Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a graphic adventure survival horror, developed by Frictional Games. While these days horror games tend to be more about action, Amnesia seems to be more focused on the aspects of survival and storyline. Did Frictional Games do the right thing with Amnesia, or should they have just gone with the flow like every other game developers these days? Well, let’s see..

Story

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

In Amnesia, you play as a man named Daniel, who is suffering from an amnesia. Shortly after waking up inside the castle of Brennenburg, you find a note written by Daniel himself before he lost his memory. This note explains to you that Daniel chose to lose his memory for unknown reasons and urges you to journey into the depths of the castle and murder a man named Alexander, the baron of the castle. The note also warns Daniel that he is being followed by a mysterious dark shadow, which causes a strange grow of fleshy substance in the castle when it reaches Daniel. As you journey into the depths of the castle, the mysterious past of Daniel, the “shadow” following him, his current situation and the reasons for wanting to kill Alexander is explained through various flashbacks and diary notes. Yes, there is some amount of reading involved if you want to get into the depths of the storyline, but most of the diaries are narrated and involve a flashback, which makes reading them much more enjoyable.

Before you start the game, the developers give you a message, stating that Amnesia is supposed to be enjoyed for its storyline. Well, I can safely say that the story of the game really keeps you interested. The game leaves you with a “hunger for more” when some interesting aspect of the story is explored, and during the last parts of the game, you begin to wonder if Daniel himself is an innocent man.. However, without spoiling anything, the ending is really disappointing. After finishing the game, Amnesia leaves you with more questions than answers. I have no idea if this is a hint of a sequel to come, but I think the game should have explained some of the things more clearly. The developers really did a good job of keeping you interested, but they reward you with a vague ending, which is a no-no.

Gameplay

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
The game is played from a first-person point of view. What’s interesting about Amnesia, is the fact that you can’t fight back when the creatures of Brennenburg Castle find you. Your only option is to run and hide, hoping that the creatures won’t find you. This aspect of the game makes your hair stand on your neck when you see that creepy silhouette of a zombie slumping towards you as you run and try to find a hiding spot. However, there were couple of instances where it seemed to be impossible to hide from the monsters leaving you with no choice but to get your face chewed off.

The game has your basic health, but it also has something called “Sanity” meter. When the sanity meter starts dropping, your sight starts to become blurry and you begin to hear noises. Monsters also become aware of your presence when you lose too much of your sanity. Witnessing creepy events and flashbacks, watching the monsters and standing in the dark will cause your sanity to drop. Standing in the light by lighting candles or using your lantern will heal your sanity. This makes the gameplay interesting, giving you the choice of hiding the dark from the monsters and losing your sanity or use the lantern to keep your sanity intact, but making your presence more noticeable by the monsters.

In Amnesia, you use the mouse to operate levers, open doors, pick up and throw objects, etc. The game has loads of puzzles that require you to use this control feature for either operating or fixing a machine, or making a potion of some sorts. The puzzles are not difficult, but there are moments where you really have to stop and think what to do or find. If you missed an item required in one of the puzzles, you have to do some backtracking, which can be tedious (especially if that item is in a creepy place where you don’t want to go back). The puzzles are mediocre at best and you rarely feel rewarded when you manage to solve a puzzle.

Graphics

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
While not the most colorful game on the market, Amnesia really knows how to set the mood. The dark halls of the castle will really make you shiver and when you see a zombie dragging itself in the distance, it makes the hair stand on your neck! The game really delivers for me when you enter a dark area and you think to yourself “Can’t I just go back to the less scary place?”. When your sanity decreases, you will immediately start to notice the effect. Your eyesight becomes blurry and starts to wobble, and when you are finally at the edge of insanity, bugs will start to appear crawling on your screen, which makes you go “Wow!” and “Uh-oh..”.

Creepy Atmosphere!

Sound

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Creepy moans, screams and voices! That is the cherry on top of the ice cream of creepiness! When you journey through the castle, you are greeted with loads of scary voices, which will sometimes make you jump out of your chair. Not to mention when your sanity decreases, you start to hear what sounds like walls being scratched and your ears will start ringing. Amnesia really knows how to scare you with sounds!

Voice acting is mostly done well, although there are couple of parts where the acting seems to be somewhat off. Music sets the mood of creepy things to come and really gets the job done. I have to mention the creepy music when you are noticed by a zombie, which sets the panic state even higher!

Last Words

Overall, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a scary and a good game! It’s been a while for me when a game has startled me this much. The fact that you are completely helpless throughout the game, not to mention the creepy atmosphere and fascinating storyline, makes Amnesia really stand out among the crowd of horror games. If you are a fan of horror games, I really recommend that you check this one out! You won’t be disappointed!

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

+ Addicting storyline
+ Atmosphere
+ Interesting gameplay
+ Freaking scary!
- Disappointing conclusion

Metroid: Other M is the very first Metroid game with heavily emphasized story aspect, not to mention being the very first Metroid game that is played from third-person point of view. Did Nintendo and Team Ninja hit the home run with this game or should it be forgotten time and never be mentioned again? Let’s find out!

Story

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Other M takes place between the events of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. Weeks after destroying Mother Brain and planet Zebes, Samus receives a distress signal from a dormant space station known as the Bottle Ship. Samus goes to investigate the ship and runs into Galactic Federation troopers, one of them being her former superior commanding officer Adam Malkovich. Samus tags along with the GF troopers as they investigate what the hell is going on in the Bottle Ship. From there on, the story follows the paths of mystery, betrayal, drama and action.

The story aspect of Other M is not mind blowingly great. There is not really anything that we haven’t seen before when it comes to the plot. There are the basic betrayals and drama moments which have been done before. The story at least keeps you a little bit interested and you really want to know what is going on in the Bottle Ship. Samus’ back-story, which is partially explored through various flashbacks, is somewhat uninteresting and overdramatic.

Gameplay

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
The gameplay aspect of Other M is probably the best aspect of the game. You control Samus in a true NES styled control scheme, i.e. holding the Wiimote sideways. Samus controls quite well with the D-pad and it almost feels like you are playing those good ol’ 2D Metroid games. There are some minor difficulties when, for example, you need to push a computer console or stand on a platform because you can’t really inch yourself forward using the D-pad. When you point the Wiimote at the screen, the game changes to first-person mode, allowing you to shoot missiles and explore the surroundings. There are some forced first-person parts where you need to locate some key element in your surroundings, which can be tedious if this element is small and blends into the surroundings.

When it comes to combat, you can just shoot away because the game uses auto-aim system. This is acceptable because aiming in third-person mode can be a little bit difficult. Switching to first-person mode during a heat of battle can be a little bit risky, but missiles do deal more damage and can make your fights less tedious. Samus can also perform special moves, such as Overblast and Lethal Strikes, which deal more damage and finishes off enemies. Shooting your way through enemies and performing these moves feels really satisfying.

Numerous items from previous Metroid games also make an appearance, like Speed Booster, Screw Attack and Space Jump. These items help you advance through the game, get items that were previously unreachable and of course they help you kill your enemies faster ( <3 Screw Attack ). It should be noted that in Other M you don’t actually lose any of your items: you need to wait for Adam to authorize them. Fear not! There is still plenty of missile and energy tanks for your item collecting pleasure!

The game isn’t that long. If only Nintendo would have cut some of the story aspects and added more gameplay, I would have been satisfied. More gameplay, less story/cutscene interruptions!

Graphics

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Metroid: Other M is truly one of the best looking games on the Wii, plus add to that the well-made CGI cutscenes, which may even rival some of the best CGI cutscenes from other games. When looking at the graphics, you can’t but help to think that some game developers are really not using Wii’s capabilities to its full potential.

Sound

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
When it comes to sound, the music is not really that memorable. The music is more like “ambience music” where the music fits into the locations and notable moments of the game. Now this is also one of the very first Metroid games where the voice acting plays a heavy role in the game. Now we actually hear Samus talk.. a lot. Samus usually thinks about the current situation of the Bottle Ship, which is understandable, but when she starts talking about Adam and her past that she so much regrets, it can sometimes be a little bit annoying. Voice acting and dialog isn’t the worst I have heard, but it still could have been better.

Last Words

Overall, Metroid: Other M is a decent game that is worth checking out if you are a fan of the Metroid series or you are just looking for something new to try. It isn’t a masterpiece when compared to some of the previous Metroid games, but it still deserves to have its place on the Metroid timeline. Nintendo definitely took the risk of trying something different, which by no means turned out to be bad! It just needs some more tweaking.

Overall Rating: 4.13 out of 5 stars

+ Gameplay feels like Metroid
+ Graphics
+ Controls
+ Story keeps you somewhat interested but..
- it isn’t anything mind blowing
- Sounds, especially voice acting

Some of you may know that I am a huge fan of the Metroid series: I own almost every single Metroid game that has been released to date. Yesterday I finally managed to get my hands on Metroid: Other M. I have played it for about two or three hours now and I think now is the appropriate time to write my “First Impressions” review.

The first question that I’d like to answer is: Does it deserve the title of “Metroid”? My answer so far is: yes it does. Nintendo is indeed trying something completely new with this Metroid game with more focus on the story and Samus’ history, with the addition of being the first Metroid game that is played from third-person mode. New stuff may always sound frightening, but the main ingredients of Metroid are still there.

Now I have not played through the whole game, but currently there is still that feeling of loneliness when you run around the humongous Bottle Ship, even though there are Galactic Federation troopers exploring the ship too. While the game seems to be more linear when compared to other Metroid games, there is still some of that exploring and puzzle solving included from previous Metroid games. This usually involves finding your way through certain rooms or finding hidden items.

I can’t really say much about the story yet, but it has at least caught my attention and I cannot wait to see what happens next. So far Samus’ history has been all about her “relationship” with her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich. Nothing too interesting at the moment. By the way, Samus talks a lot in this game. I am not a huge fan of Samus’ voice acting: there are parts where it feels like the producers just threw a piece of paper in her hands and quickly went “Read this! Now!”. Troopers and Adam on the other hand are doing a decent job (so far).

Now the gameplay is the one that I really enjoy. I was really worried when I first heard that we would play Other M holding the Wiimote sideways and using the D-pad to move Samus. You would think that using the D-pad in a game that plays in third-person mode wouldn’t work at all, right? Well it actually works quite well, it isn’t the same as using the analog stick, but it gets the job done. Samus may look like she moves way too fast in some of the gameplay footage, but trust me, you are in total control when it comes to controlling Samus. Blasting your way through hordes of enemies and using all those cool moves, like Lethal Strike, feels really satisfying.

Switching from third-person to first-person view by pointing the Wiimote at the screen is really useful when it comes to finding items and locations where you need to go, but in the heat of a battle it can be really frustrating. When you are surrounded by enemies and you need to shoot something using the missiles can really earn you some smacks and punches from the enemies surrounding you. Speaking of punches, Other M is surprisingly difficult. It’s not mind blowingly difficult, but when compared to previous Metroid titles, it certainly ranks up as one of the difficult ones. There has already been couple of parts where you are immediately killed if you do not react quickly enough.

So far my experience with Other M has been fairly positive. I especially like the graphics (although not in par with Metroid Prime 3) and gameplay. I will tell you my final judgment when I finally manage to finish the game. Any objections? No? Good! Mike signing out!

It’s been a while since my last video game review so now it’s the perfect time to review Alan Wake for the Xbox 360.

Keeping it short, Alan Wake is a third-person psychological action thriller. You take control of a famous thriller writer named Alan Wake as he tries to uncover the mystery behind the disappearance of his wife who went missing while on their vacation in a small town named Bright Falls. But that’s not going to be a walk in the park because some kind of dark force has awakened in Bright Falls and starts to cause havoc. This dark force is somehow linked to Alan and his “unwritten latest novel”.

Plot
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
When I started to play Alan Wake, the plot immediately sucked me right in and every time I played, I wanted to learn more about all the mysteries that surrounded the dark force and the disappearance of Alan’s wife Alice. The game starts off with no explanation at all and as you progress further in the game, all the mysteries will start to unfold before your eyes. Granted, there were some things that I didn’t quite understand and especially the ending (which I won’t spoil) left me confused.

I’m sure that some of my questions would be answered if I would have found all the transcripts that are scattered all around Bright Falls as they give out all sorts of info and explain things about the plot.

Gameplay
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
As stated, the game is played in third-person mode. You take control of Alan Wake as he investigates all these strange events and fights off with people and objects that have been possessed by the dark force. The game is mostly linear, telling you to go from point A to point B, but that doesn’t stop you from investigating the surroundings, which is often needed if you want to find all the transcripts and collectibles. You can also interact with other people who can give you some hints.

When combat kicks in, the most important weapon that you need is light. With things like flashlights and flares, you can make your enemies back away and shatter the darkness that shields them from harm. When the shield is shattered, you can kill your enemies with various guns that you pick up while on your journey. So the combat mostly consists of pointing light at your enemies, shooting them and dodging their attacks. The combat is nice and fun, but sometimes the dodge move can get on your nerves because you can’t dodge while moving, you have to be completely still. That may be nitpicking, but even in normal mode, one weak enemy can pretty much hack and slash 50% of your health away if your dodge move fails.

Graphics
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Alan Wake’s graphics are extremely well-done, especially all the landscapes. With high graphics, it’s also vital for the game to run smoothly. I don’t recall ever having any problems with low fps while playing, even when all sorts of crap was happening on the screen. I especially loved the moments when you were in a dark forest and it was windy and foggy, it really fits the creepy atmosphere. Unfortunately I have to take some points away from the awful lip syncing. Sometimes the characters look like muppets when they are talking.

Sound
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Alan Wake delivers when it comes to sound effects and voice acting. Especially the voice acting is well-done, I don’t recall ever cringing from badly delivered lines. The music might not be quite as memorable, but it gets the job done.

Last Words
Alan Wake is an exceptionally good when it comes to plot and quality. Although the game could use some little tweaking here and there, it’s still a game that should not be ignored and forgotten. The game is a horror game, but it’s not “Doom-3-zombie-jump-in-the-face-scary”, I would say that it’s more like “ooh-that’s-freaky” scary. There were only a few moments that made me jump just a little bit, but that’s all. I recommend Alan Wake to horror game fans and anyone who is looking for a game with a good plot.

Overall Rating: 4.13 out of 5 stars

+ Addicting plot
+ Great atmosphere and graphics
+ Good voiceacting
- Combat could use some tweaking
- Minor plot holes

Death is coming for you? Just kick the shit out of him!

About two weeks ago, the demo of Dante’s Inferno became available to download for Xbox 360. When I saw the first trailer of Dante’s Inferno, the game immediately got my attention. So how does the demo stand out for me? Let’s find out!

The demo supposedly starts from the very beginning of the game when Dante is fighting in the city of Acre. Dante is almost immediately killed by an assassin and that’s when Death himself appears before him and tells Dante that he has been sentenced to eternal damnation! But Dante yells “Screw that!” and starts to fight him. The fight itself is pretty easy, you just dodge and shield yourself from Death’s attacks and hack him to bits. Dante then steals his scythe and kills him (Can you really kill Death?).

Dante then returns to his home, only to find that his lover Beatrice has been murdered. Beatrice is then dragged to hell and Dante begins his journey to save Beatrice.

Hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies!

The gameplay consists of you controlling Dante as he hacks and slash his way through hordes of enemies. Dante’s has two weapons: Death’s Scythe and a cross that he gets in the middle of the demo. Death’s Scythe can be used to deal powerful melee attacks and the cross is more like a ranged weapon that shoots out holy energy. I prefer to use the scythe because it pretty much destroys everyone around you. Near the end of the demo, you also get one magic spell which was some sort of powerful dash that knockbacks your enemies.

The game also has a “talent system”. As you kill enemies, you gain souls. You can use these souls to purchase different combo moves for your weapons. This purchase system seems quite nice as you get more powerful moves, but there seems to be some combo moves that require you to do some different button combinations.  Different button combination moves are not my thing, I just prefer to hack and slash my way through enemies.

Purchase powerful moves with souls!

The demo itself mainly consists of fighting with little platforming thrown into it, which seemed fluent enough. By the way, if you like quick time events, you will find plenty of it in Dante’s Inferno. Finishing moves, surviving boss attacks, even regenerating health requires you to tap the B button! While Dante’s Inferno’s QTEs are not “RAAAAGE!” worthy, they do give me some mild annoyance.

As far as the graphics go, the cutscenes look beautiful, especially the smoke effects, and the game itself runs smoothly even though you might be surrounded by 20 enemies and you are spamming large combo moves that fill the screen with blinding white light.

Overall, I did enjoy hacking and slashing my way through hordes and hordes of Hell’s minions and I really liked the vehicle part during the near end of the demo when you gain control of one of the gigantic beasts that the demons ride upon. I really hope that there are some awesome vehicle parts in the full version of the game.

Roar!

I am probably going to buy this game when it comes out as it really kept me interested. If you like 3rd person hack and slash games, such as God of War, then I do recommend this game for you.

Dante’s Inferno is scheduled to be released for both Xbox 360 and PS3 on February 9th in North America and February 12th in Europe.

If you are interested on trying out this game, head out to http://www.battlefieldheroes.com, register and download the game! It’s completely free!

Comments from Gilgalad

Command your minions!

I’m a big fan of the first Overlord game. I love the humor, playstyle and art form of it so I’m quite excited of the next adventure.

I have just finished the demo of Overlord 2 and I have to say it looks amazing. Gameplay seemed to be untouched but why fix something that’s not broken. There were few minor details changed for the better, like minions not running straight into the water and dying.

Only new thing I noticed was the mounts for minions. Mounts look really nice but the demo didn’t show anything special that you can use em for, they didnt add any damage for the minions but I think the mounts added minions health.

The demo only showed the mounts as a new thing but I am excited for the siege weapons and new minion abilities that are in the full game.

Comments from Mike (Noob perspective)

Seals! Yuck!

I have never actually played the first Overlord game, I have only seen glimpses of Gilgalad playing it, but I do know the basics of the game.

My first impressions when playing this demo is that even a newbie like me can get the hang of this game pretty fast. The demo gives you all the required info for you to get started. I tested both Xbox360 and PC demo and if you ask me, both of them were equally good in gameplay and controls.

The demo was short so that’s all I can say for now. I might get interested enough to try this game.

The demo is currently available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The PC demo can be downloaded from here.

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The Last Remnant

Plot of the Game is focused around family Sykes, mostly on their two children Rush and Irina. Basic plotline in the beginning of the game is that Irina gets kidnapped by a hooded man and Rush tries to find her. By accidents Rush meets a man named David and his Generals, they together try to find out where Irina is and why has she been kidnapped. The Plot is what it is, a basic RPG plot, nothing really shocking, alltough after hearing some of the cheezy lines Rush says about Irina I forced myself thinking Irina was her wife/girlfriend and ditched the whole ciblings thing. Without spoiling anything I´ll just say that the main bad guy of the game is really well done. He may be on the top five of bad guys in games, for me atleast.

The game looks really awesome on PC, at the cutscenes it really feels like watching an animated movie more than a game. The only thing that bothered me about the graphics was the physics engine and the way Square used it. Allmost every character had some swinging part on their costume that looked like it had a mind of its own. Its isnt a really big deal but it just sticks out. Voice acting is nicely done on most parts with a few character exeptions.

The combat is a mixed bag, everything looks great but the choises you make in combat dont seem to work out at all like you planned. If you assign a team to heal another group with low hp most of the time the team cant act before its too late. The combat actions seem to be too stiff so you end up using the same 1-3 characters main abilities even if your team has 12+ members. On the positive note I have to say the combat music specially is really well done. So my hat goes off to Tsuyoshi Sekito.

Basic Combat View

The gearing of other characters than your main character is really really awful. Instead of being able to equip items straight to characters they whine and moan about loot parts, which they use to upgrade the weapons without your control. Most of the time it goes smoothly but everytime you exit into the map screen every character missing one ingredient keeps reminding that they want the item, they dont give any indication what enemy drops ‘em or where the enemy can be found. Other bad thing about the character developement is when you exit into the map screen and a random person from your team asks if he should one learn in magic or melee. Two, only melee. Three, only magic. You cant check out the stats  of the character asking so if you havent checked them out before and memorised them you have to quess. If you choose wrong you have to load from previous quick save or save and pickup where you left out and do it again.

The difficulty of the game is another thing, most parts the game is really easy. To make it harder Square implemented a linking system, there isnt any random encounters but you can link enemy packs together for more challenge and more loot. The system works and is fun. Other side of the coin is the boss fights, they seem to scale way too much and most of the time you have to try a boss fight 5-6 times before getting a lucky break or head back and level your characters to get better skills. I dont mind trying a boss 5-6 times but I do when before the boss is a 7 minute cinematic that you cant skip.

The effort to make the game appeal more to the Western RPG fans shows. Some things work great but you almost can hear a dong sound when the Western influence kicks in (or something that Square thinks is Western). Like Rush calling David, Dave. Or two spoiled quest NPCs that curse alot and use words like ”Bitchfit”. Hairstyles seem… well ”emo” and many more.

In the end its a good game. If your a friend of the RPG genre I would definetly recommend this to you. At first certain systems seem really complicated or dont make much sence, but with the help of the internet and some try and error you’ll get the hang of it.

Overall score: 8,5/10

Site News: We are not going to have an episode of Addon of the Week this week! We are going to do three part episode of certain game trilogy! The first part is going to be released this week! Stay tuned!

F.E.A.R series tells the story of Armacham Technology corporation and their attempt to make a clone army controlled by Telepathic commanders. In the first F.E.A.R one of the commanders has gone insane and has to be stopped, youll bump alot into a weird dead eyed girl called Alma. Later on the game you’ll find alot of information about Alma and how you are connected with her, lets just say that she is behind of all the troubles going on and escapes her holding cell at the end of the game (wont want to spoil all the details) and thats where F.E.A.R 2 comes in, youll start the game as another F.E.A.R soldier 30 minuters before the ending of F.E.A.R 1.

F.E.A.R 1 was knows for its great horror moments and computer A.I. The combat was alright by the most standards but it got really repetitive after a while, enemys were just clones of each other with a few exceptions, the slowmo or “reflex time” was introduced and it worked great, you had to deside when to use it because it only lasted few seconds, regenerated slowly and enemies took alot of hits to kill.

In F.E.A.R 2 the combat has stayed the same with another adaptation of “reflex time”. This time the reflex time last longer than in F.E.A.R 1 and it regenerates faster, making the combat way too easy for a current first person shooter. There are more enemies now with their own gimmicks. Compared to F.E.A.R 1 this makes the combat way more easy, making the combat less intense than the first.

In F.E.A.R 1 the horror aspect was amazing, the scares were psychological and suddle. Like Alma staring you from a balcony after you find a pile of tore up soldiers that she had killed. Or when you are suddenly teleported into a bloody corridor that has a door on the other side and while you walk towards it, you start hearing screams from the other side of the door. Nothing is really explained and the atmosphere is great.

F.E.A.R 2 makes the horror more “in your face”. The horror isn’t so suddle but aggressive, by now Alma is all grown up and wants to get to know you… really closely. Most of the time youll get bored with the easy combat and briefly its interrupted with a BOO moment by Alma, sure it gets to you first few times but you’ll get so used to it that it hardly scares you after a while.

The graphics in F.E.A.R 2 are well done. Some effects like ghosts look awesome and enemy soldiers look great when you blow em up. The level design is a small upgrade from F.E.A.R 1, taking the combat from small corridors to larger areas like schools and hospitals. Some areas are more impressive than others, like the school level where the game resembles a little bit of the first F.E.A.R, I think thats the level I enjoyed the most.

I was disapointed with the more agressive nature of horror in F.E.A.R 2, I think the developers lost their understanding of horror vs fright. Otherwise the game is worth playing, even if you just like first person shooters, alltough fans of FPS will find it really easy to play trough. If I had to say the worst part of the game. I would say it the ending, without spoiling it, I’ll just say… horrible.

I recommend this game for horror game fans and maybe for FPS fans

Overall score: 7,5/10