Game Curmudgeons

Without question, Mass Effect was one of the strongest releases of 2007. A groundbreaking RPG, it was recognized for great characters, a fully realized setting, top notch graphics, an excellent score, and some fun, if flawed, combat. While it wasn’t perfect, players were definitely left wanting more, and after no short wait, the sequel has arrived.

It’s been just over two years now since the first came out, and in game time, it’s been just over two years since the fall of Saren, Sovereign, and the battle of the Citadel that took place in the first. After the passage of two years time quite a bit has changed in the galaxy, and after two years of development, quite a bit has changed with the game itself.

Right off the bat, it needs to be said that Mass Effect 2 is absolutely a worthy sequel, building on core elements and improving on some of the flaws, though unfortunately a few new ones show up as well as a logical gap or two.

The most dramatic changes in mechanics are in the combat system, and the move away from the unlimited ammo/overheat system of the first game is a prime example. Players will need to pick up thermal clips from fallen enemies to replenish ammo stocks now, with a limited number of shots before a weapon’s clip needs changed, the system that’s standard to modern shooters. Ammo reserves tend to be low, keeping players on the edge most of the time with the risk of running out of ammo being very present. For the soldier class, which lives bullet to bullet, running dry is going to be a common occurrence.

The system also opens up a few logical loopholes in the name of better gameplay mechanics. Players need to collect universal thermal clips to keep firing so weapons don’t overheat. Each clip adds more shots to each weapon. However, ammo is subtracted only on the weapon in use, when the idea is that ammo itself us unlimited, but the clips themselves are limited in use. What it results in is an empty assault rifle, but a loaded shotgun. The idea is presented that the clips are the actual items being used up, but players can reload as often as they want without expending a clip, and the clips should count for every weapon.

Ultimately, it’s a nitpick, but because the game sets such a high standard for itself, it’s strange that such an illogical occurrence was left in. It’s one of the few logical loopholes players run into, and as such it’s really a damning praise.

Beyond that nitpick, combat has been significantly streamlined. Many of the more miscellaneous skills are out, as are weapon specific skills that were needed for accuracy and damage. Each class gets a unique skill which really focuses on its strengths and needs, now. Soldier, the class which gets the most weapon options and is the only one to use assault rifles, gets an adrenaline rush that puts thing into slow motion, allowing them to line up those critical headshots with ease. Adept, a mage-type class which focuses on using psychic abilities to deal damage instead of weapons, can create a singularity that lifts large groups of enemies into the air, rendering them vulnerable to other abilities and to weapons fire. Ammo powers, which several classes have, are selected and applied to the weapon for the duration of a mission, unless another is used to override it.

The other primary class, engineer, focuses on tech skills.              They’re able to deploy combat drones which can force enemies out of cover and deal damage while the engineer stays safe. They’re masters of fighting synthetics thanks to AI hacking, and like adepts, lack a variety of weapon options. Where soldiers deal direct, even damage to most enemies, adepts are best against organics and deliver reliable damage to single enemies. Engineers don’t deal heavy damage, but they can hurt groups and are able to prevent enemy regeneration, movement,  and flushing them from cover.

In addition to the primary three, there are three combination classes. Vanguards, a soldier/biotic hybrid, who focus on devastating offense. They wield powerful shotguns and have the ability to charge into enemies, bullrushing them with devastating force, firing their weapons the whole time. Infiltrators, on the other hand, a soldier/engineer combination, do best at a distance, picking targets and opportunities with sniper rifles. They have the ability to cloak, rendering them invisible to enemies while they gain better position, and causing higher damage from catching enemies unaware. Like engineers, they’re particularly effective against synthetics, but can flush enemies out with fire, or halt them with cryo ammo.

The final class is the major support, the sentinel. They’re the adept/engineer combo, and among the most versatile fighters. They’ve got tech armor which boosts their shields, and if it’s destroyed it sends out a damaging pulse which knocks enemies down. They’ve also got warp and overload abilities, which can do serious damage to armor or shields. They can freeze enemies in place, and force them away. They’re a powerful defensive support class as a result, keeping enemies at bay and taking their defenses, even if they can’t deal heavy damage themselves.

In the past, health and shields were completely separate factors. Shields recharged quickly, but health damage was only fixed with med kits. Now the systems function more as one unit. Health still drops after shields, but it regenerates quickly alongside shields, and med kits are reserved for bringing back fallen teammates rather than just healing.

Just like players, enemies have a layered health, armor, and shield system. Dealing with the layer is a matter of using the right powers, be they tech attacks, biotic attacks, or ammo types. Rapid fire weapons do more damage to shields, as do disruptor rounds. Armor is best dealt with by high caliber weapons that have more impact at a slower rate, or skills that damage materials like incendiary ammunition. Using the wrong weapon or power just leads to wasted ammo and wasted recharge time, and can easily result in failure when powerful enemies still have their protection by the time they get up close and personal.

Returning players will need an adjustment period to get to know the new systems, but it quickly becomes clear how superior the new combat mechanics are, logical holes notwithstanding. Just don’t think about it, and it works out fine. It’s hard to remember when combat is getting frantic anyway, though when your favorite gun for the situation is empty and you’ve got a full stock of heavy pistol ammunition, you may lament the oddity for a moment.

When not locked in combat, players will spend time exploring various hubs, often cities or space stations. These areas generally function as quest hubs, where players will talk to NPCs, learn more about what’s going on, get directions on how to find someone or something they’re after, or pick up information from conversations already being held.

The game’s conversational system uses a quick wheel of simplified dialog choice option where there are up to six responses to choose from, presented during conversation. The position on the wheel, left or right, up or down, determines whether they’re responses that fall under the paragon path, renegade path, move the conversation forward, or gather more information.

Players can pick a response as others are speaking; it keeps the fully voiced conversation flowing, allowing the acting to shine. It does a great job of removing ambiguity that’s occasionally been a problem in RPG dialog trees, removing the worry of unintentionally insulting someone, or unintentionally complimenting them!

Occasionally players can take a bigger, more dramatic action during dialogue when a paragon or renegade option pops up. Instead of waiting for the next piece of dialogue, the character takes a decisive step. Could be shooting someone, could be hacking something, could be pushing someone out of the way. The actual event is quite variable, but it adds that touch of drama that many RPG conversations lack. It’s an unpredictable element added to conversation, and also one that adds depth and realism.

Most hubs contain areas specifically for combat, dangerous sections NPCs will send them to. Usually they’ll have small amounts of resources to find as rewards, and items which are needed for NPCs in the main areas of the hub. Most of the time combat takes places in these special areas. Tension is lost, admittedly, by that decision, as it’s easy to feel safe in an area where one would have been ready for ambush in the first game. But, it also allows for more dynamic areas. Because there’s a special set piece for it, the area can really have some unique features that would be too much for the exploration and conversation areas.  Permanent changes to the area are possible as well, since changing that area doesn’t require a before and after version of a hub.

While there is lots of run and gun gameplay, this is still a cinematic RPG at the core, the story of a man (or woman) building a team of specialists to take on the impossible. Since players and teammates have fewer powers this time around, there are 10 teammates at release, each with their own skill set, and two can be taken on any mission. Creating a diversely skilled team will make the difference between a frustrating struggle or demolishing everyone in the way.

Adding additional depth are the loyalty missions, teammate specific missions that involve something deeply important to them. These missions tend to involve some hard moral choices beyond the standard paragon/renegade choices. They often end up as unique situations, intense combat, or some very tricky choices to make in a non-combat situation. Several of the loyalty missions are among the most emotional points in the game, and they really pull you into their histories. As an upside beyond the standard credits, materials, and experience points, these missions unlock a third special power for the squad mate. Players can use one of those powers themselves, and given the broad range of functions they can help fill a class weakness easily.

One of the many small changes that add to the world’s depth is a basic email system. Receiving only, but those messages come from people you’ve helped, hurt, those who have missions for you, and occasionally spammers. Morlan’s Famous Shop has an offer for you!

While it sounds like a small thing, and it is, it’s something that really adds to the depth of the universe. RPGs tend to suffer from a lack of consequences, or an appreciation that your actions mattered. Now it’s made clear by the people affected most.  And it’s just funny, of course, to get a 419 scam even in the future. It’s the small touches like that which help to really sell the game’s universe to players.

For all the improvement, there’s one system that stand out for its flaws. That mechanic is planetary scanning. Players launch probes from orbit while scanning, a slow, arduous dragging of a cursor along the surface of a planet, moving it closer to materials needed for upgrades.

The upside is that if there’s something to do on that world, it’s immediately noted and easily tracked down. The downside is that to get the materials needed for upgrades requires slogging through a lot of planets. This means a lot of holding down a trigger, slowly rotating, using up the probes, flying back to the nearest fuel station to buy more and repeating. The collection of materials is an absolute chore and a tremendous time sink in a game which otherwise effectively minimizes downtime.

Really, that’s the biggest complaint to be made about the game. Planetary probing is downtime, plain and simple. Everything else is great. Mass Effect 2 is a game that any RPG or action gamer should pick up, hands down. It walks the line between the two genres in a way most can’t quite manage. A feat that may very well not be done again until Mass Effect 3 hits stores.

It’s a cinematic experience at, a hard sci-fi movie that just happens to clock in over 40 hours of play fairly easily.  It offers solid acting, a great musical score and all kinds of spectacle. Bioware has gone back into their world, and even with one or two logical holes, it’s a truly believable one. More importantly, it’s fun one to be in, to explore and to fight through. In short, Mass Effect 2 is game of the year material.

Space dungeons ahoy!

Greed:Black Border is a recently released dungeon crawler available on Steam. The setting tends toward sci-fi, though from the start it’s quick to throw in zombie horrors to match the security droids and giant alien insects/crustaceans. No surprise, it doesn’t really deviate from the roots, though it focuses on ranged combat for the three classes which equal out to long, medium, and short range guns. There’s very very little variety within those options. You’re packing a rifle, a minigun, or a flamer. That’s it. It will, eventually, do slightly different things (like a bi-directional spray for flamers), but players pick a role and stick with it.

As a result, the pyro class tends to show off the game’s deficiencies with a lack of long range weapons and abilities. Most of the time enemies come to the player, but ranged ones keep some distance. Pyro players are stuck chasing them into corners and using the dodge ability constantly.  They’re also likely to get stuck on an enemy. The game is too sensitive in deciding what a player is trying to do, and even when it seems like there’s a wide range, they’ll get locked onto a target when they were trying to run away. Since pyros are up close and personal they have a bigger problem with it, especially in crowded fights or boss fights.

Somewhat a genre weakness, boss fights really tend to drag out, and a lack of checkpoints means a big timesink and loads of frustration; to make matters worse, the game has a tendency to have a framerate drop in the midst of those fights, usually when the boss is entering bullet hell mode. Losing because you messed up is one thing, losing because the game doesn’t work right is another. Even in normal exploration with lowered settings the game likes to slow down with crowds, and when combined with the overly-eager targeting, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Somewhat an issue of the genre’s isometric nature, Greed tends to hide enemies behind walls. When the cursor is over them and they’re in the player’s line of sight, they’re highlighted. But that’s only when the cursor is over them, meaning unless you have ESP, you have to get guessing, only aware of the problem at all when you start taking damage.

There’s also quite a few “gotcha!” moments as a result, frustrating deaths that should never have happened, really. Often they’re just BEFORE a checkpoint, and after an already significant fight players were intended to have just scraped through. Being jumped by an overpowered enemy around the corner just isn’t fun in this kind of game.

A critical oversight is the lack of pausing for menus and windows. Inventory, skills, or the computer menu leave things running. Normally it’s not a big problem, but plot critical items pop up a new window, and that two seconds can be exactly the amount of time it takes a swarm of enemies to overwhelm you.

Unsurprisingly there’s occasional pathfinding issues when going to open containers, but for the most part characters find their way around without too much difficulty, a common genre issue. There’s a lack of inventory space, but toward the end of the first level players can start selling items, and they can be converted into raw ore at any point, which converts large items into a single square stackable material. Instantly being converted into actual cash would have been better, but it’s a reasonable solution, if tedious since every item has to be done individually.

Outside of all those complaints, there is some fun to be found really. The environments are nicely done, and while they tend toward meandering they’re well built and believable. The artistic style is a semi-realistic design with a bright palette. Enemies are large and the most dangerous enemy types have distinctive silhouettes. Enemies that tend toward support roles or have particularly high damage usually get a particle effect or a glow to help them stand out as key targets, a nice touch for the all-important prioritizing that has to take place rapidly.

The game’s voice acting is cheesy in just the right way, helping to lend to the overall feel of 1980s sci-fi that it runs with. The weapons, the audio, the visual styles all have a level of camp that’s hard to not enjoy. The enemies too, giant crabs, zombies, and powerloaders, all feel like they belong in mid-80ssci-fi/horror movies, being mowed down by Jessie Ventura.

And when the game is in its groove, it’s fun. Searching new areas, figuring out new enemies, mowing down hordes. It’s just a shame it falls out of it so often, into the conventions and failings of the genre.

Greed:Black Border gets 2.5 out of 5. Really fun moments marred tedious bossfights and some big oversights. There’s a tendency toward tedium, inherent in the genre, but it does try to throw in some surprises that can end up being quite entertaining.

This one sure took a while, didn’t it? Well, apparently, so did patching out the issues with Demigod’s connectivity, a major factor for a game based on multiplayer.

For what it’s worth, Brad Wardell put up an informative post about it, available here.

Now, on with the show.

Demigod is somewhere between Diablo, Dynasty Warriors, and Warcraft. Action RPG, musou, and real time strategy are all smashed together in a team-based competitive game expected to last between 30 and 60 minutes a round. The goal is 30, and it does happen sometimes, but only when one gets painfully steamrolled (perhaps I could say when you steamroll someone else, but alas, that’s yet to happen to me).

Players are given control of a hero unit, one of eight currently, amidst a constantly moving battlefield littered with grunts of all sorts, defensive emplacements, and the occasional other demigod. Essentially you’re dropped with another demigod or two into a prebuilt battlefield, taking on the opposing demigods, generally with the goal of crushing their citadel. In some ways, it’s not unlike jumping into the middle of an RTS game. The bases are established, units are spawning, and defenses are up. It’s up to players to break the stalemate, through their own power or by adding to the team’s strengths. Upgrades are bought for demigods and minions (which half of them get, the generals, while the assasins are one man armies) in the form of armor and items from the shop. Team upgrades, such as reduced death penalties, stronger and different types of reinforcement waves (which come on a constant basis), stronger buildings, etc., are bought from the citadel as the war rank goes up (basically the team level, determined by…all sorts of things!).

Gold is the primary resource of the game, critical for upgrades and items, which lend those oh so important advantages in combat between demigods and grunts, and even against fortifications and citadels, though there are plenty of resource controlling flags around the levels, and control to them is key to winning. Some provide experience bonuses, some regeneration, some more gold, some faster cooldowns on abilities, but all are extremely useful, and tend to be the centers of direct demigod on demigod conflicts.

Otherwise, players spend their time crushing grunts for experience, trying to move their own forward so that they can push through enemy defenses, which means more experience, more flags, and another step closer to destroying the citadel (the most common game mode, and really, the most fun). The game has a very subtle ebb and flow at first, but once someone breaks through the wall, there’s often a real snowball effect and the team on the losing side has to rally hard to end the push fast, lest the momentum become too great (which it most certainly does, and big pushes tend to be the game winners rather than small movements).

It’s a unique experience, and with a decent variety of maps and characters to control, as well quite diverse skill trees and upgrade options, there’s a lot to experience. Dynamic is definitely the word, especially as more demigods are on the way, and likely more maps. I’ve yet to play a game that went like the last one, and while the balance isn’t quite perfect yet, daily patches are making improvements constantly, and, excepting for when you get a clueless partner and an experienced enemy team, it’s a lot of fun.

And it’s pretty! Really, really pretty. The combination of Stardock’s technical trickery (they have a way of loading massive textures and assets into a small space and running it brilliantly) plus GPG’s artistic style works splendidly. The normally sci-fi oriented teams have taken a more fantasy oriented approach, creating fantastic levels, backgrounds, and models. The smallest grunts are all fantastically rendered, and the level of detail added to the individual demigods can be absolutely amazing, particularly The Rook. A living tower that stands far, far above everything else and can be upgraded to have smaller units on him working independantly. Archers, for example, can be seen in the turret on his shoulder when players zoom in, once the upgrade it purchased at least.

Excellent effects and animation bring the battles to life, with clear, recognizable sounds helping players sort out a bit of the chaos in the battle thanks to the unique sounds most abilities have, and several buildings. Throw in some beautiful musical scoring, and the presentation hits AAA levels on a game that’s close to budget priced (considering current owners are getting half-off coupons, it really is budget priced for some). And yet, it manages to not tax the system for the most part. A few frame stutters here and there, but it’s mostly a very smooth experience. I should note, however, some people ARE having issues with audio reverb and horrible framerates. The reason isn’t known yet, but it’s currently being worked on after more network patching (right this second, there’s testing going on for proxy servers to resolve lingering connection issues).

Occasionally, though, the chaos of crowded battlefields can make it tricky to get an ability fired off on the right target, and there really should be more documentation. Basic things like attack-move go unmentioned, for example. The first few games are a trial by fire and best played with the single-player AI (which, it should be noted, is a lot of fun and hard provides a good challenge without cheating like AI tends to in an RTS), but after some warm-up, it’s easy to jump in. Demigod could very likely pick up casual players. There’s depth, but it’s reasonably easy to jump in and won’t take hours of your time to finish a game. Frustration is generally low, though there’s always some initial confusion and challenge in learning a very unique game. Still, those complaints move aside quickly in favor of a lot of fun.

Demigod gets 4.5 out of 5 stars. The base game is excellent but there’s still some lingering technical issues making it hard to connect to other players and causing the occasional crash or stutter for a small amount of players. If the game continues to get the polish and up to twice daily patches, it’s going to be a full five stars. For now, though, it’s falling a little short of that.