REVIEW: Assassins Creed Unity

Assassins Creed Unity
Action-Adventure
PS4, Xbox One, PC

For the seventh game in the series we head to France during the French Revolution. You play the character Arno Dorian, a young man whose father was murdered at an early age and upon sneaking into your step-sister's secret birthday party witness his guardian murdered. He is arrested for the murder and meets and assassin who sets him on a course for revenge and to seek the truth about his both murders. Along the way he meets various historical figures that help him on his quest.

I have always enjoyed the Assassin's Creed franchise. I still feel that the controls could be better as I often find myself stuck on a barrel or not climbing when I should be. The parkour system still hasn't ironed out every little bug. And while many people are reporting strange bugs and glitches within the game, I have yet to experience anything.

One huge improvement for Unity is that the map is massive. I thought that Black Flag had plenty of things to do and Unity surpasses it. When you first open up your map it is covered in various activities and collectibles. One thing that I enjoyed was that the room puzzles have returned. I felt as if there weren't many puzzles in Black Flag but very early on you have to navigate a room in order to unlock its secrets.

While I haven't had much time playing Unity as I would like, what I have played has been positive. What updates they have made really improve the game, but combat still feels the same and the parkour control system still has its issues when your need it to be flawless.

It should also be noted that in Unity the multiplayer has been overhauled allowing you and your friends to play together and take down missions and other objectives.

If you have enjoyed the previous incarnations of the Assassin's Creed series you will definitely enjoy this installment as they have kept what worked in previous games and made little tweaks to enhance gameplay. There is plenty to do and truth be told, probably too much to do. Assassin's Creed Unity continues the fine tradition of the series while providing a new backdrop in which to hone your skills. It would have been nice to be able to customize the sex of your character considering there are so many variations to your costume but it was not to be. Assassin's Creed is highly recommended.

Overall 8/10

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REVIEW: Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor

Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor
PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
Third Person, Action Role-Playing, Sandbox

Set in the Lord of the Rings universe some time between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, you play Talion, a Ranger of Gondor, who was slain along with his family by Sauron's army only to return thanks to the wraith spirit of an elf who is also seeking revenge agains Sauron.

The gameplay is a mash up of a couple of other successful games. The biggest comparison is the Assassin's Creed series. Throughout Talion's adventure he can unlock towers that allow him to fast travel to various locations on the map and shows where various collectibles and challenges are in the area, he also parkours around the various crumbling buildings and structures. Bushes also provide cover that work as long as the Uruks don't walk into them.



The other franchise it emulates is the Batman Arkham series, you slice and dice the enemies and see the parry icon above the enemies head letting you know that you need to push the button or your combo multiplier will be reset to zero. Through upgrades, your special takedown (assassination) will take less and less combos for it to be activated. I upgraded it to the point where once I had it, I was able to use it twice once it was available, which allowed me to mow down the enemies regardless of how many there were around me.

One feature that is all Shadow of Mordor is the Nemesis System, a system that affects the way you play the game. As you go against Captains and Warchiefs the game reacts to your outcomes. If you die or run away in the process of eliminating the Uruk, they advance in stature and may take over a higher position that you left open in the chain of command. The Uruk grows in power and the next time you meet they will harass you and mock you. However, if you use some of the intelligence gathered on your target, you might be able to turn the tide of battle before it even begins. Even random Uruk's that where a nameless enemy can become powerful if they kill you. In the later stages of the game you have the option to turn them to your cause and as you take out other Uruks to make space for your new troop leaders they can worm their way into even higher ranks and eventually become Warchiefs. At one point, I went back to the first map and turned every captain and Warchief to my side just because I loved the idea of having all of them under my command. When you dominate your captains you can have them send death threats to other commanders, giving you the opportunity to earn epic runes that are used to upgrade your weapons.

The collectibles are rarely something that I tend to go after in most games but the ability to earn points, which are used to upgrade your weapons made me search high and low for them. There are also weapons challenges for your bow, sword and dagger, which also give you the opportunity to earn points to upgrade weapons. The one downside to the collectibles is there is no real reward for unlocking the doorway glyphs. I felt that after scouring the countryside for them, it should have unlocked some reward beyond a trophy on PSN, achievements mean very little to me as I don't care how many trophies I have or how many points I earn on Xbox. However, for the completionist it should keep them going for quite a while.

Shadow of Mordor is a great game that keeps you playing until your controller's battery dies. There are plenty of ways to tackle the enemies and play your own play style. Regardless of your love or dislike of the classic books or movies, it should keep you entertained for hours and hours. It has quickly become one of my favorites and that was unexpected.

Verdict  9/10

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REVIEW: AirMech Arena

AirMech Arena
Arcade, Multiplayer,
PC, Steam, XBox 360, Android

One of the best free to play games on the Xbox 360 is AirMech Area, a game that has you piloting a large pantheon of aircraft that can transform into a giant robot as you fight for control over a map. The graphics really remind me of the 80's Saturday morning cartoons as the maps are colorful and the units are drawn well, but simple.

When you first start AirMech Arena you are to choose between three pilots, all with a positive and a negative ability/stat. (IE: speed but no armor, or armor but no speed). After choosing a pilot you are subject to a long tutorial, which does gets a little long in the tooth, which teaches you how to take over a control point and order various units from your base.

Your Mech is able to carry your bases troops and other units and drop them all over the map and you can issue orders to your troops as they are being generated at your base or you can create them, pick them up, and send them into the fray.

The action is quick and the game is fun as there are over 60 units to choose from to help you conquer your enemies. I found the best option is to defend your base first by building turrets, once you have adequately set up your defense, you can then set out conquering the rest of the map without worrying about being over ran. I also took over other bases to expand my empire before going for the heart of the enemy. A lot of preparation goes a long way and makes for quicker matches.



While the game is free to play, there is an option to visit the publisher's store where you can purchase upgrades and new skins; however, as you play through the game you earn points called Kudos, which will help you along the way and allow you to purchase new pilots and units without spending any money, unless you are impatient, in which case you will head straight for the store.

VERDICT

AirMech Arena is one of those games that will make the top ten list every time as it is a unique game that pairs real time strategy with tower defense games all wrapped up in the feel of a cartoon.

Overall 9/10

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REVIEW: Destiny

Destiny
Single Player, First person RPG
Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS 4, PS3, PC


Destiny is an online multiplayer, first-person, open-world shooter set in a science fiction setting in Earth's future.

I have had the opportunity to play for several days now and have hit the opening ceiling, level 20. While I will continue to play the game, this is my review based on the first half of the game. Roughly 20 hours into it.

GAMEPLAY

Anyone who has played the Halo franchise will quickly feel like they are at home. The controls are very similar. The game has several missions that are played linearly but as you progress through them the game allows you to try different planets and jump around; however, you will need to complete all of the missions at some point in order to finish the game.

By opening up your ghost you are able to find side missions on every planet that range from kill x amount of enemies to collect items from killed enemies. There is also the occasional scan an area that you must navigate the entire map to stand in one place for a few seconds and then the mission is complete. They are all rather easy and provide a decent amount of experience points helping you level up. The best way to ensure good experience points is to do bounties, which range from kill 100 enemies without dying in the campaign to benchmarks in the crucible (the PvP arena).

Two other modes are Raids, Strikes. These put you up against bosses after fighting your way to them in 3 person fireteams. I have only done a few of them and they are most helpful once you hit the 20th level and want to continue leveling up your toon as they have a better chance of dropping "light gear."

The Crucible is the final play mode currently. For anyone who wants to pit themselves against other players there are a few modes to play where you can also win gear that will help you in the main campaign. I strongly recommend using an auto rifle as the single shot gun had me at a disadvantage for those that play this type of game a lot.

The problems that I have with the game are that it is a very short campaign. After roughly 18 hours I had completed the game and was only a few XP points away from hitting level 20. Once I hit level 20, I grew bored. The reason that I grew bored was because the game is very repetitive and monotonous. Once you have done it, you have to do it again and again. The loot that drops is far and few between. While the drops improved as I reached level 20 they still took forever to get and weren't all that helpful as they weren't much better than what I was already equipped with and didn't boost my stats enough to make the mission worth it. Destiny does use Loot 2.0 where the loot you see is yours and yours alone, which makes it so that you aren't fighting over drops. But it is only for your toons and you can only share between the characters you have created. It is disappointing as you come across things that could be useful to your online friends, it would be nice to be able to give it to your friends to help them on their journey, maybe in a patch.

another complaint is that the enemies are just new skins on Halo enemies. Their guns are very similar as well as their "classes." The differences are in looks only and it is disappointing. The loading times are annoying. It loads to get to the destination screen and once you have picked a location you will wait for it to load again, perfect for restroom breaks or grabbing a snack. Trust me, you have time.

Finally, I played as a warlock and one of the powers is to glide, while a cool power it does make it difficult to get to higher locations on the map. A hunter is able to double and later triple jump making it easy for them to reach hidden chests and places, where I was stuck making several attempts to reach a ledge. While my buddy and I would laugh about the whole ordeal, it was frustrating to say the least.

Very early in the game (on launch day) I took part in an in game event as a giant Sputnik like satellite fell to Earth and my friend and I tackled the event alone. I figured on launch day hundreds of people would rush the scene and take part in the event but alas, my buddy and I did it by ourselves. Not sure if the game ramps up the difficulty as more players join in but it wasn't all the difficult to do with just two people. Since then, I haven't seen an event. While the game, Defiance wasn't all that great, one thing they did do well was in-game events and it is a model that Bungie should model themselves after.



GRAPHICS

If there is one thing Destiny does well is how beautiful the game looks. Sitting for a few minutes to watch time pass in the game will reveal a stunning horizon. The guns are modeled well and the enemies are rendered well.

AUDIO

Bungie recycled a lot of the audio from Halo and fans will notice it quickly. The voice acting, while it features the very talented Peter Dinklage as your ghost companion, is not very exciting and in my opinion appears to have phoned in his lines and then cashed his check.

Some of the upcoming events before the planned DLC in December:

VERDICT

While Destiny has a lot of things going for it and has many events planned soon (see below) it is very monotonous and repetitive. The fact that the campaign is short, only 18 hours or so strikes me as very short sighted. The lack of directions on what to do after reaching level 20 is disappointing and while it could be fixed with a little tweaking, the loot drops are far and few between make for a lot of unnecessary grinding.  With that said, Bungie does seem very committed to game and we should see some positive changes very soon. I am not all that impressed with the game but look forward to seeing how the game develops over time and improves. It has a lot going for it and I am hoping for improvements to make this game last as a rotating title in my playlist.

6.5/10

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