Archive for ‘Column’
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Welcome to the reboot of Trials and Demolitions, our column on playing the limited trials or demonstrations of full games that companies drop from time to time. I Know not all of us has the money or the time to play every game, so playing a trial or a demo is a good way to spend some quality time gaming while not paying a single red cent.
I can’t say that I’ve only recently heard of Deathspank, but it has only been in the last week that I’ve given the game much thought. To me it looked like another try at a humorous game, a try that seemed destined to fail. The art style didn’t really appeal to me and I’ve played a ton of Diabloesque action role-playing games in the last year.
Then the name Ron Gilbert grabbed my attention. After that I knew I had to play the game.
The demo is quite large, for a demo. It is more of a Trial then a demo, coming in at a little over a gig of data. It dropped on the Xbox Live Arcade, so there is an option to unlock the game at any time. It took me a bit to download, but when it did I was ready to play.
Let’s get this out of the way: The game is a Diablo like action RPG clone. You kill lots of things and get lots of loot. You have four slots for weapons, which range from beat ‘em up sticks to ranged. You can block. You can perform feats of Justice that do different things, like stun all surrounding enemies. You collect cards when you level up that effect your stats and help you. It feels like your typical Action RPG, if you only look at it from a pure gameplay perspective.
But the humor! Oh the humor takes me back. Listening and reading the dialogue starts sinking me in to the ocean of time… I’m a teen again, playing The Secret of Monkey Island, Space Quest, and so many other Lucasarts and Sierra point and click adventures. Though the game-play is different, I am killing hordes of ducks, dragons, daemons, and what not, the humor and the spirit of these games is wrapped up in this gig of downloadable content.
Then it hits me: 30 minutes. That seems to be the defacto time limite for these trials at the moment. I’ve seen it on a few other demos on Xbox live recently. There are other ways the demo locks you out: High quality weapons can’t be equipped and certain quests can’t be triggered.
But the demo has done it’s job. I want this game. I want it as soon as possible. Although ti really seems like a game that would be more at home on a PC then on a console. It has the old spirit of gaming packed in it, a spirit I am glad to see still alive and well.
Download the demo and judge for yourself. Check out the official website by clicking here.
Yes…Very cool 
It’s 10 pm at night and I’ve finished my four day play play of the single player portion of Two Worlds. Tomorrow I plan on focusing on the Multiplayer, seeing if it is any different then the Single player. But now I think I have played it enough to really form an onion about the game itself.
On my steam account it says that I have been playing the game for about five hours. That fits: I’ve played one or two hours a night for the past week. What do I think about the single player game now that I’ve given it some time?
It isn’t as bad as people would have you believe. It isn’t the worst game ever, though the game certainly has some rough edges. The voice acting is universally terrible, the combat takes a bit of getting used to, and the animation is a tad poor. The look of the game is reticent of a game created a year or two before this game actually dropped. Nothing is really intuitive in the game, from the combat, magic, skills… They all have to be figured out. This is especially irritating if you don’t have a manual handy.
Unlike most modern games, nothing is spelled out for you in the game itself.
If I had paid sixty dollars for the game, say for the Xbox 360, I think the combination of the above would have made me hate the game with a passion. The money lost plus the odd multiplayer (I’ll get to that tomorrow) combined with all the issues… I would not be a fan.
However I didn’t buy the game for sixty dollars, I bought it for five. (Ten dollars if you count the version I bought for the 360.)
This week has forced me to look underneath the issues with the game and see if there was something worth playing. I found, much to my surprise, there is.
The difficulty in this game can be a rather intense. Wolves have torn my hide asunder many, many times. Though I seem to be able to take on groms well (Who I thought were orcish people, but aren’t…) Orcs have been taking my head off with one swing. Heck, I even accidentally fireballed an NPC in the face and he gutted me where I stood. (Don’t worry, he seems to have forgot I singed his hairs after I came back to life…)
Though this may be a tad difficult, what it does is make me think about the way I’m fighting. I don’t just go in flailing, I actually have to come up with a plan with each type of enemy I encounter. I have to decide if I want to be a warrior or a uber magic user too, since I only have a finite set of skills. Though I haven’t learned all the systems they have in place in this game, I like that I do have to learn then. That this game isn’t given to you on a silver platter: It is more of a brass platter that has seen a lot of use by generations of family members.
There is a lot of the game to explore. I like that there is a world to explore, not just some connected set pieces. You also don’t have the enemies leveling with you: If you wonder in to an area with people to strong for you, you will die. There is a sense of danger when traveling in to an unknown area, even if it is for a quest.
You never know if the village you are headed to has just been razed by orcs or is actually a thriving town.
I also like the fact that the enemies, when they die, seem to stay dead. There doesn’t seem to be a respawn in this game: You kill all the wolves in an area, the wolves are gone for good. This adds an extra layer to the game that I do, in fact, like.
So… should you play the game? Only if you are able to over come many issues. You can read on the net about how bad this game is, but if you can get it for 5 bucks you might as well buy it and see what you think. There is a large world to explore, a classless upgrade system, a magic system that seems to be complex, and many hours of gameplay. It is not the best game ever, but for a cheap game it is worth a persons time, provided they can get past the rough exterior.
I have not spent much time with the multiplayer yet. I will be checking that out tomorrow. I don’t even know if people are playing multiplayer right now. We will see.
With the launch of the new site, I am introducing our new column: Five Day Play. I am going to take one game and play it for five days in a row, discussing it every day I as I go through it. The games won’t necessarily be the most popular, but games that have flown in under the radar for one reason or another. Or they will be games that have gained a bit of notoriety for an entirely different reason…
Day 3
It’s 7 pm on the third day of my Two Worlds experiment. I am just sitting down with a drink, getting ready to start up steam and experience this game once again. I try to put the thoughts aside from yesterday, not letting the irritation I felt at having died over and over again taint today’s play-through.
As I start the game I find that I have gained a few levels. I open of the character sheet and start assigning my points… Then I realized I must have gained a few levels without realizing it. Maybe that is what that star above my head meant.
I am experiencing this game using no manual with absolutely no idea how to play. Yes I have played the game before, but I didn’t know how to play then either. I see I have a few skill points so I assign them to certain skills. I really want to dual wield, but alas I cannot assign any points to it. I don’t know why, so I just up things like critical hit and magic.
Skills that will, hopefully, help me not to die when I come across a pack of wolves hungry for my blood.
Since I am once again standing in front of the suited man in black, I decide to play around with the keyboard a little. Low and behold: There are hot keys! Well hot keys for individual parts of the Character Interface window… Up until now I’ve been pressing M and manually selecting the area I want to go to. (Character sheet, Inventory, Magic, Map/Quest log, and reputation.) The F keys are the answer: they can get to each part of that area with a simple push of the button.
I know of at least one high profile RPG that could use something akin to this…without modding I mean.
I’m happy for the first time in this game. I’m starting to get the gist of everything; learn how to play. It’s only about 2 hours in but things are starting to click.
I press the map key and once again look for my quest location. I start there and am, once again, set upon by wolves. This time the wolves die. Between my sword and my ball of flaming wolf smite (IE: Fireball) I am able to take the pack out.
I feel like I have conquered something almost unconquerable.
I am able to make it to the meeting place, the cave of Goats, and find that these people know where my sister is located. I come out and am confronted by the man in black: He tells me to go to a node where I can talk to my sister. It seems we are twins and are able to use magical nodes to talk over great distances…
Raptors end up killing me, again, on the way there, but it is not something that bugs me…to much. Though I do wonder if the animals in Two Worlds are out to ruin my life… One resurrection and several health potions later, I have defeated the cold blooded reptiles. I also find the end point of a couple of quests I have going. It is a teleporter activation quest: The activated teleoporter is glowing with a fierce magical light. I hit space and a map pops up. It seems I have come across a few teleporters without realizing it, there are two or three to choose from. I teleport back to town. My magician friend gives me enough points to gain another level, plus sends me on a quest to get my own portable teleportation device…
By this time it has been about two hours: I realize that this game is starting to suck me in a little bit. I want to continue, despite the bad acting and the so so graphics.
I think to myself: this is suppose to be one of the worst games ever, how can I be enjoying myself?
I save the game and start writing this, the third part in the five day experiement. Maybe some people just need to give games a little time to grow on them.
With the launch of the new site, I am introducing our new column: Five Day Play. I am going to take one game and play it for five days in a row, discussing it every day I as I go through it. The games won’t necessarily be the most popular, but games that have flown in under the radar for one reason or another. Or they will be games that have gained a bit of notoriety for an entirely different reason…
DAY 2
The voices are starting to get on my nerves.
I had to turn the volume down. After talking to many people around town the bad voice acting has went from funny to irritating. I can see people laughing at this, seeing the humor in it…but today I don’t. I just want them to stop speaking.
I’ve died twice. It seems everything from wolves to Groms (Orclike creatures?) find me very easy to kill. It doesn’t matter since my character seems to not know how to wield a sword right… It could be me, I just need to learn how to play the game.
I pause a moment and look at the graphics. They seem a trifle crude; as if the people making it could only remember games like Quake II or Unreal tournament. Games that came out in the late 90′s. Although I do like the use of more realistic clothing for a medieval setting, The characters seem blocky and ill fitting. If I can have fun in the game, that will not bother me at all.
The game wasn’t running very smooth, so I have to adjust some settings. I wonder at this: My computer isn’t new, but it isn’t old. It should be able to handle this game just fine. However I know there are some programs running in the background, so it may not be the game.
There we go, I die again. I have to figure out how to survive if I want to ressonably enjoy this game. I have a helmet and a shield on and I can shoot fire out of my hand. I haven’t even tried doing any quests yet, I just have been trying to figure out how to survive. I think there could be a decently enjoyable action RPG underneath this game.
Maybe.
I’m at about an hour and a half of play time. I wonder how far I will get before getting to frustrated to want to continue.
I just killed two wolves! Maybe I can get far in this game… Going further I come across a pack of four wolves (though they kind of look like pigs from the front.) I die again, but I also finally noticed that I have a quick slot for health and mana potions. Maybe I should try using those next time.
The quest I’m trying to reach is the one the man in black told me to do. I think. The map shows quest locations but I can’t find this one… Opening up my inventory I find some wolf hearts and new equipment. I had scavenged off the dead wolves, but nothing popped up to tell me what I received. I guess I know now.
Getting almost to my destination I am set upon by more wolves. They kill me. I resurrect then try again. I die once more. So I decide to visit a building near the resurrection shrine. It seems some of the house of skeldon want me to help them fight groms… I say yes and then try to get to my original destination one more time.
I die yet again. Saving the game, I decide to wait and continue until tomorrow.
With the launch of the new site, I am introducing our new column: Five Day Play. I am going to take one game and play it for five days in a row, discussing it every day I as I go through it. The games won’t necessarily be the most popular, but games that have flown in under the radar for one reason or another. Or they will be games that have gained a bit of notoriety for an entirely different reason…
The game I will start with has been reviled as one of the worst games ever. You can type the name in a google search box and find a long list of insults, bad reviews, and jokes. On on the aggregate websites Metacritic and Game rankings,this bundle of joy holds at a steady score in the midsixties. It is not a game many people even care to play.
The game, of course, is Two Worlds.
So I asked myself: is this game as bad as it’s reputation would suggest? I played a little of both the PC and Xbox 360 versions and didn’t think it was that disappointing. Yet I never really explored the meat of the game, mainly staying around the beginning. I don’t think I’ve spent more then an hour playing Two Worlds and feel like I don’t really have enough information to make a valid opinion. So here we go with five days of Two Worlds.
Day 1:
Using the Steam client from Valve, I downloaded Two Worlds: Epic Edition. I don’t know what has changed from the regular edition, but I do know that this version magically appeared on my game list. (I bought the original Two Worlds last year for five or ten dollars.) I don’t want to go in to the game without knowing so I decided to look up the differences. I found my answer on Answers.com (how appropriate!):
The Epic Edition also includes t ↓ Read the rest of this entry…