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Attack of the B-Grade Games
The best games on the market are referred to as AAA titles. This refers to the cost required to make them, but it's often used to indicate the quality of a game title as well. Not every disc you pop in a drive can be God of War, though. Games that honestly give their all deserve at least a little respect; B for effort, as it were. Today I have impressions for two titles that favour style over substance and go down swinging, filling the screen with hundreds of NPCs for sheer shock value. Capcom's Dead Rising and the Dynasty Warriors wannabe Ninety-Nine Nights manage to both disappoint and satisfy. Like B-grade films, they're so bad that you just might love them. Read on for the Attack of the B-Grade Games!
As photojournalist Frank West, you're dropped into the Willamette mall to cover the story of the century. An entire town has gone red-eyed and shambling, and you're there to cover it with your camera in one hand and any weapon you can find in the other. The helicopter pilot will be back in 72 hours, and you have exactly that long (by your in-game watch) to do what you will and still get picked up. Within that three-day span you'll encounter mysterious agents, frightened citizens, armed psychopaths, an annoying photographer, a hungry clown, and a whole lot of freaking zombies.
That sounds like a great set-up for a game, and the first few hours tantalize with future payoffs. Where did the zombies come from? Who are the mysterious agents operating in the mall? What's with the crazy Spanish guy? Why would anyone buy a blue set of slacks with a tweed jacket? It quickly becomes apparent, though, that you're really playing two games at the same time in the same space. One game is all about the 'cases'. Certain events happen at preset times. As you work through the game's storyline, you'll have to show up at a place by a specific in-game time in order to see the cut scene and interact with whatever is going on. The clock works tirelessly against you, requiring you to race around the mall to make your appointments. If you miss even one event in the game's storyline, it's all over. You may as well use the time remaining in the game to randomly slaughter zombies, because you won't be seeing the end of the story.
My real frustration is how much the harsh time-table interferes with the other half of the game. The free-roaming GTA-style gameplay Dead Rising's marketing has been playing up only offers so much given that you have to be in certain places at certain times. In between missions you can attempt to save civilians, kill zombies, go hunting for psychopaths, try on clothes, kill zombies, take pictures, mix new beverages, learn new skills, play on a skateboard, and kill zombies. Unfortunately, there's never really quite enough time to let you fully explore your environment, so all the 'neat stuff' you can do becomes merely something you notice as you're running from place to place on the way to a storyline mission. There are a few sizable breaks between cases, but in the meantime civvies will have died and opportunities will be lost.
TFor me, that's by far the game's most frustrating game-play choice. The 'save the civilians' escort missions are infuriating. Civilians are trapped in locales around the mall, and the building's security guard Otis will alert you to their plight at various points during the game. You can choose to help them or not, but my knee-jerk reaction when playing the game was one of sympathy. Frustratingly, especially at the start of the game, it's nearly impossible to get them to safety. Frightened, and barely able to swing a weapon, these characters are nothing more than lambs to the slaughter. As soon as they join up with you and follow you out into the mall's main corridors, they become two-legged lunchables for the zombie hordes. This becomes less of an issue further into the game, as you complete objectives and gain power. Whereas 1st level Frank can barely make it down an empty corridor without slipping and dying, end-game Frank can fight his way through a wall-to-wall zombie love-in and look good doing it. Just the same, your meek charges are constantly trying to get themselves eaten; that's just not fun.
Top this mess off with bad voice acting, a story that tries to make witty jabs at American culture and fails, and often-challenging combat controls. Like the creatures in Dawn of the Dead, this game shambles forward in time to the cheerful muzak.. All promise and no payoff, Dead Rising will make for a good rental if you worship at the altar of bad zombie flicks. If you're looking for a short term stand-in for GTA or Resident Evil, you'd be advised to look elsewhere.
Set in a somewhat forgettable fantasy realm, N3 tells the intertwining tales of seven heroic figures and their fight against the forces of darkness. Beginning with the attractive Inphyy, you slash and hack your way through hundreds and thousands of goblinoid baddies to make the world safe for us human-types. The identical subhuman antagonists come at you in waves of sameness, starting with a few dozen all in a bunch but ramping quickly up to hundreds at a time. As you defeat your foes, you'll gain levels and acquire items to improve your stats. There's no real strategy to be found here, just an RPG-lite beat-em-up with a grand feel.
The scope of the conflict is the most successfully executed part of N3. The 360's graphics do a great job of showing off huge battle maps, hordes and hordes of enemies, extremely shiny attack effects, and well-done character animations. With a few exceptions, the console handles the load without complaint, allowing you the satisfaction of seeing hundreds of opponents fall before you. There's no abstraction here; you'll get to see every single goblin you put down over the course of the game.
To take out the baddies, you'll be doing combos, stringing attacks together in long chains. N3 is incredibly combo-focused, and 'success' is measured by your ability to dive into a mob of baddies and destroy the whole bunch without ever giving your sword arm a rest. Each character levels up to new abilities as you move through their tale, but you start the game with several simple and efficient moves. XXX, YY is a typical combo, allowing you to cull the goblin horde like a farmer working his field. Unfortunately, you'll never need much more than that efficient first move. Despite the initially very satisfying experience of tossing hordes of baddies aside with a mere wave of your arm, you'll quickly realize that the entire game is going to consist primarily of XXX, YY repeated ad nauseam. Worse, the game actively works against your efforts to combo. Enemies often stupidly stand out of the range of the fight, and your NPC soldier buddies are the worst kind of ineffectual. Most frustrating of all, cut scenes interrupt your combos; running out of enemies I can handle, but falling just short of a 1000 enemy combo because a pretty-looking guy has to spout inane dialogue is just frustrating.
You do get to occasionally loose an 'orb attack', a cool-looking screen clearer earned by collecting shinies from your defeated enemies. Each hero has two different orb attacks, and they're all ludicrously entertaining. Even the satisfaction of the orb attack is muted somewhat, though, by the slowdown it prompts in the hardware. If the screen is wall-to-wall enemies, loosing an orb attack can result in chugging movements and choppy graphics. It's particularly jarring because the rest of the game looks so good, and never fails to distract when it occurs.
All around, N3 just isn't very good, but I couldn't help but enjoy the mediocre and repetitive gameplay. It's pretty, it's unpretentious, and there's something ridiculously satisfying about tossing a dozen goblins into the air with a single sword swipe. That said, this game is strictly a rental. You'll be able to complete the storyline for the first hero in about three hours or so, and it's not hard to imagine working through all seven heroes in a single weekend. It was fun for me in a Krull/Dragonslayer/Conan kind of way; light fantasy with no storytelling to 'get in the way'. If that's all you're looking for, you won't be disappointed. Those looking for goblin-bashing with a little more substance might want to try something a little more traditional.
- Title: Dead Rising
- Publisher/Developer: Capcom
- System: 360
As photojournalist Frank West, you're dropped into the Willamette mall to cover the story of the century. An entire town has gone red-eyed and shambling, and you're there to cover it with your camera in one hand and any weapon you can find in the other. The helicopter pilot will be back in 72 hours, and you have exactly that long (by your in-game watch) to do what you will and still get picked up. Within that three-day span you'll encounter mysterious agents, frightened citizens, armed psychopaths, an annoying photographer, a hungry clown, and a whole lot of freaking zombies.
That sounds like a great set-up for a game, and the first few hours tantalize with future payoffs. Where did the zombies come from? Who are the mysterious agents operating in the mall? What's with the crazy Spanish guy? Why would anyone buy a blue set of slacks with a tweed jacket? It quickly becomes apparent, though, that you're really playing two games at the same time in the same space. One game is all about the 'cases'. Certain events happen at preset times. As you work through the game's storyline, you'll have to show up at a place by a specific in-game time in order to see the cut scene and interact with whatever is going on. The clock works tirelessly against you, requiring you to race around the mall to make your appointments. If you miss even one event in the game's storyline, it's all over. You may as well use the time remaining in the game to randomly slaughter zombies, because you won't be seeing the end of the story.
My real frustration is how much the harsh time-table interferes with the other half of the game. The free-roaming GTA-style gameplay Dead Rising's marketing has been playing up only offers so much given that you have to be in certain places at certain times. In between missions you can attempt to save civilians, kill zombies, go hunting for psychopaths, try on clothes, kill zombies, take pictures, mix new beverages, learn new skills, play on a skateboard, and kill zombies. Unfortunately, there's never really quite enough time to let you fully explore your environment, so all the 'neat stuff' you can do becomes merely something you notice as you're running from place to place on the way to a storyline mission. There are a few sizable breaks between cases, but in the meantime civvies will have died and opportunities will be lost.
TFor me, that's by far the game's most frustrating game-play choice. The 'save the civilians' escort missions are infuriating. Civilians are trapped in locales around the mall, and the building's security guard Otis will alert you to their plight at various points during the game. You can choose to help them or not, but my knee-jerk reaction when playing the game was one of sympathy. Frustratingly, especially at the start of the game, it's nearly impossible to get them to safety. Frightened, and barely able to swing a weapon, these characters are nothing more than lambs to the slaughter. As soon as they join up with you and follow you out into the mall's main corridors, they become two-legged lunchables for the zombie hordes. This becomes less of an issue further into the game, as you complete objectives and gain power. Whereas 1st level Frank can barely make it down an empty corridor without slipping and dying, end-game Frank can fight his way through a wall-to-wall zombie love-in and look good doing it. Just the same, your meek charges are constantly trying to get themselves eaten; that's just not fun.
Top this mess off with bad voice acting, a story that tries to make witty jabs at American culture and fails, and often-challenging combat controls. Like the creatures in Dawn of the Dead, this game shambles forward in time to the cheerful muzak.. All promise and no payoff, Dead Rising will make for a good rental if you worship at the altar of bad zombie flicks. If you're looking for a short term stand-in for GTA or Resident Evil, you'd be advised to look elsewhere.
- Title: Ninety-Nine Nights
- Publisher/Developers: Microsoft Game Studios, Q Entertainment, Phantagram
- System: 360
Set in a somewhat forgettable fantasy realm, N3 tells the intertwining tales of seven heroic figures and their fight against the forces of darkness. Beginning with the attractive Inphyy, you slash and hack your way through hundreds and thousands of goblinoid baddies to make the world safe for us human-types. The identical subhuman antagonists come at you in waves of sameness, starting with a few dozen all in a bunch but ramping quickly up to hundreds at a time. As you defeat your foes, you'll gain levels and acquire items to improve your stats. There's no real strategy to be found here, just an RPG-lite beat-em-up with a grand feel.
The scope of the conflict is the most successfully executed part of N3. The 360's graphics do a great job of showing off huge battle maps, hordes and hordes of enemies, extremely shiny attack effects, and well-done character animations. With a few exceptions, the console handles the load without complaint, allowing you the satisfaction of seeing hundreds of opponents fall before you. There's no abstraction here; you'll get to see every single goblin you put down over the course of the game.
To take out the baddies, you'll be doing combos, stringing attacks together in long chains. N3 is incredibly combo-focused, and 'success' is measured by your ability to dive into a mob of baddies and destroy the whole bunch without ever giving your sword arm a rest. Each character levels up to new abilities as you move through their tale, but you start the game with several simple and efficient moves. XXX, YY is a typical combo, allowing you to cull the goblin horde like a farmer working his field. Unfortunately, you'll never need much more than that efficient first move. Despite the initially very satisfying experience of tossing hordes of baddies aside with a mere wave of your arm, you'll quickly realize that the entire game is going to consist primarily of XXX, YY repeated ad nauseam. Worse, the game actively works against your efforts to combo. Enemies often stupidly stand out of the range of the fight, and your NPC soldier buddies are the worst kind of ineffectual. Most frustrating of all, cut scenes interrupt your combos; running out of enemies I can handle, but falling just short of a 1000 enemy combo because a pretty-looking guy has to spout inane dialogue is just frustrating.
You do get to occasionally loose an 'orb attack', a cool-looking screen clearer earned by collecting shinies from your defeated enemies. Each hero has two different orb attacks, and they're all ludicrously entertaining. Even the satisfaction of the orb attack is muted somewhat, though, by the slowdown it prompts in the hardware. If the screen is wall-to-wall enemies, loosing an orb attack can result in chugging movements and choppy graphics. It's particularly jarring because the rest of the game looks so good, and never fails to distract when it occurs.
All around, N3 just isn't very good, but I couldn't help but enjoy the mediocre and repetitive gameplay. It's pretty, it's unpretentious, and there's something ridiculously satisfying about tossing a dozen goblins into the air with a single sword swipe. That said, this game is strictly a rental. You'll be able to complete the storyline for the first hero in about three hours or so, and it's not hard to imagine working through all seven heroes in a single weekend. It was fun for me in a Krull/Dragonslayer/Conan kind of way; light fantasy with no storytelling to 'get in the way'. If that's all you're looking for, you won't be disappointed. Those looking for goblin-bashing with a little more substance might want to try something a little more traditional.
I agree that N3 is a B-Grade game, but the XBOX360 does not really have too many turn-your-brain-off button mashers. I am fairly happy with the game as it allows a winding-down from playing something heavy and involved like oblivion and yet still maintains a sense of scale and grandeur. Although the 300 enemies pouring over the hill are the same you have faced before, it still feels good to use some of the orb moves and cut through them all. I think N3 is the type of game that you say you dont like, you dont recommend to anyone, but play more than you think you should.
Warhammer forums
Actually that's why I like Zonk, too. Websites and magazines that are part of the gaming industry tend to parrot the party line, giving every suck-ass game at least an 8/10 stars. This isn't primarily a gaming site, and Zonk is no gaming insider, so the things he writes are less biased than I would expect elsewhere. Plus, he's the only editor who actually, you know, writes things.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
It's odd, but the time limit that reviewers are describing as a negative is the big thing that's actually getting me excited about playing this game (I've been "about to get an Xbox 360" for about 6 months now). I actually like the idea of a game dominated by a ticking countdown.
For example, I've been playing Beyond Good & Evil (great game BTW) for the last month or so. While I've enjoyed it, I must admit that at times the urgency just isn't there. When your companion is kidnapped early in the game, you then have to sneak your way through a large factory in an attempt to find him; but, the way the game is designed you could take days to do so if you felt like it. After hitting a savepoint or two, the urgency kind of washes away. Now, if there was a ticking clock that kicked off as soon as your buddy was kidnapped, I'd really feel more immersed in the game - it would probably be more frustating, but it would be exciting, too.
Let me admit that I'm actually having a good time playing N3. While at the outset you can plow through hordes of enemies by random button mashing, some attention becomes necessary at later levels as power ups get scarce. Some combos work better than others in certain situations, and most have a window of vulnerability.
What I really miss is the strategic element of the Dynasty Warriors series. In Dynasty Warriors, you have to decide whether to go after the enemy generals, close the enemy reinforcement gates, attack the enemy leader, defend your generals, or defend your leader. N3 is almost completely linear, with few choice points. Plow through grunts, fight a boss, do it again. And no save points, so if you fall to the last boss, it's repeat the whole mess. That can get old fast.
Still, the game is undeniably beautiful. There are none of the fog or draw-in problems of the Dynasty Warriors series on XBox or PS2 (I understand that there's an XBox 360 DW title, but it's not really next generation, with only modest improvements). It's great to see 2 or 3 dozen enemies and friends on the screen at once, each apparently acting independently (although the game takes care to space them out a bit to limit what it has to deal with). Still, there are some wild melees. Perhaps fortunately, you can't hit your allies; you can charge through a crowd of friends, staff swinging wildly, and nobody but the bad guys will get a bump on the noggin. Characters are beautiful, and whereas every battle in DW seems to take place on a blasted plain, some of the N3 battles occur in lush forrest settings (although curiously "dead"--as you charge through the forest, weapon flailing, not a leaf or frond stirs in response to your passing). However, while the levels are big, and often with long sightlines, you are still constrained to well defined paths, and frequently you are unaccountably barred from going in a direction that appears passable.
The game succeeds mostly on flash. It is one of the first 360 titles that really screams "next generation." For now, it's fun--in 6 months, the sharp graphics and high character count will be old hat, and nobody will be interested in playing such a crude beat-em-up
I'm amazed how anyone can hate this game. Sure, the game feels like a gimmick at first with all the flare of "Night of the Comet', but there's actually a lot of depth to it once you realize you aren't restricted to the single, repetative section you start out in. You can even go outside of the mall and locate other entrances to different sections while fending off hundreds of zombies and crazed, escape convicts hell bent on killing anything that moves, human or otherwise. There are even some really unusual weapons, such as snowblowers and motorcycles, that can take out entire crowds in the most gruesome manner imaginable.
Other weapons I really enjoy:
- Katana Sword (it slices and dices with the greatest of easy)
- Sledgehammer (great for watermelons or human skulls)
- Scythe (hook the neck and pull to remove head)
- sub-machine gun (perforate them all before they know what hit them)
- stun-gun (sizzle till they pop)
- heated frying pan (grill 'em and kill 'em)
- mall benches (have a seat, or else)
- propane tank + handgun (fire in the hole)
Other useful items include insects that will wipe out entire crowds and electric mixers that will convert various combinations of food items into temporary power-up drinks (2x Pie = "untouchable", 2x Wine/yogurt+ice cream = "quickstep", etc...). If you really want a challenge, try a cooking oil and orange juice cocktail.
The AI of the zombies is surprisingly random, but not to the point of being all to predictable. They also get more intelligent over time as they get more desperate to feed. (For example, they'll try to sneak up behind you and attack in large swarms further into the game, as well as becoming increasingly skilled at navigating complicated terrain, such as looking for openings to enclosed counters and traversing stairs.)
Finally, if you play along with the storyline, you'll find some of the human characters pose a greater threat than the zombies themselves, as you slowly uncover the mystery behind how the zombies came to be.
Overall, if you weren't a fan of the sometimes repetative gameplay of the Grand Theft Auto III titles, you may not find much value to Dead Rising. But if your not afraid to explore, Dead Rising will offer plenty of challenges to keep you busy long after the initial 72 in-game hours. Capcom really offered what was promised... anything within reach can be used as a weapon.
8==8 Bones 8==8