Dark Reign: The Future of War

*blows dust off*

*ahem*

Right, if anyone actually reads this, then I have another review for you. ^_^

Anyway, last time I mentioned that there was only one RTS that I liked better than StarCraft. And here it is, Dark Reign: The Future of War.

Back in 1997, Activision released this game. And it was largely forgotten. I bet no one here has even heard of it.

But it’s friggin awesome.

There are two (technically three) races to choose from, and they’re completely different in play style. You have the Freedom Guard on the one side, who use guerilla tactics and a strong focus on using counter-effective units, and the Imperium, who mainly focus on brute force. And if you don’t play that way, you’re probably not going to win. The third race, the Tograns, can actually use every single unit that the others can. They’re obviously the most powerful, as they can effective defend against any type of attack.

The story seems pretty Star Wars-ish at first. The Imperium are trying to take over the world, and the Freedom Guard are a rebellion attempting to put that to a stop. But that’s where the similarities end. The story in-game is about the last of the Tograns, who were almost obliterated when the Freedom Guard and Imerium war spread to their planet, “playing” a series of missions in a special device to prove himself worthy to go back in time and attempt to stop the destruction of the Tograns. It’s rather interesting to see it unfold.

There are 13 missions in total, including the last one. And aside from the last one, each can be played as either the Imperium or the Freedom Guard, with objectives and maps slightly different. Often, the Imperium missions are right after the Freedom Guard missions. So it’s kinda cool to see how it turns out from each side.

In order to reach the last mission, you have to beat the twelve missions preceding it, but the cool thing is that you don’t need to play both sides if you don’t want to, and if you beat the 1st mission as one side, you can still play either side in the next mission.

There’s also an extremely complex Fog of War system in place, which is actually affected by terrain, rocks, trees, etc. This greatly aids ambushes and emphasizes being cautious in forests and rocky terrain.

It introduces a ton of features to the RTS genre, like powering down buildings if the power cost was too high to maintain all the buildings at optimal capacity. Production queues were also extremely sophisticated, if you have two buildings which can produce the same unit, and you queue up a large number of units in the general building tab, which is automatically visible if you have nothing selected, the buildings will split up the order. Or if you only want to issue build orders to a specific building, you can click it to change the build menu into a building specific one. It also introduced a waypoint system into the genre, allowing you to order your units to move along a specific path, instead of directly moving towards the target. Also introduced were unit behaviours, such as aggressive or defencive, which could be personalized for each unit in the player’s command.

The sound effects are adequate, and that’s really all that’s necessary. The music is pretty cool, it’s not repetitive or bothersome, and there’s some pretty cool tunes. They’re all very dark and almost Gothic sounding.

Graphics were pretty damn good for its time, but today they look a little aged. Keep that in mind if you ever decide to track down a copy. They’re slightly worse than StarCraft’s.

Overall, the game is very sophisticated, but it may have been ahead of its time.

Pros:
Sophisticated engine
Story
Good graphics for its time
Cool music

Cons:
Balance is a bit off, the Tograns are utter ownage

Even still, I give Dark Reign: The Future of War a 10/10.

 

StarCraft

Alright, this is one of the most popular games of all time. This game is played in South Korea in fucking tournaments. That’s how hardcore it is.

Anyway, as for the gameplay, it’s very similar to WarCraft 2’s, just a lot more advanced. It’s a real time strategy game, so it has a few similarities with other RTS games, like Age of Empires. The control is easy enough, just click on a unit or building and it’ll select it. From there you can build units, issue orders, use powers, whatever. The biggest advantage this game has over earlier RTS games is that all three of the races are different, and they all have their own distinct play style. But most importantly, the races are incredibly well balanced, which is very very hard to do.

Now, the story mode is very well done, especially for an RTS, the story is pretty damn good, and it’s not too long or hard. Each of the three races gets an episode. You can choose to start with any episode you like, but the story will be out of order, so the game recommends beating the previous missions first. The first team, the Terrans, start out with a couple of tutorials, which are skippable. This should honestly be an option in any game, especially for those going through the story mode for a second or third time. But alas, many games still force a tutorial down your throat.

Another excellent feature is the included map editor. It’s simple to use and powerful enough to make a wide variety of playstyles.

It’s not the first RTS, but damn it’s a turning point for the better. I give the gameplay an 8/10.

The story is pretty damn awesome. To avoid spoilers I’ll make this as bare as possible. Basically the Terrans are at war with the alien Protoss (one of the other playable races). You take control of a small force trying to control the planet Mar Sara after a bunch of other Terran planets get attacked by the Protoss. After that, they encounter a strange alien race, later revealed to be the Zerg (the last playable race) who have taken over some of the planet. After that things spiral out of control (and into spoiler territory). It’s a good story nonetheless, especially for an RTS.

I give the story a 9/10.

Graphics are damn good. So good that they still look good today, more than 10 years since it’s release. Even the character models used for the briefings and other stuff look good. The sprites are clean and crisp, and the backgrounds are detailed and lush.

Excellent graphics that stand out even today, so I give the graphics a 10/10.

The music is pretty damn awesome, it all really fits in together with the theme and story. Unfortunately none of the music really sticks to you and it sorta just sits in the background most of the time. The sound effects are fine, everything sounds like it should. The voices are good too, no really annoying actors and it doesn’t sound forced, like someone was just reading it off a paper.

I’ll give the sound an 8/10.

Pros:
Well Balanced gameplay
Graphics
Good voice acting
Story

Cons:
Only three races
The computer AI is brutal for new players

Overall this is my second favourite RTS and is in fact only surpassed by a much lesser known game, which was released almost a year earlier. Curious? Tune in next time!

I give StarCraft a 9/10

 

Kirby’s Dreamland

This game is fun. That’s really all there is too it.

Anyway, the game is a pretty basic 2D platformer with a bit of a spin. Instead of only being able to jump once, you’re actually able to fly. Yep, the platforming elements are really needless in this game, but therein lies the beauty. It is entirely possible (or at least very close to possible) to not fly and still beat the game. The flying ability is more of a safety net than a full-fledged feature, or at least that’s how it can be seen. Another thing unique to the game is that instead of just jumping on enemies, the main character, Kirby sucks them into his mouth. Yeah, then he’s able to spit them out or swallow them. In this game, swallowing has no purpose other than to get rid of the enemy, but in later installments Kirby can absorb their powers to use for himself.

Now the boss fights are fairly standard, but they’re definitely the hardest parts of the game. As none of the bosses can be sucked up, you’re required to suck up something else in order to defeat the boss, sometimes it’s something that gets thrown at you, other times it’s less obvious.

It’s got a unique spin, but nothing really puts it that much above the ordinary. So I’ll give the gameplay a 7/10

The story is typical for the Gameboy and NES era. Basically a bad guy has taken over Dreamland and it’s up to Kirby to save it.

Yeah, that’s about it really. No development at all. Again, it is the wrong era for story purposes, so I’ll give the story a 4/10.

The graphics are pretty damn good for the Gameboy. Lack of colour hurts, but the backgrounds are still pretty detailed. Animations are typical 3 frame animations, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Nothing to complain about, so I’ll give the graphics a 7/10

The music is awesome though, there are some really catchy tunes. I’ve found myself humming the tunes over and over again. The sound effects aren’t terrible either, they adequately sum up the sound you’d expect to hear.

Great music and good enough sound effects, so I give the sound an 8/10

Pros:
Great Music
Can choose not to do platforming if you’re not all that good at it
Fairly detailed graphics for the Gameboy

Cons:
Lack of story
Can be too easy at times
Very short

Overall, it’s a good fun game, but it’s lack of difficulty and it’s shortness may put some people off, though they’ll likely beat it anyway because it’s so short.

I give Kirby’s Dreamland for the Gameboy a 7 out of 10.

 

Mega Man

Originally Posted June 13 2009.

So back to the NES games now. This game is the first in another big series, Mega Man.

The game starts with a stage select. You choose one of six robots to fight, then go into their level. So, the first stage you select is very important, some of the stages are extremely hard, while others are not so much.

The gameplay differs from other platformers of the time because of it’s unique level select feature. As mentioned before, you actually choose which level is the first level. Each robot’s level is different, each usually having it’s own gimmick to challenge the player, and at the end the robot itself makes an appearance. Upon defeating the boss, Mega Man collects a new weapon for his disposal. Now, the thing is that each robot is weak to another robot’s weapon, so smart thinking will beat just spamming the attack button. Controls are simple, just jump and shoot. Some enemies leave power-ups when they die, health and energy restoration.

Great innovations for it’s time, so I give the gameplay a 9 out of 10

The story kinda sucks, Dr. Wily, an assistant of Dr. Light, who created the robot known as Mega Man, takes control of six robot masters and tries to take over the world. Of course, Mega Man is conscripted to stop him.

Nothing too shiny about the story, but it’s not super terrible. I give the story a 4 out of 10.

For graphics, I can hardly believe this is on the NES, crisp clean sprites and lush environments (for 8-bit) give the game a really great look.

For the NES, the graphics are top notch. I give the graphics a 10 out of 10.

Sound is alright, the sound effects are decent (though Dr. Wily’s flying saucer is annoying as hell). Music is pretty good, each stage has it’s own distinct tune, and some of them are pretty catchy.

Good music and adequate sound effects. I give the sound a 7 out of 10.

Pros:
Level select
Great graphics
Challenging
Cool arsenal of weapons
Has aged extraordinarily well, I mean, look at Mega Man 9

Cons:
Poor story
Sometimes too challenging

Overall the game is fun, though it is very challenging and one of the later bosses is probably the hardest boss fights I’ve ever fought.

I give Mega Man for the NES an 9 out of 10.

 

Resident Evil 5

Originally posted May 21, 2009.

Now I’m going to review my newest and most recently beat game, Resident Evil 5, the newest in a well respected series.

The game starts with an obligatory semi-tutorial mission, then you get a gun and start killing zombies. Oh, well not really zombies, but they’re pretty much zombies. Anyway, one of the first things that pops up is some giant ass zombie with a huge axe, I put all my ammo into the bastard, then he goes and chops me in two. Yay, restart. This time, I run away from the axeman, and beat the mission. Yay for me.

The gameplay is similar to Resident Evil 4’s; an over the shoulder viewpoint, and you have to stop to shoot or use your knife. However, in this game, you are joined by a partner character who gives you hints and helps you fight the various enemies. One flaw in the game is that there is way too much ammo. After the first mission, you basically never use your knife again except to break crates for more ammo. Healing items are acceptably sparse, but you can never really die. The only way for you to die is if your partner is really far away or if an enemy can kill you instantly, which does happen. You start with a pistol but can buy or find a wide array of other weapons, including machine guns, shotguns and grenade launchers. Boss fights are pretty good, they each need to be beaten in a specific way, though it can be pretty obvious, and your partner often gives hints to do it. After beating the game, you can play through as the partner character, along with additional bonuses.

The gameplay has it’s flaws, but all in all it’s very fun. I give the gameplay an 8 out of 10.

The story is pretty good, though a bit cliche. It continues from the other games in the Resident Evil series, though knowledge of the previous games is in no way necessary to enjoy the game. It revolves around a virus being spread in Africa by a man named Irving. The player character, Chris Redfield, teams up with an African woman named Sheva Alomar to stop him. Eventually the virus unfolds into a global threat which the characters attempt to stop.

The story does seem a bit cliche at times and it probably makes more sense with a background in the series, but it’s pretty good. I give the story an 8 out of 10.

Graphics are great. The movements are fluid, though the mouths look a bit weird at times. The environments are good looking, everything looks how it should.

Slight grievances about the mouths, but all in all, very good looking. I give the graphics a 9 out of 10.

Sounds sound like they should. Guns and knives sound like guns and knives. Nothing bad there. Music is good, gives a good sense of the overall mood, though it is often overshadowed by the raging gunfire caused by the surplus of ammo.

Sound and music are good. I give the sound an 8 out of 10.

Pros:
Great graphics
Story is good
Lots of fun
Sound effects and music
Surplus of weapon types

Cons:
Too much ammo
Not very scary

Overall, the game ends up being a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I give Resident Evil 5 an 8 out of 10.

 

The Legend of Zelda

Originally posted May 21, 2009.

I’ll start off by reviewing one of the oldest games I own, the game that started one of my absolute favourite series. Yep, The Legend of Zelda. As if no one’s played it by now.

The game starts with just the main character, who you name yourself, standing in front of a cave, with no items of any kind. Now, my first instinct was to get as far away from the cave as possible, I mean, who goes into caves? Seriously? Anyway, I soon met some random monster that shot at me. Having no way to fight it, I shortly thereafter perished. So I restarted, and this time went into the cave. Some old man gave me a sword. Yay for me.

The gameplay itself is innovative, at least it was at the time. You control a character and stab with your sword to kill things, pretty basic. However, you also get items as you progress through the game, things like a bow, bombs and a magic candle. These items open up a world of possibilities, with many being needed to access certain dungeons. The game revolves around the character collecting pieces of the sundered triforce from various dungeons all around the massive (at the time) world, a formula which has stayed consistent throughout the series. The dungeons are the highlight of the game, with each being different and each containing a powerful boss to defeat, which often required thinking to beat.

Though the gameplay was innovative at the time, most of the enemies could be defeated easily by using just the sword. And although the series evolved greatly, the beginning is fairly shallow and predictable. I’m going to give the gameplay a 7 out of 10.

The story is incredibly basic, the world was engulfed by the evil Prince of Darkness, Ganon, using the triforce of power. The princess broke up the triforce and scattered it’s pieces amongst various dungeons. Then she’s kidnapped. So it’s up to the main character to save her and retrieve the pieces of the triforce.

The story doesn’t develop at all from there, though no other game of the era has a better story. I’m going to give the story a 4 out of 10. It’s there, but it’s never developed.

The graphics are very nice for the system it’s on. You can tell what is what, though the early video game palette swap trick is common, but that’s forgivable. The bosses all look pretty menacing, well, at least as menacing as a big pixel monster can be. The world is pretty sparse, but the dungeons look alright.

All in all, the graphics are good. I’m going to give the graphics an 8 out of 10.

The sound effects are decent, mostly limited by the capabilities of the NES itself. The music is well written, again only drawn back by the NES.

Drawn back by the technical limitations, but still it manages to have some great sound & music. I’m going to give the sound a 9 out of 10.

Pros:
Innovative gameplay
Music
Graphics are good

Cons:
Gameplay is a bit flawed
Story, but hey, it’s a NES game
Hasn’t aged well

Altogether, the game is pretty great, but it’s not the series’ greatest.

I give The Legend of Zelda a 7 out of 10.