Games Reviewing - My progress

I believe that I have improved my general English writing skills quite considerably in my time so far on the games reviewing module. We have covered what I feel is a lot of ground and the module seems to have been well planned in the way that new techniques are introduced for us to study. An example of this would be the way that paragraphs have become gradually more important over the last few weeks, to the point where we are doing reviews where there is no word count, just a limit on the paragraphs.

I feel this emphasis on paragraphs suits me as I find it hard to stick to a small word limit in my reviews. With the paragraph limit there is slightly more room to play with in terms of the amount you can write. This helps me a lot as with some of my earlier reviews I have found myself having to reduce my conclusion to make it fit, or leave out points I wanted to make. With that in mind I particularly feel that my conclusions have improved vastly since beginning this module.

With regards to working with editors, I definitely prefer working by myself. I feel that when you are placed with an “editor,” especially somebody you don’t really know, you are putting your grade in someone else’s hands. As well as this I don’t like people changing my work much and so I infinitely prefer reading over it myself. Proof reading is okay as you will always read something you wrote the way it is meant to be read, even if you have put a wrong word in or missed some punctuation.

Review of Morning's Wrath

After three years in the making, games developer Ethereal Darkness Interactive are ready to unleash their new game, Morning’s Wrath. The game is an epic adventure, drawing you into a deep and involving story telling the tale of a young princess and her quest to save her country from invasion. Fans of both adventure games and role playing games will feel at home with the interface and the game’s style, though EDI have also introduced some new features to the genre, ensuring Morning’s Wrath is a game you simply must play!

Straight away the first thing you will notice is the unique control system for your character. You do not directly control Morning, instead the games uses a “point and click” method to move around. This may feel a little strange at first but actually works really well within the isometric viewpoint of the game and you will soon get comfortable with this control method.

Too often in role playing games combat can seem to happen randomly. Morning’s Wrath aims to make this a thing of the past with a melee attack style to the combat. All the combat happens on the main game screen so there is no fuss, no need for flashy graphics; you just pull out your sword and hack away!

Just reading about these two features along should convince you that this game is going to be something special, yet there are even more reasons why Morning’s Wrath is a must have game. Collect artefacts and runes to cast spells, you can also upgrade your character as you play, with five attributes to level up. With roughly 20+ hours of gameplay to be enjoyed, Morning’s Wrath has enough meat on its bones to keep you coming back for more, time and time again. If you like adventure games or role playing games you will love this game. I would even encourage games players who don’t usually play games of these genres to give it a go, you will not be disappointed.

Jets'n'Guns two paragraph review

Compare and Contrast

Jets’n’Guns is a frantic, fast paced action romp in the style of R-Type. The two games definitely share a lot of characteristics. Both are insanely hard for a start, the enemy spaceships come at you in great numbers and there is no letting up in the pace of the game once the level is underway. The games are also similar in the great variety of the great variety of things to blow up, from planes and helicopters, to soldiers and cows. (!)

Evaluation

Overall Jets’n’Guns is a fun but challenging game to play. It certainly grows on you and can become extremely addictive and manages to entertain rather then frustrate, despite the difficulty of the game. Genre veterans should see their way through this game fine as there isn’t a terrible lot new on offer, but it will still give them a new challenge. The novice player may struggle to get to grips with the intense action, but I would urge you to stick with it as once you have cracked the hard exterior of Jet’n’Guns, a great little game is there to be enjoyed.

Jets'n'Guns one paragraph review

Evaluation

Jets’n’Guns is a high action, high fun blast. The ability to buy different upgrades for your ship is a welcome addition, which adds an extra level of depth to the experience. This game definitely holds its own against legends of this genre such as R-Type and Ikaruga, which should give you some indication of the quality on offer here. Insanely addictive in short bursts, Jets’n’Guns is a great way of getting some arcade style thrills in your own home. Just keep the mouse button held down and blast away!

Void Wars assessed exercise

Definition

Void Wars is a 3D space blaster from Rampant Games. The game features both online and offline game modes and features a wealth of spacecraft for you to pilot. There have been many great intergalactic dogfight style games over the years, through Elite to Wing Commander and recently Colony Wars on the Playstation. So the question is can Void Wars match the high level of competition through the genre and rub shoulders with such greats?

Description

Well, on paper at least, Void Wars has a lot going for it. There are six different craft to pilot, a full offline campaign as well as online multiplayer combat. There are even obstacles to avoid such as space stations and asteroids. Yes, even in the vast expanse of space you can still manage to bump into things if you’re not careful. The game is played in full, sweeping 3D and the game areas are fairly large which gives the game a good sense of scale. As well as this the space ships look good and there is something satisfying about letting off a volley of laser fire towards an enemy ship and seeing it explode as another space pirate bites the dust.

Sequence

Void Wars is extremely easy to get into and start playing. To access the offline campaign mode all you need to do is pick your craft and name and then you’re off. Interestingly, each craft has a special attack meaning there is some, albeit limited, replay value if you wish to see what each craft can offer you. The campaign sees you on a quest to rescue a missing girlfriend, so nothing exactly Tolkien-esque from the plot here. There are some good boss fights to be had here and they will certainly provide you with a real challenge right throughout the game.

Compare and Contrast

There is a large feeling of being in a massive space opera; you can almost hear Han Solo over the radio saying “Great shot, kid” as you take down another ship. It’s these sorts of feelings that really touch your inner child and mean you can find yourself playing Void Wars with a big grin on your face. Sadly, however, these feelings don’t hang around for long. The handling of the ships is extremely twitchy, almost to the point of being unplayable at times. As well as this the enemy craft have an annoying habit of driving right into you. It’s these flaws which seriously ruin your experience and is the reason why Void Wars doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights of games such as Elite.

Choice

When this type of game is done properly (see any of the games mentioned above) then you can end up with some spectacular results. There is something inherently appealing about dog fighting in space, but Void Wars tries its hardest to ruin this with the dodgy AI of the enemy pilots. This means sooner or later you will head for the online mode to find some real people to pit your skills against. This turned out to be my favourite mode of play, a good old fashioned deathmatch, no storyline or end level bosses needed.

Evaluation

Overall a brave effort by Rampant but sadly Void Wars is marred by some serious flaws and so comes up short of being a great game. With illusions of grandeur this ends up more b-movie than George Lucas. The game looks great but can be an absolute dog to play. It is almost as if somebody has taken all the ingredients needed for a great game and somehow ended up baking something of a distinctly average experience.

Void Wars - 305 words

1 = Definition Paragraph

2= Description Paragraph

3= Compare Paragraph

4= Evaluation Paragraph

Void wars is a 3D space blaster from Rampant Games. The game features both online and offline game modes and features a wealth of spacecraft for you to pilot. There have been many great intergalactic dogfight style games over the years, through Elite to Wing Commander and recently Colony Wars on the Playstation. So the question is can Void Wars match the high level of competition through the genre and rub shoulders with such greats?

Well on paper at least Void Wars has a lot going for it. There are six different craft to learn, a full offline campaign as well as online multiplayer combat. There are even obstacles to avoid such as space stations and asteroids. Yes, even in the vast expanse of space you can still manage to bump into things if you’re not careful. The game is played in full, sweeping 3D and the game areas are fairly large which gives the game a good sense of scale. As well as this the space ships look good and there is something satisfying about letting off a volley of laser fire towards an enemy ship.

There is a large feeling of being in a massive space opera; you can almost hear Han Solo over the radio saying “Great shot kid” as you take down another ship. It’s these sorts of feelings that really touch your inner child and mean you can find yourself playing Void Wars with a big grin on your face.

Sadly however, these feelings don’t hang around for long. The handling of the ships is extremely twitchy, almost to the point of being unplayable at points. As well as this the enemy craft have an annoying habit of driving right into you. So overall a brave effort by Rampant but sadly Void Wars comes up short of being a great game.

Games Journalism

Games journalism at the moment seems to be causing a certain amount of consternation to some people. The main point of frustration seems to be about the journalist’s eagerness to count themselves as part of the games industry. A journalist is a journalist, be they reporting on a new computer game, the FA Cup final or even reporting on a court case. They are no more in the games industry then the people behind the counter in Gamestation.

For the writers and reporters to be considered part of the “Industry” they certainly need to offer more then they currently do. Fans of certain genres or characters or even certain developers will purchase whatever product is put out there regardless of how much you urge them to “Try before you buy.” A case in point being the Mario games. Originally a platform game stalwart, Nintendo’s mascot is now appearing in seemingly everything, the Nintendo fanbase being as protective as it is they will buy the games regardless of the dubious quality of some of them. Therefore a review of a game can be irrelevant to some people. An expert games journalist will then recognise their audience and realise how best to get their attention.

A time to warp - 200 Words

A Time to Warp is the brainchild of Scott Nelson and was entered into the Acoders indie game making competition of 2004. The general theme of the competition was time and ATtW certainly embraces its theme well.
In a nutshell the game boils down to shooting boxes to pick up a coloured orb. (You are told before the level starts which colour to look for) You must drive down the road avoiding the wrong coloured orbs otherwise you will lose a life.

However, the really, really, cool part of this game is the fact you are essentially playing the same level over and over again, but in different generations of console. For example the 1977 level is text based, you are asked if you would like to shoot a crate, and pick up the orb. Although there are some simple ASCII drawings there are no animations at all to accompany you. Next level may be 1997 and your car, indeed the whole level is in full 3D.

This diversity gives ATtW a very strong charm and although the game isn’t particularly addictive you will certainly want to play through it at least once to see all the different styles.

Darwinia - 504 Words

Darwinia is the newest game from Introversion, creators of hack-em-up Uplink. However this game is a very big departure from the static screens and mostly text based game play of Uplink. With Darwinia, think Command and Conquer meets Tron and you’re almost there. Will such a drastic change of gaming style alienate the Introversion fan base? Taking such a huge leap in the way they have done with Darwinia is certainly a risky move but thankfully the game’s charm and simplicity should win over new fans for the indie games developer.

Darwinia takes a very distinct style, the game takes place on three dimensional, abstract looking maps, but most of your units are two dimensional shapes. Helpfully there can be no confusion between whether units or friendly or foe, your units, known as Darwinians, are bright green whereas the enemy are coloured bright red. Although you may initially think that this lack of detail on the models is a bad thing, it really isn’t. The style of the units and the way they are shown on screen fits in perfectly with the style of Darwinia and the surroundings of the game.

The game itself is extremely easy to dive into and get playing. You are helped along by Dr Sepulveda, the creator of the Darwinians, who will give you advice on what to do and tell you about your units and their strengths and weaknesses. As you would expect, the amount of help you are given is slowly reduced as the game progresses, enabling you to complete the levels without the game holding your hand every step of the way.

There is a good mix of strategy and action to be found in Darwinia as you have to create the unit best equipped to counter the evil red virus. You can create a variety of programs such as the bog standard squad, which can be used to fight most enemies. There are also engineer units which can read bits of research code found in the levels and convert them to weapons to help your fighter units. The combat is fun yet still challenging in Darwinia. You simply move your units within range and unleash everything you have on the enemy, be it lasers, grenades or even rockets.

In conclusion I was very impressed with Darwinia. The game features an original style and setting and despite the fact your units are nothing more then 2D green shapes you can feel a certain attachment to them as you strive to get through the level without losing any of them. The scenery is full of nice effects that add to the atmosphere, such as the souls of fallen units slowly rising into the sky and then gradually fading away. Introversion are certainly building up a reputation as one of the finest independent games developer and Darwinia should be another feather in their cap as the game is unlike anything you will have played before. Darwinia is Addictive, unique, abstract, challenging and fun. A must play.

9/10