Back to Apotheon and where I left off 2 Gods in. There was 7 it turns out (including Zeus (the final boss)) and there was some nice variety in here too. Considering the game only really had 1 genre it mixed stuff up well, with areas involving platforming, Puzzles, Horse riding, racing, classic underwater levels, sea navigating (unrelated) and classic hack 'n slash. This also made for a nice variety of enemies too based on your situation, from normal Greek soldiers to Angels, Mermen, Centaurs and many other mythological enemies. Although basically there's 2 main ways they attack you though, throw things/ shoot arrows or hand to hand (including weapons) combats. Still, the art style makes it seem different when it's an angel shooting an arrow at you rather than a devil person (did I mention I like the art style? (albeit there is too much male nudity)).
I was frequently running in to a Major problem. My shield. I kept forgetting I had the bugger. I'm sure the game would've been easier if I actually blocked some arrows from time to time rather than going through health potions like nobody's business. I'd remember when an enemy had a shield, but they were always sworded enemies, yet the shield was super effective against arrows and other projectiles, but I'd always forget it when they showed up.
Another problem is crashing. The game probably crashed half a dozen times on me. I got it free and it saved every 5 or so minutes so it wasn't a Major issue but it was an annoyance. The story was simple but fun and for once I wasn't able to predict the ending (no backstabbing). There are other issues like loose controls at times and as I mentioned last week the item swapping isn't great but there's plenty of good stuff too. Giant levels riddled with secrets to explore if you want to, if you don't, no sweat off your balls, you'll just find a few pick ups you come across wont do anything. The ability to throw any weapon was good too, and considering the simple level of the weapons they did well to make them feel as different as they did. Overall I was very impressed. If you've got a PS4 you've still got 4 days to pick it up for free, I suggest you do.
And then I travelled back in time in every sense (except the literal). I dusted off my 360, and launched a game that originally came out in 2001 that I had bought a few years ago after it's re-release and forgotten all about. I'm talking of course about Sonic Adventure 2. Now, if you know me, you'll know I was a Sega kid and had a childhood obsession with Sonic and to this day I remain a Sonic apologist, unwilling to accept that, with the exception of Sonic Generations (a game I'll defend to my grave) there hasn't been a good core Sonic game arguably since the Megadrive (I liked Sonic Heroes though). I know many many people liked Adventure 1 and 2 when they first came out on Dreamcast, but I never had one, I'd been burned by the Saturn and had moved on to Playstation by that point in time. I played the first Sonic Adventure probably 2 or 3 years ago after Generations had given me the motivation I needed (and coincided with a games sale on 360) but that game was not great. It had not aged well, just like every early 3D mascot platformer. (there were so many at the time and people defend them like crazy if they loved them as a kid, but trust me, as someone who didn't play Mario 64 until it was on DS, it's not true (this is still despite the fact I hold Crash Bandicoot 3: \warped in the highest esteem))). So why did I think SA2 would be any better? I didn't really, I just felt it's a gap in my Sonic knowledge that my early gaming life was built around that needed filling in. What's the deal with Shadow after all, who's idea was that?
First things first, it suffers from the same problem that nearly every 3rd person game did at the time, the camera controls are terrible. This plagued games for years, even good ones like GTA 3, but it hurts the most in platformers when you need that split second reaction to prevent yet another death and trudge back through the same section. To the game now, there's a 2 sided story, the 'hero' side with Sonic, Knuckles and Tails (plus tag-along always pointless character Amy) and the dark Side involving
Now, Knuckles has always been a favourite of mine to play as, you can glide, climb walls, punch stuff, what more could you want? Frankly I don't know why the has become a treasure hunter (with the weirdest voice) and I wouldn't care but the levels are strange. Sure, people loved explorer platformers at the time (just ask Rare) but this was done oddly. You'd have an area to search, some pieces of the Master emerald or keys to find and a beeper that told you when you were getting close. There were monitors around to give you hints where the item were, but these severely lowered your score and cut your grade down at the end of the level (fortunately I didn't care bout that or I'd have been there looking for my entire life). In a somewhat genius move they also made them change positions every time you died or restarted the level so I couldn't even consult a guide to help (bastards). Now, flying around these levels and punching stuff as Knuckles (and clone character Rouge (though she's more of a kicker) was fun, but after you've been looking in every nook and cranny for 10 minutes and still no beep my controller was yet again in danger.
I also don't know why Sonic Adventure 1 moved the setting to Earth (which continues in here in 2), buy talking furry multicoloured animals are fine (apparently). Speaking of acceptance of such things, towards the end of the 'dark' side of the game Shadow remarked on Sonic's possible death 'I guess he was just a regular hedgehog afterall'. Obviously they're all blue, super fast and talk normally. If you're going to set these games on Earth, get it to make sense, just have kids point and stare at the hreaks or something. I would be remised if I didn't mention that some of the music was hilarious, with lyrics set to what was going on in the level and musical styles popular at the time. Early Knuckles levels in particular were great (just Google 'knuckes sonic adventure 2 music' and thank me later (or not)).
Anyway, I've got the Order: 1886 here not going to pay itself as well as having started watching Sherlock (great stuff, but talk about long episode lengths (this is for another time)) so I'm off (to proof read).
Completed
Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein the new order
The Swapper
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Apotheon
Sonic Adventure 2
No comments:
Post a Comment