MEMBER PROFILE FOR mordecai
Average Overall Score Given: 8.25000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 156
Reviews
Oddworld Stranger's Wrath
Overall: Very enjoyable game. The plot gets really good about half way through. The only real flaw in it is that once you beat the story line there isn't that much of a reason to play it anymore. The characters were unique but still well made. At first I thought this game was a big change from it's predecessor but it really does feel like an Oddworld game.Gameplay: It had a good integration of 3rd person, 1st person, and a roaming landscape. Controls were fairly intuitive but became complex enough to require skill. At times it seemed like the ability to choose how you attack an enemy is limited, untill you get someone else to try the same mission. They managed to make it so that no matter which method you choose, it will fell like it is the only method possible, even though there are many possible.
Graphics: The unique art direction made this game shine, especially in the animations. The main character will move in a fluid, feline manner, which was quite impresive. Cutscenes looked especially nice. The landscape varied as the game went along but seemed to keep a consistent feel to it. Another visually appealing aspect was how many objects you could knock enemies through, creating a more dynamic enviroment. Near the end of the game, it begins looking very epic, helping to aid flavour to teh visuals.
Audio: The dialogue was written well but the actors weren't very spectacular. The voice for generic NPC's was monotonous but you don't need to interact with them often, so it wasn't to noticable. The actors for side characters was done well, and I like Strangers voice, but only to a certain point. Occasionally, he would sound to much like a dufus. Sound Effects managed to complement the actions fairly well and the ambient noise added to the feel of the game.
Suggestions: It needs some kind of a multi-player or survival mode becuase the story doesn't last long enough.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Overall: This is a nice, long RPG. It lasted me about 45 hours the first time through and it's worth going through a second time to be good/evil. Some of the attributes don't seem to be very usefull at all (repair was rarely used and treat injury only helps your ability to use medpacks but eventually you get force heal which is just better then health packs). Good twists throughout the storyline and there was variation in the gameplay to keep it from getting boring.Gameplay: The battle system was a mix of real time and turn-based (it's real time but you can pause to give orders), which at first seemed unskilled but will grow on you. In the beginning, you feal like your just watching a fight take place. As you start having a larger party and harder enemies you need to issue many comands to win, so you get more involved. A minor flaw is that badly done minigames, like shototing enemy ships that are attacking you in space. They were a bit to sporadic and didn't seem to effect the game; no matter how bad I did, I always seemed to win those fights.
Graphics: I liked the visuals. They were grand in scale but never seemed to cause lag issues. The enviroments also managed to vary from planet to planet so that you felt you were really going to different solar systems. The characters weren't special but they were solid star wars creations, nothing wierd or unexpected. This was a good thing since they were taking what already exists and embelishing on it.
Audio: The best part of the sound was all of the recorded dialogue. There was hours and hours of it in there, everything spoke to you. The voice acting was done believably for the main characters which is something that has hurt games in the recent past. There isn't much I can say about the soundtrack, it wasn't particularly notable but it supported the action without becoming repetitive.
Suggestions: Fix balance issues and make less cardboard allies. It would also be good to have some actions that fall on the middle line, and not to the extremes.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Overall: I rented PoP:WW and managed to finish it before I returned it. This isn't to say that it is too short to buy, there's still the online competitions and I know there are things I didn't unlock. The major flaw in this game is that Ubisoft forgot the the Prince is good at plateforming, not fighting. I ended up runnning through about an hour of the game because I was tired of fighting enemies over and over again. The open ended structure was interesting but I nearly gave up twice when I found out I had gone three areas backwards and had to now do those a second time to get to where I started.Gameplay: The magor change form SoT to WW is that there is a large emphasis on fighting. This starts out fun, with the variety of weapons and cool moves but eventually it becomes a chore. The other new thing is backtracking. This time around, the Prince isn't on metaphoric rails, you get a map and you can go to any area that has been unlocked. It follows from this that the missions require going back through the same puzzles, which was cool at first and sometimes was neat seeing everything from a different percpective, but it was a bit too repetitive at times. The best use of this was right near the end where you get to travel behind walls and on planks right over the area you went to before.
Graphics: The prince looks a lot better this time around, less panzyish. The terrains have had a similar face lift, a bit darker but not too much. There was scenery that gave me that Wow! because of it's shear size but these moments were few and far between. What I'd like to know is why do all Persian architects put buttons high up walls?
Audio: Sound effects were decent, the music was....different then my styles. While I know that they were trying to make the game more & the music just sounded liek they were tryign to hard. The key with attidude is to do it while acting like you don't need to. The soundtrack made them sound desperate for a more main stream audience.
Suggestions: You need to either stop the enemies from respawning or have some indicator of if your going backwards.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Fable
Overall: Overall it was a good RPG. Definitly too overhyped but that doesn't change the actaul quality of the game. It's fun and good for casual gamers since it doesn't require a lot of patience but it still has something to offer for hardcore RPG'ers. Gameplay: The fighting is simple is intuitive. You can quickly switch between ranged, melee, and magic attacks during a fight. I didn't get tired of the fighting at all which is suprising since there is a lot of it in this game. I wish there had been more stealth in the game because the way it is it seems more like an action RPG then just an RPG.
Graphics: Visualy this game was stunning. The charcters and enviroments had stunning detail. The only problem is that you can't examine the enviroments in too much detail since you have to follow a path, but that is more of a gameplay issue.
Audio: They did the music in this game well. There's a central theme in the music which carries through in eversong of the game. One versions for general combat, another for the dark woods, and another for the towns, etc. It prevents a sharp change between songs while still being varied. The rest of the sound effects are alright.
Suggestions: Less hype could ahve gotten them better reviews. The movement areas need to be at least twice as larger.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Halo 2
Overall: Best game I have ever played. The plot is the best, the soundtrack is the best, and it has many innovative gameplay features. I can't say anything more than buy this game as soon as you can.Gameplay: The gameplay in this is positively grand. Dual weilding makes the less useful weapons kick-ass (try double needlers if you don't believe me) and having two weapons that have melee abilities(the plasma sword and the brute shot) gives the FPS genre new life. Of course, there's also vehicle jacking and a very, very nice suprise on the third stage of single player (PS. don't read the Xboxaddict review, it spoils it). The plot in Halo 2 is the best plot in any game I have ever seen. The final product is comparable to the effort a developer puts into a feature length film. The live idea of having ranked matches is very refreshing, and if you hear complaints about how people can join with friends, they just don't understand the system. The only flaw is a minor one- you can't have a rematch on ranked games, but it is easily fixed with DC.
Graphics: If I could, I would give it a 4.8 or 4.9, but I can't, so it's at a 5. The terrain is done beautifully- I just had to stop sometimes to admire the immense landscapes. The elites looked really cool without their armor on, sort of snake-like. Bungie put serious effort into making everything in this game look good. The one problem I had was that there was a certain glitch that would happen during cut-scenes, where objects would lose their texturing and look flat, but it was momentary.
Audio: I want to give this more than a 5 out of 5. I LOVE the soundtrack, it was mixed perfectly. In fact, I may buy the soundtrack, because of how immpressive it is. I've never been a sound effect connoisseur, so I don't have much to say on it. The one sound effect I did like, though, was during the space fights. it sounded fairly realistic. (Not that I would know.)
Suggestions: The only thing I can think of is to make a rematch button on live, but that is honestly not that important.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Enter the Matrix
Overall: Contrary to what most people think, it wasn't that bad of a movie ported into a game. Other then some repitition in the game and some graphics problems, it was pretty fun to play. The storyline runs parallelto the movie following Ghost and Niobe, with a pretty good plot. The game really improves about halfway through, when you are forced to use hand to hand combat instead of guns.
Gameplay: This is the part of the game where it both improves and hinders the game. There are a lot of moves that look quite nice but as the game goes on you will start to feel the repitition. The gun fights had the worst repitition but once you fight harder enemies(Vampires, sentinels, etc.) you use martial arts, which added a good spark to the game. The load times would sometimes interupt the gameplay(they seemed to happen every couple of minutes), which made it seem like the engine was poorley design, since the graphics weren't that good. The really innovative part of the game is when you "hack" the matrix. It's a side game, made almost entirely from text, where you explore a dos like interface. Things can be accessed, like pictures, videos, and levels, which can then be seen/played in your regular game.
Graphics: The Xbox version had the same quality of graphics that the PS2 had, very dissapointing since the hardware is much better. Animations were done well enough so it didn't bomb in this category(the move looked !&%$@#* good). As I mentioned earlier, a game with this kind of graphics shouldn't have had so many load points. The live footage that was filmed for the game was interesting, especially if your a Matrix fan.
Audio: The sound effects were done well, while the music had some problems. Action scene's had nice effects that added to the realism. I liked the music and it did make the fighting more exciteing but it was on for too long. Running down an empty hallway just doesn't need adrenaline pumped techno.
Suggestions: A dynamic plot is good but you need dynamic gameplay as well and put some bloody quality into your visuals.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War
Overall: RtCW was a good shooter, but that's all it was. The story line was fairly dry, relying mostly on length. Gameplay: This was certainly the high point in the game. It played well and didn't lag much(only on Co-op). On Live the gameplay was even better(during single player mode you can have 10 to 15 weapons at once which made scrolling through them quite tedious but on live you had 4).
Graphics: Visually the game was pretty good but what I remember of it was that it didn't look annoying(like many games do). The character's animations were fairly smooth and didn't have many glitches. As for the scenery, well, it wasn't that good but not so bad I remember having to claw my eyes out with an icepick.
Audio: This was a part of the game where it lacked some quality. Sure, the weapons sounded real but some of the voices and especially the music just didn't work. If it weren't for the plot, this would be the worst part of the game.
Suggestions: If you want to improve on twists, character developement and plot, go ask Bungie.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Jet Set Radio Future
Overall: This game is good if you just want to have some fun. The plot was fairly lacking, you never really feel like you have a purpose, but on occasion it shined through. When I got it, I thought the visuals and music sucked but as I played they really started to grow on me and now they don't seem half bad. Overall I think this game is worth buying if you just want something fun and that will last.Gameplay: The controls in this game were good, nothing fancy but fairly descent all the same. The spraying does get a bit repetitive after a while but tricks are semi-difficult and enjoyable. There were a good number of characters and getting them after the last boss made completing the game harder.(a good thing)
Graphics: I really dislike cell shading, some of you may disagree, it's just my opinion. But the graphics were done in a way that wasn't to bad. Nothing in the game was visually stunning, but it wasn't annoying.
Audio: I would have given this a 4 if it were just based on the music (which I believe was quite good) but the voices got on my nerves. Sound effects were descent. There's Not mush else to say about the sound in this game.
Suggestions: The tricks were fun but making it a bit more complex would really add to the game and get some better voice talent.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
