The Order | 1886 (PS4 Review)

(All screenshots in this review have been captured from the PS4)

The Order has been under recent heavy fire from critics and consumers alike for various reasons. The most damning criticisms have been its heavy reliance on storytelling over gameplay, the lack of replay value, and the length. While I somewhat agree with these complaints, I also consider these complaints expected as the developers have long stated that the game's intent was to provide a cinematic experience over gameplay. The Order is a competent piece of work that set out to do exactly what it intended to do. Consumers should decide for themselves if this is something worth checking out, though I would recommend waiting for the game to lower its admission fee.

A game should always be judged on its gameplay and I think that this is something that will be on the forefront of anyone's mind. The Order has gameplay and what it does is entirely average. There's nothing spectacular about the combat outside of the graphics - it works fine and there aren't any real complaints worth mentioning. Shooting feels tight and responsive, the combat and stealth segments are mindless fun, and they try to make the quick time events as little of annoyance as possible. It does a reasonable job of pacing the gameplay along with its story segments but it's not enough.

The player is provided most of the story through cutscenes that cannot be skipped. Visual storytelling elements outside of cutscenes are empty in comparison to exposition that you'll be provided through admittedly strong voice performances from every actor. You'll see a lot of gorgeous things, but the world is lifeless in contrast to the characters that inhabit it. You're never provided a meaningful way to interact with the world around you and the linearity as well as the incessant lack of control can break the fourth wall. Players can find a few collectibles that are scattered around the environment but none of them carry any sort of significance whatsoever. I believe that this is The Order's greatest missed opportunity. A sense of the player's individuality is inherent in game design, so to rob the player of that is a fault that deserves heavy criticism. The story may take precedence, but the player should still feel as if they're driving the narrative in a game, otherwise the story suffers.

The Order is, and I mean this as kindly as I can, the most well-polished tech demo that has ever been released. It feels like a game that should've been a pack in with the PlayStation 4 when it launched. There's a lot of things in here to love, but the gameplay will easily be forgotten and as a consequence the story has difficulty supporting the weight of its cons and heavy handed design. There's nothing about the game that's bad - its's just that there's nothing about the game that comes out of the experience as wildly memorable. I remain hopeful that this series will continue because I like everything that they've managed to create. The Order's greatest task going forward will be finding a way to provide a better paced story with better gameplay and less reliance on its cinematic prowess. It's the only hope it has if it ever wishes to be taken seriously as a system-selling exclusive.

Grade: C

Lords of the Fallen (PS4 Review)

When I had first heard about Lords of the Fallen I couldn't wait to give it a try. I'm a huge fan of Demon’s and Dark Souls, and developers Deck13 and CI Games both openly admitted that their game was meant to be inspired by this revered series. It had a masterful blueprint for game design in its hands. The trail had been blazed. So what was the result? You can definitely feel the inspiration Dark Souls had on the developers in the controls, the systems, and the combat. What differentiates this game, so heavily inspired by its source material, is that it lacks the most rudimentary understanding of what made the Soul series such an iconic entry into modern games.

Looking back, Dark Souls is nothing all that "new". It took old practices and concepts of difficulty and death and modernized them to a contemporary audience. Instead of artificial difficulty settings, the Soul series was based on the principle that players needed to learn about their environment and their enemies to succeed. It's not the only game that does that today - it wasn’t the first game to do it and it won't be the last. That’s the main reason why the Soul series are games that are so highly praised - it's an opposition to more casual game experience that also happens to play quite well. We can argue all day whether or not the Soul series is difficult or isn't and honestly it's not a very interesting argument to have. What matters is that it played well, had a fair challenge, and stands as a testament to the modern appeal for games of the past.

When browsing through user videos for those that received Lords of the Fallen early, one person referred to the game as "clunky souls". The term is pretty much spot-on. The game feels like Dark Souls and yet feels heavier, slower, less responsive, and as a consequence of all that boring. Where Dark Souls is a game based around learning to avoid hits entirely, Lords of the Fallen would rather play the less interesting route of taking hits and giving them. Players that find themselves wanting to remove all of their armor and dodge roll throughout the game will find that it just doesn’t work that way. Enemies respond in such a way that feels like you’re constantly knocking against a tank that flinches seldom to your offensive presses and returns attacks that deplete stamina severely or knock your character down. You also don’t get enough of a trade-off advantage from removing the armor because enemies respond so quickly to your movements that you can’t get a quick attack in before they recover. The most effective way that I found to deal with enemies in the game was to overpower them. If you attack enough times with a powerful weapon you can either break their guard and mow them down or at least get a few good hits in. Essentially the gameplay boils down to attacking first, wearing enough armor to absorb that chance hit that lands before you stagger them, and rinsing and repeating that process for the entire game. There’s something far more exhilarating with dodging an attack rather than letting the armor mitigate it. I’m not saying that you can’t play these other styles successfully, but they don’t feel balanced in any sort of way that feels like you’d want to suffer through it. I also found the hit detection bizarrely off. I could occasionally hear a hit land and either the enemy wouldn’t take any damage or it would block from an angle that was obviously exposed. It was exceedingly frustrating given how drawn out certain fights could be.

The art style, much like the gameplay, is heavily borrowed from better examples and then unapologetically implemented. Everything looks like a generic fantasy world. Bosses look practically identical, locations bleed together with their color and settings, and the character armor looks like they literally copied the design of pauldrons from World of Warcraft and changed the color schemes.
The design of the world is also poor. Many of the objectives are very unclear and looking around the world to find out where to go can result in doubling over locations you've visited before. It's baffling because when you take into account how short the game is (my first playthrough clocked around 17 hours) and realize how small the map ends up being, this shouldn't be much of a problem - but it is. I can't help but wonder if this is just another inspiration that Lords of the Fallen is taking from the infamously vague Soul series - but it's hard to say. Match the world design with the environments looking all identical and this world is as confusing as it is bland.

There is an interesting souls system in Lords of the Fallen that could be worth expanding on. Unlike the Soul series, maintaining the souls (experience points) on your person grants you multipliers that allow you to collect more souls at a quicker rate. If you die, the souls gradually deplete as they remain on the ground, so urgency to return to the last place you died becomes a part of the gameplay. It would work if the map wasn’t so small. Returning to your souls is generally too easy and convenient to make any meaningful difference to this otherwise intriguing addition to the system.

There’s not much to say about Lords of the Fallen without bringing up a better example of how to do it right. Lords of the Fallen feels, well, soulless. It has no discernible style, it’s entirely outperformed by its inspirations, and any fleeting new concepts that it brings to the table are squandered by poor design choices. “Inspiration” is a difficult word for me to agree with when I think back on this game. I’d suggest that Lords of the Fallen is a shameless consumption of source material that was then then regurgitated back out to the world and became, as expected, a poorly executed mess in the process.

GRADE: D

Dying Light (PS4 Review)

(All screenshots in this review have been captured from the PS4)

Dying Light was a pleasant surprise given the foreboding sentiment it telegraphed with its lack of a review embargo. Usually that's a telltale sign of a bad game. What we got instead was an intriguing open world game that despite some flaws does a few things that I found worth checking out. While I find that the zombie theme has been nearly picked clean in video games over the past years, it was shocking that Dying Light managed to introduce a level of nuance I didn't expect. It introduces some believable zombie apocalyptic scenarios that I've yet to see handled with the same level of attention. I mean sure, The Walking Dead series handles some interesting scenarios, but Dying Light offers a perspective that feels better suited for a situation so horrifying. Games often run the misfortune of casting aside a lot of the things that make a zombie apocalypse so scary. Dying Light isn’t by any stretch a game that reinvents the wheel or makes me want more zombie games, it just handles it with an unexpected amount of care.

The parkour mobility is both awesome and frustrating. There are times when it works exactly as intended and you’re very glad that it does, but when it doesn’t it’s infuriating. With more freedom to climb the environment Dying Light runs into the problem of occasionally putting up exceptions where it doesn’t make sense. You’ll find some objects are simply unclimbable even though you swear that they can be climbed. Or even things like being unable to shift around corners while hanging onto a ledge. It can be a bummer, but otherwise the system works well enough. One thing that I found pretty bizarre was how difficult is was to climb down environments as opposed to climb up. The addition of a “hang to ledge” feature would’ve made a world of difference, but there are methods to get down quickly and unharmed. They can just be occasionally hard to find.

There are some things that just feel right about Dying Light from its limitations. While the game is based around a parkour system your stamina is limited. Climbing takes time, falling can cause staggering and immense damage, and you can’t run forever. Also, your character begins quite weak, only managing to salvage some planks and pipes from the city streets. Eventually those weapons break if they’re brandished frequently enough, and you’ll find that killing even the weakest and slowest of undead to take several hits before they’re bested. Considering the amount of hits you have to get in to kill a single zombie and the scenarios often involving far more than one enemy at a time, fighting sounds like a fool’s errand. But don’t worry, you’ll get better, because Dying Light introduces a similar leveling system to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in that every time you perform an action (climbing, killing, jumping from rooftop to rooftop) you’ll gain experience attributed to that action. Oblivion was abysmal in implementing this kind of system because the total of categories you could level up was somewhere in the 20’s. Dying Light reduces them to three: survival, combat, and agility. As you garner more experience in each skill you’ll gain access to perks that will increase the level of tricks and tools that you have at your disposal - but in the beginning, you’ll need to scavenge and scrape by in the city slums to improve your chances of surviving.

Ultimately that creates a series of situations that will leave players considering the best way to tackle a scenario that seems unfavorable while learning to get around the game and accomplish quests unharmed. If there’s a shop you need to get into and there’s twenty undead right outside the shutter, you need to consider how you’ll get in there, open the shutter, grab the necessary items, and get out without them swarming you. What if entering the store triggers a security alarm? Suddenly a slow and stupid series of zombies becomes a problem, and that problem can be panic-inducing.

Outside of the slower zombies are a few varieties that include brutish undead, faster and more tenacious undead, and the nocturnal volatiles which are far more of a problem. Dying Light works entirely around a progressive day and night cycle, where weaker enemies wander the streets during the day and tougher enemies are thrown into the mix once the sun sets. The onset of nighttime is an unsettling concept and it works quite well. The lighting in general is marvelous. It might not sound that interesting but watching a single line of light begin to recede while inside a building is unnerving. It’s moments like these that punctuate the experience Dying Light has crafted - small little details that you could miss if you care not to look or mind. I remember encountering one of my first runners, a female. Running zombies are recently turned and still maintain some of their mobility and coordination, so they’re far more aggressive. As she’s screaming and thrashing I hit her over the head with a wrench to gain distance. Instead of continuing to relentlessly attack until she falls, she cowers down with her hands covering her head and says, “Please don’t hurt me”. It’s this humanistic touch reminding the player that these were people and that maybe a part of them still unwillingly exists within their bodies. I found that all very well done and adding a layer of depth to their take on a doomsday pandemic.

Another thing that I found interesting was how the quests were designed. Usually in an open world game a player will visit a town, find someone that’s lost their dog or something, rescue the dog, receive some amount of experience and an item, and never see this person again. In Dying Light some of these side quests span practically the entire game parallel to the main story. One of the first quests you’ll pick up lasts for a large portion of the game, constantly calling back to it. Even the briefer quest lines seem to add a level of commitment to them that’s wildly uncommon compared to other contenders in the genre. It touches poignantly on the hardships that come with living in such a world while simultaneously making the characters more than a vein of experience to mine; hardships like how to find insulin for a suffering diabetic in a world where every pharmacy has been looted, or sheltering the minds of children from the nightmarish reality outside on the streets. The side quests follow natural progressions that I found more than just fetch quests, because they seemed to be able to add an urgency, a struggle, and a logic as well as a committed level of production to the side content.

The sad truth is that there is a point of diminishing returns that comes with the balancing of the game. Some of these experiences I touched on earlier become diluted or cease to exist once your character becomes the badass he’ll surely transition into if you play the game long enough. When you unlock enough skills and gain access to more powerful weapons, you’ll be lopping the heads off of zombies faster than you can say “Ichabod Crane”. The game really takes a hard left turn when this happens. It becomes something completely different, more hack n’ slash, and there are people that will definitely prefer it. For me the game became a lesser version of itself when the threat had transformed into pesky weeds for my electrical fire machete to cut through on a path to the next objective. There are other perks like the grappling hook that make world traversal far easier and, regrettably, less interesting. Once I got to this point I decided to bum-rush the main story and complete it. I then tried to pick it up again and had little to no desire to keep playing. It sucked me out of the game entirely. I enjoyed the change of pace for a time, but after awhile, the veneer falls off and reveals just another generic zombie game.

There’s a lot of reasons to play Dying Light. It’s got a lot of small pieces that set it apart from games that carry similar themes. It’s one of my first true surprises for the year, having all of the makings to be as generic and uninteresting as possible and surpassing those expectations by a long shot before eventually crashing and burning. I think somewhere in the design of Dying Light there was the idea that all of these parts could fit together on a functional sense, but perhaps the greatest misstep was the lack of consideration for what this would do to the experience for the individual. It’s hard to satisfy everyone, it’s just as hard to completely satisfy someone. Within that conundrum is where Dying Light finds itself trapped, rotting inside a corpse’s shell.

GRADE: B

Dragon Age: Inquisition (PS4 Review)

(All screenshots in this review have been captured from the PS4)

If someone were to tell me that Dragon Age: Inquisition would become one of my favorite games of 2014 I would've dismissed it without hesitation. I had tried to play the first Dragon Age and found the experience much to my distaste after a fair amount of time with it. In the 47 hours of gameplay with Dragon Age: Inquisition I can confidently say that my experience was immensely satisfying and so enjoyable that as soon as the credits concluded I hit new game and started all over again. From the political banter to the intricately crafted environments, Inquisition would appear to be a passion project for BioWare - not to mention a game that I enjoyed far more than their popular Mass Effect series.

With a game like Dragon Age: Inquisition there’s a lot to take in. Inquisition isn't without its flaws, however, and I encountered them more frequently than what could be considered negligible. Issues like audio drops, input lockouts, falling into the world, and game freezing were all encountered in my playthrough. It's fortunate that the game auto saves as frequently as it does because if it hadn't this would be a severely less forgiving review. The game definitely comes with its share of technical nuisances, but nothing that would be on par with Skyrim's console problems.

The game plays similarly to other Bioware titles: players band together in a party of 4 where commands can be issued individually while the action is suspended. The game can pose a challenge here and there, but not in any sort of clever way. Inquisition has three classes: rogues, mages, and warriors. You'd think that the Mage would comprise a healing subclass, but the best that the game offers you is a support tree. Practically all of your healing will come from a limited amount of potions with a hard cap depending on your investment into certain perks that you’ll earn by completing missions. Once these potions are depleted, you must return to camp to replenish them. It's a dubious system that seems like an artificial source for difficulty, replacing anything truly challenging or strategic - which is a shame, because the groundwork is solid enough that it should be more than capable of testing its players with tact rather than tedium. The combat can be enjoyable and there are classes such as the rogue archer that benefit from positional advantages while in combat. This helps to add a bit of variety to the combat which can occasionally feel mindless. Nightmare is where Inquisition really shows the full extent of its flawed difficulty design, where enemy health is bolstered to such an exaggerated degree that it shows how exceedingly drawn out and repetitive the combat can become. For anyone looking for more than a casual experience I'd suggest beginning on the Hard difficulty. This should also avoid some of the over-leveling issues people are having in the starting zone.

There’s other inconveniences that litter Inquisition, such as crafting weapons and armor being restricted to the main base of operations. In order to craft anything you’ll need to fast travel back to the inquisition headquarters and perform it there. Similarly, issuing any war table missions, which are non-participant missions performed in real time by NPC’s, can only be issued when in this location. The lack of convenience feels almost pointless, but it does encourage the player to return to town and find new dialogue options that become available with party members and other companions.

The classes are all useful and can make some interesting pairing, but I found myself enjoying the ranged characters far more than any of the close combat options. Some of the fights can involve multiple enemies at one time and, if you’re like me, you’re someone that will primarily be maintaining control of the character you created rather than a party member. Even so, sticking to a ranged class offers perspective over the fight and allows you to more accurately assign commands to individual party members when you find yourself requiring that level of attention. The dual-wielding rogue or the sword and shield classes feel, ironically enough, unwieldy. It might just be a personal preference but I often found that maneuvering characters so close to the action controlled poorly. I defaulted to the rogue archer and mage classes where combat felt far less chaotic and manageable.

One aspect where Inquisition definitely excels is dragon encounters. If you’ve ever played an MMO before and enjoyed the boss encounters then this is right up your alley. Some of the fights can be downright epic, taking place over a large area and involving phases that change up the dragon’s behavior, move-set, and position. Downing a dragon felt like an actual accomplishment and rewards you generously with high-tier crafting components and items.

I know it sounds like a myriad of bones to pick with the game but there's much more to love about Inquisition than to dislike, starting with its world. Aesthetically the world of Thedas feels convincingly alive and it all looks gorgeous. Colors pop and lighting hits the environment beautifully. Dungeons and landscapes all feel so uniquely designed that the enormous maps can be recalled from memory by landmarks. Taverns are frequented by bards and musicians that play numerous songs. It’s staggering how painstakingly crafted each environment is. There's very little in Inquisition that feels similar and throughout the entire game I was enticed to explore further. Where many games like this feel as if they recycle textures to cut down production, Inquisition is a love letter to world building, and I found an enormous amount of satisfaction in exploration. That's no small feat for a game of immense scope, and it left me wanting even more.

Outside of the appearance, the world is teeming with interesting politics and factions. Listening to many of your inquisition compatriots discuss their homelands and beliefs can be overwhelming. There’s definitely a lot that’s happening outside of saving the world. In fact, most of the stuff happening behind the curtain is more interesting than the main story. The antagonist is run-of-the-mill bad guy hungering for powers beyond his control. Most of the story beats are predictable or may even cause you to roll your eyes. There’s high points, for sure, but not many. I had much more fun digging into side quests and sifting through hours of dialogue while in the inquisition headquarters. Fortunately there’s a ton of content that makes up for a lackluster campaign.

If you’re someone that enjoys dungeon crawling and exploring, I can’t think of a way that Dragon Age: Inquisition can disappoint you. If you like political unrest, espionage, and betrayal, then Inquisition is poised to please. There’s a ton of things to both love and hate about this game. I know I love it because I cared enough to ponder how the next installment could be better. While I can say that it’s a hell of a game and a personal favorite for last year, I also need to be fair and say that technical issues, shallow but pretty combat, and unintuitive game design choices are a problem - but Dragon Age: Inquisition, if given a fair investment, is willing to at least redeem some of those shortcomings in a way that allowed me to come out of its final product impressed.

GRADE: B