METAL GEAR – METAL GEAR SURVIVE

You’d think that Konami couldn’t have given the Metal Gear franchise a worse sendoff than it did with the troubled launch of MGS5 and the acrimonious departure of series mastermind Hideo Kojima, but the company decided to follow up on those disasters with another major screwup. That came in the form of Metal Gear Survive, an abomination of a survival game with mindless, repetitive mechanics, uninspired design, and an unimaginable misuse of a beloved IP. Metal Gear Survive isn’t mainline, of course, and as such easily ignorable- which is good, because that’s exactly what you should do with it.

Metal Gear Acid 2

While the mainline Metal Gear Solid series has a lot of entries to its name, the Metal Gear property is also home to a couple of spin-off series – including but not limited to Metal Gear Acid. It’s possible that some fans may have tried out this hidden gem, but it’s very unlikely that you knew about its sequel, Metal Gear Acid 2 which was released in 2005. This follow-up to the card-based RPG is everything that fans would desire from a sequel, improving on the elements found in the original while introducing a few new ideas of its own.

The Vita-exclusive Silent Hill: Book of Memories get its first DLC treatment. The DLC will include several balance changes, and adds a slew of bonus content for $5. Here’s what the money will fetch you.

• Ten new playable characters
• 50 new outfits
• 15 new accessories
• 15 new artifacts
• Ten new weapons
• 15 new story notes
• two new enemies
• four new trophies

Silent Hill: Book of Memories takes a drastic turn from the series formula as it incorporates RPG and dungeon crawling mechanics. While it can be entertaining at times, fans, including us feel that it’s just another action RPG game with the Slien Hill label slapped on to it. It feels like the developers were unsure of whether to experiment with action/RPG genre, or stick to survival horror roots, and ended up making camp midway. You can check out our full review of the game here. Let us know what you think about the game over at the comments section below.

For the uninitiated – and though there has been a considerable outcry against this game since its announcement within the core Silent Hill fanbase, there probably aren’t many who are even aware of the game’s existence – Silent Hill: Book of Memories is predicated on the absolute baffling idea that surely must have come to the developers when they were drunk: what would happen if we made a Diablo clone in the Silent Hill universe?

The answer? The concept works surprisingly well, and the game is actually fun to play (although it is outperformed by Heroes of Ruin, which is on a handheld with allegedly weaker online capabilities). As a matter of fact, had it not been for some glaring problems with the game’s execution, it would have been easy for me to label this as one of the best games on the Playstation Vita.

What are these problems with execution, then? Well, first, let me just get the Silent Hill fan’s perspective out of the way, so I can focus on the real, objectively quantifiable issues: because of the genre, Book of Memories is not scary. It’s not even close to scary. The entire atmosphere of the game is grim, but on the whole, the game simply does not deliver the chills at all, in spite of some spooky music and sound effects. Also, the camera angle, which is a zoomed out isometric take on the playing field, precludes any possibility of tension at all.

This isn’t helped by the fact that the game’s story, presentation, and writing is uniformly awful; ordinarily, this isn’t much of a problem with games in its genre, but for Silent Hill fans who are used to the tense and thrilling narratives that the series is known to deliver, this might be yet another transgression.

It’s not like Book of Memories doesn’t try to endear itself to the Silent Hill fanbase. Classic monsters from the series appear, as do the weapons, recreated as faithfully as they possibly could be on an already small screen with a zoomed out camera angle, and with the Vita’s small speakers and whatever sound effects they can provide. But again, at best they serve as a jarring reminder of the fact that this is not Silent Hill, and at worst, they get reduced to generic pixels on your screen that must be attacked.

Of course, all of this would be a huge problem if the game was setting out to be a real Silent Hill game in the first place. It wasn’t. It is, first and foremost, a hack and slash game, and from that perspective, the problems above aren’t really problems at all. They can, at worst, be annoyances, but even that would be stretching it, I think.

Having said that, there are definite problems with the game, problems mechanically that drag the game down and prevent it from being all that it could be; for starters, on the most obvious level, melee combat is next to impossible in this game. The game introduces a concept called weapon durability, in which each weapon takes damage, and can go MIA permanently if it takes too much (unless you repair it, of course). The problem is, melee weapons are highly ineffective at delivering any kind of damage, and incredibly good at taking it; they break very easily and make it easy for you to be overwhelmed by swarming enemies. Effectively, this rules out any and all melee based combat and classes in the game from being viable.

Ranged combat works much better, which is a relief. There are a lot of weapons to choose from, and though to players accustomed to close quarters combat, shooting at your enemy from a distance will never be quite as satisfying as thwacking them up close, it still provides a fun experience.

Of course, the fun of that is slightly dampened when you consider the fact that Book of Memories doesn’t actually let you see the results of your labor. Oh, of course, there’s the loot on screen, and you see your enemies die, but I am talking about all the experience you gain. The experience bar is nowhere on screen, and has to be accessed by pulling it up from the menu screen. One of the reasons games in this genre are as psychologically compelling as they are is that they provide visible incentive to the player to continue playing. More loot, gold, and monsters are incentives, but visible character progression is also an incentive, and Book of Memories takes that away.

That is an eccentricity that you can get used to, however, especially if you have an itch for a portable hack and slash, and you hate the 3DS. Unlike most Vita games, Book of Memories was clearly designed with the portable experience in mind, as levels are short and can be completed in less than ten minutes if you blaze through them. Indeed, that gives a feeling of incredible satisfaction, which again, is paramount to the genre. The fact that they are on the whole solidly designed- solid, but nothing extraordinary, mind you- is great too.

The portability aspect of the game is really hampered by the game’s multiplayer side, which is thoroughly gimped. Both online and local multiplayer are supported, but drop in/drop out multiplayer is not. This is thoroughly inexcusable, given that the genre is dependent on the existence of the feature to begin with, and that a portable game of this nature probably needs it the most. What use is co-op if my friend can’t just jump in and join me, helping me past a level? Having to redo a level, and having the ability to only join games between levels cripples the game’s multiplayer, and actually docks a fair few points from its final score.

Which is a shame. The game plays well, is a solid, engaging, and fun hack and slash experience, and even has some neat new introductions of its own, like the Karma system which it uses to consolidate special powers. Having said that, some glaring oversights make it a poor dungeon crawler, and its basic design makes it a poor Silent Hill game. I don’t know what group exactly the developers and publishers were targeting here, but Book of Memories fails to appeal to both. In spite of being a fun game overall, it remains a game of missed potential.

This game was reviewed on the Playstation Vita.

And if anything had you hoping that Book of Memories would be an exception, than look no further than the character customisations, isometric perspectives, loot collecting and hacking-and-slashing. Konami seems to be trying with Scare Rooms, but really, nothing reduces Prism Head’s scariness like the above trailer.

About Silent Hill: Book of Memories :

Game Overview :

SILENT HILL BOOK OF MEMORIES is an all-new game in the Silent Hill series, with a unique premise and storyline. The story begins with a strange book that is received, inside that book is your entire life story to this point, everything that’s ever happened to you; all of your memories. You discover that by altering what’s written… you can actually change the past and write your own ideal history.

Publisher : Konami

Developer : WayForward Technologies

Platforms : PSV

Release Date : Oct 2012

Stay tuned to Gamingbolt.com for more news and updates.

Konami today announced the definitive release dates for the three 2012 Silent Hill franchise titles: Silent Hill HD Collection, Silent Hill Downpour and Silent Hill Book of Memories.

Silent Hill HD Collection: March 6.
Silent Hill HD Collection serves as a tribute to the core Silent Hill fans by taking the most famous games of the series, Silent Hill 2 & 3, and re-mastering them in high-definition graphics and adding new voiceovers.

Silent Hill Downpour: March 13.
Silent Hill Downpour follows the story of Murphy Pendleton, a convicted felon, who finds himself trapped in Silent Hill after his prison transport bus crashes. Silent Hill Downpour is the most expansive Silent Hill to date, as players can embark on side missions, explore the town and piece more of the mystery of Silent Hill together.

Silent Hill Book of Memories: March 27 Available exclusively for the brand new PlayStation Vita handheld device, Book of Memories is an all-new game in the Silent Hill series, with a unique premise and storyline. The story begins with a strange book that is received; inside that book is your entire life story and all of your memories. You discover that by altering what’s written you can actually change the past. You can write your own ideal history. And for the first time ever in a Silent Hill game, it will support multiplayer, so friends can share in the fright in a co-op mode

Silent Hill Book of Memories is the first KONAMI title to be confirmed for the forthcoming PlayStation Vita portable device, and is also the first ever multi-player Silent Hill title. This cooperative mode lets players explore the Otherworlds together, while scare surroundings, limited resources and dark atmosphere keep the tension high. The story follows a mysterious book, which includes all of the player’s memory – and this content can be altered…