Tag: fps

Jedi Knight Series Retrospective

The Jedi Knight series is LucasArts gold. After LucasArts’ success with the X-Wing and TIE Fighter series of PC games, LucasArts went from strength to strength in establishing what we now call the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Over the next decade we’d see comic books, novels, video games and more. All crossing over with each other to tell a story much bigger than three movies could possibly imagine.

Dark Forces

Star Wars Dark Forces was released for DOS and Mac in 1995. LucasArts had scrapped the idea of an FPS where players controlled Luke Skywalker. Dark Forces introduces us to Kyle Katarn and his partner and pilot Jan Ors. Katarn is a defected Imperial Stormtrooper turned mercenary, selling his services to the highest bidder. Straight away, what a great character to bring in, he’s even edgier that Han Solo! Kyle is hired by the Alliance after having successfully stolen the Death Star Plans. He is tasked with infiltrating an Imperial cell. This cell are developing super battle droids called Dark Troopers. Dark Forces anchors into the Star Wars universe with cameos by Jabba the Hutt and General Crix Madine.

Dark Forces came out two years after Doom. It was bemoaned on its release as being another “Doom Clone”. But in a lot of ways Dark Forces was more sophisticated than ID’s shooter. Throughout the 90s LucasArts were known for innovating in games and pushing the boundaries. Dark Forces ran on LucasArts’ own 3D engine, called the Jedi engine, and allowed for a much more “3D” experience. Unlike in Doom, players could look up and down, duck and jump; these features were groundbreaking at the time. The game’s level design had way more vertical movement. The raycasted environments also contained “real” 3D geometry and atmospheric shaders. LucasArts’ own iMUSE interactive music technology meant the in-game music would change depending on player action. Dark Forces even had its own original Star Wars score.

Dark Forces made one hell of a splash, selling near enough a million copies over its lifetime. It almost made it into the top ten selling PC games of the 90s. It remains the best-selling game in the Jedi Knight series.

Dark Forces 2 Jedi Knight

After that critical and financial impact, Lucas wanted to follow up as soon as possible. Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight followed on in late 1997. The FPS genre had changed considerably in the two years since Dark Forces. Once again LucasArts had built their own in-house 3D engine. Much more powerful than before, this time called the “Sith” engine. Sith was competing against powerful 3D engines of the time such as ID’s Quake. The market was crowded, Jedi Knight needed serious chops. A lot of FPSs were still sprite-based, but Sith was full-3D using polygonal characters over sprites and supporting mouse look. Sith supported hardware acceleration, one of the first engines using Direct3D.

Once again you’re playing as Kyle Katarn, alongside his partner Jan Ors. Jedi Knight is set after the original film trilogy. Darth Vader and the Emperor are dead. The power vacuum left behind has allowed a sect of Dark Jedi to start a Sith Crusade. Jerec, the leader of these Dark Jedi, captured and murdered Kyle’s father to find out the location of “The Valley of the Jedi”. After Kyle finds this out, Kyle picks up his first lightsaber and starts a quest of revenge; tracking down and killing every member of Jerec’s cadre before facing him down in the Valley of the Jedi itself.

As the game goes on, Kyle develops Force powers which the player can upgrade between levels. This is the real roots of the Jedi Knight series. From both the Light and Dark sides of the Force. The game has two endings, depending on whether the player chooses to focus on the Light Side or the Dark Side.

Full motion video (FMV) cutscenes move the story along between levels; which LucasArts had first in Rebel Assault 2. The cutscenes included the first lightsaber footage filmed since Return of the Jedi in 1983. The game received tremendous reviews. The single player and the online multiplayer were both excellent.

Jedi Knight Mysteries of the Sith

A few months later, LucasArts followed Dark Forces II with the full expansion, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith. Now competing against Quake 2 and Unreal and with Half Life just over the horizon, the Jedi Knight series had to improve. LucasArts updated the Sith engine to include coloured lighting and added a few extra tweaks to sell the game. Set after the good ending in Dark Forces 2, Kyle Katarn has taken on his own troubled apprentice: Mara Jade. Together they work for the Alliance. They discover the Imperial Remnant’s interest in an ancient Sith temple on a planet called Dromund Kaas. Mysteries of the Sith has some of the most significant crossovers with the EU; this is the only time Mara Jade appears as a playable character in a Star Wars game.

Mara first appeared in the Heir to the Empire novels. She is a fan favourite character, appearing in dozens of comics and books. The planet Dromund Kaas goes on to be a very significant planet in the Legends continuity and the Old Republic storyline. The game features Jedi Holocrons, Vornskyrs and Noghri, which are all now turning up in the Rebels TV show. Mysteries of the Sith is even better than Jedi Knight in my opinion. The story is fantastic, and the way it weaves into the Expanded Universe is second to none.

You don’t need to read the books or play these games to enjoy the movies. But the attention to continuity across all those different platforms is what makes me love Star Wars. It’s so unique, there’s nothing else quite like it and the Jedi Knight series is the best example.

Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is. the third game in the Jedi Knight series.
Raven Software developed Jedi Knight 2 on ID’s Quake III: Arena engine. This is one of the first instances of LucasArts recruiting help from outside the Ranch. Jedi Outcast’s lightsaber combat is what separated it from everything else. Up until this point, lightsabers in games always felt like big glowing bats. Jedi Knight made it feel like you really were controlling a more elegant weapon from a more civilised age.

After the Valley of the Jedi thing and then the Sith Temple thing, Kyle has had enough of the Force. Kyle and Jan go back to merc work. The Force was not done with him. A fallen Jedi called Desann hurts someone very close to Kyle and he comes back swinging. Jedi Knight II features upgradeable Force powers but this time Kyle’s powers reflect his rage-filled state; they unlock with no decision-making from the player.

Kyle once again develops light-side powers like Force Heal and Mind Trick. He also learns Force Lightning and he learns how to choke people, Darth Vader style. Easily the best story in any Star Wars game. Raven did a tremendous job of framing a flawed, human Jedi. Voice actor Jeff Bennett delivers a great performance, Kyle’s anger always bubbling just below the surface.

Jedi Knight 2 launched on PC and was ported to Xbox and GameCube. It smashed the reviews on all formats. JK2 is my favourite Star Wars game ever and I’m not alone in thinking that. The story and lightsaber combat is still absolutely incredible. It’s what gamers still rave about now. Jedi Knight 2 is the Star Wars equivalent to Deus Ex. Now I’ve mentioned it, someone WILL reinstall it.

Jedi Knight Jedi Academy

Following from that success, LucasArts gave Raven one year to develop the sequel. Powered by the same engine as its predecessor, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy had a focus on customisation and player agency. Kyle Katarn is not playable at any point in Jedi Academy. Instead he’s a teacher at Luke’s academy on Yavin IV. He teaches Jedi Academy’s protagonist Jaden Korr in the ways of the Force. When Jaden discovers a new Sith cult is harvesting Dark Side energy from places like Hoth and The Valley of the Jedi, Katarn joins his protege on missions around the galaxy.

EU locations such as Byss and Bakura feature as playable locations. Most significantly though is the final mission to Korriban. First mentioned in the Dark Horse comics, Korriban is now one of the most significant planets in Star Wars lore. I’m sure that its first video game appearance is in Jedi Academy.

The player agency is what made Jedi Academy. Players were able to customise their look, choose from a variety of lightsaber styles as well as develop their own character over the course of the game. The ability to wield dual sabers or the saberstaff for the first time blew gamers away. This keeps people coming back to the game even today. The story is a bit of a letdown. The final boss in particular is a bit like a Scooby Doo villain. The lighsaber combat in Jedi Academy is the best lightsaber combat in any game. Nothing since has captured the variety and depth of gameplay that was on offer here. A fitting end to the series, it’s just a shame we’ve not seen any more of these games.

The Jedi Knight Series review

The Jedi Knight series was of a consistently high quality. It had survived the jump to consoles. This had killed off other Star Wars series. There was a planned Jedi Knight III. LucasArts entered into a period of uncertainty for the next few years though. So external development was scaled back. The focus moved squarely off of Star Wars.

Kyle Katarn’s story remains one of the shining lights of the EU. Dark Forces and Jedi Knight are novelised in three parts by William C. Dietz, with Kyle going on to play a significant role in the New Jedi Order books. Similarly, Mara Jade is a massive part of the Legends continuity, as significant a character as Han or Leia in her own right. The Jedi Knight series of games proved that a good story and the richness of the Star Wars universe was enough to make a great video game, that the Expanded Universe was fertile soil for great new experiences.

You can watch a video version of this Jedi Knight series review on our YouTube channel.

19 Feb, 2019
Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith

Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith

Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith is an official expansion for the 1997 FPS Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight. The visuals and the gameplay are largely identical to Jedi Knight but there are a few differences, including the addition of sweet Quake 2-style coloured lighting. You start the game controlling Kyle Katarn, five years after – but still deeply affected by – the events of Jedi Knight. In the intervening years the remnants of the old Empire have continued to plague the New Republic and in the opening sequence Kyle is helping to protect a New Republic base which is under Stormtrooper attack. During the Imperial attack, Kyle learns about a planet called Dromund Kaas which is somehow significant to the Imperial Remnant. So Kyle takes himself off to investigate this Dromund Kass and in his place he appoints his ward, a young Jedi by the name of Mara Jade. Yeah that’s right, THE Mara Jade.

This is the first and only Star Wars PC game where Mara Jade is the lead role. The Star Wars Expanded Universe was well-established in 1998 and LucasArts borrowed liberally from the existing continuity of novels and comics to tell a story that would appeal to Star Wars fans. Mara first appears in the Timothy Zahn Novel Heir to the Empire where she’s brought over from the Dark Side by Luke Skywalker. This ends up being significant to the plot, and in my opinion is a really cool thing for Lucas to have done; to take Kyle Katarn from the Star Wars PC games and pair him up with Mara Jade, a character from the novels. Other elements of the EU are used to ground the game in the Star Wars universe. Even better, Dromund Kaas has become a really significant part of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which cements these games together ever more into one big contiguous volume.

I just want to take a second here to talk about the fact that Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith was an expansion to Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. In the 90s, our equivalent to DLC was the expansion pack. Unlike DLC, expansions came on a physical disk, in a big retail box and with a physical manual. To boot, they were significantly cheaper than the original game. Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith retailed for about half the cost of the base game and has at least as much content as Jedi Knight. Cramming in all this attention detail and putting in all this development effort for what essentially amounts to a DLC episode is a testament to the from-the-heart attitude which pervaded LucasArts at that time.

Similar to Jedi Knight, Mara travels to exotic faraway locations. She meets interesting aliens and shoots the heck out of them. At first Mara Jade is just undertaking missions for the New Republic. Honestly this part of the story is a bit crap. Going from planet to planet to shoot different aliens lacks the focus of Jedi Knight. It’s a jumble sale of different ideas all crammed into sequence. It takes getting about 75% of the game before the title even makes any sense. The final act really picks up the pace though. Mara travels to Dromund Kaas in search of Kyle who hasn’t been heard from since the opening sequence. The game’s final showdown (no spoilers here) is a brilliant showcase of the game’s mechanics vs storytelling. It’s a real “Aaaaaahhh” moment that I will probably remember as a favourite boss encounter.

Mara has her awesome purple lightsaber from the get-go, and starts the game with a few basic Force powers. There’s even some level design and puzzle solving which requires the use of Force powers. This made the game more enjoyable to play. Jedi Knight didn’t dig into the idea of Force powers as heavily as Mysteries of the Sith. That gives this game a big bonus. Mechanically, Mara Jade is much weaker than her master Kyle. Her Force powers take longer to charge up and you’ll need to choose your upgrades very carefully as Mara will only be able to take about half of the available powers over the course of the game.

Of course, Mara is younger than Kyle. She’s less experienced which makes for a different gaming experience. It made me pay far greater attention to the playstyle I was trying to accomplish. The end of level bosses in Mysteries of the Sith are markedly worse than in the previous Jedi Knight though. They’re nearly all cramped into tiny locations with barely enough room to manoeuvre. This makes them far more frustrating that they need to be. Experimenting with Force powers and flexing lightsaber skills are made a lot harder when your environment is working against you.

The guns from the Jedi Knight series are all still included in Mysteries of the Sith and you can play the whole game as a first person shooter if you preferred. Like Jedi Knight before it, Mysteries of the Sith is competent shooter, whether played in first or third person.

As is customary, the levels in Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith are absolutely huge. The wide open expanses encourage you to explore each level. Each map is littered with secret areas and alternate paths to your destination. It’s a curse when compared to more modern games. Modern games hold your hand right up to the point of showing you the direction to travel in. In previous reviews I made this level design method sound like a flaw. Now I’ve got a few games under my belt I think I actually prefer this way of doing things. It makes me engage my brain a bit more and it’s arguably more realistic. There’s no dotted white line in real life! I feel more connected to Mara Jade, as if we’re both exploring each location for the first time. Even on the later stages I felt like I was actually unearthing the Mysteries of the Sith, rather than just following a map marker. I’ve enjoyed exploring the nooks and crannies of all these Star Wars locations, even if it took me much longer than it could (or should) have. Besides, upgrading Mara’s Force powers between levels is dependant on how many secret locations you’ve found. The more you explore each level, the faster Mara’s powers can grow.

I was underwhelmed with Jedi Knight because I was so enamoured with Dark Forces. Playing Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith has allowed me to re-evaluate this situation. Both Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight and Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith suffer from the same flaws of games of this age. Hokey controls, irritating bosses, awkward graphics. But these games were necessary to get to where we are now. Actually, a lot of the good design choices made in these games are absent in more modern PC games. Where the technology has been superceded, the gameplay in these two Star Wars PC games is sorely lacking in modern titles. Both Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith get a solid thumbs up from me. If you like old PC games then these are must-play Star Wars PC games.

You can watch this Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith review onYouTube. As with all games I review for our YouTube channel’s Second Wind series, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith is available to purchase on GOG and Steam.

22 Aug, 2018
Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight

Star Wars Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight

A quick-fire retro PC review, where Kyle Katarn learns the ways of the Force. For the time, the technology in Dark Forces 2 is impressive but the level design suffers from the 90s PC game cliché of big maps and no clear objectives. Gameplay is fun, especially once you get the lightsaber but the best part of the game is getting to play as Kyle Katarn, the Star Wars EU’s best character.

The first couple of levels of Dark Forces 2 are essentially the same run-and-gun gameplay as the first Dark Forces game. You play Kyle Katarn again, and after the third or so level of blasting stormtroopers with his Bryar pistol Katarn meets 8t88, a droid who makes his living by trading information. 8t88 tells Katarn that his father was killed by a Dark Jedi named Jerec. Kyle returns to his home planet of Sulon to watch some old holo recordings of his dad. Turns out his old man was pally with a Jedi called Qu Rahn. Qu Rahn had survived Order 66 but was also recently killed by Jerec. Kyle’s dad had been keeping hold of Qu Rahn’s old lightsaber and he gifts this lightsaber to Kyle, telling him to “use it for good”.

Now apparently by virtue of owning a lightsaber, Kyle then starts to develop Force powers. Yeah, this is an early part of the EU and while it’s never been explicitly explained how the Force works, I’m pretty sure it’s a bit more complex than “have lightsaber, will travel”. I mean, there’s not even any midichlorians.

Jedi Knight is set in the wake of the destruction of the second Death Star and pits Kyle against the Dark Jedi, a sect of evil Force-users who formed in the power vacuum left after the death of the Emperor. The leader of The Dark Jedi, Jerec, is looking for the Valley of the Jedi, a place of unimaginable power which Jerec wants so he can re-shape the Empire in his own image. It’s also a place that Kyle’s dad used to have a map to.

In customary fashion, Kyle travels from planet to planet, tracking down Jerec and his Dark Jedi, occasionally fighting one of them as an end-of-level boss. Each Dark Jedi has a different fighting style, which can be countered with some lateral thinking. Qu Rahn guides Katarn as a force ghost, and while you might try and listen to his voiceover for each boss, telling you their strengths and weaknesses, the easiest method is just to circle strafe around them whacking them with your lightsaber, with Force Protection turned on. It’s a silly exploit but it worked with every single boss in the game.

Like Star Wars Dark Forces before it, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight features huge levels, again suffering from same problems Dark Forces did: no clear level design. You’ll be flapping about with no real sense of direction, and will more often than not stumble upon the right way to go, thinking you’re off-piste. It’s a mixed curse and a blessing as exploration earns Kyle Force Points which he can use to upgrade his powers between levels, but the levels are so vast and with no idea where you’re supposed to be heading you’re exploring by accident rather than by choice.

Guns from the first Dark Forces PC game are present and a few extra ones to boot, complete with the same alt-fire modes as before. The game massively changes on that third level though, with the lightsaber and force powers taking centre stage. Guns remain useful throughout but the lightsaber and powers are lots more fun and are essential for the boss battles. For the first time we’re offered a light or a dark path, each with their own force power sets and even a branching story based on which powers you choose. It’s worth pointing out though that Kyle’s punch has been massively nerfed since Dark Forces, he’s barely able to punch his way out of a wet paper bag now. The Force must have made him soft.

One thing that Dark Forces 2 Jedi Knight is well-remembered for is the Full Motion Video cutscenes. There was a period in the 90s where they thought live-action FMV was a good idea and Jedi Knight was infamous for its campy cutscenes. Sure, it looks a bit dodgy now but LucasArts were trying to make Jedi Knight feel like a real episode in the Star Wars saga. Greenscreen compositing and lightsaber VFX would have cost a fair bit back in 1997 so fair play on them for adding a level of polish that other games developers wouldn’t have been able to. Having ILM next door probably helped in that respect.

Jedi Knight is a decent sequel to Dark Forces, but in my opinion is more of a stepping stone to a better era of games. For a PC game from 1997 it’s a genuine revelation, competing FPSs at the time were still largely sprite-based. Jedi Knight had full D3D support, mouselook and 100% polygon models. In the 21st century though, it’s a hard game to play. If you want to boot up a late 90s FPS you’d have to ignore Quake 2, Unreal, Half-Life, Sin etc or Jedi Knight starts to look a bit basic. If you’re into Star Wars it give you enough of an incentive and I enjoyed it for what it was. Like I said though, the late 90s was an awkward phase for PC games as the transition to full 3D looked pretty awkward in its early stages. Dark Forces 2 is available to purchase on both GOG and Steam, patient gamers you can wait for a Humble Bundle or a seasonal sale. If you liked this, check out my review of Dark Forces 2’s “Mysteries of the Sith” expansion, the best Star Wars game ever made, Jedi Knight II and my full rundown of the Jedi Knight PC game series.

A lot of the screenshots in this review were nabbed from oldpcgaming.net, check them out.

Also, you can watch a video review of Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 PC game here.

29 Apr, 2018
Star Wars Dark Forces

Star Wars Dark Forces DOS PC Review

In the opening cutscene of Star Wars Dark Forces, we see Mon Mothma hire a mercenary called Kyle Katarn to infiltrate an imperial facility and steal the Death Star plans. The Alliance contact Katarn again after a rebel base is destroyed by black-clad stormtroopers. Kyle discovers The Empire are building an army of battle droids called Dark Troopers. Dark Troopers can’t be bargained with, can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop until the Rebels are dead.

Attempting to stop the Dark Trooper project takes Katarn on a whirlwind tour of the galaxy, blasting Stormtroopers, Imperial officers and alien bounty hunters. Whether on alien planets or aboard spaceships, each one of Dark Forces’ 15 levels is rich in Star Wars flavour. The game brings its own cast of characters, ship designs and locations to the Expanded Universe which sit right alongside that established Star Wars-y-ness.

Star Wars Dark Forces gameplay

Dark Forces is defined by huge levels, designed with a more vertical experience than other FPSs from the 90s. It’s not just slopes and flights of stairs. Dark Forces features multi-tiered cityscapes, with elevators, bridges and towers. It’s a big, 3-dimensional experience and multiple objectives to be achieved in each stage can lead to you flailing about a bit aimlessly. All the weapons you’d expect from a Star Wars first-person shooter are present. From the humble blaster pistol and the E111 rifle to good ol’ thermal detonators, right up to exotic plasma weapons and explosives.

Some of the weapons have alt modes which was a thing back in the 90s. Thumbs up who remembers when alt fire modes were a thing! Despite all the guns, Kyle Katarn has probably the strongest punch guy in Star Wars. Punching Grans, Trandoshans, Gamorrean Guards, Stormtroopers. He even punches a Kell Dragon to death. He’s going about the galaxy punching the life out of everything. What a bloody hero.

Is Dark Forces still good today?

iMUSE MIDI music for me is an integral part of the DOS experience and Dark Forces has some really charming MIDI music. The charming 3D graphics are highly rated by me. I think these 2D sprite-based games age better than the 3D games which came immediately after them.

I really like Star Wars Dark Forces. Plenty of “better” PC and FPS games have come out since. There are even newer games in the series like Dark Forces 2 and Jedi Knight 2. I find myself playing Dark Forces again because it’s a short little game. I can blast through over a couple of nights. It’s the epitome of retro gaming for me; fire it up, play for half an hour or so and walk away. As with all games on Second Wind, this is available to purchase on GOG and Steam. If you’re new to SW games and are looking for a game to get you into it, Dark Forces is a brilliant place to start.

Watch my Star Wars Dark Forces review on YouTube here.

8 May, 2017
Bioshock Infinite Burial at Sea Episode 2

Bioshock Burial at Sea Episode 2 Review

The first round of Bioshock Infinite DLC was good but I wanted a bit more. I was hoping that Episode 2 would be more game than walking simulator. As Ken Levine’s last Bioshock project, I was hoping Burial at Sea Episode 2 would be him going out with a bang.

As with my last review, be warned for spoilers the story of Bioshock, Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite. I will try my best not to spoil the story as much as I can. Starting immediately where Burial at Sea Episode One left off, the second part of this duology sees players taking control of Elizabeth for the first time. Stepping into Elizabeth’s shoes, you’re immediately made aware you’re playing with a different set of rules to Booker DeWitt. Gone is Booker’s man-of-action attitude and brute strength. Elizabeth is weaker and frightened, and in no way prepared to take on the horrors of Rapture. That is what makes Burial at Sea Episode 2 so much fun to play.

Burial at Sea Episode 2 story

The opening chapter of the game sees Elizabeth walking the cobbled streets of a romantic, Disney-esque Paris. Every citizen she passes calls out, happy to see Elizabeth. Children laugh and play with her. The gentlefolk tip their fedoras and birds sing perfectly in time with the accordion soundtrack. I can’t think of an opening to a video game which has more charm or upbeat optimism. It is every part the romanticised Paris which Elizabeth has always dreamed of. Both Raff and I were staggered by how nice this opening act looks. If you’re playing the PC build with maximum settings, this could be an animated film. The Bioshock style shines through with such incredible attention to colour and tone. I wanted it to last forever.

The opening act soon unceremoniously plonks Elizabeth into the slimy depths of Rapture. Taking up Booker’s charge from the previous episode, Elizabeth continues his quest to find Sally, the girl whose disappearance set the events of Episode One in motion. Episode 2 takes a far darker turn that you’d expect, right out of the gate. Burial at Sea’s story takes Bioshock Infinite‘s themes of quantum theory and destiny and works them in nicely with the objectivism subtext from the first Bioshock. The story pitches into new realms here, working two different universes together.

The story telling is so rich in Burial at Sea Episode 2. I thought it was a shame to have only four hours if it. As Elizabeth unravels the connection between Rapture and Columbia, a lot of the fan theories fall away but there’s still enough mystery to keep your grey matter churning.

Bioshock Burial at Sea Episode 2 gameplay

My biggest gripe with Burial at Sea Episode One was that the story was being told at the expense of gameplay. The same can’t quite be said for Episode 2. Episode 2’s gameplay is actually better in parts than Bioshock Infinite.

I said that Elizabeth lacks Booker’s strength and confidence. So Episode 2’s gameplay feels like a return to the roots of Bioshock’s opening chapter. Elizabeth is small, weak and is predisposed to screaming when Splicers turn up. You’ve got to consider your actions a lot more carefully. No more running head-first into a firefight with three splicers. Jack managed it, Booker would have taken it in his stride. But Elizabeth has to choose her fights. You’ve got to use your head. Opting for distraction and manoeuvre will keep you alive longer than fighting.

Pulling guards away from their patrols to dispatch them with a sneak attack becomes the order of the day. The plasmids which Elizabeth finds reinforce her sneaky play style. Possession has more weight than ever and the new “Peeping Tom” plasmid is probably the best plasmid in any Bioshock game. It basically renders Elizabeth invisible and gives you Batman vision.

Burial at Sea Episode 2 conjures up the same fear horror we got in the first Bioshock game. It returns the game to its thematic roots, which is probably the point. More than ever Episode 2 encourages traversal and non-lethal takedowns. It’s seriously rewarding to move through whole sections of the game without being seen or heard at all. Despite these stealth segments being a lovely rich meal, there just isn’t enough of it. Episode 2 is still a bit of a narrative vehicle. Less so than Episode one, but it does still feel a bit like a walking simulator in parts.

Bioshock Infinite Burial at Sea best bits

The use of colour was my favourite part of Bioshock Infinite. Burial at Sea Episode 2 is no different. The colour palette is just off the chain. The visual contrast between the darker areas of Rapture and the super-sunny Columbia is incredible.

The visual style and unique gameplay mechanics would have made this a great game as-is. If Burial at Sea had a 15-hour-long story, it would be a standalone hit. It’s a bit of a shame that this DLC worked out the way it did. With Irrational closing its doors and the IP going up the pipe to 2K, it’s likely that this is the end of the line for Bioshock.

Burial at Sea Episode 2 is not only a good swansong for the series, but also for Irrational and even for this generation of games. If both parts of Burial at Sea had been released as a full game, it could have been better than Bioshock Infinite. Burial at Sea’s ending, in Raff’s own words, “might be better than the original Bioshock”. It’s certainly an absolute banger and something I would highly recommend to bookend the Bioshock experience.

Those interested in playing Burial at Sea would be best suited to pay out for the Season Pass. It works out cheaper than both episodes put together, plus comes bundled with the Clash in the Clouds challenge maps.

26 Mar, 2014
Bioshock Infinite Burial at Sea Episode 1

Bioshock Infinite Burial at Sea Episode 1 review

The ending for Bioshock Infinite was mad. This review is likely to spoil it. I will try not to spoil Burial at Sea, but keep on your toes. As Infinite ended, there were still tons of questions. We’re told there is always a man, there is always a city. When Burial at Sea Episode 1 opens up we’re in Rapture, and we’re playing as Booker DeWitt.

In the opening sequence we’re looking through Booker’s eyes. A silhouetted figure hammers at his office door. Obvious parallels to Infinite are obvious. The camera takes a very deliberate look at Booker’s desk. Among the whiskey glasses and the bullets, Booker’s calendar reads December 31st, 1958. The night Rapture erupted into civil war. The hammering at the door belongs to Elizabeth. Another Elizabeth from another time. This Elizabeth charges Booker with finding a young girl who has disappeared. Obvious parallels to Infinite are obvious.

Bioshock Burial at Sea Story

The first thing that struck me about Burial at Sea is that it looks gorgeous. Bioshock Infinite was already one of the prettiest games ever and this is continued in Burial at Sea. The opening shows a bright and colourful Rapture. Full of the joys of a utopia, free from oppression. This Rapture feels much closer to Columbia from Bioshock Infinite. It feels a world away from the first Bioshock. At this stage I suspect that’s probably the point.

As Booker wanders the promenade beneath the sea, we get to witness Rapture’s halcyon days. The realisation of Andrew Ryan’s vision. We know it won’t last. It’s New Year’s Eve, there’s a matter of hours before Atlas’ uprising tears this utopia apart. As you’d expect, it’s not long before the situation degenerates into chaos. The change happens a little too quickly actually. Like in Bioshock Infinite, the opening twenty minutes of BaS Episode 1 is a walking simulator. Walking through a crowd of glassy-eyed NPCs, triggering proximity events. It shows us the world of pre-revolution Rapture. Burial at Sea gives some brilliant insights into the early Rapture. I really like the way it displays the grace of the Big Daddies, and they they’re held in such reverence in Rapture.

Burial at Sea Episode 1 gameplay

Once the game kicks in we’re back to the same Bioshock we’ve been served before. Only different. Not only are Booker and Elizabeth here, but this Rapture isn’t quite the same as the one we saw back in 2007. It’s those differences that make up the real meat of what the game will be able to offer as this DLC chapter unfolds.

The first obvious difference is the stuff Booker carries about with him. His standard pistol is the Hand Cannon. All of the guns here are all made up from Bioshock Infinite’s selection. I thought the weapons from the original Bioshock were really characterful. I would liked to have seen them here, but not to worry. The gunplay is just as entertaining as it was in Infinite. This is mostly due to the fact that nothing has been changed. Before long you acquire Bioshock’s equivalent to the Sky Hook. It’s called an air grabber in Rapture as there’s no sky to hook onto, but it’s functionally identical to the sky hooks. I’ve got to say it feels a bit forced to shove the sky rail feature into Rapture. There’s some throwaway line to legitimising using them, but I don’t know. The classic Bioshock atmosphere loses something by shoehorning this in. The pneumo lines require much bigger and more open levels to work well, so we lose that claustrophobic feeling. Also being free to skate over pneumo lines and perform easy air strikes dulls the edge of the combat, even on the hardest setting.

Burial at Sea Episode 1 is a weird combination of the two main Bioshock games. It’s not a comfortable mix, the worlds of Rapture and Columbia jut against each other. Plasmids are back, but they take their names and effects from Infinite. No tonics, Burial at Sea uses Infinite’s gear. I’m not sure if this janky mix of worlds is intentional. It adds texture to the storytelling, but the core of Burial at Sea is basically Bioshock Infinite with the lights turned out. I was hoping for more of a Rapture-like experience.

Bioshock Burial at Sea Episode 1 conclusion

It’s great to be back in Rapture, especially when it is so gloriously realised in the Bioshock Infinite engine. I love the dripping walls, the mad chattering of the Splicers. There’s enough here for Bioshock fans to get a kick out of. Burial at Sea Episode 1 is very short. You can easily clock this in a single sitting. The ending is absolutely excellent, but there’s not much else to it. Eleven quid gets you a tidy narrative vehicle, but the game lacks any real gameplay. I would have liked to see some newness in the core design. Burial at Sea is a film-length DLC episode, but with less content. It’s great to be back but I wanted a bit more substance. Hopefully Episode 2 will address this.

13 Nov, 2013
Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite review, 10+ years on

The first Bioshock is one of my favourite games of all time. I make no bones about my affection for it. Reviewing Bioshock Infinite was always going to be a tough job. This third instalment of the Bioshock franchise was headed up by Ken Levine, who designed the original Bioshock.

Set in an alternate 1912, Bioshock Infinite takes place on the floating city of Columbia. Columbia was built to extol American exceptionalism. To float across the globe bringing democracy and liberty to the world whether they want it or not. Columbia’s jingoist society is headed by a zealous visionary called Zachary Comstock. Comstock’s frightening xenophobic litany and his cult of personality feels scarily realistic in today’s world.

Bioshock Infinite packs a lot of story into one game

The jingoism overtone becomes the founding principle of Columbia. Like how Bioshock leant on objectivism, it creates conflict within the player. The opening sequence is really astounding. Years later I can still remember it. You’re a man out of the ocean, you find a lighthouse. Inside is a device which transports you… up. Thematically the two games are the same but different and I love that. And this becomes an important part of the story later on.

Quantum theory has a lot to answer for. Columbia’s levitation is powered by exploiting quantum mechanics. I guess it’s travelling through all realities, finding the one where it doesn’t plummet out of the sky. This mucking about with space-time is having disastrous effects on the city and its people. The fabric between different dimensions has worn thin. Tears have started to form, revealing past or future events and even allowing passage from one universe to another.

Booker DeWitt is our hero and a former Pinkerton. He’s clearly not a nice fellow but he may have a shred of decency in him. It’s established early on that he’s diametrically at odds with the holier-than thou population of Columbia. Booker is in Columbia as he’s been paid to find Elizabeth. She’s equally mysterious and it’s her story that holds Bioshock Infinite together. She’s mysteriously linked to Columbia and to Comstock. It’s the unravelling of that mystery that pulled me through the game. I shouldn’t say any more just in case you’ve not played this 10+ year old game, but the story is brilliant. It gets crazier and crazier toward the end. The finale really messed with my head too. It made me angry, it made me sad. It made me confused!

Bioshock Infinite’s gameplay isn’t it’s strongest suit

The open areas of Columbia are a long way from the corridors of Rapture. Since the areas you fight over are so large, you’re encouraged to make use of the city’s skyrails. Booker can use his skyhook to reposition and outmanoeuvre his enemies. It makes combat fast and fluid, letting you gain advantages through manoeuvrability or just escape from the fight to get a breather.

Skyrails are a lot of fun, especially once you get the hang of leaping about from rail to rail, bashing a lad’s head in on the way. Unfortunately the rest of the combat is a bit sub-par. The stylised weapons from Bioshock are out the window, with Bioshock Infinite’s guns being very bland by comparison. You can only carry two at a time, which makes me think someone was playing too much Call of Duty. It might be realistic, but it hampers my options in combat and I never wanted Bioshock to be more realistic. There is a sort of fix for that, and it’s down to Elizabeth.

What’s really refreshing about Elizabeth is she is probably the only NPC in a game who isn’t useless. She takes care of herself. Taking cover during firefights, she’ll even dodge about scrounging up ammo and health for you. Booker can’t carry health packs because Elizabeth takes care of that, so instead you’re given a regenerating shield to tie you over. I didn’t hate this but I never thought Bioshock needed to be more like Halo. There is such a thing as stealing too many ideas I think.

Elizabeth’s most important skill is that she can create and control tears. She can open up rifts in space and summon in new guns, robots or useful pieces of cover. This goes a long way in defining Bioshock Infinite’s identity. It keeps the combat fresh and energetic, allowing you to be flexible when thinks go South. My mate Kevin pointed out though that if she’s opening tears to alternate timelines, how come she can’t summon up a modern machine gun or a spider splicer?

Speaking of splicers, there are plasmids in Bioshock Infinite too. They’re called vigors in Infinite. There’s no logical Adam and Eve thing in Infinite, they just put them in. It works, but Bioshock had that whole ecosystem thing which I thought gave so much richness to the world. It’s pretty wicked how they explain the origin of vigors in this universe. It kind of makes sense how they rationalise the fact they’re just lifted out of Bioshock.

A lot of the changes in Bioshock Infinite are welcome newness. Some of them though are just aping other AAA FPS franchises of the time and for what? Player choice doesn’t seem to have any significant impact on the story. This was a major theme in the first Bioshock but then again trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice would be a mistake.

Is Bioshock Infinite still worth playing today?

Visually, Bioshock Infinite is still incredible. Columbia is rendered in beautiful pastel shades and brilliantly lit. The attention to light bloom, tone and shade is unmatched, it’s better than the first game. The eternally sunny skies and the gently hovering buildings gives Infinite a character that you couldn’t try and match. Playing this game on PC with high settings now, it still looks better than games which came out this year. Character animation is brilliant. There’s a hand-made quality to Bioshock Infinite that I always enjoy and helps the game feel timeless.

I can’t say I didn’t enjoy Bioshock Infinite, even after all this time. In fact I really did like it, maybe more than before. The combat is thrilling and vicious, it just feels like someone tried to alter the gameplay to broaden the market appeal.

The story is still incredible. The two main characters are totally captivating. The voice acting is absolutely solid and isn’t something which gets enough props. Without the incredible talent poured into these two characters, Columbia would far duller. The story’s ending hasn’t lost any of its edge. There are still fan theories being generated on its meaning to this day. The setting is absolutely excellent. Columbia is great follow-on to Rapture and the atmosphere helps to make up for any shortfalls in gameplay.

Like the first Bioshock game, this is absolutely solid. It’s not perfect. We’ve seen a lot things in Bioshock Infinite done better elsewhere. If there had been more thought put into to enemy design and less emphasis on aping contemporary FPSs, Bioshock Infinite could have been the perfect game. It’s still a great game after all these years and if you’re able to take it out of the shadow of its predecessor you will enjoy it all the more.

29 Mar, 2013
Fallout 3

A monumental advertising campaign containing somewhat controversial teaser images introduced the gaming masses to a new and ambitious console experience. The Fallout universe was already near and dear to PC gamers, but its leap to the consoles brought the acclaim and fanbase the series deserved. For a single player experience, I don’t think I’ve spent as many hours on a game before or since and that’s including its equally enthralling successor New Vegas, or its shinier spiritual brother Skyrim – that’s why Fallout 3 is on our Big F’N Games list. Based in a post-apocalyptic, retro-futuristic Washington, the huge game world is littered with small struggling communes, mutated and irradiated creatures and mad max style bandits. This is all that remains from the Great War.

For a game with so much content, varied different play styles and real consequences to your actions, Bethesda Softworks’ brave decision of giving no hand-holding or tutorial save for the brief zip through your childhood in Vault 13 – you’re free to make your own mistakes and get punished for them over and over. And over and over… In the age of linear storylines, endless cut scenes and over powered NPCs that plague the current glut of FPSs, it is rare to have a game where it is just as rewarding to simply survive by using patience and tact as it is blaze through the toughest opponents with an overpowered nuke.

Fallout 3 as a modern RPG

However unique my character ended up or my playthrough ended, it probably wouldn’t be far from the truth to say that my first experience with the Capital Wasteland was much the same as everyone else’s. After escaping/ being excommunicated from Vault 13, I emerged to a landscape looking like hell when the last fires went out. Given the quest along the lines of “Go to Megaton”, I (and I presume everyone else) walked in the opposite direction. Then was killed by some raiders. Reload and try a different direction. Then was killed by some low level mutated creatures. After a number of times reloading back at my starting vault, “Alright!” I said, and walked to Megaton. This was not a good start for me and I started to doubt my enthusiasm to continue playing through.

And it never lets up like this; on and on you’re punished for not being stealthy enough, being vastly underpowered and painfully over-encumbered. But rather than push you away, every small victory completely overshadows the frustration of every failure; you are slowly trapped into the experience and learn to embrace the games ethos – soon enough you’ve lost untold hours. You’d better save and save often, as there is no worse feeling than getting randomly one-hit-killed and restarting from the door of the last building you entered or left, an hour previously. Given the size of the landscape and how much you have been larking about, this can equate to hours of lost progress.

For a game that revolves heavily around perks, XP and levelling, you thankfully spend refreshingly little time feeling like you are grinding. A relatively low-level character can complete the main quest line whilst visiting a fraction of the locations in much the same way as a maxed-out Tank. This is something I would in no way recommend as so much of the delicious meat of this wonderful experience would be missed. Dodging to end and skipping out the side-lines means no companions quest lines, no unique gear and no best friend in Dogmeat!

Fallout 3 without VATS

Another possible, but unadvisable style of playing is in a totally first person perspective. By refusing to use the VATS aiming system you’re left with a rolling landscape to unsteadily adventure through, vastly outgunned with your shaking iron sight against the dead eye of pretty much every hostile you’ll encounter. For every hundred meters you venture forward, you’ll retreat fifty; backpedalling from a feral group of unarmed creatures. Come up against a Deathclaw; forget it, you’re restarting from your last save. But even this less-than-perfect game mechanic can have its sublime moments – picking up a sniper rifle and banging a hidden headshot from a ridiculous distance is euphoria! Whipping out your Fatman and finally using one of your cherished nukes to vaporise anything in front of you in a huge mushroom cloud is up there with getting any top kill streak in a CoD match.

For those more into reading their way through an adventure than plastering it with a substantial number of dismembered bodies, there is a shocking amount of dialogue throughout the game – allowing those of a political bent to try and talk their way to victory. The dialogue system in Fallout 3 is superior to that of New Vegas and not even the same league to Skyrim, neither of which has a real viable option of picking brains over brawn. Speech checks are closely linked to the Karma system, defining what missions you can take, which followers you can recruit and rewards you will retrieve. By showing compassion or detachment the remainder of the game will be changed.

Fallout 3 DLC review

Talking of the remainder of the game, before the expansion pack Broken Steel there very much was an ending; one which was definitely out of the blue and ruined the finale of the game for a large proportion of players. I remember how infuriating it was to have a load of miscellaneous quests incomplete and a few experience levels to go to hit max, then I walked through a door, was confronted and easily outclassed by the villain and his bodyguards and then that was it. You picked an option to determine your ending and roll on credits. If you had a top level speech build, you wouldn’t have even had to fire a shot.

All was forgiven with the aforementioned Broken Steel, which opened with a soap opera dream sequence (a la Dallas), where even though you were told you or your chosen NPC had died, Obsidian came at you with an apologetic “Only joking, you’re ok! Now get back on with whatever you were doing!” The game became completely open-ended and your level cap was raised. Another two or three DLC packs followed, with varying locations with their fitfulness matched only in the actual quality of the content.

The add-ons really didn’t know what they were doing or what they wanted to be- none could really be counted as part on the game’s canon, equally none could be considered an outside story. Trying to shoehorn an alien adventure into a post-apocalyptic / pre-war setting while linking to a Hicksville, backwater swamp via a totalitarian prison city is no easy undertaking and probably easiest to not try and follow. However, bringing your bizarre obtained guns, amour and equally-wacky perks back to Washington is a fair pay off for the time invested. But a released game should stand alone and not have to rely on future updates and DLC to get the kudos it deserves and this is exactly what Fallout 3 does.

Is Fallout 3 still worth playing?

I love Fallout 3. This is obviously a popular opinion with all the Game of the Year awards it garnered and the risks the developers successfully took to make such a reassuringly understated adventure. Fallout 3’s sheer depth will quite easily allow you to forget about the glitches and freezes you most certainly will encounter and the dated textures are easily overlooked due to its charm and expansive size. Game of the Year editions complete with all DLC can be picked up for a tenner from your favourite internet auction site and you will not forget a play though.

The style, the difficulty, the rewards and the storytelling have all been finely tuned to offer the gamer the pinnacle of what an RPG should be about; complete immersion. No matter how much time you’ve invested, you’ll always find something new to explore, and all of this to a cleverly ironic soundtrack you will affectionately remember for years after playing.

7 Nov, 2012
Fallout New Vegas DLC Retrospective

Fallout New Vegas DLC Review

The release of the final New Vegas DLC chapter Lonesome Road brings an end to the Courier’s journey through the post apocalyptic Las Vegas wastes. With it the last chapter in the Fallout New Vegas tale. Although New Vegas DLC has normally been delayed and sometimes unfavourably reviewed, Obsidian kept their promise. Continual support for New Vegas with 4 servings of DLC available on all formats. PC gamers can continue the wander through the retro-futuristic wastelands with a number of great fan-base mods. But console gamers, this is your final call until the next Fallout game, whenever that may be.

I’m a massive fan of both current-gen Fallout offerings. I would put both Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3 in my top ten games of the last 5 years. Both are hardly distinguishable from each other and share some of the same glitches, shoddy textures and catastrophic system crashes. I love them just the way they are. True story: Fallout 3 red-ringed two of my Xboxes, the lovable scamp! The DLCs on the other hand, have followed the pattern of having one decent and three mediocre offerings per game. A poor return on the time waiting between releases and points spent on content. Although all New Vegas DLCs take the player to radical new locations, it seems every time a title and release date was made official, my hopes would peak. Maybe this time the immersion of the main game would be replicated. I could continue onwards in my joyous grind. Only for my dreams to be crushed a couple of hours later. But I would never learn.

I’ve set out here to have a look back at the four expansions made available for New Vegas DLC and try to find some good in all of them. This is harder than it should be for a game so critically acclaimed! And so on to the retrospectives and reviews.

Dead Money

New Vegas DLC chapter Dead Money is set in the forgotten casino of Sierra Madre, and sees you and three new companions searching for the legendary treasure within. The story takes a decidedly darker route than the main game, with a hazy visual filter and the menacing Ghost enemies, but loses some of the intensity with the strict linear and structured missions. Only a dozen new quests were added and were split between being long and tedious, or trap-filled and frustrating – much of the playtime will be filled with saving and reloading after trial and error. Around ten new perks are available, seven of which can be taken to the Mojave. The loot you find will probably be no better than that which you already have on your return, and you are teased with a huge amount of possible caps from gold bars as reward for finishing, but you neither have the strength to carry them all nor any realistic option to sell them.

On the positive side, the best part of Dead Money is also the most important; there really is quite a captivating narrative which keeps you trawling through the claustrophobic level design. The companion side missions are far removed from the normal Fallout fare, and the characters’ story resolutions are worthwhile. Although I would have liked to have kept one or all the companions, seeing their conclusions was reward enough. It is not often you have empathy for a video game character, let alone a non-playable one.

Dead money did show some real potential, and the story alone was enough for me to continue to the finish, but replacing openness in favour of linearity removed any chance of repeat play. Lessons were learnt from Fallout 3, and like all New Vegas add-ons, the level cap is raised by 5 which adds some millage, but the cost of the New Vegas DLC feels a bit like blackmail to improve your characters stats. And so a middle of the road 50% is all I can give.

50%

Honest Hearts

Honest Hearts takes another right turn from the New Vegas story line as you exit the Mojave on an outing to the preserved wilderness of Utah’s Zion National Park. Here you encounter the warring tribes; the Dead Horses, the White Legs and the Sorrows; a smattering of new characters and gear as well as finally coming face to face with the Caesar’s former top soldier, the mysterious Burned Man. Depending on how far you have progressed in New Vegas, this name will either leave you intrigued, afraid or simply confused.

This New Vegas DLC opens with the standard Pip-Boy radio signal, this time from the Happy Trails Caravan Company. They are looking to reopen a trade route with Utah and are offering the opportunity to join the expedition to those wandering the wastelands. Sticking to the norm, with this DLC you cannot bring any companions with you, but you are able to bring some of your equipment. The yomp will be long though, so you are limited to 75 pounds. Choose wisely, as you’ll be fighting from about two minutes in! After the initial free-for-all, the pace takes a dive with a series of fetch quests and recon missions and offers a number of conclusions depending on whether you seek a peaceful solution or all-out tribe genocide.

Zion did not feel the brunt of the war, and this is reflected in the flowing greenery and thriving wildlife (translation- plenty of crippling cazadores or yao guai encounters). The scenery is striking and does show some variance is possible on the ageing Fallout engine, but it definitely does not equal the first encounter with the scorched Capital Wasteland.

Rather than skirt around it, it’s easiest to straight-out say I did not enjoy Honest Hearts and found it short on thrills but long on monotony. As well as being full of bugs, Honest Hearts played it safe, took no risks and didn’t bring anything memorable to the table. One of the new features was weather, adding rain or an overcast effect to the game, although as the change in atmosphere achieved through the murky hue of Dead Money had already been utilized, this seems hardly a groundbreaking new addition! You can return to Zion after completing the New Vegas DLC, if you so wish, but all gamerpoints can be achieved in one playthrough and I can see no need to revisit. Apart from the increase in level cap I can not see any reason to explore further than the main quests.

40%

Old World Blues

Now we’re talking! Old World Blues is the apex of New Vegas expansions and makes a bold attempt to surpass the measuring stick of Fallout 3’s ‘Point Lookout’. As with the departure from the main game in Mothership Zeta, the player is removed far from reality to be placed inside Big Mountain, where the Courier becomes part of a sprawling lab experiment. With its large terrain to explore, plenty of missions, some bizarrely humorous NPCs and some actually useful swag to take back, this really is the the best of New Vegas DLC.

From the start of the arriving at Big MT, you learn that your spine, heart and brain have all been extracted and replaced with cybernetic equivalents, you are then greeted by an arguing set of floating brains who turn out to be the remnants of a unique group of scientists. And thus the tone is set for this adventure! You retain all your previous spoils, which is a bonus as the enemies in this New Vegas DLC chapter are TOUGH, but you also get access to some of the best tools on offer within the first quarter of the 8 hour experience. The overall mission is very briefly referred to, but the overview revolves around two feuding robots, the “virtuous” Doctor Klein and “evil” Doctor Mobius. With each fetch quest, the story is expanded further, but this can be achieved in almost any order, as you are not corralled into completing and progressing in any set way. The backstories around the origins of some the mutated creatures in the Wasteland are also revealed along with encounters with hardened or legendary variants. Who would have guessed a bloatfly could be the toughest enemy in the game!?

The dialogue is pitch black in humour and thick with surreal-ness. I believe this is the first time I have heard the phrase “Fully erect hand penises” in any medium. Each of the scientists has its own unique personality, not to mention the fixtures and fittings in your room: There are rivalling light switches, a mug-obsessed miniature sentry bot, a raggedy bluesman juke box, the list goes on – and all add to the charm of the expansion.
Old world Blues really does reward exploration, both in the ability to retain a base in Big MT for all items collected and the ability to return at will after completion, and by continually providing excellent dialogue. There is also the opportunity to retain some of the best perks, implants and traits in the game and the ability to change from your opening level 1 loadout. The story may not be the tightest as some quests in the main game, and takes some liberties with the dreamlike setting, but it is certainly the funniest and gameplay is without rival.

90%

Lonesome Road

And so here we come full circle to the end of the New Vegas DLC experience. As the Couriers story began with such a literal ‘BANG’, hopefully Lonesome Road will fill in what happened not just at the end of New Vegas, but hopefully the tale before Benny’s critical introduction.
Lonesome Road begins with your character contacted by the occasionally-mentioned original Courier 6, now known under the name ‘Ulysses’. You are invited to travel to The Divide, a wild new area beleaguered by earthquakes, the only humanesque inhabitants being the feral Marked Men. The title of the expansion rings true, you have to undertake this journey on your own (save for a revamped ED-E you recruit almost instantly).
I won’t go into plot, as I really have no clue as to what I am supposed to have learnt. The vagueness runs around Ulysses hating the courier for deeds done before the fateful bullet in the head, but this is not properly explained. There are mentions of Caesar and the NCR, something about warheads, Ulysses seeking revenge and other fuzzy plot points. Where Dead money had interesting and individual character back stories; where Honest Hearts had a distinctly related NPC in the Burned Man and where Old World Blues had erratic but intriguing dialogue, Lonesome road has a map marker you follow blindly for 7 hours and then it’s all over.

The title of the New Vegas DLC chapter feels as if it was an honest review of the gameplay; battles are infrequent and impersonal, the landscapes are devoid of any interest or side quests and NPCs are completely missing. The main story follows the simple formula of fetch-quest-after-fetch-quest; the linearity is a worse offender than Dead Money. The designers also seem to have tried to make up for lack of content by ramping up the difficulty- Deathclaws aplenty with no possibility of sneaking within the tight backdrop.

As there are no restrictions on what you can bring to the Divide, I found the technologically advanced weaponry of Big MT was more than enough to help me through, and picked up little of what I found. Some new weapons in the form of an upgradeable rocket launcher and a behemoth of a machine gun are interesting at first, but end up too heavy and impractical. And scavenging is uncalled for even if it was possible; there is simply too limited a number of open areas.

Once again, this New Vegas DLCs major selling point was for the raise of the level cap by 5. Disappointing, dreary and full of loose ends, I rate this as the worst of the packs.

40%

Is Any New Vegas DLC Worth it?

After ploughing so much time into both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, it’s depressing that I don’t think I will ever have this amount of time to sink into a game again. Yes the add-ons were mostly disappointing, and yes there was a serious lack of inspiration in some content, but I still played all of them to the end and would still feel obliged to continue if there were any future releases. Just on the hope that the next one would be THE game that would replicate the same breath-taking feeling of the first dip into in Fallout 3.

15 Oct, 2011