Gaming Weekend: Me Vs. The Masses Edition
Being outnumbered is sort of a staple for video games. It hasn’t even been until the last couple of generations that AI-controlled team or squad mates were viable (I’m sure you could argue their viability is still in question) but before then it was always just you, a few extra lives and some power-ups versus a flood of oncoming foes.
Some games really highlight this solitude and the sense of overwhelming odds that you must confront in order to emerge victorious. Halo does a good job at this, as do the Metal Gear games. Other games manage to create a sense of desperation even without the loneliness, all the way back to Contra and Ikari Warriors. You may have allies, but you and your few friends are all humanity/your country/the Earth has to rely on.
Typically, it helps when you’re a super soldier or encased in some sort of hyper-advanced body armor. Or at the very least, you carry a sword as large as your body.
They Make You Work
The rental that showed up, after nine days of processing and shipping, was another low-queue special titled Ninety-Nine Nights. I don’t know what the title has to do with the game, but then again, having played it for about four hours already I don’t know what the game is about at all. It has something to do with Protectors of the Light fending off hordes of goblins and orcs from… something, but that’s about all I can discern. Also, the initial character (female) wears armor that exposes her heart. And when I say “heart” I mean “cleavage,” but all I can think when I see it is, “How impractical. All anyone needs to do is stab her in the chest. She might as well have a big sign pointing between her breasts.”
Then I note how ample her bosom is and I realize that is the big sign. So as far as form versus function is concerned, I think it’s pretty obvious where her loyalties lie on that particular issue. That he loyalties are likely to result in her stabby death is maybe an indication that she didn’t think her position all the way through.
As for the game itself, it involves you leading some idiotic AI followers into battle with hordes of the goblins and orcs I mentioned before. When I say hordes, I actually mean hordes: The game throws waves of several dozen foes at you at a time which leads into these sort of frothing masses of AI goons and simpleton enemies which you, as the only character on screen capable of differentiating a tree and your own arm, must wade into cutting down all the enemies who are otherwise engaged in lighthearted socialization with your troops. How you manage these blind feats of blade acrobatics when surrounded by as many goblins as frenemies and somehow only hit the bad guys is beyond me, but this is the essence of the game. These elaborate sword/dance animations are essentially the draw of the game from what I can tell and they get ever more elaborate but even at higher levels they require only varieties on the X and Y buttons with an occasional A for jumping thrown in the mix.
There is, somewhere in there, a seed of a decent game. But what’s maddening about it is that while the set pieces are full and imposing, the bosses are lame and stupid, the level system is weak and flawed and the game is hard in that bad-design way where you often find yourself overloaded with useful items (like health potions) but they must be used when collected and can’t be saved for later. Of course when you need them later, there are none to be found. I don’t hate Nintey-Nine Nights but I don’t particularly enjoy playing it either. I’ve decided to complete the main quest with the first available character once and unless something happens between now and that time to drastically alter my opinion of the game, I’ll send it back and say “I’ve experienced it, but it’s time to move on.”
What Passes For More
- I played the Call of Duty 4 beta a bit more, this time opting for the mode that did not allow parties to join. I found it to be both better and worse because of this. On one hand there was less of the sensation of being an outsider thrust into a clan-style setting merely as a tally for headcount matching. But on the other hand there was virtually no communication, something I found both disappointing and quite a relief. I still admire the game and now must decide how to best acquire it without destroying my $60 a Month budget that faces its greatest challenge in its inaugural months. It clashes, calendar-wise, with Mass Effect and somehow I don’t see myself dismissing the BioWare SciFi opus in favor of some online gaming, no matter how remarkable.
- I received my copy of Ninja Gaiden Black from Goozex and recalled why my original rental of it back when it was first released had me unimpressed: I’m terrible at video games and this game punches me in the face with that fact and then rubs my nose in the dirt of shame. I can’t even pass the first boss. I’m serious. I recall attempting to defeat this initial challenge dozens of times a couple of years ago and eventually I gave up. I had forgotten until just yesterday that was the case and I put another six tries into it before I switched to Zuma in frustration. I know Black has an easy mode which I can’t quite bring myself to surrender unto, but I payed good Goozex points for this game so at some point my pride may need to take a backseat to value. That or I should check GameFAQs and see what I’m doing wrong.
- Because Gameznflix has become so frustratingly sluggish about sending me games—and the games they send trend toward the bottom of the barrel queue-dwellers I slapped up there in a moment of “eh, why not” apathy—I found myself without a lot of new material this week. So I dipped back into a few older titles to see what I could make of them. One was GRAW, which somewhere in my current game got really incredibly difficult. I managed to make progress in the form of two more checkpoints, but I don’t think I’m anywhere near completing the mission.
- On the other hand I discovered a fun fact about Perfect Dark Zero: The ten Achievement points I had slaved over for the solo campaign are not the only ones I am destined to receive for the game. The thing is, the game’s solo Achievements are all based around playing the game through multiple times. I didn’t like it that much. The rest of the points are focused around multiplayer and since I got into the game late I figured one of a couple things was true: Either the game was currently populated only by seasoned veterans who executed headshots with force of will alone or there was no one left playing this launch title online. It turns out it doesn’t matter because when they say “multiplayer” they don’t necessarily mean online. Plus the game is a lot more fun in multiplayer mode, even against the bots. There are a lot of game types and modes and you can set them up in a ton of different configurations. My favorite is starting everyone out with a rocket launcher and using 15 bots on a small map. Mayhem!
- I played some Zuma. I’m annoyed with the limitations of the 360 controller which prohibit me from reaching the greatness I once knew on the PC version. As an attempt to remedy the problem I started an Adventure mode game from Temple 1-1 so I could reach the plateau (Temple 9) with additional lives on hand. It’s a multi-day undertaking, I assure you.
- I spent some more time with Silent Hill 2, a game I’m gradually growing to appreciate more. I wish I’d known that setting the combat difficulty lower didn’t alter the game or its ending because the combat is sort of dull and annoying. In fact, I think this is why I kept drifting from the game in the first place. At least I was able to locate the 2-D style controls which lose the stupid Resident-Evil “up is always forward to your character” mappings that drove me insane, but it doesn’t entirely change the fact that it’s not much fun to fight in the game. I’m not too far into it yet, so I suppose there is still a chance I could start over (I can’t seem to change the difficulty once I’ve saved the game), but I wonder if I shouldn’t just soldier on.
I’ll see you on the other side of the Halo 3 launch.