ENSLAVED: ODYSSEY TO THE WEST

Ever the masters of narrative-driven single-player experiences, back in 2010, Ninja Theory delivered Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a game that many consider one of the studio’s best works ever to this day. Sadly, the game ended up a commercial failure. Though acclaimed by many for its storytelling, characters, performances, and its take on the classic Chinese tale of Journey to the West, for whatever reason, it failed to attract a sizeable audience.

THE SABOTEUR

The definition of a cult classic, Pandemic Studios’ 2009 World War 2 stealth action game is one that deserved more praise than it got back in the day. Though it certainly had issues, it had more than enough strengths to make up for them, from an incredible visual aesthetic and an atmospheric setting to excellent open world action and much more.

FIRST HUNTER ENCOUNTER (DEAD SPACE)

Dead Space is a horrifying game that tries to scare you to your wit’s end in a number of different ways- which, of course, include specific sections where you have to escape from a terrifying stalker enemy in the form of the Hunter. The first time this happens is one of the scariest sequences in the game. After quickly realizing that wasting your ammo on this thing is going to do you no good and dashing out of the room in a panic, hearing the thing’s lumbering footsteps slowly moving in your direct can induce quite a panic.

Horizon Forbidden West

Guerrilla Games delivered an excellent sequel with Horizon Forbidden West, a game that corrected almost every criticism with the original all while greatly expanding upon the scope of the original release. Horizon Forbidden West is also a visual powerhouse that presents its gargantuan world with striking attention to detail, and one of the more impressive aspects of that presentation is definitely Aloy’s hair. Sporting dense braided locks, Aloy’s character model has full hair physics for each of these locks that swirl and twirl with each movement. Sure, they are prone to glitching out every now and then which results in some hilarious moments – but by and large, the hair looks and functions in a pretty realistic fashion.

Jak 2 

Naughty Dog had carved out its reputation as one of the best developers with its 3-hit streak of Crash Bandicoot on the PS1. The studio once again reinvented itself with Jak and Daxter on the PS2, masterfully morphing its learnings from previous games into a brand new world. Despite many differences between the two franchises, most of Naughty Dog’s work was focused on building family-friendly experiences and charismatic characters, and light-hearted banter. This then changed with Jak 2, a markedly darker sequel that revolves around the iconic duo being thrust into an open-world futuristic dystopia – all while Jak’s personality becomes much darker after an experiment. Some might see this tonal shift as a welcome shake-up for the series, but many resented this change. Either way, Naughty Dog course-corrected again with the next entry in the franchise. 

For starters, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, which has been available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass for some time, is now available via Game Pass for cloud as well. Meanwhile, February 17 will also bring a number of major additions, most notably with Sega and Creative Assembly’s Total War: Warhammer 3 coming to the service day and date on PC at launch. Lawn Mowing Simulator (on Xbox One) and Madden NFL 22 (console and PC) will also be added on the same day.

Following that, February 22 will bring the early access co-op FPS Roboquest (PC), with 4X strategy game Galactic Civilization 3 (PC) and baseball sim Super Mega Baseball 3 (console) arriving a couple days later on February 24. Finally, Alice: Madness Returns (PC) will arrive on February 28 to close out the month.

The games that are about to leave the Game Pass library soon as Titanfall, Hypnospace Outlaw, Killer Queen Black, Stealth Inc 2, and Touhou Luna Nights.

Nex Machina

Housemarque, better known for the arcade shooter Resogun, released an arguably superior follow-up in Nex Machina. The latter is more of a top-down shooter akin to Robotron and Smash TV, and had Eugene Jarvis – who designed both – as a consultant. The result was an intense, action-packed arcade title with heaps of particle effects, great bosses and excellent areas. Unfortunately, Nex Machina and Housemarque’s other arcade title Matterfall reaped so little success that the developer proclaimed the arcade genre dead and focused on more mainstream genres.

Microsoft continues its initiative to bring the best of the Xbox 360’s library on to the Xbox One, via their excellent backwards compatibility initiative. The latest additions to the service include Alice: Madness Returns, the trippy sequel to the original Alice by American McGee. That original game is actually included as free DLC for Alice: Madness Returns, so you basically get both games playable on the Xbox One here.

Alice isn’t the only trippy game being made playable on Xbox One, either- Suda51’s Shadows of the Damned is also now playable on the console. The game, which was a collaboration between Suda, Shinji Mikami (of Resident Evil fame), and Akira Yamaoka (of Silent Hill fame), is an excellent outing- so do be sure to give it a go if you haven’t already.

The final game of this batch is Rocket Knight, the 2010 Sega game. This one wasn’t actually all that great, but if you’ve a hankering for some old school Sega style gaming, it’s not the worst find you could pick up, either.

Especially when there “was a calculated disconnect created by EA. They wanted to ‘trick’ gamers into believing A:MR was a hard-core horror title, even though we refused to develop it in that tone” said McGee in an AMA session on Reddit.

“What was frustrating was how EA Marketing interfered – telling (creative concept resource) [Shy The Sun] from the start that ALL creative direction and final say would come from them, not from us (the developer/creator of the story/tone).

“Their thinking is, even if the game isn’t a hard-core horror title, you can market it as one and trick those customers into buying it (while driving away more casual customers, like female gamers, who might be turned off by really dark trailers). It’s all a part of the race.”

Given how Madness Returns barely registered a blip on the critical and commercial scale, we’d say it didn’t work out to EA’s expectations.

American McGee is currently working with his new development studio Spicy Horse to developer Akaneiro: Demon Hunters.

Source: GIBiz

Alice in action

Starting off in Alice: Madness Returns you are in your Orphanage type facility, speaking with your doctor and they are trying to make sense of your (Alice Liddell’s) twisted mind.  On the outside she seems like a normal girl but as she goes from the ever so real Victorian London, then back to a very twisted Wonderland… a Wonderland that we have never seen before.  Alice will go back and form between reality and Wonderland through different, random ways.  While in Wonderland, as fans of the original may know, it is no walk in the park as Alice must fight her way through the imaginary world just to survive, let alone get out.  Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to the original game entitle American McGee’s Alice which was haled by many as a masterpiece released back on 2000.  By purchasing the game you automatically gain access to the original game through an online pass code.

The whole story of Alice Madness: Returns revolves around you trying to unravel the memories of your past and your parents death.  In fact there are many collectables in the game like potion bottles, teeth and miniature glowing houses that are suppose to add to add lost memories.  Unfortunately these collectables really don’t do all that much by attaining them all other than giving you a short audio snippet or some achievements/trophies, that is of course aside from the teeth which is used as a form of currency in Wonderland to upgrade your weaponry.  Speaking of weaponry, you will eventually get a number of different items to choose from that also reflect upon the twisted world of Wonderland.  With the Vorpal melee blade being the more normal of them, you will get a pepper grinder that resembles a machine gun, a tea pod that acts as a mortar, a Rabbit Bomb that can be seen as a timed remote mine, and a Hobby Horse that can be used to break through an enemy block, break through barriers or as a heavy attack once upgraded.  You will also gain a handy umbrella to block attacks as well as deflect ranged enemy attacks.  A new targeting system has also been put in place that is easy to use and very familiar from many other games.  All the weapons are upgradeable multiple times, provided you have collected enough teeth to do so.

Never leave home without your Pepper Grinder

Alice: Madness Returns is essentially a 3D puzzle-platformer which has been seen before and is in no way a bad thing.  You can double jump while at times it can be beneficial to let your first jump let you float through air using your dress before the next jump is attempted.  There are steam vents to keep Alice afloat, mushrooms that are used to spring you in the air and of course what modern day platformer would be complete with out some moving platforms.  The world of Wonderland has changed very much since the last game but in the the classic McGee style it has not lost any of the twisted touches that made the original as well as Lewis Carroll’s version so unique.  You will enter a much darker Wonderland if that seems possible after playing the original.  While playing the game thinking to myself how twisted this was from the original, I went even deeper down the rabbit hole even surprising myself as the story and world kept morphing into something new.  Every little detail to the game was so unique and creative in that Wonderland kind of way.  I almost felt as if I was in the dark side of Lewis Carroll’s mind while playing the game.

As impressive as the dark and twisted wonderland was, as you journeyed through the five different environments or stages, there were some issues with the game.  The worlds are filled with detailed environments, but at times it took a moment to actually load the graphics or textures in, which really could have been appreciated more if they were pre-loaded.  Sometimes you might find yourself running into invisible walls or not being able to enter an area while shrunken, which you could clearly enter if there was something beyond that point.  This was not all that common, nor a huge issue but most definitely worth mentioning considering the hidden collectibles strewn across wonderland.  Being able to shrink yourself on command was a delightful bit of humor as you hiccuped every so often while shrunken from drink the potion.  You can also see secrets written on the walls or simply the direction you were suppose to move toward to progress, only while shrunken.  Along with your shrinkage vision, I am sure you can imagine another end of the spectrum without giving too much of the story away.

Awesome creepy environments

With there being only five stages, you will be spending much time in each of them.  While the unique environments are enjoyable to see, they are not as enjoyable hours later.  That coupled with the puzzle system can make the game seem rather repetitive until you reach that next stage.  You can only turn so many switches on that will usually do something extremely obvious until you just know what’s coming next.  There were a few unique puzzles and stages to get away from the normal formula used for the levels though.  The cut scenes were all pretty much this paper cut-out of characters and environments moving which obviously is not the graphic quality you are used to seeing in games, but it was with out a doubt, intentionally used to add to the macabre feel of the game.

Alice: Madness Returns was a fun game, especially if you have a knack for a little darkness or are just a fan of the first game.  I personally due, so it was amusing to see that mixed with the developers art style, along with a classic fairytale that has its own kind of mystery to it alone.  The weapons and environments truly could not have been more creative with a touch of humor.  In terms of content, it really doesn’t get much better than this because even though there are only five stages, you’ll be at the game for at least 12 hours.  On top of that with the original American McGee’s Alice included with every purchase you are essentially getting a whole other game.  If you were a fan of the original or are just looking for something different, I would suggest you check out the game, because there is really nothing else like this on the market.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.