Stealth games have became more prevalent lately, in a very familiar fashion in our typical 3D forms. We see them coming in as a third person view, such as from Hitman series, to The Last of Us to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. And with the explosion of the stealth genre, we have also lately seen stealth infused with FPS (think Crysis series or Dishonoured) or mixed with an action title (think Uncharted or Splinter Cell: Blacklist) or in its purest form in the Thief series. We thought we have seen them all.

We thought wrong.

You see, Mark of the Ninja is a 2D side-scroller with handdrawn graphics. It doesn’t have cutting edge breath-taking graphics or does it try too hard to conform to that. The look and feel is nostalgic and beautiful thanks to the talented team of artists and animators in developer Klei Entertainment that reminds me of the cartoons I used to watch on TV. And with that, it does an amazing job at showing how stealth mechanics can still work even in a 2D platformer. How? You ask. You are flabbergasted by the concept because you can’t exactly hide behind corners or peer out of it, nor can you shoot your dart or stun gun from cover.

(I can’t do this, you say)

Well, let me explain. Mark of the Ninja does an excellent job playing with the light and sound mechanics. Light sources reveal to everyone where you are if you happen to be in the line of sight of the guards, and sounds are represented visually as circular waves emanating from your running footsteps, to dogs barking to light bulbs breaking. A neat line-of-sight effect shrouds areas beyond view in murky uncertainty, while the colour vanishes from your ninja’s garb and the surroundings to show when he’s hidden in the dark. And from a 2D platform, the ninja can hide from a hidden sewer grate on the side, to the drain grate beneath, or to a chandelier above. Additional objects, such as doors or pillars can allow you to hide behind it on a 2D scale.

So for example, say there is a guard blocking my way to the objective, and from his position its is well-lit from a single light source and metres away from the darkness my ninja is shrouded in. No issue there, because Mark of the Ninja provides you with so many options at your disposal. You could use the grappling hook to zip to the hanging platforms overhead and then drop down behind him to do a lethal stab sword in his back. The cool thing is anytime you make an undetected kill like that, the camera zooms in and darkens the background, highlighting you and your victim as you plunge your blade into him and then toss his body aside. Or if you are feeling both creative and sadistic at the same time, you can throw a spike mine behind him, and then subsequently throw a dart to smash the light bulb. The sound stemming from that will distract the guard and prompt him to investigate, and after walking a few steps, triggering the mine and finding himself impaled in so many different angles that he instantly becomes swiss cheese. Or if you are feeling very nice and merciful that day, you could always deploy a firecracker behind him to distract him, and quickly sneak above him unseen while he walks back to check things out.

You begin with very basic moves of moving, grappling and stealth killing from behind, but as you finish levels and secondary objectives within each mission (such as completing an area without being detected or successfully pickpocketing your foe), you’ll earn medals redeemable for new moves that significantly liven up the game and open up your options. There is a move that you can redeem, for example, that allows you to string up your dead victims from an overhead perch, guaranteed to terrorise any guards witnessing that traumatic image. Terrorised guards panic and usually starts shooting blindly, potentially leading to friendly fire as your ninja watches gleefully at grown men peeing their pants and killing their comrades. Or you can use the infamous Metal Gear Solid cardboard box to hide within it, and ambush unsuspecting guards like a trapdoor spider when they walk past you.

The scoring system is very rewarding, achieving its balance between a stealth gameplay and being a killing machine. Your ninja is just a human, and when detected, a few gunshots can kill him pretty fast. This means you can’t brazenly walk into a room and start stabbing the guards in the open. While many stealth games claim you can play them lethally or non-lethally, Mark of the Ninja rewards you with XP when you use either style. If you are like me, preferring to stab every fool that you cross, you’ll earn some points along the way. But if you bother to hide their bodies, the scoring system will reward you more. Terrorize the weak-willed guards and you’ll gain even more (see my tactic above). Or you can just sneaking by the guards undetected to gain plenty of points that way. All these styles are complemented by different “Paths” to suit your playstyle. Take the Path of Silence for example, and the game will remove your sword, forcing you to sneak by everyone and will give you extra distraction tools to do so. Take the Path of the Hunter however, and you will have extra lethal items, but they cannot by replenish and you cannot carry any distraction items. These gives a great deal of replayability.

(No, you will not be able to do that in this game)

The only flaw I can think of is the maddening controls sometimes. You see, on the PC, the right mouse click is used for picking up a corpse, and also to hide behind a room or an object. What if the corpse is very near the room? Then the control will have difficulty differentiating what you intend to do. You might end up holding the corpse when the guard walks towards you, instead of hiding into the room as you originally wanted. It is frustrating, but thankfully not game-breaking.

Mark of the Ninja is a very smart game with a very intuitive design, filled with exploitable logic from guards and challenges you to be creative and to think.  Its linear but multi-route levels are really just collections of puzzles and you gain satisfaction through creative employment of your ninja’s bursting utility belt and moves. And with that said, Mark of the Ninja is really one of the best stealth games you can ever play for its value. Now at less than USD10 on Steam, this is the kind of game that slaps those $60+ multi-million blockbuster hits in its face and screams for attention because it is as good, if not better than those releases.

Plot-centric games are a rare gem nowadays; a needle in the haystack in the midst of action and FPS games that flood the markets these days. Such games are amazingly difficult to pull off, given the immense amount of dialogue combined with the essence of a strong story, which had to differentiate from B-grade plot clichés that we see in most games. But when they do succeed, they shine gloriously.

The Walking Dead: The Game is an amazing example of a game that redefined a genre and going against the grain by breaking away from the cookie cutter mould of action-packed zombie-based games such as Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising and Dead Island. This means that if you are looking to run around the country and kill thousands of zombies, you’re better off playing one of those titles I have just mentioned. Developed by Telltale Games who specializes in episodic adventure games, the Walking Games is in good hands of the team that created Tales of Monkey Island and Back to the Future: The Game. Drawing inspiration from Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain, the developers mixed storytelling elements with quick-time events, delivering tension for certain climatic moments. When packaged together with your own emotions woven into it, The Walking Dead: The Game promises an unforgettable experience that will keep you riveted to plot till the end.

(You will be very disappointed if you are expecting something like this)

Inspired by the comic book itself, the game offers nice cell-shaded graphics that complements the look and feel of the comics, with cameos (I wouldn’t spoil it for you) from the main story appearing in the game. The voice acting is super, with emotion dripping in each sentence as a living breathing novel playing out by itself. The game is delivered in bite-sized amounts in the form of 5 episodes, starting in April 2012 and ending in November 2012. Each episode would take about 2 to 3 hours, which provides a short but intense experience aplomb with emotional tension, delivering what Telltale Games promises as the main selling point: that you as a player has the choice to choose your own story and your own adventure. In short, The Walking Dead: The Game is a game that concerns more on what you do than how you do it.

As the player plays through episodes one to five, the game would require responses from dialogue or actions that are timed (with only seconds to react) and critical, requiring the protagonist, Lee Everett, to make decisions that would alter the flow of the plot in a manner similar to RPGs like Mass Effect or Dragon Age: Origins. If you miss the timer, in some conversation trees Lee will end up being silent, which would have an impact on how others react to him. In other cases, it could result in Lee himself or another character being killed. Unlike Mass Effect or Dragon Age: Origins though, the moral choices aren’t so clear-cut in being “good and lawful” versus “bad and renegade”, which is true of life. In a post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead where hordes of undead walk the earth, the moral compass is thrown out of the window in the face of survival, making the player perform some really difficult decisions. Take, for example, a scene where Lee is only given 4 rations to a group of 10 hungry survivors with himself included. Would he give to the children out of compassion, or would he give to adults so that they can fight the zombies better? Other notable scenes include Lee having to decide if he should help a stranger by shooting at the zombies, but risking the horde flocking to him due to the noise, or leave her at lurch so that he can have more time to scavenge for supplies while the zombies are feasting on her. The game is peppered with all these hard choices, with seconds to decide, and it becomes a story of how humanity has crumbled and how bleak such a world can be.

When not making choices, the player can examine and interact with characters and items, and must make use of inventory items and the environment. That said, there aren’t many difficult puzzle elements in this game. Most of the puzzle involve menial activities like finding batteries for a radio or starting up a train, which acts more as a pacing to drive the central plot as well as to develop the world and the characters deeper.

Most of these choices and actions would not have mattered if not for a central character in the story: Clementine, a young 8-year-old girl left to fend for herself in an Atlanta suburb after her parents made a very bad call to take a holiday during apocalypse and her babysitter becomes a baby-eater. That is, until the protagonist, Lee Everett, comes along to become her guardian. During the game, Clementine was made to act as a moral mirror to reflect the decisions made by the player, as it shapes and moulds her to be a young woman in this harsh post-apocalyptic world. This is complicated by the fact that Lee Everett is a convicted murderer on his way to prison when the first episode begins, a difficult fact about himself that might work against him in a world where trust is a luxury to come by. And the duo sets off into the scary world in a mad quest to find Clementine’s parents despite having the nagging thought in your head that they are probably dead or worse.

That said, even though the Walking Dead: the Game is marketed as a game with choices, it is not a “Create your own adventure” game with millions of possible outcomes and limitless plotlines. The endings are driven by the same central story and leads to the conclusion that many of our life’s choices have predetermined outcomes, or some would like to call it fate or destiny or God’s will, and therefore some things, regardless of how many reloads you do or if you step back in time, cannot be changed. You might be given a choice, but after playing it a few times, you would realise that your choice may not change anything except for how other people view you. I personally would have liked a lot more diversity in the endings and plot branches, seeing how Heavy Rain managed to make it more diverse and gives it a lot more replayability. On the other hand, the Walking Dead teaches a valuable lesson about the limits of human choice, that despite giving your best shot sometimes, you cannot change a situation, but the situation will change you. It is the journey of building the relationships, losing them, and all the emotions I have felt that makes the Walking Dead so close to the heart and so memorable. The experience is much more impactful as a game than the drama series or comic book can ever hope to achieve.

9/10. (Try it and feel it for yourself. This game is pretty cheap sometimes on Steam, so be sure to check it out to get deals sometimes)

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.

Last week, I gave a review on Orcs Must Die! 2. The game isn’t overly difficult, but some maps can be more challenging and frustrating than others. This week, I decided to do a favour to all beginners players who are struggling with the game by sharing some of the strategies I used in the game.

1) Learn how to use checkerboard layout in your floor and ceiling traps

For people who doesn’t know what a checkboard looks like, please see the drawing below.

A checkerboard design maximises your tile layout in your floor (and ceiling) traps in the best way possible. Many newbies are tempted to lay the same trap in a row, but it suffers from one big problem. Sometimes, a stray orc or even a kobold can run between the two traps, triggering them both at the same time. This results in wastage in trap effectiveness as the other trap could be activated on another orc. For the above, a Tar trap (War Mage only)/Brimstone combo is particularly effective. Tar slows everything that comes (more on that later) while Brimstone has a constant effect and is very effective against gnolls and kobolds.

2) Tar is easily the most useful trap available in the game

Tar is a unique trap for the War Mage in Orcs Must Die 2 and its primary function is to slow enemies that enter its area. Unfortunately, its is easy to neglect Tar trap since it is not one of the killer traps in the arsenal. However, please do not let its simplicity deceive you! Firstly, Tar traps cost 300 coin when the reduced price is fully upgraded, which is one of the cheapest permanent traps you can have with  Steam Trap, Pushers, Spike Trap and Coin Forge. The cheaper the trap, it means more traps for you. With starting coin often being a limiting factor at the beginning of levels, having a cheap and effective trap can make difficult early waves manageable.

Secondly, Tar trap is constantly active, along with Swinging Maces. Brimstone might seem to be constantly active, but it could only hit up to 5 enemies and must recharge after that. Tar, on the other hand, hits everything that touches it, all the time, without fail. Tar will slow single enemies, groups of enemies, from Kobold Runners to Mountain Trolls and all other enemies in-between.

Thirdly, Tar traps have a powerful slow especially with upgraded with the Unique to slow enemies even more. Slowing things down could mean the difference between winning and losing. Slowed enemies stay in killboxes and choke points longer, allowing traps to reset and striking them again. It also allows easier killing of fast enemies like kobolds and gnolls. Many traps in OMD 2 slow enemies, including Arrow Walls with chill, Acid Sprayers with poison, Ice Vents with freeze, Spike traps that slows. Tar traps, however, outclasses them all when comparing value, influence, and effect.

3) Learn how to use your barricades

Barricades are immensely useful, because, as the War Mage puts it, orcs apparently can’t jump. This means that most enemies, with the exception of Gnolls, have to go the path you want them to because of the barricades, allowing you to set up killzones and chokepoints to manage the horde more effectively. Sometimes, instead of defending your rift from 2+ sides, you can block one side with Barricades and force all enemies into one direction.

For these reasons, Barricades are highly recommended in almost all levels. As soon as you are able, upgrade them to level 3 to lower their cost. The less coin you have to spend on Barricades, the more you can spend on other traps.

One of the common strategies of using barricades is to use barricades in a snaking manner (see picture below) as a killzone. Enemies that pass through here must deliberately curve their path through your Barricade maze, like a snake. This tactic can significantly slow enemies. In addition, a snaking tactic is very effective when used with a wall trap that extends the entire pathway, or Swinging mace that swings through the entire length. Creative use of Push Wall near the exit (not the entrance) of the snake path will push lesser enemies back to the starting point, and Tar traps could slow them down to effective push them again and again to be stuck at the trap area. If combine with a Void wall, that also means all the enemies would be killed instantly. Grinders and Haymakers near the single entrance/exit tile could also maximise their effectiveness in the killzone. Just so you know, having an effective killzone is a lot better at killing orcs than placing traps all over the place.

Another strategy is to create a funnel (as depicted below). A funnel is not necessarily as effective as the snaking method. But it usually comes at the cost of having to use lesser barricades. While most of the hordes congregating at the middle point, a combination of tar and Swinging Mace usually would work, with the player facing the exit and blasting it away.

Barricades don’t have to be fully connected to block off a path; simply being connected from corner-to-corner is enough. In the diagram below, you can see how a chokepoint/funnel could easily be formed using this method. In the map Crutch, this could be used in conjunction with the middle statue to block off one route.  This can save you the cost of an extra Barricade here and there if you’re willing to experiment.

The wisps before the start of the wave is pretty accurate, as it shows you the path the enemies would take. Therefore, it is very important to pay close attention to the wisps when using Barricades. If a wisp curves away from a path the Barricade is blocking, it means that the barricade is usually safe. But if the wisps stop in front of the Barricades, enemies will attack them.

When using Barricades, be wary of Gnolls and Kobold Sappers. Gnolls act as if they don’t exist and walk over them freely. Sappers will attack Barricades if there are no other players, Guardians, Decoys, or charmed enemies nearby, and around 3 are enough to completely destroy one. They will usually destroy more than 1 due to their explosion’s radius. One effective way to handle Sappers is to use “dummy Barricades”, which is simply putting a single Barricade in a place where Sappers will target it instead of your primary Barricades. It’s less costly than replacing main Barricades and, unlike Decoys, won’t draw attention from non-Sappers.

Note that when using the Sceptre of Domination, charmed enemies can cause other enemies to unintentionally damage the  Barricades, since their attacks hit an area in front of them.

4) The crossbow can be your best friend

On higher difficulties or on Endless Mode, two things are usually required: Mana and the ability to kill off heavies quickly at range, since ogres have the annoying ability to stun you and once ganged-up with other enemies, it usually means your death. No other weapon can fulfil this with the exception of the Crossbow.

The Crossbow does fairly low damage but makes up for this with its rapid fire capabilities (to help kill off kobolds) and allowing you to land headshots for greatly increased damage. The greatly increased damage is nothing to scoff at especially when combined with Ice Amulet; since the frozen status increases the damage received for the enemies. Using that method, Earth lords usually die at 3-4 shots and Earth elemental with 2 shots. If you were to use a fully charged Sceptre to attack, usually an Earth Lord could easily take more than 8-10 blasts, making it easy for you to be overrun. Additionally, its fairly high accuracy makes it effective against air targets (compared to the Blunderbuss). The Unique ability of generating mana per headshot (10 mana each time) is very useful since it gives you more chances to use your Ice Amulet, or in my case, I use in combination with Ring of Lightning, which is perfect for killing multiple weaker enemies in 1 chain lightning shot.

5) Learn to refund your skulls to suit the map you are playing and not just your playstyle.

A lot of beginners make the mistakes of “locking in” the skulls without sensing the context of the map they are in. While weapon type may demand for a certain playstyle, the traps setup should be adequate to the map, and hence upgraded according to the selection.

A frequent mistake was to invest skulls in what I call contextual traps, traps that are effective in some maps and not others. One example would be spring traps, which can be useful in maps with pits/lava/acids, but has limited use without them. Another would be investing a lot of skulls in archers, which are fantastic with decoys and works wonderfully in normal mode. However, in Endless mode, gnolls will kill off these archers, and investing skulls in archers but not using them in Endless Mode is just a waste of skulls. The skulls could be better placed in Floor Portals for example, and using them could allow a better management in Endless Mode.

Therefore, be flexible in the trap layout and upgrade the appropriate traps for the appropriate map. Seeing the layout and knowing the environment and its traps helps a lot in terms of receeing before you leave the map to respec.

Hope you guys enjoy the tips above. For any further tips to this wonderful game, feel free to comment below.

Names are important. For people who were born with unfortunate names, life is hard enough without all the teasing. That’s what exactly happens to this game and its cheesy title. If you judge a book by its cover and a game by its name, stop doing that now and continue reading. You wouldn’t regret it.

The tower defence genre is easy to be dismissed as a short, app-like game that has no action nor hardcore elements in it. Ask people about tower defence games, and they would think of Plants versus Zombies, or Kingdom Rush. Both games are great on its own, but it does leave a feeling that the genre has to be powered by mobile or tablet devices. This is…until Orcs Must Die! came to the PC in 2011, which truly redefined the genre. It throws us away from the classic top-down view of placing towers along a pre-defined path to controlling the the main hero, who would have a mean arsenal of traps and weapons to kill the green-skinned menace (hence the title…in case you haven’t noticed)

Nope….it’s not like this.

Orcs Must Die!2 and its prequel has a simple story.  Essentially, the story revolves around a faction of wizards known as the Order, who guard the Rifts as a source of magical power. Over centuries, the Order is to maintain the peace in the world through the use of magic for humanity. However, the Rifts are also sought by the Orc faction to pass to the human world – essentially a mix bag of Orcs, Orges, Gnolls, kobolds and bats. The Order were able to defend against them by having magically-empowered fortresses to guard the Rifts until the orcs appeared to have suddenly gained in strength and intelligence, which was shown later to be lead by the evil Sorceress, a past student of the Order who sought to use magic to control the Orc army for herself.

That of course, didn’t materialise. In Orcs Must Die! previously, the protagonist, an Apprentice War Mage, eventually found a way to seal the Rift, stopping the use of magic forever for humanity who has grown accustomed to using magic as a way of life. In Orcs Must Die! 2 now, the Sorceress, found to be weakened without magic, managed to escape from the mindless Orc army that she no longer can control and tag team (not-surprisingly) with the himbo jock of a War Mage to massacre her previously mind-controlled green minions. The dialogue between them is cheeky and hilarious, offering a light-hearted feel to a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The gameplay is where it shines the MOST, and that is where a lot of game developers sometimes forget what is at the heart of a game: having fun. You control either the Sorceress or the War Mage, each with their own traps and weapons. The game rewards with its gruesome currency of having orcish skulls after each level, much like the 5 star system found in most app games for completing a level. These could be used for upgrades that are extensive to suit your gaming style. Taking the trap Arrow walls for instance, it could be upgraded with fire arrows or ice arrows. And if you were to upgrade it more, you can place them on the ceiling to create raining arrows of death. During the levels, by carefully (and sometimes creatively) placing traps on the floors, walls and ceilings, you find yourself gleefully smirking as your killbox of traps grind, cut, slash, burn, freeze or melt the huge variety of enemies pouring out to reach their goal. It is awesome fun, for example, to build a Rube Goldberg Machine of sorts, by having enemies flung up in the air by using a steam trap, and while they are levitating in the air, having a well-placed archer shooting at them (and consequently the ceiling), which would trigger a ceiling trap full of boulders to fall on the floating enemies.

That being said, the traps are limited by having a reset timer, and that is where it deviate from standard tower defence games by needing your character to be in the middle of the action to kill off what the traps were unable to. In addition, the traps are limited by the amount of cash you have and one have to brainstorm to place the traps in the most effective manner. There is a lot of thinking and the difficulty, especially for solo play, could be unforgiving. The designers obviously design some of the maps for co-operative play and that gave the game much criticism for its sudden difficulty spike. However, I enjoyed the challenge and frequently find myself pondering how to improve on the trap setup and how to spend the funds more wisely to kill orcs.

Ohhh…the traps are soooo delightful.

When give the chance to play with a friend, co-operative play makes it even more fun. And that were where Robot Entertainment took the feedback most from Orcs Must Die! and greatly improved on. It is deeply satisfying to play shoulder to shoulder with your friend against the tide of enemies rushing your way. From the Story mode to Endless mode, where 50 waves of enemies come crashing upon you, you will find yourself needing a friend most of the time. It is fun to devise together where to place the traps and where to defend, and this game delivers a nice buddy system to it.

My only gripe for this game is the lack of player-produced maps. Please do not get me wrong, Orcs Must Die has a lot of content with weekly challenges released by Robot Entertainment that restrict the player to certain types of equipment and traps. However, it would be cool to design a map for a friend to complete, much like the Warcraft 3 Map editor which spawned off lots of fun and creative TD games.

For all its content, depth and the extensive replay value, Orcs Must Die! 2 is remarkably cheap. I got it from the Steam Sale that occurred during the Christmas Season (which just ended yesterday) at just USD3.74 (- 75% off!!!), which is way cheaper than some of the paid games you see in you mobile or tablet apps. For you guys who ignored my post or missed the sale, fret not. Orcs Must Die!2 is still very cheap at UD15. This is a game that I highly recommend for kids and adults alike.

I would give it 9/10. For more tips on Orcs Must Die!2, be sure to check out the posts in the coming weeks. =)

Steam Autumn Sale had just pass us by, but from 19th Dec to 3rd Jan, Steam Holiday Sale is ready to give all gamers another round of bang-for-the-buck.

For those who are new to Steam (e.g my female work colleague who thought Steam is a hydro-electric energy company), Steam usually releases its summer sale around mid-July, and its autumm sale at around mid Nov. These sales give PC gamers huge discounts on popular titles (some of which at also in PS3. For inspiration, check out the Top 10 PS3 games for Christmas). Recent, blockbuster hits could see absurd discounts up to 75% to 90% in some cases, and these discounts do change dynamically.

Being a kiasu Singaporean, let me summarise a few pointers on getting the game you want for as little as possible:

1) Check Steam sales regularly. By regularly, I mean daily. You do not have to go crazy and track the Steam Sale like a stock market

2) Be patient. Don’t buy a game unless it’s a daily deal or a flash sale. Standard store discounts are 25% to 50% in general. And these are everywhere in Steam. Don’t buy them. Resist. Like any obedient young Padawan, your patience will be rewarded in a more impactful daily deals/flash deals, which would bring discounts up to 50% and above.

3) If you miss your game as a daily deal or flash sale, wait for the Encore sale. If for whatever reason, you choose to not follow pointer 1 above, then wells, you are not screwed. Usually, like a good bazaar stall, the last day of the Steam Sale is almost always an Encore Sale, and that’s where you pounce.

4) Anything above 75% is likely to be the best you can get. I have tracked Steam’s discount structure. And usually new games either come undiscounted or having 25% to 40% discount. If you are patient, it will pop out at few months later at 50 to 70%, which is about the time to strike if the game you want goes below $10. However, if you see anything appearing more than 75% discount, that is probably the best deal you can get from Steam. Cowabunga!!

Drool……

5) Use the wishlist function. Steam allows for wishlists to be made, allowing you to be notified via email whenever there is a deal for the game you want. Use it to get notifications and then strike fast and true.

6) Buy publisher bundles as soon as you see it. Why? You asked. Because they are dirt freaking cheap. Usually an Ubisoft/Activision/Rockstar etc bundle is the cheapest you can get. So when you see that, think no more. Just go. Go…really. Come on.

Hopefully with all these tips, you get to have the awesome “WIN” feeling especially you know you have gotten a good deal (P.S Farcry 3 is at 75% now!!)

2013 is an exciting year for PS3, particularly because we witness a lot of blockbuster titles that tests the very limits of the PS3 system. As Santa bells ring and Christmas approaches, what does one do when your loved one is a PS3 gamer? Well…there is still time to do some last minute shopping and I am here to help you.

We start from:

Number 10: Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3 is an amazing game that balances over-the-top explosive action with guns ablazing with decent stealth gameplay. The world is immersive and lush with constant danger lurking around every corner.  The drawbacks would be its cheesy storyline and the annoying misrepresentation of how people of South East Asia would sound like. But if one is prepared to ignore all that, be prepared to experience the adrenaline ride of your lifetime as you see the transition of Jason Brody (the protagonist) from a naïve young man to a murdering monster.

Number 9: XCOM: Enemy Within

XCOM provide a deep tactical gameplay that constantly reminds players a mix of Valkyrie Chronicles and Ender’s game. In this game, the player is thrust into the role of the commander of an elite military organization XCOM and directs the soldiers in turn-based missions against powerful aliens with superior technology. Winning these missions with tactical style is deeply satisfying as one strives to lower the body count and to collect the valuable resource Meld. In between missions, the strategy element continues by having the player overseeing the R&D in creating new technologies, improving the base of operations and managing the organization’s resources. The learning curve is unforgiving, making players feel the heavy weight of command and layers of planning, which speaks truly well of a well-made tactical game. The only comment was that the ending feels a bit rushed, and maps were unfortunately not randomly generated. Fortunately, the replay value remains high.

Number 8: Dragon’s Crown

Dragon Crown strikes a chord and revitalises the nostalgia buried deep within gamers that played Golden Axe from Sega. The artwork was unique and stellar, with rich brush strokes accompanying the environment, characters, special effects and spells. Gameplay-wise, Dragon Crown actually caters to a broad audience, from entry-level gamers to hardcore Dungeon & Dragon players, depending on your character class and play-style. While the story may be non-existent, it could be forgiven by engaging in its spectacular boss fights, which is fascinatingly chaotic when all 4 players attack with explosions, spells, and combat animations all over the place.

Number 7: The Walking Dead (GOTY edition)

The Walking Dead offers a unique feel to the bevy of zombie games that flooded the gaming/media scene in recent years. It is not like Left4dead, Dead Island or Dead Rising. Instead of non-stop heart pounding action, Telltale games created The Walking Dead with a superb plot at its core, allowing players to interact with the environment, objects and characters with moral choices that has ambiguous consequences. It reminds us of Heavy Rain but in a different apocalyptic spin to it. The survivalist tone and the poignant connection between Lee Everrett and Clementine delivers the defining reason why even zombie games can touch the heart.

Number 6: Puppeteer

Number 3: Tomb Raider

I have done up a review for Tomb Raider in April 2013. That said, Tomb Raider and Ni no Kuni are ties for the same place (with Tomb Raider maybe slightly winning the edge since the new Lara Croft is so hot). Read the review and understand what the hype is all about.

Number 2: GTA V

GTA V is probably Rockstar’s masterpiece on the PS3, and rightly so. It munches up all the previous GTAs, chews them into pulp and spit it out like a badass. If your heart is wavering on this, or affected by all the publicity surrounding this, do not worry and just read this. Then buy it. Because your boyfriend might just break down and cry in joy upon receiving this.

Number 1: The Last of Us

If one can mix the superb story from The Walking Dead and combine it with the gameplay of Tomb Raider and then add a bit more of a stealth gameplay together, you would get the Last of Us. This game does so well in so many fronts that it receives the coveted 10/10 score in IGN, and obtained critical acclaim for its writing, its voice acting, sound design, art design and level design. The protagonist is Joe, a brutal hardened survivor who was once a single dad before the world turned into a pandemic-ridden wasteland. With him, you have a 14 year old Ellie, a street-smart, wise and endearing girl that can’t help but to have the player rooting for her. For the setting, we have despair everywhere, depicting the ugly side of the human condition, yet exploring themes of love, sacrifice, hope and scientific ethics. The end result is a chemistry that is so amazing between the two characters as they slowly build their bond together in the face of uncertainty and danger everywhere. I wouldn’t go deeper into the story, but know that the story could have brought tears. It is that riveting and powerful.

 

So there we have it. All 10 of them. I hope you have enjoyed reading the top 10 PS3 games of 2013 for Christmas. If you feel that other games should also be in the Top 10, please feel free to leave your comments below.