Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Rust Review

Promotional Art
     Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope you had a happy weekend.  Today's review is all about survival. No zombies, no natural disasters, no demons, just you, the outdoors and your fellow man.  In Rust you must craft, create and salvage in order to survive.  Released on December 11, 2013 for PC, this adventure survival game was developed and published by Facepunch Studios.  What started as a clone for Day Z, an open world zombie survival game evolved with crafting, hunting and building shelters.  While Rust is still in Alpha, it shows much potential.  In Rust, there is no story, only the incentive to survive.  You can hop on one of many servers, starting only with a rock, a torch and a few bandages.  Using the rock you can break up materials used for crafting, which you can then use to create things like axes, which can be
A makeshift revolver
used for chopping trees or killing wildlife for food.  The player also starts with a certain amount of blueprints, which give crafting recipes to the player.  However, if they can remember the recipe, and craft the item, it will automatically add the recipe to the book.  Items are repaired at crafting tables, things like bows, makeshift guns, and melee weapons will deteriorate over time.  You can make fires, which are used to stay warm when night falls, the player can improve their chances of survival by building a shelter to keep your property stored and can be modified to defend against other players or animals.  A constant supply of food must be maintained in order not to starve to death.  Caution is advised when hunting animals though, as you may not always encounter deer or wild pigs, but bears and wolfs.  Its times like that when its nice to have a gun, though it is not easy to find metal to produce these weapons with.  On most servers you will see buildings farther off, citys that are ravaged by radiation, indicating the reason that you are surviving and living in the woods is because of a past nuclear war of some sort.  In these cities are weapons and blueprints, holding the promise of power at a dangerous cost, while the player can be exposed to radiation, there is a limit before you die or die slowly over time from radiation poisoning.  So swift feet allows you to stay alive, because if you die you lose all your gear and have to start over again, a concept inspired by Minecraft.  You can also choose to join players, work together to build large structures or you can live the live of a nomad, its all optional in Rust.  While the game is only in Alpha, it is fun and looks to have a very bright future ahead of it.  Hope you have enjoyed this review and I will be back next week with another review.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Survive.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Thief Review

Box Art
     Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope you had a good weekend.  Also happy belated St. Patrick's, hoped you avoided the pinching hands of your friends who stalked you because you weren't wearing green.  Now, to the game.  Last week when I reviewed that fun parkour game called Vector, and in that review I mentioned I was going to review a stealth game, so today I will be talking about Thief.  This reboot of the classic stealth  series redeems itself in a whole new way.  Developed by Eidos Montreal and published by Square Enix, released  on February 25, 2014 for Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and the Xbox One.  Ten years since the last game, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Thief 4 had high standards to meet.  The development team took a turn for a few changes, starting over and simply calling the game Thief.  The setting of Thief resembles that of the last few games.  Taking place in a dark fantasy world being inspired by the Gothic period of the middle ages mixed with the art style of the Victorian era, and technology based on the steampunk concept.  The Thief series take place in a place called "The City", which is currently undergoing an industrial revolution, however guns and other firearms have yet to be invented, the only weapons are bladed weapons like swords and crossbows. In this game, a tyrinical Barren rules over The City with his brutal watch at his back.  As the rich fill their pockets, the majority of the city is mainly poor and starving, dying of disease in the streets.  You step into the silent shoes of Garrett, the Master Thief, armed with a unique set of skills and impressive set of weapons, his mission is simple, steal from the rich and give to himself, working with the underground economy to pawn off items he has stolen from silver cups to solid gold busts,
From left to right: blunt, broad head, dry ice and fire
The Blackjack
though Garrett never shows interactions with this group of people, it wouldn't make sense if grabbed loot suddenly turns in coins and bills when grabbed.  While their is a large amount of story involved in the game, it stays true to its name throughout it's progression, to loot everything you can and use that money for upgrades, tools, and items.  As Garrett you are armed with a multitude of tools that you have at your disposal.  Garrett's most useful and most used tool would be his compound bow that unfolds with ease and shoots multiple types of arrows. Some of these include broad head and sawtooth arrows that are lethal, dry ice arrows that extinguish flame sources, blunt arrows used to hit pulleys and switches from a distance, fire arrows to ignite open oil for a distraction, stun arrows release a gas that stuns guards for a period of time and renders dogs or birds unconscious.  There are also explosive arrows whose name is explanatory
enough as it is.  Another useful tool in Garrett's arsenal is the wrench tool, used for unscrewing bolts on vents, allowing easier paths to be taken.  Probably Garrett's most useful tool right next to his bow is his unique little foldable weapon; the Blackjack.  This little beauty is specially designed to render it's victim unconscious without causing further harm, this Garrett's main weapon in close quarters combat and with a quick tap to the head to knock the unsuspecting target out with ease.
Garrett's home
 Their is also the claw, a tool used to reach out of reach and latch on to navigate to places usually unreachable.  His other tools of the trade consist of the razor tool, used to cut paintings out of their frames and the wire-cutter tool which is used to disable trap systems, I would recommend acquiring all these as soon as possible.  You start with you bow and Blackjack and purchase the rest of these tools from your friendly neighborhood black market dealer. Along with these gadgets, poppies and food can also be bought from these dealers.  Poppies are used to refill your focus meter, which allows you to see things that would usually be unnoticed, thanks to your magic eye.  This resembles eagle vision of Assassin's Creed, for those of you who are familiar with the series.  Food is this games form of health, used to restore a portion of life energy if consumed, they can be found all over The City, same with poppies.  During the course of his heists Garrett can gather collectibles to display in his clock tower (home), these are things that Garrett values over the price of gold.  While collectibles hold no value, they make you feel pretty on top of things when you marvel at your collection of paintings or chases of rings and necklaces.  These items can be found while in free roam or while on missions.
Garrett fighting a watch gaurd
     The wrench tool mentioned earlier can be used to remove city heritage plaques, a series of sixteen plaques spread throughout the city.  The gameplay resembles that of Dishonored in the sense that their is not total freeroam, but something similar.  The player can roam most of The City while not on missions, however only certain portions of The City are available at certain times and becomes available as the player progresses throughout the story.  Client jobs can be unlocked as parts of The City are unlocked, along with side quests in which the objective is to steal, sabotage or simply scout out an area. Garrett can make donations to the Queen of Beggers, who will give focus points to Garrett which he can use to upgrade his abilities such as lock-picking, stealth, combat, pick-pocketing and more.  While review from large game critics were average, as a fan of the Thief franchise, I think it was worth while reboot.  I will be providing a link to a quick informative video about the past Thief's setting and the events that led up to this one here.  I do not own this video and all credit goes to the Lore team.  I hope you have enjoyed this review and I will be back next week with another post.  Until then, stick to the shadows.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Thief Trailer, full screen HD for maximum effect 




Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Vector Review

Vector promotional art
  Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing great.  Today I am once again diving into the world of portable games. While I was going to review a awesome reboot of a stealth game, I was running alot this weekend and felt it suiting to sit down and play a parkour inspired run game called Vector.  The original release to the tablet made its debut on November 28 of last year.  Created by Nekki Game studies with the idea to bring fast paced parkour action the mobile device.  While there is a little story to the game, it does explain whats going on pretty well, so here it goes.  Vector takes place in a futuristic urban environment where human freedom is non existent and everything is control by a few select people in power.
     The one and only cutscene in the game shows that people do what they are told without question and that these tyrants in power have robbed you of the true that you can do without any restraint: free thought.  However you are a normal guy living like everyone else when one day amongst your hundreds of fellow brain washed buddies when it is likely you have been up to a building point of longing for freedom for a long time and in a moment of strength, you rip your mind headset off.  As you rip your shirt off and run out of your cubicle and find yourself chased by peacekeepers, you leap out the window and the game begins.  Throughout the game, you will have access to many areas and environments in which the player will duck, jump and climb towards the ultimate goal of freedom.  Along the way you will encounter little cubes that are worth points that allow you to get a better score at the end of the level.  There are also little circle collectibles that are worth money which in turn allows you to purchase parkour moves that make it easier to traverse the terrain and get a higher score at the end of the game.  This also makes the gameplay experience twice as awesome.
     You can attain up to three stars for each level, while the stars don't seem special at first, you start to see the significance as you near the end of the area.  Each area contains up to twelve levels, in order to unlock the next area you need to attain three stars for every level in a area.  Every play through is different with many mistakes likely to happen on the first try, consistent failure is likely to help you find the best way to traverse a level.  I find this a fun and captivating game for audiences of all ages that any individual on the go should try. It's also free, so no excuses, just try it and you'll love it.  Also a quick announcement to all, the Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 2: A House Divided is out now! This new chapter in this episodic game series looks awesome and I will play as soon as I have some time, so keep an eye out for that now.  I hope you have enjoyed this review and I will be back next week with a new post.  Until then, have fun.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Vector Trailer, suggest watching 720 hp for maximum effect

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Into the Dead Review

Into the Dead logo
  Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, sorry there was no post last week, I was in the Bay Area doing ocean stuff.  Today I decided to take a break from the console genre and look at phone or tablet games.  So today I will be reviewing a fun run game with zombies called Into The Dead.  Developed and published by Pik Pok Game Studios, this fun little run game is with you wherever you go, being compatible with iPhone, Android, iPad, and every other kind of tablet, this game is everywhere.  The game only story is that you are a survivor, but for how long?  You start away from a city, waking next to a crashed helicopter to see the dead rising around you and do the logical thing; run.  This is all the player does, run from the dead, picking up means to defend themselves along the way such as guns, chainsaws, and grenades.  Into the Dead delivers a unique experience of a zombie run game, don't think just because theres guns in this game that it is a shooter, its not.  The guns guns are just there to eliminate a zombie or two that in the way, which becomes pointless
Running from zombies helps when you have a weapon
once you get far enough, after that you will need the machine or minigun.  When you first start the game, you are given no weapons, after you play the game once, you are given the pistol, a gun that takes two shots to kill a zombie.  With every run you complete, you will be rewarded with a certain amount of coins depending on how far you ran and will be given the option to complete challenges to level up to gain more weapons, these challenges can vary from running a certain distance to killing a certain amount of zombies with a certain gun and so on.  You can also purchase perks before you start the game, these perks can allow to start with a gun instead of having to find one in a crate, or let you have a dog companion that can run ahead of you and kill zombies.  Also, for those you want to run ahead of the game, they can purchase a head start perk that allows you to move 1500 meters ahead before the game begins, allowing you to start in a more difficult environment.  For anyone who has some spare time on their hands or is in for a road trip, download this game for free off the app store.  Hope you have enjoyed this post and I will be back Wednesday with another post.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
 The trailer is self explanatory