Shadows of the Damned

Shadows of the Damned is a goofy horror "B-game" just like House of the Dead: Overkill. You play as Garcia Hotspur, and you are chasing after your girlfriend Paulie, who has been kidnapped by demons.

Developed by prominent figures in the industry, Shinji Mikami and Goichi Suda are united once again to work together on this hellish trip. As a third-person shooter, the innovation isn't that strong, but the environments were twisted and bright colors were used for the game mechanics.

They involve working your way through areas called Darkness, in which dark matter sticks around enemies, rendering them invincible unless you hit them with a Light Shot, obtained by letting Johnson, your bodyless skeleton buddy help you out.

He also takes on the role as comedial sidekick, and transforms into all of the weapons to be found. Meanwhile, Garcia himself seems to be a Mexican that mixes Spanish and English languages, has a body full of tattoos and acts the part of a badass hero pretty well with cheesy one liners.

The designers also implemented some funny moments, such as when the second large boss suddenly takes a piss, and the urine turns the whole area into Darkness. Or when you enter the naughty area where you acquire the Big Boner as a very long handgun.

During the loading screens, a glimpse of the upcoming stages is similar towards early Castlevania and Ghouls n' Ghosts games. Some levels take a detour towards 2D sidescrolling stages, with random enemy appearances and a little boss at the end.

There were also some Evil Dead references, which were small but likable. The story books are creepy bedtime stories that serve as the upcoming bosses of the game. The overall story however is weak. The relation between Garcia and Johnson is alright, sexual puns were creative though.

There is an upgrade system where Red Gems boost your abilities, while Blue Gems evolve your weapons, such as the Boner eventually becoming a Big Boner. White Gems are used to buy ammo, alcohol beverages as health and Red Gems. They are all sold by a demonic half male/beast freak with a huge overseering eye above his head.

Shadow of the Damned plays good, but acts silly, is childish and after a formidable final boss, there's practically no reason to return to this for replay value. It also stands out with it's style, but at the same time, the graphics weren't really that let's say, catchy.

Rating: 7.6

This will be the last PS3 review for now.

Bayonetta

Rise as the Umbran witch Bayonetta, a British anti-heroine on a mission to stand against the angels of the creator Jubileus. With so much sex appeal in your face, she certainly has interesting movements at certain times.

Developed by Platinum Games, in many ways does Bayonetta qualify as a spiritual successor towards Viewtiful Joe, also drawing bits and pieces from MadWorld, all done by the same group. It's an action packed beat/slash em'up in 3D.

The combat has many kinds of moves to perform, as you will be able to punch and kick, shoot, slash, dodge, counter and even morph into temporal creatures granting boosts in the air or on the ground. As you proceed, weapons will be unlocked giving you the option to switch between them at battles.

Bayonetta is an adventure full of flashy and stylized presentation found back in the finishing moves known as Torture Attacks, the cut-scenes, the interesting enemy design and more. It plays fast when fighting your way through, but can wear off during the cut scenes as character development was minimal.

Special abilities such as Witch Time and Witch Walk give you advantages towards enemies and terrain grounds. With the former, if you dodge an attack at the last moment, you will counter it and temporarily slow down the movement of time in order to deal more damage.

With the latter, you are able to walk up walls and ceilings, not always, but more than enough. Along the chapters or levels, there are hidden chests and items to obtain using your double jump and other techniques, which by the way more of them can be obtained inside the shop.

Speaking of which, it also sells standard items such as HP, attack power and protection. There are also special spells to buy aside from the techniques, weapons and items, but these were all very expensive, so I basically only experienced one during my playthrough.

With the Concotion Compound system, you can "cook" up the standard items I mentioned, and there is sufficient enough of lore to be read as well. The focus is mainly on finding out what the purpose of the Eyes of the World seems to be.

The hierarchy of angels to fight ranges from simple troops with halo's(which are also the game's currency by the way) to adept units towards large bosses that usually look creepy because of the faces. I wouldn't say that I have a favorite boss because they generally look the same.

But keep up with this enemy design with their pretentious names Platinum Games, because they surely stand out from the endless waves of demons, zombies, terrorists and such. The story depicts Paradiso, Inferno and Purgatorio as the setting, as taken from Dante's Divine Comedy.

The game can be gory, but it's usually censored by the quick scenes happening. These are activated by the Torture Attack moments, in which you usually will have to mash a button in order to obtain the most damage.

There's also special chase mechanics inside such as driving on a motorcycle or riding on a rocket. QTE's were sometimes unfair, but Bayonneta is forgiving with continues and having many checkpoints.

Miscellaneous stuff such as Angel Attack is a bonus game that felt too simplistic. And the game can wear off after I found out about the most effective combo to use. The balance design wasn't effective, and I was irritated by the character's mouths not moving in most scenes.

Bayonetta remains a glorified beat'em up that can give entertainment value not only because of the combat system, but the tongue in cheek humor as well. It's an over the top adventure with girl pop music and enough diversity, but personally my preference goes to Viewtiful Joe 1 & 2 instead.

Too bad that Capcom owns the rights towards that and more of the former Clover Studios though. Oh well, I guess that Bayonetta 2 will surely be worthwhile to watch out for in the future of the Nintendo Wii U.

Rating: 8.0

Vanquish

Directed by Shinji Mikami, who was once the head of the Resident Evil franchise and has switched with developers for quite some time, Vanquish is a sci-fi third person shooter on the background of what seems to be World War III happening between Russia and the United States of America.

It's a modest attempt at capturing the current success of Western based shooter games, where squad based tactics, swift shoot outs and linearity are a harmony. But in reality it's a laughable parody at the premise as well, because Platinum Games thought that they captured the essence of success.

Instead, we get a familiar arcade like shooter, with gimmicks such as the umpteenth return of bullet time, or that knee slide that frankly was the reason I wanted to play this game. The fast paced action combined with the available arsenal and the listed abilities make up for some quality time.

The characters however are stereotypes to the core, with a prodigy child armed with interesting legs, a permanent smoker jackass and a diehard warlover, almost as if he is the godfather of the cast of Gears of War.

Voice casting was set to Japanese because that's awesome as usual, but it also means that I won't have to judge it because of being a foreign language, so it was alright. The graphics are pretty sick in their details, but the color white was used too much.

Framerate drops were non-existant for me, although others have reported seeing it happen. The primary location seems to be similar to The Citadel from the Mass Effect series, but instead it's an arcadefest now, with dull robots, giant walking mini bosses and humans are almost extinct.

The conversations seem to be professional in general when speaking of mission briefings, but the casual chats were sometimes ineffective or generic. Music wise, it is fainted by the voice acting and the heavy gunfire and explosions.

Functional controls do make up for a fun ride in the short time you will experience Vanquish. Platinum Games made sure that all of the traditional aspects of a third person shooter are there, such as cover locations, melee attacks and of course sniper rifles.

The arsenal is also straightforward and the more experimental looking weapons weren't stealing the show either. That clearly belongs to boosting around, on your knees, doing badass flips upon switching off your ability.

By the way, these gimmicks are handicapped by an overheat system, so that you won't abuse the heck out of them. Vanquish is quite crazy enough with the provided speed of it's animations and gameplay, so we don't want too cause to much epilepsy or whatever affected diseases can come up from this.

I do applause Shinji Mikami for having created this game, because it's definitely a fun game, however the impact was totally missing when speaking of the plot, the characters, the enemy design, the pretentious approach towards the genre and the lasting appeal.

Vanquish lacks crucial substance, but delivers exceptionally as an arcade style based third person shooter. It's a hit and a miss. The rush was there, but the flow was missing in action. Recommended for those longing for heavy action.

Rating: 7.7

Ico & Shadow of the Colossus

Ico

Praised for apparently it’s design and atmosphere, ICO is the first title of Team ICO exclusively for Sony. I was able to lend the HD version and the other title bundled together. It’s a very minor adventure for me. The puzzles and navigating Yorda around were fine, the controls could had been better though.

As for the scenery, I suppose it had some kind of tranquility going on apart from the shadow creatures wanting to take Yorda away. The story is deliberately slim, not much can be said about Ico, Yorda or the Queen. Henceforth, some people call this game artistic. 

Anyhow, I don’t agree with it being one of the best games ever, but it surely is recommendable for puzzle and adventure fans who prefer to have peaceful moments most of the time. I think the most interesting thing that happened for me during the game is Ico losing his horns.

Rating: 6.6

Shadow of the Colossus 

Much appreciated effort for designing something that isn’t ordinarily seen in video games. Shadow of the Colossus is a spiritual successor towards Ico, but it is also a prequel. Your goal is to slay the 16 colossi in order to finish the ritual.

Since there are no normal enemies to fight, nor is their interaction from fellow humans, it felt empty, but for this game, that emptiness was made up with a vast mystifying landscape and of course impressive boss designs.

The colossi were intimidating at first, but once you know their behavior patterns and the locations of their weak spots, overcoming them is only 1/3 of the challenge. You see, they have their attacks, but they also have their bodies to swipe you around and if possible, throw you off balance as well.

Seeing as this is a boss marathon game, I was reminded of titles such as Alien Soldier for the Sega Genesis. The similarities aren’t that much, but it’s nice to see a 3D game such as Shadow of the Colossus giving this sub-genre a new approach. 

Grand heroic songs accompany the battles that at times can be called epic, mostly because of the size differences between the protagonist and the colossi. Your horse is also an elegant partner for traveling and for some fights.

The ending wasn’t that terrific, but I did acknowledge the connection with the two games. What bothered me more though is that although the controls work, sometimes I struggled with the way to smooth the camera work and getting some of the climbing jumps right.

Rating: 7.7

Valkyria Chronicles

You play as Welkin, a tank commander who leads Squad 7 inside Gallia, which is a small sovereign nation squashed inbetween the big 2 states, the Federation and the Empire. As the Empire strikes, you will have to protect your country.

Comparisons towards Fire Emblem and Advance Wars will be made, because Valkyria Chronicles seems to be a mixture of them and more. It's distinguished enough from them to stand on it's own, and here's why.

It is turn based strategy combined with real time action in the form of a third person shooter. Before going on missions, you can recuit new units, upgrade weapons, train your troops by XP's and read up onto summaries of chapters or profiles of people.

During the turn based strategy part, Welkin can issue special orders in order to boost up his squad. Calling for backup is possible if the roster allows it, and there are 5 main class units to be found next to the tanks.

Scouts are the best class for their high movement, the grenade launcher and even effective firepower. Troopers carry machine guns suitable for any situation except against tanks. Lancers carry anti-armor weapons but their accuracy is lower than others.

Engineers can repair tanks, refuel ammo's and disarm land mines, essential for almost every mission. And Snipers are able to take out units from far away, also very effective at times. Once you select a unit, it goes over into real time action mode.

Eliminating the grid structure found in many strategy games, you are free to move around then and attack once, but you are also able to rescue fallen allies, crouch into a defending position or retreat using occupied camps around the maps. Walking around enemy territory creates risks in the form of enemy fire, but if you are able to team up with others, you could initiate support fire from them.

The recruitable characters have their differences with the potential abilities they represent, but since their backgrounds are stored away in the Personel tab, they felt absent from the progressing storyline. They aren't the same as generic soldier units from any TBS or RTS.

The overall gameplay feels too slowpaced for me to be genuinely excited by it. There are unneccesary animations playing that pushed me away from enjoying it further. Certain transitions, either from scenes or perspectives are the same deal.

People reloading their guns after a phase, Leon's face every time you upgrade something at the R&D facility, the medic scene constantly playing, come on! Admit it that you too got tired of these and several other moments!

The novelty of the gameplay weared off as the final chapters appeared; the climax wasn't spectacular. What began as an interesting new way of designing a turn based strategy game slowly started turning into a series of missions I just wanted to get over with soon enough.

The rush was certainly missing, and the flow perished away. Disliking the way units reinforce or retreat the areas, I felt that it wasn't enough to be considered as "building" or "evacuating" them. Especially how recruits who fell in battle could easily be revived felt cheap to me.

Valkyria Chronicles has a twist design on traditional strategy videogames, but needs to be fleshened out in order for me to get really excited. Also, speed the whole process up and lessen the loading scenes! Book Mode was just a disguise in the form of them.

Rating: 7.2

Rayman Origins

Ubisoft’s mascot has had three main games before Origins arrived, but this is the first time I have played a Rayman game.

As my first time experiencing the series, I'm really glad to have played through Origins. I was most of all reminded of Donkey Kong Country, for both have very similar pacing, level design, controls and a secret area.

Rayman Origins has a brightful world to be explored by up to four players. I enjoyed the happy mood the overall presentation provided, and the animations were humorous as well as cute. The music is definitely a highlight.

The graphics are drawn beautifully, and the controls were almost perfect for me. There were instances where Rayman would just stand still after I dash jumped around, and I still don't know how I triggered it.

Selectable characters are Rayman, Globox and way too much similar Tweenies. The moves they perform are all the same, and include being able to wall jump, run up walls, charge an attack, float in the air and ground stomping.

The excellent level design is varied, creative and challenging. Especially the underwater levels were a lot of fun, and collecting the Lums could sometimes really shine the levels even more, because of the way they were placed. 

Shoot 'em up levels featuring airborne mosquitoes are another entertaining portion of Origins, and once you collect enough Electoons, you will open up the secret area known as Land of the Livid Dead.

This is how you do not only a functional platforming game, but also a very successful one. With enough content, variety and enjoyment to fill up, you can't go wrong with Rayman Origins, a very pleasant time well spent.

Rating: 8.6