Darksiders 2

I loved playing as the Horseman War in Darksiders 1, and though it was pointed out to me that the game is similar to "Zelda" I was caught up in the story, mainly because I was deeply involved in it -- someone cracked the seals and released me to wreak havoc and mass destruction, but I was punked?  It was time to go to town, recover my powers, find who framed me - and make him pay.

.. and I did.

The final scene leaves you speaking with Uriel, and feeling epic and SO ready for Darksiders 2:

Darksiders 2 ... You play as Death, and though the idea is badass - the implemenation is dumb-ass.  You are a sass talking goofball little brother to War, with a mission to rescue your brother by resurrecting humanity.  Albeit not a bad motivation for a character, but again - the implementation made it a stupid video game, not an epic struggle.  You are a worker bee for every person you encounter and each has an agenda or task for you to complete before they offer you aid.  Almost invariably you end up getting double-crossed and having to kill the person you just got the Thingofmightypowerup for.

If I'm Death - and my focus is to rescue my brother from the corrupt Charred Council, and you offer me a mission of retrieving the Stone of Whocares from the Valley of Notonmypath, you can stuff your mission in the cavity left behind by my reaper blades, I've already walked past your corpse.

Though it has some epic looking bosses, the mechanics of fighting are a bit too button mashy.  The early creatures are easily dodged, but eventually you become reliant on gear upgrades rather than skill because they set so many creatures at once against you that there isn't a way to avoid damage at all, which turns it into an AOE / DPS race.

The game is Zelda on steroids, every section has a locked door, or the perfect combination of awkward weight plates to step on for gates to raise and lower, you have to traverse of the same section numerous times as various pathways open.  They try to add different mechanics to add to your navigation puzzle solving experience, like a portal gun and the ability to split yourself into two people.  Navigation and climbing puzzles just .. isn't .. fun, without the mechanics of climbing and navigation being fun itself.

One of the things they did brilliantly in the game, however, is the way you restore your saved game.  While loading, you are given a number of scene sketches while the Crowfather summarizes the recent game accomplishments and reminds you what you are to be doing -- leaving the start screen as an idle Death animation, once you click start - the scene simply pans back and you begin in the correct area.  Seamless.

I'm glad I played it, but I'm not planning on any DLC.  I'd play a sequel, because I enjoyed #1 so much and I'm invested in the characters -- War really was "Leonidas badass".  But then, that is the same reason I saw Highlander 3 in the theaters ...

Dark Souls 2

Victory Achieved!

I have an obsession with this game.

Dark Souls 2 doesn't so much as continue the story of the first, as much as it is another "turn of the wheel" so to speak.  Much like Elric of Melnibone or any of the Eternal Champions, you are there when the pendulum of the ages swings - from order to chaos, or vice versa.  Though I suppose as champion, you would always see yourself as the agent of light ...

It is an interesting thought one should always consider, hero and villain are defined by your notions of their motivations.  A necromancer is perceived as "morally wrong", so it would be okay for the brutish warrior to kick down his doors and steal his treasure or worse.  You'd be obligated if you were a necromancer (merely trying to unlock the secrets of the universe) to invest time in protecting your lair with an undead army from all these foolhardy home-invaders!  "The greatest evils are often perpetrated in the name of good."

Anyways, the ending of the first game had the player choosing whether to embrace the fire, essentially burning your soul as fuel to keep things how they are, with mankind in power - or reject it, ushering in an age of darkness as the new Dark Lord.  The ending for Dark Souls 2 was far less epic, I felt like I discovered a series of bosses, which led to the end boss - who I challenged to sit on the throne.  The story is once again told through slow dialog acted as if people were completely bored and depressed, which I guess fits the environment.  I didn't follow anyone's story in particular, I'll have to read a fanboi summation soon.

That said, the journey there was fraught with some of the most heart yammering, hand sweaty game play.  Boss fights with amazing creatures, learning to deal with impossible situations - it was crazy fun.  A few things were changed to make it more accessible in the long run - brilliant choices in fact.  There is a limit to the number of times a creature will spawn after you kill it - so if you struggle in an area, you can work at it like a pick axe, as you learn the fights and get better - fewer of the initial creatures spawn so you are better equipped to learn and deal with the later fights in an area.

Also, you're not restricted to restoring your humanity (becoming human again so you can summon assistance) at a bonfire, which would in turn respawn all the enemies.  So now you can fight your way to a boss area and then restore your humanity to summon multiplayer or NPC help.  Alternatively you can volunteer to help others with a boss - victory of which might give rewards of potential humanity, restoring your Estus Flask charges, or bonus supplies depending on other game factors.

I played through "almost" blind, allowing myself usually 20+ attempts at a boss before investigating anything.  This usually afforded me the ability to finish it by learning myself and helping others.  I am also guilty of looking up the location of a few bonfires that I was sure had to be nearer a boss than I had come from, I wonder if they were aware of the cruelty they were doing to people who didn't play online and get orange hints... so many bonfires were hidden by odd paths or behind illusory walls.

I will play again when it releases on PC, and I have some time on the 360 to try and not be so terrible at PVP ... but this time I'll be shining a flashlight in every corner and probably following a guide to make sure I've collected it all.  I'll also probably target a lower end level completion ...

The Walking Dead - Season 1

This TellTale engine is perfect for a story game, I'm really happy for them to have gotten this license - they worked gold in these first 5 episodes.

Early on I established my motivation when I met a young girl hiding out in her house, "I'd murder the world to save this little girl."  There's no way to be 100% hero in a well done dystopian future, this game does a great job of putting you in those uncomfortable situations where you have to make a rapid decision.

You play as Lee Everett, recently convicted of a crime of passion that you did/didn't commit?  You escape when the patrol car you are being transported in crashes in attempt to avoid an early zombie.  Clementine's parents were out of town during the outbreak in Savannah, providing you with motivation and destination.  You soon encounter other survivors and are put into somewhat of a leadership despite your apparent checkered past.  True to form of the Walking Dead comic, the zombies are a backdrop to the real story of twisted survivor interaction.

The story takes a John Marston'ish turn in the final episode when Clem is kidnapped and while searching for her, Lee is bit.  In that moment, the story became a short story -- and my motivation turned from "protect the girl" to "find her a group I can trust and help her become a survivor".  The penultimate scene in partially blurred vision as I help her realize she can take care of herself, pushing the bat towards her with my foot - no energy to take out the crawler.  Tell her she's strong, and get her to put a bullet in my brain.

Fade to black.  Hell yeah.  ... way to tell a story!

The final conversation with Clem:

Dragon's Lair & Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp

It's fair to say that I have been a lifelong video game addict.  Given the quantity of quarters I pumped into the Dragon's Lair video game console in arcades, it's a morsel of nostalgia I couldn't pass by.  Dragon's Lair in the arcade was the first in a wave of "feed me your coins" games in that you are allowed to make only 3 mistakes (per quarter).  The first few plays your entire game time was probably 30 seconds, and even though repeated plays will train you to be able to play longer - the entirety of the story if you play it perfectly is about 10 minutes.

Dragon's Lair follows the story of Dirk as he traverses room by room through a heavily trapped tower in order to rescue the overly sexual Princess Daphne.  Directional moves flash on the screen that you must follow to continue, any misstep and you end in a painful death sequence.

A fun reminder of my past, I had never really played Dragon's Lair 2 - so that was a fresh bit of animation to enjoy.  However, it was a bit more unforgiving in sequence length - and I'm not sure I got much enjoyment of the animation as I let my eyes try to absorb the screen details looking for the arrows and sword icons of my next move.  In the original game, the rooms had no more than 5 or 6 interactions before the next checkpoint, Time Warp evokes rage if you make it through 30 successful clicks in a scene and fat finger the last one because you have to start the entire sequence over.

Even with starting scenes over and countless fumbled clicks, I finished both games in a little under an hour each.

I probably pumped over a hundred quarters into the coin op game - so for myself, it was great to relive something from my past.  If I did not have that experience, I would be disappointed with how short this game is.  This game would be perfect as an iPhone game and receive my recommendation, but as a PC game .. wait for 75% off.