Civilization II (PC and Playstation)

 

Introduction

In Civilization the player does not take the role of a gallant knight, a guy who’s girlfriend was kidnapped by thugs, or a hero. Civilization puts the role of the player into that of a leader, with no skills to fight enemies but a leader doesn’t need to fight, he’s got people for that. Choose your civilization, or make your own– although it’s purely aesthetic– and see how long you can go without inventing the wheel.

History

The irony is not lost on me that I can’t find information on this game’s development. Sorry ya’ll. I can say that it’s abandonware so it’s A-okay to download.

Civilization II was released on February 29th, 1996. It’s competition was Super Mario RPG (Super Nintendo), Duke Nukem 3D (PC), and Zork: Nemesis (PC).

Nostalgia

I know you whippersnappers out there are used to your Waifai and your internet multiplayer lobbies but if I wanted to play a multiplayer game then we had to play hot seat. A hot seat game is a game where each player plays on the same computer and has to switch seats on each other’s turns. So my cousin and I would declare each other as allies for life and take on the world and kick them in the teeth, not watching what each other was doing in the interim. But with this age of rapid internet access the hot seat has grown cold.

Gameplay

Civilization is a game about resource management and diplomacy. Cities produce buildings, units, and settlers and settlers build more cities– build more cities to get more settlers, to get more settlers to get more cities.

The three resources that fuel every city in this game are food, production, and trade. These resources are gained from the terrain around a city by citizens and a city gets more citizens by getting enough food. Settlers can also improve terrain around a city, like improving the production of a mountain by adding a mine or the food yield of some grasslands by irrigating it.. Production helps the city build buildings and units more quickly. Trade contributes to science, money, and luxuries. The effect that trade has on these things is altered by the type of government your civilization is in. Certain governments have additional effects like Fundamentalist Utopias have no unhappy citizens but gain technology half as quickly as others or how the UN or congress can prevent an action in a Democracy. If you want to change your government then you have to send your civilization into anarchy for awhile, nothing useful can be accomplished in anarchy.

You can also view your city. It’s especially ridiculous when there are multiple wonders in one city. Do you remember the time when America built the Colossus, the Pyramids, and Big Ben?

Diplomacy is actually really simplistic. You can exchange technologies, declare war, arrange peace, make alliances, and that’s about it. You can also make these requests at the behest of other civilizations to try and gain their trust.

If the production of your city gets too high then it’ll start producing pollution. Pollution can be cleaned up by settlers or engineers but while its there the improvements of the tile are negated.

And if there’s enough of it on the map it’ll trigger global warming which is bad… m’kay.

There is also a civilization that has no cities and no territory, they’re barbarians. Barbarians will show up randomly and attack your cities, if you can destroy their leader you’ll get a little bonus. Barbarians keep up with you in technology at all times and love to destroy the improvements you’ve made to your land. If barbarians aren’t your style then you can turn them off.

Barbarians always take the color red and can pose a serious threat. And if they capture your cities then they can produce units for themselves!

You win the game after you’ve laid waste to every other civilization or built a spaceship capable of sending your civilization to Alpha Centauri. War has other advantages too, after you capture a city you can learn a technological advance that they’ve learned. Why bother learning anything if you can just clobber them for it?

The Gush

This game runs smooth on whatever computer I’ve played it on. It’s also available for download all over the web because it’s 18 years old. Free sounds like a good price to me.

The music is really good. There are over 20 tracks ranging from atmospheric tracks, to classical organ music.

You can have a throne room! You improve it one piece at a time and can keep improving the same piece have have a president’s desk in a dusty cave if you want.

Or be boring and keep things consistent.

This game has got a great map editor so you can have fun with your friends in all sorts of custom made maps.

The wonders in this game are large structures that present an advantage that lasts for most if not all of the game. But someone else can complete it before you and send all that production to waste. I think it’s a really interesting piece of risk vs. reward design.

The Test of Time expansion to this game makes significant improvements to the automated settler AI. Automated AI, because 20 settlers are just too many to manage manually.

Test of Time also brings improved graphics and interface.

The Kvetch

Games are made of choices and there’s no mechanical and nearly no aesthetic difference between each civilization. Whether it’s Zulus or Vikings, they start off and develop with the same odds as everyone else. Sometimes my civilization starts with additional technologies but it seems random.

There are some scenarios in the Test of Time expansion that seem bugged. I tried the future expansion but eventually I couldn’t develop more technology. I tried the magical world but I couldn’t transfer between worlds and couldn’t figure out how to win.

Wonders are great but if a civilization is close to getting one it warns the other players. These players can then use money to finish their wonder and then the game chooses randomly who constructs it. Even if that doesn’t work that player can shift that production to another wonder. I just wish there was a better system.

The Verdict.

This game is incredible and for the low cost of free I don’t see much reason not to give it a whirl. Whether you’re a fan of the series looking at the earlier versions or new to the genre entirely it’s super fun.

Next week: Gex: Enter the Gecko

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance (Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Gameboy Advance.)

Introduction

If there’s a bustling metropolis in a fantasy setting it’s going to get messed up by everyone that knows about it, Baldur’s Gate is no exception and this day is like any other. Conspiracies, ancient prophecies, gelatinous cubes all await our weary adventurers in the city of destiny on the Sword Coast, Baldur’s Gate. It is kind of bizarre though that a level 1 adventurer is able to topple a multi organization wide conspiracy in a matter of a day or so–whatever, destiny or something.

It’s the standard fare really, gruff dwarf, buxom elf… generic human.

History

Dark Alliance started when the console users at the time clamored for a Baldur’s Gate game they could play on their consoles because the previous installments were for PC only. This game would be developed by Snowblind Studios instead of Bioware and the emphasis away from interesting moral choices is evident. The game turned into something more akin to Gauntlet than the DnD adventure Baldur’s Gate fans would probably have been accustomed to.

This game required it’s own engine, cleverly named the Dark Alliance Engine, in order to function. It was a great improvement over other engines of the time because it didn’t have the same aliasing problems, blurring basically, that other engines had.

Fun Fact: The Bards Tale, and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel both use the Dark Alliance engine.

Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance was released on December second, 2001. It’s competition was, Devil May Cry (Playstation 2), Pikmin (Gamecube), Super Smash Bros. Melee (Gamecube), and Final Fantasy X (Playstation 2).

Nostalgia

I used to play this game all the time with my cousin back in High School. We would just hack and slash our way through scores of monsters and talk about stuff, just things. I couldn’t tell you what the conversations were about, very much like this game’s events, they just seemed to float away with time.

“Whoa! Meteor swarm was worth the wait. But as I was saying, geometry blows…”

Gameplay

The Gameplay is pretty simple actually. You hit monsters with swords. That’s not even much of an exaggeration. The player explores a series of oddly angular tunnels and rooms filled with critters ranging from kobolds to giants and then they hit them with weapons, usually swords, in order to dispatch them. Each character has a different set of special skills and abilities they can unlock by allocating skill points. Skill points are acquired whenever the character levels up, which is accomplished by hitting enemies with swords– it’s a vicious cycle really, emphasis on vicious.

You go to different locations but the gameplay never changes. Whether you’re on a misty mountain top, wandering through the Marsh of Chelimber, or the onyx tower itself it’s all about the monster hitting.

Oh man, look at all these dudes, time to hit ’em.

Oh, and if you’re still hungry for hitting things with swords then you can start a new game plus. The game has 4 difficulty levels: Easy, normal, hard, and extreme. You can only actually play Extreme with a character who has played through the game once already on any other difficulty– trust me, you’ll need it. Normally in a new game plus you keep your weapons, armor, other items, and skill but in an Extreme playthrough you’ll only have you skills to keep you safe from the hoards of KILLER rats in the basement.

The Gush

The plot is right out of a good Dungeons and Dragons module. It’s got monsters galore and a villainous plot that comes right out of the Lord of the Rings. Not moral ambiguity, they’re the bad guys and you’re the good guys– thank goodness life’s not that simple. The art design also looks really good, there are all sorts of rugs and tapestries and things to check out.

…From buxom elven bartenders…

… To vicious beholders. This game has got everything.

The game is really forgiving about death in a multiplayer mode. If one player gets to a save point then the other returns to life in flash of light.

The Kvetch

The music is really hard to hear and doesn’t really build much atmosphere.

The character’s don’t have much character. Their dialogue occasionally differs but it’s really just there to push the plot.

Insert generic dialogue that works for all characters, regardless of class, race, or sex.

Gold isn’t shared or transferable between players. If my buddy hogs all the money then I might not be able to buy what I need and if he wants to give me some to buy something I really NEED then he can’t. His best option is to buy some stuff, drop it, let me pick it up, then I sell them back at half price. It’s a really bad system.

Lemme tell you about arrows. Fuck arrows. The human is an arcane archer so using the bow is kind of his thing and bows need arrows. Arrows are needlessly heavy and expensive, running out of them is common because aiming is so difficult. It’s easy to run out of arrows, run into a fight that you can’t win otherwise, and have to start the game over in order to stand a chance.

The Verdict

I looked back on this game with fond memories and it got great reviews at the time but I don’t think it aged very well. The story was fun to play through the first time but there’s no real distinction between one playthrough or another except the myriad of ways you can kill goblins. This game was sort of a place holder for doing something else, like fishing, it’s a great way to shoot the breeze but there’s probably something better to do. Or at least a more engaging interactive experience to share with a friend.

Next week: Sid Meier’s Civilization II

Theo’s Waste Basket: Sonic R (Saturn, PC, Playstation 2, Gamecube)

Theo’s Waste Basket will be an ongoing addition to my normal posts. My friend Thelonious finds old games that are commonly considered to be bad and gives them another look.

Introduction

If there’s one thing I know about video game franchises, it’s that outside of the core series, everyone likes to race. Mario and the gang have 8 games, Rare’s Diddy Kong Racing ganged up all its cute anthropomorphic pals and put together a unique racing game that had some semblance of a plot if you played it right, and in the last few years, Sega released their “all-star” kart racer. I guess driving is a lot of fun when you don’t have to save the world. But we’re not driving.

Why the hell would sonic need a car?

 

History

Sonic CD was the second game developed by Travelers Tales. It’s a familiar name. If you’ve played anything with “Lego” before the name of a movie series, they developed it. But back in the far-off land of 1996, Sonic Team began talking with the company about making a second Sonic game, the first being 3D Blast, which was a monument to the mega-drive’s processing capabilities. Like Sonic 3D Blast was for the Mega-drive and Genesis. Sonic R was meant to show the processing power and ability the Sega Saturn was capable of. On Halloween, Sonic R was released in North America.

A lot of VERY good games were released in 1997, so let’s look at just the big titles released around the same time. These games were: PaRappa the Rapper (PS1), Curse of Monkey Island (PC) and Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PS1) with Diddy Kong Racing not far behind, released November 24th. The PC version I played was released the following year.

Nostalgia

I barely even remember when I played Sonic R the first time. It certainly wasn’t on its original console. I was obsessed with Sonic, though. I don’t even remember where it came from but my youth was spent playing Sonic, Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 on the Genesis because damn did I love going fast and the color blue. I don’t have much memory of when I first played it though. I just borrowed a CD from a friend, and played it on our first computer, back in…shit, the early 2000’s?

At least it came with MYST.

 

The first time I played it, I was so excited. Sonic! Racing! I could play it! Unlike Myst with its prerendered, 3d pictures, I could run around a bunch of colorful, detailed courses. After a few races, I spent a lot of time in time attack exploring the maps.There was Flicky Island, which I remember from the comics, a Casino Night Zone/City streets area, A robotic stronghold, ancient ruins and a shining gemstone track in space you unlocked by coming in first on the four other tracks. Five maps isn’t all that impressive, even for 1997. I was a bit disappointed then, but I loved Sonic and I would take what I could get, dammit.

 

Gameplay

Like most early sonic games, the control scheme was simple, just brought into 3d. the up arrow went forward, left and right turned, but back let you crouch and instead of jumping when you pressed the spacebar you’d charge up a spindash and speed ahead. Mercifully, the left and right arrow keys were bound to drift, and not turn, making cornering possible.Turning normally I found out, playing with a friend on the Gamecube’s Mega Collection, is bogus and awful.  I found drifting mapped to the shoulder buttons on the controler and smoked him every race. Even on the gamecube though, the movement felt floaty. turns, even when i was drifting were very wide and sapped your speed immensely. Collision with walls and other characters was fine, but you would bounce and ricochet off of other racers like they were balloons making the beginning of races very chaotic and left me in last until i caught up.

There were also weather controls where different weather caused different track conditions. Rain made tracks slick, snow froze water that you could then walk on. It was a thing. There was a pretty big cast list, each racer had an unlockable alternate if you collected the 5 coins hidden on a stage and beat them in a head to head race. If you collected all the emeralds hidden across the first four stages, you could even be Super Sonic! All the characters have their own traits too; Tails flies, Knuckles glides, Sonic is faster, Amy drives? (sure why not) and Robotnik has the Egg-1 which fires a missile. I guess there was also back-story somewhere, but no one told me about it and it’s not ever brought up in the game. Pick a map, race, I guess Robotnik is there. Ho-hum.

Tails doll is a meme now, I presume everyone else faded into alcoholism.

 

The Salvage

You are wrong. I know what you’re going to say and you are wrong. The music is well produced and in ANY non-video game setting, a CD perhaps, it would have had its fans. I still listen to the credit music sometimes. Music aside…

 

The Scrap

It has not aged well. At all. The characters are low low polygon, with very minimal detail, the maps have even less polygons. The ruins, fortress and city stages are pretty graphically detailed, but every map but the last feels very short. Control issues are there, even on drifting, I found myself hitting walls on tight turns. Collecting emeralds and coins can be a nightmare. You had to get all 5 coins AND come in first to even have a chance of unlocking the new racer. The same goes for emeralds. Come in first, or get nothing. You can collect rings for a speed booster that for a price will accelerate you for a bit but it’s nearly useless. You’re better off using the rings to open up a ring gate that provides a better shortcut or opens up an emerald to collect on your next pass. Some gates are literally just a gate without anything else. It just sits to the side so you can open it later and have an emerald just out in the open. It’s weird and feels unfinished. There are a lot of characters, sure, but the unlockables are only better versions of their non-robot selves and Amy’s car is slow, sounds like someone giving you a constant raspberry and the boost you get in place of being able to jump didn’t last long enough to make her a viable racer in any circumstance (I still won with her). Speaking of slow, after you unlock Super Sonic, there’s no chance of you winning as anyone else. None of the maps are very well designed and the final map is just rainbow road. They didn’t even try to hide it. Is there more? Probably…

 

The Decision

I downloaded a .rar trying to get some nostalgia and it happened to have the entire soundtrack. If you want some 90’s R&B, find a download of that. I can’t get the .iso file to play so I’m gonna delete it.

 

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (Playstation 1)

 Introduction

How did the Bonnes pay for that giant flying machine of theirs? Well, how does anyone finance a large investment? They got a loan of course– right this way are you looking for a car, a house, or a fully armed flying armada? Unfortunately their loan shark is the vicious Lex Loath and he wants his money and exorbitant interest on top of it. Play as Tron Bonne leading Servbots into battle while controlling Tron’s latest fighting machine.

Her latest creation is called the Gustaff and it’s a really solid fighting machine.

 

History

 Sorry guys, I couldn’t find hide nor hair about the development or history of this game. It came with a demo for Legends 2 and that’s pretty cool.

Fun Fact: The voice actor for Bon Bonne is the same woman who voices Pikachu. She’s in Legends 1 and 2 but not in this game for some reason.

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne was released on April 30th, 1999. It’s competition was Team Fortress Classic (PC), Pokemon Snap (Nintendo 64), and Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (PC).

Nostalgia

Back in the day we didn’t have none a’ that fancy internet. I learned about games from friends and advertisements until my uncle subscribed me to Playstation Magazine. It’s a little obsolete considering how much free advertising there is nowadays but back then it was invaluable. It was filled with exclusive looks at titles, cheats, walkthroughs for the most popular games, I wouldn’t have completed Kingdom Hearts without it. I wouldn’t have known about this game without my subscription. I remember thinking, “I get to play as Tron Bonne? Sign me the fuck up!”

Gameplay

This game is unlike the standard Megaman affair in a few ways. The Gustaff is not as agile as Megaman and Tron has an army of Servbots to do her bidding. That being said the Gustaff can take WAY more punishment than the blue bomber, I upgraded the heck outta my health and I was never at risk for dying. You’ll have to make up for your lack of agility by sending your Servbots to do your bidding. The Gustaff can fire a “beacon bomb” to mark enemies and useful targets for the Servbots to investigate.

The cutest robbery.

Lex Loath kidnaps Teisel and Bon and is holding them ransom for the one million zenny debt you owe him. So, you’ve got to get your pirate hat on and steal whatever you can find in order to get the money. You’ll be searching ancient ruins for treasure, stealing animals, robbing banks, and looting harbors in order to foot the bill. You’ll be solving block puzzles, running around in the Gustaff and dealing damage, or using a more tactical mindset controlling the Finkle, a small flying camera with a mean charge. There are enough missions to match your playstyle to get the money you need no matter how things go down so just have fun.

That’s Lex on the right. Sleazy…. as…. fuck.

Servbots add a whole bunch of different angles to missions, they’re indestructible, loyal, but a little incompetent. They’ll be fixing their mistakes a lot, with Miss Tron’s expert guidance of course. Occasionally a Servbot will get lazy and that means it’s a trip to the TORTURE ROOM for them– that’s right, the Gessellschaft has a Servbot torture room to keep them all on their toes. Servbots also have special skills. These skills can get unlocked by raising their stats or giving them a special item to inspire them. Most of these skills are really useful, some of them aren’t– in combat anyway. If you want to change the music or alter the Gustaff’s appearance then these “useless” skills will come in handy for you.

 

The Gush

Holy Servbots Batman. There are 40 Servbots in all and they’re all on the ship somwhere, they all have a unique personality and a short bio– I love reading about these guys and seeing them in action.

You upgrade the Gustaff by spending money at Research and Development and I thought that was really interesting. Do you spend your money on upgrades or save it up to pay Loath? I mean, who know’s what he’s doing to Teisel in the meantime.

Denise Marmalade is a police lady who always shows up to try and stop Tron. If you’re doing your job right then she won’t succeed but dammit does she try. She’s just got this down on her luck attitude that makes you feel sorry for ruining her day.

If you thought Sabin from Final Fantasy 6 was tough, this mild mannered police lady can actually JUDO THROW the Gustaff. That’s metal.

It’s super fun to be able to see the inside of the Gessellschaft. It’s got a bunch of room with all sorts of stuff in them.

You’ll spend most of your time on the bridge…

… But there’s nothing stopping you from taking a little visit to Teisel’s study.

BTW, did I mention that you’re playing the villains? I know the Bonnes are pretty benign as far as villains go but I’m always up for playing the bad guys.

Like all Legends games the music is top notch.

 

The Kvetch

I know that Tiesel has been kidnapped so he can’t appear but he’s my favorite Bonne. I know he’s more hands off and Tron is usually behind the controls but I would have liked to hear that maniacal laugh of his a little more.

I love Servbots, they’re awesome. But the training minigames you play for them are tedious as hell and not fun at all. I usually skipped them altogether and hoped my shooting and dodging skills would make up for it.

There are only three weapons in this game. I know it’s not technically a Megaman game but three weapons is kind of a let down. The Gustaff could be outfitted with a gun that shoots snakes or something but sadly that’s not meant to be.

The Verdict

 If you like any of the Legends games then I recommend this game. I love it, no nostalgia here. It’s a unique Megaman experience, playing as the bad guys.

Next Week: Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance.

Zoe’s MMO Corner: Guild Wars

Hi guys, I’m Zoe, an old friend of your normal blog writer.  Since we like very different kinds of games, I’m popping in probably once a month to review a different MMORPG to get some other types of games up here.  Enjoy!

Guild Wars is a one time payment swords-and-sorcery RPG following the journey of the heroic PC out of Ascalon after a great disaster has befallen its people, forcing them to find a new home.

History and Development

Guild Wars was developed by ArenaNet, who basically only makes Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 stuff because, I don’t know, commitment?  Some of the staff came from Blizzard originally and were involved in World of Warcraft development but left to pursue games that “took more risks” whatever that meant (ostensibly not price gouging or something).  Guild Wars was on the leading edge of the whole one time payment method of MMOs which made them pretty damn popular among my gang when I first started playing, let me tell you.

Guild Wars focuses a lot of its PvP (which I can’t really speak to because I don’t like PvP, sue me) but also on the environment of the whole thing.  Let me tell you, for its time, this game was frakkin’ gorgeous.  I mean, it’s still not bad (I logged in a few weeks ago just to look around and yeah, it holds up) but its nothing compared to what ANet is doing now (Coming soon: Guild Wars 2 review, you’ll see what I mean).  But Guild Wars set down a lot of what people now expect out of games visually.  I mean, let me show you some screenshots here:

This is from 2005, guys, and if you’re not impressed by that, you probably shouldn’t be using the internet.

I played Guild Wars in high school.  As in before all the expansions came out. Yes, I’m old, get over it.  But for me, Guild Wars would forever shape what I looked for in an MMO–namely, no other people.  See, Guild Wars uses this sort of odd multiplayer system (more on this later) that basically means that you don’t have to see anyone for most of the game.  And as someone who has always been absolutely TERRIBLE at making online friends, probably because I’m convinced they’re all going to either turn out to be 60 year old dudes or middle school boys, neither of which is a demographic I particularly like, Guild Wars made it easy for me to play an MMO like a single player game.

This later bit me in the ass.

Confession time, I have never finished the Guild Wars Prophecies campaign despite having played it for about eight years.  This is one of my greatest shames.

Character Creation

One race–human, obviously, let’s be boring–and six classes: Warrior, Monk (healer), Ranger, Elementalist (mage), Mesmer (illusionist), Necromancer.  Decent customization, but pretty stock.  At the time, the height slider was pretty new to MMOs and it was super fun because I have a thing for playing massively tall lady characters (more on this in the future).

At character creation you chose one class and then a couple of levels in you got a second one so you could sort of specialize to a certain extent, which was fun.  I liked to play Warrior/Monks which was basically the tankiest tank to ever tank–I have a fondness for tanks, I’m sure this’ll come up again–but there was a lot of possibility and that was pretty neat.

Story

The story of Guild Wars Prophecies–the first campaign–is huge.  Yesterday I tried to explain it and found out what a mess it is.  I started with “These giant cat things blow up your country with fire magic…” and sixty million steps later found myself saying “…and then you have to go out to the desert and go through these trials so you ascend or something” and realized that I had to stop.  And that was only half way through.  The story is vast.  It just keeps going.  When I was playing it, I remember being like, “Oh, yeah, of course this makes total sense,” but looking back on it, it kind of doesn’t.  It feels a little like stuff doesn’t build on itself, it just happens.  There is a LOT of plot.  Like, soap opera levels of plot.

Gameplay

Here’s the weird thing about Guild Wars: when you leave a town, it becomes a single player game.  No, seriously, you enter your own instance that’s just you and your party, should you chose to have one.  On the one hand, this is super cool because it cut out the PvE player competition for quest goals, but on the other, it was a sort of isolating experience and, for people like me, it made it even more difficult to be invested in the player base.  They did give you henchmen, but once you hit the level cap (which was 20, can you believe that?) the henchmen were shit.

The PvE storyline ran through missions, which were basically a series of dungeons spread out across the world map that filled in every player in a solo format–you would go to the mission location, enter the instance alone or with your party, complete the story, and pop out the other side with a new objective and the feeling that you were pretty awesome and the hero of Tyria or whatever.

Yeah, I wasn’t kidding about how massive this game is.

The level cap though was a problem because you hit that about half way through the game.  And there wasn’t a whole lot more you could do.  Armor and weaponry only did so much.  So they had this system in place where you could kill bosses and farm their skills, if you were of the same class, but let me tell you THAT PART SUCKED.  A lot.  Because you couldn’t choose what you got, oh no, and there were a lot of skills and so you’d just have to run around murdering things to steal their abilities in hopes that you’d get the right thing.  Unless you looked that stuff up.  Which I didn’t, on principle.

THAT is the reason I never finished it.  I got to this one place out in the desert where I could never complete the mission (I tried for a month, yes, A MONTH) and it was isolating so I didn’t have anyone to help me and I died a lot and my skills weren’t good enough and I was level twenty and everything around me was level twenty-seven and it was…frustrating.

Very.

Frustrating.

The Good

I always really liked the story and that kept me coming back for a long time, even though it is kind of rambling and confused and just keeps going.  The combat itself wasn’t half bad and the quests were relatively interesting, though still very MMO (fetch and gather, mass murder, escort, the usual).  The design and aesthetic were great (except for the female elementalists, someone need to get those ladies some clothing, poor things) and the world felt massive, which was super freakin’ cool.

Why do games do this?  I honestly do not understand.

The Bad

At the time I thought the open world all alone thing was awesome but now as someone who knows some of the benefits of having people, I’m willing to say that was a weak point of the game.  The community was also pretty iffy–I mean, there was a reason I avoided them.  Also, part of the way through you sort of lost any side quests and it turned into a massive hellish grindfest.

The Ugly

Stupid skill farming.  Stupid bosses.  Stupid stupid stupid.

From here…?

I don’t know.  I honestly want to finish this game and it’s on my list of shit I have to do before I die, but on the other hand, there’s not a whole lot that makes me want to go back and play it.  It’s not because it’s not good, because it is, because it’s fantastic and it did a lot for me and still does, but I have some serious trauma involving the Crystal Desert and it’s hard for me to get past that.

I’ve been looking at this view for literally three years and I never want to do it again.

Besides–and here’s what this comes down to–ANet did something that makes me not want to play Guild Wars again.  And that thing is…

Guild Wars 2.

Next Month: Guild Wars 2 and a lot of ranting about nine-foot-tall viking ladies.

Megaman Legends 2 (PS1)

Introduction

Professor Barrell, Megaman and Roll’s grandfather, and his old colleague Von Bluecher are making another attempt at landing on Forbidden Island– I know it’s dangerous but with a name like ‘Forbidden Island’ it’s just asking for people to explore it. A place where the Mother Load is said to be. Roll’s parents attempted this expedition and were never seen again. Barrell and Bluecher’s last expedition nearly cost them their lives. Megaman and Roll watch the proceeds on television, Roll’s dreams of finding the Mother Load are basically shattered. But, a woman who looks like Roll’s mother and a strange Reaverbot damage the engines on Bluecher’s ship. Sending it slowly into Forbidden Island anyway. Megaman and Roll have to use Roll’s father’s designs for a drop ship to get to Forbidden Island and save gramps– and all the other people on the ship, them too! Run, jump, and shoot in this stunning sequel.

I’m not sure which is more striking, Roll’s adorable pajamas or seeing Megaman in an apron.

History

There’s not much to say about the development of Legends 2 that wasn’t already said about Legends 1. That being said there was supposed to be a Legends 3. When asked about it after this game’s release Inafune said he wanted to do it but couldn’t at the time. Cut to 7 years after his games release, on September 29, 2010, all of the Legends fans rejoice at the announcement of Megaman Legends 3. Legends 3 is put on hold so that Capcom can test the waters by selling something called Megaman Legends 3: Prototype Version, stating that if Prototype Version sold well enough that they would release Legends 3.

On July 18, 2011 it was announced that the whole project was scrapped because, “it was not felt that the Mega Man Legends 3 project met the required criteria”. What does that even mean? Did the game fail to complete on time on its budget? Did it fail to meet some sort of weird requirement? Did you think it wouldn’t sell? I dunno, what I do know is that it’s a low blow to ask a game’s fans to buy another game to get the game they want to be finished or released. It’s just a manipulative tactic that’s not cool to use.

Pictured here was the fanbase’s reaction to Megaman Legends 3 getting cancelled.

Megaman Legends 2 was released on August 3rd, 2001. It’s competition was Max Payne (PC), Final Fantasy X (PS2), Silent Hill 2 (PS2), and Ico (PS2)

Nostalgia

Manuals, I love them. Nothing like getting all this background information that might not show up in the game but is cool to read about anyway, amirite? Well, the Legends 2 manual took a detour somewhere in translation hell. Character’s names are mistranslated all over the place so it’s hard to keep track of who’s who. I had wondered if perhaps there was something wrong with my manual and I was the estranged owner of a misprint manual but that’s not the case, they were all messed up. I’m curious why though, how a translation error like this happens. I guess I’m just glad that the game doesn’t suffer from translation problems, it’s engrish-free.

Gameplay

Like its predecessor this game is all about the jumping and shooting. Unlike its predecessor this game has other islands to explore. It’s basically the first game but with more. More about reaverbot mysteries, more pirates to fight, more ruins to explore, better animation, better load times, better mechanics. It also provides a satisfactory explanation for why Megaman doesn’t have all the gear he had in the first game, Roll pawned it all so she could fix the Flutter so well that it would never break down again. It’s sort of lame for there to be no bonus for owning the previous game, but true to her word the Flutter doesn’t suffer any sort of malfunctions.

And considering how far that ship’ll have to fly, I’m pretty grateful.

The Bonnes have teamed up with Glyde of the Loathe gang and two veteran pirates named Bola and Claymore. Without the Gesselschaft the Bonnes have had to rely on a fleet of smaller flying machines to get around. They’re still as crafty as ever. Glyde has superior firepower and stronger foot soldiers in his Bird-bots. But his birdbots are far more lazy than Tron’s Servbots. Bola and Claymore flex their veteran muscles by fighting Megaman in one on one fights, typically when the Blue Bomber is running on fumes. They present a much greater and varied threat than the Bonnes alone could.

There are 5 islands and another spoilery area to explore in this game. Ranging from frigid climates of Calinca to the deserts of Saul Kada from the jungle of Manda to the refurbished reaverbot ruin of Nino. Each area presents a totally different atmosphere and setting. It’s also really interesting to see more of this world covered in endless water. That being said, the map has kind of a lot of land for a world covered in endless water. It’s time to solve they mystery of the Mother Load.

SNOW! Also, characters sport new accessories. Behold, Roll’s winter coat and Megaman’s uselessly small but infinitely large backpack.

The Gush

The Bosses in this game are really fun to fight. Between fighting giant robots that barely fit in their rooms or fighting the whole pirate gang in a weaponized train– with an infinitely long track apparently.

Oh… uh… hey Punch Man. This guy is also more agile than you’d expect.

I love Bola and Claymore. Maybe it’s because I just wanted them to get a little more screen time, maybe it was because I was interested in how they amassed their fortunes, maybe it’s because I wanted to know what they looked like under their armor, maybe it’s because their theme music is just so catchy. I was just taken in by Bola’s cool demeanor and Claymore’s near indestructibility– defeated only because he throws his back out.

Just look at these guys! The only thing that could have made them better is if there was a fight against both of them at the same time.

Everything about this game is improved over the last one. The game is overall smoother. Megaman can move while he’s locked on now, loading screens are shorter, menu surfing is smoother. It’s the way a sequel should be.

Although the dungeons aren’t all interconnected they’re much more inventive. Between water physics and all the cool stuff that brings and the new and improved reaverbots Megaman’ll tackle it’s overall really cool.

The mega buster has better parts and the special weapons have become a little more niche. It’s difficult to express but special weapons aren’t just boss killers anymore, they’ll be helpful in beating the tougher normal enemies.

The Kvetch

These are Appo and Dah.

And they’re annoying as hell. They run around, need to be escorted, and shout all the goddam time. Not a second goes by with this guys around that they’re not shouting, “Over here!” or “This way!” at the top of their lungs.

I dunno what happened to Gramps between this game and the last one. In Legends 1 he was an uproariously proud and boisterous digger who was too old to put on the armor and go into the field. He was always full of life and energy. In this game it sounds like age caught up with him really fast. He speaks in a low grumbling tone. It’s still warm and kind, but that energy is gone and it was something that I looked forward to in the character.

The test to get the Class S digger license is a load of bull-honkey. It’s hard as hell and locks off a really cool water dungeon with lots of valuable loot inside. When I say hard as hell, I mean that it demands a nearly perfect run from the player to complete properly. What exacerbates the problem is that Megaman’s upgrades and special weapons are limited to what the exam gives him so the player can’t rely on their more impressive equipment.

Manda island sports a pretty good school for a jungle village. Megaman can take quizzes at the school to earn items. They’re 10 questions long and include topics ranging from brain teasers, to obscure music trivia. Doing the three base quizzes reveals a 100 questions quiz. This quiz sucks, they’re all pretty frustrating. What got my goat is that each quiz has a limited question pool so I’d see a question I had answered correctly before but couldn’t remember the answer to now.

Oh man, only 47 questions left.

Megaman got a new voice actor that kind of makes him sound like a girl. I know that he’s a 14 year old boy in this incarnation, so having a female voice actor isn’t unfeasible. I mean, Bart Simpson has a female voice actor and he sounds like a young boy. Megaman’s voice from the first game seemed to sound like a young boy more. Maybe I just hate change, maybe I’m just crazy. Drop a comment if you agree or you think I’m crazy.

This game is more transparent with its karma system than the last game. If Megaman does good things the his armor turns a brighter shade of blue, if he performs cruel deeds like kicking rabbits then his armor turns a darker shade of blue. This seems like a sort of silly thing but there are some merchants that will only sell to Megaman if he’s good or if he’s evil. How are you supposed to figure this out? I have NO CLUE! But some of these merchants sell incredibly useful items, from which special weapons can’t be crafted without.

So… there’s no Megaman Legends 3 and… at the end of the game SPOILERS Megaman ends up on the artificially created moon. So… Megaman is trapped on the moon. And until there’s a sequel he’s stuck there. That’s kind of a bummer.

The Verdict

I know the Gush section was much shorter than the Kvetch in this case but it’s just easier to condemn something than it is to laud its praises. And because this game still does all the things that he first game did right. I like this game a lot more than the previous game because it keeps things fresh by making them quicker. If you like the first then definitely play the second.

Next Week: The Misadventures  of Tron Bonne (Because completion)

Megaman Legends 1 (PS1)

Introduction

On a world covered in endless water Mega Man will take its jump to the third dimension– with awesome opening narration. This incarnation of the blue bomber is an explorer who uses his family’s flying machine to search the seas for ruins and treasure. He travels the skies and ruins as the adopted son of Barrel Casket and, his granddaughter, Roll Casket. Their flying machine is called The Flutter and she’s seen some better times. This latest expedition will lead Megaman to an adventure greater than he could have expected. Run, jump, shoot, and discover the secrets of an Island.

This island to be precise.

 

History

Keiji Inafune created Megaman back in 1987 and ten years later he would produce, and help design, Megaman Legends. Inafune and his team wanted to make a game that was just fun for the players. Unfortunately, Legend’s quality suffered because it was released before it had gotten the polish Inafune wanted to give it. Inafune said, “If we made it at the present time in modern quality, I believe that it would have sold a lot better,” on the matter of its early release. Inafune went as far as saying, “[My favorite game is] Mega Man Legends, a title that really didn’t sell well in the Mega Man franchise,” in 2007 at Comic Con.

Megaman Legends was also released on the Nintendo 64 and the PC in increasingly bad ports. Each one receiving a lower score from reviewers than the Playstation release.

Fun Fact: In the Japanese release Megaman’s name is Rock, like all of his Japanese counterparts– I’ve got to say Rock is just a more sensible first name than Megaman. If you were at a coffee shop and you started a conversation with someone and when you left you asked his name and he said, ‘My name is Megaman,’ I think we’d all give him an odd look and never call him back.

Megaman Legends was released in the US on August 31st 1998. It’s competition was Medieval (PS), Spyro the Dragon (PS), and Metal Gear Solid (PS)– no wonder this title got blown out of the water.

Nostalgia

This was the first Megaman release for the Playstation and it came as a big surprise for me. I was familiar with the Megaman games from my Super Nintendo days so I thought that Megaman would be a Nintendo property until the day I died but it was the first game in my life that not only jumped platforms but also jumped into the 3rd dimension. At first I didn’t like it, I kept wondering where Dr. Wily was, but eventually I warmed up to the game. I realized that it was a different take on the Blue Bomber. A take that included things like a plot, a story, and interesting characters. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with the jumping and shooting that the previous incarnations bring, it’s just that this game is a different beast.

What is this 3-d world? And why doesn’t it look totally awful?

Gameplay

Even though this game was strong RPG elements it’s still a Megaman game and is therefore all about jumping and shooting robots. And boy are there robots to shoot and lots of weapons to shoot them with. Like Megaman games before it Legends presents quite an arsenal for the Blue Bomber. Unlike other Megaman games he doesn’t get more weapons from defeating bosses in this game he can find stuff in the ruins he explores. His partner, Roll, can take these seemingly dissimilar junk parts and make sweet special weapons from them. Megaman’s buster can also be upgraded with buster parts that can make it shoot further or do more damage among other things. So check everywhere for stuff, you never know when a hole in the wall might contain valuable stuff.

As far as the story goes, not soon after Megaman lands on the island it gets attacked by a gang of pirates called the Bonnes who are searching for treasure that is rumored to be hidden somewhere on the island. Since the police force isn’t really trained to repel pirate attacks it falls to Megaman to fend off the sky-borne ne’er-do-wells– Yarrr.

From left to right we have Bon, Tron, and Tiesel.

When Megaman isn’t fighting pirates or trying out his new weapons he’ll probably be exploring ruins and solving some pretty easy puzzles. The ruins are interesting just to look at. Most of them look different and I always wondered, “who made these places and why?”

 

The Gush

I love the Bonnes. They’re dangerous but still comic relief. Unlike the other villains of the game, they’re human. So they have human flaws and have human problems. Watching Tiesel lose his patience and throw a little tantrum is hilarious. But Trons creations present decent challenges. Their flying machine is called the Gesselschaft which is German for society and is often extrapolated as a sociological term which are things people do for their own benefit. I didn’t get that for years down the line but it did make sense why pirates would call their home base a term for doing things for personal gain.

Such as Bruno, the walking weapons platform. Literally every part of this guy has weapons on it except his torso and his head.

Or the Fokkerwolf which presents a highly mobile and powerful opponent even if it is a little fragile.

And how could I mention this game without talking about the Servbots, Tron’s faithful and indestructible minions.

Each one has their own unique personality and they’re just so cute.

 

All of the characters are actually really interesting. From Gramp’s mechanical parts, the plights of the city’s mayor, and the machinations of the local “gang” there’s always someone new to meet with near Earthbound levels of humorous dialogue. Also some characters can initiate little mini-quests and puzzles to earn buster parts, items that can be developed into sub weapons, or money.

The sub-weapons in this game range from simple to intense. There’s the Machine Gun Arm that does what you’d expect, fire a lot of shots. Then there’s the Shining Laser which can pierce enemies hitting multiples at once for massive damage! All of them have upgradeable attributes so I recommend toying around with them and seeing which ones suit your playstyle.

The Bonnes aren’t the only ones making robots of mass destruction. The underground ruins are swarming with and defended by reaverbots. Some of these reaverbots dwarf Megaman, but that’s never stopped him before. The boss fights in this game are almost always a joy.

We got big reaverbots!

Fast reaverbots!

And annoying reaverbots with unbreakable shields!

The plot and mystery of the game is marvelous. It’s a great tale about what it means to dig too deep and dealing with the consequences of it. It answers a few questions about this water covered world but asks just as many more, striking a nice balance between mystery and resolution.

The music in this game is really good. It fills me with fear when something intense is happening or perfectly compliments the dank ruins of the underground.

The Kvetch

Some sub-weapon upgrades are just plain too expensive. Most of them are for giving the weapon unlimited ammo but 99990 is just too much zenny to reasonably farm for anything. The best enemies in the game only drop 2000 per so I’d have to destroy 50 of them, going in and out of the room repeatedly. And that’s just for the final stage of the upgrade and not including any of the other stats.

New Game plus allows a player to start the game over but there’s no real benefit to doing so. They can change the difficulty to hard on the second playthrough and then easy on the third, each one increasing money drops. But there’s no carry over between the playthroughs so I don’t really see the point.

Although the plot does answer some questions it answers almost none about who Megaman is. I posits that there’s something unique about Megaman even though this world has other Megamen but doesn’t elaborate on it overmuch. I guess that’s what sequels are for.

The camera is not always your friend in this game. It sometimes does what is pleases and leads to the player getting blindsided by enemies they couldn’t have seen coming.

Locking on in this game is nearly a waste of your time. The player can’t move and lock on at the same time. It suddenly gives a character like Megaman, the original jumper and shooter, the decision to choose one. Shots generally tend toward your opponents even when you’re not locked on but the fight against the agile Fokkerwolf are exasperated because it’s really hard to hit. This problem also gets highlighted when enemies on the ceiling are throwing bombs all over the place. In these situations the camera pans up and makes it impossible to see the explosives below as they bounce around. It’s problematic overall.

The Verdict

Those complaints are little niggles trying to chip away at a rock solid game. Kattleox is fun to explore, the characters are fun to see, and the enemies are fun to fight. Overall I think this game is super good… but… I have to admit that I’m pretty nostalgia blind for it. It was one of my first Playstation games and I played the heck out of it because I might have forced myself to get into it because I didn’t have anything else to play– like a videogame version of Stockholme Syndrome. So maybe make a friend who’s into Megaman already buy it first and try it?

Next Week: Megaman Legends 2– Electric Boogaloo.