schenksmill

2017-09-142017-09-12

Game Ramblings #51 – Knack II

Genre: Action/Adventure
Platform: PS4

TL;DR

Much deeper combat system than the original that significantly improves the overall experience
Use of size changing is clever, and done in a much more controlled fashion than the original
Still too many quick time events, and the game might as well not be a platformer for how little it takes advantage of the capabilities

I’ll be perfectly honest here; I bought this game simply because I didn’t believe the decent reviews coming in for this game. The original was a curious release from a tech-demo point of view, but calling it an unforgettable game is being pretty nice to it. At one point early in Knack II, they joke that the main character only knows three punches and a kick, and that really was the depth of the original game. This one adds significant depth to the combat systems, while smoothing out some of the more obnoxious difficulty problems with the original game, and makes the overall experience a lot of fun to play. It’s not perfect, but I’ll be damned if I’m not surprised with the end result.

Even if the environments are simple, seeing Knack full of pieces is still an impressive sight.

The core idea behind Knack is essentially the idea of a controlled power curve based on finding relic pieces and adding them to Knack’s body. You can instantly transform between tiny and full grown variants, leading to puzzle and platforming opportunities. As Knack grows, he gets stronger, typically leading to fights against increasingly strong enemies and generally speaking a boss or similarly large scale puzzle element to end most chapters.

Where the first game really failed to take advantage of this is that it really just kind of pushed the growth, took it all away mid-game, and never really reestablished a good feel to the growth curve. Knack 2 significantly improved that curve. Rather than being a more game-wide growth curve, each chapter typically had its own growth curve. Most chapters started you off in the 4-6 foot range, with various amounts of growth by the end of the chapter. This was also typically paired with a similar power curve in the enemies so there was always a feeling of progress in each area.

Not all of the combat is on the ground. Sometimes you just accidentally steal a giant robot.

Where this change would have fallen apart in the original game, the introduction of significantly deeper combat meant that there was a higher metagame to combat skill that was entirely separate from the growth mechanics. Just from a base skill perspective, there were grabs, shield break maneuvers, smooth dodging mechanics, ranged boomerangs that trap enemies, and the ability to parry projectiles back at their shooter. Add in a skill tree to augment skills, as well as add new optional skills, and the tool set available to the player is significantly better than the original’s three punches and a kick.

This all comes together with a significantly improved difficulty curve to make a system that was quite a lot of fun in general, let alone a significant improvement over the first game. Different strategies had to be made on the fly based on Knack’s current size, as well as the enemy count. Bunch of enemies that can be one shot? Try to round them up and do a jump smash to kill them all at once. Handful of larger enemies that require a few hits? Lock one down with the boomerang while you concentrate on the others. Boss that can very easily chunk your health away? Dodge as you move towards it, or parry back projectiles to do ongoing damage as you move closer. Basically, there’s a ton of options here, and the way they’ve set it up in conjunction with the character’s physical growth has gone a long way to making this a very fun game to play.

Platforming segments are there, such as this stealth segment with a tiny glass Knack, but they’re rare and don’t typically take advantage of potential.

Outside of combat is where the game still shows its biggest weaknesses. It’s pretty typical for there to be a big cutscene extravaganza in each chapter with a series of quick time events. These are just kind of boring, and I’d much rather they just play the cutscene back as intended. The platforming is also fairly non-present. While the tools are there, with the ability to double jump and hover, most platforming areas are basically small 30 second puzzles in between combat encounters. Once you’re in a combat area, it’s flat and the platforming gives way to pure action. There’s just kind of a lot of missed potential there, even if the focus of the game has leaned significantly more into the action side of things.

The end result here really is surprising. You still get the big wow moments of a significantly large Knack against giant bosses that the original game had. The improvement is that the time between those big wow moments is no longer terrible. The combat is fun, the moves you get are varied and cool to see, the enemies have a lot of variety to match the moves you learn. Now, this game isn’t going to make a run at game of the year or anything like that; it just doesn’t have the depth in its non-combat to really do that. However, what came out with this game is a sequel that is good in its own right, and even more so a shockingly large improvement over the original game that could best be described as a great tech demo with bad gameplay.

2017-09-10

Game Ramblings #50 – Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

More Info from Sony

Genre: Action/Adventure
Platform: PS4

TL;DR

Same ol Uncharted gameplay, over the top action sequences, and beautiful visuals
Short length meant the story didn’t drag out, which felt like a plus
First half showed some growth in their design w/ an almost Tomb Raider semi open world.

I’m not going to sit here and say that this is a hugely original title for the series. I’m also going to be straight here and say that the changes in The Lost Legacy feel a lot like copping some features from Tomb Raider. However, this very well might be the best Uncharted title I’ve yet played. It being a condensed experience certainly helped (about 6-8 hours I’d assume will be typical first play through), but a nice use of a large non-linear area to start the game went a long way to providing a fresh look at the series, and may just prove there’s life to be had in this universe.

Like previous Uncharted titles, this is another visual masterpiece.

There’s a lot to be familiar with here. The gunplay is still good, but nothing mind blowing, going for solid feel without too much difference between core weapon types. Combat sequences in the more linear segments are still at obvious points when you turn a corner and have a ton of crates around. Enemies are still decent but basic in their approach to flanking behaviors. The game’s finale (and a couple points in between) is still a wildly bombastic experience that would feel at home in any big budget Hollywood film. End of the day, this is still Uncharted at its core, but with a big difference in the first half that showed some progress.

Roughly the first half of the game takes place in a large open area, with a set of non-linear objectives to drive to, and a bunch of hidden collectibles to find in the area. This alone felt like a fantastic change to the series, even if it felt right out of the recent Tomb Raider games. Because of the layout of this opening area, combat also felt much improved relative to the standard single direction combat of the linear exploration areas typical of the series. Combat segments felt very free form, since you could approach from basically any direction, and enemies could do the same. In a lot of these areas, I’d be stealthing around to find a good entry point, then doing what I could to pick off enemies one by one without revealing my location. If things started to go awry, many of the areas also had a lot of swing points, so I could easily move around to find new hiding spots if enemies started to get a drop on me. In general, this was the best I’ve ever seen combat in the series, although it unfortunately went away once the more linear segments of the game started.

While not as complex as the Tomb Raider series, the side exploration in the opening area was a welcome addition to Uncharted.

The unfortunate thing though is that the opening area gave way to more traditional Uncharted linear mechanics. While this works fine in the general sense, it feels like they missed an opportunity to really make a special full entry in the series based around the gameplay changes of the first half. The puzzle areas of the linear temple portions worked great, but it was back to the more boring combat style and tiresome climbing areas. Realistically I can only do the same pattern of climb, jump to crumbling wall hold, fall down to conveniently placed grab spot, then finish climbing up so many times. On the other hand, the fact that this is a much shorter expansion-style game meant that the experience was fantastically condensed before I really wanted to just get through.

End of the day you kind of know what you’re getting into here when buying an Uncharted game, and this one doesn’t differ much. It shows some promising changes in the first half should Naughty Dog decide to continue with the series, but never really expands on the changes for the full length of this game, let alone makes a full game out of it. However, treated as an end of summer blockbuster experience, this is still just as worth playing as the previous entries and definitely left me entertained, and that’s about all I can ask for.

2017-09-062018-01-13

Game Ramblings #49 – Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

More Info from Ubisoft

Genre: Turn-based Tactics
Platform: Switch

I hope you’ll pardon my pun here, but Ubisoft has managed to pull a Rabbid out of a hat. This game seamlessly blends the Mario and Rabbid IPs into a single game, throws it into a turn-based game with some fantastic use of the Mario universe for its move set, and popped out a game that is one of the best I’ve played this year. While there’s a few things that I’d have liked to see improved in the overall mission structure, the end result is still a fine example of what developers can do with the Switch, and an interesting example of a team making a Nintendo quality experience, without being Nintendo themselves.

The visuals would be at home in any of the recent 3D Mario series titles.

The biggest surprise to me is that this feels like a Mario title through and through. While the gameplay is obviously different, the little details are all there. It’s the sound of a coin when you pick it up. It’s the vibrant and varied environments across four main worlds (and the Peach’s castle hub). It’s the inclusion of red and blue coin challenges scattered throughout hidden areas. It’s Mario’s jump attack straight out of the Mario series RPG titles. Everywhere you look, there’s little details that make this feel extremely familiar, despite the huge differences in gameplay.

The nice thing about all of that is that it’s worth exploring every corner. Scattered throughout the environment are series of small challenges, puzzles, and hidden crates. While most of them contain little bonus art or music pieces, a number of the crates also contain weapons or power orbs. Make no mistake, the underlying systems of this game are very traditional to the tactics genre. Weapon upgrades for primary and secondary weapons are here, giving you obvious damage upgrades, but also adding secondary hit effects, bonus damage to specific enemies, and more. While there’s no direct XP for killing enemies, the power orbs you earn in battle or find throughout the environment act as a functional replacement, being used to purchase upgrades in character-specific skill trees. These skill trees act as a way to build out each character’s skill set, as well as provide more obvious passive bonuses like increased health and damage.

The facial animations in cutscenes are universally good, and usually play up the more slapstick comedy aspect of both series.

All of the skill upgrades compound into what ends up being a fantastic battle system. The basics that are there are all solid, and work in a very XCOM-like fashion. During your turn, you can run around and hide behind various pieces of the environment. In a very Mario way, you can warp to different platforms via pipes, or hide behind blocks. Also of note, brick-based blocks can be destroyed via friendly or enemy fire, and fans of the Mario series will know where not to hide if this is a concern. However, where the battle system really shows its greatest potential is in its exploitation of movement mechanics, both as an offensive helper, and a defensive measure to keep enemies away.

On the weapon side, the two main mechanics I ended up leaning heavily on were bounce and push. Bounce does just that; when you hit an enemy, it causes them to bounce in the air, taking additional damage, and also giving them the potential to get thrown off the level for further damage. Push on the other hand causes the enemy hit to ball up and start rolling around the level. They can then rebound off walls, blocks, and other enemies to cause a chain reaction of bouncing chaos. In both of these cases, I could take advantage of the damage increase, but more often than not I was using these mechanics to push the enemies backwards, and control the flow of their movement beyond them just moving towards me. I could also use things like the rebound on push to cause enemies to be knocked out of cover, offering more opportunities for large damage.

There were also some other traversal-based mechanics that were handy to use. Each character could dash through enemies, causing damage. However, each ally also had a special move for traversal. Mario could also jump off an ally, and jump stomp enemies, giving both additional damage and travel distance on the hop. Rabbid Luigi could dash and drop Vampire on an enemy, causing an HP siphon to be applied. Peach could jump off an ally, and heal anyone within range of her landing location. This all added up to each turn not just being about weapon damage, but in seeing how many things you could chain in one turn for maximum potential.

Even the ghost town still feels very Mario, with Boos replacing the normal lamps above houses.

Given all that, the only real criticisms I had were involved in the occasional parts of the mission structure. There were a handful of escort missions that work about as poorly here as in every other game that uses them. The escorted units had no attack, and typically moved slower than the rest of the party, as well as spawned enemies. These missions usually just devolved into running forward to wipe enemies, then running everyone back to act as a damage sponge for reinforcements flanking from behind. The other main problem was in the mission chaining within each chapter. Rather than allowing healing between missions, you could only heal at the end of each chapter, and had to fight with the HP pool you had through multiple battles. There was healing to alleviate the problem, but I felt like they could have played up to higher difficulty within a single mission if they’d gone with a more typical heal in between battle setup. As it is, quite a few of the missions in place were simply too easy due to the chaining being in place.

You can never go wrong with an opera boss.

It speaks volumes to the skill of Ubisoft’s developers that they pulled this off. They managed to seamlessly blend two franchises that have next to nothing in common, beyond a love of occasional slapstick comedy. They put them into a genre that hadn’t been done for the two series, and yet made it feel like it belonged. They turned what many gamers assumed was a joke, and made it one of the best games that has come out this year. It also speaks volumes to Nintendo’s ongoing willingness to let external development teams have the keys to the kingdom, in a manner of speaking. We’ve seen this with Metroid for years, Zelda with Hyrule Warriors, and a ton of great platformers out of the team at Good-Feel. Is this worth buying a Switch for? I dunno, I’d save that for Breath of the Wild, but it certainly makes a good case for the console.