Cobalt Monkey's Game Reveiws--Bioshock: Infinite

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

If you played games on the PS2 in the last decade or so, then chances are you're familiar with the Prince of Persia Series. A fantastic platfoming game at it's core, but with increasingly good combat control as well. How does this new addition stack up to a near legendary franchise? Solidly, but it fails to reach the epicness of it's predecessors. A lot of the previous charm is still there, but some of the polish has worn away. Possibly the result of being rushed to coincide with the Prince of Persia movie release with which the game shares nothing, thankfully. The movie wasn't really bad, imho, but I'm still glad the game didn't end up as another bad movie themed game.
Here's the breakdown.

Graphics & Sound: 8
Not a lot to say about the graphics. They're not bad, and the environments are all very nicely done. They're every bit as good as we've come to expect from the PS3. I do believe that an attempt was made to make the Prince closely resemble the actor who played him in the movie, but he's actually one of the low points. Not that he looks bad, more that he doesn't quite fit with the other characters' looks.
The music and sound effects fit like they should, and the voice acting is top notch. Absolutely no complaints about that.

Story: 7
This game is an "interqual" which means it's set between two existing titles. Namely, Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Fitting for a few reasons, but I'll cover that later.
In this installment, the Prince is visiting his brother, Malik, who rules a kingdom of his own on behalf of their father. But naturally, when he arrives the city is under siege by an unnamed enemy force. Things just kind of go downhill from there for our hero. But what else is new?
Overall, the story isn't spectacular, but it is fair enough and fits right at home in the PoP universe.

Characters: 9
The cast is small, as usual, but everyone plays their part well. If more games did their characters this well, then gaming would be a good deal more enjoyable. The Prince's character really is in line with how he would be acting in this time frame, too. He's still a bit sarcastic like in SoT, but also more mature. Not as hardened as he was in WW.

Gameplay: 6
There is one reason, and one reason only that this isn't higher: Game Length. Two days playing a few hours at a time and I have not only completed this game twice, but Platinumed it. Initial play time was around 10 hours or so. I turned around to go back for the missed trophies (you can't plat it in one playthrough) and I cut that in half. Keep in mind though that this game does use a New Game+ Feature, so I was using high level abilities the whole of the second playthrough.
As to the gameplay itself... This is certainly a PoP game, but some of what made those great is gone. The platforming is as good as ever, and made more interesting by the new abilities to solidify water so that waterfalls can be used as walls to run on and water spouts can be used as poles or columns, as well as the ability to reconstitute select missing parts of the environment. These effects are limited somewhat so that you have to time jumps very carefully, and keep in mind what's frozen and what's might disappear out from under you at any time. This is definitely a step in the right direction.
However, where platforming takes a good stride, combat takes a step back. There's more focus on killing hordes of enemies, yet the Prince's fighting style isn't as refined as in WW or The Two Thrones. This does make sense as he was only just really learning to fight in the first game and it isn't until the second he has multiple moves. In this game, the Prince has given up dual wielding in favor of a single sword. Your secondary weapon is replaced by a kick attack used to knock people down for faster kills. By contrast to WW/TT where you have a number of combo attacks at your disposal, here you have only a basic 5 hit combo to be enhanced by the addition of Power attacks, momentary delays while you charge up your sword. Our hero isn't nearly as acrobatic in combat as he used to be (or would that be 'will be"?). No more disarming or throwing. Most baffling is the apparent loss of the ability to block.
To help handle the massive hordes of enemies your granted a few elemental themed attacks. Upgrades to those and your base attacks/heath/energy capacity (the new Sand Tanks) are bought with experience gotten from killing enemies. Sadly, only two of the abilities will see any real use. Stone Armor makes you temporarily invincible. Honestly, it's a bit overpowered. Whirlwind is great for clearing space and getting some room when you need it. Flame Trail leaves, get this, a trail of flames in your wake as you run around. Nearly useless. Almost as useless is Ice Blast. A wave of ice erupts in the direction you attack, damaging enemies as it goes. Which isn't really bad, but there's just no reason to use it when you have the superior Whirlwind.
Oh, and you get the Rewind power for no related reason (not that I'm complaining). It's almost an integral part of the series now. If there were no other sorts of powers in the next one, and they wanted to just say the Prince learned it from repeated exposure, I'd be happy with that.

Overall Score: 7 out of 10
I'm reminded a lot of the original Sands of Time game in that it too was the first on it's console and there was room for improvement. Ubisoft used it as a base and went up from there. I'm hoping they listen to the fans' input on this one and make a next game that surpasses this one the way Warrior Within one upped Sands of Time.
Because the game is so short, I advise a rental, unless you can find it in the bargain bin.

Tomb Raider

Lara Croft has a name known the gaming world over. The British bombshell made a name for herself with two pistols, an attitude, and a chest with more pixels than the rest of her body parts combined.



In making this new game, developer Crystal Dynamics has decided to trade Lara's infamously perky pixels for something with more substance. Battle scars, grit, and real character development. So, how well did they do? Read on to find out.


Presentation: 10
As noted in the title, this review is for the PS3 version of the game. Using a modified version of Square Enix's awesome Crystal Tools Engine, this game shows just how good graphics can get on the PS3. From the crashing waves on the beach, to the forested hills, and dark caves, each locale is top notch. The worst the game shows is a slight flatness to some plants, which is something other graphical giants like the Elder Scrolls games have yet to conquer. So no harm, no foul.
The excellent ambient sounds help bring each area to life, and the voice acting is superb. The only exception would be the main villain, whose voice does not match their frame. It's like hearing a chihuahua that barks as loud as a mastiff. Fortunately, the rest of the voice cast is superb.

Story: 8.5
It really feels like a great story about personal growth is hindered by the need to cram it into a game. Lara goes from frightened school girl to Xena, Warrior Princess in no time at all. If this same story had been stretched out to take place over a few months instead of a few days, the transformation wouldn't seem so abrupt. This is where story and gameplay start to rub each other the wrong way. Unless her mentor is a world class athlete/death commando who taught Lara everything he knew while she was still in college, there's just very little reason for the sudden shift from desperate whispered prayers in combat to murderous battle cries. Instead, the story seems to have been crammed down into something more fitting of the Uncharted series, and even follows a similar arc of alternating investigation and conflict all leading up to a big reveal (though TR does provide more hints along the way).

All that aside, the basic story of the shipwrecked survivors is well told and entertaining. Lara's defining moments do stand out very nicely. Her joy at small successes in the beginning. Her first human kill. I'll avoid any real spoilers, but let's just say that there's more later on.


Gameplay: 8
The gameplay/story dissonance is probably best summed up by a short conversation early in the game.
Lara: "They're killing people."
?: "What? Who?"
Lara: "Men...I don't know why. I had to kill some of them."
?: "That can't have been easy."
Lara: "It's scary just how easy it was."

And indeed it is easy. My initial playthrough was on the hardest difficulty, and there were only a rare few places that gave me any trouble at all. Combat is so simple that there's rarely reason to use anything outside of the bow. Likewise, the puzzles are unlikely to send you scrambling to Gamefaqs in frustration. This badly clashes with the main theme of the game which is survival. The tagline of the game, "A Survivor is Born" isn't very impressive if surviving turns out to be very, very easy.
Since ammo is required to solve most of your puzzles, it's always plentiful.
Any object you can interact with is highlighted in bright yellow like a neon sign. I could see this being the case in areas where new concepts like wall climbing are introduced, but after that shouldn't it be up to the player to recognize and remember what they can interact with?
This all makes it seem like Tomb Raider's gameplay and story are just more victims of the "need" to make the game as accessible as possible for maximum possible profit.

While the ease of combat is a little disappointing, the way it actually plays out most of the time is pretty fun. The enemies are the most aggressive I've seen in a cover-based shooter. Between the standard shooting enemies, those that rush you for melee attacks, and those that liberally bomb you with fire or explosives to chase you from cover, the action can get pretty hectic.
That said, a bit more enemy variety would have been greatly appreciated. And in fact, it appears that the team originally intended to play up the supernatural angle with accompanying enemies if this leaked concept art is any indication. Here's hoping that the next title goes a bit more down that path.

Stealth is repeatedly touted as a combat option, but this doesn't really seem to be the case aside from areas where it's scripted to be allowed. There's no getting around the many, many scripted shootouts. However, when it is allowed it works very well. Staying concealed and not killing enemies at the wrong time and alerting their friends can even be a bit challenging when you're not relying on the Survival Instincts (a filter which turns the world black and white aside from enemies, ammo, and objects you can interact with) to highlight enemies and show you which ones not to kill.

Despite the name of the game, very little actual Tomb Raiding is done throughout the game. Of all the places raided, only one or two are actual tombs. The rest of the raiding takes place on a varied number of fun and interesting locales, but anything claiming to be a tomb is merely a glorified storage area guarded only by a single simple puzzle. The prize for completing this puzzle is something that makes the game even easier. Sometimes it's a part used to modify a weapon, but just as often it's a treasure map that points out exactly where any collectible documents, relics, or GPS caches are hidden, which makes finding them as easy as dropping a waypoint on the map and taking a stroll.
Additionally, you can also get a skill that will not only pinpoint any treasures in your area, but highlight them and have them appear through walls. Another skill marks for you the locations of each "tomb" in the game. If you want any semblance of challenge in collecting, you had best skip the tombs entirely until the end of the game, and not buy either skill.

The only actual challenges are in the aptly named "Challenges" and in tracking down all the salvage and gun parts. The Challenges usually involve finding (or just shooting) well hidden objects in an area, and even this is made easier because they too glow with your Survival Instincts. Even so, there are a rare few that are likely to leave you scratching your head.

Speaking of gun parts, they aren't actually how you upgrade your weapon. That is done by finding the many crates of salvage or looting it from enemies. The salvage serves as a generic currency for gun upgrades. Finding additional gun parts just allows you to modify them more via salvage.

Killing enemies and completing objectives earns you Experience Points. Each time you fill the experience bar you're given a point to spend on one of the various skills.
Survivor skills focus on enhancing your Survival Instincts and getting extra loot from enemies. Hunter skills give you more ammo capacity and extra EXP for flashy up close kills on stunned enemies. Brawler skills improve your melee abilities with various "Dodge-Counter" moves to debilitate and eliminate enemies with, or take less combat damage.

With both these skills and the gun parts, I feel that a great opportunity to showcase Lara's survival skills was missed. For example, getting less damaged in combat or from falls could have been accomplished by searching out specific items for Lara to fashion into new equipment, like a light jacket (which really would have been handy in a snowy area to begin with) with some thin metal plates sewn in. Or actual extra pockets to hold your extra ammo in. Ingenuity and survival go hand in hand, after all.


Replay Value: Fair
Despite the disconnect between gameplay and story, the game as a whole is still enjoyable. But any of the challenges outside the story can be done upon completion in the post-game which just lets you have free run of the island. Well, you don't even have to wait until the post-game, as any area can be returned to from any of the many Fast Travel Camps once you're done with it. I just chose to because the story and action kept me interested.

Overall: 9
A very solid game in most ways. You would be well served to pick it up as soon as possible, but if you want a more challenging experience then waiting for a sale might be better for you.
An important note is that the multiplayer side of the game is not included in this review. I didn't play much of it, but it felt really tacked on and rough. And since it's in no way required, taking off points from an otherwise great game is not really fair.

As fun as the game is, there's still a lot of missed potential. Then again, that just leaves you with more incentive to look forward to the next installment.