Company of Heroes 2

Company of Heroes 2 was a tough game for me to review. Its intense, complex action is a load of fun, especially with friends but things like the AI bugs and the relentless march of DLC, take away some of it's lovable-ness.

The campaign's story and cutscenes are terrible but I had a lot of fun playing the missions. It starts you out fairly basically and gets you up to speed if you haven't played the previous game. I found the middle of the campaign was a little boring, due to the game throwing similar missions at you in quick succession but then the final few missions mix it up and got me interested again. Things like racing against the clock, or commanding a team of snipers sent to assassinate officers, help make the campaign interesting. The theatre of war mode expands on the campaign with a lot more single player scenarios and even a couple of co-op missions. These are great fun and well worth playing through as they teach you a lot of skills for playing online.

There are a bunch of things that let the game down and keep it from feeling like the true sequel it should be. The game was released a little too soon and there are a bunch of sloppy bugs that really show this. There are odd graphical issues with objects disappearing and things like the repair icon missing at times. There are also a bunch of AI issues that are just straight up disappointing. Just after an update to AI I played a 2v2 game with an AI partner. I watched as the AI forgot to build the Infanterie Kompanie that is so crucial to the Germans and then it sent out it's squad to capture a sector only to retreat it back before it finished capturing. I can't believe how dumb it can be. Path finding features a lot of the old problems you would be used to from the original. Retreating units seem to take odd paths at time, especially when they have added the jump the fence ability to squads, why not implement this to retreating? Make it new interesting and work well. None of this is game shattering but a lot of it is problems from the old game. These should not be a sequel, not one that wants to score highly anyway.

Floating binoculars?

Multiplayer is the best part of this game. Some people love the intensity and focus of a 1v1 match but I prefer the chaos of the 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 matches. It's hard to explain the pure joy I have experience in this game but perhaps it is best exemplified by a 4v4 match I played online with a friend. So much happened in that match that it's hard to remember but there are a few key moments that stand out. Telling my friend not to send in his scout car to a heavily defended point on the map and watching it explode and everyone inside in one second. Ramming the massive German Elefant tank with my T34 and watching as my team picked it apart afterwards was the most exciting moment in the match for me. But the greatest part was that we had not taken a single victory point from the enemy until we were down to 70 points. We managed to fight back and take all 500 points with out losing another. It's the stories you get and the fact that you can fight back that makes this game so good.

There is a lot of value in this game, it gives you a campaign, the theatre of war mode and multiplayer modes but it has taken some odd turns. They have spent a lot of time on making DLC for the game a lot of which was available as part of pre-ordering the game but if you missed, out or didn't buy the collectors edition, there is plenty that Relic and Sega want to charge you for. I think instead of selling you paint jobs for your vehicles at outrageous prices they, could have focused on the included content a lot more. The game could have launched with another nationality or two to play as, it seems a little undercooked in this day and age. They haven't even explored any of the other Axis powers such as the Italians of the Finns. They will probably make a series of expansions for the game that include all of this but it almost makes it worth waiting for the complete boxed set to come out. By then you will own a PC that can handle this power hungry beast of a game.

All around it is a solid title but there are a bunch of disappointments. I know Relic went through a lot with the collapse of THQ and subsequently being bought up by Sega but I think they could have chosen to release this a few months later, to fix a bunch of these issues. If you liked the originals or like any form of tabletop warfare set from the invention of tanks, to say about 40,000 AD, you will like this game, it just doesn't have the widespread appeal they could have achieved with a more concerted effort 8/10.

Battle Cats [iOS]

Battle Cats is normally the type of game that I would hate, it is just a simple tower versus tower, produce as many units as you can and send them marching in a straight line kind of game. Yet it's cute style, addicting upgrade system and even to same degree the push pull game mechanic have got me hooked.

If you have ever played flash games on a site like Armor Games you have probably played a game like this. It has got be one of the easiest game types to program and they are ubiquitous. I am not sure exactly what the genre is but it is a cross between tower defence and perhaps RTS. The gameplay is fairly simple, you churn out units and try to upgrade your economy at the right time, plus you get to use your tower Cat Cannon to blast enemies from time to time. The thing I like about this particular take on the genre is that your timing of certain things such as buying a unit or upgrading your economy seem to make a difference. Having said that though I think it is a genre that is, at least currently, quite limited and you can't expect the latest and greatest gameplay features from it.

Where it really hooks you is the upgrade system. You get experience for beating stages that lets you upgrade all kinds of things. You can buy new units and upgrade your old ones. You can upgrade just about everything including but not limited to your cat cannon, your economy and unlocking the powerful abilities of God Cat. God Cat's abilities require cat food and although you do unlock some cat food for free, it is the main currency that you need to purchase with real world dollars if you want a lot of it. You don't need to buy any cat food to complete the game so you can play entirely for free.

The game features a lot of Engrish and this can be both a good thing, because it's hilarious and a bad thing, because it is distracting and often outright terrible. Mostly it adds a bit of charm and the game is otherwise quite bug free and runs smoothly.

I won't little kitten, I won't.

Considering that the game is free and any in-game purchases are more or less unnecessary I think it is well worth a play. It is still limited by it's genre though so I think a well deserved 7.7/10 is the highest score possible for such a game.

Knights of the Pen and Paper [iOS, Android (PC/Mac coming soon)]

Knights of the Pen and Paper is a turn based RPG based on playing an actual game of Dungeons and Dragons or other such game. You have all the basics you would expect from the genre, the classes, loot, skills etc. plus they give the game a bit of a twist by partly putting you in the role of the Dungeon Master (DM) as well. It does all this from the perspective of an old school video game RPG with it's sound and graphics appearing as if they were from a Super Nintendo game.

Like I said this game is a bit different in that it gives you some DM like control over the gameplay. You get to choose which quest to do, and how many and what type of monsters you should fight. It does add a little bit of excitement to a game that otherwise uses very tried and true gameplay mechanics. There is a lot of  traditional RPG grind to be found in this game though the quests and loot help break this up a bit. The skills your characters have are fairly stock standard for their class type and you unlock them all fairly fast giving you little to look forward to later on in the game. Loot comes in a range of forms though and you get to power up everyone's armour, as well as load them up with bonus trinkets, and in the most interesting twist buy objects for your gaming room that effect everyone. But again I found that I had every piece I needed of this pretty fast. In it's current form the game offers two quests though only the first one is of any really note.

In it's current build the game has a host of problems. I am sure some of these things will be patched but unfortunately due to their nature many of them will still remain. Judging from their domain name Behold Studios are a Brazilian company and their translation into English is extremely poor. They didn't even manage to spell "yawn" correctly. I encountered a bug where an enemy would succumb to damage over time injuries but the battle wouldn't finish, to counter this I found if you hit defend, it would end properly, hitting anything else caused a crash. Game Centre would constantly reload all of the achievements I had received at the start of every new load.

Bugs and poor translation aside, the game really is a very standard sort of RPG grinder. There are many people who are fans of this genre though and it will appeal to them greatly but it doesn't reinvent the wheel. It is a good little title that will keep you playing for hours and there is a threat of bonus content to come later, though this may be paid DLC. For $2 you still get enough content to justify the purchase just steer clear of it if traditional RPGs aren't your thing 7.7/10.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown [PC, PS3, Xbox 360]

Why have friends when you could have XCOM: Enemy Unknown? Your squadmates will become your friends, every time one dies, you will die a little too, when they wipe an alien of the face of the planet you will cheer with them. This game has great gameplay though it's not as fluid as it should be let's find out why.

In XCOM you play as the commander of an elite force of alien exterminators. Your goal is to find out what the aliens are up to and put a stop to it. Part of the game is spent in turn based battles, blasting alien scum and the other part is establishing your base, researching tech and other mission critical things. It makes for a good mix, though I found the turn based missions a little bit repetitive towards the end. There is a lot going on in terms of strategy and you will need to balance your tactics and play style within the turn based components with your broader strategy of the base.

There are many exciting moments during the turn based battles of the game. You might stumble across a new type of enemy or succeed in beating the odds and making a great shot. You'll start off with a four man squad but you can upgrade this later on. Each member of your team gains experience and if you can keep them alive they become very powerful. The graphics look great and the sounds and music are extremely chilling.

When you are back at the base there are still plenty of things to do. You will be updated on story progression, there is research to be undertaken and troops to be outfitted.There is even a sort of mini-game in which you launch interceptors to take out alien space ships. I found myself at the mission control centre hoping I could watch another spin of the Earth go by so I could research that latest piece of kit before my next battle.

It truly is a terrific game but there are a few issues that bring it down.When you are moving your characters to squares of different heights you need to fight with the camera to get them exactly where you want them.. The returning to base loading screen often flashed violently between an image of the battle and the actual loading screen.Finally the game crashed right on the last mission and this is a known issue. Despite 3 patches these problems still persist.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown includes so much variety that it kept me wanting for more, except for by the end, where it had become a little tedious to do the random missions, as there are not as many variations on them as there could be.That being said up until that moment every time I got bored of something, the game added something new. There are a lot of twists and turns in XCOM and I honestly wanted to give it a higher score. However the bugs took away a few decimal points, 9/10.

Death Knight - [iPhone]

Death Knight is a free hack and slash game by Triniti Interactive. As the title suggests the concept is ripped off of WoW and so are some of the graphics and abilities. The game is a fairly mindless hack and slash affair in which you kill monsters in order to get more gold and upgrade your armour, shield and weapons. As you level up your weapons as well as getting more powerful they gain abilities. I recommend levelling up the first weapon you get, as quickly as you can, as it has all the abilities you will ever need. They are, a heal ability and a shield ability that makes you invulnerable for a few seconds. Having said that it is cool to use those abilities in conjunction with other weapon's powers, especially the incredibly powerful Giant Sword.

As you can see in the above picture the interface takes up most of the screen space. By the time you add your fingers to the mix there is little viewing room for the onscreen action. The ability buttons are also a little too small and can be hard to press at times. I know that this game is not the only culprit of this and it is something that is a "feature" of iPhone games yet some games have come up with more elegant solutions.

The gameplay mostly consists of running (or rolling using the defence button) about the screen and lining your enemies up on one side of you so you may hack them apart. Being squashed in the middle of a group of enemies is devastating as attacks constantly barrage you. Of course none of this matters if you are using the divine shield or other abilities but these only last so long. The aim is to hack apart forty enemies in each level. Why forty? Great question I wish I knew the answer. Why not forty-two? I guess we'll never know.

Despite all it's problems the game is still fun to play. The graphics are nice and clean, your weapons make chunky sounds as you slice through your foes and the music has a pleasant if some what typical fantasy sort of sound. Unlocking new weapons and armour is always fun and I have included the abilities of each of the weapons below after the jump, just incase you wish to remain surprised as you play. It is the sort of game you will want to play when you are looking for something violent and mind-numbing 7/10.

Included after the jump is a list of all the weapons abilities.

[iPhone/iPad/Windows Phone 7] - Babylonian Twins Review

Babylonian Twins was originally planned to be released on the Commodore Amiga and although it has undergone many changes to be released on the mobile device platform it's origins can still be seen.

You play as the twin princes Nasir and Blasir, one with a sword and shield the other with a mace. The mace ability allows you to smash open jars which can contain palm fronds, points, or sometimes a snake or scorpion. It is impossible to avoid the snake and this trick is used OFTEN. I guess it is all about learning the level by heart but I find traps like this annoying especially when it is repeated so many times. This type of thing was very common for games of the Commodore Amiga day and whilst to some it may be annoying it does give it that retro feel. I reviewed this on the iPhone 4 and I found some of the enemies to be quite hard to see as they are so small. This problem is probably alleviated on the iPad due to it's larger screen. Also in a throw back to the retro days, some enemies can only be stunned, not destroyed which gets a bit annoying as you go over a level trying to figure out what to do next.

One of your characters can smash through walls, whilst the other can smash through floors and these abilities form a major part of the puzzle solving. When your other character is not in use he will turn to stone and this can aid you in jumping to higher platforms. I forget who is who, but the character with the sword can jump much higher than the character with the mace, so you will be made to constantly switch back and forth just to get your mace friend up into an area. This seemed cool at first but it got a little too repetitive for my liking.

The game seems to feature many bugs and is in need of a patch. It crashed on loading the third level though all it took was a restart. At one point I could not use the control pad at all, then I could use it but only whilst jumping. This issue managed to resolve itself but the developers obviously have their work cut out for them in terms of squashing bugs. At other times I experienced huge amounts of slow down for no good reason and the sound occasionally cut out.

Yet despite these problems it is very rewarding when you finally do finish a level. Finishing a level requires focus and I find it is best done in one sitting, as you need to remember the layout of the level. Unfortunately this isn't exactly what you want from a game on your phone, as the distractions of it being your phone, such as receiving a call, can take you away from the all important completion of the level. 6.5/10

One Sentence Reviews

[Wii] Goldeneye 007- Goldeneye is pretty good... for the wii. 8/10

[iPhone] Baseball Superstars 2011- An addictive rpg baseball game with a great acronym. 9/10