Review of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

This review is based on my experience with the PS4 version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Note: There are spoilers for the end of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes in this review.

Score: 5/5

Metal Gear Solid has been one of the most iconic franchises in video gaming since Solid Snake infiltrated Shadow Moses Island on the PS1 in 1999. However, like all good things the franchise has seemingly reached its conclusion. Over the past few months fans have been treated to news of series creator Hideo Kojima having issues with Konami, and saw his name slowly being removed from any marketing related to the game, even the game's case. Rightfully so, this had many fans worried about how well Metal Gear Solid V would turn out. As with most things Kojima has done the wait for his theoretical swan song has been trying, but it was sure worth the wait. This is quite possibly the final time we'll see Big Boss outside of a pachinko machine.

It's funny, because the Metal Gear franchise has often been derided for having more instances of the player watching as opposed to playing. In both the Phantom Pain and its prologue Ground Zeroes there are very few cutscenes. They're made up almost entirely of gameplay. On top of the new found focus on gameplay the controls have been updated. Previous games in the franchise were perhaps too ambitious, which often lead to buttons doing too many things depending on the context. It often felt clunky. The Phantom Pain actually plays and controls like a modern video game, which took me by surprise. No longer did I find myself fighting against the controls to complete a task. It helps that its all fairly simple. All you really need to do is aim, shoot, reload, sneak, and switch weapons. The controls are set up similar to how they used to be where circle is on reload, but you can change the controls to essentially be the same as modern first person shooters if you prefer that style.

I got a whole lot of use out of this assault rifle.

It's made even better by the fact that you can actually use many different weapon types and not really be chastised for it. In previous Metal Gear Solid games your rank during a mission was based almost entirely on stealth and the time it took you to complete the mission. Now you can kill literally everyone, and as long as you do it well and fast enough you can still achieve an S rank. This means that I experimented with weapon types I would normally never use. I went into tons of scenarios armed with a rocket launcher and a shotgun and actually did quite well. On top of that enemies with guns aren't infuriating to deal with. As long as you don't stand directly in the line of fire you can make it out of most situations. Big Boss has regenerating health, so gone are the days of scavenging for rations and taking a knee in battle to use them in order to heal. It makes Big Boss feel like much more of a badass than he previously did, which fits his persona in the story.

The Phantom Pain takes place immediately following the ending of its prequel, Ground Zeroes. Big Boss returned to Mother Base to find it swarmed with enemy soldiers. Before he could set down and defend his home his helicopter transport is blown out of the sky. The Phantom Pain begins with our protagonist in a hospital bed waking up from a nine year coma. The doctor explains that he's in rough shape. He's missing an arm, and has a piece of shrapnel stuck in his forehead that won't ever be able to come out. Since Metal Gear is all about the story I don't want to give away too much. I'll say that you get out of the hospital, and start building a brand new Mother Base in order to get revenge on the organization that destroyed everything Big Boss has been working towards.

Miller wants revenge for what happened in Ground Zeroes.

The rebuilding of Mother Base is actually a large component of the game, which is very similar to the building of Mother Base in the PSP game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. On missions every soldier you encounter has a set of stats and you can recruit them to your cause. All you have to do is put them to sleep, or beat them down with your fists, and you can Fulton them out of the area. Once the soldiers make their balloon exit they will be assigned to an area of Mother Base based on what their highest stat is. The better the units you have in each area the more you can develop for Big Boss to use in combat. Development starts off with no wait time and very low requirements, but the game quickly ramps up so that you need to scrounge for units constantly and then have to wait anywhere between 18 minutes and 5 hours for your research to finish. This sounds tedious, but there's something very satisfying about strapping a balloon to every soldier, animal, and vehicle you see. Development time becomes a non-issue as well, or at least it did for me, because I was so engrossed in playing the actual game that I would completely lose track of time. The main problem ends up being resources, because eventually you need insane amounts of them and the world doesn't necessarily always provide them.

This is where the online mode comes into play.You build an FOB (Forward Operating Base), which is essentially another Mother Base. You can then invade other player's FOBs and steal their resources. I only did this a few times, because I kept getting wrecked. You can deck out your FOB with all kinds of security measures like drones, traps, and security cameras. If you're online when someone tries to infiltrate your FOB you will be notified and you can get into the fray and take them out. It's a cool mechanic, but I often found myself being invaded by people who were much better equipped than I was, so there was no way for me to stop them. If I ever did get good enough then I could retaliate and take back everything I lost, but I was never able to successfully do that. It helps that once you get invaded you can not be invaded again for another 6 hours, so my resources were not constantly being stolen. People were coming at me with things I didn't even know existed and were using tactics I had never seen before, which made me realize that the game will let you do just about everything you can think of and pull it off.

Expect to be looking at this menu a lot. Upgrading Mother Base is very important.

I'm not kidding, almost everything you can think of to do the game will probably let you do. Want to have your horse poop in the road so a jeep spins out on it? You can do that. Do you want to put C4 onto a jeep, Fulton it away, then blow it up right next to a helicopter? You can do that. Have you always wanted to hide in a Porta Potty and play poop sounds from your phone to make guards suspect you less? You can do that too. When I say the options are limitless, I'm being mostly serious. There are so many things the game will let you do that are very surprising. There is detail in things that there shouldn't really be any detail in. On top of that the open world lives and breathes in a way that I never would have expected. Enemies contact other bases, and are aware of things that are happening outside their general field of view.

With the release of The Phantom Pain, Metal Gear as a franchise did a 180 degree turn from how it used to be. Gone are the forty minute cutscenes filled with anime craziness. They've been replaced by shorter scenes that are still crazy, but they're much fewer and far between. All of that craziness has been transplanted into the gameplay. You're much more likely to see something nuts while running around the world than you are in a story sequence. I never would have expected that the series could evolve so much, but I'm glad that it did. Initially it feels like a lot of the Metal Gear charm is gone, but it just takes some getting used to. It's still a Hideo Kojima game, so you know you're in for a wild ride.

Big Boss and his clones have become iconic characters in the world of video games.

I'm willing to make the bold claim that The Phantom Pain is one of the best action games ever produced. It has a scope that's unparalleled in video games, and everything comes together to make a cohesive package. Sure, there are some things I could nitpick, but none of them stand out enough to tarnish this otherwise great entry into the Metal Gear franchise. Sure it doesn't tie up the story of the whole franchise with a pretty bow, but I didn't really expect it to. That's what I like about Kojima. He likes to keep the fans guessing. I think it's great that the final entry in such an iconic franchise is fresh and fun as opposed to being buried under the weight of its predecessors design and mechanics. If you have a platform that you can play The Phantom Pain on, then I highly recommend you do so. You will not regret it.

Review of Destiny: The Taken King (DLC)

This review is based on my experience with the PS4 version of The Taken King.

Note: This review  and its score are based on the content of The Taken King. I will speak about changes made to Destiny for "Year 2," but they do not factor into the score. This is because even people who have not purchased any of the DLC will see these changes as well.

Score: 3/5

Destiny has been able to spread its wings for just over a year now, which means that as of the release of The Taken King we are officially in year two of the game's supposed ten year plan. With the release of the Taken King a whopping 17GB patch was released to change all kinds of things about the game. Quest lines were added, the voice actor of the Ghost was changed to Nolan North, the leveling system was changed entirely, item drops have become more frequent, storage was doubled, you can hold more bounties, and a myriad of other changes have now graced the game. To someone who hasn't played Destiny since a month after launch they might think that these changes are a part of The Taken King, which is certainly not the case. In fact, just like the previous two DLC expansions it adds new story missions, new strikes, and a raid. However, unlike the previous two expansions it tells a cohesive story that's actually interesting, while adding a brand new area to explore.

The Taken King keeps the core of the game the same. It's still a first person shooter fused with a pseudo-MMO. Even a year later I still enjoy the gameplay of Destiny, so I had no problem getting right back into the game. Bungie knows how to make a solid first person shooter. While the gameplay stays the same the story changes it up a bit, because it's actually interesting. Destiny and its previous two expansions showed a cool world, but didn't really explore it at all. All you had to go on were random voices giving you loose context for a mission. It seemed to be an empty world filled with lifeless characters who only existed for you to get weapons from. Year two has helped that issue out a bit with quest information, but The Taken King actually gives some characters a personality by inserting them into cutscenes and actually having them introduce themselves to you.

The Taken King is still all about dumping on your enemies.

The story follows up an event from the first expansion The Dark Below. During the raid, which most players never even get to do, you find yourself defeating the Hive Prince Crota. The Taken King picks up with his father Oryx coming for revenge. He pilots a huge ship called the drednaught, which is the new area to explore. You don't get to go to it right away though, because going in blind would be suicide. First you have to spend some time learning about Oryx and the threat he has brought with him. He introduces a new enemy type called the Taken. Oryx essentially asserts his control over the Fallen, and the Cabal in order to make them work for him. So you see familiar enemy types that have turned into a funky mix of white and black. If they were just another pallet swap I would have been disappointed, but each one has brand new animations and abilities. This means they add some much needed variety to the enemy encounters.

The crux of the story revolves around you finding a way onto the Drednaught so that you can take down Oryx and restore order to the galaxy. In order to do so you need to interact with the three class trainers in the tower. The one who gets the most prominent role is the hunter Cayde-6. He's a sarcastic robot man, who doesn't really respect the authority of the other council members. It's odd, because he's actually pretty funny while everyone else is super dry and serious. In the original your Ghost would make quips to lighten the mood, but those moments were few and far between. Now that Nolan North has replaced Peter Dinlage as the Ghost, your little robot friend speaks a lot more as well. The Ghost and Cade play off of each other quite well, which is good to see. Having these characters guide you through missions makes it feel less like a linear killfest than it did before.

This is Cade-6. It's only taken a year for him to get a personality!

While the missions still almost always involve shooting everyone to death, the objectives in this expansion are occasionally different. In  the original game almost every mission saw you holding off waves of enemies while your Ghost scanned an object or tried to unlock something. Even if I didn't like all of the newly introduced mechanics, it was still nice to see something new. In one of the missions there is a wide gap that's far too big to jump across. If you pull up your ghost he outlines invisible platforms for you to jump on. In another mission you're invisible while infiltrating a hive burial ground. The game forces you into third person, and you have to avoid the red vision cones of enemies like a proper stealth game.

Outside of the story there are a few more additions as well. The competitive multiplayer mode Crucible has gotten three new multiplayer modes and eight new maps. The new multiplayer modes are actually very fun, especially Mayhem. All you're really supposed to do is use your super since it's constantly recharging. This mode is perfect for the three new subclasses added to the game. Warlocks can become Stormcallers to shoot lighting from their hands, Titans can become Sunbreakers and beat everyone down with fire hammers, and Hunters can become Nightstalkers to trap enemies in place with their void bow. These three new classes are cool, and once again add more diversity to a game with very few class options.

The three new subclasses are all interesting.

The Taken King puts Destiny on the precipice of being an amazing game, but it falls just short of that goal. Yes, there was excellent story content and a new area, but is that enough? Sure there's a new area to explore, but just like everything else in the game once you get through the story content you're going to be running the same missions for all of eternity trying to grind rep and get the rare item drops you so desperately crave. It took me just over two hours to run through the main story missions, which feels far too short. Yes, I could do all kinds of stuff to grind for better gear, but then there is nothing new to tackle after beating the new raid. Sadly, I probably won't even get that far, because I'll never be able to complete a raid without in game matchmaking.

People who love Destiny will love what they find here, but if you didn't like it before there isn't a whole lot that's going to change your mind. The Taken King shows that Bungie is trying to take steps towards making the game as good as it can be and that they're willing to make changes based on fan feedback. I think that the problem with Destiny for me starts at its core, so I hope that throughout the next few years they can continue to tweak the game in order to make it realize its true potential. However, if they keep adding expansions on top of what they already have as opposed to making a full fledged Destiny 2, we may never see this franchise blossom into the amazing game I feel it could be.

Review of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

This review is based on my experience with the DS version of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Score: 5/5

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is the newest game from Ace Attorney creator Shu Takumi. During the time he was writing Ace Attorney 3 he came up with the idea to create a new mystery game dealing with ghosts. The end result was Ghost Trick, which is an adventure/puzzle game combination. Unlike the Ace Attorney franchise the player has direct control over the main character, which allows for a more immersive experience while retaining the unique characters and charm of those games.

When the game begins you’ll take control of Sissel and much to his surprise he’s dead. Sadly he’s got amnesia, so he doesn’t remember much of anything except what he looked like, because he can see his corpse. He doesn’t have much time to lament though, because as he comes to he notices that a murder is about to take place. A blue skinned assassin is holding a red haired woman at gun point, but because he’s dead Sissel thinks he can’t do anything about it. Just when things seem at their worst a lively desk lamp named Ray lets Sissel in on the fact that he has special powers known as ghost tricks.

As you can imagine these tricks are the foundation for the entire game and the first scenario plays out much like the rest of the game. The red haired woman gets shot, but all is not lost. If Sissel touches her body with his spirit he can go back to four minutes before her death and save her. How can he do this though? Well, that’s where the actual gameplay comes in. Sissel’s main power is that he can possess intimate objects and manipulate them. In order to move about through objects you’ll first need to enter the ghost world.

The blue dots are image cores you can possess. The line is Sissel traveling between them.

Entering the ghost world is as simple as touching a button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. The world will turn red, objects will turn blue, and people will turn yellow. Anything you can interact with will have a circle in the middle known as a core. Sissel can move from core to core, but he can only reach so far, so making a path is often your goal. When inside an object its details will appear on the upper screen, including whether or not you can manipulate it. In order to manipulate an object you’ll need to return to the normal world and tap the trick button at the bottom right hand side of the bottom screen. The action performed depends on the object Sissel inhabits.

In order to solve each scenario you’ll need to use the objects in a specific order or way. It’s simple enough to achieve your goal. To me Ghost Trick has the perfect difficulty level, because it never gets super frustrating. While most puzzles need to be performed under a timer you can redo them as many times as you want, and each time the game will try to point you in the right direction. On top of that the puzzles are never extremely difficult. They get fairly challenging, but if you think about any situation long enough, then chances are you’ll figure out what to do. While nothing is overtly hard the game still makes you feel smart when you do solve the puzzle. Afterwards you’ll be rewarded with the next story sequence, which makes it all worthwhile.

The trouble with adventure games is that they don’t have a whole lot of replay value and sadly Ghost Trick is no different. The puzzles are entertaining, but unless the story grabs you, you’re not going to keep playing. In this case the story had no trouble drawing me in. It took me eleven or so hours to complete the game and I did it in just two sittings. I couldn’t stop once I had started, because I was so invested. When the game starts you’re thrown right into the action with very little explanation of who Sissel is, or why he has these special powers. It doesn’t help that he has amnesia, which is such a played out trope. I thought that the whole amnesia thing was going to bug me, but I feel like it’s handled quite well in Ghost Trick. Sissel doesn’t spend the whole time lamenting over his lost memories, he just gets down to business so he can figure out what the hell is going on.

I mean, just look at Sissel. He means business.

He figures out pretty early on that it’s a special night and that all of the people he meets are related to him in some way. It’s a classic one night mystery. Sissel is told he’ll cease to exist once dawn breaks, so he needs to find out before then. Finding out about who Sissel is and what he’s all about is the reason to play this game, but he wouldn’t be able to support an entire narrative on his own, so it’s good that he gets some help.

The Ace Attorney series is notable for it’s whacky and unique characters and Ghost Trick is no different. It just goes to show that Takumi knows how to make some compelling and varied case of characters. The hyperactive pooch Missile, the determined detective Lynne, and the smooth operating inspector Cabanela are just a few of the faces you’ll meet in game. Their stories are all compelling and their dialogue is excellently written,however I think that the animation used in Ghost Trick helped to make them larger than life.

In the Ace Attorney series the action is all based around static character portraits on a static background, the same is not true of Ghost Trick.  While they still have character portraits in conversation each character is also cel shaded, 3D, and fully animated on screen. When they move around it looks genuinely good. I want to say that it’s rotoscoped, but I don’t know that for sure. The movement looks genuinely good and it adds a lot to the games personality. Inspector Cabanela is known as the man who dances through life and he sure does do a lot of fantastic dancing. This animation paired with the characters makes them all feel very alive, which is one of the reasons I cared so much about all of them.

This video shows just how great Cabanela's dancing is.

The final ingredient of Ghost Tricks immersive world is the music. It was composed by Masakazu Sugimori the man behind the Ace Attorney and Viewtiful Joe soundtracks. His work on the original Ace Attorney soundtrack is argued to be his best work by his fans. To no surprise his excellent composing skills are back for Ghost Trick and he hasn’t lost his touch, if anything it’s gotten a whole lot better. Every song in the game compliments and adds to whatever is happening. I often found myself getting caught up in the music. For example, whenever Missile’s theme would play I would get a big goofy grin on my face. I’m even listening to the soundtrack as I write this, because it gets me so pumped up. Each song calls a specific moment from Ghost Trick to memory and that means the soundtrack did it’s job well.

Even after completing Ghost Trick I couldn’t stop thinking about it. At first I thought it was because of how the ending came together, which was immensely satisfying, but now I realize it was more than that. The game as a whole just fits together so well. Very rarely do I want to go back to a game immediately after completing it, but Ghost Trick was completely different, which is extra surprising given it’s an adventure game. The characters are memorable, the puzzles are fun and challenging, and the soundtrack is incredible. Very rarely do all the elements of a game come together as well as they do in this game.

I’m going to put it bluntly. Ghost Trick is a great game. If you can pick this game up I highly recommend that you do so. It’s only climbing in cost, so you should do it before it’s too late. Alternative there are versions for android and IOS now. The first few chapters are free and the remaining three chunks of the game you have to pay for individually. I don’t care which version of Ghost Trick you play, but I think that you should play at least one, if not all of them.

     -Manny

Review of SSX

This review is based on my experience with the PS3 version of SSX.

Score: 4/5

Twelve years after its inception the SSX series has been rebooted with the highly creative title of SSX. Fans of the SSX franchise have been waiting five years to test their gravity defying snowboard skills on a new game and it has finally arrived. With the death of EA Sports BIG, EA Canada has attempted to breathe new life into the series. The result is a game that feels very familiar, while feeling completely new at the same time. Some changes made may upset long time fans, but there’s no denying that the final product is jam packed with insane snowboarding action. 

When the new SSX teaser first debuted during the 2010 Spike Game Awards the reaction was tepid at best. It was going by the name SSX: Deadly Descents. It depicted players dropping from helicopters onto real mountains trying to escape hazards like avalanches. In the past every slope was custom made and memorable, while all the characters were basically overblown caricatures. Those things paired with the insane snowboarding made SSX iconic.  The Deadly Descents trailer looked very dark and realistic, which garnered a lot of negative reaction.

The final product is halfway between the SSX of old and the Deadly Descents teaser. It’s not quite as over the top as it used to be, but it’s not overly realistic either. Familiar characters such as Mac, Zoe, Elise, and many others return in a much more muted form. They don’t talk very much during gameplay and aren’t as cartoony so a lot of their personalities aren’t totally apparent. The same thing can be said about the drops. They’re all based off of real mountains with procedurally generated jumps and grind rails. While they function well enough in the game they don’t feel very unique. The reboot tries to strike a balance between realism and the SSX style of old. It ends up straddling an odd line that makes me wish they went farther in either direction.

Franchise mainstays like Mac return in a much more muted form.

One of the things that makes me wish they went farther is the story. For the campaign you’ll be following snowboarding team SSX as they attempt to conquer the world’s deadliest mountains, known as deadly descents. They’ve been dormant for a while, so they have to take on dangerous drops to get back into the spotlight. These deadly descents are an interesting new game type that sees you rider trying to survive as opposed to getting points or a fast time. The entire goal is to make it to the bottom alive, which is sometimes quite challenging. In order to do so you’ll need to equip the riders with specific gear. Armor will help you survive an avalanche, while a headlamp will allow you to see in pitch black caves. There are nine deadly descents to get through. Although they’re cool to experience once it’s much more appealing to play race and trick events. There isn’t enough of a story to make the campaign worth playing through multiple times.

Admittedly most people don’t come to SSX for its’ riveting story. The most important part of the game, the gameplay, is still great. You can choose from two control schemes. Classic is just like it used to be. The face buttons will be used to do tricks, while the shoulder buttons are used to boost. Alternatively you can use the right stick for all your tricking needs much like modern skateboarding games. It’s all about your preference and what’s the most comfortable. SSX is all about doing tricks. They’re almost always the key to success. In trick events they’ll obviously net you score and in race events they’ll get you boost to go faster. When you do a certain amount of tricks in a row you’ll enter tricky, which allows for unlimited boost. Chaining tricks together also boosts a multiplier, which combines with a trick counter in order to give you ridiculous amounts of points.

You're going to want to be tricking all the time.

In SSX it’s all about flow. When you’re going down the mountain at a super fast speed tricking off of everything it’s exhilarating. A cool feature of the game is the way it changes the music depending on what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. The in game soundtrack will rise, fall, and distort in various ways as you move down the mountain. Somehow the game even does a good job of distorting custom music, this means that anything sounds good. I highly recommend putting your own music in, because it sounds great and adds a lot to the experience. When you wreck the music screeches to a halt along with your scoring capabilities.

While the gameplay is super fun and fast paced, it can often be just as unforgiving. Wrecking can be devastating and sometimes ruin an entire run. In an attempt to ease this problem a rewind feature was added, which might as well not even be in the game. If you rewind during a race your opponents will continue moving and if you rewind in a trick event you’ll lose a whole lot of score. It just doesn’t make any real sense to rewind, unless you want to place a geo tag. Geo tags are collectibles you can place only when rewinding to try and get in game currency. If you place them in a good spot you’ll get the maximum amount of credits. Since rewind is basically useless this means that doing the drops over and over for incremental improvement is necessary. In order to help this process along SSX has an interesting pseudo multiplayer.

When it was announced that the game wouldn’t have honest to goodness multiplayer fans were understandably upset. The alternative isn’t all that bad and is in fact quite fun. It’s all very reminiscent of the speed log from Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. Outside of the campaign in explore mode there are 149 or so drops to choose from. When you complete a run your ghost will be uploaded for your friends to compete against. When they lose you’ll gain in game currency. There are also massive global events to compete in. Some are free, while you have to buy into others. You’ll compete on a drop and try to do as well as you can. In the end you’ll be placed into a scoring bracket and you’ll be paid accordingly. 

You can choose any drop as a global event, but you might have to pay an entry fee.

So what’s good about in game currency? You can buy equipment for your character. As you doe events your characters will level up. Depending on what level they are you have access to buying certain gear. You can buy boards, mods, and equipment to help you do better in events. To make the system interesting an MMO style color coding system is used. If you’re the kind of person who likes a lot of loot then you’ll be right at home with this system. It’s a new concept for an extreme sports game.

Extreme sports have fallen off in recent years, so it’s nice to see this series getting a fresh coat of paint. For a reboot SSX tries quite a few interesting things. While they don’t all work, I think that they leave room for an interesting sequel should there be one. This iteration may not be exactly like the others, but it’s incredibly fun. Like I said SSX is all about flow. Speeding down a drop tricking off of everything while shooting for a perfect run feels incredible. A lot of the elements of SSX make it incredibly easy to get absorbed in competing with your friends.  Even if you don’t have any friends to play against SSX is still an incredibly fun game. There’s something magical about it and I can’t recommend it enough. 

The future of the SSX is bright and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

     -Manny

Review of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

This review is based on my experience with the PS3 version of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

Score: 2/5

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron may be one of the most interesting games of this generation. It’s an action game that loosely follows The Book of Enoch, which is a biblical story. I’m not overly familiar with the story of Enoch, but I say loosely, because the adaptation in the game is nigh incomprehensible. In addition to its impenetrable story El Shaddai boasts an interesting one button combat system and some of the most stunning visuals I’ve seen in a video game to date. It’s an ambitious showing, but it doesn’t come together as well as it could have.

As you may have guessed the story follows Enoch. He’s a human scribe in heaven. God tasks him with going down to the surface in order to fight fallen angels. The angel Lucifel is tasked with helping him on his journey, which is how Enoch is outfitted with his shining white armor and designer jeans. Once he’s decked out Enoch is ready to go head to head with the fallen angels. Apparently they’ve been getting it on with humans in order to create odd looking creatures called nephilim. This is about as much of the story as I understood.

Check out Enoch's designer jeans!

Shortly after Enoch reaches the surface he finds the tower of Babel where all the fallen angels are residing. After that point I stopped understanding everything. The most I got out of it was that the nephilim started to eat each other. Apparently when they do that they get huge, fiery, and destructive. In order to stop them Enoch has to defeat the fallen angels and bring them back to heaven in order to restore order. A ton of other stuff happens as well, but it’s all fairly choppy. It’s all over the place and the art style follows suit, but in a much more enjoyable way.

The visuals in this game are simply stunning. The characters are cell shaded, while the backgrounds and environments look like digital paintings. It’s hard to describe the exact art style being employed, because as Enoch progresses up the tower everything changes drastically. In the beginning everything is white and looks as if it’s made of crystal. Sometimes it looks like tron and other times it looks like a moving water color picture. It’s fun to explore and see what the world is going to look like next. The transitions happen fast and frequently. I loved looking around the environments, so it was a shame when my leisurely strolls through each area were interrupted with a combat scenario.

Expect the visuals to change drastically and often.

The combat in El Shaddai feels great in certain moments and infuriating in others. It’s easiest to compare it to something like Devil May Cry, but it doesn’t reach that level of depth. The game essentially only uses one button to attack. If you mash the button you’re always going to get the same combo, but if you delay your inputs or hold the button then something totally different will happen.  A whole combo system is essentially packed into a single button and it doesn’t always work the way it’s intended to.  The problem is that I could never tell if I was getting any better at the system. There’s really no feedback to let you know if you’re doing the right thing or not.

Enoch can wield one of three divine weapons, the fast slashing arch, the long-ranged gale, and the hard hitting veil. Throughout most of the game I used the arch, because it was the weapon I became most familiar with. The veil worked well for me most of the time, but the gale was utterly useless. The enemies would always block every hit and when they didn’t they would take very little damage. Most of the enemies that you’ll face throughout the game will also wield these weapons, which is how Enoch can change his weapon. He must initially fight unarmed until it is time to steal an arch. Knocking an enemy down allows Enoch to steal the tainted weapon and purify it.

This is an animation you'll be seeing quite a bit.

I tried to like the combat, but in the end I just couldn’t do it. It’s possible that I was missing something crucial about the whole system, but like I mentioned earlier there is absolutely no feedback on whether what you’re doing is working or not. Enoch and the enemies have pieces of armor on their bodies and the more they get hit, the more of their armor breaks off. There is no HUD (initially), so you have to keep a close eye on your armor at all times. What I didn’t like was that I could wail on the enemies for a long time and their armor would take forever to break, however they would hit me a few times and I would be almost dead.

This problem is exacerbated in the boss fights. The fallen angels or “the watchers” will appear almost at random to challenge Enoch to a fight. Sometimes they’re supposed to beat you in a hit, but eventually you’ll have to beat them. It might take forever for you to break a piece of their armor, but they can kill you in an instant. It’s almost as if the developers knew this would happen, because the death mechanic allows you to come back to life a number of times before getting a game over. When Enoch gets hit with no armor on he begins to fade. The screen will begin to blink shut like an eye. Before the eye closes you’re supposed to mash the buttons in order to get back up. Each time you fall it takes longer and longer to work and you will eventually die. Upon death the game reminds you of how to stay alive no matter how far you are in the game as if you’re some kind of moron for dying in the first place. 

These triangle head "watchers" can take you out rather quickly.

For everything El Shaddai did right it seemed to do something else to put me off. The visual style is amazing, but it messed with my depth perception, which often lead to misjudging jumps. It seems as if the game may have suffered a bit for its beautiful art style. There is no HUD when you play initially, but once you beat the game you can turn on a HUD, which displays health, combo count, and score. If I had been able to see these things initially I may have been able to grasp the combat system better. To have it as an unlock after you beat the game seems like a lost cause, because there isn’t a whole lot of replay value to this seven hour game.

El Shaddai tries some interesting things, but they don’t exactly mesh well together. It stops just short of being fun. This game is definitely not for everyone, but I think that it is worth checking out for its ideas. The demo is a great representation of the experience you’ll have with the rest of the game, so you should try that before you commit to anything. While I didn’t exactly have the best time with this game I hope that other game developers try things as wild and crazy as El Shaddai.

     -Manny

Review of Mass Effect 3

This review is based on my experience with the PS3 version of Mass Effect 3

Score 4.5/5

Mass Effect 3 is the final game in a critically acclaimed sci-fi series, which means that it has impossibly high expectations to live up to. Bioware had the deck stacked against them from the beginning, but they still managed to produce a mostly great product. It’s a little rough in spots, but the issues can’t stop Mass Effect 3 from being a truly memorable game.

The reapers have finally begun their assault on the galaxy and Earth is their central target. It just so happens that Commander Shepard is on earth and he’s one of the few people in the galaxy who knows how to fight a reaper. Due to his knowledge and experience against the reapers he is chosen to try and unite the galaxy against the looming threat. Much like recruiting squad members for the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2 Shepard must now recruit all the races in the galaxy for a war against the reapers. He’ll need to talk, explore, and shoot his way to galactic readiness.

Mass Effect 3 takes after Mass Effect 2 in the ways of combat. It’s heavy on its third person shooter elements, but they’ve been tweaked to maximize performance. It’s hard to see at first, but Mass Effect 3 feels much tighter and controls better than its predecessor. Aiming and shooting feels a lot smoother, along with Shepard’s overall movement. He can now dodge roll, which is a very welcome addition.

Many fans of the series were upset that Mass Effect 2 removed a lot of the RPG elements from the series. Bioware clearly took that to heart, because Mass Effect 3 tries its best to put some of that RPG feel back into the series. Once again Shepard will be gaining experience as he fights. When he levels he gains skill points, which he can spend to get a variety of skills. The skills in this game branch a little more than they do in the previous installment, but they’re largely unchanged. The level cap has been changed back to 60 like it was in the original Mass Effect, which leaves Shepard with more skill points than you know what to do with.

Look at all those skills!

What Mass Effect adds in the way of character customization deals mostly with the guns. Now every gun you acquire will have a level 1-10. Levels 1-5 can only be acquired on your first play through, while 6-10 become available on your second. All guns start at level 1, but as time goes on their upgrades will show up for purchase. On top of that each gun has two slots for mods to be equipped. Throughout your travels in the universe you will find various mods that offer specific stat boosts to certain types of guns. Stability, damage, ammo capacity, and more can all be tweaked to your play style. These mods are also leveled 1-10, but they tend to be found while you’re out on missions. These improvements to character customization and gameplay make the combat of Mass Effect 3 much easier to handle than it’s predecessors’, but shooting isn’t all you’ll be doing in your fight against the reapers. Talking is just as important, if not more so.

Once again Shepard will form a crew that can help him accomplish his mission. New and old faces appear on Shepard’s crew. You’ll see many friendly faces who don’t join your crew as well. The new characters like super marine James Vega are all fairly interesting, but they’re not nearly as fleshed out as the rest of the cast. It’s understandable, because a lot of the older characters have been given much more screen time. The squad is noticeably smaller than it was in Mass Effect 2, but there are still plenty of opportunities to chat it up with everyone.

Character interaction and choice have always been a centerpiece of the Mass Effect series and this entry is no different. In the previous games your crew would reside in their designated spot on the Normandy waiting for you to come talk with them. While that still happens in this game, they also move around the ship and even go to the Citadel, which is much larger this time around. This allows for the people of the Normandy to interact with one another, which can make for some pretty interesting situations. After every mission I found myself talking with every person on the ship, because I never wanted to miss anything.

Dialogue wheels are still a major part of the Mass Effect universe, but they have noticeably less choices. In most conversations there will only be two options. One will give you paragon points, while the other will give you renegade. Sometimes there will be a third option in the middle, which allows for Shepard to inquire about the previous statement. Certain situations have more options to choose from, but they rarely occur. Paragon and renegade interrupts still show up as well. What’s even more noticeable is that during dialogue the wheel pops up a lot less often. Shepard seems to have a lot more to say without the player’s input than he did before. This should be annoying in a game that’s all about choice, but it’s done very well. There were very few times that Shepard said anything I wouldn’t have said. It’s almost as if the game was reaching back into my save in order to see what I would choose.

Two options are standard fare for most Mass Effect 3 conversations.

I felt that my save was influencing things throughout most of the game. A lot of the things I had done in the previous games came back in some way for Mass Effect 3. Some of the references are done very well, while others like the reunions with Mass Effect 2 crew members seem a little random. Some are done better than others, but I couldn’t help but get excited every time I saw someone who used to be on my crew. These references and character interactions are enjoyable. It’s clear that Bioware tried to make all of the previous choices count so that the player would feel like their actions from previous games mattered. The same care and effort did not go into the games many side quests.

The side missions in Mass Effect 2 were generally well conceived, but the same can’t exactly be said for all of the missions in Mass Effect 3. Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few great side missions, but there are also quite a few that aren’t so great. The worst side missions come from the citadel and in order to get them you don’t even need to talk to anyone. Instead Shepard will overhear someone saying they need something, which will update your quest log. It’s not always clear what they’re looking for, which can be kind of annoying. When you find whatever they were looking for Shepard will hand it over to them for a reward. It all makes Shepard seem like a creepy stalker. Obviously the citizens of the galaxy need all the help they can get, but this seems to be taking it a bit far.

Aside from stalker-like fetch quests Shepard will have to do some shooting in his side missions as well. Some of them are meaningful and deal with character interaction and those can be pretty good. On the other end of the spectrum some missions are repurposed multiplayer maps, which involve you standing in certain areas to deactivate terminals, or defending a certain area. They’re perfectly fine to play, but it would have been nice if they had a little more thought put into them, because they tend to be a bit heavy on combat.

Almost everything you do in Mass Effect 3 goes towards what is known as effective military strength. How ready is the galaxy to take on the reapers? The answer to that question depends on how much you do. Completing certain tasks will net Shepard war assets. Each war asset adds a set number to your total military strength. There is a terminal on the Normandy where you can check this number whenever you like. The screen you access has a handy bar that tells you how ready you are to fight the reapers. When it’s full you’ll know you’ve done enough to get the “good” ending.

Almost everything you do in Mass Effect 3 adds to the fight against the reapers.

This is how the multiplayer feeds into the single player. The game starts off with the galactic readiness at 50%. This means that only half of your total military strength is counting towards the progress bar. In order to get the galactic readiness up you’re going to have to play multiplayer. If you do everything you can in the game you should still fill up the bar quite a while before you reach the final mission.

When it was initially announced that Mass Effect 3 would have multiplayer there was an uproar from the community. Combat isn’t what most people come to Mass Effect for, but that didn’t stop Bioware from putting it in. It’s not essential to the game in any way, but it’s there for those who care to give it a try. It’s just a Gears of War like horde mode with some occasional objectives. Four players get together to fight off eleven waves of enemies.

It’s nowhere near as egregious as everyone (including me) thought it would be. You play as any of the classes available in the main game, however you can also be the various races of the Mass Effect universe. Humans, Drell, Salarians, Turians, Asari, and Krogan are all available for play. Apparently a few Volus have even been spotted as well.

All the races you've always wanted to be are now available in multiplayer.

Just like the single player you’ll be leveling up and allocating points to the skills you want to have. Unlike the single player, the level cap in multiplayer is only level 20, which when reached allows the character to be promoted to the single player as a war asset. Sadly there aren’t enough skill points to fully upgrade everything. To further customize your character it’s necessary to finish multiplayer matches so you can get credits as well as experience. With the credits you can buy packs of cards, which throw out random guns, mods, new characters, and one time boosts. All of the items you’ll acquire in multiplayer come from these random packs, which can be frustrating when you keep getting items you don’t want. If you’re the impatient type you can just spend real money on the packs instead of completing matches for the credits. Overall the multiplayer is fun, but it’s easy to ignore completely if you don’t care for it.

Bioware put in the multiplayer and did a lot of things with the game to try and bring in new fans. They were really trying to say that Mass Effect 3 is the perfect place for new players to jump in, which I think is far from the truth. The moments I enjoyed most in Mass Effect 3 had to do with characters I had come to know over the course of the previous games in the series. If I didn’t have a stake in the universe it would have been much harder to understand what was going on.

I loved a vast majority of Mass Effect 3. There were a ton of well done emotional scenes. Although there were a few that fell flat, I’ve come to expect that from Mass Effect. Mass Effect 3 truly does wrap up many of the big questions left in the Mass Effect universe. You might hear people saying that the ending isn’t any good and I tend to agree with them. However, that’s no reason to condemn the rest of the game. The majority of Mass Effect 3 is great, so if you’re at all invested in the Mass Effect universe I can’t recommend this game highly enough.

Note: This review is also posted on giantbomb.com

     -Manny

Review of Final Fantasy XIII-2

This review is based on my experience with the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII-2

Score: 4/5

Final Fantasy 13 wasn’t necessarily well received by fans of the series, but that hasn’t stopped square from making the direct sequel Final Fantasy 13-2. Square listened to what fans had to say about the first game and tried their damndest to give them the game they were asking for. Most of the changes made improve the game, while others don’t make any sense at all, like the addition of the musical track Crazy Chocobo. Regardless, the end product is a game that’s much more fun to play, even if the story isn’t what it should be.

Lightning has been delegated
to a supporting role for 13-2

The story of Final Fantasy 13 wasn’t exactly the best part about the game. The characters were all right, but the plot surrounding them was filled with ridiculous jargon that made the game nigh incomprehensible to the average human being. In the end everyone was saved and they were going to live happily ever after. I’m going to come right out and say that I didn’t much care for the plot of Final Fantasy 13. However, compared to that of 13-2 the original is a masterpiece.

Final Fantasy 13-2’s plot is heavily based upon time travel. Somehow history was changed so that Lightning wasn’t saved when Cocoon turned to crystal. The only one who remembers that Lightning got off Cocoon is her sister Serah. She’s been pining after her sister for three years, which is where 13-2 begins. She begins to have strange dreams of Lightning fighting a purple haired man. She believes that her sister is still alive somewhere and she’s right!

Serah may not have been the
best choice for a main character.

Lightning is in a place called Valhalla eternally fighting the game's villain Caius Ballad. In the middle of her fight a young man named Noel enters Valhalla. Lightning gives him a Moogle and instructs him to find Serah. It’s not even worth explaining the rest. All you need to know is that Noel and Serah have to travel through time in order to fix time paradoxes on their trip to see lightning. Any time anything bad or weird happens in the game there’s a 98% chance it has to do with a time paradox. You’ll be sick of hearing about them by the time the game is over, possibly much before then.

The main problem with the story is that this game focuses on Noel and Serah, while relegating all the previous games party members to minor roles and cameos. The cast of the original wasn’t too great, but they’re better than Noel and Serah that’s for sure. Serah is a terribly annoying character. She’s far too whiny and all she wants to do is see her sister. Noel is actually a decent character, but you don’t find out much about him until it’s too late to care. Every time there should be exposition or any kind of character development either Noel or Serah say they don’t want to talk about it and then they just don’t. They both seem to know everything about everything, but they don’t let the player in on their secrets so it’s hard to follow what’s going on. 

Time gates are used to move from
place to place. Try to fix
all the time paradoxes!

Serah and Noel move from place to place through what are called time gates. In order to enter a gate you need an artefact (Yes, it’s really spelled like that) that corresponds to the gate. After entering the first gate the overworld map, known as the Historia Crux opens up. Each node on the map represents a certain area in a certain time period. The more gates you go through the more places you can explore. There are gates to find all over the place and they don’t all lead to places that you need to go. It’s easy to get sidetracked by going to times that you don’t have to go to, but it’s a pleasant diversion from the main story.

It’s shame that the plot was so poorly done, because everything else about 13-2 seems so polished. The battle system was great in 13 and it’s been vastly improved in 13-2. The ATB battle system makes its return in this game, so expect more fast paces battles filled with paradigm shifting. In order to make the battles flow better the animations when shifting paradigms have been removed. “Cinematic Actions” AKA Quicktime events have also been added to the game. These were added to give players a chance to interact with the boss fights, but all they do is come off as annoying. They don’t improve the experience in a meaningful way.

There are tons of monsters to
collect, like this Pulse Knight.

Monster collection has been added to the battle system to make for more variety. Each monster has a specific job. You equip a monster as the third job in a paradigm, so when you use that paradigm the monster will show up in battle as well. You level the monsters up by feeding them items corresponding to their level of strength. Stronger monsters will need higher quality items to get their stat upgrades. If you want to get the full use of the paradigm system monster capturing is a must. Certain monsters you face in battle will turn to crystal and join you when you do really well against them.

The only caveat to the improved battle system is the crystarium. Winning battles still nets you CP to apply where you like, but the choices are limited. Before you could go in multiple directions choosing which skills you wanted to get first, but now you have to go in a straight line and all the jobs follow the same line. Each level in a job gives you pre-designated stat points, while pre-determined levels will get you a skill. The end result is the same, but the sense of choice is completely gone. 

Linearity may have been added to the crystarium, but it has completely vanished from the rest of game. Most of the areas you visit through the Historia Crux are wide open, or have numerous branching paths. This is a welcome change from the straight line corridors of the original game. Towns make a return, but they’re nothing special. Most of the citizens only say random phrases when you walk by them, but they mostly just get in the way.

Chocobo Racing is back!

On top of the exploration there are tons of side activities to be had, which is something that the previous game was also lacking in. The main place to go for side activities is a casino that’s unlocked about halfway through the game. The Casino is home to the chocobo races. While they’re not on the level of chocobo breeding from Final Fantasy 7, it’s still possible to raise your own chocobos. You can capture chocobos in the wild and then level them up to make them better. 

Sidequesting is an option too. There’s an abundance of them in the world of 13-2. These can be anything from solving puzzles, fetch quests, hunting monsters, or crappy dialogue trees. There are plenty to access while the game is going on, but once you complete the game much more become available. There is a lot to do and there’s sure to be something to satisfy everyone. 

It won’t take you long to get to the end of the game. I had put in about 24 hours of play time when I beat the final boss. It’s not as long as the original game and it isn’t nearly as challenging either. All of the challenging fights are unlocked after the game is over, so if you want to fight some ridiculous monsters you’ll have to brave through the story first in order to see the more challenging content.

Final Fantasy 13-2 isn’t a great game, but it stands on its own. Most of the issues from the previous iteration were taken care of with the exception of the lackluster plotline. Square is having a hard time with the Final Fantasy series, but it’s clear that they’re listening to the feedback of their fans in order to give them what they want. My problem with Final Fantasy 13 was that it didn’t feel like a Final Fantasy game to me. 13-2 is a lot closer, but it’s still a ways off.


Note: This review is also posted on giantbomb.com

     -Manny

Review of Deus Ex: Human Revolution

This review is based on my experience with the PS3 version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Score: 4/5

The name Deus Ex holds a lot of weight with the video game community. It was released in 2000 to critical acclaim. It’s well known for its numerous ways to tackle each situation in the game. The sequel Deus Ex Invisible War didn’t do so hot, so there were no further attempts at prolonging the series. Eleven years later Deus Ex: Human Revolution hit store shelves as a prequel to the original game. Human Revolution had a lot to live up to. While it didn’t necessarily hit the mark it certainly didn’t disgrace the Deus Ex name.

Human revolution takes place 25 years before the original game in the year 2027. The world is just as cyberpunk as it was before, but now everything is much more orange. Human augmentation is just coming into its own. People can opt to get robotic parts to enhance their bodies, but as you’d expect not everyone is cool with that.

Jensen sounds like a cross between
Keanu Reeves and Christian Bale's Batman voice.

You take control of Adam Jensen, an ex-cop who is now the head of security at Sarif Industries. Sarif is a bio-tech company who specializes in augmentation. The company has just made a huge breakthrough thanks to Adam’s ex-girlfriend Megan Reed. The night before the company is going to present the data they are attacked by terrorists. Adam is severely wounded and the scientists concerned with the breakthrough are either dead or missing. Adam is brought back from near death with state of the art augmentations. Adam is reborn as an awesome robot man and he must find out the truth behind the terrorist attack. You’ll have to explore the dark alleys and  neon lit streets of Detroit and other locales to find the answers he seeks.

The World of Deus Ex is extremely interesting and you’ll get plenty of opportunity to explore it. It’s not immediately apparent, but there’s a whole lot going on. The world is built up in the story, but you can gain even more information by reading e-books, newspapers, doing side quests, and hacking computers. You’ll want to invest in hacking skills, because there’s plenty to be done with them. It allows you to get into computers to read emails, but it can also make combat easier by turning turrets and robots against their unwitting masters. If you’d prefer all of this information can be completely ignored, which falls in line with the choice that Deus Ex stands for.

Just as there is different ways to gather information about the world there are different ways to get to your destination. This is where the choice is shown off the most in Human Revolution, but if you look too closely at it the magic is lost. You can opt to go right to your destination, but the path can be diverged from. If you look around you’ll often find vents to crawl through, heavy objects to move, sewers to move through, doors to hack, or ladders to climb. This sounds good on paper, but not all of these options are given at once. Most of the time there will be two choices and they’re almost immediately obvious, which makes the alternate paths seem forced. It’s a nice touch though, because it’s reminiscent of the original game.

The problems with Human Revolution are mostly in the combat. Just like its predecessor, Human Revolution is a first person shooter laced with stealth mechanics.  At first glance this seems fine, but in practice it doesn’t work as well as it could, or should. For a game that’s all about choice and different ways to tackle a certain situation the combat seems to penalize the player for specking in a certain manner. Human Revolution wants the player to be stealthy, and they make it abundantly clear.

You better spec for stealth
or you're not going to live long.

Like most first person shooters with cover mechanics Human Revolution gives you better guns as you go that can be upgraded. However, on top of that you earn experience points for doing things in the game. When enough experience is gathered Jensen will be awarded with a piraxis point. These points can be spent to upgrade Jensen’s augmentations, or purchase new augmentations. These augmentations help in many ways. You can invest in hacking, combat, stealth, or exploration upgrades. No matter what you get it will help you in some way, but you’re best off going for the stealth upgrades if you want to live.

It’s easy to go into a scenario guns blazing, but you’ll get almost no experience. When you use nonlethal means to take down an enemy you’ll get over twice the experience. On top of that if you complete a mission without being seen you’ll gain a large amount of bonus experience. The game gives you a choice on how to approach combat, but you’re considerably more rewarded if you use stealth to your advantage. Shooting someone to death takes far more work than it’s worth. You’ll gain ten experience per kill, and an extra ten if you get a headshot. In order to kill enemies it’ll take a crazy amount of shots unless you get a headshot.

Alternatively you’ll get 50-60 experience points per stealth takedown and it’s much easier to do. You can snipe people with tranq darts for easy takedowns. Alternatively you can sneak up behind someone and do a stealth takedown. This will take down one of Jensen’s batteries, but they will quickly recharge. As an added bonus everyone in the immediate area won’t be trying to gun you down. This is good, because unlike his enemies Jensen will go down far too quickly. Even with maxed out armor Jensen will go down in a few shots. This goes against the whole feeling that you’re a super powered robot man. In a world where everyone is scared of where augmentation is going it doesn’t make sense for Jensen to be so weak. Near the end of the game I had almost every upgrade and Jensen felt far from a super soldier.

Bosses like this chick are really
not fun to fight when they can take a million hits.

The worst part of the combat becomes clear in the boss fights. If you follow the games suggestions and spec towards stealth you’re basically screwed. The bosses in this game are insane. You’re trapped in a small room with a person who generally has a huge gun. The normal enemies seem like they can take bullets, but the bosses put that to shame. The best bet is to throw a grenade shoot them a bit, then run away. It’ll take a long time, but you’ll eventually be able take them down. This problem may have been created because the boss fights were done by a different studio than the rest of the game. Regardless of what happened these fights are terrifically hard for most people who will play this game.

If you add together everything that Deus Ex: Human Revolution has to offer the good outweighs the bad, but not by much. While the combat may not be the best thing about the game it’s certainly competent.  Finding out about the world is more than enough reason to brave the sometimes frustrating and mediocre combat. There’s something about the universe of Deus Ex that compelled me to find out about everything. I hacked every computer and read every E-book I could find. That’s the mark of a well crafted world.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution had a lot to live up to. It does well almost in spite of itself. While it doesn’t exactly top its predecessor it doesn’t do it any great injustice either. Human Revolution could have been a horrific crash and burn for Square-Enix, but they ended up doing good by the name of Deus Ex. While I don’t think Human Revolution is one of the greatest games this generation it’s certainly a game that should be checked out.


Note: This review is also posted on giantbomb.com

     -Manny

Review of DLC for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

This is a review of the DLC Rise from the Ashes for the Wiiware release of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Score: 5/5

The original Phoenix Wright games were for Gameboy Advance in Japan. They were eventually ported to Nintendo DS and released across all regions. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney received an extra case when it was ported to the DS called Rise from the Ashes. This bonus case utilized the additional capabilities of the DS to add a bunch of new gameplay elements. This case was not included with the Wiiware release of the game, but was added later as an optional download.

Rise from the Ashes may be one of the best cases in the series, if not the best. I may be mistaken, but I feel safe in saying that it’s the longest case in the whole series. It takes place after the final case of the original game. Phoenix has proven victorious and Maya has left for spirit training. The case begins when Ema Skye visits Wright and Co. Law offices. Her sister has been accused of Murder and she needs a defense attorney. The interesting part about this case is that two murders happened in the exact same fashion in two places. In this case you’ll meet many exciting characters, but that’s standard fare for the Ace Attorney series. Where this case differs the most is in the gameplay.

Just like the rest of the game Phoenix will need to investigate areas and speak with people involved with the case in order to gain information and evidence. This is done the same as in the main game, but Phoenix has some new evidence gathering tricks up his sleeve. Ema Skye takes Maya’s place as Phoenix’s assistant in this case and it just so happens she’s a forensic scientist. Early on in the case she’ll give Phoenix luminal fluid, which can be used to search for washed away blood stains. Using the fluid allows for the player to spray around the crime scene with the Wii-mote until a blood stain appears. This allows for more information to be gathered at the crime scene.

Another new gameplay element is the ability to search for fingerprints. In certain story sequences you will have to choose an area to search for fingerprints. Using the Wii-mote powder can be sprinkled over the area. Shaking the Wii-mote will get rid of the powder, leaving a fingerprint behind. Once you have the fingerprint you will need to try to match it against everyone you’ve met so far. This allows for even more evidence.

These two new investigation techniques may not seem like much, but they vary the gameplay quite a bit. The Phoenix Wright games were very similar in gameplay, so it’s refreshing to see some new content in this case. It gives the player more interaction with the game in fun ways. I find it odd that they only added this type of interaction to the first game though. It seems like a missed opportunity for the series.

This case also utilizes the improved graphical capabilities of the DS. At one point in the case there is a videotape that must be reviewed. Everything that happens is rendered in full 3d and animates quite well. It would have been cool to see this in the following Phoenix Wright games, but I was content to see it here.

Rise from the Ashes is an excellent case. It has memorable characters and a great overarching plot. The addition of the new gameplay mechanics make this case even better. If you have Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney on Wiiware it’s hard to pass up this add-on when it only costs a dollar.


Note: This review is also posted on giantbomb.com

     -Manny