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Tomb Raider Review: New Lara Croft gives Nathan Drake a run for his money

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I have never been a die-hard Tomb Raider fan. I recall attempting to play Tomb Raider in secondary school only to wind up in frustration over where to go, how to get from point A to B, and not having enough action to kill baddies on screen. Needless to say, apart from Lara’s stunning “bazookas”, Tomb Raider was nothing but a fleeting aldolescent memory. It was the wrong game for me at a wrong time.

Fast forward years later, Crystal Dynamics revamped Tomb Raider and give everything a different polish to it. Gone is Lara’s unbelievable giant boobs and hot pants. The unlimited ammo for the twin pistols were gone. The difficult puzzles that could let one get stuck and the sporadic wolves as enemies that come along are gone. Everything you thought you knew about Tomb Raider has been tweaked by Crystal’s touch.

And that is a good thing. Tomb Raider has been around since the 1990s, and the series have shown really quality elements that gave its fair share of hardcore fans. However, despite all of the games being perfectly playable, Tomb Raider as a series feels tired out. Lara Croft as a character was losing its freshness too. With the new spin to it, Lara Croft morphs into a badass male fantasy to a more realistic character that one can actually emotionally connect to.

The game starts off with Lara and her crew starting on a voyage to learn more about the Yamatai tribe, a lost tribe from Japan where the queen apparently is said to have mysterious powers. Somehow, along the way, she and her crew got stranded in an island. Lara is a fresh, out-of-college girl with little combat experience. Her emotional and physical vulnerability from the start gives a very credible feel to the character. Lara actually cries when she first killed someone. The obvious trembling in her voice, the panic in her combat actions are all examples of top-notch acting and details that gives her a solid framework to begin with. As Lara gains experience, one can watch her grow from the initial clumsiness of her combat to the fluid killing moves she displays as a hardened warrior. Her voice slowly gains confidence as she navigate her way around the island to rescue her friends and to get them off the island.

Graphics-wise, Tomb Raider is stunning. The environment is crisp and detailed, and every leaf, stalk, grass and waterfall is nicely placed and designed. Lara gets grime, dirt and blood as she rolls and tumbles into places, and gets cleaner when she passes through waterfalls or slides along sloping rivers. Her previous battle wounds become visible scars. Her lovely ponytail flutters in the wind and falls nicely depending on gravity (and not like a stiff, waxed ponytail in earlier games).

The combat and level design for Tomb Raider is what truly shines for this game in the series. Tomb Raider flows seamlessly between puzzle, exploration, hunting to open, full pow-wow action. Each of Lara’s weapons are useful in their way, and like in Legends of Zelda, certain upgrades or equipment are needed to explore previously-locked areas. Lara begins with a makeshift bow and arrow, and she gains the ability to upgrade it (and other weapons as well) using salvage as currency in the game. The bow always gives me a satisfying feel of giving headshots to enemies as the game rewards precision over the crude blasting. The cover system is absolutely intuitive, allowing Lara to automatically go into combat without having to press any additional buttons or to lean out of cover. The puzzles are very well-balanced and evenly spread. Zealous puzzle solvers could satisfy their cravings in optional tombs, where a puzzle usually stands in the way of a much greater reward. Lastly, the set pieces are spectacular. For example, Lara has to scamper through a burning fortress and that is easily one of the most heart-thumping moments in the game.

All these points out to how Crystal managed to take Uncharted and further refine the elements in it to make Tomb Raider a good solid game. When Uncharted was out, Naughty Dog was primed to take most of the thunder from the Tomb Raider series. But now, it seems like Tomb Raider has caught up, and gave much more to the formula that worked. Its storytelling, gameplay and graphics could give Uncharted much to chew about.

As I sat through the credits watching Lara giving up her previous casual civilian life to a life of adventure, I saw a note from Crystal Dynamics saying, basically, “Thank you for playing, we tried our hardest to make the best game we could possibly make.”

Well-done. Definitely well-done. This game deserves a 9.5/10 from me.

(P.S. I have completed all the optional tombs. Let me know if you guys run into any difficulties)

Game Review, General

Dead Space 3 Review: Isaac’s transformation from fearful engineer to space cowboy

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I remember playing Dead Space, the original franchise many months ago.

When I was playing it, my heart was filled with adrenaline, my eyes were scanning for Necromorphs and my trigger finger twitching to fire off a shot at every dreadful corner. I could feel the fear from Isaac Clarke: the protaganist who is the universe’s unluckiest system engineer with zero combat experience. In the original Dead Space, Isaac presents himself as a victim of circumstance. He is not Rambo going into the infested Ishimura guns ablazing, nor did he have powerful melee martial arts or moves to counter the Necromorphs’ attack. His leg movements are jerky, and his flailing arms and desperate stomps are punctated by his frantic screams. His weapons are mining tools with dreadfully limited ammo. His suit has dreadfully limited air supply. The stasis takes a long time to recharge and health packs have to be rationed. With all these limitations, Dead Space brings the genre of survival horror to its best. After all, character and gameplay limitations are what truly defines survival horror. To illustrate, a classic example from the genre: Resident Evil from 1996, evokes players with similar feelings of frustration and horror as they grapple with limited saves, pre-determined camera angles, limited ammo and carrying capacity.

(I can’t believe I got so scared of playing this then)

In the original Dead Space, players have to strategically dismember Necromorphs’ limbs, plan and conserve ammo and health packs while having the stressful urgency sometimes to get from place to place with the limited air supply. Needless to say, Dead Space was a challenging game. I recall the numerous times of cringing, writhing and flinching in discomfort while Isaac gets dismembered in more ways than he does to the Necromorphs (Watch this if you do not get what I mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIdkR85kpKs). While not as gruelling as Demon’s Souls, Dead Space offers a refreshing respite from the dumb-down games nowadays that aims to appeal to casual gamers. Survival-horror fans rejoiced and hugged each other at the revival of the genre with their iconic Resident Evil going into the track of being an action shooter.

 (Notice the count at 75 seconds of precious air supply)

Fast forward many months later, and we see that Isaac transforming into a tired veteran and a reluctant hero in Dead Space 3. Like Isaac, Dead Space 3 is almost unrecognisable from its former self. Gone were many of the limitations that are so intricately tied to its survival horror roots: Isaac gains the fluid ability to roll, ammo and health packs are plentiful, the air supply is a amazing reservoir of 200+ seconds long from the start and the players get to easily craft overpowered weapons pretty early in the game. To take the horror down to its very bottom, you can even have a friend join you for co-op to pawn even the hardest enemies the game has to throw at you. The ambience was gone too. Isaac used to be a lone wolf navigating the echo-ey halls of Ishimura. You get the sense that he is alone and isolated, desperately trying to find ways to get to his girlfriend. Now, there’s constant communication with other NPCs that offer helpful but annoying banter to obstacles in your way (Oh…Fetch this, fetch that). Isaac became this bad-ass who can handle confidently and comfortably any shit the Marker universe can throw at him. You can almost imagine these lines from him in the franchise:

Dead Space: Isaac: OH NO! OH NOOOO, WTF IS THIS?? RUN! RUUUN!

Dead Space 2: Isaac: Oh F***! THESE AGAIN! F***! F***! F***!

Dead Space 3: Oh them…I dealt with them before. Shoot their limbs and stay off the vents. (He actually instructs the rest of the crew in the early part of the game)

It used to be hard to survive in Dead Space, now it is hard to die in Dead Space 3. The Normal mode is the old Easy, and the Hard mode the old Normal.  But the gripe is not just on the damping down of difficulty (which could easily be adjusted at any point of the game). The original Dead Space is a merciless pee-in-your-pants survival horror; now it is a Left for Dead rush of enemies aiming to swarm you in claustrophobic areas. The previous strategy of being smart on spending your ammo and relying on your handy Plasma cutter couldn’t be used this time; its better now instead to hold your position and spray ammo using various killing machines at the swarm of enemies the game predictably throws at you.

(Timer? What timer? There’s plenty of air to go around at 300+ seconds)

Fans of the series would be quick to notice two major introductions that has the potential to derail the entire “Dead Space experience”. The first being the introduction of human enemies into a survival horror genre, the second involving the usage of microtransactions to bolster resources for weapon crafting. Human enemies are not what one would expect in a survival horror game, even if it fits the story narrative. Third person-shooters like Uncharted thrives in using human enemies for their Indiana Jones feel, while Dead Space 3 leaves the player puzzled over the seeming loss of the melee Necromorph charge/jump experience from the onset. The human AI in Dead Space 3 are pretty silly too, they do not flank positions nor take cover. It feels like something thrown in simply to pander to a greater crowd.

The usage of microtransactions becomes available once the bench is activated. Microtransactions give players the potential to get overpowered very quickly at the risk of breaking the game. While the difficulty is controlled in previous editions by delivering the schematics of various guns at pre-determined points in the story, with the option of microtransactions, it would be tempting for some players to quickly make themselves overpowered by pumping in real cash (or Rations) to develop a powerful weapon early on.

What does this spell for fans looking for the very same feelings of dread in the original Dead Space? To sum it up: Disappointing. The set pieces are very much underused and I could easily come up with a few scenarios where the tension could have been made better. For example, the pile of corpses that Isaac falls into at the start of the game could all be reanimated when the Marker became active, prompting Isaac to quickly move himself to the next area or risk definite death. Later in the game, when the thrusters from the old shuttle were triggered after the launch sequence were accidentally activated, a robotic countdown could be present to get players to move quickly before the entire place explodes or gets incinerated. It’s set pieces like those that would make the heart pound against the chest, but it quickly becomes tragic when you see all of those potential moments being squandered.

How about players looking for quite a bit of fun? Thankfully, Dead Space 3 is still a very fun game to play. The weapon crafting system gives the player a Diablo-loot collecting resource hoarding feel to it. Hardcore players looking to create their own killing machines have the chance to do so at the choice of selecting previous chapters and grind/get through their Scavenger Bots at a 10 min collection time/ exchange using Rations or real cash. After creating them, players could go to a Weapon test area to test out their newest Boomstick. Players could also rely on blueprints to build pre-set weapons in the game. It’s a pretty immersive and addictive experience that should be commended simply because there are so many combinations that Isaac could play with, and this is an area where Isaac remind us of his roots as an engineer. Though the Necromorphs fail to be horrifying this time, the experience they give in attempting to overwhelm you in numbers and you flashing out your own piece of bad-assery weapon is a pretty satisfying feeling. You know that they will rush you in all angles, and you feel comforted that the piece of metal you created in your hands can chew them into pieces.

(First I craft…..)

(Then I blast! Eat this!!)

To summarise:

Good points

  • Immersive crafting system lets player get creative to make Isaac the number one Necromorph nightmare
  • Co-op play allows friends to join you to have great moments of mock horror
  • Stunning visuals and pretty good sound effects
  • Fluid gameplay and controls

Bad points:

  • Microtransactions could break the game
  • Disappointing lack of tension, horror and difficulty that betrays the series
  • Checkpoints for saving are not well-distributed. Players have to devote a long period of time from one savepoint to another.
  • Inclusion of human enemies and dreadful human AI.

I would give it a 7/10. It is decent, but doesn’t realised its potential.

 

General

Unfamilar with Familars? Recommendations for Ni No Kuni’s Familiars after completing the game

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It is difficult not to be wow-ed by what the trusted Studio Ghibli has in store for us in Ni No Kuni. Take for example, just playing 5 minutes into the game, players would be greeted with the nostalgic cartoon cutscenes that they find so enjoyable in Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and other Studi Ghibli’s productions.

After completing the game and spending more than 60+ hours savoring every moment of it, it is as difficult not to rave about Ni No Kuni’s game as a whole. The graphics are amazing, the music lingers in your head in the shower, and the combat system challenging and strategic. That is however, not the point of this post. But before I continue, there are spoilers ahead. You are warned.

Looking back on how I could have arranged my dream team of Familiars back when Swaine joins the party at first at Castaway Cove, I wished there was a guide or something that could tell me which familiars to keep and which to be condemned in the dark dungeons of the so-called Familiars Retreat. There is a pathetic amount of guides regarding this area (there’s another link from IGN on this http://www.ign.com/wikis/ni-no-kuni-wrath-of-the-white-witch/Handy_Starter_Familiars), and the forums you go to would be touting Dinoceros like no-one’s business (which by the way, is only available for capture late game. It is very difficult to tame, but powerful as hell)

(Looks bad-ass? You bet)

The main point for having this post is this: it takes time for a familiar to get strong and evolved to match the story bosses’ you have to face. The longer they stay in the party, the higher their level and the greater tendency for them to be showered with treats that can make any human diabetic. Therefore, here are my recommendations for Oliver, Esther and Swaine for a good Familiar selection in the early part of the game:

Oliver: Hurly, Little Bighorn, Plessie/Naja (All compatible with Oliver)

Oliver is primary a spellcaster (duh!) and waving his wand to attack is only really applicable in the tutorial portion. That being said, his MP is very precious for spamming out spells and healing teammates. A Oliver without any MP is as good as a well…good-for-nothing. Therefore, it is crucial to choose familiars that do not consume too much MP in dealing damage, but rather, rely on their attack to dish out damage.

(Note that I didn’t include Mitey inside)

Don’t get me wrong. Mitey as a starter is great, but only at first. Once it evolves to its third form, the increases to its stats in both forms are dismal, and other wild familars and bosses can soon overtake it. You would then sigh in disappointment that unlike Ash in Pokemon, the “Pikachu” equivalent you are given with for Oliver actually start to suck later.

Hurly (Swaine’s Starting Familiar)

Hurly is a Milite, which is compatible with Oliver, not Swaine, even though Hurly is given when you get Swaine early in the game. I know a lot of complaints about this familiar: that it looks too ugly, it misses all the time, it is too slow. But the third form of Hurly is a powerhouse in attack later (Hurlabaloo at 377 max attack stats later and Hurlcules at 357 max attack stats later). For hardcore players, keep pumping in pies for his growth in accuracy and equip him with a Hammer instead of an Axe, and you can see his attacks connecting in big numbers later on.

Little Bighorn (Old Smoky)

Little Bighorn could be found along the path towards Old Smoky as well as at Old Smoky itself. This is the tank in the assemble. If you take a look at the Wizards’ Companion, you see that it has no weakness, and is resistant to physical attacks! This is thus perfect for boss battles when you need All-Out Defense to block against special attacks. In additional, little Bighorn uses a shield that boosts physical defense pretty well. Stats-wise, Little Bighorn and its evolved forms have average stats and serves mostly as a damage sink for your repetoire.

Plessie/Naja (Waters/Ding Dong Dell Sewers)

The last choice could either be Plessie or Naja. Plessie could be found in the waters once you get the ship to sail while Naja could be found in Ding Dong Dell Sewers. Both are excellent choices for attack stats in their final forms (Najapatra at 350 attack and Mahanaja at 343 attack, while Stressy Pressie at 365 attack and Blessy Plessie at 343 attack). While Plessie is more superior in terms of stats, Naja is more superior in attack speed. The weak point of Naja for people who are interested is in its defence; so keep putting in lots of flans and you will have a pretty good striker as Oliver’s backup.

Esther: Drongo, Napcap, Green Buncher (All compatible with Esther)

Esther is pretty weak, and the only reason why you might really want to use her is to help in support (through her songs) or to Serenade to tame a wild familiar. Therefore, you will be relying a lot more on Familiars for her, and you definitely want a good mix in her team.

Drongo (Esther’s starting familiar)

Drongo, like Mitey, is pretty good early on, but it doesn’t mean that you have to scratch it off later. It has pretty good area attacks of water and lightning later on, and proves to be a decent healer too. Pump it lots of cakes to boost its magical attack and ignore the rest of the stats.

Napcap (Golden Grove)

Yes, I can hear some exclamations there. Napcap…NAPCAP?? Are you frigging kidding me? Don’t worry, my friends, Napcap is the real deal. In terms of the highest stats gained for all the familiars, Nightcap gets 1988 stats in total, more than any other familiar. The other form, Madcap, gets 1972 stats in total, placing it second in place. Stats-wise, it is very well distributed across all of them, making Napcap a Jack of all trades. It doesn’t deal really powerful damage, but neither does it have overwhelming defense. The best for its use, is the fact it gets a pretty powerful Second Wind spell that heals all allies for quite a huge amount. That is pretty handy in a pinch. To add to its usefulness, it also has Mighty Light to support deal Light damage other than Oliver’s Arrow of Light spell. And its very fast (you should try catching it and you will know what I mean). That means you should throw it out, run around to collect glibs (not Drongo, that slowpoke) and cast spells to heal and support your characters.

Green Buncher (Found in Shimmering Sands)

Green Buncher is pretty common in Shimmering Sands, and is a tough customer when you first roam around the desert from Golden Grove. What you might notice is this: Green Buncher hits really hard and casts Stalagmitts, which then immediately knocks out one of your teammates due to its high attack stats. Like Hurly, this guy is a powerhouse (Overripe Buncher has 328 max attack and 238 defense). You would want him with Esther to balance out the MP draining peeps like Drongo and Napcap, and not to get stuck with another spell-intensive familiar to dish out damage when her MP is going to zero. Alternatively, you would want him to use Belly Buster to deal massive Damage to a boss. For people using Green Buncher, the only few qualms about it is its weakness to fire and it’s slow speed. Later in the game, use Hot-Blooded Badge (increases movement speed) together with Fire Seal to mitigate its weaknesses, and feed it lots of pies to boost its accuracy and you will see this guy shining more and more in Esther’s team.

Swaine: Thumbelemur, Monolith, Clubber Cub/Sore Boar (All compatible with Swaine)

Swaine is primarily a rogue/thief character (that almost every JRPG must have: Rikku, Zidane etc) that excels in using Mugshot to steal items from enemies. Other than that, his shots are pretty useless as most bosses are immune to status effects anyway. His use is again to support Oliver primarily as a healer/tank using his familiars.

Thumbelemur (Given to party)

Thumbelemur is given to you pretty early in the game by Little Tommy Stout and is perfect with Swaine. It is very good with evasion, and with the mantle given to it, it becomes the God of dodging. This makes attacks to it miss most of the time and makes it a decent fighter in the early parts of the game. The main draw of keeping this little fella around is to morph it to Aye-Aye Catcher, which let you learn the trick Upsy Daisy to revive fallen allies in battle without using any items (trust me, you will be casting this pretty often, especially in the Solomon Trials).

(Don’t you wish that you have Upsy-Daisy now?)

Monolith (Found near Castaway Cove)

I love this guy. I really do. This guy has saved the entire team in a boss fight more than once. Boasting a whooping 402 defense stats as a Neolith or Paleolith later, this guy is a walking Great Wall of China. But it doesn’t just hop about in the battlefield hoping for the boss to notice it. At an early stage, it learns the Yoo-Hoo trick that calls enemies to itself (think of it as Taunt). Bosses, wild familiars, whoopee-doo Bounty Hunt monsters would drop everything they have to start whacking your Monolith, only to find the damage shown as 1. 1….Yes you read it right. It perfectly complements the rest of the team because Oliver would act as the main damage-disher, with Esther spamming it with spells from her familiars while the boss focuses on your little Monolith. To make good use of it, give it cakes to boost its magical attack and you can see it as a secondary spellcaster. Additionally, equip it with items that boosts its stamina so that it can stay in the battlefield longer (The AI tends to let it stay in the battlefield till its stamina runs out).

Clubber Cub/Sore Boar (Shimmering Sands/Golden Grove)

There is a time when you have to give an All-Out Attack command and you wish that Swaine has a powerful attacker on his side. There you have it, Clubber Cub and Sore Boar are decent attackers ready to dish out powerful damage to the crowd. Clubber Cub eventually evolves to Elegantiger, a Wolverine-like familiar that is very fast in moving and attacks very quickly too. Like Naja above, the weakness is in its defense. Switching to Clubber Cub usually results in a huge HP drop when it gets hit, making Clubber Cub more of a guerille hit-and-run kind of play. To let it survive better, later in the game, it might be good to equip two Ironclad Badges to it, boosting its defense and magical defense by 60 each. For Sore Boar, its stats are a lot better but the danger lies in its inaccuracy. Therefore, feed pies to it and rely more on its Belly Buster to hit hard on boss fights. A Full Boar/Hyperboar is pretty deadly with its physical damage and is something that you definitely not want to mess with.

So there you have it. A dream team if I must say for early game captures that can last you the entire game. Got a better team that works for you? Feel free to comment below!

Get the Ni No Kuni at GameTrader.SG here.