Alan Wake Review: A Beautiful Nightmare

I once read an article that said game reviewers should make more of an effort to recognize the innovation of imperfect titles. That, for games that strive to do something new and interesting but fall short of perfection, we should try to highlight what they’ve done right rather than focus on what they did wrong.

There’s something to be said for that philosophy, and Alan Wake is a perfect demonstration of why that is.

Alan Wake is a writer with a rather severe case of writer’s block. He comes to the seemingly sleepy little town of Bright Falls with his wife, Alice, to relax and take his mind off of his worries. Obviously things don’t go quite as planned and soon some evil force has possessed the town and most of the people in it and made off with his wife to boot. Wake must find out what’s going on, battle the dark forces at work, and try to save Alice.

This spooky tale is full of enough atmosphere and intriguing plot twists to keep you on the edge of your seat until the credits roll. It accomplishes this using a compelling blend of familiar elements that come together to form a game unlike any other. The front of the box calls it “a psychological action thriller”, which seems about as apt a description as any. It’s not quite survival-horror in that it’s not usually outright scary, but the heavy focus on atmosphere makes it deserving of a label other than “action”. 

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BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Makoto DLC Review

Cute squirrel-girl Makoto presents something of a conundrum to fighting game fans, and I’m not just referring to the fact that she’s both dressed like a slut and, you know, half-squirrel. To be aroused or not to be aroused, that is the question every non-furry must ask himself.

The more important issue is what she represents. Makoto is the first character to be added to a fighting game post-release via downloadable content. As such, she represents an important milestone for the genre and she brings to light some of the unique issues of DLC in a fighting game. 

The problems begin with the fact that you can’t test out downloadable content before you buy. There are no DLC demos. Were Street Fighter IV to begin selling us new characters this might be less of a problem because not only does Street Fighter have a longer history including many characters and fighting styles that some players might already be familiar with, but its more accessible nature also means that, for the most part, it’s relatively easy to hop back and forth between multiple characters. 

BlazBlue, however, is almost completely the opposite. Continuum Shift is only the second game in the series and every entrant in its small roster of characters plays totally differently. This is part of the appeal of the game, of course, as the variety of play styles in BlazBlue is nearly unmatched even considering its small cast, but this makes a downloadable character an interesting quandary. At $7 (or $8 for some reason if you’re on a PS3), it’s a relatively expensive gamble as to whether the character will be a fit for you or not. 

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First Impressions - BlazBlue: Continuum Shift

My odd fascination with fighting games continues. I constantly wrestle with a desire to play them that doesn’t mesh with my complete lack of skill in the genre and it’s no secret I don’t have the kind of dedication necessary to spend the many, many hours practicing diligently in one title that it takes to truly improve. 

I’ve ultimately decided it’s a genre I like dabbling in. It’s an expensive, often frustrating dalliance, to be sure, and one that I sort of hope I can muster the willpower to give up someday and free my mind and time for better things, but until then my love/hate relationship with the genre will continue. 

My first hour with BlazBlue perfectly typified this usual relationship. There was fun, excitement, and frustration. Nothing new there.

But enough about my masochistic genre tendencies, the real question is whether my $40 was well-spent on this update to the crazy 2D fighting antics the original BlazBlue established. 

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift is in an awkward position commercially. It comes out only a few months after the release of the superb Super Street Fighter IV, a game that bested its predecessor in nearly every way, delivered a whopping 10 new characters, and chopped $20 off of the price for an amazing value on top of everything else.

Continuum Shift wisely follows suit with a price drop of its own, but otherwise can’t match the quantity of cool new stuff added to Super Street Fighter IV (nor could it really hope to, being an original franchise with 2D art assets as opposed to a long-established franchise with 3D art). So the package clearly doesn’t feel as substantial as one might hope. But that doesn’t mean it’s not still worth it. Is it?

Honestly, that’s a hard question to answer.

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First Impressions: Monday Night Combat

Online multiplayer games typically don’t tend to be a big draw for me. I like them in principle, but I lack the dedication to practice enough to become good at them, so my experiences tend to consist of hopping online, getting stomped a few times, muttering to myself that I wish I were better at the game, and then never playing again.

But sometimes a game comes along that can convince even me to hop on its bandwagon. Monday Night Combat is just such a game. 

Monday Night Combat is a brilliant mix of well-worn elements that combine to form a captivating whole. Take a large dose of Team Fortress’s class-based team shooter gameplay, mix in a couple of portions of tower defense, and top it off with a pleasingly thick layer of icing in the form of an appealing grandiose sports game presentation. What you end up with is an addictive shooter with high replayability, plenty of depth, and quite a bit of strategy to boot. 

Monday Night Combat doesn’t overwhelm you with modes or options. One could cynically say that it feels like a $15 downloadable title rather than a full retail release, but I prefer to think that it simply pared down the experience to only the most necessary elements and then polished them to a fine sheen. What you’re left with is perhaps lacking in quantity, but of a quality that will stand up to just about any full retail shooter you compare it to. 

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First Impressions: Arc Rise Fantasia

First impressions are important. They let you know what you’re in for. They’re even more vital when you’ve just blown $60 on a game and you need to know whether or not to mourn the loss of your poor cash. In the First Impressions series of articles, I’ll spend an hour with a new game and document my experience. One hour is hardly enough to fully judge a game, but to partially judge it? It’ll do just fine.

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Not all beginnings are easily deciphered. Some experiences exude a mysterious aura that leaves one’s thoughts clouded. Not all things show their true selves immediately upon first viewing. Not every facet of an experience is always displayed at first glance, leaving more to be discovered with the passage of time.

Final Fantasy XIII, for instance, hides the fact that it apparently becomes a competently constructed game if only you sink 30 hours into it first. Limbo, without uttering so much as a word, captivates you while leaving you totally on your own to figure out what kind of experience you’re actually in for. 

Other beginnings are more obvious. The first time a character uttered a single sentence in Arc Rise Fantasia I knew exactly what I was in for. Every cutscene, battle, town, and dialog afterward simply reinforced my initial impression. This isn’t a game that will perplex your poor brain as you desperately struggle with the quandary of whether to spend more time with it or not. I can guarantee that within five minutes of picking up a controller you’ll know whether this game is for you.

By the second sentence of dialog, I, for instance, had discovered that I was not one of the small percentage of gamers who could tolerate Arc Rise Fantasia. 

This game seems to be made for a mysterious type of gamer who may or may not actually exist. It is carefully constructed to be of maximum appeal to those whose enjoyment of a game is directly proportional to the number of terrible cliches it contains. A game consisting of nothing but a series of these cliches must, by way of logical conclusion, be aiming to sell itself to those who love a nice trite line of dialog and favor predictability above all else.

At the least, one has to credit Arc Rise Fantasia for not limiting its mastery of cliches simply to overdone plot constructions or familiar gameplay elements. It extends its reach to a far more, shall we say, “meta” level; all the way to the quality of the experience itself.

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