egm magazine

INSIDE:MASS EFFECT 2: REVIEW

FINAL FANTASY XIII

BIOSHOCK 2: HANDS ON

WHY WE PLAY: WoW TOP 10The most successful game ever.

Xbox 360 Games of X1014 18

BATMAN:ARKHAM ASYLUMBehold the greatest comic book game of all time.

1up.com

1UP.COM << FEBRUARY 2010<<

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THE MANY FACES OF MARIO.............................................6

BIOSHOCK 2.........................................................................10

CANNABALT.........................................................................12

WHY WE PLAY WOW..........................................................14

X10 RECAP............................................................................18

MASS EFFECT 2: REVIEW..................................................21

HEAVY RAIN: REVIEW.......................................................23

FINAL FANTASY XIII..........................................................26

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASSYLUM........................................30

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President: Marci Yamaguchi HughesExecutive VP. Content: John Davison

Managing Editor: Mike WelgandSpecial Thanks to: Jason WilsonReviews Editor: Tae K. KimFeatures Editor: Patric ShawNews Editor: Dave RuddenCommunity Manager/Previews Editor: Andy BurtVideo Producer: Chris ParisiEditorial Assistants: Will Herring, McKinley NobleEditorial Interns: Heather Bartron, Sean Mirkovich, Alex Wawro

Art Director: Matt AnsoorianSenior Graphic Designer: Andrew YangSenior Web Designer: Brandon FerruaDesign Assitant: William ChuDesign Intern: Glenn Ramit

Director, Production: Nancy JonathansPrepress Manager: Tamara GargusAssitatn Production Manager: Eliza Wee

VP. Online Sales and Promotions: Brent MartynSales Director, Bay Area/Northwest: Nick GeistSales Director, Southwest: Jessica RebackAd Operations Manager: Adrian FriegSales and Administrative Assistant: Roxanne Warrick

V.P. Product Development: Norris BootheSenior Web Development: Norris BootheWeb Developer: Sui MakWeb Development Intern: Tad Ochwat

ProCirc Subscription Management: Shawne Burke Pecar, Megan Guard, Susi ChapmanProCirc Retail Solutions: Mark Peterson, Scott Hill

V.P. Human Resources: Kate ColdwellHuman Resources Representative: Ellen Cobb

CCO / CFO: Vicki PeilenDirector Finance: Diane RyczekDirector Accounting: Michelle Reyes

Founder, EGM magazine: Patrick J. Ferrell

I have always been a strong opponent of rely-ing on game previews and reviews for a publi-cation’s bread and butter. I firmly believe that

much of the problems of corruption and taint that exist in the game media stem from a dependency on publisher exclusives. When a publication makes exclusive game previews and reviews their prime at-traction for readers, it cedes power to game publish-ers. Some publications are often coaxed to cheapen their journalistic standards in an effort to “outbid” competing venues for the exclusive story. This dynamic ends up punishing the honest publica-tions that do uphold their journalistic standards in all cases. I’ll share my take on this topic in greater detail at another time.

There are many stories that illustrate the taint introduced in the game review process. Recently, I was informed of an unfortunate event involving 2K Games and IGN Entertainment. I spoke with a for-mer IGN.com editor who wished to remain anony-mous to avoid any apparent conflict of interest (The individual is still employed in the game media). I will let the individual’s story speak for itself.

While IGN’s Doug Perry did not take this particular offer, the damage had already been done on the review’s integrity. He pressured the reviewer to score the game before he had played it. The IGN editor ended up giving the title a 9 out of 10. We can only assume it was his honest opinion of the title. However, the review was still tainted. Editors should never prod their staff in a particular score’s direction in order to gain an exclusive review. It’s reported that Doug Perry has left IGN to take a leadership role at an upcoming Turner Broadcast-ing game publication. Let’s hope IGN and Turner’s publication can maintain a professional and honest review process. Millions of trusting readers deserve nothing less. 2K Games deserves even more heat. There is no excuse for PR firms to bully game media outlets by using score requirements to sell exclusive coverage. Yes, the industry’s got a lot of slutty pub-lications that like to walk the streets. But publish-ers, show some respect for once. Stop the pimping. Game consumers demand honesty when deciding where they should spend their hard earned cash.

A note to all guilty publishers and media outlets: Discontinue this unethical, dishonest form of business. You are dragging the rest of the game industry down. If you continue to abuse consum-ers’ trust, you will be exposed.

FROM THE

EDITOR

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT CARDIN

>> FEBRUARY 2010 >> 1UP.COM

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THE MANY FACES OF

Plumber. Italy. Moustache. Overalls.

He’s short and pudgy with a thing for Peaches. He’s an Italian plumber from the Mushroom Kingdom. He is Nin-tendo’s mascot, and the most popular video game character ever.

Easily the most identifiable character in the industry, Mario is essentially

synonymous with the term “video game.” Because we’re all familiar with Mario’s 8-bit and 3D incarnations, many artists enjoy recreating the iconic character in their own unique styles. They love ejecting the two brothers from their cozy, peaceful home in the Mushroom Kingdom and into the world of Photoshop and graphic tablets.

Some of these art pieces have obvious inspirations, while others seem to be the result of drug-induced fanboy fantasies. From the comedic to the creepy, the imaginations of these painters and animators should keep you occupied for quite a while.

& LUIGI


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BIOSHOCK

Jordan Thomas is the creative director 2K Marin, the studio formed by ex-Irrational Games staffers to develop BioShock 2. Thomas served as level designer on the original game, and for the sequel he’s stepped into the spotlight to lead the development charge. With the game’s release just a few weeks away, IGN had the chance to talk with Thomas about the creative challenges and new opportunities in making a follow-up to one of this decade’s most renowned games.

Originally announced for a June release date, BioShock has been pushed back to August for Xbox and PC. The news came via a brief message posted on 2K Games’ official site, stating that BioShock had a

street date of August 21. The news didn’t explain a reason for the delay or even acknowledge the previously-announced June release. In case you’ve been living under a rock, BioShock is Irrational Games’ high-anticipated sci-fi action title. Set in a desolate underwater city, BioShock holds the promise of eye-popping graphics, an immersive atmosphere and multiple solutions for its myriad of interactive puzzles.

BioShock’s June release date was first revealed at the end of its most recent trailer. Some thought it was too good to be true. Those folks proved to be right. Start saving your pennies, BioShock will be here in late August.


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EGM: What did your work as a level designer teach you about storytell-ing?

Jordan Thomas: I guess there are two kind of big principles that I derived. They both have silly little personal names. The first one is white space. In visual composition white space, or negative space, is the area designed specifically not to be filled with content. Your mind parses the most meaningful element and the rest fades into the background. The same principle applies to game nar-rative in that the player is very much white space to us. The player is a dynamic compositional element. That puts the designer in the position of asking who the player is.

As you’re trying to build the meaning of your work you have to embrace the idea that meaning is participatory. Even more so than decoding a piece of art or text, the act of physically

participating in the work is going to alter its meaning. That led me, partic-ularly in level design, to embrace the subjective, to build lots of storytelling that implies but does not state. Blank spaces between points of known quantities so that player’s can draw their own conclusions and participate more fully. My target in BioShock 2

has been that they become a partial author. As we learn more about them, then we fold that subjective meaning into the objective results, reflecting you as best we can.

The other principle is just fair play. Players are experiencing their own dramatic peaks and valleys as they begin to parse the simulation as a test of skill. The best heroic fiction tends to be very cruel for dramatic fiction, and arbitrarily so because the author knows that eventually everything will work out. That’s not the case with the player. They need to know there’s a rational precedent for any failure that might occur. The first BioShock is a good example of that. The protagonist’s biggest weakness is very well set up if you pay attention. The principle of fair play applies in that case. The same thing goes for BioShock 2. At any given point it would be dramatic for the player to experience some kind of loss, we had to put that through the filter of mak-ing that seem fair. How can that not seem arbitrary or feel like a forced failure that has been shoved in his or her face?

EGM: For years and years games have had the same basic notion of a fail state, which is to just die: the game over screen. With BioShock 2 and the on-going relationship with the Little Sister it seems like you could massage different sorts of fail states, and not just dying and resetting at the check-point or Vita Chambter.

Jordan Thomas: Definitely. Soft fails tend to be featured in my favor-ite games. In BioShock 2 we knew that escort quests are of the devil. Nobody wants to be shackled to some moronic AI partner who just decides to faceplant into a landmine when pathing is off by a fraction. Instead, we built it as kind of where you don’t

we wanted, in every case, for the player to feel like if they failed, it was their fault.”

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fully fail, but your little sister gets paused and you increase the risk to yourself during the gather ambushes. You still have the experience of defending her from Splicers, you still have the experience of failing if you’re defeated. But you’re never forced to endure a hard failure outside of yourself. That was another example where we wanted, in every case, for the player to feel like if they failed, it was their fault. Not like, “It was that ****ing AI screwed me over and now I’m never going to adopt a little sister again.”

It’s something we think about often. Certainly the groundwork was laid in the first game with the addition of the Vita Chambers. There were some exploits we’ve solved in the sequel. You have an infinite, ammo-less weapon in the form of melee attacks. A lot of people whittled down Big Daddies, died, came back, and just kind of lemming their target to death. That’s degenerate from everybody’s side. It’s not fun for the player and it’s terrible for us. So now, Little Sisters will heal the Big Daddies. It’s still not a complete failure because some of the damage you dealt remains. But doesn’t encourage the degenerate strategy of poor combat en masse.

EGM: This sort of builds off the first question about narrative and level design. I’ve often thought about narrative and plot as separate things in games. Narrative is a record of the record of what you’ve done in gameplay, and then the story’s the characters and plot, the sort of ex-tremist cult part of it.

& the phenomenathat is iPhone gaming


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Canabalt epitomizes the expression "simple pleasure." At its core, this is a game about running. From the first frame of animation, your little hero takes off like a locomotive, picking up speed as he leaps across rooftops and over small obstacles. If he even tumbles into a crate or chair, he loses a little speed but keeps going. That speed loss, though, can prove catastrophic when he reaches a gap that is suddenly too wide to cross without adequate velocity.

Normally, you could plan for things like this – use a little trial and error. But not in Canabalt. This game randomly generates the cityscape you race through, adding a serious element of luck to the mixture. Skill doesn’t totally take a backseat. You still need lightning reflexes when your little hero reaches top speed. But luck is going to divide the reaction to Canabalt. Either you cannot stand a game that throws repeat curveballs or you will embrace the randomness.

I fall into the latter category. I love Canabalt’s riskiness. I never know if the scenery is going to thwart mean around 800 meters or if it will only start giving me trouble at 2,500. Because there is only one mechanic in the game – jumping – and these games breeze by so fast, I don’t feel like I lost anything when my hero plummets off a building or a face-plant into the side of a skyscraper instead of landing a perfect jump to rush through an open window.

Canabalt epitomizes the expression "simple pleasure." At its core, this is a game about running. From the first frame of animation, your little hero takes off like a locomotive, picking up speed as he leaps across rooftops and over small obstacles. If he even tumbles into a crate or chair, he loses a little speed but keeps going. That speed loss, though, can prove catastrophic when he reaches a gap that is suddenly too wide to cross without adequate velocity.

Normally, you could plan for things like this – use a little trial and error. But not in Canabalt. This game randomly generates the cityscape you race through, adding a serious element of luck to the mixture. Skill doesn’t totally take a backseat. You still need lightning reflexes when your little hero reaches top speed. But luck is going to divide the reaction to Canabalt. Either you cannot stand a game that throws repeat curveballs or you will embrace the randomness.

I fall into the latter category. I love Canabalt’s riskiness. I never know if the scenery is going to thwart mean around 800 meters or if it will only start giving me trouble at 2,500. Because there is only one mechanic in the game – jumping – and these games breeze by so fast, I don’t feel like I lost anything when my hero plummets off a building or a face-plant into the side of a skyscraper instead of landing a perfect jump to rush through an open window.

iPhone gaming revolution begins: first 3GS with stunning graphics

In June, Apple released the new iPhone 3GS, which was said to support advanced graphics in games which would bring it up to par with PSP and finally make it a real player in the mobile games department. Until now, however, the only difference to previous iPhone devices which players have experienced has been slight speed improvements in a couple of games.

Now, this is changing. Eurocenter, an indy development studio which has developed several highly awarded online games on iPhone and iPod touch, has released Adrenaline Golf Online, with full support for the advanced iPhone 3GS graphic extensions. For the first time, players on the iDevices can see OpenGL shader effects in real time on their device. Adrenaline Golf Online showcases highly detailed golf courses and features beautiful water reflection effects throughout the game.

The environments include a relaxing beach atmosphere, Amazon forests mirrored in green water, night scenes with a reflected moon and a volcano theme including lava. The developer has revealed some interesting information about the difficulties of writing an engine that uses the full features of the iPhone and iPod touch. Unlike games on PC or Mac, the iPhone OpenGL ES 2.0 requires the developer to write a completely new engine to utilise the


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CANNABALT AND THE IPHONE rEvOLUTION

Calling World of Warcraft a juggernaut would be a gross understatement. Now in its fifth year, its success has exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations, including Blizzard’s. As of December 2008, WOW boasts approximately 11.5 million subscribers and dominates one of the most lucrative genres in video games. These days, its strangehold is so complete that the first question asked of most new massively multiplayer games is not whether they can supplant Warcraft, but whether they can thrive in its shadow.

Millions of people like WOW.com senior editor Mike Schramm have been playing World of Warcraft since it launched. As he explains it, the secret behind its continuing success is fairly simple. “People are still playing it because it’s still fun,” he says, “and with that genius art style, the game can remain timeless.”

It’s for this reason, among others, that he says, “People will be playing World of Warcraft until Blizzard turns the servers off, which likely won’t be for at least another five years.”


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The LegacyThe World of Warcraft was not born in a vacuum. Long before it became a popular MMORPG, Warcraft dominated the realm of real-time strategy. It was on the wild success of titles like Warcraft II: The Tides of Darkness that Blizzard built its reputation, which helped attract people like lead systems designer Greg Street to the series. He and lead content designer Cory Stockton were both self-described fans of the series before World of Warcraft even hit the market.

“I was really excited about the game, and it was something that I wanted to work on. And when the opportunity came up to come here, I jumped on it,” Stockton says.

Part of the series’ enduring popularity can be attributed to the rich universe that Blizzard set in place from the very beginning. Warcraft II wasn’t much more than a new take on Warhammer, but its manual was brimming with background information and artwork. By the time Warcraft III rolled around, Blizzard had managed to move beyond the series’ roots and create a world dense with well-realized fantasy lore. Combined with the franchise’s rock-solid strategy fundamentals, Warcraft was able to build enough of a fanbase to inspire great expectations for World of Warcraft as it readied for its 2004 launch. Blizzard wisely capitalized on its existing fiction to meet those expectations, continuing the story that Warcraft III had left hanging while inserting numerous callbacks to previous entries.

According to Stockton, the team still takes inspiration from the older Warcraft titles even now. “I think the storylines come through,” he says. “You look at something like Stratholme in the RTS, and Stratholme in the MMO, and I think

most people can see that translation really easily without having to jump too far.”

With the built-in fanbase from previous entries, Blizzard had a headstart rarely afforded other MMOs. They would waste

no time on making good on that advantage.

Fixing All The Problems

Blizzard is not known for being innovative so much as

iterative, identifying promising concepts and refining them until they become the undisputed market leader. They did precisely that with Warcraft and later with StarCraft, honing the strategy elements in both titles to such a degree that they’re still being played competitively more than a decade later. Likewise, when Blizzard began working on World of Warcraft, they were determined to take command of a genre that was still very much in its formative stages.

It was the studio’s first foray into

MMORPGs, but Stockton says that “a ton” of people in Blizzard were playing MMOs like EverQuest, including lead designer Jeff Kaplan. As Stockton describes it, the challenge as Blizzard saw it was whether they could “fix all the problems that we saw in our eyes in existing games” at that point.

When World of Warcraft launched in 2004, it featured a number of key innovations over its competition. It was praised for its relatively seamless world, its intuitive interface, and its quest lines. The quests in particular were far more directed

than the missions found in previous MMORPGs. Tim Wong, a longtime MMO player who started playing World of Warcraft during the beta, says that the innovations were what grabbed his attention in the early-going.

“It’s probably the first MMO I’ve ever played where there was a big difference between ‘Class 1’ and ‘Class 2,’” he says, referring to the game’s myriad classes, their accompanying talents, and their combat roles.

“In early MMOs, everyone whacked things with sticks. If you were a mage, the only difference was that you couldn’t whack things with your stick quite as hard, and that you could cast a spell occasionally. That was how the first MMOs were -- you had a stick and you were told to kill a rabbit, which had gold for some reason.”

Schramm, meanwhile, believes that early MMOs were relatively hardcore affairs until Blizzard came along. “You had to contend with an Internet connection, lots of troublesome RPG mechanics like losing experience on death and waiting to heal up after

a fight, and less than spectacular graphics. But people dealt with all of that because the enticement of going online and chatting with and playing alongside real people was so great. Blizzard took the problems out of it -- they streamlined the interface, removed most of the penalties, and added in lots and lots of rewards “Much as it was praised though, World of Warcraft was not immune to technical difficulties. The franchise’s pedigree caused sales to explode, which forced Blizzard to turn its backup servers into actual servers. Stockton called it a “pretty high-class problem to


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have,” but Warcraft ended up being so afflicted by server problems and long queues that Penny Arcade famously withdrew its Game of the Year award until Blizzard got its act together. Nevertheless, fans stuck with World of Warcraft over the likes of Star Wars Galaxies, enabling Blizzard to maintain its all-important momentum going into the next year.

The Casual MMOOne of Blizzard’s guiding principles has always been that their games be accessible as possible, and that philosophy has become more apparent in World of Warcraft with each passing year. It extends to something as basic as the system requirements, which were low enough that the game even worked on 2004’s low-end systems.

From there, Blizzard’s philosophies have continually evolved, with the goal being to make each game intuitive yet also deep. That evolution can be most clearly seen in their approach to raids. When World of Warcraft launched, dungeons like Molten Core were mostly positioned as endgame content, limiting access to a handful of guilds that could muster enough high-level players to take them on. As time has passed, though, Blizzard has steadily made the requirements to enter a dungeon more flexible, with the goal being for every max-level player to get into raiding.

Their most recent expansion is almost entirely built around the idea of mass raid accessibility. Whereas raids once required a concrete number of players to access, Wrath of the Lich King makes it possible to tackle dungeons with either 25 players or 10 players. Blizzard has also steadily put a greater emphasis on dungeons that only require five players to tackle while reducing the emphasis on certain classes and abilities being needed to achieve success. They’ve even gone back to the original game and brought back Onyxia’s Lair, retooling it from a 40-player raid to a 10- or 25-player raid.

According to Stockton, all these changes were the result of Blizzard growing tired of putting three to six months of work into creating massive dungeons, only to have one percent of the population play through them. “Something about that just doesn’t seem right,” he admits, “that we’re making all this amazing content and people aren’t able to experience it because it’s inaccessible, or people don’t have 25 players, or it’s just too hard. So, for us, if we’re going to put in all that time and effort to make the dungeon really, really cool, we want people to play it,” he says.

Outside of the raids, the World of Warcraft remains as massive as ever. Fans of competitive player-vs-player combat have maps like Wintergrasp, which pits the Alliance and Horde against one another for lucrative rewards, while more casual players

can spend their time collecting the game’s wide array of vanity pets. Players who aren’t necessarily gamers pick up World of Warcraft not just because their friends are playing, but because its easy to find a niche and stick with it.

One side effect of Warcraft’s ease of use is that hardcore MMO fans have assailed it for being too easy. Blizzard shrugs off those complaints though, pointing to features like the heroic (hard) mode as elements that are designed to appeal to elite players. What’s more important, Street says, is that Warcraft be simple to access but still have a lot of depth.


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X10 recap

10. Halo: reach rocks

And so does the game.

The most impressive game at X10 was undoubtedly Halo: Reach. Bungie didn’t show a heck of a lot, but every-thing we saw made it clear that Reach really will be that “generational leap” that the studio is promising. They say it will be the definitive Halo game. We’re inclined to believe. Everybody that saw the demo walked away talking about how great Halo: Reach looks.

Go ahead and read our preview if you aren’t convinced. Then watch the trailer and get oh-so-excited

5. Perfect Dark XBLA Lives!

Back in the day, things like laptop guns and expansion packs were all the rage. These days of yore also featured a developer named Rare at the top of every sales chart as it delivered N64 hit after hit. One of these, Perfect Dark, is now making its way to the Xbox Live Arcade. We saw it at X10. We played it. We even learned that it will feature some guns and maps from GoldenEye.

For all of those ready for a trip down memory lane, Perfect Dark is on the way and its only a few weeks from be-ing put up for download on the Xbox Live Arcade.


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9. Fable III is as Dirty as You Are

Whether you take Peter Molyneux’s talk about Fable III’s new “Touch” system as dirty or not is entirely up to you. There’s nothing dirty about a tossing a child in the air or holding hands with a stranger. Is there? It’s just a videogame, right? Maybe this entire feature is just pointing out that the IGN editorial staff needs to get its collective mind out of the gutter. Perhaps it is time for some therapy.

Regardless of your point of view, it was pretty neat to see the first ever in-game screenshots of Fable III, don’t you think?

8. Dead rising 2 Xbox Exclusive

Dead Rising 2 is coming to both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Those that stay faithful to Microsoft’s con-sole, however, will get a bonus. Prior to the North American release on August 31, those with Xbox Live will be able to download Dead Rising: Case Zero. This little episode will bridge the gap between the events of Dead Rising 1 and the upcoming sequel.

No details were given on pricing, but we’re pretty sure Dead Rising fans will find the spare cash to snatch this one up.

7. Crackdown 2 Delay?

As recently as just a month or so ago, both Microsoft and developer Ruf-fian were insisting that Crackdown 2 would be ready for release in the first half of 2010. Then came X10 and suddenly the message changed. Now, you can expect to get your Crackdown 2 fix before the end of the year.

What happened? Who knows. Oddly enough, Microsoft allowed people to play Crackdown 2 at the Tokyo Game Show. They even allowed our video crew to film the game off of the demo screens. We weren’t allowed to do any of that at X10.

6. Left 4 Dead DLC

OK. You played Left 4 Dead. Now you have Left 4 Dead 2 and want to purchase some more downloadable content. Valve has your back. Show-cased at X10 was the upcoming The Passing add-on.

But wait, that’s not all. Valve also had news about another upcoming game add-on, this one for Left 4 Dead 1. Yes, the original Left 4 Dead is about to get another downloadable expan-sion. It should be ready roughly a month after The Passing…which is for Left 4 Dead 2. Got it?

4. Final Fantasy XIII Wins Our Hearts

Our resident Final Fantasy Fanboy Ryan Clements had been skeptical about the next Square Enix epic. No towns? What’s the deal with this battle system? Is Lightning really as hot as she sounds?

Then he sat down and got some ex-tended time with the game and came back gushing. Now every RPG fan at IGN is excited, too. What can we say? Joy is infectious. Baby sheep don’t hurt matters either. Yes, baby sheep. Read his preview.

3. Alan Wake Finally Coming into Focus

It’s been a long strange journey for Alan Wake. Announced at X06 four years ago and then nearly forgot-ten as development studio Remedy worked silently on it, Alan Wake finally has a release date and is start-ing to make waves. It’s coming out in May and it looks fantastic. There will even be a Collector’s Edtion for those with a little extra cash to burn.

We’ve got some impressions up of it from the X10 event. Check back next week for several in-depth features and a hands-on preview.

2. Fable III is NOT an rPG

Upon walking in to X10, we were handed a sheet filled with announce-ments and release dates. Tucked down at the bottom was a little blurb about how Fable III would be hitting store shelves later this year. Oddly enough, the sheet described it as an action-adventure game.

Not according to Peter Molyneux. When we cornered him for an interview, he told IGN that if he had to make a decision, he would not call Fable III an RPG. Watch the latest videos to see why.

1. Halo: reach Beta Dated

It’s coming and soon. This May is so completely stacked that you should already have it marked on your gam-ing calendar. Alan Wake will finally see the light that month. So will Lost Planet 2. But before all of that jazz, the Halo: Reach public beta will take place.

Announced at X10, anybody with a copy of Halo 3: ODST will be able to hop on and try their hand at a little Halo: Reach multiplayer on May 3, months before the final game hits store shelves.


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Mass Effect is one of my favorite games of the past decade. Despite its technical shortcomings, BioWare’s first in what it promised to be a tril-ogy took the role-playing genre to new cinematic heights. Mass Effect 2 is a better game in near every way. From the very first scene, you will be hooked. And the farther you dive into this epic action role-playing game, the better it gets. It fulfills the promise of its predecessor while continuing to push the boundaries of what we should expect in a videogame.

This is the continued saga of Com-mander Shepard. It’s the future, and all sentient life across the galaxy is in peril. An advanced race of machines known as Reapers is intent on wiping the slate clean. Shepard, a distin-guished soldier, has faced this threat and emerged triumphant once, but victory is far from assured. Now Shepard must take the fight to the enemy -- a mission that is dubbed suicidal from the outset. Things don’t look very promising, but Shepard has a plan. It involves recruiting the best and brightest from around the galaxy and somehow convincing them their lives are worth sacrificing for the greater good.These heroes are what drive the story. Their motivations become yours as

the experience continues to get better with each addition to the cast. Shepa-rd’s compatriots are fascinating and flawed; captivating and occasionally despicable. The arc of the main tale itself isn’t in itself exceptional, but the characters BioWare has crafted most definitely are. These are some of the most compelling players I’ve ever seen in a videogame -- the Drell named Thane is a particular favorite of mine -- and the great design and writing isn’t limited to the main cast. The citizens of the galaxy are extraor-dinary and offer more than enough reason to explore every location and talk to everybody.

All of this is made even better by Mass Effect’s trademark cinematic and interactive approach to conversa-tions. With Mass Effect 1, BioWare introduced a conversation wheel that allowed for fast-moving, intrigu-ing, and player driven cutscenes. Rather than slowly moving through conversations by selecting dialogue from a list, Mass Effect allows the player to quickly choose an emotional response, which generally include an honorable paragon reaction and a snappy renegade remark. The result is that every little dialogue snippet is about as engaging as they come. It was innovative when Mass Effect

1 first came out, and it’s still so far ahead of the curve, backed up by further refinements, including a quick-time interrupt system, and powerful voice acting. Mordin Solus, a Salarian scientist played by Michael Beattie, and Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, are high points in an all-star cast of voices.

The true strength of Mass Effect 2’s story, however, is in how personal BioWare has made it. If you played Mass Effect 1 through to the end and still have your save data, this game will import your character and all the decisions you made. The central plot will not drastically change, but the experience most certainly will. Some old friends and acquaintances will return – and others won’t – based on decisions you made in the last game. Even the opening moments of Mass Effect 2 can be slightly different.

The actions you take in the sequel only compound this feeling of per-sonalization. By the finale you’ll have made so many decisions – ranging from simple things like whether you play as a male or female all the way up to those governing life or death – that the result is a game that is yours and yours alone. Choices you made in Mass Effect 1 come back to remind

REVIEW: MASS EFFECT 2by: Erik Brudvig


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you of past good deeds or injustices. Decisions made here affect the final outcome. Reminders that everything you do will be reflected in Mass Effect 3 are everywhere, adding further drama to every conversation. Things you say and do actually matter, and that’s an incredible sensation to get from a videogame.

Even if you didn’t play Mass Effect 1, this game is worth playing. If you’re not importing a character, BioWare simply makes some of the decisions from Mass Effect 1 for you. It’s slightly less dramatic and the story here is often references events in the first game, which might make some bits less thrilling for novices. There are revelations and tantalizing plot twists that Mass Effect veterans will go crazy for. These same moments simply won’t carry the same weight with those hopping in for part two. It’s a bit of a Catch-22 for the design-ers tasked with the impossible job of pleasing newcomers while still push-ing the limits.

Speaking of pleasing people, BioWare listened to every last bit of criticism leveled at Mass Effect 1. That game, particularly on Xbox 360, suffered from a few technical and presenta-tional issues. This sequel is a much, much cleaner experience. Long eleva-tor rides and slow-loading textures are gone, replaced with (occasionally lengthy) loading screens. Generic cut-and-paste side quests and empty planets to explore have been totally ripped out. Pretty much everything that anybody took even the slightest issue with in Mass Effect 1 has been axed or rebuilt entirely..

Even though it’s a cleaner produc-tion, Mass Effect 2 isn’t a perfectly polished game. I’ve played through the game twice and during that time experienced sound cutting out, my character getting stuck in the environment and full game crashes. Thankfully, these miscues are infre-quent, which allows the art style to shine. Mass Effect 2 is a visual treat, filled with breathtaking landscapes and an awesome attention to detail. If you’re playing on PC and have a pow-erful rig (I took Shepard for a spin on an Alienware Intel Core 2 Quad 2.00 GHz prcoessor, dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M cards, and 6 GB of memory), it will look even better.

The improvements aren’t only techni-cal. The inventory and skill systems have been made more manageable, streamlined to the point that they might initially appear too thin for a role-playing game. Keep playing, how-ever, and you’ll begin to see strength and depth emerge as you further customize your squad.

Of course, none of this would matter if it isn’t fun to play. Good news. Mass Effect 2 is a lot of fun. The action has been refined to the point that even general fans of shooters will find a lot to like here. It’s not perfect, but the game handles quite well. It doesn’t take long to master simulta-neously ripping off rounds from an assault rifle, tossing out a few biotic skills, and directing the two AI driven squad mates to combine raw power with smart tactics. And when things get really rough you can always pull out a heavy weapon and tear the enemy a new one.

Add in fantastic level design and awe-some skills like the vanguard’s charge or the infiltrator’s cloaking ability and you have one spectacular virtual playground. Mass Effect 1 toed the line by offering some of the action elements that shooter fans enjoy with some of the role-playing tactics that the hardcore fans of the genre want. The sequel improves both areas for a through-and-through satisfying battle system.

On PC, the heads-up display is a bit different, custom built to work with a keyboard and mouse. Both versions

are largely identical, though you will get a few more options for custom-izing hot keys and skill usage on the PC. Which works better for you will be a matter of personal preference.

An emphasis has clearly been put on ensuring that the combat in Mass Effect 2 never grows stale. Side quests each have their own unique areas to explore -- and you’ll have to explore the galactic map, talk to random characters, and find key items to even trigger many of them. The combat zones themselves, however, have been cleaned up to be more straight-forward and compelling, rather than repetitive labyrinths. New gameplay twists are introduced frequently with some large quests eschewing combat entirely.

rATING DESCrIPTION

10

9.5

10

9.5

10

9.6Incredible

PresentationClean and sophisticated. Brilliant and cinematic.

GraphicsExceptional artistic direction and a top notch-techni-cal showcase.

SoundMartin Sheen steals the show, even amidst all of the outstanding voice acting and music.

GameplayTight mechanics, thrilling combat, and deep role-playing. The design is unparalleled.

Lasting AppealA remarkable achievement in adapting a story to your decisions. It creates amazing replay value.

OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)


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REVIEW: HEAvY rAINby: Chris Roper

If you’re planning on skipping the bulk of this text and heading straight to the review score to decide whether or not you should play through Heavy Rain, just know this: the game starts slow. It’ll take you a couple hours to get into the meat of the experience and for things to really pick up, but once it does, you’ll be on the edge of your seat until the end and you won’t want to put the controller down. In other words, if you stick with it, Heavy Rain will give you a ride like you rarely see in games.

Having said that, it’s also worth quickly pointing out that I’m going to keep this review completely spoiler-free, so feel free to read it without fear of anything being ruined for you (and trust me, you don’t want anything ruined).

Quantic Dream’s last title, dubbed Indigo Prophecy in North America and Fahrenheit pretty much every-where else, tried to bridge together intricate storytelling with gameplay by using what were essentially quick-time events (think Dragon’s Lair). A button prompt appears on the screen, and if you press it in time, the game continues and you get another one. If

you don’t, you fail and usually wind up staring at the words “Game Over”.

With Heavy Rain, the studio took this control mechanic to a completely dif-ferent level by removing the win/fail result and instead turned it into what can best be described as a branch-ing narrative. You can’t ever actually fail in Heavy Rain. There is no Game Over screen, and nothing will force you to have to replay anything. No matter what you do, the game, its characters and the story move on.

This has multiple effects. If you’re in an action sequence, missing one prompt might not mean much other than that the fight or chase would play out a little differently. Rather than taking out the bad guy right then, you might get knocked down but get another chance right after that. Miss too many and the bad guy might get away, but like I said, the story will continue on, no matter the result. In other instances, these options (as there is often more than one button available to you at any one time) will decide what a character says, how they react to something, what you interact with or so on and so forth.

The result is that although you’re still matching button prompts, Heavy Rain feels much more like you’re choosing and influencing what hap-pens in the game, rather than simply reacting to it. This is a major and key element of the control mechanics that separates Heavy Rain from the likes of Indigo Prophecy, Dragon’s Lair or even God of War’s boss takedown sequences, and it’s really what makes the actual gameplay work quite well.

What’s really interesting is that Heavy Rain manages to always keep you on your toes, and if you don’t pay atten-tion and keep your cool, you’ll pay for it. There are action sequences that happen when you least expect them, and if you’re not ready, you may “fail” them. In other cases, the opposite is true: events can happen very quickly and your gut instinct may be to react to them, when the best option may have been to wait for a better oppor-tunity (or not react at all). The first time this last bit happened to me, I had to stop playing for a minute and think about what I’d done and what the consequences would wind up be-ing. Things can get pretty intense, to


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say the least.

The great thing about all of this, and the reason that Heavy Rain may not have worked with any other control scheme, is that everything in the game revolves around the story. This isn’t something where Quan-tic Dream came up with some cool scenes and then wrapped a story around everything to tie it together; the story is the utmost focus, and ev-erything that you do and everything that happens directly feeds into it, without exception. Without having a “defined” control scheme that only al-lows you to perform a set number of actions, the changing control options allow the mechanics to adapt to what makes sense for your character to do at any point to keep the storytelling as unopposed as possible.

My one complaint about the control scheme is that it’s sometimes hard to tell what you’re supposed to do. When your character is frazzled, the button or text options that pop up can be blurred and jittery to show that the person is tense as well as make it a little trickier to choose the right thing (you might say something wrong if you’re not careful, like in

real life). The problem is that button prompts will also pulse if you’re sup-posed to tap them quickly rather than hold them down or do a single, quick tap, and distinguishing between these variants can be tricky. It’s not a game-breaking problem, but I messed up in a few places where I wouldn’t have had the prompts been clearer.

Now, as I mentioned, the controls do a great job of allowing the story to shine through, and what a story it is. Each of the four, main playable characters is interesting, developed well and important to the story. The way that everything comes together and winds up feeding into the story progression is nothing short of fan-tastic. Games have come pretty far in terms of how well stories are told and the level of writing quality that some of them are able to achieve, but Heavy Rain is easily amongst the best that’s ever been put onto a disc. Were this filmed as a Hollywood picture, it would perfectly fit the body of work of someone like Martin Scorsese or David Fincher.

Now, that doesn’t mean that the story is told flawlessly. Like I said at the start of this review, the first

couple hours are a little slow. As I’ve mentioned in previous coverage for Heavy Rain, this is largely due to the fact that, with a film, you’re able to edit out dull bits like walking down stairs or going from the kitchen to the living room. The exposition and character development that happens in these opening chapters wind up being very important to what hap-pens later, but the pacing is a little on the sluggish side. And, when some of the first things that you’re able to do include drinking orange juice and tak-ing a shower, it may seem like things

will get lost in unimportant actions and details of everyday life. But, like I’ve said, after you get into the meat of the game, it picks up quickly and pulls you in.

An important element of Heavy Rain’s design is that it isn’t an entire-

the reason that Heavy rain may not have worked with any other control scheme, is that everything in the game revolves around the story.


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ly linear story (and therefore game). Depending upon how you handle situations, you can start steering the story that you experience in a differ-ent direction than others. If a main character dies, the game will continue on anyway, but you’ll miss story clues and scenes that the now-dead charac-ter would have come across.

From my experience, your choices don’t result in major changes throughout the game, instead send-ing slight ripples through the dialog and character interactions for the bulk of it but resulting in vastly dif-ferent endings. After finishing the story with one of the best possible endings, I went back and played it a second time as poorly as I could; that is, killing off characters, intentionally skipping over clues and that sort of thing. I wasn’t able to kill off (or gen-erally lose) any of the main characters until about three-fourths of the way through, and up until that point, the only differences that I noticed were largely related to dialog changes. There’s a lot of subtlety there, where people will talk to each other dif-ferently or reference earlier actions (quite well, I might add), but you’ll still play the same sequences.

However, as I mentioned, the ending can change extensively depending upon what you’ve learned, who’s still around, things you’ve done earlier and so forth. Obviously I’m not going to spoil anything here, but just know that if you’re going through a second, different playthrough, you won’t see a ton of changes until the conclusion, but it’ll be worth it. And, fortunately, all of the endings that I either saw myself or heard about from others (it would take you forever to earn them all yourself) are great.

Given the weight of the story and the fact that it’s the absolute crux of Heavy Rain, the game’s various presentation aspects weigh in just as heavily on the experience as its controls do. Generally speaking, the presentation is handled quite well, but none of it is perfect.

The graphics, for instance, are great with regards to characters’ faces, but clothes, hands and especially some objects in the environment aren’t as detailed as you would hope. Lip syncing is actually not bad, but the mouths on some characters (not all) don’t have a ton of detail so the speech animation winds up looking off at times. And, while the character animation is top-notch in terms of the little details that Quantic Dream has tossed in (feet taps from a bored character, jaw movements while someone thinks, etc.), you can tell that the motion capture data isn’t as detailed as what you’ll see in, say, Uncharted 2. Hands will sometimes twitch a tiny bit, or fingers won’t quite bend on occasion.

The voice work is similar. Some char-acters are great, while others are only so-so. One standout flaw is that while most characters are supposed to be American, some of the actors clearly aren’t and their accents tend to slip through, making their line deliveries sound weird at times.

On the flip side, however, is the fact that the dialog is generally spec-tacular. Most every line is natural and written in an unforced manner, lending a great deal more realism to the characters. While I’m not talking about elongated monologues that would give Shakespeare a run for his money, the little things that people say are damn near perfect. Again, the delivery isn’t always spot-on, but the content certainly is.

Really, when compared to most games, Heavy Rain has what would be considered very good voice acting. It’s just that when so much of the experience is focused on it, you tend to notice the flaws a good deal more.

One last nice bit to the presentation that I want to point out (because peo-ple will certainly ask) is that you can indeed skip back to already-played chapters. You’ll be asked whether you wish to save or not, which means you can try out individual scenes without impacting your “main” save, which is nice.

rATING DESCrIPTION

9.0

8.5

8.5

9.0

8.0

9.0Outstanding

PresentationFantastic story that’s one of the best in gaming. Stellar dialog as well.

GraphicsAnimation is good overall, but a little spotty at times.

SoundSome voice actors let their native tongue slip through, but it’s quite good overall.

GameplayFor a game that’s so heavily focused on presentation, the gameplay gives you control.

Lasting AppealOne playthrough won’t take you all that long, but you have lots of reasons to try new stuff.



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FINALFANTASY XIII

30 HOUrS IN:Square Enix’s anticipated title, Final Fantasy XIII, is just around the corner, and today marks the first day that U.S. online media is allowed to review the game. Unfortunately, due to the global PSN error that crippled PS3s everywhere (including our debug systems) and other factors, I wasn’t able to beat the game before today. Yes, even after more than 30 hours with Final Fantasy XIII, I’m still not close to the end.

Rather than attempt a review with-out completing the full experience, I decided to delay the review until Monday and instead provide you readers with my impressions so far -- especially for those of you that are debating whether or not to pre-order the game this weekend. Although Final Fantasy XIII is extremely dif-ferent from the other members of the franchise and it has its fair share of problems, it’s still an excellent Japanese role-playing game.

I’ve discussed the game’s premise and story in the past, so I won’t do so at length here. All you need to know is that the game stars Lightning, a stoic officer in the military, and a group of individuals connected to her in one way or another. The opening of the game will be familiar to those who tried out (or saw footage of) the Japanese demo, as it’s essentially the same. Lightning and Sazh are aboard a government train and things get crazy real fast.

Final Fantasy XIII is primarily about the dynamic between two worlds: Cocoon and Pulse. Cocoon is a spherical moon that hangs above the savage world of Pulse. The narrative also includes a fascinating take on the West’s perception of the divine, as there are powerful beings known as the fal’Cie that watch over humans. Humans branded by the fal’Cie are

called l’Cie, and they are given a specific “Focus,” or task, that must be completed, lest they transform into monsters upon failure. This mythol-ogy plays an extremely important role in the game’s story and it’s been great so far.

The criticisms that have circulated the internet regarding Final Fantasy XIII are mostly true. The first 25 to 30 hours are extremely linear. This is not an exaggeration -- the game is almost on rails during these segments, as there is usually only a single path that you travel down, with occasional side paths that might tease you with treasure.

This first section of the game (and arguably three quarters of the ex-

perience) is not only linear, but also restrictive. Players are not allowed to choose their party or party leader -- these selections are dictated by the story progression. Although this might be a tremendous pain to some gamers, I actually enjoyed the linearity and restrictions, because it forced me to experiment with all the characters and their various battle roles. Of course, players that aren’t aware of Final Fantasy XIII’s open-world conclusion might be much less enthusiastic, especially if they believe

that the entire game is completely linear.

Another seemingly universal com-plaint is the fact that there are “no towns” in Final Fantasy XIII, but this claim can be somewhat misleading. There absolutely are towns in the game -- just not in the traditional JRPG sense. During your journey, you do pass through different cities and locales, but they’re just as linear as the game’s dungeons. So while it’s initially disappointing to not have peaceful areas to explore and take a break from battle, there are plenty of beautiful, fantastic environments to marvel at as you continue through the story.

It’s safe to say that Final Fantasy XIII

is very different than the other Final Fantasy titles, but it’s a lot of fun. The battle system is surprisingly complex and -- perhaps even more startling -- extremely difficult. Although players only control one character at a time, there is plenty of micromanagement to be found.

While in the neutral position, your main character’s turn gauge charges up. This gauge is segmented, so when it’s full, there are actually three full segments contained within it. Ex-


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ecuting a single command requires a certain number of segments. For ex-ample, a basic attack requires one seg-ment, so players can queue up three at a time. A Blitz attack, alternatively, costs two segments of the gauge. As characters grow, their turn gauges will expand, enabling players to select a more complex series of actions.

The most important element of battle outside of this basic command selec-tion is the Paradigm system, which controls the battle roles of each char-acter. There are six different roles that a character can train in and each char-acter is particularly capable in three of those roles. Some roles are better suited for attacking, while others are designed for defense or restoration. By selecting a custom “Paradigm,” or grouping of several roles, players can freely switch the roles of their charac-ters anytime during battle.

This might sound like a gameplay de-sign afterthought, but it’s absolutely critical to survive in Final Fantasy XIII. This game requires constant micromanagement and changing Paradigms in order to come out victorious, and I really appreciated that challenge -- even when things

got frustrating.So the question remains: do you put down money for a pre-order? I say “yes, you do.” Although Final Fantasy XIII is incredibly far removed from its predecessors, it’s still a breath-taking JRPG with an extremely interesting story and a realized game world. The voice acting is generally top-notch, the presentation is off the charts and there are chocobos to be ridden. It might not be the best Final Fantasy out there, but that doesn’t stop it from being enjoyable.

As a quick note for owners of multiple platforms, I strongly recommend getting this game on the PS3. The 360 version seems to run well enough, but it’s noticeably less sharp and is spread across three discs.

FULL rEvIEW:For years, the Final Fantasy series has stood as a seemingly timeless pillar of Japanese role-playing games. With fantastic characters, intricate stories and complex battle systems, Final Fantasy is one of the most recogniz-able names in the videogame world -- and for good reason. Surprisingly, Final Fantasy XIII abandons a num-

ber of well-loved series traditions in favor of a more straight-forward approach. While fans might be con-cerned by this, the two most impor-tant aspects of the series -- the battle system and the narrative -- remain just as strong as they always have.

In Final Fantasy XIII, players take control of six different characters with the sharp-eyed Lightning taking the “lead role.” Although the game does tend to stress Lightning as the primary heroine, Final Fantasy XIII is reminiscent of Final Fantasy VI in that you control all the characters at different times and you jump between the groups frequently. This multi-story approach, as well as a clever use of flashbacks, makes Final Fantasy XIII’s story quite enjoyable, at least in terms of its structure.

Final Fantasy XIII can tiptoe (or “stumble,” depending on the scene) into the melodramatic, but fans of the series shouldn’t be too sur-prised. What was more intriguing to me, beyond the standard growth of the characters, was the dynamic established between the two worlds of Final Fantasy XIII -- Cocoon and


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rATING DESCrIPTION

9.5

9.0

9.0

8.5

8.5

8.9Great

PresentationUnbelievably gorgeous cutscenes, polished interfaces and a great story.

GraphicsOccasional slowdown isn’t enough to detract from the visuals overall.

SoundMusic is not as memorable as past Final Fantasy titles, but it’s good.

GameplayFantastic battle system that combines frantic speed with plenty of rewards.

Lasting AppealMy first play through took me about 60 hours to complete.


Pulse -- as well as the relationship between humans and their fal’Cie counterparts. Like various reli-gions of the world, the mythology of Final Fantasy XIII incorporates god-like beings (the fal’Cie) that protect humanity. These themes are extremely important to the plot of Final Fantasy XIII and I very much enjoyed them.

The game also benefits from its cast, and all the members are voiced by some very talented people. Even the actors providing work for the side characters and villains do a tremen-dous job.

Of course, a role-playing game would be nothing without a solid battle system, and fortunately Final Fantasy XIII delivers. What starts out as an extremely simple, menu-driven system slowly becomes one of the most complex, challenging systems I’ve ever experienced in a Final Fantasy title. At the system’s root is the classic ATB (Active Time Battle) principle. When standing in a neutral position, a gauge fills above your list of commands. This gauge is segmented, so as it fills, more segments are available for use. Every action a character can take requires the expenditure of a certain number of segments from the gauge. This attack queue system is much prefer-able to selecting one command at a time, as it gives players the ability to build combos and multitask when the going gets rough.

Although you only control one character at a time, the actions of all three of your party members are dictated by their roles. There are six roles in Final Fantasy XIII and all six characters have access to each role by the end of the game (though they are gifted in three of the six). Unlike past Final Fantasy games that use a job system, Final Fantasy XIII’s roles are all invaluable and must be used effectively to survive. These roles ultimately affect how you play the game, as someone controlling a Sentinel will be constantly provok-ing and distracting enemies while a Medic, alternatively, will be healing. These roles keep battles fresh and fun, which is vital in a good RPG.

But before entering battle, players must set up a deck of Paradigms, which is the fancy way of referring to a grouping of roles. The Aggression Paradigm, for example, refers to a party composed of two Commandos and one Ravager. The Combat Clinic Paradigm stands for two Medics and one Sentinel.

By preparing several Paradigms outside of battle, players can switch roles on the fly during combat in order to best meet the situation on the field. This might sound like a simple gimmick, but it’s absolutely not. Switching Paradigms is critical to surviving in Final Fantasy XIII and it adds an element of tension to what could have been a mundane system.

As you attack an enemy, this gauge rises. Max it out and your opponent will enter a staggered state, mean-ing it’s much more susceptible to damage. This is also critical to coming out on top in Final Fantasy XIII, as some difficult enemies can only be defeated effectively when staggered.

Every battle is rated. Each battle has a target time and if you manage to best your oppo-nents before that

time, your score will improve. This score not only affects the sort of spoils you earn from battle but it also helps build your technical points, which allow your characters to per-form powerful moves like summons and more. These ratings give players real motivation to perform well dur-ing battle and avoid “going through the motions,” which is a common problem in RPGs.

When you consider the constant tension, fast pace and high reward of the Final Fantasy XIII battle system, it’s easy to see why this game is fun to play. It’s also constantly satisfy-ing, as players can sink collectively earned experience points into the Crystarium system, which is like a very pretty version of the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X. Or, for those unfamiliar with the series, it’s basically the way you choose your skills and level up your character. I got a huge sense of satisfaction from manually leveling up each character’s roles in this manner.

Final Fantasy XIII, however, is not without its fair share of problems -- problems which keep it from being as great as its legendary prede-cessors. The well-known

mention of “linearity” when

it comes to Final Fantasy XIII might

be old hat by now, but it is a notable issue. The

first 25 to 30 hours of the game are so

linear, they might as well be on rails. Dungeons are nothing more than a series of

pathways through various environ-ments, with occasional detours hiding a floating treasure chest. This linearity wasn’t particularly bothersome for me because I was enjoying the story and battles along the way,.It’s important to note that the game does open up quite a bit in Chapter 11 (out of 13), giving players the freedom to explore several huge environments and undertake tons of side missions. For some, this will be a classic case of “too little, too late.” Exacerbating this issue is the fact that players are unable to select their party leader and party members before Chapter 10.

A bigger issue for me, was the glaring lack of Final Fantasy’s trademark mini-games. While VII had the Gold Saucer, VIII had Triple Triad and X had Blitzball (to name a few), Final Fantasy XIII doesn’t really have much to do outside of battle-oriented side missions. It would have been nice to have something extra to enjoy in order to mix up the game’s pacing.

Also troubling is the lack of a New Game + option, which is usually com-mon in RPGs. Although you can save a cleared game file and then continue playing after defeating the final boss, players are unable to go back.


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It’s not often that I’m conflicted about a game. Don’t get me wrong, review scores are in the eye of the beholder so I’m sure there are plenty of times that you’ve read something I have written and not agreed with me. I mean that it’s rare for me to play a game during a demo and not have a solid idea of what the final product is going to be. I played bits of Batman: Arkham Asylum a few times before I finally got a copy to review, and I al-ways found myself coming away with mixed feelings. I enjoyed the combat and attacking from the shadows, but the pacing seemed off and Batman’s movements seemed stiff. Could Rock-steady really pull everything together to deliver on one of DC Comics’ big-gest franchises?

After having beaten the game, I can tell you the answer is most certainly “Yes.”

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a third-person action game casting you as -- you guessed it, chum -- the Dark Knight himself. The title opens with Batman racing back to Arkham, Gotham’s home for the criminally insane, with the Joker in tow. Seems the Clown Prince of Crime broke out a few weeks ago, but Batman was able to track him down and re-apprehend the baddie. However, things are never what they seem with the Joker, so af-ter getting the wiry maniac back into the building -- a building stocked with hundreds of the Joker’s goons after a “mysterious” fire at their prison -- Mr. J breaks free with the help of Harley Quinn, takes control of the peniten-tiary, and releases all the inmates. Holy plot twist, Batman!

From there, you’re off on an adven-ture that ranks right below The Dark Knight movie in terms of awesome Batman experiences. The actual Arkham campus is a loony bin spread across multiple buildings on one mas-sive rock. With the Joker in charge you’re going to have to swing over rooms filled with gas, save doctors, rip vent covers off the walls so you can make a path around locked doors, and move as fast as Batman can to stop the Joker from releasing an army of monsters on the people of Gotham City.

Now, that might sound like your typical Batman story -- and it kind of is -- but it’s important to point out that this is a fairly adult title. Yeah, some of the folks from Batman: The Animated Series are back to reprise their roles (Mark Hamill is the Joker, Kevin Conroy is Batman, and Arleen Sorkin is Harley Quinn), but this isn’t the cartoon. Harley’s wearing a fairly skimpy outfit that shows off her lady parts, Poison Ivy’s in some painted-on panties, colorful language like “ass” and “bitch” is peppered in, and there are people getting murdered left and right. Arkham itself is a dark and dingy place that just had every psychopath housed there run through the halls tearing the building apart. Dead guards are laid out on the floor, papers are strewn about, and the facilities have seen better days.

These adult themes tied in with a very, very Batman-looking world really drive home your connection to the story. I don’t think I’m ever going to forget Mr. Zsasz holding a knife to a female doctor, her screaming for me


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to save her, the Joker screaming at Zsasz to kill her, and Zsasz scream-ing at me to stay back. After years of the Riddler being goofy, I realized Arkham’s version of the character was on a different level when he told a Riddle that ended in dismembering a baby. Plus, the segments where you’re under the Scarecrow’s influence and Batman’s worst fears are realized are some of the coolest, most cerebral parts of the game. These are the moments that wrapped me up in the experience and made me feel like Bat-man on the longest night of his life.

Gameplay in this dark, creepy world breaks down into three main portions -- fist fighting, attacking from the shadows, and exploration. As you move from room to room chasing Harley or Commissioner Gordon’s kidnapper, you’re going to run into bad guys. Lots of times, you’ll find a crew milling about or the Joker will spring a trap with handfuls of guys who are ready to kill you. This is when you’ll make use of your straight hand-to-hand moves.

Fist fighting in Arkham Asylum is pretty much the definition of an easy to learn/hard to master combat system. The game allows Batman to move faster than his enemies (He’s a trained ninja, people!) and engage

them in 360 degrees. You just point your left stick towards whatever en-emy you want to attack and Batman follows suit. Through four buttons -- strike, reverse, jump, and stun -- you’ll unleash Mr. Wayne’s fury on the scum of the Earth. Obviously, you can just mash the strike button and take down the bad guys with a healthy set of animations -- drop-kicks, elbows, punches, and more are peppered in -- and reverse when you see the spider-sense icon pop-up above a bad guy’s head, but there’s a sweet science to this madness.

This system is great. I felt empow-ered as I knocked these creeps down, grabbed their bats and slammed them back into the attackers. I’m sure it sounds like the process could get repetitive, but the crooks start using tasers and knives eventually, and that leads to you having to fight them in a different way and avoid simply mashing the strike button; you need to get behind the taser-packing guys to strike and daze the knife dudes before socking them in the jaw. As you ping-pong off people with your savage attacks, a combo meter tallies your strikes on the left side of the screen. As long as each of your at-tacks is landing (Don’t mash the but-tons; pick your shots.) and you’re not getting hit (Reverse, Master Bruce!), the combo count keeps climbing. I’m sure it sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how good you have to be to link together massive combos. If you can get the count up to eight (five with an upgrade), you can do special moves once you’ve unlocked them, and I can tell you that I don’t do special moves all that often.

Still, whatever your largest combo is by the end of the fight, you’re going to get a bonus in terms of XP. See, there’s this little circle in the upper-left corner of the screen that is your XP gauge. Pulling off moves and best-ing challenges fills in the gauge, and when the two ends meet, you get to pick an upgrade for either Batman’s suit for more health, moves for super-cool takedowns, Batarangs for power and such, or other weapons like your explosive gel.

You’re also going to earn XP by tak-ing out your opponents from the shadows. While there are going to be those times where Joker’s men ambush you, there are also “Invisible Predator” moments. This is where you get the drop on a roomful of bad guys

who are patrolling. These sections are cool because they forced me to play like Batman and not some random action game character. I’d shoot up to a gargoyle, kick on detective mode to see how many enemies I was up against, and then start picking them off one by one. If there was just one dude with a gun in the group, I’d glide in to take him out and then move to the other baddies. If there was more than one gunman, I’d stick to the shadows so as not to get my brains blown against the wall. There’s a lot of freedom on how you want to engage these bad guys, and it’s one of the best parts of the game. You could wait for a guy to be alone and then glide kick in and perform a ground takedown, but you’ve got access to Batman’s entire utility belt if you want. Once everything’s unlocked, you can use explosive gel to blow out walls and knock guys out, you can through Sonic Batarangs that’ll then explode, you can pull people over railings with the grap-pling hook, and you smash through windows to take guys out.

And all of that is just for starters. There’s a line launcher, grates to pop out of, and gargoyles to hang bad guys from. Still, for me, the most sat-isfying part of these missions are the silent takedowns. This is where you crouch, come up behind an unsus-pecting grunt, and choke the guy out. There are a few animations for these moves, and they’re so quiet that even a bad guy just a few feet away from the attack can’t hear it.

While I enjoy the fact that the AI doesn’t notice friends getting silently KO’d, there are plenty of times you’ll plop down next to a goon or come right up on his peripheral vision and not be seen even though you would be in real life. Playing on Hard, which is available from the start, makes the AI a bit smarter.


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Still, Arkham excels despite any miniscule gripe I might have, and a big part of that draw is how much fun it is to explore this place. There are six main buildings on the island and each is cavernous. These places are filled with cells, laboratories, libraries, and more. Most of the interesting rooms are locked or blocked, so it’s up to you to use your cryptographic sequencer to hack security panels or the gel to knock down walls and crawl through grates to get where you’re going.

The driving motivation behind these quests will be the 240 Riddler chal-lenges in the game. Every so often, the man in green chirps a riddle into Batman’s earpiece that pertains to the room the Caped Crusader is in, and it’ll be up to you to locate the answer and scan it with your analysis tool. Beyond those word problems, the Riddler’s challenges include trophies he’s tucked away in the asylum, visual puzzles you can only solve through Detective Mode, and more. It took me about nine hours to finish this game on the normal difficulty, but once I was done, I doubled back and spent another two or three hours pol-ishing off Edward Nigma’s challenges -- it was pretty awesome to walk around the empty buildings (there’s no aftermath to play through so a completed save just picks up right before the final battle) and get to take in every poster, prop, and sight gag Rocksteady included as a nod to the comics.

Without spoiling anything, finding Ra’s al Ghul is pretty cool.

One of the things you’ll be collecting as you go off on the Riddler’s chal-lenge is patient interviews. These are five-part audio logs for each of the main villains in the game. Each one of these is a mini-story showing you how sick these people are as they con-verse with the Arkham staff -- Poison Ivy almost kills her doctor, Croc talks about eating people, and the Joker turns Harley to the darkside. Each of them is riveting and really gives you a well-rounded look at who the Scarecrow is and why the Riddler is so crazy. These are stored in the charac-ter bio section for each main villain. Even though most don’t have audio logs, there are 42 bios to unlock.

As if all this story mode content wasn’t enough to keep you wrapped up in your Robin PJs, Arkham Asy-lum also tosses in 16 challenge rooms for you to go nuts in. Again, these are broken up between 360-degree fighting and the Invisible Predator challenges, but there’s more pressure thanks to the three medals for every event and the online leaderboards. For the straight fighting ones, you’ll need to pull off certain scores to come away with one, two, or three medals. Getting the highest honor of three awards means that you’re chaining together insane combos and decimat-ing anyone who gets in your way. Eventually, you’ll only have a certain amount of time to finish these fights. Meanwhile, in the Invisible Predator rounds, you’ll get medals for pulling off certain feats such as zip-lining into an enemy and knocking him over a railing as well as blowing up three

different walls while taking out three different enemies at the same time.

Personally, I wasn’t sold when I first heard about these challenges -- I mean, they’re in the same environ-ments as the fights in the story, so it’s kind of like you’re just replaying certain levels again. However, once I started chasing scores on the lead-erboards (which are displayed when you’re browsing through the different challenges) and hunting the Trophy/Achievement for the 40-hit combo, I could see how great these sections were to just drop in and fight. Again, it’s a blast to be Batman and take out crooks with flipping punches and well-timed Batarangs, so it’s only more fun to do it as fast as possible and beat your buddy’s score.

I’ve touched on how well-done and important characterization is in this game, but I do need to take a second and tell you how good the voice act-ing and sound is as well. There were plenty of times I’d find myself just sitting in an air duct listening to the Joker yammer over the loudspeaker. Mark Hamill is excellent in this game.

Closing CommentsBatman: Arkham Asylum is the great-est comic book videogame of all time. This is an adult Dark Knight story that is well-told, packs some truly fun gameplay elements, has topnotch voice talent, and feels like it’s part of Batman canon. If I have to nitpick, I wish the cutscenes looked better as they can distract from the tale and that the AI was a bit more responsive, but those are tiny flaws that shouldn’t distract from the big picture.


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rATING DESCrIPTION

9.0

8.5

9.5

9.5

9.0

9.3Outstanding

PresentationThis is what Batman’s world feels like. It’s dark and gritty.

GraphicsBatman’s forearms are too big and hair tends to look plasticy, but the game looks great in motion.

SoundMost of the voice acting is out of the world good. Excellent work.

GameplayAttacking from the shadows and using bat-gadgets is what being Batman is all about.

Lasting AppealThe challenge mode should keep you going if you dig the combat.



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