Monday 30 April 2012

Bit-size impressions: Avengers


Really enjoyed Avengers. 
Captain America and Thor grew as characters and actors, new Hulk had a great personality, and Nick Fury is awesome! 
Some plot leaps and not well-explained character changes, and Hawkeye was not very likable, or played well, but nothing that impaired the great experience. Entertaining the whole way through!

Thursday 26 April 2012

Black Mirror 3 - Adventure Game review

Good ending to the trilogy!


Ended up enjoying Black Mirror 3 a lot more than I thought I would do, the second game was a bit all over the place, but the developers obviously listened to the criticism, and Black Mirror 3 goes back to the feel and story of the first Black Mirror game.
I absolutely hated Black Mirror 1's chunky controls, progression system, and protagonist, but Black Mirror 3 really expanded on the original story, kept referencing even minor characters and even explained some of Samuel's behavior, and I ended up wanting to go back and play Black Mirror 1 again, a game I swore never to touch with a six foot pole. 

Pros: Updated, strong story, new characters interesting and unique, main protagonist grown a bit more likable, nice backgrounds, good art and good animations, strong horror feel, true to the original in every way 

Cons: Some weird progressions, puzzles seem thrown in and out of place, most do not give enough feedback when solving (Read diary!!), fortune teller felt like a tacked on help system without any impact on game (almost like there were many more death moments that were taken out), voice actors are all over the place in quality, Ralph story comes to a VERY un-fulfilling end. 

The ending sets out to really explain and expand the history of Black Mirror and the Gordon clan, and while I enjoyed both the end puzzles (besides the skeleton-puzzle!) and dialogue, I was very dissatisfied with the epilogue, which just continued explaining unnecessary things, instead of showing the future like I wanted, and hoped for. 
For an ending with so. much. dialogue, it still ended up ending abruptly, and leaving me wanting more. 

Still, it's absolutely worth playing, and Black Mirror 3, as a whole, was both a fitting ending to the trilogy, and the best game in the series (in my opinion).

Gray Matter - Adventure game review


Adventure Gaming and review


Been in an adventure gaming mood lately, not sure how long it'll last, and it has been a while since the previous "AG mood" hit, but trying to get through my backlog now when I'm interested.

First, I finally finished Gray Matter, Jane Jensen's newest game, nearly a year after I first started it... 

It started a bit slow, with some confusing controls, but the story really picked up after the first chapters. Story telling and progression was very strong, but the solution/ending was clear early on, and the finale quite underwhelming. 

Pros: great soundtrack, strong acting from main protagonists, Sam is an engaging and strong character, beautiful backgrounds, Daedalus club/stage magic subplot is fun and challenging. 

Cons: bad/lacking character/contact animation, some progressions don't trigger properly, some bad voice acting from smaller roles, and the comic book cutscenes often drag on too long, ruining the mood.