Video Game Review: The Evil Within

Title: The Evil Within
Developers: Tango Gameworks
Publisher: Bethesda Software
Genre: Survival Horror
Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, PC
Reviewed On: Xbox One

Well, I am not going to forget some of the stuff I saw in this game. Don't think of that as a negative, it's a positive for some absolutely awesome art direction and work. While Alien: Isolation leaned more towards the sterile, metallic atmosphere of the 70's Alien film, The Evil Within thrives on showing the stuff of nightmares. If you have a weak stomach for gore, I would not advise this, it goes all-out on the horrifying gore factor. For the rest of you, and you fans of Resident Evil 4, you definitely need to consider this one.

The Evil Within has a strong pedigree. Directed by the man who is considered the grandfather of survival horror, Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series, he has done a great job bringing his brand of survival/action horror to the next-generation of consoles, despite a few flaws that can hamper the game. He is helped by the people in his studio, Tango Softworks, many of whom worked at reputable companies before, including Platinum Games, Clover Studios, and Capcom.

The strongest part of the game is the atmosphere. It seems that The Evil Within wants you to feel trapped in the nightmares of an insane man, and it has done this perfectly. You will travel through mental hospitals, forests, medieval villages, and crumbling cities, all brought to life beautifully. The forests are dark, the hospitals are dirty and bloody, and it all creates the feeling of being trapped in a world of Insanity brought to life. There is some great sound design that really helps too, from dripping blood, to roaring chainsaws, that completes the nightmare.

The gameplay present here will feel instantly familiar to fans of the acclaimed Resident Evil, and third-person shooters, with a few tweaks and enhancements present. The game plays as an over-the-shoulder third-person shooter, with guns used for combat, and a basic melee attack. The main strength of the gameplay is that it truly feeling like survival horror. Ammo is limited for your weaponry, and creative use of both it and the environment is a must. The game is usually fair about this however, and there is always a way to survive through the clever use of the environment. Traps litter places where fighting is the only option, along with enough ammo littered around to get by, and if you are smart with using both of these tools, you will survive. Fire is an important weapon as well. Matches can be used to burn both corpses on the ground, and enemies on the ground, allowing for some quick kills, if you are creative enough.

The gameplay is not perfect however, with one of the negative sides also being the lack of ammo. There are sections where you are forced to fight, and the game will be very stingy with its ammo. This can lead to some very frustrating trial-and-error tactics, which are never fun to do. Thankfully, I found that these sections are quite rare, as there are usually alternative tactics to use then just straight shooting. There is also the core control scheme of the game. The game does control like an improved (except for the aiming) version of Resident Evil 4. This works great when enemies are at a distance, and starts to break apart when enemies are close to you. The aiming is the main problem here, with its awkwardness showing at full force with enemies in close range. So then just melee the guy! Melee in this game is a very last resort type of attack. It doesn't do much damage, and really only serves to get enemies away from you. This can lead to a lot of frustration, although it is an understandable decision made by the developer. You are fighting monsters, how much good can punching them really do.

Stealth is also an available tactic, but this aspect of the game feels a bit tacked-on. You can crouch to stay out of sight, throw bottles as a distraction, and even perform stealth kills on unaware enemies. When this aspect works, it works well, and allows you to clear out large portions of enemies with little to no resource use, if you are skilled enough. But many times in the game, stealth will not be an option for you to use. This is partially because of forced combat sections, and because of the AI of the enemies in the game. The AI can feel cheap at times, and immediately turn around when you are just outside of the stealth kill range, and ruin any plans you have. While this can feel like a screw-up on your part sometimes, there are quite a few times when it just feels like the AI has a sixth-sense for sneaking detectives.

The variety of metal-shooters in the game is great. There are close to 6 or 7 types of different weapon types within the game, with different unlockable and findable weapons for each type.The sound and feeling of these guns are great too. Pistols feel like pistols, with several rapid pops, and shotguns go off with a loud and damaging bang. The standout weapon of the game, however, is the Agony Crossbow. Parts can be found in the world, and collected from disarmed traps, and can be used to create ammunition for the Agony Crossbow. The disarming traps aspect allows for depth and choice, do you use the traps against your enemies, or use the parts to create powerful ammunition for your crossbow? The Crossbow itself also has a variety of ammunition, from exploding bolts, to harpoon bolts, and with some creativity, can be one of the most powerful weapons in the game.

As for the storyline, it starts off great, with you having no knowledge of what is causing the horrors you see, and you slowly discover this over time. It loses some of its steam later on in the game though, and while not terrible, the story is average at best. The characters, by far, are the weakest aspect of the story. Sebastian Castellanos is any average, gruff guy detective, although slowly discovering his backstory over the course of the game is interesting at least. The side characters are a bit more interesting, although not much time is spent with them. The villain, however, is the best character. He is not the most interesting character, but his backstory is well told through play, rather than cutscenes, and this allows for a more interesting character to develop.

All in all, Shinji Mikami has shown with The Evil Within that he and his group of developers can still pull off great survival horror games in this next-generation. There are flaws in the game, mainly the storyline, some awkward controls, and frustrating encounters, but there is a lot of good here. The atmosphere here is top notch, and the gameplay, when it works, is a lot of fun. The Evil Within gives me a lot of hope for the future of Tango Gameworks, and I hope that they continue to improve and perfect their future projects.

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Video Game Review: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!

Title: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!
Developers: 2K Australia, Gearbox Software
Genre: RPG, Shooter, Role-Playing Shooter, co-op shooter
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Reviewed On: Xbox 360

Well, the addiction kicked back in, that same addiction that kicked in when I first started playing the original Borderlands, and the one that came right back when I started Borderlands 2. For those of you worried about the The Pre-Sequel, about whether the new developer, 2K Australia, could make Borderlands properly, you can put most of those worries to rest. Despite a fair few flaws in the game, this is Borderlands, through and through.

The game is set on Elpis, the moon of Pandora, the one that was all cracked, and had a Hyperion moonbase on it that shot robots at you, and on that moonbase itself. The storyline, as the name suggests, is a prequel to Borderlands 2, showing just how Handsome Jack became the hilarious sociopath he is in Borderlands 2, and just how he came into control of Hyperion, and the moon base, Helios. This creates several interesting gameplay changes, and map changes, that 2K Australia have put to use, both for good and bad.

If you have played Borderlands 2, you know almost exactly what you are in for. For those of you who haven't played Borderlands, here's the rundown. The game plays as a shooter version of Diablo. You create a character, choosing from 1 of 4 preset characters, along with 3 other friends, if you like, each with their own abilities and skill trees that are all interesting in their own right, with different abilities to help you fight, or help the team fight. As you level up, you get stronger and stronger, building the skill tree of your character. All of this, is in service of the loot system at the heart of the game. This game, is about guns. Guns here, guns there, guns EVERYWHERE. There are millions of guns in the game, and each gun chest is randomized for which it gives you. No two players will ever have the same loadout of guns, shields, and class mods.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel has not changed the base gameplay. The great looting and tight shooting are here, unchanged. 2K Australia did add several elements, that fit great into the moon setting of the game. Due to the low gravity, players can now jump much higher than in the previous games. This adds a great element of verticality to the gunfights, and provides more options for the player when their shields run low, rather than just ducking behind cover. Being on the moon, there is also the fact that there is no oxygen on the moon, which means that an O2 helmet is required, and adds oxygen as a resource, which slowly drains when outside on the moon's surface. The extra oxygen also allows for an extra boost in mid-jump, which makes it easier to reach taller or farther ledges, and allows for the self-titled "butt slam", a slam which, when done high enough, creates an area-of-effect shockwave. This is great for dealing with groups of lower level enemies, instead of wasting bullets on them.

The team also added new weapon types to the already stupid amount of weapons in the game. One is a new elemental type for all weapon types in the game, and that would be Cryo weapons. Cryo weapons do exactly what they sound like, they freeze enemies. This can be extremely useful for both crowd control, as you can freeze various enemies in a fight to stop them in their tracks, and for damage, as you do extra damage to frozen enemies, and shatter them when they are killed. The other weapon addition is an entirely new subset of weapons for use, lasers. Lasers have existed before in Borderlands 2, as E-Tech weapons, but they were extremely rare and powerful. Lasers have been bumped up to a regular use weapon. There are a variety of different ones for use, everything from shotgun lasers to rifle lasers to a Ghostbusters style laser, which is dependent on the manufacturer of the weapon. Laser weapons can also have elemental damage attached to them. If you looked at me and told me you wouldn't enjoy a Ghostbusters laser gun that freezes people, I'd call you a damn liar.

I'm sure you're also curious about the classes available for you to choose from. Like the past two games, there are four classes to choose from. Unlike Borderlands 1 and 2, that had some common classes between them, the characters present in The Pre-Sequel have totally unique skills between them all. First is Wilhelm the Enforcer, a character that was present as a large robotic boss in Borderlands 2. Wilhelm's special skill is Wolf and Saint, this allows Wilhelm to throw out two robots for combat. One robot, Wolf, is the combat bot, and assists in combat, while his other robot, Saint, acts as a support for the players. The second character, Athena, who made a cameo in the General Knoxx DLC from the first game, uses the skill Kinetic Aspis, which allows her to pull out a kinetic shield which charges from gunfire, and can be thrown. The third character is Nisha, a boss from Borderlands 2, uses the Showdown skill, which lets Nisha lock on to enemies when firing. The final character, Claptrap, a character present through both games, has arguably the most interesting skill, VaultHunter.exe. This skill reads the battlefield, choosing several variables, and gives the player a skill based on the variables. Claptrap has a large variety of different skills available, and the developers made sure to make each one useful to the situation, including causing the team to be uncontrollably bouncy. The only issue I have with the characters, is that Claptrap is the most interesting, while the others are rather ho-hum. This means you'll probably see a lot of Claptraps when playing online.

It's not all bouncing and butt-slams though, as the oxygen resources leads into one of the games biggest problems, namely, the environments. There are large expanses of the moon that, while pretty to look at, are empty. While the new Moon Buggy and Stinger do help somewhat with this, there a a fair few areas that do not allow vehicles, and the areas that do allow them are full of death pits. These lead to a lot of frustration and time spent driving around the pits, or dying in them. There are also geysers littered around the moon that can fill up your Oxygen, and while the dev team tried to make these geysers plentiful, there can still be times that you will need to backtrack again  and again, just to fill your oxygen. At least until the second half of the game, the map design is the weakest part of The Pre-Sequel. Its a shame, since the maps can be quite fun to jump around in and admire, when they are not killing you.

This leads to another flaw of the game, the storyline and characters. There are many new characters introduced in The Pre-Sequel, most of which have an Australian accent and use Australian slang. This may get a laugh or two, but many of the new main characters are fairly hit-or-miss, leaning more to the miss category for me personally. The quests are fairly creative and fun to play through, but the characters are a mixed bag. There are many returning characters however, and their writing is as fun and creative as ever. This really shows in the later half of the game, when the dialog leans more towards the returning characters, rather than the new ones.

All in all, I really liked Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. It's still damn fun to grab a few buddies, a few beers, and play split-screen/system link through the game, despite the fairly large flaws in the gameplay. That said, this one is for the Borderlands fans, as this game carries the same gameplay from Borderlands 2, flaws and all. For those of you that enjoyed Borderlands 1 and 2, feel free to pick up The Pre-Sequel, you'll enjoy it. As for the rest of you that don't enjoy Borderlands, don't bother, The Pre-Sequel won't change your mind.

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Religion Sucks!

Religion is a persistent beast that just won't die! As George Carlin so eloquently put it,"I have a low tolerance level for stupid bullshit!".

Movie Review: The Little Mermaid (1989)

Gorgeous animation, kick-ass songs and Jodi Benson's stellar voice, what's not to like?

Video Game Review: Alien: Isolation

Title: Alien: Isolation

Release Date: October 7th

Genre: Survival Horror

Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, PC
Reviewed On: Xbox One

As I lay underneath a table, watching the Alien slowly slide out of a ventilation opening, the Alien fanboy in myself was screaming both with terror and with joy, knowing he had found something special in Alien: Isolation. Finally, a game that treats the original H.R. Geiger monster, and the franchise, in general, with the respect it deserves.

The game is set 15 years after the original Alien film, with the player taking on the role of Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, and a technicial at the familiar Weyland-Yutani. Amanda has been searching for her mother, and finally catches a break when the black box of the Nostromo is recovered, and stored on the space station Sevastopol. She joins several other Weyland-Yutani employees to recover it, and finds a station in absolute chaos.

If you get learn one thing from this review, let it be this, the atmosphere of this game is some of the best I have ever seen. The amount of love and detail that went into the environments to recreate the original Alien aesthetic is absolutely mind-boggling. There is not a single item that feels out of place in the futuristic, utilitarian environment, and every part of it would fit perfectly into the original Alien film. Everything has a very mechanical, 1970's sci-fi feel to it, there are no sleek, iPod designs in this game, from the large-pixel hacking device and DOS and CRT-monitor computers, to the green, blinky, and bulky motion detector, looks retro, yet are highly functional. Sevastapol is also full of florescent lights, and metallic hallways, with perfect lighting to ramp up the tension.

The sound design is also phenomenal, and truly completes the atmosphere of the game. I give the sound team a lot of credit, as they did an amazing job of recreating the sound of the original film, and Alien fans will recognize plenty of sound effects from the first film. The station creaks and shifts as your footsteps echo through the empty corridors. As you walk, you can always hear something crawling through the vent system, you will never feel truly safe on Sevastapol. The Alien was also treated great in this department. It's truly a rush, as you hear the Alien stomping down a hallway towards you, and hissing in frustration when it cannot find you.

As for the gameplay, this is some of the best survival horror gameplay I have seen in a long time. What sets it apart from other horror games, is that you cannot fight the Alien. Don't even try. It can also run a lot faster than you, and will get you if you try to run. Your only option is to hide from it, and Sevastapol is not short on places to cower. There is an unmatched rush, hiding in a locker, as you pull back and hold your breath, while the Alien sniffs inside. Many times, your best friend will be the beautifully recreated motion tracker, which will detect any movement in a large area. The team, however, was smart, and the motion tracker does have some flaws, to prevent it from becoming a crutch. The motion detector can detect motion all around you, but can only pinpoint it in front of you. It also cannot tell you whether the motion is on the same elevation of you, leading to some tense moments as you explore, not knowing whether the Alien will be in a vent hiding, or directly in front of you. The detector also beeps as it points out targets, and enemies can hear it if they are close enough, which can get you killed.

Stealth is your best friend in the game, as ammunition is extremely difficult to come by, and it is completely useless against the Alien, at least until a bit later in the game. It has great hearing, and will hear you if you sprint. This allows for great on-the-spot decision making, is it worth alerting the Alien to get to another room or objective? Running and hiding are not your only options, however, you have plenty of tools at your disposal, both found and crafted from items you scavenge around the station. These items can be used as distractions, or to defeat the humans and androids scattered around the station.

There are several threats aboard the Sevastapol, not just the Alien. Androids called Working Joes stalk the halls, while humans group together hoping to survive. Both can be killed through conventional means, however, the Androids are exceptionally strong, and take several wrench hits or bullets to take down, making groups of them extremely dangerous, and even one can be a large drain on your limited resources. Humans generally have firearms, and travel in groups, but are easy to take down with a wrench hit or gun. Gunfiights are extremely discouraged, although quite doable. You don't want to deal with the Alien coming to investigate what all the gunfire is about, after all. The Androids, created by Seegson Corporation, are less advanced technologically than the Weyland-Yutani androids seen in the films, and are extremely creepy to see, due to their red, glowing eyes and rubber face masks.

But obviously, the Alien is the star of the show in the game, and the development team took this to heart, and recreated it in loving detail. The design is based on the original films design for the Alien, and it's model and animations look great. It has a very feminine walk, and it's tail slithers around corners and doors. The Alien also differs from many stealth games in the way that its AI works. It does not operate on a set path, and is unpredictable. You will never truly know where it will walk, or when it'll decide to hop down from a vent to give you a heart attack. The Alien also never truly leaves, you will always hear it crawling through the vents, looking for you, and going for the perfect strike.

That doesn't mean that the Alien's AI is entirely flawless, unfortunately. The sheer unpredictability can make the Alien a bit frustrating to sneak around, and there is a good chance you will sit for a long time for the Alien to walk off, only to have it come right back into the same room. This also makes the game extremely difficult, and you will die a lot, as the Alien can one-hit kill you. I never found the Alien to be unfair, it does have rules in it's AI routine that it follows, although some people may find it to be unfair.

Finally, we get to the story. The story is serviceable, and fun to play through, but nothing spectacular. The story generally deals with how the Alien was brought aboard and survived on the Sevastapol, with a few fairly foreseeable twists that fans of the films will see coming. Completionists will also find some recordings done by the crew of the Nostromo, giving some history and backstory to the terrible fate of the crew, which are a treat to find.

But now to the flaws of the game, of which there are a few. There are some parts of the game that just feel unpolished. I noticed that the Alien would clip into the textures of the locker sometimes as it sniffed for me, and the lip-syncing of some of the characters in the cutscenes and gameplay was kinda off, sometimes not even there, which works for making the androids creepy, but looks strange to see on a person across from you. The game also has some framerate drops at times, particularly in the later levels of the game. It's not enough to ruin the game, but can be quite jarring at times.

That said, despite all the flaws of the game, it is an absolute blast to play. They truly emphasized the "survival" aspect of survival horror game play, with scarce resources and unstoppable enemies, and an Alien enemy that is punishing in its unpredicatbility, but fair in the rules it follows. These things lead to some of the most tense gameplay I have experienced in a long time, and definitely make up for the flaws that exist in the game. Pick this up if you are a fan of survival horror, or a fan of the original Alien film. If you are both, it's a must buy, no question.

Final Score: 8.5 out of 10