Left 4 Dead 2

I'll be taking a small break from the usual today, and tomorrow I will have the next and last post for dragon age, so it will be more of a wrap up. But, I want to talk about a game I've been anticipating for awhile now, that has a special little niche in my heart. While most people wouldn't say that this game is very deep story-wise, the visual and storytelling elements available will surprise the uninformed. I will also be trying a new style of reviewing you sort of saw before, I'll be chopping this up into three parts: Art, Story, Sound. I think this will better serve the reviewing purpose.


ART

The first Left 4 Dead had a grungy post-apocalyptic look to it that spoke well for the material. However, this game is set in a slightly different tone, since it is held mostly during the daytime hours. It seems the art time went over every thing with an interesting gloss, the blood splatter is shiney and the general look and feel is much richer. Sometimes the levels can be pretty astounding, if it weren't for the hordes of undead monsters lurking in every alley.

The zombies have gotten quite the overhaul, they wear appropriate attire for the area you are in (eg Clowns in the theme park area, and hazmat suits for the quarantine areas) and are quite varied look. Each one has a unique appeal to them, especially the special infected.

The four protaganists are set apart from the normal horde by their obvious color schemes compared to everything else. Most of them are wearing something brighter than the dirty and dank normal zombies and can be clearly distinguished from for game purposes. Valve has done a fantastic job in getting everything to work well within the atmosphere and still look somewhat realistic and interesting.

The art has been given a good bit more personality comparatively to the last game. It now has a recognizable feel to it, as in when you see a screen shot of it, or look at it in passing, you know what it is immediately. This works greatly in it's favor as recognition is one of the steps to making the game quite popular.

STORY

Thought the game is indeed light on story, it does have many elements that keep you guessing. The infection and how it came about is one question that is only hinted at throughout the game, as you go farther into it, you learn a little more each time. The observations by the characters, and the graffiti on the walls in many places just give you a taste as to the origin of this infection.

The backgrounds for the characters themselves is just barely touched, Valve seems to have decided to focus more on the personalities of the characters. They are stuck together, and must survive the horde of monsters that are bearing down on them. The camaraderie that stems from this is apparent the more you play. Some are easier to get into this than others, but in the end the all work for the same goal, escaping the infected horde. Not to mention, some of the dialogue is hilarious, especially Ellis' he seems to have a story for every situation.

Sound

This is an area in which L4D2 excels. Sound is very important in a game like this, for when you're trying to fight your way out of a horde of monsters, you need to know when a special infected is on it's way. All the special infected have a unique noise they make, that gives you a warning to their type and possible origin. In a game like this you need to know whats coming from the front, left, right or back. And they sound designers have done a masterful job at getting this down.

The sound cues are not the only thing that is impressive. The general noises the horde makes, the music that crescendos at the right time to give you that sense of urgency. It's all almost like a movie in which you are the ultimate victim. The music will drive you to do what is necessary to survive, while still keeping your heart pounding as you run for that last leg to get to a safe house. All the while a horde of zombies tail you, growling and gnashing teeth to get at you.

The game can illicit some awesome emotional responses, to the point that some can even get anxious at the thought of completing a run down a hallway or to a ladder. Putting all these elements together makes the game a great visual and audio pleasure. And although it is no art masterpiece, it's intentions are clear. To entertain, and challenge. And it does that in spades.

In-Depth: Dragon Age (2)

Note: Due to not liking the direction of the first character, I decided to reroll a character. This one would be a human fighter who started off as a noble. The idea for the character was a no-nonsense soldier, who was fiercely loyal to his family and friends, but less inclined to trust outsiders. However, he felt that it was his duty to uphold what was right, even if it broke the law.

Once the intro was over I introduced to my character's father, who was meeting with a noble. My character arrived after a short conversation between the two, after being summoned. I was informed that the troops were to move out soon, to fight a Blight down south. My brother was to lead a contingent of men down, to help in the effort. Being a person inclined to fight, I insisted I should join, but it was to no avail. At this time Duncan, a Grey Warden arrived, he had a short conversation with my father. Apparently he was here looking for recruits, one in particular, but mentioned my potential as well. My father would not have it, and sent me off to inform my brother of his orders.

In route to my brother's quarters I met the aforementioned prospective Grey Warden. The young soldier seemed ecstatic once I told him of Duncan's presence, despite the bit of jealousy I admitted. He did inform me however, that my Marabi was currently in the kitchen pantry and was making a huge racket. He had orders from my mother to go get the dog under control. So the soldier accompanied me to the kitchen where I met the angry cook. It was here that I was exposed to the first signs of racism in Dragon Age. Elves had been a slave race for quite some time, and though they are now 'free' per say, they still hold lowly positions in normal society. The kitchen cook had two Elven aides that she rattled off insults to. As someone quite opposed to such notions, I decided that my character would be as well.

Being the lore nerd that I am I tend to like to have reasons for my character's personality. It could be that my character had a childhood Elf friend, or simply grew up during the freeing of Elven society and pitied them and hated their treatment. Due to this I insulted the cook when it came time, for both mistreating her aides and my dog. When I entered the pantry I found my dog was quite interesting to say the least.

In game lore Marabi are large very smart hounds, who are muscled and look pit-bullish in nature. They look very strong, and have a massive set of jaws and small short hair. Despite the brutish nature I still found the dog somewhat charming as it whined when asked it what was wrong. Apparently the dog had followed rats into the pantry and was hunting them. Large rats suddenly came out of the woodwork, and I got my first taste of battle.

Game mechanics are not my focus, but just to be informative they are very old-style RPG-ish in nature. The abilities are cued and the acted upon once you un-pause the game, or you can do it all in real-time. Once we defeated the rat infestation, the dialogue became quite self aware. The begrudgingly thankful cook mention that this was no silly adventure in which you got paid to hunt down pests. An obvious reference to the many old-school games in which you do just that for most of the early levels.

Once the infestation was cleared the prospective soldier left the party, and me and my dog (Now named Rakhain) headed to my brothers quarters. There I found my brother, with the rest of family. An emotional moment was held, in which the particularly good voice acting helped as my father and mother arrived aswell and we said our goodbyes. After that scene my character went to bed.

------------------------------------------ That Night-----------

I was awoke with a start as one of the servants appeared banging on my door. I got out of bed just in time to see a man run him through as put on my armor. Another taste of combat as I fought my way through a couple men with my loyal dog and reached my mothers room. She apparently a capable fighter, as she took up a sword and shield and joined in on the fray. As we fought our way through the castle, we found several servants who were running away. Through dialogue I was able to convince one of them to fight along side the rest of the defenders. This was a nice touch for those of us who enjoy dialogue as an option other than combat.

Once we reached the main hall I met the prospective Grey Warden again, he said that my father was in the Kitchen trying to find us at the secret escape tunnel. The man bravely held off an invading force as we went off in search of him. We found my father wounded and bleeding on the ground, dying. There was an emotional moment, where he told us that the noble who had visited, a friend he though he could trust, attacked the castle. I swore revenge, just as Duncan arrived covered in blood telling us he held off a small assault coming toward us.

It was here where my father told me to go with the Grey Warden, to exact revenge for our family. I agreed and moved to strike at the offenders, but Duncan stopped me, and told me to escape with him to the south. At first I refused, but at the behest of my father and mother I finally agreed and left them to their fate.

Dragon Age: Origins (Creation Process)

Once I loaded up the game, the intro cinematic did a good job laying down the basics of the story. Generally it seems that magic is a vary dangerous art in the Dragon Age universe as a cabal of mages created some sort of gate to go to and destroy Heaven. This created a rift, from which something called the blight escapes from and soon monsters pour into the world. These are called the Darkspawn, and they carved a swath throughout the world killing everything in their way. Many armies fell, the first being those of the Dwarves. However, the humans are not far behind as they are beset upon by the dark horde.

The humans are brought to the point of near destruction, until the Grey Wardens are formed. The Grey Wardens are an organization of human, elf, and dwarf kind who have mastered the taint of the blight. With the help of the Grey Wardens the armies of the humans are able to push back the evil and kill the Archdemon who controlled it. With the defeat of the blight, the Grey Wardens are held in a high regard as the saviors of the land and are given special political power. However, after many many years since the last blight was seen, the favor is starting to run short. People are forgetting what the Wardens did, and now the warnings of another blight is on the horizon.

The intro cinematic which was very very good, it had several animated and in-game sections, both of them were animated smoothly and the voices were well done. I moved on to the character select screen, which sort of disappointed. While the mechanics were clear the lighting wasn't and so trying to figure out how I wanted my character to look like was difficult. The sliders added for a little customization but it wasn't extremely noticeable, unless you move the sliders to the extreme options. The races seemed different enough, as did all the backgrounds and class combination you could choose from. Sadly if you pick certain coronations you cannot be certain things, (you cannot be a rogue and a commoner for example.

The game does a good job of giving you a little background information of the classes, races, and backgrounds to get a general feel for your first foray. I picked an Elven Rogue, mainly because I love sneaking around and the lore of the Elves is actually quite interesting. Usually I hate elves, they are not my cup of tea, they are the ultimate form of human pride and manifest it into these semi-perfect beings. However, Elves in Dragon age are a downtrodden race who used to serve as slaves to the humans and have recently gained independence. The Elf Rogue start is of a commoner, not some rich noble, which I find more appealing. Once the background was picked I had to pick a name, and ended up with Rhemus.

The creation process was pretty smooth, though this was a very game mechanics intensive part of the game, I found plenty of art to appreciate. The models look very nice, if a little stiff, and the information offered makes it obvious that Bioware has focused on the story part of this game quite a bit. They obviously want to make it different from a normal fantasy story, a darker more interesting tone. I got the feeling that not all my characters would be flinging spells about and magic won't be everywhere. That serves for a great break from the normal spell-flinging game, and I was excited to get started.

The next post will deal with the beginning experiences with the game, and how the art compels one to immerse yourself into the world of Dragon Age.

In Depth: Dragon Age

Well, time to mix it up. I've done a couple general overviews of games. And though they were interesting insights I've decided to do something a little more In Depth. A new game has come out recently, made by the famed developers Bioware. They are responsible for games like Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, and Kights of the Old Republic. A very highly regarded dev team indeed. At first I thought I would just do an overview as I have with the other games. However, once I started playing it I realized that this was a much deeper game than I anticipated. And I did a little research and found out that the game tends to play at around 30ish hours. So due to it's huge size I've decided to take a more methodical approach.

This will be the first of a series of in depth reports on my time playing through Dragon Age. I've decided that the art, story, and audio are all enough to fill at least a couple weeks worth of posts. So shuck your worldly vestments and pick up your sword, lets get ready to delve into a new world.

Once more into the abyss!

I've apparently been on an MMO kick recently! Well I really wanted to touch on this subject, since it has a special place in my heart. EVE online is a MMO that is unique in one specific way, it has player run areas. Normally, this wouldn't be of much interest as we all know people on the internet aren't the most, shall we say civilized folks. However, this community is different in several ways. Although EVE has very nice graphics and okay audio to compliment it, I will be focusing on it's main strength, story.

EVE is unique in that the players themselves get to contribute to the online community. In this sci-fi MMO based in space, there are sections of space called "zero zero". This means that the in-game NPC police force has no authority in that space, and players can lay claim to land to build corporations, organizations, and even Empires.

And this is where the story of EVE really starts to get interesting. All that happens out there in the zero zero sections of EVE is player driven. And the unique player base, people from all over the world (Mainly U.S. and Europe), help drive stories that are all too unique in their own right. There are assassinations, hostile takeovers, wars, treaties, and disputes of all sorts that go on. And none of it is driven by the developers, the players simply play with the tools given to them.
This has led to very inspiring and interesting stories, as players create a world of their own inside of this virtual one.

In respect to art, this is the ultimate form of community driven story. There is even a CSM (Council of Stellar Management) that is a group of voted player officials that are in contact with the developer team. They help shape the game through the player's point of view adding a new dynamic to how developers can approach the game.

Here are just a few samples of EVE online stories that exemplify what a player run community can create:

http://mmorpg.qj.net/Biggest-scam-in-EVE-Online-history/pg/49/aid/62826
http://eve.klaki.net/heist/

And those are just two examples of what can really be accomplished within this community. There are hundreds of little personal stories like this that happen every day, and as the developers add more functionality to the game it will become more and more intuitive and diverse. Although, game play-wise this game isn't for me, it is one that I enjoy watching very much. My foray into the world yielded a couple gems that were quite entertaining, but eventually I realized I didn't have the time to devote to it. It is a very demanding game, as once you are in the community, you are depended on by all the other pilots in the corporation you work with. The game quickly becomes a second life, and can have as much success and failure as a real one.

The lore that is written by the EVE developers helps when you are not in the player controlled regions of space, but that is where the real story and action is. I think that it is a prime example of dynamic and organic storytelling. It's easy to see how one would get lost in the vast amount of possibilities available. EVE is truly a unique game in those respects.

State of the Blog

Once in awhile I will be doing these 'state of the blog' posts to shed some light on changes or see how it has evolved since I first started this. I do these because it expands on my own idea of what this project will turn into, and will help guide my future posts in being more in line with that idea. So as I have reviewed these games, so shall I review myself in regards to my criticism. The way I see it, this will be either enlightening, or self-loathing, either way you win!

One thing I have noticed quite prominently since I've started is that I have an opinion. That's not surprising in itself really, I have pretty strong opinions and most people don't agree with them. However, when I started this I wanted it to be an objective view on art in the medium. Sadly, that hasn't panned out exactly how I thought it was and it could be because of a few things.

The strongest theory I have is that art in itself cannot be criticized without some sort of opinion on your part. Think about it, what makes people believe that a completely abstract piece is art? When others only see a bunch of shapes and lines and just mutter "My five year old could do that". Are they both considered art? Should they be qualified as art? Who the heck says what is art and what is not? One might think there is a board of art directors out there somewhere making judgment calls a-la Illuminati shadow heads and trickling down information as to what is really art.

Now if we take off our tinfoil hats I think we'll start to understand that art really is subjective. You cannot objectively criticize art. It is a nebulous form of emotion that only applies to certain characteristics. It could be as simple as 'I like art to be completely unchained from reality'. That person would dislike landscapes and art based on real things, why? Well it could be for a yearning to escape reality, or just the though that art should transcend it. Again, it is simply subjective to who is viewing it. I could get into the various forms of visual, textrual, audio and taste that could be used in art, but that would simply reiterate my point.

As is almost everything about humans, Art is contextual, it serves one person differently than it does another person. Why this is? I'm not smart enough to know, but I will continue to insert a little of my opinion in the review process while trying to keep in mind the cons of my opinion. Objective view of something as emotionally attached as art may have been a folly in the first place.

Where is Mankrik's wife?

The next installment of art talk with Skeleton King has to do with a game that is a little different compared to the previously reviewed ones, World of Warcraft. Yes, you've probably heard of this game, I hear it's quite popular.

Commonly called World of Warcrack due to it's addictive nature (for good reason may I add), this game is a bit of a challenge to review. Why so oh Sultan of Skeletons? You may ask. Well that's because in all normal conventions it's graphical value is almost nil. I lamens terms this means that the game isn't particularly good looking considering today's standards. But, within that ugly exterior is the beauty of it all. World of Warcraft may not be a pretty game when compared to say, Uncharted 2, but it is fantastically artistic in style. The people who work on this game are masters at making due with the available graphics. This is especially true in the newer expansion places like Northrend and Outlands.

Though the texture resolution isn't great most of the time, they use interesting artistic tricks to create a great looking game. This is apparent in some of the new looks druids get when they turn into cat and bear form.



The graphical power needed hasn't changed much, and yet the new models look leagues better than the old ones.

As for story, the game is pretty light on it for the most part, of course this changed with the new expansion as well. Where it used to be that every quest was fetch x and bring y to z. Now there is new twist on the old formula, most of the Northrend quests have an interesting component outside of the formula, like say flying on the back of a dragon and bringing him down with only a spear in one hand.

This is not even to mention the epic happenings at the Wrathgate. This story chain seems like a normal quest at first, till you reach the end of the line and suddenly a in-game cinematic plays and a part of the world is changed completely. This is called 'phasing' and its newly implemented in Wrath of the Lich King. What phasing does is change a small part of the landscape for you when you reach a certain point in the quest. People who have done the quest will see it as you do, and people who haven't will see it as it was. It is an ingenius way to move story along.

The audio in WotLK is pretty good, the music scores are fantastic, and many bosses are voiced to give you a sense of immersion. It is not necessarily the most amazing audio in the industry, and I would say that this is one of the failings of WoW's otherwise addictive nature. Most people I know listen to their own music during play anyway.

All in all WoW was an interesting project, as I am currently playing it myself and now count myself among the 'wow zombies' as a friend of mine put it. None the less it is a great game, and if you can find a good server, the community can be generally nice. Just stay away from the kiddies an the immature people, they can completely ruin an otherwise great experience.