Polished Familiarity -- Crimson Gem Saga Review

It can be a bit of a grind and won't wow players with its originality, but Crimson Gem Saga from IronNos and Atlus is a fine traditional RPG experience that's easy to play and features an excellent user interface and attractive presentation.

Unlike the majority of traditional RPGs, Crimson Gem Saga is only partly serious. It features witty dialogue, colorful characters, and jokes that poke fun at games, pop-culture, itself, etc. The game's plot (one involving the return of a world-threatening power from a forgotten empire via a number of magical artifacts) is fairly generic as a whole, but its constituent parts -- individual scenes, character interactions -- make it enjoyable.

Character voice-overs are well done, and convey feelings of both conflict and chemistry between characters, and the overall musical backdrop is varied, appropriate, and catchy, ranging from militaristic marches to more foreboding tunes. Attentive RPG fans will hear heavy influences from prior games in the genre, which can be either a good or a bad thing.

Crimson Gem Saga's visual stylings match the the game's lighthearted nature. Backgrounds look like a mix of pencil and watercolor, and do a very good job of describing space in the game world. In some areas, though, there is a fair amount of graphical repetition. Sprites are small, but are still detailed and well-animated. Better are the overlayed character portraits, whose heavy outlines and soft, refined look illustrate the characters perfectly. Unfortunately, there is only one piece of artwork per character, and none are animated.

This turn-based RPG is very simple in terms of gameplay. Players will talk to non-player characters and watch cutscenes to figure out what to do next. These objectives are given as quests, which are organized into a list that is more of a do-this-next reminder than a collection of options to choose from. After adding a new quest, it's then out into the field to battle enemies on the way to each successive destination. Battles are menu-driven, each character having the option to attack, defend, use items, use skills, and try to escape the fight on their individual turns. Although enemies are visible in the field, eliminating random encounters, they are still difficult to avoid, and the player is encouraged to engage each as quickly as possible to gain the upper hand in combat. Skipping battles would leave player characters ill-prepared for future challenges anyway, so free choice is really just an illusion in this regard.

Characters level up frequently, fully restoring hit points and magic points, and curing all status ailments with every level. This allows players to stay in the field longer without draining resources, but also acts as an excuse for players to endure some fairly heavy grinding. In addition to the automated improvement of character stats with each level, players are also rewarded with skill points after every battle. These are pooled for the party and then used to unlock new in- and out-of-battle abilities via individual characters' skill trees. This helps to balance the hands-off feeling of the more traditional leveling-system. The downside to the skill trees is that they force players to first spend points to reveal skills and then again to learn them. It can be quite annoying.

Otherwise, the game's user interface is clear and easy to use, from battle options, to shops, to equipment, to the main menu. Nearly everything loads at a decent rate, although there are a few disappointing disc-read stutters at seemingly unnecessary junctures, such as adding points to character skills.

Crimson Gem Saga is a solid RPG that will appeal to traditional JRPG fans with its clean look and smooth gameplay, even if the story is a bit generic and leveling can be a chore. Those looking for something that pushes boundaries won't find it here, but it's still worth a look.

A City Of Strong Foundations -- Assassin's Creed II Preview

Assassin's Creed was an excellent game, but it did have its problems... have its problems... have its problems... you get the idea. The lack of variety in the game's missions was the number one complaint from gamers and critics alike when it was released in late 2007. Ubisoft was on hand at E3 with a brand new in-game demo of the sequel, and I had a chance to sit down for a closer look at Altair's successor. From what I saw, Assassin's Creed II seems to fix everything that was wrong with the first game and make a more complete and enjoyable experience for gamers in 2009.

The game picks up right where AC left off. Desmond, a descendant of the Assassin clan, is being held against his will by a "doctor" who is trying to use a machine to access the memories of Desmond's ancestors that persist in his DNA via a machine called the animus. It's a little far-fetched, of course, but we suspend disbelief. This time, players dive into the life of Ezio, a Venetian who lived during the time of the Italian renaissance.

Little about the story was revealed, aside from the fact that Ezio is not a trained assassin from the beginning, but learns his "craft" as the game progresses. This will be a revenge story, to give it a more personal feeling, but revenge on whom and for what has not yet been divulged.

Both fans and critics of the first game will be glad to find that the developers have been paying close attention to criticism, and will be improving the sequel's mission structure. Assassin's Creed II will feature a number of new mission types, and many of them will span multiple locations -- from city to city and through the two distinct countryside areas. These areas will no longer act as hubs from which to access isolated cities where the action takes place exclusively, but will be a cohesive world with smaller sections housed within it.

Ezio will also have a number of new moves at his disposal, such as dual-bladed assassinations that take out two guards at once, leaping strikes from high above his targets, mid-climb attacks, and even the ability to drag guards into hiding places for the kill. He'll also have new toys to play with, like Leonardo Da Vinci's famous Flying Machine. Da Vinci himself lends the invention to Ezio, and he's not the only real-life personality to show up in the story.

With all this help for the player, the enemies in ACII needed a boost, too. In this game, guards will specialize in order to counter the assassin's skills. The three "archetype" enemies are the brute, who is adept at close-quarters combat, the agile, who can run Ezio down regardless of his monkey-like free-running and climbing, and the seeker, who can detect Ezio in the formerly impervious hiding spots that dot the cities.

Ubisoft Montreal has also improved upon the better aspects of the original game, and have once again produced a stunning visual feast, with sprawling cities, country vistas, and lifelike character models. They've also added over 30 new weapons to Ezio's arsenal, each with its own set of beautifully choreographed animations. These will mostly be acquired by stripping them from enemies and immediately putting them to use, after which Ezio can choose to drop them or take them along for the next fight. Additionally, tools like smoke bombs will help Ezio to make clean escapes, and can be purchased with the newly introduced monetary system.

Assassin's Creed II was one of the most impressive games on display at this year's E3, and I can't wait to get my hands on the final build. The game is scheduled to hit store shelves on November 17th of this year for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Skill Trees & Sniper Rifles -- Borderlands Preview

Creativity and innovation are growing themes in today's videogames industry. Gearbox Software and 2K Games' Borderlands is yet another genre-bending gaming experience that looks to offer plenty of both. Dubbed an RPS, or role-playing shooter, Borderlands draws just as much, if not more influence from massively multiplayer RPGs than from team-based shooters.

Players choose from four classes -- the tank, the hunter (a sniper class), the siren (a magical class), and the standard, well-rounded soldier -- before jumping into a large, open environment to accept, complete, and report on missions from various non-player characters throughout the game world. Operating alone or in a group of up to four cooperative players (split-screen, local area network, or online), players will gain experience points and level up, improving skills via a three-track tree that is different for each class.

The primary quest track will take roughly 20 hours to finish, while completionists will be able to spend over 100 hours completing side missions, fighting procedurally generated enemies, and collecting massive amounts of loot and weaponry. The game will also feature a dueling system and arena battles for more competitive players.

One of the most interesting aspects of Borderlands is the way it dynamically builds all of the players' enemies and each of the game's "millions" of guns out of the smaller parts that make them up. For example, a certain family of enemies may consist of many individuals, each modified with specific player-killing physical characteristics -- blades, guns, acid spit, flame breath, etc. -- as well as elite, supercharged versions know as "bad asses." Weaponry is composed in much the same way, out of the component parts of each gun. In this case, though, attributes such as firepower, accuracy, capacity, range, and others are also assigned at the time of weapon generation. For grenades alone, there are over 100 possible types. Because of the vast range of possible weapon configurations, a color-coded rarity system quickly alerts players to the relative value and efficiency of each one.

Also quite evident when first looking at Borderlands is its visual style, colorful animated art reminiscent of the comic-influenced XIII or the more recent Prince of Persia. Heavy, inked outlines and bright, caricatured models give the game a striking look, and the real-time day/night cycle displays the world in a wide range of light conditions during play.

Borderlands is scheduled for release this October on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

If I Could Turn Back Time -- Singularity Preview

Singularity is an upcoming first-person shooter from Activision and Raven Software, featuring an original sci-fi storyline and interesting, atypical time-manipulating gameplay mechanics. From what I could see in the E3 demonstration, Singularity is somewhat reminiscent of another great fps, BioShock. That's never a bad thing.

Singularity centers around a small island off the Russian coastline called Katorga-12. During the Stalin era, this island was a place of arms experimentation and the site of a massive elemental catastrophe. It was quarantined for more than half a century, and forgotten. In 2010, however, the U.S. military has discovered the long-hidden island and has sent in a unit on a reconnaissance mission.

The player is a member of that unit, and must explore this temporally unstable place that hangs in constant flux between 1950 and 2010. What begins as a simple observation quickly turns into a quest to unshroud the island's history and an attempt to right the wrongs of the past.

Players will be able to toy with time in a number of ways. The time manipulation device, or TMD, is able to shift objects (even entire buildings!) and enemies back and forth between their conditions in 1950 and 2010, which is useful in puzzle-solving as well as combat (zapping a 1950s guard and watching him turn to bone looks very satisfying). Echo events set the mood and advance the plot by occasionally presenting the player with scenes from before the meltdown, played in constant loops via holographic imagery in the present day, and time waves periodically sweep the island, placing everything in an in-between existence called the null-zone. Elements from both time periods coexist and interact in this space, and upgrades to the TMD allow players to reach through from 2010 to grab null-zone objects.

Like BioShock, the game appears to focus heavily on storytelling, and puts players in a situation where they must uncover the secrets of a bygone era in a mysterious setting that doesn't obey the laws of reality as they know it. Combining first-person shooting with the almost magical TMD in the protagonist's off-hand will potentially provide a gameplay balance similar to those in games such as BioShock and Half-Life 2, and the various time mechanics promise a unique experience overall.

Singularity will arrive late in 2009 on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

Center Of The Action -- Homefront Preview

Although they have pervaded the market, many gamers are no longer content with simple war shooters and mindless combat, but require unique gameplay mechanics and deep storytelling in their fps games. Homefront is an upcoming game from THQ and Kaos Studios that aims to cater to both of those needs.

Homefront boldly brings the fight home to American soil -- something videogame storytellers have tended to shy away from until now. Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn author John Milius is no stranger to this sort of theme, however, and is responsible for penning Homefront's script, as well. The game is set in a North Korean-occupied United States (or shambles of what once was) after a global energy crisis, 20 years in the future. The formal U.S. military has been effectively disabled, and citizens are either imprisoned, working for the enemy, or aiding in the resistance. That's where the player comes in.

The game's protagonist becomes the newest member of the resistance upon his arrival at one of the many safehouses that dot the U.S. countryside. These walled-off, self-sufficient communities are the last asylum for free Americans, and are the headquarters from which the resistance operates, although constant pressure from outside military forces keeps them constantly on the move.

In addition to the game's narrative, which clearly highlights a seasoned author's touch judging from the dialogue and scripting seen in the presentation at E3, a brand new and original game engine will help to set Homefront apart from other games in the genre. The appropriately named Drama Engine has been created to bring all of the action much closer to the player than in an average action title. The game limits its use of cutscenes, instead opting to use environmental narrative and scripted events to drive the story. Unlike most other games that use this strategy, however, Homefront will activate these events only once a player is focused in the proper direction, making sure as little as possible escapes their view eyes. In this way, the narrative can be both cinematic and dynamic with very little sacrifice on either end of the spectrum.

The gameplay demo at E3 was indeed very cinematic, and showed attendees a safehouse invasion where the player had to quickly take up arms with his fellow citizens and fight off the attack. One very special weapon that Homefront introduces is the Goliath tank, an unmanned, remote-controlled all-terrain vehicle with a deadly cannon. Players will be able to call upon this machine in the game and mark targets during firefights. The Goliath will then find the quickest way to obliterate said target. In the demo, these were mostly heavily armored trucks and military vehicles. It was like the fourth of July in a way.

Another unique feature of the Drama Engine is the way it "magnetizes" the protagonist, so that players always feel like they are at the center of the action, and keep a steady flow of adrenaline pumping. A good example of this in the E3 demo was when the Kaos representative shot and blew up a fast-moving truck, causing it to swerve and flip out of control. In this situation, the truck will always be drawn to the player, forcing him or her to quickly dodge out of the way; there is no set path.

The last thing mentioned at the show was that Homefront will feature a competitive multiplayer mode, with heavy vehicle use. Multiplayer details are very limited at this time, but when I asked about the way it will fit into the main storyline, the Kaos people said that there will be an interesting explanation for that, to be revealed at a later date.

Homefront is still a long way off, and will be released on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 sometime after 2009. As of right now, though, it looks to be coming along very nicely.

How's This For Modern Warfare? -- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Preview

At this year's E3, I had the opportunity to sit down with THQ and Relic Entertainment for a look at the newest application of their Warhammer license, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Announced just five days prior to the event, Space Marine is a new, action-RPG take on the brand, and will appeal to Warhammer fans differently than the existing strategy titles from Relic. Members of the press were only treated to a short video and Q & A session about the game, but a fair amount of information was divulged at the show.

The game appears to play similarly to large-scale battlefield action games such as Dynasty Warriors or Spartan: Total Warrior, and will allow players to control a single marine in the midst of massive conflicts between rival armies, mowing through enemies in a festival of chainsaw blades and machine guns. Although the team emphasized that players will play as just one space marine, they are making their best efforts to remain true to the source material, where marines operate in groups of five or ten. Players will work in AI-controlled squads of those sizes, or join other players in the game's cooperative online multiplayer mode.

Through battle, which will include both melee and ranged combat, players will gain experience and level-up their characters over time. As in the tabletop games, this character development is a big focus in Space Marine, and players will have the opportunity to upgrade weaponry, armor, attributes, and abilities throughout the course of the game.

Relic is working closely with Games Workshop to develop the storyline in Space Marine, using the company's existing lore to create a narrative that is heavy enough to drive the experience, but light enough to keep players focused on the action taking place on the battlefield. The main idea here is that the Adeptus Astartes (Space Marines) are at war, defending humanity against the Orks and quite possibly other races in the Warhammer fiction, although Relic has only announced the inclusion of the two initial armies.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is still "years away," but already looks very solid, as the action footage at E3 was running entirely on the in-game engine. More coverage as the game draws nearer to release.

Play A Story -- Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer Preview

Heavy Rain, from Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit) developer Quantic Dream, was one of the most unusual games on display at E3 2009 in Los Angeles, but is also one of the most interesting.

According to director David Cage, the main premise behind Heavy Rain is to "play a story," which is quite an apt description, considering the nature of the gameplay. Technically an adventure game, Heavy Rain is controlled entirely by moving the protagonist through 3D environments with the left analog stick, then pressing buttons, making motions with the right stick, or shaking the controller in order to perform character actions when faced with context-sensitive on-screen commands. The player never takes direct control outside of general movement, but participates in an interesting blend of quick time events and choose-your-own adventure menus.

Quantic Dream was showing off the first real gameplay segments from Heavy Rain at this year's E3, and I got the chance to observe a scene centering around the second of four main characters in the game (one more will be revealed at Games Con, and the last at the Tokyo Game Show), the insomniac Madison Paige. The team wanted to make the characters flawed in particular ways to bring a more human element to each of them. Madison's handicap effects gameplay by making her feel fatigued and less stable, and the only way for players to give her a good night's rest is by getting a motel room -- the only place she CAN sleep.

In the E3 2009 demo, Madison is out looking for a man named Paco in a nightclub. He happens to be the owner, she hears from the bartender, and is sitting in the back. She moves through the crowd, carefully avoiding bumping into other people (and walking with a sort of handicapped, sideways limbo posture), until reaching a bouncer to talk to with the X button. She can't get through to see the big shot, so players have to figure things out. By leaning on a nearby table, she watches as the chauvinistic club owner calls a girl dancing on a different table over to sit with him. This represents one way to gather information in Heavy Rain, given nothing to go on. Players can expect to observe and explore the world around them before making progress in the story.

Madison tries to dance on the table to catch Paco's eye, and the player must complete a QTE segment to do so successfully. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, and she must think of a new solution. When players are searching for ways to proceed, Heavy Rain will often allow them to dive into the protagonists' thoughts via a number of button prompts that float in the space around their heads. By using what is known about the situation, this process can reveal the logical next step. If the character is nervous, scared, or otherwise unstable at the moment, these prompts will be jittery, flashing, or even partially blurred out, making it more difficult for the player to act expediently when fast action may be necessary for the character's well-being.

In this case, the plan is to be a little bit sexier for the club boss, so into the bathroom Madison goes. Standing at the mirror, the player sees a few different options, and another example of Heavy Rain's gameplay. By pressing up on the analog stick, Madison might change her hair, while pressing left or right will make her unbutton her blouse or reach for some extra makeup in her purse. Pressing down will make her shorten her skirt with a few quick rips well above her knees. Each of these actions features another light gameplay element, such as slowly motioning in a semi-circle with the analog stick to apply heavier eyeliner or jerking the motion-sensitive PS3 controller sideways to tear away the fabric of the skirt.

Madison can then make a second attempt at table-dancing, and after another small Simon says session, Paco takes notice of her newly sluttified performance and calls her over. During the conversation, more on-screen prompts guide the conversation as the player sees fit, and up to a private room the two go, Madison with a purse-bound pistol, hoping to get the information she wants.

The demo continued to the end of the scene, but I will stop there to avoid spoiling too much, as the game's appeal is primarily the unraveling of its multi-faceted storyline, with variants of the above-mentioned gameplay governing its direction. Mr. Cage explained to the crowd that many of the game's 60 scenes, which come to about ten hours of gameplay, are optional, and dependent on player choices and even whether or not a particular character even lives to see each portion of the game. In this way, no two play-throughs will be identical, and the game will continue to deliver fresh content to the player the second and third time around.

Heavy Rain looks very promising, and will help to expand the definition of videogames in a way that is very much unlike the growing casual shift and Nintendo vision. PlayStation 3 owners can look forward to seeing Heavy Rain in Q4 2009.

Black & White & Red All Over -- The Saboteur Preview

"This is our most epic game yet," said chief production manager Greg Borrund about Pandemic Studios' stealth-action sandbox title, The Saboteur. After watching the game in action, I can say that "epic" looks great.

The Saboteur takes a brand new approach to depicting the World War II era in videogames; no longer will players be shooting on the front lines or manning bombers, but instead will be exploring the open-world setting of Nazi-occupied France, defying the Germans and bringing the "will to fight" back to the citizens of Paris and surrounding area.

Through the use of color, The Saboteur represents the relative strength of German influence and occupation in the many neighborhoods of the city, as well as the general sentiment of the French people regarding the fight to repel the Nazi takeover. Areas with little will to fight are desaturated, save for the occasional Nazi flag, environmental objective, or splatter of blood. As the situation improves via the player's actions, color will return and hopelessness will abate.

While it maintains a fully open-world feel with the option to explore the city and complete "ambient" side missions to improve the state of the nation, the game is at the same time story-driven, with a 15-hour main campaign. The primary objective is to carry out "acts of defiance," which normally entail locating, accessing, and destroying key components (weapons, buildings, etc.) of the German occupation. Each neighborhood will house one major target for story missions and a number of smaller ones that can be dealt with at the player's leisure.

The game's protagonist, Shawn, can traverse the city in a number of ways. Like in Assassin's Creed, he is able to scale any surface or structure that offers proper hand and foot holds, the only concern being where to go, and not how to make it there. Shawn can also hijack a car and take a joyride to wherever he needs to be, or simply walk the city streets, which will approximate Paris's true layout. Because remaining inconspicuous in the more heavily big-brothered areas is pivotal, however, players will have to be more careful when hoofing it to avoid detection.

Once in the nest of the enemy, performing stealth kills will allow Shawn to move closer to his objectives. After incapacitating a guard, he can assume his victim's identity by stealing the clothing off his back and proceeding cautiously forward. Getting too close to other enemies or acting suspiciously will expose him, as will finally completing the task, at which point he will have to "loud out" -- aka run and gun out of there.

Safehouses dot the city, and as long as the player can reach one undetected, Shawn will be safe from his pursuers, and can resume his anti-Nazi activities in peace. Alternatively, the ex- race car river can hop in a car and drive out into the countryside and coastal region to lose the tail. The expansive game world includes parts of Germany, as well, but driving in that direction to find shelter would probably be counter-productive.

The Saboteur promises a refreshing look at the seemingly unavoidable World War II subject matter, and will present players with great freedom to explore the game's open world and experience the story as they please. The highly stylized visual style and "will to fight" premise is very appealing, as well, giving The Saboteur a truly unique identity in the deluge of upcoming titles. Players can look for The Saboteur in Q4 2009.

S.M.A.R.T. Shooter -- Brink Preview

Who'd be interested in a squad-based first-person shooter from the developers of Quake Wars that borrows and streamlines concepts from Mirror's Edge, blurs the lines between single-player, co-op, and multiplayer, and dynamically updates objectives for you and your party based on your team's makeup and current situation in every mission? After Splash Damage's presentation of Brink, published by Bethesda Softworks, I would.

Brink takes place in the year 2035 on The Ark, a massive floating city on an Earth that has been flooded by arctic melting and plagued by civil war. The island itself looks as one might expect from a makeshift continent, patched together like a giant salvage yard or flotsam erector set, and is a very interesting overall environment to explore.

The game operates around a few core concepts, the first of which is unifying players' online and offline experiences. Whether playing solo, cooperatively, or in competitive multiplayer, successfully completing objectives and killing enemies earns XP that can be used to develop a player's created character. Points are used to learn new skills, purchase and upgrade weapons, and unlock non-gameplay items such as outfits, accessories, tattoos, and other character customizations.

Brink's second major defining characteristic is that mission objectives change dynamically based on a player's class and location, the current makeup and actions of the entire squad, and the general situation on the battlefield. Players have the option at the game session's onset to select from classes such as soldier or engineer, among others, each of which has a unique set of skills, a handful of pre-defined weapon load-outs, and its own special and important function in the mission. No player is limited to a single class. In fact, objectives may ask characters to change class at "command posts" scattered across the map in order to accomplish certain goals during play. In this way, the flow of the game is constantly changing.

Kinesthetic flow is the final concept that shapes Brink's gameplay. Dubbed smooth movement across random terrain, or S.M.A.R.T., players will be able to navigate their surroundings with nearly the same agility and grace of Mirror's Edge's parkour-practitioner, Faith, but with much less complex controller manipulation. By simply holding a button and focusing in the general direction they want to go, players will quickly jump, slide, vault, mantle, etc. over, under, around, or through environmental obstacles. Unlike Mirror's Edge, however, Brink doesn't neglect shooting mechanics in favor of platforming, and the experience seems to be completely cohesive despite the variety of gameplay options.

Splash Damage and Bethesda really look to be onto something with Brink, and in spring 2010, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 owners will find out for sure.