JoyStiq: Injustice: Gods Among Us XBox 360 Review

DC goes Battle Royale!

NetherRealm Studios has decided to give our favourite DC heroes and villains a stage on which to beat the snot out of each other and it sure does look pretty and is loads of fun to play. Injustice: Gods Among Us is the new kid on the block in the fighting games arena and it holds its own against the big boys like its stablemate, 2011's Mortal Kombat. In fact it’s pretty much Mortal Kombat with new mechanics added to the gameplay. DC has never had its own brawler unless you count Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, which you should seeing that it’s still fun to play. Most gamers grew up on fighting games. I remember running to the ‘games shop’ (we never called it an arcade) near my house after school with a pocket full of 50 cent coins with the aim of kicking butt. Most of the fun in fighting games comes from mastering all of the characters’ hellishly difficult moves and stringing a bunch of cool combos together. Looking back I realise that this was actually an achievement on the same level as attaining a PhD. Injustice allows you to spend hours mastering a character like Batman’s moves so you can kick Superman in the head in a showdown.

I’ve yet to meet a fighting game with a storyline that actually makes sense and Injustice doesn’t stray from this time-honoured tradition. The story in Injustice exists solely to give you a rather flimsy reason as to why DC’s roster of characters are all standing around beating the nonsense out of each other. This isn’t a bad thing because you’re really only playing to beat up a bunch of virtual people. The plot explains things like how Batman is able to beat Superman into a Kryptonian pulp. Everything kicks off with in an alternate reality in which the Joker tricks Superman into murdering a pregnant Lois Lane, which results in the destruction of Metropolis because the Joker linked bombs to her heart beat. Superman loses his mind and kills the Joker in fit of super rage. Batman witnesses this and because of his moral inclination cannot stand for it. This results in two sides being established; evil Superman and those who side with him and Batman and his side of good guys. Add an incident that allows travel between alternate universes and you have Injustice: Gods Among Us. It’s all fun.

As I’d mentioned earlier, Injustice looks pretty. The characters are well designed and they look good. The Joker looks especially creepily crazy, which we like. The game levels look amazing and are interactive. Each level is tiered and you can beat your enemies through walls and such to launch them into the next tier in a spectacular fashion. The fighting stages include classic locations like the Batcave, Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and the Justice League’s Watchtower. You get to battle it out on many of the places in the DC universe where you’ve ever wanted to see a showdown between DC’s finest or worst – depending on your inclination.

The gameplay in Injustice is all the things you’re used to in fighting games with cool twists added. Every match consists of only one round and each player has two health bars and the match ends when both those bars run out. The four-button control scheme consists of light, medium and heavy attacks. The fourth button activates an ability unique to each character. This is one of the features in the game that levels the battlefield for characters like Batman and Green Arrow against behemoths like Superman and Doomsday. Characters are divided into ‘power characters’ and ‘gadget characters’. The former use their brute strength and super abilities to bash your skull in and the latter rely on weapons and other external mechanisms to defeat their opponents. Speaking of external mechanisms, each level is littered with interactive elements each character can use differently. Superman can throw a car at his enemies whereas Batman can use that same car to launch himself into the air and pull off a combo. Players also have super meters that you can fill by pulling off cool combos against enemies or by getting clobbered. You can use the meter to either to perform special attacks or to compete in wager battles by means of the Clash system. When you go into wager mode a cutscene pops up to interrupt the current play and each player has to put a portion of their meter energy on the line. The player whose wager is the most wins the clash. The clash can only be activated when you’re down to your second health bar. This adds a great strategic element to the game in addition to the interactive elements littered around the levels. I like this system of gameplay as it makes every fight more exciting. The game isn’t difficult to get a hang of but mastering it is a different matter – that requires some effort. The game doesn’t have much of a tutorial system so players have to master character moves during actual combat. The game does include different game modes in addition to the Story Mode and sparse Training Mode. These are Battle Mode, Versus Mode and S.T.A.R. Labs (missions that consist of Batman using S.T.A.R. Labs facilities to complete objectives).

Online multiplayer options consist of King of the Hill and Survivor modes. In the latter mode players spectate matches whilst awaiting their turn. This mode supports up to eight players. Survivor Mode consists of players carrying over whatever health they had left from previous battles throughout as many fights as possible. Playing through all of Injustice’s modes unlocks artwork, new costumes and music.

Pick up Injustice: Gods Among Us for approximately R600.00 at your nearest games retailer. Injustice is nowhere near being a great fighting game but it’s fun to play and because it’s not as technical as Tekken or Street Fighter anyone can pick it up and have a great time fighting against their favourite DC characters. The roster is on the skimpy side but DLC will probably fix that soon enough.

Pick up Injustice and button mash your way through the ranks.

JoyStiq: Far Cry 3 XBox 360 Review

A Nightmare Get Away

There's a reason why first-person shooters are the most popular gaming genre and the Far Cry series is one of them. The original title blew our minds to teeny-tiny pieces back in 2004 with its amazing visuals and fun gameplay. The Crysis series may be Crytek's flagship series now but Far Cry was its heart. The guys over at Ubisoft Montreal are doing great things with the license though and Far Cry 3 is clearly a result of a labour of love. Someone over at Ubisoft Montreal's studio must have said, 'Guys, let's take all the best bits of Far Cry and Far Cry 2 and make a new game.' This simple equation works and makes Far Cry 3 one of the best shooters currently on the market. The game is set in a gorgeous tropical environment that's as dangerous as it's visually appealing. Add elements of insanity and drug induced delusions and you're good to go.

You play as Jason Brody as he tries to escape the clutches of drug dealing pirates lead by a charming and insane guy called Vaas, the game's primary antagonist. After Jason escapes he must survive and try and save his friends who were captured along with him. He goes about this task with the aid of the Rakyat, a tribe native to the island he finds himself on. The Rakyat are adversely affected by Vaas and his cronies' drug dealing activities and adopt Jason in order to groom him into a fierce warrior. While I never got too invested in the previous games' stortlyline Far Cry 3 makes you care about the people you meet and makes you despise many of them too. Vaas is an unstable individual and this makes him the most interesting person in the game. He is a lunatic and embodies the game's theme of insanity in terrible and twisted ways. There are moments in Far Cry 3 that make little sense because you experience them through Jason's drug addled state. This is executed well and the sense of disconnect makes playing the game more interesting. The story is similar to Lara Croft's escapades in Tomb Raider in that both stories are about survival and going from a normal person to a warrior capable of dealing out death. Where Tomb Raider is intense and focused Far Cry 3 is massive and allows players a great deal of freedom.

The Far Cry series has the reputation of setting graphics benchmarks for games and Far Cry 3 doesn't drop the ball in this regard. The Dunia 2 Engine gives Crytek's CryENGINE 3 a run for its money in producing a lush tropical setting that's stunning to see. I think we've come to that point in gaming where great visuals are standard in any game. Far Cry 3's visuals are still exceptional though and the manner in which the tropical setting, characters, fauna and flora are presented is amazing. Far Cry 3 is a sandbox game and its beauty makes its open world fun to explore; experiencing the sounds, feel and general atmosphere of the tropical jungle. The animals are spectacular in how they look and behave and it's possible to interact with almost everything in the game's open world.

Vaas, the face of insanity.

Far Cry 3 is more than just a shooter, it has some RPG elements in that you can level up according to three skill tree options: the Spider, Heron and Shark. Your progress is depicted on your arm in the form of tattoos, which is pretty cool. You can approach combat situations stealthily like a spider would, attack from long range much like a heron or go in guns blazing and use aggressive tactics like a shark is more inclined to do. The combat is rather difficult to get used to, even on a lower difficulty setting and it’s frustrating. The game has a steep learning curve to players new to the genre. Once you get the hang of it combat is fun and you can use the environment to assist you in eliminating enemies. You can use elements like fire to flush enemies out of hiding or even set loose captured wild animals to take down bad guys for you. You pick up and buy guns and ammo as you progress and can upgrade your weapons. The in-game economy is your usual FPS fare. Most of the fun lies in the sheer amount of things you can do. The side quests are fun – whether you’re hunting animals for their pelts, taking down pirate encampments and turning them to safe zones or just transporting medicine. The game world is massive and you can spend 30+ hours just on the single player campaign.

Far Cry 3 offers great value for your money in terms of how much it has to offer. There are two multiplayer options: co-op and your usual free-for-all mode. Both modes are loads of fun to play but the co-op mode stands out. You can embark on a campaign with up to three of your buddies helping you out. It’s definitely a case of ‘the more the merrier’ as the campaign can be hellishly difficult.

In an on-going spirit of saving you money you can pick up Far Cry 3 for as little as R550.00 if you browse through most of the local e-tailors. This is a great thing for our struggling wallets.

Far Cry 3 is a great game but got relegated to the background with all the big releases we’ve been seeing lately. It’s one of the most solid games on the market today though and its large scope means it will keep you busy for a good while. It does get buggy but that’s easily overlooked.

A Nightmare Get Away

This game is well worth any serious gamers’ time and is very satisfying to play.

JoyStiq: Dead Space 3 XBox 360 Review

I have a love/fear relationship with the Dead Space franchise. It took me three attempts to get through the first game, which, I guess, is a testament to how good the game is. The first attempt might have failed because I played the game on PC and the controls were horrendous! I was also just plain scared. I digress though, Dead Space 3 is here and Isaac is back with his plasma cutter and his awesome stomp to kill some Necromorphs and other enemy scum! This time the action and terror takes place on the frozen planet, Tau Volantis. The planet is believed to be the Marker home world, which means you can stop the Necromorph threat at its source and thus make the universe a better place for us all. Isaac has relationship issues again and the game's overall story is just as convoluted as his love life. Isaac is summoned from his cool pad on the moon by the powers that be and call themselves EarthGov. Isaac has to save his romantic interest, Ellie and her team. Visceral Games is doing a little too much with the story and it only serves to confuse the player. Fear not though (well fear a little because Dead Space 3 is a scary game) because the clever gameplay makes up for this. At many points you really don't care what everyone around you is on about and just want to kill some Necromorphs and whoever else needs to be disposed of.

The Dead Space franchise always tries to push boundaries a little and I appreciate how it does it in this iteration. Isaac can face the Necromorph plight alone, which is just fine and a whole lot creepy or you can play the game the way it's meant to be played, with a buddy. The game includes a co-op mode that allows a friend to drop in and help you out as John Carver. This opens up the environment for more exploration options that you would not have in the single player campaign. John Carver can drop out at anytime and you can carry on with your solo play. I am a big fan of this feature because it's nice to be able to share in the story and overall experience of a AAA title. Usually co-op means you're playing some add-on content or that you're playing some puzzle game with a friend. Dead Space 3 allows you to share the actual experience of the story with a friend. This is a huge plus for games becoming more social. In sunny South Africa we still suffer from crappy and expensive Internet service, which can mar the online co-op experience somewhat.

The weapon upgrade system gets a bit of an overhaul and is called the Weapons Bench. The bench allows players to construct new weapons to deadly effect. You can either build your own unique weapons or choose from default options. This is a fun and useful feature for the co-op play as players can come up with weapons that complement one another. This proves to be loads of fun and provides moments of pure glee. Isaac also gains the ability to roll in order to take cover from incoming attacks. It might seem like it’s only a little improvement but in practice it makes all the difference in a tough situation. The enemies, whether they are Necromorphs or human Unitolgist soldiers are smart enough to provide quite a challenge.

As I'd said earlier, I didn't like the control system of the original on the PC but on the XBox 360 the control system shines and feels natural. Dead Space 3 is at home on this console. But even with the brilliant control system the game has some inherently annoying issues. Many of the environmental puzzles are very frustrating and quite unnecessary. Visceral Games tries too hard to provide varied gameplay and it falls flat at such times. The minimalist interface makes a welcome come-back courtesy of your vitals being displayed on the Resource Integration Gear suit instead of the traditional HUD. You get an assortment of unique suits depending on the edition of the game you buy and you can upgrade them as you go along. The coolest is the N7 suit you get if you have Mass Effect 3 save files. It’s the sort of little touch that gives players a mini geek orgasm of pure delight.

Dead Space has always been about atmosphere: gorgeous, creepy visuals and sounds that constantly have you looking over your shoulder and up at the ceiling. This tradition is continued and the game looks amazing, especially the parts where you get to explore the frozen exterior conditions of Tau Volantis. The game is very creepy if you play the campaign solo and there are moments when I jumped out of my seat because I got scared. It’s really amazing how the Necromorphs never cease to scare the living daylights out of you even when you know when they’re likely to pop out by now. You still rely on Isaac’s stomp to ensure that enemies are dead. The fear factor is alleviated somewhat if you play co-op as you and your buddy will have a good laugh at some of the moments that would have scared you on your own.

When it's all said and done Dead Space 3 is a good game that just falls short of being great because of a few niggles. The story is somewhat garbled in how it’s told and the game mechanics are iffy at times. The great moments are extraordinary though! The atmosphere is classic Dead Space and serves to creep players out in many exciting ways. The co-op mode is a welcome addition and adds a beautiful social mechanic to the game. Two plasma cutters are definitely better than one. Gamers are tenacious folk though and can look past the game’s flaws to appreciate it for all it tries to accomplish. Our favourite engineer, Isaac Clarke is back for another outing and it's well worth your while. Get your grubby paws on it today.

JoyStiq: Tomb Raider XBox 360 Review

The new Tomb Raider has landed and it’s made a big splash in the process. Lara Croft has been rebooted and given a new origins story but it’s always a hit or miss affair when you take a well-known and beloved character like Lara Croft and remake her. Fans are not too forgiving if you get a reboot wrong. The fact that the last Tomb Raider games have been rather lacking in luster adds more pressure to the expectation from a new game in the franchise. In this case it’s good that we’re in a period where fans will give a franchise another chance to reboot if it’s been mucking up a little – it’s a clean slate of sorts really. With Rhianna Pratchett having written the story and created the new Lara Croft’s personality things are already looking up. Developer, Crystal Dynamics also doesn’t go wrong with the game mechanics.

Gone is the plastic, large-breasted Lara Croft of yesteryear and in is an honest attempt at building a human being who evolves from someone young, appropriately attractive (and appropriately dressed), somewhat naive and very vulnerable into a hero. This is what this origins story is, a look at how Lara Croft becomes as tough as adamantium claws – what she has to live through to reach that point. Rhianna Pratchett points out that her Lara is a real woman and this rings true. Throughout the game the player learns what it takes to be a graduate, fresh out of university and to find yourself shipwrecked on an island occupied by cultists who aren’t very welcoming. Lara's journey from wide-eyed graduate to kick-ass survivor is a brutal one that would leave most people traumatised if they were to manage to survive at all. It's also a beautiful experience that speaks to the player about the resilience of the human spirit.

The visuals and game mechanics are powered by a modified Crystal Engine and they are stunning. Lara gets grimier and more bloodied as she makes her way through the breath-yanking island, surviving. The island is alive with vibrant fauna and flora and the weather conditions are wonderfully temperamental. The atmosphere is rich and heavy throughout. The island is a character in itself and exploring it is fun and scary all at once. The dangers are real but once in a while Lara makes it to the top of a ledge and the view is spectacular. Tomb Raider’s resounding theme is survival and Lara has to learn to do whatever it takes to survive and to save her comrades. She hunts and kills deer on the island and defends herself against wolves. This is somewhat reminiscent of Far Cry 3 and the bow she acquires is a low-tech version of Prophet’s bow in Crysis 3. This is actually one of the strong points of the game, the fact that it doesn’t try to recreate the action-adventure genre. It takes elements from Uncharted, Arkham Asylum and other games and blends them seamlessly to tell its unique story. The control scheme is a reiteration of what you’re familiar with and works comfortably well on the Xbox 360 controller whether you're shimmying across a ledge, sneaking up on a bad guy or find yourself in a gunfight.

The bow and its arrows is the stand-out weapon because of how versatile it is and purely how satisfying it is to make a kill with it. The grimy and rather violent takedowns prove to be a lot of fun once you get into the swing of things. Tomb Raider is not a celebration of violence just for the sake of violence but rather the player continuously embraces the independence and pride Lara feels at being able to defend her life in a very hostile environment. The bow also makes for great stealth kills and it can be upgraded as you progress through the game for better usage in all out fire fights. Other weapons are also upgradeable as you proceed through the island and salvage wreckage to add onto them. Fire fights get intense and it’s fun to try different ways of approaching enemies and other tough situations.The enemy AI is actually somewhat intelligent. Tomb Raider doesn’t do anything new in this regard but it does what it does well.

The island provides a great deal of exploring options in between shooting the bad guys. Lara Croft is an archaeology boffin and explorer after all and it’s very rewarding to look around, finding all sorts of nooks and crannies filled with cool items and information regarding the history of the island and the cultists occupying it. The island is steeped in history and just walking around it leaves the player with a sense of wonder at what stories broken statues and abandoned bunkers could tell. The very ground and air seem to be a memory of great and terrible things that happened there. Although Lara has to survive and progress through the storyline curiosity always results in some interesting non-linear play as the island begs to be explored in great detail. The island’s history is beautifully crafted and is hauntingly beautiful and ugly. This aspect of the game is what the Tomb Raider series is about and is the best aspect of Lara’s first outing as an archaeologist.

There’s a multiplayer option tagged onto the single-player experience but it doesn’t stand out as much as the main campaign, which proves to be very addictive. The multiplayer option does give you something to do when friends pop over or you’re looking for extra value for your money through some prolonged play. It's the sort of add-on that you wouldn't mind investing a few forgettable hours in purely because after the 12 or so hours it takes you to complete the main campaign you’ll want to stick around a little longer. I think Crystal Dynamics added it as an afterthought and only because people have come to expect some form of a multilayer mode with the release of AAA title.

At its heart Tomb Raider is a human story told particularly well using video gaming as a platform. The game mechanics and controls are solid but what really carries the game are the story (even when it fumbles), great voice acting and amazing setting. The folks at Crystal Dynamics have outdone themselves. I give it heartfelt thumbs up; it’s one of the best games to be released on the Xbox 360 in while.