Hola, and welcome to Quickies. What the hell are “Quickies”? Well…Quickies are what I’m going to call the posts where I briefly give impressions on games I’m currently playing. These will be game I probably haven’t finished, or in Uncharted 2’s case – I’ve cleared the single player, but haven’t touched the multiplayer or co-op yet. So with that out of the way, let’s give some impressions.

Uncharted 2 – PS3

Believe the hype; this game is that good. I managed to clear the single player campaign on normal with a clear time of 9:55. The graphics are absolutely stunning, and the story is just as good. Somehow, Naughty Dog has managed to craft a 10 hour game with a relentless pace that manages to raise its own level of quality with each passing chapter. If you thought the helicopter demo from E3 was awesome, wait until you get to the chapters that take place on a moving train about halfway through the game. The only time the single player stumbled in my opinion was during the last few chapters. Towards the end of the game the encounters definitely increase in difficulty and become a little more about trial and error. This was disappointing in a game that managed to avoid any type of frustration for the first three quarters of the adventure, but not a deal breaker. Naughty Dog deserves a special award for making the dynamic between Nathan, Elena, and Chloe so satisfying and enjoyable. Don’t want to spoil it, but Chloe’s last line in the game is such a perfect goodbye for her character.

Brutal Legend - 360

Brutal Legend has been an odd game for me. There’s the obvious humor and fantastic character design, but the game itself just hasn’t “clicked” for me. I find that once I get playing the game I enjoy it, but it has been very hard to put down Borderlands, and now Demon’s Souls, in order to make time to play it. I’m probably about a 3rd of the way through the story and I’m finding that the gameplay and missions are pretty mediocre. The gameplay so far isn’t interesting enough to hook me, yet it’s not boring enough to make me stop playing. Really, if the game didn’t have the level of humor and creativity that it does, Brutal Legend feels like it would score a “7” at most. Give credit to Schafer for giving his game an extra 1 1/2 points of review score purely because of the quality of his writing. I do love the soundtrack though. It’s like Junior High all over again.

Yes, I’m old - F’ you. =)

Borderlands - 360

Until I grabbed Demon’s Souls, Borderland’s was my digital crack of choice. It’s still pretty damn fun, but it lacks the sense of adventure that Demon’s Souls provides. One surprise that I‘ve noticed while playing Borderlands is that I’m not addicted to the loot like I expected to be. Nope, I’m actually addicted to the character advancement. Anyone who has played WoW or Diablo is familiar with Talent Trees. Each class has their own talents with 3 distinct trees to spec into. Each level obtained past level 5 grants 1 talent point per level and this has been what’s driving me to complete just 1 more quest. It took a few restarts, but I’ve finally settled in with a class I’m enjoying (Lilith, the Siren) and now I can’t wait to gain levels so I can continue to experiment with the different talents available to her. This is definitely a game I’ll finish, but with 50 levels to gain, and a ton of competition for play time right now, it could be a while before she gets that last level. Character advancement aside, the gunplay is fun, the graphic style is awesome, and the story is adequate despite the lack of emphasis. Credit Gearbox for launching a new IP with a solid game that’s fun now, but leaves room for an awesome sequel; this will be a huge new franchise.

Demon’s Souls – PS3

The game wasn’t even on my radar. After reading so many great reviews and impressions on message boards, I decided to track the game down. Currently, I’m only a few hours in, but to my surprise Demons’ Souls has managed to leapfrog Borderlands as the game I’m most itching to play more of. It’s really hard to explain why, especially when you mention the game is incredibly unforgiving and almost seems like it wants you to hate it. If you haven’t heard by now, when you die in the game you not only lose all of your accumulated experience that you’ve gained in the level so far, but you are also respawned back at the BEGINNING of the level with EVERY enemy respawned. At this point, you have to fight your way back to your corpse and if you manage to do so without dieing, you can reclaim your lost experience by touching the bloodstain you left behind. If you die again before reaching your bloodstain, all of your accrued experience is lost FOREVER. I’m not sure why this is fun; it really should be at all, but it is. My best guess is that because you really can die at any moment and there’s so much at risk at all times, the game forces a sense of tension that has really been missing from games in the last few years. Wandering around, with little direction, knowing that you can possibly die as soon as you turn the next corner, will make you become extremely careful. Looking and listening for any clues that trouble may be ahead, you really come to appreciate the games ingenious online features.

When you’re playing Demon’s Souls you’re online at all times unless you choose to log out of your PSN account before starting the game. What this connectivity gets you is a game world unlike any other that you’ve played. Fable 2 tried something similar, but it’s really Demon’s Souls that makes it work. While you’re running around in your game, you occasionally see ghostly apparitions wandering about. These are other people playing their own copy of the game and trying to stay alive just like you. However, death is inevitable and when you do die you’ll leave behind a bloodstain. Your bloodstain will possibly show up in other player copies of the world. If they choose to click on the bloodstain, the game will replay a short clip of your actions leading up to your death. The bloodstains of other players can be equally helpful and hilarious. Sometimes you’ll activate a stain and watch the player’s ghost run around a corner, only to quickly retreat while flailing madly before falling to their attacker. Other times you’ll watch and laugh as someone fighting for dear life backs right off a cliff they forgot about. There’s even a note system in game that allows players to leave hints and warnings for others who will follow in their path.

All of these online features create a sense of community that I’ve never seen in any other game. Because you can leave hints/warnings for people, and can witness their deaths, the game world feels alive despite being completely alone. Eventually, I’ll be able to join others and vice versa,  but until then I’m enjoying the little notes that are left and watching what problems other people have run into. It’s been quite a unique experience up to this point, and I’m eager to march on to see what other challenges lay ahead.

So in closing, hopefully these impressions will give you a sense on what I’m feeling early on in each game. I’m not sure if I’ll take the time to do a full write up for each of them since it really depends on when I finish them. If too much time has passed, then this may be it. If there’s one in there you would really like to see a follow up on, let me know in the comments.

-Steve

Also, I met up with Edgar yesterday for seminar on Windows 7 (scored a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for the trouble), and we’ve tentatively set the next podcast recording for this Sunday the 1st. It looks like things are finally slowing down for him at work and he’s just about ready to join the Land of the Living.