There are many explanations and diatribes about the issues with Mass Effect 3's ending, but this one is mine.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Saturday, August 26, 2017
"Diving in Deep" Review
Publisher: Seriphinite Games
Genre: Visual Novel
Summary: While investigating the underwater ruins near her home, Quinn discovers a real-life merman.
Gameplay: The only gameplay are the choices influencing how the story goes, and the basic gist will be similar no matter what. Still, events and dialogue and ultimately endings will vary, and that is appreciated.
Style: The figures are simple, attractive, and good at conveying the necessary emotions. The various underwater backgrounds are beautiful, especially when combined with the evocative music.
Story: The underwater adventure amid beautiful ocean scenes and magical ruins is a delightful escape. There's plenty of action and, of course, if you choose, romance with a sexy merman.
Conclusion: While not long, "Diving in Deep" is a fun and exciting romance with a neat setting.
Genre: Visual Novel
Summary: While investigating the underwater ruins near her home, Quinn discovers a real-life merman.
Gameplay: The only gameplay are the choices influencing how the story goes, and the basic gist will be similar no matter what. Still, events and dialogue and ultimately endings will vary, and that is appreciated.
Style: The figures are simple, attractive, and good at conveying the necessary emotions. The various underwater backgrounds are beautiful, especially when combined with the evocative music.
Story: The underwater adventure amid beautiful ocean scenes and magical ruins is a delightful escape. There's plenty of action and, of course, if you choose, romance with a sexy merman.
Conclusion: While not long, "Diving in Deep" is a fun and exciting romance with a neat setting.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
"Mass Effect 3 Leviathan" DLC Review
Publisher: EA/Bioware
Genre: RPG
Summary: Commander Shepherd tries to track down the Leviathan, a mysterious and ancient creature that may hold the key to the history of the Reapers.
Gameplay: The DLC is broken up between searching for clues in a Citadel lab and then subsequent missions out in the galaxy. This allows for the player to choose the pacing. It does mean you can encounter some of the tougher Reaper enemy types earlier in the game than you usually would.
The clue-finding bits are hardly complex, but they are a nice change. The combat missions don't add any new gameplay elements, but they do use bits from multiplayer like protecting drones. Combat is generally interesting and well-paced.
Style: Faces seem more detailed than in other parts of the game, which feels a little odd. The new environments are atmospheric and creepy.
Story: Leviathan successfully oozes creepiness but also manages to contain some twists and emotional moments. It ends satisfactorily with more information about the Reapers and the history of the galaxy.
Genre: RPG
Summary: Commander Shepherd tries to track down the Leviathan, a mysterious and ancient creature that may hold the key to the history of the Reapers.
Gameplay: The DLC is broken up between searching for clues in a Citadel lab and then subsequent missions out in the galaxy. This allows for the player to choose the pacing. It does mean you can encounter some of the tougher Reaper enemy types earlier in the game than you usually would.
The clue-finding bits are hardly complex, but they are a nice change. The combat missions don't add any new gameplay elements, but they do use bits from multiplayer like protecting drones. Combat is generally interesting and well-paced.
Style: Faces seem more detailed than in other parts of the game, which feels a little odd. The new environments are atmospheric and creepy.
Story: Leviathan successfully oozes creepiness but also manages to contain some twists and emotional moments. It ends satisfactorily with more information about the Reapers and the history of the galaxy.
Saturday, August 5, 2017
"Mass Effect 3" Review
Publisher: EA/Bioware
Genre: RPG
Summary: As the Reapers attack, Shepherd must unite the galaxy to defeat them.
Gameplay: Combat is similar to Mass Effect 2. The abilities are the same, but there are higher-powered options. Locations are generally bigger and more wide-open. Somehow, this usually makes them less interesting. Enemies are all either Reapers, Cerberus, or (rarely) Geth.
Weapons can now be equipped by any class, but with cooldown times penalties. Weapons mods also return. Armor is much the same as the last game, with parts or whole sets that add various bonuses available for purchase, but helmets don't appear in cutscenes, finally. Also, Shepherd is in casual clothes on the Citadel, which helps a lot (and I like the choices of casual clothes better, too.)
The only minigame is scanning solar systems to find useful items or minor quest solutions, which runs the risk of summoning the Reapers. This is more interesting than scanning planets from the last game, but I wish some of these quests had actual missions attached.
The smaller non-necessary quests that are in the game are so brief that they seem to be nothing more than introductions to the multiplayer maps they take place in (and they don't even always do a great job of that, as not all maps are seen and the missions are often too brief to get a good sense of place.) Fleshing these out would have lent a lot more feeling to the game.
As for multiplayer, I enjoyed it a bit, but single-player is my primary interest, and multiplayer was originally far too tied into a successful game ending. Bonuses are fine, but required multiplayer is not a good idea.
Style: I really like the graphics of the game, but everything is too dang dark, literally. I turned up the brightness as far as possible, and I still can't see everything sometimes. Nevertheless, there are atmospheric locations and excellent music.
Story: Mass Effect 3 sometimes runs into the problem of a million being a statistic. For all it tries to drive home the horror of the Reapers, personal stories work better (and sometimes there it succeeds.) And still sometimes when the characters seem horrified by the war it feels more like the game's trying to hammer in the doom rather than evoke genuine emotion.
Also, the game compounds the problem from Mass Effect 2 of not being able to call out the Illusive Man enough. While Cerberus's crimes are acknowledged, Shepherd never really gets to confront the Illusive Man about them in a satisfying enough manner for my taste.
Familiar characters return from both games, and there are a few new faces that manage to establish themselves as memorable characters in their own right. There are still a few minor characters I wish had made an appearance (whatever happened to Gianna Parasini?) given it's the last game of the trilogy.
Also for that reason, I wish we'd gotten to see more of the galaxy and see these worlds before Reaper attack. But I appreciate several core missions that tie up major plot threads from all the games, and vary greatly depending on Shepherd's decisions throughout. These feature epic and memorable locations and moments.
It's a pity these lesson as the game comes to a close and its infamously bad ending. I think I'll detail all the issues there in a separate post, but suffice to say that the ending is a disappointment and a let down.
Conclusion: Mass Effect 3 contains fun combat and satisfyingly wraps up several of the Mass Effect trilogy's story arcs. Yet it has several story flaws and a horrible ending. I've found it thankfully salvageable with mods, but it's a shame it had to be.
Genre: RPG
Summary: As the Reapers attack, Shepherd must unite the galaxy to defeat them.
Gameplay: Combat is similar to Mass Effect 2. The abilities are the same, but there are higher-powered options. Locations are generally bigger and more wide-open. Somehow, this usually makes them less interesting. Enemies are all either Reapers, Cerberus, or (rarely) Geth.
Weapons can now be equipped by any class, but with cooldown times penalties. Weapons mods also return. Armor is much the same as the last game, with parts or whole sets that add various bonuses available for purchase, but helmets don't appear in cutscenes, finally. Also, Shepherd is in casual clothes on the Citadel, which helps a lot (and I like the choices of casual clothes better, too.)
The only minigame is scanning solar systems to find useful items or minor quest solutions, which runs the risk of summoning the Reapers. This is more interesting than scanning planets from the last game, but I wish some of these quests had actual missions attached.
The smaller non-necessary quests that are in the game are so brief that they seem to be nothing more than introductions to the multiplayer maps they take place in (and they don't even always do a great job of that, as not all maps are seen and the missions are often too brief to get a good sense of place.) Fleshing these out would have lent a lot more feeling to the game.
As for multiplayer, I enjoyed it a bit, but single-player is my primary interest, and multiplayer was originally far too tied into a successful game ending. Bonuses are fine, but required multiplayer is not a good idea.
Style: I really like the graphics of the game, but everything is too dang dark, literally. I turned up the brightness as far as possible, and I still can't see everything sometimes. Nevertheless, there are atmospheric locations and excellent music.
Story: Mass Effect 3 sometimes runs into the problem of a million being a statistic. For all it tries to drive home the horror of the Reapers, personal stories work better (and sometimes there it succeeds.) And still sometimes when the characters seem horrified by the war it feels more like the game's trying to hammer in the doom rather than evoke genuine emotion.
Also, the game compounds the problem from Mass Effect 2 of not being able to call out the Illusive Man enough. While Cerberus's crimes are acknowledged, Shepherd never really gets to confront the Illusive Man about them in a satisfying enough manner for my taste.
Familiar characters return from both games, and there are a few new faces that manage to establish themselves as memorable characters in their own right. There are still a few minor characters I wish had made an appearance (whatever happened to Gianna Parasini?) given it's the last game of the trilogy.
Also for that reason, I wish we'd gotten to see more of the galaxy and see these worlds before Reaper attack. But I appreciate several core missions that tie up major plot threads from all the games, and vary greatly depending on Shepherd's decisions throughout. These feature epic and memorable locations and moments.
It's a pity these lesson as the game comes to a close and its infamously bad ending. I think I'll detail all the issues there in a separate post, but suffice to say that the ending is a disappointment and a let down.
Conclusion: Mass Effect 3 contains fun combat and satisfyingly wraps up several of the Mass Effect trilogy's story arcs. Yet it has several story flaws and a horrible ending. I've found it thankfully salvageable with mods, but it's a shame it had to be.
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
"A Walk In The Woods" Review
Publisher: Houseflesh
Website: https://thirteen.itch.io/a-walk-in-the-woods
Genre: Visual Novel
Summary: A walk in the woods leads to mysterious sights and (often) a bad end.
Gameplay: The choices are of the "left or right path" variety, which lead to different places and stories. In any case, the game will be very short.
Style: The art is simple and unimpressive.
Story: The strange woods offer several hostile reactions to the walking protagonist, but still work as a whole setting. Each game is extremely brief, however, and some of the endings are startlingly abrupt.
Conclusion: Ultimately, there's just not much to "A Walk in the Woods".
Website: https://thirteen.itch.io/a-walk-in-the-woods
Genre: Visual Novel
Summary: A walk in the woods leads to mysterious sights and (often) a bad end.
Gameplay: The choices are of the "left or right path" variety, which lead to different places and stories. In any case, the game will be very short.
Style: The art is simple and unimpressive.
Story: The strange woods offer several hostile reactions to the walking protagonist, but still work as a whole setting. Each game is extremely brief, however, and some of the endings are startlingly abrupt.
Conclusion: Ultimately, there's just not much to "A Walk in the Woods".
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