These err towards bashing a bigger troll (or orc) and so you rinse and repeat through ever more gloomy environments. The RPG elements are present in a skill tree but this is limited. If you’re used to more traditional RPG fodder they probably wouldn’t be enough to entice.

Pippa

What should be a reasonably simple premise of three main characters to alternate between is made painfully clumsy by this game. There’s no swapping between them on the fly and theoretically you only get the option to do so at the end of each stage. Thankfully you can wait for a save symbol and quit to the menu before loading one of the other characters to level them up but seriously, I shouldn’t have to.

Co-op wise… at least someone else is leveling up for you. Should you want to play with your friends you’ll need to make sure your characters are on a similar stage as there’s no balancing available. The host of the game has everyone pulled to their last save point.

This resulted in Lewis’ Ranger getting smeared indelicately across a parapet for several attempts before we gave up and changed over. We then ended up with my mage melting everything in sight with a single shitty look. It’s possible that there’s an ingenious menu option to solve this but I’m damned if I could find it. On the plus side there’s hopefully a bit of common sense being used by your team mates. This was in short supply at several points during the single player campaign and would be more than enough motivation for me to wheedle my friends into participating.

It’s not that the single player campaign is bad, it’s just really, really, really repetitive. At first the satisfying death blows and spinning about the place (mostly) elegantly is entertaining. As it slowly dawns that twirly limb chopping is all that’s on the menu for the rest of the game it can be hard to summon the motivation to keep trying the more difficult fights. The varied drops help a little but your companions appear to be massive loot whores; you pass kit to them and then when you switch characters at a later point it will generally have vanished. For those of us that enjoy a little retail therapy it can be quite frustrating to be constantly broke!

Lewis

War in the North was a very brave attempt, being a fantasy RPG releasing in roughly the same time frame as Skyrim. Sadly it doesn’t come across as being nearly as polished. I love Lord of The Rings but this game doesn’t do it justice at all.

Levels are just stand offs against waves of enemies, that is when you aren’t running around delivering necklaces for bored townsfolk. I’m supposed to be helping save the world. No, I won’t get your fucking necklace fixed and tell someone you love them because you don’t have the balls.

Co-op doesn’t really make this game any better. Where most co-op games tend to abandon levels altogether or at least have a decent balancing system, LotR: WitN leaves you behind to rot. Quickly jumping into someone else’s game who is further ahead repeatedly sees you turned into troll chow and popping into a game that is set at a lower level will see you bored senseless. My advice is to leave this for the bargain bin and save your money for the inevitable Lego: LotR now that they own the licence. Or better yet, go play Skyrim.

Rich

Coming from playing fantasy games almost exclusively on PC I wasn’t sure what to expect from War In The North on the Xbox 360. One of the things that did stand out was the sheer level of violence in some of the game’s finishing moves.

In single-player mode, the AI will play the other characters for you so you don’t have to worry about having friends. I found the initial story line pretty strong, and very well tied into the books. During the game, the computer’s AI wasn’t too bad yet still tended to charge into things without real strategy. I’m a sneaky ranged thief player and it frustrated me when the dwarf ran straight into a large group of enemies.

When I was level 4, my single player time was interrupted by an invite from Pippa to try out the multi-player facilities of the game. Pippa was already level 10. I’m not totally sure how the game scaled the instances but it was clear I was quite unprepared for what occurred. Having only played for a little, and being such a low level meant I became the favourite kill toy for the bad guys.

Thankfully you can resurrect people just by holding A for a little time while next to them. This lead to a few group wipes because we died close to one of the major bad guys and it was impossible for one person to resurrect without being hit on.

A tip here; if you are ranged, stay ranged! Now this was the one bit that almost made me quit. Having to redo the same battle again and again was very frustrating.

In Summary

War in the North is an average kind of game. Not dreadful, not awesome. Combat flows nicely in and of itself and the pace of each stage is good, although, at times overwhelming. There are a good few hours of entertainment here but it would have been vastly improved had they worked on certain game design elements, specifically the cumbersome character swaps which ruin any kind of Middle Earth immersion.

The novelty of being able to summon a chuffing huge eagle isn’t enough to convince us that the asking price of £40 is worth it. However, if you’re a fan of the LOTR franchise and it’s on sale somewhere you could do worse.

Dwarf tossing is optional.

Lord of The Rings: War in The North is available now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

French developers Kylotonn thought so too and so they created medieval 3rd person RPG hack-and-slash-em-up The Cursed Crusade.

The action takes place in Jerusalem at the end of the 12th Century. You play Denz de Bayle, a young knight on a quest not only to find his father, but also on a journey to discover his true self. Joining you on this noble quest is the ridiculously-named Esteban Noviembre, a cocky Spanish pirate/soldier who’s in it for fame and glory. However, you both harbour a strange curse where you can summon the Fires of Hell at will to dispatch your enemies and guide you to salvation.

It all sounds solid but the way in which Cursed Crusade delivers this narrative is too complex and meandering to keep you interested for long. Towards the end you may even consider skipping the many cutscenes just to get back to the action, which is a shame as Kylotonn have obviously spent considerable time researching the history of the era.

De Bayle and Noviembre make interesting partners. The banter they exchange with each other is meant to add a light side to the killing. However, a weak script and bad delivery, coupled with the glitches of cutscenes ending suddenly at times leaves you with a sense of profound disappointment.

The Cursed Crusade blends the RPG elements of Warcraft with the hack and slash mentality of an action adventure title, with mixed levels of success. The X and Y buttons control the majority of your attacks and it’s only a matter of time until you’ll be mashing away at those buttons trying to strike the nearest enemy that has the unfortunate job of taking you on. When your opponent’s health gets low, you automatically perform a finishing move. Which move you do depends on what configuration of weapons you’re holding at the time.

The action starts well at first, however soon the repetition kicks in. Killing is pretty much the same time and time again, becoming somewhat of a chore very quickly. That said, the finishing moves are quite satisfying and reassuringly gruesome as you lop your opponent’s head off with one big cleave of your two-handed death sword.

The more enemies you kill, the more your Hell meter fills up, enabling you to activate it at will with a press of the Left Trigger. Once pressed the world around changes dramatically to resemble the fiery pits of Hell and De Bayle is turned into a demon himself, harnessing the fire around him to his advantage to burn enemies in the real world. This provides at least a little relief from the monotony as you move from enemy to enemy. Activating the Hell Power also reveals hidden objects such as chests and the souls of warriors that have come before, waiting for redemption.

As you slash away, your weapon becomes worn and loses its effectiveness before eventually breaking, rendering it useless. This can lead to many bouts of aimless running around the level searching for a weapon that – not only is difficult to make out in the muddy textured floor – you have no idea until you find it whether it’s less broken than the one you hold in your hand. Also, there are no statistics for the any of the weapons in Cursed Crusade as you would expect from an RPG. I found this to be a glaring omission from the game. Even though there are plenty of different swords, daggers, shields and maces to pick up, they are too similar to cause you to care which one you pick up, taking a lot of the tactics out of the gameplay. On the plus side, the mixing up the weapons types can lead to some cool-looking finishing kills.

As you progress through dungeons and castle sieges, you’ll pick up artefacts and hidden objects which count towards your Victory Points. These points translate into levelling up combos and special moves for you to use in the next zone. They’re also used to increase your health and stamina, which refreshingly is more akin to the RPG that Cursed Crusade claims to be. However as I’ve mentioned before, you’re too busy button mashing to try and pull off the moves you’ve just unlocked. If only they’d looked at the way Batman: Arkham Asylum handled the combat, relying on timing rather than random button pressing to execute attacks. It’s much more rewarding. I imagine Kylotonn have put secret items into Cursed Crusade to increase it’s replayability factor, however you’ll find little motivation to go back to the game as you watch those final credits roll.

You can have someone else control Noviembre on Co-op or over Xbox Live but this adds little to the overall gameplay. Several sections in Cursed Crusade require both you and your AI or human companion to work together to accomplish certain tasks and missions. This is controlled by accurately-timed button presses as shown on the screen when appropriate. In practice your partner will lag behind fighting an enemy that seems invincible until you track back, find them both and kill his enemy with one blow. There were some cases that this didn’t even work, leaving you flailing your weapon wildly when all you want to do is open a door.

The AI of Cursed Crusade also leaves a lot to be desired. There are times where you will be fighting with some allied soldiers who freeze up and don’t move to help you, leaving you all exposed to the wave after wave of the same enemy and resulting in many annoying and pointless deaths. Enemies and friendlies alike get stuck in walls, or behind ramparts causing you to retrace your steps until you find and deal with the culprit only to start yet another cutscene. There are no checkpoints and the only autosaves happen at the end of the level. If you die at the end, you’re going all the way back to the start. Checkpoints have been with us for decades, folks, why have they been omitted here?

Graphically, Cursed Crusade is not without it’s issues too. Cutscenes suffer from some of the worst screen tearing I’ve ever seen and the clipping of scenery or a broken chair floating five feet in the air is simply unforgivable at times. The camera angles change almost at random, leaving you disorientated and vulnerable to attack.

Despite its best efforts, Cursed Crusade is rife with glitches and inconsistencies. It really worries me why Kylotonn would have released such a game with these errors still present. One such glitch is that when you get to title screen the game has completely muted itself, so you have to go into the options menu and manually turn the volume back up again. This is but a minor inconvenience when compared to the massive unresponsiveness of the controls. On paper, the control system works well. In practice there can be huge delays between button presses and action, sometimes not even responding at all. This results in you taking unnecessary damage and caused me a lot of frustration.

Cursed Crusade’s potential from the outset was evident however graphical inconsistencies, glitches and bland, repetitive gameplay tell an altogether different story. It does teach us the value of accurately testing a game before release and not to be complacent with developing even the most basic of gameplay and plotline mechanics before you release it to the public. It also shows us that just because a topic has been researched thoroughly to try and develop an interesting backstory, if you don’t make it varied and engaging to the player, that effort means absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, the creators of Cursed Crusade have banished this game to a bargain bin Hell from which it may never, ever return.

The Cursed Crusade is available now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Setting The Scene

From the opening cut scene onwards, Dark Souls sets up a moody, almost poetic background to its particular breed of gameplay, which blends RPG elements with an extemely tight combat system and subtle online interactions. Having been unceremoniously thrown into an Undead Asylum, your characters’ first taste of combat comes against an Asylum Demon that is bigger than a house, and night on impossible to beat, given that your only weapon is a broken sword. This encounter gives rise to Rule Number 1 in Dark Souls: if something seems too tough to beat, best run away and try again later.

As the game progresses over the first few hours, Dark Souls drip feeds information to the player, but never enough to make you feel completely aware of your situation. In terms of storyline, information is gleaned from a small number of cut scenes, along with brief interactions with various NPCs, inhabiting the often dreamlike world that has been lovingly crafted around you. This feeling of inhabiting a dream lends Dark Souls an ethereal quality, which is heightened by the hugely inventive level and character design, which often left me staring in awe and horror, sometimes in equal measure.

Prepare To Die

Whilst Demon’s Souls, and now Dark Souls, both carry a reputation for having an exceedingly high difficulty level, this is not the whole picture, by any means. Whilst you will find that you die a heck of a lot in Dark Souls, the game tries to use this as a learning experience, rather than a stick to beat you with. As with real life though, some lessons are harder than others. Particularly painful are the deaths that occur when the stakes are highest, but by the same token, the incredible rush of emotion that occurs at a moment of success is that much sweeter, given the effort it has taken to achieve.

The Keys to Success

Levelling up in Dark Souls is paramount to success, as are the procurement of better armour, rings and weapons, which can help you succeed against what often seem to be impossible odds. The souls acquired from dead enemies can be used to develop your character in any way you see fit, and the weapons that you carry can be crafted further, with the use of Titanite, into items of incredible destructive power. As you progress through the game, you will come to realise quite how important a good arsenal of weapons is, as the game throws tougher and tougher enemies at you, along with some of the most daunting boss battles ever seen in a video game.

Boss battles are an absolutely core part of the Dark Souls experience, and each boss encounter has one thing in common – when you first meet them, you will doubt your ability to triumph. But triumph you will, given the right tools and the right approach, and sometimes the help of a fellow adventurer, using the online functionality of the game.

Online support in Dark Souls is beautifully integrated into the game world, and never feels like it is jarring you from what is essentially a solitary, and at times lonely, experience. Lay down a white soapstone message and you can offer your help to fellow travellers, ghosting into their game as a white phantom, providing assistance in beating a level, or taking down a boss.

Conversely, lay down an red soapstone, or a cracked orb, and you will find yourself invading another player, looking to strip them of their humanity and souls. Between these two extremes lie a messaging system, which can offer either help or misinformation to other players, and a covenant system that opens a whole world of possibilities for online interactions.

A True World

Dark Souls is a game that encourages the player to think, explore and experiment for themselves. Thankfully, the world that has been created is an absolute joy to travel through, and the way that the game opens new areas and shortcuts as you progress is done with incredible attention to detail.

The draw distances in the game are huge, with threats yet to come often sighted on a distant battlement, or in the depths of a poisonous swamp. Coupled with the permanence of your movements and actions, and the fact that you will barely see a loading screen in your time with the game, you can begin to feel like you are experiencing a living, breathing environment.

In terms of game length, Dark Souls offers players a substantial campaign, with the further possibility of side quests, online interactions, crafting and covenant membership that can take it to well over 100 hours for the first playthrough. Personally, I completed the game in just over 70 hours, having explored a lot of the optional areas, and carried out a little bit of voluntary work for the good folks of the forest covenant.

For those players looking to invest even more time in the game, it is actually designed to be played through on multiple occasions, by entering New Game Plus.

In NG+, you get to keep most of your equipment and your character level, but will find that the difficulty level has been significantly increased. Perfect for anyone chasing achievements or trophies.

In Summary

Dark Souls is a worthy successor to Demon’s Souls. It offers a unique and powerful approach to the RPG genre, that provides a level of challenge unseen in many other modern games. If you want to sit back and be part of an interactive movie spectacle, then this is probably not the game for you. If, on the other hand, you want to immerse yourself in a deeply personal adventure, set in a beautifully crafted fantasy world, that can shock and surprise like nothing else released this year, then you should give Dark Souls your time. You won’t regret it.

Dungeon Siege III is once again set in the kingdom of Ehb, some 150 years after the events of Dungeon Siege II. The 10^th Legion is almost totally wiped out, thanks to the game’s main antagonist, Jeyne Kassynder, and has driven the current Queen Roslyn underground, into hiding. Only a few legionnaires remain, hidden and lead by a former Legion spy, known as the Venerable Odo.

You can choose from one of four characters in your effort to rebuild what is left of the Legion, regain the people’s trust in them and stop Jeyne Kassynder, who is hell bent on revenge against the Legion. Each of the four characters represent which approach of attack you wish to take. Lucas is the youngest son of the former king and of the first Dungeon Siege’s protagonist, Lady Montbarron. He fights using a single or two-handed sword, depending which stance is chosen in combat. Anjali, a mythical being, uses fire magic to attack and can morph from human form with a spear to elemental fire form. Reinhart is a descendant of another original Dungeon Siege character, Merik, and uses magic as his base of attack. Katarina is the long range attack option, wielding either a pair of shotguns, or a rifle, again depending on the stance chosen. She also has deep ties to the murdered king.

Finishing the game as Lucas, I discovered that each of the aforementioned characters actually join your party at different junctures of the story, to become an available NPC partner, to assist in the quest. Only one of the other characters is available at any one time, but as you level up, so do all your characters, even if not active. Very un-Final-Fantasy-like but rather handy if need a quick swap around of styles on the battlefield. The NPC’s AI is okay; they just attack, attack, and attack some more and pretty much look after themselves. Anjali can look rather silly trying to fry enemies with a fence in the way, that fence will not burn lady, no matter how hard you try!

If your NPC team mate falls in battle, a quick hold of RB over their body will revive them, with 50% health. They will also return the favour should you fall in battle also. Many boss fights (and there are MANY) can be very distracting, as all the other enemies focus on you, the player, so a lot of the damage is in fact dealt by your partner. Working through the quest was a constant heal-a-thon. Enemies deal a lot of damage, so constant dodging and blocking (where possible) is paramount to completing the game.

There is also a wealth of collectible armour and weapons available to enhance your characters along your quest, obtainable via chests, scattered around Ehb. Those you don’t need, you can sell at stores located in most areas along the quest. I did find that was the only use for the stores though; there are so many accessories available in chests (for free), I never had to use a shop to buy anything, ever.

Dungeon Siege’s graphics, although not awful by any means, look at least a couple of years out of date, if not more. Included is the ‘golden trail’ line to direct to the location of the current quest (as seen in the Fable series) with a click press of ‘Up’ on the D-Pad. This is a nice touch, as the Kingdom of Ehb is vast, if linear. The plot is also fairly thin, also; anything that would be regarded as a twist you can see coming from a mile away, but the voice acting is well done, if vastly overwrought.

The main camera view is above the character more than Fable but combat is almost identical – in other words, boring and repetitive. I actually fell asleep for a few minutes during a battle, whilst repeatedly hitting the ‘A’ button, and had received very little damage. Who’s a clever AI, eh? Have an apple. Or not. Overall I felt that, in Dungeon Siege III that combat is all the game has to offer from each quest.

Ultimately the game’s core is just Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 all over again, with the only difference being the Fable-esque setting. Starts out promisingly, but you will be grateful once it has ended. Very, very mediocre game.

Opening

Dead Island announces its arrival with a powerful opening cinematic, seen from the same first person perspective that you are locked into throughout the game. The Dead Island of this alcohol fuelled, hedonistic opening sequence is certainly not the subtle, melancholic mood piece hinted at by the earlier controversial ‘family’ trailer. This intro piece not only gives a teaser of events that are to come, but also helps define the broad, brash and confident approach to zombie slaying that is Dead Island’s speciality.

Character Selection

On starting the game proper, the character selection screen gives you four options to choose from – two male and two female characters, all with certain skills that they can bring to the game. Providing you are happy for your character to come from the ‘Big Book of Horror Movie Stereotypes’ you are pretty spoiled for choice. Personally I chose Sam B, a burned out hip-hop star, who has been reduced to personal appearances at luxury hotel resorts to pay the bills. Thankfully Sam is also a bit tasty with his fists and improvised blunt weapons, as I discovered when entering combat for the first time.

Zombie Slaying

Having played many games featuring zombies in the past, I thought I was well prepared to tackle the undead hordes in Dead Island. However the combat system in this game is about as far as you can get from a Resident Evil or Left4Dead title, being nearly all about brutal and often claustrophobic melee combat. Sure, there are guns in the game, but it is a very long time before you get your hands on one, and even then, they are best used sparingly, with ammo being one of the scarcest resources on the island of Banoi.

Fighting a horde of zombies in Dead Island is at times disorientating, as screams come from the distance and you are descended on from unexpected angles. The analogue control scheme, which I would highly recommend, ramps up the tension further. It allows you to aim at certain parts of the zombies’ bodies and direct your attacks accordingly, using the right stick in a style reminiscent of Fight Night. During this melee combat, bones will break, heads and limbs will become detached and still the zombies will come at you. At times during the game, I found myself flicking the right control stick as if my life depended on it, which is a great testament to the level of immersion that had been created.

A Zombie RPG?

Whilst the gameplay in Dead Island is very combat heavy, this game is really an RPG at heart, and as such the story plays out through a succession of quests and optional side quests. The main plot takes you through three sections of Banoi Island, interacting with a huge variety of NPCs along the way, and engaging in quests which take in all aspects of survival in the wake of a zombie outbreak.

The island itself is huge, and there are a plenty of hidden areas and side quests to find, if you take the road less travelled and make time to really explore your surroundings. On entering certain buildings, I would hear a desperate message being broadcast, or see signs of events that had gone before. These audio and visual clues would often then become part of a quest further down the line, helping reinforce the feeling of being part of a very real game world.

The only real breaks in this immersion came on the few occasions when the game glitched on me, such as when the keeper of the lighthouse introduced himself for the second time in a row, seemingly oblivious to our previous meeting. With objects always respawning upon re-entering an area, there is also an opportunity to detach yourself from the game world, and get caught up in item farming, but that is not something I found myself needing or wanting to do.

Often the storyline and dialogue in Dead Island is cheesy and even faintly ridiculous, but I really didn’t see this as a failing of the game at all. To my mind, this actually helps the game to sit perfectly into the Friday Night Horror category that it represents so well. No matter how many times you have screamed at someone in a movie not to go into the dark underground car park alone, it is actually great fun to be the one doing it, knowing that something will be lurking around the corner.

If It Ain’t Broke….

With so much of the combat in Dead Island based around melee weapons, it is initially disconcerting to find that these weapons don’t actually last that long. Despite being made of solid steel, even that sturdy looking wrench is going to need to be fixed up regularly. Repairing weapons costs money, which makes no sense at all, particularly in light of the zombie apocalypse that is occurring all around, but I guess it helps the game to tick along, so what the hey.

At the start of the game, money is a bit short on the ground, but scavenging will help keep your pockets full enough to get by. At times it may actually be better just to toss or sell a badly damaged weapon, as the cost of repair can be so high. Stick with it though, and by the middle of the game you should be flush enough to be putting your cash towards upgrading and modifying your increasingly impressive armoury.

The weapon upgrading and modding system certainly doffs its cap to Dead Rising 2, but the two games are not really comparable beyond this concept. The weapon modifying system in Dead Island is very structured, with mods only available once they have been earned, usually as a quest reward. My weapon of choice for much of the game was a two handed hammer, modified with various electrical bits and bobs, which produced fantastic shock damage on critical hits. Without wishing to give away any spoilers, I will just say that this weapon was very hard earned, and I made sure it was repaired and by my side for the remainder of the game.

Co-Op

Dead Island can be played entirely in single player mode, with only occasional help, or hindrance, from the odd NPC, but I really feel that this would be missing out on what can be a fantastic co-op experience. Up to four players are able to  jump into the same game world, taking on the zombie hordes together, with the game ramping up the difficulty level accordingly. Leaving my game with open public spaces, I often found players jumping in and out, with their help generally being appreciated, particularly if they had a headset. Joining another player’s game proved very easy, with a subtle message popping up now and again, to advise that someone was nearby and tackling the same section of the game. Hooking up with them was then as simple as pressing left on the D-Pad. There were certain sections of the game that I would not have wanted to tackle single handed, and the drop-in nature of the co-op lent itself perfectly to seeking help on these particular missions.

In Summary

Dead Island is a brutal, melee focussed take on the zombie genre, which offers up to four players the chance to play through a 20+ hour adventure, with the option for further exploration and experimentation. Whilst the game is occasionally rough around the edges, the world that has been created is incredibly immersive, thanks largely to the highly visceral combat system and the feeling of being part of a much larger, if slightly cheesy, story. If you have even the slightest interest in the zombie genre, or are looking for a great co-op experience, I would highly recommend taking a trip to Dead Island.

Dead Island is out now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

* Techland have announced a Day One patch for Dead Island, addressing some  technical issues with the game. Whilst this has now gone live on PS3, the patch was not available for testing on 360 at the time of writing. If you are experiencing problems, try the Deep Silver’s Dead Island Support site.

So what’s it all about? Well that I can’t go into much detail about, it would definitely ruin the game! Here’s what we can tell you. You play Adam Jensen, Head of Security for a US biotech firm called Sarif Industries. Usual run-of-the-mill role – you defend the trade secrets and make sure nothing bad happens. Sure enough, a bunch of black ops guys break in, trash the place to high heaven and kill a bunch of the staff. You get shot to shit and wake up having been modified with military-grade augments – mechanical enhancements to replace parts of your broken body. This is where the game really starts. You’re off to track down what on Earth is going on, and who’s doing it.

The main story line keeps drawing you in to the point where I almost ignored the side missions. Not quite, though. I really wanted to know the details of this world. A lot of the game is about finding out the peripheral story. There’s the usual go-and-find-something-and-kill-it mission, or trying to talk people into telling you more information. Another thing that’s tied into the side quests but very important is that while walking around the streets people will be having conversations; it’s really worth listening to what they have to say. Some of them will have side quests for you but others will give you hints on routes around the city hubs, or even just current events in the local area.

The hacking mini-game is an interesting addition. It’s like that pipe-flow game that you find on most phones these days, where you capture pathways to the goal before your opponent catches up with you. There are various pieces of software that can help you along but you can also get augment upgrades to help you further. Be warned though, for some strange reason people don’t like you hacking their stuff so best to remain hidden while doing it! I was a little annoyed that you cannot hack from a crouch position. Instead, you automatically stand up to hack (and in my case get shot).

There are quite a few augmentations you can choose, though you are limited to how many you can have. This has caused me to actually play a lot of the game without using them. Since I’m not very good at first person shooters, I naturally went down the stealth/persuasion route leading to a lot of hunting around for venting ducts. Think Batman: Arkham Asylum and you will have the general idea. So augmentation-wise I boosted hacking, speech, a few strength augs and I heavily used stealth while playing. However, I still had about 5 points left at the end of the game. Clearly I was being overly cautious, and in the next play-through I will definitely try some other augments.

I had quite a few shit-your-pants moments when sneaking around. A lot of the augments are dependent on “batteries” providing the internal power. Your augmentation system can only automatically regenerate one used battery regardless of how many you actually have. In order to regenerate the rest of them you will need to buy power bars. These come in various types: single bars, packs and big jug-type things.

There I was in a room full of troops that I needed to get past. 10mm gun with silencer in the pocket, but no way to pick the enemy off without everyone opening fire on me. Tried sneaking around, looked for vents… but no luck. Quick check of inventory; drat, no power bars. 1 bar energy is all I have, giving the stealth option for a few seconds. What now? Can’t sprint as they’ll hear, so stealth up and walk over is the only option left.

Walking… almost there… ARGH! Trooper turns around, looking STRAIGHT at me. Stop. Start to sweat as timer running out. I was left with only one final option: an all-out sprint for lift. Slam the call lift button… wait, what do you mean it’s only calling it? Running away I dove into a vent. Hide out while they open fire with everything they got, spraying bullets in the hope that they hit me by accident. Once the lift appears, it’s was time to stealth up again and run over.

If you are playing stealth, this can occur quite often if you aren’t careful with your power bar stash. It’s really worth stocking up on everything you see that will get power back into your internal batteries. It’s almost hand in hand that you’ll want to get all the battery augments as well as the jump augment. I must admit that I haven’t used the quiet running augs – combined with the camouflage aug, they drain power very quickly so it’s a hefty trade off.

For weapons there’s a good selection. It’s not quite on a scale with The Matrix but still reasonable. I’m old-fashioned and stick with a 10mm pistol for almost everything. You can use stun guns, and the like, but honestly if I want them down and not dead, I’ll go up close and personal and take them out hand-to-hand. Weapon modifications are available and it’s really worth getting these. The 10mm I used had damage modifiers and a laser scope, as well as increased ammo capacity.

One thing I’ve noticed is that people seem to be discussing the “lack” of ammunition in the game. This is not Call of Duty, or an FPS. You are not supposed to be running in, guns blazing, spray-and-pray style. I’m almost always using the 10mm pistol, sneaking and taking head shots. It’s not that difficult. Laser targeting makes precision aiming easy, and then there’s an add-on which turns bullets into guided missiles. Well not really; they can bend their trajectory a bit.

The machine pistol will hammer through ammo, especially if you have a heavy trigger finger. It’s a full automatic, so what do you expect? Even with it and the combat rifle, you can use it like a semi-automatic just by tapping the trigger rather than holding it down. I’ve done single head shots like this when the 10mm has been out of ammo.

The game’s AI is interesting at times. I’ve blown up mines around the corner from lots of troops, yet they don’t bother to come take a look. Also, they seem to fear going into ducts, so I’ve sat in a duct shooting them all in the nuts with a pistol. It does feel weird being able to take out half-a-dozen guys like that. Other times though, they’ll unload like its World War III and you dare not even peek around the corner.

Eventually you will come to the bosses. These all fit into the story and aren’t just random creatures. The problem is there’s no way to avoid the boss fights, so even if you are going to try stealth it out, you can’t. This is a little frustrating, and did lead to my buying some augments that are more geared towards FPS than stealth. Even with this, some of the fights I found overly hard due to the build I had and had to use a lot of painkillers.

Style-wise the game pulls off a very orange/yellow Bladerunner vision of the future. I must say, at times it’s a bit depressing. Reminds me of London on a rainy day. The cities are pretty impressive, there are people everywhere doing their city things. Cut scenes are all really well done; good cgi and really good voice acting. However, some bits are a little disappointing, like the sky looked blotchy and unfinished though this may be because it’s on Xbox 360. The PC version (which I do not have yet) has been redone for DirectX 11 and the screenshots look simply stunning.

Replay value? I’m definitely going to play through again, being mean and cold this time. I’m not sure if I’d change play styles though – I am not twitch gamer. I’d say you probably will play it again, but it’s not going to be a game you keep playing forever, especially as it does not have multi-player.

All in all, we’ve established it’s not a full on FPS, but neither is it a full stealth game like Thief. It’s pretty common knowledge that System Shock had a heavy influence on the original Deus Ex, and this shows to this day in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This game is a far better candidate for the spiritual successor to the System Shock legacy than the BioShock series.

To me, Deus Ex has almost perfectly-created gameplay. The storyline had me hook, line and sinker. This just made the game, and to me would have made a pretty good movie script, although at times a bit contrived. The end story wraps it all together and leaves you with something to think about. Sure, it’s not as in-depth as a theology PhD, but hey, it’s better than most games.

Now, when is the next one coming out? Guess I’ll have to settle for Thi4f… or Syndicate if the rumours are true.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a very entertaining role-player with a great storyline and options for everyone. The AI could use some work, as could the realism for hiding while shooting or hacking. Choosing to play as a stealth build will leave you at a disadvantage for the boss battles. Ultimately though, the game is very rewarding. As long as you’re not expecting to blindly run-and-gun through every location, everyone should be able to find a play style to enjoy.

This game will be release in the UK on 26th August. Order Deus Ex: Human Revolution from Play.com.

Footnote:

From the Eidos Forums, there were questions about in-game advertising. I’ll be honest here, I didn’t notice any. Either I’m already conditioned to blank out advertising, or it’s very subtle.

Interesting how Eidos Montreal are developing Thief 4 (aka Thi4f) again to be published by Square Enix. I’m sure a lot of the core functionality from Deus Ex: HR will appear in this game and that’s made me very interested in playing it! This isn’t the first time this has happened, Thief: Deadly Shadows was powered by Deus Ex: Invisible War engine.

Late on a Tuesday afternoon last month I was escorted into a giant tree filled with technology to check out TERA from Bluehole Studio. Yes, it’s yet another fantasy MMO with buxom babes and humongous hunks. In this one you actually have to aim at your target and pushing a button causes your character to attack instantly instead of waiting for an invisible turn counter to tick over. Or something. I’m not entirely clear why there’s an important distinction between a game that uses random number generators to determine a hit and one that needs you to hold your mouse in the right place while standing within range but apparently some people object to the lock-on targeting in so many MMOs. To me, it just adds an unnecessary and rather tedious layer of complexity to the whole thing.

Seriously… learning to recognise the attack animations of a dozen different mobs, learning the counter-attacks to each of those attacks, paying attention to the aggro range of nearby targets and watching out for your team-mate’s health bar isn’t enough? You want me to constantly point my mouse at the target while dodging multiple enemies as well?

You people are masochists who have been confused by a childhood of twitch platformers into thinking that frustration equals pleasure. You have been ruined by first-person shooters into thinking that holding your mouse over something is a useful and practical skill that should be implemented as widely as possible. In short, you are insane ;)

Luckily for you, Bluehole Studios is building exactly what you’ve asked for. The section we played was a 4-person team mission to take out a large blue dragon. We rode out of town on our beautiful horses to hunt the dragon that was plaguing the nearby hills, or some such excuse. I played the assassin/rogue/DPS type, as I usually do, and boy was that a mistake. I have no doubt that some of my problems were down to unfamiliarity with my skills but take note: playing a low-defence melee class when up against an enemy that stacks area-of-effect (AoE) attacks puts you on a hiding to nothing. I spent the entire mission running in and out of the danger zone with barely enough time to do any damage and completely unable to see who I was dodging into because I had to keep my cursor over the damn target.

Now, let’s not be completely unfair and biased here. I have no doubt that my character is brilliant when up against an enemy who doesn’t rely on AoE attacks. You have your flanking bonuses that are typical for the class and the animations provide wonderful cues as to when you should dodge. When one of us did draw an additional mob into the fray, I had no trouble dispatching it while everyone else concentrated on the dragon. Those other classes did a great job of taking down our target. I was just squishy and frustratingly useless at range.

Aim-to-hit isn’t the only feature that TERA brings to the world of MMOs. Towns will be run by elected maximum-level players, ensuring that a beautifully complex meta-game will spring up around the political system and giving players something to do at endgame. There are two ways to come into power. You can either be at the top of your PvP game or you can win a popular vote among other gamers.

The incentives to aim for power look far more interesting than most MMOs, where power usually just means that you lead a guild with all the lovely people-management that entails. Most of us have jobs, thanks. We don’t need to deal with that crap in our leisure time too. In TERA you get to run the town. As the “Vanarch” you can raise or lower taxes, hold town events, put people in jail and choose what sort of shops are available to your people. Best of all (to my egocentric, self-promoting sensibilities) you will be literally on the map in your area. Everyone who ventures nearby will know that this is your town, goddammit and they better play nice if they know what’s good for them.

Here’s a video showcasing the combat from the E3 demo that I played.

We’re going to Gamescom next month so let me know if you have any questions on TERA. As always, drop them in the comment section and we’ll put them to the developers when we have the chance.

Edit: I should be clearer – I don’t really believe that people who dislike dice-roll combat are insane. I genuinely don’t understand the attraction. In any challenging PvP or PvE combat there’s so much to track that the aiming requirement seems more a hindrance than an advantage. As soon as you have more than 1 mob in a battle – and particularly with the amount of spell and skill animations lighting up the screen – it seems like it would be absolute mayhem trying to track your target, defend yourself, watch your team, watch for incoming, counter attacks AND do significant damage. Where’s the appeal in aiming and switching off auto-attack? I honestly would like to know as it feels like a step backwards to me.

Screenshots

The character creation is flexible, but does not take hours. I’m still curious as to why red elfs, but at least it’s different! There are only a few races, 3 per side. After designing my character, I headed on into the game. For a change I’ve decided to try out the Rogue tree, on a PvE server. There are plenty of classes, all based around “The Ascended” system. This is similar to talent points in WoW, but it directly influences your end class choice. What’s nice as well is that by the end game, you can have up to three classes defined. Currently you will be limited to adding souls from within your specific calling (warrior, cleric, rogue, or mage).

Once into the game, it’s fair to say that if you’ve ever played an MMO you will know what’s going on. The game draws you in, slowly introducing you to the controls and interface. These are very polished for a beta, and drew positive comments from my colleague. So far, I’ve yet to find a need for any of the multitude of addons I use in WoW. Quests are (so far) your usual, go kill x of y and come back. That’s not to say this is bad; they are tied into the main story line and make for logical progression.

Overall my initial impression is very positive. The beta is very stable, with no apparent issues (so far). Will it defeat the almighty WoW? No, but it may steal some players who are already bored of the new content.

When I put Demon’s Souls into my PS3 for the first time, it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. This was a game that had attracted a huge amount of attention on import, not just for its innovative take on the RPG genre, but also for its notoriously high difficulty level, which had been discussed in hushed, almost reverential terms in certain quarters. So, did it live up to its reputation?

Demon’s Souls is set in the kingdom of Boletaria, which like so many other mythical kingdoms in the gaming world, has been besieged by a terrible menace. So far, so familiar, right? What isn’t so familiar is the fact that your character will be dead before the training section of the game is complete. Whilst this is a bit of a downer at the time, and might be considered a final act in many games, death in Demon’s Souls is something that you will quickly become familiar with. When playing this game, you will die. A lot. But fear not, for you will soon be reborn, in Soul form, to the Nexus.

The Nexus is the central hub of Demon’s Souls, a place to seek refuge from the brutality, horrors and hard-as-nails bosses that you will encounter in each of the game’s five worlds. You could think of the Nexus as a departure lounge, imbued with the aesthetic and ambient qualities of a gothic Café del Mar. It is a great place to catch your breath, check what you are carrying, drop off any excess baggage with a friendly NPC and prepare yourself for the next part of your journey.

Beyond the arches

Stepping from the Nexus into the world beyond the first Archstone will almost certainly come as a shock to the system. There is no doubt that it is hard going, especially if you approach the game in the same way as, say, God of War. Even the lowliest of enemies has the capability and desire to kill you off when you first set out. Couple this with the fact that bad guys seem to be, quite literally, hiding around every corner and you begin to get a feel for the challenge ahead.

At this point I would urge anyone who is struggling with the game to put their head down, their shield up, and press on. Yes, it is tough going, but if you respect your own vulnerability and edge your way through the game in the early stages, then you can and will succeed. If you find an enemy that appears to be too tough (I’m looking at you, Red-Eye Knight) then it quite possibly is, at least given your current experience level and equipment load-out. When you level up sufficiently and return to the area that gave you trouble before, you might just have a chance of making it through in one piece.

With regard to levelling up, I have to say that grinding is not a concept that usually floats my boat. Whilst Demon’s Souls does involve some grinding, the impact of this is lessened by the beautiful construction of the game world and the strength of its core concepts. At one point my (non-gaming) wife looked up from her work to witness me plunge to my death from the very same cliff for the nth time. “You’re not very good at that game, are you?” she commented. “That’s what I’m trying to do” I replied, and whilst this was true, and I was quite happy in my endeavours, it didn’t really support my ongoing argument for the positive value of gaming.

Otherworldly

The world of Boletaria has obviously been created with a great deal of thought, care and attention to detail. It really does feel like a living, breathing world, from the immense dragons resting quietly on a mountain side, to the Storm Beasts gliding ray-like across darkened skies, and the magical guards patrolling the pitiful prison cells of Latria. Some of the sights in this game are truly a wonder to behold, and I found myself stopping to gaze at my surroundings on many occasions.

The harsh beauty of the environment in Demon’s Souls is tempered by the incredibly hostile situation that you find yourself in. Whilst your journey can at times feel bleak and lonely, there is a wonderfully inventive online element to the game which helps to pull players together, to feel like part of a much larger game world. When playing the game online, you never feel truly alone, due to the anonymous messaging system where other players can leave notes, warnings or even cries for help printed on the ground. You will also witness the ghosts of other players drifting through your world, acting as prophets of impending doom or sometimes just a reminder that ‘you are not alone’.

The online features also include a co-op system, where players can call upon those who are perhaps more experienced, to assist them in their quest. The flip side to this altruistic element is the occasional appearance of a hostile ‘Red Phantom’ – the soul of a player from another game, who has invaded with one thing on their mind – your death and the subsequent return of their own corporeal form. Such occasions can fill you with genuine terror, as you struggle against the game itself and the extra threat of a human player baying for your blood.

Whilst discussing the Demon’s Souls online experience, and the sense of community that it evokes, it is worth mentioning that the EU release of the Black Phantom Edition comes complete with a comprehensive strategy guide. This guide, whilst not entirely essential, is very useful when tackling the game, as there is no easy learning curve, or in-game system to guide your progress. It is very much a case of learning through your own actions and mistakes. To this end, I would recommend making use of the strategy guide, or the equally informative Wiki site (whose authors were actually commissioned to write the Black Phantom guide), as and when you can.

Summary

Demon’s Souls is a game that offers a huge challenge, unsurpassed by nearly anything seen in this hardware generation. It is a game that rewards patient, careful progress, and punishes mistakes without prejudice. Those players that give themselves over to the game will bear witness to a beautifully crafted world, populated by a fantastic selection of characters – some good, some bad and some quite clearly insane. The innovative online features are nearly worth the price of admission alone – but catch these whilst you can, as the US servers are not guaranteed to be running beyond March 2011, and the EU servers may well follow suit. For now though, if you have a spare forty hours or so, and are happy to give it over to one game, Demon’s Souls will happily consume your time, and reward you handsomely in return.

Despite dropping you in the uninhabitable post-apocalyptic wasteland, exploring Fallout 3 is as close to a fully-realised world as I’ve seen since Morrowind. Travelling across the Wasteland is a curious blend of excitement and loneliness.

A Desolate World

Megaton

Excitement comes, not just from the ever-present threat of random attacks, but through the incredible landmarks. You can walk for ages, clambering over rocks and shooting mole rats but not much beats the thrill of discovering a new almost-intact factory, or a cluster of sheds nestling on an old freeway. Buildings harbour people. People means quests!

Coming to Life…

Ruins of a Town

One odd thing I noticed; Fallout 3 doesn’t really have a major quest hub. I guess this is partly a feature of having separate quest chains depending on your karma and partly down to the world design.

Exploring Megaton, sure I did Moira’s whole crazy Wasteland Survival Guide quest chain, which was pretty huge, but beyond that and the bomb I had trouble uncovering much else to do. Every population centre gave me the same feeling, which I appreciate is part of the world design. You just don’t get a Vivek or a Cyrodiil City in a world where people aren’t to be trusted. It feels really weird in an RPG, though.

…and Taking it Away

I won’t talk about the combat or VATS system – doubtless you’ve seen it all before by now but just to refresh your memory, here’s the video of Fallout 3 combat. Let’s just say that it’s a huge improvement over Oblivion combat, which basically required you to flail about while running backwards. Oh, and as with Oblivion, you’d be hard-pressed to play the game as a pure stealth character. Make sure you put some early points into weaponry.

Laser eyes. Pew! Pew!

I will, however, be all over Fallout: New Vegas when it comes out in October. Bright lights, desperadoes and of course, the Strip. What could be bigger than Vegas?

Fallout: New Vegas screenshots