Devil's Attorney (Android) Review

Ever wondered how defense lawyers can take on sure-to-lose cases and still win? Wonder no more as Devil's Attorney (DA) shows you the dark side of the law, with some surprisingly light humour.

Max McMann working his magic

You take on the persona of Max McMann, rebuttal extraordinaire and defense lawyer for countless dubious cases. Max is your stereotypical gung-ho lawyer who takes on any case as long as he wins, and hopefully thanks to you, keeps winning. There's actually a surprisingly interesting storyline as the cases unfold in DA; as you start out as just a cocky, well-groomed lawyer, you quickly get on everybody's bad side. And as the game progress, you continue to stay on almost everybody's bad side, and well... you continue to be cocky and well-groomed. But the characters are are interesting (if neurotic) and the dialogue between them is comedy gold (disclaimer: my favourite type of joke is a good pun, so this game was a field day for me).

As you progress through the game, Max McMann's clients conveniently offer to buy him new offices and apartments if he wins the case for them, which of course you will oblige. There are three tiers of offices for you unlock, each more lavish and decadent than the last. In these locations, you can buy furniture and ornaments which serve as upgrades for Max's courtroom abilities.

Who wouldn't want digs like that?

In the courtroom, the gameplay ensues as a type of turn-based team combat which our JRPG friends will be accustomed to. Max's abilities range from Cross-examining to using Patronize in an effort to defeat not only the opposing lawyer, but also his witnesses and evidence. It is simplistic gameplay, but as the cases get harder, it will require careful planning and cunning to complete the case. The highlight of these cases and no doubt the game as a whole are the case briefings, which play as a cutscene at the beginning of each case. Max and his opposing lawyer face off in a brief debate, which almost always degenerates into Max finding a way to chastise his opponent's appearance or demeanour. The humour in these sections is priceless and the voicework is incredible; it's a nice surprise to see a mobile game put so much effort into the voicework rather than trying to squeeze every possible polygon out of a mobile device's tiny graphics processor.

Who to Interrogate first?

As well as the lovely voicework, the game is amazingly made; all the menus are fluid and all the animations right down to transitions have been optimized in a way that's pretty, but also not going to freeze your phone.

If you're looking for a game to play this weekend, and you don't mind having your morals questioned for a bit of harmless humour, then look no further than Devil's Attorney.

Devil's Attorney (Android) Review - Scuba Score 8.5/10

Deadlight (PC) Review

If you've been even slightly informed about video games in the last few years, you'll know that there has been one theme that has been done to death and literally back again: Zombies. From Left 4 Dead to Plants vs Zombies, zombies have touched almost literally every single genre of gaming that has ever existed, the first-person shooter by far the worst offender. One genre that has seen a recent resurgence is 2D platformers and Tequila Works gives its take on the zombie craze with Deadlight.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the title of the game!

Deadlight is essentially a 2D platformer with some adventure and action aspects thrown in too. The side scrolling gameplay is refreshing take to zombie games of recent times that have focussed too much on the frenetic side of combat rather than survival and quick thinking which Deadlight has attempted to do.

The story is comprised of what is mostly a monologue from Randall White who assumes the role of brooding, socially awkward anti-hero. Cut-scenes are artistically conveyed through comicbook stills while dialogue is delivered, before switching to the actual gameplay. This can occasionally be quite impressive, seeing the story conveyed in vague, artistic cartoon before cutting to fully rendered environments that show the described surroundings in much more detail. However, other times this is extremely jarring to be brought in and out of these cutscenes when you were previously frantically escaping the grasp of zombies.

Randall's journey attempts to reunite Randall with his wife and daughter, and while his past is alluded to very little in the dialogue, his life before the zombies (or 'shadows' as they are referred to) is detailed in a diary which you can peruse at your own leisure. The diary is missing several pages which you can pick up over the course of the game which shed more light on the thoughts of the troubled Randall. All-in-all a cute effort at story-weaving, however by game's end (SPOILER!) had you collected all the book fragments, Randall would only seem even less of a hero than he seemed throughout the early game.

Randall describing how normal he was before everything got less normal

Stylistically, the 2D plarformer actually worked for this attempt of a zombie game. The foreground where the action all occurs is actually blacked out so Randall and the environment you interact with is in complete darkness. The environment behind this plane is visible and zombies are even able to saunter from the background into the foreground, adding another literally level of strategy to consider. This effect is actually very impressive, giving the environment more character and relevance than any other 2D platformer, though at first it can be jarring that you can only traverse in the foreground plane while everything else can do otherwise.

As mentioned earlier, Deadlight also possesses platforming aspects and for long stretches of the game you will be putting Randal through his platforming paces. The platforming feels like it should be a pseudo-2D version of Assassin's Creed and generally does quite a good job of the running, jumping and climbing mechanics. Compared to what I believe is the pinnacle of platforming, Super Meat Boy, though, Deadlight's controls feel clunky and unresponsive. Too often Randall would be stuck in the middle of an animation and wouldn't be able to complete a second jump, or missing a wall jump completely, falling to his death. This normally wouldn't be a big issue, however I feel that if a player believes he has done everything perfectly to avoid the obstacles before him, he shouldn't then be rewarded with repeating the task ten times just to pass that stage exactly as the developer envisaged. And please, please play Deadlight with a game controller; I think it would be far too frustrating without it.

For those wondering where the action comes in, Deadlight also has guns and melee weapons available. The gun mechanics are a very simple point-in-the-right-direction-and-shoot, and the scarcity of ammo in the game really makes it feel like you are scrounging to survive. Melee weapons however leave a lot to be desired; there is a stamina bar in this game, however it will run out in three to four swings. Whether this was intentional to suggest that running is the best defence against the zombies, but if this were the case they should have been removed completely. Deadlight does however promote one aspect of zombie games that has more recently become more prominent and I applaud this, and this is the concept of survival and constantly escaping by the skin of your teeth. The Walking Dead has done it and now Deadlight has and exploited this to create action, rather than throw waves at zombies at you and expect you decimate every last one. It creates a much more emotional, exhaustive experience which I feel generally makes a game seem far longer than it really was (in a good way); Deadlight will probably see you through in about 4 hours.

Probably not hazardous... right?

The world of Deadlight is very detailed and conveys the level of destruction and scarcity you'd expect from a world decimated by the undead. It is also a very pretty game; from the detailed background to the glowing eyes of the 'shadows', Deadlight is a beautifully presented game and you can see the extra effort gone to creating a believable environment for Randall to explore. The contrast between the dark of the foreground and the light in the background makes for a very different and unique take on the 2D platformer, one which I hope is explored more in other games in the future.

Deadlight is a very good game; a fresh take on zombie themed games, a emotional (if confusing and dark) story and interesting mix of genres means Deadlight will be one of my sentimental favourites for a long time. I hope Tequila Works explores this genre more in a similar style and gets rid of all the niggling issues that could have made Deadlight one of the memorable games for the wider games community.

Deadlight (PC) review - Scuba Score 8/10

Spec Ops: The Line (PC) Review

Spec Ops: The Line (SOTL) is one of those games from 2012 that garnered a lot of attention due to its story. So naturally, I had to play it.

First and foremost, if you want my general comments about the game without any spoilers, this is my suggestion: go play Gears of War. And if you're still hell bent on finishing SOTL, then set the difficulty to Easy so you can steam roll the pedestrian gameplay.

Now, onto the review! Once again, because the story is the one thing in this review I can rant about forever, I'll leave it till the end. SOTL is a third-person shooter much in the same way my beloved Gears of War is. The levels are linear, the level design is ordinary (despite all the sand mechanics) and the guns are so-so (until the last 10 minutes of the game). If you thought that sentence was boring, then you've got the general idea; SOTL is not going to win accolades on game design. It is your stock-standard third-person shooter which by 2012, has already been done by everybody and done much better from a design point of view.

The gameplay likewise is not awe-inspiring. The AI leaves much to be desired and the gun play is simple.  There is nothing groundbreaking about SOTL gameplay, except that for once you shoot the Americans. The highly touted sand mechanics factored very little in the single player. I haven't had a chance to play the multiplayer in SOTL, but I can see how the sand mechanics might bring something slightly different to competitive multiplayer; that is, the ever elusive environmental mechanic. But I feel too much effort has been made to make this one mechanic work instead of innovating on the other mechanics, like gun play or AI, which made the game jarring and unimpressive.

Game presentation is commendable: Small nuances such as the flag gradually disintegrating on the title screen as you progress through the story line are a nice touch. The environments look believable, from the lavish lobbies of Dubai hotels, to the refugee slums in the streets. However, these environments are recycled far too much and don't even get me started on all the convenient chest-high objects littering civilian areas. As mentioned before, the sand mechanics are well made and when the sand comes crashing through the freshly destroyed window, it looks believably destructive. What confused me is when you would seemingly be walking in the middle of the desert, drop into a ditch, which was apparently the balcony of one of the tallest buildings in Dubai. I feel this was a wasted opportunity to explicitly showcase the destructive nature of the sandstorm that engulfed Dubai rather than doing so implicitly.

Now, the story. And be warned, from this point on there will be spoilers. Firstly, let me just say that if Fight Club had not become such a cult classic, SOTL would be winning Best Story awards left, right and centre. Unfortunately, it did so in 1999, and I most definitely still remember what happened at the end. I think I'm right in saying the exact same thing happened to Captain Walker, however it isn't alluded to whether this is brought on my mental instability, or caused by the intense Dubai environment.

The story in SOTL is structured so you have a series of choices to make, and your bumbling sidekicks are naturally at polar opposites of the moral and ethical scale, giving them lots to argue about along the way. Unfortunately, the choices seem to have little long term effects as they only serve to drive the story or to effect a moral response from the player. Regarding these choices, I respect what Yager has tried to achieve in this game; the idea of the anti-hero is thoroughly explored in the game, whether it's trying to make the hard choice that will save more people or choosing between which captive to kill judged on their crimes. This is a refreshing twist on the standard "heroes make hero choices", however I think it takes this a step too far.

There is a point in the game where you have a "choice" to use white phosphorus to destroy a battalion on troops which are blocking your progression. However, this is not actually a choice; you must use white phosphorus to progress. Using white silhouettes as references, you commence bombing the living hell out of anything that moves. What appears to be "one last Humvee" is also situated next to a large concentration of white dots that you can identify as human. Now I'm not stupid; I can work out that these are probably refugees. There is no way to voluntarily stop bombing, so I tried to bomb next to the Humvee, to no avail; only a direct hit would suffice. So I hit it, in the process roasting 40-50 helpless civilians, as the in game characters work out shortly after. And this is my peeve: there was no choice there. If the civilians were inside the Humvee, it would have been a surprise, but I think it would have been the reaction Yager was looking for. However, having to knowingly kill those civilians for no good reason was horrifying and gave me a horrible taste in my mouth afterwards. It's comparable to the controversial level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 where the player has a choice whether or not to shoot civilians in the Russian airport. Except there is no choice.

The ending to the game is pleasantly well presented, with the story reaching its drawn out conclusion. Admittedly I felt the story was insanely one dimensional up till this point, so this was a nice surprise. And thinking back on everything you went through in the game, it does give you that Fight Club "oh yeah!" moment. But unfortunately, it was exactly the same "oh yeah!" moment with exactly the same flashback and that for me sums up SOTL; a game comprised of moments and components from different games and movies which culminate in a less than stellar game.

Spec Ops: The Line (PC) Review - Scuba Score 4/10

The Walking Dead (PC) Game Review

I'm pretty late coming to show on this game; I picked up The Walking Dead (TWD) in the Christmas Steam Sale and never got around to playing it (read: busy playing NBA 2K13). Naturally, I heard quite a lot of brou-ha-ha about TWD from the Interwebs; that it was possible the Game of the Year from many sources, stories of the amazing,emotional story and of course, the countless videos and screenshots of the choices that people were making in the game. Naturally, I was skeptical; I always am. When something gains this much interest and this much fanfare, I am always suspicious of what this means for a game. Call of Duty: Black Ops taught us that much.

Dutifully, I started playing the game about a week ago, and only just finished playing this morning. Not because I kept dying. Not because I was too busy. Not even because I suck. It was because it took such a toll emotionally to play the game that I didn't want to finish off Episode 5. So if you don't like spoilers, turn back now. Go look at pictures of kittens. Call your loved ones. Board up your windows... Ignore that last part...

As you may have heard, TWD is an episodic game with 5 episodes. I've never really been a fan of episodic games; too often is there too much time between games, and you lose the flow and urgency that the game works so hard to create. My recommendation for playing this is to play it through as if it were one long game. This I feel is the best way to play it, and I'll definitely do that for the next season of TWD games.

Most reviews would discuss the story first, however I feel TWD's story is special enough that I will rant about that at the end. So: design. TWD is actually remarkably badly put together. It's slow, jerky, and sometimes it feels like the game doesn't realise it's a game. You've probably all heard the stories about glitches and bugs that have made it unplayable for some people. I'm not entirely surprised; while I didn't personally have any major issues, I can see where the game might trip up. Graphical glitches, cutscenes not starting at the right time to match audio, and just general unpolish is on show for all to see. That said, I didn't actually notice that much while I was playing what was otherwise an amazing game.

The gameplay is somewhere between a third person action game and your standard 3D adventure/puzzle game. It is a remarkably well thought out control scheme, while it works. It does away with specific keys for specific actions and instead just keeps simple action options overlaid on what can only be described as your crosshair. I would recommend playing TWD with a Xbox controller as this seems to be the way the game was designed to be played. And it plays really well. Random button-mashing, quick-time events aside, the controls are very well implemented. I will note though, those quick-time events actually seem to be included in situations where you will actually want to mash your controller: getting choked by a zombie, or opening an elevator shaft. Telltale makes clever use of the conversation mechanic that we have come to love in games with dialogue where you, the player, choose what tone your character will answer will. And it's done amazingly, through amazing voicework and amazing scripting. Beware though, as the answers you made will influence the characters surrounding you, and they will remember what you said and do.

TWD adopts Telltale's telltale (come on, this stuff writes itself) presentation; cartoony, 3D models that don't quite look human and can sometimes freak you out (still trying to forget Omid's eyes). The PC version of TWD doesn't have any extra bells and whistles (as perhaps is becoming the norm for cross-platform releases *grumble*) and this shows; the zombie models look horrific (I guess by design also) and the textures sometimes look like I drew them. With my feet. I even had to turn down the graphics settings on my Beast just to get the juddering to stop in cutscenes. Luckily, the textures for the main characters seem to be unaffected by whatever settings you choose, so they don't look like eyesores for the entire game. There is little in general to complain about; Telltale has delivered on its now characteristic presentation style and it does it well (glitches aside).

Now I get to talk about the story. I feel a bit guilty because I probably won't be able to do the game justice by talking about it here, but I urge every one who reads this to please play this game. This game is all about the story. Frankly, if this game doesn't win 'Best Story' in every possibly game award in 2012, then something is wrong with this world. The story isn't anything unusual; it's exactly as you might expect from a game from the Walking Dead universe. The zombie apocalypse appears to have occured and you take control of Lee, a man who seems to have nothing else to lose. That is, until you meet Clementine. No, Clementine isn't a lady, she's a little girl. And that is all that really needs to be said about it; you spend the entire game protecting Clementine. And you will want to. Oh man, will you want to...

I think the thing that shocked me most about the game is that I didn't know how I would react in a real situation like a zombie apocalypse. Sure, everyone guy who has a lick of testosterone about them will say "Sure, zombie apocalypse. Too easy, give me a gun and I'll be on my way", and I thought that would be me too. But the game has told me I'm not. Not because I'm not strong enough, or fast enough. But because I'm human.

You will see a multitude of characters in the game, come and go. And when they go, it will be nothing you have experienced before. No matter what part of the moral compass you reside on, you will feel something for some other character in this game. And that is the genius of what Telltale's story has done here; it emotionally invests you in the game to the point that you feel that you are Lee, that you are making the decisions. Going back to the conversations that you can have, and the actions you can make: I have not felt this much control over the outcome of the story this much since the original Knights of the Old Republic, and likewise, I have not felt so emotional invested since then.

The Walking Dead is a masterpiece in gaming and storytelling. It's not about action, it's not about guns, it's not even about the zombies. It's about humanity. This game is everything that is good and bad about humanity, and it shows all the good things that can come out of humans when the going gets tough. And I think in our world's current state, a little humanity is a good thing.

The Walking Dead (PC) Review - 9/10

Bulletstorm (PC) Review

So after a long period of inactivity and another refocusing, hopefully this blog will be back up for good. Being weak of willpower and loose of wallet control, I have built up quite a collection of Steam and Origin (shudder) games that clearly need to be played. So now that I have found myself a spot of time, I intend to go through all of them and review them.

The first game on the pile is Bulletstorm, the game from Epic Games which is for all intents and purposes can be considered a first-person shooter (FPS) spinoff of Gears of War. The ultra-muscular soldiers, evil looking assault rifles and insane action sequences can only further this illusion of the Gears of War label. There is on key difference between this and Gears of War though, which we shall come to shortly.

The story of Bulletstorm is simple enough; a story of revenge and redemption. And as you might expect from a run-and-gun FPS, the story is pretty bare bones. While there is plenty of very colourful chatter from the protagonist Grayson Hunt and his companions, the story progresses mainly by reaching the next checkpoint and a quick cutscene. The story of redemption is pockmarked with an underlying tale of slavery and the inhumane failures of a corporate experiment, however, these issues are never really delved into as you end up pumping hot lead into anything that moves anyway.

The real star of the show is Bulletstorm's game mechanics. It starts off as a stock-standard FPS, running and gunning from point A to point B, but as you progress, the game introduces you to key game mechanics such as kicking, upgrading weapons and the king of all utilities, the leash. The combination of these when used in combat can lead to impressive and satisfying kill sequences and I often found myself trying to kill enemies in the most destructive manner possible. And the game makes no bones about this being a key mechanic; there is a skill point bonus for each action performed during a kill and there is a list of skill shots that can be completed to the player's delight (or disdain). This sole mechanic is the reason I found Bulletstorm more fun than Gears of War; the elation of eliminating enemies in such a gruesome manner is unmatched by many games.

Graphically, Bulletstorm is as you would expect. Running on the steadfast Unreal Engine, Bulletstorm produces some beautiful scenery on the planet's surface and accentuates the dank and damp atmospheres underground, all without skipping a beat. As an Eyefinity user, however, the Unreal Engine produces yet another headache as the game refuses to run in any surround configuration. This came as a great disappointment as the game looks sensational at many points in the game.

Overall though, the problem with Bulletstorm is that it runs out of steam on several fronts: The story wears out its welcome very early in the game and is not saved by the undercurrents of a deeper story about slavery and corporations. Grayson's incessant swearing adds some colour early in the game, but towards the end when the antagonist Sarrano joins in the chatter, the symphony of profanities begins to wear a little thing. The gameplay mechanics are incredibly fun, however once all the weapons are unlocked, all the common skillshots are discovered and all the enemies have been encountered, the game just becomes any other FPS, one which has very little replayability. If you want a true look at what Bulletstorm can be like, play the demo. It's short, sweet, and doesn't wear out it's welcome. Unfortunately, the full game (which lasts around 7 hours) feels like a novelty; brilliant for the first few hours, but after that becomes a drag to continue and finish. Let's hope if Bulletstorm 2 ever comes out, Epic will have addressed these issues.

Bulletstorm (PC) Review - Scuba Score 6/10