Well if anybody noticed (probably didn't) I haven't been here for a while. Part of this was due to Destructoid getting hacked and my password getting changed. Because of that I took a little bit of a sabbatical from the site. Now my main site (Gametrailers.com) is irritating me with it's constant fanboyism and stupid users, so I'm going to be here a little more often, that and I finally reset my password. So enjoy this review (if anybody stops to read it that is).

There’s a lot of talk about how the PS3 lacks JRPG’s, granted this is somewhat true. But there is still the adage of quality over quantity and when you look at it this way it’s pretty true. To help prove this is the underappreciated critical darling known as Valkyria Chronicles. I’m going to admit that when I first saw this game in some brief gameplay trailer from about two E3’s ago I wasn’t interested. This pretty much led me to write it off as something that I would never play. Next thing I know it comes out and sets the Internet ablaze with how good it is. Taking this into account I go to buy the game and the next thing I know I’m in love.

Story:

Valkyria Chronicles is set in a fictional recreation of Europe circa 1935. You’re introduced to Welkin “Welks/Welkie” Gunther the son of a war hero and Alicia Melchiott an aspiring baker. Their hometown is about to be over run by the East European Imperial Alliance (yes they’re pretty much like Nazi’s) and instead of doing nothing about it they decide to take up arms and fight. After losing their hometown to “Gerry” they enlist in Galia’s militia. Along for the ride is Gunther’s little sister Isara who later on finds a rather useful niche. They become a part or Galia’s Squad 7 and run into a rogue’s gallery of cool characters…and a pig…with…wings. Seeing everybody eventually bond into something that is akin to a family is actually quite moving. In the beginning you might find a particular character irritating because of her somewhat racist views, but she actually does grow on you and at the same time she grows as a person. There’s so much more that can be spoiled or referred to, but half of the fun comes from watching the story unfold.
Rating: 9.5

Gameplay:
At its core Valkyria Chronicles is a strategy RPG, but its battle system blends real time with turn-based elements. You can move and shoot in real time. On top of this you can also aim in real time. This means that headshots are doable and actually preferred. Headshots are critical shots and take off a lot of damage (naturally), but this comes at the cost of accuracy. If you’re able to get close enough a burst of five shots to the head will put pretty much anything down. Apart from this VC uses a turn-based system, which are known as phases. During each phase there are a set amount of moves that you can make, which are known as command points. During each turn you can either use all of them or save a couple, which will carry over for your next phase. This is actually simple, but the gameplay mechanics that you use are actually quite deep. The first thing that you have to take into affect is positioning.

You’re able to take cover by either crouching behind sandbags, trenches or hiding in grass. When you take cover obviously you’re hidden, but this comes with the benefit that the enemy can’t employ headshots (works both ways) and are harder to kill. With the cover like sandbags you have to realize that they can be destroyed. The best for these are grenades and mortar fire. So if you use a grenade to take out some enemies or to expose an enemy you destroy the sandbag. When that happens you wind up losing possible cover for when you make your advance. Eventually you start using your tank as movable cover, but it’s good to use both depending on the situation.

Later in the game when the enemy starts employing snipers you can’t truly rely on sandbags. This is when you start to employ buildings and walls as cover (or hope that your character will dodge the shot). You can’t mount up on it a la Gears of War, but you can stand behind it. But this is when positioning becomes really important. If you leave your character in a vulnerable position you leave them open to attack. If they get attacked from behind they take double the damage. But if you leave them facing forward, or in a position where they have a good chance of seeing the enemy advance on them then they will attack the enemy as they’re trying to advance. This is something that you will rely heavily on actually because you can thin the enemy ranks without wasting a turn. This is also hilarious too, at least for me. There’s just something comical about seeing the enemy running through gunfire trying to get to his objective. You can almost see the determination on his face as he says to himself, “I can make it!” Next thing you know he gets cut down because of your fortress like defenses.

While on the topic of units and advancing let me talk about the units that you have at your disposal. You have access to engineers, shocktroops, scouts, lancers and snipers. Each has their own advantage and disadvantage and one actually gains some serious firepower once you level it up enough. For starters engineers are able to replenish ammo for other units, repair vehicles (important) and disarm landmines (really important). That last one might not seem important, but landmines are a nuisance. When moving around you are able to disarm them, but when you actually want to make an important strike on the enemy, and the land is littered with landmines it would be in your best interest to cleanse the field. Engineers are not defenseless, but they’re the least combat effective. They pack the standard rifle the scout uses, but they don’t have that much health, but their range of movement is second only to the scout. Pretty much they’re best used as a last resort after somebody else has knocked down a good amount of health off the target.

Shocktroops are for attacking fast and heavy. They’re able to soak up a lot of damage and dish a lot of it out as well. Their weapon of choice is a heavy machinegun that can cut anything human down. Their only drawback is they lack range, both weapon and movement wise. Once you level them up to elite level they gain access to flamethrowers, which are good for attacking people behind cover. Lancers are your anti-armor units. They’re slow moving, but are wrapped in armor that can soak up some hits. The armor they wear is much better at dealing with explosives than actual bullets for some odd reason. Their bazookas can take out both personnel and armor, but the unit in general is better suited for tanks. As a Lancer you have to search for a tanks vulnerable spot, which is on the back of the tank or use numerous turns shooting the body. The only problem with the weak spot is that behind the tank you usually have people manning machineguns, but the rare occasion when they actually expose themselves you’ll trip over yourself to hit it.

Scouts are pretty versatile and at least for me seem to be the most used units. I normally do my best to keep two to three on hand per squad with a couple of shocktroops and an engineer for the tanks. Scouts have the farthest range so they’re essentially your eyes and ears when it comes to finding out what you have to deal with. They’re pretty accurate with their rifle shots and once you level them up to elite level they gain access to grenade launchers. This is when they start becoming your bread and butter unit. Every unit can carry a couple of grenades but their range is pretty limited. With this nice grenade launcher the range is greatly expanded and becomes the BFG of the battlefield. This allows for one hit kills, knocking enemies out of cover so they become vulnerable and makes the scout a lynchpin for your tactics.

Snipers are quite good at turning a battle. They have the farthest weapons range, but their mobility is pretty limited. The best thing to do is to put them at a high position and use them to take out anything stupid enough to not be in cover. The only thing that I don’t like about them is that them along with lancers don’t counterattack.

After a couple of missions you get access to a tank and then after a bunch more you get another. The first tank called the Edelweiss is the more important one. If that gets blown to bits the mission is over so make sure you nuke whatever Lancers you see, destroy anti-tank weapons and just make sure that nobody can hit that weak spot (yes for massive damage). The tank should be used sparingly because it eats up two command points. Once you start getting good at farming these points and realize that “I must destroy that tank before it shoots me one more time” you’ll use it more than once (sometimes four times) during one phase.

The management of health and ammo is pretty interesting. You can use the same unit more than once, but every time you use it its range of mobility becomes limited. This won’t fully replenish until you start another phase. After each phase you have a portion of your health replenished if you take damage. On top of this your ammo is replenished by one point. Your basic unit can shoot up to three times from their standard gun, they each carry one grenade, and that gets replenished after every phase. If you’re not that patient then you have to move an engineer to them to replenish the ammo stock. The tank operates differently because engineers can only replenish its health unless it’s in a base or something. It has unlimited shells, but it’s other weapons like the mortar can only be used once per phase. I’m not too sure about its machine gun because I barely use it.

After all this writing I haven’t told you what you’re supposed to be doing with these implements of destruction. For the most part your main objective is to take over your enemy’s base (all your base are belong to us). There is a main base for you to take over and a secondary base. It’s just good to take over both because it cuts off the enemy’s access to reinforcements by taking over the secondary base. The main base can still call for these, but it’s best not to let it get out of hand. Also after capturing the secondary base it makes for a good rallying point. A good trick to use is to have your less mobile units in close proximity to your base.

After you capture the enemy’s secondary base you can have you enemies retreat to your base and then call them as reinforcements at you newly acquired secondary base. It allows them to traverse the battlefield without eating numerous command points, plus they come back fully healed. There are also more diverse missions like destroy this tank the size of the White House or rescue this princess from an armored car. A lot of these missions take a while, but depending on how good your strategy is it won’t take as long. Take that princess mission for example. The first time I did it it took forever and I failed. I got caught up in some sort of bottleneck towards the end of the level and just couldn’t close the deal before he escaped (in my defense I was really close to winning). The second time I did it, I grouped all of my shocktroops in one area and forced him into them. After that I used about three of them to shoot his equipment to pieces and it was all done in about two phases (if even that, don’t remember how short it was). After a mission you’re ranked in how many phases it takes (after 20 it’s a mission fail). And depending on how high your rank is you get a bonus added to your experience.

A lot of this may sound complicated but it’s really not. After about a couple of missions and learning from your mistakes it becomes second nature. Oh yeah about death. If one of your units falls in combat you have to get to it within about three turns (or phases) or before the enemy gets to them. Once you get them a medic evacuates them from the field. In the next phase you can call for them again. I do believe that if a character that isn’t a leader character and they get caught be the enemy you lose them. I’m not too sure because I’m pretty careful and haven’t really lost anybody yet. Once you get a grasp of the basics you start pairing up your characters together because depending on whom they’re next to they will actually attack an enemy with them. There’s also stat boosting and damaging characteristics inherent in your characters called potentials. These can be activated based on anything from environment to what people are around them. It’s quite interesting to say the least.

You’re also awarded money to be spent on upgrading weapons and armor. Also later on you get medals for certain things and when you get these medals you can get new more powerful weapons. You also get new weapons after a mission. Finding out what weapons are best and to whom to give them to is nice especially when you find out how effective the new weapon is.

Valkyria Chronicles is a game that can soak up a good amount of time without you even knowing it. Granted this is for a niche audience so I can’t just recommend it to everybody, but if you’re an RPG fanatic like me and want the best in your collection then run out and buy Valkyria Chronicles, you won’t regret it.
Rating: 10

Graphics:

VC has a rather distinct look to it. It looks like a watercolor illustrated manga. Its character design is actually pretty good. Both Welkin and Alicia look like gentle people that wouldn’t dream of going to war, but they get thrown into it. Their cohorts are battle hardened, but they have a softer side to them, which is actually shown nicely in the character designs. The gun and tank design looks post world war one, but pre world war two at the same time. The tanks minus the Edelweiss aren’t as sophisticated as a Tiger tank. When you shoot a gun the sound effects are written out as its happening and give the game personality. There are also animated cutscenes, which are actually quite beautiful. Battlefields tend to take place on plains and cities and they do look serene only to have what might as well be dubbed WW1.5 waging in them. This isn’t really shown because they only show the wars you’re fighting in. You wish for something grander in scope, but that’s what the cutscenes are for. The color palette is quite subdued if you compare it to something like Tales of Vesperia for example, but it does have a beauty all on its own.
Rating: 9.5

Sound:

Sound is great. The voice-overs are excellently done with each character being portrayed the way they should. No character is annoying (thank god), characters such as Isara (Laura Bailey) sound as sweet as they look, though there is a tint of Henrietta from Gunslinger Girl. Dave Wittenberg (Kakashi from Naruto) does a wonderful job of portraying Welkin as a leader with a heart. Colleen O’Shaughnessey (Yoshi from Digimon Data Squad) is great in her performance as Alicia conveying her innocence, sweetness and determination. The score provided by Hitoshi Sakimoto is both sweeping and majestic. The battle music makes you want to storm Omaha beach with M1 Garand in hand, but it’s also quite soothing. Throughout the game during the cutscenes it will crescendo along with emotions. There is one key point in the game where I just almost cried. Just the music and the weight of what happened made me want to shed a tear.
Rating: 10

Replay:

Isn’t necessarily the strong point of certain RPG’s, but with the way the leveling system is you have to play it a lot to max out your characters. You have story missions, which can’t be played again, but you have access to skirmish missions, which you can play an infinite amount of times for you to level up. On top of these there are other story missions for you to buy. You don’t level up just one person, but the whole class. This is actually pretty smart so if you lose a high rated character you’re not screwed. It also takes away the notion of favoritism and allows you to be attached to the characters. I’m pretty sure that when I’m finally done with the game I’ll start over…hopefully there’s some kind of new game plus option. I read that there’s some kind of DLC, but I think it’s just different missions. I read that there’s rumored to be some that allows you to play as the enemy, but I’m leaving it as rumor.
Rating: 9.0

Overall:

I was once skeptical, but I was quickly won over. With its captivating characters, engaging plot and addicting battle system I do not regret plunking my hard earned money down on Valkyria Chronicles. Granted this game came out late last year, but a good RPG is a good game forever. So run over to your local game store and buy a copy of Valkyria Chronicles now. If you don’t get it your inner gamer will hate you for it.
Rating: 9.8

Just to let the ADD crowd know I can't post pics on my work computer so I'll put them in when I get home. Oh yeah I also have a couple of anime reviews written so if you want to read those as well just let me know in a comment, my next review should be Mirror's Edge.

Several years ago during the Xbox/PS2 days I walked into a Toys R’ Us and played a demo of Need For Speed Underground. I fell in love with the slick visuals, blinding speed and car customization. This was back before they re-added the cop chases and opted for cheesy over the top stories with equally cheesy FMV sequences. As far as I’m concerned the ultimate culmination of the current franchise is still NFS: Most Wanted. After the dismal NFS: Pro Street EA’s Black Box studio goes back to the ground work that was laid by Most Wanted and finds a way to cock it up with Need For Speed: Undercover.

Story:

I’ll give you the best rundown I can muster because it’s boring, lifeless and it’s something that you’re essentially just going to skip to get to the racing. You’re hired by federal agent Chase Linh (played by the foxy Maggie Q) to bust up some street gangs. But in order to get close enough to them you have to earn their trust by winning races. There’s a lot that goes on within the narrative and none of it is really too important, but I will at least say that it’s better than the story in NFS: Carbon. The FMV’s make a return and they’re not as over the top as Carbon’s (no fat dudes with really bad Elvis mullets). There are times that the camera angles appear to show some sense of style, but it tends to get lost in the lifeless performances. What makes the FMV’s bearable in stuff like Command and Conquer is the fact that the actors are hamming it up. Whereas in Undercover the actors are actually trying to take it serious.
Rating: 5.0

Gameplay:

What made Underground fun was its challenge. You had to be able to dodge oncoming traffic and normal traffic without slamming into another car. This was because you wrecked you ride and had to start over again. Once Most Wanted came out you were no longer penalized for hitting traffic. This I didn’t mind because you weren’t able to just smoke your adversaries. Undercover just might be the “noobification” of the franchise because for the most part it’s easy to leave people in the dust. This is actually something you’re rewarded for as well. It’s called “Domination” and this is the best way to increase your wheelman level as well as upgrade your stats. Whenever you gain a wheelman level it gives you a boost to certain stats. This gives Undercover an RPG like quality.

As nice as this is you have no control of what skills get raised. It will just randomly give you more points to something. I’m personally not sure if you’re able to feel the difference in the handling of your vehicle, but at least when you blow people away by ten seconds you’re at least awarded for it. I’m personally not sure if newcomers will even notice the difference between this and Most Wanted, but veterans can tell in a heartbeat. In Most Wanted the vehicles had a good sense of weight to them, and you were able to feel the tires bite into the pavement for traction. As you got used to breaking and easing up on the accelerator in just the right way you were able to drift into turns and slide right between cars and take corners just the right way to slingshot past people. Granted this is still here in Undercover, but the cars feel a lot lighter and are just too arcade like in their handling.

The alterations to the handling is somewhat expected since Undercover is operating on an entirely different engine, but what really grinds my gears is how much you get fined money. Once you start playing for a while you notice red numbers that appear on the left side of the screen. What this is is you losing money. You get fined for speeding, street racing, destruction of property, driving off road and numerous other things that didn’t matter in past incarnations (why the f*ck does it cost me $200 to go fast!!?).

In Undercover you still have boss races, but they seem to come less frequently and how you access them is open to interpretation. In Most Wanted you had the “Blacklist” in Carbon you took over their territory, but in Undercover I couldn’t tell you how it happens. I guess you just race until you get a text or cutscene where they ask to challenge you. Just like in every Need For Speed they introduce new ways to race. Some are entertaining while others are just infuriating. One such new addition is called “Highway Battle. (or some permutation of it)” It has you and another racer driving on the open road dodging traffic and at the same time trying to get as far ahead of each other as possible. As long as your opponent does not outrank you these tend to be really easy. The irritating ones are where the course isn’t blocked off; now as exciting as this sounds, there’s a reason why they stink. One reason is that they tend to be timed and the other is the amount of traffic that’s on the road at times. You’ll find yourself peering down at the map and almost driving via the map, and when you have traffic coming towards you it gets irritating. It gets to the point where you have to memorize the track, which can only be done by screwing up and starting over.

What I do find interesting is how infrequent the new cars are. In Most Wanted and Carbon after every boss race you had the chance to win a new car so you always had ended up with a new ride. Granted that depended on how fast you got bounty and milestones (in Most Wanted), but hey at least you knew you would eventually get a new set of wheels. In Undercover I think I was driving the same car for four hours, it drove me nuts. I was constantly muttering, “do I finally get a new car” after about every race, and buying isn’t the best option. I finally got a second set of wheels once I hit 40% completion. How they handle that is actually interesting. When you do challenge a boss you don’t do it in your car, it’s done in different car. You have the option of taking that car, or taking the bosses car.

The greatest allure of the franchise is the car customization and it’s a lot more toned down than it used to be. Since autosculpt came in with Carbon they’ve decreased the amount of body kits and even this works differently. In Carbon you had specific body kits used for molding and in Undercover you can sculpt the preset body kits. I’m personally not sure which method I prefer, but it’s at least good to see that this feature hasn’t been taken out.

There are still cops and they’re actually pretty tough. You can’t ram the crap out of them like before because they’re cars seem to be made out of submarine grade titanium. You hit them and you bounce off unlike in previous games when you could’ve taken them out by ramming them. Also there are a lot less pursuit breakers than before, which seem to be the only ways to get cars off your ass. Yes you can still out run them, but when you have loads on your tail it isn’t that easy.

Pretty much Undercover can be called the most inconsistent Need For Speed. It does some interesting things like try to tell a story, but it seems like by going after all the actors the team probably had to cut corners in gameplay for budgetary reasons. The racing isn’t as smooth or challenging as it used to be. The police chases are still exciting at least and the vehicles at your disposal are pretty nice. To sum it up if you’re not a huge Need For Speed fan then don’t touch it. If you are one then it’s best to lower your expectations.
Rating: 6.0

Graphics:

For some odd reason Most Wanted a three-year-old game looks better than Undercover. I do believe Undercover has better lighting, but when it comes to car detail Undercover loses. While this I can live with the most blatant problem lies within the frame rate. The frame rate stumbles and wobbles more than Robert Downey Jr. (don’t worry I know he’s clean now) during his years of alcoholism and drug abuse. It really hampers the racing, because there are times when it will hitch up during a turn and throw you off. Next thing you know you’re spinning out of control or you run into a car. Since I know developers are just in love with patching games I can only hope to god that they release a frame rate patch (which better include trophies and a custom soundtrack option). Other than this the sense of speed, tricked out cars and vibrant colors are still here. The sun seems to be blinding at times and does a good job of reflecting off your car.
Rating: 6.0

Sound:

For starters I really hope that Sony demands mandatory custom soundtracks in every game (especially racing games) from this point on. Because I can’t stand the music used in this game, but aside from that Undercover does a decent job of conveying the growl of certain engines. While anything mechanical doesn’t distract the same can’t be said for anything organic. The dialogue is both boring and flat or over the top and makes me reminisce about the time when they simply made racing games sans story.
Rating: 5.0

Replay:

There’s online multiplayer, which I didn’t bother to use because the last time I played an NFS game online it was a debauched lag fest. Granted I’m pretty sure that the servers are a lot better now than the last time I played Most Wanted online I’m pretty sure that my sessions would be with people using the most powerful car with the stats maxed out. So if getting smoked by strangers is your idea of a good time then have at it. If you plan to race with friends only than it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Only real problem might be that they disable vinyl’s for online. That and you have to create an account with EA Nation, which I’ve had for a while on my 360, but I guess you need a new one for PSN games, but if this is the case why the hell didn’t I need this for Battlefield: Bad Company?
Rating: 7.0

Overall:

After the dismal NFS: Pro Street this is more of a return to form, but this form isn’t in the best of shape, it’s practically fat and ridden with cellulite. EA and the now defunct Black Box studios needs to figure what made Undercover and Most Wanted entertaining experiences. When stacked up against the competition of Midnight Club: Los Angeles (which is only hampered by its obscene amount of traffic and invincible cheating A.I. that smashes you onto oncoming traffic) it just can’t compete. The car customization is better, the cars are more varied and it’s presented much better. While Undercover doesn’t drop the ball completely in entertainment, but it does fumble said ball more times than a epileptic quarterback with leprosy.
Rating: 6.0

Captain Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation summed up space travel and exploration best, “Space...The final frontier...These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life; new civilizations...To boldly go where no one has gone before!" But he left one thing out and that is to kick heaps of ass. That pretty much sums up Mass Effect.

Story:

You play as Commander Shepard and your main task is to stop the rogue Spectre agent Saren. What a Spectre agent is is not really placed into a concrete definition, but as far as I’m concerned they are Intergalactic cleaners (think Jean Reno’s character in The Professional or his character in the original La Femme Nikita). They have the power to go anywhere and do as they wish under their own discretion. So what happens when one decides to stop playing by the rules? The answer is nothing good. There is a lot of story tied into what Saren’s real intention is and it is pretty juicy.

On top of dealing with Saren there is another story arch dealing with ingratiating Commander Sherpard into the illustrious and highly exclusive Spectre clan, which isn’t easy. There is a lot of racism between humans and other alien species; specifically while you’re speaking to members of the Council. This is because they feel that humanity gained power far too quickly and a lot of them are not going to go out of their way to help out mankind. Part of what Shepard has to do is prove to them that humanity is worth it and not as arrogant and pig headed as they think. This job technically falls to you by dictating how Shepard handles certain situations.

You don’t face the epic and nigh apocalyptic task of stopping a power hungry aspiring despot alone luckily. Within about two missions you will fill out your roster of characters. Every character in the game has a well thought out and surprisingly fleshed out back-story. Getting to know each character is a blast and you’re guaranteed to find some favorite characters. There is really a lot to like about the story. There are a lot of plot driven decisions to make so I’m pretty sure that there are multiple endings.

One other way of note is that you can shape who and what Commander Shepard is. What I found interesting is that when you create your character you also get to determine what her backstory is. You get several options and each one is mentioned multiple times in the story. They also give you a decent character editor to make your own individual Shepard. My Shepard is a raven haired, ruthless beauty that gets the job done, but also isn’t above being nice and helping people out, but talk trash to her and you will get taken down.
Rating: 9.0

Gameplay:

Mass Effect plays out like some kind of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter RPG hybrid. It sounds really weird when you read it, but it works fairly well. It’s a third person shooter with RPG elements and I’m pretty sure it will play a lot differently depending on which class you decide to be. You can play as your standard grunt in the Soldier class which grants you access to all of the weapons classes and the heaviest armor, but you can’t use any Biotics powers. You can think of Biotics as “The Force” because it allows you to push, lift, stop and do other things to your opponents. If you want access to all of them you can play in the Adept class, but the downside is that you can only upgrade your pistol stats and utilize the light armor. So if you want something that will stand a chance is a close in fight you will not want to be this. I went the route of the Vanguard class, which is a combination of both. You can train to gain access to Medium armor and you can utilize pistols and shotguns. You also have access to some of the Biotics powers like Lift, Throw, and Warp. Lift and Throw are the important ones because they can put the hurt on your opponent.

Using this class you also notice the nice physics engine at work. Enemies have a bad habit of charging at you especially towards the end. Some foe decides that he’s tired of taking potshots at me from a distance and starts charging at me full speed. With the help of the Lift technique I send him skyward, but he also keeps his momentum so not only is he in the air, but he is also streaking through it. He must have been launched 50 meters from his location because I had to run to shoot the crap out of him. After getting perforated in mid air his corpse drops while in open air to fall a good long distance till he hits solid ground. This ability also effects the environment so you’ll also have crates, tables, and chairs floating around your suspended enemy.

On top of Lift there’s Throw, which is essentially Force Push. For awhile it took me time to get used to doing these, but once I got used to them I started to rely on them to help get the job done…that and using them is hilarious at times. One time I actually managed to Throw someone off a balcony and into what seemed like a bottomless pit. I imagined the person doing that Emperor Palpatine drop from Return of the Jedi.

The game isn’t all shotguns and levitation because there are other classes that play differently, but I didn’t care too much for what they had to offer. Commander Shepard also has to answer to the calling of helping people…if you choose to, but you should because it gives you experience for doing it, but how you do it is up to you. Just like Knights of the Old Republic you have the option to be nice (Paragon) or bad (Renegade).

There a lot of side quests in the game and it is recommended that you partake in a few to level up your character and to extend the game. Since you work for the Alliance Navy they will radio in missions for you to accomplish. These can be anything from find the missing crew to solve a hostage situation. And some of these situations can be solved differently. There was this one assignment towards the end where I had to help get this person out of a spy ring. I first intimidated her boss to cut her loose and then he sent me out to buy some weapons from a smuggler. Instead of doing what I was told (pay him), I stole his goods and killed him along with his gun toting cohorts; yes a good time was had with that one.

Along with dispensing intergalactic justice you will also do some planet hopping. I was actually a little bit disappointed with this because from all the PR hype it seemed that every planet in the game would be explorable, but this isn’t true. If you are lucky you’ll be able to survey a planet (it’s a button command) and discover something on it to nab some experience points, but that is it. If there is no mission than there is no planet just text. The planets tend to be barren wastelands with no indigenous life what so ever (minus Vermire where I saw a couple of crabs), some planets have Thresher Maws (think the worms from Dune). The planets that you can traverse are well thought out and have their own environments, my favorite one would be the ice planet.

You drive across the planet in a moon buggy on steroids that goes by the name of “Mako.” I honestly wish that this thing handled better because there are times that you have to shoot while on the move (to survive of course) and the controls just aren’t tight enough. When you don’t have rockets or energy balls flying at you then you don’t mind. The physics are also a tad loose at times. You will get hung up on things and running into something stupid will make you shoot up into the air at times. My last grievance comes from the combat itself.

If you’re expecting the next Gears of War then you won’t find it here. The cover mechanic is a tad sloppy because you have to press towards the object or pull away from it if you want to get off of it and since it is based on camera rotation you’ll get caught on something when you really just want to get the heck off of it (like when a rocket is flying towards you). Also the AI of your teammates is all over the place. Sometimes they will take cover but also they tend to hang out in the open and when you point them towards cover they will go there but they won’t always get behind it. Also when it comes to attacking they’re actually pretty good and you can actually rely on them to kill things so that is definitely not a complaint, but the enemy has to be in the open and not behind cover. You can try taking the Brothers In Arms route and use them to flank the enemy, but that doesn’t always go the best way because there are times when they will say that they can’t get a lock on them or some other equivalent expressing their blindness leaving you to go in shotgun ready and hope that it will suffice.

Also you get so much crap in this game and a lot of it you will not use. You get upgrades to ammo and armor and depending on your play style you may or may not use it. All I know is that once I received the first aid armor upgrades I didn’t use anything else and there are so many versions of the same weapon (stats are different). You’ll use the best stuff and just ignore everything else and the problem is that there is a cap to how much that you can carry. What makes that a real big problem is that you never know how close you are to the cap until you reach the limit. So then when you pick something up (pray to god it’s not useful) when you’re at the limit you essentially have to smelt it down to omni-gel. There is also a huge money management problem. You never really know how much cash is on you until you go to the store and you rarely buy things either. Throughout the whole game I think I purchased four to five items. This is because you’ll find stuff all over the place and that in the beginning of the game you’re broke and then the next thing you know you’re rich towards the end and since you really don’t need to shop you’ll rarely know how much money you have.

All of this may sound really nit-picky but it is really hard not to notice them. The game from a macro point of view is pretty much top notch and highly entertaining, but there are little quirks that bring the game down just a tad.
Rating: 9.0

Graphics:

This game is pretty much Unreal Engine 3 at it’s best, but since it is using that engine it has the quirks along with it. So far this is the game that seems to be doing the most with the engine and that is because the art direction for the game is stellar. The texture on the alien’s skin and just how they were designed is spectacular. It really puts a lot of developers to shame and almost says, “This is what Unreal Engine 3 is supposed to do.” Not enough can be said about the texture work in the game. One alien of note is the Krogan alien species. You can see the crevices in alien skin and it has a very distinct leathery lizard like texture to it. You can relate them to dinosaurs because they’re big, pissed off and bred to wreak havoc.

I like how when they drop you from the Normandy (the spaceship) they give you an overview of the planet and, they show the Normandy cutting through the air as it jettisons you from the cargo bay. The architecture on the buildings are exceptional and you can really see that Bioware spent their time on the universe that you spend your time in. As nice as the game looks there are still some glaring imperfections.

As with all games using the Unreal Engine technology there is texture pop in after long loading times (after you die, going to a new environment, during some cutscenes). You will see a low resolution model and within seconds everything will get filled in. Personally I’m still shocked that this is a problem and I hope eventually Epic will find a way to iron this out. On top of texture pop-in the frame rate will dip at times. It’s far from game breaking, but it’s still a flaw.
Rating: 9.0

Sound:

Everybody send thank you emails or letters to Jennifer Hale for lending her vocal talents to this game. For those that don’t know who she is she is a very talented voice actress. She has provided the vocals for most notably Metal Gear Solid as Naomi Hunter, Metroid Prime as Samus Aran and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as Bastila. She is pretty much the reason why you should play as a woman. Her vocal performance eclipses that of the male Commander Shepard. It has a more commanding tone and has a lot more range. Her voice pulls you right into the story.

The musical score is one of the best this year. At times it can be pulse pounding and other times it’s soothing. It’s definitely a sci-fi score that fits the theme of the game. Weapons don’t sound like phasers and the shotguns are sublime, with a loud echoing boom. And since after the boom something is sprawled out on the ground dead, it’s definitely satisfying. Since your main foes are sentient machines you’ll hear a very distinct piercing beep when they take that trip to see robot Jesus.
Rating: 9.5

Replay:

There are a lot of reasons to go back to this game. Outside of it being a great story you can play again as a different character in a different class, which is good because it allows you to go after achievement points for certain powers and weapons. Also you can play again as the same character and fully max out the character plus you also get to just mop the floor with everybody. Plus all your other characters stay at the same level. You can also change up your decisions as well and maybe tackle a couple of side missions that you opted not to do.
Rating: 9.0

Overall:

The story campaign may be shorter than what people expected, but there are a lot of side quests to keep you busy if you opt to do them. The universe is well thought out and the dialogue is some of the best to ever grace a videogame. Characters tend to talk to one another and the universe seems alive. Learning about each character through engaging dialogue is a treat and everything that you do seems to have an impact on something, which you’ll realize through the occasional news broadcasts on elevator rides. Being able to choose how you resolve situations and how you respond to dialogue is great. It falls short on some things but once you look past it you will get sucked into the story. Now to further quote Captain Picard, “Engage!”
Rating: 9.0

If you only had 19 hours to live, what would you do? Would you repent your sins? Spend quality time with your loved ones? Partake in a Caligula-esqe orgy? Well Nathan Hale already knows what he would do. He doesn’t bother with all that existentialist nonsense. He just kills every alien that has the misfortune of being in front of him in Resistance 2.

Story:

After over running Russia and England the Chimera have set their sights on the red white and blue. But before this setup you’re reacquainted with Hale as he wanders around the snow covered fields of England. After being picked up by a mysterious aircraft he’s forcibly injected with a sedative and goes unconscious. After waking up he finds out that his would be rescuers are a black ops team called S.R.P.A. (Special Research Projects Administration). After two years and a really bad situation at the SRPA base Hale becomes a member of The Sentinels, which are a team of soldiers immune to the Chimeran virus. But in order for their immunity to fully work they need inhibitor packs to help fight the virus. Over the course of R2 Nathan Hale pretty much just goes cold turkey on the inhibitors for the sake of the mission. The result of this is that within each passing level he becomes more and more like a Chimera. As this is going on Hale and his team also begin the hunt for a Chimeran of high intelligence called Daedalus. He’s pretty much a combination of the G-man from Half-Life and the Queen Alien. This is because of his constant cryptic messages and his penchant for ripping people in half.

Also throughout R2 you get a better sense of what the Chimeran virus is and how it was created. What I seem to like the most is how the Chimerans are portrayed. Outside of Daedalus they don’t speak English, which is good because it lends it a better sci-fi appeal, they don’t want to be reasoned with and they won’t break out into Shakespearean soliloquies about existence. They want the Earth, they want you dead and that’s all they care about. On top of this they tend to be nasty and ferocious in combat. While the narrative in R2 is more personalized than it was in R:FOM it seems to have a grander scope and more of a purpose. Instead of being told what happened it’s actually happening right in front of you. It’s a tad hard to get attached to Nathan Hale because all he seems to do is be insubordinate and talk in a gruff voice. Granted it’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s good enough to keep you compelled and entertained.
Rating: 8.0

Gameplay:

I wasn’t blown away with the first Resistance, but I did like it. It was done well enough for a launch title, but it just didn’t click. Granted the weapons were great, but the controls weren’t precise enough for my liking. Eventually when I got accustomed to those I managed to find the lack of checkpoints within the campaign to be ridiculous. I swear that game gave you a checkpoint every half-hour. Luckily I can say that the developers at Insomniac Games found those quirks and fixed them. R2 runs smooth and controls beautifully. On top of that they improved the checkpoint system and now offers up a game that can be enjoyed by anybody looking for a solid first person shooter.

The only thing that I’m not too much a fan of is the omission of the weapon wheel from the first Resistance. There was something fun about having numerous options on how to take a certain situation. But I must admit that you didn’t find a lot of ammo for the numerous weapons that you had at your disposal. With R2 the weapons management is now in the vein of Halo in that you can only carry two. Pretty much the rule of thumb is that if you see a weapon on the ground you should pick it up because there’s a good chance that you’re going to need it.

While this does take away from the imagination on how you take a scenario it at least makes sure that you’ll be well acquainted with the weaponry and learn to master it within the context of the situation. And you’re going to need to learn this because the Chimera are more varied and far more aggressive than they were in its predecessor. There are Chimera’s as big as houses and dish out more damage than an M1 Abrams battle tank. And these are actually the medium sized ones, but the bigger ones come in the form of boss battles.

The one that was highly publicized was the sky-scrapper sized Leviathan that stomps through Chicago and swats helicopters out of the sky as if they were nothing but irritating gnats. For as big as they are they aren’t too groundbreaking from a gameplay standpoint. You memorize their attack patterns and go in for the kill, but it’s all in good fun at least and one of them actually looks like a monster from Ratchet And Clank: Tools of Destruction.

What the average player really isn’t going to like is the amount of times you’re going to see the game over screen. You will be bombarded with wave after wave after wave of bloodthirsty monsters that want to take their pound of flesh straight out of your ass. These are the times when you need to plan when to take cover and when to attack and with what weapon. When you finally get with the flow and mow down each and every adversary in your path is when the game is highly rewarding. When you get cheated by a cheap death then you’re not too happy about it. As a word of warning avoid water; for as nice as it looks it’s pretty much an instant death. There are these creatures that get introduced early on in the game that inhabit water. Once you go in the water they kill you. When you see them in the water it makes sense, but when you don’t it comes off as really cheap. There are also invisible land based monsters called Chameleons that also kill you with one hit, but at least they have a tell so you can anticipate them. And that tell is “if the screen shakes then prepare to shoot.” There is another thing that does this, but I shouldn’t spoil everything.

While a lot of new weapons haven’t been introduced they at least polished the reliable Bullseye and Carbine because that’s what you’re going to be packing a lot of the time. The Bullseye is a lot more accurate and packs a good amount of punch making it a great standby weapon. The Carbine is still weaker, but it makes up for it with the grenade launcher. While the new weapons may be few they are still entertaining. The most useful of the new weapons is the Marksman rifle, which fires a three round burst and is quit powerful for foes small and large. Nail anything with a headshot from this thing and it goes down. Another good addition is the Magnum pistol. It fires explosive ammo, but also packs a punch. If your foe dies from the first shot you can still kill the guy standing next to him with the same bullet. Its secondary function explodes the bullet lodged in something else, so it’s great for setting up booby-traps or dealing extra damage.

While not pushing any boundaries R2 refines and for the most part polishes everything that made the franchise popular in the first place. While I could’ve lived without the extended waves and one hit deaths I still found myself thoroughly entertained and coming back for more.
Rating: 9.0

Graphics:

For the most part the presentation in R2 is superb, but for everything that looks great you’ll find something disappointing. For starters I wish doors and anything that wasn’t a weapon or Chimera was better looking. This is because doors, boxes and some parts of the ground have a really low-resolution texture. Granted this was probably done to make sure that everything on screen (like the important shooting parts) flowed without a hitch. The frame rate is smooth and barely dips making the experience flow nicely.

While doors look horrendous weapons, enemies the environments look spectacular and have a nice level of detail. Gone are the browns and grays from the previous game. R2 uses a far more varied color palette and it shows in various levels. One level takes place in a Californian forest and the greens of the foliage just pop off the screen. There’s a lot more detail to the Chimera and it makes it easier to tell which is which so you know how to deal with them. One of the nice things is that even though the bosses are large and detailed they don’t affect engine performance. The same goes for the amount of enemies on screen. You’ll occasionally see almost a dozen combatants on screen shooting at each other with lasers flying everywhere, but rarely does the game stutter or freeze. Seeing as how this was the same engine that ran the stunning Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction it makes me wonder how much more can be done to it. Because if the next R&C looks better than this I’ll be a very surprised and happy person. I just hope they don’t use low-resolution doors and crates of course.
Rating: 9.0

Sound:

The action itself sounds epic and frenetic. With people screaming, demanding ammo and gunfire all over the place. The voice acting is decent and it isn’t cringe worthy, but there isn’t much vocal variety. Everybody with the exception of the lone scientist sounds like some testosterone infused military grunt, and by “grunt” I’m talking about how they speak. While it would be out of place for them to sound like Kenneth Brannagh it just gets redundant.
Rating: 8.5

Replay:

There are so many aspects to the multiplayer that a person could get lost in the options, but I’m going to stick with the deathmatch options. Deathmatch, especially Team Deathmatch can be highly chaotic. Once you get over the constant death and find the right weapon for your skill level you will find a highly frenetic experience. The experience of running through the level fragging folks is great and the only remote quibble that I can find with it is the re-spawning. Re-spawning in front of, next to, in back of or turning a corner only to have half of the opposing team spawn right in front of you is irritating and should be taken care of.

When it comes to finding a particular weapon you’re going to have to do some experimenting, which in my case was using everything until you can go a match where my kill count wasn’t significantly lower than my death count. And I didn’t find a weapon that I liked until I started using the Auger. Maybe it’s the noob weapon for this game and everyone is good with it, but finding the right time to bust out the energy shield to block projectiles and spray people was rewarding and made me fall in love with the gun. As you shoot and kill enemies you gain experience, which allows you to level up and gain different options for customizing your character.

Other than deathmatch you can partake in Skirmish where several squads of five men are on the same battlefield trying to take an objective. Other then this there is an eight-person co-op mode, which is class based. There are three classes, which is soldier, medic and special-ops and you are able to level these up to level 30 for different rewards. It doesn’t follow the story, but there are several different objectives that need to be tackled. Multiplayer for R2 is diverse enough for any type of gamer to find something for them to enjoy.
Rating: 9.0

Overall:

While R2 is not groundbreaking it proves to be a highly entertaining and refined experience with a bevy of play options. With ruthless enemies, interesting weapons and rewarding multiplayer.
Rating: 9.0

There are several things a person should not do. Some of these things are mate with a close sibling, snort Cocaine cut with rat poison and play a game called Legendary. That’s because doing acts such as these come with serious repercussions. These consequences would be conceiving some sort of deformed mutant baby, brain damage or death.



Story:

Legendary has you playing the role of some thief hired to steal Pandora’s Box. The heist goes wrong fast and you end up unleashing mythological beasts upon the world. The premise is so bad that it sounds like it could be the premise of the next Uwe Boll movie. You don’t care about the characters; you don’t care about the story and as soon as it begins you wish that it would end.
Rating: 2.0


Gameplay:

After Turning Point Fall of Liberty, which could best be described as a pile of demon poop, the very talented (wink wink) developers at Spark Unlimited decide to drop this bomb in out laps. Everything that could be done wrong with a first person shooter has been done wrong here. The aiming is sluggish and the hit detection of the enemies is piss poor. The experience of aiming at an enemy and emptying an entire clip into him only to have him get out of cover and keep on shooting at him is disheartening. I don’t know if it’s because the guns are inaccurate or the fact that precision aiming is a lot easier said then done or if it’s because when you move and shoot at the same time you will not hit the target most of the time. But this isn’t the only aspect of the gameplay.

Because of the botched heist the Pandora’s Box stabs you in the hand with some kind of spike and leaves some kind of stupid Satanic tattoo on your hand. This allows you to absorb the essence of the mythological creatures. This essence allows you to regain health and used for some special attacks. Because of this there are no health packs. While I don’t mind the omission of a regenerative health bar, I hate that what you use is tied to magic you’re never going to use and your acquisition of this is tied to enemy encounters.

Levels are also rather linear as well. In fact I haven’t come across levels this linear and tiny since I played Kingdom Under Fire: The Circle of Doom. When something important like a building for example goes down it will fall in just a way for the rubble to come down and restrict your movement to a constricted path. On top of this there are a lot of events that are scripted. As you’re running across the street in the opening level you’ll see a lot of Griffins flying around and eating hapless pedestrians. You think to yourself, “maybe I can save someone by killing this Griffin.” So you take your mighty axe and thrust it into the Griffin only to find that your axe has no effect on it. It doesn’t even hit it, the Griffin doesn’t respond to it either. All it does is sit there, eat the person and then fly away.



Another thing gone horribly awry is platforming. Your character behaves like somebody that flunked out of Phys Ed. He can’t even hop over an ant and to add further insult to his lethargic physicality he can’ even throw a grenade no more than two feet in front of him. There are the obligatory jumping puzzles. One such puzzle has you in a warehouse and you have to get a higher elevation. You don’t know where to go or how to get there, but eventually you realize that you have to shoot down an elevator. Sadly as your there trying to figure it out you’re attacked by infinitely re-spawning werewolves. While on the topic of these werewolves; they look terrible. On top of that they’re bullet sponges, and can only be killed after downing them and/or decapitating them. The A.I. tends to just stand there sometimes while you shoot them. If you do down them it takes several whacks to the head from your axe at a precise spot to decapitate them.

After about two hours (which is anymore then any sane individual should tolerate) you turn it off. After you do that you seek psychological counseling and do your best to wipe the experience from your memory. While you are presented with an interesting premise that has you shooting werewolves and Griffins and other crap instead of aliens, you quickly realize that Legendary is a steaming pile of garbage of epic proportions.
Rating: 1.0


Graphics:

Upon start up you're greeted with the Unreal Engine logo, which gives you a false sense of visual hope. You think to yourself “this game should look kick ass!” This is a sentiment that quickly fades. The shadows are terrible and boxy, your character model is some loser in a bad used car salesman suit and the textures at times are of PS1 quality, especially when you look at the ground. This is pretty much the first person shooter equivalent of Vampire Rain. The animation on the creatures is stiff and comical. The only remotely interesting thing I saw was when the Golem cobbled itself together out of buildings and cars like some sort of urban Voltron.
Rating: 2.0

Sound:

I guess I should keep this as brief as possible. The voice-overs are terrible your weapons, especially the submachine gun sounds like a semi-automatic super soaker and the music is terrible. It’s like they took the worst Stabbing Westward or Gravity Kills tracks (not insulting either group), mixed them turned off the bass and treble, and then gave them the audio fidelity of a worn out record and then proceeded to play it on a turn of the century Victrola.
Rating: 1.0


Replay:

Nonexistent. Sure there’s multiplayer, but no one in their right mind would dare touch it. Besides other people actually have to own the game for it to serve its purpose anyhow.
Rating: 0

Overall:

The only way to enjoy Legendary is to gather up Tom Servo, Crowe T. Robot and Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fame and have them crack jokes as you play it.
Rating: 1.5

With Resident Evil straying away from the confines of the survival horror genre that it helped to create; there are still some that decide to embrace and then strangle these confines. This is the best way to describe Silent Hill: Homecoming.


Story:

Alex Shepherd a recently discharged soldier comes home only to find his hometown in a shattered state. Pretty much every inhabitant has either disappeared or went psychotic and in the middle of all of this he has to track down his little brother. As we tag along with Alex you meet the people he used to know, a woman he has some kind of feelings for, and get to know his family. To be honest if I had a mother that switches erratically between despondent and Nurse Ratched, and a brother so irritating that he makes Arnie from “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” seem cool I would only have two options. I’d leave on the first semi truck, Volkswagen Bus filled with homicidal lunatics, or pick up truck being driven by the Ku Klux Klan I see or murder them. But of course Alex being the good man that he is helps out.

The main concern with the story is that it takes forever to unfold. You seem to spend the first half of the game looking for your little brother. The moments where you actually interact with people and try to figure out what in the name of God happened to the town are nice. And it’s also nice to know more about Alex’s past when he was growing up. But moments such as these are too far and few between and you spend most of your time walking around darkly lit environments. So the story of SH: Homecoming takes a lot of patience to get into.
Rating: 7.5


Gameplay:

Pretty much every staple in the Silent Hill franchise makes a return. Everything from the occasional mind numbing puzzles to being freaked out by the creatures exists in SH: Homecoming. The most notable change is the revamped combat system and camera angle. SH: Homecoming uses the now standard over the shoulder perspective, which gives you a front row seat to your descent into the macabre. Since Alex Shepherd used to be in the military he knows how to handle himself. In fact this makes him the most formidable of the Silent Hill protagonists. You’re no longer confined to pipe swings that look like they couldn’t kill a cockroach and blind shots with your pistol.

The melee system is leaps and bounds better than what it used to be. You’re able to combo using heavy and fast attacks, plus you can dodge. When you time a dodge properly and avoid an attack you can perform a counterattack. This does more damage to the enemy, but you can’t combo again until after a brief pause. While this is nice because there is a huge emphasis on melee combat it all doesn’t work well. is nice because there is a huge emphasis on melee combat it all doesn’t work well. First and foremost the main problem with Homecoming is that it bucks modern controlling trends. The main trend that it decides to do away with is invert aiming. On top of this it teases you with the option. In the options menu there’s the Invert Y axis option, you click yes and the controls just stay the same. If you’re a person that lives and dies by the invert option then you’re in for one hell of an irritating ride. The part with the most problems seems to be the dodging. There were many times when I tried to dodge either left or right and I just stood there. Fighting really doesn’t work well in narrow corridors. This is because you will just get caught up on a wall and get diced to pieces. Another key problem is how ineffective the light is. It’s like the flashlight is running on batteries that Alex found in a sock draw with the expiration date of 1985.


Another problem seems to be with weapon balancing. For the most part I can accept fighting something fast with my weaker, but faster knife, but the axe really feels underpowered. With an axe you shouldn’t be wailing on something for almost a minute while dodging and attacking. The axe should kill something with 2-3 combos max. While discussing the weapons it seems like SH: Homecoming took a page out of Condemned: Criminal Origins book. Weapons also have a purpose in exploration. You won’t be able to open certain doors or pry something open unless you have a pipe or an axe. This really just gets irritating when you actually try to apply some kind of logic to the situation.

Just like with every survival horror game ammo is kept to a minimum, so if you use it you better not miss because you don’t know when you’ll find it again. The same also goes for health items. You’ll have to unearth the whole game to find stuff (especially in the middle) because there aren’t many. It seems like you can find 3 health drinks per stage and if you have to fight a lot of things you just might use all of them if you’re not careful.

While this adds to the suspense and punishes mistakes it also becomes a headache. One thing I noticed is that some enemies (for the most part Smog’s) are dangerous at close range and need to be shot. And if you try to melee them you’re going to go through a potion or two. A lot of the conflicts you can’t avoid because you will get chased. It’s amazing the amount of persistence these creatures have. They will follow you to different rooms, hop over obstacles and really just force you to kill them. It actually feels like they did this to make up for the lack of puzzles in the game. I played a good portion of the original Silent Hill and I think there’s more combat in the first quarter of Homecoming than 50% of the original.


While the combat just gets tiresome you can at least get sucked into the atmosphere. Homecoming does it’s best to be scary and in some points it is. When you begin in the hospital and make your way through it you realize that the environment is cold and sterile and it just makes your stay there eerily creepy. Other environments such as the abandoned hotel and Alex’s hometown look desolate and depraved. This facet of the game is the only thing that makes it feel like a Silent Hill game.

I would actually have enjoyed Silent Hill: Homecoming a lot more if save points weren’t so sparse, but it really turns SH: Homecoming into a chore. This is because there tend to be a lot of fetch quests and if you die you might have to recollect all of those items and do all of those conversation scenes again. What could’ve been “I’ll play for five more minutes” and then after that another 45 minutes elapse. Turns into “After I hit that save point I’ll finish” and then save and quit. There’s still the monotony of jiggling anonymous doorknobs and nothing seems to have eclipsed what was mastered in Silent Hill 2. So while it does make an enjoyable game for a person that is a die-hard fan of Silent Hill it just doesn’t make an enjoyable experience for other players. It doesn’t even do much to make strides in the genre; it just does what the franchise pretty much did when it first started. The only thing different is the amount of graphical sheen that SH: Homecoming contains.
Rating: 7.5


Graphics:

Homecoming isn’t much to write home about. The textures on a lot of objects are bland, the character models aren’t mind blowing and anything human oriented isn’t remotely appealing. For some odd reason Homecoming comes to life in regards to creature design. Everything you fight looks like it crawled out of Satan’s bunghole and looks like it can easily kill you. Since American developers Double Helix made Homecoming they decided to use the visual style of the Silent Hill movie. When you seem to get transported to the demon portion of an environment you would see the scenery turning gray and the environment starts to peel away. Also on top of this the environment is more sepia toned and has the scratchy appearance of a bad 8mm home movie. While you won’t be impressed by the humans or even the human environments; everything with it’s toes dipped in evil is pretty interesting looking.
Rating: 7.5

Sound:

The voice work is pretty good, but the only thing that really sticks out is the musical score from Composer Akira Yamaoka. It strikes the right blend of ethereal melody and haunting. It really just lets you relax, yet keeps you on edge at the same time.
Rating: 8.0


Replay:

There are multiple endings that you can unlock and there are hidden weapons to unlock as well so it warrants a play through or two. But this all depends on how much you liked the game in the first place.
Rating: 6.0

Overall:

What starts off as something that you slowly get engrossed into quickly becomes infuriating. With it’s sloppy and forced combat, minimal health items and ammunition. While this used to be the crux of the survival horror genre they now become detrimental factors. Instead of finding new ways to innovate within the genre Double Helix just stays within the confines of it. While there is some enjoyment to be had, but in order to find it you have to be a die-hard of the clichés of the genre.
Rating: 7.5