The Devil May Cry series, after its four installment in Devil May Cry 4, was a big commercial success. However, the gameplay is still as punishing as ever, rewarding hardcore action players by throwing a million demons at the player and forcing him to survive with a little bit of health; all the while expecting him to do enough combos at the end of the level. This is the tried-and-tested formula for the Devil May Cry Series, but Capcom wanted to break into Western markets, as well as to cater towards the casual action gamer segment.

So in September 2010, at the Toyko Game Show (essentially a giant gaming convention), Capcom announced that they would be working with UK developer Ninja Theory to launch DmC: Devil May Cry, prompting outrage from die-hard fans that love the hardcare action that the series represent. Fans were screaming blue murder and threatening to boycott the new game. Ninja Theory receives death threats from fans and the reception was negative. Those poor blokes in the UK didn’t know what hit them, and they were responsible for pretty good titles such as Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

So like how Godzilla got “westernized” to the Hollywood market, DmC is essentially the Western remake of it. Unlike the export of Godzilla though, DmC is a success on its own terms, and I was so thankful to give it a chance to play it.

Rewinding a few years back on PS2 console, I remembered picking the very first Devil May Cry to play in the console, and remember struggling at the “OH-MY-GOD” difficulty of the game. The game demanded a quick response and a knack of chaining combos like planning the choreography of a salsa dance on the fly. I couldn’t invest the time to train myself to play it, and I ended up being one of those people who didn’t complete a Devil May Cry game when almost every gamer in school were talking about it.

This time round, with more skill and time in my hands, DmC’s gameplay is remarkably similar and yet different from the previous series. Dante still wields his sword and his dual guns in definitive style. There are a whole range of techniques to be unlocked at his disposal to slice, hack, chop or blast his devilish foes to non-existence. The controls are smart and intuitive and if the combos are too hard to be executed, Ninja Theory provides a training mode where a punchbag devil bounces against a white background for the player to practice chaining his combos. This is reminiscent of fighting games of practicing and chaining combos, which is great for a newbie to pick up and learn. Once, the combos have been mastered, the player is in for a treat to display flurries of sword strokes and gunshots to make killing demons an art-form, which is immensely satisfying to execute but also easy to understand.

(Look at those combooooossssssss)

To add to the arsenal of combos, Dante also has a demon form and angel form that is easily access using the L2/R2 buttons, which  both grant him instant access to a weapon from the realm other than Rebellion. The weapons offer a chance to switch up the pacing of the combo style: his demon weapons offer slow, powerful attacks whereas his angelic weapons provide fast, effective crowd control for larger groups of enemies. There’s no limit to switching between these forms, and players have the chance to splice the different weapon style into the gameplay, making it a deeply fluid combo chain with Dante dancing across the ballroom of a battlefield. The combos, when coupled with the ability of Dante to pull enemies to him or grapple to them at will, makes its much easier to extend a combo with out needing to reposition himself during the battle. The player then get rewards by the ranking on the top right hand corner, which would then affect the player’s overall mission ranking. Players would love to see their moves as well as points racking up as they earn themselves towards the sweet coveted spot of the SSS rank.

The boss fights are spectacular too. Each enemy is a colossal badass, requiring you to make use of the environment while ducking their massive attacks. It offers a nice switch from plummeting multiple enemies to focusing on one big enemy, with each boss as challenging and as satisfying as the next one.

I might have made DmC sound too easy, but it’s not. It has a stunning five difficulty levels, the first of which comes divided into three sub-difficulties for beginning players to select. Even the first unlockable difficulty level, Son of Sparda, enhances the challenge tenfold, hurling waves of more powerful legions at players within the first few minutes of the campaign. Battles may be fair and well designed, but they will not be easy.

Story-wise, DmC differs from the original version as Dante is no longer a half-demon, half-human child but rather a half-angel, half-demon spawn. This gives a more refreshing take in the series, as well as a more relatable hero that is reluctant to save the world at first, but eventually finds himself swayed due to personal reasons. Dante and his brother, Vergil, appears together with the classic sibling rivalry at the side. They are Nephilim – an ancient fusion of the two powers that makes them so powerful with a lot of hidden potential that they are able to slay Mundus, the demon king. We see how the two nephilim brother work together to stop Mundus, who controls the world through contemporary means: debt, surveillance, and soft drinks. As Dante help Vergil in dealing with Mundus, he discovers more about himself and his past, while gaining more and more of his powers. The storyline gives itself room to have some satire against the modern addiction of media and on obesity pandemic. Underneath the layer of human faced that Mundus has created, there is a darker demonic world of Limbo which influences the human world in many ways, such as natural disasters or acts of terrorism, as painted by demons about Dante, which is known to the human world as a world-class criminal and a dangerous terrorist. Limbo is absolutely beautiful though, and the visuals are breath-taking with gripping environmental setpieces that is involved in the tory and gameplay as well.

Unfortunately for a story such as this, it cuts itself surprisingly short. The game only took less that 8 hours for me, and while playing one could have appreciated a little more backstory and depth to the story framework that was already very well-built.

In conclusion, I would urge people to keep an open mind and try out this game without referencing it to previous Devil series. DmC is a great game that can stand on its own, and if you can allow that, you might find yourself hooked to the game.

Verdict: 8/10

If you had played Heavy Rain before, you probably would have high expectations for Beyond Two Souls, a game produced by the very same studio Quantic Dream. After being released in February 2010, Heavy Rain was well received and has sold over two million copies worldwide. This time round, however, we ask…..

Does Beyond Two Souls go beyond our expectations?

I played the game twice and referenced the experience against the one I felt when playing Heavy Rain three years back, and I have to say that the feeling was….disappointing.

 David Cage, the creative director and CEO of Quantic Dream listed storytelling, emotion and innovation for the studio’s goals. But just as too many cooks spoil the broth, there is too much ambition in the storytelling this time round. Playing Beyond Two Souls packs too many genres into the plot, from family drama, to espionage thriller, to horror, to action, to sci-fiction, to political conspiracy, to high school drama and everything in between. It leaves me feeling puzzled and confused in the plot line, which is made worse by the non-linear narrative (it is told in chapters in an non-chronological order). Told in the same way like the movie 500 Days of Summer, the story unfortunately tries to get you to cry before you even invested your soul (pun intended) into the game itself, leaving you muddied and confused. In contrast, Heavy Rain is very focused in developing its psychological crime thriller plot, which develops each character a lot deeper and has a greater hook to get the player drawn to the plot.

 

(Heavy Rain fans can imagine the tension from the father)

Another qualm that struck me was the lack of moral ambiguity and consequence behind various actions, conversation choices and decisions the player face in various points of the story, which felt to me as a wasted opportunity. For example, telling the truth or a lie in a conversation does not create a butterfly effect on the story’s plot, neither does having revenge on mean bullies have any impact in the main character’s future. Unlike Heavy Rain, Beyond suffers from a lack of critical plot deviations arising from significant moments. The story just continues bull-dozing its way through in its own fashion, giving the experimental player (especially one who is curious enough to replay) a feeling that he just got cheated.

 

(Should I tell the truth? Nah, it doesn’t matter in the end)

(Just eat whatever you like…)

Beyond’s saving grace and trump card, has to be the main character Jodie Holmes, the powerful yet tragic protaganist in the story. The character is rendered based on; and voice-acted by actress Ellen Page (who acted in “Juno” and “Hard Candy” in Hollywood movies). The remarkable likeness, coupled with excellent facial detail and raw emotions, allows you to connect with the character on a personal level. You would feel her struggles, her insecurities and her frustrations in life as you play out her life story; from a little girl, to a rebellious teenager, to a mature woman. In certain chapters where the plot connects on a human level, such as being part of a homeless group in a bitter winter, Ellen Page always seizes the opportunity to make Jodie a likeable, genuine yet misunderstood character. You see, Jodie Holmes is a girl with a unique gift. Since young, she is linked to a separate spectral entity called Aiden, which constantly watches over her and does her bidding sometimes. Think of having Casper the friendly ghost on steroids, but being friendly and loyal only to you, and you get a rough sense what that power entails. However, the power comes at a cost to her as well, as people around her gets freaked out by the poltergeist activity happening around her and distanced themselves away from her, making her isolated and feared.

 (Capturing the markers on the face)

Other characters get overshadowed by Jodie, mostly due to the confusing plot, and partly due to lack of screen time. Nonetheless, character Nathan Dawkins, rendered based on; and voice-acted by actor Willem Dafoe (who acted as Norman Osborne/Green Goblin in Spiderman) also gave notable performances as a guardian to Jodie after her foster parents left her in his paranormal research lab. His role as Jodie’s guardian gets torn with his motivations as a paranormal researcher, and sometimes it leaves the tantalizing feeling of questioning his motives in certain plot points (which would get unveiled towards the end of the plot).

 

(You probably remember him more as Norman Osbourne below)

Gameplay-wise, Quantic Dream has steamlined the contextual interactions with the in-game world with an intuitive swipe using the right analog stick, as opposed by the more challenging quick time events and button combinations in Heavy Rain. The challenge by Heavy Rain gives a greater sense of urgency in certain scenes, whereas in Beyond, one can slowly take your time to do certain tasks or respond to a conversation. The buttons to be pressed are lesser, and there are lesser play on the quaking and spiraling of visual choices during moments of distress. In moments of combat, the action is again a simple swipe using the right analog stick, and even if you suck at it, the outcome will be the same regardless. Jodie wouldn’t die and end the game early for you; instead she will get knocked about or at worst, Aiden will just heal her. This gives an easier time for beginner gamers, but leaves a slightly unsatisfactory feeling of being far too passive for a hardcore player.

 

Beyond brings to the table the interesting prospect of controlling Aiden, the spirit linked to Jodie, but it sadly feels that the potential is left squandered in that area. There are very few moments where the player is left to solve a puzzle using Aiden on his/her own, as Jodie would always give a command “Help me Aiden”, “Go for it Aiden” and so forth. Controlling Aiden opens up a lot more possibilities than Jodie wouldn’t have, as it could blast objects/people, possess people, interfere with electronic gadgets, choke people and so forth. Instead of letting the player utilize Aiden freely in creative ways to get around a situation, the game sadly hand-holds for you by colour-coding enemies or objects to only allow a specific action to be performed on them. Switching to Aiden is also tightly controlled, since Aiden is a “stubborn spirit”. The overly-simplistic gameplay and the obvious hand-holding bury the potential where the game could have truly shined in time-limited puzzle-like scenarios or puzzle-solving co-op modes. The game makes it clear that it is obviously not a Deus-Ex scenario it is working at. Nonetheless, there are certain scenes where I had a fair bit of fun playing as Aiden, especially against groups of enemies that get spooked out when items (read: dangerous objects) are flung at them.

 

(I’m going to strangle this guy as Aiden…)

In conclusion, being an avid hardcore (I would describe myself as hardcore) gamer, Beyond Two Souls seems to me like a super draggy movie that masquerades itself as a video game with minimal player inputs to fool you into it. The gameplay and combat is bland and non-engaging, masked by a confusing plotline that manages to collect itself together towards the end. The superb acting, along with certain tear-jerking “Awwww” moments, are probably the few reasons why I would ever buy this game (I borrowed it). It is not a bad game, but it leaves you not feeling too wowed by it either.

I have recently taken a few days off my PS3 console to explore PC games, and I stumbled into Torchlight 2 which proves to be one of the best buys I have for PC games in years.

Let me explain.

For all those people who loved Diablo 2, Torchlight series hits all the sweet notes. This is not surprising as Runic Games were founded by Travis Baldree (lead developer of the MMORPG Mythos) and former high level executives of the Blizzard North team who developed Diablo: Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer and Peter Hu.Runic Games rose from the ashes of Flagship Studios in 2008 due to financial trouble; and Flagship Studies was formed by pissed-off Blizzard North management following a dispute with the parent company.

Therefore, it is a mad rush of euphoria and nostalgia when one opens Torchlight 2 and gets into the gameplay. Held by a paper-thin storyline, the game makes it clear that it doesn’t want you to care about its story; it wants your soul and your every thought devoted into the character and its gameplay. Just seconds into the gameplay, one is thrown into the tried-and-tested formula of killing dozens of monsters emerging from everywhere. You have chests that are monsters (Mimic), urns that contains monsters, monsters flying into the fray (bats or what not), undead emerging from the ground, the list goes on and it is just pure smashing and exploding fun as your character slashes, burn, blast their way through zillions of them.

(Urghhh, back off!!!)

Graphics and sound-wise, Torchlight 2 nailed it with its bright and colourful cartoonish visuals with a touch of eeriness from the zither as background music, which is hauntingly familiar from the old Diablo 2 main character page. Beautiful as the game is, your eyes have little time to wander as you scan across the landscape for treasure chests and randomised drops that always leaves you tantalising for more and more delicious orgasmic loot. Like in Diablo, these drops are colour coded, and your heart always would skip a beat with you receive a powerful rare gold one (signifying a Unique item). These random rewards are part of gaming psychology; the prospect of winning is always out there, and one is willing to battle loads and loads of monsters to get that one little “my preccciooouuussss”

 (This is probably the expression when one receives a powerful loot…and please do not play Torchlight till one becomes like him)

That is not to say that the game is a mindless grind fest. Torchlight 2 offers a very smart world design that have different environments with different sets of monsters as a constant challenge. The monsters can be tough in Veteran and Elite difficulties, and often one must be quick in their feet to avoid dying an untimely death for their character. Champions monsters are aplenty with higher damage and hit points (usually with an unique characteristic) and bosses always present at the end of a quest to show you their dangerous and powerful moves. To add to the fun, phase beasts appear at random, opening up a portal upon killing to another area with fun optional mission objectives like  “Protect the crystal” or “Destroy the spider nests) to give a varied taste should one gets tired off slashing and bashing their way to a boss.

The character progression and levelling is a classic lovable formula, since you get to level the skill and attribute points ala’ Diablo 2 style. This allows for a great degree of customisation as one tries to create a character that suits his/her playstyle the most. There’s a very limited respect option that allows for trying out various skills though, so there’s no “Oh-shit” moments when you select the skills wrongly. This method of levelling the character is what I love about Diablo 2 the most, and its great the developers of Torchlight 2 retain the sense of replay-ability for every class allowing the player to experiment with new and radically different builds. Each build is based on a concept of focusing on a handful of skills that synergies well together to create a custom avatar with an unique way of killing enemies. Therefore, a tip for newbies playing this: Please do not spread your points into every skill in every tree.

A vast improvement over the first Torchlight, Torchlight II is built for a longer gameplay. One can play in single-player offline mode, or jump into online or LAN co-operative games where enemies scale up in difficulty as more join in. Even if the online interface isn’t as fully featured as something like Diablo III (you can’t link items through the chat field, for example), Runic still implements smart design features, like making it so every player gets unique drops, eliminating the threat of cool stuff getting stolen in case you’re playing with inconsiderate strangers.

There’s a lot of comparison between Torchlight 2 and Diablo 3, especially with the release of both games being so close to each other that Blizzard’s Diablo 3 gives the feeling of looming over Torchlight 2 completely. This is particularly true when I am doing this review, since there’s a little voice nagging in my head telling that this is the same as Diablo 3 in X way….this is different from Diablo 3 in Y way. I have invested hours in Diablo 2, Diablo 3, Torchlight and Torchlight 2; and if you liked Diablo 2, you will definitely like Torchlight 2. But if you do not like Diablo 3, as I do, you will probably still like Torchlight 2.

A word of warning to Diablo 3 fans, I am going to start my Diablo-3 bashing now and explain why it’s better to park your money ($24 on Steam) with Torchlight 2. Here goes:

Diablo 3 is a pain for the always-online requirement that Torchlight 2 doesn’t have. This means I can’t plug off my laptop and play Diablo 3 in some backwater country with no Wifi if I want to, but I can still continue my solo play in Torchlight 2. For me, a solo player, Torchlight 2 is a clear winner in this aspect. What’s more, Torchlight 2 is more balanced in its levelling and feels less of a grind fest than Diablo 3. The classes in Torchlight 2 are a lot more versatile than in Diablo 3; Diablo 3 has this sucky linear skill tree that forces to play in a certain way, while Torchlight 2 blows your mind away with its permutations in terms of skill trees with one class. And the loot can suit many classes; you can use a crossbow for the Engineer class, and then swap for an Embermage’s staff in an instant. The game doesn’t restrict to to X item belongs to Class A, Y item belongs to Class B.

Another thing I really like for Torchlight 2 are its bosses. I’ve found Torchlight 2 bosses to be more varied and interesting than the bosses in Diablo 3. Diablo’s 3 bosses are a major clickfest: all one really needs to do is to spam your skills, drink potions and hope that the boss dies.  In Torchlight 2, bosses follow varied attack patterns, use environmental tricks to trap and disorient you, summon clones and minions, and generally follow more interesting routines. It is generally a lot tougher and you have to be fast and be alert to the patterns to survive.

Lastly, Diablo 3 is completely closed and controlled by Blizzard, while Torchlight 2 invited the modding community to tweak and re-invent the game however they want. One wonders why Blizzard would want to restrict that, given the wild success of opening up mods for Warcraft 3 (spawning off all those interesting maps). Its good news for Torchlight 2 gamers though, because it means you can expect new user-generated content for many months to come.

Considering that Torchlight 2 does everything incredibly well, with so much content, gameplay, replayability, and incredible environment, you will be hard-pressed NOT to buy it at $24 on Steam (sometimes lesser than $10 if on sale). Once you start on this, I guarantee you would throw your Diablo 3 account into the toilet bowl.

This game is amazing in so many areas. I will rate it 9.5/10.