the story because the protagonist seems more like someone taking orders instead of leading with their true views. 

Environment And Artwork

There is incredible detail in almost every facet of the environment and the objects that populate it. This is top notch AAA grade 3d models, animations, and particle effects. The aesthetic of the golden yellow hue that envelops the entire region is consistent and creates some cool shadows and effects. The meticulous details of refrigerator buttons all the way to gunfire animations is stunning and immersing. You will find yourself amazed at the level of craftmanship that went into almost every single thing that was created for this game. I played this on the PS4, and unfortunately some of these items were low resolution and were likely not optimized very well. However on a 4k enabled GPU these things are rendered great. 

Summary

A very polarizing experience made this a tough game to get through. One one end the graphics and level design were amazing. The progression system and story were broken however. At times I dreaded what I was doing, and other times I couldn't stop playing. I would say with certainty this game is not as good as its predecessor. To buy this game at full price like I did based on reviews (IGN) would be a disservice to yourself. Wait for it to go on sale for about 20 dollars. 

     

Borderlands 2 Review (The Handsome Collection)

Rating: 8.3
Happy Price: $25.00

This was my first experience with a Borderlands game and I must say that I was very impressed with the game. I have played Tales from the Borderlands so I I had an idea of some of the "lore" and I recognized a couple of the characters. I didn't know a lot about the gameplay itself,  all I really knew was the game is a first person shooter.

As it turns out the game is a First Person Shooter with a leveling up system that is very similar to an RPG. With every time your character levels up, there is a skill tree that you can apply upgrades to. These upgrades can be, your guns do more damage, your guns are more accurate, more ammo for the guns, your character will have more health and many others. That can all change, depending on your character type/class.

As I said earlier, I wasn't too familiar with Borderlands franchise so I didn't know what class I should chose. I glanced over the few options and ended up taking the more basic shooter class which is the commando class. I just figured the commando just seemed like a very  straight forward shooter and since I didn't know what I was doing, it just seemed like the safest option. In total there are six classes and they all have their own unique ability. I didn't mess around with any of the other characters so I'm not sure what their special ability is but I can say with the commando class, you're given a turret. The turret kind of works like a Torbjorn's turret in Overwatch, you can't hammer it and level the turret up or repair it. But it is a special ability where you throw down the turret, it shoots until its destroyed and then you have to wait "X" amount of time until you can spawn another one.

The game also has an upgradable gun system as well. Its not a case where you equip items to a gun and make the gun better but instead you upgrade your gun by accumulating and finding better guns. The guns are level locked so you may find a level 15 gun and what that means is, you can not use that gun until you reach level 15.

Where I think this game really hits its mark is with the online multiplayer and what I like about it is, it's not competitive but rather an online co-op experience. This is a great way to play the game, just talk talk to a couple friends and convince them to get the game too (I think you can have up to 4 in a party). If you're not into co-op games at all, you can certainly play through this game by yourself. I played through the entire story by myself  and the only multiplayer I did was the DLC.What is also nice about this collection is, the DLC is built right into the game. There is no additional charge or download. Its just built right into the game.

With that all being said, I do have a major gripe with this game and thats the characters in the game and the overall story. I didn't find anyone overly that likable in the game and honestly, most are kind of annoying. The developers were certainly going for a very specific type of humor and it just fails miserably. Maybe I just think that way because I'm a little older, I'm in my mid 20's so a lot of that humor just doesn't work on me.

It didn't end up bothering me too much because I was able to completely immerse myself into the game and zone out all of the little annoyances. So when I was initially going through the game, I was trying to pay attention to the story and the characters but after a couple hours I realized that it was not interesting nor was it funny so I started to zone that out. I can not tell you much about the story. There is A guy named Handsome Jack, he's the main villain (he's the head of the evil corporation) and you have to bring him down. That's all I can really tell you.

One thing that is very refreshing about this game is, the map itself is very large and there is a lot of variety as well. There are snow areas, there are desert areas and pretty much everything in between. Not to mention, if you enjoy level grinding for hours this game has a ton of side missions.

It all depends on the game, whether I will want to level grind or not. This is game that I didn't mind mindlessly grinding for hours because the side missions were fun and there is a reason to as well. The bosses in the game are basically bullet sponges and so the higher level you are, the easier it is to deal with. To give an example, I fought one boss (and this was before I decided to level grind for a couple nights) and I depleted the bosses health to half but at that point, I completely ran out of ammo.That boss ended up taking over an hour because I had to wait for the game to randomly spawn NPC's. I would then have to run around and kill the NPC'sand hope they would drop some ammo. I would then run around picking up the ammo, run off and hide, reload the gun and dump the "X" amount of bullets in the boss. After that, I decided to spend the next couple nights playing through side missions and just level up so that wouldn't happen again. After that, I went up about 10 levels and then going through the rest of the game was a kind of a breeze.

I know this is an older game that many people have already played but if you haven't given Borderlands a try, The Handsome collection is definitely worth it. You get Borderlands 2, all of the Borderlands 2 DLC and the Pre-Sequel game. I haven't had a chance to play the pre-sequel yet but that doesn't matter because it was worth buying the game for Borderlands 2.

Steamworld Heist

Rating: 8.8
Happy Price: 19.99

Gameplay

Steamworld Heist is a 2D turn based shooter, that allows the user to aim their weapon each turn. This allows for headshots to induce critical attacks, use the environment, and to ricochet bullets. You are also suppose to recruit new team members with different abilities, and develop them to unlock their powers. In order to complete the game, it is almost essential to have four characters fully leveled up, and at least someone with a top tier weapon. 

Tactics

Success will be determined by how you strategically place your Steambots to allow for maximum defense and attack position. Levels are randomly generated, but rarely did I encounter a level that felt unfair. There are a variety of ways to find cover, whether it's a destructible barrel, sturdy plasma shield, or an indestructible steel support. Similar to XCOM, you can choose to move to a point where you can attack post movement, or sprint to a location where you won't be able to attack that turn. The environment also provides explosive objects that can be used for or against you. At times, you may be required to ricochet a bullet to an explosive barrel in order to avoid disaster, combining to mechanics into one action. These moments really make you feel like a badass, but at the same time the game expects you to be intelligent enough to recognize when you're suppose to do theses things.

On the standard difficulty, the enemy AI is rather forgiving. They are rarely in the open, but at the same time they are not the most accurate when firing back at you. The most devastating enemies are ones with forward facing indestructible shields that rush and melee you. About half of the levels have alarms, which require you to beat a level in a certain amount of turns. While alarms are active, more enemies appear and have to be disposed of. When the enemy outnumbers you significantly is when you'll run into trouble. At that point it doesn't really matter how smart they are when they outgun you. 

Story

The story starts off with self interests in mind, but then leads to you wanting to save the world, like any great story. Technically, you and your crew are pirates. There are other pirates in the system that are causing trouble, and you don't want the Royal Fleet coming in and disturbing your pillages, so you try to end it so things calm down. From there it progresses and you'll end up facing three different enemy races each with distinct abilities and personalities. The art style in combination with the script brings this game to life and they work well together. As simple as the story is, it is fulfilling and feels original. 

Classes

The following classes are available during gameplay:

Sniper - Weapons have laser sight which allows for great accuracy, and for seeing the trajectory of a bullet when it ricochets, allowing for complex shots to be taken. However, snipers can't shoot if they move during a turn (unless the weapon they are wielding allows for that). 

Assault - Weapons consist of sub machine guns and shotguns. Assault class can be used in close up or mid range situations. Depending on the weapon wielded, it will usually be inaccurate and high in damage, or moderatly accurate with moderate damage. Assault classes usually have average health as well. 

Vanguard - This is the close range class that can wield shotguns or submachine guns. Usually posesss abilities that regenerate health or have high defense to support their close range role. Equipping with a shotgun is recommended. 

Heavy - Contain explosive type weapons or mini guns. This class isn't unlocked until the middle of the game, but I found it to be very essential. Like a sniper, sometimes can't fire a weapon after they've moved. The heavy will deal the most damage of any class, but may have low health and defense. I would not have beaten the game without this class.

Art

The 2D art is very good and original. There aren't too many animations, but the ones that are executed are done very well without any noticeable flaws. I particularly liked when enemies were killed they would explode into a bunch of parts that would fall on the floor, because they are steambots. It was usually done in slow motion as well, so you would be rewarded visually each time you killed an enemy. The bullet impact would also be in slow motion, allowing for you to register the location of your bullet and if you got a critical hit which contributed to the kill. The backgrounds of the galaxies, interior of the ships, and weapons all have details about them that show a real effort was made to make each item in the game be apart of the world. 

Summary

I had more fun playing this than I did XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The control I had hitting enemies, while also using strategy makes it superior in my opinion, despite the game not being in 3D. I spent about 15 hours playing this, but each moment I was progressing and being pushed to purchase new weapons and armor. The story was advancing in each moment as well, at no point did I feel like I was wasting my time. The final boss is extremely hard, but I was able to win in two tries, with a mix of luck and skill. This game is a must play, and you'll likely be able to get it on sale. 

Mad Max

Rating: 8.2
Happy Price: 29.99

Gameplay

Mad Max is a tale of two games, driving combat mechanics and foot combat mechanics. Both are refined and feel great which was quite the surprise. However being published by WB games, it was obvious the foot combat mechanics were taken directly from the Batman series, and driving was likely developed on its own.

Combat Mechanics

Despite being a driving game, you'll spend most of your time on foot trying to take down bases using hand to hand combat, or your shotgun in emergency cases. The environment is filled with places your car will not have access to, forcing you out of your car and to take on enemies that range from 3-15 at one time. The combat system is exactly the same as Batman, with the addition of being able to pick up weapons, and also allowing for the killing of enemies which is nice. The simple system consists of mashing the strike button (square on Ps4) and then when timed, pressing the counter button. It's filled with different camera angles and cool animations that reward the player for timing hits and counters correctly. Because there are death animations, Avalanche Studios built on what already existed and created more scenarios like throat slitting, neck breaking, and shotgun blasts to the gut which induce fear in nearby enemies.

There were some issues I found during combat however. One thing that bothered me early game was the difficulty of picking up weapons. Since you can't store weapons, they can only be picked up from downed enemies. This means if you try to take out the guy with the weapons first, it doesn't really matter, because picking up the weapon takes too long in the chaos of battle. You will more than likely get hit while attempting to do this. Late game, you can develop parries that can steal the weapon from an enemy, but this doesn't occur until 15+ hours into the game. Another thing that bothered me was some of the kill animations would not allow you to counter. So in the case of slamming someone, another enemy will strike you, and you can't counter it. This will end your hit streak, and each time you get a 25 hit streak, you gain an ability point. See the video below:



Driving Mechanics

In the world of the wasteland, you car is an extension of yourself. The motor of the vehicle is one with your heart. Man and machine are synced up, and your machine is your pride. That being said, I felt somewhat limited as to how I could take down other vehicles. For the most part, I had to ram them from behind or on the side, so there was no benefit of creating a fast car. It takes forever to get any projectiles on your vehicle other than your shotgun. Much later in the game do you get thunderpoons which really opens the game up. Ideally, I would like to create an evasive and fast vehicle that could attack while they are chasing me. For the most part however, I was limited to staying on the sides of my enemies, or circling them so I can ram them from the side to inflict as much damage as possible. This forced me to create a moderately fast vehicle with tons of armor, ramming ability, and grinding damage. Each battle with enemy vehicles is different, but at the same time, feels repetitive. There are cool moments that occur, as demonstrated by the video below:



Story

The motivation behind getting to Gastown, where your car is held, is somewhat weak and uninspiring. War Boys steal your car and take it back there. To get back on your feet, you meet an ally, and together you build a better vehicle called the Magnum Opus. The reason for building this new amazing car, is to get your old car back which doesn't seem like it's worth the trouble of doing endless errands and taking down countless foes. There is the element of taking down the tyranny of Immortal Joe, but that doesn't seem to be on Max's agenda, he just wants his car back. As you're wondering around the barren wasteland, with no radio stations heading from one War boy camp to another, you begin to ask yourself, why the hell am I doing this? I'm kind of bored right now, and what am I really working towards? I'm going through all this trouble, to upgrade my current car, so I can my old car back? There was a lot more potential to begin the story as one where you want you're car back, but have that lead to a more complex and appealing plot. As coveted as the soundtrack was in the movies, the video game does not capture the same feel. Late game, the cinematics are superbly polished and had great animations.

Level Design

One thing that surprised me was the variety of layouts inside different bases. Bases are locations where War boys are stationed and they operate some sort of oil transporting operation that leads back into Gastown. Most of these locations had adventure and puzzle elements to them, requiring you to search every corner of these bases to complete the objective. The environments of these are so well integrated with the overall environments, at times it was difficult to figure out where to go. I was very happy that anything that was intractable would be painted in a rusted yellow. These locations where guiding lights in some complex labyrinths. These bases would first start off with defenses that would need to be taken down, if they were not taken down in a given amount of time, they would get buffed and it would be twice as hard. This pushed you to plan your attack, and move in swiftly with precision to avoid potential disaster. Planning and executing made you feel one with the wasteland, and Mad Max as a badass individual who was one with his car in the barren world.

One of the areas in the wasteland is an abandoned airport. This airport is absolutely massive and dense with objects. It is one of the most complex areas I've seen in a game, filled to the brim with art. It was a huge contrast to the vast nothingness that exists in the world. When the main storyline brought me here, I was amazed at how much there was going on here, and also at how little I was directed there. It seemed to me, you could have cut off 75% of the airport, and diverted those efforts into other locations in the game. At times there are huge gaps in main story missions, and to have more scripted events would have tied the game together better.

Soundtrack

In respect to staying true to the game, there is nothing to listen to while driving. At times you're driving long distances with nothing to listen to but the roar of your engine. Even though I'm in a post apocalyptic wasteland, having some sort of radio station would have made the experience much better. I don't think it would have hurt the aesthetic of the game, as shown by the Fallout series. Electricity does exist in this world via gas powered generators, so creating your own world in the game is not a taboo. The game tries to stick to the soundtrack of the movie, but you barely notice it. The movie had much better audio design that went with each scene, while the video game did not have the luxury of switching from scene to scene to allow for that. The game is broken up into story missions, then long treks of open world, which don't carry any soundtrack tuning.

Summary

Combat mechanics are great, and they should be as you'll be utilizing these for most of the time spent in the game. The cinematics are as well, but I just wished there was more of them to keep me going. At times, the long hauls of open world gameplay without any story progression was unmotivating and repetitive. At times I'd spend 3-4 hours playing, and it would feel like I got nothing done. This is a decent game and one of the best licensed games to date. If you're in the mood for long drives and tons of combat, this game is for you.  

Mafia 3

Rating: 7.2

Happy Price: 19.99

Taking place in the turbulent late 60's in New Orleans, Mafia 3 has a lot to offer from a historical and cultural perspective in many different ways. Cars, racism, language, music, weapons, and countless other aspects were nailed perfectly. There is a great sense of authenticity in every aspect of gameplay which is a difficult thing to pull off right. 

Narrative

The strength of this game lies within the story and supporting characters which are incredibly detailed and developed for a video game. You play as the main character, Lincoln Clay, who is an ex Green Beret that conducted covert operations in Vietnam. When betrayed by the Italian Mob, he uses the same tactics in Vietnam to take down the gangsters that flood the streets of New Orleans. The game is portrayed like a documentary, with members of the senate interviewing your CIA correspondent that provides all the tactical data for your missions. It's a great way to show your characters past as a complete story, all the while developing your character in the present moment. It's one of the best narratives I've ever seen in a video game. 

Gameplay

It's a semi realistic open world with cars and guns, if you've ever played Grand Theft Auto or any previous Mafia games, it doesn't deviate much further than that. There isn't anything innovative here, its just stays true to the platform. 

Driving

Controls are tight and the driving physics are very good. Each car has a unique feel to it, and the shitty cars far outweigh the cool and fast ones, creating a nice system of always seeking and wanting the faster cars. Shooting while driving is simplified, as there is an auto targeting system that allows you to switch between what you want to shoot. This switches between the tires of a vehicle, the driver, or the engine, depending on what you're attempting to damage. You can only fire with your secondary weapon, so if you're built for stealth and have a silenced pistol you'll have a tough time shooting while driving. Wielding a .50 caliber revolver however, you can do some serious damage while driving. 

Stealth Combat

The best way to go about any mission is to use stealth, due to mob bosses having the police on their payroll, it's best you don't draw too much attention to yourself. Having the police and mob on you at the same time ensures death, or a loss of time since you'll have to evade the area to get them off your back. That said, enemy placement is designed for strategic stealth combat. It's very easy to lure enemies into your area and do stealth attacks, all the while avoiding others seeing it happen. The stealth attacks are gruesome and satisfying, usually involving multiple stabs to the neck and chest with a military Bowie knife, or quick throat slashes followed by a hug to break the fall. The green beret methods are reinforced and demonstrated. Headshots with a silenced pistol are a guaranteed kill as well, which is a huge plus over games that don't do this. I've never understood why it matters the damage rating of a gun in relation to headshots. Aside from bosses, headshots kill all enemies. There are some James Bond moments where you have to take out multiple enemies to remain detected, and getting three headshots in a row is very satisfying.

Shooting Mechanics

Mafia 3 uses a third person cover based system, and as stated earlier, rewards headshots and silenced weapons greatly. When shit hits the fan, or you anticipate it's going to, you can change up the arsenal to include more powerful weapons like an AK-47 or M-16 assault rifle. These more powerful weapons greatly enhance stopping power and allow for shots to the body to deal much more damage than the stealth based weapons which have very good accuracy. Getting into a shootout is not advised until much later in the game when your character has better weapons and more health. The AI is pretty good and will flank when they can, or will force you out of cover with grenades and other explosives. Many times I've died by being reckless, and one good shotgun blow will take you out. It's essential to be tactical since you're essentially a one man army. 

Progression

Conceptually the system is creative and makes sense with the world, but the execution of this is awful. Essentially your character has three underbosses, each with a specialties. One might be cars and explosives, another might be health related, etc. There are missions you can do to enhance your underbosses operation (which doesn't make a whole lot of sense as the person they kick money up to). The problem is when doing these missions, the game makes you drive across the entire map, get into a firefight, then return whatever you're trying to get back to base. Each of these missions can take 30-45 minutes, and they might not even progress the character right away. These missions increase how much your underbosses' operation revenue, and there are milestones as the revenue goes up. This makes it a very painful process to level up your character. These missions don't pay either, so not only will you not level up in every case, but you also don't get paid. So it becomes a gigantic waste of time.

There comes a point in the game where you're assigning rackets to each of the three underbosses, but then have to assign a district to someone. So this gets strange as well, and doesn't make any sense. For example, if I have region New York that has 2 rackets available. I can take over both rackets, and assign them to person A. But then, when I've done all the missions in region New York, I can assign that to someone. If I assign it to person B, they get all the rackets inside that region, and person A loses them. It's a strange system, and I'm not sure what the purpose behind that is. I guess it gives the player some short term flexibility, but ultimately the person that takes over the region's revenue increase, hence progressing your character.

The currency system offers some nice flexibility, but currency is not consistently rewarded and it's difficult to plan out your personal progression tree. There is no telling when you'll receive a mission that is heist related, or assassination related. Missions that require you to steal large amounts of cash, result in a cash reward which is the lifeblood of staying fully equipped and ready to take on harder missions. When the objective is to eliminate a target, nobody is paying you to do that. You have to search the facility for cash, and it's not guaranteed that there will be a sizable amount. The advantage of the currency system is if you're skilled enough using stealth, you can save up enough money to buy powerful weapons regardless of whom you have running rackets or districts.  

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is amazing, and was the most inspiring part of this game. They've taken hits from the era and tend to sync up songs with storyline missions that bring you inside of Lincoln Clay's emotions. The problem is these works of art were not created by the game developer, but the execution of applying them was done very well. It made driving those long distances doing side mission chores that much better. They also had great voice acting with the radio DJ's that complimented the radio stations. For a sense of the music, check out this playlist.  

Summary

Mafia 3 passes as a decent game, but it had some technical issues as I've had the game crash THREE times during my 30 hour campaign. It's generally unacceptable to have a game crash even one time, but three is terrible. It would leave me frustrated because I essentially lost about 45-60 minutes of my life due to them. The gameplay was ok, the story and characters were fantastic. This is not something you need to play, but if you're looking for a great story pick this up on sale if possible.