Review: Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut

Adam Jensen may not have asked for this, but I certainly did.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was one of my favourite games of 2011. It had a great concept with excellent stealth gameplay and a compelling narrative that drew me in and made me want to play it through again as soon as I had finished.

I recently picked up the Director's Cut of DEx:HR to see what sort of changes and improvements were made to the original game, and I can now say with certainty that anyone who enjoyed the original will love the newly updated edition.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the game, you play as Adam Jensen, security chief for a large biotechnology firm that creates mechanical augmentations to improve the human body's capabilities. After Jensen is nearly killed in an attack on the company's labs, his body is fitted with expensive augmentations to keep him alive. Now one of the most powerful "augs" in existence, Jensen is sent out to find the truth behind the attack and the conspiracy behind it all.

The Director's Cut features several changes and improvements from the original. Smaller changes include improved textures and lighting, developer commentary, and a "making of" video. Fans of the original will be delighted to learn that The Missing Link story DLC is now fully integrated with the main game. Another addition requested by fans was a "New Game +" mode where after completing the game you have the option of starting again with all of your previous augmentations unlocked.

The biggest (and most welcomed) change in the Director's Cut is the overhauled and updated boss encounters.

There are four "boss fights" in DEx:HR, and most who played the original agreed that they were the lowest points of the game. Gun-fights with massively armoured mercenaries broke up the stealthy flow of the game's open areas, and unlike the original Deus Ex (2000) there were no options to use your stealth or hacking skills to defeat the bosses.

Thankfully, the Director's Cut fixes this problem entirely by updating the boss encounters to allow Jensen to defeat them through trickery, stealth, and hacking.

Each boss area now has a variety of hidden locations you can access through the use of augmentations, and they allow Jensen to utilize robots, turrets, poison gas, and other hazards to turn the battles in his favor.

A good example is during the second boss encounter with a character who uses invisibility augmentations to remain undetected, only reappearing briefly to attack Jensen before fleeing again. Hacking through several doors will lead Jensen to a hidden area above the boss room with a valve that will fill the room below with poison gas, shorting out the boss' cloaking software and allowing hackable turrets to detect them and finish the battle.

The updated boss fights were a very welcomed change to myself and many others who prefer to play the game as stealthily as possible, but even players who like their gun barrels hot can find enjoyment in the Director's Cut.

If you're a fan of the series, or if you're looking for a great stealth game, check it out - you won't be disappointed.

Review: Payday 2

The guard rounds the corner right as you move to start picking the lock. He looks you up and down, notices your suspicious choice of clothing (ballistic vests are so last week) and goes for his sidearm. Your team tenses up as you throw on your mask and try to stop him from alerting the patrons on the other side of the door.

If he does, an alarm (and the police) are not far away.

The heist is on.

With the advent of the recent Steam Autumn Sale, I took advantage of some of the savings to create a backlog of games right as my holiday break began. I reasoned that I needed some diversions for the days ahead, so I picked up a few titles - among them, Far Cry 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Starbound and Payday 2.

To my surprise, Payday 2 has given me the most enjoyment so far.

It's all about the money

Payday 2 like it's predecessor Payday: The Heist is a first-person shooter, but with a twist. You're not some kind of military superhero or apocalyptic world-ending event survivor. You're not fighting for the U.S. government, against an oppressive regime or for your own survival.

You're a professional heister.

During the course of the game, you'll shoot at (and be the target of) police. You'll run into a room wearing a grotesque mask, screaming at everyone to get down on the ground. You'll crack safes, safety deposit boxes, and server rooms wide open. You'll run to an escape vehicle with a heavy but expensive bag of loot. 

And along the way, you'll either strike it rich or die trying.

To say Payday 2 feels a lot like an actual heist is almost certainly inaccurate. But it definitely feels a lot like the heists you and I actually know about - the ones you see in movies. And that is a Hell of a situation to be a part of.

Temptation

You see, Payday 2 isn't about destroying every enemy you come across. It's not about good versus evil.

It's all about those dead presidents. And you will be tempted to risk your life to get them.

You get a certain amount of money just for completing the basic objectives of a heist, whatever those may be. But you almost always have the chance to get additional money somehow, and that additional money is what you will be obsessed with. 

How dangerous does the police presence have to be to decide against re-entering the bank for that last bag of gold? How long will you stay in the bank's vault as you attempt to pick open safety deposit boxes for extra cash?

So far, money has been the prime limiting factor for my character progression. I always want more. And by creating that demand, the game makes you want to take risks. It even ups the stakes by providing missions that you can only attempt once - and, if you fail, you lose the money you spent to get the initial contract. 

Of course, the rewards are also better. 

The game also offers a random reward at the end of every heist - it could be extra money or experience, a modification for a weapon, a new mask to wear, or custom colour or pattern options for any of your current masks.

Insider info

The game does a good job of replicating the chaos of a movie heist. On top of that atmosphere, it layers a level progression system that is fulfilling and makes characters distinct from one another based on the choices of their players.

The Ghost is a stealth specialist, for example, while the Mastermind grants bonuses to their team, can heal them, and is great at getting bystanders under control.

At its core, this game is a co-operative multiplayer game. If you don't want to play with other people, you'll find the team AI to be sub-par at best. An AI player will basically always be inferior to an actual human, so I recommend finding a group of people online. This game is best experienced with friends, though - and Steam offers a 4-pack which provides substantial savings over buying individual copies.

I've heard complaints from some people that the community is bad, but every experience I've had has been positive - and I've never had a full group of four people that I knew personally. 

The gun-play is really solid, and military enthusiasts will find highly customizable weaponry based on real-world models.

To keep things from getting too predictable, the heists have random elements that affect how you approach the job. Some obstacles are there on one heist, and not the next. Sometimes there is a guard patrolling a route where there was not before. Sometimes a bystander is hanging out in the alleyway right outside the window you want to open.

Even though you'll see the selection of maps often enough, the game still feels fresh.

A unique experience

Payday 2 is a unique beast. It isn't really a stealth FPS, although stealth is viable and it is entirely possible on most heists to get through it without alerting the authorities.

It feels almost like a first-person, multiplayer Hitman in the sense that the heist is really about the choices you make. You can choose to carry concealable weaponry and wear inconspicuous clothing to maximize your stealth advantage and disable alarms. Or you can instead go quick and dirty, eliminating guards and triggering alarms.

Most of the heists I've been on were a combination - stealth as far as possible, and then all-out shooting the rest of the way. But I've had heists without a police response at all, which happened because the team was working together to avoid alarms, cameras, bystanders and loud noises.

The Haul

Payday 2 improves on its predecessor and is worth a look for any fan of FPS, especially cooperative multiplayer FPS. I recommend picking it up for PC if possible, as it is updated more frequently.

Review: BattleBlock Theater

The wait is finally over. The Behemoth's follow-up to Castle Crashers has been released on Xbox Live Arcade (for now, hopefully it sees release on other platforms in the future) and it starts like this..

"Once there was a boat..."

And so a humorous narration of your character's short tale thus far begins. It won me over before I even knew the controls.

Once I did know the controls, I had a great time. The story and its delivery combined with fluid and fun platforming action made an addictive combo.

Just another day in BattleBlock Theater. (Photo credit: http://www.battleblocktheater.com)

Gameplay: If you have any experience with the platforming genre then you know what you are in for from a game-play standpoint. Namely jumping a ton and making your way through obstacles.

Aside from that there is a heavy collectible element to the game as it allows you to unlock new looks for you character as well as new weapons and tools used in the game.

These weapons and tools are of use for dealing with enemy cats in single player (it's a weird story) and then opposing teams in multiplayer.

Multiplayer: Speaking of multiplayer, this is where things get (more) interesting. There are a number of game modes. One of them, for example, is a basketball type mode where two teams battle for possession of a ball and attempt to throw it in the opposing teams net for points. Whoever has the most points after time runs out, wins.

I convinced a friend to purchase the game (our very own Cody Steeves) and after he played the solo story mode and got used to the game, we proceeded to play some multiplayer. First up was the co-op story mode.

Co-op play is much like single player but with added wrinkles like your partner crossing a bridge that is appears when you stand on a certain spot and having them reach over to pull you up after you make a leap with no bridge (since there is nobody to stand in the spot that makes it appear) and other teamwork type things.

We got off to a bad start but we figured out how co-op works quickly enough and became a pretty good team. I killed him with some badly timed fireballs (*cough* one or two on purpose) and he knocked me off of ledges now and then but other than that we did pretty well.

Eventually we got a little competitive and hit up the game mode known as Muckle (think death-match). We won more than we lost in that mode. We also had a cool team kill where I set some dude on fire and then Cody blew him into his teammate, which set his teammate on fire as well. Moments like that are when the game is at it's best. The mode plays a little like a simplified Super Smash Bros.

We then moved on to Challenge mode. This mode is all about getting through levels and trying to do it faster than the other team. At first we didn't do so well. We got stuck when we ran into a cat that threw fireballs and we displayed a comic amount of confusion in the process. That gave us a horrible time somewhere north of three minutes for the level. The good news is the other team only beat us by 20 seconds or so.

Other games modes include King of the Hill, Horse (ride a horse to team stables), Colour the World (think Tony Hawk Pro Skater's Graffiti mode) and others.

There is also the ability to trade items in multiplayer. This consists of going into a trading booth with another person and viewing their inventory, selecting what you would like and coming to agreement. You can trade prisoners, weapons/tools, gems and wool (currency). In my first trade a cool dude gave me something like 20 wool for free, which meant I was able to buy some new weapons at five wool each. Yay.

Music: The soundtrack is great, in fact I found myself wanting to hear the music more often. I even just left the game at the main menu for a few minutes a couple times to hear the music.

Not being a huge player of platforming titles these days I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy BattleBlock Theater, but between the gameplay, art style, narration, soundtrack and suite of multi-player modes I found a game I will be playing a lot of. Off to Challenge mode now.

Review: Civilization V: Gods and Kings

Photo Credit: Gamechurch.com

So the recent sale on Steam finally pushed me over the edge on purchasing the first expansion for Civilization V.

When something is 75 percent off, I find it difficult to say "no". That, and I had some PayPal credit that I was too lazy to move over to my "real" bank account.

I realize this is not exactly a passionate introduction to my reasons for purchasing it. And if I seem hesitant, it's because I am.

I really liked Civilization V's initial offerings, but like many people I thought that the series seemed to be slumping into the same pattern: an initial release with fewer features, and then expansions offering features that had been baseline in prior versions of the game.

Sure, the game had the same old feeling of "one more turn" and the revamped combat system in Civ V was, in my eyes, a welcome addition. But the initial offering felt somehow hollow, or less-featured, than other initial entries in the series.

If you think I'm being harsh on Civ V, don't worry: this expansion isn't getting off scot-free either, because it attempts to implement one of my favourite Civ IV features, religion.

Is Gods and Kings divinely inspired, or is regicide in order? Let's take a look.

Are you a bad enough dude to... build Christianity? (Photo Credit: Kotaku)

Faith

The main addition to the game is the Faith system. Faith is a sort of alternate currency, which allows you to found a religion, improve that religion, and buy some units and buildings.

Faith is generated by some buildings as well as some Natural Wonders, and when you found a religion you can choose other ways to generate it. For example, you can make desert squares generate it when you found your religion.

Faith never really feels like a mandatory part of the game, but a strong religion can have strong implications for your civilization. During my time with the game, I used my civ's religion and geographical position to generate faith and translated that directly into Great Person generation.

The bonuses that your faith confers only work in cities that are actively practicing it - and this is by no means a guarantee, especially if your neighbour is a spiritual powerhouse.

Your religion can be spread by missionaries, which are purchased with Faith. You can also purge all other religions in a city by building an inquisitor.

One thing to keep in mind is that your missionaries and inquisitors are not necessarily aligned to your civ’s religion, but rather to the majority religion of the city that they were purchased in.

I made this mistake after an enemy’s great prophet got their Tengriism in my Islam, and I wanted to make sure the enemy’s heretics were kicked out. Since the city had just converted to Tengriism, I ended up scaring away my own faithful instead. Whoops.

Faith integrates pretty well with other structures already in the game, like social policies. When you select social policies, they unlock the ability to purchase different Great People, depending on the policy.

In addition, the previously-confused Piety policy tree has been updated with some faith-enhancing selections.

New Units

Gods and Kings adds new units throughout, but I thought the best improvement was the addition of early 20th century units, preventing the awkward leap from Rifleman straight to modern Infantry.

The new units represent infantry, armor and air power during World War I. They are a useful stopgap. I particularly liked the landship (the early Tank unit), and thought that it was both a fun and flavourful addition to the game.

The landship will have you setting sail for World War I.

New Civilizations

The expansion adds Austria, Byzantines, Carthage, Celts, Ethiopia, Huns, Maya, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.

I haven’t played all of them, but a lot of the civs had abilities that seemed pretty situational, if still very flavourful.

I would like to point out that Austria’s ability in particular has the potential to change the game dramatically.

Austria’s ability lets them “marry” city-states into their civ after they have been allies for at least six turns by spending some gold. This is not considered an invasion, and as such does not affect your image in the eyes of other city-states.

Running a heavily economy-based Austria is a unique way to play the game, and I’d encourage long-time fans of the series to try it.

Our civilization needs more coffee. Our workers aren't productive until after lunch.

Plus, they can build a coffee house. What other encouragement do you need?

City-State changes

The expansion adds two new city-state types and a variety of new quests offered by city-states during the course of the game.

I especially liked the addition of 30-turn “who can generate the most x” quests. Unsurprisingly, cultural states will want you to generate culture, etc.

In addition to rewarding civs that are trying to specialize in one or two areas, these quests give you a good idea of who else is competing with you in certain arenas because if you lose, you get to find out who won the competition.

Multiplayer

Here’s the downfall.

The multiplayer in this game is incredibly buggy. There are plenty of threads devoted to the strange issued encountered during multiplayer games, including random disconnects and inability to load saved multiplayer games.

Firaxis said almost nothing about these issues, and despite rumours of a much-awaited “multiplayer patch”, there has been no such thing. There hasn’t even been confirmation of one.

Basically, if you were going to buy this game for the multiplayer only, you may want to rethink it.

Now, you could get lucky and have completely smooth multiplayer sailing... I just wouldn’t count on it.

Conclusion

Gods and Kings adds a lot to the game, and I really enjoy what it does add. However, with multiplayer in its current state, I can’t recommend that you get this expansion if that were your only intention when playing it. 

Have you bought Gods and Kings? What did you think of it?

Review: Dragonborn

You are approached by a group of masked people. They are not friendly of course, as this is Skyrim.

These people are cultists, devotees of Lord Miraak. He is the Dragonborn, so they say, and according to them you are a phony. That's right. A big fat phony. If you are like me you might be tempted to say "I never asked for this," like Adam Jensen would.

Lord Miraak, wannabe ruler of Solstheim. (Photo credit: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com)

Dispatch them before they rid themselves of you. Upon closer inspection one of them is carrying a note with instructions to kill you. Another mystery and adventure awaits.

Your destination is Solstheim, which may be a bit of fan-service for the Morrowind expansion Bloodmoon, which took place there.

World: A nice change of pace from the snow of Skyrim. It also made the world feel a bit more connected, being in one place and being so focused on Skyrim can make the world feel shut off.

Weapons/Armour: Good stuff here, some new sets of armour and new weapons. Bonemold makes a return.

Quests: The quests range from simple (could you get my rare pickaxe out of that mine please?) to creepy (the main quest and another which I won’t spoil but involves a Daedric lord). There are some neat rewards for some of the quests too.

Story: The story is interesting and refreshingly makes your character feel a little less above everyone else. It also has an epic feel to it, a clash of titans type of thing. Nobody and everybody seem to know about your adversary. The name is familiar to them but everything else is out of reach for some reason. What is with the chanting? These are the things you want to get to the bottom of.

Conclusion: Dragonborn is a fine addition to the base game of Skyrim. You get to go to a different area and explore it, which for me at least, is one of the most appealing things about The Elder Scrolls series. New monsters keep things interesting and you get away from being surrounded by Nords and their mead all the time. Instead you get some Dark Elves which were scarce in vanilla Skyrim. Overall it adds some more variety and gives a different flavour of the world to enjoy. The amount of content within is also satisfying with plenty of areas and quests for any DLC. I should also mention you can ride dragons with Dragonborn, though you cannot directly control them as you would a horse.

Skyrim is on sale for Xbox 360’s spring sale, so now would be a good time to grab it.

Review: Dawnguard

The eyes of a vampire post-Dawnguard. (Photo credit: http://bethsoft.com)

With the PlayStation 3 finally receiving the DLC for Skyrim the add-ons Dawnguard and Dragonborn will be played by many owners of the console. The question is if they are worth the price tag.

Dawnguard was the first DLC for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I held out for a while and picked it up during the Christmas sale on Xbox Live for 800 points (half off of the original 1600.)

If you don't know what that is in dollars it is $10 and $20 respectively. Dawnguard is worth the $10 easily in my opinion, however a friend of mine was not so sure he wanted it.

Let's look at some of the factors in deciding it's worth to you.

Need: You love Skyrim. You love it so much, in fact, that you have conquered it and seen all or most of what it has to offer. The problem is you still want more. If this is you, then it is safe to say it will be worth it to you at full price.

Content: Dawnguard all in all lasts about as long as a faction quest-line. Bethesda has said as much. The thing is sometimes that can go by awfully quickly. Luckily Dawnguard offers more than quests. New shouts, armour, weapons and a new follower help this as they enhance and add to the full game.

Story: Vampires. You like them? Well they have been made cooler. They attack Holds randomly (especially if you fast-travel). You can be a Vampire Lord (cool powers, hovering, wings.) The thing is they want to blot out the sun so they can run wild on Skyrim. Helping or preventing them, as usual, is up to you.

Dawnguard is a solid add-on to Skyrim. It adds some more flavour to the overall game especially now that playing Werewolf or Vampire is more appealing than before. The quest-line is fun and engaging throughout too. Dawnguard simply gives you more. More quest, weapons, shouts and enemies. If you are looking for more Skyrim content this should not disappoint.

Review: Borderlands 2

Yeah, I'll take it. (Photo credit: http://www.borderlands2.com)

In 2009 Borderlands was released and I picked it up for the price of $40. I had trust in the developers and things I had heard and seen about the game to know it was going to be a very enjoyable experience. Unbeknownst to me that $40 price point was more of move to try and get a innovative, original IP to fly, rather than a cool thing from the publisher.

That isn't the point though, the point is that Borderlands was a huge hit and was received very well by critics as well as the gaming community at large. The risk paid off. Now we are here in 2012, Borderlands 2 is another huge hit and this time at $59.99.

The Story: The story is a little like the first one in some superficial ways. There are four characters/classes as before to choose from. There is a vault you are after once again. Fun and vibrant characters colour your journey. Those similarities serve to show us we are in the same world and universe. The reset button has not been hit, instead we are truly playing in the world after the events of Borderlands.

The main villain this time around is best described as a charismatic, silly, overtly evil, murderer-tyrant. His name is Handsome Jack and he enjoys telling you how much he wants to destroy you as much as does attempting to. The story is simple enough, you trying to stop him from getting to a vault by getting there first if you can.

Multiplayer: The great multiplayer that made Borderlands a hit has not been messed with in any significant way. There is a neat lobby when you are waiting to start playing but other than that it remains unchanged in all important aspects.

Guns and guns: Weaponry has been improved this time around with more variety and aspects to the weapons themselves. The money system has also been re-balanced and the amounts made smaller. Grenades for example have many more properties available to them this time around such as pulling enemies closer to them before exploding. Cool stuff.

Humour: Much more of it this time around and it was used to great effect. I don't want to go into specifics, but think equally zany and dark.

Final Say: If you liked Borderlands you should enjoy Borderlands 2 just as much. They did not re-write the book or turn the game inside out. They made a true sequel and delivered a great game with a lot of replayability and multiplayer fun. Having more fun solo in this than the first iteration is likely.

Have you played Borderlands 2? What are your impressions of the game and the new DLC?