Xbox 360 review: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Nine years after the sabotage and destruction of Mother Base that acted as the cliffhanger ending of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain opens with Big Boss awakening in a hospital to the shocking discovery that there is a shard of metal lodged in his skull and his left arm is missing from the elbow down. As a doctor explains the situation to him, tries to calm him down, and ease him back into the land of the living, word that ‘V has come to' quickly spreads, and it is not long before the hospital is besieged by heavily-armed forces. Barely able to stand, Big Boss, aka Punished ‘Venom’ Snake struggles to regain his ability to walk, while a mysterious bandaged friend calling himself Ishmael acts as his guide out of the hospital.

The route is dangerous, as the militant forces have orders to shoot everyone in the hospital, and Ishmael and Snake encounter what appears to be a flaming projection of Volgin, the Soviet colonel from Operation: Snake Eater. This first leg of the journey is largely an interactive story segment which teaches players the basic controls as they pertain to The Phantom Pain’s stealth and combat techniques. The escalation of events beyond the player’s control is intense, and ultimately the two patients are forced to dupe their would-be assassins, steal an ambulance, and avoid a pursuing helicopter before crashing through a roadblock. Snake passes out for a brief period, and awakens to find no trace of Ishmael, but rather is introduced to Revolver Ocelot, his contact from the newly-reconstructed Mother Base. Ocelot and Snake board a freighter ship to waters near the Seychelles Isles, where XO Kazuhira Miller ordered the new Mother Base be constructed in Snake’s absence.

The first orders of business in setting the stage for events to come are equipping Snake with all of his familiar gear, as well as a new robotic arm, and explaining to players (whether they previously experienced Ground Zeroes or not) that Skull Face is still at large, commanding XOF as a rogue agency no longer tied to the United States government. It’s just the right amount of information and story content to dish out to players this early on. The massive open world exploration element is kept in perspective, for the time being, as Ocelot informs Snake that Miller ran into some trouble during his most recent operation, and likely only has a few days to live before his Soviet captors decide they are through trying to interrogate him.

Each mission Snake embarks on during the game’s first eight hours or so is set in Afghanistan, where tall cliffs limit the number of available routes, but large rocks and hilly terrain offer sufficient cover for Snake, even as he rides past enemy outposts in D-Horse’s saddle. Afghanistan is, as Ocelot informs Snake, a big place, and there is great deal of time spent simply travelling from one location to another early on, though destroying anti-air radar emplacements can open up new landing zones for Mother Base’s helicopters. This map is also a stark contrast in design to the later-accessible African border region between Angola and Zaire, which is technically smaller in size overall, but the open plains and dense jungle provide Snake with a greater freedom to immediately drop in and explore, take on side-ops, and scope out enemy patrols.

Any misgivings about the open-world gameplay adopted by The Phantom Pain should be put to rest. The ability to rely completely on stealth is just as strong as ever, and plenty satisfying to boot. For players who wish to go loud and shoot up a base of enemies with automatic weapons, however, The Phantom Pain does not punish this approach, provided you have something of a plan in mind before storming a heavily-fortified base. More than any Metal Gear title before it, The Phantom Pain offers some truly creative solutions for players who can think on the fly and adapt to the situation as it changes. While Ground Zeroes felt incredibly limited in its scope and restricted in its freedom of play, The Phantom Pain welcomes experimentation, and on the off chance that you are killed in action and receive a ‘game over’ screen, it is always fair, placing responsibility on the player and their choices both in the moment and prior to engaging the enemy.

Enemies are quite a bit smarter than in previous Metal Gear titles, and will receive helmets, shields, and full body armor as word spreads of Snake besting their comrades. The Phantom Pain is somewhat forgiving, though, as the moment an enemy spots you does not immediately put all nearby soldiers on alert. Instead, Snake is granted a brief window to tranquilize, kill, or (provided he is close enough) perform a CQC takedown on the soldier that spotted him. This addition is most appreciated when infiltrating fortresses with high walls that prevent Snake from properly scoping out all enemies therein. The weather and time of day also play important roles in the enemy’s visibility. Obviously, nighttime is ideal for infiltration missions, as enemy soldiers have a smaller field of view away from light sources, and rain storms in Africa further obscure their vision. Dust storms will occasionally whip up in Afghanistan, lasting approximately two minutes at a time, and practically cover the entire area in a thick, blowing cloud – this can prove a double-edged sword, as the enemy is practically blind, but if Snake has not scanned the area beforehand, so too is he.

There is also a great deal of freedom in which weapons and gear Snake takes into battle with him. Grenade launchers, RPGs, and explosives like C4 are generally best-suited to missions that require the destruction of heavily armored vehicles, as they are among the most expensive to equip. But the sheer number of these that can be developed, along with assault rifles, machine guns, submachine guns, pistols, grenades, and camo patterns is astounding, and further reinforces the notion that you can play The Phantom Pain virtually any way you like. The ability to develop certain items is restricted until you have added sufficient personnel to Mother Base’s R&D team, and of course, each individual item costs GMP, the game’s monetary value that is earned in large sums upon the completion of each main game mission and side-op. Some of the wackier loadout options, like the Rocket Arm and cardboard boxes decked out with supermodel posters or anime characters, prove the most entertaining, despite perhaps not being universally practical.

Mother Base is divided into more than a half-dozen struts, each of which can be further built up over time. It does cost a great deal of GMP and resources like fuel, metals, and biological materials to expand Mother Base, but the benefits are more than worth the lengthy wait times between each addition. Building more platforms for your Intel team means that they can offer you greater information about your surroundings, while R&D will develop new weapons and gear more quickly if they have the space to support a larger team, and so forth.

GMP is also spent calling in fire support from your helicopter and for retrieving prisoners, unconscious enemy troops, wildlife, and vehicles alike with the Fulton balloon system, and it is a good idea to maintain a healthy amount of GMP at all times, as dipping into negative numbers means that Mother Base soldiers may leave due to dissatisfaction with the way Snake is running the show. Conversely, the more Snake displays heroism and grows Mother Base, the more likely volunteers are to show up on his doorstep, requesting to join his Diamond Dog forces. Each and every Mother Base soldier displays a specific set of traits, making some better suited for particular teams, and ill-suited for others. Some also boast unique abilities that can lessen or increase the likelihood of fights breaking out, and even perform special moves should players choose to take control of these characters for missions over Snake. Mother Base troops will have their morale increased upon visits home by Snake, and while there isn’t a ton to do on Mother Base, players can scour each platform for diamonds to up their GMP, engage in shooting range side-ops, and stumble across some cleverly-placed easter eggs.

While D-Horse is the first ‘buddy’ character Snake is allowed to deploy with into missions, the trusty steed’s fast gallop can be swapped for three other buddies, each with their own unique support roles. D-Dog, a wild pup that Snake encounters in Afghanistan, grows up under the training of Ocelot, and can eventually be utilized as a radar for detecting the exact location of all nearby enemies, wild animals, and plant life. While D-Dog’s default loadout allows him the option to distract enemy soldiers, he can later be outfitted with a knife or stun baton for stealthy enemy takedowns.

Quiet, the voiceless Sniper, moves at inhuman speeds, similarly scoping out enemy patrols from a distance, and picking them off one by one per Snake’s orders. Quiet is best utilized by players who prefer direct intervention, or who want a backup plan in case the enemy bears down on Snake with everything at their disposal. Quiet’s standard sniper rifle can be swapped for a tranquilizer rifle, while her alternate outfits are more aesthetically amusing than they are situation-sensitive. Finally, Huey’s D-Walker offers a travel speed slightly slower than that of D-Horse, but with offensive options like a gatling gun and rocket launcher, as well as a defensive buffer to the front. Each ‘buddy’ will be recalled from the field if they take too many hits, however, and this will subsequently weaken Snake’s bond with them, while properly utilizing their abilities and ensuring their safety will strengthen Snake’s bond with them.

The main missions during the first act of The Phantom Pain are largely concerned with piecing together the puzzle of Skull Face’s master plan, one ‘weapon to surpass Metal Gear’. While the pacing of the game is spot-on, the story sequences – one of the Metal Gear series’ most popular and famous offerings – are sparse until the second act. While it is appreciated that The Phantom Pain does not bog players down with extensive cutscenes as Guns of the Patriots once did, MGSV cuts back on its narrative a bit too much. Metal Gear villains have long held a commanding presence in their respective games, and Skull Face is no different, walking a fine line between theatrically confident and cunningly evil. But when his plan is revealed in full, it is underwhelming, and offers too much room for error.

The second half of The Phantom Pain does increase the frequency with which the story is sprinkled in. Kaz becomes increasingly suspicious of Huey, believing he was responsible for the security breach that destroyed the old Mother Base. Quiet finds the soldiers on Mother Base are not all keen on her presence, calling her a freak and generally distrusting her. And Snake is forced to carry out some very heavy actions that, while perhaps necessary, are important steps in painting both himself and the forces of Outer Heaven as more of villains than heroes by the time the events of the first Metal Gear occur.

The Phantom Pain fills in the last major gap of time between the era of Big Boss and the era of Solid Snake, and as such, is less concerned with presenting grand revelations pertaining to the series at large than most other Metal Gear titles. The events of The Phantom Pain are guided in large part by what transpired in both Peace Walker and Ground Zeroes, and ultimately the endgame plays most prominently into the events of Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, and Metal Gear Solid. Some of The Phantom Pain’s strongest moments lie in its second act, but so too do its greatest faults. Roughly half of the second act’s main missions are simply retreads of missions taken on during the first act, with higher difficulty settings or more specific rules in place. In addition, the penultimate chapter that would otherwise provide The Phantom Pain with a clean, complete finale is entirely absent, leaving a humongous plot point hanging with no resolution.

Boss fights are also quite sparse in The Phantom Pain, though the handful that are present pay homage to previous titles in the series. A sniper duel between Snake and Quiet mirrors that of the battle with The End in Snake Eater, and the general design and abilities of Metal Gear Sahelanthropus offer throwbacks to Metal Gear Rex from the PS1’s Metal Gear Solid. One particular close-quarters battle with Skull Face’s elite Skulls unit even incorporates quick-time reactions reminiscent of Metal Gear Rising.

Side-ops are entertaining, more relaxed distractions from The Phantom Pain’s main missions, offering up goofy scenarios like tracking down a legendary bear to tranquilize and bring back to Mother Base’s animal sanctuary, or infiltrating a Soviet-occupied base to rescue a sheep via fulton balloon extraction. Other side-ops are more run of the mill fanfare, such as extracting prisoners, and destroying heavy infantry or armored patrol units. Side ops typically require less careful planning of Snake’s loadouts beforehand, and it can be easy to find yourself burning through three, five, or ten at a time, in-between The Phantom Pain’s main missions.

While Metal Gear Online may not yet be up and running, The Phantom Pain does offer an online component in the form of an F.O.B. invasion. F.O.B.s, or forward-operating bases, can be constructed in waters beyond the main Mother Base, and serve to further establish Big Boss’ presence to the outside world. Snake can infiltrate an enemy base for a GMP reward, depending on how well he manages to sneak past the troops stationed there, but your own base(s) will similarly be potential targets for other players to invade. F.O.B. invasions are an interesting afterthought, but they lack substance, and do not return as high-value rewards as the deployment missions Snake can send Mother Base soldiers on against CPU forces.

Many fans were, understandably, disappointed to hear that longtime voice of Snake, David Hayter, would not be returning to reprise the character in MGSV. It’s difficult to fully accept Kiefer Sutherland as the new voice of Snake, not because of the quality of his performance, but because of how infrequently he adds anything to the conversation. On the whole, Kiefer Sutherland does a sufficient job of carrying such an iconic role, but would be far more memorable if he spoke more than a few words at any given juncture – a stark contrast to Hayter’s rather talkative portrayal of Snake in every other major Metal Gear entry. As a rippling effect of this, Snake frequently comes across as more of an observer of events unfolding on Mother Base and during his missions than an active participant, at least during cutscenes and other scripted sequences.

Robin Atkin Downes and Troy Baker put forth strong performances as Kazuhira Miller and Ocelot, respectively. Downes does a phenomenal job at conveying Miller’s desire for revenge, and the hatred he harbors towards Skull Face’s XOF forces for destroying the old Mother Base, yet still maintains a strong-willed presence and great degree of faith and respect in Snake, even if he does attempt to go over his head during a few key instances. There is a constant tension in the air whenever Snake and Miller are present in the same scene, due in no small part to Downes’ performance. Troy Baker, meanwhile, manages to present Ocelot in the prime of his adulthood, without sounding too similar to other middle-aged roles he’s performed in the past, like The Last of Us’ Joel or Bioshock Infinite’s Booker DeWitt. Baker gives the famous gunslinger an appropriately deeper voice than Josh Keaton’s performance of a youthful Ocelot in Snake Eater, but dials back a few notches from Patric Zimmerman’s famous raspy voice from Metal Gear Solid, Sons of Liberty, and Guns of the Patriots.

As Snake explores Afghanistan and the Angola-Zaire border region, he will receive cassette tapes – some that are delivered by Miller and Ocelot containing mission-sensitive information, and others that contain musical tracks. Many of the audio tapes will prove a real treat to hardcore Metal Gear fans, referencing events from Snake Eater and Peace Walker, while others provide greater context to Skull Face’s motives and the origins of XOF. Playing Metal Gear theme songs of yesteryear while carrying out missions delivers a good dose of nostalgia, but blasting one of the many hidden 80s pop and rock tapes can make for some wacky, thoroughly amusing moments. Better yet, you can set any of these songs to blast from your helicopter’s speaker system, so as to bear down on unsuspecting enemies with rockets launching to the tunes of Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America”, The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love”, Kajagoogoo’s “Too Shy” or Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell”.

As for the original orchestrated soundtrack, The Phantom Pain’s musical stylings deviate a surprising degree from those in previous games. The few reprises of classic Metal Gear themes that do sneak their way in to the mix are quite subdued. Sins of the Father, meanwhile, is a powerful and commanding vocal track, with lyrics that are among the most thematically-appropriate to a Metal Gear title since Snake Eater’s self-titled jazzy James Bond-esque number.

The Fox Engine once again outdoes itself, as The Phantom Pain looks shockingly good, even on a last-generation console like the Xbox 360. There are some minor shortcomings when compared to the PS4 and Xbox One versions, such as certain textures sporting less detail and requiring the occasional bump-in load. As the game installs on the system’s hard drive prior to your first play session, load times between missions are kept to a reasonable speed. Draw distances are superb, offering Snake the ability yo scope out vast distances, provided the terrain does not obscure his field of vision. The blurred distance effects are nowhere near as harsh on the eyes in the Xbox 360 version as they are on the PS4 or the Xbox One. I never stumbled across any noticeable dips in frame rate, and only encountered one odd, non-threatening glitch during my playthrough – very much appreciated, given the track record of other contemporary open world games.

In addition to catering to any play style you like, The Phantom Pain reflects player loadouts and time away on missions within cutscenes. When Snake begins an interaction with Ocelot and Kaz, he’ll be wearing whichever camo pattern players last dressed the legendary soldier in. If Snake has been taking to more direct means of intervention, shooting up enemy soldiers, his face will be streaked with blood, while even a long series of stealth ops will depict Snake with sweat dripping from his brow.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is far from a perfect game. The lessened focus on a complex narrative will likely leave veteran fans hungry for more, especially with the knowledge that the final leg of Snake’s journey is left incomplete. That said, the story elements that are at play prove, by and large, of the same carefully-calculated nature that Kojima is known for. The few major twists that come to pass are masterfully executed, and the nigh-on perfect gameplay The Phantom Pain sports certainly helps ease the pain of the elements that are absent. The Phantom Pain travels to some dark places, with plot points that teeter closer to reality than other games in the series. While The Phantom Pain may not be the definitive masterpiece fans had hoped would cap off Hideo Kojima’s nearly-thirty-year run of directing the Metal Gear series, it is still one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played this year. It’s a shame that the circumstances surrounding Konami, Kojima, and the game’s development process did not pan out more smoothly, as the full, completed vision for The Phantom Pain would have no doubt earned a considerably higher overall score.

My rating: 7.75 (out of 10)

Xbox 360 review: Shadows of the Damned

Shadows of the Damned is, in many ways, simpler in design than some of the more well-known Grasshopper Manufacture games. The story tells of Garcia Hotspur, a leather-jacket wearing and tattoo-decorated demon hunter who is brimming with hardened attitude, on a journey into the depths of hell to rescue the soul of his beloved Paula. Garcia is accompanied by Johnson, a demon who has renounced his hellish nature at the cost of losing his body and being reduced to a flaming skull. Johnson is both tour guide and weapon to Garcia, transforming from a simple torch to three different firearms – pistol, machine gun, and shotgun – each of which receives appropriate, fun and inventive upgrades as the plot progresses.

From the earliest moments of the game, the dynamic between Garcia and Johnson proves among Shadows of the Damned’s highest points. Johnson always has a timely quip to lend to the narrative, and even pokes fun at Garcia’s reading skills during one of the optional storybook segments which offers further exposition to the game’s handful of boss characters. Shadows of the Damned is less reliant on pop culture references than other Suda51 creations like No More Heroes or Lollipop Chainsaw, and the majority of humor therein is quite crude. As such, the delivery sometimes falls flat, but the game never shies away from a fast-paced and intense balls-to-the-wall presentation.

Shadows of the Damned presents a wonderfully cohesive vision of hell that strings together environments that are twisted mockeries of earthly planes within impossible spaces, while sprinkling in fairy tales of the boss characters’ falls to damnation. There are occasional, if not relatively small areas to explore or travel back to in search of an upgrade gem, but by and large, Shadows of the Damned follows a very linear progression through each of its stages. It does offer a solid variety of fun and wildly different gameplay elements that pop up from time to time, including a turret segment and a bowling minigame. The weak link among these is a side-scrolling shoot-‘em-‘up segment reminiscent of a particular stage in Grasshopper Manufacture’s 2D action platformer Black Knight Sword, but here, it feels not only awkwardly pasted in, but more of an annoying hurdle than a clever spin on the established familiar third-person shooter gameplay.

On the subject of the three firearms at Garcia’s disposal, they each bear grounded designs that become increasingly alien and appropriate given the game’s netherworld setting. Red gems upgrade the rate of fire, ammo capacity, reload speed, and so forth for each, as well as the quick-time melee responses for Johnson’s torch form. Each of the firearms performs well in taking down enemies that require particular strategies to be defeated, and overall, these three weapons handle in a manner that is equally balanced between familiar standards of the shooter genre and fresh gameplay variety, and are thus highly intuitive. Much as these guns do well at felling foes, they also serve to solve a number of short-lived but mildly thought-provoking puzzles.

Tunnels filled with shadowy mists that connect portions of some of the game’s levels, as well as moving floors and staircases, incorporate a dash of adventure gameplay. At times, ammo for particular weapons can be sparse, though Garcia can always count on a demon-human hybrid mutant with a hillbilly accent to offer up his wares at a small price at least once per level. The soundtrack is rockin’ from start to finish, with mellow industrial tunes reminiscent of Silent Hill dipping in frequently – fitting, not only due to the game’s narrative direction and themes, but also because the soundtrack was scored by Akira Yamoka.

Shadows of the Damned is not a particularly difficult game, nor is it a particularly lengthy one. There will be learning curves associated with chase sequences at a mere two or three junctures, but beyond those momentary hurdles, players should have no trouble blasting their way through the hordes of hell to reach Garcia’s beloved Paula. The boss fights each present a new strategy, and are enjoyable across the board, though they certainly do not leave as lasting an impression as the boss encounters in Grasshopper Manufacture’s action entries of No More Heroes or Killer is Dead. Perhaps Shadows of the Damned clocking in shy of the ten hour mark is just as well, given the rather straightforward tale that is spun along the way, and the moderate amount of replay value it offers.

My rating: 7.25 (out of 10)

Wii U review: Splatoon

Each time you boot up Splatoon, the celebrity Squid Sisters of the game’s fictional realm will list off the maps currently in rotation for both ranked and unranked playlists, capping their announcement with warm wishes that every inkling girl and boy “stay fresh!” And that is exactly what Splatoon brings to the table – a fresh hybrid of third-person shooter combat, sandwiching platform and action elements between its other major design point of painting the stage in neon ink colors. At its core, Splatoon is a team-oriented shooter where the objective is not so much offing enemy team members, rather attempting to cover as much of the map as possible in your team’s respective color. With perhaps a slight hint of Super Mario Sunshine playing into Splatoon’s inspiration, and certainly more than a small dose of Jet Set Radio, this spunky, upbeat I.P. is a welcome addition to the Wii U, as well as to the online gaming community for the way it manages to shake up so many staples of the shooter genre with simple tweaks.

The novelty of all this, of course, would wear thin rather quickly if the game suffered from lag or connection issues. While this was certainly a fully merited concern prior to the game’s release given Nintendo’s often less-than-stellar performance of online components of Wii titles like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Splatoon has – against all expectations – the best connection record of any multiplayer online game I’ve ever managed to get my hands on. The two or three times I encountered any form of lag were during the first weeks following Splatoon’s launch, and they were marginal, at worst, lasting only a brief few seconds. Occasionally, the game will be unable to connect to matches during server maintenance periods, but these roadblocks are short-lived and only to be expected. And the frequency with which new, free content such as additional maps, weapons, and game modes are trickled into the mix is more than sufficient compensation for these segments of downtime.

Painting the town orange or purple or lime green or whatever your team’s assigned color is remains a constant across the entire experience, though ranked matches do introduce both ‘king of the hill’ and ‘capture the flag’ variants in the forms of Splatzones and Tower Control, with more game modes on the way. Single player has players navigate short but increasingly creative and visually appealing stages as they battle enemy Octolings in order to rescue captured cute and yellow Zapfish. This story mode does not boast the most complex narrative, nor does it last more than a few hours, but the sheer variety of environment designs, thoughtful strategies regarding boss battles, and overall fun factor make it worth diving into. A one-on-one local multiplayer mode is also included, wherein players compete to pop balloons for the most points, but is significantly less meaty and also less enjoyable than the other main modes.

Splatoon does have a couple of significant drawbacks, however. The single player mode, while short and sweet, offers up blueprints for new weapons for those who do a little bit of exploration. The Amiibo functionality for this game works the same way, offering remixed versions of select single player stages with different weapons loadouts, and rewarding players with some of the game’s coolest costumes as well as a couple of extra armament options. However, if you did not purchase these Splatoon Amiibo, you are fresh out of luck, unless Nintendo decides to release these as paid DLC items in the future.

The other big hit against this original I.P. is the fact that, within any given multiplayer playlist, there are only two maps in rotation at any given time. Matches are fast, lasting only three minutes each, and you’ll see a lot of the same environments in rapid succession. Throwing a couple more maps in rotation at a time would have circumvented this issue entirely, though the game does switch up the maps that are in rotation quite frequently, which slightly eases the blandness of being dropped into Blackbelly Skatepark six times in a row.

While Splatoon may not boast an abundance of multiplayer maps, the selection it does offer includes design variations that are greatly appreciated, and work well with the different game modes. The rises and dips of Blackbelly Skatepark provide a reasonably sized outer ring for players to quickly propel through in squid form before taking to two legs and entering the firefight-focused center. The Kelp Dome is one of the game’s larger maps, and allows for players to shoot down from a catwalk on opponents below, albeit at the risk of being more greatly exposed to return fire. Port Mackerel and Arowana Mall provide more traditional symmetrical settings, while the winding ramps and square arena of Saltspray Rig host matches that can drastically shift at a moment’s notice.

Unranked matches will net you experience points regardless of whether you win or lose, while ranked matches only reward experience points to winners and subsequently move your letter ranking up or down based on performance. Leveling up grants you access to new weapons or variants of previous ones with alternate stats and loadouts. Much like the game’s clothing items, these weapons cost experience points to claim as your own.

However wildly different two weapons might be, they will always offer pros and cons, so as to keep the entire experience balanced. As a result, the weapons players choose are bound to be the ones they enjoy and are most confident with. While the roller covers a large area, it has minimal range, and is generally ill-suited for fighting other players. The brush splatters paint rapidly from side to side, but handles in an unusual manner, and drains ink rather quickly. Likewise, building up your charge meter to unleash brief but very powerful and broad range of the Killer Wail plays to a much different audience than the timed free-roam invincibility of the Kraken.

Clothing items grant you bonuses such as the ability to conserve ink, a slightly improved buffer when under enemy fire, faster respawn times, and so forth. These are attributed at random upon earning a set amount of experience points while donning a particular shirt, hat, or pair of shoes in battle. These skills do not carry over from one article of clothing to another, however, the sea snails that are earned as rewards for participating in Splatfests – Splatoon’s poll-based tournaments in which Team Cat is pitted against Team Dog, Team Marshmallow against Team Hot Dog, and so forth – can be exchanged for extra skill slots, or to re-roll slots on pieces of clothing which already have these slots filled up.

Gibberish inkling vocals add a further level of depth to the wonderfully-crafted soundtrack. The game’s musical offerings draw inspiration from electropop, J-pop, punk, and even rock sounds that border on the thrash range. Combine this with the spunky and colorful character models, and a nautical reimagining of Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing as the hubworld menu, and you have a recipe for a truly unique and endearing property. Splatoon is a sensory bombardment at every turn, but never to an overwhelming degree. Above all else, Splatoon is exceptionally weird, fun for players of all skill levels, and a welcome break from the familiar.

My rating: 8.75 (out of 10)

Top 5 Party Members in the Mass Effect Trilogy

#5 - Legion: Though the Geth served as the primary enemy foot soldiers in the first Mass Effect, they were not of a terribly complicated nature. The Quarians crafted them many years ago, only to have things go horribly awry when the Geth declared themselves independent and war broke out between these mechanical creations and their organic creators. In Mass Effect 2, the hive-mind mentality of the Geth is expanded upon, and a ‘ghost in the machine’ emerges in the form of Legion, a Geth who has modeled his own form after Commander Shepard and would dare to question the behavior of his kin. Legion’s intellect borders that of his organic comrades, and Mass Effect 3 presents a particularly dangerous scenario where Shepard must side with either the Quarians or the Geth in the fight against the Reapers – though, provided his skills are sufficient, he can choose a third option that sees both sides unite in the effort to repel the Reapers’ onslaught of the galaxy.

#4 - Liara T’Soni: I did not get around to actually playing the Mass Effect trilogy until quite a few months after the third entry had been released, despite the series having been frequently recommended to me by friends. One significant benefit to this, I felt, was the ability to immediately jump into the next game, not having to wait years between releases like everyone else had. However, I was strikingly aware of the greater limitations the first title offered in gameplay, dialogue, and moral choices. I played as male Shepard my first time through the Mass Effect trilogy, and seeing as the first game only offered me two options for romantic partners, one of whom I left to die on Virmire on account of her being one of the least likeable characters in the franchise, I defaulted to Liara. Her nerdy, somewhat naïve nature was certainly preferable to the company of Ashley (or Kaidan, in the case of female Shepard), but I never felt like she came into her own until the second game, when she was pushed to a supporting cast member.

Where Liara did truly shine was during the events of the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC for Mass Effect 2, where she shows Shepard just how much of a no-holds-barred badass she’s become in the Commander's absence. She’s broken out of her shell and then some, following a trail of digital breadcrumbs, tracing as many of the Shadow Broker’s contacts as she knows exist, helping save Shepard’s life (yet again), before making a seemingly-impossible assault upon the Shadow Broker’s carefully-hidden headquarters. By the time Mass Effect 3 rolls around, Liara has taken over the role of the Shadow Broker, keeping close watch on the web of information and trafficking of resources to aid Shepard and the crew of the Normandy. She also returns as a party member, still one of the most adept Biotics in the series.

#3 - Jack: The other great Biotic in the Mass Effect series is Jack, with her tattoo-decorated body, shaved head, and take-no-prisoners mentality. After being enlisted to help Cerberus per their bringing the Normandy’s famous commander back to life, Shepard is tasked with a number of missions to recruit highly-valuable and equally skillful individuals from across the galaxy. Recruiting Jack is a job that reeks of danger quite some time before it actually goes sour, with the crew of the redesigned Normandy SR-2 visiting a prison facility where the guards seem to be as ruthless as the prisoners they keep locked up. Before Shepard and company can reach their intended target, the warden informs them that he will be adding Shepard to the list of inmates, believing the commander’s notoriety will land him a hefty payout.

A skirmish with the guards later, and Shepard’s team makes it to the holding cell where Jack is being kept on ice. Upon awakening, she immediately enters a destructive rage, blowing holes through walls, and using her Biotic powers to blow away anyone who tries to get in her way. The trail of wreckage she leaves is plenty easy to follow, though it only adds fuel to the already chaotic fire that has erupted within the prison complex. While she is thoroughly reluctant to join a team funded by Cerberus, she proves an invaluable ally in the fight against the Collectors, using her Biotic powers for both offensive and defensive strategies during the Suicide Mission at the end of Mass Effect 2, and then going on to train a new generation of Biotics during the events of Mass Effect 3. She’s foul-mouthed, doesn’t much care what anyone thinks of her, and would much prefer to play by her own rules, but when Shepard is in a tight spot, he/she can always count on Jack to take whatever the enemy is throwing their way and toss it back in their face three-fold.

#2 - Garrus Vakarian: Garrus is one of those rare characters that proves so likeable in nearly every situation he and Shepard find themselves in. Whether scouting the seedy underbelly of Omega for shady characters, treading deep into abandoned mining facilities, or helping repel an invasion of Reaper forces, Garrus proves a trustworthy friend through thick and thin. His intimate knowledge of C-Sec formalities and Turian battle strategies makes him an invaluable asset with a rifle in his hands, but his cool personality and genuine advice led him to be equally valuable for personal support. Garrus is not without his own shortcomings, treading into some dark territory during the second game, and lacking finesse when it comes to charming the ladies. But all of these elements propelled him to become one of the most enjoyable personalities in the Mass Effect trilogy, as well as one of the most memorable characters in recent video game history, and I kept him in my company about as often as the games would allow.

#1 - Tali’Zorah vas Normandy: When Tali first joins Shepard’s crew aboard the Normandy, she is excitable, practically shoving her way past crew members to analyze the ship’s internal engineering. And while her understanding of the galaxy may be somewhat naive at the outset of her pilgrimage, she is not exactly an impressionable youth. She always has a couple of tricks up her sleeve, thanks to her long history of technical expertise. She was an enjoyable sidekick for much of my playthrough of the original Mass Effect, but when I started up the second game, I realized how much she had matured during her time away from Shepard and company. Working with the crew of the Normandy, she had found her own voice, become more cunning, and offered her fellow Quarians a unique view of the galaxy beyond their Flotilla home fleet.

Tali’s role as tech expert led her to prove an invaluable support party member throughout all three games, and alongside Garrus, served as my go-to ally for the vast majority of the story. She embraced her particular skill set while others preferred the spectacle of explosive weaponry or Biotic powers, and always looked up Commander Shepard as ally, mentor, and friend, holding a great deal of respect for him/her. She also was not afraid to voice her opinion in the event that she did not agree with Shepard or any one of the other crew members, with each concern she raised being very much valid. That is not to say that Tali shied away from some free-spirited fun, as she was always down to boogie in one of the Citadel’s many clubs, cracks some crude humor on occasion, and delivers hilarious drunken ramblings during Shepard’s house party in The Citadel DLC. While easily one of the most enjoyable characters in the first title, Tali’Zorah truly bloomed into one of my favorite RPG companion characters of all time in the sequel games, and was, for me, a no-brainer pick as Commander Shepard’s love interest.

Xbox 360 review: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

To tide fans over until the proper release of the fifth numbered entry in the Metal Gear Solid series, Konami released Ground Zeroes in both physical and digital formats. Intended as a teaser for all that is to come in the open-world Phantom Pain, Ground Zeroes runs on the Fox Engine, and even on the now-last generation Xbox 360, the graphics are damn impressive. The rainstorm that shrouds Big Boss’ mission excels at highlighting raindrops streaming down textures and assets like tarps flapping in the wind in highly realistic fashion. While Kiefer Sutherland’s takeover as the voice of Snake does reveal a noticeable difference to what fans have come to know and love from the efforts of veteran David Hayter, the experience is not a massive upset to the familiar, as Snake/Big Boss does very little talking for the duration of Ground Zeroes.

In short, Ground Zeroes does not feel the part of a Metal Gear game in gameplay or spirit. The heads-up display, while simplified, is highly unspecific and does little to give players any real indication of where enemy troops are or how many of them are patrolling an area. This is something that would not be terribly difficult to keep track of, given the tiny size of the map the main mission takes place on, were it not for the fact that there are so many structures of varying heights and widths. This results not only in enemies being difficult to keep track of, but also a degree of uncertainty with how well-hidden Snake is. And the slow-down sequences when Snake is given a few brief seconds to respond to his being spotted do virtually nothing but incite panic in the player, as Snake is most frequently spotted from a distance, and firing upon foes will alert anyone nearby, putting the whole area on alert status.

Because the main story requires no more than two hours to complete, it lacks any time necessary to develop Snake, Chico, or Paz, much less give players a reason to care about the supposed ‘high-risk mission’ or the brief appearance of Skull Face, whose voice actor provides deadpan efforts that imply he has as little interest in the character as most anyone else who will play through this glorified demo. The weird and goofy factors that make a Metal Gear experience so endearing and one-of-a-kind are gone – Ground Zeroes is gritty and serious, building off the Snake Eater and Peace Walker formulas, but lacking almost any creative end. While the finale does sufficiently set the stage for The Phantom Pain, there is only one moment at the end that will prove particularly exciting, or give fans of previous Metal Gear installments any real sense of fulfillment.

There are bonus missions to take on, and collectible cassette tapes and XOF badges littered around the environment that extend the lifespan of Ground Zeroes, if only as a thinly-veiled fetch-quest. The dialogue on the cassette tapes themselves reveal far more about any of the characters than the in-game actions do, and are overall better-scripted than the couple of action-heavy cutscenes. If Ground Zeroes is a genuine taste of Phantom Pain, I for one am extremely wary, due to just how bare an experience this is, and how much it appears to be adjusted for mainstream audiences.

My rating: 4.5 (out of 10)

DLC review: Mass Effect 3 - Citadel

Effectively a love letter to all Mass Effect fans, Citadel is filled to the brim with wit, self-parodies, and intense action. It runs a story that is exciting, yet does not take itself too seriously, as out of the blue Shepard finds himself/herself target number one of a mercenary organization. It’s not the best way for the Commander to start his/her shore leave, and longtime friends Garrus, Tali, and Liara make a point of stating how Shepard can’t go for more than a day without getting into some crazy scenario. The main story runs about an hour and a half or more, depending on the difficulty setting, and compared to many of the other Mass Effect DLC packs, it certainly dishes out a decent challenge factor.

Beyond that, there are plenty of distractions to indulge in. From the moment Shepard is ordered to take shore leave, he/she is granted access to Admiral Anderson’s large upscale apartment. Shepard is free to purchase new furniture and décor as he/she sees fit, and can eventually throw a party for however many or few old comrades he/she chooses. Unfortunately, the game automatically assigns James, Cortez, and Traynor to the party, the latter two of whom are infinitely easier to stomach than the resident meat-head of the crew. Still, it is thoroughly entertaining to listen to Tali’s slurred and drunken ramblings, Grunt’s bizarre reaction to alcohol leading him to believe he can stop bullets with his mind, and EDI’s confronting Traynor about a past comment she made about the robot’s voice being sexy.

There is also a whole new section of the Citadel open to explore, complete with minigames and short, character-specific situations like playing wingman to Garrus as he fumbles his way through a date, or starring alongside Javik in a half-baked Blasto the Hannar sequel. The Citadel DLC has plenty of funny moments, and a few key heartfelt ones, too. It’s the best Mass Effect 3 DLC by a longshot, and arguably ranks among the best DLC packs the entire series has had to offer. Perhaps best of all is the fact that it does not feel like a portion of the game that was cut out for the sake of making another quick buck off downloadable sales, yet the sum of its parts prove surprisingly cohesive with the rest of the Mass Effect 3 experience.

My rating: 9 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

DLC review: Mass Effect 3 - Leviathan

After witnessing the murder of a scientist on the Citadel, Shepard and company begin to follow a trail of clues that imply an indoctrination process similar to what the Reapers have proven capable of. Except, the entity the crew of the Normandy and their allies in the science field are trying to seek out is not a Reaper. Rather, it is a being known as Leviathan, one rumored to have killed a Reaper at some point in the past. Knowing the power this Leviathan might possess, Shepard enlists EDI to help locate it, a process which takes them back to scene of the initial crime, to a derelict research station, and eventually to a watery world riddled with shipwrecks.

Leviathan is straight-forward in its design. It cuts right to the chase, with Shepard’s search for Leviathan playing out in a similar manner as his/her visit to Eden Prime in the first game. There are artifacts that hold sway over those who have come into contact with them, and Leviathan is shown to be capable of channeling messages through these individuals. There is plenty of variety in the game design, from gathering clues around a small research lab, to unlocking a series of doors aboard the space station, and the typical combat against Reaper minions. All of it will be strikingly familiar to anyone who has played more than a few hours of Mass Effect 3, and it does feel like the Leviathan DLC’s pacing is a bit fast for the grand scale it intends to deliver its story on.

The writing is handled well enough, and the eventual one-on-one encounter Shepard has with Leviathan is intense and very cool in its design. The ultimate payoff, however, does not echo as strongly as other events in the Mass Effect universe. Recruiting Javik in the From Ashes DLC obviously had a lasting impact on which teammates you had at your disposal and subsequently provided a unique perspective on the Reaper conflict. But the finale of the Leviathan DLC is a quick one-off scene that simply wraps itself up without the effects leaving meaningful ripples across the galaxy.

My rating: 7 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

3DS review: Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

One of the earliest big-name releases for the 3DS, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D was effectively a means for Capcom to tide Resident Evil fans over until the release of the more bold and highly-anticipated Resident Evil: Revelations. The Mercenaries 3D has a very similar control scheme to its 3DS sister title, but plays quite differently. The major stages from the mercenaries bonus game modes of both Resident Evil 4 and 5 have been compiled in The Mercenaries 3D. The first handful of missions act as tutorials, asking for players to perform simple tasks like running past a dozen or so markers before the time runs out, or killing ten to fifteen enemies. As each mission is cleared, the parameters become a little more complex. While it is good of Capcom to throw these tutorial bits into the mix for those who may have missed out on the modern RE titles, it is also mildly annoying that there is no option to skip them, and seasoned veterans of the arcade-y mercenaries gameplay style may find the first twenty-five minutes boring and tedious.

That said, once the full mercenaries mode is made available, it proves quite enjoyable. The Mercenaries 3D lacks any sort of story mode, so anyone interested in this title should keep in mind that this a purchase that should be made entirely on how much he/she enjoyed the mercenaries mode from Resident Evil 4 and 5. Stages like the African caves and medieval castle remain largely unchanged, though a few of the larger ones have seen small portions cut from them. The limited spawn counter issue from Resident Evil 4 seems to have been rectified, as enemies will continue to descend onto the battlefield as long as you keep shooting them up. Overall, the game looks quite good – the textures are certainly not as impressive as on the home console releases, or even as impressive as in Revelations, but for as early a 3DS release as The Mercenaries 3D was, it’s none too shabby.

There are eight characters to select from, and while only a couple are available from the outset, the rest will be unlocked through a natural process of completing each ‘chapter’ worth of stages (each chapter usually consisting of approximately a dozen missions or so). There is also an in-game achievement list, and meeting certain criteria like beating a mission while using only one weapon or chaining a set number of combo kills will net rewards like abilities and alternative costumes for the eight characters. The costumes provide little more than an aesthetic alteration, which is a bit disappointing, since Resident Evil 5 saw different loadouts ascribed to each new costume. The aforementioned abilities can be added to a character’s loadout to grant them slight boosts to their healing, critical hit ratio, mobility, and so on, and can come in handy when tackling some of the more grueling late game missions.

The Mercenaries 3D supports both single player action and cooperative via online or local means. The standard loadouts of Chris, Jill, Claire, Hunk, Barry, Rebecca, Wesker, and Krauser are nicely varied, and though some characters share the same weapons like the grenade launcher, the play style from one character to another is prevented from becoming too similar by providing them different types of ammunition and distinctly different physical stats. Rebecca is more about speed and offense, Krauser is something of a one-trick pony focused on accuracy and critical hits, Chris and Jill act as the two comfortable balanced defaults, etc. There may not be a lot of content to Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, but then again, it isn’t trying to deliver a full-fledged RE experience like Revelations or any of the numbered entries in the series. The Mercenaries 3D is meant to satiate a hunger for pure, unbridled arcade-y gameplay, and it handles surprisingly well on a handheld, touch screen implementation for herb healing and all.

My rating: 7 (out of 10)

Thoughts on The Last of Us

This afternoon, I finished watching the Two Best Friends playthrough of The Last of Us, one of the most talked-about games of the summer, and what looks like one of the last big hurrahs for the Playstation 3. This article is relatively free-form, and will not follow the same formula typical of my full game reviews. There is, after all, a difference between playing a game and watching someone else play it. I simply want to go over my own thoughts on The Last of Us – its high points and its low points. Fair warning: this article treads deep into spoiler territory, so if you have any intention of playing the game to completion, I suggest you close out of the browser window.

Allow me to begin by saying that the game does a phenomenal job at immersing you in a world where humanity has few choices as a means for survival – stay in a quarantined zone that is kept under martial law and deal with the problems that can arise with soldiers who abuse their power or rebels who seek to violently overturn the system in place, scavenge for supplies and live off the land in either a colony far-removed from the big cities or as a nomadic group and run a significantly greater risk of being infected by the fungal Clickers, Bloaters, etc. The graphics, though clearly outshined by those on Nintendo’s new Wii U and the trailers teased for all of the PS4 and Xbox One up-and-comers, still look really good due to a notably high degree of detail that draws everything it can from the hardware. Naughty Dog does a masterful job designing environments that bear unique assets, allowing abandoned record stores, snow-covered lodges, and off-kilter skyscrapers to plant a distinct image in your mind, as these are places you will only come across once in your travels.

Guns are intelligently prevented from becoming too powerful by limiting the upgrade options to the kickback, reload speed, firing rate, and clip capacity. There is no option to boost the firepower of your gun (save for perhaps one), because it would be too easy an option. There’s also a limited number of parts Joel can discover, forcing you to be very picky with regards to which upgrades you select. The ability upgrades behave in a similar fashion, as Joel will only locate a set number of pills over the course of the game to increase the effectiveness of his health kits, allow him to pull out a shiv on a Clicker in the event that he gets caught in a bad situation, and so on. While the makeshift tin can bombs and molotov cocktails do their jobs just fine, I fail to see the point of the smoke bombs. Why bother distracting your enemy with those when you can simply toss a bottle or a brick and conserve your resources?

Sticking fourteen year-old Ellie with Joel to play with his trust issues and sadness over the death of his daughter seems, frankly, an obvious decision. But what really makes this pair so entertaining and engaging is the fact that they have such different personalities. Joel is a father who lost his whole world, his whole reason to be, when his daughter died, and has simply been surviving for the twenty-odd years since. He’s a shell of his former self, and is seemingly just going through the motions up until he is paired with Ellie. She is a child born after the fallout, with no firsthand experience of how everyday life played out before cityscapes were overgrown with vegetation and the threat of infection was real. She has an obsession with comic books, is unable to swim, and constantly wants to prove herself as highly capable to Joel in order to gain his trust and friendship. In a lot of ways, both her hobbies and her demeanor remind me of Yorick, lead protagonist from Y: The Last Man. Yorick and Ellie both try to find the positive angle of the worst situations, but very much recognize the real danger they are constantly in. They have geeky hobbies that they are highly devoted to, and they are both strangers in strange company – Yorick being the last human with a Y chromosome walking the Earth, and Ellie being something of a miracle child who was infected but never turned into one of the rabid fungal beasts.

Around the halfway point, I really began to question what the point of throwing the infected into the mix really was. I understand that it frames the story’s introduction as chaotic, terrifying, and tragic, as things quickly escalate and we see firsthand how the world went into a state of decay. It’s clear that everyone (tough and gruff Joel included) fears the infected, and the prospect of death at the hands of these mushroom zombies drives some groups or individuals to behave in drastic, sometimes crazy ways. Beyond that, however, there’s not a whole lot of justification for them being in the game. Combat sequences between infected and humans play out almost identically, save for certain weapons being more effective against one foe and vice-versa. The infected and the problem they present never evolves or plays as large a role as I expected it would, and it certainly isn't rectified by game's end. This wouldn’t be so upsetting if it seemed like Naughty Dog was really trying to push the idea of ‘man is the most terrifying of beasts’ routine more than they actually do. When it boils down to it, the only two characters who we see portrayed as animalistic or beastly are David, with his cannibalistic culture, and Joel’s last moment run-and-gun, kill-everyone-of-those-Firefly-sons-of-bitches rage. They could have made it a scenario wherein animals become infected instead of humans and it would have left the same basic impact.

Which brings me to the issue of the game’s last hours. Everything’s going swell (for the player, at least) when Ellie and Joel take on David’s gang from separate fronts. It’s arguably the darkest territory the game visits, and also the most important, as Joel’s coming in to stop Ellie from further mutilating David’s face with the machete is the first time we see their care for one another physically manifest. It’s the moment where we know for certain that Joel truly care for this kid he’s been escorting for months, as he halts her actions, as he doesn’t believe the whole ordeal is something she ought to see nor be involved in. The whole scene of Joel and Ellie storming David’s camp town is a very carefully executed segment that places emphasis on stealth, though combat is an option for the more brave and well-stocked.

The hospital segment where Joel goes apeshit on the Fireflies is not unexpected – I was fully prepared for the Fireflies to have questionable intentions practically from the start of the game. But it does feel choppy and rushed - a couple short segments of Joel wrecking the Fireflies and busting Ellie out of the hospital to save her life, and then we suddenly jump forward to the finale. Sure, we get a flashback to understand how Joel got his hands on the truck and how no one followed them outside of Salt Lake City, but it’s presented in snippets that bounce back and forth in a rhythm that is incredibly fast when compared to the rest of the narrative.

And then, of course, there is the final scene where Ellie asks Joel for the truth about what happened in the hospital while she was unconscious. Joel flat out lies to her to retain her trust and not worry her, which is fine in the context of the story, because it is indicative that he has sort of adopted her – or rather, that they have adopted each other as partners. Joel was never looking for someone to replace his daughter, and Ellie never set out to become a daughter figure. I would never say the finale is bad. Thankfully, it doesn’t pull a Bioshock Infinite and deliver some stupid line of dialogue that conflicts with everything that preceded it. But The Last of Us feels underwhelming during its last few minutes. There’s this whole expectation that something is going to go wrong or that there might be some bittersweet conclusion – the scene of sunlight shining down on a hilltop covered in wildflowers as Joel and Ellie head toward what appears to be Uncle Tommy’s compound is so unexpected for a story like the Last of Us, that it doesn’t feel quite right. I think having them voluntarily part ways would have been stupid and incredibly out of character for either of them, but the ending we get is almost too perfect when compared to everything that preceded it.

I think the ending is what caught me off guard the most about The Last of Us – it’s surprisingly short compared to what I expected. Or maybe the pacing is just odd during the last few hours. I fully expected another hour or two of gameplay before the jump to the Fireflies headquarters. Joel and Ellie went through a lot of significant trials during their encounters with David’s gang, and I fail to see why Naughty Dog didn’t include a segment or two designed with the primary focus of having Ellie and Joel cement the dynamic of their now fully-developed or full-evolved relationship post-Winter. It seems like a huge missed opportunity, and I find it hard to believe that Ellie would still be holding on to the emotions she experienced when she was held captive by David’s men two or three months after the fact. Any normal person having gone through that traumatic an experience would have opened up to their friends or family and let them in emotionally at least a little bit (and Ellie only has one person to turn to). They were both there, they saw the same things (albeit from different approaches) – the whole jump to kick the ending out the door in time really dragged down the immersion for me, something that the game had otherwise done a consistently high-quality job at.

Though The Last of Us incorporates plenty of stealth and action elements with a little bit of survival-horror, the narrative is arguably the most memorable portion of its makeup. I consider The Last of Us as much of an interactive story as a video game belonging to any one of the aforementioned genres, and a hell of a lot more compelling one than, say, Heavy Rain, because The Last of Us never tries to push the ‘interactive story’ shtick. It just does its own thing and manages to pull a lot of winning punches in the process. It’s an interesting combination of gameplay elements familiar to other big-name releases, and I would consider the sum to be more original than its parts. It’s just highly unfortunate that it ended on a note of such lesser quality than I had hoped for or expected.

DLC review: Mass Effect 3 - From Ashes

From Ashes sees Commander Shepard and company return to Eden Prime, the colony that the Geth hit first during their campaign in the original Mass Effect. Cerberus forces have apparently uncovered more Prothean artifacts, and knowing the gravity that Shepard’s contact with the first Prothean beacon had, Liara believes this new discovery could be just as important. As Liara has devoted much of her life studying the Protheans, she volunteers to go planetside with Shepard, along with whichever third party member you select. There is a bit of dialogue shared by the third party member, but the majority of the exchanges are made between Shepard and Liara due to their history with Prothean culture and technology.

Once the trio has landed, they discover that Cerberus’ discovery was not one of a Prothean artifact, but instead one of an actual living Prothean. As the Prothean is still sealed inside his stasis pod, Liara instructs Shepard that they must locate certain frequencies from nearby terminals to ensure that the pod opens properly and does not jeopardize the Prothean’s health and safety in the process. There are only a handful of Cerberus troops stationed at the excavation site, and as a result the fight to locate said terminals is not particularly difficult, nor is it the most interesting aspect of the experience. In fact, the real meat of this DLC lies in scripted cutscenes that detail the memories of the stasis-bound Prothean. Only Shepard is able to see them via the terminals, while everyone else sees static, an apparent side effect of his/her contact with the Prothean beacon in the first game.

Once the Prothean – named Javik – is revived, Shepard informs him that he is the only living Prothean in the universe, a matter which Javik already expected would be truth. Instead of spending time in shock or grieving his fallen comrades, Javik almost immediately swears his allegiance to Commander Shepard’s cause of seeking out a means to destroying the Reapers. Javik is highly skeptical of the Commander’s odds of success, and frequently informs him of how horribly the Protheans lost to the Reapers – how the Reapers divided their people, turned some of them on one another and slowly slaughtered the rest. But he also realizes that Shepard’s actions in rallying the fleets of the Citadel species places his strategy ahead of the Protheans’ own. In battle, he controls as a typical soldier class, as his default weapons are an assault rifle and a pistol. He is capable of utilizing the unique power Dark Channel, a damaging biotic attack, as well as Slam, Pull, and Lift Grenade. He also adds unique dialogue in both main missions and side missions, further relaying information on the Reapers, Protheans, and long-extinct cultures of a previous galactic cycle.

My rating: 7 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

Xbox 360 review: Mass Effect 3

As the finale of Mass Effect 2 made abundantly clear, the Reapers are headed toward the Milky Way, and so the third game begins with Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson trying desperately to appeal to Alliance Command. Despite all of Shepard’s warnings over the past three years, few among the Alliance or the Citadel Council heeded them. As a result, Earth is quickly overrun by Reaper forces intent on destroying everything in their path. Shepard and Anderson manage to fight their way to the Normandy, though Anderson opts to stay behind and help carry out the fight on Earth, instructing Shepard to rally as many allies as he/she can.

While the Reapers hit Earth hard, they also sent some of their forces to systems controlled by the Asari, Turians, Krogans, and Quarians. While most of the representatives of these alien races would be otherwise inclined to send Shepard aid, they simply cannot spare extra troops or supplies until the threats to their own planets have been removed. While this might initially sound like a repetitive and menial process of gathering allied forces, each mission will earn Shepard extra war assets to improve his/her readiness rating for the endgame strike back at the Reapers, as well as further progress on the Crucible, an ancient device that the Protheans attempted to complete during their own conflict with the Reapers, but were unable to finish before their empire crumbled. While the previous games did a very good job of making main story-related missions memorable, Mass Effect 3 does perhaps the best job of making them plain fun, with many being epic in scope.

Once again, you are able to import your Shepard profile from Mass Effect 2 into Mass Effect 3, though you cannot transfer directly from the original Mass Effect to the third game. Choices you made in the first two games as well as characters who survived and died will be reflected through dialogue and which characters appear during certain missions. And while Mass Effect 2 seemed to push for Commander Shepard to seek out a new romantic relationship by limiting his/her interactions with Ashley/Kaidan/Liara to very brief exchanges, the third game is more open in allowing you to either pursue a brand new relationship or carry on with one from the previous titles. If Mass Effect 3 is your first foray into the series, the option to start fresh is also presented, and you will be prompted to select from one of three scenarios (which are largely concerned with who in Shepard’s company died prior to the events of Mass Effect 3).

Mass Effect 3 sees the return of a number of traditional RPG elements that were absent from the second game. The game still plays like its two predecessors - a hybrid of third-person shooter and real-time RPG. But leveling up abilities offers different choices as you allot more points to Overload, Warp, Tactical Cloak, and so on. These branches will often allow a perk or longer duration specific to the ability you are levling up or a more overarching improvement to health, shields, or recharge time that may be more practical in the long run but will also provide a slightly smaller percentage of that which it rewards you with. The Paragon and Renegade meter returns and – much like before – players are not necessarily required to select one path over the other and can build both simultaneously if they so choose. That said, there are a few major decisions in Mass Effect 3 that require very high ratings of either Paragon points or Renegade points, and certain dialogue and mission outcomes will be locked unless Shepard’s meter meets this criteria. The ultimate outcome of these decisions can drastically alter the manner in which a mission and subsequently the remainder of the game plays out, and could potentially cost Shepard the loyalties of some of his/her comrades.

Your party in Mass Effect 3 is notably smaller than it was in Mass Effect 2, but it also sees the return of many familiar faces – Liara, Garrus, Tali, and either Kaidan or Ashley return (assuming they all survived the events of the previous games), while EDI steps into a combat role after transferring part of her consciousness to a robot body. The only other new party member (aside from the game’s extra DLC offerings) is James Vega, an alliance soldier who proves to be something of a meathead and behaves primarily as a run-and-gun tank character. While the pickings are somewhat slim, the payoff is that each character plays in a unique manner – Liara is the strongest biotic choice, but Kaidan balances both biotic and soldier. EDI and Tali are both tech-oriented characters, with the former playing to ranged combat and utilizing holograms and the incinerate ability, while the latter is all about close-quarters combat, relying on her shotgun and drones to take out foes. Shepard’s long-standing allies may not play in a drastically new way, but it seems that BioWare has found the perfect balance of abilities and classes to offer players without going overboard with the number of characters at your disposal.

The planets Shepard visits as part of the main storyline each offer up a handful of side missions that can alter the way the primary mission plays out, and subsequently affect the ultimate endgame. Many of these see Shepard reuniting with old friends for a short while. While traditional combat frequently makes up the core of these optional missions, they feel fresh and unique due to the inclusion of new elements like Shepard mounting a turret on the side of a transport as he/she provides cover fire for allied forces, the ability for Shepard to be uploaded into the mainframe of the Geth network, and some up-close and personal encounters with the Reapers themselves.

The majority of combat missions are spent facing down the forces of Cerberus and the mutated species collected by the Reapers. Both of these factions have a wide variety of troops at their disposal, with Cerberus forces being primarily human, save for the ocassional deployment of a stationary turret or large Atlas mech. The humans-turned-husks are the weakest of the Reaper forces, with the teleporting Asari-based Banshee, lumbering Brutes (comprised of both Krogan and Turian remains), and mobile turret Rachni known as the Ravagers giving Shepard and company a much greater challenge. Both armies will keep Shepard on his/her feet and require you to adopt new strategies on the fly. The first few missions limit the variety of forces you are pitted against, however, offering both a tutorial mission during the Reaper attack on Earth and ample time to adjust to Mass Effect 3’s combat style.

While the classic dialogue wheel makes its return, it is used primarily within missions and is largely unused when Shepard interacts with the inhabitants of the Citadel. While this may seem like laziness of BioWare’s part, it makes some sense given that this is the final game in the trilogy. Most of the exchanges Shepard has with these individuals act as wrap-up to the handful of interactions and moments of decision making he/she had with them in the past two games. Meanwhile, Shepard still has more involved subplots and conversation options relating to familiar faces from Mass Effect 2 and its respective DLC packs that don’t appear as party members – i.e. Miranda, Thane, Kasumi, etc. A few key points in the game that are meant to come across as really epic scenes end up seeing a slightly less impressive delivery due to some vague cheesy lines delivered by Shepard. True, the Reapers may have every major planet in the Milky Way on their hit list, but there is a better way to express this than having Shepard yell: "The Reapers are here!" Thankfully, the majority of the game sees writing that is consistent with the quality the previous games put forth. The earliest events of Mass Effect 3 make it clear that the game will tread into dark territory more than once, and as a result, having completed loyalty missions in Mass Effect 2 can mean the difference between life and death for some of these characters.

The Citadel itself holds greater importance in Mass Effect 3 than it did in Mass Effect 2 as the origin of a number of subplots as well as some genuinely engaging missions and cutscenes. Though the Citadel is not as large as it was in the original Mass Effect, it certainly feels open and worth exploring. In Mass Effect 3, the Citadel is divided into six major areas – the Normandy’s docking bay, the lower docks (where war refugees gather), Huerta Memorial Hospital, the Purgatory dance club, the Presidium Commons, and the Human Embassy. Each of these areas appears distinct to its own purposes, but is also in keeping with the general style and feel of the Citadel. Mass Effect 3 sees the Citadel return to its more glamorous role as a primary hubworld instead of a momentary distraction.

While there are a number of planets that are revisited, Shepard and company get to see new areas of each. Though Tuchanka and Noveria may be familiar territory, they have never looked better, and the same can be said to new planets like Sur’Kesh, homeworld of the Salarians, and Thessia, homeworld of the Asari, thanks to improved textures and lighting effects. Graphically, Mass Effect 3 does not see as significant an improvement over its prequel as Mass Effect 2 did over the first game, but it’s still a noticeable step up in quality. Seeing the homeworlds of the Citadel species firsthand is a sort of icing on the cake for anyone who read through all the Codex entries on the Asari, Turian, Krogan, and Salarian people. Meanwhile, scanning planets for resources has been done away with. Instead, the Normandy can scan whole sections of a system, and any nearby discoveries will be noted by a red ring encircling a planet or destroyed ship of interest. The fuel left over from the ship debris will immediately be siphoned for the Normandy to use, while a discovery on a planet’s surface will prompt the same scanner from Mass Effect 2, albeit with the artifact in question (or whatever other war asset lies waiting on the planet) being the singular target.

Equally as noteworthy as the game’s visual presentation is the soundtrack that accompanies the different stages of the fight against the Reapers. While Mass Effect 2’s soundtrack was host to a few key themes and held a certain intense space opera charm, Mass Effect 3’s soundtrack is easily the most complex and emotionally charged of the three games. The variety of tunes and instruments does an exceptional job at conveying the desperation of a galaxy slipping toward extinction as well as Shepard’s own internal struggle, a plot point that echoes more heavily in this game than it did in Mass Effect 2. Though Mass Effect 2 does not rely too heavily on them, the pre-rendered cutscenes are gorgeous, and are just long enough to give you a real appreciation for BioWare’s universe without dragging on for too long.

Mass Effect 3 sees the inclusion of a multiplayer mode that pits teams of four players against waves of enemies, which include the likes of Cerberus troops, the Collectors, Geth forces, and mutated Reaper creations. These waves become increasingly larger and dish out stronger foes as time progresses. Occasionally, a wave will require players to multitask and coordinate roles as they escort a drone from one side of the map to the other or hack a few data terminals. The four challenge levels range from Bronze to Platnum, with Platinum offering up the greatest difficulty setting but subsequently rewarding players with the most substantial gains. Completing missions rewards players with both experience points and in-game credits. Players can thus increase their characters’ abilities in a similar manner as in the single player campaign, and can spend the in-game credits to purchase packages that contain a random assortment of ammunition, weapons and upgrades, and even new characters. All six character classes are unlocked from the outset, though access is initially restricted to default male and female human characters. However, the experience gained as one character in a specific class (like an Adept or Vanguard) carries over to all others in that class, so unlocking an Asari, Quarian, Vorcha, or Volus character does not require you to start from level one and work your way back up. Completing missions in multiplayer also improves the Galactic Readiness Rating on the galaxy map within the single-player game, as each multiplayer mission played improves the degree of preparedness for the respective sector of the galaxy where the missions are located. This holds a slight degree of influence over the way that the last leg of Mass Effect 3’s campaign plays out, though it is not as great a factor as the other decisions Shepard has prior to that point.

Much like in Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3’s final hours play as a lengthy continuous mission separate from the remainder of the game. Admiral Hackett will inform Shepard of the fact that this mission is effectively the beginning of the end, and that there is no turning back once it is initiated. However, it cannot be accessed until the majority of the rest of the game has been completed, so there are (thankfully) no real nasty surprises in store for players who may have jumped the gun and proceeded to an early fight against the Collectors in Mass Effect 2.

The finale itself may not be exactly what every Mass Effect fan was expecting, but it is largely fitting. The final set of cutscenes does well to bring closure to the story that has come together over the course of five years, but may still leave a few points open-ended, depending on which of the endgame routes you select. BioWare has done a phenomenal job of picking out the best elements of the previous games and carrying them over to Mass Effect 3. Certain elements like the lack of interactive dialogue may incline some to believe that BioWare went too far in their attempts to better streamline the game, but as a whole, Mass Effect 3 is a fantastic final chapter to one of the most prominent and arguably most influential games of this console generation.

My rating: 9 (out of 10)