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Sep 16th, 2012 at 15:18:41 - Bully (PS2) |
Recently, I decided to play Bully again. Upon hearing about it in class, I decided to try to find my copy and play it for myself. When I popped it in, it took me back to the days of playing Grand Theft Auto and how fun that was. Bully is very similar to Grand Theft Auto, as Rockstar Studios made them both. However, the biggest difference was its setting. Grand Theft Auto would take place in a city, while Bully took place in a high school environment.
This change in environment really sets the game apart from GTA. With a school setting, the game sets up new mechanics that might otherwise never make it into a game like GTA. These game mechanics come in the form of mini-games, which represent different classes that the player must take. Each mini-game is a little different. There are world jumbles, quick time events, and even a game resembling the classic arcade game Qix. All these mini-games are added into a game that already borrows from many genres.
Because it borrows heavily from GTA, it in turn, borrows from many other games. The Grand Theft Auto series has different genres attached to it, such as a driving game, an action game, and many others. GTA is also known for adding mini-games as well, but Bully outdoes that game in the mini-game department. Bully has races, which could attribute it as a racing game. There are fights where it pulls from the fighting game genre.
Bully even has a slight RPG system, with the intermingling with different factions, or cliques as the game calls it. The player can associate with the jock group, or the nerd group just by doing simple missions for them. With all these different genres that are put in the game, it might seem overwhelming and maybe lacking focus. However, this game does an excellent job giving the player the basic GTA formula while also adding some fun mini-games that branch from different genres.
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Sep 5th, 2012 at 18:17:50 - Darksiders 2 (360) |
Recently I have been playing Darksiders 2. I had played the first game about half way through and gave up, moving on to bigger and better games at the time. The first Darksiders was a decent game, but the problem was it really had nothing original about it. It was a mash-up of genres, with elements taken from famous games like God of War and The Legend of Zelda. This sounds like a great idea, and it was fun at the beginning, but with nothing original about it, the game mechanics got tiresome over time and repetition started to set in.
Darksiders 2 is a little better than the original in that some game mechanics were fixed. Controls feel tighter and the new playable character is a substantial difference from the first game. In the first game, the player would assume the role as War, this hulking warrior, which happened to be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He was a bit sluggish to control and overall a very bland representation on how to do a God of War/Zelda kind of game. In God of War, the main character Kratos, was fast and nibble, which equated to better maneuverability and tighter action. This is where Darksiders 2 takes a step in the right direction, giving the player a fast, yet powerful character to control in Death, another horseman of the Apocalypse.
Also, Darksiders 2 adds an RPG layer to the game in the form of loot. About every enemy drops loot when they die, some good, some bad. Personally, I thought they didn’t really need this system in this game, but nonetheless it still works. However, my biggest gripe with the game is the enemies. The progression scale is basically nonexistent. Some enemies are a single slash kill and some enemies take everything you got to take it down. The game, more often then not, doesn’t tell the player which enemies are harder either. Its mostly guess work on the players part, which isn’t really user friendly. Also, the mini-boss battles are very unfair to the player. They appear with regular enemies when they attack the player, and seem to spawn infinitely until the mini-boss has been vanquished. Despite some problems, the game is decent, with some pretty cool boss battles. It just seems like it needed a little more polish to really make it a game that is worthy of using the same mechanics of those greater titles that it strives to be.
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Aug 31st, 2012 at 22:57:37 - Batman: Arkham City (360) |
Today, I finished Batman: Arkham City for the second time. To be honest, I wanted to start up a second playthrough after watching The Dark Knight Rises. Last year, when the game first came out, I played through it pretty quickly, so I wanted to return and take my time through the second run through. I completed a lot of side missions that I previously had missed. Also, with the second run through I decided to try out the new game plus mode.
Apparently the enemy variations were different, as to make it harder on the player. What was previously a normal group of thugs at the beginning of the game suddenly became a group of well-armored mercenary types. It certainly gave the game an extra boost in difficulty, as before it was fairly easy to take out a group of generic thugs in the beginning.
It helped though that the game gives you all the gadgets at the beginning instead of having to hit checkpoints to get certain gadgets. The way the new game plus works adds to enemy variations which seems to enhance challenge, which is always good for a player who is playing a second time and knows what to expect.
However, it still kind of felt that I was a powerhouse, using tactics that I had used previously to take out these, now enhanced, enemies. I feel though that they still wanted to retain this aspect, as a big draw to the game is being able to be the Batman. It’s a good feeling having some power over your enemies as you lurk through the shadows to take them out.
Boss battles are still the best part of the game, even with added difficulty. Particularly the boss battles against Mr. Freeze and Clayface were difficult but fun. With the new game plus, it seems that the difficulty ratchets up a little bit and you can tell in the boss fights. However the boss encounters are developed really well, giving multi-layered battles that utilize gadget use and quick reactions.
Altogether, I was satisfied with my second run through of the game. The first time I played Arkham City, I really just played for the story and completion. This time around, it was nice to experience a challenge and enjoy the mechanics of the game. I certainly recommend the game, as it is one of the best games I’ve played.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Aug 31st, 2012 at 22:59:20.
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