Prototype - Review

The sandbox, parkour game about New York being infected, yeah, that ol' cliche.

STORY
You play as Alex Mercer, a shape-shifting, amnesiac who wakes up on a morgue slab in the basement of GENTEK, a large and influential genetic engineering company. After an encounter with several armed soldiers, Alex escapes and sets out to recover his memory and find out exactly what occurred. He soon discovers he now possesses powerful shape-shifting abilities that grant him tremendous strength, speed, weaponry and the ability to "consume" people to gain their memories, skills and appearance. With no memory of his previous life, Alex is forced to track down and consume those related to the conspiracy in order to uncover the truth.
During his quest, Alex faces two factions, one is the military, composed primarily of Marines fronting a ruthless black operations unit known only as Blackwatch. Blackwatch is a Fork Derrick special forces unit dedicated to combating biological warfare. Captain Cross, a Blackwatch officer, is specifically given orders to find and contain Alex. As Manhattan slowly begins to fall apart, Alex also faces the Infected, consisting of civilians who have contracted a strange virus and powerful monsters known as Hunters. Now then, Alex meets up with his sister, Dana, who throughout the game helps Alex out and plays that "HQ-intelligence" character. Now, when I was playing this, the story never really drew me in. I always wanted to skip the cutscenes (which are incredible long) and get on with the killing, which, really is most of the game. 7.5

GAMEPLAY
Now, the gameplay is broken into two parts, 1) Parkour and 2) Combat. 1) Parkour feats Alex can perform are running up the sides of skyscrapers, jumping hundreds of meters at a time, gliding through the air and sprinting at extreme speed indefinitely. Falls do not damage the player no matter the height, but greater ones will visibly deform the ground. 2) Alex may use various weapons, seize and control military vehicles including helicopters, perform various melee attacks without shapeshifting, as well as more gymnastic moves such as air combos, sliding along the ground using an enemy's body as a skateboard and a flying high-speed rolling cannonball attack. Alex can regain health by consuming biomass, though over time he can regenerate to a limited degree out of combat. Alex's primary superpower is his ability to shapeshift, transforming parts of his body into a selection of martial implements acquired over the course of the game, either as purchased 'upgrades' or being given them. Offensive powers include the large and powerful Blade, fast razor-sharp Claws (which can also erupt large spikes from the ground), the telescoping Whipfist, Musclemass that augments brute physical strength and the dense club-like Hammerfists. Defensive options consist of a large Shield that needs to regenerate after excessive damage, and a full-body Armor that exchanges agility and speed for sheer toughness; both will allow Alex to plow through most obstacles when active. Vision modes include Thermal, which allows Alex to see enemies through smoke and other obstacles, and Infected, which cuts out sound and highlights the Infected, though leeches away Alex's health if he uses it too long. Any combination of one defensive and offensive power each may be active, but will give away Alex's presence and drop a disguise if any is in use. The most powerful attacks are the Devastators, requiring Alex to be in Critical Mass - either a state of near-death or having excess stored biomass. These include the Tendril Barrage, which fires impaling tendrils from his body in all directions, the Groundspike Graveyard, which erupts massive spikes from the ground all around Alex and the Critical Pain, which fires a single beam of hardened biomass from his hands to cause damage on a single target.
Back in there I mentioned 'upgrades'. These take experience to buy, and can be bought for either combat or parkour. But, throughout the game, I've been having flashbacks to my earlier gaming days, SpiderMan games. The hauntingly frustrating games of SpiderMan. Most of the time, it feels like they slapped on more gore on a SpiderMan game. The gliding feels like web-slinging, both can climb NEW YORK buildings, and the combat feels strangely familiar... 7.9

PRESENTATION
Everything in the game is dull, simply. Facial animations and appearance, buildings, and the color palette is very one dimensional. It doesn't look like a 2009 game. I mean, there's not really anything else to say... 6.3

FINAL NOTE
Yes, the game has redeeming points, but not redeeming enough. If it looks really good to you, rent it. Don't buy it. 7.2

Team Fortress 2 - Review

A nice big picture.... Today I'll be reviewing "Team Fortress 2" (tf2). This game is for the PC, Xbox, and the PS3. TF2 is only a multiplayer game. There is no one player option. So this means there is really no story. I'll try.

STORY
Like the first one, Team Fortress 2 is focused around two opposing teams competing for an objective. These two teams are meant to represent competing contracting firms. Reliable Excavation Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU). Players can choose to play as one of nine classes in these teams, each with his own unique strengths and weaknesses. Although the abilities of a number of classes have changed from earlier Team Fortress incarnations, the basic elements of each class have remained. The game was released with six official maps, although seven extra maps and five arena maps have been included in subsequent updates. There are about five different game modes, but you can only play a certain game mode on a certain map. 9.3

GAMEPLAY
This game is a first-person shooter. The guns are from ordinary pistols to shotguns to snipers and such. But, there are some exceptions. There can be RPGs or mini-guns or even floor based sentry guns. But what really makes this game are classes. Before each game you can choose one out of nine classes. You can change them in the middle of the game. The nine classes are pyro (has a flamethrower), engineer (can build things like sentry guns to teleporters), spy (can pose as a member of the opposing team), heavy (has the weapon of a minigun, a lot of health), sniper( sniper), scout (runs very fast) , soldier (has an RPG), demoman (has a grenade launcher), and medic (has the ability to heal other players). Each class has a strength and weakness. You can't have a whole team of pryos, for example. 9.5

PRESENTATION
This game is a very good looking game. This definitely looks like a seventh generation game. The look of the characters is very retro and looks like The Incredibles. The characters movement and taunts fit the character, i.e. the Scout, who is from Boston, says " Do ya' want a piece of this?" while the Russian Heavy says some fractured English. The explosions and such look pretty good, but sound superb. The voice fits each class very well. 9.8

FINAL NOTE
This game is my most favorite PC game (exclude Half Life). It is very intense and fun if you find the right game.

Score.... 9.6

Psychonauts - Review

Hi. This will be the first review for Biff's Games (let's call it B.G.). Reviews will be broken into story, gameplay, and presentation (graphics, frame rate, etc.). The end total will be the average of the three's points (1-10). I'll be reviewing Psychonauts. You can get it in the Xbox Originals.

STORY
Psychonauts is about ten year old Raz, a circus acrobatic who runs away to pursue a psychic career. Raz goes the Whispering Rock Summer Camp where psychic kids go to become a Psychonaut. Psychonauts are government agents who are psychic. He goes there, learns a couple things, and finds out about a diabolical plot to enslave the other kids at the camp to create an psychic army. Raz must then go into other people's minds to stop this. I would like to say more but I would be spoiling the game. This with the hilarious humor of the game, good characters and cool minds to go into this is a awesome story. 9

GAMEPLAY
The genre of this game is platform/action-adventure. This means there is no shooting, V.A.T.S. stuff in this game. Well, there is a part where you dodge sniper fire, but that five minutes of the game. What changes the gameplay of this game from other games is the psychic powers. You unlock them as you go through the game and they help you defeat bosses and puzzles. These include telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, pyrokinesis, clairvoyance, PSI Shield, PSI Blast and confusion. Also, Raz can swing on bars and such because he's a circus acrobatic. But Psychonauts isn't the perfect game. A little more than midway in the game there is a huge difficulty peak without warning. Now this will want you to throw all your belongings in a wood chipper, but it's worth it just to play everything else. 8.5

PRESENTATION

Psychonauts was released in 2005 the sixth console generation. It was then moved for the PC/Steam and Xbox Originals. The graphics had a little graphic tweak but don't expect anything jaw dropping. The style of the game is very cool though. See the picture on top. The frame rate is average... yeah. The voice acting is great. Each character has a voice which fits them perfectly. 9

FINAL NOTE
Psychonauts is one of my most favorite games. I highly advise that you buy the game. Advise? Is that the right word... whatever.

Score... 8.8