Category: Reviews

Chroma Squad Reviewed

We spent the last few weeks with Chroma Squad and I'm here to tell you what I think of it. Is it a great tactical RPG? Is it a nostalgic turd? Watch the video and continue past the break for details!

 

Growing up as a young boy in the nineties, there are certain things that I was predestined to like. I liked video games, specifically my Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog, I liked Toonami and my first taste of anime with Dragon Ball Z, and I really liked Saturday morning cartoons. But I loved, I fricken loved, Power Rangers!

I had Power Ranger action figures, video games, even the morphers and the green ranger’s flute dagger. I even have a picture of my younger self in a Power Rangers T-Shirt, sitting in a Walmart photo booth with someone in the shittiest pink Power Ranger costume I have ever seen. I think it was so bad that even back then I recognized it was awful, yet I was so excited it didn’t really matter. Now, I know what you’re all thinking, but back off ladies and gentlemen, this studs taken. Oh, you were wondering what all this rambling has to do with anything? I just wanted you to understand that I am completely impartial and entirely unbiased when it comes to this game.

The game is one of those successful Kickstarters that you hear about. Behold Studios, creators of another love-letter game, Knights of Pen and Paper, asked for $55,000 to fund development and they received over $97,000 from 3,964 backers. They nearly doubled their goal, but fell just short of an episode editor that would have been a huge plus. The game itself is a tactical turn based RPG with management mechanics and if you’re thinking X-Com meets Final Fantasy Tactics then you aren’t too far off. Of course, you’ll always be destined for disappointment until you stop comparing things to X-Com, so let’s just forget that game for now.    The story is every bit as cheesy and fun as the shows it takes inspiration from. It follows a group of stunt men who decide to start up their own sentai show, which means you get to pick nearly every aspect about it. From the name of the show to the phrase your team shouts when they transform, even what they yell when they call their mech. You can also pick the suit colors of your team, allowing you to match up with your favorite Power Rangers season or forge your own route. You can even pick the actors that play each squad member, but sadly that means that you can’t create characters, only pick from a list of pre-made ones that come with specific stats. Your squad will be comprised of a Lead, a Scout, an Assault, a Techie, and a Support who will more often than not be your healer.

There is more customization for each class in a very simple, very shallow talent tree. You can also equip new armor and weapons that will change the look of your squaddies, which is both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand it keeps their look from getting stale and shows growth through the seasons. On the other hand if you find a style you like for your squad you’ll end up having to ditch it before too long in favor of gear with better stats. Additionally you’ll rarely have the entire crew in the same set of gear, due to differing stat requirements, which means your squad will rarely look like a cohesive team during combat.

Speaking of combat, it’s where you’ll spend the majority of your time with Chroma Squad. It’s mostly a simple affair with each unit getting one movement and one attack per turn. The number of tiles a unit can move in a turn is determined by your movement rate stat and this means your scout will be running circles around the map while your techie just...doesn’t. Mine could move around 4 squares per turn, so I focused him on ranged combat.

You’ll move each of your units and use their skills, both default and those chosen from the talent tree, and finally end your turn allowing the enemy to do the same. This could easily become rote and boring, but thankfully Behold Studios did a few things to keep it interesting. The first is the teamwork feature where, instead of attacking, you can end a units turn by putting them in teamwork mode. This allows them to boost friendly units to extend their movement range, and I always felt awesome having my entire team flip off of one of my squaddies to surround a bad guy.

If you attack an enemy unit, any friendly units in range that are set in teamwork mode will also join in the attack. If you get five squaddies to all attack one enemy like this then you’ll get a group finisher with a special little animation. If you get five squaddies to do it with weapons, then you get a weapon specific teamwork finishing move just like on the show! Make sure that it kills the enemy though, as an early finisher that fails to end the fight will see viewers changing the channel.

The above would have made the combat much more fun by itself, but the real standout feature for me was the director’s orders. Essentially they are just optional objectives for each fight, but if you follow them it can make the fights much more difficult and interesting. The orders range from not letting any of your squaddies get knocked out, to my favorite which was to have a specific squaddie hit the boss during every round. This lead to a lot of frantic teamwork throws and last minute attacks that barely worked and it was a lot of fun.

Sadly the director’s orders are usually very simple and repeated often, which lessens their appeal after a while. That of course is not the only area of the game that let me down as it does have a fair few bugs. Nothing game breaking, but more annoying bugs, the kind that make you think you have something crawling on you long after you’ve killed it. The worst of these was an issue where tiles would remain highlighted forever, which made it difficult to see if a square was within range of my squaddie without clicking and committing to the move.

Another area of Chroma Squad that really let me down was the crafting. Crafting allows you to make equivalent gear to what you would buy in the store, but the drops needed are rare and you can’t make gear for every type of stat you would want. You can purchase more materials for in game cash, but the mats you get are random. You can also break down old items for materials, but again it is random and it is entirely possible to break down a valuable item and get nothing for it.

The frustrations with the crafting system are only compounded by the fact that it’s the only way to upgrade your mech. It’s confusing because the whole system feels very much like an iOS money trap, but it’s not and it never was. I can’t imagine why they went this route as it is easily one of the least enjoyable aspects of the entire game.

Speaking of mechs though, of course there are moments where you summon your giant robot and fight an equally giant monster. The fights are turned based and focused on percentages for attack, miss rate and block. If you attack and miss an enemy, your turn ends and the enemy gets a chance to attack. These battles start off extremely boring after the initial badass mech excitement, but eventually as you gain more abilities for it the mech battles become a welcome change of pace from the normal combat.

Outside of combat you also need to manage your studio. You’ll be able to upgrade things like the quality of your green screen, your lighting, or even your catering table. The only effect this has is on the stats of your characters or your audience level, but it’s a nice addition. Speaking of audience, depending on your stats you’ll gain a certain amount of money and fans per episode based on the shows audience level. You need fans to increase your initial audience per show as well as to keep your show from being cancelled entirely.

You can boost your audience and several other aspects by hiring one of several advertising agencies ranging from a legit company to a guy with a blog in his basement. It’s not as deep as I would like, but you could say that about the entire game actually.

That’s not to say I didn’t like the game though, far from it. It’s an incredibly fun game that I had a blast with. For fans of Power Rangers I give Chroma Squad a 4 out of 5. For everyone else it’s a 3.5 out of 5.

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Second Opinion – Batman: Arkham Knight

First things first: My time in Gotham was powered by a Playstation 4. The experience was smooth with no crashes and only slight frame rate drops during driving. The PC version however is still a mess and Warner Brothers should be ashamed of themselves for delivering such a product. 
This is it: the final chapter in Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham series. It is bigger, darker and more complex than any previous entry, but is it a better game for it? After all, I personally enjoyed the less open, more guided experience of the original Arkham Asylum more than the open world of Arkham City.
Before we delve deeper into Arkham Knight however, heed this warning: The following words include a major spoiler for Arkham City and you would be well served to play the previous games in the franchise. They’ve aged well enough and this one does not bother too much with explaining certain basic concepts of the Arkham style gameplay. The game starts you with most of your gadgets and combat moves from Arkham City, delivering a strategically deep experience from the get go. It works great for returning players, but you might have a harder time if this is your first time under the Bat-cowl and Bat-cape.
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You may be not allowed to text and drive, but nobody said anything about Skype.
How do you make a good Batman: Arkham game without The Joker? You don’t. In fact, the biggest smile in the universe is the first thing that greets you and although it isn’t exactly the liveliest, you know, with the Joker being dead and all, this first scene is an outstanding piece of storytelling. There is so much foreshadowing and mystery hidden inside this minute long showcase of intelligent and suspenseful intermedia craftsmanship, that you could easily fill a half hour long discussion with it. The song choice, the interaction, how your mind fills the blanks, the classic Clockwork Orange zoom. It’s a powerful start.The story set-up is easy. After the events of Arkham City and The Jokers death, Gotham experiences a time of calm. In a world of super-villains, this can never be anything other than a deception however and so it comes as no surprise that soon after the game starts, Gotham comes under threat and gets evacuated, leaving us with an empty city as our crime fighting playground.
You weren’t expecting a living and breathing city, did you? If so, you’ll be in for a disappointment. Every now and then you’ll encounter a police car chasing someone, but otherwise it’s mostly thugs and some plants that make up the biological diversity in Gotham. Can’t have Batman accidentally kill some innocent bystander while he travels around in one of the new additions to the game: The Batmobile.

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I'm pretty sure at least 2 people died during this scene ...when I did a burnout on their faces

Behind the chaos stands Scarecrow, acting as the main antagonist, of sorts. His promotion to bad’un #1 didn’t result in a more fleshed out character however. In fact, he feels more shallow than back in the first game and while there are some cool gameplay moments spun from his inclusion, it’s nowhere near as unpredictable as his appearance in Arkham Asylum.
This is not without reason. Scarecrow has two more hidden roles in this story. One becomes very obvious early on through the side effect his fear toxin has on Batman. The second one is to keep you guessing, questioning the “reality” Batman experiences.
In a way, he is acting as a sort of psychiatrist to Batman, and the fact that, despite him being the direct threat to the city, he’s still only a delivery tool for the more intricate bits of story, is a clear testament to the writers understanding of the world and the intelligence that went into crafting this final adventure of Batman. Sadly, this doesn’t help Scarecrow’s underdeveloped character fill the main antagonist shoes and urgency in dealing with him is something that you probably won’t experience much of.
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Looks like the Green Arrow started using soldiers as arrows. (Queen Industries is the company run by Oliver Queen, aka. Green Arrow)
And so we set the stage for our second antagonist: The Arkham Knight. Developing a good original villain for such a beloved and long running franchise like Batman is no easy task. Thankfully, the Knight makes the mark, if only on the merit of being believable inside the universe and his potential. Like Scarecrow, he’s a bit flat. Unlike Dr. Crane, his character is shrouded in mystery and as a result doesn’t suffer as much from it.
Still: The reveal of who’s behind the mask? Underwhelming. The person beneath it? No surprise. The timing of the reveal? Not working in its favor. It’s astonishing when you think about how little time the game spends on a character whom it gives three or four boss fights. The Knight is great as a character concept, but there just isn’t a whole lot of character in him at the end of a game that wears his name.
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I'm sure some people got a decent sized laugh out of this
The rest of the villain lineup is again diverse, featuring classic Batman characters like the Penguin and Two-Face, previously in the Arkhamverse featured ones like Firefly and Hush, and even Man-Bat gets a bit of screen time. The cast isn’t bad, but their treatment as characters again suffers. Looking for some extended one on one on one time with Two-Face? No luck. Want to explore the Penguins psyche? You’ll probably be better served watching La Marche de l'empereur.
Still, the way they are sewn into the underlying open world game play fabric is to be commended. Every villain serves as a master of ceremonies for a unique set of side missions. Be it stopping Two-Faces goons from robbing banks, incl. an interesting twist on the stealth mechanics, beating up Penguins henchmen with Nightwing, doing some detective work to discover who’s behind a serial murder case, or chasing down Firefly in your Batmobile. All of those do a great job at keeping the game from becoming stale. A special shout-out goes to Hush, who has an amazing role to play in this game, easily beating out everyone else when it comes to twists.
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He might be rich, but money can't buy artistic skill. This is not what a Bat looks like, Bruce.
But it’s not all good when it comes to the side missions. While most villains get mission structures that suit their actual role, The Riddler, a character I even enjoy when he’s played by Jim Carrey, now gets to build race tracks for the Batmobile?! What the f***, Rocksteady? You already included Lex Corp. Give them a bigger role and don’t piss on The Riddler this much. He was already busy enough with his trophies, which actually leads us to the next point:
The collectibles? Screw that. Even if we don’t count the over the top amount of Riddler Trophies (and yes, you need to collect all for the complete ending), there are too many watch towers to “climb”, mines to destroy and guarded checkpoints to clear. Even worse: new ones spawn throughout the story and they don’t show up on the map at all unless you’ve found them previously, or the “police” discovered them (which happens about once every full moon or so). It took me about an hour to find the last 2 mines and it was the second worst time I had in the game.
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Solution: The number of collectibles in the game
Despite all of this, the open world design works better than it did in Arkham City. It’s still far from perfect, but no longer does the City feel like a fancy traversable mission select screen, linking together separate levels. Instead, it becomes the stage for many meaningful encounters, even serving as an active and competent story teller at times. This is supported by a shift in perspective. Arkham City saw you mostly traveling via the sky, looking down. The inclusion of the Batmobile changes that to the ground level, at least in theory.
Since this is now the third time I mention the Batmobile, maybe it’s time to talk a bit more about it. After all, it’s the biggest addition to the game and the biggest factor of complaint for some that aren’t me. People who clearly don’t have as refined a taste as I do. *cough*Cody*cough*
The Batmobile consists of two flavors put into one sexy package. First off, the traditional role: The Bat-car. It’s fast and gets you around. You’ll need some time until you’ve mastered the steering, but once you do, it’s the fastest option to get from point A to point B. I suspect that Rocksteady is using some sort of guided steering, which makes it feel rather awkward at first, but I never really had any problems with it besides one instance that we’ll discuss shortly. The most offensive thing about it is the engine sound. It’s like a mid 90’s Honda Civic motor stuck into a modern supercar.Depending on controller configuration, pressing/holding a button switches you into mode of operation #2: The Bat-Tank. That thing is a beast …on a vegan diet. Keeping with the spirit of Batman, you are of course not allowed to kill. Thank god the Arkham Knight is so technically advanced and uses remote controlled tank drones. Why he never thought about strapping some goons on those tanks remains a mystery.

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I wonder how Batman would have handled that situation, if he couldn't just blow up the tanks.

Handling is completely different to that of the car, allowing you full movement control on a 2D plane. This not only enables you to master parallel parking and travel safely through trickier parts of the world, but also annihilates any challenge when it comes to tank combat. Whenever the Arkham Knight sends his mechanized forces, you’ll easily strafe out of the very clearly telegraphed attacks. It basically becomes a game of “don’t touch the glowing line”. Dodge, shoot, repeat, use a special ability (insta-kill rockets, EMP, and the drone equivalent of a charm spell).
It’s a fun, mindless, almost zen inducing game play loop every now and then, breaking up the “monotony” of punching bad guys, but tends to outstay its welcome. Especially later on, when you deal with up to 50 enemy tanks, spawning in waves. At this point, it would have needed some deeper mechanics. And don’t get me started on the stupidity of the pseudo-stealth “boss fights” you have with that thing. It’s fun once, not 3 or 4 times.
But that alone possibly can’t be where the frustration about the Batmobile stems from, right? No, most people would probably still be fine with that. The real problem is that it’s everywhere, often feeling shoehorned in. You use the tank for platforming puzzles. Do I need to say more? It also doesn’t help that the worst parts in the game all happen while you are behind the wheel.
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Not sure if Rocksteady planned for things like this, but it's still great if you pull it off.

My $*#& experience was during a main story mission, when you basically use it as driving bait for a giant “worm”. This comes with a change in camera perspective, which completely threw me off, and insta-death. Couple this with atrocious load times, and suddenly your controller morphs into a batarang flying against the wall.
It’s not all bad however. Again, driving works well, the change of perspective is nice (would have loved a real cockpit view though), tank combat is fun every now and then, there are some fun riddles and challenges revolving around it, and you will experience some great scripted and emergent gameplay moments thanks to it.
The rest of the game is everything you’ve loved about Arkham City, but better. The stealth is depper, not only because you get several new tools and traversal options, but also thanks to enemies now using incineration grenades, tracking mines, drones and more. The brawling a bit more diverse, thanks to a couple new units. It’s an evolution of the previous formula, which isn’t taking any risks and doesn’t leave any room for disappointment as a result.
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The FEAR takedowns are new to the series and allow you to take out multiple opponents. Nobody knows how they work, but the guy at the end shows that quantum physics are probably involved somehow.

Personally, I still prefer Asylum’s casual spin on the Metroidvania structure. Pacing and open world aren’t easy to combine. Rocksteady’s remedy comes in the form of story arcs that are almost episodic in nature. Short, sometimes self-contained events, only revealing a tiny bit of the overarching picture. It works at first, easing you into the changed landscape of the now desolate Gotham City, but it completely destroys the impact some of the bigger events in the game have. Events that can’t be finished inside one of those “episodes”. Only once are you not able to complete your secondary missions during a multi-part episode. It completely destroys any feeling of urgency and therefore suspense, and it never really picks up speed until the end of the main story, which it then destroys again by obfuscating your chance for reflection through inserting the equivalent of a fetch quest before the actual credits (and I’m not talking about the Riddler Trophies you need for the full ending).
That end bit however is probably one of the best pieces of Batman fiction ever. Advertisements tell us, Batman: Arkham Knight is about becoming the Bat. It’s not. It’s about understanding the Bat. Understanding what effect he has on his enemies. I can’t go into too much detail without dropping some major spoilers, so let’s just say that I now share a very deep emotional connection with the super-villains of Gotham. I understand their fear, because I’ve experienced it. While most of the game itself may “only” be an improved version of Arkham City with tank sections, this last stretch of the main story, which completely turns the game inside out, makes it an outstanding adventure worth your time.
It’s not the best entry in the series, but still the second best Batman game ever. Full recommendation from me.

For a more in-depth analysis of the gameplay mechanics and an opposite point of view, make sure to hop by Cody’s review.

Batman: Arkham Knight, A Past Due Review

Once again we find ourselves dawning the Cowl to save Gotham from the grasp of another famous Supervillian. This time Scarecrow takes the helm of a plot to cover Gotham in fear, with the aid of the (not so) mysterious Arkham Knight.  Like my previous Past Due Review of the Witcher 3, this review will not be scored but instead cover the game on a component by component basis. Such as, animation quality, character and environmental modeling, lighting, particle effects, audio, game mechanics, level design, and more. Every facet of the game will be discussed for at least a paragraph, exploring which sections work well and which ones are the Batmobile...

Animations

 

Starting off with the best aspect of this game, as well as the other Arkham games, the animation quality in Arkham Knight is superb. Both the combat animations and walk cycles show a great understanding of the animation process with well thought out poses that are strung together through fluid and confident motion. Animations between Batman and the thugs he beats up are hardly ever out of sync, matching up extremely well while keeping the action flowing. We’ll talk a bit more about the team fighting later on, but the if the animations say anything about how well done they are you probably get a good idea of what I’ll have to say about it.
If I have any criticism to offer here, it would have to be that the facial animations can be a bit inconsistent. Selena Kyle, Tim Drake, and Commissioner Gordon for example are great. But the big bats himself along with Scarecrow, the Riddler, and Nightwing look pretty awkward any time they open their mouths. I've got an example below, Light Early Game Spoiler Warning:

 

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Overall, I would say that the character models work well. But again there are some inconsistencies from model to model. Topology across the board looks great, and I’ve never noticed anything that seems out of place from the games grimy, gritty, and dirty art style in any of the characters. I think what really makes or breaks some of these models though are the textures.

Character Modeling

There are no stand out textures, and none of them seem like they have a very high resolution. I can look past that considering the size of the open world, and characters as a whole are fine. However, every object looks like there is a blur overshadowing that item. While the artists took great pains to make these complicated patterns, they just look washed out if you look at them individually.
I will say though that as a whole, each character is unmistakable, even if you barely know any other Batman villain aside from the Joker. Lack of advanced mapping techniques aside, these characters do look like their iconic comic book counterparts, and at the end of the day, that’s what matters. Even if I wish the enemies didn’t all look the same within their respective groups of enemy types.

Environmental Modeling

I said this back in my Witcher review, but I’ll say it again: Yes, character and environmental modeling are not at all the same thing, and anyone who thinks otherwise can answer to this mother f*****
Another great aspect of these Arkham games has always been the incredible sense of atmosphere their environments are able to create. Arkham Knight is no different in this case, areas themed to their respective supervillains are filled with easter eggs and other tiny little details that act as great flair to the hallways and back alleys of Gotham. Being broken up into island sections, the city itself feels and looks massive, with each island having its own theme that some may find doesn’t quite fit the gothic theme of the city. I personally felt a few areas came off a bit more Blade Runner then they did Batman's home turf. Drones, holograms, giant colorful neon signs, and video billboards just don’t scream Gotham to me. Don’t get me wrong I’m a huge cyberpunk fan, and this kind of environment certainly fits with the Arkham Knight’s heavily Philip K. Dick inspired garb, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it threw people off. Gotham to me means tall and ominous gothic inspired buildings that crawl with character, not smart TV's and sci-fi accessories.
With that said, the environments reflect the kind of Gotham they have built quite well. And keep an eye on those Billboards I mentioned, they deserve a second glance.

Lighting

What should be the most important element of a game about Batman is sadly one of the worst visual elements of Arkham Knight. Even with brightness turned down as far as possible, the game still comes off way too light. Which is ironic since this is easily the darkest Story of all the Arkham games.
If you darken your monitor or a screenshot, as I have on the right, everything seems to pop a lot more. I know that you need to be able to see what’s going on, but there’s better ways to do that than having a fill light be nearly as bright as your main light source. What I find frustrating is that the lighting team clearly shows great knowledge of what it takes to light a scene well, even sneaking in some sweet looking Rembrandt lighting every now and then. But none of it gets to be celebrated since the shadows are all overpowered by fill or area lights, washing out the all the hard work that they’ve clearly spent a lot of time on.
But again, when you edit the image to appreciate the lighting that is hidden under there, it is done incredibly well. Shadows fall in all the right places, light off in the distance draws the eye across the cities beautiful vistas, and it makes me wish the game looked like the second image below 100% of the time.

Particle Effects

This game’s smoke is easily the best I’ve seen in a game, ever. Everything else just comes off as serviceable in comparison to it. It’s not that the little sparks, or electric charges aren’t great visual effects, but compared to the smoke effects that your Batmobile creates as you peel out into the streets of Gotham you tend to forget other effects are even in the game. And the streaks of rain that move across your cape will draw your eye as you explore the city. The only odd looking effect is one that looks pretty epic at first, but after a few passes over it begins to look fairly phony in comparison to everything around it. I wish I could describe what this effect is in more detail but that would enter heavy spoiler territory, and it’s hard enough to write a review about this game without spoiling anything in the first two paragraphs. But for those of you who have played the game or watched a let’s play I’m sure you can guess what I am talking about by the image on the bottom left.

Audio Effects/Soundtrack

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Once again Rocksteady has provided another rock solid element to Arkham Knight’s utility belt. The audio effects in Arkham Knight are just as solid and meaty as they have been in the past. Punches that land as you bounce from enemy to enemy sound impactful, gadgets from your utility belt each sound uniquely appropriate, and the fluttering noises your cape makes as you glide through Gotham are complemented by the ambient sounds of the city. The voice acting, as I mentioned earlier, can be a bit hit or miss. Some characters sound incredible and their performances match up well with their animations. But others sound awkward, flat, and at times don’t match. Thankfully there are only a few instances of bad dialogue, but when they happen, you will definitely notice them.

Metareview: Batman Arkham Knight

The last (?) part of Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham trilogy has finally arrived and the reviews are glowing (91 on Metacritic for the PS4 version), at least for the most part. After the lukewarm reception Origins received (not developed by Rocksteady), Batman is back on form and some hail it as the best game this generation has seen so far. Only the implementation of the Batmobile seems to have some people disappointed …on consoles.The PC version on the other hand, well, you might want to look at this article about performance issues before you buy it.

The following reviews are all for the PS4 version, except the one from The Escapist (XBO)

Polygon (10/10): Arkham Knight is Batman perfected
Rocksteady has said this is its last Batman game, and I'm praying to the New Gods that they're on the level. After Arkham Knight, trying to find more meat on the Batman bone would define futility. After Arkham Knight, Batman has been perfected — and the end result is the best game of this console generation.

VideoGamer (10/10): Batman: Arkham Knight is not only the best Batman game ever made, but a game that will be remembered as exemplary. Obviously being a fan of the license is going to help no end - the Arkham trilogy as a whole is as important and impactful as its filming equivalent - and how this will ever be topped in terms of donning the cowl and being Gotham's protector is anyone's guess. But even those who don't frequent themselves with Bruce Wayne and his many adventures will still walk away feeling they've experienced something special.
It's epic; it's grand; it's addictive; it's ridiculously good-looking and it's going to be remembered for a long time to come. A masterpiece.

GameInformer (9.5/10): At the end of it all, Batman: Arkham Knight delivers a great sense of closure for this series. Rocksteady leaves a few plot threads dangling to tease and taunt us, but the grim tale that started all the way back in Arkham Asylum is done. I walked away from Arkham Knight shocked, satisfied, and in dire need of someone to discuss the story with. Rocksteady built a special experience that dazzles with its cleverness, intelligence, and ability to shift from kick-ass Batman moments to emotional gut punches to scenes stripped straight from some of Batman's greatest comic book stories. Lock yourself away, avoid social media and friends, and finish this game. You won't want this one spoiled for you.

IGN (9.2/10): If this is in fact the last Rocksteady-developed Batman game, the series will end on a high note. Arkham Knight is the biggest Batman game yet, not just in map size, but in the wide range of different types of gameplay, and its collection of characters. The addition of tank combat thematically clashes with everything Batman stands for, but it is fun, and having access to the Batmobile for the first time gives us a new world of possibilities for interacting with Gotham City. Arkham Knight is an outstanding game on almost every level.TheEscapist (4.5/5): The game performs well, but required a large day one patch - about 3.5 gigs - to function. Bugs were rare, but present, including two hard locks that crashed the Xbox One during my play through. Both occured during a key event that changes the face of the city, so it's unclear if that was their cause, but because the game frequently autosaves even in the open world I didn't lose any progress either time. An occasional bug caused enemies in stealth segments to forget they saw batman mid-fight, but that was rare and more amusing than troubling.

GamesRadar+ (4/5): Once I put a bit of distance between the campaign’s problems and the more positive experience of patrolling Gotham and mopping up these hours of sidequests, I really started to love Arkham Knight. I can see players just dipping in and out of this world forever, jumping in the Batmobile to chase down some criminals, visiting the villains in the lock-up at GCPD, gliding from an airship onto the LexCorp building; just being Batman in this worthy depiction of his universe.

GameSpot (7/10): What Batman: Arkham Knight does well, however, it does really well. Gotham is a dazzling playground where neon lights pierce through the rain and mist; all it takes is a single glimpse to tell you that this is a city in need. Moreover, many individual elements are so carefully constructed, and presented with such flair, that appreciation is the only reasonable reaction. Yet most of these elements--excellent acting, wonderful animations, moody soundtrack--are ones that Batman: Arkham City also excelled in, making Arkham Knight's missteps all the more noticeable. Rather than escape the pull of the games that spawned it, The Bat's newest adventure refines the fundamentals; it is a safe but satisfying return to the world's most tormented megalopolis.

The Witcher 3: Past Due Review

Its Been A Long Time..

... since I've played anything with this much heart. Without saying much more it should be clear to most everyone at this point that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is more than worth your money, and more importantly your time. The game has been a remarkable achievement for developer CD Projekt RED, selling 4 Million Copies in just two weeks.  The game is remarkably different from previous titles in the series, both in scale and form. It's main story less linear, it's combat carefully refined, all while staying concise and accessible for newcomers to the series. With it's success has come great review after great review. And instead of repeating what others have said before me, I've decided to take my time and enjoy all that CDPR's first open world has to offer, than carefully examine certain elements on their own merit. This non scored review will explore animation quality, character and environmental modeling, lighting, particle effects, audio, game mechanics, level/world design, story mechanics, leveling systems, and more. All will be given at least a paragraph to discuss what they do well, and where some areas could improve.

Animations

 

I’m going to start off with this section not just because I myself love to animate, but because out of all the reviews I’ve read I have yet to see anyone talk about just how well detailed they are. They all feel, well, animated! What I mean is that so many games these days put realism over just about everything else. And motion capture animation has taken away what Richard Williams said was so important about animation while he was making Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He believed that animation is supposed to show us something we have never seen before, and can’t see everyday, to push the boundaries of what we perceive as normal, and create something that exaggerates and celebrates the world around around us. For me, Motion Capture is the opposite of this, and watching 3D models of people move just like us makes them seem forced and strange, while actually animating the models, moving the hands, arms, legs, and facial features to slightly exaggerate movement can really bring something to life. CD Projekt RED’s animators clearly know this, and even if some mo-cap was used, I would be surprised if it wasn’t used mostly as reference. The way Geralt swings his swords, the lunging movements made by Drowners, or the graceful Sirens flying above, all animate brilliantly within the world, keeping its energy full of life. Tiny little details are even put into motion, such as Geralt pushing the tip of his sheath to make his swords easier to put away.

 

But what really helps sell these animations are the key poses within them. While the fluidity of the keys that tie these poses together might be a bit too quick for taste, the poses themselves look amazing and are paused upon in just the right amount of time.

Character Modeling

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Characters Tend To All Look Quite Different
The 3D character models who inhabit the world in which you will journey through leave little to be desired. While some human faces seem to have been textured better than others, I’ve found it fairly impressive that everyone seems to look fairly different. Sure I’ll run into the occasional duplicate guard, but look closely enough at them and suddenly you start to notice subtle differences in skin tone, nose shapes, all with flawless topology and normal mapping.
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Just Little Hints of Stylization
Characters also exhibit slight exaggerations in their posture and proportions, keeping the games art style consistent with the animations. While kept in a grounded realistic tone, character models' features are exaggerated just shy enough to not quite be called cartoony. Just check out Geralt's model on the left, looks a bit feline doesn’t it? Not quite enough for you to call it out, but just enough to make you see him as something other than human, as if the cat eyes weren't a good enough hint. Couple all of the above with incredible texture work for character modeling and in my opinion you have the best looking 3D characters in an open world game.
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Texture Work on Clothing is Consistently Impressive

Environmental Modeling

For those of you who read this and think, “Why two sections for modeling? Are these two things really that different?” I will respond with this image:
Anywho, the building/environment models that are within the game are for the most part incredibly well constructed. One thing that you will notice in all areas of the Witcher 3 is its attention to detail. And the environments you’ll explore are no different. Cobwebs and other common household annoyances can be found in the furthest corners of even the most popular taverns within Novigrad. The swamps of Velen crawl around your ankles as bugs wiz past your head and the grass that pokes through the muck glisten with dirt stains. Forests you run through feel unkempt by the touch of man, not fabricated by someone at a computer desk. The composition alone of the vast and awe inspiring cities seem dense and populated. But unlike a lot of cities in open world games they don't stick out like sore thumbs, vegetation that creeps up the city walls makes it feel like the walls have started to mold, instead of just looking like another wall with a bump map.
The world's textures however, don’t help hold this illusion 100% of the time. Occasionally you will run into a texture with a far lower resolution than it’s surrounding models. Just check out the hexagonal log textures on the left side of the image below, see how low resolution they are compared to something like the toxicity effect on Geralt's face? These changes in texture resolution, while not quite abundant, can be a tad distracting at times.
Thankfully none of the issues are as bad as the ones below:
But in the Witcher 3 textures that look great from a far don’t always continue to look amazing up close.
(As we can see above in the log image)And while I would criticize the re-use of many textures, such tactics help keep the games loading times down to the impressive 10~15 seconds that they currently are. But it almost feels cheap to nit pick at smaller texture sizes when I haven’t seen a single N-Gon, inverted normal, or even flicking faces. And to see most graphical errors come down to the technical side of things must mean that the modeling teams did an amazing job at creating a beautiful world.

Lighting

An aspect of 3D design that many seem to forget about, lighting can make or break a games aesthetic. Two Worlds for example had a few issues aesthetically, but its largest crutch visually was its poor lighting. In the Witcher 3, lighting is not only far from an issue, it’s some of the best I’ve seen in gaming. it’s the kind of lighting that would make Gordon Willis proud and I truly hope that the lighting team on this game is shown more appreciation for the work they have done here. From the light shaft effects that shine through the forests as you gallop through them, to the warm and welcoming atmosphere of the taverns, the lighting and casted shadows greatly reflect the area you find yourself in. I will say the lighting can be a bit too bright around noon on a clear day though, and it can get so bright during this time that it can even wash out the fantastic colors all around you. But this again is a minor complaint about one of the games strongest visual tools.
The sun-rays in particular are done very well, so much so that I have even found myself squinting as I ride Roach towards the sunset. Yes, squinting, I don't know of any games that have made me do that just because of good lighting.  CDPR once again reminds us that they know how to make the most out of good lighting, and what it's respected shadows can provide in contrast to really make characters and objects pop right out of the screen.
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Go ahead, lie and tell me you're not squinting.

Particle Effects

The most common particle effects you’ll see will come from the signs you cast as Geralt. These effects do a great job at reflecting the mentioned descriptions of each ability. The particle effects within the environment are also very well animated, continuing to sell the concept of a living world, that would be doing its own thing with or without you there. Blood effects during combat aren’t overly violent, unless you get a dismemberment, but they are a great indicator of a successful attack. The sparks that fly when you  clash swords with an opponent is so visually different for different kinds of enemies. They can stop your attack with swords, rock armor, hardened scales, and then some. Wraiths in particular are a fantastic achievement for the particle effect team, as the lower half of their bodies could have made them extremely disinteresting if a particle effect that looked worse was in its place.

Audio Effects/Soundtrack

Part of what makes the gameplay feels so impactful is it’s incredible use of player feedback. A swing of your sword hitting an enemy has many layers to it. The Animations reacting to the attack, the blood effect indicating a hit, and most importantly, the audio cue in the form of a lovely slash sound. The sound effects that are made by your signs also come to mind as something very well crafted, maybe one or two sound similar to another but not enough to make a huge deal about it. Sounds of the rain and other environmental sounds are another great piece of the Witcher 3's confident puzzle. One of the best things to do in the Witcher is to just take a walk out into the forests, you’ll hear rustling trees and even creatures off in the distance. Maybe you’ll hear some birds chirping occasionally or the ocean off in the distance. The sign great audio design is being able to close your eyes and still know exactly what kind of environment you’re in. Witcher 3 passes that test, with flying colors.
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The soundtrack that plays to your movements on your journey fits every moment very well. And honestly each song is so good on its own that the soundtrack probably needs to be reviewed separately. There is a particular song early on in the game where everything slows down and you get to just listen to a bard's wonderful tune. It is easily one of my favorite moments in the story, and I’ll be humming that song along with many others for quite a while after playing.

Gwent Review

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We all know that The Witcher 3 is great, as covered in our Review, but CD Projekt RED took ambition to a new level with it's "Mini" Game Gwent, a Full scale in game collectible Card Game that may end up taking up as much of your time in the world of the Witcher as hunting monsters. 

This unique CCG seems to have a lot of players split down the middle in terms of a level of interest in the game. Either you love Gwent, or you want nothing to do with it. Those of you who love it, you already know why the game is so fun to play. Those of you not quite sold yet, let me tell you a bit more about this surprisingly large mini game as someone who started out hating it.
"Why on earth would you possibly decide the players only draw one hand for the whole match?" 

"I didn’t build a deck to only use 1/3 of it! Wow I can only play one card a turn huh?"

"What a boring piece of crap, wait. What do you mean I lose?" 

"Whatever f*** it, I’m a god damn Witcher for pete’s sake and there's monsters out there to kill!"
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Realizing What The Game Really Is

I’ve heard a few similar testimonies like the ones above of  players early encounters with Gwent, and I would be lying if I said they didn’t mirror my own. Which as an aspiring game designer was a very silly and petty thing to do. I should know that simple doesn't always mean bad, and that a game’s surface might not be all there is to it.
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Two Jet Fighters Playing Chicken
It wasn’t until I needed to beat an NPC at a game of Gwent that  truly learned how to play the game. Which at its core really isn’t a CCG. It’s core mechanic is that of a game of chicken, where each player does not wish to yield to the other, but horrid occurrences can happen when neither do.
This basic game design model of conflict is what makes the core of Gwent so different from any other CCG, and why each player only gets to draw ten cards. So unless you have cards that let you draw more, you will need to find a way to win 2 out of 3 rounds against your opponent. This can be done in many ways. Such as fishing out the enemies more powerful cards, creating a card advantage by passing early, or countering a pass of your opponent by playing a spy on their board after they yield. It also makes card draw and hand advantage far more important than any other card game. Same goes for board advantage, since you can only play one card a turn, special cards that let you play extra, draw cards, or complement each other are not just an optional gimmick, they are necessary.
Having a deck filled with nothing but high power cards that do nothing mentioned above will not net you wins. You need to find a balance between what kind of deck you’re building, how you will approach the game of chicken because of this, and when the best time to go all in is. Sure you could try to save as many cards as possible for the final round, but you may end up wanted to spend a few cards to take a round from an enemy who passed with only 10 points above you. It's a very interesting way to trade between, board presence, tempo, and card advantage. 

An Example Match

If you'd like take a look at the example match below. It is a turn by turn slideshow of an entire match of Gwent. 
One fairly subjective criticism I could give Gwent is that I personally feel it is a bit of stretch in terms of world lore. Meaning I can't really see a lot of these characters being the "Card Collecting" type. Especially with all the wars and other fairly important matters within the world. Yet I forgive it for not really feeling that cemented since these people do need a way to break out from all of the depressing glum in the story. And this game is just lighthearted and stress free enough to fill my relief gap. That is also its place within the game's mechanics, allowing the player to set their own pace by taking a break from all the killing and enjoy a simple game with great theme music (found below) and its own different sense of wonder. I suppose that may be why they wanted Gwent to feel so out of place from the world, to really let the player experience something completely different from the core game for a few minutes, just before they have to continue their search for the latest monster who's killed another innocent villager. 

If you haven’t found yourself becoming a Gwent enthusiast in the Witcher 3 yet and you like the idea of what I described I implore you to take a chance on it one more time and force yourself to learn all you can as I did. Suddenly your Geralt may just become quite the card collector.
Reviewer: Cody Hall
Game: Gwent
Developer: CD Projekt RED
Source: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Image Source: Macro Business
Gwent Song Video: Arthellinus

Til Morning’s Light Review

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WayForward’s newest game was a bit of a surprise to me. At no point did I expect my first iOS game to be a well-crafted homage to the likes of Resident Evil and the soul of “survival horror” games. You assume the role of Erica Page, who’s lucky enough to be locked in a haunted mansion by her “friends” while in search of her long-lost BFF Angie. At least they give her a flashlight. Erica is immediately greeted by the mansion’s otherworldly element and begins her struggle for survival, which entails breaking the mansion’s curse by sunrise and not dying in the process. 
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Some areas in the mansion are genuinely creepy.

Maneuvering Erica is simple enough. A tap on the screen and she’ll move to that spot, or drag your finger slightly and she’ll walk in that direction. I won’t lie and say this works better than an analog stick, because it doesn’t, but it is functional and only in rare circumstances was a hindrance. Tapping on applicable objects will initiate interactions such as opening doors, pushing boxes, and pulling levers. Icons for Erica’s inventory, flashlight toggle (which seemingly had no purpose), and map can be found along the right side of the screen. Be prepared to use that map because the mansion is a labyrinth of locked doors and the keys are not universal.
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A key for every door and a door for every key.

Each key opens a single locked door much like the GameCube’s Luigi’s Mansion (to which Til Morning’s Light bears a slight resemblance) and you’ll need to engage in a bit of backtracking to enter new rooms. Snuggled in the mansion’s numerous rooms are scattered coins, keys, boxes, switches, a handful of friendly (and some not so friendly) ghosts, and hundreds of monsters. As silly as they look, Erica’s adversaries want to kill her and they will unless she bashes them to pieces with her arsenal comprised entirely of melee weapons.
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She's viscous.

Combat is possibly the oddest aspect of the experience. Enemies freely wander the mansion hallways and rooms and colliding Erica with them will initiate a battle much like in a JRPG. Erica doesn’t fight her opponents through menu commands though. Battles consist of a series of onscreen input commands based around taps and swipes. The icons for these commands are much like those found in the rhythm games Elite Beat Agents and Theatrhythm and consist of shrinking circles, bouncing dots, and pulsing lines. The combat is rhythmic but not in relation to the music. Every correct command lands a hit on the enemy and perfectly played battles will end without Erica being attacked. The upper echelon of baddies will occasionally block attacks, but as long as you never miss a command, you will beat your opponent until it dies. Though easy initially, combat becomes increasingly difficult as new potential commands are added to the mix and enemies hit harder when commands are whiffed.
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Erica's clothes become torn as the story progresses. A detail I've only seen in high budget AAA games like the Batman Arkham series.

Fire axes, shovels, swords, sledgehammers, fire pokers, meat cleavers, and the like can all be found lying around the house. These blunt implements aren’t just used for combat though, as many have functions that aid exploration. The shovel, for example, can be used to dig up dirt mounds and the fire poker can pull items from fire places. Unfortunately, only one weapon can be carried at a time and the need for specific weapons can lead to lengthy treks to reacquire less common ones.
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As cool as this room looks, it is solved by pushing boxes.

Puzzle variety is slightly disappointing as there are numerous box pushing puzzles throughout the experience including several during boss fights (which I found infuriating). There are several puzzles that don’t lean on box pushing and they are a highlight that harken back to survival horror puzzles of antiquity. These unique puzzles are never outright stumpers but require much more thought than placing boxes on pressure plates and replacing levers.

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Erica resonated with me in a way that few protagonists do.

Erica’s trip is spurred on by her desire to find the truth about her missing friend (the details of that relationship are notably absent from the game and only found in an audio book on Amazon’s Audible service) but what she ends up finding is a healthy dose of self-confidence. The unfortunate residents she meets on her journey begin to modify her character as she gradually grows from fearful to being feared by her captors. Erica’s banter with the villains and ghosts add a substantial charm to the experience that puts me in the mind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer through the veneer of a Saturday morning cartoon. It's fun and playful, even though it is based largely around death and loss. 

I enjoyed my stay in this particular haunted house and I encourage fans of “traditional survival horror” to at least take a peek inside. They might just find something that has been missing for a long time. 

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Images taken using the screenshot function of my iPhone
Game purchased for personal use
Questions or comments? 
I'm always up for discussion in the comments below or on our forum

Invisible, Inc. Review

Cody reviews Invisible, Inc. The latest game from Klei Entertainment, the developers of Mark of The Ninja. Invisible, Inc. is a turn based strategy stealth game, where gathering of information and smart decisions are favored over reckless actions. Check out the Video Review Below.

Reviewer: Cody Hall
Game: Invisible, Inc. 
Developer: Klei Entertainment
Source: Purchased as a backer for the Game's Alpha and later used here for review.

Kaiju-A-Gogo Review

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We review the indie game Kaiju-A-Gogo by Kerberos Productions Inc. In the game you play a mad scientist who builds a giant monster to take over the world, but what do we think of it? Continue past the break for the video review and transcript, and then make sure you hit the comments and let us know what you think!

I'm Billy C, reviewing Kaiju-A-Gogo for Twinstiq.com. The best way to describe Kaiju-A-Gogo is Sim City, but you play the monster that is destroying it. Technically you play the mad scientist who builds the Kaiju and unleashes it upon an unsuspecting world, but mostly you’ll be controlling your giant monster.

To start out though you’ll send your Kaiju out to one of dozens of cities around the world, each with a tier ranking the difficulty that you’ll encounter if you attack it. When you do attack a city, which is where most of your time will be spent, you’ll be confronted with a unique grouping of buildings and foliage for each city. Attack a spot in Africa and you’ll see mostly sand and small buildings, but attack New York and you’ll be forced to smash your way through skyscrapers and docks. Different types of buildings will drop different resources when they are destroyed and you’ll need to learn which buildings harbor the resources you need if you hope to be as efficient as possible.

But it’s not as simple as your Kaiju destroying buildings, you’ll be confronted with various enemy units from foot soldiers to bomber planes and laser tanks. While most enemies won’t put up much of a fight for your monster, several of them can start to chip away at it’s health quite quickly. In addition, eventually you’ll encounter tougher and tougher enemies that will take you down without much trouble. As such you need to train your Kaiju, giving him new passive abilities and active defenses and attacks that he can call on not only to destroy enemy units, but also to help you demolish the city you are attacking. Your monster will also increase in size as you pump him full of abilities. At the start of the game it might take you a swipe or two to destroy a home, but by the end you can walk over them without pausing at all.

Cities burn with satisfying infernos, spreading through foliage and buildings alike and you’ll reap the rewards as they do. That’s if you make it to the city, as once you’ve done enough damage the governments of the world will start sending out military patrols to intercept your Kaiju. Luckily, you can either run from the patrol (if you make it), or you can destroy it outright removing it from the map entirely.

The end goal of the game is to conquer the majority of the world. To take over a city you must destroy it until the local population has a moral of under 40%, at which point there is a chance for them to surrender to your mad rule. This means you can no longer attack the city for resources, but you’ll get their net income every month for the rest of the game.

You start with an island lair that you use different resources to build up, adding power plants, research stations, training lairs and more. Certain buildings will produce specific resources, but it will also consume a certain amount of resources each month. You’re goal will be to balance the production and consumption, while sending your Kaiju out to replenish resources as needed. Eventually you’ll want to build up some base defenses as well since later in the game your lair can be discovered and attacked, and if you aren’t prepared long before this happens you’ll soon find that you’ve lost the game. Or that you’ve destroyed all of the land based enemies before having your Kaiju killed by ships, and then stuck in a never ending cycle where the enemies can’t destroy your buildings and you have no Kaiju to attack the enemies.

That brings us to some of the games problems, and it does have a fair few. Firstly I want to talk about something subjective, but it really turned me off at first. The look of the games resources. I know that seems like a little thing to nitpick, but they look like an iOS money grabber game. When you destroy buildings they pop out and look completely out of place with the landscape, easily recognizable sure, but out of place none the less.Combine that with the mechanic where buildings, training and healing all take a certain amount of time (which you can fast forward in the PC version as of writing), it just feels like it’s one of those iPad games trying to steal your money with time sinks and resources. Especially the purpletonium as it isn’t used for much throughout most of the game, is extremely rare, and could easily be the “real money currency”. All that said, the game is not like that on Steam. The resources are plentiful if you go looking for them, the purpletonium is rare but isn’t used for much, and and time can be sped up or slowed down. Mechanically it’s fine, but it just FEELS bad to me. Maybe I’ve been burned too many times before.

On to more concrete problems. Tutorials seem to appear out of nowhere, telling you things that would have been useful five hours ago but are useless now. Tutorials also seem to repopulate so you’ll be the same one everytime you start-up the game. In addition there are supposed to be 3 Kaiju in the game to pick from, but only 1 has been released as of this review. Enemies can get stuck on buildings, and they will do so all the time, making destroying cities much easier than it really should be. Boats can sail through land and infantry can walk on water, and the aforementioned base attacks can cause no end scenarios if you’re unlucky. You also can’t access the menu while on an attack map, so you can’t even exit the game gracefully or save if you are in the middle of a city or base attack. I even experienced a crash to desktop once and though it hasn’t happened since, it’s made me paranoid about the game crashing during a big city attack.

It can also be a pain to navigate with your Kaiju. Trying to get him to walk between buildings to attack a tank can result in him uselessly attacking nearby buildings while he’s blasted with laser fire. There are also some icons on the side of the attack screen that tell you your passive bonuses such as speed, defense, etc, but they never seemed useful. You can tell if you’ve got your boosters on as every step sets the ground on fire and you move faster. You can tell if you have a defense bonus active as you’ll see it visibly on your Kaiju. Not to mention they are never explained to you and I had to ask on the forums to discover what they are for.

Another small issue with the game is that it is a bit inconsistent. Sometimes it will change the speed time passes back to normal after an event, and sometimes it won’t. Also if your Kaiju is returning with loot but you are looking at your base when he arrives, you won’t actually get that loot. You’ll have to go back to the world map to receive it.

Overall I had a lot of fun with the game and Kerberos Productions is constantly patching it and adding in new buildings and features. I’m giving Kaiju-A-Gogo 3 ½ Stars, potentially changing to a 4 star review if they continue patching and release the other two monsters down the road! What Kerberos Productions have created may be a bit buggy and undercooked, but it’s still amazingly fun. I can’t believe Maxis gave us Sim Copter and not Kaiju-A-Gogo!

Reviewer: Billy C
Game: Kaiju-A-Gogo
Developer: Kerberos Productions Inc.
Source: Purchased for personal use and review.

5 Star Wrestling Reviewed

We've reviewed 5 Star Wrestling for the PS3, but did it get five stars? Check out the video, or continue past the break for the transcript to find out.
What can I say about this game? It feels like it’s aimed at the hardcore wrestling audience, while wrapping itself in a spoof. Five Star Wrestling sees you controlling one of several characters heavily inspired by real life wrestlers, and when I say “inspired by”, I obviously mean they are as close to their real life counterparts as the law would allow. Being an unlicensed game can be a death sentence for any sports game and they clearly didn’t want to go with a completely made up roster for that reason, so they went the parody route. You’ve got characters like “Raging” Andy Organ, Curtis Angel, and my favorite Ragnabrök!

Five Star Wrestling gives each of its wrestlers an extremely accurate moveset, putting WWE’s games to shame in that regard. You move with the left analog stick and grapple with the right. Each direction will give you a different move, and you can access more by holding down L1, L2, or R2 and moving the right stick. Additionally you have a dedicated “illegal move” button by pressing the right stick in, which will give you an illegal flag. Get three and you’re disqualified. It’s a good system and it allows you to really feel like a heel during a match.

Another great aspect of Five Star Wrestling is the damage system. Each wrestler gets a doll by their name that shows how damaged each area is. As you target different body parts, they’ll go from white, to yellow, to orange, to red, and finally to black. The more damage you inflict on your enemy, the more bruises and damage you’ll see on their wrestler and it really makes matches feel more impactful. I’d love to see that feature brought into the WWE games in the future.


In addition to visible damage and a susceptibility to submissions, lowering an opponent's leg condition can provide other benefits. Sometimes they’ll start to mount a comeback and Ragnabrök will pick you up for an F5, only to have his knees buckle underneath him and drop you. It’s a small thing but it really adds to the feeling that the match you’re having is meaningful.

There are 8 different match types ranging from a normal match to a submission match, but nothing as exotic as a ladder match. Indeed, you’ll only ever have a two person contest, no tag teams and no handicap matches or royal rumbles. There’s an exhibition mode, but you probably won’t be spending much time here as all you have unlocked is the regular match type and the training gym location. To unlock more you’ll need to complete matches in the Challenge Mode, which is where the majority of your playtime with the game will come from. The challenges span all the different match types, including wrestler specific challenges, and there are over a hundred to complete.

In a challenge match you will be given a specific wrestler vs another specific wrestler and, much like WWE’s Showcase Mode, you’re required to meet three objectives during the match in order to complete the challenge. This could be a punch combo, performing a finisher, a springboard move, making the opponent bleed, or many more. There are two main issues with the challenge mode though. The first is that it often requires you to damage a specific body part on the opponent until it is red, but tends to give you a wrestler who only has one attack that hits that particular body part. This causes you to spam the same move over and over to complete the objective, which gets old fast. The second problem is that each challenge gives you around 1,000 currency, with a bonus for higher star rated matches. The issue is that it takes 46,000 to unlock a costume, 92,000 to unlock an arena, and the match types range from 161,000 to 230,000. So don’t expect to be playing the exhibition mode much.

Another area where 5 Star Wrestling falters is the AI. It’s really dumb and doesn’t provide any challenge once you figure out the controls, even if you crank the settings up. Lastly and perhaps the worst of all are the glitches. These range from small things that I can overlook, such as wrestlers not being in the right place while moves are performed, or sliding across the mat while lying down, all the way to match-ruining glitches that force you to restart. In a longer challenge this can be extraordinarily frustrating. Collision detection is also near broken at times, and you’ll need to wait until your opponent is completely standing up before trying to grab or hit them, otherwise you’ll go right through.

The game has a rating system, as I briefly mentioned before, and if you can get into it, you could spend a long time figuring out it’s intricacies. Ideally you’re supposed to use ring psychology, pacing, excitement and more to create an epic match. This means stopping and letting your opponent get some offense in sometimes, coming close to losing just to make things more exciting. Anyone who's heard me talk about WWE 2K15 knows that I love a match rating feature in a wrestling game, so it’s welcome here.

I haven’t touched on the graphics yet because there’s not much to say. 5 Star Wrestling looks like a bad PS2 game at times. The lighting is fine, but the wrestlers often look horrifying, and the stages are bland. There are no crowds either. It’s serviceable, but often quite ugly. The sound is better than the graphics, with the music for wrestler entrances obviously being inspired by their real life versions. While the game lacks commentary, I feel like that’s a better option than including poor commentary that repeats often.

Overall what do I think of 5 Star Wrestling? For the first couple hours I absolutely hated it, but I pushed through to try and find something to enjoy in the game and it worked, kind of. The game just feels unfinished due to all of the bugs, and some of the challenges aren’t hard so much as tedious. I did have fun with the game while playing it, including getting sucked into doing multiple challenges when I just turned it on to capture some quick footage for this review. Still, I doubt I’ll be coming back to this game at all, and I certainly wouldn’t pay the $25 that their asking for. I give 5 Star Wrestling a 2 out of 5, with an extra star if you’re a huge fan of wrestling and the game drops in price by at least $15.

Author: Billy C
Game: 5 Star Wrestling
Source: Review copy given to Twinstiq.