Monthly Archives: April 2014

Procrastinate Reviews: Max, The Curse of Brotherhood (and of Loading Screens)

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Have you ever had a brother? Ever wished for him to disappear? If this indeed happened, would you rejoice? Or chase after him?

This is how Max: The Curse of Brotherhood starts. What follows is a 2.5D platforming, physics based adventure across a strange land where we see our protagonist, Max, climb, run, jump, and swing (in that order) his way to saving his brother, Felix. I still haven’t decided yet if this is for the better.

Conveniently Spaced Pillars to jump on you seeÉ

Conveniently Spaced Pillars to jump on you see?

The Story:

Max returns home to find his younger brother messing with his s***. Understandably PO’d, Max Google’s a curse to make his brother disappear. Seems reasonable. The curse, however, comes true and Felix gets warped away to another land. Max, immediately regretting his decision, jumps in the portal and chases after his brother.

In short order, we learn that a cranky old man is stealing kids, and it’s up to us, with the assistance of a cranky old lady, to defeat him. We’re gifted a magical marker that allows us to lift earth pillars, draw branches, vines, and water streams to help us navigate this 2.5D side-scroller.

The GamePlay:

The gameplay is more than a typical side-scroller too, as we are empowered with the ability to shape the land around us through the handy marker. As we progress through the levels, we unlock new abilities, starting out with the ability raise little pillars of land. Next we get the ability to draw and cut branches and vines, with vines granting us the ability to swing ourselves or physics objects from branches to the next landing, and lastly we get the ability to draw powerful water streams.

The best parts of the game are when all the powers come together for the physics based puzzles. You may find yourself sliding down a hill or jumping from a crumbling stone stair case and suddenly propelled into the air with water streams and having to draw some handy vines to swing yourself to safety. The highlight of the mechanic would definitely be the intense final puzzle.

The Technical:

“The game is good looking” is somewhat understated. The lighting is especially mention-worthy on a couple of levels that involve deadly fireflies, and a very dark cave sequence where all you have is the magic marker to light your path.

The Issues:

Max the Curse of Brotherhood is a quaint little game that has a lot of heart. It’s very pretty, and has a lot of cool, epic moments and some neat puzzles. For all intents and purposes, it is short, but there are plenty of collectibles to search for.

Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven

There’s nothing actually wrong with the game that’s offered, but with the things that are missing. The capacity to draw the branches and vines is great, but becomes very restrained in scope as to how much you can draw and where. Secondly, considering this is an Xbox title, Kinect functionality for the drawing mechanic would be fun to use. Don’t get me wrong, don’t force it, that would be brutal, but an option to play with would have been nice.

In conclusion, the game is a unique little platformer with some fun ideas. It doesn’t have the same level of polished mechanics that its brethren may share, but given its artistic style, it is a nice addition to the library.

It’s also a good thing that Max is a better brother than I. If left up to me, at that age, this story would have ended prematurely.

Notable Achievements:

He is The One (Huh, time really DOES slow down when you’re in danger.) – 10G
Ludicrous Speed (Reached the old lady in under 5 minutes.) – 50G

Procrastinated Reviews: The Last of Us (PS3 title GASP)

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My Procrastinated, Comparative Review: The Last of Us

The Last of Us, for me, is going to be a difficult game to review. On one hand, it’s a Naughty Dog game, through and through, which by default adds a certain level of expectation, but on the other hand, they’re not making Uncharted here. To top it off, this is a PS3 game, which I tend to not play; it’s just not my go-to console.

In between long periods of unconsciousness, I managed to take 2 months to complete this game. How long do you think it’ll take to complete this review?

The Last of Us

The Last of Us

The Last of Us is a real attempt at a story game. Naughty Dog has taken Uncharted and stripped it down to its fantastic essentials: the combat, the characters, the visuals and level design, and added a deep emotional story to the mix.

Due to the stylistic choices that Naughty Dog has made, it can really only be played in one manner: large blocks at a time, then breathe when the story transitions to a slow part. Picking it up again somehow feels like a chore because the story is slow and methodical, but has events that heed a sense of urgency.

The Story:

20 years ago, the world got infected, and now the country lives in a policed post-apocalyptic state. Joel and Ellie are our protagonists. Both are survivors who have lost their loved ones. Joel, the father figure, who lost his 12 year old daughter, and Ellie, the orphaned, immune-but-infected 14 year old he’s been tasked with transporting and protecting. The game spans a full year as the player treks the country in the search of a survivor resistance group called The Fireflies who we’re told can render a cure from Ellie.

Be forewarned, the game is dark. It tells a tale of tragic times, catches people at their worst, shows them at their most animalistic. Joel has survived this pandemic for 20 years, in this policed environment, and it’s taken its toll. There’s no length he won’t go to, to survive. Ellie was born into this world, and has lost friends while she has remained immune to the infections.

The Gameplay:

As I mentioned above, Naughty Dogs has stripped away the epic action pieces and plat-forming of its Uncharted series and focused more on a closed, stealth focused survival horror game. Fundamentally, it’s still a 3rd person shooter, you’ll have to manage ammunition and craft defensive weapons to stay alive. You carry a backpack which allows you to switch out different weapons to handle different scenarios and enemies. As a result this is a slower game to tackle, and if you’re already not in love with the scenario and characters, you may stress out and stop playing.

The Technical:

Built on the already incredible Naughty Dog engine, the game is expectedly gorgeous; character animation is mo-capped, smooth and intelligent, and the enemy AI is smart and resourceful, calling for help when necessary, and finding ways the flank the player, and the partner AI is very alert and agile. The cut scenes are brilliantly mo-capped as well, and evoke true emotion, sometimes truly touching, others cringe worthy.

The Issues:

DON'T say anything negative!

DON’T say anything negative!

Now, after a long list of niceties, the negatives are almost unwanted. The game is thoroughly fantastic, and the only real gripe is the slower, methodical pace. The game is broken up into hectic shoot-out sections with human survivalists, and then followed by tense, stealth survival sections against the infected, finally concluded with the slow paced story and unique puzzle sequences. Rinse, reorder, and then repeat.

It’s a long game, and as we travel further and further west, the situation becomes dire and more urgent. At times it’s hard not to put the game down, at others, due to the stressful urgency of the sequences, you’ll need a breather. The problem is getting the timing down, as you’ll ruin the pace when you break at the wrong time.

Do yourself a favour, play the game. Just don’t, like me, spread this masterpiece over two months.

Notable Achievements Trophies:
I Want to Talk About It (Engage in all optional conversations)
That’s all I got (Survive all of Ellie’s jokes)