More isn’t always better

RISE OF MANKIND II: Sid Meier’s Civilization IV is probably one of the most (perhaps even the most) brilliant strategy game ever conceived. The game has spawned quite a few interesting mods that change the game just a bit, or completely throw about the gameplay. One of the biggest Civ4 mods out there is Rise of Mankind, and I chose to try out its second installement.

Rise of Mankind 2 aims to rewrite Civ4 in order to create a more realistic and advanced experience. New features have been added, new techologies have been put into the tech tree, and new units and civilizations add to the flavour of the game. In addition, the graphics have been slightly improved to add some eye candy.

The gameplay in Civ4 was already very polished, especially after adding the two official expansion packs. Tinkering with the game mechanics to improve the game is therefore a difficult and dangerous task. And Rise of Mankind 2 succeeds to some extent.

There are a few interesting and innovative additions. I do like the idea of a revolution watch. If you do not pay enough attention to the needs, demands and happiness of your citizens (both in individual cities and nation wide) you may experience riot uprising, revolution and even civil war.

This indeed adds realism, but at the same time it tends to get more annoying than entertaining. It happens too easily, too often, and especially at the start of the game it breeds constant irritation. This feature really needs some polishing.

Civics are more numerous this time around, perhaps too numerous. It takes time to understand what the different civics do, and there is no way you will be able to keep them all in mind when choosing your strategy. They have simply become tiresomely complex. More is not always better.

Features that were already there in the original game, have been improved. You can now keep track of when your cities will spawn a great person via a progress bar, which is a nice touch. Also, you may now set your budget spending percentage in units of fives, instead of the original tens, to enable more fine tuning of your financial spending.

The overall impression of Rise of Mankind 2 is, regrettably, overkill. The developer has made an attempt to put too much in there, and at the same time have not payed enough attention to gameplay polishing and balance.

After hours of playing Rise of Mankind, it all boils down to the fact that the original is still better.

A pirate I was meant to be

TALES OF MONKEY ISLAND: It has been years since Lucasarts released their fourth and so far final game in the Monkey Island series. Happily, the magicians at Telltale were given the opportunity to further develop this excellent IP, and the result is nothing less but a marvel.

There is something that Telltale just does right when dealing with the good old Lucasarts titles. The two Sam & Max seasons were just fantastic, and proved Telltale’s capabilities. As they have now been offered the very beef rib by Lucasarts, Telltale redeem their promise completely.

All the original voice cast from The Curse of Monkey Island has been brought back to bring the great characters of the Monkey Island universe to life once more. The voice work in Tales of Monkey Island is fantastic; and Earl Boen once again in the role of the evil zombie pirate LeChuck, is nothing but a feast for the senses.

Animations are top notch and the cartoony graphics fit the game perfectly. It just looks right. It just looks like a Monkey Island game, with all the graphical signatures that would include. The episodic format works like a charm, and Telltale has put cliffhangers at the end of every episode to keep the player’s interest all the way through the five episodes.

The great story and the great characters with their excellent voice work, well positioned in the middle of the Monkey Island mythology, creates a package that’s impossible to not fall in love with. This is a pirate tale worthy of remembrance.

The puzzles are mostly great, and for the most part just difficult enough to be a challenge, and just easy enough not to annoy. In my opinion, a bit too many puzzles include a list with ingredients that have to be collected, which gets a bit old after a while, but most of these are entertaining nonetheless.

If you miss that good old Monkey Island feeling, you should have no doubt of getting your hands on this pearl. I was sad when the fifth and final episode was over, and thrilled to see that there was an opening for a next season at the end of the credits. My love for the great characters has been revived. This is Monkey Island, the way Monkey Island should be.

Good story! Got anything else?

THE WAY: Along with a Blurred Line, Laxius Power, Phantasia and Alter A.I.L.A., this epic console style RPG is known by connoisseurs as one of the great “must have played” games crafted using Enterbrain’s RPG Maker 2000/2003 game creation software. The Way is in many ways an exceptional game, but does not come without its shortcomings. The game is split into six episodes, and this review will focus on episode one.

The introduction leaves the player rather puzzled, and this is clearly what the creator has aimed for. It is obvious that Crestfallen Studios has a vision of telling an intriguing story, and to tell it well.

You start out with little knowledge of who the hero is and where he is heading. You only know that he has a broken heart and that he is travelling along what is only referred to as the Way. A lost love is his motivation, a riddle is his character. The hero, Rhue by name, is pursued by an unknown shadow killer whose identity and intentions remain a mystery. Rhue encounters a few interesting characters along the road, with stories to tell and secrets to keep. People are seldom who they appear to be.

Writing good characters is perhaps one of the biggest challenges for anyone who wants to tell a story through a video game. It is debatable whether the video game is an ideal medium if the purpose is to tell a story, rather than simple entertainment (perhaps the basics are, after all, what video games do best). However, many of my fondest memories were video games that were also storytellers, so the question might rather be what sort of player the game is aiming for; who the target audience is. In other words: players, who would never open a book that is not in the curriculum, should keep away. However, if that was the case, you would probably have stopped reading this review by now.

The same game, just so much better

ASSASSIN’S CREED II: I have been playing Assassin’s Creed 2 for the past week, probably just like the rest of the sane gaming world. To say the least, I am impressed. This is truly a magnificent game. I’m not happy with everything, but I am happy with most of it.

To start out, this is to a large extent the same game as Assassin’s Creed. Truly, there isn’t really a lot of invasion to go with this package. It looks the same, it feels the same, and for the most part it also plays the same. The great difference is that it’s just better, in every way.

The developer clearly understood what works with Assassin’s Creed, and then made it better. It’s the same game; it’s just a better game. I am glad to see that the stupid American accent of the main character has been replaced with one that goes with the rest of the characters in the game. This makes it feel a lot more like your main character actually belongs in this game world, in Renaissance Italy, and isn’t some oddity foreign video game angelic creature that somehow popped up on the rooftops.

The cinematic cut scenes are terrific, and really improves on the ones that were in the previous game. Assassin’s Creed did have some great cut scenes, no doubt, but most of the dialogue was done through a static camera, which was simply just boring to watch. Happily, most dialogue and cut scenes in Assassin’s Creed 2 is cinematic scenes that draw you into a much more interesting storyline.

There is a lot more variation in the gameplay this time around, something that was sorely needed. It all feels more implemented in the overall storyline, and not just small chunks of gameplay that are available everywhere, and feel mostly meaningless to the overall experience. There are a few “race me to the other side of town for no particular reason” types of missions still around, but they are a lot fewer this time.

However, I did not so much enjoy the notoriety system. When doing a mission you build up notoriety that has to be removed. If you don’t, guards will attack you on sight, even if you did hide in the hay. To remove notoriety you’ll have to tear down wanted posters or bribe town criers, which becomes a somewhat annoying activity since you have to do it all the time, since you do missions all the time. Even though it might be more realistic that the guards recognize you, it does some serious damage to the game experience. Bottomline, this was a bad idea.

The possibility to buy new gear and upgrade a town to make money is a brilliant addition, and is probably inspired by the economy system in Fable 2. It goes nicely with the overall gameplay and feels rewarding. Getting new types of weapons from Leonardo da Vinci (your personal Q) also works perfectly. He is also an enjoyable character that you’ll want to visit. He does feel like your friend in a time of need.

I have no doubts in recommending Assassin’s Creed to any player. It looks fantastic, even better than the previous one, and the atmosphere is simply incredible. Renaissance Italy is very much there, and you really want to explore it. But once you’re there, you don’t get out! You have been warned.

Don’t Get This if You Don’t Have Friends

I’m not really sure where to start with Borderlands. It can be a great game, but it can alsto be a really bad game. Why? Because having a Xbox Live connection or a few good friends to play split screen with is crucial in order to enjoy this game.

Borderlands is a hybrid between a first person shooter and an action role playing game. I love the idea of that mixture, because I think the traditional straight forward first person shooters are downright boring. Adding a bit of role playing elements to it is welcomed.

One of the things I didn’t like that much about Borderlands is the opening, because there is no real introduction to either your character, nor the game world. You’re just trown in there. You find yourself in the middle of a Texas looking planet, and you’re given these odd messages by an odd woman that wants you to find something she calles “the vault”.

I don’t mind a Texas looking planet, or a woman telling me things, but I do like to know what’s going on. It feels like a bit of a weakness to the role playing factor of Borderlands.

That being said, I have mostly good things to say about the gameplay. It’s action driven, loot getting, level climbing and skill aquiring, just the way you want a good action RPG to be like. It’s almost like a mixture of Diablo and Fallout 3, and that’s meant in a good way.

It would be nice, however, if the single player part of it was better. You simply have to play this game as a team with other people, because that’s basically the only way it’s fun. Running around alone is just boring, because the game design is so aimed at a multiplayer co-op experience. If you don’t have another Xbox 360 controller, have no Xbox Live connection, or simply have no friends; don’t bother to buy Borderlands. If you do, this game is something to remember.

In a multiplayer game I usually don’t mind the story or storytelling qualities of the game. In a single player experience, I get put off by poorly developed and poorly delivered story elements. For Borderlands, the latter applies. Happily, I do have both friends and an Xbox Live connection.

Well, That’s Another Piece of Something I Don’t Need

I do love Xbox Live, I really do. And especially Xbox Live Arcade, no doubt about it. That, however, does not prevent Microsoft from throwing in a few services which I have absolutely no need for. Facebook on the Xbox? Come on!

Facebook is all right, I suppose. I’m on there now and then to check if anyone’s bugging me or want me to do something for them. You know… taking advantage of me. I do like the arrangement feature; really handy if you’re going to arrange a party or something a bit more nerdy that involves more than one person.

I downoaded Facebook for the Xbox 360, just because I had nothing to do and the download was small. However, I doubt this is going to be used. The interface is decent for the consol, but compared to the browser version on the computer it completely sucks stinky foot!

It can probably put out all my newest achievements and scores from all my games onto the Facebook news feed, so that all my pretend friends can keep an eye on everything I do on my Xbox 360. But why would I want to do that? They don’t want to know anyway, and I don’t want them to know!

Why would I want to use this horrible version when the original one is still there, has a load of more functions to it and has an interface that tops this one by a million? If they’re going to put something out there on the Xbox Live, at least put out something that’s actually good.