Quick Thoughts- Halo 4 (Xbox 360)

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room, where we're always slightly behind the times but still ready to offer an in-depth analysis. Somewhat.

Anyway, today's behind-the-times review comes in the form of Halo 4, which I decided to pick back up recently because I wanted to shoot aliens and I can't afford an Xbox One, and also because I realized I never completed the game on Legendary mode, the hardest difficulty level. Released in 2012, Halo 4 was, from what I understand, lampooned by fans because it strayed too far into the "Call Of Duty" realm that has nearly consumed all modern first person shooters. I agree with that to an extent, but I don't think it necessarily "killed the series," as some have claimed.

Picking up three years after the events of Halo 3, the Master Chief and his A.I. companion Cortana have been drifting aimlessly in space when they are suddenly attacked and boarded by a Covenant armada. This, within the first 2 or 3 minutes of the entire game, is kind of where they lost me.

See, by the end of the events of Halo 3, the humans had reached a resolution with the Covenant, finally ending the long standing conflict between the two. However, three years after Halo 3 came out, a prequel to the original Halo was released called Halo: Reach. I have never actually played this game, but from what I understand, it takes place shortly before the events of the first game, where the humans are at the apex of their war with the Covenant. Naturally this game would have to portray the Covenant as enemies again, and they did so by totally redesigning all of the Covenant aliens and making them even more intimidating and fierce looking than they were in the original games.

That's all fine and good, but what does this have to do with Halo 4? Well, Halo 4 portrays the Covenant exactly the same way that Reach does. But wait, aren't we friends with the Covenant now? The game explains this away in that Chief and Cortana just run into a "rouge fleet." Oh come on. That's the best you can do? You couldn't just think of another explanation as to why the two factions would be at war again? It all just seemed like a really lame excuse to keep the style of Reach intact while continuing the main story. 

The Covenant was made menacing again thanks to the powers of exposition.

Anyway, that minor detail aside, Chief and Cortana have some other problems as well: Cortana is is beginning to experience "rampancy," which basically means she's falling apart. Thinly vieled metaphors for neurodegenerative disease aside, the other problem they must deal with is the Prometheans, the new threat that has joined forces with the Covenant. Who are the Prometheans? Uh...something something something Forerunners. You know, the beings that built all of the Halo installations. Sorry, I pretty much skipped all the cutscenes this time around due to lack of interest.

The Prometheans are being controlled by the Didact, the big bad of this game who was imprisoned in a floating ball for some reason...and now...uh..he wants to destroy the universe...or something...

Sorry, I'm just gonna stop trying to explain the story and discuss the gameplay.

Halo 4 throws a lot of new things at you in the realm of controls. There's now running, special item usage (i.e. jetpacks, shields, hologram-decoys, etc.) and a lot of new weapon mechanics. Actually, potentially none of these things are "new" because they may have already been implemented in Halo: Reach, but they were new to me, so that's what I'm going with here.

Again, I can see what they were complaining about here in making it more like a Call Of Duty game, but it still does feel like Halo to an extent. You've got all the classic enemies from the Covenant dropping by to throw a plasma grenade at your face, plus the new Prometheans, as I mentioned before. The Prometheans are all kinds of annoying. You thought the Elites were tough to kill? It seems like the developers intentionally made the Prometheans obnoxious just to give you that much more of a headache while you're trekking through a level on legendary mode.

They come in a few different flavors: there's these little dog-like things called Crawlers which will come running in and surround you in a circle. They aren't too dangerous on their own, but a group of them can easily overwhelm you and since they'll be running around at high speed, it can be a pretty frustrating affair to take them all out. Then there's the big guys, the so-called Promethean Knights, who I think look a lot like the aliens from the movie Independence Day. These guys will do everything in the book to annoy you. They can teleport away when being fired at, they'll use heavier weapons on you (some of which can instantly kill you), they'll run and hide when their shields are down and when you chase after them to finish them off, you'll likely be attacked by a group of Crawlers which will buy the Knights enough time to escape.

 It's all I thought about when I saw them.

But by far the most obnoxious enemies are the Watchers, which are these little drone things that buzz around in the air above the Knights and Crawlers. These things were specifically made just to piss you off. They don't really attack you directly, but they'll provide shields for other enemies, they'll catch grenades that you throw and hurl them back at you, and they'll even resurrect Knights which you've just killed if you aren't paying attention. And worst of all, these little pricks will quickly fly away the second you attack them. It doesn't take that many shots to take them out, but if you focus on one and start to shoot it, it will swiftly buzz away and you'll need to chase it down, leaving you open to attack from other enemies. This got me killed more times than I want to admit to and made me hate these things so much I'd be screaming at my TV just trying to destroy all of them.

However, like everything else in Halo, you can certainly make it through with a little perseverance. There's a boatload of hidden easter eggs to find and achievements to unlock if you wish to squeeze every drop of content out of the game, but I honestly couldn't really be bothered anymore- I just wanted to beat it on Legendary and call it a day.

And so I did, first playing through on Heroic mode before switching over to Legendary for one more go-through. There are certainly a few high points of the game. Among my favorites was getting the opportunity to actually pilot a Pelican, which are the classic drop ships that you had previously only hitched a ride on in previous games. Getting to fly it around and fire crazy powerful weapons at enemy ships was a ton of fun, even though you only get to do it for a fairly miniscule portion of the game. My other favorite moment was the chapter "Reclaimer" in which you rode around on the massive "Mammoth" which looks a lot like the Sand-Crawlers from Star Wars and provides you with a slew of heavy weaponry and vehicles to battle the Covenant. You also get this little gizmo called the "Target Designator" which allows you to lock onto certain targets and then annihilate them with a massive laser from space. Pretty awesome.

Ever wanted to fire a giant laser from the sky? This was your chance. No, I have no idea what you mean by "Gears of War did it first."

But by the end, I didn't quite feel the same sense of achievement upon beating the game on Legendary as I did with the previous entries in the series. I don't know, maybe I've just gotten more cynical as time has gone on (the original came out nearly SIXTEEN YEARS AGO after all), but it just kind of felt like "eh, whatever" compared to the epic finales of prior games. Oh well.

In all, it does feel somewhat different from the previous Halo games I've played. I suppose that's largely due to the departure of Bungie studies, which had developed all of the prior games in the primary series, but I can't tell you for sure. It just has a much different feel to it. Does that make it bad? Not really. Forgettable maybe, but certainly not bad. At the very least, worth a playthrough if you were a fan of the originals. And this isn't even getting into the multiplayer portion of the game, which I didn't play nearly as much as I did with Halo 2 and 3 but still provided quite a bit of fun.

To sum it up, no, Halo 4 is not as good as its predecessors. But did it kill the entire series? I wouldn't say so, because if I had enough time and effort and energy, I still would've purchased an Xbox One and Halo 5. And maybe I will anyway someday, long after both of them have faded from the public spotlight (I kind of feel like they already are). But until then, I'll just have to stick to killing grunts the old fashioned way on the old fashioned consoles. Thanks for reading.

Gaming Memories: Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room, where the ectoplasmic residue is the real thing and all of our nuclear accelerators are licensed, thanks for asking. We all have that one special childhood thing that we have the fondest memories of as we grew up. For some of us it was Star Wars, for others it was Batman, and still others it was Ninja Turtles, Disney Movies, Transformers, what have you. For me, that thing was Ghostbusters.

The 1984 comedy classic that spawned a sequel, a lengthy cartoon series, and a huge amount of toys- yes, it was just my thing as a kid. I'd spend day after day playing with my toys until they were so worn down that they were practically falling apart. I'd run around in my backyard with my plastic proton pack strapped to my back having adventures and capturing ghosts everywhere I went. And even though the world's enthusiasm for Ghostbusters started to fade as the 80's turned to the 90's, my own certainly didn't. I was definitely one of those people always waiting in vain for a third movie that would never come. However, in the year 2009, I did get something awfully close. But let's back up a minute here.

When the cartoon series "The Real Ghostbusters" ended in 1991, Ghostbusters as a whole almost seemed to end with it. The original actors moved on with their lives and careers, the toys stopped getting made, and the brand name just went quiet for a while. Sure, there were minor resurgences here and there- Dan Akroyd dropped rumors about a possible Ghostbusters 3 all through the 90s, a short-lived cartoon show called "Extreme Ghostbusters" aired in 1997 and had it's own brief merchandise run, and of course "Ecto-Cooler" lived on for quite a while in the lunch boxes of kids all over the country. But for the most part, Ghostbusters as a franchise went dark as the 90s gave way to the new millennium and for a while, it seemed like it might stay that way forever. Then, in late 2007, something big happened.

Throughout the mid-2000s I had a subscription to the magazine Game Informer which I received monthly in the mail. This was back when I was still hip to the cutting edge of gaming and had all the latest consoles as they arrived, so I still had plenty to read about as the magazines came in. I loved seeing all of the latest news and goings-on in the gaming world, as well as checking out the current hottest games on the market. However, I was totally shocked when I opened my mailbox in December of 2007 and saw this:

Ghostbusters in a video gaming magazine? I never saw it coming. I frantically flipped through the pages to get to the article, where I read all ten pages of it from start to finish. A Ghostbusters video game was in the works for the latest generation of consoles. It had a script written by Harold Ramis and Dan Akroyd, just like the original movies. It had ALL FOUR original actors (Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Akroyd, and Ernie Hudson) reprising their roles as Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddmore. Hell, even Annie Potts and William Atherton were returning as well (unfortunately no Sigourney Weavor or Rick Moranis, but I was still happy with what I got). 

I read the article again and again and again. I scrutinized every picture and piece of concept art. And then read it one more time. The new game was set to take place three years after the events of Ghostbusters 2 and would have the player assuming the role of a nameless rookie who joined the team as the fifth Ghostbuster. As per the article, the game would have the player clashing with familiar foes such as Slimer, the library ghost, and even the Stay Puft marshmallow man himself. It all seemed too good to be true. I couldn't wait to see how things would play out.

There was a long time of silence between the announcement in the article and any further news, but the silence was broken in December of 2008 when a trailer was finally released to the public. I remember jumping on my computer with my face glued to the monitor as the trailer started. Just like the article I had read earlier, I watched it from start to finish. And again. And again. It was really happening. There was Murray delivering his deadpan Venkman lines, Ramis and Akroyd spitting out scientific technical jargon as Egon and Ray, and Hudson doing his down-to-Earth Winston. It didn't seem real, but somehow it was. We were going to get as close to the third movie as we ever would.

Some time passed and while I anxiously waited, the advertising campaign ramped up. Commercials were on TV and various alternate trailers were released. For a short and beautiful time, Ghostbusters was back. It was delayed a bit for some time but eventually was released on June 16th, 2009, nearly coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the release of the first film on June 8th, 1984. I promptly arrived at Best Buy that morning to procure a copy, which I did and rushed home to play.

While previous Ghostbusters games may not have lived up to the franchise's potential (or have been downright awful), Ghostbusters: The Video Game is just about everything you'd want as a GB fan. It wasn't the third movie we all wanted, of course, but it was close enough to be it. Picking up where the story last left off, the Ghostbusters' business is still booming and they've even started pushing for franchises (much like Venkman mentioned in the first movie). They've hired a new member to the team, a so-called "experimental weapons tech" who basically serves as a guinea pig for the Ghostbusters' many untested gadgets. You assume the role of the nameless rookie, who also has no speaking lines in the game. Some people might scoff at this but I think it was a perfect idea because it preserves the interactions between the four main Ghostbusters that we loved so much from the movies. Anyway, shortly after the newbie joins the crew a massive spectral energy force is unleashed upon Manhattan and it's up to the Ghostbusters to figure out what's going on.

With a third person point of view, you guide the rookie in and out of situations where you trap ghosts and solve puzzles throughout levels. Ghosts aren't entirely uniform, however- there's a wide range of types that have different strengths and weaknesses and must be dealt with accordingly. For example, many ghosts require the typical method of blasting them with the proton stream and then sucking them into a ghost trap, but others require you to freeze them in place with a different type of beam and then disintegrate them with a shotgun-like blast. Trapping ghosts earns you money, which you can then use to purchase upgrades for the four different proton pack weapons you switch between. There's the regular proton stream and the stasis stream which I just mentioned, as well as the slime tether and the meson collider. The slime tether is pretty much exactly what it sounds like- you use it to shoot a tether of slime at at object, which you can then attach to another in order to move it out of the way. You also must use the good slime to neutralize the effects of black slime which you'll encounter throughout the game, as well as defeat certain enemies. Finally, the meson collider acts sort of a like a powerful machine gun version of the regular proton stream.

By far though, the most fun I had in the game was by trapping ghosts using the regular proton stream, just like in the movies. It works a tad differently however, as they needed to add some extra layer of challenge to the game. In order to be able to trap a ghost, you need to first substantially weaken it by slamming it around using the proton stream. Holding onto it for longer charges the "slam meter", and once that is high enough you can deal greater damage to it, thus making it easier to drag into a trap. It sort of feels like fishing, except way cooler because, well, it's Ghostbusters.

As you progress through the game, you can also use the PKE meter practically to locate ghosts and also find hidden areas (usually that lead to an achievement or trophy for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, respectively). You can also use it to scan different ghosts, which gives you more info about them that you can read about in "Tobin's Spirit Guide", which was mentioned by Egon and Ray in the movies. It's little tie-ins like that to the lore of both movies that made it such a fun experience for die-hard fans of the movies like myself. There's tons of little references everywhere if you look hard enough. There's also so-called cursed artifacts all around, which can be picked up and examined to even further expand the Ghostbusters lore. There's even a few nods to the cartoon shows for eagle-eyed players, such as the PKE meter at the workbench in the basement that looks suspiciously like the one from the Real Ghostbusters. Also, there's a reference to the hilariously badly translated ending screen of the first Ghostbusters video game for NES on one of the computers in the firehouse. Like I said, I couldn't get enough of it all.

 The appearance of the infamous ending text from the NES Ghostbusters game was just one little nod to a franchise with as rich of a history as Ghostbusters.

As you play through the game, you learn that the spectral energy surge has been the result of Ivo Shandor, the servant of Gozer who was discussed at length in the first movie, attempting to break through to our world and take control. You visit many familiar locations such as the New York Public Library and the Sedgewick Hotel, which all tie into the story nicely. You also get to sit back and let the four Ghostbusters work their comedic magic together again. For instance, one part that cracked me up was when Egon and Winston are assessing a giant machine.

"What if we try locking those things down?" asks Winston.

To which Egon replies- "I can calculate 54 likely outcomes...we'd survive three of them."

Winston then nonchalantly responds- "That beats our usual odds."

Aside from the comedy, you also get to experience a lot of the strange and mystical spirit world qualities of Ghostbusters, the kinds that were only alluded to in the movies, most likely because of a lack of production budget to bring them to life. For example, one chapter has you crossing through a dimensional portal into a nightmarish "ghost world" version of the New York Public Library. Also, there's a boss fight with a "giant Slor," which was only briefly mentioned in passing in the first movie. And of course every Ghostbusters fan wondered what the hell a Slor was! After this game, we finally knew- and it was just one more indication that the developers clearly recognized the franchise and its fanbase, treating it with the due respect it deserved.

Ever wonder what a giant Slor is? Well, there you go! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you.

The game mostly felt, to me, like a big combination of both the movies and the cartoon show. For example, in the chapter where you follow the Stay Puft Marshamallow Man through Times Square in an attempt to suck him into a massive trap mounted on top of the Ecto-1 called the "Super Slammer," it reminded me very much of some of the plots to episodes of The Real Ghostbusters. To further illustrate that point- in an episode called "Cry Uncle", the climax has the Ghostbusters chasing Mr. Stay Puft through the city in order to trap him, very much like in the video game. Also, in another chapter the Ghostbusters are riding a boat around that Ray refers to as "Marine Ecto-8." That had to be a direct reference to the cartoons, in which the Ghostbusters often used a helicopter called Ecto-2.

From an episode of The Real Ghostbusters...

...and the second chapter of the game. Once again, you can clearly see the influence with the right set of eyes.

This was all perfectly fine with me because I love the cartoons, probably just as much as I love the movies. Seeing them both mixed together and thrown into a video game was just about everything that could've made me happy as GB fan.

Just about. Now, I've said this to many people before and also alluded to it in a previous review, but I'm always quick to defend Ghostbusters 2 from the many people who claim it's a bad movie (many of which, by the way, seem to have suspiciously emerged within the last year or so. Wonder why that is?). Firstly, no, it's not a bad movie, and if you think it is then get out of my life. Secondly, as a fan of the second movie just as much as the first one, I would've liked to see more references to it throughout the game. There's a few minor ones here and there such as the discarded firehouse sign outside the window that can just barely be seen, or the cursed artifact of the "hot beverage thermal mug and free balloons for the kids," and even the painting of Vigo the Carpathian that's hanging around in the firehouse, but for the most part it is much more strongly connected to the story of first movie as opposed to the second. The closest the game comes to having a tie-in with the second movie is during the chapter on Shandor Island, in which you run around in a sewer-like area following a flow of dangerous black slime, which was quite reminiscent of the river of slime in GB2. However, that's about it as far as references. Personally, I would've loved to have seen a return of the Scolari Brothers- I mean, what a perfect opportunity for a boss battle would that have been? We got to see three of the big monsters from the first movie return to play prominent roles in the story, so why not the Scolari Brothers? Seemed like a missed opportunity to me.

The chapter which has you following an underground flow of black slime was about the closest the game got to a Ghostbusters 2 feel.

Anyway, beyond my gripes about the lack of Ghostbusters 2 references, there really isn't much I had to complain about while playing through. Just some minor things- for instance, sometimes the dialogue becomes noticeably unsynchronized with the character's mouth movements during cutscenes, something that seemed a tad amateurish even in 2009. And speaking of dialogue, it's pretty obvious in his voice acting that Bill Murray was not that into the project. You can tell almost every time he was speaking that he really phoned in his performance. In fact, sometimes you can't even tell what he's saying at all because he's mumbling his lines so much. It's a bit of a shame that he couldn't muster up at least a little more enthusiasm, especially since he didn't even have to do anything besides speak into a microphone, but I can look past it because at least he did it at all. At the end of the day, I don't even care if he decided to speak in a pirate accent the entire time, I'm just happy he was on board enough to be a part of it and step back into his role as Peter Venkman one last time. And lastly, the game is generally pretty short. It's fine because it gave it more of that authentic movie feel, but I only complain about it because I didn't want it to end. I wanted to see the Ghostbusters keep going forever.

Alas, nothing gold can stay. After the game came and went, it seemed like Ghostbusters was primed for a comeback. Talk of a third movie once again reared its head on all corners of the internet. Both Dan Akroyd and Ivan Reitman, the director of both movies, repeatedly stoked the flames for several more years. It was all speculation, but there was talk that a script was in the works. Would the world actually see a bonafide Ghostbusters 3 in the theaters? For a short period of time, it seemed plausible.

However, the end finally came on February 24th, 2014, when news broke of the death of Harold Ramis, the original actor for Egon Spengler and writer of the scripts for both movies and the game. With Ramis went the original Ghostbusters, and it seemed that now, once and for all, it was over. But you all know what happened next- shortly afterward, the "reboot" of Ghostbusters was announced, and despite all the doubt surrounding the franchise and the finality of Ramis' death, it continued to build steam and was eventually released in the summer of 2016. I have many mixed feelings about the reboot that are pretty much beyond the scope of this post, but suffice it to say that I think the whole thing was unnecessary. I actually enjoyed Max Landis' pitch for Ghostbusters 3 that has since surfaced on the internet and wouldn't have minded seeing that movie, but it's not what we got and unfortunately will never be. I also thought it was bitterly ironic that the original cast did a reunion for Entertainment Weekly magazine just 9 months after Ramis' death. I remember seeing it and thinking to myself "why couldn't they just put their differences aside like this when Ramis was still alive? He should have been there with them." We'll probably never truly know why.

Anyway, all of this only serves to illustrate how much the game meant to me as a fan. It is, for all intents and purposes, the Ghostbusters 3 that we all were waiting for. It was all of the Ghostbusters back together again for one final encore and it was the last sweet sendoff to a franchise that went away a little too early, as far as I'm concerned. Some might say that Ghostbusters has never really gone anywhere, but I'm in the camp that I would've liked to see all of the guys strap on the proton packs one last time on the big screen. However, I'm very happy with what I got in the game. As a video game it's a blast, as a continuation of the Ghostbusters franchise it's fantastic, and as the last remaining testament to the true fans, it serves its purpose well.

 I can't possibly describe to you how great it was to see the Ghostbusters back for one last ride.

The future of Ghostbusters is somewhat of a huge question mark right now. After the reboot had a mediocre showing in theaters, plans for a sequel were most likely scrapped. There doesn't seem to be anywhere left to go now, but I'm confident that the franchise will find a way to live on. It's my sincere hope that another cartoon series makes a return for a new generation. Hell, even as an adult you can bet I'd be parked in front of my TV every Saturday morning ready to watch further adventures of Peter, Egon, Ray and Winston. One can only hope. However, despite what may happen, the originals will always live on as unforgettable classics in the eyes of every nerd and geek who hoped they could build their own positron collider as a child. And right next to the two movies, you can add the video game to that list. Thanks for reading.

Gaming Memories: Reaching Level 50 In Halo 3

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. No collection updates to speak of today, but I have something instead that I wrote recently. I wanted to revisit something I started off the blog with and then abandoned shortly after as it proved a bit too ambitious for a recurring series: recollecting personal gaming memories. I wrote a whole huge 4-part saga discussing my memories of playing games in the Resident Evil franchise (which you can find here you're interested in reading it), but haven't really done anything else. So today I'm going to revisit a moment that stands out to me as a tremendous accomplishment as a gamer- not even necessarily because it was all that difficult of a thing to do, but more so because of the story behind it and the long path to victory that ensued.

I know I usually talk about older games, but there was a time in my life where I was hip with the world and up to speed on the latest and greatest gaming trends. I'm talking about playing games online, over Xbox Live. Obviously, this has become ubiquitous these days; online gaming is everywhere and almost everything. However, back in the halcyon days of the early-mid 2000's it was a little unprecedented, at least to the mainstream of console gamers (obviously PC gaming, which I've never been into, is an entirely different story). I remember that buying a wireless router and getting into a matchmaking game in Halo 2 for the first time seemed like the coolest thing in the entire world. For the first time in my life, I was playing video games with other people who weren't sitting on the couch right next to me- they were halfway across the planet! The concept alone seemed unimaginable to me.

But there I was, gunning people down in what had already become one of my favorite video game franchises ever, only on its second installment. It was mayhem. I spent days on end locked in my room doing essentially the same thing over and over again but with different people every time (and sometimes friends too). I stayed up all night, I didn't go out with friends, and my eyes were bloodshot from sitting 5 feet away from the TV for hours on end. I remember feeling like I wanted to be better at it than everyone I knew. Better than all my friends, better than everyone I faced online. Now, I'm definitely no pro gamer- I never was, never will be, and nor would I claim to be anything close. However, I will say that I am at least halfway decent at first person shooters, most likely one standard deviation above the mean, for you statistics nerds out there. The point is, I took my quest to be the best that I could be at Halo very seriously back in the day. But alas, the climb to the top was certainly not an easy one.

The early days of Xbox Live were kind of like the wild west. As I mentioned before, online connectivity between consoles was sort of a burgeoning market at the time. Sure, it had existed in some rudimentary forms previously, but it really didn't reach the mainstream until the early 2000's. Because of this, Microsoft didn't really have that sophisticated of a system for dealing with their own online market in the beginning. As a result, Xbox Live was overrun with rampant cheating. Modders who hacked the game to basically allow them automatically kill you, so-called "standbyers" who would use some complicated means of causing other plays to lag while they were free to win the game on their own, you name it- anyone who had the means to screw someone else out of winning a match for their own gain was free to do so, virtually free of any ramifications. Halo 2 also had a plethora of weird glitches that users constantly exploited during matchmaking in order to gain an unfair advantage over players who didn't know how to do so for themselves (admittedly, even I too used the "super bounce" glitch during matchmaking periodically). It was total anarchy.

Halo 2 had a pretty simple ranking system- the more games of any matchmaking type that you won, the higher your rank number got, the highest being level 50. For some odd reason, levels in the high 40s to 50 were denoted by symbols like the Halo ring, a sun or moon, etc. That's neither here nor there, but I remember one particularly disgruntled Xbox user who rambled on over my headset about how anyone with a symbol ranking was not "legit." He was right though- if you saw that your opponents had those symbols, even before a game started you knew that you were done for, and that precious rank you worked so hard to achieve would take a hit. The highest I ever even managed to get myself to was level 34 before I was decimated by cheaters. I loved the game, but after match upon match upon match of getting unfairly beaten down, I grew incredibly weary of the experience. It made me hate playing the game not even very long after I had learned to love it.

Symbols denoting levels 44-50 in Halo 2's matchmaking. If you saw one of these in the lobby before the game, you pretty much knew you were screwed.

About three years after Halo 2 was released came Halo 3, this time on the next generation Xbox 360 console, and you bet your sweet ass I was one of those people parked out in front of my local game store at midnight waiting in line to get my copy on September 25th, 2007. By now, Xbox live had been totally revamped for the new console and things were quite different. Microsoft seemed to have finally gained control over their online empire and now monitored carefully for the aforementioned types of cheating. Any type was met with a swift ban, and finally we were all free to play and rely solely on our skill to win. This time, I wasn't going to let anything stop me on my way to reaching level 50. I played endlessly in the games' "Lone Wolves" matchmaking mode, a free-for-all battle in which 8 players duked it out against one another for 25 kills to win. I was pretty good at it- I even managed to make it to level 47. I was so close- only 3 levels away!

Halo 3 had a bit of a different system for raising your rank than Halo 2- ranks were determined individually by different matchmaking types. For instance, I could have a rank of 47 in Lone Wolves, but only a 7 in another type like Team Skirmish. However, your highest achieved rank in any game type was always displayed proudly in your user profile, the highest once again being level 50. Not only that, but you were also assigned a military rank for higher levels- such as Captain, Colonel, and Brigadier- and only if you managed to reach level 50 would be awarded with the coveted distinction of General.

I had come so far in Lone Wolves, but it got incredibly difficult to raise my rank at that high of a level. Lone Wolves was almost entirely built on preying upon others- as in, using every dirty trick in the book like camping, stealing kills from others and grabbing hold of high powered weapons and powerups as soon as they spawned. For me and my ridiculous sense of gaming morality to a fault, I could never take enough advantage to get over the proverbial hump. So, I had to start over from the bottom by trying my hand in Team Slayer.

Another thing I should mention is that I never really used the headset that came with the console or listened to other people in-game. This is almost a requirement of Team Slayer, but I made things a bit more difficult on myself by purposely choosing not to do so. Additionally, I never joined up with parties- even in a team game, I always chose to go it alone. Even still, I got better and better. I rose all the way to level 48; however, it was there that I hit a wall again. I would go on long steaks of alternating wins and losses, never gaining any ground. I would win several games in a row, just waiting to rank up to 49 but never seeming to get there, only to go on and lose several more in a row. I wondered if I would be perpetually stuck at 48 forever. I was good, but not good enough to rise to the next level. This went on for weeks. I remember reading somewhere that the ranking system was complex and through some sort of algorithm, it always left you at the rank it believed you should be at, and once you reached your limit there was no way to change it. Not knowing if this was true or not, I started to believe that I would never get any higher than level 48.

Even still, I refused to quit. Despite playing as a loner, despite never coordinating with my teammates through headset, I pushed on. I had come so far, gotten so close- the glory of a General rank was too enticing to give up. Finally, my day came. I was on a winning streak and every game I was kicking ass. And then, like a shimmering beacon of hope, I broke through- I ranked up to 49. I was ecstatic; the rumors weren't true, I wouldn't be stuck at 48 forever. However, I knew this wasn't the end- there was still one last level standing between me and the illustrious 50. But now, there was absolutely no way I was giving up. I was too close. I trudged forward, once again facing alternating wins and losses. I wasn't sure how long it would take this time. With every loss I feared that my rank would be lowered to 48 once again. I even kept track of every win and loss, charting out my progress. After days on end, I was trending upward. I knew the end had to be somewhere in sight.

 My actual "charts" of my progress in matchmaking wins, dated February 13th, 2008 and March 8th, 2008. Up arrows are wins, and down arrows are losses. Note the long periods of back and forth wins and losses for both 48-49 and 49-50. Also, apologies for my terrible handwriting. It hasn't gotten a whole lot better almost 9 years later.

And then it happened. I remember the game clearly- my team was getting beaten down from the very beginning. I had won eight of the last 10 games and desperately wanted to keep my streak going, so I buckled down and willed my team to victory. I had the overwhelming majority of kills on my team and despite them dragging me down, I carried us forward and won the game. Then, as the post-game stats screen faded and I was brought back to the matchmaking lobby, something was different. My rank was 50. And then, the shining golden General ranking was bestowed upon me. I leaped up and shouted with joy. I had finally done it. After all of the "unfairness" I had faced in Halo 2, after all the roadblocks put in front of me in Halo 3, I had broken through. I was one of the best of the best now.

I never played Team Slayer again after that day, leaving my 50 ranking as a testament to my dramatic triumph. Now, obviously for many people who are skilled at first person shooters, reaching level 50 probably wasn't a big deal, and if you are one of those people you're probably laughing pretty hard at what a "noob" I am right now (do people still say noob? I'm pretty out of the loop). Rightfully so for you, but for me, this was about more than that. It was about redemption. It was about earning my keep. It was about being the best I could be, and for that one day, I had done it.

Gaming Memories- Resident Evil: Part IV

Hello dear readers, welcome once again to game room. Today I'll finally be concluding something I started months ago and have been desperately meaning to finish- my wonderful retrospective of the Resident Evil franchise.

These will probably contain spoilers, so if you’ve never played any of the Resident Evil games, go play them right now. And then come back.

Part 4

Next up was the legendary Resident Evil 4, which turned the entire series on its head and altered the core concept of what a Resident Evil game could be. It proceeded to throw out the window many elements of the survival horror genre in favor of more action-oriented sequences and flashy gameplay; gone was the subtle, creeping and atmospheric experience of its predecessors and in its place was something that felt a little more like Rambo mixed with Dawn of the Dead. There are certainly some horror elements sprinkled in which I’ll discuss shortly, but for the most part it is a flat out action game.

The story follows fan-favorite Leon Kennedy in his first starring role since the second game (if you don’t count Gaiden, at least). Now working for the U.S. government, he is dispatched on a top secret mission to locate and rescue the president’s daughter, who has been kidnapped by a mysterious group somewhere in Europe. However, it turns out this group is actually a highly dangerous cult bent on releasing an ancient parasite called “Las Plagas” that turns people into mindless slaves and also happens to create horrific monsters as well. Also thrown into the mix are some old and not quite dead friends named Albert Wesker and Ada Wong, who are after a sample of the Plagas in order to revive the now-defunct Umbrella Corporation.  

RE4 definitely did something right in bringing back Leon, one of the most popular characters of the entire series. 

The graphics are well enough, though not quite as on point as those for the remake or 0, which were on the same console. The biggest changes RE4 brought to the table however were not so much in the stylistic changes, but in the alterations made to the gameplay. The fixed-camera, tank-control schema of the all the previous games (save Survivor, Dead Aim and Gaiden) was abandoned entirely and in its place was a new over-the-shoulder 3^rd person POV. There’s also a good deal of diversity in the gameplay, from the various boss battles to certain action sequences in which you’ll have to input the correct button combination that flashes quickly on the screen before you die in some horrible way. It does quite well for the game, but it was most definitely a departure from what we expected out of a game with the title “Resident Evil”. And I think that sums up my general feelings toward RE4- don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great, fun game that I’d play over many, many other games any day, but it just represents the point (in my mind, anyway) where Resident Evil slowly started sliding away from its survival horror roots and changing into something different.

Again, none of this is to say that I don’t get any enjoyment out of playing it, or that it even doesn’t have some pretty tense moments reminiscent of the good old survival horror days. For example, one part that sticks out in my mind the most is the part where you find yourself in the bottom of a dungeon area, playing as the defenseless Ashley in order to solve a puzzle. Upon doing so, you’ll be immediately ambushed by giant, axe-wielding suits of armor that had previously been standing still as you fiddled with the puzzle- a pretty scary moment. Another moment is when you must go up against the regenerators, which are big, gangly B.O.W.s that can actually stretch their arms out to grab you from far away…AND can regenerate their limbs unless you destroy specific parasites embedded in their bodies by using an infrared scope on the sniper rifle. The buildup to the first encounter with one of these nasty guys is done very well, once again evoking the survival horror spirit of the original games.

The regenerator encounters definitely injected some much needed horror into the game, which was much appreciated by me.

In sum, I do really enjoy RE4 for what it is, though I have to raise an eyebrow when people claim that it’s the best of the entire franchise. To each their own I suppose, but in my humble opinion, it doesn’t even come close to original classics.

As I mentioned previously, RE4 represents the point at which the series started really changing into something different. And if RE4 were the link somewhere between with elements of both survival horror and straight up action, then Resident Evil 5 didn’t even really try to be anything more than a purely action-driven shooter.

The first Resident Evil game on the next-gen Xbox 360/Playstation 3 consoles, RE5 follows in the footsteps of its predecessor not only in being largely driven by action, but in bringing back fan-favorite characters for a 3^rd-person POV adventure. The story follows Chris Redfield, now working for an anti-bioterrorism group called the BSAA (hell if I know what it stands for and I’m too lazy to look it up). He’s received intel on a possible bio-terrorist organization in Africa, and travels there to meet another agent named Sheva Alomar in investigating. And here is where RE5 once again changed things up, and to my knowledge, all games in the series have followed suit since then: there’s a huge emphasis placed on co-op play in this game. There’s literally no option for single player- you’ll either be playing with someone else or an AI partner. And that’s fine, I understand that this is the direction all games are pretty much heading in, but it still didn’t really sit well with a Luddite like me. 

Not to mention, there just wasn’t that much of a reason to make it an essential feature of the gameplay. Nonetheless, the game is very similar to RE4 gameplay-wise, as well as with the various action sequences and weapon upgrade system and whatnot. In that sense, it is a fun game. But then you have the more ridiculous moments like Jill, who has suddenly (and obviously, I might add) been shoe-horned into the plot, being mind-controlled by some kind of gizmo attached to her chest. Oh, and she also has super powers too for no reason. Also, the new virus (now called Ouroboros or something) can turn anything into a gigantic, pulsating mound of flesh with spikes and tentacles. And Chris punches a boulder into lava.

Yup, this is part where RE5 jumped the shark.

Look, I know the series has never really been grounded in realism since the start, and even the concept of Mr. X in 2 was kind of pushing the limits to what I might feasibly accept, but RE5 just took it to a completely different level. I liken it the recent string of Fast & Furious sequels- it’s basically like a big, flashy cartoon and you just have to take it for what it is. And for the record, that doesn’t really make either of them any more artistically credible.

Anyway, I do enjoy RE5, much the same way that I enjoy RE4. However, I feel like I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if it was called something else other than Resident Evil. When I think “Resident Evil,” I think of the classics. I think of zombies, T-Virus mutant monsters, and most of all, horror. It’s like comparing the original Night of the Living Dead to a movie like World War Z.

RE6, however, I think can wholeheartedly say that I just did not enjoy whatsoever. 6 arrived far past the point of me having hope that the series would go back to what made it so great in the good old days, but despite that I still decided to pick it up out of sheer curiosity, and also because I had just bought a PS3 and the only game I had for it was Metal Gear Solid 4 and I wanted to feel more like I was justified in buying it.

Anyway, this will honestly be a bit of a half-assed review because I don't really remember much of it, but that's just it- I really didn't think any of it was all that memorable whatsoever. So the story is split into three different acts, each of which following a different set of protagonists: Leon and uh…a girl I don’t remember and once again am too lazy to look up, Chris and his military partner Piers, and, get ready for this one, Wesker’s son Jake and Sherry Birkin. Yes, that annoying little girl from the second game that we all forgot about now all grown up . Now, it may just be me, but I really felt like they were scraping the bottom of the barrel when they started rolling out long forgotten characters and long lost son clichés like that. I mean, hell, why don’t we bring back Ark Thompson from Survivor while we’re at it?

The plot for all of the characters converges around Ada Wong, the mysterious spy woman who should’ve just stayed dead in 2 but keeps getting caught up in the plot of every game, and a new virus that has been developed called the…C-Virus. Yep, just oozes creativity. The previous two games at least got a little original with it, what with the introduction of Las Plagas and Ouroboros, but again, I felt like they were getting pretty desperate at this point. 

The primary thing that made me hate this game much more than 5 was not the action-driven gameplay, not the absurd plot, but the controls- unlike the previous games to this point, I thought the controls were dreadfully bad. It’s one thing to have a mediocre game, but when the basic playability of it is compromised by poor controls, that really leaves a bad taste in your mouth from the get-go.

Another thing I remember hating was the fact that every boss is basically Godzilla now. Leon’s act concludes with him and Helena (is that her name? I think so…) fighting what basically amounts to a virus-infected tyrannosaurus. And during the entire fight, all I could think about was how intimidating the tyrant seemed in the very first game and how much I felt like this really cheapened everything about the earlier games in the series.

Where's the goat? Wait..I'm thinking of something else...

Remember facing off against the tyrant for the first time? Or Mr. X, or Nemesis, or any of the big bad intimidating monsters from the first few games? Those were truly tense and terrifying moments, but when you are going up against something that’s the size of the entire building while it throws jeeps at you…ugh. It all just seemed so uninspired. The same goes for much of the other scenarios, where you’ll also have to do battle with other huge, ridiculous monsters.

If the remake represented the top of the mountain when the series reached its pinnacle, then RE6 would be the dirt at the bottom, as far as I’m concerned. Up until this point, I still actually enjoyed the games I was playing- I can’t say the same for this one, though. Anyway, so that about leaves me where I am now as far as Resident Evil is concerned. I haven’t played the newest ones in the series, namely Operation: Raccoon City and Revelations 1 and 2, and I don’t have a whole lot of interest in them.

As I’ve mentioned previously, a remake of 2 is apparently in the works right now, but I think it’s one of those things where I will believe it when I see it. However, with the recent release of the remake in HD for the newest generation of consoles, I’m remaining hopeful for it and I would most definitely be one of the first people standing in line to pick it up. And if they start bringing the series back to its humble roots, maybe then my interest will be rekindled a bit too. 

Until then, I know I’ll continue to enjoy the original games for many years to come. Resident Evil will always be one of my favorite video game franchises of all time and one that I will have fond memories of forever, if this four-part retrospective didn’t attest to that fact enough already.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and long live Resident Evil!

Dead Space Trilogy Review

*Warning- this will contain massive spoilers for the Dead Space trilogy...so if you haven't played through any of these games yet...what are you reading this for? Get out there and check them out!*

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game corner once again. I apologize that it’s been quite a while since the last time I updated- the pursuit of my Master’s degree often takes precedence to the more fun things I’d rather be doing with my life. At any rate, during my short holiday break these past few weeks, I decided to sit down and play three games I had previously played at different time points over the course of the past 6 or 7 years: the Dead Space trilogy. To my recollection, these three games are the most recent games I’ve played and actually enjoyed, given that I usually stick to retro games.

These games are awesome, 'nuff said.

So what is it about these games that makes them so damn awesome? Playing through all three of them again in succession has given me plenty of time to think about why that might be, and I think the answer has less to do with the actual game and more to do with the smaller elements that the game was built from. But first, let’s discuss the premise of the series. 

It’s a pretty simple set up to start off with; in the distant future, a deep space mining ship called the Ishimura, which is designed to break apart planets and harvest the leftover metal ore, has dropped out of communications and a small crew is sent in to reestablish contact and fix any problems the ship may be having. Among them is a hapless engineer named Isaac Clarke whose only job is to make a few repairs to the massive spaceship, though he does have a bit of extra incentive- his wife Nicole is among the crew of the Ishimura. However, upon boarding the seemingly derelict ship, the crew is attacked by horrific monsters that can slice a human to pieces faster than Jason Vorhees in a summer camp full of teenagers. Isaac is separated from the other surviving members of the crew and must fight his way through the onslaught of monstrosities to reunite with them, find out if his wife is still alive, and escape the nightmarish ship.

Along the way, Isaac acquires several engineering tools to use as weapons to fight back against the creatures, and luckily for him, their weakness lie in severing their limbs and then stomping the ever loving shit out of them. The monsters, termed “necromorphs,” can attack in a number of ways- slashing, climbing on walls, firing projectiles, and even blowing themselves up to damage you. 

Isaac is no Master Chief- just an ordinary guy caught in a bad situation. Thankfully, he's got a number of engineering tools at his disposal to deal with the problem.

As you’d expect, the monsters become stronger and harder to kill as you progress through the game, so you’ll have to rely on obtaining items called power nodes in order to upgrade your weapons, which you’ll either find in small quantities scattered around the ship or available (at a very high price) in numerous stores where you can also purchase new weapons, ammo, power suits, and health items. You can also use nodes to upgrade your suit’s air capacity, stasis and telekinesis abilities (used to slow down and shoot objects at monsters, respectively), and hit points. 

Through the 12 chapters of the game you’ll have to complete a variety of objectives such as repairing the ship’s vital functions, protecting it from a wave of asteroids, sending out an S.O.S. beacon, and destroying huge necromorph infestations. You’ll also have to navigate zero-gravity environments, dodge malfunctioning machinery, and even trek through the vacuum of space as you progress.

As you approach the end of the game, it is discovered that the necromorph outbreak seems to be stemming from a strange alien artifact that was discovered during the planetary mining operation and brought aboard the ship. The object has been deemed the “marker” by a group of fanatical religious zealots called scientol- er, I mean, unitologists, who intend to bring forth their version of judgment day by unleashing the necromorph scourge upon humanity. Isaac comes close to returning the marker to the planet it was found on, only to be betrayed by Kendra, a member of the crew he came aboard the Ishimura with who he’d also been working together with over the course of the entire game. Kendra intends to bring the marker back to Earth for the government; however, Isaac at last finds his wife, who helps him take back the marker and return it to the planet once again. 

In the last act, the biggest twist of all occurs when it is revealed that Nicole has actually been dead the entire time and Isaac has been hallucinating every encounter he has had with her since boarding the ship. As the planet starts to come apart beneath him, the marker summons the biggest, nastiest, ugliest necromorph of all, which squashes the traitorous Kendra like a pancake and traps Isaac in its grasp. Once you slay the beast, you escape the planet safely and all loose ends are tied up…right? No sir- just like all the great horror movies, a cliffhanger occurs before the credits roll when a bloody vision of Nicole jumps out from behind Isaac inside of the ship he has escaped in.

Nicole was dead the whole time? *M. Night Shyamalan voice* What a twist!

In all, I love this game. It actually seems like it was tailored to fit my personal list of science fiction/horror favorites. Looking at everything together, the game on a whole seems like what you would get if you threw Resident Evil, Doom, and the movies The Thing, Event Horizon, and Alien into a blender, which just so happen to be some of my favorite video games and movies ever. There’s enough challenge to keep you satisfied, enough backstory to keep you interested, and definitely enough horror to keep you on your toes while playing late at night with the lights off.

Next came Dead Space 2, which was certainly a worthy sequel of its predecessor. In the years following the events of the first game, Isaac has been captured by a secret government organization and brought to Jupiter’s moon Titan, where he is forced to constantly relive the visions in his head in order to build a new marker. The markers are seen as sources of unlimited energy, and the organization strives to harness that energy by having those exposed to the power of the markers reconstruct new ones based on certain neural codes that become embedded in their brains. A bit of a confusing plot, yes, but it doesn’t detract from the overall game.

As you’d expect, another necromorph outbreak puts a damper on everything, and Isaac must once again fight his way through waves of monstrosities in order to escape the city on the moon and destroy a marker once again. The same gang of necromorphs is back, as well as some new ones thrown into the mix. The same goes for weaponry and power suits. Isaac himself is also given a bit more characterization, actually speaking and interacting with other characters, unlike in the first game when he was a simple silent protagonist. 

You’ll find yourself wandering the abandoned city on Titan, going in and out of train terminals, a Unitology church, and even an elementary school where you’ll have to fight off some necromorphed children. Also, in the latter stages of the game, you’ll even have to board the Ishimura once again! In addition, the zero-gravity mechanics have been revamped, allowing you to freely float through space as opposed to having to jump to predestinated spots like in the first game.

The zero-G mechanics were just one of the many improvements made in the 2nd game.

The terrifying atmosphere of the first game is back with a vengeance as you are stalked (literally, in some instances) by bloodthirsty necromorphs.  Isaac is also constantly tormented by bloody visions of Nicole, who repeatedly reminds him that he let her die and his sanity may be slowly slipping away under the power of the marker. In the end, Isaac comes to terms with his wife’s death and storms the government complex, where he destroys another marker and once again puts an end to the necromorph outbreak.

It’s pretty hard for me to choose whether I like the first or second game better, as I enjoyed them both so much in different ways. I’d probably go with the first one for nostalgia’s sake, but 2 just does everything a great sequel should do and more. However, Dead Space 3 took the series in a much different direction, which leaves it as the black sheep of the trilogy and does not quite live up to the shining example its predecessors set.

This time, Isaac joins of team of military insurgents and scientists who have discovered the home planet of the original markers, where hundreds of years earlier a team of archaeologists discovered it and unwittingly released an outbreak of their own. Together with his team, Isaac crash lands on the snowy planet and embarks on a mission to end the scourge once and for all.

As opposed to the first two games where you’ll have to fight through the confined and claustrophobic corridors of ships and space stations, you’ll mostly be running around in the wide open landscapes of the alien planet you land on..which…doesn’t translate well for the type of game we grew to expect from the first two. You’ll periodically have to venture through buildings, especially during the various optional missions presented throughout the game, but a good chunk of the game is spent running around outside- definitely more than I'd like to, at least.

You're gonna be looking at a lot of this in the 3rd game.

Another major complaint I have is what they did with the weapons/rig upgrade system. As I mentioned previously, the first two games have you very gradually upgrading your setup by collecting power nodes as the games progressed. Each weapon had its own individual set of ammunition and required a substantial amount of effort to acquire enough nodes in order to upgrade them completely. The third game, however, threw this system completely out the window in favor of a new one in which all the weapons in the game are constructed from various raw materials (for example, scrap metal) that you’ll find all over the place. These replace the concept of credits, the currency you find and spend at stores in the first two games.

This time around you can only hold two weapons at a time, as opposed to the four you could carry previously which is a pretty big downer right off the bat. Also, every weapon consumes the same ammo, and depending on how much raw materials you’ve collected, you can construct different add-ons for each weapon to take out enemies in different ways and deal extra bits of damage to them. You can also find upgrade circuits, of which a maximum of 4 can be added to constructed weapons in order to increase damage, clip size, reload speed, etc. You have the option to construct weapons entirely on your own or do so based on pre-set blueprints you’ll find along the way. 

In theory, this system seems pretty cool- being able to construct a multitude of weapons to deal with necromorphs in different ways, exploit different weaknesses, use in different areas- the applications had a lot of potential. However, the entire thing was not implemented very well, in my opinion. For starters, I only found myself really needing to construct two weapons over the course of the entire game, which handily did away with enemies with little effort. After I was set and maxed out with the two of them, my inventory became tremendously packed with an excess of raw materials and upgrade circuits I had absolutely nothing to do with. In the first two games, maxing out a weapon felt like a real accomplishment after grinding away in order to get your grubby hands on one little power node; by contrast, the third game just made it feel way too easy and cheap. True, it does take a little while to accumulate enough raw materials, but not nearly as long as collecting many power nodes.

Also, the universal ammo didn’t really sit well with me either. Extra ammo and health can easily be constructed at any time and with little effort, even on the higher difficulty settings. Compare that to the first two games, where on the harder levels, both are extremely scarce and you’ll be struggling the entire way just to keep one weapon fully loaded and your health full- it really felt like a tough challenge.

There are a few new enemies, but it's mostly the same entourage we've gotten used to, and by the third game, it's gotten a little bit old. The second game had a lot of the same enemies as the first, but it made improvements with newer enemies- the third can't quite say as much. You'll also periodically have to fight other humans- yeah, humans! Some crazed unitologists follow you to the planet and occasionally pop out to fight you, which is just pretty lame if you ask me. I mean, if I wanted to shoot at other people, I'd go play one of the 9 million Call Of Duty games that get crapped out every year.

Lastly, another big thing that bugged me about 3 was the story. It’s just so convoluted and uninteresting. True, the previous two got confusing at certain points, but they were captivating and really drew you in, whereas the third one just feels more like a chore of getting through. And they really got drama-happy in the 3^rd one- Isaac is now stuck love triangle between a woman he met in the 2^nd game and some bland, uninteresting military guy whose name I honestly can’t even remember, and the rest of the characters are just as forgettable.

These characters...are...not interesting.

And just one last little nit-picky detail...all the standard versions of the game are called "Limited Edition," and a regular edition doesn't seem to exist at all. Not really a big deal, but for someone like me who likes to very specifically categorize the games they own, just a minor annoyance. Yeah, I know I have a problem.

In all, 3 still manages to be a good game and worth a playthrough…it’s just very sub-par compared to the excellent example the first two set. The series has been on hiatus for several years now, but I'm holding out hope that it will make a comeback one day. I just hope they don't needlessly reboot it like so many different games have been as of recent years. On an unrelated note, I just hate that word "reboot" so much.

Anyway, so that does it for my review of the Dead Space trilogy, hope y’all enjoyed. And if you haven’t played any of these games, get out there and pick ‘em up- they’ll be well worth your time.