Puzzle Agent comes from the guys at Telltale Games – one of my favourite developers. Think of Puzzle Agent like a Professor Layton – you’re an investigator who’s trying to solve a big case which is achieved by solving several puzzles. The language is not lost in translation here – the puzzles make sense as do the clues for the puzzles. Puzzle Agent is available on PC via Steam and Telltale Games, iPhone and iPad and PlayStation Network.
Since there’s not really any big releases this month I thought we could do Backlog Month where we pick some games out there you might have skipped over but are definitely worth your time. The first one I thought of was Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley for XBLA. It’s from the guys behind Splosion Man and the upcoming Ms Splosion Man. It’s a side scrolling platformer but it is brutally difficult – think Ghouls & Ghosts. What makes up this brutality is the humour – it’s hillarious and one of the funniest games I’ve actually played. It’s dropped in price too so now is the best time to go check it out.
So I think we made it clear with previous news stories that we weren’t hyped for F.3.A.R. F.E.A.R. 2 was good but not great and I would say the same thing about the original game too. While the horror moments are great and the atmosphere was intense – I just felt like it was very repetitive. You knew when you were going to take on about ten enemies because you’d enter an open room.
F.3.A.R is similar but there are definite improvements – the environments for one are a lot more interesting. I’ve wondered the forest in a mech, walked through sewers and even the first Interval is in a prison facility. I haven’t come across a single office building yet like the previous two games – it’s been quite refreshing.
The enemies are also a little more varied – you still face the guys in SWAT gear but there are also enemies that resemble the guys in Condemned 2 which look mutated, are not padded up and use whatever piece of metal they can find on the ground to try to beat you to pulp. This also makes the game a more refreshing experience.
The “scares” are still there – Alma will appear and disappear in a blink of an eye, shadows will play mind games on you and bodies will suddenly come to life to try and take your life. Despite a lot of it being done before it still creeps the hell out of you when you’re playing in the dark and anyone who says it doesn’t is full of shit.
Day 1 Studios (not the original developers) has also implemented a scoring feature – this is because the game was created for co-op play. You are supposed to team up with Paxton Fettel – the main antagonist from F.E.A.R. Paxton’s dead and features many psychic abilities including possessing an enemy’s body and then use their weapons against their team mates and a psychic blast that causes damage. If you choose to play F.3.A.R alone then you can replay the Intervals as Paxton later. But back to the scoring – it works similar to Shadow Complex. Kill someone with a particular weapon 10 times and you’ll get points, find psychic and get 1500 points, do something else and get more points. The player with the most points scores the Favourite Son award and unlocks items.
I think F.3.A.R is probably the best game in the series – it is a lot more fun then the previous games and the co-op adds a new dimension and is actually implemented really well. Even if you choose to play the game single player then you can play through again as Paxton and it’s a completely different game. So I’m going to say it’s highly recommended.
Shadows of the Damned is fucked up – I really shouldn’t be surprised even though I’ve never played a Suda 51 game but I am fully aware of the type of games he makes. Suda isn’t the only guy behind Shadows of the Damned – he has Shinji Mikami who made the Resident Evil games helping out on this project. Plus it also has one of my favourite composers Akira Yamaoka who has done the music for the Silent Hill games. So if you combine all this talent into game then you should know you’re going to get one hell of a game – no pun intended.
Shadows of the Damned stars Garcia Hotspur, apparently his real name, who is a demon hunter. His girlfriend gets taken to hell by a pen dero named Fleming and Garcia ends up following them down into hell where as you would expect it’s a bit of a mess there. What kind of mess? I don’t really know where to start. How about when the world is surrounded in this evil darkness that slowly kills you – you have to find a Goat head mounted on the wall in order to restore light. Or how about finding a strawberry or eyeball or brain to feed a crying demon baby head on a wall. There’s also this giant demon you fight that after defeating him once – he goes and takes a piss in a fountain that creates the evil darkness. I’m pretty sure he didn’t wash his hands but he did zip up his demon pants thankfully.
You’re armed to the teeth with Jeremy – a skull head with a posh accent that can transform into a pistol called Boner, shotgun and machine gun. He also provides some comic relief and advice on how to survive in hell so he’s worth listening to. If you do get injured then alcohol will cure what ails ya – you’ll find tequila, sake and other items are or you can go to the Absinthe vending machine to stock up.
Shadows of the Damned plays a lot like Resident Evil 4 – it’s in third person over the shoulder that zooms in when you go to aim at enemies. All the weapons have laser-sight so you can aim properly and head shots are a sight to see especially if you get one on the first shot at an enemy. Fortunately you can move while aiming at enemies and there is a melee attack if they get to close. If you have played Resident Evil 4 or 5 then you’ll be right at home with the control scheme and the format of the game. It’s broken up into several acts with about 6 or 7 scenes in the acts. Some are quite lengthy where you have to travel from one side of the city to the next where as others are puzzle based where you have to solve how you’re going to out of a particular situation and others are just boss battles. There are loading times in between but they’re not as lengthy as
Duke Nukem Forever and Akira’s enjoyable music keeps me from getting upset about these.
The soundtrack is fantastic and it must be if I’m bringing it up because I never have in a review before. I am biased because I am a fan of his but it fits so well. It’s not quite a creepy, chilling soundtrack like the Silent Hill games but more of a fun, intense circus type theme to it and it fits perfectly with Shadows of the Damned.
It’s a very immature game but so what – you will have so much fun with Shadows of the Damned and it’s a game that I can’t fault. The gameplay is fun, the story is not meant to deep but it’s interesting none the less and the soundtrack is the icing on the cake. Go buy this game now because it’s Highly Recommended.
