Video Game Review: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone

Title: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone
Developers: CD Projekt Red
Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive
Genre: Action Role-Playing-Game
Platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Reviewed On: PC
Price: $9.99 ($7.99 on GOG.com, once again, for you PC people)

NOTE: Hearts of Stone Requires The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to Run. Do not buy it if you don't own The Witcher 3.

It's not very often I find DLC for games very satisifying, nevermind worth writing a review for. This year has been especially true for this. Not to say it's all bad, there just really isn't a lot to say about it. Once again, I get to ramble on about how great The Witcher 3 is (seriously, if you own a strong PC or one of the new consoles, pick up The Witcher 3, you won't regret it) with this new DLC, Hearts of Stone. It has everything in it that made The Witcher 3 great, and as always, CD Projekt Red doesn't feel the need to gouge you for that hard earned cash in your wallet.

As always, the writing in Hearts of Stone is top notch. None of the major characters are as they seem, and have some mystery or hidden past to them. Some I somewhat expected, some not so much. One main character has a bit of a generic storied past to him, but it's fleshed out in so much delicious detail that I feel a bit bad for saying that. It's difficult to talk about without spoilers, but at the end of it, he feels like one of the most detailed and fleshed out characters in the entire video game. For all the 2 of you Witcher veterans reading this, a certain red-headed medic makes a return, and plays an important part in the plot.

I rambled about the characters, but I should also ramble about the storyline, and how much enjoyment I had going through it. It starts out somewhat slow, with a fairly basic monster contract, but gains momentum and doesn't stop. You get a little bit of everything, from weddings to heists, each with it's own little Witcher twists. The wedding in particular had laughing from start to end, and is a highlight of the DLC.

I could ramble on about the story forever, but this is a game, and we need to talk about the gameplay. There aren't a ton of new base mechanics or anything like that to relearn, much of the gameplay is just more content for you to talk and slice your way through. Several new enemy types are introduced, and even better, they are actual new types, instead of reworked old versions of monsters. There's two new types, one are spiders, who will poke in and out of darkness to bite you, and only fully attack when you they are in a group. They are incredibly annoying, and are a blast to fight. The other is a massive toad, and those of you familiar with older Fantasy tales might see where that is going.

The biggest new addition though, is the Runewright. Using upgrade runes from the base game, you can create new upgrades for your weapons, which allow you to alter the ways your weapons and abilities behave, allowing more player customization than the base game. The runes in the base game kinda failed in this regard, and were mostly for small base stat upgrades, the Runewright remedies this however.

But what about the problems? Everything has some flaws or missteps, and Hearts of Stone is no different. The story takes a bit to really get rolling, and it seems the health of some enemies, or the damage they take is a bit off. This made the toad boss fight pretty rough, as it seems that all I could do was grind away at it's massive health pool, and it got old pretty quick. The same goes for some human enemies, though not nearly as bad, yet it's still noticeable. While these are annoying, they don't ruin the storyline or the characterization, which are top notch.

Once again, CD Projekt Red shows that they are willing to treat their customers with respect. For the price of a Subway footlong, you get a great piece of additional content that gels perfectly with the rest of the game. While it has it flaws, they don't make this any less worthy of your cash. With it's 10ish hours of high quality content, it's definitely worth the cash, and if you are even a remote fan of the base game, you will enjoy this.

The Pros:

• Fantastic Characters
• Improved Customization
• Thrilling Storyline

The Cons:

• Slow Start
• Some Wonky Difficulty

Final Score: 9.5 out of 10

Video Game Review: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Title: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Developers: CD Projekt Red
Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive
Genre: Action Role-Playing-Game
Platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Reviewed On: PC
Price: $69.99 ($46.99 on GOG.com, for you PC people)

I've been playing video games for years now, and have played through dozens of titles, from indie titles to massive AAA releases. Drawing from this experience, I can say, with confidence, that The Witcher 3 is some of the tightest, most well thought-out gaming I have experienced in years. Not since The Elder Scrolls 3 or Dragon Age: Origins have I been this addicted and drawn into a fantasy world, and if you've got an Xbox One, PS4, or a decently powerful PC, you need to play The Witcher 3.

The game's strongest point is its atmosphere, and in this regard, it hits the ball out of the park and straight to the moon. There's so many little details in every scene, from the trees along the trail you travel blowing from the wind, to the little conversations the city people are having as you pass by. CD Projekt Red put a ton of work into this regard, and it absolutely shines through, it recreates the low-fantasy atmosphere of The Witcher flawlessly.

The atmosphere may steal a lot of the show, but that doesn't mean the writers have slacked off either. For the huge amount of conversations and questing in The Witcher 3, it's impressive how the quality of it all has been kept at a high bar. The conversations all feel at least interesting, and all work towards some purpose, be it the main story, character development, or just an NPC telling you details on your next job, it's all kept up with spot-on writing, and great delivery from the voice actors.

Before I touch on the gameplay, I should mention the storyline as well, this being an RPG and all. The storyline is a great send-off for The Witcher trilogy, bringing back some familiar characters and introducing some new ones as well, each having some side quest for you to complete, letting you see how they're doing now. The main plot mainly concerns Geralt of Rivia's newest contract, to track and find the daughter of a prominent emperor, her name being Ciri, with the daughter also having a personal connection to Geralt. He has to work fast though, as the spectral riders, the Wild Hunt, are chasing Ciri, and it probably won't be good if they reach her first. While the main story can sometimes be overshadowed by some of the side quests, it's still kept interesting, and will keep dragging you back, even when you want to go out messing around in the open-world.

That's, by far, the biggest change in The Witcher 3, compared to the first two, the game is set in an open world, letting you go wherever you want, whenever you want (though the monsters you find may not agree with that). This formula works surprisingly well with The Witcher, as Witcher's within this world are wandering monster-slayers, and it's very satisfying to wander into a medieval style farmer village, and grab a monster contract from the nearest billboard, only to continue wandering after you slay it and get your pay, kinda like a lone wandering cowboy from some Old West fiction.

But these are monsters you're fighting after all, and being monsters, they like to make sure killing them isn't easy. Many times, a monster is stronger than Geralt in a direct fight, so that's not always an option. Geralt wouldn't be a century old if he was an idiot though, and so he has a few tricks up his sleeve to even the odds. Geralt has two swords at his disposal, a steel sword for humans and more mundane beasts, and a silver sword for the more fantastical variety. It's important to know which one to use, as many monsters in The Witcher don't take a lot of damage from steel. Not only that, Geralt also has a variety of bombs, potions, blade oils, spells, and even a crossbow. With proper preparations, you can take on all the monsters in the world.

The game does have it's flaws though, like all games. I've had a few random crashes at places, which are rather annoying, and there are a few visual glitches, though those don't really interfere with the actual game. The biggest flaw though, is the inventory system. There are a lot of items you can pick up, for crafting, alchemy, etc, and the game clumps a lot of it together, which can be a huge pain to sort through. The movement can also feel clunky at times, and while the combat functions fine, investigating or picking up items can be a bit of a pain.

There's just so, so, sooooo much to this game, and all of it is kept to a premium quality, from the strategic card game you can obsess over, Gwent, to the monster slaying contracts you can find in the peasant villages. I've put about 30 hours into the game since release, and I'm nowhere near complete. While Assassin's Creed's and Far Cry's activity's in their open world's feel like obstacles to jump over, the side quests in The Witcher 3 all feel so fun in their own right, and are a joy to complete. While you'll enjoy the game a whole lot more if you have played the first 2 games, and I recommend playing them, you can still jump in at The Witcher 3 and have a blast playing it. Games are very expensive, and The Witcher 3 is no exception, but it's one of the few releases on the new consoles that I truely feel is worth the asking price.

he Pros:

• Great Combat
• Amazing World and Presentation
• Great Characters and Storyline
• Great....Well Everything

The Cons:

• Some Glitches and Crashes
• Messy Inventory System

Final Score: 9 out of 10

Video Game Review: Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Title: Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
Developers: Dennaton Games
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Genre: Action, Top Down Action, Virtual Drug Trip
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation Vita
Reviewed On: PC
Price: $14.99

**Be Warned: This game is INCREDIBLY violent. If hardcore violence bothers you, be sure to at least lookup some gameplay videos before you purchase.**

So, Hotline Miami was one of my favourite indie releases of last year. An insanely fast top-down action game that felt like some insane 1980's drug trip, with way more blood and guts then usual, and everything about it worked. The art style, the story, the music, even the gameplay, all added to the rush of the original, and most of that carries over to the sequel. It has some flaws that hit the game, mostly with a few of the levels, and its fair share of bugs, but when it gets it right, the game is an absolute blast.

Veterans of the first game will feel immediately at home here, as the sequel is basically the same with some improvements. For those who haven't played it, the game plays out from a top-down perspective, full of split-second thinking and tactics. You as the player can take maybe a bullet or two before going down, and a single melee attack from an enemy will down you, but same goes for the enemies, with a few having certain characteristics to throw you off, some can only be taken down by melee or guns, for example. Your character, along with enemies, can move very fast, leading to a speedy experience. Even resetting the level after death takes a second, allowing you to jump right back in.

While there are extra weapons and enemies in the game, the core gameplay remains the same. The major changes come from the masks, which can be chosen at the beginning of many levels. Masks, or similar items, can be chosen at the beginning of the level, which changes your gameplay style in drastic ways. This can be anything from allowing only punching which can one-hit kill enemies, to starting with dual machine guns. While the first game had masks, they didn't have the drastic changes like here. It's a definite improvement over the masks from the first game.

For most of the game, the level design is great, allowing speedy rushing through rooms with plenty of cover to lure enemies and not get shot, playing to the main strength of the core gameplay, its speed. However, the game has its fair share of levels that work against the game's strength. Many times, the game will throw large levels at you with very little cover. This can be extremely frustrating, as a few shots will kill you, and enemies have a large sight range, many times rushing you from outside your own camera view. Many times, a level will also be full of windows, which enemies can see through, and if said enemy has a gun, this can be a death sentence.

But what about the graphics? Well, they look beautiful, in a weird, drugged-up kind of way. The game has an 8-bit style to it, and brings a full colour palate to the table. Everything in the levels look vibrant, with a sea of colours flowing in the background, and vibrant environments, including forests, prisons, and grungy buildings. The animations of the game are also great-looking, with little details there, if you notice them. There's also the music. The music is one of the best parts of the game, with frantic disco-like tracks blasting over the on-screen brutality.

There's also the story, and if any of you play it, and can tell me what the plot is, you go right ahead. The plot is a jumbled mess of flashbacks, odd characters, sociopaths, soldiers, and murder sprees, along with some mysterious phone calls that cause people to commit horrible massacres. The writers also love to play mind games with the player. Through the game, you will never be quite sure exactly what's real and what's not. While a plot like this would normally be panned, it fits into the atmosphere here, adding to the jumbled mess this game creates. When analyzing the storyline though, it's kind of a mixed bag. Some characters work, some don't, some plotline works, some don't.

There's also technical issues with the game, besides the sometimes iffy level design. Many times, I've noticed enemies get stuck in doorways, causing their AI to freak out and spin around. It can also be a pain to try and pick up specific weapons on the ground, as you cannot choose a specific weapon if they're in a pile. I've also noticed that doors can be sometimes inconsistent about knocking down enemies. Overall, the glitches in the game are there, but they don't effect the game too much, at least in my playthrough.

Overall, if you want a fast-paced action game with a lot of strategy, definitely check out Hotline Miami 2, and the first one. If you want a game that creates a visual and audio drug rush, give this a try. The gameplay is incredibly addictive, with fast, fun gameplay, and a scoring system that encourages you to perfect your strategies for each level. Despite its flaws, the game manages to live up to the original's quality, and is worth playing.

You Should Play: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Title: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Developers: Platinum Games/Kojima Productions
Publisher: Konami
Genre: Action, Spectacle Fighter, Over-The-Top Insanity
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Reviewed On: PC


Lately, I've been looking back on my massive Steam library, looking for something different to gnaw on. A quick scan made me remember that I have MGR. I remember when I played it a while back, and how much fun I had with it, so I installed it and got to playing. I've since logged about 50 hours into it, and beat the game on every difficulty. I always knew that the game was damn fun, but I had forgotten how damn satisfying this thing is.
For those of you who may not know about the spectacle fighter genre, games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and God Hand, for reference, a quick recap. The games in this genre generally are extremely fast paced third-person action games, full of combos, quick-time events, and sheer insanity. Think God of War, but twice as fast. The genre is also characterized by it's very high skill ceiling. The combat systems in these titles have a serious amount of depth to them, and if you spend the time mastering them, it's amazing to see your inputs turn into amazing fights on screen.

As for the gameplay, it works in a similar way to other third person action games, but with a few core differences. You have multiple types of attacks at your disposal, with a Light Attack, a Heavy Attack, and several other weapons that can be unlocked over the course of the game. Fairly normal stuff, until you get to your defensive abilities. Metal Gear Rising seems to have disdain for people who stop for a defensive position, so you can just throw that idea out. Instead, you get a parry. By pressing the Light Attack in the direction of an attack, you will block the enemy's hit, and allow you to get some free attacks in. Should you parry right before an attack lands, you will counter it, doing massive damage, and may even kill the enemy in one hit. There is also no dedicated dodge button, although dodge does exist as an ability, but it's easier to parry an enemy than dodge them. This change marks a difference in the feel of the game, as constant offense is also your defense, if you are not attacking in Metal Gear Rising, you're probably not playing it right.

What cannot be said enough, is how much fun this game is to play. Enemies recoil from your hits and parries, and the game shows particle and slicing effects for every slash, clashing with a loud metal clash. For crazy parries and counter-parries the game slows for a second, letting you marvel over your skills for a quick moment before going back to killing evil cyborgs. By far though, my favourite gameplay feature is the Blade Mode. Blade Mode slows everything around you to a crawl, letting you control the directions of slices. You can also cut your enemies into pieces. Not 2, not 4, but hundreds of pieces. Even better, you do not heal naturally over time; instead, you slice your enemy through the middle and rip out their robo spine and crush it in your hand, called the Zandatsu in-game, which heals you to full health. I've done this move hundreds of times over the course of my playthroughs, and it has not lost one bit of satisfaction. Seriously, everything in this game is cranked to 11 from the start, and it doesn't ever drop.

By far though, my favourite aspect of the game is the boss fights. Out of the hundreds of games I've played, these boss fights top them all. They're challenging, unique, with each putting a specifc aspect or twist of the gameplay against you, all while providing an amazing spectacle to show. If you want to play a game where a boss fight consists of a three-story death robot, where you grab it by the sword and throw it up into the air, this is the game for you. The final boss lives up to the expectations as well, challenging you in each aspect of the game, testing the skills you've developed over the course of the game.

Topping off the boss fights is the soundtrack. This is the absolute perfect soundtrack for this type of game, with frantic speed-metal playing throughout the fights. The music also dynamically shifts over the course of the fight, with faster verses and vocals kicking in at certain points during the boss fight. This is my absolute favourite soundtrack from any game, and I listen to it out-of-game frequently.

The amazing boss fights and quick gameplay are also helped with incredible replayability. There is an upgrade system, with each weapon in the game having a large amount of upgrades for you to purchase, using a currency you earn based on how well you perform in each fight. These upgrades carry over to new difficulties, and it's a lot of fun to try and upgrade everything to the max. The game itself is also short, around 6-7 hours. This can be a good or bad thing, based on how much you enjoy replaying games after completion. There's 5 difficulty modes as well, with enemies receiving new placements as well as tactics in later difficulties, rather than just a simple health and damage boost.

Next, the story. The story is a continuation of the Metal Gear Solid storyline, picking up some time after the ending of Metal Gear Solid 4. You play as Raiden, a character familiar to Metal Gear Solid 2 players, as he battles a rogue Private Military Company filled with violent, emotionless cyborgs. The story, despite the short length of the game, is entertaining, and while not as deep as the Metal Gear Solid storyline, it does deal with some themes related to child soldiers and the industrialized nature of war in a modern setting. It works for the gameplay and style here.

One other important aspect to mention, is the graphics and technical aspects of the game. This game's main strength is the speed of it's gameplay, and Platinum Games recognized this. They made the wise decision to keep the game running at 60 frames per second, and it feels so good in this title. Input speed is a crucial feature, and the framerate boost means there is little to no input lag here. Despite the need to keep the framerate high, the graphics still manage to look good. They're nothing to write home about, some textures can look kinda dated and blurry to look at, but it does what it needs to, and looks pretty enough to not be a problem.

You probably think this game is damn near perfect, from the previous paragraphs, but sadly, no. There's some issues that have come up in my playthroughs that I do need to talk about, mainly the camera and environments. The main problem with the camera is the third-person perspective of it, and how it affects parrying. An example, you're parrying a series of attacks from an enemy, and the camera swings around to the opposite side of the character, which direction will you push to parry the enemy now? The camera has a nasty tendancy to do this, but I've never had it happen enough for it to be a game-breaking issue. The camera generally functions well, but it could use some improvements.

The environments of the game are, well, generic. You've got a city, a sewer, and other real-world places that just aren't that interesting compared to everything else in the game. To be fair, this might have a lot to do with the Metal Gear setting, you can't have the most interesting environments in a setting based on the real world. It would also seem that much interactivity with the environment was stripped out, possibly to make the framerate possible. I'm sad a lot of that had to go, but I understand that the speedier gameplay was more important.

In conclusion, I absolutely adore this game, despite its issues. Despite the camera being a pain sometimes, the gameplay is just so damn satisfying to play, helped by the incredible soundtrack and insane bossfights. If you are looking for a fast-paced action fighter with a high skill ceiling that doesn't take itself too seriously, look no further than Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The studio also has several other games for both the old and new consoles. If you enjoy Metal Gear Rising, look into the Platinum Games library.

Video Game Review: Hand of Fate

Title: Hand of Fate
Developers: Defiant Development
Publisher: Defiant Development
Genre: RPG, Card Game, Roguelike
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4
Reviewed On: Xbox One

Lately, I've been fairly disappointed with the AAA game market. Very few of these blockbuster titles have offered something truly new and creative, with a few exceptions. I've had to look towards the much more fragmented indie market to really see the creativity of developers flow, and I've definitely found a good choice in Hand of Fate, the new Kickstarter-backed release from Defiant Development.

The premise of the game is a bit complicated, so bear with me. The game is a combination of deckbuilding, Batman: Arkham style combat, and tabletop-style adventuring, with you building a deck of custom cards, and the game generating an adventure based on that deck. You can have two separate decks to construct an adventure, an equipment deck, which includes things like weapons, armor, and shields, and an encounter deck, which contains the events that will create your adventure. Sound complicated? It really isn't, but it's much easier to grasp while playing, rather than having it explained. The deckbuilding doesn't need to be done either, if it doesn't interest you, as the game can generate a recommended set of decks, allowing you to jump right into the game.

Once created, the adventure starts. You move your character to each card in the adventure, through various combat and non-combat encounters. The non-combat encounters have a choose-your-own-adventure style choice to each one, providing different rewards or challenges based on what you choose. There are a huge amount of these encounter cards in the game, and many encounters will give you more cards at the end of the adventure, allowing you to diversify the adventure more and more, the further you get in the game.

There are also combat encounters that appear in the game, with the combat itself performing in the vain of the Batman: Arkham series, or Shadow of Mordor. You have the ability to attack, dodge, stun, and counter, should you find a shield. It's functional, but not much more than that. It simply lacks the production values of either of the aforementioned series, which leads to the combat feeling floated and not very satisfying.

The combat, however, doesn't affect what is by far the best part of the game, the presentation. Over the course of the game, you will be playing the game with a mysterious cardmaster, and he breathes so much life and personality into the game. He reacts organically to the cards drawn, and makes various remarks as you play through the game. Cards fly across the screen and shuffle, cards equip your character as you spawn, and enemies spawning from cards. It creates a sense and atmosphere of playing a tabletop card game, and is by far the best part of the game.

That being said, the game has some definite flaws, mostly technical, and a few design issues. On the Xbox One version, I've noticed a fair few framerate drops, particularly when there are a large amount of cards floating on screen. I've also noticed these drops happening during combat, albeit rarely. The combat, mentioned above, feels floaty, due to the animations and sound effects, although this most likely has to do with financial limitations of independent development.

I stated above that the independent game developers seem to be the ones with the creative, ambitious ideas in the gaming industry, and Hand of Fate is a perfect example of that. In a AAA gaming industry filled with uninspired clones and fun base games with no content, the independents are more and more stepping up to the base, and I will gladly support them. If you enjoy card games, RPGs, roguelikes, or table-top games, Hand of Fate is by far worth the $20 price tag. If you're looking for a new, interesting experience, give this one a shot, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The Pros:

• Great Presentation
• Addictive Card Collecting and Deck Building

The Cons:

• Some Technical Issues
• Floaty Combat

Final Score: 7 out of 10