PixelJunk Shooter- PS Vita Preview

PixelJunk Shooter is the fourth installment of the PixelJunk series developed by Q-Games. PixelJunk Shooter rethinks the twin stick shooter in multiple ways. Like Square Off, the game is more of a side scroller but still acts as a twin stick shooter using the right stick to shoot and the left to control your subterranean vehicle. PixelJunk Shooter also contains a lot more puzzles and exploration than shooting actual enemies but still has its fair share of intense moments.

The goal is to collect all the scientists in each small section of the map.  You also need to make sure to explore each section to obtain as many diamonds as you can which can be pretty difficult to find. You collect diamonds and scientists with a homing grapple hand and each level will be filled with enemies and various obstacles. Playing through the first area and part of the second, I was able to encounter quite a few interesting puzzles and sections that require a good amount of timing and patience. Whether you are using water to cool down lava and exploding it or getting lava to explode flammable gas, you are going to have to make sure you cleared the area of enemies as well as scientists. Killing enough scientists will end the game and force you to redo the section. Other than cooling down lava, water can be used to cool your vehicle down so you can shoot more homing rockets as well as shoot this rockets almost infinitely. If you become overheated through lava or a missile, you can save yourself by going into water which is really nice but the opportunity to save yourself doesn’t happen often.  The ice area will have you melt ice with lava and you can even replace your missiles with a lava shooter. As cool as it is, it is very dangerous if you shoot straight up because you will die immediately. There are sections when it is necessary to take out lava on the ceilings which is kinda tedious.

Thank you TGN!

I was also able to encounter a spider like boss that had multiple stages to it.  First you would have to shoot missile launchers on its back and then you had to shoot its face. while it spawns enemies that crawl on land masses that get pretty close to you. The boss took me quite a few tries but I managed to take it down to get to the ice area.

I played the PS Vita version and it travels very well. Sections are small enough to complete on a bus ride and it is free for Playstation Plus members. I plan on playing more of it because I am interested to see how much more variation to the puzzles they have created.

 

Why I Love and Hate Hotline Miami

Dennaton Games’ Hotline Miami is perhaps one of the greatest games to come out of the Game Maker engine. It combines the twitch reflexes of twin stick games and combines an intense layer of rogue-like stealth. When you die, it’s your fault and the consequences are very minimalistic. Each level takes less than three minutes but it will take you a lot longer than that. The premise is interesting and makes you feel like a gangster with something that resembles a heart. The graphics fit that 80’s Miami Vice look and the soundtrack compliments it perfectly. The limited ammunition for guns make sense and having them has their ups and downs. The game is over the top gory and red pixels never looked so good. That tiny window of peace between missions is like finding a save room in Resident Evil. As soon as you walk out that door it’s go time!

If you haven’t figured out why I love and respect Hotline Miami than you should reread the first paragraph. There is a reason this indie game became a cult classic but there are a few reasons why I really can’t stand this game. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with my lack of skill, but I can’t help but notice details in the game that make me want to range quit because the game feels like it cheated on me. For starters, I understand that this is a top down video game but as I put myself in the role of the player I have to wonder if my mask is obscuring my vision or if I need a pair of glasses because I should totally be able to see that dog or two guys with guns across the hall.  I understand that I am supposed to learn the first time, but there are cases where these goons are patrolling and my timing is not always the same. Being able to zoom the camera out would have helped greatly and seeing how the world outside the building is already barren, I already know it isn’t detailed. Perhaps this edition would have made the game too easy and was somewhere on the drawing board but giving the player the option to do so would be nice. Even taking the option out on a hard difficulty would have been nice.

Another thing I hate about this game is the super human AI. If you shoot your gun at someone you better be prepared. Funneling guards through a door works but not always. Locking on is the best way to kill enemies with a gun but the lock on doesn’t work to well with multiple bad guys. Even when you think you have your gun aimed directly at the door way, that AI will probably see you first. I’m sure there are huge stealth fans that love this edition but I don’t care for stealth in games. It’s strange why I even gave Hotline Miami a chance in that regards. Either way, the doesn’t feel human when the rest of the game does.  I’d play a different game if I wanted to fight supernatural creature or robots but in a game that aims to feel realistic, this crazy AI breaks my immersion.

With all that being said, I still need to finish my play through of Hotline Miami but boy do I suck at it. I am pretty excited to see what Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number brings to the table in terms of advancing the gameplay. So I ask you, what games do you love but hate with a fiery passion? Think about all those games you play but make you want to throw the controller out the window or smash your keyboard because it’s frustrating or hard.

 

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light: Preview

The Tomb Raider series was never the most well received franchise but players hold many fond memories of the sexy polygonal explorer.  It wasn’t until I played the 2013 reboot that a finally learned to appreciate Lara Croft and her action and puzzle solving franchise. Before the reboot, Lara Croft was given a spin off title that gained great reviews and praised for its new co-op experience and gameplay.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (GOL) is a twin stick shooter with puzzle and platforming elements.  After being forced to find a magical mirror for some goons, an evil spirit named Xolotl is reborn as well as the warrior of light, Totec.  Your goal is to stop the fiend from bringing chaos to the world. As an arcade style shooter, don’t expect a dramatic story like the reboot.  What you should expect are some great gameplay mechanics and a great adventure.

My short time with the game, I was grappling on hooks, jumping on spears, shooting undead warriors and solving puzzles.  I always felt that puzzle elements in a top down shooter could work great considering most of the Zelda series have the same perspective.  Overall, the first couple of puzzles in GOL are relatively interesting and they provide optional puzzle rooms to gain new collectibles and upgrades. GOL proves that platforming in an isometric view can work really well. This is mainly due to the tight controls Crystal Dynamics has created.

GOL uses the Tomb Raider: Underworld engine which looks great with this arcade game when in motion. During the in-game cutscenes, you can see its limitations but the opening 2D cutscene looked fantastic. The music and sound is also very good but the voice acting besides Lara Croft, doesn’t fit the mayan warrior and the Xolotl.  I could obviously complain about their ability to speak English but an accent would have been nice.

I’m hoping to play more of the game in the future because it was very fun and holds true to the Tomb Raider series. Even with the new camera perspective and gunplay, the game still feels like a Tomb Raider game and I hope to see Crystal Dynamics bring this style of game back.

 

Renegade Ops: Review

If you were following the Twin Stick Diaries, you would have seen that last week I posted a preview on Avalanche Studio’s vehicular top down shooter Renegade Ops.  The small team at Avalanche Studios have developed one of the purest arcade style video game to our home entertainment systems. They successfully balanced difficulty and gameplay making it feel like a challenging arcade game as opposed to a blatant quarter muncher.

Renegade Ops looks to bring back the classic 80’s action films with their story and gameplay. Like the title states, you play as the Renegade Ops, an anti-terrorist group who are working on taking down the evil organization known as Inferno. As I said in the preview, each of the operatives has a special set of abilities like invulnerability, disabling weapons and heavy artillery.  These special abilities are unleashed by the press of the button once your meter fills up. You can also level up your characters and earned perk points by completing quests and side quests.

Renegade Ops does feel like it is aimed toward cooperative play which is not a bad thing by any means but even on normal mode, you will die a lot and rely on your perks to get through stages. Luckily the game is fun enough to go through missions over and over again. The game is also great looking and driving through environments and flipping your car over is actually pretty fun.  This can lead to unwanted deaths though because of the lack of control on your car.  The helicopter does control very similar to the car without the flipping over but ultimately feels the same, which isn’t bad.

As I said before, the game is fun enough to go through the game more than once but their isn’t a whole lot of variety in quests and upgrades. Most of the quests are similar with different text, kill this and collect that.  Boss battles are also uninspired and you will face the same one over and over again (three times in one level!).  Going through the lush and colorful environments and seeing the beautiful explosions will also keep players driving around in their little car that could. Twin stick gamers need to pick up this game and developers who want to make twin stick games need to play them too.  It is by far the purest form of twin stick game and how they should be designed and played aside from the precise movement controls.

Score: 9/10

 

Renegade Ops: Preview

In 2011, Avalanche Studios and Sega released Renegade Ops for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. This twin stick shooter allows you to choose from a variety of different characters including Gordon Freeman from the Half Life Series (Steam Version only).  Each character has a different special ability and, from my understanding, different upgrades to use when you level up. The higher the level you get, the more slots you unlock to place perks for a total of four different perks.

Perks are unlocked as you complete objectives during missions.  Objectives in missions are given linearly on large maps but you have the option to perform side quests when they are opened up to the player.  Some of these side quests are along the way which is nice but if you have to get out of your way to perform a side quest then thats when your map awareness truly comes into play.  You are allowed to open up an overlay of the map like in the Diablo series but you are timed if you don’t find the main quest right away.

These maps are fun to explore with your tiny car of destruction.  Environments are detailed and gorgeous so even when there are long stretches of peace, its nice to enjoy the scenery and shoot up the occasional house. The shooting controls are great but the car controls can be a little off for such an intense game where every life counts.  You can go on easy mode for unlimited lives but you lose the ability to gain levels which makes that mode almost useless.

Renegade Ops also has multiple upgrades for your machine gun as well as special weapons like flamethrowers and rocket launchers.  The special weapons have limited ammo but it is easy to find pick ups to get max ammunition.  There are even perks that upgrade special weapons when you pick them up making them stronger or increased ammo. Staying alive to keep these weapons and fully upgraded machine gun really makes you feel powerful allowing you to go through multiple objectives with out losing a life.  Their are very difficult enemies like tanks that have pinpoint accuracy which make it that much more satisfying when you take them down quickly with your OP arsenal.

A few missions in, I am enjoying my time with Renegade Ops because of its over the top action and challenge. Expect a review coming up soon!