Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing great. As time passes I notice myself reviewing open world sandbox titles more often than not. This may be because it is hard to return to the linear corridors of Call of Duty after one has roamed the vast hills of Skyrim. Meaning you expect more choice in your actions rather than being shoved along ever so often through narrow pathways. I also brought up Skyrim because here we have another open world RPG sandbox made by Bethesda Studios that break a few records and is still being played today. However Fallout: New Vegas came out before Skyrim was released, so Skyrim is like New Vegas. Anyway Fallout: New Vegas is a open world open-world post apocalyptic sandbox game made by Bethesda back in 2010. Set in a world where the Red Scare never ended, a devastating nuclear war took place between the U.S. and several other countries in 2077. This world is set in an alternate timeline where atomic energy became the primary source of power following World War II. Somewhere along the way the United States developed superior technology during the 1950's, they started focusing on laser technologies, advanced robotics, teleportation sciences and more. As a result they stopped working on more practical things, such as more modern telephones or better working computer. So the U.S. was frozen in the '50s era while time moved forward with more advanced tech.
In the 2050's the U.S. government saw the danger of nuclear war and as a precaution built Vaults to keep the populace safe. At the same time however, they did not take it seriously enough as only 122 vaults were built while around 40,000 were needed to save America. When the bombs hit, most of the world was devastated, leaving wastelands and turning anything not inside the Vaults into mutants and ghouls. Basically only the U.S. and part of Africa survived. Many factions have arisen from the dust since the war ended, with the U.S. government gone, order is something thats hard to come by. The year is 2281, 204 years since the bombs dropped, mutants roam and many vault dwellers still do not know what has become of the world or simply chose to ignore it.
The major factions of Fallout: New Vegas
The notable factions are the NCR, Brotherhood of Steel, Caesar's Legion, and the Strip. The NCR (New California Republic) is the largest faction in the game, consisting of California, Nevada, Oregon, Mexico and the Colorado River. They are set on democracy and organized society, probably the closest to Old World society. The Brotherhood of Steel are an advanced society with Pre-War technology whos goal is to collect this tech to keep it out of the hands of the ignorant. The Strip is led by Mr. House, who was able to preserve a portion of Las Vegas from the nuclear blast (he found a way to prolong his life) and now works against the tide to maintain the world that is now gone. Last and certainly least are the crazy maniacs known as Caesar's Legion, a slave nation of 87 tribes that bow under the might of Caesar and his merry men who dress like Romans and brutally slaughter anyone who stands in their way. You are a courier hired by the Mojave Express to deliver a package to the Strip but something goes wrong and you wake up to see someone digging your grave with a man in a suit telling you were fucked as soon as you picked up the package. He lectures you for a bit before shooting you in the head. Well, I thought, that was the shortest story of a protagonist I've ever seen. Then I expected to shift views to someone else only to find myself awoken by a doctor who find almost dead. A centimeter to the left or a hollow-point bullet would have killed me dead, but here I was. After creating my character, choosing my starting perks, and heading out the door with some supplies I stood, triumphant in the face of death, ready to begin my adventure...and was imminently stung to death by massive scorpions.
The Courier fighting some deathclaws, one of the toughest enemies in the game
It was there I learned the value of saving every ten feet else I lose any hard earned progress. I talked to the residents of the town who seem to have this impression that I want to go after the guy who shot me in the head, which to me seems like a sign I should just go in the opposite direction. I've seen alot of western films and know by this point that if you want revenge, dig two graves. So since I had already been shot and buried alive, I thought about going home and settling down. Instead I get pulled into a struggle of warring factions, political strife and killing enough people and mutants to fill the Grand Canyon, I mean it, THAT MANY BODIES!!! There are many weapons in the game to discover, modify and repair, from snipers to miniguns. Ammunition can be made at workbenches, but as stated earlier, you kill enough guys to have all the ammo ever needed, kinda, truth is you go through ammo pretty fucking fast. In order to make it, you need the shell casing, the primer for that caliber and gunpowder, so its a pain in the ass to make. Armor and clothing can be found throughout the Wasteland and can be repaired at select station for a large amount of money, usually more than your carrying...or will for awhile since you spent all your money on ammo and health kits.
Your armor affects how much damage you take, thats what armor does, moving on. Health drops like gravity holds a very strong grudge against you, so in order to stay alive one will need stimpacks, the item of life in the game that regenerates health along with other items that might as well not. Via explosives or high powered weapons, body parts can be crippled, causing large disabilities to the player. A crippled arm will cause your gun to sway back and forth, affected how to aim, crippled legs will cause one to limp and move slowly. The worst thing to cripple is your head, which causes your vision to blur and worsen over time, you may even black out. The Courier can go to a doctor to get their healed limbs fixed up or grab a doctors bag on the go for the same effect. The V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) aiming system, that allows the player to stop a for a moment, press a button and let numbers decide whether or not you hit your target, meaning gun skill or sniper perks are the key factor in it. Perk points are given every two levels that can used to unlock a skill depending how high your skill level is involving the relevance of the perk. So high gun skills allow for gun perks, repair skills allow for engineering perks and so forth. Hardcore mode is a new feature that I found myself drawn to. Removing a few HUD elements, forcing you to eat, sleep, and drink were the core features. Others included ammunition weighing something but going against Fallout logic that says to carry enough ammo to choke the NRA least you end up fighting with your bear hands. Medicine also kicks in over time rather than instantly which can be a problem when your being mauled by multiple enemies. The overall downfall of New Vegas is the bugs. As with all of Bethesda lush open world games, when you make something massive that is injected with even more stuff to do, you sacrifice the opportunity to fix it all. A sprint button would have been nice instead of lightly jogging 20 miles to the nearest town. There is also a moral choice dilemma involved in the game that can seriously get you in trouble. An good example is when I started the game and was a few levels in with meager gear. I delivered a package to a NCR base and was told by the lookout that large pillars of smoke were coming from Nipton, a far off town. I turn and sure enough like a Christmas tree on fire, there it is. So since I have some quests to complete in that direction, I set out. After approaching the town a man runs out screaming that he won the lottery like a banshee on fire. I stop and think for a moment where you'd buy a lottery ticket in this day and age, at a gas station or supermarket. Problem was, those had all been nuked to shit, so I dismissed this man as crazy and approached the town. A captain of Caesar's Legion approaches me and tells me to spread the word of what happened at the town.
The V.AT.S. aiming system
Since I've yet to even enter the damn town, I have no idea what hes talking about. Other than the opening cinematic I didn't know about the Legion other than they dress like Romans. I then, upon entering the town, released what a bunch of fucking heartless bastards these guys were as I examined the destroyed buildings and the populace of the town nailed to fucking crosses, I searched the town for survivors only to find one lone ranger, who told me these guys came in and held a "lottery" to see who would live, this ranger was runner up and was crippled instead of being crucified. As I walked outside to get help, I had one thought: kill every last one of those smug dickheads. I approached their leader and told him what a horrible person he was, he then told me to bring it on so I blew his head off...and all his friend's heads too. I left town and a level or two later was approached by some Legates and told I must pay for my crimes against their people. HOW FUCKING IRONIC, I thought grimly. I took out two of the five before dropping dead. This process repeated itself several times despite the fact I went the opposite direction. The point is that I played lawman and was killed multiple for by guys with better gear than me. So I dropped the Xbox version and got a fresh start on the PC version complete with all the DLC instead of paying tons of extra cash for it. Fallout New Vegas is a great game I would recommend for most people who hours and hours exploring the vast lands of the Mojave and the people who live within it. Also there are no vehicles or horses, so start walking. Hope you have enjoyed and see you next time. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope you had a awesome Thanksgiving and those of you who aren't in America, I'm sorry for your loss. Also relating to Thanksgiving, an advertising campaign that is seriously blown out of proportion known as Black Friday recently occurred. I'm the kind of man who hates these kind of things that drown on for long periods of time, although Black Friday is like the precursor to Armageddon, in the sense that Christmas is a month away and all hell is breaking loose. So I suppose I shouldn't complain even as I'm facing the wave that will crush me under its might the way the Spartans faced the Persians. Anyway, lets move on. Where was I now, oh right, Black Friday. Isn't it just awful how they glorify buying furniture at prices slight.... WAIT, NO!! Whew, caught myself there, at that rate we be here for days. I ending up giving in to the temptations of the low prices and bought some games off the Xbox Store which is something I normally wouldn't do because Steam exists, however they were Xbox exclusive titles, so yeah. One of those game was Skate 3, something I can refer to without wincing as one of the games thats not in EAs very large shit bucket despite it being an EA game. These are few and far between considering EA sole purpose in life seems to be money consumed dick heads that exist to torment those with less money than them. Anyway I wouldn't necessarily put it with titles like Mirror's Edge or...other titles that I can't recall, but what makes it funny as hell because of how glitchy it is, in the same way Goat Simulator but not intentional. So its still outside the bucket but is in constantly fighting not being pulled into it's endless void. The game starts with you creating a character, choosing a board and watching a ridiculously funny opening sequence that is one of the few original ideas that EA has come up with, then again it was probably DICE.
ramping out of pool
After the opening sequence ends you are given a few tutorials then thrown into the world, from there you can take random jobs or compete races to earn fame, thus increasing "board sales". The money or fame you gain on this can be spent on clothes and boards, although you start with the American Flag board, so why chose anything else? As the player progresses through the game, more story missions will be unlocked, resulting in more missions and more gameplay. Tricks can be preformed that allow more XP to be earned and just about every object in the world can be interacted with, from grinding to kickflips and board spins. All the while, EA is constantly bugging you for your email so they can spam you with offers about Orgin that you'll immediately through down the drain if you possess any decency. While Skate 3 may not have a good plot or even have a decent community system, the reason I bought it was for the free-roam mode in which you can run around the large world terrorizing the civilians who all have the same models or just continue to break every bone in your body. While Skate 3 isn't the best game, its certainly fun to gather around the couch with your friends and watch each other wipe out. There is also a map editor where you can build your own stadium to meet your own crazy aspiration. There is not much more to know other than that about the game. Hope you have enjoyed and I will be back next week. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday. Open world scenarios have become some of the most popular games to hit the market, it is almost part of the standard of what is expected from game studios today. Just about every open world game made these days incorporates action and usually guns, lots of guns and this one is no exception, still awesome though. Since Far Cry 4 came out a few days back, I thought I'd review the game that raised the stakes after the second game gave you malaria, literally. I did a review on Far Cry 2 way back when, but its not necessary to read it since the Far Cry series does this thing where its games are in no way related to each other except for guns, drugs and the title. Oh, also Hurk the monkey man crossed over from the third game to the forth, although he won't need any explaining. The game puts you into the shoes of Jason Brody, a college student vacationing all over the world with his friends and two brothers. While in Bangkok partying hard, Jason and his friends are told about a totally awesome place where you can go anything called the Rook Islands. Being the adventurous 25 year old he is, Jason decides to trust this random stranger and go skydiving over the island.
Turns out, the Rook Islands are at civil war between the natives and the slaving pirates who have made the island a complete madhouse. Jason and his friends are abducted and the leader of the pirates Vaas (see cover) decides to hold them ransom due to Jason's wealthy parents. He is also a complete sociopath who does a alot of drugs and likes repeating the definition of insanity over and over again while he does things similar to the cover of the game. Jason and his older brother Grant are held prisoner by Vaas while he taunts them with the occasional death threat added in. After Vass leaves, Grant uses his former military training to escape with Jason. They managed to make it out of the camp to look at a map and get their bearings when Grant is shot in the neck and dies in Jason's arms. Vaas wishes to make sport out of Jason and gives him a head start into the jungle before sending the hounds in after him. Jason falls into a river, losing Vaas's men and almost his life. He is revived by Dennis Rogers, this very likable guy who tattooed a tribal symbol Jason's arm.
Jason using a zipline, his finished tatau clearly visible
Dennis reveals to Jason he is in a native village and teaches Jason how to use a gun. The "tatau" Dennis put on Jason will allow him to learn the skills of the Rakyat tribe needed to save his friends. With this knowledge he sets out to get them back and escape the island before Vaas kills them all. The game introduces a play style not common in todays action genre, Jason is a character that has no experience whatsoever in gun skills, knife fighting or any other war related skills. He must learn them over time, receiving new tattoos for his tatau on his left arm that grant skills like knife throw take-downs, faster crouching movement, more stability when handling weapons and all around make him a better warrior. Weapon customization is a large part of the game, with certain mods being unlocked with each radio tower having its air waves freed up of pirate jammers. Mods like better scopes, suppressors, under-barrel shotguns and grenade launchers are just a few of the customization's to be unlocked.
Guns can also be given a unique color pattern, making each weapon unique to the next. Radio towers as mentioned earlier play a large role in exploration, allowing a little more of the map to become visible, in the portion of the map unlocked there will likely be an enemy outpost. These outposts can be captured to liberate that certain zone which turns the outpost into a safehouse which can be used as a fast travel station and place to buy weapons. This also will also cause Rakyat warriors to patrol the zone that has been liberated, Jason can stop the car they are in and drive his fellow liberators around to help him.
If this happens to you, your not hunting right
There are many ways to get around in the game, options range from trucks, ATVs, jet skis, boats, and even hang gliders just to name a few. Later in the game Jason obtains a wing suit that can used to soar through the skies after jumping off a high point, he then pulls a parachute to slow down and land. A crafting system is also present in the game, making Jason have to hunt and skin animals for their pelts which can be made into extra holsters for weapons and pouches to hold more ammo or syringes. Plants can also be harvested to be crafted into syringes that have different effects depending on the recipe crafted, they can heal, allow Jason to see enemies, breath underwater, and resist fire, just to name a few. When hes not killing pirates and saving his friends, Jason can play poker or throwing knifes, which is just what it sounds like. Notice boards contain assassination quests, Path of the Hunter tasks and medicine run missions to do. Many ruins can be explored that contain relics, I've yet to collect them all so I don't know what they do, still fun to explore though. The massive landscape, immersion, and numerous quests make this a fun game that be run through many times and still be fun. Far Cry 3 is a great game and I am looking forward to playing the fourth one soon. Hope you enjoyed and I will be back after Thanksgiving, so until then pull out your flags and roast your turkeys in good old America. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your doing well. Today I pulled a game off the shelf of never ending optional stealth games, not nearly as large the zombie shelf. That things the size of a house. Point is, that this little beauty from 2012 is Dishonored. Winning multiple awards for its story, the steam-punk Victorian world, gameplay and so forth. Dishonored puts you in the shoes of silent protagonist 433; Corvo Attano, the Royal bodyguard to the Empress of the Isles. The games starts out with Corvo returning from over seas to the City of Dunwell after having been sent out to find a cure for this nasty rat plague that is sweeping the city. So he returns to the Empress and her daughter Emily, talks a bit to this guy YOU KNOW is so totally the bad guy, then you see the other smug-faced ass who YOU KNOW is the other bad guy. I like it when you go through a game getting to know the cast of characters then find one of them is the bad guy. I love and I hate it, getting to like someone then finding out their Hitler is usually upsetting but at the same time you think "WHHHAAA!! Where did that come from!! Thats why that one thing happened and he avoided the conversation about his favorite cheese, it all makes sense now!!". I don't like however, five minutes into a game knowing the individual to be the villain and then they are the villain. Why not just stand on the roof of the town square and scream "I'm the classy British bad guy". So, anyway, Corvo comes home, says hey without saying hey and then then greets everyone, the adviser (bad guy), the lord regent (bad guy), the Empress and her daughter, Emily. Then, not ten minutes there, the Empress gets stabbed through the rib cage by a mysterious bunch of assassins who kidnap Emily. "Well then", I think. "Things went bugga all to 'ell right quick, that they did" more British me thinks. Then bad guy A & B show up AFTER the Empress is dead and her daughter kidnapped, what a strange coincidence.
A grenade explodes, sending enemies flying
To top it off they say "Oh would you look at that, Corvo has killed the Empress, that lady that hes spent years protecting, and kidnapped Emily in the five seconds it took us to get here. Take him away" . Wouldn't it have been nice if he said, "No, I didn't kill the Empress, regain your senses you morons" But since he decided to be a mute, he ends up thrown in prison accused of killing the Empress. So then, surprise surprise, someone who believes he didn't do it gives him the key to his cell and he escapes prison. He meets up with a bunch of Loyalists who think the last monarchy was better than the current one and says they will help you track down the men who were associated with your fugitive status. So after acquiring some trademark gear thats cool like a retractable sword and a one handed cross bow, Corvo gets some sleep before his adventure. He wakes up in a weird land of floating memories that happened recently. Then after hearing a strange voice, the Outsider appears. The Outsider is a supernatural being that has god like powers, he likes Corvo for some reason and adorns him with his mark, the shiny symbol seen on the box art. Corvo wakes up to see the symbol on his hand and realizes it wasn't a dream. Now with an advanced set of tools combined with powers gifted from the Outsider, Corvo sets out on his quest to prove himself innocent, find Emily and avenge the Empress's death.
Corvo Attano
Throughout the game Corvo will explore many locations varying from the streets of the open city to the abandoned flooded district of bad town. The symbol on Corvo's hand marks the power he possesses, through the course of the game he can find bone runes, via a beating heart he was given by the outsider, it also tells secrets about those nearby, that can unlock and upgrade the abilities granted to him. These vary from teleporting across large distances, stopping time for a short duration, possessing a human, using the Force and sending a swarm of rats to devour someone. The most useful and my favorite was the Blink teleport power, letting you hop over buildings and get out of tight situations. As mentioned earlier there are many weapons used by Corvo. His retractable sword serves as his primary offensive weapon, the crossbow his silent stealth weapon, having many different types of darts like sleep darts, regular and incendiary bolts. He also has a flintlock pistol, grenades and spring razor traps that shred a man if he steps into it. All equipment can be upgraded, the crossbow and flintlock can be upgraded to shoot farther and faster with a larger clip size to add. Ammo pouches can also be expanded for more space.
The mark of the Outsider
Whale charms give bonuses to the player, who can hold up to six once the upgrades have been bought. These allowing silent steps, a less likely chance to be hit by bullets and so forth. A moral choice aspect is also present in the game, decided how to approach your enemy and targets influences the ending, which there are three of. I went through the game rendering everyone unconscious or just avoided them altogether, not being seen the whole game. I did this for a few reasons, one; it was the right thing to do, I also always helped people unless it involved cannibalism. Two; despite all the nasty shit that goes down during the story, I doubt if I decapitated half the populace, saved the Princess and tried to reenter society, it probably wouldn't go so well. The same goes for the guardsman of the city who go from caring lawman to raping scumbags at the change of the ruler. I get the game's intent of trying to make these guys more villainous so you don't feel bad about offing them but I mean, come on, even Metro 2033 managed to give the Nazis some humanity, strange as that sounds. There are a few ways to approach the game: there the "stay in the shadows" kind of gameplay, no kill or the "guns blazing kill everything that moves" gamestyle. Or a combination of the two. Sword fight relies on timing and parrying before executing the finishing move. Bodies, dead or alive, can be hidden in spots like rooftops, dumpsters and other out-of-sight places. This can be crucial in segments when wishing to remain unseen, also darkness is your ally, stick with it and you'll be no more than a shadow. Between missions Corvo returns to Loyalist HQ to resupply and spend your hard earned coin on upgrades. Potions for health and magic used to charge Corvo's power can be bought and found all over the place. There are also a number of plague ridden zombie like creature called Weavers that feed off the plague. The more people killed, the higher the chaos, the more guards, the more zombies and so forth. Not much more to say about Dishonored, great game, would play again, still need to buy the DLC. Hope you have all enjoyed and I will be back next week with another post. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday. Today I will be reviewing Hotline Miami, a game that has received exponential amount of praise in the last two years. Since the Steam Halloween sale happened recently, I bought it, played it, and enjoyed far more than I thought I would. Hotline Miami is a top down action game, meaning it is seen from above and not through the eyes of the character or at a third person perspective. As hinted in the cover to the right, the game is extremely violent, but is presented in an 32 bit action arcade format. Meaning while the game is still extremely violent, it is lessened down by the format of the game, else it probably would be the most graphic game to ever hit shelves. The game follow the story of the unnamed protagonist, dubbed "Jacket" by the community, who keeps receiving cryptic phone calls from the same people. The messages are worded differently each time with new addresses that say the same thing: go to this location and kill everyone inside. While this sounds dark, all the people he kills are Russian mobsters, so no loss. Taking place in the late 1980s, the game captures the time period perfectly. As the game progresses, Jacket will struggle to keep hold on reality and stay sane as his world slowly degrades. Praised for its masterful story that builds the world with the atmosphere surrounding you, making it all feel like an LSD trip sometimes. The gameplay is fast paced and no one play through is ever the same. With the game constantly randomizing the items that are on the map, Jacket will encounter different weapons and enemy placement each time. The player starts outside the building and will pick a mask, each mask has different abilities and more can be unlocked as missions are passed. Some masks let you start with a weapon while others may enable your fists to do one hit kills. The game works through a trial and error system that is unforgiving, one hit from
Your basic location for killing Russian mobsters
bullets or melee weapons kills you dead and Jacket must start the level all over again. Jacket has many melee weapons at his disposal, a few need to be unlocked. Guns are also frequent weapons to appear and enemies wielding them are the greatest threat, that and big buff guys that can only be killed by shotguns. While using a gun is the easiest way to dispatch a group of guards, it also makes noise, which draws in the other twenty guys in the room who will kill you quicker than you can kill them. All items can be thrown at enemies, incapacitating them for the moment needed to finish them off. Doors are your best friend in the game, these pieces of wood can be knocked down, throwing enemies of their feet and allowing for a surprise attack. Hotline Miami has a awesome soundtrack that intertwines with the gameplay perfectly kind of like Skyrim, exempt with 80s techno music. The game spans about 13 hours long, maybe twenty if your willing to play it through again for everything their is to find and the secret ending. I consider Hotline Miami to be a great game mixing action, gore and story all into one perfect pot, 9 out of 10. I hope you enjoyed this post, I will be back back with more reviews in the weeks to come. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing great. I was browsing through the Steam store and saw that the new Civilization came out recently. For those of you who don't know Sid Meier's Civilization is a game of growing your small settlement out of the stone age and into the future of man, which during the course of the evolution stage, you are seemingly an immortal dictator that everyone follow without question. Although I am fond of Civilization, when I saw it on Steam, I thought of Kingdom for Kefllings for some reason. I played this game long ago in the long past year of 2009 before I discovered Civilization. Basically a more basic version of Civilization with more direct interaction. A Kingdom for Keflings was released for Xbox Arcade and then the following year on PC. Mainly focusing on the Xbox side of the story, it uses the player's Microsoft avatar as the interactive sage you will be. The game starts with a small pile of resources and you, a 20ft tall giant that will help and physically aid the Keflings into growing their society into a thriving middle ages city where everyone is happy and content, so basically the opposite of the middle ages. The Keflings are small elf-like people who you guild, in order to do this, you will set them to work chopping down trees for wood, which are then processed into boards which can then be made into houses. The same can be said for stone, which can be mined for ore or made into stone blocks used to build walls and castles.
a town in the process of growing
Mills are built to create wood products, forges to create things from rock, weaving shops to process wool into cloth and some weird shop that process crystals for whatever reason. Houses are built to upgrade the Kefling population, they can then be upgraded into manors. Schools can be built to teach certain skills to the Keflings, then you can send them to college. The work force being educated in the middle ages, what is going on here? While the Keflings gather most of the supplies while taking them to and from locations to be made usable, the player creates the buildings and to upgrade them once the proper materials and blueprints are at hand. Tools that the Keflings can be discovered by gathering a glowing resource, be it tree, ore or crystal, which are seen rarely. There are also player upgrades to be discovered through doing the same action, these allow you to gather resources more efficiently and walk faster. While the last one may sound stupid, it funny how slow you move when carrying 10 tons of wood to your village that is a few miles away. One thing that bored me was that there is no wildlife or other creatures that threaten your society, so their is no danger or consequences for your choices. As with any world building game, there is a large sense of satisfaction at starting with some twigs and turning it into thriving city. There are more features to be held within this game but since its been four years since I picked it up, I will leave you with the good memorable bits. Would recommend, though the music does tend to drive one insane after awhile, still fun though. I hope you all enjoyed and I will be back next week with more reviews. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, hope your all doing great. Today I'm going to be reviewing a game that revived the genre and became known to everyone. Mortal Kombat is a game that most kids my age had the luxury of playing in the arcade that went on to evolve into something greater. Starting out as a 2D arcade fighter, it kept true to its roots until after the second one. After that it went down hill with crappier gameplay and appearance. Since Mortal Combat X is out until April 2015, I will instead review the 2011 version, MK9. Now for storytime, so sit back and relax. In the beginning of time the six realms were created and the Elder Gods decreed that if one realm was to merge with the other, one would have to defeat that world's champions in ten consecutive mortal combat tournaments. Later in time, there is a buff guy that wears a skull helmet named Shao Kahn who is as powerful as a god and is leader of Outworld, a realm. He has set his sights on Earth realm and sends his emissary, Shang Tsung, to go wage the tournament against Earth realm. Since the tournaments begin, Raiden the God of Thunder had been guiding the champions of the Realm against Outworld's fighters. After nine losses to Outworld, Earth realm is on the edge of destruction. Raiden puts forward Liu Kang who defeats all the contestants and Shang Tsung himself, sending them packing. In order to save his life from his master's wrath, Shang Tsung that the tournament should be
Fight in progress, X-ray move used above
hosted in Outworld, so Shao Kahn can defeat them personally. Liu Kang beats everyone and punches a hole through Shao Kahn's chest and it kills him, but not really. Fast forward through some other games where people understandingly start to get lost, we come to a giant pyramid that everyone starts killing each other trying to get to the top. After everyone is dead, only Raiden and Shao Kahn remain.
Right before Shao Kahn kills Raiden, he sends a vague message to his past self saying "He must win". So basically Raiden comes to the understanding that he must do it all over again. So theres the story, the nice thing is that you can buy this game and you won't have missed anything at all. Combat is what you'd expect for a 2D fighting platform, you can punch and kick or mix for some varied combos. Each character has their own moves, you could play as the undead hellspawn ninja Scorpion or the four armed half-dragon Goro and many other characters. They all have moves unique to them, combos having different animations and effects. The combo bar is a new feature added in MK9, allowing combos to become more powerful or if the bar is charged fully the player can execute their x-ray move. This attack is extremely efficient and shows the interior damage being done, thus the name. A large feature of Mortal Kombat is the fatalitys, moves that can be used after your opponent is defeated to finish them off in a gruesome way. These vary from chopping them into many different pieces with swords to turning into a dragon and biting them in half. Gore to the max. Mortal Kombat is a game best shared with friends, like a gory version of Guitar Hero. Other than that, theres not much to say about it, great game though. Hope you all enjoyed and I will be back next week with another post. This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.
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