Quick Reviews
Falling behind on my game reviews due to the old "too many games, too little time to play them all" excuse, here are some quick reviews of what I have been playing in the past months.
Ultimate Spiderman
If you loved Spider-Man 2, you’ll definitely love this one! Much of the gameplay is retained, but the game is given a major graphic overhaul as everything is now cell-shaded and looks more like a cartoon/comic. Plus, you get to control Venom and eat civilians!
The only drawback I guess is the amount of redundant mini-games you have to play and stuff to find in order to advance the main story, but still a fun romp none the less.
Ratings:
Graphics – 10
Sound – 8
Gameplay – 8
Lifespan – 8
Overall – 8
Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance
Here’s the problem with this game: You got 5 different characters to choose from with their own backstory and move sets, but they all play through the same missions in the game. It would have been more interesting if they added some variety to the story mode where the characters get more specific missions so you don’t have to play through the same game 5 times just to see the stories for all the characters. And there are also some bad camera angles to boot even if you can control the direction of the main camera, enemies always come up from behind you where you can’t see them to get their shots in.
Audio is ok, but voice acting can be horrid as usual. I especially hate the really REALLY bad accent they gave Raven, which sounds just so horribly fake and scripted, or like the voice actor couldn’t even read properly.
Sure it starts out good enough, but loses it’s appeal quickly.
Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 7
Gameplay – 6
Lifespan – 5
Overall – 5
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
Easily one of the worse games of the year with bad graphics, bad audio, bad camera angles, and horrible controls. Sure you get a whole lot of Marvel super heroes to choose from, some of them I never even heard of before, but the whole thing is redundant and uninspiring and you get bored with it really quickly and even the die-hard Marvel fans will be severely disappointed. Give it a big pass.
Ratings:
Graphics – 5
Sound – 3
Gameplay – 4
Lifespan – 4
Overall – 3
Michigan: Report From Hell
A voyeuristic take on the survival horror genre as you control a news camera man and film your reporter covering the story of a strange fog covering Michigan, with monsters running around the streets. The game plays with a point-and-click style where you aim your camera and click on objects to get your reporter to do things like open doors, pick up objects, solve puzzles and attack enemies. The main premise of every mission is to get your reporter through safely, and the game immediately jumps to the next mission should she die. The game ends if you die, but those situations are very rare in the game and can be avoided all together if you know where they are. And the game can go by really quickly since you have to option to skip a lot of the story parts.
The get points based on 3 criterias of things you film throughout the game, and the ending you get at the end of the game is based on the total amount of points for each criteria and number of reporters you managed to save, which will unlock things like new costumes for the reporters to wear. But a lot of things, like the bonus Yin Ling stage, was cut out of the English version of the game, so in some aspects, I would recommend tracking down the Japanese version.
Overall, the game is really short and there isn’t a lot of replay value once you unlock everything.
Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 7
Gameplay – 6
Lifespan – 5
Overall – 6
Soul Calibur 3
For some reason, the more I played this game, the more annoyed I got. Much like I hated Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater despite all the wild praise it gets all over the place, I kinda feel the same about Soul Calibur 3 which is also getting rave reviews and perfect scores all over the place. I don’t hate the game as much as MSG3, it’s just that despite new characters, game modes and the usual tons of unlockables, it still has that “been there, done that” feel to it, and I’m not as inspired to unlock everything here like I was in Soul Calibur 2 when it came out years ago.
Ratings:
Graphics – 9
Sound – 8
Gameplay – 7
Lifespan – 7
Overall – 7
Ultimate Spiderman
If you loved Spider-Man 2, you’ll definitely love this one! Much of the gameplay is retained, but the game is given a major graphic overhaul as everything is now cell-shaded and looks more like a cartoon/comic. Plus, you get to control Venom and eat civilians!
The only drawback I guess is the amount of redundant mini-games you have to play and stuff to find in order to advance the main story, but still a fun romp none the less.
Ratings:
Graphics – 10
Sound – 8
Gameplay – 8
Lifespan – 8
Overall – 8
Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance
Here’s the problem with this game: You got 5 different characters to choose from with their own backstory and move sets, but they all play through the same missions in the game. It would have been more interesting if they added some variety to the story mode where the characters get more specific missions so you don’t have to play through the same game 5 times just to see the stories for all the characters. And there are also some bad camera angles to boot even if you can control the direction of the main camera, enemies always come up from behind you where you can’t see them to get their shots in.
Audio is ok, but voice acting can be horrid as usual. I especially hate the really REALLY bad accent they gave Raven, which sounds just so horribly fake and scripted, or like the voice actor couldn’t even read properly.
Sure it starts out good enough, but loses it’s appeal quickly.
Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 7
Gameplay – 6
Lifespan – 5
Overall – 5
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
Easily one of the worse games of the year with bad graphics, bad audio, bad camera angles, and horrible controls. Sure you get a whole lot of Marvel super heroes to choose from, some of them I never even heard of before, but the whole thing is redundant and uninspiring and you get bored with it really quickly and even the die-hard Marvel fans will be severely disappointed. Give it a big pass.
Ratings:
Graphics – 5
Sound – 3
Gameplay – 4
Lifespan – 4
Overall – 3
Michigan: Report From Hell
A voyeuristic take on the survival horror genre as you control a news camera man and film your reporter covering the story of a strange fog covering Michigan, with monsters running around the streets. The game plays with a point-and-click style where you aim your camera and click on objects to get your reporter to do things like open doors, pick up objects, solve puzzles and attack enemies. The main premise of every mission is to get your reporter through safely, and the game immediately jumps to the next mission should she die. The game ends if you die, but those situations are very rare in the game and can be avoided all together if you know where they are. And the game can go by really quickly since you have to option to skip a lot of the story parts.
The get points based on 3 criterias of things you film throughout the game, and the ending you get at the end of the game is based on the total amount of points for each criteria and number of reporters you managed to save, which will unlock things like new costumes for the reporters to wear. But a lot of things, like the bonus Yin Ling stage, was cut out of the English version of the game, so in some aspects, I would recommend tracking down the Japanese version.
Overall, the game is really short and there isn’t a lot of replay value once you unlock everything.
Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 7
Gameplay – 6
Lifespan – 5
Overall – 6
Soul Calibur 3
For some reason, the more I played this game, the more annoyed I got. Much like I hated Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater despite all the wild praise it gets all over the place, I kinda feel the same about Soul Calibur 3 which is also getting rave reviews and perfect scores all over the place. I don’t hate the game as much as MSG3, it’s just that despite new characters, game modes and the usual tons of unlockables, it still has that “been there, done that” feel to it, and I’m not as inspired to unlock everything here like I was in Soul Calibur 2 when it came out years ago.
Ratings:
Graphics – 9
Sound – 8
Gameplay – 7
Lifespan – 7
Overall – 7
posted by Eric Extreme at 12/19/2005 09:42:00 AM
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