GTA V Review

GTA V Review

GTA V is the latest part of the popular Grand Theft Auto series which takes place in a modern rendition of the game’s old location San Andreas, from the game’s previous incarnation Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. GTA V puts you in the role of three characters and allows you free reign, for the most part, to switch between any of them. With these three characters you are free to do just about whatever you want to with plenty of activities like Tennis and Yoga and Golf as well as races and much much more. The game does a lot of things very well and provides an overall enjoyable and addicting experience but there are some parts that fell flat with me. So on that note let’s drive further into my likes and dislikes of this potential Game of the Year, GTA V.

Likes

Loads of Customization (Stats, weapons and Cars)

One thing I enjoyed alot about the last Grand Theft Auto game that took us to San Andreas was that as you played and did certain things CJ’s abilities reflected that and got better over time and Rockstar has brought that back to all three of the characters in this game. As you shoot, drive, fly or sprint your way through the city of San Andreas you will see that character’s respective abilities increase. While there isn’t the drastic change in appearances that CJ would get from eating loads of Cluckin Bell of Burger Shot or going to the gym every day it is still good to feel like you are seeing some improvement in the characters’ abilities as you yourself get use to the game more and more especially since these stats increases are all permanent increases. The characters aren’t the only ones that can be improved though, the ability to fully trick out your vehicle has returned as well. GTA V’s vehicle customization allows you to equip your vehicle with armor, bullet proof tires, a turbo engine and much more. Weapons also have the chance to be outfitted to the player’s preference.

Fun Missions

What would Grand Theft Auto be without crazy, but fun missions. You’ll see some old classics from the other games (even alluded to in the post mission challenges) and you’ll also have plenty of new and more insane missions throughout the game as well, including (my favorite part of the game) a variety of heist missions. While most of it is planning the approach and picking a crew of ai to assist you with the score it is still pretty exciting and fun when you get to do the job and try to make off with the reward and try different approaches to the various heists.

Special Character Abilities

Another new part of the game is the unique abilities each character has. Franklin’s is my favorite, as I’m not the greatest driver in the game, it allows you to have more precise control over any vehicle you are driving and slows down time around you allowing to make some close last second maneuvers around police barricades or just the crowded Los Santos traffic. I also used Franklin’s ability to shoot out tires, aim at driver’s or plant bombs during chase missions.

Much much more.

Grand Theft Auto V has plenty of amazing and fun features to provide for new and old players. There are plenty of ways to make money in the game, from buying property (most had mini games or side missions involved in them), stock trading, or street racing, there are plenty of things for anybody and everybody to enjoy.

Dislikes:

Vehicle handling

Now as I said before I’m not the best driver in Grand Theft Auto (I like to drive on the wrong side of the road and take corners fast), but I think it only goes so far. Honestly for me most times, especially with some of the vehicles at the beginning I felt like I was driving on ice the cars were sliding around so much. This hurt me a lot during some of the chases. Another vehicle related issue I have is that even though the game prides itself on being somewhat realistic (at the very least about it’s driving) my character still refuses to wear a damn seat belt. Most of my deaths in this game were vehicle related more often than not from impacting a car with my car (front or back) and having my character rocket out of the seat and to their instant death.

No ability to plan heist outside of the main mission.

One of the things I was looking forward to in playing both GTA V and GTA Online was the ability to plan my own heist on a location. While you do get to do that in the game after completing it I was hoping to be able to pick my own location or even just a common location to hit but sadly if that feature is in there I have yet to discover it and it was just a little disappointing for me. Guess I’ll have to wait till Online comes to get my robbery fix but on that same note it does seem a bit weird to me that the accomplices level up if you are just going to use them on the same jobs through the replay missions. (oh look at that segue cause my next point is)

Scoring Missions - (Shut up if you didn’t like the segue I thought it was good, and if you did.... thank you)

Now I understand that this adds a bit of replayability to missions as people will want to do more and try to get gold on them all but it still just feels a bit ‘not Grand Theft Auto’ to me to score my completion of the mission. Now I say score but really it’s just there are a series of challenges for each mission, some equate to driving the cars without a scratch (hate those) and some are just as simple as buying a certain item or number of headshots or even just doing things a certain way (though if there is a hint to these beforehand or a way to look at them before the mission I just didn’t see them). So while i personally just saw this as a way for people to replay other missions aside from the heists I guess some people will enjoy going through them all again and trying different things.

Overall Opinions

Grand Theft Auto V is an amazing sandbox game and as my friends and I were discussing before we do think it is the best Grand Theft Auto game yet. Is there room for some improvements, yes but overall this is a very strong game and is worth checking out if you are interested in a good time. The characters are funny, the story is crazy and location is huge and full of things to do. So if you haven’t picked up Grand Theft Auto V yet (and why wouldn’t you) then I’d highly recommend doing so, I’d give it a 5 out of 5.

Endnotes

So I’m honestly considering moving away from a (and I use the term lightly) ‘review’ platform and more so on just giving my own opinions of the game and what I thought of it. I may still give it a number score at the end in terms of how much I enjoyed it but nothing explicitly judging the game’s merit or anything like that just my experience playing and how I liked it. Let me know what you think in the comments and be on the lookout for a possible GTA online review when that comes out and I think the next game I plan on playing is going to be Beyond Two Souls for the Playstation so be on the lookout for that and more coming soon.

Saints Row 4 Review

Saints Row 4 Review

Saints Row 4 is an Action adventure Sandbox game that is widely known and loved for the sheer insanity that it brings to the genre. The game series has taken you from being an initiate in a Stilwater gang known as the Third Street Saints to becoming the leader of the gang and moving to take over the city of Steelport all the while becoming more and more ridiculous and over the top. This game now has your character becoming the President of the United States. Your time in the White House is short lived though as the Earth has been invaded by aliens and the people have all been placed within a simulation. From here the game becomes even crazier than any of it’s predecessors.

Gameplay

The game plays like all the other Saints Row games, you gain access to a variety of weapons that can be upgraded, there are plenty of upgrades that can be made to your character from taking less damage to carrying an infinite amount of ammo for your weapons. The newest addition to the game however is the addition of a variety of superpowers allowed because of the simulation. If you played the dlc from Saints Row the Third The trouble with clones then you will be familiar with some of the powers in the game but this definitely does add a whole new dimension to the combat and exploration of the Steelport. There are plenty of new activities and weapons and there are plenty of collectibles to go around and... well collect.

Story

The story is pretty straight forward, there is an alien invasion and it is up to the President and his crew to put an end to it. The story is kind of short compared to the other Saints Row games but it maintains the entertaining and outrageous atmosphere of the other games.

What I like:

- Still crazy and fun

As I said before this game series is known for the sheer insanity that it brings to the table. What other game allows for the player to fire a gun that shoots streams of light to a dubstep beat or fire a gun that inflates an enemy until they burst or shove a weapon into the rectum of a target and then proceeds to launch them through the air. Saints Row is a unique game in that regard.

- Most of the Activities are fun

Saints Row 4 has plenty of activities to complete throughout the game. Aside from netting you some cash to buy upgrades they also can help unlock more upgrades for your powers or general abilities.

- The Superpowers and combat are pretty awesome.

While Saints Row isn’t by any means the first game to provide players with superpowers there is just something very interesting and satisfying about the way Saints Row 4 has done it. Whether it’s running through the street and leaving a trail of destruction in your wake, freezing a group of enemies and then shattering them, or hitting the ground with force of a nuke, Saints Row’s combat just allows you to do so much with what they give you.

- Gameplay is incredibly addictive

Saints Row is incredibly addictive. It is easy to spend hours jumping and running around the city collecting clusters or destroying the city in the plethora of activities.

What I didn’t like:

- The Superpowers took away from the game some.

While I absolutely love the superpowers in the game there are still plenty of things that this addition took away from the classic Saints Row style. Vehicles became unnecessary to use or care about since it was much more effective to run or jump through the city. It also made the times when your powers are taken away from you seem more like a burden.

Final Thoughts:

Saints Row 4 is an amazing game that provides a refreshing air of insanity and humor. This sets it apart from it’s counterpart Grand Theft Auto. Saints Row is worth checking out if you are looking for a game that takes itself less seriously than Grand Theft Auto. I’d give Saints Row 4 an 8.5 out of 10.

Sorry it took so long to update I’ve been getting ready for school I’m working on my playthroughs of Splinter Cell and Xcom but I don’t know if i will post a review for both or either of those yet but will do my best to. I also plan to post a scale for the ratings of my reviews and will possibly post ratings for the previous games.

Shadowrun Returns Review

Shadowrun Returns

Shadowrun Returns is a Strategy RPG game that takes places in the future where a group of mercenaries known as Shadowrunners or Runners are hired to do different types of jobs. The game gives you the choice between five different races, each with their own benefits and restrictions and six different kinds of specialization classes. The game offer loads of skill choices and a very interesting  story. This game is a top down strategy game, similar to Xcom: Enemy Unknown so fans of that genre should enjoy the gameplay and the customization that comes along with it. So now let’s go into my thoughts about the game.

What I like:

- Skill Customization

This game as I stated is an RPG game as well as a Strategy game, so as you advance through the story or small side missions you will earn karma points which will allow you to allocate another point into some of your skills to make you more accurate, do more and/or take less damage or unlock a new skill. The system does require some planning but once you find out what skills you want to focus on your runner will be a force to be reckoned with.

- Engaging story

The story for Shadowrun’s initial campaign is “The Dead Man’s Switch”   you are hired to  investigate the death of an old friend and ex runner Sam Watts per his request via a video sent out upon his demise. As you go through the game you meet various types of characters and delve into the cyberpunk version of Seattle’s underbelly. This story engages with the player as they go through the game, giving hints and clues on what is required to advance.

- User Generated Content

The game allows for the community to go in and make their own story and set up the environment and scenarios.

What I don’t like:

-Chance aiming Issues

If you played Xcom then you will be a bit use to this issue. The best way to describe this to those who aren’t familiar with this would be this scenario. During one of the later fire fights in the game I had a 55% chance to hit my target with three chances and only a bit of health left for the enemy and my last movable character. Thinking that I had at least a chance to get some damage in with three shots and a 55% chance to hit him I fired three times and missed each and every one. I know it’s probabilities but sometimes they are very all over the place as an earlier fight had a guy with a shotgun right in front of me fire a shot and missed entirely. This is a minor issue as I still enjoyed Xcom and this game but it’s still one of my pet peeves  with top down Strategy games.

No respec option

Another minor issue that I have with RPG games is the option to not respec in case of a mistake or simple change in what skills you want. So if you before placing a karma point make sure that you are confident in how you want to spec the character.

Interaction issues

Another issue I have with top down games is the interaction cues. There were times when interactable items on the screen wouldnt generate a prompt and I would just end up running around from room to room looking for the next thing. Another issue that is similar to this would be while moving characters into a room that has a cue for a conversation or dialouge the first of your team to enter the room will stop mid movement when the cue is activated and it would take up the entirety of the action point cost leaving them open.

What I look forward to seeing:

- User content

I’m very much so looking forward to seeing what the community will do with this game to provide more story content. I also would like to see someone make a content that is mostly going on runs with a created or picked out team rather than having to recruit people each time.

Overall Opinions:

Shadowrun Returns is a very fun and engaging game. If you played the 2007 Online Shooter for the Xbox then keep in mind that this is a somewhat different experience but it is still a fun one. The game provides plenty of skill choices and firefights to navigate through. While the game has it’s issues from time to time with some vague objectives or prompts I would say that I still found myself immersed in the game and wanting more. I would say fans of the casual Xcom experience would enjoy the game.

Tips

Specialize:

As I said before this game has no respec options that  I know of so I would recommend focusing on a combat aspect first and trying to max then focusing on trees one at a time that out rather than jumping around all the skills. The Karma points work sequentially so a level seven quickness  require seven karma points to advance and will only allow you to upgrade up to level seven on it’s subtrees so be careful of your choices.

Pistols or shotguns:

If you are going to use a ranged weapon I would recommend either of these two weapons. The Pistol for my character had great accuracy and damage and allowed to hit most of what I saw with at least a 90% chance once I had it at about level four or five and the chain shot ability allows you to fire three shots at three targets for one action point, while the shotgun’s kneecap ability allows you to lock down an enemy or two by taking away their action points and dealing good damage, it’s wide low ability also can mess up a cluster of enemies.

So I found a game to review after some time, cool. Let me know what you think of the review or the game itself in the comments and be on the look for my Payday 2 review coming soon.

Future Review Plans.

So due to the lack of new games coming out the rest of this month I don't have any reviews coming up for a couple of weeks. I plan to do the State of Decay DLC as soon as that comes out and talk about the new things that will be featured in there but the next big games that I plan to review are Payday 2, Xcom: The Bureau, and Splinter Cell Blacklist. You'll have to give me some time to get the last two out since they come out on the same day but I plan to have those two out as soon as I can so be on the look out for that. In the mean time if there are any game suggestions you have I'd love to hear it in the comments or if there are any suggestions or opinions on the formatting of the site or reviews themselves let me know.

State of Decay Review

State of Decay:

Around the time this game came out it was buried under E3 news and The Last of Us. With all that going on this game flew below a lot of people’s radars for a few days. I picked this game up and found myself pretty immersed in it for quite some time and after playing this game for sometime I have to say that this game for me brought some life back to the somewhat dead Zombie Genre.

About The Game:

State of Decay is a open world zombie rpg game created by the indie developers Undead Labs. This game provides plenty of gory, brutal action that we have come to expect (and enjoy) in most zombie games. But if you think this is just any other zombie game then you are wrong as this game brings some pretty interesting concepts to this zombie filled game. The game allows you to go from building to building searching for supplies (somewhat like DayZ) but unlike DayZ this game focuses more on you trying to survive with a community. The game provides you with one basic outpost after the tutorial and at least two characters to play as within the community and as you explore the world you will have the chance to friend and unlock more community members to play as and also discover new outpost to manage.

What I liked:

- Immersive Experience with Fun Exploration

This game has a very large world with about three towns that have plenty of buildings to search for supplies and weapons as well as plenty of zombies to kill. This is a pretty fun aspect of the game. I spent whole play sessions just ignoring missions and simply searching building after building for more and more supplies.

- Simple but fun Combat

The combat in the game is pretty simple as well. You can use numerous weapons from wood trunks and table legs to Crowbars and Shotguns. The game has the standard buttons mechanics for striking, dodging and shooting but theres just something satisfying about playing the game and sneaking up on a zombie horde and taking them out one by one with the brutal takedowns.

-Interesting Leveling System

The game’s rpg elements come in with the way each member of your community levels up their skills. Each time you use one of your skills to takedown a zombie each skill that was incorporated in the kill will gain a bit of experience. So if you shoot enough zombies you will gain a star in that character’s shooting skill. Gain enough stars in a skill and it will unlock the ability to gain a technique or ability associated with that skill. These can range from an ability that allows the character to slow down time temporarily to line up the perfect shot or to a counter that allows a character to suplex a zombie.

-Base Upgrades

As you are in charge of what goes on (mostly) with members of your community. You also have the ability to decide what facilities each part of your base will have. This is partly where the strategy section of the game comes in as you must manage your resources and the community itself to decide what facilities are truly needed to allow for survival. These facilities canl also distribute benefits to each of the characters such as increased stamina or health as well as repairing vehicles and weapons left there.

What I didn’t like:

-Stupid Ai

My main tiff with this game is that the AI for the community members can be a bit dumb and random. When bringing a member along for a mission they would stand in doors, reopen doors that I previously closed, and reanimating zombies I had killed with takedown by running up and attacking the dead corpses. Another thing would be that crucial members of my community would from time to time just run out and get lost within my safe zones (somehow) or even worse just run out unnecessarily far and get lost or go out for missions.

Things I would like to see in the future (Dlc or sequel):

-Coop

Sadly dreams of running around this game with a friend in coop have been crushed as Undead Labs has already stated that it would take too long and ultimately be a poor experience if they attempted to add Coop into State of Decay. Undead Labs did originally release this game as a test for their game Class 4 ( a open world zombie mmo) and have talked about making State of Decay a series of it’s own so I hope if they do go down the path of continuing State of Decay that they will add at least some four player coop to the game. Either way I’m excited to see more information on the studios game Class 4.

- Ability to take AI with you

Despite my complaints about the AI earlier. It was ultimately very helpful to have other members of the community travel with me as they made scavenging safer (especially when dealing with Feral Zombies and other special infected.) If Undead Labs does add the ability to bring along members of the community I would also like to have the ability to give them orders such as to search the house for supplies with me rather than watching me move from room to room while standing in the way.

- Ability to give orders to Community members

This is more so the ability to dictate responsibilities such as who stays to guard the camp, who cooks, and who goes out to scavenge the surrounding areas. That way important members like the doctor and the chief didn’t get lost and members of the community who were more suited for combat and survival could go out and look for supplies. Also so that members who went out actually got supplies or information rather than just going out and getting lost.

-Larger Camps

I would appreciate if the Sandbox mode added more areas if not at least larger bases or the ability to expand the base to allow for more facilities.

-Much more

I could honestly go on and on about all the things I would love for this game to have. But those were the main things that I want to be added in this great game.

Overall Opinion:

State of Decay is an amazing game that I feel brings something very unique to the zombie genre. Its not just about shooting and killing zombies but also about maintaining resources and a community in order to survive. This game is very immersive and is well worth the 1600 points ($20.00) the game asks for.

Tips:

Switch characters:

This game has a number of things that makes sure that you don’t rely on one character too much. There is the health bar being permanently drained if you take too much damage without rest, the stamina bar taking a hit if a character explores too much without any sleep or energy supplements and most importantly the permanent death that comes to a character that is overwhelmed by zombies. This means that you need to switch between characters and get a decent group that can hold their own while they are out exploring.

Always check how many supplies your group goes through:

I’m not sure what happens to the survivors if there is a deficit of supplies but the game runs on a simulation so when aren’t playing the game still keeps going for a bit longer. This means that if you don’t want to come back to dead community try to make sure you have at least the minimum of supplies need to keep things going.

For more tips on State of Decay Check out the Let’sPlayCatGaming Channel on Youtube. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/LetsPlayCatGaming

This guy does a really good job answering questions and going through most of the tips and trick for the game and as always leave me some comments letting me know what you think of the reviews and the what games you would like to see reviewed next.

Review Update

Just got back from vacation down in Florida. Due to Gamefly not sending me Dark I've decided to do a review on the XBLA game State of Decay. That should be up sometime later today or early tomorrow be on the lookout for that and let me know any other suggestions for games that you are interested in (if you haven't played them and are curious or just interested in another opinion.)

Next Review

Hey, so for the next review I'm having some trouble deciding and thought I would reach out to the people reading these reviews and see what you would like to see.

1.) Dark - Kalypso's Vampire RPG game coming out on the 9th of July.

2.) Fuse - Isomniac's Coop Shooter

3.) State of Decay - The current hit on XBLA, Undead Labs' Zombie survival sandbox game.

I would love to hear some comments stating which you would like to see a review of or what you think of the blog or what you would like to see content or improvement wise for future reviews. If you like what you've seen so far then please subscribe and check back for more updates and game reviews.

Deadpool Review

So the fourth wall breaking, chimichanga loving, merc with a mouth has a game and I kind of like it... mostly.

About the Game:

Deadpool is a beat em up, shoot em up, action adventure game that follows the adventures of Deadpool as he makes...his game. I think this game holds pretty true to what I know (not being a comic buff myself but at least reading up on characters I have interest in) of Deadpool’s character. So with that said let’s go ahead and dive into my experience playing this game.

Information on my playthrough:

-Difficulty setting: Hard/Medium

-Time for completion: 11-13 hours

What I did like:

- Comedy

This is a very comedy filled game. From the very beginning to the end of the game the game will have you laughing (especially if you are already a Deadpool fan). The game brings the comedy from simple nods at video game troupes to just plain obscene and wild antics. If this sounds like it’s up your alley then you are in for a treat here.

- Combat is mostly fun

At the very start of the game the combat is pretty fluid and engaging as you slice, slash, smash and shoot your way through plenty of bad guys. This function holds true for a majority of the game as you unlock new weapons and abilities and weapon abilities. This brings me to my next point.

-Easy and fun upgrade system

The upgrade system is very good in this game. As you play you will find little deadpool looking orbs floating around or falling from the corpses of slain enemies. These will accumulate into DP (Deadpool Points) which are used to purchase more upgrades. DP is also earned through high combos combined with stylish finishing moves.

What I did not like:

- Ranged Enemies on Hard (Also Deadpools low health bar)

I played through this game on hard for about 80% of the game until I just reached a point that got so ridiculous that after spending half an hour or more on it I just had to give in and lower the difficulty. Throughout points in the game I found that Deadpool’s health on the Hardest Difficulty was depleted rapidly from any ranged enemy, requiring me to maneuver a bit more to take out groups of melee/ranged enemies this wasn’t a problem. The problem came later when enemies were equipped with machine guns and the battlefield was very closed off allowing the enemies to just run at me and rip my health to shreds and then to have a checkpoint respawn at another point in the game that taxed my patience as I worked through it. After switching the difficulties and working my way through the rest of the game on the medium difficulty (veteran) I found myself breezing through the game at points that would’ve given me much more stress and difficulty had I continued my playthrough on the harder difficulty. (This section being the Clone Wars part. not an official name for this section but if you make it there then I applaud you for making it that far as I definitely would not have.)

What I would like to see:

- Sequel?

I wouldn’t mind playing another deadpool game sometime in the future or even seeing Dlc for the game.

Overall Opinion:

Deadpool is a very enjoyable game. The game provides loads of laughs with an entertaining story, cameos, and plenty of action. This game is definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of any of the beat’ em up style games (DMC, Darksiders, etc).

Game Tips:

- Diversity

The game gives you alot of choices of weapons. While it may be tempting to stick with the katanas and pistols throughout the game and upgrading those fully first, I would highly suggest looking into purchasing all the weapons and getting a general feel for them all as early as possible.

-Switch things up

Weapon upgrades are unlocked by killing enemies with those weapons so if you want access to the best upgrades for each of your weapons then play around with all the weapons when you get a chance to.

- Earning your DP

DP points are earned mostly through combat. The higher your combos are the more the DP will multiply but don’t just try to rack up combos with light attacks finish off your enemies with the build up momentum or the different gadgets available to you in the game to increase the DP that you’ll have to multiply. In other words, Finish enemies off with specials for some Deadpool points and rack up high uninterrupted combos for a large multiplier to be applied.