What's in my machines now...

So... Been trying to get caught up on my gaming lately, now that I've tentatively kicked my World of Warcraft habit (still haven't managed to cancel my account, though). I've got a ton of current gen stuff to get through, and the next gen is literally just around the corner. If I'm to stay up to date on my gaming, I've gotta get my ass in gear!

Now then, I've recently made my way through Indigo Prophecy, Dungeons & Dragons Heroes, and Jade Empire. A mixed bag of experiences overall, for sure.

Let's start with Jade Empire. I can see what BioWare was trying to do, but it didn't quite meet my expectations. You could tell that they (likely) modelled the characters after real life Asians, but there was simply something about their design (clothing, weapons, etc) that made it seem like they played a little too much Mortal Kombat at some point. The similarities between, say, Kitana and Silk Fox, or Kung Lao and the shirtless main character model are uncanny.

I enjoyed, though, the sort of "parallel universe China" aspect of the story, though. The Great Wall, the legends told throughout the game, etc all were nice, but given the fact that you only see a very limited part of the world, it never really feels realized. I wanted to see more of the countryside and I wanted to feel like I was actually on some epic journey, rather than jumping from location to location.

The cast of characters also did not feel quite up to their usual quality. Many of the characters seemed like they were added simply to fill up the roster. In the KOTOR games or in the Baldur's Gate series, the NPCs had more interesting and consequential dialog, and you had more reason to interact with them. It may have had to do with the fact that I played as an Open Palm kind of guy, and therefore generally avoided conflict, though. A friend of mine was Closed Fist and encountered, seemingly, a lot more interesting interactions between the characters. A design flaw, really, as the experience should be equally interesting, regardless of what branch you pick.

There was a plethora of kung fu styles, most of which I simply ignored. All I really needed was Spirit Thief... the rest were interchangeable (though I preferred my sword). The combat system was incredible simplistic with a lack of actual wire-fu, surpising for a game that is supposed to emulate a Wu Xia movie. In addition, the battles were either extremely easy, or like the last battle, a complete toss up of whether or not you'd win (my first battle with the last boss resulted in him essentially patterning me while holding me in slow motion... which resulted in me dying in about 4 seconds).

Overall, though, the experience was fun, as the setting was a breath of fresh air from the usual fantasy or Star Wars fare. However, given it was the first real foray into the world of Wu Xia in an RPG, I was hoping for more.


Now, onto Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes. What can you expect from a Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance clone, really? It features an isometric view, a few generic character classes, and a bit of hacking, and a little bit of slashing. The graphics are inferior to its predecessors, which is a bit strange, and the character/monster design is certainly lacking in creativity. In addition, the story is nearly non-existant.

But, action RPGs of this variety are more about the action and loot than anything else, and this game does surprisingly well in that respect (at least as the Warrior class). For me, the area where BG:DA succeeded (to a limited degree) was that it retained some of the reward balancing that Diablo had. BG:DA2 and Champions of Norrath seemed to have lost touch with that aspect and the designers appeared to think that the fun of the game was in the mind-numbing button pressing itself, which I don't believe is the case. While certainly not a great game by any means, it has a proper ramping up of loot and skills that creates a desire to push forward, though I wish there was a little more thought put into the skills. The advantage that Diablo 2 has in this area is the skill tree itself. It causes the player to make strategic decisions when building characters, and forces players to examine their loot to see if their loot compliments their character builds appropriately. Most console action RPGs lack those aspects. Overall, though, a decent, albeit mindless, game.


Now, the most interesting of the group: Indigo Prophecy. A bit over-hyped, if anything, but an excellent "experience," nonetheless. The opening scene is fantastic... it's a revival of the adventure game in a way that I could never have imagined. It's so immediate and visceral... It's a shame that the second half of the game devolves into a series of Simon Says games overlayed on top of Matrix Revolutions. What starts off as a great sort of CSI/Law & Order-esque set up quickly becomes a mixed up story about magic and technology and fate and squirrels (okay, maybe not). There's a lot of stuff that's introduced that feels unnecessary or simply has no meaning (the ravens???). A lot of the mechanics are interesting at times, but end up being either too long or force the player to watch the button sequences rather than the actual action that's happening on the screen.

It's a glorious attempt at bringing more cinematic storytelling to games, but in the end, I think it ran out of inspiration and steam and limped over the finish line. A pity, really.


Next up: Dark Cloud 2 and Disgaea (yes, I'm digging way back into my collection before moving onto bigger and better things). So far, Dark Cloud 2 has been fairly infuriating (is there any way to save the invention ideas you find on various notes?), plus the fact that I died after about an hour of playing and forgot to save my game. I decided to take a little break and played Disgaea. Interesting set up, and fairly solid gameplay... but with all these turn-based strategy games, I'm starting to wonder how many more I can play. The mechanics are all derivatives of other turn-based strategy games, and it tends to get a little tired. But, it's been a while since I've played one, so it's not bothering me as much as I thought, so I'll likely make it through.

After this, will probably throw in Shadow of the Colossus and maybe Paper Mario.