*Excerpt from The Maneater

Games that focus on stealth have always stood out to me. The Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid series as well as the original Dishonored game stress the potential of quiet, hiding-in-the-shadows gameplay that challenges and rewards the player with a greater sense of accomplishment. Dishonored 2 attempts to do the same and, for the most part, succeeds.

Dishonored 2 takes place 15 years after the original, and the player is given control of either Corvo Attano or Emily Kaldwin. Attano is the bodyguard-turned-assassin from the first title, whereas Kaldwin is the former Empress of Dunwall, one of the city of the game. Arkane Studios gives the player the decision to play as either Attano or Kaldwin and the ability to give up their powers early on. Both characters have different abilities and skills, which in itself presents a reasonable call to replay the game simply to experience it from the other perspective.

Dishonored 2’s stealth elements of the game presents new challenges and new ways of solving said challenges from a gameplay perspective. Enemy combatants are more aware of their surroundings because of changes to the artificial intelligence. For example, guards will notice when other members on patrol suddenly go missing. Some games love to play this off easy and make the guards simply not care or shrug off the fact that someone they previously saw is now missing. Now they will investigate and ‘track’ the player, but not directly. If they are confused or in a specific situation, they will simply hit an alarm.

The game presents itself, to the best of its ability, from a linear storytelling perspective. Dishonored 2 is predictable but counters this with player choice and a feeling of freedom that is somewhat rare in linear games. I have the utmost praise for the level of design and variety of scenarios the game presents. Each level contains some sort of environmental variety like stacks of smoke that go up at different times or levers that can be pulled to improve navigation. These elements add depth to the linear gameplay. Dishonored 2 could have easily been a rehashed version of the first game, yet the skills and abilities of the two characters save it from this fate.

The weapons, skills and environments all force the player to act in a creative fashion. Blending of the three elements leads to unique encounters, but only if the player seeks them out. However, you can easily play through this game with a bland perspective. Dishonored 2 is only as enjoyable as you want it to be. The storyline isn’t intriguing. It’s a tale of vengeance much like the first, littered with lengthy and melodramatic exposition. That alone is my only true complaint. Sure, people are reporting bugs and framerate drops on the PC version, but my rig, which has i7-6950x processor and a GTX 1080 graphics card, held up just fine. Considering Bethesda’s new policy to not give out early advanced review copies, I am thoroughly surprised that others did not see this coming. It should be almost expected that there are going to be some bugs and kinks in the game.

Dishonored 2 attempts to stand on its own, and for the most part, it does. It tries its hardest to coerce the player into going the stealth route while not overtly penalizing the player for killing enemies. If you were a fan of the first game, I have no doubt that you will spend countless hours in Dishonored 2.

Edited by Katherine White | kwhite@themaneater.com

Many expressed doubts that DICE would be unable to make a AAA game out of a World War I setting; some expressed that the old weapons simply would not appeal to gamers in the present. They were incredibly mistaken, Battlefield 1 is the best first person shooter experience I have encountered thus far on this console generation and here is why. The current first person shooter market is saturated with twitchy spray and prey shooters. Battlefield 1 by no means is not void of twitchy situations, but rather unlike Doom or the Infinite Warfare Beta, it does not rely on them to keep the players attention.

Gameplay aside, Battlefield 1 is a remarkable depictions of a war that occurred basically a century ago. The gritty, mud covered battlegrounds littered with bodies not only refuse to romanticize war as patriotic adventure, but rather depict a hellish landscape ripe with the dead and dying. The prologue in the campaign does an absolutely outstanding job of making the player feel insignificant and powerless. The player is given control of a member of the Harlem Hellfighters, better known as the 369th Infantry Regiment, an all black unit. The player is tasked with holding the line. Yet, unlike countless other games when the player dies their is no reloading of a past checkpoint or save file, rather a date of birth to 1918 is displayed with the name of a fallen soldier. Instead the game hot swaps the player to a different soldiers perspective; this continues for the entirety of the battle and excluding several scripted deaths, the life of the player is completely up to their own skill. I found this incredibly effective at proving to the player that no one is invincible, and that video games can depict war for what it is, and not as a cinematic Michael Bay esque experience.

Battlefield 1 follows up with the prologue with several war stories that follow multiple soldiers in different roles throughout the war. This is a departure from the ‘special hero soldier’ plot device that is used in other FPS games in order to put the player in a ton of awesome, cinematic scenarios. Rather the campaign uses the multiple protagonists much like the early WWII Call of Duty games to tell stories from various fronts during the Great War. These are not limited to a female Rebel in Arabia to a member of the Italian Army in search of his brother in the Italian Alps. What multiple ‘mini campaigns’ sacrifice in length they gain in worth and value. The game is not limited by killing off a protagonist or two so be warned. One can argue that the death of the player character simply adds to the reality of war, no one is guaranteed to survive. I found the campaign to be leagues ahead of past Battlefield games and oddly enough i beat it before even entering multiplayer.

Only DICE can make mud filled trenches and shelled out cities look somewhat beautiful. Battlefield 1 looks fantastic on my PC and runs incredibly well. Before the actual official launch I only encountered a single crash and I blamed this on my own hardware due to a heat issue I quickly resolved. The game does however use a large amount of CPU, my i7 6700k hit around 75-85% usage at times while my GTX 1080 seemed to just exist and not suffer at all. Nonetheless the game runs incredibly well for what it is doing. I read several angry redditors comments complaining that their i5 processors were being strained and that the game was unplayable since they could not play the game on ultra with a 1440 display. Some gamers obviously aren’t realizing all of the work the games’ engine and therefore your computer has to do in order to keep up with 64 players fighting on large scale maps while at the same time looking as great as it does. So of course an i5 may struggle to deliver this game on a silver platter.

The guns, maps, and player models all look as if someone toiled with them down to the digital strands of fabric on the khaki uniforms of the British soldiers. The attention to detail and the slight variances between different uniforms is a nice touch. This attention does no exclude the buildings in the game as well, it almost makes me feel bad for turning them to rubble with a tank or field gun. Lastly, the effect the weather has on the game is absolutely huge. Fog, clouds, or a sandstorm can all change how a match ends in multiplayer. It adds an element to the game that the players cannot control but rather have to adapt and overcome. For example, planes are pretty useless in a sandstorm (or fog depending on the map) bombing wise unless players are spotting targets on the ground. This changes the dynamic and adds to how players adapt on various maps. These are all fantastic  details that one would not notice had they not been implemented in the game yet it is hard to envision the game without them.

Multiplayer in my opinion has never been better in a Battlefield game. The new gamemode, Operations, is everything Battlefield 1 be as a gritty WWI shooter. The gamemode to series veterans is best described as the synthesis of Conquest and Rush. In Operations a map is split into sectors. Each respected sector has two points at the least (in some cases there are more). The points are labeled alphabetically. One team is tasked with defending the points from attackers that are given a certain amount of tickets that allow their team members to respawn. Vehicles and defensive emplacements are all tossed into the mix in most sectors. The end result is a progressive and rigorous gamemode that stresses cooperation on the attackers part. Combat is normally maximized or centered around key points or routes to certain points. This creates an incredibly close quarters setting and dynamic. Defenders will at time be fighting off attackers within 10 meters of their own position, at times even closer. Essentially this gamemode best allows for players to engage in trench combat or close quarters combat one may have encountered in WWI. The sub Reddit ( http://www.reddit.com/r/Battlefield ) has had nothing but praise for this gamemode besides some suggestions for balancing.

The 4 class structure returns in Battlefield 1 but with a catch, the kits have been altered to a degree. For starters the Assault kit no longer has the med kit, this has been given to a medic class. The LMG kit, Support now has the repair tool, mortars, and ammo. The engineer kit has been split up between the Support and Assault and the Recon/Scout kit is still overused by players solely playing for their kill to death ration and not the objective. I have several complaints. The Engineer kit that was featured in Battlefield 3 & 4 was a well rounded kit that excelled at engaging in close quarters combat with PDWs and Carbines while still being the best counter to vehicle threats. This is no longer the case; some of this is due in part to lack of several kinds of technology such as the RPG since it was not around during the time of WW1.

In other words one can argue that the class was changed purely because it would not fit into the historical time frame. The anti vehicle role, or better put the anti-tank role has been given to the Assault class: it utilizes powerful anti tank grenades and an AT-Gun. Yet, DICE gave this class SMG and shotguns instead of self-loading rifles. SMGs and anti tank grenades do pair well with one another yet by balancing logic the Medic has access to the self-loading rifle. I feel as if the Medic should have the SMG since reviving dead teammates typically requires the player to approach areas that are full of enemies normally within close quarters range. This works against the medic since the self-loading rifles are a mid range weapon and by being in a position to revive teammates they will be in close proximity with enemies. Basically I would much rather prefer if the Medic had access to a shotgun or had some sort of remedy to essentially the Support and Assault Class in close encounters. Other than that I have no other drastic complaints for the multiplayer besides some tiny complaints that will more than likely be addressed.

Conquest, Rush, the typical other gamemode and the new gamemode all play well to different degrees. The modes also all mesh incredibly well with the maps provided in the base game and I honestly do not have a map that i dislike to an incredible degree. Sure some aren’t perfect, but the majority of them all play and look incredibly nice. I personally praise the map design and departure from symmetrical map design. Vehicle combat is somewhat balanced, it is completely balanced if the team coordinates as a whole. The days of a single average player 1 v 1 ing a tank are over, that is what I am trying to get at. The gameplay and meta, or player environment is not the same as previous Battlefield games. This is not a bad thing.

Overall Battlefield 1 is both what one would expect from a Battlefield game and slightly not. I have up-most praise for the singleplayer and the multiplayer. It is by far the best shooter on the market at the moment that can appeal to not only the casual gamer but also the hard core demographic at well. Its treatment of WWI with up-most respect in the singleplayer campaign is a nice touch and is somewhat expected. I have no doubt i will lose countless hours to this game and its expansion packs. I absolutely recommend it.

Producing a believable narrative with relatable issues in a game can be somewhat difficult. This is a far greater challenge in a game that takes place in a seemingly alternative reality in the near future. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided excels at placing the player back in the Cyberpunk world that Deus Ex: Human Revolution helped introduce to new fans of the Deus Ex series while still appealing to fans of the original games. Player choice combined with the stealth or loud approach topped off with strong RPG elements make this game worth the delay (s) it endured. Much like last year’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided stresses player choice regarding gameplay, but unlike Metal Gear player decisions also have more impact on the story and sub plots.

Level design in Mankind Divided is better than ever. Various routes throughout the game allow for decisions to be made when it came to traversing the in game world. How the player traverses it, whether with stealth or a more ‘direct’ approach is all up to the player most of the time. However, for myself personally the non lethal approach is far more rewarding. This takes more time obviously and some more thought but honestly it is worth it. Verticality is fare more prevalent in this iteration of the franchise. Some areas or hazards such as laser grids or mines can only be dealt with through various upgrades to Adam Jensen, the protagonist. The fantastic plus to various means of traversal are the rewards you can find in various routes. It kept me constantly aware of various routes and I back tracked at times to check areas i either bypassed or sneaked by in entirety. There are tons of areas that may lead to small sub-quest that are easily missed. The quests are not really boring either so don’t expect simple fetch quests/missions. Small engagements ranging from simple dialogue to emails may also help present a sub-quest to the player in an organic fashion.

The gameplay gravitates to first person perspective although third person shots are also present while in cover or during some conversations. Adam Jensen looks as badass as ever and with the new cover to cover system and mantling he moves far more naturally (even for someone with augmentations). The UI has been overhauled as well, notifications in general are far more visible to the player. Stealth in a sense is easier now due to the changes regarding combat and new augmentations make the game seem easier but with greater power to the player means that greater challenges are in store. The game expects the player to be aware of this. It isn’t quite as hands free as Metal Gear Solid V for references but it certainly does not hold your hand at times.

Gunplay specifically feels right finally when compared to Human Revolution. On the fly modifications can make a normally single use gun such as an assault rifle function like a battle rifle or designated marksmen rifle with the right modifications (well only if you don’t feel like using the actual battle rifle). My one gripe with the gunplay in general is the lack of movement Adam’s hands actually make while shooting. It is just one tiny little detail but he has augmentations so maybe while shooting he has suction grip like hands. The level of improvement when compared to Human Revolution is so noticeable, that in Mankind Divided i never strayed away from using my arsenal simply because for once it was not clunky.

The synthesis of both the gameplay mechanics regarding combat and RPG elements such as dialogue truly help immerse ones self. One player may experience a relatively non-violent encounter with a sketchy individual. Other players may meet the same individual, exhaust a few line of dialogue, become frustrated with the NPC and kill them. In Mankind Divided that is completely okay, although make sure violent tendencies stay in your video game playthroughs. An example of this for me was an encounter with a con artist that was impersonating a State Police officer. He was scamming people with augmentations into buying forged identification passes/cards that actually did not even work. After dispatching his men at the location where he was having a young woman make the cards I went back to meet him and confront him. Needless to say things went sideways and a fake State Police officer ended up face down in the alley next to his checkpoint. That was how I handled that specific situation, Mankind Divided allows for player choice which i cannot stress over enough.

The game runs incredibly well on my PC but I cannot speak for the console version since I have yet to play it on PS4 or Xbox One. The new game engine handles lighting and large crowds far better than the previous title. I was able to maintain a steady framerate of 60 throughout the entire experience except for some cut-scenes that appear to be locked at 30 due to being pre-loaded onto the game’s file directory as a video file. The game only crashed once for me personally, although a recent patch fixed that on my end.

Gameplay and level design aside Deus Ex: Mankind Divided attempts to portray discrimination not through race but through natural humans and those with augmentations. The game both succeeds and fails at doing so. Essentially after an event two years ago simply called the ‘Incident’ that caused people with augmentations to go into a violent rage the world, being the majority of humans that do not have augmentations are afraid that a similar incident will occur again. Thus augs (people with augmentations) are treated like second class citizens due to a combination of fear, hate, distrust, you get the idea. People with prosthetics are forced to carry extra identification, ride in separate train cars, and for the  vast majority of augs live in selected housing. Sound similar? Well it is even more obvious when topped off with the constant police harassment (IE beatings, threats, etc).

Where the game fails to show off the “Mechanical Apartheid”  (note I did not coin the term, the marketers for the game did) is the fact that besides police harassment and a few threats with some physical encounters sprinkled in the player will hardly have to endure cruelty on a scale compared to the real life situations and time periods this is attempting to mirror. Sure the player as Adam, someone who has a ridiculous amounts of prosthetics is treated poorly, but it hardly compares to the treatment of other augs in the game. Part of this is due to the fact that Adam works for an international counter terrorism unit and therefore has higher clearance identification than the common aug. Even though the player is essentially looking at this in game social issue through a hypothetical window, the game still made me feel uncomfortable due to the discrimination in game. What I encountered in game and felt personally is probably regarded by others as an over analysis of a back drop theme to a video game. However, I have never felt as uncomfortable for my player character in a video game based off of a physical trait as I have in Mankind Divided. 

The second class treatment and forcing of augs to live in awful parts of the in game city of the real life location of Prague combined with all of the discrimination made me feel uncomfortable at times in a VIDEO GAME. This is why i repetitively stress the importance the medium as a whole has for telling stories and attempting to semi-immerse the player into something they may or may not have experienced before. My point is i felt uncomfortable in a video game sitting in my dorm, I cannot imagine the plight specific individuals have to go through in real life regarding discrimination and or societal bias. Yet, after playing this game one thing I can take away is that I sympathize with groups of people targeted due to various traits even more. It is worth mentioning i already did but I never experienced any form of discrimination in real life. I more than likely never will so dealing with this kind of harassment furthers my understanding as to how uncomfortable it makes someone feel (and this was just in a game not in REAL LIFE). Now it is worth mentioning I am not equating anything i encountered or felt mentally about in the game can even compare to the real life treatment of groups treated as a minority. The video game medium as a whole is at the moment the closest way for me to observe any kind of treatment as one, albeit in game.

The fact is i experienced this while in a fictional game world and I can turn it off if things ever got that dire (they never did, but still). A large chunk of the population in the United States can’t simply turn off their life or reset who they are, they have to continually go day by day, week by week having to deal with unfair situations and treatment that they themselves, at their core, were not responsible for. I never expected to write a game review that stressed more on the themes of the game than the actual game itself but with everything that has happened in the past and what is still currently happening in our society it is worth mentioning.

Overall Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a solid game; it struggles with some plot issues and should have just attempted to mirror Human Revolution. It is still a beautiful game graphics wise and the gameplay is arguably the best in the entire series. The themes the game attempts to convey both succeed at times and fall flat; but the game still is able to display the core roots of the themes. Games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided may not be the best games overall but they certainly attempt to tackle more complex issues/themes through interactive storytelling. Better games will come out this fall but i doubt any will attempt to approach such a topic as the treatment of second class citizens and discrimination. Needless to say you should play this game. *Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is available on PC, PS4 & Xbox One. This review was based off of the PC version.

The first person genre for consuming video games and cinematic experiences was arguably brought to life among the masses in December of 1993. December 10, 1993 was the release of the titular title Doom. The effects of this sole title’s release can be seen through its core game-play aspects which have been adopted by the majority of first person shooters. The most recent re-imagining of Doom has proved to successfully recapture the feel and overall aesthetic of the original game. Although this title can be argued as “just a remake,” it also brings plenty of new content to player. Personally, anybody that argues that this is simply the original Doom rehashed has never played the original Doom. 

Doom has always put game-play first, while the story is on the back burner. So it wasn’t very surprising that this title lacked a blockbuster story or compelling narrative. ID Software did however successfully attempt to convey world building through the environment of the UAC Compound on Mars and Hell itself. Small descriptions of weapons, facilities, enemies, etc, allow for further understanding of the environment the player will find themselves in. This of course requires a need for conclusion or an additional story for the skeleton of plot that is revealed in game. Essentially, the player steps into the role of the Doom Marine (later referred to as the Doom Slayer). The player is tasked with shutting down a portal from Hell in a research facility on the Martian surface. This facility, run by the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC), was experimenting using a form of energy from Hell in order to power things back on Earth. This energy, “ardent energy,” is siphoned from a pit in Hell simply called The Well. As the player progresses, further plot details unfold such as the true origins of the Doom Marine and how exactly the portal appeared. This game is essentially an attempt to reboot the franchise, so it can be inferred that the player is successful in shutting the portal down. Besides the bare-bones plot details, the story does not matter at all to me. Game-play on the other hand, game-play is key.

Doom is a frantic, adrenaline-fueled nightmare at times. Hordes of demons and possessed undead will continually rush the player until all have been dealt with. Doom like its predecessors gives the player access to a variety of methods of destruction. In the newest Doom, these weapons range from the new gauss cannon to the classic chainsaw. Obviously some weapons are better than others, while some are more effective against other types of enemies. Combining attacks by swapping constantly between weapons also proves to be incredibly effective against the demons from hell. The player arsenal in the beginning of the game is quite small so obviously this tactic of sporadically switching between weapons via the weapons wheel won’t exactly work. None the less the idea of killing all of the enemies in a room in order to enable linear progression in the game can only be as fun as the player wants it to be. Sure the weapons are amazing, the overly violent glory kills are fantastic animations (too graphic for me to actual show), and the outrageous carnage is fun but it can grow tiring and tedious.

The latest Doom in my opinion attempts to cater way too much to veteran player’s nostalgia. The single-player campaign offers obviously more modern means of conveying combat movement and overall game-play but it still appears to be strikingly the same. You can take that as you will, I personally didn’t dislike this but also was not a fan of it. The middle portion of the campaign though felt incredibly repetitive and I found myself taking breaks from the game simply because I was bored by repetitive eliminates. Find several specific key cards or skulls and fight through endless waves of hell spawn in order to get to the next area; then only to do it all again. I wish there was more variety than that but besides the three boss fights and some surprisingly well-placed platforming, the game begins to put itself on repeat by the end of the first act. At times, new guns and the ability to potentially upgrade all of your arsenal with new attachments proved to be the only thing that kept me playing the campaign. The very last chapter, however, stands apart. I won’t spoil it, but something about it just felt right when it comes to a modern interpretation of the first two games.

The original Doom is a timeless classic that was REVOLUTIONARY for its time. However, ID Software’s attempts to successfully recapture this lightning in a bottle prove to either be successful for incredibly nostalgic players or underwhelming to others. A reboot can only depend on the nostalgic factor oh so much before it ends up feeling like a cripple using the original nostalgia as a crutch. Sure, this game can stand on its own when a new player to the series plays it. Yet, I have a feeling that a newcomer to the series may feel underwhelmed because there are plenty of games that execute this kind of game-play more skillfully and smoothly. I have a feeling that this game will resonate more will players of the past games, whether that is a good or bad thing isn’t really the point.

Doom’s multiplayer feels like a forgotten offspring of Call of Duty & Halo with some Quake sprinkled in while on speed. The map design is straight out of Quake in my opinion. Power weapon spawns such as the gauss cannon and the demon runes (they let the player become an over powered demon) become choke points on the map. This would ideally create some memorable matches centered around these points, this is not the case. Doom made the same mistake Halo 4 and every subsequent Halo game made multiplayer wise: they added the function of custom loadouts. The main joy in games such as Quake, the original 3 Halos games and arena style shooters was the focus on finding ‘power weapons’ that would give the player advantages over other players that are using the default kit and weapons. That is what set these games apart from Call of Duty or Battlefield. The new Doom not only adds custom classes but also consumables that act a lot like perks. This completely defeats the purpose, aesthetic and fun of Doom. When the majority of players can equip incredibly overpowered weapons, excluding the BFG and gauss cannon, the entire aspect and fun of finding these weapons detracts from the total experience. The whole flaw in the multiplayer could be addressed if custom classes were axed and the power weapons drops were increased in order to cater to players want for more powerful weapons while keeping them out of everyone’s hands.

Verdict: 7/10

Some developers (and publishers) tend to beat a franchise to death, milking it for every nickel and dime is it worth. This normally leads to a game series ‘death’ in a sense. So when developers announce that they will be concluding the series with one final title, the response from the public is always mixed. One camp doesn’t necessarily want something that they care about so incredibly much to end but understands that things move on and end. The other camp is simply too naive to realize that everything ends; and if it doesn’t it more than likely will grow into a game series that is completely alien to its core ideas, gameplay aspects and narrative of the original. I find myself nearly always with the first group of people. Naughty Dog had the fortitude to realize that the Uncharted series and its main character Nathan ‘Nate’ Drake deserved a well put together ending. I will easily put Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End among the best final chapters in a game’s series; here is why.

For those not aware of the entire franchise and story, the series follows Nathan ‘Nate’ Drake. He can best bed described as a modern day Indiana Jones without the whip and fedora (My entire recap and review of the first three games can be found here). This game takes place several years after the third game, Drake’s Deception. The charismatic and likable Nate has apparently retired from the life of pursuit of treasures and lost cities. He has in fact settled down and got married to Elena from the previous games. While working for a salvage company, one in which Nate is the leader scuba diver, he is approached by his brother Sam (VA by Troy Baker). Nate had believed that his brother was dead, killed while they were undercover in a Panamanian Prison looking for Captain Henry Avery’s treasure. This is how the game begins excluding a boat chase on the high seas in the Indian Ocean that acts as a tutorial. This bundled with a movement tutorial that takes place during Nate’s childhood at an orphanage rounds out the beginning of the game.

Sam explains to his younger brother that he, in fact, survived being shot while at the Prison and recently escaped. The problem, and the reason why Nate abandons his sedimentary lifestyle is that the man that broke Sam out was a drug lord imprisoned next to him. Hector Alvarez had constantly heard Sam ramble on about Captain Avery’s treasure and how he knew where it was. So when Alvarez broke out he managed to get Sam out as well on the condition that he bring half of Avery’s treasure to him. If he fails in doing so after a period of three months Alvarez’s men will kill Sam. This plot device allowed Naughty Dog the chance to pair arguably the two best actors in the video game industry together. Nolan North playing Nathan Drake alongside Troy Baker’s Same Drake just feels natural even though the latter character hadn’t been mentioned in the other games since he apparently died 15 years ago and Nathan move on. The chemistry between the two actor’s performances makes the two characters feel like actual real life blood brothers. For the majority of the game, Nate is alongside Sam, their banter and joking behavior with one another does not feel scripted in the slightest degree. The writer’s choice to use Sam as a tool in order to explain the past three games to the player through Nate keeps new players from being out of the loop for the past stories. Nate consistently refers to past adventures and explains them to Sam while they trek across the world for Avery’s treasure. This may feel a little repetitive and directed towards veteran players nostalgia of the past games yet at the same time, it is informative and at times usual for the plot to advance.

What literally makes this game stand out from others is the wide variety of environmental set pieces and the visual presentation of the game. Uncharted 4 arguably is the best looking game on the market when it is broken down into art design and graphical presentation. For example, the foliage above combined with the dilapidated structures of this forgotten pirate Colony convey the passage of time and abandonment of this settlement incredibly well. Each tomb, town, island, etc all are incredibly well put together. This, of course, is important to have since this game ends up being a globe-trotting adventure. Basically, all of the environments look believable, nothing in the game looks to flashy but at the same time isn’t muddied down or bland. Environmental hazards or conditions such as rain or the explosion of a convenient red barrel all have an impact on the presentation of this title. Naughty Dog even managed to make mud look good in a way. I won’t spoil as to how but Nathan get incredibly dirty at times, covered in filth and grime. If the game had awful gameplay in my opinion it would still be worth eventually playing thanks to the diverse and well put together environments and the optimized graphics.

Like the other titles in the series, Uncharted 4’s gameplay is split between third-person action sequences, littered with fantastic explosion and predominately balanced by basic gun play. The other half of the gameplay found in this series presents itself through puzzles in ancient settings (tombs, ships, caves) and the overall traversal of the actual in game environments. At times a cliff face and how the player will traverse it can be a puzzle. In Uncharted 4 however, Nate has a grappling hook which acts as a double-edged sword. It can make traversal of these environments easier, but the hook and swinging mechanics have also opened new doors for the developers to make more difficult puzzles. None of the puzzles are particularly hard per say, but they can take a while to either solve or transverse. This, of course, depends if it is literally a puzzle (pictured above) or rather if it is the act of climbing a hazardous cliff side in Scotland.

The various character one will encounter, such as the two villains above, are all incredibly well written. All of them have layers or levels to their personality along with their goals and intentions. Rafe Adler (the man in the tuxedo above), comes from an incredibly rich and successful family. At the time of the game, he runs his parent’s inherited business but wants to make a name for himself and break away from his parent’s shadow. To him, the vast amount of wealth that would coincide with discovery Captain Avery’s treasure is unimportant. While Nate and Sam seek fortune, Rafe is searching for fame. So he has been using his wealth to employ the Private Military Company named Shoreline, headed by the woman on the left in the picture above: Nadine Ross. Nadine, unlike Rafe, is only interested in the money Rafe is paying her and her South African PMC. Although the idea of finding the treasure does indeed interest her, she is nowhere near as devoted to the search for it as Rafe and the Drake brothers. She is far more interested in running the PMC she inherited from her father, this reflects her characters behavior and morals in the game.

Victor “Sully” Sullivan makes an appearance in Uncharted 4 as well. The veteran thief and mentor to Nate have been keeping busy still continuing to be a thief despite his age. His role in the game of being Nate’s sidekick during gameplay has been replaced by Sam. He is still quite present in the game but partakes in a more supporting role. Elena Fisher, now Elena Drake, appears in the game and is essential to the subsidiary plot of the game. To sum that bit up Nate goes off on the adventure but tells Elena that he is actually going on an international salvaging mission in Malaysia. This lie as a whole divides Elena and Nate for part of the game but as one can expect she forgive him since he is basically doing this for his brother. The writing, especially near the end of the game, suffers from incredibly slow pacing at times, but overall the pacing was on point.

Lastly, the gunplay is easily the best in the entire series. Reloading is now triangle on the controller but I grew accustomed to that quickly. The one complaint I have for the basic combat system is the ability to hold only two weapons. At the same time, I must compliment Naughty Dog for implementing slings for all rifles. This added to the realism since the rifles no longer float behind Nate. This pistol holster and the attention to detail when Nate physically switches weapons has clean and fluid animations that do not detract from the already stellar gameplay. The cover system has been overhauled, or at least it feels that way. It feels and plays a lot like Naughty Dog’s other game The Last of Us. Well, the cover system is like The Last of Us; the pacing is quicker when it comes to combat. Movement is far more important when engaging enemies. Otherwise, you may find yourself flanked because you were attempting to hold up in a single location. I won’t go into detail regarding the gameplay because the game, for the most part, plays like the other’s but is more precise and smooth. Also, the main focus for all of these games is the story and overall narrative. The third person combat is by no means anything unique but it isn’t bad either. Yet, when this gameplay is combined with blockbuster-esque set pieces and grade-A acting a fantastic masterpiece is created.

Overall I found my time spent playing the story mode in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End incredibly enjoyable. I was not able to play a lot of multiplayer since I had to quickly begin to play Doom for the next review. The story without going into detail or spoilers territory the game has a solid bookend ending. There are no cliffhangers and every single plot line is either ended or shifted into the greater meta of the story. What I am trying to say is that I could not ask for a better ending for this series. Although it does leave some room for the franchise to expand, Nathan Drake’s story or at least his adventuring has come to a close in an absolute fashion. I wish I could go into further detail but that would spoil the ending and its epilogue. I am personally pleased to hear that Naughty Dog is claiming to be finished with the series; Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is the pinnacle of an award-winning series.

Verdict: 9.7/10 – nearly a 10 but does have some minor faults.

Statistically, a 95% chance to hit a target seems like superb opportunity to take a shot on a target. XCOM 2 has reinforced the opposite mentality. This turn based strategy game developed by Firaxis Games  forces the player to make risky decisions on and off the battlefield. This sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown (of 2012) proves to be even more difficult than the reboot for several reasons. For those still unaware about the premise of the game (did the thumbnail not give any clues?), the XCOM series involves aliens, mainly killing them for the betterment of humanity. I personally have enjoyed my time spent with the game thus far. XCOM 2 rewards players that take their time in between turns to craft a formulaic plan for battle.

The premise for XCOM 2 takes place 20 years after the events of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Basically, humanity was invaded and overwhelmed by a coalition of extraterrestrial beings. At first, during the events of the first game, the world banded together to form the XCOM Project. The XCOM Project was a multi national reaction force designed to combat the aliens. Although the player could actually win and beat the aliens in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the canon ending is that the XCOM project failed. In between the previous game what is left of XCOM has been forced to fight as a guerrilla unit that lacks the support from multiple nations. Instead the player leads the remnant of XCOM from region to region across the world in their own commandeered alien supply-ship. In a sense, the player and therefore the story is basically that you are the last hope for humanity waging a hit and run war against the aliens. Yet it isn’t that simple, a lot of society has changed since the aliens essentially became humanities overlords.

Through propaganda and the use of superior technology, the majority of humanity has been convinced that the aliens are in fact here to help humanity become a more intellectually enlightened race (hence the statue of the alien symbolically helping the fallen human above). In other words, at times you will be fighting soldiers that somewhat resemble humans but without going into spoilers it really isn’t the case. Major cities have been constructed by ADVENT, the organisation that governs humanity, and humans are flocking to these cities in order to obtain remedies and a life style previously thought as impossible by standard means. The player over the course of the game begins to realize that through this indoctrination, almost brainwashing, the majority of humanity has lost the ability to be free. It is up to the player to uncover the aliens true intentions and to ultimately free humanity. This will be accomplished by raiding ADVENT coalition compounds, researching better technology and liberating various populaces from the aliens spheres of influence.

The minute to minute gameplay of XCOM 2 can be described at its core: a turn based tactical game. The player controls a squad of soldiers beginning with only 4. This can be increased by upgrades to a larger fighting force later in the game. The battlefield, or area of combat, is divided into tiles that represent places where your soldiers (or your enemies) can move. Depending on the class of your soldier, the amount of tiles you can move varies. In addition to movement, players need to keep in mind their surroundings. This of course is because there are several forms of cover your soldiers or foes can utilize as protection from attacks. The three forms of cover are no cover, partial cover, and full cover. It is up to the player as to where they want to move each turn. Some places may be safer locations though during battle. Another catch to this game is that turns basically revolve around two turn actions. Simply put, a soldier can run into cover or shoot. These turns continue for the player until all of their units have performed actions. Then, the enemy performs its own turn. There are a variety of actions or abilities that the player can use ranging from throwing a grenade to reloading your soldiers’ weapon. I will go into detail about the abilities in a little bit. Objectives for each mission (which the number of missions vary on each play through but the game takes around 30 hours to beat) range from destroying enemy monuments to extracting VIPs. This variety allows for diverse missions that differ in the time it takes to complete them. I have had missions that last 5 turns to missions that take over an hour to complete.

The meta game for XCOM 2 involves racing around the world gathering supplies, intelligence, and manpower in order to combat the alien threat. The events excluding specific missions are all procedurally generated in order to provide unique levels and objectives that will be the player’s own. In other words, your second play through may provide an entirely different start bias and equipment drops from enemies. The player will need to make contact with various other lesser resistance groups to gain supplies to research better guns, armor, equipment, etc. All of this while on the run from the ADVENT coalition may seem overwhelming, but I became some what desensitized to the idea of always being on the run. The raiding tactics the player utilizes almost made me feel like some sort of an insurgent or freedom fighter depending on your own point of view. The odds are nearly always stacked against the player, this made decisions like deciding to research an exo skeleton over new magnetic weapons a rough one to make. The game expects the player to adapt and over come these obstacles over time.

In order to combat this alien threat, you as the player must become well aware of the perks and proper uses for various kinds of weapons. Yet since you are a rebel faction, you and your soldiers cannot depend on abundant resources and new equipment. This idea leads into a new feature for the series: Weapon Modifications. Whenever one of your brave soldiers terminates an enemy there is a chance that modifications or rare resources will be dropped. These modifications like the auto-loader for the shotgun above can provide your XCOM operatives with an unconventional edge against the alien overlords. Some modifications work better with different operatives and armaments. I personally found that by adding an extended magazine modification to my main sharpshooter’s rifle proved to be the proper use. This allowed the rifle to take more shots without having to reload the weapon. Weapons and gear can however be lost forever if the operative using the gear is killed and their body is not recovered. My advice is that you never leave anyone behind, dead or alive everything and everyone is useful in this game.

Now let’s look at the variety of aliens your team will face off against. In the beginning of the game, the majority of your enemies will be humanoid troopers and somewhat lanky “sectoid” aliens that can attack your soldiers telepathically. As the game progresses, different enemy types will be revealed. Without going into spoilers you as the player will have to fight some seemingly unfair engagements. It is all achievable, I personally at the time of writing this have already beaten the game on the second hardest difficulty and am currently trudging through the most difficult setting. Ultimately, the enemies encountered will push the player to their limits and at times the game can be incredibly frustrating. Missing a shot with a 95% chance to hit it can be infuriating and is incredibly common. I cannot stress enough the importance of persevering through this lengthy campaign. Yes the game will be unfair at times, yes a single failed mission can scrap your entire play through but in the end every successful mission is truly earned. Whether it is earned through countless attempts or the loss of your soldiers that you customized after your friends, the game is worth it in the end.

Lastly, as I briefly touched on it in the title of this review, the player can choose to fully customize the various soldiers they recruit throughout the game. Like in my XCOM: Enemy Unknown play through I named the majority of my soldiers after people who I know or unique fictional individuals or celebrities. Since the game has a permadeath feature, if any of these soldiers die they will be gone forever. This makes loses in my squads seems even worse since, for example my friend Joe died while trying to disarm a bomb on the third mission. These creative customizable features allow for awesome squads such as the one above. Having Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3, Mr. Wester as a sniper, and Nick Cage in my A-Team squad with several of my friends and myself makes for some amusing missions and losses. I found myself at times losing track of how much time I was actually spending customizing my soldiers and their load-outs. This immersion however made the game all the better.

Verdict: 9/10

*This review is exclusively for the Xbox One version of the game.

Few students at Jesuit had any idea that such a cinematic and well-polished game like the Rise of the Tomb Raider was being released the same day as Fallout 4. In fact, the majority of gamers had no idea that the next game in this series reboot was even coming out. Although, I blame the fact that the game is currently only on Xbox One & 360 as well as Microsoft‘s poor marketing for the title as reasons why few seem to be aware of this outstanding game. 2013 was the year that Lara Craft and the Tomb Raider franchise finally received a decent reboot. The majority of gamers were surprised by Crystal Dynamics’ reboot of the franchise. I, for one, thought that Tomb Raider 2013 was one of the best games of the year obviously behind the DICE Game of the Year award winner, The Last of Us, as well as the enjoyable Grand Theft Auto V. The Tomb Raider reboot replaced the violent, overly-sexualized version of the protagonist with a well-mannered, naive and serious iteration of the character, motion captured and voice by the lovely Camilla Luddington. The game acted as the origin story that transformed the naive archeologist, shipwrecked on an island full of danger, into a female protagonist that was a survival specialist and fully capable of holding her own in a gun or even fist fight. Rise of the Tomb Raider furthered the character’s development and proved to flesh out more of her background and beliefs.

Spoilers for the story from here to the last paragraph.

Rise of the Tomb Raider has Lara Craft in a race against a sinister organization called Trinity in an attempt to reach the lost city of Kitezh. Her journey takes the player from Syria to Siberia, which is honestly a great juxtaposition between two incredibly different environments. All in an attempt to find the secret to immortality, an idea the science community dismissed her father. Now Lara, after the events of the first game, is attempting to continue her father’s work. The overall experience in Rise of the Tomb Raider is a cinematic masterpiece that draws elements from other successful games in this genre such as the Uncharted franchise. The journey that takes place in this title is not only a literal physical journey but also a journey into the very psyche and beliefs of the heroine protagonist.

Gameplay is a mixture between run and gun mechanics and simple to complex puzzles. Honestly, the gun-play on the Xbox One Elite Controller felt a little janky and the sway for the weapons even in the late game was ridiculous. I also disliked the fact that Lara apparently forgot all of her skills from the previous game such as fire arrows and her various bow skills. The weapons, for the most part, excluding the shotgun and the revolver, also felt incredibly ineffective at dispatching attackers. The bow was actually the most useful tool later in the game. It has the ability to fling fire arrows, poison arrows and explosive arrows at enemies. Yet, these skills are relearned later in the game even though she already possessed them in the first game. This brings me to address the new crafting system that is in the game. Lara now can pick up even more materials throughout the game in order to craft Molotov cocktails, IEDs, and poison traps along with several other means of killing attackers. You can also use materials to make better gear and ammunition pouches which are necessary on the more difficult challenges.

The enemies in the game range from wolves and lynxes to heavily armed mercenaries and even ancient “deathless” warriors that, surprisingly, can actually die. The way the player approaches all of these enemy types is supposed to force the player to change their playstyle, but I found myself just spamming IEDS and explosive arrows. This strategy worked on even the more difficult settings. The ability to craft bandages on the go also adds a safety net to the player’s health. If you are ever in a tight situation simply bandage up and continue killing. I just didn’t find the game to be that challenging besides two puzzles, one of which I spent way too much time on. My best advice for the puzzles without giving them away is simply: do not over think it. The puzzles may seem grand and complex, but in reality, all of the things necessary in order to solve them are presented to the player in a simple fashion. Any competent player will by no means have to watch a walk-through or how-to-video on any of the puzzles.

Lastly, I felt that the writing in Rise of the Tomb Raider was far better and less convoluted than the previous game. The 2013 reboot depended too much on supernatural elements and rituals. This one also has an antagonist, the Commander, that you can actually relate to,  who must either complete his task or die while saving his sister. The game also uses tropes and themes from religion, but it doesn’t use them as a crutch for its own story and pacing. Although the story does have its fair share of poor pacing segments, the writing outshines the blemishes. Several significant plot twists and a betrayal conform with the rest of the plot and do not feel thrown in there for pure shock value.

Ultimately, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a brief but well-written action-packed experience. I enjoyed the more realistic and linear plot over the previous games’ themes. Whenever you are done with Fallout 4 and you have a Xbox One, I highly suggest picking this game up. Please do not get it on the Xbox 360. It simply can’t compare to the better looking and faster-running version on the Xbox One.

Verdict: 7.8/10